And i will try to contain my enthusiasm until i get to the end of the introductions. The four most powerful africanamerican women in politics share the story of their friendship and how it has changed politics in america, the lives of black women in american politics are remarkably absent from the shelfs of bookstores and libraries. For colored girls who have considered politics is a sweeping view of American History from the vantage points of 4 women who have lived and worked behind the scenes in politics for over 30 years, Donna Brazile. [applause] yes. Yolanda. [applause] absent is bishop leah dultry and menyan moore. [applause] group of women who call themselves the colored girls. Like many people who have spent their careers in Public Service they view their lives in fouryear waves where president ial campaigns and elections have been common threads. For most of their work on the president ial campaign of walter mandel, michael decacus, bill clinton, al gore, barack obama and Hillary Rodham clinton. Over the years they filled many roles in the corporate role, on campaigns and unions, in churches, in their own businesses and in the white house, through all of this, theyve worked with those who have shaped our countrys history, u. S. President s such as bill clinton and barack obama, wellknown political figures such as terri and howard dean and legendary activist and historical figures such as jessie jackson. Coretta scott king and betty shabas, for colored girls who have considered politics, its filled with personal stories that bring to life heroic figures we all know and introduce us to some of those who work behind the scene but are still hidden. Whatever their purge, the colored girls are always focused on the larger goal of hurrying history so that every american regardless of race, gender or religious background can have a seat at the table, this is their story. I would first like to introduce Donna Brazile. [applause] Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic Political strategist is an adjunct professor at georgetown university, author, Television Political commentator and former interim chair of the Democratic Party. She is the author of cooking with grease and the New York Times best seller hacks. Veteran Democratic Political strategists Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor author syndicated columnist and television commentator, vice chair of Voter Registration and participation at the Democratic National committee and International Chair of the Democratic National committee as well as the former chair of the dncs Voting Rights institute, Donna Brazile. [applause] yolanda, yolanda is founder of group, nationally recognized Public Relations and Public Affairs agency, she has played a major role in shaping the goals and objectives of the National Democratic party with a career in Public Affairs, Strategic Communications and political management spanning 25 years, president and ceo yolanda has a proven track record of excellence that has made the agency a success. That success has resulted in the group working with major clients like microsoft, mg, mirage, bristol myiers, mci, texaco as one of the nations top political strategist yolandas extensive work for the Democratic National committee and with Major Political campaigns has reduced relationships with elite influences and unique influencers and decision makers, through these associations she has consult government and nonprivate agencies such as the Congressional Black Caucus foundation, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus institute, u. S. Department of commerce, center for american progress,50 anniversary summit and the Martin Luther king, jr. National Memorial Foundation project. I introduce you to and i lost my page. [laughter] [applause] theyre experts in prompting, right . [laughter] minya information moore, considered one of the nations top strategic thinkers with extensive experience in political and Corporate Affairs as well as Public Policy, she leads local affairs and multicultural strategies, practices with clients ranging g from the fortune 100 to to the startup nonprofits seeking consul for developing strategies that are emerging consumer markets and achieve Public Policy goals, she specializes in building coalitions and Brand Awareness strategies for corporations while at the same time effectively addressing their state and local Public Policy issues. Under president bill Clintons Administration minyon served as assistant to the president and director of white house political affairs, in this capacity she served as the principal political adviser to the president , Vice President , first lady and senior white house staff with primary responsibility for planning out reach and directing the Political Activities of the white house. She also developed and coordinated legislative strategy, Administration Policy and Communications Planning with senior white house staff. As ceo of the Democratic National committee, dnc, responsible for daytoday operations and oversight of the political, the Democratic Party, minon serves as member of the board of directors for writers gill foundation, ncnw and is a board member and coconvener of power rising summit, named one of the 100 most powerful women in washington by magazine. Kennedy school of government and in 2018 she was awarded the American Association of Political Consultants aapc, Lifetime Achievement award and has been inducted in the aapc hall of fame. And thats it. [laughter] that