 Welcome to Cooper Union. I'm your host Joshua Cooper. Today we'll be having a conversation on Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy in the future of human rights in America. We'll be focusing on my SDG dream and the first one days of the Biden predestination and see hoping on human rights aspirations to be able to actualize some of the goals that were created at the UN. Today I'm fortunate to be with three amazing activists across the United States who make a huge impact as well with international institutions. I'd like to welcome Leon Russell, chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors, as well as Dr. Tita Banks, media pastor of the UNA USA, who is also currently an executive committee member of the World Federation of the UNA Associations and Stephanie Smith Eisenstadt, executive board UN major group for children and youth. Just yesterday, as the world's celebrated Martin Luther King's legacy with the National Day of Service, the United Nations Association also launched a new campaign called my SDG that was really bringing together King's Dream with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, those 17 global goals that cover economic, social, and cultural rights, fair economy, climate justice, and human rights. I'd like to welcome Stephanie to be able to share with us that vision of how we could take an idea to an initiative to then influence international institutions. Stephanie, Mahalo for joining. Aloha, Mahalo. Thank you so very much for the opportunity and most importantly for the work that you do advancing human rights, both locally, with the Institute, and globally with the Universal Periodic Review. It's been such a pleasure to engage with you and around the UN and these spaces around the world. So what we're talking about today is my SDG Dream. Dr. King described this ideal world, if you would, this beloved community. And what I love about the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is that it creates a common and contemporary language for everyone everywhere around the world to unite around as it relates to achieving not only Dr. King's Dream for the world, but the work that continues today. My theory of change is very much rooted in this sort of grassroots orientation. And I credit that to the training I received as a freedom fighter, a young elementary school student who joined and became an advocate with the NAACP. And eventually I did that work globally as well with the United Nations Association. So that's what brings us to this idea of my SDG Dream. It's that everyone has a role and an opportunity to help create this world that we want, which was the primary theme this past year, as the UN turned 75 years old. So I'm really excited to be in this conversation with two of my favorite mentors and role models who are driving that work forward. Today, thanks for having us, Joshua. Mahalo, Stephanie. And it really does bring together two movements who have always been active at the UN. We know that NAACP drafted an appeal to the UN many decades ago. And we know the UNA was also led by Eleanor Roosevelt to make sure that Americans cared. So it's exciting to see both national movements. Chairman Russell, welcome back to Hawaii for now, virtually. NAACP has been doing this work since 1909. Looking back on Dr. King and the civil rights movement, what are your thoughts about the relevance of the message in that work today? Aloha, Joshua. It's good to be with you and I wish I was there personally rather than virtually, but we'll make the most of it. In terms of what we're looking at, in terms of Dr. King, sustainable development goals and the UN, I think there is a broad area of common subject matter that we have to talk about. Since 1909, the NAACP has been engaged in the issue of social justice and civil rights, the broader picture, the human rights picture. As a part of that effort, certainly the NAACP was an early part of the creation, actually, of the United Nations. When you think about it, Roy Wilkins was one of the leaders of the first delegation to the organizing session of the United Nations. The NAACP has been an NGO forever, forever. When we talk about looking at human rights, we've been active in universal periodic review. We've certainly been vocal in the UN Human Rights Commission process and all of that is instrumental. You can't just work locally. If you're going to make change, change has to occur on a global basis and so what impacts people in Selma, Alabama can have an impact also in Africa or India or China or many places around the world. So our work has always been intertwined with the work of the United Nations and I'm glad to talk about that. Certainly Dr. King was the motivational, inspirational leader of a movement. Sometimes I think we believe that the civil rights movement didn't begin until 1955 when Rosa sat down where she sat, but it's important for us to understand that this movement has been around in one form or another since the beginning of the nation. Dr. King was able through his great abilities, I think, to focus and get folks to understand, not always agree. In fact, never agree. I think Bernice said it best. Important for us to understand that some of the things that Dr. King forced this country to look at about itself, people didn't want to see and still don't want to see. So his message that it's important for all of us to speak up and speak out about human rights, civil rights issues is something that is more relevant as we sit at the cusp, the eve of the inauguration of a new president of the United States in this country more than ever. I don't want to take up too much time with just an introductory statement. I know Dr. Banks has some important information, but I think that it's important for us to understand that we really are a part of one movement, to make all of mankind live up to the potential that it has and be free to express that potential. Mahalo, Leon, and that definitely comes up with King's message of, he really did focus in his ladder years on racism, war, and