we then had people men, women, young and old saying this is not okay with us. speaking out through traditional means and also online and we saw a change. we also had in virginia, when bob mcdonald and the republican legislature say not only are we going to have mandatory ultrasounds, we're going to force state mandated transvaginal probes on the population. women and men said hold on a second. this is way too far. while we still have now mandatory ultrasounds in the state, we at least got that part stripped down and we had a person hood bill that was sent back to committee. then miss sandra fluke came

around. i have to say what is wrong with darrell issa? what is wrong with that guy? [ applause ] >> i just don't get it. sandra comes along. when rush limbaugh attacked her on day one i'm ashamed to say his bar of obnoxiousness is set so low, i thought typical rush. it was on day two when he called for sandra's sex tapes to be posted online for the himself. i said we can't stand for this any longer. it's a funny thing how this started. i'm lucky to have a relationship with msnbc and have a new show. at that time i was doing a guest appearance on martin bashir show.

our segment was supposed to be about something else and it ended up being about sandra and rush. after the segment, martin said you're really passionate about this, and you should write something about this. i said that's a good idea. i think i will. i went home and i started writing. as i was writing and digging up all these old horrific, unbelievable quotes from rush limbaugh, i kept getting more and more upset. in the middle of writing, i took a break and went online to twitter. i started talking to some of my friends about what happened and what was going on. i just realized that there was this incredible passion and anger out there at what he had said and what he had done. at some point in this twitter conversation, someone suggested to me why don't we boycott rush limbaugh's sponsors. i said that's a great idea. just talking about this guy, that's what he wants. we have to go after him in way

that will be meaningful to him. that night, i wrote my piece. it was called "boycott rush." the next day a friend and myself launched a petition. by the end of that day, and this was one of many efforts going on across the country but by the end of the next day sponsors were already started to drop from his program. [ applause ] >> and by the end of 24 hours, we had over 100,000 signatures on that petition. the pace of advertisers dropping didn't slow, it quickened until he literally was on his flagship station in new york he was having to play dead air time. even the public service announcements that are free wouldn't play on his air waves. [ cheers and applause ]

>> now, rush tries to play this off like it's no big deal, but you will notice that he still talks about it a lot. he still, one of the radio stations that carries his program on only a few networks and is publicly traded had to come out and give their financial results. they said they have lost millions because of carrying rush limbaugh. the main carrier of the limbaugh program, which carries him on many other stations is not publicly traded so we don't have insight directly into their financials, but we can assume they are being financially impacted by rush limbaugh's racist hate media. this is a guy who has never been held accountable. never.

after the initial cable news wave crusted and fell and we went onto donald trump's fund-raiser or whatever was next, there was a little bit of a quiet period. normally what happens with these things is everybody kind of moves onto whatever is next. what i'm really excited about and what to focus on in these comments is that in the stop rush movement, that didn't happen. we actively worked to gather all the efforts that were going on independently, all the different people and petitions. we had people build a website where people could go to see what sponsors were still with rush in what markets. are they national or local sponso sponsors. volunteers could sign up to listen to his program and track

who was still with rush so that we would have a database and be able to coordinate action on a local and national level. it's an incredible thing. it works quite well. i'm really proud to have been part of this effort. it's ongoing and it's continuing and the pressure is continuing to be applied. i think the model of people across the country having an emotional reaction coming together and finding each other online and then building something and building a movement. nobody being paid, completely volunteer, i think it's an incredible thing and i think it's a positive thing. i think it's exactly what alice walker had in mind when she said we have to understand that we have power. despite the money and politics, despite the rigged system that's so frustrating, ultimately where

it's darrell issa or john boehner or mitt romney, they are accountable to the people, and we do have that power [ applause ] >> one issue that i want to highlight because there's a lot of fight, there's a lot of things to work on, but one thing we need to be aware of is i have to say i was delighted and ecstatic by the supreme court's decision this week, but within that decision comes a challenge. the supreme court has said that states can opt out of expanding medicaid coverage to 133% of the poverty line. what that means is if you have a state, let's take texas, for

