we will also be joined by owen ullman.

>> we'll continue into the afternoon. you're looking at film from august of 1963 as demonstration and marchers gathered on the mall here in washington d.c. this was the headline from the washington post, a mammoth rally of 200,000 jamming the mall in a solemn orderly plea for equality. that's our line for those of you over the age of 50. for those of you under the age of 50.

585-3880. 202 is the area code here in washington d.c. we'll get your call on march. >> your calls and comments in a moment. lots get to the other stories this morning that is latest development from syria and headlines from overseas. the guardian newspaper the attack on syria just days away as the house of commons recalled for a vote and the picture of the british prime minster as he departs yesterday as the parliament resuming session tomorrow breaking from their august recess. from the marine herald, -- miami herald, a stage is set. u.s. and allies act as syria's intelligence mount. as u.s. officials said privately that a flood of previously undisclosed intelligence including satellite images and

intercepted communication erased last minute administration doubt that the syrian regime used chemical weapons against its own people. military officials discussed yesterday about coordinating response in attacks against the syrian targets. and the headlines from the washington post is this, proof against bashar assad is at hand. the obama administration believe that u.s. intelligence has established how syrian government forces stored, assembled and launched chemical weapons outside of damascus that killed hundreds of people. the administration is planning to release evidence possibly tomorrow. it will prove that president bashar assad -- from the hill newspaper reaction from members of congress the headline is nearly two dozen members of congress signing on to a letter

demanding that the president first consult congress. the letter was led by a republican from virginia beach. quote, engaging our military in syria when no direct threat exist would violate the separation of powers that is clearly in the u.s. constitution. nearly two dozen house members sign this asking the president to wait for congressional authorization. we'll be talking later about the situation in syria. we want to get to your phone calls whether or not you think marchs makes a a difference. you'll see remarks from the mall and u.s. capitol. for those of you offer the age of 50 the number to call is 202-585-3880. those over the age of 50 called

202-585-3881. these are pictures. one of those on hand is actor harry belafonte. who shortly after the march on washington had this to say what it meant for him and others in that demonstration. >> to be in washington today was an accumulation of a number of generations of black americans who have been trying to appeal to the conscious of white supremacy. and force that has denied and disenfranchise the negro for so long. to be in washington was for me today a beginning really. a kind of climax to generations of hope. having been at the beginning of so many important civil rights issues in this country and

demonstration. it was a powerful moment to see 200,000 people, mostly black people but also white people. to know that a nation, such as america and the reason i struggle with it so hard because i really believe in the potential of this country. >> actor and civil rights activist harry boll phone -- belafonte. headline this morning the tallahassee democrat, a turning point and a quote from the mlk speech, i have a dream that this country will live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. our question as we begin on this wednesday morning, do marchs still make a difference? 202-585-3880 those of you under

the and of 50. over 50, 202-585-3881. we begin with james joining us from grand fork, north dakota. caller: hey steve. calling again. i'm actually 49. right on the edge and i'm going to be 50. i'm not north dakotaian. i called before and i came out here for work for this hard to be a white man in suburbs of philadelphia. certain trades get displaced and you have to find your own way. i'm out here celebrating. i don't celebrate diversity. i noticed that c-span and msnbc there's an obsession with race. it's funny how white people are taught and teach their children race does not exist. we finding out this so called post racial president that race

is everything. race is everything in human history. there's no such thing as transcendents of race. what's interesting, steve, is for a color blind america. in order to have a color blind america all must practice race blindness. only people that do are white people. we are the only ones. not me i'm a racially conscious white male. white people are grappling with whites who hate themselves and teach their children such. if you notice whites do not vote as a bloc. they vote for the interest of other people. they allow affirmative action policies to discriminate against their own children. if you look at every park back to philadelphia, white people adopt black children.

you'll never find a black person adopt a white person. white people allow people to pour into their homelands by the millions and displace them. it's amazing phenomenon, we're the only one that practice dr. king's dream. host: we'll go to other calls and tweets. this is from our twitter page. marchs can be effective but they need to be loud and in your face. otherwise they are just dismissed. gloria is our next call. welcome to the program, from upper marlborough, maryland. caller: thank you so much. your first caller i feel sorry for him because he only knows

one aspect of a people's heart. my father -- first of all i was in the march in 1963, i was there. i will also march again on saturday and i'm 17 years old now. i had a high school teacher who was a caucasian man. when the young people were being bombed out in the churches and being bombed and alabama and the young people were being blown away by the water hoses and down in the south. that young man, he was a caucasian young white man. he made us really -- i was very carefree -- he made a point to us that we need to be a little more serious about what was going on in the world. me personally i was never taught

to hate or fear anyone. therefore, i have love in my heart for white people, black people, every kind of person on the face of the earth. i still do. i would like to tell him. he needs to get to know more black people. that's one of the reasons i have attitude because i was never taught except when i got time in high school that there was another problem this country where people hated my guts. that was an eye opener for me. i struggled with that issue from the time my children were born. my youngest is now 40. he turns 40 tomorrow as a matter of fact. i never taught him to hate or fear. i want him to know that there are truly are people, african-american people, if you look at lionel richie, he adopted a child.

a child nonafrican-american child. people who have hearts that are full of love and kindness don't go around looking for reasons to hate people or to fear people. that is an attitude i carry with me everyday. you have to be taught to hate and fear. you have to be taught from year to year. you have to be carefully taught. yes, i do believe that marchs are still important simply because it brings people of like minds together, white, black or whatever the case might be. to try to bring some commonlity to the situations that we have to face today. for that i give god the glory and i thank god for my parents. have a blessed day. host: glory thanks for the call from outside of washington. let me share with you some thoughts from the facebook page. you can join in on the

conversation. it's facebook.com/c-span. susan cites, do marchs make a difference, they will if enough people make a difference. helena says, it depends on what you're marching for. adam stewart say people in general are too comfortable to really rise up and make the change we need. percy says, there's always power in numbers however everyone must be on the same page. tor ris said comarchs make a difference, no they don't. they march so they can get on facebook to brag about it. you can join the conversation on our facebook page. fred is joining us as we look at live view from the mall where the official ceremony will be beginning at 11:00 this morning east coast time. good morning to you from gold

beach, oregon. caller: thank you to c-span and everybody you do. you do such a great job. especially the ladies that do the news. i don't think marchs do any good other than give us a feeling that we have a voice. unfortunately, i think what it does is give the politicians of today a reason to separate us. this two party system it seems they look for issues to separate us because i believe if we come together as americans, lot of them will lose their jobs. i think we need to look past the idea that it helps because i think it hurts us in the long run to think that we'll get something accomplished. unfortunately, i think our government is bought and sold to the highest bidder. we need to come together as americans and i really think

there's going to be a major change in america. i don't think we're quite as gullible as we were back then. i think that's an improvement. i think we all have to stand up for what's right and we have to stand up for what's american. if we don't all start sticking together as americans, not whites, blacks and greens and oranges, we're going to have the same issues all the time. i hope america will really start taking a look exactly what's going on. we're being divided. the more that we can get divided, the more same people get elected. we have to say no more. host: thanks from the call. this is from steven who says, marching on washington is an important tradition. dramatizing the right of the people to petition of government or redress. rick who is following this story from u.s.a. today posted on a

piece on whether or not marchs make a difference. many of the demonstrations waned over the last 50 years. thanks very much for being with us. guest: good morning steve. host: what changed from 1963 to today here in washington along the mall and elsewhere? guest: two things changed. first of all the success of the 1963 1963 march encouraged other people to do the same thing. secondly the technological change from satellite to television and video screens and sophisticated sound systems have made marchs more accessible just more feasible. you see this cascading number of marchs to the point where -- martin luther king historian said the type has been debased

by repetition. host: obviously a significant difference as we have listened to a number of oral histories. the organizational work it took to put this march together with more than 250,000, that was of course well before e-mail and twitter and other social media. this is truly a grassroots efforts. lot as changed in terms of technology. has that impacted the value of these marchs? guest: certainly the value has been has beened considerably. king's speech was carried by the satellite to nations around the world and broadcast live the only three broadcast networks. today it would take an enormous event to get that kind of attention. the technology is there to spread your message. people attention span various reasons has been so changed you

really have to fight to break through to make an impression. which is why we get into a numbers games with these demonstrations. organizers feel if they have a great number, they'll force the news media can cover them. since litigation was introduced in the 1990's, the national park police won't estimate what the crowd is. host: in your piece which is available online, titled "marching on washington," can you outline some of the more memorable and less memorable demonstration that's we've seen over the last five decades? guest: well, it would be easy to list the less memorable marchs. for instance, just in the category of trading on the word million. the million man march of 1995

was an attempt to rally american black men. not only for civil rights issues but sort of a personal pride issue and a ethnic solid darety. that was a success. that began the million mom march and million worker march. you begin to move from the grand to the less grant. during the vietnam war in 1971, there were series of marchs culminating in the demonstrations which march attempted to shut the city down to cut off commute approaches to the city. that made an enormous impact. you can say it was a success on that basis because there were over 10,000 arrest and it gained international news media attention. it also turned off a lot of

middle american voters who saw these long haired demonstrators battling with cops and didn't leave a positive view on the anti-war movement. it did send out to government leaders the message that this war is frailing the social aspect of our country. >> "washington journal" has a photo and a map of the mall in washington. the individual behind what happened in august of 1963. you touch on his role back in 1963 in your piece. who was he and why he was he significant? >> he was an interesting guy. organizational genius. he was gay and he had sort of ostracized within the silver rights movement because of morals arrest in california. because sexual practice.

he was probably the only person brought together this kind of an event. a. phillip randolph the great african-american labor leader, officially named russ his deputy. in fact, russ did all the work. organizing unions, mens groups, local chapters of civil rights groups. he would rent trains and buses and sale tickets to people to get them all to washington. it's hard to imagine somebody doing like that today with those kinds of tools but he did. host: finally rick hampson, relativity new, something changed in the 1890's that brought demonstration to washington d.c. what was that? guest: there was another

interesting named jason. there was a series of depression in the 1880's and 1890's. unemployment was high. he took into his head somehow he can get unemployed men and march to washington, they could compel the government to adopt a stimulus program at the time, a public works project to create jobs. couple hundred of them began marching from ohio all the way to washington. they called themselves a petition in boots to congress. unfortunately, when they got there, coxcy was arrested for walking on the grass of the capitol and they march pretty much dissolved. host: rick hampson story available online. national reporter for that publication. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you.

