no known dietary restrictions. for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. ♪ you have to let me know [ female announcer ] when sweet and salty come together, the taste is irresistible. sweet and salty nut bars by nature valley. nature at its most delicious. when my daughter called me at work yesterday freaking out and told me my son was on a list of victims, i dropped. i don't think any parent in the world would ever want to go through that type of agony. for all of the students in the hospital with their children right now, i send my condolences and i understand your pain. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the victims and

heroes. after the stabbing attack at the suburban pittsburgh high school, the 16-year-old suspect, alex hribal accused of stabbing 21 students and a security guard, tales of self-less courage. brett stepped in front of his friend taking a knife in the back to protect her. >> i got stabbed in the back and it was just -- had to have helped to the next room and her putting pressure on my wound to make sure i didn't bleed out, what was going through my mind, will i survive and will i die? she saved my life. >> all i can really think about was did this just really happen? like, i couldn't believe that my best friend just took a knife for me. i could tell you exactly how much blood was on that knife and it's -- i couldn't -- it's too scary. >> behind the rampage, what we're now learning about alex

hribal, the teenager has been charged as an adult. his lawyer told the judge i will need to be seen by a psychiatrist to determine if he's mentally fit to stand trial. his lawyer described his state of mind. >> at this point he's confused and scared to death, of course, sort of like a deer in the headlights. >> and advancing the dream, 50 years after president lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act, we look forward. our special coverage of the civil rights summit in austin where president obama will be delivering the key note address this hour. more of my conversation with john lewis who will introduce the president. >> some people have said nothing have changed and come and walk in their shoes and i will show you change.

and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. murrysville pennsylvania is still reeling from yesterday's tragic stabbing ataj. alex hribal accused of stabbing and slaching 21 students and one adult using two steak knives from his family's kitchen. he has been charged as an adult with multiple counts of aggravated assault and four counts of attempted homicide. four students are still in critical condition in area hospitals. a short time ago, one of the victims, brett hurt and his mother spoke about the attack and forgiveness and recovering from the trauma. the trauma both physical and emotional. >> i'm not sure if i'm -- i'm not sure i can go to school at this point in time. i think if i walked in there i might just freeze and wouldn't be able to move. i mean, i need time to just

cope. >> any child that is honestly able to do something like that, i feel that it is not only his peers and family but it is the school who needs to look and say, what have we done to alienate this child, for him to do such a gruesome thing. i honestly feel once he gets help maybe he can forgive himself. >> i just hope that one day he can -- everyone -- i can forgive him and everyone else who got hurt can forgive him. >> nbc's ron allen is in murrysville with the latest. you've seen how this community is coping, extraordinary stories of how the instant response by students and teachers saved lives as well as the emergency responders. >> reporter: indeed. that was a courageous moment by brett hurt and his mom there. he's a 16-year-old high school sophomore who until yesterday was just another kid in this

community. and for him to sit there and tell his story and he answered questions for a good long time, patiently and very personally. i was very struck by how strong he and his mother were. one thing his mother didn't say, she had a daughter there as well in the school, the daughter who called her was in the library down the hall. and ran out of the school after the fire alarm was set as many of the other students did. for them to sit there and discuss this horrifying incident for their family, it was just really striking. he also gave us a better insight into how this all happened. he was stabbed in the back. he had no time to defend himself. he never knew what was happening. he did have the presence of mind, however, to step in front of the assailant to save his girlfriend's life. she talks about how he saved her. he talks about how she saved him. there was just an incredible moment there between them and so

many others during this -- these moments of pandemonium in the hallway. we've heard from the doctors that so many of the victims have wounds in their torsos and chest, not on her hands on arms, no defensive wounds. so in so many cases they had no warning this was going to happen. the kid hribal went down the hallway indiscriminately attacking people. we do know and we are very concerned about the case of one teenager who was still in what's been described as extremely critical condition at another hospital in town. he went through emergency surgery again last night. this was the one case, we have not been naming him, he's 17 years old of all of the cases we heard about, his seems to be the most critical. here at this hospital we are heard there are a couple of patients, including brett, who may be going home today or tomorrow. there's been encouraging numbers at the hospitals but also that one case of that 17-year-old

