Nation, the reverend al sharpton, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist sheryl wudunn, republican congressman from idaho, raul labrador, and unique perspective from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as well as New York Times columnist david brooks. Im david gregory. All that ahead on meet the press this sunday, august 25th. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the worlds longestrunning television show, this is meet the press. Good sunday morning. Thousands of people gathered here in washington saturday to recreate the march on washington where dr. King gave his famous i have a dream speech. And it was exactly 50 years ago today, august 25th, 1963, that dr. King and the executive secretary of the naacp, roy wilkins, appeared right here on meet the press. Many of you either already had the chance or will have the opportunity to see that special program as we have made it the original broadcast available to our nbc stations across the country. Our roundtable joins us in just a moment. But first joining me now, the only living speaker from the march on washington, congressman john lewis. He spoke yesterday in front of the lincoln memorial. You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. Youve got to stand up, speak up, speak out, and get in the way, make some noise congressman lewis, welcome back to meet the press. Thank you very much, david, for having me. What a moment. We actually have the two images. There you were 50 years ago as a 23yearold speaking so powerfully and 50 years later an elder statesman, sir, if you dont mind me saying. I dont mind. A pioneer of the civil rights struggle. That had to be quite a moment. It was a moving moment to stand there in the same spot 50 years later where dr. King and others stood. I think in the past 50 years we have witnessed what id like to call the nonviolent revolution in america, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas, and our country is a better country. You know, the president will speak on wednesday in the same spot. Hell mark 50 years since the i have a dream speech. Weve talked over the years, and you told me about a year and a half ago in your view a lot of people cant get comfortable with the idea of an africanamerican president even though what a testament to the progress and the dream that dr. King had. And you even said during your speech yesterday there are forces, there are people who want to take us back. What specifically are you talking about . Well, i hear people over and over again saying, we want to take our country back. Take it back where . Where are we going . We need to go forward. Weve made so much progress. I often think when i was growing up, i thought it was signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored women, colored waiting, those signs are gone. When i first came to washington in 1961, the same year that president barack obama was born, to go on the freedom ride, black people and white people couldnt be seated on a bus or a train together to travel through the south. So when our children grow up and their children grow up, they will not see those signs. The only place that they would see those signs would be in a book, in a museum, or on a video. Do you see some of the same trappings of resentment and fear in our modernday politics . Is that what youre warning of when you see some of those forces coming back . Well, i think there is some forces want to create this sense of fear. They think the country is moving too fast or maybe becoming too progressive. The country is not the same country. Willlard browner, people coming together. And in a short time, the minority will be the majority. Is there backlash that comes with that in your judgment . Well, i think, as americans, we must be prepared to make the adjustment and not be afraid. Be courageous. Be embracive. Embrace a change. As you look at dr. Kings message 50 years ago and we remember that it was a march on washington for jobs and freedom, one aspect of dr. Kings dream has not been realized and that is economic equality. He spoke on this 50 years ago. He said youve got to have social equality before you can have economic equality. There is more social equality for africanamericans. Yet look at the statistics. Back in 1963, the rate of employment among africanamericans, twice that of whites. That was 1963. Page ahead to today, its still twice that of whites. Thats got to trouble you. It is very troublesome. We have a lot of work to do. The dream is not yet fulfilled. Do you blame anyone in particular . Because through Republican Leadership and democratic leadership, you still see the state of affairs. Well, this president , barack obama, has been trying to get the congress to move in a dramatic way to create jobs, to put people back to work, but its all of our responsibility, not just those in elected positions, but its the business community, education institutions. We all must play a role in putting people back to work. Final question. The president will speak in the very spot that dr. King spoke 50 years to the day. One of his critics, tavis smiley, africanamerican whos criticized the president consistently. He talked about his hope that the president would be kinglike but not kinglike. He doesnt want him to just echo the words, but he wants him to have a specific set of proposals. What do you expect from the president . Well, the president is the president. Hes not a civil rights leader. Theres a difference. President johnson, president kennedy sat with us from time to time. When i met with president kennedy and later president johnson, part of the socalled big six, they would say, make me do it. Make me say, yes, when i may have a desire to say no. Create the climate. Create the environment. It is up to the Civil Rights