- The following program
is a PBS Wisconsin Original Production.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.: Because I have a dream...
[crowd responds]
that my four little children
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
[applause]
- Hello, I'm Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers,
and it is my pleasure to welcome you
to Wisconsin's 41st Annual Tribute and Ceremony
honoring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--
the oldest official state ceremony in our nation.
The 2021 MLK theme is "Together As One."
While the ongoing pandemic continues to require us
to gather safely virtually--
we still join together from afar
to celebrate and reflect,
not only on the legacy of Dr. King,
but to renew our commitment to creating
a more equitable, more just,
and more fair state and country.
This year has been an extraordinarily difficult one,
from the ongoing pandemic
impacting families, communities, and businesses;
to the nationwide movement
demanding justice for Black lives.
We come together today to celebrate hope,
raise our voices,
and work together to create and sustain meaningful change--
change that ensures
every family and every Wisconsinite can thrive.
And now, please welcome
the executive producer and director
of Wisconsin's Annual MLK Tribute and Ceremony,
Dr. Jonathan Overby.
- Overby: Governor Evers, thank you.
For over four decades,
it has been my distinct honor
to be part of Wisconsin's Annual Tribute and Ceremony
honoring Dr. King.
Sadly, as Wisconsin, the nation, and the world
continues to suffer from the COVID pandemic,
we also continue to suffer from the other lingering pandemic:
hatred for those who are different.
Today's celebration,
despite limitations,
remains dedicated to King's dream,
with a call for increased understanding and empathy
for our neighbors near and far.
As we move forward together as one,
I'm convinced today that it will take all of us--
working together as one--
to find a lasting cure
leading to freedom and justice for all Americans,
and not just some.
For the next hour,
let us transition
from the ever-present cloud of despair, distrust,
and genuine suffering that consumes our nation,
to a place of peace, celebration, and good community,
as we watch and listen to past highlights
from previous MLK events
presented at the State Capitol.
I hope you enjoy Wisconsin's 2021 Tribute and Ceremony
honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[applause]
*
["I Need You Now" Smokie Norful]
- Curtis Eubanks: * Not a second
* Or another minute
* Not an hour
* Or another day
* At the State Capitol
* With my arms outstretched
* Lord, I need you
* to make a way
* As you have done
* So many times before
* You made a way through a window or an open door *
* I stretch my hands to thee
* Come rescue me
* I need you right away
* I need you now [vocalizing]
* I need you now
[vocalizing]
* I need you now
* Not another second
* or another minute
* Not an hour or another day *
* God, I need you
* Right away [vocalizing]
* The agony of being alone
* The fear of having to do things on my own *
* The test and trials that come *
* to make me strong [vocalizing]
* I've had feelings of guilt, hurt, shame and defeat *
* The waves of trials that beat on me *
* But to know
* Lord, that in you
* I've got victory [vocalizing]
[cheers and applause]
* I need you now
Whoo!
* Oh, I need you now
* I need you right now
* Right now, right now
* I need you now, now
* Not another second
* Or another minute
* Not an hour
* Or another day
* But God, I need you
* No one loves like you *
* God, I need you
* No one heals like you *
* God, I need you
* Oh
* As we travel through this strange land *
* I need you
* Like Martin Luther King had a dream *
* No one makes dreams come true like you *
* I need you
* And I need you right a...
[speaking] Clap your hands and say,
* "I need you right away"
[clapping hands]
[cheers and applause]
[sparkly piano melody]
- Rabbi Andrea Steinberger, who serves at
the UW-Madison Hillel Foundation Jewish Student Center,
renders today's invocation.
- Rabbi Andrea Steinberger: Ribono Shel Olam,
Creator of all the world,
We ask your blessings today
as we celebrate the life
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and we declare that we are
Together As One.
That my future is connected to your future.
We come from a summer
of the largest protest movement of all time;
when we opened our minds, our hearts, our paths
to allow the young people to lead our way:
demanding the end to brutalizing Black and Brown people
in our country;
demanding racial justice;
demanding reparations for past wrongs;
demanding that this country take responsibility
for the ways that
we have not allowed all people
access to the American Dream.
O Lord, make us uncomfortable;
remind us not to be, as Dr. King said,
"more devoted to order than justice."
Urge us not to wait for a "more convenient season."
