Spring 2018 Your Opinion Matters


Lifting Up New Leaders-The Future of Black Women’s History


in Atlanta last month. They


gathered more than a thousand Black women from around the country to develop a “Black Women’s Agenda”, deliberately mixing up the seasoned with the sassy,


established BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX


month turns into a tribute past.


important to


All too often, our “history” to the


And while the past is an place


lift up it is,


indeed, a tributary, a stream that flows into the larger stream of an unbounded future. The future must always be greater than the present, or there has been no progress. And, in the words of Frederick Douglas, “progress concedes nothing without a demand”.


I spend much of Women’s History Month thinking of those who have come before me, the shoulders on whose I stand. I claim Women’s History Month for Black Women and love to call our roll of luminaries that, for me, includes Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first Black woman to get a Ph.D. in economics, Dr. Phyllis Ann Wallace, the first Black woman to get a Ph.D. in economics from Yale, and the first to attain tenure at MIT. And there are more, but I also want to speculate about the future role of luminaries and reflect on that fact that many Black women have made it possible for us to bask in a new generation of leadership.


The past has laid a


foundation, but the future is far more important than the past.


managed convention),


Thus, Leah Daughtry (who the 2016 Democratic Minyon Moore


(who had a key role in the Clinton campaign), and Yolanda Caraway (an amazing political operative who has worked for Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Bill Clinton, and candidate Hillary


Symone


Sanders, the


CNN


commentator who made her mark supporting Bernie Sanders, and who does not


back down


from a fight around principle and


issues,


led a panel of young women who spoke of the in


their leaders with


those who are eager to make their mark.


garnered support from Emily’s List, the fact that she is challenging a pro-choice Democratic man in Boston has not won her support from the political establishment. Yet the 42-year-old sister says she will not be constrained by rules. The Power Rising conference represented an


Black Women’s History. Because she is a leader, she will attract negative energy.


And still, she


rises, walking through life with her shoulders back, head held high, an unapologetic lover of her people.


The Akan


(Ghanaian) word SANKOF A translates as “go back and get it”. It is associated with the proverb “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi”, means


that


which “it


is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten”. The Adinkra


challenges work.


Amanda Brown-Lierman, a new mom and the Political Director of the Democratic National Committee, was among those on another panel about


life in politics. Others


on that panel included LaDavia Drane, who led Black outreach for Hillary Clinton and is now chief of staff for Congresswoman Yvette Clark (D-NY) and Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who is now running for Congress. These young women aren’t playing!


They are calling out


their elders, but also calling out the rules.


toe a line, they are trying to make a difference.


example, incumbent


Clinton), put a footprint in the sand for future leadership with their Power Rising conference


Ayanna Pressley, as an is challenging an Democrat


Congressional primary.


in a Tired


of being told to “wait her turn”, she has decided that now is her time. Even though she has always


They aren’t trying to


for Sankofa either


symbol is


that of a


bird with its head turned backward carrying


a


precious egg in its mouth, or a stylized


example of that passionate energy. One of the most promising


young leaders is Tamika Mallory, one of the four co-leaders of the Women’s March.


Tamika is a


protégée of Rev. Al Sharpton (her parents were among the founders of the National Action Network, and she served as its Executive Director for several years). Because of her amazing work, Mallory earned a Phoenix Award from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in 2017. With appropriate humility, she accepted her award “for the people”, and the most important thing that one gets from Tamika Mallory is that she loves humanity, loves Black people, and especially Black women. She, like the others mentioned, is a leader for our future. She is the future of


unfettered and shape.


The precious egg is the history of our leadership, the women like


Mary McLeod


Bethune and Dorothy Height and Sadie Alexander and Phyllis Wallace.


Even while looking


backward, though, the Sankofa bird is moving forward. Like Tamika Mallory, LaDavia Drane, Amanda Brown Lierman, and so many others. In the paraphrased words of the poet Mari Evans, “Look on them and be renewed.”


Julianne Malveaux is an


author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available


via www.amazon.com


for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juli- annemalveaux.com


heart


The HBCU Advocate 13


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