Reverend Jesse Jackson: What's next for us? Hope and Reflection

>> Susan M. Collins: Good afternoon everybody and welcome! I'm Susan Collins. I'm the Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and...[applause] thank you!

[ Applause & Cheering ]

And on behalf of the Ford School and the entire University of Michigan, it is such an honor to welcome all of you here today. I'd, in particular, like to recognize President Mark Schlissel, Provost Martha Pollack, Regent Michael Behm, Regent Emerita, Julia Darlow, and several of the university's executive offices and deans who are here with us today. Thank you so much for joining us!

[ Applause ]

I'd like to acknowledge, as well, my faculty colleagues who are part of the steering committee for today's events. The university's Vice-Provost for Equity and Inclusion, and the Chief Diversity Officer, Rob Sellers, Professors Martha Jones, Ann Lynn [phonetic], and Matthew Countryman, and also my fellow Dean of the School of Music, Theater, and Dance, Aaron Dworkin. Thank you all so much!

[ Applause ]

Indeed, it really is a great honor to welcome all of you here today to hear from one of the nation's most distinguished champions of civil rights, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

Before President Schlissel introduces him more fully, I'd like to offer my thanks to Reverend Jackson for spending the entire day here with us, with our students and our faculty. Thank you so much for that! We really appreciate all of your time!

[ Applause ]

We're also so pleased to have his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, his son, his daughter, and his grandson all here with us this afternoon. Reverend Jackson, I look forward to your remarks and I know that I speak for many in this room and many who are watching the live stream, that the remarks that you will give us today are so needed, and are extremely important, and so we are very much looking forward to them. And now it is my honor to introduce Dr. Mark Schlissel, the 14the president of the University of Michigan.

[ Applause ]

President Schlissel most recently served as provost of Brown University. He's the first physician to lead our university. His academic research is contributed to a detailed understanding of the genetic factors involved in producing antibodies and how mistakes in that process can lead to leukemia and lymphoma. President Schlissel earned his AB in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton and went on to Johns Hopkins University in medicine, earning both an MD and a PhD. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming University of Michigan's 14th President, Mark Schlissel.

[ Applause ]

>> Mark Schlissel: Good afternoon, everybody! Thanks very much, Dean Collins, for that very kind introduction and for your outstanding leadership over the past decade of the Ford School of Public Policy. I'd like to thank the symposium organizing committee, as well, and also acknowledge the role of my friend, Bankole Thompson, in helping us organize today's session. Everyone at the Ford School, as well, who's helped our community in their efforts over the past week, or the whole election season, to understand the impact of this year's election. Today, we recognize a distinguished, national leader. And we honor a legacy that spans more than half a century. The Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. has led the way in the struggle for freedom, voting rights, equality, and peace, here in the cities and towns of the United States, and abroad. We should all take note that his first experience as a social activist was as a student. In the summer of 1960, in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, Reverend Jackson refused to be turned away from the segregated local public library. He's been at the forefront of the struggle for civil rights ever since. During the mid 1960's, he worked with the Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped secure the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988, building unprecedented coalitions of voters and inspiring millions. And as recently as last week, Reverend Jackson was traveling throughout our nation, working to get out the vote, meeting people in our communities, and battling new challenges to the Voting Rights Act that he had helped to enact. For his numerous accomplishments, Reverend Jackson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. It's our nation's highest civilian honor. The University of Michigan community is also very proud to count Reverend Jackson as an alumnus! He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from our university in 1979.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

But like many of our graduates, he didn't receive his degree and leave Ann Arbor forever, Reverend Jackson came back to campus. He came back in 1987 to meet with activists in the BAM III Movement, and the University Coalition Against Racism. He also came back to campus in 2000 and spoke in our Law [inaudible] in support of students who had organized to defend affirmative action. These were momentous times in our university's history, events whose impact reverberates to this very day. They were part of our nearly 200-year history, and they inform the strategic plan we rolled out last month to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Michigan. And now, he's back today. We all know there's much more work to do. During the run-up to the election, and the days since, we've seen attacks that single out individuals and groups based on their identities. We can't forget how this makes our students feel. But we've also seen demonstrations espousing peace, inclusion, and tolerance. We've heard from many in our community about the need to make room for voices all across the ideological spectrum, and for all to speak out against hate and discrimination. This afternoon, in fact, students, again, gathered on our Diag to make their voices heard. Before I invite our guest of honor to the stage, I want to share a few words from his University of Michigan Commencement Address in 1979. He said, we no longer have the luxury, nor can we afford racial polarization on various aberrations and expressions of petty apartheid. A multiracial education must be our personal, local, and national goal, for we must develop the capacity to live with each other and not apart from each other. The title of Reverend Jackson's address today is, What's Next For Us: Hope and Reflection. Please help me welcome civil rights leader, former student activist, Founder and President of the Rainbow Push Coalition, and inspiration to all who strive for peace and social justice, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Today I want to thank President Mark Schlissel and Dean Susan M. Collins of the Gerald Ford Public Policy Center, the faculty and students and beneficiaries of the University of Michigan around the world. [Inaudible] of the university has made its commitment to the America that is and accepted the call. The mission and responsibility [inaudible] in building the nation that we must become. We're a nation that has come from the pit of 246 years of slavery, which began 157 years before the birth of the nation, in 1776. The genocide of Native Americans, legal segregation of Jim Crow in 1880 to 1954, over 5,000 lynchings without one indictment. This foundation of our nation is this immoral sins of which we have not sought forgiveness nor redemption. And the idea of making America great again reopens the wounds in America's immoral foundation, born in sin and shaped in inequity. This school has consistently sought to step in the breach, to bring healing to the body of politic. We need not for a moment underestimate the damage done to our country and the soul of America in the last few days, it's our nation and our soul that must be healed. What are we confronted with? There is a tug of war for the soul of America. Dr. King and [inaudible] mission was to redeem the soul of America. And at the base of our nation is an identity crisis. Do we want to be an aristocracy or a democracy? Multiculturalism or race supremacy? An aristocracy of the few or a democracy for the many? We will be one person, one vote democracy, are ruled by electoral overseers. President Abraham Lincoln said, our nation cannot survive half-slave and half-free. A house divided [phonetic] against itself cannot stand. There's been an analyses as to why Secretary Hillary Clinton lost her presidency a few days ago. Much of its valid, but from my perspective, the pundits have missed the central reason. Due to democratic voter laws and voter suppression. Ari Berman and his brilliant book, Give Us the Ballot, points out that between 2011 and '15, 395 new laws of voter restriction introduced in state legislations in 49 states, many of them became law, voter restriction. The voting rights had been fully and fairly protected, we would be bringing a different discussion today. She won the popular vote. If it were not for voter suppression, she would have won the vote in the electoral college, as well. New voting laws, since June 25, 2013, it wiped out 868 polling places, that includes removing polling places from campuses and other familiar places. There's nothing more fundamental in this whole discussion than voter denial access. Our nation speaks meritocracy, but hard work, effort, and excellence cannot match or compete with inheritance, access, and racial favor. Our struggles have made us free across the years, but not equal. We need to make some moral and legal choices. Shall we be a nation with people who do the crime, including those running multinational corporations, [inaudible] Wall Street do the time? We've become the double standard of only punishing people of color and the poor. Do we have the nerve to free and pardon those who did their time for the crime and offer them a clean slate and a new start? President Lincoln pardoned Jefferson Davis and other confederates who engaged in treason against the United States of America in an effort to bind up and heal the wounds after the Civil War. President Ford did the same thing with respect to Richard Nixon after Watergate, even though he had violated, dishonored, and debased the Constitution, while it was clear that he would have been impeached and convicted and driven from office, legally and technically, he was never indicted. Tried, not convicted of anything. Unique to Ford and Nixon was that Nixon was never officially accused [inaudible] to even [inaudible] the pardon. President Ford was simply determined to stop the potential harm, was framed to [inaudible] and heal the wound. There are those [inaudible] spirit of retribution who want to use Hillary Clinton as a trophy in the name of false justice. It would be wise in the name of [inaudible] of Lincoln and Ford for President Obama to do the same and to pardon Hillary Clinton. President-elect Trump [inaudible] promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Secretary Clinton and tried to put her in prison. Even though Secretary Clinton has not been legally accused, indicted, tried, or convicted of anything. President Obama should follow President Ford's example and offer a [inaudible] pardon and inoculation against [inaudible] prosecution in the spirit of healing the divisions in our country. To do otherwise will only exacerbate divisions and harden feelings on both sides. It would be a monumental moral and political mistake to pursue the prosecution of Hillary Clinton. Such a mean-spirited action against her would unleash a [inaudible] in the nation and would damage our government. There's still tremendous tension in our country because of unfinished business. There's something in the current political turmoil of street protests. The popular vote will have more than 2 million vote lead for a significant [inaudible] in the electoral college, 310 to 228. Over 13 million votes were cast in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The three states Hillary Clinton needed to win. But she lost by a cumulative vote of 110,000 in those states. Are we going to have a one-person, one-vote system or not? President Clinton said [inaudible], said, we must go forward by hope and not backwards by fear. Donald Trump said the electoral college was ridiculous until he won and then he said it was a great system, respected smaller states, that is what rigging looks like.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

