“Black women saved America.”
Those words peppered post-election analysis of the highly contested 2017 Alabama Senate race.
The record-breaking voter turnout of Black women catapulted the defeat of Republican Roy Moore in a campaign clouded by allegations of anti-Semitism, racism and sexual misconduct. Black women in Alabama cast 98 percent of their ballots for Doug Jones compared to 35 percent of White women and 93 percent of Black men.
Black women’s turnout in that election topped all demographic groups across the markers of race, gender and education. Women of color, particularly African-American women, have emerged as a cohesive and consistent voting bloc. The twin patterns of mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement have elevated that significance as more Black women are eligible to vote than their male counterparts.
Converting that numerical strength into electoral power has been a more arduous task that begs the question, “What do they receive in return?”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm’s ascent as the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. Chisholm’s election came nearly 100 years after the first African-American man, Hiram Revels of Mississippi, was elected to the U.S. Senate and 50 years after the first woman, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, was elected to serve.
Four years later, Chisholm became the first African-American to seek a major party nomination in her bid to run for the U.S. presidency. Chisholm was a woman, Black, the daughter of immigrants and elected to represent economically depressed communities largely overlooked by mainstream society. Her entry into the hallowed halls of Congress was a direct indictment of America’s failure to live up to its promise of democratic inclusion.