poverty, and overcoming those injustices. And Dr. Banks, maybe you can share as the UN celebrated 75 years last year and the UNA completed a 50-state strategy that everybody weigh in. The historical significance of Dr. King, of Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others linking the movement to the message of the SDGs that were adopted five years ago. Sure, sure, thank you and aloha to everyone and certainly Mr. Russ, I'm glad that you brought in in terms of the founding of the UN that we had a diversified population and representatives there where we go from Roy Wilkins all the way to Ralph Bunch. In fact, we just reached out to Ralph Bunch III. And so that legacy is continuing in terms of our connection to those very beginnings. But also the fact that when we started, when America started, we had all these different names for movements. So certainly we had the abolition movement, which was the original civil rights movement in terms of these civil rights in terms of race. And then it went through all of the different, you know, morphs and names and all. And then when we got to, when we started impacting South Africa, that was not really termed civil rights because civil rights was based on what was already in a constitution. That's what was the fight here. So the fight in other countries took on different scopes. And so then we merged into saying it's human rights. So it's not just what a country has given the right to the people for, but what is inalienable human rights that come from this higher law that King talked about and had been trained by Mahatma Gandhi and had read about from Thoreau and all of those. So certainly, yes, the NACP was there in the beginning and continues to be one of the very strong hosts. In terms of how they mesh, when Eleanor Roosevelt had the idea of the United Nations Association, it was the whole idea, a civic action that it will take each individual to do his or her part in their own community. It begins, she said, civic action, human rights begins at home. So that that's what got the civil part of it because we already had the institution. So how do we now go through the nation, get people involved? And ever since that point when we get to the 50 state consultations that we just had, that really is a culmination and an expansion of what Mrs. Roosevelt's intent was that the voices of the people must be heard and that they must be involved in whatever change must happen. And so when we did the consultations 10 years prior, we had done the ending of the millennium development goals. And at that point, people didn't have a whole lot of voice in how those millennial goals were developed. And then it was said, okay, well, wait a second, we need to hear not only from the government people and the government institutions, but what are the citizens saying? So that's how the sustainable development goals came about because we went through all of the countries and said, what are your priorities? What are your goals? What do you see as critical issues that we as a world, as a global community, as a world house that Dr. King used to talk about? Okay, what do we see as this world house? Because, and as Mr. Russell mentioned, you know, King, one of my favorite quotes that I usually use from King is that, you know, our destinies are inextricably bound. What affects one directly affects all indirectly. And this past year 2020 has more than any other year, I think that we can think of in recent history, proven that to be true. We do not have diseases that are relegated to one area, they are global. What used to just affect something in one of our quote developing countries, we see it here. And then we see things that we do here affecting others in other countries. So we are now in a borderless global community. And we must care and do things with each other. I think that's excellent point of this beloved community that King had that vision for. And also the message everyone talks about I have a dream as part of the speech, but the title was normalcy never again. And I think that's also a calling we have today with the COVID crisis with the climate crisis with these multiple crises that the SDGs tried to bring together. That's the way that we can go forward. And Chairman Russell, you were starting there to talk about the NAACP's advocacy priorities. What are some of the new priorities that they're looking at for the human rights movement today? And also building on Dr. Banks point about really South Africa's constitution brought in economic social and cultural rights, the right to housing, the right to water, the right to health care, the right to education. All those were also what King was talking about. And you just went through what we call our game changers, our priorities. When you think about it, what are the issues that impact civil society? Certainly you have to think about health. Again, as Dr. Banks indicated, health care is not a local issue. The pandemic has proven that. What affects your neighbor affects you. And it can affect you, not just indirectly, but directly. When we think about climate justice, you know, the right to clean water, we might think of that as a third world issue if you think Flint, Michigan is a third world city. You know, when you think about the whole issue of criminal justice reform and how people are impacted by policing and what happens in their communities, yes, that we saw that erupt in the United States this year all across the country, continuing to be a major force. But we saw it reverberate throughout the world, throughout communities that we never thought would relate to that idea. But it's there. And so we have to understand those things. I think the other side of this coin in addition to education and health care, criminal justice, and even the right to participate civically, the right to vote, the import of the right to vote, those are all important factors, but we also have to drill down a bit. You're in Hawaii. Hawaii has many issues that involve questions around how you treat Indigenous people. And we