And welcome back tonight.
We are pleased to welcome a panel of
black lawmakers and community leaders.
They'll share their reflections on
Juneteenth, the state of racial equity
in Connecticut and in the nation.
Tonight, we'd like to welcome Corey Betts,
the criminal justice chair of the
Connecticut State NAACP YWCA.
President Adrian Cochran,
State Representative Brandon McGee,
the reverend. Alvin Johnson,
a retired pastor from the Bethel,
a me church in Bloomfield,
and Congresswoman Jahana Hayes.
Thank you all for joining us tonight.
What an honor to have you all here.
The first question for you.
A Congresswoman Hayes Juneteenth
is not a federal holiday.
Despite all of what our audience
has seen tonight. Why is that?
And are there any plans to change it?
Actually, this is a very timely
program because right before we began,
the Senate just voted and approved
the measure that the House had
voted on and brought it through.
So when you ask the question,
why is this happening?
Why is it taking so long?
It's because, like everything else,
representation matters.
So we had a Congress who put this
this bill on the floor in the House,
and we overwhelmingly approved it.
An it went to the Senate
and less than an hour ago,
the Senate just approved it
so very shortly it will be
going to the president's desk.
To make Juneteenth a federal holiday,
and I'm I have a tremendous amount of
confidence that it will be signed into law,
but just quickly.
I mean in last Congress in the 116,
we voted on an Emmett Till anti lynching
bill to make lynching a federal crime.
So all of these things that
had failed over and over in the
Congress was because of who is
at the table at these times.
So it just underscores that idea
that representation matters and it
has to be important enough to the
legislators who are in office to
move these types of bills along.
Now, Representative McGee Juneteenth
is recognized in Connecticut.
When did that happen? And tell us how?
Yeah, thank you so much and again,
I first of all want to thank Representative
pays for all of our congresswoman.
Excuse me Hayes,
for all of her support on the federal
level here in Connecticut in 2003,
the Connecticut General Assembly approved
a bill that was signed into law designating
the Saturday closest to June 19th of
each year as Juneteenth Independence Day.
So, although it's not
recognized as a state holiday,
and I'm so encouraged that.
Soon things will be trickling
down from the federal level.
We still celebrate or observe the
what we're calling Black Independence
Day here in the state of Connecticut.
But as you can imagine,
we are hopeful that one of these sessions,
we will approve a bill that would support
making it a national or statewide holiday,
allowing for many of our state employees
to give back to their communities.
Now Cory, as far as the legal front
is concerned, what are some of the
battles that you are seeing that
have been fought when it comes
to combating anti black racism?
Actually I'm going on right now.
Here in Connecticut.
Amazon had eight nooses that
were found on their site,
so we're still dealing with those
racist acts here and now in the
backyards of our state.
So you know.
That's one major thing for sure.
If I must say.
Now Adrian on the social front.
What are some of the tools that an
organization like yours needs in order
to continue to make this a more equitable
playing field for black folks? Well
again and I I couldn't agree more
with Representative Hayes when she
said representation matters and I
think as we continue to make sure
that number one that we are electing
officials that are standing that are
representing us in our standing up for
those things that are right and also
that were involved as social services
organizations in doing our work to help.
Educate people because so
much is about the education.
Things that aren't taught in school,
things that aren't apart of sort
of that anecdotal history in
households people don't know,
and so the idea that we advocate.
We're sure that these types
of things are happening.
I'd like to share quickly a really
interesting article accidentally
came across and it talked about
a different twist on Juneteenth,
and this is a perfect example of
how even celebrations like this.
The attempts to sort of white wash
them and turn it into something else,
so there's a plantation happens
to be in North Carolina called
the Latta Plantation,
and I want to share with you that
what their plans are for Juneteenth
is that they're going to show.
How white refugees were displaced
as a result of Juneteenth
and the advertisement says,
come out to the historic Latta plantation
for a one night event Saturday,
June 19th, actually, 2021.
You will hear stories from the mass of
himself who is now living in the woods,
and they went on to emphasize that
this program is going to focus on how
whites were displaced as a result of this.
So this type of thing happening,
it's going to continue to happen.
It has been happening what we have to do
is make sure that we combat this with truth.
We combat this with facts.
We come back this by refusing
to stand down or step away,
or to be afraid to speak up to say no.
There's a problem with this.
This is, you know this is wrong.
So that's how I see the role of the YWCA,
Hartford region,
as well as our other sister
and brother organizations.
Taking a very front seat and roll.
