By Catherine Pugh,
Special to the AFRO
The Congressional Black Caucus held the 2022 Phoenix Awards inside of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Oct. 1. The show was hosted by entertainers Omari Hardwick and Meagan Good.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02) was honored alongside thought leaders like author and activist Michael Dyson, and brave average Americans like Ms. Opal Lee, considered to be the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, before introducing President Biden, told a sold-out audience at the CBCF’S Phoenix Awards, that “together with this Caucus we place equality, equity, and justice at the center of our work.”
Harris noted “a historic $5.8 billion” investment into historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), calling them “some of our best institutions of academic excellence.”
The vice president also spoke on the many challenges facing the nation.
“At home we face threats to a woman’s rights to make choices about her own body, threats to a voter’s right to cast a ballot and have it counted, and threats to the right of every citizen to lead and live free from hate and violence,” she said. “These long held freedoms hang in the balance. So, at this moment, what are we then called to do?”
Harris referred to a shared conversation with Ambassador Andrew Young, where he explained how he and Martin Luther King Jr. organized voters and got them to the polls to cast their ballots. Young told Harris the monumental effort was a necessary undertaking– they had already met with then President Johnson, who at the time said he did not have the power to pass the Voting Rights Act because he had just passed the Civil Rights Act.
“We organized, advocated, and protected access to the ballot. They got the President the power to pass the Voting Rights Act the very next year,” said Harris. “We have a job to do. We have a job to do, because in this room we have the power we need to get it done!”
President Biden thanked the CBC for their support, which allowed him to make good on many of his campaign promises, including the first African-American vice president, the first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court Ketanji Brown Jackson, and other agenda items.
“We finally made lynching a federal crime. Many of you were at the White House with the family of Emmet Till, when I signed the Anti-Lynching Act in his name, after all these years,” said Biden. “For those who want to bury our history, we made Juneteenth the federal holiday in 30 years, so they remember. We will never forget.”
The president also spoke on voting rights.
“Let me be clear, I’m not going to stand by and watch fundamental freedoms in this country be taken from you like the right to vote and have your vote not counted,” he said. “We must get the votes in Congress to get the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and Freedom to Vote Act to my desk-to my desk. We must get the votes in Congress to codify Roe vs. Wade, to protect the right to choose and the right to privacy.”
Biden used his time before the Caucus to highlight the work of former Caucus Member Marcia Fudge, now the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
“We’re expanding our efforts to build Black wealth, like others have through homeownership because we know that’s how you build equity and pass down that wealth from generation to generation.”
President Biden touted his many successes including the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which he says is the most aggressive action to confront our climate crisis ever in all human history.
The IRA offers Black families thousands of dollars in energy savings through tax credits and rebates when replacing everything from a toaster to a refrigerator with new, efficient appliances; to weatherize their homes; to buy electric vehicles, used as well as new; and so much more.
“Prescription costs are going to be finally down because we passed the Inflation Reduction Act,” added Biden. “Seniors will see their out-of-pocket drug cost capped at $2,000. Black small business is up, and Black unemployment is down, and Black child poverty was cut in half in 2021 because of the Child Tax Credit.”
“With the help of the CBC, we’re working like hell to make sure we make the Child Tax Credit permanent…permanent…permanent,” said the president, who acknowledged that he couldn’t have won the presidency without the Caucus.
“We are determined to make sure that taxpayer dollars go to American companies and American workers. In my administration, we buy American, and that includes increasing the shares of those dollars that go to small, disadvantaged businesses including Brown and Black people.”
Biden said that by 2025, 15 percent of all that money going to small businesses will go to Black and Brown-owned companies- an increase from the current goal of 10 percent.
Shortly after the president spoke, legendary vocalist Gladys Knight performed her timeless tunes for the audience to close out the night.
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