#RolandMartinUnfiltered - U.S. Senate confirms 1st black woman Supreme Court Justice, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

4.7.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: U.S. Senate confirms 1st black woman Supreme Court Justice, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Bipartisan support leads to a historic 53 to 47 vote confirming the nation's first Black female Supreme Court Justice. We'll be talking to a lot of folks about today's confirmation; representatives, former judges, and civil rights groups witnessing history in the making.  Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Be black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something

like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's't be black on media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Thursday, April 7th, 2022. Coming up on Roland Martin on the filter, streaming live on the Black Star Network. An historic day.

The first African woman ever confirmed for the United States Supreme Court, Judge Katonji Brown Jackson, confirmed by the United States Senate to be the 116th Supreme Court Justice. We'll have a full analysis of what took place today, including showing you the moment when Vice President Kamala Harris sat in the chair

and announced her confirmation to be complete. Also, the thunderous applause from Democrats, the silence from Republicans, and also we'll hear from a number of people, black men and black women, as they salute today's historic achievement. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for gigs He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, yo It's Roland Martin, yeah Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin. Now.

Now. Now. Now. Now. Martin. On this vote, the A's are 53, the nays are 47, and this nomination is confirmed. Thank you! Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will immediately be notified of the Senate's action. Madam President, very happily, I note the absence of a quorum. Folks, at 3.17 p.m. Eastern on today, when that vote came down,

5347 confirming Judge Katante Brown Jackson to be the next Supreme Court Justice to take the place of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. While that was taking place at the United States Senate, this is what was happening at the White house. Posted just moments ago on the twitter feed of president joe biden. All right, folks. So here, I think it's you guys

in it now? All right, so again, so we're going to show that a little bit later. I have some slight technical issues. And so Judge Brown Jackson, she was there at the White House with President Joe Biden when that announcement came forward. They were watching it live on television. Folks all across the country were commenting on it. We're going to play the video again. You see how enthusiastic Democrats were. All 50 Democrats voted for Judge Brown Jackson. Three Republicans crossed the aisle to support her nomination. Those senators were Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Susan Collins of

New Hampshire, of Maine. So you had them, of course, supporting her. All of the Republicans, 47, including the lone black Republican in the United States Senate, voted not to confirm Judge Brown Jackson. When we think about this confirmation hearing, the type of questions she was getting, eerily similar to what took place with Thurgood Marshall in 1967 when he was confirmed to the United States Senate. That vote, though, isn't this interesting? The vote to confirm Thurgood Marshall during Jim Crow America was 69 to 11. Sixty-nine people voted to confirm Thurgood Marshall. Eleven voted not to confirm him.

Today, it was 53 to 47. Gives you an idea of the type of the situation that we're in with these times. The entire Congressional Black Caucus delegation traveled to the Senate to actually watch this take place. Two of those members join us right now. Glad to have Bonnie Coleman, first of all, from New Jersey. She's here. Glad to have her, Congressman Al Green. First of all, I got to ask both of you, ladies first, what was it like for you to be in that chamber to watch history being made? Well, Roland, I wasn't there. I got exposed to something, so I wasn't there. I was watching it on TV, and every vote that was taken, my heart just kept beating heavier and heavier.

I knew what the outcome was going to be, but I was just so excited and overjoyed. I just couldn't wait for the last vote to be counted. And I know we had to wait for one senator, but, man, this has been an incredible day. I'm so excited and so happy for America. Congressman Al Green, your thoughts on what took place today? Well, let me first acknowledge my colleague Coleman. Thank you for all of your service

that you've rendered. And I know you were excited about this. It was very stirring and very moving to be in the room, to see the vice president, who was a black woman, presiding, to understand that the first black woman was now being confirmed to be on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. And equally as important, I might add, to know that we had a president who kept his word. He said he would appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court, and he did it notwithstanding all of the naysayers, all of the negativism. He kept his word. She will be there. And the only thing left for us to do now is to be there for the swearing in, either virtually or otherwise. I want to see the swearing in when it takes place. And obviously that takes place after Justice Breyer retires. He's announcing stepping down,

but he hasn't actually retired yet. And so she's basically the 116th Supreme Court Justice in waiting until he actually does that. Right now, the White House, they've actually invited a number of people to the White House. And then there's going to be actually an event taking place tomorrow as well. But talk about what this day means specifically for black women. What does it mean? Because when you talk about this nation, first of all, when you hear all men are created equal in the Declaration of Independence, well, that did not include women.

When the Constitution was created in this country, it did not include women, did not include African Americans. This country, as Senator Chuck Schumer stated, we're going to play a little bit later, in his statement to, before the Senate, he said these positions were supposed to be for white male Protestant landowners.

This was not what the framers intended to actually have happen, Congresswoman. So from my perspective, for Black women and Black girls, for even Black boys, they looked at a Black woman preside over the vote of another Black woman who was going to be the first Black woman to be seated on the Supreme Court. And the Black woman sitting in that chair was the vice president of the United States of America. So what that means to me, Roland, is that our children can aspire to be and do anything they want. They simply have to do the work. They have to be present, be committed. And then they have to have people who are willing to push the law, the rule of law,

to be just. And with Justice Brown now, this court looks more like America. This court's going to sound more like America and is going to think more like America. This is just absolutely an amazing day. I can hardly contain myself. I have a granddaughter, nine years old. When she looks at that television, there's nothing, nothing that will hold her back from aspiring to be anything she wants to be. And I am grateful for that. Congressman Green, we often talk about historical moments when we talk about things that happened in the past, it is something different to actually be alive in 2022 and to be able to watch it for ourselves. It is, especially when you are,

as I am the son of the segregated South, where it was never intended and did not even cross my mind that we would have a black president, black vice president, and now a black to serve on the Supreme Court. It just was beyond the comprehension of a little black boy in the South that I grew up in. But I thank God that we have withstood the test of time. And this is not the day of the woman. This is not the year of the woman. This is not the year of the woman.

This is the time of the black woman. Black women are now moving into positions that they should have had long ago. But thank God they're getting them now. And we just want to see more of them. She is the first, but we don't want her to be the last. It's important to say this because time is going to march forward and we've got to march forward with the time. One more point.

You made a salient point about white men. The Senate has been the domain of white men. It was designed to be that way. This was the best good old boys club that white men could ever have. And white men in the Senate were receiving a nomination from a white man who was a president, generally speaking, for many, many years, hundreds of years, in fact. And they would send a white man over to be on the Supreme Court.

It was a white man nominating, white man confirming, another white man to be on the Supreme Court. That is the system that we have now penetrated. white man confirming, another white man to be on the Supreme Court. That is the system that we have now penetrated. But we're not quite there yet. There is still great work to be done. I'm going to celebrate this. I'm going to appreciate this. And then I'm going to go back into the fight, because we still have Richard Russell's name

on the Russell office building. We've got to do something about that. We still have—don't have a Slavery Remembrance about that. We still don't have a slavery remembrance day to make sure people don't forget the horrors of slavery. There's much work to be done, but God bless this day, and I'm so happy. I had tears to well in my eyes as the vice president made her comments about the confirmation. It really touched my heart, and I will forever remember this day. Thank you so much, Roland,

for the opportunity to say those few words. Congresswoman Bonnie Watsley Coleman and Congressman Al Green, I appreciate both of you joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. I want to bring in someone now who knows what it feels like

to be confirmed by the United States Senate for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. That is Vanessa Gilmore out of Houston, Texas, a retired federal judge. Judge Gilmore, always good to see you. Last time I saw you, we were on the golf course. We're glad to have you here. Just again, as a black woman who has served as a federal judge for quite some time. Just share your thoughts about today. It is absolutely thrilling, Roland. Thank you so much for having me. I am so pleased and just happy to have a chance to be here to see this moment in history. I had the pleasure of being able to sit in through most of Justice Jackson's confirmation proceedings

in the Senate Judiciary Chamber a week before last. And I had a little deja vu there because I sat in that exact same chamber exactly 28 years ago before one of the same senators, Senator Grassley, was there for that hearing for Justice Jackson and also for mine 28 years ago. There was a bit of deja vu sitting there and thinking how far we've come, but still after listening to the hearing, how far we have to go in many respects. But today is a great day. You served almost 30 years on the federal bench. It's a lifetime appointment. You get to decide whether you retire or not. And a lot of people really don't understand, and I do my best on this show to explain to people,

the power that federal judges have. Now, granted, you talk about federal judges. There are many people on the district level who are also on the appeals level, but there are only nine on the Supreme Court. So just explain to people who really don't understand the federal judiciary why it's important to have an increasing number of Black judges, Black female judges, because of the power they are able to wield. You know, the federal judges are appointed under Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States. And as you indicated, we are appointed for life or on good behavior. We obviously have the opportunity to retire, which I have just retired in January of this year. But because it is a lifetime appointment, as you said, it is one that wields a lot of power. I think that the fact that Justice Jackson is now going

on the Supreme Court is historic, but it also brings to mind the fact that the federal judiciary overall, one of the most powerful institutions in the United States, is very, very lacking in diversity. 80 percent of the members of the federal judiciary are white. Of the 3,852 judges that have been appointed under Article III of the Constitution by the president of the United States, only 240 of them have been African-American, 71 African-American women. And so we are still woefully underrepresented in terms of diversity in the federal judiciary, a branch of the government that is very powerful and that can make a lot of decisions that impact our lives as Americans in the United States. I want to bring in someone now, and if it wasn't for the work that she did and others,

we would not be at this point today. Nse Ufot is the CEO of the New Georgia Project. The reality is if it were not for Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff becoming U.S. senators in Georgia in that runoff in January of 2021. We would not be standing here today, Inze. So I know you must feel real proud that Georgia made today possible. Yes, I am extraordinarily proud. Hi, Roland.

