Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks at Black History Month Reception

February 22, 2023

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/live/gMxGJ1RTSZI?feature=share

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: When I look around this room and I see all of my beautiful Black brothers and sisters, it really gives me pride. Tonight, we are celebrating firsts, as you know, and this is our first African American Black History Month celebration in Gracie Mansion. Many people will ask, "Well, why didn't you do it last year?" We had such a huge number of people who wanted to participate last year, and we made a decision to do it in an iconic venue as opposed to our illustrious house, which our mayor calls people's house number two because you know that City Hall is people's house number one. We are so grateful to you.

(Crosstalk.)

Lewis-Martin: You are welcome, my dear sister. We are so grateful to you because of the support from our community as well as other communities, but you are our base. The second Black man to be the mayor of New York City, the 110th mayor of New York City in Eric Adams was elected. Yes, give yourselves a round of applause. And as I said, we are celebrating firsts, so we're here to pay tribute to a man whose shoulders we rested upon. I didn't know him. I had the pleasure of meeting him tonight by another gentleman whose shoulders we rest upon. Congress Member Meeks introduced me tonight to our honoree, Honorable Congress Member Clyburn. And it's a pleasure.

So as people of African descent, we understand that we should not be celebrating firsts in 2023, but we also understand that the way society is structured, sometimes the right thing isn't always done. But we are resilient, we believe in the creator, and we know that through Him all things are possible. And our second mayor can be celebrated as a first because in 2014, he ran for the election and won the election to be the first Black man who was the president of our borough, Brooklyn. So we celebrate firsts.

In the audience, we have a first, our chief of staff — well, she's the second Black chief of staff — but the first female Black chief of staff in City Hall. Tonight, we celebrate firsts. My other partner in government is the first Black female deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, who isn't here. And thanks to our principal, Eric Adams, I am the first chief advisor, a Black woman, to the mayor of the City of New York.

So you all know this man, this dynamic, powerful, articulate brother, who is a community activist and they asked me to introduce him, but I do not need to introduce him because you know him. So it is my distinct pleasure and honor... You already know. Ma Dukes is in the house. But it is my distinct pleasure and honor to present you... Don't mess me up. To present to you our second Black mayor in the city of New York, but he was the first Black man to be the president of a borough, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Such a significant day, and thank you for coming in. Ingrid is right. We are extremely excited about this moment, and it's a real significant moment. And as I stated last year, I will say it again this year, that we are all included in this marathon that we are running. And the goal is that each mile you want to run your mile, you want to hand over the baton in a successful way. If it was from the resiliency and the bravery of Nat Turner turning over the baton to the greats of Marcus Garvey, who turned over the baton to the great Rosa Parks, who turned over the baton to the greats of the Jesse Jackson, who turned it over to Reverend Al Sharpton, who turned it over and over and over.

And in between those miles we saw our great Mother Dukes running her mile. Generations after generation. Jesse Jackson and his run for president eventually turned over the baton to Barack Obama. Barack Obama running his mile and turning it over to our sister, Vice President Harris, running her mile and then turning it over to my good friend, brother Hakeem Jeffries, the first person of color to be the leader of any House. And when you look at all of those miles and you look at all of the runs and the handing of the baton, each mile we've done in a successful way. But I stated in Albany and Washington, and I'm going to say it here to you as well, those races and the energy that came with them was for a purpose. Our family members marched and fought and died. We made such great sacrifices. And everything we have done, people don't realize it was for this moment right now.

This is the accumulation of all that your grandmothers and grandfathers have all hoped for and prayed for. In that song, the Black National Anthem, clearly lays out the roads we traveled. And the question becomes during this Black history of today that we celebrate, tomorrow's going to be the history that is going to be celebrated from our moments. And the question is, we know the legacy of Turner, King, Garvey, and Malcolm, but the question that lingers over us that we have to straighten into an exclamation point is what is our legacy? What is our legacy? We can't just reflect on the legacies of others. We must ask, what is our legacy?

