♪ >> c-span's original documentary on the supreme court has been a newly updated. >sunday, you'll see the grand

public places and is only available to the justices and their staff. and you'll hear how the supreme court works from all the justices, including the newest justice. also, learn about some of the court's recent developments. the supreme court, home to america's highest court, showing for the first time in high- definition sunday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> the one thing we absolutely learned over the last 30 years is that economists and other sages of the economy are not very good at predicting what actually happens. >> in his columns, robert samuelson has written about politics, the economy, and social issues for over three decades. he will join us sunday night on c-span's "q&a." now, the memorial service for west virginia senator robert byrd. the longest serving member of that lobby in u.s. history. this event took place on the

steps of the state capital in charleston, west virginia. we will hear from president obama, vice president joe biden, and senate leaders, among others. this portion is about two hours. [bell ringing] [bell ringing]

[bell ringing]

>> the speaker and i invite you to join us as we recited the pledge of allegiance.

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag at the united states of america. to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> would you please remain standing for the national anthem? [drums and brass band play the national anthem] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [applause]

[applause] >> let us pray. oh, holy one, loving god, we cry out to you today in our sadness and loss. our mountains week today, and our rivers run salty with its fietears. our senator, our advocate, our brother, and our friend has left us to be with irma and with you. but through our tears, we smile

as this beautiful day smiles upon the grieving mounds and rivers and the people of west virginia. we need not tell you his story as we pray. you know the story. is your story. is your story. you are its author. it's beginning and ending. we simply thank you for robert byrd. he loved to with all his heart, mind, soul, and straight, and he loved his neighbors as himself. his neighbors were the people of west virginia. his fellow senators and the people of the world. the neighbors that he loved were all the people of every race and language and station in life.

we thank you that beneath the constitution in his pocket, over his heart, within his heart was your word, which he believed in which he obeyed. which enabled him to change his mind and to change his heart and to learn and grow from the moment of his birth until the day of his death. so we pray, received our thanksgiving and comfort our wounded heart as we thank you for the life and the gift of our senator and our friend. in your holy name we pray. amen.

>> on behalf of the great state of west virginia and it's wonderful people, i would like to welcome all of you to this historic state in world service. today, it is my honor to welcome the president of the united states of america, barack obama. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> the vice president of the united states of america, joe

biden. [applause] president bill clinton. [cheers and applause] senate majority leader harry reid. [applause] [applause] ha leader mitchty mcconnell. [applause] and speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. [cheers and appuse]

and our great senator, jay rockefeller. [cheers and applause] the west virginia congressional delegation and many of the fellow members of congress, thank you so much. [applause] that members of the west virginia board of public works, the west virginia state legislature, the west virginia supreme court, judges, various local and county officials, and everyone here today and watching. while we mourn the loss of our son of west virginia, today we come together to celebrate the outstanding life of a man, the likes of whom we shall never see again. in one of the five books that senator byrd authored, he said, we must study the great figures of our history and carry them

forward in our imaginations as living, breathing presences, we can in effect consult on vital issues of the day. without question, senator robert c. byrd is a pillar in our nation's history. his leadership and influence have stretched well beyond the borders of our mountain state. my first memory of senator byrd was as a young boy working in the back of my grandfather's grocery store in the small coal mining town farmington, west virginia. and hearing scripture of the bible being quoted from great orators. my grandfather, papa joe and robert c. byrd. both held the same great occupation. there were both butchers in grocery stores. and they were discussing bible and business with great fervor. and i still remember today, my personal memory of meeting the senator is no different than so many west virginians.

