thank you I'm Cherylin Eiffel I'm president and director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which is the nation's oldest civil rights legal organization founded in 1940 by Thurgood Marshall. This meeting was called by the President, it was an opportunity to talk about this emergency that my colleagues have described, I use the opportunity to talk about the history, civil rights legislation in this country, of the Supreme Court's role in often eroding civil rights statutes, dating back to the 19th century dating back to the 1875 Civil Rights Act and the civil rights cases dating back to Plessy versus Ferguson, dating back to mobiel versus Bolden, the voting rights case in 1980 that Congress had to overturn in 1982 with the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. And then of course, Shelby County versus holder and last week's decision in the Burnham edge case, we are at, again, such a moment. We are litigating at the Legal Defense Fund in Georgia, challenging their voter suppression law, we're challenging Florida's voter suppression law but I told the President, we will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to black citizenship voting and political participation, we need legislation to be passed in Congress, both HR one and HR four I articulated our commitment to both of those pieces of legislation, we need tools in our hand, the Supreme Court took away the tool of Section Five preclearance in 2013 last week they eroded the strength of the tool of section to litigation, and states like Georgia and Florida. And even today, Texas, are eroding the tools that we have in our hands at the state level, bypassing this voter suppression laws. What we said what we emphasize to the President, is that our backs are against the wall. This is the moment, there is no more time, We must have legislation, we must have the president use his voice, use his influence use his power and use what he clearly understands about this moment, and that was one of the encouraging things about this conversation was that the President understands us to be in a moment of peril in terms of our democracy. And that means that we have to put all the options on the table, figure out what can work, keep talking. Keep pressing and move forward. And I thought the conversation was positive in that sense we will we're going to continue talking over the summer, as we've heard from my colleagues through a number of elements of activism that are going to be happening around the country, we are going to be in the courts, continuing to litigate these cases we're going to litigate them smart, we understand the challenges that we're facing, but we are not going to turn away from challenging these state laws, we're not going to turn away from fighting tooth and nail for the right of every black person in this country to participate equally in the political process to have their vote cast to have their vote count to have their vote added to the tally. Those are the words in the voting rights that we understand and the approach, July 17 The blood sweat and tears that went into the passage of the Voting Rights Act because we're coming up on the one year anniversary of John Lewis's death, we're coming up on the one year anniversary of the death of CT video. These are people who sacrifice for that piece of legislation to ensure black citizenship. And so it was important for us to convey the sense of personal result that each of us have to demanding that real change happen at this moment and to distressing to the President that we see this moment as one that cannot be turned away from and we're all options have to be on the table. And so I'm thrilled to introduce Wade Henderson, who's the interim president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Political Rights.