Black women are “superlative participators in American democracy,” according to Northwestern professor Sally Nuamah, yet they remain underrepresented in national politics.

“Post-Reconstruction, we've had two elected Black women senators,” Nuamah said. “And at the gubernatorial level, we've had no Black women governors. And then we obviously have had no Black women presidents. If you consider the fact that Black women vote more than most Americans – at least for the past 20 years – and if you consider the fact that in addition they're really critical to registering people to vote, organizing protests and rallies, fundraising and a whole number of other kinds of forms of engagement, this is sort of inconsistent with what you would expect from a representation standpoint.”

In this episode of the Rundown podcast, Nuamah and host Erin Allen talked about why. Nuamah runs through the history of Black women’s participation in democracy – from Fannie Lou Hamer to Shirley Chisholm to Kamala Harris. She also explained the difference between “symbolic” and “substantive” representation, and whether one can lead to the other.

This conversation is part of the Democracy Solutions Project, a collaboration among WBEZ, The Chicago Sun Times and the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government. The multimedia series is focused on the critical issues facing our democracy in the run-up to the 2024 election.

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Why Black women are ‘superlative participators in American democracy’