ever since his seminary days, dr. kingesistance ended a century of british rule in india. in the travel case king brought with him was this quote on a well-worn scrap of paper. >> ghandi speaks for us in the midst of death, life persists. in the midst of darkness, life persists. >> then king wrote -- >> we are today in the midst of death and darkness. we can strengthen life and live by our personal acts, by saying no to violence, by saying yes to life. >> that night, dr. king spoke to an overflow crowd at a black church. >> but he talked about death more than i ever heard him talk about it at any one given. >> i don't know what will happen now. we've got some difficult days ahead. it really doesn't matter with me now, because i've been to the mountain top. >> andrew young told me it was a speech dr. king often made when times were dangerous. >> because he'd done it before and we'd gone on to the next place, i wasn't really taking it serious. it was just a great speech. but i never thought i was listening to his last speech

dr. king's last birthday. somehow when i walked in here this morning i felt that recapitulation of what happened that night. >> reporter: xernona clayton was one of the chief organizers of events for king's organization, the southern christian leadership conference. and perhaps more importantly, clayton was one of the most important women in sclc's inner circle. in 1968 clayton, the muskogee, oklahoma native and close friend to coretta scott king, would become the first african-american female to host a primetime talk show. in 1991 she published her autobiography, "i've been marching all the time." >> mrs. xernona clayton. >> reporter: and in 1993 clayton became the co-founder of the trumpet awards, which annually offers the achievements of african-americans. also with us was georgia congressman john lewis. lewis was a teenager when he first met king. >> i wrote him a letter when i was 17. he wrote me back. sent me a round-trip greyhound bus ticket. and invited me to come to montgomery to meet with him. and i w

dr. king would be said that america had a moment and history of historic proportions in 2008 but they elected barack obama. yet that reduction has been met with unrelenting retribution, retaliation, then on and on printed -- unprecedented opposition. people seem to be willing to sink the ship just to destroy the captain. we have to be bter than that. [applause] like lyndon baines johnson, poverty was restored in the great society. dr. king would not settle for shifting the chairs on the deck of the titanic. he wanted to plug the holes to stop the water from coming in. 43 years after dr. king's plan and occupation on this same sp, he would say to the occupiers on wl street,he movement has gone global and you are the offspring of dr. king. in that legacy, keep protesting. remain nonviolent. stay disciplined, stay focused. don't just before fios system, restructure it, march 4 and even playing field, public rules, clear goals, transparency and march on to fight racial injustice and economic inequ

dr. king's death. n luther king, iii said he would continue to push for economic justice for all and all people who are impoverished to come into a state of being able to take care of themselves and the world be able to help each other at the take of brotherhood. >> so well put, kelly, thank you. >> as you watched the dedication of the martin luther king, jr. memorialç, the ales apprenticeship program. reverand bernice king recalling the days following her father's assassination when she was a child. >> i remember like here, lights, they were hot, cameras all over the place. and my mother tried to explain what was going on. but couldn't do but so much because of the service taking place. in particular, i recall when they played his message that he delivered on february 4th,ç 1968, two months prior to the assassination entitle drum major instinct. the latter part he talked%r)ñ about his eulogy. suddenly this voice booms out over the speakers and i'm looking for him. my mother told me a few days before

dr. kingave lived his legacy in the years since, the rev. jesse jackson, congressman john lewis, ambassador andrew young, and our elder statesman, reverend joseph lowery who turned 90 years old, 90 years young just last week. welcome. [applause] dan -- >> thank you very much. i'm humbled to be here. heroes are honored in their time. legends live through the ages. while considering dr. king's legacy, an obscure poem called "lifters and leaners" comes to mind. dr. king was a world class lifter. others leaned on him, i never saw his shoulders give way or his backbend. he was as great a man as i have ever seen. the historical weight of this long overdue monument reminds us that we must be lifters' now. in the 1960's as today, divisiveness was based on fear and prejudice and misinformation. now with the cost and 24 hour news cycle, the power of misinformation has increased. we must remind ourselves that intelligence drums in ignorance every time -- trumps ignorance every time. when given the facts,

