Maryland Governor Wes Moore Celebrates His Grandfather For Bringing His Family Back To America

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At a South Carolina Democratic Party event on Saturday, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) spoke about his grandfather who came back to the United States from Jamaica.

Transcript

00:00leadership, man. God bless you and thank you.

00:05And I really am honored to be with each and every one of you here tonight because I've

00:13traveled a pretty improbable journey to be with you here this evening. Because in many

00:19ways, I'm a pretty improbable governor. That I was raised by an immigrant single mom after

00:30my dad died in front of me when I was three years old. That I joined the army when I was

00:3617 years old. In fact, I was too young to sign the paperwork when I first joined the army.

00:44My mother had to sign the paperwork for me. But as Steve Benjamin knows, after my teenage

00:49years, my mother would sign whatever paperwork that the army put in front of her. That I'm

00:54a graduate of a two-year college. And that a notion of a kid who had handcuffs on his wrist

01:02by the time he was 11 years old would be here to headline a big dinner in South Carolina feels

01:11pretty unusual.

01:13I am to be here with so many distinguished leaders and role models and change makers.

01:24It might seem like a long way from where I came from. But in many ways, tonight's a homecoming.

01:36Because my grandfather was born in South Carolina. My grandfather was born in Charleston. He was

01:47the son of Louise and Josiah Thomas. And they emigrated to South Carolina from Jamaica. Now,

02:01my great-grandfather Josiah, he was a minister. And I want to be very clear, he was a very vocal

02:05minister. Right? He was a minister who didn't just preach the word of God. He was a minister

02:13who reminded people on earth that they needed to act accordingly as well. And so, this minister

02:19started receiving a whole lot of attention. And not just from the members of his congregation,

02:24this minister started receiving a whole lot of attention from the Ku Klux Klan. And so, they

02:32threatened his life. They threatened his livelihood. They threatened his family. And so, one night,

02:44my great-grandfather picked up his family, including his young son. They didn't just leave South Carolina.

02:57They left the United States. And they went back to Jamaica. And much of my family, to include

03:06my great-grandfather, they always pledged to never come back to this country. That the pain

03:13was too real. That the hurt was too deep. And much of my family has never come back here.

03:25But my grandfather, my grandfather loved America too much to let the cruelty of some diminish his love

03:35for all. And so, he believed in the promise of America. And he believed that the promise of America meant

03:42that our destiny is actually in our own hands. So, he came back to the States as a young man.

03:51He went to Lincoln University and HBCU in Pennsylvania. He always said,

03:56this country would be incomplete without me, in all of his humility.

04:04And my grandfather,

04:07Reverend James

04:08Joshua Thomas,

04:12became the first black minister in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church.

04:16Now, what happened was, when he made history, the same threats that were coming to his father

04:27started coming to him. The difference is, my grandfather didn't flinch.

04:34He stayed here in America until the day that he died, when he passed away and transitioned at 87 years

04:42old while I was serving in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division.

04:49Oh, and of the many, many lessons that he taught me,

04:57I want to spend time in our remarks talking about just one of them.

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