Well continue into the afternoon. Youre looking at film from august of 1963 as demonstration and marchers gathered on the mall here in washington d. C. This was the headline from the Washington Post, a mammoth rally of 200,000 jamming the mall in a solemn orderly plea for equality. Thats our line for those of you over the age of 50. For those of you under the age of 50. 5853880. 202 is the area code here in washington d. C. Well get your call on march. Your calls and comments in a moment. Lots get to the other stories this morning that is latest development from syria and headlines from overseas. The Guardian Newspaper the attack on syria just days away as the house of commons recalled for a vote and the picture of the british prime minster as he departs yesterday as the parliament resuming session tomorrow breaking from their august recess. From the marine herald, miami herald, a stage is set. U. S. And allies act as syrias intelligence mount. As u. S. Officials said privately that a flood of previously undisclosed intelligence including satellite images and intercepted communication erased last minute administration doubt that the Syrian Regime used chemical weapons against its own people. Military officials discussed yesterday about coordinating response in attacks against the syrian targets. And the headlines from the Washington Post is this, proof against bashar assad is at hand. The Obama Administration believe that u. S. Intelligence has established how Syrian Government forces stored, assembled and launched chemical weapons outside of damascus that killed hundreds of people. The administration is planning to release evidence possibly tomorrow. It will prove that president bashar assad from the hill newspaper reaction from members of congress the headline is nearly two dozen members of congress signing on to a letter demanding that the president First Consult congress. The letter was led by a republican from virginia beach. Quote, engaging our military in syria when no direct threat exist would violate the separation of powers that is clearly in the u. S. Constitution. Nearly two dozen house members sign this asking the president to wait for congressional authorization. Well be talking later about the situation in syria. We want to get to your phone calls whether or not you think marchs makes a a difference. Youll see remarks from the mall and u. S. Capitol. For those of you offer the age of 50 the number to call is 2025853880. Those over the age of 50 called 2025853881. These are pictures. One of those on hand is actor Harry Belafonte. Who shortly after the march on washington had this to say what it meant for him and others in that demonstration. To be in washington today was an accumulation of a number of generations of black americans who have been trying to appeal to the conscious of White Supremacy. And force that has denied and disenfranchise the negro for so long. To be in washington was for me today a beginning really. A kind of climax to generations of hope. Having been at the beginning of so many important civil rights issues in this country and demonstration. It was a powerful moment to see 200,000 people, mostly black people but also white people. To know that a nation, such as america and the reason i struggle with it so hard because i really believe in the potential of this country. Actor and civil rights activist harry boll phone belafonte. Headline this morning the tallahassee democrat, a turning point and a quote from the mlk speech, i have a dream that this country will live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. Our question as we begin on this wednesday morning, do marchs still make a difference . 2025853880 those of you under the and of 50. Over 50, 2025853881. We begin with james joining us from grand fork, north dakota. Caller hey steve. Calling again. Im actually 49. Right on the edge and im going to be 50. Im not north dakotaian. I called before and i came out here for work for this hard to be a white man in suburbs of philadelphia. Certain trades get displaced and you have to find your own way. Im out here celebrating. I dont celebrate diversity. I noticed that cspan and msnbc theres an obsession with race. Its funny how white people are taught and teach their children race does not exist. We finding out this so called post racial president that race is everything. Race is everything in human history. Theres no such thing as transcendents of race. Whats interesting, steve, is for a color blind america. In order to have a color blind america all must practice race blindness. Only people that do are white people. We are the only ones. Not me im a racially conscious white male. White people are grappling with whites who hate themselves and teach their children such. If you notice whites do not vote as a bloc. They vote for the interest of other people. They allow affirmative action policies to discriminate against their own children. If you look at every park back to philadelphia, white people adopt black children. Youll never find a black person adopt a white person. White people allow people to pour into their homelands by the millions and displace them. Its amazing phenomenon, were the only one that practice dr. Kings dream. Host well go to other calls and tweets. This is from our twitter page. Marchs can be effective but they need to be loud and in your face. Otherwise they are just dismissed. Gloria is our next call. Welcome to the program, from upper marlborough, maryland. Caller thank you so much. Your first caller i feel sorry for him because he only knows one aspect of a peoples heart. My father first of all i was in the march in 1963, i was there. I will also march again on saturday and im 17 years old now. I had a High School Teacher who was a caucasian man. When the young people were being bombed out in the churches and being bombed and alabama and the young people were being blown away by the water hoses and down in the south. That young man, he was a caucasian young white man. He made us really i was very carefree he made a point to us that we need to be a little more serious about what was going on in the