that we know of, that is in very dire situation. so many people here in the community have been saying if there's anything they can feel good about, one of things they can feel good about, there were no fatalities. and they are hoping that is still the case as we go through this in the coming days. so much that this community is going through, incredible. >> it really is. and especially amanda leonard, the mom and her son brett, but her ability to em if a thiz with the man who stabbed her son and 20 other people, it's pretty extraordinary. thank you so much ron allen. richard liu spoke to the attorney for alex hribal, the attorney is now visiting with his client. but this is what he told richard liu earlier today. >> his family can't figure out how this happened. this young man has never been in trouble. he interacts well with other

students at school. he wasn't considered a loner or weirdo, and nobody saw this coming. he's never had any mental health issues or been in trouble, not in the juvenile system. he's a well behaved well mannered kid at home. nobody can figure it out. doesn't smoke marijuana. he doesn't drink. it's unexplainable at this point. >> forbes hospital was the first to receive patients from the stabbing and in the press conference today the director of trauma surgery emphasized how serious many wounds were. >> what i can say is that we didn't make clear previously is the magnitude of the injuries of these patients. the patients that we had to give a short list of organs that they had injuries, there were injuries to lung, diaphragm, liver, vena cava, stomach and

pancreas and kidney. so these were not trivial superficial stab wounds as we have stated previously. these were significantly deep penetration stab wounds. >> and joining me now from murrysville is the president and ceo of forbes hospital, reese jackson. you spoke to us after this happened yesterday. tell me how your patients are and what you know about their medical condition 22 hours later. >> all of our patients are stable. we have three that remain in the icu. one off the ventilator and two remain on the ventilator. all three have serious wounds in their abdomen that's affected some of their internal organs. the patients on the floor, the four patients on the floor, all of the patients are young boys. but the four on the floor are doing fine and as mentioned earlier a couple of them will be discharged in the next day or

so. >> what about those who are system -- the two on a ventilator and the third patient, are they going to make a complete recovery? >> i think the doctors are saying time will tell and there will be some planned operations for them. they still have significant road ahead for them to make a full recovery, but remain optimistic. and we're very grateful that everything went so well yesterday and the coordination of their care and the teamwork that was displayed that led to -- it was just a full-time effort and everyone did their job extraordinarily well. we feel very optimistic about these kids and their future. >> we saw brett hurt, an extraordinary news conference where this young man talked about being stabbed in the back and he jumped in front of graze zi, not acknowledging his really

deeply affected and said he's not -- i don't know if this is clinically what you can call shocked. it's not just physical. >> i think that's right. despite all of the emotional circumstances, this kid today was extraordinary and in his wisdom that he imparted to everyone in that room and his mom, his mom was extraordinary too. all of the things she said i believe, many of us feel and think and both of them expressed their emotions and their thoughts so very well. it was moving. as a participant in the audience today, i was very moved. >> mr. jackson, i want to thank you for taking the time. to all of the medical team, the emergency workers and the trauma unit and all of those nurses and

doctors and others now caring for these kids, we all thank you. it's just another example of the great medical service in this country. thank you. >> yeah, thank you. >> and we have a hopeful sign today in the long search for the missing malaysian airliner, an australian plane detected another ping today that could be -- could be coming from mh 370. four other acoustic signals have been detected since saturday. those are said to be consistent with sounds coming from a plane's data recording. search teams are in a race against the clock to locate the wreckage before the black box batteries wear out. they are behind their month-long guarantee. joining me now is our own expert, tom costello. tom, you've been following this every inch of the way but this is the most hopeful in the last 24 hours that we've heard the officials in australia and others whom you're talking to. >> the australian commander in

charge of the search is fairly confident they will find the wreckage in a matter of days. he thinks it's on the way. what happened here, they picked up the fifth ping. they did that by dropping the sonar buoy, going to a five pings coming from the same general area. so you say that should be easy enough, should should be able to immediately drop down. >> this is where the four pings are. the fifth is in the air so i don't have an exact location for it. the general area is 500 square miles. so the trouble -- at least on the ocean floor. so the trouble is that is a massive area to try to map if you were to drop down the submarine. let's talk about, however, this pinger locater, this yellow device shipped through the water. that's the primary way they are

