Black Female Democrats Pen Open Letter About Lack of DNC Support

Dozens of black, female Democratic activists and leaders have written an open letter to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez about the lack of support they receive from the party. Signatories include state and federal lawmakers like Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).


Read that letter below:

Dear Chairman Tom Perez:

Black women have consistently shown up for Democrats as a loyal voting bloc, demonstrating time and again that we are crucial to the protection of progressive policies such as economic security, affordable healthcare and criminal justice reform.

We have voted and organized our communities with little support or investment from the Democratic Party for voter mobilization efforts. We have shown how Black women lead, yet the Party's leadership from Washington to the state parties have few or no Black women in leadership. More and more, Black women are running for office and winning elections — with scant support from Democratic Party infrastructure.

Well, like civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who testified at the 1964 Democratic convention demanding Blacks have a seat and voice within the Party, we are "sick and tired of being sick and tired."

The Democratic Party has a real problem. The data reveals that Black women voters are the very foundation to a winning coalition, yet most Black voters feel like the Democrats take them for granted. The Party's foundation has a growing crack and if it is not addressed quickly, the Party will fall even further behind and ultimately fail in its quest to strengthen its political prospects.

Investing in Black women's political leadership is a solid return on investment, one that is rooted in facts and data. In recent years, Black women have proven to be the most active voting demographic in the nation. In 2008 and 2012, 70 percent of eligible Black women cast ballots, accounting for the highest voter turnout of any racial or gender group, proving that our voting power can and has determined elections. A closer look at the data shows that in 2012 Barack Obama won re-election by 4.9 million votes.

The 115th Congress has 20 Black women—the largest number in history. The group includes Kamala Harris, who is the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, a body that has not had a Black woman's voice in 20 years. In addition, Lisa Blunt Rochester became the first woman and Black person to represent Delaware in the U.S. House of Representatives.Black women cast a total of 11.4 million ballots, providing the margin he needed to win. This past November, even with a clear lack of voter mobilization investment and a decrease in overall Black voter turnout, 94 percent of Black women voted to keep this country moving forward by casting ballots for Hillary Clinton. In addition, on November 8th we saw important elected-office gains by Black women despite the otherwise dismal defeat of progressives during the general election.

Black women also made important progressive wins in Minnesota, where IIhan Omar became the first Somali-American Muslim elected to the state legislature; Kentucky, where Attica Scott became the first woman elected to the state legislature in 20 years; Cook County IL, where Kim Foxx was elected state's attorney; Orange County FL elected Aramis Ayala the first Black state's attorney in the Florida's history; the state of Texas elected its first woman Sheriff, Zena Stephens; and Jefferson County, AL elected nine Black women to the judicial branch.

This February, in the DNC elections, we saw an increase in overall diversity within the officer ranks, but no increase in leadership representation of Black women. Since taking office, you have met with and listened to key constituencies. But you have yet to host a Black women leaders convening.

Organizing without the engagement of Black women will prove to be a losing strategy, and there is much too much at stake for the Democratic Party to ignore Black women. Following your recent announcement of your top staff hire, we are left with significant concerns about how the Party is developing its strategies and allocating its resources. In the absence of our inclusion in discussions about the Party's forward movement, we question whether the Party values our loyalty and takes our commitment seriously.

In this termed "movement building moment," how will you lead the Democrats forward? Will Black women be among those at the helm, helping to design the strategies, craft the message, mobilize troops, and lead the way - as policymakers, political strategists, activists, and elected officials?

We respectfully request that you convene a meeting with Black women leaders and activists where you can hear not only our concerns, but also our thoughts on how the DNC can invest in Black women's engagement and leadership moving forward from hiring of key staff and consultants to investment in training and leadership opportunities.

The time is now for progressive power brokers and the very Party that we have carried on our back to the voting booth, year in and year out, to make a sustained and substantial investment in our leadership and priorities.

We have demonstrated our commitment to the Party. It is time for the Party to demonstrate its commitment to us. We stand ready to join you, your team, and Party leadership on the front lines — but not as silent partners.

