 Good morning and thank you for attending this program this year the City of Davis Human Relations Commission is honoring the Black Lives Matter movement and recognizing that the long tread from this movement to Dr. King's movement has sadly not been broken. Here to welcome us today is the honorable Mayor Dan Wolk. Mayor Wolk grew up in Davis and continues to reside here with his wife and two young children. He has been on the Davis City Council since 2011 and has been mayor for the past two years. Please join me in welcoming Mayor Wolk. Thank you man. Thank you Mandel. Thank you everyone for coming. Can y'all hear me? All right great. Well as my as Mayor Davis it's I'm proud to welcome you to our annual commemoration of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. one of the great events of our city. First as always I'd like to recognize some some important folks in the off in the audience and if you could hold your applause until the end that would be appreciated. First we have our Senator Lois Wolk is here. From our Davis City Council we have Rochelle Swanson, Lucas Frerichs and Vice Mayor Rob Davis. We also have Supervisor Jim Provenza and I see walking in actually we have from our Parks and Rec Commission and New Council candidate Will Arnold here just sat down with his wonderful newborn so if you could give them a round of applause I'd appreciate it. So this City Council is dedicated to promoting mutual respect, understanding and tolerance among all people as many of you know and in my time as mayor we have among other things signed on to two amicus briefs to the Supreme Court one in support of marriage equality and the other in support of President Obama's immigration policies. We recently approved a task force to address income inequality in our region and I saw Gloria Partita from the Davis Phoenix Coalition here and she will be appointed to that task force once it comes back to the City Council. We implemented a restorative justice based alternative conflict resolution program for citizen complaints against law enforcement and as many of you know we took a stand against the militarization of the police by returning the MRAP. So this this council that has done quite a bit and it's wonderful that my colleagues are here to join me in that. You know the message behind Black Lives Matter is one meant to call attention to and spark a conversation about all of the ways in which individuals are left without a voice particularly black individuals and in Davis I want everyone to have a voice and I know my colleagues and everyone here joins me in that and for all of those voices to be heard because that is what creates community. You know and I believe in Davis that we have a strong community and I believe we can be even stronger and I know you know that but that strength will only come when we communicate with one another, respect one another and speak up when we see injustice and in the words of Dr. King in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. So thank you to the speakers who are here. Thank you to the performers and a couple of sort of groups of folks I'd really like to thank. Thank you to the Human Relations Commission and then also to the event subcommittee. I'd also like to just acknowledge city staff that are here. We have city manager Dirk Brazillor who is here. We also have assistant city manager Kelly Stackowitz. We have Kerry Dyer here and the incomparable Bob Bowen here. They have done a lot to put this together. Please give them a round of applause as well. Thank you very much and I'll pass the mic back to Mandel. Thank you. I would like to introduce Kevin Carter a few things about him. Kevin Carter is a long time activist and has participated in the Occupy Movement, the Sacramento Black Lives Matter movement as well as involved in reigniting Dr. Martin Luther King Poor People's Campaign. He is also chaplain for the California Community Grants. Kevin Carter. Good morning. I'm kind of a little surprised here. I didn't know that I would be first, but I want to first give a honor to God who is the head of my life who continue and constantly sends me a message of urgency for the concern of his people. For I am one of his people, but we are all of his people and in constituting and saying that that we come to give an honor to one that believe in the father who honored his work, diligently stood to give his life and gave what we call love on the front line. Love on the front line today is a dangerous way to live because in the end no one wins when we do not come to the things that hold of the spirit of humanities and humility and the greatest spirit that holds in each and every one of us a place that holds of righteousness and indignation. For we, the people, the purpose and the promise to come to this day to celebrate this great man's work and to continue on as the body of life and the things that hold to pursuit of happiness. Just the past Saturday, we did our first, our fifth annual Poor People's Campaign in Sacramento, California. I first in 2011 in joining the Occupy Movement adopted first the Occupy the Dream inside of that movement. And the reason why I adopted Occupy the Dream is because we are the occupation of the United States of America, the only land that has the rights and the freedoms for each individual to choose from and to empower themselves into their pursuit of happiness that makes them great. And by doing that, I wanted to illustrate the most important thing in Occupy the Dream would be occupying your vote. Your vote in which the highest courts today say that it is not a right. It's