carmichael and of course martin luther king. what was the participation in the march? >> guest: i think i see james meredith artba the king and stokely -- stokely carmichael is the main characters in for carmichael he sees this as a unique opportunity. he is the new chairman of the student nonviolent coordinating committee which has always been on the progressive vanguard founded a young students pushing for civil rights establishment in new directions. they are really sort of questioning who they are is an organization and want to take themselves in a new direction. they are exceptionally frustrated with what they see as a slow pace is far as federal reforms. they don't want our legislation. enforce the legislation that's on the books. rather than seeing president lyndon johnson as their ally they tend to see them as their enemy. they don't care anymore about lopping white america. they don't care about repealing to the national conscience. they are much more concerned if developing leaders on a grassroots organization so they don't have to define themselves by the idea of the mass marching. by the same to

. >> stoically carmichael and caught the man who started the whole thing, james meredith and we were like sheep -- lucky to capture all of those. >> host: let's backtrack about the march how did you choose the title? >> guest: the title is "down to the crossroads" civil rights, black power, and the meredith march against fear" the civil-rights march begins memphis and ends three weeks later in jackson. during those three weeks the civil-rights movement transforms with the crossroads. the call for black power is first heard. so to unveil the slogan to generate controversy it immediately generates swelling of the enthusiasm with the black people and a new direction of politics over the course of time because it brought together a civil-rights leaders from all across the country to put them in to a repertory of black politics moving through mississippi that highlighted the key divisions and also the key strengths. >> host: speaking of dramatizing of march the people of my generation especially black parents will say you should be grateful for this. then we are always complaining but tak

carmichael and of course martin luther king. what was each participation in the march? esko i see james meredith as the three central characters. and for carmichael, he sees this as a unique opportunity. he is part of the new chairman of the nonviolent coordinating committee or sncc. it was founded by the young students sort of pushing the civil rights establishment in the directions and by the mid to late 60s and they are questioning who they are as an organization and want to take the new direction ananew directe frustrated with what they see as a very slow pace in the federal reforms into the voting rights act that they do not see it being enforced. enforce the legislation that is on the books. rather than lyndon johnson as their ally it is reluctant. they don't care anymore about lobbying. they don't care about appealing to the national conference, they are much more concerned about developing the leaders of the grassroots organizing so they don't have defined themselves by the idea of the march. by the same they recognize an opportunity because they have done the most organizing on the blac