accompanying their spending bill that was one of the most alarming reports i have ever seen come up of congress. talking about thousands of sites , university and medical facilities, that have radiological facilities. them for not secured. so i started watching the threat and how, you despite rhetoric, both obama and trump -- to the is one of the gravest national security threats we >> you can find this and all of our discussions on washington journal online. click on the link to the washington journal series. taking you back to the washington convention center in downtown d.c. for the annual unidosus conference and a panel about to begin on civil rights. >> every person no matter who they are or where they are from to help shape the future of our

country. sobering truth is that we face a president who wants to pit us against each other. who thrives on it. who undermines our norms, values and institutions of democracy. we have a president who praises ruthless dictators and has called the media the enemy of the people. we also have a president who attacks the integrity of our judiciary. whether it's questioning the ability of the mexican-american to serve as a federal judge or working to achieve a right-wing takeover of the court as we can see this evening. our justice system can service a powerful force for defending the rights of the minority against the majority. of supporting basic human rights including stopping the inhumane

policy of family separation. [applause] but when this power is placed in the wrong hands our justice system can also take our country backwards whether it is upholding the muslim band, attacking the basic civil rights around the right to vote or weakening protections for immigrants. each and every generation has a fundamental duty to renew the strength of our democracy and in fact the battles we have today are among the starkest. the actual weapon we have to save our democracy is democracy in action. it is all of us showing up at the ballot box. showing up in our communities. and communicating that this will not stand. that our democracy is at stake

and we are here to protect it. thank you very much. please welcome our next ceolist, president and maria teresa kumar. >> i'm in a room of powerful latinos and i do not hear energy. i don't hear energy. going to talk to you about today's very brief. it's called progress. in this day and time we feel like we're not making progress but progress is because the progress we have made. that folks are coming after us. progress is when we were able to put a stay on daca to make sure it is still in the courts fighting because everybody came present.

presidents when the declared a separation of families, opened up a first internment camp of 10 cities in the middle of texas in the middle of the desert expecting no one to pay attention. we heard about it on wednesday. on sunday we said we are going to do a march. in less than seven days we had latino leadership leading an effort to turn down texas. unidos. we had julian castro. we had latino leadership saying not on our watch. that monday the government said it was not going to renew the contract. that is progress. progress is identifying leadership. young talent. we have been training people to run for office. in the last two years four have run for office.

three have won. most recently alexander castille. that is progress. a slate of having potential presidential candidates. slate. pulling castro. alex padilla. eric garcetti. i'm biased. i'm from california. that is progress. progress is every single person in this room. because one thing this of menstruation does not know is that we are american latinos before we are a political party and progress to be in this room means you have had to fight tooth and nail to be here. nothing has ever been given to the latino community. that is progress. we are built for this moment. we are strong. progress is recognizing our potential at the voting booth. 80% of latinos who register vote.

80% of latinos who register vote. the mean age of the white american voter is 54. the mean age of the latino voter is 18 years old. that is progress. because when we come together as a community when we are setting ourselves high into the office of the president when we are making sure that we are executives and mobilizing each other uplifting each other like sergio, we are unstoppable. while we don't realize right now we keep hearing terrible things about the latino community because they see our potential. when they try to keep us from the voting booth is because they see our progress. individuals who want to make sure that they want to run for office and the ceos we have to make sure that we are encouraging them because that's

progress and i want you all to share it with me. unidos somos mas. unidos somos mas. unidos somos mas. this is our vote. i will see you in november but first we're going to organize like hell. >> let's give a warm welcome to our next guest. president of the human rights campaign chad griffith. >> thank you so much. how are we doing unidos? thank you for having me here. in this moment of quality is a fundamental -- equality is a fundamental right still guaranteed to each of us by the constitution. but it's a right that we must fight like hell to protect. that's what we do at the human rights campaign every single day.

