Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022

About Rose Day

Each year, hundreds gather at the Capitol at the beginning of the new legislative session to promote and support the lives of unborn babies by meeting with their state senators and representatives and presenting them red roses, which represent the sanctity of the unborn. Attendees are encouraged to present roses to their representative, senator, Lieutenant Governor and Governor.

Keynote Speaker: Kay C. James

Kay C. James has served as the president of The Heritage Foundation, America’s premier conservative think tank, since 2018. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and raised in her early years in Richmond’s housing projects to a single mother in the segregated South, Mrs. James was one of the first children to take part in a historic experiment to desegregate Virginia’s all-white schools. She would go on to achieve the American dream, graduating from the historically black Hampton University; serving four U.S. presidents; dining with princes, prime ministers, and other world leaders. Before becoming president of Heritage, Mrs. James was a lifelong grassroots activist who unapologetically fought for conservative, American values at the local, state, and national level. A devout Christian, her experience growing up in poverty with a mother on welfare and an alcoholic father played a profound role in fundamentally shaping her views on the importance of family and religion, the value of education, the need for welfare reform, and the repeated failure of well-intentioned government programs, especially in America’s urban communities.

An ardent pro-lifer, she was drawn to the life issue out of a desire to protect society’s most vulnerable. She worked for several pro-life organizations and served as the chief spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee in the 1980s. She even opened her own crisis pregnancy center and counseled young women against abortion. Mrs. James was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and then reappointed by President George H.W. Bush to the National Commission on Children, an advisory body on children’s issues. She also served under President Bush as associate director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and as assistant secretary for public affairs at the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Following her time in the George H.W. Bush administration, Virginia Gov. George Allen appointed her as Virginia’s secretary of health and human resources. In 2001, Mrs. James was appointed director of the U. S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by President George W. Bush and led a department of 3,600 employees. In 2016, a fourth U.S. president turned to her for assistance. President-elect Donald Trump asked her to serve as a senior advisor on his presidential transition team.

She has served on a wide array of boards and commissions. As a commentator, lecturer, and policy leader, she appears on numerous national news and talk programs, and her opinion pieces appear in newspapers across the country. She is the author of three books about personal success and growth: her award-winning autobiography, Never Forget (1994); Transforming America from the Inside Out (1995); and What I Wish I’d Known Before I Got Married (2001). She is the wife of Charles James, Sr., and the proud mother of three grown children and five grandchildren.

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