library. >> tonight, the remarks from donald trump at the north carolina republican party convention. he criticized the leadership of president obama and again raise the issue of his birthplace. mr. trump has endorsed mitt romney for president and recently hosted a fund-raiser for him in las vegas. you can watch his comments tonight from greensboro at 10:25 p.m. eastern on c-span. tomorrow on "newsmakers," sec enforcement officer robert khuzami on efforts to prevent another wall street crisis and ways to prevent waste and fraud and abuse. "news makers" phares sunday at

10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> each sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. now through labor day weekend, and "america history tv" features 14 key political figures who ran for president and lost, but change the country. >> i think the right to be president still speaks to people everywhere today. in a sense, politicians need to limit the sacrifices for the country. that is something that we need to remember as well. >> also, we will feature the history of wichita as part of our visit to the largest city in kansas. that is this weekend on c-span3.

this weekend, the 16th anniversary of queen elizabeth's succession to the throne. it to our mike will be for diamond jubilee commemoration. the ceremony took place in march and included speeches by the house of lords and the house of commons. you can watch the sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. we return now to a conference hosted by the congressional black caucus and the conference of black churches. this panel focused on rallying the black community to vote. it is an hour and 35 minute discussion.

>> i want to thank my chairman for allow me to participate. [applause] we have just been joined by congressman sheila jackson lee from texas. did she laugh at hand. [applause] hiela a hand. thank you all. pleasure to serve as moderator for today's discussion. i am representative marcia fudge from ohio representing the 11th congressional district. [applause] thank you. and i wanted to be here with you for many reasons. i serve as the cbc's for the

people voting rights co-chair with representative john -- my fellow representative john lewis. the date is 1965 and the place was selma, alabama. the young people lead the way. their goal was to achieve the uninhibited it right to vote. hundreds of men and women and children marched, black-and- white, hand in hand. many of them were probably singing, singing some of those oh,freedom songs like "bok freedom" and "we shall overcome ." then it was attacked by the clubs and tear gas. that will ever -- forever be known as bloody sunday. the day when americans lead for the struggle to secure our right to vote, our right to have

unrestricted access to the polls. the marchers were beaten and knock down, but they did not stay down. they got up. one week later they marched again and a few days after that they marched more. now, clergy and young people lead the crowd. this time, thousands marched along the voting rights trail from selma to montgomery. because of bloody sunday and the thousands of americans who were beaten and killed over the years so that i can vote, so we can all vote, i'm standing here today to refuse to let their efforts be in vain. the suppression tactics used today are not new. what we call poll taxes now are the new voter i.d. law. instead of the physical threats, unnecessary and confusing laws are being used to restrict turn out and hamper the effect of early and absentee voting. it was the church and young people who led the way in 1965.

and we need the pulpit of the church and the energy of young people to lead the way today. this panel is going to talk to you about how we make that happen. this is, in fact, a call to action. you are not going to hear any real speeches. well open it up for questions. and then i will ask them to ask you some questions. as i said, we are joined by my colleague, representative maxine waters. until then, i will introduce rev. tommy lee. he is the founder and senior pastor of the community health african episcopal church. -- african-american the episcopal church. he oversaw the development of a wide range of views ministries that engage young people in a style of praise and worship that

embrace unique style of worship. he received national -- national media attention on bet as well as cnn and c-span. he served on the leadership of saving ourselves, working in the gulf coast on behalf of those victimized and impacted by the social and economic devastation of hurricane katrina. next three have the president and ceo of faith links inc.. she advocated for the interest of over 350 businesses across the new england region in washington d.c. where she worked. her areas of responsibility were health care.

and she was a special assistant to our very own vice chair of the democratic caucus, john lawson of connecticut. she earned a bachelor's of political science and a master's degree in religious studies with a concentration in religion, at six, and public politics -- public policy from howard university. she also teaches at the calvary bible institute, a course on faith and politics. next we have cindy's malls. she is a national voter -- she works overseeing the 2012 my vote, my right voter protection campaign. prior to that, she worked from 2007 through 2012 in various capacities as the mid-atlantic area political director and senior legislative advocate and coordinating manager overseeing fbi you -- fdiu's programs.

she has a ba in political science from the university of south carolina. marcus mason is a partner at the madison group. he is responsible for managing the firm's transportation, energy, tax, and a homeland security portfolio. in addition, he focuses on crisis management, complex integrated campaigns and coalition building he has more than 15 years of political and policy experience. prior to that, he served at and try as the senior of government affairs. he is a member of the congressional black caucus foundation. he is also on the board of directors for the political action committee. he is an author. next we have my homeboy, jeff

johnson. he has -- is an award winning journalist, social commentator and political author. through his grass-roots -- uses work to inspire the next generation of leaders. jeff johnson continues to be a trail blazing social entrepreneurs and authentic voice for change. currently, he is an msnbc contributor and executive editor of politics 365. he is a weekly commentator on the nationally syndicated morning show and chairman and ceo of the jeff johnson institute for urban development. currently leading a five-year project to recruit and develop 80,000 black male teachers. and he has earned a reputation as a voice of conscience.

we are pleased to have all of our panelists. please give them all a round of applause. [applause] my first question is, as martin luther king talk about the war in vietnam, he asked this question -- and i ask this question because i believe we are at war today. he said, there comes a time when silence is betrayal. oftentimes, members of the faith community hold politics and politicians at arm's length and choose not to engage in the process. how do we remind the especially young generation of about the black churches historical connection to politics and social change and motivate them to act? the floor is open.

