Six spectacular women will be honored at the “Power, Leadership and Influence of the Black Woman” event sponsored by Bakewell Media and the L.A. Sentinel on Saturday, April 13, at the Fairmont Century Plaza.
Sen. Laphonza Butler is one of the prestigious honorees. She was sworn in to fill the U.S. Senate opening left by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein on October 3, 2023.
Butler was a leader and coordinator in the labor movement for almost twenty years, and she has also served on the boards of the Children’s Defense Fund and the University of California. Butler is a wife and mother, and the first Black, openly LGBTQ person to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Brought up by a working-class family in Magnolia, Mississippi, Butler’s parents showed her and her siblings that schooling and dedication would be their most vital aids to break free of hardship.
When her mother became the family’s primary breadwinner after her father, unfortunately, passed, Butler’s mom found herself working multiple jobs a day to ensure her children had better chances to succeed. The resilience and support of her mother influenced Butler to work hard and eventually graduate from the Historically Black College, Jackson State University.
She has spent her profession promoting justice, took her mother’s advice and created a path centered on supporting the empowerment of working families.
“At just 30 years old, Senator Butler was elected President of California’s largest homecare and nursing home workers union, SEIU Local 2015. She helped to orchestrate raising California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and secure paid sick days for the state’s home care workers,” according to Butler’s website.
Butler’s long list of respected roles before becoming senator also includes serving as a strategist to institutions, candidates, and organizations, for which she played a role in Holly Mitchell’s campaign for LA Supervisor. Butler also held the title of president of EMILYs list, which is dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women to office.
Butler is also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and stands for equal rights and reproductive rights for women and all people who can bear children. She fights for broader national voting rights and greater access for voters.
As Senator, some of her many goals are striving for the American worker, generating more affordable housing, providing assistance for the unhoused, jobs for all, and working for the fundamental freedoms of all people.
For more information on the senator, visit her website: https://www.butler.senate.gov/ or her Instagram account: @senlaphonza.
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