The powerful reason why Democratic members of Congress will be wearing a pin at Tuesday's State of the Union that reads "1870"

153 years later and still this keeps happening

At Tuesday’s State of the Union address, you can expect to see members of Congress wear a range of lapel pins to bring attention to issues of concern. This is not a new tradition. Last year, some wore Ukrainian flag pins to show support for the people of Ukraine in response to Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack. In 2018, members wore purple ribbons as lapel pins to help raise awareness about the country’s opioid epidemic.

We can expect a few Republicans to wear the AR-15 lapel pins that they have been recently showing off in the halls of Congress. It says so much about the vileness of the GOP to celebrate a weapon used in just the past year to slaughter 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas and 10 people at a Buffalo, New York supermarket by a self-avowed white supremacist targeting Black Americans to protect, as he put it, "the future of the White race." In reality, the AR-15 pin—just as the Jan 6 attack—perfectly sums up today’s GOP which is defined by embracing violence and preserving white supremacy.

But New Jersey’s Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) went further than most members of Congress. She is not just wearing a pin, she designed her own for the SOTU. The pin—as you can see above—simply has the words “1870” in the center of a black background.

Why? As Rep. Watson Coleman explained Monday night on my SiriusXM show, “1870” refers to the first known instance of a police officer killing an unarmed (free) Black man in the United States. That is when Henry Truman of Philadelphia was killed on March 31, 1870.

Her pin was designed with the hope being that people ask her what does “1870” mean? From there she would have a chance to talk to them about the “crisis” of Black people being killed by the police that “really isn’t getting better.” In fact, she added it’s actually “getting worse” as Black people are not safe from police misconduct “when driving home minding own business,” walking in the street or even just being in their homes. We need “serious criminal reform” that holds police accountable, explained Watson Coleman.

Rep. Watson Coleman added powerfully, “In 2022, police killed at least 1176 people — the highest number on record. I am tired of history repeating itself. The time for police reform and accountability is now!”

It’s been 153 years since Henry Truman was killed by the police in 1870. It’s long past time for real progress on this issue. But as I wrote about last week, the GOP’s opposition to police and criminal justice reform has actually increased in recent years. Democrats want to change the system to end the institutional racism that is backed up by studies and data. The GOP wants to preserve the current criminal INjustice system because they benefit from it. Period.

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Here is Rep. Watson Coleman explaining on my show Monday night the why behind her designing and wearing the pin and how many other members of Congress will be wearing the pin as well: