Georgia House Democrats select Carolyn Hugley as state's first Black woman Speaker
The Democratic caucus in the Georgia House of Representatives voted Thursday to make state Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus) the presumptive Speaker of the House. If the full House officially votes for her in January, when the Democrats will be in the majority, Hugley would become the first Black woman to be elected Speaker in Georgia. Hugley tips her hat to the women who came before her and inspired her career over the years, she told the Ledger-Enquirer. Women like Shirley Chisholm, Hugley’s “political hero,” who became the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968, representing New York’s 12th Congressional District. “She showed us how it’s to be done,” Hugley said. “You have to be fearless and bold and prepared.” Hugley also was inspired by Maretta Mitchell Taylor of Columbus, the first Black woman elected to serve Georgia House District 94, now District 134. She was a good friend and mentor, Hugley said. “We’re naming the interchange at Buena Vista Road in her honor,” she said. “Rep. Taylor was here when I got here, and we worked on a lot of things together because she was an educator.” Taylor died in 2013 after a lifetime of
