Obama Calls For Greater Focus on Helping African-American Women

Noting that Black women were integral in every civil rights movement, including suffrage and feminism, the president discussed his decision to highlight Black women as an effort to quiet the voices telling them they aren’t “good enough”. “Women strategized boycotts. Women organized marches”, Obama said in his keynote address.

He also praised the recent push to put a black woman’s picture on the $10 bill but said the move should be accompanied by progress on equal pay.

The organization’s annual Phoenix Awards Dinner – which Democratic party front-runner Hillary Clinton will attend – will allow presidential candidates to court black Americans, one of the Democratic Party’s most solid bases. He talked about improving the lives of women, particularly black women and girls who he said are imprisoned at twice the rates of white women and who also suffer higher rates of sexual assault, suspension from school and other issues. As women of color continue to excel in universities and professional sectors, Obama also called attention to the fact that they are paid less than white men on average. Vice President Biden attended a caucus prayer breakfast before heading to his home in Delaware for the weekend.

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 45th Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, September 19, 2015.

In his remarks, Obama also touched on the issue of criminal justice, promising to work with CBC members and other lawmakers in the months ahead to advance legislation intended to make the system fairer and encourage the use of diversion and prevention programs.

Among those honored Saturday night was the late Amelia Boynton Robinson, an organizer of the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965, and who was badly beaten by police.

“Like every parent, I can’t help to see the world increasingly through my daughters’ eyes”, Obama said.

“I’m focusing on women tonight because I want them to know how much we appreciate them, how much we admire them, how much we love them”, he added. That’s not going to help our police officers, the vast majority who do the right thing every day, by just pretending that these things aren’t happening.