Now, Reverend John,
you've been a pillar of this
community for quite some time.
What personal reflections
do you have about really?
Just not just your experience,
but how Connecticut has been
handling these issues? One
of the things it's absolutely critical
for us to understand is that education
leads to liberation and one person said
know the truth and the truth shall set
you free and it's be 'cause the slaves
in Texas didn't know they were free.
They behaved as though they were still
enslaved until we as a people and until the
progress of this state until we understand.
That we are free, liberated.
Then we will begin to behave that
way and it's all of these new
pieces of legislation talking
about we can't teach anything that
will make somebody uncomfortable.
Well, the bottom line is,
if you have an inferior education,
you should be uncomfortable.
We need to teach people the truth,
the whole truth.
And since the Adrian,
nothing but the truth.
Now Cory, I want to come back to you
because along those lines there are a
lot of folks that are not black that
may be watching this special or they
come across in your work and they go.
Well, this doesn't really apply to me.
I don't really understand how
I see myself here.
What would your response be to those people?
You know I have these conversations
and you know, unfortunately,
we deal with people who are somewhat,
you know, have those microaggressions
wears though you know I was
talking to a friend last night
and you have individuals who say,
well, I have a black friend.
I'm not racist and my thought is when
you make those type statements, yeah,
let me know that you are racist and
you have to acknowledge that and be
willing to having those courageous
conversations and saying well when
you say these type things right.
These are the things that.
May offend a black person,
so having and being willing to
go into those spaces of having
those courageous conversations,
and I think sometimes we don't
want to do that right.
And for those who are looking
like Pastor Johnson, said,
you know, they're uncomfortable.
And having these conversations
where as though we have to have
these conversations so that things
can turn and they don't have to
continue to be the way that it is.
Now congresswoman, to get to your post,
you had to have gone through
immense challenges, both as a
black person and as a black woman.
What would you say to those who
are looking at you and saying,
I want to be US congresswoman one day?
Well, just really,
quickly before I even talk about
that because I am a congresswoman,
but at my heart in my in my core,
I'm a teacher. That's who I am.
So I commend the state of Connecticut,
for we talk about education.
But for moving the teaching of
African American and Hispanic American
history as part of the curriculum,
a required part of the curriculum I
taught African American history in
the Waterbury Public School system,
but I had to literally almost petition
the board to have this happen to go
to the supervisor to get permission.
Write the curriculum and teach this class
an when you're talking about education.
So many of my students didn't
even know weren't even aware of
Juneteenth or the significance of it.
And when we're talking about
uncomfortable conversations,
think about how uncomfortable it is
as the only African American woman
person in the history department,
and I'm having a conversation in a
majority minority setting about slavery.
You know, teaching kids about that,
so we have to diversify the educators
that we are putting in front of our kids.
We have to make our curriculum
more inclusive, but it doesn't.
The level of comfort doesn't
change people's history,
so all of those things just are
so important that we give our kids
all of the information and teach
them how to critically analyze it
but not whitewash it or omit it,
or change anything.
As far as my role in Congress,
I didn't even realize that I was going
to be the first African American woman
or the first African American Democrat
ever to represent the state of Connecticut.
I had never thought about it.
I think I just accepted that I
had always just been represented.
Bye bye.
Just a very monolithic group of people.
Not to say that there was anything
good or bad about.
I just hadn't thought about it.
So when I first saw that headline,
I remember the sting of it because I thought,
oh,
this might be a problem.
But as as I got more involved and
really got got into the journey to Congress,
I realized that there were so
many areas where I was going to
have to break that barrier.
There were so many things and so many
perspectives where my the lens through
which I view the world was very different.
And there was no blueprint for that.
But the thing I will say to your point of
people who look at me and say I can do that.
You're absolutely right.
You can do this because the traditionally
accepted norms or that checklist of
what you're supposed to do to get here,
I can tell you that it is not
an all inclusive checklist,
and it is not the standard bearer.
You know,
this is the people's house,
and every person should have be
able to find someone that they
identify with in this House.
And there is no one singular way of being.
In doing so for me, I learned that
it was almost like baptism by fire,
but as I'm here and holding the door open,
I want everybody to recognize the
value and what they bring to this
conversation and the significance
of their uniqueness and what
makes them different and what is
different than everybody else.
That's already here and just go for it,
because there is no
singular way of doing this.
Congresswoman Hayes, Reverend Johnson,
Mr Betts, Miss Johnson. Thank you
all so much for joining us tonight.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you for having us.