Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks At The Brooklyn Academy Of Music’s Annual Tribute To Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 2018

Video available at: https://youtu.be/BeHx7pB1ff0

Mayor Bill de Blasio: [Inaudible] Martha Redbone and her band.

[Laughter]

Wow, do you feel energized by that?

[Applause]

Excellent. It is a joy to be here at BAM because every year we get here in fellowship and in solidarity. And I appreciate everything that BAM does for us in Brooklyn and this city, and it’s a place that reminds us of who we are, a place for everyone.

And it’s something that makes us very proud as New Yorkers.

Now, I am here today to very briefly provide something that we do not get enough of lately. It’s a thing called encouragement.

[Applause]

If you want to be discouraged, turn on your television –

[Laughter]

– Watch the news. If you want to be depressed just check your Twitter feed.

[Laughter]

But if you want to be encouraged, look at what’s happening on the ground in the neighborhoods of this city and all over this country where people are taking matters into their own hands to protect the values that we all cherish.

And that’s what Dr. King would have had us do – act as if this is our society not someone else’s to lord over us. It belongs to us.

I’ve said about our city, this is your city. It does not belong to the wealthy and the powerful, it belongs to you.

[Applause]

And we have an obligation in this city to fight against some of the currents of the times that we live in and build something better and make it a beacon.

New York City has always been a beacon of hope and an example of what it looks like for people to live in one place and find a way to get along, to live and let live, to build that beautiful community that Dr. King dreamed of.

So, we have an obligation here to build something together. We also have, I think, an obligation to remain hopeful no matter what is thrown at us. And I want to remind you, all of us were brought up – when we honored Dr. King, when we honored the Civil Rights Movement, we thought of the song “We Shall Overcome” and it made us feel something very warm and it made us feel a connection.

But I don’t want us to think of it as something nostalgic. I don’t want us to think of it as something of the past or something that was just a saying. We need to think of it – we need to think about that phrase, we shall overcome, as an instruction to all of us and we need to remember that even when it feels tough, we have the example of Dr. King and his movement.

They did not stop in the face of adversity. Think – put yourself in those times. Put yourself up against those odds. Imagine what it must have felt like especially in the beginning to overcome, to try to overcome that huge barrier of resistance, to overcome a culture that was so unyielding.

People didn’t have legal rights, people didn’t have political rights, people didn’t even have the right to free speech for all intents and purposes.

Imagine trying to build a movement for change in that atmosphere. That is what Dr. King did with so many others, so many names that are famous, and so many we’ll never know. They did it town by town, city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood against odds we can only imagine today.

And that should inspire us to recognize we can overcome whatever is thrown at us in this time. Now, I will say we have seen some rather unpredictable things lately. I have personally read some tweets I never thought I’d see in my whole life.

[Laughter]

And it’s off putting and it’s confusing but it should not be paralyzing. In fact it should be energizing. We’re dealing with the unknown but Dr. King and his movement dealt with things they knew all too well and that seemed impenetrable, intractable and yet they soldiered on with a kind of hope that we need to find in ourselves today.

Had they not, had they become discouraged and depressed and confused and tired, there’s so much that we would not be able to do today, there’s so much that we would not be able to achieve today.

[Applause]

So, let’s celebrate their strength amidst the storm. Let’s celebrate their perseverance. Let’s recognize that we can touch that positive current in history and it can help us right now. Let’s try and live in Dr. King’s image every day because, in fact remember Dr. King did not say elect a great president and the president will take care of you problems. He did not say pass a single law and that law will solve all of your challenges.

Dr. King believed in building a movement from the grassroots and letting it grow and grow and grow to change our society to its core.

[Applause]

So, I have a question for you all. Are we going to be discouraged by mean tweets?

Audience: No.

Mayor: Are we going to be set back every time something stupid happens in Washington D.C.?

Audience: No.

Mayor: If they pass an unjust law in the Congress, are we going to give up?

Audience: No.

Mayor: Our job is to fight back. Our job is to fight back.

[Applause]

Are you ready to fight back?

Audience: Yes.

Mayor: Alright, you’re waking up now. I like that.

[Laughter]

So, I’m now going to give you the encouragement. Were the greatest, largest, demonstrators in the history of this country, were they back in that seemingly back in that seemingly golden age of protests in the 60s? No. The largest, the most pervasive demonstration – millions upon millions of people all over this country – it happened January 21st 2017 all over America.

[Applause]

It happened in our time and it should happen more often in our time.

[Applause]

Dr. King and his movement built, when they had so few resources and they were up against so much – what he would have given to be organizing in the Digital Age. But we get to organize in the Digital Age, that’s what we receive as our gift.

I’ll give you two more examples to give you encouragement, one right here in this city and one far away. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’m going to give you an example – NYCHA’s good too. Here in this city there was a movement about five years ago up against what seemed to be impossible odds. And if you listened to the voices of the status quo, there was no room for change, there was no possibility. People in this city said they were sick and tired of a broken and unconstitutional policy of stop-and-frisk, and they stood up and they fought against it.

