>> i am going to begin -- let me introduce myself. i am joe madison. i do what some called a talk show every morning. the channel is now called the urban view. for those of you that do have this, it can be found on channel 110. 6:00-10:00, so four hours of unscripted talk. what we are going to have here today is unscripted discussion. people will talk from their

hearts. you are here for what is known as dr. king's unfulfilled dream, economic inequality and the working poor, and this discussion is sponsored by the good jobs nation. i have in front of me about 12 talking points that were handed me. they might cause your eyes to glaze over. i will try to humanize these talking points. one of them is we should not forget it years ago, march on washington was about jobs, just as much as it was about freedom and equality. matter of fact, five of the 10 the original demands, and most people do not remember after doc dr. king's iconic speech, which

was not in the text of the written speech, philip randolph stood up and gave up five -- 10 that demands. there were 10 at demands that were read to the crowd. they were aimed at reducing economic inequity, securing good jobs and livable wages. that was 50 years ago. 50 years later, at the core demands of economic equality remains of the pope. the average income of white families is $89,000 vs 49,004 african americans and latinos. the wealth that -- gap is even more pronounced.

average well for a white family is $632,000 vs $103,000 for african americans. someone once said the difference between income and wealth is that in, is what you need to defeat. wealth is what you need to grow. and we are want to talk about both, but let me humanize this for a moment, and share with you before i have each of the

individuals on the panel's introduce themselves and it speak, let me share with you if i were on the air right now, in the past three hours this has been my experience here in washington. i go into walgreen's to get a prescription filled. i have insurance. it costs me $10. an elderly woman who is in front of me had to prescriptions. it cost her $23 each and she could not pay for those prescriptions, so she did not bother to get the medicine she needed, and she was on the medicare. i leave it to come over here. i walked here, and i walk past the martin luther king jr. library.

many people do not know that one of the backs is that when the library was built, there was an effort to prevent it from being named martin luther king jr.. the powers to be did not want it named after darden -- dr. martin luther king. i walk past on one side, the side where the library is and there is the line up of homeless people who are waiting for cars or trucks to take them to the shelters like they do every evening. there had to be a minimum a minimum of 20 or 30. -- there had to be a minimum of 20 or 30. across the street was catholic charities. i immediately had flashbacks to images of the great depression.

one of the fascinating things was one of the homeless men recognized me and did not ask me for a handout. did not ask me for a dime. i have a question for you. do you remember dr. ron walters? what was that he was talking about? hispanics and black folk getting together. here is a homeless man who is intelligent and bright enough to be able to stop me and not ask me for a handout, but where are we? what was wrong walkers talking about. sometimes i see homeless people going through trash and debris

more than we do. -- ron walkers. then i get about three blocks down, and there is a woman, probably the age of my oldest daughter, and she says, sir, just one block from here, can you help me get something to eat? i am on my way here. something is wrong, dangerously wrong in this country, and it is getting far more dangerous than most of us in this room realize. what i want this panel to understand, folks out there who are educated, i bet every last one of them have been where you have been. i bet you the vast majority live in neighborhoods where they had to fight to improve the quality

of their education. the air sitting in front of you now because they want to help -- they are sitting in front of him now because they want to help, they want to do something. i will close my opening remarks by saying that just as liberals got away, and i will ask clearance for help on this one there was this debate, should we keep calling ourselves liberals? remember that? the right wingers were so good at demonizing that term that books were almost embarrassed to say i am a liberal. so i interviewed a guy who wrote a book on this. he said let's use the word progressives.

now, when you listen. these are progressives. they want to regress back to 1963 and beyond. they want to regress. they are not conservatives. they are regressive as. opposite of progress is regress. that is what we are facing. there is no bill o'reilly in this room. no sean handed the. no right wing conservatives. -- no sean hannity.

i hope they're sitting at home watching c-span so when they ask the question, where is the leadership? look around this room and you will see it. we would be remiss if we reduce it to a just simply a commemoration.

philip randolph, who really was the godfather of this march 50 years ago, he was the godfather. that is another talking points i have here that only 7 percent of working people now are in the labor movement, a part of the labor movement. labor movement has been demonized. poor people have been demonized. that is what is going on. the thing that i always remember, and i cannot do it by memory, but i will paraphrase. philip randolph at the march on washington said look for the dixiecrats, reactionary republicans who are opposed to medicare, social security, federal funding of public education and minimum-wage.

there you will find working with reactionary republicans to end the those programs. all you have to do is change one word, dixiecrat and replace it with teeth party -- tea party. it is the same thing. what are they opposed to today 50 years later?

minimum wage. public -- funding for public education, so security, medicare and medicaid. so this march is a continuation. what i have been charged to do, and there are two parts. this first panel are people we attempted to interview. these are folks i guarantee you see every day. every single day. if you walk into fast food, you see them. you see them sometimes when you walk into a building and are responsible for the security. you see them every day. sometimes you do not see them because they're working with you have gone home and start emptying your trash, cleaning your restrooms. they are making sure your offices are clean, cubicles are clean.

you see them every day. we're going to allow each of them in their own way to tell their story, and then we will have a second panel that will be brought up. let me start at the far end. what you need to do is speak right into the microphone. relax. you are among friends and people who have been there. introduce yourself, and we will go right down the road. -- the row. >> good evening, everybody. my name is patrick turner. i am a family man. i have been working and have been struggling. i had a good paying jobs or i have a pension and retirement and health care.

because the means not under my control i ended up losing a job, so i end up taking whatever dog jobs in the long term i could provide for my country -- my family. now i am struggling. i am 54-years-old. i have to sacrifice myself to provide for my family so therefore i do not have health care. i do not have retirement. i was not always struggling. i had a good job. now i work for the smithsonian, and the job does not pay enough. my family, they are ok. things are kind of tight, but we are making it. i have too little grandson's i watch out for because the

fathers did not play a part in their life, so i tried to fill the void by being there for them. i let them know when they do good in school, i try to reward them for doing good in school, but pricing is being kind of tight, i cannot do that. it is hard for me as a man, father, to have to tell these kids know, i did not have the money for it. my thing to you all here today is we need help. we need help because we're struggling. you have fathers that can barely provide and others doing the best they can.

