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#our100: An Open Letter to Our Nation from 100 Women of Color Leaders

One hundred women of color leaders pledge to continue to take action to bring forward solutions: "We know the politics of hate will not get us to the solutions we need. As women of color, as leaders, we will build and lead us on a path forward."

This morning, we come together to declare our resolve. Many of us are holding our babies, families, and loved ones close. We know that there is tremendous suffering and anger in this country, yet we stand here today, determined. After an election rife with the politics of division and hate, today we open a new chapter in our country’s long, difficult journey towards the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Join us, over the next 100 hours, at community events across the country as we come together to affirm our unity, and together recommit to continue our work towards this promise.

Our work did not start, and has not ended, with this election. Women built upon longstanding community and family networks to lead community-based voter programs. We’ve known that women of color represent 74 percent of the growth in eligible women voters since 2000. In more than 100 cities, across all 50 states, women came together to mobilize and inspire turnout, creating an unprecedented gender and racial gap at the polls.

Women did this work, not to get one woman a new job, but because we understood the stakes in this election. Black lives, women’s lives, immigrant’s lives, the lives of LGBTQ folks, of people with disabilities; of working people of every race, region and ethnicity, including those at Standing Rock and others protecting our land. We know that the future and well-being of this country depends on the health and well-being of all women.

Today, we feel how far we are from the promise of a nation that ensures liberty and justice for all. But our work, built on the hopes of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters and daughters, is testament to the power of our shared belief in that promise. It is we who must build the path forward on our journey.

As we look at our polarized country standing at this crossroads, we are filled with love for the many peoples of this nation. Despite disappointment and heartbreak, our resolve grounds us in hope for our future. Too often in the shadows, women’s hands have always been the strongest grip bending the arc of history towards justice.

Today, we recommit to take hold of that arc of history. As women, we stand united in our pledge to continue to take action to bring forward solutions. We know the politics of hate will not get us to the solutions we need.

As women of color, as leaders, we will build and lead us on a path forward. We must work together to hold civic, administrative and corporate decision makers accountable. To reach our full potential as people, and as a nation, this democracy must be owned by all of us, for all of us. We pledge our unity and determination to be ready, determined and united behind a vision and plan of action to become a nation where we can all live with dignity, care for our loved ones and the land, and thrive in freedom from all forms of inequality.

We can only get there, together. We invite you to journey with us.

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Signatories include: 

Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance / Caring Across Generations

Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter, co-founder

Charlene Carruthers, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100)

Eveline Shen, Forward Together

Jodeen Olguín-Tayler, Demos / Movement Strategy Center / Mijente

Judith LeBlanc, Native Organizers Alliance

Linda Sarsour, MyMuslimVote / MPower Change

Opal Tometi, Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Paulina Hernandez, Southeners on New Ground

Stacy Long Simmons, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

For the list of all signatories, click here. 

Take the pledge here.