We are about to get started. If you could take your seat, we would appreciate it. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 2023 National Town hall. This is the kick off session to get downent and ceo of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation. I am happy to see all of you here this morning. It tells me that our theme this year of securing our democracy, protecting our freedoms, and uplifting our culture got through to everyone. You all are here to get down to business, so thank you. This is especially compelling year for us. We know that every year, we have challenges and work to do for the black community. But this year, because of deeply threatening times that we are in, we know that despite the fact this is the oldest democracy on the planet, we have some major challenges. Our Constitutional Republic has not been more at risk since the civil war. Which was 160 years ago. The attacks on our democracy are happening on all fronts, our freedoms at our culture, coming from a number of places in terms of the people who want to attack it and in fact want to hold us back. These attacks are grounded in, frankly, and i will be truthful, a racist view of america. And they all depend on misinformation and often downright deceit. As most of you know this summer, the Congressional Black Caucus and its members, along with the Congressional Black Caucus institute, hosted a series of town Hall Meetings and discussions to help mobilize and train over 10 cities across the nation, where they discussed the most pressing matters of concern to the black community and to deal with the issues of Racial Equity. And all kicked off when chairman horsford of the Congressional Black Caucus held a summit on democracy earlier in the year because he sent out a call to action that he said, we have got work to do. We have got to have serious discussions for these serious times and a town hall discussion to follow up from that. He said we were going to put words into action, and that is what was done. So today, we are going to take everything that was learned from those discussions, everything we heard from community members, and we are going to take it a step further with you all here with us today. This National Town hall is a culmination of democracy for the people, which is what those summer townhall series were concerned, and it is with partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus foundation that we seek to continue these conversations and the work. As i have been saying since yesterday when we started, everyone looks beautiful. I wish you could see what i see. You look beautiful, but not only is it necessary for you to look beautiful, it is important for you to take your smarts, your strategies, and put them into action. We are here to get down to business and walk away with a game plan. So we have an array of smart experts who are going to be talking to you today and talking with you and hearing from you. These are thought leaders from around the country, policymakers, stakeholder partners. Over the next couple of hours, and it will go fast, but bear with us. We are going to spend these next two hours with two separate panels and the leading intellectuals are going to talk to you and engage with you around these issues. The first panel is going to be about race and Racial Equity. I know that is a lot, but we will get down to it in that conversation. The second panel is about the threat to our democracy, and we know that is a lot of things. We are talking about the threat to voting, education, health disparities, affirmative action, all of these things we are dealing with right now. In addition to these two panels, we will hear from a number of special guests here with us to deliver some messages. These are outstanding black leaders who are taking it upon themselves to define and disarm these threats. It is not just about legislative leaders doing this work, not just about the foundation doing the work that we do around policy research and the work that you do. It is about all of us stepping up to the plate and using what we have in front of us. We all are changemakers, everyone in this room, and we all have an obligation, so it is about what each of us can do. Without further ado, to help set the stage for this critically important discussion, i would like to welcome to the stage the chairperson of our Congressional Black Caucus foundation board, the honorable terri sewell who represents the 72nd district of alabama. Please welcome her to the stage. Rep. Sewell good morning. On behalf of the board of trustees for the Congressional Black Caucus foundation, i would like to welcome you to alc, or should i say alc52. Really excited about this. I would like to acknowledge the board of directors in the audience. If you are a board member, please stand. [applause] thank you so much for attending. I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus. Will the colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus stand to be acknowledged . [applause] we start with our fearless leader, Steven Horsford from nevada. Stacey plaskett from the Virgin Islands. Bonnie from new jersey. And senator warnock from the great state of georgia. Heath thank you all for being here. It was in my hometown of selma, alabama where john lewis and the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement marched, fought, bled on a bridge in my hometown for the rights and freedoms we all enjoy. But today we know that old battles have become new again and our progress is under attack. Across the nation, extremists are banning the fanning the flames of racism, disinformation, and misinformation to strip away our freedoms, erase our culture, and undermine our democracy. We see these new attacks every day, whitewashing our history, removing stories from our textbooks, restricting our right to vote, and the list goes on and on. I am beyond concerned. I am, and i know you are, alarmed. We are truly at an Inflection Point in american society. In the face of these attacks, we as americans are called upon to speak up, to stand up, and to take action. Our first panel this morning tackles racism head on. The theme of our first panel is race and Racial Equity. We will hear about that attempts to erase our history, to rollback affirmative action, and to erode the good faith efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in all walks of life. Our second panel is called democracy, what next . We will discuss the redolent listen attacks on our most sacred and fundamental rights, and that is the right to vote. Our vote is our voice. In the words of john lewis, it is the most powerful nonviolent tool in our democracy. And yet across the nation, extremists are waging the most coordinated efforts to restrict voter access in this generation. Together, we will address these issues head rep. Sewell every gn must bite. Fight. Struggle is a process, freedom is never won, you earn it and win it in every generation. Our freedoms can be fleeting if we do not protect them. The threats as we we as americans black our faces are real, but they are not coming from overseas. They are coming from our fellow citizens, just as they have for the past 400 years. Old battles have become new again. I know for a fact that if we join together, we can and we will win. It is going to take our collective action and it is going to take us getting into some good trouble. Victory is far from assured, but we are not without resources. We have the intellectual, the organizational and political power to fight back. That power is largely in your hands. Everyone has a role to play. Today, we will be discussing the actions that must be taken on the ground to secure our democracy, to protect our freedoms and to uplift our culture. It is my great pleasure to introduce the man who has devoted his life to the fight and who has spoken powerfully for Racial Justice. Both from the pulpit and now from bag United States congress, none other than georgia senator raphael warnock. Sen. Warnock good morning, everybody. I am a baptist preacher, good morning everybody i am deeply honored, thank you so very much, congresswoman terri sewell from selma, alabama. We welcome all to our alc town, secure in our democracy. All of the goals are connected. I am thrilled to be cochairing the Congressional Black Caucus foundations 52nd annual legislative conference alongside my partner Stacey Plaskett. Virgin islands in the house. Our annual like to conference is a call to action. We have a lot of conversations this week but it is important to remember that this is a call to action. Four to five by thoughtprovoking discussion. Brainstorming on policy solutions and purposeful action that can be applied to communities across the country. That is what this town hall, that is what this Family Reunion is all about a call to action. It could not come at a more important time. This is a moral moment. We are called upon again to push the nation to Center Equity in all of its discussions and policy, and to move forward the continuing project of democracy. Black