Ebony M. Baylor

Power of the Ballot: Leveraging the Power of the Black Women's Vote in 2024

We Turn Out, We Win Elections, and We Represent Our Community 

Ebony M. Baylor, MPA 

Vice President of Policy and Strategic Alliances, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

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November 5th (Election Day) is quickly approaching, and this is an unprecedented time in the United States (U.S). Civil rights are being attacked (Brown, 2024) and after commitments made following the senseless murder of George Floyd and others like Breonna Taylor (Watson, 2024), the DEI movement is being rolled back. According to the Brennan Center, close to 300 pieces of legislation  designed to restrict voting have been introduced in forty states. Our existence, our progress, our rights, OUR DEMOCRACY are on the ballot. Black women are ready (as always) to register people to vote, lead voter education, and employ voter turnout strategies that will get the community to the polls and ensure our votes are counted. 

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In the 2020 presidential election, over two-thirds of Black women reported they voted, making Black women the highest voting bloc among women of color voters and third overall (Center for American Women and Politics, 2024). Black women overwhelmingly supported Biden at 95 percent with the collective Black vote being 92 percent (Igielnik, 2021). 

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Black women had been leveraging the power of the ballot box, even before getting the right to vote in the U.S. Once Black men were granted the right to vote after the passage of the 15th Amendment, Black women participated in the political process by accompanying their male counterparts to the voting booth and lobbying elected officials (Hine, 1988). Black women then fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment so that the interests of Black women would be a part of the political landscape, not necessarily in solidarity with all women rights (Hine, 1988, p.12). Black women saw the ballot as a mechanism that would provide opportunities for their families by ending discrimination around education and employment. Patricia Hill Collins reminds us in her book, Black Feminist Thought, that the suppression of Black women’s rights drives how we approach activism including political participation. The suppression gives Black women a unique standpoint while existing in the United States political arena. “Understanding the complexity of Black women’s activism requires understanding not only the need to address more than one form of oppression, but the significance of how singular and multiple forms of oppression are organized” (Collins, 2002, p.203). 

 

When Black Women Win, Our Communities Receive Substantive Representation

In Philpot & Walton’s article, One of Our Own: Black Female Candidates and the Voters Who Support Them, it is highlighted that Black women apply their race and gender when making political decisions (2016). Nadia Brown (2014) found that Black women legislators use their policy recommendations to best represent Black women and other disadvantaged communities. 

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Black women are connected, defined, and intertwined in culture because they live in a country that uses race and racism, gender, sexism, and patriarchy as cultural, political, and economic controls in its exercise of power. Black women’s relationships have a linked fate and are shaped by collective race and gender identities and their individual experiences as Black women (Brown, 2014, p.5).

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Gillespie and Brown (2019) assert that “electing Black women leads to substantive policy changes, dynamic symbolic engagement, and inclusive advocacy for disenfranchised populations and underserved communities (p.50)”. Black women representation continues to grow on the federal, state, and local levels. Our voices are being heard in the White House through Vice President Kamala Harris; on the highest court through Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; through the 29 Black women’s voices of 118th Congress (Schaeffer, 2023); and hundreds of Black women elected leaders in state legislatures and local government (Haines, 2024). 

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As we look toward the 2024 election, Black voters will help determine the composition of the US Senate with more than a third of eligible voters in the state of Maryland and the White House particularly in Georgia (Krogstad & Moslimani, 2024). According to In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, eight out of ten voters believe that the Black community has the power to change the outcome of the election, and most of the respondents feel it is important for Black women to be elected and nominated to positions of power. 

We understand the importance of collective political organizing and representation. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, uplifted that Black women who were adequately trained could lead to the integration of all “Negro people in the political, economic, education, cultural, and social life of their communities and the nation” (Hine, 1988).

 

Our leverage at the ballot box leads to substantive change in our communities. Our lived experiences, our mere existence drives why we vote, how we vote, and the policy recommendations implemented. When we do not fully participate in the voting process and make informed decisions, generations are impacted by the legislative and judicial decisions of the elected or appointed leaders. We now exist in a country where our rights are moving quickly back toward the Jim Crow era. On Election Day, we have the power to decide the direction of our country. Will you use it? 

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References

Brennan Center for Justice. (2024, June 18). Voting Laws Roundup: May 2024. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-may-2024  

Brown, M. (2024, March 2). Black Americans’ Significant Economic and Civil Rights Progress Threatened, Report Says. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/black-americans-significant-economic-and-civil-rights-progress-threatened-report-says  

Brown, N. E. (2014). Sisters in the statehouse: Black women and legislative decision making. Oxford University Press.

Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP). 2024. “Gender Differences in Voter Turnout.” New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University-New Brunswick. https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/voters/gender-differences-voter-turnout  

​​Collins, P. H. (2002). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and The Politics of Empowerment. Routledge.

Gillespie, A., & Brown, N. E. (2019). #BlackGirlMagic demystified. Phylon (1960-), 56(2), 37-58.

Haines, E. (2024, February 14). “Vote, Run, Win and Lead”: Counting Black Women’s Seats At The Table. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2023/06/the-amendment-errin-haines-black-women-representation-politics/  

Hine, D. C. (1988). An Angle of Vision: Black Women and The United States Constitution, 1787-1987. OAH Magazine of History, 3(1), 7-13.

Igielnik, R. (2021, June 30). Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/ 

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. (2024, March 25). New Election Poll: The Lives and Voices of Black Families in 2024. https://blackrj.org/new-election-poll-the-lives-and-voices-of-black-families-in-2024/   

Krogstad, J. M., & Moslimani, M. (2024, January 10). Key facts about black eligible voters in 2024. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/10/key-facts-about-black-eligible-voters-in-2024/  

Philpot, T. S., & Walton Jr, H. (2007). One Of Our Own: Black Female Candidates and The Voters Who Support Them. American Journal of Political Science, 51(1), 49-62.

Schaeffer, K. (2023, February 16). 22 States Have Ever Elected a Black Woman to Congress. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/16/22-states-have-ever-elected-a-black-woman-to-congress/  

Watson, L. (2024, February 14). Anti-DEI Efforts Are The Latest Attack on Racial Equity and Free Speech: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/anti-dei-efforts-are-the-latest-attack-on-racial-equity-and-free-speech