was beautiful. [applause] and so let me catch my breathe and the reason that i need to catch my breath that reading these bios was so empowering to me and so i absolutely thank you for that opportunity and guess what . We all get a copy of for colored girls. [applause] this is a generous contribution and we all get an opportunity to share in this. And so lets applaud. [applause] and as you receive the book, be prepared to have an incisive, direct and powerful conversation and i turn it over now. [applause] thank you, barbara, what a great morning it is, afternoon to be here in the wonderful badger state, first of all, thank you for hosting the 2020 Democratic Convention this summer. [cheers and applause] i also want to thank Cheryl Weston for generosity and providing copies of all books to each and every one of you and we look forward to signing it. [applause] barbara gave you all bios but in the book chapter 1 we talk about a call to serve and so i thought we would start by discussing the call that we all received to serve, to serve our country, to serve our party and ultimately to help strengthen our democracy, so i will start with my colleague on the right, your right, i dont know, left, right, i dont care, but my good friend, my sister, yolanda caraway. Thank you, Donna Brazile. Well, i think my call to serve came when i was 14 years old and i was in high school and this was the year, i wont try to give the year but you will figure it out. The year after president kennedy was assassinated. I was in rochester, new york and a friend of mine came after school one day, why dont you come volunteer for Bobby Kennedy, hes run if for senate in new york state, so i was always looking for something to do after school, oh, this is good, i could stay, go after school 3 to 4 hours. So i took her up on it and i went down and i took the bus every day after school from the east side town of all the way to west side of town, i worked in the office, i made phone calls, i did lick envelopes, if you remember machines where you put the funny paper and you got your fliers and stuff, we did all of that and actually by the time he won the campaign, i was going out door to door talking to people, actually about about him and i was i guess i look back at my young age, all the kids are so much smarter, way beyond us, at the early age i understood the issues and i was able to explain them to people can understand it. Now, what i wanted to do in life was be a doctor, that summer i was a candy striper, i volunteered, put on candy striper dresses, i went to the hospital, actually the hospital i was born in every day after Summer School, had to go to Summer School because of algebra you learn something new every time you we do this. Its in the book. Martha stewart. Failed twice algebra. Im not doing that. So i wanted to be ms. Doctor until some day somebody came in the emergency room. Thats it,i cant take it. That was my first experience, i did the Bobby Kennedy thing and once he won, i always we wanted to help people, i understood of a different way of helping people, much different way of helping people but it was a rewarding way and thats when i got my call to service. You want to i dont know if i found politics or politics found me. I see many of my contemporaries here, if this is a room full of young people i would have to explain to them. Its not google. [laughter] it is an actual book and it was one of the best books we had coming up during my era and i was working there and i started volunteering similar to yolanda at operation push, it was called operation push then and now known as rainbow push and at the time they we were trying to elect our first africanamerican mayor which was here in washington. And meetings with the chair of operation push and i would hold her person and i would be sitting in the corner and listening to all of the powerful people talk and try to convince them to run for mayor and it was startling to me that he wasnt like jumping at the bid, he had everybody wanting him to do this and i remember what he said, he said to the leaders, if you can do 3 things then i might choose i might think about running, first he said our patch wasnt big enough, a room of africanamerican leaders so we had to build a coalition, he told them they would have to help him raise money and he also said we would have to register voters, im sitting in this corner thinking to myself, well, what can i do, what can i do, i gathered up, once he decided to run i gathered up a bunch of my friends and when he went down to the Campaign Office and said we we wanted to volunteer, we we wanted to get out young people and so im thinking that we would be assigned to someone to teaches how to do it so they gave us the table over in the corner and say, okay, youre doing it, youve got it, youre great and we ended up working really hard and that became my first example of really understanding what it means to serve and to really put your put your heart and soul into trying to elect someone but for me it didnt stop there because i was also told and taught that you have to hold your elected officials accountable, so i started going down to his office once he was elected because i wanted him to come to my turf, i had worked very hard a couple of months he can come to my church now,i didnt realized that i needed an appointment, i would go and show up and i met this really nice man named ed who was scheduler and he would come out cant do it, cant do it, one day i showed up and they said, yes, and