Velmanette Montgomery

Velmanette Montgomery (born December 22, 1942) is an American Democratic Party politician who represented the 25th district of the New York State Senate from 1984 until 2020. The district comprised Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus, and Park Slope, among other neighborhoods located within the borough of Brooklyn.

Montgomery was born in Houston,^[1] but relocated to New York City to attain a master's degree in education from New York University.^[2] She later became a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.^[3]

Prior to elected office, Montgomery worked as a teacher, adjunct professor, and day care director as well as the cofounder of the Day Care Forum of New York City.^[4] She has also served as president of Community School Board 13.

In 1991, Montgomery was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from St. Joseph's College.^[5]

Montgomery was first elected in 1984, succeeding Anna V. Jefferson, who did not run for re-election that year.^[6] She has been re-elected seventeen times, never facing serious opposition. Montgomery has never lost an election.^[7]

In the Senate, Montgomery is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Children and Families. She is a reproductive rights advocate, sponsoring legislation on the topic,^[8] and a longtime nurse practitioner advocate. She was an original sponsor of legislation to legalize needle exchange programs to stop the spread of AIDS,^[9] wrote the law banning female genital mutilation, and sponsored a current law that prohibits the discrimination in the granting of funeral or bereavement leave to workers in committed same-sex relationships.^[10]

In 2013 Montgomery was secretly recorded at the home of then-Senator Shirley Huntley, as revealed in a federal corruption probe of Huntley. The probe centered around former Senator Huntley who pled guilty to embezzling over 87,000ドル in taxpayer money.^[11] Montgomery was never accused of wrongdoing in the probe.^[12]

In 2019, Montgomery was elected Majority Conference Secretary.^[13]

On January 11, 2020, Montgomery announced that she would be retiring from the State Senate and not seeking reelection in 2020. She endorsed Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright in her retirement announcement.^[14]

Media related to Velmanette Montgomery at Wikimedia Commons

• New York State Senate: Velmanette Montgomery
• Gotham Gazette's Eye On Albany: New York State Senate: District 18
• State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery Testifies on Downtown Brooklyn Plan
• Enter the Ratner candidate
• Profile on Our Campaigns
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Women state legislators in New York (state)
• African-American state legislators in New York (state)
• 21st-century African-American women politicians
• 20th-century African-American women politicians
• 20th-century American women politicians
• Democratic Party New York (state) state senators
• Living people
• 1942 births
• Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni
• 21st-century American women politicians
• People from Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
• 21st-century African-American politicians
• 20th-century African-American politicians
• 21st-century members of the New York State Legislature
• 20th-century members of the New York State Legislature

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
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