For many Black West Virginians, each 60-day legislative session starts with a question: will this year be the one when lawmakers truly address the needs of Black communities?
Year after year, the answer has been frustrating, as inaction continues. Black West Virginians are more likely to have health problems, face issues with unemployment, and experience poverty than their white counterparts.
Black youth are suspended more frequently from school than their white peers, while adults struggle with unemployment, the criminal justice system, and crises in maternal health and substance use. West Virginia’s only historically-Black land-grant institution has struggled to overcome decades of state underfunding, amounting to more than $850 million.
With little action from lawmakers, Black advocates argue that communities must make their voices heard.
“If we do not educate people on the problems facing our communities, they will not understand,” said Dr. Shanequa Smith, a co-founder and organizer of Black Policy Day.
Smith used those words to open the third iteration of the event, which was held Wednesday at the state Capitol. The day serves as an opportunity for Black residents from across the state to advocate for their communities, highlight needed policies, and speak directly to legislators.
And the demands of Black communities were on full display from the start of the day, as hundreds of students, members of Black sororities and fraternities, speakers and attendees called for lawmakers to enact a community-driven “Black Policy Agenda,” a set of proposals that includes the creation of tax credits for diversity and inclusion, more support for people leaving the justice system, a state minority health equity team, and equal funding for West Virginia State University.
Black Policy Day attendees also highlighted the importance of passing the CROWN Act, legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle or texture. A bill has been introduced several times in recent years and a version of the bill passed the Senate in 2020 before stalling in the House, but the measure still hasn’t passed the full state Legislature.
Lawmakers in the state Senate are trying again this year, introducing two different CROWN Act bills.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, is lead sponsor of one of the bills, but has yet to put either on his committee’s agenda. He said that after speaking with policy advocates and community members Wednesday, he hopes to see progress this year, adding that the measure has been passed in more than 20 states.
“It’s not just the committee, it’s the caucus and the house as a whole,” Trump said of the process. “With a 60-day session and literally thousands of bills introduced in both houses, there’s picking and choosing as to which ones you’re going to make — you don’t have time to consider all of them.”
Even as the CROWN Act proposal remains in the air, people attending Black Policy Day said that the event was about more than one piece of legislation or specific policies. The more important thing, they argued, was that people learn about their political leaders, and how to advocate for their needs.
“Our lives matter, what we value matters, and our voice matters,” said Dr. Kristi Dumas, a member of the Beckley Human Rights Commission.