more or less of something that they would perceive to give out to the individual. But I say today that these things, when it comes to that vote, is not just to take the implements out of it and then watch a nation return back to the evils of a dark past in which we came from. But in saying that, I want to also illustrate that inside of that work in the civil rights movement that started in 1963 with Dr. King and for the social justice movement of a multiracial democracy in which we see today in the March on Washington in which I had the opportunity to go to the one in 2013 of its 50th anniversary to see and hear those speak upon the things that took place at that time. But as I was listening, I understood that those that came before us was still fighting the same struggles. Jobs, justice, equality, all of these things were still on the table and they're still on the table now. And this is the reason why I continue to do the poor people's campaign for those who are less fortunate. Those that are continuing to struggle behind the evils of imperialism and capitalism that continue to lead to militarism and materialism, these things today that hold to the haves and have nots of this society. But I must say that in enduring all of this and seeing what's happening across the country also with the essence of black lives matter. When it comes to the struggle for justice, when we look at Sandra Blyne and we look at Tamir Rice, we go back to Trayvon Martin and then we look in Chicago to see where a young man was shot over 16 times in a matter of seconds. We have to say that black lives do not matter when it comes to the justice system and our law enforcements around the country because when we see the shooting take place at a Planned Parenthood and when the police tried most of all to save this person that did the shooting. It makes us think today that do our lives matter. Does it take us back in history to Dred Scott to see if we are human or are we just the elements here for the dark past or will be retreated today as the rest of society in the struggle? But it's all up to us today to think within our conscience and be questionable, questionable about what happens when we merely see a police officer shoot not just an African American but Latino or even a white person. We have to understand one thing and that is that a bullet has no eyes and it knows no names. It only knows the conscience of the user who pulls the trigger and we must be the ones that be considerable of the use of that weapon. And when we think about the weapon of mass destruction we must know that that is the weapon of mass destruction. We as a society today have been enriched by the Second Amendment for the use in the right of a gun within this fear tactics and what we see around the nation and around the world even in San Bernardino when we see the terrorist act that has happened by ISIS. But we also should remember the words of the great Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when we look at these things and say that we must know what our enemy is thinking. We must know what they are going through. And during my time inside of the Occupy Movement when we were monitoring and seeing the lives that were taken in Syria men women and children had become a part of this death of society. But we did not pay attention to that. So today we must understand that this is what has come back to haunt us. And see these are the warnings today in which the great Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King has warned us about when we do not pay attention to the concerns of those of the needs and the necessary of those that are less fortunate not just here in the United States of America but across the world in which we lay policy when we say freedom and democracy and the things that hold for liberty and justice for all. It has to be something that we hold embedded in our hearts that we share along the way that holds for the rights of passage for the decency and dignity within our own characters. So I'm not going to be long how long but not long because we are today in a society to where we have not long to come together to resolve these problems today. And one of the problems today in our own nation as I protest in the economic capital of the state of California that's eighth in the world economy that is our March that we do here in Sacramento California on Capitol Mall. And that March we ask for everybody to come to and be a part of because on Capitol Mall is where we're all affected where they legislate and lobby to change the course and the direction of how things work socially and economically as we live our everyday lives. And one of the things that Dr. King spoke of before his death during the social justice movement of the movement of the poor people's campaign was the gold standard of this nation and the dollar. And that's where we are today when we talk about the gross domestic product. Let us know today that we all share today in the gross domestic product of this life with all of the corporations but we should not let them draw to their evils when it comes to them receiving tax loopholes and loop and tax breaks. And then we're stuck holding the pot to pay the bill while they can take more and more of our dollars and put them overseas for their own valid interest. And I say today that these things are not just they're not just for a society today that constantly works day by day and not lead and not are able to receive the things that hold for the benefits for the labor of their love. And that's what we have to remember today as a society when it