States was at war in vietnam, and this veterans day weekend, lets get ready for this next panel which im really excited about. First i want to introduce our next speaker and my good friend to the stage. I have known her for almost 20 years now. Whether fighting for the defense fund to fighting for immigrant rights ending mass incarceration [ applause ] hi. Good morning everyone. She is one of my closest and dearest friends. She is also someone i look up to and consider a hero. Im so very very proud of her and id love for her to join me on the stage now. Thank you. [ applause ] hi. Good morning everyone. That is a warm welcome from my dear friend nick. I am so glad to see everyone here. The panelists are joining us on the stage right now. I wanted to open up with a few remarks about the incredibly extraordinary time that we are in. I dont mean that in a great way. I think its so important that all of you are gathered here this morning. This is an extraordinary time in our country. It is a time when they are being turned on their head and when we are reminded on a daily basis the extent to which we cannot take our core values for granted. It is when they are turns back the clock on almost every area of progress to womens rights to you name it. They are increasing tensions and divisions that speaks to part of their ways that really amplifies and inflames the rhetoric. It is more important than ever it gets tarnished. We all know the only time identity politics gets invoked is some how white identity is masked as something that is neutral. The 2016 election with invocation and disparagement, the anti muslim and rhetoric they have been tweeting about the nfl players that are taking a knee and also out of love of country being tarnished as unpatriotic. Dont make any mistake about it. There are deep racial overtones. It is a time of deep polarization. It has been preying on the divisions as part of this strategy at a time when they spent the first nine months outside of the oval office pushing on agenda. In april of 2017 just months after i stepped down i testified at a judiciary hearing and the corn that hate was becoming legitimized and normalized. It was about aggressively enforcing civil rights laws to combat racial and other discrimination. Now we have a Justice Department that has a decidedly anti civil rights agenda on almost every front. It is harming real vulnerable communities around the country, an attorney general that is intent to using to our country. We all know the history of this country and the slavery but look, i want to remind us that the events in charlottesville back in august and followed up on in march were horrific for other reasons too. It was about aggressively enforcing civil rights laws to combat racial and other discrimination. Now we have a Justice Department that has a decidedly anti civil rights agenda on almost every front. It is harming real vulnerable communities around the country, an attorney general that is intent to using to our country. We all know the history of this country and the slavery but look, i want to remind us that the events in charlottesville back in august and followed up on in march were horrific for other reasons too. What i think shook us is the president s result that resulted in heather hires murder. President trump forfeited any claim to the moerl leadership that a president must command. [ applause ]. It was deeply pain. To so many of our communities. More than ever it was clear that it would fall to the rest of us, to all of you in this room to uphold americas ideals of fairness, justice and inclusion. The president proved he would not. We all need you more than ever. The role of state and elected officials i think is more important than it is right now. We know that talk is cheap. Some of those same officials that have been busy they were in essence pushing devicive policies in washington since the days back in august we have had the pardon of arpiao and leaving people vulnerable, people who have only known this country as their home and are looking at possible deportation. They are living in fear. Last night the white house released cruel immigration principals to guide negotiations for the dreamers using them as bargaining chips to have cruel immigration policies in place. There are specific things we need to do. I know the panel will be going into more detail on that. Groups like the Anti Defamation League and naacp and others. They are part of Leadership Conferences 200 plus organization coalition. They have been working to focus Public Officials on the problem of hate groups and racism in our communities. 46 states have a statute that cover race, religion. Not all of them present gender and gender identity status. Some have separate statutes, constitutional vandalism and allow for civil actions. We think states should have laws in these areas that cover all of these things. There is work to be done in schools about teaching our kids tolerance and messaging out the values that we want the next generation to have. We need to be concerned about laws that use their cars about weapons. We also have to fight white supremacist policies including voter suppression. [ applause ] know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Our members are mobilizing across communities. They are building power locally to push on fights because it is not just about one community. It is about who we are as a country and who we want to be. On voting rights, there has been a vicious attack on voting rights. At least ten federal courts have found states have engaged in Racial Discrimination that prevent black and brown folks from voting. We are alarmed about mass voter purging. We know fatebased legislation. There has been bipartisan support for same day registration, for early voting. We need state to empower statutes in the face of an attorney general who has been returning us back. We need state attorney generals to fill this breach. They need to engage the way the Civil Rights Division has been able to do use your pulpit to speak out right now. We