>> Hello.

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♪♪ >> Yeah.

>> What's up?

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Yeah.

♪♪ >> What's up?

♪♪ >> Good morning, everyone, and welcome.

I'm Sarah Katt, senior vice president of programming at The Hill.

We are thrilled to be here today at the studios of WHUT, Howard University.

Today, a record number of Black women are serving in Congress and state legislatures, but they are still significantly underrepresented.

What needs to be done to increase Black female representation in politics at all levels, and what can be the impact going forward?

And with that, I am delighted to welcome the host of today's event, Cheyanne Daniels, The Hill's race and politics reporter.

She is joined by Gabrielle Wyatt, founder of The Highland Project; Bowie City Councilwoman Roxanne Ndebumadu; Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC; and Kimberly Klacik, who will be joining us shortly.

Cheyanne.

>> Thank you so much.

And thank you, everybody, for joining us today.

We are here to talk about Black women in politics.

And so I love seeing all of the beautiful Black women in the audience today.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We are going to hop right in and start with just a question for everybody here.

In your opinion, when we think about Black female representation, are we represented in our politics today?

Gabrielle, would you like to start?

>> Thank you for having me.

I'm Gabrielle Wyatt.

I'm the founder of The Highland Project.

And when I think about this question, I actually first think about the women that The Highland Project invests in -- the coalition across generations and sectors that we've been investing in since 2020.

And when I first look at that question, I say yes, because I think about leaders like Mary-Pat Hector, who ran as soon as she could for Atlanta City Council, and now she leads Rise, which is one of the largest national nonprofits focused on students, alleviating the unfair student debt that they are carrying.

She invested her Highland Project dollars in Equity For All, to ensure that Gen Z organizers knew that they not just had the power to organize, but they also had the power and the right to run for office.

And so I think we can sit and look at the national numbers and actually look at national policies -- right?

-- and feel the rollback that's actually happening right now.

But when I look at the leadership of The Highland Project, I see us represented.

I see us exercising our power and our agency.

>> Adrianne, do you feel that Black women are represented in our politics today?

>> So, it's -- you know, when you said the question, the first thing I thought is, you know, "How do we define politics, maybe?"

Right?

And so I think that -- because I know I'm a Black woman, and I'm not sure I see myself as being in politics.

I think that there's a way in which Black women participate, make significant and huge contributions to our communities, who see themselves as leaders, whether they are, you know, working in the schools or they're leading a community group or they're, you know, engaged in policy.

And I'm not sure that people tie that all together and say, "This is politics," when in fact it really is.

And so, you know, I think generally when I think about the women that we are, you know, working with and encouraging to mobilize their communities for elections, there's a lot of women.

Right?

There's a lot of Black women.

And so I think, on that level, yes.

We will ourselves to engage -- right?

-- based on how we see and what we understand to be the needs of our community.

When I look at the United States Senate, that's a different story, right?

Are we represented in the United States Senate?

No, we're not.

Right?

And so there's a -- When we think about the record numbers of women who have run for office, who are in, you know, Congress right now, record numbers of Black women, that's a significant accomplishment.

But there's so much further to go.

And we know that having, you know -- We would hope that we would have two Black women in the Senate, you know, come in when we get through 2024, but we may not and we may be not represented there, you know, again.

We certainly have Senator Butler right now, but that's temporary.

So, when we look across offices, there's a lot of work to be done.

>> Roxy, I'm very curious about, as somebody who has run and been elected, what your thoughts are on whether or not Black women are represented in our politics >> Well, first of all, Cheyanne, let me start by saying thank you so much for extending an invitation to me.

Good morning everyone.

My name is Roxy Ndebumadu, and I have the distinct pleasure of being elected to the Bowie City Council in Prince George's County, Maryland, which is the best county, I would have to say, in all of America, but I would say my proudest hat is being a Howard University graduate of the school of College of Nursing and Allied Sciences.

[ Applause ] Yeah, yeah.

Let's give it up for H.U.

So, when you started the question, there were so many things going through my head.

I would have to say my answer is no.

And let me tell you why my answer is no.

When I think about politics, as somebody who's been a two-term elected official -- I ran the second time in 2023, one of the youngest, one of the youngest women in the state of Maryland -- so many things -- politics, to me, is designed to have power.

But when I look at Black women who are in positions of power -- and I mean decision-making power -- I don't see very many.

So that's why I would say my answer is no, because we have a lot of Black women who are defining politics, who are creating movements within politics, who are adjacent to politics.

But do we have a lot of Black women who actually have decision-making power within politics?

The answer is no.

