Driven by South's Past, Black Women Seek Votes and a New Future

It was Mr. Jones’s longshot victory in Alabama that brought national attention to the tremendous political influence these women can wield through the bedrock institutions of black life, from churches to historically black universities, sororities and beauty parlors. Once relegated to supporting roles, many are now major players, both in getting out the vote and in running for office in record numbers.

“When you invest in a black woman, she brings her house, her block, her church and her story,” said Glynda C. Carr, co-founder of Higher Heights, one of the many organizations that have sprung up to foster black women’s political leadership. “I use my mother as an example — until the day she died, she organized our little micro-precinct. She drove me to city hall to register when I was 18. Black women have been doing this since Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.”

But whether black women can replicate their success in Mr. Jones’s Senate race is far from certain. No Republican candidate this fall is as vulnerable as his opponent in Alabama, Roy Moore, the conservative former judge who was accused of preying on teenage girls. And the South still remains solidly Republican: Mr. Trump easily won every state in 2016 except Virginia, and Republicans overwhelmingly control most levers of power throughout the region.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/politics/black-women-voters-south.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytnational&smtyp=cur