NSS Weekly: Remembering the Hortmans, and the Enduring Legacy of Juneteenth in Minnesota

Transcript

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INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

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HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I'm Gracie J.

This week, we remember the political violence that shook the state last year. And we look at the history of one of the state's newest official holidays. But first, here are some of the stories that made headlines this week.

Bemidji city leaders say federal officials still haven't told them how many people were detained in the latest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operation in the northern part of the state. Mayor Jorge Prince says several contractors were taken into custody at the Vista North housing development. City police and Beltrami County deputies say they were not involved.

In related news, the U.S. Attorney's Office is charging 15 people with offenses related to obstructing federal immigration enforcement activities in Minnesota. According to federal prosecutors, the charges include conspiracy to impede federal officers, assault, threats, and destruction of government property. All 15 are affiliated with a group known as Direct Action Minnesota.

Community members and business owners around George Floyd Square in South Minneapolis won't get stuck with a special tax assessment to improve the area. The Minneapolis City Council rejected a special assessment for neighborhood improvements. Home and business owners were frustrated about a potential special increase in taxes for new streets, wider sidewalks, and memorial spaces. The project is expected to cost 15-million dollars. City Council Member Soren Stevenson, who represents the area, says the community has already suffered enough.

SOREN STEVENSON: This is a reconstruction project that is not like any other that has come before it and it is not like any other that will come after it.

HOST: The council now has to figure out where to find the 630-thousand dollars the special assessment would have generated.

Native child welfare protections will stay in place after the biggest challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act in decades. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected claims that the law unfairly favors Native families in foster care and adoption cases. Tribal advocates call it a major win for Native children, families, and sovereign nations.

After federal prosecutors said they would not pursue the death penalty, Vance Boelter has pleaded guilty to the political assassinations that shook Minnesota.

US ATTORNEY DANIEL ROSEN: Political violence is a scourge plaguing America in our times. The murders of Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman, shooting of Senator john Hoffman and Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman are among the worst political violence crimes that we have seen.

HOST: U.S Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen says his office made a deal not to seek the death penalty if Boelter agreed to plead guilty to six federal charges. Boelter will serve two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years for the federal charges.

While the federal case is wrapping up, the state's case against Boelter is just starting. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says her office is moving forward with state charges, including first-degree premeditated murder, attempted murder, and impersonating a police officer. Moriarty says she is working with federal prosecutors to transfer Boelter into state custody.

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This month marks one year since the murders of former Speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their dog Gilbert, and the attempted murder of Senator John Hoffman, his wife Yvette, and their daughter Hope. North Star Stories Daily aired a special series reflecting on the events that unfolded, the impact on their families and community, and the former Speaker's legacy.

North Star Stories' Xan Holston and Tracie Collier talked with lawmakers, colleagues, and friends about what happened that night in June of last year and where things stand now. Xan spoke with Representative Kristen Bonner. She and her family were out of town the night authorities say the confessed killer also showed up at her door.

REP KRISTiN BAHNER: I don't want to give him air, or my attention. He didn't give that respect to the people I loved. I'm going to put my energy into thinking about Mark and Melissa and the joy and the ways in which they shaped and changed the lives of everyone around them.

XAN HOLSTON: Representative Bahner was one of the lawmakers the assassin targeted that night, in the 90 minutes between shooting Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette and murdering Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their dog Gilbert. Investigators found notebooks with the names and personal information of more than 45 state and federal officials in the assassin's car. Representative Bahner says police told her that a killer had come to her home just minutes after she left.

REP KRISTIN BAHNER: I didn't want to believe it, but I knew. And I spent the next day mostly in a blur, worrying incessantly about the children.