dr. martin luther king jr. war hero ever to have any kind of memorial for him in this area, in washington. another first for dr. martin luther king who had many, many of them during his lifetime, down on the mall, education all of this incredible day is our correspondent athena jones. i know you've been talking to people all day long. we've seen the luminaries down there, but there are all just folks that wanted to go there to be a part of this. >> reporter: exactly, there are thousands of people here in the crowd. it's been a very celebratory atmosphere. you've seen a lot of the program. hearing from civil rights leaders, hearing from dr. king's children. hearing from the poet, nikki giovanni. i've also talked to people in the crowd about why it was important for them to come. let me bring in allison join who's from washington, d.c. let me tell you why you decided to come today. why it was important. >> this is a historic moment. we're here wenting history, a man who fought for social, economic, and political j

dr. king in the fight for civil rights. the reverend jesse jackson. we'll talk with him for reflections on those times and how the u.s. has changed for everyone. on the road again. after delivering an address at the mlk memorial, president obama heads to some key states to push his jobs bill. >>> on the gop trail, more 999 talk. build a big long fence, lots of cash and almost no cash. an eventful day for some of these republican candidates. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. we begin with a new era on the national mall. the dedication to martin luther king, jr. is the first time a nonpresident has been celebrated with a monument on the mall, making this also the first monument to a black leader. president obama will deliver a speech at the dedication ceremony just after 11 a.m. eastern time. it's been under way for two hours. members of king's family are reflecting on the symbolism on this day. >> this is a day that all americans can be prou

dr. king takes his place in the pantheon of american heroes. it is a monument to one man's dream. it is a memorial to the people who sacrificed and risked everything up to and including their own lives so that generations to come with live together as equals. it does not mark an end. our historical ambition of creating a more perfect union can, by definition, never end. as dr. king showed us, the power to create a more perfect union lies in each of us. un die, we can correct injustice. we can work for equality and we can work to improve and eliminate poverty in our country. we can do so with and all law and through the institutions that defined as a great. nation this tomorrow reminds us that not only can we make america better, it is our responsibility to make a better. on behalf of chevrolet and gmc and foundation and everyone at gm, i congratulate and salute the king family come the mlk memorial foundation and all of america for ensuring the everlasting legacy of this trip. a great man -- o

dr. king's life. stponement was a divine interruption to remind us of the king and move us beyond the dream of racial justice to the actions and work of economic justice. perhaps god wanted to remind us that 43 years ago when our father was taken from us that he was in the midst of starting a poor people's campaign. he was galvanizing poor people from all walks of life to converge on this capital, stay here, and occupy this place until there was a change in the economic system and a better distribution of wealth. perhaps god wanted us to move beyond the dream into action. maybe we were not able to dedicate this monument on august 28 just because of that. he said to us that it was time to readjust. over 43 years ago, he told us that we must become maladjusted to certain social ills. we should never unjust to 1% controlling more than 40% of the world. we should never adjust to a high number of people unemployed. we should never adjust to any person being without health care because they cannot afford it.

dr. king to give up. he kept on pushing. he kept on speaking. he kept on marching until change finally came. and then even after the civil rights act and the voting rights act passed, african-americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country. dr. king didn't say those laws were a failure, and he did not say this is too hard or let's settle for what we got and go home. instead, he said let's take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality, but also economic justice. let's fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. in other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, dr. king refused to accept what he called the isness of today. he kept pushing towards the oughtness of tomorrow. and so as we think about all the work that we must do, rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, fixing our schools so that every child -- not just some, but every ch

dr. kingegacy. fraternity brothers, artisans, construction workers,, corporations, government officials, architects and everyday people played to their strengths and contributed what they could.on so today we celebrate how thesee many came together as one to see a dream fulfilled.see as co-of chair of the foundation's executive f leadership council,ou i had the distinct honor to work side by side with incredible men and women dedicated to building an alliance of influencers, leaders and philanthropists who drove our national campaign to construct this awe-inspiringn to memorial that will forever gracl our national mall. the road we traveled while amassing this support was notam always easy, and for the core oa our executive leadership council it was a road we traveled forncl ten years. but this dedicated team made countless phone calls, arranged hundreds of meetings, hosted events and dream dinners throughout our nation all toners remind our nation what we owe the legacy that we honor today. i

