Black women at the helm of the 2016 Democratic Convention

1st August 2016   ·   0 Comments

When Florida representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down as chair of the Democratic National Committee on the eve of the Democratic convention, in the wake of a scandal involving DNC-leaked emails that suggested party officials preferred Hillary Clinton and not Bernie Sanders, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio stepped in to fill the void.

Joining her at the helm were native Louisianan Donna Brazile who acted as interim Democratic National Committee chair and Leah Daughtry, who was, for the second time, CEO of the convention.

“We have three Black women now running this convention,” Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition of Black Civil Participation, told NBCBLK, which is a black-oriented website of NBC.

The Democrats went on to make more history in nominating Hillary Clinton. She is the first woman to receive a major party’s presidental nomination.

Clinton, however, is not the first female to run for the highest office in the U,S. According to the Smithsonian, the number of women that have sought the office tops 200 and includes Rep. Shirley Chisholm who rain in 1972 and former Sen. Carol Mosley Braun in 2004.

This article originally published in the August 1, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.