How are you? I think that, you know, given the battles that we can continue to point to, especially when I think about our comms team and our field team and the folks who are having, you know, millions of high-quality conversations with Black Georgians and with young Georgians talking about the power of their vote. We're super grateful to have another proof point to say that, you know, the vote is not a magic bullet, but it's a powerful tool that we can use to build the America that we deserve. And if people were actually noticing the person who cast

the 50th vote, the one that actually put her over the top, was Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Absolutely. I mean, there was never any doubt in our minds how Senator Warnock was going to vote. But again, it underscores the power of the vote and the idea that every election matters and that every vote matters. I mean, we're talking about the 50th senator in the United States Senate. We're talking about the third person to command Martin Luther King Jr.'s pulpit after he was assassinated. You're talking about one of a handful of black folks, black Americans serving in the United States Senate. And so, again, while symbolism isn't everything, there's just so

much to be proud of, thinking about how today's confirmation hearing, or at least how the confirmation vote went down. Not proud of the confirmation hearing and how it was conducted. Nse Ufot, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. I'm going to bring in Judge Gilmore. Stay right there. I'm going to bring in Melanie Campbell with the Black Women's Roundtable.

Melanie, glad to have you here as well. Look, you have been meeting with other Black women for a long time. Many of you, let's just, I got no problem saying it because I was right there, were greatly disappointed when President Barack Obama did not appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court when Antony Scalia passed away. Also, there's a lot of frustration when he named Kagan to the Supreme Court. But certainly, a lot of that must be water under the bridge today to

watch what took place in the United States Senate today with Judge Katonji Brown Jackson. I thank you, Roland. And I want to thank you because you never stopped believing this could happen from way back when to now. And so it took a whole lot of coalition building and organizing and persistence. We had to turn out that vote that you just finished talking about. Then we had to leverage that power and push that in the, not just in the election, but after the election. And so I appreciate and thank everybody who was a part of this.

There's so many people to call, so I'm not going to call names. It was black women. It was allies, it was black men. All of us came together on this one. And so it's nice to have a joyful moment. And it reminds us that elections do matter. And this is a very, very critical example of what that looks like. It won't solve all of our problems. But when you talk about the issue of justice in this country as a big issue when it comes to issues of dealing with systemic racism and other things, to have ourselves represented on the highest court in the land is no small victory. So I think it's okay to say this is a good day today. You and others, and I would love to have you first, and then Judge Gilmore, you and others sat in that room. You listened to the questions. You listened to what many folks, how they were questioning her, how they were challenging her. And then you had

to listen to all those senators talk about how brilliant and smart and wonderful she was, but they're still going to vote against her. And it speaks to what a lot of African-Americans have always said. Even when you do everything right, you still are going to have folks who then still question your capabilities. Melanie first, then Judge Gilmore. I apologize. I'm in the airport with a delayed flight, so it's a little crazy. I'll tell you what was really, it was very difficult. I did go for that second day of the hearing, and when Ted Cruz put up all those charts, it was a very difficult thing, but we were there to just have that sister's back, to have Judge Jackson's back in that hearing room, to call on all the spiritual ancestors into that room to make sure she knew she was not alone.

And that was an honor to be able to be there for that. But it also, again, reminds us that when you look at that committee, and you only have one African-American on it, and you have very many little women on it, we have a long way to go when it comes to racial equity, gender equity in this country. So this is a great, great start. And our young people, I mean, I talk about my great niece all the time who's nine years old. She can see herself in a Kataji Brown Jackson. I can see myself in Kataji Brown Jackson, not just because she's black,

but her lived experience of being able to be one that fought for the least of these in her career, where she could have just gone and made a whole lot of money. She became someone who looked out for folks who could not look out for themselves in the judicial system. She looked at the sentencing fairness. And so she's one that showed, we already knew she had exemplary qualifications, but she also just her presence and her ability to withstand the level of attack just was a way to show the nation and the world she's more than ready to be on the Supreme Court. Judge Gilmore, I had just finished reading Will Haygood's book called Showdown on the Thurgood Marshall confirmation hearings and what he was taking through. And it was very interesting in reading that book how those white Dixiecrats, those white Southern Democratic senators,

tried to associate Thurgood Marshall and how he would be soft on crime by raising what was happening with crime in the country. Then to watch these hearings with Judge Katonji Brown Jackson, to listen to Josh Hawley and listen to Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton and others bring up pedophiles and saying the same thing, soft on crime. Here we were, 1967, 2022, but these senators using some of the same sort of language towards a Black nominee to the Supreme Court, ooh, you're not going to be tough enough on crime. That was also, I think, angering and triggering to a lot of people. Absolutely. I sat through those hearings right with Melanie in the Senate chamber, and I was so frustrated. I had to sit on my hands to keep from jumping up

and saying, we all sentence like that in child pornography cases. She is in the norm. We are all frustrated by the fact that the sentencing guidelines don't really work with these types of cases. She is in the norm with respect to the way that the majority of judges, federal judges, sentence on those types of cases. So it was very frustrating to have to sit there and listen to her being lambasted about that. And you talk about Justice Marshall's confirmation hearing. It was also reminiscent of the issues that Judge Constance Baker Motley went through. She became the first African-American woman to be on the district court, but she should have had an opportunity to be elevated to the Court of Appeals. She was not given that opportunity because she was criticized because she was the one

who argued that and won the case that said that people that were charged with a capital crime should have a lawyer at the arraignment stage. And they said that that made her soft on crime, that she was trying to protect people who were being charged with capital offenses. But she was really doing what we are bound to do if we believe in the Constitution of the United States, which is to make sure that people have the right to counsel. But that one act kept her from being able to be elevated from the district court to the Court of Appeals, a place that she should have had the chance to go. I'm glad that today, finally, even though Justice Jackson was challenged about her work as a federal public

defender and her sentencing, which was not out of the norm, I'm glad that we've managed to still get past that and get to this day because it's a great day. And obviously, for you being a black female federal judge, glass ceiling broken. Glass ceiling broken. We are a very small club. There have only been 71 African-American women that have ever been appointed to the federal courts of the United States, and the majority of them are still serving, but we are still a small club, and so we are so elated and happy for Justice Jackson today. Judge Vanessa Gilmore, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you.

Melanie Campbell, y'all are having an event tomorrow that we're going to be live streaming on the Black Star Network. Tell folks about that to celebrate today's historic victory. Yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow, Roland, thank you for partnering with us. From 2 to 4 o'clock tomorrow, we'll be celebrating this historic moment with you. And we're having a power table talk to have sisters and some brothers talk about what this means for our community. So tune in to Roland Martin Unfiltered from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow and hear what we have to say about that power table talk and what it means for our community and our nation. All right, Mellie, thanks a bunch. Be safe traveling back. Thank you. Folks, this is the photo that President Joe Biden posted on his Twitter feed. It was a photo of him taking a selfie with Judge Brown Jackson with the television in the back. So this is what the photo

looks like. This is the actual selfie right here that they also posted right there as well. And so certainly a lot of smiles there. We played earlier the video of them, of course, watching the actual take place. This is actually what took place, what happened. The A's are 53, the A's are 47, and this nomination is confirmed. All right! Woo! Okay.

Wow. Congratulations. This is a big day. On this vote, he is. One can only imagine what was going through her mind, Brandi Collender. As she saw that, Brandi Collender is with She Will Rise. Also joining us right now is Judith Brown-Dianas. She, of course, is with the Advancement Project.

And we also have joining us right now is Judith Brown-Forson, Executive Director of the Advancement Project. And we also have joining us right now is Julie Brown, first executive director of the Advancement Project. And we also have joining us William Roberts, managing director for Democracy and Government Reform for the Center for American Progress. Brandy, Judith, I'll start with you. Yeah, y'all do notice a trend. Black women go first today.

So, Brandy, again, one can only imagine what she's thinking, watching that happen, knowing full well that it has taken all of these years for a black woman to be confirmed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. 100 percent, Roland. And I want to thank you for using your platform to show up in this moment. It is a insane news cycle. I mean, when she was named as our nominee, we were also waging into war. Who knows how long we'll be there? We still are finding ourselves on an uptick of this pandemic. And yet after 233 years, we are finally naming a black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. So I have to tell you, I am a very proud American today.

And She Will Rise was designed to pull in a new demographic. I am only one of four co-founders who have daughters. And we wanted to look into their eyes and tell them they could be anything they wanted to be. Three of the four of us are attorneys. I'm a member of the Supreme Court Bar. Two of us have done judicial nominations work. And we find ourselves in this activist posture because we can't look outside of ourselves to get it done, to create that accountability, nothing for granted. And so today is joyful. It is historic, her-storic. And we are very grateful for the opportunity to celebrate. And hopefully everyone will start to feel like this is their Supreme Court. Our babies will start to dream bigger dreams because they can see themselves

in this work. It is material. It is everything. And we are so elated. Judith, as I said to NSE, voting in 2020 does not make today possible. And that is the people who went out and voted. First of all, obviously, electing President Joe Biden, him winning Michigan, winning Pennsylvania, winning Georgia, winning Arizona, that put him over the top. He wins the White House. But getting control of the United States Senate, not allowing Mitch McConnell to be standing in the way of judicial nominees was also a huge win. And that is people who went out and voted, but it was Georgia. It was black folks who led the way in Georgia to put Warnock and Ossoff in the runoff for them to defeat the incumbent, to defeat actually two incumbents, that made today possible.

And so we can talk about what took place in the Senate. But if you don't deal with folk going to vote to change the composition of the Senate, you never will see a day like today. That's right. Roland, I will tell you, when Senator Warnock stood up and said, the room that I was in of Black women erupted just to see him cast his vote, because we know that it makes a difference. And I think sometimes we think that, you know, voting for the federal level doesn't matter. Like, we have midterms coming up, and people get disconnected because they don't feel like it's in the here and now. But this is the difference it makes. And we have to connect it not only to voting, but what does it mean to have a black woman on the Supreme Court? You know, I'm somebody who

was in my last year of law school when Justice Thomas was was nominated. And I remember crying watching that vote. And today, again, tears, but tears of joy, because I know what it means. I know what it means to have somebody who is going to care about the issues that confront the Black community when voting rights cases come before her, when affirmative action comes before her,

when abortion comes before her, when affirmative action comes before her, when abortion comes before her, when issues of criminal justice and unfair sentencing come before her, it will make a difference. And so if you think your vote doesn't count, it does. It means a lot. And you should know that your vote counts so much that when we heard those hearings and when the Republicans were talking about all that craziness, that CRT and everything else, it's because they were playing to their base for the midterms. So we have got to stay involved and connected. And this is the difference that it can make. You're absolutely right on that. And we're still in a situation, Brandy, where right now we've got huge implications with the midterm elections. You've got critical races that are coming up where Democrats have a possibility.