>> i think that many in this room are clear on the fact that there has been a considerable shift as it relates to national faith leadership and their ability to be apolitical versus political. that shift has happened to one, because in many cases -- where you all have been discussing for the last hour, which is the irs attack on those that would attempt to be political. one of the challenges in your leadership being able to model not what -- not just what dr. king was about, but the legacy that comes from the black church in particular, and that is, using the black voice to speak to issues beyond that of church, to that of life. in many cases, we do not always see it. it relates to the social

abilities and the ability to be mobile, but not a lot of modeling. until that modeling happens, if we can have a rhetorical discussion about it. the whole notion of this discussion is a call to action. and when you say "call" and "action," that implies that there is a response. but in the middle of that, if there has to be training. one of the things that we have removed from the african- american tradition is an emphasis on training. and by that i may not the theological training that comes with the seminary from the standpoint of being a pastor in a denomination, but the training of what it means to be a grass- roots organizer, utilizing your voice to be able to mobilize folks with a level of proficiency, not just passion. one of the things that

frustrates me is that we put an overemphasis on passion and a number emphasis on direction and focus. -- and under emphasis on direction and focus. many of the churches are doing this, but there are too many that are not. there needs to be an institutionalized process that puts us in the position where we are seeing not just young faith leaders, but congregants transferee specifically on how to do social justice activism. so when they're coming out of our houses our faith is not just with passion, but with the proficiency and strategy connected to it, data collected as a result of it. and at the end of the day we are able to say, here is what is accomplished as a result of our congregants going out into the community and addressing these issues with the goal of creating this result. not just exciting people to a

state of your fork in activity for the job and down under the same thing they did -- to a state of euphoric inactivity, where they jump up and down and do the same thing they did before you started talking. [applause] >> one of the things that just said that was so significant was about connecting it to something that makes sense for people in their everyday lives. there is a disconnect for many, especially in our generation, between the impact of poverty -- poverty and what it means in the hood. we talk about policy issues and we talk about legislative issues, but then seeing how policy impacts where they live, there is a need for them to be able to do it and shape it. it shows a connection between policy and where people live in their everyday life. not just that, but with an historical reflection on -- what we have right now is a lot of it. and i love the boomer

generation and the generation above its, but we have is a lot of historical reflection in that piece. this generation needs to see and groveled of what those policy changes did to impact the current lifestyle. there needs to be a way to shape that. the btu an example from -- let me give you give a clear example of that. we tell them what it was like to cross the red sea, but then they were in the wilderness wearing hand accounts. hearing the victories of the past while in the wilderness wearing and downs, they are trying to figure of what to do when they face the walls of jericho. we need to use the same tactics that we used at the red sea. it will help them get them out of the wilderness, but also to take down the walls of jericho and get into the promised land. but if you do not make the connection, that all they see as wilderness and handouts. and they see how they can make enough just to make it today,

but they do not see how to make it to tomorrow. and all they see are giants in that land. >> all right. [applause] all right. i will take one brief pause. i indicated that we would be joined by my colleague and friend, representative maxine waters from california, who has now joined us. all of you know congresswoman maxine waters. [applause] i also want to recognize terri sabol, the representative out of alabama. -- terry sewell, the representative alabama. [applause] i also want to point this out. take a look of this today, this call to action. see if you can articulate for

the audience what the message is today of a voter suppression. what message is being conveyed to our committees and how can we counteract the message being fed by the passage of these laws? it is open to any person on the panel. go ahead, congressman. -- congresswoman. >> i just asked if she would give me a little breathing room. i just came in. let me take this opportunity to thank all of our clergy, our ministers, are pastors who are here in washington d.c. at this conference. the fact that you are taking time out from your schedule to talk about how you can use your power and your influence to

impact the politics of this nation on behalf of natalee the president of the united states, but for all people who should be -- not only the president of the united states, but for all people who should be voting. without voting, there would be no democracy. i am pleased that you see this as a part of your responsibility, as something you can have great influence with. having said that, i want to point to a conversation that i just had with reverend jesse jackson. rev. jesse jackson has played an interesting role in the politics of this country for many years, particularly registering young people to vote and registering large numbers of people to vote for years now. and he has an interesting way of connecting with young people.

i find myself sometimes feeling as if i am talking at young people rather than connecting with them. but in this conversation that i have recently, i'd better understood why he connects. when he talked to young people, he talked about trayvon martin and he wanted to know what they cared about, what they understood, what they knew. and they were all fired up. trayvon had been killed and they knew this circumstances of the killing and they were bad and wanted to do something. -- matt and wanted to do something. then he asked how many were registered to vote. i guess, less than half of them are actually registered to vote. and then it reverend jackson said, well, if you were asked to serve on the jury to make a

decision about whether or not trayvon martin had been murdered, had been killed, and deserved to be punished, if you are not registered to vote, you cannot serve on the jury. and they said, what? and then he laid it out and explained it to them that in order to serve on a jury, you have to be registered to vote. they did not know that. and that connected in a way that most of us often do not know how to make a connection they look at us, but they are not always connecting. but when you can take something going on in their lives and connect it in a very graphic way, then they begin to get it. i think as we talk on this panel

about what you ask us to do, and how you connect and how you get the message across, we do under heart -- have to understand that we have to pay attention to what it is young people are listening to, or what young people care about there will be talking about social media and how it works. i bet many of your having not thought about the role you can play with social media. and we can take a lesson from president obama and what he did with social media, how he raised money, how he organized. you would be surprised. with many of the young people that read the newspapers, they flip past what is going on in the news, but they are on the internet. they get their information from the blogging and the trading.

