By Karen Dandurant
PORTSMOUTH — “Black Women Rock: Leading the Charge for Social and Political Change” highlighted the voices of Black women leaders contributing to communities across the country. A two-day virtual event, the 14th annual Black New England Conference, presented by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University, featured speakers and panel discussions Friday and Saturday.
“As artists and activists, politicians and pundits, Black women play vital roles in these struggles, even as their leadership and activism has historically been eclipsed and erased,” JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the BHTNH, said in her welcome to the seminar. “Our panels celebrate the vital work of Black women’s leadership and activism past and present – in classrooms and courtrooms, businesses and the economy, science and the arts, religion, government and more.”
American sculptor Fern Cunningham-Terry, who died in August, was awarded the 2020 Citizen of the Year Award from the BHTNH. Her public works are the depictions of public Black people and are on display from Milford to Boston.
On Saturday, the keynote speaker was Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council in 2010, and first Black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts in 2019.
In November 2019, Pressley introduced a House resolution (not legislatively acted on), called “the People’s Justice Guarantee,” which provides for the decriminalization of consensual sex work, abolition of cash bail, legalization of marijuana, abolition of capital punishment and solitary confinement, and shrinking the U.S. prison population.
Pressley was introduced by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
Hassan said Pressley is at the forefront of the fight for justice.
“She has spent her career in public service,” Hassan said. “In Congress, she is a champion for justice, for workers’ rights, reproductive freedom and the protection survivors of sexual discrimination.”
Pressley said the day after the ruling in the Breonna Taylor case, she took part in a virtual forum that included Oprah Winfrey.
“I feel like today’s convening is a continuation of that,” she said. “This is about our collective power. This week we have faced pain. Black women are not valued, not protected and yet we rise. As beautiful as it is to be Black, my mom told me I was born to a struggle. We are the truth tellers, the preservers of democracy. We don’t need anyone’s permission to lead, we have been doing that. It’s time our voices, our issue are centered. I am very humbled to serve in the House, but change does not come from Congress or the Senate. It comes to us because the people are doing the work. Black women have been doing this for a long time.”
Pressley said Black women understand there is a White House that fosters white supremacy.
“I hope we are ushering in a new day,” she said. “We have legislated hate and horror, but I believe we can legislate healing and justice. We need to build a brand-new world. This is a moment of reckoning. I am enlisting you all in this work. Our greatness is older than our oppression. We are on the front lines of mutual aid, of health care and we are nation builders, table shakers. We are leaders.
“We have the power to transform a society where Breonna Taylor would be alive, where there are housing policies that meet the scale of a new world. A just world is possible, and we can replace hurt with healing. I need each of you to make a plan, plan to vote, complete your census, because if you are not seen, you do not count. Joy is an act of resistance. Do not give them your joy, even as they come for our rights.”
The “Moving it Forward: The Next Generation of Female Black Activists” panel on Saturday featured Ronelle Tshiela of Black Lives Matter Manchester; Tanisha Johnson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Seacoast; Julian Madura, University of New Hampshire Class of 2021 and Sonja Moffett, early engagement partner, SNHU. The moderator was Victoria Adewumi, of UNH’s Department of Political Science and International Affairs.
“Last week, sitting in a room with the governor and the attorney general, I was the youngest person in the room,” Tshiela said. “I realized that my voice was as important as theirs. There was a time I struggled to feel comfortable in my skin, with the reality this system was not meant to work for us. As a high school freshman I realized I had a voice.”
In 2016, as a high school junior, Tshiela joined the ranks to demand change.
“At 17 I became co-founder of Black Lives Matter Manchester,” she said “I want to lead initiatives to help Black communities. I urge people to vote, to use their voice. Vote like there are lives on the line because there are. If they do not give a seat at the table, we will build our own.”
Johnson said activism is rooted in the ability to create social change.
“This conference is about giving recognition to amazing women activists who prepared the way for change,” Johnson said. “Black women have been doing the groundwork for social justice, even before civil rights. History does not always talk about women activists. I often wonder about the strength they possessed, the ideology of strong Black women in the face of systemic oppression. Black women and leaders continue to keep fighting the good fight. We do not realize our strength because we take on that battle without a second thought.”
As a mother, Johnson said it’s important for her to speak up for people who don’t yet have a voice.
“I want to raise my children to be proud adults,” she said. “Why are we still asking for understanding that we matter? Breonna Taylor’s life has become a symbol for what is wrong. Here in New Hampshire our Black families need to be empowered and lifted. We are not just fighting for racial injustice, we are fighting for our families.”
Madura said she used laughter to cover her discomfort growing up.
“When I came to Portsmouth I was not exposed to Black role models,” Madura said. “Felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about the things people said that made me uncomfortable. So, I started laughing at everything. It wasn’t until I got to UNH, and was suddenly surrounded by Black and Brown individuals that, all at once, I was part of a diverse community. I had to confront everything I was uncomfortable with. I learned how to speak up for myself. I learned if I wanted to be heard, I would have to make people hear me.”
Moffett is founder of www.bolitical.com. Her message was to get out the vote.
“I appreciate the marchers of the 60s; they accomplished the right to vote,” Moffett said. “I am striving to be an agent of change as well. We want to convert all to voting, to affect checks and balances, to bring in new leadership. There are 46 million Black American citizens in the U.S. We matter. We have the power to create change. We need to vote because our lives matter.”
To learn more the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and the conference, visit https://bit.ly/36aVSXC.
