MARC H. MORIAL Good afternoon, fellow Americans. I stand today on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Whitney Young, John Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, and the many great leaders of 1963, who sacrificed, who marched, who demonstrated courage and bravery in the face of attacks so that we can be here today. I
today to call on this a great and mighty nation to wake up. Wake up to unfair legality parading as morality. Wake up to insensitivity to the poor mass (masked as fiscal austerity) wake up to politics without a positive purpose. It is time, America, to wake up. Fifty years ago that sleeping giant was awakened, but somewhere along the way we’ve dozed, we’ve been quelled by the lullaby of false prosperity and a mirage of economic equality, we fell into a slumber. Somewhere along the way, white sheets were traded for button-down white shirts, attack dogs and water hoses were traded for tasers and widespread implementation of stop-and-frisk policies. Nooses were traded for handcuffs. Somewhere along the way we gained new enemies, cynicism and complacency, murders from urban America to suburban America, the pursuit of power for power’s sake. We stand here today to say it is time to wake up. So here, in 2013, we stand before the statue of the great emancipator, we look toward the statue of the great liberator. We say we have come to wake up a new civil rights movement, for economic justice, a new civil rights movement for freedom in these days, a new civil rights movement for jobs, a new civil rights movement for men, for women, for children of all backgrounds, all races, all dispositions, all orientations, all cities, all counties, all towns all across America. America, it is time for us to wake up. The 21st century agenda for jobs and freedom comes alive today. We stand on the shoulders of the great men and women of yesterday, and we affirm this new commitment for today and tomorrow. God bless you, God thank you and God bless this great nation.
I stand as a representative of the next generation that has had the opportunity to walk into corporate board rooms, walk into city halls, and county halls, into halls of justice, into the Justice Department and yes into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. stand as a representative of the next generation that has had the opportunity to walk into corporate boardrooms, rooms, walk into city halls and county halls, into halls of justice, into the Justice Department and, yes, into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue solely because of the sacrifices and the bravery of those whose names we remember and those we don’t. I stand here
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