Nadine Winter (1924-2011) was an urban-housing activist who was one of the original members of the Council of the District of Columbia when DC gained home rule in 1974. She represented Ward 6 on the council until 1991.
Nadine P. Winter moved to Washington, DC in 1947 to work on housing issues. She was elected in 1974 to represent Ward 6, a diverse but largely poor area which stretched from Capitol Hill to Anacostia, and she held the seat for 16 years. She came to the council keenly aware of the housing problems that plagued the ward, as well as the city. She had been the director of the Hospitality House, one of the first shelters to house entire families and led the screen group for an uban homesteading program in the 1970’s.
She was born in New Bern, N.C.; one of five children of a brick mason and high-school dietician. A community activist from an early age, she helped found Winston-Salem’s first Girl Scout troop for black girls.
In 1980, she sponsored a DC law instituting recycling in DC.
She was an original organizer of the National Welfare Rights Organization and she served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. After she retired from government, she founded health Action Information Network, a non-profit agency providing health education. She was a four-time cancer survivor.
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