What is going to be our legacy when we have seven out of the 10 mayors in the major cities in America are people of color. Four of the major cities in America — Houston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles — are people of color. We have our great brother Hakeem Jeffries leading the minority and, eventually, he's going to be the majority leader — person of color. Our attorney general, person of color. Our DA in the Bronx, person of color. DA in Brooklyn, person of color. DA in Manhattan, person of color. The leader in the Assembly, person of color. The leader in the Senate, person of color. The leader in the City Council, person of color. The leader of the chairs in the committee in many of the houses in the most powerful city on the globe are people of color.

All of this chocolate, what are we going to do with it? As Ingrid pointed out, chief counsel, person of color. Chief of staff, person of color. Police commissioner, person of color. First deputy mayor, person of color. Head of corrections, person of color. Corporation counsel, person of color.

You may not have recognized it but this is our moment. Someone stopped me the other day, and they stated that we have to fight the power. I said, "Negro, you are the power." Fight the power? All of this power, we have. But Carter G. Woodson in his book "The Mis-Education of the Negro" stated that you get so used to walking through the back door, that even if there's not a back door, you will go make one in the back.

We are so used to being out of power that when we have power, we don't realize we have it. We have to change our mindset. We have the power, we have the power that we've been fighting for for generations. All that we expected, this is our moment, and we cannot utilize our power to regulate ourselves to position of petty differences.

If we spend all of this moment, which won't last forever, to find reasons to be in disagreement with each other instead of moving forward an agenda that we all need and the criteria cannot be that I must agree with you on everything. I don't agree with myself on everything. How the hell am I going to agree with you on everything? We must identify some of the basic things that are important to us, and we must move towards those agendas and make sure that we finally move the needle.

Chancellor, person of color. Commissioner of DCAS, person of color. In charge of DOT, person of color. You go down the list. We didn't get here on our own. We got here because of pioneers. We got here because of brave men and women, who decided that they must stand up at the time when it was not comfortable, but then paved the way. As I stood next to our great brother Congressman Clyburn — Hakeem was to the right of him and I was to the left of him — someone said, "Well, Mr. Mayor, get in the middle." I said, "No, this is a symbolic moment, because Congressman Jeffries and Mayor Adams, we both stood on Clyburn's shoulders to get where we are now.

This brother is an intellectual giant among the sea of mental midgets. He has led in a manner that you cannot believe, and those who challenge him do not have the intellectual capacity to keep up what this brother has done. He was the first African American to represent South Carolina in Congress since 1893. Now think about something for a moment. Hakeem, who is a great statistician, pulled me over and stated that, "Do you know out of over a billion of Americans we've had, only 12,000 have served in Congress? Only 175 were Black."

Think about that. Only 175 were Black. Today we are honoring one of them. A real leader, he was elected president of the NAACP Youth Chapter when he was just 12-years-old. Jim, I was still playing with marbles. 12-years-old. Knew what he wanted to do. Went on to begin his professional career as public school teacher in Charleston, South Carolina for fighting for the rights of workers at Charleston Hospital to ensuring historic wins in the halls of Congress. He's been a champion for working people.

Every time I'm in Washington, DC, I get in his office and sit down and just peel back another level of how much this brother had to endure and how much he has shared with so many. In 2006, he became the second African American to serve as majority whip in congressional history. He is the first African American to serve multiple terms as the majority whip.

For three decades, Congressman Clyburn has been getting stuff done for the American people, and let me tell you something, he personifies that good Black don't crack because this brother looks good. Still energetic, still excited, every time you see him, he is ready to just share pearls of wisdom, never feeling broken, just always energetic. And every time I'm in DC and I sit in his office for a few moments, I walk out with the level of enthusiasm that's associated with hearing from a level of greatness as a leader as Congressman Clyburn.

He's a proud person and he shares that proud posture with those who are in his midst. When you're in the room, it's clear. Don't even try messing with him. He sends a very clear and strong message. We want to honor him today, but before doing so, I am so proud of my brother who I served with in Albany. We worked on legislation together. We did so much together. When you see people who have finally discovered the movement, all of a sudden don't understand that there were those who were in the movement for a long time.

