WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.988 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:00:02.988 --> 00:00:23.560 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:24.534 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:24.534 --> 00:00:29.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.900 --> 00:00:32.270 align:middle line:84% Mr. Kafker of Sharon, doubts the presence of a quorum. 00:00:32.270 --> 00:00:35.490 align:middle line:84% The Chair can ascertain that a quorum is not present. 00:00:35.490 --> 00:00:37.850 align:middle line:84% Court officers will summons the members 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:41.140 align:middle line:84% and tell them that a quorum roll call is in progress 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:42.895 align:middle line:84% and will remain open for three minutes. 00:00:42.895 --> 00:05:53.650 align:middle line:90% 00:05:53.650 --> 00:05:55.750 align:middle line:84% Chair would like to recognize some visitors 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:57.790 align:middle line:84% that we have in the chamber today 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:00.760 align:middle line:90% to the right of the rostrum. 00:06:00.760 --> 00:06:06.990 align:middle line:84% First of all, we have visitors from Springfield. 00:06:06.990 --> 00:06:11.585 align:middle line:84% Guests of Representatives Gonzalez, Williams, and Tosado. 00:06:11.585 --> 00:06:14.650 align:middle line:84% Please welcome the Association of Black Business 00:06:14.650 --> 00:06:19.300 align:middle line:84% and Professionals, City Councilor Marcus Williams, 00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:22.150 align:middle line:90% and City Clerk Anthony Wilson. 00:06:22.150 --> 00:06:23.802 align:middle line:90% Welcome to the State House. 00:06:23.802 --> 00:06:36.350 align:middle line:90% 00:06:36.350 --> 00:06:40.330 align:middle line:84% And we're also pleased to have with us here today 00:06:40.330 --> 00:06:43.450 align:middle line:84% the father of representative Nick Collins, 00:06:43.450 --> 00:06:47.170 align:middle line:84% former Representative Jim Collins, who is here also 00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:50.255 align:middle line:84% with former representative Royal Bolling Jr. Welcome. 00:06:50.255 --> 00:07:02.540 align:middle line:90% 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:03.770 align:middle line:90% Have all members voted? 00:07:03.770 --> 00:07:51.600 align:middle line:90% 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:55.200 align:middle line:84% Mr. Kafker moves that the request for a quorum roll 00:07:55.200 --> 00:07:57.710 align:middle line:90% call be withdrawn. 00:07:57.710 --> 00:07:59.660 align:middle line:84% The chair objection, the chair has none. 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:06.920 align:middle line:90% 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:07.888 align:middle line:90% [POUNDS GAVEL] 00:08:07.888 --> 00:08:14.189 align:middle line:90% 00:08:14.189 --> 00:08:15.730 align:middle line:84% Members will please take their seats. 00:08:15.730 --> 00:08:29.580 align:middle line:90% 00:08:29.580 --> 00:08:31.080 align:middle line:84% Members will please take their seats 00:08:31.080 --> 00:08:32.909 align:middle line:90% and subdue their conversations. 00:08:32.909 --> 00:09:05.440 align:middle line:90% 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:07.000 align:middle line:84% Members will please take their seats 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.059 align:middle line:90% and subdue their conversations. 00:09:09.059 --> 00:09:18.160 align:middle line:90% 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:21.730 align:middle line:84% I'm very proud to welcome everyone to this historic House 00:09:21.730 --> 00:09:24.980 align:middle line:84% Chamber for this Black History Month 00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:32.480 align:middle line:84% commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of WEB 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.400 align:middle line:90% Du Bois. 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:38.430 align:middle line:84% I would also like to thank Representative Pignatelli 00:09:38.430 --> 00:09:41.210 align:middle line:84% and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus 00:09:41.210 --> 00:09:46.000 align:middle line:84% for sponsoring this event and for their work to recognize 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.420 align:middle line:90% this important milestone. 00:09:49.420 --> 00:09:52.450 align:middle line:84% We also have some special guests, 00:09:52.450 --> 00:09:54.850 align:middle line:84% some of our friends from the Senate here today, 00:09:54.850 --> 00:09:57.380 align:middle line:84% who I also would like to welcome. 00:09:57.380 --> 00:10:00.380 align:middle line:84% Please welcome Senate President, Hariette Chandler. 00:10:00.380 --> 00:10:08.710 align:middle line:90% 00:10:08.710 --> 00:10:18.050 align:middle line:84% Senator Sonya Chang-Diaz, and Senator Joseph Boncore. 00:10:18.050 --> 00:10:25.640 align:middle line:90% 00:10:25.640 --> 00:10:28.970 align:middle line:84% Massachusetts has been at the forefront of so many fights 00:10:28.970 --> 00:10:31.390 align:middle line:90% for freedom. 00:10:31.390 --> 00:10:33.220 align:middle line:84% Whether it was leading the charge 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:36.970 align:middle line:84% for American independence from Britain, 00:10:36.970 --> 00:10:42.970 align:middle line:84% advancing the cause of abolition or women's rights, 00:10:42.970 --> 00:10:46.910 align:middle line:84% our state has been at the forefront. 00:10:46.910 --> 00:10:51.410 align:middle line:84% In the years past, national and international leaders, 00:10:51.410 --> 00:10:55.370 align:middle line:84% such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King 00:10:55.370 --> 00:10:59.120 align:middle line:84% have spoken from this very podium. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:03.200 align:middle line:84% And just across the street, every year, many of us 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:07.670 align:middle line:84% join together to read Frederick Douglass' famous speech 00:11:07.670 --> 00:11:10.440 align:middle line:90% on Independence Day. 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:16.790 align:middle line:84% We do this directly below the memorial to the 54th regiment, 00:11:16.790 --> 00:11:20.000 align:middle line:84% in which African-American soldiers took 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:25.650 align:middle line:84% the fight against slavery directly to the Confederacy. 00:11:25.650 --> 00:11:31.927 align:middle line:84% Today we gather to recognize the life and achievements of WEB Du 00:11:31.927 --> 00:11:33.430 align:middle line:90% Bois. 00:11:33.430 --> 00:11:36.850 align:middle line:84% He was born in Great Barrington and attended 00:11:36.850 --> 00:11:40.540 align:middle line:90% the local Congregational Church. 00:11:40.540 --> 00:11:42.820 align:middle line:84% Recognizing his brilliance, the church 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:47.730 align:middle line:84% banded together to support his education. 00:11:47.730 --> 00:11:52.320 align:middle line:84% By age 15, he was already submitting articles 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:57.810 align:middle line:84% to newspapers on race relations, and following his attendance 00:11:57.810 --> 00:12:02.220 align:middle line:84% at Fisk University, he returned to Massachusetts 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:09.230 align:middle line:84% to receive his bachelor's, master's, and PhD. 00:12:09.230 --> 00:12:14.850 align:middle line:84% Massachusetts celebrates its ties to Dr. Du Bois. 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:17.690 align:middle line:84% The main library at the University of Massachusetts 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:20.550 align:middle line:90% in Amherst is named for him. 00:12:20.550 --> 00:12:25.190 align:middle line:84% The story of how Dr. Randolph Bromery of UMass 00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:29.160 align:middle line:84% obtained the Du Bois papers for the university 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:32.160 align:middle line:84% and retrieved them from Egypt has 00:12:32.160 --> 00:12:35.990 align:middle line:90% the feel of real page-turner. 00:12:35.990 --> 00:12:39.980 align:middle line:84% Today we will hear from Representative Pignatelli, who 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:43.700 align:middle line:84% represents Du Bois' hometown of Great Barrington, 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:48.320 align:middle line:84% as well as members of our Black and Latino Legislative Caucus, 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:52.820 align:middle line:84% and David Levering Lewis, his noted biographer. 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:56.610 align:middle line:84% So I thank all of you for coming here today. 00:12:56.610 --> 00:12:59.130 align:middle line:84% The chair would like to now recognize the gentleman 00:12:59.130 --> 00:13:02.355 align:middle line:84% from Lawrence, representative Moran, to give remarks. 00:13:02.355 --> 00:13:13.790 align:middle line:90% 00:13:13.790 --> 00:13:15.440 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.830 align:middle line:84% And through you to the members, I proudly 00:13:17.830 --> 00:13:19.810 align:middle line:84% rise today on the last day of Black History 00:13:19.810 --> 00:13:22.690 align:middle line:84% Month as the chair of the Massachusetts Black and Latino 00:13:22.690 --> 00:13:24.509 align:middle line:90% Legislative Caucus. 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:26.050 align:middle line:84% My colleagues and I within the caucus 00:13:26.050 --> 00:13:29.560 align:middle line:84% are humbled by the opportunity and challenges 00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:33.220 align:middle line:84% of ensuring the voices of people of color across Massachusetts 00:13:33.220 --> 00:13:35.580 align:middle line:90% are heard and represented. 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:37.614 align:middle line:84% This is not a task we take lightly, 00:13:37.614 --> 00:13:39.030 align:middle line:84% and I appreciate the tireless work 00:13:39.030 --> 00:13:42.250 align:middle line:84% being done by our many allies and colleagues 00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:44.610 align:middle line:84% in helping us to achieve this goal. 00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:48.480 align:middle line:84% Black History Month is a chance to not only highlight 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.440 align:middle line:84% and celebrate the tremendous achievement 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.490 align:middle line:84% of the black community for us but also 00:13:53.490 --> 00:13:56.790 align:middle line:84% to redouble our efforts and focus on the challenges 00:13:56.790 --> 00:13:59.460 align:middle line:90% ahead for all people of color. 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:03.070 align:middle line:84% Heroic African-American figures have risen out 00:14:03.070 --> 00:14:06.120 align:middle line:84% of triumphing at events such as the Revolutionary 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:08.130 align:middle line:84% War and the Civil Rights Movement, 00:14:08.130 --> 00:14:11.760 align:middle line:84% but also during some of the nation's darkest periods, 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:14.730 align:middle line:84% like the Civil War and the fight to abolish 00:14:14.730 --> 00:14:17.580 align:middle line:84% slavery in this country once and for all. 