folk have always had to play a particular kind of role in that work because we have been on the underside of that conversation. A nation caught between being and becoming a democracy yet to be. We are the ones who have had to push that conversation. We know this from history, i know it from personal experience. Do not take the fact that i won in the state of georgia as a clue que to be lulled into sleep. Do not miss read what happened in georgia. Some people studied our win and they went after it with surgical precision. As we entered the runoff a second time, they saw i was winning the runoff the first time and they said we are not going to let them do that again. Officials in georgia said there will be no voting on the first saturday of the runoff. They were misreading and old law saying it was a saturday after a holiday, the holiday being thanksgiving and an old holiday in georgia that honored general robert e. Lee. Is that you cannot vote. The secretary of the state said our hands are tied. I decided to untied their hands, i sued them. After i sued them, the folks who said their hands were tied then showed us their hands. They went and appealed the ruling. In a matter of days, we had to sue them again and win again. Just so people could vote. The first weekend, about 100,000 people voted, which was about the margin of our victory. We are witnessing an assault on our democracy. We need that Congressional Black Caucus to continue the work we have always done, nothing can be more important or precious. Humankind capacity for justice makes democracy possible. Our capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary. Democracy of the political enactment of a spiritual idea. We ought to have a voice, the way to have a voice is to have a vote. I believe a vote is a kind of prayer. A world we design for ourselves and for our children. We are not about to give up on this fight, which is why we introduce the freedom to vote act early this year. We will continue to fight for the john lewis that. We will continue to fight the good fight. Once again, we have to save the country. Those who have been on the underside of the story pushed the country closer to its ideals. Thomas jefferson said we hold these truths to be selfevident that all are created equal. You stand at the Jefferson Memorial and you think about those words, right across the basin. There is a black man facing Thomas Jefferson named Martin Luther king jr. , his arms folded as if to say did you mean what you said when you said what you said . That is the story of the people on whose shoulders we stand. That is the work of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation and we look forward to this important discussion. God bless you and keep the faith. [applause] she needs no introduction. The great representative Stacey Plaskett, Virgin Islands. Thank you so much. Can we give a round of applause again to senator warnock. I want to thank him and all of you for the fight. Good morning, everyone. As we say in my home, [speaking another language] i am honored to welcome you to the 52nd annual legislative conference, a National Town hall organized by the Congressional Black Caucus foundation and the Congressional Black Caucus institute. Democracy for the people. Bringing together thought leaders, activists and stakeholders to confront the most pressing challenges facing black america. Today, we gather to address the intersectionality up race and democracy and forge concrete strategies to mobilize black americans in the face of current threats. Some of you may know, i serve as the senior member, democratic member, on the committee that my colleagues across the aisle the select committee on the weaponization signed the federal government. Many of my colleagues know there is a lot of production projection going on by my colleagues across the aisle. When they point their finger or somebody else it is because they are thinking about themselves. This committee is this generations house unamerican activities committee. In this clear in attempt to derail the federal governments obligation to investigate and conduct due processes on actions, organizations and individuals who threaten our republic and create an undemocratic environment, i and my fellow democratic colleagues, call ourselves the truth squad. We continued to press them to put people over the baseless theatrics from extremists. We know that committee is being used to cause americans to distrust the federal government, to distrust facts, to distrust the law, to distrust that one want to man or a group of people are indicted for wrongdoing that they should be exempt from the law. We cannot have that. None of you will have that. That is why we are here today, to Work Together to stop that from happening. I am pleased to serve on this panel to delve into the issues of Racial Equity and emphasizing the importance of preserving black history to guide our present and future. It is imperative we draw wisdom from our past, to capitalize on the opportunities in our present. We must safeguard our history to inform our path forward and ensure that the struggles, achievements and contributions of black americans remain at the forefront of our collective memory. Not just our children, all childrens memories. The erosion of democratic values, the rise of disinformation, ideological polarization, Voter Suppression and the weakening of Democratic Institutions demand our unwavering attention and our fight. I represent the Virgin Islands, my family go back 300 years. But i was raised in brooklyn. It is going to get my fight. From efforts to ban books about black history, 200 and affirmative action to ending affirmative action in higher learning, these relentless attacks on race and democracy continue unabated. We must stand united against these aggressive measures. I said i like to fight. I like the law. I like truth. In this National Town hall, we will explore all of these things come up but when we delve into these critical discussions, when we say we are about preserving the law, there is one person i know who is about that. It is my great pleasure to introduce a distinguished guest, patricia james. Letitia james, the 67th attorney general of the state of new york. Attorney general james has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to justice, accountability and the protection of vulnerable new york residents. As the first woman of color to hold statewide office in newark and the first woman elected as attorney general, she has blazed the trail of accomplishments throughout her career and doing it with style. Doing it with that new yorks weather. Under her leadership, the office of the attorney general has secured billions in settlements from those who broke state laws and taking Decisive Action on issues ranging from ob owed opioid economic attorney general james has been a National Leader in the fight for reproductive rights, champion for workplace protection and defender of the census and daca. Dreamers are us too. Her dedication to justice transcends partisan lines and serves as an inspiration to us all. I thank you for your commitment to democracy, Racial Equity and the betterment of our society. Together we can overcome the challenges before us and build a more just and inclusive future for all americans. I want to invite attorney general james up right now to give us a special message. Thank you all. Good morning. Is brooklyn in the house . Brooklyn [laughter] [applause] they just walked in. It is great to be with all of you this morning. I want to thank the Congressional Black Caucus foundation for this invitation to this important event. I want to thank my very good friend, congresswoman Stacey Plaskett for that kind invitation. When i think about her serving on the committee of the weaponization of the federal government, i cannot help but think of the weaponization of the federal government, in particular members of congress who have weaponized government, who have engaged in intentional acts to deprive individuals of food. Individuals who failed to address child poverty. That is the weaponization of government. Individuals who failed to address the mass incarceration of people of color. Members of congress who failed to address homelessness. If you want to talk about the weaponization of the federal government, let us start there. [applause] i cannot thank you enough for calling this National Town hall. Especially for your first panel focusing on the attacks on Racial Equity. Whether it is through systemic attacks on her right to vote or the ending up affirmative action on college campuses, our tax dollars supports and childrens attend and no similar tax on our places of employment, including dei policies. I want to recognize members, democratic members who are attorney generals all across this nation. There are now six black attorney generals. [applause] congresswoman plaskett, we formed a caucus. It is led by my very good friend from nevada. Now that there are all these attacks, including dei, the democratic attorney generals we wrote a letter talking