Historic White House Gathering Celebrates Descendants of Civil Rights Icons

In a Black History Month event at the White House on Tuesday, Feb. 13, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the descendants of some of the most influential civil rights leaders from the 1950s and '60s, along with other foundational historical figures. The gathering marked the first time many of those families convened in the same room.

Prominent figures such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, Thomas Jefferson, and Sally Hemings were scheduled to attend.

Harris praised the descendants as "extraordinary American heroes...