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:21.780 align:middle line:84% We thank these leaders not just today or even this month, 00:14:21.780 --> 00:14:24.690 align:middle line:84% but rather all year long as they play a central role 00:14:24.690 --> 00:14:26.849 align:middle line:90% in moving this country forward. 00:14:26.849 --> 00:14:28.640 align:middle line:84% Black History Month gives us an opportunity 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:32.450 align:middle line:84% to put a special spotlight on the countless sacrifices made 00:14:32.450 --> 00:14:34.550 align:middle line:84% by civil rights pioneers, including 00:14:34.550 --> 00:14:38.300 align:middle line:84% Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King 00:14:38.300 --> 00:14:41.420 align:middle line:90% Jr, and Rosa Parks. 00:14:41.420 --> 00:14:44.780 align:middle line:84% Today I introduce my good friend, my colleague, Rep 00:14:44.780 --> 00:14:48.070 align:middle line:84% Pignatelli, who will highlight one of Massachusetts' 00:14:48.070 --> 00:14:50.257 align:middle line:90% very own civil rights pioneer. 00:14:50.257 --> 00:14:51.340 align:middle line:90% And want to thank you all. 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:52.360 align:middle line:90% I thank you. 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:55.430 align:middle line:84% And have a happy Black History Month. 00:14:55.430 --> 00:14:55.930 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:14:55.930 --> 00:15:04.980 align:middle line:90% 00:15:04.980 --> 00:15:06.360 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Frankie, and thank you 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:10.300 align:middle line:84% for making me an honorary member of the Black and Latino Caucus. 00:15:10.300 --> 00:15:13.690 align:middle line:84% Thank you Mr. Speaker, for allowing us to be here today, 00:15:13.690 --> 00:15:15.330 align:middle line:84% and thank all of you for allowing 00:15:15.330 --> 00:15:18.062 align:middle line:84% us to do what's going to be a very busy day for all of us. 00:15:18.062 --> 00:15:19.770 align:middle line:84% I'd like to give a shout out to the folks 00:15:19.770 --> 00:15:23.080 align:middle line:84% from the Berkshires, who trekked down here to be here today. 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:24.900 align:middle line:84% Thank you very much for being here. 00:15:24.900 --> 00:15:38.030 align:middle line:90% 00:15:38.030 --> 00:15:39.540 align:middle line:84% The Speaker always thinks I'm joking 00:15:39.540 --> 00:15:42.350 align:middle line:84% when I tell him it takes me three hours to get here. 00:15:42.350 --> 00:15:46.407 align:middle line:84% So thank you very much for making that trek. 00:15:46.407 --> 00:15:48.240 align:middle line:84% And Frankie, thank you so much, for not only 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:49.906 align:middle line:84% being a great friend, but for partnering 00:15:49.906 --> 00:15:53.850 align:middle line:84% on this adventure this month to recognize Black History Month. 00:15:53.850 --> 00:15:56.940 align:middle line:84% And I'm really humbled and honored to be here. 00:15:56.940 --> 00:16:02.370 align:middle line:84% WEB Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, 00:16:02.370 --> 00:16:05.460 align:middle line:84% near a golden river in the Golden West of Massachusetts, 00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:08.430 align:middle line:84% Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which all year long will 00:16:08.430 --> 00:16:12.300 align:middle line:84% be celebrating the 150th anniversary of WEB Du Bois' 00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:13.470 align:middle line:90% birth. 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:16.740 align:middle line:84% I'm so honored and humbled to be from Du Bois' district 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:20.070 align:middle line:84% and so honored to be able to bring the life and legacy of Du 00:16:20.070 --> 00:16:23.260 align:middle line:90% Bois to this historic chamber. 00:16:23.260 --> 00:16:26.620 align:middle line:84% Our main speaker today is Dr. David Levering Lewis, 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:30.460 align:middle line:84% a prominent American historian with a special focus 00:16:30.460 --> 00:16:33.160 align:middle line:84% on 20th century United States social history 00:16:33.160 --> 00:16:35.040 align:middle line:90% and civil rights. 00:16:35.040 --> 00:16:38.040 align:middle line:84% Dr. Lewis graduated from Du Bois' alma mater, 00:16:38.040 --> 00:16:41.310 align:middle line:84% Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. 00:16:41.310 --> 00:16:43.440 align:middle line:84% He received his master's in history from Columbia 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:47.580 align:middle line:84% University and earned his PhD in modern European and French 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:50.850 align:middle line:84% history from the London School of Economics. 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:53.190 align:middle line:84% He's lectured at the University of Ghana, 00:16:53.190 --> 00:16:56.850 align:middle line:84% taught at the University of Notre Dame, Howard University, 00:16:56.850 --> 00:16:59.130 align:middle line:84% Morgan University, and the University 00:16:59.130 --> 00:17:01.230 align:middle line:90% of the District of Columbia. 00:17:01.230 --> 00:17:06.780 align:middle line:84% From 1985 to 2003, he served as a Martin Luther King Jr. 00:17:06.780 --> 00:17:10.530 align:middle line:84% Professor of History at Rutgers University. 00:17:10.530 --> 00:17:13.109 align:middle line:84% Dr. Lewis has authored eight books. 00:17:13.109 --> 00:17:15.150 align:middle line:84% Part one and part two of his biography 00:17:15.150 --> 00:17:18.930 align:middle line:84% on the life of Du Bois both won the Pulitzer Prize 00:17:18.930 --> 00:17:21.990 align:middle line:84% for biography or autobiography, making 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:26.430 align:middle line:84% Dr. Lewis the first author to win the Pulitzer 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:29.400 align:middle line:84% in this category for two successive works 00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:31.080 align:middle line:90% on the same subject. 00:17:31.080 --> 00:17:35.880 align:middle line:84% In his own words, Dr. Lewis has referred to Du Bois as, 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:39.170 align:middle line:84% and I quote, "the whole ball of wax. 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:42.410 align:middle line:84% Everything significant about becoming an American." 00:17:42.410 --> 00:17:43.860 align:middle line:90% Unquote. 00:17:43.860 --> 00:17:47.940 align:middle line:84% Dr. Lewis received the 2009 National Humanities Medal 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:50.850 align:middle line:84% from President Barack Obama for his examinations 00:17:50.850 --> 00:17:52.690 align:middle line:90% on the life of Du Bois. 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:56.190 align:middle line:84% He is currently teaching as a Julius Silver University 00:17:56.190 --> 00:17:58.920 align:middle line:84% Professor and Professor of History Emeritus 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.650 align:middle line:90% at New York University. 00:18:01.650 --> 00:18:03.990 align:middle line:84% Let's give a nice Massachusetts House of Representatives 00:18:03.990 --> 00:18:05.930 align:middle line:90% welcome to Dr. David Lewis. 00:18:05.930 --> 00:18:35.300 align:middle line:90% 00:18:35.300 --> 00:18:39.020 align:middle line:84% This is a scene that is, I think, or would have been not 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:41.890 align:middle line:90% so many years ago, unexpected. 00:18:41.890 --> 00:18:46.040 align:middle line:84% And it is overwhelmingly meaningful 00:18:46.040 --> 00:18:47.330 align:middle line:90% that it is occurring today. 00:18:47.330 --> 00:18:50.560 align:middle line:90% 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:54.160 align:middle line:84% In this month of emancipators, as we've heard, 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.400 align:middle line:84% Washington, Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass, 00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.460 align:middle line:84% we gather together in the people's House 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:05.380 align:middle line:84% to honor native son, William Edward Burkhardt Du Bois, born 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:09.520 align:middle line:84% February 23, a Sunday, 150 years ago 00:19:09.520 --> 00:19:13.600 align:middle line:84% on Church Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 00:19:13.600 --> 00:19:19.000 align:middle line:84% The birth certificate reads William E. Du Bois, colored. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:21.100 align:middle line:84% Issue of Alfred Du Bois and Mary-- 00:19:21.100 --> 00:19:25.830 align:middle line:84% her Burkhardt maiden name was not mentioned-- 00:19:25.830 --> 00:19:30.430 align:middle line:84% whose February 5 nuptials in the nearby village of Housatonic 00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:35.940 align:middle line:84% the previous year had been duly noted in the Berkshire Courier. 00:19:35.940 --> 00:19:38.560 align:middle line:84% Alfred Du Bois, a Union Army veteran, 00:19:38.560 --> 00:19:43.360 align:middle line:84% who gave his birth place as Santo Domingo, Haiti, 00:19:43.360 --> 00:19:46.450 align:middle line:84% departed in rather murky circumstances 00:19:46.450 --> 00:19:51.880 align:middle line:84% soon thereafter, leaving wife and newborn in the tenuous care 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:54.850 align:middle line:90% of Alfred's Burkhardt in-laws. 00:19:54.850 --> 00:19:59.200 align:middle line:84% Du Bois left Great Barrington at age 17, 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:04.150 align:middle line:84% returning during the following four score 00:20:04.150 --> 00:20:09.580 align:middle line:84% years only infrequently and usually for brief stays. 00:20:09.580 --> 00:20:16.510 align:middle line:84% Memorably, in late May of 1899, when he and his new wife, Nina, 00:20:16.510 --> 00:20:20.200 align:middle line:84% came to bury their baby son Burkhardt. 00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:26.530 align:middle line:84% Then again, in early July, 58 years later, to bury wife Nina. 00:20:26.530 --> 00:20:29.890 align:middle line:84% And again, for the last time, with the remains 00:20:29.890 --> 00:20:34.270 align:middle line:84% of daughter Yolande, before self-exile in Ghana 00:20:34.270 --> 00:20:37.720 align:middle line:90% in October 1961. 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:41.080 align:middle line:84% The color line was manifest in Great Barrington, 00:20:41.080 --> 00:20:45.550 align:middle line:84% Du Bois has written, and yet not absolutely drawn. 00:20:45.550 --> 00:20:48.910 align:middle line:84% Then he says, "I very early got the idea--" 00:20:48.910 --> 00:20:51.970 align:middle line:84% he would tell an interviewer from Columbia University's 00:20:51.970 --> 00:20:53.980 align:middle line:90% oral history project-- 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:57.250 align:middle line:84% "I got the idea that what I was going to do 00:20:57.250 --> 00:21:00.640 align:middle line:84% was to prove to the world that Negroes were just 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:02.680 align:middle line:90% like other people." 