when i had a chance to meet the gentlemen sitting up front, he inspired me to keep on fighting, because that is what you do. did not give up, keep fighting. he said if you need me, call me, i will be there there i want to thank him for inspiring me to sit appear today and share with you and the people in this room the struggle that you had to go through and we're going through now. thank you. [applause] >> fred turner appeared that i had a good union job. $14.50 per hour. you're now make? >> $9.90 per hour. >> robert daye. >> good evening, everyone. i worked at potbelly in union

station, a federal building. i have been working there for five years. i started out making $8 per hour. today i make $9.75 per hour and no benefits. i had dreams and did not include me working at potbellies. i wanted to be a lawyer but could not afford to go to school and i had to survive. i stand up here today and say i am a survivor. my mother has suffered with drug addiction all her life. not only was she on drugs, she was dealing drugs to support me and my siblings. and i remember one night the police came to my mother's house to arrest her and the police found the sleeping in my room. they thought i was a part of my mother's drug operation, so they

arrested me, too. i was 19-years-old, and falsely convicted of possession of drugs. i have never sold drugs, nor do i do drugs. i was just at home in my room. after this experience, i was determined not to go down that path. i wanted to college -- go to college and still want to go to college but i do not have the money to pay for college. i knew i had to get a job to survive. i work hard every day to provide for my 11-month-old son but we barely exist. today i am fighting to make this job better. electricity and he passed be paid.

i am a hard worker and deserved a good job that allows me to pay the basic bills. how can a man like me get a head on poverty? no benefits. i can't. that is why we need to make dr. king's dream for economic just as real today. [applause] >> of the next lady worked not too far from here in the ronald reagan federal building as a sandwich maker. >> [speaking spanish]

my name is carla, and their work in the subway at the ronald reagan building as a sandwich maker. despite my job title, i served as a prep person, a cashier and do any other tasks that need to be done. >> i have worked at subway for 11 years and my salary is only $9.75.

on average i work $45 -- 45 hours per week but did not receive overtime pay. i do not receive health benefits, not even six days. -- sick days. >> [speaking spanish] >> about six years ago, by accident i cut a finger on my left hand while at work. the owner refused to pay for the costs of medical attention, and i was forced to pay more than $1,200 for a work injury.

even worse, subway did not pay me for the today's i missed for the accident. -- for the two days that i missed for the accident. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i have two children in el salvador. this year maybe i will not be able to take the trip to spend time with them. i did not get any paid vacation, which makes my situation more difficult. >> [speaking spanish]

>> please remember martin luther king's vision and stand up for us. i am asking you to help us fight for good wages and benefits, paid sick wages and sick time. we need to enjoy our time to spend with families and maybe one day per unite with our families. thank you. [applause]

>> the next speaker, like every good script, there is always something that is left out. what they left out for me was that your name to properly introduce you, but i understand you are with wal-mart, or is that incorrect? take my name is barbara collins. i used to work at wal-mart. -- >> my name is barbara collins. >> we have an upcoming decision that has to be made as it relates to walmart. after about the billions they made worldwide. beyond our pay scale. multiple billions of dollars. 16 billion revenue. please. thank you for being with us.

>> good evening. my name is barbara collins. 2 months ago i went on strike. i stood up against wal-mart, the world's largest private employer, calling on the lasting positive change. before i explain why, let me tell you a little bit about myself. i am a single mother, and i live in placerville, calif., with my two children. before i was illegally fired by wal-mart for exercising my freedom of speech and going on strike. i worked at wal-mart for over seven years. like any other parents, i would do anything to make sure my family had a roof over their heads and food on the table.

the matter how hard i worked out wal-mart, i still did not make ends meet. it was hard to afford clothes for my children to pay for rent, and when it came to food, i would have to go to three different food banks in my county. despite the years i invested in wal-mart, i was never guaranteed 40 hours a week. i was scheduled as few as eight hours per week. eventually i had to turn to food stamps. sadly, i am not alone. when i started talking to my co- workers, it was surprising to find out much of us all struggled, scraping by on

poverty wages. while we struggled, wal-mart continues to make 16 billion in profits each year. but rather than making changes for the associate, wal-mart retaliated against those for speaking out. that is why last june i decided to stand up against a corporate giant injuring over 100 wal-mart workers and hop on buses and participated in the ride for respect. on our way to wal-mart headquarters in bentonville, arkansas. while in arkansas we participated in a strike against wal-mart, calling on management to stop the legal retaliation against workers who speak out on issues that affect us such as making sure all workers get treated with respect to, insuring and -- affordable

health care and party wages. again, instead of listening to our call for change, wal-mart illegally fired and disciplined over 60 of us for participating in the strike, including myself. we are not giving up, and instead, we are fighting back. we are filing charges with the labor board. we're speaking out about the legal actions the company is taking, and we're building stronger support every day. this week some of us that were fired are here in washington to talk to local and national

leaders about the jobs at wal- mart. the truth is the jobs at wal- mart are not what the company is telling people on television or behind the closed doors and meetings. it is a problem for all of us. those working at wal-mart and every american taxpayer. the company's largest employer is creating jobs that forced employees to rely on public assistance. such as food stamps and subsidized housing to make ends meet. wal-mart can do better, and americans need to demand wal- mart to do better. [applause] >> our last panelist, and i

attempted to make him first, so i apologize. let me introduce jonathan roelfs. >> hello, everyone. i work at the restaurant associates at the smithsonian of american history. i am a single father and i make $10,000 per year. i read our room with my daughter, which we share, because i cannot afford to get another room for us to live. and on my off days i do handyman work to get enough money to pay rent, food, clothes, transportation and other necessities. restaurant associates has a federal contract with the

