itself and also simple places like one of the stops we made in connecticut at. beecher stowe's house and lincoln said this is the little lady that started this great big war. it is a rough paraphrase. she lived in a very modest and comfortable house in hartford connecticut. so there were a yankee houses and houses down here that were quite wonderful and revealing and helped of the story of this completed its -- complicated war. >> are any of these places homes available to be seen today? >> yes, every one in the book. we chose been specifically because they are the same houses and can be seen and visited and you can have the experience yourself.

i recommend it. i think it is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the past, to wander into these houses. they are so different in the characteristics and decorations and colors and furniture and these are all significant structures. >> with architecture, i noticed one photograph of a column in the background in the photo. is there a reflection of people having an affinity for columns so much that they would put a column in the background of a family portrait? >> i think you might be talking about the marina davis image that does definitely have a column. that is a classic, classical way of painting a portrait, great commonplace very commonplace in the 18th century and it carried through here. but also very suitable in the sense that the greek revival was the predominant architectural style in the 1820s, 30s and

into the 50s. so in the years leading up to the civil war the columns of the architectural language people spoke that they were most familiar with was the greek revival so it would be very suitable and familiar and people would recognize it and it added a kind of status in the sense of taste which doesn't everyone want to convey that in the portraits that they just commission someone to >> as i said, the -- if you haven't already seen his book, it is really fascinating. both the stories and photographs. hugh howard will be signing copies of them in the lobby. let's give him a round of applause. thank him for his wonderful trip to the house of the civil war america. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

next, have advice smiley focuses on the final year of martin luther king, jr.'s life. the talk show host reports that king's final year was marked by condemnation by the black middle class and political far left as well as by the media and the president. the author argues that remembrance of king's life has been sanitizees, which left the man and the final months prior to his death misunderstood. this is about an hour and 15 minutes.

>> tavis is the host of late-night television show, tavis smiley on pbs, as well as the tavis smiley show, authored and coauthored 16 books. 16 books. and at one point they said we couldn't write or read, huh? i think they were quite wrong. i have read several of them, and this i know is going to be his most pensive, thoughtful, emotional, transformative book that he has ever written. one thing that i can tell you about tavis, he is serious about this museum and he is serious about dr. king. when tavis comes to memphis, even if he doesn't come in to talk to staff, he will often neil down and pray at this site. because dr. king meant so much

to his life, and continues to mean so much to his life. for this of you whomever hit him, you got to know his a down to earth guy. just like your brother, a person you always want to talk to. my first introduction to tavis was on the -- show -- where tavis gave some of the most thoughtful commentary i have ever heard. tavis is a brilliant mant and hap been brilliant for a long time, and among some audiences he has been a little controversial, but tavis always speaks to pure, and whether you like it or not, he does speak truth to power, and that is what i love about him. he is a long-time friend, he is for me personally much like a brother. i love him like one.

i have met his mother, who he has brought to the museum. i understand he did play at the alpha chapter in indiana. so those who happened to be kappas in the room, i want you to know that about him as well. i could go on about tavis because i do love tavis and have loved him since i first heard him and didn't know him. i want to introduce you -- introduce to some, and certainly present to others, a man who is an icon in his own time, and is not that old. icons are usually old. he is already an icon. and it is a privilege and an honor to welcome him back to the national civil rights museum, my friend, mr. tavis smiley. [applause]

>> my mama said, i saw you on c-span, you had lipstick on you. thank you for coming out. let me start by thanking beverly. such a wonderful introduction. that may very well be the second best introduction if received. the second best. i only say that because i was in atlanta the other day and the person to introduced me didn't show up, and i did it myself. other than that it was awfully nice, and i want to thank you. let me just say that it is always a delight, always an honor, to come back to this great city of memphis. memphis is the -- this is an iconic town in the history of this great nation for all sorts of reasons. and i am always hum elbowed when i get a chance to come to memphis to do anything, but especially humbled when i get a chance to come to this national civil rights museum, because for

