For Black and Hispanic women to be better represented, there needs to be more of them running and winning elections, activists said Thursday.
Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, stood behind a lectern on the second floor under the Capitol rotunda to introduce her new political action committee, one that aims to get more minority-group women to participate in the political process.
Flowers is the president of the Women of Color Vote PAC, which was started in July. Its website debuted Thursday.
She addressed any perceived skepticism that suggests her PAC is more about driving wedges. She insisted it was about bringing in more voices and perspectives to Arkansas' political epicenter.
"I hear the question, 'Why do you have to separate yourself?'" Flowers said during the news conference. "We do not separate ourselves. Our circumstances [do]."
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She talked about wage gap between men and women, and how the gap widens among Black, American Indian and Hispanic women. She talked about being the only Black woman serving in the state House when she won election in 2014. Today, she is one of three.
The best way to represent all classes of people and protect them from violence and discrimination is to get them more involved, she said, adding that her PAC isn't a "partisan" endeavor. Rather, it is designed to bring issues that directly affect minority-group women to the forefront, whether it is police violence or workplace discrimination.
The purpose of the PAC is to emphasize the "socio-economic and political equity of women who belong to historically oppressed, marginalized and underrepresented racial [and] ethnic groups," according to a news release.
Several of the PAC's board of directors members and honorary chairwomen were in attendance Thursday. Rep. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock, called Flowers' movement "so inspiring" for young minority women.
"Something like this is definitely needed," she said. "We need better representation so that we can stand up and stand for issues that are important to our communities."
Flowers said allies are needed and they should come from men and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. She also pointed out that the oil paintings that hang on all the floors of the rotunda are of white men. She hopes that future generations will see a more diverse collection of paintings.
"The creation of a PAC should not be newsworthy," Flowers said in the release, "but it is because for hundreds or years, women -- especially women of color -- have been marginalized and suffered disparities worse than any other demographic in the state."