about the benefits of dei. We told them the erasure black history in our Public School systems was an abomination. Replacing it with demeaning and far right propaganda masquerading as history was inconsistent with the facts. I believe in my heart that facts will come back into being one day very soon. I know individuals have been banning books by acclaimed black authors and other minority voices. We as a people and individuals who are our allies, we must push back against this racist attack on the worth of our citizenship and we must stamp it out altogether. [applause] i am a lifelong advocate for social and Racial Justice. And i am an attorney committed to equal justice under the law, recognizing the law should be used as a sword and a shield. It is my responsibility to continue to protect the rights of new yorkers, but most importantly those who are vulnerable and marginalized in the great state of new york. As a black woman and the chief legal officer of one of the largest and most diverse states in the nation come i watch all of this unfold with a sense of outrage and growing concern. It is part of a larger effort to transform this vibrant and dynamic democratic country into a nationalist, authoritarian state. This right wing push has been compared with what we have seen with the emergence of regressive governments in turkey and hungary. I would say that there are also shades of apartheid, south africa. So they must be with resistance, with everything that we have, with all of her being, with every element of our soul, the attacks on programs that acknowledge race and racism are a clear effort to erase a chapter of american history. Our history. To reengineer facts. And it is important the injustices of the past not be forgotten. It becomes easier to block efforts to address the inequalities of the present. Then to address them with the facts. Because we know what we have been through. We know where we have come from. And we know what it takes to get our community and our society to where we are today. It has been a relentless effort to build a society rooted in racial, social and economic justice, not for some, but for all. And the challenges continue to this day. It has been a generation long struggle to create a nation that truly reflects a Representative Democracy worthy of its people. Just as the Freedom Fighters and warriors for civil rights and all of the heroes that we know face strong pushback from the forces of hate and regression. All of those forces out there who unfortunately are responding to the fact that we had our first black president , we now confront a new generation of those committed to rolling back programs who unfortunately fail to even recognize president Barack Hussein obama. In fact, we see an active effort to oppose secondclass citizenship status on black americans once again. To roll back the clock of progress. To roll back our efforts to vote. To deny our freedoms. To surgically target those in communities all across this nation. Since we know what we are facing, we all carry the responsibility of standing up to it and speaking truth to power. And putting some steel in your backbone. [applause] and walking into those courtrooms, walking on those protest lines, standing up to someone who refuses to see your humanity. And with all the fiber, with all of your being, with all of the ancestors flow through your dna, you need to tell them the truth. That is why i am so grateful and so honored for the Congressional Black Caucus foundation National Town hall. That is why i will be honored when i walk into that courtroom on october 2. [applause] to hold someone responsible, to hold someone accountable. My role is civil. But i will come back before you soon with a check for 250 million. [applause] and to let you know that he is no longer allowed to do business in the state of new york. [applause] we have a special charge to show up and stand up for one another, and to remember all those struggling under the weight of poverty. And although we look very beautiful today, the reality is that our brothers and sisters are out there struggling and we must never forget them. Do not get caught up in all of your titles. Do not get caught up in all of the benefits serve in office. Remember, we are there to serve and not to be served. Remember, we have to stand up for children living in poverty, stand up for the legacy of endurance and persistence and love given to us by our ancestors. Standing up for the future of this country. Stand up and defend freedom and democracy and liberty and equity and justice and inclusion. I encourage all of you to never lose hope and to keep fighting because as dr. King once said, there are no highways to lead us inevitably to quick solutions. We must keep going. We must keep fighting. All of you in this room are essential to making progress possible. I want to thank the members of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation for this opportunity to speak. I must give a shoutout to my Congress Member and the next speaker of the United States congress, Hakeem Jeffries. [applause] because he knows like i know that all roads lead to brooklyn. [laughter] [applause] please welcome back to the stage nicole austinhillery. Nicole if you did not know before, you know now. We are ready and fired up. I wanted to also let you know, the work does not stop here. We expect everyone to go forward. Another thing we invite you to do with us today is to join us in the exhibit hall on the main stage for the first time. We will be having an elc spotlight, it will be a fireside chat, talking about the threats on diversity, equity and inclusion. It is a battle and we have to continue that discussion. Simone sanders of msnbc will be hosting this fireside chat and we will be joined with experts. When you leave here, get your lunch and come back for the fireside chat. I also want to recognize that we have been joined by the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the honorable joyce beatty of ohio. [applause] we are now ready to get started. I am going to ask to come to the stage our Vice President for the policy for research at the Congressional Black Caucus, dr. Jonathan cox. Dr. Cox good morning, everybody. I am very thrilled to have been asked to introduce our moderator for the town hall. His stature and experience are more than equal. With his original ideas and unmatched ability to articulate them, he is one of americas leading public intellectuals. He combines the scholarly and the popular, citing philosophers alongside hiphop artists and comedians. He has published more than two dozen books, all of them will receive. His work has been rewarded with an american book award, the southern book prize and two naacp image awards. We have benefited from us and fights in the New York Times his insights in the New York Times. He has taught at brown, columbia, georgetown, vanderbilt. As an outgoing pastor, he is well known for his engaging sermons at countless houses of worship. If you are at last years alc, i know you will never forget his remarks. It is an honor and a pleasure to introduce him to you now, and michael dyson. Eric michael dyson. Give it up for dr. Cox. I know you are ready to get down. I am from detroit. [applause] midwest. When you tried to get in, detroit was drop in Aretha Franklin on you. Smokey robinson was saying ive got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it is cold outside. So brooklyn, recognize what up though. Stevie wonder. When you believe in things you do not understand and then you suffer. Superstition aint the way. Detroit established the foundations of which we rest on right now. What up . Brooklyn is a nice little brother and sister. We appreciate you. [applause] [laughter] did i mention that Letitia James and i have the same birthday . A little sibling rivalry. We are honored to be here today. We know we are living in the middle of a crisis. A crisis of imagination. A crisis of conceiving democracy yet again. We know the forces of White Supremacy and the hateful articulation of an orange apparition that denies the legitimacy of our humanity joined by floridians that want to ban books, black bodies and imagination. We are not having it. That is why our ancestors poured into us. We do not get these positions to be weak. We do not get these positions to be complicit in the very forces of oppression that would undermine the power of what we represent. This first panel is on race and Racial Equity. Equality means you get exactly what everybody else gets. Equity means you get what you need in order to move to a position of authority to express your gifts and talents. We are exceedingly grateful to be here today to talk about equity, affirmative action, the erasure of our history. Frederick douglass said that in slavery the greatest offense black people could commit was to be sweet. Now we trying to be well, they have a problem with that. So here we are ending affirmative action. White america has benefited from that. We are going to get into that. I am grateful to be here today. Lets get right to