again, the police began making arrests. the same buses that passport the children to segregated schools were now being used to haul them to segregated prison. before the day was over, almost 1000 children were in jail. a day later, another 1000 children joined the march. this time, the authorities resulted -- attacked by police dogs. at last on may 10, 1963, under protection from the federal government and from outraged world opinion, the leaders of birmingham accepted the demands of the freedom marchers. ..

with the president to announce plans for the march on washington. in support of the civil rights act. >> june 12th, 1963 as everest was returning home for the naacp meeting member byron shot him in his driveway as he was getting out of his car. evers was killed instantly.

♪ ♪ >> randolph and fellow americans , the national urban league is honored to be a participant in this historic occasion. our presence here reflects not only the civil rights communities increasing the awareness of the urban league, but most important it says and i hope what and clear that while intelligence, maturity and

strategy dictates a civil rights agency we use different methods and we are all united as never before on the goal of first class citizenship. >> to present to you the moral leader of the nation. i have the pleasure to present to you dr. martin luther king. [applause] i am happy to join with you today what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [applause] five years ago, a great american

in the shadow we stand today signed the emancipation proclamation. this momentous and decree came as the first light of hope who have been in the flames of withering and justice. it came as the daybreak to end the long nights of their captivity. but 100 years later, the negro still is not free. >> we will be able to transform the course of the nation into a beautiful symphony of

brotherhood. we will be able to work together come to pray together and struggle together, go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together knowing that we will be free one day. this will be the day we will be able to sing with new meaning my country to is of the tuthill sweet land of liberty for my father died on the pilgrims side. let freedom ring and if america is to be a great nation this must become true so let freedom ring let freedom ring. from the mighty mountain to new york let freedom ring from pennsylvania.

not only that but let freedom ring from the resort. let freedom ring from the lookout mountain of tennessee. let freedom ring from every hill of mississippi and from every mountainside. let freedom ring, and when it happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and from every state and every city we will be able to speed up the day that all of us black men and white men choose power and we will be able to join hands and sing in the old spirit of free

at last, free at last. thank god almighty we are free at last. [applause] >> on a sunday morning in september of 1963, for young black girls attended sunday school at the 16th st. storch church. the bible lesson was a love that for dallas. the girl moved to the basement when suddenly an always went through the church like a cannon. the bomb planted near the basement went through the house of worship. they toppled a gruesome discovery. sandia, age 14, carroll robertson, age 14.

addy mae colins and denise age 11 all were found dead, their bodies buried atop one another. >> it's great to be visible all through dallas. >> it will only be a matter of minutes before he arrives at the turnpike. >> they got in the newsroom and as perhaps you know now for the life of president kennedy he was wounded in an automobile driving into the downtown dallas along with the governor of texas. they have been taken to the hospital where their condition as yet unknown.

we haven't been told their condition at dallas and a downtown hotel room a group has been gathered to hear president kennedy awaiting his arrival. let's head down there now where we are on the air. >> as you can imagine there are many stories that are coming in to the actual condition of the president. one is that he is dead. this cannot be confirmed. another is that the governor is in the operating room. this we have not confirmed. the president was whisked from the scene of the attempted assassination or assassination, depending upon his condition this hour to the hospital, and the president undoubtedly in the emergency room at the hospital would be on the first floor of the apartment. we are awaiting something more officials that is of course difficult certainly to go on the

reports back at the cbs newsroom in new york. we have just been advised of dallas the diffusions are being governed to president kennedy. let us recall for you now what has transpired. >> that is the repeat of something that you heard reported to you a moment ago from krld television in dallas and that is the rumor that has reached them at the hotel that the president is dead. unconfirmed apparently has yet. however, let's go back to krld and dallas. vice president lyndon johnson hasn't been seen in the corridors of the heartland hospital. he was said to have perhaps been slightly wounded in the arm. mrs. lyndon johnson says that the vice president of the zero is fine. throughout the streets of

dallas, the dallas police have been augmented by some 400 policemen on their day off because there are fears and concerns in dallas. that could embarrass the president. october 21st the ambassador of the united nations adamle stevenson was a salted in dallas leaving a dinner meeting. from dallas, texas, the official president kennedy died 1 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time some 38 minutes ago. the vice president johnson has left the hospital in dallas but we do not know where he has proceeded. presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and

become the 36th president of the united states. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. excuse the fact i'm out of breath. from all indications at this point of time in the city of dallas let me quote to you this. you will excuse me if i'm out of breath. this is from dallas. president kennedy has been cut down by assassins bullets in downtown dallas. they are writing an automobile in the shots were fired. the president has been carried in the arms of his wife and rushed to the hospital.

>> [inaudible conversations] ♪

♪ ♪ >> we have a special treat for you now. she came in and we had to get her on stage. if you please welcome again. she has the name and face that you know well that it is always a treat to see her. one of my fellow folks is here with us. please welcome the ceo of the king center, bernice.

>> good afternoon, everybody. i know it's late and i have two minutes they told me. but i first want to thank the national urban league for the tremendous work that they have been doing over a century. and we could not have made its had not been for the urban league. so i want to thank them to the time honored to be here this afternoon a part of the coalition that has been planning the 50th anniversary celebration. and i wanted to just say something that i say quite often when we look at the convergence of so many things that happened this year the mirror that happened in 63 and in many respects it makes some of us feel like we have been setbacks

it may be true but it may not be true as well. it could be a tremendous opportunity in a set up for us to really organize and mobilize and really create the momentum that happened in 63. but my mother had a quote where she set struggle is a never-ending process. freedom is never really run. the u.n. it in every generation. this generation of time has been generously close to not getting their contribution to the freedom struggle. we have a wonderful opportunity during the 50th anniversary celebration to galvanize people around the work that has already been done and the speech even that my father spoke in 63. wednesday august 28th as we culminate everything i want to make sure that you all know that we are going to be at the

lincoln memorial. if you remember historical president kennedy didn't come to the march on washington. in fact the city was shut down and people were on pins and needles and he was ready possibly to send the troops in and of course that never happened because we did operate on a how your plan with dignity as we continue to do to address all of the pressing issues that have been addressed today during the summit. but august 20 if not only are we going to have the president of the united states of america but we are going to have three presidents who will be joining us at the lincoln memorial. president clinton and carter will join president obama and so many other international dignitaries and celebrities and leaders of the legacy organizations and other leaders of organizations as well that will be used throughout the program because if anything we must always included the next generation not on the peripheral

the next generation must be a significant part of everything that we do because the movement could not have happened had not been for use and so they are going to carry us forward as we provide the wisdom and guidance. god bless you. thank you. we look forward to seeing you the rest of this week as we let freedom ring. people are going to pause and literally ring the bell because we want to create an energy field of consciousness so that these pressing issues can really be addressed by us as citizens not just america that citizens of the world. and god bless you and we will see you throughout the rest of this week.

we got the chairs out here folks i've certainly spend some time with working around this country in the business and even such as this so it's good to reunite with them and excited that you were all going to be allowed to connect with them right now and hear from them. let me start by introducing a young lady that works hard because she's the director of the national action at work and you can only imagine the work that she does. please welcome tamika. [applause] >> up next and forgive me i'm trying to go in the proper order but forgive me. in the order let me welcome now the co-founder of the impact, the director and co-founder of impact as the record of the congressional black caucus.

[applause] up next president of the national urban league young professionals, randy richard. [applause] >> up next, young man, not that he's an old man, but he has been engaged and involved for quite some time. he will know his name well the public sector and entrepreneur. also a young man who has counseled me and has given the kind of a navigate in the treacherous waters of the business that we are both in but is also certainly an activist and very active founder. please welcome mr. jeff johnson.

you will understand why in just a second. we have some time to spend with him in philadelphia at the last gathering of the last urban league. but he is the president of the hip-hop caucus welcome to the stage. moscow finally let me welcome a member of congress who was elected in 2012 and you can imagine the stories that he has to tell about being up on capitol hill. but he represents the district of the congressman stephen.

i'm going to get out of the way and come down here and talk with you guys so they don't have to keep turning and looking at me. they can look out here at us. are you open for some questions to? just whisper in my year when you hear it. but everybody has time -- we are giving everybody two minutes for the remarks. but the time is working well for us today, don't you think? we are going to start with you here. everybody's going to get a chance to remark. >> first and foremost i want to thank everybody for coming out and in commemoration of this 50 year anniversary the continuation of fighting for civil rights in this country and the civil rights that we are still fighting for include equity and education for every child. the access to a good sustaining family sustaining job for every

individual. access to affordable housing and quality health care and these are the civil rights issues that we are still fighting for and we know that this proportionately african-american and people of color do not have access to the basic fundamental civil rights and putting and have the votes protected. i come from about i and my district covers 52,000 square niles that is the size of alabama from the city of las vegas to the local communities and the people in my district struggle with these basic fundamental civil rights. as a member of congress i'm very honored to be here to continue the legacy that other congressional members to the congressional black caucus have fought for every single day and i am pleased to be part of this

panel and to hear the questions that you have. i just wanted you to know when he gets off stage. >> they are happening now on the exchange council and it is an organization that puts forth in a very sophisticated matter a lot of the issues that starve regarding the voting requirement walls engaging in the voter i.d. bills and a myriad of things. the political entities have become much more sophisticated. it is and just simply where marching is very important for us to come together.

we also know that we must cite earlier from the street to this week. so we are marching and a lot of our friends from the freedom defenders were marching so i will be going there. i want to say that as we approach this march, and i'm so appreciative of the leadership to deal with the national action network and others and all the other organizations. we are not trying to recreate a march that happened 50 years ago. but the goal is to maintain the justice that was created because of the march that happened 50 years ago. and i think that is very different. and i want to say this before because i have the stage of my colleagues who are appeared. as the generation those of us that are born in the 60's and

70's and 80's and 90's. i was talking to stephanie brown and with the urban league offstage. i really admire and love my generation working. i've been able to work with them and see them. i'm telling you from the standpoint of coming together as humans definitely on the stage but black, white, brown, yellow, male, female, straight, gay. as organizers what i'm really excited about is that we haven't taken some of the habits of those before so we are not quite cynical and we are still believing in the power of people

and i pray thee almighty will continue our love for each other and at the devotee to love them unconditionally because it is truly our people who are dying. [applause] so i just want to tell my colleagues appear i know they think i am a hip-hop by and they let me be who i am. they let me do that. but i want to thank them and i know i have to leave now. but i am thankful to be here. thank you to the urban league and all of you for organizing this. i'm excited about the panel and the questions you have so i would yield the balance of my time to the rest of the group. >> i'm going to give it to this end. he and i would remind the audience we did set up a couple microphones.

you'll get the chance to ask your own questions. if you have ideas and shot them down and in just a second you have a chance to ask a question. go ahead. >> my name is tamika time the director of the national action network. reverend al sharpton is the president and founder. and right now we are all gearing up for the march tomorrow and we will be joined at the lincoln memorial in the morning. the reality is, brothers and sisters, we know we are coming here to commemorate 50 years ago. but we have work that has to be done to secure the future of our people for the next 50 years. we are gathering in unity tomorrow morning so that we can start the flame and get ready to go back to our communities and do the work that is necessary for the next 50 years and i think it's important that we be there. a lot of us like to sit around and complain and talk about our issues but when it's time to stand together many of us are missing from the conversation

and tomorrow is an opportunity for us to show in large numbers that we are unhappy with some of what we have seen happening and that we are ready again to go back and take our communities back and do the work that is necessary. so i hope that all of you will join us. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is angela, co-founder and director with impact, non-profit based here in d.c.. thank you so much for spending your afternoon with us. the one thing i would like to see based on something that my sister just said is this march. tomorrow we are gathering to demonstrate our community behind the issues, behind these injustices we have been facing for years since before the 50 years ago where the 1963 march took place on washington. ..

section 5 now has no teeth. have been more bills introduced that are voter i.d. based and voter suppression based. we have to be aware. we have to be awake. we have to continue the fight. tomorrow is just the beginning. please don't go home from tomorrow's march and put away the signs and retire from the movement. it must continue. [applause] >> brandi, before i let you

speak here, i'm told, where is congresswoman sheila jackson-lee? where is she? hey, sister, how are you doing. the congresswoman, we just mentioned texas. how are you, sister? how are you? introduce herself. you know what? they just mentioned texas. what is going on in texas? >> texas is challenging. first of all, let me mind my manners, to thank all of you. i have occasion to engage in everyone. let me say the last sentence was vital. the movement must continue. and as i left texas several things are happening. one, the voter i.d. law was implemented within minutes of supreme court declaring that section 5 was invalid but even more importantly, the headline yesterday was a small town by the name of pasadena, whose mayor indicated, before the unconstitutional ruling, that he had a plan. he didn't like single-member

districts which give access to many of emerging diverse populations in pasadena. he has a plan to go back to the at-large. the said now i can do it, because there is no permission i need get. there are many things, "stand your ground" laws, and an article in the edmund paper in oklahoma said the bill that jackson-lee has is promote criminals law. i have a bill that wants to review the "stand your ground" law. i believe we can engauge. i believe there are good people, all races, color, creed and background. i think this is clarion call for dialogue but it is also a clarion call for action and it is not a clarion call for resting or waiting or stepping back and i am delighted to be here with you and i will be marching tomorrow. >> good to see you. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. [applause] and with that, please, go right ahead. >> brandi richard, national

urban league young professionals president. [applause] i have the honor to hail from the state of texas, newly, new transplant to d.c. no you extremely well and your work in texas. it is critical, i represent over 5,000 members across the country this about 64 chapters of young professionals who have decided to step up to the civil rights agenda that our forbearers gave to us, right? they have been doing this work prior to the march. we've been around almost 15 years at this point. so we have a adopted in our planning and our strategy around our future in this movement and urgency, based on that fierce urgency of now, that dr. king talked about. so our plan is nulyp for now, our focus now and into the future, we're not next. we're not kids. even though some of us are younger than others. we have children, right?

and so the focus has to be that we are leaders now. there's work that we can do today. we can't wait until later for it to happen and we can't keep addressing people that happen to be younger which i'm happy the national urban league is having this panel, as youth that are not ready to step up and make things happen. we have to lock arms across generations in order to make our organizations and our community better. [applause] and so i would encourage you to focus on what you individually can do to escalate and forward our agenda, from a now perspective, from a we can't wait perspective as everyone has talked about, so thank you. >> go right ahead. >> [inaudible] helps, if it is on. good afternoon. my name is kevin powell. i'm a cofounder of a new organization called bk nation. the bk actually stands for

building knowledge and i just want to say a few things because i've been thinking about since i got here to d.c. wednesday evening. my entire activist life, that's what i am, activist, is deeply influenced by civil rights movement by dr. king and glad someone shouted it malcolm x, it wasn't one person that did the work. one of the mistakes we made, oh, yeah, one of the grand mistakes we made civil rights era this is one person or it was a couple of people. it was literally coalition of folks. some were known, some were not known. women were significant leaders in the movement we need to get away from the significant male centered leadership and i'm glad to share the stage with these sisters here. that is important to say. [applause] for me, i've been an activist since i was, a teenager. the first thing i was introduced to was the antiapartheid movement which was influenced by the civil rights movement. in the 1980s we reenacted

freedom rides which was influenced by the civil rights movement and all the issues, issues around voter i.d. and voter rights, dealing with this during 1 '90s during reagan-bush years so this stuff keeps going on and on. if folks said if we don't take action and commit to justice forries of our lives, it will come up with the next generation and next generation. tragic in 2013 we're talking about voting rights. what barbara was up here speak something passionately and poignantly about voting rights, this is something my mother thought was done when she turned 20 years old on august 28th, 1963, the day of the march on washington. do you understand what i'm saying here? for me, part of the reason why we started this organization and worked with brandi, national action network and national urban league because we need a coalition of folk operating all around the country. it is that serious, y'all. it is tragic to me that reverend yearwood had to leave here and go protest. what they have been doing very

quietly for several years, stand your ground, voter i.d. laws, school to prison pipeline all around this country and we shouldn't just wake up because of what happened to trayvon martin. it shouldn't just be a tragedy or something we're constantly reacting to in terms of a crisis we have to become consistently proactive, consistently proactive and make a commitment to being in struggle for the rest of our lives however long that is. this is what we're here for today. thank you. [applause] >> well i will, i will start it off, can you join me for a second? i am going to es court you down to this end to keep jeff company. it was a little unbalanced on stage. started to look a little lonely. >> i thought there was something wrong with me. >> let me start on issue. couple of y'all mentioned it and idea of leaders and in the black community, just historically we always had those names. sometimes we think just one but several leaders like black folks and this idea we have of leader to listen to.

where does that idea, that has been so close to us historically, where does that play today? is that still something as a community, whether we know it or not we subconsciously looking for a leader, looking for somebody to listen to and guide us in some way? >> i think clearly history shows us that we we respond to charismatic leadership and that charismatic leadership in many cases comes out of the black church culture. and so we understand culturally where it comes from. to be more productive for i think the conversation, i think you're beginning to see a generational shift away from it because young people, one, are not looking for one leader. they're also not necessarily looking for somebody that doesn't live where they live, to tell them what the issues are they already know about, and validate work that they have been doing before anybody else showed up. and so i am, i'm excited about this younger generation of

leadership, that is saying wait a minute, i don't need you to show up an give me a speech, i don't r don't need you to give me a 10-point agenda, i don't need you to tell me what is going on, if you want to come to my city, tell you what we've been doing, when no camera showed up, when no one cared anything about us and when people said our generation wasn't doing any work i can tell you. to be even more productive in my opinion, take it a step further let's talk about what we need. so as we talk about young people that are saying i can be a leader for myself, they got normally zero budget, zero data, zero training, zero capacity but they got passion, vision, gangsta from an intellectual standpoint and spiritual standpoint and the fundamental difference we see between young people of the 1960s and young people of 2013 is not vision, is not commitment, is not dedication, is not desire, it's

training. and so if we're going to be serious about being able to get out of this charismatic, one leader, takes leads all all that kind of craziness we have to say we don't need to go at local level to recreate the wheel. one of the many things we need to do is how do we create training apparatus that provides capacity to young people on the ground that have already been doing the work but need to be pushed up? how do we provide them with data? how do we provide them with digital portals where they're connecting with people in different parts of the world doing the same thing they're doing so we can talk about best practices? how do we create turn-key opportunities so young people that get, hyped because trayvon martin passed and they're angry about the verdict, they want to be involved in something but there is no institutional infrastructure where they are, that speaks to them? there may be an naacp chapter. there may be a yp chapter of the urban league but that might not speak to them and that's okay.

[applause] how do we plug them into infrastructure that is representative of what they want to do, helps them develop agendas that they don't have agendas, help them raise the capacity to walk out the agendas they already have and then connect them to a community of chess players because this generation isn't playing checkers. they're not trying to get to the end to say king me. they're trying to say i'm will to be a pawn because i understand one day the pawn can be a queen. i want to work where i can to make this happen. >> kevin, you were trying to jump in there, go ahead. >> i was going to say, i think that is absolutely right but i also think that organizations like legacy organizations, nan, urban league, others they have to be the places where young people can come in order to be organized. i don't know that you can get away from having leadership, even training that you talk about has to come from somewhere and, as you mentioned, hello? >> that is my fault. go ahead.

>> you try to cut me off in middle of what i was saying t.j.? >> i learned my lesson a long time ago. >> there has to be a place we can provide all of this. that is leadership in itself. i think where an issue that see with young people that when they go to the chapters of nan and urban league and naacp and other places, we sort of have that old guard tattooed -- attitude or comfortable at homecoming to these places to work. if our organizations are going to grow and be what we say we are, we have to do what the urban league has done in terms of developing the developing young professionals you're dealing with brandi at national action network. we're trying to change the game and change the face of that to provide opportunities for people to unite with us to do the work. >> go ahead, kevin, you try to get in there. >> a couple of things, if i can bring it back to dr. king, you all know this, you are all

students of history, he was only 26 when he led the montgomery busboy cot. he did not make it to 40 years. malcolm x was same age as dr. king when he was killed. anyone member of slc out there knows what i'm talking about. the organization was started because the old guard leadership did not support the leadership of dr. king and some of the younger ministers. there was a group that came along in 1960, john lewis, congressman john lewis and those folks who started organization because they felt that their voices wean being heard. one of the things i want to post-traumatic stress disorder i think is important for to us learn from history because i heard this from some of the folks protesting down in florida, we need youth led leadership, we need youth led leadership. we need a leadership that is multigenerational at this point. one of my favorite images from dr. king from 1966 in mississippi when he is watching with stokely carmichael, when stokely was about to drop the

phrase, y'all, black power. dr. king, because he was not jealous or insecure or disrespectful to younger people, and we need to say that, even though he was a nobel peace price winner he led the march on washington, he had done all the incredible he listened to younger brother stokely carmichael explain why we should not call ourselves negroes and say we're plaque and embrace black power. within a year, dr. king started to say it himself because he is leader. define what a leader is, she or he, no march of that male stuff, as we said, he or she changes direction of conversation with come up with new vocabulary. stokely, you say black power. i will right a essay which everyone should read. you know what the blueprinted is black power redebind by dr. king. part the problem, t.j., we get stuck on 1963, the man lived five more years and evolved and changed to begin to put teeth on

vision and began institution building which is second thing you need to do for leader. institutions on this stage that services community in some form or fashion. if you don't do that you're not a leader. third thing if you call yourself a leader you have to be accessible to the people. you can't say my secretary, my assistant. i have to be accessible to the people. [applause] this is real. i can't tell you, not calling out any names how many people around the country i travel around the country tried to reach out to this person, that person i can't get in touch with them. my number is 718-399-8149. email at kevin at kevin powell.knit. all of us on twitter. find us. to me if we talk about leadership, t.j. we should demand every form and define it what do you actually do in the community on a regular basis? [applause] >> does this mean i have to give my cell number out too?

