Hello, I'm Oscar Mireles, chair of Wisconsin's annual tribute to Dr. King. Please give a warm welcome to congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin. (audience applauding) Thank you, Oscar. Thank you all. And welcome to Wisconsin's 31st Annual Tribute and Ceremony Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I'm so pleased to co-emcee this event, the oldest official state celebration in the nation. As your neighbor, and as your representative, I am committed to protecting the rights of all, not just some. And that is the lesson that Dr. King preached. And we celebrate that cause in his memory. I hope you'll join me in making this a special day of remembrance, reflection, and certainly celebration. I invite you now to stand as you are able for our invocation led by Dasha Kelly. Dasha is founder and director of Still Waters Collective, a Milwaukee-based outreach initiative based on the power of the written and spoken word. Dasha has performed and delivered workshops to writers, teachers, young people, business people, inmates, and artists throughout the United States. There was a miracle stitching itself into the tendons of our resolve, strengthening the same will we all summoned to conquer the night, the same blaze of fire we use to fuel our passions for this freedom. There was a victory waiting for us on the other side of Dawn. Waiting for us to move and in spite of heavy burdens, slicing the bite of mortal foibles and flaws, we know that we are still the ones for whom we are waiting. We are the light bearers who will carry the sunrise across another dark meridian. Another shadow in our history, we will make new opportunities to color the sky. We have power swelling inside of our senses, inside of our own intentions and intuitions. We are able to shift this landscape. Been truth around our common designs alone, we are still mighty, but together we are greater than words. We are still the cure for the brighter new days, every day souls with time cards to punch, laundry to fold, photos to put into frames and our own small dreams to be realized into greatness. We are a healing. When we move in unison, arms and minds and hearts spinning in magic, and still we move together. We are each an answer for a greater tomorrows, for our shared future brilliance. for our shared horizon, there was a miracle that happens beneath the glory of the sun. There was a miracle that happens when a community heals together. (audience applauding) Please remain standing as members of Wisconsin's Prince Hall Masons, Capitol City Lodge No. 2, a philanthropic institution dedicated to improving communities here in Dane County serve as our honor guard with trumpeters, John Georgeson and Kyla Hanson, pipers, Tom Greenhall and Sean Michael Dargon and drummer, Ken Clary. On April 4th, 1968, on a motel balcony, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, just the day before he had preached, "I don't fear any man, "mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." We stand in honor of Dr. King and all those fallen souls who paid the ultimate price for freedom here and around the world. (somber bagpipes music) (somber bagpipes music) ("Taps") (somber bagpipes music) Please be seated. It's my pleasure now to introduce the executive producer of Wisconsin's official tribute and ceremony honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now in its 31st year, please welcome a great citizen and dear friend, Jonathan Overby. (audience applauding) Sometimes I feel Like I'm motherless child Sometimes I feel Like a motherless child Sometimes I feel Like a motherless Child A long Ways From home A long ways From home Sometimes I feel Like I'm almost gone Sometimes I feel Like I'm almost Gone Sometimes I feel Like I'm almost gone A long ways A long ways A long Ways From Home (audience applauding) Hey, hello everybody. It's good to see you today. And thank you for coming out to our 31st celebration of Dr. King's birthday here in the Capitol rotunda. How about that? Isn't that something special (audience applauding). I'd like to thank congresswoman Tammy Baldwin for emceeing with me today. She's great. She gave up her day to be here because this day is so important to her. And I want you to give her a big, big round of applause. (audience applauding) And it's not only important to Tammy Baldwin. Look at this day is of church leaders, civic leaders, elected officials, and dignitaries within our various educational systems around the great State of Wisconsin. I'm delighted that they would come and join this celebration. And I know they are here because it is equally important to them as leaders in their own respective communities and positions in the state. I'd like them to stand. I like it to see who they are, and I want you to give them the biggest round of applause you possibly can. Please. Can everybody stand, let them see you who you are. (audience applauding) Give them a big hand, would you? (audience applauding) All right. Now, I'm gonna ask you to stay standing. Would you just for a second, would you? (audience laughs) I'm sorry, I was a little slow on my cue. You weren't supposed to sit down yet. But if you stand, those of you who are not standing and join me and my good friend Leotha Stanley. Was that the piano? 'Cause we're gonna sing a song that is called, "We Shall Overcome." Now this song got us through. You know what I mean When I say us? Any of you who've struggled in life about something, whatever that might be. This is a chance to call to memory the struggle, but I hope for a better day. We shall overcome We shall overcome We shall overcome Some day Oh deep Hold hands In my heart Oh I believe Come on, say it folks. Oh We shall overcome Some day All right, lets sing it again. Come on, let your voices ring. We shall overcome We shall overcome You sound mighty good. We shall overcome Some day Oh Deep in my heart Oh I Do believe That we shall overcome Some day All right let's do this thing, come on. Yeah. (audience clapping) We shall overcome Come on, get it on now. We shall overcome Deep in my heart Oh I Do believe that We shall overcome All right, come on, get it. We shall overcome Put your hands together, come on. We shall overcome We shall overcome Some day Oh Deep in my heart Oh I do believe We shall overcome Some day (audience applauding) Thank you. Thank you very much. (audience applauding) Yes sir. All right, now, while you're standing. You know what I think we could have? I think we could have a day as gospel choir right here. This could really be something special. We always have a tradition here that we turn to someone that we don't know and say, hello to him in the spirit of good community. So would you do that right now? Turn around, shake hands and say hi to someone. It's been our 31 year tradition here in memory of Dr. King's profound sense of love for others. And for those of you listening and watching today's annual tribute and ceremony honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, I invite you to share in the tradition by pausing for just a moment to reflect on how you personally might make a positive difference in your own community. The theme for this year celebration of Dr. King's birthday is heal the world. And as the nation's oldest annual state celebration, this event in the rotunda of Wisconsin State Capitol is designed to pay tribute to Dr. King's legacy of love for others and his dedication to justice and equality for all. Kings onuses as critically important today, as it ever was, therefore, each of us follow in his example by doing what we can in our own communities to heal the world by standing up for quality, inclusivity and respect for all. And not just some. Beginning today, let us dare to heal the world with a renewed commitment to serving others. This I believe will