"politicsnation" starts right now with reverend al sharpton live from washington, d.c. rev, that had to be one heck of a day in american history to be a part of that. >> no, i was very honored to be part of it. it was an exciting day, a great day. we're going to talk about it on "politicsnation," ed. and you did a great job saturday at the march. we really enjoyed you. you have a little preacher in you. >> i do. i haven't unleashed it all yet, rev. >> all right. all right. >> "politicsnation" starts right now here on msnbc. rev, take it away. >> all right. thank you, ed. thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, the dream lives on 50 years after dr. martin luther king jr. inspired the nation. america's first african-american president reminded us -- reminded all of us that today's economic inequities mean there's still much more work to do. i was there for the day's commemoration as some 100,000

people gathered to hear more than 200 speakers. everyone from former presidents, carter and clinton, to activists and civil rights leaders. at points there was a spontaneous song. >> i don't know about you, b bbu but -- ♪ i woke up with my mind stayed on freedom ♪ >> and even celebrities joined in echoing dr. king's words. >> and as the bells toll today at 3:00, let us ask ourselves how will the dream live on in me and you and all of us? >> and those bells did toll. on the national mall and all over the country, they rang to commemorate dr. king's call to

let freedom ring. and then on the very same steps from which dr. king addressed the country decades earlier, president obama brought the point of today home. today is not just about commemorating the dream, but advancing it. because those who came before us worked too hard, sacrificed too much for us not to keep working. >> through setbacks and heart breaks and gnawing doubt, that flame of justice flickered. and never died. and because they kept marching, america changed. because they marched, the civil rights law was passed. because they marched, a voting rights law was signed. because they marched doors of opportunity and education swung

open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves not shining somebody else's shoes. because they marched, city councils changed and state legislatures changed and congress changed and, yes, eventually the white house changed. >> america has changed. but this country still yearns for economic justice. and every one of us can help create change. no matter who we are or what we do. >> the mother who pours her love into her daughters so she grows up with the confidence to walk through the doors as anybody's son, she's marching. the father who realizes the most important job he'll ever have is raising his boy right. even if he didn't have a father. especially if he didn't have a father at home, he's marching.

the battle scarred veterans who devote themselves not only to help and their fellow warriors stand and walk and run again but to keep serving their country when they come home, they are marching. everyone who realizes what those glorious patrons knew on that day, that change does not come from washington but to washington. the change has always been built on our willingness, we the people, to take on the mantel of citizenship, you are marching. and that's the lesson of our past. that's the promise of tomorrow. but in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. and when millions of americans of every race and every region, every faith and every station can join together in a spirit of brotherhood, then those mountains will be made low and those rough places will be made

plain and those crooked places, they straighten out towards grace and we will vindicate the faith of those who sacrificed so much and live up to the creed as one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> we're all marching and just like the president, we're not going to quit until dr. king's dream is realized. joining me now are two people who spoke at the march today also. governor martin o'malley, democrat from maryland. and congresswoman marsha fudge, democrat from ohio and the chair of the congressional black caucus. thank you both for coming on tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> governor o'malley, a powerful day, first of all. >> it was tremendous. >> and there is work to do. >> absolutely. and a lot of this work is happening in states and sadly some of the examples are states that are going backwards. but there's other states like my

own state of maryland where even in this recession, we've done the things that advance the cause of justice that are also good for creating jobs. we were named by the u.s. chamber number one for innovation and entrepreneurship and we also have the highest minority business goals. highest womens -- number of women-owned firms starting new business. this new cause of creating a stronger class is tied hand in glove with making our society more just and more inclusive. >> that's the kind of things that concern me, congresswoman. is that we had the big march on saturday that you spoke at for us. and then today is that we don't get caught just with the rhetoric and with the commemorating, but not really do the work to really continue to fulfill the dream. and one of those things are jobs. what can we see as a possibility

