mitt romney. >> i want to address something as we approach the 4:00 o'clock hour now that is the president that you see in that crowd there in selma. he just completed his speech saying it is -- what could be more american than what happened here in selma 50 years ago, randall pinkston as we approach the 4:00 o'clock hour i think it is important that we point out that 50 years today, this all began because of a man by the name of jimmie lee jackson and it was pointed out that he did not live to see this day. he is the reason that selma happened. and, les, you are noting your head. i will let you begin then because if not for jimmie lee jackson, no selma. if no selma, then there might not have been a catalyst for the voting rights act. his father was 84 when he registered to vote for the first time. >> that's right. >> what a story. >> i think john louis mentioned him. i think that president lbj back then did not mention him. he is the key. he was a lynchpin.

the reason why they had the march is because of him lynch. he was a vet tra, a u.s. army veteran. he had tried to register five times on the night of that is when he was assaulted, his mother was beaten. and his grandfather was beaten. >> that's what we are up against. >> robert ray live for us in selma. i understand you have the reverend jesse jackson. >> yes. del, exactly. we are live with reverend jesse jackson. ref rend jackson, talked to you many times being from chicago. we are live on "al jazeera america." . you were telling me what you thought theof the president. >> what an inspiring rundown of america's history but selma is in the rear-view mirror. in the windshield is resegregating the south by law. this is the first state poverty

% in poverty -- 40% poverty. the government talks about medicaid. it was pointless. >> so you think? >> a lyndon johnson moment a moment to focus on legislation, renewing the voters right act and war on poverty deals with poverty. >> you think the president should have come out swinging a little bit harder? >> well, the voting rights act of 65 has been gutted by the shelby decision. these legislators here today, many will not resupporting it. they should challenged. we should see action this coming week in washington. >> how about from the state of alabama and the govern governor he? >> $100 million in education money for education to be spent on prisons. he rejects medicaid and millions of americans in alabama are kofshth. he supports shelby and that's why people responded to him the

way they did because he does not represent the spirit of this crowd's ambitions. >> last question: ferguson. big issue right now with the state department justice department. >> ferguson is more typical than unusual. many small towns in this country are using, labeling blacks as atm machines locking people up arresting them and making money off of attacks, arrests and taxation is not fair. it's not just ferguson. ferguson is just similar to the voting rights decision. it's a symptom of the problem. we need a remedy. we need a remedy. >> refer end, thank you. thank you. del, you heard it. there is a civil rights icon here in selma from chicago, and some interesting things he had to say del. >> robert ray with the refer end jesse jackson in selma, alabama.

as i was listening to him speak, i was struck by the fact that in 1965, the civil rights movement was a movement but not necessarily the civil rights movement that we see today. what are the differences between the people like john lewis and a martin luther king and a joe lowry and those who call themselves the civil rights leaders today? >> i think the targets are less defined. you don't have drinking fountains, as the president mentioned, a question that a black has asked, how many bubbles are there in a bar of soap. you don't have that anymore. so the target that they were up against is more, it's what the president said in his speech is that he did say that 50 -- he said what we want what people want is what people marched for in selma 50 years ago, which is to say a criminal justice system which he did hit that note. a criminal justice system for all. i think that is one example, but i think the problem is that this denial again, you know, it is

more gossamer more sub mineralinged. the target is not as clear and the leadership is not as defined. >> what do you say foshows who say the civil rights' movement has been co-opt that many who are leaders now sit on the boards of major corporations? >> i think there are stages to life. i think the leadership -- you will notice leadership almost in all important cases are the young, whether it's 25-year-old -- even refer end caden in '57. it has to come from young people. if those people who participated when they were younger go on and have success, i don't think that destroys the movement. >> the image you are seeing on the left side of your screen right now, that is the white house press corp of which randall pinkston is very familiar. they are following the presidential limousine. we don't know if the president is going to walk across the you

