Black History Month is a great time to remember the leaders of our past and celebrate the warriors of the present.
We've highlighted some of the "Men to Watch" who will probably be the important Black leaders of the next generation. It's time now for the ladies, "Black Women on the Move" who are ready and able to lead.
Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is an American politician, the 49th and current Mayor of Baltimore City. She is the second woman to hold the office. A member of the Democratic Party, she currently serves as secretary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Vice President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is an American politician, the 49th and current Mayor of Baltimore City. She is the second woman to hold the office. A member of the Democratic Party, she currently serves as secretary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Vice President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Born March 17, 1970, she is the daughter of Nina Rawlings, M.D., a pediatrician and
Howard "Pete" Rawlings, former member of the Maryland House of
Delegates. Rawlings-Blake attended Western High School, the oldest public
all-girls high school in the United States. In 1984, she was elected vice
president of her class. She graduated in 1988 and attended Oberlin
College in Ohio, graduating in 1992 with a B.A. in Political Science. She later
returned to Baltimore to attend the University of Maryland School of Law where
she earned her Juris Doctor in 1995. She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in
1996 and to the Federal Bar in 1997.
In 1995, Rawlings-Blake became the youngest person ever
elected to the Baltimore City Council. From 1999 to 2007, she served
as vice president of the Baltimore City Council. she became
President of the Council on January 17, 2007 when then-City Council President
Sheila Dixon became mayor. On January 6, 2010, then-Mayor Sheila Dixon
announced, following her conviction for embezzlement, that she would resign
from office, effective February 4, 2010. In
the case of a mayoral vacancy, the sitting city council president succeeds the vacating mayor and serve the remainder of the term.
Consequently, following Dixon's resignation, Rawlings-Blake
became mayor of Baltimore City.
To address the challenges outlined in an independent fiscal
forecast, Rawlings-Blake presented Change to Grow: A Ten-Year Financial Plan
for Baltimore, the City’s first long-range financial plan. Among other major
reforms, the plan outlined proposed changes to Baltimore City’s employee
pensions and benefits system, City tax structure, and overall municipal
operations. By implementing elements of this plan, Baltimore City has been able
to extinguish $300 million from a cumulative budgetary shortfall forecasted at
approximately $750 million.
At the time she took office, Baltimore City had
approximately 16,000 vacant buildings, resulting from a half-century of
population decline. In November 2010, in an effort to reduce urban blight
caused by vacant structures, Mayor Rawlings-Blake introduced the Vacants to
Value (V2V) initiative. The initiative's strategies include streamlining code
enforcement and disposition of City-owned vacant properties, offering
incentives targeted at home buyers who purchase previously vacant homes,
supporting large-scale redevelopment in deeply distressed areas, and targeting
demolition to improve long-term property values.
Kamala Devi Harris
Kamala D. Harris is the 32nd Attorney General of the State of California. She is the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian- American to hold the office in the history of California.
Born in Oakland, California, she is the daughter of an Indian mother, a breast cancer specialist who emigrated from Chennai, India, to the United States in 1960 and a Jamaican American father, Stanford University economics professor Donald Harris.
Attorney General Harris received her undergraduate degree from Howard University and her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. As chief law enforcement officer for the State of California, Attorney General Harris has focused on combating transnational gangs; increasing the adoption of technology and data-driven policing by law enforcement; and improving public safety by reducing recidivism. Following the national mortgage crisis, Attorney General Harris secured more than $20 billion for struggling California homeowners from the nation’s banks and wrote the nation’s most comprehensive package of foreclosure reforms.
Harris has been mentioned as a possible nominee for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, should a seat on that court become vacant during the second Obama administration. In September 2014 when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Harris was speculated as being a potential candidate as the next United States Attorney General. Harris addressed the speculation in a statement days after Holder's resignation, declining any intent to take the office and asserted she was staying in her position as Attorney General of California. Two months later in November 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to succeed Holder. On November 10, Harris issued a statement regarding the nomination, approving of President Obama's decision and praising Lynch while also reaffirming her choice to remain working with the U.S. Department of Justice.
