
          Organizing for Empowerment: The National Political Congress of
Black Women
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 7, No. 3, 1985, pp. 5-9
          
          
            Excerpts and Observations
            Shirley Chisolm, president of the National
Political Congress of Black Women: Ever since we started to put this
organization together last August and September we've felt that
Spelman-the oldest black_woman's college in this country-was the place
to hold the first assembly of the National Political Congress of Black
Women.
            Black women have decided that the time has now come for our
political empowerment as a group to be reckoned with. We no longer
need and will not accept surrogates speaking for us. As a result of
what happened last year in the Democratic Convention we came to the
realization that even though we have been very involved in all kinds
of alliances and groups, we had no real political clout of our
own. Our sisters came back from that convention and decided, "Never
again."
            Here, in the fiftieth year of the founding of the National Council
of Negro Women, we are founding the National Political Congress of
Black Women. Representatives from twenty-nine states are here,
approximately 450 women in attendance. This Congress is a non-partisan
organization. It is an organization in which to belong you don't have
to come from a certain social class. Today, we see grassroots black
women, the backbone of their communities, here running for the board,
getting up and speaking.
            Mabel Thomas of Atlanta, youngest member of
the Georgia General_Assembly, board member of the NPCBW: I think this
organization has come together out of the dissatisfaction felt by
black_women at the Democratic National Convention in San
Francisco. During the convention, black_women were ignored. Their
votes were not lobbied for or respected. We could not even get Shirley
Chisolm's name put on the floor as a vice-presidential candidate. The
machine that was in place didn't want to look at the issues facing
black_women, they just wanted black_women to vote with them.
            Hazel Obey, a national boardmember from Austin
Texas: I worked with Jesse Jackson's campaign as field director for
the state of Texas. When we got to the National Democratic Convention
in San Francisco there was a concern there that a woman needed to be
on the ballot. Yet when a vice-presidential was being considered, and
although there were many qualified black_women, none were
interviewed. Out of that incident grew the concerns about forming this
organization.
            We have eight delegates here from Austin. Nobody had their way paid
here. Everybody came out of their own pockets.
            Our problems as black_women are unique, different from those of
white_women. Even though I belong to the National 

Women's Political
Caucus-the "Anglo Caucus"-we need to have a group like this where we
can come together as black_women and deal with the problems we
have. It gives us credibility and clout with which to be recognized. I
hope that we can go back home and do some chapter building and some
coalition building.
            C. Delores Tucker, first vice-president NPCBW:
The theme of our assembly this weekend is "Organizing for
Empowerment." Among our several missions is that of making certain
that black_women understand how to effectively involve themselves in
the political process, how to run for elective office and how to
achieve their parity within the appointive processes of our political
divisions.
            There are ten million black_women of voting age in this
country. Seven million are registered and three million are
unregistered. Over half of these unregistered black_women are under
thirty-five. Our mission is to register these unregistered. Sixty
percent of black_women voted in 1984, the largest percentage of any
single group voting in that election.
            There is no other national organization of black_women that has as
its priority political empowerment. Within the next year we plan to
develop this Congress within twentyfive states. By the year 2000 we
hope will have more than 100,000 members and a thousand
chapters. Building strong chapters of the Congress will provide a
training ground. We will develop a political action committee through
which by the year 2000 we intend to have $10 million.
            We will develop a dialogue with both political parties.
            We will endorse candidates. We intend to provide finance for our
romance with the political system. We intend to develop and encourage
black_women to run for office at all levels. Even though we have the
highest percentage of any group that participated last year, we have
only twenty-nine.
            black female mayors, seventy-five state legislators, fourteen state
senators and one member of Congress.
            Eleanor Holmes Norton, professor of law at
Georgetown University and a founder of the NPCBW: I've been counsel to
this Congress during its formation and I am pleased to report that the
black_women who have gotten together here have recognized that law is
inferior to substance. We have passed by-laws in a shorter time and
with more gusto than any organization I have ever heard of. We took
only four or five hours to do what organizations usually take weeks to
accomplish. The birth of this Congress signals another crossroads for
black_people in a journey through the American political process.
            Carrie Prioleau, teacher, Sumter, South
Carolina: I believe that the goal of the National Political Congress
of Black Women to reach a large number of black_women in the United
States is excellent and I am with the organization. After I saw the
list of names of the ladies who were a part of this Congress, knowing
what they stand for, I wanted to become involved and be a part of
moving our people on into political areas.
            I hope to go back to Sumter and help organize a chapter of the
Congress there. So many times we have capable people who want to run
for positions and they do not have the funds to do so. This
organization can help such women and the community.
             Dorothy Height, the president of the National
Council of Negro Women: Mary McLeod Bethune always gave two
messages. One was that we need to work together. And that's what this
Congress is about. And the other was that we have to make our impact
upon the political machinery. It's been a long time coming, but I
think the time is now.
            There are many organizations represented here this weekend. But the
uniqueness of this Congress is that we 

