[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 47 (Monday, March 19, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E338-E339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        YEAR OF THE BLACK WOMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. TERRI A. SEWELL

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 19, 2018

  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the black 
women in our country who have, for decades, led this nation's fight for 
justice without the recognition they deserve.
  Some are calling 2018 the year of the black woman. This year, black 
women are proving the strength of their voice at the ballot box, black 
women are running for office in record numbers, and black women are 
leading movements against sexual harassment and police violence. But I 
believe that 2018 is the year of the black woman because, after decades 
of activism and advocacy, this is our year to give black women the 
recognition they deserve.
  As we celebrate women's history month, let's reflect on the fact that 
today's story of the suffrage movement so often imagines America's 
suffragettes as uniformly white. That was not the case. From Sojourner 
Truth to Nannie Helen Burroughs, we must remember the courageous black 
women who stood up for their right to vote.
  Let us remember Ida B. Wells, who led the fight for women's rights 
but was asked to march at the back of the women's suffrage parade 
because she was black. She refused, she persisted, and she marched with 
her state's delegation for her right to vote.
  Black women have not only led our nation's fight for justice for 
decades, but they have understood the true nature of injustice for just 
as long.
  Today's social justice movements have taken ahold of the concept of 
intersectionality--the fact that race, class and gender, do not exist 
separately but create interwoven systems of discrimination.
  It was a black woman--Kimberle Crenshaw--who originally coined the 
term ``intersectionality'' in 1989. But even before intersectionality 
was a word, it was black women who knew the truth about the injustices 
of discrimination in America.
  It was 1893 when a black suffragette named Anna Julia Cooper said,
  ``The colored woman feels that woman's cause is one and universal; 
and that not till the image of God, whether in parian or ebony, is 
sacred and inviolable; not till race, color, sex, and condition are 
seen as the accidents, and not the substance of life; not till the 
universal title of humanity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness is conceded to be inalienable to all; not till then is 
woman's lesson taught and woman's cause won.''
  Generations of black women have fought, bled and died for their right 
to vote. And so many of these heroes are from my home state of Alabama. 
It was the death of four little black girls in the bombing of 
Birmingham's 16th St. Baptist Church that awakened our nation to the 
realities of violent racism. Heroes like Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks, 
Claudette Colvin and Autherine Lucy Foster--to name only a few--stood 
up against brut violence to build a world where men and women of every 
race and class have the opportunities they deserve.
  As we celebrate Women's History Month, we must not only remember the 
sacrifices they made, but the work that remains to be done

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in their fight for justice. These women passed onto us the rights and 
the opportunities that we enjoy today, but they also handed down a 
responsibility to carry on their work, fighting not just for women, not 
just for African Americans, but for all people, against all injustice.
  Today, I'm proud to see so many black women leading that fight. From 
the Black Lives Matter movement to the Me Too movement, their 
contributions and their leadership are changing the way our society 
understands and addresses discrimination and injustice.
  This Women's History Month, in the Year of the Black Woman, I want to 
use this moment to recognize the countless black women who have spent 
their lives fighting to make America live up to its ideals, as well as 
all those black women who are still alive today carrying on that fight.

                          ____________________