>> you famous, sir. >> you're trying to get in there, angela, go ahead. >> to kevin's first point i'm about to call this out, don't get mad, how many under on the stage are under 30? right. here is the point. right now we're at the kids table. we're not kids. we're grown people. >> i got kids. >> right. >> all of us got kids. >> i don't have kids but, i'm over 30, i'm 33. my.is, it is time out for this kids table conversation. there are young people, seriously in college and high school who can be right up here talking having this youth conference. i will call them kids. i think it is really, really important because tamika brought up the organizations. the organizations this is good example with martin here somewhere, they are young ladies and young women who are the right hand of an organization head, that's terrific. there are young leaders of

organization that may be slightly smaller, budgets are slightly smaller but they are just as important and as kevin's other point. >> absolutely. >> taking time to talk to young folks i it is so important it is not business as usual in our organization. people don't feel represented. >> that's right. >> we're not young people anymore. we're old and can have seat at the table because we can hold our own with the older folks. i'm done. >> please. i thought you were just getting warmed up, actually, angela. >> you just opened up a can of worms. >> what do we do there? you mentioned the kids table issue. how do we get away from that? one thing drove me crazy about the coverage of trayvon martin, the story and trial that came afterwards, every time i turn on tv, i'm watching more traditional news outlets but a lot of conversation being had, the people missing from that conversation were young black men who had the most, in at love ways at stake there. a the laugh that is because we dismiss them as, whatever, as

you say, being at the kids table. they're not ready. we shouldn't listen to them. what do we do about that? first do you even agree that being the case she just made as well? what do we do about that to get the older folks to say, hey, these young folks have something to offer? >> i think the older folks, older generation has to understand that we need to be invested in. you can't expect us to produce results for the future if there is not investment of time, of talent, of resources to develop us and into what you want us to be but i also think, because it took all of us a while to even be able to sit at this table. so we had to get past 30 almost to be allowed to sit on this stage. unfortunately. >> have to wait for permission. >> i think we need to get away from that too. we don't need to wait for permission. nobody up here needed to wait for permission. i will sit down because i will get in trouble. >> the other thing, we have leaders in the african-american

community that have been extremely successful, leaders we support and believe in and look to and they are stalwart members of our community, they should lead forever, right? because they have been so successful we don't have the same amount of turnover in those leadership positions because they're successful, they're doing a great job, what have you, sometimes, however, i went to talk to the young republicans. young republicans invited us to participate in a conversation. i thought it was great. we had a conversation and talked about the fact that under 40 leaders in the young republicans they have more young professionals becoming leaders in the republican party because there is more turnover there. there are more opportunities for people to lead in their party, not necessarily black people. just young people. but, on the other side of the house, do we have that same opportunity when we have leaders that have been around for a very long time, have name recognition, have been doing things in the commune?

you're about to say something crazy but that's all right. >> i'm fine. i'm listening. >> i just think there is an opportunity for investment and for the leaders that you currently have and there also an opportunity to allow enough seats at the table for all of us to move and push the agenda forward because we all have ideas and suggestions to make it better. it shouldn't happen after you're 30. >> i'm sorry. this brother is fidgety. go ahead. >> and i agree with, much of what has been said and i was a national youth director at the naacp for a number about years and i worked in this space as a professional and we lie, we are liars, we are lying in churches, we're lying lying in our organi. yaw don't even know what i'm talking about yet. [laughter] most of these people i see don't even like young people. >> that's right. >> and they are scared of them.

and they are scared of them taking spots they don't do anything in. and if we're going to be honest, there are way too many old people and not enough elders. >> yes. >> and if if we are going to be honest, there are old people blocking and elders who don't know in many cases how to connect with young people that they're prepared to give themselves to, but often don't know how to connect. my thing is, we as young people, not so young people and some other younger people, need to start understanding historical reality that young people are supposed to take old people out. [applause] i can proyou historical and biblical context if you like the difference between moses and

king saul? king saul was an old person the he was afraid of david's anointing. he allowed himself to be removed so david could do his job. as opposed to embracing david, he attempted to hate on and kill david which is why he died in a field. moses was never afraid of joshua's anointing. he said, wait a minute, son i've been in the presence of gone. he sent me a text message with 10 things on it and i dropped phone and lost the service. he sent me a text message again. he wasn't afraid of joshua's gangsta but understood it was his responsibility to put his hands on joshua. so joshua would not be destined to repeat the mistakes of moses's generations. we are punks as young people because we're afraid of hold people who we really could move out of the way easily if we role with our own agenda, understand the necessity of mobile generation because call the young because they're strong and old because they know the way, people equally gangsta to be

able to take old people out. >> yeah. [applause] lastly and finally. -- [applause] which have got to stop telling young people how to manifest their own movement. we supposed to be afraid of them. my babies are in here now, madison and miles, wave real quick. my babies are here. they scare the hell out of me. we are not doing our job if we don't have young people that say visions that don't make sense to us. why would you want your child to have a vision that makes sense to you? i want my children to dream so big in the world that they're in that i have to ask them to explain to me, what they're talking about because that means, we have lifted them on our shoulders enough, for them to be able to see what we can't

see. that's what legacy is about. [applause] finally, i'm sorry, this is really important. the turnover in white communities is not less. they build more institutions. and what they do is, they, they put their folks in a space where when they put them out to pasture, they make them chairman emeritus of an institution they have created for them. so my, why isn't jesse jackson senior, chair emeritus of the jesse jackson, sr. institute for electoral politics? why was, this is not just about ego, y'all. it is about economics and there are too many of our elders that have done real work that don't have anywhere to go. and so they still nil these spots -- fill these spots, not often times because they're trying to block because they got to eat. we're not taking care of them. if we don't build institutions to be able to create space for

their genius, to be able to have dignity, there should never be a space where people who have given their lives have to wonder how am i going to pay my light bill, when some of us got our light bill paid because they created opportunity for us to have a job that otherwise we would not have had. [applause] can we please build institutions so that those elders have a place to slide into and young people who they have been training, now they don't have to be afraid of them because my job as a leader, is to prepare who comes next. i'm sorry to take so long. i won't say anything else. >> no. [applause] t.j., this gets to the crux of the matter. when you look at the civil rights era we're very clear what we were fighting for and what we were fighting against. part of the problem in the 21st century, over the last 40 years is we're all over the place. everything is an issue. and, one of the things we did with bk nation, we've been

building this quietly for three years, number one, because i'm an organizer. i don't believe in throwing something out there. we don't want this to be around two years but we want it around for 100 years like a lot of organizations. we ask the people, what is it that you actually need? what are the most important issues? what came back over and over again? education, leadership training, number three, health and wellness issues. number four, engage artistic cultural community. a lot of people are touched by this thing called hip-hop, number one youth culture next 30 years. what do we need? jobs, business development and training. we're clear. we'll not change our agenda every two years because of sake of funding or corporate foundation even if we don't get funding at all. we're focused on five core issues. otherwise we're all over the place. jeff's point around leadership i agree with him. since i'm a teenager, i'm not making this up, teenager, into early 40s, you get

marginalized in youth division or talk about hip-hop or young people if you're not able to articulate anything else. however when some of us go to other places and speak i'm in japan for two week tour in february, asking me about the profound questions about the state of american democracy in a way i'm not asked by people in my own country i was born an r and raised in. think about that. the jeff i agree it is about economics and our elders are taken care of but i also believe some folks are intoxicated with this thing called power and influence and prestige and it becomes when dr. hooks talked about, becoming addicted to the fame plantation to the point we don't understand, wait a minute, you got all these dynamic people up on the stage, 40 something, 30 something, 20 something, why aren't they set at table not set like here is the future right here. why don't we integrate into the conversation. at bk nation we don't have a

youth decision or other division. there has to be intentionality what you do. everyone's voice is important whether they're 15 or 45 or 65 or 75. that is the way we got to role. pastors march tomorrow, pastors celebration, say to ourselves in 2013 and beyond what are we going to do differently. otherwise we'll have the same conversation, five, 10, 15, 20 years, from now. that is absolutely to me. einstein said it best. insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a big result. >> we'll take your questions. we have folks lined up. we have comment put on the screen. folks are tweeting. if you have a question you can tweet it in and get it to put it up on the screen if we like. congressman, you rejoined us and listening here. chime in on it, maybe i guess being a new person on capitol hill maybe you feel some of those same things if you will. chime in on what you kind of have been hearing here. >> first, it is getting hot up

here. jeff, broke the down very well. let me just add one perspective as well. you know at love times for young people, we look at the success of someone's title and position and don't understand what it took for them to get there. i'm not here as a congressman or a former state senator. i'm here as a young man at that was raised by a single parent whose mom overcame drug addiction of 20 years and whose father was shot and killed when i was a young boy. i raised my young siblings until they were old enough to care for themselves. it is that life experience that informs what i do in public service. so while i appreciate and many of us appreciate and sometimes you see the success of the person in the nice suit, it was the story and the experience growing up that makes us who we are.

[applause] and that perspective is what we need more in in policy and governing now more than ever. it is life experience and struggle that people are dealing with each and every day that is absent from the halls of washington, from every state legislature throughout this country and a lot of city councils and it is that perspective and that voice that needs to be heard and it is why i'm honored to be a member of congress now. . .

when you claim that you ought to be the leader of the people and you want to be in that position. that sacrifice is very, very serious. and i know all of you know where it is because we do it but not everybody jumps up to say they want a seat at the table that is ready to deal with that sacrifice that you have to put in in order to be a leader so i think that a part of our training for what we are telling young people was that when you say that you want to leave and when you say that you want to be engaged in something you get upset about trayvon martin one day but where are they now? what are they doing now? where can we find them now? >> we are going to get in as many as we can. a couple things. say your name, where you're from and direct your questions to somebody. old people need not ask jeff any questions. [laughter]

>> i guess i would direct this to kevin and the rest of the panel can feel free to jump in. you know, the one leader that seems to be woefully absent is a leader that's an incredibly effective whether people were caught up in the dogma or not and that is louis farrakhan. i can to this march in 1995 and there were input men everywhere. the principal in bringing to the market is how your education because they are under attack right now. i'm bringing the cause. >> what is the question? >> what you think is the message to the people to galvanize them from the leadership perspective? >> i think the serious work --

>> the message is action. that is really what we are talking about is action going back to your community knowing that the hour midterm elections coming up and not having a low voting rights. we need to be out there and registered. there's 1.3 million people who are not registered in florida. yet somehow we want to repeal stand your ground. how are we going to do that if we are not able to vote for the person that would help us get it done? the message from the march is that we must have action and be active and be part of the process and there are many levels to do that on. as my sister said, the point is once we finish the march we must do the work. we can't just be engaged in a moment. we must be engaged in the movement and that is what this is all out. >> ask the question quickly.

>> basically what i wanted to bring forward to the group is the fact that we are more of a reactive people than proactive. when something bad happens, we react. to the extent that gun violence is the leading cause of death for african-americans and we have reached a level that is the equivalent to baghdad and mexico. so to my question and my issue is what are we going to do? because the tobacco industry was sued in a class-action lawsuit in the 90's and there were billions of dollars given in that lawsuit. my question is why don't we sue with a gun manufacturers and make them accountable for the gun violence in our community. these organizations and setting up here with are doing a lot of strategic work. there are opportunities for you

to plug in and contact your congressperson about various issues all the time. the issue is that we are not engaged until we get to the emotional touch point where it really impacts us. they were like something had in the and i really upset about it. what is the community doing. and then you see someone on television talking about the agenda or the agenda that you didn't pay attention to what it actually came out hitting it so it's important for us to be engaged all the time to vote and be engaged in our community so that we know what is going on so we can take appropriate action before we get to this space that we are in today. >> i am very critical of the community. let me say this. let's put this stuff and context. you know what i mean? you are going to say that we are reactive. there are serious folks around the country dealing with black on black violence every single day. every single day. we have violence every siegel

weekend that is out of control. one of my challenges to you and i do this all the time we sell these things but where are the brothers that we call for in the mentoring programs. if you're doing it make sure that you get your for turner d and four church and your organization brothers in the barber shop to play ball with that you hang out with we need to be role models of the communities because even if we sue the gun industry, guess what? until we raise the consciousness of people with our communities from black self hatred to self love nothing is going to change. >> it's not a good sign. are you going to do this for me quickly? >> i want to applaud a lot of

the folks that ran for congress also. my name is gerard and by and with the paltry music education task in the rural areas. but civil rights -- >> just out of respect -- >> can i finish, please? civil rights versus civil rights that is what we are doing right now. kanaby leverett that on how we need to study the judge's more and we need to study the unemployment boards and the commission so that we can prepare ourselves to create a succession plan like reverend sharpton and all of you are doing. >> use of civil rights bucks >> civil and silver. >> economics and policy. >> my answer is bring it back to dr. king. it's all laid out. if we don't have a financial game plan we are going to lose it. we don't become financially literate as opposed to being we

don't own something in our lifetime to sustain it, a business, a home in spite of all that has happened we are in trouble. and so it is simple to me. read 1967 the answer is we have to read it. >> let me say quickly the because one of the things that will happen here is this weekend, not in this room necessarily is that the people will get extremely excited about the vehicle being involved. they may march and rally e and shout but many will not write a check. they won't write a check to the organization they are a part of the end to the movement. if we are serious about doing this work that we are doing, we have to fund it. and so, we are talking about casting our votes. but we don't write the checks to the candidates that we want to see run. many of us are talking about why don't young people start organizations? when one does you don't write a check to them. there are people on the panel

that i've written checks to because -- absolutely. >> they are not necessarily huge checks. the point however -- >> you to get quick, to act. i was looking for to have that check post on tuesday. [laughter] >> but seriously though, we are the most philanthropic per-capita community in the world. but we are the least strategic with our philanthropy. and so we have people constantly talk about what we don't give. we will get to keep so and so from the church from getting effected. but we won't create an institution in the church that creates employment opportunities so the eve action was never necessary. as we have to be strategic with our dollars and put them where -- put your money where your

mouth is. and if that means it is only $5 check but you're getting together with 20 of the people so that becomes $100 check, that is $100 that is going to words the work that we believe in. >> there is a young lady here. go ahead and ask a question to the >> i'm from durham north carolina and my question as directed towards you. ever since i was a little life in passionate about civil rights and in our schools don't teach us what we need to know in order to better hour futures. they talk about it as if they are not good enough even in school today. so what i want to know is what can i or other children my age -- what can we do in order to better -- in order to, you know, educate our appears about how we can, you know, learn about our

history but just because they don't teach this in school to also better hour future today. >> let me say three things really quickly. thank you first for the question. thank you. [applause] because i would probably tell you that most of the people in the room with tell you they didn't get taught by their school, either. the first thing is make sure you talk to the people on the panel immediately following because we need to be in touch with you and we need to be in touch with you so that we can give you book lists that we have been able to help and other people have given us. so that is number one. number two is you can begin to deal with the policy side of your school. i will tell you you need to be addressing for the teaching us to read and are they teaching us

math and how do they deal with the hard-core issues that many times are not. every time there's a school board meeting you have young people there to get every time there's a city council meeting -- >> where do you live? >> i was in durham north carolina. >> who is in here from north carolina? >> sometimes as young people we get it convinced that everything we share with our friends ultimately have to be your own a personal black history curriculum. it doesn't. use your social media for very small moments to share information whether it is an article or the link to a larger article for the link to a book.

make sure that you connect people that say we a minute. i can't believe she shared that. how can i learn more? connect them to the bigger pieces because we are the biggest reflection of this movement. you are a movement unto yourself. when you begin to be a reflection of what it is that you are learning. other people around you will be selling inspired. thank you. let's make sure that we talked afterwards. >> i just want to give her a resource. i know they have very strong freedom schools and north carolina. they teach leadership development and cultural awareness, the expos you to your history rather than going out and replicating and connecting to something that's there, the children's defense fund. let's to get out of bed and start with you, congressman and make our way down the line.

>> i'm honored to be here. this is a phenomenal panel. these are the leaders not just of tomorrow, but of today. every level to take your proper place. don't wait for someone to hand it to you. you have to go out and get. i was first selected to the state senate when i was 31 and i became the majority leader in the state senate of nevada the first african-american to do so when i was 35. and unfortunately, i am the first african-american and not to be elected to the federal office from nevada but i will not be the last. [applause] thank you so much for affording us this opportunity. there are a couple things i want to leave and a first the march in washington 50 years ago when

you look at dr. king's speech and it isn't six pages, he never mentioned anything about the pub duty to republican or democrat or even our political process. the reason i'm raising that now is because in this day and age in 2013 when we have a black president of a sudden our issues have become partisan. all the sudden it is a major issue and we cannot allow that to occur. voting rights are nonpartisan issues. the north carolina governor. we have to remember to apply the pressure on both sides of the aisle because they all should own it. these are american issues, they are not just latino issues. they are american issues for american people that should be owned by both side of the party to get the last thing i will say is this. i go to panel after panel and is always asked what are we going to do? and i appreciate the young lady that said what can we do in my school? what can i do is very different

than asking us what are we going to do because we are going to turn that question back on to you and say what are you going to do? our organization impact your world. do your thing. you are the impact. you tell us what we can do to support you and i will leave you with this. at the end of another site for the joint school day they scream wake up. we have to stay awake and be present and address these issues. we stand with you but don't ask us what are we going to do. let's just do it. [applause] i think it's important that we all understand the fact that each individual in this room, each individual that we are raging in the world wide web is important to making change. you have a unique skill set and a unique talent and a gift to push our agenda forward. and without you we can't do the total work that we need to do. so when we talk about young people -- and bayh daughter is out your age i was excited to hear you get up and ask about

what can happen in your school to like it's important that you take this on yourself to impact in a way that you can impact. it's a great organization and we offer great tools and leadership training and an opportunity to get involved. all of us need to be pushing the agenda forward in the way that we can best do so and whether that means you're picking up the phone and writing letters to your senator, what have you, do have to take the onus to get involved because at the end of the day we are doing everything we possibly can. we don't get very much sleep. we stayed up all day. we are working the work that we have been given as individuals and i try to do as much as i can as an individual person that each of us has to do that. so if you take it upon yourself to do your best, then we will get further along and we will not be having these conversations in 50 years.

>> i want to address this to the young lady, too to meet with the dk nation our model in the leadership is in the short version of the leadership we are waiting for which is the civil rights movement. the same as they were saying there isn't going to be some grand coming out of the sky. it has to be in the community. we are going to be stressing with the nation both online and offline because they are going to be doing the leadership training and development. so please come right down the nation. that is the website that we just launched trade in the local communities the of the college campus and the grade school as you are, the yet the department building or in new york city where some of us are from that's critical. the next thing is that we have to -- how do i say this? we have really got to maintain some level of hope in spite of all the stuff that we are saying out here. it's critical. i think she said it eloquently. we are tired.

this is difficult long work. some of us have known each other since we were kids literally. this is a marathon, not a sprint. as an african-american also realizing i'm not just doing this work for black folks who are americans from all over the diaspora but to the congressman's point a couple years ago she said immigration is a civil rights issue and the issue of marriage equality whether you want to hear it or not. because we have to be about equal the and democracy and justice for all. it can't just be what is convenient for us. i do believe that the soul of the country has always come from our community. we have to step up and do that again in 2013 and beyond. >> very quickly i would echo training because i think training adjusted determines what we have the capacity to do. let me shift this quick in the

last 45 seconds that is take care of yourselves. we are seeing more people stressed out, depressed, suicidal, mental illness and the activist community, and we don't talk about it. during one of my most depressing times in my life, kevin was there for me. and i don't even know if you remember it. it was back in 2003. i just left the naacp. my personal life was a mess. to often we neglect the first movement for the second one. the first movement is you and your family. if that is out of order in the name of saving the world, you are out of order. [applause] >> [inaudible] >> i don't have enough time. so please, find partners of accountability putative find men and women in your circle that

will tell you when you are out of order and privately and love you. find people that will be your prayer partner or meditation partner or whenever that space is of quietness for you to be able to on plug because we are killing ourselves, and then the patting ourselves on the back for killing ourselves. it's not noble to kill yourself. so sometimes you need to rest because we have convinced ourselves comegys a machine. he is different. he doesn't count. but there are some of us you are telling yourself that you are amazing because you are operating on a three hours of sleep. when the reality is on the 18th hour, you are no good anymore anyway. go to sleep. and when it you get up for your more revived and charged. we are not adding to it.

i think that take away from this and we've said it many times and as kevin said and jeff just reiterated this isn't a sprint. it's a marathon. it's a movement. what happened to trayvon martin was a terrible tragic moment in our lives. but the fact that we organize afterwards and we are intending to go into florida and take back some of our rights and make sure that it is appealed that is the movement and that is where we have to be going. when the brother talked about gun violence today what you saw happening in newtown what we do to organize our young people and figure out their issues to give them with the need whether it be jobs, better education or just someone of color that is a part of a movement. a movement that we are all responsible for. 1963 dr. king spoke and was a

great moment in our history to hear the i have a dream speech. but what they did afterwards to get to the 1964 civil rights act passed, that was a movement. so tomorrow, brothers and sisters, we will be joining for a great moment to read a great moment. but what we do with the midterm elections and in our community when we go back is a part of the movement and that is what we hope that you'll join all of us to do is to be a part of the movement to the [applause] >> i need to let you all know about something and i feel silly making this announcement because we were just talking about this. something called the future leaders subornation in the freedom plaza. we need to change the name. their current leaders that happen to be younger than some of the rest of us. at the freedom plaza on pennsylvania avenue. we have this markey over there. the drum line and some of the other folks will be gathered over there.

also this is where you need to be in the imperial ballroom of the meeting that is on place tomorrow for the march at 5:30 -- 5:30 a.m.? the brother just said we have to rest. [laughter] >> 5:30 a.m.. you will all see each other here. we will all see you here. but really another round of applause to the panel. thank you for being here. it's been a pleasure. we will see you out there. >> [inaudible]

>> part of c-span coverage of even splitting it to the commemoration on the march on washington. if you missed any of this discussion is available for viewing any time on the web site. go to c-span.org. we also want to mention that tomorrow c-span will have live coverage of the national action at work to celebrate the 50th anniversary on the march on washington that will take place on the steps of the lincoln memorial where dr. martin luther king jr. gave his i have a dream speech. figures will include the reverend al sharpton, martin luther king 3-cd, attorney general, congressman lewis, other members of congress and civil rights leaders are also expected to attend and that will

get underway tomorrow at nine eastern he will be able to watch on the live companion network c-span. president obama hosting a town hall discussion as part of his bus tour

early on and we said we have a 16-acre piece of land and we have to put some things on it. it was an open ended what do we do with it and everyone wanted a say in that and so very quickly people put the leaders promised a public process to receive public input to generate a master plan. at the same time that was going on a like i said before you had larry silverstein the developer who won the least to the office space and running the port authority they believed in the importance of the commercial space that was destroyed. they wanted to make sure that

lower manhattan remained an international financial hub pitkin and they believed they had to rebuild all of this commercial space. when you write a book a lot can go on. that's the way that i approach the world. i'm somewhat neurotic in my riding and a lot can go wrong with 110 words to but i have been pretty shocked by the criticism from inside its mostly in the fan of how dare he. how dare an insider give away the secret handshake and an insider talk about other insiders in a way that perhaps might not be, you know, keeping with the code that we have in

washington. people keep asking me why am i uncomfortable here and i welcome that discomfort but it's a general was some. this is what we should do to the coming up next the a. philip randolph posted a discussion on the 1963 march on washington and its upcoming 50th anniversary. we will hear remarks from reverend jesse jackson and the rebel push coalition and the co-founder of the student from violating coordinating committee. this is one hour and 20 minutes. >> our program tonight will be informative and fun. and all kofi serious time that

we are indeed in a serious moment in history, it is only by our acknowledgment, remembrance and reflection that we truly appreciate all that was at all that can be. and it is the only way that our young people will understand why we are here today. that is what was written before we heard from our young people. they get it. they are ready and they do indeed. when we got into this evening -- and that is all i'm going to commit to from this piece of paper so i don't know where the team is that told me that this is what i must say. but what i want to do is turn to these leaders and ask you one question. what you speak from your heart this evening and tell us what does the 50th mean to you and also what it is that you think you are going to feel during the culmination of this march.

as we get closer does it bring back the memories? do you feel in any way tie year after 50 years? do you feel excited? what is it that keeps the leaders like you teaching, preaching, sharing and caring. where are you today 50 years later? and who should go first? >> she got on a quicker than the rest of us.

>> are you going first? i listen every time she looks at me so you just lost my brother. i love you but you've got to go first. is that all right? okay. i thought he won the argument earlier to the address, please. >> if i start now, then i won't have to go back. i might as well get mine over with. so you told me -- they told me you want us to think about 50 years ago the relationship to now. but i think 50 years ago something had happened that was quite unusual. there was about six or seven of us out of the washington monument waiting to see what

would happen. we were very early discovered that the governor had died that night. and here was the greatest genius of african-american life that he was voted out one time to be the genius of the black western world. and here he had gone because he had given up on the united states. he had given so much and he was 97-years-old and he was going to leave that and he had died the night before. and then i found later that the great genius of african-american

life died that night but by 2:00 that afternoon we realized that with our lives we lost one great but another had come to its place. there were people what happened to us to other times, to match. it wasn't about the same life-and-death in the moment. but it was to pass the leadership of black america. now, when you think about that, that was what i had thought about all day long was what it

meant. and then before, shortly thereafter, you came to understand that because of the strategy of martin luther king that we had become -- we became that small number of people that he talked about. we had passed in such a way that there was a great leader for us to extend upon. and the important thing was not the person, but their strategy. and here we were it was happening again. but i don't think that it's going to happen anymore. i don't see anybody -- i don't

think that any of us have the understanding of a strategy that is going to make a change in our people and that we are going to have to be our own leaders not individually bleak but on the individual base we have to make certain that we are listening to the people that have paid their dues to come up with something worth listening to and who is going to be the young ones that we influence and the difference. it's the kind of thing you can't help but think about when you look at us now and think of us now and see those others that are up here and know that we

aren't going to be here too long and someone has to be able to pick up and take it from here. the most important thing is and who is going to do it, but how are we as a people going to do it? [applause] >> many of you know that he is the president and in that capacity has kept the movement going every single day that more than that, teacher, preacher for those that are carrying the banner but also charging and challenging as he goes a long as he just did. it is indeed a huge water to have you on the stage with us tonight.

