The world has changed. Today fast reliable Internet Connection is something no one can live without so wow is therefore our customers with speed, reliability, value and choice. Now more than ever it all starts with great internet. Wow along with these Television Companies supports cspan2 as a public service. Host im so excited to have this conversation with you. As a fellow st. Louis and i followed your political career and you actually represent the district that i was raised in. Guest wow. Host like i used to live there. Guest ive heard. Host im excited sola today again, talking to about your new book the forerunner. I want to talk about the opening. So you go in really deep, really quickly with the book about some of the pain and the trauma youve experienced in yourad li. What made you decide to open the book with what many could consider to be one of the worstt experiences that you had in your life up to that point . Guest you know, its something that, you know, i still, im still working through but its something also that affected me so, so deeply because, you know, the Sexual Assault that i experienced before, most of it happened around, it was like myla early 20s, late teens, early 20s. Itit was when i was still like trying to find myself, quoteunquote and i blamed myself. 20 i went through the next 20 years blaming myself every single time that happened. Oh, it was because my shirt was cut short and my shorts were really, really short. It was because i was out walking with friends when i met them and i was dressed in a particular way so thats why it happened. And when it took me out on the date they justt assume thats what it wanted, or like ive made all of these excuses to what happenednd to me and all of the blame fell on me. So when that happened back in 2016, how the book begins, i was wearing scrubs. I just come from work, you know. And so i was over, i was 40 years old, you know, i just turned 40 i believe and it was just the mindset that, hey, like a i blame myself because all these things before, butut this time those things were not in play and so i have just been really trying to dig through that. So its important to start with that because that also happen hd right after my first run for office. And so as my life was changing and i was finally thinking i was getting my life together and moving forward and things are starting to make sense that, that just like crashed everything all at once. Host so much of the book especially you talking about church. With sexualot w assault, both aa young woman and years later after your first run, i was saddened but not surprised because you experience e lived experience of so many black women who have been touched by trauma and violence and abuse and Sexual Assault. You write quite a bit about how black women are sexualized at an early age and thats what happened to you and you took, as you said you took on a lot of blamey, for yourself so older mn or boys were coming on to you so hard are reacting violently towards you. How did you get out to the other side . How did you come to the conclusion that these instances were not her fault and it was about how you addressed or how you are behaving at the time . This is really about toxic behavior about the actual men who perpetrateded it. Guest i think some of it came just from over the last several years of highlighting, you know, how prevalent Sexual Assault is just the work of organizations, and even when people have become public, speaking out against people who are celebrities or, you know, politicians and just hearing just thatry rallying cry that hs been pushed forward. Those advocates speaking out that i believe heard and just putting it in front of us more but it wasnt untilth i went to therapy. I went to therapy immediately following, i think the following week or the week after i was in therapy at least one to two times a week, and thats where i learned the most. And thats where, so my therapist started to dig through that to say like hey, why are you thinking, you know . So she helped me to see that i was holding onto it and how much i had internalized everything that happened to me, even down to the catcalls. I talk about in the book how this older man, i was a teenager and he said, if youre old enough to be your old enough for me. Like that was the mindset, like i would encounter a lot and not just me but my friends. It was just the usual regular thing. And now i understand that thats not okay and speak out against it. Like how often do you hear that spoken out against, like it, thats not how you talk to women and girls. Thats not how you talk toua anyone actually. So like carrying it around turning it around and have tried to highlight not in the book but just in my work is where are the folks are speaking out . Where are the main speaking to boys . You know, about where are the consent conversations, and those things have to happen. Host yeah. Im glad that you talked about therapy because often in the Africanamerican Community sometimes they can be taboo to talk about how you might need help and seek help for medical professionals. Did you struggle with some of that same mentality where you felt like somehow you are being weak or youou were not acting in the best way by seeking out how . Often were told not to seek help for these types of things. Guest absolutely. So for me i grew up in the church. I grew up in the church. I i am a pastor even though im not pastoring a church right now. So being a minister myself that was, it was a fight for me especially when was broughtht to me, like a, you need therapy. And it was my friend at a talk about in the book by the name of chris. It was him saying, hey, you ae not yourself, you