SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
congressional black caucus
Let This Black History Month Remind Us That Progress Is Still Possible
The African American tradition of struggle advances the entire nation. In that spirit, we must continue to build coalitions that address shared socioeconomic challenges across racial and ethnic lines.
Feb 07, 2025
I lead the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, America’s Black think tank. When we opened our doors in 1970, there were only 1,469 Black elected officials in office across the United States. Today, there are over 10,000.
These milestones are historic, yet they also compel us to confront the sad reality that African Americans are still far behind their white counterparts in terms of overall economic well-being and political representation.
This duality—celebrating progress while recognizing the challenges in front of us—defines the spirit of Black History Month for 2025.
While congressional power remains fluid, with the Senate and especially the House narrowly divided, strategic coalition building can help us address persistent disparities and create a more equitable future.
While the growth of Black political leadership is encouraging, representation alone doesn’t guarantee systemic change. And today, even that progress in Black political representation is threatened.
Under the last administration, African Americans held 11% of the highest ranking, commissioned officer positions within the White House—nearly reaching our 14% share of the U.S. population.
The current administration, by contrast, has appointed only one Black cabinet nominee, returning our country to the poor Black representation of the 1980s. And following guidance from the White House, many federal agencies have now canceled their Black History Month celebrations.
But outside the White House, Black political representation has reached historic highs.
Today, we have one Black governor, Wes Moore of Maryland—only the third Black governor elected in U.S. history. We’ve set a new record with five Black U.S. Senators: Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) now has 62 members—its largest membership yet.
At the local level, Black political leadership is flourishing with a record 143 Black mayors across the country. Black leaders are at the helm of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. These leaders are shaping not only their own cities, but urban policy across the nation.
Economic progress has accompanied these political milestones. Black Americans have achieved record levels of economic well-being in recent years, including historically low unemployment rates, a median income of $56,490, and median household wealth of $44,900.
But while these figures are encouraging, they remain overshadowed by persistent racial disparities. White households, for instance, maintain a median wealth of $285,000, highlighting the country’s deep racial economic divide.
The African American tradition of struggle advances the entire nation. In that spirit, we must continue to build coalitions that address shared socioeconomic challenges across racial and ethnic lines. Economic security, the need for a living wage, access to affordable housing, and moving communities out of asset poverty—these are the battles that our historic number of Black elected officials must continue to fight.
Recent attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are another area demanding focus. We cannot allow the Trump administration’s witch hunt for those who’ve advocated opportunities for underrepresented communities to turn back the slow, gradual progress in Black political power.
The Joint Center was born from the Black freedom tradition—not from a desire for surface-level diversity, but from the need for true systemic change. As we navigate these challenges, we draw strength from this tradition and our remarkable progress.
The next two to four years present unique opportunities for collaboration and advancement. While congressional power remains fluid, with the Senate and especially the House narrowly divided, strategic coalition building can help us address persistent disparities and create a more equitable future.
Let this Black History Month remind us that progress is possible, even in the face of persistent challenges. Together, we can honor the sacrifices of those who came before us and pave the way for a brighter future for generations to come.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Why the Congressional Black Caucus Should Boycott Netanyahu’s Speech
Black members of Congress skipped Netanyahu’s 2015 address in defense of Obama; will they do the same in defense of Palestinians?
Jul 24, 2024
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of Congress in 2015, the Congressional Black Caucus skipped the speech. Netanyahu had arrived—with the Republicans’ blessing—to rebuke then-President Barack Obama for pursuing an agreement with Iran over the country’s nuclear program. In defense of Obama, the CBC refused to attend the speech.
But will Black members of Congress do the same in defense of Palestinians?
Israel is in its ninth month of a scorched earth assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of thousands—many of whom are permanently maimed. They are systematically targeting medical facilities for destruction, along with mosques, churches, and schools, and they have destroyed every single university campus in Gaza.
It is important that several CBC members were among the progressives who voted against sending more funding to Israel. But there’s much more to be done.
Palestinians rightly call this genocide. Scholars of the subject and the International Court of Justice agree, and are calling on Israel to stop. The U.S. government, on the other hand, has been encouraging Israel’s destruction—supplying the weapons to do it, and vetoing resolution after resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for a cease-fire.
It is in this isolation on the world stage that Congress has invited Netanyahu to address a joint session—a rare privilege that Congress has extended to Netanyahu more than any other head of state in history.
Make no mistake: This invitation affirms Israel’s genocide. And with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court calling for Netanyahu’s arrest for crimes against humanity, Congress’ invitation is an affront to international law.
But Black members of Congress can dissent. Not only has the CBC boycotted Netanyahu before, but earlier in its history, it stood on the right side of history by standing against South Africa’s racist apartheid regime. The CBC led the passage of sanctions against apartheid South Africa in 1986.
