Former Vice President Kamala Harris returned to Chicago on Friday to encourage residents to “bear down” and resist the Trump administration and its ongoing immigration enforcement in a speech with the message: “We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Speaking at the annual Martin Luther King Interfaith Breakfast at the Hilton Chicago, the 2024 Democratic nominee for president said the country should follow Dr. King’s belief that “to love your country is to fight for your country.”
“They may want us to be afraid, to be divided, to be silent. But we won’t give them that satisfaction,” said Harris, who last visited Chicago in October to promote her book about losing the presidency to Trump. “We will continue the fight with determination, with resilience and, dare I say, with joy. So, in the spirit of Chicago, it is time to bear down.”
Harris is mulling another run for president in 2028, along with other potential hopefuls such as Gov. JB Pritzker and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Harris said she flew to Chicago Thursday evening from Memphis, Tennessee, where she spent time at the National Civil Rights Museum and reflected on “the stakes of what Dr. King confronted.”
“Government-sanctioned segregation and redlining, the vote of the people denied by literacy tests and poll taxes. Churches bombed and people lynched,” she said. “Here, what we understand about that moment, hate and fear were being weaponized by the powerful to terrorize those they saw as powerless,” Harris said.
She said King and leaders of that time reminded the people of their power. They “reminded them that it doesn’t have to be this way; that the power of protest, of organizing, of the collective can change the course of our history and its country.”
The same can and should be done in response to the Trump administration, she said.
“I thought about what Dr. King would see if he looks at America now,” she said.
She asked what King would think about the Trump administration attempts to rewrite Congressional maps, or call the Civil Rights movement “reverse racism,” or of social media and misinformation “taking hold of our lives and the lives of children.”
“When the federal government rips people out of their car, out of their home, out of their church — when families are separated and a mother of three is shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis — people are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Harris said.
She said many people feel overwhelmed with the state of the country, and many people are isolated and lonely. “A long-broken system has fueled cynicism and, yes, apathy, and people are rightly angry and profoundly frustrated,” she said.
Harris asked people to pause and see the echoes of history: “Yes, the threats we face, but also the power of the people.
“Let us see, like then, this is a moment not to throw up our hands, but a moment to roll up our sleeves, to organize, to register people to vote and to speak and act with truth, power and conviction. And I look around this room. I know the people of Chicago. You uniquely understand that the fight requires courage. It requires stamina. And it requires commitment. It requires us to show up, even when we are sick and tired because we are sick and tired.”
“To the leaders here, I saw, let us continue to be clear-eyed. They may want us to be afraid, to be divided, to be silent. But we don’t give them that satisfaction. We will continue to fight with determination, with resilience and, I dare with, with joy. So, in the spirit of Chicago, it is time to bear down.”
This year’s MLK breakfast’s theme was “defending democracy, protecting our rights.” Other speakers included Mayor Brandon Johnson and state House Speaker Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch. The breakfast honored author and peace activist Jacqueline L. Jackson and the Rev. David Black with its Champion of Freedom award.
The late former Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first Black mayor, held the first MLK Interfaith Breakfast more than 40 years ago. The breakfast honors community leaders for their contributions to Chicago and continuing King’s legacy.
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