However, after moving to New York City with her parents in 1955, she started school at Nassau Community College majoring in Business Administration.

She eventually worked as a community organizer for the Nassau County Economic Opportunity Commission (EOC) and taught children who were living in poverty.

[2][3] Dukes was also made president of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation (NYCOTB) in 1990, twenty-five years after she had been doing social work there.

She received a Candace Award for Community Service from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1990.

[13] New York mayor Rudy Giuliani publicly condemned her management of NYCOTB, saying that the organization lost money under her leadership.