Our ancestors were first brought to the shores of america in shackles. We know that while weve come a long way in this country, we still have a long way to go. And we are living with the regular eas of slavery and jim row and racial compression that takes over every part of life and weve seen it the past several months in such a stark and striking fashion. Covid19 pandemic, a twin crisis, both a Public Health crisis and economic crisis has impacted everyone, but disproportionately impacted in an adverse fashion the africanamerican community. In terms of pain and suffering and economic dislocation and in terms of death. And then of course were dealing with the continued epidemic at the same time of Police Violence, Police Brutality, police abuse. All across the land, impacting every aspect of our lives. Shopping while black. George employed. George floyd. Sleeping while black, Breonna Taylor. Jogging while black, ahmad arbery. The names are too numerous to mention. Those tragedies are just a microcosm of what we confront in our communities on a daily basis. And we want to have a discussion about where we go from here. The Congressional Black Caucus is working hard to put forth the legislative package to respond to the moment that we re in and to finally bring some accountability and change to the manner in which our communities and every other community is policed in america because we know this has been a phenomenon thats been with us year after year, decade after eaked, century after century. I was struck by the fact as i conclude my opening observations, that i talked to my youngest son yesterday who was the one that brought me the video of george floyd being assassinated on a minneapolis street and wanted to go out and protest, which as a concerned father, i had hesitations about but knew it was the right thing to allow him to do as a young teenage africanamerican boy. Of course i had to remind him of certain things, make sure he as his school i. D. , if he is harassed or talked to or mishandled in an inappropriate fashion, show restraint, even if the behavior is abusive or disrespectful because it could escalate in a manner he could lose his life. And then if hes being questioned, if they put a document in front of him, dont say anything or sign anything. Why should i have to have that conversation with a young teenage africanamerican boy . And i know mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers are having that same conversation. Its a difficult thing to have to say but i knew the words that i had to say to him. Why . Because when i was growing up in brooklyn in the 198 0s and 1990s, my father said the xact same thing to me. And my grandfather said the exact same thing to my father when he was a teenage boy in in rc in the in newark the 1950s. This time will be different because of the young people who ave taken to the streets, we hear you, we see you, are you and were going to make a change. Its my honor to yield to the distinguished gentle lady of the great state of texas, a leading member of the Judiciary Committee and Homeland Security committee and a champion for Racial Justice, Sheila Jacksonlee. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I will remove my mask because i do it when im in the midst of our staff and to indicate, mr. Chairman, of where we are in these calamities, these catastrophic incidences in our lives. Let me thank our mighty chair, congresswoman karen bass and my colleagues who are with me, my sister, my brother and very important guest that we have with us. Let me just thank ilhan omar and to hold up a v. I. P. Badge that i wish i never had to see in my life. That is the document used yesterday when we joined the family of those in minneapolis and when i say that, the brothers and the sisters and extended family members in minneapolis to be able to mourn as they go from there to North Carolina and to houston, catastrophic because as chairman jeffries indicated, it follows into the insults that we have suffered in our most recent series of months. But it also is compounded by 110,000 dead from covid19, the fact that the administration failed to both know and prepare created a heavy burden on those who already didnt have access to healthcare, africanamericans. And when people rush to Emergency Rooms from the nations Public Housing and from inner city neighborhoods or rural america, they were turned away. They were given an aspirin and turned away to die, black people who did not have the right care, medical care that the government, the federal government should have been engaged in. So when we talk about living black in america, there is a compounding of things, not only did we have the circumstances that were recounted and breonna and Armaud Arbery and now, of course, the heinous killing, murder, slaughter of mr. Floyd, but we cant even bird watch in central park because when we bird watch in central park, someone is going to say, im going to call the police and tell them a black man is attacking us. In the United States congress, areers of black caucus working every day to throw up and to stop between our amazing work in appropriations, our work on the Judiciary Committee and just introduced h. R. 7100, the George Floyd Law enforcement trust and integrity act that is going to deeply embed in its new form into deep changes in the psyche of policing, so let me just close, we are working very hard and will encourage commentary on h. R. 40 to understand that the very basis on the nation was built backs of slaves, unpaid, that built cotton as king and we cant seem get rid of the disease of racism, covid19 and racism. I close with these words, i hope we will engage on this, h. R. 