Legislators

By: Matthew C. Whitaker

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Legislators

The experiences of black women legislators, the circumstances that have motivated them to serve, and the issues they have championed, have been both similar to and different from the experiences of their black and white male peers. Until recently, studies of legislative leadership have primarily focused on white men and women, and to a lesser extent, African American men. The predominant body of literature has often failed to stress the extent to which white women legislators have sacrificed women's solidarity and racial equality at the altar of white privilege. Likewise, most histories of black legislative leadership have analyzed black men's efforts to secure political influence, and socio-economic capital for beleaguered African American communities. Yet, from Shirley Chisholm and Carol Moseley Braun to contemporary leaders such as Sheila Jackson-Lee and Maxine Waters, black women legislators have consistently fought for the rights of all Americans to exist on an equal basis, consistently supporting legislation that advan-ces social, economic, and political equality across race lines. Studies have shown that black women legislators, like their white women counterparts, have demonstrated interest in health care, education, families, and eco-nomic equality. Until recently, their contributions and experiences have received little attention. Many historians, by focusing primarily on their white, male peers, and through the overemphasis of the “manhood” metaphor in black legislative leadership, which seeks to recover allegedly usurped black male authority and autonomy through language and action, have failed to assess the impact of black women legislators and have silenced some of the most progressive, powerful, and effective voices in American history.

Earliest African American Women Legislators

Reconstruction (1863–1877) ushered in the election of the first African American to local, state, and federal lawmaking bodies. During this period there were two black male senators in Congress (Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both Mississippi natives who had been educated in the North) and fourteen black members of the House. It would take roughly one hundred years for the first African American women to be elected to Congress. The first black woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives was Shirley Chisholm. Born Shirley Anita Saint Hill, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York in 1924, Chisholm made history when she ran against James Farmer for the seat in the newly formed Twelfth Congressional District of Brooklyn in 1968. Farmer was the former leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). No matter who won the race, when the final votes were tallied, Brooklyn would have its first black member of Congress. Chisholm won by a landslide, however, and became the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She served in the House for fourteen years, was known as a champion of civil rights and women's rights, and was an early member of the National Organization of Women (NOW), a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), and a leading advocate for the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). In 1972, attempting to capitalize on her experience and the electoral power of her diverse constituencies, Chisholm made history again when she became the first African American, and the first woman, to launch a serious bid for the presidential nomination.

An Increasing Voice

Although their numbers were growing, in 1969, blacks in Congress still represented a small yet vocal minority. To offset their small numbers, a group of influential and outspoken black Congressional leaders formed an organization that would allow them to pool their resources and speak with one voice. On 2 January 1969, Shirley Chisholm rallied the support of Louis Stokes of Ohio, Bill Clay of Missouri, William Dawson of Chicago, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York, Charles Diggs of Detroit, Robert Nix of Philadelphia, Augustus Hawkins of Los Angeles, and John Conyers Jr. of Detroit. The group met initially as the Democratic Select Committee under the leadership of Charles Diggs. On 2 February 1971 the group agreed to be known as the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The Caucus is officially nonpartisan, but in practice it has been almost exclusively composed of Democrats, and tends to function as a lobbying group with the wider Congressional Democratic Party. Only three black Republicans have been elected to Congress since the Caucus was founded: Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts and Representatives Gary Franks of Connecticut and J. C. Watts of Oklahoma. Unlike Brooke and Franks, Watts refused to join the Caucus.

Shirley Chisholm,  seen here in a photograph from 1965, was the first African American woman elected to the Congress. She served in the House of Representatives from 1969 until 1982.

(Library of Congress.)

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The goals of the CBC have been to “positively influence the course of events pertinent to African Americans and others of similar experience and situation, and to achieve greater equity for persons of African descent in the design and content of domestic and international programs and services.” The Caucus has not only been at the forefront of issues affecting African Americans, but has garnered international acclaim for advancing agendas aimed at protecting human rights and civil rights for all people. The vast majority of black people elected to Congress have become members of the CBC. Black women have played a critical role in advancing the CBC's agenda. One of the earliest leaders of the CBC was Cardiss Robertson Collins, widow of U.S. Representative George Collins from Illinois. Collins had been politically active before her husband's death, working on her husband's campaigns, and representing the Democratic Party as a committeewoman. When George Collins was killed in an airplane crash in a residential area of Chicago, Cardiss Robertson Collins launched a bid for her husband's vacant seat in Congress. She won the election on 5 June 1973.

