When President Obama speaks to the country Tuesday night in his final State of the Union address, members of the Congressional Black Caucus  hope the first African American president will seize the chance to make a statement about race and inequality in America.

They also want the president to directly address young activists who they believe are the new civil rights vanguard as part of Black Lives Matter, a movement that has aggressively inserted itself into the political debate after several high-profile killings of African Americans by the police.

“I hope that he will acknowledge that this is the civil rights issue for this generation,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “The generation that is addressing the Black Lives Matter movement are already in the door, they’re just trying to stay there.”

A defining moment of Obama’s first presidential campaign was his March 2008 speech on race in response to controversial remarks made by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Some African American members say they hope Obama will use his last joint address to Congress as a sort of bookend to that milestone, recognizing both how far the nation has come during his presidency and how much more needs to be done.

“I think he has to talk about race,” said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). “This is sort of his farewell. I think his being here — and whatever he does when he leaves — he can still be a strong voice for bringing people together so we can lay down the burden of race.”

Lewis, a civil rights leader who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, said that Obama has the power to galvanize and mobilize people in a speech to be watched by millions. Lewis said the speech should launch a new role for Obama, one where he serves as a leader on critical issues outside of the White House.

“I think the significance [of returning to the discussion in his final State of the Union] would be that while we’ve made tremendous progress in this country as a nation, but one area in particular where we have not made enough progress as we need to have made is the area of equal protection under the law,” said Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). “It becomes, at least in the minds of people, a national priority for the president even if not for the Congress.”

Several of the 46 Congressional Black Caucus members said in interviews that Obama’s final address could be one of his most remembered speeches, giving him all the more reason to highlight the state of race relations in America.

“This is a legacy speech,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) “It was an incredible achievement for the American people to elect someone who would have been a descendant of slaves… this is a great historical achievement and I think it shows what people with democratic values can do.”

For some, it is also a chance for Obama to take on the issue of police violence against African Americans, which has turned into a national flashpoint. Names like Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald and Michael Brown have become part of the political vernacular, thanks largely to activists from movements like Black Lives Matter.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) will attend the speech with Alicia Garza, one of three women who co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement in 2012.

“Black Lives Matter has really taken this on as an organization of activists who really are exercising [the rights] our democracy calls for and making sure that all voices are heard,” Lee said. “I think it is very important that a woman of this stature who has co-founded a movement” attend the State of the Union.

Lee said she and Garza have met in the past and she believes Garza and other activists are part of a new wave of civil rights activists that are necessary to keep pressure on Congress to deliver on the promise of equality in America.

Cummings represents a Maryland district encompassing a large portion of the city of Baltimore, which was deeply impacted by the unrest that followed the April 2015 death of 25-year-old Gray, who died of injuries suffered while in police custody.

The Maryland Democrat said Obama should use the national address to remind all of America of the value of young African American lives.

“I’m hoping he will remind the American people that the Black Lives Matter movement is not just about African Americans and Hispanics being harmed by police while in custody or harmed by police while interacting with us. but he will remind us that Black Lives Matter from conception to death,” Cummings said. “I think the president has to be a bridge.