need elected officials to reject this and stop and push back on that us versus them rhetoric and understand that we need to be embracing Economic Solutions for all who are hurting and feeling left out of this countrys economy. It is going to take all of us. We need to recognize that hate and exclusion are not just by White Supremacists who are marching in the streets alone but also in policy agendas that are having a real impact on real communities. Ill close out by saying its often in times of crisis that we find our strongest voice, our power to fight hardest and most effectively to protect the vulnerable and to make justice real. We are fighting for the soul of our country right now. It isnt just about the symbolism right now. It is about the kind of country that we want to be. Thank you for fighting for justice, and inclusion. I hope you have a great terrific day. Thank you. Thank you for letting me moderate this panel. I was going to set the stage but i think she did a good job at doing that. I will just jump right in so we can get to questions i wont hold you too long before your lunch. Today we are talking about facing off against racism in a time of trump. It is probably a question people are asking for the positions you hold. Well turn to our first panelist who was the vice major of charlottesville, virginia. He currently serves on the Charlottesville Housing Authority board and Charlottesville Police citizen advisory panel. Almost two months ago everyone turned on their news and saw the tragedy that was going on in charlottesville and the hate that was in the streets. Can you talk to us about how the city has been able to rebound from the activities that happened a couple of months ago and activities that happened this weekend. We saw some of the White Supremacists in the streets yet again. How has the city been able to rebound from that and what have you been able to do to help in the healing process . Thank you. I would like to thank all of you for having me. I would say im rather giddy to be sitting next to her from virginia. This woman right here literally always answers the call, stands up, rejects the notions from white supreme si and also when we see injustice she always stands up. If we request give her a round of applause. [ applause ] so the city of charlottesville, we are one of the most courage use. It is important for us to notate it did not start with creating the decision in our parts. We have had issues of systemic injustice and impression within our community for generations. We are fighting for the soul of our country right now. It isnt just about the symbolism right now. It is about the kind of country that we want to be. Thank you for fighting for justice, and inclusion. I hope you have a great terrific day. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you for letting me moderate this panel. I was going to set the stage but i think she did a good job at doing that. I will just jump right in so we can get to questions i wont hold you too long before your lunch. Today we are talking about facing off against racism in a time of trump. It is probably a question people are asking for the positions you hold. Well turn to our first panelist who was the vice major of charlottesville, virginia. He currently serves on the Charlottesville Housing Authority board and Charlottesville Police citizen advisory panel. Almost two months ago everyone turned on their news and saw the tragedy that was going on in charlottesville and the hate that was in the streets. Can you talk to us about how the city has been able to rebound from the activities that happened a couple of months ago and activities that happened this weekend. We saw some of the White Supremacists in the streets yet again. How has the city been able to rebound from that and what have you been able to do to help in the healing process . Thank you. I would like to thank all of you for having me. I would say im rather giddy to be sitting next to her from virginia. This woman right here literally always answers the call, stands up, rejects the notions from white supreme si and also when we see injustice she always stands up. If we request give her a round of applause. [ applause ] so the city of charlottesville, we are one of the most courage use. It is important for us to notate it did not start with creating the decision in our parts. We have had issues of systemic injustice and impression within our community for generations. Charlottesville is the same place that chose to close down all of the schools during the massive resistance opposed to integrating. We also tore down an entire African American neighborhood during urban renewal. We have been talking about equity and not equality. I think i want you all to understand equity means that everyone gets what they need in order to be successful what we need is equity and not equality. I would like to encourage all of you to stop using the word equality. Equity is what we need. When we look at the bandits and those that wanted to get those, richard and his minions. They said they felt empowered they the leader came and specifically said we came to charlottesville to full fulfill the promise of our president. I think it had the opposite effect. We have seen the community become a lot more together based off of what transpired. We passed the equity earlier this year. It is to underserve community. My colleagues accepted it and voted for it 50. After that we have been doing a great job or we have been doing a better job of listening to our community. People have been very upset. They are traumatized by what happened but not just from the events of august 12th. Because of such we are now in a position in which we can listen to the members of our community. We are a city in which im only the 7th African American ever. We have been in existence for over 260 some odd years. I am proud that we are truly dealing with that. That makes me proud of the city of charlottesville. Yes. [ applause ] so lets build on that a little bit. We have senator jennifer who was elected to