Meet the Black Women Legislators Shaping California Policy

By Mark Hedin CALIFORNIA BLACK MEDIA

In 2023, five of California’s Black Legislative Caucus’ (CBLC) 12 members are women. They are:

LOLA

SMALLWOOD-CUEVAS (D – Ladera Heights)

The only Black woman in the California State Senate, Lola Smallwood-Cuevas represents state Senate District 28, a small, densely populated section of Los Angeles County that includes Culver City and parts of mid-city Los Angeles and unincorporated Los Angeles County.

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President and CEO Kellie Todd Griffin said the state of Black women in California is troubling.

“There is so much work to do,” she explained.

“There is a gap with Black women. Without immediate interventions from a policy and practice transformation standpoint, we’re not going to be able to change the trajectory.”

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She was deeply involved with social justice causes before she met and married Martin Luther King Jr., and long after his death.

Scott King served with civil rights groups throughout her time as a student at Antioch College and the New England Conservatory of Music. Shortly after she and King married in 1953, the couple returned to the South, where they lent their support to local and regional organizations such as the NAACP and the Montgomery Improvement Association.

They also supported the Women’s Political Council, an organization founded by female African American professors at Alabama State University that facilitated voter education and registration, and also protested discrimination on city buses.

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By Vicki Crawford THE CONVERSATION

An Activist In Her Own Right

Coretta Scott King is often remembered as a devoted wife and mother, yet she was also a committed activist in her own right.