tend to, in some instances, sort of push that question to the side and not reflect on the fact that how we treat our Indigenous communities becomes an indicator of how we will treat other people in society. And so those issues have to be raised. And I think those are all interconnected. And that's why I think there has to be a continuing interaction between civil rights organizations and other civil society institutions in what happens at the United Nations and in the policies and advocacy that is carried out by the UN because these things are important for all of us. Mahalo, Leon, absolutely correct. And we also was working with Hillary Sheldon at the UN most recently and Jackie Patterson connecting the Indigenous rights as well as the climate justice. And so those are absolutely intertwined. And of course, we just commemorated unfortunately the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii as well right around Martin Luther King's birthday. And Queen Lillio Kalani was also an amazing nonviolent strategist and defender around the world as well. So moving back to Dr. Banks, could you maybe share with us how the global goals relate to King's priorities? And then we have nine more minutes before we have our third question as we move into the first 100 days of the Binds administration. Great, great. Well, the global goals in fact come right out of what it is all the way back. It comes out of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Let's start there. So they come out of that. And then certainly Dr. King, when he saw that when he was talking about the scope of human rights, it included those things. What we have done with the global goals is really specify just as we elongated them out of the millennium development goals, which were eight goals. Now we have 17 to be very specific so people can understand how what are these issues? What's the difference? A good example is the environment. We don't just have one goal on environment. We have land above land, below land and the water. So where exactly are we talking about? But all of them converge because I pointed to the last, the Go 17, which I think is critical for all of them are interrelated. But Go 17 is partnerships so that all of these goals partner with each other because they impact. So partnership not just do I go along with you, but do they interact? Do they intersect? So they all intersect. They all are interdependent on each other. Plus it says we are a country that recognizes and this is what we must go forward to with the Biden administration and the following administration. We can't do this alone. No one country can do it alone. Years ago, talking about Hawaii, no man is an island. But what we've learned is we cannot do it alone. It takes this whole community, this whole global community. And I think that when King is talking about the beloved community, it is not just in the US. It is the global community and that's what we have to focus on. So the SDGs are a very clear way of identifying when people say, well, what can I do? I don't know what to do. Well, we've given you 17 areas that anyone can can serve. And that was also part of King's philosophy. Anyone can be great because anyone can serve in any capacity at any age in any area. And one of his favorite gospel songs was, if I can help somebody along this way. So whatever one can do, and that's where we then added in the day of service. That was not in the original King legislation. That came out of Philadelphia, in fact, where I was working with the King Center. And we started on talking about a day on instead of a day off. And there was some controversy about that. But we've now moved on and said, okay, we will accept the idea of a day of service because everyone needs to participate. It takes every, whether we're talking about kindergarten kids, whether we're talking about senior age population. So everyone has something to do in the community. And tomorrow seems like a day that we've been waiting for for oh, so long time. There will be the peaceful transfer of power and Biden administration will begin its first 100 days. And we think there are possibilities for the promotion protection of human rights in the United States, but also at the global level. As both of you have shared, the Human Rights Council will meet in February and March. The U.S. Universal Periodic Review will be adopted. And at that session, that's always where the heads of state come and speak. But the UPR adoption will be made. And many of the goals and many of the priorities that you talked about, Leon, will be addressed. So what do you see as priorities and opportunities in the first 100 days of leadership? And how can more people get involved and participate as Dr. Banks talked about? Well, I think that it's obvious that his first priority has to be dealing with COVID. We all agree on that. We have to get this thing together. We have to get a vaccination program in place. And we have to start to really impact this as a systemic issue and not one that's just divided to the states for them to do as they will or may. So we have to get that done. As far as the NAACP is concerned, I think we're extremely concerned that not necessarily as his initiative, but as an initiative for the entire Congress and the White House, is to look at the issue of voting rights. We must get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act reinstated and moved out. I mean, if voting rights and the responsibility for the government to protect voting rights is not evident after 2020, it will never be. So we've got to get that done. As we look going forward, we got to get back in, which you will do tomorrow, the Paris Accords. That is extremely important, the whole issue of climate justice worldwide and being a part of. We may not be the leader as we've re-enter the Accords, but we must be an active participant and we can be an active influencer in seeking climate justice for the rest of the world, as well as the United States. So that's important. I am extremely concerned and happy that he will