Dr. Shavon Arline-Bradley Talks Faith and the Power of Black Women

by Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware

Dr. Shavon Arline-Bradley remembers the exact moment her faith connected with her sense of justice. She was 9, and her uncle, a Baptist preacher, handed her a VHS tape of “Eyes on the Prize.”

“I saw Emmett Till’s face,” for the first time, she says.

As she recalls the moment, Arline-Bradley, the president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, speaks with a passion that immediately draws you into the moment. Whether talking about faith, family, or politics, she brings the same unflinching clarity to every conversation. And when I asked her why I should gift NCNW memberships to my five young granddaughters, she didn’t miss a beat.

NCNW is “the place where Black women get their facts,” she explains. It’s “a table where it doesn’t matter if you’re Divine Nine, just fine, if you have a GPA, or you’re just saying, ‘hey.’ NCNW is a place where Black women come together around the same table to understand our economic, educational, and political leadership in this country.”

A Sisterhood for Black Women

Founded in 1935 by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, NCNW was designed as a national voice for Black women and their families. Under Arline-Bradley’s leadership, the organization is experiencing growing membership and a renewed focus on political advocacy.

The 2 million-member organization is “the one sisterhood that honors every experience of Black women in this country,” she says.

“The home of the 92% is what we call ourselves,” she adds, referencing the percentage of Black women who voted for former Vice-President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Members span generations — from age 9 to 98 — and each one has the opportunity “to not only serve, but also to be served with the knowledge and the activism to ensure that Black women, their families and communities are led, are empowered and are advocating for what’s best for us.”

A Career Rooted in Faith and Service

Arline-Bradley’s preparation for her role at the NCNW, she says, began in the Baptist church, whose “protocol and infrastructure and the ability to be pastoral and to offer support when you see challenges” gave her a firm foundation in faith and service.

Learning about Emmett Till as a fourth grader made her wonder “why God would allow this to happen to Black people.” So she says she began to think about the church’s “structures and systems” and how “there were so many things that were oppressing, particularly women in ministry.”

But none of that stopped her or stunted her journey, and that early connection between faith and civil rights sparked her calling. Her career took her from advocacy to national health leadership, and into the rooms where policy was shaped — sometimes with little notice.

“I served as the chief of staff and one of the national directors of health for the national NAACP,” she says. “On my first day on the job, I was working on legislation for the Affordable Care Act,” she says.

“I was a 30-year-old kid with just a job and a dream, and God did the rest.”

That experience, along with time in the Attorney General’s office as an Obama administration appointee, helped shape her understanding of how systems move and who often gets left behind.

Over the years, Arline-Bradley says her faith has only grown stronger, shaped by a family of women preachers and a belief that God is in every step — even in politics.

“I’m so moved by God in everything that I do, and I see God in politics. People don’t even like that,” she says. “The more fights, the more safety challenges, the more drama… the more I know these are devilish, demonic distractions that are taking me away from what I’m trying to do.”

Keeping the Movement Relevant

Asked how NCNW continues to resonate nearly 90 years after its founding, Arline-Bradley points to Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s original mission.

“Black women have always been relevant as it relates to advocating and ensuring that the services needed for our people were front and center,” she says.

That includes younger women. College-aged women are the fastest-growing membership group, with NCNW chapters at more than 100 campuses nationwide. “It’s unprecedented,” Arline-Bradley says. “We’re not a sorority, we are a sisterhood. And we have a place for brothers to serve as well.”

But for Arline-Bradley, NCNW’s strength isn’t just in numbers.

“Our relevance has been connected to the needs of the people,” she says. “When people needed to be fed, when families needed to be fed, when housing challenges were in place, when we needed a piece of legislation passed — NCNW has always been at the forefront of those conversations.”