At least 30 protesters from Little Rock Peace for Palestine showed up in front of the Clinton Presidential Center on Thursday ready for Hillary Clinton and U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan to hear their message at an event for Women’s History Month.
The Clinton Presidential Center hosted a conversation between Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, and Shogan, the first woman to be appointed U.S. Archivist, to highlight the importance of preserving and understanding American history.
Shogan heads the National Archives and Records Administration as the nation’s chief records keeper. The NARA preserves some of the nation’s most historic documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It makes these records accessible to citizens as a fundamental right of democracy.
The archives hold 13.5 billion physical paper records and 30 billion original digital records, Shogan told the audience.
“We are an essential building block of democracy, the national archives,” she said. “Records are our basis for holding our government accountable and providing transparency. It is not a nice thing to have. It’s not something that should be an afterthought. It is a necessity, and if we don’t have accountability, if we don’t have transparency in our democracy, then we cannot have a democracy.”
Michelle Swope, one of the protesters, said after the event that, unfortunately, the U.S. government is “opaque, unaccountable and has horrifying voter suppression.”
Clinton acknowledged during the event that Arkansas was ranked as having the worst voter turnout in the U.S.
Clinton declined to answer any questions about the protests that had audience members turning their heads to look outside as chants of “$2.3 million dollars for what? 2.3 million lives!” and “Archive the blood on her hands!” could be heard inside the lecture hall.
The $2.3 million referenced funds Clinton received while a U.S. senator from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies from U.S. lawmakers and others.
The protesters
Swope said she and her husband Marcus visited Hebron in Palestine in 2016 and what they saw opened their eyes.
“We were both raised Christian Zionists, Christian Evangelicals, like a lot of people, and really had no idea, we were completely ignorant of what was going on,” Swope said. “Then October 7 happened and we got connected … and have been coming to the protests ever since.”
She was referring to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 Israeli citizens and foreigners. Since then, Israel has bombarded and attacked with ground forces the Palestinian territory of Gaza, displacing millions and killing about 30,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Swope said she hoped those entering the presidential center would see what she saw.
“I really want people to just see what’s truly happening, because that’s how they get away with this, is they make sure that people don’t know,” she added.
Marcus Swope said when he visited Hebron with an organization called Community Peacemaker Teams, they met with former Israeli Defense Force soldiers, Breaking the Silence members and Palestinian families.
He vividly remembered walking elementary students through military checkpoints and seeing a young Israeli soldier, “visibly shaken…very scared.”
“Later that same day, we heard a bunch of gunshots… She had accidentally discharged her weapon in the middle of elementary kids going to school.”
He said he hoped the protests can provide the same “nudge” for others to investigate and have a wake-up call.
Other protesters read aloud stories of journalists, mothers and children lost in the Israel Defense Force bombings over the last six months.
Cynthia Martinez, an organizer with the group, said it’s important to still be present at events like this after “six months of genocide.” Martinez emphasized that the lives lost are ”not just numbers.”
“They are human beings, each with a name and a story,” she said. “At the end of the day, our taxpayer money is funding this. It’s funding their death.”
At an event meant to highlight the importance of archiving U.S. history, democracy and women’s history, Martinez said she wanted those in attendance to be aware of the country’s impact on the rest of the world.
“Hillary Clinton has a really big platform,” she said. “And so let’s use it, let’s utilize it, let’s bring attention to what is happening.”
Martinez said she hoped that those attending the even would feel “uncomfortable.”
“I just want people to know that after so many months, after all this, we’re still going to keep fighting for a ceasefire, fighting for a free Palestine.”
The conversation
Inside the center, Clinton asked Shogan why it’s important for women to be in leadership positions such as hers.
“I would say it’s agenda setting,” she said. “Those decisions are made in the senior leadership meetings, and not necessarily the decisions but what we’re going to debate in the first place, what we’re going to decide upon that prioritization. So having women in that room is absolutely the first critical step.”
Shogan noted that eight women now sit on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and “that matters” because they will decide what they debate and legislate about.
Shogan said her team is working to emphasize access to archival records in person, online and in schools.
She added that test scores showed a dip in understanding American government, civic knowledge and history.
“We had a renaissance in this country 15, 20 years ago for STEM, education for science, technology, mathematics, and it worked,” Shogan said. “It brought test scores up, more kids got interested in those subjects…. We need that equivalent of that STEM push that we did, that needs to happen right now for civics and American history.”
Teachers also should be teaching students how to respectfully disagree with one another and still be productive, she added.
Clinton also asked Shogan how she sees the National Archives contributing to the documentation and understanding of diplomatic history, particularly in times of international tensions.
Shogan recalled when President Volodomyr Zelenskey visited from Ukraine to give a speech at the National Archives. He viewed a few historical documents, including a telegram from President Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant near the end of the civil war. President Lincoln told Grant to “fight like a bulldog” when pursuing the Confederate Army.
“That was such a powerful thing, that bulldog telegram, for President Zelenskey to see the actual copy,” Shogan said. “He was visibly moved by it and changed his speech and talked about it several times after that. So that’s an example of how our history can influence diplomatic history, international relations.”
Outside the hall, Ebrahim Abunasrah, a leader of Little Rock Peace for Palestine, said he hopes Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would one day be invited to the National Archives as well. Abbas has visited the United States several times, including meetings with President George W. Bush and President Donald Trump in 2003 and 2017, respectively.
Abunasrah noted that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, called out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government on Thursday for having “lost their way” in the six-month assault on Gaza.
“Politicians and the world, they’ve seen the videos, they know what’s going on,” Abunasrah said.
