The vibe of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference this year was hard to pin down. It was both ebullient and somber. The National Museum of African American History and Culture was just one week away from opening. And the Obamas were four months from moving out of the White House.
There were parties, for sure. But at the conference’s gala Saturday night, President Obama was hardly in a bouncy mood. His message to the black-tie crowd packed into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center? Vote, or I’ll be personally offended.
The conference’s earlier events displayed that same level of fervor wrapped in festivity, with “legacy” being the unspoken word of the week. There was Apple’s party with Jesse Jackson and Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, on the guest list. Google’s party celebrating Lonnie Bunch, director of the African American Museum. And, of course, the beginning onslaught of donor events at the museum itself, where actress S. Epatha Merkerson wheeled her mother, Ann, through the crowded lobby.
On Wednesday at the Icon Talks event honoring Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), rapper Clifford “T.I.” Harris, dressed in a knife-sharp suit, presented the civil rights icon with an award. The pair have history. When Harris was arrested on gun charges in 2007, Lewis was among a group of elder statesmen who stepped in on the entertainer’s behalf.
“I was extremely humbled by it,” recalled Harris, who had not met the congressman before his legal woes. When they did finally meet in about 2008, the rapper “just said thank you, not only selfishly for the things he chose to go out of his way for me, but the sacrifices he made on behalf of my generation and the ones to follow.”
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to Obama, got choked up during her remarks at political consultant Art Collins’s annual “The Saturday Brunch,” held this year for the first time at the Watergate Hotel.
“This has been an extraordinary journey,” said Jarrett, who recalled bringing first lady Michelle Obama to that very brunch 10 years ago to rally the power players in that room behind her husband, who was then campaigning to be president.
“It’s hard to talk about without tearing up,” continued Jarrett, who described the ride as “the best of times and the worst of times, but I still believe there is no better time to be an American.”
Source: Washington Post