end federal executions, quite frankly. I think the most egregious civil rights violation of this current for one day, one last day, administration has been the fact that it has been willing to just rush through killing people in the name of justice. And that to me is a conflict. So I think that the fact that he wants to deal with that is an exceedingly important thing going forward. And then dealing with student debt, dealing with immigration, all of those things that he will attempt to do in terms of executive orders and executive action are very important. I think there are legislative priorities that go to rebuilding our economy and lifting those things up. So there are any number of things, but becoming a good citizen of the world, going back to the UN Human Rights Council, getting back into the WHO, all of those things are things that I see as important in the next 100 days. We can imagine the White House with such beautiful words, and I'm hoping the administration follows those. Dr. Banks, how about can you share the Getting U.S. Back Campaign, coinciding with as well the best back matter that links up with Biden and Secretary General Gutierrez? Oh, sure. And that just is a good follow-up to Mr. Russell's statement. Key is going to be multilateralism. And that is what is going to be pushed. Our relationships, we have, those have been so destroyed and damaged. I'll say damage. And what's interesting, though, is that as we talk with our neighbors throughout the world, it's not against the American people. It was against the policy. So they are just waiting with anxious breath for this change to happen where we come back in with these are international relationships. And so the key is going to be multilateralism that we work together. That was the function of the of the UN when international organizations were created. That's why it was the great experiment to say, okay, we won't go through what we went through previously in the two world wars. We need to work as, you know, together and not solely these sole or lone rangers out there in terms of their policies. So that is the one thing that the world is waiting on other countries are waiting on is the return to that. And then how that then becomes the base of leadership, we can then stand proud and not be ashamed of, you know, we go out and we meet people from other countries, it's almost an embarrassment is like, well, what's what's happening there? Well, we're waiting, we're working on it. So now we can actually say yes, we are back. We are back in the world community. We support the world community. We support democracy throughout. We do have problems of our own, but we also know we can assist other countries. And I think that's going to be the great message that's going forward that other nations are waiting to hear. I think that's really important. So already in the first 30 days, we can see us back in the Paris Agreement. I believe multi-lateralism matters as well in Hawaii. We always were in the Paris Agreement when we saw the direction of the country going the wrong way. So municipal multilateralism was the way that many people tried to bridge that gap of what was going on that was wrong. And always in our show, we acknowledge, but then we also focus on action. And now, Stephanie can share with us how my SD dream came pain allows us all to be creative and courageous and compassionate with moving King's message forward, not just on one day, but throughout this decade of action coming up with the UN SDG. Stephanie. Absolutely. The United Nations 17 beautiful, sustainable development goals represent the dream. They represent a vision for a more peaceful, harmonious world and society that truly works for everyone. So again, we are inviting you to participate in this initiative, hashtag my SDG dream, which invites everyone everywhere back to you to share your dreams and ideas for achieving these goals in your life and in your community. Here in the islands, we are very fortunate to have leadership who understands the importance and significant of this, even aligning policy priorities at the state level and down to our local mayors. Now it's up to us to make this dream a reality as we continue on through this decade of action towards achieving the 2030 goals. So I'd like to just close by inviting you to join us, visit the UNA website, UNAUSA.org to learn more about what we've talked about here today, to learn about the goals and opportunities to engage and participate. Next month, we have our global engagement summit that typically takes place at the UN headquarters in New York. And we are very excited to offer you an opportunity to engage in advocacy, a common thread between work with the UNA and NAACP by urging your members of Congress to uphold the United States commitment to achieving the goals. And that's going to be accomplished through Representative Barbara Lee's House Resolution 30, again, to create that more peaceful, prosperous, and just world that we want to see coming off of Martin Luther King Day, where we celebrate the past and looking forward to the inauguration and achieving this 2030 dream. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share and thank you in advance for the work that each of you are going to be doing in your communities. Hello, Zephanie. And I love you all and the amazing movements that have really built this important national but also global struggle for self-determination, for dignity, for equality, and human rights for all. Really do love you all. And as King said, I'm convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It's not an expression of impractical idealism, but a practical realism. So thank you all very much. And the only way, of course, we'll drive out the darkness that we've seen is with light and with love. So Mahalo, thank you all for participating in Cooper Union. And we thank all of you watching and participating to make sure that you share my SDG dream and get involved in this decade of action. Thank you so much. Malohiame Capono. And see everyone in the future.