will be able to go directly to
the heart of the political machinery, to endorse candidates, to select
candidates, to promote candidates, to raise funds and to speak for
ourselves.
            I hope the message will go back to the members of the organizations
represented here that we all need to be in this Congress no matter
what else we are. Our power comes not from others, but from
ourselves.
          
          
            Highlights from the NPCB Workshop on Civil Rights 
            Mary Frances Berry , law and history professor
at Howard University, member of US Commission on Civil Rights: Right
now we are in a crisis condition, a hardening of the arteries, on
civil_rights issues. Mr. Reagan's election was symptomatic of the
change which has occurred in the country. We have seen the attempt to
give tax exemption to schools that discriminate on the basis of
race--the Bob Jones case. We have seen the change in interpretation of
Title VI of the Civil_Rights_Act of 1964, which is the section that
says you can't give federal money to institutions that discriminate on
the basis of race. And on the basis of sex, in Title IX. We have
arrived, in the area of fair housing, at a position in which anyone
who brings a complaint has to prove that not only did people not sell
you a house, but they intended not to sell it to you because you were
black. And in voting_rights we had a long struggle to get the Voting
Rights Act re-authorized in 1982. Imagine, having to fight about that
here in the 1980s.
            Mr. William Bradford Reynolds, the assistant attorney general for
civil_rights in the Justice_Department, is working to see that more
than fifty cities and jurisdictions get rid of their affirmative
action plans under which women and minorities have been hired in jobs
in police and fire departments.
            In the Commission on Civil Rights, we have seen since 1980 the
Commission trashed and demobilized in its effectiveness as an advocate
for justice. I had a dinner one night about two weeks ago with two old
war horses of the civil_rights movement in Washington. They were there
in 1957 when Congress passed the Civil_Rights_Act creating the Civil
Rights Commission. They were telling me that the Commission was set up
to advocate the rights of blacks. They were wondering why everybody
has forgotten that.
            The Civil Rights Commission is no longer an advocate for the cause
of civil_rights, but is a mouthpiece, a watchdog, an outhouse for the
White_House. The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1985 still sits
before the Congress. It would restore Title VI and Title IX and Title
IV to what they were before the Reagan Administration succeeded in
having them watered down. Now, as we sit here, institutions can get
federal money and continue to discriminate on the basis of sex and
race. The National Political Congress of Black Women puts itself
behind the passage of this Act.
            The Black Family Plan is advocated by the Black Leadership
Roundtable. This is a proposal that we have private, affirmative
action plans of our own. If the Justice_Department isn't going to
enforce affirmative_action, then we ought to enforce it ourselves. One
way for us to do that is to go to these companies and corporations and
hotels where we have conventions and to insist that they do something
about the employment of our people if they want to keep our
business. We must monitor them, give them ratings as to how well they
do, then publicize our findings.
            We also put ourselves behind the direct action strategies of the
people in the Free South_Africa movement. The example of trying to
change public policy on the issue of apartheid in South_Africa shows
that an effective political strategy must involve both electoral
politics and direct action. We also support the passage of the
Anti-apartheid Act of 1985 in the US Congress.
             Angela Davis, board member NPCBW; teacher,
San Francisco State University: Yesterday, when we were trying to get
this workshop on civil_rights organized, Dr. Berry feared that it
might not be very well attended since there is such an emphasis at
this meeting as to how to run as a candidate and on the electoral
arena. But when we came in for the first session, the room was packed
and it has remained packed for all three sessions. The fact that this
workshop is so well attended is an indication of our 

