美国20世纪伟大的100篇演讲Jesse Jackson - 1988 DNC Address

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Jesse Jackson

Address to
the
Democratic
National
Convention

delivered
19
July
1988, Omni Coliseum,
Atlanta
GA

AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED:
Text
version below
transcribed
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from
audio

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Tonight, we pause and give praise and honor to
God for being good enough
to allow
us to be
at this place at this time. When I look out at
this convention, I see the face of America: Red,
Yellow, Brown, Black and White. We are all precious in God's sight the
real rainbow
coalition.

All of us all
of us who are here think that we are seated.
But we're really standing on
someone's shoulders. Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Rosa Parks the
mother of the civil rights
movement.

[Mrs. Rosa Parks is brought to the podium.]

I want
to express my deep love and appreciation for the support
my family has given me over
these past
months. They have endured pain, anxiety, threat, and fear. But they have been
strengthened and made secure by our faith
in God, in America, and in you. Your love has
protected us and made us strong. To my wife Jackie, the foundation of our family. to our five
children whom you met
tonight. to
my mother, Mrs. Helen Jackson, who
is present
tonight.
and to our grandmother, Mrs. Matilda
Burns. to
my brother Chuck and his family. to my
motherinlaw,
Mrs. Gertrude Brown, who just last
month at age 61
graduated from Hampton
Institute a
marvelous achievement.

I offer my appreciation
to Mayor Andrew
Young who has provided
such gracious hospitality to
all of us this week.

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And a special salute to President Jimmy Carter. President Carter restored honor to
the White
House after Watergate.
He gave many of us a special opportunity to grow. For his kind words,
for his unwavering commitment
to peace in the world, and for the voters that came from his
family, every member of his family, led by Billy
and Amy, I offer my special
thanks to the
Carter
family.

My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won
in my lifetime, by the
blood and the sweat of the innocent.

Twentyfour
years ago, the late Fannie Lou
Hamer and Aaron
Henry who
sits here tonight
from Mississippi were
locked out onto
the streets in Atlantic City. the head of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party.

But
tonight, a
Black and White delegation
from Mississippi is headed by Ed Cole, a Black man
from Mississippi. twentyfour
years later.

Many were lost in the struggle for the right to
vote: Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young student,
gave his life. Viola Liuzzo, a
White mother from Detroit, called "nigger lover," and brains
blown out at point blank range. [Michael] Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and [James]
Chaney two
Jews and a Black found
in a common grave, bodies riddled with bullets in
Mississippi. the four darling little girls in a church
in Birmingham, Alabama. They died that we
might have a right to live.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lies only a few miles from us tonight. Tonight he must
feel good as
he looks down upon
us. We sit
here together, a
rainbow, a coalition
the
sons and daughters
of slavemasters and the sons and daughters of slaves, sitting together around a common
table, to decide the direction of our party and our country. His heart would be full
tonight.

As a testament
to
the struggles of those who have gone before. as a legacy for those who will
come after. as a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and
mothers. as an assurance that
their prayers are being answered, that
their work has not been
in vain, and,
that
hope is eternal, tomorrow
night my name will go
into
nomination
for the
Presidency of the United States of America.

We meet
tonight at
the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we expand, be inclusive, find
unity and power. or suffer division and impotence?

We've come to
Atlanta,
the cradle of the Old South, the crucible of the New
South. Tonight,
there is a sense of celebration, because we are moved, fundamentally moved from racial
battlegrounds by law, to economic common ground. Tomorrow we'll challenge to move to
higher ground.

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Common ground. Think of Jerusalem, the intersection where many trails met. A small village
that became the birthplace for three great religions Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. Why
was this village so blessed? Because it provided
a crossroads where different people met,
different
cultures, different civilizations could meet and find common ground.
When people
come together, flowers always flourish
the
air is rich with the aroma of a new spring.

Take New
York, the dynamic metropolis. What
makes New York so
special? It's the invitation
at the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn
to
breathe free." Not restricted to
English only. Many people,
many cultures, many languages
with one thing in common: They yearn to breathe free. Common ground.

Tonight in Atlanta,
for the first
time in
this century, we convene in the South. a state where
Governors once stood in school
house doors. where Julian Bond was denied a seat
in the
State Legislature because of his conscientious objection
to the Vietnam
War. a city that,
through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students than any city in the
world. Atlanta, now a modern
intersection of the New South.

Common ground. That's the challenge of our party tonight left
wing,
right wing.

Progress will
not
come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical
mass of mutual survival not
at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at
the
critical
mass of mutual survival. It
takes two wings to
fly.
Whether you're a hawk or a dove,
you're just a bird living in
the same environment, in
the same world.

The Bible teaches that when
lions and lambs lie
down together, none will
be afraid, and there
will be peace in the valley. It
sounds impossible. Lions eat lambs. Lambs sensibly flee from
lions. Yet
even
lions and lambs find common ground. Why? Because neither lions nor lambs
want
the forest
to catch on fire. Neither lions nor lambs want acid rain to
fall. Neither lions nor
lambs can survive nuclear war. If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as
well
as
civilized people.

The only time that we win
is when we come together. In
1960, John Kennedy,
the late John
Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon by only 112,000 votes less
than one vote per precinct. He
won by the margin of our hope. He brought
us together. He reached out. He had
the courage
to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr.
King's jailing in Albany, Georgia.
We won by the
margin of our hope,
inspired by courageous leadership.
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought
both wings together the
thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis and
together
we won. In
1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again, and we won. When do we not come
together, we never win. In
1968, the division and despair in July led to our defeat
in
November. In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan
in the fall. When we
divide, we cannot win. We must find common ground as the basis for survival and
development and change and growth.

Today when we debated, differed, deliberated, agreed
to
agree, agreed
to disagree, when we
had
the good judgment
to argue a case and then
not
selfdestruct,
George Bush was just a
little further away from the White House and a little closer to private life.

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Tonight, I salute Governor Michael Dukakis. He has run He
has run a wellmanaged
and a
dignified campaign. No matter how tired or how
tried, he always resisted the temptation to
stoop to demagoguery.

I've watched a good mind fast at work, with
steel
nerves, guiding his campaign out of the
crowded field without appeal
to the worst
in
us. I've watched his perspective grow as his
environment has expanded. I've seen
his toughness and tenacity close up. I
know
his
commitment
to public service. Mike Dukakis' parents were a doctor and a teacher. my parents
a maid,
a beautician, and a janitor. There's a great gap between Brookline, Massachusetts and
Haney Street in the Fieldcrest
Village housing projects in Greenville,
South Carolina.

He studied law. I studied theology.
There are differences of religion, region, and race.
differences in experiences and perspectives. But the genius of America is that out of the many
we become one.

Providence has enabled our paths to
intersect. His foreparents came to America on immigrant
ships. my foreparents came to
America on slave ships.
But whatever the original
ships, we're
in the same boat tonight.

Our ships could pass in the night if
we have a false sense of independence or
they could
collide and crash. We would lose our passengers. We can seek a high reality and a greater
good. Apart, we can drift on the broken pieces of Reagonomics, satisfy our baser instincts,
and exploit
the fears of our people. At our highest, we can call upon
noble instincts and
navigate this vessel
to safety. The greater good is the common good.

As Jesus said, "Not My will, but
Thine be done." It was his way of saying there's a higher good
beyond personal
comfort or position.

The good of our Nation
is at stake. It's commitment to working men and women, to the poor
and the vulnerable,
to
the many in the world.

With so
many guided missiles, and so much
misguided leadership, the stakes are exceedingly
high. Our choice? Full participation
in a democratic government, or more abandonment and
neglect. And so this night, we choose not a false sense of independence, not our capacity to
survive and endure. Tonight we choose interdependency, and our capacity to act and unite for
the greater good.

