Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett advocates for Black women’s power at SWS

At the recent Sisters with Superpowers event, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett delivered an impassioned speech that highlighted the unique challenges and triumphs of being a Black woman in America today. Speaking to a room filled with influential Black women, Crockett emphasized the importance of unity, resilience, and the recognition of shared humanity in the ongoing struggle for equality and justice. Her remarks underscored the vital role Black women have played—and continue to play—in shaping the nation, particularly in these turbulent times.

Following is the transcription of the fantastic speech:

It’s an interesting time to be an American. It’s an even more interesting time to be a Black woman. And, while this has existed before the current moment that we’re standing in, I just want to say thank you so much to each and every one of you Black women sitting here, whether you’re being acknowledged today or not.

I know that I wouldn’t be standing here as one of less than 60 Black women to ever [be sworn] into Congress, but for the hard work, the sacrifice, and the vision that so many of you laid down.

Brit [the speaker before me] just talked about a village. I understand that I didn’t get here by myself. And, honestly, I won’t stay here by myself.

So many of you have crossed paths with me, sent me love notes—I get prayers, I get donations, I get it all. But here is the thing: we deserve it all. Because Black women and Black folk, in general, built this country. And I am here to tell you that I refuse to go back. We worked too hard.

Too many people bled and, frankly, too many people died. And so while I can’t say this is necessarily the best job that I’ve ever had, this is definitely the most worthwhile and promising job that I could ever have. I understand the challenges that we face, whether we’re looking at a Supreme Court that consistently beats up and berates the law, the Constitution, and definitely people of color, or whether I’m looking at the people that I have to work with every single day…that have the audacity to come for me or us as a whole.

And yet, I want you to know that while some of you may know me because of B-6, I have always been one to stand in my purpose and stand on business, whether the cameras were rolling or not. Because I believe that is the charge that is on my life. And, honestly, I believe that is the charge that is on each and every one of your lives.

You don’t necessarily have to be an elected official to make a difference. I would honestly argue that you can make a bigger difference not being an elected official, especially in times like this when most people don’t want to listen to the politicians. And to be perfectly honest, I can’t really blame them for not wanting to listen to politicians.

But at the end of the day, I want you to own your power wherever it is that you operate. Because one of the things that has been lost in recent times is that the power belongs to the people. It has never left the people. And honestly, we have seen some of these draconian laws that have come through the statehouses where they are trying to diminish our power because they understand just how powerful we are.

So as we go into 100 days [before the election], until we know which direction this country will take—whether we are looking towards hope or something else—I’m here to tell you that it is going to be people power that makes the decision. There will be a lot of people that say what can’t be done, but I am charging you to tell them what can and will be done. Because a lot of people told me where I wouldn’t be, which is standing in front of you right now.

When I ran for the statehouse, I was outspent 5 to 1.

I took out an incumbent. I won my seat by only 90 votes. But when I tell you, I went everywhere to make sure that I could earn that seat, including the trap houses. I went to the trap houses, and I registered people to vote. This is only the second time I’ve told that publicly.

This is absolutely true. But their votes counted, just like any multimillionaire or billionaire’s vote. And I was in New Orleans just two days ago speaking to the Urban League, and that was the first time I told this story because I said, for whatever reason, as Black folk, we still are segregated even within ourselves. And the reality is that my skin, driving down the street, may be attacked just like anybody else’s.

It doesn’t matter that I’m a member of Congress for certain folk. We just saw what happened to Sonya Massey. If we don’t understand that while we may not necessarily be a monolith, we possess a commonality that we need to pull together and say we are the same—because we are. That is what we’ve got to do, and we’ve got to do the things that we’ve never done before, including being willing to go to the trap houses, because I got those votes.

I also told the story, and I’ll take my seat on this, about how in Texas it stays hot. And when I ran for the statehouse, we were swaggered out. We had everything. We had Jasmine water, Jasmine shoes, Jasmine hats, j=Jasmine pins—we had everything. And I went to my campaign office to grab some cold water for some volunteers. They were on the polls for me. And when I got to the polls—this was a poll on Martin Luther King—there were a number of homeless people, or unhoused folk, that were sitting outside. And to me, the only thing that made sense to do was to give them water. I wasn’t campaigning, but this was looking at the fact that it was 90-some degrees outside, and I did not know where and if they would get water.

And so, literally, me just being the person that I am, I gave them water. And so one of them said, “Do you have any more?” And I said, “Yeah, let me just run down to the office, and I’ll grab some more water.” I went [and] grabbed more water. It was the next day that my volunteers on the doors or on the polls said, “We had a whole bunch of unhoused people come in and vote for you.”

I said, “Say what now?” And they said, “Yeah.” And I said, “I don’t understand.” And they said, “Well, they said that you saw them, and you gave them water.” So now, I wasn’t trying to get votes. I was doing what I do, which is recognizing their humanity. And so it taught me a lesson because even when it came down to running for Congress—listen, my homies were still riding with me.

I ran into some folk who said, “We voted for you to go to the statehouse, and we are going back to make sure you make it to Congress.” It is important that we see our humanity and that we lace up our shoes and we talk to not just our circles, but we talk to those that we normally would not talk to.

That is my charge to you, because, ultimately, who runs this country affects those at the bottom first. And if [certain] people are running the country, it affects those at the very top first. And so I’m just asking that we all decide that this election will not be about any single individual. It will be about us collectively and what we demand of this country.

And we should all demand better of this country than we have had, and not worse. Thank you so much.