What makes it difficult to turn this decision [inaudible] is that the popular vote did not elect Donald Trump. The man who which he ran his campaign on racism and sexism [inaudible], religious bigotry, has unleashed massive hatred, fear, and division in our country. Protesters driven by fear and pain. Fear of mass deportations. Fear of a wall that can be irreputable harm to our southern neighbor, Mexico. Fear with little children crying, terrified that their parents may be deported. Fear of rejecting an American judge because of his Mexican-American heritage. Fear of banning Muslims, fear of limiting trade access, our democracy has been damaged, this room must be a sanctuary for its classmates and his friends. Let Ann Arbor stand up and stand tall, as we seek to heal our nation and make a more perfect evening. This is not just about democrats, it's about democracy. It's not about republicans, it's about the republic and its character. The rule of money, permitted by citizens united, is undemocratic and [inaudible] our democracy. But racism, fear, anger, and economic anxiety [inaudible] and small-town American play the role, many rural communities voted twice for Barack Obama, but voted for Trump in 2016 out of economic desperation. Sexism had an impact. The abandonment of the working class and organized labor played a role. We globalized capital without globalizing human rights and worker's rights and women's rights [applause] and children's rights, LGBTQ rights. The Russians hacking Hillary's and the DNC's emails, exposing them also hurt. The media giving Trump over 2 billion dollars in free advertising, just for entertaining, not emancipating. The announcement of Affordable Healthcare Act's insurance increases just before the election, [inaudible]. The FBI intervention in 2016 and [inaudible] intervention [inaudible] election impacted the outcome of each election. In 2000 was the Supreme Court, 2016, it was the FBI. Most of these points and the [inaudible] analysis by the partners were made and accepted, but they virtually [inaudible] the suppression of the black vote. Recently, [inaudible] said the republican official in North Carolina boasted a cutbacks in the early voting reduced black turnout by 8.5 percent, increased white turnout by 2.5 percent just by manipulation of the rules in the precincts. The voter suppression affects many groups, Hispanics, Asians, women, workers, young people, seniors, the disabled and whites, but the primary target was African Americans. The right to vote is the most basic right under the democracy, but the black votes is a foundation for democratic [inaudible] and process. We came in [inaudible], we're not the bottom, we're the foundation of our country, when the foundation shakes the whole world trembles. Deny blacks access to the vote and reflect the democratic party in the national vote. The effect is felt on the electoral college. President Barack Obama and others said that we don't have a national voting system, but a state and local system. You can't rig in the American presidential race, but really you can. You don't have to rig the entire system, just three or four states, suppress the black vote. [Inaudible] in Florida, in 2000, win by 537, not counting 27,000 votes in [inaudible] Florida. The state of Florida had the right to stop the count. The black vote [inaudible] 1965 and discounted in 2000 and suppressed in 2016, the common denominator of all of this madness is about the demise of the black vote. In 2016, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina [inaudible] federal appeals court said the state legislature had passed a racial discrimination [phonetic] voting law, targeted blacks with a long, surgical precision. So-called liberal states, like Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan don't have early voting, which is an institutional form of voter suppression. This [inaudible] 5.8 [inaudible] who served their time in prison for the [inaudible] probation and parole, is voter suppression. It affects black, brown, young, and poor people disproportionately. Most voters would be surprised to learn that new American, I say new American, as an American has the fundamental right to vote. The explicit, fundamental individual right to vote is not in the Constitution. Each of us has a state right to vote, but not a citizenship right to vote. Ironically, after the [inaudible] decision, we have an individual right to [inaudible], but not an individual right to vote in the Constitution, you know that's crazy [laughter]. The only reason that these states can do what they do [applause], for example, Texas passed a voting law that allows you to use a [inaudible] for ID, but not a student ID. It's because we have a state's right and a local control voting system. We must add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Gives every individual the right to vote and gives Congress the authority to establish an unified, national voting system.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

