workers. maximum employment also promotes business investment that boosts productivity and long - run economic potential. and the full participation of all see board of governors of the federal reserve system ( 2020 ), “ federal open market committee announces approval of updates to its statement on longer - run goals and monetary policy strategy, ” press release, august 27, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / monetary20200827a. htm. video provided by the king center of coretta scott king speaking at “ overcoming the barriers to full employment ” at ebenezer baptist church, atlanta, january 13, 1978. - 7segments of society should be expected to result in more ideas, including more diverse ideas, more invention, and more innovation. these are the benefits of the fed ’ s maximum - employment goal and part of the legacy of coretta scott king. in closing, i want to thank interim president fulton and the board of the joint center for the great honor of this award, as well as the opportunity to review some important history that shaped the federal reserve ’ s efforts to promote a healthy economy.

for release on delivery 6 : 55 p. m. edt october 18, 2023 the evolution of the federal reserve ’ s employment mandate remarks by lisa d. cook member board of governors of the federal reserve system at the louis e. martin awards ceremony at the 2023 future of black communities summit joint center for political and economic studies washington, d. c. october 18, 2023 thank you. i am rarely at a loss for words, as my friends, family, and colleagues know all too well. 1 but i do find it a little hard to express everything i am feeling, to be given the louis e. martin great american award in honor of a truly great american who did so much to make ours a more perfect union. tough to find the words, but i will try. louis martin did not lack for words. he was prolific, writing and publishing millions of words in newspapers as a key figure in the heyday of black publishing in the 1950s and 1960s. there were also the words, and i would love to know what they were, that he spoke to the advisers of presidential candidate john f. kennedy, who helped free the rev. dr. martin luther king from a georgia prison and arguably changed political history. 2 and there were those words he whispered, in the ears of presidents and politicos, that moved the nation forward on civil rights. when i think about everything louis martin accomplished, including the creation of the joint center for political and economic studies, and i consider the distinguished men and women who have earned this award before me, i am humbled and very grateful. one way i hope i can show my gratitude is by using this occasion to tell the wider world a story about the civil rights movement that should be better known and that is additionally meaningful to me for two reasons. the first reason is that this is a story about how the federal reserve, where i am a policymaker, came to be the first central bank in the world to make maximum employment a primary and explicit goal, coequal with its goal of price stability. and the second reason is that i had the memorable the views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal reserve board or the federal open market committee. louis martin was among the civil rights leaders who sought help from the republican and democratic presidential campaigns in 1960 when king was sentenced in dekalb county to 30 days of hard labor on trumped - up charges. - 2experience, as