and to some extent the march continued that sort of liberal turned. by the same token because of this emerging -- because of something like the watts riot and the controversies over the morning and report we're starting to see the language of backlash, the phrase backlashes just aren't developed as a buzzword. some whites are sort of increasingly alienated. they think blacks are moving too fast. the civil rights of man is achieved what it should. there were going to come.

this bed a couple of days. it's impossible the characterize white america could revert talking about a huge swath of people. you really do see everything across the political spectrum from those who embrace the notions and those who say their civil rights activist, we've been fighting for black power all along. other liberal whites to say we're starting to drift away from the ideals. they tend to find a movement in terms of particularly nonviolent action and bringing integration. when such integration is irrelevant. and then you've got a growing voice of the new right to read more and more conservative suzie the civil rights movement as moving too fast, tie it into a

broader expansion of liberal programs. it is the political move that will help to elect richard nixon to the presidency. the political move that is elected ronald reagan to be governor of california right about the same time. >> and you present fascinating glimpses of this mind set on the conservative right that allows of backlash, and we are dealing with it to some extent, obamacare or illegal aliens, the racial and actions, at his nationally on the back of this law and order racially coded backlash. but telos before we go to break what inspired you to write this book. of all the episodes what inspired you read this book? a decent -- political history of

a special working with treasurys since closed reading of these different perspectives. when in some ways a narrow story that follows a march from memphis to jackson. as a set of characters, but it should stop in so many different directions and tells us so many things of what the civil rights movement was. i sort of saw this as a key way to a tell a story. a friend of mine called me from the bookstore in new york seven or eight years ago and said, want to read a book about the civil rights movement. not a historian.

what books to read? and it was kind of our questions answered because there are all sorts of -- biographies, textbooks, but no one but that for me did what i thought an interested wipers and one to read. in some ways you could argue that this book is my answer to this question. >> one of the favorite quotes in my mind, always read the book that you would have liked. that is an interesting inspiration. okay. we will be back. some. >> independent scientists looked after was on the market and found the gene that was normally silent was switched on. that gene could lead to it in halogen. you may have alleged reaction and someone you know may die from eating the corn that is genetically engineered and labeled as containing analogy, but the process of genetic engineering created a switch out of the dormant gene in a change of 43 others as well as changes

in the shape of proteins. a sevenfold increase. again, this was not intended. this was the back rows side effect of the process of genetic engineering, the process that's used to create the soil and corn and wheat. here are the organizations. the national academy of sciences, the city authority, the american medical association, no problem with cmos. all of these part of a conspiracy. the reorganizations, a detective organization in europe which is anti gm no. with a global warming is

something like that set him and they say a reasonable risk to human health and environment. >> how genetic and modified food . this we cannot book tv the los angeles times festival books doctors and panels on the realities of war, feminism, journalism, world politics and finance saturday starting in in and sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. and american history tv, a georgetown university professor on title nine, discrimination against women in sports, the education eminences 1970 to 78:00 p.m. and midnight line. half of an.

>> the past as a physical place or a symbolic place in history. how does this march marked historical crossroads? >> the civil-rights -- it is mostly still in the popular mind of these associated with the tenants of nonviolence as its core goals. underneath that is a simmering current, the grass-roots organizers. more about positions of power positions where they can lift themselves up. those can be intertwined, of course, what they're not necessarily side with the same thing. as a crossroads. black power launches this new generation sought by the

activists, it gives them a name, a sense of the movement, ideas that have been out there in the crystallized in this. and black power, you can argue back. for blacks to achieve political power and unify their own communities and nations. there are also those, the rejection, non-violence as a strategy. the violent revolution, but at least if you want to be seen on an equal footing in society the

core goal of integration, working with the established political party. so coming to the march, an independent third-party. the choices were he obviously was going to integrate. the democratic party. so why enervate into a party that's hostile to your interest? organizer on political party to mockery a black stripe. black majorities, whether that's in harlem or just outside of chicago, the mississippi delta, organize those blacks and majorities. use that to leverage the political power as an independent force. >> and what element? how intentional is totally carmichael? here is this march and this will be a platform to a and by the black power missouri got so frustrated with the march that

black power emerged. prexy came to the march with these ideas go with this message, even with the slogan of black power soon after the shooting of meredith, it goes back to the atlantic to talk to the central committee, the governing body the direction a black power, and he uses the slogan says. even before the famous rally, but he does not use it as a slogan. it doesn't say what we want? until midway through the marsh. and that's on purpose. he has organized for a long time dating back to the early 1960's. lots of local people, advanced organizers said this is the best place for us to use this slogan and capture. emma black power is used in the way its projected and immediately becomes a controversy and something that