Our voting system would be decentralized [phonetic] and operated by state and local jurisdiction, but they would each have to meet the federal standards. A right to vote amendment would set the constitutional framework for Congress to pass laws to early voting everywhere, to modernize and paid to replace old, worn-out machines, [inaudible] automatic voter registration at the age of 18, to allow same-day, on-site voter registration in voting, to allow for non-basic [inaudible] voter education how to use voting machines in our schools, we must democratize democracy and make America better for all of its people. Ironically, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, with whom I just talked a few minutes, had joint and legitimate concerns. Workers left behind as a result of technological advances, workers left behind and got the raw end of globalization, victims of stagnant wages and low incomes, who are having trouble or can't pay for their children to go to college, this will be the first generation whose children will have less than their parents had. Both were for change, though in different directions. While the social numerators are different, the economic denominators were the same. Well, Trump and Sanders looked on the dry field [phonetic] of economic pain. Banks will bail out, homeowners discriminated, [inaudible] and [inaudible]. No plan for reinvestment in the community's most damaged. On that dry field of desperation, Bernie Sanders put water on trees and flowers of opportunity to grow. Donald Trump poured gasoline on the field and lit a match. Big business, international lobbyists are falling over themselves today trying to get access to the new-drained swamp administration in Washington. Here's how ridiculous things have become. Former senate-majority leader, [inaudible] the New York Times, Trump has plans to change things in Washington, about draining the swamp. He's going to need some people to help guide him through the swamp, how to - you get in, how do you navigate? They're going to help him do that. I bet they are [laughter]. The candidate who ran against Washington's corruption and [inaudible] the deal making has now turned to a rogue [inaudible] of corporate insiders, lobbyists, corporate lawyers, staff from corporate think tanks and corporate executives themselves to run the transition team. The price we're going to pay for the invasion of Iraq, expensive price, for madness and wrongness. A system, a war based on live, preemptive strike. Fighting in Afghanistan, being supportive [phonetic] in Syria and approaching 6 trillion dollars, a lot of legitimate anger and fear in the U.S. and around the world raised with economic anxiety. This anti-immigrant phenomenon and growing [inaudible] is sweeping not just the U.S., but western Europe as well. Be very afraid. The [inaudible] has been set. The KKK has been watching and celebrating while nationalists are on the move. I don't mean be afraid personally, that's a fact and [inaudible] of this climate [phonetic], but be not afraid personally, but fear for your country and the world, he won because of white anger and fear and racial resentment in the content of economically frustrating times for money for many who are not used to being economically distressed, but blacks have been distressed for a long time. [Inaudible] going to have to march around with flags in the streets, intimidating and threatening people. And having an extreme right-wing Congress and governors, offices, around the nation. Wall Street is now setting records now because they expect the handcuffs to be taken off Dodd Frank, consumer protection agency, the regulation generally on business. It's possible he could destroy the U.S. and the rural economics and take the entire rural over the economic cliff. Our environment could be irreparably damaged with his unleashing of the foolish fossil fuel industry. Sustained, massive, non-violent resistance to Trump is needed, hopefully without violence and repression. Dr. King said in his question, where do we go from here? What steps should we take? How do we keep hope and resistance alive? First, we must maintain hope. Students, don't let them break your spirit. Another naive hope, because we cannot come out of a deep hole we in with a naive or false hope. Deep water does not drown you, you drown because you start kicking. Because you surrender, because you give up, because you do less than your best, and no one has earned the right to do less than their best. You must have a hope that's strategic, [inaudible] has both a sharp and a long range plan. Must pull up with a rope of hope and not dig deep into a hole of fear, a rope of hope not a shovel of fear. Faith is a substance of things hoped for, and the [inaudible] of things not seen. The substance of the protected right to vote. Automatic registration at age 18. The [inaudible] of early voting in every state. The substance of a constitutional right to vote as opposed to state's rights. The substance of pay equity for women. Of affordable and desegregated education. Student loan debt, credit card debt, give it up, let's make education accessible and affordable for all of American's children.

[ Applause ]

The substance of sensitivity to the predicament of immigrants and Muslims, of reinvestment in our cities, of policies around guns and drugs in and jobs out. A White House conference on violence, causing cures [phonetic], racial and gender disparity, the impact of poverty on our lives. Second, we must turn protest into political organizing. Use protest to dramatize and educate. Use politics to register and vote in record numbers, and to change unfair and regressive laws. We must organize and fight to have the right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution, forcing us to keep a positive vision of the kind of country we want before the American people. [Inaudible] students must keep marching. The trajectory of youth must look into the future, you are not our future, you are right now. Stand tall right now. [Applause] Fight xenophobia right now. Fight racism right now. Fight sexism right now! End war right now!

[ Applause ]

[Inaudible] for some time, we'll walk until the winding road finds an end. Let nothing break your spirit. It gets dark, but surely the morning cometh in the dark, limits must flee. Have a commitment to healing, to building, to heal the breach. If you plant two seeds in the ground of equal strength, and you grow a wall between them, one will be tall and multiples of fruit, one will be short and stunted. The taller is not better, the small one is not lesser, it's the one that had access to sunshine, something called photosynthesis, grew. When the walls come down, we can all grow together, and this land is our land [applause], this nation is our nation.

[ Applause ]

Learn to live with classmates of different ethnic groups and religions, we are an ethnic, a diverse nation. A multicultural nation [inaudible]. We've survived apart and must learn to live together. Living together across lines of race and gender and religion, the forward by hope, not backwards by fear must characterize our [inaudible] of efforts. The Bible puts it most [inaudible], says it's - it's healing time. It's hope time. It's mercy time. And if my people will call by my name and [inaudible] themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from the wicked ways, they'll hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and heal their land. U of M, keep hope alive, this land is our land. Thank you very much!

[ Cheering & Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: Alright, good evening! I'm Bankole Thompson. Let me begin by thanking the leadership of this university, Susan Collins, the Dean of the Ford School, [inaudible] for this, John [inaudible], the Chairman of Rainbow Push, [inaudible], and, of course, my friend, Dr. Mark Schlissel, the 14th President of the University of Michigan for the leadership that the University of Michigan has provided. There is no other university right now in the nation, I think, that has been forefront with this kind of conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion, so I think this is so significant that we're here, historically, at the University of Michigan where Kennedy unveiled the peace corp and several presidents in the past have appeared before this university to unveil issues around public policy. So we're here again with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Before we begin, I want to thank my wife, who's always my support here, I think to need fulfill [inaudible], Dana Thompson.

[ Applause ]

[ Inaudible Comment ]

[ Laughter & Applause ]

[ Cheering & Applause ]

Go blue! [Laughter] Alright, Dana is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: I have a grandson who's a freshman at U of M, and because he's in the university, he's in the engineering school, he's too busy to hear his granddad speak [laughter]. He's not playing football, he's designing football fields.

