Park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The bernard and audre rapoport foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Barbara g. Fleischman. And by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Welcome. For each of us, there are days that are turning points. A day that changes our personal life, or a day that changes the nation. Sometimes, very rarely, its one and the same day. Just such a day happened to me on wednesday, august 28th, 1963. I was 29 years old, the Deputy Director of the peace corps, with offices one block from the white house and a short walk from the Lincoln Memorial. That morning, largely on impulse, inspired by a friend, i joined the quarter of a million americans, people of every age and color, who had come for the march on washington. The event is now most famous for Martin Luther king, jr. s i have a cream dream speech, but like many of the others there, i was first transfixed by one of the other speakers, the youngest on the platform. Brother john lewis. His name was john lewis. He had just been named head of sncc, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and he was 23 years old. I will never forget the speech he delivered that day. We must get in this revolution, and complete the revolution. For in the delta of mississippi, in southwest georgia, the black belt of alabama, in harlem, in chicago, detroit, philadelphia, and all over this nation, the black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom. In the five decades since, john lewis has become an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, a hero who faced down brutal Southern Police in the name of freedom and was beaten bloody for daring to do so. Today, he is a 14term congressman from georgia. Recently, he and i returned to the National Mall in washington to remember that day in 1963 and the march that changed america. People were all the way down. And you just saw hundreds and thousands of individuals. Im john lewis, and i was the youngest speaker. Ten of us spoke. I spoke number six. Dr. King spoke number ten. And out of the ten people that spoke that day, im the only one still around. Congratulations. Whats that . Congratulations. Thank you very much. It was a great moment in american life. You were his friend . Yeah. I got to know dr. King. I met him in 1958 when i was 18. But i first heard of him when i was 15 years old in the 10th grade. We worked together. We marched together. We got arrested together in selma, alabama. Have you ever heard this story before . Yes, i have. You have . I watched it on tv. You did . So you know about the sitins . The freedom ride . Yeah. People marching for the right to vote . You know, i was on the march from selma to montgomery. I was beaten. On march 7th, 1965, a group of us, about 600 people, black and white, many young people, some people who had just left church, decided to march from selma to montgomery, about 50 miles away, because people of color, black people in alabama, couldnt register to vote simply because of the color of their skin. And we decided to march across the alabama river, a bridge called the Edmund Pettus bridge. And we got to the highest point on the Edmund Pettus bridge and we looked over and we saw a sea of blue, Alabama State troopers. And we got within hearing distance of the state trooper. And major john clyde of the Alabama State troopers. This is an unlawful march. It would not be allowed to continue. This is an unlawful assembly. You have to disperse. You are ordered to disperse. And the young man walking beside me, who was working with dr. King, said, major, give us a moment to kneel and pray. And the major said, troopers advance. I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a night stick, had a concussion at the bridge. I thought i saw death. I thought i was going to die. And when you were attacked by the police, when you were beaten, when you were almost killed, you didnt think a moment of responding, replying violently . No, never, because we studied the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence. One of the people that beat me on the freedom ride in 1961 in South Carolina came to my office later with his son. His son had been encouraging his father to do it. And he said, mr. Lewis, im one of the people that beat you and left you bloody. Will you forgive me . I want to apologize. His son started crying. He started crying. I started crying. He hugged me. I hugged him. He called me brother. I called him brother. And today hes the only survivor of the group of leaders who spoke up here on august 28th, 1963. Lets go up and look at the spot. Thank you. Good to see you. You have to find the spot. Where is the spot . Here it is. When you finished that speech you got a great ovation and you walked back to your seat, what were you thinking . Well, i was thinking to myself, how did it go . And i said to myself, i think it went well. And the young people in sncc, i got the reading from them. They were cheering and they were really, they enjoyed it. And they were glad that i made it through the speech i think. Do you know about the march on washington . Its the 50th anniversary, right . The 50th anniversary is august the 28th. We will celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary. He was standing right here where youre standing now looking out there. Thats the crowd. Are you in that picture . Yes. Yeah. Well, here he is. Thats young john lewis. Thats me there. It was good to be in the presence of lincoln. To be i felt very honored to be there on that day 50 years ago. And i feel honored to have an opportunity to come here almost 50 years later. Five, four, three, two, one. Testing, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. On that morning, august 28th, 1963, 50 years ago, i knew that i had to try to do my best, my very best. So, early that