people, innocent people doing nothing at all, walking down the street, bam, bam, bam, please policemen jump upon them, beat them, in this hor inc. way. >> as the 50th anniversary of the voting rights march from selma to montgomery and bloody sunday was, protesters across the country today are calling for an end to what they say is rachel discrimination in the u.s. criminal justice system.

>> they would say we are going to knock on doors, being a machine yelling and screaming and making noise. >> another testament that there is more work to be done, video of racist chants sung by university of oklahoma fraternity brothers. >> where does this ugliness come from? it's scary to me that these young men who you expect more from or i expect more from. >> the tea party is not helping the country become post rachel either. bond says they are racist. >> they are wrong headed people doing wrong-headed thing, but i wouldn't compare them to the ku klux klan. >> the oeshl activist expressed outrage against lgbt laws. they helped me. why should i not help me? they helped me push the needle

forward i am eager to push the needle forward to them. >> i spoke julian bond in atlanta, georgia. >> we sit here today all days, the 50th anniversary of the selma march, march 21st, 1965. tell me about that day for julian bond. >> it was a magic day. i was not in selma on that day. but i was here in atlantaa, and. hearing about them by telephone. my job was to publicize to organize a student committee and let the people in the field know what was going on and to summon them to do something about it. >> in the sense, you were a forerunner to twitter? you were sending out the news that? >> you could say i was an early twitterer. >> the first tweeter of the era. tell me.

let's talk about that. now, with ferguson, with timir rice in cleveland, with what we saw of the horror of those fraternity brothers on the bus. how important are images, video telling the story? >> they are enormously important because they do show to a looking public what's going on, what people are doing, what's happening here in ways that you couldn't show them before. you could show photograph pictures of things but it would take a couple of days to get them out. but today, bam, bam, bam. whatever you want to see, you can see. >> so the selma march, the fact that the images went worldwide, how much of an effect did that have on the work that you all were doing on the ground? >> it had a tremendous effect. i mean it's almost i am measurable. you can't tell because here are these ordinary people, innocent people doing nothing at all, walking down the street, bam, bam, bam, please policemen jump

upon them, beat them in this horrific way. all the sudden the world sees it in ways the world could not see such things before. so it was just a magic tra transformation in the way people learned these things. >> was there a sense that you could say to the world, hey, listen. we are not kidding about this. this is really happening? >> absolutely. this is it. this is really happening. you see this. these are real people. this is happening to real people and you can see it right now. of course. i hate to keep saying magic, but it is magic. >> you are a veteran of the civil rights movement. you have worked at this all your life, and it's 2015, 50 years on. same thins are happening. the same atrocities. you talk about emmit till a little bit. his influence on you? >> his picture was put in jet magazine and the pictures of the

bloated corpse were just ugly, you willly pictures but to see them and know this is a real human being and here is the way he used to look and here is the frightening. happened? >> gee whiz, one year old earn he was. so... >> he was your age? >> yeah. >> like seeing someone in your classroom? >> someone like me, my age, who was the same age as i am. it was scary. >> getting back to selma march. you all had a purpose. you wanted to get the vote. that's a tangible thing. is there, in civil rights today, that same goal that's tangible usive? >> it's a tangible goal to get the story told and get it told quickly and get it told strongly, get it told fairly, let people know about it in ways they couldn't know as quickly as they could know before. so in those regards, it's a little different but it's the

same, at the same time, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. now, the world could see this thing happening in ways the world couldn't see it before. >> now, the world sees it and they react differently. the reaction is different than it was back then. >> yes. it was different. it's quick. it's quicker. it's as i say, bam, bam, bam, bam, in ways that the world couldn't appreciate it before. >> the reaction in the streets, the reaction in the media, setting aside the pictures and just the way the community reacts to something that they find to be horrific like some of these events we have talked about. how is that reaction different to what the bay -- >> you have seen this boy in charlotte'sville virginia, university of virg student. you see him and hear him say i am a university of virg student saying don't hit me. this appeal he makes is so real, it can't be rejected.

