i'm going to ask both of these gentlemen. both of you ask your question before we have any responses. then i'm going to ask, as we try to respond to you, ask mr. rangel to come up and close and then ask our chairman to do the benediction. so if both of you, you ask your question and then ask yours immediately and we'll try to answer them both. >> quickly, congresswoman, keeping the democratic party accountable. how do you suggest that we hold them accountable to invest real money in the community to address some of these issues around the voting suppression. >> both jeff johnson and pastor tony lee made mention of the fact that we have an election to win here in 2012, but we have work to do beyond 2012. and i would like to know from the congressional black caucus perspective as -- in particularly in my region, i'm dealing with a right wing

evangelical movement that has bamboozled the black brethren. what's the method, what's the move to attempt to rally those that congresswoman waters have referred to who are not really concerned because there's no food on the table. there's no jobs. how do we make the connection? what's the agenda to make the connection between the political process and not being bamboozled. if that makes sense? >> we're going to go to congresswoman sheila jackson lee. >> thank you, congresswoman and let me just thank the panel. thank our co-chairs. congressman rangel and

congressman cedric richmond and our chair person. let me just hold up and make two points and then spiritually go to my seat. if there are any poster children for shame, and this is a map of shame, i know that pastor freddy haynes would join me and say that texas is certainly fighting for the prize. and florida is right in the mix. the map of shame, somebody wanted to call out another state, of course is the voter i.d. if you will note, more than 75% of america is trying to do voter i.d. i call this the 21st century poll tax. and when you talk to your congregation, even though that sounds like we're talking baby boomer, young people understand that as well. so i want to just say these points. the point is that you just had an irs meeting. having policy discussions about getting rid of this is not lobbying. having it outside of the realm

of the church house, having it somewhere where you are leading it is okay. and if there ever is a 21st century civil rights movement, it is the voter i.d., for it does nothing other than say you are trying to show up as this pastor right here. it has nothing to do. so we do have a place for twitter and e-mail, but we have a place for prayer vigils, marches, standing on the street corner. when i say standing on the street corner. standing in the chamber of a city hall because children organize 35,000 people in sanford, florida. children organized that. and it made a difference. i would just encourage you to work with us because if you work with the congressional black caucus, we can do great things together. call on us as we call on you. let's get rid of this map of shame and let us not be fearful of coming together on things that you are comfortable with. prayer vigils, marches and others. i bet you we could turn this country partly around. thank you.

>> thank you very much. i'm going to now wrap this session up. i'm going to ask each one of my panelists to just give us a minute. hopefully somebody will answer the questions that were asked. i'm then going to turn it over to our chairman, reverend clevler. if we would start down at the end. cindy? >> so just to wrap up, i would just encourage if we think about take backs and as we leave here and go into our states, and our congregation that we think about the 2012 election and start to think strategically about what we can do individually around -- one, educating people and our congregation, our folks around the changes of these laws. i think that's the most important thing that we need to do. in our everyday walks, and all that we, do we need to start now, not two months from now.

we need to start now educating people in our community about the changes of the laws, the process of the laws and getting them ready to vote in november. the other thing i would encourage, we talked a lot about and didn't talk about it here, but people should know that there are groups out there like true to vote that are now encouraging and recruiting a million challengers this november. to challenge our folks in being communities of color, to challenge people at the polls. and i think what we need to do and put an emphasis on is encouraging our folks and our congregations to also be poll workers, poll monitors. so if i would leave you with two things, i say we go back and educate our folks in the community about these changes in the laws and how they need to get ready. and the other thing is to engage and inactivate folks to be active in any way they can on election day. >> thank you very much. mr. johnson? >> i won't be redundant in what i've already said. but how many of you know a place in your community that makes the best fried chicken you've ever had? that's not a rhetorical

question. i'm serious. how many of you know a place in your community that makes the best fried chicken you've ever had? you know that's not the best selling business in that community. what is the difference between them and kfc? kfc markets better. and the challenge that i'm seeing is that the religious right has marketed christendom better than you. and if you want to deal with how do you stop the christian right from being able to bamboozle the folks that are around you, it's by being aggressive with your message. and what you believe and what you want. they are not afraid to say what they believe. they aren't afraid to say what they want and they aren't afraid to tell you you're wrong. you preach bible but they say they are the bible. and so if we are going to be serious about not allowing the religious right to define the narrative about what it means to be christian, then you've got to be more aggressive about outside