this panel. I want to set the stage by sharing with you some of the groundwork that the Congressional Black Caucus foundation has been doing across the country all summer long. Before we do that, let us watch this video. There is an Important Note to site want to share with you. The Congressional Black Caucus institute as an Internal Revenue code nonprofit, nonpartisan social welfare organization. They primarily engage in activities that promote the common good and general welfare of people in the community. They provide community and Voter Education along with leadership training. They are distinct organizations that serve distinct, exempt purposes and are governed by different Internal Revenue code laws. In conjunction with this annual legislative conference, cbcf has invited cbci to share about its charitable mission. Cbcf notes the presentations made today is expressing that of cbc i and should not be considered the speech or position of cbcf. I represent detroit. That is who i am talking for. I represent the people. We recognize the limits and opposition to narrow partisanship. We are for the people and democracy. That is why we are going to be free to talk. Lets watch this video. [video clip] democracy is under attack. Not only the attack on the u. S. Capital ungenerous six, which is an attack on the building, but the institution of democracy. When we look at the issues we are facing today, we are looking at a full on attack on a hardfought freedoms and rights that have been achieved by the people in this room and so many others that were here before us. I want to welcome you to the [indiscernible] estates across the country or been in books, we have an obligation to tell those stories so that we are connecting with the people. We know that change really comes from the halls of congress. Democracy will have to be fought for in every generation. We are in a time we must fight for. For the next 18 months, it will determine whether or not we relive those experiences. The Congressional Black Caucus wants to be your partner. We cannot do this by ourselves. We need you. Now is the time we use this current lets mobilize and educate. With that as a background, lets have a vibrant and vigorous discussion. You cannot ask for a more distinguished group of panelists at first, someone you all know, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, representative Steven Horsford. Hollywood handsome. Chocolate charming. One of our leading scholars, a professor at both columbia and ucla law schools. Both coasts. The inventor of intersectionality, the great convertible w crenshaw kimberly w crenshaw. Brilliant and gorgeous as well. The president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for civil rights under law, brother damon hewitt. Big sexy. [laughter] the ceo of the black economic alliance, yaletrained, samantha tweedy. And brooklyn. Beautiful and engaging. A Founding Partner and the chief operating officer of the Fearless Fund, ayana parsons. Sharp, insightful, doing your thing. Welcome to you all, you may be seated. My microphone is next to my chair. I will sit down. Lets get right to it. Representative horsford, you are in nevada. We feel like we are taking a pet on democracy and we are gambling with our future right now. Talk to us about since we are in an overarching theme dealing with democracy and the possibility of democracy flourishing under existential threat and economic peril. Talk to us more broadly about democracy, the pillars of democracy and why it is critical to have a conversation about race and Racial Equity at the heart of democratic process. Thank you, it is great to be with everyone. Welcome to the 52nd and town hall. Democracy to me are the institutions, the cornerstones that are made up of our Public Schools, that are being undermined and tapped attacked. The effort to erase black history, to rewrite that history and infer that enslaved people benefited or were provided some type of skills as a result. Democracy is the cornerstone of the free press, particularly the black press that has provided critical information now and in the past to ensure our community does not fall victim to misinformation and disinformation. It includes the cornerstone of our courts, which in the last administration and under Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell, based at the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court, and Donald Trump Trump asked black people in the last election, what do you have to lose, and the Supreme Court answered that one they took away womens freedom to make their own Health Care Decisions about their body, and now deny access to students to go to college. And the cornerstone of democracy to me, the most important, is that which representative john lewis and others fought for, which is our fundamental right to vote. We as black people understand the history of suppressing that right. That is why today the Congressional Black Caucus, with the leadership of our members, are not just pushing for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights act, but to make sure every black person understands their power and their agency in this moment, to hold the line, to defend our democracy, to protect our race and to make sure the next generation is better off. That is the moment we are in and that is why this annual legislative conference and this town hall are so important here thank you. [applause] lets build on representative horsford. As i mentioned in your introduction, you have participated in the construction in the construction of Critical Race Theory. No better person to talk to than you. Also, you are the creator of intersectionality. Scholars stream about being connected to one thing. You have two things connected to your name. Talk to us about the eviscerating effect of these amnesiac politicians who want to erase history, who want to ban books, who want to limit access to knowledge, not only for africanamerican people, but for the majority of students in this country. Talk to us about the panic at the heart of the attack on crt, intersectionality and black learning. Thank you so much for that question. I want to start by painting a picture of how widespread, how threatening this attack on our knowledge, honor wisdom, honor history actually is. In this country today, there are over 23 states that have passed bans on the way black history can be taught. They have passed bans on the way the Tulsa Race Massacre can be taught. They have passed bans on the effort to teach what segregation was about. They have passed bans on the ability to talk in real terms, not only about the history of enslavement, but its contemporary manifestations. Nearly half of american schoolchildren today go to a school in which there are limits now used by law to limit what they can learn about this country and about themselves. Who are they framing as the people they are trying to protect in these efforts to suppress how we talk about our history . They are trying to save these laws are necessary to protect the sensibilities and the feelings of white schoolchildren. What about the realities of our children . [applause] what about the fact that they are being deprived of the ability to actually understand who we are as a people, how we came here, how we survived and what we need to know, to understand and to be about in order to protect ourselves . This is all about redemption 2. 0. When i say redemption, i want people to remember that we have been here before. This has happened to us before. At the end of reconstruction, we lost our right to vote, or write to learn, our right to advocate for ourselves and this was not just about one election. When we lost the last black congressman in 1901, i was 70 years before another black congressman was elected. We have to recognize that what we are fighting for right now is not just the next election or the election after that. We are fighting for our right to be here for the rest of this century and beyond. Do not mistake this to be about a little issue called Critical Race Theory. Do not mistake this to be about a little issue about, well, do we talk about enslavement given black folks skills . This is about taking away our ability to narrate our lives, taking away our ability to talk about inequality, our inability to talk about the ways racism shapes every aspect of our existence. If they can take away our ability to speak reality, how are we going to be able to transform our reality . When we know that people come after something that is important to us, when they come after our vote, they come after our voices, our history, they are coming after us. It does not matter if the frame they put on it is Critical Race Theory, it does not matter if they said they are protecting their feelings. Recognize theyre coming after our right to say who we are in order to prevent us from doing what we need to do to make our lives worthy of this democracy and to make this democracy the true, multiracial democracy we know we have a right to make it become for all of us. [applause] give it up for kimberle