morning we came to capitol hill as a group. We went on over and met with the democratic and republican leadership. And then we came down constitution avenue. Walking . Walking. It was the socalled big six, plus four major white religious and labor leaders that had been invited to issue the call for the march on washington. Well, this is the picture i have of the leaders. Were you leaving capitol hill then . Here we were leaving capitol hill. It was unreal. It was unbelievable. When we got to this point, the people were already walking. And a sea of humanity, we just saw hundreds and thousands of people coming toward union station. And they literally pushed us toward the washington monument, and then on toward the Lincoln Memorial. On that first part of the march, it was the people, not the leaders. We were followers. Call out their names for us. Well, here you have young john lewis. 23, chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Mathew ahmann, who was from the Catholic Council for interracial justice from the city of chicago. And here is floyd mckissick. Floyd mckissick was the chair of the board of c. O. R. E. , the congress of racial equality. He was standing in for james farmer, who was the executive director of c. O. R. E. Well, farmer was in jail in louisiana and refused to come out of jail to participate in the march. And here is Martin Luther king, jr. A wonderful human being. He was my leader, my inspiration, my hero. I first met him in 1958 when i was 18 years old. This is Eugene Carson blake, who was head of the National Council of churches. And this young man here is cleveland robinson. This man was almost blind, but no one wanted to say to him, but you cannot walk with the group. And so he walked with us. This is rabbi joachim prince of the American Jewish congress. He was born in berlin and moved to america during the late 30s. He moved to newark, new jersey, and became a leader, a spokesperson for civil liberty, civil rights. And this is joe rauh. He was one of the unbelievable leaders in the naacp. And this is the unbelievable whitney young, who was head of the National Urban league. Right. Whos been a dean at the school of social work at atlanta university. Roy wilkins, the head of the naacp. Walter reuther, the head of the united automobile workers union. And this is a. Philip randolph. Yeah. He was born in jacksonville, florida, moved to new york, and organized the brotherhood of sleeping car porters. He was our leader. He was our dean. We called him the dean of black leadership. He was a principle of a man. So, when you look back, what comes to your mind . An awesome day. An unbelievable day. A moment in American History when people came together and heard and saw Martin Luther king jr. Deliver that magnificent i have a dream speech. I will never forget just standing on those steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out. There was a wonderful spirit. You looked out, just saw the signs from organizations, from church groups, labor groups, youth groups. It was black and white. I think it represented one of the finest hours in American History. What struck me about the speeches that unfolded that morning were that they werent just about segregation. They were about an egalitarian vision of america, white and black, that was part of the social gospel that all of you seemed to be preaching. That there was something larger than ending segregation, as important as that was. I believe i used a line in my own speech when i suggested we must seek more than mere civil rights, but we must seek to create a community. We must a sense of brotherhood. And the day i was there, we were trying to create and move us toward the creating of a beloved community. It was a universal vision that unfolded in speech after speech. It was an allinclusive message, a message for all americans. So it didnt matter if we were black or white, latino, or asianamerican, or native american. It was and thats what dr. King had the ability to do in his own speech. He delivered a sermon. And i think, in a sense, we all were delivering small sermons. He had the ability, more than any of us, to transform the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial into a modernday pulpit. And he knew he was preaching. So, what was going through your mind early in the morning . Early in the morning i kept thinking, is it going be okay . Is it going be all right . I was not concerned about whether it was going to be peaceful because i believed that the people, especially those coming out of the south, had been touched by the spirit of the movement. They were committed to the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. And so many of these people came from the religious community. They came out of churches. They came from synagogues. They came from temples. They were people of faith. And they believed, to have a rabbi, a minister, and other people that represented the essence of the social gospel. I knew it was going to be all right. But you know the city was tense. I drove in every morning, commuted from virginia. Usually the traffic is bumper to bumper, stop and start, creeping slowly along. But i sailed in that morning because 2 3 of the people working in the district stayed home out of fear of the violence that had been talked about. And as you probably remember, 15,000 paratroopers were called up on the ready. Police leaves were canceled, including for the suburban police. All liquor sales were banned in the city. They even stopped the Major League Baseball game from being played that afternoon. And the police, i dont know if you ever knew this the police were so nervous, that they rigged your sound system in case they had to take it over when violence erupted. So, you may have been calm, but there was a fear in the heart of the city that things were going to go badly. I didnt think