The year: 2024. The city: Boston. It is here that Ruthzee Louijeune made history when she was sworn in as Boston’s first Haitian-American woman city councilor and third Black woman in the role. Now it is no surprise as politics followed her from a young age. The then 14-year-old earned her first job as a tour guide for Boston neighborhoods. Just two years later she began interning for Marie St. Fleur, who was the first Haitian person elected in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “That really empowered me to believe that people are the ones who change communities and who write history,” she said in a Dec. interview with The Justice.
As president of the City Council, she represents every neighborhood of Boston, “From Hyde Park to East Boston, from Mission Hill to Beacon Hill, from Mattapan to Charlestown,” and inclusivity is at the heart of her mission. Louijeune said she wants to make sure “that everyone feels like this is their city, that they belong, and that they can thrive.” The issues that are most important to her include but are not limited to housing justice, reducing the number of foreclosures and evictions, racial equity, closing the racial wealth gap and education, increasing resources at schools to help students and increasing funding for public education.
A daughter of immigrants, she was more than excited to be able to work with Representative Marie St. Fleur. “I had an abundance of Black women of different sorts of classes, of different education levels, who served as my foundation and inspiration,” Louijeune shared. From the women in her family like her mom and grandmother to mentors and colleagues like Karilyn Crockett and Liz Miranda, Louijeune has gained tremendous knowledge and confidence.
Louijeune expressed that Black women are long overdue for their voices to be heard, “We can’t be ignored. We shouldn’t be sidelined. We need to be centered in politics because we have a lot to say.” She continued, “Our vision and our perspectives tend to be more holistic and less about I and more about we.”
While Black women make up 7.8% of the U.S. population and 15.4% of the U.S. population of women, these numbers are far from equal in political leaderships. The Center for American Women in Politics exposes that “5.4% of voting members of Congress identify themselves as Black women.” Although there has been an increase of Black women within politics over the years, the statistics still reflect their relative lack of representation in the political sphere. As of 2024 there has not been a single Black woman governor in any American city. Former Vice President Kamala Harris remains the one and only Black and South Asian woman to hold that office.
More than 50 years after Shirley Chisholm broke barriers becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress, America has seen only a small shift in leadership. When looking at Massachusetts in particular there has been some progress. Back in 2017, Kim Janey became the first woman and person of color to hold office as Mayor of Boston. And just last year, Andrea Campbell became the first Black woman Attorney General.
Prof. Faith Smith, Department chair of the African and African-American Studies Department explained how much work Black women have poured into politics. “[There has been so much] energy that Black women in this election and across the electoral landscape for generations have put into the electoral process,” she said in a Dec. interview with The Justice.
She reflected on her disappointment in the election, “If you think about the 1950’s and galvanizing the vote and the ways in which communities were penalized, sometimes fatally for voting, that makes it particularly painful when a Black woman is the target of loss.”
For Prof. Smith, as a woman of Jamaican descent she was especially proud to see women like Louijeune become the Boston City Councilor. Women like Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, whom she voted for, inspire her. “I celebrate that every day that these are the people swirling around me. From day to day they make tough decisions. I may agree with them, I may not agree with them, but I have a lot of pride in the composition of our city council.”
Louijeune echoed Smith’s assertion about the historical role Black women have played, “Even when we weren’t included in the Constitution, we were the ones who were building the foundation of capitalism.”
Louijeune is aware of the importance of making politics feel closely connected to the people and especially for other Black women. “For too long we suffered from racial and gender inequality. So I think it’s incumbent upon us, especially as Black women. Me, as a Black woman in leadership now, to make sure when I go through a door I’m not the last to walk in that door,” she shared. She emphasized the need to make space for the next generations of leaders.
One of those leaders is Jolecia Saunderson ’24. The 22-year-old Harvard University graduate student is currently interning for Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and she also was inspired by the women in politics that came before her.
Saunderson had grown up interested in learning more about the paths in politics that were forged by women of the past and the present. With this interest during her first year in undergrad at Brandeis University she signed up and enrolled in Dr. Amber Spry’s “African-American Political Thought” (now Black Political Thought) class with the African and African-American Studies Department at Brandeis and it was life-changing, “I remember, reading and engaging with the works of people like Ida B. Wells, Amy Jacques Garvey, Shirley Chisholm, and Angela Davis, and researching the things that they were fighting for, and [realizing that] I have some of the opportunities that I do today due to their sacrifices.”
In her junior year Saunderson had eyed the Office of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley internship but the stars only aligned recently. She expressed immense appreciation for being selected as an intern for the campaign which she began this fall. After doing her research on Pressley, Saunderson realized that her policies on treating abortion care as a basic right, reducing student debt and expanding efforts for healthcare and education aligned with her own convictions.
Similarly to Smith, in spite of disappointing election results, Saunderson remains hopeful about the future. She understands the potential there is for Black women and views it as a necessity to take the opportunities granted her way. “If I’m truly honoring those that came before me [and] have given their lives for me to have space today, I think I have to remain optimistic,” said Saunderson.
Louijeune has many personal motivations for her work, explaining, “Knowing that my grandmother, who couldn’t read or write, saw so much worse motivates me.”
The idea that this is the work that she was meant to do is what keeps her going. She said “to figure out what [my] and our role is in making this country and making this world a better place. I think that’s what gives me hope.”
Black women have been fighting for centuries, for their voice to be heard and for a seat at the table, and Louijeune says, “We’re going to continue to resist. It’s just in our DNA. It’s who we are.”