dr. kingou feel that spiritual presence there? >> well, i mean, when i was there, i certainly felt that presence. you know, any time you're talking about our father -- for me -- and i guess because i'm the one that's in the ministry, it invokes that spiritual esend. if you're talking about him -- essence. if you're talking about him. it's hard for me to that memorial and not connect with who he was as a spiritual leader. and, you know, i had an opportunity to observe people who were coming to the monument. and i think for many of them, some of them were pausing, some of them -- a few places that you can sit there, sit and contemplating. and i think that's what dr. king does. he causes us to pause. and really think about what we're doing. what we're engaged in and how we can better our society and our world. >> now most of you can't be at the dedication ceremony in washington, so here's a way that you can feel like you're there. you can actually visit the memorial on line right now in some new

dr. martin luther king jr. nown for its leadership and that isn't about to change any time soon. >> this image of dr. martin luther king jr. delivering his passionate, fiery speeches from the pulpit of ebenezer baptist church is seared into americans' memories of the civil rights era. >> i like to say that ebenezer baptist church was born to fly. martin luther king jr. is a part of that long tradition. but while dr. king was freedom's voice, i think it is important to emphasize that he was a part of a long freedom train. >> reporter: dr. rar yell warnot is only the fifth senior pastor in ebenezebenezer's 125-year hi. he says every one of them has a track record linked to dr. king's legacy. >> his maternal grandfather -- the second pastor of this church, a.d. williams, was an activist in his own right. his father, martin luther king sr., was also an activist. we remember the voting rights law of 1965. what fewer people know is that in 1935, martin luther king sr. engaged a voting rights campaign here in atlanta.

dr. king to give up. he kept on pushing. he kept on speaking. he kept on marching until change finally came. and when the civil rights and voting rights act was passed, americans still found themselves trammed in pockets of povr across the country. dr. king d didn't say this was a failure, this is too hard, let's settle for what we got and let's go home. instead, he said let's take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice. let's fight for a living wage and beer schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. in other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, dr. king refused to accept what he called the is-ness of today. he kept pushing towards the ought-ness of tomorrow. and so, as we think about all the work that we must do, rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, fixing our schools so that every child, not just some, but every child gets a world-class education, making sure th

and when dr. kingto speak in support of the sanitation workers strike at mason temple, she wanted to go. and she asked her mother can she go to mason temple to hear dr. king speak. and big mama told her, no, you are not going to go. somebody's going to bomb that church. you know they're out to kill that man. and my mother was like, that's one of my biggest regrets. i never got a chance to hear him speak. >> i would tell katori that story basically about every time black history came about. and it just kept going on. martin luther king became one of her favorite peoples. >> reporter: hall grew up with that story walking her mother's childhood streets. >> this entire street was just, you know, full of people. miss ida. miss ruth. >> reporter: she calls memphis her muse. where she found inspiration. and her fighting spirit. >> i was the first black valedictorian. i had heard a rumor at school that the powers that be were going to change the march into a alphabetical order. when kerry may hall heard about

dr. martin luther king relieving himself in the rest room. what were you trying to do with that moment in terms of setting the play for the audience? >> to me, it's about he is a human. oh, my goodness, he urinates. when i walk into my mother's house in the living room, there are two pictures on the wall, jesus and dr. king, and they sit side by side, and i grew up revering him, and he was a saint and he had become a deity, so he was a ghost that haunted me almost, and so for me, the play was a way for me to take him off of the wall and take him out of the history book and make him a real life flesh and blood human being, who had challenges and sometimes smoked and had stinky feet because he was always on the road, you know, and it allows an audience to see that this man who was so extraordinary was actually quite ordinary, and it inspires people, and they can be like if he was ordinary and did that, well, me as an ordinary person, i can do that too. >> is there resistance? the thing about smoking, he sends somebody to get him a pack in the b