it can't be pushed away. >> let's talk about the organized response to things like that. ferguson, for example, seemed very disorganized in the way they responded to both the actual event and the grand jury and then the justice department is there a vacuum of leadership in black america and civil rights america? i don't think there is a vacuum of leadership. i think there is a vacuum of organized -- organization. these are not quite the same thing. in ferguson, the leadership was there. it was mobilizing people. it was saying, let's do something about this. let's raise some hell about this. today, things are not happening as quickly and are not put together as quickly as they were there then. >> yeah. if today somebody said, we are going to make julian bond the de facto head of ferguson response after it had happened, differently? >> i would have organized people

to march or protest in a particular way in a particular direction. i would have them saying, we are all going to knock on these doors. we are going to make this noise. we are going to do this thing right here. we are going to be a machine moving and yelling and screaming and making noise. and that is the difference i would make. >> we look back at the civil rights movement as students of it and people who weren't even there. we see people like yourself, like martin luther king, andy young. we could have a long list but when we look today, we see very often, jesse jackson and al sharpton. they? >> they are around they are around you look at the people who are the dreamers, who mobilize the sit in, the florida state conference. that's youth leadership, raising hell, shaking a lot of noise. they are going to make it again.

>> is the raising hell working? >> it is. it's not working as well as it might. but give them some time. this will give you some hell. >> you think it takes time? >> it takes a little time, yes. they have to get together, say we are going to do this, we are going to do that. you can't just say bam, we are going to do this thing. you have to figure out what you are going to do, what plans you have. you have to be organized in ways i think that often people are not organized today. >> we all see the video of these fraternity brothers at oklahoma state singing that song. we react a certain way. do you react in a particularly deplated way when you see that? >> i think my lord, do these kids ever learn anything? have they learned anything at all? where did they learn this? where does this ugliness come from? it's scary to me that these young men who you expect more from or i expect more from, they are college students after all.

why aren't they better trained? why aren't they better educated? idiots. questions? >> no. i can't imagine why they behave in the way they do. >> when you see video like the university of oklahoma students, do you think, god, i thought we beat this? >> i thought these things were not going to happen again. i thought this was done am when i see it and learn it's not done, that's the same bunch of idiots doing the same idiotic stuff over and over again, i on? >> selma is -- has come to mind for so many people because of the film that came out this summer. but at the time, sellment was a culmination of something. wasn't it? >> yes, it was. it was a culmination of a movement made up of many people working hard every day some doing that, some doing this, purring the needle faster and faster and faster. i don't think you quite have that any more. >> do you think we don't have that any more because they got

the vote? there is not one thing, for example, gay marriage, as soon as you get gay marriage, it becomes a bit more nebulous what they are fighting for with the vote that got the vote and then it becomes scattered? >> i don't think it's that at all. i think things we haven't got and haven't learned how to demand them in ways we demanded these earlier things, these earlier appeals. when we do learn how to do it, we will be right back in line again. >> let's talk about the film selma. it was a hit. it brought a lot of education to people. what do you think of the movie? >> i thought it korff better than it was. people like myself don't like any monvie. we don't like any of them. in this one, i particularly didn't like the portrayal to

president johnson. in this regard, he was a champion. he was not portrayed as a champion, but sort of a nit. he wasn't a nit the. he was a real great guy. >> in your estimation, did lyndon b. johnson impede or help facilitate civil rights? >> he helped it, push it forward. if it hadn't been for president johnson, wouldn't have the civil rights act, the voting rights act. just a succession of good things that happened when president johnson was president. true. >> what presidentses, aside from johnson, have had positive influences in recent history on civil rights? >> gee. it's hard to say because none of them have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on civil rights. if you take away president johnson, there is not a president who has been way up here in my estimation. johnson is way up here but none of the others are. >> is there someone who is surprisingly good that we don't

think about too often who did good things? >> no. >> no? >> no. there is none. >> let's talk about president obama then. you know, president obama walked across the edmond pettus bridge, a bridge named for a confederate general, an original member of the ku klux plan in alabama. tell me what that felt like? >> i watched it on t.v. like most people did and have walked across that bridge several times and hope to walk across it again. i was happy to see it i think it meant something positive that the black president of the united states has walked across this bridge. segregation was named after -- this bridge was named after a seg gregationist and a black president has walked across this bridge. suddenly pat of that has erased it in my mind.