had mund pettus bridge. it took quite some time for him to wake make his way across the crowd or whether he will drive. we are watching those images as you watch and as you watch, we will know the answer to that, as well. randall pinkston your thoughts on the issue of the civil rights movement and whether it has been co-opped. >> i take issue with the people who make that assertion. the young people who came to the forein ferguson and all of the country, they were responding to a need at the time. there are others who have moved on to other stages of that irlife. are we going to say because somebody is on a corporate board that they are no longer concerned about civil rights? that would be unfair and that would be inaccurate. you need people everywhere. you need people who are going to work on the multi-plicity of challenges that still confront this nation confront not just african-american people but all american people, because if you do something for african-americans as the

president indicated, you are doing it for women, latinos. you are doing it for everybody. >> we live in a microwave society. last month, it was ferguson. last week it was ferguson. then it was cleveland, before that it was trayvon case, in every circumstance, in every community across the united states of america. symbols. >> some are better informed. i think the analysis has to be stronger. i think michelle alexander's book, "the new jim crow" is a great volume analyzing one of the current big problems of today, which is to say the criminal justice system. to read that book and to act on it and to understand its broader

meaning. we have to understand what is happening today and what happened 50 years ago in selma in light of the overall sweep of american history from 1619 on for those african-americans, what opinion preparation is, how it is maintained and state terrorism, cha is what we witnessed 50 years ago and now we get a criminal justice system as michelle alexander and others explained it. with respect thougho that criminal system t ties in to the vote. in 1966, possibly 265,000 african-americans able to vote because of the votings right. today, there are 270,000 who can't vote because they have felon records. i don't mean felony records of some heinous crime. it could be something as simple as $5 bag of drugs. once you are a felon, you've got

to get pardoned to be able to vote. >> wipes people all over the rolls. of 5 million. >> tony harrison on the ground, tell us what you are seeing even as we speak. we are trying to figure it out. okay. great. television. here we go with it. we are trying to put the pieces together. cheerily, you can see the flat-bed truck with the white house press corp assembled and ready to follow what is undoubtedly going to be the president walking across the edmund pettus bridge. this is the 50th anniversary so we will take some extra added significance. able to spot in the crowd a gathering, the attorney general, eric holder and i believe and i don't know if it's true but it makes sense that at some point, once the president joins the front of the line and the march begins in had holding area -- we have been calling it a pen but this holding area where a lot

of the congressional delegation has been before the speech and before the events throughout the day, that they will fill in the spaces behind the president and walk and join that walk across the bridge. so the president took a nice long time as you probably saw, greeting everyone along this guardrail rope line and i think we are just minutes away from i think, martin luther king iii, i think we are just moments away from the president stepping in front of the line with the first lady, sasha and melia and leadtion the march across the bridge. >> at these event did, there is always that one thing that says i was there selma, alabama 50 years after the bloody sunday. is there something emerging people want to remember this day

by? other than cell phones and pictures? >> everything they can capture on their cell phones and people are rolling them on their cell phones phones, video, taking pictures of everything thing. it's interesting. as i was watching people listening to their cell phones -- lifting their cell phones, i was thinking of the challenge in the 21st century covering a president, if you remember the secret service with everyone going to their pockets and lifting up that are their cell phones. can you imagine the challenge of having to keep eyes on all of that activity? yeah. i think that's it, del. you hit it. it's the idea of capturing this moment, whether it's the video on your phone or whether a picture of the moment to mark it day. >> what a background. the president making remarks and the backdrop is the edmund pettus bridge. >> will live on forever. >> tony harris randall pinkston, you have been part of that group that we see poised on the back of that truck getting ready to follow that historic march across the bridge. tell us what it's like to be in

the white house press corp on a day like today. >> if i am not mistaken, del, the people on the truck for the most part are photographers and they would not -- they would kick me off of the truck if it's not a photographer. i would be somewhere else. obviously, it's a big deal. it's fun for the press corp. they won't follow the president. they will be proceeding in front of him captioning his image as he crosses the bridge. and when they get to the other side the members of the press corp will move to their press vans. there may be -- i suspect there will be time for what you call filing reports. >> will be done at the press center or in the vehicle, itself. in the old days, we had to go to a place that had telephone lines. >> take the receiver. >> you don't have to do that any more because the president is going to be visiting a museum. then of course back on the