[ Cheering & Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: So, we have music and concert coming up to really serenade Reverend Jackson, but before then, there are lots of questions. I've been getting a lot of emails this afternoon from students who actually are interested in hearing from you, Reverend, about where we are as a nation. One of the questions says, is the Trump election the white uprising of 2016? How can we change the systemic mechanisms that benefit white people in America? Can it be done?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: We've been here before. You know, in 1861, the choice was slavery or freedom, [inaudible] succession, [inaudible] human and freedom. We passed that test. 1964, the choice was [inaudible] order, arguing the case for statehood segregation. And Johnson for a new, inclusive for America. We won that test. We didn't win the test last Tuesday, but it is not over. [Inaudible] because with a 2 million popular people vote, the people spoke louder than those who [inaudible]. We must not give up hope. [Inaudible] it's cloudy, but it does mean the sun's not shining beyond the clouds. Don't surrender your spirit. [Applause] Don't turn on your neighbors. It is wrong to ban Muslims. It is...

[ Applause & Cheering ]

It is wrong to glorify tearing down walls in Germany and building walls between us and Mexico. It is wrong.

[ Applause ]

It is wrong for men to try to control women's bodies and deny women the right of [inaudible]. [Applause] It is wrong.

[ Applause ]

It is wrong to [inaudible] LGBTQ to violate their person, it is wrong.

[ Applause ]

It's better we fight the right fight and lose, temporarily, than fight the wrong fight and win. Let's keep fighting the right fight.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

>> Bankole Thompson: I'm curious to know what your reaction was on the night of the election, because this was not only a national event, but a global event. The world was watching what was going to happen in the United States, what was your reaction.

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: I was disappointed [laughter]. But champions play with pain. You fall down, you get up again. Because the ground is no place for champions, you have to play even with the pain, and seek to understand what you're looking at. The fact that there is legitimate economic anxiety and pain at the base, we globalize to capital, but not human rights, not international law, not women's rights, not children's rights. If we're playing a basketball game in China, we can live with the outcome. If we were playing a trade game with China, we can't live with the outcome. On the athletic side, why we accept the outcome, [inaudible], and the rules are public and the goals are clear, the referee is fair and the score is transparent. That's not true on the trade side. So, fair trade is the answer, not isolation, we must learn fair trade is the answer. We cannot [inaudible] isolation, we are one-third of the hemisphere. Two-thirds of our neighbors speak Spanish, English is a [inaudible] language in this hemisphere. We need bridges, not walls. We are a great nation [applause] because we reach out.

[ Applause ]

When we live above international law and human rights and self-determination and economic justice, we declare - we declare preemptive wars and pay no price for it. We must live with and in the world, not above it. [Inaudible] precedes the fall.

>> Bankole Thompson: The United States is the leading superpower. Looking at what happened Tuesday night, you get to travel around the world a lot, I'm curious how you think other nations, because the U.S., for a long time, has ascribed itself as sort of a moral authority, to call out nations that supposedly are violating human rights, or may not be, you know, really on the up and up. Even the state department keeps a list of nations that it claims have human rights violations, Nelson Mandela under Bush was listed as a terrorist, you know, until it was removed. I'm curious now, how do you think other nations, like Egypt and others, would not view the United States, looking at, you know, the - the political system here today?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: [Pause] Much of our moral authority is our own self-described label.

[ Applause ]

Someone said to me the other day, that we're [inaudible] for 240 years. That counts as 1776. African [inaudible] here in 1690, we were here 157 years before 1776. Didn't we matter as we worked without wages? We went from no rights to three-fifths of a human being. It was after Jim Crow, from that to segregation. We are - we have, before us, the challenge of becoming a moral authority. And now we find ourselves growing increasingly arrogant. There's strength in humility and not in arrogance. In love, not in hate. If your neighbor's house is on fire. You say, I'm looking at the ballgame, I hear a siren, my neighbor's house is on fire, well [inaudible] on fire because he drinks and smokes and sniffs pot and all kind of drugs, and he went to sleep with a cigarette burning and set is his house on fire, he has a problem! He does have a problem, but the wind blows and you live next door.

[ Applause ]

So none of us are safe unless all of us are safe. We are each other's keeper. In a world where...

[ Applause ]

If we were all on a plane, in New York, one going to a synagogue and one going to L.A., we'd get there about the same time. Science has dwarfed distance and technology has distanced - has shortened time. There are no more foreigners in this world. Everybody sees what everybody [inaudible] real time, and so learning to live together is a moral challenge. I hope that we're up to that task. And I want this university to remain a moral sanctuary for caring for people, care for all your classmates, care for all of your professors and all your faculty members, we all matter at U of M. Set the pace for the nation. We're number one, not just because we play Ohio, but...

[ Laughter ]

Be number one when you play Ohio State. [Laughter]

>> Bankole Thompson: So, you know, I was looking at the images across the nation, the protests in New York, in Chicago, across the land, normally those images come to us from the television screens around the world, when nations do not accept the legitimacy of their governments, they take to the streets to protest, basically, [inaudible] discontent about the president, about the leaders themselves, but, for the first time, perhaps, in recent memory, recent history, we're seeing in the United States, massive protests, thousands of people across the nation [inaudible] legitimate discontent. What do you make of that, and what does that say about the U.S. [inaudible]?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: I met with some Mexican children the other day crying for fear of their parents being deported. There was some young Muslim girls who were upset because the hijab had been snatched from their heads. And if that happens to any one of your classmates, embrace them, you must be your own private sanctuary for your classmate, your friend, your neighbor, we cannot [inaudible]. To be silent is to betray our conscious. We must not be silent in the face of these violations of human rights.

[ Applause ]

There's a tug-of-war for the soul of America. Shall we be aristocracy for the few, and then make a lot of money and pay no taxes? Or shall we be a democracy for the many? Shall there be one person, one vote, or should we assume that one corporation, one person, which is so absurd and vulgar? Who are we? We have an identity crisis. We must be that land that we talk about, [inaudible], your poor, your hungry, [inaudible], what makes us great is embrace those who yearn for freedom, who yearn for dignity. As universities like this, students on this campus who fear being [inaudible] and deporting after next semester, we must put - take a strong stand against having our classmates deported. We must be each other's sanctuary.

[ Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: I know you just spoke with Senator Bernie Sanders, I'm curious as to your take, what do you think was - what was it that was underestimated about this election, that has proven those, perhaps, who were thinking optimistically, you know, supporting the other candidate, Hillary Clinton, wrong? What was the most underestimated about this election?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: In what sense, Bankole?

>> Bankole Thompson: Democrats who were anxious, that, basically, either way excited that Hillary Clinton was going to win. So, obviously, they underestimated something about the election that pivoted to Trump?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Two issues. One she did win.

[ Applause ]

In a democratic society, the popular vote matters. And a suppressed vote matters, and [inaudible]. Between the popular vote lead and the suppressed vote, that then equals victory. And we would not do well to assume that popular vote does not matter. Anybody [inaudible] will accept, in your cities, emerge [inaudible] elected officials. Elected officials, you get elected one day, and they're going to give you [inaudible] the next day. That's a - that's the kind of electoral college. We demand the right elected officials represent us, and that one person, one vote stand. And I would certainly hope that we would not give up on that, I think while there are those who want to make the Second Amendment a priority, as the First Amendment, [inaudible], because the First Amendment is a priority. Use your right to demonstrate, but do so non-violently, with discipline, goals, targets, demonstrations matter when they're clear and focused and non-violent.

