Black community leaders, elected officials, activists and celebrities responded to President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
Trump addressed the nation’s legislative body with a fiery, partisan talk playing to his base. Democrats responded with their own message.
Rep. Al Green (D-Houston) attended the speech but was thrown out within minutes for refusing to sit down. He later told ABC he was yelling that Trump did not have a mandate to cut Medicaid.
"This is not about me, this is about the people who will suffer if Medicaid is cut, and if Social Security is cut. We need to raise the cap on Social Security, we need to protect Medicare, and for God's sake don't cut Medicaid, this is for poor people."
Green, who was ejected from the chamber by himself, said he was following his conscience.
"There are times when it's better to stand alone than not stand at all. This president is disrupting the healthcare system. He is all but defying court orders. At some point, we're all going to have to stand up."
On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to censure an unapologetic Green. While the measure is a signal of disapproval, censure doesn't involve a loss of privileges.
Green has been active in Tulsa with nonprofit Justice for Greenwood and has said he would seek through national legislation $20 million in reparations for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre survivors.
Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons of Justice for Greenwood made an appearance on a 24-hour livestream to push for reparations for Black Americans, especially those who survived or are descended from victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
“Reparations is necessary for the structural changes we need,” Solomon-Simmons said.
“The racial wealth gap is worse than it was in 1968. And, so, as we talk about everything else — DEI and anti-woke and all these things — if we don’t have structural changes, as Joy talked about, we will never get the racial wealth gap to be shrunk.”
The livestream event that featured scores of Black activists was kicked off by former TV host Joy Reid, who made her first public appearance since being let go from MSNBC.
Solomon-Simmons and Justice for Greenwood represented the last living survivors of the 1921 Massacre in their lawsuit against the city of Tulsa. The attack sparked by a rumored assault of a white woman by a Black man saw as many as 300 dead.
Survivors Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle are both 110 years old.
