Transcription
Thank you, Minister Foy, and to all of the clergy that are gathered here.
First, to the family of Andrew Brown Jr., give all of the family members a big hand. Sadly, to all of you that gathered, Reverend Tune, who has officiated, and all, as I said, the clergy among them.
Let me celebrate Reverend R.B. Holmes, who is here all the way from Tallahassee, Florida. [Music] He’s Ben Crump's pastor and heads the Tallahassee National Action Network. I find it necessary that I also recognize Reverend Drum Wright, who has been doing such a great job. [Music]
And the head of the Youth and College Division of the National Action Network, Minister Tahliq MacMillan. We will certainly be hearing words of comfort from some of them.
But I want you to know that with us today is the sister of George Floyd, Bridget Floyd, who came to be with the family today. [Music] The brother of George Floyd, Terrence Floyd, has come to be with the family today. The mother of Eric Garner, Ms. Gwen Carr, has come to be with the family today. [Music]
They know the pain that this family will have to endure. Attorney Crump has recognized some of the others, and we will be hearing certainly.
I must salute all of the attorneys that are going to fight this fight. I hear my—I thought y’all said that he was an attorney—he got a little preacher in him. I know Bakari Sellers got it in his genes; his daddy was a great civil rights leader, Cleveland Seller. And then, of course, Ben Crump, the attorney general of Black America, and my friend and brother down through the years.
For over a quarter of a century, we’ve struggled together, knowing I respect more than Bishop William Barber.
Let me say this at the outset, before I even take the scripture: As we celebrate the life of Andrew Brown Jr., let us not act like we’re supposed to be here. Too often, we come to funerals of people that are unjustly brought to death and act like this is a natural occurrence.
We are going to celebrate him, but we are not going to excuse the fact that we shouldn’t have to be here to do this. So don’t confuse the celebration with the determination to get justice in this matter. This in Elizabeth City is disgraceful and shameful.
I heard one commentator—it’s not good people that work with me—always talk about Reverend Botley’s with me, who heads New Jersey Man. They tried not to let me listen to talk radio, and when I landed, we went on the side of the airport, and I got on radio to talk about it.
I hope Al Sharpton don’t come in and start—don’t—will y’all do justice? Otherwise, I’ll be back over and over and over again. The nerve of you, the audacity to take somebody’s life, to rob children of their father, and you try to act like the issue is who came to help them rather than what you did to them.
The issue is not why we came to town or how we came to town; the issue is why we came to town.
Let me go to the book. Let me also thank the church for facilitating the family to have this funeral, and we’re grateful to this church for that.
In the book of Saint Matthew, the 16th chapter, starting at the first verse, it said, “The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.”
He replied, “When evening comes, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning, today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
I want to use for thought, in honor of Andrew Brown, “The Sign of the Times.”
Before we could get through one 24-hour cycle after the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the lynching by knee of George Floyd, a policeman killed Andrew Brown Jr. A day that we were getting ready to go to the wake of Dante Wright.
From Dante Wright to Andrew Brown to Breonna Taylor to Ahmaud Arbery to Rayshard Brooks to George Floyd—all of this happening during the pandemic, all within a year. And you want to talk about everything other than what the times demand we talk about?
I watched the other night the president make his first address to the joint session of Congress, and then I watched the rebuttal by the senator from South Carolina. It seemed something awkward to me, where a white president talked about white supremacy, and a black senator said that America’s not racist.
It seemed a little strange to me. Now, everybody in America is not racist, but are you talking about whether the practice of America’s racist or the people? Because the practice of America was built on racism. [Applause]
It was against the law for us to read, right? It was against the law for us to marry. It was against the law for us to name our children after us. We were brought here to serve and never get paid. That’s how the country was built.
I rode through Elizabeth City and saw a wall where they had an institution that was founded in 1847, right here in Elizabeth City. In 1847, by law, we were chattel slaves in Elizabeth City. What do you mean America is not racist? America was started off racism.
