This is Part 1 of a Cardinal & Pine series, in which influential Black women leaders in NC talk about the possibility of a Black woman vice president. Read Part 2 here.

Of the leading candidates to be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, more than half are women of color, according to several outlets.

The pool includes notable lawmakers like California Sen. Kamala Harris and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, as well as New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Florida Rep. Val Demings, California Rep. Karen Bass, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former national security advisor Susan Rice.

Cardinal & Pine wanted to know what that meant to some of NC’s most influential women of color, so we asked.

Our first interview was with state Sen. Natalie Murdock. When she was elected in April, Murdock was the first Black woman under 40 to be elected to the state senate.  She takes over a seat that has a rich history in NC’s civil rights movement. Her predecessor, attorney Floyd McKissick, is the son of a civil rights icon in Durham.

[Read more here on Cardinal & Pine.]

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RALEIGH, N.C. – Educators in Durham County who are members of the Durham Association of Educators, an affiliate of the North Carolina Association of Educators, have endorsed Natalie Murdock for the N.C. Senate District 20 legislative seat.

The commitment of Murdock’s parents and grandparents to serve their community inspired her to dedicate her life and efforts to public service. Her mother worked as a nurse and her father was in the military and is a social work. Her paternal grandfather became a brick mason and established the first African-American owned concrete company and her grandmother worked in a cafeteria, where she saw firsthand the need for fairness and fair play in the workplace. Her maternal grandparents also shared the same industrious spirit. Her grandmother was a homemaker and leader in the church and her grandfather was a farmer.

“My family always taught me ‘To whom much is given, much is required,’” said Murdock, who serves as the Durham County Soil Water Conservation district supervisor and owner of the company Attal Strategies, that works with and assists private companies and non-profits to raise capital and better engage with the communities they serve.

Murdock’s platform as a candidate focuses on community, health, education, housing, jobs, justice, and the state overall. “Schools need attention. Families throughout North Carolina need access to affordable health care. Workers need the ability to feed their families, pay their bills, and afford quality housing. Barriers remain to providing liberty, justice, equality, fairness, and opportunity for all residents of our state. Too many in control of the legislature do little or nothing to solve these problems. Instead, they come up with tactics and strategy to make sure that they pass their agenda to aid their special interests, to keep whatever power they hold and to reward their friends and those that agree with them.”

“Educators know that candidates like Natalie, who have the experience and the drive to make a difference, are what’s needed in the state Legislature,” said Michelle Burton, president of the Durham Association of Educators. “Our students, our schools, our communities, and our state are depending on the work of the General Assembly to make North Carolina a leader not only in the South, but the nation! Lawmakers like Natalie can and will do just that!”

NCAE is the state’s largest education advocacy organization for public school employees and represents active, retired, and student members.

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Almost 2 million women in North Carolina currently have health insurance coverage for free birth control. 

People rely on birth control for their health, for their livelihoods, and for their ability to determine their own futures. Nearly 9 in 10 women will use birth control in their lifetimes. (Planned Parenthood)

Sexual and reproductive health care have major impacts on women’s health and agency. (Excerpts from Planned Parenthood)

• Access to birth control is responsible for one-third of women’s wage gains relative to men’s since the 1960s. The ability to get the pill before age 21 has been found to be the most influential factor enabling women already in college to stay there. 
• In a time of such economic turmoil for many, the ability to control if and when to have children is crucial for women’s financial security, advancement — and in a post-pandemic world — recovery. 
• Restrictions like this target Black and Latinx people who are more likely to have low incomes and for whom basic health care has always remained out of reach, because of historic and continued underinvestment in access to affordable care.

I am hard at work fighting for women across Durham and North Carolina, and I won’t stand for men like Brett Kavanaugh telling me what to do with my body. We need to fight and take back our right to control our bodies and livelihoods. 

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I reflect on the legacy of those who came before me, those I am honored to call my family and ancestors. As John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, Charles Evers, and Emma Sanders embodied the history and resilience of their ancestors, I, too, seek to embody and honor mine and them.

