-Thank you, Carissa. Why do you get the cool mic?
I've got to bend down on this thing.
Give me the cool mic. Does it work?
Is it going to work? Okay.
Now I feel young. I see your father out there.
Pastor Braxton, raise your hand. That's a proud papa right there.
So we are making history, and my job right now,
as we make history together as a community,
is to keep the program flowing. I'll say some closing remarks,
but we have some people much smarter and better
looking than me that are part of this program.
I want to recognize all the council members
that are here right now.
Would you just raise your hand and I could see you.
Councilmember Bob Kettle, Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth,
Councilmember Bob Saka, Councilmember Tammy Morales.
Who did I miss? Councilmember Dan Strouse.
I know them by name. Councilmember Tonya Wu.
Thank you for being here. This is truly awesome.
A few of them will be sharing some remarks.
And if you are a department head, just raise your hand.
I'm not going to say it just, I want you to know
we got the who's who in our cabinet here.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for being here.
So first we're going to have, we are blessed to have Blaize
and Channing Gustarb say the anthem.
I met them. They are so beautiful.
They are twins. They are 10.
Their birthday is August 8th
and they are going to bless us with the anthem.
And they said we're going to have fun with this, right?
This is like family.
Okay, so we're going to go. How are we doing this?
Are we're going to give them some mics? Come on up.
Oh, everyone stand please if you can stand.
You young man can come over here and follow me.
-♪ Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies ♪
♪ Let it resound loud as the rolling sea♪
♪ Sing a song full of the faith ♪
♪ That the dark past has taught us ♪
♪ Sing a song full of the hope ♪
♪ That the present has brought us ♪
♪ Facing the rising sun of our new day begun ♪
♪ Let us march on till victory is won ♪
♪ God of our weary years, God of our silent tears ♪
♪ Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way ♪
♪ Thou who hast by Thy might led us into the light ♪
♪ Keep us forever in the path, we pray ♪
♪ Lest our feet stray from the places ♪
♪ Our God, where we met Thee ♪
♪ Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world ♪
♪ We forget Thee ♪
♪ Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand ♪
♪ True to our God, true to our native land ♪
-Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job.
Thank you, Blaize and Channing.
You have good futures in front of you,
bright futures in front of you.
So I'm just going to say a few remarks.
I do want to recognize the person who strengthens me,
the person who guides me
and gives me wisdom during very troubled times,
the person I lean on for strength, my wife,
Joann Harrell, right here.
You know, I met Joanne when I was 18 at Sal University.
She would say I was conceited and cocky.
I'd say I was confident when I talked to her.
But what a journey as young folks to now see
Bertha Knight Landes Hall filled with this community,
this beautiful, brilliant, resilient, powerful community
getting ready to raise the black flag
here at City Hall.
We never dreamed that this would be the case.
We come from different communities, different churches,
different high schools, different schools,
different upbringings, different states,
most of us from down south. My family's from Louisiana.
And when I say different schools,
different educations, what I really mean by that,
is many of you are not blessed to go to Garfield.
That's really what I meant.
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
But we are creatures of faith, creatures of faith.
And we are affiliative because we know
that the road in front of us,
as sang by the anthem, is a tough road.
But we are resilient.
And what I said earlier in a meeting
we had when we're talking about doing some creative things
to look at the black lives memorial,
I said quite candidly in this city,
we have more African Americans in critical positions of power.
I'm looking at you right now.
Critical positions of power right now.
And this is the moment to use that power and influence.
That's based on our faith. And I'm looking and, you know,
if I start naming names, it's going to be long
but I'm looking at this resilient community.
Many who have been fighting for decades for a day like this.
So having said that, a result of all of your work,
all of your tutelage, all of your love and commitment,
the best of the best.
They're going to speak to you right now,
and I couldn't be more proud to introduce our councilmember
from district 3, Joy Hollingsworth.
-Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you.
I'm going to enjoy those claps right now.
I know this is a honeymoon phase,
so I'll enjoy them right now.
And I know we got a lot of work to do on council.
Thank you, Mayor Harrell,
First lady, Mrs. Harrell. Thank you all for being here.
You know, when I think about black history month,
my mother always taught me and my grandmother always taught me
about knowing your history
reveals your potential greatness.
And growing up in the Central District,
I had the opportunity to grow up
around a lot of civil rights legends.
