Former Sen. Joyce Elliott recalled on Monday racism she experienced from the age of 15 when she attended an integrated high school.
She remembered how she was called into the principal's office on her third day of school to meet with the superintendent and the principal. The two men had her transcripts printed out, which she thought was a good sign since she had top grades from her previous all-Black school. But the principal slammed the papers down on his desk and asked her "Where did you get these grades?"
He proceeded to tell her that she may have been able to achieve high grades at her "n****r school," but she would not see the same from teachers there. Elliott said this was her unfortunate truth.
"I knew that I didn't go there to be wronged, but I also knew I didn't deserve that, nor was it OK for adults to do this to a 15-year-old, no matter who the child was."
Elliott spoke at an all-day Juneteenth celebration Monday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock commemorating the day Black people learned about the emancipation proclamation in Texas in 1865.
She said that adults have to be careful when they tell children that education is "the way out."
"Take some responsibility and also tell them, 'If people don't put up barriers when you can't find your way out with your education,'" she said. "It's important, but it is wrong to say it is 'the way;' it is not. We desperately need to be educated, don't misinterpret me."
Elliott said she started the road she's on now at 15 years old and she will never give up, because the road is long and "we have no excuse" for not continuing on "if we really want to change things."
She recalled having to memorize American legislative pieces like the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and the Pledge of Allegiance.
"I never really could turn off the questions I had in my head," Elliott said. "Just think about, 'and justice for all' and what it must be like for a kid that had memorized this -- it's tattooed onto your brain -- and as you grow you begin to realize that's not true at all, not at all."
Elliott said the Declaration of Independence was the one that got to her the most because it is seen as such "an eloquent and lofty" piece of literature, but when she read it for what it meant to some -- but not all -- it didn't seem so lofty.
"That's a large part of what I feel about Juneteenth. When my mother first explained it to us, it sounded like the biggest thing in the world," she said. "There is something about learning the details, learning the back story, that is so riveting and at the same time challenging."
"It's not what we thought when we were younger and this dissonance just always haunted my brain. Why can't it be that way? You say it on paper, it's in our books."
As a child, Elliott said she questioned how America's Founding Fathers could be Christians and slave owners.
She noticed a young Japanese American girl riding the bus to the all-white school as it passed by her house every day.
"She was on the bus with all the white kids. I didn't know what to make of that. But what I finally came to know was that it wasn't a matter of Black and white. You could go to the all-white school as long as you were not Black. That's not a good feeling for a kid. And at the same time, I lived among these people who called themselves Christians."
There are still things in our society that don't make sense, Elliott said, or "we use them as an excuse not to confront the things we need to confront."
Elliott used the example of Colin Kaepernick, a Black football player who kneeled in protest of police brutality during the national anthem before multiple National Football League games and received criticism for "dishonoring" the men and women who fought in the military.
"We're supposed to have the ability to protest, especially if you're doing it peacefully, and that's going to be accepted no matter who you are ... So when all this was going on -- did you challenge yourself to look at it both ways or did you just decide he was right or he was wrong? That's the kind of thing we need to talk about."
There are people who won't even talk about something as small as what Kaepernick did, Elliott said.
"We can't make ourselves look both ways on this path -- we need to. Otherwise, we will never get to a real meaning of Juneteenth."
Elliott brought up the stand-your-ground law, allowing a person to use deadly force in self-defense in public.
"How many people in here can talk about stand-your-ground and see that it's not needed? Or believe that it is needed, but understand there is a middle ground somewhere that stand-your-ground is probably a problem ... Can we talk about the castle doctrine and stand-your-ground at the same time without wanting to shoot one another?"
Elliott asked; how do we talk about Juneteenth and make it mean something without confronting things like that?
She noted how most of the people being killed on the principle of stand-your-ground are young Black men.
"I used to call their names. I can't anymore, it's that many," she said.
Elliott quoted Toni Morrison, a critically acclaimed American novelist saying, "What are you without racism?"
"Without racism, what would you be?" Elliott asked. "What does that mean to you that maybe you got somewhere because of racism or you didn't because of racism? This is Toni Morrison, what are you without racism? Are you still smart without racism? Are you still strong? Would you be more vulnerable without racism? Depends who you are, doesn't it?"
Of July 4 and Juneteenth, Juneteenth was what meant something to Elliott's family, she said.
"It was not that we didn't recognize July Fourth and had hot dogs, we did. But we always knew that emancipation day, Independence Day for us was Juneteenth. And if I had that conversation with some of my former colleagues now, I can't even imagine how that would go, how ready are they to have that conversation? 'Oh, you hate America,' that's what happens so many times."
Black people have survived, excelled and thrived, which should be celebrated, Elliott said.
"If we are to make sure that we have a future for everyone, we have the capability right now, we know how to educate our kids beginning from birth all the way through higher ed. We know how to do that and some of us had the opportunity to have that done; that's a good thing," she said. "We ought to celebrate that we have survived segregation in a lot of ways. But I can't pretend and say 'it's done, it's all good.'"
Elliott said she is thrilled about all of the colors, different languages and people who don't look like her or speak the way she does in the U.S., and these differences "need to be celebrated more."
She went further to say it "haunts" her that legislators are trying to decide what children can and can't learn because something may make them "uncomfortable."
"I'm looking forward to that time when no matter who we are, you don't have to give up who you are to be a part of all of us. That's what Juneteenth means to me. One of us is all of us. And all of us will accept any one of us."
As for how white people should support Black people on Juneteenth, Elliott said they should ask themselves how they interact with their current friends.
"Do you just do something once and a while to say you did it? Or is it just an ongoing thing? How do you maintain your friendships? The major thing is to be intentional about putting yourself in spaces where maybe you're not comfortable."
"Generally speaking, it's always the people who are more marginalized that have to make the step. Be a person who is about making sure people are included," Elliott advised.
"If people see you doing it, then you will have the cache to suggest to somebody else, 'We need to do something better."
Elliott is the executive director of Get Loud Arkansas, a nonprofit organization working to fight voter suppression, register new voters, engage low-propensity voters and mobilize all eligible voters to utilize the power of their vote to shape the future of Arkansas.
She is also the co-chair of the board for the National Center on Education and the Economy, an organization dedicated to the study, design, and building of equitable, high-performing, and cost-effective education and work development systems that prepare students to contribute to a Democratic society and compete in the global economy.