Hoyer, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Remarks at 45th Annual Black History Month Breakfast
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) and Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, delivered remarks at the 45th Annual Black History Month Breakfast in Greenbelt, Maryland. Below are full transcripts of their remarks:
Congressman Steny H. Hoyer
“I said on the Floor of the House that I was going to retire from the Congress, not from Prince George’s, not from Charles, not from St. Mary’s, not from Calvert, not from Anne Arundel, not from the state of Maryland, not from my country. I'm going to face the rising sun of every day begun with you. And I said in that speech I gave, which was tough to get through because I don't want to retire. People tell me, ‘Congratulations,’ I said it wasn't a congratulatory event. It was a recognition of reality. (laughter) Some of you have been to about 40 plus of my birthday [parties], so you know that I'm going to be 87 in June. God has been good to me. But, I'm not sure that he's going to let me at 88 and 89 to be able to represent you as well as I want. So, I'm going to step aside but not step out.
“Now everybody's been introduced so I’m not going to mention everybody, but I'll mention some people along the way. Oh, say, can you see that our flag still flies. Nobody has sung that better than Whitney Houston. I love Whitney Houston. I was so sad when Whitney died. She went too young. You remember, Judy died at 57, my wife. But she lives on. There are over 100 Judy Centers in the state of Maryland today. And then, Nichelle, I want to thank you, because when I saw that there was going to be a sax player, I didn't know he was going to play Whitney again. And it is my message to all of you: I will always love you. And in part, as I said in that speech that I would not be here, I would not have had 45 years in the Congress, I would not have had 12 years in the Maryland State Senate, and I would not have been President of the [State] Senate or Majority Leader without you in this room, and all those who you urged to support Steny Hoyer when a lot of people did not. So I thank you. And by the way, the saxophonist is Roy Miles. It was – and my researcher to my right did the research. He got his phone out and said – because I, you know, I said that it was played in The Bodyguard, you know, that was the movie [with] Kevin Costner. It was Kirk Whalum who played that. It was the longest saxophone solo in any movie in history, and we heard a beautiful rendition of it. Roy, thank you so much.
“My advisor also told me not to touch the dais because it creates static. I appreciate the advice, but ladies and gentlemen, we need to create a hell of a lot of static. These are the times that try mens’ souls. I've had a lot of up times in my life. But like every one of us in this room, I’ve had some low times. I've lost people I loved. I lost three elections over the last 60 years. But I didn't give up, and we're not going to give up, and we're going to win because we're right. Because we are preaching about the fact that our Declaration said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’ But, ladies and gentlemen, what I tell everybody around this country, they may be self-evident, but they are not self-executing. Each and every one of us has a responsibility. Our rights come from God, but God expects us to carry out our rights for all of God's children.
“So, good morning. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be here with my friend. I told people upstairs, it's a little squiggly line that goes through Prince George's County. Nobody pays attention to it other than voters because that's who they get to vote for. But Glenn Ivey and I look at Prince George's County [as] one county that has given us the opportunity along with me and – Charles, thank you very much, Charles County. St. Mary’s County, where I live now, used to vote for me. Then I became Majority Leader and I found out I was a real Democrat. It was worth the price. (laughter) And in Calvert County, they call it, you may call it Cal-vert County, but down in Calvert County they call it Calvert County. And my newly 170,000 people from Anne Arundel County, I want to thank all of you. And in that speech I said it is because of the African-American community that I've been here. I thank you for that. I want to thank our wonderful committee members. We just took pictures up here, but I want all the committee members who have honored me and honored our community and honored Black history year after year after year. Please stand up, I want all of you to stand up for history, the Black History Month Breakfast Committee. Can you – Marlene Kaufman, thank you very much. I want to thank each and every one of you for what you have done. You have kept the faith. You have kept the light burning. And – you can sit down now (laughter). I don't want to overwork you.
