“I’m like a mother here” – FBC News

(Source: AP)

“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. “I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said at a campaign rally for Kamala Harris.

“A mother who cares deeply about the world that my children and all our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we are not separated,” she said Friday night in Houston.

“Imagine our daughters growing up and seeing what is possible without ceilings or restrictions,” she continued. “We have to vote, and we need you.”

At the end, Beyoncé, joined on stage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, introduced Harris. “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a loud, Texan welcome to the next President of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said.

She did not speak – unlike in 2016, when she spoke at a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign rally in Cleveland.

Houston is Beyoncé’s hometown, and Harris’ presidential campaign took as its anthem the 2016 Beyoncé track “Freedom,” a sample from her landmark 2016 album “Lemonade.”

Harris first used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.

Beyoncé gave Harris permission to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.

On the second half of “Lemonade,” “Freedom” samples two field recordings by John and Alan Lomax, which document Jim Crow-era folk spirituals in Southern black churches and the work songs of black prisoners in 1959 and 1948, respectively. It also features Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar.

Kinitra D. Brooks, scholar and author of The Lemonade Reader, says the song “Freedom” is important because it shows that freedom is not free. Freedom to be yourself, political freedom… it’s the idea that you have to fight for freedom and that you can win it.”