In this image from United States Senate television, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, speaks from the Senate floor during his 25-hour and 5-minute speech to protest the polices of the Trump administration, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Washington, D.C. He broke the record of Sen. Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina segregationist who spoke against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. CNP US Senate TV via CNP/Sipa USA
At 7 p.m. Monday, Sen. Cory Booker, the senior Democratic senator from New Jersey, started what would become the longest speech delivered from the floor of the U.S. Senate since Sen. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Booker finished his speech at 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, speaking 25 hours and 5 minutes. Thurmond, the fervent segregationist senator from South Carolina, spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes — 46 minutes less than Booker.
As he began his speech, Booker quoted the late Congressman John Lewis, who urged justice-loving people not to be afraid to “get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
“Tonight, I rise with the intention of getting into some good trouble… with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the U. S. Senate for as long as I am physically able.”
As Booker spoke, America’s prayer wheel started turning. People, not only Blacks and the downtrodden, prayed for his stamina. We prayed that he would be able to hold out.
The 55-year-old senator, a former tight end on Stanford’s football team, did not sit down, did not eat and did not take a bathroom break.
As an old woman, I knew I didn’t have the strength to match Booker’s. But I had something else that was more powerful than physical strength — prayer. I could pray for Booker.
I believe it was the prayers of the many thousands watching him deliver his speech, as well as the thousands who didn’t have the stamina to hold out till the end of his speech at 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, that saw him through.
When Booker had finished his speech, my 27-year-old goddaughter Jamera Nixon said, “You know, Goddie, that speech gave me a lot of hope.”
I believe Jamera spoke for millions of other Americans, who for the past nearly three months have seen their hopes for the future dashed, or being swallowed up like we are living in a ditch filled with quicksand.
As Present Donald Trump issues out executive orders like he was throwing candy to a crowd of cheering children, many Americans seemed to be at a standstill; they didn’t know what to do.
Immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean who voted for him are now fearful of being sent back to their countries of origin. Countries that many of them know little or nothing about, because they have lived in America for all or most of their lives. People throughout our country are living in fear.
I can’t tell you of the magnitude of the pride I felt toward Booker as he fought to say alert and awake while fighting for our democracy.
Through hoarseness and weariness, lack of sleep and cramping in his body because of dehydration, Booker kept going, reminding us that, “In just 71 days, the president has inflicted harm after harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the foundations of our democracy and any sense of common decency.”
When cheers broke out in the chamber when it was learned that he had outlasted Thurmond, Booker said he didn’t hate the late senator.
“To hate him is wrong, and maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand,” Booker said. “I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.”
Wake-up call
Unlike Thurmond, who spoke to try to block Black Americans from having equal rights, Booker’s speech was a wake-up call to get us back on the path of moving forward in a positive way. Thurmond, by the way, had a daughter whose mother was a Black woman.
Today, as you read this column, some people will have already forgotten Booker’s record-breaking speech. But it is my prayer that freedom and justice-loving Americans will, from time to time, go back and listen to the heart of Booker’s speech. I hope they will remember and think about Booker’s words when he said America has reached a “moral moment” that required a stand against President Trump and his administration.
He is right. We live at a time when every good American must examine him/herself. We must decide if we want to preserve our democracy, keeping in place those laws and institutions that have helped to make America a country that the world once looked up to?
Or do we want to hand it over to someone who has never lifted a finger to help make America the great country that it is today?
Do we want to keep on alienating our allies?
Or do we want to continue our long-standing friendship with them?
These are serious questions for serious times. America elected a president who mocks the disabled; who is a blatant racist; who disrespects women; who denied there was a COVID pandemic as thousands of people died daily, and who openly told the country his plans of becoming a dictator.
Yet millions of people went to the polls in the last election and voted for Trump to be the 47th president of the United States. Now, some of those same people are shedding bitter tears.
Some of them have lost their jobs, while still others live in fear of losing theirs. Some are scared their Social Security and Medicaid benefits will be taken away.
These are the people who believed the lie. Did they not know that we are all in this together? Mr. Trump just doesn’t like Blacks, Hispanics, the poor, or anyone else who doesn’t look or believe like him. In fact, he reminds me of another dictator who sent millions of Jews and others to the gas chambers. I am afraid my friends that history, bad history, is on the verge of repeating itself.
And while our country struggles to keep from crumbling, Mr. Trump is contemplating a third term as president.
‘Good trouble’
Still, as my goddaughter Jamera said, Booker’s speech gave me a “lot of hope.” So, let’s follow his instructions and stand up to the Trump administration.
“This is not right or left, it is right or wrong. This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment. Where do you stand?”
My prayer is that we all stand for good. For good trouble. It’s the right thing to do.
Bea Hines Al Diaz [email protected]
