a. philip randolph came to my rescue. he said, "there's nothing wrong with the use of the word black masses. i use it myself sometimes. there's nothing wrong with the use of the word revolution. i use it myself --" so, for the most part, we kept that in it. but near the end of the speech, the original text, i said, "if we do not see meaningful progress here today, the day may come where we may not confine our marching on washington, but we may be forced to march through the south the way sherman did nonviolently." they said, "oh, no. you can't go there." and that stayed in the speech until we got to the steps of the lincoln memorial. and both a. philip randolph and dr. king and mr. wilkins came to me. and at one point, i said to roy wilkins, i said "mr. wilkins this speech represent the young people in the student nonviolent coordinating committee and all of the people, indigenous people in alabama and georgia and mississippi and all across the south." and he sort of walked away, sort of backed off. then, mr. randolph and

a. philip randolph, this wonderful man, this prince of a man, had always dreamed of a march on washingtonyou couldn't say no to a. philip randolph. and then you had dr. martin luther king jr. saying to me, "john, this doesn't sound like you." i love those two men. dr. king was my hero, my inspiration. and for the sake of unity, i made a decision to change the speech, to delete some of those words. >> you also asked, "i want to know: which side is the federal government on?" >> i did ask the question. i did raise the question, "i want to know: which side is the federal government on?" because it appeared, in certain parts of the south, the federal government was not on the right side of history. it appeared that the federal government was not a sympathetic referee in the struggle for civil rights. we felt that the federal government could do more, the department of justice could do more, the fbi could do more, than just stand back and take pictures. we thought they could prevent some of the violence and protect people that were being arrested, being beaten and being killed. >> i'd like to

wilkens of the naacp and a philip randolph and dr. martin luther king jr., and dr. king said temeka majane, did that sound like you? said to me, john, did that sound like you? and randolph said, can we stay together? i could not say militant brand of. he was my hero -- i could not say no to randolph. he was my hero. in 1955 when i was 15 years old i first met him. i met him when i was 18. i suggested that we had the seven villages, seven hamlets. and i said, wake up america, wake up america. the rest is history. >> i did want to ask about some of the noted people that you have known over the years. let's begin with dr. king. birthday,man whose whose life we now celebrate every year as a national holiday. you knew him well before he was a national holiday. >> dr. martin luther king jr. was a wonderful man, a wonderful human being. i will try to make this short period -- short. inn i was growing up, alabama, finishing high school in 1957, i wrote dr. king in a letter and i told him i needed help. i needed his support. i wanted to attend a little state college called t

a serious revolution. some people did not like the word revolution. another part of this speech, i .alked about the black masses aey ask why i use that stacks philip randolph said there was nothing wrong with the use of the revolution. in the beginning, in a proposed speech, i said today remarks for jobs and freedom. we don't have anything to be proud of. residents, they are sick receiving starvation wages or wages at all. i talked about the party of kennedy. is the party of eastland. the party of jarvis or rockefeller is the party of cold water. where is our party? at the end of the speech, i said you tell us the weight, tell us to be patient, we cannot be patient. we cannot wait. we will not -- we want our freedom and wanted now. you cannot say we cannot be patient. i think it would have been suspicious. we slept over that but at the end of the speech, they had a line in their saying that we do see meaningful progress today. the day will come and will not confine our marching on washington. maybe fools to march from the south the way sherman did non violently. [laughter] the negotiations started. [laughter] to mr.time we got lincoln, we had a little conf