provide you with enough information to what it must've been like. but the new interpreter will tell you the truth. you know, major concern of judgment. they did have since the ear over the years of peacetime duty, custer would go off and do his

own thing, always simply care to have a manager. so we liked him. we even hated him. but probably until he was killed, i've been worried about saving pastor. when people try -- it's not like i'm trying to save him or rehabilitate and did strictly as a combat commander. and the combat commander if we derive the magnitude of the victory achieved a little before

him. probably the best combat commander, a complete budget of the u.s. calvary. they had how superior members also because of they were galvanized encouraging the government to take their lands and was inspired by a spiritual political leaders such as sitting bull med exceptional tactical leadership. so they had great skills, great courage and better numbers. and they were galvanized a few days later. so in that of celine from an attack, they stood their ground. so it's not so much that custer lost even though he made mistakes. i think he is a critic for that.

don't diminish the magnitude of the achievement as really quite something. thank you very much. [applause] >> yes, i will be signing books. thank you. [inaudible conversations]

>> wil haygood the "washington post" and the author of "showdown" appeared right about now on thurgood marshall? >> one of the things that is so gratifying to me is the arc of 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 for the 75th anniversary of the legal defense funds of naacp, which is an arm of the naacp that thurgood marshall founded. and so, those two things are just great. america right now is going through a lot of discussions about race and i think thurgood marshall plan to so many of the good deeds when it comes to

racial equality in this country. and i am a trained journalist and i like to tell stories. i like the stories that have never been told. the story about thurgood marshall's 1967 confirmation hearing has never been told. he was the first african-american nominee to the supreme court. usually those hearings would last for hours or less. that is how long they lasted for other previous supreme court nominees. thurgood marshall's hearings lasted five days stretched across 12 days in the nomination that in limbo for five weeks. there's great drama and not. also the bigger than life like john mcclellan, senator sam ervin, north carolina strom

thurmond. they wanted to stop thurgood marshall's hearings. they wanted to stop in their tracks because of this work is the naacp lawyer in the 40s and the reason many tech cases all the way to the supreme court and knocks down so many of the laws that were hurting blacks. so in 1967, you have this line drawn in the sand. it was like word play that took place at the o.k. corral. thurgood marshall, the legendary lawyer and 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 or a positively to

this book, high school students, students in college, laypeople, judges, lawyers, young, older. so it has just been extremely wonderful to travel around the country and talk to people about thurgood marshall in terms of history has seemed somewhat lost. you know, not as well known by some of the other iconic figures from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. and i think he should be. i hope this book provides the legacy of thurgood marshall. >> whitey think it's hearing lasted as long as they did? >> well, there were efforts by the southern senators to question marshall's gravitas, to question his smarts and so much

was going on in a country at that time. their anti-vietnam protests. there is the riot in detroit that broke out on the last day of marshall's hearing and there is a lot of racial unrest. some of the southern senators tried to link that racial unrest to all of the victories that are good marshall had one. and so you had a real combustion of the loss of fees versus southern philosophies, which had been to keep the voting rolls down for blacks and so you had lyndon johnson who finally made it into the oval office in 1963

following the assassination of president kennedy and lyndon johnson had said himself, he said there are three pillars of segregation that i'm going to knock down. he not done the first at the 1964 civil rights act and knocks down the second which was voting with the 1965 voting rights act and he said my final move will be to get a confident, gifted african-american onto the united states supreme court. those thurgood marshall who graduated number one harvard university law school. marshall was the right man in the right moment at the right time and this country's history. >> was the final blow? how many voted for and against republicans?

>> the final vote was 69 june 9th 11. if the southerners had to stop the white house at 60 votes or less, 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 his nomination through with only nine votes to spare. on the second at the hearing, president johnson was so nervous because he thought it would be over like all the previous hearings had been. president johnson was so nervous he summoned william coleman who is a celebrated african-american attorney from philadelphia and he told william coleman secretly admire them in thurgood marshall

doesn't make it, i am going to nominate you for the supreme court because i am hell-bent on integrating the united state supreme court appeared when coleman had worked with thurgood marshall in 1954 on marshall's titanic six during the browns segregation case of william coleman didn't want to do it. he didn't want to be second choice. he told president johnson that. he also said i will go around and visit as many of the southern senators in northern senators and western senators as they can, especially the ones on the fence about their good marshall. i will try to persuade them to vote for thurgood marshall. there is no doubt that helped. >> what was the political break down, the partisan breakdown? >> most of the democrats were southern democrats. they were the ones who went against marshall. marshall got a lot of help