In 1979 Collins became chair of the CBC, the first woman to occupy that position. Her primary goal was to unify the seventeen members of the CBC, and to expand their power and influence. She possessed tremendous leadership skills and was known for aggressiveness and diplomacy, qualities she used to deal with the many personalities in the CBC. As the nation and Congress began to embrace conservatism in the 1980s, and retreat from the more progressive agenda of the 1960s and 1970s, black women legislators such as Collins fought to ensure that gains in civil rights were not completely reversed. She led the way in thwarting an antibusing amendment to the Constitution, and called for economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. She also criticized the Reagan administration for its lack of attention to issues affecting African Americans, minorities, women, and the poor, and logged serious opposition to discrimination in the private sector.

Most black women legislators began their political careers at the local and state levels. One of the most famous of these leaders was Barbara Jordan. Jordan began her political career as administrative assistant to the county judge of Harris County, Texas. Not long after that, she was elected to the Texas state senate in 1996, the first black Texan to be elected to that body since 1883. In 1967 she became the first African American resident of Texas to preside over the state's senate. Then, in 1972, the same year that Shirley Chisholm ran for president, Jordan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by Houston's Eighteenth Congressional District. As a state senator and a U.S. congresswoman, Jordan sponsored bills that supported the poor, disadvantaged people, and racial minorities, sponsoring the Workman's Compensation Act and working to expand the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to protect Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest and other disenfranchised people across the nation.

In 1982 Katie Beatrice Green Hall was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Like Collins and Jordan, Hall began her career in local and state lawmaking bodies, serving as an Indiana state representative (1974–1976), a state senator (1976–1982), and a charter member of the Democratic Party. By 1982 Hall was primed for service at the national level. Like Chisholm, Collins, and Jordan, Hall was an ardent supporter of equality, tolerance, and the legacy of the civil rights movement. She is best known for her unyielding efforts to create a federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Hall primarily sponsored and supported legislation that sought jobs for the unemployed. She drafted the Fair Trade in Steel Act, which was designed to stimulate the lagging steel industry, backed the Humphrey-Hawkins bill to prevent domestic violence and child abuse, and supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

Hall's service in the House marked the growing influence black women wielded in the national legislative process. Yet by the end of the 1980s, there were no African Americans in the Senate, and no black woman had ever served in the entire history of that legislative body. Carol Moseley Braun made history in 1992 when she became the first black woman, and only the second African American since Reconstruction, to be nominated and elected to the U.S. Senate by a major political party.

When she ran for the Democratic nomination from Illinois, she was relatively unknown to most Americans and had only a relatively small amount of money to fund her campaign. Her trailblazing victory in the primary threw her almost immediately into the national spotlight. Mosley Braun was a part of growing class of women who won elections across the country and who were motivated and supported, in part, by resolute groups of women and minorities who wanted legislators who would represent their interests. She also capitalized on the fact that a growing number of Americans had become very dissatisfied with a slumping economy, egregious national debt, the erosion of civil rights protections, and rising social unrest.

Mosley Braun, like Collins, Jordan, and Hall, had begun her legislative career in a state legislature. In 1978 she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. She soon developed a reputation as an adept coalition builder and an effective politician. Between 1980 and 1987, she sponsored every school-funding bill that influenced the city of Chicago. In 1985 she helped draft the Urban School Improvement Act, which created parents' councils in Chicago schools. She supported programs that assisted the indigent and would-be college students, and sponsored bills to eliminate discrimination in housing and private clubs. During her tenure in the U.S. Senate (1992–1998), Mosley Braun continued to draft and support legislation that paid particular attention to inequalities in education. In addition to serving as a U.S. Senator, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand (1998–2002). In 2003 Mosley Braun's commitment to positive change, her political ambitions, and her “sense of duty to the nation,” led her to launch a campaign for the office of the President of the United States.

