Contributed photo
Staying up late to watch the DNC. Darryl Brackeen (second from right) with wife Chaz and daughters Gabriella and Chelsea.
Below is the third DNC 2020 diary entry submitted by Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr., who is a delegate at this year’s national party convention. The convention, which began Monday, is taking place almost entirely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Click here and here to read the first two entries.
What a historic night. The first Black and Indian American nominated as the Democratic nominee for Vice President.
There were so many wonderful speeches and highlights that occurred Wednesday night, but I’m dedicating today’s diary entry entirely to California U.S. Sen. and newly minted nominee for Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Earlier Wednesday, the CT delegation heard from Connecticut’s Fifth District congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (who was a protégé of the late Jack Paulishen of Hillhouse High School and was an interning teacher for my class while I was at Hillhouse).
She talked about how she was a very early supporter of Kamala Harris’s campaign for President. Harris became a close friend and mentor as Hayes started her journey as a freshman congresswoman.
She spoke about how many people have mischaracterized Harris’s background. She even highlighted how Harris helped her craft school bus safety legislation.
Hayes said she truly believes that everything in life happens for a reason. And that Vice President Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala was a great decision. The representative believes that Joe Biden’s choice of Sen. Harris is a reflection of his character.
Hayes also reflected on the moment Sen. Harris dropped out of the Presidential race. Hayes said she received a call from the Senator, and that Hayes was devastated upon learning the news.
Harris’s response was that it was “never about me, it was always about the people.” That line summed up Sen. Harris’ life work, Hayes said. It has always been for the people.
To hear former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pass the mantle to Sen. Harris was also a moving moment Wednesday night.
As someone who was deeply involved in Clinton’s 2016 campaign, I could not shake the thought that America dropped the ball by not electing her as our President. We have a second chance to make this right.
Then of course former President Barack Obama made the case for the Biden/Harris ticket. The President stated, “Donald Trump never grew into the position….he simply can’t.”
In the light of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment and only less than 60 years that Black women won the full right to vote, it was truly a historic moment.
To hear the Sen. Harris call on the likes of Civil Rights icons like Mary McCleod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, and New Haven native Constance Baker Motley was amazing.
Personally, as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc (Eta Alpha Lambda Chapter-New Haven), to hear my sister organization Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc acknowledged by a Vice Presidential nominee on the stage of the Democratic National Convention was such an overwhelming and historic moment.
Divine 9 organizations and HBCU’s since their inception have produced the best and the brightest, and now we have someone representing us headed to the White House.
I grabbed my daughters (even though it was a little late at night), sat them on my lap, pointed to the screen, and told them that is the next Vice President of the United States.
Will they remember it? I don’t know, but that is what cell phone cameras are for. I will always remind them where they were and that they too can continue to shatter the glass ceiling.