Emma Sanders was the great-granddaughter of an enslaved worker, daughter of an agriculture teacher and high school principal, Abram Dunbar and Sarah Brown Miller. She graduated from Alcorn State University – the nation’s first Black land grant college. She organized voters and especially groups of young people to disrupt Jim Crow laws and the barriers that kept them disenfranchised. Her family operated Freedom Schools for Black children. Rev. C.T. Vivian was a minister, an accomplice to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and ally to John Lewis, and even the dean of Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, NC. He also led the desegregation of a cafeteria in his first protest. Charles Evers was a veteran, Mississippi’s first Black mayor, a leader of the NAACP, and the brother of Medgar Evers. His parents were James and Jessie Wright Evers who were laborers and owned a funeral home and sawmill. He also attended Alcorn State University. John Lewis proudly came from a family of sharecroppers. He was the last surviving speaker from the March on Washington in 1963, a Freedom Rider, a congressman, and the husband of Lillian Miles who was his strongest political advisor. He led the famous march in Selma into the hands of state troopers in riot gear — not unfamiliar to us today. Their stories resonate with mine and so many of us. I was born from a history of teachers, veterans, pastors, farmers, mill workers, cafeteria workers, and activists. Their voices ring in my heart when I stand up for justice.

All four were met with excruciating violence. All four met that violence with courage, bravery, and a vision for a future that liberated them and those who would come after them.

We are continuing the legacy of their work, and we know that we are lighting the fire for those who come after us.

I hope to honor their legacies and continue lighting the flames of justice.

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While many women of color under the age of 35 are their families bread winners, they can still find discrimination at their places of business. The roles they play are important to our current and future economy, but they still don’t make as much as other women or men. According to a study done by the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, black women in the workplace make an average income of $31,826, an astounding $13,179 less than men, despite the gender earnings ratio for black women in North Carolina being 70.7%. Between the years of 1997 and 2018, African American women-owned businesses increased by nearly 260%, while companies owned by women estimated over $50 billion in revenue a year, proving further the essential role that women of color take part in, in our economy.

Narrowing the gender wage gap that the large majority of colored women in Durham experience, could be achieved by designing policies that support the work-life balance, supporting women-owned businesses, and increased access to affordable childcare and education. Women of color are less likely to retain jobs when they can’t afford basic necessities due to transportation costs and expensive housing costs. Equal pay for quality work not only ensures African American women under the age of 35 can afford to take care of themselves and their families, it’s what is right. Women deserve to be paid the same dollar as any man who works the same job. Due to the gender wage gap in North Carolina, women of color will lose almost $400,000 over the course of their lives. 

Stable housing is also a vital part of the women’s workplace involvement, and without safe and affordable housing, their ability to find and keep jobs is impacted significantly. The lack of housing also affects a women’s ability to be hired for employment. A recent study showed that those who are not able to provide an address on an employment application, are less likely to get the job. According to a paper published in the last 2 years by the YWCA, women of color still struggle to find housing near their places of employment, which can lead to increased transportation costs and commute times. In some instances, women can be paying more in transportation costs than they do in housing costs. High cost or unaffordable housing can also leave women without access to decent medical care or groceries, and female-headed households are more likely to face housing cost burdens. An African American woman under the age of 35, working a full-time job making minimum wage in the U.S., can’t rent an average one-bedroom apartment without a housing cost burden, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

With more access to affordable housing for women of color near their places of business, there are additional resources for childcare, education, healthcare, and more. They are also able to retain their jobs for longer. Stable housing can also create a positive environment for survivors of domestic abuse. With nationwide low-income housing scarcity and the inability for funding necessary for housing programs, decent and affordable housing is not within reach for hundreds of women of color. With increased government funding for housing programs that help very low- and moderate-income rate households, more women of color under the age of 35 could retain their jobs, build a safe environment for their families, and live without fear of eviction. 

It is no secret that women of color in Durham face inequality not only at their places of employment, but also when it comes to finding affordable and quality housing. African American women in North Carolina are bound by the intersections of inequality, and the lack of resources available to them is a challenge. Unfortunately, recent census data also suggests that transportation costs are only increasing which poses a struggle to women who cannot afford housing near their jobs. This can lead to women being forced to move and once again struggle to find decent housing they can afford. This can cause increased stress and exhaustion which may lead to poor work performance increasing the chance of them missing work or being late, which poses the possibility of them losing their jobs. Those that do find affordable housing may have to sacrifice their safety, making them settle for violent and distressed neighborhoods where crime and unemployment are high. The economic advancement of women of color under the age of 35 is further hindered due to their inability to find job training or education courses near where they live. The cycle is vicious and very often unforgiving.

The women of Durham deserve more, and that is why Natalie Murdock Is running for North Carolina State Senate. As a woman of color, Natalie pledges to stand by and stand up for the women of North Carolina who struggle to find ways to support themselves and their families. She will put the needs of the people and the district first and will work tirelessly to improve the community and the state of North Carolina. It’s time that you had someone on your side, fighting for what’s right. Vote for Natalie Murdock and put an advocate for the people in office.

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