“Today, also wouldn't be possible without my friend who work for me for a number of years, and who is an extraordinary person, Sudafi Henry. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn’t have been able to fund this breakfast every year after year, and to the sponsors, thank you very much. You have made history live. I'm grateful to Cynthia Harvey Pryor. Where are you, Cynthia? She’s not here? Year after year, her Printing Press in Leonardtown for their work on this program. And I hope once again you look at all those pictures. Now, the first picture you see is Jim Taylor. How many of you knew Jim Taylor? They’re very few of us. Jim Taylor was not as famous as some of these people were, but Jim Taylor was the first assistant state’s attorney in Prince George's County. Jim Taylor was the first district court judge in Prince George's County. Jim Taylor was the first circuit court judge in the tough times in the ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. He became those people, but he fought during the ‘40s and ‘50s to hang in there.
"Bill Clinton and I used to have a conversation about the fact that I was part of the civil rights generation. I graduated from – where did I graduate from? Everyone who went to Suitland High School, raise your hand. We don't have a lot of us, but we have some of us. Civil rights – I graduated in 1957. So, I was in high school and coming in the years struggle and confrontation and arrests and lynching when courage was displayed. And you know who was one of our speakers? My friend John Lewis, you look on there, he was a speaker. Jesse Jackson’s son was a speaker. Jesse Jackson – we were in the Cannon Room, it was about the third year of the Black History Breakfast, and in comes this great big fella and interrupted our breakfast. His name was Jesse Jackson also, but he was [the] Senior. Chris, thank you so much for remembering Jesse Jackson so fondly.
“We're fortunate to have presidents of three of Maryland's higher education institutions here. We had invited all four of our HBCUs because they are making history now. (applause) I first want to introduce Aminta Breaux, my dear, dear friend, Bowie State University Bulldogs. Now, the next fellow I'm introducing is not [from] a historically black college, but it is a big college. It is the flagship college, it also just happens to be the college from which I graduated. Darryll Pines, the President of University of Maryland, College Park. If you will look [at] the list, one of our speakers was a guy named John Slaughter, who headed up the National Science Foundation and was president of the University of Maryland, College Park, the first African-American president. He's on that list. So, I hope you look at that list. We invited David Wilson from Morgan State [University] – a wonderful, wonderful school – Anthony John from Coppin State, and there are many, every day, actions they take that will affect America's history, Black history, and hopefully rekindle the light of ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all –’ and clearly today, it would have been all men and all women, irrespective of color, race, nationality, you know, any of those other arbitrary and irrelevant distinctions.
“Terrance’s wife, Candace, could not be with us. But I know that they’re with us in spirit. Simon, his son, with whom he was so extraordinarily proud, has a – lacrosse? Wrestling. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to wrestle him. Now, if you've seen Simon, who, like his father, he was built like a truck. (laughter) Well, you just don't want to mess with either he or his son. And Betty Richardson, what can I say about Betty Richardson? A lot, and luckily for the speaker, I won't say it all. Betty and Terrence were a team. Betty Richardson was about five years senior to me in service to the Fifth Congressional District. She worked for Gladys Spellman, so I kept her on. That was a Godly-inspired decision on my part, because she's been such an important part of my life. They worked on the planning committee, they coordinated the vendors, they arranged the speaking program, although they did call me up all the time and say, would you talk to A,B,C, or D? They did all of that work because they believed in the importance of gathering here today.
“Now, I'm going to introduce one, because I know this to be the case, but the rest of you – I want you all to stand along with Betty Hewlett, who has been to every one of these Black History breakfasts and if you've been with [her] at every one of these, please stand up with Betty Hewlett.(applause) Stand up, those of you who have been here for 45 [years]. Betty, where are you? There’s Betty. One loyal ‘stick with it’ person in the room. Now, all of those who were not born 45 years ago have [inaudible]. She and they understood that history is not simply a chronology of key dates, or a collection of faded words and dusty work. History is a constant practice of remembrance, lest we forget. That's what the Johnson brothers said, lest we forget, so critical – what the Jews are always talking about remembering, ‘Next year in Jerusalem –’ people who have been through the fires of desperation, of pain, of loss, of life, of injury. Chris Van Hollen is right, the President and too many in his party would want to have us forget and tragically, want our children not to know. Nancy Pelosi and I are of the same generation. We're just short of a year apart, and she and I both wear the Ukraine pin all every day because I think we remember. We remember the tragedy of the Holocaust. We remember the rationalization by Chamberlain of a dictator who wanted to hurt people. And because we remember that, we also know that Putin is like him.