So I would have to say, by my definition, as somebody who is sitting at that table, who is creating legislation, who has a responsibility of looking after a community of 70,000 people, one of the fastest-growing in the state of Maryland.

I would definitely define that as no.

Not yet.

>> Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And I want to stick with you for one moment, Roxy, as being somebody who is elected as representing the Republican Party right now.

Looking out at this beautiful, young crowd right here, with that in mind, that we are not represented at the decision-making table, can you just talk a little bit about how you got to that table to be able to sit there and say, "I'm going to be part of these decisions"?

>> Wow.

I can't say that I woke up and that was my thought one day.

And it's crazy.

So let me take a step back.

This morning, when I was getting dressed, I put on my class ring and I almost, like, wanted to go into tears because it wasn't so long ago that I was sitting right here in the same very seat, back in 2016, before I walked across the stage.

And when I drove around campus, looking for parking -- we'll be talking to Muriel Bowser sometime in the week about this -- I said to myself, "Wow.

It feels like yesterday I was just right here."

I didn't wake up walking the streets of Howard University, saying, "I'm going to run for office," saying, "I'm going to have a seat at the table."

That wasn't my story.

I knew that I was going to get a job.

I was going to provide for my family.

I was going to do all these great things, maybe have the opportunity to go to Europe and go on vacation and finally learn what vacation actually meant.

And then I got to Microsoft after college.

And Microsoft was amazing.

I was in Big Tech.

But even being in Big Tech, less than 3% were Black women in Big Tech.

And I looked around and I said, "Wow.

We have so much power.

We're designing all these products that people are using, but there's less than 3% Black women in the room making the products.

That's a problem for me."

So, one day, I was sitting in a room -- and I will always, always give this man the highest honor because he changed the trajectory of my career -- Fred Humphries -- he said, "You should maybe run for office."

And I was like, "Fred, have you met me?

Like, what is going on here?

No, I should not."

He said, "Roxy, you should run for office."

And I said, "Hmm."

I respected Fred.

Very prominent government-affairs professional, knows a lot of people, seen a lot.

So I said, "Maybe I should."

So I looked into running for elected office.

It was about 45 days before the City Council election.

I said, "You know what?

Why not?

If I don't tell my story, who's going to tell it?

If I don't represent my people, who's going to represent my people?"

And I ran for office.

I wasn't very active in politics.

It wasn't very active in a party.

I just knew that I grew up in a community.

I was passionate about that community.

I saw what happened to my community when certain people got into power.

Felt like the community was going in a different direction.

And I said, "If not me, then who?"

-Mm-hmm.

-And so I ran, and then I won.

And I became the first African-American woman to represent my district.

And let me tell you the power in that and why this is so important.

First of all, I won by 16 votes.

So every vote matters.

16 votes.

So if 16 people woke up that morning and said, "You know what?

I'm not going to go vote today because my vote doesn't matter," I wouldn't be sitting on the stage.

I wouldn't be in the room at all.

And by right, you wouldn't be in the room because I'm not in the room.

So let's start there.

Then, let's take that a step further.

After winning by 16 votes, after becoming one of the youngest, then I started to engage with the party a little bit more and I was like, "Hmm, that's a little interesting."

[ Light laughter ] But what I learned was, I can't expect you to legislate an experience that you don't understand and you don't have.

This is my lived experience.

This is my community's lived experience.

You can sympathize.

Maybe you might be able to empathize one day, but what you won't be able to do is adequately represent me and my community, because you don't have that experience.

And so I became that voice in the party, and they embraced me because I was unapologetic about representing my community and my lived experience.

But by representing my lived experience and my community's lived experience, that didn't negate theirs.

It didn't mean that theirs was any less important than the lived experience of my community.

But I knew that my community's experience had to be in the room in order for decisions to be made and policies to be changed.

>> Mm-hmm.

Roxy, thank you so much for sharing that.

I want to pivot just a touch to you, Gabrielle.

When we think about The Highland Project's mission of helping invest, sustain women in leadership roles, listening to Roxy's story, how do you see us collectively ensuring that not just she in her position but other women are able to seek out that position and say, without somebody else coming up to them and saying, "Oh, yeah, you should run" -- how do we just instill that in women naturally?

>> I think, a couple of things.

I think, one, the power already is in us, as Black women and girls.

I grew up in a household on the better side of the Beltway, in Baltimore, and it was a household of educators.

Youngest of three.

And I knew, growing up, because of my parents, that I was brilliant and that I was powerful.

And it's also true that the headwinds of over 400 years of structural racism continue to blow strong.

They continue to try to blow us down.