After the announcement by Democrat Barbara Boxer that she would retire from the U.S. Senate at the end of her term in 2017 after serving as California's junior senator for four terms, Kamala Harris was the first candidate to declare she would vie for the seat. Media outlets reported Harris would run for Senate on the same day that Gavin Newsom, California's lieutenant governor and a close ally of Harris, announced he would not seek to succeed Boxer. She officially announced the launch of her campaign on January 13, 2015. In the announcement, Harris said “I’m launching my campaign to represent the people of California in the United States Senate”.
Loretta Lynch
Loretta Lynch
Recently, President Obama nominated Loretta E. Lynch, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, to be the next attorney general. Eric H. Holder Jr., the current attorney general, who has announced his plans to step down. If confirmed, Ms. Lynch would be the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
As United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Ms. Lynch oversees federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who twice recommended Ms. Lynch to the White House as a United States attorney, called for her “swift confirmation”.
“Loretta Lynch is a consummate professional, has a first-rate legal mind and is committed in her bones to the equal application of justice for all people,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.
Ms. Lynch, born in Greensboro, N.C., has undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. After graduating from law school in 1984, she spent six years as an associate at the New York law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel before becoming a federal prosecutor. She became the chief assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1998 and was nominated a year later to lead the office for the rest of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Before returning in 2010, she was a partner at Hogan & Hartson, now known as Hogan Lovells.
Her office is known for its work on organized crime, terrorism and public corruption. It has prosecuted the planner of a subway bombing plot, Mafia members and public officials, including Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican, and State Senator John L. Sampson, former State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., Democrats.
Her office has also worked aggressively on gang-related cases, including winning a rare death-penalty conviction for Ronell Wilson, who killed a police officer.
Ms. Lynch gained prominence for her work prosecuting members of the New York Police Department for the 1997 case in which a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, was beaten and sodomized with a broom handle. The case became a national symbol of police brutality.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has publicly declared his opposition to Ms. Lynch’s confirmation. Paul isn’t a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee so he didn’t sit in on the hearings. He joins Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) in announcing his opposition. Cruz has called on Senate Republicans to join together in public opposition to Lynch’s nomination until Obama reverses his executive amnesty.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has assured a floor vote in the Senate for the Lynch nomination. The support of even a few Republicans in the Senate, potentially Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) or Jeff Flake (R-AZ) could ensure Lynch’s confirmation even if all the other Republicans vote no.
Ludmya Bourdeau "Mia" Love is a Haitian-American politician and the U.S.
Representative of Utah's 4th congressional district. She was Mayor of Saratoga
Springs, Utah from 2010 to 2014, Love is the first Haitian American and the
first black female Republican in Congress, as well as the first black person to
be elected to Congress from Utah.
Love was the
Republican nominee for the 4th congressional district in 2012, losing narrowly
to incumbent Democratic Representative Jim Matheson. She was a speaker at the
2012 Republican National Convention. In her speech she also stated, "Mr.
President, I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in
2012." In August 2012, the National Journal named Love one of "Ten
Republicans to follow on Twitter".
On May 18, 2013, Love said that she would run again in 2014.
Nationally, Love received campaign support from 2012 Republican Presidential
nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor,
House Budget Committee Chairman and 2012 Republican Vice Presidential nominee
Paul Ryan and Speaker of the House John Boehner. In August 2013, Love was
chosen by Newsmax as an "Up and Comer" in their list of top "25
Influential Women of the GOP". In early 2014 Love was made a member of the
Republican National Committee's National Advisory Council on African-American
outreach. She won the Republican
nomination at the April 26, 2014 Utah Republican convention and was elected to
the House of Representatives on November 4, 2014, defeating Democratic opponent
Doug Owens.