example, where six million texans are uninsured, highest rate in the country. quarter of their residents don't have health insurance. if they went with the affordable care act and expanded medicaid up to 133%, it could cover two million more texans. for the first years it would be 100% of the federal government expense. going forward it would be at 90% of federal government expense. texas decides in their texas way that they do sometimes that they're not going to go with the program. those two million people won't be insured and yet they won't qualify for the subsidies in the affordable care act to health them be able to afford insurance on their own. we'll have a situation where the poorest people, the people in the most need will be totally left out in the cold. bobby jindel has said he's not going to go with the medicaid

expansion. you can imagine that a lot of these republicans are going to make this a litmus issue so that any republican who has national ambitions will have their feet held to the fire to say they're not going to go forward with the medicaid expansion unless people like us get energized and we hold their feet to the fire and say you are not going to leave two million texas residents out in the cold. you are not going to do this to us. that's our responsibility. we have to make it a political winner to implement this change and provide health care to literally millions of americans. that, i think is a big fight that we have to start planning for and taking on right now. the last thing that i want to

say [ applause ] >> thank you. some of my friends in the room know my favorite dr. seuss story. i have a 4-year-old daughter and i took her to the movie. i was blown away. it's revolutionary. i want to close with my favorite lines from the lorax. i think it's call to action. in all that the lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks with one word, unless. whatever that meant. i just couldn't guess. that was long, long ago, but each day sense that day, i've sat here and worried and worried away through the years while my buildings have fallen apart. i worried about it with all of my heart, but now he said, now

that you're here, the words of the lorax seem perfectly clear unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better, it's not. [ applause ] >> thank you. so ladies and gentlemen, who i'm so glad are here, let's get fired up. let's work. let's organize. let's fight. thank you. [ applause ]

>> she's an inspiration. can we handle it? are we fired up? all right. i'm really excited to introduce tamika mallory. look at her. she is leading, leading at the top one of the nation's top civil rights organizations. [ applause ] >> she is the executive director of the national action network. she has been a member of national action network since it was formed in 1991. she's the youngest national executive director in the group's history. how old are you? 32. [ applause ]

>> she has worked closely with the obama administration on civil rights issues including education, equal rights for women, health care reform, whoo, health care reform, gun violence and police misconduct. recently she was named one of the grios.com 100 future leaders. i don't know what that means. she's a leader today. she sits on news corps diversity adviser council. give the warmest round of applause for tamika mallory. [ applause ] >> thank you all so much. thank you so much, erin. i feel like i have nothing to say after these two wonderful women came before me. everything that i was thinking to say to you all has already

been said. i'll try to figure out something and take my seat quickly. i want to thank you the wonderful president of the national organization for women for including me in this amazing, amazing conference and to erin who is a fire ball. our young leader in her own right. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> to sandra fluke, you are truly an inspiration. don't let anybody tell you anything different. all of us here look at you as a trail blazer and an example that you cannot be afraid to stand up and to speak out. your work will inspire us all for a long, long time to come. thank you for just being you. thank you. [ applause ] >> krystal ball who is also a

staff member at msnbc along with my boss, al sharpton. she's fierce. a wonderful woman i watch all the time. i watch what she is saying so i can get my stuff in order. as the 32-year-old female national executive director of the reverend al sharpton's organization, his baby, that he started 21 years ago. we're serious about the hostile environment that's upon women across this country and across the world. women all over are suffering with so many issues. we take it very seriously and work really hard at trying to make changes. as a woman myself, i'm in front of the issues. it's all men on the list. you'll see me being the one to say wait a minute, there's got to be a woman who is an expert on this issue as well. everybody goes, i'm so sorry.