crenshaw. They do not know the difference between crt and opp. [laughter] brother hewitt, sexual chocolate. Let me ask you a question. When we think about living in what or veto call the United States of amnesia. Gore vidal called the United States of amnesia. Tell us the consequence to american democracy, of denying swaths of our history and teaching limited aspects, even of enslavement. If you want to teach skills slaves learn, killing slaveowners was one of them. Talk to us about the erasure of entire swaps of history and the negative consequence that has on history, not only for black folk but for the masses. The negative consequences on our daily lives of existence. You heard professor crenshaw talk about how you cannot teach about the Tulsa Race Massacre. You can not talk about the trail of tears. They are afraid of industrialization so they say, but this is actually a massive effort at brainwashing. The way professor crenshaw said it, when we look at television or read books, you think black folks are a whole different people than we know ourselves to be. That is what our brothers and sisters from other continents say. They also use this revisionist history to create structures to disadvantage black folk. We argued the affirmative action case in the Supreme Court. It is not over because there are more cases coming. Think about legacy admissions. Think about legacy admissions. That is the functional equivalent of the grandfather clause. If your grandfather could vote, you can vote too. If your grandfather attended harvard or whatever school it was, then you can go too. Whose grandfather was able to do that . They use revisionist history to create structures that on the surface seem neutral, race neutral, power neutral, but they are anything but. If we allow those revisionist history structures to define reality, we are running a race with one hand tied behind her back. Our back. We have to run the race with full knowledge. Your not going to drive without being able to see. That is what we have to be able to do in this revisionist history is designed to blind us to historical realities and future possibilities. They say affirmative action was a handout. Real history says affirmative action, first of all was never going to save us in its entirety, but we fought for because we know it is not a handout, it is what we deserve. You cannot look at me and say that is just a man. You are going to look at me and said that is a black man. There are people who like to not see things. There are people who say i do not see race, i voted for obama. Yes, did you see race and it is ok. I like to be seen. I demand to be seen. If we can see and appreciate each other, we can undo this revisionist history. We can undo this effort to whitewash and brainwash us and every american in this country. Thank you. Excellent. Sister tweedy, we know linguistically and in nomenclature, you have insisted upon a historical acknowledgment in the very naming of your children to extend a trajectory of a, liberation and freedom. One of the arguments made in terms of banning books, well that makes our children uncomfortable, as professor crenshaw referred to that. But the discomfort of white children as a bellwether and a benchmark for what is acceptable in our society. Talk to us as a woman who has been deeply involved in both economic reconstruction and educational access. Talk to us about why it is important to fight against the banning of these books and to suggest that parents who stand against reading about rosa parks or reading about what happened in new orleans around the wrong side of history. Thank you. What i said when people ask what is going to happen to the children, i look at them and say , you do not have kids, do you . I have an eightyearold and fiveyearold. If saturday night live was going to put on a skit of awoke school , they are learning about everything from the time they are four years old. You know what kids do . They do not take on the past of others. They do not look at us and say what did you do . What said they what they say is that is about us. Just when like when they are learning everything else, they are doing it together, not against each other. What i want us to be thinking about as we are asking these questions about the pillars of our democracy is what that democracy is actually upholding. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happyness. None of that is possible without the economic power and opportunity to be able to actually live those lives of liberty and freedom. So as we are looking and fighting these attacks, we need to know to something. Supreme court sign affirmative action. The 13 states attorney general letters telling them cease and desist. The case brought against the Fearless Fund. Those are all cuts against economic pathways to opportunity to progress and to wealth holding. You know what the emancipation proclamation was signed, the black Community Health held less than 1 of our nations worth. 150 years later, after a Civil Rights Movement, after reconstruction, that percent of wealth has budged by only 2 . So we have to ask ourselves as we are thinking about what we are fighting back against right now, were we ok with how things looked before . Before the affirmative action case in this country, still your average black graduate from college was earning less and massing less wealth than your average White High School dropout. With all of the Corporate Diversity programs, dei efforts, there is only one black woman ceo in the fortune 500. We have to hold the floor. We also cannot justify defense right now, we have to fight offense. [applause] we cannot look to rebuild what we had as though those pathways breadth get enough to where we needed to go. As we are in this conversation about what it looks like to preserve, lets make sure we are also looking at, what does that ceiling look like . And not let us spend all of our energy thinking about how we make sure we do not use the floor, but that we are able to fight defense and offense, so that we come out with all of her children so that it looks dramatically different. Thank you so much. Very powerful. We want to recognize representative tori carter from louisiana. [applause] i think Letitia James wants me to say he might be jayzs cousin. Miss parsons, talk to us about the suing of the Fearless Fund. I love that title, Fearless Fund. It stands for everything in one phrase that we attempt to articulate in my nor ties communities. Minoritized communities. There would be no suburbanization without the giving of a mortgage, access to a job and access to education. That is the holy trinity. The very people who benefited from affirmative action, think about the book when affirmative action was white. Talk to us about the disparity in recognition and perception of the benefits that White Brothers and sisters have received versus the paltry benefits to us, and then talk about the suing of the Fearless Fund. There are three money, power, and love. And we as black folks, we got a whole lotta love but i will tell you what we do not have. We dont have enough power, and we dam sure dont have enough money. The reason why this suit and what we are facing is that Fearless Fund, the First Venture capital fund founded by women of color investing in women of color, we are the most founded demographic of entrepreneurs, starting businesses at a greater rate than anyone but the least funded. This is about Wealth Creation and the american dream, and what jeff blanc is trying to do is dismantle our Economic Freedom and the ability to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and experience the american dream. This is so much bigger than us. We need 1000 Fearless Funds. More importantly, we need the capital. In 2022, more than 288 billion was deployed to entrepreneurs to start businesses. That is a venture capital, seed money to start businesses. Of that 288 billion, less than half of 1 , 0. 39 went to women of color. Black, latina, native, asian americans. 0. 13 went to black women. So when you look at these disparities, knowing we comprise more than 20 of the u. S. Population yet we are receiving as black women 0. 13 of the dollars and women of color as a collective 0. 39 , it is abysmal. What the money allows the entrepreneurs to do is hire employees, change and transform communities, because we know when it comes to diversity, research from years ago suggests that 80 of white americans in this country have networks that are 100 white. 