Melanie Stansbury: “I rise tonight during Black History Month to raise the alarm on the rewriting of American history that is happening at…”

“I rise tonight during Black History Month to raise the alarm on the rewriting of American history that is happening at our national parks, our museums, our monuments, and our public spaces as the Trump administration is attempting to erase the histories, the stories, and the lives of our Black, Native, Chicano, AAPI, and LGBT+ communities. I rise tonight to talk about what this means for the past, the present, and the future of this country because, as they say, those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it, and this country has come too far to forget. Our Nation's national parks, our monuments, our memorials, our museums, and our public spaces are the places in which those memories are inscribed. Now, I begin tonight with a simple premise: that the act of remembering is a deeply political and a deeply powerful act. So, too, is the act of erasure, of erasing and removing history. These are not merely acts of omission, but acts of power, acts of dominance, and, yes, even acts of violence.”