US Black Caucus, Women and President Obama

God willing, one day soon we’ll have our own National Black Caucus.

At this Caucus sometime in the near future, our Black and minority ethnic Prime Minister will address a huge gathering of BME politicians, entrepreneurs, faith leaders and activists. There she will talk about the important role of women in the struggle for race equality. Our Black Attorney General will nod in approval.

And as the nations’ media record this historic event, the Prime Minister will tell the audience that ‘Black lives matter’ ; that we demand to be treated fairly, and with respect. And with that the audience rises as one to hear one of the world leaders demand greater racial justice. Outside of our convention, BME business leaders are meeting with grass roots activist to discuss how they can support the next generation of BME political and business leaders. After business is done and dinner is eaten, we dress up and dance. And boy do we dance!

This vision, this dream that we have not just for here in the UK but also right across Europe, is no dream in the USA. The only difference in my dream and the American reality is the gender of the President.

For five days the most powerful Black people in America and many others gathered in Washington DC for the annual Congressional Black Caucus FOUNDATION ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE (CBC ALC)

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ALC is an event advancing policies to improve the situation of African-Americans put forward by the 46 black members of the United States Congress. Every swanky and not so swanky hotel across Washington turned Black. Most of those who wish to be the next President knew they needed to there. When you include many of the international delegates from Africa and Caribbean nations you realise that this gathering has a reach way beyond the shores of an often insular America.

On behalf of the European Network Against Racism, -ENAR- I was part of a European delegation supported by OSF that included their Vice Chair Momodou Jallow from Sweden, Mitchell Esajas from the Netherlands, Louis George Tin from France and Former Equality Minister Helen Grant MP. Helsinki Commission advisors, Dr. Mischa Thompson and Alex Johnson, ensured the issues of racism in Europe and the Global connectivity of Black unity were writ large during this US convention. Because of them and the work of Congressman Alcee Hastings we met, amongst others, senior officials at the White House, the State Department, the NAACP, Leadership Conference Civil and Human Rights, president of Howard University, business leaders Don Peebles and Thierry Deau, and the first Black female Attorney General Lorretta Lynch.

OBV’s long standing friendships were renewed with Rev Jesse Jackson, Congressman Emmanuel Clever - who we’ll be hosting during Black History month- and Dr Martin Luther King III.

There were many moving moments, not least watching President Obama’s speech at the Congressional dinner - how I managed to get a ticket is for another article - but one that stuck out for me was, when in the convention centre with 7,000 plus delegates a young man called my name. I didn’t recognise him at first glance.

‘Simon’, he said, ‘how are you brother? Don’t you remember me? You taught me, and inspired all of us in Copenhagen at the first Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network (TILN) some four years ago’. ‘Yes, brother it’s coming to me now. Remind me of your name, and what are you doing now? I inquired sheepishly. My name is Chris Cobbs, and I’m working directly with Hillary Clinton on her Presidential campaign. In fact come by tomorrow and meet with her at a reception we’re doing’. So I did. And he did introduce me to perhaps the next President of the United States. ‘Mrs Clinton’ he said, ‘this is Simon Woolley from London, he and his colleagues from Europe are doing brilliant work getting Black people to vote.’

That chance meeting was not about me meeting Hilary Clinton, but more about a black nexus that nurtures and supports future leaders, and remembering how we are a global family. OBV continues to work with the German Marshall Fund and Helsinki Commission to advance diverse leaders through TILN, now in its fifth year.

For my part in this big project, I was able to introduce Mitchell Esajas from the Netherlands to Rev Jackson’s team so that Rev Jackson can throw his weight behind their campaign to effectively challenge the nation’s Christmas festival Zwarte Piet, which is the blackening up of white people in a demeaning role of Santa Clause's Black ‘buffoonish’ helpers.

Sometime soon we’ll have a National Black Caucus . We’ll start here just by bringing all 41 BME MP’s together in the same place so that they can see each other and recognise their potential if they worked together on race equality issues . This caucus will spread to other European countries that will be able to better fight for the 20 million or so Black people living in Europe today.

What our delegation witnessed, and wonderfully consumed over the last five days will be a reality here.

Lastly, in 2016, in President Obama's last year as President, there are plans to increase the European delegation tenfold. Watch this space.

Simon Woolley

See President Obamas speech to the NBC