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:07.000 align:middle line:84% Yet he sensed early that he was something of a curiosity 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:09.310 align:middle line:90% among the white townspeople. 00:21:09.310 --> 00:21:12.480 align:middle line:84% With that flair for drama and language 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:15.550 align:middle line:84% in which he has few equals, Du Bois 00:21:15.550 --> 00:21:18.730 align:middle line:84% pinpoints in the souls of black folk 00:21:18.730 --> 00:21:22.030 align:middle line:84% the exact moment in his 10-year-old life, 00:21:22.030 --> 00:21:26.500 align:middle line:84% a spring day in 1878, when, as he says, 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:31.080 align:middle line:84% "I remember well when the shadow swept across me. 00:21:31.080 --> 00:21:34.120 align:middle line:84% In a wee wooden school house, something put 00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:39.310 align:middle line:84% into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting cards, 00:21:39.310 --> 00:21:42.350 align:middle line:90% $0.10 a package, and exchange. 00:21:42.350 --> 00:21:47.080 align:middle line:84% The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, 00:21:47.080 --> 00:21:49.120 align:middle line:90% refused my card. 00:21:49.120 --> 00:21:51.640 align:middle line:90% Refused it peremptorily. 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.900 align:middle line:84% Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness 00:21:55.900 --> 00:21:58.840 align:middle line:84% that I was different from the others. 00:21:58.840 --> 00:22:02.820 align:middle line:84% Or like mayhap in heart and life and longing, 00:22:02.820 --> 00:22:07.540 align:middle line:84% but shut out from their world by a vast veil." 00:22:07.540 --> 00:22:12.040 align:middle line:84% In the case of a sweeping shadow and the separating veil, 00:22:12.040 --> 00:22:14.890 align:middle line:84% Du Bois has given several versions. 00:22:14.890 --> 00:22:18.640 align:middle line:84% But what is clear is that he extracted 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.790 align:middle line:84% both his seminal concepts of the divided 00:22:21.790 --> 00:22:26.260 align:middle line:84% self and his powerful metaphor of the veil 00:22:26.260 --> 00:22:29.830 align:middle line:84% from his pubescent Great Barrington years. 00:22:29.830 --> 00:22:35.140 align:middle line:84% In 1880s America, not even the sons of mill owners 00:22:35.140 --> 00:22:38.380 align:middle line:84% and but the rarest daughter took college education 00:22:38.380 --> 00:22:40.270 align:middle line:90% as a matter of course. 00:22:40.270 --> 00:22:44.290 align:middle line:84% Du Bois recalled that maybe two others in his high school 00:22:44.290 --> 00:22:48.580 align:middle line:84% graduating class of 13 were heading for college. 00:22:48.580 --> 00:22:52.360 align:middle line:84% Even his super-charged ambition at first 00:22:52.360 --> 00:22:55.990 align:middle line:84% failed to grasp the value of a college education 00:22:55.990 --> 00:22:58.630 align:middle line:90% might have for a colored man. 00:22:58.630 --> 00:23:03.310 align:middle line:84% That was High School Principal Frank Hosmer's doing. 00:23:03.310 --> 00:23:05.170 align:middle line:90% Hosmer did more. 00:23:05.170 --> 00:23:08.350 align:middle line:84% For the unraveling Burkhardt clan's limited resources 00:23:08.350 --> 00:23:12.130 align:middle line:84% could hardly afford the college course textbooks 00:23:12.130 --> 00:23:15.740 align:middle line:84% on Greek and Latin, algebra and geometry. 00:23:15.740 --> 00:23:19.240 align:middle line:84% Classmate Lewis Rush Russell's mother, 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:22.330 align:middle line:84% second wife of Farley Russell, a mill owner, 00:23:22.330 --> 00:23:27.130 align:middle line:84% agreed to buy them after Hosmer spoke with her. 00:23:27.130 --> 00:23:32.140 align:middle line:84% There were seven boys and six girls in Willie's June 1884 00:23:32.140 --> 00:23:33.880 align:middle line:90% graduation class. 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:37.780 align:middle line:84% His mother and other Burkhardts heard him deliver an oration 00:23:37.780 --> 00:23:40.810 align:middle line:84% on Wendell Phillips, the conscience of New England 00:23:40.810 --> 00:23:42.250 align:middle line:90% abolitionism. 00:23:42.250 --> 00:23:45.320 align:middle line:84% It was the success of the evening, the Berkshire Courier 00:23:45.320 --> 00:23:50.480 align:middle line:84% reporter judged, that William E. Du Bois, a colored lad who 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:54.590 align:middle line:84% has good standing, gave an excellent oration 00:23:54.590 --> 00:23:57.740 align:middle line:90% and provoked repeated applause. 00:23:57.740 --> 00:23:59.690 align:middle line:90% But he was not going to Harvard. 00:23:59.690 --> 00:24:01.640 align:middle line:90% Not even to Williams College. 00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:04.910 align:middle line:84% Money remained the big problem, of course. 00:24:04.910 --> 00:24:07.340 align:middle line:84% But Principal Hosmer arranged for-- 00:24:07.340 --> 00:24:10.070 align:middle line:84% as we've heard-- for congregational churches 00:24:10.070 --> 00:24:13.700 align:middle line:84% to pledge $25 each for four years 00:24:13.700 --> 00:24:16.190 align:middle line:84% to underwrite Du Bois' education at Fisk 00:24:16.190 --> 00:24:19.700 align:middle line:84% University, a congregational school for Negroes 00:24:19.700 --> 00:24:22.010 align:middle line:90% in Nashville, Tennessee. 00:24:22.010 --> 00:24:24.590 align:middle line:90% Harvard was not lost. 00:24:24.590 --> 00:24:26.930 align:middle line:84% The thought never occurred to him. 00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:29.000 align:middle line:90% Merely adjourned. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:31.490 align:middle line:84% Du Bois was off to Fisk University. 00:24:31.490 --> 00:24:35.450 align:middle line:84% For him, it was a great adventure into the unknown. 00:24:35.450 --> 00:24:37.730 align:middle line:84% His memory of his first dining hall 00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:40.490 align:middle line:90% supper he carried to his grave. 00:24:40.490 --> 00:24:45.950 align:middle line:84% At age 92, he would animatedly tell the Columbia University 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:51.080 align:middle line:84% Oral History Project interviewer of meeting Lena Horne's aunt. 00:24:51.080 --> 00:24:53.480 align:middle line:90% "She was beautifully dressed. 00:24:53.480 --> 00:24:56.720 align:middle line:90% Oh, a perfectly lovely girl." 00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:01.430 align:middle line:84% No Fisk woman would ever refuse his card because he was black. 00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:05.300 align:middle line:84% Graduating with highest honors after three brilliant years 00:25:05.300 --> 00:25:09.100 align:middle line:84% at Fisk, Great Barrington's Brown Ambassador 00:25:09.100 --> 00:25:13.610 align:middle line:84% entered Harvard College in September of 1888. 00:25:13.610 --> 00:25:16.010 align:middle line:84% Harvard and Yale traditionally required 00:25:16.010 --> 00:25:19.580 align:middle line:84% African-American baccalaureates to repeat 00:25:19.580 --> 00:25:21.800 align:middle line:84% a portion of their undergraduate training 00:25:21.800 --> 00:25:25.160 align:middle line:84% before pursuing graduate degrees, a requirement 00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:27.410 align:middle line:84% frequently imposed on white graduates 00:25:27.410 --> 00:25:29.990 align:middle line:90% of undistinguished colleges. 00:25:29.990 --> 00:25:34.010 align:middle line:84% Helped by a bequest from his mysterious father's father 00:25:34.010 --> 00:25:36.590 align:middle line:84% and a college scholarship, Du Bois 00:25:36.590 --> 00:25:39.090 align:middle line:84% entered Harvard College as a junior, 00:25:39.090 --> 00:25:41.990 align:middle line:90% the sixth of his race to do so. 00:25:41.990 --> 00:25:45.740 align:middle line:84% He graduated magna cum laude with a concentration 00:25:45.740 --> 00:25:51.290 align:middle line:84% in philosophy under William James in the class of 1890. 00:25:51.290 --> 00:25:53.690 align:middle line:84% Remarkably, a special scholarship 00:25:53.690 --> 00:25:58.510 align:middle line:84% permitted matriculation at Germany's premier university, 00:25:58.510 --> 00:26:01.670 align:middle line:84% Friedrich Wilhelm University, where 00:26:01.670 --> 00:26:05.870 align:middle line:84% Du Bois came within months of earning a coveted doctorate 00:26:05.870 --> 00:26:07.430 align:middle line:90% in economics. 00:26:07.430 --> 00:26:11.090 align:middle line:84% He would, however, be the first of his race 00:26:11.090 --> 00:26:15.950 align:middle line:84% to win a Harvard doctorate in 1896. 00:26:15.950 --> 00:26:20.870 align:middle line:84% He haughtily allowed later that it was a consolation 00:26:20.870 --> 00:26:25.370 align:middle line:84% prize for having been denied the few additional months needed 00:26:25.370 --> 00:26:30.230 align:middle line:84% to return to the States with a prized German degree. 00:26:30.230 --> 00:26:36.980 align:middle line:84% His 1896 history dissertation on the suppression of the Atlantic 00:26:36.980 --> 00:26:42.140 align:middle line:84% slave trade to the United States was an immediate classic, 00:26:42.140 --> 00:26:45.380 align:middle line:84% the first history monograph published in Harvard's 00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:47.960 align:middle line:90% new historical series. 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:50.870 align:middle line:84% The Philadelphia Negro, 1899, was 00:26:50.870 --> 00:26:54.800 align:middle line:84% recognized as a methodological breakthrough 00:26:54.800 --> 00:26:56.880 align:middle line:90% in the social sciences. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:26:59.690 align:middle line:84% But a score of years after departing his birthplace, 00:26:59.690 --> 00:27:03.320 align:middle line:84% William Edward Burkhardt Du Bois, renowned as a scholar 00:27:03.320 --> 00:27:06.740 align:middle line:84% and what today we call a public intellectual, 00:27:06.740 --> 00:27:10.250 align:middle line:84% achieved an unparalleled eminence with the publication 00:27:10.250 --> 00:27:15.320 align:middle line:84% in 1903 of a collection of 14 bombshell essays 00:27:15.320 --> 00:27:18.890 align:middle line:84% that could only be described as sui generis. 00:27:18.890 --> 00:27:22.310 align:middle line:84% The Souls of Black Folk explained 00:27:22.310 --> 00:27:26.750 align:middle line:84% Americans of color to themselves with a saliency that still 00:27:26.750 --> 00:27:29.640 align:middle line:90% inspires and defines today. 