from fighting to protect lgbtq people from discrimination by passing the equality act in for the to fighting equality of every lgbtq person all across this country. all of our fights. all of us appear today our fights are about the quality. there are about securing equality. equalityt extending and perhaps more important than ever before they are about detecting our equality. why does hrc care about daca recipients? what about the muslim band? or voting rights or a woman's right to choose? the simple truth is that the lgbtq community is as diverse as the fabric of this nation. we are muslims. we are jewish. we are women. latinx,lack, white, asian and native american. we are immigrants and we are people with disabilities. [applause]

and when donald trump attacks one of us, he is going to keep hearing from every single one of us. [applause] because we are all stronger when we stand together. i want to share a quick story with you. last month i was in arizona leaders toh latinx discuss the intersection of lgbtq and let in the issues. one of the leaders i got to meet that day was killing you argue are. she's an organizer for unidos. as anved much of her life undocumented immigrant. in 2016 got to vote for the very first time. and not only did she get to vote for the first woman presidential nominee, she also got to cast a her for herself and she won own race for the local school board. [applause]

my friends, there is nothing more uniquely american in that story. and that's why i have never been more optimistic about our future. one of the silver linings of this dark moment that we are all living through today is that never before have we as a people been more eager to participate, advocate and fight back. across social justice movements we have all stood shoulder to shoulder to fight for the quality and equal dignity of all people. and that is a right we must pursue with a greater urgency now than ever before. and you all very much for having me here. [applause] >> we are honored to bring our next speaker to the state. welcome president and director counsel of the naacp legal defense and educational fund, sherry lynn eiffel.

. >> hola. today marks the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 18th amendment to the constitution. so it's a good day to talk about justice. give the 14th amendment around of applause. it's a good day to talk about justice. the 14th amendment articulated three critical rights that forever changed our country. first birthright citizenship meaning that anyone born on u.s. oil is he u.s. citizen. second equal protection of the laws and third the guarantee of due process to ensure that the state could not deprive individuals of life liberty or property without recourse. it's important to remember especially at this moment that

the guarantees of equal protection and due process extend by the very words of the 14th amendment to every person in the united states regardless of whether they are a citizen or not. what does this have to do with justice? most of us think that justice should be a byproduct of , fullality -- equality citizenship and due process. flow freelystice to from a society that upholds the dignity of every citizen, purges itself of inequality and guarantees the right of everyone to be heard to effectively plead their cause to an impartial tribunal before the state deprives them of liberty. injustice that we see every day in our country today at the border and encounters with police officers and voting, in our education system and prisons and courtroom around this

country, these injustices exist because we have failed to live up to the words of the 14th amendment. we are 100 50 years into the new america created after the civil war and we're not there yet. in fact what progress we have made is being threatened like never before. us toay i'm asking all of recommit to the promise of the 14th amendment. protectionsees and were bought and paid for with of over 600,000 americans who perished in the civil war and countless individuals known and unknown who put their lives on the line during the civil rights movement. because justice in fact is not inevitable. if you want justice you have to fight for it. fight for justice wherever you stand. in the courtroom, in the statehouse, in your community, in the streets. fight for our supreme court. fight for a congress that doesn't job.

fight for our educational institutions. fight for our democracy. havehen when we think we achieved justice we have to fight some more. the voices -- forces that would turn his back are fighting and they never give up. but we have the words of the 14th amendment on our side and so we fight on like we need to win. gracias. [applause] >> joining us from the leadership congress -- conference on civil and human rights, please welcome benito gupta.o -- >> good afternoon unidos. it's great to be here this afternoon and the this room so full of all. value thata undergirds the history and founding of this country. the we all know that freedom was

built for white men with property. built on the genocide of native americans. founded around the exclusion and enslavement of africans and african americans and that the struggle for freedom in this country has really been a struggle for a more perfect union. it has been a struggle that has defined our own history as a country. and from the founding of this nation the struggle for freedom about who defines freedom, who gets to be free and who doesn't has been an overarching quest through the art of our history. it has sometimes been a freedom from like the founding fathers who were trying to push for freedom from tyranny all the while under hypocrisy that would result in the confinement and oppression of a certain people. it is also been freedom of oppression from marginalized and

vulnerable communities. freedom defined by the quest for dignity and humanity. because we know that in the course of our history the greatest threats to freedom have always involved the dehumanize of certain people and certain communities in our midst. today as civil rights leaders and advocates around the country we are fighting for our freedom to be with our children. to have families stable. freedom that some of us have taken for granted and yet this administration has put in such deep peril. it's the freedom to live free from mass incarceration. from unlawful criminal justice policies that have devastated lack and brown communities. it's the freedom to love who we wish to love and to marry who we wish to marry. the freedom to worship where we want to worship. a freedom that is fundamentally about being able to be who we are with the full rights afforded to us by the equal protection clause.