Merciful One of Understanding,
remind us that we are Together as One.
Ken Y'hi Ratzon, may this be your will.
Amen.
- Each year, the MLK event recognizes citizens
for their unsung service to citizens of Wisconsin.
The first recipient is Donna Lee,
an Assessment Professional Supervisor of Social Workers,
and a 2019 Wisconsin Law Journal honoree.
Lee's work with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee
is dedicated to providing free legal services
to 8,000 of Milwaukee's most vulnerable residents:
abused children, battered women,
immigrants, the elderly,
prisoners, the unemployed,
and the homeless.
On behalf of the Governor's Office,
I am pleased to announce that Donna Lee is
the recipient of the Wisconsin 2021 MLK Heritage Award.
- Hi, my name is Donna Lee.
I would like to thank Governor Tony Evers
for the MLK Award.
It's an honor
and I'm excited to be a recipient of the award.
I appreciate everyone that has been involved
in the production of this wonderful event,
and I embody the Martin Luther King spirit;
I live for him daily.
It's an honor, and it's very exciting,
and it's overwhelming
to be a recipient of this award.
I would like to thank my family, friends,
and co-workers that have worked with me
throughout the years
and will be a part of me receiving this award.
Again, thanks to Governor Tony Evers.
- Here to serve up some food for your soul,
from Chi-Town,
please give a warm Wisconsin welcome for
the return of the G-M-A-C
(Gospel Music According to Chicago) Mass Choir.
Give them a big hand, folks!
[cheers and applause]
["Dwell in the House" by GMAC]
* One thing that I desire of the Lord *
* And that will I seek after
* That will I seek after *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Of the Lord
* One thing have I desired of the Lord *
- Yeah!
* One thing have I desired of the Lord *
* And that will I seek after *
* That will I seek after *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Of the Lord
* All the days of my life! *
* To behold, to behold, to behold, to behold *
* The beauty of the Lord!
* To inquire in his temple
* To inquire in his temple *
* This is my heart's desire
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* All the days of my life!
* All the days of my life! *
* All the days of my life!
* To behold, to behold, to behold, to behold *
* The beauty of the Lord!
* To inquire in his temple
* To inquire in his temple *
* This is my heart's desire
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
- Yeah! * Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell in the house of the Lord *
* That I may dwell in the house *
* Dwell in the house
* That I may dwell
* In the house [applause]
* Of the
* Lord
[cheers and applause]
- This year, the MLK event honors Dr. John Odom,
who earned his Ph.D.
from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Odom forged his legacy as a lifetime champion
for civil rights and racial equality,
as he advocated for and mentored countless women and men.
Dr. Odom,
the author of several books
and countless newspaper and magazine articles,
served on the boards of Dane County Big Brothers and Sisters,
The Urban League,
The Greater Madison Convention and Visitors' Bureau,
Edgewood High School Board of Trustees,
and on the Diversity Oversight Committee
for the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
On behalf of the Governor's Office,
I am pleased to announce
that Dr. John Odom is posthumously awarded
the Wisconsin 2021 MLK Heritage Award.
- My name is Nikki Odom Dibley, and I am accepting this award
on behalf of my father, Dr. John Y. Odom.
Thank you to Governor Evers
for recognizing my father's lifelong commitment
to civil rights and the equal treatment of all people
in the state of Wisconsin and the city of Madison.
A special thank you to my mother, Annie Odom,
my father's cheerleader, supporter, and confidant
for 50 years.
When preparing these remarks,
I decided to let my father's words speak for me,
as they represent the essence of his civil rights philosophy.
In his book, Saving Black America, my father wrote,
"There comes a time to swim against the current,
"to struggle upstream in order to redirect the flow
"to achieve the time-honored goals
"of justice, equality, and fairness
more efficiently and effectively."
If this year has taught us anything,
it's that there's still a lot of work to do.
Wisconsin faces a unique set of civil rights challenges.
While my dad was encouraged by the visible progress
that has been made,
he would encourage each of us
to pick up the baton, think big, and get to work.
Thank you, again, on behalf of my father,
Dr. John Odom, and the Odom family.
- In 2011, Wisconsin's MLK celebration
featured guest speaker Michelle Alexander,
a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer,
advocate, and legal scholar.
