Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at National Action Network's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Policy Forum

January 18, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Happy King Day, everyone.

Audience: Happy King Day.

Mayor: I want to thank everyone who’s here because everybody who’s here is living – living in the vision of Dr. King, extending the beliefs of Dr. King, bringing into 2015 everything he fought for up to 1968.

His spirit is right here in this room. He would love this gathering of people. He would see kindred souls fighting to continue his movement. And I have to tell you, of all the people I’ve known in this extraordinary city, I literally don’t know anyone who has invoked Dr. King’s legacy more often in the way he thinks, who has talked about Dr. King’s strategic insight more, who has told us to remember the lessons of Dr. King – no one has done that more than Reverend Al Sharpton.

[Applause]

When he talks about his experiences as a young man learning he lessons of non-violence, learning the lessons of community organizing, learning the lessons of how to push the spectrum and change the debate – that has been what’s fueled Reverend Sharpton and the National Action Network throughout.

And my friends do not forget, in his day, the man we celebrate today, the man who’s got a statue in Washington and so many other honors – in his day he was vilified regularly by the American mainstream. Let’s not airbrush history.

[Applause]

And so, we remember Dr. King in his fullness. We remember the whole man, the man who fought against the grain, who changed the way we think, who risked – who put his body on the line. That’s the man we remember.

So, I honor everyone who’s here today. I thank all the elected officials who are here today – everyone who wants to take that spirit, that history, and continue to give it life.

Now, if Dr. King were here, what a – I think – a different country it would be if we had not lost Dr. King. We lost one of the greatest leaders we ever had but Dr. King – I think if he were here today – would reflect upon all of the movements, all of the energy of today – he would see something kindred. But the first thing I think he would say to us is, “What happened over all those years since 1968?” I don’t think he would have any lack of love for us but I think he would call us to a count. I think he would say, “What happened? How on Earth is the Voting Rights Act under attack in New York [inaudible]?”

[Applause]

I think he’d say, how on Earth do we have a moment where the Supreme Court of United States may actually roll back and diminish the rights of labor unions that Dr. King for. He died in Memphis defending working people and labor unions.

[Applause]

He would say, “What happened? How is the economic condition of African-Americans, actually in some ways, even worse today than it was in 1968?”

[Applause]

The disparities, education, mass incarceration – Dr. King, if he were standing here, we would feel so blessed but some of what he would tell us would not be comforting. But now there’s – there’s a good side too – and I’ll be quick but I want to say three very easy things.

There are three areas Dr. King focused on. Conventional history focuses on the civil rights element of his work. Remember he moved increasingly toward the question of economic rights and he moved towards the question of whether we belonged in wars that did no good and led to the loss of so many young Americans, particularly young men of color.

So, very quickly – civil rights today. Dr. King would find some favor, I believe, in the fact that in this city we’re showing, yes, as Rev said, you can become a safer city and a fairer city simultaneously. Crime is down and stop-and-frisk is down 93 percent in this city.

[Applause]

And that Father’s Day march – I’ve got a lot of people in this room who were a part of it a few years ago – what was more indicative of Dr. King’s tradition than that Father’s Day march that rocked this city – that silent peaceful march that changed this city forever.

[Applause]

Dr. King would celebrate Black Lives Matter. He would celebrate the movement against mass incarceration and he would see that there is a part of the civil rights movement that has deepened and is strong and is taking a fullness that can really change this country to the core.

On economic rights, he would certainly smile on the fact that in this city, and increasingly all over this country, we’re talking about $15 dollars an hour as a basic base-level minimum wage that people need to survive. We used to hear $15 dollars an hour was impossible. Today, all over this country, we have an historic movement. Everyone is talking about $15 dollars an hour.

[Applause]

He would believe in things we’re doing in this city like Paid Sick Leave for the people in the city, Paid Parental Leave for the people who work for the city. He would believe in efforts to create affordable housing because affordable housing is something everyone deserves.

[Applause]

Lord knows he would believe in pre-k for every one of our children – full-day pre-k for free because you cannot uplift our society if we don’t first give our children the education they deserve.

[Applause]

So, on economic rights, a long, long way to go but in this year and last year – 2015, 2016 – finally, we’re talking about income inequality the way Dr. King would have us talk about it. It’s on the front page. It’s being acknowledged.

You saw today. The report from Oxfam – the 62 richest people on the Earth have as much income as the four billion poorest people on the Earth.

Dr. King knew what was wrong then but at least now it’s being talked about and it’s being – creating anger, the frustration, the movement, the change that fits the exact same thing Dr. King was doing at the end of his life with the Poor People’s Campaign.

Finally, we all know the great, the powerful phrase, “Study war no more.” Dr. King would appreciate would have appreciated what happened last week. The president of the United States of America – the president of the United State of America, by the way a Black man –

[Applause]

From that podium in the Congress during the State of the Union address saying this nation must learn the lessons of the Vietnam War.

[Applause]

What a tribute, in effect, to Dr. King who died fighting against that unjust and mistaken war – and to hear Barack Obama, the man who got us out of the quagmire of Iraq, talk about the fact that now we aren’t going to send our young men and women to endless and fruitless conflicts, and if we’re ever going to get engaged in anywhere, guess what, the Congress of the United States is going to have to actually vote on it. That was, in a different way, a tribute to Dr. King and what he taught us.

[Applause]

So, I conclude with this – we just left an extraordinary year of 2015 where so many issues came to the floor. The distance between 2014 and 2015, in terms of what was actually being talked about in this country, was breathtaking. Black Lives Matter came to the floor. Mass incarceration came to the floor. $15 dollar minimum wage came to the floor. Income inequality came to the floor.

[Applause]

Now, 2016, a year of decision for all of us – we, all of us, have to bring those issues even more to the floor because that’s the only way we make change. Change comes from the grassroots, it’s not a top-down affair. It is a people thing. It is a grassroots-up reality. Dr. King understood that.

[Applause]

We’re in a great year of decision and then two years later, 2018 is the 50^th anniversary of the loss of Dr. King. I conclude by saying, let’s take on a mandate – everyone in this room – let’s not walk to that anniversary, let us race with all we have to the 50^th anniversary and on that day, in 2018, when we stand here, let’s show that we actually changed this nation and bent that arch towards justice, towards economic fairness, towards a nation that actually includes its people.

In these next years, we can do the kinds of things Dr. King believed were possible.

It’s our time to believe.

Thank you, brothers and sisters. God bless you.

[Applause]