but there is nothing inevitable about this freedom and we are theng today such a tax on very fundamental value of freedom in every sense of the word. these attacks on freedom can ultimately undermine who we are as a country on our own watch. the attacks on the free press. the attacks on the judiciary. the attacks on our families. here things can happen on watch. there is nothing inevitable about freedom. the only thing that has ever defined our progress as a country and our freedom has been that men and women and young people like all of us in this room have insisted upon it. have insisted on the dignity of every human being. on the rights inherent to every human being in this country. that is what i do with these leaders on the stage every single day. it is to never take that for granted. to be out in the streets.

to be filing cases in court. today we will be seeing an announcement of a new supreme .ourt justice nominee let me tell you the supreme court has played a really important role in defining who gets to be free and who isn't and we need every single one of you involved in this item. we have so much at stake with the fight in the supreme court. let's not ever take this for granted. i want you to repeat after me in the words of fannie lou hamer, nobody is free until everybody is free. 1, 2, 3. nobody is free until everybody is free. thank you. moderating this important conversation, ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to president and eo of janet's u.s. -- unidosus, ordilla. >> 52 years ago when cesar

fastz was in his first bringing attention to the plight of farmworkers, he received a telegram from dr. martin luther king jr.. saidtelegram in part separate struggles are really one. a struggle for freedom, for dignity, for humanity. we stand on the shoulders of who understood our common bonds. yet that unity has not come easily. we have seen those struggles in silos at times.

bright lightis a in all of this challenge that we are seeing it has created an opportunity for us to truly come together and leverage our strength in so many ways. . think about our new name as we were approaching our 50th anniversary, we understood we about think differently how we could take on the challenges we are seeing today, opportunities.

is anmportantly, it invitation for others to join us. understand we need partners. we need allies and we have to be a partner and have to be an ally. no one person, organization or community can accomplish alone the challenges we are seeing but we haveseeing, strengths to push back on the policies that we , butare holding us back also understand we can use our

opportunitieseate that we know will left all of us up. in thiswe come together moment, recognizing there has never been a more important time to use our voice and our vote americate the vision of we know it can be an uphold the that we knowsion to have theirone own american dream. welcome to today's panel. this is incredibly exciting. we work together as leaders of these distinguished entities and

organizations. we don't get a chance to sit down and talk about what is happening. this is a very important time for us to talk about what the state of our civil rights movement is now. will we think are some of the biggest challenges, but also the opportunities -- nominee a supreme court about to be announced. hearinghe things i keep toit is important for us stay together and keep pushing. to keepit that we need

doing differently? you want to take that first? >> thank you. to be sitting here for my colleagues and all of you. notwithstanding, our picture of what will happen to this country demographically and referring to age. majoritybout being a minority country. -- we should not assume that

just because there are numbers there is power. -- you lean in to every moment you can to acquire power. midterm voting for the election. you are voting in every election . you are voting for the town council, water commission, sheriff selection, city council election. you are voting in every direction in your looking at all of the candidates.