host: do marchs still make a difference? many of you also weighing in on social media and this tweet from monty. who said marchs are useless and should be replaced by teach-ins and educating public about issues and mobilize them to be involved. walter former delegate here in washington reflect back in 2007 about the work that went involved in the demonstrations included spending money for a loud speaker system. this is from 2007 from a former democratic delegate. >> we had paid the astronomical figure of $66,000 at that time. which looked like a million dollars to me at that time. for a loud speaker system to cover the mall just in case the 100,000 we expected came. we had that thing paid for and

all set up and i got a call about 9:00 said reverend, somebody has cut the cables and sabotage this thing. the contract is you can't possibly get it back together by tomorrow. i had to call bobby. i said we got a serious problem. the contractor can't handle it. you have something called the core in the u.s. army. he said we can't do that because carl mcintyre the right wing radio minister. as we begin working together with the march organizers and labor unions and the federal government and the federal government was putting this thing on. if the people can't hear, we have greater problem. he got the signal core out. the signal core worked all night

and about 12:30 in the afternoon, just about the time we suppose to start at 1:00, they tested it and it went. i had been up half the night. i can't tell you the joy that i felt that these people will be able to hear. far more people came than we had expected. host: reverend walter reflecting on his involvement in the demonstration, the march on washington. we have a line for those of you attended the march on washington. that number is 202-585-3882. if you were part of the demonstration, here in washington d.c., 202-585-3882. by the way, politico has a story 50 years on marchers remember is the headline. the piece begins by saying, it was hard to flip through the tv channels this week without hearing a cable panelist about the meaning of 50th

anniversary of the march on washington. where dr. king delivered his i have a dream speech. but it is a shrinking club of public figures who can speak with authority. from our facebook page, here are a couple comment, angela said, i believe so. it is a way for groups to vent their concerns and frustrations. do marchs make a difference. he said when they have real meaning and a backbone. the only warnings made a real difference has been the tea party. curt says n50 years after the mlk march, the blacks are worse off than ever. margaret is joining us from

lebanon worth, kansas. caller: this is a complicated subject because i was in the march in 1969 in washington. it was quite impressive. i marched with priest and nuns and vietnam vets against the war. the difference now is, we don't have quite the right to free assemble. when you go to march against the iraqi war, people were pushed back and kept away from areas way far away. also in the convention. when you are trying to protest and put three blocks away and locked in. also the media has just changed completely. if you're trying to -- they minimize the wall street protest and made fun of them. that's what you do when you degrade voices. you either label people, oh these plaques want more and they're out marching.

or these women want more. i've noticed a horrible lack of any kind of press in the last 10 years. we were against the war in iraq. there was a huge march in chicago, millions. it wasn't covered more than five minutes. without the press, without our press that we used to have, we are really lost. you just fall in and get pushed back. you must notice, they pushed back people where you get to where you're going. the clubs come out. it wasn't that long ago in new york city when this happened. you know, don't take your rights for granted. the racism, the hate, the dividing up is all bubbling up. we could look like syria in just a short amount of time. it could break down here without a press. we have to have the press not people sitting on their e-mail.

you have to get out to the street. meet other people and have your passion and get in front of our capitol. in front of this w.t.o. and people making decisions about our lives without representation. host: thanks for the call. from our twitter page. for years after the march on washington, there were riots in cities across america. those made more of a difference. we have live cameras around the mall here in washington d.c. where the march on washington took place. also on wednesday, it began early in the afternoon, today's speeches will get under way 11:00 eastern time and continue until mid afternoon. we're also posting all of the speeches on our website at c-span.org and you can listen throughout the day on c-span radio coast to coast xm channel

119. light rain moving through the washington d.c. area. much cooler than it was 50 years ago. we're asking the question, do these marchs make a difference? scott is joining us from minneapolis, good morning. caller: good morning. great comment for the margaret. i agree with you. marchs matter. they make us think. my parents thought. they took king message to heart. they taught me to love a person's character, not the color of their skin. i live in minneapolis. i can't say i haven't had some racial tension in my life. that would be dishonest and say that was not true. whether its our high school, our town our team. that's where the seed of racism starts. we're comfortable with our group

but we're all americans. not just some color group. host: scott thanks for the call from minneapolis. author taylor branch participated in an oral history reflecting on the significance of what happened 50 years ago and where we are today. here's a portion. [video clip] >> i think the silver rights movement is a laboratory for students to learn citizenship. it is a primmer on democracy and the promise of democracy and it is a great inspiration. a lot of people want to strip all of that out of there and say dr. king was great, of a dream and that was a quaint time when black people couldn't ride on the front of the bus. we have to keep revitalizing it. host: taylor branch reflecting on the civil rights movement.

next caller is joyce from arizona. caller: good morning. i'm thankful for the marchs because it was the marchs that kept me from negative thinking and start learning more about what was happening through the news media and c-span. the marchs helped me. i'm a veteran. it helped me make a decision in 1945 when i saw the plane going over after the victory of world war iii. i remember that. it just comes together. we have to make some sacrifices, true enough. rather than going to syria, they need to come back home and straighten out the issues with the veterans here in the v.a. i tried to get on the program when you had questions about the

veteran administration. some things that's happening over here, has happened right here in america and people don't know it. if you try to put it out then you're labeled or you lose your benefit and things like that. i love my country. i've been a missionary and i thank god for the program and the people that are able to march. host: thanks for the call. marchs are no longer effective because of the preand post press social media spin, the message gets lost in the media noise. back with more of your calls and comments on the issue of marchs and all of this leading up to live coverage of the 50th anniversary celebration getting under way 11:00 eastern time. will be a place you can watch it in its entirety. the president's remarks will be mid afternoon. he will be preceded by members of king family as well as two former presidents bill clinton

who listened to the march in little rock, arkansas and former president jimmy carter. some other headlines, this is from the wall street journal. the situation in syria, u.s. allies is prepared to meet as syrian mounts. pointing out that chemical weapon inspector have resumed their investigation in syria. the speculation mounts over a possible western strike over targets. on monday, the team's convoy was shot by unidentified sniper. american and other western leader have sharpened their rhetoric in syria. they are considering military intervention, but iran supreme leader warning yesterday that u.s. intervention will be a disaster for the region.

more details available online at the bbc website. mike is joining us from georgia, good morning. caller: good morning. what prompted me to call was really the first caller. this is the kind of warped thinking and warped sense of justice that people display. it's comments again -- i don't know what kind of history he's reading because when you make comments that white people let other people come to the country. i wonder he knows about countries being colonized. america is a multinational situation because of the first

caucasians that landed on the land of the natives. i don't know if he was referencing that this is a white country and people coming here are coming into white nation. i am just blown away by attempts to basically undo all the gains of the civil rights movement that are going on lately in this country. again, people like him take credit for advances. we now have a black president. no thanks to you, white people have adopt black people. no thanks to you, there are good people out there in this country. most of the people like him that call in and take credit. if it were up to them, this country would mimic nazi

germany. host: martin luther king iii written this op-ed. my father's dream is still unrealed. let me share with you portion. the theme of the 1963 march on washington resonates a half century later. july unemployment figures indicates jobless rates for african-american is 12.6% compared with 6.6% for white workers and 9.4% for latino americans. discrimination in employment remains a relevant concern. everyone who wants a job a decent wage can get one. reforms are needed to stem the tied of outsources good jobs to other nations and educate and train american workers to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

the remarks by dr. martin luther king 50 years ago and how the speech came about. here's a portion from the interview we conducted last month. >> king delivered his iconic address. he was the final speaker on a long program that day that included many of the leaders of the civil rights movement. king's speech really was the capstone. in this photograph, we see right at the final few moments of the speech, and he is saying, free at last, thank god almighty we're free at last. the march was organized very carefully by a number of people. we have several wonderful examples of memorabilia from the march. these include a booklet to those who plan to participate. it included information for traveling to washington, food that will be acceptable to bring

to the march that day. then we were fortunate to have three copies from the program of the march. that enable us to see the full roster of speakers. the inside include statement of the purpose of the march. in that cover includes the maps that shows where the buses park and the march route along constitution and along henry bacon drive to lincoln memorial. there was also two examples of commemorative button that were told in advance of the march. the sales from the button helped finance the cost. >> ann from the smithsonian reflecting on the mark and some of the memorabilia here in washington d.c. live view of the lincoln

memorial. the screens are now in place and hundreds of thousands expected again today for the rally. we'll have live coverage getting under way at 11:00 eastern time. there's this from josh shiller. it's available online at washingtonpost.com. celebrating this anniversaries the entirety of king's address will rarely be reprinted nor will viewers see footage of this speech delivered in full. a few months after dr. king delivered his speech, he sent a copy of the address and listed the remarks as work not reproduced for sale. this is also known as unpublished work. we productions of the address,