listening for the pingz coming from they believe the black boxes. they have four already. the more pings they can triangulate and get a better indication of where this wreckage may be or the black boxes may be, then they would drop down the blue fin 21. that is the unmanned submarine. it looks like a torpedo. it would essentially map the entire floor of the ocean using sonar and anything that looks man made. if it can then pinpoint that, it would graph the debris and do this methodically. the last thing is the silt later, this is a big problem. we are talking about tens of feet of silt at the bottom that's described as muck. has been building up for literally millions of years by dead plant life and dead biology if you will. and all of that, therefore, may

have sucked the plane into the silt. this is the working hypothesis. no one has gone down and stood there, way too deep. nobody has mapped it before. the thinking is that the black boxes and/or the wreckage may be literally sitting in tens of feet of muck at the bottom of the ocean. >> the pings briefly, are they becoming more faint or -- >> they've been becoming more faint. that leads them to be concerned that in fact the black box pingers shall the abatteries may be dying. 30 days is the guarantee. the manufacturer has told us they may go to 45 but clearly we're on borrowed time. >> if they don't make it before the batteries expire could you still find the wreckage? >> sure, they will drop that submersible submarine and scan

the ocean floor. imagine a city 500 square miles. i'm from denver, maybe denver, right? you're looking for something the size of a suitcase in that entire landscape. you can imagine now why this is going to take a long time to search and scan the bottom of the ocean and look for the wreckage. >> wow, tom costello, thank you so much. >> we have very big news from the world of late night tv. cbs has just announced that stephen colbert will be the next host of "the late show." he is the current host of "the colbert report." david letterman will end his late night run in 2015 after 21 years, we don't know whether colbert will change his name to colbert. and week ahead of the first anniversary of the boston marathon bombing. russia did not get the fbi all of the information it had on

tamerlan tsarnaev. the russians had warned the u.s. in 2011 that tsarnaev was a radical islamist but according to "the new york times," they refused follow-up questions for additional information. the two brothers are suspected of planting pressure cooker bombs near the boston marathon finish line, killed three people. tamerlan died after a gun fight and the younger brother is awaiting trial on charges that could lead to the death penalty if convicted. coming up next, our special coverage advancing the dream, the president will be delivering the key note address at the civil rights summit later this hour marking 50 years since the signing of the civil rights act. last night the president and first lady were welcomed to the lone star state by none other than former president and native texan george h.w. bush.

bush 41 there in his motorized wheelchair. stay with us here on msnbc for coverage of president obama's speech today in texas. i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. so, what'd you think of the house? did you see the school rating? oh, you're right. hey, babe, i got to go. bye, daddy. have a good day at school, okay? ♪ [ man ] but what about when my parents visit? okay. just love this one. it's next to a park. [ man ] i love it. i love it, too. here's your new house.

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president obama will be delivering the keynote speech honoring the 50th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act into law by president johnson. john lewis will introduce the president who put his own life on the line during the struggle for racial equality. i sat down with congressman lewis to talk about the next frontier for civil rights. >> i want to ask you about civil rights today, how do you see the gay rights movement, some people say this is the civil rights

movement of our generation? >> you cannot have civil rights for some and not for others. during the 50s and early 60s people would ask dr. king about interracial marriage and dr. king would respond, reply and respond and say, races don't fall in love and get married, individuals fall in love and get married. if two women or two men want to fall in love and get married, it's their business. you cannot have equality for african-american for latinos or asian-american, native-american and not have equality for gay individuals. you have to have equal protection. i've taken a simple position that i fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to be against discrimination based

on sexual orientation. it is an ongoing effort to open up america and let everyone enjoy their freedom this country has to offer. i see gay rights as an extension of that lone drive towards civil rights for everybody. and we're one people. it doesn't matter whether we're black or white, or whether we're latino or asian american native americans or gay or straight. as dr. king said, we have to learn to live together as brothers and sisters. we will perish as fools. >> and women's rights, i was with you the day you made a faithful decision to support barack obama over hillary clinton.

