Black Women Working Towards Higher Positions
Despite advancements at lower levels of government and one vice president who broke down barriers, those same barriers have been difficult to maneuver through for others. The first Black woman elected to the California State Assembly was Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, who served from 1967 to 1973. She became the first Black woman elected from the American West to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1973 to 1979. She was the first woman to lead the Congressional Black Caucus and the first Black woman to become vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. Significant obstacles stand in the way of Representative Barbara Lee as she begins her campaign for a California Senate seat. The election is anticipated to be among the most costly and competitive in the nation. She will have to deal with one of the strongest glass barriers in American politics, which makes it more scary. In 1998, when Ms. Lee, then 76, was first elected to Congress, there were 11 Black women servin...