Hip Hop star Common and R&B singer John Legend accepted the Oscar for Best Original Song at Sunday night’s Academy Awards for their song Glory from the film Selma.
Common began by thanking God before relating how lucky he was to have the chance to perform the song in Selma, Alabama on the same bridge that Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders marched on.
John Legend took over, beginning by saying that “Selma is now.”
“Because the struggle for justice is right now,” Legend said. “We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now, in this country today. We know that right now, the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850.”
“When people are marching with our song, we wanna tell you we are with you, we see you, we love you, and march on,” Legend concluded.
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