Leadership Styles

Mosley Braun, like most women legislators, particularly black women lawmakers, excelled in her role because of her ability to practice a more fluid kind of leadership than her male counterparts. Scholars have argued that women's leadership style, in general, has differed from that of men. Legislative leadership has traditionally been viewed as “transactional,” a kind of aggressive negotiating method to mediate specific interests in a predominantly male legislative political arena. As Cindy Simon Rosenthal and Lucinda Simon Rosenthal argue in When Women Lead: Integrative Leadership in State Legislatures, however, women leaders generally bring with them an integrative and inclusive leadership style that brings to light the important contributions that women as legislative agents make to the institutions in which they operate. Black women legislators such as Chisholm, Collins, Hall, and Mosley Braun, in particular, have demonstrated that by encouraging collaboration, shared problem-solving, and consensus, leaders can build broad-based coalitions that address the specific needs of African Americans, while also addressing some of the basic needs of people regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Generally women legislators, particularly those who chair important committees, come to their roles from different life experiences, and as a result are uniquely motivated and adopt strategies and visions of leadership that differ in important ways from those of their male counterparts. Black women's experiences in America have placed them among those most attuned to oppression and inequality in our country. Black in a racist society, female in a sexist culture, and invariably connected to poorer constituents in a nation that stigmatizes poverty, black women legislators have been keenly aware of our most pressing socioeconomic problems, and uniquely equipped by virtue of their background and constituencies to devise effective ways to solve them. Black women, like women in general, tend to see political leadership as something more than the act of satisfying particular interests. Many have endeavored to alter the ways in which the legislative process works, because they believe it is the process that has played a critical role in oppressing many of the people they represent. They have done so by employing a more flexible style of leadership that reflects the diversity of their experience.

The hallmark of black women's legislative leadership has been the efforts to mobilize black women against the interwoven race, class, and sex exploitation and discrimination that they face in everything from employment to housing. Most black women legislators learned early on that to ensure the advancement of their constituents, especially black people, they had to champion a process that encouraged other African Americans, and all of the people that they serve, to take responsibility for their own futures while simultaneously becoming agents of social, economic, and political change. This process has produced some influential and effective black women legislators, and it has had a serious impact on individuals and communities throughout America.

One of the more pronounced aspects of black women's style of leadership, from the grassroots level to the halls of Congress, is that inside it is a legitimate critique of sexism that is not rooted in intellectual discourse cultivated by obscure white feminist theory, but rather derived from the historical, intimate, real-word experiences of everyday black women. Black women's comprehension of the intersection of race, class, and gender has prompted them to dismiss relations of power and privilege based on male concepts of rank and status. Most black women, particularly legislators, unlike most men, have believed that leadership should be multilateral, heterogeneous, and not centered on one individual or a chosen few.

Most black women legislators began their careers in state lawmaking bodies. Prominent black women legislators who have served at the national level—such as Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Katie Beatrice Hall, Carol Moseley Braun, and Maxine Waters—all served in state legislatures prior to running for House and Senate seats. The number of black state legislators, like the number of blacks who have served at the national level, has always been small. Although their numbers began to grow by 1970, they, like their counterparts at the national level, were still a small yet outspoken minority. To pool their resources and network with black lawmakers in other states, a group of black state legislative leaders formed the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) in 1977. Currently NBCSL consists of more than 600 legislators from 46 states, and it represents more than 20 million voters. Although the majority of the group's members are black men, the organization boasts a number of powerful and highly productive black women leaders such as Leah Landrum-Taylor (AZ), Rosemary Marshall (CO), Gloria Butler (GA), Shirley Jones (IL), Mary Waters (MI), and Ruth Hassell-Thomson (NY). While each of these black women legislators, and their peers, have various issues that they champion, the NBCSL serves as a clearinghouse of information and works with these women on a number of policy issues. They, like their peers at the national level, have been strong defenders of civil rights, women's rights, juvenile justice, affordable healthcare, diversity, economic equality, and international human rights. In 2002, for example, Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch of the Dominican Republic in her capacity as Secretary of Education of the Dominican Republic, signed an agreement with NBCSL to establish the NBCSL International Technical Assistance Center (ITAC) in Santo Domingo. The agreement will provide minority students an opportunity to study abroad.

Into the Twenty-First Century

By 2003 the CBC boasted thirty-eight members. At least fifteen of them were black women, all Democrats. They included Rep. Corrine Brown, Florida, Rep. Julia Carson, Indiana, Del. Donna Christian-Christensen, Virgin Islands, Rep. Eva Clayton, North Carolina, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, Michigan, Rep. Barbara Lee, California, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Georgia, Rep. Carrie Meek, Florida, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, California, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia, Rep. Maxine Waters, California, and Rep. Diane E. Watson, California.

In 2003 Eddie Bernice Johnson was selected to chair the CBC. Upon her election as Chair, she expounded on the history and hope of the CBC:

"The Congressional Black Caucus is one of the world's most esteemed bodies, with a history of positive activism unparalleled in our nation's history. Whether the issue is popular or unpopular, simple or complex, the CBC has fought for thirty years to protect the fundamentals of democracy. Its impact is recognized throughout the world. The nation will face serious challenges over the next two years. At the same time, it will be blessed with unprecedented opportunities. Over the past eight years, the progress that minorities have fought for through centuries of struggle finally began to be realized. The Caucus is committed to ensuring that the standard of living for minorities in America does not retrogress, but instead rises to meet the expectations of both our ancestors and our children. Our diversity makes us stronger, and the expertise of all of our members has helped us be effective beyond our numbers."