And I have a similar story of an educator seeing in me that I should run for school board at age 17, and that's what I did, and I earned my seat.

But fast-forward to The Highland Project, and I think, for us, what we care deeply about is creating a circle that is truly intergenerational to pass on this power that lives within us.

So often, when I was in leadership roles, in public service, there were never intergenerational tables.

At best, they might have been two-generation, but we never were sitting with someone two generations behind us and two generations ahead of us.

And I think, when we're not sitting together, we lose our stories.

We lose the stories of Roxy's power.

We lose what it's like to sit as a Black woman, as the only, and have to carry on despite the forces trying to push us out of the seat.

We're talking a lot about getting into the seat, but what does it mean if we don't get there, one?

Two, what does it mean when we're there?

How do we sustain ourselves through it?

And three, what does it mean on the other side?

What's our responsibility for continuing to cultivate a bench of leadership around us?

>> Adrienne, you and I have talked extensively about particularly Black voters.

So I want to pivot just a little bit because Roxy said something about when she saw certain leadership in her community, she felt there was -- change is happening in her community.

What are some of the things that BlackPAC are hearing as what Black women especially want to see, not just going into 2024, but sort of from all of our elected leaders right now.

>> So, I think that we all can relate to what we've been hearing from folks, and we've been doing a lot of focus groups around the country over the last six months or so.

And I think that the one thing that stands out, because we hear it all the time, we see it in our own, you know, neighborhoods, we see it in our own families is that there's just a lot of anxiety right now.

People are very worried.

They're very concerned.

And there's a list of reasons that I'll touch on a couple, that are, you know, about the issues that people care about, that you then add a national election on top of that, and people -- and you add, you know, sort of the, you know, we all sort of have pushed the COVID era aside, but the reality is that people are still struggling, coming out of that period.

And so there's a lot of anxiety right now.

You know, folks, also -- I think we oftentimes hear a lot about apathy in our community and that people don't want to get involved and they don't want to vote.

We don't actually experience that as a reality.

And whether that is when we're knocking on doors and talking to people or when we have people in focus groups, people really do want to be involved.

They really do care.

They really do want to make sure that they are, you know, making a positive contribution however they can.

There's a lot of things about politics that people just don't understand, right?

And we talk about civics all the time, and we need to increase our knowledge of civics and how our government works and how our elections work.

And that's all true.

The challenge is that when people don't have that information, they feel disempowered.

Right?

And so they -- I often say to folks that we need to really, you know, not use the word "apathetic" so much, because really we need to be finding grace for people who step out or remove themselves from our politics or from our electoral process, because they don't have the information.

Right?

And it's our responsibility to get people the information, because people feel not just disempowered.

There's a lot of shame, frankly.

Right?

When we're in focus groups and people don't know the answers, their first reaction is, "Well, it doesn't matter," right?

Or, "I'm not going to vote, because it doesn't matter."

And then when you dig underneath that, what it really is, is people are embarrassed that they don't understand, that they don't know all the things.

Right?

And there's a sense that they're going to be judged for it.

Right?

And so we need to offer Black women grace and not make assumptions about what people do and don't know.

But there's a lot of anxiety right now.

And we always think that, you know, oftentimes -- I wouldn't say we always -- But we oftentimes think that when people say that they're not happy about the direction of the country, we assume that that's mostly about the economy, right?

We assume that it's because people, you know, are feeling the pressure of the economic conditions.

And that's true, right?

There is a lot of anxiety around the economy right now, but there's a whole host of issues that Black women are concerned about right now.

K-through-12 education.

Right?

Black maternal health and other women's health issues.

Right?

Concerned about the cost of healthcare, concerned about the college affordability, right?

Concerned about racism and white supremacy.

So, there's a whole -- gun violence -- a whole host of issues that Black women care about.

All of those things, right now, in some way, are really significant or under assault, right?

The right to vote is always a top issue.

And so when you look at all of these issues that are top-of-mind for Black women right now, and we look at the ways that all of those issues are under duress, and we can see and we get the picture of why people say things are not going great.

And it's not just because of the economy.

It's part -- That's part of it.

But there are a whole host of other issues.

And so I think that, you know, part of our role at BlackPAC and many organizations like ours really is to make sure that we are providing information for people, that we're actually having -- we're talking this stuff through with people, right?

Like, we're helping people to understand not just the importance of elections but the importance of their participation and the power that they do have.

Right?

And we talk a lot about power because people feel powerless.

When they have the sense of anxiety, they have a sense of powerlessness.

And so we talk with people about what our power can do.

We talk about history, right?

We talk about our struggle to become to, you know, sort of have full citizenship in this country.

