Clubs against unarmed human beings who were simply marching for justice to it was normalcy in a cafe in selma, alabama, that led to the brutal beating of the reverend james reese. It is normalcy all over our country which needs two leaves the negro perishing on a lonely island of poverty and a bad ocean of prosperity. It is normalcy all over alabama that prevents the negro from the coming a registered voter. No we will not allow alabama to return to normalcy. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and works of all of gods children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice. I must admit to you that there are still some difficult days ahead. Many of the black belt counties of alabama, and many areas of mississippi, many areas of louisiana i must admit to you that there are still jail cells waiting for us. If we will go on with nonviolence and its power can transform yesterday into bright tomorrow, we will be depicted change all of these conditions. You are asking today how long will it take. Somebodys asking along well prejudice line frustrated on the street in birmingham and a community from the south be let to from the and so to reign supreme among the children of men. And at how long will justice be crucified. I come to say to you this afternoon. However frustrating the hour, it will not be long because truth will rise again. How long, not long. Because no lie can live for ever. How long . Not long. Because you shall reap what you sow. How long . Not long. Truth for ever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne. It is that scaffold sways the future and behind the lens a known stance got up in the shadows, keeping watch above his own. How long . Not long. Because the art of the moral universe is long it has been towards justice. How long . Not long because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. Has this faith of lighting as his terrible swiss soared. History does berger guy. He he has founded for the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men that bore his judgment day. Oh be swift to answer him. Be jubilant might be. Our god is marching on. Glory, glory hallelujah. Glory hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. His truth is marching on. [ applause ]. Treat us cspanhistory. Take us back 50 years ago today. What was some like . And what led up to the idea of the march to montgomery in the first place . Reverend lafayette well, it was a very extraordinary. Extraordinary period in our history. Because what we were doing was basically giving a voice to the people who are voiceless. And that is what all these movements are about. Helping to give people a voice who otherwise would not be heard. We feel that if the voices of the poor, the voices of the disenfranchised, the voices of the suffering people are heard other people will respond. So, selma, alabama is that example of where people around the country and around the world heard the voices crying out for people not being treated equally as human beings. Now, the reason we were going to my comic alabama i want to make it there is because that is the state capital of alabama. We did not have much is there before from selma, but the reason we had this particular march is because of what happened to jackson in marion, alabama. Your shot by a state trooper. He was shot by a state trooper. Earlier, we had people marching to the courthouse to attempt to register to vote. But the reason why the march was decided to go to montgomery, alabama it was actually jim bevel who asked jacksons grandfather would you be willing to march and continue to march. He said, yes. Jim said he wanted to Say Something to wallace. And he wanted to take his time and put his thoughts together. And he wanted to walk, so he would have time. So he said he was going to walk. And then he said, do you think anybody would walk with me . I said, well, i dont know, i will walk with you. That night, he asked the audience. He said, i have to take a message to governor wallace in montgomery, alabama. And im going to walk. And that he said, well, would anyone here in this church walk with me to echo the walk with me . The entire congregation stood up. He looked at me and said, we have ourselves a march. That was the genesis of the march to montgomery. And the march was about getting the government to recognize the fact that we did not have a right to vote. You could only register in one place. At that time, people were not allowed to vote for president of the United States. Because if you couldnt get registered in your own county, or your city, you couldnt participate in government. So, therefore, these people had no voice in the government. So the march was about giving people a voice. And we were absolutely right in our assumption and nonviolent. We take the position that you could only bring about significant change if you are able to win the sympathy, the active support of the majority. And the majority of the people who can make those decisions were in congress. And the supreme court. So, therefore, we had to make an appeal. So once they marched across that ridge bridge, we decided that what we were going to do was continue. Because if someone tries to stifle your voice, the most important response you can have is to get louder. So that is why our decision, after jackson, was to have a longer march and a larger march. The appeal to the public after bloody sunday, people started coming down from everywhere. Churches and religions, they all, ok, joined in. See, we believe in the American People. And we believed if we speak out and they understand what we are saying, they understand our suffering. They understand the feeling we have that we are being denied. Certain basic rights. And they were not only talking about rights of citizens, we are talking about rights as human beings. Because we are human beings first. And that march was all about respecting humanity. Respecting lives. Yes, black lives, white lives ok, all human life. If you recall, the large number of people who were killed in the Selma Movement were not blacks. They were whites. Yes. And, therefore, people believed that this was the important thing about this march. Today, the commemoration. 