When it comes time to stop merely saying something must be done, when the drive to redress and correct can be no longer ignored, people must stand up. We are standing now. With no demands, we stand only as witnesses to the crime. Merely inconveniently reminding people day in, and day out, by just standing up. The control of our democracy and our economy has been taken from our hands. It is not acceptable, and so we stand.
When Martin marched, when Lewis marched, when Freedom Riders were brutalized, when children attempting to attend school were attacked, Presidents before you acted. When armed forces attempted to crush unionization in Flint, President Roosevelt acted to protect.
Now you must act. I humbly demand, America's history demands, the spirit of a free people demands that you protect the rights of speech, assembly and redress.
Approximately 600 marchers started out on the march that Sunday morning. When the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge on the outskirts of Selma, they were met by about 200 state troopers, and Sheriff Clark and his deputies mounted on horseback, all armed with tear gas, night sticks and bull whips. The marchers were ordered to turn back. When they did not, they were attacked by the law enforcement officers. The air filled with tear gas and marchers were beaten, whipped and trampled by the horses. Finally, they turned around and returned to Selma. 17 marchers were hospitalized.
Dr. King and his supporters filed a federal lawsuit requesting to be permitted to proceed with the march. On March 21, the march began again, with federal troops protecting the marchers, and proceeded to Montgomery.
When opponents brutally use civic powers they are entrusted with, when Mayors and Governors enforce not the law but their political agenda with clubs, horses, teargas and explosives to attack peaceful witnesses to an ongoing crime, Presidents before you acted to defend the Democracy by protecting the people.
You have no choice. The inviolable principle of American Democracy commands you. There is no path through failing to act now that will save the American Democracy.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if Americas beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
Today, today, you must reaffirm, through action, not your own promise, nor the promise of any party or partisan, but the promise of Democracy that is America. We stand clubbed and bleeding at the hands of a few who will not abide the mere call for the restoration of democracy in America, waiting for your adherence to your oath to protect democracy in America, and your conscience.
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