smithsonian institute that did not pay employees like me enough to survive. the workers to have just heard from joined the good nations campaign to ask the president to guarantee companies doing business with the federal government pay their employees living wages and treat them with respect. we have gone on strike at union station, ronald reagan and at the smithsonian institute. all are federal buildings, which means the president is the landlord of the building. there are a million more low- wage contract workers like us across the country. the president can help us with this executive order. back in dr. king's days, our country was being torn apart by racial tensions. and 1965 banning discriminations by the government and government contractors by the work force. the president can follow his

lead. in closing, i think it's ironic i work in a building that contains the greensboro n.c. lunch counter at in which a brave young men and women participated interested in and forced the companies to change its racial discrimination policy and items from the 1963 march on washington. now, almost 50 years later as we reflect on the march of washington, we must realize some of dr. king's dreams is not being put filled. thank you very much. -- fulfilled. [applause] >> what you have heard, and i'd just made a couple of notes as we conclude this part of the

discussion and as we come up and continue,, could you give all of them are round of applause. please. [applause] >> i guess the other panel could start to come up. i will close out my section, and i believe there will be q&a. while they are making the transition, i will make a couple of remarks. just observations.

one of the things i want us to understand, in the makeup of the panel you solve, there is often an attempt to suggest the problem, whether it is food stamps or what they call entitlements, they usually indicate it is them. i interviewed a professor from cornell from washington university in st. louis. they had done a 42-year study on poverty in america. 42 years they followed a few thousand people. one of the conclusions they came to was it is not them. it is not them black folk. it is not them hispanics, it is now us.

that is what you just saw in the representation of the panel. us is a pronoun, but also, very interesting letters, u.s. robert gates, the young man -- robert daye, a talk with him earlier and he said his biggest concern was getting involved, standing up, even speaking and being on the c-span for the world to see was fear. fear. fear that he might lose his job.

the other thing that really moved all of us was the pain. i remember hearing congressman elijah cummings once get a speech and he said payne leads up to passion, and passion has to lead to a purpose. pain that brings about passion. we felt the pain and saw your faces and felt the pain. we now have to take the pain that brings passion, but the passion has to be what? it has to have a purpose. that leads me to the final point is, professor ron walters was

once asked by students, what is the difference between a moment and the movement? because he lectured on young people, and they have these moments, the momentum going here and there and going over there. he said the difference between the moment and movement is sacrifice. what you see here on the panel are people who had made the sacrifice to keep the movement going. so with that, let me introduce the young man who will continue this second panel and bring moesha up and introduce the panel, and then we will have

duende and discussion with everyone involved. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, joe. hello. on april 4, 1968, when dr. martin luther king was tragically gunned down he stood at the intersection of two great forces for enhancing human dignity, the civil-rights movement and the labor movement. it should be remembered king was in memphis to help support striking black sanitation workers who marched with him, carrying plaques with the iconic message, i am a man. the sanitation workers were being -- for six of being referred to as boyd. in addition, as garbage

collectors, they were tired of being treated poorly by management and others who looked down on them. these garbage collectors often the bus drivers would not pick them up after work and often had to walk home. managers failing to recognize the basic humanity of individuals refuse to install safety features on garbage trucks, and to sanitation workers tragically died in an accident. this led to the strike everyone knows about in 1968 for 1300 workers, one of which is on stage today, marched with dr. king thing i am a man -- saying i am a man. the one message they held on their signs spoke to both. king told the strikers there were going beyond addressing civil-rights to fight for fundamental human rights by focusing on economic justice.

these courageous strikers should have the right not only to sit at a lunch counter but to also for the hamburger he declared. king told these strikers to focus on economic issues. since that time, we lost ground on reaching the goal of economic justice as inequality has reached record heights. the american labor movement has become a fraction of what it was with less than seven percent of private sector workers members of unions. in the 1950s, it was over one/three. we need congress to raise the minimum wage and reform labor law and we also need executive orders. when we recall the victories of the civil rights movement, we remember actions taken by commerce to pass the voting rights act and the civil rights act but presidential executive

action was also critical. president johnson signed an executive order in in 1965 ending discrimination in government contracting and advancing minority hiring standards gone beyond the requirements of the several rights act and 96 to four. this simple act opened the door of economic opportunities for millions of low-wage americans. the workers we just heard from are calling on president obama to issue an executive order that would give low age federal contract workers a living wage and benefits. to put that in perspective -- a to put that in perspective -- a recent study i the think tax says if they signed that executive order, 2000 low-wage workers would be lifted out of poverty. that is 2 million people whose lives would be made that her by simple executive order, not going through congress, not having to justify why it cannot be done but issuing an executive order saying that all federal contractors deserve a living wage and benefits.

the civil rights veterans onstage to they were part of a movement that succeeded in winning concessions from congress and the president. we will talk with the workers who are continuing the struggle for economic justice today. with that, i will let them introduce themselves and i will ask a few questions and open it up to the audience. mr. turner -- >> ok , my name isal turner. i was one of the original sanitation workers in 1968. in 1968, there was not a starter strike. the starter strike was in 1960. it was 1300 employees and only 33 went out on strike.

when i would say that i am behind you, i mean it. anything i can do to help you let me know. in 1960, 33 people went on strike. out of 1300. we knew that was -- that we would need a whole lot of cleaning up. [laughter] we had to get with these people and show them how they were being mistreated. in 1968, it was about two weeks before february 13. we went to every employee that was working.

these employees agreed that they were being misused and they had agreed that they were not going to take it anymore. this is how we had them out, the morning of february 13 we went to each selection. we told them that we are not going to work anymore until our demands are met. and we did. this is the first time that the city was shut down. they did not move. what i will tell you today -- it might take time but go back to

your employee and give your coworkers and explain to them how they are being misused. explain to them the thing that dr. king said in our meeting. dr. king said it is a sin for a person to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. we had employees that were working eight hours per day, five days per week, and on welfare. that was not right. once we showed all of our employees how they was being used and mistreated, then we did

not have any trouble bringing them out. to tell you the truth, they did not know we were going out on strike. when they knew, we were out. [laughter] they said go and help them do what they can. we stayed on strike for 65 days. after we was on strike for about two weeks, dr. king joined us. dr. king, in his last speech, he went to the mountaintop.