need therapy, and i know someone who can help you. And he did all the work to get all of it set up and you know, forget a a waiting list. Like she needs this now, and thats how that happened. So him pushing me, because it wasnt for him pushing me honestly i would not have ever gone because i was having that battle. It was okay, you need to go to church, you need to go to church and you need to pray about it, you need to ask the members, you need to ask the mothers, reach out to the past when you know and have everybody pay pray for you and youll c be okay. But i did go to church and i remember i went to church one day and i was sitting in the church, and they were talking about like oh, you know, god is going to bless you in ten days and like yours at the sole thing uppening at before jumping out of their seats, you know, and the person said turn around three times you know, and say these words and the people were turning around and everybody was, you know, and if sitting there in the midst of it bleeding on the inside, feeling like i was bleeding and i was about to lose it. And i couldnt believe why everybody was so happy and sharing and praising god when nobody knows me sitting in the midst of them hurting. And so i i jumped up out of that seat and ran out of the church, and ill never forget i ran out of the church and some of stop me. An tears are, my face is wet and tears are just falling from me and im running out of the church. And some of stop me that was at the door and she said hey, stop. Have you signed up for the Marriage Ministry . And i will never forget, im like, you still dont see me, my face is wet and running. So i ran out of there, ran down the parking lot and the front forget how i could kill myself right there. Like i was sitting there thinking okay, if i take my car and i go and i stop it at this point, as soon as i pull out of the parking lot was major street, like i can die. The thing that stopped me was i put my hands on the Steering Wheel to get ready to pull off, and there was this flash before me of the faces of my children, and it wasas the faces of my children if they, then hearing that i was no longer here. And i couldnt bear that, and so thats what stopped me. Host that is an incredible, incredible story. I mean, i appreciate you sharing that level of detail. Something that i can definitely relate to. I suffer from Mental Illness and your honesty about your Mental Health of journey and the fact that you admitted that it took something believing in something bigger like a family basically to hold you, to keep you as pt of this earth is tremendously insightful. So i appreciate you sharing that. That is so, so honest. I want to give it a little to talk about growing up in st. Louis. The chapters about your childhood were so relatable to me as the little girl who also grew up in st. Louis in 80s 90s, unlike watching the cosby show, a different world, to you knew, eating pizza and the types of music you listen to. Like doing a dance routine to poison which is like one of myt favorite songs as a kid that it definitely got me to the dance floor. But what i also found touching and relatable was that your family talk to your history which is black history and the richness of our culture and our struggle here in the united states. Can you tell me a little bit about the impact your father had on you in wanting you to know your history . Guest yeah. So my dad for me, my dad for me was this strong man. When i was a kid, you know, like i looked up to my dad as this, like, just kind of like, you know, he y was very afrocentricn his, like just the way that he raised us. Not necessarily, so he wasnt like wearing the chic east and stuff like that. It was in an outward thing but is more just a way he raises and what he taught us inside the home. Ill never forget my dad worked in africa with a part on the side letter with was an afe would keep his black fist pic in his head. He wanted everywhere he wasnt at w work. We had pictures come with Jesse Jackson and dr. King and the great kings and queens of africa on the wall. When all kinds of, you know, books on black americans and it wasnt the usual folks that you may hear about when we celebrate black history. He took a deeper than that it was like you need to know who, i remember him at one point teaching us about quantity and teaching us about fred hampton and select those with names were hearing all the time. But time with dad if were going to watch tv, you were watching, and no joe, like eyes on the prize, you know, roots, you know, so documentaries and stories. That was our time withh him, but it meant so much. I didnt realize it at the time because i wanted to watch, i wanted to watch mtv, like that was a thing at the time. I wanted to watch, you know, i had other stuff that he wanted to watch, tv shows, but for him it was no, you dont need to look at those things. This is what you need because you need, we need to fortify you at home because when you go out there and there is a different world outside, but one thing my dad taught me that i will never forget and it has meant so much to me, two things actually. One is that my black was beautiful. My dad never made, my sister, we look so much alike but my sister is shes lightskinned, im dark skin, but my dad never made a difference. You would no have known that there were color differences. In fact, my mom was a different shade than all of us. You would not have known that he taught me that my dark skin was still beautiful and couldn nevr hold my head down for anyone. But also he taught me every single day before the walk out of our home, drove as crazy as kits when i get it. He would sit is down before he walked out the door and would take responsibility. Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. You are a leader. You will be a follower. A good leader knows how to follow, and then you could walk outside the door. He would pray and then you could walk out the door. I love it i love it. I had a very similar upbringing. I watched so much of eyes on a price my father came home from work at Mcdonnell Douglas which it did think we walk by boeing at some time. He came home from work and said to me or my god youre going to turn into a militant. This was was encouraged in our house, the same thing watching roots, knowing your history. We had the kings and queens of africa posters trying to really . Trundle yes. We have the same poster in our house. I also felt the same pressure that youuc felt to succeed academically and to do well in school. I want yout to talk a little bt about how unpopular that was picked as was the 90s in st. Louis as a young black woman, the fact that you are a bit more bookish and a bit more on the studious side always working in your favor and try to fit in. Guest no, it was not. You know, being a cute and wearing, being able to wear lip gloss, you know, colored lip gloss and having the latest guess jeans and polo clothes and all of that. I got was a. It did matter if youre smart or not. Like none of that, people didnt care about that like you know, our age group. It was about a look, you know. But for me i wanted both, like i want to look this way because i like it, but it also love the books and above the school. I love the knowledge and learning, like that was my comfortable place. It was like i could relate to the books. I dont know how to best articulate that but but i jt like, you know, i needed to attain as much knowledge as i could. Fa what are my favorite things was vocabulary words, earning vocabulary. Y it was its own class in Elementary School and i loved it. But itys wasnt always, you kn, it was more like being singled out though because in class that would be cori, enter this. Oh, cori knows that. It started to make me feel like, you know, i just want to be like my friends. Dont single me out and so its like i i just want to be like everybody else. But i still pushed on and excelled because i knew that was what was expected from both of my parents. But if you couldnt be also the it girl, my mom used to call it missed pop. If you couldnt be the miss pop, then your peers would necessarily see you. Exactly. You talk quite a bit in the book about when you started high school in the amount of like racialized bullying and hatred you often received from other students, that was just part of school life as opposed to something that people felt compelled to actually do anything about. Can you talk a little bit about that . Guest yeah. That was totally just unexpected. Like, i went to the school thinking that what ing saw befoe me in Like High School night, you know, when we would have students come from other schools to talk to us about their schools, like all the love and the school pride, like thats what i i thought that i was gg to be walking into. Never once did across my mind that i would endure something completely different, especially because most of the racism that i see in the books and the archival footage of watch and all that, i was young. Atomic up to the point where i was going high school i just didnt think that that was something i would see in high school because basically racism, and was almost like racism was over, you know, or the part of it that was so overt at least was over. But walking into the school it was a completely different thing and i just remember not understanding what was happening to me when the administrator, i talk about in the book how i took my Entrance Exam and ak the Entrance Exam like everyone else we wentt into this big auditorium. All the freshman, we took a together. And then when they called me back and said, you know, you need to come back and retest, i didnt understand. Ill never forget, i walked into the school the day to retest and theer administrator, im looking up at the administrator. I remember he was taller than me and he looked right at me and he said, we dont believe we believe that you cheated. We dont believe that you did this while on your own. And, and sent me back into the same huge auditorium to take it again by myself. And then how kind of like unnerved he was when i walked back out and they scored it. He said to me, you know, that i did better, you . Know, but the way he t said it you could tell that he was a little ticked offn so i got to stay number one in my class and so just starting their it was, you know, i didnt just feel isolated. And just feel, i just didnt feel that discrimination from my peers. I felt it from staff. I filled it from the administrators are and what 14 i was 14. I had just turned 14, you know. What kids should have to go through that . Host no, i definitely agree. As someone, you predominate when you talked about going to catholic and religious schools in st. Louis. I actually went too Public Schools in st. Louis and had similar experiences but what was probably what you just described what was the hardest for me was when teachers didnt believe me or listen to me because of my race and because i was specifically a young black girl. I dont like to talk a little bit about how adults choosing not to believe you or question you when you d like to do well n a test and have even trickle down to like your interactions with Healthcare Industry as a young woman. You talk in the book about terminating two pregnancies and the level of dismissiveness and harshness you received from the medical professionals who worked with you. If hebi