“Go back to the beginning, Thomas Jefferson wrote what many believed to be the most important civil document in human history, but he was a slaveholder. We’ve never lived up to our American ideals, Jefferson himself didn’t. But what he wrote has pulled us towards justice for more than two centuries and still does. It remains this nation’s north star. Take a look at the Klan, Ku Klux Klan. After the Civil War, we saw a rise in the Klan. It was beaten down only to rise up again in the twenties. In fact, in August of 1925, 30,000 fully clad Klansmen in their robes and pointed hats marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, the streets of Washington. Imagine. Imagine that today. And then the Klan was once again beaten back as it was after the Civil War. How? The courts, the press, and yes, presidents stood against them, and that is the point. Our institutions, often imperfectly, stood against hate at moments when we’ve been most tested.”