Elizabeth Holtzman

As a student at Radcliffe College, Elizabeth Holtzman ’62 had her first taste of political organizing. Though Holtzman would later go on to hold some of the highest offices in New York government, here the constituents she was advocating for were her fellow residents of Whitman Hall.

During her senior year, Holtzman helped lead the charge to convince the administration to abolish parietal hours—the 1 a.m. curfews imposed on Radcliffe women but, by the 1960s, rarely enforced.

“It was the beginning of an activist streak,” said Donna L. Walker ’62, who shared the same Radcliffe dormitory as Holtzman.

Only 10 years after graduating from Radcliffe, Holtzman unseated a 50-year incumbent in the New York Democratic primary for the House. At the time, she was the youngest woman to be elected to Congress.

Since then, she has held a variety of offices both within and representing New York City, including serving as the first woman comptroller of the city.

THE RADCLIFFE TRAINING GROUND

During the seven years Holtzman spent at Harvard—four at Radcliffe and the next three at Harvard Law School—she developed her voice as an activist, gaining lessons in organizing that would inform her later political work.

“Extraordinary people are your classmates,” Holtzman said of her time at Radcliffe. “You can learn so much from them. Don’t think it’s just the books and the professors.”

Holtzman was particularly involved in the debate over the ending of Radcliffe’s traditional system of parietal hours.

“The issue was whether we just pretend that we obey [the curfew]...or whether we change the hours so we don’t have to lie,” Holtzman said. “It seemed to me, a senior, that it was a better idea to change the rules and not force people to resort to subterfuges.”

Classmates have remembered Holtzman as a staunch voice during the discussions.

“She was a fierce and passionate advocate for taking these issues seriously and not treating them as a trivial matter,” said Michael Churchill ’61, a former Crimson editor who worked on coverage of the debates. After meeting Holtzman through an article about the parietals question, Churchill struck up a friendship with her, and he eventually served as her congressional campaign manager in 1972.

After graduating from Radcliffe, Holtzman immediately entered Harvard Law School, where she became involved in legal advocacy for the emerging Civil Rights Movement.

“My experiences in the Civil Rights Movement gave me a very deep optimism about the ability to make changes in America for the better,” Holtzman said.

BREAKING IN

Only seven years after her law school graduation, Holtzman officially entered the American political arena with this hope of becoming an advocate for the people.

In 1972, Holtzman won the Democratic primary election for New York City’s 16th district in an upset victory against the 50-year incumbent, Emmanuel Celler. Running against a member of Brooklyn’s political machine, she had neither money nor support from organized groups, even though she had a popular anti-war platform.

“This was very much a grassroots campaign,” Holtzman said.

She said that she won the election by talking to her constituents, a skill that she developed while at Radcliffe. She remembered going wherever there were people—movie theaters, supermarkets, bowling alleys—to shake hands and ask what the people wanted.

“I rarely know anyone with this much energy and ability to pull other people into her campaign,” Churchill said. “She’d go out into a meeting and she’d come back with streams of people.”

“It was a wonderful sort of festive campaign, but it was very hardworking,” he added.

Even though they did not have enough money to run polls or television and radio advertisements, Holtzman said that she won because of her ability to connect with New Yorkers.

“I knew that people in the district wanted something different. We hardly raised any money, but it was a terrific victory,” she said. “If you have an objective, you just go for it, and perhaps I didn’t understand all the obstacles, but I also understood my strengths and the need for someone in government who was going to be honest and an activist who was going to fight hard for the people.”

‘A TREMENDOUS PRIVILEGE’

Since this first election, Holtzman has been a trailblazer in a range of political offices.

After four terms in the House and a failed Senate bid, Holtzman served as District Attorney of Kings County, New York, and became New York City Comptroller in 1989.

Since 1994, she has been a private practice lawyer in New York.

In addition to breaking several barriers for women as an elected official, Holtzman has also been recognized as an innovator when compared to her predecessors, according to Churchill.

“For me it was a tremendous privilege because I got to stand up for what I believed in, and what I believed in was what my constituents wanted me to do,” she said. “It was a happy conference of my values and theirs.”

For example, she recalled that, as a newly elected House representative, she became involved in debate over a bill that would reduce the number of food stamps available for members of disadvantaged groups.

When a senior Congressman came to the House floor expecting unanimous consent, Holtzman stood up, reserving the right to object.

“He looked up and was like, ‘Huh? What are you doing there? How dare you?’” she said.

Holtzman explained that people were already coming into her office crying and that this bill would only exacerbate this reality. The proposal never became law.

“I’ll never forget how you can make a difference in people’s lives,” Holtzman said.

—Staff writer Sabrina A. Mohamed can be reached at smohamed@college.harvard.edu.