-- from that material, it reproduced the photographs that were subject of the injunction. since 1963, king and his estate have strictly enforced control over the use of the speech and anything related to dr. king's likeness. you can get more details on this opinion section from the washington post website. the question we're asking on this wednesday, 50 years after the march, do they still make a difference? tom is on the phone from massachusetts, good morning. caller: good morning. i have to say that as a very young child, this march and vietnamese marchs had deep impact on me. by the time i was age 11 and i end up working on the campaign for bobby kennedy. by my early 20's -- i want to

say this too, i become a gay activist and labor activist. i also helped coordinate one of the national marchs for equality in the 1990's. all my life has been dedicated to social and economic justice. right now i'm in a wheelchair. i'm disabled. i spent the last 10 years working not just on lgbt, not just on labor rights but also for the rights of the disabled. host: tom thanks for the call from massachusetts. the question do marchs still

make a difference? few more minutes with your calls and comments. bill, from meredith, new hampshire. caller: thank you. i will say we've come a long way since early march on washington. also, i have an idea why the civil war failed them that general j.e. johnson and general -- excuse me, jefferson davis and beat up jefferson davis. that's why civil war was lost anyway. host: from brooklyn, new york, good morning. caller: good morning. if you really want to know the difference, let's look at the tea party and occupy wall street. the tea party went out marchs

with issue. the difference is tea party is now in the halls of congress. occupy wall street institute a protest and didn't take it to the next level. if you going to take it to the next level, you got to be interested in the changes. that's what the tea party did. the occupy wall street on their anniversary, came and went. you don't hear about it anymore. the problem is occupy wall street they get too nostalgic. now they don't want to take it to that level and not take it to the next. host: thanks for the call. we are about three hours and 15 minutes away from our live coverage here on c-span and c-span radio. a day long celebration reflecting on the words of dr. king and also what that march represented. with regard to the rhetoric and words of dr. king, curt wilson

is a professor at penn state university. earlier this summer, he spoke about the significance of his words and how he delivered that speech. guest: what king can demonstrate is the power of returning to words to phrases and to ideas that you said before in order to refine them in the moment so that they truly resonate in the moment. i think the problem that we some times have are contemporary communication it's repetitious. there's no sense for i'm going to repeat what i said before but instead i'm going to repeat for it for the following reasons and following manner to make a very specific point. that's, i think what dr. king was skilled at. host: kirt wilson from earlier this morning with the cover story, founding father, martin luther king jr., the architect

of the 21st century. one of a series also available online at time.com. when we come back, we're going to continue with our discussion and look back at the words of dr. king and where we are 50 years later. michael eric dyson is going to be joining us. he's an author and radio talk show host and professor at georgetown university. and owen ullmann who was part of the demonstration and now managing editor for u.s.a. today. as we count our discussion on what the march represented. you're watching c-span's "washington journal" for this august 28, 2013. we are back in a moment. >> if our original series first ladies influence an image. we looked a the public and private lives for women who

served as first lady. now as we move into the modern era, we'll feature the first lady -- ladies in their own words. >> building human rights will be one of the foundations on which we will build in the world, an atmosphere in which peace can rule. >> i don't think the white house completely belong to one person. it belongs to the people of america. i think whoever lives as first lady should enhance it. >> season two features 20 first ladies from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. live monday night including your calls and facebook comments and tweets starting september 9 at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> one of the things i looked at, i looked at a lot of the could be records in which these colleges are. when you look at the colonial

county records, you'll have the name of the president or the name of the professor and then listed with their taxable property. if you think about this, what happens, if you look at the name of the president and then three lines over, part of his taxable property -- you'll have for instance in the case of princeton or harvard, you'll have the president's name, ditto, the college. well, who owns the person? in the common knowledge of the town of the local area, the president and the college are kind of inseparable anyway. >> craig steven wilder with the

impression of college how they interact with slavery and book tv book club returns in september. host: a live view of the lincoln memorial on this august 28th, 50 years to the day when the march on washington took place. cloudy skies here in the nation's capitol. we'll be live all day as the nation reflects on the words of dr. martin luther king. here is owen ullmann, he was there 50 years ago. we'll talk more like what it was like for you and firsthand experience. and michael eric dyson professor of georgetown university and we begin with you. where are we today? guest: ously there's been an

extraordinary progress. the opportunities for people for getting an education has been increased broadly. we obviously have many more politicians. back then there might have been handful not even that many african-american people in congress. now we have 43. we have a black president of the united states. we got a black senator. on the other hand we got massive incarceration. you got black unemployment rate soaring. you got the attack on the basic rights of black people who are being over policed by stop and frisk. there are tremendous range of problems. host: owen ullmann this is the session you were behind on u.s.a. today. inside your reflection what it was like traveling to nation's capitol

reprotecting on what you saw. what stood out? guest: one thing that really struck me when we arrived what a large crowd it was and how diverse it was. it was young people, old people and middle aged people. people with children, single people, black, white. very diverse crowd. also it was a very upbeat crowd. people didn't come in anger and protest and talk violence did not occur at all. it was very hopeful. very positive it was an amazing gathering. it was unlike this nation seen before frankly sense. then listening to the speeches that my friend and i elbowed our way up to the front of the lincoln memorial. when king started his speech and

got into the cadence about i have a dream, he had the crowd in his hand. it was mesmerizing. i got to tell you 50 years later, i still remember it. i talked to my friend who had gone to the march with me. he had the same recollection about what an amazing experience it was. it's something we're really proud that we were part of and remember. host: this is from inside your special edition of u.s.a. today and one of the many photographs of dr. king and the crowd looking done the mall as he delivered the remarks. there were other speakers as well. this is part of a day long jobs, equality and economic justice march. guest: right. a lot has been lost over the years about the real meaning of the march. yes it was about civil rights and african-americans. that was the top priority but there was a larger coalition of blacks and whites who were

pushing for equal rights for people on economic grounds. there were labor leaders who were present who were looking out for low income people of all races and ethic backgrounds. it was a much more diverse set of agendas beyond simply seeking racial justice. that's also made it quite special. i agree with michael about how much progress has been made sense then. lot of people born subsequently don't remember how racial discrimination and segregation were pretty much the rule either in law or in practice. that has gone. while there are a lot of issues that have to be addressed, the country has made astounding progress from those really bigoted and hateful times. host: known lines are open -- phone lines are open.

we're dividing them to those over the age of 50 and over. you can share your thoughts and comments. 202-585-3880 for those under the age of 50 and 202-585-3881 if you're over the age of 50. if you were one of the estimated 200 to 250,000 people who attended the march here in washington. we have a line for you as well, that number is 202-585-3882. michael eric dyson in terms of the public policy that came from this speech, a year later, we passed silver rights movement. how much of it was a result of what happened 50 years ago and how much of it was the result of assassination of john f. kennedy? guest: that's a good question. it was an extraordinary pressure brought to bear by the peaceful protest of that day. a lot of fear that day occurred

in the brass of the police department and in government fearing there would be an outbreak of violence. that people will come here and storm the capitol and do all sorts of things. that's why they had snipers on top buildings and police people parading in case there would be violence. nothing of the sort happened. after that march, john kennedy who had been a bit hesitant. in fact, very hesitant for the march to go on, was trying to encourage them to suspend it. when the leaders went into the white house, john kennedy said, he congratulate all of them and he took to martin luther king jr. he said i have a dream too. the very hesitant had been transformed by the majestic eloquence of dr. king. there's a book about john f. kennedy relationship to the civil rights movement called the

bystander. he was strategic in his support for civil rights but quite hesitant because he had to deal with the south and certain democrats were resistant to change. we will see that later, he would use his bully pulpit strongly especially his days in the senate to get that legislation passed. the death of john f. kennedy was huge and significant because the bright youth of america had been prematurely snuffed out. as a tribute both to his sense of freedom and his celebration of the american spirit, that legislation was pushed through. also because of l.b.j. and his extraordinary abilities to work with legislators. host: there's this photograph of president kennedy, the attorney general robert kennedy and fbi director jay edgar hoover. the fbi began spying on dr. king

in january of 1964 including at the hotel trying eavesdrop to find out what he was up to. guest: i agree. hoover, who we know has a history of paranoia in how he ran the fbi worried about infiltration and disruption of the government. after witnessing the march on washington conclude, that martin luther king was the most powerful african-american leader in the country and therefore was dangerous because hoover feared there would be a violent push for civil rights. which of course, really did not occur. frankly it occurred against african-americans who were pushing for equal rights. so that's a very sad chapter, i think, in american history that

head of the fbi had to spy on people who were exercising their constitutional right to fulfill what was in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal. host: you can join us on facebook or twitter. i want to get both of your comments on this front page story from the washington post. ironically enough, many people thought that the demonstration was on a weekend, it was on a wednesday. august28, 1963. the headline following thursday morning, mammoth rally jams the mall in a solemn orderly plea for equality. below that a photograph of the demonstrations here in washington d.c. larger demonstration on civil rights urges passage of legislation. there's not one mention on the front page of dr. king's speech. in fact it's on page a15. robert kaiser wrote about it this past saturday. the dream passed over by the

post. how the washington post missed one of the biggest speeches ever. your thoughts? guest: well, he spoke at the end of the march. there were other very eloquent speakers too. some times as a journalist, i found this that you tend to cover as your primary focus, events that happened earlier in the program and may be reporters got tired or may be it didn't register at the time. in fairness, i don't know everyone heard king speech, realized it would become iconic as it has. i think his tragic assassination early in his life may have helped to elevate the speech. i think that replaying it over time has given it the unique status that perhaps people who covered the march didn't realize at the time.

being there stood out in my mind, by far the most amazing speech of the event. reporters trying to capture a lot and wouldn't be the first time that they would miss something that later turned out to be quite historic. host: michael eric dyson why do the speech resonate? guest: with the conversion of american ideals and justice for all people and the desire of african-american people to be included in the larger circle of american privilege. the devastation of jim crow had been persistent and malignantly so. in this country, very symbols of that separation white water fountain and black wart fountain, segregated accommodations. he said that negroes in the

south couldn't vote and negroes in the north believe they had nothing for which to vote. also that speech remains because it's an extraordinary document of two halves. the first half was a solemn scholarly reflection the basis of racial discrimination. he said we have come to this nation's capitol to cash a check. he talked about resolution and the world winds of revolt will shake the foundation of the nation. he talked about police brutality. but then as the story goes, mahalia jackson saw martin luther king reading his speech. she said, tell him about the dream martin. then, he cast the speech aside

and he soars to majestic eloquence and tells the nation about his dream. as are result of that, he not only wins the nobel peace prize, -- not only was martin luther king jr. profiled in that way, paul robeson, some of king's family members and a host of african-american people because owen said, hoover said king was the dangerous negro leader in america and they begin to witch hunt him. host: your story recounted this

morning front page of the "new york times" of how the i have a dream speech came about. many people may not know his speech originated in part in detroit. explain what dr. king was saying two months before. guest: yes, i'm from detroit and i grew up there. with aretha franklin's father and many other prominent ministers in detroit. dr.king participated in a huge march in detroit leading down near cobal hall where he delivered a similar speech and he talked about using our resources to make sure justice will be delivered. he talked about some of the same things he did in washington. he also talked about obviously

detroit being the headquarters of a tremendous labor movement with u.a.w. the local focus in terms of negro rights was extraordinarily powerful. so dr. king founded some of those things but of course took them to a new level in washington. host: from june of 1963 two months before the march on washington. this is put together from motown records. >> i have a dream this afternoon. my four little children will not come up in the same young days that i came up. they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character and not the color of their skin. i have a dream this afternoon

that one day right here in detroit, negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them. they will be able to get a job. i have a dream this afternoon that the trouble hood of man will become a reality in this day. i will go out and call the tunnel of hope to the mountain of dispair. i will go out with you and transform yesterday into bright tomorrow. with this day, we will be able to achieve this new day. when all of god's children, black men, white men, jews and gentiles, protestants and catholic will be able to join hands and sing with the negroes, free at last, free at

last, thank god almighty! host: from june of 1963 two months before the iconic speech by dr. king in washington d.c. and of course the mall now commemorating dr. king's remarks with this memorial. michael eric dyson how did he put together these addresses? the one in june we just heard, the i have a dream speech of course one of his final addresses in which he saw what was going to happen after his death. he died the next day. guest: he sure did. dr.king was too much like a jazz musicianings. they will set pieces he will appeal to. you will hear some of the same pieces you will hear in detroit he will use couple months later in washington. when you look at the speech especially as the speech was given to the coach.