>> the system requires no introduction anywhere in the world. and i am not going to smash up the time by trying to do it except to say that she is now on the second venture as the president and ceo of the matter evers institute in mississippi. in saying that i say to all of you that have cash pocketbooks spend your money learning something in a place that counts. go to the institute. get the information and support the cause. it doesn't run on a year. it runs on support. so the sister was one of those folks that was supposed to speech debate to speak at the march on washington is correct

because all that happened before passed the torch on. is that correct? with the directions to speak. what do you want to say to these folks tonight? >> hello. >> i love you. >> without people such as you and the hundreds of thousands across the world i looked over at lucey and she plays such an important role in my becoming the chairman during a disastrous times. i will never forget how you

stood by me and encouraged me when i said i can't do that. i don't think i've ever said think you publicly. but please accept this. [applause] >> i don't know what they do without you. you have been such a friend to so many. you are the intellectual movement and i don't think that anyone would disagree with that. >> i saw photographs of you not too long ago when you had that hair and the stern determination on your face with all that you have been true at all that you have done for us you are still

willing. thank you so much. [applause] and for everyone else, thank you for all of your contributions. the gentleman at the very end. and did i hear you say that he was 80-years-old? we talk about age and our young people today. what's going to happen but i just love to say eda is the time you are just beginning. [applause]

i do want to very briefly remark on the march on washington 50 years ago. for your resources you go to the marchant ctr original program of which i was supposed to have been a speaker. it was just a couple of weeks after the assassination. i was in boston and i made a speech saying that we had gotten back here to washington, d.c. and i had no staff or security. just that massive crowd of humanity and i couldn't make it.

the head of the -- naacp at the time i didn't take it to counsel the engagement. he did the right thing. he had someone out to the next spot and he did a marvelous job. i was so hurt because i knew there was a moment in history this would never come again. i was still reeling from the death of my husband a couple weeks prior to that. i had no idea what i would say if i had been there. but i knew that my spirit should have been there. i left by saying don't give up, you never know what is going to

happen. president obama asked me to be the first woman -- [applause] even though i didn't have an opportunity to be there in person, when i delivered at prayer i looked across at the audience that was there and i said to myself this must have been some 15 years ago. so they come in funny ways with us all. i heard these young people, and make their presentations. you have no idea how proud i was of all of them but particularly those from mississippi because i

grew up in a time there was such a massive difference. i recall being told i couldn't receive a scholarship from the state of mississippi because the state decided i didn't need its but that i could teach music class is in the schools. i was 17-years-old and it's the first time i recall being so angry at a system that it wasn't talked about in my household because in my household it's only teachers and you didn't rock the boat. but i was fortunate that when i went to college i had someone who said don't just rock the boat. forget the stars on the planet of there that are further away

from that. we talked about strategies here. if i may go forward just a little. shortly before she was assassinated he was reading a book and people that knew he was reading the book thought it was weird that he would. why? why would he do that? because i'm interested in the strategies of this man because he has been successful. he was a strategist but i cannot help but say that this was someone that was thoroughly dedicated to his people and to his country. so 50 years later what did we

say? what are we extending the message to not only to the young people here and not only to the people that america but around the world because they would be severely criticized. i've never had a judgment on that. but all we peacemakers, are we handling ourselves in this country in a way that others will want to follow? what we ask you how you felt when you looked at pictures today and yesterday of all of the young children that wouldn't assign the pain on their faces but just peacefully they were asleep. with their lives had been taken by hatred. the had been taken by hatred.

how many of us still feel the pain of that young man who was cut down and the justice system there? where is the movement today? i feel it is strong and powerful. i am so proud to say that i see people of my generation can be started and giving the strength and the wisdom for the people to come along with their innovativeness and lack of fear some of us today move over let us take over others say we want your wisdom. so where is the movement 50 years later? my grandson said timmy i would

never neely and prayer and be beaten and not do anything. i said to him than what would you do? i haven't gotten an answer yet. but it is one that i continue to push only once in awhile. and i think my generation is doing that. i hate to admit that so many of us have not wanted to give up the power and the strength that we've perceive that we already had. we didn't need these young people to come along and say you know, that set. share. move. move over. move behind. the inclusive because this is a new day of techniques and mechanisms to move forward. america is still full of

prejudice and hatred and racism. i don't say that because i'm proud of it and i want to point out. it is a fact. we think that we have come to the point but we still have so much to do. i am going to see something that might not be considered proper. the media has played a game at with us for such a long time. when martin luther king jr. was taken from us, the media began to ask the question more and more frequently and rapidly who is your leader? who is your leader? do we just have to have one?

just one leader? why can't we find a leader here and here and here? and be the kind of movement that we can come together and solved something that is so deadly to the citizens of this country and to democracy. it is not over yet, my friends to the i don't wish to sound like the voice of doom. i hope i am just being realistic because i see so many things that are still there. i recall something that medgar evers said to the group, and it was you may think that we have come a long way. but don't forget we have to fight harder to keep it than we did to get.

all we have to do as much as what is happening with voting rights and all of these other issues that are still wearing their ugly heads. dr. king and all of the other renowned leaders who worked with him will forever serve as inspiration and guide to us. but this is a new day. and we ourselves are going to have to come up with variations never forgetting the past but being astute and brilliant enough to catch the thoughts and bring them to see where we must

go. as someone said, it ain't over yet. so don't go to sleep. be there. i have been so blessed to have been a part of the movement in the background. and it was his death that pushed me forward. believe it or not as much as i talking now, i was a very shy person. and someone said you opened up after his death. and i did and we just celebrated 50 years since he was assassinated june 12 of this year. people turned out from around this country and came to mississippi and paid a tribute

to it that was one of the goals of my life was to be sure that his work cut his memory and his name wasn't left out of the books in this country and that young people would learn about him and others like him. my work is almost done. but there is a spirit that says not yet i saw an exhibit not long ago that included the rifles that were used to kill him. i saw that and i was speechless. and then something happened. i saw the end of the trigger and that meant death but it also

meant going forward because at the end of that rifle i could visualize the fire coming out, and i couldn't visualize his body there. and it took him a different way. they meant he had done his job and he was free and hopefully meant that we would become even more renewed with the 50th anniversary of the march of washington that we honor all of those but that we seek and honor the young people and the leaders for tomorrow. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you.

i think that would be the mood during the course of these discussions because you were being afforded an opportunity to chat with our legacy. so to you we continue to think you every day for all that you have done and all that you are doing and all that we know you will do because it isn't over yet. that's right. you can applaud. this gentleman to my left has represented in so many ways the aspirations of so many of our young people that believed in self. julian bond broke so many barriers during the course of his first half of life, and we

are watching and enjoining him as he breaks new ones in the second half of life. he served in the legislature as the georgia state legislature. he was the chairman of the board of the naacp. he was the chief strategist for many of the political fights around this country. he has taught at the top universities in this country. that's what i'm talking about. if you're good at y -- why leave

it. ortiz sitting in the corner with a laptop in his lap tax thing and doing a lot of other things. that is called hope and aspiration and leadership. when you see an engaging young people coming you know he is the teacher that never gets tired. when they say no one is tired, that is who this man is. please welcome julian bond. [applause] you may not know when you look back at this table here you are looking at the chairman emeritus of the naacp and myself. i succeeded her as the chairman of the board of the naacp and if you don't think that is a hard job you don't know what a hard job is.

the naacp has 64 board members. if any of you have 64 board members of course not because not many organizations have 64 board members. but -- >> we want to make sure that your voice is turned up. is it this one? anyway. i don't want to talk about the naacp. it's a wonderful organization. i am happy to be part of it. and in fact i know a couple of young people that spoke that said they were active in the naacp and that it was great to hear. i am reminded by vivian of the death of dr. w.e.b. du bois on the night i remember a philip randolph saying and this is exactly what he said, it is his voice that is calling us here today. it is his voice that is calling us here today to i'm lucky to

have a photograph of myself and my father and e. franklin frazier dressed in academic robes and standing with w.e.b. du bois and before them are my sister who was 3-years-old and i myself am to win and they are dedicating us to a life of scholarship and that is the prized possession. ..

>> now, i remember coming to washington the day before august 28, 1963, driving from a lead right live at the time with about six people in the car. and i don't know who those six people were today, and we drove from atlanta to d.c. i don't know where he state. surely it wasn't a hotel. we didn't have hotel money. but we stayed someplace and we got to the mall, c. t., early in the morning but not as early as you. and wondered how many people would come. and, of course, as you know, more game and working and working and working, the crowd got bigger and bigger and bigger. it wasn't until we are driving at home to atlanta that night that we discovered that this was the biggest political

demonstration ever held in the united states. there have never been anything like it, and maybe there will never be anything like it again. let's see what happens the next few days. now, each of the civil rights organizations that sponsored the march was asked to contribute staff people to the march staff. and each organization contributed their public relations man, or woman, to the march staff. now, at the naacp which was the oldest organization, they gave -- i can member his name. what was his name? a public relations -- not john morrissette. it will come to me. this guy was kind of pompous, i thought him and it seemed to me that his job at the march was walking around making more announcements. yes, yes, yes.

it went on down this list of people who worked for the various -- henry lehman, that's who he was. henry lehman. he was a wonderful guy. but that was his job, the pr man for the naacp. he just went around making these pronouncements. there goes my favorite person, jesse jackson. [laughter] >> this is my man, my man. [applause] anyway, so henry lee moment when around making pronouncements and each publicity men for the other organizations, they have jobs, too. and i had two jobs. one of my jobs was passing out copies of john lewis' speech. all of the speakers at the march were asked to hand in printed copies of their speeches. and all of the speakers, except martin luther king, and that. and john lewis handed in his speech and we had many graft it.

you know, to some people here who don't know what ain't many graft means, but i would run passing out john lewis' speech it and john lewis had said in his speech, in his written speech, he said black people. nobody said black people than. we said negroes and colored people. and i thought because john said black people, that meant sncc was the most militant group there, and we were bad. we were bad. and so i tried to tell the reporters look there, he said black people can see that? he is saying black people. none of them paid any attention. but i had another job, too. and that was giving goal is to the movie stars. everybody who's been to the march has some memory. my major memory is this. i gave a coca-cola to sammy davis, jr. last night and he said, thanks, kid. [laughter] it was a wonderful moment. a wonderful moment.

now, we've been talking about and leadership and i thought does anybody know the name claudette golden? does that name ring a bell. some of you know that many. claudette was a young woman who was arrested on the bus in montgomery before rosa parks. but because because of her bad behavior on the bus and i think she had called the bus driver out of his name, as young people will do, they decided she would make a good plaintiff. because who knows what she might have said. but later, later she recalled -- she was called upon to testify in the court in the court case that really integrated the buses in montgomery. and the prosecutors said, who is your leader? and she said, i wrote it after she said we are all our leaders ourselves. [laughter] [applause] >> you met my wife a minute ago.

my wife and i came back to d.c. yesterday after spending a week in florida taking it easy. sitting by the beach, beautiful white sand, great blue water and taking it easy having a good time. and the couple of things happened while we were in florida. one in pensacola, a man, black man, sitting in his car, in his front yard where he lived with his mother. goes out to his car to get some cigarettes. and he goes in the car and is reaching down to get the cigarettes and his next-door neighbor sees them, thinks somebody is robbing his car. calls the police. the police, and shoot at him 17 times. 17 times. they hit him once. they had the naacp told me in florida, not in florida, at the head of the naacp at the county would never play said they should have fired them for being bad shots.

but they should have fired them for shooting at him at all, because an eyewitness to the thing said he held up his hands, like they said you. shot at him 17 times. and so we went to a rally for him, and at that rally a white couple testified that they've been in bed together, husband and wife, and they heard some noise. they opened the bedroom door and there were six policemen in their house who had come in through the window, who didn't have a warrant. and this was a week after this happened to i asked the woman, i said, why did they do this? she said, they never told us, never told us. so this, an introduction to us in philadelphia, i'm sure, and florida law enforcement, as if we needed and introduction after the trayvon martin -- it was a reinforcement of what we all have learned. now, we also had a wonderful

occasion while we were in florida. we drove to tallahassee, and we met the dream defendants. these young people who -- [applause] >> give them a big hand. give them a big and. [applause] >> these young people are taken over the state capitol and do it, to tallahassee with three demands in mind. the river and went to see them. harry belafonte went to see them. we went to see them. luckily for us we happened to go on the day they decided to end their city and. now, they have asked for three things. asked the government in meet with him and he said i will never met with him and he met within. asked the legislature to do something about these stand and defend laws. they said we will no -- we'll never do anything. they agreed to do them. asked the state education authorities if they would have meeting with him to talk about the classroom to prison pipeline. and they said we will never do it, and they have agreed to do

it. so that they could our work is done here, and -- [applause] we are going to move on. one thing they would do, this is a lesson for all of us. they will register at least 61,000 new voters in florida. [applause] now, why would they register 61,000? why not 62000 or 6000? because governor scott won his election by 61,000 votes. they're going to register 61,000 those who can vote him out. because he needs to come out. [applause] it was a great experience for us to see these young people, and jesse, they reminded me of us. they were like we used to be. they were tough, strong, committed, brave. just wonderful, wonderful young people, and they've got eight units around the state of florida. they will have one in every town where there's a college campus,

and as you, you spent the night there. we didn't spend the night. jesse spent the night there with them. but just wonderful young people. if you tell me where the young people, what the younger people are doing. tell them about the younger people we here tonight. tell them about the dream defenders in florida. and another thing that people ask you where's the movement, where's the movement going on? look at north carolina. north carolina just past the most vicious voter registration law in the country. know a lot is as bad in the law in north carolina. and i'm glad to know that colin powell today talked and talked and talked about this law like it was a dog. talking to an organization and business been in north carolina thing you all are ruining your economy for passing laws like this. good for you, colin powell. i haven't always agreed with colin kahl but i am with him on this. so anyway, one reason i was looking forward to this event tonight and the other events that will take place this week

is i knew it gave me the chance to see my old friends, all these people here i have known and known for a long time. i'm his grandfather before him. so it's a great pleasure to be in this company. it means a great deal to me and i'm happy to be here. and thank you all for letting me. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, chairman bond. we move on then to william "bill" lucy. and in this country we know that our first introduction or the continent of africa has been specific to south africa for us being involved as activists came to the urging and the leadership of william "bill" lucy. what do you want to say tonight, 50 years later? >> well, let me first say how thankful i am to be included in this group. those four on that side, they have been a part, the better

part of some 40 or 50 years of my engagement in social justice kind of stuff. i remember watching julian at the democratic national convention many, many years ago. i was taken by the fact is simply have captivated the delegates there. not just his persona but just with his vision, and his ability to interpret it, what we wanted out of political participation. i was fortunate to be a part of the naacp, on the board during his tenure as chairman. i just want to thank him. [applause] you know, myrlie, i'm not quite sure what to say. i felt kind of guilty loving myrlie and knowing who she was, how to do this. then i ran out of ways, pure and

simple. c. t., i'm not much of what street you were living but it was some march about something. and that always thought he was a states person but he always had this wisdom and vision to pursue his goals, but at the same time, make folks feel like they're doing themselves a favor. it's been a great experience just haven't opportunity to work with him. and reverend jackson, i just don't know what to say. in the trade union movement we've got a thing, -- [inaudible] they pay in full. we met during the course of a very difficult struggle in memphis, tennessee, where dr. king paid the ultimate price for his commitment to workers

rights, workers justice. and so over the years we have been sort of a strange famine of activists showing up wherever there was a fight to be made on behalf of of workers. and i can't tell you how much i have valued reverend jackson's friendship, his service, and we can't ever forget that some folks do -- some folks have got to get on check off. know what i mean? easy-to-use was bitterly. -- his views was paid early. when i first came to washington, i was told to look up a fellow by the name of norman hill. and he would set you straight on how washington, d.c. work. and i appreciate that because i was as green as a pool table and twice the square. [laughter] and norman was kind enough to talk to me about how

organizations worked in the district of columbia, and nationally. and i so much appreciated that, and we work together over the years. i just met this young fellow here but i knew his father and his uncle. great uncle. they were kind enough to show me how detroit worked and experience all of its own. but there's been a marriage between the civil rights movement and the social justice movement for a long time. and as we come to this 50th anniversary, i can recall watching mr. randolph, and certainly dr. king, in that sort of electrifying speech that was given that day, and i want to go back something myrlie said earlier, and that is the movement, i mean the media has really played with our mind for a long time. you know, the most exciting part

of dr. king's speech and when te that gave folks so much energy was when he talked about his dream, both for himself, his people and the nation as a whole. but dr. king said some stuff before he got to that part of the speech. that you very seldom hear folks talk about. he was just talking about we came to washington, d.c. you know, which was in a sense of promissory note written by the founders of the nation that spoke to the fact that we were entitled to some stuff. life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. and when i heard the speech, i was a young leader, a local unit of about 5000 folks. i thought i walked about that hot off the ground but i did really understand what the role was until that day. dr. king talked about the fact that we really are entitled to

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and this nation may well have given us a bad check, and that we had to struggle but it wasn't just black folk. it was black vote, white folk, all folks who were not really born with a silver spoon in their mouth. and i thought what can i do, and what should i be doing? and as time passed, nothing brought that home clear than memphis, tennessee. nothing spoke to the role that institutions should play and getting a helping hand to people who are willing to struggle than memphis, tennessee. and some of us have heard dr. king's last speech, but there have been amazing that night when he delivered that speech with a life altering experience. and when you see 1300 men who

are old before their time, broken down by the work that they did, but still willing to do that work is only wanted a fair shot at the american dream, i was -- alvin turner, one of the hardest working man you ever run into. he didn't ask for no special breaks. and as for no special treatment. just a chance to work and earn a decent living to care for himself and his family. i think 50 years ago, that's what that march was about. 50 years later, this march is about the same thing. to create an environment and an economy where people can live with some degree of dignity and respect. as they try simply to make the weight in this complicated system. and those of us who would gather, we don't even think that this started at the last march. we really need to remember, you

know, fannie lou hamer, and maybe jimmy lee jackson, and names that you may not hear on the evening news. we need to remember e.d. nixon. i mean, we need to remember joée williams and folks who just got caught up in the fight for fairness and justice. we look for the bright light. well, dim light makes bright light possible. getting a little bit away from the question, but there are thousands of people from we must not forget viola. we can't forget these names, because they helped make this happen. and you run into some folk, and the young folks, nothing's changed from 50 years.

there has been change. not enough, but there has been change. and it's our job and their job to carry on this. and i think the effort is in good hands. the young people who spoke year earlier really got the capacity and the vision to lead on from here. i'm just glad that folks let me put one or in the water some time back to help move the boat a little bit. and i want to thank all of the friends i mentioned before, because we've got a friendship that is a little bit deeper than what's your name? because we done walk together, cried together. and i just hope that the young people don't get caught so much up in themselves but gets committed to the mission. and if they do that we will be okay. [applause] >> wow. three words, jesse lewis

jackson. here we are. >> good evening. i apologize for coming in late. barbara arnwine is holding a major league you -- legal section on the constitutional rights issue, and then ron daniels has one over at the church about gender. so i tried to touch as many bases as possible. one of my concerns, reflect on over 1963, the decision i had to make was to risk losing my football scholarship because we had to report august 15. and i told the coach i just couldn't make it.

i took the risk of losing my scholarship. with his compassion, frankly, to make the adjustment. but i want to put some context of what made the speech -- [inaudible] isa deep in my heart i believe we will go downtown and march, stay at the hilton hotel. if we're going to organize the right to go downtown, we would need blockbuster ivers. what you talk about? all those were battles. we came to washington 1963. the scarecrows were out saying it would be a big right. the young resisters are coming. the city was under military law then. soldiers at the airport, ma train station and the bus

station. and people in d.c. were so afraid, most of them did not come to the march. multip -- [inaudible] it had become a lockdown that day. the second thing is that the day he gave that speech, from virginia to texas, there wasn't a single black juror. and that's why when emmett till was killed and all white jury free to the killer, wonder if they knew the killer was guilty but determined the killer's life was not worth going to jail. medgar was tried by an all white jury. the day we came to washington, black soldiers had to sit behind not pressures of war from american military bases. people like lena horne protested. they were not saying where

blacks could not sit with other soldiers. that was like a real protest at the time. you couldn't buy power johnson ice cream in the front door. could not rent a room at the holiday inn. [inaudible] or drive home not using a gps but drive home planet, alabama, birmingham or five points in memphis. you drove according the black crowd which was not a gps route. and so i've heard the student said, she never marched. you must understand, it was illegal to watch them change white mannequins close. i saw two guys sitting in the park this afternoon playing with

each other, laughing. we could not sit in the park. we could not sit. we were going to the cart but we had to hurry to somebody's house. we couldn't ride horses there. and so we were living on barbarism, living on the racial hegemony terrorism. and you do know that during that season, there were no white women on the court either because blacks couldn't vote but white women couldn't serve on juries and kill 67. and 18-year-olds couldn't vote. students did not vote on campuses to get to go home or vote absentee. and you had to vote bilingually. all this comes -- avec. some nameless, faceless. part of what made the speech so real, june 12. we lost a general. that was a reverberation.

mississippi was -- most black folks were for to go mississippi. they wanted to be freed so the bravest men and mississippi could be killed, so they children across our souls. that was june the 12th. the march in detroit -- [inaudible]. then the march, and right after the march. did the march make all these things happened? john kennedy killed november 22. in that same year this was tumultuous. the march, lyndon johnson comes in, our spirit drops. you mean they killed kennedy and we're going to get johnson? we did not know he would become the most productive resident second only to maybe abraham lincoln. lyndon johnson. public combination bill, lyndon johnson.