00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:34.040 align:middle line:84% The 35-year-old author was the first to grasp 00:27:34.040 --> 00:27:36.680 align:middle line:84% the international implications of the struggle 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:40.360 align:middle line:84% for racial justice, memorably proclaiming 00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:45.050 align:middle line:84% at the dawn of the century that the problem of the 20th century 00:27:45.050 --> 00:27:48.410 align:middle line:84% would be the problem of the color line. 00:27:48.410 --> 00:27:52.550 align:middle line:84% He was a principal founder of the NAACP, the nation's oldest 00:27:52.550 --> 00:27:56.540 align:middle line:84% civil rights association, created 109 years ago 00:27:56.540 --> 00:28:01.730 align:middle line:84% this month, and whose militant monthly, The Crisis Magazine, 00:28:01.730 --> 00:28:05.420 align:middle line:84% he edited as the voice of uncompromising racial equality 00:28:05.420 --> 00:28:07.400 align:middle line:90% for a quarter century. 00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:10.250 align:middle line:84% No exaggeration to state that a majority 00:28:10.250 --> 00:28:12.950 align:middle line:84% of literate African-American households 00:28:12.950 --> 00:28:16.130 align:middle line:84% were weaned on Du Bois' monthly, even 00:28:16.130 --> 00:28:21.122 align:middle line:84% those beholden to the adversary legacy of Booker Washington. 00:28:21.122 --> 00:28:25.970 align:middle line:84% A Du Bois bibliography runs to 16 pioneering books 00:28:25.970 --> 00:28:30.560 align:middle line:84% of sociology, history, politics, and race relations. 00:28:30.560 --> 00:28:35.110 align:middle line:84% In his 70s, he found time to finish a second autobiography, 00:28:35.110 --> 00:28:38.270 align:middle line:84% the splendid Dusk of Dawn, And to produce 00:28:38.270 --> 00:28:41.150 align:middle line:84% three large historical novels, complementing 00:28:41.150 --> 00:28:44.660 align:middle line:84% the two large works of fiction written in the first two 00:28:44.660 --> 00:28:47.870 align:middle line:84% decades of the 20th century that anticipated 00:28:47.870 --> 00:28:50.890 align:middle line:84% the so-called Harlem Renaissance. 00:28:50.890 --> 00:28:56.110 align:middle line:84% All Americans owe Du Bois a considerable debt 00:28:56.110 --> 00:28:59.320 align:middle line:84% for the historical masterpiece, Black Reconstruction 00:28:59.320 --> 00:29:03.470 align:middle line:84% in America, 1935, which changed forever 00:29:03.470 --> 00:29:06.490 align:middle line:84% our understanding of the shameful suppression 00:29:06.490 --> 00:29:10.710 align:middle line:84% of racial democracy in the post-Civil War South. 00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:15.100 align:middle line:84% The long march from the Supreme Court's Plessy v Ferguson's 00:29:15.100 --> 00:29:19.540 align:middle line:84% separate but equal equivocation in 1896 00:29:19.540 --> 00:29:25.090 align:middle line:84% to Brown v Board's mandate for integration in 1954 00:29:25.090 --> 00:29:28.270 align:middle line:84% would have been even longer and harder 00:29:28.270 --> 00:29:31.660 align:middle line:90% without his mind and pen. 00:29:31.660 --> 00:29:35.830 align:middle line:84% Du Bois cut an amazing swath through four continents. 00:29:35.830 --> 00:29:39.040 align:middle line:84% He institutionalized the Pan-African movement, 00:29:39.040 --> 00:29:41.620 align:middle line:84% was a Lenin Peace Prize Laureate, 00:29:41.620 --> 00:29:46.930 align:middle line:84% and his birthday was once a national holiday in China. 00:29:46.930 --> 00:29:49.840 align:middle line:84% A new edition of The Souls of Black Folk 00:29:49.840 --> 00:29:52.750 align:middle line:90% is forthcoming this month. 00:29:52.750 --> 00:29:57.260 align:middle line:84% Properly so because this book is both timeless while being 00:29:57.260 --> 00:29:59.890 align:middle line:90% also time-bound. 00:29:59.890 --> 00:30:02.470 align:middle line:84% Like the public's immutable memory 00:30:02.470 --> 00:30:05.650 align:middle line:84% of Martin Luther King's "Dream" speech, 00:30:05.650 --> 00:30:11.800 align:middle line:84% so its vivid retention of Du Bois' color line prophesy 00:30:11.800 --> 00:30:14.140 align:middle line:84% has meant that the evolved ideas, 00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:18.220 align:middle line:84% both of Du Bois and King, in their last years, 00:30:18.220 --> 00:30:22.690 align:middle line:84% are forgotten, unknown, deemed subversive, 00:30:22.690 --> 00:30:24.470 align:middle line:90% or all of the above. 00:30:24.470 --> 00:30:26.770 align:middle line:84% We should probably not expect to see 00:30:26.770 --> 00:30:30.130 align:middle line:84% the release of a new edition of In Battle for Peace, 00:30:30.130 --> 00:30:34.360 align:middle line:84% Du Bois' account of his 1952 Justice Department indictment 00:30:34.360 --> 00:30:38.770 align:middle line:84% trial and embarrassed acquittal in Washington 00:30:38.770 --> 00:30:40.530 align:middle line:90% as a foreign agent. 00:30:40.530 --> 00:30:43.790 align:middle line:84% In one of his last jeremiads, before exiling himself 00:30:43.790 --> 00:30:47.890 align:middle line:84% to Ghana, he called for a restoration of democracy 00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:49.240 align:middle line:90% in America. 00:30:49.240 --> 00:30:51.700 align:middle line:84% He said, make it again possible for the people 00:30:51.700 --> 00:30:53.970 align:middle line:90% to express their will. 00:30:53.970 --> 00:30:57.460 align:middle line:84% Today, he said, the rich and the powerful rulers of America 00:30:57.460 --> 00:31:01.120 align:middle line:84% divide themselves into Republicans and Democrats 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:03.100 align:middle line:84% in order to raise millions of dollars 00:31:03.100 --> 00:31:05.890 align:middle line:84% to buy the next election and prevent you 00:31:05.890 --> 00:31:08.380 align:middle line:84% from having a third party to vote for 00:31:08.380 --> 00:31:13.960 align:middle line:84% or to stop war, theft, and murder by your votes. 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:17.260 align:middle line:84% Massachusetts born and bred, Du Bois 00:31:17.260 --> 00:31:20.110 align:middle line:84% criticized his country's shortcomings 00:31:20.110 --> 00:31:23.710 align:middle line:84% as much from a youthful Calvinist's intolerance 00:31:23.710 --> 00:31:27.400 align:middle line:84% of moral slothfulness as from an aged 00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:30.760 align:middle line:84% Marxist's impatience with the rigged 00:31:30.760 --> 00:31:33.820 align:middle line:84% outcomes of unregulated capitalism. 00:31:33.820 --> 00:31:36.790 align:middle line:84% Famous at 50, Du Bois often claimed 00:31:36.790 --> 00:31:41.020 align:middle line:84% that his death was practically requested at 75. 00:31:41.020 --> 00:31:44.890 align:middle line:84% He dismissed Brown v Board's all-deliberate speed, 00:31:44.890 --> 00:31:48.520 align:middle line:84% timetable, as fraudulent, and he characteristically 00:31:48.520 --> 00:31:51.070 align:middle line:84% looked upon the ultimate value of citizenship 00:31:51.070 --> 00:31:55.290 align:middle line:84% for people of color in America with the greatest misgivings 00:31:55.290 --> 00:31:59.230 align:middle line:84% if that citizenship were to mean that the peoples of Africa 00:31:59.230 --> 00:32:02.860 align:middle line:84% and Asia were to become subjects under a pox 00:32:02.860 --> 00:32:05.980 align:middle line:84% Americana, maintained for the profit 00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:10.270 align:middle line:84% of the military industrial financial complex. 00:32:10.270 --> 00:32:15.430 align:middle line:84% Martin Luther King Jr. Famously told a capacity Carnegie Hall 00:32:15.430 --> 00:32:18.740 align:middle line:84% audience on the centenary of Du Bois' birth 00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:22.442 align:middle line:84% that it was never possible to know where the scholar Du 00:32:22.442 --> 00:32:26.740 align:middle line:84% Bois ended and the organizer Du Bois began. 00:32:26.740 --> 00:32:28.930 align:middle line:84% The two qualities in him were, said 00:32:28.930 --> 00:32:33.410 align:middle line:90% King, a single, unified force. 00:32:33.410 --> 00:32:38.220 align:middle line:84% History cannot ignore Dr. Du Bois, King insisted. 00:32:38.220 --> 00:32:42.020 align:middle line:84% Yet, when Martin Luther King spoke these words five years 00:32:42.020 --> 00:32:45.290 align:middle line:84% after Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana Du Bois 00:32:45.290 --> 00:32:49.190 align:middle line:84% had been virtually excised from his country's mainstream 00:32:49.190 --> 00:32:53.970 align:middle line:84% narrative as an expatriate and a communist. 00:32:53.970 --> 00:32:57.620 align:middle line:84% Our irrational, obsessive anti-communism 00:32:57.620 --> 00:33:00.500 align:middle line:84% has led us into too many quagmires 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:05.180 align:middle line:84% to be retained as if it were a mode of scientific thinking, 00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:09.110 align:middle line:84% Dr. King went on to say, and he reminded his audience 00:33:09.110 --> 00:33:13.100 align:middle line:84% that Abraham Lincoln had warmly welcomed the support of Karl 00:33:13.100 --> 00:33:18.050 align:middle line:84% Marx during the Civil War and corresponded with him freely. 00:33:18.050 --> 00:33:20.840 align:middle line:84% The old contrarian's death had come, indeed, 00:33:20.840 --> 00:33:24.140 align:middle line:84% just as Dr. King prepared to deliver his "Dream" 00:33:24.140 --> 00:33:28.220 align:middle line:84% speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps in 1963. 00:33:28.220 --> 00:33:33.490 align:middle line:84% The generational baton had passed that day 00:33:33.490 --> 00:33:36.610 align:middle line:84% with stunning symbolic appropriateness. 00:33:36.610 --> 00:33:41.020 align:middle line:84% Six weeks after his 1968 Carnegie Hall centenary tribute 00:33:41.020 --> 00:33:47.200 align:middle line:84% to Du Bois, Martin Luther King died from a sniper's bullet. 00:33:47.200 --> 00:33:51.220 align:middle line:84% To be sure, Du Bois 20th century problem 00:33:51.220 --> 00:33:55.180 align:middle line:84% was a color line, actually, without color, 00:33:55.180 --> 00:33:58.510 align:middle line:84% for it was starkly black and white. 00:33:58.510 --> 00:34:03.040 align:middle line:84% But our century is on its way to being brown and yellow as well 00:34:03.040 --> 00:34:05.710 align:middle line:90% as black and minority white. 00:34:05.710 --> 00:34:08.080 align:middle line:84% Still, as Du Bois might well have 00:34:08.080 --> 00:34:12.639 align:middle line:84% argued, to concede that a historic racial dyad has 00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:15.460 align:middle line:84% yielded to a polychrome present does not 00:34:15.460 --> 00:34:20.080 align:middle line:84% mean that race has been transcended as a potent force 00:34:20.080 --> 00:34:22.190 align:middle line:90% in our national life. 00:34:22.190 --> 00:34:25.300 align:middle line:84% By the time of his well-timed exit, 00:34:25.300 --> 00:34:29.380 align:middle line:84% Du Bois had repeatedly proclaimed in so many words 00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:33.489 align:middle line:84% that the cash line was the cardinal problem of the age. 00:34:33.489 --> 00:34:36.070 align:middle line:84% The real problem of the century, therefore, he said, 00:34:36.070 --> 00:34:40.600 align:middle line:84% was really the manipulation of race in the service of wealth. 