comes to the things of race. There's only one race. It's the human race. And we are the human race. We are the people the purpose and the promise. And if we are to be a nation under God. Let us be a nation under the God of the God of love and not the God of hate because that is where we are today when we look at our politicians today. Not all of our politicians but some especially when it comes to the president to be elected for the new year to come. Let us take our time and measure these things to see what they are doing for you and me and not for themselves. So I'm going to leave it at that. And I want to thank the city of Davis the mayor city council members senators and the people of Davis to continue to be constant for the liberations of our generation. And this time is where it's urgently needed to where each one reach one and each one teaches one. And we become the tent of what Dr. King said that we will become at the end of the day. The purpose the promise and the people of one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Thank you and God bless you and God bless the United States. It was a lovely word. We get another round of applause for him. Next up we're going to have a performer local performer James Williams and a producer has lived in Davis for 10 years and is returning to the varsity stage to sing and tribute to Dr. King accompanied by a well-known string musician Ron Goldberg. They will present two songs of unity and action if I had a hammer and get together. James Williams and Ron Goldberg. Morning baby. And good morning friends and honored guests pop this mic. It's my honor to be here today to commemorate the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I sincerely believe in the visualization as a tool for change. All that humans have created has come to us through someone's moment of clarity. The enduring message from Dr. King's iconic I have a dream speech is his envisioning a day when the concept of race no longer separates nor defines. This I feel is a call to action to first expand one's mind beyond what is to what can be and then to keep our eyes on the prize and to never be dissuaded from that vision. Each of us has a voice and a tool to this purpose. We need but have the courage to start from where we are and use what we have to bring to life all that Dr. King strived for equality, freedom and justice. If I had a hammer I'd hammer in the morning I'd hammer in the evening all over this land I'd hammer out danger I'd hammer out warning I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land for my sisters and my brothers all and I got a song of justice the bell of freedom it's a song of sisters and our brothers home for sisters and I think we all of voting age have a golden ticket and it is our ballot so I hope in this year's election we will all of our choice for me the candidate of my choice is whoever shows the most love to the most people and that's what we need right now. Love is but a song we sing you can make or make the angels cry though the bird get together try to love one another right now if you hear the song I sing you will understand we hold the key right in our trim and it's at our command we get together kind of love you can sing with me oh come on people now smile and get together try to love one another right come on people now smile together try to love one another right she is a retired elementary school teacher mother of three grandmother of two and the wife of a retired university administrator Miss Jones will share stories relevant to the movement Gloria Jones I am honored to to be at any place where people are gathered to celebrate Dr. King the story I've written for this occasion is a new one for me so be patient but like with many stories sometimes you have a whole lot of fact and a little bit of fiction sometimes you have a whole lot of fiction and a little bit of fact this is a mix of the two the story I'm going to tell you is entitled the chasm and I would like for you to go back in time with me to the year of 1959 in a little town let's call it Emory Forge somewhere deep in Virginia in the Allegheny mountains and it was a time before the powerful waters of the civil rights movement would bash through the dam of legalized segregation at least on the parchment and papers of our government anyway and we're going to go into a little tiny classroom where the children are sitting at attention wrapped attention eyes focused forward hands folded smiles on their faces because it was Friday and on Friday their teacher their teacher Mrs. can you still hear me their teacher their teacher Mrs. Brown always brought them chocolate chip cookies now not just any chocolate chip cookies but her homemade chocolate chip cookies and so they were excited that's the way they ended up the Friday and add to that they had come to the chasm in their English book life just didn't get any better than that now chasm was a vocabulary word and this Brown did dearly love words chasm meant a gap or a breach or a void and since Mrs. Brown loved words so much the children tried to learn them because they loved her so she passed out the cookies and they were eating their cookies and enjoying their cookies they were in chocolate chip heaven and Mrs. Brown decided that she would go ahead and let them know what the next week would be like what they'd be working on next week and she said alright children next week we are going to be tackling the information that was torn from our English books thus creating the chasm now most of the kids were too deeply involved in chocolate chip cookies and sugar to