i do not believe he has brought me this far to leave me. ♪ ♪ i do not believe that god has brought me this far to leave me ♪ god bless you. >> another hand for mary mary. [applause] it's like being in church even though you're not there, we get it passed today, right? yes, we do. to continue our celebration of the dream, we turn to reflections of those who marched with and were inspired by dr. kent. it is might distinct pleasure to welcome former cbs news anchor dan rather who covered the civil rights movement and those who

walked beside dr. king and have lived his legacy in the years since, the rev. jesse jackson, congressman john lewis, ambassador andrew young, and our elder statesman, reverend joseph lowery who turned 90 years old, 90 years young just last week. welcome. [applause] dan -- >> thank you very much. i'm humbled to be here. heroes are honored in their time. legends live through the ages. while considering dr. king's legacy, an obscure poem called "lifters and leaners" comes to mind. dr. king was a world class

lifter. others leaned on him, i never saw his shoulders give way or his backbend. he was as great a man as i have ever seen. the historical weight of this long overdue monument reminds us that we must be lifters' now. in the 1960's as today, divisiveness was based on fear and prejudice and misinformation. now with the cost and 24 hour news cycle, the power of misinformation has increased. we must remind ourselves that intelligence drums in ignorance every time -- trumps ignorance every time. when given the facts, people make good decisions. that leads to a problem dr. king faced 50 years ago, one that is worse today and that is the

court for visitation, the politicization and the trivialization of the news. dr. king once spoke candidly with me about the news coverage of the civil rights movement. nationwide especially in cities like jackson. there was a little news coverage at all anywhere. he was also concerned that southern affiliate's stations would persuade the networks to tone down if not eliminate coverage that went out to the rest of the country. at the time, frankly, i did not feel his concerns were warranted. the than owners of my network in my bosses in new york work rock -ribbed when it came to reporting the news. and yet, in retrospect, i can't ignore that the cbs affiliate at that time in atlanta, dr. king's home town, refused to carry some

cbs news reports about the movement in 1962. they censored them. today, different owners and many big money special interests are more closely intertwined with more colluding with big political special interests than ever for their own, not the people's purposes. [applause] in dr. king's time, his main battle was against racial injustice, a battle for from over. now added to that is the fight against agreed and for economic justice. this time we judge people not on the content of their character but on the color of their money. once again, once again we have americans outside looking in. this time, many people of all

races and creeds feel stuck in a rickety, rudderless boat of economic injustice and are struggling to make their voices heard. many in white america supported desegregation but did not support the demonstrations and passive resistance that dr. king had learned from perrault and gandhi. --thoreau this creates ambivalence on the part of white americans. it gave local government the opportunity to skew the news and crushed coverage their way. does this not sound familiar? the lifters such as dr. king must have felt the weight of a million in justices but hewn like this strong -- storm like this, he was able to carry the weight. for every lifter there are

hundreds of leaners but on this day standing in front of the statue of american hero,icon, and legend, we are reminded that we must all be lifter's now. we cannot wait for others to carry our message is and lift our share of the load. although dr. king's legacy can never be summed up in a few minutes, let me leave you with this -- there is heavy lifting to be done again and in the spirit of dr. king's lasting legacy, we need to start now. thank you very much. [applause] [applause]

>> i pause to honor the living monument of martin luther king jr.. i want to be a part of this ceremony as we edge in stone the memories of dr. king. want to thank congressman john conyers who three days after the assassination put forth to the bill and it was popularized in song, ronald reagan signed the bill to help erect a monument. to all of them, we owe a very special round of applause. put your hands together, will you? [applause] i was glad to be a part of his core of disciples to work, organized a march and parade with him. here are today, one of the 32 miles from jamestown where the slave ships when the 432 miles.

i remembered my last birthday with dr. king, january 15, 1968. he was planning a march on washington. it was a poor people's campaign to occupy the mall. were willing to engage in civil disobedience to do whatever was necessary in the nation's capital to get the attention of the government to shift the war in vietnam to a war on poverty at home. in his last sunday morning sermon delivered at the washington national cathedral, four days before his assassination, dr. king said we're coming to washington to demand that the government addressed itself on the problem of poverty. the rhetorical question of what was necessary -- dr. king declared is our experience that the nation does not move around questions or

genuine equality for the poor and black people but for the confrontation massively in terms of direct action. the image of confrontational king may not be pleasing to those who want to wash the blood stains from history but is useful to those who value the truth of kings' lead more than the myth of the man. dr. king argued that racial injustice is not enough of a burning house when you're living with recycled poverty and paid. we should be appreciative of this monument but said, said because congress is in rebellion and citizens are facing intense pain. maybe the 14th amendment and bill us out of the congress will not. we're sad because of too much concentrated wealth, subsidized and born of government protection, too much poverty borne of government neglect, to many of wars, to my children