now we look at 2016, do you think it's time for a woman president and would you like to see her run? >> the time has long past for a woman to be president of united states. i would love to see hillary clinton run. i think there's no one better prepared to be president of the united states of america than hillary clinton. she -- united states senator, secretary of state, first lady. she's ready. she'll get up and run, i'll be with her all the way. >> did you make your peace with her after the 2008 primary? >> we never had a falling out. i never had a falling out with her, with her beloved husband, president clinton, we're friends and we'll forever be friends. >> i wanted to ask you about the legacy of the civil rights movement. how did it change america aside

from changing our laws and changing the rights of african-americans, how did it change the fabric of america for the better? >> the civil rights movement changed america forever. our country, our people, our country is so much better. the american people are better. people woke up and said, congressman john, i want to ask you to forgive me for what we did. hear it in alabama and mississippi, all across america, there's a greater sense of community. there's a greater sense of family in our country today. people ask me -- tell me, where's the next step? where's the next movement? i was not old enough to be with you but i'm with you now. then i hear people saying

nothing has changed. i say come and walk in my shoes and i will show you change. >> what's left undone? >> well, we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform. we have millions of people standing and living in the shadow, people need to come out and set them on a path to citizenship. it's not fair and not right and not just. it's immoral to have millions of our citizens -- some of these young people only place they know is america. i'm convinced that history would not be kind to us if we fail as a nation and as a people to pass comprehensive immigration reform. we should do it now and not delay. >> and coming up, more of our

special coverage of advancing the dream. marking 50 years since president lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act. president obama is expected to take the podium a few minutes from now in austin, texas, he'll be interest dugsed by congressman john lewis. tell us what civil rights means to you today. use the hash tag advancing the dream. we'll be right back. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

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to recreate a yesterday that we're better off done with. >> a southern president, bill clinton, in austin on wednesday calling for an end to the divisions that prevent our generation from advancing the dream. joining me now, presidential historian michael beschloss and cherilyn of the naacp legal defense and education fund which played such an important part 50 years ago in getting this legislation past. cherilyn, this is such a momentous anniversary. looking forward, what is left undone? what are you working on? >> oh, my goodness, unfortunately of what we already worked on is left undone. we heard representative john lewis talk about the need to ensure that everyone has the right to vote. we're continuing to focus on education and focus on criminal justice and really we're continuing to focus on economic inequality which has really hit hard the african-american

community and really continues to ke kind of spiral out of control. i would point out that many of the old civil rights issues that really the civil rights act of 1964 dealt with, employment discrimination continues to be a major issue that remains on our docket. it was title 7 of the civil rights act that allowed us to be able to go into the workplace and find discrimination and get redress for discrimination. this is an important commemoration for us. >> michael, when we look back at lbj, he was working in parallel with the civil rights leaders and big six as john lewis described them led by martin luther king. there were other players, moses and carmichael and wilkins, but they were not all in agreement. there was a lot of agreement in the community as to how fast they could move. and lbj as to what compromises he was willing to make. >> absolutely. you can honor lbj but remember not only the civil rights

leaders but the activists. in the spring of 1963, the only reason john kennedy was able to plausably send a civil rights bill to congress because there were activists in birmingham who wound up on the front pages of numbers, teenagers being barked at by vicious looking barking dogs. >> and john lewis was one of them. >> 1965, lbj after he was inaugurated told dr. king, can't do it yet, the time is not right. dr. king essentially said i'm going to do the job of making sure the job becomes right and selma, fair minded americans that might have been on the fence were outraged. so the situation was such that johnson could go to congress with that controversial bill. >> what about the fact they did not do voting rights in the original bill? this was very painful to the civil rights -- >> it was very difficult, the issue of voting rights was always central to the civil

rights movement. think about the civil rights act of 1964. we breathe this like air. the ban on accommodations -- on my way here i was in a hotel room, big ball room. >> in baltimore. >> completely racially integ rated. think about the restaurants and theaters and parks. civil rights act of 1964 that desegregated those places. this is the act that made this possible. the other thing people don't recognize, a key part of the civil rights act of 1964 was brown versus board education what was decided in 1954 but to which there was tremendous resistance and it gave the department of justice the ability to sue school districts who wouldn't fly with brown and gave us title 6 which removed federal funding from programs that discriminated and that helped the implementation of desegregation in our schools. >> we sit here in this studio in

washington, d.c., it was a segregated southern city, michael. >> completely, theaters and restaurants and everything. you look at the debates and congress over the civil rights bill, there were many racist impulses but a lot of them put it in terms of why should the federal government should have know role in telling mrs. murphy how she should run her boarding house. this was an issue with different levels. coming back to lbj, he thought the civil rights bill was important but thought the voting rights actswise more important because that was what he thought would change the electorate and country so the political system could keep on grinding out justice, not just with one single bill. >> dr. martin luther king jr. was the face of the civil rights movement to at least most white americans and i wanted to play a little tape. you know this tape so well because you've cure ated all of the audio --