when mahalia jackson tell him about the dream, she remembers what he said in detroit. he's constantly playing with ideas that integrating certain passages from one speech into another. some of them written, some of them not. as a jazz musician, he could improvise and take a theme and expand upon it. you hear what he said i have a dream that one day my four little children will not grow up in the days i grew up in. later i have a dream my four little children will live in a nation will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. last newtown, connecticut of his -- night of his life was

extraordinary. he's going into memphis, tennessee. it's raining cats and dogs. dr.king few pride he allowed himself not to speak to a small crowd. he went to his hotel room. his second in command and said doc, i can't speak and you got to come over here and they want to hear you. king gets up out of his bed and goes to mason temple and delivers off the cuff literally. one of the most extraordinary speeches that we've heard. he takes a tour of history wondering in god allow him to choose what century he want to live in. he went through roman history. he looked at abraham lincoln and he said, i would be appreciative to god if he would allow me to live just a few years in the 20th century. he delivers an extraordinary speech descending not only the

workers he was down in memphis to defend, he also talked about digging deep in democracy. we ask that america all we ask is you be truthful. he said a young woman, while it should not matter i'm a white girl, i read in the paper had you merely sneezed, you would have drowned in your own blood. the little girl said, dr. king i'm so glad you didn't sneeze. that little story was so powerful. he said if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have been around here. he ended with that sense of premonition, i may not get there with you, i want you to know tonight we as a people will get to the promise land. host: michael eric dyson who is a professor at georgetown university, author and radio talk show host.

owen ullmann is one of the managing editors. he was here in washington 50 years ago with what he saw and heard and what he remembered. from peg on our twitter page. i know i was living a very historic moment when dr. kin began to speak. erik is joining us from cedartown, georgia. caller: thank you all. number one, it seems like it's more important to secure the right of foreigners in these countries than the wars than it is back here in america. what i can see is the hispanics. lot of theme are over here legal. they are speaking up their rights. you have congressman. -- we are desperate in the neighborhoods. what i would like to say, the history of the south, it's a

special history. the attitude of paula deen. she had 60% approval and reverend martin luther king had 20% approval. this is the mentality still down here in the south. the reason where -- the reason why you see the senate as it is and the blacks supporting these liberals it is being violated. you never hear these but you hear them talking about drones and eavesdropping. we blacks have been eavesdropped on. what i would like to say is, why are we supporting these people? host: erik thanks for the call. owen ullmann? guest: you point out there's still a lot of problems in the country that have to be solved. pitting one group against another in terms of who's right

comes first is not an important one. there are two separate issues how we deal with immigration and the rights of people who feel that they should find a way to become citizens of the united states. in my mind a separate issue from the continuing problems that african-americans feel about discrimination. whether it's in the south or elsewhere. i don't think anything is gained by suggesting that one set of grievances is more important than other. depending on who you are you will put your self-interest first and i respect that. i think as a nation, we have to look at all of these problems and find solutions that basically reinforce our basic principles of freedom and

equality. host: laura said this. i still tear up when i hear this speech. it's the word and power of his delivery. in this headline from the newspaper. we shall over come. guest: i agree with owen because i've been quite outspoken in the defense of brothers and sisters who were here illegally and finding a path to citizenship that provide opportunity for them. even president obama said, in order to accept that deal, we brokered, they got to stand at the back of the line and argue their way forward. what the caller here is speaking to, i think, is the fact that so called legitimate citizens like african-american people are being denied rights. i don't think we should pick on recently arrived immigrant who are seeking a pathway to citizenship. it does speak to the way in which the government treated us as if we're not american

citizen. that's the powerful point. it does say that black people have been delegitimatized within the state stop and frisk and fundamental rights to exist. being targeted as a population of people by the police of the state suggest that even though the basic and fundamental decency should enjoy is shared by everybody universally. then in terms of the quest for dealing with the scarce opportunity that's african-american people have, again, i wouldn't want to stigmatize immigrants. what they take off the table is so much more puny than certain economic factors that we have to deal with in terms of exploitation of jobs, the outsourcing of our own work here and the like. finally what he talked about in terms of some of the other issues. stop and frisk, personal liberties, the connection between the surveillance that is

being spoken about by american politicians and the surveillance that african-american people in inner city neighborhoods have been subject to. james peterson wrote a brilliant piece about the fact where is the white liberal outrage about stop and frisk which is just as important and a nagging problem within african-american culture as the so called drone policy or n.s.a. or the leaking of information about our personal and private files so to speak. host: ruth is joining us. wilmington, north carolina. you were here in washington 50 years ago? caller: yes i was. host: how did you get here and why did you come? caller: okay, thanks for the questions. before i answer, i just must say, thank you c-span. i watch you all the time. i appreciate you eric, michael

eric. i wish you sometimes wouldn't talk so fast because i have a hard time processing. guest: my students say the same thing. goat to -- i got to slow down. caller: that's okay. you speak truth to power. i am 71 years old and at the time of the march, i was a resident in washington d.c. and i was a student at howard university. i did not have to travel a long way. i simply had to get downtown which i did. why i was the motivated to come? i grew up like so many others in a baptist church. the movement, i was impacted by emmitt till's photograph when he was in junior home. the minister at the church had a morning prayer where he raised up certain issues.

we as a spiritual people heard throughout the late 1950's and 1960's. i was born in 1942 so i considered myself a jackie robinson baby. i went because it was the thing to do. i often think if i had been further away, would i have gotten there. i don't know if that might be a mute question. what's important was i was there and it impacted my life and influenced my life for the rest of my life. later i went on to help a student at howard and quote came out for students to go to mississippi because of the work that was going on there. i had seen some -- i had

attended a deposition in washington and folk from mississippi and things they had suffered. this elderly man, hartman, talked about what happened on the bus. i was a student. all of the students were coming from all over the country. i was the black student and the student leadership at howard said we have to get there and be there with others. so i went to mississippi that summer of 1964 and i lived with a family. ms.johnson, her daughter was a teenager, june johnson and had been beaten in wynonna, mississippi. june was a strong girl. the family was strong there were

about 12 children in the family. they took in three of us. two white girls and myself. host: ruth thanks for the call and thank you for sharing your story from 50 years ago. owen ullmann, we talked about your own participation. walk us through how you arrived here and why you came? guest: my parent has raised me and i'm proud of their values of stressing the importance of treating everyone equally with respect. they had some friend who were active. a church who had organized a group of people to go to the march. friend of their son who was a friend of mine, asked do you want to come. of course it was kind of like an adventure. kid in new jersey going to

washington d.c. we got on a school bus. it was a baptist church that organized it from new jersey. i remember, it must have been like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when we left. going through a lot of cities. i remember dozing on and off and waking up and the sun was coming up as we passed baltimore and we arrived in washington for this amazing adventure. it meant a lot to lend my voice to this cause and i'm so thankful that he a chance to do that. i would add that something that happened subsequently was as a result of the march, lot of people who went joined into a human rights commission that tried to really push for greater

immigration in our community. we had an exchange program the following summer and the younger brother of one of the three civil rights workers who were killed in meridian, mississippi came and stayed with us for a week and allowed us to get a sense what the culture was like for a young black person in mississippi and they could see what like was like for a young white person in new jersey. it was a bonding sponsor and -- experience. host: you were one of the individuals behind this special edition. look at the 50th anniversary with the march in washington. as we see photograph of dr. king and the crowd. can you estimate how many whites were in the crowd? guest: i've read stories that say maybe a third of them were white. i don't know. my recollection is it was so

integrated that you couldn't be sure whether there were more blacks or whites. i did look at photos, you can see there were more whites and other areas it seemed to be more blacks. when i talked to quite a few about it, they felt it was such a really balanced mix that you couldn't really tell. to me that was what made it so special too. one thing about when you asked, michael, why king speech became so iconic. in my mind it's because it appealed to our better instincts. if you look at that headline washington post, it talk about a plea for equality. it wasn't like a demand. it wasn't something like this is something out of hatred or anger and hostility. speech appeals to better

instinct that we have a dream for what the country was fonded on that everyone should have equal opportunity and treated equally with respect. i think that noble appeal resonates with everyone. it's kind of hard for fair minded people to disagree with that dream. how can you say no, we shouldn't have a dream where people should be treated based on the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. host: silver rights advocate joyce here in washington. two years ago, reflecting on what it was like to be on the stage at the lincoln memorial. what she saw and heard. >> i had a stage pass because i was on the staff. what i remember first was seeing all of these people, it was incredible flight. 19-year-old from mississippi who never seen huge numbers. in fact no one seen numbers like that before. i remember seeing people march

coming and coming. they just kept coming. then i saw the people on stage. i think i might have been impressed by some of them. probably most by josephine baker. she was the person i remembered most because she was a legend. i could not imagine that i would have ever met her. she was very exotic looking. she was shaking everyone's hands and hugging people. then seeing people in movies up there. even though people were strong supporters, who raised a lot of money for us. then seeing the union guys on stage.