airport. we are witnessing history. >> in other words, is it at that moment, or is it days later, as you pause to reflect on everything that you have seen? >> there are some events. >> the first daughters, sasha and melia to the left of your screen? >> this is a moment. you don't have to think about it. this is historic n my instance i knew it was historic when i was in tokyo george w. bush's father had his moment with stomach flu. there are points at which you know every days is historic when you can walk into the white house with your press pass and everybody else is standing outside the fence looking in. >> this is president george w. bush curious, by the way, and les, i will let you

weigh in on this. our pulitzer-prize winning journalist, john lewis, curious that the former president did not speak. >> it wasn't his moment. i betted you he was not disappointed. jesse jackson, on the other hand would have loved to have had a few words. i will leave it at that. randall, as we await the president? >> obviously president george w. bush's presence is very significant how many? five, six terms he has been there? has been the go-between as it were of the democrats, republicans,s? the first time there has been difficulty. president george w. bush

would -- his representatives would have been in touch with john lewis to get it done. why it wasn't passed for all time. 4:15 east coast time the edmund pettus bridge to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day that became known as bloody sunday when demonstrators tried to cross that bridge and they were met by the alabama state police. a few moments ago, president barack obama, the first african-american president elected to the united states addressed those who were gathered. this is what he had to say. >> the march on selma was part of a broader campaign that expands generations. part of a long line of heroes. we gather here to celebrate them. we gather to honor americans

willing to endure billy clubs and a chastening it rods tear gas and the tramp brink hood, men who would stray to their north star and keep marching towards justice. >> les payne as we look at these images from selma today, i am reminded of the fact that that movement, the movement that we referred to as civil rights movement was not high-tubal. in fact if anything, it was low-tech and even lower-tech food, that is the attorney general that you see there. beside him to the left is john lewis, and to his left that is the lovely dr. sharon malone a close friend of the family. it was a collard greens and cruelties and ham sandwich until days end upon end, it was not what people might think. >> it was, again, the masses and

it was their movement and it was their circumstance that they were driving, and as the president pointed out, courageously to make better. >> camaraderie. he had a few religious. the president had a few religious touches from hymns to

isaiah. american instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that's the same instinct that chose patriots to choose revolution over tierny the same that may drew immigrants across occasions and the rio grand and women to reach for the ballots,

workers to organize against an injust status yeah. the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at iwo jima and on the surface of the moon. >> that was president barack obama a short while ago speaking at the foot of the edmund pettus bridge. you see the motor kade assembled there. the president and others are assembling to walk across that bridge symbolic of what happened in the state 50 years ago, but with the completely different ending. tony harris is life on the ground right now in selma, alabama. tony, the question to you 50 years from now, will we be talking about this day or will we still be talking about that day 50 years ago? >> both. right? 50 years ago and how it brought us to this day. more than that 50 years from now, we will be talking about this line, this timeline ex extended. right? so where are we 50 years from this day? this day in which we mark as the first african-american president to walk across that bridge as

president of the united states followed by a huge throng of dignitaries, of congress members. so absolutely. we will be talking about this day 50 years from now. hopefully, what we are talking about is we will be talking about the people here at selma living a better life better quality of life. we won't be talking about 10% unemployment for the people here in selma, 40% of african-americans living below the poverty line. hopefully, 50 years from now we will be talking about a kind of america where more people are living better and that more whites have been more broadly -- more has been grant -- rights have been granted to more people. the south is not lost as it was predicted by president johnson after signing in the voting rights act, the civil rights act.