me it is -- this is not just a museum, it's not just a national monument. it is for me sacred space. i mean that literally. this for me is sacred space, and we have known each other long enough, for her to know that as she intimated e. wherever i come to up to, times just for a day, sometimes i come to town, one of my sisters lives here, and i sneak in and sneak out but never, ever come to this town without walking out to that balcony. sometimes it's 1:00 in the morning, 2:00 in the morning, whatever the schedule allows. i've never come into this town without coming to that sacred space and paying homage to the person i regard as the greatest democratic, small d, the greatest democratic public intellectual in the nation roz history. i think dr. king is the greatest

american we have produced elm that starts a ballroom ball because could i debate you on fdr and lincoln, but to my mind, dr. king is the greatest american this country ever produced. when i come to this city, i always come to this sacred space and play my respect to this great mesh, dr. martin luther king, jr. met me say a quick record before i get into the book. let me express -- thank by way of applause, thanks c-span for covering this event tonight. we thank c-span for being here. [applause] >> c-span is one of my favorite channels, and for those who follow my work for years, you know for 12 years, every year in february, we have the state of the black union, and c-span covered that live every year for a dozen years. they've been so kind and generous not just to me but other persons in this country who need a space to try to help

america live up to its best ideals, and c-span is a great channel, and i'm always delighted to take the opportunity to cover something that we're doing around the country. so we want to thank c-span for covering this gathering tonight. let me start by thanking beverly and her team, her faith, and all of the wonderful people on this staff here. i feel like i'm family. i come here so often. i was just here in april when this facility re-opened, and rededicated, and i think most me -- memphisans have come through this museum but let me take a minute while wore on c-span and there's a "dancing with the stars" camera back there so that's abc. so let me go to a quick commercial for this grand facility. everywhere i go i talk up this facility. if you have not been to the new and improved national civil rights museum you need to go.

this facility is one of a kind in this country, one of a kind in the world, and i was just completely blown away. i knew how much money they had to work with, and how they squeezed all of this richness out of that little budget, i'm still trying to figure that out. that's what bev and faith and all the wonderful people on the team and the architectural firm and the academics, and dr. jeffries and his team who pulled this together. a magnificent job. so if you're watching this on c-span tonight or today, request you 1/2 not been to the national civil rights museum in memphis, you must come. when you come this way or plan a vacation to memphis, you can check another graceland after you do this. but come to the national civil rights museum and be enlightened, be encouraged and powered by the telling of the story. a great intellectual asked the question, would america have been america with ought negro people? would america have been america

without her negro people? i think you can answer that question without demonizing or casting aspersion on any other culture or race of people, but one has to acknowledge that america simply would not be were it not for the contributions of african-americans, and so i believe that every race of people ought to be judged by the best they have been able to produce, and i believe that dr. king is among the best that our people have ever produced, and this movement is just not's king. king was a man, not a movement. the movement entailed and involved a whole lot of other people, some we know and some we don't, and many who paid the up mat price with their lives to help make america a country that will one day by as good as its promise. we ain't there yet. we're working to becoming a nation that will one day be as good as its promise, and that journey would not be as far along as it is were it not for the grand contribution of macbelieve all the way down to sanitation workers near in

memphis. this is a great city and a great facility and i want everybody to make sure when you make plans to come to this part of the country, be sure to come to this facility. i've sent so many friends here just since april, and every time they come they feel the need to text me to prove to me they're here. so i'm always getting texts and e-mails and facebook posts from people who heard me talk about this, and they send me a message. that's my commercial for this facility. let's give the entire team a round of applause for the wonderful work they have done and are doing. in. [applause] >> here in the national civil rights museum. now,let me jump into talking about this text. part of what is wrong with the country we're too often engaged in monologue and not enough in dialogue, and i want to leave time for your questions and comments about this great american, dr. king, and the new book "death of a king. "let's me go back to something beverly said about my visceral

connection to dr. king. this is tough to talk about in part because i took a long time to write a book called "what i know for sure." the story of my life to date. hope there's more life to live. ain't got but one but i want more. the story of my life until a few years ago. the bikes called "what know for sure" and i talk about define egg a single moment in my life. it's hard to re-tell the story because i don't want to drag my family through this again. i think you'll appreciate that. but when i was just a 12-year-old kid, i was accused- -- i'm one of ten kids, nine brothers and sisters -- i was just a 12-year-old kid at my church issue was accused of doing something -- my sister and i, phyllis, who lives here in memphis -- were accused of doing something we had not done inside the church. the minister of my church never called us in to his office, never had a meeting, never asked us a single question.

