conditions of confinement than any other place in the world. they stay in their longer than in any other place in the world. we have embraced an ideology that says a prison nation caging people because of their race, because of their age, their sexuality, their gender is an appropriate response to social problems. i didn't say lawbreaking. i said social problems. that is what is filling up. metal health problems, problems related to violence, problems related to poverty, etc. when i try to bring to this work is an understanding that we need to change that world, the world of a prison nation that this government has embraced so that women like these are our leaders, are creating the kinds of communities that i want to live in. that to me is a world that is a prison abolition world.

i came to this work because i was working against violence against women. stories are these really about violence against women. they are about incarceration, police brutality, but they are also about violence against women. particularly violence against black women which is the target of the prison nation. i am humbled to be here. i so appreciate the work that you have done. i look forward to your leadership because you are organizing a world that i want to live in. thank you. [applause] >> we will pick up there. i have 493 questions or something. we will get to do four or five of them probably. i want to leave some room for the audience. i want to start where beth ended. the notion of violinist against black women -- violence against black women. i can't think about much of anything without thinking of it

through the lens of "12 years a slave." if you have not yet seen it, you must. there's a lot of discourse publicly about it at this moment, but for me, perhaps one of the most useful aspects of the film is for the first time in a film that is a major -- on major american theatrical screens, we see the intersection of violence and race and gender in a way that has not been previously depicted rror we see in the context of "12 years a slave." it is also possible for those who want to to walk away from the film feeling as though we are now in a sanitize world or at least that doesn't happen anymore. you can see that it is both an entry point into talking about the horror of our national history, but also potentially a weent where we say, at least

have clean that up, at least that no longer happens. i want to invite any or all of you to engage a little bit with me on this question of arrest and conviction and incarceration, those three aspects of the notion of violence against women, particularly marginalized women, black and brown and poor women. >> to be pulled out of your community in chains and put in the back of a car, which is a cage for transportation, and then to be put into another cage the court there until process sanctions you to become him up atain and woke 5:00, 4:00, 3:00 in the morning stripped of your clothing,

chian --n a a -- on a out in the early morning, put on a bus, driven to some place that you know -- that you have no clue of where you are going and pulled off of that bus, cage, put into another again,, cage, stripped having to have every piece and part of your body looked at with flashlights and all the rest, and to be pushed out into a sort of compound where you are $.08, $.16,$.05, and the executive job is $1 an

hour, that is slavery in america. that is what prison is. i haven't seen "12 years a slave." i didn't want to see it before i got here. [laughter] it, i had this other experience that is slavery. the 13th amendment says, as long ofi'm under the auspices being convicted of a crime, the crime being possession of a drug that medicated the grief after babynforcement killed my and never ever said, i'm sorry, never acknowledged it -- i had to go through a lot of healing to even operate to be here today, for giving the accident, but then also -- forgiving the

accident, you can also forgiving the fact that this little black boy was killed by a white man with the badge patrolling my community. >> based on what susan said about patrolling our communities , because even though susan is in california and tina is in new york, tina and i have had multiple conversations about how our communities are policed in the same way. often when you hear about profiling, normally you hear it about black men, black and brown men, or in the last few years, you may have heard what that looks like for people in the community. whenever i think about policing and what that does to our ,lients and the way they think that they are conscious of every move they make because everybody

aows in new orleans there is jump-out tuesday -- the police roll up, even even if nothing is going on -- even if nothing is going on. we work in the community. when we had 10 housing developments, we could be handing out information, doing testing, and it literally, you would get 30-something police -- semi-i automatic automatic, and if you looked like they wanted to stop you, they could. if they want to go through our bags, they could. this is what poor communities in poor communities of color live with every single day. that means someone who is five years old, 10 years old, we live with this. if you think about what that does to your mind in how you think about yourself, that is

one piece of it, but then you womenabout what i see for -- many of our transgender clients always say, we are guilty of walking while trans, not because they are doing anything, but simply because in the police mind, you must be a ax worker because you are trans person. that is what you people do. it is the same way they look at a more masculine women -- i'm going to handle you like a man because you present yourself as one. , just many of our clients a talking crime -- police never had to catch anybody in the act. they never had to catch anybody performing oral sex. they definitely didn't catch sex,ody having sex -- anal

the two things under the crimes against nature statute written when we do that -- statute. we always like to look at things through a public health lens. if we can get the so-called people who run this country to look at things, real public safety, not the one they try to sell people, but real public safety, public health and human rights would be living in a different time, in a different world. was, i will give you a quick example -- we have a latina walking down tulane avenue. she was just waiting for the bus. a car pulls up. do you want a ride? no. where are you going? i'm going to the va hospital. when did you serve? she gets in the car. it is an undercover cop. she is charged with a crime against nature.

this is what happens when we give people who have a check or are not put in the position to check their own bias and their and we havef racism a quota to fill, so let me get you. how womenhink about are targeted, it is normally crimes like this. i try not to use the word i think it," because feeds the stigma, but if you are poor, if you are black, if you look like this -- the latest one i have heard, if your nails are done in your hair is done, you must be involved in sexual work -- i'm like, you're going to get a lot of people i know. policing looks like a certain thing for certain people in certain communities, which is why when you talk about, how do we fight and how do we stand up, some days i don't know how any of us do what we do simply because it is tiring.

as soon as you finish one, there will be another. >> can i jump in, a little bit about trying to expand the notion of policing that i think you are talking about? i think there is the police who police. then there are all the other people who police. >> right. >> that includes people who work in treatment facilities. it includes people who work in schools. it includes people who decide whether or not we are eligible or not eligible for public assistance. also, it includes partners. it is important, at least in the experience of talking about what happens for black women, black queer people, to talk about the relationship between the police, as in the people paid to the police, and the people who feel like they should police us even though they are not paid to do that. between a connection

those two. that is part of what i think makes it harder, more particular, and more dangerous for black women and black queer people. a whole bunch of people are thecing us -- our families, police force, and everybody in between them. so, the notion of policing i think has to be complicated in our discussion. one other quick thing i want to melissa, there is very problematic data that says that the incarceration rates of black women are going down, and the rate of violence against women is going down. big national studies are trained to demonstrate that the problem is not so bad as we are experiencing it. i think the way we need to respond to that is to say, even though there may be fewer black women actually going through the prison, be atl or

the cook county jail or bedford ,ills or the l a county jail even though people are not going through the doors, they are being police. they are being monitored and sanctioned and punished now by places outside of the building, which in some instances is maybe even more dangerous. you never know who is watching you and what kind of rights they may take away from you, like you lose your kids or your public assistance, etc. >> i think that is so true when we think about how we have internalized how it is we need to behave in relationships with other people that we don't know and how we walked on the street, especially as women of color. children, if we are a bad mom, we don't give our children breakfast in the morning. we are looked at as a bad mom. we are involved in a system that says, we should take your child away. when i think about the issues of

massive restoration versus massnalization -- incarceration versus criminalization, we have to look communities ofts color. 40 years we survived specific scrutiny where we were bombarded with the policing of other people's systems, communities, people within our communities, and our ways of thinking about how relationships should work. were consistently traumatized and re-traumatized to the point of where it was normalized. >> i want to pick up on that. let me get one more in here. that is the case of marissa ways,der, which, in many reflects this. i have often pushed back against miss alexander's book, the idea of the new jim crow. be bad in its own way.

