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Remembering the Selma Marches 50 Years Later
Aired March 07, 2015 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was standing up there, and the people started running.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all of a sudden, racism unleashed its brutality upon us.
WHITFIELD: Fifty years ago today, a moment in the Civil Rights Movement changed America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll never forget seeing hundreds of policemen with tear gas masks and state troopers on horses, and you could see dogs and policemen with Billy clubs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were really doing something so that our children would have a better life.
WHITFIELD: Today, we celebrate those who sacrificed so much in Selma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: We are having problems with Fredricka Whitfield out in Selma. We're going to have much more for you after the break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMELIA BOYNTON ROBINSON, MARCHED TO SELMA: Standing up there, and the people started running. A lot of people were beaten. Dogs were hit. And I just turned around to see, and wondered why they were beating them so. And I just couldn't -- I couldn't understand.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just don't see how anybody can say a man can fight in Vietnam, but he can't vote in the post office.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS: We are here, and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, we ain't going to let nobody turn us around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back to historic downtown Selma, Alabama. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We continue our special live coverage from Selma. It is indeed a time of remembrance, reflection, and even renewal. I've heard that from so many people who've come here from all parts of the nation.
And the president of the United States, too, will be here, along with the first family. They will be taking to the podium roughly an hour and a half or so from now, taking to the stage right behind me at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And then an hour after that, we understand the first family will be walking across the bridge. And then after they get to the other side, they will go to the National Voting Rights Museum.
And it's an eye-opening experience, let alone just the bridge. But also to go to that National Voting Rights Museum.
There have been so many tools available to help extend to people just the real education behind what happened 1965 from the museum and, of course, some of the most recent references have been from the movie, "Selma," despite the fact there have been some historical references that have been disputed, it has raised some awareness and even interest particularly from a younger generation.
This 50th anniversary indeed comes at a time that this nation still struggles with some issues, as it relates to race and voting rights.
CNN political commentator, Van Jones, is with me now.
Van, we understand that the president has a 40-minute speech.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Forty minutes.
WHITFIELD: He has written a good part of it as he likes to do. You were reminding us at the top of our broadcast. While he has speech writers, this is personal.
JONES: This is personal.
WHITFIELD: He was here in 2007. And he made reference to what these marchers did in 1965, opened the way for him to become a college- educated, ivy league, college-educated young man who became a state senator and then U.S. senator. And now his message will be, as a president of the United States.
JONES: It's amazing. It's amazing. And one of the things is, now you're seeing as people get ready for the president to come, you're seeing the senators flowing in. You're seeing Congress people flowing in. Usually a senator comes in, they look like a giant. They come in after these civil rights icons in wheelchairs, on walkers, and they're in awe.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JONES: You're seeing senators in awe of --
WHITFIELD: Yes. That's right. We saw many of the 100 --
JONES: We saw Mrs. Boynton herself.
WHITFIELD: -- congressional members who have arrived. JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: We saw former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy.
JONES: Tim Cook was here. Elizabeth Warren is here.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JONES: So you have some of the greatest leaders in the country. But they are awe-struck when they look at a John Lewis.
WHITFIELD: Right.
JONES: They're aw-struck when they look at some of these old people on walkers who were there.
WHITFIELD: And you mentioned the 103-year-old Amelia Boynton who was responsible for getting a call to Dr. King.
JONES: She got --
WHITFIELD: And saying there is a problem in Selma, people are not being allowed to vote, you've got to get here. And she's here today in her wheelchair.
JONES: In her wheelchair at 103 years old and just radiant. So the president comes into this moment, he's not speaking to this crowd. He's not. He is speaking to history. He's speaking to the ages. And, you know -- and he had his daughters with him.
I don't think people understand how important that is to the Obama family.
WHITFIELD: Yes, help underscore why that --
JONES: It's so important.
WHITFIELD: This is intentional for the president to include the entire family.
JONES: It's very intentional for the entire family to be here. He gives speeches all the time, the girls don't come. He wanted them to be here, he wanted them to be able to be a part of history and to understand -- you have to be here to feel the energy. There is an electricity here.