inspires. many african-americans, they remember that have this debt from iodine have -- there are cross resolved through the delta . not a fork in the road, but a crossroad. whatever choices you make, and enduring consequence. so and now the slogan of black power avail, a travel down that road. >> what has become the fate of black power of the slogan as as an ally. >> that's a complicated

question. there is no single definition. it really depends on the responses of those who view black power. so for many people love for many liberals and conservatives alike face of black power as a up the trail. they saw this as working against what they had been fighting for. it did not understand the thrust . applied power has a lot of positive consequences as well. as of generation of scholars are emphasizing these points. we talked about political organizing. black officeholders, black mayors, black shares. depends on the notion of black unity. you also have to think about black power in cultural terms said. if it encompasses the ideas of taking pride in your heritage, culture, your appearance and

identity, that might be the most enduring legacy. the notion of black is beautiful, the notion of black history is being an important aspect of american history in its own right. left the sheets often so many different directions, cultural, political, positive, negative, a unified message and an alien 81. constructive slogan for achievement but also a destructive slogan. it is a complex sloven. >> that is really fascinating. and one of the things that is striking about this book is its physical, kinetic, hitler best quality. >> i saw a pretty early on the basic structure. the natural structure, as starts one place and moose. stores along the way and it

ends. in that sense it's like a biography. you know where you'll start and where you will end. within that their stories to tell. that structure, i can sort of see from the beginning what developed over the course of the research was that with each chapter, which each sort of key instance along the march that was an opportunity to talk about some other dimension of not only the march, but the broader civil rights movement that gives me the opportunity. within mississippi the political dynamic, the struggles that black people faced a registered to vote and also within black politics there those who work for the naacp, who wants to ally with white sand are pulled into the democratic party and also a group called the mississippi freedom democratic party carried at the same time running in and democratic primary says. so it animes that discussion. when they get to granada, mississippi they do a demonstration where they put an

american flag on top of the statue of confederate soldiers. and the whites see this as the desecration. that gave me an opportunity a talk about visions of the civil war and now they're still animating these different identities and the different definitions of history shaping how black and whites see the place of citizenship in america. when they get to the delta is a chance to talk about black power when they get to the jackson this is the end of march. and the story is lost. they're is a dynamic quality moving further and further south. to get back to the question to

my head and he of abundant media coverage. local papers, international media, magazines, newspapers and also because civil rights organizations keep their papers and correspondence and records. there are also records that can be found in the personal papers. there's also march that was under surveillance. fbi, mississippi highway patrol, and a group called the mississippi state sovereignty commission which was an organization founded in the 1960's with the expressed purpose of how to preserve racial segregation. it included a public relations on the prison in mississippi in a positive light and it also included a surveillance arm that had an informant on the march was part of the civil rights and a circle was reporting back to the state of mississippi, classified as informant expiry i

don't know who he is, but he or she produced a very detailed reports of what was going on in meetings among the civil rights leaders. that was a complex source. after reading through the eyes of mississippi state officials. sometimes they even make up stuff, but it is an important source for understanding the different ways in which the march was being watched. in the last major aspect of the research, talking to people who marched in indy. i interviewed about a hundred people. and what that really brought to the store was the human dimension. this was not just a national story about political conflicts or political ideas of the story about from which the coming of age. for others it was just a unique experience. for some it was a tragic and disappointing experience. britney at those personal stories gave this story just

that extra layer. for me it may resonate. >> and happy to talk about the experiences. >> i would say that just about everybody i talked to was more than happy to talk about it. i talked about the people of all sorts of levels. this civil rights veterans organization the mississippi. that was a great chance to get that african-american organizers have a long view of the margin see it as important but in the context of the longer experience the started well before 1966 and continues to the present day. they see the march and is larger context and talk about it help supported their mission. so it gave you that -- they deflated a national story. white activists who were part of the civil-rights veterans

organization, a chance to talk to different people from different perspectives. those who agree with the majority of the black organizers, those intended to be on the liberal side, the classically liberal side and inflated what we were working for. and then just sometimes you are just meeting people. you should talk to this person cannot talk to this person. regular people from mississippi who decide to join the march. an important impact on who they were as people. how they saw themselves. that was the whole point of the civil rights movement. it was supposed to shake them out and make you think about what possibilities exist for the future. >> speaking of the future in that time continue, i'm curious what your opinion is on the major civil rights movements in this country today? >> i think the biggest one that we have seen is, of course, the

movement for algae beach the quality. the mid 90's to now, if you had told me in 1995 was the game marriage as an implicit right and something that is just of the ascension happen. so a movement that started in the mid-90s, considered a radical notion, nationally legalized gay marriage. it is not followed necessarily the same tactics of the civil rights movement. we live in a different time. popular culture in particular. but think about it. just a radical change in impossibilities, just be that is the one that jumps out at me in terms of comparing and contrasting.