of your churches, talking about what that looks like and the policy that accompanies it, not the other way around. the church should not chase the policy. the church through its moral compass should push to be able to set the policy that's a reflection of what it is that you preach. but if you are a punk outside of the four walls of the church, then it doesn't work. and we can be -- we find ourselves being rhetorically gangster in the pulpit and punks in the street. and so if we want to be able to control the message, then control the message. and don't let your people be controlled by a religious right simply because they are more aggressive. hijack the message from them the way they hijacked it from us. >> thank you. thank you so much. congresswoman waters. >> i think jeff johnson talked about what we do now and what we

do as we plan for the future. right now we've got the problem of exciting people, getting them to the polls. we've only got another, what, five, six months before november. the primaries are going on all over the country. and so know your state laws. and i want to tell you, your ministers and your focused on the gospel. but you've got a lot of young people and professionals and others in the church. give them an assignment. give the lawyers an assignment in the church. give the young mbas an assignment. have them come back with the information, some of which you have been introduced to here today, this week. and know what your state laws are, what you can and you can't do. and so when you know what your state laws are, then you can use your influence in ways that will

be very helpful to the community and still won't get you in any trouble with irs. we don't want you to give up on policies because you say that, oh, i may violate my 501c3. if your state laws don't allow you to do voter registration in the church, do it in the restaurant down the street. do it in -- there are a lot of different places you can do it. but what you have is your congregation. yes, do some of what everybody talk about in terms of reminding people of how far we have come, the sacrifices that were made, the voting rights act, all of that. but also mobilize. mobilize to use your absentee ballot laws to make sure that people have the absentee ballot forms and they can gather like they gather at prayer meetings in people's homes or other places and help people with those absentee ballots.

then the other thing that some of you do already, we can do better is to get people to the polls on election day by picking them up. but organize it and get a lot of those young people in the church to do this work. so we have to do that for the immediate. but as we plan, get with the black caucus and the elected officials as we plan for the future to talk about how the people in our communities know the difference between what we say and what we do. that's extremely important.

so i still believe and i'll just wrap this up, that the church has power. i think again as i said when i first started talking, unutilized power. and so what you find in our communities now, whether it's in our schools or businesses, we are losing power. we are losing power and influence because nobody has taken the leadership. and so the ministers and elected officials working together can have some sessions where we absolutely plan what we are going to do. if we are going to deal with the banks, and the lending institutions in our community, the elected officials got to get with you and we've got to call in the local branch managers. we've got to review the cra plans. what your investing in the community? and not simply in phony mortgages but in our businesses. our businesses are almost nonexistent in many of our places. but, anyway, we can do this work for the future. let's do what we can for now. thank you. >> thank you. mr. mason? >> someone asked the question, how do you hold the democratic party accountable? the answer is simple. form and support your own institutions. again, form and support your own institutions. when there was no one speaking to the issue for black and brown voters and voter i.d. laws, we formed protecting our vote superpac. form and support your own institutions. and we have a history of doing this.

black churches formed hbcus. out of hbcus. i'm an omega man. i see purple and gold sitting out on the table. i'm standing next to my delta sister, but i -- you must be an alpha. but we have a history of doing this. this is not new to us. but somehow we forgotten. we've forgotten how to take our political power and turn it into economic power that turns it into more political power that turns it into more economic power. we forgot how to support our institutions. but you know who hasn't? you know who we haven't learned from and they do this all the time? the pro-israel community. they are much smaller than us, but they have a much greater footprint. form and support your institutions. that's how you hold people accountable. power concedes nothing without

demand. we demand nothing, we get nothing. >> we cannot control the conversation unless we understand the issues. we cannot become politically sophisticated unless we know and understand the issues. we cannot set an agenda and we cannot leverage our power unless we know and understand the issues. education is the most important piece in all of this. we have to be educated on the issues in order to be active. faith link has coming up with six action items that you can take home and start to do with your congregations around the voter education issue and around other policy issues. they all fall within three steps -- the cbc's three step action plan. the first one is to set up a voting task force. when congresswoman waters talks about utilizing the power that you have in your congregations, different skill-sets that the members hold, this is something you can do. it's very real. it's practical and you can empower your congregation in doing it. the second is providing voter education information and training materials to your membership. you can put a leaflet in your

