'We can win something deemed unwinnable': Rev. Sharpton on why Colom's victory is a KEY moment

With a reckoning of America's pa. and future on the line, let's bring in National Action Network President, Reverend Al Sharpton. He is the host of Politics Nation here on MSNOW. Also with us, National President of the. NAACP, Derek Johnson, author of the book, The Movement Made Us, David Dennis Jr., and Brittany Packnick Cunningham, social change strategist and host. of the Undistracted podcast. Derek, I want us to just live in this moment. from last night. It shows your reaction when Cologne was declared. the winner. You're seen here embracing the executive. director of the NAACP's Mississippi Conference.

What did this moment mean to you? It was huge. We were in the NACP's office, which is a historic office with it itself. It was one of the two gathering places where. civil rights workers can meet and safety. And we were in there with civil rights veterans, Cortland Cox was in there, other civil rights veterans. So it was significant. And then when I got to the campus of Tougaloo. college and Scott mentioned Fannie Lou Hamer.

We had invited veterans of the civil rights movement. and I've seen you Vester Simpson who was. in jail with Fannie Lou Hamer, she was a student at Tougaloo, and the SNCC workers were signed. And so she was with Fannie Lou Hamer in jail. She was also beaten, and she was sitting in the. audience. And Dave Jr., know how how traumatic that. period was. for all of the veterans, including his father. And this moment is really about them,

the fight they started and what we have. continued to get to this moment. You've made the argument to me. that this is as much about the past. as it is about the moment we find. ourselves in right now, the gravity of it? Well, the present is built on the past, and as much as people try to disconnect it. And when you see people come out and vote. at the numbers they did across racial lines, it's because people pay the price for that vote. I mean, from Goodman, Cheney, and Swerner on across the board.

And I I THINK THAT VOTE WAS ENERGIZED. AND AWAKENED BY A LOT. OF PEOPLE THAT WERE ON THE GROUND. I HAD BEEN IN AND OUT OF MISSISSIPPI ON. THE NOEL WELLS CASE, SO I WAS HEARING A LOT ABOUT IT AND I STARTED. TALKING TO SCOTT. AND THIS WAS REAL, THIS WAS GRASSROOFS, THIS WAS GROUND UP AND I THINK. THAT IT WAS BASED ON THE SAME ORGANIZING, YOU HAD THE NATIONAL ORGANIZING IN THE 60s, DR. KING, MARCH WASHINGTON AUGUST 63, BUT IT WAS A FREEDOM SUMMER OF 64 THAT.

WAS ON THE GROUND THAT HELPED TO MAKE THE CHANGE. YOU NEED BOTH AND NOT ONE OR THE OTHER, AND I THINK SCOTTS WIN, AND I'VE BEEN TEXTING BACK AND FORWARD TODAY IS. A REAL KEY MOMENT AT A TIME WE NEEDED A MOMENT. DR. KING SAID IN HIS FAMOUS SPEECH WE. CAN YOU OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN OF DESPAY, A STONE OF HOPE, WE NEEDED that. We've seen voting rights, Supreme Court all but just. eradicated, certainly took out Section 2.

We've seen DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, taken out by WE'VE SEEN ALL KIND OF HATRED. SCOTT MEANT MORE TO US THAN HE COULD EVER KNOW, I TOLD HIM. BECAUSE IT SYMBOLIZES WE CAN WIN SOMETHING. THAT WAS TALK ABOUT WHAT IS DEEMED UNWINNABLE. BRITTANY, THAT MOMENT THAT THE REV IS. TALKING ABOUT, IT WAS YEARS IN THE MAKING. THERE WAS A GROUND GAME THERE. THERE WAS A LOT WE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF INVESTMENT, BLACK WOMEN HAVE BEEN DOING THE WORK FOR DECADES.

