Editing Alexis Herman (section)

==Early life and education==
Herman was born on July 16, 1947, in [[Mobile, Alabama]], the daughter of politician [[Alex Herman]] and schoolteacher Gloria Caponis,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://lasentinel.net/alexis-m-herman.html|title=Alexis M. Herman - Los Angeles Sentinel|last=Simmonds |first=Yussuf|date=May 29, 2008|work=Los Angeles Sentinel|access-date=December 21, 2017}}</ref> and raised in a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] household.<ref name="Wines, Michael, Friends Helped Labor" /> Her father became Alabama's first black [[Ward (United States)|ward leader]].<ref name="Smothers, Ronald, Social-Worker Roots" /> She later recounted how members of the [[White supremacy|white supremacist]] group, the [[Ku Klux Klan]], assaulted her father when she was five years old.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=8917460|title=Cabinet Secretary Alexis Herman |date=March 15, 2007|work=NPR.org|access-date=December 30, 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2017/09/21/alexis-herman-recalls-her-fathers-beating-kkk/2677125/|title=Alexis Herman recalls her father's beating by the KKK|date=September 21, 2017|website=USA Today|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2017}}</ref> 

When Herman was growing up in Mobile, schools remained [[Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated]].<ref name="Wines, Michael, Friends Helped Labor">{{Cite web|url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/0312herman-confirm.html|title=Alexis Herman: Friends Helped Labor Nominee Move Up, Then Almost Brought Her Down|last=Wines|first=Michael|date=May 12, 1997|website=partners.nytimes.com|access-date=January 15, 2018}}</ref> Her parents opted to send Alexis to [[parochial school]], including [[Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church|Heart of Mary High School]], in part because the teachers included white nuns and priests, and thus would expose her to greater diversity.<ref name="Wines, Michael, Friends Helped Labor" /> <!--<ref name="Smothers, Ronald, Social-Worker Roots" />-->

As a sophomore, she was suspended from school for questioning the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile|Archdiocese of Mobile]]'s exclusion of black students from religious pageants in which white students participated. Following a week of objection from the parents of Herman's fellow black classmates, she was re-admitted.<ref name="Smothers, Ronald, Social-Worker Roots" />

After graduating from high school, Herman attended [[Edgewood College]] in [[Madison, Wisconsin]], and [[Spring Hill College]] in Mobile.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://issuu.com/edgewoodcollege/docs/magazine_-_fall_2016/9|title=Edgewood College Magazine|last=Henry|first=Diana|date=Fall 2016|work=issuu|access-date=December 30, 2017|page=7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TUIHbempHkUC&q=%22alexis+herman%22+spring+hill+college&pg=PT202|title=African American Almanac: 400 Years of Triumph, Courage and Excellence|last=Bracks|first=Lean'tin|date=February 1, 2012|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=9781578593804|language=en}}</ref> She transferred to [[Xavier University of Louisiana]] in [[New Orleans]], where she became an active member of the Gamma Alpha Chapter of the [[Delta Sigma Theta]] sorority<ref name="notables">{{cite web|url=http://www.deltasigmatheta.org/notable_deltas.htm |title=Notable Deltas |publisher=Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120072056/http://www.deltasigmatheta.org/notable_deltas.htm |archive-date=January 20, 2010 }} Retrieved December 12, 2007.</ref> and graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in [[Sociology]] in 1969.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/herman|title=Hall of Secretaries: Alexis M. Herman|date=December 9, 2015|work=United States Department of Labor|access-date=December 30, 2017|language=en}}</ref>