Barbara Lee to Chair Congressional Black Caucus

November 21st, 2008 — What about our Daughters.com

I read over at Acts of Faith that the Congressional Black Caucus has selected California Representative Barbara Lee to be the next chair.

I saw Congresswoman Lee speak this summer at the Democratic National Convention. The White House Project along with Mills College sponsored a reception in honor of Shirley Chisholm. Barbara Lee worked on Chisholm’s 72 campaign and told the story about how Shirley Chisholm convinced her to register to vote. Lee was one of the people interviewed for Unbought & Unbossed, the documentary chronicling Chisholm’s run for the White House…. the one everybody forgot. ( Nah Jesse wasn’t first).

It was interesting seeing Congresswoman Lee respond to some of the scenes from way back when. The CBC did Shirley wrong. Intentionally undermined her and of course her male peers threw out the “C” word.. no not THAT one… the other one CRAZY. Because you know that any Black woman fighting passionately about anything is going to have that one thrown out a time or two. Wear it as a badge of honor.

I can so relate to Barbara Lee, she’s a Black woman who is not afraid to stand alone with nothing but the courage of her convictions. WHEW. I know what that’s like. Barbara Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of the use of force after 9-11. Remember those days? Whether you agreed with her or not, that took guts.

At the reception for Shirley Chisholm, who she refers to as “Mrs C,” Congresswoman Lee gave a loving recount of her time working on Shirley Chisholm’s presidential campaign. She also gave a running nonverbal/verbal commentary as we viewed the documentary during the tribute.

One of the sad things about this election is that while many people have made the comparison between Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, they’ve left out an important part, Shirley Chisholm’s run. In fact, I think for all of the comparisons with Jesse Jackson’s run, I think this year had a lot more in common with Chisholm’s run. You should check out the documentary and some amazing Chisholm campaign literature for those of us who weren’t around back then.

Will this mean a Congressional Black Caucus with a legislative agenda that is more responsive to their under served constituents as opposed to their corporate benefactors? Who knows, but Barbara Lee is not boring or afraid to challenge the status quo. After all, that book she is signing in the first photo is called RENEGADE FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE ( That’s actually my copy she’s signing!). We’ll see.

Here is a picture of Barbara Lee with the filmmaker, Shola Lynch.

One day when I get time, I am going to put up all of my DNCC photos. I got some great ones at this tribute.