care what she said or even be listening but there were a few who stopped and midchew wait a minute oh Mrs. Brown how come we thought that since the information was missing that we just wouldn't have to have English class next week Mrs. Brown thought about this she was thoughtful for a minute she looked at them and she said children let me ask you a question why do you think that this information is missing why do you think you have a chasm in your book hands shut up all over the classroom and mind you they're still eating so Henry answers first and he goes it's because it's probably just not important and of course he spit crumbs across three or four desks but once Henry had spoken up little Oteria sitting by the window she felt emboldened to speak up too and she didn't speak up too often but she said it's probably because it's too hard now for Oteria a lot of things were too hard but once she held her hand and got her through it she was okay Mrs. Brown listened and she considered what they were saying and she thought about it and then she tossed out another question she said kids do you think that the chasm exists when these books are in the white school across town they were silent for a few minutes and she continued she said because remember this is where we get our books only after they have used them for many years on the other side of town instead of throwing them away they become our books to study from the children were still silent she could tell that they weren't sure what they thought about this so she said okay let's take a vote those of you who believe that the chasm existed for the kids across town raise your hand hands went up and then they came down and then they went up again and then they came down and there were little discussions and she could tell that they really weren't certain what to think and so she understood that she had to explain to them the situation the children in answer to the first question there are those who do not wish you to have the full breadth of knowledge that this book has to give and so they removed this chapter and other chapters and in doing so they have committed an injustice against you in answer to the second question the children across town do not face this chasm they are generously given this information and it is required of them to learn and to know this because this was a chapter on verbs and verbs are very important the use and the use of verbs is important in any communication that you're ever going to want she said much information is taken from our books or torn out and all of that is unjust but verbs are our engine words they are our goal do be speak stand words and they matter the children listen to this they put down their cookies a lot of the chewing ceased because they understood that what she was saying to them was important and necessary for them to know and so for the next two weeks they hit verbs I mean they got into it they enjoyed it they learned all they could they became good at these things called verbs these engine words and at the end of those two weeks Miss Brown put a very special sentence on her blackboard and this is the sentence that she wrote I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and after she put that on the board she looked at those kids and she said can anybody tell me what the engine words in there can anybody find them and little Stewie who said way in the back and didn't like English much because he preferred math and science raised up his hand and he said I see it Miss Brown I see it it's pledge it's the only engine word in there and she said oh hallelujah thank God because if Stewie got it everybody got it and she was glad because she said children you have to understand this that any time you pledge you give or vow your loyalty and obedience to an idea to a nation with the idea of liberty and justice for all anybody who slaps their hand across their heart and says that pledge is giving their loyalty to the idea of liberty and justice for all not just the few and I want you to know children that just as verbs matter so you matter just as verbs have a very special and essential place in each sentence so you have a very special and essential place in the world in your community and in this nation and in everything you do think and say you must keep that in mind and let it be known as these children grew and the years went by and they became aware of and a part of the civil rights movement they would one day read a letter from a Birmingham jail written by a man named Dr. Martin Luther King in which he says an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and they would understand and they would be some of the people who decided to go, do, be, speak and stand for what is right thank you thank you Gloria Jones for that wonderful story I'm thankful for the pledge that everyone showing up here is making I feel the love in my heart from that please join me in welcoming Benar Sinha Pashala sorry if I messed this up for a poetry reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr referred to India's Mahatma Gandhi as the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change during Gandhi's movement the teenagers of freedom fighters formed a group to work as hidden messengers they called themselves the Benar Sinha or monkey army continuing in that spirit our first poem is Invictus by William Ernest Henley Invictus is Latin for undefeated and that theme of an invincible soul is repeated throughout this poem the poem reminds us of the time when we were living in the world when we were living in the world we were living in the