• June 9, 2020

•
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the Air Force’s chief of staff, elevating a
four-star general who is the first black man to hold the position and
who recently spoke out about his experience with racism in America.

Vice President Mike Pence made a rare appearance on the Senate floor
to preside over General Brown’s confirmation, which was approved by
a vote of 98 to 0, and President Trump celebrated it on Twitter. It
came a week after General Brown released a video in which he spoke
in starkly personal terms about his experience as a black man in
America, his unequal treatment in the armed forces and the protests
that have gripped the country after the killing of George Floyd in an
encounter with Minneapolis police officers.

“I’m thinking about how full I am with emotion not just for George
Floyd, but the many African-Americans that have suffered the same
fate as George Floyd,” General Brown said in the video, an unusually
public statement by a high-ranking military leader about a sensitive
and politically charged issue.

“I’m thinking about protests in my country ’tis of thee, sweet land of

liberty, the equality expressed in our Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution that I have sworn my adult life to support and defend.
I’m thinking about a history of racial issues and my own experiences
that didn’t always si