National Black Women's Town Hall Meeting

In the aftermath of the deplorable comments made by Don Imus, on April 7,2007, about Rutgers University Women’s Basketball Team, Blanche Williams, National XM Radio Talk Show Host, conducted a special live two-hour discussion on RACE & GENDER IN OUR NATION, on April 18, followed by a Part II discussion on April 25. Her guests included Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Jill Nelson, Marjorie Harris, A’Lelia Bundles, Georgia Goslee, Melani Douglass, Cora Daniels, and Moya Bailey. The issue continued to expand and evolve into the first ever National Women’s Town Hall Meeting dedicated to answering the question, “Where do we go from here?” On May 30, 2007, Williams brought together a diverse panel of women including Marie Johns, Kim Gandy, Vicki Shu Smolin, Rev. Marcia Dyson, Leslie Sanchez, and Jewel Jackson McCabe. The overwhelming response and alliances forged, as a result of this national conversation, prompted Williams to visualize the next step.

On July 11, 2008, the First Annual National Black Women’s Town Hall Meeting was convened at the historical headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, as part of a sisterly collaboration with Dr. Dorothy Height, NCNW Chair, and Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director NCNW Research, Public Policy and Information Center. The event was a huge success, with a standing room only audience and national televised coverage on C-Span.

Black women were brought together, on one national accord, to discuss and develop an agenda for the incoming Administration that spoke to the issues of their lives, families and communities, along with providing recommendations to address them. The NBWTH commissioned our own national survey through Nia Enterprises, LLC, an online publishing, research, and marketing services company, dedicated to women of color.

Our Inaugural panel included some of the nation’s most distinguished women, including Dr. Julianne Malveaux/Bennett College, Dr. Jane Smith/Spelman College, Eleanor Hinton-Hoyt/Black Women’s Health Imperative, Melanie Campbell/National Coalition of Black Civic Responsibility, Faye Wattleton/Center for the Advancement of Women, Daphne Valerius/The Souls of Black Girls, Sheryl Huggins-Salomon, Nia Enterprises, Dr. Tricia Bent-Goodley/Howard University, and Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever/NCNW.

AKA President Barbara McKinzie, on behalf of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, became the 2008 recipient of the NBWTH’s first Landmark of Greatness Award, for its 100 years of service and sisterhood.

One of the goals, following the First Annual NBWTH Meeting, was to create a document that would speak to the issues and concerns of black women along with recommendations and solutions to address them. The document was formulated and entitled, Black Women and Families Agenda for Change: A Framework for Addressing the Needs of Black Women, Families, and Communities in the New Presidential Administration and was presented in December 2008 to the new Obama Administration.

C-Span Coverage of the 1st Annual NBWTHM