it doesn't have to be the new old bad thing. book titles are almost never crated by the author. we've got to give her a pass on that one. that said, to bring back the slavery piece of it, i've also always pushed back around any attempts to make anything that is now that thing then, and one of the key aspects of why this thing now is not that thing then is simply what distinguished slavery in the u.s. south in the 17th, 18th, 19th generate -- century is the intergenerational nature of it. slavery there have been in other places, the thing that made the slavery different and unique in human history is the idea that you could expect nothing more for your children either than bondage. been doing this work, and also as i have learned more about the work you do, i am increasingly convinced i have made an error of judgment, and

that in fact the current system of impersonation doesn't have this deep, intergenerational component. and so many ways, the marissa alexander case opens this up. from what we know about this case, this is a woman who had just given birth to a child who hurt -- with her abusive husband. it was very clear that he abused her as well as other partners. in her attempt to protect, shooting more than at the ceiling, she ends up with 20 g -- 20 years or more in jail in florida. she has been incarcerated already for three years. away from that infant who she was trying to protect. i invite all of you at this point to reflect on either the question of the intergenerational nature of incarceration around women and children, but also if you want to to reflect specifically on

marissa alexander and what we have learned about the intersection of domestic violence, the intergenerational nature, the lack of interest in making sure that a black mother is at home to in fact parent her child. myi want to continue discussion about mass criminalization and give you an idea of why i cleaned it that way. safeooking at the adoption families act that passed in 1996 where, because of the languishing of children of color, specifically in our foster care system, president clinton made it so that folks' children could be released from being in foster care if their parents had no communication with them in a timeline of 15-22 months. where did that put people who were incarcerated? the median sentence at the time for women was 36 months. ok?

-21 months, the median sentence at the time nationwide was 36 months. if you did not plan for your child's reunification with you and you had a place for yourself and your child and a job, you could forget about it. most of the time, women were in prison. they would lose their rights to their children. the termination proceedings could continue. in some cases, many of the women didn't know that they lost their parental rights to children. when we make the comparison -- i'm briefly speaking on this -- when we make the comparison about intergenerational, we look at a system that has broken down the relationship between parent and child and the respect for parent and child. myi was saying, making unborn child a co-conspirator to my crime, here we are making children in foster care co- conspirators to their parents incarceration -- parent's

incarceration. >> that question and statement makes me think about woodmore. she was a woman who was sentenced to seven years to life for protecting her son. abusive boyfriend. he died. son was about two years old at the time. she went to prison for seven years to life, spent 20 years in prison, was found suitable for parole seven times, and the governor rescinded it seven times, and finally, she was released. she was released, and she came to work at a new way of life. releasedhen she was was serving a life sentence himself.

she should have been discharged from parole at five years. was toher biggest wishes vote in the 2012 primary elections. she died of a stroke. she never got to vote. she was working on getting her son out of prison. she never got to see her son because she was on parole. the parole capture a year longer. her.gistered they were supposed to discharge her. she never, ever got to vote. she had a lot of things sort of but votingket list, was one of them that she had never, ever got to exercise. when we talk about intergenerational, we talk about

so many women still in this life forentenced to protecting themselves from an abuser. -- it just brought her back. >> one of the things i wanted to case is about marissa's , a good friend of mine, she always says that there is no other woman from any ethnicity that is judged the way black women -- as harshly as black women are judged. when you think about -- i always give the example of the asian researcher in london who did aying,esearch same -- s

black women were the most unattractive women in the world -- just the sheer fact that he wanted to do that, the sheer you who canse of think back -- this is something that has been happening forever -- we can think about how people make jokes about our hair, whether you are dark. there is a holistic things i can go through -- a whole list of things i can go through. i also think about how that plays when the police are called to a domestic violence case, a situation. how you see me is how you will respond to me, whether you are t protect me, to but if you walk -- i'm a thin woman -- not a thin woman.

white people get really intimidated by loud black women. i don't know what to say to them. i get it all the time. [laughter] i am alright with it. we have seen it multiple times where even in the description -- we just had a meeting about this howier, last week, about the description of the woman -- big -- what does that have to do with it? or didn't look weak whatever. people always wonder why black forn don't access services domestic violence, why the queer community doesn't access it.

people?d you call those for same-sex couples or trans women, i can tell you we hear it all the time at women with a vision. i'm not calling the cops so they can arrest me. the charges go up when it is us. one more thing i want to add -- we hold a community voices group for formerly incarcerated women. all of them talk about, even when you are free, you are never free. i can tell you, louisiana is one of those states, they really don't want to let you go. even if you are out, the amount of fees that you pay into the women who werehe charged with a crime against nature, once you are out, you have 21 days to pay $500 to put yourself on the sex offender registry and send out those postcards that all of you see in

your mail. if you do not do that, you will return to jail. then you do more time and come out again. $500 for postcards coming out of prison? who does that? i don't know too many. if you weren't a sex worker, how would you make that money to keep yourself free? it is as free as you can be. this is how the system really works. they never let you go. we have one client, one woman who says to this day she is paying $800 a month for two marijuana charges, one in texas and one here, in court fees because the job she has, she could afford to pay that. she lost her job, and she is still paying that. if she doesn't pay that $800 every month to the new orleans criminal justice system, she will go back to prison. this is the way that i feel like

the system itself makes -- criminalizes people. if i make all of you think that these people are not worthy and they keep using drugs and they keep going back to jail because they do not want their life to be any different, don't fall for it. it is always a bigger story. this is the way they do that. --can i just add >> i'm going to invite folks to line up. we started late. i do want to give folks an opportunity in the audience. i'm going to keep questions brief. be sure that you do have a question. thisne up while i'm making point, which might be a little controversial, if you don't mind. i am very impressed with the national organizing around marissa's case. a lot of us have been doing it for some time. it is critically important. it is bringing forward the issue of black women's right to defend

