The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives hosted National Urban League CEO and President Marc Morial at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church. The occasion was the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave opening remarks.
“Dr. King was a mighty civil rights champion, a defender of the disenfranchised, a powerful voice for the voiceless,” said Jeffries. “But he was also a man of God, and he drew strength from that as many of us have tried to draw strength over the last year or so with all of the challenges that have been coming out of Washington, DC.”
“As we gather here on this King Day, we know there is trouble all around us, wickedness in high places, trouble all around us, but we are not distressed,” Jeffries said. “Dr. King gave us the blueprint, the vision, the dream to find our way forward out of the turbulence that we are in right now. He told us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We’ve got to confront injustice wherever we find it. Show up, stand up, and speak up for what we know is right, and to channel the courage, conviction and character of Dr. King as we move forward in these challenging times.”
House Democratic Leader
“Dr. King told us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We’ve got to confront injustice wherever we find it … channel the courage,
conviction and character of Dr. King as we move forward
in these challenging times.”
Jeffries continued, “We want to move the country forward. The extremists are trying to turn back the clock. They want to erase our history. Civil rights history and Black history is American history. We will never let them erase it. Those were values articulated by Dr. King because they are American values.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James spoke of her fight to protect New York State.
“The Supreme Court is about to hear the Voting Rights Act. All of the progress that we have made as a nation is being dismantled,” said James. “As the Attorney General of the State of New York my job is simple: protect New York from any harms.”
James said so far she has defended the state against over 50 executive orders that have been issued by the federal government, by this president and a number of agencies.
“The executive orders are illegal and unconstitutional. They don’t have the force of law but none the less people follow them because Congress is mute,” said James.
“The executive orders range from cuts to Medicaid, cuts to public assistance, cuts to child care, cuts to food stamps, cuts to judicial grants created to prevent violence all throughout the City of New York. They want to cut grants to any DEI.”
James struck a serious tone. “We are defending the state against the loss of billions of dollars,” she said. “So far we have been winning 80% of our cases, stopping all of these cuts.”
Marc Morial was the keynote speaker.
“Dr. King would look down and say ‘Where are you and what are you doing? My children, rise up and wake up. My children, understand that what you wrought is not what I have envisioned for the future of this country,’” said Morial. “This celebration is a call to action. It’s a call to fight. It’s a call to be woke, because if you are not woke, you are asleep.”
Morial spoke of voter suppression, particularly the votes of African Americans.
“There is an effort as it has been over the last several years to confuse people, to distract them with issues that are not material or important. There was an effort in 2016, 2020, and 2024 to use the power of social media to suppress African Americans from voting.
It was well funded, it was highly organized, it had it’s allies in the Russian federation. Go check the German Marshall Fund TransAtlantic Report. That is my source and I stand by it,” said Morial.
“What it was designed to do is to trick and bamboozle, to confuse us into believing that participating in elections is a waste of time. That effort in 2016 and 2024 had enough currency that it affected the outcome of the election,” Morial said. “I am saying as 2026 beckons, the same trickery, the same games, the same tactics are going to be refreshed, re-imagined, and you will see them again.”
He added, “It is our duty – those of us who hold positions of leadership, those in the community, in activism, elected officials – to forewarn our communities that this trickery and deception is upon us.”
“I am from the great city of New Orleans. The Plessey case took place in New Orleans. The Plessey case was a test case organized by a group of African Americans lawyers, ministers, and activists called the Citizens Committee. They believed up until the moment they read the Plessey decision that they were going to win that case.
They looked at the wording of the Constitution: equal protection under the law. They said ‘How can anyone justify a law that required separate cars for Black and white patrons as being constitutional under that provision?’” said Morial.
“We’re now on the brink of this Supreme Court, which has already immunized the president of the United States, into striking down one of the fundamental precepts of the Civil Rights Movement: the Voting Rights Act,” said Morial. “We live in a time of danger. Let us set the temperature for a brand new movement.”
The Big Brass Brass Band provided the music. NYPD Guardians Gospel Choir sang beautifully and the NYPD Youth Dance Group gave a creative, energetic presentation.
All photos by Althea Smith