world. Me personally i was never taught to hate or fear anyone. Therefore, i have love in my heart for white people, black people, every kind of person on the face of the earth. I still do. I would like to tell him. He needs to get to know more black people. Thats one of the reasons i have attitude because i was never taught except when i got time in high school that there was another problem this country where people hated my guts. That was an eye opener for me. I struggled with that issue from the time my children were born. My youngest is now 40. He turns 40 tomorrow as a matter of fact. I never taught him to hate or fear. I want him to know that there are truly are people, africanamerican people, if you look at lionel richie, he adopted a child. A child nonafricanamerican child. People who have hearts that are full of love and kindness dont go around looking for reasons to hate people or to fear people. That is an attitude i carry with me everyday. You have to be taught to hate and fear. You have to be taught from year to year. You have to be carefully taught. Yes, i do believe that marchs are still important simply because it brings people of like minds together, white, black or whatever the case might be. To try to bring some commonlity to the situations that we have to face today. For that i give god the glory and i thank god for my parents. Have a blessed day. Host glory thanks for the call from outside of washington. Let me share with you some thoughts from the Facebook Page. You can join in on the conversation. Its facebook. Com cspan. Susan cites, do marchs make a difference, they will if enough people make a difference. Helena says, it depends on what youre marching for. Adam stewart say people in general are too comfortable to really rise up and make the change we need. Percy says, theres always power in numbers however everyone must be on the same page. Tor ris said comarchs make a difference, no they dont. They march so they can get on facebook to brag about it. You can join the conversation on our Facebook Page. Fred is joining us as we look at live view from the mall where the official ceremony will be beginning at 11 00 this morning east coast time. Good morning to you from gold beach, oregon. Caller thank you to cspan and everybody you do. You do such a great job. Especially the ladies that do the news. I dont think marchs do any good other than give us a feeling that we have a voice. Unfortunately, i think what it does is give the politicians of today a reason to separate us. This two party system it seems they look for issues to separate us because i believe if we come together as americans, lot of them will lose their jobs. I think we need to look past the idea that it helps because i think it hurts us in the long run to think that well get something accomplished. Unfortunately, i think our government is bought and sold to the highest bidder. We need to come together as americans and i really think theres going to be a major change in america. I dont think were quite as gullible as we were back then. I think thats an improvement. I think we all have to stand up for whats right and we have to stand up for whats american. If we dont all start sticking together as americans, not whites, blacks and greens and oranges, were going to have the same issues all the time. I hope america will really start taking a look exactly whats going on. Were being divided. The more that we can get divided, the more same people get elected. We have to say no more. Host thanks from the call. This is from steven who says, marching on washington is an important tradition. Dramatizing the right of the people to petition of government or redress. Rick who is following this story from u. S. A. Today posted on a piece on whether or not marchs make a difference. Many of the demonstrations waned over the last 50 years. Thanks very much for being with us. Guest good morning steve. Host what changed from 1963 to today here in washington along the mall and elsewhere . Guest two things changed. First of all the success of the 1963 1963 march encouraged other people to do the same thing. Secondly the technological change from satellite to television and video screens and sophisticated sound systems have made marchs more accessible just more feasible. You see this cascading number of marchs to the point where Martin Luther king historian said the type has been debased by repetition. Host obviously a significant difference as we have listened to a number of oral histories. The Organizational Work it took to put this march together with more than 250,000, that was of course well before email and twitter and other social media. This is truly a grassroots efforts. Lot as changed in terms of technology. Has that impacted the value of these marchs . Guest certainly the value has been has beened considerably. Kings speech was carried by the satellite to nations around the world and broadcast live the only three broadcast networks. Today it would take an enormous event to get that kind of attention. The technology is there to spread your message. People Attention Span various reasons has been so changed you really have to fight to break through to make an impression. Which is why we get into a numbers games with these demonstrations. Organizers feel if they have a great number, theyll force the news media can cover them. Since litigation was introduced in the 1990s, the National Park police wont estimate what the crowd is. Host in your piece which is Available Online, titled marching on washington, can you outline some of the more memorable and less memorable demonstration thats weve seen over the last five decades . Guest well, it would be easy to list the less memorable marchs. For instance, just in the category of trading on the word million. The million man march of 1995 was an attempt to rally american black men. Not only for civil rights issues but sort of a personal pride issue and a ethnic solid darety. That was a success. That began the million mom march and million worker march. You begin to move from the grand to the less grant. During the vietnam war in 1971, there were series of