maybe the south comes back to the american family and maybe the values espoused by the president on this day are espoused more broadly in this country. i am hopeful that that's what we are talking about 50 years from now. >> randall pinkston i was struck as i was watching the president make his way through that crowd of the number of cell phones and ipads that were held up an indication that they may not be as young as you and i. i am sure i will receive a letter. >> being said, many of those in the crowd weren't born. >> yeah. >> when the day happened 50 years ago. are you concerned that they may not know more about selma as a result of a movie than a movement? >> no. without memories like "twelve years a slave," the rossa parks story, without those movies a lot of people would not know anything so what i think is if

the movies start conversations that will then encourage people to go and look to see, what in the movie was real? what was fictionalized? >> a good thing. so i think we need as many views as we possibly can. before the tuskeegean airmen's movie, the one before red tails. not many knew about them. now, a lot more people know about them. i think it's a good thing. >> yet les payne, i am concerned as a journalist as someone who considers himself to be a historian and also as an african-american that what may happen to the civil rights movement is those who remember it firsthand are starting to die off and the things we say we must never forget, we are starting to forget? >> i think that's what history is about. on the one hand, it starts with family. someone asked president obama

what was he tell his two daughters. >> which is why he wanted them there today. >> that's right. about ferguson. so i know a lot about olden time because i used to listen to my grandparents and my parents and my uncles tell their stories, their war stories. i think culture is about generations passing along to other generations. i talked to -- for instance i asked my son the other day, you know, what was his self. just asked, you know, if he knows about emmet. he said rodney king. it was a pistol thing in his life when he was a teenager and he said he saw that and he saw rodney king. the generation after him will probably have eric garner but the secret though is that we link those things up in terms of when their relevancy are to each other. and what does it say about the society as it evolves? >> please explain to our audience the linkage between em emmet till for those who may not

remember. it was an incredible scene that ebony did as a magazine putting that image of emmett 'til till on the cover putting him on the cover that sparked the same conversation that happened after rodney king that happened after eric garner that happened after trayvon martin. >> right. >> but i think, yes, that was huge hugely important, but i think the causal effect. it wasmize gardner. i was an adolescent. each seemed to have one pivotal transcending national act of state terror and/or quad eye terror. what was more important was it was the act of terror, itself . >> i ammet till visiting -- he lived in chicago and he was visiting his reallatives in

mississippi. there are two stories. one said he whistled at a white female clerk. another says he spoke to her. whatever happened, the powers that be took umberage at it, lynched him, killed him and his mother insisted that he have an open casket funeral and that picture of his mangled body was shown all over the country. and i was -- well, a little younger than you sir, but my mom, my grandmom was telling me see what happened to that boy for messing with white girls. that's the kind of message that all young black boys all over the south were getting. i guess in connecticut as well. >> uh-huh. >> you see the president now gathered at the foot of the bridge. the first lady is with him. president george w. bush and wife laura arrived a short time ago. but as i was looking at the images of eric holder and dr. sharon malone there, i am reminded that en among

african-americans, there is a generational thing that happens as we get older and some of us are younger, as randall pointed out. but for the president, it is not firsthand memory but for eric holder it is. >> in terms of generationally. but in addition, though keep in mind eric holder i would imagine, in fact i know some people who know them. his wife is a young assistant of malone. so, hey, you know he's got his education. he has his -- he is in touch with history 24/7, you know, through his wife. so and i think that with barack obama, it's generational. also, he was in hawaii but he has michelle. >> we are going to take a brief break because we want to get a commercial break in before the president crosses that bridge but i guarantee you should he move in that direction, we will be right back. stay with us. yet today she still inexplicitly

an al jazeera special report: race in america, selma. >> there are places in america and moments where this nation's destiny has been decided. many are sites of war, concord, lexington, appomatox, gettysburg. others are sites that symbolize the daring of america's character. against hal and ceneca falls, kittihawk and cape canaveral. selma is such a place.

