Samuel L. Jackson Challenges Celebrities To Sing ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Protest Song

The deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and other young, African-American men at the hands of police have sparked massive protests across the country. Samuel L. Jackson has joined the fight by challenging his fellow celebrities to record their version of the protest song "I Can't Breathe," originally penned by Bronx, New York, poet Luke Nephew.

Jackson posted a video to his Facebook asking celebrities who poured ice water over their heads for ALS awareness to take up the next challenge of singing the new protest song. The four-line anthem features the phrase "I can't breathe," a rally call for protesters and the last words Garner spoke as NYPD Officer Justin Damico brought him to the ground using a chokehold.

The lyrics are as follows:

"I can hear my neighbor crying 'I can't breathe'/Now I'm in the struggle and I can't leave/Calling out the violence of the racist police/We ain't gonna stop until people are free."

The protest song has caught fire since Nephew, a member of The Peace Poets, wrote the song about seven weeks ago, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of protesters sang it on the streets of New York on the night a grand jury declined to indict Officer Damico in the death of Garner.

Gospel singer and radio host Darlene McCoy recorded a version of the song, unaware Nephew had written it, after she watched the New York protests from her home in Atlanta. She posted her video to Instagram on Dec. 4 and reposted the videos of others who have taken her challenge.

#ICANTBREATHE "I can hear my brother crying I can't breathe, now I'm in this struggle and I can't leave, Calling out the violence of these racist police we ain't gonna stop till our people are free"...I CHALLENGE EVERY SINGER TO JOIN IN THIS IS PROTEST...POST ITSELF SINGING THIS..#WEAREWITHYOU #WEAREUNIFIED #WEWILLBREATHE ICANTBREATHECHALLENGETOSINGERS
A video posted by Darlene (@darlenemccoy) on Dec 12, 2014 at 8:28pm PST

Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, also made a plea to artists and musicians, asking them to become "a voice of the times that we live in." He noted that artists have feared retribution for speaking their minds like Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines did when she spoke out against the Bush Administration in 2003.

"We need new Dylans. New Public Enemys. New Simones. New De La Roachas. New ideas! But it just doesn't stop there!! We need outlets (hello #ClearChannel #RadioOne #Vh1) to balance the system," Questlove (born Ahmir Khalib Thompson) wrote.

"I'm not saying every song gotta be 'Fight The Power' but in times like these we need to be more community minded... & when I say challenge I don't mean breathless race to the finish on who makes the more banging 'F--k Tha Police' sequel. I mean real stories. Real narratives. Songs with spirit in them. Songs with solutions. Songs with questions... Seriously just ONE or Two songs that change the course."