and guess what, one minister out about his business tweet in tweeting to thousands. you can connect and talk to people all during the day on your own time, in the evening, and as you build the following, it becomes broader than the church population. because it multiplies. i hope that we can get into a little bit of that today. i think the power and influence of the church is underutilized, and perhaps not understood. and i see jefferson right there shaking his head because i think he understands something about

telecommunications and all of that. with that, i will turn it back over. >> thank you. we will get into that subject. >> what i wanted to address with the voter suppression bills that are being passed in these various states, what is the message? we as labor went through in 2011, starting in 2010, the attack on working people around collective bargaining we view this as one more side that we are trying to combat. we are in a war. how do we combat that? it is the people in this room. if we have to be the voices. we are the ones who organized. we're the ones were protesting

in the streets and we have to get back to that. we have to create a message that resonates not only to deal with folks, but this younger generation. we have to connect in a way that they understand. we have to tell the story about how we came over, but we have not yet come over because we still have a lot of work to do. there is still a lot of work to be done. the basic right to vote is under attack. and that is the message. we are under attack. we must rise up as one of, like we did in wisconsin and ohio. we have to tell the story that we will not lay down, that we will be in the streets and we will tweet. it starts here, by as raising

our voices. >> thank you. [applause] >> i want to follow-up on what cindy said. but first, i want to clarify, as the congressman was reading my bio, i notice the wrong by a was read. i note -- i am a man of many political hats, as many of my friends have said, but it would not -- i would not be here if it were not for a black minister was the son of another black minister, who were both elected officials. walter tucker iii empowered me through his campaign for congress. just a few months after he empowered me, he won that campaign for congress. i have been in politics for -- i do not want to say it. i have been in politics for half my life. i started out running congressional campaigns, and i

have never lost a campaign that i have managed. but interestingly enough, at 21, a black minister and our me, and that was key to that election victory. and when an african-american minister and howard me, i went to the ministers in the congressional district and -- empowered me, i went to the ministers in the congressional district and ask them to empower one young man that i could use to help turn out in number of key votes. i want to address the message being sent by these new voter i.d. laws. i have a 19 year-old daughter who is a rising junior at howard university. and as fathers and daughters know, sometimes they will come to you and say very prophetic things. after watching the news coverage of the assault on women's rights and female reproductive rights and the assault on voters' rights, my

daughter came to me and she said something i did not expect. she said, dad, it seems to me that we won the battle, but someone wants to make sure that we lose the war. that is the message being sent to our young people with these new voter i.d. laws. we won the battle with the passage of all of the civil rights act and voting rights act. we won the battle every year every time we get the voting rights act funded and reauthorize. however, someone sent back after 2008 where there were 5 million new voters registered. 4 million of which were african- american. someone said it is time for them to lose the war and let's put in place the strategy and execute the tactics that will cause them to lose the war. let's catch them flatfooted while they are cheering and celebrating. let's catch them flatfooted and

let's implement this right now. we have to fight back. not only do you have to choose your battles, but you have to choose the fields on which you can fight. and you choose those fields on which you can win. i am here as the treasurer of the protecting our vote superbug pac. we did in -- super pac. we stood up and did in two months what the other side refused to do. now we are ready to roll. we are choosing our battle and choosing the field on which we fight. you cannot match them dollar for you cannot match them in a -- in an act -- you cannot match them dollar for dollar. you cannot match them in an air campaign. our strength has always been on the ground. we have always been able to put the boots on the ground and win by going door-to-door, block to block, precinct to precinct

until you ultimately have a district or county swinging in one direction. that is something that we have to remember. and even though these laws have been enacted in several states, we have to get back off of our heels, get back on the balls of our feed, leaned forward in this fight and engage. if we do not, the gains of 2006 and 2008 will have been for naught. that means the gains of everyone who fought before us, long before i was alive, will have been for naught. we may have won the battle, but the message being sent is you will -- not you might -- but you will uslose the war. that is a very powerful psychological message to our young people. we have to reverse that. [applause] >> in response to your question on how we counteract the message

that we are getting that marcus so eloquently summed up, i think we have to do is focus on the education peace. i came across an interesting cystic -- interesting stat earlier today that 61% of americans say the houses of worship should express their views on political issues. that is compelling to me because i'm not sure how many fayed leaders understand that is the case. -- faith leaders understand that is the case. that we need to in addition to talking to our conversations about what the issues are, we need to be in the social media outlets. we need to be saying this is our fares on the issue. we cannot shy away from that.

i think we are hearing from the opposite end, we need to be as forceful as they are and expressing where we are on the issue. >> thank you. i think we all know how down these people are that we deal with here. when we voted for years ago, it was historic. -- four years ago, it was historic. and everybody wanted to be part of history. what we have to make people understand today is now is personal. we have a personal stake in what goes on. the question becomes how we get past someone complaining about what was done to us. in every single congressional districts throughout this country, the black vote can make or break an election. we know that, and everybody else does and that is why these laws have been passed record but i

wonder also whether we are still relevant. you look at 2010 and what we did. maybe you can help me figure out how we get to -- the people who need the most votes the least. how do we get them to take political leadership without literally going to their house, take them to the vols, -- to the polls, tell them how to vote. how do we get them to understand it is in their best interest to vote? >> i think reverend lee talked about it a little bit earlier, and congresswoman waters talked about it a little bit. it is about being relevant in our messaging and what you are connecting with when someone is angry.

