I was born the day before the March on Washington. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Everybody in my neighborhood was a Democrat. We just didn't have any Republicans, because anyone running as a Republican was very out of touch with what our community needed.

That is part of why we must keep talking about Fannie Lou Hamer and about our history as a party and as a nation. We can't forget. If we forget, we can get self-righteous. We are great, but we had to grow into that greatness. Let's not forget that we shut people out.

When I looked at [Fannie Lou] Hamer and that speech it seemed to me that she had to be the bravest woman ever, to come before that body and to assert her rights, when she knew that she was going lose that battle. But she did it anyway, because she knew she was speaking not just for herself and for that day, but for me, and for all the other young women who were coming behind her. She didn't know our names, but she was working for us. I find that incredibly empowering.

I was born the day before the March on Washington. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Everybody in my neighborhood was a Democrat. We just didn't have any Republicans, because anyone running as a Republican was very out of touch with what our community needed.

When I used to work for Reverend Jesse Jackson he would say, "You've got to know the rules in order to break the rules." The 1988 campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson made fundamental changes to the way Democrats do business.

A convention always involves a level of security. It is always our intent to ensure everyone attending the convention is safe. When it comes to protestors, we welcome people who have something to say.

I was just an infant when [Fannie Lou] Hamer spoke - barley even awake in the world. But here she was, pressing the Democratic Party to refuse to recognize the all-white Mississippi delegation, because obviously there was no way Mississippi could have an all-white delegation. Black people had been kept from registering through violence and intimidation. She had experienced that violence herself and was there to speak about it and to insist the delegation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party be recognized instead.