XAN HOLSTON: Court records say it started around 2 a. m. at Senator Hoffman's home in Champlin. The confessed assassin arrived in what looked like a police car, disguised as an officer, shooting the Hoffmans multiple times. The Hoffman's daughter, Hope, called 9-1-1 at 2:05 a.m. By 2:20, the gunman was in Maple Grove at Representative Bahner's home, but she and her family were gone. Around 2:36, a New Hope officer doing a welfare check on Senator Ann Rest saw the shooter parked in what turned out to be a fake police car. U. S. Attorney Joe Thompson says the officer thought he was law enforcement and tried to talk to him, but Thompson says—

U. S. ATTORNEY JOE THOMPSON: According to the officer, he just sat there and stared straight ahead.

XAN HOLSTON: The officer went to check on Senator Rest, and by the time more officers arrived, the killer had left. Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Brooklyn Park police arrived at the Hortmans. Officers saw the gunman shoot Mark Hortman, then run inside the home, where he killed Melissa Hortman and their dog. Police waited outside the Hortman home for nearly 90 minutes before entering. The police actions outside the Hortmans' home is now the focus of an internal investigation. Police departments around the state attempted to work with Capitol and state police to contact and warn other lawmakers but there was no system in place to do so.

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HOST: One year after the assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, we remember not the gunman, but what the violence could not erase. Her friends and colleagues reflect on who she was and the work she left behind.

REP KRISTIN BAHNER: What would Melissa do? And what I know is she would not want us to quit.

XAN HOLSTON: Governor Tim Walz proclaimed June public service month, with a special emphasis on the 14th, asking Minnesotans to honor the Hortman's legacy through service and kindness, volunteering, and committing to civic engagement. For many lawmakers at the Capitol, losing Hortman was not only the loss of a former speaker, but the loss of a mentor and friend, and the person many of them still look to when they ask what public service is supposed to be. North Star Stories spoke with three of her colleagues and friends about what people need to know about who she was, what she built, and what she leaves behind.

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REP GINNY KLEVORN: Ginny Klevorn.I am the state representative for Plymouth and Medicine Lake. The first thing that comes to mind is that Melissa was a real person. There's so much more, so much more she would have done. And to know that her bright light was extinguished in such a violent way to the detriment of so many people. You know, her family, her friends, but mostly people who never met her that she worked for every day. It's such a tremendous loss for our state. Such a tremendous loss. But she would say to us, don't dwell, get to work. And that's what we've done. We've gotten to work.

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REP KRISTIN BAHNER: This is State Representative Kristin Bahner representing Maple Grove District 37B. I know that her family was so, so important to her. She was so proud of Sophie and Colin, the way she spoke about them. She was so proud of Mark and she would be the first to tell you that the road isn't always easy, but I know how grateful she was for having him as her cheerleader by her side. You know, I'm just so grateful that all of those things, that her family, that Gilbert was by her, that she had good friends around her. Not everybody in life gets those blessings and I'm grateful she had them.

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REP KELLY MOLLER: I'm Representative Kelly Moller and I represent Arden Hills, Moundsview, New Brighton, and Shoreview. I'm co-chair of the Public Safety Committee. The way she was able to encourage us and see leadership skills in individuals in ways that we didn't see in ourselves. From a personal standpoint, she was always interested in what was going on with our families and our kids. She loved cross-country skiing. She loved margaritas. She liked Cheetos. She really liked disco music. She liked ABBA songs. She loved trees and the color green. And, you know, she was a real human. She was a leader. But at the end of the day, she was a human being like all elected officials are. And I guess I hope people don't forget about the humanity of those who represent them.

XAN HOLSTON: Melissa and Mark Hortman are survived by their children, Sophie and Colin. After their parents were killed, Sophie and Colin shared a list of simple ways people could honor them. That includes planting a tree, visiting a park or bike trail, petting a dog, especially a golden retriever. They also suggest baking something to share, cake for Melissa and bread for Mark. And the list also encourages people to try a new hobby and stand up for justice and peace. For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

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HOST: The events of last year not only affected the victims' families and Minnesotans in general but also carried a legacy of changes, including changes in government and lawmaker security, new security protocols, and changes in state laws designed to prevent future tragedies. North Star Stories' Tracy Collier continues our special coverage with the steps Minnesota lawmakers are taking to prevent future violence.