40 reparations, which if there ever is a time, it is now, because of the catastrophic reconstructing of how africanamericans are treated, educationally, economically and beyond. Listen to these words from a white host on a radio show, are white people supposed to be embarrassed because of how we are born, speaking to white privilege. Are we supposed to be in barents embarrassed if our parents got married before we got born, they stayed together with the family through good and bad times as well. Are we supposed to be embarrassed because our dads worked overtime so we would have enough, are we supposed to be embarrassed that we dont roam the streets because our parents didnt let us. Is this something to be ashamed of, a Strong Nuclear family, a strong work ethic something to be embarrassed, privilege, is working hard out of poverty to to the rung above and pass it on to your children. With resupposed to be embarrassed, do we have a nation within a nation, are these people occupiers and others occupied, are we talking about slavery in 2020 . If we do not stand solidly with each other and face goodwill and good hearted americans that this is the time to save america, i believe that we will as well have missed our opportunity. So i thank you and im delighted to be part of this and im delighted now even more so to yield to my sister congresswoman representative presley for opening remarks. Thank you. First before i begin, i just want to center Breonna Taylor who was shot eight times and murdered, a front line essential worker whose birthday would have been today. She would have turned 27 years old. No more hashtags. George floyd, Breonna Taylor, Armaud Arbery, they should be trending based upon their contributions to community, to the world discovering a cure for cancer. We learned today from George Floyds second grade teacher that he had written in a school essay and asked what did he want to be when he grew up, he said a Supreme Court justice. Im just returning from minneapolis where i was humbled to join the floyd family and many members of the Congressional Black Caucus including my dear sister, representative jackson lee who just spoke, and, of course, my ilhan omar inice her city there to witness previously for Congressional Black Caucus visit, the black brilliance of the twin cities. I so deeply wish that the trip i took yesterday i did not have to take. I so deeply wish this man was still alive. He should still be alive. And in a more just america, george floyd would be alive. They would all be alive. I spent time with organizers who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of Racial Justice and as im looking up our organizers, i want to just underscore a point i have been making recently clarifying for some that just the fact of the matter for everyone who is participating in this town hall, our organizers, our activists represent a long line of organizing and activism and table shaking and peaceful protesting demonstration all while Holding Space for our righteous rage and demanding radical change. Our organizers, our Community Builders are not destroyers. Undermines seek to the narrative and will not allow it to happen. It always feels good to travel from massachusetts to minneapolis,al although i wish i did not have to do it on this occasion and for this reason. My time spent there in community visiting thriving black businesses, eating in blackowned restaurants reminds me that until we fully dismantle these systems of oppression, all of our lives are at risk. What are we calling for, because the protesting and the demonstrating, the blueprint of the Civil Rights Movement which we are still in, no book end, is to organize, mobilize and legislate. There will be unrest in our streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives. So we are calling for deep lasting structural legislated change. The death, destruction, denial of black people and our humanity is not new. Our lives have been devalued and our pain has been delegitimized for far too long. To offer more historical contexasizing to this moment, this week marks the near century anniversary of this massacre in the greenwood district, destroying the countrys wealthiest black community and robbing it of at least 300 lives. The massacre was one of the worst incidence of racist violence in our history and one of the government denied for decades. The same way it always does, the abuses that we as black folks suffer. How we document these abuses has changed, but the instinct to deny our experiences remains. Notably was the governments toponse to reparation redlining that guaranteed greenwoods permanent demise. We are experiencing a crisis within a crisis that is decimating our communities and we must respond and act accordingly. As a black woman married to a black man raising a black child, i will very much would like to pass on to my 11yearold daughter generational wisdom, generational wealth, generational joy instead of generational debt, trauma and fear. I would love for her to live a life free from fear, now, i understand the pain of people taking to the streets. In texas, in minnesota, in massachusetts, folks want to be seen. They want to be heard because for too long black and brown bodies have been profiled, surveyed, policeed, lynched, choked, brutalized and murdered at the hands of Police Officers with callous disregard, with impunity and without any retribution or consequences. We cannot allow these fatal injustices to go unchecked any longer. Congress needs to send a clear message and act now, there can be truly no justice for george floyd or Breonna Taylor or any other human beings who have been killed by Law Enforcement for in a just