Gloria Fox served Roxbury for 30 years in the Massachusetts Legislature – the longest serving woman in the House of Representatives when she retired in 2016. She left an indelible mark on her district and the city as a whole — advocating for poor people, those who were struggling, and had been excluded from opportunity — and for those in her beloved Roxbury community.
Representative Fox knew hardship personally — as a child of the foster care system who was moved around to several placements in Greater Boston; a single mother trying to make a way for her family in what was initially unfamiliar territory — the Whittier Street Housing Development . . . But it’s also where she found community, her voice and her calling to make a difference.
She didn’t start with low hanging fruit. In the 1960’s she organized and helped push back against Interstate 95 that was set to tear through Lower Roxbury, upending businesses and walling in residents of public housing in its path, leaving them without access to basic resources; and then against efforts to displace residents and erase community space. She helped organize women in her housing development around education and access to health care, helping to spearhead the Whittier Street Service Center.
Already a community organizer and Head Start parent, Rep. Fox would become a longtime member of the ABCD family joining the organization as director of an ABCD neighborhood center – the Roxbury Area Planning Action Council (APAC). A pioneering state legislator, and a tireless advocate for those whose voices were not being heard, Gloria believed in her neighbors’ potential, and insisted on making Boston, Massachusetts, and the world a more equitable and inclusive place.
A kindred spirit to ABCD, her legislative work focused on eliminating health disparities in communities of color, child welfare and foster care, redistricting, Election Day voter registration and criminal justice reform. She blazed a trail for so many of our leaders today. Fox was also a member of the Boston Delegation of the Massachusetts Legislature, the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus, and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. She worked tirelessly on behalf of her constituents of the 7th Suffolk District.
She was honored several times by ABCD– as a community hero at the 1985 Community Heroes Celebration, representing Roxbury / North Dorchester; and again in 1996 where she was a special honoree and recipient of the Melnea Cass award. Upon her retirement from the Legislature in 2016, Representative Fox was inducted into the ABCD Hall of Fame.
ABCD salutes you one more time, Representative Fox, as you take your well earned rest in power.
Sincerely,
Sharon