but one of the things that is not necessarily a 2012 proposition, but a post-2012 proposition is that we keep playing checkers when everybody else is playing chess. we want to talk about folks being engaged in the process when we have not been engaged in the process. of being engaged and exciting people about the electoral process is like making sure -- is by making sure people are gauged when there is not an election taking place. the ways to do that -- is by making sure people are engaged when there is not an election taking place. the ways to do that is to get people involved in the process. they need to invest in their institutions. all of us have seen a fight in the community. you've seen something go down in the community. and sometimes you can get big brother to help you out, but sometimes you've got to go home and get daddy, because sometimes

only daddy is going to fix it. we keep trying to have big brother organizations do what daddy institutions are supposed to do. and by that, i mean, if we're going to be serious about t playing politics, that we have to build the infrastructure that has the ability to counteract what their institutions do. you cannot have local churches counterbalancing what multimillion-dollar national institutions do. that is not our job. that is not the local churches job. the local church has a job to do, and it has the ability to be able to excite and galvanize and organize and even train. but at some point, we've focused institutions whose job is to policy work, to training work, to do organizing work, and whether that investing focuses with the naacp and the urban league and existing institutions or whether that is about developing new institutions,

until we get to the point where we are utilizing resources to be able to develop the kind of institutions that can counterbalance the heritage foundation and counterbalance the religious right, and show there is a black religious, organized political force to you do not have to restore 501-c3 because you develop the 501c4 that has sensibilities from a faith perspective to be able to use those institutions to fight. we keep trying to get to the end and say "king me" and they are "check mate, negro." we have to get people educated about friday and about their rights and voter disenfranchisement. how do we begin to make sure people know all of the

information on the ballot and not just to is running for president. how we make sure all those folks are our district to vote and then utilize the infrastructure to get people to the polls? that is a 2012 conversation. but the 2014 and a 2016 conversation is about how churches in my state begin to organize and help develop institutions within the state. if i'm in the state of california, how do i begin to make sure that my congress people are protected? that we are raising money for congressional races and dealing with ballot initiatives in the state of california to be beaten. we are training young people not around the issues we want them to address, but if we want them to be engaged, and power them to address their own stuff. it helps to read the end of the day even if you do not agree with how they do it. -- it helps you at the end of the day even if you do not agree with how they do it. this is how you get people into the political game and not just

be involved in political rhetoric. >> thank you. [applause] >> this conversation that we are having is the conversation we have been having for a very long time. we have been having this conversation for a long time as we have watched our communities get excited in 2008 because we had an african-american on the ballot that could be president of the united states, and did it become president of the united states. in 2010 in the midterm elections, they thought their job was done and they did not go to the polls and we lost the congress of the united states. and as i campaign now, there is an enthusiasm back out there. why? out there.husiasm kappgap

why? we can sit here all we want and talk about labor issues, but people who do not have no job do not care about the labor issues. do you know what i'm saying? i want to take this in a respectful place. and that is this. these home foreclosures, this joblessness, what is happening in our communities has got people turned off. they are not jumping up and down about voting this time. and as i go through the communities, all i can think about even though this is not sound that sophisticated is the politics they talked about, a ticket in every pile. people are hungry.

they do not have jobs. they thought they had invested in the american dream by signing on the dotted line for a mortgage they got tricked on, and their homes are being taken. and in our communities, the pushcarts and the homelessness is just crawling all over the place. -- rolling all over the place. what do you mean when you talk about institutions during the educating, etc.? i can tell you we all have a role to play. we all have a role to play. many of us -- civil rights organizations are depending on the same people for their money to run those organizations that are causing us trouble in the first place. [applause] but this is serious business. they cannot get the money from our community. i was shocked when i learned that the very super pac that was responsible for supporting the

work of getting these legislatures online to require more identification, etc. were the same ones that we vote for every day in the congress. these are the ones that are considered -- you know, at&t and all of your big organizations who are giving millions of dollars to a super pac that is undermining your rights. we have the responsibility to know this stuff and to be able to leverage and to talk to them about it when they come and ask us something. the other thing is this. we all belong to the democratic party. well, not everybody. the democratic party raises millions of dollars and would decide how we will suspend them. we are the ones who can be counted on. we're the ones that if we vote, they do not have to ask us how we vote. we are voting democratic.

but if you develop your strategy for how you want to get to your community, not sure the democratic party is there with the resources that they are extracting from this overall community. having said that, somebody talked of wisconsin and labor. let me back up to talk about the legislatures who have passed these laws that would interfere with our rights, whether they are identification laws or -- if they cut down on the early voter days, all of that. where was the democratic party when all of this was going on? this is what parties are organized for. how can you have 25 or 26 legislatures who have gone through the last two years doing this and the democratic party did not know anything about it? i mean, we are pulling up the rear. and now we have to figure out

how we are going to get ms. jones, who is 80 years old, to the polls. because she does not have any i.d.. we are doing this work. institutionally, church, you are so generous to us. you let us come and speak in your churches. we get up and we say all of the good things don't nobody asks and questions. we do not have to tell anybody. we just do all the stuff we've been doing. and we get away with it. stop letting us do that. it stop letting us do that. [applause] as a matter of fact, i want you to have your social justice committee or wherever you have in the church, i want you to know my voting record when i get there. and i want you to go down that list and you say, well, you voted this way on this. you were voting for payless. they take for hunt -- payday

