Here. That came at great sacrifice, but they wanted to be here. To be part of this because they understand the pain better than anyone, because theyve gone through the pain. And i think that we should recognize the mother of trayvon martin, will you stand . The mother of eric garner, will you stand . The sister of bompa john, will you stand . The father of Michael Brown from ferguson, missouri, will you stand . The father of ahmaud arbery, will you stand . All of these families came to stand with this family. Because they know better than anyone else, the pain theyll suffer. From the loss that they have gone through. I also want to thank all of those that helped to make this as easy as they could for the family, certainly we thank, again, our those in the financial and entertainment world, that immediately jumped up and said to the family that they wanted to help. And make sure that they didnt have to worry about expense, tyler perry. And robert smith and champion floyd mayweather. And others that have come, it means a lot because it shows the world the weight of this. Brother jamie foxx is with us today. Stand up, jamie. [ applause ] al b. Sure is in the house today. [ applause ] let me get into my terrell owens, everyones sending me notes. I want you to turn briefly to the book of ephesians. 6 chapter. Ephesians, 6 chapter, because i think that we need to understand what were dealing with here. It tells the story of why i think we need to really look at the situation differently. Because it talks about in pauls letter, ephesians, okay, im catching up with myself, it says in his letter to the ephesians, he says finally be strong in the lord. And in his mighty power, put on the full armor of god. So that you can take your stand against the devil for our struggle isnt against flesh and blood, but against rulers and authorities, against the powers of the darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. Therefore, put on the full armor of god so when the day of evil comes he may be able to withstand your ground. May god add a blessing to the reading of his word. We are not fighting some disconnected incident. We are fighting an institutional syst systemic problem that has been allowed to permeate since we were brought to these shores. And we are fighting wickedness in high places. When you can put your knee on a mans neck, and hold it there for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, thats not even normal to a civilian. Try it when you go home to put on someone that long. You got to be full a lot of venom, full of something that motivates you to press down your weight that long and not give up. And to think youre certified by the state to carry a badge and a gun and you got all of that in you, means that we have permitted people to become officers of the law that ought to be somewhere else in society. Imagine you pressing down on something eight minutes, thats telling you i cant breathe, thats begging for their life, and you keep pressing, what kind of mentality is is that . How do we screen who Police Officers are . How do we get to this place over and over again . They told eric garner, put him in the chokehold, he said i cant breathe. Those three cops walked, no prosecution, until the law is upheld and people know they will go to jail, theyre going to keep doing it because theyre protected by wickedness in high places. How do you prevent crime in thehood . You scare others by saying, if you do that youre going to jail. How are you going to scare a bad cop if bad cops dont go to jail . Who taught these cops that they can do this to george was elected cops before get away with this. And when they have the highest level of government that that excuses it, when some kids wrongly start violence, that this family dont condone and none of us do, the president talks about bringing in the military. But hes not said one word about 8 minutes and 46 seconds of Police Murder of george floyd. Only he said the family has my sympathy and all of this. He didnt give those on the other situations his sympathy, he challenged china on human rights, what about the human rights of george floyd . The signals that were sending is that if you are in Law Enforcement the law doesnt apply to you. And im telling you that the law ought especially apply to you because youre giving special powers that others dont have. We dont have a badge representing the state, we dont have a gun were carrying, weve not gone through training. We should expect more from you. And if you break the law, you ought to be expected to pay an even higher price because you know better and you swore not to do that. [ applause ] so, yeah, its nice that everybody wants to now study the problem, its nice big corporations said were going to throw money to study equal justice, but if we went out here and do that to a young white kid you wouldnt need no study, youd know what to do. And you know what to do now. Do justice. All this family wants is justice. Its nice to see some people change their mind, head of the nfl said, yeah, maybe we was wrong, Football Players maybe they did have the right to peacefully protest. Dont apologize. Give Colin Kaepernick a job back. [ applause ] dont come with some empty apology. Take a mans livelihood, strip a man down of his talents and four years later, when the whole world is marching, you all of sudden you go and do a facetime talk about you sorry. Minimizing the value of our lives. Youre sorry, then pay the damage when colin took the knee he took it for the families in this building and we dont want an apology, we want him repair repaired. [ applause ] equal justice. Equal fairness. Were not antianybody, were trying to stop people from being antius. We want the law to apply equally. And you dont need a whole lot of studying about that, yes, we need new laws, yes, the congress has stepped up, the Congressional Black Caucus has come, yes, we need to close these laws, yes, we need to stop where policemen can say based on what they thought they can use lethal force. Yes, we need residency requirement. But we have enough right now to prosecute policemen to hold somebody down 8 minutes and 46 seconds. A man said to me i think a lot of people are confused. I was working out, i work