Fmr. Vice President Kamala Harris Speaks at National Urban League

Thank you for stirring our souls, Pastor McCarroll. And ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm round of applause to Mark H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. Good afternoon, Urban Leaguers. I am so thankful to see all of you here this afternoon on the third day of our 2026 annual conference. And I, once again, want to ask all of you to put your hands together for the leader of the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, Clifton Harris, and his team for all of the incredible work. And when you walk by one of the blue-shirted volunteers, I hope you will say thank you to them for helping us make this a great success. I also want to take a moment, because it's important that we do it, to thank the men and women who are serving us today, and the men and women who work in the back and in the kitchen, and all of the support staff here at the Music City Center, if we give them a round of applause. And again, when they come to your table and serve you, please say thank you, because the Urban League way is a way of gratitude. I also want to thank, he's present with us this morning, this afternoon, the chair of our board, Tim Murphy. Once again, Tim, thank you so very much for your steadfast leadership and presence. Yesterday was a powerful moment. When we welcomed the three families of the young men who tragically lost their lives, it was an emotional time, as we heard about the details of the stories behind each of these tragic losses. And I say thank God for lawyers like Ben Crump and his team, who give the victims of violence and their families someone to fight for them so that there is transparency and justice. And yesterday, one of the reporters at the press conference tried to suggest that Ben and all of us who were updating the community on these tragic incidents were simply in pursuit of publicity. What a sad, sad, ridiculous commentary. And we had to respond to them and answer to them. When we fight for justice, we have every right to talk loudly, clearly, and forcefully to the community, because we have to hold systems accountable. That's our work. We don't do that if we don't stand up. So we're gonna continue to monitor and work with the lawyers and the family. All they want is transparency. No blame, no gain, simply transparency so we can find out what happened to these three young men. At this time, it is my honor, my distinct honor to introduce and present someone who has been to this Urban League Conference many times. In fact, the person I am about to introduce was with us in 2004 in Detroit when she was one of the original inductees as a woman of power. Her career, since that point, took off like a skyrocket as she went from being the district attorney in San Francisco as the first black district attorney in San Francisco to become the attorney general of the state of California, the first African American to serve in that position. Later on, was elected to the United States Senate, representing the state of California, and then made history as vice president of the United States of America, the first woman, the first black woman to do so. And we are proud of her accomplishments because we know when you accomplish great things against great odds, you will face all of the naysayers from all over. We spend no time as urban leaders arguing with donkeys. We spend no time arguing with naysayers. We don't give oxygen to player haters because we focus on accomplishments that are prideful and historic and on people and leaders and personalities who are doing the work, the work of addressing the challenges that we face. Her accomplishments include working on an expanded child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan, leading a federal police reform executive order that tightened use of force rules, and establishing a national database to track officer misconduct, all that aligned with the National Urban League's 21 Pillars Framework. She has fought for reproductive freedom, for gun violence reduction, for the freedom to vote, for clean air and water, for job and wealth creation through investments. She was instrumental in the confirmation of Justice Katonji Brown Jackson, who also made history as the first black woman on the Supreme Court. She traveled to 21 countries, and I'm grateful that we had an opportunity to join her in Ghana as a part of an effort to expand this nation's relationship with the continent of Africa. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to welcome back to the National Urban League a friend of the Urban League movement, the 49th Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. ♪ Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ If I see your storm comin' ♪ ♪ Read the book of my life and see I'm overcoming ♪ ♪ Just because the length of your hair ain't long ♪ ♪ And they all been waiting side to side ♪ ♪ On your skin tone ♪ ♪ Go and hold your head high ♪ ♪ Cause you're a pretty woman ♪ ♪ Get your only spot on the club ♪ Good afternoon Urban League. Hello. You know, we're excited to have you with us this afternoon, and we've got people here from all over the country, But I reminded everyone that you have been here more times than I can count. On the back of the envelope, I think I've counted 12 times. But maybe I've missed a few between this and our legislative policy conference and many other engagements we've had. So we are indeed so proud that you're back today. I want to start today with just your assessment, your sense of the moment that we are living in, the condition of this nation, and the challenges we have because we're trying to maintain hope. Yeah, that's right. We're trying to maintain strength. We're trying to maintain the fight. What's your assessment? What's your sense? What commentary would you have on the state of affairs at this moment? How's that for being