00:34:40.600 --> 00:34:43.570 align:middle line:84% And a clairvoyant Du Bois feared greatly 00:34:43.570 --> 00:34:45.699 align:middle line:84% that the odds increasingly favored 00:34:45.699 --> 00:34:48.790 align:middle line:90% the manipulations of the rich. 00:34:48.790 --> 00:34:51.909 align:middle line:84% Were he with us this afternoon, Du Bois 00:34:51.909 --> 00:34:54.969 align:middle line:84% would almost certainly discern in the shortcomings 00:34:54.969 --> 00:34:58.040 align:middle line:84% of the last US presidential administration 00:34:58.040 --> 00:35:01.150 align:middle line:90% the toxic persistence of race. 00:35:01.150 --> 00:35:05.060 align:middle line:84% In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama 00:35:05.060 --> 00:35:11.050 align:middle line:84% had channeled the e. pluribus unum mythos 00:35:11.050 --> 00:35:14.000 align:middle line:84% of American exceptionalism as seldom 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:17.020 align:middle line:84% before by a credible public figure. 00:35:17.020 --> 00:35:19.780 align:middle line:84% Not only did he minimize the significance 00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:24.670 align:middle line:84% of political labels, but racism was seen as an old problem 00:35:24.670 --> 00:35:28.360 align:middle line:84% that the candidate's generation could refute and even 00:35:28.360 --> 00:35:29.890 align:middle line:90% move beyond. 00:35:29.890 --> 00:35:33.950 align:middle line:84% Racism, quote, "was subject to refutation," 00:35:33.950 --> 00:35:37.210 align:middle line:84% Barack Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope, 00:35:37.210 --> 00:35:40.150 align:middle line:90% his ambitious campaign book. 00:35:40.150 --> 00:35:42.820 align:middle line:84% Yet what can now be sadly conceded 00:35:42.820 --> 00:35:47.320 align:middle line:84% is that a redeeming vision of a national post-racial reset 00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:51.310 align:middle line:84% succumbed to the nightmare of worsening disparities 00:35:51.310 --> 00:35:54.280 align:middle line:84% now almost irrevocably color coded 00:35:54.280 --> 00:35:57.220 align:middle line:84% by Supreme Court majorities disingenuously 00:35:57.220 --> 00:36:00.340 align:middle line:84% marking African-American and Latino voting rights 00:36:00.340 --> 00:36:05.930 align:middle line:84% and castrating what's left of organized labor 00:36:05.930 --> 00:36:08.560 align:middle line:84% by a reborn nativism more virulent 00:36:08.560 --> 00:36:14.290 align:middle line:84% than its mid-19th century parents 00:36:14.290 --> 00:36:18.250 align:middle line:84% and by criminal justice system irregularities perceived 00:36:18.250 --> 00:36:23.380 align:middle line:84% as outrageous enough to spark corrective riots. 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:27.280 align:middle line:84% Paradoxically, the 44th president's game endeavor 00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:31.870 align:middle line:84% to bypass those dilemmas of race, ethnicity, and wealth 00:36:31.870 --> 00:36:37.210 align:middle line:84% exposed in Du Bois' foundational text ended by delivering 00:36:37.210 --> 00:36:41.410 align:middle line:84% a confused democracy to a racist oligarchy 00:36:41.410 --> 00:36:45.280 align:middle line:84% presided over by a narcissistic aberration. 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.030 align:middle line:84% The vital center did not hold, and the angry fringe 00:36:49.030 --> 00:36:52.690 align:middle line:90% prevailed November 2016. 00:36:52.690 --> 00:36:57.310 align:middle line:84% In his long, turbulent career, great Barrington's native son 00:36:57.310 --> 00:37:00.040 align:middle line:84% attempted virtually every possible solution 00:37:00.040 --> 00:37:02.110 align:middle line:90% to the problem of racism. 00:37:02.110 --> 00:37:04.480 align:middle line:84% First had come culture and education 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:08.110 align:middle line:84% for the elites, then the ballot for the masses, then 00:37:08.110 --> 00:37:10.100 align:middle line:90% economic democracy. 00:37:10.100 --> 00:37:14.620 align:middle line:84% And decade by decade, finally, all these solutions 00:37:14.620 --> 00:37:20.170 align:middle line:84% in the service of global racial parity and economic justice. 00:37:20.170 --> 00:37:23.710 align:middle line:84% No doubt he was precipitous in totally writing off 00:37:23.710 --> 00:37:25.480 align:middle line:90% the market economy. 00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:28.420 align:middle line:84% Even so, it may be suggested that Du Bois was 00:37:28.420 --> 00:37:32.020 align:middle line:84% right to insist that to leave the solution 00:37:32.020 --> 00:37:35.860 align:middle line:84% of systemic social problems exclusively to the market 00:37:35.860 --> 00:37:40.090 align:middle line:84% is an agenda guaranteeing obscene economic inequality 00:37:40.090 --> 00:37:44.230 align:middle line:84% in the short run and inescapable political gridlock 00:37:44.230 --> 00:37:47.440 align:middle line:90% and confusion in the long run. 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:51.190 align:middle line:84% Du Bois intended that his life would exemplify 00:37:51.190 --> 00:37:53.870 align:middle line:90% the American race problem. 00:37:53.870 --> 00:37:56.480 align:middle line:84% Shortly before his death, he confessed 00:37:56.480 --> 00:38:00.280 align:middle line:84% that but for the race problem, he might have become, 00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:04.390 align:middle line:84% he said, an unquestioning worshipper 00:38:04.390 --> 00:38:10.190 align:middle line:84% in the shrine of the established social order 00:38:10.190 --> 00:38:12.200 align:middle line:90% into which I was born. 00:38:12.200 --> 00:38:14.510 align:middle line:84% But just that part of this order which 00:38:14.510 --> 00:38:18.740 align:middle line:84% seemed to most of my fellows nearest perfection 00:38:18.740 --> 00:38:22.730 align:middle line:84% seemed to me most inequitable and wrong. 00:38:22.730 --> 00:38:26.240 align:middle line:84% And starting from that critique, I gradually, 00:38:26.240 --> 00:38:31.220 align:middle line:84% as the years went by, found other things to question. 00:38:31.220 --> 00:38:35.900 align:middle line:84% In contrast to the political profile of most lives then, 00:38:35.900 --> 00:38:41.270 align:middle line:84% Du Bois, at age 95, was more radically reformist 00:38:41.270 --> 00:38:45.140 align:middle line:84% than virtually any other engaged intellectual, black or white, 00:38:45.140 --> 00:38:47.260 align:middle line:90% of the 20th century. 00:38:47.260 --> 00:38:51.740 align:middle line:84% 150 years late, as the inspiring month-long embrace 00:38:51.740 --> 00:38:54.200 align:middle line:84% by the citizens of Representative Pignatelli's 00:38:54.200 --> 00:38:57.470 align:middle line:84% Great Barrington, and this most significant 00:38:57.470 --> 00:39:01.220 align:middle line:84% legislative sesquicentennial homage attest, 00:39:01.220 --> 00:39:04.040 align:middle line:84% surely it is time both to comprehend 00:39:04.040 --> 00:39:07.520 align:middle line:84% the flaws of William Edward Burkhardt Du Bois 00:39:07.520 --> 00:39:10.551 align:middle line:90% and to prize his genius. 00:39:10.551 --> 00:39:11.050 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:39:11.050 --> 00:39:41.470 align:middle line:90% 00:39:41.470 --> 00:39:44.020 align:middle line:84% Thank you very much, Professor Lewis. 00:39:44.020 --> 00:39:48.390 align:middle line:90% 00:39:48.390 --> 00:39:51.000 align:middle line:84% First let me say how grateful we all 00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:53.130 align:middle line:84% are at the participation of University 00:39:53.130 --> 00:39:56.400 align:middle line:84% of Massachusetts Amherst, along with the UMass Amherst 00:39:56.400 --> 00:40:00.600 align:middle line:84% libraries, in this commemoration of WEB Du Bois 00:40:00.600 --> 00:40:05.220 align:middle line:84% and the 150th anniversary of his birth. 00:40:05.220 --> 00:40:09.570 align:middle line:84% As you know, the WEB Du Bois papers 00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:12.060 align:middle line:90% are housed at UMass in Amherst. 00:40:12.060 --> 00:40:16.350 align:middle line:84% They, the library, have lent to the State House 00:40:16.350 --> 00:40:21.240 align:middle line:84% an exhibit highlighting the life and work of WEB Du Bois, which 00:40:21.240 --> 00:40:24.450 align:middle line:84% has been here this month on the fourth floor 00:40:24.450 --> 00:40:28.350 align:middle line:84% and has been brought down to be mounted immediately 00:40:28.350 --> 00:40:31.650 align:middle line:84% outside the chamber for this event today. 00:40:31.650 --> 00:40:35.190 align:middle line:84% We also thank the WEB Du Bois Center at UMass Amherst 00:40:35.190 --> 00:40:38.370 align:middle line:84% and the University of Massachusetts Press 00:40:38.370 --> 00:40:41.680 align:middle line:84% for giving each of us legislators, 00:40:41.680 --> 00:40:43.650 align:middle line:84% which should, if they have not arrived yet, 00:40:43.650 --> 00:40:49.265 align:middle line:84% will be arriving in days, a copy of their new edition of WEB Du 00:40:49.265 --> 00:40:55.320 align:middle line:84% Bois' most celebrated work, The Souls of Black Folk. 00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:58.450 align:middle line:84% We now end these moments together 00:40:58.450 --> 00:41:02.100 align:middle line:84% with doing something that is traditional 00:41:02.100 --> 00:41:05.880 align:middle line:84% in black communities since 1900, and that 00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:10.380 align:middle line:84% is singing the hymn, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." 00:41:10.380 --> 00:41:14.100 align:middle line:84% These words were written by James Weldon Johnson. 00:41:14.100 --> 00:41:19.080 align:middle line:84% Johnson was a lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, novelist and poet, 00:41:19.080 --> 00:41:22.350 align:middle line:84% and civil rights activist, a contemporary-- 00:41:22.350 --> 00:41:24.360 align:middle line:90% although in his shortened life-- 00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:29.550 align:middle line:84% of WEB Du Bois and was the first African-American Executive 00:41:29.550 --> 00:41:32.610 align:middle line:90% Secretary of the NAACP. 00:41:32.610 --> 00:41:38.190 align:middle line:84% In 1900, at the age of 29, 35 years 00:41:38.190 --> 00:41:42.000 align:middle line:84% after the end of slavery in this nation, James Weldon 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:47.340 align:middle line:84% Johnson and his brother Rosamond wrote the music to this hymn, 00:41:47.340 --> 00:41:52.080 align:middle line:84% were teachers at Stanton School, a segregated school 00:41:52.080 --> 00:41:56.220 align:middle line:84% in Jacksonville, Florida, where James Weldon Johnson 00:41:56.220 --> 00:41:58.080 align:middle line:90% had been born. 00:41:58.080 --> 00:42:02.280 align:middle line:84% And they had gathered the students 00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:04.410 align:middle line:90% for a special celebration. 00:42:04.410 --> 00:42:06.540 align:middle line:84% And that special celebration was to celebrate 00:42:06.540 --> 00:42:11.460 align:middle line:84% the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1900. 00:42:11.460 --> 00:42:14.820 align:middle line:84% If you can imagine, this was the end of Reconstruction. 00:42:14.820 --> 00:42:17.610 align:middle line:84% And so about the only people in the Deep South 00:42:17.610 --> 00:42:22.100 align:middle line:84% who celebrated Abraham Lincoln's birthday 00:42:22.100 --> 00:42:24.270 align:middle line:90% were African-Americans. 00:42:24.270 --> 00:42:29.730 align:middle line:84% And these two brothers had invited a great-- 00:42:29.730 --> 00:42:33.450 align:middle line:84% for them-- African-American educator to come and speak 00:42:33.450 --> 00:42:34.920 align:middle line:90% to their students. 