Last year, in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, congressional lawmakers who are women of color said they felt uniquely vulnerable.
Some of the most enduring images of the attack were racist symbols. Some were overt: Confederate flags; a noose hanging from a set of gallows, bringing to mind a lynching. Others were less recognizable — iconography from different cultures and time periods that has recently been appropriated by white nationalists.
One year later, many women of color in Congress say they don’t feel like the insurrection is truly over. With the Jan. 6 committee still deep into its investigation of that day, these lawmakers say a sense of closure eludes them.
On the anniversary of the attack, members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus told us what has stuck with them from that day — and how it has shaped their work, their values and their priorities. Read what they had to say in their own words.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Rep. Brenda Lawrence (Mich.)
I’m the little Black girl from the east side of Detroit. I grew up in a tough neighborhood. I was not allowed to be weak. All my life, I’ve taken pride in being a fighter, standing up, dealing with confrontation.
I was shopping with my daughter about a week and a half after Jan. 6, and we were in a department store. And it’s very common for someone to see me out and say, “Congresswoman! How are you?” And yell and run up and give me a hug.
And this woman screams, “Congresswoman Lawrence!” and I just coiled up almost in a fetal position. And my daughter looked at me and she said, “Mom, are you okay?”
It’s just oppressive, because I refuse to consider myself a victim. I refuse to think that I was held hostage. I have never been in a situation like this where I feel helpless. … I just can’t process that and I don’t want to keep reliving it every time I see a new video.
I have to say, “They didn’t win.” And if I can give anything as my statement for Jan. 6, it’s that they didn’t win.
Rep. Norma J. Torres (Calif.)
It’s been really tough leading up to the anniversary.
Our gallery group was able to join a Zoom meeting with a therapist a couple days ago. So that helped a little bit. Reminding me to smell the roses and blow the candles — meaning, don’t forget to breathe deep breaths to try deal with the stress of the upcoming anniversary.
I think what makes it even more painful is the fact that so many of my colleagues continue to blow the whistle of hate, to promote the “Big Lie” about the election.
[ On the Jan. 6 anniversary, Republican candidates embrace the ‘Big Lie’]
[Congress] experienced it collectively. But what we continue to experience after the fact is very different. … Something that I’m frightened of is the fact that [some lawmakers] are not afraid for our democracy, to continue to spread those big lies from the podium.
That is even more scary than what we went through.
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (Wash.)
On the 3rd of January [last year], I was sworn in and I wore a hanbok, which is a traditional Korean dress that you wear for very special occasions.
I think about how images tell such a strong story. The image of me wearing the hanbok and the images that came with the attack — the Confederate flag rolling down the hall, the gallows with the noose. The physical violence, the people being hurt, the death, the injury, the fires. I think about the images of the Black and Brown people who are custodians, who were photographed cleaning up after that horrible incident. And then my friend and colleague, Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who’s Korean American, on his knees cleaning up afterwards.
Democracy is changing; it’s moving in the direction of being more inclusive. For some people, they view that as a threat to the power structure in which they have operated for so long.
There must be consequences for this behavior, because without consequences, that failed coup was simply a dress rehearsal.
Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.)
So much of this had to do with white supremacy.
My antenna, as an African American woman, is always up. I had been reading and listening to a lot of the rhetoric and the noise around the right-wing, white supremacist groups. So we knew that security was being enhanced, but never did I expect for what happened to happen.
But again, knowing that something was going to go down, I wore my tennis shoes that day.
What [the attack] has done is help us focus us on how fragile democracy is, but how we survived it. How we stood up, fought back and we’re still fighting back. And it also had me very focused on getting the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act.
It’s really helped me focus on what I know about authoritarian movements. I studied the ’30s in Germany and Hungary. The signs are there. And so my work is really about telling people what the problems are and keep trying to wake people up.
Rep. Judy Chu (Calif.)
As all these insurrectionists were invading the Capitol, I started thinking about what would happen if they found me. Other people might be able to blend in. They might be able to take off their coat and tie and walk around and go from there. But as a woman of color, and especially as a person of Chinese ancestry, I could not blend in. I had a great fear that if they actually found me, that I would certainly have been in danger.