there was no conversation. i didn't even know i had been accused of anything. and in front of the entire church, in front of the entire church, he stood up hundred news the pulpit and essentially just castigated my sister and me in frond of the entire congregation. the kind of embarrassment that as a 12-year-old kid aid hard to process. my parents were sitting there and they were obviously embarrassed and hugh mailitied but a they had not been spoken toy toe phyllis and i had not been spoken to. so, this is a major, major embarrassment for our entire family, as we sat in the -- the second row was called smiley row. so we're on this side of the church. this is our row right here. my dad sat there my mama set there and the rest of us line up, and he looks at us and he said what he had to say, and phyllis and i just -- we just

were undone completely by this accusation and this embarrassment. got home that night and my father did something he had never done before. and has not done since. and on that particular night, given that level of embars wasment. in the black community for so long, all it takes is a black man can have any stature is, where, in the black church. the there you can be a deacon or trustee, but the black church was the only place in this nation's history where you had any stature. my father and mother were very much involved in the church and thoroughly embarrassed. my father got home that night and he completely snapped. he beat my sister phyllis and me so severely we were in the hospital for two weeks in traction. that's how severe the beating was. and the 12-year-old kid i could not understand why this had happened to me. i didn't know why we had been accused. i didn't know why he had done

that in front of the church. i didn't understand why he had not been called in for a conversation. i couldn't understand any of this. i hated my parents. i hated my mom for not protecting me. i hated my dad for losing his temper and snapping. i hated my dad forker in even asking us. just we were kids and not to be believed or asked or told anything, except get in the room. and i couldn't process it. i couldn't understand that moment. and for some reason i do not know why, except for the fact that god must have put it on his heart, a deacon in my church, when i finally got out of the hospital, gave me a gift. and the gift was a box full of king recordings. barry gordy of motown fame had the good sense to send ang engineer around to follow dr. king at some time frame in king's life. engineer from motown that gordony just paid to follow king

around and record many of his presentations. many of his talks and speeches. i know most of us think -- some of you now -- let me back up -- most americans think that king only gave one speech in his whole life. and then it hit me, i'm in memphis. y'all know he gave at least two speeches. the mountain top speech he gave the night before he died was here in memphis. everybody good memphis llanos that speech probably by heart. most americans think king gave one supreme, "i have a dream. "and think speech only had one line in it. will i not be judged by the color of their skin i bit -- but by the -- i ain't asking you to go no further. i know that's all you know. that's the only narrative, the only part of the narrative we ever get. so, too many of us think he only gave one speech the speech only

had one line. but thank goodness barry gordy had someone following hip around to record the speeches, and gordony put the speeches on an l.p., and this deacon at my church collected some of the records, and for whatever reason he gave that box to me as a gift. and then i finally got a chance to put those records on. i moan, old school, lp, skrchchch with the needle. young folks don't know what we talking about. i thought he got a -- finally got a chance to listen to the record, and i heard king talking about the power of love. he was talking to a nation about the power of love. and not the love of power. too many of us got it twisted. not about the love of power but the power of love. talked about the fact that love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend. king was saying that love is the most powerful force in the world. he was talking to the nation but

might as we have been talking to me. y'all with me on this? i couldn't figure this out. but i heard king saying to me as a 12-year-old kid, who was broken of heart and broken of spirit, feeling guilty, and not even knowing why, feeling abandoned, i heard king saying to me, as i hated the world, hate it my mom and dad and everybody in the world, i heard king saying to me, tavis, you are going to have to love your way through this. the love is your only option. you have a love your way through it. got to forgive, got love, hate ills not an option, bitterness is not an option, revenge is not an option. you're going to have to love your way through this. you got to find your way to some sort of radical empathy to get yourself through this. i could hear king talking to me. every speech, every presentation, he is infusing it with this notion of love, love,

love, love. let me detour. you realize at one point in king's life, j. edgar hooverrer and the fbi listed him as the most dangerous man in america. say that one more again. the fbi listed king as the most dangerous man in america. i ask you, memphis, how can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon you are using is love. i think i just said something and y'all missed that. how can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon you use is love. are you feeling me on this? i think that means that love is the most powerful force in the world. that's why they were scared of