First of all, they've got to hold on to Warnock's seat in Georgia, to seats in New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada. But the other thing is you have the opportunity to actually, because tonight, first of all, today's vote, there were only three African Americans in the United States Senate voting. Not one was a black woman. The only black woman who was there was the one sitting in the chair who's now vice president. But the reality is this here.

If we do what's right, we could put a black woman back in the United States Senate. The former Supreme Court Justice of North Carolina, Sherry Beasley, who was running for the U.S. Senate there. One of the people, both North Carolina senators, Republican today, Burr Tillis, voted against Judge Brown Jackson. Tillis sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He voted against sending her confirmation to the floor.

And so you think about that so you think about that seat. Marco Rubio voted against Judge Brown Jackson. Congresswoman Val Demings is running against him. You had Rand Paul, who was an ass, who was at the Senate today. He purposely was late holding up the vote. He was in the building. He was not catching a plane. He was there.

You have Charles Booker running against him there. You have seats that you got Mandela Barnes, who's leading right now by a wide margin, who could be facing Senator Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. Ron Johnson, Republican, voted against her. You can have Barnes as an extra United States senator. You also have races in Pennsylvania and Ohio. You got Gary Chambers, who's trying to be the nominee in Louisiana. If black folks register with the 300,000 registered in Louisiana, that state can be flipped. So you have a possibility, again, if we still do what we know we can do in November to go from not 50-50 to literally go to 55-56 majority to have more black federal judges.

You're 100 percent right. I mean, Roland, I mean, you just ticked through all of it. You missed Brother Tim Scott, by the way, but we're going to leave that there. I think you have this incredible— I'm going to deal with him later. Go ahead. You have this incredible moment where it's like cognitive dissonance, right? You have black women who today, their voting rights are at jeopardy. Today, they are three times more likely than their white female counterparts to die during childbearing.

Today, they make 63 cents on the dollar. Today, in Georgia, we know what it means to try and vote. In Texas, we know what it means to try and vote. So it is material. Elections absolutely matter. I think what we have in this specific moment, and this is one of the things that She Will Rise has been really intentional about, is meeting people where they are. There has been a neglected effort to pull in new demographics. And if you go to our website at Sistascotus.org, you will find, Roland, a judicial tracker that lists all of the other judicial nominations throughout the judiciary that are open. So yes, we have been fiercely focused on this first because it is

everything, but she better not be the last. And there are a ton of other opportunities at lower court levels that are pipelines, right, that we need to make sure we're creating accountability there so that folks can reach out to their Senate leadership, their congressional leaders across the board at the state level, and create accountability. And just quickly, in terms of the midterms, let these hearings be exhibit A for what people are willing to do with your tax dollars. I sat in that room one day next to Melody, another day, I mean, I sat in that room several days during those hearings, and when you're in hearings, you're not really supposed to emote. Tears were just streaming down my face

because you're just being gaslit with these triggers constantly. You are in a position where you are bringing the most impeccable credentials to the bench, more than some currently sitting. And still, slavery is being tossed about. Definition of a woman. I mean, things just designed to chip away at humanity.

Public service is not asking for this of us. And it's below the bench level, and it's below the belt level and the dignity of Congress. And we ought to hold our congressional leadership to higher account. William, I want to pull you in. What you're seeing right here, William, folks, if you go to my iPad, this is the actual sheet. Lauren Burke posted this on her social media page.

This is the actual sheet in the United States Senate that marks who voted yay and who voted nay. Speak to the fact in terms of how black men should be responding today, not just black women, but this also is a critically important day for black men in this country. Oh, absolutely, Roland. You know, I think back on this point in particular to seeing Cory Booker step up in those hearings that we've been talking about, right, sort of after, you know, almost 20 hours of barrages, negative attacks from folks like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and distortions of Justice, soon to be Justice Brown Jackson, we'll call her Justice Brown Jackson because that's what she is, of Justice Brown Jackson's record, right, for Cory Booker to step up in that moment, stand in the gap, and sort of have her back. I think that's sort of what Black men are being

called on to do as we've been having this conversation, both about how we get more women on the bench, but also how we elect more Black women into these seats, right? That this is about all of us. And I think that we know, you know, I'm someone who has a four-year-old daughter at home. I can't wait, you know, for my daughter to be able to understand who Judge Brown Jackson is, as she understands who Vice President Harris is. You know, that history is super important. And I think for Black men, it is important for us to step up and know, to your point, Roland, tonight in sort of, you know, the speaking order and to speak to what Congressman Green said earlier, this is black women's moment.

And we need to stand here and celebrate it and bask in it with you. But we also need to stand shoulder to shoulder with you as allies to the point to be made. Justice Jackson can't be the last. There are many more judicial appointments to be filled, and we know, we've seen in previous administrations when we had the chance to do it, that we didn't do it. And so I'm glad that the Biden administration has been stepping on the gas, not just to fill judicial appointments, but to try to diversify our judiciary. We need to keep on it to make sure that these seats are filled. But that's what we're

called on to do today. Judith, Lauren Burke posted this. This was the video of the Congressional Black Caucus walking from the House chamber over to the Senate to watch the vote live that took place today. You know, a lot of folks talk about, a lot of people talk about, well, the Black Caucus this, the Black Caucus that. What many people do not understand is that when you think about the federal judges, folks who like, we just had Judge Vanessa Gilmore on the show, it's those House members who also play a role in shaping who the president picks from their particular states. And so that's important because, again, so many people, they comment in the chat rooms, they comment on social media.

Many of them clearly skipped Civics 101, having no real understanding of how the sausage is made here in Washington, D.C., and the role that African-American leadership plays, black women in the Democratic National Committee. Former Senator Doug Jones was the one who shepherded the hearing through. But it was also Mignon Moore, former top aide to President Bill Clinton, who played a critical role in also shaping the narrative and ushering Judge Brown Jackson through this confirmation hearing as well. I mean, Roland, there are a lot of people whose fingerprints are all over this that people may not know their names. You know, but I mean, if we talk about members of Congress, just remember that Congressman Clyburn played a role in this.

Right. And not only when when Biden first made the promise to appoint a Black woman, but then he also had someone in South Carolina that he was pushing for the position, a very well-qualified sister. But then he got on board once Judge Jackson was nominated. And so the members of Congress, Black members of Congress, always play an important role in this. These are people who come from their states, who are people that they know, who they will advocate for. And so we can't say the CBC is doing nothing because they're important in this equation. And then, yes, there are a number of Black women who are behind the scenes. And Mignon Moore is one of them. Donna Brazil is another. Leah Daughtry is another. All of these sisters who really worked on the inside, who also kept Black women together,

brought us together and, you know, and made sure that we had the information that we needed and other Black organizations that we could go out and we had marching orders to understand what was happening from one moment to the next. Brandi, I know you have to go. I want you to pick up on that point. I know for a fact that Black women were having these Sunday night phone calls all throughout the election. Y'all ain't stopped doing it. And it's so funny because I would often, I would also be calling folks a text and they were like, yo, I can't talk. We on this call. I'm like, damn, how long y'all call going? But yeah, y'all don't know. Let me just say, let me just say that that ain't no short call. They would embarrass some black churches with how long that call happens on Sunday night. You know I'm not lying.

That's why you're laughing. You're telling the truth. And, you know, when we come together, we're powerful. So that's basically what happens. I want to give a very clear shout out to my soror, Joteka, who had the vision and mindset of pulling black women together. And it really was a very organic exercise, Roland. And at that point, we were trying to focus really on what is happening

during this election cycle. And then we started She Will Rise, Kimberly Tignor, April Rain, Sabria Williams, and myself, we had started this effort around She Will Rise because it's too much to do, frankly. And so we were taking the Supreme Court piece. They were focusing on the vice presidential piece. And then it literally was just affirmation, building, building, building. And the big piece here, I just have to say, is if you just look in the judicial nominations advocacy world, there's more money than God floating out. I mean, there's just there's so many resources with these mean, there's just, there's so many resources.

With these organizations, full-time employees, teams, staff, the whole nine, Black women on Sunday nights are putting their capes on, putting the babies to bed, because it can run long, affirming each other and figuring out how to get it done. And it's beautiful. I also hope, quite frankly, that it starts to look different moving forward because we are a loyal and I would submit a formidable demographic

when it comes to building our democracy and being proud Americans. And today is one where we are just beaming with joy. Brandon, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. I know you have to go. Thank you so very much, William. I got a final comment from you on this, and that is picking up what she just said. And I say this all the time on this show, and I say it till I'm blue in the face that people think I'm lying. You have to organize and then you must mobilize. What happened today doesn't just happen.

What happened today has been a long grind. In a second, I'm gonna have Barbara Arnwine with the Transforming Justice Coalition, and she can attest to literally being banned from the Obama White House because she was so vocal in demanding that a black woman be nominated to the Supreme Court. And so what people need to understand, this doesn't happen if folks are not meeting,

if they're not raising money, if they're not pressuring, if they're not calling, if they're not prodding, if they're not pushing. All of that matters. Most definitely. As you spoke to before, this doesn't happen. The through line to this goes through 2020, certainly, but way back when, right? This organizing has been happening for many, many years. This is an inflection point in which we should celebrate, but it was also sort of a taste of what can happen, right? If folks continue to follow through and put their effort along with the efforts going forward because there's so much more to do. But that work got us here. As you said, this has not sort of just organically happened. And, you know, I think about the through line that even goes back to an alumna of my law school, Howard Law, Charlotte Ray, right, who was the first black woman lawyer in the United States to get from there to here, has taken work through generations. And so certainly that work is going to continue as we continue to fight and break down these barriers.

But you are right that this does not just happen. This took some work to get to, and we got to keep going. Judith, final comment. You know, it's just a good day, Rowan. I'm so beside myself. As a Black woman lawyer, this is incredible. Because I don't know that I really thought this would happen during my legal career. And it means a lot. People may not understand what it means to see, what it's going to mean to see a Black woman sitting up there on that bench,

questioning lawyers about their cases. I'm just, I'm thrilled. I can't wait to see her sitting up there. It's going to be transformational. Judith Brown, Diana's Advancement Project. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Also,

William Roberts with the Center for American Progress. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot as well. Thanks. Thank you. Folks, we're just going to go to a break. We come back. More voices sharing their thoughts on today's historic moment as we see the first black woman ever confirmed to sit on the United States Supreme Court. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. And in service of the court. After 9-11.

