Dr. Alma S. Adams, the victor of the election held on November 3, 2020, is serving as the representative for North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District. Adams, who was elected in a special election in November 2014, made history by becoming the 113th Congress’s 100th female member.
Representative Adams is currently a member of three committees: the Education and Labor Committee, the Agriculture Committee, and the Financial Services Committee. She is the Vice Chairwoman of the Committee on Agriculture, in addition to serving as the Assistant Whip for the Democratic Caucus. She is also the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections for the Committee on Education and Labor.
Her responsibilities include overseeing legislation pertaining to workforce protections. Adams is a member of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Department Operations and Nutrition in the Department of Agriculture, as well as the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and Labor. In addition, Adams is a member of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and Labor. Adams is also a member of the Education and Labor Committee’s Human Rights and Civil Rights Subcommittee, which focuses on civil and human rights. Her most noteworthy accomplishment while serving in the House of Representatives was seeing the passage of the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act. This measure is the most significant piece of legislation that she has worked on during her time in Congress because she helped secure $255 million annually for all Minority-Serving Institutions, including $85 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Because of her work on this measure, she was able to secure these funds.
The period that Representative Adams spent serving as chair of the Joint Economic Committee is only one small part of his extensive leadership career. You currently serve as the vice ranking member of the Small Business Committee as well as the ranking member of the Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight, and Regulation. Both of these positions are highly regarded within the organization. Representative Adams has served not just on the House Budget Committee but also on the Joint Economic Committee in addition to his work on the House Budget Committee. As the founder and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus, the congresswoman is very involved in the efforts of both political parties to assist historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and the alumni of those institutions. In addition to that, she was one of the co-founders of the Black Maternal Health Caucus together with Lauren Underwood from Illinois.
She was successful in her efforts to lobby for amendments to the Farm Bill, which included allocating $40 million for scholarship programs at HBCUs, funding for new agricultural “centers of excellence,” and increased funding for agricultural research and cooperative extension at the original land grant colleges that were established in 1890. Her efforts to lobby for these amendments were successful. The successful passage of these amendments is a fitting reward for her efforts.
She has been an advocate for and sponsor of many bills that would increase funding for HBCUs. Adams has supported and pushed many efforts to ensure that all children have equal access to high-quality education. She is pushing for legislation that would mandate schools provide students healthy breakfast alternatives before school begins. Dr. Adams has been a professor of art history at Bennett College for close to four decades. A major driver in getting more Bennett students to the polls, she led the fight to expand student voting. She achieved this by organizing regular voter participation marches and propagating the slogan “Bennett Belles are Voting Belles.” Representative Adams is an experienced educator who has spent her career working to better the lives of kids in her area. Among the many accolades she has received is the Human Rights Medal from her alma institution, North Carolina A&T State University, granted to an alumna who has made significant contributions to the struggle against social injustice and the betterment of society. The National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame has also recognized her achievements.
She currently possesses eight honorary degrees, and Fisk University just recently bestowed upon her their Presidential Medallion as a recent addition to her collection.
In 1994, Dr. Adams was chosen by her contemporaries to serve as the representative for North Carolina’s 26th legislative district. She ran for state representative and was ultimately victorious, going on to serve for a total of ten years in that capacity. During her time in government, she worked her way up to the position of head of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus and was influential in the passage of legislation that slashed expenses for people of the state and reduced barriers to receiving high-quality healthcare. Additionally, Adams fought for and led the effort that resulted in the first increase in the state’s minimum wage in nine years as well as the enactment of the Displaced Homemakers Bill. Representative Adams was a major contributor to the success of both of these campaigns.
Adams was a member of the Greensboro City Council for a total of nine years before being elected to the North Carolina General Assembly. During that time, Adams was responsible for representing the interests of the city of Greensboro. While serving as the congressman for Greensboro’s second district, Dr. Adams placed a strong emphasis on increasing access to healthcare, bringing down the cost of healthcare, and rehabilitating areas that were in disrepair. When she was elected to serve as a member of the Greensboro City School Board in the 1980s, it was a first for the city of Greensboro, and it went down in the annals of city history. She made history by becoming the first person of African descent to ever hold that position. It was there that she had the realization that she wanted to devote the rest of her life to assisting the people that she was surrounded by.