bulletin. you can make announcements. you can do very simple things to make sure that your congregation has the information that they need. the third is sponsor and organize a voter registration event. the fourth, host a public policy issues forum. the fifth is coordinate an early voting program. and the last is coordinate an election program. those are six simple things that you can do. these are real things that you can take back with you. organizations like faith link that are not 501c3s that have more flexibility to be able to help you can assist you in doing that. >> thank you so much. and last, but not least, reverend tony. >> the thing i would say is take the excuses off the table. this is not the hardest times a black church has ever seen.

the black church has strategized, immobilized in the midst of slavery, slavery, and jim crow and in midst of reagan and the bushs. this is not the hardest time the black church has ever seen to mobilize our community. we cannot get to a place in which we have a black woman, a black mom, two black children and a black dog in the white house and now act like we've lost our mojo. amen, somebody. but you've got to remember who you are. and whose you are. remember -- get your swagger back. amen. you used to be beautiful. you used to be beautiful. i mean, really, it's time to reclaim who you are and what you do. and say, no, we know how to do this. we've done it before. we've done it in worse times than this and we can do it again with god on our side. but you've got to stop -- get the excuses off the table and remember who you are and whose you are. >> let's give all of our panelists a big round of applause.

i just want to close this session by saying this one thing. in our community in the black community, we have always elevated our pastors. always. from the beginning of time. we have elevated you here today. but, remember, that you still have a charge to keep. remember that you are here to serve this present age. and who knows that you may be in this place today just for such a time as this. god bless you. [ applause ] >> bless you. >> we want to thank -- someone mentioned bishop brooking's funeral will be friday in los angeles. we want to thank congresswoman marcia fudge for emceeing this session. and to remind you that the buses will depart for the national ecumenical service at 6:30, and

it will be at the metropolitan african-methodist episcopal church. the service will begin at 7:30. the preaching will come from bishop thomas l. brown sr. and the congressional black caucus would like to express appreciation to the cnbc whose chair is dr. sief franklin richardson and the president jackie burton. we appreciate the partnership that we've had. [ applause ] it is important for me to say that the idea and the push to get this partnership developed and to have members of the clergy to come to washington so that we can present them with information came from congressman charles rangel. [ applause ]

and for a period i did even hide from him on the floor because he was going to say, rev, how are we coming with the conference? is everything on target? and we in the congressional black caucus believe that charles b. rangel is the epitome. he is the consummate congressman. and we are all pleased and fortunate to just have the opportunity to sit at his feet and to learn from him. almost 41 years ago, 13 members who were -- of congress -- who were african-american came together and formed the congressional black caucus. and among those 13 was the gentleman to my left, charles rangel. and for over 40 years now,

charlie rangel has been one of the leading voices of reason and one of the leading voices for justice and peace in the house of representatives. and, you know, i think that he is a historical figure that we all need to talk about. yahushiwa is the pronunciation for joshua in hebrew. and he made sure he told all of the priests to be able to define what some stones meant that he placed in a roadway called ebenezer. and we all need to be able to tell people what the stones of development have meant to us. there's a stone called martin and there's a stone called frederick douglass and there's a stone called sojourner truth. there's a stone called martin luther king and abernathy. and there's a stone called

charlie rangel. and i want to say to you, that i intend to -- every chance i get -- to tell people what this stone has meant. this stone has meant that we had somebody who had the cerebral power, the intellect, and the political know-how to get things done that 30 or 40 years ago, nobody even dreamt of. ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased and proud to present the man who we all believe to be one of the greatest members of the house of representatives to ever walk the halls. congressman charles b. rangel from new york. [ applause ] >> i guess there won't be anything left for the funeral. i think you said it all. but i cannot tell you how good -- how very, very good i feel today.

