His memoir is a most inspiring book written by most talented young, south carolinian. The cars tells me history in 2006. We had a just 22 years old. He defeated a 26 year old incumbent state representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature in the youngest African American elected official in our country in 2014 the democratic nominee from Lieutenant Governor and the state of South Carolina bakari is a talented political analyst and was recently named after the cnn political analyst and i know mad at you all get to see him as you read and hes recently been named two times forty under 40 minutes. His followed the footsteps of his father civil rights leader, and im proud to say my friend Cleveland Sellers and his tireless commitment to service by promoting progressive policies to address issues ranging from education and poverty to preventing Domestic Violence and childhood obesity. Bakari is a practicing attorney in columbia, South Carolina and a very proud father of adorable twins, please welcome bakari cells. Thank you so much. Mr. Mayor i might need to apologize before we get started i try to schedule things as close to the noon. Possible so my twins are asleep, but if you hear any two euros in the background, theyre not i your students. Theyre not any cadets. In the background. Those are that is sadie and stokely im running the house as they normally do i can also say that as an extrovert. It pains me not being able to be there with you, you know most times im able to come down and grab some lunch in charleston and come visit your class and spend some time, but hopefully thanks to moderna and thighs or maybe well be able to get back together one day very very soon. And for your leadership mr. Mayor. I just always thank you for that and your friendship to my family, you know, you keep my dad straight, which is a hard hard task. So i appreciate that to all of all of the individuals whove taken time out of their schedule to join us today. Thank you. You know i want this to be as interactive as possible. So if you have a question, you know throw your hand up and well get to it whenever or you can throw it in the the comments. Especially to look at dads and young people as we talk today. I think we have to take stock as we get started on where we are. I always think its necessary to both feet squarely on the ground and be in the moment, you know, i look at this year in the last 18 months as one of mayor riley, please correct me if im wrong and youve been around just a little bit longer than i but this is one of the how weird is convergences of historical to ever happen. This is 1918 1919 where you have a great pandemic. Meets 192829 where you have economic volatility some people like what economic volatility are you talking about . I mean, we literally have people who are millionaires because they invested in gamestop, right . What are you gonna invest in next blockbuster . I mean like that doesnt necessarily make sense sense and then you have saw what happened in 10 miles apart and a minneapolis. I mean america today, i think that i think yesterday would probably stand out as one of the harshest indictments of how far we have to go as a country. You have a trial for a white officer shooting on or with his knee on the back of a neck of a unarmed black man only to be someone interrupted by a white officer shooting an unarmed black man only to be interrupted by a School Shooting in knoxville, tennessee, like all of that happened in one day. And thats eerily reminiscent of and last summer in particularly was early reminiscent of 1968 tom brokaw who was one of my heroes little known fact. I love tom brokaw like he can like do no wrong in my eyes. He wrote a book entitled boom 1968 and it was actually was a documentary as well because he said in 1968 the country was becoming untethered along the issue of race in february of 68. You had the orangeburg massacre. In april of 68 you had the assassination of king in june of 68 you had the assassination of rfk and you have many soldiers coming home. Particularly black soldiers in the south who were still treated like secondclass citizens upon their arrival back home. And so you had this you have all of these historical events converging on us at one time. And thats 2020 and 2021 and so i just kind of want us to take stock and place our feet both i firmly and squarely on the ground take a deep breath and think where we are. Even more importantly i need us to think about how far weve come. I am so proud of the efforts that the mayors putting forth with preserving and telling the history of this country. Im one who believes that our curriculum especially Public School curriculum has been decently violent in the miseducation. Lack of truth by which we teach young people the history of this country for better or worse. And so i think about names in our own South Carolina history some names that you may or may not know, but i want you to think about the import thereof, i think about people like georgia elmore who was what they called a renaissance. I see reverend hooker on here. He probably knows the name of George Elmore because in 1946 George Elmore they caught him a renaissance because he he had a five and dime store. He had a liquor store. He drove a cab and took pictures on the side. He did all of this as a black man and in the in eastover, South Carolina. Um, and george went down in Richland County and im registered to vote and that some were 46. And in august of that year he tried to go and vote in the first democratic primary. He can find and know yall dont make no jokes. He wasnt voting for joe riley in 