“Please know that while this is my final year hosting this breakfast this year as your Congressman, this tradition will endure. (looks at Representative Glenn Ivey laughter and applause). Now, Angela [Alsobrooks] has left, but I’m going to remind her of that as well. Representing Maryland's Fifth District has been the greatest privilege of my life, one that I only received, as I've said before, because of the beloved community of which John Lewis spoke so passionately. I've told you this before, but it – the highlight of my career, I walked across and have walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, 17 times. Seven of those times I was holding John Lewis's hand. (applause) As we reflect on the role of Betty and Terrance and John Lewis and all those speakers, 100 years of Black history, securing that recognition a century ago was not easy. And very frankly, in the ‘50s, I saw the pain, I saw the scope, I saw the courage, I saw the batons, I saw the dogs, either in person or on television, mostly on television. And as a young kid, I was seized of the injustice [inaudible]. This President signed an executive order [that] said, ‘We are not for DEI.’
"That's what America is. It is diversity, it is fairness, equity, it is inclusion. That is America. I tell my colleagues, you ought to watch Hidden Figures. John Glenn said, ‘I'm not going unless she says it's okay to go.’ This past year, under this administration has made [it] painfully clear. How many of you were here when Tavis Smiley was our speaker in February of ’08, Tavis Smiley got up and he said, ‘If Barack Obama is elected a few months later in November, it will be the best of America.’ And then he presciently followed that statement with, ‘But I fear that if he's elected, we will see the worst in America.’
“A year ago, Donald Trump issued an executive order that called for the removal of exhibits, memorials, and monuments. Chris has spoken to that. Sandy Washington, who runs LifeStyles in Charles County, was my guest at the State of the Union on Tuesday. And after the speech was over, I went to get her and she was walking in the hallway on the third floor, and I took her hand and we walked over to my office. She was crying the whole way. She said, ‘It was so painful to hear my President speak, and he was so oblivious of the pain that exists in America today.’ They removed an exhibit – and Chris spoke of some – at the Netherlands American Military Cemetery about a fallen Black soldier buried there, Technician Fourth Class George H. Prewitt. Does that not disparage a great American, that he removed the statue of a Black soldier? How painful it had to be to be a black soldier, a hero, Tuskegee Airman, or anybody else, a Black soldier to come back and be confronted with segregation, to be confronted with disparagement, to be confronted with bigotry and prejudice? What would Elijah Cummings say to that? America is better than that. We're better than that. And we must be committed to be better than that.
“I'm not going to go through a whole lot of things I have here, because I've already spoken too long, and I want to hear from our speaker before 3 or 4 or 5 o’clock this afternoon (laughter).
"These are the times that are trying America's soul, and America's soul is being badly portrayed to the rest of the world. It is our responsibility to stop that. We shall overcome. I love that song. And in fact, we should have sung it here. Maybe we will at the end, because I think we need that same conviction now. I think we need that same remembrance now that there is something for us to overcome. Lest we forget. Now, we must remember: we must confront our past, we must carry our history. Our guest speaker today has devoted his life to that task. All the figures that are portrayed are speakers who made history. Nobody in America or around the world – you may say, ‘Well, Baldwin was pretty good, a number of others were pretty good as well.’ Nobody is portrayed that better and more cogently and more knowledgeably than our speaker. So, it's so important for me that we – that I, in my tenure here, [inaudible] having a speaker who himself is making history, but who knows the history as well as any of us in this room. Born in a working-class family in Mississippi, Dr. Glaude went on to receive a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College. What a famous historically Black college that is. How many extraordinary leaders had been at Morehouse. A master's degree from Temple University and a PhD from Princeton. The reason he went to Princeton, he couldn't get into the University of Maryland. (laughter) And I tell all my non-Maryland graduates, you know, you had to go somewhere. My wife went to a school named Bryn Mawr, which would have been part of Princeton, probably, or another school. And then she taught at Harvard, and I told her, ‘You couldn't get a job at Maryland?’ But that's where it goes.
