Harris delivers Black History Month address
Harris celebrated Black History month on Saturday in a keynote address at the 40th Annual Black History Month virtual celebration.
In her speech, she applauded the House for passing a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and touted how the bill would lead to $1,400 direct payments for Americans, a child tax credit and $20 billion toward a national COVID-19 vaccination program.
She said she plans to get the bill “across the finish line.”
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She cited how the Black community has been hard hit in the pandemic.
“We are looking at a country in a situation where more than two in three Black Americans personally know someone who has been hospitalized or who has died from COVID-19,” she said.
“Black women workers are being forced out of the workforce in record numbers, and so many Black small businesses are being forced to close their doors,” Harris added.
“In so many ways, this pandemic has been an accelerator. And for those for whom things were bad before, they're even worse now for the fissures and the failures, the defects, the flaws in our system, during the course of this pandemic, have been blown up for all to see,” she said.
She celebrated the “the barrier breakers and the history makers” who came before her.
“I think of history in the context of a relay race. With each generation running their course and passing the baton to the next. And so, the baton is now in our hands and what matters is how well we run our portion of the race,” Harris said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez