Black Women at the Center: Power, Representation, and Responsibility with Seantyel Hardy, Esq.

Black History Month is not only an opportunity to celebrate Black achievement but is also a chance to examine the realities that continue to impact Black lives. Calvary Women’s Services remains committed to illuminating this reality and working with Black women as they continue to navigate these barriers.

Most women in our programs are Black women, which compels us to think carefully about how support is designed, care is delivered, and whose voices are part of our leadership and community.

Among those voices is attorney and former Calvary Board Member, Seantyel Hardy. Hardy serves as a Post-Conviction Attorney at the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs in Austin, Texas, where she represents individuals navigating the justice system, trauma, and systemic failure.

While in law school, Hardy became involved with the Capital Punishment Clinic, where she conducted investigations to mitigate the risk of clients receiving the ultimate sentence: capital punishment. This allowed her to develop a deeper understanding of clients’ lives beyond legal records.

After graduating and joining a large commercial law firm in Washington, D.C., Hardy learned that a partner was handling a death penalty case pro bono out of Texas and instantly volunteered to join the case. This would solidify her long-term commitment to post-conviction advocacy.

“A big part of the work that the clinic law students do is mitigation investigation. This involves being on the ground, talking to the families, friends, teachers—everyone who is involved in the lives of our clients. And given that I had that journalism background, I was comfortable talking to people and was able to use that in that new role.”

Hardy’s work brought forth a pattern that was larger than individual circumstances.

“Housing insecurity is very closely related to a lot of the work that I do because nearly every—if not every—death penalty client that I’ve had, going all the way back to law school clinic, and while I was at the firm, they have experienced some sort of housing insecurity.”

This observation draws on how housing insecurity is not simply an economic condition; it is a destabilizing force that oftentimes is the root of trauma, poor support systems, and long-term vulnerability.

When asked about Hardy’s continued commitment to death penalty work and her involvement with Calvary, she elevated the hope that is apparent in vulnerable communities.

“You see people getting beaten down, you see the attacks on homelessness—the criminalization of homelessness in DC—you see all of that. Yet you still see people trying to push forward and trying to make their lives better and doing the work every day alongside the Calvary staff.”

As a pivotal moment in her professional journey, last year after many law firms chose to distance themselves from their prior diversity commitments, Hardy chose to step away from the corporate work she was doing and onto a new path of post-conviction work full-time.

“I was in a position where I was able to make the decision to say ‘no,’ and I think it weighed heavily on me as a black woman because I understand what it means to be in these spaces and to fight to be in these spaces and to fight to open the doors for other people behind you.”

Hardy’s insight reinforces what research and lived experience alike confirm. When confounded, trauma can be transferable, and without intervention, inequity replicates itself.

“Most of these clients that we have on death row are typically black men. We go sit in their mother’s or grandmother’s living room or whoever it may be to go talk to them about their life, about their son’s life, about their own struggles with drugs, with domestic abuse, with housing insecurity, with all these things, because they all are important to paint a picture of what happened in this person’s life before they ended up being a capital client.”

Hardy’s reflections mirror what we see in our clients at Calvary. Homelessness is not a single event. It is a layered experience shaped by systematic inequalities. Moreover, this reveals a recurring reality that Black women are truly the stabilizers within the community. Black women are caregivers, providers, protectors, and emotional anchors, often navigating their own trauma while sustaining entire family systems.

“You’re having to go through decades of trauma—generational trauma—maybe the mother is dealing with or trying to work multiple jobs, and maybe she turns to substances to kind of mute that pain, those feelings, whatever it may be. And then maybe she loses the job. She’s now housing insecure.”

This cycle is neither accidental nor isolated.

“You have these multiple generations of housing insecurity and mental illness, and no one in these families can seem to get ahead and kind of stop that repetition. And then you end up with multiple generations of incarcerated individuals. You end up with multiple generations of untreated mental illness, multiple generations of undiagnosed and untreated intellectual disability.”

When confounded, trauma can be transferable and without intervention, inequity replicates itself. This is why Calvary’s case management and therapy services are core parts of how we empower our clients. These services are intentionally designed to address the long-term effects of trauma, including generational trauma that disproportionately impacts Black women.

But Hardy also urges us to rethink the vital role of Black women in the community in comparison to how they are framed.

“Black women just shoulder a lot of the community needs, the community building, a lot of resistance, a lot of promoting joy, promoting love, promoting all those things while at the same time resisting, pushing forward, advancing the right narratives, advancing people in our communities, supporting people in our communities. Black women, both in the legal field, and outside of it are the ones who are really carrying a lot of that work.”

At Calvary, we witness this resilience daily. It is visible in their journey of rebuilding their lives and striving for stability.

“Women who come into Calvary’s programs are so adamant about wanting to be independent. And that’s not the story that gets pushed.…They desire to graduate from Calvary’s program and live a free, healthy, happy, independent life where they are working and able to pay their own rent and one day buy a home and finish job training or trade school or college or whatever it is,” she adds.

When Black women are provided with stable housing, healthcare, economic opportunity, and strong support systems, their potential is unleashed.

“But you know, the truth is that black women typically hold the most degrees. We own more homes per capita amongst younger age groups. We black women are killing it in these spaces all the time. Yet that’s not the image that is constantly promoted of black women.”

Black History Month calls us to act and move beyond the narrative of exceptionalism and ignite change within systems of inequity. When Hardy describes Black women thriving, she is describing what happens when talent and drive are matched with opportunity and resources. Calvary empowers women and ensures that their brilliance is no longer consumed by their survival. This is fueled by a generous and passionate community that has allowed this organization to stand with Black women for four decades.

“We as a world and as a community—especially here in the US— we’ve moved so far away from this idea that like it actually takes a village,” she says. “We’ve forgotten that we are responsible for the other people in our community. So, I think that’s my main message and the reason I love the work Calvary does so much,” she adds.

Community, as Hardy describes it, is a major force when it comes to shaping societal outcomes. It is the difference between isolation and belonging, between crisis and continuity. For women navigating homelessness, community changes everything.

“Everybody does have a role to play. And for some people, it might just be donating to places that are doing the work, who are on the front lines. Places like Calvary that are actually touching the lives of these women, maybe that’s your role.”

Her call to action reframes engagement as both accessible and essential. At Calvary, meaningful contributions are boundless, and collective participation strengthens the safety net that allows women to regain stability. She recognizes that while monetary gifts to Calvary are necessary to our clients’ success, all contributions are vital to the wholistic work that is foundational in our programs.

“It might be volunteering to make a meal or volunteering to teach a yoga class to these women at Calvary. Teach meditation, help them understand that there are different ways to deal with their struggles. Give something of yourself.”

These acts carry a profound impact and affirm that the women in our programs are not only seen for their hardship but also for their potential and bright futures. This month, we are proud to honor Black women’s resilience, leadership, and achievements. We invite you to invest in women’s futures and stand alongside them as they rebuild their lives.

Because when Black women are supported, communities are strengthened. When stability is secured, futures are expanded. And when opportunity meets potential, transformation follows.

Make a donation to Calvary’s programs here.

Learn about volunteer opportunities here.