out in the mornings, man said to me, white fella in the place i was working out, he said, reverend al i see on tv and youre always talking about race. I said, yeah. He said, but havent we come a long way . Yeah, but you got to understand how far we have to go and how deep it is. He said, what do you mean . I said, about eight, nine years ago, newspaper in new york did a background on my family and i found that my greatgrandfather was a slave in south carolina, i went down there with the newspaper and other press, and we went to the graveyard, and my greatgrandfather was owned by the family of strom thurmond. I went to the graveyard and there was a tombstone and about a quarter of the cemetery, the tombstone and i said, you mean all of these . They said, wait a minute, the plantation of your greatgrandfather was about a mile away, they buried the slaves there, they only put pebbles over their graves. It occurred to me every time i write my name, sir, thats not my name, thats the name of who owned my greatgrandfather. Thats how deep race is, that every time i write my name im writing America History of what happened to my people. I cant talk about what my greatgrandparents did, they were enslaved. And were still being treated less than others. And until america comes to terms for what it has done and what it did, we will not be able to heal because youre not recognizing the wound. Floyd could have been anybody. But then, the reaction was not anything, because somewhere i read in the bible, that god said he would pull out his spirit, among all flesh, and thats why when i heard them talking about they never thought they would see young whites marching like theyre marching now, all over the world, i have seen grandchildren of slave masters, tearing down slave master statues over in england and put it in the river. I pull out my spear among all flesh. I have seen whites walking past curfews, saying, black lives matter. No justice, no peace. You lived to now where youve sown wickedness. A man sows, shall he also reap. So we come because god in his own way, he always wanted a minister said it right, god always uses unlikely people. To do his will. For george floyd had been an Ivy League School graduate, and one of these ones with the long title, we would have been accused of reacting to his prominence. If he had been a multimillionaire they would have said that we were reacting to his wealth. If he had been famous athlete as he was on the trajectory to be, we would have said we were reacting to his fame. But god took an ordinary brother from the third ward, from the housing projects, that nobody thought much about but those who knew him and loved him, he took the rejected stone, the stone that the builder rejected, they rejected him for jobs, they rejected him for positions, they rejected him from certain teams, god took the rejected stone and made him the corner stone of a movement thats going to change the whole wide world. Im glad he wasnt one of these polished brothers, we still would have thought we were of no value but george was just george, and now you have have t understand that value to all of us. If you had any idea that all of us would react, you would have taken your knee off his neck. If you had any idea that everybody from those in the third ward to those in hollywood would show up in houston and minneapolis and in fayetteville, north carolina, you would have took your knee off his neck. If you have any idea that preachers white and black were going to line up in a pandemic, when were told to stay inside and we come out and march in the streets at the risk of our health, you would have took you thought his neck didnt mean nothing. But god made his neck to connect his head to his body, and you have no right to put your knee on that neck. Genesis 2 said that god formed m man. And they say he breathed breath. The breath of life to make him a live human being. Which means that breath comes from god. Breath is how god gives you life. Breath is not some coincidental kind of thing that happens. Breath is a divine decision that god made. Some babies are born stillborn. God decides to blow breath in them. Breath is sanctified. Breath is sacred. You dont have the right to take gods breath out of anybody. You cant put breath in their body. But you dont look at it that way because of your wickedness. Principalities. Darkness. You sit now trying to figure out how youre going to stop the protests rather than how youre going to stop the brutality. You are calling your cabinet in trying to figure out how its going to affect your vote rather than how its going to affect our lives. Youre scheming on how you can spin the story rather than you can achieve justice, wickedness in high places. You take rubber bullets and tear gas to clear out Peaceful Protesters and then take a bible and walk in front of a church and use a church as a prop. Wickedness in high places. You aint been walking across that street when the church didnt have the boards up. You wasnt holding up no bible when arbery was killed in brunswick, when taylor was killed in louisville. Wickedness in high places. But god got some people that will stand up. Let me tell you this, jesus told the story that there was a man laying by the side of the road. Hed been robbed and beaten. They said one man came by. That was the same race. His fellow brother. And he kept walking. Then another man came by that was wellred ad in the scriptur. Knew every scripture. Knew how to quote the book back and forward, but he only quoted the book. He never lived by the book. And he kept walking. But jesus said a third man came by. And he stopped and looked at the man. He wasnt the same race. Wasnt the same religion, but he picked the man up and he took care of restoring the man to his rightful being. And jesus called him the good samaritan. The problem is too many of you been walking by the eric gardners, been walking by the trayvon martins, been walking by the arberys. Been walking by. And now we stopped for george floyd. And i am in houston today because i dont want nobody to call me a passerby. Jamie here because hes not a passerby. All of you are here because we not passerbys. And we going to be back in minneapolis when the trials start because you