00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:39.180 align:middle line:84% And they wrote this song as an introduction 00:42:39.180 --> 00:42:42.960 align:middle line:84% that the 500 students at this segregated school 00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:47.220 align:middle line:84% could sing in welcoming Booker T. Washington to the school 00:42:47.220 --> 00:42:48.750 align:middle line:90% to speak. 00:42:48.750 --> 00:42:51.940 align:middle line:84% In his autobiography, Along This Way, 00:42:51.940 --> 00:42:58.740 align:middle line:84% years later, Johnson wrote about these words and this tune that 00:42:58.740 --> 00:43:01.800 align:middle line:84% had spread throughout the black communities of America 00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:05.920 align:middle line:84% and become known as the Negro national anthem. 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:13.590 align:middle line:84% And he wrote, when we remark how remarkable that popularity was, 00:43:13.590 --> 00:43:18.450 align:middle line:84% and the only comment we can make is that we wrote better 00:43:18.450 --> 00:43:20.460 align:middle line:90% than we knew. 00:43:20.460 --> 00:43:23.320 align:middle line:84% One final connection to Great Barrington. 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:25.170 align:middle line:84% James Weldon Johnson and his wife, 00:43:25.170 --> 00:43:30.000 align:middle line:84% Grace Neil, at the height of his popularity, 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:35.130 align:middle line:84% decided to buy a summer home in Great Barrington in 1926. 00:43:35.130 --> 00:43:40.290 align:middle line:84% And it is there where much of James Weldon Johnson's work 00:43:40.290 --> 00:43:41.840 align:middle line:90% was composed. 00:43:41.840 --> 00:43:46.590 align:middle line:84% In a house with a writing cabin that exists 00:43:46.590 --> 00:43:50.490 align:middle line:84% today, called Five Acres on Alfred Road. 00:43:50.490 --> 00:43:52.020 align:middle line:90% And so to lead us-- 00:43:52.020 --> 00:43:53.760 align:middle line:90% and I mean us-- 00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:58.750 align:middle line:84% in the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," 00:43:58.750 --> 00:44:02.190 align:middle line:84% we are so happy to have the choir director 00:44:02.190 --> 00:44:05.880 align:middle line:84% from St. Mark Congregational Church, Adam Littlejohn, 00:44:05.880 --> 00:44:08.230 align:middle line:90% with us today. 00:44:08.230 --> 00:44:13.121 align:middle line:84% And so that we will follow the tradition that those of you who 00:44:13.121 --> 00:44:15.120 align:middle line:84% have been to these events of the black community 00:44:15.120 --> 00:44:17.460 align:middle line:84% know till today, we will all stand 00:44:17.460 --> 00:44:19.620 align:middle line:84% for the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing." 00:44:19.620 --> 00:44:28.018 align:middle line:90% 00:44:28.018 --> 00:44:30.010 align:middle line:90% Is this on? 00:44:30.010 --> 00:44:31.951 align:middle line:84% Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. 00:44:31.951 --> 00:44:34.600 align:middle line:90% Good afternoon. 00:44:34.600 --> 00:44:37.370 align:middle line:84% Today you all are going to be a choir. 00:44:37.370 --> 00:44:39.310 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to direct you in the song, 00:44:39.310 --> 00:44:41.950 align:middle line:90% "Lift Every Voice and Sing." 00:44:41.950 --> 00:44:44.530 align:middle line:84% On the first verse, I'm going to sing it for you, 00:44:44.530 --> 00:44:46.550 align:middle line:90% so you have the melody. 00:44:46.550 --> 00:44:48.850 align:middle line:84% And then on the second and the last verse, 00:44:48.850 --> 00:44:51.820 align:middle line:90% we'll all sing it together. 00:44:51.820 --> 00:44:58.540 align:middle line:84% (SINGING) Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven 00:44:58.540 --> 00:44:59.530 align:middle line:90% ring. 00:44:59.530 --> 00:45:06.880 align:middle line:84% Ring with the harmonies of liberty. 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:14.740 align:middle line:84% Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. 00:45:14.740 --> 00:45:19.465 align:middle line:84% Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. 00:45:19.465 --> 00:45:22.030 align:middle line:90% 00:45:22.030 --> 00:45:27.080 align:middle line:84% Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past 00:45:27.080 --> 00:45:29.050 align:middle line:90% has taught us. 00:45:29.050 --> 00:45:34.180 align:middle line:84% Sing a song full of the hope that the present 00:45:34.180 --> 00:45:38.100 align:middle line:90% has brought us. 00:45:38.100 --> 00:45:45.880 align:middle line:84% Facing the rising sun our new day begun. 00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:52.080 align:middle line:84% Let us march on till victory is won. 00:45:52.080 --> 00:45:54.940 align:middle line:84% Let's all try the second and the last verse. 00:45:54.940 --> 00:45:55.780 align:middle line:90% Ready? 00:45:55.780 --> 00:45:56.440 align:middle line:90% And-- 00:45:56.440 --> 00:46:04.560 align:middle line:84% Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod 00:46:04.560 --> 00:46:12.740 align:middle line:84% felt in the days when hope unborn had died. 00:46:12.740 --> 00:46:20.340 align:middle line:84% Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet 00:46:20.340 --> 00:46:25.310 align:middle line:84% come to the place for which our fathers sighed? 00:46:25.310 --> 00:46:27.930 align:middle line:90% 00:46:27.930 --> 00:46:35.370 align:middle line:84% We have come over a way that with tears have been watered. 00:46:35.370 --> 00:46:40.630 align:middle line:84% We have come, treading our path through the blood 00:46:40.630 --> 00:46:44.620 align:middle line:90% of the slaughtered. 00:46:44.620 --> 00:46:49.650 align:middle line:84% Out from the gloomy past, till now 00:46:49.650 --> 00:46:57.450 align:middle line:84% we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star 00:46:57.450 --> 00:47:00.360 align:middle line:90% is cast. 00:47:00.360 --> 00:47:08.410 align:middle line:84% God of our weary years, god of our silent tears. 00:47:08.410 --> 00:47:16.390 align:middle line:84% Thou who has brought us thus far on the way, 00:47:16.390 --> 00:47:24.744 align:middle line:84% thou who has by thy might led us into the light. 00:47:24.744 --> 00:47:32.110 align:middle line:84% Keep us forever in the path, we pray. 00:47:32.110 --> 00:47:37.526 align:middle line:84% Lest our feet stray from the places of God 00:47:37.526 --> 00:47:39.910 align:middle line:90% where we met thee. 00:47:39.910 --> 00:47:45.126 align:middle line:84% Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world 00:47:45.126 --> 00:47:49.290 align:middle line:90% we forget thee. 00:47:49.290 --> 00:47:59.970 align:middle line:84% Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand, true to our God, 00:47:59.970 --> 00:48:03.930 align:middle line:90% true to our native land. 00:48:03.930 --> 00:48:22.160 align:middle line:90% 00:48:22.160 --> 00:48:23.360 align:middle line:90% Not bad. 00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:25.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:48:25.820 --> 00:48:27.830 align:middle line:84% There will be a reception if people 00:48:27.830 --> 00:48:32.480 align:middle line:84% have a moment to greet our speaker next door in room 350. 00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:33.500 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:48:33.500 --> 00:48:39.630 align:middle line:90% 00:48:39.630 --> 00:48:41.340 align:middle line:90% Report of committee. 00:48:41.340 --> 00:48:43.360 align:middle line:84% The Committee on Rules reports recommending 00:48:43.360 --> 00:48:46.110 align:middle line:84% that the resolutions filed by Mr. Pignatelli of [INAUDIBLE] 00:48:46.110 --> 00:48:48.060 align:middle line:84% and other members of the House, commemorating 00:48:48.060 --> 00:48:51.240 align:middle line:84% the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Edward 00:48:51.240 --> 00:48:52.436 align:middle line:90% Burkhardt Du Bois. 00:48:52.436 --> 00:48:54.810 align:middle line:84% Committee on Rules reports recommending their resolutions 00:48:54.810 --> 00:48:56.178 align:middle line:90% ought to be adopted. 00:48:56.178 --> 00:49:02.740 align:middle line:90% [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:49:02.740 --> 00:49:06.250 align:middle line:84% Mr. Pignatelli of Lee moves suspension of the rules. 00:49:06.250 --> 00:49:07.700 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 00:49:07.700 --> 00:49:08.792 align:middle line:90% Opposed, no. 00:49:08.792 --> 00:49:09.500 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 00:49:09.500 --> 00:49:10.499 align:middle line:90% The rules are suspended. 00:49:10.499 --> 00:49:12.970 align:middle line:90% 00:49:12.970 --> 00:49:15.070 align:middle line:84% Question comes on adoption of the resolutions. 00:49:15.070 --> 00:49:17.370 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 00:49:17.370 --> 00:49:18.830 align:middle line:90% Opposed, no. 00:49:18.830 --> 00:49:19.850 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 00:49:19.850 --> 00:49:21.030 align:middle line:90% The resolutions are adopted. 00:49:21.030 --> 00:50:01.820 align:middle line:90% 00:50:01.820 --> 00:50:03.940 align:middle line:90% House will be in a brief recess. 00:50:03.940 --> 00:50:07.370 align:middle line:90% 00:50:07.370 --> 00:50:10.310 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:50:10.310 --> 00:50:22.070 align:middle line:90% 00:50:22.070 --> 00:50:25.020 align:middle line:90% [POUNDS GAVEL] 00:50:25.020 --> 00:50:27.450 align:middle line:90% House will be in order. 00:50:27.450 --> 00:50:31.050 align:middle line:84% Chair has been informed that Senate 2296 has 00:50:31.050 --> 00:50:34.990 align:middle line:84% been released by the Committee on Bills on third reading. 00:50:34.990 --> 00:50:37.440 align:middle line:84% Miss Hogan of Stow now moves suspension of the rules. 00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:40.390 align:middle line:84% All those in favor, say aye, all those opposed, nay. 00:50:40.390 --> 00:50:41.510 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 00:50:41.510 --> 00:50:42.480 align:middle line:90% Rules are suspended. 00:50:42.480 --> 00:50:43.697 align:middle line:90% Third reading of the bill. 00:50:43.697 --> 00:50:48.370 align:middle line:90% 00:50:48.370 --> 00:50:53.290 align:middle line:84% An act to protect the confidential health care, 00:50:53.290 --> 00:50:57.755 align:middle line:90% Senate number 2296 amended. 00:50:57.755 --> 00:50:59.880 align:middle line:84% Question now is on passing the bill to being gross. 00:50:59.880 --> 00:51:03.420 align:middle line:84% Chair recognizes Miss Hogan of Stow. 00:51:03.420 --> 00:51:06.980 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and through you to the members. 