Upper Marlboro, Maryland, resident Eula Keen Woods has lived in the Washington area for nearly 18 years, but this is the first year she has attended the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s (CBCF) Annual Legislative Conference (ALC).
“Some friends of mine finally convinced me I need to come,” said Woods, sitting in the front row of a column of seats with two of her friends, sporting a pink and green outfit signifying her membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Woods was joined by hundreds of people in Ballroom A of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest D.C. to listen to the speakers at the ALC’s National Town Hall on Sept. 12. The theme of the event was “Pathways to Prosperity: Advancing Democracy and Black Economic Opportunity.”
“I am here to learn about how I can be more active and what I need to do,” she said. “I like what I see from the conference so far with all of the presentations and it has been a valuable learning experience. This town hall meeting will help decide what I can do for my people.”
In her introductory remarks, Nicole Austin-Hillery, president and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said that while Black people have made progress economically and politically in recent decades, more must be done.
“We can point to progress, but we cannot look back,” said Austin-Hillery.
The First Panel
Noted television journalist Don Lemon served as the moderator for the two panels.
The first panel consisted of such speakers as LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund; Michael McAfee, president and CEO of PolicyLink; Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP and Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell.
McAfee said America faces a vexing problem due to race.
“What do you do when the national population never loved those who will become the majority,” he asked rhetorically, inferring that America is on track to become a majority nation of color during the 2040s.
McAfee added that any move in political power in the U.S. must be rooted in love to be effective.
Johnson also discussed the statistics that reveal white Americans will be in the minority in the coming decades.
“There is a fear out there,” the NAACP president and CEO said. “They are running out of white people.”
He explained that Harlem New York, once considered the capital of Black America, “is no longer Black” and “D.C. is looking at its last mayor,” insinuating that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser could be the last African American to hold that position because of the city’s growing white population.
Brown emphasized there’s a lot at stake affecting Black Americans, including the right to vote.
“The rollback on voter protections has started,” Brown said. “They started the rollbacks when they gutted Section 5, the preclearance provision, of The Voting Rights Act in 2013… This is why Congress must pass The John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to protect everyone’s right to vote.”
McGill Johnson said 22 states have initiated restrictions on a woman’s right to an abortion since the Dobbs decision relegated policy on the issue to the states. She said the Dobbs decision has impacted women of color more than it has white women.
Ahmad Blair, a junior political science major at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina, attended the first panel and was impressed with what he heard.
“This panel was very informative,” Blair, 20, said. “There must be something tangible to be done in order for Blacks to continue to have political power.”
The Second Panel
The economics of the Black community was the focus of the second panel with Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum pointing out the importance of financial literacy.
“In the 1960s, the white-Black wealth ratio was 8 to 1,” said David, 54. “Today, the ratio is 12 to 1. One of the things we need to do is to talk to our young people more about finances. White families tend to talk to their children about balance sheets, interest rates and bank accounts and we need to do the same.”
John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, an organization that supports financial literacy and empowerment of African Americans. Bryant said Black America presently is going through its Third Reconstruction.
“There was the first Reconstruction after slavery, the second Reconstruction after the civil rights movement and this is the third Reconstruction where we are focusing on economic rights,” said Bryant, 58. “Financial literacy is the civil rights issue of this generation. Black capitalists matter!”
U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada) serves as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Horsford said Black people have power in the U.S.
“Because we drive the economy because we drive culture,” Horsford, 51, said. “Black people must move from being consumers to ownership.”
Horsford said the CBC will formally introduce a plan for Black wealth in the new Congress that will convene in January 2025, adding that he hopes there will be a Democratic majority at that time.
“The Black wealth plan has the support of 100% of the Congressional Black Caucus,” he said.