martin. we might put one other weapon in martin's pocket. used the weapon of love and also he had the weapon of ideas. i guess victor hugo was right. nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. so, martin had the right idea at the right time, and this notion of love and service, king said all the time, life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? so that love and service that he talked about all the time, he lived that. that was a part of his dna. i hear king on these record talking to me as a 12-year-old kid. tavis you got to love your way through this situation mitchell sister was in the same situation with me. didn't have the benefit of hearing those king records. and her life went another direction. sadly, she became a crack addict, had a number of babies out of wedlock and just lived a very, very rough life. i'm happy to say she relocated to memphis, went to nursing

school and is all right now bit took awhile -- [applause] -- it took awhile -- i was here for her graduation-a happy day that was that i was footing the bill for. her life turned out company but took a long time i thon thing that -- you feeling me on this? only thing that kept me from being builter and evil and full of revenge and hatred was king. introducing me to the notion of the power of love. for the 12-year-old kill, he became part of my dna. matter of fact on the night of my 40th birthday -- i'll never forget -- 39 in houston texas, about to he honored on the 40th birthday as one of the youngest americans ever to have a professional school on major college campus named after him, i was going to be honored on my 40th birthday in houston, texas. and that night in the hotel room, in houston, i almost died

i asphyxiating two or three times, choked-couldn't be my breath. i was having a major, major anxiety attack on the eve of my 40th birthday. i was crying and heaving and i could -- ugly scene like something out of "the exorcist." i cooperate understand what was happening. and see venally i got through the night, obviously. i'm here today. i took me a few days to figure out what happened to me. what happened on the eve of my 40th birthday was that i was feeling all sorts of pangs of guilt because i account understand how i was about to live longer than my hero. martin is dead at 39. how is it that i am living to be 40 when my man is gone at 39? i really cooperate process that. -- couldn't process that. took me a few days to deal with that, and thankfully i got

through it. that's how connected i feel to the spirit of this man who saved my life when i was 12, even though he had long since been dead. that's how i get introduced to dr. king and you read about that in the introduction to the book. that's why i want people to know why when you watch my tv show or hear me on public radio or see me on pbs or anyplace else. you wont hear me without hearing some reference being made because he is as much a part of me as my mom and daddy are. he is in my dna in my spirit. and so since i was 12, i've only had one goal really in life. other than not embarrassing my mama. one real goal and that is to do my small part to make the world safe for his legacy. to do my small part, whether on radio, television, books, philanthropy, i want to do my small part too make the world

safe for his legacy, and this book is another piece and part of that process. i could have written this book a long time ago eye. been researching since i was 12. but now is the right time to put this book out. sunny because i believe that king has now been so sanitized and so sterilized and so romanticized and in some ways so demonizedded -- i sound like jesse jackson. so sanitized and so sterile liesed the truth who we really was is unday going to be irrecoverable. you put a narrative out for too long and it sticks and is hard to change the narrative. so, we have to confront what i would call an urban rental legend about dr. king. an urban ledge january that he was just a dreamer with a smile

on his face saying i have a dream, and we shall overcome, and free at last. that's not the complexity of the man. i believe that every one of you in this room -- i know it's true for me -- i believe that each and every one of us comes to know who we really are in the dark and difficult days of our lives. everything is going all right? it's all good. in the dark and difficult moments, that is when we discover who we really are. can i tell you something else? that's when you find out who is right to die with you. are they right to die? who is going to be faithful to the end? faithful to you unto death? you find that out in the dark and difficult days. anybody have dark and difficult day in your life, a period where you had to figure out who you

were? you look around and saw who was there and who wasn't? dr. king ain't no different. if you think you know dr. king and you don't know how he traverse evidence, navigated -- traversed, navigated the darkest and mow remost difficult days of his life, you don't know him. king did not have a dream speech in 1963. he is dead in 1968. that's five more years. so if you have him frozen in some frame at the lincoln memorial, at the march on washington, framed in '63, you don't who his. for the next five years he evolved on a whole lot of things. the man who said "i have a dream eye" said his dream had become a night mire. that's what martin said. the man who was responsible for integration, harry bell fontty, i believe we have integrated into a burning house.

