Opinions | Black Catholic women like Amanda Gorman are forgotten prophets of American democracy Shannen Williams Amanda Gorman, the first national youth poet laureate, speaks during the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris on Jan. 20. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) On Jan. 6, a mostly White mob attacked the nation’s Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn the election of the nation’s second Catholic president and first female, Black and Asian American vice president. Two weeks later, 22-year-old Amanda Gorman took the stage at the Biden-Harris inauguration in front of the same Capitol, and delivered a sermon on equality and hope in the face of lethal resistance with her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”