Washington — In the midst of professional football’s lingering domestic violence scandal, Melanie Campbell is probably the last woman NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to talk to — but she should have been the first.
Campbell is the quintessential voice of black women. A tireless advocate for the political, economic and social empowerment of this nation’s 22.7 million black females, her roots run deep among black activist organizations. She’s president and CEO of The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and organizer of the Black Women’s Roundtable Public Policy Network.
In a little more than two decades of work, Campbell has been honoredby a long list of black groups for her effort to uplift black women in a country that has too often neglected their issues and ignored their voices.
So you’d think Campbell would have been one of the first women Goodell called when the NFL domestic violence problem surfaced seven months ago. After all, the NFL’s current crisis was sparked by the release of a videotape of then-Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice dragging his unconscious fiancée, Janay Palmer, off of an Atlantic City casino elevator.
Read the full story at USA Today