articulate? Easy question. Well, let me preface it by first thanking you, Mark, and everyone in this room for the work that you are so dedicated to that is about lifting up the voices of people who must be seen and heard and receive the dignity to which they are due. It is tireless work. It is often thankless work. And the leaders in this room do it every day without any expectation of award or reward. And I am so deeply thankful to you for lifting up and carrying the legacy of this incredibly important American organization and institution, especially in these most troubled times. You know, we are looking at a historic moment, and not for good reason. We are looking at a moment that has been about taking us back. You look at the Calais decision, taking us back to Jim Crow. You look at a United States Supreme Court. I became a lawyer because of one of the people I idolized, which was Thurgood Marshall. And everything he did and they did on that court, everything Charles Hamilton Houston and Constance Baker Motley did to allow that court with Thurgood to do the good work that was about trying to make real the promise of America when it comes to liberty and justice and equality. Yet we are living in a time where we see the three branches of government that are supposed to be co-equal, that are under their watch, allowing a disintegration and deterioration of those principles and values that we have held ourselves out to value and hold dear. We have seen a United States Supreme Court, which now a few years ago told the chief executive, the president of the United States, he'd be immune from whatever he does in office. And so what have we seen as a result of that and so many other factors? We have seen what should be three co-equal branches of government now become one superior to the other two in many ways. We see in a state like Tennessee, state governments who are overtly, without any apology, threatening the very thing that we say we stand for, which is a democracy and the right of its citizens to vote. I'm sure that Mark, you guys have been talking about what's happening in Memphis. A predominantly black city that has now been carved into three different districts that is intended, that action, to basically wipe out the black vote in any meaningful way in this state. You see what happened with the Calais decision. And if you read that decision, the court justified it basically by saying, well, it's politics, so we're not going to interfere. You know what they did? They backdoored racism through politics in that decision. And so right now we are looking at a situation in the South in particular where we could lose a significant amount of representation. And yes, we should talk about it in terms of who will lose their office, but we also know that most importantly, it's going to be about the people that will lose their representation. These are troubled times. We have a president of the United States taking America into a war the people didn't ask for, spending billions of dollars without paying attention to the people right here in America who are losing their health coverage every single day because of policies that they're pushing to pay for a tax cut for the richest people in the country. These are troubled times, Mark. And yet, I remain optimistic. And I'm going to tell you why. Just being backstage here, I met one of the young leaders. She's about to go to law school. Where are you? She's about to go to law school, and we were talking about it. She's been working here at Urban League, and she wants to go to law school. And I said, well, what do you want to do with that law degree? She said, fight for civil rights. You know? Fight for civil rights. She is a member of Gen Z. Gen Z is a bigger population demographically than boomers. Get comfortable with that, boomers. And when I meet young leaders like her or the young leaders that I recently met at North Carolina A&T, because I heard about how they were organizing around voting rights, and I went to go meet with those students at North Carolina A&T, the largest HBCU in the country. Who then told me about how they are in a fight because the elected officials in that state took the polling place from their campus. Took the polling place from the largest HBCU in the country. From our young leaders who are at that phase of life. We all know, those of us who have parented children, that phase of life where we want to make sure they are learning the good habits of being an adult, including to get used to voting every cycle. And they took the polling place. But these young leaders are organizing. They're organizing to the point of raising money to get buses to be able to take the students to go to the polling place. They're organizing and going up to their state capitol and demanding to be heard. They're not deterred when they went up to their state capitol, and the leader at the podium in the chambers, they're not deterred when they were told this. They were told, you have five minutes to leave. And those students are not deterred, and they are fighting. And they are fighting in the traditions of this organization, and all the people in this room. So I remain optimistic, but we have a fight in front of us. As you think about this Calais decision, and the effective gutting of the Voting Rights Act through Shelby and Calais, how do we best respond? You're a brilliant lawyer, been a legislator and an executive. How do we best respond to what is really a setback in terms of a tool that we've used to protect our voting rights? How do we best respond? Okay, real talk? Real talk. Straight talk. I honestly don't believe that it will be any time soon that we are going to revive the Voting Rights Act. So I don't believe that it is going to be a good, the best use of our energy right now to try to get that done, because I don't know that it's going to get done right now. The way this Congress is composed, and