REP GINNY KLEVORN: It was the dark of night. It was 4 o'clock in the morning.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: Representative Ginny Klevorn was sleeping at home in Plymouth when the police chief called her directly. There was no central communications emergency system to warn all lawmakers at the same time.

REP GINNY KLEVORN: We were being told that we needed to immediately evacuate our home.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: The political assassinations, shootings, and stalkings on June 14, 2025, exposed two different kinds of vulnerability for lawmakers. First, the blind trust commanded by a police uniform, and the lack of security measures and emergency communication systems for Minnesota lawmakers. Multiple hours after the first shootings of Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at 2 a.m., and the start of what would become the largest manhunt in Minnesota history, many lawmakers were still completely unaware an assassin was going to lawmakers' homes.

REP GINNY KLEVORN: Evidently, there was a list in his car. So people who were on that immediate list received calls to kind of get us to safety right away.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: Representative Kelly Moller, a former prosecutor and co-chair of the House Public Safety Committee, says before that day, capital security conversations focused primarily on the Capitol complex. But out of the tragedy, new security discussions evolved.

REP KELLY MOELLER: How do we make sure that we're all getting notified if something happens, both inside the walls of the Capitol complex, but then outside? And what kind of relationships do people have with their local law enforcement?

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: Moller says the new package of security measures and laws looks at more than the Capitol building, including lawmakers' homes, town halls, online threats, and real-time warnings, making it safer for everyone who works at or visits the Capitol.

REP KELLY MOLLER: Some of it was physical security, including extending the kind of the temporary weapon detections that we had.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: Legislators also passed new laws designed to protect all Minnesotans, strengthening penalties for impersonating a peace officer and making it harder to do so. Police used chemical irritants to try and force the gunman from the Hortman home, but the chemicals left the home uninhabitable for months. The Hortmans' son, Colin, helped champion a new law requiring law enforcement to disclose when they use chemical irritants. And another new law limits homeowners' insurance exclusions when property is damaged by police. Representative Moller says Colin wanted to prevent other people from facing a similar situation.

REP KELLY MOLLER: Colin was worried about victims who would just say, we'll just clean my carpets, I have to get back in there, right? Like, I need a place to live, and would just agree to, like, a quick cleanup that isn't healthy.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: These laws do not change what happened that morning. No set of security measures can stop every act of violence. But lawmakers who were targeted, warned, or forced to run from their homes say their work now is to make the next family safer, like their mentor and friend, Speaker Melissa Hortman, would do.

REP GINNY KLEVORN: I just want us to really bring honor to Melissa and not focus on the violence. She had so much more to offer. And I really don't want her to be defined by the violence that occurred to her.

TRACIE WELLS COLLIER: For North Star Stories, I'm Tracy Collier.

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HOST: As the state remembers last year's events, the legacy of the former House Speaker and the other victims of political violence will shape Minnesota for years to come. You can listen to the full special on the North Star Stories Daily podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

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HOST: After the break, we take a look at what many around the nation consider the second day of independence.
This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS with support from the State of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

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HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Gracie J.

Just three years ago, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed legislation making Juneteenth an official state holiday. Each June, communities across the state come together to mark the day with events and celebrations. Reporter Jose Ozoria explores the significance of Juneteenth and what it means to people today.

JOSE OZORIA: Juneteenth traces its roots to June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, Juneteenth serves as both a remembrance of that moment and a celebration of the progress, resilience, and contributions of Black communities across the country. Here in Minnesota, the Northside Juneteenth celebration has become one of the state's premier Juneteenth events.

KARISSA MARIEE: Community and celebration and joy and family and fun. It's like a time of letting all the stress of the day go and just being together with community and family.

JOSE OZORIA: Karissa Mariee is a co-founder of the Northside Juneteenth celebration. She describes the significance and the sense of community that is a major part of the holiday celebration. Ms. Marie sees the Juneteenth gatherings as representing more than just a celebration.

KARISSA MARIEE: It gives people a platform to connect with each other, like a lot of, a lot of networking happens at the Juneteenth events, where someone from the community may walk away knowing someone else and being able to utilize their services or business.

