Featured speakers will be john lewis. Back in 1963 he was the leader of the student nonviolating committee. Nancy pelosi will also be speaking today along with the families of Trayvon Martin and emmett till. Well all get under way later this morning and checking in and bringing you the latest proceedings throughout the day. The panel here in new york. Amanda turkal for huffingtonpost. Com, evan White House Reporter for buzzfeed. Com and liz winstead cocreator of daily show and author of the book. Thank you for joining us. Seems like the entire political world is in washington, d. C. , glad we could see some people up here. I guess i just sort of start with your thoughts, amanda aama about 50 years later it says something that there is still a need for another march on washington, also says something about the progress we made that one of the speakers this week at the events will be the nations first africanamerican president. Its really exciting that president obama is going to be speaking this week. Spoken about race lately with the Trayvon Martin case. When he speaks about race, its some of his most powerful speeches. He speaks very personally and he tends to get out some of the more wonaspects he falls into. We focused a lot on sort of racial equality and racial progress from the first march and a lot on economic equality and progress and as youve seen were still very, very far from there. That a big part of the march. Blake, you have sxhaut somewhat of a background in politics. I wonder from the standpoint from people around barack obama, trying to get him ready for this moment. Hes going to be speaking where Martin Luther king spoke 50 years ago. How do you think hes preparing for this and his staff is preparing for him. It almost seems like an impossible challenge. This held up as one of the great speeches in American History and which is funny as a side note because we look at it as this iconic moment in American History and everyone rallied around how that was a great moment and at the time, this was a dissident act that much of the white establishment, many of the people in america were not supportive of this event and its important to recognize that history. That being said, to answer your question, barack obama does have a very tall order ahead of him to try to match the moment, but we know in the past, as amanda said, his oratory skills have never been in doubt in terms of the preparation. Look, you cant try to do what the king and other people did that day. He has to be his own speaker and he will rise to that moment. You always wonder about these things, too, liz. We think back of the march of 1963 and the way i taught it in school growing up. Everyone gathered to hear Martin Luther king speak and he gave this great speech but the march on washington was so much bigger than that. He was one of many speakers and no one went there and expected to be a move by Martin Luther king. So many other people participating and i think we look at the program this weekend and we look at whos talking and what is being discussed. The message here is broader than just what we remember Martin Luther king talking about. I think the thing im really excited about is we get so textie, facebookie, twittery and you go to a march and become part of a group of people who are reflecting on what it means to stand up for other people. We talk so much now about takers and all of this stuff. The people there, a lot of times their first march and their first time experiencing that and its really, really powerful. So, im really excited to have people do a reset and a reconnect and grow up in an environment like this. Covering politics. The effect of such a polarized country right now. The division between the two parties so clearly drawn. And more drawn than they were in 1963 and do you think watching all the people gather today and over the next few days, something that could have an effect on the political system right now . As a system exists, im not totally sure. Going back to what we talked about earlier and obama and what he might say and what he might do. We previewed this. Coming down through scranton talking about college and he did a town hall yesterday where he kind of previewed a little, he talked about race and gay rights, as well. I think its something that ties him maybe to the Martin Luther king speech is theyre both pretty positive about how Race Relations in the country. He spoke about trayvon as amanda said. But the core of that speech was really about i think the country is sort of Getting Better and bending towards more equality. Thats the kind of thing youll see him say and the kind of thing hes been saying and thats what people who care about this issue might help change the political calculus. Theyre hoping as more people sort of rallied to the cause of equality that its going to shift as maybe pick up those wallets and divide us so politically. So much we can talk to about a march for jobs, as well, back in 1963 and, amanda, you talk about this, the economic component of the message still relevant today and i guess when obama has had Great Success when he talks about, when he talked about race and the progress and sort of an optimistic message of getting to a place that were all equal opportunity and that seems to go over well and when you start getting into the specifics, this is how well combat economic inequality and system right now is not as universally ready for that. Yes, i mean, people want to see progress. But