loans. they take 400% interest from people in our community. why did you do this? and then they will start stuttering. because they do not know that you know you took money from them. you took the big contributions. but you are undermining. young people know when you are truthful and when you stand for something and when you love them or not. they really know this. when we come and you allow us to have the platform, and they are sitting in the church, they ain't paying no attention to what we are saying. the church has a responsibility to understand why you are letting somebody speak. i want to tell you, the democratic party says to us, take me to your church. and here we come. >> [inaudible] >> yes, two weeks before the

election. this is my pastor. this guy don't care nothing about the church and nothing else. we are bringing him to you and because you love of and you are generous, you give us the platform and you allow us to transfer the platform to other people. stop doing it. [applause] let's all take responsibility. and for our civil rights organizations who say they have to take the money from certain folks, we are just we do have to say, look, there are certain places you cannot go. [applause] there are certain places you cannot go, because if you go there you have just told us out. ok -- sold us out. ok? this conversation, let it start to be something very real, were you all tell us, and we tell you, and you tell them, and

everybody does all of the organizing together with labor. but labor, we want your resources, too. we want the resources of labor, the voter registration. we want the resources of labor to help create some jobs for these young people. and i want to tell you, you've got all of these young people in your church and we spend millions of dollars on everything, but you do not make us go to the black printer or the minority printer in our districts to help generate economic development. and all of these kids, we say volunteer. i am past the volunteers stage. let's pay these kids. let's pay them to work these campaigns so that, number one, they can earn some money, but number two, we can learn to respect them and they can learn to respect the system. let's start thinking outside the box about how we start doing --

how we do our politics. let's respect each other, but let's call a spade a spade. >> let me just do this. i'm going to go to rove lerch -- rev. tony and i will go to each panelist and give them two minutes to wrap up. what do you think the call to action should be? >> congresswoman waters is always straight up with us. if you allow me since we are here as faith leaders, as a pastor, the church also needs to be straight out. it needs to be straight about where we are, and even analyzing our level of strength in this moment. sometimes if you act like you are stronger than you are, then you do not do what you need to do to get stronger. and one of the challenges that many folks are dealing with is that we are looking at the time

crunch where the major houses that have historically been used a lot -- utilizing these kinds of efforts are not as strong as they used to be. we are dealing with shrinkage of black churches across the nation. a recession don't shrink a church. it normally grows a church. if we are dealing with a generational transition. most of the major houses that we have depended on for so long have been built by and for baby boomers. and now baby boomers are graying. and if baby boomers are grazing, the churches are still -- graying, the churches are still built to meet the needs of boomers. but they are not shaped to deal with generations of x, y, or z.. the 20-year-old age range is one

of the most unchurched generations we have seen, but they are a prayerful generation. they love god, but they do not want to go to church. there is no way you can really deal with and grab ahold of social media. is all run by boomers. there is no way to talk about mobilizing, speaking to a base of young people if young people are not even coming to your church. there is a need for us to honestly deal with where we are now as we are talking about this long-term game plan. there is a need for us to also be identifying young up-and- coming pastors, brothers and sisters, maybe even youth ministers who know how to touch this generation and the generations that follow and to help empower them and get them connected. stop staying at the table just

for yourself. you are getting old. put somebody else at the data on table. -- dad gum table. one of the blessings of was on gor's eve and he said, let's see rev. jesse jackson over here. that is our group. -- how i grew. y'all are going to sit there and wait until we are 45 years old and act like we are coming to the kids table. no, a grown man now. if we need to communicate with these young and saw -- with the young ones and help mobilize them. [applause] >> i will take five questions. 1, 2, 3, 4. i will take six. one question each, mind you.

>> jeff johnson talks like a son, and it makes sense because of the makeup of the panel. we have this abbott said -- apathetic attitude, the recidivism, are we had a point of anarchy in this country? do you see that happening if we do not get a handle on it? if we cannot get people excited, do you see this at a place where it could really roughed? >> anyone want to tackle that? >> -- it could really erupt? >> anyone want to tackle that? >> i will just say i don't think so, primarily because if it takes this much to get our people how to do something like boating or doing some -- voting or doing something for the president's, i do not see that

there is any kind of leadership strong enough in our communities today to galvanize the people across the country to do that. i think things would have to get significantly worse. and they are bad now. who knows what tomorrow holds? but i do not see that happening anytime soon. >> i would agree with the congresswoman, but i would say this. we have too much for that to happen. if you sit back and you think about the arab spring. you think about the people who used social media to change the very head of government in their country. they had nothing, which meant they had nothing to lose. when you got a little something, you think about it. you start to think about it. you start to march out there and you've got your spear in your hand and the next thing you know you go, hmm, i've got a sunny

place station. i've got a color television. it is 52 inches. i've got a lincoln navigator. >> and i live at home for free. >> and i live at home for free. [laughter] when you have too much, it is almost impossible to be incited to riot. to be excited to the fervor. -- that fervor. >> i have a couple of people stand up. go right ahead, sir. >> very quickly. one question each, remember. >> i'm about the oldest one in this room who has been involved in the movement. amos brown. jackson, mississippi, got involved when i was 16 years old. let me say quickly, don't glorify the civil rights movement.

only 3% of the black churches according to a study that was done were involved. it was just a handful of black advocates. let's stop glorifying the civil rights movement. most of the churches told us, don't come in here with the civil-rights stuff. that is number one. no. 2, in 1901, the president visited baptist college and said there was too much pride in our community 1901, 1820, when james mercer left virginia and went up to

your state, madam chair. the know what he said? he said, we came from virginia to ohio, thinking this would be the promised land. but the only door that was open to us was the prison door. we have this white privilege mentality in this time. the struggle is on. i can only come and use what you got. energize the crowd that you have. work like hell. as long as you have people around you, they will for ever tried to be in control of us. that is why we cannot just deal with this issue. many of us have been used by white males. that is not part of my back is

position. it is time for black people to think for themselves instead of letting others think for us. we need to stand up and hang in there. use what you got and stop looking at what you don't have. >> thank you, sir. [applause] >> with the other three people i call upon please stand up. we will do this quickly. >> hello. i am a minister from baltimore, maryland. i have noticed that we have been economizing on all kinds of issues. -- compromising on all kinds of issues. we have talked about marches and sit in so's. it is political correctness that is injured as today.

