A message from AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt:
We condemn the violent, racist acts of police brutality that continue to permeate our society. The egregious murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, earlier this week, reminds us that the United States is far from achieving justice for ALL. We cannot turn back the hands of time to save the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless other victims of police brutality, but we can demand the justice their grieving families deserve. Past AHA Humanist of the Year, A. Phillip Randolph, once noted that “Justice is never given; it is exacted, and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing, evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political, and religious relationship.” Now more than ever, we need to continue to evolve to tackle both the overt and covert systemic injustices that are afflicting Black and brown Americans. We remind all humanists, and all Americans, that it is in our power and, indeed, our responsibility to rectify the systems that have failed communities of color, and that Black Lives Matter.