Waldon, Alton R. (Alton Ronald), 1936-

<p>Alton Ronald Waldon Jr. (born December 21, 1936) is an American politician and jurist from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1986 to 1987 in addition to stints in the New York State Assembly from 1983 to 1986 and New York State Senate from 1991 to 2000, as a member of the Democratic Party.</p>

<p>Born in Lakeland, Florida, Waldon graduated from Boys High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1954 and went on to earn a B.S. from John Jay College in New York City in 1968 and a J.D. from New York Law School in New York City in 1973.</p>

<p>Waldon served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1959. He was appointed as NYS Deputy Commissioner of Human Rights in 1975. He served as counsel in the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.</p>

<p>He was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1983 to 1986, sitting in the 185th and 186th New York State Legislatures. Waldon was a delegate to the 1984 and 1988 Democratic National Conventions.</p>

<p>In a special election to fill the New York's 6th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by the late Joseph P. Addabbo, Waldon was elected as a Democrat to the 99th United States Congress in 1986 and served from June 10, 1986, to January 3, 1987. Waldon became the first elected African-American member of Congress from Queens, New York.</p>

<p>In September 1986, Waldon ran for a full term, but was defeated in the Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, majority-black district—by Floyd H. Flake. Waldon was then appointed to the New York State Commission of Investigation.</p>

<p>He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1991 to 1999, sitting in the 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd and 193rd New York State Legislatures. In 1998, he tried to regain his congressional seat after Flake had resigned, but was defeated in the special election by state assemblyman Gregory Meeks.</p>

<p>In June 1999, he was nominated to the New York Court of Claims; and was confirmed by the State Senate in December.</p>

WALDON, ALTON R., JR., a Representative from New York; born in Lakeland, Fla., December 21, 1936; graduated from Boys High School, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1954; B.S., John Jay College, New York, N.Y., 1968; J.D., New York Law School, New York, N.Y., 1973; United States Army, 1956-1959; appointed deputy commissioner, State Division of Human Rights in 1975; counsel, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; member of the New York state assembly, 1983-1986; delegate to the Democratic national convention, 1984 and 1988; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-ninth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Joseph P. Addabbo (June 10, 1986-January 3, 1987); unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the One Hundredth Congress in 1986; appointed to the New York state investigation commission; was an unsuccessful candidate for the special election to the One Hundred Fifth Congress on February 3, 1998; member of the New York state senate, 1990-2000; judge, New York state court claims, 2000 to present.

<p>Upon being sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives after a heated special election, Alton Waldon, Jr., noted of the U.S. Capitol: “This is a nice place to work for a man whose father had a strong back and not much else. I’m a bit of a romantic, a bit of a dreamer. This is a place that is the repository of the history of America.” Declaring, “I want to devote myself to being a 24–hour–a–day, seven–day–a–week, Congressman,” Walton devoted his short term to protesting apartheid in South Africa. Though he served in the House for less than six months, Waldon made his mark as the first black Representative elected from New York’s Queens borough.</p>

<p>Alton Ronald Walton, Jr., was born on December 21, 1936, in Lakeland, Florida. His parents, Rupert Juanita Wallace and Alton R. Waldon, Sr., moved to New York City when their son was six years old, and he grew up in the Bedford–Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Alton Waldon, Sr., worked as a longshoreman. Waldon, Jr., joined the U.S. Army in 1953 and served until he was discharged in 1959 as a Specialist, 4th Class. He married Barbara DeCosta, a graphic designer, in 1961. They had three children: Alton III, Dana, and Ian. Waldon spent his first few years out of the military pursuing a professional singing career before he joined the New York City housing authority’s police force in 1962. The housing authority police, which provided security for residents of the city’s public housing, was at the time separate from the New York City Police Department. Before leaving the force in 1975, Waldon advanced from the rank of patrolman to captain. He also became chief administrator and commander of the police academy for the New York City housing department. Waldon received a B.S. in criminal justice from John Jay College in New York City in 1968, and earned a J.D. from New York University Law School in 1973. During his time in law school, Waldon won the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Fellowship, awarded every three years to promising minority law students by the New York state trial lawyers association. In 1975, Waldon was appointed deputy commissioner of the New York state division of human rights. In 1981 and 1982, he served as assistant counsel for the New York state office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities. In 1982, Waldon won election to represent his Queens neighborhood in the New York state assembly, where he served until 1986.</p>

<p>In April 1986, Representative Joseph Addabbo, after a long battle, succumbed to cancer. Addabbo had risen to chair the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee during his 25–year congressional tenure. During that span, his southeastern Queens district grew by about 25 percent, transforming from a primarily white lower– to middle–class neighborhood to a community that was nearly 65 percent black. In May 1986, Queens Democrats nominated Waldon to run for Addabbo’s seat in the June 10 special election. If elected in the crowded five–way race, Waldon would be the first black man to represent the overwhelmingly Democratic district in Congress. Three Democrats joined the canvass under third party banners. Floyd Flake, a popular pastor of the Allen African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Jamaica, ran as a Unity Party candidate. New York City health department official Kevin McCabe entered the race as the Good Government Party candidate. State senator Andrew Jenkins, who was runner–up to Waldon for the Democratic nomination, ran on the Liberal Party ticket. Lone Republican–Conservative Richard Dietl also joined the race.</p>