Black GOP Women Rip Party in Letter

WASHINGTON —  Six black Republican women released an angry letter Tuesday chastising party leaders for failing to invite African American conservatives to a two-day Republican Women Leaders Forum here this week.

Linking their cause to the “Ain’t I a Woman?” refrain of Sojourner Truth, the 19th century former slave and suffragist, and Republican President Abraham Lincoln’s freeing of slaves, the black GOP activists complained that party leaders repeatedly exclude them from organizing activities.

“On the eve of the 21st century, black Republican women are stll agitating for inclusion in mainstream activities in the party of Lincoln,” the letter said. “On behalf of the millions of black women who are voters, taxpayers, wives, soccer moms, caregivers, entrepreneurs, community and civic leaders, we ask the organizers of the Republican Women Leaders Forum and GOP leaders: Are we not women?”

The letter, to be published today as an ad in the Washington Times, a popular newspaper among conservatives in the nation’s capital, is signed by Gwen Daye Richardson, editor of Headway magazine; Phyllis Berry Myers, founder and chair of Black America’s Political Action Committee; Teresa Jeter Chappell, president of the Republican Vangard of Georgia; Faye M. Anderson, president of the Douglass Policy Institute; Jacqueline Gordon, president of the National Congress of Black Conservatives, and Athena Eisenman, president of the Colorado Black Republican Forum.

Red-faced GOP officials reacted with dismay, saying there was no intent to snub black women.

“I’m really shocked and surprised about this,” said Patricia Harrison, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, one of the forum’s sponsors. “They were, have been and are still invited to attend our meeting.”

After reporters called Republican officials to inquire about the letter, Harrison called some of the women and asked them to reconsider publishing their letter. She even offered to waive the $175 registration fee for some of them to attend.

But Anderson said it was too late for that kind of damage control and that the black women do not plan to attend. “This wasn’t just about the forum,” she said of the public release of their letter. “Truth be told, the party’s failure to include black Republicans in mainstream activities and affairs smacks of racial stereotyping totally at odds with the party’s commitment to color blindness and individual merit.”

Anderson said in an interview that GOP leaders are quick to call black activists when they want to put a black face on policies dealing with school choice, affirmative action or other issues “they associate with African American people.” But when they are planning strategy, “they seem to overlook us and seem surprised we are offended.”

The snafu complicates GOP efforts to bridge its gender and racial gaps before this fall’s midterm elections.

Last year, Republican officials proclaimed that they would broaden the GOP’s appeal to minority voters with its New Majority Council, a group of minority business and community leaders to sell the party to black and Latino voters.

“The Republicans don’t have a stable majority in Congress,” said David Bositis, senior policy analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a liberal think tank specializing in black issues. “For them to have a stable governing majority like the Democrats used to have, they will need to increase their black and Hispanic support.

“But more often than not, as this episode demonstrates, they make matters worse for the party instead of better.”

In the 1996 presidential election, black voters accounted for about 13% of GOP nominee Bob Dole’s votes. Of that amount, black men cast about 15% of their votes for Dole and black women contributed 8%. By contrast, Bositis said, 89% of black women voted for President Clinton, making them the highest subgroup of voters supporting his reelection.

Black Republicans “are often depicted as Uncle Toms or ‘oreos’ by blacks but they’re not taken seriously in the party,” Bositis said.

Myers, who has worked for years on various GOP campaigns and causes, said the level of frustration boiled over after black women realized the party was not listening to community activists. She said a younger, more aggressive generation of black women is forcing itself into party activities.

“We’re just tired of being an oversight,” Myers said. “We’re not going to be ladylike and meek and keep our concerns in the family anymore.”