WHITFIELD: There is.
JONES: There is something about coming to Selma that you have to experience. And so that's important for him as a father to have his young girls here to take them to the museum. All this -- this is not just politics today. I hope people understand that, Fred.
Most of the people here, this is so far beyond politics. When you see senators weeping, you are in a completely different world and a reality. That's the magic of Selma.
WHITFIELD: You know, earlier I saw NAACP president, Cornell Brooks, in the crowd and I approached him and he said, you know, he was so impressed that the president would bring his daughters.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And he felt like the daughters being here also helps speak to his children of the same age.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And other elders who are here who have brought their kids, their grandkids.
JONES: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: I have spoken with people who have made this pilgrimage with their families.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Because they want to make sure that the youngest of the family understand what their grandparents, what their forefathers went through so that they could vote. Because still, a huge issue today, young people are not voting, are not taking it seriously. Like these civil rights foot soldiers who were in their early 20s and early 30s.
JONES: And the level of courage it took for them to vote. I mean, to be beaten to vote. To go to jail to vote. To have your house burned down to vote. And then -- and then people, you know, this younger generation, they have to be encouraged and reminded to vote, not just for the presidential.
I think the president is going to speak to that and he's going to speak to voting rights. I think it's going to be a powerful speech, and I think everybody here is going to be floored by what he does.
WHITFIELD: Fantastic.
Van Jones, thank you so much for being with us. We'll see you throughout the afternoon.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: The president's arrival maybe two hours or so from now. We say maybe because they took off from the White House about an hour late.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: But funny thing, Air Force One can make up time when it wants to.
JONES: I think that's true.
WHITFIELD: So we're going to see if they stay on schedule for 2:30 for the president to take to the podium behind me.
We'll have much more from Selma, and, of course, we're covering other news in the NEWSROOM out of Washington, D.C. with our Suzanne Malveaux. So for right now, let's go to break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back to downtown historic Selma, Alabama. We understand that the president's Air Force One has arrived at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. And then if they're traveling by ground, it should take them about 30 to 40 minutes to get here to Selma, Alabama, by way of U.S. 80 or whatever route that -- the motorcade does take.
It will be really fascinating to hear from the president himself when he arrives here, when he takes to the podium behind me at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, what it feels like for him, the first African-American president of the United States. The 44th president. And what it will be like for the then 25-year-old John Lewis, who took a bad beating on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 50 years ago.
He too will be joining the president on the stage to express his thoughts and feelings about what this 50th anniversary feels like. And what if you are the last living daughter of the great Dr. and Reverend Martin Luther King? Bernice King. I sat down and talked to her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So how do you characterize the last 50 years? And what do you see in the next 50?
REV. BERNICE KING, YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I think the last 50 years, we've kind of wandered around some things. I think people got consumed in individual pursuits and we forgot about the collective, and lost grounds -- in that collective we forgot about another generation behind us and the importance of continuing to prepare, teaching the lessons of the past, drawing from that and understanding that -- what my mother said about the struggles and living and process, freedoms never really won.
You earn it and win it in every generation. More importantly, I think the next 50 years is really going to be about economic equality.
WHITFIELD: That's not too different than 50 years ago.
KING: No, it's not. But it got cut short. In terms of his leadership. Daddy, he didn't get a chance to really -- he laid out the agenda, the blueprint, but he didn't get a chance to really work it. And it's got to be worked now.
WHITFIELD: So now 50 years after Selma, some people feel like that was an eternity ago, a lifetime ago. It really wasn't that long ago. But if there is a lesson, particularly young people you're hoping will learn from this anniversary date, what is the lesson you're hoping that they are perhaps not getting from their history books, not getting from movies, new releases, old releases? What's the lesson you want young people to get?
KING: It's not over. I know that sounds, you know, too simplistic. But in other words, that's not just history. That's today. Meaning, you have a role and responsibility in continuing the story. In advancing the cause.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Reverend Bernice King. And we saw her just moments ago walk into the crowd, continuing the story. In fact, that just might be one of the storylines that the president of the United States articulates when he takes to the podium behind me.
