Black women making headway in politics

Rebekah Barber, Portside - In the 50 years since [Shirley] Chisholm was elected to Congress, Black women have continued to make historic gains in U.S. politics. Those gains are documented in "The Chisholm Effect: Black Women in American Politics 2018," a new report from the Higher Heights Leadership Fund and the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

In that time, 38 Black women have served in Congress from 16 states — 36 in the House and two in the Senate. Over the past two decades, Black women have also increased their representation in state legislatures from 2.3 percent to 3.7 percent and their presence among women legislators from 10.3 percent to 14.8 percent. There are currently 276 Black women serving in state legislatures, 129 of whom represent Southern states.

Black women also serve as mayors in five of the nation's most populous cities, three of which are in the South: Atlanta; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Meanwhile, Black women voted at the highest rates of any demographic group in the 2008 and 2012 elections, and it was their record turnout that determined the outcome of last year's special U.S. Senate election in Alabama won by Democrat Doug Jones.

But disparities persist. Although Black women make up 7.3 percent of the U.S. population, they account for less than 5 percent of those elected to statewide executive offices, Congress, and state legislatures. Only 12 Black women have ever held statewide executive offices, and only two of these women — both Republicans — were elected in Southern states: Jennifer Carroll, who served as Florida's lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2013, and Jenean Hampton, who has served as Kentucky's lieutenant governor since 2011.

There are over 245 Black women running for public office across the South this year. . . .