>> this is lbj talking to dr. king. >> i think one of the great tributes that we can pay in memory of president kennedy is to try to enact some of the great progressive policies that he sought to initiate. i'm going to support them all and you can count on that and do my best to get other men to do likewise. i never needed your help more than i do now. >> you know you have it and feel free to call on us for anything. >> thank you so much, martin. >> the date is november 25th, 1963. we're talking three days -- >> day of the jfk funeral. >> that is a call made. do you think lbj knew at that time that j. edgar hoover was eavesdropping on dr. king? >> he certainly found out very soon and that was something he had all sorts of a.m. bifl enss about.

lyndon johnson comes into office, and made a pretty good civil rights speech in the spring of 1963 but this was a guy who voted against every civil rights bill that came up in the senate through the late 1950s and watered down a bill in 1957. so he could not know what was going to happen. the most reliable thing was not just johnson's heart and motives but johnson knew in case he didn't want to be fully for civil rights, he had to convince the national democratic party that if anything he would be stronger than jfk on civil rights than he was. >> what about the compromises that were made? how difficult was this? take us inside the civil rights moments, carmichael from the coordinating committee and bob moses and on the other side roger wilkins wanting to wait until the coalition was built and dr. king trying to bridge the gaps. >> the important thing is really actually from the tape you just

ran the moment we were in. president kennedy had been killed. you'll recall president kennedy earlier that summer in june made a pretty powerful speech the night edgar was killed about civil rights. it was his early idea. you heard that in the conversation. it was martin luther king saying i hope you're going to do what kennedy -- >> jeopardized his re-election. >> exactly. johnson wants to take this up. there's a moment and despite all of the factions that you're describing, people recognize that this was the moment and it was important that you had a president who was willing to take advantage of the moment. johnson right after the assassination of president k kennedy and after the funeral, continued to talk about finishing the work of kennedy and used that as the frame for talking about the civil rights act of 1954. urgency was on the table and they had to come together because they had to take advantage of that moment. >> we'll take a quick break. coming up, more from the civil rights summit in austin texas

and our guests here, we're moments from hearing congressman and civil rights leader john lewis introduce president barack obama. stay with us right here on msnbc. (meow mix jingle) right on cue. (laughs) it's more than just a meal, it's meow mix mealtime. with wholesome ingredients and irresistible taste, no wonder it's the only one cats ask for by name. why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york? i tell people it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business. new york is ranked #2 in the nation

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♪ i can do it all from my mobile phone ♪ ♪ that's why i'm tyyyyype eeeee, ♪ ♪ if i need some help i'm not alone ♪ ♪ we're all tyyyyype eeeee, ♪ ♪ we've got a place that we call home ♪ ♪ we're all type e ♪ joining me again, michael beschloss and scherrilynn ifill and kristen welker. it's been an emotional couple of days but this is leading up to the president's speech and he's going to pay tribute to what lbj accomplished. >> reporter: it's going to be a poignant moment, no doubt about that. the civil rights act passed in

1964 made president obama's presidency a possibility. i think you'll hear president obama talk about that senior administration telling me that the president will discuss all of the progress that has been made since 1964. he's also going to talk about some of the civil rights fights that remain today, including high poverty rates in minority communities and fight for civil rights in the lgbt communities and fight for equal pay for women, something democrats have seized on in this election year. those are the themes we've really heard throughout the civil rights summit. yesterday president bill clinton made similar points remarking on how much progress that was made but he took direct aim at the fact that the voting rights act had been significantly strimed away under that recent supreme court decision and made a call to action to try to change that in some of the states. i think you're going to hear

similar themes from president obama today, andrea. i think this entire summit to some extent, a chance for some of those that work with president johnson to reassess his legacy, his legacy which to some extent has been overshadowed by the vietnam war, a chance to talk about these incredibly hard fought victories during the civil rights era. andrea? >> kristen welker and the high wind in austin. we see john lewis, whom we talked to earlier, entering the aust continue library there, the exhibits. well, kristen was just mentioned that the president will speak to the voting rights act and you're leading the charge, you and your teams of lawyers all over the country. >> yeah. >> at what you see as efforts to push back on voting rights. >> yeah, i fear that many people in the country don't really know what's happening in many southern jurisdictions. we just beat back the effort two weeks ago by the georgia legislature which tried to reduce early voting by 21 days.

