Speaking at the 88th NAACP New York State Conference in Erie County, Governor Kathy Hochul emphasized the importance of addressing historical injustices through a newly signed law to study reparations for slavery in New York. She reflected on the state’s overlooked past, where one in five New Yorkers were once enslaved, and celebrated the NAACP’s pivotal role in advancing civil rights. Hochul affirmed her commitment to working with the organization to uphold human rights and ensure a more equitable future for all communities across the state.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Momma Dukes. Yeah, it didn’t take you long to figure out why half of New York would come up and tell me I’m their sister because our common mother was Hazel Dukes. I have a very large extended family now, and I thank you for inviting me. Thank you for always saying yes when I said, “Hazel, I’m 10 minutes out from Sylvia’s. Can you meet me in a minute?” And thank you for teaching me with passion. Harvesting that power and energy is what it is all about. And we’ve been together a long, long time. And I hope to be for many, many more years.
I think about what you said about that young woman — that police officer — last night that came up to you, who really just wanted to touch you because she felt she was in the presence of greatness. You are just too humble to appreciate the fact that all of us feel that right now, including myself. Because you are the conscience of New York and our nation, and the challenges you had to fight long before the ones we have in front of us now, were extraordinary. I mean, names of history, you just didn’t read about them in a history book, you were there walking along the caskets. So, you are — you’ve been there to see history unfold. And the relationships you had — you know, Dr. King, when he saw you — Dr. Martin Luther King thanked you for the work you do. Not the other way around. He saw the power in you, Hazel. And so we — give that a round of applause.
She didn’t have a front seat to history, she lived history and she changed the course of history for the better here in the State of New York. And you pushed all of us and this extraordinary organization, which still today is a powerhouse. A necessary powerhouse. An organization that is so trusted, so believed in and has so much credibility, that when the NAACP takes on an issue, it means something to everyone in positions of power. Don’t forget what that means.
And what Hazel has done is give this organization the power and the credibility and all of our willingness to say, “We’d rather be on the same team as the NAACP than against it.” Okay? I just want to put that out there. It’s so much better to be on the same side of all these debates and arguments and conversations.
I also admire the way that you elevate others. I mean, just look who she calls up: A young man named Miles who’s a junior at Howard University. He’s going to be Governor some day but I’m going to be long gone, but Miles will stay. You’ll be all gone too. But she’s bringing up the next generation with the attention she gives to our Jessica and elevates her. And so, oh how proud we are to have her. And what you’re doing with the young people is something that we should not take for granted, because she sees her responsibility as not just the big organization we are today, but what she is going to leave it as for tomorrow. And all of us benefit from that, no matter what our ages are. So, building up that next generation of true leaders is something that we are all so grateful for, Hazel Dukes.
And so, let’s talk about some of the issues we’ve taken on together, because this has been a fight of my life as well. You would not look at me and know this, but people from Buffalo — Buffalo’s in the house. Francesca — her father and I were very close when I was running for local office. If you had the support of Frank Mesiah, you could do anything. You know, he left us with his daughter who just became even more extraordinary. So, I go way back with this movement. In fact, it’s from my family, my family’s DNA, because when I grew up, my parents lived in a trailer park. We had no way to look at them and say they’re going to be engaged socially, politically, civically, because it wasn’t what white working class people did at the time. Except this was the 1960s. And my parents were raised as social justice Catholics. Which said to them, “We can’t just sit here and pray for an hour in church on Sunday and hope all goes well. The other six days a week, I better be out there.” And that took my parents to the streets.
They joined in the civil rights marches in the 1960s and they took their huge brood of little kids, including myself, with them to those marches. We protested the Vietnam War at a time when I had four uncles serving, because we did not think it was a just war. We stood up to that.
My father and mother started an organization in Buffalo, which I think is over 60 years old now, Housing Opportunities Made Equal, HOME, right? Our mom and dad were part of that. My dad was about in his 30s when he did this. And in fact, my father passed away a year ago and I went through his materials and all of his papers — there’s a survey he had done in 1965 as a young man going door to door at the houses in the white neighborhoods of Buffalo, Amherst, knocking on the doors and saying, “What is your perception of race relations in America today? And are they good? Are they bad?”
