Reflecting on Ketanji Brown Jackson's testimony before Congress in the wake of her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Dr. Blandina "Bambi" Cardenas' speaks to the long arm of history involving singular acts of courage by extraordinary individuals like Ketanji Brown Jackson and the legendary Fannie Lou Hamer, resulting in defining moments with lasting impacts—even if not immediately manifest.
Accordingly, everyone should take time to listen to Fannie Lou Hamer's riveting speech before the Credentials Committee of the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.
Thanks to Dr. Cardenas for sharing her essay and for connecting these stories to her own, as well as to real progress with respect to Mexican American women's representation in party politics.
It's provocative and inspiring to think of how single acts of courage can inaugurate a sea of much-needed change. This is as true today as it was then. Moreover, society as a whole benefits from this widening of the circle of citizenship and democracy.
Savor and enjoy!
-Angela Valenzuela
"Fannie Lou Hamer and Ketanji Brown Jackson: The Democratization of Party Politics in the U.S.
by
Dr. Blandina "Bambi" Cardenas
As I watched the awesome display of intelligence, strength and dignity in the person of Judge Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee, my thoughts went to Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman who changed my life and the lives of women of every color in the United States. The arc of history that curves from Fannie Lou Hamer to Ketanji Brown Jackson is not one that is likely to be covered in American History classes, it may not even be understood in Women's History classes.
It is often that way that a seemingly small act of courage by a seemingly powerless person sends an energy through a community, a state or a country that fundamentally creates the conditions that allow whole populations to thrive in ways they were never able to thrive before.
In 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Democratic National Convention seeking to be seated because the Democratic Party in Mississippi would not allow and even criminalized efforts by black people to vote. A victim of non-consensual sterilization, Fannie had a story to tell and the party and the nation were moved. Four years later the Democratic National Convention was rocked by the anti-war protests, and more deeply by the issue of inclusion and representation.
The accumulated frustration with the make up and the representation in the largely all white male party that had nominated John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson led to the establishment of the McGovern-Frasier Commission. It is also noteworthy that the DNC chairman at the time was Senator Fred Harris, who just happened to be married to LaDonna Harris, a leader for women and her Native American community. The McGovern Frasier Commission rewrote the rules for recognition of delegates, but also established the requirement that every committee at every level of the Democratic Party should include representation of women and underrepresented groups proportional to their participation in the previous presidential election.
This democratized the structure of the party and opened the doors to women and underrepresented groups for all time going forward. In Texas, Mexicano politicos suddenly had to take their wives to the conventions and behave. Moreover their wives got to sit on committees and learn the rules. Alicia Chacon of El Paso, Judith Zaffirini and then I served as Vice Chair of the Texas Party. The DNC was 50 percent women. Fannie Lou Hamer had walked into the lions den and demanded not only the right to vote in the polling places but the right to be at the table where decisions were made. The concept of equal representation was rooted.
The Republican Party did not adopt similar rules, but it could not continue to exclude anybody but white men. It too had to be concerned with representation. Before very long, my good friend Mary Louise Smith, a woman rights activist became chairperson of the Republican National Committee and gaveled the 1974 Convention into session. Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981. George Bush, Sr. was highly intentional and direct in appointing women and people of color to his administration. The world had changed. Never again would a national political convention be all male and exclusionary on the basis of race.
Even when doors open, it still takes extraordinary intelligence, discipline, application, backbone, and patience for those members of formerly excluded groups to persevere and succeed. No group does that. It is an individual journey and it is an individual accomplishment. If it occurs in the public eye, it is exponentially challenging. You do have to put up with a lot of jerks. If you are a woman, and particularly a woman of color, those jerks think they can either ignore you or beat you into submission. You learn to put them in their place and to keep yours. Mostly you learn to let them blow until they thoroughly embarrass themselves and then move on to what is important.
Every wave of change begins with someone with the courage to disrupt. The status quo is powerful and resistant to attack. But disruption must be followed by strategic construction of new processes that bring the greatest good to the many and not just the few. And ultimately it requires leaders with the courage of Fannie Lou Hamer, who with impeccable preparation and disciplined application, understand that it's not about getting in the door and to the table, it is about bringing to that table your authentic understandings of what it took to put you in that place to begin with.