At the time, Alexander, who held a joint appointment
at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University,
had just published her book,
The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
This is Alexander speaking Monday, January 17, 2011.
[cheers and applause]
- Michelle Alexander: Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for having me.
It is beyond an honor to be here,
to join in this extraordinary celebration
of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr's life and his legacy.
We are living in confusing times today.
It's a time of great paradox.
One is tempted on a day like today
to focus entirely
on Dr. King's achievements and his contributions,
the way he helped to transform our nation
and our collective public consciousness.
But if there is one principle
that Dr. King demonstrated consistently
as much as his commitment to nonviolence,
it was his commitment to the principle of honesty.
The principle of telling the whole truth
about matters of race.
And as he put it quite bluntly
just months before his death,
he said, quote,
"I do not see how we will ever solve
the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation
until there is an honest confrontation with it
and a willing search for the truth,
and a willingness to admit the truth
when we discover it."
So, in Dr. King's honor today,
I'm going to do my best to tell the truth
about race in America.
It's a truth [applause]
that many Americans will deny
just as they denied the truth about slavery
and Jim Crow in those times.
But the truth is this.
We, as a nation have taken a wrong turn,
a tragic detour in the stride toward freedom.
As a nation,
we have betrayed Dr. King's dream.
A vast new racial undercaste now exists in America,
though their plight
is rarely mentioned on the evening news.
Obama won't mention it.
The Tea Party won't mention it.
Media pundits would rather talk about anything else.
The members of the undercaste are largely invisible
to most people who have jobs,
live in decent neighborhoods
and zoom around on freeways,
passing by the virtual and literal prisons
in which they live.
They are part of the other America.
In 1968, Dr. King gave a speech entitled, "The Other America"
at Grosse Pointe High School.
He said, quote, "There are two Americas,
"one America is beautiful.
"In this America,
"millions of people have the milk of prosperity
"and the honey of equality flowing before them.
"This America is the habitat of millions of people
"who have food and material necessities for their bodies,
"culture and education for their minds,
"freedom and human dignity for their spirits.
"In this America,
"children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity,
"but there is another America.
"This America has a daily ugliness about it
"that transforms the buoyancy of hope
into the fatigue of despair."
He then went on to cite
the inadequate, overcrowded and fundamentally unequal schools.
He described the high rates
of unemployment in the Black community.
The official rate of Black unemployment
at that time was about 9%.
But he noted the figure didn't include
all those who had given up all hope of looking for work.
He said the unemployment figures, quote,
"Do not take into consideration the thousands of people
"who have given up, who have lost motivation for work,
"the thousands of people
"who have had so many doors closed in their faces
"that they feel defeated
"and they no longer go out and look for jobs.
"The thousands who have come to feel
"that life is a long and desolate corridor
"with no exit signs.
"The vast majority of Negros in America
"find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty
in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
On this day of all days,
I think we owe Dr. King and ourselves
an answer to this question:
What really has changed?
Most people today of all colors
will tell you that so much changed.
They'll say, "Just look at all the black lawyers and doctors.
"We're free now to eat in any restaurant,
"sit at any lunch counter.
"Just look at Barack Obama.
"Just look at Oprah Winfrey.
"Just look at Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice.
Our nation has come a long way."
And then they add,
"But, of course, we still have a long way to go."
This kind of talk.
And this familiar line
implies that we're on the right path.
That if we just keep plodding along,
keep forging ahead,
sooner or later, we'll reach the promised land.
But is that right?
Are we truly on the right path,
the same path Dr. King was traveling?
Or have we made a tragic U-turn?
Could we be heading right back to where we began?
Most of the indicators of Black well-being today
that Dr. King cited in his "other America" speech
are actually worse today than they were back then.
Now, I've promised to tell you the truth
and to do my best to tell the truth
as boldly and fearlessly as Dr. King once did,
even when few Americans wanted to hear it
or were willing to listen.
[applause] So here it is.
During the past 30 years,
a vast new system of racial and social control
has emerged from the ashes of slavery and Jim Crow,
a system of mass incarceration
that no doubt would have Dr. King turning in his grave.
The systematic mass incarceration
of poor people of color in the United States
has emerged as a new caste system.
One that shuttles children
from decrepit underfunded schools
to brand new high-tech prisons.
