The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
CT’s Black female political trailblazers reflect, plan
Pioneering Black women in Connecticut politics got together — apart — for a rare event Friday to talk about their paths to elective office, the trials along the way and the missions that remain at a time when there are only a half dozen in the General Assembly, and just two in New England’s congressional delegations.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, a former National Teacher of the Year says health and educational disparities remain not only a challenge in her 41-town district, but around the nation.
State Sen. Marilyn Moore, of Bridgeport, never expected to run for elective office, but became only the third Black woman to win a state Senate seat in state history.
For Toni Harp, the former mayor of New Haven and longtime state senator representing her city, it was a passion for public policy that first got her into government, followed by the realization that the higher the office, the more she could help her city.
Denise Nappier, the retired state treasurer, said politics “was in my DNA,” growing up in Hartford under the wing of the former state Democratic boss, John Bailey, in the cauldron of late-1960s movements for social justice and radical opposition to racism.
Bloomfield Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown, said she shouldn’t have been the first Black female to win that office, but she became its leader, using the Town Council as a springboard.
During an hour-long virtual Facebook gathering sponsored by the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls, and moderated by Melissa McCaw, Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget chief, along with Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, about 100 people got a rare look at the different paths to leadership and experiences there.
For Brittney Yancy, a professor and Ph.D. candidate, the event was a deep dive into living political history as Hayes, Moore, Harp, Brown and Nappier reminisced and relayed their missions.
“While we know black women are always making strides, the number actually able to serve is pretty low,” said Yancy in a phone interview after the virtual meeting. “The fact that there have been only three Black women in the Senate, that baffled me and hit home. I think Connecticut certainly has made strides, and we certainly have a way to go.”
A supporter of the Higher Heights for America PAC, which focuses on supporting women of color in political campaigns, Yancy said it’s important for Black women to see and hear others who have succeeded in politics and guiding public policy. It’s never been more obvious than the recent election successes nationally.
“People power boiled down to the way that Black and brown women led their communities,” Yancy said of the way Stacey Abrams’ efforts brought out the Democratic vote in Georgia, and the ascension of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The political veterans were candid.
“This is not in my DNA,” said Hayes, who just won her second term in Congress. “I never saw myself as political.” She recalled U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., reaching out to her in 2018. “Quite honestly, I didn’t want it. I’m a teacher. This isn’t my lane.”
Health and education are not just issues of minority citizens, but part of the state and nation’s endangered fabric, she said.
“There’s a reason why I put forth legislation that said racism is a public health crisis when COVID hit, because the Black and brown communities were disproportionately affected because of chronic illnesses and lack of health care,” Hayes said, noting the opposition that rose even within Connecticut. “We’re not recognizing the humanity in other people.”
The teacher in her is still inspired to act.
“We have the largest equity gap in education in the country,” she said. “I represent a district that has some of the wealthiest boarding schools in the world and some of the lowest-performing public schools in the country. I don’t know how anybody can be okay with that.”
Nappier, who retired in 2018 after 20 years managing the state’s finances and was the first Black woman elected to statewide office, remembered campaigning as a teen for Gov. John Dempsey, who served from 1961 until 1971. “Back in the ’60s, that’s what young female students did,” she said, recalling dressing as a cheerleader at Dempsey campaign stops.
From there she focused on being a public administrator. “What I really wanted to do was create my own community,” Nappier, 69, said. “I was becoming aware, after college, of systemic racism. You know who taught me? The Black Panthers from Yale University.”
She said that with no money to run for Hartford city treasurer, where she served five terms, she depended on grassroots support. “When it comes to campaign financing, we don’t have access to that kind of network,” Nappier said.
Harp, who served 20 years in the state Senate before becoming mayor for six years, said an interest in social services after graduate school prompted her to study New Haven’s local government. After watching local lawmakers in action, she realized that to get what she wanted for her community, she had to get closer to elective power. Thus began a string of campaigns against incumbents. “I barely won, but I did win,” Harp, 73, recalled.
In 1992, she defeated another incumbent for the Senate, where she rose to become the powerful co-chairman of the General Assembly’s budget-writing committee.
“I would encourage all young women who are interested in politics to get involved at one level,” Harp said.
“Actually, it was never my desire to run for office,” said Moore, 72, who first won election to the state Senate in 2014 and nearly beat Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim in a 2019 mayoral primary. “I had always run campaigns. I had been a treasurer.”
She said that decades of working behind the scenes led to becoming an aide to the late Sen. Edwin Gomes, whose Bridgeport district was adjacent to hers. “I learned a lot. I knew the lay of the land and people seemed to believe I was the senator, not Ed. Senator Gomes said to me at some point ‘You really believe you’re the senator.’ And I said ‘I kind of feel like I am, Ed and I think I’m going to come back and I’m going to run.’ ”
“If someone would have told me I’d become the mayor of a town I would have told them they were lying,” said DeBeathamBrown.
“It was not a desire of mine as a young person growing up. I thought I would conquer the world, but in a different realm. In a town that’s so diverse, I shouldn’t have been the first.”
In 2017 she was approached to run for the Bloomfield Town Council at a time when racial profiling was a major issue. Bloomfield has a town manager and council form of government. “I wanted to use my voice to speak on behalf of those who thought they didn’t have a voice,” DeBeatham-Brown said.
McCaw, who is secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, said the veteran politicians can give the next generation of Black women “a road map to success” in politics and government. “We’ve made progress, but there’s more work to do.”