Israel had a history of deep collaboration with South Africa’s apartheid regime—and Palestinians charge Israel with being an apartheid state today. Palestinian human rights groups like Al Haq, international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Israeli groups like B’Tselem have all carried out their own investigations and concluded that Israel is committing the international crime of apartheid.
Black folks in the United States have our own history of appealing to the international community in the face of suffering. In 1951, Black activists presented a case to the U.N. titled “We Charge Genocide,” which called attention to genocidal practices carried out and enabled by the U.S. government against the Black population.
If apartheid is wrong in South Africa, and genocide is wrong when it’s carried out against Black people, then those forms of violence are also wrong when directed at Palestinians.
The history of solidarity between the Black and Palestinian freedom struggles is long and deep. Palestinians spoke up in support of Black Lives Matter activists in Ferguson when that city rose up after the police murder of Mike Brown. The Black Panthers and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) called attention to Israeli violence in the 1960s, and Rev. Jesse Jackson included support for Palestinian rights in his presidential run in 1988.
Given the enormous complicity of Congress in Israel’s genocide—most recently voting to send Israel $26 billion in emergency aid when it’s abundantly clear that Israel is using that support to kill Gaza’s children and destroy its cities—boycotting Netanyahu’s speech is the absolute minimum that Black members should be doing.
They should also be working to stop the genocide. It is important that several CBC members were among the progressives who voted against sending more funding to Israel. But there’s much more to be done.
The next step though is clear and easy. Netanyahu—presiding over the destruction of Gaza, notoriously racist against both Palestinians and Africans, and a figure so polarizing that even prominent Israelis are calling for Congress to disinvite him—should not be welcome in the Capitol.
The Congressional Black Caucus was once called “the conscience of the Congress.” The most minimal—but no less important—way to honor that legacy, and more importantly to affirm the humanity of our Palestinian brothers and sisters, is to boycott Netanyahu’s speech.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Dems Slam GOP for Trying to Force 'Anti-Immigrant Agenda' Into Government Funding Bill
"House Republicans cannot move their extreme, cruel, unworkable anti-immigrant agenda through the regular legislative process, so they're trying to make an end-run around Congress and hold the American people hostage to force it into law."
Sep 29, 2023
The Democratic chairs of leading congressional caucuses said late Thursday that they oppose any last-minute effort to cram immigration policy changes into government funding legislation as House and Senate Republicans consider doing just that, with a shutdown less than 48 hours away.
"It is not appropriate to establish new immigration and border policy in a bill to keep the government funded," the chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus said in a joint statement.
"House Republicans cannot move their extreme, cruel, unworkable anti-immigrant agenda through the regular legislative process, so they're trying to make an end-run around Congress and hold the American people hostage to force it into law," they continued. "Even Minority Leader Senator McConnell has said, 'Shutting down the government isn't an effective way to make a point.' We couldn't agree more."
The Democrats' statement came in the wake of news that members of the House and Senate—with the reported backing of some Democrats in the upper chamber—are discussing the possible addition of immigration and border measures to a short-term government funding bill in a bid to win the votes of intransigent House Republicans.
Earlier this week, as the chaos-ridden House failed to make progress, the Senate advanced a legislative vehicle for a continuing resolution that would keep the government through November 17—an attempt to buy time for both chambers to approve full-year funding measures.
Citing two unnamed Republican aides, The Washington Post reported that "by Thursday evening, Senate Republicans were considering an amendment to the continuing resolution that would include $6 billion in funding for border security but no new immigration policy."
According to the Post, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) "appeared to be involved in the talks."
On Friday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—who is facing a potential removal plot by far-right House Republicans—is expected to put on the floor a Republican stopgap funding measure that includes major federal spending cuts and border policies.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that the GOP package includes changes that "House lawmakers passed earlier this year in a broader bill that orders construction to resume on the Trump administration's border wall." That bill was dead on arrival in the Senate.
"The border measures, which have broad backing in the conference, would also make it harder for people to remain in the U.S. under the protection of asylum rules," the Journal noted.
House Republicans' latest effort to move ahead with a short-term funding package will come after they passed several appropriations bills Thursday night, including measures to fund the Pentagon and State Department.
But the House voted down the GOP-authored agriculture appropriations bill, which included steep cuts to food aid for low-income families and a rollback of abortion pill access.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that lawmakers "should have spent this week working together to prevent the government from shutting down."
"Instead, we spent it watching House Republicans in chaos, loading up their 2024 funding bills with deeper cuts and dangerous policies that harm the economy and raise the cost of living for American families," said DeLauro. "Another day of Republican dysfunction, two days until they shut the government down."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular