00:01when the way seems dark show them the light when the storm arises calm the
00:10winds that trouble them and then dear God when evening fall give them a peace
00:17of mind that will surpass all understanding
00:27welcome to the sacred soil and grounds of Selma Alabama the place that God used to
00:37help us become a true democracy and welcome to the sacred space of tabernacle baptist church
00:49place where history lives and his story is shared and people are still being transformed for the
00:56glory of God there's a verse in the bible that says without a vision people will perish there's
01:05another part that says they cast off restraint people need a vision they need to be able to
01:13see what we're trying to do our vigilance is important in this hour and if we don't show
01:19up in this election then it's going to be super tough going forward we gather this day in Selma
01:28sacred ground where ordinary people make extraordinary courage visible we gather from
01:36across the nation people of faith and consciousness before we cross this bridge and continue the
01:44journey toward Montgomery we gather because the work of democracy remains unfinished we gather because
01:52voting rights are still worth protecting we gather because justice still requires witnesses and freedom
02:00still requires people willing to walk toward it
02:06it's about voting we will not be allowed
02:12we gotta still fight we gotta still fight
02:16our ancestors fought one time while we fighting again it doesn't make any sense
02:21and before i'll be a slave i'll be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be
02:38free
02:39oh freedom
02:45when people come against us there's something in our dna that gets resolved you know and finds a way
02:54to fight in the strength and finds a way through and out and so if we are passive in this
03:03moment if we
03:04don't show up in votes then what's happening now is going to quadruple we fought we marched we bled we
03:11died
03:13for the right to vote we were told to vote that it was the way to upward mobility but even
03:19when we showed up to vote and voting places were closed moved hidden we stood in long lines and we
03:27voted
03:27late and we voted early and we took our souls to the cold we voted because we believed in the
03:35power you
03:36were placed in our hands and when and when and when they saw and when they saw our
03:44and when they saw our collective power our sacred determination they grew a free
03:49we kept on what wrong oh my god when we got across there i saw all this smoke i didn't
03:58know what that was
03:59i thought they was they were gonna sit that's on fire but it was tailgassed i never seen nothing like
04:05that
04:05these men come on these horses they had whips there was beating people i didn't get beat but i got
04:14tailgassed real baby oh my god it was the worst scene in my life see y'all think they only
04:23stayed on the
04:23bridge but they come all off the bridge they come in the neighborhood knocking people's doors down
04:30oh my goodness oh my goodness it was the worst day i can remember in all of my life
04:46i've come too far from where i started from
05:03i don't think we gather in memory those who crossed before us with bruised bodies and unbroken spirits
05:23and we gather believing that prayer is not an escape from the work ahead but preparation for it
05:34we have not gathered merely for a commemoration we have gathered for a continuation we have come not
05:42only to remember the march but to become the march we have come because every generation
05:51coretta skies king said every generation must decide for themselves whether it will bend towards fear
06:01or towards freedom
06:03like
06:04or
06:04Oooooooooooooooooooo
06:271989
06:29Another summer
06:32Sound of the funky drummer
06:33Is it getting your heart cold?
06:35I know you got soul
06:36Rather than this girl
06:37Listen if you're missing y'all
06:39Swinging while I'm singing
06:41Give it where you're getting
06:42No one knowing
06:44While the black bear sweating
06:45In the rhythm I'm rolling
06:47Got to give us what we want
06:48Got to give us what we need
06:51Our freedom is beat
06:52It's freedom of death
06:53We got to fight the powers that be
06:59Today we return to the very grounds
07:03Where my parents and the freedom family stood
07:06When black voter registration was scarce
07:10When discrimination was the norm
07:13And when violence was the price of seeking dignity
07:16Their sacrifice opened the door to the Voting Rights Act
07:22A door carved through suffering
07:24Sanctified by courage and shield by unshakable thought
07:29Faith
07:30And 61 years later
07:33We come back as new generations
07:36To this same hallowed place to reclaim
07:39And redeem that legacy
07:42Say the power is with the people
07:45Power is with the people
07:46Power is with the people
07:47Power is with the people
07:48Do you know what your assignment is?
07:51We want to register everybody we know to vote
07:54We want to take at least ten people to the polls
07:58And ask those ten people to take ten people
08:02They talk about my phone's not gonna matter
08:04But why the hell are they working so hard to take it away?
08:07We got work to do
08:09Do what?
08:11We know that the heart
08:14Just is the way it bends
08:17But it requires us
08:20To actually put in the work
08:231955
08:25The birthplace
08:26Of the modern civil rights movement
08:28We are here because of them
08:30And we will continue to be here because of them
08:33And the next generation will be here because of us
08:36It was just 61 years ago
08:38Where a pastor by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
08:42Spoke to 25,000 people right here
08:46And he asked the question
08:47How long?
08:48How long?
08:49Not long
08:50Not long
08:51How long?
08:52Not long
08:53Not long
08:54Because true Christ of the earth shall rise again
08:59What gives me hope is that people keep showing up from every generation
09:03I think about Harriet Tubman all the time
09:05Because Harriet Tubman didn't have a navigational system
09:08But some kind of way she got the freedom a long way away
09:11Because she was tied into God more importantly
09:15And she followed that divine navigation assistant
09:19And so if she did that
09:22There's so much in us
09:24So that gives me hope
09:26There's so much in the position
09:26And we're doing that
09:27In the way that she was bringing up
09:31And she was like
09:31That's a sad thing
09:31The way that she was being able to hold
09:32And she was able to see that
09:32She was able to see that
09:32You
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