Unfair for the people who come at the end of the discussions because they do not have a their testimony. I thank you to please keep comments to a limited three minutes. Started, i would like to ask all of the drafting Committee Members to introduce themselves. I tell you, i say it is an honor and pleasure to serve with these ladies and gentlemen from across , a verytry compassionate and Brilliant Group of people who are trying to synchronize the problems that our constituents are going through, the issues that are. Acing americans because we great pleasure to let them introduce themselves briefly. Thank you very much. And the policy director for senator Bernie Sanders. I am a member of the toledo tribe. I am Bonnie Schaeffer from North Carolina and florida. Im honored to be on this committee. Fromd Luis Gutierrez chicago and i want to say hi to all my friends in phoenix, arizona. Cornell west. Teacher and citizen. Tandon neera tanden. Wendy sherman. President of the arabamerican institute. Carol browner. Member of congress from minnesota. American federation of state, county, and community employees. Barbara lee, member of congress. Joe mcgivern of vermont. Policy adviser to Hillary Clinton. Cummings i think we got everybody. And pleased to reconvene with these the commerce individuals to continue the hearing testimony today. As i did yesterday, i will note that Howard Berman is not able to join us. Just as alicia reece is not able to join us today. Sitting with us are andrew and. Atrice finally, and pleased to introduce our parliamentarian helen. Helen is the dnc parliamentarian and has served in this role for many years and can help us navigate any parliamentary issues that may arise. Today, helen will be serving as our timekeeper and will help us stay on schedule. The person who is head of the convention, who we could not do without, who is truly a superstar, reverend dr. Doctrine. You want to se say a few words . And theo say to leah entire staff, we cannot thank you enough for all you have done. Thank the hotel staff. They have been absolutely wonderful. Thank you very much. As we move into protecting and expanding our democracy, we will hear recommendations and concerns for ensuring all americans are treated fairly. And that each man and woman camper to escape in our great democracy. Among what is needed are reforms to address Voting Rights. Our speech will address how democrats can tackle those concerns and how to make democracy work for everyone. Our first beaker is stephen lewis. Governor, welcome, and thank you. Hear from the indian river , good morning. Good morning to the Platform Committee and everyone assembled here. It is an honor to be here. Chairman, it is an honor to be in front of as a former bashful player, and i nor president and chief is a basketball player as well and we are in the midst of the nba finals. It is almost like having a ticket to attend the Democratic Partys version of the allstar game here. [laughter] [applause] im very happy to be here. Even though i am a phoenix suns fan, we have a lot to build. It is an honor. Good morning, everyone. My remarkse to start by emphasizing how proud i am to be a democrat. Toa tribal leader, and need focus my attention on a comp shingles for my citizens. As i watched what happened in orlando last week in and the sentiments expressed by politicians and people, i felt proud that the leaders of our Party Immediately expressed sympathy and support for the victims. We may differ in religious police, sexual orientation, ethnicity, but we respect each other as humans. Today, im here to make sure that my own community, the native american community, is included in the democratic platform. Like other communities of color, we have distinctive cultures and traditions, but we are fundamentally unique in that we governmentolitical in a relationship with the United States. The democratic platform should include as as a community of color but also as the government and the responsibility of us as governments. The Democratic Party has been steadfast in supporting our right to vote in elections. Within my own community, we consult a struggle to make sure the records are accurate, and accesscessary, we have to provisional ballots. States and local governments should be required to coordinate with the federal government prior to election to make sure this is the are properly identified on our records. The creation stories, customs, and traditions embodied the need to preserve them for future generations, are seven generations, as tribal governments, we have to balance building opportunities for hope, but also multigenerational approaches as well. Too often, native americans are left out of Renewable Energy programs which makes no sense when the department of energy finds that when energized wind energy from reservations could power 70 of the country. Tribal communities need to be included. Tribal committees, more so than any other community, are impacted by Climate Change. Some alaskan communities are having to relocate. Some native American Communities in the northeast Climate Change is changing the entire ecosystem. Climate change is causing drought in my region and across the west. As congress and the federal government are dialoguing to find out how to address the problem, tribal governments are. Ot given a seat at the table we must have a seat at this table. Have the highest rates of diabetes in the world. Our is due to the theft of water in the last century. As a result, weve lost access to our traditional foods and diets. Government response was to give is highly processed