[inaudible] 92 pieces of legislation, lyndon johnson. no one can compare with what happened, the speech was a part of the rhythm of the season. and there were more or less people somewhere -- [inaudible]. and so it's important that we always look about some of people who made this possible. my last point is that the dream of 63 was not the dream of 68. our last staff meeting called -- saturday morning, [inaudible]. most of us are committed to something on saturday, on a friday afternoon. if we can't make it, we're busy. so we went out to catch a 7:00 playing and we missed the plane. we just missed the plane.

he said i knew it. 7:25, catch that one. so we can get a meeting. and dr. king said, i've had a tough week, said that -- [inaudible] thought about quitting. i've been having a migraine headache all week. i've been hurting. my friends have turned against me because of my position on the war. some of my board members are released to the press about my position on the war. black people have turned against him, many black preachers are not letting them go because of the position on the war. they went to houston with aretha franklin and harry belafonte, at the height of their careers and couldn't sell $5 tickets. they put to death in the van

when they left the church during that season. [inaudible] we did when the bus strike. we did, in little rock. we do have a civil rights act. we do have some public dignity. we do have the right to vote. we are going -- maybe that's as much as i can do. please don't talk that way. let me finish. everybody got real quiet. he said, maybe, to the point of death, [inaudible] all friends. we have different points of view. and were not as unified as we once were, but maybe because we are friends at least come to my bedside before i die, we can reunite and asked where. it was a very sad moment.

we're going to take a minus two applause. we're going to albany. and said we're going to stop by memphis and onto washington. the tens tents and the shantiesd all that in between where people stand saturday, a poor people's campaign with probably less than 25,000 would have shown up for the. that was the last big plan he had to give. does remind me, thank you, jesus thing first let us to pass i want to quit. then as he prayed, he said let die will be done. so we had the joy of august 28 when this dawn moving towards daylight. then we have the sun setting

your we have our own people confused and manipulated turned against the profit. he died with a broken heart. if we're going to do anything real, pick up where he left off. the issue of poverty on war. reconcile all this war and all these drones, killing innocent people, call them collateral damage. why detroit bankrupt? because of iraq. why is -- why is birmingham bankrupt? we are paying for that were. $2 trillion, not only -- killed 6000 americans, [inaudible] but killed 100,000 people, tour of a culture and ripped apart the region somehow god is not happy with it. martin left with the burden i hope the president speaks on this week, that no one can make

a commitment, public policy speech. not just motivation. that is to say, we need a constitutional right to vote. we need to revive -- [applause] we need to revive the war on poverty, these student loan debt forgiveness. we need to revive the integrity of the civil rights commission and the commitment to wipe out malnutrition. now, that's different than a celebration speech or march. in the 63 march it must be continuation not celebration. thank you very much. [applause] >> as we take a look and really understand that they pleasure that we've had tonight of hearing from these icons, i have

no idea what to say following that. there is no necessity to say anything more. and i follow my teacher -- >> i just want to say something, if i can find my glasses. right ear your -- right here. >> do you want mine? >> no. they will look funny. [laughter] this is from a book about john f. kennedy but it's just a page and a half of, jesse remind me of this, of the preparation washington made for the march on washington. listen to this. all elective surgery in the areas hospitals were canceled, freeing 350 bits arrived related emergencies. 1900 of washington's 2000 police officers worked 18 hour overtime shifts instead of the normal eight hours. police plotted 70 to potential disaster scenarios and planned response to each one but in the event of aight, aman uld be

stationed on every street corner in downtown washington's business district to guard against looters. they deployed 200 scott cars, 86 motorcycles, 20 jeeps come several police helicopters, 32 cranes to move broken down or disabled buses. local judges were placed on round-the-clock standby. 350 inmates were evacuated from the districts jails to create space for disruptive protesters. 2400 national guard then were sworn in as special officers and given temporary arrest powers. the guard made over 100 doctors and nurses available. government offices were shut down. get this, liquor sales were banned for the first time since prohibition. [laughter] because they know what you all would do. [laughter] on the day of the march, the district of columbia as jesse said was placed under virtual martial law. president kennedy ordered the biggest peacetime military buildup in american history. five military bases in the

capital outfit were bursting with activity and heavy armed, 4000 strong task force prepared for deployment. at fort myer, fort meade, quantico marine base and the naval station. 30 helicopters were sworn in to provide airlift capacity. fort bragg, north carolina, 15,000 special forces troops were placed on standby. 150 fbi agents were assigned to mean the with the crowd. is a good sign. missing from this human and mechanical are so were police dogs to washington six to a police dogs remain in their kennels on orders of robert kennedy to avoid a repetition of the ugly images of birmingham. and washington canceled its long-standing policy of allowing white officers to bar black policeman from the squad cars. and the administration station and official just at the right of the lincoln memorial to cut off switch and a record turntable. is militant protesters overran

the speaker's platform, the sound would be cut off and placed by recording of jackson saying he's got the whole world in his hands. [laughter] >> wow. unreal. >> i see sasha. sasha is going to close our program tonight with something very special. thank you, julian. but as we hear and appreciate all that has been done before us, with us, and continue along side of us, i think we all know that we've had a special treat this evening. with what we receive from these icons. [applause] >> i apologize being late. most people i know would have been in washington if they had known the moment, would have

been birmingham attacks, if they had known the moment. i mean, the moment passed them by. a moment is coming in north carolina. we shouldn't miss that moment. when they go to winston-salem and appalachia and take precincts off the campuses because students voting, that's a mode students all over america must gather to. there's good news, there's enough coaches in that state to fight back. that's the good news about the north, a lot of part of it. they've got three precincts that will have 9000 people in one precinct. the precinct was moved five miles from a college campus. that's already. and the reason i'm making this case about the president, even to him to do this voting rights

thing, unless we do this, we could lose half the black caucus by next year. because the supreme court makes raise more difficult as a factor among other factors. it makes that bar higher. and then it removes section four, leaves the car, the yacht, takes the key for me. can turn it on without section four. then if they decide what district is greensboro to charlotte? if they cut off 25%, we can keep that seat and we'll spend a lot of money can keep it but won't because they will take our numbers away. [inaudible] they cut 25% of that district off. that's going. this is a replay of the 1896 in like real-time. since the right to vote is a right to appoint judge and all that stuff, if we don't move

with a sense of urgency, of all the things we talk about, the right to vote is undermined in such a way that we lose half our officials. we will have been trapped in something very difficult and very dangerous in our lifetime. i hope we do not miss in all facets of separation, that i'm telling you all, we have a states right to vote. then 50 different states, and that, if you can the enemy, the constitution of the right to bear arms, what about the right to vote? and that goes to the heart of the old section four, section five. section four goes to section two and section five is meaningless. for all practical purposes, it has been taken back by this court and base a lot more time on gay rights and immigration, oath of which were important.

they gave issue and immigration the next day, they put the voting in middle of it. and the trayvon thing, i think this voting thing kind of got lost in the mix, right, julian? i just lost in the mix. but my friends, to show how low they are, when the virginia officials came to the inauguration just 80 miles from richmond, they changed the law when they knew they were out of time. this is richmond next target in north carolina has displaced mississippi in its intent to undermine. so that's why i want us to have a sense of solomon us. this is not exactly about a celebration march the what made the march i think the most important is that we had to do it. so there was a sense of urgency. we didn't have the options.

[inaudible] if attacked from illinois when distributing they would create trouble. so even driving on attack in another state. that is why medgar -- without to discuss me to suffer such a pivotal. [inaudible] that was the blow. medgar evers has gone down in the state peoples are afraid to. medgar went something, we lost our hearts for a minute. we could do was cry and keep fighting. i was arrested for trying to judge in this, a week before. now, all that that was -- and thousand of us went to jail. so that this whole thing swept us. most people can get to washington but they can march where they live.

people marched -- today we were in washington, she was in jail getting beat by black prisoners in mississippi. the police, sheriffs told if you be sure we will be queued so they beat her unconscious. they told the black prisoners beach you are -- be her or we will beat you. i think -- [inaudible] those who are talking have enough knowledge of this convention of what's really going on. i went a couple of sessions with people, and often -- [inaudible] landmarks matter. landmarks matter. landmarks matter. and the poem, the of the poem across the jordan river. you know they don't swim across.

you all know about the waters. you know how you got across. the children have to come. they will say what about this? unless you tell them they won't know. they will achieve our success defaults recent and they will not make success. i hope though, like 60, [inaudible] i'm in seminary trying to judge the movement for a year to study. then when you get hit in the mouth, all of us blessed. i can only tell this to c. t. because it's so unbelievable. when i went to selma the next day, they were still looking for c. t. to kill him. they went down to the right and they saw the sheriff coming to cut c. t. off. we cut up through the projects. and i said -- we jumped out of

the car and ran in the house. the door was open. who's in my house? i suggest man we are interest. why? we are avoiding the issue. isa c. t., come on. she say, who are y'all? we say, we are with dr. king. she said sure enough? i suggest man. she said i trust you all. c. t. said yes, ma'am. let's have per. y'all got to declare you won't tell on me. and she said i watched the rise of there. and this man who had a caller on, when he walked out, these men to you to come the all the time walked around with sticks and they begin. they came back in their blood on the stick and they were laughing. so when the chinese man said he did not know who killed the reverend, he now. we left, right, that house and went over to house an and dr. kg

was on the bed study. he called bobby kennedy. that's how they caught those guys so quick, because they chased us in the house. you can only call that the guard factor. and dr. king then followed up and said we know who knows who killed reverend rita. that's what happen. so spirituality was not just eating seeds and looking at script. it was rooted in god giving us across the river. love you guys so much. thank you. [applause] >> wow. this is been quite of the presentation tonight. but does -- please, please, please. [applause]

>> the southern christian leadership conference is holding its 55th annual convention here in washington with bell discussions explore the issues of race, discrimination and voting rights in america. we will have that life here for you on c-span2 starting at 4 p.m. each and. events mark the 50th anniversary of the march on washington will continue tomorrow with a rally from the steps of the lincoln memorial to the site of where dr. martin luther king gave his 1963 "i have a dream" speech. speakerphone for the reverend al sharpton, martin luther king iii, attorney general eric holder, georgia coverage than john lewis and other members of congress and civil rights leaders. live coverage starts at 9 a.m. eastern tomorrow on our companion network c-span. and another event marking the anniversary of the march on washington. the reverend jesse jackson reflected back on dr. king's speech and the challenges facing african-americans today. >> so today's challenges i think would be this. one, i think as what should the

president said on this coming wednesday, how you compare with dr. king? it's a false comparison. comparing him to president, not a preacher. we are meeting a president, not inspiration. we need legislation and appropriation. what do we need now? we need a constitutional right to vote, not for the states right to vote. that's how you end up losing north carolina. [applause] what do we need now? we need a war on poverty. 31 cities black joblessness is above 40%, and six above 50%. so in new york where black joblessness is about 50%, it should be dropped and employ, not stop and frisk. [applause] today's -- student loan debt forgiveness your student loan and credit card debt. [applause] today is a dream revise the civil rights commission, a conscious of our government.

today must be a -- [inaudible]. restore housing laws because the bank thievery and immigration policy that includes haiti and africa as well. but i closed by saying there's too much hate, too much violence and too much war. but we have the power, this is not -- it is a continuation march, but our gender -- [inaudible]. thank you very much. [applause] >> and that entire event is a build on our website at c-span.org. president obama this afternoon is wrapping up his two-day bus tour highlighting the high cost of college education for middle-class families with an event at lackawanna college in scranton, pennsylvania. the president will be joined by vice president joe biden.

and coming up tonight, texas senator ted cruz will be delivering the keynote address at a fundraiser hosted by the new hampshire republican party and the city of dublin. senator cruz who is considering a presidential run will be introduced by new hampshire center kelly ayotte. the road to the white house coach will begin at seven eastern tonight on c-span. >> let's begin with one of our best bars, james baldwin. what brought you to the march on washington? >> i could say the fact i was born and eager in this country. more concretely, i felt there was no reason for me not to be involved with what is one of the most significant and most important, most loaded demonstration to free americans. that has never happened in this country. >> up until very recently like

most americans i expressed my support of civil rights largely by talking about it at cocktail parties. but again, like many americans, this summer, i could no longer pay only lip service to a cause that was so urgently right and into time that is so urgently now. >> sunday, american history tv marks the 50th anniversary of the march on washington with historic and contemporary roundtable discussion. archival films, a visit to the national portrait gallery, a theater performance on the 1960s civil rights movement and firsthand accounts of the day. that starts at 1 p.m. eastern, part of american history tv every weekend on c-span3. >> our 50th anniversary coverage of the march on washington continues now with the discussion on race, the criminal this -- criminal justice system and despair to pick the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law yesterday hosted a group of speakers that included acting assistant

attorney general jocelyn samuels and attorneys from the naacp along with trayvon martin's family. >> good evening, everyone. good evening, good evening. thank you so much for joining us this evening. i would like as a primary matter remind everyone to please put yourself on, all your mobile devices on site. because we are going -- simon. we are very fortunate today that c-span is going to be covering this event. so we encourage you right now to please put all of your mobile devices on silent. how do i start? what an important occasion that brings us all together on this stage. we want to thank you for joining us, for our discussion on the unjust relationship between race and the criminal justice system.

this is part of a lawyers' committee for civil rights under law moving america towards justice discussion theory. -- series. this is also a special march on washington event. we are privileged today to have a dynamic group of individuals who will guide our conversation this evening around the complicated relationship between race and the criminal justice system. i will provide at the appropriate time a brief introduction for each panelist. they would then be allowed a short amount of time to present their area of expertise and focus, and then we will open the floor after i have a series of brief questions to the panel. will open the floor for your questions. and i hope that you have

submitted, gotten of the cards, have written your questions and, that you will be holding them up so our people can collect them and bring them to me to read during that period. however, before we get to the panel, it is such a pleasure for me to introduce the president of the national bar association, ms. patricia rosier. [applause] and just a few words, just a few words. i just can't have her come. she is the president of the national bar association, the nation's oldest and largest association of african-american voters and justice. she has dedicated a major portion of her life work to the national bar association. think about this, everyone. she has attended every convention of the nba since 1980.

she began her journey in the association by joining the, lawyers division. cinch was at that time staff attorney for the u.s. securities and exchange commission, as well as the women's lawyers division but when she became assistant general counsel for american general life insurance company, she joined the institutional corporate law center. subsequently, she became chair of, became a member of the nba board of governors and after becoming general counsel for american general securities corporation, she was inducted into the 2012 washington bar association hall of fame. [applause] >> all right. although a native of the great state of texas, my dad's home state, and if you go there you see a whole lot of our minds, she currently resides in maryland. she has three children and one grandson and in addition your legal career she is a certified

motivational speaker, author and collector of women's movement. at this time, please give a good hand as we welcome pat rosier to bring opening remarks. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i want to thank barbara arnwine and the lawyers committee for inviting me to participate in this very special march on washington event. ..

that include criminal justice. at the time when more african-american men are being incarcerated rather than educate, and the number of african-american females being incarcerated is growing at ab alarm -- an alarming rate, we must stand our ground to eliminate racial profiling and disparities and prosecution and sentencing. just as the national bar stood its ground to help change disparity in the criminal justice system between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine, we will continue to stand our ground to eliminate all the disparities that still exist in the application of our criminal

law. the national bar association is ready, willing, and able to stand its ground for justice, and we will not be moved. thank you. [applause] at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce john greenbaum, chief counsel to the lawyer's committee. who will introduce a special guest from the department of justice. john. [applause] goodgood evening, everybody. one of the first thing they'll look at is the attorney general of the united, erick holder, who has been such a mover in moving this country forward on racial issues. we saw another great move toward

that today when the department of justice filed a lawsuit against texas against their voter id law. now, attorney general doesn't do this all by himself, he does it through the civil rights division, and we have speaking with us tonight the head of the civil rights division, the samuel. mo is going to talk about the department of justice's effort on issues like incarceration, and eliminating some of the racial disparities. the attorney general gave a speech two weeks ago at the american bar association talking about what the department of justice is going to do to confront these issues. and joscelyn is going to talk about them tonight. if you look at joscelyn background's it's

extraordinary. she was the principle deputy assistant attorney general and has been part of the leadership of the civil rights division during the entire obama administration. prior to that, ms. samuels were the -- national women's law center. prior to that she was labor counsel to ted kennedy. she was at the equal employment opportunity commission. so she has an extraordinary background in area civil rights. she's going talk to us about this initiative that the justice department is moving forward with, then at the end of her presentation, we're going to turn it over back to barbara and start our panel. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you, john. i appreciate the fact that you did not add to your remarks the fact i helped so many job must mean i'm old. i'm delighted to be here tonight with all of you. i would like to extend a special thanks and congratulations to the lawyers' committee. this is a huge year for the lawyers' committee. it's a huge week for all of us. thank you so much, barbara, for inviting me to participate. thank you for all who worked at the lawyers' committee does which is so critical to helping to eliminate discrimination in country and help to realize the promise of dr. king's legacy. i'm delighted to be here. i thank you for all of the phenomenal work you do toward social justice. this is an extraordinary week

because, as of of course, everyone knows fifty years ago, a week from yesterday, will we'll be marking dr. king's ""i have a dream" speech" over the past five decades, we have certainly made tremendous strides toward realizing the uniquely american promise of equal justice and equal opportunity. as you are all way ware -- aware the job is not done. there is much work that remains. we are acutely aware of the impact that the criminal justice system has on communities of color. i thought that there might be no better way to describe that impact than in the words that the attorney general used when john mentioned, he gave a speech to the american bar association about two weeks ago in which he

announced a series of initiatives to try to address racial disparities in criminal justice proceedings. he said, we must also confront the reality that once they are in the criminal justice system, people of color often face harsher punishment their peer. one deeply troubling report released last february indicates that in recent years, black male offenders have received sentences that are nearly 20% longer than those imposed on white males convicted of similar crimes. this isn't just unacceptable. it's shameful. it's unworthy of our great country and our great legal that -- tradition. those were the words of the attorney general. [applause] and he also recognized and spoke

to the lifelong impact that these dispar if i and sentencing and harshness in the criminal justice system can have on the lives of people who are subjected to them. it can subject people, again, he is such an eloquent guy. i thought i would quote from him. , a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many americans and weakens too many communities. many aspect of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate the problems rather than alleviate them. that is not what we want our criminal justice system to do, and so attorney general holder has announced a a series of initiatives most notably we will not seek mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent low-level drug offenders. he asked u.s. attorneys around the country to come together to

come up with other recommendations about how to address sentencing disparity. as you know, in 2010, the president signed the fair sentencing act, which eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum for possession of crack cocaine while reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powered cocaine. these are extremely important initiative. i want to talk a little bit, i mean, a little bit. we are ankle bracelet -- anxious to hear the wonderful panel. about work the civil rights division has been doing and continue doing over the coming months. because while there are huge problems to confront, i'm proud to report that i think we have enjoyed some real successes and a difference in the lives of people who are subject to unjust and unfair criminal punishment.

of course, that unfairness starts with children. we might think that this just problem for adults. in reality what we see in far too many cases what has been called the school to prize -- pipe line. young students are funneled not in to graduation and a life of economic self-sufficient if i but in to prison often as disciplined for what are minor infractions in school. we have spent a fair amount of time trying to address the school-to-prison pipeline and work with school districts and communities around the country to ensure that schools adopt the kind of positive behavioral supports and other initiatives that will reduce their reliance on law enforcement officers, to deal with school discipline

matters, and will ensure that are aware of the ways in which too often young people get fulled in to the -- funneled to the criminal justice system. just earlier this year we entered to a settlement agreement with the school district of columbia -- district in mississippi we found truly egregious example of disproportionate suspension, expulsion. a black male high school student was told by one of his teachers when he got older, he would either be in hell or in jail. he was suspended and subsequently arrested for wearing the wrong -- [inaudible] there was another black male high school student, an administrator asked him to talk his shirt in to his pants. he refused. the principal grabbed him in a head lock and the school

security officer sprayed the student with mace. he was then arrested and sent to the juvenile detention center. these kind of examples are horrible. they have lifelong -- often lifelong consequences for the students treated in this way. often times that i are unlawful. that's where the justice department can come in. we enforce the laws that bar discrimination by schools based on race, national or origin, sex and religion. we went there and investigated and found black students frequently received harsher disciplinary consequences including longer suspensions. even when they were at the same school, similar ages and similarities plin their history. our settlement agreement with them is a far reaching

comprehensive plan to ensure they can manage school behavior, which everyone agrees is a critical role in a way that is fair and avoids the school-to-prison pipeline. we call for training. for age-appropriate responses. for other practices to improve school climate, for a clear understanding of the role of school resource officers so they are not used to address school discipline on a regular everyday basis. data collection and reporting. so we can be sure they live up to the commitment they make. we hope it will become a model around school districts around the country. we are working with others to ensure that students across the country have the benefit of what we all know works in terms of

school disciplinary practices. we are also addressing this from the other end of the pipeline, the juvenile justice end. in shelby -- in shelby county, tennessee. , we discovered there were huge violation of some of the statutes we report in the juvenile court and juvenile processing system. we found that black youth were statistically more likely than similarly situated white to be driven deeper to the juvenile system. they -- the system failed to hold timely probable cause hearings for children's arrested without warrants. didn't protect children from self-incrimination during probation conferences. it didn't hold hearing for children's before transferring them to adult court. so we entered in to another comprehensive settlement that will ensure that the juvenile justice system in shelby county,

tennessee. provides to students the protections they deserve. students and all young people. that call for ensuring that every child hassed a exit counsel. because one of the things that we have to ensure is that the legal defense system works as intended to. and people accused of crimes have access to the counsel they are of guaranteed by the constitution. we're also working with police departments, biased policing, as you know is ineffective. it doesn't work to serve the goal of the police department. it's unlawful and unfair. and serve the police department's goal of effective community safety.

finally, the last thing i would note is that we filed a statement of interest in the new york stop and frisk case, the decision in that case came down just about ten days or ago or so. maybe less. it went too late -- to the remedy if the court found if they found the practice were discriminate our. one of the things we urnlted that the judge consider appointing independent monitor to evaluate the police department's come plielings. we found that a monitor can be extremely effective in dreationz violation of constitutional right that judges find, they can provide an objective assessment of whether a police department is in fact being adhering to the

compliance goals to which they agreed. they can increase community confidence in the sustainability and the meaningfulness of the reform. so we were happy to note that the judge in the case not only credited the idea that there should be a monitor, and appointed one. but indicated that we should be further involved to consult with the monitor over time. we are looking forward to being involved in that process. so i've spoken longer than i intended. i apologize. i'm going have to run out. but i just want to say in closing that it is our goal to advance dr. king's call for the nation to live up to fundamental ideals of fund, liberty, and equality for all. we welcome your partnership in our efforts. we're so grateful for all that you do. and thank you, again, for inviting me to be here tonight.

