Hoyer Hosts 40th Annual, Black History Month Breakfast Joined By Vice President Kamala Harris

By Rep. Steny Hoyer

Steny Hoyer (D-MD ,5th District) is the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) spoke Feb. 27 at the 40th Annual Black History Month Virtual Celebration. Congressman Hoyer has brought together community leaders, elected officials, and Fifth District residents at the Black History Month Breakfast each year for the past 40 years to celebrate the many achievements of Black Marylanders and Americans. Today, he was joined by Fifth District residents, Congressman Anthony G. Brown (MD-04), and Vice President Kamala Harris, who served as the keynote speaker. Below are his remarks as prepared: You can watch the entire event here: https://fb.watch/3WmQSFzZ6N/

“Good morning. On behalf of my co-host, Rep. [Anthony] Brown, I want to thank all of you for joining us for the fortieth Annual Black History Month breakfast. I want to say a special thank you to Betty Richardson, past Chair of the planning committee, who has worked with me on this event for all forty years of its history. And I want to thank Cynthia Harvey, who has been volunteering to design the program and graphics for two decades.

“Forty years ago, when I was first elected to represent the Fifth District, I launched this event as a way of paying tribute to Black history while looking ahead to what we all believed would be a better and more joyful future. If you had told me in 1981 what our country would look like in 2021, I’m not sure my first reaction would have been one of joyful anticipation. When Americans imagine the future, we instinctively look at it through positive lenses, envisioning a tomorrow without the struggles, tragedies, and hardships of today.

“This past year has been a painful reminder that some struggles are more easily overcome than others – and that victories for justice and equality that we hoped and believed would be attained by now are still unfinished tasks. Since we met last February, our country and the world has endured a deadly pandemic that has exposed deep-seated racial disparities in health care access and outcomes. Just this week we learned that the life expectancy for African Americans in this country fell nearly three years in the first half of 2020. High-profile killings of African Americans during encounters with law enforcement, including those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others in 2020, have galvanized tens of millions of to take to the streets in peaceful protest. Many of us here today participated in those protests.

“And we lost a great American hero – and a dear personal friend who was like a brother – John Lewis, who lost his battle with cancer even as he continued to lead us forward in the moral battle against injustice, racism, and disenfranchisement. Suffice it to say, the year we experienced from the last Black History Month to this one has been a year of tragedy, grief, and challenge. There’s no denying that.

“And when I look back at where we started forty years ago, it may be difficult to see progress and victory through the fog of our present crises. But, in a few moments, I am going to introduce our keynote speaker, who was sworn in last month as the first Black woman to serve as Vice President of the United States.

“That fact alone does not change the scope of our challenges. But it offers us hope that we have made more progress in the past forty years than we can easily see and accept at this moment when progress seems so distant. Not only in the fact of her election but in what she and Joe Biden stand for and what their administration is committed to achieving.

“They ran on a promise to address the longstanding racial disparities and injustices that are still holding us back forty years after the first Black history breakfast. And they ran on a pledge to ensure that, when we build back better from this pandemic, all Americans will be able to access opportunities that not only lift and keep people out of poverty but help families get ahead and attain real economic security.

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A Vote For Shirley Chisholm poster as published by the New York Amsterdam News

“They ran a campaign inspired by the determination and moral courage of John Lewis and powered by the grassroots activism and energy of millions of Americans – young and old, of every race and every background – to overcome the darkness of the Trump presidency and show America what is possible when we harness the bright and restoring light of our unity and mutual respect. When I flew home from John’s funeral last year, I sat with then-Senator Harris on our plane.

“We reminisced about John and our pilgrimage with him to Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma, Alabama to commemorate Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, which led directly to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We talked about how to make America more reflective of the ‘beloved community,’ about which John, and so many of you, preach, prayed, demonstrated, and worked for all his life.

“Just a few years before this breakfast was launched, Rep. Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman to run for President, and too many people in this country treated her serious candidacy as either a lark or as simply a symbolic gesture. When her campaign ended, she said: ‘I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo. The next time a woman runs, or a Black, or a Jew, or anyone from a group the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start.’

“Of course, that’s what happened in 2008 when Barrack Obama was elected. In 2020, Senator Kamala Harris was not only a serious candidate for President, but in 2020, Kamala Harris received more votes for Vice President than any candidate in American history. During Black History Month, we celebrate those who blazed those first trails and took risks to show courage and defiance in the face of unacceptance and exclusion.

“We pay tribute to those who went first but who would certainly in Kamala’s words, ‘not be the last.’ Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s victory means something not only because it is another milestone in Black history and American history but because she and President Biden ran on a platform of refusing to accept the status quo that has prevented real progress for too long. And I believe that, with the help of the Democratic Congress, we will begin to see real and lasting changes in the months and years ahead.

Reprinted from Congressman Steny H. Hoyer Message (MD-05).