With the start of the new congress, Love was appointed to
the House Financial Services Committee. She joined the Congressional Black
Caucus in January 2015. She had said that if elected to Congress, she would
“join the Congressional Black Caucus and try to take that thing apart from the
inside out.” She has described the mainly Democratic Caucus as characterized by
“...demagoguery. They sit there and ignite emotions and ignite racism when
there isn’t. They use their positions to instill fear. Hope and change is
turned into fear and blame. Fear that everybody is going to lose everything and
blaming Congress for everything instead of taking responsibility."
A Tea Party conservative, Love says she favors "fiscal
discipline, limited government, and personal responsibility." She has also
said that she asks herself three questions whenever she approaches an issue:
"Is it affordable? Is it sustainable? Is it my job?" At her college
orientation, Love's father told her: "Mia, your mother and I never took a
handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back." She
underscored this philosophy on the campaign trail to sum up her conservative
views.
Kelly Fair
Kelly Fair was named a "Neighborhood Hero" for mentoring
girls in Chicago, and her accomplishments have also been celebrated by first
lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
Kelly Fair is president of Reflections Foundation and
founder of Polished Pebbles, a Chicago based nonprofit which emphasizes communication skills,
peaceful conflict resolution and career preparation. She graduated from Howard
University and holds a master’s degree from the University of Iowa. She is a former
Marketing Manager at McGraw-Hill.
Ms. Fair explains her mission: So much attention has been
given to the urgency of the crisis of low-income, urban black boys; however,
the effect this crisis has had on adolescent black girls who live in the same
neighborhoods has been largely unaddressed. Girls are witnessing and
experiencing the same violence in their schools, neighborhoods, and homes as
boys. As a means for survival, girls have adopted a “street code” of aggression
to protect their reputation and retaliate with fighting and violence when they
believe their reputation is threatened.
Kelly Fair believes that Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring
Program is a vital solution to this crisis. Her nonprofit organization provides
girls (7-17 years old) with the opportunity to learn the vital life skill of
effective communication. The program instills confidence in girls to face the
challenges of daily life by substituting aggressive forms of communicating and
problem solving with new strategies that allow them to gain a solid reputation
and respect without retaliating. In partnership with local schools, businesses,
and over 400 volunteer mentors, the program helps girls exhibit poise and react
responsibly as opposed to retaliating, demonstrate assertiveness vs.
aggressiveness, to identify the difference between class vs. sass, and to become
polished! Polished Pebbles
Girls Mentoring Program offers three specific targets:
AFTER-SCHOOL MENTORING in a Safe & Empowering
Environment
Polished Pebbles has served 30 sites across Chicago with the after-school mentoring program through partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Housing Authority, University of Chicago Charter Schools, & Citizens Schools.
Polished Pebbles has served 30 sites across Chicago with the after-school mentoring program through partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Housing Authority, University of Chicago Charter Schools, & Citizens Schools.
SECOND SATURDAYS, a Model Group Mentoring Experience:
For the last 5 years, the Second Saturdays program has provided African-American girls with caring mentors of diverse professionals who are committed to teaching girls critical life and communication skills.
For the last 5 years, the Second Saturdays program has provided African-American girls with caring mentors of diverse professionals who are committed to teaching girls critical life and communication skills.
CAREER EXPLORATION through Unique, Real-World Experiences:
Offers 50+ unique, job shadowing opportunities for girls to practice communication and explore careers at community partners including Bloomingdales, Microsoft Store, Chicago Sky, ThoughtWorks, Nordstrom, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Offers 50+ unique, job shadowing opportunities for girls to practice communication and explore careers at community partners including Bloomingdales, Microsoft Store, Chicago Sky, ThoughtWorks, Nordstrom, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The programs offered include 400 volunteer mentors (women
and men), with 1000+ girls mentored, as well as 75 college interns mentored.
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