>> barack obama, how do you view him through the prisonom of civil rights? he has had a difficult time because he has had a congress that has said no, no, no, to almost everything he wants to do so no matter what it is he tries to do, he can't do it because of the republican congress just does. he has had a real mess here where he can't do what he wants to do and what he needs to do. i don't think we know about president obama yet. with he need to give him time. >> he only has about a year and a half left. >> even after that, even after that, and see what he does, see how he behaves and see what he's... >> in the past, you talked about the tea party as being, you know, essentially racist. do you still believe that? >> yeah. absolutely. and they know it, too. >> what has their effect been on race relations in the country? >> it's been bad because they

are a negative element. thers taking their negativity and applying it to the american political system that's in not a good thing for the country. it doesn't signify that we are going to rise up. in fact,ing it makes us fall down. is it possible to compare them to what you faced 50 years ago? >> no. they are not quite the same thing they are wrong-headed people doing wrong-headed thing but i wouldn't compare them to the ku klux klan i face. >> you go back to the ku klu ku klux klan that you faced. what was the scariest time you have had in the movement? >> i can remember being in downtown atlantaa and picketing department stores that wouldn't serve black people, wouldn't give us food, wouldn't allow us to go in and get something to eat.

i felt real fear that these spindle-legged little bumsters, you know, real boys poised a real threat to me. luc luckily, nothing untoward happened but the threat was always there you said that obama is to the tea party what the moon is to a were space wolfe. what do you mean by that? >> i mean that obama is to the tea party what the moon is to the werewolves. >> thank you. we needed today clarify that. >> good. >> i am glad we were able to to the bottom of that? >> coming up, julian bond talks about another rights movement, the battle for lgbt equality. stay with us. ♪

you are watching "talk toays."

i am michael shore speak with civil rights icon, julian bond. >> looking back at the movement, even in the movie "selma," reading about it, knowing about it, it wasn't all harrowing and terrible. i have heard you in other interviews even talk about how it was a good time, the civil rights movement. talk about that. >> it was a wonder time. it was the best time of my life, to be in the civil rights movement, to be doing this thing, this thing, this thing, with this group of people, my colleagues people with the student non-violent coordinating committee with me, people who walked across the bridge with me. these people were just the best people, and i loved being with them. i can only hope i get to be with them again and again and again. >> as you get together with some of those people, as i am sure you do from time to time, do you shake your head sometimes and say, can you believe what's still going on? >> i say not only can you believe what's still going on? but can you believe we are still going

on? >> you are still going on. aren't you? taking tours through the south, teaching people about what you did thing, teaching at university do you feel moved to do that? >> very much so. i feel compelled to do it because i think it's one of those things, if i don't do it, who is going to do it? dues people and inspire a spark and think one day, i will hand this off to them. it may be next week or next year but i see that happening. >> i want to call your attention on a letter you wrote almost 50 years ago, julian bond democratic candidate for the georgia house of representatives. in it, you say that you want to talk about housing, getting better jobs, getting better pay and improving schools. 50 years ago.

and that was for thega state senate. has that gotten better? >> yes. the georgia legislature and the state of georgia is a better place than it was when i wrote that letter. it's not a perfect place. far from it, but it's a better place now than it was then. >> so wir not post rachel in this country? >> we are not post rachel. we are better we are better. >> what would define "post rachel"? and is it possible. >> i think it is possible but it's something, you know, you just some dreaming you are having. and if you are understood as dreaming, you understand dream. >> can you recount for me any interaction you had with dr. this? >> i can say we were best -- i can't say we were best friends or buddies. one time we were walking across the moore house college campus