Community to get up there and push and pull. You are a live testament to the idea that youve got to make some noise in this society and youve done that. I really appreciate your time here this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you, congressman. Reverend al sharpton organized the march yesterday along with dr. Kings eldest son. Sharpton spoke to the tens of thousands gathered on the mall on saturday. We believe in a new america its time to march for a new america its time to organize for a new america its time to register and vote for a new america were on our way, were on our way, we are on our way and our roundtable is now here. Welcome to all of you, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, who i just want to point out has been well, alive and well. Youve just been in hibernation working on your new book. So its good to see you. Correct. Im glad to be back. Reverend al sharpton, a significant day for you and others yesterday associated with that march. 50 years ago, 50 years after the march on washington, how does dr. Kings message relate today . I think his message relates in the sense that it laid the chart it charted the way from where we are. A black president , black attorney general who spoke at the march yesterday. But it also raised a challenge for this generation that we talked about yesterday. The Supreme Court just took away section 4, the Voting Rights act, which means that we challenge the congress now to come with a new Voting Rights bill, because this is the first time in 48 years that we do not have free clearance in areas that have a history of discrimination. A jobs bill. The economic inequality today is the same as it was 50 years ago. So i think this generation of civil rights leaders and the Civil Rights Community must challenge the economic inequality, the regression on Voting Rights, as well as deal with some of the gun violence and the internal problems in our own community. Dr. King again on this program 50 years ago, he spoke about the highway of freedom and all its dimensions, moving up that highway of freedom. Doris kearns goodwin, you were there 50 years ago, which is remarkable since youre only 27 now. Hooray. I spoke to Taylor Branch, the historian of the era, and he talks about dr. King as a modern founding father. Heres a portion of my conversation with him. The founders confronted at the beginning of america a hierarchy, kings, monarchs, and they figured out a way to promote equal citizenship, to found us on the idea that we have equal votes and equal souls. And they moved us in that direction, and so did lincoln and the people the best, highest patriots have done that, and thats certainly what the Civil Rights Movement did and dr. King did. The meaning of that moment today. I think theres no question that Taylor Branch is right. There are its a Straight Line from Martin Luther king backward to lincoln, backward to the founding fathers. They created an ideal of a country founded on the idea that all men were created equal. They knew all men were not created equal. We had slavery. But they knew wed force ourselves to move forward it. Lincoln moved us forward. Martin luther king 100 years later got us even further to that ideal. What was so special about that march when i was a college student, i remember the day, i remember the singing, i remember the worry beforehand about whether thered be mob violence. But most of all i remember the exhilaration, a feeling i was part of something larger than myself. We were helping to make the country a better place. And despite the fact that the 60s degenerated into riots later, assassinations, the vietnam war, there was something about that hopefulness in the early 60s. It stayed with me my whole life. And thats what you have to recreate today, the idea we can change the country, nonviolent movement, leadership, did it then, civil war did it in an earlier time, the framers did it at the beginning. We have a generation that can do it now. Can i pay tribute to the two men who organized the march, Philip Randolph and bayard rustin, especially randolph, a man of immense dignity, who believed in peaceful, direct action, as dor ris just said. You go after your opponents relentlessly. Superior emotional discipline and selfcontrol and force them, the racists in that case, to display their own evil and transfer the whole debate that way by a superior dignity. That was part of what the march did, took a strategy deeply thought through and expressed to the nation and showed how you make social change. Sheryl wudunn, you won a Pulitzer Prize covering china, particularly the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The resonance that you saw covering Tiananmen Square of that 1963 march. Oh, absolutely. Look, Martin Luther kings speech was the greatest speech of the 20th century, so it had to have an impact around the world. The underlying need for better jobs, better, you know, life and also freedom was very strong. A Chinese Student leader actually invoked Martin Luther king as his role model during the Tiananmen Square movement. But most kids, they would Say Something like, one student told me, democracy, yes, i dont know much about it but i know we need more of it. Its interesting, reverend, the tension at the time. And again, it plays out in this special rebroadcast on nbc when you saw dr. King with roy wilkins. To davids point, you saw dr. King so poised and unflappable facing questions of potential violence in washington. But there was tension about the value of that kind of demonstration, mass demonstration in the street, and how it made africanamericans look and appear to a largely white america. Its ironic that people dont understand mrs. King, who ive got to know well i was too young to know dr. King talked about how controversial