When Black women show up — as election workers, activists, advocates, voters — they make a difference. So when they step forward, why do they so often meet resistance, not just from opponents, but also from supposed allies? And why has that never stopped them?

Atima Omara’s new book, “The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American Democracy (And What We Can Learn From Them),” is both a history lesson and a blueprint for the future. In an almost two-decade career, Omara, founder of the award-winning Omara Strategy Group, has worked at the intersection of electoral politics and advocacy in the progressive movement. She is my guest on this episode of “Equal Time.”