Singing, tributes to civil rights leader Hazel N. Dukes at Hempstead church

Jubilant attendees at the Union Baptist Church in Hempstead on Monday night celebrated the life of civil rights activist Hazel N. Dukes with words about her legacy on Long Island and beyond, and gospel music led by a man who knew her his entire life as Aunt Hazel.

Since he was an infant, said Dean Lee, the church's minister of music, Dukes was part of his life through her work with his grandfather establishing the Assembly of Prayer Baptist Church in Roslyn Heights. Earlier Monday evening before he led others in gospel singing, Lee recalled to Newsday how Duke, who died on March 1 at age 92, in her Manhattan home, never strayed far from the Roslyn Heights church, no matter how far her work as an activist took her.

“That church meant everything to her,” Lee said.

Dukes poured her “blood, sweat and tears” into the church that felt like “home,” Lee added. Even in her later years, he said, she made the trip from the city to the Roslyn Heights church for services.

Dukes, who served for decades as the president of the NAACP New York State Conference, took on educational inequality, police brutality and related issues on Long Island and nationwide.

After she was denied an apartment in a Roslyn Heights complex, Dukes successfully sued its owner. Decades later, about 250 people joined her at a 2023 ceremony to rename a street near the complex Dr. Hazel Dukes Way.

Monday evening's events began with gospel singing, and concluded with a eulogy read by the Rev. Monte Chandler, of the Roslyn Heights church, who served as Dukes’ pastor during the last decade of her life. Beyond her legacy as a civil rights leader, Chandler said, Dukes’ role in the church was that of “everybody’s grandmother.”

“She was, as we would say in the African American tradition, our Queen Mother,” Chandler said. “She was the mother that held great authority or influence in almost every aspect of our lives.”

As a leader, Chandler said, Dukes knew how to “place people in positions where they could shine,” and she “didn’t always need to be … the star.”

Just as her death drew crowds, so did her speaking engagements at Long Island churches and libraries, said the Rev. Sedgwick Easley, of the Union Baptist Church, which hosted Monday's event because of its larger seating capacity.

“When she would come, we would listen,” Easley said. “We knew that she was going to get us the resources or give us the voices that we needed to help us in the struggle.”

One such frequent attendee of Dukes’ public appearances was Betty Bradford, who sang along with her fellow celebrants Monday evening.

“The kids were never bored,” said Bradford, 74, of Roosevelt, in reference Dukes' many speaking engagements. ... “She was a woman who loved to share the history of being Black in America and the struggles, especially women’s struggles. She loved to encourage young people, especially young girls, and let them know, ‘Don’t let nothing stop you.’ ”