Chinita Allen, President of the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

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Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County, Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our special guest Chinita Allen, President of the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women. Welcome to the show Chinita, we're so happy to have you with us today.

Chinita Allen: 0:24

Thank you as well. Thank you, Meral. Thank you North Georgia Blue Podcast.

Meral Clarke: 0:28

Wonderful. Let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Chinita Allen has lived in Georgia for over two decades and is a proud alumna of Barnard College, Columbia University and a member of the Seven Sisters. She has served and concurrently serves on various leadership councils and boards, which uniquely qualify her to lead the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women or GFDW as president and ultimately help elect and support Democrats. Some of her leadership experiences include the Democratic Party of Georgia or DPG Executive Committee board member DPG Strategic Planning Committee, the Democratic National Committee or DNC black leadership council, immediate past president of the Cobb County my old stomping grounds, Cobb County Democratic Women, Georgia PTA, State Legislative Chair and President of the United Nations Association of Atlanta. Oh my that's really impressive. Additionally, she is a proud alumna of the Atlanta Black and Jewish Coalition Project understanding Higher Heights for America's Senior Executive Leadership Fellowship, and the DNC Train the Trainer Best Practices Institute. Well, congratulations on your many, many impressive accomplishments. Let's dive right in. Tell us about the Georgia Federation of Democratic women or GFDW What is your group's mission, focus and goal and what does your group specifically do to support Democratic women?

Chinita Allen: 2:07

The Georgia Federation of Democratic Women we are the official women's organization of the DNC. And basically, that means we have a hierarchy and in our organization, we are part of the National Federation of Democratic Women. Our president, Gail Buckner sits on the executive committee of the DNC. As a state chapter, I hold a seat on the DPG Democratic Party of Georgia's executive board with one vote.

Meral Clarke: 2:35

Wow. Every vote matters, right?

Chinita Allen: 2:40

Vote Matters. GFDW has a mission of engaging women and helping women to get elected in office, once they're in office to support them, and to hopefully get them reelected. So we have a grassroots activism sounds like it's, you know, it seems like it's like a dirty word right now, but it's a pillar of what we do. We do a lot of work, bringing in various organizations, collaborating, sharing our resources, and sharing our power so that we can in fact, continue to flip seats and to keep Georgia blue.

Meral Clarke: 3:18

Well, that's fantastic. And that's what we all want. So thank you for that. Do you support all Democratic women running for office or pro choice women? Or what are the requirements for your support?

Chinita Allen: 3:31

Because we are an affiliate of the Democratic Party of Georgia, we do not endorse candidates before a primary. So unlike other women's organizations that can endorse we have a policy, because we fall under the DNC we cannot endorse before the primary so we allow voters to select the most qualified candidate, if that makes sense. We hope that the candidate selected by our voters are pro choice and that they do uphold or value democratic values that specifically relate to women and children.

Meral Clarke: 4:12

Excellent. So speaking of pro choice, what are your thoughts on the attacks that we're seeing on abortion rights currently in our country? Are you concerned that Roe v Wade may be overturned with our current extremely conservative Supreme Court? What are your thoughts on that?

Chinita Allen: 4:27

Great question. As a matter of fact, just today, we sent an action alert via Georgia Federation of Democratic Women we are concerned about there's a bill going coming through Georgia right now and as we speak, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee has approved a bill banning the mailing of abortion pills in Georgia and imposing further restrictions including a requirement for an in person office visit and an ultrasound before prescriptions can be written. Senate Bill 456, was approved along a seven by five party line vote on Wednesday. And an earlier bills, SB 351, had more regressive provisions. And so the next step is for the legislation after 24 hour wait process to go ahead and bring it to the floor for a debate. So the rules committee could vote on it as early as tomorrow to send the bill for debate on the floor. So we realize that this is kind of one of those bills that is helping to make decisions for women and their bodies, autonomy before the Supreme Court's ruling in June. So we are very concerned, we also understand that 80% of Americans, of people in America want abortion to remain legal. Roe versus Wade, the ruling in 1973. We feel like we're going backwards. And so we really want to make sure that not only women, not only women, I'm going to preface that not only women because our organization is accepting of all allies. And so we want men and women to understand that we are in a fight. And this will be determined pretty soon, but we are in Georgia, taking steps to ensure and trying to protect the women in our state.

Meral Clarke: 6:19

That is extremely worrisome. I also read just today, that abortions in Texas, which now has the nation's most restrictive abortion laws on the books have decreased have dropped by 60%. I'm assuming this is going to embolden Georgia and other states to follow their lead, especially with the conservative Supreme Court refusing to do anything about it. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think Georgia will step forward eventually and try to ban abortion altogether? Before women even know that they're pregnant at six weeks?