the way they have been treating civil rights issues. I'm hopeful, but I don't know that it's going to happen any time soon. So I think part of it is we've got to think about now, and I was talking to this young woman about this, now when they have destroyed the infrastructure we built over decades, and had in place with the Voting Rights Act for 50 years, how are we going to achieve the goal when that infrastructure has been destroyed? And we're going to have to be creative. Part of it is, these midterms are coming up, and it will make a decision about who at least rules the House, if not the Senate. And so we have to do the work of telling people right now, check your voter registration status. Make sure you aren't one of those people whose names got purged inappropriately. Make sure you've checked on your polling place, because they've been playing games around moving the polling place where your grandparents always voted, and so on election day when they go to that elementary school down the block, they might find that that polling place is closed. Registering folks to vote, and having an agenda that is about turning out the vote in the greatest numbers we have ever seen, so that in light of, and in this environment where they are cheating, we will be too big to rig. Too big to rig. It means being ruthless. They are ruthless. We need to be ruthless too. And by that, I do not mean cruel. That is not our nature. By that, I do not mean breaking the law. That is not what we do. But I do mean we must be uncompromising. And we must allow for a real conversation about revisiting certain things. For example, and I know this is going to be controversial coming from me in particular, we need to revisit the electoral college. We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts. We need to revisit, if they so want, statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. If we regain control of the Senate, I served on this committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, when I was in the Senate. Only the second black woman elected to the United States Senate after Carol Moseley Brown. The Senate Judiciary Committee has the power to create rules for its committee that don't have to go to the whole Senate for a vote and worry about filibuster and all of that. We should demand, if we win back the Senate, that the Senate Judiciary Committee have the strength to put in place rules that would include if a nominee for a federal court or the Supreme Court comes before them and starts lying, that they hold them in contempt. If they refuse to give information for which the committee righteously requires, they think about accountability and consequence. And that those members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have the courage, because we require it, to hold people accountable who are misleading intentionally. You really embrace an aggressive agenda. We Wednesday night came out in favor of a strong code of ethics for the Supreme Court, a term limits for the court, and I support an expansion of the court. And I think people should understand the Supreme Court has not always had nine members. Nothing sacrosanct about nine members. And we have to do what indeed we need to do. I want to switch gears to foreign affairs. And let's focus. I want to create this context. So it appears as though American foreign policy is hyper-focused on the Middle East. Not to suggest that the Middle East is not important. But that there is not significant focus on our relationship with Africa, our relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, while China is on the move in Africa in a very significant way, has increased its investments there. What should American foreign policy, and how do you convince those, I'll call it beltway types, that American foreign policy should be much more expansive than a hyper-focus on the Middle East? How do you convince, and should it be that, or is the Middle East so pivotal to everything that that is where our focus needs to remain? Well, let me start with this. As Vice President of the United States, I met with over 150 world leaders. Presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and kings. Many of them multiple times and developed relationships with them. And I will say that one of the concerns that I've had for quite some time, even before the 24 election, is I worry, and it kind of pains me to be honest with you, do the American people writ large understand how important we are to the rest of the world? I don't mean the government, I mean the people. Because part of my experience has shown me that the relationship between nations, yes, it has something to do with the relationship between those leaders, but it also has something to do with the relationship perceived by the people of those nations with the others. The whole history of African Americans in the United States is well known in many parts of the world, and the plight and the struggle has been one of those examples of other nations knowing who we are and finding some level of identification with the need for the people to have to fight for their rights and then see success when they organize and speak up. This president, this person in the White House right now, has, first of all, he is the first president of the United States, Democrat or Republican, who has openly thumbed his nose at the importance of alliances. Imperfect though many of them have been, but this one openly thumbs his nose at the importance of alliances. The other thing he openly does is thumb his nose at the notion that America should be a protector of international rules and norms. He is an isolationist with a supposed America first agenda, who because of his failure to understand America's role, imperfect though we may be, has accomplished two things. He has accomplished making America seem less reliable as a partner, and he has accomplished that America