a. philip randolph and roy wilkins and others were so open to embrace these young people. know at times there were fights within that, too. >> i think two things. one in answer to your million march moment question, i think it is not just a moment. i think this is such a huge more than symbolic event. i mean, it's like a home run, you know? you can never take it back. it's never going away. it's on the books forever, and that's never going to change. in terms of the leadership, i think you can clearly see places where black leadership has failed in the past. however, i think we were living a time where people were kind of straddling. they didn't know if they wanted to be black leaders or just leaders, and there was this huge debate about which problems got addressed, and i think, you know, obama is obviously the epitome of that. but what i think you have happening here is obama addressing these issues. the president of the united states puts our office of urban policy in the white house, that means something, and it means something important. >> you know, you think preside

in 2009, 30 years after the death of a philip randolph, labor is still haunted by the legacy of jim crow. that is why after the employee free choice act becomes law, our first priority has to be launching a drive aimed at the countries 5 million poverty-wage african-american workers, and other minority workers, and the women that the economy is left behind. there is more. we need a labor movement that is ready to partner with every employer who respects workers. and understands that their employees are an asset to be invested in, not an expense to be cut. we also need to be ready to push back against any ceo who thinks that he or she has the right to earn a good living, but their employees don't. in short, we need a labor movement with the strength to compel every company to live up to the responsibility of corporate citizenship. in that regard, i can tell you that i know the center has been working to bring wal-mart around on some health care reform. but there should be no mistake on this point, ninone -- wal-mat will never be a friend of workers so long as it denies its own employees t

a. philip randolph -- this is really his moment. we remember it in terms of martin luther king, jr., in i have a dream speech on the steps of the memorial but what's compelling if you look at the front line of the great marshall on washington, there you have a. philip -- you have people from -- you have dr. king from the southern christian leadership conference. you have people there from the naacp and you have such a range of representation. people from the labor unions, people from religious groups, not only mainstream religious groups but some that, you know, are small in the united states. you have jewish groups, everybody represented there. and this had somehow become known as the moment to show up. and the government was even scared -- so scared that they shut down washington that day. they positioned national guard troops just outside the city. there was fear that this was going to lead to rioting and they were thinking it was going to be a travesty but people had the sense that this was the moment. if there was going to be a

. >> of george mason and randolph are prominently ones that were there and did not sign it. who was the lawyer on the other side? >> a fellow named philip nicholas, one of the most aggressive prosecutors in the country. in addition to that, he was a close friend of thomas jefferson. he was on the committee to elect him. if anybody wanted to have the killer executed, it was nicholas. that was one of the things people, don to bring about a burger of guilty. >> what role did these three prominent physicians play in the trial? dr. james mcclure, dr. samuel mccall and dr. william q. she held onto the -- they were acclaimed as doctors. they had fought off the small pox and yellow fever epidemics and were declared heroes for doing that. towns issue proclamations thanking them for doing that. two of the three had gotten into politics. one was mayor and served in city council and their religion active politicians at that time. there were assigned to the autopsy. >> you pointed out that at the time, we only had six medical schools in the united states. >> right. >> so they all have to go -- how is the madison in the local schools compared to edin

a few thousand would show up. 250,000 people showed up on that august day. why? >> guest: well it was so heavily organized and what is interesting about this, steve, is philip randolphthis is really his moment of course we remember in terms of martin luther king jr. and the i have a dream speech on the steps of the lincoln memorial, about what is compelling is you look at the front line of the great march on washington and you have phillip randall people, dr. king from the southern christian leadership conference, people from the naacp and you have such range of representation, people from the labor unions, people from religious groups, not only mainstream religious groups, but some that are small in the united states, jewish groups, everybody represented. and this had somehow become known as the moment to show up, and the government was even scared, so scared they shut down washington for that day, the positioned national guard troops outside the city. there was fear this was going to lead to rioting and they were thinking it was going to be a travesty but people have a sense this was a moment there was going to be a civil rights act it was time to speak to the gov