If it was fiercely then urgent, it certainly is now. 50 years ago there were only five africanamerican members of the house of representatives. There was no congressional black cauc caucus. Today there are 43 members. We want more but there are 43. Theyre led by congresswoman marsha fudge who you heard from and they are the conscience of the congress. In that blauk caucus we have the privilege of serving with john lewis, some of us for over 25 years in the congress, and arent we proud of that. I also want to mention that 50 years ago, though he was not a member of congress at the time that john conyers was one of three people invited to the white house to meet with president john f. Kennedy following the civil rights march, the march for jobs, justice and freedom, who is with us. 50 years ago we had the first catholic president in the white house. Today we have the first africanamerican president and the first africanamerican first family leading our country so beautifully from the whi
In 2006 president bush signed the bill on the lawn of the white house with members of congress from both parties there in large numbers. We reaffirm our commitment to build that same type of coalition for the necessary legislative response to the Supreme Courts action. And we reaffirm our commitment o do that today. Hi, im Wade Henderson with the Leadership Conference on civil and human rights. I just want to acknowledge some of the leaders who are here today who joined in this really important and constructive meeting with the president. Theres cheryl, the president director council of the naacp, Legal Defense and educational fund. Barbara who is executive director and president of the Lawyers Committee, the civil rights under law. Which by the way is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year having been founded by president kennedy in response to violence against those who sought to register voters in the past. Tom, who is president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and educatio
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country differently, and whoever can mobilize, whoever can be brilliant on the basics, whoever can do the foot soldier work that has to be done is going to be the ideology and the america that moves forward. one of the speeches today was from rosalyn brock, the chair of the naacp and she talked about the importance of midterm elections and voting when you don t have a charismatic leader to attract to the polls and in essence she was harkening back to the consequences of the 2010 election when the turnout among african-americans and progressives wasn t perhaps as high as it should have been and the consequence of course was statehouses became under single party control with a focus on doing the very things that you talked about, disfranchising voters. and disenfranchising voters is what they re doing and not
0 justice and freedom, who is with us. 50 years ago we had the first catholic president in the white house. today we have the first african-american president and the first african-american first family leading our country so beautifully from the white house. you know we come together here at a time when there is a monument to reverend martin luther king on the mall. here he sits with presidents of the united states so appropriately. we have a day set aside as a national holiday to celebrate his birthday. but he would want us to celebrate him, his birth and his legacy by acting upon his agenda, by realizing the dream, by making the minimum wage a living wage, by having not just family and medical leave, but that the schools are resourced. of course, public education has been the engine for social mobility in america. without it there is no possibility of moving. the main thing here is that we need to send a message to the next generation that this fight is not over, that income and