And committed over the long haul for the right causes and for the right reasons. I am to, just in bringing him forward, distribute copies of his bio i cant think of anybody who is not aware, who has been living on another planet, and is not aware of the things reverend al sharpton has been engaged in. He has been praised by both a democratic president , barack obama camera and a republican president , president george bush. People from diverse backgrounds have found something praiseworthy about his many achievements and many accomplishments. In bringing him forth as quickly as possible, i want to read a bit from an excerpt called the man in the arena. Nelson mandela gave a copy of it to france swore francois pinoit in the World Championship rugby games at the moment it could have gone either way and at a moment in his country when nobody but Nelson Mandela could have brought the divergent elements together into the republic of south africa. Here is what was on the piece of paper that Nelson Mandela gave to francois. It was written by theodore roosevelt, and its called the man in the arena. Is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man or the woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasms the great devotions, who spends himself or herself in a worthy cause, who at best in the end nose in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails or if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place or her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. I just want to in case there is a temptation to rise to the critics chair and assumed the critics seat i want to present the man in the arena. [applause] thank you. Thank you to pastor strong and to the bishops and to all of our officials from washington and to all of our activists, civil rights leaders, the chair lady of the naacp. Please stand, our chair lady. [applause] mostly, to our foot soldiers from 1965 [applause] come on. Give them a big hand. [applause] i want to turn to the book of joshua. First chapter, beginning at the fifth verse there shall not any man be able to stand before thee. All the days of my life, as i was with moses, so i will be with thee, and i will not fail thee nor forsake thee. May god add a blessing to the reading of his words. 50 years after the march, gods promise, gods promise. Several years ago, the speaker here on a sunday morning was thensenator barack obama. The senator who is now president talked about that there was the moses generation, the foot soldiers, the many that we heard from this morning, and then he said that those of us behind worthy joshua generation were the joshua generation. Yesterday, as some of us were marching across the bridge, i reminded him now. I reminded him of the joshua generation. The problem with the joshua generation is that it does not go by age. It goes by commitment. There were many people that were in the moses generation that were not in the movement. Just because your old doesnt mean we only you owe you no gratitude. There are many in the joshua generation who are not engaged now. The real way you separate them is by those that are committed to the journey, and committed why . Because there is a distortion of why we have taken this journey. Ive been wrestling with it, bishop, and it came together for me on that bridge yesterday. I happened to be standing between her and the president as we got across to the halfway point. John lewis stopped and said he wanted to speak. He started explaining what had happened at that point where Jose Williams and he were beat. Miss boykins said, let me speak. From her wheelchair, she talked about how she had been registering voters, and she talked about how she was beat that day. She said, i was registering them because i felt if we could vote, we could deal with poverty and deal with the killing of our people and deal with what was going on wrong and unfair. It sounds real simple, but what struck me was that we are, in many ways, caught up in what we are getting out of the journey than what the journey was for. Go right back to joshua was story. Joshuas story. When the children of israel were coming out of egypt and god opened up the red sea, and they marched across into the wilderness, they forgot the reason for the journey and started worshiping the wrong god. The reality is, in this celebration, some of us have been lost in the wilderness. Some of us thought that john lewis and Hosea Williams got beat for you to get a certain position and a certain job. Some of you thought this was about you, rather than realize that yes it was about voting but not voting to get you a big title voting that hoping we put you somewhere, you would transform society to make it better. Andrew young was right. Its not about making what was wrong we werent looking for darkercolored oppressors. We were looking for freedom. What difference does it make if youve got white churches ceremonial being replaced by black churches ceremonial where we meet out of custom rather than conviction and where some have reduced the pulpit to a lotto machine where you show up every week to see if god gave you your lexus yet . Thats not why we wanted to come out of egypt. I was born raised in brooklyn, new york. I never sat in the back of a bus. I was only 10 years old at the march. I wasnt here in 1965. In fact, the town i grew up in was much more vibrant. My pastor brought me to reverend jones, operation breadbasket and said, if you are going to be involved in this social stuff, let it be with the preacher. They wanted me to stay in the church. I joined operation breadbasket. I kind of liked the style. Reverend jesse jackson. I came into the movement through that wing. I didnt understand that it took more courage to be nonviolent t han to ball up your fists and talk. I didnt understand that you cant transform a nation without transforming yourself. What was original movement in the south broadened. We are urbanized it. We understood it was