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Fortune
Inside the network of powerful Black women raising millions for Kamala Harris
By Emma Hinchliffe, Nina Ajemian,
10 hours ago
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani is leaving the company, supermodel Naomi Campbell was banned as a trustee from her nonprofit, and Ruth Umoh, editor of Fortune ’s Next to Lead franchise goes inside the network of powerful Black women backing Kamala Harris for president. Have a meaningful Monday!
- A fundraising force. On Sunday, July 21, some 44,000 Black women gathered on a Zoom call following President Joe Biden's termination of his presidential reelection campaign and subsequent backing of Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee.
Chief among the attendants were corporate heavyweights like Dallas Mavericks' CEO Cynt Marshall, the first Black woman to lead an NBA team; Shannon Nash, the former CFO of drone delivery service Wing; Susan Chapman, a former Amex executive and board director at Toast and J.M. Smucker; and Ulili Onovakpuri, a managing partner at the VC firm Kapor Capital.
These women are longtime members of Win With Black Women (WWBW), an influential, under-the-radar network of powerful Black women. And for four years, their Sunday Zoom calls have been a weekly ritual. "The group is a love letter from Black women to Black women," its founder, Jotaka Eaddy, told me in a recent feature for Fortune ’s Most Powerful Women issue.
Jotaka Eaddy launched Win With Black Women after seeing racist abuse directed at prominent women.
Eaddy, a social impact consultant in politics and tech, launched the network in response to the racist and misogynistic abuse she saw hurled against Black female politicians. “I just remember thinking to myself, ‘If we allow this to happen to these Black women, then what is happening to Black women that don't have those platforms, that aren't famous, [and] are not at a level of vice presidential nominee potential?...What is happening to the ‘Tamikas’ in the workplace?” Eaddy said.
WWBW's membership has swelled in the years since, almost exclusively through word of mouth as an if-you-know-you-know grassroots campaign. The group played a sizable role in the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, the appointment of economist Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve Board (the first Black woman in its 110-year history), and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation as the first Black female Supreme Court justice. WWBW has also wielded its influence in entertainment and sports, rallying behind Black female authors to place them on bestseller lists, paying for Black female athletes to attend the Olympics, and buying out theaters to support Black filmmakers.
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has dropped in on several calls. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has also made an appearance.
The group has inspired a number of "unity groups" that fundraise over Zoom, including White Women: Answer the Call, White Dudes for Harris, Cat Ladies for Harris, and Tech4Kamala.
On that fateful Sunday—with 44,000 people on the Zoom call and 50,000 more tuning in from other streaming platforms—Black women were jubilant and hopeful. But they were also sober about the grueling task that lay before them: returning Harris to the White House. This time, as president.
At the crux of that mission was an effort to raise $1 million in one month for the Harris campaign. By the call’s end, WWBW had raised more than $1.6 million.
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