>> i would say that the political black caucus does not yield to the political correctness. anytime we say something someone does not like, then you will be upset with us. what we are trying to do is tell the truth. we represent most of the black people in this country. how many of you will stick with us? the trick is what it is. we will be taking a tour around this country and talking about how we get people to register to vote. i will look for you. if you are not on the bus, i will call you. does anyone want to answer that question? >> really quickly, i think the short answer is yes. the medium answer is that we need to employ a little bit of political sophistication. a does not mean we have to be

attacked in is all the time that we are just mad. there is no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. but the congresswoman talked about is where we have seen it fall short. from the churches perspective, what is our political agenda? that way we know how to engage everyone all the time. that means you will always be my friend. there will be some issues i will need to roll on you. i cannot be afraid of doing that because i want to come to your house for dinner. i think what was mentioned earlier was that many of us have gotten too comparable based on the things that we have. i think leadership by and large, my colleagues and the media, elected officials, all of us in many cases have to be a little bit more politically sophisticated and say, what is this comprehensive agenda? what is my personal agenda? that way i know how to not be

political correct when it is necessary and also be politically sophisticated enough to know this is not a battle i need to fight right now. i can find out later. that is being strategic. we need to fight that and tell us that a little bit. we do not have a political agenda, then what do we have the drive of? i think that is a necessary piece to be able to come out of that political correctness. we need an agenda to be sophisticated and be ready to fight when necessary so you can negotiate those pieces of peace. >> we also, especially at the black church, how to deal with liberal orthodoxies. what it means to be progressive or liberal. if you did not meet a certain test, you are no longer in the

club anymore. we need to deal with the fact tha wthat our agenda is not dictated by any party or faction. it is dictated by god. therefore, we need to be progressive. that is when we find our base of power. as long as we are connecting to some kind of liberal orthodoxies, we lose our power because we lose our moral voice. it is not about who we are connected to here, but who we are connected to there. that is where we gave our power and our strength. >> both of you ask your questions before we get any responses. we will try to respond to. and we will ask our chairman to do the benediction. both of you, ask your questions. we will try to answer both of them. >> quickly, congressman waters,

how do you suggest that we hold them accountable to invest their money in the communities and address these issues and on the voter suppression? >> we will answer them both. >> he mentioned that we have an election to win in 2012. we have work to do beyond 2012. i would like to know from the congressional caucus perspective. in my region, i am dealing with a right wing, evangelicals movement. it has bamboozled the black are covered. -- black brotherhood.

what is a move to attempt to rally those that congresswoman waters has referred to? there are some are concerned because there is no food on the table. no jobs. how can we make the connection with the agenda? how to make the connection between the political process and not being bamboozled? >> thank you. >> thank you. i would like to thank the cattand cattle and our cochairs. -- thank the panel -and our co-

chairs. i call this the 21st century poll tax. when you talk to your congregation, even though that sounds like we are talking about baby boomers, a young people understand that as well. here are these points. you just had an irs meeting. having policy discussion about getting rid of this is not lobbying. having it outside of the rump of the church house our summer were you are leading it is ok. if there is ever it refers century civil rights movement,

it is the voter i.d. i would say this -- we do have a place for twitter and e-mail. we have a place for prayer vigils, marches, standing on the street corner. because children organize 35,000 people in florida. children are denies that and made a difference. i would encourage you to work with -- children organized that and make a difference. i would encourage you to work with each other. let us not be fearful of coming together on things that you are comfortable with -- prayer vigils and marches. we can turn this country partly around. >> thank you very much. >> i will wrap this session up. i will ask each of my panelists to give us a minute. hopefully someone will answer

the question that was asked. then i will turn it over to our chairman, the government. we will start at the end. >> just to wrap up, i would encourage to think. as we leave here and go back to our states and congregations, we should think about the 2012 election. we need to think strategically of what we need to do individually. we need to educate people and conservation.i that is the most important thing we need to do. in all that we do, we need to start now. not two months from now. we need am ready to vote in november. the other thing i would encourage, people should know

that there are groups out there like a true to vote that are encouraging and recruiting challengers this november to challenge people at the polls. i think what we need to do and put emphasis on is encourage people to be poll workers. be acted on election day. i believe he would two things -- educate folks in the community and the changes in the law. the second, engage and be active on election day. >> thank you. >> i will not be redundant. how many of you know a place in your community that makes the best fried chicken you have ever had? that is not a rhetorical question. how many of you know a place in your community that makes the best fried chicken? you know that is the best

selling place in the community. what is the difference between them and kfc? does better marketing? you need to be aggressive with their message and what you believe and what you want. they are not afraid to say what they believe or what they want. they are not afraid to tell you that you are wrong. you preach the bible, but they say they are the bible. if we are going to be serious about not allowing the religious right to define the narrative of what it means to be christian, then you have to be more aggressive outside your churches. talk about the policy that

