SACRAMENTO - When state Sen. Teresa Hughes' final term ends this month, she will leave behind a California Legislature that has no black women for the first time in a quarter-century. The Los Angeles Democrat also takes with her a record - the longest tenure by a woman, 25 years - that will probably never be broken because of the term limits that are causing her departure.
The number of women has steadily increased during her 17 years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate. The new Legislature elected Tuesday has a record 35 women among its 120 members. They will be white, Latina and Asian - but not black.
"There's going to be a big void in our community," said Alice Huffman, executive director of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
While the current and newly elected Legislatures have six black men, no new black female lawmakers have been elected since 1992. Huffman ran unsuccessfully for an Assembly seat in 1998 and said more recruitment of black women candidates by the political parties and legislative leadership is needed.
Eight of the 30 black lawmakers elected since 1918 have been women, but most have gone to higher office.
Three are currently in Congress - Reps. Maxine Waters and Juanita Millender-McDonald, both Los Angeles Democrats, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and one is a Los Angeles County supervisor - Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.
Hughes arrived at the Capitol after winning a July 1975 special Assembly election. She was one of three women in the 120-member Legislature and one of seven blacks. She was the 16th woman and second black woman ever elected to the Legislature.
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