President Biden and Vice President Harris unveiled GOP presidential nominee Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the White House on Tuesday, while announcing a new national memorial to Emmett Till, a young black man whose 1955 lynching sparked the civil rights movement.
“Our history as a nation is born of tragedy and triumph, struggle and success. We are who we are. And as lovers of our country, as patriots, we know that we must remember and teach our entire history even when it hurts, especially when it hurts,” Harris said. “There are those in our nation today who would like to erase or rewrite the ugly parts of our past.”
“People who try to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris continued. “Those who insult us in an attempt to burn us down. Those who try to divide us through unnecessary debates. We must not be inclined to believe that we will be better off if we forget. We will be better off if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember because as we all know here, it is only by understanding and learning from our past that we can continue to work towards building a better future.”
Biden, who signed a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monuments in Mississippi and Illinois, praised the courage of Till’s mother, saying she chose to keep an open casket to display her 14-year-old son’s brutalized and mutilated body to the world. The president also praised the “black media,” noting how Jet magazine, the Chicago Defender, and other newspapers published graphic images, effectively advancing the civil rights movement in the United States.
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President Biden listens as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a ceremony to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Memorial on the White House campus, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vokey)
“At a time when there are those who want to ban books, burying history, we’re making it clear — crystal, crystal clear — how darkness and denial can hide a lot, but they can’t erase anything,” Biden added. “You can hide, but they didn’t erase anything. We can’t choose to learn only what we want to know. We have to learn what we need to know, we need to know about our country, we need to know everything, the good, the bad, the truth about who we are as a nation. That’s what great nations do. And we are a great nation. That’s what they do. Only with the truth, we get another long step forward with truth and justice, we get another Gets a long step. Way to go.”
His speeches also cited that Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act last year, which made lynching a federal hate crime.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment but did not immediately respond.
The remarks come as Harris and DeSantes have already traded public barbs over the Florida Department of Education’s new curriculum on slavery in the United States. Democrats have also accused the Republican presidential candidate of banning the books during his fight against vigilante ideology. DeSantis and his team have denied that he has banned books or that his state teaches that black people benefited from slavery — a claim Harris made recently, prompting media pushback.
During a speech in Jacksonville on Friday, Harris charged that Florida’s state curriculum is meant to “teach middle school students that enslaved people profited from slavery.”
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago, was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of sexually assaulting a white woman. (Getty Images)
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DeSantis tweeted in response, “Democrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida’s education standards to cover their agenda of influencing students and pushing sexual topics on children.” “Florida stands in their way, and we will continue to expose their agenda and their lies.”
In March, DeSantis spoke out against those who accused him of banning the books, calling the narrative a “delusion”. He condemned “obscene and inappropriate material” in schools and libraries that violate state standards, and said he wants to keep education “free of sexual and harmful material that is not age appropriate.”
Earlier Tuesday, DeSantis was involved in a car accident on the campaign trail but was not injured.
President Biden speaks during a ceremony to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vokey)
Emmett Till’s memorial comes nearly 68 years after Till’s death. While visiting family in Mississippi from his home in Chicago, Till was accused of making inappropriate advances toward a white female grocery clerk. Four days later, she was dragged from her bed, kidnapped and brutally murdered by at least two white men.
Till’s mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River three days later on August 31, 1955. About 125,000 people attended the pilgrimage and burial.
His two accused killers were acquitted of capital murder by an all-white jury.
The White House fact sheet says the new national memorial will “tell the events surrounding the assassination of Emmett Till, the civil rights movement and their significance in American history, and the broader story of black oppression, survival and heroism in America.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at Moms for Liberty’s Joyful Warriors National Summit on June 30, 2023 in Philadelphia. Democrats have accused De Santis of banning the books because Republican battles fueled the idea. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Cummins)
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“Look, telling the truth and the whole history of our nation is important. For our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren,” Biden said.
“Silence is a conspiracy. I will not remain silent, and neither will you remain silent on what happened,” he added. “There is truly important work ahead to continue the fight for racial justice and equality for all Americans. And my administration is committed to moving forward.”
The president said the memorial “will tell the story of one family’s promise and loss and the nation’s reckoning with hatred, violence, racism, rampant abuse of power and brutality.”
“It’s hard to understand, it’s hard to understand. It’s also a war,” Biden said. “For me, it’s hard to understand.”
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