>> Bankole Thompson: President Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president has less than two months in office. In your remarks, you said, he should offer a preemptive, as you call it, pardon for Hillary Clinton. Are there other items, or a list of things that you would like Obama do before he exits the White House?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: I think, first of all, in some perspective, when he came into office, we [inaudible] 3,000 [phonetic] jobs that month. You had a net gain of jobs every month since. That matters. The banks were in a global meltdown, they've been revived. Not connected to reinvestment and lending, but revived. All the [inaudible] had gone down. Even the Americans were laughing at low-quantity costs coming out of Michigan. Now we're number one again. 20 million Americans have health insurance that did not have it before. Somebody said, well, the problem with Affordable Health Care is it balloons at the end. If a new car comes off the lot and the brakes are not working, the steering wheel not working, you don't destroy it, you recall it and fix it. Don't go backwards from affordable healthcare. People who don't have jobs and make little, need affordable healthcare more than ever. And so...

[ Applause ]

There are two things you can do. One is - if you were -- just look at Detroit for a moment, and we think creatively for a moment, if there's a commitment that we have 100,000 abandoned homes and abandoned lots in Detroit, and about the same in Chicago, to remove lead paint jobs, to landscaping and cut the weeds and the bushes down, and use [inaudible] loans to put entrepreneurs in business jobs, to demolish those homes and businesses that cannot be restored jobs, [inaudible] boards, put in windowpanes and put in painting and [inaudible] and roofing. That may be more jobs than people [inaudible] jobs are priority. Let's put America back to work be a priority. That was Dr. King's last mission. And so we need a White House conference on violence, causes and cures, all you have to do is dust off the [inaudible] report, violence causes and cures, we're the most heavily armed nation on earth. We lost about 6,000 soldiers in Iraq in 10 years, and 30,000 a year at home. We are the most violent nation on earth. And we can't deny it and we certainly should not brag about it. And when the idea of allowing military assault weapons to be sold on commonplace, there's no defense against these weapons. I don't know what an executive order can do, but these - these weapons can shoot down planes. They shoot up churches and theaters, we must ban military assault weapons.

[ Applause ]

[ Inaudible Comment ]

Lincoln could have taken the position, given the Civil War, where Calhoun and Lee and those guys, sought to overthrow our government. They could have been convicted and hung, tried, executed. Lincoln said, for the good of our nation, let's heal the wounds of war and go forward. And he forgave them and pardoned them, and there was [inaudible] to punish them. [Inaudible] Americans were killed, more than any other war since that time, but Lincoln chose healing and not hurting. [Inaudible] the same [inaudible] with Nixon. There were those who wanted [inaudible] to get met, and it would have been kind of a gratification for some. We finally got him. President Ford said, no, we don't need him [inaudible], we need them to move on, go on with the nation's business. And, by the way, Nixon was not tried. Was not convicted, and didn't apply for a pardon. Ford made an executive order in the national interest of America. Hillary Clinton has not been tried or convicted, facing [phonetic] all those hearings, but there are those who want to drag her, for the next three years, and to make a [inaudible] of defining who we are. It's not fair, it's not necessary. If you unleash this special prosecutor, they have God-like powers, more than even - attorney general's cannot stop them. Presidents cannot stop them. They will not stop until they find some reason to put her in jail. What a travesty that would be. How [inaudible], how unnecessary. I say only pardon her, but several thousand - several thousand other Americans who paid their federal dues for the crime they committed, and pardon them too. A kind of emancipation proclamation, let's start over again.

[ Applause ]

Now, I'm not talking about let those in jail out, that's not what I'm discussing. They're paying their dues, who have served their time, and out. [Inaudible] burden of the label of ex-felon, many of them can't vote and they can't function. If we reduce their debt, we'll reduce the damage and reduce their person, reduce their productivity. What's the purpose, if the jury's give you five years, why should society give you 25 more?

[ Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: There's another issue that I want to bring up, because you talked about putting America back to work. The Flint water crisis, what happens to Flint now?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: [Pause] Flint needs water bottles, not water pipes, water bottles. The people of Flint [applause] stand out, there are now other places in Michigan with water as poisonous, as it were in Flint. It just says that - I'm inclined to believe that there have been a lot of publicity around Flint. If there were commitment to - [inaudible] infrastructure project, which steelworkers would like to work, and for those construction people [inaudible], save lives and the environment - and the environment, we have no idea the impact that water with heavy lead on the lives of children the rest of their lives. Flint is a national disgrace and should be a national priority. This governor has a six million dollar rainy day [phonetic] fund, not a dime has gone to Flint. Flint, it's raining in Flint, raining down poison. The federal government calls Flint an emergency, not as a disaster. So the federal government offers 5 million rather than 95 million. Flint is a disaster zone, and needs recovering now. Flint deserves recovery now.

[ Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: We saw the auto industry crisis towards the end of the Bush administration. Obama, President Obama came in and rescued the industry. Now we're seeing the Flint water crisis. What do you expect, or should we expect, what should be done as it relates to the administration of Donald Trump?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Well, he has said that a priority for him [inaudible] issue is to invest in infrastructure. There certainly is a way putting America back to work. We have several trillion dollars in offshore taxes that have not been paid. He understands how that works [laugher]. And there should be a system arranged, a difference made, to bring that money back to America, targeted for reinvestment. These [inaudible] need more than a [inaudible] than the development banks. We say [inaudible] plan, we're not talking about the amount of money in [inaudible] plan, there may have been 13 billion. What made the [inaudible] plan significant was in [inaudible] it was 50 years of loan, little interest loans, and these inner cities that have been devastated by bank exploitation and government lack of investment, and by various forms of escape, we need not only to redevelop them, but a banking system for those zones for reconstruction. We know how to reconstruct nations, and we should apply it at home.

>> Bankole Thompson: You talk about Detroit and reconstruction a lot, and I spoke to the mayor's administration this week for a column tomorrow about how the city of Detroit responds to the Trump administration. How do you think, or what should urban cities do, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, you name it across the nation, how should they relate to the new administration in Washington?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: We need economic reconstruction. But we cannot tradeoff how we treat our neighbor. I want a job, but the price you pay for it cannot be to violate people's human rights. We can do both.