80 of white americans in this country have networks that are 100 white. If you are black or brown in this country, you were eight or nine times more likely to have completely Diverse Networks of all races and ethnicities. If you can diversify those who are writing the checks, you can diversify the investment and we can create Economic Freedom and progress for all. So that, my friends, is why this lawsuit is so incredibly important. He has already taken away affirmative on Higher Education and gone after more diversity in california, he is coming after us, he is suing west point, suing a law form, going after corporations on the di initiatives, so this is a very targeted and planned attack and it is time for us to fight back, that time is now. [applause] amen. Not sure how much time we have left. Lets have a round robin very quickly. When you look at the situation that all of you have described, what is the one central thing you think we need to do in order to combat the erosion of opportunity, denial of history and how we assert ourselves not only politically, but economically and socially . I want to build on what ms. Parsons just said. She called out ed plume, who is part of a larger coordinated effort behind the lawsuit against black Women Entrepreneurship against students having access to college, he is also behind the efforts to strike down roe v. Wade and women to have the freedom to reproductive justice. Now, because of the bullying effect, they are now threatening corporate america, youve got people like senator tom cotton telling law firms, do not promote inclusion and diversity or we will come after you and i has been stated, these and as has been stated, these are tools to address systemic racism and discrimination and disparities, they were just tools. They are the floor, not the ceiling. In this moment we need to hold the line, defend democracy, defend against the attacks that we can access to opportunity as has been discussed but we also need to cap a larger vision for what it means to be black and what we can do with our power economically, politically, we talked about money, power, love, while we may not have all the money we need, we have more power than we use economically. We have more power if we combine the resources of our black mayors, black state legislators, the cbc so we are coordinated, we have a central message and we mobilize our people. We got to get out of washington, d. C. And focus on where the people are. That is why we have led the democracy for the People Initiative because when we reach the people and the people know the plan and we mobilize and we know the message and we vote, we win. [applause] my brother. We have three minutes with four people. We have to recognize exactly how this is happening and inform our fight by realizing that how they have done this is by starting to go after small things and then going after the next thing in the next thing in the next thing. When they came after Critical Race Theory, a lot of people said, i dont do that, thats not about me. We said, look, it is not about Critical Race Theory, its about anything having to do with Racial Justice. You were going to see really soon that they are not going to stop at eight few academics and surely, that is exactly what has happened. They have gone from Critical Race Theory to going after black history and then going after diversity and then diversity in business. The objective eventually is to erase everything we talk about here. If you wonder what it is they are going after, if you wonder if they are coming after you, if you heard anything today appear that you thought, that is exactly right, if you heard about the fact that we do not get the same kind of capital, we dont get access to grandfathering in, if you have heard about all these things and said, that is what race consciousness tells us about our reality, that are a critical race theorist. They are coming after you. There is no pivoting, there is no running. We have to stand up and fight and be informed and know what they are trying to take away from us and shut it out. Downstairs we have all of the books they are trying to take away from you. If you see concretely what they are trying to take away, you will be more prepared to fight it wherever you see it. [applause] we have to reclaim the infrastructure, education, electoral, political, and we have to stand back to back. That is why samantha and i filed briefs to support the bills on the lawsuit and why we are suing trump and patriot fund and the oath keepers. We are going to reclaim the infrastructure every step we can. They are loud, organizes and we cannot let them think that because they are loud and well organized that the people are behind them. 81 of americans of all types say Corporate Diversity should reflect the racial diversity of the country. 78 said company should take active steps to increase racial diversity. And this was in august, where that Fearless Fund was happening and that included 75 of white americans on 67 of republicans. The American Public is behind, those who are attacking are the ones who are out of step. So if they are going to come for all of us, it is going to take all of us and all the people are behind us. [applause] we need not just allies, activists that are not black. Sometimes we are talking amongst ourselves. We have to use our dollars, we have to have this money. This man has up to 1. 5 billion backing him. He is unrelenting and will not stop. You cannot fight that without collective wealth. We need money. [applause] sister parsons, sister tweedy, brother you it, brother hewitt, you are bold, brilliant, creative, these are your people, give it up for the fantastic five. [applause] our second panel today is a discussion on democracy. Securing fair representation and ensuring the integrity of our elections. Finally we will take up the question raised in the title, what is our strategy and what are the most effective tactics to pursue it in the coming months and years to preserve and strengthen our democracy . To explore these topics once again we are blessed with an Imminent Group of experts and leaders in the field. To begin with a member of the cbc, eric cochair, the delegate of the u. S. Virgin islands, congresswoman Stacey Plaskett. The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation representing the seventh district of alabama, princetons proud graduate, congresswoman carey school. She had to go vote. A Voting Rights activist, black voters matter, the great latosha brown. A Tennessee State representative representing parts of nashville and a nationally recognized champion of Racial Justice and a man from vanderbilt university, the honorable justin jones. [applause] finally, the chief policy officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, sdlc faction action funds, sean warren la shawn warren. All right. Lets get right to this. We had an extraordinary panel and we have another extraordinary one here in this second go around. Congresswoman plaskett, we know to get anything done in congress you are going to have to be extremely pragmatic and compromise to a certain degree and you must work with folks on the other side of the aisle. Can you give us words of advice for you, your colleagues in congress, and what words of hope do you have for those who have to fight those kinds of battles as we look ahead to the work that still needs to be done . You really heaped it on me. [laughter] you do have to be pragmatic in washington and i think the genius and ability of the president we have now, president biden, in getting such transformational legislation done in the last year and a half, is because of that pragmatism and the ability to quietly bring together the desires and needs of disparate groups and draw them together. We were able to do that under the leadership of speaker nancy pelosi, she understood, a mother of five speaks very well in how to bring people together. Unfortunately, professor, that is not something that is happening right now in the leadership of the majority are unable to bring sticks to those and instead is giving them carrots. We are seeing that right now as we speak where there was a vote yesterday, several held out of his majority, and a rule, which is a mechanism by which we are able to vote on major pieces of legislation, failed. So what did he do . He gave those five carrots. So now what we are seeing is legislation that is in fact not pragmatic, not about the larger group, not about negotiations, but out of fear. And i think that ultimately, his fear of losing speakership, his fear of the orange maras, orange maras, and mirage, and his fear of insurrectionists is causing him to do what he is doing. Until he is removed and the brother from brooklyn put in, i do not think we are going to see much use of patent use of pragmatism in this congress. Excellent distinctions and a critical word because dealing with going across the aisle does not mean a surrender of principle in deference to expediency, so thank you for that. Sister brown, last time i saw you we were at that Vice President s crib. [laughter] you are a renowned and legendary activist when it comes especially to voting. You are also running a tremendous program at harvard and you are an extraordinary agent of change. When it comes to voting we see the arguments between constitutional demands, state rights, gerrymandering which is regarding the voting of state legislators, especially republicans were redrawing a map with strange geography. It can be overwhelming, especially for younger folks. Why even try . It is rigged from the beginning. Give us a word of insight from your extraordinary experiences