Chinita Allen: 6:54

One, it's an election year. Two pass like legislation barely passed? I think there are many Republicans and Democrats who are rethinking the role of women and our bodily autonomy. I don't think Georgia wants to go back. I think we need to move for I think we are moving forward. And anyone who wants to remain in power will need to get with that program. Eventually, I'm optimistic.

Meral Clarke: 7:22

I am as well. So let's talk about good and bad legislation. Since we're on the subject matter. What do you do? Or what does your group do on the ground with the Georgia assembly to ensure that bad legislation, especially as it affects women adversely doesn't pass or is defeated? How does that work specifically?

Chinita Allen: 7:43

So our first plan of action is to increase the Democratic majority in our state. Right? We have to understand that our legislators are making decisions, but the legislators are voted in by us. And that includes at the local municipal levels as well. So we are we understand that our legislators, once they go to the Capitol, they are under a lot of stress. So we support them, we make sure we congratulate them when we feel like they are doing what needs to be done. And they are working hard to steward our democratic visions. We say thank you. We also help register voters. We have to continue this whole process and plan of getting our folks in office so that they can make decisions that impact us. Registering voters, we provide volunteer opportunities, we submit public comment at our local election offices. And so in this way, we're trying to persuade and to make voting easier for voters in Georgia. We speak out about bans on drop boxes or their limited use fighting racial gerrymandering. And we focus on a rural counties as well. So that's kind of like the beginning of the process. We have to establish a strong base background in order to get folks in to office, we realize with the Biden Ossoff and Warnock runoff, that our rural counties are very, very important. So like I'm doing tonight, and as I've done in the past, we are reaching out to our rural communities in North Georgia and South Georgia. They played an extremely important role in helping to elect our two new US senators and of course, our president. Our organization partners with the Democratic Party of Georgia, and basically what that meant, and because I sit on the Strategic Planning Committee, I'm able to go in and see what we're doing in terms of a party, a whole party, and then how does GFDW fill in the cracks? How do we complement what our party is already doing. And so we're not wasting energy and talent, we're doing what is needed. We're also going and in partnering with the various democratic committees in each of the counties making sure that we're building a relationship, and that we are sharing resources. These are all various ways that we are laying the groundwork to support our elected officials and keep them in office so that they can vote and the legs that we feel are appropriate for our democratic values. Another thing that we're doing is we are definitely collaborating with like minded nonpartisan organizations as a women's organization, we realize that there are multiple organizations out there that share our vision and our values in terms of how advocating for women and women's issues.

Meral Clarke: 10:50

That's fantastic. So let's turn our attention to women's health care. Talking about Planned Parenthood and other similar organizations, Planned Parenthood at the southeast is extremely active across Georgia. How do you partner with groups like that in, in real fashion in real time?

Chinita Allen: 11:10

Great question. So I literally was having a conversation with Stacey Fox,

Meral Clarke: 11:14

Oh, I love her big fan.

Chinita Allen: 11:18

So we were at the Capitol, actually, our legislative committee, the GFDW's legislative committee, we were at the Capitol, and we were having a press conference on the ERA Equal Rights Amendment. At the same time, Planned Parenthood was in committee meetings. So Stacey and I are communicating, and we're sending our representatives, our committee members over to where she is. So those are just on the spot, ways that we can collaborate. It's good to know, organizations from not so much a political perspective. But sometimes I can go into an organization as a woman without a title. And because their mission impacts me and I feel strongly about a particular issue. And I can go in and we can create sort of like natural alliances that are not related to politics, but simply committed to each other as women speaking to each other as women, and just trying to collaborate bringing other folks on board as well. Sometimes it's about sharing information. So that's another way that we can collaborate. You know, I get all the action alerts from organizations like WIN List and Emerge Georgia, and we just kind of we share, we've had the founders of various organising women's organizations that are quite similar to ours, on our programs, because we realize we all need to collaborate. There's enough room at the table for all of us.

Meral Clarke: 12:53

Oh, definitely. And thank goodness, there's room at the table period for women, as we know, it wasn't always that way. So kudos to women like Shirley Chisholm, who paved the path for all women to be able to speak up at the table. So since you mentioned the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, what is it going to take? In 38 states have already ratified it. What's it going to take to become the law of the land? And why on earth is it taking so long? I marched for the ERA back in college that was 100 years ago. Why hasn't it passed yet?