not the style but the reason that brought this movement to where now the whole world imitates what is done here. There is a reason in selma today. We are not here to celebrate. We are here to commemorate and then continue. This is not just a commemoration. It is a continuation. Right here in alabama, the 20thcentury alabama was known for its segregation and race. The 21st century is known for its Immigration Rights and homophobia. A lot of yall dont want to deal with that but you cant fight for anybodys rights unless you fight for everybodys rights. [applause] something sick by the neck of the fish seeing 36 poverty in town, but you are more concerned with what is going on in somebodys bedroom than the food in the kitchen. [applause] something wrong about telling churches they cant take care of children until they check out their parents immigration status and then get up and preach, love your neighbor. Something hypocritical about standing up in front of a bridge celebrating people that were be, and then go straight to montgomery and legislate voter id laws and legislate ending early voting and legislate stopping sunday polls. Something hypocritical about honoring dr. King and then running shelby through the Supreme Court and taking out the core of the Voting Rights act. Yes, you can have the act, but no preclearance. We can do whatever we want to do, and we dont have to check with the Justice Department before we do it. By the way we are going to hold the attorney general in contempt , because it is contemptible to us he was attorney general in the first place. [applause] you tell us to lecture our children about doing wrong and we do and we should. You tell us about family responsibility and we should and we do. Then you take someone who went to law school and did everything right, stayed with his family raise his children, went to the best school, becomes president , and you ask him about his attorney general and hold him in contempt . What are we supposed to tell our children . [applause] [applause] i understand that you dont like those that yell. I know you all have problems with me. If you dont like me, im not crazy about yell yall. Everything you claim you believe in [indiscernible] loretta lynch. Nobody on no side of the aisle can find nothing wrong with her but they just gave up and started asking her about eric holder because they couldnt find nothing wrong with her. And you still take the longest time in recent American History to confirm her vote, and you dont think we notice that . We know the difference. We know why they cross that bridge, and there are still some bridges we have to cross. We know the reason for the fight. Its not about getting black faces in high places. The reason was so that we could change and make fair and just not only for us, but for everybody. Yesterday was not an anniversary of a new marriage in america. It was the celebration of a newborn baby. Barack obama is a child as a result of the Voting Rights act but the two forces married in the Voting Rights act is in court filing for divorce with the shelby act. We are no longer in unison. You are fighting in the state of alabama against preclearance right now. We arent going to the bridge with nostalgia. We are going to the bridge again to let you know, like we did 50 years ago, you will not deny our right to vote. You are going to file shelby, get a Supreme Court vote nullify us with section iv, and then come ask the son to celebrate his daddy and not expect him to stand up for what his daddy lived for. You think we dont understand that much of what happened in this town you are trying to rescind in a new way. The language of jim crow has changed into the court papers of james crowe junior esquire, but the results are the same. That disenfranchisement some young people, just like when i was young, they dont even try. We arent even going to try the system. That is what sherilyn was talking about. Wait a minute. Yall cant get on juries if you dont register to vote. When we breakdown what this system is, weve got the need here today not talking about what we did but what we must do now. We are committed. We are going to washington again, and we are going to force this congress to deal with the Voting Rights act. I sat in the courtroom when scalia started talking about racial entitlement. Its not a racial entitlement to have your vote protected. Its an american entitlement. [applause] we intend to deal with action and washington d. C. Thats why the journey started. There were some that asked moses , why didnt you leave us in egypt . The journey is too rough. Because he does something that makes progress privately, he has to worry about being condemned by his own, while hes being attacked by the enemy. If he stands to straight, they use that against him. If he stays with us, we act like theres something wrong. Weve killed our living leaders and installed our debt leaders. As soon as they die, we name buildings after them and monuments after them, but as long as they are here, we beat them down and hand them to the enemy. [applause] its hard. You only do this if you believe in what youre doing. Thats why only spiritual people end up leading this movement. Youve got to deal with people that are on another frequency than you. The reason i can fight the way i fight is they are on a. M. On am they are on am. I am on fm. Youve got to get where a bishop jesus had gotten to such a High Frequency that the last thing he did, he served everybody. He knew he was getting ready to be betrayed. The last thing he did, he got up from the table, took off his garments, laid it down, and got down on his knees. They said, what are you doing . Im going to wash your feet. Why are you going to wash our feet . He said, the greatest is the servant. Maybe if you understand, its not about how high you set but about how low you can go to serve the people. [applause] im going to tell you something deeper than that. It took me many years. Not