you may depict three because you -- the second thing is we have to fight a different way than before. this is about raw power. we did not ask for it to be this way. hand.yed every possible i think we are not accustomed to that. >> you are right about that. doing get more intensely poor arthur over -- or

are there other avenues? .e see a lot of people inspired what are some of the other things? >> just answer that question, i engagementicians and has to be 24/7, three and is the .ive days a year basically fighting for the soul of the country in every .attle a supreme looking at court fight, affordable care and we each have

to step up and bring everyone this. this is the only thing that has defeated the injustice we have seen is direct democracy engaging, calling members of congress, disrupting the normal and engaging not just election day, but before election, in the supreme court's. >> we have talked about our community having been under fall. rapists, drug deals, animals. examples in various

ways. one of the reaffirming things that has been extraordinary is that everybody has owned these issues. it is no longer just our community speaking out. conference a few weeks ago for national civil rights leaders. everyone showed up and said this is also about human rights, not just civil rights. in some ways, is a harder for us to work together on this or should it be easier? there are a few moments in

.istory i think we are seeing daily attacks on our communities, the i think a lot of us are doing this work not have a protection for one community or the other. fight for the soul of our country. these are about american values. when president john -- people never believed they were activists before rushed to the airport and set this is not who we are as a country. int is why you are seeing .lmost a regular basis

on of almost every policy being put out there. ahave the luxury of being at leadership conference with a coalition of over 200 organizations civil rights. it is not about one community, it is who we are as a country and that is why the family separation issue in many ways just crystallizes the way we have to stand up when one part .f our community that is why we are rising to the challenge.

one of the challenges, i worry that there is so much .nformation out there technology has revolutionized with how we see information and whether people are making references to fake news or trying to minimize how we get the facts out there. in ourconvey to people own community and others what is true? how do we deal with that challenge now? face ishallenge we all breaking through. there is this insane moment where you have a so-called president sending out tweets every 10 seconds. is get wants you to do

distracted. to look over there so you won't see what is happening right here. we see it all the time. there's an epidemic in the murder as it relates to and so many other issues. we have to keep telling stories. that is how we change hearts and change minds. we cannot get distracted. only all have to focus on is where we have power. , midtermlections elections, midterm elections.

that is how we can finally pulled the emergency brake on this president and that is exactly what we have to do. hard to paylly attention. my mother does not know what i do. americans are paying attention. it allows us for mobilization and organize. we need a clear vision. millions of americans set out last election. -- our job is not to leave any

voter on the table. our job is clear. as they distract, we have to build. in california, we invested in infrastructure. we had a communications campaign that clearly defined the person who is trying to target the latino community. me, we needto ask to invest in organizations because too long we are waiting on the sideline for someone to invest in us. we have to make sure we are making the contributions. right now, we are expecting someone else to do the work. right now, the way the ,stablishment is structured

to getregister as latino their candidates to the top. -- lgbtq will never have the african-americans will never have the power, we need to -- [indiscernible] we need to pull out our checkbooks whether it is five dollars or $20. i agree 12%. i'm proud of the work we have been leading in voter

registration. between now and november, we are going to register 100,000 new voters. we are very invested in this and we need other people to be invested. the 2016 election was a $2 billion election. >> when it comes to voting, i want to ask you. we are making sure we are connected to everybody, yet we are seeing more barriers. you have been a great champion. aboutan you talk to us

what you're doing. what can more people do make sure we are breaking down barriers to make sure people have access to be part of the electoral process. >> we cannot pretend there is not a movement designed in this country to keep latinosamericans and from voting. legislatures that to keep african-americans and latinos from voting. texas law and found did not allow a university

id, federal employee id, tribal id, but you could use a gun carry permit. this law was created for the purpose of suppressing the vote. we can't pretend it is something that is out there that is not real. it is racist and targeted at our community. we are going to keep pushing back against those rules and laws and you have to be conscious of the fact that they exist. this requires us to talk beyond the physical act of voting because our power is not only in engagement. is -- we have to stay engaged.

engaged means you are showing up to meetings, you are contacting congressperson's. right now, the president wants nomination fore supreme court justice is a reality tv show. the senators represent you, so is to contact your senator and tell them what you want to every senator will have a vote. what do you want them to do? tell your senator i don't want you to roll back voting rights. tell your senator we stand for

upholding lgbtq writes. tell them the question you want to ask. you have power. those senators want to keep their job. every single person in this room could run for school board. it is not a full-time job. you have the ability to stay engaged in your community. up with your family at a meeting, they will be scared to death. just your presence such pressure, but we don't do it. we say home and let government happen somewhere else. that has to be over.