world of this poem the poem reminds everyone that our will is unbendable no matter how insurmountable the odds we face it sustained Nelson Mandela through 30 years of imprisonment and helped to remain peaceful not bitter Invictus by William Ernest Henley Invictus by William Ernest Henley In the felt clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud under the bludgeoning of chance my head is bloody but unbound many poems displayed the way African-Americans were treated before the civil rights movement like Dr. King we need to keep our dreams alive even if it feels at the time that they are beyond reach if we don't have the courage to dream we can never hope to move towards their fulfillment dreams by lips and ears hold past the dreams for if dreams die life is a broken mean bird that cannot fly hold past the dreams for when dreams go life is a barren field frozen with snow where the mind is without fear is a poem by Ribinthe not Tagore a multilingual poet and author from India won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 it expresses Tagore's hope that the freedom this country will earn from the British rule will also set free the people for themselves and build a better tomorrow with self-respect where the mind is without fear by Ribinthe not Tagore where the mind is without fear and the head is held high where knowledge is free where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls where words come out from the depth of truth where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection where the clearest dream of reason does not want to slip into the very dust of sin from death habit where the mind is led forward by the into the act for wiping thought and action into that freedom my father let my country awake to those young people that's our future we should give them another round of applause I now have the privilege of introducing our keynote speaker who will represent from Selma to Ferguson criminal justice is a civil right Natasha Minsker is the director of the ACLU of the California Center for Advocacy and Policy the center is responsible for advancing the ACLU's civil liberties and civil rights policy goals in the state capital and advocates on a broad range of issues including criminal justice education, freedom of expression immigrants, rights LGBT rights privacy, racial justice reproductive justice and voting rights Natasha Minsker good morning thank you very much for inviting me today it's truly an honor to be asked to speak on Martin Luther King Day and to join your community celebration and I just deeply touched to be asked to be here and thank you for that today we recommit ourselves and our community to the goal of racial justice and ending racial oppression to achieve that goal we must radically transform our criminal justice system in the last few years the black lives matter movement has brought to the national consciousness the reality of violence endured by people of color at the hands of law enforcement every day in this country thanks to the activism of thousands of people people who took to the streets and who blew up twitter and facebook with the message that black lives matters I bet all of you can bring to mind the faces and the names of african-american men and women who were unjustly killed in the past two years like Eric Gardner names like Tamir Rice names like Sandra Bland and so many more and this being Davis I bet most of you can bring to mind the numbers that show the compelling need for a change to our criminal justice system numbers like this one in four african-american men in this country will go to jail or prison a young african-american man is more likely to be imprisoned than to graduate from college numbers like this the US has 5% of the world's population and 20% of the world's prisoners I think probably all of you know we have a problem and we need to fix it knowing the names and numbers but it's not enough to know why we have a problem and what we need to do to fix it to understand how to fix it we have to understand how we got here we have to understand our history we have to understand the history of how the criminal law has been used as a tool of racial oppression in this country from the very beginning it begins in the 1600s when the criminal law was used to define and enforce the status of being a slave from the very foundation of our country the legal system was used to categorize race and to classify african-americans and africans as second class citizens and even subhuman the criminal law was different from the 1600s going forward based on race some activity was only a crime or black and all of the punishments were worse if you were black this was explicit in the law take for example in the 1600s in Virginia the law said that if an enslaved human being resisted arrest or resisted the authority of a white slave owner then it was lawful to kill that person think about that one of the first laws in our country gave the police the legal power to kill black people for resisting white oppression this had the most impact on african-americans in our country but it also impacted Native Americans and immigrants communities there's a case from the 1800s in which a court actually takes up the question of is someone who is Native American a person we have a law that says if you are detained and held in custody then a person can go to court and challenge that detention as unlawful and unconstitutional we all have that right but before the court could address whether the tension was lawful it felt the need to answer the question of whether a Native American human