he looked over and he saw the promised land. this was his last speech. he said i might not get there with you but we will make it. i believe we have made it. we've got some cleaning up to do. but we made it to the promised land. look in the white house. that's a black man. when he made that speech, you did not have too many black mayors. look around and see how many black mayors you've got now.

the first thing we've got to do is to register and vote. dr. king knew what was coming. he knew that the promised land was -- had a lot of people pulling you back, trying to hold you back. what we need to do is register. you got a bunch up there and right here in washington who are working against you. you've got a bunch -- they is working five days per week trying to hold you back and these are some of the main

reasons that minimum wage is what it is today. the president wants to give it to you but he has so many people that is against him and working against him and they don't want to pass nothing that he is for. what i suggest is get to everybody you can, that's what i am doing, get to everyone you can and try to get them registered to vote. until we do something about these people who are against others, until we do something about that, we will still be in a slump. we are going to overcome.

we are going to overcome it. keep the faith. we are going to overcome it and just like i told brother that i am with you. i will be with you anyway i can help. that was the way of what has happened to me. we never would have made it if we had not had help from the community. [applause] >> thank you, alvin. bill?

>> before i share a couple of comments, a couple of ideas, let me make a personal observation. we have just heard real life story of one of this nation's finest citizens and one of its hardest workers. [applause] it is difficult to put into words the struggle that these men went through and the sacrifices they made for their struggle for respect and dignity and mr. turner is just my hero. he is my hero. we heard from five other people. we heard their story.

i would point out that they did not ask for a handout or any special treatment, just the opportunity to earn a decent living and care for themselves and their family. that is everyday people. the president can deal with this issue. he can help 2 million people find a ladder out of poverty. poor people work every day. they simply need a helping hand to level the economic playing field so they can earn a decent salary and can work with a degree of respect and decent treatment. this week, and the remainder of this week and next week, we are going to hear a lot about dr. king must dream -- dr. king's

dream and rightly so. the optimism and hope expressed by dr. king when he talked about himself and his people and their dream is really the thing that we all pray for. what we will not hear is a lot about what he talked about before he got to the dream piece. dr. king said earlier in his speech that in a sense, we had come to the nation in the marches, to cash a check. he went on to say that when the republic was written of the wonderful worlds of the constitution and declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note. this note was a promise that all men, black, white, brown, whatever, would be guaranteed it inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness. having a job that pays a decent wage that allows you to provide for yourself and your family is the cornerstone of freedom and rights. dr. king also said it is obvious that today america has defaulted on its promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. remember those five people who were up your before. they had dreams and hopes and aspirations to all kind of things but the key to all of that is a job that allows you to receive a decent wage. a friend of mine named charlie hayes said the problem we had -- there ain't a problem we have pretty good job cannot cure. he was right. i believe dr. king would be outraged at the situation where the federal government is complicit in the perpetuation of

poverty among people who work every day. these are not people looking for a handout. they are just looking for a fair shake. we have a vendor and contractor relationship between multimillionaires and billionaires with the federal government. yet, the workers earned property wages. these are not folks who will not work hard. i am looking at one here who worked as hard as any man ever worked. you cannot raise yourself out of poverty unless the playing field is level, unless you have an opportunity to sit down with weber makes decisions on your well-being and you are equal across the table. no employer that i know of had ever paid workers what they were entitled to at the time they were entitled to it. we used to do studies that said

last year and the year before, the wages were such. that has nothing to do with right now. you heard people say they earned wages which did not allow them to pay for the basic necessities of life. there is something fundamentally wrong with that equation. workers should be given the opportunity to organize come up bargain collectively, and let the results be what the traffic will bear. there is nothing special about the government. it is an employer. it employs more low-wage workers than any other company in the country. including walmart, including mcdonald's. yet, it stands behind this issue that we are the government. let's think on that for a minute. the government makes more billionaires than any other entity in the country.

the vendors that run the buildings that these five people work for make hundreds of millions of dollars yet pay their workers minimum wages, sometimes less based on the number of hours you put in and what you receive for it. the ceo's make millions and the companies make billions and yet the workers who contribute to that must survive on minimum wages come and no benefits, and none of the special perks that come if you are represented by an organization and negotiate with you with wages and benefits. the president can solve this problem. executive order, there is nothing new about them, nothing different about them. we do it for private contractors who work on the basis of prevailing wages. there is nothing new about it. johnson did it 65 with his executive order 11265, i believe it was.

it said there will be no discrimination among workers working with the federal government. that can be done tomorrow. these workers can begin to see some daylight and their lifestyles. i would and with this point -- these battles are not about the wages and benefits so much as they are about the respect and to get to that should go with workers and what they contribute. they should be able to live a decent quality of life by virtue of the work they do. i'm going to join mr. turner in whatever we can do to help. we will win this battle. we will win this battle. [applause] we have the restaurant associates who run the restaurant around here and they earned three point $12 billion

last year. -- 3.2 billion dollars last year. there is nothing legal you can do to make that kind of money, i believe. [laughter] the other vendors are equal in profits. what is to keep them from treating their workers fairly? what's to keep them from sitting down and establishing decent wages and benefits of people can live with some degree of dignity and respect? that is the battle we are in. i would hope that during the course of the march saturday, someone would mention these five people and the kind of work they do and remember and keep in mind the workers who shared that 65- day experience to fight to change the quality of life in the city of memphis, tennessee. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you, bill. larry? >> my name is larry rubin. i wish everybody a good evening. even you, glenn beck if you are listening. i want to thank good jobs nation for bringing this all together. i think this is just a sample -- we are just a small sample of what we will be seeing on saturday. people will be coming in from all over the country. 50 years ago, being at that march was the first time, first experience i had that really allowed me to feel like an american.

i had been working for snvk, student nonviolent coordinate a committee. -- coordinating committee. we were fighting the elected officials, the people that said that they are america and, in a way, we believe that. we believed we were fighting america. but then, the largest crowd ever assembled in this country to that time came together and we saw, no, we are america. we are america. this coming saturday we will come together again. because substitute the tea partiers, the koch brothers and goldman sachs and the policeman in the south.