And we talk about, you know, the path that our ancestors took to get us to the place where we are now, and what does that mean in terms of responsibility.

So we try and do education with people that really is about bringing people to the point where they feel like they can exercise their own power, and they understand the importance and significance of it, so that people feel like they have control, that they have some control over their own lives, they have control over politics, even when they say, "Oh, no, I don't do politics.

Politics -- I don't do that."

You know, we talk about what that -- what does that really mean.

Right?

So there's a lot of anxiety and there's a lot of stress, but there's also a lot of hope, I would say.

And people really do -- Again, there is a sense that, "I know I have to do something.

I know I have to participate.

And the one thing that I can do collectively with my community, because voting, in a way, is a community action for our community, is a way in which, in some moments, that we show actual resistance is by showing up and voting.

And people are feeling that in a really intense way right now.

>> Kimberly, hi.

How are you?

>> I'm doing good.

How are you?

>> Good morning.

I'm so happy that you're here with us today.

We are talking about the power of Black women at this moment, and I love it.

And you, as Roxy, are currently running.

And reminder, we're not -- this is not a campaign stump at all.

Promise, y'all.

But with that, you are bringing a very unique experience to us today.

And so I want to take a moment to acknowledge what some of the barriers you think are facing Black women from seeking out office right now.

>> Oh, wow.

Well, that's a good question.

I think women in general, I mean, the political arena is really a male-dominant world.

And so for women in general, I think it's very difficult.

I think sometimes as a Black woman, sometimes you're kind of looked at as you're not taken so seriously.

I definitely feel that in many rooms.

But, you know, you can always prove yourself and show what your worth is.

Before running for office, I ran a nonprofit.

We did workforce development, helped women become financially independent.

And I think when you just share exactly what your experience is and what qualifies you for the position, people really then begin to take you seriously.

And so that's what we try to do all the time >> Yeah, yeah.

And we spoke with Roxy a little bit earlier about sort of what inspired her to run.

And I'm hoping you can share with our audience today what inspired you to say, "I want to be in the room making the decisions"?

>> Well, I don't know if everybody knows, but I'm from the Baltimore area, and so we have a lot going on politically.

Unfortunately, even when I was running my nonprofit, we would come up a lot against a lot of barriers for the women, and most of it came from the career development centers that were connected with the mayor's office or city hall in general.

And so what I noticed was we could do more to help.

But they weren't really making and pulling those punches, right?

It was just we were always coming up to a roadblock or some kind of obstacle.

So I said, "You know what?

I think if we were on the other side and really try to get these women to be independent, get them what they need, their resources, I think we could move forward.

I felt as though, unfortunately, in some of these cases, when you have maybe the career center or the nonprofits doing these work, this work, I think sometimes they feel as though if the work's not there, they might not have a job.

So it's kind of like job security to continue it and maybe slow down the process when I thought, "You know what, these women can't wait another day.

These women have things to do, bills to pay and families and mouths to feed."

So I just thought, "You know what?

Let's get in there and really, you know, push and strive to make this work."

♪♪ >> Joining me now is the Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair of Race and Black Politics at Howard University.

She was also the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.

I'd like to welcome Stacey Abrams.

[ Applause ] Stacey, thank you so much for joining us today.

How are you?

>> I am well.

Thank you for having me.

>> Absolutely.

So we are here to talk about Black women in politics.

And as we get started, I want to ask you the same question that I started our panel with, which is do you feel that we are accurately represented in our political world right now >>?

Not at all.

>> No?

>> No.

Part of representation is power.

It is not only having the numbers, but it's having the ability to translate those numbers into lived experience, into policymaking.

And we live in a time where Black maternal mortality is at an extraordinary level, we live in a moment where our tax policies do not reflect the realities of our labour cycle.

We live in a moment where the denial of access to healthcare is incredibly persistent in the region of the country where 56% of African-Americans live, which means Black women are being denied access to healthcare.

And we live in a moment where this is the first generation to actually lose constitutional rights since reconstruction.

And for women of color, for Black women in particular, the loss of bodily autonomy is dangerous to our economic future, our educational future, and it is an assault on our civil rights.

And so, no, I do not believe that we are adequately represented.

>> You know, one of the things that we often hear when we think about representation is we think about the federal level.

We think about our White House, we think about our Senate and the House of Representatives.

But how important is representation at our state and local levels?

>> I began my political work at the local level.

I was actually deputy city attorney for the city of Atlanta, and it was that experience that actually led me to run for state legislature, in part because I saw a mayor who attempted to solve hyperlocal issues often being thwarted by a state government that did not respect her responsibilities.