[applause]
This system locks poor people of color
into a permanent second-class status for life.
It is the moral equivalent of Jim Crow.
Now I must confess,
there was a time when I rejected this kind of talk.
There was a time when I thought that people who made
comparisons between mass incarceration and slavery
or mass incarceration and Jim Crow
were engaging in exaggerations, distortions, hyperbole.
I thought people who made those kinds of claims
were actually doing more harm than good
to efforts to reform the criminal justice system
and achieve greater racial equality
in the United States.
But what a difference a decade makes,
because after years of working on issues
of racial profiling, police brutality, drug law enforcement
in poor communities of color
and attempting to assist people released from prison--
quote, unquote-- "re-enter" into a society
that never had much use for them in the first place,
I had a series of experiences
that began what I call "my awakening."
I began to awaken to a racial reality
that is so obvious to me now
that what seems odd in retrospect
is that I had been blind to it for so long.
As I write in the introduction to my book,
The New Jim Crow,
what has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow
has less to do with the basic structure of o ur society
than the language we use to justify it.
In the era of colorblindness,
it's no longer socially permissible
to use race, explicitly, as a justification
for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt.
So, we don't.
Rather than rely on race,
we use our criminal justice system
to label people of color criminals,
and then engage in all the practices
we supposedly left behind.
Today, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals
in nearly all the ways it was once legal
to discriminate against African Americans.
[applause]
Once you're labeled a felon,
the old forms of discrimination--
employment discrimination, housing discrimination,
denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service--
suddenly legal.
As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights,
and arguably less respect,
than a black man
living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow.
We have not ended racial caste in America.
We have merely redesigned it.
Now, I'm sure there's many people listening right now
that are thinking to themselves, "What is she talking about?"
Mass incarceration is not a system of racial control.
It's a system of crime control.
If the Black people would just stop committing so many crimes,
they wouldn't have to worry about going to prison
and being stripped of their basic civil and human rights.
But again, I promised to tell you the truth today,
the whole truth.
And the truth is
that our prison population has quintupled
for reasons
that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates.
In less than 30 years--
In less than 30 years,
the US penal population exploded from about 300,000
to now, well over 2 million.
We now have the highest rate of incarceration in the world,
a penal system unprecedented in world history.
But this is not, I repeat not due to crime rates.
Crime rates have fluctuated over the past 30 years,
gone up, gone down.
And today, as bad as they are in some places,
are actually at historical lows.
But incarceration rates have consistently soared.
Most criminologists and sociologists today
will acknowledge that
crime rates and incarceration rates in the United States
have moved independently of one another.
Incarceration rates--
particularly Black incarceration rates--
have soared,
regardless of whether crime is going up or down
in any given community or the nation as a whole.
So what does explain this vast new system of control,
if not crime rates?
The answer:
the War on Drugs and the Get Tough Movement;
the wave of punitiveness
that washed over the United States.
Convictions for drug offenses alone,
explain more than half of the increase in the state system
and two thirds of the increase in the federal system
between 1985 and 2000,
the period of the greatest expansion of our prison system.
To get a sense of how large a contribution
the drug war has made to mass incarceration,
consider this:
There are more people in prisons and jails
just for drug offenses
than were incarcerated for all reasons in 1980.
Now, those who imagine that the drug war
has been focused on rooting out
violent offenders or drug kingpins,
think again.
The overwhelming majority of people arrested
for drug offenses
are arrested for relatively minor, nonviolent offenses.
In the 1990s, for example,
the period of the drug war's most dramatic escalation,
nearly 80% of the increase in drug arrests
were for marijuana possession,
a drug less harmful than alcohol or tobacco,
but at least, if not more prevalent
in middle-class white communities
and on college campuses and universities
as it is in the hood.
But the drug war has been waged
almost exclusively in poor communities of color.
With our young people being stopped and searched, frisked,
their cars pulled over in the search for drugs.
It is our communities that have been targeted
in a drug war and made the enemy.
Studies have shown now for decades
that contrary to popular belief, people of color
are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites.
Now this defies our basic stereotypes.
Our basic stereotypes of a drug dealer is, you know,
a Black kid standing on a street corner
with his pants sagging down.
And plenty of drug dealing happens in the ghetto,
but it happens everywhere else in America, as well.