look what they are doing to america today and that's why we have to get together again. voting rights is under attack. we've got to stand your ground. whose ground? the regressive, i like that word, and the racists want us to believe it is their ground. but it's not. it is everybody's ground. what they want is to legalize the right to shoot somebody or kill somebody because their skin color might be, to them, suspicious. we used to call that lynching. the stand your ground laws are new pro-lynch laws. why is all this happening?

i believe it is happening because the corporations, the people that are running businesses today, want to treat workers however they want to and pay them whatever -- however little bit they can get away with. workers today have fewer rights than they had when the march on washington took place. the right to organize has been diminished. the promise of a secure future has virtually and destroyed. -- been destroyed. when king spoke in 1963, the federal minimum wage was $1.25 per hour. adjusted for inflation, today that would be $9.54. just to keep up with inflation. the minimum wage today is only $7.25.

america has taken a step backwards. we have lost our position as the world's greatest land of opportunity. a recent study has shown that there are some 40 other nations that have greater upward mobility than america. a few individuals are making billions. but most of us are just making do. joining together in unions has always been, and still is, the only way americans have of gaining more economic equity and fairness. i believe that all the bad things that are happening today just have one purpose -- to keep us apart from each other. to keep us from joining together, from joining in unions.

at the time of the march, i wished dr. chang, it -- dr. king, instead of having a dream, would say i have a plan. today, we are working on a plan. it began's -- it begins with americans coming together again like saturday. it begins by all of us sticking together no matter what we do for a living, no matter the color of our skin or religion or ethnic group or how long we have been here. it doesn't matter. coming together and with unions, every job in america will become a good job. as brother lucy said, you should be paid for the value of our work.

sanitation workers have saved more lives than all of the doctors and hospitals combined. the reason we have sanitation is to prevent disease. it is these workers who are keeping us alive. with unions, with us coming together, america, american families, american workers will indeed overcome. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, larry. clarence? >> good evening. i love down-home audiences because when you you say good evening, they say it back. i appreciate that. you have heard from people who are making history or who have made history.

i am an observer. i am a journalist. 50 years ago, i was a 16-year- old kid in high school in middletown, ohio. that is john boehner's district. i was a minimum-wage worker. john boehner was, to, i learned years later. when john boehner went to work at a factory and got a paycheck for the first time, he looked at his paystub and saw how much he was paying in taxes and he became a republican. a very well-known move in america. i, 50 years ago, since 1963, actually 1964 when the civil rights act was being voted on, barry goldwater voted against it. he was nominated to be the republican nominee for president. i decided then that i was not a republican. i had grown up with a family that was very republican.

i am grateful to the republican party. everett dirksen from illinois, without his leadership, we could not have passed over the segregation of southern democrats. it is a different world. when i was a kid, we would go down to what our family called the old country and most of you know as alabama. we went shopping and we're in in a five and $.10 store. i said i want to get a jack of water and i went running off for my parents. -- a drink of water. my mother said to my dad, you must follow him. he found me standing between two water fountains and one was marked white and one was mark collard.

-- one was mark colored. i was turning on the one mark mark colored and was disappointed that it came out clear. it was the first time i heard the word segregation. we had segregation in the north we just did not have the signs. joe and i remember -- i used to go up to date into lakeside amusement arc because colored people could not go to lashoresville. you never forget these things. this marks our generation. 50 years ago, watching dr. king on television changed my life. i decided i want to be an eyewitness to history. my high school newspaper

adviser, mrs. mary kendall, said i thought i had some talent in this business and i am happy to say that we are celebrating more than one anniversary. this weekend, i am going back to and mrs. mary kendall turns 100 years old next week. [applause] let's hear it for mrs. kendall. if any of you don't like my journalism, lame her. she got me into all this. back when i got the pulitzer prize in 1989, the middletown and dayton reporters were calling me up to do stores and i found my your book and opened it up. i found mrs. kindles picture and she had had autograph my yearbook and said remember me when you win a pulitzer prize. i did not forget. anyway, dr. king's speech was, in some ways, too successful. it colorized property.

-- poverty. in the early 1960s, you said the word poverty and you had an image of maybe bobby kennedy in appalachia with a poor white family. after dr. king's speech and the march on washington, civil rights act, voting rights act, the riots in watts, and over 400 [indiscernible] poverty got a decidedly blackface. you start thinking about a black family in harlem or the southside of chicago or the west side of chicago where dr. king moved into a tenement apartment to dramatize property. dr. king became a leader in the anti-poverty movement. this had an effect. we, in the media, have our path ologies. one of them is an oversimplified view of the world.

what happens is that certain people can identify with certain others and certainly there are forces of reaction that come up. joe, you are right about the regresses also known as reactionaries. i call them the radical right. george wallace was influential in shaping today's politics as anybody because he led the forces of white backlash in the mid-1860s. when dr. king moved from civil rights and race to poverty, it reminded me of a story my daddy used to tell me about a preacher who was preaching the 10 commandments on a sunday morning. maybe you've heard the story. he said that shall not kill. the deacon in the front row set right on. he said that shall not steal. the deacon says right on, reverend. the reverend says that shall not commit adultery.