Literally at the knees of civil rights legends.
And I would sit around the dinner table
and hear them talk about the history in our city.
Hear them talk about their resilience.
And when I remember sitting around the table,
it was doctors. It was lawyers.
It was community leaders. It was government officials.
These were people that were with movers
and shakers in our community
who were talking about historical things
that were going on in our city. And in district 3 I love facts.
And when I talked to kids all the time,
they talk about, we want to know.
We want to learn more history.
We want to know more about our black history.
Well, if you go to the Douglas Truth Library,
we have the largest collection of African American literature
on the West Coast.
And I continue to remind them that,
that you can go at any point in time and get a book.
I have a library card. You can go get a book
and learn about our history and learn about the greatness.
And that's imperative.
And I know that this year we're celebrating arts
and culture in our city and community.
And I would be remiss, my mother is watching,
and I'm going to tell this quick story.
I went to TOPS at Stewart.
And I remember we were given a class project in 3rd grade
and they said, "Hey, you're going to go ahead
and learn about your history and your roots
and your family tree."
And I remember going back to my mom and I said,
"Mom, I went to class and everybody brought the flag
of where they were from, their family.
They could trace their roots all the way back to Europe.
Or maybe it was Asia, wherever it was."
And I said, "How come we can't do that?"
And she said, "It's a long story."
I go, "But mom, how come? How come?"
And then she sat me down
and she made me watch Roots at 3rd grade.
And learned about our history and our people and our struggle.
And then she started the underground railroad in Seattle.
And that was a cultural movement where we were able to take,
we started at Garfield Community Center
and it was a place where people went on this journey
where they learned about the history.
They learned about different iconic figures in America.
And one year she brought Rosa Parks here to Seattle.
And I got to meet her.
And that was an amazing moment for our city
and it was called Seattle Underground Railroad.
And that was a big arts and culture movement.
I brought the sweatshirt here today from 1993,
Seattle's original underground railroad.
And so I just wanted to give her a shout out
because that helped me understand my greatness
by understanding my history.
So thank you all. Thank you, Mayor.
And looking forward to raising the flag today.
-Thank you, Councilmember.
So it occurred to me throughout the afternoon
is before we raise the flag
that some of y'all do need Jesus.
And over here we have Reverend Manaway,
Reverend Braxton, Bishop Witherspoon,
Reverend Paris Lee Smith, newly introduced to Seattle.
So if you need Jesus, go to this table over here.
Okay? That's how we did that. Okay?
That's how we did that over there.
Okay, our next speaker is going to be
Councilmember Rob Saka from District 1.
Rob Saka.
Germiah, don't go anywhere
because I'm going to recognize you.
Don't hide out over there, Germiah, councilmember.
We do the city people first over here.
This is our house. This is our house.
-All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor.
And thank you everyone for being here today.
Also special shout out to King County Councilmember
Germiah Sala for being here.
We recognize a few of the electeds,
but I know the mayor's going to do his own thing
but want to acknowledge,
you know, the leadership of my colleague
at the King County Council as well.
Look, I am the proud son of a Nigerian immigrant
who ended up raising me as a single parent.
And I just want to take a quick moment to pause,
reflect, and celebrate.
My dad came to this country with nothing,
from one of the poorest villages
and like neighborhoods and all of Legos.
And today I have the honor of appearing
alongside a Seattle Mayor,
many of my councilmember colleagues,
and you all, community, to help raise this flag
and it's a small moment for me and my ancestors,
and many of our shared ancestors for clarity.
I represent, in many material respects,
their wildest dreams coming true.
And so does Councilmember Hollingsworth,
and so does Mayor Harrell. But I am honored, honored,
honored to be here today in this momentous occasion.
But it's a small moment that is not lost upon me personally.
I know it's not lost upon my family.
And I hope it's not lost upon our community.
So again I'm the proud son of an immigrant African descent.
And getting to raise the flag
as someone who is of African descent
and as someone who also served this country in uniform,
getting to raise the flag, African American flag,
next to the American flag, that is another moment
that is really important to me personally.
I try to acknowledge and understand history.
Let us do that,
lest we're doomed to repeat failures of history.
So you know I personally acknowledge and recognize
that I'm standing on the shoulder of giants,
people like Councilmember Sam Smith,
people like Seattle Mayor Norm Rice.
