Busboys Books Presents: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics
Date and Time
Nov 7, 2018 7:00 pm
Location
Brookland
625 Monroe St NE, Washington, District of Columbia, 20017
Nov 7, 2018 7:00 pm
Brookland
Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore are four of the most influential African American women in the United States. Together, they call themselves the Colored Girls. As political strategists, organizers, CEOs, and more, they have made history and shaped politics. Yet their story, like the stories of so many African American women in politics, is largely absent from the mainstream. In their new book, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED POLITICS, written with Veronica Chambers, these four trailblazers share their personal journeys, marked by incredible successes and milestones, and offer a roadmap for other women of color with political ambitions.
There has never been a more important time for this book—the White House is once again being run almost exclusively by white men, while at the same time, a generation of young adults is finding their political voice and pushing for large-scale change. The Colored Girls note that they came of age “before Black Lives Matterâ€, yet the work of today’s Black activists proves that the march toward equality is far from over. No political movement exists in a vacuum. FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED POLITICS provides a much-needed lens into what it takes for African Americans to succeed in politics. Full of hope, candor, energy, and truth, this is a defining book for our times.
Though they come from diverse backgrounds, Brazile, Caraway, Daughtry, and Moore all felt the call to serve early in their lives. For Caraway, it was volunteering for Bobby Kennedy’s Senate campaign and feeling the thrill of political mobilization. Moore became involved with Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH where she was exposed to high-level politics and gained a true sense of purpose. Brazile, who has always been outspoken about what she believes in, started interning in D.C. and worked for Coretta Scott King and Stevie Wonder on the campaign to create a holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Daughtry was born into activism and grew up surrounded by civil rights leadership. Her upbringing allowed her to move between worlds, navigating very different cultural and political spheres.
Mentorship is a powerful thread in each woman’s life. Icons like Coretta Scott King, the Reverends Willie Barrow and Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Dr. Betty Shabazz, and Shirley Chisholm taught them how to mobilize, communicate, persevere, and organize. The Colored Girls have also made mentorship a cornerstone of their careers. This is clearly evident in the creation of the Bank of Justice, which came into being after Bill Clinton was elected President. The premise was simple: “Once you get to a position of influence, you pay it forward.†By actively creating opportunities for people of color, they were shifting the balance of power toward hard-working people without access to influence in the traditional ways.
Now Brazile, Caraway, Daughtry, and Moore challenge women to pick up the mantle and continue to make government truly representative. With the lessons they’ve learned, the fights they’ve won and lost, and solid advice for the challenges ahead, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED POLITICS is the guide for a new generation.
Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic political strategist, is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, author, television political commentator, and former interim chair of the Democratic Party. Donna Brazile is the author of Cooking with Grease and the New York Times bestseller Hacks. She was appointed as the 2018-2019 Gwendolyn S. and Colbert I. King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. Brazile will develop and host a five-part lecture series to engage the Howard community on several subjects, including politics, voting, criminal justice reform, and civility. @donnabrazile
Yolanda Caraway, the founderof The Caraway Group, a nationally recognized public relations firm, has played a major role in shaping the goals and objectives of the Democratic Party for over thirty years. @ycaraway
Reverend Leah Daughtry is a nationally recognized pastor, speaker, organizer, political strategist, and CEO of the 2008 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions. @LeahDaughtry
Minyon Moore, partner of the Dewey Square Group, was formerly CEO of the Democratic National Committee, Assistant to the President of the United States and director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, and director of White House political affairs under President Bill Clinton. @IAmMinyon