integrated into a burping house. hold on to you seat right quick. something else martin said you ain't going to believe but it's real. hold on. you going to hit you hard. >> the last call that martin made from this location, the lower rain motel -- low rain motel, was alabama back to his church in atlanta to speak to his secretary. talk to his daddy. his daddy came, my copastor, the last call he made was to talk to his family. and martin had a practice and a policy every thursday or friday of calling in his sermon because back in the old days -- i meant to about y'all in memphis but in l.a. where i live and go to church, most of the the of the megachurchs get to announcement on the big streep, but back in the -- big screen, but back in the -- they'd hand you a sudden

morning bull continue with the services and the sermon topic. somebody say, amen. >> amany you iraq in and get the bull bulletin, and he always got back to his church on sunday, and the last year of his life, one place he found solace was in the pulpit of ebenezer. and so king made a phone call from the low rain motel, back to his church to tell them what this sudden morning sermon was going to be had he made it back to atlanta. he was killed on the ball copy on thursday night. had he made it back on sunday here's where he was going to preach. hold your seat. why america may go to hell. i hear folks saying, tavis, you lying. no, it's real. his sermon was going to be, why

america may go to hell. he didn't say america was going to hell. he said why america may go to hell. his thesis was that if we don't start to deal with this triple threat that he called it, the triple threat of racism, poverty, and militarism, we are simply going to lose our democracy. this democracy is not sustainable. he was right then and sure enough right now. if we don't start to get deal with the racism, poverty and militarism, we going to slide into hell. so martin was wanted to preach a sermon called, why america may go to hell you tell the average american that the "i have a dream" man said, america may good to hell, and they can't just to pose those two things -- just to pose those two things -- i say we don't know who

dr. king was bus we don't know how he had to navigate that last dark and difficult year of his life, when he had to walk the last mile all by himself. you say, by himself. on april 4, 1967, dr. king steps inside the riverside church in manhattan, and he gives a speech, april 4, 1967, called "beyond vietnam." in that speech dr. king calls america, his country, your country, my country, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. that's a damning and strong indictment. to call your government the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. this was dr. king with the nobel peace prize, but also in the '60s, in america. with a black man, telling white folks, telling america, black

men who had been called a communist, who is now at the height of the war, offering some antiamerican rid rick, telling america, you, america, are the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. hsu imagine that did not sit will with a lot of people. woke up in the mortgage and every media outlet has turned on him overnight. i live in l.a., in hollywood. i can guarantee you one thing. ow know this, there's no such thing as an overnight success. nobody becomes a success over night. no such thing as an overnight success. and i can tell you something else. go can go from being a success to being per san no non grata overnight. you can go from bag success to being irrelevant overnight. don't believe in the in exhibit

a, ray rice. and a number of other examples. see my point? i'm not trying to demonize him. i'm just saying, one day you on top of it, the next day you underneath it. i can turn on you real fast. but dr. king stepped to the podium in riverside, and he is that and then something until 7:00 that night. but he called america the greatest purveyor of violence the world and told us we have to deal with racism and povertity and militarism to save the democracy. he said it's time to end the silence because silence sometimes is betrayal. dr. king left the church and that night he had a huge -- got like seven standing ovations during the speech. but he was like, -- woke up the next morning, every major newspaper, every media outlet in the country, castigated him the

next day you. raid this book you're going to see that the liberal "new york times" said about king the next day and its going to embarrass you. what the "washington post" said about king will hurt your feelings. when you read what "time magazine" wrote about king the next day, going to make you cry. the media turned on him sooner than right now and quicker than at once. that how swift it was. they turned on him overnight. the media turns on him first. including, i might add, the black media. we going to come back to that. the media turns on him first, and then the white house turns on him. keep in mind now, martin has worked with lyndon johnson the pass the voting rights act and the civil rights act so they cool, until this speech. when martin gives this speech, now the white house is out to get him.

