November 5, 2024 • 11 mins
Host Ramses J and cohost Q Ward continue their series profiling the distinguished ladies of the 2024 National Council of Negro Women. Today's special guest is Ms. Janice Mathis, Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women. NCNW’s mission is to lead, advocate for and empower women of African descent, their families and communities.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to our special series Distinguished Ladies of the NCNW
here on the Black Information Network. Recently, myself, Ramsay's Jah,
and q Ward made our way to Baltimore for the
sixty first Annual Convention of the National Council of Negro Women,
and we're able to have some meaningful conversations with some
of the most powerful and influential Black women in America.
(00:20):
We discuss politics, education, healthcare, economics, and everything in between.
So sit back and enjoy today's episode of the Distinguished
Ladies of the NCNW here on the Black Information Network.
All right, So, still here on location at the National
Council of Negro Women National Convention twenty twenty four in Baltimore, Maryland,
(00:44):
having the time of our life, just meeting incredible people,
having amazing conversations, and learning just how deep some of
these stories go, just how tall the giants upon whose
shoulders we stand stand themselves. And we are about to
(01:07):
have a conversation with another such giant. And the funny
part of this story is that she's the one who
has been so elusive. You know, we learned about her
early on and everyone was saying, oh, she's She's like
the Godfather and she's you know, she's the one that
makes it happen, makes it go well. We've been again
champion at the bit to get to this point and
(01:30):
now we are joined by Janie Mathis, n CNW General
Counsel and former NCNW Executive Director, Attorney Rainbow Push. So
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Absolutely so. One of the things that we really wanted
to establish is what the goal for this event was.
And a lot of people have come and they've shared
little bits and pieces. Talk to us a little bit,
talk to our listeners a little bit about what it
was you were hoping to see at this year's convention
and whether or not you feel optimistic about our prospects
(02:04):
moving forward.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It is truly a multi purpose event for us. In
the first instance, we have a legal responsibility to do
the business of ncn adopt the budget, elect officers, review
the bylaw. Beyond that, we've got a brand new area
to celebrate.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, chavon Arline Bradley and the people that she's probably
in with her and we talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Going to Mars. You know, rs.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
This is an exciting time in a sense, a test
of the organization's ability to activate the change that we
thought we would see. And so this is our first
real test. Thirteen hundred guests, you know, over a million
dollar budget.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
They tell me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
We raised a half million dollars in a luncheon yesterday, sure,
two hundred and fifty collegiate students from around the country,
which is in itself a recent record of young engagement.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You had Janetta Cole.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Here, our previous presidents year gathered, so it was a
similar kind of moment serving many purposes.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, and of course for the members themselves, it's a
way to reconnect with each other.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We on this show believe in a very wholehearted and
kinectic way and standing up for black women, showing up
for black women, listening to the leadership of black women,
and supporting black women the best way that we can,
which is why we made it our business to make
it here to Baltimore for this convention. You and I
(03:34):
learned today that we share a personal connection and in
a space where, strangely enough, there are forces going out
of out of their way rather to work against black women.
The Fearless Fund has come under attack because it stands
to create access to opportunity, wealth and capital for black
(03:59):
and minority women. And you have some familiarity with the
founder of the Fearless Fund and with that case. Is
that something that you could share with our listeners.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I'm proud to do so. Arion Simone. I can't say
that I know her well or that I know a person,
but she is my hero.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
After I learned a little bit about her background, I
learned that Arion Simone could have been anywhere doing anything that.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
She wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
An outstanding education, great family background, exposure to all of
the niceties of life.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
She could be chilling right.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But instead she is trying to lift up other black
women who want to be entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think that her purpose is.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Just magnificent, and so when I saw her under attack,
I felt that I had to do something, and.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So we went to our board of directors.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
We approached some of the lawyers who were involved in
the case on her side to see whether there were
opportunities to do what we call in the law Meeka's brief,
just expressing our opinion, expressing our outrage, expressing our consternation
that the courts would say after so many years of
the welfare Queen the irresponsible mother, the absolute father. Here's
(05:17):
a woman who's trying to right those wrongs, and you
find something wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
We take offense, Yeah, take a take offense.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Not only did we take offense, we filed the brief,
we activated our folk in Georgia because we knew that's
where the case would be held. I practiced law in
Georgia for more than two decades.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It was personal in that sense.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
But I also wanted NC and W doctor Hyde, doctor
bethu dtor Cole, all these magnificent women to be on
the right side of history. If you look at what
Katanji Brown Jackson is writing for the court these days,
she's in the minority and so her opinions are not
(06:00):
becoming law right now.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But she's swinging for the fences. She's fighting for the decades.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
There will be a time when the balance swings in
a different political direction. Okay, I want Ncmdev to be
on the right side of his.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Talk to me, if my voice didn't matter, people wouldn't
be trying so hard to silence me, and if my
vote didn't matter, they wouldn't work so hard to take
it away.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So you know why I'm voting this November, because I
know they don't want me to.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Your voice is powerful, your voice matters. Don't let your
voice be silenced. To register, confirm your voting status, or
get information about voting in your area, visit vote dot gov.
