Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett said Friday that the U.S. owes “everything” to black women.
Crockett said during Essence’s Festival of Culture that every American should celebrate Independence Day by thanking black women for their contributions, including inventions and for birthing American democracy.
“When it comes to answering the question of what America owes black women, the answer is everything,” Crockett said. “When we think about the sacrifices that black women have made from the moment that we were stolen from our homelands and transported into this country, to the fact that black women continue to stand as the backbones, specifically of the Democratic Party, we know that black women are always the ones that are doing the labor, but we are also the ones that are always the first targets of any harm.”
“So, this Fourth of July, I say celebrate a black woman that you know, because whether it’s an invention that she made, or whether it’s the very democracy that still hangs by a thread right now. There is a black woman to thank for her contributions,” Crockett continued.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished on Jan. 1, 1808, and the U.S. permanently outlawed slavery on Dec. 6, 1865, upon the ratification of the 13th Amendment. However, some black social activists, like Harriet Tubman, helped slaves escape in the Underground Railroad and strongly advocated for abolishing slavery.
Crockett’s estimated net worth was between $2 million and $9 million as of August 2025, according to 21Ninety. She earns a base salary of $174,000 per year in Congress.
Crockett minimized the murder of white teenager Austin Metcalf by claiming that people “don’t know what it is to live as a black person in this country.” A jury convicted Karmelo Anthony, a black teenager, of stabbing Metcalf in the heart after the two had a dispute during a track meet, leading Metcalf to die in his twin brother’s arms.
“I know that our systems are broken,” Crockett told TMZ Wednesday. “And what we saw with that verdict is the evidence of a broken system. It’s my understanding that Karmelo ended up stabbing, puncturing, I don’t know what this tool was they talk about, knife or some refer to it as a tool. Um, he ended up hitting Austin one time, and it was about where he hit him. One time. Two inches. This wasn’t someone who said, ‘Hey, let me stab you five, six, seven times.’”
“Listen, a lot of people don’t know what it is to live as a black person in this country,” Crockett continued.
Crockett lost her Senate primary bid to Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico in March and is not running for reelection in the House. Crockett’s ally, political commentator Jen Ramos, said in February that Crockett did not run television advertisements during her Senate bid because of racism.
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