The president has landed in Montgomery at Maxwell Air Force Base. Air Force One has arrived. We understand that he will then be making his way to Marine One, so earlier I told you there could be a motorcade. Guess what, they change things up all the time. Instead of a motorcade, it will be Marine One that will take him closer. There are some air strips here near Selma. And then the president will be transported here into downtown Selma.
That, of course, still a mystery. A lot of that information being kept secret for security reasons, obviously.
We'll have much more of the president of the United States' arrival. And he will be greeted warmly, both figuratively. I think we're seeing the plane now as it makes its way into Montgomery. There you can see it right there. Sorry, I had a glare on my view finder there. It was difficult for me to see. But those of you at home can see Air Force One arriving there at Maxwell Air Force Base there in Montgomery.
The first family now making its arrival to Alabama. And then boarding Marine One before making its way here to Selma. It appears as though the president just might be on time for his scheduled 2:30 Eastern Time speech right here at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
The schedule, as we know it, after his speech, which may run roughly 40 minutes, the president expected to make comments about the responsibilities of younger generations. To keep that story, as Reverend Bernice King was referring to, keep that story going. And then the first family will actually walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
So much more of our live coverage from historic downtown Selma when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back to our live coverage here from Selma, Alabama. The president of the United States will be speaking at 2:30 Eastern Time at the podium right behind me at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. That is the bridge, of course, so historic, because of the 300 marchers who walked across who were met by Billy clubs and violence in 1965. Well, today President Barack Obama has a message, appealing, a message to the nation of the work that has yet to be done.
The president, along with the first family, has just arrived in Montgomery's Maxwell Air Force Base. You can see it right here on your screen. I'm going have to block the shadow here in order for me to see it as well along with you.
We're waiting for the president to descend from the plane right there, along with the first family. And then we understand that the president will then be getting on Marine One, and be making their quick jaunt from Montgomery to Selma. It's about 54 miles or so, but by helicopter, it's going to feel like a minute, just about, 15 or 20- minute ride.
And when the president arrives, he will see -- he will see that there are thousands of people here, many of whom live here in Selma and take the opportunity every year to come to the commemorative ceremonies. And then there are those who have been on buses, and have traveled from as far away as Minnesota to get here. They have traveled through snowstorms in the mid section of the country.
There are people I talked to who came from Arizona. Who came from the northeast. For some, it was a first time. For others, they have family connections here. And they wanted it to be a family experience. There have been so many who I have spoken to while being here in Selma who talked to me about being 8, being 12, being 11 in 1965, and in defiance of their parents' orders coming out to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, because they knew the civil rights struggle meant that one day they could have freedom.
What they equated it to was that perhaps no longer would there be -- there would be water fountains marked for coloreds or for whites only. That's what these young people knew. They didn't understand what it meant about voting rights when they were just 12 and 8 and 11. But they tell me that they were motivated by a movement, that perhaps they would have freedom. So in defiance of their parents' instructions, they came to the bridge.
And many of them said their parents didn't want them to because they were day laborers. And their mostly white employers would tell them, if your kids go out and be a part of -- part of the civil rights movement, if you're a part of it, you're going to lose your job. In fact, some people actually lost their homes. Their residences.
With me now is CNN commentator, Van Jones, who has been with me. He has talked to an awful lot of people here while we wait for the president to come off the steps there of Air Force One. He'll then get on to Marine One, he'll make his way to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and to this podium.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And it really is symbolic in so many ways. There are a lot of people who are looking back. But really, most people here want to look forward.
JONES: Yes. They really do. WHITFIELD: They are hoping the president's message help constitute
that.
JONES: I think so, too. And I think, you know, Eric Holder just arrived. And you know, we haven't talked that much about Ferguson, but for a lot of young people today who were coming of age, what happened in Ferguson, where those controversy about a young man --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: And there is the president and the first family now.
JONES: Here he is.
WHITFIELD: Coming off the stairs there.
JONES: Wow.
WHITFIELD: Van, perhaps you can see. We've got a lot of sun glare here on our monitor.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: But we're trying to look at it.