"He also served, our speaker, as the inaugural chair of Princeton's African-American studies department for over 14 years. He's written numerous books. I'm sure some of you have read one or more of his books; insightful, knowledgeable, instructive. Over the years, he has published numerous books on the complex nature of race and religion in American society. We've talked a lot about this with these books, including a national bestseller, ‘Begin Again,’ about the legacy of James Baldwin. Dr. Glaude’s work focuses on the present, which is instructive remembering. But if we remember and don't execute on that which we know to prevent history, bad history, from repeating itself. He remains a prolific political commentator and outspoken advocate for social justice. I'm sure most of you have seen him on MSNBC or a number of other programs. If you've ever watched MSNBC or read Time Magazine, chances are you've come across one of his writings or one of his statements on TV. He knows what it means to carry history. Dr., thank you for being with us. We look forward to your remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Glaude.”
Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
“I want to thank Sister Jackie and the Black History Month Committee. Congressman Ivey, Princeton Tiger, I appreciate you. Senator Van Hollen, thank you for your courage. Senator Alsobrooks, thank you for your witness. [Inaudible] name of a book in a room like this. But I must admit, I'm a country boy from Moss Point, Mississippi. Mother had her first baby in the ninth grade. Daddy delivered mail in Mississippi heat. And for me to hear Congressman Hoyer, introduce Juanita's baby like that. I can't wait to call my mom. I can’t wait to call her. (applause) I am so honored that you asked me to be the speaker today. And I was sitting there praying, asking God to guide me, to offer words that could measure up to your 45 years of service. I know I will fare. Such an honor. I want to thank everybody who set up the tables, who put the chairs under those tables, who brought your food to you, who will take the food away from you, who will break down the tables and chairs. We want to thank you for your invisible labor, that made this day possible.
“What have we witnessed over the last 45 years? Milestone events, like the election of the nation's first African American president, the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, a woman of color, a Black woman as Vice President, so many accomplishments across the political spectrum, in the private sector, every domain of American life. What have we witnessed? I don't want to take too much of your time, that's an old Baptist minister trait, so brace yourself. (laughter) What have we witnessed over these last 45 years, from the early days of Reaganism, to the dark times and the age of Trump? We have seen the country lurch back and forth as it struggles with its commitment to the ideal of racial equality. We have been haunted by ghosts, and we gather on this occasion this morning on the eve of the afternoon for the last time, in the 100 year of Black History Month, and in the 250th year of the nation against the backdrop of renewed hatreds and grievances, amid the reassertion that ours is and must remain a white republic. The ghost haunts still. I've always thought of Black History Month in two registers, Mr. Hoyer. Our story stands as a kind of counter programming. Where a different idea of freedom emerges from those who have had to bear the brunt of the country's contradictions, our story challenges the myths and fantasies that often undergird an easy American exceptionalism. It's not so easy to talk about American innocence when you take seriously the auction block or the lynching tree. We tell the story of freedom denied and delayed. In this sense, Black History Month offers resources for a different conception of who we take ourselves to be, one rooted in the tragic nature of our journey to now. As I think about Black History Month in this register, I'm reminded of something James Baldwin said, that ‘We must crack open the American image to see what it hides and obscures.’ Our story, in this sense, through an acceptance and confrontation with reality, aims to help us finally discover who we are as Americans. We get to do that. The question of national identity, alive, allied with the moral choice, looms large, bound up with the kind of story we tell about the nation. Oh, I'm going to tax your patience.
