Democratic candidates debate in Detroit Michigan, July 30-31, 2019: on Civil Rights

Kirsten Gillibrand: They said repealing DADT was impossible, so I did it

Beating Donald Trump definitely not impossible. We need a nominee who doesn't know the meaning of impossible.

Beto O`Rourke: Legacy of slavery is alive and well: we need reparations

O'ROURKE: I want to acknowledge something what we're all touching on, which is the very foundation of this country, the wealth that we have built, was literally on the backs of those who were kidnapped and brought here by force. The legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow and suppression is alive and well in every aspect of the economy and in the country. As president, I will sign into law a new Voting Rights Act. I will focus on education, address health care disparities, but I will also sign into law Sheila Jackson Lee's reparations bill so that we can have the national conversation we've waited too long in this country to have.

Beto O`Rourke: We don't just tolerate our differences, we embrace them

O'ROURKE: We'll call his racism out for what it is, and also talk about its consequences. It is changing this country. Hate crimes are in the rise--every single one of the last three years. We must ensure that we don't just tolerate or respect our differences, but we embrace them. That's what we've learned in El Paso, my hometown. One of the safest cities in the US, not despite, but because it's a city of immigrants & asylum seekers & refugees.

Elizabeth Warren: White supremacist racism is domestic terrorism

WARREN: We need to call out white supremacy for what it is: domestic terrorism. And it poses a threat to the United States of America. We live in a country now where the president is advancing environmental racism, economic racism, criminal justice racism, health care racism. The way we do better is to fight back and show something better.

Marianne Williamson: Reparations is a debt that is owed, not financial assistance

WILLIAMSON: It's not $500 billion in financial assistance. It's $500 billion payment of a debt that is owed. That is what reparations is. We need to recognize that when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in America, it does come from a great injustice: 250 years of slavery followed by another hundred years of domestic terrorism.

Q: What makes you qualified to determine the figure $500 billion?

WILLIAMSON: There were 4 million slaves at the end of the Civil War, and they were all promised 40 acres and a mule for every family of four. If you did the math today, it would be trillions of dollars. Anything less than $100 billion is an insult. I believe that $200 billion to $500 billion is politically feasible today, because so many Americans realize there is an injustice that only reparations will heal

Pete Buttigieg: Systemic racism has touched every part of American life