[ Applause ]

We can rebuild schools without having children in school crying, fearing deportation. You can rebuild cities without having, without banding Muslim. We can rebuild cities with xenophobic language and behavior, so that the issue is not, shall we reconstruct the cities? It's we reconstruct relationships. We share 2,000 miles of border with Mexico, 2,000 miles. We do more trade with Mexico in a given day than we do with China and Japan. Do you want to make your next door neighbor an enemy? It's irrational! Mexico is a gateway to South Central Latin America. That's why I said, as we think global and not just locally and see the world through [inaudible], we are six percent the world's population. And Putin, and his - Mr. Trump's group represents six percent. Most - that - one-eighth of the human race is African, one-fourth Nigerian, two-thirds of our neighbors are Latin Americans. Most people in the world are yellow, brown, black, non-Christian, poor, female, young, they don't speak English, in that world, let's lead the world in coexistence and not through [inaudible], and that world, we must live together.

>> Bankole Thompson: I want to run some names by you. These - these have been talked about as potential picks, cabinet secretaries for the new...

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Don't do that to me.

[ Laughter & Applause ]

>> Bankole Thompson: Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York has been mentioned as a potential - the number one diplomat for the United Nation - for the United States, [inaudible], Senator is also, his name is in the ring as a potential Attorney General. What is your take so far by these names that have been put out here?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Make America great again [laughter]. I mean, they represent their [inaudible]. It seems to me that some people have to make some decisions. Like, I really voted for him, but I'm willing to excuse all of this stuff to get to him, because I might get a job. You should not risk [inaudible] and maybe even for a job. We need jobs. [Applause] We also need decency and dignity in the sense of humanity as well. And I'm concerned that as we look at these - some of these names that have been surfaced, that they may do our nation harm. But that - if we - if we concede this election and don't fight for the suppressed vote, and - and December 19th, which the day the electors elect, we'll have to live with that for a season. It will not be a pretty picture, because the rural are not standing by waiting for us to violate them. We - isolation is not the way of the world. Globalization is a way of the world, but it must be balanced globalization. It's interesting that our telecom and our transmedia has a balance system, but economics do not, and so we must balance our global economics. Also, most people realize, we're not a part of the - of the world court. So we're - all the poor nations, when they violate a [inaudible] for the world court, but we shouldn't - we should not live about the world court. We should all commit ourself to justice. When your school plays Ohio State in a few days from now, on the for real side, you want to win the game, you really [inaudible] to win the game. If it's 10 yards for every first down, and [inaudible] touchdowns, you can accept the outcome. But if one school has to run 12 yards for a first down and one has to run eight yards, you can't accept the outcome. It is just out of justice, peace comes out of justice. A sense of fairness. And you cannot favor the teams wearing the teams wearing the gray and [inaudible] wearing blue and gold. There must be a sense of fairness. We've seem to have given up on justice as a reasonable [inaudible]. Justice is reasonable.

>> Bankole Thompson: It is often said, Reverend, that, you know, a truly function in democracy has to have a vibrant [inaudible]. We've seen a pattern now, since Donald Trump's election, picking a fight with the media this morning, with Twitter, with New York Times, and it concerns about the role of the media here in moving forward, especially after this election, lessons learned.

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Well, one lesson learned is that the media cannot - the media did a lot to promote Trump. And was not as - did not critique as well as it should have critiqued. But we need a free and vibrant media. And we cannot...

[ Applause ]

Social media opinions are not the same as well-trained journalists who think and do research.

[ Applause ]

Social media opinions cannot compare with the well-thought out story. We must not give up on that narrative.

>> Bankole Thompson: I have two more questions. We've seen, before this election, the new wave. We've talked about this, University of Missouri, diversity, equity, and inclusion and so forth, but going back to the Civil Rights Movement, it's well-documented that, you know, the movement for social change actually started on student campuses. For some, this moment represents, perhaps, a new era, a new civil rights movement, or, perhaps, reigniting the past. What role do you see students playing on university campuses across this nation at this point in time?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Being a social [inaudible], use their freedom to mature and to assess social justice. I remember, 19-years-old, going to jail with seven classmates, trying to use the public library, I came into my sense of maturity [inaudible], losing my fear of jail and death by going to a jail. And then other jailings, fighting to open the doors. The good news is, what keeps my hope alive, is that we have these [inaudible], but we're winning. When I look at Carolina Panthers or the Atlanta Falcons, they couldn't have been behind the cotton curtain, it would have been illegal. You couldn't have had the Olympics behind the cotton curtain in Atlanta, Georgia. You couldn't have had CNN in Georgia, you couldn't have had South Carolina as the number one producer of tires behind the cotton curtain. You couldn't have had the great [inaudible] Alabama [inaudible] behind the cotton - we are more civil. But it's just like swimming from Britain to France. It's not the distance that's [inaudible], it's the undercurrent, and there is, in life, undercurrents, there are crosswinds that are unanticipated. And some of them winds, knock you down. You could not look for the first blades of grass to lie on, you've got to get back up and keep fighting. I repeat again, deep water does not drown you. You drown when you stop kicking. Paul said there was a shipwreck one time and people were inclined to panic. [Inaudible] were some [inaudible] boards, and some were broken pieces. A few days ago, [inaudible], I was walking down the street, and I saw, well, I really didn't see it because I slipped and fell, broken sidewalks, and a root had grown under one of trees and lifted the sidewalk, and it was kind of lifted, and I looked back to where I had fallen, and in that crack, there was some grass coming out, just a little daylight, a little sunshine, a little water, life sometimes comes through the cracks. Sometimes it does not come in hope, he says, you must find life wherever it is and let life express itself. Even [inaudible] cannot suppress us ultimately. We the people, in the end, right will prevail. [inaudible] character and character breeds faith, in the end faith will prevail. It is on that belief that we go forward and don't surrender.

>> Bankole Thompson: That's a nice segway, Reverend, to my final question. Next week is Thanksgiving, there are lots of families who will be having Thanksgiving, but in fear, in a state of fear, unsure what will happen the next day, the next week. In January, what do you say to those families that, you know, might have a different Thanksgiving this year because of the climate in the nation today?

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Well, if I were a turkey, I would not organize a Thanksgiving dinner, that's the first thing [laughter]. [Inaudible] The turkey should not organize Thanksgiving dinners. You got the point? Break a leg [phonetic]?

>> Bankole Thompson: Yes I do. [Laughter]

>> Rev. Jesse Jackson: Well, we cannot settle for people having a meal a day a year, people need to have the capacity to have a balanced meal everyday. That's the first issue.

