During the ceremonial swearing-in event a few blocks from the White House, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), Inc., honored Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), the new chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and members of the CBC that will serve during the 115th Congress.
Shuanise Washington, the president and CEO of the CBCF, said that the 115th Congress will have the largest CBC in history with 49 members.
“While the CBC grows in numbers, there remains a lack of diversity and inclusion when it comes to senior staff placement in senate and congressional offices,” said Washington. “The CBCF is committed to doing its part to change the landscape of Capitol Hill, and we’re doing so with one of our newest initiatives: Emerge 535.”
Launched in 2013, the Emerge 535 program will enable the CBCF to expand opportunities for young people of color by providing 535 scholarships and fellowships to work on Capitol Hill. During her comments at the CBC ceremony, House Minority and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Republican lawmakers for blocking President Barack Obama’s last Supreme Court justice nominee and efforts to pass an updated Voting Rights Act (VRA).
Pelosi also noted the irony in the fact that some of the same Republicans who attended the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala., refused to work with Democrats on Capitol Hill to restore the protections of the VRA.
“It’s not about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans, it’s about America,” said Pelosi. “The greatness of America is affected by how [Republicans] have rejected the ability of our president to appoint a [Supreme Court] justice, how they have rejected our calls for correcting the injustice of the Supreme Court decision [in Shelby v. Holder]. It’s all about justice.”
Pelosi called the CBC the “conscience of the Congress and indeed of the country,” and she added that it was exciting to see that some of the newest members of the CBC were representing districts that had never elected a Black lawmaker to serve in the U.S. Congress.
The newest members of the CBC are: Senator Kamala Harris, who is California’s first African American senator; Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.); Rep. Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-Del.), the first African American and woman to serve in Congress from Delaware; Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.); Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.).
After the ceremonial oath of office was performed, outgoing Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said that 2016 is now in our rearview mirror. “We find ourselves facing a difficult, political and legislative environment, unlike any that we have ever seen before, but I promise you that the CBC will rise to the occasion and we will meet these new challenges,” said Butterfield. “The consequences are too enormous for us to be indecisive and to allow conservative forces and forces of the alt-right to defend our nation. We will be strategic and we will be unified in our work.”
While many of the CBC members are “baby boomers,” Butterfield said that there is no question that Richmond, who is a part of Generation X, is well-suited and well-prepared to lead the CBC in confronting these new challenges.
“We will heed the many lessons of our leaders that came before, but we will innovate and evolve to tackle the challenges of today,” said Richmond. “We will be deliberate in our thoughts and actions and we will engage on our own terms.
“We have the strength and the courage of our ancestors that survived the Middle Passage,” continued Richmond, “who survived slavery and segregation and Jim Crow; and in that spirit we won’t give in, we won’t give up, and we won’t fall back.”
Thanks to Freddie Allen and NNPA for sharing this story with us.