I said over and over again, we don't have to be woke. We never went to sleep. Nothing personifies that more than our minority and soon majority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Give it up for my brother.

U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries: Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. What an amazing crowd. So good to be here with my friend, my brother, Mayor Eric Adams, who is doing a tremendous job at a difficult time leading this great city forward.

It's good to be here, in Gracie Mansion, in this amazing room. Now Gracie Mansion, where Eric Adams lives, I kind of feel like this is the Eric Adams version of MTV Cribs right now. I'm so proud of my friend and my brother for the strength, the intellect, the focus, the discipline, the commitment, and the care to which he is undertaking this job.

It's good to be here again at Gracie Mansion for Black History Month. I've had the opportunity over the years to be at Gracie Mansion when I was just a lawyer, practicing here in the city. I've been here at Gracie Mansion as a member of the state legislature, serving with Eric Adams. I've been at Gracie Mansion a few times over the last five terms as a member of Congress. It's an honor to be back during Black History Month as the highest ranking Democrat in the United States Congress.

But thanks to all of you, and of course, the honoree for this incredible occasion. Now this is Black History Month. I was in Florida yesterday, Texas — Thank you, Mama Dukes. She keeps track. She keeps track. We certainly stand on the broad shoulders of Hazel Dukes. Texas last week and there's some folks out there who want to cancel our history.

Let's be clear. Black history is American history. We will never let it be canceled. Not now, not ever. Now I came to Congress and had the opportunity to serve with some incredible members, understanding that I was standing on the shoulders of giants, standing on the shoulders of giants like Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Shirley Chisholm, Lou Stokes, Barbara Jordan, Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, and, of course, the great Jim Clyburn.

Let me tell you just a bit quickly about Jim Clyburn and then I know I'm going to yield back to Mayor Adams. You know, Jim Clyburn is a good man, a hardworking man, a family man, a well-educated man, a visionary man, a community man, an Omega man — I'm saying that as a Kappa man — and a mighty man of God.

You know anything about Jim Clyburn, he was raised in a parsonage. He's a preacher's kid, a son of the south, a civil rights champion on the frontlines with John Lewis and others, a visionary historian, a United States congressman, the majority whip emeritus, and perhaps amongst these incredible accomplishments, the one that may be the most meaningful, the savior of our democracy in the 2020 presidential election.

I'm just honored to be here in the company of Mayor Adams and my colleagues: Jerry Nadler, Greg Meeks, Dan Goldman, and others who were here as we honor this living legend, this son of the south. This person upon whose shoulders I stand and as Eric Adams said, we all stand. And because we've been able to learn, be mentored by the great Jim Clyburn, together with all of you, I'm confident that through all the trials and tribulations we face, the best is yet to come. God bless each and every one of you.

Mayor Adams: I showed Congressman Nadler earlier, I know he's around, can I tell you how much Congressman Nadler during the most difficult times, visiting him in Washington, DC, really was a voice, both the leader Jeffries and the congressman and bringing the resources during the most difficult time, you and your delegation, congressman, thank you so much for being here today.

Now the man of the moment, we are really excited about honoring Congressman James E. Clyburn Day. Whereas the congressman is admired for his integrity, formidable work ethic, effective leadership, political savvy, dedication to his constituents and commitment to advancing civil rights and racial, social and economic justice nationwide.

He's also known for his warm smile — who does that sound like — and annual fish fry — he must have a fit with this vegan diet we have up in here — where guests dance the electric slide. Congressman Clyburn has fought to increase the minimum wage, strengthen the labor movement, conserve the environment, improve healthcare and education, and preserve historic buildings on HBCU campuses.

His legislative achievements include his 10-20-30 federal funding plan directing vital funds to high-poverty communities, and his accessible, affordable Broadband For All Bill. Among his many accolades are his Lyndon B. Burns Jackson's Liberty and Justice For All Award, and the NAACP Sister Mother Dukes Spingarn Medal, the organization's highest honor. As we gather to celebrate the heritage and accomplishments of African Americans in the five boroughs and beyond, I join and applaud this great man of god for his dedication and his entire career in upholding our founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice for all. Together, we look forward to Congressman Clyburn's continuing success now.