[ APplause ]

Some of the great heroes and heroes of our time are people who, in World War II, who found threatened Jews and gave them sanctuary. Their lines were defined [phonetic] by providing for frightened people's sanctuary. A little love will do, if there is some student, some classmate of yours who you know is anxious and maybe cry at night because the fear of deportation. Maybe take them home for Thanksgiving with you, and be kind, and not only should your school be a sanctuary, and not - and fight for policies that protect. I mean, you have students in this university right now who have come against great odds and they're doing well in class, but they fear being deported. We can mobilize and fight for policies that stop that from happening. I think if we mobilize, the worst may not happen. It is - it's solace that betrayal. When we didn't have the right to vote, we got the right to vote because we marched with discipline. All I'm saying to you is that fight for the [inaudible] right to vote. What makes America great is the right to fight for the right fight for affordable healthcare, [inaudible] student loan, debt reduction, fight to forgive student loans, fight for that which are meaningful to you, fight for Supreme Court justice, the moral of supreme, not just supreme in their power, and keep fighting, and there are checks and balances, you know, Trump will not make a move on America like he moved on the hotel. There are checks and balances, because I [inaudible], one reason why he is not going to move the way from [inaudible] he thought he was, because his constituents need affordable care. There are people who were so confused until they wanted affordable care, but they didn't want Obamacare [laughter]. They wanted omelet, but didn't want eggs. [Laughter] But now they will find out. Thank you very much!

[ Laughter & Applause ]

>> Aaron Dworkin: My name is Aaron Dworkin, I serve as Dean of the School of Music, Theater, and Dance here at the University of Michigan.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

First, I would just like to share our appreciation again to Reverend Jackson for joining us as we celebrate your legacy and commitment to civil rights for more than 50 years. Thank you again!

[ Applause ]

As we get set up here, I just wanted to share, when Dean Collins shared with me her desire, that the performing arts and its role in the Civil Rights Movement serve as an important part of this symposium, I was moved and filled with excitement for the opportunity that our students would have to demonstrate some of the ways in which the arts can help us shape a better society. The reality is that the arts have played a pivotal role in social justice movements from the very beginning. Frederick Douglass, the great orator, statesman, freedom fighter, leading the abolitionist movement, played the violin, as well as his son and his grandson, Joseph Douglass, was the first black violinist to tour nationally and internationally. Frederick Douglass believed all fully-emancipated, civilized men should understand music. To that end, he taught himself to play the violin, which served an important role in his life and which is why you will find his violin atop his desk at the Frederick Douglass museum in D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others in the Civil Rights Movement, grew up with a piano and the performing arts in their homes. Martin and Coretta met at a music school, where she was studying voice and violin. Dr. King shared at a speech he gave in 1964, in Berlin, long before the modern SAS and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down, for in the particular struggle of the Negro in America, there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. For over 50 years, Reverend Jackson has been at the forefront of these issues. Of the great Mahalia Jackson, you stated, that's where the power comes from, when there is no gap between what you say and who you are, what you say and what you believe, when you can express that in song, it is all the more powerful. It is now my honor to welcome to the stage, a number of our talented SMTD students and faculty who will depict the values and ignite the emotions of the Civil Rights Movement through song, dance, drama, and instrumental music. Each artist and performance will be individually introduced by Justin Gordon, who is an LSNA student, minoring in global theater and ethnic studies. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr. Gordon to the stage.

[ Applause & Cheering ]

>> Justin Gordon: Good afternoon! Good afternoon, everybody! Good afternoon, good afternoon! I am humbled and grateful to be here, and I'd like to speak on behalf of all of my family in the room, personally to Reverend Jackson, and say that, after your remarks today and your presence here on campus, I'll respect in reverence for you and your legacy has deepened even more, and I just want to give a humbled thank you to begin this - this serenade of music and performance for you. And he, his message, has inspired us to be able to say all around the world, together, we all going to say it together. I am...

>> Audience: I am...

>> Justin Gordon: ...somebody!

>> Audience: ...somebody!

>> Justin Gordon: I said, I am...

>> Audience: I am...

>> Justin Gordon: ...somebody!

>> Audience: Somebody!

>> Justin Gordon: Thank you, Reverend Jackson. I appreciate you. I'd like to first introduce Mr. Jordan Samuels, he is a musical theater student, and a baritone vocalist, and his accompaniment will be from Professor Jason [inaudible]. He will be signing the song, Make Them Hear You, from the musical Ragtime. The original singer and performer of this song is Brian Stokes Mitchell, and in the musical, it was -- the song was sung by the protagonist named, Coalhouse Walker, Jr., and he was a successful black pianist who started a riot and revoked after his wife was shot down by murderous policemen, only after trying to shake the hand of then President, Theodore Roosevelt. Ladies and gentlemen, please, Mr. Samuels. [Applause]

[ Music & Singing ]

[ Applause & Cheering ]

>> Justin Gordon: One more time for Mr. Jordan Samuels, please!

[ Applause & Cheering ]

Now, some people sing songs, that man just sang that song [laughter] right there. Next, I'd like to present to you an excerpt from the documentary, Love, Life, and Loss, which featured the song, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, originally composed by Joel Thompson, and will be performed by the University of Michigan men's glee club. Under the direction of Mr. Eugene Rogers, Associate Chair of Choirs and the Professor of Conducting here at our esteemed university. Please, enjoy!

[ Applause ]

[ Music ]

>> Eugene Rogers: Great art should do more than entertain. Great art should connect you to things that are going on today.

>> Joel Thompson: I wanted to process my own feelings about being a young, black man in this very racially-tense time, and also to - to do something about it. I remember making a very purposeful decision, like, I need to say something with this art, I need to provide healing with this art.

>> Eugene Rogers: So The Seven Last Words is a multi-movement work that features the last words of African American men who've lost their lives before their time.

>> Daniel Passino: Music is a good outlet to really tell a story, and I think that's what we're doing here with this pieces. We're really telling a story, and to have the perspective of the people that were lost.

>> Joel Thompson: The Michigan Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest choral organizations in the United States.

>> Eugene Rogers: The Seven Last Words is a good fit for the glee club because of how diverse the choir is. Having people of various races singing the words of this struggle is very meaningful to me and very moving to me, to see people connecting with the pain.

>> Patrick Kiessling: This piece purposefully is very shocking, and it is meant to inspire a reaction.

>> Unknown Speaker: I don't think great art should always make us feel comfortable.

>> Wesley Fields: It's easy to get wrapped up in anger, but I feel a lot more needs to be focused on honoring their lives.

>> Unknown Speaker: Now, more than ever, do we need art to create sincere dialogue between disparate groups.

>> Patrick Kiessling: That's the point of really, truly great art, is we're trying to inspire that conversation.

>> Daniel Passino: It's not about a color of your skin, it's not about the type of person you are, it's really about - it's really about life.

>> Ryan Carrell: It doesn't matter what the nature of the loss is, because it is tragic no matter who it happens to.

>> Unknown Speaker: As we focus on Love, Life, and Loss, regardless of one's political opinion, we can all agree on the value of human life.