>> that should strike a chord with our community because when go to thesaturday to movies, there are three carloads that end up going. question for you. there is a little bit of a challenge now because in many ways we have never seen our country more polarized. it seems like there are factions . on one hand, we want to be able howalk honestly about passionately we feel when we see many in our community assaulted with these policies and the harm and suffering it is causing. it is hard to remove some of the anger from that. you want to make sure you are getting our community excited

and telling those stories. at the same time, it seems like ,here is a disconnect in yet they need to be convinced we are talking about issues that we hold in common in terms of how we treat families. how do you make sure you are talking and getting your own folks engaged without pushing out others who need to understand. is it about our rhetoric for our thatcs or is it something you think needs attention or doesn't need attention? >> i think this is one of the artist things we are facing. we have seen this in previous periods. leading therson

country who is trying to pick groups against each other and so into groups of people. immigrants, muslims -- i think the challenge we have it is hard to break through when different groups are listening to different set of facts. it is hard to break through when the president can say something --t is a lie and people there are a group of people who just believe it. meanew is that it does not we have to hold to the truth .ore strongly if you look at the last year and a half, he said the affordable

wouldct is terrible and replace it with the bill -- he has tried to defend the family separation policy. two thirds of americans said he was wrong. battle for the most democracytions of our . in that fight, we have to be we also have to be airless about the truth. we have to communicate to people who do not always agree. i believe you have to call your friend wholative or

doesn't agree with you and convince them. know one thing. it is up to all of us to engage. that is what the right has been around a decades narrative that sees all of us as a threat. >> i appreciate hearing that. it is something we are all going to try to figure out. community and be say we have seen so much progress. we know those winds are not notanent -- wins are permanent. you have organized, mobilized.

chad do you want to talk a little bit about how you have seen that occur and what is at stake now? >> there is a couple of things i would say. all of the research shows regardless of what issue we are talking, taking away affordable health care for something, taking away a woman's right to abortion or marriage equality. if you know someone that is suffering from the lack of one of those rights or if you know someone that lives next door to , it personalizes it and it breaks down the clutter. the second thing i would say is we can never forget the vast majority of the american public, democratic's -- democrats and

republicans agree with us on every issue we are talking about. folks in congress and the leadership and the house and senate are so out of touch with the american people. they're not with us on many of the issues, but the american people are and that is what we have to remember. we have to continue to engage the electric -- electorate. more often than not when they hear your stories, it changes hearts, changes mind and then we just have to get to the voting booth at the local, state and national level. issue i want to raise is the census.

understand it requires us to fill out forms, but they don't really understand that at the end of the day, how this process is completed and fulfilled really well affect the accesses toies have resources and power. a lot of times that can get lost in translation. saw mostion we recently from the trump administration has been to add a question. they're looking for ways to divide and asking individuals whether they are a citizen or not. we know that in our community when you have next status meansold families, it

there is a fear created for anyone who participates. what yet, the constitution says every person should be counted. you want to talk about the impact of the census? who gets public money. we are talking billions of dollars of reinvestment from schools, to health care, to clinic, to road. it also identifies where corporations want to make investments. where do they want to have their next amazon headquarters? it also informs how congressional lines will be drawn, gerrymandering parent when they asked a question, 60

families.ve in mix disproportionally latino. when they are that -- they hear that they want to encourage immigrant voters, they are talking about young people and district fortunately latinos. post oneo registering million by 2020. about purging dishwater files. frequent participants, we don't think it is necessary. we have to make sure we're talking to each other. talk on our phones. love to talk on our phones. we have to make sure we're sharing information just like

other folks like to spread disinformation on a split, we have to do peer-to-peer work to make sure whatever -- everyone understands what the notions are. when the supreme court went after shelby county physically to remove the voting rights act, protections that allow disadvantaged folks from participating, shelby county was fifth largest county in 2010, over 100%. 22 jurisdictions that followed were latinas that had a 20% growth in the population. other folks have been impacted, but just fortunately, -- >> the census, and times it is the least sexy civil rights issue and yet it is one of the most foundational issues into my. tort from doling out close $800 billion by the federal government for communities based it is the only

