A Growing Trend: More Black Women Among Annapolis Lobbying Corps

When Lisa Harris Jones started lobbying in Annapolis in the late 1990s, she was almost always one of the few Black women in a room and sometimes the only. She recalled just a few female faces, mostly white, at the capital working to influence state policy, but she was usually surrounded by white male lawmakers and lobbyists.

“I have no memory of a Black female in a partnership position,” she said.

As the first Black woman to own and manage a law practice focused on lobbying and government relations, Harris Jones is known as a “trailblazer” in Annapolis, inspiring other Black women to enter the field and helping open doors.