Now therefore, I, Eric Adams, mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023, in the City of New York as Congressman James E. Clyburn Day.

U.S. Representative James E. Clyburn: Thank you. Thank you very, very much, Mayor Adams. If Mother Dukes were not sitting in front of me, and I had not known her as long as I have known her, I might say this is the proudest moment of my life. However last year, when I was given the Spingarn Award by the NAACP, I thought I had arrived, and there was nothing else left for me in this great country. But you've demonstrated, Mayor Adams, that there was something else left.

Thank you. I want to begin by thanking my colleagues who are here. Dan Goldman, I don't know if he's still here or not. And I do believe that Jerry Nadler is still here. Jerry, my classmate, thank you so much for being here. Jerry reminded us that back in 1992, 110 of us were elected. That was the largest freshman class since World War II. And he reminded me of that number. Only six of us are still there.

And I've enjoyed my relationship with Jerry over the years. Gregory Meeks was here earlier and his wife. They had to go to another gala tonight, but I wanted to tease his wife a little bit, because when I wrote my memoirs which was published back in 2015, I gave Gregory a copy of the book which he passed on through his wife, who not only read the book but went through it with her pen. And she wrote all of these questions in the margins of the pages. And the next time I saw her, I had to sit down with her and answer questions from the page.

No one has ever done that to me before. But I want to thank them for the tremendous leadership. Now, Gregory did not mention this, that he is a native of New York, but his dad was from York County, South Carolina. And I really, really appreciate that. Now, several years ago, I came up to New York and campaigned with Hakeem. We were... I don't know where we were, but we were in and out of churches and on the back of these platforms, the trailer platforms campaigning. So we go to this church, which I think was Hakeem's church, and I ran into these people.

And they were exiles from South Carolina. It was kind of amazing that I knew a whole lot of people in that church. And I want to speak to you just a little bit about what that day meant to me. Now, I'm currently writing my third book. I'm calling this book... I don't know what the publishers will do with the title, but I'm calling the book, for my purposes, "Before I Was First, There Were Eight.” Now, that title comes from the fact that when I got elected to Congress in 1992, there had been 95 years since a person of color had served in Congress from South Carolina.

And most people do not realize that before me, there were eight African Americans to represent Congress in South Carolina in the Congress. And so to me, I thought that before my time is over, I wanted to really pay homage to those eight people. They are the ones who starting on December 12th, 1870, when John Raney from Georgetown, South Carolina was sworn into Congress, they are the ones who were the trailblazers.

As I've gone through studying their lives and their contributions, I've come to the conclusion that the last chapter in this book is going to be entitled, "The More Things Change The More They Remain The Same," because going through their lives, their service, their contributions, and picking up the newspapers, watching the television and listening to what is being said today, we are fighting some of the same battles today. And that's why we study history. 

Now, there's a young man in here… I hope he's still here, because I want him to come out. Ralph, are you still here? I want Ralph to share this podium with me for a very special reason. Ralph has just gotten his second knee done, so he's hobbling a little bit. But I started my professional career as a public school teacher, teaching in the public schools of Charleston, South Carolina. In that my... I will never forget it. My second period class, my second year teaching, was this young man. Now, there were 18 people in that class. Now Ralph, I noticed when I first met him that there was something special about Ralph.

But the next year, I left teaching. I wanted to be involved in politics, and in South Carolina, they discouraged teachers from being involved in politics, so I left the classroom and went out to do other things. I got a call one day from one of Ralph's friends telling me that Ralph had gotten kicked out of school. And I says, "Kicked out of school? For what?" "I don't know." So I got in my car, I went to the school, and I went to the teacher that had kicked him out, and I says, "What happened?"

