Mayor Eric Adams Hosts Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony In New York City

Forbes Breaking News

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was at Bowling Green along with other city and community leaders to raise the Juneteenth flag.

Transcript

00:00O'Shea, you know those were not merely words on a piece of paper that Deputy

00:07Mayor Raspberry shared with us and I hope we have a moment to reflect on what

00:12she stated. The journey from where she is now a deputy mayor in the most

00:19important city on the globe to the arrival of her ancestors and I reflect

00:25on my own family's journey and the challenges and the difficulties that

00:31were associated with it and when I took office after the election I went to

00:37synagogue and previous years I went to Gori Island and visited the door of no

00:42return in the dungeons and we must understand those of us who made it to the

00:47shores of America who we are and what we went through the mere fact that we are

00:54here still able to communicate in a civilized faction to fashion talks

00:59about our resiliency our ancestors stood in dungeons for years many of them

01:05having to stand in their own ways not seeing the sunlight at all and even when

01:11arriving to the shores of the tragedy didn't get easier it got more horrific

01:16cabin doors were kicked in women and children were raped and sodomized they

01:23delivered their babies in the fields only to go back and have to continue to

01:27work from sun up to sundown that's the legacy of where we stood but that is not

01:33our complete legacy we had great institutions like Timbuktu and others they

01:39want to rewrite our contribution to not only to America but to civilization and so

01:45my role of becoming the mayor of the city of New York the second African-American

01:48mayor to do so I stand on the shoulders of mayor Dinkins but what is more

01:53significant than that is that because I was able to stand on his shoulders I was

01:58able to go one step further and what he accomplished it took a hundred and ten

02:02mayors before the Juneteenth flag was raised here we were the first

02:06administration to have that flag raised

02:10feet away from where our ancestors were sold into slavery feet away from where

02:17our ancestors were sold into slavery now they see their offspring being the mayor

02:24to allow this flag to be raised but being mayor is both symbolic but it's

02:30substantive also and the symbolism is raising the flag flag but what about the

02:35substance the substance is being able to have the first African-American to be the chief of

02:43staff second to be the chief of staff of the city of New York first African-American

02:47to be the first deputy mayor first Latina speaking male to be the police commissioner

02:52first woman African-American to be the police commissioner first Panamanian Trinidadian to

02:58be a deputy mayor first Panamanian to be a chief advisor of first first first first

03:05first first first first first you know so for me to get here and not ensure that we

03:12lift up but not only of our community but all communities over my shoulders to the

03:17left is the intergovernmental affairs is my international affairs person he's the first

03:25person of Russian speaking to be the commission of international affairs Ed Myrmanstein is able

03:34to benefit from my ascension to be the mayor and you could go throughout the lineage first

03:40Filipino to be a deputy mayor you know the levels of things that we've done in this city

03:47first East Indian to be a deputy mayor of when you look at what we have accomplished and

03:53roles to the levels that we are we said to the city the city does not belong to one ethnicity or

04:01one demographic it belongs to all the ethnicity that makes up this city and we're doing it through

04:06the voice in the eyes and the aspiration of an African-American mayor I am American but never

04:12forget I'm African I'm African and we should never abandon that fact just as other cultures should

04:18never forget who they are this country tells you you don't put your country last I'm not American

04:26African a Chinese is not American Chinese a German is not American German so on and so forth America says

04:34you put your country first you hold on to your culture you hold on to what you brought and you

04:39bring it to the common denominator of America and America is not perfect matter of fact it's perfectly

04:45imperfect but as long as we're here and we have the right to fight for perfection that is what we

04:52should accomplish and so this flag is being lifted because in 1863 when slavery re-ended parts of Texas

05:01all the way up to 1865 the reality was not known and those two years are significant because a lot of

05:09things can happen in two years we know that more than ever because in two years we turned around this city

05:14from the direction that it was in to the direction that it's in now

05:17so when you lose two years you lose a lot but now we must ensure that we don't desecrate

05:26the lives of our ancestors what do we do with our lives how do we have our own liberation

05:35and not only physically I know chains are no longer on our ankles and on our hands but the mental slavery is real

05:43every time we do an action that's harmful to one another or harmful to someone else

05:48that is mental slavery and so my goal is not to be physically free but my goal is to be spiritually

05:56and emotionally free then we lift up our ancestors and their contribution so I thank you for coming out

06:04today and allowing us to raise the flag on Juneteenth to celebrate the rich contribution we've made to

06:12humankind happy Juneteenth day

06:14well thank you very much to our mayor while we do the flag raising we will have a rendition of lift every

06:32voice and sing by catherine pillow from the juneteenth and white team

06:36lift every voice and sing

06:38lift every voice and sing till earth and cloud

06:50lift every voice and sing till earth and Sandy

06:57Lift every voice and sing

07:04Till earth and heaven reigns

07:10Ring with the harmonies of liberty

07:21Let our rejoicing rise

07:28High as the listening skies

07:35Let it resound loud as the rolling sea

07:43Sing a song full of the faith

07:51That the dark past has taught us

07:56Sing a song full of the hope

08:03That the present has brought us

08:11Facing the rising sun

08:18Of our new day begun

08:25Let us march on

08:28Till victory is won

08:35Thank you

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