foods. Too often we have to spend time reacting to Critical Health and safety problems that are unintended consequences of federal policies. That is why we need to be part of the dialogue, as well as developing solutions. Given the Significant Impact that federal and state policies can have on communities and their legal rights, i respectfully ask that this committee consider including a section in the platform specifically addressing the rights of tribal governments, our unique relationship with the federal government. Thank you for considering my comments. [applause] governor, you said we must have a seat at the table. I guarantee, you have a seat at the table. Thank you. And seeing ms. Deborah parker, i really appreciate it. Rep. Cumming i was talking with her yesterday that, just listening to her questions, and the discussion have helped me german is the in educating me. Im sure other members on the issues that confront your publisher. It is indeed an honor to serve at this level was so many heroes here. Movers and shakers, progressive people. Its an honor to be here with such distinguished representatives and leaders. Once again, thank you for having us here. Is we have for you northwest tribes, eastern tribes, southern tribes, tribes from all different regions with link which is, customs, issues in your region, water is a big issue, energy resources. You have the sun, which in the northwest, we dont. You may want to visit us to cool down. Looking at all of these issues, and try to work on a platform for native american nations, what to see as the top issue . What do you see as the most critical issue facing Indian Country . Country, it all begins with sovereignty, with government to government relationships moving forward. Of course, we will have a changing of administrations. Hopefully it will be a Democratic Administration moving forward. We need to have that continued commitment to this concept of sovereignty articulated in the constitution. Also within u. S. Policy. We need to have true , a positive,ation not paternalistic working relationship with the government. Under health and human services, we get, as you know, most of our federal health care resources. Tribes need to have that support moving forward, a True Partnership reflective of this sovereignty. Rep. Cumming one more question. Thank you for your presentation. Im from minnesota. Nativevery proud of our communities there. In 2012, we had kind of an ugly incident where some republican challengers would go on to the reservation and gr gratuitously challenge native American Voters and say they didnt have the right credentials and they would prove that they did. They were found to be a nuisance , but not before they intimidated a lot of voters. Phenomenon at nationsions about . Ackle have a states that significant native american population, you are seeing that dynamic. Photo suppression. States that are hostile towards expanding the right to vote. Say, is groundd zero as well. We have a federal lawsuit pending in regards to native american rights moving forward. Because we have the Navajo Nation which is the largest Navajo Nation in the United States. Spends three states. We have seen some very strident Voter Suppression. Thank you very much for your on Climate Change. Theres no question that the emergence of indigenous has been may be the single most important part of the growth of that movement. Andoth sides of the border america, all sides of the border. Many thanks for that advocacy and witness. We would not have stopped anything. The keystone pipeline, or anything else. [applause] as you were talking, i could not help but think we have to keep these coalitions going. There are a lot of people that find themselves in the same say,tion with regard to, Voting Rights. It is coalitions working together that will make the difference. Thank you. You have a major seat at the table now. Thank you, mr. Chair. We wont Work Together in a very manner with thet Democratic Party moving forward. Historically, native americans have voted democrat, and we will continue to do so. We have great leadership Going Forward and native americans running for Public Office nationally as well. Rep. Cumming thank you very much. Rob moses was the student nonviolent coordinating committees hill director field director. He was instrumental in the formation of the mississippi freedom Democratic Party. Dr. Moses taught math for a time and used the school as a Laboratory School for the project methods. Sir, it is an honor. Thank you for being with us. [applause] thank you. I will to start right here. In march 1963, a field secretary for the student nonviolent coordinating committee, i testified in the court of judge clayton in greenville, mississippi. Was from the u. S. Department of justice. A few months earlier, jimmy travis, randolph blackwell, and myself were stopped on the highway. Jimmy, driving, put a bullet in his neck. Food and told to theto march with sncc courthouse. From the witness stand, i stood at the bust stop in greenwood while attending to judge claytons constitutional question. Why is sncc taking illiterates down to vote . Nation cannot have its cake and eat it too. It cannot use politics to deny black people ask us to literacy, and then turn around and say they cannot do politics because they are illiterate. Today, more than 50 years later, a contemporary sncc action might provoke a temporary constitutional question. Why is sncc taking convicted felons down to register to vote . District963 federal court, and 21st century america, three sets of constitutional combatants engage each other in a power struggle for the right to vote and the right to equality Public School education. Andral power, state power, people power. Three powers which have struggled with each other across each of three constitutional as. Or each has a distinctive badge. We can see this in the state of young black men. 17871862. In the first constitutional era, young black men are africans and constitutional property. Too valuable to lynch a lockup. 