of the congress dealing with some of the issues that we've laid out over the last few days like job creation, like voting rights? what is the climate in congress or do we have to put more pressure on the congress? >> first let me say, reverend al, thank you and national action network for all of the work over the events over the past days. it has been tremendous. i think i can say for myself as well as other members of the congressional black caucus, we do not feel in any way tired. we have been invigorated, energized, and we are going to do everything in o you are power to see there is a jobs bill passed. certainly we do need the help of everyone to say to your congress people, let's get together and do some work. we need to be talking about how we put infrastructure programs in place. we need to talk about a jobs program. we need to talk about better schools. we need to talk about a plot of things that here to for the

congress has ignored. but understand that members of the cbc are going to continue to fight this fight from the time we walk back into our offices in two weeks until we have no more strength to fight. >> the president also said that true equality demands economic justice. watch this. >> the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search of some abstract idea. they were there seeking jobs as well as justice. not just the absence of oppression, but the presence of economic opportunity. z for what does a prophet of man, dr. king would ask, of an

integrated lunch if he can't afford the meal. >> so as the president talked about economic justice and the march 50 years ago was for jobs and freedom. and you are state ia state movi towards creating jobs. what do we do to press the nation with the high unemployment rate particularly in the communities of color that the president and others raised today doubles that of others. >> as the congresswoman fights our noble fight in the halls of congress, there are examples of states that are actually making the investments in infrastructure and creating jobs. that's what we've done in our state. our state also invested more rather than less in the education of our children and we closed the achievement gap between black and white children by greater amounts than any other state in the country. what does that mean for the bottom line of job creation? it means that our state is now

creating jobs faster last year than any state in our region we had the highest median income and we're not done yet. even the u.s. chamber of commerce gives us kudos for being number one in innovation. i think one of the things going on in our country in addition to forwarding the agenda is our economy's changing. and if we want a more innovative country we have to be more inclusi inclusive. they both go together. i think that's when the president and others spoke together. i believe that's what they were talking about. it was a great day today because it reminded us our best days are ahead of us. >> you know, the president reminded us that change doesn't happen on its own. and as i hear governor o'malley talk about infrastructure and what he's doing in maryland, the kinds of things that we need to see change doesn't happen on its own. let me show you what the president said.

>> the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own. to secure the gains this country has made requires constant individual lens. not complacency and will suffer the occasional setback. but we will win these fights. this country has changed too mu much. people regardless of party are too plentiful for those with ill will to change history's currents. >> we've got real problems. you've got voting rights of many states changing the laws, we have unemployment. we have criminal justice matters. what do we do? do we leave here feeling good? are we going to really have a

real fight in these issues congresswoman? >> you know what? there are a couple of things we need to do. first off, we have to understand there is a dignity and worth that comes with being able to work a decent job for decent pay. we need to first fight that we raise the minimum wage. our corporations in this country and businesses are making more money than they have ever made. we need to be sure that the people who work hard every day benefit from some of that. so we have to raise the minimum wage. because young people today cannot afford to live on $7.25 an hour. we have to not only do that, but we have to give people a decent and a safe place to live. we have to train young people so that they are prepared for the jobs of the future. education is still the pathway out of poverty. and so we have to do the things as we can as a nation do very easily by putting the resources in education, by making sure that people do have a decent place to live, and by giving people a livable wage.

those are things -- >> i'm going to have to leave it there, congresswoman. thank you marcia fudge, chair of the congressional black congratulations. and governor martin o'malley. thank you for being with me tonight. coming up, on this historic day we'll hear more from the president, the former presidents, the activists, and the celebrities. and a common theme from the day. there's still more work to do. we'll talk about that ahead. plus it's a speech that lives forever and a day that's celebrated but not all political leaders embrace the dream. we've got footage from hours after the speech. and we'll hear from congressman john lewis, the last surviving speaker from the march from the same exact spot he spoke 50 years ago today. this is a special edition of "politicsnation." stay with us. >> we must seize this moment. the dawning of a new day.

the emergence of a new generation who is postured to change the world through collaborative power facilitated by unconditional love. >> when we freedom ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of god's children, black men and white men, jews and gentiles, protestants and catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the negro spirit free at last, free at last, thank god almighty we are free at last.