selma is the setting for the president of the united states the first african-american elected president walking in the steps of so many who could not walk in those steps 50 years ago on this day, the day that they tried to cross the edmund pettus bridge were met with alabama state troopers, with batons and tear gas and horsebacks and whips. the president marching alongside his predecessor, president george w. bush, his wife laura, the first lady, michelle obama is there and, also important, randall pinkston is the fact he is making this july with his children. we were talking before we went to the break about the generational cast of handing down history from far to son, father to daughter and so on and so forth. >> i saw a transcript of an interview that the president had done with tom joiner on the tom

joiner morning show. and in that interview action joiner asked president obama: when did he first become swear of selma? because he was a little boy. he was three years old in '65. he said it actually was around when he was six or seven because his mother would bring to him books for children to teach him about america's civil rights history. and so unlike -- or maybe like many children when weren't old enough to really know what was going on, his mom was teaching him: this is what happened there. and this is why it's important. and we need to tell our stories. i think there is never a time when parents should be ashamed of the horrors but you should as our friends say, always remember; never forget. >> the battle cry of the movement, each one, reach one, teach one. >> and i am reminded and wish to remind our audience as well and

les payne, i will let you pick up on this. the movement was not what people think. it was not a speech delivered by the refer end martin luther king on the steps of the lincoln memorial. it was stlooe separate marches on three separate occasions. it was a lot of backroom meetings that took place and all of the hamlets and hillsides as the refer end martin luther king would say. it was not all black. it was also white. and in the same sense that as we see this president make his wave across the bridge black america could not have elected this president. white america had to elect him as well as were hispanic americans and asian americans and gay and straight americans. >> true. the leadership we sometimes think the leadership anoints him or herself and comes in and organize the troops. it's grassroots movements they

invited these people. e.v. nixon in montgomery and the people in montgomery organized and then invited in this young minister, king. >> generally was what was happening, even in selma. invited in. >> this is your home state. >> this is alabama. >> yes. >> speak to me as a native son of alabama, what is going through your mind as you watch this scene unfold? >> i listen to the governor there. he said i have to see if it's changed enough for me to return on anything other than a visiting basis. but that aside, i mean as human beings, we are tied to the land. we really are. there is always a spot in your heart. i wish as the saying goes thomas wolfe, that i could go home again. [i am able to, it's because of general lee jackson. it's because of those people you have interviewed here i think that that really is the moment

that these 50 years mean to me as someone born in alabama. >> tony harris you were on the bridge in selma right now. describe the scene. >> well, you know del, okay. so now the main group that was here a part of the congressional delegation, has now starting to fill in behind the president's group and they will be taking off on theirs march but the generation moment here. >> terms of a guarantee. it may be a moment of the speech where the president began to wax rhapsodic. you will know what i am talking about here on what america is.

right? it is the good. it is the bad. it is the ugly sort of highlighted those things. he said you are america. he was talking, it seemed to me particularly to young people and you see what it ought to be. he then openly appealed to young people to lead the way. and when we talk about this generational place where we are now, you know, he reminds us that this country is young: 239 years old, and he said don't be afraid, young people essentially could take the lead. the first mile has been crossed for you, and he said we will not grow weary because we believe some of the crescendo of the speech: in the power of an awesome god. >> tony, as i watch them make their way across the bridge in that crowd where you are, i am reminded of that image from the refer end martin's luther king's speech on a national mall a

young boy climbing up on one of the stancions. have you seen small children in the crowd? if so, what must they be thinking? >> the ones who are awake, it must be said there are a few who have been dozing off. but, yeah, there have been scores of fathers holding up children and making them a part of this moment. yeah. but to think of what that would be like, i will tell you my son attends missouri. he is a mizzu tiger. when we were doing the reporting from ferguson, i had my son come up early. he was heading back to school anyway. i had him stop through ferguson because i wanted him to be on the ground in ferguson to take a look at this flashpoint moment. it was important for me to offer that to him in the same way i am sure it's important for these parents whose mothers and fathers to share this moment with their kids. >> tony harris on the ground for

us in selma, and as you heard tony point out the recent racial tensions in ferguson missouri as well as staten island over the deaths of black men have brought a new celebration. they have their own ideas, many are far different than those of some long time leaders of the movement. >> over the past six months in ferguson, missouri and other >> we need to change our sense