18751941, in the second constitutional era, southern young lachmantoo valuable to ly. Are secondclass citizens rounded up by the tens of thousands for peonage and shackled to work for coal mines. ,n the third constitutional era mass incarceration fueled by president nixons determination anr the war on drugs fied by the clinton and Obama Administration decimated the black electorate. Author ofatic party, all three devastations, cannot claim innocence. It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. Innocent which constitutes the crime. The said, we are calling on national Democratic Party to address some fundamental questions. Who are the constitutional people . What does it mean to be a constitutional person in the United States of america . 1820, at the center ,f the first constitutional era Thomas Jefferson wrote this about slavery. Is, we had the wolf by the ear, and we can either neither hold him or safely let him go, justice is in one scale and self app preservation in the other. In that era, democrats confiscated lands and wrote the wolf of slavery. Inspired a africans revolutionary Peoples Movement to destroy the wolf of slavery, pushing Abraham Lincoln to begin speech8 house divided with reflections on the two letter word that, in this election cycle, continues to confound this nation. If we could first know where we are, and whether we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. Not, lincoln could construct a we. The nation fractured and dissent is in to war. It took its own sweet time, but democrats fractured over the same two letter word when, one century after the freedom war, the mississippi freedom Democratic Party pushed the national Democratic Party to cleanse itself from the politics of white supremacy. From the right state. A senator from massachusetts who helps craft the reconstruction amendments and laws to enforce them stated the case. , the state ofhows mississippi at present, under control of political organizations controlled largely by armed men whose common purpose is to establish and maintain, by axa violence, fraud, and murder. The supremacy of the white lying democrats. Decade after the civil war. Launchedratic party the nation into jim crow and slavery by another name. Initiated and ,ustained a sit in movement took a across alabama and into mississippi was freedom rides, and settled across mississippi and the black belt to earn insurgency for the right to vote. They acted as constitutional nation,citizens of the in defiance of the confederate narrative and ideas that human rights depended on something as shaky as the laws of the confederate states, a notion as absurd as slavery itself. They enacted the peoples narrative of story involving guarantees of National Citizenship and National Protection of citizens rights. In this, our third , the question era remains, who are the constitutional people and what does it mean to be a constitutional person in the United States of america . For those who file for the reconstruction of amendment thought they were guaranteed a guaranteeing the right to vote for all citizens. That has been undermined by this Democratic Party. In 1963, a judge with the fifth circuit of appeals had this to federalt the movable troops from the south. These events foreshadowed the lily white primary in march and marked the Democratic Party in the south as the institutionalized incarnation of the will to light the privacy. In shelby county, chief justice confederateated a narrative of states rights over of peoples narrative of universal citizenship, providing a facade for the contemporary will to white supremacy. To reinforce the purpose of the reconstruction amendments and to ensure that all of us citizens, including incarcerated persons have full political rights, the sncc legacy project and all of us committed to insurgencies of people power champion, in opposition to chief justice roberts, a peoples narrative. That the nation project both slavery and its assault on human to give and alter it the federal government power to. Rotect the peoples rights we asked that the national Democratic Party take a revolutionary stance, confirm the right to vote, and make it explicit. Adopting in your platform the following statement. The national Democratic Party agrees to work for the following. Oting rights resolution section one, the peoples right to representation being necessary tarp republican form of government. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be infringed. Section two, the federal branches of government shall protect this right. Thank you. [applause] rep. Cumming moses, i want to thank you for being here. We will hear from cornell west in a minute. Let me just say this. We really appreciate you being here. And other forms, ive said to the panel, this is a moment, and momentgant committee, a to gather fingerprints for the future of america. Theres a methinks you could be doing, and you are here, trying to make sure we move towards a more perfect union. It is a shame that we have to keep fighting the same fights over and over again. Thank you for being a soldier in the army for the more perfect union. [applause] mr.