awareness of the
need to combine the kind of direct action protests that Mary was
talking about with the electoral strategy. Historically, that is the
only way that black_people have ever been able to win any gains. We
have had to get out there and mobilize people, marching,
demonstrating, picketing and boycotting. We understand that it is not
enough to focus simply on getting elected and functioning as elected
officials, however important that may be.
            This is a very dangerous era. We've witnessed in recent years an
intensification of racism that has been instigated by the most racist
and most sexist president in the history of this country. 'We've
already talked about the attack on the Civil Rights Commission--on
Dr. Berry herself--and the attack on affirmative_action. There also has
been a concerted assault on working people in general and because
black_people--and black_women--are in our vast majority workers, we have
received the brunt of the union busting strategy of the Reagan
Administration. We have to realize the absolute importance now of
developing organizing skills. We must talk about the importance of
developing a mass movement. We can want to see a protest movement
reemerge, but it's not going to happen if we do not know how to build
that movement.
            People who do not have the experience of the 1950s and '60s are
sometimes under the impression that that movement just
happened. Somehow black_people reached a point where they were fed up
and the whole thing exploded. Well, black_people have been fed up for
as long as we have been in this country. I can remember as a child
growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, what our attitude was toward the
segregated buses. We used to sit in the front of the bus. I can even
remember friends that were arrested for doing that. But when Rosa
Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, there was an organization
behind her action.
            Rosa Parks had attended a meeting similar to this one prior to
refusing to sit in the back of the bus. There was a women's political
council in Montgomery, headed by a woman named Jo Ann Robinson. And
there were a lot of unnamed women who organized that bus boycott
movement. They already had a leaflet prepared when Rosa Parks was
arrested.
            I could speak for hours about my own case and how the movement for
my freedom developed. It was very well organized. There were some
two-hundred committees across this country and that's the only reason
I'm free today. People may know my name, but they do not know the
names of those people who called those meetings, who put out the
leaflets, who organized the demonstrations, who developed the petition
campaign. As organized black_women we have the potential for making an
absolutely indispensable contribution to this era which lies before
us.
            Dorothy Height: The whole effort to free South
Africa is related to our civil_rights. I was the guest of the Black
Women's Federation of South_Africa four years ago at their
convention. To show you how the system operates, I have never been on
the front page of a paper. Yet I was on the front page of
Johannesburg's Rand newspaper, in color, leading a discussion group of
the Black Women's Federation. Seeing that you would get the impression
that this was a very liberal, very welcoming climate.
            I can assure you I was treated so well. Friends there said to me,
"You know of course that you will be given the best treatment
because you are here under such observance that you are really an
honorary white."
            Two weeks after I left South_Africa, the Federation was banned.
            Now those women had come there against every kind of difficulty,
including the fear of traveling in groups. But every province except
Capetown got there and the Capetown people's bus broke down along the
way. Three hundred women risked their lives and came to that'
meeting. They were really concerned about what is happening to
themselves and their children under apartheid.
            I think black_women have to speak out about what the impact of
apartheid is on the whole society. But also its impact on women and
children. On the sixteenth of June we commemorate the massacre at
Soweto, a massacre of children. When we talk about the free South
Africa movement, we're talking about something very closely related to
us, but it is not the same as our civil_rights. Those people don't
want to have the privilege of going to the park or sitting anywhere on
the bus. That's not what their fight is about. Theirs is about
governing themselves in a country in which they are a majority. I
think we have a mission to help people, black and white, in our
country to understand this.
            I once heard Benjamin Mays say to a group of YWCA women in the days
before Brown versus Board of Education, "the time is always right
for justice and if you believe in 

justice then your job is to ripen
the time." And we've got to ripen the time.
          
