thank you that is the ed show. i m ed schultz. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening. happy monday. thank you for sticking with us this hour. this weekend at harvard law school, the official who just stepped down as the top lawyer in the pentagon weighed in on the next big civil rights cases that are coming up before the supreme court. this month the court is going to be hearing arguments on same-sex marriage under the law. and former pentagon general counsel jay johnson told the black law students association at harvard, quote, our gay brothers and sisters who are in the struggle for marriage equality right now in the state legislatures and in the courts of this country are marching step by step the same road toward equal treatment under law that we know so well. their cause is our cause. he went on to explain his view that the impact of laws banning equal marriage rights would be particularly and are now particularly cruel and unfair in his words to people who a
this just amazing. when you got off the bus in 1961, you didn t have a friend in this part. and you re good friends with the president of the united states. and i want you to know that you have friends in montgomery police department, that we re for you, we re with you. we want to respect the law and adhere the law, which is what you were trying to do all along. this symbol of authority which used to be a symbol of oppression, is a symbol of reconciliation. 52 years ago, what you stood for has made a difference. the world that we live in today, this city that i get to serve as police chief is changed for the better because i wouldn t be standing here right now if it weren t for you. and this is a token of that appreciation, congressman, because you changed this city. you changed this state. you changed this country.
when you got off the bus in 1961, you didn t have a friend in this part. and you re good friends with the president of the united states. and i want you to know that you have friends in montgomery police department, that we re for you, we re with you. we want to respect the law and adhere the law, which is what you were trying to do all along. this symbol of authority which used to be a symbol of oppression, is a symbol of reconciliation. 52 years ago, what you stood for has made a difference. the world that we live in today, this city that i get to serve as police chief is changed for the better because i wouldn t be standing here right now if it weren t for you. and this is a token of that appreciation, congressman, because you changed this city. you changed this state.
watch this. this just amazing. when you got off the bus in 1961, you didn t have a friend in this part. and you re good friends with the president of the united states. and i want you to know that you have friends in montgomery police department, that we re for you, we re with you. we want to respect the law and adhere the law, which is what you were trying to do all along. this symbol of authority which used to be a symbol of oppression, is a symbol of reconciliation. 52 years ago, what you stood for has made a difference. the world that we live in today, this city that i get to serve as police chief is changed for the better because i wouldn t be standing here right now if it weren t for you. and this is a token of that appreciation, congressman, because you changed this city. you changed this state. you changed this country. and as pastor moore said, you changed the world.
as the supreme court decides whether or not to dismantle one of the main pillars of american civil rights law, the voting rights act, we had on the show last week congressman john lewis whose near fatal beating on the edmund pettus bridge was impetus for the voting rights act in the first place. john lewis and hosea williams set off with 600 protesters. they were trying to walk in a nonviolent protest from selma to the state capitol in montgomery. they were trying to march this 50-mile distance. it was a march for the right to vote. well, the marchers never got far out of selma. they were set on by police with billy clubs and tear gas. john lewis was clubbed in the head violently enough that he is lucky not to have died. two days later the marchers came back with not 600 people this