now has less authority than it ever did to weigh in on global matters. You mentioned the continent of Africa, and I was so honored when you and Michelle came on the, as part of the delegation that I took to the continent and Ghana being the place where we were hosted with a state dinner. So as vice president, one of the areas of focus for me in international policy was the continent of Africa for a number of reasons, including the median age on the continent of Africa is 18. It is estimated by 2050, one in four people occupying space on mother earth will be on the continent of Africa. Yes. So my point as vice president was trying to then change the narrative around our relationship with the continent in a way that yes, we would preserve whatever we had historically done that was about support for natural disasters, for disease, AIDS, HIV, AIDS being another example, but also that we would shift to understanding the importance of partnerships with African nations, and we raised billions of dollars from American corporations to invest in those partnerships. Of course, what we have seen now, because it is a matter of perspective, we can, as we have learned with this administration, take nothing for granted in terms of how we have always played in the world. When they, it's so unbelievable that they got rid of USAID. And you saw the recent numbers, as many as, what is it, 600, 700,000 people have died because of withdrawing American aid for humanitarian purposes on that continent. And USAID funded the purchase of American agricultural products for countries all over the world, so when USAID shuts down, they hurt growers and producers, and it's so significant. How, we now have a war in Iran that the United States Congress has not authorized. How do we prevent presidents from engaging in unauthorized wars in the future so that this experience does not become precedent setting for future presidents? Let me be clear. Just engage in foreign conflicts at whim and at will that the Congress has not authorized nor funded. How do you stop this? Well, let me just be on the record. I would have opposed it even if they had approved this war. And here's why. There has been no articulation of the end game. Right. There has been, you know, he's now talking about this deal. You know, the deal would basically be what Barack Obama got, that he pulled us out of. And, you know, I think that it is important to not be a conspiracist, but at the same time, you can listen to what people are saying and wonder, is it just a full-on distraction from the things he can't handle or has not handled? But this war is a war of choice. That this president got into with Israel. Yes. With no clear national security issue for us. If you look at it in terms of what was happening with the nuclear program and there are now courageous U.S. service members who have died. They're asking for hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for this war. Meanwhile, you have people in America who are losing their health care every day. Cannot afford their housing, cannot afford health care, cannot afford child care. And so, yes, it is about congressional authorization, but it is also about how do you use the resources and power of the United States of America, our taxpayers, and our government in a way that best meets the needs of the people. Yes, in terms of their security first and foremost always, but their well-being as a whole. This war is an example of action that is contrary to all of the above. Let me ask you another question in a little bit of a different vein. In your view, rank the top three most effective presidents in American history. Oh, Mark, don't make me do that. Oh, you can turn the question around and ask me. You know, it was actually interesting. I couldn't sleep last night and I was watching NPR was doing a whole, did anybody watch a whole thing on FDR? Did you watch it? And it was, you know, his three terms in office and it was interesting to, and of course the role of his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. And, you know, he did some good things. In fact, it was he who talked about the expansion of the Supreme Court and then he got ferocious back, you know, kind of blowback for that. But he did good, it was social security. It was, you know, when I think about what he did in terms of investing in the people in during dire times and talking about the role and responsibility of government, that it should not just be about the benevolence of community organizations or just interpersonal relationships, that the government has a role. I think that he was a very important president. He appreciated that government has, in my mind, three essential functions, which is public health, public safety, and public education. You know, I will credit, like, give me more time to really think about this. I credit, you know, Kennedy, of course, in terms of what he laid the groundwork for and then Johnson followed up on. Of course, of course. Right? Around having the ability, but that was, again, an example of the inside outside game. Because the reason that happened is because the pressure was on from the outside to appeal to the conscience of the people on the inside. Yes. And so, I don't think that there's been any great president who has been without that kind of pressure as well. And then, of course, Barack Obama. Yeah, of course. Yes. Yeah. And what he did with the Affordable Care Act, among many things, but in particular, if we had one issue that has been ailing America for generations, which is a health care system that has failed anyone other than the rich, and addressing that the way that he did and took a lot of heat for it, I think he's one of the greatest presidents. Well, you named three, and I agree with those three, right? Particularly 20th century. FDR, and you can never, ever compare with Kennedy and Johnson. The Kennedy-Johnson administration was able