50 years ago today bloody sunday. Going to take some calls for reverend yet lafayette, who is one of the leaders. Edward in trenton, new jersey has been very patient on the line for a while. Go ahead. Caller dr. Lafayette, i have seen you come to trenton, new jersey. Do you know of any Younger Generation activists stepping up to the plate . Reverend lafayette from trenton, new jersey . Do i know any young people that were activists . I dont know any in particular ones because i have not spent that much time there. I was to therefore visit. But there are some there, i am sure. But we have 40 different organizations. Including those abroad. I am on a Conference Call every week with the leaders of these organizations of young people. And we know for fact that they are not going to allow this movement to stop. So the voice that we are talking about is the voices that were cut off by ropes when they were hanging people. They didnt want to hear their voices. These young people have picked up. We talk about trade on margin treyvon martin, they cut off his voice. In new york, i cant breathe, i cant breathe. He was actually breathing. That is why the tro cold continue to be applied because they did not want to hear the fact that the person cannot breathe. So i am excited about these young people. And i know that they are going to make this lasting movement. Each of our movements are in the names of cities. The montgomery movement, birmingham movement, ok . Selma movement. Voters rights. Now, it is going to be ferguson, missouri. That is our next movement. Lets go back to the phones. Rochelle in providence, rhode island. Caller yes. Go ahead. Caller dr. Lafayette, do you see todays commemoration of the sum of march bloody sunday more of a celebration of past civil rights accomplishments . Or should it or is it more of a protest against recent judicial compromises in the Voting Rights act . Reverend lafayette yes, the movement in selma today. This is a celebration. Commemoration. But also a continuation. A continuation of the same movement that we have experienced all along. That movement will not stop. King made his last speech in memphis, tennessee. He said, i have been to the mountaintop, i have looked over and i have seen the Promised Land. I may not get there, but i believe that we come as a people, well get to the Promised Land. So we look at the movement and the young people who are working to help her about that change that we are convinced that this is more than simply a protest did it is simply a protest. It is simply not complaining about the problems, but it is moving with a strategy determination, and continuation until we are able to make some basic changes. Eugene is on the phone from stone mountain, georgia. Go ahead eugene. Caller yes, i would like to ask reverend yet. Does he think america has come far enough in its promises to to yes. I would like to ask reverend e at left it lafayette. Has america come far enough to renew its promises . And you see that we need to galvanize all the energy that has come to make sure that the young people should be included in this protest . How far have we come . Reverend lafayette we have come a long ways. Dont make any mistake about it. We have come a long ways. There was a time when you look at what is behind me and you dont see two sidewalks. Here in selma, alabama when i first came in 1962 to start the board of Registration Campaign there were two sidewalks. And that is white have such a wide sidewalk now because it was a lower sidewalk and an upper sidewalk. And we knew who the lower sidewalk was four. Right across the street, i went into a barber stop shop. They were all black barbers. I took a seat, thinking i could get a haircut trade and these black barbers turned the other way. One of them finally came over and said, this barbershop is for whites only. Black barbers only cut white hair. I didnt believe it. When i look at the progress weve made, even in our economic development, we have a long way to go, but we do have some measures of success. Not to mention, the president of the United States 50 years ago, it could not have happened. 50 years later, i am amazed that we have a twoterm president who is africanamerican. We have made an important statement as a country. We have to continue to work at this thing. If we dont continue to step forward, we will go backwards. Because the world is moving. To stand still is to go back. We have to keep moving forward. Thats what the movement is about. Moving forward, recognizing those changes we still have to make. Host a commemoration today on the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday. Call American History tv at reverend lafayette, you were in selma, alabama several years right or to the marches, the events that happened in march of 1965. Tell us how you ended up in selma, alabama p we heard the story about the x on the map marking selma off. You went anyway. What is the story there . What happened is those of us from asheville had decided that since we had the sit in movement and we continued the freedom rides, once we started the freedom rides, we decided if we would give a fulltime for a couple of years, it would be like the peace corps, boots on the ground, so to speak. Community service. We started to go to work on boat registration as part of our response ability for committee service. We went to the rural areas where you had a large number of blacks who were not registered to vote even though they might have had the majority of the population. I decided i would drop out of school for a couple of years. I came down to atlanta, georgia and decided i would become director james forman had decided he was going to give me directorship. But, when we went to get the directorship, he said i have an urgent need to get people out of jail in louisiana. Need to raise money. I went to detroit and chicago to raise money. I returned and he said im sorry, there are no more directorships. What do you mean . We looked on the wall, the map and there was an x through selma. He said we are not sending anybody to selma. Why not . He said, we already sent two teams of six workers to selma and they came back with the same conclusion. What was that . They decided nothing can happen in selma alabama because the white people were two main and the black people were too afraid. Too mean. Nothing will happen. I began to remember, when did i first hear about selma . One of the first places first times i heard about selma was when we were on a freedom ride the bus was coming from Montgomery Alabama and was going to jackson mississippi. The National Guard, Alabama National guard were armed and they said we could not go through selma. Because there was a mob of 2000 people working waiting at the bus station here in selma. The National Guard did not want to go through selma. We bypassed selma on a decoy bus and we carried on to mississippi. Thats what i remember first about selma. When i took on this project, i said im curious how about we go to alabama . If you want to take a look, you can take a look at it and see what you think. I dont want to take a look at it. I will take it. If possible, that is my assignment. I took it on and i did Extensive Research on selma, alabama and the county before i went in. I needed to find out what was hoping kelly are about selma. What was so peculiar about selma. It was not the same as birmingham or montgomery. One of the characteristics was that selma was smaller and everybody knew everybody. There was a close relationship. There were no homes or churches bombed in selma. They had mortgages on the church. If you bond the church you did not have that. The other thing that was very peculiar was that people had generations of family that were close to each other, black and white. The black families were not they developed these relationships. They went to each others funerals. That was the only time they came together, the church. People were very loyal. They had instilled so much fear into the black people until the black people themselves participated in helping other black people stay in their place. That was the attitude and the climate i found when i came to selma, alabama. Host he mentioned the student nonviolent coordinating committee. One of the Voting Rights activists in alabama and organizers of the selma to montgomery marches. Today, the commemoration, 50 years later selma bloody sunday at the bridge are president obama will be speaking later today and we will have that for you live. At 2 00 p. M. Eastern time. Lets take a few more calls. Joyce is on the line in inglewood, california. What is your question . Caller my question for him is, after 50 years or 400 years why is it that we are citizens of this United States, pay taxes, do what we do and we still have a hard time voting . People can come from other countries and get drivers license. I dont understand that. What we experienced is a Third Generation syndrome. Its not enough to understand that there is a problem. Its important to understand the genesis of the problem. What things have allowed the problem to exist . You can have a headache, but unless we understand the cause of the headache, we have not solved the problem. We have to find the cause and the care. The question is, how do we care this problem cure this problem . The Third Generation syndrome the first generation simply want to come and continue to have their religion, have their culture, have their dress code their food and music, all those characteristics. The second generation, they simply want to assimilate. The Third Generation is that generation that goes back and looks at the roots. Look at the origin, which child we came from, what was slavery like . What did people experience there and slavery . Then, we have people we experienced that Third Generation wearing he keys and having afros and changing names of our children. We wanted to go back to our roots. The white people in many cases want to go back to the roots of their cofounders. They remember when they were in charge of black folks. They remember when black folks were not considered human beings. They also believed that black folks did not have souls because they were slaves. Many of them are going back to those days when their own family members were actively involved in the ku klux klan. Once we understand that, then we get to the root of the problem. We need a massive Reeducation Program across the board. It needs to be in our School Systems and every institution and also needs to be in our media. We have to train our young people that this is not acceptable. We have to get people to learn how to stand up and stand together. That is how we are able to accomplish these things we did in the movement in the 1960s. We stood together. Went to jail together, die together. If they dont understand they are brothers and sisters we either have to become brothers and sisters in the together and live together or we live separately and die as fools. That educational part is extremely important. Not just to sit down in different sections of the bus or restaurant. We have to have some meaningful dialogue. Thats why this program is so important. Host we are live in selma, alabama today at the foot of the admin prentice bridge, the site of bloody sunday. The first attempted march from selma to Montgomery Alabama. Joining us today is reverend Bernard Lafayette, one of the Voting Rights activists and organizers in alabama. One of the organizers of this march. Isaiah in fayetteville, georgia appeare. Caller what do you think the root of this evil has come from european people where they hate black people after we built this country on our back . I am a spiritual man myself. Do you think god has sent us a prophet like you sent the children of israel to get out of this hell hole