I have a dream . . . that degenerate race-baiters would no longer be given a national platform to spew their venom.

(USA Today) — Jesse Jackson said Thursday that the Tea Party’s tenets are reminiscent of state’s rights philosophies used in decades past to oppose federally mandated integration.

“The Tea Party is not new,” Jackson said at a luncheon honoring civil rights pioneers on Thursday. “It’s just a new name for an old game.”

The event was one of several taking place this week in conjunction with Sunday’s planned dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. Organizers announced Thursday night that the dedication had been postponed because of Hurricane Irene.

The luncheon, held in a packed ballroom, cost $85 to attend. It included surviving confidantes of King — Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, and Julian Bond, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee — along with modern-day civil rights leaders, including NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and National Urban League President Marc Morial, who was emcee.

Several speakers urged the public to use the memorial dedication as a starting point for addressing society’s problems. “We haven’t yet reached the promised land that Dr. King spoke of,” said Attorney General Eric Holder, who added that he and President Obama were results of the civil rights movement.

Jackson, who was with King when he was shot and killed in Memphis in 1968, said modern-day civil rights efforts should focus on issues such as ending “expensive, unnecessary, ungodly wars” and creating a fair tax code where “the wealthiest pay their fair share.” He also called for reversing policies — such as disparities in how crimes involving cocaine and crack are punished — that result in longer prison sentences for African-American men. His voice caught and shook at times during the speech.