AP
The Black women who support Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton are now backing her because of the former secretary of state’s struggle to overcome adversity. Much like they do as mothers and wives, Clinton’s personal story of working through her husband’s infidelity has moved Black women to align with her more than ever.
“That’s when I said: I love that woman,” Bishop Corletta Vaughn, who ministers at Holy Ghost Cathedral in Detroit, told the Associated Press. “She taught so many of us as women how to stand in the face of adversity.”
Clinton was present with Vaughn that day in the service and has continued to make the rounds at various churches throughout March to increase voter support among Black women. In the face of criticism over her trustworthiness, African-American women appreciate the former first lady’s ability to overcome her political challenges as well.
“Who has overcome more obstacles and darts and arrows than she has?” said Sharon Reed, a community college teacher from North Charleston, South Carolina. “And she’s still standing and she’s still strong,” the AP reports.
The candidate’s stance on gun control issues is one part of Clinton’s platform that has made it easy for Black women to align with her. In an op-ed written for Black Entertainment Television, Lucia McBath, the mother of slain teen Jordan Davis, voices her unwavering support for Clinton. McBath said Clinton has a plan in place to repeal the “Charleston loophole.” A repeal will prevent gun dealers from selling guns to people whose background checks have not yet processed at the time of purchase. McBath said that by removing these loopholes “fewer of our sons and daughters perish at the hands of dangerous individuals,” according to BET.
NBC News reports that 170 notable Black women backed Clinton ahead of her stop in South Carolina, including mothers like McBath whose Black sons died due to gun violence. Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, and Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, endorsed Clinton in February.
