Jones. The march was nmy view, the culmination of 100 years of frustration and despair. 1963 began with the centennial, the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation. And that means that when these people came together, those quarter of a Million People came together, they were in some ways representing all the hopes and dreams that had idea yt to be fulfull fulfilled. Rose the 50th anniversary of the march on washington next. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose we begin with john lewis. He is a congressman from georgia, a democrat. He was one of the big six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the student nonviolent committee. This year, 2013, marks the 50th anniversary of the historic march on washington. On that day in august, lewis was one of only 10 speakers who took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He was just 23 years old. John lewis remains the last speaker still living. He has now told his story in a graphic novel. It is called march, book one. I am pleased to have john lewis back at this table. Welcome. Thank you very much. Good to see you, my friend, my brother. Thank you for having me. Rose good. Take me back. Take me back to august 28, 1963, 50 years ago. Well, 50 years ago i was only 23 years old, as you stated. It was an unbelievable day. On that day, 10 of us went up on capitol hill. We met with the leadership of the house and the senate, both democrats and republicans. Then we came out of the Senate Building on constitution avenue. We start walking, and we look toward union station. We saw hundreds and thousands of people walking. We were supposed to be the leaders of the march, the people already marching people were flowing in from around the country, on the train, getting off, to be part of the audience. They were coming. By train. By bus. By car. By plane. They were there. And they literally pushed us along the way. It was almost like there go my people. Let me catch up with them. Does and thats what we did. They pushed us toward the Washington Monument otoward the Lincoln Memorial. Rose the point of the march on washington was for what . It was called the march for jobs and freedom. We were there to petition members of the congress and the president of the United States to pass a strong civil rights bill. We didnt have a particular bill in mind, but a strong bill. Now, if president kennedy, in june of 1963, he didnt like the idea of a march. He said in effect, if you bring all these people to washington wont there be violence and chaos and disorder and well never get a civil rights bill through the congress. A. Phillip randolph, he had been seeking a march back curing the days of roosevelt and truman. So he said in his baritone voice, mr. President , this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest. Of we came out of meet with president kennedy, and said to the press we had a productive meeting with the president. And that day, ill tell you, our work paid off. People came from all over america. Some americans living abroad flew home to participate in the march. People came from almost every state, people from idaho, wyoming, montana, church groups, labor groups, student groups, just plain, everyday individuals. Rose and what did your heart say to you when you heard Martin Luther king say, i have a dream . When Martin Luther king jr. Got to that place in that speech and said, i have a dream today, a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream, i knew he was preaching and he was really preaching. He knew it himself. He turned those marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial into a modern day pulpit and the crowds were with him. Jackson did a song how we got over, how we got over, and the whole place just rocked and rocked. Rose let me give you some timeline. April 16, dr. King writes his famous letters from a birmingham jail, and responded to White Alabama ministers who urged him to end the demonstration. On june 12 Medgar Edgars was assassinated. What did you end that day with that you might not have had before . On that day, when the march was all over, and because of the speech of dr. King and others, it was a great deal of unity in america, a sense of hope, a sense of optimism. People came together and said to the president and said to members of congress, america would never, ever be the same. We got down to the white house after the march was all over, president kennedy stood in the door of the oval office and he greeted each one of us. Hhe was like a beaming proud father. He was just smiling. And he said, you did a good job. You did a good job. And when he got to dr. King he said, and you had a dream. There was so much hope, so much optimism. Rose that was all 28. On september 15, the Baptist Church in birmingham is bombed, and four beautiful young girls are killed. On that day, just a few days after the march, that day was a very sad, sad day for all of us in the movement, and a sad day for the nation. These four little girls were just attending sunday schooled on a sunday morning. And we all went to birmingham, attended the funeral of the four little girls. Dr. King delivered a eulogy for three, and we made up our minds, made a decision that we would go all out to end segregation and Racial Discrimination in the south, that we would fight for the right to vote, the right to participate in a democratic process. Rose and then on november 22, the president is assassinated. That was another sad moment. We all cried. We all wept in shame because we saw president kennedy as a an aally. We saw him as a glend even though he had been cautious . He was cautious but the speech he gave back in june he set a tone. He said the whole question of race, the question of civil rights is a moral issue. He was the first president to say that. In a short time, he learned, he caught up with the