themselves and the children. we would not be talking about it at a national level if it weren't for trayvon martin. me, there is a feminist question of why it took the zimmerman verdict and the tragic death of trayvon martin to have us focus attention on this black woman. it is kind of a rhetorical question, but it is an important one. >> it is a critical one about who we think is the victim. >> who we think is the victim. who would be talking about her case if the verdict had gone differently? >> that got people to the microphone. good evening. thank you so much for being here. i have two quick questions. a class at tulane. it is murder and violence in the community. we look at the underpinnings for the violence and murder in our city, what is causing it, and of

course, our concert -- conversation goes to the prison industrial complex. it is one thing that michelle alexander did a good job of, given the conceptual framework of how it is financially incentivized. as this conversation is evolving, i'm interested in how people see working against the momentum of this economic incentive of incarceration. my other question is very simple ira present the black alumni association of tulane. we want to do a service for children for people of incarceration -- people affected by incarceration -- what services are being needed? what are people meeting -- nee ding? what is the hierarchy of that? thank you. it is new orleans- specific, do you want to take that one? >> being that i am from new

orleans and you asked the question, how do we deal with it , i feel like i have been screaming the same thing. we are not going to change what is happening in the city of new orleans if we don't change the system itself. where we are paying into the criminal justice system, the fact that the prison gets more money than the program, the fact that the prison has become a way health,with addiction, when we could easily be like san francisco, new york, chicago, have putut, cities who that money into programs that will change that. until we change what poverty looks like for people -- people say, it is the hopelessness -- i

cannot play with that word anymore. thatt people every day have hope that something is going to be different. we don't experience anybody that comes through our doors that do not feel like it could be different, but if we don't change the way the city of new orleans, what they consider our priority, gelling as a priority to keep a safe, and now we are getting a larger one, and the fact that they get $22 a day per -- we haven't stopped violent crime in the city. what we have done is petty crime, the little things that people do if you have to, community service or helping people in other ways -- we haven't bought into that. i feel like it is changing slowly, but we haven't totally bought into that yet. --terms of your

>> i want to slide in. i know you've got a ton of people. i want to invite this university to start looking at evidence- based research to show that programs are of value. >> one more thing about research. there has to be a moral shift in this country. there has to be a moral shift in each and every one of us. changing of be a hearts and minds and valuing everybody, valuing the neighbor's child, the child in the community over here just as much is your child. there has to be a changing in the hearts and minds of america and the value of every human being to be just as valuable as the next person.

[applause] >> i'm going to say this real quick. i know we have other people. before you invite tulane to do research, tulane needs to talk to us. i just have to put that out there. too often, organizations like ours, people come in, and what they do is they take. they don't leave us with anything. we are actually equipped to do our own community-based artist of the tory research. participatoryased research. based talk about evidence- research as if it is great to fix folks. like they are broken. if you look at the system as broken as opposed to the people -- first of all, you don't want and many don't even want to sit next to them once

in my introduction, i said i was formerly incarcerated. if we sat next each other, you wouldn't know to when you find out, that shift that happens in your eyes and in your heart, it needs to stop. >> let me also just quickly say, the desire to vote. part of the inability to push back sufficiently against the economic incentives for incarceration is the act of disenfranchisement to currently and formerly incarcerated people. it is almost impossible to arounde communities justice questions for currently and formerly incarcerated people, but also when they are kept from being citizens forever -- all the cities that you named

, heart of what we have seen is a massive decline in african- american turnout. this problem primarily by living in communities that butpoliced not only by nopd also by the saw police of private security, and in the context of disaster, they will even call in halliburton. that is jeremy scales brilliant ahill's brilliant research, how halliburton was called during evacuation. the way violence is dealt with in this city is to keep it in the seventh ward and ninth ward. -- as long ase you live in the south loop, the south side -- the question of changing these moral questions -- what i just heard in terms of the moral narrative, when that discourse comes out of the mouths of the right, what they are talking about is unborn

children, which is not what they're talking about, but that is somehow what they're talking about when they say, we should care about every human. they are talking about fetuses, not black fetuses, certainly not black incarcerated fetuses. if i say something on television like, children belong to all of us, and i am even serrated for months because it is some sort -- letd communist plot me go to the next person. >> greetings. thank you all for the work you are doing. my first question, i'm an assistant professor. right now, i get a lot of black women wanting to do research on this subject. i am only one person. what are you all doing, what you have in regards to providing strategies for engaging the next generation of leaders? what do you have in place, how would i engage them, how would i send them to you?

that is the first thing. i have them in my office all the time. second, what becomes the role -- i'm a psychologist -- what becomes the role of mental health services in the work that you're doing? i'm just wondering how you incorporate that. >> i was just great to shut out three things -- shout out three things. make sure that your students know about the insight conference, scheduled for next spring, right, sometime in the bay area. march 2015. it is a wonderful organizing opportunity for women, especially women of color, with with an inclination to get turned on to a radical ending for incarceration. the issue of the message violence in the african-american active web presences, blogging, looking for research assistance, and then a shout out

to a national organization of young people who are taking their communities back and andng to, again, insight activist orientation. i say that because i think connecting people to faculty mentors is one thing. they can come my way. i'm always looking for students who want to work on some dimension of this project so they can be in a different city, but what i think we want to turn people onto is to be workers, activists, organizers, ready to be involved in the kind of work that the other sisters on this panel are talking about. get them connected to reading and writing and research, but also get them connected to activists. byp is the black youth project. black youth project will be represented at our gender and sexuality conference we are having on december 6 rightness room. send the women over to this

conference. women organizing for justice -- this was a nine-month leadership development, specifically for formerly incarcerated women, that they went through and learned about policy, learn how to speak to policymakers, learn how to organize, and learned how to stand up and speak and lead their community. that is one of the things we are doing in california, women organizing for justice. >> one of the things we do in developed a curriculum based on the popular education model, and the curriculum is developed on their success as returning women. have met ands they how they have overcome them. they have developed this curriculum with a focus group of women who have come home and talked about their challenges. this curriculum, they offer it to the prisons, to work with

women who are coming home. they went back into the prison and have taught this program to women who are returning. we are talking about sisters who have served 25 years and below, going back into the prison, and teaching women about the successes and challenges they have had an talking about real issues like relationships and health and wellness and resources that are needed and how it is you have a conversation with your field parole officer. the thing about another organization is the center for third world organization ash third world organizing -- third world organizing. they offer internships to pay you to interim with us. we look for interns who are interested and can get supported through their schools to come and stay with us for the summer and develop programs or assist us with the programs we have.

