Oppression Made Us Leaders: Black Women, Heavy Lifting, and Leadership in State Legislatures argues that Black women in their communities, are bearing the burden of upholding American Democracy. Black women became the heavy lifters through their history of extreme marginalization, shaped by chattel slavery, the negative and lasting effects of stereotypes, and their purposeful exclusion from the polity. Black women have learned to navigate state legislatures; they have studied the rules to be effective legislators and deliver policy that benefits their communities through linked fate, and they have gained leadership through their ambition at the margins. Through generations of perseverance, Black women in America have gained the resilience, fortitude, and unshakable courage required for uplifting this nation boldly through the 21st Century.