Greatness and charity for all. The reverend al sharpton from the National Action network held the breakfast this morning. Tom perez and American Federation of teachers president Randi Weingarten were among the speakers. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. May i ask that you take your seats so that we may begin. Again, good morning. I am Jennifer Jones austin, i am a board member for the National Action network, and i run a policy and advocacy organization, antiproperty policy Navigation Organization based in new york city. Every year on mlk day we gather to remember dr. Kings legacy, and to reflect and refocus on the work that we all, we all are doing to keep his dream alive and make it live here in america. In 1991, the National Action network was founded in the spirit and tradition of dr. King. Years, 26ince, 26 years plus, this Civil Rights Organization superbly led by its haser reverend sharpton, been a preeminent leader in the fight for civil rights. Again, i welcome all of you this morning. As we prepare now to break the nights fast. Barkley will come and bless the food, and then we will all watch the lift every voice video. Shall we pray . Gracious father and the creator of the sustainer of all things, we come here this morning on this king day to tell you thank you, to tell you how much we love you, how much we appreciate you, for all you have done for us. We ask lord god are blessings this day, every person we have gathered, for every server that is about to prepare and serve us our breakfast, we pray that you continue to advance this dream in your son jesus christs name, thank god, amen. Breakfast is served. Lift up your voice and ing withearth and heaven ring the harmonies of liberty let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies ndt it ring sound resou loud as the rolling sea sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us sing a song full of the hope that the president has brought us let us march on till victory is won stony the road we trod bitter the chesaning rod felt in the days, when hope unborn had died we have come over wayave come over the that the tears have watered we have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered nowof the gloomy past till we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast [singing] lest our feet stray from the places our god, where we met thee lest our hearts the drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee beneath they y hand may we forever stand true to our god true to our native land [applause] it gives me great pleasure to turn the program over to reverend sharpton, and individual who needs no introduction, in this room, in this town, in this nation, or beyond, for his tireless and unrelenting work on behalf of those who have been systemically disenfranchised and marginalized. And for our sake, knows no limitations. I consider myself to be truly fortunate, for i have known reverend sharpton for longer than i can remember. Before i was even born, he was a presence in my family and in my household. As he was meant toward in civil rights mentored in civil rights by my father, who was president of the southern christian Leadership Conferences new york chapter and a comrade of dr. Kings in the movement. Today, nearly 50 years later, i am proud to be mentored by reverend sharpton. It is my joy to present him, our National Network action president National ActionNetwork President , reverend al sharpton. [applause] reverend sharpton good morning. Good morning and welcome on day. Er Martin Luther king jr and as we are taking our seats and eating, the reason that we are moving so uncustomarily on schedule [laughter] we have a lot of people coming in, but i told him just let folk in, because we do three cities on king day and martin has to be obviously all over the place. But let me say this on the good news side, is that i remember kingsrtins mother, dr. Widow, and congressman john conyers and others, were fighting to make this a federal holiday and it was something unthinkableto be and implausible. I said this morning on a show, i remember maybe 36 years ago, james brown, the godfather of soul, brought me to washington. It was the first time i went to the white house. He has supported mr. King and he met with Ronald Reagan. I told james brown, Ronald Reagan will never assign making this a holiday, because ronald called Martin Luther king a but Ronald Reagan, if years later, signed it. And as i called Martin Luther king a rode to the mayflower this morning from the hotel, every federal and state office is closed, honoring the birthday of Martin Luther king. [applause] and you should be honored to be here in the presence of his son, his daughterinlaw, and the only grandchild Martin Luther king has, yolanda is with us this morning. Give her a big hand. [applause] you can tell your grandchildren that you sat with dr. King s granddaughter on king day, 2018. Certainly, we will hear from martin, but the bad news is when offices open tomorrow, they tering some of the worst the policy we have seen in the last 15 years since dr. 50 years since dr. King was killed, which is april of this year. There have been reports about the current president and him calling haiti and african s. O. Ns and el salvador countries. And after three or four days, donald trump saying he did not say it. First of all, i have known donald trump for 35 years. And every time i have met with him, usually it was for protesting him, all of our meetings have been a lot more profane than profound. I have no doubt that he said it. But the issue is not what he said, it is what he is doing. They are not debating the policy that they exclude people from africa and haiti, they are arguing about whether he cussed. If i was walking down the stairs in the ballroom and he pushed me down the stairs, the argument is not whether you comedy n the argument is not whether you called me the nword on the way down, it is that you push me