we cannot afford to pay people. [laughter] >> yes. >> again, thank you for being here. i am bonnie schmidt. i am the chairman of the north shore unitarian universalist church new jim crow task force. my particular question has to do with an issue that was raised in michelle alexander's book, the question being, where are the black man? we know where the black men are. my question for you is, how does that affect black women and their communities? i understand there is something gap between available women for marriage and available men. i wonder if you can expand on that and other factors. >> i've got so many emotions. [laughter] i will take that question

from a public health standpoint. question -- i don't want to go too deeply, but i will tell probably the cdc -- not that i agree with them most of the time -- but how the center for disease control uses that and how they label that as the number one cause for the rise in hiv rates of black women in this country, because they have multiple sex partners because all their men are gone. they end up finding more and more. then their man comes out, and they get another one. not really looking at the other ,ocial determinants of health like direct poverty putting people at risk for health issues. that is probably the biggest one and how it we see

labels the african-american community. if a child's father was incarcerated or couldn't find a job -- we all know there are many reasons why people struggle in poverty or with education or or a waying employment to make a living wage -- if he is taken out, of course, this is why his children become criminals, as well. when you think about removing them, them being out of the community -- i feel so many emotions around this, i don't know if i'm answering your question -- this is the way they also criminalize and label women and families and communities. >> yeah, they are missing. we are missing them. their children are missing them. their sisters are missing them. our community cries and feels a

huge void with all of the men that have been missing over the decade, and all of the women. body men are the largest in the prison industrial complex, women are the largest growth number. over the past 30 years, it has risen 800% for women being incarcerated. i don't know that it is going to catch up with the man and the numbers -- the men and the numbers, but it is a huge problem. i can tell you, the children and the women and the homes that we missing.ey are there is a lot of pain and the loss of them. see, how doegin to

we restore all of our community members? >> let me just say, there is a question of misdirection that sometimes occurs. the conversation -- two things what is wrong with black women is the lack of marriageable black men. several things it does -- it --ates all black women, p women as people seeking husbands. husbands. want they want wives or other marriage partners or other things. it reproduces something that we have known to be true. remember the moynihan report. i just want to recall this. before theh was done 1964 civil rights act was passed or before the 1965 voting rights act was passed. this democrat, this bighearted liberal democrat decides that the primary problem of the black

community, before we are even -- fullvice and, citizens, is single parenting by black women. .hat has been the narrative it has nothing to do but -- with public policy, but it has to do with black women and their pathological relationships to their men and children. in fact, the current single parenting and divorce rates among white women right now are precisely what they were when the moynihan report was released. -- that no great upward is what the compulsory pregnancy, abortion for what the finalg is -- thing i want to say on this is, this narrative about daddy pain is also problematic for me. on the one hand, yes, people

have daddy pain. on the other hand, president obama is the first african- american president who didn't have a daddy. i'm going to say that again. he is the first black man to become president of the united black -- he didn't have a father in the household, but also has pain and angst. >> motivation. >> i'm not saying if one doesn't have a father it will motivate you that motivate you to be present. i'm saying, we want to be careful about the personal narratives. part of what president obama's the little boy-- story, not the actual man who is president -- is that if you're black daddy is missing, a white mom and white grand parents who can give you access to education and resources and opportunities bad trade-off in terms of maybe not your emotions but certainly your life outcome.

us trying to create salvation in black communities by marrying off black women to black men, we ought to create the opportunities and resources to sustain -- [indiscernible] michelle alexander herself would say, because i've heard her say it -- there is a part of her understanding of the new jim crow that doesn't interrogate gender in the way that it gives us a possibility of prison abolition. , we domean by that is miss men in our communities, and at the same time, what can we do as people who are trying to envision a different society? i came to this thinking about gender violence. them homeinging

differently? what would it mean if we brought men home from prison because we prison abolition community building and said, since you have been gone so long, how are we going to engage mutual raising, of children, building of communities, respecting of queer, gender nonconformity, instead of saying bring men home to marry women and establish nuclear, patriarchal families? what about, bring men home so we can create a different kind of community, and therefore be on the forefront on liberation politics instead of reinscribe reinscribing a-- patriarchy? lessme of myself who is

fortunate, not a woman of color -- how do we assist in this movement that definitely needs to happen, and secondly, does helpe service coordinating with this? >> i sent a bunch of babies over lot.em and learned a i had been doing service learning in new jersey and chicago. i learned a lot about new orleans through the mistakes i made by pulling my babies and sending them over. i was humbled to hear -- we have to be careful about our service learning model versus and engage fellowship model. >> i will say this one thing.

for example, i have a wonderful relationship with tulane's school of social work. i actually spoke at their graduation last year. it is funny because i love my relationship with them. we are able to be very honest. i am able to say what kind of students i want to come through. i say that because we get a lot of students that come in, and they want to save everybody. i'm constantly saying, not one person wants you to save them. they simply want the tools they need so they can do it for themselves. also, i love the fact that they say, we don't have any students of color this year. that is honest. i have had that with other programs, as well. because our clients are majority

african-american -- i actually make the joke, and maybe some of you may not take it lightly -- how white are they? when i say, how white are they, she will answer me, no, no, good range. [laughter] in that, i can tell you we have had -- every student we have had, they are now waiting or trying to figure out how they can find money so they can come back and work at women with a vision. we e-mail. we talk. that makes me feel like we are doing something right, when students who could go off and make major money are trying to figure out how they can take care of themselves in this city so they can organize and do the work with us -- it says a lot. i think it is about transformation on both sides. it is about being willing and

being open and understanding where you come from, what is your privilege, how it is that folks like you can use your privilege, and what it is you can use it for to move the effort forward. it is not without black people having no privilege. i understand that they do. identify what that is. black people know what white people's privilege is. what people often don't know what black people's privilege is. having that conversation, which is a difficult conversation -- people often say they want to help -- what does that mean? you are coming in, writing in on the horse -- i've got the flag on and i'm going to straighten that isy out -- no, no, not how it works. people that have done this work deon ornnot speak for susan -- trust is a huge issue. you can come with all the money in the world, and you can set it

right on the table, and you can lease. do you understand what i'm saying? if you want to have a relationship with me, understand what it is you are living in. we are living in this together. how do we get past everything that we have been told, what i have been told, what you have been told, the myths, the misnomers, all of that? i actually am the americorps vista leader here at tulane at the center for public service. vista, and a team of a lot of them are recent college grads. they finished in may or maybe a couple years before that or they might be grad students. we have a couple of folks outside of that range, like myself, the we are really a minority -- but we are a minority. training, asking

about race and gender or equality or inequality, one of the things, especially with the trayvon martin case that was mentioned before, one of the things that i think a lot of us conversation with people that we see everyday, people that we know, that we love and care about us, is that the experience of being an american if you are white is very different than the experience of being an american if you are not white. for me specifically, it is black, but i think that is also true for other people of color, for women in general, for the lgbt community. it really hit home for me because my boyfriend is white. abouthad conversations trayvon martin. he was saying, it was just too dumb people who made mistakes. this idea, we don't know what trayvon was up to that night -- that was something that i heard on a local radio station. you know what i mean?