Common good is finding commitment
to new priorities to expansion and inclusion. A
commitment
to expanded participation
in the Democratic Party at every level. A commitment
to a shared national campaign strategy and involvement at every level.

A commitment
to
new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive. A common ground
commitment
to a legislative agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill universal,
onsite,
sameday
registration everywhere.

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A commitment
to D.C. statehood and empowerment D.
C. deserves statehood. A
commitment
to economic setasides,
commitment to
the Dellums bill for comprehensive
sanctions against South
Africa.
A shared commitment
to a common direction.

Common ground.

Easier said than done.
Where do you find common ground? At
the point of challenge.
This
campaign
has shown
that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters
and pundits. Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common
ground.

We find common ground at the plant
gate that closes on workers without
notice. We find
common ground at
the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans
or diminishing markets. Common ground at the
school yard where teachers cannot get
adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan. Common ground
at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford
to go upstairs to a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get
sick. We are a
better nation than that. We must
do better.

Common ground.
What
is leadership if not present
help in a time of crisis? And so I
met you
at the point of challenge.
In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages. in
Greenville,
Iowa, where family farmers struggle
for a fair price. in Cleveland, Ohio, where
working women seek comparable worth. in McFarland, California, where the children of
Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer. in an
AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by
their own parents and friends.

Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When
I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a
blanket, she didn't complain and we did not
freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth patches,
wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack only
patches, barely good enough
to wipe off
your shoes with. But they didn't stay that way very long.
With
sturdy hands and a strong cord,
she sewed them together into a quilt, a
thing of
beauty and power and culture. Now,
Democrats, we must build such a quilt.

Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right
but
you cannot
stand alone.
Your patch is
not big enough.

Workers, you fight for fair wages,
you are right
but
your patch
labor is not big enough.

Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right
but
your patch is not big
enough.

Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal
care on
the front side of
life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life, you are right but
your patch
is
not big enough.

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Students, you seek scholarships, you are right but
your patch
is not big enough.

Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right but
our patch
is not big
enough.

Gays and lesbians, when
you
fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right but
your patch is not big enough.

Conservatives and progressives, when you fight
for what you believe, right wing,
left wing,
hawk, dove, you are right
from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.

But don't despair. Be as wise as my grandmamma. Pull the patches and the pieces together,
bound by a common
thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll
have the power to bring about health
care and housing and jobs and education and hope to
our Nation.

We,
the people, can win.

We stand at
the end of a long dark night of reaction. We stand tonight
united in the
commitment
to a new direction. For almost eight years we've been led by those who view
social good coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private
wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy
the
private interests and the wealth of a few.

We believe in a government
that's a tool of our democracy in
service to the public, not an
instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth. We believe in government with
the
consent of the governed, "of, for and by the people." We must now emerge into
a new day
with a new
direction.

Reaganomics: Based on the belief that the rich
had
too much money [sic] too
little money
and the poor had too
much. That's classic Reaganomics. They believe that the poor had
too
much
money and the rich
had
too little money,so
they engaged in
reverse Robin
Hood took
from the poor, gave to
the rich, paid for by the middle class. We cannot
stand four more years
of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.

How do I document that case? Seven
years later, the richest
1 percent of our society pays 20
percent less in taxes. The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more: Reaganomics.

Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibilliondollar
party. Now the party is over. He
expects the people to pay for the damage. I take this principal position, convention, let us not
raise taxes on
the poor and the middleclass,
but
those who had
the party, the rich and the
powerful, must pay for the party.

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I just want to
take common sense to
high places. We're spending one hundred and fifty billion
dollars a year defending Europe and Japan
43
years after the war is over. We have more
troops in
Europe tonight
than we had seven years ago. Yet
the threat of war is ever more
remote.

Germany and Japan are now
creditor nations. that means they've got a surplus. We are a
debtor nation
means
we are in debt. Let them share more of the burden of their own
defense. Use some of that money to build decent
housing. Use some of that money to educate
our children. Use some of that
money for longterm
health care. Use some of that money to
wipe out
these slums and put America back to work!

I just want to
take common sense to
high places. If we can bail out
Europe and Japan. if we
can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler and
Mr. Iacocca, make [sic] 8,000 dollars an
hour we
can bail out the family farmer.

I just want to
make common
sense. It does not
make sense to close down six hundred and
fifty thousand family farms in this country while
importing food from abroad subsidized by the

U.S. Government. Let's make sense.
It does not
make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying
$2.50 for every one dollar worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped
in Texas,
Oklahoma, and Louisiana. I just want
to make sense.

Leadership must meet
the moral challenge of its day.
What's the moral
challenge of our day?
We have public accommodations. We have the right to
vote.
We have open
housing.
What's
the fundamental challenge of our day? It
is to end economic violence. Plant closings without
notice economic
violence. Even
the greedy do not profit
long from greed economic
violence.

Most poor people are not
lazy.
They are not black. They are not brown. They are mostly White
and female and young. But whether White,
Black or Brown, a
hungry baby's belly turned
inside out
is the same color color
it pain. color it hurt. color it agony.

Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can't read the wantad
sections. And when
they can, they can't find a job that
matches the address. They work hard
everyday.

I know. I live amongst them. I'm one of them. I know
they work. I'm a witness. They catch
the early bus. They work every day.

They raise other people's children. They work everyday.

They clean the streets. They work everyday.
They drive dangerous cabs. They work everyday.
They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last
night and can't get a union contract.
They work everyday.

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No, no, they are not
lazy!
Someone must defend them because it's right, and they cannot
speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I
know
they do. They wipe the bodies of those
who are sick with
fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes.
No job is beneath
them, and yet when they get
sick they cannot
lie in the bed they made up
every day.
America, that is not
right. We are a better Nation than
that. We are a better Nation
than
that.

We need a real war on drugs. You can't "just say no."
It's deeper than
that. You can't just get
a palm reader or an astrologer. It's more profound than
that.

We are spending a hundred and fifty billion dollars on drugs a year.
We've gone from ignoring
it to
focusing on the children. Children cannot buy a hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of
drugs a year. a few highprofile
athletes athletes
are not
laundering a hundred and fifty
billion dollars a year bankers
are.

I met
the children in Watts, who,
unfortunately, in their despair, their grapes of hope have
become raisins of despair, and they're turning on each other and they're selfdestructing.
But
I stayed with them all
night
long.
I wanted to hear their case.

They said, "Jesse Jackson, as you
challenge us to say no to drugs, you're right. and to
not sell
them, you're right. and not
use these guns, you're right." (And by the way, the promise of
CETA [Comprehensive Employment and Training Act]. they displaced CETA
they
did not
replace CETA.)

"We have neither jobs nor houses nor services nor training no
way out. Some of us take
drugs as anesthesia for our pain. Some take drugs as a way of pleasure, good shortterm
pleasure and longterm
pain. Some sell drugs to make money. It's wrong, we know, but
you
need to know
that we know. We can go and buy the drugs by the boxes at
the port. If we can
buy
the drugs at the port, don't you believe the
Federal government can
stop it if they want
to?"

They say, "We don't
have Saturday night specials anymore." They say, "We buy AK47's and
Uzi's,
the latest make of weapons. We buy them across the along these boulevards."

You cannot
fight a war on drugs unless and until you're going to challenge the bankers and
the gun
sellers and those who grow them. Don't just focus on the children. let's stop drugs at
the level of supply and demand.
We must end the scourge on the American Culture.

Leadership.
What difference will we make? Leadership. Cannot just
go along to get along.
We
must do
more than change Presidents. We must change direction.

Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day. The nuclear war buildup
is irrational.
Strong leadership cannot desire to look tough and let
that stand in the way of the pursuit of
peace. Leadership must reverse the arms race.
At
least we should pledge no
first use. Why?
Because first use begets first retaliation. And that's mutual annihilation. That's not a rational
way out.

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No use at all. Let's think it out and not fight
it our because it's an unwinnable fight. Why hold
a card that
you
can never drop? Let's give peace a chance.

Leadership.
We now
have this marvelous opportunity to have a breakthrough with
the
Soviets. Last
year 200,000 Americans visited the Soviet Union. There's a chance for joint
ventures into
space not
Star Wars and war arms escalation but a space defense initiative.
Let's build in the space together and demilitarize the heavens. There's a way out.

America,
let
us expand.
When Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev met
there was a big meeting.
They represented together oneeighth
of the human
race.
Seveneighths
of the human
race
was locked out of that room. Most people in the world tonight half
are Asian, onehalf
of
them are Chinese. There are 22 nations in
the Middle East. There's Europe. 40 million Latin
Americans next door to
us. the Caribbean. Africa a
halfbillion
people.

Most people in
the world today are Yellow or Brown or Black, nonChristian,
poor, female,
young and don't speak English in the real world.

This generation
must offer leadership to the real world.
We're losing ground in Latin America,
Middle East, South Africa because we're not focusing on the real world.
That's the real world.
We must use basic principles support
international law. We stand the most to gain from it.
Support
human rights we
believe in
that. Support selfdetermination
we're
built on that.
Support economic development
you
know
it's
right. Be consistent and gain our moral
authority in the world. I
challenge you tonight, my friends, let's be bigger and better as a
Nation and as a Party.

We have basic challenges freedom
in South
Africa. We've already agreed as Democrats to
declare South
Africa to be a terrorist state. But
don't just stop there. Get
South Africa out of
Angola. free Namibia. support
the front line states. We must
have a new
humane human
rights consistent policy in Africa.

I'm often asked, "Jesse, why do
you
take on these tough issues? They're not very political. We
can't win
that way."

If an
issue is morally right, it will eventually be
political. It
may be political and never be right.
Fannie Lou
Hamer didn't
have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have
outlasted every delegate who voted to
lock her out. Rosa Parks did not
have the most votes,
but she was morally right. Dr. King didn't
have the most votes about
the Vietnam War, but
he
was morally right. If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place.

"Jesse, why do
you take these big bold initiatives?" A poem by an
unknown author went
something like this: "We mastered the air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and
prolonged life, but we're not wise enough
to
live on this earth without war and without
hate."

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As
for Jesse Jackson: "I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar. I want to
go
out where the big ships float, out on
the deep where the great ones are.
And should my frail
craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down
in the
stirring fight
than drowse to death at
the sheltered shore."

We've got
to go out, my friends, where the big boats are.

And then for our children. Young America,
hold your head
high now. We can win. We must not
lose you
to drugs and violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and
despair. We can win. Wherever you are tonight, I challenge you
to
hope and to dream. Don't
submerge your dreams. Exercise above all else,
even on drugs, dream of the day you are drug
free. Even
in the gutter, dream of the day that
you will be up on your feet again.

You
must
never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don't stop with
the way things are.
Dream of things as they ought
to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will
help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress,
but you keep on dreaming, young America. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable.
War is irrationable [sic] in
this age, and unwinnable.

Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living. Dream of doctors who are concerned
more about public health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice
than a judgeship. Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than
profiteering. Dream on the high
road with sound values.

And then America, as we go forth
to
September, October, November and then beyond,
America must
never surrender to a high
moral
challenge.

Do not
surrender to drugs.
The best drug policy is a "no
first use." Don't surrender with
needles and cynicism. Let's have "no
first use" on
the one hand, or clinics on the other. Never
surrender, young America.
Go forward.

America must
never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
We must never surrender.
We must go
forward.