That's vote dot goov a message from the Perception Institute
and the Black Information Network.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Everything that you think is true about arian is I've
known her for more than thirty years, and you're right.
She could be a CEO somewhere, sitting in a c
suite with all the money in the world chilling, except
she's taken all that talent, all that intelligence, and all
of her ability to connect all around the world to
help underrepresented an underserved community. So you don't know her
(07:05):
very well. But everything you observed is absolutely true about
Aaron from my own experience.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I know her because I know Katanja's experience. Katanja said
at the dinner table with her father and talked about
the law. Of course she would grow up to be
a great jurist. That's what good dad is creating. Mine
was a history professor and a college coach, high school
football coach.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
He coached me as much as he coached the team.
Of course, I would be an activist.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, of course I would know that winners don't quit,
and quit has never win.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Of course I would.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So let's let's talk about that a little bit, because
you know, the part of what made the prospect of
talking to you so exciting is that, you know, they
told us that you were always down to get arrested.
You just have that sort of activist energy. You come
from that activist tradition. So so talk to us a
little bit about that, because I know that nobody wants
(07:58):
to get arrested. Well, I mean, you know, the way
Tanita was talking, it's.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Like, you know, John Lewis said, good trouble, good trouble,
and I think he was he was partly talking about you.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I have been very fortunate in my life to have
wonderful influences. One of them is my cousin graduated from
high school in nineteen fifty nine and went to South
Carolina State at that time college now University. There were
demonstrations to promote integration in Orangeburg, South Carolina at that time.
(08:27):
I'm about six, and I remember my grandmother saying, Anne,
that's my cousin. Don't get arrested, an don't get arrested.
We didn't send you to school to get arrested, m.
We sent you to school to get a degree.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But Anne couldn't stop. Anne got arrested.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Several times MM, with Jim Clyde, with others who were
in Orangeburg at the time. I'm just old enough to
watch Huntley Brinkley on the news and get it that
grandmama's upset.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But there's a larger purpose.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So it took me a few years to get to jail,
but I was always over.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I like that you talked about a part of you
all's vision coming together for this conference and the things
that you wanted to get accomplished. It is coming to
a close, So as you send us off on our
way out into the world, what are some things that
you would like us to make sure that we continue
to do so that it doesn't the work doesn't stop
as the convention comes to a close.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I hope our members and I'm pretty convinced that they
do leave here with the conviction that this struggle for
justice and equity and equality, it's not just Savonn's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's not just about the close.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It's not mine, it's not arians, it's all of our struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, and that the struggle continues.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Whatever was done by Bethune and those and prior generations
needs to be refreshed and reinvigorated today. If we don't
support Kamala, if we don't support elected officials that we
can believe in and sense that they believe in us,
It's important for us to know their names.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's more important for them to know our names.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
If they leave here with that conviction to go back
to California and Nevada and New York and Ohio and
all the several places that they have.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Come from, prepared and equipped.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
To confront the centers of power that conspire against them,
then we have failed. But I'm convinced that they that
they are going back, refreshed in their spirits, renewed in
their information, going back.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, listen, I love that. It's It's absolutely an honor.
