101–Year–Old Former Councilmember Passes

A beloved figure of the Berkeley community left us this April. Maudelle Shirek, a former Berkeley City Council member, died on April 11 in a Vallejo nursing home at the age of 101.

Shirek was an inspirational and progressive voice in Berkeley politics. She spent twenty years on the Berkeley City Council as a devoted activist for seniors and the poor. For years, Shirek was the director of the West Berkeley Senior Center. It wasn’t until the city forced her to retire from this position at age 72 that she ran for City Council and was elected for eight consecutive terms. When she retired at age 92, she was the oldest elected official in California.

Shirek grew up on a farm in Jefferson, Arkansas. She spent her childhood taking care of nine younger siblings and helping with the crops. For the rest of her life, Shirek loved to cook and was dedicated to promoting healthy eating. “She was committed to educating seniors and the entire community on the benefits of healthy living,” said Representative Barbara Lee in a statement for Shirek’s 100th birthday.

Born the granddaughter of slaves, Shirek was also very committed to civil rights.

A mural was created in Old City Hall to honor this commitment, and in 2007 the hall itself was renamed the Maudelle Shirek Building. Shirek came to Berkeley in the 1940’s and spent the next seventy years improving our community. One of her many projects was helping to organize the Free Mandela Movement, a campaign to free Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners in South Africa. According to Berkeley School Board president Karen Hemphill, Shirek was banned from a South African airport because of her anti–apartheid work. Hemphill worked with Shirek on the anti–apartheid campaign, and later worked as Shirek’s legislative aide. Along with large–scale civil rights issues, Shirek was also dedicated to promoting the rights of individuals in the Bay Area. Berkeley City Council member Linda Maio first met Shirek when she came to help Maio and her classmates’ campaign to stop the relocation of North Peralta Community College.

Maio remembers the help Shirek gave them, saying she had “witnessed, firsthand, what true and dedicated commitment to a just cause looked like.” “Maudelle was an independent force to be reckoned with,” said Maio. Hemphill had similar sentiments, and told a story to illustrate Shirek’s dedication to her morals. Shirek often went door to door helping people in need. At one point, when Shirek was in her late seventies, she and Hemphill went to a ninety–year–old blind woman’s house. It was falling apart with no utilities and rat droppings on the floor, and was so squalid that the workers Hemphill tried to hire refused to go in and clean it up.

On the phone a few nights later, Hemphill asked why Shirek was so tired and Shirek responded, “I couldn’t sleep knowing how that woman lived…so I took a mop and a pail and I cleaned her bathroom floor.”

Over her lifetime, many people in this community looked up to Shirek. “She mentored a lot of the African–American progressive community,” said Hemphill. Hemphill also viewed Shirek as a personal mentor saying, “[My kids] grew up with her as a great aunt”.

Berkeley has lost a loved and respected woman. The “godmother of East Bay progressive politics,” as she was often called, will be missed greatly.