Voter rights advocate Stacey Abrams appeared on Pharrell Williams’ podcast OTHERtone this weekend, where she was awarded effusive praise from the Grammy Award-winning producer.
“If there ever really was an American dream, it’s you,” Williams said. “It really is.”
The 40-minute episode set to air today comes on the day that it was announced that Abrams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party member of Norway’s parliament, nominated the Georgia Democratic leader, saying: “Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights.”
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“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” opined Haltbrekken, according to a Reuters report.
Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He and his wife, Coretta, traveled to Norway to accept the award, where he said in a now-famous speech: “I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.”
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“After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time,” said King, “the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.”
The nomination for the prize does not guarantee or imply an endorsement from the Nobel committee in Oslo.
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Several pro-democracy activists and civil rights campaigners have been nominated for the prize this year. The winner will be announced in October.
Past American winners include Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, as well as former Vice President Al Gore.
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