seeing mahalia jackson and hearing her sing. it was a swath of lot of people. i got chills when i saw josephine baker. i was thinking our support really ran deep. host: firsthand account from joyce lander who was here in washington on the mall 50 years ago. back to your calls and comments. joe is joining us from oklahoma, city, good morning. caller: good morning. big fan of mr. dyson. i will say, i wasn't part of that speech until recently, i pulled it up and watched the whole thing. i kept thinking when he was talking about martin being like a jazz musician, i was thinking he was more like a marcellus or somebody. his words were beautiful and his

message was great. i definitely think sometimes we look back in history and thinking about all of that as far as how it impacted people is fantastic. we can't lose sight of what he really wanted us to do which is to focus on making america for everybody. to that end we have a couple things. the fact that we have greed that keeps -- someone over here having a $10 million wedding and a family over here can't buy tooth paste. that's what's wrong with america. we need to think about the fairness doctrine. i hear nobody talking about it. it led a nationwide fox news tell half truths all day long to a group of people that go out and vote on that. i like to get your importance. guest: i want to briefly respond earlier to owen's great

point about why that speech continue to resonate. it's so true, the irony is you got a president 50 years later who much like king, very conciliatory is pleaing. not demanding, not being nasty. yet has been extraordinarily existent which tell me that times were right that martin luther king made. both sides had to be willing to concede and acknowledge. the resistance that was there then certainly has been amplified now. the appeal made by king was so powerful because it did appeal to the better angels of our nation. it couldn't be resisted because these are the dreams you wanted us to celebrate. to joe's point, right, owen talked about the civil rights movement march there on that

mall 50 years ago was a moment for jobs and justice for all. which meant they were always thinking about. eyes on the landscape immediately hear about race but more broadly speaking about equality and social injustice. i think that economic equality was real. in terms of the fairness doctrine, the tragedy these kind of half lies put out there across the board, have to be juxtapose to stations like c-span to articulate their viewpoint. host: something else joe said. i want to show you this photograph of dr. king. his hand over the crowd as a baptist minister. it's a speech that has been studied not only for the words but also how he delivered. this iconic photograph your

reaction. some people say it symbolizes the cast that he had over that crowd on that particular day. guest: i think it was. it's the same photo i think for our special edition because it was symbol of kind of peace and connecting with the crowd. it was kind of the perfect code i thought to the day where we are all one. we're all in this together in this great experiment that we call the united states of america which i would also make a point, the caller made when he was talking about the millionaires and the people who are suffering. one thing that makes this country great is the opportunity to be able to spend $10 million in a wasteful way.

to have that opportunity to become a multimillionaire is afforded to everyone. but at the same time, we do have a problem of how do we solve the issue of so many people who are unemployed who are being paid low wages, which is not good for an economy because you can't get enough demand to really have a vibrant system if too many people don't have an opportunity to make a decent living. so it is part of king's legacy, how do we continue to solve a problem to both preserve what makes the united states special and great and at the same time, try to solve the problems that continue to torment us that leave too many people behind both economically and socially. host: we listen our listeners also on c-span radio. michael eric dyson radio talk show host and author and professor at georgetown

washington. owen ullmann here in washington 50 years ago is now one of the managing endtors of u.s.a. today. guest: that's a beautiful picture. dr.king extremely humble man. what the memorial was emmitt till's death that inspired rosa parks in montgomery, alabama and to stay in her seat, this march was extraordinary. dr.king was its great orator but not exclusively so. it's interesting, everybody wanted to speak early. owen's point earlier, people wanted to be early in the day. because only one station was going to cover the march.

they doesn't anticipate the fact that the march would create such a stir in the media that not only did think -- nbc and abc joined them. by the time the jockeying was over and dr. king aired, it had the widest possible audience ever. being an ordained baptist minister myself, you feed off the electrifying energy of the audience. the caller response was extraordinary and he felt that day. that picture captures that. it's true dr. king spoke to those issues. he spent the last three years of his life trying to organize against the devastation of the systematic preclusion of certain people. i argued in one of my books, i said rather tongue and cheek, we should have moratorium on i have

a dream speech. it was his only hit. dr.king had a lot of other hits. things he spoke about. things he sounded. the dream both became the articulation of the compact we have. and the way in which he spoke about the fact that racism was a cancer in american soul. there are many other facets of the man that haven under explored because we artificially frozen him in this tremendous

singular moment. host: michael eric dyson, this is what the cover looks like. leona is joining us from fort myers, florida. caller: i'm 48 years old. i was born in 1964. i went to high school in fort lauderdale. there was only two black people at my high school. i i was raise in a white world. i see the people around me are still racist and they haven't changed. i'm the only one who likes black people that i know of. i don't say bad things. i voted for president obama. i want this country to move forward. in the world that here in florida, it's not moving forward. we have controversy in my own

community. the racism is still here. it's appalling. i'm so moved by the march on washington and the civil rights movement and the greatness that it brought to our country to be able to change. it's like we're going backwards. we're not changing and moving forward. i find it sad and it's 2013 and things are still as bad as they were when i was growing up 48 years ago. it's not getting better. i just want to see the country move forward and people change their thoughts and their hearts and their minds. there's so many white people who just -- i don't know what it is. they can't seem to break past the hatred and the hostility. lot of these people are in my

own family. it hurts me deeply. we should be bigger than that. we're christian people and we love god. we should not be like this. it's a horrible thing. host: thank you. thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. there's a front page story of the washington post, 50 years later, the economic gap persists. rory was here 50 years ago. i want to hear his comment as well. lloyd good morning. caller: good morning. in 1963, i was a student just finished my sophomore year at norfolk state university. i joined a bus with -- i was president of alpha fraternity.

i joined a bus at the time. one thing i remember, they were giving me a hard time on the bus ride. i remember the bus ride we sang a lot of freedom songs and there were a lot of older people on . i remember once we got to highway one, i guess that was the highway take us to d.c. as far as you you can see ahead of you, as far as you can see behind you, it was a train of buses as far as you can see behind you or ahead of you. i was looking forward to king speech. i had met king on several occasions in the summer of 1957 i was stationed in montgomery, alabama with the air force. several of my buddies and i will

go down to the baptist church and we met king. we had conversations. we also wore uniforms to church. we felt safer in uniforms for some reason. i was looking for a good speech and i got a great speech. host: lloyd thanks for the call. your thoughts? guest: i seen how much progress we have made certainly in our legal system. human beings by our nature can be bigoted and have hatred for other groups.

you see it not in the united states but all offer the world. -- over the world. there are wars fought over religious and racial and ethnic differences. it's unfortunate part of human nature. we don't live in a utopian society. i agree there's still are a lot of depatriots -- deep hatred that people have. it's not -- where i grew up, i grew up in the north and there was overt segregation and discrimination in housing and education and people herald racial open -- open --

epithets openly. that's an important distinction. we're not going to solve these problems in one or two generations. i do think that the country has moved in the right direction in trying to ensure at least in law, if not in everyone's minds and emotions that we are to be treated equal. host: michael eric dyson, you are one of number of contributors. this is the day the march on washington for people who go to the site. what will they find? guest: they'll see leonard was the photographer that day who came to washington with his wife and the photograph, this march. interestingly enough, only one picture of king that can be barely discerned is taken. similar to the washington post article that didn't mention the speech, it's not he didn't capture the meaning, he

understood the breadth and depth of diversity. the resolution of old black violence coming to bear. their demand and plea for justice and equality in beautiful tones. he captured all of that. my former student writes a tremendous afterward, i write the essay in the book and all around the framework of freed's tremendous photography. can i respond briefly, i think that leona's point, she's giving us the kind of report from the ground. florida is important because we see what happened most recently with the trayvon martin case and the george zimmerman trial. we know there are racial hoss

still -- hostility. with the recent supreme court decision about voting rights where reclearance have been struck down, southern states governed by certain principles have been in one sense tampered with. as a result of that, we're legally vulnerable again to certain kinds of offenses that will discourage from voting. when i look at what she's talking about here, the courage she has to tell the truth about certain bigotries that are deeped rooted across the world. but they have a particular cast here. the black and white divide has been the major artery through which the blood of bigotry has flown in america. the stop and frisk searching black people as target and over suspicion and skepticisms about

black humanity comes to bear when stereotypes meets the law. someone like george zimmerman who's not official the state can somehow pursue a young man like trayvon martin. that's in authorize. she's -- florida. she's speaking to mind set, with edon't want to quickly sweep under the carpet the kind of ugly bigotry that continues to persist. it's also system. it's also law, it's ao institution. i think owen is right and we have to continue to deal with those issues to make true the call for democracy and the sharing in that more broadly among all citizens in america. host: next question just list name or two. from a viewer said who are the new dr. martin luther king jr.'s of today? owen ullmann who would you put in that category? guest: i don't think there was

another martin luther king. the most eloquent speaker we've seen in the country on the issue of race is president obama. who we'll see how he does today. he's got kind of a big challenge before him. i'll defer to michael on that. i can't say there's anyone who's a parallel right now. guest: i don't think martin luther king jr. can be martin luther king jr. now. he emerged before social media and twitter and facebook. i'll tell you what, as great an orator as he was, as a black preacher, the rhetoric of taylor and william jones and dr. frederick haynes. there was a number of people, caroline knight and we can name so many other people. in terms of public recognition, i think dr. alvin waller, we can

talk about al sharpton gave a great speech. jesse jackson still a great orator. barack obama bring king's soothing racial read risk and the attempt to reasonably deal with a balanced approach in terms of our articulating an idea. he's got enough of a baptist preacher flavor to be able to move forward and get the arousements going. he also have legal reasoning. but martin luther king jr. was singular in his ability to do what he did. host: stephanie is on the phone from california. caller: i would like to say thank you to c-span and to professor dyson for his very public voice. i have some note that's maybe of interest. first march on washington was in the late 1800's during a very bad depress and it was a poor people's march.

