Remarks as Delivered
Good morning. Thank you so much for that very generous introduction. Pastor Augustine, I want to thank you for your life of leadership and service, from the courtroom to the pulpit. It has been truly inspiring watching you lead and watching your example throughout the years.
It is an honor and a privilege to be with all of you today. And I just want to take a moment to recognize the distinguished clergy and all those gathered for this morning’s service. And also thank again, North Carolina Senator Natalie Murdock – I thank you for your words and your recognition. I also want to acknowledge North Carolina Auditor Beth Wood, not sure if she’s with us. Mitch Michelle, I thank you for your service, our first Black U.S. Attorney in the South. I want to recognize my colleague, Kevin Jenkins, my childhood friend, Charles Robertson, here from Rocky Mount. And I also just want to take a moment to thank Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.
And finally, I just want to lift up personal shero and hero of mine, Ted Shaw, who I had the privilege of working for during my time at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and is someone who I have just admired at every stage of my journey, and North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls, who I also have admired for my time in law school as one of her former interns.
It is a journey that brings me here today and I’m so grateful for this honor to speak with you this morning.
As you all know well, Durham is no stranger to the civil rights movement. It was here in June of 1957 that a young pastor, Reverend Douglas Moore, a seminary classmate of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped to lead one of the most influential early sit-ins to protest racial segregation. Along with other Black activists, Reverend Moore staged a protest at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor on North Roxboro Street.
The “Royal Seven” not only fundamentally transformed the trajectory of this city, but of the entire nation….
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