this was because started reading from a pre -- a preordained script and then we saw a picture of mahalia jacksoni want to get to you. what's the story behind mahalia's importance to that speech that day? >> speeches evolve as a leader or speaker goes around from place to place speaking. and dr. king had been talking about this dream for a while. and i guess people had advised him to make this speech entirely different and not talk about the dream. and he had written a different into even and he was in to that speech and mahalia jackson, his favorite singer, turned to him and said, martin, tell them about the dream. and that's when he cut loose and started talking about it. >> i want to go back to those pictures if we can. you can see the transition, you can see exactly what happened. you see him very serious looking at his paper there, but then in just a moment after she called out to him, and he started improvising and using that speech that he had used before, you see him almost with a different level of energy and then you see him ending triumphantly. annie, what was going through your mind a

it was almost spiritual to hear mahalia jackson stand and sing "how we got over." and the place, in a strange sense, started rocking. so somehow and some way, it had been instilled in the very being of the participants that we must follow the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence. >> there are people everywhere as far as the eye can see, extending in a mile. and there's music, odetta, joan baez, bob dylan, mahalia jackson, peter, paul and mary. celebrities, jackie robinson, paul newman, josephine baker, sidney poitier, lena horne, ossie davis and ruby dee, charlton heston, sammy davis, jr., marlon brando. the celebrities were everywhere. but what seemed to have gripped you as you spoke, and as you've written and talked about, in a sense, was those thousands upon thousands of nameless, ordinary people who were out there. >> it was unreal, unbelievable. when i got up to speak, i could see the people, the young people. i can see those middle aged and older people. i can see some members of congress down near the foot of the podium. it was a sea of huma

never mind having to follow mahalia jackson, the queen of gospel. ( cheers and applause ) >> i wish ir: rabbi joachim prinz was the last man up before martin luther king. >> i was the rabbi of the jewish community in berlin under the hitler regime. >> axelrod: the horrors this rabbi witnessed in nazi germany in the 30s compelled him to challenge america in the 60s. >> bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problems. upon most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence. ( applause ) >> it was really marvelous to see a quarter of a million people. >> rabbi iseral drez america a protege of prinz's, was standing a few feet away on the podium that day and could feel the power of prinz's message ripple through the crowd. >> that really rang a bell because all sorts of clerg neamerica, they weren't racists, they aren't big on thes, but they kept their mouths shut. >> axelrod: as a wise man once said all it takes for evil to triumph is for a good man to do nothing. >> exactly. >> reporter: prinz was expelled from germany and came to newark, new jersey, where his congregation welcomed

. >> guest: mahalia jackson and i said that already. matt halia jackson had a special relationship. he would call up mahalia and say say -- [inaudible] she would sing to him on the phone two of the many hymns that were his favorite. among them precious lord and the old rugged cross. so he had this special relationship. she is sitting up there and i don't know -- she turns to him and says tell them about the dream, martin. tell them about the dream. i have often thought why did she shout that? it's like someone asking a couple of to go think my halia jackson interactive martin? he is reading and when she shouts that to him tell them about the dream he acknowledges it and looks out from the podium and i read his body language. i turned to somebody next to him and i said -- [inaudible] i often thought why did she yell that and for the first time just this week i think maybe she thought that she had heard him speak so many times before and this was such a special occasion and somehow i think she was trying to say to him martin you need to preach. >> host: there you go. >> guest: i think