By Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY
CHICAGO ‒ Less than three weeks remained until the Democratic National convention and Minyon Moore, chair of the party’s political showcase, didn’t know who Kamala Harris would pick as her running mate.
It had only been a couple of weeks since Harris had stepped up to become the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Convention plans had been zigzagging for days.
Still, Moore was managing to “slightly” restructure the program to highlight Harris’ values and introduce her to American voters, as thousands of delegates, lawmakers, volunteers and others were getting ready to gather in Chicago to help her win the White House.
Interest in the convention has increased since Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket, convention officials said.
For the first time, a woman of color will be a presidential nominee for a major political party and Black women will play most of the key roles in leading the Democratic convention – the party’s premiere national showcase.
“We’re seeing these prominent leadership roles in the hands of African American women,’’ said Wendy Smooth, a professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and Political Science at The Ohio State University. “It really comes as no surprise because they have certainly put in the work and have been pivotal contributors.”
“This isn’t a pop-up moment,’’ she said.
For decades, Smooth and other experts said, Black women have worked – often behind the scenes – strategizing, mobilizing and organizing voters of color for the Democratic Party.
With them out front at the convention, among other things, that leadership will feature more speakers from often marginalized communities.
“We do want to make sure that America sees the diversity of who we are and how we’re trying to usher in … a new generation,’’ Moore told a small group of reporters recently in Chicago.
More young people, older people, people from LGBTQ+ communities and people of different ethnicities and faiths will appear on the podium than in years past, she said, and the convention will salute civil rights veterans such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988. The lineup of speakers and programming hasn’t been finalized, convention officials said.
The diversity, experts and others said, could help energize a broad swath of voters.
“Black women play a significant role in the future of this party and have always, but especially now with a Black woman at the top of the ticket,” said Marcia Fudge, who served as convention chair in 2016 and is now co-chair of Harris’ presidential campaign. “The significance of it is that we all have the kinds of experiences that we know are going to be needed to get us through this convention and through this election.”
Black women leading convention ‘really quite historic’
Black women activists point to the impact of the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who gave an impassioned speech 60 years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper, challenged the makeup of her state’s all-white delegation and the national party’s lack of Black delegates.
Her efforts led to Democrats later requiring conventions to include more Black and women delegates.
“Our North Star has always been Fannie Lou Hamer,’’ said Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic political strategist and former interim DNC chair. “She was denied a seat. We have spent the last 60 years making sure no one is denied a seat.’’
Glynda Carr, co-founder and president of Higher Heights of America, whose organization supports Black women candidates, said she’s excited to see the progression in the last decade of Black women to more visible roles, including at the convention.
The Democratic Party went from “what once was a very white leadership that Black women were the soldiers in to now these Black women are leading at the highest level,’’ Carr said.
She said Black women have been consistent in delivering the margins of wins for Democrats for years.
Black women, who traditionally support Democratic candidates, are credited with helping Biden win in 2020 and Raphael Warnock keep his Senate seat in Georgia in 2022.
“Black women want a return on our voting investment,” Carr said. “And that’s in the form of seeing leadership that looks like us and policies that impact Black women, our families and our communities.’’
Black women have long played key roles in civic engagement efforts, including voter registration drives during the Civil Rights Movement. They were also involved during Reconstruction. But experts said they often weren’t in visible public positions.
That has changed in recent years.
Black women lead national civic engagement groups, civil rights organizations and have created entities to raise money and train Black female candidates. More are running for elected offices, including the president of the United States.
“They said, ‘No more, that I’m going to lead. I’m going to step out there. I am going to use my voice and I’m going to be credited with the work that I am doing,’’ Smooth said. “But I’m going to claim it as Black women’s leadership.”
The Rev. Leah Daughtry, who will deliver an invocation next week and who served as convention CEO in 2008 and 2016, said this convention is personal for her and other Black women.
“For all of us, it takes a different kind of urgency, a different kind of care … Because it’s a Black woman and we know what the stakes are for Black women in this country,’’ Daughtry said. “Having a Black woman nominee makes us triple check that the T’s are crossed and that the I’s are dotted … We don’t get another chance as Black women. We have to be twice as good. We’re sensitive in that we want it to be successful. We want the ‘introduction’ of Kamala Harris to the world to be flawless and to be pitch perfect, so we’re paying extra attention.”
DNC convention ‘an opportunity to build a bench’
Biden selected people to head the convention, including people he trusted, who could get the job done and who had a wide network, Fudge said.
Fudge, co-chair of the DNC Credentials Committee, said Biden also chose people who had run conventions and “who were very capable of making sure that we have the best convention that we’ve ever had.’’
Moore, a Chicago native, has spent decades in national Democratic politics, including working on Jackson’s presidential campaign. She is also a former CEO of the DNC and was an adviser to Biden.
In addition to Moore, other African American women at the convention helm, include Christy George, executive director of the host committee, who helps raise money for the convention. George was first assistant deputy governor for budget and economy in the office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Keiana Barrett, a senior adviser to the host committee, leads procurement efforts and advises on business equity practices and youth engagement. She has served on the communications team for Rainbow Push and the Congressional Black Caucus.
In addition to existing leaders, Moore said she, George and Barrett “recognize that the convention is an opportunity to build a bench of talented women.”
”Throughout my career, I’ve been in rooms full of people who don’t look like me or understand my lived experience,” Moore said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Not only is it important that Black women are now in the room, but we are swinging the door open and making sure to lift up the next generation of diverse and talented leaders.”
Other Black women in key roles, include Daughtry, co-chair of the DNCC Rules Committee who will present the committee’s report Monday.
Brazile, who is on the credentialing committee, also managed the presidential campaign of Al Gore in 2000.
Several other Black women are chairs of state caucuses and key committees, including Lottie Shackelford, the first woman elected mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, who heads the DNC Women’s Caucus.
“We bring our own special sauce and the spices that go with it,” said Brazile, who is attending her 11th convention. “We came up through the process by which we were still fighting to have a seat at the table.”
Daughtry said the Democratic party has made strides since Alexis Herman served as CEO of the convention in 1992, noting that she and other Black women were appointed to their positions.
That “tells me that the party understands what we bring to the table and has been willing to trust us with these key and pivotal moments that are critical to the party’s forward movement, the party’s success,” she said. “Is there more room (for improvement)? Of course, there’s always more room.”
Fudge, who stepped down from her post as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in March, said while some Black women have led the convention in the past, there’s a different energy this time.
“People just didn’t pay as much attention because we were not at this kind of a critical and historic moment,’’ she said. “What we finally have done is we have reached a level that we have been able to navigate all of the things that it takes to run a convention.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black women are in charge at this year’s DNC. Expect a different kind of convention.