JOSE OZORIA: Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday in 2021 and Minnesota officially recognized it as a state holiday for the first time in 2023. This year, communities throughout Minnesota continue to acknowledge the significance and importance of the day.

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JOSE OZORIA: The Minnesota Humanities Center is hosting a series of events to commemorate the holiday. Kevin Lindsey, CEO of Minnesota's Humanities Center, says that Juneteenth celebrations reflect themes of democracy.

KEVIN LINDSEY: It is known as the second Independence Day, and when we think about the importance of the high ideals articulated within the Declaration of Independence, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, in order to really judge and assess how well we're doing, it's important for us to take a look at how we're doing on that promise to all of our citizens.

JOSE OZORIA: The Humanities Center has made Juneteenth celebration a centerpiece of community engagement every year with various speakers and themed events.

KEVIN LINDSEY: I feel like we've been very fortunate and blessed, actually, to the wide range of speakers that we have had throughout the years. This year's speaker, Clint Smith, kind of continues on in that tradition.

JOSE OZORIA: As with the Minnesota Humanities Center, Minneapolis' Northside Juneteenth celebrations are about more than just history. Shemeka Bogan, co-founder of the Northside Juneteenth event, says that their celebrations highlight the creativity, entrepreneurship, and cultural richness of North Minneapolis. One of those events is the community movie night.

SHEMEKA BOGAN: This is something we've done for a couple of years, just an all-around good time for people to come out and have some safe indoor fun to do.

JOSE OZORIA: For Ms. Bogan, music, food, art, and dancing are ways to engage young people and teach them about the history that came before them.

SHEMEKA BOGAN: We really try to bridge the gap, so having like youth interns or people that shadow us, kind of for that weekend, and are able to help not only with what we're doing, but also like activating space of their own. We also have like youth vendors that participate sometimes. We have a lot of youth groups that do, you know, music and spoken word and things like that, but we do have a big focus of trying to make sure that youth are at the table.

JOSE OZORIA: For Kevin Lindsey of the Minnesota Humanity Center, it's critical to honor the work of those who laid the groundwork for sustainable communities today.

KEVIN LINDSEY: People appreciated the fact that we highlighted how many people who were formerly enslaved decided to start school, start banks, start businesses, became model citizens. We don't hear that story without a lot of history books.

JOSE OZORIA: And for Karissa Mariee, co-founder of the Northside Juneteenth celebration, there's still room to grow.

KARISSA MARIEE: I'd like to see a way bigger celebration, and maybe more partnership, because I feel like there are a thousand Juneteenth events that take place every year. It seems like more and more are happening, and that's great, but they're all so spread out and so like individualized would be great if we could make one or two or maybe three-way bigger events as a collaborative effort amongst all the organizations that put these events on.

JOSE OZORIA: Minnesota's Juneteenth events this year have already started. Look for local events around your area. For North Star Stories, I'm Jose Ozoria.

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HOST: The influence of African American culture is documented back to the very beginning of the nation. In Minnesota, the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life at the University of Minnesota includes more than 10,000 books, magazines, and pamphlets by and about African Americans, spanning nearly 250 years of American history. To learn more about the collection and the significance of Juneteenth, we're joined now by Dr. Davu Underwood Seru, Curator of the Givens Collection and co-author of Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities Through the Lens of Charles Chamblis, a finalist for the 2017 Minnesota Book Award. He is also an improvising musician and composer, best known for his work on drums, and has received the McKnight Composer Award, among other honors. Thank you so much for joining us.

DAVU UNDERWOOD SERU: It's my honor. Thank you.

HOST: What do you hope listeners take away from Juneteenth today? That it's more than just getting a day off of work?