accompanies it and not the other way around. the church should not chase the policy. the church through its moral compass should be able to reflect what it is that you preach. if you are a punk outside of the four walls of the church, that it does not work. then we find ourselves being rhetorically gangster in maine the street. -- in the street. if we want to control the message, then control the message. highjack the message from them the way they have adapted from us. >> thank you. councilwoman waters. >> what we do now and what we do as a plan for the future. right now, we have the problem of exciting people and getting

them to the polls. we only have about five or six months until november. the primaries are going on all over the country. know your state laws. your ministers are focused on the gospel. you have a lot of young people and professionals and others in the church. given an assignment. of those young people an assignment and have them come back with information know what your state law as our. know what you can and cannot do. we know what your state laws are, you can use their influence in a way that would be helpful to the community. we do not want you to give up on policies that you say violates

certain things. if your state laws do not allow you to do voter registration in the church, do it in the restaurant down the street. there are a lot of different places you can do it. but you have is a conservation. do what everyone talks about in terms of reminding people and how far you have come. remember the voting rights act. also, mobilized. mobilize to use your absentee ballot. make sure that they have the absentee ballot forms. they can gather in people plaza homes or other places. help people with those absentee ballots. we can get people to the polls on election day by picking them up. organize it and get a lot of those young people in the church to do this work. we have to do that for the immediate.

as we plan, get with the black caucus and elected officials as the plan for the future. we need to talk about how the people in our community know the difference between what we say and what we do. that is extremely important. i still believe that the church has power. again, as i said when it first started talking, and utilized power. what you find in our communities now, whether it is in a school or in our businesses, we are losing power. we are losing power and influence. no one is taking the leadership. the ministers and elected officials are working together. we need to plan what we are going to do. if we are going to deal with the banks and institutions in our communities, the elected officials need to get with

you. what to invest in in the communities? our businesses are almost nonexistent in many places. but we can do this work for the picture. let's do what we can for now. thank you. >> someone asked the question, how do you pull the democratic party responsible? form and support your own institution. the answer is simple. again, support and form your own institution. when there is no one speaking on the issue for black and brown voters and voter i.d. laws, for a super pac. a farm and support your own institution. we have a support -- form and a supporter institution.

--standing next to my delta's sister. [laughter] we have a history of doing this. but we have forgotten. we have forgotten to take our power and turn it into political power. we have forgot to support our institution. but the know who we have not learned from? they do this all the time. the community. they are much smaller than us. but the have a much greater footprint -- they have a much broader footprint. born and support their own institution. that is how you hold people accountable. [applause]

>> we cannot form the conversation, as we understand the issue. we cannot become sophisticated unless we understand the issue. we cannot understand that and that unless we know and understand the issue. application is the most important piece in all of this. we have to be educated on the issues in order to be active. six action items that you could take, start to do with the conservation and around the voter education issue and other policy issues. it all fall within three steps. the first one is to set up a voting task force. congresswoman waters talked about utilizing the powers they have in your accommodation. this is something that you can do. it is very real. it is practical.

you can empower the conservation to do it. second, provide leaflets on their bulletin. make an announcement. very simple things to make sure your conjugation has the info that they need. -- your congregation has the info that they need. the last comment coordinate and election program. those are six temple things that you can do. -- is simple things that you can do. it has more flexibility to be able to help you. it can insist you in doing that. >> thank you. >> you need to take the excuses off the table. this is the hardest of times the black church has ever seen. we have strategize and

mobilized. this is not the hardest time the black church has ever seen to be able to doublmobilize. we cannot act like we have lost our mojo. remember who you are. when you remember, you need to get your swagger back. you used to be beautiful. it is time to reclaim who you are and what you do. we know how to do this. we have done it before. we have done it in the worst times. we can do it again with god on our side. the need to stop putting the excuses on the table. remember who you are. >> thank you. let's get all of our panelists and big round of applause. [applause]

>> in our community, in the black community, we have always elevated our pastors. all of us, from the beginning of time. we have elevated you today. but remember that you still have a charge. remember you are here to serve this present age. who knows? you may be in this place at today just for such a time as this. god bless you. [applause] >> someone mentioned that his funeral will be on friday in los angeles. we want to thank the emperor see in this session. -- thank you them for overseeing the session.

the african methodist episcopal church, the service will begin at 7:30. but like to express our appreciation to cnbc. we appreciate the partnership we have had. [applause] it is important for me to say that the idea and the push to get this partnership developed, and you have members of the clergy to come to washington so that we can present them with information came from congressman charles. [applause] and for some time, i would hide

from him on the floor. because he would say, reverend, how are things going? is everything on target? we in the congressional black caucus believe that charles is the epitome, the consulate of congressman. we are all pleased unfortunate to have the opportunity -- pleased and fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from him. african american members came together and formed the congressional black caucus. among those 13 was the gentlemen to my left. for over 40 years now, charlie has been one of the leading voices of reason and justice and

peace in the house of representatives. i think that he is a historical figure that we all need to talk about. he made sure that he told all of the priests to be able to define what the stones meant that he placed in a road he called ebenezer. we need to be able to tell people of the stones meant to us. there is a stone called martin in there. there is a stone called frederick douglass. there is a town called martin luther king. there is a stone named after charlie.

