00:01Let me thank Reverend Sharpton and the National Action Network for organizing this event for allowing me to say a
00:12few words to you.
00:14And let me thank all of you for being here in this very dangerous moment in American history.
00:23Sixty-three years ago, a quarter of a million Americans descended upon this very location for what is now recognized
00:34as one of the most significant events in the modern history of our country.
00:40The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
00:47As a young man, young college student, at that time, I had the fortune to get on a bus from
00:58the University of Chicago to attend that event.
01:02And experience a day that I have never forgotten and which has had a lasting impact on my life.
01:13And when we think back upon that extraordinary day, it is important that we remember not only Dr. King's unforgettable
01:24I have a dream speech, but we also remember the context in which that speech took place.
01:33We must never forget the extraordinary courage of the people who marched, who organized, who went to jail, who faced
01:43dogs and fire hoses, who risked their lives and in far too many cases gave their lives to secure a
01:53more just and equitable America.
01:56Because of that movement, segregation was dismantled.
02:03The Civil Rights Act was passed.
02:07The Voting Rights Act was passed.
02:10The Fair Housing Act was passed.
02:15Millions of Americans gained rights and freedoms that had been denied to them solely because of the color of their
02:25skin.
02:27Tragically, that dream of a more just and equitable society has never been under greater threat than it is right
02:40now.
02:41Today, we have a president who, along with the Supreme Court members he appointed, is carrying out the most significant
02:50assault on voting rights since segregation.
02:54Targeting virtually every aspect of the electoral system.
03:00He is seeking to purge voter rolls and obtain sensitive voter data.
03:07Restrict mail-in votes and early voting.
03:11Redraw congressional districts for partisan advantage.
03:16And deploy federal agents around polling places.
03:21He has undermined faith in American elections by falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election.
03:30And he goes around the country claiming that there are hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who vote in our
03:40elections, which is an absolute lie.
03:45Bottom line, Donald Trump is an authoritarian who is deliberately trying to destroy faith in American democracy, create confusion,
04:00so mistrust in our elections, and make it harder for Americans to vote.
04:07But Dr. King's dream is under threat in other ways as well.
04:15Dr. King understood that political freedom and economic freedom are inseparable.
04:27And that is why the March on Washington was not simply a march for voting rights as enormously important as
04:39that was.
04:39It was the March on Washington for jobs and freedom.
04:47As Dr. King, a strong ally of the trade union movement, famously said, quote,
04:55What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?
05:06And let us never, ever forget, Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 while he was in Memphis, Tennessee, standing with
05:19exploited sanitation workers who were attempting to organize a union.
05:27Let us be clear, it's not only voting rights that are under assault today.
05:34That part of Dr. King's dream, the dream of genuine economic freedom, is also under unprecedented attack.
05:46Today, we have more income and wealth inequality than at any moment in American history.
05:57Today, 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling to afford groceries, health care, housing, education, and the
06:10very basic necessities of life.
06:13And while this economic crisis impacts all of our people, all races, creeds, and people in every corner of our
06:22country, it continues to disproportionately affect the black community.
06:28Black Americans continue to face higher rates of poverty, shorter life expectancy, lower rates of home ownership, greater exposure to
06:39environmental hazards, and enormous disparities in access to capital and economic opportunities.
06:46Trump's devastating cuts to healthcare, education, Head Start, and other programs have only made a very bad situation even worse.
07:00My friends, 63 years ago, Dr. King stood at this location and inspired all Americans, people of every color, every
07:15religion, every background, to stand together in the struggle for racial and economic justice.
07:23And as you all well know, the message he delivered back in 1963 is as true today as it was
07:34back then.
07:37Yes, black and white, Latino and Asian, people of all races, religions, and backgrounds must come together now in the
07:51fight for justice.
07:54We must never accept an economy in which so few have so much while so many have so little.
08:06An economy in where one man now owns more wealth than the bottom 50% of American households.
08:18Billionaires must start paying their fair share of taxes.
08:26We must never accept a corrupt campaign finance system which allows wealthy campaign contributors to undermine our democracy and buy
08:39elections.
08:41We must get rid of that disastrous Supreme Court decision, Citizens United.
08:48We must get super PACs out of the political process.
08:53We must move to public funding of elections.
09:00Brothers and Sixers, we must never accept a system in which millions of workers continue to earn starvation wages and
09:11are denied the right to join unions.
09:14We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage at least $20 an hour.
09:23And we must pass the PRO Act, making it easier for workers to join unions.
09:29We must never accept a health care system designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical
09:39industry.
09:40Health care is a human rights.
09:44Health care is a human rights.
09:47We must join every other major country on earth and guarantee health care to every man, woman and child through
09:55a Medicare for all single payer program.
10:00We must never accept a situation in which a handful of big tech oligarchs push their AI agenda down the
10:10throats of the American people, threatening billions of our jobs, our privacy rights, the mental health of our children and
10:21the very future of humanity.
10:24AI and robotics must work for all of us, not just some of the richest people on earth.
10:35We must never accept a situation in which a handful of fossil fuel executives are putting the very future of
10:43the planet at stake for their own short term profits.
10:46We must create millions of good paying jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel and toward energy
10:56efficiency and sustainable energies.
11:03We must create millions of people on earth.
11:03Brothers and sisters, the people who marched on Washington in 1963 understood real change does not come from the top
11:15on down.
11:16It comes from the bottom on up.
11:20It comes when ordinary people organized.
11:24It comes when black and white, Latino, Asian American, Native American and immigrant communities stand together.
11:36The march on Washington and the movement behind it changed the course of American history.
11:46And now it is our turn.
11:49Let us go forward together.
11:52Thank you all very much.