in 1932, during the worse of the depression, world one one veterans were unemployed. they motte only marched -- not only marched but they occupied washington for the summer and spring. they were trying to get a bill passed that will equal out the pay. in the war, they got paid a dollar a day and civilians got paid $12 a day. the house had passed in 1923 a bill to equalize that. they went out in 1932 to try and get some relief. after they had been in washington for quite some time, hoover called outen army on them and it was eisenhower and

mcarthur with tear gas and killed some people. the result of that is interesting. the country was so appalled by this, it guaranteed fdr's election. now it's illegal to call out the army on civilians if they use the national guard. to be fair to veterans world war ii, remembering what happened with the world war 1 1 vet they get the g.i. bill. marching on washington in a peaceful way is effective means to petition your government. even after martin luther king had planned poor people encampment in washington, they went ahead after his death and did that encampment. again, they are thrown out by the police. host: thank you stephanie. appreciate the call and comments. guest: that's a very good history.

we ran an article recently about the history of marchs and whether they can make a difference like the march on washington and you're right about that heft that -- history that made a change. michael eluded to, the next big march will be through social media rather than in person and whoever has the most impassioned tweet will probably carry the day. i'm not sure if we'll get that kind of march again. there had been a lot of marchs recently. all the time but they don't seem to have the same resonance and impact as you mentioned michael, what we saw happened after the march on washington of time and tragic, death of jfk and the fact that lyndon johnson was master at legislative process.

you had incredible legacy that came not just in 1964 but came several years later with one civil rights after another. that march a tremendous impact on our legal system and our thinking. i think those days of physical marchs maybe passed in this country. host: final point for you. what do you expect to hear? guest: those days were great. this past saturday, maybe 200,000 people came out but the link to legislation is different. by i think the trayvon martin case to your point, galvanized many people and the voting rights decision by the supreme court are two of linchpin pins that brought out those people.

guest: it was triggeddered by social media. guest: social media put it on the docket. from today i think president obama will do two things. he will talk about the grand legacy of martin luther king jr. and acknowledge he can't give a speech like that. he said i can talk but i can't talk like that. he's an excellent speaker. he's root his vision in king's vision. he's try to expand later dimensions of king talking about economic equality that as owen said earlier, in one sense, flare out from the original speech to talk about what happened subsequently. how do people deal with their economic equalities in this country. the inability to get a good education or a good job. inability to enjoy some of the quote finer things in life but also healthcare and how do poorest of american citizen find themselves still vulnerable to

economic. he'll talk about the policies and practices that need to be put in place in order for that economic equality to be addressed. he'll do both of these things with the rain coming down gently upon his head. we'll see. host: michael eric dyson who teaches at georgetown university. he's a radio talk show host and is the author of a number of books including" i may not get there with you the true martin luther king." owen ullmann who was behind the march on washington in u.s.a. today special edition. for today's discussion, more importantly, part of the demonstration, the march on washington. thank you both for being with us. we will continue our discussion for the next hour. more of your calls and comments where we are as a nation 50 ofill take placearchnage

with the backdrop of the washington monument and the lincoln memorial. the event gets under way at 11:00 eastern time 8:00 for our listeners and viewers on the west coast. bobby jackson is in the c-span radio with look at some other news. >> u.n. envoy to syria said evidence suggest that chemical substance was used. any military strike on syria must have u.n. security council approval. a team of u.n. experts has been gathering evidence from an area near damascus. britain said it will offer a resolution to the u.n. security counsel today condemning the syrian government that killed hundreds of civilians. britain said its looking for a measure to authorizing necessary

measures to protect silverrians in syria. the u.s. is also laying ground work for a potential military action in syria. with the obama administration saying it does have evidence that syrian government used chemical weapons against its people. finally, wealth x, that's a high net worth intelligence provider. has released a list of america's 10 wealthiest presidential candidates. ross perot number one with a fortune of $4.3 billion. hillary clinton who ran for the democratic nomination in 2008, has a net worth of $100 million. putting her in the number sixth spot along with her husband, former president bill clinton. wealth x combined the net worth of the clinton family to demonstrate the potential financial clout for hillary clinton's presidential campaign if she chooses to run in the 2016 race. also on wealth x list, steve forbes, john kerry, mitt romney

and al gore. some latest headlines on c-span radio. >> several types of bullying that the left loves to engage in, their favorite racial bullying. the reason for that is the left's philosophy is based almost solely and completely at this point on the idea that they stand up for victimized groups. everything they do is a stand up on behalf of victimized minority. doesn't matter if you're a minority, they're standing up for you. what that means if we oppose their policies, the logic is we hate blacks, gays and jews and women. that is the philosophy. >> the editor at large at brightbart.bart.com will take your calls live starting at noon eastern. looking ahead civil rights leader congressman john louis will be october's guest and onyw

host mark levin. book tv book club returns in september with mark's" this town two parties and a funeral." read the book and engage on our facebook page and on twitter. host: the nation reflects on the words of dr. king 50 years ago as we celebrate let freedom ring. the event will get under way 11:00 eastern time. among the speech oh -- speakers will be senator angus king of maine and you will hear from the prime minster of bahamas. for those of you on the west coast, the speakers will include bill russell and in the 1:00 hour, congresswoman marsha fudge who was the adventure of the congressional black caucus.

at 2:00, oprah winfrey will be delivering remarks, followed by jimmy carter and then remarks by barack obama. the event scheduled to get under way at 11:00 eastern time and the scheduled to conclude 4:00 p.m. eastern 1:00 for those of you on the west coast. we'll stay with it live all day. you can listen to it on c-span radio and all the speeches posted online at c-span.org. as folks begin to gather, a lot of streets shut down here in washington d.c. many have to take the metro as thousands line up for the event that will get you were way in just over two hours. clarence jones talk about the i have a dream speech in an event we covered this year in april of 2013. i want to share with you what he had to say about the wording in the speech and then come back and talk to you about whether or not america has changed.

phone lines are open, 202-585-3880 and 202-585-3881. we're dividing the lines between those of you over and under the age 50. if you're in washington, that number to call is 202-585-3882. more of your call and comments in a moment. first clarence jones from april of this year. [video clip] >> i remember may be about 10 or -- dr. king incorporated before he added his own paragraph. from the seventh paragraph on he added his own -- he added his own paragraph and went on. i didn't know until i was standing some 50 feet behind him. he was introduced as speaker.

he was the last speaker. i didn't know until he started to speak as i'm listening to the actual words. i'm saying to myself, oh my god, he didn't change a sentence, not a comma, not a period, nothing. verbatim. he had incorporated and he had segway to his own seemlessly segway into his own paragraph that he added. somewhere, i don't know, 15, 12 minutes into the speech. some where he's reading the text which he has prepared including that which i have prepared. mahalia jackson, she's sitting on the platform. she had performed earlier. she yells out to him, tell them

about the dream martin. tell them about the dream. just shouts out. i hear it and i see his reaction and his reaction is to take the written text and move it to the left side of the lectern and grab the podium. i said to somebody, this is all in realtime, i grabbed -- i don't grab, i lean over to the person next to me. i said these people don't know it but they're about ready to go to church. host: clarence jones reflecting on what happened 50 years ago. the title" the dream the speech and its lasting power." many of these events reflecting on the mlk speech and the march on washington are part of c-span's video library. 50 years later, how has america

changed. tony is joining us fort worth, texas. caller: good morning thanks for c-span. america has changed in the last 50 years but we're nowhere close to what dr. king of speaking of

caller: i was a chaplain at the university of maryland from 1962 until 1964. i was involved in a lot of the planning. we had a vigil for the month before the march comprised of seminary students from around the country. hours, 24 hours a day. every shift had a protestant, a catholic, and a jew. it was a prayer vigil in preparation for the march. effective and many years later when i was a pastor, the rabbi said, were you in

washington? so as i. "i coordinated that." host: thank you for sharing those stories. onare looking at iconic film august 28, 1963. mary from georgia. you were also here? caller: that is correct. host: why did you come to washington? caller: i have been a part of and all those persons. to the march to go on washington by thomas chapman in albany, georgia. i live here.

i stayed here for 40 years. out -- i thinkst he had been an editor of princeton. myhad asked me to give reference, my experience. i said to him -- [indiscernible] dream" has become a nightmare. acts. not have f , we would nots have the problems we have today. i have never called before. but here in albany, georgia, i

know all. let's back up. washington.arch on as some friends would say -- we will look up your record. hoover has your record. you can never tell who you are. be careful. people upfront. i have learned that people upfront -- know who sent them. they people not upfront, are the real persons, the backbone. the ones who are the spirit of equal equality for all. host: thank you for the call. ura has this point on our twitter page.

and from our facebook page -- host: this morning you can read more about where he sees the country going in the commentary section. , 50 yearsdream later." the epidemic of black on black crime. the lines of fellow blacks and others are being devalued by street thugs. host: perspective of ben c arson this morning in "the washington times." 50 years later.

von is on the phone. caller: good morning. i wanted to tell you a true story. i was about five or six years old, we were loading onto a branson airways jet in chicago. my family was seated on one side of the plane. martinext to me was dr. luther king and one of his bodyguards. my father was somewhat prejudiced at the time and stood up and made a big stink. leaveted the pilot to not because he was afraid for his family. he knew it was martin luther king jr. and he didn't want the plane to be blown up. shook dr.king -- i king's hand.

i never met someone who was so calm and who was so gentle. to this day, i have never met anybody like him. he made such an impression on me at five years old. i had never seen a black man before in my life. host: did your fathers views change over the years? no.t:caller: i have a pretty good sense about people. for justwith dr. king a few minutes and shaking his hand, you could tell the man had -- he was just so kind and so gentle. he did not have a mean bone in his body. host: thank you for the call. a live view of the mlk memorial

in washington. good morning. that dr. kinging said. june.roit in he said that man does not have something he will die for -- [indiscernible] hatould like to infer t irrespective of where you stand in the classes of the races in this country at the moment, outside of the few that are who is going to sacrifice anything much less their lives to make conditions better? host: thank you for the call. this comment from diane on our facebook page.

