During a recent speech in South Carolina, Vice President Kamala Harris compared the 2014 Ferguson riots to the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg of the Civil War.
Kamala Harris compares Ferguson riots to Battle of Gettysburg in MLK Day speechhttps://t.co/kgyPYSms03https://t.co/kgyPYSms03
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 18, 2024
Harris claimed that both events demonstrated Americans fighting to “make the promise of freedom real.”
On Jan. 15, 2024, Harris, speaking before a crowd commemorating Martin Luther King Day, said she believes “true power behind the promise of America is in the faith of her people.”
“The promise of America, I do believe, is in the faith of the people — our faith in the founding principles of our nation and our profound commitment to make those principles real,” Harris began.
The vice president then drew a comparison between the three-day Battle of Gettysburg and the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, that took place after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a White police officer.
“Generation after generation, on the fields of Gettysburg, in the schools of Little Rock, on the grounds of this state house, on the streets of Ferguson, and on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives, we the people have always fought to make the promise of freedom real,” Harris claimed during her speech.
The vice president continued by arguing that “freedom is under profound threat,” citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to send the issue of abortion back to the states in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case along with its ruling that mandates “students to wait in line for hours because of laws that intentionally make it more difficult for them to cast a ballot.”
In 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg ended the Civil War after Union forces routed Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s troops in Pennsylvania. Such a devastating war occurred because the Confederates wanted to separate themselves from the Union. Years after the war’s end, slavery was abolished.
Harris suggested that the Battle of Gettysburg was like the 2014 Ferguson riots despite providing no context to support her claims.
The 2024 Ferguson riots, much like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots of 2020, paved the way for widespread vandalism, looting and arson, leading more than 300 people to be arrested.
