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Congressional Caucus On Black Women And Girls Announced

By Nisa Islam Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: May 11, 2016 - 9:45:29 AM

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WASHINGTON—Before a standing-room only crowd at the Library of Congress Congresswomen Robin R. Kelly (D-IL), Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-NJ) and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) announced the launch of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls. The initiative is dedicated to developing public policy that will investigate and eliminate barriers that persist in marginalizing Black women that make them disproportionately vulnerable to violence and to creation of more opportunities to help them thrive.

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It is the brainchild of the group #SheWoke which includes Sharon Cooper, the sister of Sandra Bland, who died while in police custody in 2015. The group approached Rep. Kelly and asked her to do something specific for Black women and girls considering their dire circumstances.

Black women are almost three times as likely to experience death as a result of Domestic Violence or Intimate Partner Violence (DV/IPV) than White women. And, while Black women only make up 8 percent of the population, 22 percent of homicides that result from DV/IPV happen to Black women, making it one of the leading causes of death for Black women ages 15 to 35.

Sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before reaching the age of 18, according to an ongoing study conducted by Black Women’s Blueprint.

Black women and girls are the most vulnerable group targeted for sex trafficking with 94 percent of confirmed sex trafficking victims in cases investigated being female and 40 percent were Black

This new caucus will have all the same rights and privileges of the other Congressional Caucuses such as the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, Congressional Caucus on Women in the Military and Congressional Disaster Relief Caucus.

“This is all about us by us,” said Rep. Watson-Coleman, “I am looking forward to consistent work to hear from experts around the country.  There’s been a vacuum around the country about Black women and girls.  Now three African American women in Congress have come together to do this.”

The Reps. Kelly, Watson-Coleman and Clarke will serve as co-chairs for the new caucus.  The April 28 launch included panel presentations featuring a ‘whose who’ of Black women committed to the needs and concerns of their community.

“Many call it Black Girl Magic because it seems we can do what no one else can or will do. We seem to bear burdens heavier, run races faster, and absorb brutality more stinging than ought to be possible given how few resources are at our disposal. The legacy of Black women’s lives and labors show an unprecedented capacity to survive in hostile conditions,” said Melissa Harris Perry, the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forrest University.

“This is not magic. It is grinding work that exacts deep costs from Black girls and women. Yes, Black women have long made lemonade from the lemons life handed them. The problem is somebody usually sat down and drank it after she made it. That is not justice,” she added.

The audience was deeply moved by the remarks of Sandra Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal.  She asked the audience to raise their hands if they knew the names of the other six women who also died while in police custody during the month of July last year along with Sandra Bland.  Very few hands were raised.

“That is a problem,” she said.  “You all are among the walking dead, and I am so glad that I have come out from among you. I heard about Trayvon, I heard about all the shootings, and it did not bother me until it hit my daughter. I was walking dead just like you until Sandra Bland died in a jail cell in Texas,” said Ms. Reed-Veal.

“Take two minutes and Google the other six that died in jail. We’re not talking about that year; we’re talking about the month of July, 18-50 years old. Kindra Chapman allegedly stole a cell phone; 20 hours later she hung herself; Alexis McGovern downstairs in the infirmary dead, her family upstairs paying the bond. Nobody has spoken these names,” she continued.

“As I go around the country speaking, the fact that no pen is raised in a room, where six other women, aside from my daughter, have died, and nobody knows their names. That’s a problem.”

National Black Women’s Justice Institute co-founder Monique Morris and author of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, told the audience that Black girls are the only group most disproportionately affected by high numbers of corporal punishment, in school suspension, out of school suspension, and arrest.

The launch also included Joanne Smith, founder of Girls for Gender Equity, Tracy Sturdivant, Co-Founder of Make It Work and Kimberle Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School.

Beverly Bond, former Wilhelmina model and founder of Black Girls Rock said, “I created Black Girls Rock on the premise that the life of each individual Black girl needs to be cherished, acknowledged and protected.”

“Our young Black girls need to know that they matter and they need to see examples of success, leadership, achievement, sisterhood and humanitarianism in abundance so that they can  gain confidence in their own ability to become trailblazers and change agents,” said Ms. Bond.