[applause] >> if everyone has probably observed, we have a very special guest in the audience today to participate on this panel. i am so delighted. he's a native south carolinan. a student leader while at and at university in greensboro, north carolina. he's where he lead marches, protests, where he was often threatened with discipline and rip maned for his engagement as student leader. he went on to become one of the closest companion to the

dr. luther king. he watched state after state, city after city, with dr. king and was with him on that tragic day april 4, 1968. he thrilled the nation in 1984, and 1988 when he ran for president! [applause] he is an international force to be reckoned with. a counselor to presidents, a counselor to member -- minister, a download national leaders, internationally, globally, he freed prisoners. the iranian -- he freed in 2012 prisoners in

africa facing the death penalty. he has been a companion to president clinton. he's a voice for the voiceless, he's a hero for our time! i introduce to you and call upon to make special remarks. the reverend jesse lewis jackson! [applause] [applause] >> good afternoon. [inaudible] voices that matter.

and corrupt politicses she stands out. it makes all of us feel better about ourselves. give her a big hand, please. [applause] >> i really want to make several kind of basic observations. one, i was here in 1963 as a student. i just left jail in greens borrow, north carolina. didn't center enough during that season. met some of my friends around the nation that come from fresh jail. fear for their lives as they saw the change the system. one thing i want to say to you

today that is so basic, i keep hearing people talk about where is the dream? there is no one dream. the dream kept expanding. it goes to cracks searching for the light. it's the dream of 1963 but not the dream of 1968. not in an effective order. when the president was lead to believe that the march was threatened the airport the train station. and similar fear to the

government and most -- the day of the manch was so different than today. most came in their cars. you cannot buy ice cream in howard johnson. you cannot rent a room at the holiday inn. you couldn't use -- you had to go by where you could stop at certain restaurants. and certain relative's homes during that season. not uncommon to see ph.d., lawyers, doctors have to go behind cans to -- during that day, african-american soldiers had to

sit behind pow in the military bases. sometimes like -- [inaudible] not perform on bases. had to sit behind the p. o. w. for fighting for our country didn't have the rights as they had. the day he gave that speech was a we could not swim in the pool. all of those are -- we cannot use the roller rink. there were no black jurors in the south. there were no black voters. jurors come from voters. and know elected officials. dr. king talk about --

[inaudible] it was in real time because we couldn't go to the zoo. most of us go to zoos only on special days unless they had something else to do that day then it was counsel. they could not go to storm mountain georgia theme park. that is part of me that resonates. in real time i already saw -- it was not the dream speech. it was the broken promise speech. the dream was delivered for the climax of creative imagination. he said i have -- years of slavery all the years ago, mr. lincoln. you promised. for the emancipation proclamation. without the e emancipation. you promise yet here we are here

today with the promissory note, insufficient. i dream of a day when the broken promise is gone and that remains a focus on the -- [inaudible] because there's no budget attached to a dream. there's a budget attached to the broken promises. and they remain broken today. and i am hoping that james earl ray -- the marcher. but we must not -- commercialism kill the matter. he was a cutting-edge. the dream in '63 was to involve -- [inaudible] the treatment in '65 was a right

to vote. we didn't understand enough about it to deal with -- it took us twenty five years to get past jury manneddersing and the purging schemes. and fete to those who see it as a black issue. blacks cannot vote. there was no white woman on the supreme court in 1965. blacks had the right to vote in '65. those serving in vietnam that was impetus for giving them the right to vote. they were on campuses in 1974 which is what north carolina is seeking to strike down now. [inaudible] do it back to '74 civil rights

case. blacks, white women, 18-year-old, colored student, and white women enrolled in the same coalition. think about politics in the mind of that element of people. think about the politics minus the black vote, minus the women vote, minus 18-year-old and access to capitalists. that would be a very different america. that is the america now on attack. lastly, on this i'm concerned that we appeal to the president. one of them is that we need -- we have sufficient motivation. we need a poll of that. the voter fact deserve if it's legal if there is an amendment for the right to bear arms it

should be the right was no longer to be limited to various scheme or states with you deserve the constitutional right to vote. [inaudible] by police or security guards. -- [inaudible] price people don't have to pay when they do it. we have been hit the last two dais about the killing in north

in oklahoma about the two blacks and the white kids that were driving. the kinds wasn't driving -- [inaudible] he walked away. he was not charged the same as others. he's not p the three. they compare it to the -- trayvon martin case. t not trayvon martin. it's two white and last june in oklahoma. [inaudible] it's all wrong that there is no joy, there are no victories in it. but the attempt to distort reality i think if we come out of this week about the last address. i was in washington preparing.

go past memphis and come to washington. you couldn't have stood the -- [inaudible] and shacks and the lip con memorial almost the washington memorial. way beyond the basin we brought a native american and progressive in new york and the native american and blacks from the deep south neighbor even go to jail for act of civil obedience. from the war on poverty and vietnam. you felt the budget of the moral document. so we must -- honor the economic and liberated tradition of in these i can't help but think in new york the research 31 seconds unemployment

jobless black males. six is 50% or more. six new yorkers want the six. 50% or more black male jobless. stop and frisk should be stop and employ. stop a car, do you have a job sir? do you have health care, sir? sir, do you have a chance to go to school, sir? do you have a trade skill, sir? not stop and frisk. to the and employ which seem to be. in all of the discussion about -- i watched the so-called liberal argument never bring up -- 50% unemployment poverty is a fact, i think, in this situation. some of you think this session all you do and --

[inaudible] session on sports and the voting rights and poverty at the grand heights starting at 2:00. make that session tomorrow. we must accept responsibility. not dismiss our children who are athletes dumb jock. i cannot think about the rule of jack johnson while reduced a -- [inaudible] it was illegal for blacks to look at them changing on -- [inaudible] took the culture head on and hit a white man and beat him created riot around the country. he was the fundamental breakthrough force as of his time.

he's buried in chicago. we're intend to honor him in his grave because of what he meant to the country, the race, and what he means to -- [inaudible] thank you very much. >> that was awesome. thank you so much, reverend. at this time, it is my pleasure to introduce our panel. i do want to just remind everyone what reverend said as the lawyer's committee is cosponsoring with southern christian leadership conference and rainbow push tomorrow a special sports pack. we're going to have nfl great andre colins. we're going to have representatives from the nba, w nba, boxing.

it's going to be quite a panel i hope you will join us. i do serve in addition to all the other things i do. i do serve as the co-chair on the sports committee for rainbow push. [laughter] i look forward to seeing you tomorrow. please join us at the grand hyatt beginning at 2:15. there h other panels on poverty and voting rights. with a rep seption that evening. we hope people will join us. thank you, reverend. i noted you were scheduled to be gone before now. thank you, thank you. thank you. [applause] all right. we have a star panel. we weren't playing when we put this program together. we have some of the nation's greatest minds and greatest litigators and greatest leaders and lawyers in the entire united states on this panel. it is my pleasure, because they

have traveled from everywhere to be with us, and such a great honor to recognize them today and hear their wisdom and share in their thoughts. the first panel that i'm so happy to introduce is juan. he's a constitutional and civil right attorney who is the president and general counsel of latino justice. one of the nation's leading civil rights public interest law offices that representatives latinos and latinas throughout the united states and works to increase their entry to the legal profession. he recently was something you've heard a little bit about. last week on tuesday he was and is co-counsel for the plaintiff in the new york city stop and frisk case!

[applause] he has also a former moo nice pal court judge in hoboken, new york. and currently rutgers university . has written numerous article on constitutional and civil rights issue and political representation marginalized community especially puerto rican and latino communities has begun litigating and publishing articles on the effect of has imprisonment on latino communities. will you welcome -- join me in welcoming juan. [applause] not to be outdone. we also have on this panel a woman of tremendous intellectual power. one of the former president of the national bar association.

she's a generally counsel to national association for the advancement of color. mrs. kim. [applause] complex medical malpractice, mediation, and arbitration, litigate in counseling and public serving. she served -- uh-uh. there it goes. to nationally recognized law firms more than 18 years, and most important to me is not only is she an incredible and sister civil right on the law.

[applause] also on the panel someone you have seen all over the news. dominated our nation's imagination over the last year. because of the horrible -- she one of the attorneys for trayvon martin. daryl d. parks! [applause] daryl parks a partner in the law firm. they have been -- [inaudible] and the u.s. supreme court. as lifetime member of the national bar association. darrell park held leadership positions over the last 16 years

including been a former president to the national bar. daryl's civil engagements very uncommon and represents an willingness to make a difference in the lives of others both here and abroad. he has made every lawyer in this country who cares about social justice proud in showing us new form of advocacy about how you can really represent a family. how you really can do this work and make sure that the nation understands the legal implication for the work being done and the moral implications. please join me again in welcoming daryl d. parks. [applause] last but not least. my colleague.

he's the lawyer's committee executive director. a position he has held -- i want everybody hear this. a position he has held since 1971. [applause] we need long time colleagues. it takes multiple generations to win a war. we have to have intergeneration nalt workt. he's been incredibly creative directer. he guided the committee for virtually his entire life. developing -- so well known under his leadership the committee has grown from a two-lawyer staff with a relatively small docket to the current staff of 28 including 16 attorneys and a docketed of over 100 active cases. [inaudible]

in addition to his work in developing the lawyer's committee overall program agenda, he served as counsel in a dozen of cases including various practice in federal court including argument before several u.s. courts and u.s. supreme court. you know his cases. prior to joining the committee, he was a staff attorney for the national lawyer's committee for civil rights. in the government of assistance knee ya ministry of economic affair and government planning. he served the representative for congressman lowen sign of new york, please, please, join me in welcoming him. [applause] at this time, i'm going start with daryl and we're going to have each panelist give a three-minute overview of their

reflections and concerns about the criminal justice system. the unjust relationship between race and the criminal justice system. thank you very much. good evening to everyone. very happy to be with the committee, and to have been very active especially as nba president and glad the president is here as well. she didn't get a chance to say it in introduction. she has an interesting program going on with sports and the national bar is doing what you are doing with the reverend. i think there is chance to collaborate. >> i think i have a another panel. >> i appreciate her leadership in that issue. very important issue. when i first became a lawyer, i used to a bunch of criminal cases, as many of you know tend to be a great training grown for

young lawyers, if you want to get in. and probably most importantly a lawyers getting respect from the lawyer and judges. we spent a ton of time in obscure places trying a lit any of different type of cays throughout the state of florida. and oftentimes i used to wonder what would it take to really change our system? it wasn't until the country was on the brink of going broke and they talk about how do we reduce the budget? then i start to hear an interesting conversation about spending too much money on criminal justice. it started with a small dialogue on the fact we're spend too much money. and, you know, as i practice law as a young lawyer we would get involved in the cases. i used to call the old burger king cases in the state of florida. if you haven't been to your

girlfriend's house and the fight broke out and some minor offense was committed you got charged with burglary. all the sudden you find yourself facing a life felony because you have a situation that was domestic between you and -- nobody was majorly hurt. that used to bother me a lot. we began to do less crm. i used to reflect. the great thing right now we have come to a point of trying to find common sense solution. i can tell you i viewed the problem in three different level as practicing law lawyer. i see the issue of race and criminal justice system and the law enforcement level. second, i see it at the prosecutor level, and thirdly, i see it as the judges. and i have taken in those phases. law enforcement level i'm -- i had a kid that found himself

in a situation. we got a call at 3:00 in the morning and i had to run to a police station. it was the kid, the cop, and me. so i looked at the cop and said if he tells you the truth, will you cut him loose? he said yes, i will. i said tell him what you know. he let the kid go. i won't tell you the offense. it wasn't a very serious offense. but i reflect on that more. at that point, i would later learn in my career that if you ever get the other people involved that never happens. if you deal with it then and deal with the one officer you have a great officer. i learned so much that night. i later learned when i get in situations the sooner question deal with it the better. that's why i thought it became important we have an advocate for anemia law enforcement. because in so many different situations we pick pick on law enforcement officers in arbitrary ways. as i have grown though as a

lawyer, and had some exposure to the fbi, i have really learned as even more critical that we have people involved in the fbi. i reflected on a situation where i had a friend of mine a sitting chief of police in a southern -- town he was accused of and plead to a minor offense. we would later learn that the witness was recanted. she lied. when the fbi agent goes to speak with her, the first thing he said, have you changed your testimony? i'm going have to take you to jail. i'm probably not changing. i thought it was interesting. that agent had a change to do something really good. and t funny. i was a little bit more involved to the situation. i went to the person serving in the governor and said, you know, you guys have a swag going on. our state, the governor of florida has a lot of power, at

least to elected officials what he can do to discipline our have some influence on the position. and i said, you know, you know about the situation yet you all have not moved on it. and he said, you know, we believe that the guy was probably innocent, but we don't believe we can go against a sitting prosecute. that bothered me. i thought they had a chance to do something really good. well, that kind of took me down the road of law enforcement can be so positive in things you can do. one thing that i found though is that moving to the prosecutor's side of things 0 often i don't know how many are you involved in the state level prosecutors reelected. and one of the issues i have seen, barbara, is most of the people tend to support prosecutors tend to be seventy -- conservative people. i would go to fundraisers in my

town that is 40% black and the fundraisers there would be no black people but me or one or two ores. that was bothersome to me. because -- i knew then the people in that room probably had the greatest influence on the prosecutor and those were the supporters. i could see why the thinking was a little different because the election most politicians and most period of their career he tended to have those people around him. so that concerned me. the other way i look at prosecutors or adults who are appointed and the appointment process of judges. i don't know if you notice the people we tend to put on the bench tend to play a big row. the a few times we have a change to enforce judgeses in personal relationships or i actually use in a different way, kim, in the appointment process. people come in front of my commission, i take advantage of

the opportunity and ask the probing questions. which what you tend to see sometimes with the lawyers mostly believe you should be judges entitled to or qualified. that is part of it. i tend think you want to have people who have a high sense of consciousnd. you put -- [inaudible] and one of the national department a guy named john from chicago. he was serving as an appellate court judge. he found a case that bothered him. he wished the person was released from jail. i was moved by the conviction. when i said in the appellate and federal district commission in florida as well, i sometimes didn't think i saw those type of people. i was compel bid the justice they lead by that. more son than they believed they

to be a judge. that's why they should be appointed. i think we ought to use the opportunity to make sure those people who sit there as judges have a very high sense of consciousness about delivering justice. not just about -- and they deserve it. i think we ought to put that piece of the puzzle in there. you gate different type of outcome. thank you. >> thank you. great, great. [applause] >> thank you. can you hear me now? >> thank you. good evening. how is everybody doing? >> good. >> i was lucky enough to be part of the panel. i was hearing d.c. on business. i'm very, very very happy to be here. i'm one of the attorneys in new york. which is actually the case related to and joined with --

[inaudible] which barbara mentioned last week or so that the stop and frisk program is unconstitutional. i want to ask you a question, quickly. and talk more about the case. the criminal justice system is broken on so many leaflets i need to tell you all that the criminal justice system is broken for latino americans and latinos in the country as well. the exacerbation of a criminal justice system -- actually call it what it is. a punishment in industry. we do punishment very well in the united states. we still incarcerated more persons per per capita than any country in the world regardless of their -- we put more people behind bars in the united states because it

becomes social to us. it's a social tool that is visited upon and creates havoc on african-american community. it's creating havoc in latino community. as a result, what we're dealing with in new york city, is that intersection between policing, which makes sense, and police which is completely the kind of issues that have to be done in the community. when policing is aggressive and it results in a kind of issues we deal with in new york 4.4 million stops and san franciscos over a course of years in che with are being told by both the mayor and the police commissioners it's necessary to prevent crime before it happens, which is why we talk black and latino youth and older individuals too. not just young people. it becomes prevention and

preemption. which you know well in washington, d.c., about the war -- [inaudible] . million. let me end with a quick note for you. today in the city council of new york, the city council voted just a few hours ago to override the veto of the mayor of new york. >> yes! [applause] >> and create a special monitor for at the city police and add and make sure that racial profiling is not part of the city's administrative code so as not used by the police department in new york. the reason why i think that's not because it's a good decision but the city council is now in 2013 the -- how do you think it happened?

because a voting rights act of 1967. because of section five of the voting rights action in new york city which applies between counties. the same individuals who now look like us who are acting like us. they're representing our interest. they are overriding veto when they make sense and finally standing up to a notion we have to prevent crime before it starts and target black lane teen people and make them pay the high price of humiliation, degradation, and dignity. quote, unquote, make the city safe. today city council acted and because of the voting rights act we're able to do that. the other thing that happens in a city like new york you can imagine everywhere else is when you get the occasional black or latino elected official, they act because they because what

they lived. these are experiences. governor patterson, black man from harlem, outlawed the documentation and data base of anybody stopped and frisked million daf that entries were being kept by the n.y.p.d. for all purposes. he made it illegal. they had to get rid of those. as you know, 90% or more 95% of people who get stopped and frisk are innocent and don't get charged with anything. why it would be kept in the data base? his comment when he signed the bill was i got stopped and frisked myself. that's just -- we finally have people who we elect that live our same experiences and very, very and to -- dispute what it means to be stopped. what it means to be questioned, what it means to be a suspect

even though you have done nothing wrong. finally, the voting rights act and circle of polices and just policing and really good polices has come to fry ice. that's what they're dealing with in new york city. [applause] >> i want to pick up where he left off. i believe we live in this "perfect storm" right now. , i mean, fifty years ago, they marched for jobs and justice. even though on saturday people won't have to have food in the cars and will will be port potties and all the hotels are filmed and if you don't have a room you can't get one now. i want you to know we need march for jobs and justice. [applause] for us at the naacp it's 25-day

job. marching new york against stop and frisk or whether it's being in sanford, florida so nay could have a hearing it's not just trayvon martin. trayvon martin is a single -- symbol to all the other trayvon martins. the fact of the matter it's a community that said it's the last black boy who will die and no one will know about it. they had so many murders of black children in that community unarmed it was like the last straw. and that's the story that nobody really tells. they had a police chief who fit -- because there was nothing to investigate. this was a man who had no toxicology test that night. we don't know nothing about how his blood alcohol was. so you had a community that was just fed up. you have the communities all over the country and the topic today is about how your color

impacts your justice. i think that's important people forget that. i think we reached a point where things are going so well we forgot to talk about all the things that still needed to be done and why we had to finish. this fifty years should be about how we finish. the fact of the matter is, that we weren't finished. [applause] we reached our a point in our history we weren't talking about it. just as they bended unjustice here and there whether they're brown, yellow, red, black until we get it right as a nation. a nation that has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. until we get this right we'll have to keep doing this. i continue want to be here fifty years from now. i will be old enough to make it back for the next one. this is just so important because our children are being targeted and the fact of the matter is we need to share the story.

i was going share with you briefly about john mcneil in georgia. a man who stood on the ground. he was on the property in his house and a man -- a white man came and threatened him and his son with a knife. even know he called 9-1-1 and fired a warning shot he continued to advance on the family. and so when mr. mcneil stood his ground or the castle right doctrine in georgia, and shot him and killed him. mind you, he terrified -- terrorized the white neighbor next door. when he killed him, he was sentenced to life in prison. can i tell you, for the record, when the georgia county police said it's self-defense i think that's beyond a reasonable doubt. if the georgia police come to your trial and testify for you, i think just when they get were on the stand and say -- yes, deserve. i think the whole trial should

end then. 274-days after the event happened, after the police ruled it self-defense, he was tried and convicted and sentenced to life. i have to tell you people came to me and said, you know, to get rid of the appeal and make it go away in the era of trayvon martin. if he pleads the i was like he shouldn't be in jail another day anyway. it doesn't matter what he pleads. the system was broken. because this should not have happened to him. he got life for doing that which a lot of you -- [inaudible] but for some reason in his color, it didn't work very well for him. and i want you to see this, you know, if he's older, he was a businessman, he never was arrested for anything in his life. and i tell you the stories and marissa alexander in florida who

shot in -- to protect herself to say get away from me. i won't be abused anyway. she gets twenty years. i say this because the stories show our system is broken. becan do better. question do better. how dare we go across the world and say that we believe in justice and democracy when we prevent people from voting? because we don't want them to vote in people who will be fair judges, who will be fair legislators. we don't want that. when did we become that america? i don't believe that's the america we are. we need to let people know that the true patriot want people to be able to go and and vote. that's how we change all of these other things. thank you. [applause] >> all right! all right! [applause] >> erin would like to get to the questions. i think we have been spierned by the remarks. people i have enormous respect for. they focused, obviously,

primarily on a very important until recent years not sufficiently discussed national problem. i would like to bring it back as barbara asked me to to the district of columbia. and experience of the lawyer's committee because it's instructive and teaches some of the same lessons you've heard. in part because i think there's a movement in which each of you could play a part here if you live here and in the area and want to help us. first thing to say is that many people sort of understood this, until a few weeks ago when a report was issued that we commissioned with the help of five distinguished judges retired senior judges and the assistants -- a lot of people didn't understand the dimension of the inequality which the criminal justice system and the direct visiting on the african-american population. for example, many people don't know despite what many thought for years, african-americans

adults now make up less than 50% of the population. the white population of folks over 18 is almost 43%. when you look at arrests in the detective well over 80% continue to be african-american. people do not understand 19 out of 20 arrests in the district of columbia for nonviolent offenses. they do not understand that probably 30% of the african-american adult male population is arrested every year. they didn't understand there are 140,000 arrests in the district of columbia. 96 percent of them for naive lent offenses as one explained in new york. most are cases that are never prosecuted. they leave an enormous percentage of our african-american population forever with an arrest record with all of the problems we know that incum we we -- incum we

african-american majority d.c. could believe counsel we have essentially criminalized a large percentage of the black population. .. former public defender who some of your familiar with. this group of lawyers has begun a dialogue with the police chief it's important to talk to

people. obviously a particularly when results like this are on the table. we're facing a different dynamic the new york. we don't have air blumberg, the police chief who has done his nose at the african-american community and a dialogue is beginning which he actually have some reason that they will be productive in terms of getting information from the police that will further enable us to understand these extraordinary racial disparities. we have also begun something or many people might be will help. a process is underway of community dialogues throughout the african-american communities and our city to explain the study, to take testimony from people who make and we are finding have in the exactly the type of experiences that made up the litigation in new york. you want to get as much evidence to support that is possible so that we can actually exercise our options to look at things that might be necessary as far as litigation if a cat

negotiated solution. there is also a major effort underway to continue a dialogue in the community involving as many people as possible, including the education, again giving to some of the things that were mentioned talking to prosecutors and judges to educate the judiciary in our city by having meetings and sessions to explain this report to them and to prosecutors. the other thing to point out, a third important recommendation, and one of the most significant findings, a huge percentage of the drug arrests in this city, 90% or more are african-americans, generally for simple possession of drugs, which most of us probably would agree probably should be regulated totally outside of the criminal-justice system, at least in terms of 65 simple possession. marijuana being a primary example. the judges who oversaw the issuance of this report

unanimously endorsed the taking the position of all drugs scene really as a medical problem, public health issue, not as a criminal justice concern, which has led to incarceration of millions of people in this country, the vast majority being minority people over the last decade. i think the movement now before the d.c. council to decriminalize marijuana is one of the most important initiatives that we could imagine because it now has the support not only of the vast majority of the d.c. council. if it is passed, and it will come forward to the d.c. council in september, it will send a very important signal nationally just as, i think, the report that we have issued would call attention to these issues and is one that should be repeated in every city in the united states with these exact same disparities done by an examination of the problem. so i would close simply by saying that the lawyers

committee, the washington lawyers committee has to further reports which are about to commence. the first really is getting underway tomorrow with research. that is a detailed examination of the collateral consequences of arrest and conviction of people. we know that it's dramatically impacts and limit the opportunities of housing, employment, public benefits, virtually anything that we need by way of society to advance. it is probably the single greatest cause of the employment problem that jesse jackson spoke about earlier. >> yes. >> we all know it's critical problem. there has been an effort already in the district to address and provide protections with people -- for people with these records in terms of employment. long distance -- long-distance has to be gone still in order to get that. the same is true. those are among the things that

will be looked at in the second study which has just been commissioned. the third study really is an ongoing effort now being committed to look at the conditions of confinement which affect men and women from the district of columbia. often in the district that means going to a prison thousands of miles away from their home. district -- a dozen districts incarcerated individuals are and 100 different prisons and 30 different states. the unfairness of this and the problems of it are obviously serious for everyone, but particularly for women who are mothers of children. we intend to address all of those problems in the report which is under way. remember, the district of columbia, we are talking about the bureau of prisons. i heard joslyn samuels and apology had to say. i applaud what the attorney general has announced and what the president has committed to. i would like everyone to remember the issue of drug

reform is something that the president of the united states and the attorney general have a great deal to say about. they have come nowhere near to utilizing the full reach of their authority to move on reform. frankly, they have done very little at this point to deal with reform of the federal prison system which is really where d.c. prisons -- >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. [applause] thank you. at this time if you have a question, you should have one of these cards. please hold them up, and they will be collected. we will start going through the questions. before i get to the questions -- before i get to the questions a couple of quick things everyone. first of all, how the people get a copy of the report? did we bring some here today, or is it online? >> i've been told there are a few here, but just go online. you can download it very easily.