being is a person think about a legal system where that's not just an acceptable conversation but it's considered a necessary conversation the end of slavery did not end the narrative that african-americans and indeed all people of color are second class citizens and it didn't even end the legal structures that enforced segregation and the second class status of african-americans instead the end of slavery brought the new Jim Crow era and we saw laws that continued to explicitly divide people and explicitly make being african-american a second class status in this country and I think it's critical for people to understand that these laws of segregation these were criminal laws it was a crime to use the wrong bathroom you know I think that a lot of us when we think of Rosa Parks sitting down on that bus and going to jail and we think of Martin Luther King writing the letter from the Birmingham jail being arrested for civil disobedience I think a lot of us think it's like today when we engage in civil disobedience today we march into the streets and we refuse to move and the police order us to disperse and we are arrested because we are blocking the street that's not what was happening in the civil rights movement Rosa Parks was arrested for being a black person sitting in a place reserved for white people our criminal laws made it a crime to be black in places of white privilege think about that during this time the Jim Crow era we continued to have legally based segregation explicitly based on race but we also saw the increasing use of proxies particularly poverty as a proxy for race through things like a poll tax a poll tax is basically saying you have to pay to vote a poll tax is not explicitly based on race but it functions to exclude primarily African Americans from voting and by this time by the time of the early 20s and 30s and 40s in this country racism and racial bias has completely been baked in to our criminal justice system segregation and so by this time we don't have laws that explicitly say you can't be on a jury if you're African American but by this time the idea of an African American juror is just seen as crazy to all the people who are in the criminal justice system and so there are none with the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s we see the dismantling of the legal basis for segregation and the faced divisions in our law go away and some of the proxies go away so the signs that say whites only come down and the poll taxes abolished but this change of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s has very little impact on the criminal justice system and then in the 70s we see a tough on crime mentality take hold of the American people and politics in this country and many people think it's not a coincidence that this tough on crime mentality took hold just as the legal basis of segregation was being dismantled and so through the 70s and the 80s and the 90s we see this incredible expansion of our criminal laws things that were not crimes before become criminal there actually was a time in this country where it was illegal to sell certain drugs but it wasn't a crime to possess a small amount of drugs and it wasn't a crime to use those drugs and then it became a felony so we see more behavior being defined as criminal we see longer sentences for all kinds of crimes and we see the rights of people accused of crime taken away particularly here in California as an initiative after initiative that takes away people's rights and so we see an incredible ballooning of the sheer number of people impacted by the criminal justice system the sheer number of people who are defined as criminal and who face long criminal consequences and because the racial bias has been baked in from the beginning when you increase the number you just expand exponentially those disparities and so here we are today today we have a system in which our criminal justice system operates as a massive system of control for people of color particularly African Americans and Latinos it operates as a system of control through sheer numbers of people who are literally controlled by the criminal justice system one in four African Americans right now is in jail in prison on parole or under some form of community supervision literally controlled by the criminal justice system and it operates as a system of control through the heavy police presence in communities of color a police presence that is not there to investigate crimes against people of color as the crimes in which African Americans are victims continue to be the least likely to be solved so there's a heavy police presence there to police and control and our criminal justice system operates now as an incredible system of control by limiting the life chances of people of color who have been touched by the system if you have a felony conviction in this country it is nearly impossible to get a job and if you don't have a job it's impossible to have a place to live how does this all work now because we have dismantled the explicit race based laws those aren't there so how is it that it still works that our criminal justice system continues to have disproportionate impact on communities of color particularly African Americans and Latinos it works through implicit bias it works because the effect of 200 years of enslavement and 100 years of legally being defined as second class and having your identity criminalized 300 years of legal oppression has created in all of us implicit bias as a result of all of that legal system and real oppression we now are burdened by an unconscious