Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries provides college with insights on the power of strategy, community

By David Gil de Rubio | dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

Hakeem Jeffries may be the current Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, but Brooklyn is never far from his heart. 

As the representative for New York’s 8th congressional district (which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York, East Flatbush), where he succeeded Edolphus Towns, Jeffries has been a frequent supporter of Medgar Evers College. 

His latest appearance kicked off Black History Month with an event spearheaded by the Center for Black Literature and the college’s Cultural Committee in the Founders Auditorium. 

Centered around the promotion of Jeffries’ book The ABCs of Democracy, the festivities played to hundreds of attendees — including Congresswoman Yvette Clarke — who watched Lurie Daniel Favors, executive director of the Center for Law & Social Justice at Medgar Evers College (and a fellow alum of Jeffries at New York University School of Law) interview the Congressman while L. Joy Williams of the Brooklyn NAACP served as master of ceremonies.  

Inspired by a speech Jeffries gave at the start of the 118th Congress on January 3, 2023, after the Democratic caucus unanimously nominated him to be Speaker of the House, The ABCs of Democracy goes through the alphabet one letter at a time to remind readers about the promise of U.S. system of government and to warn about the dangers of those looking to usurp American values. Alliterative couplets like “Justice over judicial overreach. Knowledge over kangaroo courts and Liberty over limitation” drive these points home.    

The evening’s conversation went beyond being a mere book promotion. Daniel-Favors and Jefferies wound up talking about everything from the importance of communities participating in the census (“If our population is undercounted, then we get short-changed on resources we would receive for education, transportation, housing and other services”) to how disastrous the recent illegal funding freeze would have been had it not been shot down by a court order (“It would have thrown children out of Head Start, ripped food away from seniors who use Meals on Wheels and a whole host of other damages across the country”). 

Daniel-Favors pointed out the current waters we’re navigating in stark terms while asking Jefferies to weigh in with his assessment.

“We know that protest is amazing — it’s powerful, it’s dynamic and transformative, but it’s very difficult to maintain in many of the ways, particularly when the Supreme Court is at the opposite end of the spectrum,” she said. “If that’s where we’re headed, what do you suggest that we, the people, do in order to prepare for that, to engage effectively, and to marshal this energy? How do we sustain this? Because this is not going to be handled in a term or in a year. This is going to be the long haul.”

The Crown Heights native acknowledged how rough things had been, but was also pragmatic in laying out current Congressional representation and how to view the upcoming electoral timeline starting with 2025 governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia. 

Jeffries also pointed to the importance when he pointed out that 218 Republicans and 215 Democrats make up the current Congress, the narrowest margin for any party since the Great Depression.

“We’re marching through the first 100 days, pushing back, as I mentioned, legislatively, from a litigation standpoint, from a community standpoint, from a public sentiment standpoint through a flurry of activity,” Jeffries said. “Then we have the all-important midterm elections. You got the first 100 days, you got this year, and the first Tuesday in November, and then you’ve got the first midterm elections, where there’s an opportunity to take back both the Senate and the House.”

The attack on acronym “DEI” was a particularly hot topic. Jeffries’ response was that DEI should not only be fully described as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but these are American values that should be leaned into.

“The motto of this country is E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One — that’s diversity,” Jeffries explained. “One of the most important constitutional amendments in the history of the country which emerged out of the movement to abolish slavery during Reconstruction is the 14th Amendment, which promises equal protection under the law. That’s equity. Our pledge, which is recited by members of Congress every day before the House and the Senate open. At the end, after pledging allegiance to the flag, we talk about ‘One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.’ A-l-l, all. That’s inclusion.”

Williams wrapped the evening with questions from the audience, many of them from students asking Jeffries about the Democratic Party’s commitment to people of color (“Democrats can’t take any community for granted, and that certainly is the case as the case relates to the African-American Community, Caribbean-American Community, communities of color, and has to adopt the posture that every day, every week, every month, every year, every election, that support has to be earned, not taken for granted”) to the importance of voting and showing up (“We’re in a day-to-day struggle to protect the country, the community and everyday Americans, while simultaneously beginning to build the movement that will be necessary to do what we have to do 18 months from now next November. We look forward to being in touch with people who are interested in that side of the pushback effort, and there will be a lot to do.”).

Before he left, Jeffries left a note of hope regarding how voters responded to two terms of George W. Bush, failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 2007 financial crash by electing Barack Obama in 2008.

“The thing I remember most was a headline from a major newspaper in Western Europe that said, ‘America Does It Again,’” he recalled. “What did that mean? Not that America was perfect, but that America has always been on a march toward a more perfect view.

“We are sitting in 2025, right after the election that went a different way than those of us would have wanted. But the spirit of resilience that I talked about from people like Shirley Chisholm and John Lewis, or even Barack and Michelle Obama, is that you’ve got to stand up and speak up and show up for what you know is right. In 2026, if we do what we need to do, we can take the House back, take the Senate back, just like what was done 20 years ago. 

“In 2028, if we do what we need to do, someone more enlightening will get elected who can make sure America is the best version of herself. And somewhere in Western Europe, there’ll be a newspaper with a headline that says, ‘America Does It Again.’”