marchs culminating in the demonstrations which march attempted to shut the city down to cut off commute approaches to the city. That made an enormous impact. You can say it was a success on that basis because there were over 10,000 arrest and it gained International News media attention. It also turned off a lot of middle American Voters who saw these long haired demonstrators battling with cops and didnt leave a positive view on the antiwar movement. It did send out to government leaders the message that this war is frailing the social aspect of our country. Washington journal has a photo and a map of the mall in washington. The individual behind what happened in august of 1963. You touch on his role back in 1963 in your piece. Who was he and why he was he significant . He was an interesting guy. Organizational genius. He was gay and he had sort of ostracized within the Silver Rights Movement because of morals arrest in california. Because sexual practice. He was probably the only person brought together this kind of an event. A. Phillip randolph the great africanamerican labor leader, officially named russ his deputy. In fact, russ did all the work. Organizing unions, mens groups, local chapters of civil rights groups. He would rent trains and buses and sale tickets to people to get them all to washington. Its hard to imagine somebody doing like that today with those kinds of tools but he did. Host finally rick hampson, relativity new, something changed in the 1890s that brought demonstration to washington d. C. What was that . Guest there was another interesting named jason. There was a series of depression in the 1880s and 1890s. Unemployment was high. He took into his head somehow he can get unemployed men and march to washington, they could compel the government to adopt a Stimulus Program at the time, a public works project to create jobs. Couple hundred of them began marching from ohio all the way to washington. They called themselves a petition in boots to congress. Unfortunately, when they got there, coxcy was arrested for walking on the grass of the capitol and they march pretty much dissolved. Host rick hampson story Available Online. National reporter for that publication. Thank you for being with us. Guest thank you. Host do marchs still make a difference . Many of you also weighing in on social media and this tweet from monty. Who said marchs are useless and should be replaced by teachins and educating public about issues and mobilize them to be involved. Walter former delegate here in washington reflect back in 2007 about the work that went involved in the demonstrations included spending money for a loud speaker system. This is from 2007 from a former democratic delegate. We had paid the astronomical figure of 66,000 at that time. Which looked like a Million Dollars to me at that time. For a loud speaker system to cover the mall just in case the 100,000 we expected came. We had that thing paid for and all set up and i got a call about 9 00 said reverend, somebody has cut the cables and sabotage this thing. The contract is you cant possibly get it back together by tomorrow. I had to call bobby. I said we got a serious problem. The contractor cant handle it. You have something called the core in the u. S. Army. He said we cant do that because Carl Mcintyre the right wing radio minister. As we begin working together with the march organizers and labor unions and the federal government and the federal government was putting this thing on. If the people cant hear, we have greater problem. He got the signal core out. The signal core worked all night and about 12 30 in the afternoon, just about the time we suppose to start at 1 00, they tested it and it went. I had been up half the night. I cant tell you the joy that i felt that these people will be able to hear. Far more people came than we had expected. Host reverend walter reflecting on his involvement in the demonstration, the march on washington. We have a line for those of you attended the march on washington. That number is 2025853882. If you were part of the demonstration, here in washington d. C. , 2025853882. By the way, politico has a story 50 years on marchers remember is the headline. The piece begins by saying, it was hard to flip through the tv channels this week without hearing a cable panelist about the meaning of 50th anniversary of the march on washington. Where dr. King delivered his i have a dream speech. But it is a shrinking club of public figures who can speak with authority. From our Facebook Page, here are a couple comment, angela said, i believe so. It is a way for groups to vent their concerns and frustrations. Do marchs make a difference. He said when they have real meaning and a backbone. The only warnings made a real difference has been the tea party. Curt says n50 years after the mlk march, the blacks are worse off than ever. Margaret is joining us from lebanon worth, kansas. Caller this is a complicated subject because i was in the march in 1969 in washington. It was quite impressive. I marched with priest and nuns and vietnam vets against the war. The difference now is, we dont have quite the right to free assemble. When you go to march against the iraqi war, people were pushed back and kept away from areas way far away. Also in the convention. When you are trying to protest and put three blocks away and locked in. Also the media has just changed completely. If youre trying to they minimize the wall street protest and made fun of them. Thats what you do when you degrade voices. You either label people, oh these plaques want more and theyre out marching. Or these women want more. Ive noticed a horrible lack of any kind of press in the last 10 years. We were against the war in iraq. There was a huge march in chicago, millions. It wasnt covered more than five minutes. Without the press, without our press that we used to have, we are really lost. You just fall in and get pushed back. You must notice, they pushed back people where you get to where youre going. The clubs come out. It wasnt that long ago in new york city when this happened. You know, dont take your rights for gra