how you get there is what gets tough. So, i dont, this isnt going to be a state of the Union Address from president obama with his specific policy prescriptions. I think he will tend to be positive. He did that during the 2008 campaign when he was caught up in the Jeremiah Wright scandal and a lot of it was talking about the progress and where the country is now. But, you know, i think president obama will use this, though, to sort of frame and explain why he is doing, you know, on College Affordability and raising the minimum wage that he wants to. This is more of a conceptional speech rather than, heres what i Want Congress to do today and heres republicans obstructing it. Were coming up on the 150th anniversary of lincolns gettysburg address. The president has been invited to take part and speeak there, s well. The i have a dream speech and gettysburg address, youre going to show up and do both in the same year. No pressure on that. But he is, i you know, i will say, we think of recent president s and Ronald Reagan being the great communicator. Bill clinton in certain settings and in a formal setting you think of Oklahoma City in 1995, he brought out the best in the country there. Bill clinton was more better in less formal settings, i think. Barack obama and Ronald Reagan are really the only two president s i can think of maybe since like fdr awho would rally the nation with their words. I think its a luxury to have. When you have that skill, whats really nice about it, when you take to the podium, the sigh of relief that one feels just as somebody taking in the information that the order is going to make sense, be clear and be inspiring. It is a great advantage to have because you arent going to, is he going to sweat and go for the water and is he like a mess . To really have that person, to have that in your pocket before the words pass your lips is more important than people think about. These are the things we end up remembering presidencies for, too. You can look at the policy record of any administration, but sort of these iconic moments. Sort of one of the reasons i think republicans have had Great Success over the last generation of reviving Ronald Reagans legacy and the most popular in America Today is probably Ronald Reagan. If you go to a Republican Convention and go to the events where theyre playing videos and theyre playing Ronald Reagan at normandy and after the challenger explosion and play tear down this wall, mr. Gorbach gorbachev. The power of the ordatory and i dont mean to trivlize it, i think they speak to higher ordeals and asspirations and an important part of the presidency. Very few president s have it. Not just the presidency. Part of the reason were talking about this today is the iconic moment in dr. Kings speech, i have a dream. There were ten other speeches that day that was riveting and very important and this was a very, very important event. But it is the folk lure that develops. Are there other messages from 1963, you know, besides Martin Luther kings, we talk about the legacy of the march that may have been a bit forgotten. Things go better with. The other thing im looking forward to. I think hes speaking this morning, john lewis. An amazing story. This is somebody who helped organize the first, the first march in 1960. 23 years old. You look at the ages of some of these people back then. Im struck by the youth of the people who organized this. In fact, well talk to one of them now. Folks, she is in place. She was on the staff for the 1963 march of washington for jobs and freedom. She joins us now live from todays march in d. C. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us. You helped organize this 50 years ago. You are here again today and i just kind of want to know, what are you thinking about right now as you get ready for the 50th anniversary . First thing im thinking about is a lot cooler than it was august 28th, 50 years ago. Then im looking out there. Im dpoeg going to be doing the thing as i was doing then. As a member of the staff i was looking out from behind the statue or near the statue. And as far as the eye could see, i couldnt see to the end of the people. Now, there are a lot of people here gathered now, but we will s see. And im sure, and im sure there will be many who want to come simply to commemorate this 50th anniversary and, frankly, to raise many more causes than we ourselves raised. There was only one cause then. The overwriting issue on the United States of america then was race and racism. Right. And it was, you know, within a year of the 1963 march and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a year after that, Voting Rights act. You are also part of the longterm legacy because of the equal Employment Opportunity commission was one of the demands from the march and you were the first chair of that, right . Well, it was created a year later, actually. With the establishment of title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And the amazing thing to me, at least, when you consider that i was a law student then was that not 15 years later, i would become the chair of this commission, which was of overriding concern to the black community. Remember, the genius who organized the march had been a mentee of randolph. The head of the march. And randolph had threatened a march on washington in order to get a Fair Employment Practices Commission and he got it without a march. Because fdr gave in. So, you can imagine that since the, since