the white house turns on him. lyndon johnson meets with other black leaders from that point order bus martin if disinvited to the white house. so the media turns on him. white house turns on him. and then white america turns on him. the last poll taken in his life found -- at the harris poll -- that 75% -- mary me -- three-quarters of the american people thought that dr. king in the last year of his life was irrelevant. 75%. black folk, put on pc again. in the last year of his life, almost 60% of black people thought dr. king war persona non grata. when i say black people turned on him, i mean, roy wilkins and the naacp -- what until you read what they said about

kindergarten king -- ruffle bunch, was on the board of directors for the knapp at this time, and the naacp rote and passed a resolution to condemn dr. king, and when ralph bunch saw the language it wasn't tough enough for him and he spiced it up even more. ralph bunch personally, personally, spiced up the language in the resolution to condemn the other lawyer, nobel peace price winner, martin king so roy wilkins, naacp, ralph bunch, the only other black anybody peace prize winner in the country, turn on him. they went in becomely on dr. king. adam clayton powell, jr., lovers that brother but when martin was concerned, hater. straight hater. was hating on dr. king as -- it was one of the most difficult passages to write, a message where even though adam clayton paul has been hating on dr. king

publicly, dr. is such a loving man -- examples of folks hating on him and he was loving them back as hard as he could. he knew paul was after him. he had been talking about him like a dog. he invited him to his home for dinner and martin went. let's like daniel walking into the lion's dead on purpose. he knew where he was going. you read the pass yang what adam clayton powell did to dr. king at to his face, at his house, you won't believe it. and we are national television, c-span so i'm not going to quote for you because i can't, what thurgood marshal said about dr. king. that they're good marshall. the leading journalist of the day, and other black media outlets, turned on dr. king.

so, the white house has turned on him. the media has turned on him. the what folk turned on him. black folk turned on him. and if that's not enough, inside his own organization he couldn't get a consensus to support him on his opposition to the vietnam war. they didn't want him to give the speech and you'll read the story of a meeting he -- dr. king founded the organization. passed a resolution to condemn him over his stance on the vietnam war. his organization. revolution to condemn him. wish negroes at the smile where group would come after me. the negro -- i'm signing the checks around here. i wouldn't be as loving as dr. king. here's your pink slip. goodbye.

let me door hit you where the good lord split you. dr. -- king wag so loving and kind, going adam's house for dinner. he wanted -- voting to condemn him and he still got the same book on the board and having dinner with them and trying to understand why they feel this way. what you call radical empathy. i'm not quite there yet. called radical empathy. everybody turning against him. and on top of that he feels the death angel hovering in his space every day he knows there's a bullet out there with his name on it. he is telling everybody in his inner circle he knows his time is limited and knows that moment is going to come and it's coming soon and they don't want to hear it because they love martin so much. they didn't want to hear that. andy, ralph didn't want to hear that. so he couldn't talk to them. everybody else turned against him.

who does martin turn to? a good thing that before he was a civil rights leader and before he was a ph.d and before all of that, he was a preacher. he had that one connection, he did have that connection, and there are stories in the text that would make you cry. i have written the book and still cry every time -- i'm skipping over certain parts itch don't want to cry no more. spirit parts of the bookie you see martin at night, crying himself to sleep, some nights he can't sleep. he's outside, looking at the stars, is singing. singing, trying to pray and pull himself through this moment. one night they can't find martin. it's 3:00 in the morning, can't find him. they're at motel and eventually discover him outside on the balcony. he is out there just standing in his pajamas in the middle of the night, singing, "rock of ages,

let me hide myself in thee." shay say, martin is everything all right? martin kept singing singing andy left and went back to bed. they came back at 7:00 in the morning, martin was still on the balcony in the same spot, in his pajamas, still singing, "rock of aims. ♪ lit me hide myself in thee." you read this book you'll learn a whole lot more talks. in the last year of his life he speaks from pain one to the last pain -- put martin's voice is loud and clear in this text -- in the last year of his life, when you read the book, look at the sermons he was preaching at ebenezer on sunday and how he was preaching to himself, trying to pull and push and pray himself through and often times confess himself through his own situation and shortcomings,

