Op-ed: Celebrate Juneteenth by Electing Black Women

Here is an excerpt from the article

Juneteenth is celebrated in the United States as our second Independence Day. While July 4 commemorates independence from Great Britain, the freedoms that were proclaimed in 1776 applied only to a limited number of white, male citizens. Juneteenth offers an opportunity to reflect on the immeasurable harm inflicted by the institution of slavery in this country, and to commit ourselves anew to rectifying the continued effects of that legacy.

Even now, 158 years after the first Juneteenth, our elected leaders remain overwhelmingly white and male—meaning Black women political candidates are battling the status quo on two fronts.

It is no accident that the women’s rights movement in this country was initiated by abolitionists. The women who met at Seneca Falls and drafted the first Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 were experienced organizers who had cut their political teeth in the abolition movement. There have always been obvious synergies between the fight against sexism and the fight against racism. However, the feminist movement of the ’60s and ’70s too often elevated white voices to the exclusion of Black women. Even as white women saw marginal gains in political representation, progress for Black women has been infuriatingly slow.

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