In the heat of the Democratic primary, the Black girls at Hillary Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters huddled in the corner of the office to hear from a very special guest.
Reverend Leah Daughtry, the two time CEO of the Democratic National Convention, was a new face and name to many of the young Black women currently working tirelessly to elect Hillary Clinton.
We sat there, tired in the midst of a hotly contested primary, and listened to Reverend Daughtry tell us the story of “The Colored Girls.” And we were transfixed by their story.
For the uninitiated, The Colored Girls are living legends in Democratic circles.
In 1988, while staffers on the presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, The Colored Girls — a group that includes Donna Brazile, Minyon Moore, Yolanda Caraway, Tina Flournoy, and of course Reverend Leah Daughtry — staged a protest after their office was moved, creating a power center on one floor and putting all of the people of color on another floor.
The Colored Girls were not having any of it. Knowing they needed to be as close as possible to that power center, they set up shop inside a conference room on the floor they had been told to move from and posted a sign on the door: “For Colored Girls Only, We Shall Not Be Moved.”
And they did not. They began working out of this conference room until the issue was addressed within the Dukakis campaign’s leadership. Eventually, the conference room became a central work space for all members of the staff, of all backgrounds. And it cemented their legacy forever.
The Colored Girls have always been in Hillary Clinton’s direct sphere of influence. They are her friends, allies, and champions. Now this same sisterhood is shepherding a new generation of Black women working to elect Hillary as the first woman president in history.
We are an extension of their legacy.
As part of our launch of African American Women for Hillary, I spoke with several Black women on Hillary’s staff and the original Colored Girls squad, to reflect on their legacy and the future. Read the full story at The Medium.com.