there was going to be any violence or any disorder. It was the spirit. It was the spirit that engulfed the leadership and engulfed the participants. So many other people came like they were on their way to a religious service. It was like almost like a camp meeting. And a lot of the people dressed like they were going to church. It was almost spiritual to hear Mahalia Jackson stand and sing how we got over. And the place, in a strange sense, started rocking. So somehow and some way, it had been instilled in the very being of the participants that we must follow the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence. There are people everywhere as far as the eye can see, extending in a mile. And theres music, odetta, joan baez, bob dylan, Mahalia Jackson, peter, paul and mary. Celebrities, jackie robinson, paul newman, josephine baker, sidney poitier, lena horne, ossie davis and ruby dee, charlton heston, sammy davis, jr. , marlon brando. The celebrities were everywhere. But what seemed to have gripped you as you spoke, and as youve written and talked about, in a sense, was those thousands upon thousands of nameless, ordinary people who were out there. It was unreal, unbelievable. When i got up to speak, i could see the people, the young people. I can see those middle aged and older people. I can see some members of congress down near the foot of the podium. It was a sea of humanity. Were you intimidated . You were only 23. You had only been head of sncc, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, for what, a few weeks . Only a few weeks. And my first responsibility was to travel to washington. We had a meeting with president kennedy in the oval office of the white house. And we told him we were going to march on washington. You know, president kennedy didnt like the idea of hundreds and thousands of people coming to washington. And he said to mr. Randolph, who was our spokesperson, if you bring these all these people to washington, wont there be violence and chaos and disorder . And we will never get a civil rights bill through the congress. Mr. Randolph responded and said, in his baritone voice, mr. President , this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest. We left that meeting, came out on the lawn of the white house, and said we had a meaningful and productive meeting with the president of the united state. And we told him we were going to march on washington. Can you sum up what was going on in america at that time that led to the march, that had people like john kennedy worried, and people like you adamant about what had to be done . Well, the years leading up to the march on washington had been unbelievable amount of action on the part of the movement. People had been sitting in lunch counters, standing in at theatres. People had been arrested and jailed by the hundreds and thousands. People had been beaten. The signs that said, white and colored. White waiting, colored waiting. White men, colored men. White women, colored women. They were still around. Medgar evers had been assassinated in mississippi in june of 1963. Bull connor, the Police Commissioner of the city of birmingham, had used dogs and fire hoses on children, women in the streets of birmingham. Hundreds and thousands of young people, Young Children, had been arrested and jailed in the city of birmingham. People couldnt register to vote simply because of the color of their skin. Back in 1961, 62, 63, people had to pass a socalled literacy test in my native state of alabama. On one occasion, a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. Another occasion, a man was asked to count the number of jellybeans in a jar. Before he would be allowed to register . Register. And there was black doctors, lawyers, college professors, high school principals, maids, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, stood in unmovable lines all across the south. Were denied the right to participate simply because of the color of their skin. You lived a very frenetic schedule in the months leading up to the march. You were in all the hot spots, from arkansas to mississippi, alabama and north carolina, but in your speech you made a reference to danville, virginia. I remember you describing the authorities, the police in danville breaking through the doors of a church in order to arrest the marchers, the protesters there. That was common, wasnt it . Theyd seek them out, wherever they were . It didnt matter whether it was a church, a community center. It was the harassment, intimidation. They wanted to stop people, to make it almost impossible for people to exercise their constitutional right. We had to continue to say to people, you have a right to protest. Dr. King would say, you have a right to protest for what is right in an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent manner. And many of the young people that came out of the deep south, out of nashville, where we came under the influence of a man like jim lawson, we accepted nonviolence not simply as a technique or as a tactic, but as a way of life, as a way of living. We wanted to build what we called the beloved community, a community at peace with itself. In a sense where you forget about race and color and see people as people, as human beings. In sncc, we started calling ourselves a circle of trust. A circle . Of trust. A band of brothers and sisters. That you have to respect the dignity and the words of every human being. So you could not strike someone or hit someone, even have an evil thought or even consider. And we truly believed theres a spark of the divine in every single one of us and that you dont have a right to scar or destroy that spark. So, you must be respectful of every human being. You know, youve always had a way of refusing to let fear take control of your life. What do you owe that to . Someplace along the way, gr