We know that there is an intentional devolution of power from the federal to the state level.

Again, it has been most acute when it comes to the issue of abortion and bodily autonomy, but it's happening across the board.

That means that if you want to understand what is changing the policies or constraining your access to opportunity, it is at the state level.

There is a bit of a stalemate at the congressional level.

And so our opportunities for change, for power, for access will happen at the state and local levels.

And again, because I live in the South, I'm always thinking about the fact that more than half of the African-American population, a fairly sizable number of people of color, live in the South, and that is the place where the state policies are the most constrained, the most restrictive, and unfortunately, now the most intentionally damaging.

We just saw what happened in Alabama.

We saw what happened in Kentucky, attacks on civil rights, attacks on our human rights are becoming more and more prevalent.

And those are happening at the state level.

>> Mm-hmm.

We all know how important voting rights are for you.

So I want to take a moment to talk about why voting, especially for Black women is so important and just the power of Black women voters >> Absolutely.

So I often say voting is not magic.

Voting is medicine.

Magic, you do it once, ta-da, things are done.

It doesn't work that way.

Voting is medicine.

There are ills in our society.

There are challenges that we face, and we need to take the medicine to ameliorate the consequences, to make us better.

But sometimes the medicine is bitter.

Sometimes it feels worse than the actual malady that you face.

But part of taking medicine is that you've got to do it over and over and over again.

Because when you stop, often whatever you're facing will metastasize and get worse.

And so we have to consistently engage in voting, because voting in and of itself is not the point.

It's not about who's on the ballot, it's about who's in the booth.

It's about which people are making the choices and how do our lives improve.

Because we live in a democracy, because we live in a nation where we elect people to make choices on our behalf.

We can't hope that they'll do the right thing once we put them in office.

That's like giving someone, you know, putting someone in charge of your store, giving them the keys to the cash register and saying, "I'm going to leave for four years.

Please don't steal anything.

And, you know, please don't give your friends free stuff.

Don't take anything.

And I'll be back in four years to check on you.

But I won't look at anything you've done.

I'm just going to make sure that if the store hasn't burned down, I'm going to let you stay."

We wouldn't do that in any other place but our politics.

And so for me, voting is about how we not only have accountability, but it's also how we demand access to our rights and our responsibilities.

When we treat voting as an activity, then it's something -- it's one and done.

I think of it as an action.

It is something you do over and over again.

And the more we do it, the better we get at it, the better we see the outcomes for the lives we want to lead.

>> When we think about voter suppression, which we know is a huge top of mind issue for folks at the federal level like our Congressional Black Caucus, to those at our state and local levels, we know that there is a huge push for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be passed.

We know that voter suppression disproportionately affects Black voters.

So a little bit of a controversial question, but are Black voters dangerous?

>> The question presumes that the outcomes don't benefit everyone.

When Black people vote, when we have seen engagement and opportunity, we have seen progress for everyone.

Think about reconstruction.

That was a time of economic surplus for a nation, coming out of a war, when we finally allowed African-Americans to fully participate, even for a brief moment, we saw dramatic changes.

We saw incredible improvements.

We have seen that the locus of power often shifts away from those who can demand the most access and the widest aperture for others.

And so to the extent that your intention is to restrict and deny, then the answer could be that this is not a group that you want.

But if your goal is actually improving the lives of everyone, then Black participation in voting is absolutely essential.

I remind people that we have to remember our votes aren't just our voice, they are an instrument of power.

And voter suppression happens in subtle and obvious ways.

In the 19-- you know, prior to the Voting Rights Act, it was very obvious.

Now it's become much more subtle, although they're revealing themselves more often.

But voter suppression is can you register and stay on the rolls?

Can you cast a ballot and does that ballot get counted?

And so any time you see any new legislation around voting, any new regulatory schemes, ask yourself, are they restricting your right to register or stay on the rolls?

Are they creating any barriers to your ability to cast a ballot?

Are they guaranteeing or undermining the ability for your ballot to get counted?

That's voter suppression.

It is no longer counting beans in a jar.

It's shutting down polling places, restricting who can vote by mail.

It is making decisions that limit your ability to be heard.

And the reason they want you to be silent is because what you say is incredibly powerful.

When we show up, we show a difference.

And that's why our voices are so important.

>> I want to pivot very briefly, because when you were a student at Spelman, you had gone to the board of trustees over tuition hikes.

And I don't know if you remember talking about this experience, but you said when you were reflecting on it that we have to stop waiting for people to ask for our opinion.

Can you just talk a little bit about why that idea of waiting for somebody to ask us what we think is so important, especially when it comes to Black women?