of direction. >> gentry may not be alone. when african-americans were asked if the civil rights leaders are affected 49% said it was time for new leadership compared to 35% who answered that these leaders are still effective. >> at a rally:? >> people like jesse jackson get booed. they have to be like the representation of blackness but not necessarily of the spirit and the movement right now. time for the next generation to step up step in and take these movements to the next level. >> the alternative perspectives new ideas, fresh thinking new approaches. >> anthony has written several books on race relations. >> it's no longer just simply black and white, what can and white and asian and hispanic. >> and mixed? >> and mixed and all sorts of

things on the left. >> refer end sharpton and jackson may not be the best representatives to speak to the sorts of intersections that we have today. >> who would be the leader of this new generation? >> that's a great question. we have to wait to see. but this idea that there will be one person to be representative those days are just over. >> but refer end jesse jackson insists there was never just one to begin with. >> we have always had a broad base of people fighting for freedom and dignity. we never had just one. >> what about those who say he is too old? that his day has come and? >> mandela came out leading at 72. moses started preaching at 80. tim excited frankly to see a generation that comes in the wake of the voting rights act assuming a position of responsibility. >> diante. i am morgan refer end jackson

represents old school. dante barry is of the new which uses social media to empower young people of color. >> how does social media help you do that? >> we have a number of individuals that are on facebook and twitter particularly black twitter, that follow us. if you look at trayvon martin trayvon martin only came to fruition through social media because of a million hoodies. >> what is black twitter? >> a demographic of black focus that are found on twitter and that have shown solidarity and community among black things. >> million hoodies was on to something. among all online users, 76 first are on facebook surpassing whites and hispanics. 29% of african americans use twitter versus whites and hispanics at 16%. >> let's get it together black folks. let's change our ways. >> jonathan gentry said it was

take more than social media and more than leaders to overcome racism. change starts at home. >> it's you holding yourself back. it's easier for you to blame someone than for you to change what's in and make a better future for yourself or your children. >> and that was morgan radford reporting. les payne, our pulitzer-prize winning panelist in the studio are you optimistic as we look at the events unfolding today? >> enormously optimistic because i think that these, this generation the millennium they will step forward and provide the let meed that's needed to respond to their condition. and hopefully, they would do it with a background and a sense of what went before. but they have to adjust. they should not make the mistakes of the past. they are going to have to create new solutions to problems as they pop up. >> one of the things that i was always truck struck by was the fact that be when you are a young student and you are studying history and in this

case, the history of the civil rights movement, the figures are so towering they look to be so much larger than life. they don't seem to be the way that you may have seen them or we may have seen them back then. is there a danger that television has made that soaring rethetoric almost an overcome able obstacle? >> i don't think so because i think -- >> i don't speak just of king. i speak of kennedy as well? >> malcolm. >> malcolm as well. >> talk about language. talk about, you know, the ability to speak, i mean i think that the ability to analyze those really is what we are talking about. and the ability to analyze is current. it is contemporary because analysis is -- is feeds an appetite that is current and that exists. it does not feed an appetite that happened 50 years. it has to feed the appetite that's before it right now. >> are you convinced as you work on this biography of malcolm x that history has gotten it right

yet? >> about him? >> about him. >> not entirely. just a word. the great thing about malcolm is his work has not been consummated. one could argue king, in breaking down, you know, the citadel of segregation and jim crow laws and all of that that his work was consummating. he has a statue. again, malcolm was concerned about african americans overcoming their false sense of inferiority. unfortunately -- unfortunately, we are a long way from that. i think that's one of the remaining problems that has to be overcome by african-americans. >> randall pinkston we see these images of the president and others crossing the edmund pettus bridge very historic. i want to give you your moment, too, to give your thoughts as well. as he was talking about malcolm, i was thinking about the edward snowden moment and the fact both of thesis leaders, martin luther king, they realized every conversation every piece of mail that they sent every room that they entered was bugged or

