Black women are the movers and shakers of this country and have tried to save America from itself more times than we'd like to admit, especially since it's not in our job description. You can count on black women to do what they must do over what they want to do often. That's why Luvvie Ajayi, Sili Recio, Lucrecer Braxton and Candace Jones have created a searchable database of black women running for political office in 2018.

According to Luvvie, she was tired of the country being run into the ground by white men who prove repeatedly that they are ill-equipped. Hence, her quest to find more black women to propel onward and upwards. She first stumbled upon Higher Heights for America, an organization that is helping to push black women in politics forward with their #BlackWomenLead campaign. While the site featured "Sistas to Watch," a short list of black women on the ballot, it lacked a database.

Cue Luvvie. 

"That night, I enlisted the help of three other women: Sili Recio, Lucrecer Braxton and Candace Jones. And I asked them if they could help me cull through my Twitter mentions and my Facebook thread to create a document of everyone folks had dropped info on," Luvvie explained of the process that went into creating the database. "From 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., the four of us worked in Google Docs to put it all together, formatting HTML and creating spreadsheets. That is how we were able to put together the first list of 100+ black women, which I then posted on my site the next morning. In that one day, we spent probably 40 (wo)man-hours on the list, which we alphabetized by state for people to scroll through."

The database is not an endorsement. Its new home is at Black Women in Politics and details over 400 candidates. Visitors may browse by candidate name or state, with the option to edit and add anyone who is missing from the list.  

Thank you to these four women for creating a much needed database. Not only is this a great look for black women, it is a vital resource we can all use before hitting the polls during voting season.

black women databaseBlack Women in politics