US Presidency
2021

And there’s greater recognition that, for too long, we’ve allowed a narrowed, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester—the view that America is a zero-sum game where there is only one winner. “If you succeed, I fail. If you get ahead, I fall behind. If you get a job, I lose mine.” And maybe worst of all, “If I hold you down, I lift myself up,” instead of “If you do well, we all do well.” We see that in Greenwood. This story isn’t about the loss of life, but a loss of living, of wealth and prosterity [prosperity] and possibilities that still reverberates today. Mother Fletcher talks about how she was only able to attend school until the fourth grade and eventually found work in the shipyards, as a domestic worker. Mr. Van Ellis has shared how, even after enlisting and serving in World War Two, he still came home to struggle with a segregated America. Imagine all those hotels and dinners [diners] and mom-and-pop shops that could been—have been passed down this past hundred years.