about what we can do to strengthen the vote and make sure we use it in a way that is pretty live for our interests. Oh, Freedom Freedom over me, over me and before i leave a place, ill be buried in my grave, and go home to my lord, and be free i wanted to sing that because i wanted to bring the spirit of who we are in the room. The fact that we are in this room right now here is because there was somebody not only singing the song, but here the word of the song. Before i be a slave, i be buried in my grave. We need to censor ourselves and our power in this country, power is not something that is earned, you can work as hard as you want to, in this country, i am raising this because we are operating in the context like we are not fighting for our very lives. They are our brothers and sisters who were literally denied their own humanity. How in the world can we sit here and talk about how hard it is when we do not even have the privilege to be able to say that. So i am raising this because somewhere along the way we have forgotten who we are so i am hoping in this moment that literally we recognize that government is the strategy but we have that spirit of resistance and radically reimagining something we had never seen or felt before, it is in the spirit with us connected with our people recognizing every little thing i do that at the end of the day, we have to fight for our children so i am saying this because that kind of fire we have to tap into in our bodies, innovate our conversation, i do not give a damn what they want. What is it we want for our people, what are the policies we need, how do we organize them . Black folk, you need to move to the south. I know you like new york and california come up but you gotta move to the south. You need a political home. Dont just get your information off the tv. Get a political home you are part of, a lawyers community, black voters matter, you have to join and be part of something that will help you think about politics and the cat the context of blackness. We can give all these white folks money for shoes, clothes, you need a political budget. Create a freedom fund. How can you support those who are trying to oppress you . Put that money aside to pay for your own liberation. Those are the things we can do. [applause] all right. [laughter] my god. That is the reverend dr. Latosha brown, in case you all did not know that. Ella baker meets luther king jr. [laughter] another tremendous and incitement another tremendous and insightful person, representative jones, brother jones, from vanderbilt we produce some great people and this is what our favorite graduates. You and Justin Pearson famously stood in the gap, translated ideal to reality and theory to practice and engaged the nation in an imaginative tour of what democracy looks like. You stood for the truth, you were insistent and strong, not nasty and belligerent. Talk to us about the necessity of continuing a tradition that we have inherited and what it looks like in this generation as you extend that trajectory. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak, not for myself, but for the people in tennessee who are still fighting for democracy because we went to the well because democracy requires disruption. We faced the state legislature that was willing to ban books and band history and tried to ban black lawmakers but they would not ban the assault weapons that are terrorizing our community. We said, will you ban assault weapons . And in the tradition of their forefathers that founded the clan in tennessee, they decided to try to make a spectacle, and expulsion, they called it. But what they really set into motion was the beginning of a process to expel the system of White Supremacy from the peoples house. I come here is the youngest black lawmaker because when they expelled us, they were trying to send a message to other young people, do not step out of your place. And there are members of my own caucus who said go up and apologize to them. We said they need to apologize to the people, the families of that Elementary School where those babies were killed. They need to apologize. So what we are seeing now is a system in which young people are going to the chambers not to make friends, but to make change. My first week and that legislator legislature, i was in the elevator, i was excited to go to committee, i was in my suit, and i was standing there with jack johnson and without him even talking to me, he sent me the message you are worthless and you do not belong here. Some think we should bring back hanging by a tree as capital punishment. Democracy requires disruption. We went to the well of the house and walk forward because our people were being pushed back. The young people being pushed back. I pulled a megaphone out of my pocket because they shut off the microphone. They refuse to see us as equal. So every day i get in there i want to remind here remind them i am here not as you are in turn, i am your colleague. I am here to give voice to the most diverse district in tennessee. If that means they are going to take a title, they cannot take away our purpose and why we are there. They cannot take away the wisdom of my mentors who said power only shows itself when it has to. They were threatened by what we are doing and that showed us we had power and we need to change the system where in my state, 70 of the seats in legislature were unchallenged in the last election. No one ran against the folks who had been there so long. We have a legislature, before they expelled us, they broke our Congressional District for National County from one into three so we have more republican representation. They cut our city council in half and tried to take away my constituents voice at the state level. It is strategic. They want to take the nation back. They are taking us back to a time we do not want to go to. We also stand in tradition. A tradition says that you might have dominant authority but you do not have ultimate authority and it takes us realizing that we are not the minority party, we have the opposition party. We are the voice that checks their power. We are the speedbump of stopping the madness of trying to drive our state off the cliff. I tell the white people in tennessee, we are fighting for your children as well. We are fighting to expand medicaid. Wellfunded Public Schools, we are funding for your children too. I will end by saying this. I think i have heard in southern segregation that the south will rise again. I have come to witness a new idea. The south will rise a new. There is something happening in the south, in a city where young people rose up before the birth a movement, there would be no Civil Rights Movement without nashville, lets be honest. So there is a legacy of liberation once again rising in nashville and we are a people of progress. Power to the people. [applause] amen. Amen. [applause] there is some spirit up in here now. Thank you so much for that. Very powerful. We need young people like this. We need to support young people like this to make sure that our traditions remain alive. Thank you so much, representative jones. Sister warren, here we are in the midst of an extraordinary assault upon american democracy. You hear black people say all the time, it is always january 6 for us. It has never been the fact that Black Brothers and sisters have met we saw would happen after her enslavement, 12 years officially of reconstruction, then the redemption. White supremacy has been weaponized. What can lawmakers do to deal with domestic terrorism, first of all by acknowledging it exists, and it has been said the greatest threat finally to american democracy, and give us the important work that you do in the senate, what can we do to support those interests . Thank you for that question, and good morning, i am so honored to be on the panel. I want to thank the congresspeople and the president of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation for their extraordinary leadership and the entire delegation because they hold a line for us every day. They are in the fight for us every day. I want to begin by saying a few words about my organization. For over 50 years, we have been working to root out Racial Discrimination and to expose White Supremacy and combat it throughout the country. It is still present and alive. If there is nothing else january 6 taught us, it is that democracy is not a foregone conclusion. We have to fight for it. It is incumbent upon us to get in the fight, to expose nationalism, to expose white supremacists, and to do whatever we can to root it out and abolish it in its entirety. There are a couple of things that i think are important as we look at this moment. The one thing i think is incredibly important for us is to understand that in this democracy, not everyone has equal access. We do not all have the power to vote equally, particularly black and brown people and there are efforts afoot to make sure our power is reduced. And we cannot have that. You have to know that we are in a fight. One of the things i want to do