[applause]
In fact, studies have shown that,
where significant differences in the data exist,
it frequently indicates that white youth
are more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing
than Black youth.
But that's not what you would guess by taking a peek inside
our nation's prisons and jails, which are overflowing
with Black and Brown drug offenders.
In some States, 80 to 90% of all drug offenders sent to prison
have been African American.
But that's just the beginning,
'cause when released from prison,
people find themselves ushered into a parallel social universe.
They find that they face a lifetime
of discrimination, scorn, and social exclusion.
Many people branded felons find it difficult even to survive.
For the rest of their lives they must check that dreaded box
on the employment application asking,
"Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
It doesn't matter if that felony happened three weeks ago
or 35 years ago.
For the rest of your life,
you've got to check that box on employment applications
knowing full well the odds are
that application's going straight to the trash.
To make matters worse, people released from prison
are barred from public housing for a minimum of five years
and may be legally discriminated against
by both public and private landlords
for the rest of their lives.
Even food stamps may be off limits
to people convicted of drug offenses.
What are folks released from prison expected to do?
Can't get a job, you're barred from housing,
even food stamps may be off limits to you.
What do we expect folks to do?
What is the system designed to do?
It seems it's designed to send people right back to prison,
which is what in fact happens about 70% of the time.
About 70% of released prisoners return within three years.
And the majority of those who return
do so in a matter of months
because the challenges
associated with mere survival on the outside
are so immense.
One day, I believe historians
will look back on the era of mass incarceration
and they will say it was there,
right there at the prison gates,
that we abandoned Dr. King's dream
and veered off the trail he had blazed. [applause]
We took a detour, a tragic U-turn,
that would result in millions of African Americans
locked up and permanently locked out.
We have now spent a trillion,
a trillion dollars on the drug war
since it began.
Funds that could have been used for schools,
for economic investment in our poorest neighborhoods,
for job creation, for small businesses.
A trillion dollars could have been used
to promote our collective wellbeing.
Instead, those dollars paved the way
for the destruction of countless lives, families, and dreams.
So what do we do now?
Where do we go from here?
My own view is that nothing short of a major social movement
has any hope of ending mass incarceration in America
and inspiring a recommitment to Dr. King's dream.
Now, if you doubt that such a movement is necessary today,
consider this.
If we were to return to the rates of incarceration
we had in the 1970s,
before the drug war and the Get Tough Movement kicked off,
we would have to release four out of five people
who are in prison today.
More than a million people
employed by the criminal justice system
would lose their jobs.
Most new prison construction
has occurred in rural communities,
already teetering on the edge of economic collapse.
Those prisons across America would have to close down.
Private prison companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
would be forced to watch their earnings vanish.
[cheers and applause]
This system is not going down without a major fight,
a major upheaval,
a radical shift in our public consciousness.
Of course, there are those who say, there's no hope,
no hope of ending mass incarceration in America.
Just as many were resigned to Jim Crow in the South,
today, many people view the millions of people
cycling in and out of our prisons today as
an unfortunate but inalterable fact of American life.
I know Dr. King would not have been so resigned.
And so I believe that if we are to truly honor Dr. King,
we must be willing to continue his work.
We must be willing to go back and pick up where he left off.
We must do the hard work of movement building
on behalf of poor people of all colors.
In 1968, Dr. King told advocates,
the time had come
to transition from a civil rights movement
to a human rights movement.
Meaningful equality could not be achieved
through civil rights alone.
Basic human rights must be honored:
the right to work, the right to housing,
the right to quality education for all.
"Without basic human rights," he said,
"Civil rights are an empty promise."
In honor of Dr. King,
I hope we will commit ourselves to building a movement
to end mass incarceration, a human rights movement,
a movement for education, not incarceration,
jobs not jails,
a movement to end discrimination
against those who are released from prison,
discrimination that violates their basic human rights
to work, to housing, to food.
But before this movement can get underway,
a great awakening is required.
We must awaken from our colorblind slumber
to the realities of race in America.
And we must be willing to embrace those labeled criminals;
not necessarily their behavior, but them-- their human-ness--
because it has been the refusal and failure
to recognize the dignity and value of all people
that has been the sturdy foundation
for every caste system that has ever existed
in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
It is our task today, I firmly believe,
not just to end mass incarceration,
but to end this history and cycle of caste in America.
