President Donald Trump should expect to see lawmakers dressed in black, donning red pins and accompanied by victims and survivors of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements at his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Lawmakers say they hope to draw attention to the ongoing national conversation about sexual harassment at Trump’s evening remarks. Some plan to wear the color black in a show of solidarity, echoing the black ensembles that celebrities were seen wearing at the Golden Globe Awards earlier this month.
Also, Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a co-chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus on Black Women and Girls, will wear a red pin in honor of Recy Taylor, and is encouraging others to do the same. Taylor, an African-American woman from Alabama, was raped by a group of white men in the 1940s, and her decision to speak out about what happened despite death threats made her a towering civil rights figure.
The following lawmakers plan to bring the following guests:
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-New Hampshire: Chessy Prout, a sexual assault survivor at St. Paul’s boarding school
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois: Erin Walton, executive director of Rape Victim Advocates
Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Michigan: Danielle McGuire, author and historian who has researched and written about Recy Taylor
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-New Jersey: Recy Taylor’s brother, Robert Corbett, or Taylor’s niece, Rose Gunter
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California: Fatima Goss Graves, the president of the National Women’s Law Center