Yes, people like Mayor Bruce Harrell.
And I was reminded of some research
and some history as part of this whole process.
Amelia Boynton,
on bloody Sunday, during the bloody Sunday
March in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, she said,
"You can never know where you're going
unless you know where you've been."
I love that quote. One artistic depiction of this,
are you all familiar with the Sankofa bird?
Sankofa bird, it's a mythical west African bird.
The idea is it's always flying forward,
always maintaining that forward progress,
but it's got its head cocked back.
Why? Because you need to understand
where you came from in order to know where you're going.
Something that's really important to me.
If you come visit my office on the 2nd floor
and you'll see not one,
but two artistic depictions of the Sankofa bird.
In presenting the proclamation I said from the dais last week
that black history is American history.
It is. It's something for all of us to honor,
celebrate, and reflect upon, every last one of us
regardless of our background.
And black culture and stories and triumphs and respecting them
and embracing them and our many differences.
But most importantly are many similarities.
And in the spirit of Mayor Harrell's one
Seattle approach, which I love,
but we all have this opportunity to do
all these things and more together.
So let us go raise this flag and celebrate. Thank you.
-Thank you, Reverend Bob Saka.
He's got some preacher in him over there, preacher.
Thank you Councilmember Saka,
in all seriousness, for those heartfelt words.
Our last speaker before we raise the flag
is someone I'm going to introduce in a minute.
But I want to say a Councilmember Zala, I'm glad
Councilmember Saka gave you your props.
We had dinner a few weeks ago with his lovely wife,
Joyce, with my wife and I,
and I had a new appreciation for your leadership and your heart.
So I'm very pleased that you're over here.
Thank you very much.
You know, at the end of the day, it's about relationships.
Some kids asked me the other day.
They said, "Well, you seem to do well in what you do.
Why is that?" And my wife taught me a long time ago.
She said relationship capital.
Relationship capital. You use it wisely.
You add it. You stockpile it. Like these two young men here,
they're going to have many, many friends,
and it's going to spread out
to put them in positions of influence.
Relationship capital.
And I say that to say that we've got to build it.
We've got to keep it. If I don't know you,
if my administration doesn't know you,
then we failed. We have to reach out.
This next speaker, Darrell Powell,
is here in the capacity of the President of the NCCP.
The NCCP was founded in 1909, February 12th
if I'm not mistaken. Yesterday.
And is very appropriate the largest
and most widely recognized civil rights organization's
here to celebrate this with us. Many of you know Darrell Powell
recently undertook the interim CEO position for the regional
King County Regional Homelessness Authority here.
King County Regional Homeless,
he starts tomorrow. And it was written in the paper.
They said, "Well, Mayor Harrell and Darrell Powell,
they played football together in high school at Garfield
and that's how they know each other."
And we looked at this and said that's true.
He was a quarterback.
Couldn't throw with a damn, but he was a quarterback.
He was a running quarterback.
Man, could he threw the ball once in a while?
I was on the other side on the defense.
But our brotherhood and our friendship
has certainly went beyond that.
And the article didn't mention the fact
that he's a Harvard MBA.
The article didn't mention the fact that he's a licensed CPA.
What did it say? He's a football player
and those kinds of what I call microaggressions or slights,
perhaps they're not even intended.
Perhaps they're not even intended.
That's why when the media is here and converge media is here,
I always try to say to folks, we have to tell our own stories.
We have to promote those from within.
Because if we're not, we can't walk around anywhere.
We just have to tell our own stories.
And with that, I'm very proud to introduce our last speaker,
my friend and brother Darrell Powell.
-Thank you. Excuse me.
Thank you, Mayor Harrell. In the spirit of our history,
the few things that he just said,
he always steals my lines. And so there's a few things
I'm going to say that he just repeated.
And then in the spirit of paying homage to the clergy here,
I know what it feels like now.
There's a lot of non-dues paying members of the NAACP
that I'm looking at.
And so I'm hoping to collect like you collect on tithes.
I'm hoping we can collect.
But in all seriousness, I'm here today
and this is a historic event. But I do want to thank the mayor
for allowing us to put this thing together
because this is historic.
I want to acknowledge the elected officials.
More importantly I want to mark at large the community,
because without the community none of this happens.
So I want to.
And like Bruce said just yesterday
was Founders Day for the NAACP.