On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock? No wonder the wealth gap continues to widen. Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who decided to change

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Hi, I'm Amber Stevens-West from The Carmichael Show. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, prior to the actual vote, first of all, there were two votes. One that was the closer vote to end debate, and then that was a vote to actually confirm Judge Katonji Brown-Jackson. This is what Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, had to say before the historic vote. In our nation's history, 115 individuals have been confirmed by this body to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Of those, 108 have been white men. Only four have been women. Only two have been African American.

But Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first African American woman ever to hold the title of justice. Think about the impact that will have on our democracy. Untold millions of kids will open textbooks and see pictures of Justice Jackson among the highest ranks of our public figures. How many millions of kids in generations past could have benefited from such a role model? How many would-be justices, lawyers, doctors, generals, business people have been lost to history precisely because their history books had few,

if any, role models that they could relate to. Folks, a whole lot went into this day. And let's not forget, let's not forget at the end of her confirmation hearings, when people were moved to tears by what New Jersey Senator Cory Booker had to say as he addressed Judge Brown Jackson to the point where even she began to shed tears, I think is apropos to go back and play what I think is the most important moment that we witnessed during the four days of her confirmation hearings. Family and you speak to service, service, service. And I'm telling you right now, I'm not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy. I told you this at the beginning.

I am I'm embarrassed. It happened earlier today. I just look at you and I start getting full of emotion. I'm jogging this morning. And I'm at the end of the block I live on. And I get terrified because I put my music on loud when I'm jogging, trying to block out the noise of the heart attack I'm having. And this woman comes up on me,

practically tackles me, an African-American woman. And the look on her eyes, she just wanted to touch me because I think because I'm sitting so close to you and tell me what it meant to her to watch you sitting where you're sitting. And you did not get there because of some left-wing agenda. He didn't get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every black woman in America who's gotten anywhere has done.

By being like Ginger Rogers said, I did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards in heels. And so I'm just sitting here saying, nobody's stealing my joy. Nobody's going to make me angry, especially not people that are called in a conservative magazine demagogic

for what they're bringing up that just doesn't hold water. I'm not going to let my joy be stolen because I know you and I, we appreciate something that we get that a lot of my colleagues don't. I know Tim Scott does. When I first came to this place, I was the fourth black person ever popularly elected to the United States Senate. And I still remember a lot of mixed people, white folks, black folks work here, but at the time, I was the fourth black person ever popularly elected to the United States Senate. And I still remember a lot of mixed people, white folks, black folks work here.

But at night when people are in line to come in to clean this place, the percentage of minorities shift a lot. And so I'm walking here, first week I'm here, and somebody who's been here for decades doing the urgent work of the Senate, but it's the unglamorous work that goes on no matter who's in offices. The guy comes up to me. All he wants to say, I can tell, is I'm so happy you're here. But he comes up and he can't get the words out. And this man, my elder, starts crying. And I just hugged him.

And he just kept telling me, it is so good to see you here. It's so good to see you here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love my brother, Tim Scott. We can write a dissertation on our disagreements. He gave the best speech on race. I wish I could have given a good of a speech. But talking to the challenges and indignities that are still faced.

And you're here. I was in the White House with my Democratic colleagues, and I'm, again, I'm in my joy. I can't help it. And the president's asking her advice, who should we nominate and whatever. And I look at Kamala, and we have a knowing glance, which we've had for years,

when she and I used to sit on this end of this committee at times. And then I try to get out to the president what it means. What it means. And I want to tell you, when I look at you, this is why I get emotional. I'm sorry, you're a person that is so much more than your race and gender. You're a Christian, you're a mom, you're an intellect, you love books. But for me, I'm sorry, it's hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom, not to see my cousins, one of them who had to come here and sit behind you.

She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours. who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours. Nobody's gonna steal the joy of that woman in the street or the calls that I'm getting or the texts. Nobody's gonna steal that joy. You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American.

Your hero is Constance Baker Motley. Mine, she has sat on my desk for my offices that I've held. She's my icon of America. Her name is Harriet Tubman. There is a love in this country that is extraordinary. You admitted it about your parents. They loved this nation, even though there were laws preventing them from getting together.

When they were loving, there were laws in this country that would have prevented you from marrying your husband. It wasn't that long ago. It was last generation. But they didn't stop loving this country, even though this country didn't love them back. And what were the words of your heroes and mine?

What did Constance Baker Motley do? Did she, this country that she saw insult and injuries, when she came out of law school, law firms wouldn't even hire her because she was a woman. Did she become bitter? Did she try to create a revolution? No, she used the very constitution of this nation. She loved it so much she wanted America to be America. As Langston Hughes wrote, oh, let America be America again.

The land that never has been yet, but yet must be the land where everyone is free. Oh, yes, I say it plain America never was America to me, but I swear this oath America will be. That is the story of how you got to this desk, you and I and everyone here, generations of folk who came here and said, America, I'm Irish. You may say, no, Irish or dogs need to apply, but I'm going to show this country that I can be free here. I can make this country love me as much as I love it. Chinese Americans first forced into near slave labor, building our railroads, connecting our country, saw the ugliest of America, but they were going to build their home here and say, America, you may not love me yet, but I'm going to make this nation live up to its promise and hope. LGBTQ Americans from Stonewall women to Seneca. Hidden figures who didn't even get their play until some Hollywood movie finally talked about them and how they were critical for us defying gravity.

All of these people loved America. And so you faced insults here that were shocking to me. Well, actually not shocking. But you are here because of that kind of love. And nobody's taken this away from me. So you got five more folk to go through. Five more of us. And then you can sit back and let us have all the debates. And I'm going to tell you, it's going to be a well-charted Senate floor because it's not going to stop. They're going to accuse you of this and that.

Heck, in honor of your person who shares your birthday, you might be called a communist. But don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. And how do I know that? Because you're here. And I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat. Harriet Tubman is one of my heroes

because the more I read about this person, the more, I mean, she was viciously beaten. Her whole life, she used to fall into spells, cracked skull. She faced starvation, chased by dogs. And when she got to freedom, what did she do? Did she rest? No, she went back again and again and again. The sky was full of stars.

But she found one that was a harbinger of hope for better days, not just for her and those people that were enslaved, but a harbinger of hope for this country. And she never gave up on America. She fought and led troops gave up on America. She fought in the, led troops in the Civil War. She was involved in the suffrage movement. And as I came back from my run after being near assaulted by someone on the street, I thought about her and how she looked up. She kept looking up. No matter what they did to her, she never stopped looking up. And that star, it was a harbinger of hope.

Today, you're my star. You are my harbinger of hope. This country is getting better and better and better. When that final vote happens and you ascend onto the highest court in the land, I'm going to rejoice. And I'm going to tell you right now, the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, will be better because of you.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator Booker. We're going to take a 10-minute break. Joining us now, folks, is Barbara Arnwine, founder of the Transforming Justice Coalition. She joins us right now. Ellie Mistel, writer with The Nation. Also, Ellie, come on, Ellie, you're supposed to be waving your new book.

Author of a new book as well. There you go. That's how you do it. Always selling. Also, of course, our regular Thursday panel, we have Greg Carr, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Recy Coburn,

Black Women Views, Dr. Larry Walker, Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida. Barbara, I'm gonna start with you. I made this point earlier. I know, a lot of people may not know, I talked about how folks have been fighting for this moment. Let's just say the Obama administration was not happy at all with you

because you were a fierce advocate for trying to put a black woman on the Supreme Court. And they were so mad at you, they banned you from the White House. Two years, Roland. Two years I was banned for advocating for a black woman to be on the court. I was furious about it. I was furious about it. I wouldn't stop. But you were also there, Roland. We are so grateful to you because you stood by us black women when everybody, white women organizations, African-American men, white men, everybody was saying you are out of your mind. This country can't do this, can't have this. They disparaged and said there weren't black women who were good enough. They came up with

every excuse but the righteous one, which was to put black women, center them where they belong, in every major sector of this nation, including the Supreme Court. And we knew that as a result of that failure, I call it an intersectional failure of, you know, understanding how race and, you know, womanhood plays out in the society, that because of that court, would have made that court so different than it is today. And it's a tragedy, a tragedy that is taking this long. But I'm going to tell you, I'm a happy black woman today. Me and millions and millions and millions of black women and women of all races. That's the one thing I love is that she's so good. She's so amazing. And

because they attacked her so viciously and she did such an amazing job of standing up to them and keeping her composure and speaking intellectually at a high level that she was so brilliantly in her position, in her positioning and in her whole posture that she won over women of every race and men. I mean, she's the most popular Supreme Court nominee in decades, decades. I'm talking about more popular than Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett, Sotomayor, Kagan, you name them. She is the most popular nominee in decades in the American people because they got to see her. They got to hear her. And they got to be really wowed by how amazing she is.

Ellie, the point that Barbara was making there, I remember when Elena Kagan was nominated by President Obama. She was the second Supreme Court nomination he had. And I wrote a column for CNN about that. And I remember going to a meeting at the White House, and Anita Dunn, who was one of Obama's top advisors, I ran to her at the gate, and she was very upset with me, with my column, and she's like, you know, look, you're writing something like that,

that makes it difficult for the president to nominate a black woman because it seems like he's came under pressure. And I said, excuse me? Makes it difficult? I said, let me tell you something right now. I said, I don't said, excuse me, makes it difficult? I said, let me tell you something right now. I said, I don't give a damn if it makes it difficult. I said, it ain't hard to actually do it. And I said, and black folks have been waiting. So excuse me if there are some

hurt feelings because folks like me are advocating for black women to sit on the damn Supreme Court. And then when Justice Scalia died, I was one of the folks who went real hard and was not happy at all that he did not nominate a sister for it. And I told a whole bunch of black organizations, I don't know what the hell y'all waiting on. Hell, he only got 10 more months in the White House. I said, y'all scared to get invites to the White House

by pressing him on this? It is our job to advocate for our people. And so today is important. And it was important for a candidate, Joe Biden, to stand up in South Carolina. Y'all let me know when we have a video when he pledged in South Carolina in January of 2020 that if he won, he was going to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. Some folks like, oh, he shouldn't have done it. No, he should have said it because it was time. Yes.