i'm so sorry. absolutely. i've really been the trail blazer there. what we realize is with all the issues ta we'hat we're facing, the things that we're going through, courage and activism are the only things we need to get by. it's not easy. we have to stand up and be willing to jump across the hurdles and use strength of our sisters and our brothers to get us through. that's sort of the model that our organization lives with. we can do anything with courage and activism. most of you know reverend al. he's the host of "politics nation." he's also a radio host. he's the hardest working man in the civil rights movement after dr. king. you may know him from the trayvon martin case where he really was the leading force in

helping to bring that case to the forefront. he's worked many, many years on police brutality and police misconduct. he's in los angeles right now preaching if funeral of rodney king. then you also may know him for his recent work on voting rights, which i think is probably the 21st civil rights issue, civil rights issue of the 21st century along with education and a bunch of other stuff. everything we're upset about, everything we're mobilizing around will really be determined by what happens with this election and with ones ability to take away our right to vote. that is an issue that he is all over. i want to put a little bit of context around why i'm here, and why i am the national executive director of a civil rights organization, and i don't know

any organization, civil rights organization that has a young woman who is number two to the president, and it's tall order. people look at him one way and they see me and it's like she's a woman. she's a feminist. she'll be telling the us what to do for girls. people don't necessarily want to hear it. it's a tall order for me. just to tell you a bit about myself. i've literally been a activist since i was a toddler. my parents helped to start national action network 21 years ago. i've been at every rally, every protest, every demonstration. i was the kid who used to be there and my parents would use me in the crowd of 20 to 30,000 people but they didn't worry because they knew somebody would bring me to the end of the march. really truly a young toddler activist. through all of those things, it was really instilled in me that

equal rights is a civil right. equal rights is a civil right. to go even further than that, my mother was kept happy by everyone in this house. everybody in our whole family, as a matter of fact, knew not to mess with her. if she was upset, the whole family felt the wrath of her being upset. you just did whatever she said. i remember when i was a kid, i used to go to my dad and say mom is doing such and such ming and i'd go can you help me. he'd go no, no, no. do whatever it is that your mother wants you to do. the thing i learned from that is being an activist and a strong women can move mountains. we can do so much. i'm proud to be a woman in the civil rights movement, and i hope that all of us who are here today can embrace the whole thought of us just being ignite

and being fired up and ready to work. we have some important work to do. we got to have that energy to run the next course, and we've got to do it together. the one thing about women is we push one another along. you can sister and your -- your fellow woman on the job or wherever and say i just need a little bit of encouragement, and we will help you get to the next place, and what they say behind every man, every powerful man is a strong woman, so we have the energy that we need, but we've just got to kick it up and be reignited, just be reorganized, you know, to do the work that is necessary at this time. i want to talk quickly about a few points, and i think the most important thing that i can say today is that activism, it's really what we need to be focused on. you know, it is not enough to sit back and look at the television and say, you know, i'm mad. i can't believe that. look at that. what are you going to do about

it, you know? what are you going to do in your area, in your hometown, where you live to make the change? so activism is truly the only thing that we can really use, and i have to keep saying that because not everybody who -- and i think i'm preaching to the choir because all of you who are here are very strong activists in your own right, but sometimes we can get into one little area and say we're going to work on education or we're just going to focus on this small thing and that is important because the small things make up the big picture, but true activism means that sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone and go and support someone else and what they are doing. you don't necessarily have to be the leader, but you've got to be there as a supporter. so i think it's safe to say today that we all know we're here to talk about how to make us more effective because all of us are doing something. how do we become more effective, and i still think it's safe to

say to understand the context sort of what activism was, the historical context, what people have done like sojourner truth like katie stanton and gloria steiniam and rosa parks and all these great women who came before us to get us to this great place, but what does it mean to be an activist today? what are the pressing issues? what are the key issues that we must tackle today. what does activism mean. let's talk about one of the most recent issues where you saw our activism work, and that is just recently the affordable health care act being upheld so we know, we did that, why? because when the president was running, we said we want health care. we want it to be fair. we want it to be equal, and we want to get rid of the discriminatory practices of health care in this country. that's what we want. we said it. we meant it, and the president said he would do it, and he did. so that's the first level of how

our activism works. the second thing that we did was when we got in we reminded him, don't forget, you remember, you promised us, health care, and he did it. and that's a form of activism, but the third thing is once it was under siege and once we felt like it may not come through, we went to the supreme court. we rallied and we organized and we wrote, we blogged, we twittered, tweeted, excuse me, we did everything that we needed to do, and i don't think that the supreme court's decision was based upon that, but i certainly know that it was a sign that the american people and particularly women, we wanted it. we wanted to have affordable health care for us, and we wanted to have it to be, again, a non-discriminatory practice. and so it happened, and that was through true activism, so what does that mean today. it means that we've got to look at other issues and do the same exact thing, so that right now we're talking about this whole