In service,

Anita Estell

Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D. - Founder, Exceptional Leadership Institute for Women

Carol McDonald

Christina M. Greer, PhD

Dana Vickers Shelley

Glynda Carr - Co-Founder, Higher Heights for America

Kimberly Peeler-Allen - Co-Founder, Higher Heights for America

Khalilah Brown-Dean, PhD

L. Joy Williams

Marcela E. Howell

Melanie L. Campbell

Nakisha M. Lewis - Co-Founder #SheWoke Committee

Roslyn M. Brock - Chairman Emeritus, NAACP

Star Jones

Sydney Kamlager-Dove - Vice President, Los Angeles Community College District

Tamika Mallory

Zina Pierre

Delegate Lashreces Aird - Virginia

Delegate Marcia Price - Virginia

Delegate Pam Queen - Maryland

State Senator Holly Mitchell- California

State Representative Kathy Sykes - Mississippi

State Representative Laura Hall - Alabama

State Representative Rena Moran - Minnesota

Honorable Marcia Fudge - (D-OH)

Honorable Joyce Beatty - (D-OH)

Honorable Bonnie Watson Coleman - (D-NJ)

Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson - (D-TX)

Honorable Barbara Lee - (D-CA)

Honorable Stacey Plaskett - (D-NY)

Honorable Yvette Clarke - (D-CA)

Alabama governor signs Confederate monuments preservation bill

Wow, some still don't want to acknowledge that a group of traitors to the United States lost the Civil War, and still want to fawn statues of losers who thought slavery was just fine. Against the objections of black law makers Alabama's Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill that protects most Civil War Monuments. George L. Cook III.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday signed into law sweeping protections for Confederate and other long-standing monuments, a move that comes as some Southern cities remove Confederate monuments from public grounds.

Sen. Gerald Allen, the Republican bill sponsor, praised Ivey's decision.

"Contrary to what its detractors say, the Memorial Preservation Act is intended to preserve all of Alabama's history -- the good and the bad -- so our children and grandchildren can learn from the past to create a better future," Allen said.

The new Alabama law prohibits the removal and alteration of monuments more than 40 years old. It also prohibits renaming schools that have carried a person's name for more than 40 years. A new commission would have to approve changes to those between 20 and 40 years old.

African-American lawmakers opposed the bill at every step of the legislative process. They argued that the monuments pay tribute to the shameful legacy of slavery.

"You say we are protecting history. We are not protecting history. We are protecting monuments that represent oppression to a large part of the people in the state of Alabama," Sen. Hank Sanders, an African-American Democrat from Selma, said during the debate.

Read more: Alabama governor signs Confederate monuments preservation bill

Ben Carson refers to poverty as a ‘state of mind’

Looks like Uncle Ruckus is up to his old tricks again. Housing Secretary Ben Carson added to his list of stupid comments during a town hall by saying that poverty is, and I quote "A state of mind". George L. Cook III African American Reports.

In an interview released Wednesday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said that a "certain mindset" contributes to people living in poverty, pointing to habits and a "state of mind" that children take from their parents at a young age.

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there," he said during an interview on SiriusXM Radio with Armstrong Williams, a longtime friend.

"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," Carson said.

Looks like Uncle Ruckus is up to his old tricks again. Today Housing Secretary Ben Carson added to his growing list of dumb statements by saying that poverty is a state of mind.

Carson said during the interview that "the wrong mindset" is the product of negative parenting habits and exposure.

"There's also a poverty of spirit. You develop a certain mindset," he said.

Carson made the comments during a town hall recorded Tuesday which will air in full on SiriusXM Wednesday night. Sirius released clips of the interview to news organizations to promote the show.

The secretary said that he believes that government can provide a "helping hand" to people looking to climb out of poverty. But he warned against programs that are "sustaining them in a position of poverty. That's not helpful."

"I think the majority of people don’t have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don’t see the way, and that’s where government can come in and be very helpful," he said. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."

Read more about Carson's foolishness here: Ben Carson calls poverty ‘a state of mind’ during interview

Lawsuit: Mississippi fails to educate black children equally

Mississippi is denying good schools to African American students in violation of the federal law that enabled the state to rejoin the union after the Civil War, a legal group alleged Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center wants a federal judge to force state leaders to comply with the 1870 law, which says Mississippi must never deprive any citizen of the "school rights and privileges" described in the state's first post-Civil War constitution.

That law still obligates Mississippi to provide a "uniform system of free public schools" for all children, but the state has instead watered down education protections in a white supremacist effort to prevent the education of blacks, the group said.

"From 1890 until the present day, Mississippi repeatedly has amended its education clause and has used those amendments to systematically and deliberately deprive African-Americans of the education rights guaranteed to all Mississippi schoolchildren by the 1868 Constitution," the suit states.