>> okay. second thing is i recommend a to everyone that you look at the new york times from six weeks ago. there was an editorial from the editorial board talking about the fact that in the united states each year there is almost 900,000 arrests for marijuana. overwhelmingly for simple possession. three-quarters of everyone arrested -- three-quarters of everyone of arrested is african-american. so we need to really be looking at this issue of marijuana incarceration, marijuana, you know, prosecution, the war on drugs in a very different way going forward. in effect, the editorial

concluded that the only thing you can conclude about these statistics is that the use of marijuana arrest can only be classified as a tool of racial oppression. editorial board, we need to really be thinking about these issues. okay. also, let me do one really important thing. we are in a beautiful facility. this has been made possible by our board members from this great law firm. i wanted thank mr. andy lou. i don't know if he is still here. wanted thank the law firm for having us here today. i also want to remind everybody

-- we have been talking about the voting rights act over and over again. this is a huge issue. if you want to know how to get it solved, how to help out, text voting rights -- text voting rights said 313131. you will get alerts and other in permission. again, text voting rights to 313131. that will give you alerts. and we will be perpetuating that number all over the place. so here are some of the great audience questions. and i want to thank the audience again for your patience and for just really being a great audience and being here to help us do things. okay.

standard round. here is the essence of the question. this standard round was not part of the defense, how was it used as part of the instructions? >> for whatever reason, as you know, the jury instructions for the case was very convoluted. they had almost two days of hearings on the issue. someone decided to use the concept that george zimmerman had the right to stand his ground. that was the terminology that was used. i think it was planted there for other purposes later, but it was plugged in there for whatever reason. >> okay. then this one is one of the questions that the judge actually talked about. i really recommend, if you have

not read the decision, you really want to read it. it is an absolutely amazing piece of legal analysis. really, i think, one of the most significant decisions on race and criminal-justice a long time , and this question goes -- talking about repeatedly. how do we address the results from the trauma of being arrested and process through the criminal justice system? >> to you want to take that? [laughter] >> well, what the judge did -- and remember, the floyd case was actually work done by lawyers like jonathan more. the florida case clearly recognized both in decision several months ago that the

indignity and the humiliation of being stopped and detained by police for no reason whatsoever except that you are members of racial group -- >> all of this event available on our video library. we will take you now to the annual convention of the southern christian congress -- panelists speaking about the issues of race discrimination and poverty in the u.s. spiegel's -- speakers will include the rev. jesse jackson, the ceo of the southern christian, just getting under way live here on c-span2. >> playboy. he talked about the fact that african-americans would never be able to catch up. he did not use the word. he used the word recompense which is very much the same thing. his nobel peace prize acceptance speech 1964, dr. king said i have the audacity to believe

that people everywhere can have three meals a day, education and culture, decency. xbox some -- i have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for the body. 27 percent of all americans are what is told through an insecure, which means that they get -- they go to bed at least three times a month, maybe more, without enough to eat. in the case of young people it may be more. the associated disadvantages with hundred are related to other sets of developments around learning and any number of things. let's not get the role that dr. king has when we talk about this march on washington. lots of people in commemoration, the leaders and to do this and you did that. we cannot forget that dr. king

was an anti-poverty action nest. sitting on the table. i'm want to introduce the panelists who are here and others come we will introduce them as well. -- the african studies at columbia university's . the professor of biblical interpretation at the new york theological seminar, and the author of a book for politics on jesus. next we have brother darnell more. his writings have appeared all over the place the.

duality, they can be proud, international journals of theology and sexuality transcripts in interdisciplinary online journals and number of other selections. we are looking for to his contribution about the diversity that we experienced. it is a delight to see judge jimmy brown. she is an emmy nominated television personality and commentator on issues of law, politics, religion as well as women and children's issues. she was a state trial judge in atlanta, georgia for nearly a decade, and her legal career spans in the number of administrative prosecutorial issues. she has the national -- international -- excuse me, syndicated television show.

she has much more manners than judge judy. [laughter] very happy to have her here. and finally, we have here -- i don't mean finally, the sitting at the table as he is supposed to be -- i am looking for the biography as well. perhaps it needs no introduction. [applause] and it is evident as he walks through hallways. we are great -- grateful to you for the partnership as well as your leadership. as i said, the issue is poverty. the question is how we deal with it, what we do about it, and is this still on our agenda as it was on dr. king's? quite frankly, the word poverty has fallen out of use. have you heard anybody say poverty in the last month? have you heard anybody in the 2012 campaign use the word

poverty? we are not only talking about the presidential campaign, but trickling down to the state, the local level. have you heard anybody talk about poverty? in a concentrated way. rolls through there for a minute. the fact that 27 percent of black families live in poverty compared to 10 percent of other families. the fact that over 50 percent of black children live in poverty. these are issues that we have to grapple with. and so i want to start with what we have read here. he told me he was not, but he can be one today. oh, away from reverend jackson. >> i was told -- >> hand. we're going to start. you can go back.

beca -- i guess the conflict between the political economy. first, the biblical witness of course goes back to that he beauties of hebrew bible of old, the old

testament. the old testament, you will find that the most prominent ethics that are spoken of some 400 times each, justice and the nexus of translators righteousness. it means doing justice. and we have also seen is a communal ethic. society has the responsibility to care for the lowest and the least in the most vulnerable. you see that throughout the hebrew bible. of course jesus picks up. then the good samaritan he talks about the commonality , the communal nature of society, human nature. and he really basically said it

all when he said, the strength among love your neighbor as yourself. the first part, the vertical part. you get to the horizontal part. and that is very important because when it comes to dr. king his perspective on poverty was really based on those ethics in this way. dr. martin luther king jr. was eight self professed democratic socialist. what does that mean? first, there is an emphasis on democrats. it means that everyone has a vote. people vote on what will happen. there is no authoritarian. of course you can't beat

believing in that kind of thing. socialists -- it really means that in the way that he was using, not a marxist socialism, not in of their tory socialism, but it was a socialism that really said that lead to social . workers talk about democracy. you don't have any real democracies in the workplace. folks are mostly working. so he wanted more. that's what he means. he once more democracy. so what that says this what he really wanted, he believed in policies that address to the symptoms of the problem in society. he believed in that. the proposed a couple of

proposals. believe that everyone should be guaranteed a job, the dignity of work and income. he also believed that everyone who was unable to work should get a minimum income and it is the responsibility of society to love the government. but that was a stopgap for him. dr. king really wanted to change the system. he was a fervent avid anti capitalist. against capitalism. why? because capitalism does not expect human personality and human dignity. its main concern is profit. end of course capitalism also is not democratic because whoever has the most capital has the most votes . that supposed to be one person,

one vote, but that is not the case. i think that as we talk about poverty and various proposals in the current body of politics, it's very important. in the context of martin with the king, it's important to remember that what martin luther king once was to change the system, basically to make it more just, to make it value people over profit. and i am going to end with this. what is missing in society -- you talk about poverty is not mentioned. well, justice is not mentioned in political discourse. you never hear justice, and certainly not when it comes to economic matters. so our motivating principle, i think, as we move forward to dealing with economic issues has to be the question, what is

just? and that should keep the basic question that guides all policy. what is just? what will take care of the people? what stresses love for and care for the neighbor? and please keep that in mind. martin luther king was a real radical. he was a radical for christ, a radical for love, but he realized the system as it stands, capitalist system as it stands with the values for humanity and profit globally, it was not badly, it was not just. as a minister of the gospel, he could not support it and had to stand against it. that is one thing i think we need to be looking toward in our administrations, short-term needs in the short term. thank you. >> thank you so much. yes. give him a hand. [applause] i appreciate that.

also, you made a comment about structure, which i think is important when you talk about poverty. dr. king once said, it's a shame that we have 40 million poor people in america. what kind of country develops 40 million poor people? this is not about people. it's about the structure. you see who owns the oil. who owns the gas. and if the world has free water, why should we pay water bills? now i advise you not to send that to your water company because it will not turn out well. the fact is, he was looking at basically the terms and conditions of the factors of production and decided that there were unequally distributed . so you have in addition to all your other accolades a degree of interdenominational theological center which is very important when you combine the law with that kind of theology. what do you say about poverty today and how that connects with

poverty during that time that dr. king was living and connects to some of your training around law and poverty? >> thank you so much, and i am happy to be here today. i have been a managing for quite some time of the priestly and the profane. a lot of times what is happening around our institutions is that we somehow got caught up in the priestly and are kind of abandoning the prophetic. in the prophetic consciousness there are things that i hope we can accomplish. we spend a lot of time talking about what is wrong. when dr. king in december 1967, poor people's campaign. he made the speech that this is a form of social insanity that will take our nation into ruin.

that is what he was talking about then. and when he was there and there were deciding to move forward with this campaign, he said the time now is to move from reform to revolution. so you are absolutely correct in that it is revolutionary to be able to say, enough is enough. but then there are obligations, systemic structures that are in place to keep people oppressed. what has happened is, we have got uncomfortable in our oppression. we begin to talk like the oppressor and think like the oppressor. for example, we don't know that if we can't get a job back then there were other avenues. we created our own businesses. but what happens within the black community is we have the

spirit a struggle that has taken over our consciousness so that somehow we don't understand that we were not created to be in this position. so we cannot move from one place to the next. if you look at the poor people's campaign, which was the agenda that dr. king set forth, what we are missing, it was in march for freedom and for jobs. economic injustice is what this is all about. this is justice. i am here. stand -- do you understand that without having the quality of resources and economics you have no freedom? so the question is, do you dare to be freed? [applause] that is the issue. education, you need education. in the criminal justice system, they have laid that out about

what we are doing to warehouse our people. what we have to do is, we have to develop a different kind of relationship with money and wealth and how we perceive poor people. they use money to fill their appetite. young black people see money and they want to feel secure. rich people see money to be able to have power and control. what does power and control to? what they do is try to up limit access to those individuals who are being poor because all they want money for is to fulfill an appetite, hands every job we did we spend it on something, appetite. so what we have to do is change the paradox. stop looking at things the same way and college for what it is and be able to say to one another that we need to have another relationship and how we

view wealth. we don't know what a derivative is a versus a hedge fund. i am not just a judge and a preacher. i am an entrepreneur. i and many businesses. let me explain something. i was sleeping in a car. i have come out of that. the reason, i don't need any notes to speak on poverty because i came out of poverty. i made a decision based on my mother that the spirit of trouble would not go. what we are doing is rearranging an entire generation of people that do just enough to get by. we are going to beat the odds instead of changing the odds. changing the game instead of, you know what, wait a minute. what i can't do, you will do. you need multiple revenue streams. different relationships with

money. yes, i pray to my god, save me, lord. save everybody. but momma needs food on the table. she has to pay the bills. and so i think one of the big things that we have to do been continuing the legacy simply is after the poor people's campaign, we are still talking about the same thing because number one, we need to be able to recognize that our view of wealth and money is different from those who have it because they see it as of late to have access to power and control. we see it as a means to acquire things. fill what is our appetite to be able to put it on our back, keep it in the house, drive it. and so until we develop another consciousness and embrace what is economic justice in every way

because unless we have economic justice, what is going to happen? we will have port government schools. why? because it is systemic of the structures that are in place to keep the oppressed oppressed. number two, you cannot go to the oppressor to ask to be set free. the oppressor only does what the oppressor does spirit where you have to do, in keeping with my brother, the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. did he say your consciousness was supposed to stay poor? something wrong and perverted with you when you want to do something that is of little different than the status quo. so what i would like to be able to see is the letters of excess have been pulled out. we are in a hole like no other. dr. king said, 1967, when

they've rolled out the campaign, the poor people's campaign, he talked about it being insanity. that is critical. we love to think of him as this wonderful meat and mild person much like you think jesuses. dr. king was revolutionary, but jesus was really revolutionary. revolutionary in the sense that economic injustice is when the faith sanctioned activities that do not meet the basic needs of his people. that means when you suppress the right to vote. >> may ask you to wrap up. >> baby, i am on a roll. >> i know. [applause] with all due respect to my will slow your roll. >> thank you very much. [applause] can i get and a man? how about that. >> she is absolutely fantastic.

we want to have of the time for dialogue. with all due respect i will ask for the panelists to take no more than five minutes if you don't mind. maybe a few less if the spirit moves you. mentioned two things that i want people to think about. one is the concept of economic justice. we don't hear about it very often. we have to ask ourselves what economic justice means. secondly, the poor people's campaign, 1957, activity and the summer of 1968. dr. king assassinated on april april 4th. the poor people's campaign did not quite worked like we thought it would. thousands of people came to washington d.c. with the agenda of holding down every government department if it does not deal with poverty and african american people. closing down every government department.

he said he had the audacity. to any of us have the audacity to believe anything right about now? now, two people have joined us. really three. two and then our fearlessly year. i will give him of warm introduction later. my brother, my friend. of course pitcher extraordinaire . [applause] >> yes. yes. give it up for both of them. [applause] reverend jackson has joined us. give it up for reverend jackson. [applause] i think i gave you a partial introduction earlier, but i just want to say that you why the president and ceo, of course, of the southern christian leadership conference. this is your second stand in that capacity. you also are a businessman, a state legislature. we have heard talk of the southern christian leadership conference today. you will hear of the more talk about it now.

what judge penny has said and what your experience has been in fighting poverty. >> thank you so much. i am honored to be here and so excited because all of this leadership that we have here. but to be president emeritus, ceo, president, ceo for roughly six, seven years is not an easy task. i tell people, reverend jackson, many times that being president's and ceo is harder -- it is very hard, and it is harder to be the president of the united states of america. because every negro you see think they own because of the

movement. they feel that even though they were not there that you have to go out of your way to take care of them as individuals rather than dealing with the whole -- holistic problem of freeing back -- black america. i discovered negro's around me who were the enemy more so than the traditional enemy than i thought it was. there is a plan to eliminate and to destroy. dr. king had been around him. they had folks who were infiltrating the sclc that work for the fbi. when you talk about free and see if we have more than the working

poor, when you are poor you have what else? i was walking down the street the other day. the gases give me some money. i'm poor, man. i'm working -- worse off than you are because i'm broke. what is the difference? he says, when you're poor you don't know where you are going to lay your head down by the time the sun sets. when you're poor you know you could make it to the first of the month. furthermore, why you don't have politicians talking about poor folks? when was the last time you heard our leaders that are elected by the people and most of them are poor, when is the last time you heard them say, we want to take care of poor folks? because it is a determination. as soon as they bring out the word poor that they will not be

reelected. those of the ones i called scared negroes. you must tell the truth. and when you were a person of color must represent. i'm getting ready to wrap it up. you must represented. and that is why we say as christians. you have church folks and so-called christians. it is a difference. i will talk about that in the next discussion. [laughter] it was church folks -- and i am finishing. it was church folks that killed jesus, crucified jesus. it was jerks' -- church folks who told the allies on jesus. it was a church folks that conspired against dr. martin luther king. so when you are talking about sclc and the southern christian leadership conference with reverend jesse jackson and others to actually worked with dr. king, you're talking about a truism of history

and there are many people who want to rewrite history and to leave out the truism of sclc, the southern christian leadership council. so what am i proposing? i am proposing that we need a structure, a structure of unity, a structure of vision, a structure of international relationship building. first of all, you have to have a relationship with god. most folks don't realize and they don't teach you this in school. in order to do what you need to do to be successful you have to have relationships. walk around with your head in the air looking down on folks unless you're going to pick them up. so my last point is that we can't make it. we are more powerful than we think we are. i was in moscow, russia just a few months ago meeting with

former president miguel gorbachev. the first thing he asked me, has the dream been filled? i said, no, sir. we have just got started. has the dream been filled? we have a black president. what dr. king did not advocate killing a black president because he knew if we took care of poor folks that a black president is destined. a black president would come. so there are many people who have rested on their laurels and think just because we have a black president, just because we have a black president that everything is all right. i remember a few weeks ago a thing that i've worked hard for and many of you worked hard for. come on, somebody. now, what president barack obama want us to do. he can't tell you this, but i

can to say to you you need to raise hell and hit the streets. you need to go back to the streets. uncle tom negroes. you can't sit around no more and talk about everything. those are dangerous negros. >> thank you, brother charles steele. thank you, brother charles steele. [laughter] >> thank you, brother charles steele. thank you, brother one. >> thank you so much. >> they really don't like me. moderating this panel full of creatures. it is very difficult to interrupt preachers. so i'm not going to hesitate. we want to have a little dialogue. these are all phenomenal people. they're our has been cut.

i am humbled to bring the rev. into our conversation. [applause] he is -- what do we say, all that and a bag of chips. he worked with dr. king. he is a more houseman. you know what they say about those morehouse man. you always can tell a more houseman, but you can't tell them much. he is not somebody i wanted tell much too. i want to hear from them. i want to hear about the time he spent as co pastor to dr. king. about the time he spent working with dr. king jr., about the time he spent as a trustee of the center for nonviolent social change and about the work that he has done. he will tell us all of that. furthermore, we know from the time you sit with the king family you get the sense of the

nexus between theology and poverty. tell us how we are living in poverty. don't start that. [laughter] >> thank you so much. for all that you do and for the great contributions you make continually. i must say that every time i read your column for your publications i am always blessed to learn something. give her hand. [applause] i want to thank reverend jackson who has literally been on the battlefield for 50 years. [applause] and i am honored to share this panel with all of these distinguished leaders.

let me say quickly, there is a poetic expression that i else let me paraphrase which says you build your house is then on the bodies and souls of men and women. how the building will endure that houses the rich and crushes the poor. so the moral question is, how long can any nation exist or how long should and nation exist that houses the rich and creches the poor? that is a moral challenge. there is something that james russell loral said in his rendition of 1845.

many of us know that. what's to every man in a nation comes a moment to decide. the good or evil side. we don't sing it much now, but there are lines that many people mess in that riding. one says, we make slaves of our children's children when we compromise with evil. another line says, you cannot on rock the door of tomorrow with yesterday's rusty key. and another line which is related to what we are talking about in a very direct way says it is prosperous to be just. and that is the lesson that we

have to teach our nation. our congress, our government, ourselves. prosperity and justice are not enemies. but we have the practice that in order for some to be prosperous others must necessarily remain poor. we have the theological moral and political responsibility of teaching that lesson from generation to generation. reverend jackson knows that the unfinished agenda that dr. king left with us had to do with racism, war, and politics.

and the poor people's campaign is right, and see elsie unfinished agenda, but it is america unfinished agenda. their relationship between poverty and politics, the relationship between poverty and economics, the relationship between poverty and education. and their relationships between politics and killing. we've once said hunker hurts, but we can advance that and say, hundred pills. [applause]

poverty kills children. mentally, spiritually and physically. so a nation that refuses to deal effectively with the challenge of poverty is in the business of killing, killing. so we have to stop the killing. there are organizations that are in the killing business. if i had more time i would name a few. why is it easier to gate eight semiautomatic gun than it is to get a good education? three healthy meals per day, a decent job, and a decent house.

a thousand pulpits need to declare that jesus is the way, not the nra. [applause] but the nra holds hostage the congress of the united states. they must get permission from a 75-member board, the nra, for and a half million members, the nra, and $82,301,000,000 budget, the nra. in the lobby that takes care of keeping not just gun legislation , but a lot of other legislation. and that kind of hostage-taking renders the nation poor, and i

suppose a lot. we have to teach the lessons of the murderous impact that poverty has on all people and all peoples everywhere. and when we lay out this preach it, teach it, and practice it, we can change the paradigm. that is not all have to say, but i am going to stop because you took up some of my time. [laughter] i think you. [applause] >> i appreciate you, both for being brilliant and brief. and for preaching. now, okay, frederick cannes, but i can call him friday. we have a lot in common.

we grew up in the same neighborhood in san francisco. raised some of the same kind of fell in san francisco and continue to raise that kind of felt. if he was not a reverent i would call him my brother in trouble. because we do cause trouble. and he has been senior pastor in dallas for 28 years. [applause] he took a small church and grew it to our conversation of 12,000 people. he has done any number of things this is the hard part. having been subject to the board of directors in my tenure, i understand that serving on those boards can be especially challenging.

last time we work together we were testifying about wages. we were testifying with congressman keith ellison. concerned that our government actually through government contractors paid people nearly the minimum wage. our government pays their -- i've worked in directly with government contractors, close to the minimum wage. maybe ten or $0.15 more. meanwhile you have folks who are out there protesting in places. just for the record. but these folks are picketing for $15 an hour. a lot of people think that is unrealistic. in washington d.c., wallace world, walmart, whatever, they

want to come in here and pay the minimum wage of $8.25, which is the minimum wage in d.c. they're is a proposal at big box stores to pay 12. they're holding the city in hostage. if we pay 12 we will not open up all the stores. $12 per hour is a reasonable amount of money for these people given the situation. take your conversation from the theological, although i know you will hit there, to these issues of wages, what people are paid and what is wrong and right about the way we choose to compensate people for their labor. >> right. and dr. julianne malveaux, i want to piggyback. you are teaching us. i hope we appreciate the fact that dr. julianne malveaux is a graduate of mit. [applause] and with her brilliance and intellectual capacity she uses her ivory tower genius to come

down to the ebony streets in order to make a difference for you and for me. so i salute you for the fact that you are both brilliant and prophetically where the people are. you are a gift. i think you so much. [applause] >> thank you, my brother. [applause] >> then, of course, i cannot help but salute and appreciatively applaud one who has also been taken for granted, reverend jesse jackson. [applause] who is a gift to us. [applause] reverend jackson is a gift to us, and i hope that we will always be appreciative of the fact that much of what we enjoy is because of rev. jesse jackson you cannot get excited about the family living in the white house without thinking about the fact that had it not been for 1988 and 1984, barack obama would not be the president. i salute reverend jackson for

being that trail blazer and the prophetic witness that you are. god bless you and thank you so much. answer the question, i think it is very important, as far as i am concerned, that we learn to the we humanize the impoverished. and so when dr. julianne malveaux talks about the fact that we work here a few weeks ago talking to the progressive caucus about the low wages, the under employment of government workers. when you visit the smithsonian, when you go to union station, be careful how you treat a lot of the workers there because unfortunately many of them are making barely above minimum wage. on top of that no benefits, living in the nation's capital -- capitol, employed by the federal government. and he brilliantly broke it down that they received their contractors -- the contractors received their contracts, watch

this, because they have the lowest bid. of course, if i give you a low bid and i want to make some money i am going to pay low wages to those at the bottom while still making a pretty penny for myself. and so we came here to say, it is an insult that the government along with mcdonald's and walmart have the unmitigated gall to participate and under emplane people. so we were calling upon the federal government to take a look at its policy that promotes and perpetuates underemployment. here is what gets me. that is, bring it back to the theological. what we bought your this weekend as we continue the identity theft of dr. king and romanticizing and the radicalizing dr. king is the last sermon he did not get to preach. according to a certain scholars, including michael eric dyson, when dr. king was assassinated there on the balcony of the

motel in the breast pocket of his suit jacket was an outline of a sermon he was preaching that coming sunday. the outline of the sermon was entitled, why america may go to hell. you are going to hear that this weekend, but that is what he was about to preach. why america may go to hell. i wish i could have gotten a hold of that sermon. i wish she could have reached it. i don't know what text he was going to use. i decided to use my imagination and give taxed state in order to answer your question. the text i believe he would use is matthew, chapter 25. jesus said, at the end here is what is going down. i will separate the sheep from the goats. the text says that he wanted to separate nations, not individuals. oftentimes we get caught up in an individualistic gospel as opposed to dealing with structures and systems. and so when jesus separates the

sheep from the goat, he is separating nations and said, i was hungry. did you feed me? thursday, did you give me a drink. in as much as you did it to the least of these, you have done it also on to me. here is what is so powerful. jesus is basically saying, if you did me wrong, you are going to hell. maybe what dr. king was going to preach from that sunday was matthew, chapter 25. america may go to hell because of how we underemployed, because of how we mistreat those who are impoverished. and intel week we humanize the impoverished, we humanize, we humanize. one of the things. one political party that treats the poor as a political pinata. just beating the hell out of them. you have another party that ignores the poor and renders them invisible. we don't even we humanize those

who are impoverished. and so what reverend jesse jackson did, '84 and '88, i've won't forget the speech as long as i stay black. reverend jackson brilliantly we humanize the poor. he talked about how if you go to the hospital there are people who are working in a hospital who, if they get sick, cannot afford to stay in that hospital, though they work hard every day, two and three jobs trying to make ends meet. and so instead of mislabeling and ms. recognizing the impoverished as lazy, as -- maybe we need to a rehumanize them and stop buying into the marketing of the right wing that has done a good job of bastardizing their reputation of the impoverished. how are you going to call me lazy and i am working every day for barely $8 an hour? on top of that, i have no benefits.