would talk a little bit about what that does to a young black woman when you repeatedly were not believed and dismissed. Guest yeah, i think part of it goesu back to, you know, even as you we are seen or treated, you know, us being over sexualized. It started soar early, and then that whole like mother, like that matriarch, and not matriarchal in a respectful way necessarily but the whole idea that nanny type thing, we are seen so early as this grown woman, you know even at 14, even at 12, at the end. Weic seen as physically a grown woman, and i think that plays this part of, i dont have to be soft with you, or i dont have to treat you with dignity. I dont have to, you know, treat you like you are deserving of peace. Ou i can treat you like you are, this threat because, basically i think a lot of it comes down to not knowing, not understanding, not understanding the core of us. But as i get older, so from that moment i started to just really understand like things that id heard in my childhood at school, like wait a minute, all, i remember kind of feeling this way when this teacher said this, and now i realize that what that really was. And then years later not being come just the whole idea of not being believed, not being heard or being treated like you are automatically less a band, not less than me. You are automatically less than us. Anan like that is the thing when i was in that Abortion Clinic and the person that was supposed to counsel me, instead of her speaking to someone that was in this situation that was really, really tough for her. Instead of looking up at like this is a way for me to help this person, to help, give them whatever they need in this moment. They took it at the moment to knock me down and backed into a corner to tell me how i wasnt enough and how i would never be enough. But the thing is, because when we are given the opportunity to shine orpo when we take by force the opportunity to shine, our brilliance is so amazing that a just feel that it just, people cant connect like understanding, like how is that. Especially when you look at black women being the most educated group, you know, in this country. And then all of the struggles and hurdles we have to get past, we have to be thrilled for times better at whatever we are working on an order to at least be considered average, and for us to do, to do things even greater. Its a testament to the are but it also falls, puts us into that hole you have to be strong, be the matriarch. Be the matriarch at ten, you know . But speaking out hopefully will help future generations. Host i definitely hope so. I hope that b when other black women read your memoir here that they see as i saw it. One of the particularly chapters are really resonate with me was half open and vulnerable you are about the relationships that youve had, particularly starting as early as i when youn junior high and high school, and those first heartbreaks and of those first feelings of not being enough and feeling disrespected, like you tell a story about your first boyfriend and how you were a cheerleader and how you would do a special jump whenever he would score because he was an athlete after school. And then to find out that he was actually seeing another go at the same timeee he was seeing yu and feeling crushed andin internalizing that as im not enough. Can you talk afe little bit abot how the feeling im not enough was repeated over and over and over again often in your relationships, especially wita longterm what you had as a young woman with a man terrel that eventually develop into an abusive relationship . Guest yeah. So, you know, its funny because at home my father made a point and my mother made a point to make sure that i knew that my brother, that my sister, that we knew that we were enough, made a point. But that was at home. Wa so once you crossed the threshold of y your house, thent was whatever the street say. And i think that, so i think thats what i was able to where it started to be smashed for me a bit especially because in school at that time, you know, if you were dark skinned, and i dont really talk about this in the book, but if you were dark skinned, like you were, you are the ugly ones. Like, it was all about lightskinned, you know, i shouo out to my light skin, you know, family, but like, that was the thing. You have light skin wavy hair that was the thing, the guys wanted toth date are they called of those girls cute. G thats who they wanted to be the girlfriend and all that. The dark skinned ones we would want the guysju were just run up and hit you on your behind but they didnt want to be your boyfriend because they wanted the lightt skin. So it was all of this piece it that you started to pull away at my selfesteem early so that i started to believe that i wasnt enough, and so with that being my very first boyfriend and then with him doing that to me and it just happen in the matter of months. It was so fast, you know. Was nothing to come combat that. Like thathe never happened, ando then it was the next guy who did thee same thing, and so where is the piece that tells us . Because people dont want to talk about you or 12, you have boyfriend come your 14, you got a boyfriend. People find that to talk about that. So do we put are we putting measures in place for youth to be able to talk about their heartbreak, to talk about whats actually happening to them . Host totally. I mean, not to belabor the point because there were lots of points especially in the early chapters of this book were i was just like, issues like actually has a mirror into my life . How did we get so similar life . Where you talked about the repeated times that the boyfriend that you were with, you