>> the deacon gets up and walks out. before he goes out the door, he turns and says now you've stopped preaching and gone to middling. -- meddling. that's what happened when dr. king went from race to poverty. in chicago, in new york, in the northern climes. mayor daley in chicago, read your history if you did not live through it. that was dr. king's greatest failure was the chicago project. why? he got bamboozled by mayor daley. the mayor kept putting him off and said ok we will sign the covenant. once king went back to alabama, richard daley went back to what he was doing. we get bamboozled and politics and the media and as a society. today, poverty has a decidedly blackface. or hispanic face.

in fact, most poor folks in this country are white. you've heard of that book " what's the matter with kansas" - the center of populism of working-class people, rising up against those forces trying to press them down. what happens to them? george wallace happens to them. populism today is the tea party. it was co-opted. it was colorized, the whole issue. yet, charles murray, who wrote a book called " the bell curve," i won't go into that -- he regained himself with me one year ago with another book about two nations. it was about white america good he got in so much trouble writing about black folks he stayed away. it was about the wage and income gap in white america. it has been growing since the late 1950s. same amount of time we have been

talking about civil rights. there was ade-industrialization of america. the steel mill where i worked and made enough money in the summertime to pay for college in the wintertime at ohio university, go bobcats, where the tuition was -- i had to go back and check this because i thought my memory was failing me my tuition was $770. that was 1965. to go to ohio university. i set up my journalism career. it is well over 10 times that now. where are the steel mill jobs? they are not there. that is upward mobility. that's what larry is talking about. my father was a janitor, my mother was a cook. through upward mobility in america, i was able to take advantage of opportunity and move up from minimum wage to a much higher income.

over 1/3 of america moved from below poverty to the middle class between ice and 65-1985. i defy you to find any society on the planet that huge that make it advances that fast once they were given the opportunity. that is upward mobility. as you have also just heard, they actual wage has gone down in that amount of time. that is why i thank changed to tipping me off on the story that is going on and why i recently wrote a column about this issue and plan to do more. more work has to be done. i was happy to see the " new york times" has come along but i beat them to the story. they caught up on this issue. most of america has not. i am with you, too. for the sake of the next generations, for keeping upward mobility alive in the country -- i have talked enough, don't get me started. thank you very much. [applause]

>> everyone here starting with joe and everyone on the panelhas between the 1960s and today. i was wondering if each of you could talk about what young people can do today to try to build a mass movement for economic justice? >> let me take us back maybe a year or so ago when young people were occupying stuff. those youngsters raised the fundamental question in the context of this nation -- how we can tolerate the incredible wealth at the top and the unimaginable poverty at the bottom and still go on with business as usual. young people who are much more

idealistic than us oldies really ought to be having a discussion about the inequity in the workplace, about the unfairness in the workplace, about the shift from what roosevelt created with a level playing field where workers had the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employers to what we see now which is an attack on workers rights, trade union rights, and it's an attack on just average people. what we saw in wisconsin was a tragedy in the context of the assault on the fundamental right and that is to have the right to organize and bargain collectively. we went on with business as usual. we look at a seven or eight percent number in the context of workers represented in the

private sector. once you get that low, trade union rights almost become irrelevant. young people can join the ranks of those who want to organize workers, organize communities, and have people fight back for their share of the american dream. >> thank you. >> i think we need to recognize that the situation today is different than it was 50 years ago. 50 years ago, the march for jobs and freedom, what was meant then was that african-americans and other minorities were being kept out of the workforce or, if they had jobs, they were being paid less than the whites doing the same work. this is how the system made huge profits then. now they have come up with a new way. now, they have divided jobs up into teeny pieces, only a few

people in a workplace get to think. they have teeny little pieces. they are hiring as many temporary workers and as few full-time workers as possible. we are being told, and it's true, that we are coming out of the recession to the creation of jobs. it's not true that the jobs being created are just private sector. the only sector that has ever created any jobs as government, ever. this is through subsidizing the big corporations if nothing else. the situation is different today.

what we are headed for is americans have to learn to make do with less. that is the word going out. it is different today. it is not just unemployment or jobs. it is more complicated. i think that what young people should have in their minds and what they should be putting out there is what i was saying earlier -- we are all america. you take away from the march in washington in 1963, you take away the crowd, not a speech but all these people coming together. to bring people together, you have to understand that it is to their interest, their economic interest, to come together. low wages hurt us all. a rising tide might raise boats

but an avalanche of rocks sinks all boats. people need to understand that it is to their interest to get together. going back to what clarence was saying, the study shows that the poorest states in this country are thereddest states. that is weird. people are voting against their own interest. >> americans always do. that's another story, but go ahead. >> i think young people and also all -- and us all need to reach out to the average tea party person, not the leaders who are fooling the others, not the big corporations that are financing them but the average person in the tea party is

making a lot less than they used to. they are being told what people are told in all fascist systems. in germany, unemployment, it is the jews. it's not the corporations. it's not goldman sachs. it's immigrants. we need to reach out to folks and explain to them that it's not the immigrants. it's the folks telling them that it's the immigrants that are the problem. another thing -- maybe i am showing my age here -- speaking

directly to young people, i think it's important -- when we're were in the movement, we did not mistake a mimeograph machine for the movement. the mimeograph machine was a way of getting the message out. >> you are showing your age. [laughter] >> today, >> today it would be twitter. >> that's my point. social media is the way to get the message out. it is not the movement itself. young people have to get out

from in front of their computers, work together, get out on the streets, and raise hell like frederick douglass said -- i am paraphrasing -- if you want freedom without agitation, you want crops without seeds, tyranny has never relinquished its power without hesitation or without organizing. [applause] >> one piece of advice -- two young people today -- keep your eyes on the prize. you have to figure out what the prize is first. this was my frustration and other people's frustration with the occupy movement. whenever you ask them what do you want, they could not articulate it. they all wanted something. does that mean the movement was a waste?no, it was important because a change the conversation in this country.

