Thousands descended in Washington, D.C., for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference.
Like every conference, affectionately known as “CBC Week,” the caucus, which is its largest in history with 60 members, hosted several panels on various policy issues impacting Black communities across the country, from voting rights and the economy to Black maternal health and public safety.
“It is more than just a conference. It is a catalyst for change,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell during Wednesday’s opening press conference.
Sewell, who serves as board chair of CBCF, added, “As we prepare for an exciting few days, we do so at a very pivotal moment in American history.”
This year’s “From Vision to Victory” makes clear that the caucus’ main focus – in addition to empowering Black America – is to ensure victory in November’s general election. Democrats are working to win back the House of Representatives and elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the first female, first Black female, and first Indian president of the United States.
If successful, it will mark a pivotal moment for the Congressional Black Caucus, as U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would become the first Black speaker of the House. Moreover, Harris, a former CBC member, would mark the second time that a former caucus member entered the White House (President Barack Obama is also a former member).
“I think that she definitely prizes the thought partnership of the CBC, and I think she will lean on them heavily to sort of help her sort through some of the issues to address,” LaShawn Warren, chief policy officer at Southern Poverty Law Center, told theGrio.
Warren, who participated on a panel Friday on how civic engagement can strengthen Democracy across the Deep South, said the “stakes are high” this year for the CBC, as right-wing and Republican leaders and organizations target diversity, equity and inclusion programs in education and business. The movement against DEI has also resulted in book bans on Black authors and censorship of Black history in public classrooms.
“It underscores the need for sound leadership. It also underscores the need for us to have a strategy and concentrated effort to improve ladders of economic opportunity,” said Warren.
The policy expert said the attacks on DEI are a “distraction” and that CBC leadership must “use their platform and bully pulpit” to hold corporations accountable and “adhere to the civil rights laws that are already on the books” to ensure agencies like the Department of Justice are “diligent” and “intentional” about “enforcing” them.
On Monday, the CBC released its “Corporate Accountability Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” which calls on Fortune 500 corporations to reaffirm their commitments to DEI, update on racial equity investments, and work with the CBC to create legislative solutions that will help close the racial wealth gap.
“We cannot allow a handful of right-wing agitators to bully corporations, and this report offers corporate America a guide to strengthening their diversity practices,” CBC chairman U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said in a statement.
“This report is the initial step in a strategic effort to ensure the tools of economic opportunity are protected as we work to advance our Black wealth and economic prosperity agenda in the next Congress to close the Black-white wealth gap in America.”
This week, the Fearless Fund, a capital venture firm, closed its $20,000 grant program for Black women-owned businesses after a lawsuit filed by conservative litigant Edward Blum sought to open the grant to white women and other minority groups. It claimed the grant exclusively for Black women was discriminatory.
Several such lawsuits have emerged after the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action programs at U.S. colleges and universities last year.
Sakira Cook, federal policy director at Southern Poverty Law Center, noted that such programs and civil rights laws were “put in place to redress long-standing discrimination that existed in housing, in education and employment, in financial services, access to for small businesses, to loans.”
Cook told theGrio, “What we’re seeing is a retrenchment by extremists on the right to pull back those protections as a mechanism to eliminate Black and brown power that is being built and have been built over time.”
Harris’ potential rise to the presidency is critical for the success of the CBC’s legislative agenda, which includes advancing economic policies to close the racial wealth gap. The caucus also wants to see key legislation drafted by CBC members passed into law, like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, told theGrio that a potential President Kamala Harris would likely lean on the CBC, much like President Joe Biden did in passing bills like the Emmett Till Antilynching Act and making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
“If you accept the premise that Black voters are the most loyal and the most dependable bloc of voters in the Democratic coalition, then, like the people who represent them overwhelmingly, they are going to play an outsized role,” said Payne.
“They have, frankly, many times kind of offered a steady hand when the Democratic Party has kind of been in difficult situations,” he added. “And I would imagine for that to continue going forward.”
Noting Harris’s historic nomination at last month’s Democratic National Convention, Nicole Austin-Hillery, president and CEO of CBCF, said, “We are a part of that history, and we are carrying on with our mission to empower the global Black community.”
“After all, we are known as the conscience of the Congress,” Austin-Hillery said of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“The work of our members has expanded access to health care, lifted families out of poverty, created opportunities in education and employment,” she added. “Our work is more than just about policy. It is about changing lives.”
