today i come to you as a young person
as a young woman as a young black woman
to ask you to use us use the young
people of the united states of america
to pave a road that will last forever
[Music]
belm alabama is located in dallas county
17 000 of the county's residents are
negros
however only one point seven percent of
these are registered voters
the negroes of selma alabama want to
vote
if we're willing to be beaten for
democracy and you may
use democracy in the street you beat
people bloody in order that they will
not have the privilege to vote
you can turn your back now and you can
keep the club in your hand
but you cannot beat down justice and we
will register to vote
because as citizens of these united
states we have the right to do
dr king and i we had been working
together to get a civil rights bill
passed
we went back and we met with president
johnson
and he said well i know you need voting
rights
but we just had a civil rights bill
passed
i just don't have the power to go back
to congress for another
civil rights bill i know it's needed but
uh
i don't have the power and he must have
said
i don't have the power half a dozen
times
when we left i asked dr king well
what are you going to do he said we're
going to get the president some power
every american citizen
must have an equal right to vote
[Music]
what happened in selma is part of a far
larger movement which
reaches into every section and state of
america
because it's not just negroes but really
it's all of us
who must overcome the crippling legacy
of bigotry and injustice
and we shall overcome he ended his
speech with
and we shall overcome that's the only
time i saw martin luther king
uh shed a tia my grandfather called for
her from the front room
her name was wilter and he's like wilder
come on she didn't respond
her nickname was bill and so then he
yelled out bill
it's time to go my grandmother said she
still didn't say anything
so he came back to find out why she
hadn't responded
and she was frozen she was afraid to go
i remember her squeezing my hand and
feel of that paper thin skin and
the fragile bones but the script that
she had on my hand where she said that
it wasn't that she didn't want to vote
and she was afraid of it
she was afraid of the billy clubs and
the hoses and the dogs that she did not
believe
this time would be any different she
didn't believe
that the power of democracy was finally
hers
[Music]
my grandfather told her that she had to
get up that her children had been in
trouble
trying to guarantee this right and that
she owed it to them if not to herself to
get up and vote
and she said she was still terrified she
was still deeply afraid of this moment
but she was also ashamed of herself
she was ashamed that she didn't want to
reach for this power
[Music]
she got up she finished getting dressed
and they went to vote
[Music]
and as she squeezed my hand she said but
stacy i've never missed another election
running for governor was about changing
what it meant to be a leader in georgia
[Music]
and there is nothing more transformative
in the deep south than a black woman
from poverty having opportunity
it hadn't been done before so i thought
i would take advantage of the freedom to
try the things no one else tried my name
is stacy abrams and i'm ready to be the
next governor of the great state of
georgia
we talked to people we met them at their
doors we met them at their churches
their mosques their temples their
shrines their synagogues
i went to dragon con and won music fest
i also talked about real issues i talked
about my brother
and his fight with drug addiction and
incarceration there are
thousands of walkers throughout the
state of georgia who only get the help
they need when they go to prison
i'm running for governor because i don't
believe george is just a state of
retribution
i want it to be a state of redemption
[Applause]
but i also had solutions and i talked
about the things that people care about
every single day georgia we need you to
show up
we wanted everybody who could vote to
vote and to vote for me
to make stacey abram the next governor
of the state of georgia and give it up
for
your next governor stacey abrams
thank you georgia the ballot battle
in georgia's governor's race is over
ryan kemp will be certified
the winner
i was very angry i'm still very angry
um
very angry make no mistake
the former secretary of state was
deliberate and
intentional in his actions pundits and
hyper partisans
will hear my words as a rejection of the
normal order
you see i'm supposed to say nice things
and accept my fate
they will complain that i should not use
this moment to recap what was done wrong
or to demand a remedy you see as a
leader i should be stoic
in my outrage and silent in my rebuke
but stoicism is a luxury and silence is
a weapon
for those who acquiet the voices of the
people and i will not concede because
the erosion of our democracy
is not right my responsibility as the
daughter of
robert and carolyn abrams as the
granddaughter
of people who had been denied the right
to vote as the great
great granddaughter of slaves my job was
to use
this election to talk about the system
that let this be
and so we decided on that night
that we were going to demand that the
system
itself be fixed because when you concede
what you're saying is that the system
worked the way it was supposed to
and i refuse to believe that a system
that is supposed to protect our
democracy
worked the way it was supposed to in
2020 and beyond the way we fight voter
suppression is by meeting it where it is
that means first and foremost to
volunteer to help people get registered
to vote hi nina durham my name is stacy
abrams
i wanted to thank you for all the work
you're doing to reach out to voters and
making sure they stay on the rolls
if you believe in one person one vote if
you believe in representative government
then you will fight for this democracy
our power is in our vote
our power is in our voice and if we
willingly choose to remain silent we
give up that power
plan out what you are going to do to
make sure your ballot is cast and
counted
and then ask your friends and family
whether they have a plan
even if you've done everything right do
not assume you're registered
check to make sure that you haven't been
purged or that your polling place has
moved
vote as early as possible take your
friends with you to the polls
talk to your neighbors about voting call
your parents and after they voted call
your grandparents
to make sure that people know what
precinct they're in where their polling
location is and then you turn up at the
polls
and you don't leave until you cast your
ballot they told voters to anticipate
long lines
is two and a half hours three hours four
hours is that reasonable though in your
mind david
it's worth the wait it's worth the wait
folks died for this right and i'm
you know so i would never take advantage
of you know so i'm here for the long
haul
it's a life and death matter it really
is
it's not going to be the courts that
save us it's not going to be the
justices in their robes it's got to be
the people
if you were to come out to vote we could
elect who we wanted to
we could get done what we wanted to and
we could make sure that our voice was
heard
the fight for voting rights needs to be
a defining civil rights issue
today the desire to keep certain people
away from the polls it's a reality that
we have to be prepared to confront
and unless we confront that reality and
base actions on that reality
we won't make the progress that we all
want to make in this country i believe
in our democracy
i believe in our nation and i think our
strongest patriotism is a patriotism
that says that every voice matters and
that every vote counts
and that we will do everything in our
power to make it simple
let's stop thinking that our voice don't
matter
educate yourself and know who you're
voting for
because it's a lot of us
it's a lot of us
[Applause]
[Music]
you