program mandated by the constitution, written into the cost to ship, that the government has to count everything with human being within our borders every 10 years. asked theff sessions department of commerce to add a citizenship western back in december, and three months later, secretary ross decides, with no testing or science behind it, to add that question, we learned through subsequent litigation that behind the question, lobbying forces were steve and and and the secretary of state in arizona, and a whole slew of anti-latino and anti-african-american voting measures around the country. we know exactly what this is about and what the agenda is. the risk to the census now,

being because of the questions and the level of fear that even before the question, the understoodconference that the political climate for immigrants to respond was already going to be so challenged and now with this question, they are now take to entirely sabotaging the sense is. there have been a number of lawsuits filed. it will can undo it but depend on what happened in november for their to actually be a path to undo it. there will be a count and for the leadership, it's an all of we have to have an all hands on deck organizing effort to make this happen. it will be so important that all of you in your communities where you are trusted leaders and messengers, that we will need to enlist you and get organized to

organize in your community and get our community counted. we're going to need to fight back and undo the question. oureed to make sure communities are able to see the resources and have the political power and political representation. it is so foundational. it will be an effort that involves all of us. i will say this emphasis -- we need to know, and this is tying it together, that when our communities vote, we win. you are hearing all of these issues tied together. about courts, census, voting, we have got to be engaged. every moment is an organizing opportunity. u.s. seeing in your -- in your look community camel and is happening in schools, knowing your rights with the police department, getting folks registered to vote, every moment is an organizing opportunity and all of your organizing in your own communities and saying there are so many to organize around.

with him times have to bring in our people based on the issues they care about. they may feel daily news from government but we know without invest in democratic institutions, we are some of the aspects of democratic institutions get corroded and that is why we have to organize to fight act. when we organize, we win. when we vote, we win. we are able to have the power we have in local communities and can fight pick fights in washington. [applause] >> online there are open comments and access to community leaders to provide information on the ansys. it is open forum. can go ahead and base could provide public comment saying we do not want this question on the senses their use that power. >> can i add one thing? let's keep it real. the rule in my house when i was a little girl was that if a

stranger was at the door and right the doorbell, we did not answer the door. the census was already very challenging or us and at least a clip or taking information saying they were from the government, these were not people we wouldn't write in the living room for coffee. that was not what we did. but i was a census taker when i was 18. that was my first grown-up job you i will not tell you the decade. it was 10 years ago. no. what it taught me was it taught me about my own neighborhood, i was in blocks that i had never seen before or heard of, and it also showed me the confidence people need to have to open those doors and answer the questions. who gets hired to do the census? it is an important one. part of theare ranks taking the census, the more we will limit door, the more we are wiling will and

multilingual and engage with people. to happen over there, we should start asking whether they will put out the job applications and who will get hired for the job. the current climate we are in has the family separations produced real fear. the fears are well-founded. we cannot pretend they don't test. organizationse here are so important, especially the one fair talk about because they have the good information and they are resources for you p are we have got to bring the sufi communities and all those who are leaders, should i really be a dream the door to this person, what should happen -- that happened to my family? you have to be disseminators of that information and real leaders of the unity to make sure we get what is really the key. >> i want to quickly have you

talk a little bit about access to health care. >> it is so important. the latino community, 4 million latinos had a health care as a result of the orval care act. all of that is at risk. it seems to be very much eroding with every administrative act we see. a lot is happening with the states as well. what is the best way we can protect what we have with the affordable care act and at least try to keep that in lace until we have an opportunity to do more? >> a think you are at the right. there is great worry and great optimism. we see conservative states looking at expanding it to utah could have a referendum, is like the two, and they will likely ask the medicaid expansion unit obvious we, virginia was asked a and which the governor's