>> So as a student at Spelman, I was on scholarship.

I availed myself of all financial aid, and I found out tuition was going up, but they weren't increasing my scholarship.

I wasn't going to be able to access a higher Pell Grant that year, and somebody was going to have to come up with the money, and I didn't have it.

And so the instinct for a lot of my colleagues in college, it was simply to grin and bear it.

But for me, it was an existential crisis.

My education was on the line, and I'd grown up in a family where my parents taught us we had three jobs -- go to church, go to school, and take care of each other.

But what underlined all of that was your obligation to speak up, that you could not hope that someone would speak for you.

Telepathy doesn't work.

I've been practicing for 50 years.

It has not happened yet.

And so if you don't speak up and demand what you need, if you don't speak up, especially for those who don't know they have the right to be heard, things don't change.

And so for me, the conversation about democracy, about voting rights, about DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, these are all about how do we make certain that we are heard?

If we wait to be invited to take our power, I promise the invitation is not in the mail.

But if we demand our place, if we seize our opportunities, or in my case, and I think for so many, if we create our own opportunities, that's how we start to generate the change that we need to see.

>> When I think about where we are right now, as I'm sure all of us are intimately aware of, is that we've never had a Black female governor in this country.

We've had only three Black governors ever, all of them male, the most recent one being Governor Wes Moore being elected.

But at the same time, I think about the strides that we as Black women have made when we think about Vice President Kamala Harris, when we think about press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Where is our line?

Where do we have to say we still want more?

Do we do we get to keep wanting more?

For those who are like, "Well, you're in the white House, you're in the Supreme Court.

what more do you need?"

>> We need as much as we can hold.

That's our creative core.

That's what we should be demanding.

Our place in this society should be equal to anyone else's.

The reason I'm so passionate about democracy, but also why I'm so proud of the work I was able to do as a candidate was that me standing for office was not just about getting a job.

I mean, it would have been lovely to have the job, but it was also about who could see themselves also asking for that power, who could see themselves also demanding the right to move into a position to demand that promotion, to simply get the respect that they are entitled to.

I want to see more of us because we should see that we are more than the least common denominator, and too often we are relegated to the worst stereotype, or even worse, we are ignored.

Our engagement in this society, our responsibility as Black women in politics, is to make politics work for everyone.

And those who have faced the worst examples of bad politics are the ones who are best prepared to make it the most effective means of advancement and improvement.

Ultimately, we are all in search of the American dream, and we can we can define that dream as we see fit, but we can't get there if we don't remove the barriers and there is no one better to remove the barriers and the person who ran into it.

And so for me, Black women in politics is about how we lift this entire nation.

And so, no, I don't think we've gotten -- We -- I am proud of every single person you named, but I know that the fact that you can name them is the problem.

>> [ Chuckles ] >> We should be legion, and we should be so plentiful and so powerful that we are simply accepted as the right thing to do.

>> When I think about some of the conversations that are happening right now, particularly, I'm thinking of Nikole Hannah-Jones in her recent essay in The New York Times about color blindness being a trap.

And if you haven't read the essay, I highly recommend it.

But with that in mind, when we're looking at, as you mentioned, I can name these women, right.

And that in and of itself is vaguely problematic that we can count them off on our, you know what, two hands?

Will there come a day, or should there come a day, where we're able to say your gender, your race doesn't matter to be able to represent.

Or do we want to keep that in mind in order to say, "But I know those barriers and what we had to overcome."

>> A few years ago, I wrote an essay for the -- for the Council for Foreign Affairs on identity politics.

Identity politics is perfectly acceptable unless they don't like your identity.

>> Mm.

>> And when we hear about class, when we hear about women, when we hear about business, those are all identities.

Why are our identities any less relevant?

Representation matters because representation is the avatar for understanding what preceded that moment.

If you don't understand what's wrong, you cannot make it right.

Therefore, representation is absolutely important and there should never be a moment where representation is diminished.

The question is how much power should it have?

Because there's so much difference in what you get.

So our issue should not be the fact that people cling to identity.

It's the fact that we allow identity to distinguish your access to power.

That's why the fight over DEI is so important.

Right now, there is this very reductive narrative that DEI is this recent phenomenon on college campuses that has to be, you know, stamped out.

DEI describes every single movement we have had since the Revolutionary War, any opportunity to move this country forward -- reconstruction, suffrage, the Chicano movement, the disability movement, the LGBTQIA movement, the labor movement, those are all diversity, equity and inclusion movements that exist because that's how we make our country better.