I completely agree with that. I find it annoying that whenever black people advocate for our rights, we get told that we're going too fast, that we're not playing by the rules. But every other person, like corn, can go lobby the president. Nobody yells at corn. Nobody yells at corn. Nobody yells at soybeans. But black people argue, lobby for our positions, and we get yelled at. I can't fully go with you on the Kagan thing because, full disclosure, I used to have her in law school.

She was one of my professors, so I'm biased about Kagan. That's fine. She could have waited. Go ahead. I am 100% on this issue with Merrick Garland and Obama's, I think, mistake at the time that was known in real time to go with Merrick Garland as opposed to a person of color, as opposed to Kataji Brown Jackson specifically, who we know was a finalist for that position. I think the entire unprecedented Republican obstruction of Merrick Garland looks a lot different, hits a lot different if they are obstructing a person of color for that position,

as opposed to the least common denominator, milquetoast white guy that they could find. And I think that now when you roll that ahead to 2016 and you're in an election year and you're trying to inspire people to come out and vote for the Democratic nominee for president against Donald Trump, I think having a person of color that you're essentially running with, if you're Hillary Clinton at that point, I think that helps you with black voters in Milwaukee, with black voters in Philadelphia and black voters in Detroit, three states that Clinton really needed to bring home to beat Trump. So I think that was a big mistake to not nominate Katonji Brown Jackson when he had a chance in 2016. And frankly, that's how I get to the Biden pledge to nominate a black woman. Yes, that was great that he said it. Yes, it was appropriate that he did it. But literally every other candidate, had they been thinking correctly, could have made the same pledge because that's how good Katonji Brown Jackson is, that she was going to be the front runner to replace Breyer,

no matter what Democrat, like Coffee Man could have won, Mayor Stop and Frisk could have won, wouldn't have mattered because Katonji Brown Jackson was that good. And as a former Breyer clerk, she was always the front runner to replace Breyer. So literally any Democratic candidate who had been paying attention could have picked up that pledge that Biden made and ran with it. The fact that they didn't is one of the reasons why they ain't the president, right? So like give Biden credit for that for sure, but also give him credit for just understanding where this all was going, because Kataji Brown Jackson is not an unknown person within legal circles. She has earned this job. She has been ready for this job. And I think she's going to do great at this job. Folks, this was that moment.

I was in the room in the debate in South Carolina when then Vice President Joe Biden said this. We need to get knocked down, get up and everyone's entitled to be treated with dignity no matter what, no matter who they are. My also that everyone should be represented, everyone and no one's better than me and I'm no better than anyone else. The fact is what we should be doing, we talked about the Supreme Court. I'm looking forward to making sure there's a black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure we in fact get every representation. Not a joke. Not a joke. I pushed very hard for that. And my mother's motto was, she said, you know, you're defined by your courage, you're redeemed by your loyalty. I am loyal. I do what I say. Recy Colbert, he said it.

He did it. And today, we actually got to witness it. And, of course, I'm going to say it before you because I know you're going to quickly say it. Yes, you had Vice President Kamala Harris sitting at the desk. Yeah, so, yeah, I know you're going to like, hold up. I got to give a shout out to Vice President Kamala Harris for being the one sitting at the desk. Yeah, so I know you're going to like, hold up, I got to give a shout out to Vice President Kamala Harris for being the one sitting at the desk. I say I'll go in here and beat you to it. Go ahead.

You're absolutely damn right. Now she didn't get to cast a tie-breaking vote. Republicans got this much sense left, so they weren't going to give her the tie-breaking vote, but she did a fantastic job presiding over the Senate. And the other thing I want to say, too, is Black folks quit being scared to ask

for some shit, because a lot of people were like, well, we don't need a Black Supreme Court justice and a Black vice president. Well, guess what? We got both. Okay, so y'all quit being scared. Sometimes you gotta ruffle a couple of feathers. Sometimes you gotta drag some people, cuss people out, get banned from the White House, whatever the situation may be, to advance

the cause. So congratulations, soon-to-be Justice Katonji Brown Jackson. It has a nice ring to it. Ay! I'm super excited. I'm rubbing all the salt in the wounds of the Republicans that got their little punk petty asses up and walked out instead of

recognizing the historic nature. Y'all didn't vote for her. We didn't expect y'all to. But y'all could have at least acted a little bit less Klan-like for them two seconds and stood there and applauded history being made. That's how it's clear. This wasn't an ideological thing. It's a

racism thing. It's a white supremacy thing. And the fact that they're so salty about it makes it that much more delightful. So, it's been a long time coming. Shout out to activists and the folks that pushed for this. This particular confirmation wasn't as much as a heavy lift in terms of the kind of resistance that would normally be the case, because it wasn't a tilting of the court type of situation. I'm glad as painful and as, you know, degrading and debasing as they were towards her,

the stakes weren't as high for her because if anything happened and we got another justice coming around the pack, they're going to be 10 times worse on them. So I'm glad we got our black woman in on this time and good luck with the next person. You know, it's so funny. I was sitting here looking at someone just posted, Greg, a roll of the stock with Obama. No, I'm telling y'all what the hell happened. See, here's the whole deal, y'all.

If we're going to be honest about this, we're going to be honest about this. I know what the hell was happening behind closed doors. I know what happened to Barbara. So, y'all, don't sit here and act like we can't, say, critique President Barack Obama. The reality is this here. President Joe Biden didn't have to be the first president to nominate a black woman. Okay? This could have happened before.

So the bottom line is we're going to speak truthful on this show. And I told y'all, if you do good, I'll talk about you. If you do bad, I'll talk about you. At the end of the day, I'm going to talk about you. And Greg, to the point that Reesie just laid out, it was interesting. Y'all go ahead, roll the video. See Mitt Romney as a lone Republican over there,

standing and clapping. And then you had all these white senators walking out. And you had like a whole row of black people behind. See this here? When they switched the shot. So you see, this Republican side, all of them getting up, walking out and all the black people just, watch him. He like, uh-huh, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, uh-huh. And just smiling at their ass. Just look at them dead in their eye just smiling. That's right. So it was great to see those were actually CBC members, y'all, who were standing back there. And of course, I made this point earlier, I did on social media as well, Greg, and that is in 1967, the vote was 69 to 11 to confirm Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. And the first black U.S. senator

since Reconstruction, our frat brother, Ed Brook from Massachusetts, Republican, was one of the folks to vote to confirm Thurgood Marshall. Today, in 2022, on April 7th, Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican from South Carolina, voted against the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Absolutely. Tim Scott, doing Tim Scott things, break his political back. But shout out to Tim Scott for reminding us that skin color and demographic is not a substitute for organized political action. There is no we even within black people. And yeah, it was nice to see Joe Nguza and Dwight Evans and them cats standing back there as those Klansmen walked out. Shout out to Randy Paul for standing with the courage of his

conviction and walking in with his entire bird chest to be the last vote. I think it's important for us to understand that the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall, Antonin Scalia, even Sonia Sotomayor, that's not going to happen again. The United States Senate, as we heard earlier, earlier when you were talking to the congressman, when you heard about the Green, you know, the United States Senate was set up to be run by white men. It's going to be that way pretty much until this federal polity fractures, which we're probably on the verge of. Anytime voters in California are the two senators they have are worth one-sixty-sixth of the two senators that Wyoming has. You understand that the white settler state has been set up to maintain its power. And so what Katonji Brown Jackson, I'm sorry, Katonji Onyeka Brown Jackson, I hope they make

her say her whole name when they swear her in. They're really going to piss these Europeans off. But when we see her, she's going to be part of a 6-3 minority. We'll be looking for her judicial temperament. And in all due respect, Brother Ailey, I hope since she has a whole summer to read cases and read briefs and hire clerks, that she will look outside the Ivy League. I think it's very important to understand, again, demographics doesn't represent the entire race. It's very important to understand that. Howard has a law school.

Texas Southern has a law school. North Carolina Central has a law school. My college has a law school. And Florida A&M has a law school. It's also a university. Absolutely. Let's see some clerks beyond Harvard, even as the front page of New York Times today had a bunch of sisters at Harvard, and they said, here are her, the next ones. No, you know, that's not the only law school.

But at any rate, it's important for us to understand that this is a historic moment, but understand that these white nationalists are playing for keeps. While this is going on, they are dealing with an oscillating federalism. They want to strip administrative units of their ability, whether it be OSHA or Health and Human Services. They have been using this shadow docket, this rocket docket, to put their stamp on the federal government. The cases that Katonji Brown Jackson will see, of course, she had to say she's recused

herself from the SFFA vs. Harvard and North Carolina case that will be heard in the fall. But now that she's on there, she shouldn't recuse herself. Why? Clarence Thomas' ass ain't gonna recuse herself, and his damn wife supported a whole-ass rebellion, and he broke the rules of the Supreme Court. But if he's not gonna recuse himself, she shouldn't recuse herself.

It'll be interesting to see her judicial temperament, respecting a lot, whether it be abortion, immigration, voting rights, gerrymandering. These white nasses are playing for keeps. Their interpretation, finally, of things like the absolute power of state legislatures to control voting at the state level and saying that the state courts have no say, that's something that she's going to have to fight back on. And then you got these crazy people like that senator in Indiana saying, well, interracial marriage, that should be left to the states. This is a states' rights war.

There's not going to be another Supreme Court justice confirmed if there's a vacancy comes out. And Clarence Thomas, I hope you get well, brother, and resign. Well, you know, we can wish. But if that were to happen now, you think that Joe Manchin and them going to let them put another person on the bench? Katonji Brown Jackson is a swap out for Breyer.

It's 6-3. Let's keep focused. Clap and then roll up your sleeves. Because they're getting ready. They're playing for keeps. The question is, are we? Larry, your thoughts on today's historic day? First of all, you know, yeah, so they're saying how long, not long.