and it's a conception, what we do with the king, the historical face is dr. king. dr. ng is lbj in that picture. >> what do you find particularly interesting about barack obama's view of university and where the country can go? it sounds like you think that he has a particularly identify yo -- >> i don't think it's speech making. i think i would go on chris with this, he is a process democrat with a little "d," and part of it is as valuable as the out come. and the fact is that dr. king believed the process of nonviolence was as important as any given out come. he called for a different set of tactics believing it would move more quickly. >> unity is a goal and the process is how you attempt to reach the ultimate unattainable goal but try to get as close to it as possible. you have to have a realistic view of what is going on. obama's policies don't indicate that he has a realistic view. you cannot be for the oppressors and those for that at the same time, and obama has never made it clear who he is for. >> there is a difference between -- i think -- there's a process i

he got very personal about the legacy of dr. king, thanking dr. re. he said now it the time for all americans to realize that king's dream is still yet unfulfilled. while there have been many efforts and many successes along the trail of civil rights, he did go on to say that so much more needs to be done. here is what the president said during his speech. >>> as tough as times may be, i know we will overcome. i know there are better days ahead. >> reporter: so that is the president talking about there will be better days ahead. but asking everyone here and there were thousands here, shannon, asking them all to roll up their sleeves and get involved with trying to do things that would bring jobs and deal with the unemployment levels in this country. he has been criticized very much so, even among those civil rights speakers, who were here today, who criticized him for failing to do as much as he could do about jobs prior to the healthcare situation and so they are still looking at the president very closely saying what will he do in terms of gettin

dr. martin luther king jr as his father's memorial dedication in washington. dr. irness. >> young people to occupy movement all over this country and throughout the world, seeking justice. >> reporter: protesters here in new york say they will stay at this as long as it takes and they are being heard the question is weather their message change anything on wall street or in washington? republican presidential candidate herman cane said the message is money. >> what is that message? that's unclear. if the message is "let's punish the rich." i don't empathoses with that method. >> reporter: but some say the movement reflects -- >> any middle class americans are finding their incomes are not keeping up with their costs and it's getting more difficult to make ends meet. >> reporter: this weekend, the occupy movement spreads their message around the world now, they will need to see if it makes a difference. >> >> organizers of the occupy wall street protest said they have collected almost $300 thousand in donations to keep the demonstrations going. >> >> desperate for a

dr. king means a lot what he stands for.aving a place that stands for love and unity and the faith that we have. >> reporter: and the memorial will open up tomorrow to the public at 11:00 a.m. of course, you can count on wusa 9 to have live coverage of all the events. >> ken, thanks a lot for that. freedom plaza is located across from city hall has gotten pretty crowded with a lot of diverse people and a lot of different issues. brittany morehouse reports on how everybody's getting along. >> reporter: with cursive writing etched in cement at freedom plaza. >> the idea you and i are now talking like this is just common. you approach me and ask could you interview me. that would be something that would be real unique back then. >> reporter: not today. you can see that everywhere. these demonstrators for d.c. statehood stand side by side with those against moore and occupy d.c. protesters. their causes different, but their connections the same. dan anderson is here on a one- way ticket. he finds himself tearing up after this ma

if dr. king were alive today he would be puting for social and racial justice but economic parity. >> gregg: kelly, thanks. >> heather: president obama is preparing to embark on a bus tour in an effort to sell his jobs plan to the american public. he begins his journey tomorrow morning. speeches are set in north carolina and also in southern virginia. steve centani joins us with more. what is he hoping to accomplish on this up coming bus tour? >> he will combine politics with policy. he travels through virginia, north carolina hoping to hang on to those two red states he managed to win four years ago. he'll be pushing a jobs bill that the senate rejected and republicans said is just more stimulus spending. democrats fired back at the republican plan. >> so-called republican jobs bill would allow corporate america write their own rules again. it's been analyzed they would create no jobs now. there isn't a certainty it would create any jobs at all. >> reporter: the administration will reintroduce t

