Lives and Legacies: Conversations about Politics and Leadership in the Greater DC Area

In this episode entitled, Lives and Legacies: Conversations about Politics in the DMV, I speak with Representative Eleanor Holmes-Norton of Washington DC and Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins of District 20 Maryland about the impact of their upbringings on their style of leadership. While Representative Holmes-Norton speaks of her illuminating experience at Dunbar High School in a segregated DC, she professes that she has never felt as though she was subject to oppression even through her career as a politician. Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins also explains how she never felt directly oppressed due to her race or gender, but she details informative experiences from her childhood from which she has learned the importance of doing more than what is expected of her. This podcast shows the integral nature of their educations, both in and out of the classroom, to their current careers and the policies that they establish to improve their communities. In my first conversation with Representative Eleanor Holmes-Norton, we discussed the culture of excellence at Dunbar High School, shaping her desire to understand and change the oppressive forces that perpetuated racial injustice nationwide. I asked about the policies that she felt were the most integral to the destruction of this inequality, and she instead emphasized the importance of the institutions in which she worked and emphasized her gratitude for the power and support she was given as director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Jimmy Carter. When I asked her about the role of black women within the black community at large, she wove a narrative of equality and empowerment within the black community and concluded by arguing the value of hard work, experience, immersion, and empathy to leadership in any form.
However, Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins expressed slightly differing points in our following conversation. She told the story of her emigration to the United States from Jamaica at five years old and explained the othering that both her and her mother experienced during those early years. Delegate Wilkins explained how difficult experiences as a child made her want to dim her own light. She has now embraced her identity as an overachiever and attributes her success as a delegate to this central trait of hers. Delegate Wilkins’ identity as a politician is so deeply rooted in the value of service to others, something she learned from her mother in particular, and truly emphasizes the beauty of politics on a smaller scale and the connection to constituencies and communities that it enables. Delegate Wilkins then explained how she hopes to rewrite legislation to increase the salaries of delegates, recognize them as full-time positions, and match donations with public funds in order to make these positions more accessible, especially to minorities. She concluded by talking about how much of an inspiration her mother is to her, and her aspirations to continue passing meaningful legislation in the Maryland House of Delegates and potentially join the United States Senate to bring the fruits of her work to even more Americans.
Representative Holmes-Norton and Delegate Wilkins taught me about the history and the current state of inequality in my hometown, but they also gave me so much hope for the future. My conversations with the two politicians, one with a rich history and legacy, and one budding with potential and drive, complemented each other beautifully. I left with a more complete understanding of the interactions between the government and the public, and more importantly of two women behind the politics that has changed the lives of so many.