Chinita Allen: 13:29

We've had a member who sent me an email the night before our ERA press conference at the Capitol. And she goes, thank you so much. I'm 88 years old, and I've been waiting for this. So I said, You know what, we're going to the gavel whether or not anyone signs it, we are going to be there because while Georgia has yet to sign it is our mission to keep the message is going to keep educating women. And just having a conversation with a lay person. I asked, Why do you think it's so hard? Just because I wanted to talk to someone outside of the political realm. Why do you think it's so hard for this bill to get passed? And she was I just don't know. And I mean, she had some other things to say. But she and they weren't very kind. I can't say them. But she said, you know, it baffles me that we are the backbone of the Democratic Party. We work really hard throughout society. Homes, could not families would have a hard time thriving without us, but yet, we're not seen as equal in our daily lives, the way we go about interacting with our husbands and our sons. We may need to take another look at those interactions and maybe do some course correcting when folks are younger and perhaps identifying issues that we have in our own daily lives. Because we're living with the folks who are not voting for us. We're grooming them as well. And if we're not very pointed, if we're not calling out the issues, and even having an awareness of how our own behavior impacts how our sons and husbands go out and make decisions in the world, outside of our home, then we might be doing ourselves a little bit of a disservice. And that's not to say that it's our fault, but we do raise boys, and then we do with them. And so we need to take more of a holistic approach. Of course, putting more women in office always helps.

Meral Clarke: 15:53

Yes, yes, it does. And that's why we need to elect more women. What are your thoughts regarding the critical midterms and other elections taking place this year? And how excited are you to call Stacey Abrams, Madam governor, because let me tell you something, I can't wait. What are your thoughts on the midterms and getting more Democratic women elected to office?

Chinita Allen: 16:14

I'm excited. There's been a lot of work that's been happening at the ground level. I'm going to keep encouraging and championing our grassroots activists because they have not stopped, they've continued to work. So there's a lot of work being done at the grassroots level on the ground level at the local level in terms of electing city council members, mayors, Board of Education members, I call that the filling in the gaps, the creases, because sometimes we have a vision or a view that if we go from the top to the bottom, that that is effective, when in fact it's been in my experience, that if we support those local candidates, they're going to bring out the vote a little bit more precisely, or they're gonna know the community in a different way. I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm energized and as a matter of fact that we're going to do the work regardless because we want madam leader Abrams in office, but we also want to show the country the world that what happened with Biden, Harris and Ossoff, Warnock, and all that energy, that wasn't a one off. That took years of building years of collaborating. And we're not stopping. I'm excited about being able to demonstrate to the world that Georgia can make a difference. Georgia can we can bring this gubernatorial election home. We can do it. And part of me feels that if Stacey Abrams can go out there and put herself out there, then we can to she has the most to lose at this point. So why not take the risk go all out for her.

Meral Clarke: 17:59

We have several exciting Democratic women who are running for statewide offices and the Georgia legislature as well. I would love to see a turn with more Democratic women and speaking personally more Democratic women of color as well, achieving those statewide offices. That would be something, wouldn't it? I do believe that Georgia can be a blue beacon for the rest of the South. Certainly we've got a better shot. I think of going blue than any other state in the south right now. It's because of all the hard work that Stacey Abrams Fair Fight, your organization has put in to make that difference. So since your episode will be airing during Women's History Month, tell me what Women's History Month means to you, both professionally and personally. And why does it matter?

Chinita Allen: 18:49

We are literally planning our Women's History Month program as a board. And then I as I mentioned earlier, I've done some work with the United Nations Association. So I'm an immediate past president of the United Nations Association of Atlanta, and we always had an event that featured women. It was our International Women's Day. So we got a chance to bring in women from all areas, all different various countries. So Women's History Month, for me is a time to reflect on progress made to call for change because that's what we do as women and to celebrate acts of courage and determination. What it boils down to is every woman who goes out and uses her voice, in my opinion is an unsung hero. If you're able to raise sons and help us who are aware and are mindful of the tasks, you know, the trials and tribulations that moms their moms their wives have to deal with on a daily basis. I feel like that is something to sing about, I'm always for small steps matter. You know, some folks like to go for the really big goal. But I like to have the big goal in mind and work backwards, right? Little things that we do on a daily basis. That means so much. So for Women's History Month, it's almost like Black History Month. It's like, we should celebrate it every day because it's quite a feat to be a woman in this world. And it's another thing to thrive as a woman in this world. So we as Georgia Federation, Democratic women, we have unsung heroes, a program of unsung heroes lined up, and that really is going in and asking our local chapter presidents, can you nominate a woman in your community who you think has put in the effort who never gets noticed? Nobody ever recognizes all of the work that she has that as kind of like Sue from our Fannin County Democrats?

