Good morning everyone. Without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess of his committee at any time. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Good morning, i thank all of you for being here today. Good morning, today we are examining our nations history of Voter Suppression as well as the obstacles that many minority communities continue to face to this day. In exercising their fundamental right to vote. Tomorrow we will be holding a ceremony to honor our dear friend and colleague and a former chairman Elijah Cummings. We will be renaming this hearing room after him and commending everything he stood for. Todays hearing is part of our efforts to honor his legacy. Protecting the right to vote was one of the most important issues if not the most important issue he fought for during his decades of service. We are holding this hearing in a gory during black History Month with black americans whose voices were stifled, blocks and silenced for centuries. It is black america
Here are their remarks. Good morning. Good morning. As we gather today, first let thank all of our honorees that we are saluting this year. It is important on king day that we do things in the spirit of dr. King. Mr. Sharpton dr. King as a federal holiday was a result in and of itself of struggle. So we do not take it as a day off. We take it as a day on. To do something in the spirit of human rights and civil rights that dr. King stood for. The National Action network started 28 years ago on those principles and weve been blessed to partner with martin who thought to spend this federal holiday every year with us at the breakfast. He had brought his mother to our Convention Many years. So we are in our d. N. A. Kinglike. And no year is more important than this year. Because we are meeting on a morning of king holiday where the nation has been more polarized and divided than weve seen in recent history. The rise of antisemitic attacks, the rise of hate crimes , the right of rhetoric tha
Try to hush them up. To hush them up quietly, without the cameras rolling. Remember, that visual image was absolutely essential for movement. To be able to see the vibrancy of jim crow. But that did not mean that this moment was over. Antibody kennedy the wood, and jack kennedy knew it. Kennedy is getting his state of the Union Address and areident kennedy is all, we fighting for democracy and freedom and there is an opportunity for what is happening here on the globe because we have all of these people. This is the middle of decolonization. Africans, asians, arabs. Latinos, those nations are becoming free. Are loosening and he sees this as an incredible moment. For freedom. In the global south. Mention thet american south. This freedom struggle. A kind of silence. But he needed that silence, because what he was dealing with, he had just come back from that summit. Remember the one that his brother was really trying to get the freedom riders to buy it out on . That summit did not go so
Viewing on cspan which has been a supporter from the first year. We appreciate them very much, im with goodwin with the Mississippi Department of archives, if youve not already done so please silence your cell phones. Our panel this morning isa spotlight on mississippi civil rights. We thank bradley both cummings from sponsoring it, theyve also been withthe w book festival since the beginning, where grateful for that early support and for their sticking with us. We are in this room today, thanks to foreman watkins law efirm. We appreciate their support. Our panelists are Natalie Adams, Michelle Purdy and hezekiah watkins. Purchase copies of their books from vendors outside and you can find the times our authors will be signing in your programs. We will hear from our panelists forabout 40 minutes, and open the floor to questions. Please come to the podium in the center of the room to ask your questions. Be carefulof the ramp, dont trip. Now let me welcome our moderator, pamela said dc j
Welcome to the 2019 mississippi book festival. This morning we celebrate the fifth anniversary of her literary long party. [applause] we are honored to have so many distinguished authors and friends join our celebration from the Mississippi State capital. Today more than 170 authors will visit with thousands of booklovers making connections through the love of books and the written word. Cspan has been with us since the very beginning and we are grateful for the partnership we start today by recognizing the readers to mississippi culturally a landscape. The writers trail is an ever list the places all over the state that mark significant places in the lives of mississippi authors. Ida b wells and richard ford are the very best writers. Two is famous for Investigative Journalism. And ford is famous for his novels. The hardhitting pieces about lynching of the 20th century achieve such notoriety that was known by some as the most famous black woman in america. Her marker will be placed in