28 Aug 2013 — Marking the 50-year anniversary of the March on Washington, a watershed in the civil rights movement that motivated Congress to take action on inequality, Peter joins The Takeaway host John Hockenberry for a roundtable with guests Farai Chideya (writer-in-residence, NYU’s Journalism Institute) and George Packer (staff writer, The New Yorker) to discuss where we are now and where the next fifty years could (or should) take us.

Marchers in 1963 made their demands clear: fair labor standards, decent housing, desegregated schools, a higher minimum wage, and job opportunities. Despite a half-century’s progress, many of these basic needs remain unmet for too many Americans. While social equality is much improved from what it was, there is no denying the pain of income inequality in our current economy.

During the discussion, Peter focuses on education as the transformative key to leveling the playing field, improving lives, and ensuring economic growth. Currently, he says, “If you’re born in the United States in the top 25 percent of the income distribution, you have an 85 percent chance of going to college. If you’re born in the bottom 25 percent of the income distribution, you have an 8 percent chance of going to college. That is not equal access to opportunity.”

But in answer to the question of whether we are past a point of no return, and despite his assertion that we are a nation that’s lowered our expectations, Peter remains optimistic. “I’m in the business of education because education is about transforming people’s lives. We’ve got to pull people into the leadership class from the bottom of the income distribution. That’s the key to the future.”

listen to audio of the complete roundtable (Full segment 00:08:19)

Photo Credit: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963. United States Information Agency/Wikimedia.