JONES: Look at how big those girls are. Those are some big girls. Remember how little they were at the inauguration?
WHITFIELD: Gosh. They're gorgeous and tall.
JONES: Remember that's a day when they were elected, they came out so little, now they have come of age.
WHITFIELD: They're young ladies.
JONES: They're young ladies now. You can't say girls. Those young ladies now are coming --
WHITFIELD: And they're so poised.
JONES: So poised. And Michelle Obama, mom-in-chief, has done such an extraordinary job of making sure that they are rooted -- you know, they have to do their own chores, they don't get waited on hand and foot. And they're going to have an extraordinary experience here today. They really are.
WHITFIELD: They really are. And it was intentional for the president.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: We talked about this earlier. Let's elaborate on it further. Intentional for the president to bring his daughters here because part of his speech is really about the responsibility that the younger generation should bear. JONES: Absolutely. And we do need to continue moving forward. I
think for the Obamas as a family, you know, let's not forget, I'm roughly the same age as the president. My mother was born in segregation. Not my great, great grandmother, my mother, my father, they were born in segregation. I was born in '68, the year Dr. King was killed. So this is fresh. This is new.
We forget. We're such a Twitter addicted, fast-paced social media culture, we forget how new it is.
WHITFIELD: It really is new.
JONES: That all of this is new. All of this is new.
WHITFIELD: So many times people think it's a lifetime ago.
JONES: No. My mother --
WHITFIELD: It was just 50 years ago.
JONES: My mother was born in segregation. My -- I had uncles who are part of the sit-in movement in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm from Tennessee, I'm from this part of the country. And so when you see white senators -- listen, I took a picture with a state trooper, and he was happy to see me, I was happy to see Alabama State Troopers. So this is going to be a big movement, I think, for the -- for the Obamas but also for the country.
The issues now that need to be addressed, you're talking about Ferguson, you're talking about how do we have better policing that's better trusted, how do we get away from having so many people going to jail for nonviolent offenses. These are the kinds of issues that the younger generation is taking up. I think having the girls here is going to help with that bridge.
WHITFIELD: And it's interesting, the parallels that are being made. It's not a distinct black and white parallel of Ferguson, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge or the struggle here.
JONES: Not at all.
WHITFIELD: And so it might be a little confusing to a lot of people when they hear that.
JONES: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Because they also think, wait a minute, you had unarmed marchers.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: In a nonviolent approach, even when met with violence, they stayed nonviolent. And they were trying to push for equal rights for everyone.
In Ferguson, sometimes people are a little confused about what part of the Ferguson experience is being compared to this.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And when I talked to Reverend Young, and he brought reference, he was talking about some parallels and they were fighting for voting rights here. And he was saying that in large part, voting rights, people taking advantage of the right to vote, should have been exercised more aggressively. And at the same time, there are the comparisons that we have heard from NAACP's Cornell Brooks, you know, talk about -- and Marc Morial with the Urban League, talk about police brutality.
It was Jimmy Lee Jackson who died not long before this Bloody Sunday march happened. And that really helped instigate because I was --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: That was the trigger. Right.
WHITFIELD: And that was the trigger for the march that King said, we're going to march for equal rights as well as voting rights right here on this bridge.
JONES: Yes. Look, I think that for the younger generation, African- Americans in particular, they look at their incarceration rates being so high, and they know that all kids, unfortunately, use drugs at the same level. And yet African-Americans four or five times greater. So they feel like that's not liberty and justice for all and they want to have a new civil rights movement to give them a sense of equality.
But what I think is so important is that for these young people now who have -- you know, most of them have marched peacefully. Most of them have used those same tools and tactics. Some of did not and got too much attention. But where we are, I think, with this next generation, is they have seen the movie "Selma." They're now watching right now, they're seeing Selma reenacted, and I think black, white, Latino, Asian, young people, want to make America better.
And the big takeaway is, whether it's people -- bring attention itself to Ferguson, whether bringing attention here in Selma, is getting involved does make a difference. That young people matter. It was a lot of young people on that bridge. They're old today.