killing children, too many jobs leaving and too much drugs coming. we can and malnutrition now. we can relieve student loan debt now. dr. king would be said that america had a moment and history of historic proportions in 2008 but they elected barack obama. yet that reduction has been met with unrelenting retribution, retaliation, then on and on printed -- unprecedented opposition. people seem to be willing to sink the ship just to destroy the captain. we have to be better than that. [applause] like lyndon baines johnson, poverty was restored in the great society. dr. king would not settle for shifting the chairs on the deck of the titanic. he wanted to plug the holes to stop the water from coming in. 43 years after dr. king's plan

and occupation on this same spot, he would say to the occupiers on wall street, the movement has gone global and you are the offspring of dr. king. in that legacy, keep protesting. remain nonviolent. stay disciplined, stay focused. don't just before fios system, restructure it, march 4 and even playing field, public rules, clear goals, transparency and march on to fight racial injustice and economic inequality and fight the economic and racial injustice. we all matter. dr. king would say you must use the right to earn for the sacrifice and blood of the martyrs bridge you must use your

minds and bodies as living sacrifices. you must use your vote, are passed legislation, litigation, and laws to protect the vulnerable. use your love building coalitions to remain focused on being the road of hope for those in the hall of the ship, the 99%. dr. king argued that leadership at its best was not meant to follow public opinion polls. it was meant to mold public opinion. to not do what is convenient are popular, do what is right don't be compromised to your vision. we fall down sometimes but we get up again and again because the ground is no place for a champion. job says though you slay me, my worst fear is that i've would not get up again because i trust in god and i know my redeemer lives. victory is certain, keep hope

alive. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome representative john lewis. [applause] >> good morning. it is good to see everybody here on this beautiful, beautiful day. first, i want to thank harry johnson sr., president and ceo of the washington dc martin luther king jr. national memorial project foundation. his board of directors, dana kurtz and his entire staff. i want to thank the man from alpha phi alpha and average

citizens who made this dream come true. thank you for building a monument, a monument to peace, to love, and nonviolent resistance. on the front yard of america to symbolize the cornerstone of our true democracy. it was 48 long years ago when thousands of us long for freedom. we were in the shadow of the lincoln memorial. many of us were fresh from the jails of the hard south where the front lines of the struggle for human dignity and america was. together there in peace with their hearts in our hands, open to see some sign that our cries would be heard in the cold

marble walls of this distant capital. martin luther king jr., this man, this brother, this citizen of america, this citizen of the world, was never in the program lineup. i was number 6. for those who spoke that day, i am the only ones still around. dr. king was our leader. he never, ever asked us to do anything that he would not do. he was arrested, jailed, beaten, and constantly harassed. his home was bombed. he was stabbed. he suffered the slings and arrows of hate in a grassroots struggle to prove that love had

eternal power to overcome the limitation of hate. had it not been for the philosophy of peace, the philosophy of nonviolence that he preached, and his insistence on the nonviolent resistance based on brotherly love, this would be a different nation. we would be living in a different place today. but martin luther king jr. must be looked upon as one of the founding fathers of the new america. this man is one man. he not only for a people but he liberated a nation. we are here, all of us, black and white, latino, asian american, and native american - we are here because this one man did what president have been unable to do.

he ended with the civil war could not finish. he challenged the most powerful nation on earth to meet its moral obligation to look out for its people and look out for those who had been left out and left behind. this doctor, this creature, this man from atlanta, ga., taught us how to love. he taught us to lay down the burden of hate when he was too heavy a burden to bear. martin luther king jr., a think a few short years ago when he came to washington 48 years ago. we had signs that said "white man, a colored man, white women,"colored, those signs are gone and will not return. [applause] the only place where children say those sizes in a book or a

museum or on a video. i hear too many people saying 48 years later that nothing has changed. , a walk in my shoes. dr. king is telling you that we have changed. we are better people. we're a better nation. just think a few short years ago when dr. king stood on the steps of the lincoln memorial, we could not register to vote in many parts of the deep south. we had to pass a so-called literacy test to count the number of jellybeans and a jar. because of the work of martin luther king jr., and the work of hundreds of thousands of millions of people, because of the leadership of president kennedy and president lyndon johnson, we live in a different place. people ask me over and over

again, was the election of barack obama fulfillment of dr. de -- dr. king's dream? it is only a down payment. we are not there yet. too many people have been left out and left behind. go's use this occasion to out and finish the task, do what we must do to create a better world, to create a more perfect union. hang in there, don't give up, don't give in, don't give out, keep your faith, keep your eyes on the prize and a walk in the spirit of martin luther king jr.. thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome ambassador andrew young. [applause]