know, got other women pregnant and was disrespectful, and just really he didnt show up for you. Like he didnt show up like to School Dances and he just wasnt a real, like a loving, caring boyfriend like you and pictured in the tv shows and films you watched like 16 candles and things like that. I related so much to that because i, too, had a similar situation have to be in high school where i was in love with a boy, he g never made me his girlfriend and eventually he got some other girl pregnant after i went off to college. I was just devastated, completely heartbroken. But there was no one really to talk about it with because of the fact that when we are that young like people dont want to talk about heartbreak like how it actually impact you. The only message you get as a black girl iss just dont ever have sex. Guest yes, thats right. S dont do it. Dont date, dont look at the boy, dont talk ton a boy. Dont do it. Host dont bring a baby home. Guest exactly. Host i really appreciate your honesty in these chaptersed especially about the abuse that you suffered because i feel like that happens to so many women because we internalize that use the society imposes on us and we are told repeatedly that we are not worth thisot much, were s valued, were not as loud happened you countered that narrative as an adult in your life . Guest you know, some of it came from, well, a lot of it came from me finally getting my life to christ and then learning, you know, just going to church, hearing the word, just soaking into the word and just getting into who i am just as a human being, you know, and as a child of god. Like that is what helped, that helped, like give me strength as far as just, like im worthy because i breathe type of thing. Like just starting wit and so once that really just healed certain parts of me, then i had to also contend with, okay, what about because of, you know, is a black woman living in this world, raising a black daughter. So i had to then soak myself into some stuff thatth i learn when i was in high school actually. I went to this amazing high school which is still amazing now. Actually they have like, they got like 40, i think its like 40 lakh teachers at that school or Something Like that right now, this this is a schoolu attended after you left guest yes, yes. It was an allblack College Preparatory catholic high school. But they have this Leadership Class in the Leadership Class like you learnof so much of your history, like all about leadership like excellence and so i went back to that that id learned about angela davis, you know, about so many others, about Shirley Chisholm and about harriet tubman. I went back to that and was able to see like myself in them a whole different way. So that hassle me over the years, but also i can of had to put it on the back burner for a while like even caring about how i was feeling and just my focus really turned to keeping my son alive and raising my daughter, keeping my daughter safe. So it turned into that and so then that went from years like this kind of like hyper focused on that. This movement after Michael Brown was killed in ferguson in 2014, it was the movement building. It wasth learning together thate put so much back into one another. As we were fighting for black lives, as were fighting to get accountability for every Single Person the lost their life at the hands of police, as we fighting for all that we were fighting for ourselves and i was able to see like hey, this is what youne need because she wasa black girl, you know because santa plan was a black woman. Like because we got, you know, we got to remember that we can get lost in this conversation like you got to be whole, too. Host exactly, exactly. So this pivots nicely to where i want to talkto about next, which is about the ferguson uprisings. Can you talk a little bit about our hometown and how segregated it is an history that st. Louis has with Police Violence . Guest yeah, to get people context as to how it happened the way it did. People dont really st. Louis has long history of racism, segregation, housing discrimination. If you go into a little bit of that. Guest sure. So st. Louis is, you have st. Louis city and then you st. Louiss county. So you got, its like this is st. Louis city and this is all st. Louis county, you know, and then you have the river on the side of us. St. Louis is made up of, of course like a said st. Louis city but the st. Louis county, county has over 90 municipalities within it. Over 90 municipalities can somewhere around 92, 93, and many of themn have their own government. Many of them have their own police department. I remember back during the protest when Michael Brown was killed, i lived only six minutes from where he was killed, but i traveled, i would t travel throh three municipalities to get to the protests. In that six minute drive, if i had a broken tail light or, you know, Something Else wrong with my car, like its something wrong with mywi windshield that would flag a Police Officer to stop me, i could get stopped in each one of those menus of pawleys which means i could have taken in each what if i couldnt pay them than i could have a warrant in each one, you know, so, but through the years as having issues, st. Louis having issues with policing, its not a new thing. One thing about that is theres. Are two police unions. There is a police union that is majority white, i would say, majority white police union. Then you have a black police union called the Ethical Society of police. So that tells you already about what policing looks like in st. Louis. But i grew up thinking that, because in my neighborhood for such a long time my dad was in politics, so the