INTERVIEW BY GABRIELLE MASHKOURI
Photographed by Gabrielle Mashkouri
JENNIFER McCLELLAN, VIRGINIA STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 9
On her place of special meaning - [I chose the Black History Museum in Richmond because] when I think back of how I got interested in government and politics, it really was listening to my parents’ stories of what it was like for them. They grew up in the segregated South during Jim Crow, and where we are specifically right now, is the old Woolworth counter in a couple of booths from one of the Woolworth’s where the Civil Rights’ protests were, one of the sit-ins, so that reminds me of a couple of things: my grandfather was a lawyer for some of the students that did sit-ins in Nashville, my dad was active in the Civil Rights’ Movement, so it kind of reminds me of where I came from. But it also reminds me that I got interested in government because my love of history taught me that at its best, it’s a force for good and positive change, and helping people; but at its worst, it’s a force of oppression, and so I always ground myself in our history.
“If you just jump in and think you have all the answers, but you’re not listening to everyone who will be affected by the solution you’re trying to put in place, then you’re not really solving the problem.”
On learning to tell her story - I think by nature I’m a storyteller and I get that from my dad. Often when we were in church, he would weave a family story into his sermon and I watched him do that. But I had to become incredibly comfortable with who I am and because I can see how personal stories and the impact that policy has on individual people, it’s more powerful than statistics or intellectual debate and I can see those connections. Whether it’s my life or somebody else’s life, I just had to get comfortable enough with “this story’s important and this story has a point bigger than just entertaining somebody.” So I think part of it came naturally, but part of it was just “my story is relevant to somebody other than me.”
“Every issue is a women’s issue, because every issue affects women.”
On navigating negative comments - I stay focused on why I’m doing it. It really struck me in 2020, in particular. I mean, I always kind of intellectually knew it, but I really felt that I am fighting the same fights that my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents fought and I don’t want to leave those fights to my children. So everything that I do is so my children, or your children, or everybody’s children live a better life than we did. But at the same time, you know, my kids aren’t impressed by my title or how many bills I’ve passed and so they keep me grounded and keep me from taking myself and my work too seriously because there’s a lot of problems and I could very easily get overwhelmed by how big the work is, but they keep me from getting too lost in myself.