you can send us a tweet at http://twitter.com/cspanwj. ernest is joining us on the phone from washington, d.c. ernest, good morning. caller: good morning. it is a privilege to be in d.c. at the time of the march. i was on security. i saw thousands and thousands of people marching on the mall, all races of people. i was so surprised. when i left here, i went back to the south and i could stop at the lunch stand and i could go to the bathroom and i could talk to each other. martin luther made an impact on

me. i went to high school and set i have to get me some more education. that was the content of your character. i am so proud to be here today to express my opinion and my feelings about martin luther king jr. host: have we changed 50 years later? heard of ae you ever black man -- i am balack -- a black man finish high school and teach cpr? put me on a cross director board. we have changed a great deal. tremendous. 100%. those who are going to be our leaders, they have to take their baton and run with it. host: thank you for the call.

thank you for sharing your stories with us. forave a line set aside those of you who were here 50 years ago, 202-585-3882. one person on hand was a young civil rights activist from georgia. now john lewis will be among those in the final list of speakers at the 2:00 hour. he spoke earlier this year about his experiences during the march on washington. here is congressman lewis in massachusetts. [video clip] ofon that day of the morning august 28, 1963, the 10 of us went to capitol hill. nine of us stayed. we left the capital hilton hotel on 16th and k. dr. king stayed at the willard

hotel. we came up to capitol hill early that morning. we met with democratic and republican leaders on the house side. then we went to the senate side and met with democratic and republican leaders of the senate. we concluded the meeting. we came down constitution avenue. we thought maybe we would have 50,000 or 60,000 people. we looked toward union station and there were hundreds of thousands of people coming from union station. the people were already marching. we were supposed to be the leaders. it was almost like saying, "there go my people, let me catch up with them, and that is what we did." sea ofed arms and a

humanity push us towards the washington monument, on toward the lincoln memorial. host: congressman john lewis reflecting on his involvement as a young activist. he is now a long time represented from georgia and will be among those speaking today. gettingre event underway in one hour, 45 minutes. the president will be preceded twoohn lewis as well as former president. your calls and comments 50 years later. how has america changed? good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i have a personal story. my grandfather grew up with mahalia jackson. they lived around the corner from her. louis armstrong lived next door.

my grandparents and my parents -- schools toto the register people to vote. they were able to have black teachers come up from louisiana to our school in washington because we do not have any. i want to say i have a personal story here. she turned 56 today. on that day in 1963, we all sat down on the floor in our living room and watched a black and white tv. for a child that had turned six have ad that day --

birthday party, she wanted to speech,. king gave his even to the point that my father said, you've got to move your head, because her head was in the way. she was so enthralled. at one time i was suspended from king'sbefore dr. birthday became a holiday. people thealled night before. because theschool schools in seattle were leaving at 12:00. the told me into the office. there was a big ruckus. me fors they suspended

gathering people together during school in honor of dr. king. so yes, it has changed. i also want to say that i am appalled at the way the statesnt of these united is treated. to be called a liar in the halls of congress is an abomination. host: thank you for the call from washington. we have this point on our twitter page. king came to washington as part of a demonstration on racial and economic equality. how are we doing 50 years later? there is a related story about income barriers at "the

washington post." "the gaps between blacks and shites have widened," write "the washington post." the poverty rates continues to be about three times that of whites. the story is available again 50 years ago. d.c.,e from washington, -- shirley. caller: good morning. i want to say a few things about my father. i was 13 years old. ivory member so well -- i remember so well.

shoes --sting his buffing his shoes. i really wanted to go to the march. your momid no, "keep company." i was in high school during the riots. in has been a good struggle for me. living through martin luther king jr.'s dream, helping out our children. not turning our backs on our families. martin luther king jr. had a great impact. i hope everyone can contribute somewhere along the line to our black kids and helping our kids in schools and helping our teenagers and steering them the right way and doing the right thing. host: thank you for sharing your story, shirley. charlton heston was on hand for the demonstration.

he sat down to talk about his experience in 1963. here is a portion. [video clip] picketed some restaurants in oklahoma. i expressed my support of civil rights largely by talking about it at cocktail parties. like many americans, i could no longer pay only lip service to a cause that was so urgently right and in a time that is so urgently now. host: actor and activist charlton heston 50 years ago. 50 years later, a breakdown of the racial gap among blacks and whites and comments are also posted online. mark from north dakota, good morning. caller: good morning. i am white and a christian.

i became politically active a number of years ago as i began paying more attention to what was going on in my own country. the role model for me as a christian is dr. martin luther king jr. he exemplifies a christ-like like. for that i will be eternally life.ul -- a chirist-like the same thing happened to dr. king. and he made arist huge impact on the entire world. how has america changed? a previous caller said there aren't more many opportunities for black people. we still find the same corrupt powers that existed in king's day.

unfortunately obama is part of the problem, in my opinion. you had mike dyson on earlier. cornell west after the reelection of obama described obama as a rockefeller republican in whiteface and is policies as crypto fascist in large part because he is partnering with these criminals on wall street. he does not go after the criminal fraud. droneengaged in all these strikes across the world without authorization from congress. the corrupt powers are even more powerful today. christians of all backgrounds and colors and creeds must join together and follow dr. king's example and stand up against this corruption that is taking

over our country. thank you for the time. ont: this comment from jim our twitter page. we showed this earlier. you might be interested to see what "the washington post" look like on this date tomorrow 50 years ago. host: dr. king's speech is not mentioned on page one of "the washington post." robert kaiser has written a piece. he was a young intern in the newsroom and explained how "the post" missed one of the biggest stories by not putting it on the front page. you can check it out online.

wholes from dayton, ohio, was here 50 years ago. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. iwas in washington -- yes, was in washington 50 years ago and i was standing to the left of the lincoln memorial. marian anderson walked right by. i was scared of her entourage. i was listening to mr. king and charlton heston and different movie stars. that was my second time having seen king when he came to dayton. things have changed. newsee more blacks in the and on communications. we still have a long way to go. host: how did you get to washington?

did you drive? bus.r: we left dayton on a d had a leader here in ayton. thomas the spitting image of martin luther king. they invited me to come down. wayal estate lady paid my or gave him money so i can have money when i got there. i had two little girls at the time. that motivated me. if i did not go and if i survived, if someone were to ask me what was my contribution, what was i going to be able to tell my children? me toeally motivated help. it was a great experience.

i was 23 years old at the time. i am 77 now. host: thank you for your call. this comes from gene with reference to the clip we showed about charlton heston. there will be a medal of freedom honoring. there is a piece about his role. president obama will honor him. he was the organizer behind the civil rights march. he was also a pacifist and a gay man. piece talks about how he was the key individual. at story is available online "the wall street journal" website. caller: how are you doing?

i think the civil rights movement has come a long way. i believe that we have come so far to the point where now we have black leaders out there like obama. he is our president now. we have oprah winfrey. she is in the entertainment business. -- we have come far with the civil rights movement. -- therenk we have an emerging, like, reverse racism, to ome. me. i grew up outside baltimore.

and i was growing up -- i 24 years old. i grew up in the 1990's. that was a time when the hip-hop culture was big. racist.lture, not to be ien i was going to school, was pressured to basically have a lifestyle like that and everything. it wasn't very comfortable for me. if i was to wear tight jeans or something like something i would wear, i was made fun of. be who i wanted today. host: alex from maryland. mohammed has this on our twitter page.

have been looking at live scenes around the mall including one of the security check points as folks gathered to enter the area where they will hear their remarks. the ceremony hitting underway at 11:00 eastern time. tight security around the mall. a cloudy day in our nation's capital with intermittent rain. differ from when it was 50 years ago. thunderstorms expected to pass through early afternoon. this is what looked like 50 years ago. michael joins us on the phone. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: tell us your story. caller: my parents owned and operated a business on minnesota avenue for 50 years. i was taken to the march on my father. we met up with my cousin from

oklahoma who came in on a bus and was announced on the stage. please findams them, he is lost." we went to the stage and found my cousin. to want to bee part of the movement. contracting. representry to minority businesses by being head of the minnesota business association. i acknowledge all minority people in the business community should move forward in this movement and i appreciate you taking my call. host: thank you for phoning in. we want to turn our attention to the presidents speech later today. it will begin around 3:00 this

afternoon. joining us live is major garrett of cbs news. thank you for being with us. we want to talk about the speech and syria. can you give us some insight on how he prepared for this address? guest: the president said yesterday that the speech was and final drafting yesterday afternoon. it was probably wrapped up this morning. he outlined some basic concepts for the speech. using the 50th anniversary of the "i have a dream" as a springboard to talk more deeply about economic issues and link the speech to the companion motivation for that march 1963, which was for that are economic

opportunities for african- americans. that will be a central focus today. he is a living embodiment of many of the realized dreams of that civil rights movement and of the "i have a dream" speech but he will say there is so much more to be done on the economic side. host: as you have reported, the president faces criticism from african-american leaders claiming he is not doing enough. guest: the economic progress of the country has been slow for all races. the president has missed opportunities to engage the african american community publicly. he has done so with personal reflection and deep passion. ande have been times somehow thought the white house

has kept them at something of an arms land in terms of policy and politics. the white house has always struggled with keeping this allen's. the president does not want to be in this lane of being the first african-american president. he wants to be the president for the nation. previous balance no president has had to strike. host: how much of trayvon martin will come through today as well? guest: that is unclear. that thecterization white house has given to those remarks was that he was in a moment and a time when the president after a week of debate in this country about whether that verdict in florida it was just a not, the president wanted to get his own reflections on the verdict. talk about why that verdict did

not sit as well or as comfortably with african- americans as it did with non- african-americans in the country. that was a one time event. i do not know if the president is going to make a direct reference to the trayvon martin case. it would surprise me if he did. the white house has gone to say that was a moment in time and one the president has no interest in referring back to. host: did the president write speech? guest: the president will not be a passive bystander. on president does weigh in the significant speeches. and noe routine speeches presidential speech is formally -- purely formula art.

the president laid out his original idea and concept for the speech and have the speech writers put it together and the drafts have been going on for several days. host: we are talking with major garrett. website,ck out your this headline -- walk us through what you think would happen over the next 24 or 48 hours. guest: there are several events that are going on that could be potential pivot points in syria. there'll be a test vote at the united nations security council as to whether condemned the syrian government and essentially assign blame to it for the chemical weapons attack. hethe russians veto that, united states will probably say you cannot get a confirmation

from the united nations security council. that makes that process blocked for the international community wants to register it severe displeasure and repulsion on this attack. that would be interpreted by the white house as an open lane to lack without a u.n. mandate. the british government will meet in parliament tomorrow. there'll be an effort to obtain permission for a resolution authorizing force. those will be significant indicators of a movement on the west to respond militarily. expect aoint we declassified report from the director of national intelligence on what the united states believes it knows about what happened on august 21 and what proved the syrian government was provide this -- was behind this attack.

that will lay a foundation for whatever action the president orders. and looks like a late timeline of thursday or friday for that decision to be made. host: evidence does suggest that some chemical substance was used in the killing of those hundreds of people. how likely is that? guest: it is always possible. you never have a military action until the present orders it -- until the president orders it. the administration's contention is there is no dispute that chemical weapons were used. they do not believe there is any argument that anyone other than the syrian regime was behind it. the russians are aligned with the syrian government.

that suggests that the opposition rebels have an incentive to use these chemical weapons because that might draw the west into this conflict. this is disputed is an international fact. believesistration culpability will be demonstrated. the american public will evaluate that in due time. congressman of for genia leading an effort with more than 20 signatures urging the president to get congressional approval first. guest: the white house is aware of that but i do not think they are moved to manically by that are moved --but they

dramatically by that expression. encourage their support for whatever the president decides to do militarily. but not turn this into a matter before congress. that could put the president at crossways with some members of congress, probably on the republican side. they were skeptical on the legal basis for the intervention in libya. it does appear if it happens thursday or friday this will bypass congress, at least in the terms of a formal authorization process. host: the president traveling to russia and sweden next week. final point about the speech. the president will be preceded by jimmy carter and bill clinton. how likely is this to run on time today? [applause] -- [laughter] not with the carter

presidency but with the clinton presidency, having its own unique approach to time. the white house has put out a release updating the approximate time of the president's schedule. 2:45.s are now slated for they have moved up 20 minutes, whether that is to encourage time is on the part of residents clinton and carter, i do not know. everything that is so far suggested is it will be on time and the president has other issues to tackle and confront. it will be pretty close to mark. , we: major garrett appreciate your time and perspective. thank you for being with us. back to your calls and comments.

50 years later, how has america change? rapid city, south dakota. good morning. caller: good morning. i was 7 years old. i had a unique perspective as a child. i spent the last 50 years growing up in america and seeing how it has changed. i was raised by her grandmother, who was a foster parent. she had over 450 children come through her home. she had children of every color. you name it, she had it. they were there for various reasons. i was raised in a desegregated world by woman who thought all children were the same. the first time i saw a black student in my high school, i was amazed.

i went to high school in the south. they still had black students walked on one side, white students walk on the other. black and white students holding hands in the classroom. no, it is not perfect. host: thank you for the call. columbia, maryland, a participant 50 years ago. good morning. caller: good morning. i came out in 1959 for the military. i experienced racial discrimination in the military. i got hired at bethlehem steel. i worked in the plant and experience more discrimination. of course my father and many people in my family and my wife

because i went to fight discrimination. they were more concerned about me taking care of my family and doing what they thought was the correct thing. i initiated a movement against racial discrimination. for pay.ed three hours i talked to the members. [indiscernible] unless they would listen to our grievances. we didn't have any type of representative representing us in management. chances to given move into other areas. every time we took tests, we failed. i went to the reverend and i was to --ed to his church and

he directed us to the fellowship also where i met -- and forone who was active -- the kids in morgan state. they came down there and work we were able to have meetings. we got a class action suit against bethlehem steel. us -ttorney was taken from - host: thank you for the call. some first-hand accounts and individuals who play their role in the civil rights movement.

only one place where you can watch the entire demonstration. will get underway at 11:00 eastern time. you can listen to it and send us your tweets and comments. the president will be speaking mid afternoon, 2:45 eastern time. diane from ohio. you were here 50 years ago? caller: yes i was. as a been an activist student trying to register people to vote. sitting in that lunch counters. marchworking the actual and i had to get permission from my employer to go to the march to take a day off from work. they were four other women at the same time. we did not get permission onto the last minute. we got an a train to travel from philadelphia to washington.

that experience left such a wonderful feeling and inspiration of hope in my life. is the sole responsible for the principal person that i believe i have turned out to be. when i look back and think about how far we have come and have made such significant strides, it is hardens me to see that there are things like these voting rights acts they are putting in in north carolina and other states that we are stepping back. how the congressman are trying to take the rights of women away from them. host: thank you for the call. this comment on our facebook page.

host: ed is joining us from silver spring, maryland, also here 50 years ago. good morning. ed, are you with us? we will try it one more time. please go ahead. ahead.od, florida, go nicholson, are you with us? caller: i am sorry. i am 42 years old and i am a foreigner. actually from haiti. black country.st -- where are you

from? that person has never been a racist or against the caller. we welcome people, any different kind of country or corner. you can always leave as a free man. host: thank you for the call. this is from joe. how has america changed 50 years later? there is a related story about the copyright issue involving dr. king's's speech. -- the the entirety bethe address will rarely reprinted, if at all. the reason explained by clarence

jones. this from an event we covered earlier this year. a former advisor to dr. king. [video clip] >> people do not know that i was trained, by physical training as a lawyer was in intellectual property law. i was a specialist in copyright law. experienced i had any number of instances. i got tired of people taking advantage of martin king. i just got tired of it. i don't know. something occurs to me. i saw that they had a copy of the speech that was put in the press kit. something clicked. those copies out." put a circle and

inside the circle put a c. i made them put that on the pages of the speech. when --ame critical there was a contract with motown records. they could reproduce the audio portion of the speech. two weeks after the march, i was in new york and walking down the street and i hear a speech. he got the speech out there quick. motown. i go to the record store and saw it was not motown but 20th century fox. i go back and i called him. i said, you cannot do that. the speech is in the public

domain. no, it wasn't. we were in federal court the next morning. we got an injunction against that. the decision that they handed down granting us the injunction, federal district judge, he spoke about the reason he was granting the injunction was because of the fact of the copyright that i had done. thing, it was a lot of money. >> i had no idea. the speeches and unending stream of money that goes to the king estate. i had no idea. host: clarence jones reflecting on the speech 50 years ago. a live view of the mlk memorial

along the mall here in washington, d.c. the headline from "the new york times" -- inside "the washington post" is this op-ed from martin luther king jriii. changed.d things have richard from hollywood, florida, good morning. caller: good morning. reveals just how far this country has come when it hums to raise. i thought this country was going in the right direction. it is clear we have some major racial issues in this country. in my community, the things that

we hear from the republicans and have a suspect our president, we know that is racism. has nothing to do that they disagree with his policies. most of it is racism. we are sick and tired of people and the media trying to pretend like it is everything but it really is, which is racism. when it comes to voting rights and even with the trayvon martin issue, it is clear that there is an element in this country that looks at barack obama the semi- they look at us about people back in the 1960's. until we face the issue of race, and especially republican party. they refuse to deal with it. we know what it is. until we start respecting our president and the office of the because therest

is a black man we feel we can say or do anything, we will never accept the fact that people are working to try to make race relations better in this country. have a good day. host: let me go back to the "the new york times" story. " was notave a dream part of the original text in the speech. poetry.d from prose to host: after the march, he spoke to reporters about what he saw and what he heard, harry belafonte.

[video clip] >> a number of generations of black americans who have been trying to appeal to the constants of white supremacy and they appear forth and have disenfranchised the negroes for so long. to be in washington was a beginning, really. a kind of a climax to generations of hope. having been deeply immersed in the civil rights struggle and at the beginning as so many important civil rights issues in this country and demonstrations, it was indeed a very powerful ,oment to see 200,000 people mostly black people, but also white people and to know that a nation such as america. i really believe in the potential of this country. host: harry belafonte in 1963.

a live view of the lincoln memorial. this from "the tallahassee democrat." one of those on hand is joining us on the phone. ed from silver spring, maryland. thank you for waiting. i worked up to be the in st. louis.or i had gone to a rally. peopleo get some of the to go together and jive up together. you'll getsaying, " hurt or murdered." i hitchhiked out. it was a rich but wonderful

group of people. i got back. they decided to run the for president. one womanerrogation, said, are you planning to integrate the group? "i don't have any such plans. if black people wanted to come, i would be first in the welcoming line." i saw a lot of people nodding. host: thank you for your call. event weake you to an covered earlier this summer on capitol hill as members of congress pay tribute to some of those involved in the civil rights movement and the march on washington. live coverage of the event as he gets underway 11:00 eastern time. the president scheduled to speak midafternoon. nate is joining us from tennessee, good morning.

caller: good morning. how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: in regard to the question, i am speaking in terms of race relations. the only race is the human race. i was born of color, in 1939. america chile has not changed in that regard -- america truly has not changed in that regard. it has intensified. that is a sad thing. all of my life i believe that we are all human beings. theworst part is that negative mores have been institutionalized in this country, in the churches and the schools, every facet, law enforcement, the supreme court. look at the ruling.

that is what is driving it. host: we appreciate all of your calls. those who remember what happened 50 years ago. this is from an event covered by the nuseum. a columnist reflecting on what he saw when he heard 50 years ago. [video clip] >> there was great striving to make sure this was interracial march. the labor movement and the afl- cio was very much a part of that. there was a fear there might be too many lights at the march -- too many whites. there was a move to make sure there was great participation. later on, i had a chance to write about some of the

journalism. they all expressed a feeling of great pride and the fact that they were overwhelmed the turnout and just the experience of it. later generations waste variance somewhat of the same with the moneyman mark in the 1990's -- later generations would experience somewhat of the same with the million man march. host: the crowd gathers outside the lincoln memorial. this is what it looks like at the security checkpoint heading into the area where the march and the speaking program will get underway in just under an hour. last month, leaders held a ceremony to commemorate this 50th anniversary of the march on washington. the speaker of the house was john boehner. andy pelosi, harry reid,

mitch the senate republican lear mitch mcconnell. it was held at u.s. capitol. here's a portion of the event that runs just under an hour. we are back live at 11:00 eastern time with the ceremony on the mall on the steps of the lincoln memorial. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable nancy pelosi. >> good afternoon. thank you for bringing us together for this congressional bipartisan