Bill Moyers and Rep. John Lewis: 50 Years After the March on Washington, America Is a Long Way from True Equality

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REP. JOHN LEWIS: I don't think I was angry. I think I had a sense of righteous indignation.

JOHN LEWIS IN 1963: Let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution. But by and large, American politics is dominated by politicians who build their career on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. […] Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia?

BILL MOYERS: So what did you mean when you said, "Let us not forget that we are now involved in a social revolution"?

REP. JOHN LEWIS: What I was trying to suggest -- this is not child play. This is not something today and it's gone tomorrow. That we need a revolution of values. We need a revolution of ideas. We need to humanize. I didn't make it plain. I didn't make it clear. But find a way to humanize our politics, to humanize our political institutions, our business, our education institution and look out for the people.

Neither of the two major political party was being responsive to the needs, not just of African Americans but there was a lot of Americans had been left out and left behind. They were low-income whites, there were Latinos, Native-Americans, women, children.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963, was all-inclusive. It was not a black march. We wanted everyone to participate. We wanted to really, as I said before, to move toward the creation of an America at peace with itself, the beloved community, where no one but no one would be left out or left behind. And it didn't matter your race or your color.

BILL MOYERS: Your words got through. Your message took some hope, some shape when the Democrats with liberal Republicans started pushing the Civil Rights Act of '64 and the Voting Rights Act of '65.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: I think after the March on Washington and with President Johnson as president, represented some of the best days of modern America. The Civil Rights Act was passed, bipartisan effort. It was one of the fine hours for the Congress. As some would say, "We got things done. We accomplished something."

BILL MOYERS: I want to play a part of your speech that also got directly, subsequently, into the important legislation that came out in '64 and '65.

JOHN LEWIS IN 1963: We must have legislation that will protect the Mississippi sharecroppers, who have been forced to leave their homes because they dared to exercise their right to register to vote. We need a bill that will provide for the homeless and starving people of this nation. We need a bill that will ensure the equality of a maid who earns five dollars a week in the home of a family whose total income is 100,000 dollars a year. We must have a good FEPC bill.

BILL MOYERS: You call for the FEPC, the Fair Employment Practices Commission. It prevents private firms, government agencies and labor unions from discriminating against workers on the basis of race, religion or color. That wound up in the Civil Rights Act of '64.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: Well, you know, sometime you have to not just dream about what could be, you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of good will in power to act. And people responded. President Johnson listened. And members of Congress listened. And they responded. Today's a different day.