          
            The State of Black Women
            Shirley Chisolm : How exciting it is to stand
before you this morning and recognize that black_women in the last
part of this century have come to the realization that our time has
come. I remember a few years ago when I said to several of my black
sisters that it would be very necessary for us to bring ourselves
together and speak out forcefully and assertively on matters of
concern. I remember so vividly how many of our sisters felt at the
time. "Shirley, we cannot move in that direction because certain
elements would begin to question our motivation."
            Now, whenever white_women begin to organize them selves, whenever
white_men begin to organize themselves, and whenever black_men begin
to organize themselves, there is not this kind of concern and this
kind of question as to the motivation. But when black_women begin to
organize themselves, everybody sits up wanting to know "What are
you all up to?"
            Upon the basis of my observations and experiences of many years I
sincerely believe that the reason so many persons become visibly
concerned about the potential emergence of the black_woman as a
political force is because historically they know that we are
resilient, we are strong, we have the stamina, the audacity, the
courage, the perseverance to change this country.
            Today the black_woman deserves nothing less than the full equality
which is supposedly the birthright of every American. As Dr. King has
said, "We are through with tokenism and gradualism and
see-how-far-we've-come-ism." We can't wait any longer.
            For as long as we live, we fight. When the day comes for which
there is nothing to battle, my sisters, that day is the day that you
lay yourselves down and just die. We fight for a living, for a new way
of life, for a spiritual blessing, for hope and strength. We fight for
better health so that we may continue to fight harder. The first
battle we fight is for belief in ourselves and we find that it comes
to us while we are still battling. For we know about the legacy of
starving to death while working for the minimum wage. We know about
the legacy of watching helplessly as our babies were torn from our
breasts. We know about the legacy of grandchildren of the
oppressor. The history is there. The black_woman has had to remain a
pillar of strength against insurmountable odds.
            The realities of our time are very difficult to face. Many have no
desire to cope at all. Others are resigned to live only with the
status quo. Well, we black_women assembled here in Atlanta have no
intention of living with the status quo.  Some of us have faced the
alienation of our family and our friends. Some of us have given up
certain comforts and pleasures that there for the asking, some have
endured cruel and viscious criticisms.
            Will black_woman power in the tradition of our sisters who
proceeded us remain a vital force in current history or are we just
going to sit back in our armchairs, not daring to accept the new
challenges that confront us? Our conscience tells us that we must
act.
            It is our hope that the National Political Congress for Black Women
will become the instrument for gaining the collective clout that we
need in order to become an integral part of the decisions and plans
that affect our lives and the lives of our children. We must be about
the business of talking about the necessity for more day care centers
in this country. Only women will go into the legislative chambers and
not be afraid to stand up and fight for the most important thing that
we have in this country. Fight for the preservation of conservation of
our children.
            The time has come when--in terms of what is happening to us at this
very moment in America--we can no longer sit back and be the quiescent
and complacent.
            Black women should be speaking out more. We should be much more
evident at the many kinds of public hearings that take place in our
cities and in our nation. We must testify about how the military
budget has a deleterious impact on the quality of our lives and the
lives of our families. Our nation has to be brought to new principles
by a new generation of women who are fighters, because the war that is
being waged on our homefront today is truly a war for the elevation of
humanity.
          
          
            Sisters Chapel, Spelman College Campus,
Atlanta. June 7-9,1985.
          
        