police were come to our home all the time. They came by once a week to drop letter to them. It. They just knows in neighborhood. We grew up with the police knowing who we were, but that was us in this Little Community of 5000di people. Once you step outside of that, what you didnt do a lot of that without my parents at a young age, i a didnt see a lot. But as a cut over and spent more time with my friends outside of the community thats what i really started to see policing being different because now im around of theer Police Officers that dont know me. But you were still made to feel like if someone was brutalized by the police it was their fault, that they automatically had to be doing something wrong. It was all them, and then years later i started to see my friends that i knew, and i like no ofyo these i know these folk, you know. I started to see them utilized by the police. They were getting shot at and all kinds, you know, or getting stopped all the time sitting on the site of the road, like i would see so much and its like they were not doing anything so mind started to see, my mind started to ship and started to wake up just a little bit. Host so you also abused by the police during the ferguson protests during the year that there were some inac black lives matter protest the spread across the country after what happened to mike brown and what unfolded in ferguson. If you could just talk a little bit about how that experience presley impacted you but also talk about it within the context of st. Louis history, racist history against any type of protests, you know. I often tell people that growing up iap never said anything like what happened in ferguson the entire time i lived in st. Louis as a young woman. Guest right. Host and my parents before me had never seen anything like that before. If you could put all all oft into some kind of context. Guest yeah. So it was, by the time that incident happened when i was brutalized by the police, so weve been protesting, Michael Brown was killed august the ninth, 2014. This was november 24 when this happened. We had been waiting to find out if, if the ferguson Police Officer who killed Michael Brown, darren wilson, if he would be indicted. And we knew that this answer was going to be, it was either going to cause like widespread protests or it was going to, you know, maybe just finally give us in the families some type of relief in, like maybe things are starting to change. So we prepared for it. And that nighti i decided not o just be out there as a protester because he knew that there would be solely people from all over the world that would be there that had never experienced teargasmy before. So i had all my stuff. I had a big bag full of all types of you know, medical supplies and everything can even a hazmat suit. It wasas a bunch of stuff in the bag. Anyway, i remember just feeling like, like i need to take care of whoever needs help out here. And then when the opportunity, when they came time to actually help someone, i remember initially i didntt want to hep them because ilt thought it wasn ambush. We have dealt with that before many times where someone would like call your o name out to try to lure you into an area and things would j happen. So i just didnt, i just think that it was real. But helping, so im hoping this woman and is in the book but helping this woman that i thought was having a heart attack. Her daughter that she was having a heart attack. The people around her thought she was having a heart attack. As i was standing up, standing for this woman trying to help her, i just remember not realizing, not knowing that the police had picked me up and threw me in the air. I just, i remember saying to the police, yelling at the Police Officer im a nurse and im trying to help her. I need a paramedic. You are not skilled to help her. I think shes having a heart attack. The paramedics literally right behind them. Im looking at the ambulance, would you getet them . And i said, im a nurse, im just trying help her. And next thingex i knew i saw stars. I saw the night sky and stars and i couldnt, i just remember wondering, why do i see stars . I didnt feel the lift. Then i realized when i started to come back down, like the gravity, im like wait a minute, stars, my god, im in the air. Then i started to come back down and i just remember the impact. I started to see the ground coming towards me and there was nothing i could do but braced for the impact. When i hit the ground, just me just going from one side to the other because im being kicked by these Police Officers. Telaw enforcement. And then they teargas as while i was still on the ground. And lisa, i believe is her name, she was, she had to be right there on the ground next to me. It was, but the fact that we are not told the story afterwards, i was most often told well, you shouldnt have been there. You shouldnt have been that is your fault. The stop heart out on the ground, youre a terrorist, go get a job at all of those things. And we would talk to the police who out there on the front line talk to the police and sick pay, i want to listen to us . Why would you do anything . Why are you standing for this . Why are you standing for how protesters are being brutalized out here . Unit, what were hearing is it a job at a dont want to lose my job. This is how i take care of my family and i had to keep my head low. So the fact that we heard from officers that its because of who is the higher up, not that i agree with this, and that is one of, that is part of that history we have in st. Louis is theei leadership, and so thats the training, it teaches you to keep your mouth closed if you want to keep this job. Host exactly, exactly. And