strengthen communities all across the badgerland. Moreover, such efforts have the power to transform lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the beloved community that Dr. King envisioned and hoped for. Let us all take part in healing the world. Thank you, Jonathan, for all that you do to keep Dr. King's work alive. (audience applauding) Now, Mark Denning was born on the Menominee reservation in 1961. As a child, he saw the civil rights movement at work on and off the reservation, and he was heavily influenced by the broader struggle for equality. Mark is a member of the Oneida tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. He will dance to a song about a man who sets out to defend against intruders. Mark says, and I quote, "It's an old war song, "but I think it's a good choice for the day "because my people had to fight for "and are still fighting for our rights." He reminds us that the Menominee have been here for 10,000 years, which makes them Wisconsin's oldest residents. Welcome Oneida tribal dancer, Mark Denning. (audience applauding) Wanted to say, shekoli. Good afternoon. To each of those that are assembled here in this rotunda. And I hope that my voice goes out to the people that aren't able to be here. The people in their cars, the people in their nursing homes, the moms and dads, the grandmas and grandpas. We come together here. We think about each other. We come together as relatives and in celebration. My mother descends from the Golden Eagle Clan, Mille Lacs, Minnesota. My father, Menominee, descends from the great bear. And so it is in this way, that is indigenous people in this state of Wisconsin, that we extend our words of welcome, that we extend our words of thanksgiving. And I appreciate being a person that was asked to be here. So all I can represent all voices here in the state of Wisconsin and the Indian community. I'm proud to represent myself and my clan, and the tribes I belong to. And lastly, I'd like to say a good welcome to the new administration, the new people that are coming here to work in the state of Wisconsin. We're excited. We welcome you, especially our governor, Scott Walker. (audience applauding) Let's before I do this dance for all of you, I wanted to share the first time I met Scott, he was playing lacrosse at Indian summer. His wife and children were watching. And next thing you know, I saw a politician bolting out of the crowd, wanted to play with us. So I got all that boys together, all the native guys that were playing, I said, "Whatever you do, don't hurt him." (audience laughs) That boy's gonna go somewhere. But unfortunately during one play, I'm sorry, Scott. I saw a black hair and I saw you zooming across the field, but I didn't see her face. I grabbed him by the neck and I threw him to the ground. (audience laughs) So I just wanted to say, sorry about that. (audience laughs) And I hope we have better relations in the future. (audience laughs) So, I'm gonna dance for you all (audience applauding) and have a good celebration. (metal clanking) (Native American music) (audience applauding) Thank you, Mark. Mark helped found and directs the Oneida Social Services office of Southeast Wisconsin and became chairman of the Indian Community School. He continues to provide service to the community. Now we have the pleasure of hearing from a favorite ensemble around Dane County, and a favorite ensemble here at Wisconsin's annual tribute to Dr. King beginning in 2000. The Highway To Heaven Gospel Project, Big Band under the direction of John Georgeson is rooted in ministry service to others, through the joy of sharing great music. Today they'll perform, "Sing," by Israel Houghton and Aaron Lindsey with soloist Judy Georgeson, followed by the composition, "Glorious," by Israel Houghton and Martha Munizzi with the drum solo by Brent Well. Here is, "Highway to Heaven." (audience applauding) Now is the time for all people From every land to come together Now is the moment to worship We enter in withholding nothing He's worthy Exalted He's high and lifted up Sing Sing unto the Lord Open up your heart Make a joyful noise in the sanctuary Sing Sing unto the Lord Lavish Him with love Let the praises ring in the sanctuary Sing Now is the time for all people From every land to come together Now is the moment for worship We enter in withholding nothing He's worthy, exalted He's high and lifted up Sing, sing unto the Lord Open up your heart Make a joyful noise in the sanctuary Sing, sing unto the Lord Lavish Him with love Let the praises ring in the sanctuary Sing, sing unto the Lord Open up your heart Make a joyful noise in the sanctuary Sing, sing unto the Lord Lavish Him with love Let the praises ring in the sanctuary, sing Here we go Gotta open up your heart and give Him praise Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands, unashamed in the sanctuary Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands unashamed Sing, sing, sing Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands unashamed In the sanctuary Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands unashamed Sing, sing, sing Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands unashamed In the sanctuary Gotta open up your mouth and give Him praise Open up your heart and give Him praise Lift up holy hands unashamed Sing, sing, sing Sing unto the Lord Open up your heart and make a joyful noise Sing unto the Lord Lavish Him with love Make a joyful noise Sing, sing unto the Lord Open up your heart Make a joyful noise in the sanctuary Sing, sing unto the Lord Lavish Him with love Let the praises ring in the sanctuary, sing (audience applauding) Give 'em a big round of applause, "The Highway to Heaven," gospel project Big Band under the direction of John George. (audience applauding) More music for you now featuring the MLK celebration choir, and includes pianist, Susan Fray, and guest conductor, Michael Hillestad, who leads the choir with a musical tribute to Dr. King featuring two compositions. The first is, "Gone Too Soon," with words by Buz Kohan, music by Larry Grossman and arranged by Jay Althouse followed by Michael Jackson's, "Heal The World," arranged by Andy Beck. First here's, "Gone Too Soon," with the MLK Celebration Choir. Please give 'em a big hand. (audience applauding) Like a comet Blazing 'cross the evening sky Gone too soon Like a rainbow Fading in the twinkling of an eye Gone too soon Shiny and sparkly And splendidly bright Here one day Gone one night Like the loss of sunlight On a cloudy afternoon Gone too soon Like a castle Built upon a sandy beach Gone too soon Like a perfect flower That is just beyond your reach Gone too soon Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight Here one day Gone one night Like a sunset Dying with the rising of the moon Gone too soon Gone too soon (audience applauding) There's a place in your heart And I know that it is love And this place could be much Brighter than tomorrow And if you really try You'll find there's no need to cry In this place you'll feel There's no hurt or sorrow There are ways to get there If you care enough for the living Make a little space Make a better place Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me And the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place For you and for me If you want to know why There's a love that cannot lie Love is strong It only cares of joyful giving If we try we shall see In this bliss we cannot feel Fear or dread We stop existing and start living Then it feels that always Love's enough for us growing Make a better world Make a better world Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me And the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place For you and for me And the dream we were conceived in Will reveal a joyful face And the world we once