that taught me the power of politics, the power of putting yourself in there and the power of connecting back to your community and thats where ive been ever since, ive been weaving in politics. [laughter] [applause] so i get to be moderator as well as answer my own questions. [laughter] sounds familiar. [laughter] so i think i will call to serve as extension of our faith, extension of how we were raised and at the time that we were raised, bishop of the church, shes a fifth generation preacher, im catholic. [laughter] you know, if leah was here she would try to preach. And there lies my deep desire to serve, i wanted to be a priest. I grew up in a catholic household. [laughter] its in the book. [laughter] a priest . Yeah. Oh, lord. The become has been on the road too long. We are adding chapters as we go. [laughter] my said, donna, youre a girl, you cant be a priest. My mom and dad were influential in my life, my grandparents as well, i listened to them, i loved them, i care deeply about what was impacting and grew up in segregated south, i dont think many of us had the opportunity to choose whether we could be this or that, we knew that we all had to give back and give back to your community. We came up at a time we saw our leaders assassinated and one leader Martin Luther king, his assassination deeply impacted my life and many of us who grew up in the south and i knew my call to service would be one in the political world, public arena and within a year after dr. Kings assassination i went door to door because, of course, i was not eligible to vote but because this was the First Time Since 1965 that, quote, unquote, people of color had the right to vote in the south, i wanted to help build a playground in my community. Now, come on, that seemed to be a big project and then i thought the kids on the other side, the train track, in fact, we were so poor that we lived on the second side of the train tracks, the first set of train tracks separated blacks from white, the second set of train tracks separated those who were socalled middle class or the working class and the poor. Every time it rained we had water front property. My desire to serve was deep calling and thats one of the reasons why i am still active, although i turn 60 in a couple of months, so thats the second anniversary of turning 30 in the millennials in the room, and, you know, having served as party chair twice, members of the committee, yolanda we wanted to retire, i dont know why. Its better when you are on the committee after 60. You know, being out there, i was two weeks ago i went door to door back in my beloved louisiana for my governor, i was still putting yard signs down. I went door knocking recently in melvin, virginia, this desire to serve comes from a love of country. Are we democrats . Yes, do we believe our partisan defines us, it does not define us and our next question and i will start with you, minon, what defines us women of color but what defines us in polarized environment as american citizens . Well, for me i think whats missing and not what defines us is the empathy, id like to see what the party brings, i think we we think about others a lot and we try to make sure that when we are at a table, when we see policy thats not reflective or inclusive we try to raise our hand and say, hey, listen, youre missing women like senator harris had to do the other night at the debate and so for us i think what defines me, i know me personally is i try to bring a set of values to the table that i hope that not only the people that i represent and serve but my own family can really standby because its not enough to do the back and forth, the democrats who is thennened who is up, who is down, theres more people down than up and so if we dont see the people that are sitting on the sidelines that are not thinking that their vote matters or are homeless or in poverty and we are the talented tent, i feel like i havent done my job. Then we are not doing our job, thats why i believe the Democratic Party does, sometimes we do it well and sometimes we dont do it well, i think right now in the current environment we are polarized and so its going to take a lot of voices to just keep speaking up and speaking out about moral clarity and about making sure that we see the least and for me it fundamentally starts am i my brothers keeper or sisters keeper and if you can answer those questions youll always be i think to the good that you can. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] yeah, i have a little bit, not a lot to add, i think what defines us as the Democratic Party we are the party of compassion, you know, when we see people down we want to lift them up. We are civil, we are the party of civility these days we are certainly the party of civility. I have never seen anything in my life like i see now. Ive been in in this for 30 years and ive never seen such incivility among people. Its horrible and its terrible, its a terrible example set for children, its a terrible example to set for our young people growing up and i think that the Democratic Party nancy pelosi is trying her best. When when you come to the microphone, questions, please. Not we the democrats or we the republicans, we the independent, the Largest Political Party in the country thats not affiliated, we the people and i do think that we need to look at common values now, the things, those traits that hold us altogether like a good gumbo, what bring it is gumbo together and what start is the ability to stir ev