Black Women Led Us Through The Most Consequential Political Contest Of Our Lifetimes. It’s High Time We Thank Them.

by Martha S. Jones

Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America and All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture 1830-1900.

Today, I’m writing a thank you note to Black women. America, get out your pens and do the same.

It’s still before dawn here and I’m awake like so many of us watching the returns trickle in from Georgia. As I write, the Biden-Harris ticket has taken the lead there, by a slim but likely decisive 917 votes. It will be many more hours and perhaps days or weeks before this contest is settled, but the story for me has already been written.

The story of the 2020 election is one about the Black women whom I have dubbed the “Vanguard,” women who have led us through the most fraught yet consequential political contest of our lifetimes; women who have given this country its best shot at pulling back from a deeper plunge into racism, misogyny, xenophobia, authoritarianism and a fatal disregard for basic public health.

Don’t let the pundits distract you from the numbers. As Democrats eke out slim victories in new battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, Black women have made all the difference. Exit polls report that more than 90 percent of Black women cast their ballots for Biden and Harris, voting as a bloc. Their nearest rivals in 2020 are Black men, 80 percent of whom supported the Democratic ticket, making Black women’s impact unparalleled.

Getting voters to the polls requires enthusiasm. It happened this fall when a bus emblazoned with “Black Voters Matter” pulled into American cities with LaTosha Brown on board. What followed in parks and parking lots were lessons in the nuts and bolts of casting ballots for communities facing a dual challenge at the polls: voter suppression and coronavirus safeguards. Still, Brown also insisted upon joy — moments of song and dance — that reminded Black Americans that the power of the vote can also be a balm, especially in troubled times.

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It’s not too early to say thank you to Abrams and to all the Black women who have led us through this troubled election season. It is a regrettable burden, saving a nation from its worst self. Black women have borne that weight for two centuries, challenging this country to jettison its most costly sins including slavery, Jim Crow, and the denial of human rights. They have paid with their health and well-being. Black women have had their lives taken in this ongoing confrontation with injustice. It is a role no American should envy.

Whatever the outcome of the 2020 presidential contest, Black women will continue to do this work. Today might just be the right day to say thank you.

Read entire article at Talking Points Memo