Black women have long been one of the nation’s most pivotal voting blocs due to higher turnout, partisan loyalty and dogged grassroots effort. Now, as the 2026 midterms approach, their political power is meeting the headwinds of policy changes that are threatening their livelihoods, health and families.
That tension will take center stage this weekend, as part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference, where lawmakers and activists are examining a number of issues impacting the Black community, such as social justice, voting rights, education, and access to healthcare. A key part of these discussions is how Black women can leverage their voting power even as they confront policies that threaten hard-won gains.
Among them is National Council of Negro Women President and CEO Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, which has been strategizing how Black women can protect their rights. On Friday, the organization will host a talk with advocates and community leaders on challenges Black women face in voting rights, health care and economic equity.
Based in the historic Dorothy I. Height Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, less than 10 minutes away from the White House, the organization is located in the center of the corridor of power.
The group is holding its ground in supporting Black women in an era of racial entrenchment and remains rooted in decades of advocacy for Black communities as the only Black and woman-owned building on the avenue.
Arline-Bradley spoke with The Emancipator about the economic attacks facing Black women and what it means to hold ground on Pennsylvania Avenue in this political moment.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Chandelis Duster: What role have Black women historically played in building the economic and civic backbone of Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas like Maryland and Virginia?
Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley: If you were Black in the top of the 20th century, end of the 19th century, and you were in the D.C area, you connected to some of the key folks that I know. The Nannie Helen Burroughs of the world, the Mary Church Terrells of the world, and I gotta say her name: Mary McLeod Bethune. Those women who were front and center…it really started with education for most of them. And when I think about the suffrage movement, I think about how Black women were not necessarily welcome to that space, but leaned in and created opportunities to be vocal about accessing the right to vote.
And I cannot go without saying the name of The Mecca. Howard University was really in the center of Black women’s advancement. When you think about Black women who have skills from, I think about Dunbar High School, these schools that really resonated and created opportunities for Black women. They are connected to those who have had lineage in education and economic advancement.
Our organization was founded by Mary McCleod Bethune, who was not only a suffragette, but was also known as the first Black woman, a first Black lady of the African-American community. And when you think about the role of Black nurses, Black females who were entrepreneurs, the DMV has, from that time up until now, created a cadre of Black women in industries that have stood the test of decades of racism, sexism, and classism.
Historical photo of Howard University Founders Library. Credit: Howard University 
Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women Credit: NMAH, Smithsonian Institution via National Park Service 
Mary Church Terrell, a founding member of the National Council of Negro Women. Credit: Photo Credit: NMAH, Smithsonian Institution via National Park Service 
Nannie Helen Burroughs, an education activist who worked with the National Council of Negro Women. Credit: Library of Congress
Does the current political and economic disregard that we’re seeing under this administration feel like a betrayal of that legacy that we as Black women have built?
It’s deeper than the betrayal for me. It’s an attack. It was a coordinated attack. And I tell you this: What the system understood, those that run the system and are in current power now understood, that if we do not do something to quell and quench the fire of Black women, the way to do that was to hit their pocketbooks. For me, it stands as one of the most consistent moves of the American political and social system, and I think that’s just so important for us to recognize.
It’s hard sometimes doing this work. It’s hard feeling like you’re swinging against the air and the goalpost is moving every time we move forward. And at the same time, the way that we’ve been able to fight back is by staying consistent. And that’s what we’ve done even when we are betrayed and targeted at the same time.
The NCNW has been a long-time champion not only for equality but also for equity in the labor force for Black women in D.C. and beyond. What are some other ways the organization is continuing to help elevate and empower Back women in today’s workforce? Especially when it comes to the federal government, where Black women are purposely being shut out and removed from these places by this administration.
We had a furloughed federal worker job fair. Over 785 women signed up for that job fair. What we did is we told some corporations, ‘Listen, we’ve got women who have been in the workforce 20, 30 years, but they’ve only been in the federal workforce. We need skills, we need core competencies and we can highlight for these systems to be able to prepare them for the next level of workforce.’
The other area that we’ve been and I can just scream about this: Bethune-Height Changemaker Pathways. It is quite frankly, the most important part of the work that we’re doing. We are investing skill sets in collegiate young women to ensure they have placement in internships or jobs after they finish their one year of skills training. We are actually investing in each of them $5,000 in scholarships and support to be able to cover their education and some of the buildings they have on campus.
The fact that the NCNW is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at this time in our history, as a Black woman-led organization and how this administration is acting – how does that make you feel? Do you see any historic parallels to what the organization witnessed early on, like during the Civil Rights Movement, and to what we are seeing now?
The space that our building sits on, the building sits on the space where the enslaved were sold. So you’re talking about coordinating legacy with the historical context. It’s our ability to connect to what has happened in the past.
There are a lot of similarities. Unfortunately, targeted attacks, particularly attacks on economic advancement. What they did in Tulsa, what they did in Rosewood. This has been a consistent piece. Attack the economic base of the Black community: Black women. Attack communities, attack industry, right? Black families…and still Black people utilize what has worked for us. One: our faith, our resilience, our ingenuity, our innovation, our creativity, our unity, right? All of those things work out in our favor because we have had to lean in before, and we have more politically, more economically, than we’ve ever had before.
As I think about us, the symbolism of us being on Pennsylvania Avenue, in my book, is the biggest “How You Like Me Now” in the world, right? It’s because we are sitting on the corridor of power when they don’t want us in that space and we’re gonna be there until the end of time.
How can Black women organizations like the NCNW and others help preserve the work that’s been done before us and protect that economic legacy of Black women in DC again, when you have this administration bombarding us with these policies that put us at a disadvantage and shut us out?
We are still the only Black organization, Black and woman-owned building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
It’s an opportunity also for us to create and advance wealth in this common area of this city and the DMV area. One thing that we’ve been having to think about is our own platforms. We have our own building. We also are building our own platforms. We’ve also been highlighting Black platforms.
We understand the economic opportunities for us are really embedded in our ability to create movement and to create the kind of exponential growth that we need.
