Black women meet to mobilize on Sunday before Election Day
Originally published by The 19th
On the Sunday before Election Day, Black women gathered on Zoom as they had done every Sunday for four years in a moment of unity, sisterhood and gratitude.
For the last 15 Sundays, they came together as part of the coalition Win With Black Women to strategize and organize to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States. Harris joined the final call to thank them for their support and to ask for their help one more time.
“I thank everyone for building a coalition that has been hard at work to support our campaign,” Harris said at the beginning of the two-hour call with thousands of supporters. “We can have an impact on people’s lives. … We know it is our calling. … It is about lifting people up and reminding them that we are a community of people who care. We have more work to do … We will get this done, and we will win, and it will be because we know what’s at stake. We know how to fight for all that is good and right for the future.”
The day Harris announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination after President Joe Biden exited the race was a Sunday; that evening, more than 44,000 Black women joined the Win With Black Women Zoom to celebrate and activate.
Previous calls had gone largely unnoticed by mainstream media, but the July 21 call was historic and quickly went public, gaining attention and spawning a massive grassroots movement that was an early indicator of enthusiasm for Harris’ nascent campaign. Within days, dozens of other groups — from Black men, White dudes, Jews, comics, nerds, cat ladies, and more — were each hosting their own Zoom calls in support of Harris.
The group’s founder, Jotaka Eaddy, was inspired by The Colored Girls, a legendary band of veteran Black women political strategists. On the eve of a historic election that could elect Harris, a Black and South Asian woman, as the country’s first woman president, they spoke on the call of the weight of the moment and the work still left to do.
“I’ve always realized that timing is everything in politics,” said Colored Girls member Yolanda Caraway. “This is Kamala’s time. This is our time. I always felt that she was going to be president. I am so proud of her and of us and what we’ve done.”
The Rev. Leah Daughtry, a member of the Colored Girls and past CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said Harris’ candidacy has felt like the culmination of three decades of work and the sacrifices of ancestors who worked for but did not live to see this moment.
Donna Brazile, who worked on Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign and was the first Black woman to run a major presidential campaign in 2000 for Democrat Al Gore, said that the next 48 hours were time for what she called “a rally effect” to turn out any remaining persuadable voters.
“We have really experienced something that our ancestors probably knew would exist one day, but we have seen it in our own time,” Brazile said. “You all have been at the table and you’ve made so much happen. We are proud to be the descendants of those who have fought for the right to the polls for our people. Thank you to Fannie Lou Hamer for knocking on the door of a party that didn’t have a seat for you. Thank you for not quitting when it got tough, for standing up with determination because you simply wanted to be free.”
Also on the call were representatives from the other Zoom-mobilized groups who expressed their appreciation for Win With Black Women’s leadership, as well as the heads of the four national Black Greek sororities who are working to mobilize voter turnout.
Participants were urged to continue to call and text their networks encouraging them to vote, and provide transportation or whatever other support is required leading up to and on Election Day. Other speakers also offered encouragement at the end of a long political season that for some has felt unending.
“I needed this call tonight,” said organizer Melanie Campbell. “Every state is a battleground if you’re living in it. But don’t let doubt get in the way on this last leg … #WinWithBlackWomen is more than a hashtag, it’s a movement.”
As a reminder of the marathon nature of their work, 92-year-old former NAACP President Hazel Dukes and Johnetta Cole, 89, former president of Spelman College, closed out the evening.
“Jotaka Eaddy has called us together and dared to say, ‘My sisters, here is what we can win as Black women: We can have as the president of the United States of America, a Black woman whose name is Kamala Harris,’” Cole said. “When Black women win, the whole world wins with us.”
To check your voter registration status or to get more information about registering to vote, text 19thnews to 26797.
The post Black women meet to mobilize on Sunday before Election Day appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.