association between crime and race and it doesn't make us bad people it just makes us people but we have to address it because that implicit bias operates in everything we do and when you look at the criminal justice system that implicit bias operates in police in who they choose to arrest it operates in prosecutors and who they choose to charge and what kind of charges they decide to bring it operates in defense lawyers in whether they believe their client and how hard they fight for their client it operates in judges who decide whether someone goes home or stays in custody and what sentences will be imposed and the racial bias in our criminal justice system also continues because poverty continues to be a proxy for race African Americans continue to have the least financial resources in this country and African Americans are the most likely to live in deep poverty our entire criminal justice system is based on economic inequality it begins with bail if a person is arrested then they can post bail, money bail and get out and so a wealthy white person like myself if I'm arrested I will bail out I will go home I will keep my job I will be with my family I will hire an attorney and I will work with my attorney from home continuing to make money in my job and get a better outcome someone who is in jail and can't afford to pay bail stays in jail and that person loses their job loses their home sometimes loses their family and they are under enormous pressure to take a deal and get out as soon as they can and try and restore what they can of their life our entire criminal justice system is based on economic inequality from the very beginning so how does knowing all this help us fix this problem well for one it helps us understand the scale of the problem and in case I wasn't clear the scale is large the scale is big it is in fact enormous to achieve racial justice in this country we must fundamentally transform our criminal justice system it also helps us understand what kind of reforms will actually make a difference it's not enough to talk about criminal justice reform in terms of the money that will be saved by reducing sentences the money that we can invest in education instead of prison that's true and it's important and we should talk about it but it's not enough it's not enough to talk about criminal justice reform it's simply about numbers there are too many people in prison yes there are and there should be fewer but that's not enough if we actually want to fundamentally transform our criminal justice system then we have to talk about implicit bias and we have to talk about economic justice we have to address the daily indignities that people of color continue to endure at the hands of the police we have to address the structures that tip the scales of justice away from the poor now that probably sounds pretty overwhelming but it's actually not because we know what to do and knowing what to do is half the battle we know what to do all we need is the will to do it and more and more in this country people are demonstrating that we do have the will last year here in California we passed the racial and identity profiling act this was a 10 year effort 10 years California now has the strongest law in the country addressing racial profiling by police a law that is proactive and looks to community based solutions to actually end racial profiling we achieved that goal and passed that law because people took action everyone expected that bill to be vetoed by the governor but we didn't just wait for the governor to make up his mind people took action they marched on the Capitol they held a sit in at the governor's office they held a vigil in front of the governor's office for days and on the day they were going to start a hunger strike he signed the bill when people act, we move mountains and so today we commit ourselves to take action to achieve racial justice we know what to do we have the will to do it and through our collective action we will achieve the dream of racial justice in this country thank you that was a very lovely word those that could stand to give her a hand Dr. King would have been proud thanks Natasha we are going to conclude our program today with music played by the ever popular Davis freedom singers when they are done everybody is encouraged to participate in a short freedom march through downtown Davis weather permitting the march will end at the E Street Plaza where you can gather for music and community fellowship thank you in advance to the freedom singers and thanks to each of you joining us today to celebrate diversity let us all work together to end discrimination in all its forms and to live the legacy that Dr. King left us yellow freedom singers welcome for another year we're all back again wasn't that last speech fantastic it's so good to have people like that out there for us well we're the freedom singers and we thought it would be a good start off with we shall overcome if you feel like standing up to sing it let's do that yeah but don't read those words you know everything just this singing we shall overcome we shall stand together we shall live in peace we shall overcome someday we want you to really get involved because we're going to sing a trilogy three civil rights songs all pushed together and we would love it if you'd stand up and if you'd clap and go crazy when you're singing you're participating you see we're going to start with what are we going to start with we're going to start with you just catch on it's easy to sing you don't need to look at words or anything else it's going to be the key