we've been in small communities and counties trying to reverse efforts to change polling place changes and closing polling places. we've seen the efforts to change district elections and we're just kind of astonished and frankly disappointed that the country and many jurisdictions in the country have responded to the supreme court decision the way they have but we're not surprised. we knew and this is the information we presented to the supreme court when we litigated the shelby county case. they chose not to believe us. now the people who rely on voting as their voice. these are not the people who in the mccutchen case have money to give to the electoral process. they're vote is now being imperilled by the leaders and jurisdictions all over the south. my lawyers have been working overtime trying to hold back the tide but we need a voting rights act bill. there is one in congress right now by the way. we have haven't been able to get a hearing on it but there is one

that would fix the shelby decision and we're hopeful that would happen. we're thrilled that president clinton spoke about it and now president obama will speak about it. it's the most important issue in our democracy right now. >> and how does this relate to what's happened in wisconsin and ohio where hours and early voting is being pulled back and weekend voting and sunday voting, which does really discriminate more against working class people, people who can't get to the polls during the day, and people of color? >> you know, it's people of color and poor and rural voters and elderly voters and all of the people who are going to have difficulty dealing with these restrictions, we've seen this effort that began in the south. migrate into the north like a cancer. people have figured out how you can restrict certain groups from being able to participate in the political process and it's happening all over the country. that's why i identify this as a democracy problem. here we are today celebrating the civil rights act of 1964. i've been saying civil rights,

the work of civil rights is really democracy maintenance, it's the work we do to tweak it and make it better. in that way we all should be involved in civil rights, not just me because i'm a civil rights lawyer, but all of us. i hope that's what people take away from the commemoration today. >> john lewis was saying that dr. king would say races don't fall in love, that people fall in love. this to him means that the discrimination against those who can't marry because of sexual orientation is another great frontier for civil rights. >> yes, indeed. actually echos president will speak in a few moments until the year of 1967 in the state of virginia, two people of two races could not marry. so barack obama's parents would have had a hard time there. so the great irony that now he's president of the united states,

speaking of voting rights and about history. >> kristen welker, when the president speaks to this, he is obviously walking in the shoes of great leaders who preceded him. but it's still a personal struggle through his eyes and through the eyes of the white house. >> reporter: absolutely. and i think that you are going to hear the president try to put some of these president struggles in a historic context. particularly when we think about to the civil rights act and voting rights act, how much arm twisting had to take place behind the scenes. of course there was a democratic majority when president johnson was trying to get the civil rights act passed but southern democrats were staunchly opposed to it. so he was making a lot of back room deals and making a lot of phone calls. i would also point out, andrea, creating a large consensus outside of the government with faith leaders and civil rights

leaders trying to make the moral argument and some of my conversations including with andrew young who was of course a civil rights leader as well. he said it was only after the civil rights act was passed and he realized how many phone conversations took place between president johnson and martin luther king jr. they were really coordinating in such a close way to try to get that landmark piece of legislation passed. i think you'll hear president obama talk about how complicated the struggle was historically as he sits the stage for these current battles that we're discussing. >> i want to play a bit of your conversation with andrew young who marched with dr. king and mayor in atlanta, congressman and ambassador. let's watch. >> what was that like to be served in a restaurant where you just been denied service a few days before? >> well, you know, it's amazing how easy the transition was. i think that's the credit to the

church in the south. the south was always wanting to be law abiding and religious. and this was a case where the law and the religion were clashing. and when the laws changed to make it possible to live together as brothers and sisters, we knew then we would not perish together as fools. >> and kristen welker was talking about all of those conversations. you've listened to all of those tapes. >> a lot of them. >> some of them were very contentious. >> very contentious and many of president obama's critics use this to say president obama should do more of this. the interesting thing as much as the president clearly admires lyndon johnson and his place in history, hasn't talked much about him before today. he gave his acceptance speech at the democratic convention in