wage income gap and the fact that we're demanding that there's parity in america. why is it that we're also the bread winners of our households? a lot of times, and i'm sorry, the men that are in the room, but it's very true. if a woman doesn't bring home a good paycheck the household will fail. i know it certainly is that way in the african-american community. you need to have two people in the house making ends meet, and so we're also the bread winners. we're also taking care of our children. single moms, many of you are here in this room. why are we getting paid 77 cents to the dollar that a man is making? why? and to go even further than that, a black and latino woman is making 61 cents to every dollar. now, in 1963, let me just make sure i get this right, the equal pay act was signed by president kennedy, and so the 77 cents now

is only 17 cents more than what it was in 1963, not really a big deal, but that means that it was 60 cents, right, at that time. well, now, women of color are making 61 cents so there really has been no progress at all in that area. so a woman who is as qualified or more qualified cannot get paid the same thing that a man is getting paid. that's an issue that we have to tackle together, right now, and we can't wait and say we're going to do it by and by. we've got to do it today. now, as they would say at the n.o.w. conference, the next thing is the violence against women act, being reauthorized and making sure that people of color, immigrants, the lgbt community and native americans are a part of it. [ applause ] and then we have this thing

that, you know, is very personal to me, and that's the violence, drugs and crime within our young people on the streets of america. very seriously. we are caught up in we've got to feed hungry children. we've got to fight for education, for equal education opportunities. we've got to do all of that, and we somehow turn our eyes at the fact that our children have access to guns and drugs. my son's father, my son is 13 years old, believe it or not, and his father was murdered when he was 2, and it is nothing like telling my son every time he gets upset that, you know, i'm just so sorry. he was a victim to the street and it's just me and you, you know, and there are others that are involved in his life, but there's nothing like your mother and your father, your mommy and your daddy, you know, so while we're worrying about all of these other things our children are crying out for us to focus, focus, on the fact that they are in pain and, therefore, they are killing each other.

it's a sense of cannibalism that's happening within our young people because they are getting ignored in the process of us focusing on the big picture and not zeroing in on what they are going through. the drugs are just a form of them trying to cover up the pain that they are feeling. and that's something else that we've got to look at and fight for our children's lives on a more specific basis. what can we do to help them stop them killing themselves. that's another issue. and i'm almost done. i've got two more important points. voting. i talked about that in the beginning. very important. national action network just launched a voting engagement tour. we're going all over this country ensuring that every single vote will count. we're trying to help people get their i.d.s. we're trying to help them make sure they need their i.d.s. a lot of states don't have a clue that there's a law that's been passed in their state and no one is trying to get them that information either so we're

there trying to make sure that we establish groups on the ground, make sure that the elderly community, the youth, the churches, are all organized to help people go out and get their i.d.s and also to register to vote. that is an issue, an activist issue, that we must be engaged in. how do you do it? you don't necessarily have to be involved in a widespread program. you can literally just call your family members in particular states and tell them that you need to pay attention to the fact that you need a new i.d., you may not have the proper identification, and grandma needs also to find her birth certificate so she can get the proper state i.d. do you know that in texas you can use your gun license but you can't use your student i.d. to vote? it's crazy, crazy, but people in texas don't know, so if you know people in texas, you've got to be an activist and call them and let them know what's going on and help them get organized to get what they need. that's another issue.

finally, we all must work together on working rights and immigrant rights. i'll tell you a quick funny story and then i'll take my seat. this march, well, first of all, it was in february, reverend sharpton calls me and says we're going to walk 54 miles from selma to montgomery, well, it was great after i did it, but -- but we're going to walk from selma to montgomery, and we're going to re-earn act the 1963 march on -- in alabama where the voting rights march, and we're going, to you know, go out and we're going to organize labor. we're going to get people together and we're going to walk. now i wear five-inch prada shoes on a regular basis like i'm sure many of you do, and i was thinking to myself what is going to happen? it was the first time in my life where breaking my leg was okay. like i just wanted to break it