“Today is not an ordinary day, it is a moment in history,” Moore told the packed sixth floor of Long Beach City Hall in a passionate, powerful speech that drew overwhelming applause and a standing ovation. “Today we stand together recognizing what ordinary people can do through the power of the vote.”

Moore, who was the top vote-getter in November’s election to fill three seats on the five-member City Council, spoke of the meaning of this day in her life: She spoke of a distant great grandmother who was a slave, her voice breaking as she uttered the woman’s name; and talked about her grandmother, who worked long hours in a Brooklyn factory with the hope her children might one day be able to attend college. But she also talked about the significance of her election for the Island city, where segregation and institutional racism pervaded just decades ago.

“Here I stand humbled knowing the people with the same complexion that I have couldn’t even sleep in the same houses they cleaned in the City of Long Beach,” she said. “We are better than our past, Long Beach.”

State Supreme Court Justice Sharon Gianelli swore in Moore and lauded her qualifications to lead, noting her time as dean of social and behavioral sciences at Nassau Community College. She now is a communications professor.

Source: Newsday.com

Date Posted: Saturday, January 2nd, 2016 , Total Page Views: 1510