The named defendants include Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, all Republican elected officials. It also names state school Superintendent Carey Wright and the nine appointed members of the state Board of Education.

Mississippi's public schools have stubbornly ranked at or near the bottom of national measures of academic achievement and progress. But Bryant and Reeves said Mississippi's education system is improving under their leadership.

Read more: Lawsuit: Mississippi fails to educate black children equally

Black Lives Matter Wins 2017 Sydney Peace Prize

SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE CITATION FOR BLACK LIVES MATTER

For building a powerful movement for racial equality, courageously reigniting a global conversation around state violence and racism. And for harnessing the potential of new platforms and power of people to inspire a bold movement for change at a time when peace is threatened by growing inequality and injustice.

THE 2017 SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE WILL BE AWARDED ON THURSDAY 2 NOVEMBER AT THE CITY OF SYDNEY LECTURE AND AWARD CEREMONY AT SYDNEY TOWN HALL. A CELEBRATORY DINNER, THE FOUNDATION’S ANNUAL FUNDRAISING EVENT FOR THE PRIZE, IS ON FRIDAY 3 NOVEMBER.

In 2014, Black Lives Matter emerged as a global phenomenon when the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter turned into a rallying cry for a new generation of civil rights activists and organisers. A movement swept across the United States, affirming black humanity in the face of relentless police brutality, mass incarceration and racial disparity.

Built and sustained by many, the Black Lives Matter Global Network (BLM) has played a vital role in growing the Movement for Black Lives, and its loud calls for justice, dignity and equality have resonated around the world.

Not a moment, but a movement

Since creating the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2012, BLM’s Co-Founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi steadily and strategically built the scaffolding of a nationwide on-the-ground political network that now has 39 chapters worldwide.

Encouraging a broader and deeper conversation about what justice for black people looks like — and how people can join forces to achieve it — the Black Lives Matter Network nurtures an inclusive, decentralised and leaderful movement from the bottom-up. The Founders want the faces of this movement to reflect the change they strive towards in their own communities, which is that all black lives matter, regardless of their gender, class, sexual orientation, or age.

An intervention

For the Founders, Black Lives Matter Network is not ‘just’ about extrajudicial killings and police reform. Rather, it is an intervention: Black Lives Matter demands that American society reconsider how it values black lives by identifying where and how black life is cut short by the state, whether in viral videos of police brutality, the self-fulfilling prophecy of the criminal justice system, or in areas where black communities disproportionally face homelessness, poverty and economic disparity.

Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is about replacing narratives of black criminality with black humanity. It is a tool to reimagine a world where black people are free to exist, free to live, and a tool for our allies to show up for us.

Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder

Black Lives Matter is about changing the conversation: If it is true that black lives matter, then what does that mean for police reform, for our justice systems, for schools, for jobs, for infrastructure, and for economic development? If black lives matter, then what needs to change in politics and in the media?

In only a few years, it has rapidly evolved well beyond a hashtag, into a social movement that is healing and organising communities across the USA, and has both political aims as well as visionary policy demands.

Vision, leadership, heart and courage

Without justice, peace is hollow and fragile. As societies and human beings, we cannot be at peace when people around us are suffering. Or when rules, institutions and behaviours that shape our daily lives – visible or invisible – tell us that the lives of people around us matter less, or don’t matter at all.

The committee noted that the conversation about Black Lives Matter is an age-old conversation, but commended today’s movement for creating a unique opportunity to change the course of history:

Black Lives Matter offers bold and visionary solutions to build societies where black people, and by extension all people, are free to live safe and dignified lives. This vision of love, hope, resistance and dissent resonates around the globe and particularly in Australia where the struggle with racism towards our First Peoples, asylum seekers and other excluded and marginalised communities scars our country and tarnishes our international reputation.

To turn a radically inclusive message into a rallying cry for millions of people requires vision, leadership, heart and courage. Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi and the many other Black Lives Matter leaders challenge us all to rethink, reimagine and reconstruct the societies we live in. This is an urgent and vital challenge, not least here in Australia, a country that struggles to come to terms with its past and fails to right ongoing wrongs.

This is the first time that a movement and not a person has been awarded the Peace Prize – a timely choice. Climate change is escalating fast, increasing inequality and racism are feeding divisiveness, and we are in the middle of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Yet many establishment leaders across the world stick their heads in the sand or turn their backs on justice, fairness and equality.

The power of ordinary people is a phenomenal force for change – now more than ever, popular movements and political resistance is crucial.