We're celebrating 115 years of agitating, fighting,
standing in the gap for the African American community
because racial discrimination still exists,
violence perpetrated on the black community still exists.
And so we still stand in the gap for that.
You know it's not lost on me
that the founding members were people like W.E.B. Dubois,
Ida B. Wells, and others.
But like the NAACP and like politics, politics are local.
And so while we have a national NAACP,
the effectiveness of it is what happens locally.
And we happen to have a long term former president
of the NAACP
that serves with Mayor Harrell in Gerald Hankerson.
So I'd like to acknowledge him.
And like history and they wanted me to speak here
and so I was like, in truth, what does the flag represent?
I didn't really know.
And so in doing a little bit of research I come to understand
that it was Marcus Garvey was the origin of the flag
and it was about celebrating unity
for a rock cross the African diaspora.
The African American community accepted
that and continue to move the flag.
And the flag is a symbol, and its symbol of the red,
black and green. The red does represent the blood
that our forefathers shed for our liberation.
The black does represent our black ancestry.
And the green speaks to our abundance and resilience.
And so while those are symbols, symbols matter.
It helps shape your identity.
I can remember growing up and my national anthem was say it loud.
I'm blacking and I'm proud. It was James Brown,
but it was a way to give us a sense of identity.
And it's out of that identity that I find myself
that those who are given much, you serve.
And so that's why I find myself as president of the NAACP.
But I will say symbolism matters.
But we as NAACP, we want to move beyond symbolism.
And so while this is a historic day to raise the flag,
and it's symbolic, you know,
we look forward to this being a precursor
to continuing to engage the city, the county,
and the larger community to fight for justice
for the African American community
and the BIPOC community. Thank you.
-Okay. We're about to do some flag raising.
I'm going to just say a few very, very wise words.
No, I don't.
There's nothing wise that comes out of my mouth half the time.
I'm going to say a few closing words,
and then Sister Christa Braxton's going to give us
some instructions, some marching orders.
And after we're going to break some bread over here.
So here's my wise words.
The council members that are here,
I know this evening, many of you,
I think, five or six of you are going to do a forum
at Seattle University tonight, if I'm not mistaken,
to reintroduce yourselves to the city.
Tell them what you see.
What you see is a strong, vibrant black community.
And if I say we're outnumbered, we're never outworked.
Let me repeat that.
If we are outnumbered, we're never outworked.
And what we can show to all underrepresented groups,
all different demographics, is that again through faith,
through a commitment to one another,
through pure old-fashioned courage,
we have accomplished great things.
We are living in a city that's one
of the most influential cities in this country.
All eyes are on Seattle.
We're one of the rapidly growing cities here.
We are a port trade city, maritime city,
and we're a high tech and biotech and a university city.
And we were that close to winning a national championship
for our college. That close.
But we're a phenomenal city.
And you know the little ol' biracial boy in the CD
wasn't predicted to run this city,
but through the forces that be I was elected.
And my election would mean nothing
if I didn't have a community to stand with me.
And I always say, give us grace.
We work really, really hard, all of us.
We make some mistakes sometimes. We're just human.
What you see today is, and again,
I'm looking at people who've literary spent
a lifetime trying to do good.
A lifetime. That's what we have here today.
And with that, thank you for coming to City Hall.
Thanks for being with us as we raise this flag.
I don't know if it's ever been done before.
I think we're making history here.
This is the first time and we're blessed
that you are here to help us make history.
And with that, Christa Braxton's going to give us
some marching orders, and then we're going to raise it,
and then we're going to break some bread.
All right.
And here we go. The cranking of the flag.
Which way is it? Do we go this way?
-Counterclockwise. -Counterclockwise.
And counterclockwise is against, so going this way.
Yeah, one nice crank. Ready?
One, two, three. There's one. Wait a minute.
I said counterclockwise.
I told you the wrong way.
It's this way. Okay, there you go.
Ah, perfect. Give it one more. All right, you're up. One more.
All right, Councilmember, you're up.
-I was watching him. Okay, there we go.
I'm going to do three. Okay. Two. That's good.
-That way, right?
-There you go. -All right.
-There you go. All right. There you go.
There you go. Perfect. Thank you Reverend Braxton.
Come on, Reverend Braxton.
All right.
All right, we're going to head back up here.
Good job.