Our representation matters because it's the way we get to the American dream that we've all been told we are entitled to.

So either we change the ethos of this nation, or we change the process that makes it so.

And my intention is to change the process.

That's why I work so hard to make certain we can all vote, that we can participate, and irrespective of who we vote for, you should have the right to be heard.

But representation in that is absolutely essential because you cannot solve problems you don't acknowledge and more importantly, you won't solve the next problem if you don't have the experience of having solved one before.

♪♪ >> Joining us now as our final guest is Congresswoman Cori Bush, co-chair of the Equal Rights Amendment Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus member.

Thank you so much for joining us, Congresswoman.

How are you?

>> I'm good.

I'm glad to be here with you all.

[ Applause ] >> Absolutely.

So we have been talking today about Black women in politics, the power of Black women, the power of Black women voters.

And I just want to take a moment, because last March, you and I believe Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley really took the lead in showing the power and strength of Black women when you revitalized the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Can you talk to me just a little bit about not only what the ERA would do for Black women, but why it's Black women leading the charge to have this amendment passed?

>> Absolutely.

And thank you, Cheyanne.

So it took me a long time to even realize that the ERA was something that we needed to speak on in this day.

I think I kind of felt like this was something for white women to champion.

White women had -- you know, that's who you heard talk more about it.

But it wasn't until one day when I realized that so many of the things that we are working on and Black women are fighting for, or where so many of the disparities lie, are all, like, under this umbrella of what the ERA would do.

The Equal Rights Amendment, which is over 100 years old.

It turned 100 years old since its drafting on my birthday last year, July 21st.

So we're at almost 101 years, and gender equality is still not enshrined in the US Constitution.

And so for us, for Black women, you know, Rep Pressley and I just decided that it needed a home, first of all.

It needed a home, and this is the first time in the history of the ERA that Black women carry this legislation.

First time.

100 years.

And so we decided -- give it a home so that we can talk about the issues and we can rally our members of Congress.

So, whether it's violence against women, housing discrimination, the gender wage gap, the racial wage gap, abortion access and rights.

So the reproductive freedom, reproductive justice, trans rights, LGBTQ rights, so much of it is housed.

Healthcare equality is housed under the Equal Rights Amendment.

And for us, if we can get the Equal Rights Amendment done, first of all, the word women goes into the into the US Constitution, but then also it will be -- the Equal Rights Amendment would be an anchor.

It would be an anchor to pass better laws or to improve the enforcement of laws that are already on the books.

And so that's what we need.

We need this country to recognize that we don't just have it because we exist.

We don't just have our rights and our freedoms because we breathe.

That's not what's happening.

As we can see, our rights are being stripped away from us.

And so we want our country to affirm them.

>> When I think about all of the many women's rights movements that this country has had, and I know sociologists will say we're in like fourth-wave feminism at this point, I believe, and I think about when we learn about it and the many women who are involved, but the way that many of us who in this room would have been relegated to the back of those movements even as we were helping propel them forward.

>> Yes.

>> So I want to take a minute to ask you, what is it about the strength and the power and dedication of Black women that keeps us saying, we're still going to keep pushing forward?

>> Yes.

You know, thank you for that question.

So, Pauli Murray, the great Pauli Murray, I believe, said it best, and I'm going to paraphrase her, she said that Black women have the most to gain from the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Black women are doubly victimized by the twin immorality of racial and sexual bias.

And so because of that, we understand that because we have the most to gain, we have to be the ones -- we can't wait for anyone else to speak up to us, or to speak to our situation and our challenges the way that we can.

We have to speak up for ourselves.

Now, it's great when other people will advocate, will work with us and be those co-conspirators with us.

But we have to make it clear what's happening to us.

And I think that that's something that if we're walking through, living a life where we're told we should, you know -- Why aren't Black women doing this thing this way?

Why aren't -- But in order to get there, Black women carry the most student debt than anyone else in the country.

Women carry the most student debt, but Black women carry it the most and the longest.

So that's an issue.

But we also only make anywhere from 63, 64 cents on the dollar that our white counterpart makes.

So then that helps to push us back even more.

So we have barrier after barrier.

And so for Black women to speak up and say this is what's happening to us, but we're also going to be the ones to champion moving forward, how we move forward, it's critical because our voice matters.

And so to be the ones, like you said, relegated to the back when you see those videos, that archival footage of Black women being in the back, you know, all the suffragette movement and, you know, all these women, these white women in white, you know, marching, and then you have Black women all the way in the back, and Black women are getting, you know, pummeled with rocks and all of that, just trying to be a part of a movement to say that, "I should have the right to vote," to say that, "I should have, you know, autonomy, the autonomy of my own body."