[ Music ]

[ Music ]

[ Music & Singing ]

[ Applause ]

>> Justin Gordon: That was very moving. And I'd like to now, with my personal pleasures, bring to the stage a super soprano vocalist, Miss Kayla Hill [phonetic]. She'll be accompanied today by Mr. Joshua [inaudible], and she'll be singing a song called, Minstrel Man, by Margaret Bonds, which is one song in a set of three called, The Three Dream Portraits. These set of songs, who are accompanied with text from poems of the late, the great Langston Hughes. This song, in particular, personifies a mindset of a minstrel performer while always having to continuously have a joyous exterior which struggling and wrestling with inner turmoil that structural racism always brings. Please, welcome Miss Kayla Hill to the stage.

[ Applause ]

[ Music ]

[ Music & Opera Singing ]

[ Applause & Cheering ]

Is anyone else just absolutely floored by that performance? [Applause & cheering] Man, oh my. I'm from the west side of Detroit, Michigan, and we don't get a lot of opera singing. The first time I ever heard anyone personally sing opera was three weeks ago during their practice [laughter], and my whole perception during singing has changed ever since I heard Miss Hill's voice! One more time for Miss Hill!

[ Applause ]

This next program, and the leader of this program, deals with certain demographic that we forget about. A certain demographic that sometimes does not get the resources that they were entitled to as citizens, and they were taken away, technically, by the 13th Amendment. I'm speaking to the institute of prisons and the prison industrial complex, and the Prison Creative Arts Project, who was fighting against those inhumane practices that are happening behind those walls to our brothers and sisters. The Prison Creative Arts Project, which you'll see here in a film presentation, and subsequent after the - the film presentation, the director herself will come and give a scene of her play, Doing Time Behind the Visiting Glass. I'll allow you to learn and see what fighting for lives really looks like when you can't physically touch someone. Thank you.

[ Music ]

>> Ashley Lucas: My students and I are here for a theater exchange program with [inaudible], which is the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro. We are a program at the University of Michigan called the Prison Creative Arts Project, or PCAP, and we do theater work in prisons with adults and children throughout the state of Michigan. Here in Rio, we have collaborators who do incredible theater for social change work in hospitals, prisons, and [inaudible].

[ Foreign Language ]

In Brazil, theater is of the people, for the people. This is a very Latin American tradition, it doesn't just belong to Brazil. But when my students come here, they realize that theater can happen in many different ways that they had not previously imagined, and the theater has many different practical roles in people's lives. Really high-quality, professional theater can happen in a cramped waiting room of the hospital where the actors have this much room to do a whole play, and it can be marvelous!

[ Foreign Language ]

[ Applause ]

My brother's an artist. He draws and paints, but mostly, he does graffiti. Right now, he's doing seven years for graffiti! [Foreign language], seven years of your life for a crime where nobody got hurt? Who's it helping for him to be in prison? The guy who's wall he wrote on? Shoot. Would have helped that guy more if they gave him community service and made him clean up the [inaudible] wall. I think, mostly, they locked him up because he's a smartass. So, when we was kids, we took this trip to El Paso, and we saw this mural that said, God is Mexican [laughing]. And, Danny, my brother, loved that! When we got back to Phoenix, he started going everywhere, writing it on all the walls. God is a...

[ Foreign Language ]

God comes from [foreign word]. God hangs out at [foreign word]. He didn't just paint the words, he made them beautiful. We grew up having this real strange relationship with God, because of my mother. So, we were Catholic and we went to church on Sundays and prayed like everybody else, but during the rest of the week, [inaudible] would talk to God like he was her compadre or something, like he was right there washing the dishes and folding the laundry, and then she'd get mad at God and call him stupid and yell at him, and then she'd have to apologize, because he's God, right? So she'd say something like, [foreign language], I was angry with you this morning for sending rain on the day of Lolita's first communion! But then I realized that you send the bad weather on purpose. So that it would blow [foreign language], ugly dress over her head on the steps of the church to punish her for being one of [foreign language] [laughter]. Now that your plan has been revealed to me, I want to say how sorry I am for yelling at you this morning, and for eating that extra communion wafer.

[ Foreign Language ]

So this was my mother! Right? We heard this all day long! And then my brother...well, he'd been hanging out with all these guys, right? And one night, a bunch of those guys got arrested. And if Danny [phonetic] had been with them, he would have got picked up too. So, so he started going to all of those place where he used to write, God is an undocumented immigrant, and God dances [foreign word]. And he started writing his friend's names instead. [Inaudible] is in prison. [Inaudible] is in prison. [Inaudible] is in prison. [Pause] The day the cops got him, he was writing, Leo [inaudible] is in prison. God is with him. God is a prisoner. [Crying] He tried to run when he saw the cops, but they caught him, and three of them beat him until he had a concussion. And they broke his right hand. So he don't write to so good no more. And after that, [inaudible] stopped talking to God for a week, and...and now Danny [phonetic], he writes us letters in this - this real shaky handwriting, and at the bottom, underneath his signature, he always writes, God is a prisoner.

[ Applause ]

>> Justin Gordon: I am honored to say that Dr. Ashley Lucas is my mentor and, arguably, the greatest human being I personally know. And if you don't know who she is, as the late, great, temporary poet, Christopher Wallace, AKA Biggie Smalls, said, if you don't know, now you know, students.

[ Laughter ]

Next, I'd like to present an excerpt from a moving dance piece called, City of Rain, created by Camille A. Brown and performed by U of M dance majors and masters of fine arts candidates. This film, moving dance piece, represents the spirit of perseverance in the face of struggle, loss, and grief. Please, enjoy!

[ Music ]

[ Applause ]

If I could dance like that, I wouldn't be up here talking to you all right now. I'd just move for a living. That was - that was amazing. That was amazing. Now, we're almost at our conclusion, and we have had some triumph, we have had some encouraging words, we've got to end with some jazz, right? We've got to end with some music, correct? Yes! [Applause] Yes. I am proud to present a jazz quartet for the ages. We have [inaudible] Belgrave [phonetic] on saxophone, [inaudible] Reed [phonetic] on drums, [inaudible] on bass, and David [inaudible] on trumpet. They will be playing, Wail, a song by Bud Powell. He was a great jazz pianist back in the 40's and 50's that battled police brutality and racism, despite making classic music. Afterwards, they'll play a song called, Cyclic Episode. Now, as all good parties go and all good celebrations go, we got to give you something to leave with, something to go home with. We've got to send Reverend Jesse Jackson home on a good note, on a great note, even as he walks outside of the door, correct? [Cheering] Alright! We have one of our esteemed professors and musicians, Tiffany Ing [phonetic], will be playing on the Carillon out in the Bell Tower, she will be playing Negro Spirituals as leave, as you walk to your cars, or buses, songs such as, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and the Black National Anthem, lift every voice and sing. Ladies and gentlemen, that is my time, I love you all, family, hope to see you soon. Thank you!

[ Applause & Cheering ]

[ Music ]

[ Applause & Cheering ]

[ Music ]

[ Applause & Cheering ]