Name: Howard Croft, longtime D.C. activist and social justice crusader, dies of covid-19
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Howard Croft, longtime D.C. activist and social justice crusader, dies of covid-19

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This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareHe helped Black Mississippi voters register to vote in the 1960s, crusaded against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and championed same-sex marriage equality before it became the law of the land.But some of Howard Croft’s most important social activism came in the trenches of local politics, focused on statehood for D.C. residents.Croft’s relationships with local political leaders including former mayor Marion S. Barry, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and former D.C. Council member Frank Smith stretched back to the days of civil rights activism in the South.Like them, Croft saw the disenfranchisement of voters in a heavily African American city — denied voting representation in Congress — as a natural extension of the voting rights battle of the 1960s.Croft, who died of covid-19 on June 20, at the age of 78, never held elected office. But he was well-known in political circles as an indefatigable champion of statehood and a regular fixture in local Democratic politics and neighborhood meetings.Advertisement“He just thought if you live in a community, you have a responsibility to make a community a better place,” said Helima Croft, one of Croft’s two children (he also had a son, Kofi).As a child, Helima said, she accompanied her dad to weekend meetings of the Ward 6 Democrats. When she was older, she interned for council members at her father’s prodding.Howard Croft raised in Pennsylvania by his grandparents. His mother was just 13 when he was born. Croft’s grandparents saved enough money to send him to a private Catholic school before he earned a bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University.After a post-college stint fighting for civil rights, he pursued a master’s degree in social work at Columbia University and moved to Washington, where he married Jan Shapin. He later got a divorce and married Cynthia Kain, a fellow activist.Social justice was the common thread throughout a career that included organizing home health-care workers for the Service Employees International Union, educating inmates at the old D.C. prison in Lorton, Va., and teaching students about the history of labor activism and civil rights as an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia.“He would always tease me about going to work on Wall Street, but he still loved to come to the trading floor and look around,” said Helima Croft, who works in finance in New York City. “He was someone who really appreciated disparate viewpoints and loved to engage in rigorous intellectual debate.”AdvertisementCroft paid close attention to international affairs and traveled to South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam, among other places.He also sailed on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, around Solomons Island, Md., and off the coast of Florida, fulfilling the childhood dreams of a boy who grew up near the Susquehanna River and later joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary Force.He was hospitalized in the summer of 2019 after falling off his boat, and doctors diagnosed him with multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. Croft continued to attend neighborhood meetings and, his daughter said, had hoped to canvass in his native Pennsylvania this fall on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.He had canvassed there in 2016 and was crushed by President Trump winning the state, Helima Croft said. But he was not surprised, he told her — not after union voters who had previously backed Barack Obama refused to tell him who they were supporting when he knocked on their doors.After developing respiratory problems this spring, Croft was diagnosed with covid-19 and hospitalized at John’s Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in late May. He never left.Croft died less than a week before the House of Representatives made history on June 26 by for the first time.His family buried him in Pennsylvania, wearing a D.C. statehood pin.The latest: More than two years into the pandemic, , , while liberal Montgomery County asks . Meanwhile, Black funeral directors still face a daunting amount of and the omicron wave has had an .At-home tests: Here’s .Mapping the spread: Tens of thousands have died in the and numberin the hundreds of thousands.Omicron: Remaining , plus a breakdown of and .Get the latest local news: Sign up for the and CommentsGift ArticleTOP STORIESRecommended RecipesLooking for inspiration? Try these recipes to prepare dishes with confidence.Try a different topic or to save your preferences

This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareHe helped Black Mississippi voters register to vote in the 1960s, crusaded against apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and championed same-sex marriage equality before it became the law of the land.But some of Howard Croft’s most important social activism came in the trenches of local politics, focused on statehood for D.C. residents.Croft’s relationships with local political leaders including former mayor Marion S. Barry, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and former D.C. Council member Frank Smith stretched back to the...

Howard Croft, longtime D.C. activist and social justice crusader, dies of covid-19

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