00:51:06.980 --> 00:51:10.730 align:middle line:84% I rise today in support of Senate bill 2296, 00:51:10.730 --> 00:51:14.480 align:middle line:84% an act to protect access to confidential health care. 00:51:14.480 --> 00:51:19.100 align:middle line:84% This bill, commonly referred to as the Patch Act, 00:51:19.100 --> 00:51:23.480 align:middle line:84% will close a loophole in health care privacy laws 00:51:23.480 --> 00:51:27.590 align:middle line:84% that allow sensitive health information to be inadvertently 00:51:27.590 --> 00:51:32.150 align:middle line:84% shared with the primary subscriber of a health plan. 00:51:32.150 --> 00:51:34.490 align:middle line:90% The loophole is this. 00:51:34.490 --> 00:51:37.820 align:middle line:84% As the primary subscriber of a health plan, 00:51:37.820 --> 00:51:42.380 align:middle line:84% you cannot call a doctor or a hospital to obtain specific 00:51:42.380 --> 00:51:46.430 align:middle line:84% information about the care of your spouse or adult child 00:51:46.430 --> 00:51:48.470 align:middle line:90% that's on your health plan. 00:51:48.470 --> 00:51:51.560 align:middle line:84% HIPAA laws would not allow that doctor 00:51:51.560 --> 00:51:54.440 align:middle line:84% to release that information to you. 00:51:54.440 --> 00:51:58.570 align:middle line:84% However, that information is sent to you 00:51:58.570 --> 00:52:02.240 align:middle line:84% in a summary of payments or better known 00:52:02.240 --> 00:52:11.260 align:middle line:84% as an explanation of benefits after the fact. 00:52:11.260 --> 00:52:14.850 align:middle line:84% This bill aims to protect patient privacy 00:52:14.850 --> 00:52:17.550 align:middle line:84% by closing that loophole and creating methods 00:52:17.550 --> 00:52:20.621 align:middle line:84% by which patients can obtain their own summary of payments 00:52:20.621 --> 00:52:21.120 align:middle line:90% form. 00:52:21.120 --> 00:52:21.730 align:middle line:90% [POUNDS GAVEL] 00:52:21.730 --> 00:52:23.760 align:middle line:84% Chair is-- what purpose did the lady rise? 00:52:23.760 --> 00:52:28.020 align:middle line:90% 00:52:28.020 --> 00:52:31.250 align:middle line:90% Chair can ascertain that. 00:52:31.250 --> 00:52:33.030 align:middle line:84% Chair will respectfully ask the members 00:52:33.030 --> 00:52:36.900 align:middle line:84% to please take their seats, subdue their conversation. 00:52:36.900 --> 00:52:43.534 align:middle line:84% Court officers clear the back of the chamber. 00:52:43.534 --> 00:52:45.000 align:middle line:90% Please take your seats. 00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:52.620 align:middle line:90% 00:52:52.620 --> 00:52:57.030 align:middle line:84% Chair recognizes Mr. Hogan of Stow. 00:52:57.030 --> 00:53:01.590 align:middle line:84% This bill does not change the way in which people 00:53:01.590 --> 00:53:05.310 align:middle line:90% can access or consent to care. 00:53:05.310 --> 00:53:08.340 align:middle line:84% It only closes a loophole in division 00:53:08.340 --> 00:53:10.890 align:middle line:90% of insurance regulations. 00:53:10.890 --> 00:53:15.360 align:middle line:84% This bill does not change Massachusetts' minor consent 00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:20.910 align:middle line:84% laws, nor does it change parents' access to information 00:53:20.910 --> 00:53:25.870 align:middle line:84% about their minor child's health care in any way. 00:53:25.870 --> 00:53:30.700 align:middle line:84% This bill in no way changes the circumstances 00:53:30.700 --> 00:53:34.300 align:middle line:84% under which minors may consent to their own health care 00:53:34.300 --> 00:53:38.650 align:middle line:84% without the consent of a parent or legal guardian. 00:53:38.650 --> 00:53:42.890 align:middle line:84% Currently, when a patient seeks medical care, 00:53:42.890 --> 00:53:46.510 align:middle line:84% there is a form called a summary of payments or explanation 00:53:46.510 --> 00:53:50.980 align:middle line:84% of benefits which details the type and costs of services 00:53:50.980 --> 00:53:52.240 align:middle line:90% received. 00:53:52.240 --> 00:53:55.900 align:middle line:84% This form is typically sent to the primary subscriber 00:53:55.900 --> 00:53:57.910 align:middle line:90% of the health plan. 00:53:57.910 --> 00:54:00.490 align:middle line:84% Sensitive health information is frequently 00:54:00.490 --> 00:54:04.990 align:middle line:84% disclosed in an SOP or Summary of Payments explanation 00:54:04.990 --> 00:54:09.160 align:middle line:84% of benefits, violating the basic right to privacy guaranteed 00:54:09.160 --> 00:54:13.840 align:middle line:84% by HIPAA for anyone enrolled as a dependent on another person's 00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:15.250 align:middle line:90% policy. 00:54:15.250 --> 00:54:18.850 align:middle line:84% The disclosure of confidential health information 00:54:18.850 --> 00:54:22.870 align:middle line:84% affects all people, but particularly adult spouses 00:54:22.870 --> 00:54:24.940 align:middle line:84% covered as dependents on a partner's 00:54:24.940 --> 00:54:29.670 align:middle line:84% plan and young adults, 18 to 26, who 00:54:29.670 --> 00:54:33.970 align:middle line:84% are insured on their parent's or guardian's plan. 00:54:33.970 --> 00:54:37.600 align:middle line:84% We know that maintaining confidentiality 00:54:37.600 --> 00:54:40.450 align:middle line:84% is critically important for patients seeking 00:54:40.450 --> 00:54:44.710 align:middle line:84% care related to sexual and reproductive health, 00:54:44.710 --> 00:54:47.350 align:middle line:84% domestic violence or sexual assault, 00:54:47.350 --> 00:54:51.770 align:middle line:84% and mental health or substance abuse disorders. 00:54:51.770 --> 00:54:55.300 align:middle line:84% We also know that the failure to obtain care 00:54:55.300 --> 00:55:00.220 align:middle line:84% has serious consequences, such as unplanned pregnancies, 00:55:00.220 --> 00:55:04.960 align:middle line:84% delayed access to prenatal care, the spread of STIs, 00:55:04.960 --> 00:55:08.410 align:middle line:84% deteriorating mental health conditions, and continued 00:55:08.410 --> 00:55:10.390 align:middle line:90% substance abuse. 00:55:10.390 --> 00:55:14.380 align:middle line:84% There are situations where a patient fears disclosure 00:55:14.380 --> 00:55:19.960 align:middle line:84% of care to an abusive partner or disclosure of family planning 00:55:19.960 --> 00:55:22.150 align:middle line:90% services to a parent. 00:55:22.150 --> 00:55:25.620 align:middle line:84% And that fear may deter them from seeking care 00:55:25.620 --> 00:55:29.590 align:middle line:84% altogether, leading to higher health costs down the road. 00:55:29.590 --> 00:55:32.110 align:middle line:84% Such fear may also prevent a patient 00:55:32.110 --> 00:55:37.750 align:middle line:84% from sharing with their doctor the context or causes 00:55:37.750 --> 00:55:40.660 align:middle line:84% of the health conditions for which they are seeking 00:55:40.660 --> 00:55:45.400 align:middle line:84% treatment, opening the door for incorrect diagnosis 00:55:45.400 --> 00:55:50.290 align:middle line:84% and missed opportunities for prevention and treatment. 00:55:50.290 --> 00:55:52.150 align:middle line:84% The Patch Act will address the problems 00:55:52.150 --> 00:55:55.120 align:middle line:84% many patients face by closing this loophole 00:55:55.120 --> 00:55:56.770 align:middle line:90% in confidentiality. 00:55:56.770 --> 00:55:59.800 align:middle line:84% Specifically, the bill will allow patients 00:55:59.800 --> 00:56:03.370 align:middle line:84% to choose their preferred method of receiving an SOP, 00:56:03.370 --> 00:56:07.390 align:middle line:84% and that will not be necessary every time you access care. 00:56:07.390 --> 00:56:10.570 align:middle line:84% This changes how you receive the SOP. 00:56:10.570 --> 00:56:12.940 align:middle line:84% It will eliminate a summary of payments 00:56:12.940 --> 00:56:16.630 align:middle line:84% when no remaining balance exists on a claim. 00:56:16.630 --> 00:56:19.720 align:middle line:84% It will require that a summary of payment 00:56:19.720 --> 00:56:22.210 align:middle line:84% would provide generic information only, 00:56:22.210 --> 00:56:26.020 align:middle line:84% such as office visit or medical care. 00:56:26.020 --> 00:56:27.640 align:middle line:84% It would also ensure that patients 00:56:27.640 --> 00:56:30.430 align:middle line:84% are informed of their options to request 00:56:30.430 --> 00:56:33.940 align:middle line:84% confidential means of receiving an SOP, 00:56:33.940 --> 00:56:37.930 align:middle line:84% and it would require the Division of Insurance 00:56:37.930 --> 00:56:40.450 align:middle line:84% and the Department of Public Health 00:56:40.450 --> 00:56:45.310 align:middle line:84% to educate providers and patients on these protections. 00:56:45.310 --> 00:56:49.750 align:middle line:84% This policy is so critical that in April of 2017, 00:56:49.750 --> 00:56:52.450 align:middle line:84% the Massachusetts Division of insurance 00:56:52.450 --> 00:56:56.380 align:middle line:84% issued a bulletin which required Mass DOI to develop 00:56:56.380 --> 00:57:01.000 align:middle line:84% a common summary of payment form by which commercial health 00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:04.780 align:middle line:84% insurers, Blue Cross Blue Shield, health maintenance 00:57:04.780 --> 00:57:08.050 align:middle line:84% organizations, be issued at the member level 00:57:08.050 --> 00:57:12.710 align:middle line:84% rather than to the primary subscriber of the health plan. 00:57:12.710 --> 00:57:16.160 align:middle line:84% And it could be issued via paper or electronic means. 00:57:16.160 --> 00:57:18.770 align:middle line:84% Carriers-- and that's important to understand-- 00:57:18.770 --> 00:57:21.650 align:middle line:84% carriers were required to come into compliance 00:57:21.650 --> 00:57:27.290 align:middle line:84% with this bulletin February of this year, which is this month. 00:57:27.290 --> 00:57:33.170 align:middle line:84% The bill before you today would codify this important policy 00:57:33.170 --> 00:57:34.440 align:middle line:90% into state law. 00:57:34.440 --> 00:57:38.330 align:middle line:84% So we're taking the Mass Division of Insurance policy 00:57:38.330 --> 00:57:41.860 align:middle line:90% and codifying it today. 00:57:41.860 --> 00:57:46.210 align:middle line:84% Establishing and ensuring a new level of confidentiality 00:57:46.210 --> 00:57:51.370 align:middle line:84% will alleviate patients' fear of being punished or stigmatized 00:57:51.370 --> 00:57:53.530 align:middle line:84% for the health care decisions they make. 00:57:53.530 --> 00:57:55.660 align:middle line:84% Most importantly, it will empower 00:57:55.660 --> 00:57:58.180 align:middle line:84% patients to take control of their care 00:57:58.180 --> 00:58:00.310 align:middle line:84% and hopefully lead to better health 00:58:00.310 --> 00:58:02.350 align:middle line:90% outcomes for our commonwealth. 00:58:02.350 --> 00:58:04.600 align:middle line:84% Closing this loophole-- and it is 00:58:04.600 --> 00:58:09.220 align:middle line:84% a loophole is important-- to the essential patient privacy. 00:58:09.220 --> 00:58:12.970 align:middle line:84% I would like to thank the 105 legislators who 00:58:12.970 --> 00:58:16.420 align:middle line:84% have co-sponsored this bill, believing that patient 00:58:16.420 --> 00:58:19.030 align:middle line:84% confidentiality is the cornerstone 00:58:19.030 --> 00:58:21.640 align:middle line:84% of an effective health care system. 00:58:21.640 --> 00:58:23.380 align:middle line:84% I would like to thank the Senate sponsor, 00:58:23.380 --> 00:58:26.590 align:middle line:84% the gentlelady from Ashland, for her leadership on this issue. 00:58:26.590 --> 00:58:29.830 align:middle line:84% The gentlelady from Swansea for her abiding support 00:58:29.830 --> 00:58:30.620 align:middle line:90% of this bill. 00:58:30.620 --> 00:58:34.480 align:middle line:84% I would also like to thank the dozens of providers 00:58:34.480 --> 00:58:37.540 align:middle line:84% and advocates and community-based organizations 00:58:37.540 --> 00:58:41.050 align:middle line:84% that make up the Patch Alliance, and in particular, Planned 00:58:41.050 --> 00:58:45.730 align:middle line:84% Parenthood Advocacy Fund, Health Care For All, as well as Patch 00:58:45.730 --> 00:58:48.700 align:middle line:84% Supporters Blue Cross Blue Shield 00:58:48.700 --> 00:58:51.910 align:middle line:84% and the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. 