Wasserman Schultz on Black History Month

Washington, February 4, 2020 Against all adversity, the Black community has used their power and collective strength to elect bold, diverse leaders to all levels of elected office. The Congressional Black Caucus, often called the Conscious of the Congress, is the largest it has ever been, with 55 members and counting. This Black History Month, in the year our nation will elect its next President, we must all join in the fight to protect the franchise that so many fought and died to secure.Wasserman Schultz on Black History Month

Each February, our nation reflects upon the too-often unrecognized history, contributions and accomplishments of African Americans. While a single month is never enough time to share the rich history and story of the African American community, Black History Month provides an opportunity for all Americans to educate and celebrate the African American experience. This year’s focus speaks to the ongoing struggle on the part of both Black men and women to obtain the right to vote, and the vital contributions that this essential struggle by African Americans has made to build a more perfect union.

Coinciding with this historic election year, 2020 marks a century and a half since the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, which banned voting restrictions based on ‘race, color, or previous condition of servitude,’ and effectively granted Black men the right to vote. It would be another fifty years before Black women formally earned that same right, with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Since then, the African American community has put that democratic power to great work, electing candidates who fought for equality, opportunity and advancement, and rejecting those who stood in the way of progress. Yet all along the way, with overwhelming institutionalized racism, from the Jim Crow era to today’s rampant legislative and executive efforts to suppress the vote, African Americans have had to continue to push democracy forward by expanding the franchise.

Against all adversity, the Black community has used their power and collective strength to elect bold, diverse leaders to all levels of elected office. The Congressional Black Caucus, often called the Conscious of the Congress, is the largest it has ever been, with 55 members and counting. This Black History Month, in the year our nation will elect its next President, we must all join in the fight to protect the franchise that so many fought and died to secure.