Today, All Across This Country There Are

I Met Rosa Parks When I Was 17. I Met Dr. [martin Luther] King When I Was 18. These Two Individuals Inspired Me To Find A Way To Get In The Way, To Get In Trouble. So I Got In Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble.

First Time I Got Arrested, I Knew Somehow And Some Way, We Would Succeed. To Go On The Freedom Ride To Be Beaten And Left Bloody And Unconscious, To Be Beaten On That Bridge In Selma, Have A Concussion - I Thought That I Was Going To Die On That Bridge. But Somehow And Some Way, I Lived To Tell About What Happened, And I've Seen Some Of The Fruits Of The Labor Of So Many People, And People Must Understand That.

My Parents Told Me In The Very Beginning As A Young Child When I Raised The Question About Segregation And Racial Discrimination, They Told Me Not To Get In The Way, Not To Get In Trouble, Not To Make Any Noise.

People Should Organize People To Just Turn Up And Participate In The Democratic Process. Knock On Doors. They May Not Be Old Enough To Register To Vote, But They Can Urge Their Teachers, Their Parents, Their Grandparents, Their Mothers, Their Fathers, And Others To Get Out And Vote.

In Spite Of All Of The Things, The Issues, That We May Be Confronting Today, I'm Very Hopeful, Very Optimistic About The Future.