Some recall C. Delores Tucker as the acclaimed civil rights activist and politician who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, contributing significantly to advancing women’s and voting rights.
In 1984, Tucker and U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the trailblazing first Black woman to run for president, established the National Congress of Black Women. This non-profit is committed to women’s progress in politics, education, and the broader society.
Others remember Tucker, who died in 2005 at the age of 78, for her feverish campaign to combat gangsta rap in the 1990s, which drew criticism from hip-hop icons like Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, along with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, as The Moguldom Nation previously reported.
Here are 10 quotes from Tucker on hip-hop and what she saw as its negative programming power.
1. Hear no evil
“You can’t listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you,” she once said, according to AZ Quotes.
2. Tucker fighting against rap misogyny
“I am here to put the nation on notice that violence perpetrated against women through the music industry in the forms of gangsta rap and misogynist lyrics will not be tolerated any longer,” Tucker once said during a speech, according to The Wrap.
“Principle must come before profit,” she added.
3. Tucker saw a lack of respect
“Today, however, through the lyrics of rappers who display no respect for women, no respect for families and little respect for themselves, the souls of our sisters are being destroyed and so too their progeny,” Tucker once said, as The Wrap reported.
4. Tucker vowed to never back down
“They want me to back off, but I won’t,” Tucker told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s important to pay attention to who is dredging up all these charges.”
5. Tucker: Music industry is ‘pimping pornography’
Remember, these are the same people who are out there pimping pornography to your children. Their record and records speak for them. I’ve been an activist all my life. My record speaks for itself,” she said to The Los Angeles Times.
6. Tucker: destruction of Black community
“The pimps in the entertainment industry who distribute gangsta rap are major contributors to the destruction of the African-American community,” Tucker told The Los Angeles Times.
7. Tucker: Gangsta rap not in line with the civil rights movement
“What do you think Dr. King would have to say about rappers calling black women bitches and whores? About rappers glorifying thugs and drug dealers and rapists? What kind of role models are those for young children living in the ghetto?” she asked.
8. Dedicated to eradicating gangsta rap
“I guess this is the price a person pays for dedicating their life to fighting for justice in this country,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “Dr. King gave his life. Rosa Parks had to suffer. And now they’re coming after me. But I will never quit. I promise you that either this gangsta porno rap is going to die or I’m going to die trying to stop it.”
9. Alone in the fight
“I’ve challenged this gangster rap out there by myself. Dionne Warwick and Melba Moore told me about it, wanted my help, but I’m out there by myself. Getting arrested,” she said to Pennsylvania Heritage in 1999.
10 Righteous Fight
“But I’m going to fight because it’s right. God has sent me all I need to handle the battle. I promise you that this gangsta porno rap is going to die or I’m going to die trying to stop what they do to those kids…I told black people, ‘This gangsta rap is our fault because we never said ‘never again,’ as the Jews did. I say we should follow their example,” she told Pennsylvania Heritage.
C. DeLores Tucker holds a copy of the cover of Tupac Shakur’s album “Makaveli” during a Washington news conference, December 10, 1996, to discuss “gangsta rap” music. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