>> brothers and sisters, forgive me for starting out with a triviality. you think of martin luther king as a giant of a man but the one complex he had was a complex about his height. he was really just 5 feet 7 and was always getting upset with tall people who looked down on him. now he is 30 feet tall and looking down on everybody. [applause] he would be the first to tell you that he did i get his life for a statute. he gave his life for the least of god's children buried in the middle of the struggle when we began to work out the problems of militarism and the problems of politics and the dynamics of

getting people elected, they changed the rules on him. they changed the rules and the game is no longer just political. in fact, it is the economics that controlled the politics. people of atlanta sent me to congress and i was there at the scene of the crime when they began to break up and economic order that had been started by franklin roosevelt in 1944. at the end of 73 they changed it. a little later on, they changed something called regulation q. this is what put you out of your house and why your mortgage is not worth what to pay for it. they changed the rules in the congress. and then the savings and loans went out of business because they left housing and started building casinos and resorts and everything else. when they went out of business,

the commercial banks get into housing. they did not know anything about housing. they started packaging mortgages in something called derivatives and they sold them all around the world and they were not worth a damn. then when they went out of business, they call for the government to bail them out. and that was not good enough but there was a regulation call g lass-steagal. republicans change that. now the thing is all messed up. the problem in banking and finance is we have too much integration. [laughter] nobody really knows what they are doing and they are doing it in secret and they are not using their minds. they are using their greed behind. s. [applause] in atlanta, we tried to

straighten that out a little bit. i'm not against wall street. i am just saying that we have to learn the rules and use it to our advantage. maynard jackson said at the airport. it cost us about $10 million. we have had black mayors in atlanta ever 44 years. we have tried to do things within the economy and we have been able to generate jobs. the airport cost $10 billion but it generates $30 billion every year and creates about 60,000 jobs. kasim reed is adding an international terminal that will probably add another 5000 jobs. the system works if you know how to work it. martin luther king gave his life to end poverty. you will not end poverty by preaching. you and property by learning some economics and sending your

children to school, by saving your money, by getting financially literate and just like we won the battle of voting rights, we can win the battle of economic rights. that is what martin luther king would have you do now and a first step to that is to keep a president in office that basically has your interest at heart. [applause] this year, do that, god help us. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome rev. joseph lowery. [applause]

[applause] >> thank you. we have not got all day. [laughter] of the to go hear a fellow speak named barack obama. [applause] i came today to do in the spirit of this structure that we are dedicating. to quote martin luther king jr. in his speech at oslo when they gave him the nobel peace prize -- one of the things he made clear was that while we have come a long way we still have a

long, long way to go. while the presence of this imposing structure forever reminds us of a long and perilous journey that the struggle has brought us through, it also points toward the future. in the words -- through many days of toil, we have already come with grace that brought us safe thus far and grace will lead us home. we recognize here that in the midst of the amazing truth that an african-american preacher who never held public political office is recognized here among the fathers of the country. indeed, he has become a father

of the country. [applause] for his leadership gave birth to a new america. this marvelous president is in peril by forces that come today to turn back the clock. there are forces in this country that wants to turn back the clock but we want to make sure they understand we have marched too far, prayed too hard, wept too bitterly, bled too profusely, and died too young to let anybody turn back the clock on our journey home. [applause] let me make sure that i make clear that we are looking for something that i want to read you what martin said when they gave him the nobel peace prize -- we can spread the word across the whispering grass and tell

the trees and the trees will tell the babbling brook and then everyone will know because they told the babbling brook. well, let me say here this is what martin said -- said"i accept this award today with an abiding faith in america and an audacious faith in the future of humankind. i refuse to accept that man's presence makes it morally incapable reaching up for the oughtness that forever confronts them. i refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in life that surrounds every hour refused to accept the view. that man is so tragically bound to the life that it september i refuse the view that daybreak of

peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. i believe that even today's bombs and that burst still hope for a brighter tomorrow. i believe that wounded justice lying prostate on the blood flowing streets of our nation can be lifted from the dust of shame to rein among the children of man. i have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have meal for their bodies, education for their minds, and dignity and equality and freedom for their spirits. i believe -- that what selfless man had torn down god-fearing man can build a. up. i believe that one day mankind will about before the altars of god and the crown is