Here is the full transcript of Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boule on July 31.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Remarks and Acknowledgments
Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Oh, it is so good to be with all the leaders who are here. I want to thank the International President, Rasheeda S. Liberty. I thank you for your friendship and your leadership and for the warm welcome this evening. Thank you so very much.
And to the International Board of Directors, to the Council of Presidents of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, and to Congresswoman Robin Kelly, it is my great honor to be with everyone this evening. And please have a seat. I thought everyone was leaving. If you have a seat, please have a seat. Thank you all.
Addressing Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority
And to all the members of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated, it is so good to be with you this evening, and I say that as a proud member of the Divine Nine. And when I look out at everyone here, I see family. And, you know, we all, we share a vision for the future of our nation.
Ours is a vision of a future in which we realize the promise of America. And aren’t so many of us empirical evidence of the promise of America? A promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice, not for some, but for all. Since 1922, the members of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated have helped realize that promise.
Historical Achievements
Generation after generation, the members of this sorority have shown that greater service brings greater progress. I know. In the 1920s and ’30s, you created college scholarships for young black women.
In the 1960s and ’70s, you launched a nationwide program to help folks get a job. In the 1990s, you formed a partnership with St. Jude to fight childhood cancer. And in 2020, you continued your leadership when, during the height of a pandemic, you helped elect Joe Biden President of the United States and me as the first woman Vice President of the United States.
Call to Action
And for all of those reasons, I am here to thank you for your longstanding service to our nation and to declare in this moment that our nation needs your leadership once again. In this moment, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past.
And we in this room are fighting for the future. A future with affordable health care, affordable child care, and paid leave.
Economic Vision
And we fight for a future with equal pay for women. Because we know when we lift up the economic status of women, we lift up the economic status of children, of families, and all of society benefits. We here work for a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.
To build a business, to own a home, and to build intergenerational wealth. We here see a future where we bring down the cost of living for hardworking Americans, which is why we are fighting to ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.
Addressing Economic Challenges
To take on corporate landlords and cap rent increases. And take on big pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans. All of this to say, we are working to build up, to build up, not tear down, and to build up America’s families and America’s middle class.
Because we know when our middle class is strong, America is strong. But as we work to move our nation forward, let us be clear. There are those who are trying to take us backward.
Project 2025 and Opposition
You may have seen their agenda. They call it Project 2025. Right. And it is a 900-page agenda of extremism.
Project 2025 would raise taxes on middle-class families and cut taxes for billionaires; eliminate the Department of Education; and end programs like Head Start, which of course would take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children.
Critique of Previous Administration
All of this to build on what Donald Trump did in his first term. When he was president, he gave tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. He tried to cut Social Security and Medicare every single year.
And he and his allies have tried more than 60 times to end the Affordable Care Act. And to take us back to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions. Remember what that was?
Rejecting Failed Policies
Denying children with asthma, breast cancer survivors, grandparents with diabetes. And you know, America has tried these failed policies before. And we are not going back. We are not going back.
We all here remember what those four years were like. And today, we were given yet another reminder. This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.
And it was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth.
Vision for Leadership
A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. They are an essential source of our strength.
So I say to Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated, ours is a fight for the future. And it is a fight for freedom. Across our nation, we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won fundamental freedoms and rights.
Defending Fundamental Rights
The freedom to vote.