ANTHONY C. "TONY" HILL, SR.
FLORIDA STATE SENATOR, DISTRICT 1

Tony Hill, the name he is best known by, is a dynamic leader. He was elected to the Florida Senate in November 2002, and re-elected without opposition for a 4 year term in 2004. Senate District One encompasses portions of Duval, St. Johns, Flagler, Putman and Volusia Counties. He currently serves on the following committees: Community Affairs, Domestic Security, Regulated Industries (Vice Chair), Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations and Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.

Before being elected as a Florida State Senator, Hill was elected in 1992 to the Florida House of Representatives and subsequently re-elected, unopposed, for three consecutive terms. He served on several House committees, including Environmental Protection, Regulated Services, Civil Justice Council, Health and Human Services Appropriations, and Claims as Vice Chair (1998-2000).

While serving as Vice Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Hill worked with the Florida Department of Agriculture and the Florida Conference of Black State Legislator to create an African American Awareness Campaign. This campaign is committed to raising the awareness of obesity related health problems among African Americans and other minorities and encourages a lifestyle which includes a healthy diet and exercise. He along with many of his colleagues passed legislation to ensure the protection of migrant farm workers from harmful pesticides and unfair labor practices.

Hill is currently serving as a Community Organizer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He is the Chair of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators' Labor Round Table, Vice Chair of the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators and the Florida Senate Democratic Lead Whip. During the 2004 election he served as Florida's Statewide Co-Chair for the Minimum Wage Initiative (Amendment 5). This amendment was the second highest voter getter.

On January 18, 2000, Hill challenged the powers-that-be when he and then colleague State Senator Kendrick Meek, now Congressman Meek, held a sit-in in the Lt. Governor's Office to oppose the Governor's refusal to talk with them about his Executive Order to eliminate Affirmative Action policies in state contracting and university admission. This 24-hour protest led to the historic 'March on Tallahassee' in which approximately 50,000 people marched the hills of Florida's Capitol to support the state's existing affirmative action policies, and against the Governor's Executive Order. His leadership pushed this issue to the forefront across the state and nation.

After leaving the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, due to term limits, he continued his dedicated service and involvement. His major involvement leading up to and during his campaign for the Florida Senate, was as co-chair of the Florida Coalition to Reduce Class Size, resulting in Florida Constitutional Amendment 9, requiring smaller class sizes. The voters in the State of Florida gave an overwhelming mandate requiring that the amendment be implemented by the legislature.

That effort was followed with the 'Arrive-With-Five Campaign' that Hill and Meek conducted. A statewide tour, which galvanized Florida's voters to bring themselves, along with five others, to the polls, was partially responsible for the increase in Florida's African-American voter turnout during the 2000 Presidential Election. After hearing numerous accounts of Floridians being turned away from the polls during the much-contested presidential election, Hill remained committed by advocating democracy throughout the state and working with state and national leaders, advocates and others, to ensure that every vote counts in future Florida elections. Mr. Hill represented the State of Florida as one of the twenty-five members of the Electoral College during the Presidential Election (Year 2000). This prestigious honor made him one of only two representatives from the City of Jacksonville.

In September of 2001, because of his extraordinary commitment and service to the labor movement, he was inducted into the AFL-CIO's Florida Labor Hall of Fame and presented with the A. Philip Randolph Award. Tony Hill is the youngest inductee, and the first African-American, to receive this prestigious honor. He is the former Secretary-Treasurer of the Florida AFL-CIO, having been first elected in 1995, and subsequently re-elected and served until 2001. He began his labor career as a Longshoreman with ILA Local 1408, Jacksonville, many years prior to 1995. And, in April of 2001, he was honored with the esteemed position of Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus with the Florida AFL-CIO. Tony is a graduate of Jean Ribault Senior High School, Jacksonville, FL. He attended Lincoln University, Lincoln, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the National Labor College, in Silver Spring, Maryland, with a B.A. Degree in Labor Studies, and received an honorary doctorate from Edward Waters College, in Jacksonville, FL.

Hill has been honored with such prestigious awards as the NAACP Adam Clayton Powell Civil Rights Award, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Freedom Fighter Award, Florida Democratic Party's Ron H. Brown Award, A. Phillip Randolph Achievement Award, Rosemary Barkett Award from the Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists' Cleveland Robinson Award. In December of 2000, he was honored as Chairman-Emeritus of the Labor and Management Committee of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. In January of 2002, Hill was the recipient of the Lincoln-Douglass Emancipation Proclamation Association's Eartha M. White Service Award and the National AFL-CIO's Government Service Award, making him the first labor member in Florida to receive the honor. He has been selected twice as the Omega Citizen of The Year by the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and is the Co-founder of the Florida Omega Psi Phi Fraternity's Annual Political Action Summit. In 2004, the Sierra Club honored him as the Environmental Legislator of the Year.