they were saying, it wasn't verified that trayvon wasn't a criminal. one of the things that i was surprised to see come out was the conversation about "the conversation" that we as a community have to have with each and every one of our sons about how they are perceived when they are out on the street, no matter what they are doing, and how they should respond to that, that it is their responsibility to come home, that it is not the time for their pride, they need to take whatever abuse that is. >> the thing is, we have to have the same cons were conversation with our daughters. say that it is just an issue with our sons. our way of thinking as women of color, as black women, we need to sit down and think about how it is we have internalized this oppression. being oppressed, not being able to speak in our own voice and to

say what it is we need to say, the idea of the angry black woman, that is not who we are. we definitely need to consider our girls. we only think about our boys. our girls are being swept under the rug. [applause] >> my point actually was going to be that i think that we do have a similar conversation with each and every one of our daughters, but that is a different conversation about perception. it tends to be the perception that they internalize about themselves. the story that i found myself telling over and over again to my boyfriend and on facebook and two other people that wanted to talk about this case was, my niece just turned four years old this year, but she was three at the time -- she told me that she didn't want to be brown anymore because she needed to be white so that she could be the

princess and where the pretty pink dress. this is a conversation that i think black families know we are going to have with our daughters. we know we are going to have it with our young daughters. i didn't expect to have it with my three-year-old niece. i thought this is going to come at six or seven or eight. that is what i mean the experience about being an american is very different in colored skin. we have to look at our sons and say, perception does this for your life. we have to look at our daughters and say, perception does this for your life. sort of guarded their minds and hearts and souls about it. my question is, how do we, in an integrated community, make that experience real for people who don't live it but will still have to make decisions about georgeour ground laws, zimmerman verdicts, trayvon martin, those everyday things that for us are so personal, but to them are another day in the life? >> i wonder within our own

selves, have we had a conversation? why aren't we having the conversation amongst ourselves? why do we want other folks to understand first? we don't even understand it. we don't have a conversation about -- i will tell you one thing -- i have seven children. my sister raised my two older daughters. my sister suggested to my second daughter that she marry an older man, because an older man had security, right? he would be able to offer her what she needed because he worked for some time and amassed the money. our own perception -- do you understand what i'm saying? our own perception within our own culture, i don't understand why my sister would tell my daughter this. two very quick things.

youing a daughter, i feel on the princess thing, but i want to be careful about overly genedering it. the perceptions are not just about a feminine experience, but also the surveillance of the state on black women and poor -- itand latinas doesn't always look like stop and frisk. sometimes it does, by the way. sometimes it looks like something different. --veillance around anything your point about, if your child is in the free lunch program, then your whole family is under state surveillance, right? the second thing i want to say, let's be careful about the assumption that anything going on with us internally, psychologically is the cause of our inequality. one of the most important things you said -- an integrated community -- where do you live?

communities are not integrated. one of the things that black folks would realize if we spent -- itime with what people have lived in chicago, taught at princeton, i have seen a lot of white people -- it turns out a lot of people are deeply screwed up. a lot of white mothers are screwed up. a lot of what people feel bad about themselves. a lot of what people do drugs. a lot of white people rape other people. a lot of what people have all kinds of negative emotions and feelings. some have had a bad life experiences. many white people are not ethical or moral or have it together. they have all kinds of cash. i have resources, opportunity, privilege. i don't mean each and every white person, but as a group, the median white person is no more inherently together than the median person of color. but the median white house sold is shielded from the realities

of humanity, the frailties, the fragility's of loving the wrong person, marrying the wrong person, making bad decisions. they are not protected from it because they have worked out their angst about being descended from slaveholders. doings not why they are better. they are doing better because they are not under state surveillance. the whole "breaking bad series series, doing all these things, not going to jail, all because he's white. i'm sorry, i just went on a whole thing. [applause] >> i need to say this. >> it is killing me. >> please. [laughter] sheriffs comed into our neighborhoods, they walked out of the police station using the acronym f

>> they come out of the door, holster down, strapped up, saying they are about to go have fun in our neighborhood. this one thingy quickly because i always tell aries. you tellrea them sometimes it is not the right time to be tried full. i had both my children by the time i was 16. because i was struggling with my sexuality at the time and i really tried to like boys. it didn't work in that way. i have no problem saying that at this time in my life, but at 12th and 13 i was unclear about

what that looked like. i knew one thing, when i had my son in the city of new orleans. my big fear was that he would either go to jail or end up dead. i did everything i could by age 18 or 19 to move us to a very white midcity. we were one of three black families. i was hired when i was 18 my employer saw something in me. she saw something. what is important about that is what i was exposed to or what i had access to as 18 mom in this city. called gave me a book black mothers and their sons,

how to raise them and not ka bedle. i taught my son to prideful. i told him to ask the officer why are you stopping me. incarceratedbeen and never got to jail. i asked him how many times his mother argued with the police and said if you do not remove my son, because you have no legal right to hold him, it is going to be something. what is your badge number? or every time he came home at age 12 saying mom, what is my social security number? i wasn't poor enough so i didn't get any assistance. police every time the saw me they said the next time i see you you better know it. a pridefulm to be

black man. i needed him to know he had a right to speak up for himself. every time they would do that we would go to the police integrity and i would demand an apology every time. -- everyhis day when time you stop in the car, he will dial his mom and say they're pulling me over, the kids are in the car. i do think you meant anything by it ist i wanted to say one thing when you talk about ego, but pride is something we have to teach. it kept him alive and not from most of the things that most of us fear, because he really wasn't in that environment. it kept him alive in dealing with the other fear, the other people that could have taken his life. >> that is very powerful when i think about when your kid gets old enough to not call you.

is 30. >> my partner and i are raising a seven-year-old. my partner says please help you, cops chase you. i'm going to go back to my prison nation thing. -- part of the prison nation is what captures our minds and our spirits. disney does that to black girls. it is a to all girls, but to me, i think about trying to build a world where we are not involved in corporate driven capitalist consumption that leads black girls to one long blonde hair aat can get them out of a --

tower, rapunzel. i want to have a world where that is not the standard of beauty. if that captures your mind the same way that a cop chases you down -- i'm not sure and say they're the same thing because they are materially very different experiences, that the possibility of building a different kind of world says that there is beauty in all shapes and colors and sizes and genders. marriage equality is important not because we can get married but because people respect to we love and respect our family, right? it reframes things in a certain way. pride is always important in that project. it always says who i am, what i do, how are live, what i love, what i live through is as anyone else. we will me, is when start to decrease their use of the state to enforce certain standards of normative video.