and i said, doc, how are you doing? and he sell i am not doing with. you know employment is high. racism is well. segregation. i feel awful. i have a nightmare. i said turn that around. try, i have a dream. >> it came from you? you were the i have a dream guy? when you -- what brought you to the movement in the first place? what made julian bond wake up and say i want to put myself in harm's way and make it better? i was going to moore house college in atlanta, sitting in a drugstore having lunch. a student came up to me and said, have you seen this? held up a newspaper and says greensboro students set in for third day said have you seen this? i said, yeah. >> what about it? >> i said, great, good. said do not you think it ought to happen here? i said what do you mean we? you take this side of the drugstore and i will take the other. movement. >> so that was where? in

atlanta? then you were hooked. >> i was hooked. i couldn't turn back. >> you see the lgbt community as fighting for civil rights, too. you are a proud supporter of them. what draws you to that fight as well? because i worked in the civil rights movement with many gay people, many lesbian s they helped me. why should i not help them? they helped me push the needle forward. i am eager to push the needle forward for them. i want to help them. more. >> what would you say to counterparts in the gay rights movement about what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong? >> i don't know what they are doing wrong, but they are doing something so right it's amazing the speed with which the movement for gay rights has come to the country. bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. good for you. key going, brothers. keep going, sisters. keep at it.

>> people look at the civil rights movement and people in that community, the gay community, the latin 0 community, thing look at you as a hero. who were your heroes >> i have many, marry her 0s. the people i serve with in the student non-violent coordinating committee. names too numerous to mention now. people i marched with, went to jail with, did this and that and the other thing. the people who came before me, mine. >> tell me why? >> he is one of the martest people in the world. >> to read what he wrote and to understand the thoughts he went in to, wow. why can't i be like that? some day, i will. >> do you go the media is doing a good job of covering rachel -- >> no, not doing a good job of covering these kind of things, and i am not sure exactly what it is or why did is.

it seems like they are missing something. they are not telling the story the way the story should be told. they are not telling it all. they are leaving something out. i am not sure what it is. but i know i am missing something. >> do you feel like you had that something before and it's gone? >> yes, i think i had it. a media that told the story more clearly in the past and that is true today. not told better but, well, maybe even told it better than they told it today. >> still ahead on "talk to al jazeera" julian bond talks about when are he would like race relations to be 50 years from now...

>> at one time i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. >> as the amount of drugs grew, guns came in. >> the murder rate was sky high. >> this guy was the biggest in l.a. >> i was goin' through a million dollars worth of drugs every day - i liked it. it's hard to believe that a friend would set you up. people don't get federal life sentences... and beat them. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> the cia admitted it. >> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy...

>> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live... i am michael shore. this is "talk to al jazeera" our guest this week: julian bond, long-time veteran of the civil rights movement. >> 50 years from now, julian bond, where do you imagine when you close your eyes race country? >> i am not really sure. where i hope they will be is people will be saying, well, we have come forward more than i thought we would. i hope somebody will be saying that. if they say that, that will be okay with me. >> 100 years from selma? >> right. >> somebody says what do you want julian bond to be

remembered for when it comes to say? >> i want people to say, he was a race man. that was a man who cared about his race and wanted to help them as much as he could. >> you said race is history. you said history is race. not race is history. >> right. >> what does that mean? >> it means history is race because we are always learning history. we are always reading history. we are always seeing it, what's happening in history, and we want to look at it more and see what's happening. >> you are a race man? >> yeah. i am a race man. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> from going pro, >> i never know that was really a possibility. >> to becoming president of the us tennis association. >> we're about getting rackets in children's hands... >> building the game... >> ...sky's the limit for growing tennis in america. >> and expanding access to play... >> at the end of the day, it's about the kids... >> every tuesday night. >> i lived that character.

>> go one on one with america's movers and shakers. >> we will be able to see change. >> gripping. inspiring. entertaining. "talk to al jazeera". only on al jazeera america. >> this is al jazeera america live from new york city, i'm tony harris. european leaders talk about resettling tens of thousands of refugees. a defiant clerk still in jail in a kentucky county. and gun violence, members of the community are determined to find a solution.