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Al Sharpton held a holiday breakfast for 300 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., where the goal was not so much to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as to pull his teachings into the moment. What would he have done? Sharpton asked, as the crowd watched a video that combined some of Kings greatest speeches with recent footage of protests in Washington and Ferguson, Mo.

Two members of President Obamas Cabinet spoke about the importance of health care and low-income housing, but the crowds ovation was loudest when Sharpton showed a slideshow that included photos of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown all unarmed black men who were killed in confrontations. Martin was shot in Florida in 2012 by a member of a neighborhood watch. Garner died last summer after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer in Staten Island, and Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson in August.

We have to keep these issues in front until we resolve this, Sharpton said. We are in another pivotal moment, and we will be judged by how we respond now.

Sharpton finished his speech and rushed out a back entrance to leave for the airport. He still had two rallies planned for the afternoon in New York to highlight police violence followed by an evening prayer vigil with Garners family. The work is not done, he said.

Eli Saslow is a reporter at the Washington Post, where he covered the 2008 presidential campaign and has chronicled the presidents life inside the White House. He won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his year-long series about food stamps in America.

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Al Sharpton: What would King have done? - The Washington Post