dr. king was a public servant, not a perfect servant. this book does not shy away from his shortcomings, faults and frailties hundred was not human and divine. just human. we don't shy away from those shortcomings in his life, but that love he talked about, day in and day out, that's who he was. the most depressing part of the book is to realize -- let me say quickly, i say this wherever i go and want to acknowledge this on c-span -- dr. king has three principle biographers, taylor branch, david garrow, and clay von cars son. no way this book is wherein without the -- written without the heavy lifting of those three. what makes this become different, the first book that looks just at the last 12 months. april 4-1967, april 4, 1968, the

first book ever looking at just the last 12 months. the first book, might add, tells the story in real time. so we put you in the space with dr. king. matter of fact in this book he is never even dr. king. to you and to me, he is doc. i want to humanize him for you, and put you in his inner circumstance so you know him on doc so on page 1, you see doc, we talking about doc and all throughout the book you going to know him as doc, like his colleagues and coworkers and friends knew him, as doc. so it's like a real-time movie where you going with him every step of the way nor last 12 months, until he arrives in memphis at this sacred space, the lorraine motel here. but he is pulling and praying and confessing his way through

this because he knows his time is limited. he knows he is living on borrowed time. the most depressing part is to realize that with all the folk around him, he still essentially died alone. he dies alone. and i hate to say this to you, and please forgive me for putting it in such stark terms but the truth of the matter is that we helped to kill dr. king. we helped kill him. you might say, tavis, that's strong indictment. maybe so. but we helped to kill him because we abandoned him in his dark and difficult moments. the media abandoned him. the body politics abandoned him. white folk abandoned him. black folk abandoned him. his own inner circle wasn't where they should have been you realize that we now know that dr. king's treasurer, james

harrison, was a paid fbi informant. inside his own circle. he has fbi informants. his treasurer is an fbi informant. one of at the photographers is a paid fbi informant. so on the inside they're second reports back to the fbi every day. being under surveillance and wire tapped everywhere he went. the depressing part is that martin had to navigate this by himself and essentially died alone. the autopsies on his body, he died at 39, and you trivia buffs, martin and malcolm both dead at the same age, 39. but the autopsy reveals he has the organs, in the insides of an almost 65-year-old man. the stress and the pressure was killing him. and we abandoned him, and we helped to kill him by not being there for him and turning a deaf ear and blind eye to truth he was trying to hell us, how to

save our democracy by dealing with racism and poverty and militarism he kept putting in front of us. that's the depressing part. like jesse jackson says, that's the slummy side. here's the sunny side. the good part of the story, the good news is this. all those hours of surveillance tapes, all the wire tapping tapes, hours and hours and hours and hours of tape, not one single solitary time ever is martin ever heard con contesting the humanity of any human being. nothing derogatory, demonizing. they love ethic he talk about, he lived that thing in public and in private, he was who i thought he was. and that's a beautiful thing. to withstand the scrutiny of

history and for your hero, you man to be as advertised, to end up being exactly who you thought he was and that's the beauty of this story. also this book would not just be a look back at the last year that would allow us, i hope to love and appreciate and respect and revere him even more. not just with holidays and monuments and posage stamps and cools cools and libraries and streets. that's all good he deserves that. but the best way to honor him is to make the world safe for his legacy. what this legacy? justice for all. service to others. and a love that liberates people. justice for all. service to others. and a love that liberates people. that's the essence of his legacy. wants to look back and appreciate him more by understanding what he had to deal in the dark and difficult

days and how he got up every day -- some days it was difficult to get up and tell the truth but he did it. one day martin got up, got fully dressed, suit, tie, socks, shoes, everything, fully dressed, and couldn't get out the door. he turned around, got back in the bed, fully clothed, pulled the covers over his head, and just cried and cried and cried. didn't know what else to do. this is what martin king was going through in the last year because we abandoned him, because we turned on him, because we helped to kill him by shunning him, by making him a pariah, by making him a persona non grata. i hope the book will also be a cautionary tale. the tale is this. that our society will pay heavy

price if we continue to ignore our truth tellers. uh-huh. there are people that go against the odd trying to get us to hear the truth about what we're doing to the environment. and we think global warming and climate change is a joke. the air we breathe, the water, we think that's a joke and we just turn a deaf ear and ablind eye to folks trying to get to us deal with the inconvenient truth of what we're doing to the environment. ignoring those truth-tellers. folks trying to get to us understand that poverty is threatening our very democracy. that poverty is now a matter of national security. one percent of the people cannot continue to own and control 40% of the wealth. the top 400 richest americans have wealth equivalent to the bottom 150 million of us, we still think we can call this a democracy? it may be an ol' gar diit -- ol'