We didn't stop there because we understand what happens next.

And so it's the legacy.

When we think about prior to 1973, when we -- when the Dobbs decision, the right to abortion, happened -- I'm sorry.

Roe v Wade, not Dobbs.

When Roe v Wade was enacted, Black women, the number one, the leading cause of death for Black women was documented as sepsis that would come from unsafe abortions.

>> Mm-hmm.

I want to get a little bit personal, because I think about that legacy that you're talking about and the way that so many Black women intergenerationally have been driving the nation forward and toward progress.

And obviously today we have seen just so many, so many Black women on this stage.

But I think we would all be lying if we didn't acknowledge that there's a lot of hate and vitriol that comes with us being in these positions.

And I speak from experience as a race and politics reporter, and I know this is something you are familiar with as well, is the hate mail, the calls, the emails, all of that.

How would you look into this crowd and look to our audience who are watching and say, in spite of that or despite that we still need you.

We still want you to be part of this.

>> Absolutely.

Because what they want is to silence us.

They want to shut us down.

They want to remain -- They want to keep the status quo.

And so they use these tactics, these are old tactics.

You know, there's nothing new under the sun in this situation, but it is effective.

They understand that.

And so if they can keep -- if the critiques and the attacks, if the torment, the bullying, the intimidation, the harassment, if all of that can just keep going every single day, you know, it's been so bad to where I even had to evacuate my office for a week.

I had to close down my office in St. Louis and have my staff home because of the hate, because of the threats.

So and we're not talking about just some folks, some trolls on social media, we're talking about people that actually feel like it's their duty to take out Cori Bush, you know, and for me, taking out Cori Bush, if you miss and you hit my staff, you know, so I have a problem with that.

So it's not just about me, but for those of us that have made the decision, you know what?

It's about the legacy.

It's about what comes next.

And so I'm less afraid of what you can do to me.

I'm more afraid of what happens if we don't get the change that we seek.

That is what my issue is.

So I'm not afraid of -- because let me tell you, bullets have already come my way.

Bullets have come my way.

Bullets have hit my vehicle multiple times.

Even with my child in the car.

I have been through attempts on my life multiple times.

But I know that if they could shut me up, if they could shut up other people like me, then that's how they win.

And so they're frustrated that they can't.

And so we need more people.

The more of us that stand together, you know, and say that we won't allow these attacks, this violence, that they're trying to throw our way to stop us.

You know, the same way that folks crossed that bridge and that the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and said, you know, "Even though we see what's on the other side, I'm going to go anyway because this is what we need.

This is about the legacy.

This is about what comes next."

In the same way we will stand.

So in the face of all the adversity, and this is not just fake stuff for television, for likes or anything like that.

This is real life, what we actually face, what so many Black women in politics face, and just Black women and community and organizing and in different parts of this movement, you all, we need you.

We need you.

But part of that need is to know who you are and what you stand for.

Every day I wake up in the morning, I know who I am, I know what I stand for, and I know if they take me out today that I stood 10 toes down for my community and for my people, and that they can never take from me.

>> Y'all hear this passion?

Can we just take a moment?

You know, every time I'm at a press conference with you and they're always like, "Aw, man, we gotta follow that up?"

Or, "We got Preacher Cori Bush in the house."

That's what they always say.

And I think we can hear that organizer background of yours really shining through.

And before I turn it over to see if any of our audience members might want to ask a question, I do want to ask you how much of that organizer, personality, character drive plays into the legislation that you bring forward to the House floor every day?

>> Every bit.

Every bit.

When I enter Congress, I coined the term "politivist."

I said that I'm going in as the politician and the activist.

And I'm a politician just because of the definition of the word, you know, is the actual definition.

But I'm a politician and an activist because I said that I would not let go of my movement background, my organizers and activists, my protestor family that I work with, Ferguson frontline, you know, I won't let go of them.

But all the other areas where I organize, we are all coming to the table together.

So when we craft legislation, that's how we craft our legislation.

We work with those groups.

We ask for advice, we ask for counsel, and we work together to draft legislation.

Because the motto of my office is to do the absolute most for every single person in our district, starting with those who have the greatest need.

So that's how we do that.

>> Absolutely.

>> That brings us to the end of the program.

Thank you very much to our partners and hosts Howard University and everyone who joined us in person and online today.

If you missed any portion of today's program, it's available on thehill.com, and it will also be available on WHUT starting in early April.

Thank you all for joining us today.

[ Applause ] >> This program was produced by WHUT and made possible by contributions from viewers like you.

For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org.

Thank you.