Well, it was when it's been more than 230 years. Congratulations to Judge Brown Jackson in terms of her confirmation. And shout out to black women. The last, you know, few, you know, last hour or so, Roman, you've had black women from a number of nonprofit civil rights organizations on. And I just want to give them a clap because without their advocacy in terms of the presidential election, but also their work behind the scenes. You talked about those Sunday meetings, and it is reminiscent of me, my grandmother and other Black women I know in terms of the Black church, in terms of organizing to fight for various rights. But this is really important, once again, to recognize the work that black women have done in terms of making this happen. And, you know, Brother, you know, you know, Brother Carr just talked about what will not happen after this. Right. So after, you know, it was a war now. It really will be a war the next time going around,

particularly what happens during the Biden administration in terms of a new justice, but we have to once again celebrate the work of Black women in terms of them finding behind the scenes and making this happen. We also, it's important because, Roland, you played that, you know, you played Senator Booker's comments towards the end of the hearing and him talking about it and giving an impassionate speech and supporting Judge Brown Jackson because of all the unnecessary attacks she faced. And that highlights for a lot of Black women that I care about and love in terms of the contradictions in our society, when you've been told to be twice as good as everyone else, but at the same time, when you are, you are torn down. So shout out to Cory Booker once again for, you know, the kind of support he provided. But once again, it's a double standard as it relates

to Black women, Black women who are great, who are phenomenal scholars like Judge Brown Jackson and the kind of unnecessary craziness they have to deal with. And particularly as we talk about, you know, our confirmation hearings. But once again, black women did this and made this happen. And I congratulate them. And I look forward to seeing their swearing in. I'm going to go to a break. We come back. Ellie and Barbara, I want to ask them specifically about the fact that although Brown Jackson,

yes, will be in the minority, if you will, six to three, how important is it even when you have opinions written by justices who are in the minority? We'll discuss that next. Folks, right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered as we celebrate this historic day, the first black woman ever confirmed to sit on the United States Supreme Court. You're watching the Black Star Network.

On the next A Balanced Life, April is Autism Awareness Month. We will be having a very special conversation on education, advocacy, and working in that space. Whether you have a child on the spectrum or not, this is a space for you. This is a conversation you don't want to miss. Join me, Dr. Jackie, on A Balanced Life on Black Star Network. Pull up a chair. Take your seat at the Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network.

Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered Alright folks, welcome back. Barbara Arnwine, Greg talked about the 6-3 composition of the U.S. Supreme Court. But people need to understand that they're non-Supreme Court justices. And the reality is the legal writings, the rulings that they make, the opinions, these live forever. And you see even today where a Supreme Court justice may very well refer to an opinion written by a previous Supreme Court justice going back 100 years or more.

Who was the end the dissent often. I mean, when we teach law school, and I've had the joy of teaching at Columbia, UCLA, and NCCU. And when we teach law school, we teach dissents. And the court goes back over and over and over again to dissents and use their dissents to formulate a new actual jurisprudence that is centered around the reasoning in the dissent. They'll say that we got it, the majority got it wrong, but this dissent actually was correct. And we see it all the time.

I mean, it's part of how we develop jurisprudence. And you heard a lot of nonsense, you know, during this hearing about judicial philosophy. There honestly is no such thing. But there is, you know, jurisprudence, though, thinking and reasoning and decision-making. So having someone who is constantly there, so it's not just Sotomayor taking all the weight, it's not Hagan taking all the weight, having somebody as brilliant as Katonji to back them up, to bring her reasoning. And here's somebody who has done a lot of writing. than any other judge sitting on that court. And she therefore has the capability to bring that intellectual capacity and brilliance to really point out different ways.

You know, it was interesting. They'd rather talk about pornography. Let's be very clear. This is not the Supreme Court of Pornography. They hear very few pornography cases, if any, year to year. But what they do hear is voting rights. And you notice that they didn't even want to come near that subject. What they do hear are cases about reproductive rights. You notice that was even downplayed. They don't,

what they talk about is First Amendment a lot. What they talk about is Fourth Amendment, rights of searches and seizures, all of those issues she will be writing on. And that's what we need. We got to have someone strong enough to hold the line because this year's majority may not be next year's. And I don't want us to get into some kind of fatality, you know, mentality about what's going on here. We know that the goal of the Gang of Five, you know, Cruz and Holly and Blackburn and Cotton, Cotton, Cotton, if I call them, and, you know, and all of them, that all their goal is to go back to some kind of neo-Confederacy, where there is, you know, an emphasis on statewide rights and where, of course, Blacks are subjugated. I mean, all of those things,

but they also are into, you know, that mythology of the great 1950s, so they don't want any LGBTQIA rights, et cetera. We know what we're up against. And we know that, however, the reality that we got to always keep in our mind is that they can't reset this clock because there's too many of us who see a different future and are committed to it, and they can't reset the clock because there's too many of us who see a different future and are committed to it, and they can't reset the clock because time is marching on. It marches forward, not backwards. And so that's just the reality. And we got to do the work now and keep building so that when we are able to have a majority in the court, there will be a solid majority, and you will have, think about it, you guys, it's possible in our lifetime to see a Chief Justice Katonji Brown Jackson. Think about that. That would be a radical

departure from what we have right now. Ellie, I couldn't do without some Republican comedy today. And so I'll tee this up for you. Here is the Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate court jester, Mitch McConnell. Biden was elected on the promise that he would govern as a moderate and unite the country. He insisted the radical left would not be calling the shots. Please. Senator, commence. He insisted the radical left would not be calling the shots on his watch. But when it came to one of the most consequential decisions a president can make, a lifetime appointment to our highest court, the Biden administration, let the radicals run the show.

With Washington Democrats in power, the far left got the reckless inflationary spending they wanted. The far left has gotten the insecure border they wanted, and today the far left will get the Supreme Court justice they wanted. The fringe activists who demand partisan court packing, attack the justices, and describe our Constitution as trash made up their minds from the start of this administration. If a Supreme Court vacancy should arise, they wanted one nominee and one nominee only, Judge Jackson. Oh boy, that was just so much laughter there, Ellie.

The reason I'm really cracking up is, you want to talk about radical? Fairless society. They simply completely control the entire process of picking anybody from the right. Fringe? This man is calling me fringe? Is he kidding me? Look, Mitch McConnell, when he says fringe activist, he's talking about me because he read the first page of my book. He hasn't made it to the second page of my book just yet

where I explain a little bit more in depth why I think the Constitution is kind of trash. But anyway, I think that what McConnell does there, and we always overlook this because they do it so often, but it's so textbook racist, right? The only thing in common between me and Katonji Brown-Jackson and my work and Katonji Brown-Jackson's work is that we both happen to be Black. She doesn't know me. I haven't met her. We're not buds. We don't all hang out at the Harvard Club after work for drinks, right? We don't know. The only reason why

he's trying to tag her with things that I've written and I said, and the things that Kendi has written and said, and the things that Nicole Hannah-Jones has written and said, is because we're black writers and she's a black person. So now they can yell at her about that. It is textbook racism and it shouldn't be accepted. But, you know, I got to be a little bit of the womp womp person here because I agree with Greg that where we are right now in our society, I don't think people have fully understood and just metastasized what the Supreme Court is about to do. They're still 6-3 majority. What they're about to do is going to be very scary. Yes, they're taking away abortion rights. Those are already gone. They've already baked in taking away abortion rights and have moved on to the next fights,

which will be gay marriage, which will be interracial marriage, which will be the right to contraception, to say nothing of this new Texas-style version of law where they empower private bounty hunters to go take away rights that the government can't take away. The Supreme Court so far has been completely comfortable with this. We are in a crisis mode, which is why, as McConnell pointed out, I do suggest that we should expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Nine is not sacrosanct. That's not how we started. It doesn't have to be how we ended. When Republicans say like, oh, well, if you expand the Supreme Court, won't Republicans just expand it back? Sure. So we're losing six to three. If you gave me 13

justices right now to maybe stop the backsliding into the neo-Confederacy that the current Supreme Court is interested in bringing about. But Biden has to get a lot more active than that. Kataji Brown Jackson, great. I'm so happy she's on the court. Like I said, I think she's going to do a great job. She needs a lot more help. She needs a lot more help. And there is help out there. I think that the next justice should be an AAPI person. It's time for that to happen. There are a lot of great people in there that could fill that role. Vanita Gupta, who's currently at the DOJ, Dale Ho, current head of the ACLU. There are people that we can put on. We've got, if you give me 10 slots, I can fill those 10 slots.

You know what I'm saying? And so that's what we need to, I think, keep pushing the Biden administration to do. Because if we don't, it's 6-3 for 30 years. I do think it's important, Recy, for people to understand numbers. Supreme Court has been here 232 years. Judge Brown Jackson will be the 116th Supreme Court Justice. 108 of the 116 have been white men. You're talking about six women,

one Latina, one African American. Of the six women, four have been white. So even when you talk about the Supreme Court, you're talking 112 out, well, you're talking about Thurgood Marshall, Judge Brown Jackson, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sadamore.

Four. That's it. So, 112 out of 116 have been white. So, when Ellie talks about picking 10, hell, might as well pick an NBA team. I say pick a starting NFL offensive side. Go ahead.

Hell, just run the table because here's the whole deal. We ain't, you can pick 10 and we still ain't caught up. That part. Hello. You know, I'm with the fellas. I agree. This is still, you know, an uphill battle in terms of the courts. Obviously, we said that in 2020 when we were trying to get people to vote. This could be a 7-2 conservative right-wing huge moral victory. And I don't think we do enough celebrating. And on the show, we're doing that, obviously,

with the extended amount of time we're spending on this. I don't know if we do enough celebrating for the moral victories, because one thing that the Republicans really key in on is denying any kind of rope for any kind of moral standing victory whatsoever. They're all about symbolic, you know, victories. They're all about symbolic gestures. You know, they start there and then they keep going, they keep digging until they get that policy that they want, you know. So they have the Confederate statues that started off with the campaign slogan about being anti-CRT. And now they're putting in anti-CRT and anti, you know, don't say gay legislation that actually deputizes white folks, you think that's what people are going to be doing it,

to actually, you know, call the police or exert their beliefs and their systems on other people. And so I just think that it's worth, despite the fact that it doesn't tilt the court, despite the fact that we're still looking at a relatively bleak picture for the Supreme Court, maybe somebody will moderate a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Every now and again, we do get a somewhat decent verdict out of the Supreme Court. Maybe if I'm being super optimistic, Katonji Brown Jackson will just bring some flair to the court of her background that might be compelling to one or two other people.

I don't know. But I'm just going to say for today, I'm just going to dispel a little bit of all that sober reality, and I'm just going to celebrate. That sort of reminds me, that sort of reminds me, Greg, when it was the night of Obama's inauguration.