WHITFIELD: Right.
JONES: They weren't old then. They were young.
WHITFIELD: Gosh, they were in their early 20s and early 30s.
JONES: In their early 20s.
WHITFIELD: Isn't that remarkable?
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: You know, the congressional delegation has made its way in. There are more than 100 representatives here.
JONES: Yes, beautiful.
WHITFIELD: Bipartisan representation.
JONES: And they have the leis --
WHITFIELD: And they have a leis. I love the story of the leis.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Because so many of us remember seeing in the black and white images of Dr. Martin Luther King wearing the Leis.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And that was to promote kind of inner peace and here we've got the president's birthplace of Hawaii, and they went in, wearing leis.
JONES: And they're passing out leis, these Hawaiian leis, these flowers, you see those pictures of Dr. King, he had those beautiful flowers. And they asked him why and he said I wanted to bring beauty forward.
WHITFIELD: And real quick, they're now on Marine One, I understand. And will soon be taking off from Maxwell Air Force Base there in Montgomery and making their way here to Selma. You and I will continue to talk. They'll be here in a minute.
JONES: I know. It's good. It is a remarkable thing. You know, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who's the young veteran, she's the congresswoman from Hawaii, wherever she goes she passes out the leis and she says aloha, and it's about respect, it's about honoring beauty, it's about honoring each person.
Well, Dr. King wore a lei, a Hawaiian lei.
WHITFIELD: I remember those pictures.
JONES: Now -- and you think about that, he was trying to embrace all Americans. Not just black and white. And that's so important now. Even in Alabama, we have a large Latino population that's growing. There was a very tough anti-immigrant bill that passed. African- Americans, Latinos and others said, listen, we think this bill is too harsh. They built a massive movement using those same nonviolent principles and they were able to push that law back.
Why? There is a magic in Selma. There is a magic in this movement. There is something about the moral witness that is infectious. So people, even Latinos whose families were not here then, they can reach back to that legacy, and people in this state will say, we know what it means to march for justice. We're going to march with you.
Those are the kinds of things that are happening, even here in the deep south, that people don't necessarily hear about. And I think this march, the 50th anniversary march, is probably the last big anniversary where you'll have some of these lions and lionesses still with us.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and --
JONES: And that's why it's so precious today.
WHITFIELD: It is good to see that this is a bipartisan effort in terms of representation. But at first, there was, you know, a little dust-up that there wasn't a Republican leadership.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Here. Now we understand that a Republican House leader, Kevin McCarthy, is here. I saw him, waved to him to come join us and talk if he could.
JONES: It's so important.
WHITFIELD: He'd going to make his way over here.
JONES: I hope that he does.
WHITFIELD: To talk a little bit more with us. But more than 100 delegates here.
JONES: It is so --
WHITFIELD: It is important.
JONES: It's so important because everybody has to remember, civil rights and voting rights were bipartisan. The Democrats pretend like it was just us Democrats. No, Republicans stood for those values, passed roadblocks, and passed them again and again. Every time the Voting Rights Act had to be renewed, it was done on a bipartisan basis, so it's very important we don't lose that in America.
WHITFIELD: All right, Van Jones, thank you so much and thanks for that reminder, too.
Again, Marine One, I think it has since taken off. We're looking at -- you were just a moment ago looking at the Edmund Pettus Bridge because the president of the United States will be making his way here by way of Marine One, along with the first family. And then, of course, at about 2:30 Eastern Time, he's expected to deliver his 40- minute speech.
We'll have much more from historic downtown Selma, Alabama, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back to historic downtown Selma, Alabama. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
You are hearing the choir from the Brown AME Church right behind me. Brown AME is just about four blocks from here, and that is the church that Dr. Martin Luther King and his fellow civil rights foot soldiers, John Lewis, Reverend Andrew Young, they all met. They met for weeks at that church, which happens to be positioned right next to a housing project.
And many of those foot soldiers who came here to meet at Brown AME Church, many of them slept with families who welcomed them into their homes in the projects next door. But I do want you to hear the reverent, beautiful, emotional sound of Brown AME just for a moment.