denver the day after lyndon johnson's 100th birthday to this vast crowd of democrats and did not mention his name. it will be interesting to hear what he says today. >> what would have been the 100th birthday of lyndon johnson went mostly unnoticed because prime minister was being nominate, understandably the first african-american presidential nominee of democratic party, of a major party. sherrilynn, when we think about that period back then, long before you were born, but i lived through a lot of it -- >> sadly not before i was born. >> i'm not getting involved in this. >> as a kid, i remember the demonstrations and watching old black and white television of the terrible things that were going on down south. that is what really as michael was saying, got the conscious of the whole nation to support this. >> i would say andrea, today i've been asking people, as you walk through your day today, i

want people to imagine what it would look like without the civil rights act of 1964 as you walk through the streets and enter the train station and bus station and go to a restaurant to eat. as you're in any public place and engaging with other people and in your school, try to imagine what it would look like. this is 50 years ago we're talking about something that really transformed america. do we have a long way to go? absolutely but sometimes in recognizing we have a long way to go we don't recognize how far we've come. >> all true. johnson did not stop with voting rights in 1968 although it was even tougher, went on to get the fair housing act -- >> let's talk about that for a second. people who were jewish and other neighborhoodses in washington effectively and hit more seriously in other cities as well, johnson, by 1968, his power with congress was pretty weak, he said this is also something we have to do.

>> this was known as the northern civil rights act. the fair housing act was the first major civil rights piece of legislation that was focused at conditions in the north. >> suburbs and areas -- >> exactly. in fact, kristen is still watching, i remember one of my earliest assignments as a reporter in philadelphia was to go out with a white colleague and african-american colleague and we went out to look at houses. and posing as potential buyers. we had two sets, two african-americans and two whites and i was one of the other couples and compared notes with how these four reporters were treated in trying to get rental housing and to purchase houses. and it was a pretty dramatic series of reports for our local station in philadelphia. even in the early 70 aerks 1968 act was not being followed.

>> that's why you needed federal action and people to enforce it. >> today real estate agents steering people to certain neighborhoods, we continue to engage in litigation around housing discrimination in 2014. so people should understand that it's not as though that's a relic of the past, the starkest examples are but this is an ongoing fen none nom in many of our cities in this country. >> when we think about lyndon johnson, the legacy, all of this focus on civil rights, i heard chuck todd interviewing lucy banz johnson earlier today and it's poignant because he asked her about the anti-war protest and this is obviously the other side of the way he was tormented by the way the country turned on him. >> one irony was that the way that the vietnam war was run by president johnson, to a great extent he wanted that out of the way so he didn't have to worry about it and expend political capital to really spend it on poverty and civil rights and things he wanted.

>> final thoughts? we're waiting for the president to be introduced by john lewis. there will be a -- at least an hour of this programming and a major speech by the president. >> i'm interested to hear what the president says particularly about the economic inequality and about poverty. a lot of people have criticized this president for not using the "p" word -- >> john lewis told me he's disappointed in what the president has done so far on race relations and civil rights, he doesn't think this white house or congress has done enough. >> we see already with the turn that the attorney general has made focusing on criminal justice and racial disparities in the criminal justice process, we see a president who at the end of this term is ready to take on core issues, we're waiting to hear what he's going to say about poverty and inequality and what the federal government can do to deal with that and the way it is undermining the way in the past. >> still advancing the cause and

advancing the dream, thank you so much. michael beschloss. kristen welker will be standing by with reports from austin. as we wait for president obama to take the stage at the civil rights summit in austin, texas. avo: wherever your journey takes you the expedia app helps you save with mobile-exclusive deals download the expedia app text expedia to 75309

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requiring new forms of voter i.d. and restricting voting hours. last night president bill clinton had this to say. >> thank you very much. last year in one of the most radical departures from established legal decision-making and my lifetime the supreme court threw it out. is this what martin luther king gave his life for? is this what lyndon johnson employed his legendary skills for? is this what america has become, a great diverse thriving democracy to restrict the franchise? >> back in the dust bin of old history, again today president obama will be speaking in just a matter of minutes and there is a lot at stake right now