19. Yeah, i leave those jokes alone, but we all know who the nosiest people in the world. Are they know these people in the world are poll workers because poll workers know absolutely everybody in the poll workers in 46 said joe. We know you a. I mean george, we know youre you came vote here. And so george filled with pride, you know, george filed a lawsuit, which was known as elmore versus rice. As soon as he filed the lawsuit though, they fire bombed his liquor store. Stop distributing to his five and dime store. His wife literally died in a Mental Health hospital. She died in bull street. I know some of you all may have heard of the old Mental Health facility on bull street from having an undergo all the trauma the cross is being burned on her yard, etc. Etc. But although he died a broken man elmore versus rice is the reason that africanamericans can vote in primaries. In the south thats a history. Thats only an hour and 15 minutes from where you are. So i always think about how far weve come i think about Sarah Mae Fleming who is one of my heroes. People dont know the story of Sarah Mae Fleming. She was from hopkins. South carolina and sarah was working at a hotel on main street in columbia. Got off work and came and sat down on a bus, but her saying wasnt sitting at the front of the bus it was that when the bus driver told her to get up. She couldnt she didnt leave out the back door that the color choose. She walked out the front door. Bus driver punched during the stomach and rode her down the steps. Sarah joined the Naacp Legal Defense Fund some enterprising lawyers from the Legal Defense fund and back then the buses and i dont know how many people remember this but the buses were run and owned by South Carolina electric and gas. They will run by the utility companies. And so the name of that case is fleming versus sce g and Sarah Mae Fleming. Right there from South Carolina laid the foundation in action and law for another young lady who set down 17 months later named rosa parks. Like there wouldnt be a rosa parks if there was not a sarah may fleming and she was right here in South Carolina. And last but not least i think about im hearing eliza briggs who . If any of you all know jim clyburn, you know that he loves telling the story of hearing eliza briggs and little little claritan county, South Carolina. You know without hearing analyze a briggs filing a lawsuit in 1949. There would be no brown versus the board of education of topeka, kansas. It was the first case filed in that landmark collection of cases. And so i just want you to as we as were in this very weird convergence of historical events at this time. Just sit back and think how far weve come and youll get a really conflicting answer, but youll get one that i think will motivate you to do what john lewis said, which is to continue to step one to the pages of history. Youll realize that when you ask yourself that question you realize that weve made progress anybody who tells you we havent made progress in this country is just lying to you no matter how dark it gets. You understand that weve made a great deal of progress in this country. But the challenge for us is understanding that we still have yet a ways to go. And for the young people the students those who are the leaders and i hate when people say youre the leaders of the future. I think thats so perverse. Youre like the youre the leaders of right now. Youre not the leaders of the future the leaders of right now. Im someone who believes who who doesnt believe that this country is irredeemable by any stretch. I think like my angelo and Amanda Gorman said though that this country is unfinished. And so its our challenge to go out and reimagine what this country should be and i think thats such a refreshing. I think that that is such a visionary progressive. Just thought process to figure out how youre going to reimagine what this country should be. Thats the challenge in front of us and whatever you decide to do. You know mayor riley mentioned my father a lot and my father is 76. Itll be 77 this year and i think back to when he was 23 years old. 26 on the campus of South Carolina state i think about when he helped organize the protests at South Carolina state the history books call it the last vestige of discrimination. Jim crows final hiding place was the last investigative discrimination a little, orangeburg, South Carolina. About the students and how they win on the sixth and then again on the 8th to protest that bowling alley. And how on the night of the eighth they couldnt foresee what would happen next . Think about this . I know we we have any students do we have on this call . Weve got about 20. Students. So just imagine that see some injustice in charleston you go and protesting and you come back to the center of your campus. And you build a bonfire on your campus and state troopers and police around your campus right out right in front of the gates. Those same state troopers begin to fire shots into the group of students, but not tear gas or rubber bullets, but deadly double at bug shots at the same bullets we used to hunt deer. He fired shots into those students at South Carolina state for eight seconds. Say to people often that in those eight seconds lives were forever altered and dreams were forever defer. Henry smith Samuel Hammond and Delano Middleton none of them over the age of 19. In fact one was still in high school at wilkinson high. This was back before Orangeburg Wilkinson became a thing he was at the black high school of wilkinson high and he would come every single day. After school to walk his mom who was a janitor at the school to walk his mom home and he came that day that february 8th to walk her home and he was caught in gunfire shot and killed. 