She told me. I got back in my car, and I went to Ralph's house. He was home. I said, "Ralph, I understand you got kicked out of school." He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, get in the car. You're going back up here. You're going to apologize to this teacher, because you've got to stay in school." "I ain't going to apologize." Now, because of mixed company, I'm not going to share with you the next part of that conversation. Well, let it suffice for me to say he got in the car, went back up to the school, took about five minutes, but he finally apologized.

He went back in the school. Here's the ending of the story. Ralph graduated from that high school on the east side of Charleston, South Carolina, the most densely populated area in South Carolina at that time, one of the lowest income areas in Charleston at that time. He lived in public housing. And Ralph graduated and got a scholarship to Yale University. And when he graduated from Yale, he got a scholarship to Columbia Law. And from there, he became one of Wall Street's best lawyers, handling the American Express account. Now, I tell that story here because the Ralph Dawson’s of the world, the Hakeem Jeffries’ of the world, are what this is all about.

I stayed married to the same woman for 58 years. Ralph knew her very well, because when he was a high school student, he and seven others of his friends, eight of them, once a month came to my apartment, and Emily would fix little snacks for them while we sat down and talked about their futures. Out of that group, one of them raised by his grandmother on Coming Street in Charleston... I never knew James Gaston's parents. I only knew his grandparents. But James Gaston graduated right along with Ralph. He went to Harvard, and from there went to Stanford's School of Foreign Service.

And I was honored to step off of a plane in Iceland while he was the ambassador to Iceland. That's what this is all about, making sure that we do the things that are necessary to create more Hakeem Jeffries’, more Ralph Dawson’s, and I want to thank Mayor Adams for what he is doing here this evening. It says to me that all of those people who should be my constituents, those people who caught the Chicken Bone Special, who left South Carolina, who came to the promised land, many of whom now have grandchildren who are making their marks.

Mayor Adams doesn't know this, because I didn't know it until Ralph shared it with me, that his first chief deputy, Sheena Wright — it was Wilmont Frazier, her great grandfather, who gave me my first job in Charleston, South Carolina. That's what this is all about. Wilmont Frazier did it for me so I could pass it on. That's what this is about. Several years ago, people used to… highest ranking African American in the United States Congress. I was proud of that. But let me tell you something. Someone stopped me in Washington one time and said to me, "Clyburn, you have really made your mark in Washington." I said, "Well, thank you very much." And then, they asked me, "When did you realize that you had made it?" I said, “I realized that I had made it in Washington when people started calling me Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's daddy.” That's right. That's what it's about. It's about Mignon Clyburn, Jennifer Clyburn, Angela Clyburn, my three daughters. It's about Mayor Adams, Congressman Jeffries.

These are our futures. It can't stop with us. It must continue ad infinitum. That's what this is all about. And I want to say as I close, Mayor Adams said something here today that made me think about another of my dad's stories. My father, as you just heard from Gregory, was a fundamentalist minister who always thought that I would follow him into the ministry. I thought so too, but I always heard that you had to be called to the ministry. And so, when I went away to college, I kept listening for the call and I never heard it. Now, I don't tell anybody that I never received the call. I never heard it. And so, I went home to tell my dad that I was not going to follow him into the ministry, that I was going to go in a different direction.

And my dad said to me on that day, "Well, son," he said, "I suspect the world would much rather see a sermon than to hear one." I took that as my mantra to live by, trying to make sure that everybody see a sermon in my work. And as I listen to Mayor Adams, I remembered one of my daddy's lessons. You heard one that came from Gregory earlier, but there was another one that I think is appropriate right after listening to Mayor Adams. Now, I grew up with two brothers. My brother John is two years younger, and my brother Charles is two years younger than John. So as you can imagine, growing up, three boys that close together, a lot of competition breaks out, and sometimes there are disagreements. And so, my daddy had a 1939 Chevrolet. It was a real good car. You could drive it into a telegram pole, back up, and keep going, there wouldn't be a dent in it. But for some strange reason, that car always knew when Saturday came. It would stop running.

