CHICAGO \u2014 Only hours before Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the United Center in Chicago, six of the seven Black female chairs of their state Democratic parties \u2014 the highest-ever number of Black women state party chairs \u2014 gathered exactly a mile east of the convention hall at the interactive WNDR Museum.<\/p>\n
But the colorful, whimsical backdrop belied the seriousness and symbolism of the gathering: A celebration of the seven women \u2014 all of them the first Black woman ever elected to the post \u2014 on the night when Harris would take the stage as yet another historic first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only seven, but that is a high water mark for us,\u201d Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), who is also the chair of the Georgia Democrats, said in an interview Saturday. \u201cThe Democratic Party is recognizing the leadership of Black women who have been the backbone of the party. And it is making a difference. Now, we get to lead and shape the vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris is the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to become a presidential nominee for a major party. She has long touted her background as a biracial woman \u2014 her mother, an Indian immigrant, and her father from Jamaica \u2014 and her ascent has been a point of pride for Black and Asian communities. The Black community has been particularly influential in her life: She grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Oakland, attended Howard University, a historically Black college, and is a member of the nation\u2019s oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.<\/p>\n
Williams \u2014 who missed the event because of a scheduling conflict \u2014 is a fellow AKA and HBCU graduate. And while she said that, in Georgia, Harris\u2019s nomination \u201ceven exceeds that level of excitement and engagement\u201d of former president Barack Obama\u2019s history-making victory in 2008, she is also acutely aware of just how much work remains to be done.<\/p>\n
Only five years ago, for instance, when she was vying to lead the Georgia Democratic Party, she recalled being told by some that the party \u201cwasn\u2019t ready for a Black woman to lead it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In many ways, Thursday\u2019s reception was as much a triumphant recognition as an urgent call to action. In interviews, many of the chairs were quick to note that there has never been a Black woman governor, and that only one Black woman, Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), serves in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n
And while Black women have made historic gains in politics \u2014 as of 2023, a record number served in congressional, statewide elective executive, and state legislative offices \u2014 they still lag in representation, especially for their longtime role serving as the spine of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
According to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University 2023, Black women comprise fewer than 6 percent of officeholders in Congress, statewide elective executive offices, and state legislatures despite representing 7.7 percent of the population, and they are mayors in eight of the nation\u2019s 100 most populous cities.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s ascent, too, has brought with it a slew of racist and misogynistic attacks, including from her opponent, former president Donald Trump, who has questioned her intelligence, describing her as \u201cnot smart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore progress is needed,\u201d said Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers\u2019s CAWP, noting the similar lines of attack Hillary Clinton faced when she ran for president as the Democratic nominee in 2016.<\/p>\n
But while \u201cit\u2019s not going to be fixed by the election of one woman at the very top,\u201d Walsh added that the significance of a Harris nomination, let alone victory, cannot be overstated symbolically and substantively, noting that Harris has very deliberately and carefully elevated women and people of color in her inner circle.<\/p>\n
It was these two inextricably bound realities \u2014 the distance they had traveled, and the miles still to go \u2014 that the party chairs seemed to grapple with this week.<\/p>\n
Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, was also the first Black woman to be nominated for statewide office in Kansas when she unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2022. Repass said she has just two words to describe how she feels in this moment: \u201cpride and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tearing up, she recalled growing up the daughter of a civil rights activist, who always told her and her brother \u201cthat this country was our responsibility,\u201d and the pride of her mother, who died before she clinched the Secretary of State nomination.<\/p>\n
And yet, Repass said, even the process of President Joe Biden stepping aside \u2014 in which Harris, his No. 2, was initially mentioned as among one of many names who should replace him \u2014 underscored the work that remains when it comes to elevating Black women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be intentionality about promoting Black women and Black women leadership and Black women voices, because as we said when we started the conversation, we\u2019re the legs and the backbone that the party stands on,\u201d Repass said.<\/p>\n