may pack the police union on one side, but the righteous is going to be on the other side of that courtroom. Its time that we reclaim the righteous in this country. We dont know if weve got the money, weve got the political power. Well, weve got the vote. And we got something that we had before we had the vote. We had god on our side. Thats why when they was even in slavery, they used to have church out in the slave quarters because they understood that if they called on god, that god would answer prayer. And the same god that brought us from channel slavery is still on the throne. The same god that brought us from the back of the bus is still on the throne. The same god that brought us from jim crow is still on the throne. And if we are right, hell fight our battle, and well put georges name in history where they say thats the one that they shouldnt have touched. Thats the neck they shouldnt have been down on. Because if my people call by my name, would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, then you will hear from heaven. I want to say we have said we are going to keep marching. Were going to keep protesting. August 28th, were going to washington by the tens of thousands. Were going to have a National March on the anniversary of i have a dream. The floyd family and the other families are going to lead it. But i want to say this before i leave to the floyd family. Dont ever forget in your darkest hour that, be not dismayed. Whatever betide, god will take care of you. Beneath his wing a love abide. God will take care of you. I was like floyd. I grew up with daddy gone. Mama had to make it with welfare checks. I used to go and shop with the food stamps. A lot of folks say that, but the way i know philonise if youve been on food stamps, i asked you what color was your food stamps. If you dont know the different colors, youre just fronting. But i used to slip the little gray slip so my Little Friends wouldnt know im on food stamps. But mama told me something i never forgot. She said, he may not be there when you want them, but hes always on time. The lord will make a way i can tell you 40 years later he walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me that im his own. Hes been fooled when i was hungry. When i was thirsty, hes my rock. My sword and shield my will in the middle of the will, hes the lily of the valley the bright and morning star he woke me up this morning started me on my way yes yes yes let me say this. Weve got to go to the cemetery. Let me say this. I saw Michael Brown sr. Here. And i thought about i told him this story. 9 11 happened. Congressman green, and we were all flustered in new york. They closed down the bridges. Closed down the streets. Closed the trains. I had to walk all the way to my headquarters of National Action network. When we got there, there were people everywhere. Cell phones was down and people came to our headquarters to see if we could tell them what was happening, whether we were out of danger. And for the First Time Since i was a little boy, i started preaching as bishop said since i was a little boy. And i always had something to say. But the first time in my life, i couldnt find words to say. And jimmy, i went in my office. Trying to figure out, what could i say . And i thought about this old preacher told me this story. He said, al, i had to preach one sunday, the early service, and i started reading this novel about 8 00 that night. And i got so into it that i couldnt put the novel down. I looked at the clock. It was 10 00. I wanted to go to bed, but i couldnt put the novel down. It was so intriguing, and i kept reading. Turned and looked again, it was 11 30. Ive got to get some rest. Ive got to get up too early. But i couldnt put it down. I kept reading. Finally, it was after midnight. And he said that, al, ive got to tell the truth. I decided then i would cheat, and i turned to the end of the book to find out how the story was going to end. I want you to know on 9 11 2001, i want the family to know like i told Michael Browns family that afternoon, i cheated. I sat in my office and i took my bible out and i turned to the end of the book. And i know how this story is going to end. The first will be last. The last will be first. The lion and the lamb is going to lay down together, and god will take care of his children. Weve got some difficult days ahead, but i know how the story is going to end. Theres going to be justice for george floyd. Theres going to be justice for eric garner. This story wont end like this. God will never leave us nor forsake us. Ive been to the end of the book. Lets fight on. Lets stand together. Let us not leave this family now that this ceremony is over. This is the beginning of the fight. This is not the end of the fight. George, i read on the front page of the New York Times this morning. You said you wanted to touch the world. Well, god had already made you for that. But you didnt touch it in a Basketball Court or football court. God had Something Else for you to do. Because all over the world, george, they are marching with your name. You touched the world in south africa. You touched the world in england. Youve touched every one of the 50 states, even in a pandemic. People are walking out in the streets not even following social distancing because youve touched the world. And as we lay you to rest today, the movement wont rest until we get justice. Until we have one standard of justice. Your family is going to miss you, george, but your nation is going to always remember your name because your neck was one that represented all of us. And how you suffered represented our suffering. So were going to lay you near your mama now. You called for mama. Were going to lay your body next to hers. But i know mamas already embraced you, george. You fought a good fight. You kept the faith. You finished your course. Go on and get your rest now. Go on and see mama now. We going to fight on. We going to fight on. We going to fight on. Praise the lord. I wrote this song 20 years ago, and i never thought id sing it for a gamechanger. Ive got so much to thank god for so many wonderful blessings and so many open doors alone with each new day thats why i praise you and for this i give you wave your