By Rosalind Manning
State Senator Lena Taylor, Baboonie Tatum and Rosalind Manning
Women from around Milwaukee turned up the volume during the forum held at the Rise and Grind Cafe on Tuesday September 24, 2019. During the meeting, the diverse crowd of women included a wide range of ethnic backgrounds as well as community and political leaders who showed up and were fully engaged with the panel of women speakers discussing women issues such as immigration, human trafficking as well as concerns about the mayor’s budget along with the LGBTQ community.
Martha Love, a longtime community organizer and a senior advisor for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for 2020 stated that the Supermajority, an advocacy group, “helps women to increase their voices.” She added that this group came together to “talk about and to encourage women to mobilize.” Although the café was filled with women actively participating in the discussion, she emphasized how it only takes five to six women to create significant change within a community. “There were at least six women in the meeting who I have seen move mountains,” she added.
Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), one of the panel members talked about gathering activists to challenge concerns about the mayor’s budget. Lang who does community outreach around elections and general voting issues, works to continuously bring about change in the community. One community member said that “She’s fighting tirelessly to put the power back into people’s hands and remind them that their engagement, their voice, and their vote matter & will not be ignored.”
State Senator Lena Taylor addressing the audience
Love, along with five others, let their actions do the talking when it comes to curtailing human trafficking in Wisconsin. She emphasized how “human trafficking is not a black girl and boy thing. It is a state wide monster.” Because of the hard work of the task force led by Love, currently, task forces have been set up in almost all of the seven-two counties in Wisconsin to wipe out the dangers of human trafficking that affects women and the LGBTQ community. Love has served as chairwoman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party and in the 1990s, was appointed by former president Bill Clinton as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Another active participant who helped to move the forum along was long time state senator Lena Taylor. Taylor, a Democratic announced her bid for Milwaukee Mayor in September has been a state senator for more than a decade has represented Wisconsin’s 4th District as a State Senator since 2005.
Love expressed how she worked on both of Taylor’s political campaigns. She added that “Taylor is everywhere on all topics.” Also that, “the one thing that her constituents know is that she cares.”
Supermajority is a new home for women’s activism and a community for people of all backgrounds, races, and ages who want to fight to make sure all of us are treated equally, no matter our gender. Supermajority will train and mobilize 2 million people, who will then help activate millions more in their communities, to make sure our voices are heard and a women’s agenda is represented in policy debates, in legislative fights, and at the ballot box.
Supermajority Education Fund focuses on research about the role and standing of women, educates the public about issues of importance to women, and supports policies that advance women.