I remember the day when the march on washington was all over
We went back down to the White House President Kennedy invited us back down
And he stood in the door the Oval Office and greeted each one of us. He was like a proud
beaming father
That everything had gone, so well
For months after that we just all really
Harvested the emotional joy of what we had done
The joy that we took home with us out of that out of that arena
Inspired us to start thinking about what could we do beyond what we were doing already and?
The lesson is not to stop not to give up if you ask us back then
That Barack Obama would be in the White House today. We would say no way
When people left
as Dr. King suggested
We went back home back to the heart of the deep south to intensify efforts
To gain to vote to get a civil rights bill passed
But 18 days after the March was a terrible bombing
the church in Birmingham
Well four girls were killed on a Sunday morning
There was a sad and dark hour for the movement, but it said to us that we had more work to do
It's hard to say
but it encouraged us more these people are reacting this way against us because we're being effective and
So we're going to keep on doing it. We're gonna
Do even more if we can we won't let this stop as we won't let this turn us around
We did get the Civil Rights Bill, eventually we did get a Voting Rights Act, but the quality of life
for many people
Remained the same for many many years
Other ways to really stop a moving is to kill off its thinkers and
They killed
Dr. King and they killed Medgar Evers, and they killed Bobby Kennedy and John Kennedy
all this
was in one fell swoop
Eliminated
After the civil rights movement which
moved into the anti-war movement other movements regaining enormous energy so the women's movement the
environmental movement
Took shape the anti-apartheid movement and the will and the belief that
They could be successful
emanated from the
remarkable
Ability of the civil rights movement to progress I recognized very quickly
That the young people and other people who were in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They were the stepchildren
Of Martin Luther King jr.. They were the stepchildren of the march on Washington
They were trying to raise the consciousness of the country to the inequitable distribution of wealth opportunities
Very much in the same way that he was trying to do it
we need people to lead to get out front on some of the big issues and
To be a headlight and not a taillight and people who speaking of today like immigration
reform
for gay rights
Control the proliferation of guns. They have assured some carry the
action of the Supreme Court 5 in
gutting the
Essence of the Voting Rights Act. It's an enormous reversal. It's been one of the most
successful pieces of legislation in modern history the enormous change
takes
Takes time and you have to continue to battle you don't win a lawsuit or win
Getting the law on the books and then fold your tents and go home. Oh, no. You know the struggle
continues.
I was part of this mobilization that has never been duplicated again
And I wonder why I wonder why I'm not blaming young people well yes
I am but they ought to be doing a bit more
I really thought that feeling around Obama was so important to know that it existed
I, in retrospect wish that we've managed to
Keep him from running for office because he could have run a movement
I think he would have had a better chance at making social change happen if he'd approached it and you know the way King
What I say to you a lot of young people who speak about the fact that the civil rights movement is
somehow a thing of the past I said let me paint a picture for you almost all the movement in that period
Almost all critical thought,
almost all critical decisions, were made by the young. And if you want to take a look at John Lewis and
Where he was he was 18
you take a look at
Julian Bond he was 18 you take a look at Diane Nash
She was pregnant and then leading a movement
She was the one designed of the Freedom Rides, and none of these people came with political design and with clear thought
These were simple ordinary folk when young people said where do we find our leaders where the Dr. King's?
Well look where Dr.
King resided and where he was found in the first instance and maybe you'll find a little more Dr. King's there.
I
Credit the fact that I got schooled. I got brought up in the movement
In the civil rights movement to give me the perspective
That March laid the basis for the modern battles for human rights all across the globe. It cannot be underestimated the fact that
individual ordinary people
from across America
Made up their minds they were going to step
Into that movement and step into the streets and come to Washington to raise their grievances in the finest traditions of American democracy
You