“I was eight years old when the news spread through my community that Dr. King had been assassinated. When it happened, my grandmother told me and my siblings that when we mourned the deceased, we also had to pray. She told us to pray for him and his family, to pray for the person who did it, and to pray for Dr. King’s enemies. She believed what Dr. King preached – that the most powerful weapon in the universe is always love, never hate.
“It was Dr. King’s leadership and the moral force of love that brought hundreds of thousands of Americans together for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That same nonviolent force helped us win the greatest victories of the Civil Rights Era, like the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The power generated by that march opened up the great vaults of opportunity, including economic opportunity, in our nation for little black boys, and for little black girls like me.
“As we mark the anniversary of the March on Washington tomorrow, it’s important to recognize that Dr. King wouldn’t want us to just remember his dream, he would want us to keep living his dream and keep inviting future generations to share in it. He would want us to keep fighting to expand and protect the right to vote for all Americans, keep fighting for better jobs and economic fairness, keep fighting to heal the racial divide in this country, keep fighting for criminal justice and prison reform, and keep fighting to elect leaders who believe in building bridges, not walls.
“We have a clear choice as we head into the November elections. In the spirit of Dr. King, we must vote for candidates who understand that love trumps hate, and that we are stronger together. We must elect Hillary Clinton as our next president, and Democrats at every level of government.”