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tens of thousands of people gathered today to mark the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. it was a celebration of the progress we've made since dr. king's speech, but it was also a reminder of the work that remains. president obama talked about fighting the economic despairties in the country. >> this has already been noted. black unemployment has remained almost twice as high as white unemployment. latino unemployment close behind. the gap in wealth between races has not lessened, it's grown. we must remind ourselves that

the measure of progress for those who marged 50 years ago was not simply those that could join ranks of millionaires. it was whether this country would admit all those willing to work hard into the ranks of a middle class life. >> former president clinton also talked about fighting back. >> we cannot be discouraged by a supreme court decision that said we don't need this critical provision of the voting rights act. a great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon. >> barriers to voting rights, to economic rights, to civil rights. these are the very real challenges we still face. but congressman john lewis, the last surviving speaker from the march on washington, reminded us that we can't lose sight of how far we've come.

>> some time i hear people saying nothing has changed, but for someone to grow up the way i grew up in the cotton fields of alabama to now be serving in the united states congress makes me want to tell them come and walk in my shoes. so i say so each one of us today, we must never, ever give up. we must never, ever give in. we must keep the faith and keep our eye on the prize. >> we have a long way to go, but our eyes are on the prize. joining me now are joy reid and joan walsh. thank you both for being here. >> thanks, reverend. >> thanks, rev. >> joy, what a day. but why is it so important to remind people of the work that's still ahead? >> you know, i think it's important first of all because i think we never should lose sight of history and be cognizant of

it. this is incredible seeing these three presidents hearing president carter speak of personal links to the king family. to hearing from two of martin luther king's children. but i think it's also important because these kinds of events, these kinds of marches and kinds of remembrance are a call to action and reminder it takes every person that was in the audience, not just the people on stage, to continue to advance that vision. >> now, joy -- well, let me go to you, joan. fighting economic inequality. that was one of the big themes of the president's speech. let's listen to what else he said. >> the test was not and never has been whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a bit wider for a few. this is whether our economic system provides a fair shot for the many. for the black custodian and white steel worker. the immigrant dishwasher and the native american veteran.

to win that battle, to answer that call. this remains our great unfinished business. >> joan, our great unfinished business. why do you think this is the struggle the president wanted to emphasize today? >> quewell, one of the things i love sod much about this entire week is we really recaptured something that had been lost to history to some extent. that the march was about jobs and freedom. and that the march was organized primarily in the beginning by a. phillip randolph, a wonderful labor organizer. and the extent it had support from white people, segments not all but major segments of the labor movement. as well as the churches and jewish communities. it was really white labor people.

they knew a lot of things others didn't know at the time. they knew about the coming industrial revelation. they knew people without a college degree or maybe even a high school diploma were getting more scarce. they called for public works jobs which we still to this day need to repair our infrastructure but also to give -- to put people on that first rung of opportunity we have basically wiped out. and i think they also saw that government had done a very good job of creating a vast middle class in the years after world war ii. it was time to open the doors to a diverse middle class. that's when somehow we didn't seem to have the money or the will to do that. so it's really -- it was really crucial to reclaim that part of the history, because that was always central to the march. >> but joy, that's part of the tension that i have because the unemployment rate in the country has really gone up and down. but in the last 50 years since the first march, black unemployment has consistently been twice as high as white unemployment.

