A year before Zandra Flemister, the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Secret Service, joined the federal service, blazing a trail for other women in a historically white institution, she was student at Northeastern University.
Flemister, who died on February 21, graduated with a degree in political science in 1973. On August 5, 1974, she was assigned as a special agent in the Washington field office, where she served until her resignation in June 1978.
In the days since her death, Flemister has come to be seen as a “forgotten pioneer” for women and minorities, battling adversity in the Secret Service before discovering a lifelong passion for public service at the US State Department, says John Collinge, wife of Flemister. .
“I've had so many people reach out and ask about her,” Collinge told Northeastern Global News.
Collinge said his wife was drawn to Northeastern because of the opportunities the university provided her through its signature co-op program.
“He went to Northeastern because he needed to go to a school where there was some scholarship help, but also the ability to do some kind of work-study,” Collinge says.
While at Northeastern, Flemister held various jobs, including working in the alumni office and as a receptionist, Collinge says. He was also a “dorm counselor,” which included jobs in a desk next to the front door of the dorm. While a student, she traveled to the former Soviet Union, among other places—trips that would foreshadow a career in the US State Service.
“I have always been fascinated by the legacy of the Black experience [Northeastern University] it's rich with people like Xander, who come from here, get their degree and unassumingly go about their lives to do some amazing things,” he says Richard O'Bryantdirector of Northeastern's John D. O'Bryant African American Institute;
Being the first woman of color to serve in an agency that was once widely blamed for fostering a racist cultureFlemister regularly experienced racism and discrimination, according to The Washington Post. As a result, he left the Secret Service, joined the US Foreign Service, where he served on assignments around the world, including “as consul general in Islamabad, Pakistan, and in Washington as the State Department's senior representative to the FBI's Terrorist Review Center,” according to the Post.
After leaving the Secret Service, Flemister described in legal documents how the agency prevented her from advancing her career. how her “credibility and competence” were “constantly questioned.”
“I stayed with the Secret Service because I wanted to be a trailblazer for other African-American women,” she wrote in an affidavit that was part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the Secret Service in 2000, according to the Washington Post.
The lawsuit alleged “rampant racial discrimination” within the Secret Service. The agency after all settled with the plaintiffs for $24 million in 2017. According to the Washington Post, the service's retention rate of African-American women was so bottomless that by 2001, not a single black female agent had stayed on the force long enough to retire.
In a statement, the Secret Service chief acknowledged Flemmister's pioneering role within the agency, saying she inspired future generations of agents.
“The strength of the Secret Service is based on the diversity and experience of our workforce,” said Kimberly Cheatle, director of the United States Secret Service. “Special Agent Flemister was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to service and inspired a future generation of agents.”
Flemmister suffered from Alzheimer's disease — a Collinge fact wrote about eight years before her death in a touching tribute to the couple's relationship.
“Alzheimer's creeps in and rolls in like fog. In most cases we don't know why, certainly not in Zandra's case where there was no family history of dementia,” Collinge wrote for the American Foreign Service Association. “Zandra lived a life of controlled stress, typical of a Foreign Service officer in this age of terrorism. She added a juggling career and raised a moderately autistic son.”
Tanner Stening is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email him at t.stening@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter@tstening90.