ity. > one of the things i want to commend you all for, i know for a view. you are all my heroes. the thing is about this whole event is that it has been a long time coming. when you talk about incarceration, we think about males only. having been on that side of the fence, i always wondered about implications and complications of females have. for females going to the same age, i go to jail at 35, she was more than i lose. i can moderate 60 and can still

be someone who procreate -- who can procreate. for female she can't do that. every time we talk about it we envision what happens in angola and not what is going on in one horse towns were females are being incarcerated. 800ears ago there were females incarcerated in his state. it would so many now be considered alarming. i really encourage you to get one of ourth partners. tulane has been good with the service. folks are coming in and helping in the community.

i remember bill clinton saying one time, and down out of the peanut gallery, get out of the ring, roll up your sleeves and do some work. >> exactly. [applause] can't imagine a more fitting way in the city of new orleans to and any panel on incarceration than to have noris stand up and tell us to roll up our sleeves and do work. i also appreciated in part because there is this way in which we talk about men and women during our first assumption is husbands and wives or romantic partners. we forget the partnership is great,- my husband is but that is not what we're going for. here is about the ability to work together as peers. when i appreciate is that these sheroic. i appreciate

noris representing that. i do want to thank tulane for bringing the folks in tonight and for putting this together. i want to thank the community at tulane for engaging in the difficult conversations that are part of reading michele alexander's book together and the differences of opinion but that will undoubtedly bring up. i want to thank each and because the work you do is thankless work or thanked by only a few. i will say right now that i appreciate that you kept bringing us back to this idea of .ision if we can't imagine a world that is different -- my daughter

parker is in sixth grade. she spent this week having to memorize the second paragraph of the declaration of independence. that said, she was very irritated by having to learn this and kept expressing her irritation as being that it wasn't true, that racism and , all theselavery words were just words and they were true. fan of the declaration of independence. it doesn't matter fully that they were true in that moment in 1776, they constituted a vision of what was possible. the notion of a matching a world where all people are created where they are endowed to something beyond the state in

these fundamental rights and yet the state exists and is legitimate only to the extent that it protects those rights and protects them for all persons and for self-evidently quality. i appreciate you for reminding us that we have to keep asioning, even if we live in world where empirical realities are different thing. we have to keep imagining a world where the men aren't missing front communities, where that our racial differences make us inherently children are are co-conspirators in a crimes. i appreciate it because it is a new sort of declaration of independence. [applause]

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>> 1.3 million americans will no longer receive unemployment benefits after today. there was a push by some on capitol hill earlier to extend benefits for longer times. the extension was never voted on by lawmakers before they adjourn

for winter recess. us to talk about that is the hill -- is a reporter from "the hill." down for us, how do we get to the end of the benefits. what gets us to the brink the echo -- the brink? every pretty probably remember the fiscal cliff bill from the holidays of last year. who had been out of work for at least six months or more had gotten a nut or extension to the end of this year. congress needed to go ahead and .eauthorize this program advocates want another year and they fail to do it before they left for the holidays. a report states that

senator jack reed of rhode island announced thursday he he willounce its -- reduce a three-month extension. and that she will introduce a three-month extension. he will introduce a three- month extension. with: he is backing it up senator reid. we haven't heard much from any republicans outside of a couple who said they oppose it. say theybeginning to want to have these benefits paid for. they're costing about $26 billion per year. they are ok with the dam as long as the cost is covered. speaker john boehner said before the holidays that he would consider a plan from the white house from democrats but never saw one that he thought would be

-- he a strong extension said before hand he did not see anything he put before the house. he will have to see if they can get a short-term extension done with the get back. the number we are hearing is 1.3 billion -- 1.3 million, the people of -- the number of people who will lose benefits today. guest: people end up going into that long -- that long-term area. most states do provide 26 weeks of benefits. most states have cut that down to 19 weeks. people who were out of work for six months certainly could have trouble still finding jobs into the new year. it could be up to in other two or 3 million people next year. granted we are seeing some are improvements in the labor

market. we are seeing some people who are losing their jobs now are getting back to the job market a little back -- a little faster. there is certainly a cycle that has not changed at all during the downturn and the subsequent recovery that people who have been out of work long-term are struggling to find jobs. that is 37% of the unemployed. level,s maintained that somewhere between 37 and 40% for the past few years. it is definitely a tough hurdle for these folks to scale. we keep hearing this talk about just how crowded the legislative calendar is for lawmakers when they return in january. how likely is it that extending these benefits even temporarily will be a priority of lawmakers. harry reid said it is his first order of business when they return, which is why we are seeing a lot of activity over the holidays.

they kind of set this up for when they return in about a week and a half. whether we see enough support for it that is another story. they would like the benefits to be retroactive. people will not have to go without this lifetime -- this lifeline for longer than a week or two. are you hearing from president obama? what has he said on this issue? guest: he is a firm backer. hawaii andcation in did phone senator heller and senator jack reed, who were kind of leading the charge on this bill, and talked to them about important -- how important he thinks it is. they are backing this three months authorization to get the

ball rolling a little bit in hopes of being able to talk about this issue a little bit more, maybe talk about how to offset the cost of it. it will cost about $6 billion for three months. that, richard norton smith talks about president obama second term in office and how other second term presidents fared in the past. we will for your comments by phone and e-mail. washington journal is live beginning at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. next, a gold-medal ceremony on -- honoring code talkers who transmitted coded messages in

their tribal languages during world war i and world war ii. a total of 33 native american tribes were recognized at this ceremony on capitol hill. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. all come to the state capital. we are honored to be joined by those that made this day possible including dan boren from oklahoma. [applause] we are fortunate to have in congress two outstanding leaders, two native americans of tom cole and mark woolen -- mark mullen.

today, we need to immortalize men who were in no way, meeting for the first -- in a way meeting for the first time. during the second world war, he was a member of the 195th field artillery battalion. one day in 1944, he was walking through an orchard in southern france and heard one of his brother and singing under a tree. he recognized the dialogue and put them to work on opposite ends of the radio. that coincidence brought these men onto the stage of history and alongside the elite band that we call code talkers. i asking all of you to join me in welcoming him here and

thanking him for his service. [applause] edmund and his brothers were at normandy. they were on hiroshima. they mobilized the simplest weapon, language, to thwart the fiercest enemy that free people ever known, and they made a difference. after serving with honor, they did the honorable thing, they kept their service a secret, even to those that they loved. so, these wives and daughters

and sons aching to give back to those who gave up so much for them dedicated much of their own lives to unfurl in the truth, not for gain or glory, but just so people would know it is the story that is important, one of them said. many of these families are here today, and join me in applauding their perseverance. [applause] because of them, the deeds that might have well been relegated to legend will now live on in memory. in heroes that for too long went unrecognized, they will not be given our highest resignation -- designation. it has been the custom of this congress to award gold medals in honor of great acts and great contributions. the first recipient was a

general by the name of george washington in 1776. many names were put forward, but few receive the approval of both houses and the signature of the president of the united states. today, pursuant to hr 4544, we will recognize 33 tribes for dedication, valor, and for sharing what may be the toughest code, what it takes to be the bravest of the brave. they say every metal tells a story, but by adding these men to such lofty ranks, we also mean to add their story. one worth pondering today, one worth retelling every day. thank you all for being here. [applause] >> ladies and please stand for the presentation of the colors by the united states armed

forces, guard, the singing of our national anthem, and the retiring of the colors. ♪

