Addressing the challenges faced by many African-American women and girls — from disparities in health to economic inequities to human trafficking victimization — has been part of the yearlong focus of a unique congressional caucus.
The Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls, co-chaired by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, made history last April at its inaugural launch in Washington, D.C. Shockingly, out of more than 430 registered congressional caucuses and member organizations, this caucus is the first devoted to making the issues facing black women and girls a priority in public policy making.
The caucus will have a town hall in Washington, D.C., next month focused on the tens of thousands of African-American women and girls who are missing. That comes on the heels of an event the caucus held in February in Chicago that dealt with human trafficking, violence and resilience; and events in March, including a panel discussion in the nation’s capital on mental health and a girls’ issues conference in New Jersey.
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In August, the caucus had a symposium at the University of Chicago that featured panel discussions on health care challenges, the global economic power of black women, and discrimination and stereotypes black women face in popular media. The event drew 300 people, Kelly said.
“We focus on our challenges, our opportunities and our achievements,” Kelly said. “Thus far it’s really been a listening tour.
“We are going to write a report of what we learn, and we’re looking at what legislation that we can pull out of what we’ve learned, what programs need to be in place, what policies.”
It’s vital that black women have a voice in the critically important discussions on policies that directly affect their lives. The caucus has made the commitment to provide that seat at the table.
Regarding next month’s town hall on missing women and girls, the caucus notes the Black and Missing Foundation reported in 2014 there were 64,000 missing black women and girls nationally.
“I didn’t realize how prevalent the problem was,” Kelly said. “We want to do our part to see what we can do about promoting missing cases of the most vulnerable because when you look at some of the cases, it may be women and girls from low-income areas who don’t have the resources.
“I hope we can highlight best practices of law enforcement agencies and people can learn from each other what programs are in place, what are best practices and also that the media will look at their part.”
Indeed, when a loved one is missing, it’s heart-wrenching for families and friends, and media can play a key role in informing the public to help authorities hopefully bring victims home safely. But in many cases, missing women and girls of color don’t get the same media coverage as others.
The caucus was formed by Kelly and U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., and Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y. Coleman and Clarke also serve as co-chairs. Its creation was inspired by the @SheWoke Committee, a group of black women focused on advocacy, equity and sisterhood that includes Sharon Cooper, sister of Sandra Bland, the former Chicago-area woman who was found hanged in a Texas jail cell after being arrested following a minor traffic stop.
Amy Alvarado, policy analyst with the Cook County sheriff’s office and former human trafficking coordinator at the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, spoke on sex trafficking at the caucus event in February at the University of Chicago.
“There’s very few issues that I can think of that are more important to inform people about than this,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Friday. He explained that’s because through raising awareness you can prevent women from falling prey to predators.
The sexual exploitation of African-American women and girls is a big problem, Alvarado said. Dart noted that in the south suburbs they make up a significant number of victims.
“This type of crime doesn’t really have any socioeconomic boundaries, however, there are communities that are more vulnerable or more at risk due to systemic failures, maybe lack of education, food … lack of resources,” Alvarado said.
Young girls and women caught up in the sex trade often have been systemically failed by their school system, or social service and health care organizations, she said.
“All these points of probable recognition and identification have just fallen by the wayside,” she said, adding due to myths and misperceptions the women are often “dehumanized.”
She welcomed the role the caucus has played in focusing on the issue.
The Chicago event helped shed light on the need for those in law enforcement, social services, ministers and criminal justice to work together to address the issue, Kelly said.
Other caucus events slated for this year include events in May in New York on entrepreneurship and in Seattle. The Seattle event will focus on cultural homelessness, which refers to the cultural challenges black women face when living in communities with small black representation. The Seattle event will include discussions on the representation of women in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math careers.
Among public policy changes Kelly said she’d like to see emerge from the caucus are policies that result in increasing government contracts awarded to black female business owners.
It should be a priority. It took two decades for the federal government to finally reach its goal in fiscal year 2015 of awarding a mere 5 percent of government contracts to small businesses owned by women, and that was across all races.
“For black female businesses, it’s even worse,” Kelly said of the dismal statistics. “So, what can we do to make it a higher percentage and at a quicker pace and also to make sure that … black women have access to health care and that there are not the disparities that we still see when it comes to breast cancer?” and other illnesses.
She doesn’t expect issues affecting black women and girls to be a priority in the current presidential administration.
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“It seems like it’s going to be a tough road, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still fight,” she said. “Because you might be outnumbered in a way doesn’t mean you don’t keep pushing for the right thing.”
Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.