Thats one. Two, two, im actually intrigued by the wonderful statements that you made which is that we didnt and never have had the guts to enforce the punishment provision of section two of the 14th a i mendment. I think that is absolutely true. Probably less inclination to punish today than ever did. I cant imagine that happening. It is the same provision that i just described that is used to support expel and disenfranchisement and yet we would really never marshal the power that is right there in the clause to actually punish for the denial the right to vote which you are quite right. Whether that is in fact a fertile area for litigation is something i would have to think more about. By the way were letting the panelist respond. Go ahead, sir. One of the things i think that we have to understand that when feelings get strong it doesnt matter what the law is. You can have all the laws on the books and you can end up with a terrible result. But the opposite of that is that we have to understand that those of us who are whether black or white and realize that we have to be fighting every day, every hour, every minute to preserve not just preserve, but to expand Voting Rights. Swre to find creative ways to be able to do it. But whatever comes up we have to find it. But we all have to fight for it and we have to find creative ways to do it. Ways that nobody else has tried this may be a way to try. But get to the Supreme Court that would take away section five to expect them to go back and implement a section of the 14th amendment is not easy. But we have to fight for it anyway and who knows what happens when you fight with everything that we have. Final question. What are your thoughts that they no longer teaches civics . Is that one of the reasons why we have such difficulty in our kids and adults now understanding the importance of voting not just at the president ial level but all the way down to dogcatcher . I constantly preach this and it drives me crazy when i talk about the importance of voting and they cant tell me who their Council Persons are. And the second person is we understand that this whole issue is around economics. Economic justice, and when the 1 makes the people who sit just like the rest of us, makes white folks think that we are taking something from them, thats why we cant come together and push to get things done because we have this economic divide. The gentleman i cant think of his name but hes in North Carolina has the moral mondays and had a whole coalition of people. But he pulled together a whole coalition of blacks, whites, jews, everyone to fight a really good fight in North Carolina. So, how do we get that started across the country . Thats what its all about. Its about economics and pitting poor people against poor people thinking that we have one bone and everybodys fighting for it. No, no. You go ahead. Chicken bone. The civic lesson that we have when we had civics in school did not amount to much. There is no resemblance to reality of politics at all. Second thing is that whole system was set up to keep people from voting. That is why as a school, we dont really teach people about the power of voting. We may say you have a right to vote or you need to vote but we dont tell them at all about the power of it. If the civic lesson was really going to speak about the power to vote, then we wouldnt have to organization the vote. Voters would simply vote on their own. Unless its going to be about teaching people about the power to vote it would be as useless as it was in the past and as useless as not having it now. I follow the moral Mondays Movement in North Carolina and i have been down there a number of times and what i have learned from it is that it started about Voting Rights. They started going down and getting arrested when North Carolina started introducing measures to make it harder to vote. But it quickly expanded to be much bigger and broader than that. The reason why it expanded like that was not just because the legislature was doing so many radical things on so many issue s it was not just an hispanic issue. Every group had a stake in North Carolina was affected by this whether you cared about the environment or a womens right to choose or economic injustice. I think that was a powerful message. It is kind of an asylum and what reverend barber said is that it was an issue for everyone in the state. A lot of shelf life that is longer than just one demonstration or one protester. I actually ended my book with the moral Mondays Movement because i think it is such a powerful example of the time of activism that we need. I think youre right but i also think that it wasnt abstract. It wasnt like the right to vote affects all of these other things. It so happened that in North Carolina, all of those were there. It was about a womans right to choose, about voting, about, you know, wages and a whole set of issues that were on the table and i think that, you know, one of the things that pressured us is that it produces in us the will to come together. And there is an intensity of pressure thats building in this country right now around a whole set of issues and i think you all feel it. I think most of us feel it that we are in a moment of incredible pressure and that pressure is forcing us together. And that pressure is compelling us, i think sadly we dont have the pressure to ask how will we do it. It is on the obsession of so many things that have happened. It is. Thats why you cant divorce the issue of Police Involved killings from the conversation. Because thats al part of the environment of the pressure that we all are feeling. It is all a threat to what we think of as the democratic ideal. Its around those dispretty issues that we begin to come together and create precisely what youre talking about and what reverend barber has been an instrument in creating in North Carolina. There is a genuine interest. Who was willing to say this is all of a piece that what you are experiencing. The right to choose is not entirely independent from what we are hearing around voter suppressing. So i think the ability of all of us to see those connections and understand that those connections and understand the way we join together when we have the ability to find those connections, i think thats the way it happens. And the good news is that it is happening. It is happening. It really is about whether or not you have found that yourself. But, you know, i can tell you from those of us who do civil rights that it is happening. We are in that moment. And the question is how much can we make of it. What will we get out of it . How will we honor . The lives of people who lost in other con flicks thats how we do it. That is how it was done in the past. Its done by us coming together and deciding out of this moment, out of this tragedy, something will come that will honor the lives of those people in ways that they will advance the issues that they care about, advance justice and thats the moment were in now. There is also tremendous opportunity. Thank you so much. I want to thank our distinguished panelists once again. [ applause ] dr. Spencer cruise, hank san sanders, harry berman and i want to thank the smithsonian, the National Museum for africanamerican history and culture for hosting us this evening. Since i was the moderator, i didnt get the chance to talk. Listening to this panel i thought about the summer of 1968. It was under the leadership of the southern leadership christian. With the task of writing down the addresses that led me to my own history. Now there is a lawyer and a litigator and i respected in all of the ldf champions working with Julius Chambers he would call me up at night and say why you sleeping. She did. She really did. Summer of 1984 for many of you who were active in the campaign of Jesse Jackson throughout the country. And for all of you who have spent the last 14. 5 years like myself fighting to renew voting in this country. I want to say thank you. Especially to this panel for your willingness to fight and also your willingness to tell the story and history. We should never forget that history. Because that is our history. Our collective history. As americans its our history. As grandma francis would do every night of our childhood she would call us in order of our birth. We had lots of kids in louisiana. My grandmother voted in 1972. She would call us and recite scripture and i have to do it in her honor. Do not grow weary in doing good in due season we will reap a harvest if we dont give up. I am here to say we have not given up and we thank you. 16 days from now when we commemorate that historic day just remember, too many people gave of their lives and their time and sacrifices and we shall not forget. We will march on. We will fight on and we will win this battle for Voting Rights in the United States of america. God bless you and thank you so much. Thank you panel