WHAT IS THE LESSON OUT OF MISSISSIPPI? THE LESSON OUT OF MISSISSIPPI IS. THAT THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN MOST MARGINALIZED, MOST OPPRESSED, MOST PUSHED OUT, HAVE EVERY SINGLE THING WE NEED TO WIN, TO THRIVE, AND FRANKLY, TO SAVE DEMOCRACY NOT ONLY. FOR. OURSELVES BUT EVERYONE ELSE. AS HAS ALREADY BEEN SPOKEN. THERE HAVE BEEN SO MANY SEEDS. PLANTED OVER DECADES AND GENERATIONS AT. PLACES LIKE TOOGULU COLLEGE, IN PLACES LIKE MISSISSIPPI. AND WE SAW LAST TUESDAY THOSE.

SEEDS SPROUT IN GEORGIA. THAT WERE UNDERESTIMATED AND TO BE CLEAR, ALICIA, UNDERINVESTED IN. THIS IS THE WIN OF THE PEOPLE. SO MANY FOLKS IN MY GENERATION HAVE BEEN. REMINISCING ABOUT 2008, FEELING THIS SAME KIND OF HOPE AND. CHANGE IN THE AIR WHEN PRESIDENT BARACK. OBAMA WAS FIRST ELECTED. BUT I THINK WHAT IS PARTICULARLY POWERFUL. IN THIS MOMENT IS THAT THIS WAS. ABOUT MORE THAN RALLYING AROUND JUST. ONE MAN THIS WAS DIFFUSE LEADERSHIP THIS.

WAS COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP THIS WAS BLACK. ORGANIZING AND ORGANIZED BLACK PEOPLE. ACROSS MULTIPLE STATES ACROSS MULTIPLE. COLLEGE CAMPUSES ACROSS MULTIPLE CHURCHES. AND BARBERSHOPS AND BEAUTY SALONS AND. BARS AND BRUNCH LOCATIONS THIS WAS THE. PEOPLE SHOWING UP AND SAYING YOU CANNOT. REDISTRICT US OUT OF OUR POWER AND. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT IN THIS MOMENT THAT. AS WE HEAR THE RIGHT TRY TO SAY SEE THE. KLEI DECISION DIDN'T HAVE AN IMPACT. REDISTRICTING AND GERRYMANDERING DIDN'T. HAVE AN IMPACT SO LET'S GO AHEAD AND.

KEEP SUPPRESSING THE VOTE. THAT WE PUSH BACK AGAINST THAT NARRATIVE. THAT IS NOT WHY WE SAW VICTORY LAST NIGHT IN. MISSISSIPPI AND SAW VICTORIES ALL LAST TUESDAY. THE REASON WHY IS BECAUSE THE PEOPLE. REMEMBERED THEIR. power and harnessed it powerfully. You know, it is interesting when Brittany talks. about how this work was done across groups. It was done across generations too. David, I want to play some sound. from a woman who was celebrating this win. for her parents and for our grandparents. Take a listen.

I am here because we are so excited. about actually seeing that our vote. matter and I'm here to celebrate my parents. and my grandparents. I am not one generation out of the cotton field, both of my parents see cotton. and my great-grandmother was sold here. as a slave from Virginia to here. So I am so excited to be on this side of history. Incredible, David.

Your dad was a freedom fighter and freedom rider. in Mississippi. You've talked about how the state is a blueprint. for, quote, how to get free. Tell me more. Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that I. hope comes out. of this is a recalibration of what we think. about Mississippi and movement work. Like, people think about Mississippi. as a place where just bad things happen. to Black people. But you have to understand that Mississippi. is the place where if you want to learn. about getting free, you need to learn about. Fannie Lou Hamer. You need to learn about America Evers.

You need to learn about SNCC and CORE and COFO. and what was done in Mississippi. And I think we always talk about the people who came. to Mississippi in 64. But anybody who came to Mississippi back then, my father included, learned that the movement was already there. in Mississippi movement. They just needed a little bit of help, a little bit more resources. And I think that's the same thing. that we're gaining from this election is. that that movement work was on the ground already. You had people who were doing this work, who were, you know, activating voters.