"The other register highlights the achievements of Black folk. It is, in some ways, a response to the perverse logic of those who believe themselves to be superior. It is not enough to dominate a people, not enough to condemn them to a life of toil or to the bottom of the well. Instead, one wipes the archive clean, denies any history of significance, erases any achievement of significance. As the German philosopher Hegel put it, ‘Africa is no historical part of the world.’ So, Black History Month dispels that lie by pointing to the historic achievements of the darker souls of this nation. Black History Month opens up our understanding of what we've done in spite of the world. We're more than objects of scorn and hate. We are more than wreckage and ruin left after the plunder. Again, I turn to Baldwin. ‘I have been, as the song says, ‘buked and scorned,’ he wrote. And I know that I always will be, but by God, in that darkness, which was the lot of my ancestors in my own state, what a mighty fire burned in that darkness of rage and degradation, that fine flying froth and mist of blood, through all that terror and all that helplessness, a living soul moved and refused to die.’ It is here that excellence takes root, in that resilience and grit, in that thick love, as Toni Morrison said. In that thick love, willing to sacrifice everything so that our babies might flourish, we tell our story of achievement, of Black excellence as an affirmation of the power of our interior lives, and a refutation of the lies that often justify our misery. With both senses, Black History Month offers what one scholar calls a fugitive pedagogy. An alternative scene of instruction where discarded knowledge help us to see the world more clearly and to imagine the world more justly.
“45 years, and here we are. We gather amid raging storms. After 250 years, after all that has been done and said, after all that you've seen, we must face the consequences of a country that insists that it remain white. By now, and given our history, one would hope that we would have honestly confronted the split at the heart of the nation, that the country often imagined itself at once as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic. And that doubleness, that split, has deposited a madness at the heart of the nation. The soil of this place has been soaked with blood because of that doubleness. Many Americans throughout our history have lost their sense of morality, and some folk today, a lot of white folk, have lost their damn minds because of it. (laughter) Because they are to believe the country must be white, or had to bear the brunt of that belief's implications, we should know that. But here we are. With every anniversary of the nation's founding, the divided soul of America, this idea of a beacon of freedom and a white republic is experiencing the convulsions around race that threaten to tear the country apart. As Americans celebrate 250 years of existence, we are faced with the resurgence of white nationalism. Panic has grabbed hold of millions of Americans as they fret about the so-called Great Replacement among other things, and that panic has led many to believe that the primary purpose of Donald Trump's Administration is to take back the country for them. Trumpism, among the many things that it is that aspires to be a restorative project. It aims to reclaim an American past where white people are at the center, the standard bearers, the measure for what is truly American. And in this vision, in this vision, the diversity of the nation is an ancillary feature of the American story. Ellis Island, a minor plot. These Americans want to turn back the clock to ensure a future for the country that looks like what they desire. Sentimentality and rage rest at the heart of this lurching back and forth between attempts to address racial injustice and the denials that racial injustice exists at all. Conscience pricked by the realization of cruelty in our midst often stirred moments of reform and attempts to repent for the country's sins.