yet, you judge me. .. you talk about employment. people are very happy that unemployment rate is 7.2%. the black unemployment rate is about 13.5%. >> right. >> if you add underemployment to the equation we talk about a

fourth of all black people are unemployed or underemployed. is there anybody what didn't know an unemployed person? i don't think so. this is our community in a different way than it hits oh communities this is one of the things that dealt with. he was to raise the wages of working here today i would warrant he was sitting outside with the mcdonalds and other workers talking about how to help the rate and wages as well. how many of us have the this. i want to this brother is from newark. he's been appointed by cory booker. chaired the -- [inaudible] he can talk about that as well. i want you brother to focus on. newark is one of the cities. very high poverty, very high

unemployment. some progress but insufficient progress. how do you name work in newark? >> i don't know whroas idea it was to put -- i would thought organized. i'm glad i took a preaching class. [laughter] it really is -- before i begin, it's honor to be able the table with you. folks whose work i lives and protest have shipped who i have come to be in the world. i'm appreciative of being here. i'm honored. i want to try to get to the newark specific question by beginning with a few points that i want to point out because of context. we are talking about race and poverty. i don't want to miss the reality of what poverty looks like in america. beyond just talking points. what actually does it look

like? we know since the 1960 the poverty rate hasn't dropped below 15%. one out of seven people live in poverty in america. that means that 46.2 million people are living in poverty. now, of that number there is now what one calls deep poverty. 20.4 of that number are living in what is called deep poverty. blacks make up 123.1% of the general population, yet 26.7 of the poor population happens to be black americans. of that number, five more million women than men happen to be poor. of that number, once you start thinking about that, children who are born in to homes that

are actually headed by women house hold tend grow up in much more poverty. indeed, women whoa are in same-sex relationships who tend to be more poor than heterosexual black counter part. who the black poor happens to be. we carry for a long time the monolithic understanding of the blackness. because we have a monolithic understanding what one might call a black community. it's hard to understand that depending because we're all black, didn't mean we're going show up with a same amount of privilege. i'm looking at the table with mostly men. my reality is my sisters in the world that are also black are

going to be most likely to be more important than most of us men here. i'm looking at the table where most folk might identify as straight. if you're lgbt that means lgbt lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender you are going to be definitely more impacted by the poverty. we don't even talk about the disable, we didn't talk about age, we didn't talk about all of the other things. i think the reason why we fell -- problems with monolithic solutions. so if it is true that all of our lives are -- we're all black but we show up. one of the things i come to understand as a person who identified with the gay black men from new jersey, poor, happen to fight the homophobia, the idea what it might be a

black man growing up in the hood, having to grow up in a home with a single mother who didn't go to school. she just got her ged. many years after i got my second masters' degree. right. all of these things sort of create the type of life i would live and absolutely makes my life as a black american a little bit more different than some people on this panel. so i think many of us have come and we have done the hard work of answering the question of who's feet are situating our our neck. i think we're good as a community we know what racism feels like. we know what capitalism feels like. i think the question for us in this room as black americans whenever you come from. he talk about racism, until we deal with the fact it exists and keep women out of the workplace that homophobia exists and lgbt

people living from safely in the neighborhood. 40% of the homeless people will be lgbt we'll never be able to fix anything in the community. i leave you with that. whose necks are your feet situated on? until you answer, until you acknowledge that we have some necks that our feet are situating on and do something about lifting those feet up, that means acknowledging our primples so we -- privileges these suits. many have come a far away. we have privileges that i can come. privileges like you imagine your life to be a vehicle. and privilege can be imagine as a space you have in your vehicle. driving down the road as much privilege and space. i think we need to go back and pick some people up. but back to newark, the reason why i brick it up. we go newark and say it's a

predominantly black and brown place. doing work with lgbt communities there demonstrated by folks showing up as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, disabled. our approaches have to be thoughtful and respond to the particular needs of those various communities. that's what the work taught me. it taught me we need what it taught -- to know that base on any number of those things. if i may be, you know, marginalized and tbrendz a black men. but my sister is going to be multiple -- and if you take -- you know, you add take away economic. that you triple marginalized. it you add the other things i'm talk abouting with the fact you will have a harder time reaching for whatever the her karattic idea of a american dream might be. it's going to be thatch harder. i think our policy approach in a way we go about handling this

needs to respond to the different needs. we're all black but we have context. we need to attend. whose necks are your feet situated on? [applause] brother dare tell -- one of the organizers of the march on washington. he wouldn't be completely acknowledged because he was a gay man. a brother who did so much work to put it together couldn't be acknowledged. there are so many of our brothers and sisters no matter what their identity is. we mentioned the differently -- we didn't talk about the seniors are 60% of african-american women who are old in poverty or near poverty because of their life long experience. we did talk a lot about that. we won't gate chance to talk about. i want people to keep in mind.

when we deal with issues of inclusion we have to take time to think about our people. a couple of points before i turn it over. in 1963, there were about 18 million black people. about 18 million 250,000 came to march on washington. it represents 1.3% of the african-american population in 1963. these folks came against all odds. there was no place for them to stop and eat, most had chicken in a brown bag. but -- [inaudible] they didn't have anywhere to stop. more importantly anywhere to relieve themselves. they had to put the kids down under the car because you didn't want anybody shooting at you. they came against all odds, amazingly. flip side. today there are 44 billion african-american people roughly. by some estimate and estimates are always just that.

100,000 people will march tomorrow. and probably fewer will come to the justice ringing ceremony on wednesday. 100,000 people over the 44 million people represents less than 200ths of a percent of us us. we don't come all against all odds. we get on an airplane, a train or whatever. >> say it! >> you don't have to worry about something to eat. airplane food is dangerous. you still don't have to worry about something to eat. you u can relieve yourself anywhere you want. yet we come essentially with no odds and fewer of us come. we have to think about that. we could have a conversation about that. but i need to bring to the conversation -- not really bring it. this is here's conversation. my brother, my friend, our leader reverend jesse jackson who gets the poverty thing in a

way that many people don't. if you go to push on a saturday maybe, maybe, maybe somebody will get up and give up a quarter or fifty cents or something with a zero behind it. you will hear him talk about from everything to eye glasses, education, to international issues. in other words, reverend jackson, like dr. king connecting the dots. many of us are sitting in silence talking about food or the point you -- i don't know that another leader in our nation who puts that in to sectionalty together. i also don't know of another flared our nation that systemically brings to the substantial women, younger people, people of color, every

now and then we say, rev, let's be up -- he listens. the thing he does is listens. so many people get to a stage where they can't hear anything. do you know who i am? do you know exactly who he is? one of the thing he's a leader that brings us to where we need to be. at this point in time, i'm going to turn it over to you. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> thank you.

i want to first thank the person on our organization who has driven this agenda of poverty next session of my politics who the genius of a scholar, lawyer, activist who chosen to live modestly. made choices in life and lives -- [applause] [applause] scholar, lawyer. i also want to thank our sister who among other things m.i.t. ph.d. and people everywhere.

[applause] while want to address thanks to all of our parnlist -- panelists. give thanks to them. [applause] politics and jesus by dr. hendrix. it will take you beyond con stay teen's diversion to the death of our -- to change one's outlook on jesus and his role of the people against law and going see -- [inaudible] contrast to american entity as opposed to christianity. i want each of you to get the book. >> the book came out in 2007,

it's still selling. you have to get from amazon. you can get it from barnes & noble. you get it from amazon easier. >> i want you to get the book, when we talk in the session, we must have some reading literate, philosophical to. i would like to take, if i can, the last staff meeting. there is the dream of '63. very different than the dream of '68. it was not a static dream on the mall and poetry. in '63, the dream was overcome object hue humiliation and

degradation. we came to washington in 1963, d.c. had an appointed mayor not an elected one. in '63 the airport, train station, and bus station were on the military lot there. then it became in '63 they close all the liquor stores for the first time since prohibition. they became -- in '63 they put all police on 18-hour patrols. in '63 they allowed -- [inaudible] for the first time. they became in '63 they got all the military bases lead by president kennedy fire base in this area quantity -- they got all judges had to get

on schedule to be in the readiness of the protesters. and the end in '63 if the militants were challenging they could cut off the speaker, and let mayor jackson -- he has the whole world in his hand. i can document that. as a matter of fact i have it on me right now. that day in texas in florida, maryland -- [inaudible] on that day, black soldiers had to -- on american military bases. and people like -- on base that was their act of defiance.

we couldn't get a room at the holiday inn. we couldn't buy ice cream because we had the money. we couldn't take pictures on the lawn of the state capitol on that day. there were no look jurors in the south. and when you came up across state lines [inaudible] in the back of their cars are getting food, deviled egg, potato pie, which they brought with them to eat. when they heard it was time for him to speak they left the car and trees they wanted to hear him. they heard him. it was the makeup of that day. but in this last staff meeting,

he called them on a saturday morning and reverend called us that night around 9:00. i didn't want to be coming to the meeting because we had a meeting that saturday. those not in atlanta -- [inaudible] [inaudible] [laughter] that i am in trouble this week. i've been in the deep depression

that migraine headache, he said. i thought maybe i should quit. i've done as much as i could do in thirteen years. my friends turned against me. my classmates, one of my board members has written a letter to the press attacking me. they printed the whole letter in the "new york times." the person -- [inaudible] be quiet. don't say peace, peace. there is no peace.

all of us got very quiet. and -- and other -- come to my bedside and not let me die. i'm doing regroup the pain and suffering in a nonviolent way. then he said, but, you know, we can turn to a minus to a plus. and civil disobedience. already building the -- and shacks and we're going to stay in washington on the mall -- the lip con memorial and washington memorial.

he has got to see us. congress has to come down the steps. he was coming to washington. to focus on poverty. while bombs dropped in vietnam, we're going explore the -- [inaudible] we draw poverty down from 32% to 12% by investing in predental care, head start, day care. we brought poverty down by imporching the unemploy. ed. they brought it down by bringing in head start and medicare and medicaid and threatening social security. building more public housing. in other words they were the -- century. it pains me to go to the democratic convention in charlotte. they mention reagan's name.

no president except maybe lincoln. he won the civil war. but the most productive u.s. president will not appear in lyndon bain johnson. there are 92 pieces of social legislation, medicare, medicaid, daycare. he was smart enough. he opened the war on poverty in appalachia. most poor people in america not black, not brown, they are white female, and young. we all matter. by widening the base of poverty, you have to deracialize the

base. even right-wing voted for food stamps because he deracialized. they could take the program back south. no matter what the position was. dr. king was doing with the structures of -- how to move our government, choose -- that's different than individual initiative. and fellow man. i'm saying flesh and blood is significant. [applause] our sisters and old -- is as low as -- let me go together and get some

smart one. right. >> those who have no blemish in the character. they have no reputation. they haven't been in jail or anything like that. they score high on tests and -- that was -- we bring them over and put them on the king's table. the king's menu. i shall teach them. the language and menu. it's about the rest of them. of course they can. it's those that department consider in the first place. it's not our dream equal. high quality, public education, to all children. [applause] the poorest of these. you didn't know --

you know it was who was jewish. or the landlord with the oversell of the occupy people. you know that was -- [inaudible] [inaudible] i'm trying to say that doesn't dr. king's position how -- write the book. people living in trailers. we are cutting public housing and building private housing.

and what about a plan where no person of alba knees, education, health care and jobs. that was his dr. king's vision it must be -- that was his mission. [inaudible] about 19%. >> right. >> it doesn't mean when there are 4,00036 are black. it doesn't mean when we bail out gm and bail out the automotive

industry in the largest market, not china and not -- what does that -- in term of structures. they are a lotted territory before we had the right to vote. you cannot buy the territory alotted before we had the right to vote. they had an ownership of the territory. one small franchise. are you with me so far? what we bail out the aig at $175 billion and then let birmingham and detroit go bankrupt. we're talking about structures. we ain't talking about getting up in the morning and working hard. we are talking about structures. [applause]

2.5 million in prison. over a half are african-american. you have private telephone calls from prison, collect call, and there's a prison they build a parent on the prison ground inside the gate. in florida it's a focus of -- [inaudible] make 25 to 50 cents a an hour. i want you to think about structure. what was the government -- 31 cities have 40% plus black male job and 50% plus black male job. now we do not come to washington for motivation. we come for appropriation and legislation. [applause] i was hoping --

that we'll be clear on what -- for the inspiration with a chance to -- [inaudible] with the profound speakers. we need affordable housing. >> right! [cheering and applause] we need to bail out -- wall street. and that's government, i think. so i want a chance to say to you today on the poverty if we come out of here this week with the idea of reviving number one, number one, the constitutional right to vote. number two, revive the war on poverty. >> right! >> number three, student loans,

debt, forgiveness. number four, revive, [inaudible] on civil rights. [applause] number five, whatever that the government contract eoc and contract appliance, laws, must be honored. thank you very much. [applause] that's con clues our panel. the next panel, which is on the vote rights act begin madely. want to take a minute or two to stretch your legs but don't leave the room. attorney? [inaudible conversations]

>> all ministers please stand. all clergy person. [applause] please -- [inaudible] please give a hand to str. janet . [applause] if we could make an orderly transition, we want to thank all of our panelists and wonderful dr. joule an melbourne. my personal hero. pose for a group shot and bring our next panel up. congresswoman sheila lee is in the audience. congressman hank johnson. hillary shellton. [inaudible] if you can make your way toward the stage. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] i know you are wanting to social size, but c-span is i the room and we are live on c-span. please, take your seats! [inaudible conversations]

>> if you would please take your seats. congressman johnson, congressman brown, congressman con jeer --

conyers. please be seated in your choice of seats. please be seated. people, if you would go to the rear of the room, we would certainly appreciate it. the right that fundamentally supports automatic other rights. in a democracy, the rights to vote is fundamental. yet there is some question about whether or not the right to vote is fully protected in the united states constitution.

one of the elements that has changed this 50th anniversary celebration from a celebration to a real demonstration and demand for freedom is shelby the holder. the recent decision by the united supreme court that calls in to question and actually determines that section 4 of the voting rights ability is no longer constitutional. that doesn't come as a shock. it had been in the making for some time now. because apparently, unfortunately, our country is moving away from a majortarian ideal where we are expanding the right to vote, to a time in our history we are contracting making smaller the right to vote. and especially dangerous in a country where there is no national religion.

there is no national language. we speak many languages. we are many colors. there's no national race. but we have this flimsy, endemerol e demerol set of ideas we believe in. equal protection under the law. due process. that's our national secular scriptture. that's -- that's what makes us be america. but it is frayed. that's what we're here this evening to discuss. we're with the right to vote. some of the issues that we hope to cover are the impact of shelby v. holder, the infamous new north carolina voter id law. they didn't wait long for the ink to be dried on the supreme court opinion before texas and north carolina and other jurisdictions started to flex

the muscle that was given to them by the retraction. let me back up a little bit. you know that section 5 requires that all voting changes in jurisdictioned be submitted to the department of justice for preclearance or be cleared by federal courts. section 5 is a heavy hammer. it's unusual in the to scare have something that is punished before it happens. if you have a client, i don't care, hank, what kind of record or client. they could have ten armed robberies. it doesn't subject them to arrest and prosecution. the jurisdictions that are covered by the voting rights act

section 5 have been so egg egregious, so systemic, so evil in their desire, their per sis end in suppressing the vote that the congress enacted section 5 of the voting rights act because we can't stop you no other way. we have to send -- you have to send your laws up beforehand because you can't be trusted to run elections on your own. we have a brilliant panel, i'm going get out of the way. but jimmy carter said something that was instructive to me and perhaps it is will aid you in your understanding of what can be a cob flict issue. he said i can't monitor u.s. elections. we know that as a past president jimmy carter has gone all over the world to monitor election to ensure they are fair. it he said i can't monitor u.s. elections because there is no central election authority. and there is no uniform set of

election processes and procedures. that's to some extent is what we hope to discuss today. congressman con years founders of the congressional black caucus, so many accomplishers, violence against women act, a real legislative kite in the congress. what is it that the congress can and should do to address the system of voters suppression that we are experiencing today? >> dr. ma thinks, i thank you. i'm honored to be here with this distinguished panel. many of my colleagues are here

as well. to see so many people here representing the great organizations that have brought us together to celebrate this 50th anniversary. first, let me say to get out of the way. sure, we have made progress. there are people now determined as much as they were fifty years ago to see that we turn the clock back. that's what they're working on. in some places they're doing it quite well. by the way, there are some states that need to be watched more carefully than others. >> that's right! >> and i am on the committee that is trying to draft a way around or over or under shelby

county v. holder. we're going to get there. [applause] and one thing i want to point out to you very briefly is that we have now begun to look at the way to do this without trying to fix up the shelby county decision. we can, you know, sometimes people create their own backlash, and give us opportunities that we would have never had. there are people watching whose been disfranchised from the vote now than ever before. because of shelby v. holder. we're going make sure that knob forget it is. and we're noticing that a lot of people are now coming forward that are saying, hey, this

includes me! i'm going to be cut out of this since we can't bring a section five injunction ahead of time to stop all of these states that need to be precleared before they could change any voting rights law. how many are there? nine states. my brothers and sisters, let me tell you we've got -- we've got some skilled people. some of them are on the committee that is helping me rewrite the law, but we have federal observers. they haven't taken those away from us. we have federal election monitors who are still in the department of justice. and so what we're saying in the civil rights division of the

department of justice what we want to make sure is that we do not diminish the domestic, the department of justice budget because we're going to need more resources. we're going need more lawyers in the civil rights division protecting voter right than ever before. because we are more alert now than ever before. what these folks are willing to do. cut out early voting. there are two states standing out like sore thumbs. one is north carolina, the other, of all places is nevada. there are others that are doing it, but to cut out the reduce the registration early registration. early voting.

lot of little things that show you one thing. why and how can we reduce the number of people voting. that is what they're about. and thank goodness some of them are making no bones about it. so we have an opportunity to point out that this is isn't going just effect us, it's going to affect a lot more people. and one of those groups are hispanic groups, mexican-americans, puerto rican-americans, and other latin people who are being affected the same way. after all, once you start looking at who it is you try to cut out, and go after them, you

sometimes get the wrong people these days. because all of us don't look like we're supposed to look. so it's in that sense that i join you here with the organizations that have brought us together to celebrate and to remember fifty years ago, but to remember the great job that lays ahead for us. thank you very much. >> thank you. you mentioned something that is important. i would ask congresswoman sheila jackson respond to the portion what yo said. that is, it's not just about race and african-americans. you represent houston, congresswoman, in the congress. what is the lay of the land from your perspective in texas? how are people feeling about

erick holder suing the state of texas? >> they had a birthday party yesterday and others weren't invited to the party. let me thank you and express my appreciation for the broadness of the audience. reflective of those here in 1963. this is a kind of audience that marched together hand- in-hand. people from all walks of life, we are white, black, latino, women, men, asian. religions are vast and different. that's what america is all about. frankly the idea of voting rights act being are in essence is a statement to the world we too, all of us who are different and bringing different idea to the table are not in fact the same under one flag, under one america. when you march tomorrow, i want

you to take the height you are, and be in the positive that you are six, seven, eight, feet tall. you walking to tell the whorled who is not here that we are americans. i'm honored to be with a man who chairs my committee, terminology is ranking under the present minority construct. john conyers. [applause] frankly, was able to be part of the legislative construct of the voting rights act of 1965. we honor -- [inaudible] [applause]

[applause] in florida. that's an exciting place to be. and hillary -- [laughter] and hillary is known, i mean, we worked together in brother hank johnson. we have found our way on the judiciary committee. i want to have acknowledge again, they speak about those there in 1963. i want to say i'm glad not only was he around but he's around today. we must honor reverend jackson, jesse. [applause] [applause] [applause]

let me just read dr. king in 1967, a year before his death. it was brought to my attention by brother jeff johnson. they realize deliberate only when they have accumulated the power to enforce change. the power will never lose opportunity. they remain available to them. they powerless on the other hand the powerless on the other hand never experience opportunity. it's always arising at the later time. the nettlesome task of negro today is discover how to organize our strength to compelling power so the government couldn't elude our act. the voting right act was to organize power not violently to listen to your need and to be able to lift you up in the vote. to answer the question, regarding texas. we now have been joined by brothers and sisters. latino brothers and sisters. as you well know, we are in the

struggle -- if you will, looking for my little chart. we're in the struggle right now to assist them with comprehensive immigration reform. >> good. >> the problem that we face is that it seems as if after the voting rights act, by the way, created the only opportunity for the honorable bash -- barbara jordan to be elected along with young to be elected to congress from the south since reconstruction. and that was around 1972 and '73. for those to think that we have come so far and don't need something called the voting rights act misconstrue the shelby case. the court point in the shelby case, it's okay. we have high numbers in turnout, and we did. we had an african-american president. you voted like you had never voted before. you were wild about voting. you always had good numbers. then they use the registration

concept. that is backwards. that is not what the intent was. the intent was the barriers to voting the thing like the poll tax, intimidation the being of jelly beans. it was the barrier to voting. it was not the turnout. and so what we have now is a shelby case that erroneously decided the decision and frankly the decision by -- ginsburg was mauled. she indicated how her brother's ered and she said that the work that we did in 2006, i had the honor and privilege with other members to be on the committee at this time. then, of course, mr. conyers was the ranking member. that was a partnership made in heaven. i'm saying this to my republican brothers and sisters, my brothers and sisters who are not in this room who are anglo, that we can do this again, but the point is if wasn't the question

of whether i rejt steered or voted on one occasion. there was sufficient basis to support continued application of the preclierns remedy. i want anybody in the place. why don't i do it in the positive who raises their hands and believe there's sufficient indication going on in america today that it exists. how many people believe that? not enough of you. you don't understand it. how many people believe there are barriers to voting. [cheering and applause] so the supreme court was wrong. what happened in texas, doctor, is this. on the minutes after the supreme court decision was rendered, last tuesday? am i correct? it's seered in my brain. the day before i was in court -- you were in court? i was in court because a section 5 case in texas where they were closing down the last standing independent striving and

successful african-american school district which had an emerging latino population of 60-40. whose numbers were going up, solvent, but, you know, you have a past reputation. and they were going on that minute of the decision they were thrown out of court on tuesday. on a winning case and as well that we got the texas voter id. more importantly, latinos by the thousands were the reason why the voter id was not precleared in the first place. and so now this voter id law in place has been determined rightly so by the united states department of justice to intervene not only on the voter id because it was a crurkt to pay. it was a drowct go the dps office and get it. in 82 of our counties there was no dps office. thousand of latinos were being deprived as long as those african-american and have taken

our -- redistricting case every moment i've been in the united states congress. let me finish on this. if you want to realize the fight we're in, i know some of us will talk about the north carolina. she specifically asked me about texas. i know, there are north carolina begans here. here is a headline in the chronicle paper. this is the houston paper as i left thursday to come here. voting plan called power draft. one of our local cities wants to turn the clock back on single member districts. ..

the vote who are pushing some of these changes so we are not doing this because we don't want black folks to vote. we aren't doing this because we have racial animus in our heart. we are doing this because we are trying to make sure there is no voter fraud in our election process. and you know, we were among the first in the country in georgia. our voter i.d. we should have started screaming -- some of us did, didn't we? but we knew then that this wasn't about voter fraud because there was virtually no voter fraud in the united states and not in georgia. what is moving this agenda so hard and so fast in your opinion

clacks the congress representing the first congressional district in georgia. jesse jackson delegated 1988 if i'm not mistaken and a keen observer on the judiciary committee. what is it going to take to get bipartisan support for some of the solutions that are available? >> it is economics that motivate. i will explain. i would be remiss to be on the stage sitting next to the reverend jesse jackson without sharing with you all something that i will never forget. it happened back in the 80's, sometimes during the early 80's. it was in the basement in the baptist church more.

a roane boe push -- rainbow push activity to get a small gathering. joe beasley was there. cameron alexander and others. it was a small group and reverend jackson, you came with us to speak about what you saw overseas. i don't recall what it was, but it was in asia i believe or maybe it was -- i sure it was in asia. it seems like it must have been maybe china somewhere around there and you had visited the sweat shops where women were

hard at work working 16, 20 hours. indonesia is where he had been. when he told us the story of these women working in the factories, producing goods that the sheer in america enjoy, he cried for those women as he told us about their plight. and i always thought that was a real important moment because, he cared so much and was an international thing. they were not black women. it was an international situation that he was pointing out to us. and this is back in the 80's.

now, 40 years down the line and reverend jackson is still with us, still leading the way. [applause] i just appreciate you so much. i am so honored to sit here beside him today. you know, the march on washington back in '63 was largely about the discrimination that african-americans experienced. the stated demands of the march were the passage of the civil rights legislation, the elimination of racial segregation in public schools, protection demonstrated against

police brutality. a major public works program to promote jobs to read the passage of the racial discrimination public and private hiring. a raise and then i believe it was a dollar $254.45 minimum wage. $7.25 now. and last but not least, still the government for the district of columbia, which had a black majority. now as a result of that march and other events, the civil rights act of 1964 is passed by legislators who were voted on by the people so that he will exercise their right to vote and

the person in office did the right thing and enacted policies that should have created abundant opportunities, economic opportunities as well as civil rights and liberties for everyone. what do we have looking back now at the civil rights legislation? we have a situation where the civil-rights voting rights most fundamental civil right is under attack by an out of control, judicial activist supreme court. we have public education being dismantled. they used to talk about school vouchers but now it's called the charter school movement and a

lot of us have fallen into that. we have all like stand your ground, show me your peepers and policy like the new york city that have transcended the original issue of the police brutality. talking about a public works program to create jobs to address the disadvantageous mess for african-americans. affirmative action has been gutted just like the voting rights act. workers, $7.25. still not a living wage.

