Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California and NBC’s Pete Williams joined NOW on Friday to discuss the state of the American Dream 50 years after the March on Washington. More than 100,000 people are expected to head to the nation’s capital Saturday to commemorate the march.
A newly released clip of King’s appearance reveals the civil rights icon’s mindset at the time. King was not just concerned about social injustice, but political and economic inequality.
I think that we must face the fact that in reality you cannot have economic and political equality without having some form of social equality. I think it is inevitable, and I don’t think our society will rise its full maturity until we come to see man made to live together as brothers and that we can have genuine intergroup, interpersonal living and still be in the same kind of society we all long to achieve.
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Even though the nation has made progress on de juris racial discrimination, the American Dream is becoming more difficult for many Americans to achieve. The richest 1% now has a net worth nearly 300 times the average American, more than double the share just 30 years ago. Meanwhile, the average worker needs to work more than a month to earn what the average C.E.O. earns in an hour. This Sunday on Meet the Press, David Gregory will host a panel on the state on the American Dream 50 years after the March on Washington with Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
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