"Americans engage in the mortification of the flesh. Speaker of the House, Madame Speaker, you have seen images of dogs, sicced on children, marching in Birmingham over, clutching over pearls. A video of George Floyd crying out for his mama as he lay dying with the police officers, knee on his neck. ‘Oh, that's not who we are.’ Children crying in an immigration detention center, separated from their parents, or crying as moms are arrested by ICE officers outside of this school, are examples of behavior and practices according to some, that fail to align with the storybook version of America. But, in the face of public outrage and protesting, the country tries to repent and reassert its goodness, inherent goodness. ‘This is not who we are,’ we often hear politicians say. ‘This is not who we are,’ I hear my pundit friends say. White America sees its complicity and the cruelty and seeks absolution in its admission rather than a remedy for the cruelty. When that absolution is not given, when it's not forthcoming, and Black people continue to protest, and Brown people continue to demand justice, then resentment boils over. Cries of, ‘Enough’ are heard. ‘What else do you want?’ They ask us. Shots for the rule of law ring out, and then all hell breaks loose. Y'all didn't know I talked like this. (laughter) We see examples of this cycle of sentimentality and rage across American history. Think about the aims of Reconstruction, the ugliness of redemption, the moral power of the Black freedom movement of the mid 20th century, and the backlash that culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan, or the response to George Floyd's murder, and today's assault on all things covered by DEI. ‘An admission of guilt has been made,’ they say. ‘An acknowledgment of racism has been given. What else do you want?’ And then a segment of the country believes that should be enough. But pushed too hard, and like a spring coiled too tight, the country snaps back.
"Sentimentality, those red eyes, varies the harsh reality underneath what Wallace Stevens called a ‘failure of feeling.’ In matters regarding race, sentimentality malforms the moral senses. It misrepresents black people, and the reasons for their suffering in order to indulge white America's feelings. And when the demands for self critical examination do not result in absolution, sentimentality kernels into rage. What am I talking about? James Baldwin said, ‘sentimentality is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel, it is the mask of cruelty.’ You see, it is, in this way, the country has turned so vicious after the offpouring of sentiment for George Floyd. What does it mean? What am I trying to say? Let me skip to the point. When some folk believe that they are the owners, that they possess freedom to give and to take away. When freedom is their possession, they then view the idea of racial justice as a philanthropic enterprise, as a charitable gesture, something that they do for you, something that they give to you. And then when you are not grateful enough, when you feel like you have lost your place in the grand scheme of things, and then raise your [inaudible], then they have to put you back in your place. You get my point? Oh, y'all didn't think I was going to say all this. (laughter)
"But I was trying to figure out how to honor your service. We have to tell the truth. About how we arrived here. That racial inequality has been a fundamental part of the country, that since its beginning, the country has imagined itself at once as a beacon of freedom and blood and soil has defined who we are. JD Vance will deny that the creed, American creed actually matters, that the American idea is not sufficient, that there must be something more robust organizing who we are, that gives us a sense of cohesiveness. But he's not new, he’s not new. The nation has carried its sins forward. But since the beginning, since the beginning, the presence of Black folk, our story has unmasked the lies that hide the doubleness. I’m reminded of that moment in Dostoevsky’s ‘Brothers Karamazov.’ He said, ‘This deceit will constitute our suffering. For we shall have to lie.’ The country has lied about the double consciousness that has defined its history, and those lies have been the source of our suffering. It's the madness, and here we are in the 250th year of the nation, and we're drowning in lies.
"I could tell a story about 1876. We celebrated the centennial of the nation. I could tell a story about how they invited Frederick Douglas to stand on the dais, to sit on the dais, but wouldn't let him speak. I could tell the story about how the country, after the carnage of the Civil War, finally had a chance of national ritual to tell a story about the nation, and had to make and render Black people invisible. Or, I could tell a story about 1926, the 150th year anniversary of the nation. And there, in Philadelphia, there was an exposition, that we're going to celebrate the history of the country. We tend to think of the 1920s as the age of jazz, the Jazz Age. We tend to think of it as the moment of the 20s, the Roaring 20s, the Charleston. At that exposition, the Klan was going to hold its annual convocation. We were going to celebrate the flag and the burning cross at the same time. But then Black folks and Jews and Catholics got wind of the approval of the Klan to celebrate itself at the 150th anniversary. And they protested, and they said, ‘We need to speak.’ They asked A. Philip Randolph to speak. And what did A. Philip Randolph do in 1926? He told the story that Black folks sit at the center of what we mean about democracy. And at that moment, because in 1926, just a month before the celebration of the 150th anniversary, Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week. And in that moment, A. Philip Randolph told our story, told the story of our achievements, told the story of our excellence, brought forth the power and majesty of these folk who were brought over in the bowels of slave ships. Oh, y'all don't hear me. What am I supposed to say?
