“Having Senator Booker use his body as Black people have done in this country to fight for the advancement of other people, fight against the oppression of a group of people is pretty significant to the Black experience in America.”
U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., broke the record for the longest speech given on the Senate floor on Tuesday as he protested the first 71 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. Booker officially broke the record at 7:19 p.m. Ironically, Booker surpassed the previous record — 24 hours and 18 minutes — held by Sen. Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who used the Senate procedure known as a filibuster in an effort to block the passage of landmark civil rights legislation for Black Americans.
Nearly 70 years ago, Thurmond, a white “Dixiecrat” from South Carolina, took to the Senate floor to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was the first civil rights bill passed into law post-Reconstruction Era. Ultimately Thurmond’s filibuster did not prevail. Though the law’s intended outcome of equal voting rights for Black Americans had little impact, it also established key mechanisms for protecting civil rights by establishing the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
Juxtaposed to the 1957 law’s attempt to create protections for disenfranchised Black Americans, Democrats point out that Senator Booker’s protest was of actions that stand to harm Black and other vulnerable communities.
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change, told theGrio the Trump administration’s agenda–cuts to federal agencies and programs and massive layoffs to federal jobs–seeks to “remove protections” from communities that are “not cisgender, white men.” The progressive activist also noted Trump’s executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion and issue mass deportations of Black and brown migrants are also part of that agenda.
“Senator Booker is on the floor talking about everything that came from the Civil Rights Movement…when we’re talking about what came out of the ’60s, like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, protecting economic opportunities,” said Brown. He emphasized those social programs “actually help people keep afloat and level the playing field.”
Booker rang the alarm with a message that “we can no longer operate under the understanding of business as usual,” says Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who advises several Democratic members of Congress. Seawright said the New Jersey senator demonstrated “unusual business…not only leadership but in setting an example of how we’ve got to color outside the lines going forward.” He continued, “Not just as Black Americans but as all those who care about keeping democracy on track as we know it needs to be and should be.”
Seawright called Sen. Booker’s record-breaking floor speech a “big, pivotal, heroic and important step” in the resistance against Trump and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk. He told theGrio that the next critical step will have to happen “outside of Washington and the United States Senate” by Americans coming together “around a united cause” to reject it on the streets and at the ballot box. The Democratic strategist pointed out that the marathon speech also took place on the day of critical special elections in Wisconsin and Florida.
Democrats point out that it’s also symbolic that a Black man broke the record of a white segregationist like Thurmond. “He’s able to actually do this in a body that was not built for us to serve in, quite frankly,” said Brown. Booker’s “act of courage” reinforces the “resilience of the Black community in our country,” he added.
“We’ve had to withstand lots of things in this country, whether it’s physical, whether it’s socio-economic, whether it’s political attacks,” Brown continued. “Having Senator Booker use his body as Black people have done in this country to fight for the advancement of other people, fight against the oppression of a group of people is pretty significant to the Black experience in America.”
It also doesn’t surprise Democrats that Booker would be the senator to break such a record. “He’s always been a man on a mission. He’s always had the grit, the grind, and he’s always been a man on a mission to deliver results for his community and our country,” said Seawright, who also noted that Booker is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is known on Capitol Hill as “the conscience of the Congress.”
He explained, “I think he understands the importance of the strong, wide shoulders that he stands on and the opportunity that he has to stay true to the mission.”
Moments before he broke Thurmond’s record on the Senate floor, Booker acknowledged the segregationist’s legacy as someone who “tried to stop the rights upon which I stand.” He added, “I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.”
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