By Tashi McQueen, Megan Sayles and Andrea Stevens
AFRO Staff Writers
tmcqueen@afro.com
msayles@afro.com
astevens@afro.com
Day One of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s (CBCF) 54th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., featured several panels and workshops focused on issues affecting the Black community on Sept. 24.
Among them was the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and its Black Women’s Roundtable’s 17th Annual Black Women’s Roundtable. The discussion was centered around the theme, “Black Women Reclaiming Our Economic and Civic Power in Challenging Times.”
The session included two roundtables moderated by Errin Haines, editor-at-large for The 19th News and president of the National Association of Black Journalists. Leading Black women from across the country discussed how Black women are working to alleviate the pressures that threaten to bring Black America backward in a time of progress.
After federal mass layoffs and a rollback of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives earlier this year, the Black unemployment rate has risen to 7.5 percent as of August, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“I work hard to help Black women with small businesses, and there is just pain across the industry,” said Tameka Ramsey-Brown, convener of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the Metro Detroit and Pontiac BWR, during the first panel discussion. “We had so many Black women who were facing losing their jobs at the federal government, taking workshops so that they can have a plan if things don’t go right.”
Ramsey-Brown pointed out that Black women often don’t have the luxury of not providing, not working or not giving to their communities. Laid off or not, they must find a way.
“We are the ones who, when things go bad, people look to us,” said Ramsey-Brown.
Bishop Leah Daughtry, founder and convenor of Power Rising, provided a word of encouragement for Black women as they navigate this challenging time.
“This is the moment to rise, because when Black women show up in policy shifts, when Black women lead communities, when Black women refuse to bow down, nations are transformed,” said Daughtry. “It is not enough to simply have a seat at the table. Sometimes we are going to have to build the table, and sometimes we are going to have to flip the table.”
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, emphasized that the way forward is through unity not solo initiatives.
“Your village has to be strong right now,” said Brown. “No longer can you be an organization just by yourself. Who are you working with?”
Brown also emphasized the need to not just be present, but put in the work.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, highlighted that the actions seen today are not new and Black women have been fighting this fight for some time.
“There are people in this room who have been fighting this battle for a long time,” said Pringle. “When I think about meeting this movement and the responsibility of the moment, I ground myself in the Black women who came before me.”
Pringle encourages Black women in this time to be a light so that people may find their way.
Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, an activist organization, said the Black community should not be waiting to be called on to serve but to be empowered to stand for what they believe in innately.
“We’re waiting to be told to get in the game, and yet we need to call ourselves,” said Mallory. “We don’t need a position or permission. We don’t need anyone to choose us and tell us that this is the time. We know that it is time.”
Panelists also addressed strategies to protect the rights, freedoms and democracy of future generations.
“We need to bring our young sisters to a round table,” said Elsie Scott, founding director of the Ronald W. Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University. “I’m spending a lot of my time dealing with young women who are afraid, who don’t know what to do, who are looking for directions.”
Panelists urged Black women, both young and old, to unite, stay informed on local and national issues, and turn that information into action without hesitation.
Another panel of note tackled Black workers’ fight for education, equity and economic justice.
Under the 47th president, Black workers across industries are facing escalating attacks on equity, diversity and inclusion, growing economic inequality and the undermining of democratic norms.
That challenge was the focus of a panel, where leaders in education, public service and health care discussed strategies to expand freedom, dignity and opportunity for the Black workforce.
“The power is not in Congress. The power is not in the Supreme Court. The power is in us,” said Everett Kelley, panelist and national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). “We are the people. We the people have the power to take a stand.”
A point repeatedly raised during the panel was the importance of education in empowering the next generation of Black workers to protect their rights and advocate for equity. Currently, the U.S. education system is under attack—from efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, to the erasure and censorship of Black history, to rhetoric aimed at weakening public schools.
As Florida State Rep. Angela Nixon (D-District 13) pointed out during the panel conversation, this has greater implications for Black students who overwhelmingly rely on public schools for their education.
“They are labeling these schools—our public schools that do great work—failing governmental schools,” said Nixon. “Then, they are now allowing our money, our taxpayer dollars, to go and to not only pay for charter schools, but to pay for corporate schools, parochial schools, which we know are failing our children and can discriminate against our kids.”
Panelists believe that this assault on public education is by design, contending that the 47th president and Republican lawmakers fear educated Black people. They called on the Black community to defend public schools by continuing to enroll their children.
“They know that an educated populace is a voting populace that knows better and means better,” said panelist Fredrick Ingram, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Another central focus of the panel discussion was the role of unions and collective bargaining in protecting Black workers and fostering economic justice. Union membership has continued to decline over the past several decades, though unions have historically been viewed as a way out of poverty.
Ingram highlighted the deep ties between the union movement and the Civil Rights Movement, explaining that unions can be a tool for organizing.
“It has been unions that have fueled the exhaust in what we know as this locomotive of democracy. We have to organize our folks. We have to educate our folks,” said Ingram. “We have to stay off of that foolishness they call MSNBC and Fox and get real education. Then, go out door-to-door, conversation by conversation, person by person.”
Panelists emphasized that organizing cannot come from activists and organizations alone—it has to come from the people themselves.
Though grassroots organizing can be difficult, especially as households navigate financial and other challenges, they urged the Black community to come together and support one another as they continue the fight for Black workers.
“I am so confused at how we have billionaires throwing $50 million weddings but they don’t want to pay their workers living wages and we have hundreds of thousands of unhoused people on the streets,” said Nixon. “We should be upset about that. It takes us coming together outside these four walls, knocking on doors and making phone calls—not just three months before the election but year-round so that people can trust us.”