Daniele Monroe-Moreno, chair of the Nevada Democrats, similarly spoke of the significance of the moment, as well as the challenges to get to it. When she ran for \u2014 and won \u2014 the seat she still holds in the Nevada Assembly in 2016, she recalled that the \u201cgentleman\u201d who served before her asked if she really thought she was qualified to run and represent the district, because it wasn\u2019t a \u201cBlack neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she added, \u201cKamala getting this nomination is exactly what we need as a country, but definitely what I need my family, for all the little girls and little boys and my family to see and that\u2019s what America needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of the chairwomen said that Biden\u2019s decision to step down not only turbocharged the trajectory of Harris\u2019s political career, but also potentially the prospects of other Black women in downballot races throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Christale Spain, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, recounted how she cried when she first saw CNN announce that Trump had defeated Clinton in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the first election I cried over because I felt so rejected in that moment, like if you don\u2019t want her, with all of her achievements, all of her accomplishments, what are you gonna do with me? You definitely don\u2019t want me,\u201d Spain said.<\/p>\n
Now, however, she said she has an almost indescribable \u201copposite feeling\u201d seeing Harris atop her party\u2019s ticket.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this deep joy that makes you tearful,\u201d she said, pausing as tears ran down her face. \u201cEverybody\u2019s work \u2014 for my mom, my grandmother \u2014 all this stuff is coming to light for women, for all women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party and the first Black person to lead any organized party in her state, said that while she was excited to support Obama\u2019s 2008 candidacy, at the time she was anxious about whether he could win. When Clinton lost in 2016, she felt as though maybe the country had not progressed as far as she\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n
But now, watching Harris, she said she thinks that those various \u201cfirsts\u201d \u2014 Obama, Clinton \u2014 who came before her helped pave the way for the vice president to run a campaign that transcends exclusively having to grapple with its barrier-breaking nature while inspiring young Democrats and women of color to run for office.<\/p>\n
Unlike Obama, for instance, who largely had a White male inner circle, Harris has worked to include a range of diverse backgrounds when hiring aides and advisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can see that the vice president \u2014 or the president, frankly \u2014 is hiring people that look like them, that represent them, and that\u2019s who she is,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n
Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said she tries to emulate the outreach she received from other Black female leaders before her \u2014 specifically pointing to the first time she spoke to Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee. Brazile was also the first Black woman to run a major presidential campaign, managing Al Gore\u2019s in 2000.<\/p>\n
In 2012, while state director for Obama\u2019s reelection campaign, Barnes recounted working almost nonstop and, while feeling exhausted, telling staff how amazing it would be if Brazile just called her. Then, sitting in her office one day, her phone rang.<\/p>\n
Laughing, Barnes described first thinking she was being pranked when she picked up the unknown number and heard Brazile\u2019s throaty southern accent. \u201cThen I thought, nobody\u2019s that good at the accent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was just doing what we do,\u201d Barnes explained. \u201cShe was being a Black woman who saw a Black woman in Michigan doing the work and decided to reach out and say, \u2018Good job. Thank you for what you\u2019re doing. We see you. Keep up the good work.\u2019<\/p>\n
Barnes smiled, remembering, as her fellow party chairs congregated near her, preparing to take a picture.<\/p>\n
Several moments later, during the speaking portion of the program, Rosa Colquitt \u2014 chair of the Oregon Democratic Party \u2014 seemed to echo Barnes\u2019s sentiment, specifically thanking the Black women who came before her.<\/p>\n
She directly referenced Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who delivered a famous speech during the 1964 Democratic convention, where she called out the party for its failure to back voting rights for Black Americans and challenged the seating of an all-White Mississippi delegation at the convention. Thursday was the 60th anniversary of her speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to speak to the fact that we have made progress,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to be made, but we have made progress because six of my sisters are here tonight. And because Fannie Lou Hamer, Unita Blackwell and Victoria Gray laid the foundation. I stand on their shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, as the program wound down, all of the party chairs and attendees \u2014 many clad in shades of suffragette white and cream \u2014 raced out of the museum to get to the convention hall in time to cheer on yet another groundbreaking woman of color who they hope will, if she becomes president, serve as just another set of shoulders to stand upon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CHICAGO \u2014 Only hours before Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the United Center in Chicago, six of the seven Black female chairs of their state Democratic parties \u2014 the highest-ever number of Black women state party chairs \u2014 gathered exactly a mile east of the convention hall at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}