. >>> this weekend, the president will dedicate the martin luther king memorial, but dr. kingt be more than a memory. what he stood for we need now more than ever. martin luther king iii and i will talk about that in a moment. s amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. >>> welcome back to the show. on sunday, thousands of people will head to washington to be a part of history at the official dedication of the martin luther king jr. monument. one of those who stood proudly at his side was actor and activist harry belafonte. >> you were very close to dr. king and martin luther king and you had a relationship very different than most, i know from having spoken to people very close to him, including mrs. king. >>> you tell the story of a guy who was not too congenial in appearances, but something transformed this guy. tell that story if you don't mind. people need to read the book, but tell that story. >> the location was the university of ma

dr. kingtgomery bus boycott, lewis drew the inspiration that fueled a lifetime. at college he organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, went on freedom rides to protest segregated inner state bus terminals. in 1963 at the age of 23 he was elected chairman of the student non-violent coordinating committee and named one of the big six leaders of the civil rights movement. like his friend and mentor, martin luther king, john lewis was a front-liner in the civil rights movement. he was beaten and seriously injured, arrested more than 40 times, but to this day, holds fast to his belief in non-violent protest. up next, the youngest speaker to address the march on washington 48 years ago -- congressman john lewis. [ mom ] scooter? your father loves your new progresso rich & hearty steak burger soup. [ dad ] i love this new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers and soup. did you hear him honey? burgers and soup. love you. they're cute. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste

one is of jesus and one is of dr. king she learned, too, her mother -- just 15 then -- desperately wanted to hear dr. king speak in april 1968 at the mason temple but wasn't allowed to go. >> but it really doesn't matter with me now because i have been to the mountaintop. >> that's one of the biggest regrets of my life, that i did not hear martin luther king deliver that speech that night. >> reporter: so katori hall, now a promising young playwright would weave dr. king's story into her own. >> we all want the same things. a smile, a hug. >> a smoke! >> reporter: in "the mountaintop" samuel l. jackson portrays dr. martin luther king, jr., not as martyr, but man. drinking, swearing, vulnerable. >> he was a man who was not as optimistic about the movement as everyone would have us think. >> reporter: also in that motel room, a mysterious maid played by angela bassett and named for hall's mother, finally bringing her at least on stage, face to face with dr. king. >> we have been drowned. our dreams been washed away. >> i saw

we will not let you make a mockery of what dr. king stood for. dr. king did not stand for the high and mighty. he stood for those of us that were cast out and cast back and we are coming up front today to tell you, just like dr. king, to put the wind behind the backs of president kennedy and president johnson to get a civil rights act and we come to put the wind behind the back of president obama to get a jobs act for the people of this country. a reporter said to me, reverend al, is this about the election? no, this is about our survival. when you are talking about you got to cut medicare and cut medicaid, when you're talking about in order to balance a budget you created the deficit by giving tax cuts to the rich, you created the deficit by giving loopholes to the wealthy. you created the deficits by letting people outsource jobs. now you want us to pay for the jobs that you sent abroad. you want us to pay for your loopholes. you want to go into our parent's social security. when you mess with our social security, this is not about obama, this is ab

dr. martin luther king's papers.ng them, the original draft from the "i have a dream" speech that had a completely different name. >> there's lot a lot in the draft that ends up in the speech he gave. >> that's the kind of information a scholar learns when he spends much of his life studying the man called america's greatest prophet. >> he emerged out of a movement but he spoke beyond that movement. ♪ we shall overcome >> it's the stuff of black and white footage today, a product of black and white stripe that culminated in the civil rights movement of the 1960. battles long forgotten by most but not by the warriors who fought them. >> if someone is cook ago a pie in the next room and you get the aroma of that pie, i want a slice. so at central high school we wanted a slice. give me a slice, give me a chance to make it. give me an opportunity to get a job. don't turn me down because you see my face. >> for dr. melbourne of dominican university, the battle had to do with desegregating the public high school in little

dr. king's life. ps, god wanted to remind us that 43 years ago when our father was taken from us, that he was in the midst of starting a poor people's campaign where he was galvanizing poor people from all walks of life to converge on this nation's capital and stay here and occupy this place until there was change in the economic system and a better distribution of wealth. perhaps god wanted us to move beyond the dream into action and maybe we were unable to dedicate this monument on august 28th just because of that and he's saying to us, it's time to readjust. in fact, over 43 years ago, he told us that we must become justice to certain social ills. we should never adjust to the 1% controlling more than 40% of the wealth. we should never adjust to an unprecedented number of people being unemployed. we should never adjust to any person being without health care because they cannot afford it. we should never adjust to an increase of people moving into poverty. we should never adjust to violence of any f