wire wiretapped wiretapped, and yet they continued on. what does that say? >> well obviously, j. edgar hoover saw what was developing into a quangruence of goals and objectives if not tactics towards the end of his life. martin luther king was much more speaking about international issues about the war, abrought. not just about voting rights for african-americans. malcolm x had already tried to organize a linkage between african-americans in america and africans in africa and so they were both moving towards an international perspective, the diaspora, if you will the kind of concerns. >> yet today, we are talking once again 50 years later, about the disenfranchise of african-americans and the fact that so many can't vote something you have been reporting on. >> yeah, del. millions of african-americans, one in 13, can't vote because of felon convictions, across

america, and i had met some people in alabama who are trying to do something about that. >> this is the real office looking forwards to al busy weekend clients in town to the an anniversary radio. a half century ago, protesters were trying to put an end to racial discrimination in voting a struggle that in recent yield inspired sadler. he was 18 when he lost his voting rights after taking a me bargain for drug possession and fleeing police. saddle eventually landed a job in alabama with a nonprofit organization to restore voting rights. >> at one point. >> there are 4 and a half million americans who cannot vote because of a criminal convincection in their past if you

include those who do not have the right to vote that would be 6 markos moulitsas. >> maine and vermont permit inmates to vote. every other state elements the voting rights of felons. marina perez is in a tink tank dedicated to the criminal justice system. >> many of the laws that exist on the books today, disenfranchising people can be traced back to the gym cro era when states were being forced today allow freed african-american men to be able to vote but we are trying to look for other ways to keep them from voting. >> the worst examples were in the deep south. according to a report from the sentencing project a nonprofit advocacy group mississippi law makes makers whence proposed to disenfranchise voters foburglary, theft and arson on the theory those crimes would most likely be committed by african-americans. later, several states used poll

taxes and subjective literacy tests specifically to eliminate minority voters. those measures were banned by the 1965 voting rights act. restrictions continue. >> many believe as i do that it's a civil rights issue. >> mark kennedy is a retired alabama supreme court judge who is working fochange the law. for those who that. >> restoring his voting rights. >> so many people have died and

sacrificed around the way just for the right to vote. they took my vote away. so, i said whatever i have to do to get that right to vote back i am going to do it. >> sadler still works on the restore the vote project in alabama where there are more than 250,000 ex felons whose freedom is restricted. >> del, we should point out that sadler's crime occurred in pennsylvania. he was arrested there and he applied to governor tom ridge for pardon and he said he never responded. it took him 15 years when randall, the democratic governor in his final year before he got that pardon. >> why would it not just be easy to go out and try to become a more inclusive party on both sides republican rather than trying to restrict the rights of those who might vote would it be easier to simply be a more inclusive party than to try and exclude those that you may not like or may not agree with you? >> 23 states have already ease

restrictions. there are republicans and democrats who see this as an issue of fairness and justice. >> mr. payne? >> i would look at it. randall has a great piece but to take a step back. the incarceration of african-american men in particular, yes, it takes away the vote. also it takes away education. it takes away the job. you can't get on the police force, on the fire department. but the criminal part about this, and this has everything to do with 50 years after selma, is that the policy institute looked at 198 counties in this country which includes 52% of the population. they found in terms of drug incarceration, african-american males in all of those counties but two are greater. in other words, nationally african-americans are 10 times more likely to be incarcerated for the same october. in the county where my wife and

i raised our two kids, 36 times 36, if you rolled down your car and the cops smelled a joint. if you are an african-american in nassau you were 3se 6 more times to be written up and incarcerated if you are african-american than white. >> that's a whole big problem way beyond just voting. it is about raising a family. it is about getting a job. it is that is part of this new jim crow. >> that's a part of what selma was beginning and taken with that report on the department of justice on ferguson the same kind of extreme instances. >> let me ask the question this way. if there is an us in terms of african-americans, there is a them. is this a con spifr see or is this conspirtorial talk. >> racism is a conspiracy an

agreement among people acting in concert it is a conspiracy. if you relate to some other individual. racism is a con smear see so the answer is yes. >> tony harris on the ground in selma, alabama, we are approaching the end of our coverage. your thoughts, your final thoughts. >> an extraordinary day. my first time sort of being where the president is speaking. it's a different experience. johnson is here a crack political analyst. jason, first of all, your thoughts on the occasion the event, and then your thoughts on the president's speech? >> an amazing event. >> hard not to be impressed? >> he understands the moment. he did really well. it is interesting. the audience had some very different reactions when he was on stage and there was a chant, kind of a call and response that broke out. you were closer to it than i

