Tilo Frey

Tilo Frey (2 May 1923 – 27 June 2008) [1][2]) was a Swiss politician. She was one of the first twelve women elected to the National Council in 1971 and was the first person of African descent elected to the National Council.[3] Prior to her service at the federal level, she was a member of the municipal council of Neuchâtel and the Grand Council of Neuchâtel.[4]

Tilo Frey
Member of the National Council of Switzerland
In office
29 November 1971 – 30 November 1975
Personal details
Born
Tilo Frey

(1923-05-02)2 May 1923
Maroua, Cameroon
Died27 June 2008(2008-06-27) (aged 85)
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Political partyFree Democratic Party of Switzerland

Early life and education

Frey was born in Maroua, Cameroon,[5] as the daughter of a Swiss father, Paul Frey of Brugg, and a Fula mother, Fatimatou Bibabadama.[6] She was adopted by Katscha Frey.[5] As a mixed-race child in Switzerland, Frey faced considerable racism. Even her father advised her to "act as white as a lily".[7] She attended school in Canton Neuchatel[7] and vocational school in Neuchatel from 1938 – 1941.[5]

Professional career

From 1943 to 1971 she taught business classes at the Ecole de commerce of Neuchâtel.[5] After her political career came to an end, she returned to teaching and from 1976 to 1984, she was director of the Ecole professionnelle de jeunes filles.[5]

Political career

She became active in politics in 1959 once the Canton of Neuchâtel gave women the right to vote and run for public office.[8] She joined the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland (FDP) and was elected into the municipal council of Neuchâtel in 1964.[4] When she was elected to the Grand Council of Neuchâtel 1969, she became the first person of color to serve in that body.[9] In 1971, Swiss voters approved a referendum giving women the right to vote and to stand for office. Frey entered the race for the National Council in the 1971 Swiss federal election and won a seat as a member of the FDP, joining nine other women who entered the Council. Media coverage at the time was heavily focused on her race during the campaign.[7] In 1974 she resigned from municipal council in Neuchâtel.[4] She was not re-elected to the National Council in the 1975 election.[8] Among her key issues were equal pay for woman and legalized abortion.[3]

Frey died on 27 June 2008 in her hometown of Neuchâtel at the age of 85.[3]

Legacy
Espace Tilo-Frey in Neuchâtel

In June 2019, Neuchâtel changed the name of Espace Louis-Agassiz, near the Faculty of Letters of the University of Neuchâtel area, to Espace Tilo Frey. Louis Agassiz, who was a professor at the university in natural history and glaciology. Now recognized as having racist views, Agassiz published work on polygenism that claimed a ranking of the races in which blacks were inferior to whites and defended racial segregation.[8][10]

See also

References
  1. Official Parliament Website
  2. Deceased members of the Swiss Parliament Archived 2012-09-12 at archive.today
  3. "Une pionnière s'en est allée" (in French). ARC.info. 2015-08-02.
  4. "Outstanding Women". Federal Assembly. Retrieved 2020-01-04.
  5. Jeannin-Jaquet, Isabelle. "Frey, Tilo". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  6. Le Matin 06/07/2008 Archived 2012-07-07 at archive.today
  7. "Die schwarze Schweizer Polit-Pionierin" (in German). SRF. 2019-09-24.
  8. "Neuchâtel et les spectres du passé". Le Temps (in French). 2018-09-08.
  9. Hanimann, Carlos (2021-06-02). "Der sonderbare Fall der Tilo Frey". Republik (in German).
  10. "A Neuchâtel, Tilo Frey remplace Louis Agassiz" (in French). Le Temps. 2019-06-06.
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