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The Westchester
80 County Press
PRSRT STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID WHITE PLAINS, NY PERMIT # 5069
YEARS
VOL. LXXX NO. 33 ISSN 0043-3373
Inside The County Press
Westchester County Press New Fax # (914) 962-4989 E-MAIL: westchestercounty press@yahoo.com
WBWPC Garden Party to Honor Women in Politics August 22 See Page 14
Shiloh Baptist Church and F. Willa Davis FREEDOM FEST August 22 See page 2
MEMBER OF NNPA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2009
Black women more involved in Politics By Sandra T. Blackwell ALFREDA WILLIAMS
Today black women of Westchester County are playing a bigger role in politics on the state, county and local levels. This is certainly a big change from the past when a few blacks managed to get elected on the local and county levels, but didn’t play big parts in the game of politics. Before, it was more about being the first elected or appointed. Now blacks are challenging each other for a chance to represent their districts and they are getting over the fear of losing or getting back into the race. When we saw the efforts of two Westchester state senators, Ruth Hassell Thompson and Andrea Stewart Cousins, both intimately involved in the back room dealings to turn around the Republican-led takeover of the leadership of the New York
State Senate, women of all hues all over the state stood up and applauded the efforts of these two women who seemed to be under immense pressure to bring civility back to the upper chamber of the state legislature. Both senators exemplify and fulfill the dream of the founders of the of the Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus (WBWPC), whose mission in 1976 was, is now and continues to be: to encourage greater participation of African American women and women of color in all phases of the political process. With that said, we’ll look at the campaign races in the county where black women are challenging the status quo and trying to make inroads into a system that has always been an
uphill battle for us. On the county level, one of the senior members of the Caucus, County Legislator Lois T. Bronz, (D-Greenburgh 8th District), is not seeking reelection after serving on the County Board of Legislators for the past sixteen years. Legislator Bronz has thrown her support behind fellow Caucus member Alfreda Williams. For fourteen years, Williams served as Greenburgh town clerk, and she has been endorsed by the Greenburgh Democratic Committee, the White Plains Democratic Committee and the Working Families Party. Williams has a tough challenge ahead of her in the September Democratic primary. While Williams has the party’s endorsement, she is facPOLITICS, Cont’d. on page 2
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