Kamala Harris’ rise reflects her own long list of qualifications and also has deep historical roots in the extensive record of Black women’s political activism in the U.S
, is Acting Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. She is author of the award-winnings books,Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America. Follow herJoe Biden’s choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate is rightly heralded as a historic moment for Black women. For the first time, a Black woman is the presumptive nominee of a major party ticket.
Harris’ rise reflects her own long list of qualifications—district attorney of San Francisco; first African American and first woman attorney general of California; second African American woman and first South Asian American in the U.S. Senate. But her rise—hastened in part by this summer’s national protests that likely factored into Biden’s decision—also has deep historical roots in the extensive record of Black women’s political activism in the U.S.
On Wednesday, Harris will address her party’s virtual convention from Wilmington, Delaware, and formally accept a nomination that enshrines her place in history. But in ascending to this point, Harris is also heir to a deep and underappreciated legacy in American political life: the Black women who, over the past century, fought to claim their rightful share of American political power, and the Black women voters who have been key to holding those gains.
By the 1930s, the NLRCW had disbanded and more and more Black voters gravitated toward the Democratic Party. It also helped that first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was sympathetic toward civil rights and had a rapport with Mary McLeod Bethune, who, among her many accomplishments established the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. Bethune later became director of the Negro Division of the National Youth Administration, effectively becoming the first Black woman to lead a federal agency.
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