And so, it looks like every Saturday my dad would be going down to Mr. Singleton, who was our neighborhood mechanic. Now, from here in New York, y'all don't know anything about these neighborhood mechanics. Down there in South Carolina, a neighborhood mechanic, we always knew who that was. He was a man with the big chinaberry tree in his yard with a pulley hanging out of it. And so, on this particular day, we went to Mr. Singleton who was our neighborhood mechanic. So we go to Mr. Singleton's shop to get the car running for another week. And just as Mr. Singleton put that pulley on the front end of that car and started raising it so he could get under it and get it going for another week, my two brothers and I started playing. And my dad says, "Now boys, I don't want y'all to play near this car. I have no idea how strong this chain is. It may pop. One of you may get hurt. Go out across the field and play." And so we did. We weren't gone long before we got into a little discussion.

Now, you all looking at it might call it a fight, but it was not a fight. It was a physical discussion, and we didn't know it, but my dad was watching us, and when he thought that discussion had gone on long enough, he called the three of us over to him. And he stood us in front of him as he sat on one of those old wooden drink crates, and we were there a bit apprehensive, and my dad had in his hands a piece of cord string. He took that piece of string, and he gave it to my brother Charles and said, "Charles, I want you to pop this string." Charles struggled and he couldn't pop it. My dad then took it back and gave it to John. He said, "John, you're two years older. You are stronger. You pop the string." John struggled, and he couldn't pop it. He then took it back and he gave it to me and says, "Now James, you are the oldest. You are the strongest. You pop the string."

I struggled, and I couldn't pop it. He took it back and he put that cord string in the palms of his hands and began to rub his hands together. And the more he rubbed, the more friction he created. And the more friction he created, the more unraveled that cord string became. And it soon was in three pieces. He took one and gave it to Charles, he gave one to John and one to me, and said, "Now sons, pop the string." With very little effort, all three of us popped the strings. Says, "Now sons, I want this to be a lesson to you for as long as you live. Don't you let the little disagreements that crop up among you to cause so much friction until it separates you. Because if you do, the world will pop you apart and you may never know why." I thought about that lesson that Mayor Adams spoke. We cannot always agree on what's best to do, when it is best to do it. We cannot always agree on what is the best issue to rally around. We will have disagreements. That's how you grow.

You grow by disagreeing and trying to learn from each other. I know what it is to have disagreements. When you stay married to the same woman for 58 years, you learn about disagreements. But we didn't let those disagreements cause too much friction until it separates us. We stayed in that union together. We worked through those disagreements. We are going to have them. You will not always agree with what the mayor is doing when he is doing it, but let's work through those disagreements. We got to leave for our children and our grandchildren something that they can be proud of. They're not going to be proud of us fussing and fighting and disagreeing. They will be proud of how we got through those disagreements. That's what this is all about. So as we pause in this Black History Month, as Hakeem said, we must not let anybody take it away from us. Last year I was called to a local high school in Washington to speak for Black History Month on February 1st, and when I got there, there were more adults than children.

I knew what was on their minds. We had just come out of the Virginia election, and critical race theory was on everybody's mind. And those parents came to see what this Black congressman will say during Black History Month in the face of critical race theory. And I stood before them that day. I said, "All of you all stood in this school, all learning a lot about America and who made this country great. Y'all are learning like I did that Thomas Edison was the greatest inventor of all times. He invented the light bulb. Yes, he did. What y'all are not learning is what I did not learn either, was that Thomas Edison couldn't get that light bulb to work. It was not until he left New Jersey and went up to Boston, Massachusetts and found a gentleman up there who was born a slave, whose parents had escaped from slavery, who had come up with something called a ligament."

And it was not. Thomas Edison got that son of slaves ligament and put it in his light bulb that the light bulb worked. That's not theory. That's a fact. And we must not ever shrink from those facts. We are who we are. We are Americans. We have contributed to what has made this country as great as it is. Let's not let anybody take that away from us. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for making this city a greater city. Thank you to each and every one of you.

Mayor Adams: Give it up for our congressman.

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