world, they would still be here. They would still be alive. There, however, must be accountability and that means enacting uniform standards and restrictions on the use of force, true oversight and transparency and the elimination of special protections like qualified immunity that allow the police to use a badge as a shield from accountability in cases of brutality and abuse. We cannot give into false choices pinning our safety and freedoms against one another, whether an unlawful traffic stop, search, or assault, every single abuse must be accounted for. So in the same way that policymakers have legislated and codified our hurt and harm for generations, we must now codify our healing and our justice and our law making. We must now look to enact systemic reforms that match the scale and scope of these systemic injustices that we have faced for centuries. This will not be easy, but i know that with your partnership, we can realize justice for all. And now the chant from our 10,000 strong black lives matter protest here in boston that was organized by one of our freedom fighters, monica, she runs an Organization Called violence in boston and said all my life i had to fight and we gonna be all right. And with that, i yield to my sister representative ilhan omar. Thank you, congresswoman presley, thank you all for this great opportunity for us to convene, to our wonderful chairwoman for calling on us to come together to have this conversation, this really important conversation, and to Sheila Jackson lee and all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who joined us yesterday as our community memorialized the life and the contributions and the hurt, that the death of george floyd has brought not only to minneapolis but to our nation. I join you from minneapolis, minnesota, the sixth congressional district. Yesterday, we held a town hall conversation with our Community Organizers. Black folks, young, queer, as we joined in a conversation where we had our mayors, our governors, the two senators that represent minnesota federally, the state representative, City Council Members. And where we all sat and listened to the voices of the community to tell us what the devastation Police Brutality has caused in our community. What social and economic neglect has done to the black lives in minneapolis and in minnesota. And what we should be doing as ders who are interested entrusted to enact laws that ultimately uplift all of us. It has been 11 days since we lost george floyd due to another senseless act of racism by the hands of our Police Officers. The latest example of Police Brutality and Excessive Force has caused deep but not unfamiliar pain. From slavery, to lynching, to jim crow, black people in this country have been subjected to dehumanization since before this countrys founding. And as a black immigrant, i center myself in those voices and in that history, as i move in this space of actively fighting for justice, for all of us. Right now, we are facing two pandemics, the coronavirus and injustice. Both pandemics are disproportionately killing black americans. We know that being black in america makes you live by a different set of rules. Far too many times, weve seen black men and black women be brutalized and killed by Law Enforcement with no consequences. You are almost 30 years route removed from the rodney king incident and yet black people are still facing these injustices. We are tired and frustrated that we keep finding ourselves in these positions. And so today, let this be the first step to healing. We all have a responsibility to implement real, systematic, and tangible criminal justice reforms on a national level. But that work also needs to get done on a municipal and state level. Im so glad my colleagues on the Congressional Black Caucus are taking the lead as we push for bold action that will create Police Accountability, and that will rid us of the social and economic neglect that many of our communities have faced. Our chance to dismantle the systematic racism that exists within our criminal Justice System is real. So, today, we not only demonstrate and organize, but we also have a mandate to legislate. And im so glad that in this moment of hurt, in this moment of pain, that there is a joining of many voices across our country, that finally are recognizing that if we not only make the kind of real lasting changes we need to make, then we return to the same place. But we also have to be vigilant in the policies that we implement. Because we know that a few years back, when the movement for black lives began, across state houses, there were policies that were popping up to criminalize our right to protest. So as we fight for justice, we have to make sure that we are also systematically fighting policies that will be proposed to set us back. With that, i would like to recognize and introduce a young man who has been on the front lines in our Community Organizing for justice. Tony williams is a black Community Organizer from minneapolis, minnesota. Over the past five years, he has been working with local groups, mpb 150 and reclaim the block, in the twin cities. Hes a graduate of santa clara university, and he is also a prolific musician, broadcaster and artist. Tony and i have spent many nights in an encampment that was set as a fourth precinct over north minneapolis, when the death of jamar clark in the hands of Police Officers, who were called to respond a need, and in return, took the life of a community member. So i look forward to hearing what he will share with us about the lives of black lives in minnesota, minneapolis. Tony . Thank you so much, representative omar. Im speaking to you all today from minn