"In 1976, in the bicentennial, the 200th year. Well, folks thought that maybe we might need not marginalize the Black story. Maybe we can incorporate the Black story into the American story. Maybe if we absorb that journey into an affirmation of American goodness, maybe we can resolve the problem at the heart of the nation. So in 1975, President Ford did something that no President before had ever done. He recognized Negro History Week. And then the organization that founded Negro History Week came to him and said, we're starting Black History Month and we want you to acknowledge it. We want you to issue a formal kind of recognition, and the only thing he did was sign another acknowledgement. But in 1976, the objective was to, what, absorb our story, but that came at a cost. There was a price to that ticket, to absorb our story meant that our story had to be enough affirmation of American goodness, not a confrontation with this contradiction. Y'all didn't hear me. Oh, it was like when Barack Obama told the story of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, and in the midst of narrating that story, what did he say? Oh, there was a moment when we lost our way. When assassinations led to recrimination, when we were more concerned about getting equality of results, getting a handout, being too lazy to fight for ourselves, when we didn't want to raise our children, take on personal responsibility in a moment in which he was saying, not to us, but to the nation, that not only am I safe, Black history is safe. But our story offers more than that.
"Here we are in the 250th year. 50 years after the 1976 bicentennial, and we bear witness to an ugliness reborn. Trump and his supporters instinctively disentangle the American story from any history that questions its innocence. They long for an immigration policy that embraces an idea of the country imagined by the KKK in the 1920s. They want to go back to an immigration regime that's tied to the Immigration Act of 1924, a piece of legislation basically written by the Klan. They reasserted consensus that takes as its moral center of gravity, that ours is a white republic. And they try to hide their hands with talk of merit and colorblind equality. Draping it all in American exceptionalism and the glory of the flag. You know, in March of 2025, what Senator Van Hollen talked about and Congressman Hoyer mentioned, the President issued that Executive Order entitled, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. And it made explicit the approach that would shape the telling of America's founding, and that order recounts what it takes to be the egregious efforts to undermine the cohesiveness of the country. ‘Without a coherent national story,’ Trump argued, ‘one that affirms the ideals and basic values of the country, America risks losing sight of its divine mission as the Redeemer nation.’ Any mention of the actual history of racism in the country, of the horrors of slavery, of the reasons for the Civil War, or historic examples or present examples of the country’s failing to live up to its promise, amounts to, as he says, ‘an assault on America as a symbol of inspiration and greatness.’ In effect, to remember rightly, according to them, is to disremember. I'm coming home. I only got one more page. (laughter)
"The president set out, in that moment, to restore truth in American history, which involved ordering an assessment of all public monuments, all memorials, statues, markers, within the Department of Interior’s jurisdiction, to ensure, quote, ‘They can do not contain descriptions, depictions, or any other content that inappropriately disparages America's past or living.’ Vice President JD Vance reinforced this view in a speech on July 5th, and you can hear the venom in his tone as he recounts the words of then Mayoral Candidate, Zohran Mamdani. He said, Mamdani said, ‘America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I'm proud of our country, even as we continuously strive to make it better.’ That's what he said. Vance wondered, ‘Where is his gratitude?’ That's what he asked. Where is Mamdani’s gratitude? He said, How dare he, on the 249th anniversary, to conclude the day, he dares to congratulate it by paying homage to its incompleteness and to its contradictions. For Vance, the idea of America as an ongoing experiment, the language of America working towards a more perfect union, all of this is an affront because the people who turn wilderness into the greatest country on earth made Mamdani's life here possible. He said, quote, ‘He might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to insult on its most sacred day. Who the hell does he think he is?’ That's the Vice President of the United States said that. In effect, he wants gratitude.