We must never surrender to
illiteracy. Invest
in
our children. Never surrender. and go
forward. We must
never surrender to inequality. Women cannot compromise ERA or
comparable worth. Women are making 60 cents on
the dollar to what a man
makes. Women
cannot buy meat cheaper. Women cannot buy bread cheaper. Women cannot buy milk
cheaper. Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do. It's right!
And it's fair.

Don't surrender, my friends. Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion.
Even with
AIDS you
must
not surrender.

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In
your wheelchairs. I
see you
sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs. I've stayed with you.
I've reached out
to you across our Nation. And don't you give up. I
know
it's tough
sometimes. People look down on you. It
took you a little more effort to get
here tonight. And
no one should look down on you, but
sometimes mean people do. The only justification we
have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up.

But even in your wheelchairs, don't you give up. We cannot forget
50 years ago when our
backs were against the wall, Roosevelt was in a wheelchair. I would rather have Roosevelt
in a
wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse. Don't you surrender and don't you give up.
Don't surrender and don't give up!

Why I cannot challenge you this way? "Jesse Jackson, you don't understand my situation. You
be on
television. You don't understand. I see you with
the big people. You don't
understand
my situation."

I understand.
You
see me on TV, but you don't
know
the me that makes me,
me. They
wonder, "Why does Jesse run?" because they see me running for the White
House. They don't
see the house I'm running from.

I have a story. I wasn't always on television. Writers were not always outside my door. When
I was born
late one afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina,
no writers asked my
mother her name. Nobody chose to write down
our address. My mama was not supposed to
make it, and I was not
supposed to make it. You see,
I was born of a teenage
mother, who
was born of a teenage
mother.

I understand.
I know abandonment, and people being mean
to you, and saying you're nothing
and nobody and can
never be anything.

I understand. Jesse Jackson
is my third name. I'm adopted. When
I
had
no name, my
grandmother gave me her name. My name was
Jesse Burns 'til I was 12. So I wouldn't
have a
blank space, she gave me a name to
hold me over. I understand when nobody knows your
name.
I
understand when you have no
name.

I understand.
I wasn't born in the hospital. Mama didn't have insurance. I was born in the bed
at [the] house. I
really do understand.
Born
in a threeroom
house, bathroom in the backyard,
slop jar by the bed,
no
hot and cold running water. I understand.
Wallpaper used for
decoration? No. For a windbreaker. I
understand. I'm a working person's person. That's why I
understand you whether you're Black or White.
I understand work. I was not
born with a
silver spoon
in my mouth. I
had a shovel programmed for my hand.

My mother, a working woman. So
many of the days she went
to work early, with runs in her
stockings. She knew better, but she wore runs in her stockings so that
my brother and I could
have matching socks and not be laughed at at school. I
understand.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Copyright Status: Restricted, seek permission.
Page
11

AmericanRhetoric.com

At
3 o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, we couldn't eat turkey because momma was preparing
somebody else's turkey at
3 o'clock. We had to
play football
to entertain ourselves. And then
around 6 o'clock she would get off the Alta Vista bus and we would bring up the leftovers and
eat our turkey leftovers,
the carcass, the cranberries around
8 o'clock at
night. I really do
understand.

Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast
tonight
in the projects, on the corners, I understand. Call
you outcast, low down, you can't
make it, you're nothing, you're from nobody, subclass, underclass. when you see Jesse
Jackson, when
my name goes in nomination, your name goes in
nomination.

I was born
in the slum, but
the slum was not born
in me. And it wasn't born
in you, and you
can make it.

Wherever you are tonight, you can
make it. Hold your head high. stick your chest out. You
can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but
the morning comes. Don't you
surrender!

Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In
the end faith will not disappoint.

You
must
not surrender!
You
may or may not get
there but just
know
that
you're qualified!
And you hold on, and hold out!
We must
never surrender!! America will
get better and better.

Keep
hope alive. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!
On tomorrow night and beyond, keep
hope alive!

I love you very much. I love you very much.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Copyright Status: Restricted, seek permission.
Page
12