Alma Adams Bio
Alma Shealey Adams, born on May 27, 1946, in High Point, North Carolina, is an American politician who has represented North Carolina’s 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, Adams previously served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1994 to 2014, including representing the 58th House district in Guilford County. A former college administrator and art professor, she taught at Bennett College in Greensboro and co-founded the African American Atelier, an organization dedicated to advancing visual arts by African Americans. Adams is well known for her distinctive hats and currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Alma Adams Early Life and Background
Alma Shealey Adams was born on May 27, 1946, in High Point, North Carolina, to Benjamin Shealey and Mattie Stokes. She was raised primarily by her mother, who worked as a domestic worker, after her parents separated. As a child, Adams moved with her family to Baltimore, Maryland, before later settling in Newark, New Jersey.
Adams attended West Side High School in Newark, a predominantly white school at the time, and graduated in 1964. Her early years in the Northeast exposed her to a wide range of cultural and social experiences that shaped her later interests in art, education, and public service. These formative years laid the foundation for her lifelong commitment to community engagement and creative expression.
Path to US Politics
Adams pursued her higher education at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969 and a Master of Science degree in 1972, both in art education. While at North Carolina A&T, she served as president of the Arts Circle and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, experiences that helped shape her leadership skills. She later earned a Ph.D. in art education and multicultural education from Ohio State University in 1981.
After completing her graduate studies, Adams was appointed chair of the art department at the Palmer Institute, where she taught students in grades seven through twelve. She later joined the faculty of Bennett College in Greensboro, where she taught until 2012, and served as director of the Steel Hall Art Gallery. In 1990, Adams and artist Eva Hamlin Miller co-founded the African American Atelier, an organization established to advance awareness and appreciation for visual arts and cultures of African Americans. These roles in education and the arts gave her a strong platform that would eventually lead her into public service.
Alma Adams Career
Early Career (1984-2014)
Alma Shealey Adams began her political career as a member of the Greensboro City School Board from 1984 to 1986, before serving on the Greensboro City Council from 1987 until her appointment to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1994. She was appointed to the state House to fill the seat of Representative Herman Gist, who had died in office, and the district included most of southeastern Greensboro in Guilford County. At the time of her appointment, Adams had already announced her candidacy to challenge Gist in the upcoming 1994 Democratic primary.
In the 1994 primary, Adams defeated O.C. Stafford, a businessman and perennial candidate, and went on to win the general election against Republican Roger G. Coffer. She won reelection in 1996 and 1998 against Stafford, who ran as a Republican in both races. In 2000, Adams was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Jim Rumley in the general election. Following redistricting in 2002, her district was renumbered from the 26th to the 58th, and she won reelection with nearly 86% of the vote.
State Legislature and Congressional Breakthrough (2014-Present)
During her tenure in the North Carolina House, Adams was elected chair of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus and served a second term in that role in 2008. She also chaired the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, which provides scholarships to students attending the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and held leadership roles on several committees, including vice chair of the Government Committee, chair of the Appropriations Committee, and vice chair of the Commerce, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship Committee. She faced repeated challenges from Republican Olga Morgan Wright, defeating her in every election from 2004 through 2012.
In April 2013, Mel Watt, the only congressman to have served the 12th District since its creation in 1993, was appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Adams was one of the first to announce that if Watt were confirmed, she would run in the ensuing special election, and she formally filed paperwork to run in both the Democratic primary for a full two-year term in the 114th Congress and the special election held in November 2014. Despite being considered at a geographic disadvantage because most of the district’s population is in Charlotte while she was based in Greensboro, Adams won both primaries with about 44% of the vote, clearing the 40% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
Adams was sworn in on November 12, 2014, to complete the remaining seven weeks of Watt’s term, becoming the 100th woman serving in the 113th Congress and beating the previous record of 99 female members. She also won the concurrent general election against Republican Vince Coakley, a former television and radio broadcaster from Matthews, in the heavily Democratic 12th district, which had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+26 and a majority-black voting population. A court-ordered redistricting in 2016 made the 12th district more compact, drawing her Greensboro home into the 13th district, after which she moved to Charlotte to remain in the 12th. She is the second woman of color to represent North Carolina in the House, following Eva Clayton, who served from 1992 to 2002.
Congressional Tenure and Legislative Work (2014-Present)
During her time in Congress, Adams has engaged in a wide range of legislative efforts. In 2016, she endorsed Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and pledged her support as a superdelegate, and she did not attend the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017. In 2022, Adams and Representatives A. Donald McEachin and Brian Fitzpatrick introduced the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, which would have the National Park Service work with local governments to identify, survey, research, and preserve historic African American cemeteries and burial grounds, and the legislation has garnered bipartisan support in the House. Adams voted to provide Israel with support following the October 7 attacks, and as of June 2025, she has received an “A” rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) based on her public statements and voting records.
Notable Events and Milestones
One of the defining moments of Alma Shealey Adams’s career came on November 12, 2014, when she was sworn in to complete the remaining seven weeks of Mel Watt’s term, becoming the 100th woman to serve in Congress in the 113th Congress and breaking the previous record of 99 female members. She is also the second woman of color to represent North Carolina in the House, following in the footsteps of Eva Clayton, and she made history in North Carolina politics through her long career in the state legislature and her subsequent rise to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Alma Adams Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Alma Shealey Adams was born to Benjamin Shealey and Mattie Stokes and was raised by her mother, who worked as a domestic worker. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to Baltimore, Maryland, and later to Newark, New Jersey, where Adams attended the predominantly white West Side High School and graduated in 1964.
Personal Life
Adams is divorced and has two children. She is well known for wearing many distinctive hats and owns more than nine hundred. She currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she moved after court-ordered redistricting in 2016 placed her Greensboro home in the 13th congressional district.