That is remarkable. That is sound that just kind of fills your body out here. And remember Reverend Andy Young, in my interview with him earlier, he said this was not a political movement. This was also a spiritual movement. And that indeed just underscored that very point.
And then you have the 44th president of the United States. Now 50 years after Bloody Sunday, the 44th president, who is also the first African-American president of the United States, who has just landed in Montgomery, Alabama. Boarded Marine One. And soon to be on his way, along with the first family, right here in Selma. They'll be taking to the stage right where the choir is right now.
At the foot -- well, right where they were, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And the president will have a message about looking forward, of course, reflecting, as well.
I have with me now CNN political commentator, Van Jones, and also presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, joining us from Dallas.
And gentlemen, this really is a remarkable setting.
JONES: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Here we are, historic Selma, Alabama, 50 years after Bloody Sunday.
And Douglas, if I could go to you first, because we're talking about the president of the United States who will be here. But he won't be alone, obviously. There are thousands here. But he will have his family and he'll be accompanied by the 43rd president, George W. Bush, and Laura Bush.
Explain to us why this is so poignant, so important for this president to reach back to a previous administration and be here.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Sure. First off, when you're just having --
WHITFIELD: Let me ask Doug.
BRINKLEY: -- that great chorus by -- of the American Methodist Episcopalian Church, the AME Church, was the freedom church because Dr. King was a Southern Baptist, people forget about the AME, but that was Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas' church, it was Rosa Parks' church, so the AME Church that you just had on screen is very important for what happened in Selma as the meeting spot. For Barack Obama, Bloody Sunday means a great deal to him. Taylor
Branche's biography of Martin Luther King was one of his favorite books. John Lewis is a hero to the president. In fact, when Barack Obama was inaugurated, he went over and hugged John Lewis and autographed a photo, and said, because of you, John, and without you, I would not be president.
So this connection, Selma, for this president, means a lot. He's mentioned Selma in one of his inaugural addresses. And to come here today I think is an opportunity to give a major speech, because of what's going on in Ferguson, and what Selma represents in America as a sign of hope, but also dealing with problems that we still need to tackle with race relations.
WHITFIELD: How major, do you believe, Van, this speech will be?
JONES: I think it's going to be huge. I think it's going to be a big part of his legacy. Also, you know, we just heard that beautiful music. Let's not forget the power of a president. Nobody remembers. 1963, with the march on Washington, the song, "We Shall Overcome," was a militant song. People thought it was too controversial to even sing on the mall. Two years later, Johnson takes the stage, after Bloody Sunday, and he says, we must overcome the legacy of racism and we shall overcome.
And when he looks into the camera and he says "We Shall Overcome," he legitimated -- only a president can do this. He legitimated this movement on the world stage. And so the power of a president, the power of music, the power of moral witness, cannot be underestimated.
President Obama has a chance today to do something few presidents do. He can make a connection between our most powerful moments in the past and most important challenges today. And I think you're going to see a beautiful speech from the soul of this president.
This is not a speechwriter's speech. This is a father's speech, this is a leader's speech, this is someone who believes in the cause that people bled on this bridge for.
WHITFIELD: And, you know, powerful can be used -- that word can be used in so many different ways here, Douglas, because there's going to be great symbolism, too, when you have President Barack Obama on stage with John Lewis. As well as former President George W. Bush.
Explain to us, why it is so important for a president to make a mark, to make comment about a moment, a page in history, such as this.
BRINKLEY: Well, President Obama has been thinking a lot about Lyndon Johnson and the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act last year. He went to the Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, and was just enamored with Johnson. He had told he was listening to some of the taped conversations of Lyndon Johnson. So to be able to come here today and be surrounded.
Remember, John Lewis, congressman from Georgia, is sort of the living symbol on the witness, the participant of Bloody Sunday. But you had nine people that were arrested, and it was a horror scene there that Lyndon Johnson watched on his television in the White House where it wasn't just being beat by clubs and whips. But, I mean, they were -- they even had a barbed wire that was cutting into some of the protesters here.