was. i heard -- i can't remember what i heard now. >> they were saying ferguson is here. we want change now. >> i heard the we want change. >> yes. >> the ferguson is here. what do you think about the president? i have been saying the president seemed to outline what will be the focus of the remaining time in his presidency and a bit of a civil rights agenda reducing poverty and garring auaranteeing a good education for everyone. he has this moment now when everything has happened with fergson, eric garner he has a moment now that he can sees upon to put that agenda front and center and it may be start pushing congress to strike the voting rights act. >> he's got the level of commitment to it. for all of the criticisms people have of president obama having eric holder came out and say we will dismantle the ferguson police department if they keep this up, that is a concrete example of the president manifesting his losty words into real action on the ground. so this is a legit 3459 speech on that level. >> you had an opportunity to speak to elizabeth warren? >> right. >> a couple of others who were

making their way to fill in the line behind the president. any thoughts you can share? >> geoff sessions thought it was a good speech. >> that's a key thing. there are a large number of republicans who aren't they'rehere we didn't see ted cruz. >> the republican leadership? >> they were not here. it was nice to see that senator. nancy pelosi and elizabeth warren. >> great to see you here del we will throw it back to you. we will have plenty of conversations about this this evening and gem tomorrow here on "al jazeera america." >> tony harris live on the ground in selma, alabama 50 years later along with robert ray. before that, tony as always many thanks. les, we are looking at, getting ready to close out our special coverage of race in america. does did the ball get 3406d forward today? >> i think so. i think so because of social media. i think because of television. i think so because of the gathering, the president bringing his power and he is speaking to the world. so, i think that information is

power and i think people will do better if they knew better. i think that this is a continuing battle. i am sure that the discussion will go on. >> randall pinkston as i watched the coverage i think of alabama, mississippi. i hear the words sweltering. today was no exception. >> well not sweltering in the sense we normally mean it in terms of temperature, but certainly in terms of the spirit. president obama's visit to that little town 50 miles outside of the capitol of alabama, it's significant and he pointed to the significance that what happened in selma 50 years ago means that selma isn't an outlier. it's a manifestation of what he called "we the people" and in order to try to form a more person union -- the union isn't perfect yet. but selma moved us towards that goal. and obviously the goal remains. >> if i am a young child, on the

shoulder of my father you have covered the president. the image of the president that you see for the first time is always so striking. what will be in the memory of that young man because the first president he may see is a different president that the united states has seen for so many years before. >> i can only surmise that he will remember the president. he will remember the president's children and he may even remember seeing two presidents. >> that's a rare thing, at the same time in the same place. >> randall pinkston les payne, al jazeera correspondent as allegation. i thank you for being with us. les payne pulitzer-prize winning journalist, thank you for being with us as well. i thank you as we look back on selma. many say the line that met the protesters may have been replaced by other lines, prison and unemployment lines, if you have heard us talking about where black men outnumber their white counterparts the thin blue line the line that separates hispanic families along the u.s. mexican border

where i amgration is a hot topic in this country, picture lines where workers continue to demand just a living wage just enough to be able to make ends meet. the line to take communion in churches that define themselves we end with the last words of the lyndon johnson: we shall overcome some day. i am del walters. thanks for watching. ♪ glory

♪ alleluia. ♪ glory. ♪ oh ♪ glory, hallelujah. ♪ everybody standing here today has their own edmund pettus bridge to cross. >> we have come a long way since the events of that bloody sunday. selma changed

[ ♪♪ ] >> we get the, you know, credible messages from credible source that is we can never trace back to their origins, you know, that austin is alive. >> people have, you know, had no reason to lie to us as far as we can tell. >> reporter: american journalist austin tice has been missing in syria in 2012. a video appeared on the