Thank you very much for having me.
[cheers and applause]
- And now, the Latino Strings Program.
They've performed in Mariachi Bands,
Youth Orchestras and Guitar Ensembles at over 300 concerts
since the program's inception in 2002,
including Summerfest, and multiple times
here at Wisconsin's annual Tribute to Dr. King.
From Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and back again by popular demand,
under the direction of Dinorah Marquez,
here is the Latino Arts Strings Program, from Milwaukee.
[cheers and applause]
- Dinorah Marquez: Thank you so much.
There are not words to describe the gratitude that we feel--
every one of us in our group here-- for being invited,
once again, to form part of such an important event.
Thank you, Brother Jonathan,
for believing in our young people and for thinking
that they have something to share with our community.
Thank you to our...
[applause]
Thank you for letting us be part of the dream.
["El Cascabel"]
*
[playing solo]
[cheers and applause]
[playing solo]
[cheers and applause]
*
[cheers and applause]
- And now, presenting
an adapted excerpt from Dr. King's 1963 speech,
"I Have a Dream," here are 7th grade students
Jada Matson, Chelsie Uscanga
and Tadaria Ross, 6th grade student,
all from James C. Wright Middle School
in Madison, Wisconsin.
[cheers and applause]
Please welcome
the James C. Wright Middle School Scholars Dream Team.
[cheers and applause]
- And so, even though
we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,
I still have a dream.
- It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day
this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed:
- All: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal."
- I have a dream
that one day on the red hills of Georgia,
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit down together
at a table of brotherhood.
- I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,
sweltering with the heat of oppression...
- ...will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
- I have a dream that one day
my four little children
will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin...
- All: ...but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
- I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama,
with its vicious racists,
and its governor, having his lips dripping with the words
of "interposition" and "nullification"...
- One day, right there in Alabama,
little Black boys and Black girls
will be able to join hands
with little white boys and white girls
as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
- I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
and every hill and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made plain...
...and the crooked places will be made straight;
"and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope.
And this is the faith we go back to the South with.
- All: With this faith, we will be
able to hew out of the mountain of despair
a stone of hope.
With this faith, we will be able to transform
the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
- With this faith...
- ...we will be able to work together...
- ...to pray together, to struggle together,
- All:...to go to jail together,
to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.
- And this will be the day.
- This will be the day when all of God's children
will be able to sing with new meaning:
- My country 'tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
- Land where my fathers died,
land of Pilgrim's pride,
- From every mountainside,
let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation...
...this must become true.
- And so, let freedom ring
from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire...
- All: ...let freedom ring.
- From the mighty mountains of New York...
- All: ...let freedom ring.
- From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania...
- All: ...let freedom ring.
from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
- All: Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
- Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia.
- Let freedom ring
from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring
from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
- And when this happens,
when we allow freedom to ring,
when we let it ring from every village...
- ...and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
- ...we will be able to speed up that day
- ...when all of God's children,
- ...black men and white men,
- ...Jews and Gentiles,
- ...Protestants and Catholics,
- All: ...will be able to join hands and sing
in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
[cheers and applause]
- Here they are, the Victory Travelers Gospel Quartet!