dr. king's life. the postponement was a divine interruption to remind us of the king and move us beyond the dream of racial justice to the actions and work of economic justice. perhaps god wanted to remind us that 43 years ago when our father was taken from us that he was in the midst of starting a poor people's campaign. he was galvanizing poor people from all walks of life to converge on this capital, stay here, and occupy this place until there was a change in the economic system and a better distribution of wealth. perhaps god wanted us to move beyond the dream into action. maybe we were not able to dedicate this monument on august 28 just because of that. he said to us that it was time to readjust. over 43 years ago, he told us that we must become maladjusted to certain social ills. we should never unjust to 1% controlling more than 40% of the world. we should never adjust to a high number of people unemployed. we should never adjust to any person being without health care because they cannot affo

these are things that to dr. king were very intertwined. tavis: there are examples here in the wonderful museums of those post a board that you were wearin that said "i am a man." what did that mean to you? >> that made me feel good. most of the time that i was coming up, they would say, look at the garbageman. if i said, i am a man, that made me feel good. >> yes, yes, yes. yes. [applause] >> what martin was trying to get out at that time was taking a people and movement out of the context of civil rights to human-rights. he understood that this was something that affected everyone, not just people of color. in this day and age, we have seen the same issue that martin luther king fought for. a lot of leaders have failed to pick up the torch. >tavis: before the launch, king said that there are 40 million people who are poverty-stricken. i have seen them in the ghettos of the north, i have seen them in the rural areas of the south. i've seen them in abolition. i must confess in some situations i have found myself crying. 40 years later, we f

dr. king's life. rhaps the postponement was a divine interruption to remind us of the king and move us beyond -- king that moved us beyond the dream of racial justice to the actions and work of economic justice. perhaps god wanted to remind us that 43 years ago when our father was taken from us that he was in the midst of starting a poor people's campaign. he was galvanizing poor people from all walks of life to converge on this capital, stay here, and occupy this place until there was a change in the economic system and a better distribution of wealth. perhaps god wanted us to move beyond the dream into action. maybe we were not able to dedicate this monument on august 28 just because of that. he said to us that it was time to readjust. in fact, over 43 years ago, he told us that we must become maladjusted to certain social ills. we should never unjust to 1% -- adjust to the 1% controlling more than 40% of the world. -- wealth. we should never adjust to a high number of people unemployed. we should ne

dr. king's standards.dent obama is doing his own job in his own way, facing tremendous opposition from an opposition that says no to everything he offers, if he were to say, i believe in the american dream, i wouldn't be surprised if they shouted in unison, no, no, no. so these comparisons ought not to be made. i think he's doing what he can and's going to be there tomorrow at the dedication and we're looking forward to what's going to have to say. >> kelly: jehmu, he'll say a lot tomorrow. i'm going back to 2007 when he was senator barack obama and this is what he said. let's listen and we'll bring your comment in. >> i'm here because you all sacrificed for me. i stand on the shoulders. >> kelly: chairman bond, as well as jehmu, we hear him saying he stands on the shoulders of those who fought for the civil rights and wouldn't be in the position he is today were it not for the efforts of dr. martin luther king, jr. so, jehmu in terms of the civil rights leaders of today. how would they assess the contribu

a the meeting with dr. kingr the perspective to write it. >> he said you are doing this not for yourself, but for generations yet unborn. don't be selfish, child. >> the most common misconception among those who have not seen the recently opened memorial of dr. king in washington d.c. is it has to did with the african-american struggle. but if it were that simple, it might not exist. claiborne carson understands because he helped design it. >> before the 1960s we were not really a democracy. we called ourselves a democracy but you can't be a democracy when you are excluding large pro pro -- pro portionfs your population from your vote. >> it was not about black and white because dr. king was not about black and white. those who say he was you should read his work. he was about women of all color, people of every color, he was about inclusion. >> a memoirial about a man fresh in some memories and history for others. it's part of a process. from san francisco, wayne freedman, abc7 news. >>> a private memorial serv