i intend to tell people what the stone has meant. it means that we had some to have this a rebuttal power, the intellect, and the political know how. 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 from the art. -- new york. [applause] >> i guess there will not be anything left for the funeral. [laughter] >> i cannot tell you how very good i feel today. just as we have waited to get a

president of color, we needed a minister, legislative leader, to help us without being critical of us. we need to find a pathway that provides lights for those who follow us. we need to bring this together with the energy of the staff. having all of the members get excited about this. i am telling you it is a moving thing for us. someone said that this is the beginning of the partnership. no, we cannot afford to have this to be the beginning of anything. this is it. this is it. this is the time. i will let you know a couple of secrets.

we will leave here as one. first of all, i have a lot of metdals. some of the people who ride with me, call it track medals, but what the hell? what is tens of thousands of chinese have done to my colleagues, there were many casualties, i say, i knew it was all over. i was 20-years old. there was no way with all of the crying and moaning and gunshots, seeing people get captured, i knew it was a nightmare. bui just said, if you can see it clear, somehow if you spare never havese you'll a problem with me on earth.

the whole book is that since that day, i have not had a bad day since. not a bad day since. [applause] i am convinced if we look over our past, that we have gone through rough days and not really realize what they were. what i have done was encouraged that what if we are facing today is the destruction of human rights as we know it, women's rights, there is, if that is being destroyed, someone needs to ask, what were you doing? when i marched miles to i had a bad fate. i was not thinking about marching on southern roads. --

when they told us dr. king was going to be there and take some pictures, i put my shoes on and got down there. it started raining, and instead of going back inside, people started putting plastic around their worn out shoes. it did not appear to me that this was my setting. i thought this would be the appropriate time for me to get a cab and see how the pictures turned out, but as they started moving -- i do not know how many of you new 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 guard people spitting tobacco, protecting me, as we marched singing "we shall overcome" into

the woods. for 54 miles, my bad teeth and i asked what we were doing in these woods margin like this -- my dad feet and night. 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 have march and march who understood each and every risk they were taking and took it. even though the story is told in a very different way to my grand kids today -- [laughter]

i wondered 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, people all over the world knowing that you met -- even vaccine does not know year when i was chairman of the caucus, the best thing going for us was nixon rejecting us, and would use to meet and have no agenda. the press would meet outside, but we would not tell them what will a meeting about, but here we work, ready to blow up the world is what they would say. the fact is if they think we are together, if we act like we are 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 high but -- privately. but if we find out that the solidarity -- someone mentioned my jewish friends. i sat next to a guy in law school. he felt so proud that he was not jewish in terms of religion with his hands damages and all the laws he had broken, but when israel was attacked, he grew 10 feet tall with solidarity because he had something left in him that he believed in. god knows it is not just martin luther king. there is a little bit of martin luther king, a little bit, in all of us, and if we can take the things we have done, the willingness of people to come together, the fact that the church is the only thing some people have -- they believe in you. we are asking you as the

congressional black caucus to believe that we are all you have got. we are in your hip pocket. we want to be with you. we hope at the end of this meeting that you think about adopting half a dozen of us. if we live in your district, that is a contract. if you live in a district like franklin richardson, you probably get 30 or 40 members adopted, but pick who you want. i tell you -- we will make you feel like we do not move without you. because one day, we will be coming back and ask, "please act like we were right. we have a vote on the floor." we will be asking you to call every member, tell them who you are, how important this is to you, and i assure you that the willhes -- church's symbol

be bigger, and god only knows how much stronger your congressional black caucus can be. we started with 13 members then 26, then 42. there is no limit to the way color is coming into our country, how far we can go, and if they think we are as serious and as powerful as we know we can be, if you are part of that win under our wings, today will be a day you will never want to forget. i know you have got to take your voices, but look at the members, see which ones you want, which ones you will live with. i am as serious as i can be. we will write you back and tell you the issues that we are dealing with. can you imagine what would happen if our chairman gave you a list of issues, as you to take a look at which you think is the best for your church and 400

community and your country, and one sunday, we all over this country that someone that everyone would say -- we never thought about that because i take my seat saying, "i never gave the chairman a hard time. what told the german was that i did not know much about the bible -- what i told the chairman was i did not know much about the bible. all i knew was i was an altar boy, and they were talking in latin and throwing in since i and my face, and i was listening to the same thing every sunday, but there is one thing that came out of it, and that is that there were some rich people, and they wanted to get into heaven, as i remember it. and they were waiting for jesus to explain why he was blocking the way for their admission into heaven, and he explained to

them that he was naked, and he had no clothes, that he was sick, and they did not come to visit him, that he was in jail, he was hungry, he was thirsty -- basically, he was in bad shape, and he went to them, and they just turn him down. as i remember the story, they looked at each other and said, "note, you have got the wrong people. you never came to any of us." he said something like, "if you do not understand how you should be treating people who are not me, but the lesser of people like me, then you should go straight to hell." [applause] that is how i remember it.

so i keep bringing it back and forth and saying that we saw on television what they think about us as a people. the republicans named us, and thank god you are our partners, and i feel so proud of the work i did. i would like to say that in three months, this is the first day i tried to do it without a cane. thank you. [applause] >> we certainly want to thank the congressman. come on. as you remain standing, let me say that i want to thank all of you for sharing. we have another full day tomorrow. tomorrow night is our awards dinner. we ask you please -- we will be honoring james cliburn tomorrow night, one of the honorees

tomorrow, and we are asking you to please make sure you get your ticket for tomorrow's dinner. buses leave for ecumenical services at 6:00, 6:30. board members depart at 6:15 on k street. i want to close out by saying how grateful i am -- k street, board members, at the front door. i want to say how grateful we are to our congressmen. they have honored us today. [applause] the truth of the matter is that for most of us, thina