gar can i but it's not a democracy and we don't want to hear the folk trying to tell us the truth about what poverty is doing to this country. don't want to hear it. we got folks trying to tell us the truth about this drone program we have on steroids. don't want to hear that truth. i'm sad to say, made reference that some people have kind of hate on me' been mad at me and disappointed me and scald me everything but a child of god i'm used to that now. i can tell you one thing, it's about to get worse. i wrote this book about dr. king. i got a whole new boldness right now. you thought i done said some stuff issue got more for you. a whole new boldness when it comes to telling the truth i know. let me say this. i recognize i do not have a

monopoly on the truth. i could be wrong. there's the truth and there's the way to the truth. and i'm always on that journey trying to get to the truth. every one of us is obligated, obligated in our lives to commit userses to seeking the truth -- commit ourselves to seeking the truth and speaking the truth and standing on the truth and staying with the truth. that's the message of his life. safeco the truth, and then speak the truth, and stand on the truth, and stay with the truth. that's what is killing our democracy. not enough folk willing to tell the truth. so we keep ignoring these truth-tellers, and if dr. king were here today, he -- without question would have campaigned before you asked this question -- if he were here today, before you ask, he would have campaigned for barack obama, would have voted for barack obama, and then he would have become his chief critic.

how do i know is? in the book you going to read of the klose thing that king speakerrenses to having a black president. the closest thing was working to elect the first black mayor of major american city, which is now pretty standard. you about mayor warten here, so this is common now in america. black mayors. matter of fact, cities have been doing so badly lately, negroes, you can have it. be mayor go ahead. white folk pass stuff out when it's bad. president obama saying, you can have this. if you fix it, we going to take it back. but you can have this right now. all jokes aside, king went to cleveland repeatedly. king went to cleveland repeatedly to help elect carl stokes, the first black mayor of cleveland. that's how i know he would have campaigned for obama and vote ford obama and then become

obama's biggest credittic two stories of cleveland. one funny and one not. the funniest story in the book -- one of the funniest -- dr. king was a funny guy. was a jokester and a prankster. the last day of his life he was at his hotel. he is pillow fighting with andy. and an dijumping up and downton the boyfriends like little boys, pillow fight, hours before he died. he didn't want his work to be taken for anything less than what it was. didn't put that image out but a funny guy. agrupp story about a moment where dr. king encounters some prostitutes in cleveland, it's not what you think. it's a funny story. he goes to cleveland and campaigns for carl stokes, carl stokes is elected, and speak thieving disrespect king was getting in the last year of his life, carl stoke uses him to campaign for him but read in the book what carl stokes did to him

his face the night he won the election. going to break your heart. so, king would campaign for obama, vote for him, been glad he won, and then became his critic on racism, poverty, and militarism. barack obama has used more drones than president bush did. the drone program on steroids. hate if you want, but that's the truth. he has killed more innocent women and children than george bush did. hate if you want this bet the truth. we say we're fight are terrorism but we're creating more terrorists at the same time, as you kill innocent women and children, what would you think their relatives and loved ones are now vowed to do? to strike back the evil american empire. so we're creating more terrorist even as we say we're fighting terrorism. at this very moment as the president is talking about isis, he keeps using this phrase, we going to degrade and destroy, degrade and destroy.

mr. president, stop saying that. you ain't going to degrade and destroy nothing. you might degrade and it i'm all far that. let's degrade it because i don't want us to get hit. so i'm fall for debraiding but stop telling the american people you going to destroy isis. evil is in the world. you ain't never going to destroy it. evil is much a part of the world as is goodness. king said there's some evil in the best of us and good in the worst of us, but evil is in the world. not going to destroy that. let's hope to degrade and it contain it, but don't tell the american people you're going to destroy it because you're not. it's just not possible. given that evil is going to come -- if you think you can destroy isis, it's going to pop up as something else somewhere else. one day it's hezbollah, one day al qaeda, one day isis. evil is in the world. let's stop putting forth the notion of debraiding and