election really hinged on medicated benson and passed medicated. we should be realistic that the core view of the trump administration is that this is a central part of the obama legacy and even they would like to destroy it, they are thinking administrative acts to weaken be 100% -- ifo congress after everything we have gone through, the aca will be gone. the aca is on the ballot just like all the values we hold dear. i would just add one little additional fact to everything said here. in terms of voting or the census, essentially, conservatives do not like the future of the country and are trying to remake the rules to

limit the power and voice is of that they fear -- voices of power that they fear. you have to act differently. people cannot he passive about voting. check -- tell your friends and neighbors. check yourself on the rolls. make sure you register. all of these issues, the of audible care act, the sense, they are not waiting for 2020. they hang in the balance. >> we are about to wrap up but i want to make sure i get each of you, maybe responding to one aspect of some of the messages we have heard from on saturday from brian stephenson, author of just mercy, you know, he talks

and howout proximity important it is to be proximate to the poor and marginalized and undocumented. about the fear. also have to beep paired to do something inconvenient and make a comfortable, certainly addressing the passive it he issue, it doesn't mean that we just decide i will vote and that is it. it means you have got to do more than that. you voting alone will not be enough. we're going to have to deliver more. we will have to make sure you are encouraging others and taking others to the poll and making sure they are signed up, helping people understand what the steps are. do what makes us

uncomfortable and finally, that we have to stay hopeful. we cannot be drowned out in our despair and be so forlorn that we give up. we can never give up. here, finalout thoughts, can you take one of those of the message and maybe make final bots for our folks here and create final thoughts for the folks here? go ahead. >> i think first of all every thing that was said is spot on and i am a huge fan. will take one thing in particular. yes, we have to remain hopeful and i think there is real reason to. recognizing our privilege. if we are in the room today, of our background and particular circumstances or situations, we are the lucky ones. we are the lucky ones if we are in this room. [applause]

with that comes incredible responsibility. itthis moment in his three, calls on us to all do more, and not just vote and not just register other people to vote, andto show up and volunteer take them to the polls on election day. when we all do that and we do our jobs between now in -- and 2018 2020, i think we will look moment in history and see it as an awakening of our he but it is on us. [applause] i believe the latino community is built for this moment. you know how to fight. and they brought the fight to us. that means we have to organize. we cannot leave any votes on the table. but we have to be clear on our vision.

arrived.hen we that is when we get to work and , younized that the country march and you vote, it is patriotism. my family left columbia, i will not tell you how long ago. when someone tells me what rosen like, i have been there. this is not broken. believeneed to do and i heart of the reason -- what we need to do is stop resisting. we need to occupy power, the voting booth, run for office and by those and also occupy executive boards so we can start actually changing the country. [applause] hopefulnessower and is really critical. i believe that the constant

assault on all of our values and principles is a strategy to weaken us and make us tired, to make us, you know, there are days i want to climb under my bed but i think we have to recognize it is a strategy. ourselves that there are moments of great hopefulness. i'm incredibly optimistic about the fact he leaves of activism, not just one march or two, but waves of activism i have not seen in my adult life. what we need to do is take the the anger and resistance to what is happening in the country and mobilize it that is totally doable. we take forces that have in our

country for hundreds of years that are trying to take power away from people who are just -- different from them. we also see a mobilization of people who look different from each other, women, people of color, young evil, lgbt, latino, african americans who are united and uniting to take our country back. >> thank you. one of the great advantages i have is i lead an organization founded by the pioneering civil rights lawyer of the 20th century who then became the first african-american supreme court justice. in the ark of thurgood marshall's career, what he was able to accomplish, he shifted the meaning of democracy and equality and the country. in 1954.rned

this is before the civil rights movement. toore rosa parks refuses give up her seat in 1956. mostly attorneys decided they would make the words of the 14th amendment i talked about a little while ago become true. the perseverance and determination and keeping their cool, our mantra is to lose your cool, lose your case. keeping their cool, they were able to do it. they were able to envision a country that did not exist. there was no blueprint for what they were trying to do. they were determined to break the back of jim crow. he had to ride in segregated trains. he had forgotten he would not be a in the cafeteria of the federal courthouse and he had to tell his client, tomorrow, you

