Gov. Andrew Cuomo kicked off the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend Saturday by telling supporters of the Rev. Al Sharpton that New York must stop treating 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system.

�We have a civil right crisis, which is, 16- and 17-year-olds in this state get tried as adults,� Cuomo said at the Harlem headquarters of Sharpton�s National Action Network.

Cuomo said New York and North Carolina are the only two states that prosecute all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults and added, �That law has got to go. I�m going to make it my priority.�

The Democratic governor also touted his administration�s initiatives in education, gun control and expanding the number of state contracts that go to minority and women-owned businesses.

�Every study says, the younger you get the child in the classroom the better for the child,� Cuomo said. �Every studs says, the young mind is open, the young mind is ready, get it in there for positive lessons. We want to have universal full-day pre-K all across the state of New York.�

Cuomo called for universal pre-kindergarten in his state of the state speech earlier this month but has not said how it will be funded.

Cuomo said he wanted to come to Sharpton�s weekly rally to set the tone for the holiday honoring King. He recalled being invited by Coretta Scott King to deliver an address at the slain civil rights leader�s former Atlanta church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1999 when he was U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

�I was flattered by it and also nervous about it,� he said.

Cuomo said he studied King�s writings in preparation for his speech. He said he learned, �Justice is not an evolutionary process. Justice happens if we make it happen.�

(AP)