Recognizing Myesha Watkins

Floor Speech

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Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Cuyahoga County's Myesha Watkins on her latest and well-earned recognition for serving the people of northeast Ohio.

Last month, Myesha received the Capstone Achievement Award from the University of Chicago's Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy. This distinction highlights her as a local and national leader when it comes to violence prevention.

As the executive director of the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance and in her current role as the administrator of the Cuyahoga County Office of Violence Prevention, Myesha has dedicated herself to the hard work of public safety.

For years, she has been there for the people of Cleveland--in our schools, our community centers, our emergency rooms, and our most overlooked and underserved neighborhoods. She has been there taking direct action to mediate conflict, deescalate crises, and stop the cycle of violence.

This work isn't easy, but as Myesha often says, it is a calling, and it makes a difference.

That is why I was outraged earlier this year when the Trump administration rescinded Federal grants awarded to the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance. Grants that had been awarded by the past administration were stripped away. It was a betrayal of northeast Ohio, but Myesha and our community have never stopped doing the work to make our neighborhoods safer because we know that community-oriented solutions work and are needed.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Myesha on her recognition from the University of Chicago. On behalf of a grateful district and a grateful nation, I thank her for her service and commitment to making our Cleveland communities safer. Trump's Attacks on Black America

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Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, there is a saying: When America catches a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.

Since January 20, make no mistake, this country has been running a fever, a moral sickness, one that begins at the very top, a twisted agenda that pardons the powerful, protects the predators, and punishes the people. Black Americans are paying the price.

Mr. Speaker, buried in the last jobs report was this number: The Black unemployment rate is now 7\1/2\ percent. That is a recession- level rate, the highest rate since the pandemic.

Do you think they care at Mar-a-Lago? I will tell you who does care: the people in the community I represent. They are watching as prices keep going up while funding for programs people need, like SNAP, Medicaid, and the ACA, keep going down.

It doesn't stop at the kitchen table. No, we are witnessing a whole- of-government effort to erase Black history, to diminish Black voices, and to stifle Black progress.

More than $3 billion in Federal funding has been cut from HBCUs, Black communities, and Black entrepreneurs. Over 6,000 Federal research programs and datasets related to racial disparities have been deleted, putting us in the dark on everything from sickle cell anemia to maternal health.

We have seen Black authors pulled from school shelves and government websites quietly erase information on figures like Harriet Tubman and Jackie Robinson.

Just last month, we learned that memorials honoring the contributions of Black American soldiers during World War II were stripped from a military cemetery in the Netherlands.

This is not a coincidence. This is an all-out attack on our past, our present, and our future.

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. Black Americans will not be erased. We will not be silenced, and neither will the millions of people of all backgrounds who are being harmed by this White House.

It is time for us to take up their voice and carry on their fight before this sickness spreads further.

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