to accomplish in so many ways. And, of course, Barack Obama, I think, not only his accomplishments, but the fact that he never embarrassed us. He never, ever embarrassed us. He operated with dignity and class and put up, he never sweat. The man never was sweated. He never flinched when even the haters got loud and wrong with him. So, I guess the next question related to that, because you've had a chance to serve in the White House, what's the profile of a great president? What are the characteristics that are really required to do the job and do it effectively? What really does it take? Because people may look at it from the outside. You have a chance to look at it both from the outside and the inside and serve on the inside. What are the characteristics? I think people are really thinking as they think ahead. What is the profile? What are the characteristics? Sometimes what we see is not what we see. What do you think? One of the, I think, most important qualities of a leader who can make decisions that impact other people is the kind of leader who is more concerned with looking at and to the people than looking in the mirror. Which is about understanding it is not about you. It is about service. And are you listening to the people to hear them as opposed to tell them what they need? I think that's critically important. And, you know, there are plenty of elected leaders who will talk about going on a listening tour. And what they really mean is listen to me. So it's about listening to the people, which is an extension also of a very important character trait that any president should have and any leader should have, which is empathy. Which is the ability to have at least some level of curiosity, if not concern, about the well-being of other people and then take it upon oneself to do something about it. There is the quality that is everything that flows from the concept of integrity, which includes speaking the truth and being honest with the people. And, you know, and sometimes that will result in being unpopular. But in my experience in elected office, it is better to weather those moments when you are unpopular than it is to lose the respect and trust of the people. Thank you. I'm not asking you to make any news here. That was so clearly like a lead up to something. Come on, Michelle. But you have many, many, many friends and supporters in this room, you know, and in the Urban League movement. So I'll probably just ask this. You know, we're all clock watching, date watching, time watching. When do you want to come back and talk to us? Anytime, you know, this is home to me. But I just do want to stress, 28 will not matter if we don't win 26. And, you know, I was sharing with some of the friends here, you know, I've been traveling the country since I've been, I guess, one might think of me as being currently unemployed. So I've had a little time. And I've been spending a lot of time in the South in particular, and especially now with this Calais decision. You know, just to revisit that point, what they are doing to cheat, you know, some 19 states have done redistricting. And there are many more who didn't have to do redistricting because they already had cut the lines in a way that excluded blocks of voters. And this administration and the people who are leading in a lot of these places, they know that the people are not stupid. The people see that they're paying too much for gas and groceries and housing and childcare. They know on merit that they don't have a whole lot to be proud of. And so they know that if the people vote, it is very likely that they may vote them out of office. And so they are cheating. And they are not without power. So we have to counteract that. And part of it is to remind, and this is what the Urban League does so well in every community around our country. We have to remind the people that the power is with them. We have to remind them that this is not a time to feel hopelessness. That if you feel powerless, you will be powerless. If you feel powerful, you will be powerful. And we are powerful. And right now, there is so much at stake in these midterms. We don't have the court to look out for the needs about equality and justice and fairness and freedom. We don't have an executive branch who is doing much beyond attacking all those rights. But while we can hold on to a democracy, we do have that third branch, which is Congress, which if we can win even one half of it, we can have some of the guardrails to stop the pain. And if we're only focused on 28, we're losing a lot of folks who need to be seen and, dare I say, protected from the attacks that we are witnessing. And so I appreciate the question and the intrigue. I have not made a decision, but I will tell you, I am fully, sincerely focused on these midterms. And I know we're going to be working together on it. And I thank everybody here for that. So all I will say is we appreciate that. And we just want you to know that when you've got some things to tell us, we want to be the first to know. And we want to convene a special meeting, the Urban League Movement, so you can let us know what your thinking is. We really appreciate your presence here today, your hard work. We are focused on the midterms. We are encouraging our people to vote with vengeance, with passion, with conviction, to send a very, very strong message. We have work to do. There has to be the investment in the ground game necessary to get out the vote, and we are encouraging that. But we appreciate your voice, and you're welcome into any of our Urban League communities, any of our Urban League affiliates, at any time you want and you wish. So when you travel, our doors are open. Our folks want to hear, because you're one of us. And we thank you so very much. Ladies and gentlemen, Urban League, brothers and sisters, give the vice president a big round. Show some love. Show it loud. Show it proud.