It has been blacks and whites, like the black and white young folk that have been marching for Andrew, that made it go from racism to where it is today. This family don’t hate nobody; this family is black and white.
The question is, what do you do on our side of town? You still don’t do on the other side of town. Today, blacks are unemployed twice more than whites. Today, we get the worst education. Today, we get the worst health care. Today, we are the ones that can’t get bank loans, or today we can’t get business loans.
We still have racism in a systematic way in America.
So, as a preacher, Jesus tells me, don’t talk about miracles up there; talk about down here—the signs of the time. We must deal with the inequality in the criminal justice system today. That’s the sign of the times.
There was a time we had to deal with the back of the bus. Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Dr. Avenatti dealt with those times. There was a time we had to deal with public accommodation. The Freedom Riders dealt with those times. There was a time we had to deal with the right to vote. Jose Williams and John Lewis and them dealt with those times.
But in these times, the challenge of these times is how we’re going to deal with policing in America and restoring the right to vote.
And if those of you that call yourselves preachers can’t preach to these times, then you need to sit down and shut up and let somebody stand up in Jesus’ name and talk about the sign of the time.
I hear these folk talking about, “I don’t agree with those young folks that have been protesting 12 days. I don’t agree with all this marching.”
Shopping and then be doing—I don’t agree with all of that. I have another strategy. Well, what is it? If protesting nonviolently don’t lead to nothing, tell us what your strategy is. Tell us where you brought justice.
If you’re scared, say you’re scared. If you’re scared to sit down and shut up, let some of us that are not scared stand up and tell what the signs of the times are.
This must stop. Enough is enough. How many funerals do we have to have before we tell the Congress and the Senate that you’ve got to do something?
These times, we have the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This must happen in these times, just like the Civil Rights Act of ’64 was on time, the Voting Rights Act of ’65 was on time.
The times call for a policing act. When you see 10 policemen, including a police chief, get on the stand and testify against a policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, do you know what time it is? Even the police are tired of making excuses and covering up.
It’s time for the wrong police to pay the price, like the wrong citizens. You’ve got to be subject to the law, whether you have on blue jeans or blue uniforms. What is right is right. [Applause]
Now, Khalil and Gerard, I come from New York. They’ve got a place in New York. Over the next few months, I’m going to have y’all come up to New York. I’ll show y’all there’s a place they call Times Square, and they’ve got all the theaters and all the movies and all that—Times Square.
But they’ve got some folk out that set up little tables, and they do little games to beat the tourists out of their money. They call it three-card monte.
I’m a preacher, but I know some of the street stuff too. Three-card monte is a shell game where they put a little rock or something under one of the cards. They have three cards out there, and they play games with your eyes. Guess which one of the cards the stone is under, and they’d be playing to get the shell game.
You’ll be guessing this and notice this, and you guess this, notice this, and you guess this. And being that I’m from New York and I was looking at what they were dealing with with the Brown case, y’all around here arguing about the county and the city and the D.A.
They’re playing a shell game. They’ve got the lawyers, and Khalil and Gerard are going to see—come down here to see a tape. Come down and get a tape—20 seconds here, shell game. Or we’ll give you the tape in 30 days. No, we’re going to do it in 45. Shell game.
Don’t want to release the tape; it might prejudice the grand jury. What a grand jury is supposed to see—the tape themselves. Shell game, trying to make us guess—tape here, tape there. Come now, come later.
I know a con game when I see it. Release the whole tape and let the folk see what happened to Andrew Brown. How is a tape going to prejudice a grand jury when a grand jury has to see the tape in order to decide whether or not they’re going to prosecute?