[Trump’s followers] still harbor the ugly, hysterical, misogynistic and racist feelings, and they are ready to act on it. They believe that he won the election and that the election was a fraud. As recently as this past November election, it was right here in my district.
Rep. Robin L. Kelly (Ill.)
This group was trying to tear down our democracy, what America stands for.
From my Black female lens, I see it also as people that are scared. They’re fearful of losing their power.
There’s some resentment [I feel] — some, “Hey, I’m just as good as you. I bring just as much to the table.”
I work in a very bipartisan way, but there’s certainly some people I don’t work with as much as I used to anymore, or I don’t necessarily want them on bills that I put forth because I don’t feel like they’re sincere.
It’s like, back to the old days again and we’ve just come too far. There’s more to go.
Rep. Gwen Moore (Wis.)
At age 70, I feel like we’re moving backwards.
I was a young thing when we were fighting for voting rights, marching for open housing. I was an activist before age 16.
When I look at the 147 [congressional Republicans who voted not to certify the election], I think of them as insurrectionists. There are a couple of them I’m very, very sad about. It feels so sad to me that very decent people are cowering to this bully [Donald Trump].
Rep. Cori Bush (Mo.)
One year after those insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, I can honestly say I feel less safe in this building with every passing day. We have a member depicting a fellow colleague, my sister-in-service, being murdered in a cartoon. We have a member using Islamophobic violence towards a Black, Muslim member of Congress who is being referred to in the most racist terms on the floor of the House of Representatives.
I’m hopeful that with each text message and witness testimony that the Jan. 6 committee uncovers, more support will build to pass our bill, H.R. 25, to finally investigate and expel any members that worked to overturn the election and incited an insurrectionist attack on our democracy.
Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.)
I chose deliberately not to be at the Capitol [for the anniversary]. I would prefer not to be in the same building.
[For the mob] to demonstrate that much hatred and violence was so offensive to me, not just as a Congress member, but as an American.
I would say that I’m pretty strong. I’m not shaken by that day, but I will say that I don’t feel completely safe in the building. I don’t feel completely safe when I’m in public and in large crowds. I feel like I have to be more vigilant than before.
I think it really hit my parents hard. Afterwards, they kept asking if I couldn’t get another job that was safer.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.)
We now have to go through a magnetometer [metal detector] before we go on the floor to vote. If you use the ladies’ room, you’ve got to come back through a magnetometer to get back on the floor. We can’t even trust one another to not bring a gun to the floor to the House of Representatives. This is a very tense time.
The possibilities of [the insurrection] are not over, because we’ve not succeeded in getting to the core of it.
Nothing less will satisfy me than that those who are responsible for this are held accountable. Nothing less.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.)
My city was the center of the breakdown of democracy itself.
All the barricades that came up later. … I spent a good deal of my time trying to get that fence taken down. That fence symbolized how close America had become.
I fear if we lose the House [in the midterms] that the commission will end.
What that remarks upon is the very unusual division in the country, which is probably a division we haven’t seen since the Civil War.
I can’t imagine something more dire than an attack on the Capitol … essentially called for by the chief executive himself.
Rep. Nikema Williams (Ga.)
On Jan. 6, the Confederate battle flag was carried through the U.S. Capitol. It was another reminder as a Black woman from the South that I am operating in a system that was not designed by or for people who look like me, but I am determined to change the system.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Tex.)
[During the attack,] I remember distinctly, since I carry a lot of things, leaving my notebook, my scarf — it was hindering me moving around. And I just took all that off and left it. It was interesting: The gallery was full of left-behind things.
I am a patriot, a Black woman, a woman of color. I see my sisters who are women of color as patriots. It’s not necessarily that you agree with the policies of your country and the actions every single day, but we would stand united together in her defense.
I’m committing myself to something called “the beloved community,” finding good in people, irrespective of their party, and still trying to work to bring us together.
I’m not yet comforted that we don’t still have a core group that will choose to become violent, but it does not stop me.