And that whole scene with the horses and the like. So what transpired on that bridge is a battle zone. But it's one that was for democracy, and John Lewis now has become the symbol. He lets kids touch his head, John Lewis, and you can feel the dent that he had on it from being clubbed that day. But with the movie, "Selma" out right now and people -- and Oprah Winfrey coming there, and -- this is becoming really an international event.
And I agree with Van. The president has a chance to -- and I'm positive he will give one of the great speeches of his lifetime, because of what transpired in Selma in the fight for voting rights is so near and dear to his heart.
WHITFIELD: At the same time, do you feel like there is a tremendous amount of pressure on this president, especially as he took office, there were so many voters who felt like he was going to be a fixer, a fixer for everyone, and particularly a fixer for black America. But he became the president of all America.
And so, Douglas, how does this president try to convey a message of fixing that applies to everyone, without also I guess ruffling the feathers of some who presumed that he would do more for the black community just by virtue of him being black.
BRINKLEY: Well, that's a good question. I mean, I think the president is going to talk about the unfinished business of voting rights and civil rights that Selma wasn't a cure-all. It was a moment. And he'll praise Lyndon Johnson, obviously. But I think that for Barack Obama, I mean, he has to talk about Ferguson.
There is a direct link when people write this chapter of the Obama presidency, the linkage to the speech today and what's transpired at Ferguson with that horrific report that the Justice Department has just brought on, and the president just a day ago said there are a lot of Fergusons. It's not just unique. Many communities are targeting African-Americans and it has to stop.
But keep in mind, at the core of your question, Barack Obama is still beloved by African-Americans. He has at least an 85 and 90 percent approval rating. So they never broke ranks with him. And so there will be a lot of warmth and love for the president felt at Selma by the -- the people that are survivors of the fights of the civil rights movement, but also the young people.
I will be curious to see if he at all thinks about or will mention what the bridge means. You know, Edmund Pettus was a racist, was a bigot, there's some movement underway to change that name of the bridge perhaps to John Lewis' or somebody else or something else. But it's something very ugly about it being this Jim Crow bridge, and perhaps the bridge now can start being seen as a healing spot around the world. And the president might be able to reflect on that some in his speech.
WHITFIELD: And Douglas, I know you actually recently wrote about that very notion and that movement. But you know, it's remarkable. I have spoken to so many people who live in Selma. Their perspective, very different. Black and white. But particularly black people right here in Selma, who say we have lived knowing that this bridge was named after a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. But if you change the name of the bridge, you change history.
And they said there was quite -- there was quite a lot of irony that these marchers, mostly black, and led by Dr. Martin Luther King at one point, would cross over and walk over the name of Edmund Pettus Bridge. And so they see that that irony is actually representative of great foreshadowing, and so it's remarkable, while there may be this movement, it is not within Selma, at least not among the people that I spoke with. And once you hear their reasoning, it is very profound.
Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much. Sorry, I said you were in Dallas. You're in Austin, Texas. I love the state of Texas.
BRINKLEY: Yes, I'm in Austin.
WHITFIELD: So apologies to you but thank you.
BRINKLEY: Mavis Staples.
WHITFIELD: Thank you so much.
BRINKLEY: Bye.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, fantastic. Well, thank you so much for being with us.
And Van Jones, thank you, as well. We're going to chat a little bit more. And Douglas, actually, I think we're going to be talking with you again.
Much more straight ahead.
Again, the president, Marine One, making his way, along with the first family, to Selma, Alabama. We'll have much more of our live coverage right after this.
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MALVEAUX: We'll have more special coverage from Selma in a moment, but first let's take a look at other news that we are following.
We begin in Russia where the country's state media is reporting two suspects are under arrest in the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Russian officials say that suspects are from the North Caucasus region which has been a horrible rebellion against Moscow for years.
Nemtsov, one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics was shot in the back one week ago. Now his daughter says she was not told of the arrest and has no idea who the suspects are.