"How could someone like me, for example, born on the coast of Mississippi, who attended Morehouse College at the age of 16. (applause) Who received his PhD from Princeton, who lives a comfortable life, you can tell, can't you? (laughter, applause) How can I refuse to show gratitude to the country, to the ‘settlers,’ who carved a civilization out of the wilderness that made my life possible? Oh, I can remind him of the wounded soul separated from the lands who fell the trees and cleared the swamps here. I can remind them of those who saw their children sold off to the highest bidders, that there were more who died not knowing freedom than there were who experienced emancipation. I can tell them about those whose backs bore the sting of the lash of the whip, who took their last breaths without knowing freedom, of those who built schools for their children because the country refused to educate them. I could tell him about those who toiled in the homes of white folk, beat back the advances of sexual predators or submitted to them in order to put food on the table. Oh, I can tell them the story of those who dangled from popular trees, because they dared to claim freedom as their own, or the moments when somebody, somewhere in some city, wailed way up that loud because they had to bury their child, who was killed by the police. I can go on and on. But Vance and Trump would say such talk inappropriately disparages Americans past and living. Oh, y'all don't me. Gratitude is demanded still. Why? Because we have a country, a folk who believe that they possess freedom to give and to take away. I’m coming home.
"Ours is a moment of reckoning in the 250th year of this country. Congressman Hoyer, you have dedicated 45 years, man. I can only imagine what you're thinking. We have been reminded that too many believe that freedom is their possession. We watch the country elect this man twice. Sentimentality masked the deceit. White rage swelled. You can only conclude, given how quick it happened, that folk were lying. They didn't believe a word they were saying, or they were cowardly. That moment in Toni Morrison’s Sula, when she saw her mother kowtow, and she said, her insides were pudding. 150 years later, we have witnessed the great capitulation, and we find ourselves and our children caught in what Gwendolyn Brooks called the ‘whip of the whirlwind.’ This Administration is engaged in a systematic dismantling of the country our parents fought for, the country you fought for. From college admissions to contracts and voting rights law to American history itself, this Administration has worked timelessly to undermine any pretense to remedy historic racial harms, or any effort to tell a full story about our past and to build a racially just society. For them, we must submit to their story. Wherever we are and whatever we have achieved, they maintain it was because of not because of merit, but because of them. Merit becomes the cudgel used to bludgeon you and me out of sight. With their mediocrity in full view, have you ever seen more mediocre people? Some of them, dumb as doorknobs. With their mediocrity in full view, they retreat into the safety of illusions and myths where the past guarantees their lives. And what I know, and what I feel in the marrow of my bones is that our story, when you tell it, when we gather. Thank you for 45 years of creating the condition under which we gather, to tell our story, our story offers us resources to freedom dream. And as we confront the latest version of the freedom snatchers, we must be freedom seekers. We must take hold of the reins of our destiny from those who believe they possess freedom for themselves; we must reject charity and demand justice. We must tell our story.
"In the 250th year, in this last breakfast when Congressman Hoyer is a Member of the Congress, he would have to admit, just as you, that we're in deep trouble. And I cannot say with certainty that the country is going to survive this. I'm definitely not sure who we're going to be on the other side of this matter. It is clear, and it has been so since the founding, that we cannot be a white republic and a beacon of freedom. A choice must finally be made. MAGA has made its choice, now we must make ours. And if the country is to survive these troubled times, it depends on what we do right now in defense of democracy. Your country, your history? No, it's ours. Our sweat and tears that shaped this land. You feel us in the music. Our sound rolls off your tongue. Our presence stills your classic literature. Our wails and moans, our joys and laughter, make this place swing. Your country? No, and no matter your efforts to make us invisible, or to deny the history of the country, that unravels your myths and legends, we know America would not be America without the diversity that makes it so. And this 45th year of this breakfast, how shall we stand at trial now? What I do know is this: in the 250th year of the country, I experienced the pounding in the skull, the irritable bowel. Because in the 250th year, these people had done this **** again. (laughter, applause) And if we got to carry another legacy forward, we're about to fight for this place."