to present to you a $10,000 check. [applause] >> thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> i want ambassador young to know that she is speaking green now. we want to present our speaker. he has been extremely patient. [no audio] let me get him up to preach.

all right. he has a very extensive bio because he has been consistent and committed over the long haul for the right causes and for the right reasons. i am to, just in bringing him forward, distribute copies of his bio -- i can't think of anybody who is not aware, who has been living on another planet, and is not aware of the things reverend al sharpton has been engaged in. he has been praised by both a democratic president, barack

obama camera and a republican president, president george bush. people from diverse backgrounds have found something praise-worthy about his many achievements and many accomplishments. in bringing him forth as quickly as possible, i want to read a bit from an excerpt called "the man in the arena." nelson mandela gave a copy of it to france swore -- francois pinoit in the world championship rugby games at the moment it could have gone either way and at a moment in his country when nobody but nelson mandela could

have brought the divergent elements together into the republic of south africa. here is what was on the piece of paper that nelson mandela gave to francois. it was written by theodore roosevelt, and it's called "the man in the arena." is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. the credit belongs to the man or the woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming

but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasms the great devotions, who spends himself or herself in a worthy cause, who at best in the end nose in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails or if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place or her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. i just want to -- in case there is a temptation to rise to the critics chair and assumed the

critics seat -- i want to present the man in the arena. [applause] >> thank you. thank you to pastor strong and to the bishops and to all of our officials from washington and to all of our activists, civil rights leaders, the chair lady of the naacp. please stand, our chair lady.

[applause] mostly, to our foot soldiers from 1965 -- [applause] come on. give them a big hand. [applause] i want to turn to the book of joshua. first chapter, beginning at the fifth verse -- there shall not any man be able to stand before

thee. all the days of my life, as i was with moses, so i will be with thee, and i will not fail thee nor forsake thee. may god add a blessing to the reading of his words. 50 years after the march, god's promise, god's promise. several years ago, the speaker here on a sunday morning was then-senator barack obama. the senator who is now president talked about that there was the

moses generation, the foot soldiers, the many that we heard from this morning, and then he said that those of us behind worthy joshua generation -- were the joshua generation. yesterday, as some of us were marching across the bridge, i reminded him now. i reminded him of the joshua generation. the problem with the joshua generation is that it does not go by age. it goes by commitment. there were many people that were in the moses generation that were not in the movement.

just because your old doesn't mean we only you -- owe you no gratitude. there are many in the joshua generation who are not engaged now. the real way you separate them is by those that are committed to the journey, and committed why? because there is a distortion of why we have taken this journey. i've been wrestling with it, bishop, and it came together for me on that bridge yesterday. i happened to be standing between her and the president as we got across to the halfway point. john lewis stopped and said he wanted to speak.

he started explaining what had happened at that point where jose williams and he were beat. miss boykins said, let me speak. from her wheelchair, she talked about how she had been registering voters, and she talked about how she was beat that day. she said, i was registering them because i felt if we could vote, we could deal with poverty and deal with the killing of our people and deal with what was going on wrong and unfair. it sounds real simple, but what struck me was that we are, in many ways, caught up in what we are getting out of the journey than what the journey was for.

go right back to joshua was story. -- joshua's story. when the children of israel were coming out of egypt and god opened up the red sea, and they marched across into the wilderness, they forgot the reason for the journey and started worshiping the wrong god. the reality is, in this celebration, some of us have been lost in the wilderness. some of us thought that john lewis and hosea williams got beat for you to get a certain position and a certain job. some of you thought this was about you, rather than realize that yes it was about voting

but not voting to get you a big title -- voting that hoping we put you somewhere, you would transform society to make it better. andrew young was right. it's not about making what was wrong -- we weren't looking for darker-colored oppressors. we were looking for freedom. what difference does it make if you've got white churches ceremonial being replaced by black churches ceremonial where we meet out of custom rather than conviction and where some have reduced the pulpit to a

lotto machine where you show up every week to see if god gave you your lexus yet? that's not why we wanted to come out of egypt. i was born raised in brooklyn, new york. i never sat in the back of a bus. i was only 10 years old at the march. i wasn't here in 1965. in fact, the town i grew up in was much more vibrant. my pastor brought me to reverend jones, operation breadbasket and said, if you are going to be involved in this social stuff, let it be with the preacher. they wanted me to stay in the

church. i joined operation breadbasket. i kind of liked the style. reverend jesse jackson. i came into the movement through that wing. i didn't understand that it took more courage to be nonviolent t han to ball up your fists and talk. i didn't understand that you can't transform a nation without transforming yourself. what was original movement in the south broadened. we are urbanized it. we understood it was not the style but the reason that

brought this movement to where now the whole world imitates what is done here. there is a reason in selma today. we are not here to celebrate. we are here to commemorate and then continue. this is not just a commemoration. it is a continuation. right here in alabama, the 20th-century alabama was known for its segregation and race. the 21st century is known for its immigration rights and homophobia. a lot of y'all don't want to deal with that but you can't fight for anybody's rights unless you fight for everybody's rights. [applause]

something sick by the neck of the fish seeing 36% poverty in town, but you are more concerned with what is going on in somebody's bedroom than the food in the kitchen. [applause] something wrong about telling churches they can't take care of children until they check out their parents' immigration status and then get up and preach, love your neighbor. something hypocritical about standing up in front of a bridge celebrating people that were be, and then go straight to montgomery and legislate voter id laws and legislate ending early voting and legislate stopping sunday polls.