is share with you the story of my aunt. Because i think it speaks to the moment i believe we are in with respect to the crisis of our democracy. She is 80 years old and lives in savannah, georgia. In that 2022 election she decided she wanted to dissipate in the election, she has never missed an election, she struggles with arthritis and is over 80 years old and because this election was so important to her, she said, i am going to vote early. She went to her polling place and when she got there, the line was out the door and around the building. But the important point of that was not the general line. That was the line for seniors and people who needed assistance. She told me there were young people who had a van in place for seniors who were physically unable to stand in the line. She stood for over an hour to vote. Why in 2022 is there an 80yearold woman having to stand in line for over one hour to vote . I am so glad you asked that question. [laughter] in 2020 1, 1 of the things the Georgia State legislature did was pass a law that made it much more difficult for people to vote. It shrunk early voting in runoff elections and it made the lines longer, which means she had to stand in line. In this era we should not have our seniors standing in line for an hour in order to vote. It is completely unacceptable. One of the things i think is incredibly important is there is a through line. The same people who are working to oppress voting representation, there are states that are passing laws to make it more difficult to vote and at the Southern Poverty Law Center we know a little bit about discrimination. It is happening in every facet of American Life and it is important for us to not look at these kinds of conversations in isolation. We have to connect the dots. The same people who are trying to oppress the right to vote are the same people who are going after diversity and inclusion, who are challenging affirmative action, going after immigration, going after everything and i think we as a people need to see the intersections of all these issues. When crt is attacked, we have to stand up. When we see Voter Suppression laws, we have to stand up. We cannot look at them as isolated incidents. We have to Work Together and only working together can we combat the issues. Excellent. Excellent. [applause] already we have a time limit so i want to give each of you a couple of minutes to summarize for us the significant central thing that we can do to strengthen democracy for our people. I will start this way and i know sister brown already answered so we will put you last so you can add on to what you said but i begin with representative plaskett. What is the central, single thing that we can do to strengthen democracy for our people . I think it is summarized in so many of the words i have heard here. Fight. Disruption. Organize. An organized movement of disruption. As i said earlier, i sit on a new committee that was created by the members of the republicans, the select committee on the weaponization of government. The purpose is to do the groundwork for the dismantling of the actions of the department of justice, the fbi, to make people distrust our institutions , also to be a sounding board to determine if conspiracy theories misinformation took hold with people. My job as the lead democrat there, and i have to think Hakeem Jeffries for putting me in that position because there are eight of us and most of them are more senior than me, but he asked me to be the lead, is because i am willing to be disruptive. We have rules in the house about decorum and how we act. Individuals have five minutes. Nobody interrupts them. But because we decided we are going to be the truth squad, i do not allow their bowl bullshit. [applause] if they Say Something that is not truthful, i am going to stop them. Nope. No, no, that is not the truth, it is a lie. It is not going to happen while i am sitting right here next year. Jim jordan dont like that. My mere presence, and i make sure i stand over him in my six inch heels before he sits down, but to be disruptive. To not accept it. Do not play their game. We cannot continue to operate in the confines of the rules that they have constructed for us, for our behavior. We have got to set the rules ourselves. Because let me tell you. The people of the Virgin Islands do not have the right to vote for president. When we became part of the United States, territories were always eventually to become a state. Wyoming, montana, others. When they started making territories with brown and black people, they put up a Supreme Court ruling by the same justice who wrote Plessy V Ferguson who said the people who lived in the territories were alien races who cannot understand anglosaxon law and should therefore not be allowed to vote. Never mind the fact that someone who comes from my island of st. Croix it was alexander hamilton, who helped write the law. So we want to fight for you more than some of you want to fight for yourselves. Disrupt. Set your own rules. Yes. Bullshit, an ancient greek term, that means tomfoolery means chicanery. [applause] [laughter] and now, two of our great black american leaders, we are happy to have you. We have three minutes left. Lets talk with representative jones and sister warren to hear about the single thing we can do to help our people. We have to be alert to not falling for their tactics of deflection, distraction. Today they were debating about what people wear on the senate floor. We have to recenter what is happening. People can vote but we are seeing the old strategy of once we are voted in, they are out sick ousting lawmakers, censuring them, they can vote on the house floor to not let you speak the rest of the session. They only did it to me. So one selective so once elected, they are silencing the voice. If this was happening anywhere else in the world it would be condemned. Come to the south and have a summit on democracy on the south. Before we go abroad, lets talk about what is happening in our own nation. People are silencing the voice of the people and attacking democracy. It is a real threat. We have to fight with whatever we have. We have to go to the chambers and shut the chambers down. They are instigating a civil war where they are making it easier and have weapons of war on the street [inaudible] think about what is going on. They want violence. January 6 was there dress rehearsal. We have to let them know we are not going to fall for these tactics to distract and we see them clearly and we know that we have to act with boldness in such a time as this. It is important for people to recognize that all of these attacks are not by accident. They are happening when our countrys most diverse. That is no accident. There are three things people can do. Educate yourself. Those who do not know the history are doomed to repeat it. Vote. Hold the elected officials accountable. Build. We do not have the luxury of just reacting to what others are doing. We have to put out fires with one arm and with the other, have a hammer and nails and lumber to help build a world where our people will not only survive, but thrive. Its not just about what they want. Sometimes we are too focused on whoever they is. It is what it we want. I asked people to close their eyes and imagine what america would look like without racism. We are creative. Creativity is not just for entertainment. We have to creatively think about [indiscernible] the first thing i did right was the day i started to fight keep your eyes on the prize and hold on, hold on keep your eyes on the prize and radically reimagine the type of america that we deserve. [applause] give it up for the panel, god bless them, give them all some mad love up in here this morning. [applause] we have one other special message and the messenger is known to you all. In presenting him with the key of the city of new york, despite his successes, he has never forgotten where he came from, given back to new york city, donating to unserved underserved communities and supporting black entrepreneurs, i thought i told you we was not gonna stop. I thought i told you we was not gonna stop. Sean diddy combs, welcome him. Hello, good morning, everybody. It is an honor and privilege to be here. Hows everybody doing. So many revolutionaries in here. The work that you do is so important. So important. I am on the other side of it, coming through the door, making sure we get economic status and equality and the fight you all of us has as black people and also just our overall community, we need yall and appreciate yall and i just wanted to come and say thank you, thank you very much, and i look forward to talking about solutions and getting to solutions, i love what i am hearing about disruption, it is important to disrupt, it is important to reimagine. God bless you all and have a beautiful week. Yal dont just clapl. We need yall ready for battle. You know im going to disrupt and im gonna talk about it and im gonna talk more about it [indiscernible] [echo] when it is time for us to be on the front line for them