Unsung Black Women in Politics Past and Present

From civil rights activist Lulu White to U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, here are a few of many who deserve more appreciation for their significant contributions throughout history.

By Aswad Walker

(Source: Houston Defender)

It’s impossible to spotlight all the Black women locally and nationally, past and present, who have provided heroic service in politics without getting their just due. Here, we define politics in a much broader and truer sense; not just those who hold political office, but those who impact(ed) the quality of every aspect of our lives.

PAST

Literally every Black woman in Texas who has impacted politics deserves mention on this list, as historians rarely spotlight Black women from the Lone Star State. Names like Christia Adair, Julia C. Hester, Beulah Shepherd, Holly Hogrobrooks, and Nellye Joyce Punch were all political giants in their own right.

Those listed below, whether from Texas (e.g., Houston) or not, dedicated their lives to improving the lives of others.

Lulu Belle Madison White was a civil rights activist in the 1940s and 1950s who devoted most of her adult life to the struggle against Jim Crow in Texas. She campaigned for the right to vote, equal pay for equal work, and desegregation of public facilities.

According to historian and TSU professor Dr. Merline Pitre, White was also the driving force behind the growth of the NAACP in Texas, the destruction of the all-white state Democratic primary, and several game-changing, landmark court cases.

“If you’re from Houston, you hear a lot about Christia Adair… but it was Lulu White who was out there organizing branches, who was out there saying we got go to the Supreme Court, we’ve got to get this money to go. She and her husband funded all of the [Texas-all] white primary cases. Therefore, not only did she stop that, but she pushed Black people to run for office. She was the one who got Heman Sweatt to go to the University of Texas. She was tough,” shared Pitre.

Josie Robinson

When people discuss the founding of Houston’s Pleasantville, the first master-planned community for middle-class Blacks in the United States, Judson Robinson Sr.’s critical role of marketing the new community of Blacks and selling homes is spotlighted. However, according to Mary Fontenot, president of the Pleasantville Historical Society, Robinson’s wife deserves much more credit than history has afforded her for her part in Pleasantville’s founding, growth and success. “Josie Robinson really had her hands in a lot of building and selling homes in Pleasantville, and a lot of people don’t know that,” stated Fontenot. “She was quiet, but she was a darn good businesswoman.”

Jo Ann Robinson

A college educator by trade, Robinson, along with legendary pastor and activist Rev. E.D. Nixon, provided the brains, vision, and organizing genius behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the entire movement in that city preceding the famous boycott. For decades, countless people heep all the praise on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for being the spokesman for that movement, but without Robinson that movement would have never moved.

Rosa Parks

Some might be surprised by this name added to the list because she’s one of the few Blacks that we actually do hear about during annual Black History Month Celebrations. However, as is shared in the must-read book “The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks,” most of her story has been either untold or incorrectly told. Parks had a long history of service fighting for the rights of Blacks and women before refusing to give up her seat on that bus. She did “Me-Too” movement work decades before it had a name.

Her seat on that bus was not about some old lady not moving because she was physically tired. It was a courageous strategic play of a revolutionary who was tired of seeing her people being mistreated. When asked about that incident, she said she remembered her grandfather, her hero, who always kept a shotgun close and used it to defend his family from white domestic terrorists. Additionally, Parks and her husband couldn’t find work in Montgomery after the boycott. They moved to Detroit, and there Parks began an even longer career as an activist. She is truly unsung for all the service she gave to her people before and after refusing to give up her bus seat.

PRESENT/FUTURE

The list of present/future unsung Black women can fill an entire Defender edition. Names like Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth, League of Women Voters President Dr. Annie Johnson Benifield and Tracey Yvette Scott, president of the Black Women’s PAC President Tracey Yvette Scott absolutely deserve attention. And those are just a few of the local sisters doing big things on the political scene.

Here are others worth supporting and chronicling their rise to even higher greatness and impact.

Minyon Moore

The most successful, creative and most watched Democratic National Convention in history was chaired and coordinated by this unheralded Black woman, Minyon Moore. She was said to have been tasked with “slightly restructuring the DNC with the switch from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democrat’s ticket. But she did much more than give the DNC a slight tweak. She set a new standard folk never conceived possible. And Moore is no political newcomer. A long-time Democratic political advisor, Moore got her start in politics working on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign. She also worked in former President Bill Clinton’s White House. According to social commentator Jeff Johnson, she has mentored and “put on” countless young sisters and brothers, allowing them entrance and participation at the highest heights of political doings.

Reverend Dr. Angela Raven-Anderson

Raven-Anderson, director of the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Social Justice Ministry, is on a mission to convert voter “fickleness” into voting fanaticism. “It is important that people understand that their vote matters, that their voice is their vote. And we need for people to come out and elect just officials to legislate on behalf of our people,” she said.

Sherika Dennis

Dennis was a different kind of child who was fascinated by all things politics from her earliest memories. While a student at TSU, Dennis served as the Student Government Association president. But she created a company that allows her to do what she really loves – impacting politics behind the scenes, crafting political strategy and public engagement opportunities for individuals and organizations.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett

With all her relatively recent notoriety, it’s hard to view Crockett as unsung. But I dare say she’s a fighter extraordinaire, and the future is wide open for this dynamic lawmaker.

Sharon Watkins Jones

Watkins Jones runs Watkins Jones LLC, a consulting company specializing in political advocacy, with her husband Michael. She is also a leading voice of advocacy as the chief equity officer for Children at Risk. She’s not an elected official. She makes her impact by challenging lawmakers to set a just and equitable legislative agenda for children and really all of society.