world war ii, black people had been carrying the demand. We not only want jobs, they got jobs out here. But we cant get those jobs because, if you are black and go for a job, north, south, east or west they can look into your face and say, we do not hire black people here. So, that was the greatest concern of the march, along with, of course, the notion of a comprehensive Civil Rights Act which we finally got by 1968. And you mentioned the name rusten and you worked with him on his staff. He was, you know, one of the chief organizers of the march in 1963. I feel hes one of those names that you look at all the big civil rights names from that era, hes probably been forgotten a little bit, maybe more than some of the others. I wonder if you can tell us about him and what it was like to work with him. Its a name that really shouldnt be forgotten because in a very real sense, i can tell you i dont see how the march could have been organized without rustin. There was no nobody who had the experience to do it. He put together a lifelong act of activism. I was one of young people who gathered around byrin. The great strategist. The man who went on a freedom ride in 194 2. People were impatient that we were in the streets for ten years and had nothing to show for it. I was in the march. I was in the mississippi delta when i got a call from friends who say bayard said if you want to work on the march, its going to happen. Get yourself on to a plane and come to new york. And thats how i got to be on the staff of the march. One of the seminole experiences of my lich. 50 years ago today. Well return to todays commemoration of the march later in the show. President obama to do something about the horrifying carnage in syria. Anything he can do . A live report is next. Can become major victories. Im phil mickelson, pro golfer. When i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. 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I had my reality check when id be sitting there with my friends who had their verizon phones and id be sitting there like mines still loading i couldnt get email. I couldnt stream movies. I couldnt upload any of our music. Thats when i decided to switch. Now that im on verizon, everything moves fast. With verizon, i have that reliability. Im completely happy with verizon. Verizons 4g lte is the most reliable and in more places than any other 4g network. Period. Thats powerful. Verizon. Get the nokia lumia 928 for free. Obama Administration Officials are weighing potential military responses to the conflict in syria after they accuse the regime of using chemical weapons in an attack outside damascus on wednesday. Well, the u. S. Investigation into the attack continues, senior officials told nbc news yesterday that they believe the syria military did, in fact, use chemical weapons against the Syrian People earlier this week. Today president obamas top advisors will meet at the white house to discuss how and when the u. S. Military might respond. Administration has not discussed putting boots on the ground or establishing a nofly zone, according to a Senior Administration official. For more now we go to Foreign Correspondent who is live in cairo. Ahman, i want to ask you about the reports overnight and this morning about warships being put on the ready by a defense department. Not sure what to read into this, but do you have any information, is this a sign of something imminent, maybe. Well, by all indications, there is no clear sign yet that there are any operational ord, if you will, to respond militarily to what has happened inside syria over the course of the last several days. However, defense secretary chuck hagel did hint at the deployment of these forces or repositioning of these forces off the eastern coast in the mediterranean and that will certainly allow syria to be in the vicinity of certain strike capabilities of the u. S. Enabled ship that are there, if that is an option. It seemed more according to the defense secretary and media reports that they were being ps positioned there to give president obama an option if he should order a military response. There has been reaction from the region coming out in terms of any possible western intervention inside syria. The Senior Iranian lawmaker really criticized the deployment of u. S. Forces. In fact, he said if there was a military operation against this syrian government, that would lead to allout war in the region and it would certainly be a war that would not end favorably to the United States or israel. So, already the reports that, in fact, the u. S. Has deployed some assets off the coast of the mediterranean has drawn a sharp response from some of syrias closest allies. That has been one of the sticking points throughout this entire conflict is to try to get Multilateral International efforts to resolve the conflict one way or another, steve. Thanks for joining us. I want to bring in now William Dobson who is the politics and Foreign Affairs editor at slate. Com and middle east autocrats have ferned the president s judiciousness on syria into an effective weapon for murder. Will, thanks for joining us. Youre very critical of the administrations reserve when it comes to involving itself in syria. I guess i look at this as sort of, im as horrified by anybody i saw this week and what i have been reading for more than a year now, i also look at what happened in iraq and i look at afghanistan and i say, isnt one of the lessons that when we