only did he get down and wash his disciples feet. He knew that one of them was going to betray him. He knew that that night he was going to be sold out by one of his own disciples, but he didnt call him out. He didnt dismiss him. He washed the feet of judas even though he knew that judas was going to betray him. He said, what you are going to do, do it quickly. You aint got enough religion so until you can look your traitor in the face and serve him anyhow. [applause] spiritual people. Dogs in birmingham. We shall overcome. Spiritual people make you go to the bridge named after a klansman and take teargas and look in the future and say, i dont know when and i dont know how, but god will pave the way somehow. Spiritual people dont calculate their steps, but they know their steps are ordered by the lord. Spiritual people, thats what brought us this far. I tell my daughters that i heard one of the lord one or two of our speakers talk. There are some things you arent going to be able to move. Some things, your laptop cant give you an answer. That is where Something Else kicks in. Faith aint what you can figure out. Faith aint what you can talk you later. Faith is what doesnt make sense. Faith is when you shouldnt do it but something in you makes you go ahead and do it anyhow. Faith is the substance of things , hope for the evidence of things not seen. Faith is when the doctors give up, but you are holding onto one another. Faith is when you got a pile of bills and no money, but you say, he will provide all of my needs. Faith is when your friends walk out, when your loved ones forget about what you did, but you believe, he brought me this far. Weve come this far by faith leaning on the lord, trusting in his holy word. He never, he never come he never failed me yet. [applause] let me say this. We are going on. I remember january 2013. I was sitting with martin the third and his wife. We were guests of the president at his second inauguration. We sat and about the fifth row in about the fifth row. We saw misses obama, with two bibles. The president was going to be sworn in for the second term with a lincolns bible and dr. Kings traveling bible. I remember a senator to rows behind me miss lynch, i dont want to get in the way of your confirmation. Ill talk to dr. Holder. The senator about three rows behind me said, reverend al also moment. I said, yes, it is. He said, for he is present to put his hand on lincolns bible and dr. Kings bible, he said its an aweinspiring moment. I said, yes, it is. I said, dont be confused. He said, what do you mean . I said, they are two identical bibles. Same amount of books, same amount of verses, same amount of chapters. There wasnt no difference in the bibles. The difference was lincolns bible had been on the mental place in the white house. Heads of states and captains of industry and men of military used to look at that bible, but dr. Kings bible didnt come that way. Dr. Kings bible came through the backwoods of georgia through the buying you bayous of mississippi. If you open up the inside, when he went to jail, they would check his bible and then send it through the necessary institutional obligation for him to have his bible. Little did the bailiffs know, when they were checking in dr. Kings bible in birmingham, one day that bible would be on the steps of the capitol swearing in the president of the United States. [applause] thats why we are in some. Selma. We are here not to celebrate something that didnt happen. We are here to celebrate a god that heard the cries of our parents. We are not going to let our parents and god down now. They died to give us the right to vote. Black and white died in this state to give us the right to vote. Goodman, cheney, viola died in mississippi to give us the right to vote, and we come back to alabama to let you know, you are not going to take that right back. [applause] one preacher said to me, reverend, we are all christians. We believe in the same thing. I said, you know, one of the things i never understood, one thing my mentors never explained to me im from up north why would the klan, when they would terrorize, why would they burn the cross . They are supposed to be christian, but they would burn the cross. A friend told me, because when some gave us christianity, they didnt know the spirituality that we had. Jesus, the one who stood up against oppression, the one who fed the hungry and clothes to the naked, the one who gave us Affordable Health care when we got through with jesus, they had to try to destroy the jesus we know. I know why they burned the cross. They realized it was at the cross when i first saw the light and the burning of my heart. You put me in the back of the bus. It was at the cross, at the cross where i got my strength. He walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me that im his own. He gave water when i was thirsty. Hes my rock, my sword and shield. Hes the bright and morning star. Yeah. Yes. [applause] im going to sit down for real but i heard strong reading my bible. Theres a part you didnt read. Thereve been times that i had to cry sometimes. He walks with me in my life. Ive had to cry sometimes in my life. Ive walked alone sometimes. Ive been lied on, cheated talked about. Ive been mistreated. Ive been up. Ive been down. Ive been level to the ground. Ive been bad. Ive been prosecuted. But through it all i learned to trust in jesus. Ive learned to trust in god through it all. Ive learned to depend on his word. He will make a way. He will make a way. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. Yes, yes yes, yes. When i came in today, i heard the choir sing. I saw the young man hit high octaves, then everybody standing up. I wish i could sing like that, but god didnt give me that gift. I heard the young lady do her song, but god didnt give me that gift. Sometimes, in the midnight hours, after my cell phone stops ringing, after the doorbell quiets down, i go out in the living room all by myself, and i sing my song. I cant sing, but sunday morning service, i sing because im happy. I sing because im free. I know he watches me. Yes, yes yes yes. [applause] the doors of the church are now open. We extend an invitation to jesus christ. We have heard preaching. Weve heard great words. We extend the invitation to accept lord jesus as savior. Very quickly its all good, isnt it . We are going to take every word of it to heart and practice it in our lives. I need to do two things real fast and quick. I need to get the mayor on. Im a christian. Im not going to let a sermon like that be preached and not open the doors to the church. Yellow can take me to the cross and crucify me next to the to jesus, but we are going to have an invitation shortly. Just a quick verse. Stay on your feet. If anybody doesnt know jesus doesnt know his love, his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, if theres anybody in this house who doesnt, raise your hand, and i will walk into the back with you. Amen. Anybody . Anybody in this house . Im sorry, but ive got to stand before the lord one day. Anybody who doesnt know jesus doesnt know the lord as your savior, amen. Stay on your feet. Stay where you are. I need everybodys help right now, if you dont mind. If you will just be seated for a moment, weve got a situation. Can the people outside here me as well . I want everybody to get a feel inside the church as well as outside. The march has already begun downtown. They have already begun marching. They have already crossed the bridge. We have 80,000 people down there from the bridge to selma avenue. It is jampacked downtown. What im saying to you, the march started some time ago. What im trying to say is, when we get there, i dont know where we are going to go. Ive called on assistance from the governors staff, not from the standpoint of violence or nothing like that, but just to help crowd control. Thats all. They are on their way here. There are about 50, 60 of them. Theyve come out here to march to where the point we can get to. The idea is not to tell you you cant march, but we have to do it with dignity and respect and be patient with each other. When they get here, we will try to get some control, whereby people can walk to the bridge. Im not sure you will get the bridge, to be honest. The idea is, all you can do at this point is walk there and mix and mingle. Its up to you whether or not you want to go there or someplace else. There are a lot of vehicles. There are a lot of vehicles out front. Those vehicles are based on different departments. I was asked that you get in your vehicle and kind of move them out. Theres nowhere for them to lineup. I would suggest everyone with a vehicle, please try to move to it. When the troopers get here, we can lineup and try to march with understanding and patience. Yes, sir. [indiscernible] let me. I hear what you are saying,. That group is all the way down to where we are coming from, and they already crossed the bridge. We will have to work through that. I need your help. I want you all to certainly been in your vehicles. We have to have a benediction here first. People. Give us just a second. You cant go anywhere right now anyway. Let us adjourn. Let us do that ok . , please. Let us just do that, please. We need to do a benediction. I am gods son. Amen. Come on. We need to make a couple of acknowledgments. Thank you for coming to church. It would not be right if we did not acknowledge our ranking person, bishop james davis. Would you please stand . Hello. And his lovely wife, mother davis. Thank you so very much. One thing we just have to do we are a small congregation, and there are people who help us. We just have to say thank you to them. They are the National Park service and dr. Glenda glove, the president of tennessee state. Our sponsors are congressmen store. Please stand again. That is all of the people from sams club, betty and emily. They our are our lead sponsor. We just really want to thank you. Lastly, we want to thank historic brown chapel. They are the people who keep this church open. Thank you, brown family. [applause] let me say to those who are here, especially those who are outside. Close to 100,000 people, people coming across the bridge in both directions. When there is no order, we lend ourselves to anarchy and chaos. You should not wade into that falsely, not take your eyes off why we are really here. We are here, in fact, for three basic reasons. Our major focus is the right to vote. Dont lose sight of that. The protected right to vote, to regain what we lost in section iv to address poverty, to love one another, and to stop the violence. We should not become each others problem today. We should not become each others problem today. There is no way of me telling you what to do. Lets collect ourselves. Dont become inpatient. Its a good problem in that there are some many people. When you have this kind of problem, you have no idea what is in the crowd. I would urge you dont wade into this. You on the outside watching, be patient. Downtown is already completely full. The bridge is full in both directions. Somebody might get pushed off. Our headline must be they gathered with a number no one can number to reaffirm the required, protected right to vote. They came to revive the war on poverty. They came together to fight for Affordable Health care for everybody. They came together to choose schools over jails. They came together for a high moral purpose. We will let nothing distract us from our goal, our mission. I want to thank the naacp, and i want to thank the delta workers and others helping us today as volunteers. Let us not become each others problem. Let us now, wherever you are, join hands and bow our heads in prayer, wherever you are. Weve been in scenes like this in this very church. One night i was here, and we wanted to march downtown. Sheriffs locked both doors and said to us, you cannot march tonight. What we