so one of the things i was struck by in hearing your story, you know, you have been a victim of Police Violence. Youve been a victim of domestic violence. Youve been a victim of assault. You have dealt with so much instrumental in some cases like very debilitating racism toward you. You have dealt with medical racism. You have lived in your car at one point. Inyou dealt with being under housed. And i thought what more perfect person to run for congress, like she has experienced everything that is about how our government often fails us. Yet whennt you decided that you want y to first run initially fr the senate, you had some pushback from other protesters and other organizers in the st. Louis community. Can you talk a little about that . Guest yeah. It came out of left field. You know, for me just as it did for them so i know they were probably, i know it was probably tough for them because we had been angry at local politician saying hey, why werent you out there withh us . Why arent you out here, you know . So for then for me to run a know it seem to some of them like you are just time to become one of them now. You just want to get, you just want to become some celebrity. And so it was hard for me because i was like yall know me, like you know what the character is, you know my history, you know why him. Why would young think that i was trying to become something other than somebody thats actually trying to change this community . It was tough. That first run we didnt have, there were a few that supported us and was with us, but for the most part many were not. I even had some come to me and say, you know, i cant believe you are doing this. N like, we dont do electoral politics. That was tough, you know, but, but when people started to see how much, not only me but there were two other activists who ran that were from the ferguson uprising, bruce franks junior who ran for a state representative seat and one and also Shane Aldridge who later took over bruce franks seat, they, you know, just seeing that we held to our values, we held to the reason why we ran. The reasons why we ran, and we were able to a least affect change locally, you know, and even for me in some ways on a National Scale because bernie sanders, you know, opened up some doors for me. People were able to see, wait a minute, youre right, because the people who vote for people to write these bills, they cant come from your community, they can be like you, you know, and support the thinks and advocate for the things that the community actually wants and needs. So that started to turn the tide. Host yeah, and its just, like to me it made sense. You talk in the book about your fathers past political ties and how active he was in the community and the impact that had on you. So to me and was like when you started talking about starting your own ministry in the book and then later getting involved in a protest movement out of ferguson, like this seemed like a natural extension of your efforts to tryry to make the wod a better place, not just for str women and girls like you who look like you with similar experiences to you of your own, that you basically wanted to represent the people. So that really struck me, but you were up against quite the machine. As always discuss with them st. Louis. You are actually my father is representative. Guest hi, dad. Host you up against William Lacy Clay who is a legacy to the son of bill clay was a representative from st. Louis for a very long time, one of the founding members of the congressional black caucus. And you talk about the machine that you to go up against as a grassroots organizer . Guest oh, my gosh. Yes. So first of all, i had no desire to run for office again. I was still recovering. I was still in treatment after the Sexual Assault. So the Sexual Assault happen january 6th january 6, lord, thats a whole other situation that happened. It happened september 6, 2014, and so the next four months i was in deep therapy. Ive not gone back to work as i couldnt work yet i was struggling just to be well at that time. And that the january when i decidedgi okay, my job was like hey, we can give you any more time, youre going to have to come back to work. I was trying to figure it all out. A few people fromfr the communiy came to me, people that were not necessarily talking to one another came to me and said hey, we really want you to run for the seat. And i was just like why . Im still trying to get well, but i realized that through all that i had gone through with my rape kit sitting on a shelf for several months, with my, with me not getting any type of justice, without there being any type of accountability. I couldnt even get an order of protection against the person who assaulted me. So just thinking about that and i was thinking about my coming others go through this and have advocate . Like, how do we get help for victims of Sexual Assault . You know, what can i do . That was one of those things when i also thought about my son and my daughter, like, have i accomplished the goal . Did iso accomplish the goal last time . If something happens to them what i didnt say oh, you could have done more, you know . So i said you know what . Im just going to go. J im just going to run and ill continue to get help as im running. But what people would say when i first started saying that i was running, so first thing was i knew my dads connection to the clay family. My dad had worked forth both plays. Both of them under campaigns. I was on the campaigns as a kid, not the father but the sun. And so i knew the connections my dad had talked about in the senior clay book. So there was a family connection, the pictures with us together. I