It was 2009. And I was on CNN. And Cameron Brown was hosting. And so we're sitting here. And they're going on and on and on about, oh, my goodness, what he has to focus on the first 100 days. I was like, listen, y'all, we got four damn years talking about all that sort of stuff. I don't understand why y'all ain't showing more of these damn performances at the ball. I said, look, I'm leaving here in a second.

I got three or four to hit my damn self. I said, so I don't know about y'all. It's a party. And so I'm leaving here in a second. I got three or four to hit my damn self. I said, so I don't know about y'all. It's a party. And so I'm with Reese. I think it is important. We can get down the line and all other stuff that happens. But it's sort of like, again, living in this moment, knowing full well what we have had to endure in this country

to actually see it happen and unfold, yeah, it is important to recognize it, what it is, and recognize what it also means to the generation that is under 18 who is actually watching this, who doesn't have the same view, who were not alive when Clarence Thomas had his confirmation hearing. I was born a year later after the Th view, who were not, they were not alive when Clarence Thomas had his confirmation hearing. I wasn't, I was born a year later after the Thurgood Marshall hearings, have no recollection of that as well.

And so to Recy's point, she's right. She is right. You are right, Recy. And in fact, see, KBJ is an avatar. She is the best-known jurist, Black jurist, since Thurgood Marshall, and arguably better known before her confirmation than Thurgood Marshall was. She is not the civil rights hero that Thurgood Marshall was. She is not the civil rights hero that Constance Baker Motley was. She couldn't be. It was a different time. But right now, the eyes of the world are on her. I hope that she will, and because she's a student, obviously, she's intellectual, she will take notes from the Supreme Court justices before her who used the court as a bully pulpit. Antonin Scalia, a hardcore white nationalist who really earned the death he so

richly went into, had no problem engaging in intellectual warfare using the podium. He would go around the country arguing with people who disagreed with him. I hope KBJ, I like saying KBJ because they say RBG. Well, she's better than RBG. Anyway, RBG ripped off Pauli Murray anyway. I ain't going to get into that. But, you know, Ellie, we could have a good conversation about that, bro. I know you know.

But my point is that. I don't know. Of course I know about Pauli Murray. Hold on, hold on, hold on, bro. I know you know. But my point is that... I don't know. Of course I know about polyamory. Hold on, hold on, hold on, Greg. Hold on, Greg. Barbara said she wants some of that, too. Barbara said she wants some of that, too. Right. I mean, I mean, come on now. Because,

you know, in a real world, and with all due respect to Senator Booker, brother, you do realize, of course, that Harriet Tubman was both a federal criminal and a criminal in the state of Maryland. She was not an American, brother.

And she was looking at that star because as her daddy taught her how to read the stars on the eastern shore of Maryland, the North Star transcended any nation state. She was an AME Zion spiritual woman. So please stop trying to stuff America into this spiritual narrative, brother. I know you be hyped.

I know you want the place to be better, but it's going away soon, son. It's going away. But at any rate, back to the point, you know, in a country, not the greatest country in the world, but in a country where human beings are equally valued, Pauli Murray would have been on the Supreme Court. Spotswood Robinson would have been on the Supreme Court. But we don't live in that country. So what I hope Katanji Brown Jackson does is write with the full force of her mind and her culture and her grounding and her experience.

Sonia Sotomayor has been doing that. I hope, no, no, no, don't look for compromise. These people are not going to compromise. Do you understand? They're getting ready to collapse the Indian Child Welfare Act. They got a case right now. Deb Haaland, the secretary of the interior, because they don't like the fact that Native Americans who have children up for adoption, they're looking for Native American families first. They've been after that forever and they're using the 10th Amendment. I hope she goes on the bench, uses the full force of her intellect and wages intellectual warfare.

Do I expect it? Hell no, I don't expect it. Why? Because those kind of people aren't nominated to, confirmed to, and sitting on the Supreme Court. Sonia Sotomayor might be the last one even halfway in that direction for a while. You've got to color in the lines. I hope now that she's there, she'll

take a different tack. And so, yes, I celebrate. I celebrate for no other reason than you white nationals are mad. Of course you are mad, because it's all going away. Now, you know, and again, I'll end with this. I think it's important for us to consider the fact that the federal polity is going to fracture. I don't think there will be a civil war. I think there's going to be a dissolution. The governor of California looking at the governor of Texas, that shovel-mouthed bastard, is saying, well, if you're going to weaponize everybody in Texas to try to stop abortions,

I'm going to weaponize everybody and use the Second Amendment and try to get these guns. But guess what? Those two things on a collision course will end up at a court that will have to decide, and they can't use the Constitution to do it. They're just going to have to say naked politics. If you want to expand the court, there are 13 circuit courts of appeals in this country, including the DC circuit. You can make the case that it should go to 13 immediately. The only reason that they don't want that to happen is because they have a white Republic that they want to keep. When it goes away, it's going away forever. Put that in the

bank. It is interesting, Larry, when you think about in terms of where we are, and something Greg just said there, I got a kick out of that when he said they mad. And so, I just

had to go ahead and play this here because this really, let me tell you how mad they are. Lindsey Graham was so mad and so bitter. Let's just call him Bitter Becky. He was so bitter that he wouldn't even come on a Senate floor to vote. He was in the cloak room and he had his tie off, and you're not allowed to come on a Senate floor without your tie. And so, literally, he opened the door to say no.

He was so mad that he literally would not even come on the floor. So I think this video right here says all you need to know about bitter Lindsey Graham. Can't argue with you? No. You mad. Look at you.

You mad. You big mad. I'm happy. Leave me alone. I just want some money. A lot of money. I don't get paid to argue with you. No.

Who is you? Come on then. I don't get paid to argue with you. No. Who is you? You ain't nobody. You mad. Man. Only only That right there, they just banged. If that brother

right there had said that to Lindsey Graham, Lindsey might have went on and put his towel on and went in there and voted. Go ahead. Listen, Roland, shout out to Plows for that video, uploading that video, because he hit it right on the nose. So, Lindsey Graham is salty, but he's going to have to be

salty, right? And so, listen, you know, I agree with Recy, right? This is a moment to celebrate. I'm happy for all the Black women, like I said earlier, who did all the work. We can pop a bottle of champagne. But let's be clear. Every time there's an appearance of black progress in the United States, where we talk about the Reconstruction or after the Great Society bills in 1960s, after President Obama's election, there is always a more violent response.

So we have to get, we need to celebrate now. But listen, we got to want you, Roland, you talked about organizing and making sure we're ready, not just to march, but we need to demand that not only in terms of what Brother Carr talked about, maybe expanding, expanding the court, but also in terms of voting rights and. Shout out to the sisters like Recy. You put in all the work, and we're here because of you. But in the next 48 hours, it's time to get back to work. Make sure we get things together for November, because you can be sure that the other side is coming back even harder. Can I say something on this, Roland, really quickly? Yeah, go ahead. Just really quickly. Yeah, go ahead.

I know Barbara knows this as well. The issue with the violence is not to be taken lightly. The reason why they made all of their disgusting pedophilia attacks against Katonji Brown Jackson is specifically because they know that it riles up their QAnon base. And, and this is what a lot of people don't know, and they know that the QAnon base already hates KBJ. Why? Because of all the cases they wanted to talk about with her sentencing, you know what case they didn't talk about?

The fact that she sentenced a man named Edgar Welch, better known as the Pizzagate guy. So the literal guy who went to Comet Pizza in DC to try to shoot people because he thought there was a pedophile ring in the basement, ain't even a basement in the pizza place, whatever, that went to shoot people over the pizza place pedophile ring, she sentenced that man to four years in jail. And so the QAnon people already know her and they already don't like her. And that's why Hawley and the rest of them were using these QAnon attacks. So this violence that Larry is talking about, we need to be concerned about that because that's why they did it.

And it wasn't an accident. And I think that we're all underestimating how black women and black people are responding to what happened. Because just as they riled up their little base, because that's all this was about, was just Ted Cruz up there checking his Twitter during the debates, all this, it was, they riled up some black folks. So they made a mistake. Black folks were kind of like, about this upcoming 2022, they were kind of into it.

But folks, everybody I'm talking to is telling me that folks are now talking because they took note that there were no black women in that Senate. They took note of the few black senators. They took note of the, you know, that this means they, you know, people have been talking about, wait a minute, are there really no black governors? You know, never been a black woman governor. They're saying things like, things like, what about these states that have never elected any black person, a black woman to any office? I mean, they are really beginning to talk. And that was a mistake.

I think they absolutely have a lot has backfired on them. Attacking Kennedy's book meant that his book went number one. I mean, all this nonsense about what they've done. And I think this is one where we're underestimating how Black folks are calculating, because we have our own political calculus, and we're not going to sit back and allow this gang of evil, anyway, evil neo-confederates to beat up on a Black woman and not retaliate. I think that, remember, every single one of those states that Holly and Cotton and Blackburn and Cruz and Graham come from have significant black populations that vote. And we need to really be thinking about it. You notice Tillis was real kind of quiet and being careful because he knows he's up against Beasley.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Tillis is not running. So Tillis is actually stepping down. So here's what you have, and I've been walking through this. I've been walking through this, and look, you got a whole bunch of loud, crazy, ignorant folk who you don't hold Democrats accountable. You will shield for the Democratic Party.