(Congressional Black Caucus)

One of the most powerful legislators in America at the end of the twentieth century, and the dawn of the twenty-first, has been Maxine Waters. Elected in November 2000 to her sixth term in the House of Representatives with an overwhelming 87 percent of the votes, she represents a large part of South Central Los Angeles. Formerly the Chair of the CBC, Waters has held the influential leadership position of Chief Deputy Whip of the Democratic Party since the 106th Congress. Throughout her twenty-five years of public service, Waters has confronted difficult and controversial issues. Following the Los Angeles riot in 1992, she clearly articulated the hopelessness and despair in urban areas throughout America. She also made headlines when she accused the CIA of involvement in the Contra cocaine trafficking of drugs in South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1980s.

Prior to her election to the House of Representatives in 1990, Waters served for fourteen years in the California State Assembly, where she rose to the powerful position of Democratic Caucus chair. She was responsible for some of the boldest legislation in California history. She spearheaded the largest divestment of state pension funds from South Africa, landmark affirmative action legislation, the nation's first statewide child abuse prevention training program, and the prohibition of police strip searches for nonviolent misdemeanors. She has used her skill to shape public policy and deliver billions of dollars to minorities and the poor. She helped expand U.S. debt relief for Africa and other developing nations, and helped create the Center for Women Veterans. As an advocate for human rights, Congresswoman Waters was a leader in the movement to end apartheid and ensure one-person, one-vote democracy in South Africa. She founded the Los Angeles Free South Africa Movement and continues to be an adviser to the TransAfrica Forum. In 1994 she was on the official U.S. delegation to Nelson Mandela's inauguration as president of a free South Africa. Waters was a key figure in Congressional efforts to restore to power Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

On 25 October 1997 Waters spoke to a crowd of between six hundred thousand and 2.5 million, according to various estimates, at the Million Woman March in Philadelphia. Black women from across the country and beyond gathered on that day to engage in what the historian, Ernestine Jenkins, described as a “very public revolutionary act of resistance.” As Waters argued, they gathered to “put America on notice,” that the issues and problems that black women faced would no longer be marginalized by an indifferent power structure, and that black women, and their representatives, would continue to fight for themselves and their communities. “We are driven,” she proclaimed, “by our commitment to ourselves, our children and our families to live in a fair and just society that respects us and our role in this nation and in this world.” Waters continues to serve, and as she confronts the present Republican-controlled Congress on issues such as poverty, economic development, equal justice under the law, and other issues of concern to people of color, women, children, and poor people, she enjoys a broad cross section of support from diverse communities across the nation.

Black women legislators such as Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Norton, and Waters, are participants in a dynamic legacy of black female activism. African American women have been involved in non-violent and violent resistance to slavery, the abolitionist movement, the anti-lynching crusade, the civil rights and black power movements, and the women's movement. These examples illuminate one of the notable attributes of African American women's historical activism, and its dual nature. Indeed, as Jenkins indicates, “the majority of black women are participants, whether they are conscious or not, in the everyday political activism described as group survival.” When black women such as Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Norton, and Waters “add participation in overt, public, political activism to their arsenal of weapons against race and class oppression, then they are utilizing their activist heritage in ways unique to black women.”

Black women legislators have used their diverse backgrounds to become influential leaders and champions for access and opportunity. They continue to be active legislators at the local, state, and national levels, pursuing and successfully achieving a number of legislative objectives. They have distinguished themselves as staunch defenders of the Constitution, civil rights, quality and affordable healthcare, juvenile justice, gun safety and responsibility, diversity, women's rights, child safety, and economic empowerment for low and middle income America. In addition, black Congresswomen have been outspoken on domestic and global human rights issues. They have been strong advocates for historically black colleges and universities, and have been consistent supporters of affirmative action. Through their dynamic, fluid, shared leadership style, rooted in a legacy of black women's activism, black women legislators continue to fight for a more equal and just America. As Waters has declared, African American women and their representatives “are not powerless,” and they will continue to “call on government and elected officials to rethink what they do and how they do it. We continue to call for a new politic of integrity and principled leadership. We will continue to fight against racism and marginalization.”

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