meeting senator robert c. byrd in every small nook and cranny of this great state. that is why this is so personal to each and every one of us, because we're all family in west virginia. [applause] senator byrd will be remembered for his tireless contributions to the people of west virginia and the united states of america. as the longest serving member -- thank you, as the longest serving member of congress, having cast more votes and held more leadership positions than any other senator and a historic 57 years of service in congress -- [cheers and applause] it would be impossible to stand here and recite all that our beloved senator did for you and

me. from highways and hospitals to schools and technology centers, there are more than 50 projects in west virginia that bear his name or that of his beloved wife. and we will remember senator byrd for the strong family man that he was. the love of his life, erma, and their two daughters, six grandchildren, and seven great- grandchildren provided unconditional support. we will remember senator byrd for the devoted public servant that he was, for the thousands of jobs he created, for his efforts to protect our veterans, and providing healthcare to rural areas. we will remember his commitment to transforming our economy. we will remember his ongoing quest to provide our youth with the opportunity to learn, work, and to succeed. we will remember his steadfast leadership, his wisdom, his reason, his compassion, his strong voice and enthusiasm.

more importantly, what we will remember is his inequalities. honesty, integrity, loyalty -- his in eight qualities. and his sense of democracy and his unwavering love for the people in the state of west virginia. [applause] and we will never forget his deeply rooted spiritual conviction and utmost respect for our founding fathers. the senator truly epitomized the spirit of west virginia. he wore that mountain state spirit on his sleeve and never forgot where that journey in history began. back in wolf creek hollow and sofia, west virginia. [applause] nor did he ever forget the hard work, the salt of the earth people of west virginia, who he loved as if they were his

extended family. when he launched a career in public service some 60 plus years ago, our state was a blank canvas, untouched by the colors of the modern ways of life. senator byrd brought that blank canvas to life using broad architect and optimism and a can-do spirit that resonated throughout the hills of west virginia. in fact, when his political career was in its beginning stages, there were only four miles of divided highway in our state. and senator byrd made it his mission to transform those barren lands. he was a true champion, and man of his word, and a true patriot and guardian of the u.s. constitution. senator byrd was looked up to buy all of congress and often referred to as the conscience of the senate. a long list of colleagues have sang his praises, and here just

a few. senator bob dole said, he has set a standard as a senator, as a legislative leader, and as a statesman that will stand among the best as long as there is a senate. [applause] and his beloved dear friend ted kennedy, senator ted kennedy, said that he personifies what our founding fathers were thinking of when they were thinking about a united states senate. [applause] he has been called a patriot and warrior of the united states constitution. however, the best way that i can describe the senator is that the architect of the alachua. he is the most historic figure to ever call west virginia home and will forever live in our hearts and those of our children. no one can replace our senator, no one. [applause] [applause] no one can fill his shoes, and

we must never forget his tireless dedication as we humbly to follow in his footsteps. senator byrd, you have toiled and triumphed on behalf of your beloved mountain state, and now your time to rest has come. your memory will live in our hearts forever. may god bless you and erma. may god bless the state of west virginia. and may god bless america. [applause] [applause] >> i am senator mitch mcconnell

from your neighboring state of kentucky, the republican leader of the senate. [applause] and i am here today to represent all of the republican members of the united states senate and paid tribute to your beloved senator, robert c. byrd. 10 years ago, senator byrd honored me in the students at the university of louisville by making a trip to kentucky to share some of his wisdom about the senate. i regret to say it has taken me a decade to return the favor. but i do so with a deep sense of gratitude. not only for that particular kindness but for many others he showed me over the years and for the many valuable lessons i have learned and relearned from the life and example of robert c. byrd. others have talked about his encyclopedic knowledge of

history and literature, his courtliness, his profound reverence for the u.s. constitution, his oratory. it is all true. for about a quarter of the time our government has existed, senator byrd stood like a century in a three-piece suit, watching over the legislative branch. but here in west virginia, one cannot help but be reminded first and foremost of the challenges he overcame to achieve all this. it is one of the glories of our country that success is not restricted to the connecting door the wellborn. that anyone with enough talent and drive can rise to the heights of power and prestige. it is remarkable to think that the man who wrote the gettysburg address was raised by a couple who cannot even sign their names. and it is no less remarkable that the man we honor today, a man who held every vote -- to help everyone of us spellbound with his knowledge and his

command of history, cannot even afford a pair of socks to wear to sunday school as a boy. so here in charleston, we are reminded that the american promise reaches even into the most remote corners of hardin county, kentucky and the winding haulers of west virginia. the glory of our nation is reaffirmed every time another man or woman overcomes what some call this advantages to achieve great things. and robert byrd may well be their patron saint. [applause] he was the ultimate self-made man, the high school ballot victorian who cannot afford to go to college but who could teach a room full of profs and the new every day. -- the high school valedictorian but you might say he was a