28 people were wounded. My father was shot that night. My father was arrested by the only black sheriffs deputy in Orangeburg County at the time talk about ironic and this little bit of history that not many people know. For the one of the only times in the States History. I26 was completely shut down between orangeburg and columbia. And my father was escorted up to cci where he was housed after his bond was denied cci was the columbia correctional institute. I have a legendary cci story if anybody wants to hear it during q a. Ive been to cci three times and one of them is is a legendary side only in South Carolina story. My father stayed in prison for about a month while his bond was denied. He was housed on death row. They deemed him to be an outside agitator. Until he was granted a bond later in between the night of february 868 in the time of my fathers trial all the officers who fired shots into the group of students were tried and they were all found not guilty. My father subsequently went to trial and they backdated the indictment from february 8th to february 6th. They dropped all the charges except one, which was rioting and my father was charged tried and convicted of writing becoming the first and only one man ride in the history. And i remind folk often that on that night in justice that left mothers without their sons. It left the pages of our States History stained red with blood. But when you look at this struggle and the sacrifices that so many people and thats the blessing i guess the blessing and the burden of being from the south. That you dont have to read about the history per se. Theres so many people right around us who said on jailhouse floors who who smelt gunsmoke who actually were a part of the stories that are written about in history books. And so the question is, how do we go forward and for me it was when i was 20 years old in a recent graduate. I remind you guys you dont have to be 40 to change the world when i was 20 years old. I told my mom and dad i was gonna run for the South Carolina state house. I just graduated from morehouse and my mom said that she would vote for me and my dad said hed think about it. So its true story. I went out and knocked on over 2600 doors i ran against thomas road. Thomas was a great great guy. Nice. This could be i didnt think he was a good legislator, but he was a nice guy and he was 82 years old and had been in office for 26 years. 26 years which was long and i had been born. We knocked on 2600 doors went over 55 churches and on june 13th 2006. Its amazing how history writes the story sometimes that the agitators son became a legislator. I think thats thats only can happen in South Carolina. And so i became the youngest black elected official. The country and the youngest state legislature now i have to put a caveat with the youngest state legislator in South Carolina history because theres another guy. Who claims he was the youngest . Hes also a Nobel Peace Prize winner and i dont think that anybody would have ever thought that governor beazley would have ended up with a Nobel Peace Prize, but governor beasley his second and third act in life is one of the most Amazing Things and hes a really good friend of mine and governor beazley will tell you hes the youngest state legislator in history governor beasley also said that he ran a 108 and a hundred meter dash which i know was a lie. So im gonna claim it and then he probably will claim it when he sees you so just know know that. But i i wrap up im kind of building up to this last story before we have some back and forth in dialogue and i remind folk. Im only 36 years old and i havent been in politics yet long enough to lie to you so you can ask me anything. You want to want to ask me. But in 2006 when i got elected something was happening in our world. I see Tyler Mitchell down there. He knows this story knows his story. So well, whats up, tyler . Everybody in their mom. Was running for president of the United States. The mayor remembers this because he was getting phone we were all getting all these phone calls. It was bill richardson, dennis kucinich. John Edwards Hillary Clinton barack obama it would chris dodd. It was just a motley crew of people. It was really really eclectic group of people who were running for president of the United States. And i had narrow my choices down to two people. And those two people were john edwards and barack obama. And there was nobody im at the time who talked about poverty like john edwards and he was from South Carolina. His Campaign Headquarters was in the ninth ward in louisiana and new orleans and he was friends with terry richardson. And you know, it was just there was so much there. Lets just say thank god. I made the right choice though. And so finally i get this phone call and to all of my young people i get this phone call. Ellen hes ready. Its my son is staring at me right i get this phone call and its from a private number. And let me tell you all that if a private number. For private number calls you its one of two people. Its either somebody very important or so Student Loan Company calling and get their money back. So i pick up and usually im whittier than this. Im like, im usually im pretty quick on my feet. I take pride and being decently kind of quick. And i pick up and they say do you have time to speak the senator obama say of course, and im the only state legislator with the book bag. This is when the law school is two blocks away from the capital. And so im like passi