believed in Will shine again in grace Then why do we keep strangling life Wound this earth, crucify its soul Though it's plain to see This world is heavenly Be God's glow We could fly so high Let our spirits never die In my heart I feel you are all my brothers Create a world with no fear Together we'll cry happy tears See the nations turn their swords into plowshares We could really get there If you cared enough for the living Make a little space To make a better place Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me And the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place For you and for me Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me And the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place For you and for me You and for me You and for me Heal the world we live in You and for me Heal the world we live in Save it for our children You and for me Heal the world we live in For you and for me Save it for our children For you and for me Heal the world we live in For you and for me Save it for our children (audience applauding) Please welcome, once again, Highway to Heaven, to perform, "Glorious." (audience applauding) When you come into His presence Lifting up the name of Jesus And you hear the music playin' And you see the people praising Just forget about your worries Let your troubles fall behind you Don't you wait another minute Just get up and on your feet and Get to dancing, singing, jumping, leaping Get to shouting, make it loud and make it glorious Start rejoicing, praising, lifting, raising Get to shouting, make it loud And make His praise Glorious, glorious Come on and clap your hands. When you come into His presence Lifting up the name of Jesus And you hear the music playin' And you see the people praising Just forget about your worries Let your troubles fall behind you Don't you wait another minute Just get up and on your feet and Get to dancing, singing, jumping, leaping Get to shouting, and make it loud, and make it glorious Start rejoicing, praising, lifting, raising Get to shouting, and make it loud And make His praise Get to dancing, singing, jumping, leaping Get to shouting, and make it loud, and make it glorious Start rejoicing, praising, lifting, raising Get to shouting, and make it loud And make His praise Glorious, glorious Come on and lift up the loyalty. I was created to make His praise glorious I was created to make Your praise glorious Glorious, yes, I was, yes, I was I was created to make Your praise glorious That's what the Bible says I was created I was created To make Your praise Gonna make it glorious Glorious, yes I was Yes, I was I was created To make Your praise glorious I was created just to make Your praise glorious I was created just to make Your praise Gonna make it glorious Glorious Yes, I was Yes, I was I was created just to make Your praise Glorious Give Him glory Make His praise glorious I was created just to make Your praise Glorious, glorious Yes, I was Yes, I was I was created to make Your praise Glorious (audience applauding) Each year, Wisconsin's annual tribute to Dr. King honors individuals whose community work, professional achievements, or service to others in diverse and unique ways is deserving of tribute and recognition at this event. Today we recognize three Wisconsinites. The first, is a man who's been a friend to me and this community for decades, Ricardo Gonzalez. (audience applauding) Ricardo came to the US from Cuba in 1960 and graduated from East Central Oklahoma State university. Ricardo went on to become personnel manager for the Green Giant company in Ripon, where his concerns from migrant workers led him to run for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1972, the first Latino to run for such an office. Two years later, he opened the Cardinal Bar in Madison, an institution dedicated, not just to socializing, (audience applauding) but to community organizing in support of progressive causes and candidates. Ricardo himself served on the Madison Common Council from 1989 to 1995. In 1994, Ricardo founded the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association to foster understanding and the improvement of relations between his homeland and the United States. Since 1975, Ricardo, a volunteer host at WORT FM radio in Madison has been a driving force for edifying and celebrating Latin music and culture. On behalf of the governor's office, it is my great personal pleasure to present Wisconsin's 2011 MLK Heritage Award to Ricardo Gonzales. (audience applauding) Thank you, Tammy. Thank you, governor. My good friend, Manuel Perez, new secretary of Workforce Development. He's got a job cut out for him. There are many people I should wanna thank for this honor, people who have guided and helped me along the way. Time is limited. So I will mention my parents and family for their nurturing, my partner, Brian, for his love and companionship, and the people of Wisconsin for taking me into your traditions. The message of Dr. King was all about love, peace, and nonviolence. It was about rising above our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. At a time when the world needs healing more than ever, we must honor the legacy of this great man and live up to his expectations. Dr. King said, "Hate cannot drive out hate. "Only love can do that." All I can add to that is s, se puede. Yes, we can. Thank you. (audience applauding) Hi. The national award-winning Latino Arts Strings Program was established in 2002 at the United Community Center of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and housed in the Bruce Guadalupe Community Schools, created and directed by Dinorah Marquez. This pre-college music training program provides Latino students with instruments, music materials, individual lessons, small group orchestra, and mariachi ensemble lessons every single week. The program reaches over 150 children, ages five through 17 that might otherwise never have the opportunity to receive focused music instruction with two compositions, one by Jose Pablo Moncayo, entitled, "Huapango," and the other, "Guadalajara," by Pepe Giza with vocalist, Juan Navaretti. (speaks in a foreign language) (audience applauding) (upbeat violin music) (upbeat violin music) (audience applauding) (singing in a foreign language) (audience applauding) Mary Louise Mussoline is executive director at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, where she leads a staff dedicated to reaching a young and diverse audience through noncommercial radio and an online community. Radio Milwaukee celebrates diversity and community engagement, promotes a positive global identity for Milwaukee, and supports the work of its nonprofits organizations. Mary Louise has worked with a broad range of organizations, including the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Brico Fund, the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation, Highland Community School, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, and the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee. She is also on the faculty of The Fund Raising School at Indiana University. On behalf of the governor's office, I'm honored to present Wisconsin's 2011 MLK Heritage Award to Mary Louise Mussoline. (audience applauding) Thank you. Thank you for this award. I'm really very honored to receive it. As displayed here today. Music has a power to unite. And so at Radio Milwaukee, where we play diverse music for a diverse city. And it's evidenced here today, that it's really powerful. Having worked with nonprofit organizations throughout my career, I've seen the generosity of communities, both in serving those in need and in giving support to fuel organizations to do their important work. And there is much work to be done. Dr. King lived his entire life in service to