From the Office of the Vice President:
On Thursday, in a speech to thousands of attendees at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s 56th national convention in Indianapolis, Vice President Kamala Harris called out extremists in Florida for their State Board of Education’s newly approved standards that promote a revisionist history and would lead to students being taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery.
“Speaking of our children, extremists pass book bans to prevent them from learning our true history – book bans in this year of our Lord 2023. And while they do this, check it out, they push forward revisionist history,” said Vice President Harris. “Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
The Vice President also highlighted the Biden-Harris Administration’s record of delivering for Americans including lowering prescription drug prices, addressing the maternal health crisis, and confirming judges who reflect the diversity of the nation. Today’s convention in Indianapolis was the most recent stop to reach cities and key constituencies across the country. Later this month, she will also address the UnidosUS Annual Conference in Chicago, The NAACP National Convention in Boston, The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Women’s Missionary Society Quadrennial Convention in Orlando, and Everytown for Gun Safety’s Gun Sense University in Chicago.
Here are additional excerpts from today’s speech:
Vice President Harris on addressing the maternal health crisis:
“For years, our nation has ignored the crisis of maternal mortality…that before, during, and after childbirth, women in America die at a higher rate than in any other wealthy nation in the world, and that Black women are three times as likely to die. And so, when President Biden and I took office, we did what was right and made maternal health a national priority and expanded postpartum care through Medicaid from two months to 12 months, expanded it from three states to 35 states, to the benefit of a half million more women in America.”
Vice President Harris on confirming judges that reflect America’s diversity:
“For far too long, our justice system has not fully reflected the diversity of our nation. So when we took office, President Biden and I have appointed more Black women to the federal appellate courts than any other Administration in history combined, including of course, the first Black woman to ever sit on the highest Court of our land…Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.”
Vice President Harris on lowering prescription drug costs for seniors:
“Before President Biden and I took office, for years, too many of our seniors could not afford the medication they needed to survive. Together, we all here declared what we know to be right: that in the United States of America, seniors should not have to choose between putting food on the table and filling their prescription – and so President Biden and I capped the cost of insulin for our senior at $35 a month.”
Vice President Harris on the continued fight for fundamental freedoms:
“Let us continue to stand together and fight for what is right. Because we know it is right to fight for the freedom of every woman to control her own body – not her government. It is right to fight for a future in which every person can live free from discrimination and hate. It is right to fight for safe communities. It is right to fight for paid leave, and clean water, and affordable child care. It is right to fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. It is right to fight against book bans and the truth. So Delta Sigma Theta: let us fight, fueled by the love of our children. Let us fight, fueled by the love of our country. And let us fight with the knowledge and the faith that when we fight, we win.”
