Thread by @rlindsey

1/ The following very long thread is a speech by John J. DeBerry, Jr., a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from the 90th district in Memphis. You probably won't hear anything like this today.

#MarchOnWashington2020
#JohnDeberry

2/ Yet this speech is recent; given 8/12/2008 on the floor of the TN House during debate of HB8005; a change to Tennessee law to increase penalties for rioting on state property.

#MarchOnWashington2020
#JohnDeberry

3/ Mr. DeBerry was a Democrat representative for 26 years until the party ousted him in early 2020 for going off the plantation a few too many times. He's running as an independent now.

#MarchOnWashington2020.
#JohnDeberry
#ProLife
#SchoolChoice

4/ Video of Representative DeBerry's remarks have been posted numerous time. I haven't seen a transcript, so here it is now for your reading pleasure.



#MarchOnWashington2020.
#JohnDeberry

5/ Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't want to question the patriotism or the integrity of any of my colleagues who have spoken before me. That's not for me to do just as it is not for them to do.

6/ We find ourselves doing it quite a bit in this body and that's unfortunate, because folks sent us here not to accuse each other of anything, but to do the job that they sent us to do.

And I rise not to go against or support this legislation.

7/ I rise because I continue to hear references to what I saw in growing up in this country – and growing up in the state of Tennessee – as I walked with my father, and worked with my father here in the state of Tennessee – in Memphis, Tennessee, and across this state, and…

8/ …across this country, in the middle of what has been referenced to on several occasions: the Civil Rights movement.

9/ And you know people continue to refer to this, but I saw it.

I saw men and women stand with courage, and integrity, and class, and they changed the world. They changed the world because what the world could see in them was the lie that was being told about them.

10/ I am one of those individuals who walked in back doors because the law said I had to. I’m one of those individuals who rode on the back of the bus on the back seats that were not cushioned because the law said I had to.

11/ I went to the water and drank colored-water because the law said I had to. I went to a school where everybody looked like me and the country was divided and segregated because the law said that I had to.

12/ So, all of these things we continue to refer to are the things that me and my generation lived. We saw it for ourselves. We're not reading it in the history books, but we lived it.

13/ I went with my father when he and our neighbor got one of those “I am a man” signs and went downtown Memphis and watched him stand there proudly with Dr. King, and other men and women, black and white, who had enough courage to stand up against what was wrong.

14/ And the way they did it; they had on their suits, their shirts, their ties, their pants, and if it was cold, their overcoats. They locked arms and they marched peacefully, and Dr. King stood for that which was peaceful.

15/ Because the world took a look at what was happening in Memphis, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Washington, DC, and all over this country. We changed the entire world.

16/ And we changed it because those men and women had enough guts, integrity, enough citizenship and love of country because my father was a Korean War-era soldier as many of those other men and women were.

17/ They didn't beg for anything. They didn't beg for citizenship. They demanded it!

18/ Because they were American citizens who paid taxes, who raised children, who paid house notes and rent, and did everything they were supposed to do, so that they could demand from this country and its constitution, those things that they were supposed to have.

19/ How did they do it? They did it by standing like men and women of integrity, and class, and common sense, and values. When the riots started and folks started burning stuff down, that's when my father took my arm and we left.

20/ We left because that was not what we were there for. That was not what Dr. King was there for. That was not what others who are famous in the civil rights days were there for.

This was not peaceful. It was not part of our movement. And it only hurt everything.

21/ That man lay in a pool of blood. I stood there and watched him make a speech. The building wasn't really full. It was crowded because that was a terrible storm that night. But my daddy was intending and most certainly he wanted to hear that speech and wanted me to be there.

22/ I gave my seat to a lady who came in ringing wet and stood over, not because there weren't any other seats, but because I could stand against the wall and be closer as he spoke. I watched that man shiver. I watched his voice shake.

23/ I watched him tremble because he knew something, he knew that he probably wasn't going to leave Memphis.

I don't know what providence God had given to make him prepare for this when he said he'd been to the mountaintop.

24/ I don't know what he was thinking when he said I may not get there with you. But something told that good man on that terrible stormy night that something bad was getting ready to happen.

25/ Whenever we use the opportunity to do wrong, that policeman that put his foot on that man's neck was wrong and every one of us in this room decries it, every one of us in this room condemns it. We say it was wrong.

26/ And in America, we have a system of justice. A system of justice that's going to bring the full impact of the law down upon him, and I think every one of us in this room will support that. And we know – we know that man lay there in a pool of blood.

27/ This man didn't die surrounded by his children and his wife. He died in a pool of blood from a coward's bullet. And he died on that day.

28/ And I remember as we went back to Memphis and all of the riots broke loose, everything he stood for, everything he stood for, was all of a sudden being torn down until calmer voices – calmer voices came and said, "Dr. King was against this. He was against this..."

29/ "He was against this."

30/ My family raised money and sent my dad to Washington for that march. Well, that man stood there and said that he wanted his children judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

And all we do in America right now is talk about color.

31/ Every issue – every issue is about race, it's about color, instead of a sitting down at the table like men and women of common sense and common justice and understanding that our enemies are looking with a greedy vigilance upon us as we tear ourselves apart eternally.

32/ They have been watching us for 50 years, preparing step, by step, by step, by step for us to kill ourselves.

33/ And I may not be back here next year, and I'm sure everything I say is going to be misconstrued, and misquoted, and used against me in November – fine, fine – because I stand for my father's legacy.

34/ I stand for the men and women who acted like they had some sense and some courage and changed this country by being men and women who stood for something.

If we don't start standing for something...

35/ Don't you know that the people who are looking at what's happening in Washington, in Detroit, in Portland, & Seattle – they're getting emboldened, because we act like a bunch of punks too frightened to stand up and protect our own stuff.

36/ You tell me that somebody got the right to tear down property that Tennessee taxpayers paid for? That American taxpayers paid for? And somebody has the right to destroy it, deface it, and tear it down?

What kind of people have we become that we can't protect our own stuff?

37/ And when the heroes are those who violate the law our police chief in Memphis, Tennessee, when they shut the bridge down between Memphis and Arkansas, our police chief walked up there because it was a peaceful protest even though they had shut down that bridge.

38/ He walked up there he talked to the protesters. He let them know that they had a right to protest and after a while, he walked them all off the bridge because they conducted themselves properly, he conducted himself properly, and there was no one harmed on that evening.

39/ Peaceful protests ends peacefully.

Anarchy ends in chaos.

And what we see happening right now, any of us with any common sense – any common sense whatsoever – know that what we see is not peaceful.

40/ So, we can continue to fool ourselves and mix with words and use rhetoric and public relations in order to frost this stuff over and put a nice picture on what we see that is frightening? Frightening?

41/ I have a nephew who is a policeman who talked about getting attacked the other night. You're telling me that somebody has the right to throw feces and urine in the face of those that we as taxpayers pay to protect us? And that's okay?

What has happened to us?

42/ If we don't get this right, right now, I've got grandchildren I don't want to see the country we're going to have 5 10 15 20 years from now if we don't start acting like we got some guts right now brethren, sistren, friends colleagues, right now.

43/ Reference:
Rep. John DeBerry's ouster from the Tennessee Democratic Party questioned: Why him? Why now? tennessean.com/story/news/pol…

44/ Reference:
Rep. John DeBerry, ousted by Democrats, may run as independent under new bill
tennessean.com/story/news/pol…

45/ [END THREAD]

#MarchOnWashington2020.
#JohnDeberry

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