the senate in january of 2017. She shares the Martin Luther king memorial commission. She is a member of the Virginia LegislatureWomens Health care caucus and the fire and ems caucus. I told you. Is as a state senator we have heard about the aftermath in what was happening before charlottesville. Can you share what important lessons you have learned and what people can start to do to built community outside of charlottesville . A lot of times people want to just go to the place and dont want to knowledge it is happening everywhere. We got the news story in that place. So its not so much what i learned. It is what was reenforced. Prior to being elected to the senate i served 11 years in the house of delegates. I i want to start with a story. In 2009 governor bob mcdonald, every governor has a black caucus over for dinner. The first time he had us over it was also the beginning of the celebration of the centennial of the civil war. Actually i think it was 2010. We walk in the door and there are gigantic portraits of robert e. Lee and jackson. Unlike other governors he had eight ledge islators from other states. He said all right. I had just two weeks prior to that killed ton floor the first gof issued photo i. D. Bill that made it to the house floor. [ applause ] and i did it by telling another story about my great grandfather who in 190 whatever 8 maybe. He knew he would be given a literacy test, got all of the questions right and this rej said i need more questions because he got them all right. He had to have three white people vouch for him. He went to a man who actually he and i did it by telling another story about my great grandfather who in 1908 maybe went to register to vote, new he was going to be given a literacy test, got all of the questions right and the registrar looks to his assistant and said, i need more questions because in nigger got them all right. He answered the next set of questions and he was told he had to have three white people vouch for him. He went to a man he actually grew up with, was born on a plantation and said will you vouch for me. After some convincing, he did. I told that on the house floor to explain why voting is so important to communities of color. The governor said, shouldnt we want to fight voter fraud . I said, lets set aside the fact theres no evidence of a rash of people voting claiming to be somebody theyre not. What do you need to get a government issue photo id . He said well you need a birth certificate. I said well, governor, there are people in virginia born as late as 1940 who dont have a birth certificate. He said i didnt know that. Why not . I said the racial integrity act was passed in virginia. It was the first time births were recorded and you had to record your race. The first director of the bureau of Vital Statistics was a white supremacist. On the application you had two choices, white or colored. If you didnt check colored and he thought you were, you didnt get a birth certificate. He said, i had no idea. I thought, of course you didnt. Youre a middleaged white man who grew up in fairfax. Why are you not being taught that in school . Thats part of the problem. Yes, White Supremacists are bad. Yes, we have a president and administration who are pushing forward a white supremacist agenda, but the bigger danger are those who arent overtly racist who think theyre woke im not just talking republicans, lets be honest. [ applause ]. But they dont understand that you dont just repeal jim crow or in some cases fight it in the court system and then wave a magic wand and the effects are gone. Part of what we have to do as state legislators, as a government is educate each other and take an honest look at the policies that we are putting in place. Yes, theres some concrete things we can do. Our governor in the aftermath of charlottesville put a task force on the reconciliation thats looking at all of our laws and policies and trying to figure out where is there systemic racism, looking at conversations about confederate monuments and is going to make recommendations. But it starts really at home and in the schools. And, yes, our superintendent sent a letter on the first day of school to all of the local School Divisions with resources that teachers, parents, Community Leaders would use to talk about what happened in charlottesville and racism and creating a community where all feel valued. The first step is talking about it. Our problem in virginia and my guess is every other state is after massive resistance we couldnt talk about race anymore. It was rude. Couldnt talk about it. Well, what you saw in charlottesville is not the first time. If you look back at the history of america from when slaves were emancipated by the 13th amendment, there has been a rise of political power among first blacks and then communities of color, maybe a 10year period and then a swift backlash as soon as possible to put them back in their place. So you had after the civil war, you had africanamericans elected to our state legislat e legislatur legislatures, constitutional conventions. And then the minute reconstruction ended, jim crow went into effect. And then you had the Civil Rights Movement and the gangs there and brown versus board of edgucatio education. And then you had klan rallies and massive resistance. And then we elected the first africanamerican president of the United States and we made all kinds of progress for all communities of color. And then we got donald trump. This is a pattern. And if we dont recognize that pattern and understand our history and recognize the signs, its going to happen again. [ applause ]. Told yall. I mean, there was a whole lot in there. Im not going to pretend to be that skilled of a moderator to dissect everything that you said. So i do want to go to our next panelist. And well come back to what you said because there were a lot of solutions also weaved in throughout your piece. But often times in the moment of a National Crisis lisa, this is the first time im going off script, so just roll with me. Often times in a N