bring the bony fountains and i will bring the case to he could not even eat in the cafeteria and yet this import -- extraordinary person had a vision for how he could end segregation in the country. he along with other lawyers and the many people who supported , average people willing to stand up for what they believe in, they actually did it. what they did made this possible. made it possible for people who look i can need stay in hotels in downtown these the that they would not be able to stay and. 65 or 70 years ago was a time when you could not even try on clothes and some downtown stores as an african-american person. do we understand what that means that we are that young as a democracy? 65 years ago, it would not possible. so i believe we have to remain hopeful. basis, it pales in

comparison to what those lawyers had to deal with. i was in alabama when there was a lynching museum just a few months ago and i was on the -- i share it with all of you appear. she said why do we keep calling ourselves the resistance? we are the majority and they are resisting us. they are resisting. let's remember, we have the power. we have the power. >> thank you. >> i think that fair is the enemy of justice. in,llows for actions to set and in so many ways, it is really impacting the privileged. at this moment in time, it is incumbent on all of us to reject that and be hopeful. do i think hopeful alone is enough? i don't. we have to be advocates and we are bred on hope because

otherwise we could not do the work we do but it is not enough. we have got to do it through action and organizing, that we actually held hope into the future. has been a lot of talk recently about civility and who is civil and who is not. remember, justice thurgood marshall had his way of being disruptive his entire life just by being at the supreme court, he was disruptive here people thought he was uncivil. martin luther king in our nation'schoolbooks and histories. we have to remember he made people feel deeply uncomfortable. deeply uncomfortable. when he was speaking truth to power, there were entire segments of america that were out to get him. simple andbout being those rooms and hoping beyond hope that one would listen to one of his sermons beyond the pope -- beyond the pulpit.

the kind of america we all deserve. we are all in this together making this happen. >> as we close at the panel we have to elevate our voice to announce policies. we have to vote. if we will change the policies, we have to engage. hopefulto have that vision for the kind of country we know we can be.

can have our voice, our vote, and keep that hopeful vision, it will lead to victory. we can win and we can see that america that we know we can be. join me and thinking the incredible group of champions to our community, my dear friend, people who i admire. for their work they do every day, they are here today to be with us because we are in this together. we know we can achieve the change we want. thank you all very much. we appreciate you all. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] ♪

>> a quick and friendly reminder that the next section of the conference on the financial future is next, so don't miss that. also tonight, get ready for an exciting evening, the very best , the afterunity and party. we will wait for all of you write here at 7:30 p.m. thank you again so much. ♪

>> if you missed any of this discussion, you can find it online using our search bar. there's day, we will hear from the former senior of the counterintelligence division who will be testifying on the f ei and department of justice, actions surrounding the 2016 presidential election, and the clinton email investigation. live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. you will also be able to tune in online at he's been or use the free c-span radio app for the coverage thursday. >> president donald trump will announce his nominee for the supreme court. filling the vacancy left eye retiring justice anthony kennedy. watch the announcement live tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on skis than an c-span.org.

c-span radio app. >> tonight on the communicators, experience on demand, about the reality tech knowledge he and the potential for the future. >> when vr has been done well, for saying this is not real but the back of your rain, the part in charge of keeping you alive, is terrified. whether it is children on a field trip or a ceo of a fortune 10 company, that is first thing we do. you want to establish that feels real. if you are unwilling to take a seven on the plank as most people who come to the lab are, once i have told you a -- soldier on you via that it is so really a you're not willing to step up like, then we can have a commerce nation about raises him, climate change, and these hardtop you have to experience

to understand. >> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. >> senator john mccain passes daughter meghan mccain recently accepted the lbj foundation liberty and justice for all award on behalf of her father. senator mccain was diagnosed with brain cancer last year. in austin, texas and withding remarks john mccain's former presidential manager. this is one hour and fifth teen minutes. >> good evening. as chairman of the foundation it is my privilege to welcome you to the presentation of the senator mccain liberty and justice for all aboard. -- award. let me tell you something about the award.