U.S Senate candidate Cory Booker addressed thousands of ralliers at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on Saturday.
The speech, which took place on the National Mall, centered around the idea of carrying on Dr. Martin Luther King’s efforts towards justice and equality.
“My father when I was growing up said it very simply,” said Booker. “He used to look at me and say, ‘Boy, don’t you dare walk around here like you hit a triple, ’cause you were born on third base. You are enjoying freedoms, opportunity, technology, things that were given to you bought by the struggle and the sacrifices and the work of those who came before, Don’t you forget where you come from.”
Booker continued, “You drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity you did not dig.”
The Newark mayor urged his generation to not remain content in what has been handed to them and mentioned gun violence, increasing poverty and toxic communities as signs that there is still lots of work to be done.
“So now I call upon my generation to understand that we can never pay back the struggles and the sacrifices of the generation before, but it is our moral obligation to pay it forward.”