Meral Clarke: 20:59

Meaning Susan? Yes, Susan DeMoura. She's our executive producer and my personal queen. I do whatever she tells me to do. She's the boss of me. And she is you want to talk about unsung heroes? She is definitely one of them and deserves I nominate her as an unsung hero.

Chinita Allen: 21:17

That's exactly what I yes, that meant something to me. When I sat in on the call. I was like there are you know, there are no Fannin County, there was the one but we might have 159 of them somewhere along the line that there are enough that we can definitely, definitely recognize professionally. When I think about the Women's History Month for myself, I'm going through a sort of evolution and how I go about my work. One thing I've always realized is, I don't have the answer. There's always someone out there that knows more. And so when I find myself in a room or space, where it seems as though I am the smartest person in the room, I enjoy staying there. But that tells me I have to go I have to move. Because the work that we're doing the work that I do is it's a constant evolution. It's constantly changing. So goals that I've put forward for myself, my birthday is March 5, so it does happen. So the goals that I've set forth, and I put in place is going to be a lot of networking. So for my birthday, I'm arranging and it sort of happened this way. And then I realized, oh my goodness, this is the week leading up to where if that is I'm meeting with some of my mentors, women that can and have encouraged me. I'm going to spend some time talking to them about some plans that I have, and ways that I'm pretty sure they can help me.

Meral Clarke: 22:54

That sounds absolutely lovely. What a wonderful way to spend your birthday. Do you want to talk about some of those mentors, especially in Georgia? Is there anyone that you wish to highlight?

Chinita Allen: 23:05

Actually, I will highlight Alexis Scott.

Meral Clarke: 23:08

Okay. Tell us about Alexis.

Chinita Allen: 23:10

So Alexis' family is an established family in Atlanta. She is also a Barnard College graduate. Her family owned the first African American newspaper. Absolutely. And so she is a community force in the Atlanta area. And what I mean by that is, she's across generations, she's been very helpful. She's a resource to women. She in terms of the who do you need to know, anytime I asked Alexis a question about for example, when leadership she says, Oh, I know Malita Easter.

Meral Clarke: 23:53

Another guest and friend of the show, we adore Malita as well, Georgia WIN List.

Chinita Allen: 23:58

Absolutely. So she's always very calm, very reassuring, and never one to tell you exactly what to do, but just kind of listens, and may offer a suggestion here or there. So I'm very I'm very, very fond of her. One of the things that I try to tell all of our young leaders is we really need to reach we have to reach forward and we need to be reaching back. We need to honor the folks who've been doing this work for a while we need to make sure that we are celebrating them. And it is so important that the information is not stored in one place. It needs to be shared. It should be shared. And so by me sitting down and having dinner, lunch with Alexis actually is going to be one we're gonna watch a movie when I watch movies, you know, that type of thing. It's going to be a way for her to transfer the information that she has as well, but I'm just interested in stories and how people have progressed. Because I don't think a whole lot changes in human progression and how we go about our daily lives. There's one thing that is certain, you know, we're all gonna be born, we're all gonna die. And so but what happens in between that it's very interesting to me how people have lived, what was their thought process? What made them successful? And when they weren't successful? What did they do? How do they overcome those setbacks so having these conversations with whom I think are community leaders and mentors is going to be very important to me.

Meral Clarke: 25:41

Historically speaking, I'm a huge fan of Ida B Wells, and all of her journalistic achievements. But

Chinita Allen: 25:45

Well, I'm going to be a little bit more there are so many women in the history of the women's movement. Who inspired you the most to go forth and be an activist and to do the hard work and all the great work that you do, just personally? contemporary. And I'm going to say Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, to me is someone that can move in various circles, right? She has a way of connecting with people. And that's something that I admire. That's something that I think successful women throughout history, it's his trait. I'm not sure if it's a skill, but and people gravitate towards that, not too strong, but still able to get her message across, but in a way, that all people can connect to it and find something in it for themselves. I really like her idea, or her way of reflecting about her thoughts, and her ideas and where she would like them to go. I'm a big fan of folks who can actually sit back and enjoy themselves.

Meral Clarke: 27:04

It doesn't always happen, does it? But it's refreshing to see.