others. Speaking out against what he called, the triple evils of poverty, racism and war. Wherever he saw suffering, he did what he could to help no matter who it was that needed his help, or why they were in pain. Through his leadership, he showed what we can accomplish when we stand together. As Dr. King told us, life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? It is up to each of us to answer his challenge and do our part to build community and ease suffering. The community and spirit that we share here today will continue if we each answer this question every day, what are you doing for others? Let us take the stand together. Thank you very much for this award. (audience applauding) As we continue Wisconsin's 31st Annual Tribute and Ceremony Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's a treat for you today, featuring the Madison Youth Choirs led by artistic director and conductor, Michael Ross, with a combined chorus of members of the Cantabile and Ragazzi Ensembles, performing a traditional Yoruba song popularized by the legendary group, Sweet Honey in the Rock. The piece is called, "Ise Oluwa," God's work will never be destroyed. That composition will be followed by the traditional South African freedom song called, "Freedom is Coming." Please welcome conductor, Michael Ross and the Madison Youth Choirs. (audience applauding) (singing in a foreign language) (audience applauding) Freedom is coming tomorrow Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Oh, freedom Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, freedom Freedom is coming Oh, yes I know (audience applauds) Our next heritage award recipient is a dedicated public servant whom I'm also privileged to call a friend. Judge Paul Higginbotham was appointed to the Wisconsin Court Of Appeals in 2003 by governor Jim Doyle, and was elected to a six-year term in 2005. He served on the Madison Municipal Court and the Dane County Circuit Court, Paul was acting director of the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission, Dane County Minority Affairs Coordinator, a civil rights lawyer, and adjunct professor at the UWA Law School. On behalf of the governor's office, I'm delighted to present Wisconsin's 2011 MLK Heritage Award to Judge Paul Higginbotham. (audience applauds) Hi, Julian. Hi, Paul. Thank you. Thank you very much to the Martin Luther King Heritage Award Panel. This is truly a great honor. I dedicate this award to my parents. My mother, Pat Higginbotham is here today and my father who passed away last August. (audience clapping) And my father marched with Dr. King in Washington, DC and in Selma, Alabama. And I remember the days of the civil rights struggle in Columbus, Ohio, and the bomb threats and the death threats that our family received. I have hoped to have carried on that dream in my life. And for me today, this is a pinnacle of what I have embodied as hard work for the rights of others. So as we celebrate and remember the dream of Dr. King today, I too am reminded of his words where he said that, "Life's most persistent and nagging question "is, what are you doing for others?" And we must ask ourselves, what are we doing to make the lives of all people better? Not just a select few, but for all people. What are we doing to eliminate injustice, poverty, and intolerance. We must be the change that we wish to see in the world. Dr. King's work remains undone. There's too much to do. The need for healing in this country is profound. We must continue to work for good education, meaningful work and meaningful wages, a clean environment, healthcare for everyone, our response of government, (audience applauds) a right to decent and affordable housing, and equal rights under the constitution for everyone. (audience applauds) We must work together for a more adjustment, peaceful world where the hopes and dreams of all people can be realized. Let us take the next step together today as we remind ourselves of the virtues and values, Dr. King stood for and offered to the world. Thank you very much. I am both honored and humbled to receive this tremendous award and God bless all of you. (audience applauds) Please give all of our recipients of this year's MLK Heritage Awards, a round of applause, please. Thank you. (audience applauding) And now the children's choir of Mount Zion Baptist Church. (audience applauding) They've been ministering in song for 25 years, states their director, Carla Gaines. The choir has shared their music all across Wisconsin and Illinois at church events and community events. They've opened concerts for such groups as The Five Blind Boys of Madison. And they've been a featured guest here at the Wisconsin tribute to Dr. King for many years, rendering an A and B selection with Leotha Stanley at the keyboard, Vanessa McDonnell in bass, and Jaylen McCullough, drummer, and performing under the directorship of sister Karola Gains from Madison, Wisconsin, Mount Zion Baptist Church's children's choir with, "We Are The World," and, "Savior Do Not Pass Me By," with singer, Jane Colbert and Cedric Morris. If you're ready, holla back. (audience applauding) There comes a time When we heed a certain call And the world must come together as one There are people dying And it's time to lend a hand to life The greatest gift of all We can't go on Pretending day by day That someone, somewhere will soon make a change A part of God's great big family And the truth, you know, love is all we need We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So, let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me Send them your heart So they'll know that someone cares And their lives will be stronger and free As God has shown us By turning stone to bread And so we all must lend a helping hand We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So, let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me When you're down and out There seems no hope at all But if you just believe There's no way we can fall Well, well, well, well Let us realize That a change will only come When we stand together as one We are the world We are the world We are the children We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So, let's start giving So, let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me We are the world We are the world We are the children We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So, let's start giving So, let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me We are the world We are the world We are the children We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So, let's start giving So, let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me It's true we'll make a brighter day Just you and me (audience applauding) Savior Do not pass me by Savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Won't You hear my humble cry Cry Cry Do not pass me by Savior Do not pass me by Savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Hear my humble cry Cry Cry Do not pass me by Savior Savior, hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Do not pass me by Savior Do not pass me by Savior, hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Won't You hear my humble cry Cry Do not pass me by Savior, savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Do not pass me by Savior Do not pass me by Savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Won't You hear my humble cry Cry Cry Do not pass me by Shower down Shower down Shower down Shower down Anoint me Lord Anoint me Lord Anoint me Lord Anoint me Lord Anoint me Lord Anoint me Lord When the praises go up The blessings come down When the praises go up The blessings come down Savior Do not pass me by Savior Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Won't You hear my humble cry Cry Cry Do not pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by Savior Savior Savior I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by I need a blessing don't pass me by (audience applauding) The Mount Zion children's choir, everybody. (audience applauding) Our guest speaker today, Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate and legal scholar who currently holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Kirwan Institute, Michelle Alexander was an associate professor of law at Stanford Law School, where she directed civil rights clinics. In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of her first and highly acclaimed book, "The New Jim Crow "Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." For several years, professor Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, where she helped lead a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement. As an attorney in an Oakland, California law firm, she specialized in plaintiff side class action lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination. Professor Alexander is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for US Supreme Court, Justice Harry Blackmun, and for Chief Justice Abner Mikvah on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Please join me in giving a hearty Wisconsin welcome to Professor Michelle Alexander. (audience applauding) Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. It is beyond an honor to be here, to join in this extraordinary celebration of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's life and his legacy. We are living in confusing times today. It's a time of great paradox. One is tempted on a day like today to focus entirely on Dr. King's achievements and his contributions, the way he helped to transform our nation and our collective public consciousness. But if there is one principle that Dr. King demonstrated consistently as much as his commitment to nonviolence, it was his commitment to the principle of honesty. The principle of telling the whole truth about matters of race. And as he put it quite bluntly just months before his death, he said, quote, "I do not see how we will ever solve "the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation "until there is an honest confrontation with it "and a willing search for the truth, "and a willingness to admit the truth "when we discover it." So in Dr. King's honor, today, I'm going to do my best to tell the truth about race in America. It's a truth (audience applauding) that many Americans will deny just as they denied the truth about slavery and Jim Crow in those times. But the truth is this. We, as a nation have taken a wrong turn, a tragic detour in the stride toward freedom. As a nation, we have betrayed Dr. King's dream. A vast new racial udercast now exists in America, though their plight is rarely mentioned on the evening news. Obama won't mention it, The Tea Party won't mention it, media pundits would rather talk about anything else. The members of the undercaste are largely invisible to most people who have jobs, live in decent neighborhoods and zoom around on freeways, passing by the virtual and literal prisons in which they live. They are part of the other America. In 1968, Dr. King gave a speech entitled, "The Other America," in Grosse Pointe High School. He said, quote, "There are two Americas, "one America is beautiful. "And this America, millions of people "have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality "flowing before them. "This America is the habitat of millions of people "who have food and material necessities "for their bodies, culture, and education for their minds, "freedom and human dignity for their spirits. "In this America children grow up "in the sunlight of opportunity, "but there is another America. "This America has a daily ugliness about it ""that transforms the buoyancy of hope "into the fatigue of despair." He then went on to cite the inadequate, overcrowded and fundamentally unequal schools. He described the high rates of unemployment in the black community. The official rate of black unemployment at that time was about 9%. But he noted the figure didn't include all those who had given up all hope of looking for work. He said the unemployment figures, quote, "Do not take into consideration "the thousands of people who have given up, "who have lost motivation for work, "the thousands of people "who have had so many doors closed in their faces "that they feel defeated "and they no longer go out and look for jobs. "The thousands who have come to feel that life "is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. "The vast majority of Negros in America find themselves "perishing on a lonely Island of poverty "in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." On this day of all days, I think we owe Dr. King and ourselves an answer to this question. What really has changed? Most people today of all colors will tell you that so much changed. They'll say, "Just look at all the black lawyers "and doctors. "We're free now to eat in any restaurant, "sit at any lunch counter. "Just look at Barack Obama, just look at Oprah Winfrey, "just look at Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. "Our nation has come a long way." And then they add, "But of course, "we still have a long way to go." This kind of talk. And this familiar line implies that we're on the right path. That if we just keep plodding along, keep forging ahead, sooner or later, we'll reach the promised land. But is that right? Are we truly on the right path, the same path Dr. King was traveling? Or have we made a tragic U-turn? Could we be heading right back to where we began? Most of the indicators of black wellbeing today that Dr. King cited in his other America speech are actually worse today than they were back then, worse. Today only 35% of black boys nationwide graduate from high school. The figure is 26% in New York City. Only 12% of black fourth grade boys are proficient in reading and shocking numbers are still not proficient in high school. Today as in 1968, the reason for these shocking figures is not that black children lack native intelligence or a desire to learn. It's that their schools are so fundamentally inadequate and that hopelessness and despair pervades their families, their homes, (audience applauding) and their communities. Dr. King complained that the official black unemployment rate in 1968 was 9%, with many more looking for work. Today in cities across America, more than 50% of black men are jobless, 50%. Several months ago, the Center for Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee issued a report showing that 53.3% of working age black men in Milwaukee are jobless, the highest ever recorded. In Detroit, the figure is 60%. Black unemployment rates have been breaking records nationwide was scarcely any notice. In December, data released by the Community Service Society show that only 25% of young black men in New York City actually have a job. Now, I wish I could say that, that news is the worst of it, but it's not. Now I've promised to tell you the truth and to do my best to tell the truth as boldly and fearlessly as Dr. King once did, even when few Americans wanted to hear it or willing to listen it. So here it is (audience applauding). During the past 30 years of vast new system of racial and social control has emerged from the ashes of slavery and Jim Crow, a system of mass incarceration that no doubt would have Dr. King turning in his grave. The systematic mass incarceration of poor people of color in the United States has emerged as a new cast system. One that shuttles children from decrepit underfunded schools to brand new high-tech prisons. This system locks poor people of color into a permanent second class status for life. It is the moral equivalent of Jim Crow. Now I