In Madison, Wisconsin, overnight, protests erupt after a police officer fatally shot an African-American teen. The 19-year-old was shot after allegedly attacking police who was responding to a complaint. City officials are urging restraint. Madison's mayor spoke about the raw emotions in the community.
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MAYOR PAUL SOGLIN, MADISON, WISCONSIN: It's an enormous tragedy. We had a family that's really hurting, and we got a city and neighborhood that's feeling pretty well hurt itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: An outside agency has been brought in to investigate the incident.
And Senator Robert Menendez, a top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is responding to revelations that he's facing criminal corruption charges. The Justice Department is alleging Menendez used his office to push for the business interest of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts. Overnight, the New Jersey senator denied any wrongdoing.
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SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D), NEW JERSEY: Let me be very clear, very clear. I've always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law. Every action my office has taken in the last 23 years that I have been privileged to be in the United States Congress has been based on pursuing the best policies for the people of New Jersey and of this entire country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Investigators are focusing on plane trips Menendez took to the Dominican Republic in 2010 as a guest of a donor.
And, tonight, Hillary Clinton speaks in Coral Gables, Florida, at a Clinton Global Initiative conference, and it's possible she could address the growing controversy over a private e-mail account she kept as secretary of state.
Clinton will take part in a panel moderated by Larry Wilmore, the host of Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show."
And more of our special coverage, the Selma marches 50 years later, after the break.
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WHITFIELD: Well, because of the persistence of news photographers and news reporters, those horrifying images of Bloody Sunday moved a nation and the world. One of those television correspondents who was here, March 7th, 1965, CBS's Bill Plante. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL PLANTE, CBS CORRESPONDENT: I was here the night, in Marion, Alabama, which is not too far from here, when there was a night march. They tried to keep the news people out. A few of us did get in. And we stood there for a while, but, you know, I don't know, two minutes, and they turned out the street lights, and then they started wailing on us and the demonstrators.
And that was the night that a young man named Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed. We think protecting his mother. And he didn't die for about eight days, but the shooting was the spark that set off the idea for a march to Montgomery to protest to Governor Wallace the way his troopers treated Jimmy Lee Jackson and to ask for voting rights.
WHITFIELD: And we know the civil rights foot soldiers prepared themselves for confrontations, but they wanted to maintain nonviolence, but as a journalist, how did you prepare yourself just in case you found yourself in the middle of the melee?
PLANTE: You didn't, I mean, you just ducked. Because that night in Marion, Alabama, when Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot, there was a number of people including reporters and cameramen who got clubbed. Dick Valeriani who worked for NBC News was whacked in the back of his skull and had six stitches.
They didn't care. We were just -- we were just as much a hindrance to them as the marchers because we were getting the story out.
WHITFIELD: And people did not want the story out, and, really, these images from Bloody Sunday is really what awakened, in large part, a nation and a world.
PLANTE: You bet. I mean, most of the nation in those days had no idea what it was like in the south. And you grew up in the big city like Chicago as I did, you might know that there was segregation. But you didn't see it every day. It wasn't in your face all the time. It was maybe on the other side of town, and down here, then, segregation was the law, not literally, but in fact.
WHITFIELD: Did you ever think at the time that your reporting of this story would also contribute to helping to change a nation? Help promote the change of law, a way of thinking?
PLANTE: I think what we gathered was that by making it public and making people aware, that probably some things would change, and they did. It was shortly after Bloody Sunday that Lyndon Johnson made that speech, one week, in fact, where he called for a voting rights act and said on television in front of Congress, "We shall overcome."
WHITFIELD: Does this bridge look any different to you? Does it strike any particular memories, now 50 years later for yourself?
PLANTE: I have to say that it looks just exactly the same as it did. And, you know, it was a while back then before I realized that it was named for a confederate general who was also a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
WHITFIELD: Right.
PLANTE: And it still is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: CBS's Bill Plante, and Bill Plante has a one-on-one sit down conversation with the president of the United States here in Selma. You will see that later on this weekend.
We have much more straight ahead in our special live coverage from Selma, Alabama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was standing up there, and the people started running.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all of a sudden, racism unleashed its brutality upon us.
