Biography

Clara Virginia Fields is the former Borough President of Manhattan, elected in 1997 and reelected in 2001. Her second term expired at the end of 2005.

She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She received a B.A. in sociology from Knoxville College in Tennessee in 1967 and an M.S.W. from Indiana University Bloomington in 1969. She married Henry Fields in 1971; they divorced in 1985. In 1971, she moved to New York City and became a social worker. In the late 1970s and 1980s she worked in a variety of administrative positions in the social services field, while also becoming involved in community politics.

Fields is well known for her activism during the height of the civil rights movement in which she participated in a number of protests and marches, thus beginning her foray into social and political advocacy.

In 1989, Fields was elected to the New York City Council. In 1997, Fields was elected Manhattan Borough President, replacing Ruth Messinger who ran for Mayor, unsuccessfully, against Rudy Giuliani.

- IMDb mini biography by: Bazza the Beast