must confess, there was a time when I rejected this kind of talk. There was a time when I thought that people who made comparisons between mass incarceration and slavery or mass incarceration and Jim Crow were engaging in exaggerations, distortions, hyperbole. I thought people who made those kinds of claims were actually doing more harm than good to efforts to reform the criminal justice system and achieve greater racial equality in the United States. But what a difference a decade makes, because after years of working on issues of racial profiling, police brutality, drug law enforcement in poor communities of color and attempting to assist people released from prison, quote unquote, reenter into a society that never had much use for them in the first place. I had a series of experiences that began what I call my awakening. I began to awaken to a racial reality that is so obvious to me now that what seems odd in retrospect is that I had been blind to it for so long. As I write in the introduction to my book, "The New Jim Crow," what has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness it's no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't. Rather than rely on race we use our criminal justice system to label people of color criminals, and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. (audience applauding) Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination, employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service, suddenly illegal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights and arguably less respect than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America. We have merely redesigned it. Here are a few of the facts I uncovered in the course of my research and work that I described in the book. There are more African American adults under correctional control today, in prison or jail on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. In 2004, more African Americans were disenfranchised than in 1870, the year, the 15th amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote on the basis of race. Now during the Jim Crow era, of course, poll taxes and literacy tests kept black folks from the polls. Well today, felon disenfranchisement laws have accomplished what poll taxes and literacy tests ultimately could not. In some major urban areas, more than half of working age African American men have criminal records. And are thus subject to legalize discrimination for the rest of their lives. In fact, it was reported in 2004, that in Chicago, if you take into account prisoners who are excluded from poverty statistics and unemployment statistics that's masking the severity of racial equality in the United States. But if you count prisoners in the Chicago area, nearly 80% of working age African American men have criminal records. These men are part of a growing undercaste, not class, cast, a group of people defined largely by race who are locked into a permanent second class status by law. Now I'm sure there's many people listening right now that are thinking themselves, "What is she talking about?" Mass incarceration is not a system of racial control, it's a system of crime control. The black people just stop committing so many crimes. They wouldn't have to worry about going to prison and being stripped of their basic civil and human rights. But again, I promise to tell you the truth today, the whole truth. And the truth is that our prison population has quintupled for reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates. In less than 30 years. In less than 30 years, the US penal population exploded from about 300,000 to now, well over 2 million. We now have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, a penal system unprecedented in world history. But this is not, I repeat not due to crime rates. Crime rates have fluctuated over the past 30 years, gone up, gone down. And today, as bad as they are in some places are actually at historical lows. But incarceration rates have consistently soared. Most criminologists and sociologists today will acknowledge that crime rates and incarceration rates in the United States have moved independently of one another. Incarceration rates, particularly black incarceration have soared, regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any given community or the nation as a whole. So what does explain this vast new system of control, if not crime rates? The answer, the war on drugs and the Get Tough Movement, the wave of punitiveness that washed over the United States. Convictions for drug offenses alone, explain more than half of the increase in the state system and two thirds of the increase in the federal system between 1985 and 2000, the period of the greatest expansion of our prison system. To get a sense of how large a contribution the drug war has made to mass incarceration, consider this. There are more people in prisons and jails just for drug offenses than were incarcerated for all reasons in 1980. Now, those who imagine that the drug war has been focused on rooting out violent offenders or drug kingpins, think again. The overwhelming majority of people are arrested for drug offenses are arrested for relatively minor nonviolent offenses. In the 1990s, for example, the period of the drug wars, most dramatic escalation, nearly 80% of the increase in drug arrests were for marijuana possession, a drug less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, but at least if not more prevalent in middle-class white communities and on college campuses and universities as it is in the hood (audience applauding). But the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color. With our young people being stopped and searched, frisked, their cars pulled over in the search for drugs. These are communities that have been targeted in a drug war and made the enemy. Studies have shown now for decades that contrary to popular belief, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites. (audience applauding) Now this defies our basic stereotypes. Our basic stereotypes of a drug there earlier is that no black kid standing on a street corner with his pants sagging down. And plenty of drug dealing happens in the ghetto, but it happens everywhere else in America as well. In fact, studies have shown (audience applauding) that were significant differences in the data exists. It frequently indicates that white youth are more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth (audience applauding), but that's not what you would guess by taking a peek inside our nation's prisons and jails which are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders. In some States 80 to 90% of all drug offenders sent to prison have been African American. But that's just the beginning, 'cause when released from prison, people find themselves ushered into a parallel social universe. They find that they face a lifetime of discrimination, scorn, and social exclusion. Many people branded felons find it difficult even to survive. For the rest of their lives they must check that dreaded box on the employment application asking, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" It doesn't matter if that felony happened three weeks ago or 35 years ago for the rest of your life. You've got to check that box unemployment applications knowing full well the odds are that application's going straight to the trash. To make matters worse, people released from prison are barred from public housing for a minimum of five years, and may be legally discriminated against by both public and private landlords for the rest of their lives. Even food stamps may be off limits to people convicted of drug offenders. What are folks released from prison expected to do? Can't get a job, you're barred from housing, even food stamps may be off limits