we are fighting for the increase in the minimum wage. and not to mention the offshore jobs and the dismantling of the breaking of the union movement. and we are still in washington, d.c. in a situation where there is taxation without representation. [applause] so what has happened with that right to vote, we either have not voted, or we have voted against our own economic interest basically people from middle america and white folks voted against their own economic interest because we have been

put against each other to make it appear that we are responsible for every one else's inability to make a living when in fact the wealth that has been redistributed to the top 2%. so to the extent that they can keep black folks from voting, they are also hurting students, latino students and the ability of every one, all working people to exercise that right to vote. so this gives us an opportunity to create alliances and to really stretch out and move to a more equal society. so that's my response. i'm glad that this is happening. [applause] what i heard you say,

congressman hanks from georgia i think what i hear you saying is that to the extent that week, the four prada 47%, we want affordable housing and health care who work hard every day. if we don't vote in our interest, those things will not be part of the american dream. you have a shrinking middle class, unprecedented income inequality that we have had since the great depression and some folks want to keep it that way. let me ask you you are a keen observer. hillary is the policy analyst for the naacp. he runs the bureau of the naacp. i want to know what is going on in congress and can't get to washington i feel like i am

right there. he's laughing because he knows i'm telling the truth. give us sort of your perspective on where the congress is now, how likely is it to get bipartisan support to roll back some of these measures, and is it feasible that john lewis's legislation that has some 170,000 sponsors now. >> is it working? >> yes we can hear you. >> very good. i want to thank you for pulling this altogether. [applause] the national rainbow coalition for its ongoing work to make sure that we get these risch issues right. i also have to recognize who are

the storm troopers for the civil rights and voting rights are. i am just so deeply honored to sit among these people in the congressional caucus that provide the leadership on capitol hill. and my good friend hank johnson, sheila jackson lee come in and of course the dean of the congressional black caucus working for us all day and every day to the bible also be remiss in having this conversation recognizing the great jesse louis jackson and all that he has done for us from the very beginning. [applause] i've been with reverend jackson and i thought to have to carry reverend jackson from all of those streets and villages and cities across the country because he would work until he would literally fall over and we would have to carry him to the

hotel long into the numbers of the night. give the reverend jackson and other hand. [applause] i hope one of the things you will do after you leave the room is there is a table just outside my door. on that table our action alerts, talking points, sample letters and a form to fill this is going to be a great discussion but this is only going to be the point in which we pause for a moment in this fight to organizing and reorganizing and be prepared to have the fight we are going to have to have when the congress comes back into session. please fill out those forms and get those action alerts that she

was talking about on capitol hill. we can win these sites if we are organized. the pieces of legislation that we are talking about are the bills that are under the worst of circumstances. we have even folks that were not or friends leaving the house and senate with a friend in the white house. and i am convinced with a friend of leading the u.s. senate and a friend in the white house and these brothers and sisters in the house of representatives we can win this fight. >> you talk about a piece of legislation and there are two bills. one that has been introduced that we have to discuss and one that actually modernized the election system. what we were giving prior to the attack that we received from the u.s. supreme court on the voting rights act is moving along in the movement was so eloquently laid out who was on that

august 28th 1963. here in washington when dr. king gave the i have a dream speech or roy wilkins that would stand there along with john lewis to help move the issues forward. we stopped for a moment because we recognized even as it was the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation, august 20th 1963 was the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation. 50 years later this is 150th anniversary. those are important marks and watersheds and our movement forward. we have an awful lot done. people thought that when we came there that we would never be able to fix the problems that we had even though the constitution have guaranteed these fixes. we went through the reconstruction era in which the constitution is clarified to provide those rights and protections for the three reconstruction amendment.

the first guaranteeing equal protection on wall. the fourth amendment says we as a former servitude would be considered full first-class citizens in the country and so what our children and our children's children. they made it very clear and clarified the right to vote. they said even the former servitudes wouldn't allow any state or jurisdiction to pass any measure that would in any way interfere with the right to vote. the brothers and sisters, you know what we have been through. they got killed after those amendments that are constitutionally and passed those churches got burned even after those amendments to the constitution was passed. it was clear when it happened in 1963 that we were going to have to have a legal contract that would actually move to enforce those guaranteed by the

constitution because clearly the constitution itself was not enough. there were bills we were going to need to pass to further strengthen the opportunity. the trucks are being played all the time. as the saying goes even though i am paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get me. [laughter] [applause] and i know i am a paranoid. i've been here for a long time. [laughter] that being said the bill that is discussed can give a number of things that are helpful make sure the tools are in place for us to see to it that people can get registered in the vote. some basic issues call for the study that move towards an automatic registration. i've had this conversation with congressman john conyers on several occasions.

the question as he put it how is it that at the time our children turn the team they are automatically registered for the draft even though we don't draft anymore. if you are supposed to go out and get shot for whatever the cause might be, can we not make sure that they are automatically registered to vote at the time? [applause] >> thank you, congressman. it's amazing how so often the best policy has good common sense to read something the present companies accepted and we don't have enough of on capitol hill. as my friend sheila jackson lee says whenever she comes to the naacp convention every year she

says i'm nervous about being here because with you and us being here there really is no adult supervision on capitol hill. [applause] you were right about that. >> so the bill moves to modernize in a way that makes sense. look we have had something called the help america vote act. at the election in 2011 when we realized even though the basic rights and the basic framework for in place there were too many holes in the system. one of the things we made sure to put in the bill was the way of addressing and some of the trickery that we see happening all the time to look at total i.t.. the question was asked in kansas state went past with the photo id bill and pennsylvania, when it passed and moved in to fill

all its ally the bill. the question that we are asking in both places is how much discrimination, how much fraud have you had when people go to the poll and pretend to be somebody they are not. the former u.s. senator from the state of kansas. he signed a bill into law all that said we are now way to restore the integrity back to the process by winning the fraud. as we ask the basic question how much fraud has there been. there had been zero cases of people pretending to be somebody they are not in the last ten years and the state of kansas before they signed the bill. let's shift from the plains states to the east coast. pennsylvania prior to the last election the governor stands up

and says we are going to move this bill forward because if we pass this bill we believe mitt romney can get elected in the state of pennsylvania. that is what he said. >> we challenged in court. the interrogatories said forward the states represented in the case in the last ten years have any cases of the voter fraud pretended to be somebody they are not cannot? the answer was zero. next question are you expecting cases of the voter fraud as we move forward into the system as we go towards the election on the budget case because when we look to the data we saw is if you pass this bill of 830,000 pennsylvanians are not going to be will to vote because they do not have the requisite fogle i.t. to do it. fortunately enough, jesse

jackson -- excuse me, it should have been jesse. barack obama one of the election in 2008 by 640,000 votes. paranoiacs mabey. but the bottom line is the important piece of legislation we have to get through. >> is there a bill number or name? >> the bill number is the american voting rights act. thank you very much. the empowerment act of 2013. >> we will be moving one in the senate as well. the other point i want to make that isn't the only bill we are going to be looking out for. we know john conyers is sitting down and we know everybody at this table will be sitting down with them as well on both sides

of the aisle to craft this piece to make sure we can fix that. we are delighted to see -- and we have to make sure that everybody in this room gets it. it's the only way that we can pass the fix to section for allowing the utilization of the preclearance session, section 5 if it is bipartisan. so the catch phrase now is that it must be bipartisan and that is why we were excited jim sensenbrenner is leading to make sure that we can address these concerns as well. please grab the paper, up and let's be prepared for the fight. [applause] hillary shelton, the naacp. you raise an interesting point about meeting the bipartisan support and we talked about that a little bit. but, one of the things we have to be concerned about now as we

move forward is getting that legislation passed. the voting rights act was reauthorize the in 2006 with an overwhelming majority of legislators voting. the supreme court that it did back down. john conyers, this question is for you. do you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about whether the supreme court is ready to mollify acts of congress? >> they always have been so i don't wake up at night thinking about that. [laughter] >> what do we know if you examine the decisions of the united states supreme court they have led us down on citizens united to begin with. [applause] and now they have to meet secretly into the political

process. so that's why what we are all saying here is that everybody has got to turn out to counteract the huge amounts of the secret financing going into the campaigns as a result of the united states supreme court. this question is for the congresswoman there is an occupational shortage going on in your state of florida. they don't take over the state house and there is a portion of it in florida. [applause] i know you come from an activist tell yourself. if you would address will roll of activism in making our necessities felt a lot of the homes would say? >> that is good.

all right. you can do better than that. god is good. all the time. i believe when you were born you get a birth certificates and when you die a defeat could buy your going to get a death certificate. in between that type is what you've done to make this a better place. i would think the brothers jesse louis jackson and all of the people up here for what they have done. let's give them a hand. [applause] first of all let me ask the question are there any veterans in the room? raise your hand. let's give them a hand. [applause] when they went to service and came back they saw something different and when they came back, they have the backbone to make sure that america was going to change. and it was the core mission between those military people

and the leadership that change america to get on a come from florida and if there is any reason that we need to make sure the voting rights act is restored, i have one word for you. florida. [applause] because in 2000 in my district i represent district number five. i was the first african-american elected in 1992, the first one in 129 years. and it wasn't out of the goodness of anybody's heart. the compromise was three and that is how hastings carried me and myself and got elected but let's be clear we've wouldn't have gotten elected if it wasn't for the hard work of people like

reverend jackson. we went night after night to make sure people understood not just to go out and vote for the president and vote for the congressperson, but you have to vote at the end them and the attorney general's and the judges are crucial. i represent samford florida where a young black person can be murdered and not guilty and right over in jacksonville a black woman can shoot and i can get 20 years. there's something wrong with this system. let me mention one other thing. tuesday night the city council, 19 f. large voted to move the

supervisor of the office. that's the predominantly african-american anybody can vote in the precinct. and they moved into an area with no transportation or buses. they've never done that in the history of jacksonville. why do you think they moved there? not the lowest bid. the transportation, the areas they move in the supervisor's office, it is nothing. and as i said, it is the 2000 election they stole 27,000 votes. present seven come eight, nine and ten the facility is gateway we can launch them account and go in and monitor but they move it where it is no transportation

, it is a warehouse in the midst of a desert. so you need to know that it is left up to us. the work is for all loveless and we have to work together and we have to be involved. you can't think that reverend jackson can do it by himself? you can't think the president can do it by himself. it takes all of us. [applause] we have to work together to turn this around. i believe to whom god has given much much is lost. it's something for each of us to do. it's not just the leadership. it's everybody. we are all marching tomorrow but when you go home that is when the march begins. [applause] thank you. congressman braley from

jacksonville florida. [applause] there's something for all of us to do and one of the things all of us can do and one of the differences between the section 5 preclearance action in the department of justice and section 2 and section 3 litigation is proving the intent to discriminate based on race. that is something we can all help in and that is in gathering the stories come the incident, being in touch with our elected officials so we know what the intentions of our. knowing somebody's intention the father asked the young man about the daughter what are your intentions and that is a very personal question. you have to know somebody personally to let their intentions are especially in this post 60's civil rights. people don't always tell you what their intentions are.

so we have to be vigilant of servers and our own communities with our own the elected officials and record that information. i will cope with a fault. i said just because section five is under attack and we can't use preclearance the way we used to push, we can still submit some stuff to justice. nobody can stop us from writing a letter to the department of justice can they? we can still tell the tales of whether section 5 is being utilized in the same way or not, can we not? proving the intent. let us move -- i want to shift gears a little bit because i know there are some good -- there's some very smart folks in this audience. we want to get to some of your questions and comments before we have to close the session.

i noval horror stories we talk about how horrible it is. but you said it's something that we can all do. let's do lightning round of a minute op east and talk about one of two things we can go back home and do. i'm going to start with you, congressman johnson. >> thank you. >> the best thing we can do is to educate each other where the threat is and if we have that knowledge and we have good leadership we have a great leader here, reverend jesse jackson. we have the number of other leaders in your community but people of goodwill to mean good for everyone who are looking forward to prosperity for us all

those are the folks we should be following and if they are not involved in politics, then i think you might be shooting at the wrong tree. politics is extremely and important. it opens up the economics. if we do not produce a peak in politics and if we do not rowley ourselves -- rally ourselves to what that obstacle was put before us in a hostile atmosphere where we can't depend on the courts and we can't depend on the legislature and we must overcome we have to do that through his strength and unity and we educate ourselves and be unified in terms of what we need to do. and so, that would be my one minute spiel. >> may i go next? >> certainly you may. >> i'm not here thinking about georgia as a red state and that

is where my other is from and there is no reason that george should be a rare state where the african americans were there. i understand you have about 500,000. the point is -- don't look at me like that. that's the truth. i am saying yes in florida not only do you have to register, but you have to make sure they can register and make sure that they take out the vote. there are many things we can do and it isn't just one thing. we have a direct filing of youth. what is that? yes. when you direct felons so they can never get a decent job. so that is something you have to do in that area.

for closure's costs. and people are still losing their homes picketed it is a line of work in many areas for each one of us to do. and we cannot slash ourselves. the strength is in the pack and we have to be together. [applause] >> thank you, a congresswoman. are there any other instructions about what we can go back to our homes and do? yes, congresswoman? >> i must add not ignore and i know the president is in the room, let me thank him for his leadership. i am sort of looking around at the leadership conference. you all can do better than that. i work for the southern christian leadership conference in the office.

and i work with a brother james and others in the registration and places all along. i was listening in my mother's i get the time i was doing this. but there is a song that the beatles sang and they said let it become a let it be. it is a soothing song. but i must beg the difference and say you must go home and not let it be. that is what we are doing because we are busy. the lord says be busy until he comes what we have to be busy on the right thing. so i would suggest to you that you have got to get agitated. i don't want you to get ugly but i want you to get agitated and find alliances that are way beyond. we have full union alliances and when an alliance is now, the latino community come asian community. we can walk to and two together or three and three together. i just want to take two points.

i'm always coming back to that supreme court decision to limit and i'm glad that hillary mentioned the 13th and 14th and 15th amendment. read the dissenting opinion because justice ginsburg said there is nothing that we in the congress did for the voting rights act that was inconsistent with the 13th and 14th and 15th amendment. what you were saying is it baffles hurt that the supreme court even went there because there was nothing unconstitutional about section 5 because it was doing its job. that was to ensure that there were no discriminatory practices to keep anybody from voting. and so we have to read things and understand so that we know what we are talking about. let me give you this so we can finish on what we there are no north carolinian sit here. let's salute the reverend who is down there fighting. thank you. [applause] let me say this so you can be

agitated and inspired. let me just say that. shutting down, closing down early voting. they had same-day voting. telling you there can be no street party voting. why can you tell the voter why they can't vote the way they want to vote? telling you by state law no state party voting. the male lead in absentee ballots me be a form from the county election board and no registration. the pool hours have been shut down. let me just give you this quick. observers you used to be able to have the partners that could fit a whole bunch of people and for fear and intimidation. and then of course the i.t. was lifted. no student ied. let's see what is not allowed here just quickly. it must be one of these. no student i.d. is allowed.

in the the id, well that is obviously not expired. way to put barriers. so here is my point to go on. fingar education issue, your economics and criminal-justice issue because just as north carolina has a set of laws, texas has its and their must be something in your community. you may be north, south. it's a shame the wheel that our schools be closed. that's a destruction of our neighborhood and community. and if you can do anything you can get in the way of school closing. so i would suggest that you find the issue of the day and you are in essence saying with the constitution in hand i am an american that has the ability of protest and petition without violence but i am not ready to let be. we cannot go back and let the.

it is a march but it does in commemoration. it is a march of continuity. you must continue the fight and fight that fight in your neighborhood and if you get a call we will come to help you in your neighborhood. thank you. [applause] >> did you want to have a comment about what can we do? >> just five quick points. number one, now that there isn't a mandate for the states and the jurisdiction to have to report the changes before they make them they are making them now any way pitied as you know, texas cut the redistricting map that was still unconstitutional it was shut down by the justice department. the day the supreme court decision came down the announced in texas we can now move ahead on this redistricting plan that would disenfranchise african-americans and others

throughout texas. we know they are moving in that direction so we want to make sure they are monitoring them now. eric holder sat down with a meeting with the naacp and the others. we said that the process now with more lawyers and resources and i thank god for him. [applause] he pulled the resources into the voting rights section even after cutting the overall budget. there is a lot to be said for those priorities. he is intensely doing that to be helpful but they are cutting the budget because they don't want him to be helpful. let me say one point before i go through the last couple. these people also got in a fight on capitol hill. but eric holder said we have to stop these disenfranchisement total ideals that are moving to the budget saying you cannot use the money in your budget to go after these discriminatory measures. eric holder said i'm going after the states for using racial

profiling to enforce antiimmigration walls. they said we are putting a writer on the budget saying you can't go into any states enforcing these kind of programs and racial profiling. every step of the way then they pump up the charges on the so-called fast and furious. that was all about stopping him from what he needs to do. he's moving the issue and we have to make sure that we provide the information. we have to monitor the changes to the district plan and change the voter registration and other forms of the activities going on. number two, we have to monitor what happens at the polls. there are a number of off term elections coming up for the mayors, governors and a few other things and we want to make sure that you watch it very closely and report back to us as fast as you can. we need that information in the justice department. but we also need that information as we craft the solution to section 4. number three, i want to make

sure that you visit your members of congress while they are back home. one of the biggest problem is the ones you want to talk about aren't going to help us any way. you want to talk to the ones you don't want to talk to any way. they are up to no good. they are going to try to move measures to try to make sure the constant state of affairs of not being able to vote is in place. we have been winning in this process and that is why they are changing the rules. to get the information straight from us there is a form advised that once you sign up the sources build their movements. you go through the process and we cannot tell you what's coming on. we give you talking points and we are going to ask you to go in and visit with your members of congress on the last point. we want to make sure.

the reason we came to washington is because the constitution looked like a promissory notes to. however, when we went to cast the insufficient funds. we have more registered voters than ever before and know no matter what kind of shenanigans they will win in the 2014 election. [applause] >> are there any responses about what we can constructively do when we return home? i want to make sure that we register young people who are we think sometimes turn out all but we need. and if we can build on what hillary has said let's go and

find those young people to not only let them be the leaders of the registration as i have heard over this wonderful day of messages that have come out, but find these young leaders and push them out to be able to grow across the area and across the state's and register all of those recent grads that have been where they think they cannot survive. go get them, and register them and let them understand what empowerment is all about. >> i have come to a conclusion that is a little but radical. one of the things doing away with the early registration, the pre-registration of teenagers. so the young people while they are still at home before they get jobs and before they go to college while they are taking u.s. history they cannot pre-register to vote. i was among the that first group

to vote at 18 as opposed to 21. as a result of the vietnam war the voting age was inconsistent to fight the war and couldn't vote. i would submit to you facebook and twitter and smart phones and laptops that maybe the 16-year-olds if you can be shot down in the street, drop out of school, get a job, get married, have a consensual sexual relations, media or mature enough to think about voting. what happens if we lower the voting age? >> it would help because you get people who are concerned about criminal justice. nobody stops the industry any more. those are young people's issues.

you have been so patient. i didn't know you listen but to do listen. [laughter] and you have been listening for a long time and you know it better than anybody i can ever think of to the end when people are really in trouble, they forget they know our phone number. but you can tell when somebody really, really, really is in trouble and has something to say for the judge that they don't know what to do about because they find is in the middle of the night until they get him or get you to go get him and he isn't far from reach. our heroic person who's always there. reverend jackson, please sum this up and then we will take questions and comments from the audience. okay. [applause] >> i have several concerns. one as we listen to congress

people speak and organizational leaders speak and the president's speech, we have a reflection and motivation. are we here for legislation and appropriation. it's to reflect and be motivated. they must be the legislation in the fourth version but it appears to me we will have more power today than we did the years ago. we had in 63 a sense of urgency to protect the highest priority. it seems to me this is the week for the congressional allies.

first of all this isn't a black issue. blacks couldn't vote in the south in 1965. white women couldn't sit on the injury until 1967 for the most part. there was no woman on the supreme court. 18-year-olds couldn't vote until 1970 during the war. you couldn't be on the college campus until 1974. you couldn't get bilingual voting until 1975. and the personality of voting in the campaign. so if you have a ship and the plank comes out the bottom, it will sink the whole ship. so what he knows have less immigration allies. if their ship goes down, the women that held the legislation in texas, the white woman that one with a combination of black,

brown and congressional white votes. so progressive white women and blacks and latinos are in the balance of evolution and get locked in to save us. they cannot save us by the virtue of the proposition. the second issue is that i want to really question this. is this about the need to have the constitutional right to vote for the state's right to vote? robertson did in this seems to me as opposed to the states' rights, the congress has driven my states' rights. if you left the car in the driveway and took away the key and without the key the car can't move. what's going to happen? doud of texas it starts real

fast and then you have to file the suits and spring to be very expensive did you may lose the truth latinos immediately out of arizona right now. you can take a district like 25% and that's gone. the clyburn district is like colombia to charleston. that is a long way pity it seems to me that what we are looking at is come january, these republican legislators are going to come back with redistricting schemes that will have to fight to defeat. you have to go through the judges that may not be our allies and those suits and expensive of fights to get it done again. that is likely to happen on the

college campuses for the 9,000 people in the precinct. given what is already happening in texas today that it came down i would hope the president can do what only he can do since we have the power and the sense of urgency and was multi-cultural and as american as it can be to convene the congress. maybe one person can in particular make the case that congress has been done on the emigrations that matter on the protected right to vote and not allow the state's rights to take over again. we came out of the states' rights 50 years ago. it is time now to make the case

to be constitutionally protected. the limit implies we should protected from discrimination. we have the constitutional right to bear a gun. the constitutional right to free speech because it is explicitly even teaching of the constitutional over the class by saying that it may come as a shock to you to not have the right. for those that do represent us you might fight for the role of the thing and when. he might fight for less than we need and when and there is no glory in that race. when people come back, the most major press conference that you can imagine and as broad as the base can be, make no higher than

this because all of the things that flow from the protected right to vote. all of the judges welcome this. it -- the contract is welcome this. public works flow from this. immigration policy flows from this. of racial justice flows from this. public education from this. public transportation. we saw in florida because of the public transportation when they needed the transportation and the money on the marginalization and i would hope that we would be clear on the fact that the assistance for the administration had a political agenda, but not just a moral agenda.

we must solve the commission will. it's coming back to washington this last time already in the city that we will be spending demanding that we left the floor from the people. the open the poor folks can pay an inoculation -- appellate judge and they will move through more white people in black and brown people. the most poor folks work every day but without health insurance. when they cut the public transportation accounts, you can't get through. i would hope as we discussed this appear with mr. jackson and so forth the constitutional right to vote must be on the agenda. i would submit that for an

appeal. [applause] >> the constitution and the right to vote. we have the state's right they got one and mississippi and every state got its own agenda. that's why jimmy carter cannot monitor the election because we got 50 elections and it is within those states you draw so there is no way to judge them because you can judge a basketball game whether you are in california or new york. we have several thousand sets of rules that make it unmanageable. it's a constitutional right that we can centralize the authority and the protection. we cannot protect the vote in texas from chicago or the right from north carolina to virginia. am i right about that? i need a little help to discuss this.

>> well, we need to constitutional linus the right to vote. you have said that and i think that everyone here agrees. the question that we have to really put together is the legal rationale that overcomes the reluctance that is prevented us from doing this we have dozens of supreme court decisions that said just we have a constitutional right that in the prior there is a right somewhere that i am very proud to take it up with my to excellent colleagues on the judiciary that we with some lawyer organizations and vendors we