And it started at the grassroots and the grassroots changed the dialogue in this city and that lead to change at the highest levels of our government, and today in New York City we have ended that broken policy, we have instituted a policy of neighborhood policing, and guess what, because we got fairer, we are the safest big city in America.

[Applause]

We proved with a whole city watching but also the whole country watching that safety and fairness could walk hand-in-hand. We took something that seemed impossible just a few years ago and together proved that an entirely different model worked because people did not get discouraged, did not get thrown off by the voices of the status quo. They kept fighting for change and they achieved that change.

One more example I want to give you then I have the honor of introducing a brief video from someone very special. You know if I were to say to you that in this time in our history you could change things in any state no matter how troubled that state was, that no matter how painful the political reality was, no matter how much people were being disenfranchised you could still make change.

If I said you could do it anywhere, you’d say, “Wait a minute, Bill, that’s too optimistic.” So I want you to cast your gaze to a place that was in the core of the Civil Rights Movement 50 years ago but has now taught us a positive lesson again, the State of Alabama.

[Applause]

If you want encouragement, look to Alabama. May be a phrase you were not expecting to hear earlier this year, but I’m going to say it to you – or earlier last year – I’m going to say it to you because it was not just that there was a repulsive candidate of one party it was that people organized and believed in something and wanted to make a change in their state, and they did not believe the critics and the doubting Thomases who told him it was not possible. 

If they were listening to the conventional wisdom, they would not have bothered. Think about it. If you’re living in Alabama and you went through decades of seeing disenfranchisement all over again, it would have been easy to stay home, wouldn’t it? 

So why did people come out in record numbers – record numbers? Because they believed they could make a change. By the way they were victims of today’s voter suppression laws. They could have said, “Even if I want to, I will never get by that gauntlet.” But they actually laughed in the face of the efforts to suppress their vote and they came out in a way that not only changed the future of their state but shook this whole nation.

My friends, that’s not ancient history. That happened a few weeks ago. Does that encourage you just a little?

[Applause]

So I conclude with a simple point. You’ll hear that song today and I’m sure you’ll hear it many other times – we shall overcome again. It’s not nostalgia. It is a message from those who came before us lighting the way for us in our time.

[Applause]

I have the blessing of having a partner I walk through life with who believes in change and does something about it every day, our First Lady. And she is off to another state today to spread the word about what we’re doing to help reach those with mental health challenges, to end the stigma and to help people in need.

And she wanted to be here but since she couldn’t, this video will express her feelings to all of you. Thank you, everyone.

[Applause]

First Lady Chirlane McCray: Hello, Brooklyn. Thank you BAM for hosting this event every year – 32 years and it’s still going strong.

And thank you all for coming out to honor Dr. King’s legacy and vision. In 1964, Mayor Robert Wagner officially today Dr. King an honorary New Yorker by presenting him with the Medallion of Honor of the City of New York, and he said, “This is not your city of residence, Dr. King, but it is your city nevertheless.”

I believe Dr. King’s life and work has touched New Yorkers so deeply because we know we have the potential to realize his vision. New York is a city of dreamers and strivers, of people who come from different parts of the world and all different walks of life. And we live and work, learn and pray, laugh and cry alongside each other.

It is not a coincidence that many of the most consequential social justice movements in our country's history have rooted and bloomed right here. And now in the face of appalling decisions by our national leaders to sabotage people’s health care, to intensify inequality, to attack the most vulnerable among us, it is fitting and essential that New York City shows our country a better way forward.

That means first leading by example. My husband and I and everyone in the de Blasio administration work hard every day to address the root causes of inequality.

We have expanded pre-k for all families, we are bringing mental health services to the communities that need them most, we are standing up for those who are marginalized, and we must go beyond leading by example if we are to truly live up to Dr. King’s legacy. We must organize, organize, organize for tangible results.

He showed the nation that when people unite, we can achieve the impossible. So, get involved and be prepared to stand up and speak out for your neighbors, for Salvadorans and Haitians and any one in our immigrant communities, for the Puerto Ricans who have taken shelter here and for those still left without power and support, for our LGBTQ family members and friends, for the formerly incarcerated who are our returning citizens.

The list of people targeted by the White House seems endless but so is our city’s capacity to model leadership and fight for justice. I am so proud of what we have achieved together but there is so much more to do, and all of you can help by taking action in your own communities.

If you see an act of hatred or intimidation whether on the subway or the street, intervene while keeping yourself safe. If you see an act of violence, report it.

We must count on our fellow New Yorkers to have our backs and we must continue to live Dr. King’s vision in our daily lives. Volunteer for a cause you’re passionate about. Find a way to serve people less fortunate and always, no matter where you are or what you’re doing, be kind.

Thank you all for honoring Dr. King’s legacy today and every day.

[Applause]