[cheers and applause]
["Forgive Me, Lord"]
*
* Forgive Me, Lord
(* Forgive me, Lordy Lord )
* Try me one more time
(* Try me one more time )
* Forgive Me, Lord (* Forgive me, Lordy Lord )
* Oh, lord, try me one more time *
(* Try me one more time *)
* I know I've been wrong (* I know I've been wrong )
* Oh, Lord [vocalizing] (* Give me one more chance )
* Don't you know I'm lookin' for a better place *
(* Lookin' for a better place to live *)
* C'mon, clap those hands like that *
* Said I'm lookin' for (* a better place to live )
* Yes, I am
(* Oh, I'm lookin' for a better place to live *)
* Can I get one witness to say, "I'm lookin'" * (* Lookin' )
* I'm seekin' (* Seekin' )
* Lord, I'm prayin' (* Prayin' )
* Yes, I am (* Ah, prayin' )
* You know I'm lookin' for (* a better place to live )
(* Ah, I'm lookin' for a better place to live *) *And I say it one more time now
* You know that I am Lookin' (* for a better place to live )
* Yes, I am
(* I'm lookin' for a better place to live *)
* Oh, yeah, (* I'm lookin' for a better place to live *)
* Have I got one witness to say, "I'm lookin'" *
(* Lookin' for a better place to live *)
* Yes, I am
* You know, I'm lookin' (* Lookin' )
* And I'm seekin' (* Seekin' )
* Lord, I'm prayin' (* Prayin' )
* Yes, I am (* Ah, prayin' )
* You know (* I'm lookin' for a better place to live *)
* Yes, I am
* Ah, I'm lookin' for a better place to live *
Hey! * You know that I'm
* Lookin' here and there
* And I keep on (* Searchin' everywhere )
* I keep on lookin' (* Lookin' here and there )
* Ohhhhh (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Is it in your blood? (* Lookin' here and there )
* It don't matter (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Just come on (* Lookin' here and there )
* Clap your hands (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And tell somebody (* Lookin' here and there )
* I know I am (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Tell somebody (* Lookin' here and there )
* I know I am (* Searchin' everywhere )
* No matter (* Lookin' here and there )
* What I have to face (* Searchin' everywhere )
* No matter (* Lookin' here and there )
* What I have to go through (* Searchin' everywhere )
* One of these days (* Lookin' here and there )
* I don't know when (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And I don't know where (* Lookin' here and there )
* All I know (* Searchin' everywhere )
* I see Jesus (* Lookin' here and there )
* I see Him (* Searchin' everywhere )
* I see Jesus (* Lookin' here and there )
* I see (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Lookin' here and there (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yeah (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yes, I am (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yes, I am * (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yes, I am (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yes, I am (* Lookin' here and there *)
* Can I get a witness (* Lookin' here and there )
* Can I get a witness * (* Lookin' here and there )
* Searchin' everywhere (* Oh, searchin' everywhere )
* Yes, I am (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Yes, I am (* Searchin' everywhere *)
* Yes, I am (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And I ask one question (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And I leave it alone (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And I ask one more question (* Searchin' everywhere )
* And I leave it alone (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Anybody want to say (* Yeah )
* Yes I do (* Oh, yeah )
* My heart says (* Yeah )
* My mind says (* Yeah )
* My spirit says (* Yeah )
* Everything about me (* Yeah )
* I want to see Jesus (* Yeah )
* Ayyyy
* Lookin' here and there (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yeah (* Lookin' here and there )
* Yeah (* Lookin' here and there *)
* Yeah (* Lookin' here and there )
* Searchin' everywhere (* Searchin' everywhere )
(* Searchin' everywhere *)
(* Searchin' everywhere ) (* Searchin' everywhere )
* Know that I'm lookin' (* Lookin' for a better place to live *)
(* Ah, I'm lookin' for a better place to *)
(* Live ) [all vocalizing]
(* Oooohhhh )
[cheers and applause]
- Governor Evers: Dr. King's legacy,
the numerous movements he led,
and the seminal works he left behind
laid the foundation for a collective recognition
of structural inequality.
It also laid the groundwork
for the continued advocacy
towards the full realization
of equity and justice for all people.
His work continues to inspire
generations that came after him.
As we reflect on Dr. King's life and lasting legacy,
we recognize that many of the injustices and inequities
that he worked to address
have nevertheless remained deeply entrenched
in our country's culture and institutions.
We are likewise reminded that there is much work left to do.
Today, Wisconsin joins the country
celebrating Dr. King's life,
honoring his legacy, and reaffirming our commitment
to the hard but necessary work
to affirm Dr. King's work,
and ensure his dream becomes a reality.
So with that, as the Governor of the great state of Wisconsin,
it is my pleasure to proclaim January 18, 2021
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
- Audience singing: * We shall overcome
- Jonathon Overby: As we conclude Wisconsin's 41st MLK tribute,
it is worth remembering and reflecting on his life,
when he marched, wrote, and used his voice
to create social change in the 20th century.
Here in Wisconsin, let us follow King's example
by moving forward Together As One,
in an effort to overcome the ills that divide us.
On behalf of the Office of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers,
and those who helped to make this program possible,
I'm Jonathan Overby.
Thank you
and may your week be filled with peace and harmony.
["We Shall Overcome" continues]
* We shall overcome some day *
[applause]