before occupy, all you had was the tea party expressing discontent and they wanted to dismantle government. they wanted to take government out of peoples lives and the services that have helped people. they saw that as some kind of sin. occupy was just the opposite. they wanted to talk about growing wage gap, etc. that worked. as someone inside the media, i saw it every day. suddenly, we had a different story to talk about and a different dialogue was going on. i i seldom see that mentioned in the news coverage. you had coverage on radio and tv, etc, twiddle and twitter and all the new gadgets but seldom do i see it mentioned and i mentioned it in my column and people talk about my column but

did not mention obama or the executive order. i have to do another column. i have to bring the point home again. it is not my job to run your movement or put your message out for you. it is your job. it is important that the people who are involved in this be able to remember the late great tim russert in dc who used to always come after a speech or debate say, what is the bumper sticker? if there is one thing that the right has achieved better than the left liberal progressives of recent years, it's the bumper sticker war, being able to change the conversation. for example, the death tax. it used to be called the estate tax. it was because grover norquist and the others ran it that way and shifted the conversation. class warfare, i love that one. no one talks about the class

warfare of the koch brothers or the people at the top. it is some socialistic communist it what ever. these things matter, words matter. this is one thing that needs to be stressed. focus on what is your goal and articulate that over and over again. >> going off that, what everyone has been talking about with executive orders and how we can get president obama to act on that -- i wanted to start with alvin if you have any thoughts on that. >> i believe the president has spoken on that. what is happening is congress, that is the problem. when the president put that sign around his neck, standing beside

me, acknowledging that he was a man and he acknowledged that if it was not for the stand we took in 1968, he would not be president today. so, i believe if we get together and let him know how we feel, i don't know if anybody did or not, but that is the thing that has to first -- that has to be the first step we take. let him know and see what he says and see what his action will be. if he don't, he will disappoint may. [laughter] -- he will disappoint me.

[applause] >> a few years ago, a discussion about a living which was nonexistent. folks were thinking that we are dreaming or owns something. just as we made the living wage issue a topic of discussion nationwide, the issue of improving the life of low-wage workers, the same issue can be

attached to it. it is in the interest of the country that low-wage workers be brought up. these folks are not going to buy up. these folks are not going to buy stocks on wall street. they will spend their money in their communities improving the economic life of the community as well as their own. i think we've got the means of a movement here. it simply has to be pushed to the hilt. the face has to be put on people who work everyday and still struggle for a decent quality of life life. we can make that argument. i think we simply have to get our social justice movements, get our religious communities, get our trade unionists, and activist together and make that case. [applause] >> ted kennedy wants was explaining why a senate session

was taking so long. he said " everything that needed to be said has been said but not everybody has said it." at the risk of just agreeing with what everybody else has said, what we need is allies, what we need is a massive number of people to express to the president their opinion but, at the center of it all, is the workers themselves a and jus keep on keeping on. those demonstrations at union station brought the issue to the public like nothing else. i happen to be speaking to elinor holmes nor to and about this and she has been pushing the president to sign the executive order.d the demonstrations taking place in washington. that needs to continue and it needs to be redoubled. [applause]

>> i will add that i am reminded of a story about franklin roosevelt and organized labor in the oval office. >> you've convinced me of the facts, now go out there and make me do something about it. >> exactly. you've convinced me now go make me do it. in other words, put the pressure on. president obama gets pressured by a lot of as you may have noticed. he has a lot on his platter. this is not the biggest issue facing him right now. but the issue has to be brought up in a way that indicates to

him that the public cares ab it. that means you raise a fuss out here. make as much noise about it as you can. and, again, keep your eyes on the present figure out what the price is and what's the the message you want to get out there. i was watching the documentary on public television about the 1960s in dc last night. walter fontroy said he was in charge of the sound of the washington march. he was 28 years old and they gave him this job because he was dispensable if he screwed it up. the night before the march, the sound man calls up the technician and said somebody has screwed up everything over here. we will not have sound in time for the march. he called up bobby kennedy and said we have to do something. i need the signal corps over here and they got the signal corps over there and 15 minutes before the scheduled speeches were to begin, he hears " testing 1, 2, 3."

he had to get somebody to call bobby kennedy. this is a fact. ask anybody who has dealt with barack obama in chicago or here. he is not a glad hand or or and lbj. he does not go in the hallway and buttonhole people. he is an inside player. they don't call him the professor for nothing. he has a tight circle of people he talked to most of the time for good or ill. he gets cut off sometimes and sometimes he stumbles as a result. it is not going to be easy necessarily but he is reachable. i think he is on your side, certainly he has been publicly stating he wants to raise the minimum wage but not high enough in my view.

she has put it on the table. now got to go out there and make them do it -- he has put it on the table. you've got to go out there and make him do it. >> i wanted to take this seat because the question is a very good one. i now speak to the c-span audience, assuming i am also speaking to people inside the administration. there are two things that are going to take place this weekend and this related to the march on washington. one is saturday. this is you all come. this is the plan. this is the demonstration. and at that demonstration, whoever is speaking, and whoever is organizing, they should demand, encourage whatever adjective you want to use, that this executive order be issued and signed by the president of the united states. [applause]

we would do a disservice to the memory of those speakers -- they were 10 of them -- and in particular, not only to dr. king but to a. philip randolph if we did not demand that with the stroke of a pen you can raise 2 million people? out of poverty? and you don't need congress's approval? the only one that will object will be congress. they cannot do a thing about it. then i say directly to the president of the united states, to his inner circle, you are speaking on august 28. you will stand where martin luther king jr. stood and talked about his dream. you should announce on february 28, at that speech, that you will make the dream of 2 million people come true by issuing this executive order and signing it. [applause] if you are watching, that's what you should do. other than that, it's just a ceremony. and we don't need anymore ceremonies.

[applause] >> on that note, i want to see if anyone in the audience had any questions for our

distinguished panel. yes, sir. wait, there's a microphone. >> my name is mr. foster and i wanted to ask anyone up there to answer. really, you just took what i was getting ready to say. i believe that dr. king was living today and he saw someone looking like him and the white house, and he could remove 2 million people out of poverty, i think he would have marched more in the last four years than he ever would have marched. that is what i believe. if the dream was to come true, if we can put afro-americans in the white house, the powerfulest man in the world but we still have homelessness and people starving, then the dream is

nowhere being reached. nowhere. [applause] >> anyone? >> could any if you address the issues that will come up such as the mass incarceration of african americans and people of color? to thethose related economic struggles? the look at the level of incarceration in this country and who is incarcerated, you can see you have young people sentences,critical nonviolent crime. are in deep

trouble. this is an economic issue. rights.e of voting the ability to participate in the democratic process is essential to our well-being. decisions are made every single day that impact our economic interests. if people cannot participate we are on the losing end your it the recent decisions that the look intoeneral has it has taken a whole new look at how sentences are. it gives some hope of change. we still have 2 million or more people in jail. a substantial of which have no reason whatsoever to be there. >> i'm glad you brought that up. are issueseration where we have seen the pendulum swing.