income equality has never been a greater issue in this country in the last 30 years. the richest 20% have seen their income rise 281%. while the poorest only rose 16%. how do we fight this inequality? >> yeah and even to add to that, it's a much more complicated economy now. in 1963 you hadn't had globalization take a bite out of the manufacturing as it has. and as the president said, a lot of those jobs and opportunities have gone and are not coming back. so we have to refocus on now how public and private can sort of work together to create -- look. you want a sustainable middle class. when african-american unemployment did dip down in the 1990s, all of those gains were wiped out by the 2008 recession. who are sort of stuck at the bottom of the middle class.

you don't have a way to keep those gains even when you get them. so this is a challenge especially when you have a congress, i have to say, where a large part of the house of representatives won't even look at a jobs bill, won't look at infrastructure spending. how do you do it if the government is paralyzing itself because we don't want to do any spending domestically. >> joan, another major inequality we face is the criminal justice system. a problem that starts from birth. take, for example, a white male child born in 2001 had 6% chance of spending time in jail. while a black male child born then had a 32% chance of spending time in jail. the president also addressed this today. listen to this. >> whether by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote or ensuring that the scales of justice work equally for all and the criminal justice system is not just a pipeline from

underfunded schools to overcrowded jails. it requires individual levigila. >> why was it important to talk about this? >> the school to prison pipeline must become part of the course. because it's real. it's the most effective machine of movement of social movement in our society that we have. it's just moving in the wrong direction. and so i think people were happy to hear that from the president. they're happy to see the beginnings of attorney general holder reckoning with this and doing what he can do in terms of prosecutorial discretion on sentencing for certain drug crimes. but there's more to be done. >> joy reid and joan walsh, thank you for your time tonight. ahead, the historic link between president obama's rise and dr. king's legacy. that you may not know about.

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>> i'm 75 years old. and i think this something that everyone should be here doing trying to further the dream. >> martin luther king did not die not for black people, you know. he lived -- it's not how he died but how he lived. he lived for all humanity. we must be that example. >> just live reverend al said today, there's no way you would dream we would have had had an african-american president in this day and time. america has evolved but there's still more work to do for all people. >> everyone here to work together for the same common cause. make it happen. okay ladies, whenever you're ready.

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today dr. king's i have a dream speech is widely celebrated, but 50 years ago not everyone believed in the dream. far from it. just hours after the speech, here's what some southern senators told nbc news. >> the negros in this country more automobiles than they do in any other country. they have got clothes and a house here than in any other country in the world. no one is deprived of freedom. i know that. >> what i plan to fight for is the right of a man to choose the neighbors among whom he will live, the rights to decide who he's going to trade with, do business with, who he wants to associate with. when you see white folks on the demonstration, that's fine. if somebody wants to be left alone by those people, i think he's entitled to be left alone too. >> and two months after the

march j. edgar hoover, head of the fbi, began wiretapping dr. king's phone. a year after the march, just 10% of whites said mass demonstrations helped the cause of racial equality. and 81% of whites said demonstrations hurt the cause. history did not render its verdict on the march on washington overnight. it would take time, decades even, before the full meaning of the march became clear. joining me now is david ga rerks ll, he won the pulitzer prize on the book "bearing the cross." and gary young, nation author whose new book is called "the speech: the story behind martin luther king's dream." thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> david, we celebrate the march

on washington, but tell us about the criticism. what was the reaction some might not have heard of? >> it's a tribute to the voting rights act of 1965, reverend that the sort of southern white segregationist opinion captured so powerfully in that old footage has virtually disappeared from american politics. and indeed virtually disappeared from american politics by the time that president carter whom we all saw today entered the white house in 1977. i think a lot of younger people today probably aren't aware of just how virulent that open segregationist racism against black people was. the degree of violence that the civil rights movement

encountered in the south was a reflection of just how intense some of that hatred was. >> but david, it wasn't only in the south. because three years after the march in a gallup poll found that most americans held unfavorable views of dr. king himself. 33% had a favorable view. 66% had an unfavorable view. david, you wrote an extensive book, won a pulitzer prize on dr. king. dr. king was not this universally loved figure at the height of his career. >> exactly correct, reverend. and it's important to emphasize especially on this anniversary day that dr. king by 1966-1967, dr. king is focusing on racism and housing segregation in northern cities. particularly in chicago. he's also speaking out very

