L-R: Sojourner Truth (public domain, via National Portrait Gallery). Stacey Abrams in 2012, when she was a Georgia state representative (Kerri Battles for LBJ School of Public Affairs, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons). Shirley Chisholm (Thomas J. O'Halloran, U.S. News & World Reports with light restoration by Adam Cuerden; public domain via Wikimedia Commons). Kamala Harris (United States Senate, public domain via Wikimedia Commons).

In February we celebrated Black History Month, which officially ended on March 1. On March 1 we began Women’s History Month. In this month’s Voter we are combining these two celebrations by highlighting four remarkable Black women. (Indeed, we think that we should celebrate both American women and Americans of African or other Black descent every month of the year!)

The November 2020 election revealed one undisputable fact: Black women are the backbone of our democracy in two very meaningful ways. First, in the fight to get the vote and, second, in the fight to exercise that vote to ultimately attain equal representation. The four women we are honoring for their groundbreaking achievements are Sojourner Truth, Stacey Abrams, Shirley Chisholm, and Kamala Harris. Juxtaposing the lives of these women tells the story of the continuing struggle for equality under the law and in fact.

Sojouner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 and set free when she was thirty years old. Like so many Black leaders, she began her mission by preaching. She traveled from village to village speaking about the brotherhood of man. In due course, she took up the abolitionist cause, and in 1850 she began her campaign for the right to vote. Sojourner lived to see the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment, which was supposed to give former slaves more rights under the law; and finally the Fifteenth Amendment, which was meant to give Black men the right to vote. She continued the fight for women’s suffrage until a few years before her death in 1883. She achieved much in her life by influencing the lives of so many around her. She did not ask to be made equal; rather, she demanded to be treated equally. She understood that equality meant power—the power of self-determination.

Stacey Abrams understands this, too. A daughter of Methodist ministers, Stacey grew up in the Deep South, where the structures of racism and inequality are entrenched. While still in her teens, she became the voice of a congressional campaign in the state of Georgia and started the path toward a political career and political activism. She served in the Georgia state legislature and in 2018 suffered a narrow defeat in a battle for governor of Georgia in which more than 1 million voters were purged by the Georgia secretary of state in a move later found to be illegal. Mere technical equality is not Abrams’ goal. Like Truth before her, Abrams seeks to empower the disenfranchised so they, and all of us, can determine our own futures without prejudice and artificial barriers. Her greatest moment in history (to date) came during the presidential election of November 2020 and the U.S. Senate race in Georgia on January 5, 2021. Through an extensive and intensive grassroots campaign, she spearheaded and amassed one of the greatest coalitions in Georgia history and achieved record-breaking voter turnout. She continues to fight for equal access to the ballot box and equal representation in the seats of power. Having run for office, she knows that having a seat at the table is the only way to advance the goal of self-determination.

Shirley Chisholm famously said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” Chisholm was born after white women had achieved the right to vote. Technically, Black women (and Black men) had that right, but with limited access to the ballot box imposed by a host of voter suppression mechanisms. That did not stop her from exercising her personal and political power. She did not ask for permission to participate—she just participated. Chisholm was a trailblazer and organizer: She helped establish the National Organization for Women (NOW) and African American Women for Reproductive Freedom. After being elected to Congress, she was the only woman among the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, where she advocated for educational rights and women’s rights. She then sought the highest office in the land as a presidential candidate on a major political party ticket in 1972. Perhaps most important, she acted not on behalf of her own interests but for the interests of the Black community and women as a whole. She wished to be remembered as one who dared to be herself, unconstrained by the societal rules of the day. In doing so, she forged a path for those who followed.

Kamala Harris is definitely someone Chisholm would have been proud to know. Harris followed in Chisholm’s footsteps by breaking down yet more barriers and achieving political power for the advancement of social justice and equity. Born to immigrant parents, she chose to advocate for social justice from the “inside” as a prosecuting attorney. She worked to stamp out gang violence, drug trafficking, and sexual abuse as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. Harris continued her work as San Francisco’s district attorney and as California’s attorney general. Though by today’s standards some of her actions are considered controversial, her aims remained focused on criminal justice reform, building safer communities, and speaking on behalf of those denied a voice. She showed a marked degree of political independence when eschewing political pressure to settle a nationwide lawsuit against predatory mortgage lenders—she fought to win, and win she did. After the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state, she refused to defend it, which helped lead to its overturn in 2013. Her efforts to gain a “seat at the table” led her to the U.S. Senate and ultimately to the White House as the people’s choice for vice president in 2020.

Four Women, Twelve “Firsts”

• Truth was the first Black woman to sue a white man in a U.S. court and win.
• Abrams became the first black woman to gain the nomination of a major U.S. political party for governor of Georgia. She was also the first Black woman to deliver a response to a president’s State of the Union address.
• Chisholm became the first Black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress and, four years later, the first African American of any gender to run for president of the United States on a major party ticket. She was also the first woman of any race to run for president on the Democratic Party ticket.
• Harris became the first Black woman district attorney of San Francisco and the first Black woman attorney general of California. She was the first Black woman U.S. senator from California. And she is the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to become vice president of the United States.

These incredible women represent the ongoing struggle to achieve true economic and political power. Without it, women will continue to be denied the opportunity to be heard, to make a difference, and to help shape our futures and that of the nation. Harris, Chisholm, Abrams, and Truth have earned their place in history through their passionate pursuit of goals bigger than their own ambitions, using their power to inspire and establish long-lasting change for the benefit of all.

—Martha Y. Zavala