You know, she kept the bail money. Civil rights is
her life. She wrote the NCNW Americas Brief for the
Fearless Fund. Janis Mathis, thank you for being on the
show once again. The NCNW General Counsel and former NCNW
(10:54):
Executive Director, Attorney Rainbow Push, thank you so much for
your time.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Thank you blessed.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Be sure to check back for additional episodes right here
on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
Welcome to our special series Distinguished Ladies of the NCNW
here on the Black Information Network. Recently, myself, Ramsay's Jah,
and q Ward made our way to Baltimore for the
sixty first Annual Convention of the National Council of Negro Women,
and we're able to have some meaningful conversations with some
of the most powerful and influential Black women in America.
(00:20):
We discuss politics, education, healthcare, economics, and everything in between.
So sit back and enjoy today's episode of the Distinguished
Ladies of the NCNW here on the Black Information Network.
All right, So, still here on location at the National
Council of Negro Women National Convention twenty twenty four in Baltimore, Maryland,
(00:44):
having the time of our life, just meeting incredible people,
having amazing conversations, and learning just how deep some of
these stories go, just how tall the giants upon whose
shoulders we stand stand themselves. And we are about to
(01:07):
have a conversation with another such giant. And the funny
part of this story is that she's the one who
has been so elusive. You know, we learned about her
early on and everyone was saying, oh, she's She's like
the Godfather and she's you know, she's the one that
makes it happen, makes it go well. We've been again
champion at the bit to get to this point and
(01:30):
now we are joined by Janie Mathis, n CNW General
Counsel and former NCNW Executive Director, Attorney Rainbow Push. So
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Absolutely so. One of the things that we really wanted
to establish is what the goal for this event was.
And a lot of people have come and they've shared
little bits and pieces. Talk to us a little bit,
talk to our listeners a little bit about what it
was you were hoping to see at this year's convention
and whether or not you feel optimistic about our prospects
(02:04):
moving forward.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It is truly a multi purpose event for us. In
the first instance, we have a legal responsibility to do
the business of ncn adopt the budget, elect officers, review
the bylaw. Beyond that, we've got a brand new area
to celebrate.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, chavon Arline Bradley and the people that she's probably
in with her and we talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Going to Mars. You know, rs.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
This is an exciting time in a sense, a test
of the organization's ability to activate the change that we
thought we would see. And so this is our first
real test. Thirteen hundred guests, you know, over a million
dollar budget.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
They tell me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
We raised a half million dollars in a luncheon yesterday, sure,
two hundred and fifty collegiate students from around the country,
which is in itself a recent record of young engagement.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You had Janetta Cole.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Here, our previous presidents year gathered, so it was a
similar kind of moment serving many purposes.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, and of course for the members themselves, it's a
way to reconnect with each other.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We on this show believe in a very wholehearted and
kinectic way and standing up for black women, showing up
for black women, listening to the leadership of black women,
and supporting black women the best way that we can,
which is why we made it our business to make
it here to Baltimore for this convention. You and I
(03:34):
learned today that we share a personal connection and in
a space where, strangely enough, there are forces going out
of out of their way rather to work against black women.
The Fearless Fund has come under attack because it stands
to create access to opportunity, wealth and capital for black
(03:59):
and minority women. And you have some familiarity with the
founder of the Fearless Fund and with that case. Is
that something that you could share with our listeners.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I'm proud to do so. Arion Simone. I can't say
that I know her well or that I know a person,
but she is my hero.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
After I learned a little bit about her background, I
learned that Arion Simone could have been anywhere doing anything that.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
She wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
An outstanding education, great family background, exposure to all of
the niceties of life.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
She could be chilling right.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But instead she is trying to lift up other black
women who want to be entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think that her purpose is.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Just magnificent, and so when I saw her under attack,
I felt that I had to do something, and.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So we went to our board of directors.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
We approached some of the lawyers who were involved in
the case on her side to see whether there were
opportunities to do what we call in the law Meeka's brief,
just expressing our opinion, expressing our outrage, expressing our consternation
that the courts would say after so many years of
the welfare Queen the irresponsible mother, the absolute father. Here's
(05:17):
a woman who's trying to right those wrongs, and you
find something wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
We take offense, Yeah, take a take offense.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Not only did we take offense, we filed the brief,
we activated our folk in Georgia because we knew that's
where the case would be held. I practiced law in
Georgia for more than two decades.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It was personal in that sense.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
But I also wanted NC and W doctor Hyde, doctor
bethu dtor Cole, all these magnificent women to be on
the right side of history. If you look at what
Katanji Brown Jackson is writing for the court these days,
she's in the minority and so her opinions are not
(06:00):
becoming law right now.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But she's swinging for the fences. She's fighting for the decades.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
There will be a time when the balance swings in
a different political direction. Okay, I want Ncmdev to be
on the right side of his.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Talk to me, if my voice didn't matter, people wouldn't
be trying so hard to silence me, and if my
vote didn't matter, they wouldn't work so hard to take
it away.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So you know why I'm voting this November, because I
know they don't want me to.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Your voice is powerful, your voice matters. Don't let your
voice be silenced. To register, confirm your voting status, or
get information about voting in your area, visit vote dot gov.