♪ >> what so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh, say does that star-spangled banner

yet wave where the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪

>> please remain standing as the chaplain of the united states senate gives the indication. crocs let us pray. >> let us pray. oh, god, our refuge and fortress, we put our trust in you. thank you for this congressional gold medal ceremony that provides long, overdue recognition to native american code talkers of the first and second world war. we praise you, that you empowered these wind-talkers from many native american tribes to creatively use their native, but -- native town to save the lives of countless thousands who

would have perished on distant battlefields. lord, while sacrificing on foreign soil for freedoms they and their families were often denied at home, they were heroes, proved in liberating strife, who, more than self, their country loved, and mercy more than life. as we celebrate their patriotism, skill, creativity, speed, and accuracy that maiden victory in combat possible in spite of daunting odds, challenge us, oh god, to invest our lives in causes worthy of our last full measure of devotion.

we pray in your great name, amen. >> please be seated. ladies, united states representative from the fourth district of oklahoma, the honorable tom cole. [applause] [applause] >> as a native american, and as a grandson of a career naval officer, the son of a career united states air force noncommissioned officer, and the nephew and namesake of an uncle that fought and served honorably in japanese prison camps in the

philippines on the main island of japan, it is an honor of me to share this moment with each and every one of you. in the long history of american arms, no one has fought against an alliance -- in alliance with and for the united states of america like native americans, and that is true to this day. native americans still enlisted a higher level than any other race or ethnicity in this blessed land and they do so proudly with a determination to defend it. [applause] among the most famous of those warriors are the navajo code talkers of world war ii, but in all, 33 different tribes contributed, pen from my home state of oklahoma, and three from my district.

they saved lives, they won battles, and they did so by giving the united states a unique battlefield advantage, secure communication. all of the first code talkers were americans, but many were not american citizens. that did not come until 1924. the code talkers of world war ii were often barred from full participation in american life, that they still served with pride, patriotism, honor, and sacrifice. i am proud that congress is recognizing that unique service. i appreciate my friend dan boren's role in that, and by honoring these code talkers, we honor all native american warriors past, present, and future. good luck. god bless. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, united states representative from the

third district of wisconsin, the honorable ron kind. [applause] >> good morning. senator, my colleagues, established guests, 33 tribes that are the recipients of the congressional gold medal today, and most important to our native american veterans and our code talkers, those that were able to make the trip, and those who are unfortunately still at home, we welcome you. we'll you a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid, and on behalf of a grateful nation we thank you for your service and sacrifice. just a couple of weeks ago in this capital we dedicated the bust of prime minister winston churchill, and during the second world war, prime minister churchill was fond of saying that at time of war the truth is so precious that it must always

be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies, but in the case of our code talkers, that was not necessary. you spoke the truth, but in the words of your native language, and it worked perfectly. it was not deciphered, decoded. you did it with the next ring degree of accuracy and speed. as edmund knows, in the first 48 hours of the battle of you which imo, over 800 battlefield -- you would jima, over 800 battlefield communications were given with 100% accuracy rate typically in less than 30 seconds, when it would take a typical machine of the time close to a half hours to decode messages. it was a remarkable accomplishment that lead to a quicker and to that conflict -- and to that conflict and saved many lives on both sides. they returned home heroes, but

without a heroes welcome. the code was so effective that our military cap that classified in secret until 1968, and even then, it took many more years before the recognition started to take place of what our native american veterans and our code talkers in particular did during that time. it is a remarkable legacy that they share, and a remarkable story that needs to be preserved. that is why i am here to make one last request from a grateful nation -- to our native american veterans in attendance, and throughout the country, and to our code talkers here and at home, we're asking you to share your stories and make it part of the veterans history project. it was legislation i help to advance with the help of many colleagues with the intent to preserve an important part of american history, our veterans

stories, and what it was like for them to serve our nation, so that future generations will never forget the service and sacrifice that came before them. today, the veterans history project is housed at the library of congress. we have collected close to 90,000 veterans stories from across the nation during this time. they say it is the world's largest oral history collection, but many more stories are yet to be told. i hope we will be able to follow up with you, edmund, to see if you would be willing to share your story. colonel bob patrick, who heads up the history project, will follow-up with our native american veterans and tribes here in attendance to see if we can get more to participate and share these vital stories. i hope many of you will consider doing so. again, on behalf of a grateful nation, we say thank you for your grateful service, may god bless you and your families, all of our veterans and soldiers,

wherever they might be serving us throughout the globe today, and may god continue to bless these united states of america. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, united states senator from the state of south dakota, the honorable tim johnson. [applause] >> good morning, and welcome. it is an honor to be here today as we celebrate the military service of the native american code talkers. i worked for over a decade to honor the code talkers with the congressional gold medal.

it is gratifying that this day is finally here. the real work, though, began 95 years ago, when native americans from south dakota and across the country (homes and joined the military effort -- left their homes and join the military effort in world war i at a time when many native americans were not yet american citizens, but fought valiantly for assured homeland. native code talkers were used extensively in the european and pacific theaters during world war ii. the use of native languages was a fundamental tactic that saved untold numbers of lives and help to win both wars.