These are all white neighborhoods, he was asking them. And one of the questions was, “Do you believe that in 10 years from now, there’ll be no more racial discrimination or segregated communities?” And the overwhelming answer was, yes.
In 1965, people had an expectation that the vestiges of slavery and discrimination would have been gone from our society. Not successful. It did not work out that way. But that’s why 2024, because that did not occur at the time we thought it would.
Now, the march towards progress moved on. We just signed the John Lewis Voting Rights Legislation on the anniversary of when the civil rights legislation was passed.
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She’s got a good memory. She’s got a good memory. And you think about what John Lewis did, I served in Congress with him. I mean, I have to tell you what it’s like when you’re sitting next to John Lewis, like, “We’re both members of Congress. How did this happen?” Because I knew his story. He was such an inspiration to me. And what he said was, “When you see something that is not right, not just not fair, do something about it. Just do something.”
So, his voice and my parents’ legacy of involvement and teaching me that you cannot sit on the sidelines of any fight; as long as there’s anyone who’s oppressed, you must be engaged on their behalf, that has propelled me to a life in politics. Believing at first I would just be a good staffer. I’d be behind the scenes. I worked for a lot of good people, Senator Moynihan and others. But at some point you’re called to step up and say, “I could do more on the inside than the outside, and here I am.” And I thank all of you who’ve been on that long journey with me that brings me to a position where I can use the power of the office of Governor and right the wrongs of the past that so many others knew they could have done but chose not to.
And let me talk about one of those: One of them, which I very proudly signed into law, was a study on reparations to examine the practices of slavery in our own state. Nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody wanted to acknowledge that there was a time when one out of five New Yorkers were enslaved New Yorkers. That there’s a burial ground in lower Manhattan. The unmarked graves of those who used their sweat and tore the built up Wall Street into what it is today. And that’s part of the story. And that story goes all over the State of New York. It goes back pretty far. That’s the beginning of the NAACP. There she is. Linda, how are you? Linda Robinson. Syracuse is in the house.
Let me tell you about this history, because it was 1901. I hear you say that like, you know, the history — 1901. Pan American Exhibition like the World’s Fair. It’s the biggest thing that ever happens. It came to Buffalo because Buffalo is a wealthy, prosperous community. And everybody came. It was the first time they saw buildings electrified. People’s jaws dropped. Like, “Oh my god, there’s lights on buildings; street lamps.” There’s an exhibit that one woman named Mary Talbert saw, and she did not think it accurately portrayed the real story of the enslaved Africans who came to this country.
So she wanted that changed because all these exhibits about people from around the world — she wanted that changed. And we got together and started something called the Niagara movement. They started talking about other ways that people are discriminated against, even at a time when they’re celebrating great cultures around the world. That Niagara movement evolved into four years later — this nationwide recognized organization. So that’s in my DNA. I can’t help it. I can’t help it because that’s how I was raised. It’s who I am.
And there are so many more fights together, my friends. That’s one of the reasons why, when issues come to me, like the Clean Slate legislation — when you say you have paid your debt to society — why do you still have handcuffs on when you’re trying to find a job? And people talk about these for years and years and years and nothing happens. And you just have to stand up and say, “Under my watch, we will be agents of change and set us on a different path of history.” And that’s what I can continue doing. And I’m grateful to do that.
It’s also so many other areas like taking care of health care. Do you know that for families earning less than $108,000 a year, they can get child care for $15 a week now? Think about that. Think about that. That’s why so many women cannot get into the workforce. Who’s watching the children? I had to leave my job that I loved because I couldn’t find child care many, many years ago. So, these are experiences that I’ve lived, that all of you have lived. I want to make sure that for the next generation — they shouldn’t have to know the struggles of redlining and trying to start a business. And while it took so long, we’re going to have an MWBE certification, the State of New York. It used to take 500 days to get that certification. Here it is now, because I went in there and I said, “What? 500 days?” It’s down to 60 to 90 days tops now. Let’s get more people involved in being entrepreneurs so we can start creating generational wealth and buy that home someday, or at least get a nicer apartment for their families and cover the cost of an education.
