Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the NAACP convention on Saturday about the “full-on attempt to attack” the civil liberties of African Americans.
“There is so much that we have achieved, and so, so much to celebrate,” she said, according to the Boston Globe. “And we are in a moment where there is a full-on attempt to attack hard-fought and hard-won rights and freedoms and liberty.”
Vice President Harris’ comments came during the backdrop of several civil rights rollbacks. In June, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled to end the use of affirmative action in higher education. In July, Florida introduced updated teaching standards regarding slavery, which notably included the false idea that enslaved Africans acquired specific skills through their enslavement. Moreover, a federal appeals court upheld a Flordia law that critics argued would made it more difficult for African Americans to vote.
However, Vice President Harris applauded the efforts of NAACP leaders who fought to get Black people registered to vote for the 2020 election, according to the Boston Herald.
“It is by no coincidence that immediately thereafter you started seeing the extremist so-called leaders passing laws restricting voting days and making it more difficult to vote, banning drop boxes, shortening the amount of time people could vote ahead of the election,” Harris said, according to the Boston Herald.
Harris also said that she is working with the Biden Administration to focus on criminal justice reform, the Globe reported.
“We need to address it with … some level of concern and empathy,” Harris said, according to the Globe. “The true sign of a leader is when they lift people up,” instead of these “so-called extremist leaders” who believe that strength means beating people down.
In addition, she urged legislators to advocate for stricter gun regulations.
“There is so much at stake in our country,” Harris told the crowd, according to the Globe. “And the future of America has always relied on the folks who are in this room and others like this around our country who are the conscience of our country.”