00:58:51.910 --> 00:58:55.930 align:middle line:84% Your dedication and advocacy during the past several years 00:58:55.930 --> 00:58:58.600 align:middle line:84% have been instrumental in bringing this bill forward 00:58:58.600 --> 00:58:59.980 align:middle line:90% to the finish line. 00:58:59.980 --> 00:59:03.430 align:middle line:84% And Mr. Speaker, I ask that when a vote be taken, 00:59:03.430 --> 00:59:06.430 align:middle line:84% it be taken by a call of the yeas and nays. 00:59:06.430 --> 00:59:07.074 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:59:07.074 --> 00:59:08.740 align:middle line:84% Miss Hogan of Stow asked when the matter 00:59:08.740 --> 00:59:11.140 align:middle line:84% is taken, it be taken by a call of the yeas and nays. 00:59:11.140 --> 00:59:12.920 align:middle line:84% Those joining with her will rise, 00:59:12.920 --> 00:59:14.170 align:middle line:90% and monitors return the count. 00:59:14.170 --> 00:59:16.390 align:middle line:90% First division, five. 00:59:16.390 --> 00:59:21.700 align:middle line:90% Second division, 13. 00:59:21.700 --> 00:59:23.957 align:middle line:90% Third division. 00:59:23.957 --> 00:59:26.290 align:middle line:84% Sufficient number have arisen, when the matter is taken, 00:59:26.290 --> 00:59:29.339 align:middle line:84% it will be taken by a call of the yeas and nays. 00:59:29.339 --> 00:59:31.630 align:middle line:84% The question now is on passing the bill to being gross, 00:59:31.630 --> 00:59:35.447 align:middle line:84% pending Miss Orrall of Lakeville offers an amendment 00:59:35.447 --> 00:59:36.530 align:middle line:90% in the hands of the clerk. 00:59:36.530 --> 00:59:38.602 align:middle line:84% The clerk will read the amendment. 00:59:38.602 --> 00:59:47.320 align:middle line:90% 00:59:47.320 --> 00:59:49.640 align:middle line:90% Amendment number four. 00:59:49.640 --> 00:59:53.080 align:middle line:84% Miss Orrall of Lakeville moves to amend the bill by inserting 00:59:53.080 --> 00:59:55.180 align:middle line:90% the following new section. 00:59:55.180 --> 00:59:57.520 align:middle line:84% Nothing in this act shall supersede 00:59:57.520 --> 01:00:00.160 align:middle line:84% any general or special law related to the informed 01:00:00.160 --> 01:00:01.856 align:middle line:90% consent of minors. 01:00:01.856 --> 01:00:03.230 align:middle line:84% Question now is on the amendment. 01:00:03.230 --> 01:00:04.520 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 01:00:04.520 --> 01:00:08.520 align:middle line:90% 01:00:08.520 --> 01:00:09.750 align:middle line:90% All those opposed, nay. 01:00:09.750 --> 01:00:10.600 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 01:00:10.600 --> 01:00:11.882 align:middle line:90% The amendment is adopted. 01:00:11.882 --> 01:00:14.340 align:middle line:84% Question now is on passing the bill to being gross, pending 01:00:14.340 --> 01:00:17.546 align:middle line:84% which Mr. Lombardo of Bellerica offers 01:00:17.546 --> 01:00:19.170 align:middle line:84% an amendment in the hands of the clerk. 01:00:19.170 --> 01:00:23.570 align:middle line:84% The clerk will read the amendment. 01:00:23.570 --> 01:00:25.220 align:middle line:90% Amendment number five. 01:00:25.220 --> 01:00:27.300 align:middle line:84% Mr. Lombardo of Bellerica moves to amend the bill 01:00:27.300 --> 01:00:31.920 align:middle line:84% by inserting text of chapter 176-O, section 27, 01:00:31.920 --> 01:00:34.122 align:middle line:90% paragraph E, lines 39 to 45. 01:00:34.122 --> 01:00:35.580 align:middle line:84% If there be no objection, the clerk 01:00:35.580 --> 01:00:37.121 align:middle line:84% will dispense with reading the paper. 01:00:37.121 --> 01:00:37.970 align:middle line:90% Chair hears none. 01:00:37.970 --> 01:00:39.610 align:middle line:84% The question is on the amendment. 01:00:39.610 --> 01:00:42.300 align:middle line:84% All those in favor, say aye, all those opposed, nay. 01:00:42.300 --> 01:00:43.162 align:middle line:90% The nays have it. 01:00:43.162 --> 01:00:44.370 align:middle line:90% The amendment is not adopted. 01:00:44.370 --> 01:00:47.980 align:middle line:90% 01:00:47.980 --> 01:00:48.920 align:middle line:90% Question now is on-- 01:00:48.920 --> 01:00:52.639 align:middle line:90% 01:00:52.639 --> 01:00:53.930 align:middle line:90% question now is on engrossment. 01:00:53.930 --> 01:00:55.179 align:middle line:90% Roll call having been ordered. 01:00:55.179 --> 01:00:57.920 align:middle line:84% The roll call machine is now open and will remain open 01:00:57.920 --> 01:00:59.144 align:middle line:90% for three minutes. 01:00:59.144 --> 01:01:00.560 align:middle line:84% Court officers summon the members. 01:01:00.560 --> 01:01:02.069 align:middle line:84% Indicate a roll call is in progress. 01:01:02.069 --> 01:02:55.085 align:middle line:90% 01:02:55.085 --> 01:02:56.210 align:middle line:90% The House will be in order. 01:02:56.210 --> 01:02:59.130 align:middle line:84% The clerk will make an announcement. 01:02:59.130 --> 01:03:03.930 align:middle line:84% The voting stations for representatives Kahn, Miceli, 01:03:03.930 --> 01:03:05.640 align:middle line:90% and Chris Walsh are locked. 01:03:05.640 --> 01:04:59.911 align:middle line:90% 01:04:59.911 --> 01:05:04.382 align:middle line:90% [POUNDS GAVEL] 01:05:04.382 --> 01:05:05.340 align:middle line:90% House will be in order. 01:05:05.340 --> 01:05:08.420 align:middle line:90% 01:05:08.420 --> 01:05:11.770 align:middle line:90% House will be in order. 01:05:11.770 --> 01:05:13.640 align:middle line:84% Chair would like to take this opportunity 01:05:13.640 --> 01:05:18.590 align:middle line:84% to introduce, to the right of the rostrum, Dominican Republic 01:05:18.590 --> 01:05:20.935 align:middle line:84% Delegation from the Chamber of Accounts. 01:05:20.935 --> 01:05:24.050 align:middle line:90% 01:05:24.050 --> 01:05:24.920 align:middle line:90% Chamber of Accounts. 01:05:24.920 --> 01:05:28.880 align:middle line:84% Doctor Hugo Alvarez Perez, President of the Chamber, 01:05:28.880 --> 01:05:32.210 align:middle line:84% Carlos Diaz, Secretary of the Chamber of Accounts. 01:05:32.210 --> 01:05:36.440 align:middle line:84% Attorney Jesus de La Cruz, Communications Director, 01:05:36.440 --> 01:05:40.430 align:middle line:84% attorney Carlin Sosa, Administrator 01:05:40.430 --> 01:05:43.550 align:middle line:84% of Finance, attorney Margarita [? Corcoran, ?] 01:05:43.550 --> 01:05:48.020 align:middle line:84% member of the Chamber of Accounts and [INAUDIBLE] 01:05:48.020 --> 01:05:49.610 align:middle line:90% Assessor of Membership. 01:05:49.610 --> 01:05:52.160 align:middle line:84% And they're the guests of Representative Frank Moran. 01:05:52.160 --> 01:05:54.000 align:middle line:84% Welcome to the House of Representatives. 01:05:54.000 --> 01:06:05.722 align:middle line:90% 01:06:05.722 --> 01:06:07.430 align:middle line:84% Have all members voted who wish to do so? 01:06:07.430 --> 01:06:10.110 align:middle line:90% 01:06:10.110 --> 01:06:12.610 align:middle line:84% Have all members voted who wish to do so? 01:06:12.610 --> 01:06:13.906 align:middle line:90% Time for voting has expired. 01:06:13.906 --> 01:06:15.280 align:middle line:84% The clerk will display the tally. 01:06:15.280 --> 01:06:19.060 align:middle line:84% On this matter, 138 members voted in the affirmative, 14 01:06:19.060 --> 01:06:20.060 align:middle line:90% in the negative. 01:06:20.060 --> 01:06:22.630 align:middle line:84% The bill is passed to be engrossed. 01:06:22.630 --> 01:06:24.428 align:middle line:90% House will be in a brief recess. 01:06:24.428 --> 01:09:00.080 align:middle line:90% 01:09:00.080 --> 01:09:02.608 align:middle line:84% Mr. Homer of Boston asks unanimous consent 01:09:02.608 --> 01:09:04.149 align:middle line:84% to be recorded in the last roll call. 01:09:04.149 --> 01:09:05.479 align:middle line:90% Does the chair object? 01:09:05.479 --> 01:09:08.140 align:middle line:90% Chair has none. 01:09:08.140 --> 01:09:11.510 align:middle line:84% On roll call number 313, Russell Holmes. 01:09:11.510 --> 01:09:12.010 align:middle line:90% Yes? 01:09:12.010 --> 01:13:55.442 align:middle line:90% 01:13:55.442 --> 01:13:56.939 align:middle line:90% [POUNDS GAVEL] 01:13:56.939 --> 01:14:03.734 align:middle line:90% 01:14:03.734 --> 01:14:05.275 align:middle line:84% Members will please take their seats. 01:14:05.275 --> 01:14:28.980 align:middle line:90% 01:14:28.980 --> 01:14:33.640 align:middle line:84% As we continue to grieve for Chairman Kocot 01:14:33.640 --> 01:14:37.120 align:middle line:84% and celebrate his life and his immense contributions 01:14:37.120 --> 01:14:43.288 align:middle line:84% to the Commonwealth, I ask that we now honor our good friend 01:14:43.288 --> 01:14:45.284 align:middle line:90% with a moment of silence. 01:14:45.284 --> 01:14:59.755 align:middle line:90% 01:14:59.755 --> 01:15:00.753 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:15:00.753 --> 01:15:22.709 align:middle line:90% 01:15:22.709 --> 01:15:25.204 align:middle line:90% House will be in a brief recess. 01:15:25.204 --> 01:17:52.260 align:middle line:90% 01:17:52.260 --> 01:17:55.280 align:middle line:84% Mr. Mariano, Quincy, offers an order in the hands 01:17:55.280 --> 01:17:58.152 align:middle line:84% the clerk, which the clerk will read. 01:17:58.152 --> 01:17:59.860 align:middle line:84% Order that when the House adjourns today, 01:17:59.860 --> 01:18:04.824 align:middle line:84% it will adjourn and meet tomorrow at 11 o'clock AM. 01:18:04.824 --> 01:18:06.490 align:middle line:84% Question comes to adoption of the order. 01:18:06.490 --> 01:18:08.870 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 01:18:08.870 --> 01:18:09.500 align:middle line:90% Opposed no. 01:18:09.500 --> 01:18:10.396 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 01:18:10.396 --> 01:18:11.270 align:middle line:90% The order is adopted. 01:18:11.270 --> 01:18:15.540 align:middle line:90% 01:18:15.540 --> 01:18:18.260 align:middle line:84% Speaker DeLeo of Winthrop moves that when the House adjourns 01:18:18.260 --> 01:18:20.980 align:middle line:84% today, it do so in respect of the memory of Peter V. 01:18:20.980 --> 01:18:24.850 align:middle line:84% Kocot, a member of the House from Northampton from 2002 01:18:24.850 --> 01:18:29.170 align:middle line:90% to 2018 inclusive. 01:18:29.170 --> 01:18:30.444 align:middle line:90% Question comes on that motion. 01:18:30.444 --> 01:18:31.610 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 01:18:31.610 --> 01:18:32.110 align:middle line:90% Opposed no. 01:18:32.110 --> 01:18:32.890 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 01:18:32.890 --> 01:18:36.830 align:middle line:90% 01:18:36.830 --> 01:18:41.870 align:middle line:84% Mr. Hill of Ipswich now moves that the House do now adjourn, 01:18:41.870 --> 01:18:48.136 align:middle line:84% to meet Thursday next at 11 AM in an informal session. 01:18:48.136 --> 01:18:49.954 align:middle line:90% Question comes on that motion. 01:18:49.954 --> 01:18:51.120 align:middle line:90% All those in favor, say aye. 01:18:51.120 --> 01:18:52.620 align:middle line:90% Opposed, no. 01:18:52.620 --> 01:18:55.720 align:middle line:90% The ayes have it. 01:18:55.720 --> 01:18:58.220 align:middle line:90% The motion is adopted. 01:18:58.220 --> 01:19:02.420 align:middle line:84% The House now stands adjourned to meet tomorrow 01:19:02.420 --> 01:19:04.940 align:middle line:90% at 11 AM in an informal session. 01:19:04.940 --> 01:19:59.540 align:middle line:90% 01:19:59.540 --> 01:20:02.590 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 01:20:02.590 --> 01:22:38.059 align:middle line:90%