something hypocritical about honoring dr. king and then running shelby through the supreme court and taking out the core of the voting rights act. yes, you can have the act, but no preclearance. we can do whatever we want to do, and we don't have to check with the justice department before we do it. by the way we are going to hold the attorney general in contempt , because it is contemptible to us he was attorney general in the first place. [applause] you tell us to lecture our

children about doing wrong -- and we do and we should. you tell us about family responsibility -- and we should and we do. then you take someone who went to law school and did everything right, stayed with his family raise his children, went to the best school, becomes president, and you ask him about his attorney general and hold him in contempt? what are we supposed to tell our children? [applause] [applause] i understand that you don't like those that yell. i know you all have problems with me. if you don't like me, i'm not crazy about yell -- y'all.

everything you claim you believe in -- [indiscernible] loretta lynch. nobody on no side of the aisle can find nothing wrong with her but they just gave up and started asking her about eric holder because they couldn't find nothing wrong with her. and you still take the longest time in recent american history to confirm her vote, and you don't think we notice that? we know the difference. we know why they cross that bridge, and there are still some

bridges we have to cross. we know the reason for the fight. it's not about getting black faces in high places. the reason was so that we could change and make fair and just not only for us, but for everybody. yesterday was not an anniversary of a new marriage in america. it was the celebration of a newborn baby. barack obama is a child as a result of the voting rights act but the two forces married in the voting rights act is in court filing for divorce with

the shelby act. we are no longer in unison. you are fighting in the state of alabama against preclearance right now. we aren't going to the bridge with nostalgia. we are going to the bridge again to let you know, like we did 50 years ago, you will not deny our right to vote. you are going to file shelby, get a supreme court vote nullify us with section iv, and then come ask the son to celebrate his daddy and not expect him to stand up for what his daddy lived for. you think we don't understand that much of what happened in this town you are trying to

rescind in a new way. the language of jim crow has changed into the court papers of james crowe junior esquire, but the results are the same. that disenfranchisement -- some young people, just like when i was young, they don't even try. we aren't even going to try the system. that is what sherilyn was talking about. wait a minute. y'all can't get on juries if you don't register to vote. when we breakdown what this system is, we've got the need here today not talking about what we did but what we must do

now. we are committed. we are going to washington again, and we are going to force this congress to deal with the voting rights act. i sat in the courtroom when scalia started talking about racial entitlement. it's not a racial entitlement to have your vote protected. it's an american entitlement. [applause] we intend to deal with action and washington d.c. that's why the journey started. there were some that asked moses , why didn't you leave us in egypt? the journey is too rough.

because he does something that makes progress privately, he has to worry about being condemned by his own, while he's being attacked by the enemy. if he stands to straight, they use that against him. if he stays with us, we act like there's something wrong. we've killed our living leaders and installed our debt leaders. as soon as they die, we name buildings after them and monuments after them, but as long as they are here, we beat them down and hand them to the enemy. [applause] it's hard.

you only do this if you believe in what you're doing. that's why only spiritual people end up leading this movement. you've got to deal with people that are on another frequency than you. the reason i can fight the way i fight is they are on a.m. --on am -- they are on am. i am on fm. you've got to get where a bishop -- jesus had gotten to such a high frequency that the last thing he did, he served

everybody. he knew he was getting ready to be betrayed. the last thing he did, he got up from the table, took off his garments, laid it down, and got down on his knees. they said, what are you doing? i'm going to wash your feet. why are you going to wash our feet? he said, the greatest is the servant. maybe if you understand, it's not about how high you set but about how low you can go to serve the people. [applause] i'm going to tell you something deeper than that. it took me many years. not only did he get down and wash his disciples' feet. he knew that one of them was going to betray him. he knew that that night he was going to be sold out by one of his own disciples, but he didn't

call him out. he didn't dismiss him. he washed the feet of judas even though he knew that judas was going to betray him. he said, what you are going to do, do it quickly. you ain't got enough religion so -- until you can look your traitor in the face and serve him anyhow. [applause] spiritual people. dogs in birmingham. we shall overcome. spiritual people make you go to the bridge named after a klansman and take teargas and look in the future and say, i don't know when and i don't know how, but god will pave the way somehow.

spiritual people don't calculate their steps, but they know their steps are ordered by the lord. spiritual people, that's what brought us this far. i tell my daughters that i heard one of the lord -- one or two of our speakers talk. there are some things you aren't going to be able to move. some things, your laptop can't give you an answer. that is where something else kicks in. faith ain't what you can figure out. faith ain't what you can talk you later. faith is what doesn't make

sense. faith is when you shouldn't do it but something in you makes you go ahead and do it anyhow. faith is the substance of things , hope for the evidence of things not seen. faith is when the doctors give up, but you are holding onto one another. faith is when you got a pile of bills and no money, but you say, he will provide all of my needs. faith is when your friends walk out, when your loved ones forget about what you did, but you believe, he brought me this far. we've come this far by faith leaning on the lord, trusting in his holy word.

he never, he never come he never failed me yet. [applause] let me say this. we are going on. i remember january 2013. i was sitting with martin the third and his wife. we were guests of the president at his second inauguration. we sat and about the fifth row -- in about the fifth row. we saw misses obama, with two bibles. the president was going to be sworn in for the second term with a lincoln's bible and dr. king's traveling bible.