strongly as a critic of american foreign policy. and at a time when opposition to the war in vietnam was not as poplar as it became later on in the nixon years. dr. king was a very tough critic, very outspoken critic of inequality in america. by the end of his life, he was pessimistic about how much this society could change. and people should be reminded that time and again in the last few years of his life, dr. king warned that the dream he had had in washington in 1963 was turning into a nightmare. that's his phrase, his words. >> that's a direct quote. gary -- gary, let me let you weigh in on this, what david is talking about. the fact that dr. king was not

universally saluted as you hear today. that act as though everyone was supportive of dr. king's dream. >> well, that's right. america loves him now and america celebrates the march now. but in the run-up to the march, americans were very skittish. most knew the march was going to take place and thought it was a mistake. beyond the south, even kennedy asked them don't march, don't do this. he said we want legislation on capitol hill, not a big show on the streets. and it was a. phillip randolph who said the negroes are already in the streets. it's interesting if we look at a drew hanson work he did on this in his book. if we look at what happens after '63, between '63 and '68, the dream speech is barely mentioned. it's barely mentioned.

it's only after king's assassination that america thinks how can we remember this man? >> well, it wasn't even mentioned in the "washington post" the day after the speech here in washington. there's also the rewrite of some in the tradition of the right wing. they say the civil rights revolution was in a crucial sense conservative. and then they criticized the decred decrepitude of the civil rights movement. how the civil rights movement of '63 was crucially conservative, today we're dealing with decrepitude. but when you go back to '63, a week before the march, the founder of national review william buckley in national

review actually attacked the civil rights movement and the march. he called it mob deployment in circumstances that call for thought and discussion and mediation is a dangerous resort. so we find that the right wing that now claim dr. king was far from claiming him in '63, '64. >> exactly right, reverend. at that time in the american conservative movement, there was widespread opposition of the bill. the republican presidential campaign of barry goldwater in 1964 was focused in opposition to that bill on the notion that the property rights of business owners should allow for public discrimination against people based on race.

of course that's an aspect 50 years ago that's virtually evaporated from today's america. >> and that opposition carries on even reagan in 1983 when he was asked -- ronald reagan was asked do you still think king was a communist. he said we'll have to wait 35 years to find out. meaning the opening of fbi files. so the suspicion and animosity towards king and his legacy carries on well into the '80s. >> all right. thank you both for your time tonight. >> thanks. >> thank you. coming up, the last surviving speaker from the march. congressman john lewis. my interview with him from the steps of the lincoln memorial. and president obama's symbolic link to dr. king. stay with us. >> it's time for us to stand up now and renew this dream.

that's what we got to do. i was affected by the trayvon martin situation. i was affected by newtown. i was affected by sandy hook. i'm affected by those things, so it's time for us now to pick up. >> thank you for being here and to encourage you young and old, men and women to understand that progress can only be measured with how far we have to go. now, would you go? man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours.

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congressman john lewis, the only living speaker from the march on washington stood at that same spot today with the same passion. i had a chance to speak with him at that spot. that's next. we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations. people should make up their own mind what's best for them. all i can say is it has worked well for us. ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle.

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congressman john lewis is the last surviving speaker from the march on washington 50 years ago. today he reminded the country despite progress there's still work to be done. >> whether it's stop and frisk in new york or injustice in trayvon martin case in florida, the mass incarceration of millions of americans, said to each one of us today we must never, ever give up. we must never, ever give in. we must keep the faith and keep

