Let us rejoice and be glad in it despite our heavy hearts as we pray for those in Haiti and others around the world who suffer from natural and man-made disasters.
Let us rejoice because we are walking in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and we have his vision to guide us in our new march for jobs and freedom our new march for equal opportunity, economic justice, civil rights and human rights.
Let us rejoice because we walk in the footsteps of so many great Americans who brought us to this day
Our brave sisters and brothers, forefathers and foremothers, who stood up and sat down against the threat of death, guns, water hoses, dogs and jail. They stood up and sat down against these odds so that they, their children and future generations could have a seat at any lunch counter of our choice, go to any school of our choice, and live in any community of our choice.
Our movement’s founders Like the Rev. C.T. Vivian who endured threats and bloodshed and jail to bring us closer to the promise of America—and who remain to mentor us today.
Because of the blood-stained banner of justice that these freedom fighters carried, today we are closer to Dr. King’s dream of a time when the content of character outweighs the color of skin – President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Atlanta’s new Mayor, Kasim Reed.
Despite the struggle of some then and now who fought and fight against the dream becoming a reality, our nation has come a long way.
And, oh, how far we will go as we continue in the path that Dr. King cleared for us.
The freedom to sit at a lunch counter—or in the Oval Office--was won for us.
Now it is OUR time to win for next generation the economic strength to take advantage of those freedoms. In 1963, at the march on Washington D.C., Dr. King spoke about his dream for social and economic justice for all of America’s children.
At that same march, A. Philip Randolph said that the 300,000 marchers there were the “advance guard for a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.”
Sisters and Brothers, WE are the legion following that advance guard, and today we continue fighting the moral revolution for jobs and freedom.
This is OUR time to lead.
And leading today means PUTTING ALL OF OUR PEOPLE BACK TO WORK.
Today more than ever, we understand that without jobs, civil rights is an empty promise.
And without GOOD jobs, there is no real freedom.
The jobless rate of 10 percent nationwide is 16.2 percent among African Americans and 12.9 percent among Latinos. Almost half of African American youths—48.4 percent—are jobless.
But even those numbers don’t fully portray what joblessness is doing to our communities today—because so many of the places we live were economically devastated long before this recession even started.
Fifty years ago, African Americans were fighting for a seat at the table—but we had doors to the middle class. Today, too many of those doors are closed.
The good manufacturing jobs that ushered African American families into the middle class are gone.
The government jobs that have provided good wages and benefits for African American workers are falling victim to state and local budget crises.
Our small businesses that fueled local jobs—the barbershop, the repair shop—can’t get the credit they need to survive this Great Recession. Why? Because the banks are turning the money we taxpayers gave them into seven-figure bonuses instead of loans to small businesses.
The national nightmare of job loss is a catastrophe in our communities.
As A. Philip Randolph foretold at the March for Jobs and Freedom almost half a century ago:
“It falls to us to demand new forms of social planning, to create full employmentfor we are the first victims of unemployment.”
It falls to us!
There are five steps America can take NOW to rescue our people, our communities and all working families.
It falls to us to DEMAND that Congress take these steps now.
THIS is our new March for Jobs and Freedom.
Step One is extending for at least 12 more months the lifeline for families that have lost jobs—unemployment insurance, health care and food assistance. Even in recession, this remains a bountiful country.
We cannot abandon people unable to find work to hunger or homelessness or greater deprivation. More than one-third of jobless workers have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more—that’s a record. But African Americans remain jobless for even longer. Extending this lifeline is not an option—it’s a matter of survival.
Step Two: We’ve got to put people to work fixing America’s broken infrastructure—our crumbling schools, bridges and highways and our endangered water and leaking sewer systems.
Our country’s infrastructure receives an overall grade of D from the American Society of Civil Engineers. And just where do YOU think we’ve seen the LEAST investment in infrastructure?
Let’s put people to work tackling these desperate problems. At the same time, we can pump life back into the communities that have lost manufacturing jobs by retooling shuttered factories and building new facilities for jobs in green technologies.
America can and must become a world leader in new energy technologies and rebuild our black middle class while doing it.
Step Three: Congress must rescue states and communities that are being strangled by budget shortfalls and laying off and furloughing teachers, police officers and firefighters. These investments save desperately needed middle-class jobs—and they make distressed communities safer and much more livable. The recovery package passed earlier this year helped—but it wasn’t nearly large enough to meet the level of need. Step Four: If small businesses can get credit, they will create jobs in our communities.
If the banks are too greedy to lend, let’s take a new approach.
It’s time for the government to hire community banks to lend leftover TARP money directly to small and medium-sized businesses for job creation.
And Step Five: Perhaps the most important thing we can do right now is to connect jobless people directly with work that is crying to be done in our communities—from making our schools, offices and homes more energy efficient to helping our senior citizens get by from day to day.
Especially in cities and neighborhoods of economic devastation, these jobs and the good they can do are critical.
Don’t misunderstand—these cannot take the place of existing public jobs and they must pay competitive wages.
We gain nothing by replacing good state and local government jobs with temporary or poorly paid positions—that we must avoid.
But done right, this is a win-win solution.
As we march and phone Congress and advocate for jobs, we are not calling for just ANY jobs.
Our call is for GOOD jobs.
Jobs that feed families, keep families healthy, put solid roofs over our heads, and allow us to enjoy the freedoms we have won.
That means as we convince Congress to create jobs, we must convince Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so EVERY working person in America has the opportunity to benefit from a union voice on the job and collective bargaining.
There is no better anti-poverty program in this country than a union card.
African Americans in unions are paid 28 percent more than their non-union counterparts. Union women are paid 32 percent more than non-union women.
Latinos in unions are paid 43 percent more than non-union Latinos.
Union workers overall are 52 percent more likely than non-union workers to have job-provided health care and nearly three times more likely to have guaranteed benefit pensions.
That’s what we call The Union Difference—and it’s the kind of difference our parents and grandparents struggled to bequeath to us.
But Sisters and Brothers, we have to fight to keep the ground we’ve gained.
I must tell you, the generation coming up now is at risk of doing less well than their parents.
That is not the change Rosa Parks and Rev. Vivian and Rev. James Orange and others fought so hard for.
That is not what Dr. King fought and died for.
That is not what hundreds of thousands marched for in 1963.
If we do nothing else with our lives, we MUST leave our children and grandchildren a better life.
That is the legacy of the founding fathers and mothers of America’s civil rights movement.
That is our responsibility.
Let’s make that our sacred and collective vow.
On this day, let us remember what Dr. King said, and I quote:
“It’s all right to talk about ‘long white robes over yonder’ in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here!
“It’s all right to talk about ‘streets flowing with milk and honey,’ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day.
“It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.”
We pray that labor activists, preachers and all of us who love justice and freedom will forever preach the gospel of love, mercy and social and economic justice.
Lord, continue to give strength to your ordinary people to do extraordinary things on our continuing march toward freedom.
By Your will, we shall carry on.
Amen.