to you. What do we expect folks to do? What is the system designed to do? It seems its designed to send people right back to prison, which is what in fact happens about 70% of the time. (audience clapping) About 70% of released prisoners return within three years. And the majority of those who return do so in a matter of months, because the challenges associated with mere survival on the outside are so immense. Why have we chosen this path? Why have we chosen to recreate a vast new racial undercaste in America? Now I don't have time in this forum to describe the racial politics that gave rise to the drug war and the Get Tough Movement or the myriad ways in which politicians of both political parties exploited our nation's racial divisions and anxieties with Get Tough slogans and rhetoric for political gain. And I don't have time here today to explain the ways in which the seismic shifts in the US economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy, to a service-based economy has made black men in particular uniquely vulnerable, no longer needed to pick cotton in the fields or labor in factories. Black men have found themselves suddenly disposable no longer necessary to the functioning of the US economy. But what I can say is that in the years following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's death, our nation was faced with a choice, a fork in the road. We could continue down the road. Dr. King was traveling. We could choose the path of compassion, inclusion, forgiveness, unity, and hope. Or we could choose a different road. A road more familiar when it comes to matters of race, the road of exclusion, division, punitiveness and despair. One day, I believe historians will look back on the era of mass incarceration and they will say it was there, right there at the prison gates that we abandoned Dr. King's dream and veered off the trail he had blazed. (audience clapping) We took a detour, a tragic U-turn that would result in millions of African Americans locked up and permanently locked out. We have now spent a trillion, a trillion dollars on the drug war since it began. Funds that could have been used for schools, for economic investment in our poorest neighborhoods, for job creation, for small businesses, a trillion dollars could have been used to promote our collective wellbeing. Instead, those dollars pave the way for the destruction of countless lives, families and dreams. So what do we do now? Where do we go from here? My own view is that nothing short of a major social movement has any hope of ending mass incarceration in America and inspiring a recommitment to Dr. King's dream. Now, if you doubt that such a movement is necessary today, consider this. If we were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s before the drug war and the Get Tough Movement kicked off, we would have to release four out of five people who are in prison today. More than a million people employed by the criminal justice system would lose their jobs. Most new prison construction has occurred in rural communities, already teetering on the edge of economic collapse. Those prisons across America would have to close down. Private prison companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange will be forced to watch their earnings banish. (audience clapping) This system is not going down without a major fight, a major upheaval, a radical shift in our public consciousness. Of course, there's those who say, there's no help, no hope of ending mass incarceration in America. Just as many were resigned to Jim Crow in the South, today, many people view the millions of people cycling in and out of our prisons today as an unfortunate, but inalterable fact of American life. I know Dr. King would not have been so resigned. And so I believe that if we are to truly honor Dr. King, we must be willing to continue his work. We must be willing to go back and pick up where he left off. We must do the hard work of movement building on behalf of poor people of all colors. In 1968, Dr. King told advocates, the time had come to transition from a civil rights movement to a human rights movement. Meaningful equality could not be achieved through civil rights alone. Basic human rights must be honored, the right to work, the right to housing, the right to quality education for all. "Without basic human rights," he said, "Civil rights are an empty promise." In honor of Dr. King, I hope we will commit ourselves to building a movement to end mass incarceration, a human rights movement, a movement for education not incarceration, jobs not jails, a movement to end discrimination against those who are released from prison, discrimination that violates their basic human rights to work, to housing, to food. But before this movement can get underway, a great awakening is required. We must awaken from our colorblind slumber to the realities of race in America. And we must be willing to embrace those labeled criminals, not necessarily their behavior, but them they're humanists because it has been the refusal and failure to recognize the dignity and value of all people that has been the sturdy foundation for every caste system that has ever existed in the United States or anywhere else in the world. It is our task today I firmly believe not just to end mass incarceration, but to end this history in cycle of caste in America. Thank you very much for having me. (audience applauding) We shall remember the name, Michelle Alexander. (audience applauding) As the oldest official state celebration in the nation beginning in 1980. This event has celebrated Dr. King's memory with the annual presentation of an official's state proclamation honoring the day and certainly King's memory. Governors, Lee Dreyfus, Anthony S. Earl, Tommy G Thompson, Scott McCallum, and Jim Doyle have all taken an active part in this celebration, now, 31 years old. Today, that tradition continues. Please join me in welcoming Governor Scott Walker, the 45th governor of the State of Wisconsin. (audience applauding) Thank you. I've got a proclamation here and I'm gonna share a couple of comments. But as I mentioned this morning, I was in Milwaukee in a similar celebration with young people from across the Milwaukee area, part of the YMCA's annual tradition and declared it there as well, that today all across the great State of Wisconsin, that being the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day in this state. Not only in state buildings, not only with our cabinet, who is here, our lieutenant governor is here, my staff is here, but with all the people from every part of the State of Wisconsin. I was last night back at my home in Wallatosa talking with my mother and she loves giving me pictures. She takes pictures all the time. And one of the pictures I pulled out, obviously with a crowd here, it's hard to see, but it's her and one of her best friends from a week ago. A week ago, I was here with the chief justice aross the way taking the oath of office. And later that day, my mother had taken pictures of some of her friends and others that were with her. One of them was a woman, it's in this picture by the name of Jewel Sims. Jewel and my mother met about 55 years ago. They were both participants in Girls State. They both happen to live South of the border in Illinois. My mother was a farm girl from just outside of Belvedere, Illinois. Jewel was an African American school girl from Chicago. And like many kids at that time who got together in programs Girls State, or Boys State, or other programs like that. Jewel and my mother became friends along the way. And later they went back to school that fall, my mother invited Jewel to come and visit with her in Belvedere, at their farm, just outside of town. Now, my mother's an only child, lived on a farm, barely got in the