i will be in the lobby, and i owed to people drinks for the thread that. thank you. [applause]. >> we want to hear from you. post your your feedback to our facebook wall. facebook.com/tv. >> will haygood of the washington post and author of showdown, why a book now on thurgood marshall? >> why think that one of the things that are so gratifying to me is the history and time, six years ago when i began this book i did not know it would be published on the 50th anniversary of the 1965 voting rights act, or the 75th anniversary of the legal defense fund of the naacp.

which is an arm of the naacp which marshall found a. so those two things are just great. america, right now is going through a lot of discussion about race and i think thurgood marshall planted so many of the good seeds when it comes to racial equality in this country. i'm a trained journalist and i like to tell stories, i like to look for stories that have never been told, this story about thurgood marshall, 1967 senate confirmation hearing has never been told. he was the first african-american nominated to the supreme court. usually those series with last four hours or less.

that's how long they lasted for all of the previous supreme court nominees. thurgood marshall's hearings lasted five days, stretch across 12 days in days in his nomination sat in limbo for five weeks. there is great drama and that. also, with, with the bigger than life senate figures like senator john mcclellan of arkansas, senator san urban of north carolina, and jace easton of mississippi, they wanted to stop thurgood marshall's hearing, they wanted to stop them in the tracks because of his work at the naacp lawyer in the 40s and 50s when he took various cases all the way to the supreme court. he knocked down so many of the laws that were hurting blacks. so in 1967 you have this line drawn in the sand, it was like a it was like wordplay that took place at the okay corral. thurgood marshall, the legendary

lawyer meets legendary senators. i think my timing just happened to be good i guess you might say because it seems that a lot of people around the country have been reacting very positively to this book. high school students, students and college, laypeople, judges, lawyers, young, older, and so it has been extremely wonderful to travel around the country talk to to people about thurgood marshall. who, in terms of history have seen somewhat lost. he he is not as well-known as some of the other iconic figures from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s and i hope this book revises the legacy thurgood marshall. >> what you think his hearing

lasted as long as it did? >> well, there were efforts by the southern senators who questioned marshall's grandma type. they question his smarts. how much is going on in the country at that time, there is anti- vietnam protests, the riot and it's right that broke out on the last day of marshall's hearing. there is a lot of racial unrest. some of them tried to link that racial unrest to all of the victories that thurgood marshall had one. so you had a real combustion of philosophy, marshall philosophies versus southern philosophy which had been to

keep the voting rolls down for blacks. so you had lyndon johnson finally made it into the oval office in 1963. that was following the assassination of president kennedy, lyndon johnson said himself, he said there are three pillars of segregation that i am going to knock down. he knocked on the first massively with the 1964 civil rights act, he knocked on the second which was voting which was the 1965 voting rights act. he said my final move will be to get a competent, gifted, african-american on to the united states supreme court. that was thurgood marshall who graduated number one harvard university law school.

so marshall was the right man, in the right moment, at the right time in this country's history. >> what was the final vote?, any democrats voted for and against, republicans won against? >> republicans won against? >> the final vote was 69-11. that seems wide but it is not. if the southerners had a stop, the white house at 60 votes or less than they could have filibustered the nomination and marshall, or the white house could not have withstood a filibuster. so in reality, the white house got its nomination through with only nine votes to spare. on the second of the hearing president johnson was so nervous because he thought it would be over with on the first day. like all of the previous hearings had been.

but president johnson was so nervous he summoned william coleman, he was a celebrated african-american attorney from philadelphia. he told william coleman secretly, if my man thurgood marshall doesn't make it, then, then i'm going to nominate you for the supreme court because i am hell-bent on integrating the united states supreme court. william coleman had work with thurgood marshall in 1954 on marshall's titanic victory of the brown segregation case. but william didn't want to be second choice and he told president johnson that. he said what what i will do those i will go around and visit as many of the southern senators in northern senators, and western senators as i can. especially the ones that are on the fence about thurgood marshall. i will try to persuade them to

vote for thurgood marshall. so that help. there is no doubt that help. >> what was the political breakdown? the partisan breakdown? >> most of the democrats were southern democrats, so they were the ones that went against marshall. marshall got a lot of help from republican. eastern republicans. what are the big heroes of the hearing was everett dirksen of illinois who would send letters to people telling them this is a signature moment for the united states of america. we need to show our metal by confirming thurgood marshall to the supreme court. so, so, it was one of those things that we do not see a lot of washington now, is bipartisan, in the end it really was.

that is how thurgood marshall got on the supreme court. >> so it sounds like 20 senators did not vote in that. >> yes, i'm so glad that you mention that. that was the margin of victory. needless to say, lyndon johnson who is a seven or himself convinced 20 southern senators to not vote. that was brilliant. he was a master politician. he would he would tell them, he was a look, i'm going to be looking at bridges next year, highway funding, i'm going to be looking at ways to help you, but first i need you to help me. it's called old-fashioned horsetrading. it is still still done today but nobody was as masterful added as lyndon johnson. it's just amazing. senators go to the senate to vote, that is their bread and

butter. but he convinced 20 of them, back off, don't show up tomorrow into the halls of the u.s. senate, don't vote. and they did not vote. so that was amazing. >> will hagood is the author, the book is called showdown, thurgood marshall and the supreme court nomination that changed america. will hagood appeared on book to be from columbus ohio, his hometown. and a longer segment if you like to see that paul's the apple segment go to book tv.org, type in the author's name and you'll be able to watch the whole thing. >> republican candidate for president mike huckabee discussed his book guides, guns, grits and gravy earlier this year about tvs author interview program, afterwards. >> here's the point of the book, their three major cultural bubbles in america. new york, washington, and the other one is hollywood. from those three