Chinita Allen: 27:08

It's hard. But to find that place where you can be comfortable with yourself and still lead and able to accept different ideas, but not letting them overpower your own right taking picking and choosing the ones that makes sense to you. So you can definitely tell I'm a Barnard girl.

Meral Clarke: 27:31

Well, it's a great school. Can you elaborate on the Seven Sisters? What is that?

Chinita Allen: 27:36

Oh, absolutely. So they are private university. They're all women, all girl schools, it's kind of hard to find an all girls school, but Barnard is one of the seven. And if you asked me to name them all, I don't have them on my list. Barnard is the number one. So

Meral Clarke: 27:54

That's fantastic. And certainly it's a wonderful organization to be a part of, I imagine. And we stand on the shoulders of all these women, don't we? We stand on their shoulders, and we have an obligation to continue their work. Sometimes it feels like two steps forward, one step back. But tell us why it's so important to never give up. Never give in and keep fighting the good fight.

Chinita Allen: 28:18

Well, our very lives depend on it. To live honest with you, I will say that my husband's a West Point graduate. So we want to say alpha male, alpha female together, how did we make it work? over 20 years, I can tell you about survival. And a lot of it is really to not become complacent. It's totally acceptable to be comfortable. My husband does a really good job of providing. I could just go with that. So the survival part for me, the fighting part for me is to say, there are so many folks out there who are not as fortunate. And I have a duty and an obligation to take my resources to go out and help to change the world. If that makes any sense. It makes complete sense to me. Yes, there's too much work to be done. There's so much writing of the world that has to be done in every person, every little thing matters whether you're going out so for in terms of our Georgia Federation of Democratic Women, we have a segment called Democratic Women Care. We go out into the community, we spent some time over the holiday break and we're in 12 different counties, and we visited the sheriff's offices. And so some folks would say why did you visit the sheriff's offices? And we said, well, we're a women's organization. We know that there are women who are incarcerated that need our help. And so he said that is a place where we know we can definitely go and if we want to advocate for women being allowed to have rental visits To continue to bonding with their children, that's definitely a place where we can go, we can fight for women to make sure that they're having adequate health care food that their mental health is being taken care of. We're pretty efficient Georgia Federation of Democratic Women, we know that that is a place where we can go. So that is why we focus on going into the sheriff's offices and most of the major counties. Number two, of course, it was the number of people that we could engage and that we could help.

Meral Clarke: 30:31

Well, thank you for all the hard work that you're doing and your organization is doing. If someone wants to get involved, learn more about you or just learn more about your group, where would you send them?

Chinita Allen: 30:42

GeorgiaDemocraticWomen.com. We have just updated our website and it is fabulous. It is amazing. We're so happy. We've also in terms of part of our communication skill in keeping with engaging women and folks in our community. We've updated our brochure. We've updated our website, we are out in the community so you can find us you can go to any of the local chapters that we have in Georgia, we have a first congressional district Chapter Fourth Congressional Federation of district nine congressional Augusta, Columbia, Chatham County clay in Cobb County, Augusta, Richmond DeKalb County, Douglas County, Fannin County, Fayette Fulton, we have a whole list of local chapters that you can engage with. But of course, go to our Georgia DemocraticWomen.com website and you'll be able to find out more about those local organizations and our chapter our state organization as a whole.

Meral Clarke: 31:45

Wonderful. And finally, and I ask all my guests this question, and they always tell me it's the hardest question to answer. But finally, tell us a fun fact about you, just you Chinita to not having to do with politics or all the fantastic work that you're doing. Tell us something interesting, just about you.

Chinita Allen: 32:05

Interesting. So I was I I'm a former track and field athlete. I was a recruited college athlete. And I coached track and field in our local community. And so we were able or I was able to develop the plan that took our team to the nationals. And we had that year we had several national winners, my children included.

Meral Clarke: 32:36

Oh, so the Apple didn't fall far from that tree with the athletic ability. Plus, you're a great role model. There's no doubt.

Chinita Allen: 32:44

We focus a lot on the skill events because we knew that those would be the ones that most people would not understand or would have the resources. So we did a lot of hurtling shot putting triathletes heptathlon long jump all the things that require skill and focus.

Meral Clarke: 33:04

Fantastic and certainly serving you well, that background in your current position. Well, thank you, Chinita for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support Democratic Party policy support women and maintain our democracy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing. Visit us online at FanninCountyGeorgiaDemocrats.com. Share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family and be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcast consider becoming a founding patron and friend of the show at NorthGeorgiaBluePodcast.com/patron now with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on our show and the website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.