town, didn't know a whole lot about what was going on at the time, and was shocked that particular day as my grandparents, my mother and Jewel went in to have dinner. And she found out for the first time in her life that they wouldn't serve her. Because Jewel was away. My mother went home and cried that day. And probably like maybe some others in her time could have said that that was enough, and would have just let that be and would have moved on she and Jewel continued to be friends. She'd go to Chicago, Jewel would come to Belvedere. Later when they were married, each went to each other's wedding ceremony. When their kids were born, they were together for those events. When I was married nearly 20 years ago, Jewel was there. And last week when I took the oath of office, Jewel Sims was sitting right about up there. The reason I tell you that as some of you know, my father is a minister. And certainly over the years, my father has been an inspiration the words he said from the pulpit about all sorts of things, but particularly about Dr. King. My father was a Baptist minister. In many years, I got to meet the reverend doctor, the Reverend not doctor, but the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr, up at Green Lake as part of other ministers who were part of the American Baptist Assembly, the National Baptist Assembly. And I was at the time. So my father certainly was an inspiration. But I think in many ways for my younger brother and I, the relationship that my mother and Jewel Sims had over the years was a much greater testimony than anything my father could have said from the pulpit. When I saw those young people up here earlier, the message I like to share with folks on a day like today. And we're gonna hear in a moment from the, "I Have a Dream," speech. And certainly those speeches are great inspirations. But sometimes I think our young people feel overwhelmed. Sometimes they think they look at that and they say, "I can't give a speech like that on a mall like that. "I couldn't be like Dr. King." They realize where the words are certainly inspirational, more important than that, were the actions, were the deeds. Now the deeds of Dr. King himself with the millions of people he inspired here in Wisconsin across this country and around the globe. As we look ahead to the future, to all the challenges that were put before us here today, and the other ceremonies like this all across the state, one of the best things we can do is make sure that we don't just adhere to the words, but to the actions of Dr. King and all those who followed the train seem to follow in his way ever since. Ricardo said it well before I said this this morning. I love quoting from the, "I Have a Dream," speech and from talking about, "I've Been to the Mountaintop." But one of my favorites is when Dr. King said that, "Darkness can't drive out darkness, only light can do that. "And hatred cannot drive out hatred, "only love can do that." The past week and a half we know that more than ever. Not only on this day, but in every day, the best thing we can do is examine how we treat others. Not just in politics, not just in education or business, but in each and every aspect of our life. And when we do that, we will truly carry on that dream. (audience clapping) So governor, I saw you holding the proclamation and this proclamation, or I should say for 30 years, it's gone out to someone in the audience and for 30 years, it's always come back. And so today, I'm gonna ask someone from this side of the rotunda, if you've come. And governor, would you like to hand that to one of 'em and come get it, please. Anybody, okay. Is Paul's, all right. Come on anybody. Yeah, okay, come on, sir. And there you go. (audience clapping) So pass it around. Yeah, there you go. Just to be clear, that wasn't a personal gift. It's gotta go all the way around there. Speaking of traditions, most years, we've invited a young person to come and recite an excerpt from Dr. King's famous 1963 speech, "I Have a Dream." One of our nation's most celebrated speeches. This year, student speaker, Cedric Morris Jr. A sixth grade student at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison. Cedric loves to play and watch basketball. He dances, he sings, loves to hang out as well with his big sister, his mom told me. She also told me that he enjoys being a sixth grader and is very dedicated to being a good student too, by attending an afterschool tutoring session twice a week with his own adaptation of Dr. King's dream speech. Please welcome Cedric Morris Jr. (audience applauding) And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day, this nation will rise up and live out of the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truth to be self evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into a oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in the nation where they will not be judged by the color of their own skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with the governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as brothers and sisters. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed that all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. And this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we'll be able to hear out the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we'll be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing in the new meaning. My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing land where my fathers died. Land of the Pilgrim's pride from every mountainside, let freedom ring. And if this America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops in New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California, but not only that let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia, let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, in every state, in every city, we'll be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men, white men, Jews, and Gentiles, Protestants, and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last." Thank God Almighty. We are free at last. (audience applauding) Cedric Morris Junior, everybody. (audience applauding) In 2008, The Latino Arts Strings Program won the National Coming Up Taller Award given by a presidential committee and the national endowment for the arts and humanities. In 2009, Director Denorah Marquez was named Milwaukee artist of the year by the Milwaukee Arts Council. In 2010, Ms. Marquez was invited back to the White House with several of her students as part of President Obama's and first lady, Michelle Obama's efforts to promote the arts. Today, she leads the Latino Art String Program with a traditional composition director, Marquez has arranged called, "La Negra." (audience applauding) (upbeat violin music) (audience applauding) Thank you for that wonderful music. Thanks to all of our performers and participants and awardees for this year's Martin Luther King Day state celebration. Let's give them all a great big hand. (audience applauding) And how about a big round of applause for Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin for emceeing the program with me today. (audience applauding) And thank you, Jonathan Overby for inviting me again this year. (audience applauding) Well as Highway To Heaven performs, "I Will Rejoice," by Ryan King and Chris Lockwood with a vocal solo by Debbie Biddle. On behalf of the governor's office and those who made this program possible, I'm Jonathan Overby. Thank you for celebrating Wisconsin's 31st Annual Tribute and Ceremony Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We'll see you next time. And may your day be filled with peace and harmony. Thank you. (audience applauding) I will rejoice In the Lord I will sing praise Forever I will give thanks For Him