“In many ways, he was the ancestor I was leaning on the most,” he says. “I realize that I stand on the shoulders of a generation who lived during the times of segregation and lynching and all kinds of shameful bigotry. They didn’t have a lot of power, they weren’t rich, they didn’t have elected positions, but they did something. My staff and I realized we had to do something different, we had to cause some trouble. As a sentaor, I have the right to speech, so I decided to just keep speaking. That was the origin of this.”
There was also a record on-hand to potentially break: In 1957, Senator Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act. Senator Booker beat his record by less than an hour.
“I never wanted to tell anybody or set the expectation that we were going to break that record,” he tells me. “We were very clear: We just wanted to go for as long as I could go. I physically knew I could do 10 hours or 15 hours. But I have been bothered since I got to the United States Senate by the fact that the longest filibuster in constitutional history was trying to block the very civil rights that gave me the opportunities I have had in my life. So I didn’t want to tell anybody but my staff, but I was going for that record.”
When Senator Booker finally left the floor, record broken, what he wanted most was a banana to get his potassium levels back up (and hopefully stop the terrible muscle cramps he was experiencing).
Looking back on it, he calls it “a journey.” “I felt this in my body in so many ways, but it was actually a journey of healing for my spirit. I was pushing myself beyond my own expectations, stepped out on faith, and confronted my own fears while leaning on the largest fears of this country.”
Senator Booker also hopes people will consider his filibuster a call to action. “Given the monumental challenges we’re facing as a country right now, I think all of us need to do a little soul searching and ask what more can we do in the cause of our country? If every one of us did just a little bit of extra good, we could overwhelm the world with a new spirit of kindness and strength. I hope there’s a momentum where one person will help one person, and they will pass it on. It sets a course of change beyond our expectations.”
While Senator Booker may still be in trouble with his Oura ring—your Readiness Score doesn’t lie!—it won’t hold him back. “While the body has its limitations, but there’s no limit on the human spirit,” he says.