>> and with other political issues that go on, issues around voting places on structural inequality. the president just book about that. and then you mentioned the elegy bt movement. what has changed in the past and what lessons are gleaned from the past from this march in particular, from the civil-rights movement? >> the movement for african-american equality. you know, what the movement was most successful at was sort of folding into some basic citizenship. the sole rights act in the voting act and destroying the institutions of jim crow and guaranteed access to -- i mean, on the march him -- the march was very important. evolution in terms of thinking about these issues of structural and equality. the same time, the launching of a major campaign. in chicago you're talking about the big northern city, legal

segregation. and yet you have the issues of race and class. you have this sort of personal, first in connection to the flight and -- played. and that sort of cheapens the understanding of the issue. he sees the march is a chance to highlight and create a national conversation which is one of the great tragedies. the press never picked up on that. they never carry the story the way that he wanted. some of that was because of controversy, but just the nature of the press at that point. the backlash, never able to shift the conversation into larger, structural issue. those are obviously issues of race. get tied into drug laws, tied into the criminal justice system mom i talked about in the epilogue and the focus. i try to follow some of the main characters and talk a little bit as a phrase that i use, the idea

of a long road to freedom. merritt is the -- marriage used it himself. the road to freedom is a long, long road. along your route to freedom. we have not walked the route get. clearly the vision is rooted in race, tied to class. still very strong in many ways. >> now, to be perfectly honest i did not care or don't care about your own ethnicity in reading the book. i love the expertise. to me that is all that matters. i am sure readers are wondering about your own ethnicity. did your own ethnicity shape in any way or form you're living in the south or the research and writing about this book? >> interesting question. but a big part of who i am and who i have been. moving to the south, are relatively small community. people don't necessarily -- the

number of people. sometimes they ask where you're from. i'm from boston. no, where you from? they want to get at them while i was doing what i was doing. bynum but i don't know that being i mean has spread into my interest in african-american history. i really think that i get into a african-american history for two reasons. one is that a good answer some one of the questions about what it means to be american. and maybe that is tied to my experience. the new but the other thing is i love the stories. african-american history in particular, i consider myself a storyteller more than anything else. i think it provides this narrative dimension than i just find fascinating subject.

>> yeah. that is an interesting theory. and did people ask you that? >> sometimes. especially when i, you know, more often -- less as a writer, more as a teacher. a strong african-american population. the majority of the students will be african-american. so they are curious. because for many of them did not understand why you would want to teach african american history. it is not your history. i try to explain that it is everyone's history as americans and more broadly in the world. so for me i come out of the broader narrative and a broader perspective as up american historian. it is not the only. >> and in terms of informing a perspective, what historians should you? what historians would you recommend everyone reading that is truly provocative and

memorable and teaching is something. >> that question particularly in the civil rights movement. if you're interested in this kind of american history they're is a great tree volume history. and those are stories -- the subtitle is america in the king years. and it focuses in particular on martin luther king, but it is a much more broad story. he does a wonderful job of painting a broad sweep of human history through the civil rights movement. now, for many academic historians they appreciate his work but also find it to push the movement in different directions. so the two great historians of the mississippi civil rights movement really shape the future direction of civil-rights studies. combine the road a book called local people.

that was, again, the story of civil-rights in mississippi. and when you tell that story and does not block anyone. he is not the main story. so the highlights the longer traditions. and he talks about some of the main -- the aspects of grass-roots organizing and how that changes in its drive to work with the local people. and the other book in that light is by charles payne, a book called i have the light of freedom which is much more analytical and tries to get at why the social change happened, al organizing marked. these try to answer the questions for more analytic standpoint. how you get people to register to vote. it starts with the process of making those connections. you get to see the importance been a highlight the importance of women. the media focuses in particular on the male leaders.

it's mostly men. martin luther king, stop the carmichael. but what happens when elected the civil-rights movement on the ground. the people who are organizing facade, sort of the glue of the movement. historians help to highlight that. so what i wrote, and someone is and trying to mercy's approaches, trying to tell the story within the old civil-rights history for earmarked in the sense that it is a great story. and non violent mass march in and try to incorporate the ideas of new civil rights history. how grass-roots organizers shape the movement, women are born, international context is important and also held by power is a much more complicated program in a much more positive slogan than the previous historian don just to give you an example. the black power in america. waiting until the midnight hour. stow carmichael.

and black power and with him a number of others, but he got to see black power in a new framework. in terms of its positive aspects , uplifting aspects, the way that shapes the whole movement first. >> can you speak l.a. more detail about women's role in the movement itself and women's role responding to the movement, particularly white women. >> well, when we are talking about the idea of grass-roots organizing you have to look at the key roles of african-american women, particularly to the institutions of local communities. how you get people involved. you have to get them into mass media. your does the work for the church? the backbone of the church, the backbone of the community. it's women. in know, affluent families. well, who is the center?