over the years, i have had the opportunity to visit with several of the code talkers and learn their personal stories. i always walk into those meetings inspired by the dedication to our nation. these men did not seek the limelight, and in fact, there is a tremendous impact to our military that was kept from the public for half of a century. there is no question their contributions were unparalleled, and have had a lasting impact on history. most of the native code talkers have passed away, but we will never forget their heroic actions and are forever grateful for their military service. today, we celebrate the lives and contributions to our country, with their families and friends who are with us today. congratulations to all of you. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, united states senator from the state of oklahoma, the honorable james in half -- the honorable james inhofe. [applause] >> we heard first from congressman tom cole who is our native american art of congressional delegation. i recall hearing from him before he was in congress and at that time i was in the house, and introduced us to this best-kept secret of world war ii and world war i, the code talkers. i look around and i see a lot of people who were very active

other than those on the program today, but on the program today we have made mention of dan boren. he is here. i believe wes watkins is one of the initial individuals who reminded us of this best-kept secret. so, for decades after world war ii, people did not know anything about the contributions we started introducing resolutions and it was not until 2008 that we were successful. i want to mention that the speaker talked about edmund of the seminole nation, one of our fellow oklahomans. those of us have been fortunate, those in oklahoma, involved in this meeting today, and one of the reasons is oklahoma has the largest population of native americans and second only to

california, and they cheat because they have more people. nonetheless, it became evident to us as to the contributions made. in his opening prayer, the reverend talked about the lives that were saved. we cannot quantify that but we know they were out there. because of the secretive nature of the code talkers contribution, you cannot say how many, but we know many, many lives were saved by these american heroes. we pay tribute to today, we love you, it will always respect you and remember you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the united states army band and chorus. ♪

♪

>> ♪ arrive for the flag of the free may it wave as a standard forever remember the day proclaim as they march but by their march they live forever ♪

>> ♪ hooray for the flag of the free may it wave as a banner forever

remember the day the claim as they march that by their march they live forever ♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the democratic leader of the united states house of representatives, the honorable nancy pelosi. [applause] [speaking native american language] >> good morning. it is an honor to be here with our speaker, to be here with our native american brother, with

ron kind, with the distinguished senator johnson, and senator inhofe, and we in california take great pride in having the largest number of native americans. in 1941, and of course, with the admiral that we will hear from later. in 1941, a young member of a tribe, charles, joined the u.s. army, one of 17 members of his tribe, he was recruited to speak their language in service to our country in world war ii. even in a nation that has long denied him his basic rights that long refused his people citizenship, that long neglected the challenges facing native americans, charles volunteered. like many of his generation, his

fellow code talkers and service members, he signed up to protect and defend our communities and shared homeland. that is the oath of office that we all take to protect and defend, and the code talkers honored that pledge and helped us to honor hours, all americans to do so. years later, we save lives using the native american language. as soldiers and marines with codes, no enemy could decipher the code talkers saved lives on the beaches of normandy and at iwo jima. they save lives on the invasion on d-day, the battles in the european theater, and fighting across the south pacific. they kept their code secret and safe, as the speaker mentioned. they served with undaunted

bravery, part of a band of brothers that defeated tyranny, said a confident free, and restore the hope of democracy across the globe. the code talkers carried forward the hope of their people committed to the cause of freedom. their sense of duty was never shaken, nor was there a result. their patriotism never wavered, nor did their courage. the bonds of brotherhood were never broken, nor was there code. for their heroism and sacrifice, the contributions that went unrecognized for too long is a privilege for congress to bestow the native american code talkers the highest honor we can bestow, the congressional gold medal, and by your acceptance -- [applause] and by your accepting it, you bring luster to this award.

may these metals long and/or as a sign of respect, admiration and unending gratitude for our native american tribes and the sons and the sons they sent to battle. we all know that god truly blessed america with our code talkers. thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the republican leader of the united states senate, the honorable mitch mcconnell. >> it is an honor to join my colleagues today in recognizing the service of the native american code talkers. a little more than a decade ago, congress and president bush honored the navajo code talkers for the tremendous contributions

during world war ii. today, we honor the rest of the code talkers whose extraordinary skill and heroism will be remembered as long as the history of modern warfare is told. rarely has a group of men then so crucial to a nation's military success, yet so little known for so long as the native american code talkers. these heroes, some as young as 15, answered the call when the country needed them, and they perform their task with extraordinary courage and grace. often working behind enemy lines, these men sent messages that once took hours to transmit in a matter of minutes or even seconds, all in the code they were not even allowed to put on paper for fear that it would be discovered by the enemy, and

then when they came home, they could not even talk about their achievements. they had to keep them secret so that no one would know about this new weapon of war. so, we are deeply grateful for their service. hopefully, in the years to come, the deeds of these good men will be more widely known and all americans will know the inspiring story of these native americans who saved so many lives devising and deploying a code so effective that our enemies never broken. it is a privilege to honor these men today, and to thank you -- thank them for their courage and sacrifice. the honor is long past due, but no less heartfelt. gentlemen, america is grateful for your service, and we are determined to honor the memory of your heroic deeds. thank you. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the majority leader of the united states senate, the honorable harry reid. [applause] >> according to firsthand accounts from the pilgrims when they arrived on this continent, native americans did not farm the land, so it was not truly their land. according to the pioneers who pushed past the mississippi, native americans were not civilized, so they did not truly own the land. according to prospectors who rushed for the hills of nevada, california, and even nevada, native americans did not speak english, so they did not truly own the land. strangers had forced the native

people from the land, slaughtered their game, stifled the religions, outlaw their ceremonies, and ravaged their communities. next, the newcomers even try to steal their languages. in the late 1800's, the united states government forced native american children to attend english-only boarding schools. native children were torn from their families, taken far from home in boxed cars and buggies, given english names, and forced to cut their hair short. teachers build the -- beat the children with leather straps when they spoke their native language. the government told them their language had no value, but the children held onto their language, culture, and history, despite great personal risk, and in this nations hour of greatest need, the same native american

thing disproves you have great value indeed. in the early war -- days of world war ii, japanese code breakers cracked every american cipher, everyone of them and military members needed a code so obscure, so unknown, that even their own decoders could not break it. the perfect secret weapon would be languages all but forgot outside of a few isolated communities. the united states government ingeniously turned to people whose language they try to eradicate, but why would native american to have been robbed of their land and their culture of greed to use their precious language to protect a country that either neglected or abused them for centuries? here is why. one native american code talker, a young navajo man by the name

of chester put it this way, "somebody has to defend this country. somebody has to defend freedom." the matter how many times the united states government had tried to convince them otherwise, the corporal new that the united states of america was his land. this young corporal was just a boy, a high school student, when he enlisted. native americans, like the corporal, were so eager to serve that many lied about their age to enlist. these brave soldiers, these code talkers had a special gift, their special -- sacred languages, and they selflessly shared that gift with our country, their country. their gifts saved countless lives and helped win the war, and their willingness to share it made them american heroes -- share it made them american heroes.

we honor our american heroes today. [applause] >> ladies and the speaker of the united states house of representatives, the honorable john boehner. [applause] >> thank you. i want to say thank you to my colleagues for their testimonials, and of course all of those in mid-december the possible. we are now going to present the medals -- made this ceremony possible. we are going to present the medals, and i am asking you to hold your applause until the end so that we can give all of our honorees their proper due.

>> ladies and gentlemen -- [reading tribe names] cheyenne and arapahoe tribes. ribes.ne sioux t hope tribe.