Don’t talk to us like we’re stupid. [Applause]
If there’s nothing on the tape, there won’t be nothing on it in 45 days. And if there’s something on it in 45 days, there’s something on it today. You don’t need time to get a tape out. Put it out. Let the world see what it is to see if you’ve got nothing to hide. Then what are you hiding? [Applause]
All we want, Ollie Griffin, is justice. We don’t want no favors; we don’t want nothing special. Just stop the shell game.
I tread up and started hearing all these reports, and don’t let them play that game on y’all. Well, they had a warrant; they had a warrant. They would serve. Well, you don’t have one warrant. You said you say warrants all the time, but you don’t shoot people in the back of the head.
Well, Andrew had a record. Well, Andrew didn’t shoot nobody. So don’t play the shell game. Tell me the policeman’s record. Whatever record Andrew had, Andrew didn’t hurt nobody.
But let’s talk about your record. Let’s talk about the record of police brutality in the state of North Carolina. Since you want to bring up a record, let’s put the record out here.
How is it legal to shoot a man in the back and talk about it was self-defense? How do you try and justify shooting a man that was not a threat to you because he was running away from you?
Well, he backed into our car. But then why would you not then circle? Why would you do any number of things? But to execute somebody is to take a life and to take it unjustifiably and illegally.
And when you break the law, you’ve got to be held accountable to the law. Andrew Brown Jr., if he did wrong, bring him to court. But you don’t have the right to bring him to his funeral.
And these young people that have marched in the streets, white and black, are standing up doing what you should do, and that is seeking justice and fairness. You don’t have to qualify to be treated just.
Later on in that same chapter, Jesus looked at his disciples and he said, “Who do they say I am?” And they told him what the people said. Then, Minister Foy, he looked at them that had gone with him. He said, “Who do you say I am?”
I come to Elizabeth City today to ask each one of you, who are you? Are you on the side of justice? Are you on the side of those that play the shell game? Are you on the side that stands up for the Andrew Browns, or are you on the side of those that say, “Well, it’s going to keep happening?”
Who do you say you are to yourself? I don’t know who you are, but I know who I am. That’s why I got up in New York early this morning, because if nobody was coming to Elizabeth City to stand up with Khalil and Gerard, I had to come because of who I am.
I’m a minister called by God to talk about the signs of the times. And if I stand up with God, He’ll hold me up on every lean inside, and no weapon, no police department, no bus, state trooper, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. [Applause]
There is a God that sits high, but He looks down low. And the God I serve stands up for the rejected, stands up for the abused.
I know y’all would rather have some victim that fits your motto, but Jesus came for those that nobody else would come for. Jesus met the woman at the well that nobody wanted to be bothered with. Jesus met the man, Bartimaeus, that was a begging blind man that didn’t have affordable health care, and He opened up his eyes.
Jesus met the hungry with a few loaves of bread and two little fishes. Jesus met those that were outcast and rejected.
I come in Jesus’ name to stand up for a black man that might have had a record, but he had a right to live his life. And in Jesus’ name, I’m going to stand up for Andrew Brown, for George Floyd, and for all that God gave life to.
Eighty-eight years ago today, a man was born that came to be known as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Today is his 88th birthday. I met him when I was 18. My father left when I was 10. James Brown became like a father to me.
The best way I could celebrate his birthday is to stand with these two young brothers and these five children, because James Brown raised me saying that it’s better that you stand on your feet than live on your knees.
Today in Elizabeth City, we’re going to get up off our knees. We’re not going to let you play the shell game. You’re going to release that tape. You’re going to let the world know what you did to this brother.
We’re going to know who was involved and what police were involved. We don’t know the difference between the county and the city. Y’all get in the room and decide who’s going to handle this, and you’re going to handle this.
But the shell game is over. We’re going to Washington and get the federal government to look in and stop the shell game. It’s time for you to stop playing with the lives of our people.
The Justice Department needs to come in and stop the shell game. We’re going to stand up. We’re going to rise up. We’re going to hold up. If God be for us, if God be for us, if God be for us, it’s more than the whole world against us.
Thank you, and God bless you.