That's vote dot goov a message from the Perception Institute
and the Black Information Network.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Everything that you think is true about arian is I've
known her for more than thirty years, and you're right.
She could be a CEO somewhere, sitting in a c
suite with all the money in the world chilling, except
she's taken all that talent, all that intelligence, and all
of her ability to connect all around the world to
help underrepresented an underserved community. So you don't know her
(07:05):
very well. But everything you observed is absolutely true about
Aaron from my own experience.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I know her because I know Katanja's experience. Katanja said
at the dinner table with her father and talked about
the law. Of course she would grow up to be
a great jurist. That's what good dad is creating. Mine
was a history professor and a college coach, high school
football coach.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
He coached me as much as he coached the team.
Of course, I would be an activist.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, of course I would know that winners don't quit,
and quit has never win.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Of course I would.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So let's let's talk about that a little bit, because
you know, the part of what made the prospect of
talking to you so exciting is that, you know, they
told us that you were always down to get arrested.
You just have that sort of activist energy. You come
from that activist tradition. So so talk to us a
little bit about that, because I know that nobody wants
(07:58):
to get arrested. Well, I mean, you know, the way
Tanita was talking, it's.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Like, you know, John Lewis said, good trouble, good trouble,
and I think he was he was partly talking about you.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I have been very fortunate in my life to have
wonderful influences. One of them is my cousin graduated from
high school in nineteen fifty nine and went to South
Carolina State at that time college now University. There were
demonstrations to promote integration in Orangeburg, South Carolina at that time.
(08:27):
I'm about six, and I remember my grandmother saying, Anne,
that's my cousin. Don't get arrested, an don't get arrested.
We didn't send you to school to get arrested, m.
We sent you to school to get a degree.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
But Anne couldn't stop. Anne got arrested.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Several times MM, with Jim Clyde, with others who were
in Orangeburg at the time. I'm just old enough to
watch Huntley Brinkley on the news and get it that
grandmama's upset.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But there's a larger purpose.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So it took me a few years to get to jail,
but I was always over.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I like that you talked about a part of you
all's vision coming together for this conference and the things
that you wanted to get accomplished. It is coming to
a close, So as you send us off on our
way out into the world, what are some things that
you would like us to make sure that we continue
to do so that it doesn't the work doesn't stop
as the convention comes to a close.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I hope our members and I'm pretty convinced that they
do leave here with the conviction that this struggle for
justice and equity and equality, it's not just Savonn's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's not just about the close.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It's not mine, it's not arians, it's all of our struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, and that the struggle continues.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Whatever was done by Bethune and those and prior generations
needs to be refreshed and reinvigorated today. If we don't
support Kamala, if we don't support elected officials that we
can believe in and sense that they believe in us,
It's important for us to know their names.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's more important for them to know our names.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
If they leave here with that conviction to go back
to California and Nevada and New York and Ohio and
all the several places that they have.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Come from, prepared and equipped.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
To confront the centers of power that conspire against them,
then we have failed. But I'm convinced that they that
they are going back, refreshed in their spirits, renewed in
their information, going back.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, listen, I love that. It's It's absolutely an honor.
You know, she kept the bail money. Civil rights is
her life. She wrote the NCNW Americas Brief for the
Fearless Fund. Janis Mathis, thank you for being on the
show once again. The NCNW General Counsel and former NCNW
(10:54):
Executive Director, Attorney Rainbow Push, thank you so much for
your time.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Thank you blessed.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Be sure to check back for additional episodes right here
on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
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