House Majority Whip James Clyburn shares the value of communication

Friday, June 19, 2020 - 16:50 in Mathematics & Economics

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, brought a unique perspective to Harvard for Juneteenth. Speaking with Kennedy School Professor Cornell Brooks via Zoom on Thursday evening, Clyburn said that for him, the day is about communication. “I spent my early adult life in Charleston, S.C., an important city to the Black experience,” Clyburn said. “More than half the Americans who were enslaved in this country came through the port of Charleston. So before it became Juneteenth we celebrated Emancipation Day, with a bigger parade than on Christmas.” Juneteenth celebrates the arrival of Union Army liberators in Galveston, Texas, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. “That shows the value of communication. Texas was one of those states where nobody had communicated with the slaves, to let them know they were free. And that’s what I think about today: Are we communicating with each other?” Brooks...

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