down the stairs. This is what we have to face and what we have to deal with. The good news is that we have learned from dr. King how to deal with people who are not in our interests. One, we do not become like them. And we do not lower our moral standard for therirs. That is why it is our honor today that we are blessed with the presence of the standardbearer of dr. King, the namesake of dr. King. A year ago we marched here in washington. Martin said to me, in the spirit of our father, i must meet and appeal to president trump. Folks, you know, a lot of will not stand will not understand. He said, they will understand my father. We must make the moral appeal even if it goes nowhere, and he did. I. Do not think he will do anything he said, we are not responsible for how they respond, we are responsible for making the appeal. A year later martin was right to make the appeal. I was right that donald trump was not going to do nothing. [laughter] but he has always tried to bring up a better in society, and that is what Martin Luther king was about. And that is what we must be about. Aswe become as bitter and hateful as those that we fight, they have already won. So on king day we are going to stand up to trump without becoming like him. We will not call him names, but we will not allow the policy to go on accounted for. At 1 00 p. M. We will be in harlem today, 4 00 p. M. In times square to march against hate. Every king day morning we pause to salute those that have operated in the spirit of dr. King, before we honor them though we are blessed ticket on schedule with our opening speaker, the keynote speaker for Martin Luther king day breakfast, 2018, the standardbearer, the oldest child and the namesake of Martin Luther king jr. On this, his federal holiday. Among the things he has done is spread peace and global understanding, kept his father and his mothers movement. His greatest honor though it is he is a husband and yolandes daddy. Martin luther king iii. [applause] martin good morning. Good morning. God for theme thank opportunity to be back in washington. On this kingy holiday. That we observe 50 passing,ce the actually the assassination i should say, of Martin Luther king jr. I am going to reflect in a moment, but first i must say thankful to have a very dear friend who has been on the battlefield for a long time. And that we all owe a debt of gratitude to. And that is the reverend al sharpton, president of the National Action network. [applause] you know, it takes a lot of up all the time for those who have no voice. And it is interesting, because leadership certainly keeps coming. And every now and then the lord sends a prophetic leader, who future and the really leads in a way so that that message lives forever. Meause it is interesting to to listen to some of the speeches of my father. Negro, thoserd speeches could have been delivered at any time, even right now. Said, he was, as i killed 50 years ago. So i will reflect this morning, let me say first to all the ministers here today, the elected officials here today, every honorary in advance, congratulations to you. Chairman of the Democratic Party, chairman perez, and most that i amy i must say always, it is only special because she is not always with me and i should say they are not , but i am so fortunate and blessed today to have the best thing that ever happened to me, and that is my wife andrea waters king. [applause] and the second best thing, our renee king. Anda [applause] now you know you are going to leave something out, but attribute it to the head and not the heart, so i apologize if ive overlooked someone that i shouldve stated was here, because actually we are all important. I have just a few remarks, 10 or 12 minutes that i want to read. But as i said, i have to reflect a tiny bit. Remember 10 years ago on april 4, when i was watching television and watching the news and it flashed across the screen and i was sitting in our family room of my brothers and sisters, and it flashed across the screen that Martin Luther king jr. Has just been shocked. Shot. Now, there is no way to be prepared for that, but i remember running back to our moms room, looking for some consolation as to what had happened, what is going on, what did that mean . I remember that trauma existing for a very long time. It took a long time to overcome the fact that dad had been killed. Uncle,n a year later, my my fathers brother was mysteriously drowned. 1974,our years after that my grandmother was gunned down in the Ebenezer Church while playing the lords prayer. Dadinterestingly enough, was killed by a white man in a white racist system, my grandmother was killed by a black man. So i couldve harbored hatred, and really dislike all of you all [laughter] but im thankful for the spirit of love, because it teaches you to dislike the evil act, but still love the individual. My grandfather and my mother and my uncles all talked taught that. And we as a nation have to learn how to forgive. We do not know how to forgive, that is why we are constantly engaging in wars. We have the capacity to destroy everything to destroy anything, maybe everything, but human beings are gods greatest creation, but in conflict we resort to lower animal means. You never see a group of dogs talking about plato or shakespeare, or harriet tubman, htey do not have that ability. You never see cap talking about cats talking about im republican, democrat or independent. You have never seen a group of zebras talking about, i am christian, muslim, i am hindu, i am buddhist, i am jewish, i am atheist they do not have that ability. But gods highest creation, mankind, actually humankind, has the ability to think and reason and when we get ready to resolve a conflict we resort to lower animal means. Im going to kill him. That must change. You know, it only takes a few good women and men to bring about change. I think my father showed us that with his team. And others have shown us that. If