taking a toll on him. so with all that pressure against him with the pressure he never wavers he tells his jersey and seeks the truth in the stance on the truce and never wavers he could not even get a book deal in the last year of his life because his message was so unsettling. they did not want to deal with him it is hard to imagine that but he died believing with all the push back he was getting. >> host: how significant was the white house? >> to go to the white house

on the invitation of the first lady ladybird johnson. but then there was the famous black entertainer from lyndon johnson and lady bird johnson now to be invited to the white house house, the perception was that she was so disrespectful, she had violated the sanctity and she got into the first lady's face to talk about this excursion in vietnam. so after her parents after the statement at the white house first of all, he sent her a telegram but then told her how courageous he was

tuesday and up to the president of the first lady to tell them the vietnam war was wrong but it wasn't necessarily killing the fact that king reached out to eraser that was a story of themselves. >> host: were you life? >> i was born september 13 so i was not even four years at the time. so basically i am four years of age and never got a chance to see him or know him but i was 12 years of age and it allowed me to be introduced obviously

posthumously but the spirit and the love in his heart in the hope is his sole even though he has long since been dead looking at that situation at the age of 12 it brought me back but he is dead but bringing me back to life as a child at the age of 12 and i studied him and to be 50 later this year everyone here knew him and worked with him and to talk to everybody in the circle over the years over the broadcast career. but if i decided finally to write a book of all the

research for all these years because we got to appoint where we celebrate the moments of the voting rights act and the civil-rights act and the 50th anniversary soon to come upon the assassination and i am so concerned about the way he is sterilized and lionized that the truth past to be told about who he really was and what he tried to say beyond the fact he had a dream. >> what was your experience? >> i was severely beaten at the age of 12 with mike fatah en of sit of rage lost his temper one night. was falsely accused of something and he beat me so severely i was in the hospital for almost two

weeks from severe injuries. i cannot understand why this would happen to me. why did my father in this rare moment of rage just lose it? and so severely beat me i could not figure that out by someone as a member of my church brought to me a box of king recordings at age of 12 and i had a chance to hear that love and hope and the possibility in his voice something connected with me about the fact that whatever happened to may happen for reason and once i figure out what that is i will do whatever i can to take the love that i felt coming from him to use it to make the

world safe to find a way to love and serve people i had no idea that we come in the form to be on public television and public radio but to speak the truth as best as i can i am always on that journey. but my work at its best is what c-span does with the unbiased coverage to help us to be in power to help us live better lives in to take that information out there will challenge people's assumption and help them expand their inventory of ideas and to introduce americans to each other with

this multi ethnic mix with places to be introduced to the ideas come aspirations, the dreams and hopes and fears with what kind of nation we really are and the people we want to be. >> host: this is booktv on c-span2. talking with tavis smiley his most recent book "death of a king" this book is all fall 2014.

[inaudible conversations] >> good morning to this session