WEBVTT

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(audience clapping)

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[ASA PHILIP RANDOLPH] I have
the pleasure to present

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to this great audience, young
John Lewis, National Chairman,

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Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee.

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Brother John Lewis.

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(audience clapping)

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[JOHN LEWIS] We march today
for jobs and freedom.

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But, we have nothing
to be proud of.

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For hundred and thousand
of our brothers are not here.

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For they're receiving
starvation wages,

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or no wages at all.

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While we stand here there
are sharecroppers

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in the Delta of Mississippi,
who are out in the field

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working for less than $3
a day, 12 hours a day.

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While we stand here, there
are students in jail

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on trumped-up charges.

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Our brother James Farmer,
along with many others,

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is also in jail.

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We come here today
with a great sense of misgiving.

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It is true that we support
the administration's

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civil rights bill.

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We support it
with great reservation, however.

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Unless Title III is put in this
bill, there's nothing to protect

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the young children,
and old women

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who must face police dogs
and fire hoses in the South

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while they engage
in peaceful demonstrations.

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(audience clapping)

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In its present form,
this bill will not protect

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the citizens of Danville,
Virginia, who must live

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in constant fear
of a police state.

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It will not protect
the hundreds and thousands

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of people that have been
arrested on trumped charges.

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What about the three young men,
SNCC field secretaries

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in Americus, Georgia,
who faced the death penalty

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for engaging
in peaceful protests?

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As it stands now, the voting
section of this bill will not

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help the thousands
of black people

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who want to vote.

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It will not help
the citizens of Mississippi,

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of Alabama and Jordan,
who are qualified to vote,

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but lack of sixth-grade
education.

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'One man,
one vote,'

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is the African cry.

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It is ours too.

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It must be ours!

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(audience clapping)

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We must have legislation
that will protect

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the Mississippi Sharecropper,
who is put off of his farm

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because he dares
to register to vote.

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We need a bill that will provide
for the homeless

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and starving people 
of this nation.

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We need a bill that will ensure
the equality

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of a maid who earn $5 a week
in a home of a family whose

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total income of $100,000 a year.

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We must have a good FEPC bill.

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(audience clapping)

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My friends, let's not forget
that we are involved

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in a serious social revolution.

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By and large,
American politics

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is dominated by politicians
who build their career

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on moral compromise
and ally themselves

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with open forms
of political, economic,

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and social exploitation.

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(audience clapping)

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They are exceptions, of course.

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We salute those.

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But, what political leader can
stand up and say, 'My party

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is a party of principles?'

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For the party of Kennedy
is also the party of Eastland.

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(audience clapping)

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The party of Javits is
also the party of Goldwater.

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Where is our party?

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Where is the political party
that will make it unnecessary

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to march on Washington?

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Where is the political party
that will make it unnecessary

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to march in the streets
of Birmingham?

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Where is the political party
that will protect

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the citizens
of Albany, Georgia?

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Do you know that
in Albany, Georgia,

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nine of our leaders
have been indicted,

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not by the Dixiecrats,
but by the federal government

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for peaceful protest?

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What did the federal government
do when Albany's deputy sheriff

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beat attorney C.B. King
and left him half-dead?

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What did 
the federal government do

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when local police official
kicked and assaulted

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a pregnant wife of Slater King,
and she lost her baby?

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To those who have said,
'Be patient and wait,'

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we have long said 
that we cannot be patient.

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We do not want our
freedom gradually,

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but we want to be free now!

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(audience clapping)

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We are tired.

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we are tired
of being beaten by policemen.

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We are tired of seeing our
people locked up in jail over

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and over again.

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And then you
holler,"Be patient".

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How long can we be patient?

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We want our freedom
and we want it now.

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(audience clapping)

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We do not want to go to jail.

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But we will go to jail
if this is a prize we must pay

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for love,

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brotherhood, and true peace.

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I appeal to all of you
to get in this great revolution

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that is sweeping this nation.

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Get in and stay in the streets
of every city, every village,

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and hamlet of this nation
until true freedom comes,

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until the revolution
of 1776 is complete.

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We must get in this revolution
and complete the revolution.

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For in the Delta in Mississippi,
in Southwest Georgia,

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in the Black Belt of Alabama,
in Harlem, in Chicago,

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Detroit, Philadelphia,
and all over this nation,

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the black masses are on
the march for jobs and freedom.

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(audience clapping)

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They're talking
about slow down and stop.

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We will not stop.

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All of the forces of Eastland
Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond

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will not stop this revolution.

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(audience clapping)

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If we do not get meaningful
legislation

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out of this Congress,

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the time will come
when we will not confine

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our marching to Washington.

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We will march through the South:
through the streets of Jackson,

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through the streets of Danville,
through the streets

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of Cambridge, through
the street of Birmingham

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(audience clapping)

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But we will march with spirit
of love and with spirit

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of dignity
that we have shown here today.

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(audience clapping)

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By the force of our demands our
determination, and our numbers,

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we shall splinter the segregated
South into a thousand pieces,

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and put them together
in the image of God

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and democracy.

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We must say, 'Wake up America!
Wake up! For we cannot stop,

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and we will not,
and cannot be patient.

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(audience clapping)