The organizing power of Black women was placed center stage on the first day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC), as the Black Caucus used its first official session to host a panel on Black women’s leadership and the upcoming presidential election. As Vice President Kamala Harris is set to become the first Black woman to be the party’s official presidential nominee, the “Seat at the Table,” panelists emphasized the crucial role Black women continue to play in the political terrain and what it will take to put the Harris-Walz presidential ticket into the White House.
Moderated by Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, who serves as the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), the panel included Stefani Brown James, co-founder of The Collective PAC, Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut’s 5th congressional district, former U.S. Virgin Islands at-large district Rep. Dr. Donna Marie Christian-Christensen, Florida delegate Grace Carrington, and the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi State office, Waikinya J.S. Clanton.
The power of the Black women’s voting block is deeply intertwined in the history of the United States. Although Black women were part of the fight to pass the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote and hold political offices in 1920, they would face ruthless racial terrorism at the polls, denying them their right to vote. This is why Black women leaders of the Civil Rights movement, such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Diane Nash, played a crucial role in helping to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made voting more accessible for Black women and other marginalized groups.
Since then, Black women have used their collective power to exercise their right to vote and protect their rights and those of others so that their voices can be heard through the electoral ballot. Yet, as many Black women organizers continue to point out, this collective power is often taken for granted and underestimated by many, both in the progressive movement and outside of it.
According to the Higher Heights for America PAC, sixteen million Black women are eligible to vote, and sixty-seven percent are registered. Ninety-four percent supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election. Ninety-six percent voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, providing the margin he needed to win two presidential terms. Ninety percent of Black women voted for Joe Biden and Harris in 2020, thus securing the administration’s win.
Yet, while Black women make up 6.8 percent of the population—and have some of the highest voter turnout rates—they only account for 5.4 percent of Congress. There are currently twenty-seven members of the House who identify as Black women, and only one in the Senate. Vice President Harris was only the second Black woman senator in the history of the United States and the first Black woman (and woman in general) who has held a federal elective executive office. There has never been a Black woman governor.
The panelists clearly considered the past and present when answering questions about Black women’s leadership and the country’s future.
When asked how Black women are leading in the year 2024, Hayes quipped, “However we want to,” as she elaborated on the misogynoir—combined force of anti-Black racism and misogyny—she’s endured while holding office.
Hayes noted that Black women are often some of the most affected by the legislation passed by those in power. “[As a Black woman] I have been on the receiving end of these policies, so I don’t need someone to give me permission on how I show up [to lead],” she asserted, adding, “We need to normalize Black excellence in places of power.”
Dr. Christian-Christensen highlighted historic working-class struggles that had Black women on the front lines. “Black women have bled in every revolution [we’ve been part of],” she stated, noting the story of the Coaling Ladies of St. Thomas, where in 1823, lowly paid Black women in the Virgin Islands who had the physically grueling task of carrying heavy buckets of coal to and from the mines organized a strike for better pay—and won.
Brown added that Black women are the prototype for community organizing. Bringing up the historic fundraising done for the Harris-Walz campaign through Zoom calls of different sets of voters, Brown pointed out that Black women started the chain of events that led to those calls.
Clanton seconded this fact, praising the 44,000 Black women who organized the first Zoom call after President Biden endorsed Harris, raising over one million dollars for the presidential nominee in three hours.
“No one else will“
If we [Black women] don’t do it, no one else will,” Clanton said, explaining how this kind of organizing doesn’t just happen around elections but continuously.
Brown added that it was time for people to “get off the couch and off of Zoom” and head out with Black women into the streets to talk to potential voters.
And when speaking of potential voters, the threat of voter suppression loomed large over the panel.
Florida delegate Carrington explained that while her state has continued to turn out, Gov. Ron DeSantis—who she referred to as De-Satan—has constantly tried to “change the rules” to suppress the democratic vote. DeSantis, like other politicians in Republican-controlled states, has enacted several measures to make it harder for people to vote, precisely those voters from communities of color and, even more specifically, Black voters.
Clanton noted that the infamous Project 2025 wants to put forth even more voter suppression and that voters need to pay attention to what is happening in their state legislatures.
“And don’t assume voter suppression only happens in the Deep South,” Hayes said, noting that Connecticut only recently began to allow early voting, becoming one of the last states in the nation to do so. She stated that elections matter: “The people who make the rules can change the rules. There is a fear that if we are allowed to vote, we might vote for the right person.”
“This presidential election will be won in the margins. Black people voting will make the difference,” moderator Arline-Bradley asserted. This seems to be an accurate statement given that eligible Black voters make up significant numbers in critical states, such as Georgia, leading up to the November elections.
Recognizing the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer—the 1964 campaign launched to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi—the panelists reflected on Black women’s historic role in the fight to vote and the current battle for democracy. They noted that it was beyond time for Black women to hold more significant leadership positions.
The Harris-Walz campaign has brought the resistance to Black women’s leadership to the forefront as Black women across the country are watching the racist and sexist attacks against the Vice President in real time. As Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters use terms like “DEI hire” to question Harris’s qualifications, try to claim she slept her way to the top, and brazenly attempt to cast doubt on her Blackness—it seems crucial for the progressive movement to show up for Black women’s leadership and combat such tactics.
“Fannie Lou Hamer took her seat at the table. [Black women] have shared the blueprint for organizing and winning. We won elections for everybody else,” Clanton said, “It’s time to win for ourselves.”
Brown advised progressive Black women to “own their Blackness because it is their superpower.”
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