movement, and he wanted to be supportive. He wanted to help out. I remember his brother, the attorney general, saying during the summer of 1963, john, you all have educated. Rose he was very clear that he had evolved because he had not understood racism, had not understood poverty in america. And he grew to understand and make it part of his own Political Campaign later. He really did. He he really did. And america became a different place. President Lyndon Johnson picked up where president kennedy had left off. Rose what was the first thing he said when you met with him, when you saw him . President johnson. Johnson. He said, dont be troubled. Dont worry. Were going to get a civil rights bill through the congress. And im going to push it. You all just go and do what you have to do. Create the climate. Create the environment. And he did. He kept his word. Rose now, 50 years later, from 2000, from 19632013, where are we . As a people and as a nation, were not where we were. 50 years ago. Rose weve made progress. Weve made a lot of progress. Back in 1963 i saw the signs that said white waiting, calendared waiting, white men, calendared women. Those signs are gone. We passed a civil rights bill. We passed the Voting Rights act. The fair housing act. And when people said to me nothing had changed, i said come and walk in my shoes. And people our children and their children wont see those signs. The only place they will see those signs are in a book, in a museum, on a video. If someone had told me back in 1963, 50 years ago, that i would live to see an African American as president of the United States, i would say, youre crazy. You must be living in another world. Rose let me move to that, 2008, november, barack obama, the first black american elect elected. What did it mean, tell me . Because people, i think, in some cases dont genuinely appreciate what it meant to see i just saw the butler, the butler which is about the butler, and Oprah Winfrey is in it and Forrest Whittaker is brilliant. And theres a sort of amazing scene in which she has died, the wife has died, and resigned from the white house, retired, watches president obama accept the adulation of the crowd, having won that election. What did it mean to so many black americans to see him elected . Well, the night that obama was declared the president he was . Chicago. He was in chicago. I was in atlanta at dr. Kings old church. Rose watching television in. Watching on television. I cried. I cried. I was speaking at the pulpit, and i looked back and i saw that he had carried pennsylvania. He had carried ohio. I knew it was over. I jumped so high, i didnt think my spheet were ever going to touch the ground and i cried and kept crying. And someone asked me, youre crying so much. What are you going to do when he is inaugurated and takes the oath . I said if i have any tears left, ill cry some more, and thats exactly what i did. Rose when he took the oath, you cried as well . Yes. Rose youve had a remarkable life and i want to move and talk about this. How did this come about, march, book one, you in cooperation with a graphic artist. What is the story here . And cartoons. What do cartoons mean for you so that you were willing to engage in this project. Well, a friend of mine and one of my staffers, andrew, who is a coauthor said to me in 08, when i finished my own campaign because he said he was going away to a comic book cches, to commacon, and a lot of the staff started making fun of him. And i said, you shouldnt do that because in 1957pat there was a comic book called the montgomery stori, and that book inspired students in north carolina, and it inspired those of us in nashville to start sitting in. So you shouldnt do that. So he came back to me and said, congressman, you should write a comic book. I said, oh, no, oh, no. Then he kept come back and he said to me again, you should write a comic back. I said, yes, if do you it with me. Rose what story do you tell gisteal tale the story of growing up poor in alabama. I tell the story of meeting liewlt lute jr. When i was 15. And meeting rosessa parks in 1957. I tell the story of being a little little wi boy on the farm raising chickens. I used to raise the chickens. Rose you named them. I named them. I wanted to be a preacher and i preached to the chickens. I said they never quite said amen but some of those chickens tended to listen to me better than some of my colleagues listen to me today in congress. Rose your parents thought you might stay with them and be a share cropper but you wanted to get an education. Yes. They want meade to stay there. They wanted me to work on the farm. Rose what was it within you . Had you seen, because of the trip you talk, had you seen a different role . Well, in 1951, when i was only 11 years old, i traveled from rural alabama to buffalo, new york. Rose scared to death. By car. And with my aunt and some first causeibs. I saw a different place. I saw blacks and whites living together. I rode an escalator for the first time. I didnt see the signs i saw growing up. I kept asking my mother, my father, grandparents, greatgrandparents, and they said, thats the way it is. Dont get in trouble. But rosa parks and Martin Luther king jr. Inspired me. So march, the whole story being involved in the city, going on the freedom ride. Being beaten, left bleed in south carolina, in alabama, almost dying on that bridge in selma. Rose where did you get the courage to engage in nonviolence when people desperately wanted you to be violent against you in order to stop you and your ideas about civil rights . We studied. We studied the way of gandhi. The way of thoreau. The way of Martin Luther king jr. And you come to that point where you say youre going to do nonviolence as a way of life, as a way of living. That youre not going to become bitter and hostile. That youre not going to hate, because hate was