First of all, I ain't never identified as a Democrat or Republican. What I am, I got some damn common sense. And here's what I do know. I do know as we stand right now, there is one party that is absolutely, positively against anything that I stand for. What I do know right now,

as I sit here and look at this picture of Dr. Martin Luther King here, what I do know is a whole bunch of people who love quoting Dr. King but don't give a damn. You got Josh Mandel, folks, running right now. He is the leading candidate in Ohio

on the Republican side. And this son of a bitch had the audacity to tell Bernice King she needs to go back and learn more about her own dad. Y'all, he is the leading Republican candidate

to become the next United States Senator from Ohio to replace Rob Portman, who today voted no against Judge Katonji Brown Jackson. Barbara mentioned Tom Tillis. Tom Tillis blocked two black women

from the federal bench. And then they later confirmed someone else. Then you have the person who was the leading candidate on the Republican side, who was the former governor of North Carolina, who was the author of his voter suppression bill. And so black people should be focused

to make sure that Sherri Beasley gets elected in North Carolina Rand Paul whose punk ass was late today on purpose He was in the Senate. He was walking the halls giving tours But he was purposely late to delay her confirmation hearing Charles Booker is running against him in Kansas right now in Missouri the former governor of Missouri is running for the United States Senate and is leading the race. He's the one who was having an affair with a woman,

then took nude pictures of her and held them over her head and was forced to resign. And then when the black woman DA, Kim Gardner, was investigating the case, they went after her to pull her authority. See, y'all need to understand So if y'all complain about what's going on you had Pat to me in Pennsylvania who is retiring who voted today against Judge Katonji Brown Jackson and so you got an opportunity where you've got

Fetterman Conor Lamb Malcolm Kenyatta all battling for the nomination in Pennsylvania You got Mandela Barnes, who is the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, who is running for that particular Senate nomination, who's likely to be facing Senator Ron Johnson, who's right there with QAnon, who supports the big lie. Then you got, of course, weak-ass Marco Rubio down in Florida against Val Demings. And all I'm saying, and I mentioned,

we had Gary Chambers on here. You got old corn point, Mr. Old Fake-Ass Accent Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana willing to talk like that who's also running, and if you register enough, black people can actually beat Senator John Kennedy

the same way John Bel Edwards was re-elected as governor in Louisiana. And so for all y'all out here who sit here, and I see y'all little punk ass comments on Twitter and on YouTube and everywhere else, y'all gotta make a decision. It's two parties, Republican and it's Democrat.

You gotta decide out of these two who is likely going to align with me. And it doesn't mean you don't make demands. It doesn't mean you don't ask for stuff. But here's what I do know. If, if the Republicans control the U.S. Senate next year, if there's a Supreme Court vacancy, they will keep that sucker open for two years. So all that BS you heard Mitch McConnell talk about nine is fine.

Remember, it was Senator Ted Cruz who said if Hillary Clinton gets elected president, we ain't got no problem having eight members of the Supreme Court. So to Ellie's point, they ain't tripping on nine. They got no problem having eight as long as they hold the power to ensure they put that ninth person on.

Recy, Greg, and then I'm doing a lightning round here. Recy, Greg, Larry, final comments from Ellie, Barbara. Reese, go. Take that, bitches. Y'all can stay mad. We got a lifetime appointment. Black woman in the Supreme Court.

We celebrating, and that's all I got. I'm going to be petty. Everybody else has been sober and serious. I'm going to inject a little bit of pettiness. Greg. Sis, you there now. Congratulations. Take the summer. Get up to speed.

You do not recuse yourself on that Harvard case. And I want to see some fire. There's three women on the left now. And I want to see some opinions that make me sit back and say, you know what? There's an intellectual war going on. I want to see that. And to you white nationalists, your thing is gone, baby. And when it fractures, it's never coming back. And all y'all got to move to the Dakotas and Wyoming or wherever the hell else y'all gonna move, because your asses ain't coming to Maryland, you ain't coming to California, and in a minute, you ain't coming to Texas, Mississippi, or Georgia, Alabama, either.

You're gonna keep on till you break it, and I hope you will keep that pedal to the metal, because I can't wait. Larry. Mm-hmm. Shout out to Judge Brown Jackson. Of all the barriers she had to navigate And I hope you will keep that pedal to the metal, because I can't wait. Larry. Shout out to Judge Brown Jackson. Of all the barriers she had to navigate throughout her illustrious career, she made it, she's at the pinnacle.

So congratulations to her and her family. And once again, shout out to Black women for doing the work. Barbara. I just want to thank all the brothers who have been there in this fight for our sisters. I want to thank all the Black women who made this happen this fight for our sisters. I want to thank all the Black women who made this happen, because it wouldn't have happened without Black women. But I also want to just say that besides the numbers, folks, think about reorganizing the

court. That's something nobody talks about. We talk about numbers, but the actual organization of the way that the court operates needs to be different. So that's a whole different show. But I do want to say to everybody, get involved in this vote. We should not be under this kind of subjugation of these neo-Confederates. Dominating the Senate Judiciary Committee, 11 out of 8,

I mean, 8 out of 11 of those people were from the South, and they were sitting there as neo-Confederates. Let's change that. We can do it, and we got to get involved. We got to vote. We got to use the power. And yes, we got to push the hell out of anybody we vote for

to do the right thing for Black folks. Kelly? White supremacists are single-issue voters on the Supreme Court. They don't know a lot about stuff, but they know that in order to maintain white supremacy, they need the Supreme Court. I need Black people to become single-issue voters about the Supreme Court, too. Because if you care about anything,

you need the court. If you care about voting rights, you need the court. If you care about sensible gun laws in your community, you need the court. If you care about ending police brutality, you need the court. If you care about climate, you need the court. I cannot get things done unless I have the third branch of government. White supremacists understand that. Black, prideful black people need to understand that too. Folks, my final comments is this here. I have a mama, three sisters, a lot of us don't really fully respect historic moments when they take place.

I think we live now in a world where things move so fast and we're operating in social media, where memes and comments fly back and forth, where we go, oh, okay, it happened in Congress, all right, who's gonna be on the next Housewives show? But what we have to understand, numbers don't lie. I said it earlier, 232 years of the United States Supreme Court,

the highest court in the land. They've been, she will be the 116th person to serve on that court. And before her, you've had 108 white men. As Senator Chuck Schumer said, this was the domain for the longest of white male Protestants. We need to understand, Greg says it all the time on this show, and we do as well, this country was never meant for us. This country was never meant for you to be watching me right now.

It was never meant in this country for us to have black lawyers and black journalists and black women and black professors and have black civil rights leaders coming on here talking about this type of appointment. It wasn't meant for us to go to college. It wasn't meant for us to go to school. It wasn't meant for us to be participants in this republic. The reality is when we talk about the founding fathers, Ellie's book talks about it. We're going to have him on later for a deeper dive into his book about how trash, as he lays it, this constitution is. Do understand what is happening right now in many African nations, how they are rewriting constitutions to make them more democratic and more about today than in the past.

But you've got to understand, you've got people who want to hold on to the past because they see what is coming. When I talk about my book coming out, White Fear in September, that's what it's about. Do understand what you're dealing with right now is a Republican Party that is a white nationalist party. It is a party that is driven by white fear. All of the stuff that you're seeing happening right now across the country, the attacks on critical race theory, the attacks on diversity, the attacks on equity, the attacks on inclusion, all of those things are a result because they did not want to see this day come.

I see a lot of black folks that follow for the okie doke, and I see some of y'all comments. Y'all talking about the Judge Brown Jackson. You're mad at her because she got a white husband. Oh no, I saw your comments. I see your comments. You're mad that Kamala Harris, she got a white husband. I see that, but y'all do remember that Thurgood Marshall, also married a sister, but his second wife was also of Asian background. Why am I saying that? Because, see, that has no bearing on that particular individual. See, what we can't do is get caught up in somebody else's drama.

When we start trying to define somebody else's blackness, then we start sounding just like white folks who talked about the one drop of blood. Be very careful with the language that we use when we begin to attack folks who look like us, because when you begin to use their talking points, then they then weaponize those same talking points against us. See, when you have a United States Senator in Indiana who literally says that, well, sure, we should be returning more power to the states, and he was asked about the loving decision, he said that covers that as well. Now look, I got a black wife. I've never dated anybody who wasn't black. But what I'm not going to do is dare question the intellect of this sister because who she married.

We cannot fall for these gains. What we should be concerned about are the clear and undeniable white supremacists who want to ensure that whether you a sister or a brother and you marry somebody who don't look like you, they still want to stop you. They didn't give a damn that Obama's mama was white. They still wanted to stop him. So what does that tell you? What we better understand is that what we are about to face, and I have been warning

folks since 2009, that we are living in the age of white minority resistance. Oh, yes, the last election, 73% of all folks who voted were white and We still are seeing that and you better understand that all these white angry these folks white folks are angry and they're mad They're upset and they're gonna turn out in record numbers in November and you know, what's gonna happen in November by them turning out They're turning out against you. They're turning out against your agenda. They're turning out against Judge Katonji Brown Jackson. They're turning out against Vice President Kamala Harris. They're turning out against Senator Cory Booker, against Senator Raphael Warnock. They're turning out against HBCUs.

They're turning out against Black Advancement. They're turning out against black advancement. They're turning out against black CEOs. They're turning out against African Americans receiving a better share of federal contracts. What they want to maintain is the power that they have had in this country since its founding. But the reality is the new founding fathers and sisters changed this country with the black freedom movement. It was A. Philip Randolph. It was Bob Rustin. It was Dr. King. new founding fathers and sisters changed this country with the Black Freedom Movement. It was A. Philip Randolph. It was Bob Rustin.

It was Dr. King. It was Constance Baker Motley. It was Septima Clark. It was Dorothy Cotton. It was James Orange. It was Ralph Abernathy. It was Andrew Young. It was River Jesse Jackson Sr. It was all of those brothers and sisters, those known and unknown,

who put us on the collision course to where we are today. Do understand we should never underestimate those who came before us, who did what was necessary to change America for the future. And some of us are sitting here whining and complaining and dismissing what is going on here. When the fact of the matter is what took place today at 317 p.m. Eastern on April 7th, 2022 is going to be talked about in 2057. And what they're also going to be talking about is where were the black folks who stay committed to the cause after April 7th, 2022? What did they do in October and November of 2022? Did they simply go home and do nothing?

Did they sit the election out? Did they stay engaged? Because the reality is they did not. We cannot simply be excited and happy and elated that Judge Katonji Brown Jackson is going to the Supreme Court. We must then say, I'm not satisfied. We must say, I'm not happy that that's one sister. I want another sister, and I want another brother, a real brother,

not Clarence Thomas. I want to see more. At some point, we have got to reach the point of not being satisfied, but when you're not satisfied, it means you must keep doing the work. You must keep going. You must keep challenging. You must keep pressing. You must keep challenging. You must keep pressing. You must keep voting. You must keep arguing. You must continue to do it as long as there's breath in your body because if you don't, you're simply letting

down the ancestors. I want to thank everybody who participated on our show today. Thank you so very much. We'll see you tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. This is an iHeart Podcast.