Cory Booker on June 11 and honoring our ancestors: “We have to pay it forward”

It took two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation for the word of freedom to reach the community of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

The celebration that followed, and which we proceed today, is a celebration of reflection and reunification; On June 11, we remember our past, reclaim our history, have fun the progress we have made, and recommit ourselves to the work we still have to do. We use this present day to commemorate the top of a brutal and dehumanizing system that also has far-reaching consequences, because true patriotism means coming to terms with the past and exploring meaningful ways to end the injustices this method has wrought.

When our ancestors finally achieved emancipation, they still faced insurmountable barriers – within the years that followed, policies and more systems were created that prevented Black people on this country from constructing wealth for themselves and future generations. Some of probably the most transformative federal policies in our country’s history, from Social Security to federal housing policy to the GI Bill, were originally riddled with structural discrimination that made it nearly unattainable for Black Americans to profit from them.

Over the course of my lifetime, this same bias has been clearly expressed within the explosion of mass incarceration and a criminal justice system that has criminalized and disenfranchised Black and Brown communities.

We need intentional, urgent motion to repair this harm and ensure abundant opportunity for every one.

We can start by providing every child in America with a savings account – also often known as a Baby Bond. At birth, each child’s account will likely be credited with $1,000 and will grow by a maximum of $2,000 per yr, depending on the family’s income. By age 18, the typical black account holder would have access to greater than $29,000 that they might use for things like starting a business, paying college tuition or making a down payment on a house – the type of investments that construct wealth and change life trajectories . A study from Columbia University found that this sort of proposal would virtually eliminate the racial wealth gap amongst young adults.

In the spirit of June 11, we must also propose meaningful and thoughtful measures to unite and heal families affected by the failed war on drugs. Today, more Black men are under prison control than were enslaved in 1850 – a broken criminal justice system that Michelle Alexander rightly calls the “New Jim Crow.”

To end this method of mass incarceration in America, we must make major reforms to the drug laws and sentencing guidelines that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities – which suggests not only legalizing marijuana nationwide, but additionally expunging people’s criminal records for marijuana – related crimes. We need higher law enforcement training to address persistent biases that have deadly consequences, and we want higher re-entry policies that don’t relegate formerly incarcerated people to second-class citizenship.

We should use today to honor our history, recommit to balancing the scales, and challenge the biases that persist in the current.

We have fun and remember on this present day due to our ancestors, due to their strength, their steadfast grace and their steadfast hope. On June 11, we all know that we cannot repay them for what they have done for us, but we will and must pay it forward.