too heavy a burden to bear. Just love everybody, and use love and peace and nonviolence as a tool, an instrument to change things. Rose but did you think you were going to die . Oh, i thought once or twice i was going to die. I thought i was going to die in 19 gomry, may, 1961, the same year president obama was born. I thought i was going to die on that bridge in selma. I thought i saw death on march 7, 1965. Put i feel it was kept here for a reason to keep pushing. To keep pulling, to try to help create a better america and a better world. Rose much discussion about the Voting Rights act and the action of the Supreme Court. Well, i was very disappointed in the decision of the United StatesSupreme Court. When that decision came down, it made me very sad. I wanted to cry because i did give a little blood on that bridge to make it right, create the climate for the passage of the Voting Rights. But some of my friends, some of my colleagues died, people who struggle with me, never saw the pass arvelgt voters rights act. They never lived to cast a vote. And so the three civil rights workers dead, i knew there was killing in 1964 in mississippi. Thats why i think we have to press on. And those of us in the congress have to find a way to fix what the Supreme Court did. Rose john lewis, thank you. Thank you very much. Good to see you. Rose the book is called march. It is a history of the Civil Rights Movement and you will understand more of the trieldz and difficult times and the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement in america as it took place from the streets to legislation in congress to speeches and motivated by the sacrifice of thousands of people. I would simply like to say i think this has been one of the great days of america. Rose we continue this evening as we take note of the 50th anniversary of the march oning with. On august 28, dr. Martin luther king delivered his i have a dream speech. It was an american important moment in history, and paved the way for the Voting Rights act of 1965. Half a century later, our first African American president has been elected for a second term but were still far from realizing equality of dr. Kings dreams. Clawrns jones is a schollard resident at stanford university. All with us jonathan ryder. He is the author of gospel of freedom. And here, also, david lewis, a professor of history at new york university. He wrote the first academic biography of dr. King published two years after his assassination. Isabelle wilkerson, the author of the warm t of other suns. I am pleased to have each of them here as we continue taking a look at where we have come and what the march on washington meant. Let me begin with david and talk about where it is and what is its place in the history of the Civil Rights Movement . Well, it makes it possible to naik an issue which had been local, southern, and in a sense, racially parochial to be a universalized mission to bring democracy to the republic. And to do so, incorporating the demand that for that to happen, there must be an economic agenda that produces a level playing field, and to quote from Martin Luther king, to redeem the check that had been issued but whose sums, whose funds had been absebt. It was the moment when all of america peered in and saw and appreciated that the myth and the ideals will of the country had in fact never, ever approached the essential authentic substance of the promise. And after that remarkable day of some quarter Million People, and the discussion that we just heard described by congressman lewis in the white house with the observing president , john kennedy, a supposition that the inner gee, rhetoric, issues, and aspirations would findab institutionalized reification. Rose brought about by legal action. Brought about by legal action. A civil right bill then pending rose did dr. King know what it just happened . Did he feel it . There is a sense of optimism for him . Whenever you talk about king and optimism its a tricky business. From before birmingham, throughout birmingham which brought into being made it possible to have the march up until the mount top, his life, theologically and personally was swinging between mount tops and valleys. The answer is he was very pessimistic and despondent when he was in the jail cell in birmingham and he didnt know if birmingham was dpog succeed. He needed it to succeed. When the young people went out it was the young people of birmingham to indvindicated the model king had written about in letters from birmingham, it led to the things david just described. If you look to back stage and front stage, to king enjoy that summer, he goes to wrigley field, and now the rabbis are involved, the union is involved, the idea of rationalizing what had been a local struggle, and blacks were not on their own. On jiewb 11, after he heard kennedys speech, he was elated. What he said to some of his colleagues, you can believe that white man hit it out of the park . There was another side of him. He was prepared to be disappointed by kennedy as he did continually. But nonetheless, it led to the sense of were on verge of a breakthrough. We have to push this thing. Rose clarence, when did you first meet dr. King . I met dr. King when i was twin years of age, and he was two years older than me, so that would make him 31. I met him in 1960 in california after he had been indicted by the state of alabama for perjury and tax terksivation. And he was represented by four superb lawyers. His chief defense towns was a gentleman by the name of hubert delaney. He had two lawyers in chicago, a jax specialist, and a man by the name of fred gray. Judge delaney called me only because he was seeking to persuade me to be a log gerk, to be a gopher. I had just come to california after graduating from law school. I went to law school a little later than most after terving two years in the