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When I was in high school
at the age of 17 --

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I graduated from high school
in Decatur, Georgia,

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as valedictorian of my high school --

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I was very proud of myself.

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I was from a low-income community,
I had grown up in Mississippi,

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we'd moved from Mississippi to Georgia

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so my parents could pursue their degrees
as United Methodist ministers.

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We were poor, but they didn't think
we were poor enough,

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so they were going for permanent poverty.

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(Laughter)

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And so, while they studied at Emory,

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I studied at Avondale,
and I became valedictorian.

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Well, one of the joys of being
valedictorian in the state of Georgia

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is that you get invited
to meet the governor of Georgia.

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I was mildly interested in meeting him.

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It was kind of cool.

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I was more intrigued by the fact
that he lived in a mansion,

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because I watched a lot
of "General Hospital" and "Dynasty"

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as a child.

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(Laughter)

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And so I got up that morning,
ready to go to visit the governor.

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My mom and my dad,
who were also invited, got up,

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and we went outside.

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But we didn't get in our car.

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And in the South,
a car is a necessary thing.

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We don't have a lot of public transit,
there aren't a lot of options.

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But if you're lucky enough
to live in a community

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where you don't have a car,

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the only option is public transit.

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And that's what we had to take.

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And so we got on the bus.

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And we took the bus from Decatur
all the way to Buckhead,

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where the Governor's Mansion sat
on this really beautiful acreage of land,

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with these long black gates
that ran the length of the property.

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We get to the Governor's Mansion,

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we pull the little lever
that lets them know this is our stop,

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we get off the bus,

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my mom, my dad and I,
we walk across the street.

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We walk up the driveway,
because there are cars coming up,

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cars bringing in students
from all across the state of Georgia.

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So we're walking along the side.

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And as we walk single file along the side,

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my mom and dad sandwiching me to make sure
I don't get hit by one of the cars

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bringing in the other valedictorians,

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we approach the guard gate.

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When we get to the guard gate,
the guard comes out.

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He looks at me,
and he looks at my parents,

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and he says, "You don't belong here,
this is a private event."

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My dad says, "No, this is my daughter,
Stacey. She's one of the valedictorians."

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But the guard doesn't look
at the checklist that's in his hands.

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He doesn't ask my mom for the invitation

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that's at the bottom
of her very voluminous purse.

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Instead, he looks
over our shoulder at the bus,

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because in his mind, the bus is telling
him a story about who should be there.

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And the fact that we were too poor
to have our own car --

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that was a story he told himself.

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And he may have seen
something in my skin color,

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he may have seen something in my attire;

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I don't know what went through his mind.

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But his conclusion was
to look at me again,

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and with a look of disdain, say,

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"I told you, this is a private event.
You don't belong here."

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Now, my parents were studying to become
United Methodist ministers,

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but they were not pastors yet.

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(Laughter)

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And so they proceeded
to engage this gentleman

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in a very robust discussion
of his decision-making skills.

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(Laughter)

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My father may have mentioned

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that he was going to spend eternity
in a very fiery place

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if he didn't find my name
on that checklist.

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And indeed, the man checks
the checklist eventually,

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and he found my name,
and he let us inside.

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But I don't remember meeting
the governor of Georgia.

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I don't recall meeting
my fellow valedictorians

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from 180 school districts.

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The only clear memory I have of that day

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was a man standing in front
of the most powerful place in Georgia,

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looking at me and telling me
I don't belong.

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And so I decided, 20-some-odd years later,

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to be the person
who got to open the gates.

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(Cheers)

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(Applause)

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Unfortunately, you may have read
the rest of the story.

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It didn't quite work out that way.

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And now I'm tasked with figuring out:
How do I move forward?

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Because, you see, I didn't just want
to open the gates for young black women

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who had been underestimated
and told they don't belong.

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I wanted to open those gates
for Latinas and for Asian Americans.

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I wanted to open those gates
for the undocumented and the documented.

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I wanted to open those gates
as an ally of the LGBTQ community.

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I wanted to open those gates

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for the families that have to call
themselves the victims of gun violence.

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I wanted to open those gates wide
for everyone in Georgia,

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because that is our state,
and this is our nation,

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and we all belong here.

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(Cheers)

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(Applause)

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But what I recognized
is that the first try wasn't enough.

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And my question became:
How do I move forward?

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How do I get beyond the bitterness
and the sadness and the lethargy

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and watching an inordinate amount
of television as I eat ice cream?

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(Laughter)

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What do I do next?

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And I'm going to do what I've always done.

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I'm going to move forward,
because going backwards isn't an option

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and standing still is not enough.

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(Applause)

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You see, I began my race for governor

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by analyzing who I was
and what I wanted to be.

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And there are three questions
I ask myself about everything I do,

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whether it's running for office
or starting a business;

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when I decided to start
the New Georgia Project

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to register people to vote;

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or when I started the latest action,
Fair Fight Georgia.

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No matter what I do,
I ask myself three questions:

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What do I want?

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Why do I want it?

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And how do I get it?

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And in this case, I know what I want.

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I want change.

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That is what I want.

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But the question is:

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What change do I want to see?

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And I know that the questions
I have to ask myself are:

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One, am I honest about the scope
of my ambition?

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Because it's easy to figure out
that once you didn't get what you wanted,

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then maybe you should
have set your sights a little lower,

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but I'm here to tell you
to be aggressive about your ambition.