our eyes on the prize. >> i recently spoke with the congressman from the lincoln memorial. >> i must tell you, i feel more than lucky but very blessed to be able to stand here 50 years later and to see the progress we've made. and just to see the changes that have occurred. if someone had told me 50 years ago that an african-american would be in the white as the president, i probably would have said you're crazy. you don't know what you're talking about. the country's a different country. and we're better people. >> now, when we get to washington, when all of the marches and the leaders get here, one of the big six is in jail in louisiana. couldn't even come because he was in jail from protests. the tension behind the stage

here was over your speech. >> by the forces of our demand, our determinations and numbers we should split the segregated south into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of god and democracy. we must say wake up america because we may not be patient. >> they wanted to change a line in your speech. tell us about that. >> near the end of the speech, near the very end i said something like if we do not see meaningful progress here today, the day may come where we will not confine our march on washington but we may be forced to march through the south the way sherman did non-violently. they said you can't say that. and the archbishop of the diocese of washington said not to give that. we met on the side of mr. lincoln. >> is that right? >> and we had a portable

typewriter. and the executive secretary, randolph was there. dr. king and wilkin. then dr. king said to me, john, can we change that? he said that doesn't sound like you. i know you. he said we come this far together. let's stay together. can we make those changes? i couldn't say no to a. phillip randolph. i couldn't say no to martin luther king jr. >> as you walk to the podium to speak, what was going through your mind? you'd been in the trenches. you'd been arrested. you faced all of that. what were you thinking when you stood here and looked out at the crowd? >> when i stood here and looked out and saw the sea of humanity, i was gratified. i was deeply moved and inspired that so many people had turned out. some people said it was 250,000

people. i think it was many more. i think it was a great undercount. i looked to my right and i saw all of these young people standing there just cheering. and then i looked to my left. i saw young men black and white up in the trees trying to get a better view of the podium. and the lincoln memorial. and i looked straight ahead with so many people with their feet in the water trying to cool off. i looked straight ahead and i said to myself this is it, and i started speaking. >> those saying be patient and wait, we must say we cannot be patient. we do not want our freedom gradually. but we want to be free now. >> translator: two days after the march is all over, was the terrible bombing of that church where the girls were killed. that was a sad and dark hour for the movement. it just tore at the essence of our heart.

i went to birmingham that sunday morning. i cried and cried. but i made up my mind to go to selma and other parts of the south. and that's exactly what we did to gain and fight for the right to vote. >> you were beaten on the edmond bridge within inches of your life. and that really led to the voting rights act of '65. you're the hero and symbol to all of us that grew up watching you like you watched dr. king. and you have a black president in the white house, a black attorney general who'll be at the march with us. but we still have challenges. how do we compare the challenges of today with the challenges 50 years ago? >> we got to inspire another generation of young people. blacks and whites, latinos, asian-american, native-american. all of us got to push and pull. we got to get out there because

they're forces -- and not just forces in the american south. but forces all across our country that want to take us back to another period. we've got to say we're not going back. we've come too far now to go back. i think the march 50 years ago had set so much emotion that changed this country forever. and we will never be the same. >> yes, it has changed this country. thanks to americans like john lewis. we'll be right back. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but, dad, you've got...

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months later they admitted to the killing. a day never to forget. but today we also remember a hopeful day. five years ago today, senator barack obama accepted the democratic nomination for president in 2008. the arc of history bending toward justice. that's why we in our own way must never stop marching, never stop fighting, never stop doing whatever it is we can do. because at the end, right will always overpower wrong. and as the president quoted an old gospel song today, weeping may endure for a night. but if you keep going, joy will definitely come in the morning. we need to keep going because there are mornings that are waiting us if we would just fight through the night. i'm al sharpton.

thank you for watching. "hardball" starts right now. a question of character. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. the content of his character. remember that great line in martin luther king's speech? remember how he offered the hope that his four little children as he put it would some day be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character? have we reached that day? have we? is that how people of color are judged today? is that how the president of the united states has been judged? by the content of his character? i wish. you may wish. he must wish. barack obama the man has led a remarkable life. he excelled in school. he climbed to the ivy league and made editor of the harvard law