knew that that may be an issue for my dad, but i knew what he had to do. Once the lord hate me like go ahead, i knew knew i had to do like this run. What people would say is first of all the biggest thing that kept being tossed at me youre a black woman, why are going to run against a black man . You are supposed to be supporting him, not running against him. My thing was, where is the support for regular people, regular everyday people like me . Where has that support been . Y with my life about, you know, always struggling . Haiku fights for f us . Im going to the payday lender because i cantmy afford to take care of my kids without having, you know, without taking a loan all the time. Childcare is way too expensive for me to be able, im working just to pay childcare. Who speaks for us . So i talked a lot about that and people were just like, you cant, youre a black woman, you cant do this. One of the things also was, like his dad,s people talked about, well his dad, you know, brokeg. This glass ceiling. His dad was the first black congressman in the district, and so comeho in the st. Louis area, so like why would you messed up their legacy . You should be standing for the legacy. And i was like, you know, we have to be people over legacy. So that was a big thing. So it took that first one for me to really help people see this is notma a black woman running against a black man, had nothing to do about that. It was me wanting for those that have felt left out and neglected and underrepresented to finally have some representation. Es but that was money, you know, a lot of money. I wasnt able to really raise money. So it was money and it was the machine of everybody in place, all of these, you know, whether wits politicians or business leaders, community leaders, like all of these folks were still like, you know what, even if i like you are not going to go against the machine because it will hurt me if you dont win. Host speaking of the machine, when you were talking about this it made me think a lot about how in your book to talk about how you and other fergusonso protesters were tread by establishment types, more prominent ministers, more prominent organizers who basically came in and told you guys you dont know what you were doing. Your Movement Work wasnt authentic Movement Work and you things right way. I imagine you get some of the same feedback on the chemtrail when you run against William Lacy Clay. Because you are someone who is actually of the community and you are truly grassroots and thatpe you have experienced a lt of thene things that your constituents are concerned about, so tell me a little bit about what it was like trying to counter this narrative that fergusonte protesters are disorganized and not fit to actually be leaders. Guest yeah. We heard that so much. Oh, you are a leaderless movement, you know . And it just always made me come every time her that it would make me think about, like, you know, it would take me back to the bible. And im like if you take out the cane, you know, or like looking at david and goliath, you know . David took out the line and what happened . So if theres only one, if theres only one head, you know, that could cause a whole movement to fall apart, you know but for us we had a leader for a moment because we all had something that was our thing and that when we brought those things together we f had this movement. If it took our one Movement Still kept doing so that was an amazing thing about what we able to do. So the ferguson uprising withstood more than 400 days of constant protest. So to call as a leaderless, you know, did we do everything the way people thought we should do . No. It also ask people wears a playbook . Where is instruction manual so you know all the things . Why did you let us know like hey if this happens this is what you do . Many of us had been to like a boycott, like it was the boycott dillards, like it was just like things locally in the community we had gone to those, some of those actions, it was when i was small. But you know, so we had been a part of someof of that this is somethingom different. This was ourle own. Like this was us, like it happened to somebody, you know, during our time where that body laid on the ground uncovered for almost four and half hours, you know, in our community. And to tell us that this is how we should behave, you know, and what was also said was some folks really felt like, you are telling us how to behave, you are telling uso. What we shouldo but i dont know you. I have never met you. So why werent you in the community with us before . Because theyre maybe we could look at you and you what you are saying. But now youre coming out make yourself to be this big person when we never met you before. You are no greater than i am. Host exactly, exactly. Well, representative bush, i too believe that you have demonstrated with the true qualities are needed for a leader that so many other activists that were involved in the protest movement out of ferguson show that you guys had a movement that may have appeared that was quite leader full and its an amazing, amazing that you took that experience and managed to create Something Wonderful out of it by representing your district comes i want to thank you for this book and for this great conversation today, which i hope was really illuminating foror those listening. Guest yes, thank you so much. Host thank you. American history tv saturdays on cspan2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. 12 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency meeting the like the first lady Martha Washington from her surviving personal letters with lower fraser author of the washingtons