DAVU UNDERWOOD SERU: It certainly is more than just getting a day off of work, and it ought to be something that we reflect on more than just one day. So I think that it's in the name Juneteenth, which is like saying June-ish. There's a lesson that we not fix historical events at one point. We think movement, we think process, we think difference, we think inequality, even among black folk, and that freedom comes and will come at a slower pace for some than the rest of us. And so, Juneteenth, though, I think, is a moment to reflect on what the freedom shall go in this country, because you know we talk about 250 years of the country having declared itself, of the patriots having declared themselves independent from the king. Three years before that, Phyllis Wheatley becomes the first African American to publish a book of literature. So, to us, literary folk, Black study folk, this freedom tradition, in letters at least, begins before the Declaration of Independence. What I'm trying to do is to decenter this sort of moment, so that we might be able to think more broadly historically and about this process that is still unfolding as we try to become a democracy, and so, and these states try to become united.

HOST: Elaborate more on that. How has the meaning of Juneteenth changed over time?

DAVU UNDERWOOD SERU: Well, just like Black History Month was Negro History Week, informally, which again we celebrate the centennial of this year, 1926 Carter G. Woodson, Negro History Week. Juneteenth has been a more centralized event on the North Side and the South Side, to becoming sort of recognized nationally, and sort of now it's diffuse, you know, it's spread out all over the place, which I think is a good thing. This sort of decentralized celebration is finding opportunities where we are to pause and remember, and to reflect on what freedom means. I purposefully count Jazz Fest as a way, another way to celebrate Juneteenth, as we think about again black folk in this country's cultural contribution to American popular culture, one which is, as we know global. Jazz Fest during Juneteenth is a great opportunity to sort of remind people of the legacy, to remind people of the freedom struggle, because the music is a part of that.

HOST: Davu, you are the curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life at the University of Minnesota. What can the Givens Collection tell us about Black life and history in Minnesota?

DAVU UNDERWOOD SERU: The Givens Collection was founded 40, now 41 years ago, here at the University of Minnesota Libraries, by a coalition of forces that include enterprising black families in the community, like the Beltons and the Estes and the Givens family, especially, but also my teacher, one of the founders of the African American Studies department, Dr. John S. Wright. And non-Black folk here at the university and in the community who saw the value of bringing a rare book collection and archival collection to the university. What they may or may not have known as they were taking up work that African American community in Minnesota has been doing since the 19th century, there was a group called the Golden Key Club. They would meet in the Twin Cities periodically and stage events like they did on January of 1865, when they celebrated the second anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Five months later, Juneteenth happens, but this is an African American community that was a literary group. They brought Frederick Douglass to Winona and Saint Paul in the 1860s to speak. They would meet around literature, and they would do work like commemorating historical events of great importance. African Americans in Minnesota, since the 19th century, have been conscious, have been proud, have participated in the freedom struggle. Literature has been at the center of that. Groups like the Robert Banks Literary Society and other early 20th century, late 19th, early 20th century group that would meet in Rondo, in this case, around literature, would publish literature to determine whether or not it was injurious, potentially injurious to the reader. What that means is before the new Negro Renaissance of the Jazz Age, the so-called Harlem Renaissance, most of what was published about us, most of what was recorded about Black life in this country was produced by nefarious characters who were not sympathetic to the lives of Black people, but folk who would render us, reduce us, our lives, to stereotypes to serve, you know, their own chauvinism. And so I'm connecting intentionally, wanting to connect the work of this patron circle and the founders of the Givens Collection to work like the Robert Banks Literary Society and the Golden Key Club, these works from the 19th and early 20th century, these groups working to document, to celebrate, to preserve for the country's education.

HOST: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me, Davu. And happy Juneteenth.

DAVU UNDERWOOD SERU: Happy Juneteenth.

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HOST: And, Minnesota is mourning the loss of a long-time sports journalist and mentor. Larry Fitzgerald Senior died earlier this month. Fitzgerald spent more than 45 years at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, covering sports, mentoring journalists, and pushing for black athletes and coaches to get the coverage they deserved.

[KMOJ-FM audio of Larry Fitzgerald: "Larry Fitzgerald reminding you that the best things in life are waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone, an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."]

HOST: Fitzgerald was also the father of the Arizona Cardinals football great Larry Fitzgerald Junior, who will be inducted into the FPro football Hall of fame later this month. Larry Fitzgerald was 71.

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This is it for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org or listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also get North Star Stories daily on our website or check your favorite station's schedule. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.