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Do not allow setbacks to set you back.

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(Applause)

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Number two, let yourself
understand your mistakes.

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But also understand their mistakes,

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because, as women in particular,

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we're taught that if something
doesn't work out,

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it's probably our fault.

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And usually, there is something
we could do better,

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but we've been told
not to investigate too much

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what the other side could have done.

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And this isn't partisan -- it's people.

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We're too often told
that our mistakes are ours alone,

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but victory is a shared benefit.

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And so what I tell you to do
is understand your mistakes,

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but understand the mistakes of others.

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And be clearheaded about it.

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And be honest with yourself
and honest with those who support you.

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But once you know what you want,

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understand why you want it.

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And even though it feels good,
revenge is not a good reason.

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(Laughter)

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Instead, make sure you want it

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because there's something
not that you should do,

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but something you must do.

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It has to be something
that doesn't allow you to sleep at night

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unless you're dreaming about it;

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something that wakes you up in the morning
and gets you excited about it;

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or something that makes you so angry,

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you know you have to do
something about it.

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But know why you're doing it.

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And know why it must be done.

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You've listened to women
from across this world

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talk about why things have to happen.

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But figure out what the "why" is for you,

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because jumping from
the "what" to the "do"

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is meaningless if you don't know why.

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Because when it gets hard,
when it gets tough,

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when your friends walk away from you,

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when your supporters forget you,

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when you don't win your first race --

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if you don't know why,
you can't try again.

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So, first know what you want.

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Second, know why you want it,

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but third, know how
you're going to get it done.

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I faced a few obstacles in this race.

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(Laughter)

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Just a few.

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But in the pursuit,

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I became the first black woman
to ever become the nominee for governor

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in the history of the United States
of America for a major party.

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(Cheers)

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(Applause)

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But more importantly, in this process,

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we turned out 1.2 million
African American voters in Georgia.

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That is more voters

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than voted on the Democratic side
of the ticket in 2014.

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(Applause)

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Our campaign tripled the number of Latinos

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who believed their voices mattered
in the state of Georgia.

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We tripled the number of Asian Americans

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who stood up and said,
"This is our state, too."

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Those are successes that tell me
how I can get it done.

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But they also let me understand
the obstacles aren't insurmountable.

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They're just a little high.

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But I also understand

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that there are three things
that always hold us hostage.

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The first is finances.

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Now, you may have heard,
I'm in a little bit of debt.

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If you didn't hear about it,
you did not go outside.

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(Laughter)

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And finances are something
that holds us back so often,

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our dreams are bounded
by how much we have in resources.

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But we hear again and again

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the stories of those who overcome
those resource challenges.

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But you can't overcome
something you don't talk about.

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And that's why I didn't allow them
to debt-shame me in my campaign.

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I didn't allow anyone to tell me
that my lack of opportunity

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was a reason to disqualify
me from running.

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And believe me, people tried
to tell me I shouldn't run.

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Friends told me not to run.

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Allies told me not to run.

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"USA Today" mentioned
maybe I shouldn't run.

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(Laughter)

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But no matter who it was,

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I understood that finances are often
a reason we don't let ourselves dream.

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I can't say that you will always
overcome those obstacles,

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but I will tell you,
you will be damned if you do not try.

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(Applause)

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The second is fear.

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And fear is real.

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It is paralyzing.

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It is terrifying.

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But it can also be energizing,

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because once you know
what you're afraid of,

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you can figure out how to get around it.

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And the third is fatigue.

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Sometimes you just get tired of trying.

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You get tired of reading
about processes and politics

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and the things that stop you
from getting where you want to be.

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Sometimes, fatigue means that we accept
position instead of power.

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We let someone give us a title
as a consolation prize,

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rather than realizing we know what we want
and we're going to get it,

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even if we're tired.

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That's why God created naps.

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(Laughter)

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But we also learn in those moments

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that fatigue is an opportunity
to evaluate how much we want it.

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Because if you are beaten down,

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if you have worked as hard as you can,

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if you have done everything
you said you should,

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and it still doesn't work out,

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fatigue can sap you of your energy.

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But that's why you go back
to the "why" of it.

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Because I know we have to have women
who speak for the voiceless.

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I know we have to have people
of good conscience

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who stand up against oppression.

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00:11:24,938 --> 00:11:26,684
I know we have to have people

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who understand that social justice
belongs to us all.

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00:11:30,423 --> 00:11:32,400
And that wakes me up every morning,

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00:11:32,424 --> 00:11:34,231
and that makes me fight even harder.

250
00:11:34,931 --> 00:11:39,200
Because I am moving forward,
knowing what is in my past.

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I know the obstacles they have for me.

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00:11:41,419 --> 00:11:43,029
I know what they're going to do,

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and I'm fairly certain they're energizing
and creating new obstacles now.

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00:11:47,046 --> 00:11:49,482
But they've got four years
to figure it out.

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00:11:49,506 --> 00:11:50,974
(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Maybe two.

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(Cheers)

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00:12:00,059 --> 00:12:02,879
(Applause)

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00:12:03,109 --> 00:12:04,433
But here's my point:

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I know what I want, and that is justice.

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00:12:07,823 --> 00:12:09,299
I know why I want it,

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because poverty is immoral,
and it is a stain on our nation.

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And I know how I'm going to get it:

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by moving forward every single day.

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Thank you so much.

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00:12:18,244 --> 00:12:20,704
(Cheers)

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(Applause)