• Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
      • The State Of R&B
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Home · Politics

What Black Women Want For The First 100 Days Of The Biden Administration

In an op-ed, Melanie Campbell voices that "Black women expect a reduction in structural racism and restoration in the health of our communities."
What Black Women Want For The First 100 Days Of The Biden Administration
By Melanie Campbell · Updated February 5, 2021

This article originally appeared in the Janurary/February issue of ESSENCE magazine, available on newsstands now.

The 2020 presidential election was a history-making moment in the United States. It marked the first presidential election ever held in the midst of a deadly pandemic and the first election in which a Black woman, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, was nominated by a major party. History was made again when the California Senator was ultimately voted in as the first woman of color to become Vice President-Elect.

But while the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris victory was unprecedented, much like the times, one thing remained consistent: Black women continued to exert our leadership and influence as one of the most powerful voting blocs in the nation. According to the NBC 2020 Election Exit Poll, 90 percent of Black women voted for the Biden-Harris ticket; and this was key to delivering the White House to the Democrats. Black women were also pivotal in securing victories for Democrats in traditional battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We even helped to serve up a Democratic victory in the southern state of Georgia, where a Democratic nominee had not won since Bill Clinton took the state in 1992.

Article continues after video.

During the first 100 Days of the Biden Administration—and beyond—Black women expect to have seats at the tables of governance and to have our policy concerns addressed and acted upon in concrete, substantive ways. We want to see an agenda from a White House committed to performance-based goals with tangible outcomes for Black women, our families and our communities.

Several of the Biden Administration’s immediate priorities—COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity—align with what Black women identified as issues they want the next president to commit to acting on, based on the 6th-Annual Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) and ESSENCE’s 2020 Power of the Sister Vote Poll. Specifically, the poll results revealed that Black women would support a presidential candidate with a plan to reduce structural and systemic racism (49%); address policing and criminal-justice reform (45%); and implement plans to eradicate COVID-19 (30%). Black women therefore expect a national plan to be implemented in the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration, one that is laser-focused on reducing the pervasive racism in our society and restoring the health of our communities.

What Black Women Want For The First 100 Days Of The Biden Administration
People gather and hold up signs at the Lincoln Memorial as they listen to the Rev. Al Sharpton speak during the “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” protest against racism and police brutality, on August 28, 2020, in Washington, DC. – Anti-racism protesters marched on the streets of the US capital on Friday, after a white officer’s shooting of African American Jacob Blake. The protester also marked the 57th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

For more than four centuries, Black people have been disproportionately surveilled, unfairly detained and unjustly sentenced. Black people are consistently subjected to prosecutorial and judicial abuses in the name of public safety. The police and vigilante killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Atatiana Jefferson, and so many other Black men and women elevated the Movement for Black Lives to a global force for racial reckoning and social change. Now, Black women want to see an agenda from the Biden Administration that includes a comprehensive approach to hold police accountable, end racial profiling and institute sweeping reforms of the criminal-justice system, so that it operates fairly and equitably for all.

Affordable healthcare is also a priority for Black women. The consequences of a lack of adequate medical care have been exacerbated by the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the health and economic security of millions of Black people, who are dying from the virus at a rate twice that of white people. And with over 13 million people already infected nationwide, and more than 250,000 dead, the possibility of an upcoming Supreme Court ruling that could repeal or gut the Affordable Care Act during a deadly pandemic is reprehensible. Black women want the Biden Administration to present a plan during its first 100 Days that will preserve and increase access to affordable health care, helping Americans to protect themselves and their families during this deadly time and in years to come.

Though the issues stated here are by no means an exhaustive list of the concerns of Black women, we do expect the Biden administration to give all of our priorities the focused attention they deserve. We intend to see that the administration honors the promises made to Black America, because Black women will continue to be powerful leaders who can significantly influence the policy agenda of this country. And so, for the first 100 Days of the Biden Administration and beyond, we must hold our government and the incoming 117th Congress fully accountable. The future of our families and our communities depends on our commitment now.

Melanie L. Campbell is the Black Women’s Roundtable National Convener and President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

TOPICS:  Biden-Harris Administration Black Women’s Roundtable Melanie Campbell
COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now