These are all human rights, and I am so proud to be in this march together with all of you. And lastly, as I think about the great women of history — who’s been to Harriet Tubman’s homestead? That is one of my favorite places in the world, because, as an 8-year-old little girl, I used to go to the library all the time. It was back when little kids could cross the streets by themselves when they were 8-years-old. I used to do it to get away from all my younger siblings.
I’d go to the same place, the same library, week after week and check out the Harriet Tubman book. Finally, they gave it to me because, I had read that story, I’d lay under my covers at night and I’d read about this woman, tiny woman, who found her way through the woods when the overseers, and the dogs and the horse were chasing her, and she touched the side of the trees, the north side was north, making sure she was going the right direction.
And, she found her home — in the last 50 years — in Auburn, her resting place, and she created what she wanted to be a home for “ancient Negroes,” she called it — people who had left and had served in the Civil War, had nowhere to go because their homes were destroyed. They had lived on plantations and now they were free. Where would they go? She started a home for them in Upstate New York, and you go there and you see the tiny bed she slept in — the little iron tea kettle that’s still there.
If one woman like that can make the difference she made, we have no excuses, my friends. We’ve been given so much more — our lives are so much easier. We do not have to walk through the woods in the dark being chased by dogs. That is not who we are today, but there is similar, outrageous behavior out there that we must continue to stand up against, and really, are we allowed to talk politics here or not?
Okay, let’s look at you, because I don’t know about all your stuff. Okay, can we talk about it? Look at the racism that has dominated the Republican Party as they try to attack Kamala Harris for what she’s doing. She is a woman of accomplishment, and she didn’t wake up one day and become the Vice President of the United States. She was fighting hard — fighting crime in the streets. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to become elected as a District Attorney of a large U.S. city as she did with San Francisco.
It is not easy to get elected Attorney General in the largest state in America. It is not easy to get elected United States Senator in the largest state in the country. She has a lifetime of service, and for them to not recognize that — and if they’re unhappy with Joe Biden that is wrong. That is wrong.
How do you change that dynamic? How do you push it in the recesses of history? How do you make them go away? You win. You win this election. You bring home a victory like you’ve never seen before. And, I can feel it in my bones. I really believe it. All these close polls. She’s going to blow it out of the water, because people are going to say, “I came up, I care about this country, I put my faith in that woman because she’s going to deliver it for me.” And, what else are we going to do here in the State of New York? My friends from Nassau and Suffolk, Battle Ground, Hudson Valley, Battle Ground, Syracuse, Battle Ground, okay? I’m looking at all of you. What are you doing here? Get out there. I’ll give you a couple hours off.
This is what Kamala Harris needs as President. She leads the House of Representatives, run by Hakeem Jeffries. And then she can deliver on her agenda, right? I served in Congress when Barack Obama was President, but the Republicans ran the House of Representatives. They tried to trip him up and stumble himevery step of the way. You know what we did when I was there? 43 times they tried to get us to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And I wouldn’t do it once. My Republican district wanted me to repeal that bill, and I wouldn’t do it. As a result, I’m a former member of Congress. But I’m doing okay.
I had a different vision, right? But that’s what I’m talking about. I don’t want Conway to be paralyzed by a Republican House. So we will win those battleground seats. From Syracuse down to the Hudson Valley, all the way to Long Island. And that’s what New York will do to save democracy, save our country, and make sure that the good people with good hearts, who care deeply about others, will become the leaders in our nation.
And it rests in all of our hands. And that’s power. That’s the power of this organization. It’s the power of all of you. It’s the power that I’m going to use as the leader of the Democratic Party here in the State of New York. I’m not done yet and I’m just getting warmed up.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much.
October 11, 2024 Albany, NY
Sources: NY.gov , Midtown Tribune
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