just as we have waited to get a president of color, we needed a minister, a legislator, a leader, like eldridge cleaver, to help us without being critical of us to find a pathway that provides lights for those that follow us. bringing this together with the energy of staff and having all of the members get excited about this. i am telling you that it's a moving thing for us. someone said that this is the beginning of a partnership. no, we can't afford to have this as the beginning of anything. this is it. this is the big one. this is the time. we have to pledge to each other. i'll let you in on a couple of

secrets. and we're going to leave here as one. first of all, i got a lot of medals in korea. some of the people that survived with me call them track medals, but what the hell. i'm here. but when i thought that these tens of thousands of chinese just about had done everything to my colleagues -- wedz 90% casualties -- i took a shot in the dark and said, jesus, i know it's all over. i was 20 years old. i mean, there was no way with the moaning and the groaning and the gunshots. and to see people being captured i knew it was a nightmare. but i just said that, if you could see it clear, just see it clear and somehow spare me, i promise you never, never in life will you have a problem with charlie rangel.

and i wrote a book, and the whole book is that since that day, i haven't had a bad day since. not a bad day since. and i am convinced if we look over our past that we have going through rough days and never realized how rough they were. and so what i have done, is what we are facing today is the destruction of human rights as we know it. women's rights. decency. fairness. if that is being destroyed, somebody has got to ask. and what were you doing? you know, when i marched the 54 miles from selma to montgomery, i had bad feet and i wasn't

thinking about marching those southern roads i didn't know much about. but when they told me dr. king was going to take some pictures with us, i got dressed up and i went down there. and i had a round-trip ticket to get back to laguardia. it started raining, and instead of going back into the churches, people started putting on plastic around their worn-out shoes. well, i had a cashmere coat and it didn't appear to me this was my setting. i came down for pictures, and i thought this would be the appropriate time for me to get a cab and to see a paper and see how the pictures turned out. but as they started moving, i don't know how many of you knew selma 60 years ago. but as they started moving, i found myself without any sidewalk. i was actually in woods with a bunch of mean national guards people spitting tobacco

protecting me as we marched singing "we shall overcome" into the woods. with hostility all around me. no cabs. no photographers. no way to get back. for 54 miles my bad feet and i said, what the heck are we doing in these woods marching like this? i had no clue that history was being made. i thought it was just another bad day for me. i did not know it meant the voting rights act. i did not know it meant the civil rights act. i did not know how many people had marched and marched and marched like john lewis and andy young who understood each and every risk they were taking and took it. and even though the story is

told in a very different way to my grandkids today, i wonder how many times you and i and others have realized that as we meet today, as we adjourn today, as we have been able to bring together the black churches, not just the history, but the symbol. just people all over the world knowing that you met. even maxine doesn't know. when i was chairman of the caucus, the best thing going for us was nixon rejection of us and we used to meet and have no agenda and the press would be outside and we wouldn't tell them what we were meeting about. but every day nixon wouldn't meet with us, we had a meeting. and they said here we were ready to blow up the world. but the fact is they think we're together. if we act like we're together.

if we leave here together. if we have no bad words for each other. i mean, publicly. we do what we have to do privately. but if we find out the solidarity we have -- someone mentioned my jewish friends. i sat next to a guy in law school. he felt so proud he wasn't jewish in terms of religion but his ham sandwiches and all the laws he had broken. but when israel got attacked he grew 10 feet tall with solidarity. because he had something left in him that he believed in. and god knows it's not just martin luther king. there's a little bit of martin luther king in all of us. if we can take the things we have done, franklyn richardson, the willingness of people to come together.

the church is the only thing some people have. they believe in you. we ask in you as a congressional black caucus to believe that we all need that. we're in your hip pocket. we want to be with you. we hope at the end of this meeting you will think about adopting half a dozen of us. if we live in your district, that's a contract. if you live in the district of franklyn richardson you probably get 30 or 40 adopted. but pick who you want, and i'll tell you we'll make you feel like we don't move without you. because one day we'll be coming back and ask, please act like we were right. we have a vote on the floor. we'll be asking you to call every member.

tell them who you are. how many do you have? how important is this to you. and i assure you that the church's symbol will be bigger and god knows, only god knows how much stronger your congressional black caucus can. there's no limit with the way the color is coming into 0 our country, how far we can go. and if they think we are as serious and powerful as we know we can be, if you're a part of that wind under our wings today will be a day you will never want to forget. so i know you got to take your buses, but just look at the members. see which ones you want, which ones you live with. i am as serious as i can be and we will write you back and tell you the issues that we are dealing with. can you imaginwh