Former Georgia state representative Dee Dawkins-Haigler stood in front of dozens of women, each dressed in matching brown T-shirts. Dawkins-Haigler, who knows her way around the Georgia State Capitol after serving District 91, stepped to the microphone and said she was excited to be there with the other women because “God has assembled this for such a day like this.”
Dawkins-Haigler, a radio talk show host on local radio station 1380 WAOK, said, “No longer will we take a second seat to anybody.”
The Georgia Black Women’s Roundtable (GBWR), an arm of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, gathered alongside supporters of other Black-interest groups on the south wing steps of the Georgia Capitol on Monday morning with several general issues in mind. On a day when dozens of organizations and hundreds of elected officials were to be downtown pining to be heard, the GBWR wanted to make sure their voices were also heard.
There are only 40 days (through late March/early April) to decide on the state’s annual operating budget and to propose state laws by the Georgia Legislature, which is led by the Republican Party, and is one of the largest legislative bodies in the country. On Monday, the House representatives voted 153-27 in favor of electing Republican Jon Burns as its speaker for the 2025-26 session.
“I am incredibly confident in each member of this body and our ability to pass measures to make Georgia better,” Burns said following the vote and being escorted back onto the House floor by a committee of his peers. “It’s a great day to be in Georgia, and an even greater day to be a Georgian.”
Downstairs during the vote, the Black organizations in attendance at the press conference wanted to voice their opinions on how to make it a better day to be a Black woman, mother, business owner, parent, and voter in Georgia as well. The groups, some of whom wore sorority gear, while others carried other T-shirts and even a coffee mug that read “Rent Control,” used the first day of the legislative session to put a spotlight on a report compiled by the GBWR highlighting concerns and challenges facing Black Georgians. Some of the issues listed in the report involved education, mental health initiatives, voting rights concerns, Project 2025, one of the more polarizing topics throughout the most recent presidential campaign, and Black women entrepreneurship. The press conference, which lasted less than 20 minutes and featured three speakers, took place minutes after the National Anthem during the opening minutes of Monday’s opening session.
National Council of Negro Women National Chair Dr. A. Lois Keith opened with talking points about why the women were gathering in such a manner for the first time at the State Capitol. Dr. Darlene McGhee Whittington, the National President of Jack and Jill, Inc. also took a turn telling the crowd at the inaugural meeting in the State Capitol, “We are here today to stand in solidarity with our sisters.”
There was no mention if other meetings similar to this one will take place again during the 2025 session, but the image of dozens of Black women crowding the south steps was new for the legislative session.
“We don’t want not one Black woman left behind,” said Dawkins-Haigler. “This is our moment, this is our time. Black women are here and we are here to stay.”
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Atlanta Voice.