That work has been consistent. Mississippi is the place where. if you want to learn about freedom. in this country, that is where you are going. to start. And I hope that we all look at Mississippi very. differently beyond those stereotypes that we had. for coming out of this. You know, so much of this is the. organizers on the ground, but some of the work is going to have to happen, Derek, in the halls of Congress. and especially given the victory that has. been delivered to a series. of these Democrats by black voters.

What is then the mandate on voting rights? What is the action that you want to to see. in the next two years? To be clear, all the work starts on the ground. Dave Jr. is correct. His father was a part of it. His father along with Hollis Watkins. and so many others they built a foundation. No groups parachuting. I can track the exact time where we built out. our own database system. We began to run campaign state-wise to test. theories. We began to see the gap close over time,

and we built out. There are a lot of local activists who created. the moment. The 65 Voting Rights Act was brought to. being because of this freedom summer. of 64 where the experience THE EFFERENCES OF. INDIVIDUALS. GOING TO THE POLLS WAS WELL DOCUMENTED. SO WHEN IT WAS BEING NEGOTIATED ON THE. HALLS OF CONGRESS THAT THAT EVIDENCE WAS. BROUGHT FORWARD AND THAT'S THAT'S WHY YOU HAD. THIS CONCEPT OF COVERED JURISDICTIONS, BECAUSE THE WORK STARTED ON THE GROUND.

LOOK, IT IS FAIR. IN THIS MOMENT, THE WORK IS ON THE GROUND, DOCUMENTING ALL THE HOSPITALS THAT ARE CLOSED, THE IMPACT OF THE TARIFFS, HOW THE LACK OF ACCESS TO. VOTING IS. IMPEDING DEMOCRACY. THAT HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED NOT ONLY. DURING THIS CAMPAIGN BEFORE AND. SCOTT IS BRINGING THAT FORWARD. SCOTT COME OUT OF AN infrastructure, but he was in our leadership institute. that's 15 years old. He used to operate the data-based system. that we have. He was the lead of that. So he comes out of that system. before he became a DA.

The The infrastructure is in Mississippi, and that needs to be invested in. because it has not been invested in. I'm a resident here, but I'm serving on a. national platform. because of Mississippi. You've been working the phones. You've been talking to some of the folks. who've recently been elected, some of the folks who are returning to Congress. What is the work they need to do? Well, they need to, they need to, first of all, be connected to what's going. on the Brown all over the country, including their districts or their states. We need to be talking about the John Lewis voting.

bill. or a bill that carries the name. That we can deal with legislatively. in this new Congress. Everyone's talking about who's going to be. the speaker. Nobody's talking about what we're going to be. speaking about. We need to be speaking about voting rights and not. just. except that there's not a way to deal. with this. We need to deal with the affordability questions. We still need to deal with the questions of DEI.

We're saying that there needs to. be hearings on whether. THERE WERE CERTAIN CORPORATIONS. THAT WERE FORCED INTO GETTING. RID OF DEI TO KEEP THEIR MERGES, WHICH IS REALLY ILLEGAL TO SHAKE SOMEONE DOWN. SO THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT, BUT THE MOVEMENT ALWAYS COMES FROM THE GROUND. AND FORCES THESE ISSUES FORWARD. THESE ISSUES DON'T HAPPEN BY. THEMSELVES. AND THOSE AS YOU PLAYED THE TAPES. THAT ARE CONNECTED TO THE PAST, THE STRONGEST PART OF A TREE.

HE IS NOT HIS BRANCHES, BUT HIS ROOTS. AND SCOTT WAS ROOTED. HIS FATHER WAS A VERY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN AND. CIVICALLY INVOLVED. SO WHEN YOU GROW UP A CERTAIN WAY, YOU DON'T TURN AROUND. and forget the ground that you stand on. And he's an example of that.