anda actually came out says something on same-sex marriage as they took action. we see eric holder actually taking action. we are seeing a bipartisan coalition emerging around reducing masimo corporation -- mass incarceration. i spoke with other well-known conservatives. of well-knownng are involved who in this. the list is line. my mind is slow. oflso talked with the head the naacp. they are working together. is this possible? yes. they were down in texas

testifying. georgia has cut back their spending. arkansas is closing jails. 10 years ago there were a lot more of them. there is a meeting of the minds and the wallets. to cut government spending, great place to do it it is possible. there are a lots of sensible people out there in the middle. they need to be spoken to and udged/s >> they do not want people to vote because they are afraid people are going to vote for their own interest. the issue of mass incarceration has a lot to do with the privatization of the prison system. it is a business. people are making huge profits to keep other folks in jail.

>> one of the things that you that we have to remember is that we want to use that money to educate them. that is one of the things people are not doing. states want to get the money back. talking about what they're going to use the money for. education, that is what we have to have. i have been to all the marches. i am very excited about it. i do not thinkgs we are stressing a mass is that is that a -- enough

obama is a community organizer. somebody recommended obama to my son. obama got more people to register in illinois than anybody else who work for my son. we cannot forget that. >> thank you. >> my question is directed to mr. turner. during the said sanitation strike in the march and 63 that people try to discourage or stop you or did not join you. tot advice would you give myself or someone like myself

are trying to make positive changes? what advice would you get to us that do notith this want to jump on the obvious bandwagon for positive change? >> get with them. the treatment they have received is just as unfair to them. that they areple being misused. these -- this is the step that we tip. 33 out of the 100 went on strike. 1960.k us from

it took us a year is to get with these other people and show how they have been mistreated. we got to them and showed them .hat they were mistreated on february the 13th and 68 they come out. everybody. it was 98%. going to win this thing. may take i do not know how long but we have got to get the

message out to them. even to the president. we get it to them. we are going to get the message to him. he told me personally working hard for the little man. he told me that personally. he is don't, disappointing me bad. -- if he don't, he is disappointing me bad. >> i agree that when we talk

about this it is more complicated than just jobs. eye on the prize. just know what the prize is. my original comment is to recognize the importance of financial literacy. economic inequality is not just about jobs but also about having the knowledge to manage the money you earn. tax credits in obamacare are all critical components of financial literature -- literacy. comment to share that to us all and to welcome you to the district of columbia for the march on washington. let's keep the dream alive.

>> we are on the verge of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the march of washington. dr. martine to quote luther king. is the american negro could be richer than most nations of the world. this is more than all the exports of the united states. more than the national budget of canada. that is power right there. asking you to are go out and tell your parents not to buy coca-cola in memphis. hart'sem not to buy bread. up till now only the garbage

men have been filling it. now we must redistribute the pain. they can begin to process the same. they are going to support the needs and rights of these men who are on strike. what you think about implementing that in this day and time? >> i do not think there's any question about that. this has been a key to any number of movements. part of local strategies or regional strategies. our ability to affect commerce israel. -- is real.

we need to make selective targets or individuals have not dealt with our communities fairly. no debate whatsoever. "selective there is buying" campaigns. entertainers that are selecting not to entertain in florida. .ecause of trayvon martin i am really impress. once again what you just did, i do not know if you realize this. that is a part of martin luther king's speech that nobody ever speech.s his last we always hear " i've been to the mountaintop." just like the march on washington we always hear "i have a dream."

this leads me to what clarence talks about when he says "words, words." i appreciate what everyone up here has done. you have got to understand that you are right. they are able to change these words. what i would say to this young yeah,d all young people, you do not know what the mimeograph is but you sure know how to tweet. take what you just said, it is amazing if we older folks understand that with just one finger or phone action you literally can communicate with millions of people in a nano second. everyone is probably sitting here with a smart phone.

we have to choose that which what we had. this is not just a gathering. we should be taking notes. we should be sending it on our cell phone. we should be sending the message immediately to the white house and demand thing. this is a president who has told to make politicians do it. that yetose by saying man is parts of what they .alled the joshua generation we are all up here part of the moses generation. remember. moses showed the way.

joshua had to do the fighting. we need the moses generation this weekend working with the joshua generation. do not let them divide us old versus young. you need to be shown the way. some of this language we have heard before. the tea party is nothing but dixie craft. it was lee atwater that made that point. the architect of the southern strategy who said and i have it on tape grade you cannot say -- you've got to use terms in abstract. that is how they have to capture the southern vote. this is the same thing. it is just that they speak in

abstract. american is getting smart. saying themger them them. it is saying us us us. they are kicking their grandmother under the bus. they are kicking their own people under the bus. right. he is absolutely we're going to win this. people are not going to sit back and stand for it. it just a small minority. they have a lot of it starting to kick back. >> absolutely. people are starting to suspect. replace you going to it with? >> they do not have an answer. >> they are talking about the

history of the strike. once we start to it is not only a question of getting together it is getting a question of staying together even if we are losing. just because you can get information in a nano second it doesn't mean you can win the battle. saying this has been conscious. the system has put out these techniques of instant gratification. we need to fight that. the would like to bring up mcdonald's at the smithsonian

space museum. she is someone at the front line of this. >> hello. . he said the civil rights movement must address restructuring the whole of american society.

i try to be a medical assistant but cannot find a job. he signed the executive order to leave federal contracts workers like me. for those of you watching you can go to jobs. and sign a petition as well.

they are inspired by civil rights veterans. thank you for leading by example. thank you.

[indiscernible] >> i think that is something that we should actively be talking about. we want our rights existing. tothis is the commission make sure that is part of the march and saturday's demonstration.

>> thousands gathered at the national mall to commemorate gains in civil rights. at the national mall we heard martin luther king junior the third as well as the mayor of new work new jersey. we will take a look at their comments right now. this is not the time for nostalgic