John, we’re not going to sugarcoat this.
We can’t allow racist lawmakers to whitewash our country’s history. We can’t expect future generations to carry on the fight for racial justice if our schools prevent our children from learning about the real atrocities Black Americans endured for centuries.
But that is exactly what’s happening in school districts across our country.
White supremacists can try to silence us, but we will never stop speaking the truth. So today we want to talk frankly about why white supremacists are trying to erase history and why it’s important we acknowledge the past.
Over 12 million of our Black ancestors were kidnapped, stolen from their homelands. They were shackled, branded, and packed into slave ships and more than two million Africans died in this journey referred to as the Middle Passage.
Those who survived these horrendous conditions were then bought and sold at auctions. For centuries, Black adults and Black children were enslaved, tormented, tortured, and raped by slave owners on slave ships and plantations.
In fact, more than 1,700 Congressmen enslaved Black people. Lawmakers who stood in the halls of Congress Cori now walks in every day.
This is our country’s history. But instead of learning from our country’s mistakes, students today are being denied the truth.
We need to talk about lynchings. We need to talk about the white people who watched and celebrated the murder of Black Americans. We need to talk about the fact that many of you reading this email right now have ancestors who participated in these atrocities.
Because only then can we understand what it takes to repair the damage and achieve reparations.
Our children deserve the truth — not whitewashed history. That’s why we’re so thankful for every voter in St. Louis who helped elect the first activist from the movement in defense of Black lives and made Cori the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.
Together, we can continue bending the arc toward justice and push back against the wave of white supremacy in our country. If you’re ready to rise up in this work with us, please make a donation today to keep Cori in Congress and support our movement for racial justice.
Together,
Team Cori