he was during his lifetime and those tactics of randolph and rustin. People always said, youre causing violence, stirring things up, and youre moving too fast, and i think that upon his death people gave him credit for things that he never heard in life. And in many ways we hear today some of the same kinds of attacks. Certainly no ones on the scale that they were, but the same kinds of things, that why dont yall do it another way, when these are the ways you dramatize the problem. Marches are not set to solve a problem. Theyre set to show the problem and force someone to solve it. Were going to come back with all of you in a few minutes because, in addition to marking history this morning, we wanted to try to expand our conversation and talk about the American Dream. Thats what dr. King talked about. It was rooted in the American Dream. Well have more on that with you in a few minutes. Coming up, two rising stars in their respective parties, democratic mayor of newark, new jersey, cory booker, and republican governor of louisiana bobby jindal. What the American Dream means to a new generation of politicians. And later, well have the latest on the developing situation in syria. New developments this morning. Weve got it covered. Morning. Weve got it covered. Alert. The beach on your tv is much closer than it appears. Dive into labor day with up to 50 off hotels at travelocity. Its delicious. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. The truth of the matter is that the dream still demands that the moral conscience of our country still calls us, that hope still needs heroes. We need to understand that there is still work to do. That was newark mayor and u. S. Senate candidate cory booker speaking yesterday in front of the lincoln memorial. He joins me now. Mr. Mayor, welcome. Thank you very much. Good to be back. Good to have you back. Were talking about the legacy of the i have a dream speech and dr. Kings dream. Here you are, trying to become the first africanamerican senator from new jersey. Theres one other africanamerican senator in the United States senate, one africanamerican governor, Deval Patrick in massachusetts, africanamerican president , and attorney general. So much progress but still uneven when it comes to elected office. Do you think thats how dr. King saw the dream playing out 50 years later . Well, i think these positions are important, but i think the matter that drove the march, in which my mom was involved, what really drove the march was not simply propelling people to elected office. It was dealing with the larger issues of inequality, not only racial inequality but frankly the challenge we faced in our nation then and now on the dramatic differences between rich and poor and the challenges we had then in america and still have now with poverty. You know, its interesting, john lewis just said it, al sharpton has said it, they always make a distinction when they say, look, the president s the president. What dr. King harnessed was the power of the grassroots, the power of people coming together saying, this is worth fighting for. This is worth being an activist for. As a newer generation of leader, you have despaired a bit about the younger generation. You told this to the Huffington Post a couple of years ago. Im still frustrated when i see how difficult it is to get people to take relatively simple steps proven to make a difference. Not to take a freedom ride, or march against a club or gas wielding and state troopers, but to take a small increased step of service that, along with others doing the same, could make a significant difference. A lack of activism and polarized politics. A wicked combination. It is. Something clearly i learned from a generation that came before me in the Civil Rights Movement that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. The challenge i often see in america now is we get caught in these this idea that democracy is a spectator sport, that you can sit on your couch, root for your team red or blue, but not realize politics is a full contact, participatory endeavor, and that we as a people can never allow our inability to do everything, solving poverty, to undermine our determinations to do something. And so i come from im a child of a generation that said, im going to do something to make this world a better place. It is interesting. You talk about the income inequality as the Lasting Legacy of a dream unfulfilled. Youre the mayor of newark. Unemployment there is over 13 . Its endemic in a lot of our cities, where we have that kind of failure. And a lot of critics will say a lot of democratic leadership there. These are really hard things. Why have you not been able to make more progress in this particular area . This goes back to your point about partisan politics. Politics is a zerosum game. The spirit of king taught me that love multiplies and hate divides. Weve got too Much Division going on in our politics. When people come together, you make remarkable results. Chris christie and i disagree on most things but if we sat back in our relative partisan positions, we wouldnt have ever gotten together. The fact we have come together has created the Largest Economic Development period in newark in over generation. We are 3 of the states population but a third of Economic Development in new jersey is going on in newark, because we found ways to get together. The manhattan institute, a right think tank, i have lots of disagreements with their leadership, but we said that one of the biggest problems in america is mass incarceration. Its one of the most expensive governments and it fails. It releases people and a majority of them come back. So we found ways to get together and do reentry programs of dramatically reduced recidivism. Take it to washington. If youre a