there are few places, any, that i would like to make some of this reflection today. Reflection on the dream means we have to understand what the dream is. One way to sibley put it is that all gods children, protestants and catholics, hindus and muslims, women and men, lgbtq, and straight young and old, all of gods children should join as one humanity and to live in a world of freedom and equality for all. Let me say from the onset that those that would argue for National Policy of isolation would do well to remember my father 60 years ago, that we must learn to live as brothers or we may perish together as. As fools. He argued the destiny of one nation is tied to all nations, we can never be totally secure as long as they are insecure. The final analysis, all life is interrelated, no nation or individual is independent. We are interdependent. As he looked across this land, he came to realize the individual of the nation that feels like it can live in isolation has a lot itself to sleep through a revolution. The idea of America First may will have its place, but america can only be first if she lives up to the true meaning of her free. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all women and men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with on rights of unalienable the pursuit of happiness. The country that can live it in isolation has a flip there a revolution. We are indeed living through a great revolution. As we listen to and we read current news, we find citizens are losing confidence and hope in our democracy, and our economy, more precisely in the institutions that negotiate and mediate our life chances. Now that we have turned the corner to a new decade since the Great Recession of 2008, the wealthy have done well, while millions wait for recovery that seems to never come. Yes, the stock market is at an alltime high, moving higher daily. Unemployment seems to rest at a respectable low, they say, but still too many struggle to put food on the table, to pay bills, and to provide adequate housing, clothing and education for their children. Unemployment may be low, but so are the wages. That barely put a salary for the meaningful living in the hands of women and men. It is one thing to give a token to a handful of workers on the one hand, but altogether another to simultaneously take a whole livelihood away from hundreds on the other, through layoffs, and business closings. Do not get me wrong, i get the logic of the free market, but i also get that the market must work freely for all and not benefit the privileged few. So i am here today because of a prophetic obligation captured in my fathers dream speech, it is an obligation that calls upon all of you, all of humanity, an obligation that compels every citizen, of every race, color, religion, gender and create, it is an obligation captured in the prophetic call for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a stream. The challenges us today, he answers the call of the moral obligation, we are here today because the American Dream is decidedly a nightmare for too many citizens. And people have had enough. Let me say it again, the dream has become a nightmare for too Many American citizens. On the left and on the right. And they have had enough. They have had enough of the viciousness that we have seen from the statehouse to the white house. Of theve seen enough dysfunction in the legislative capitals of our country. Of the dysfunction in the legislative capitals of our country. And they want action that responds to the struggles of their daily lives. Millions of marginalized citizens of all races and ethnic backgrounds are demanding that their voices be heard, their faces seen and their needs met. Like many of their fathers and mothers, they refuse to believe that the vault of liberty and prosperity are empty. They still believe in the constitutions promissory note, a contract between them as citizens and their country as the guarantee your of liberty, justice and equality, and they still believe the bank of justice is not bankrupt. The media asked me what i think my father would say about the current state of affairs in our nation and in our world today. I do not know exactly what he would say, but i can tell you what he said about the injustice and moral decay of his time. Let me set the stage, 54 years ago he and a legion of religious, civic, labor leaders marched for jobs and justice. The march was moral because it brought the attention of the world to the injustice of an economy that favored one segment of society and denied dignity and work to its citizens of color. Lifears ago, he lost his to that struggle and he prepared for another march on washington and it would be a Public Statement that the nation was not living up to the true meaning of its creed. That was called the Poor Peoples Campaign. In 1967 he was talking about a living wage and we are still trying to get the minimum wage raised, so that people can have a decent quality of life. March, because they understood that the preamble of the constitution states certain truths that are self evident. Our constitution declares, it is selfevident that all women and men are created equal. That all women and men are endowed with unalienable rights. Let me go back to the women being created equal, because let men,ll you brothers, all you have to get your house in order quick. Women are not playing. And it is tragic that we as a society have mistreated women for so long. It has always been unacceptable, but who wouldve ever thought that just six months ago that this would take a trajectory, this movement, a movement for righteousness, for justice, for fairness, for truth, this may be the year of the woman for real. In georgia, we have two women running for governor in a republican state. Guess what, women are mobilized and organized and one of those women will become the democratic nominee, one is an africanamerican, and one perhaps will become the first w