I do feel that if we are to be truly Americans and citizens of this nation, then we must not

have any barriers standing before us on the basis of race.

Fifty-seven years ago this week, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went on NBC's Meet the Press

to talk about the event that he and other activists had been planning for months.

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Dr. King, we often hear it said here that while the Negro Drive for equality is a justifiable

movement, that in the last year the Negroes have been pushing too hard and too fast.

Do you find any substantial reaction among white people to this effect or does it affect

you in any way in the conduct of your movement?

There may be this reaction among many whites in this country.

I'm sure that many whites, both North and South, have the feeling that we are pushing

things too fast and that we should cool off a while, slow up for a period.

I cannot agree with this at all, for I think that can be no gainsaying of the fact that

the Negro has been extremely patient.

We have waited for a well-known 345 years for our basic constitutional and God-given rights.

And I think instead of slowing up, we must push at this point and we must continue to

move on.

And I'm convinced that our moving on will not only help the Negro cause, so to speak,

but the cause of the whole of America, because the shape of the world today just doesn't

permit our nation the luxury of an enemy democracy.

Three days later, Dr. King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looked out on

a crowd of 250,000 people and began to speak.

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