chose to do it rained all night long. I caught the pneumonia waiting for the rain to cease but we would not let our issue be sidetracked. We must not allow anything to take our eyes off the prize. Inconvenience, we may go through today, not compared with being beaten and stoned and bludgeoned. Lets be mature and strong, asked god to see us through. We know nothing is too hard for god. Nothing is too hard for god. So, we fall down. We get back up again. Again and again. His mercy is everlasting. His love has power. His grace is efficient sufficient. Through it all god, turn this into a plus. Lift us up to higher ground. Wed rather have a big crowd with tens of thousands determined to vote than trying to round up somebody. This is the joy of our movement. Live in the moment. If we can stand all over the church, and if you can grab the hand of the person next to you because we know even when chaos breaks out, it is only together hand in hand as a beloved community that we can make the progress and be the change we wish to see. Bow your heads, please. Gracious and eternal god, you who were and is and is to come, god, we know that we know that we know that weve come this far by faith, and there are many bridges left across. Here in selma, and in ferguson, and in new york, and in and lay l. A. , and on the southside of chicago, but god, you are great god. You have empowered us to go about the work, to be the feet on the ground, to be the hands that are on the plow. Right now, god, right now, god right now, god, we pray that you will guide our feet, as the old folks used to say, while we run this race. We thank you, god, in advance for the blessing you are going to shower down on your people. We know we didnt come this far to turn back. We thank you god, and in the name of your son jesus christ, we pray. Amen. Hello. Hello. Listen. There are too many people out in the streets. Unless you have the advantage of government security, like fbi your best move is just to sort of stay. Stand still for just a little bit, ok . Im serious. There are so many people out there that until they get the Additional Police in place, you are in the best place right now. We are going to make some awards to families, surviving family members. We are going to make those awards right now. If you would please just take your seat. That concludes our live coverage from brown chapel in selma, alabama where 50 years ago on sunday, march 7 1960 five, Voting Rights activists were met by Police Violence as they marched from selma to montgomery. This was one of several events in the selma arkady 50th anniversary of what is called bloody sunday. You can watch some of the key speeches from the services tonight. We will have those at 8 00 p. M. Eastern right here on cspan3. You can go to our website www. Cspan. Org history to watch this and other programs from selma, including yesterdays speech by president obama. This is American History tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Welcome to galveston, texas on American History tv. Located 50 miles from houston, the city sits on a Barrier Island just off the texas coast facing the gulf of mexico. Large container ships utilizing the port of galveston can be seen navigating galveston bay. The port was established in 1825 by the congress of mexico, while the land known as texas still belonged to that country. With help from our cable partners, in the next hour, we will explore the history of this south texas city of 47,000. Coming, visit the Rosenberg Library museum, the repository for much of galvestons historical heritage. We have so many items related to the history of galveston. We are the keeper of the history. Later, step aboard the tall ship elissa, a ship that once delivered goods to the city. She sailed and arrived here in galveston about 100 yards from where we are standing out in 1883 with a cargo full of bananas. We begin our visit off its shores and into the surrounding waters. The fort is a major reason why the island city exists today and plays a dominant role in its economy. The first land grant for galveston came about in the 1830s, and it came to a guy called Michelle Minard and some of his other investors. Samuel m a williams was one of those. They had someone come in and lay out the plots for the city and began selling lots in the late 1830s. Galveston was officially founded as a city in 1839. What is attractive about galveston it was a natural harbor, and it was the only one between mexico and mobile alabama. There was this natural affinity to bring in goods and people into galveston that could go into texas and the middle part of the United States. It was really the industry, the availability of the port, the easy access from the gulf of mexico, and it really created an entire community. As the 19th Century Maritime world changed, the ships became larger, and their cargo became much larger. It became particularly important for galveston that it was bringing in the costs from the central part of the state and other states around us and shipping it around here. As that shipping became so became more important, they needed to load up this cargo of cotton. By the late 19th century, cotton was the largest and more common thing shipped out of the port of galveston. It created the wealth for the city and the wealth for the state of texas. Oil was really a 20thcentury activity. Industry. Of course, it is closely tied to texas today. Galveston is more closely tied to what occurs offshore. Those platforms are brought into galveston today to be repaired and cleaned and taken back out. But there is not a lot of immediate drilling around here. It is a working port to support the industry offshore. Immigration into galveston is one of the overlooked stories of Texas History and American History is that without this port and its availability for 150 years, we would not have had settlement in the United States and certainly in texas. Early im talking about precivil war 1830s,