walking argument for home school. [laughter] he was the orphan who grew up in a home without electricity or running water, but he spent his adult life giving back to his adopted state as much as his beloved adoptive parents gave him. best of all, he was never embarrassed by the poverty of his youth. he wore it like a badge of honor, because he knew his dignity lay not in the tour positions but in being the child of a loving god -- not in material possessions but being a child of a loving god, has been a loving wife, the citizen of the united states of america, and a son of the mountain state. [applause] some people get elected to the senate with the hope of making it on the national stage. not robert byrd. as he once put it, when is the dead and an open, they will find west virginia written on my heart. [applause]

he made it all look easy, but it did not come easy. i remember asking him once if he had never been to a football game. he said he had not. and then he corrected himself. he had actually gone to a game once, but only the halftime show, and even then he left halfway before it was over. [laughter] he was making better use of his time than we were, learning the lessons of history, expanding his views, always learning. quoting one of the seven wise men of greece, he would say, i grow old in the pursuit of learning. he was the only person i ever knew who had no interest in leisure whatsoever. no ball game ever changed the course of history, he said. the fact is, he was engaged in a different contest. not for a perishable crown but

for an imperishable one. and in the end, he could say with paul that he had run the race as it to win. we're consoled by the thought that this man who lived -- who believed, even in the twilight of his life, that the prayers his mother had always followed him has reached his father's house, and that robert c. byrd has heard those words he always longed to hear -- well done, good and faithful servant, come joy. your masters joi's [applause] [applause] >> governor manchin, president

obama, vice president biden, president clinton, colleagues of senator byrd in the senate and in the house, and in his beloved state of west virginiamwestona and marjorie and the family of senator byrd, and his extended family, staff members of senator byrd, and all of you who admired and loved senator byrd, i am vicki kennedy, and i am honored to be here and humbled to speak for someone else who treasured demand we mourn and celebrate today, a giant in the history of the senate and a giant in the history of west virginia, for whom the smallest corner of this state could be the greatest of causes. my husband wrote of robert byrd's vast knowledge and experience. his remarkable insight and

wisdom. but he was for teddy so much more than that. more than that. briefly foes, they became the best of friends. coming from very different places across the years, they came together to keep america's promise. robert byrd moved with our country, and he moved our country forward. from the ceaseless fight for economic justice to the long struggle for health care, where from the floor of the united states senate last christmas eve he raised his arm and his voice to cast the deciding vote. i was in the gallery and tears flowed down my cheeks when he said, mr. president, this is for my friend ted kennedy.

[applause] and yes, as the years passed, they were together, to, in the quest for civil rights in equal rights, his friend teddy had no patience for those who focused on a distant past instead of the robert byrd who day after day was at the center of our democracy and was giving part, hand, and his fear was parliamentary command to help those left behind and to advance our highest hopes for the future. on the floor of the senate in 2007, senator byrd did finally exclaimed, people do get older, even dare i say it, old. but with his indomitable will, the power of his elegant -- eloquence proved that youth is

not a time of life but a state of mind. it was in the eighth decade of his life and the fifth decade of his service in the legislative branch that he foresaw the folly of invading iraq in spoke for conscience and constitution against the tides of on brushing war. [applause] old, yes, he was like a profit of old and not just here but always, robert byrd stood for the constitution and for the integrity and authority of the senate. teddy, who shared his love of history thought of him as a modern incarnation at age and virtue, a roman of west virginia. to the citizens of the state he loved, there is another epitaph

from centuries ago that surely applies to him. if you seek his monument, look all around you. he not only changed it be landscape and so many lives here, he touched souls and people knew without being told that he was on their side. i saw this as teddy and i campaigned across west virginia with senator byrd during the 2004 presidential contest. we crisscrossed the state in a huge bus. he was an incredible force, quoting scripture, riding the back of flat bed trucks, spellbinding his audiences. teddy told me, we were watching and master, which was high praise indeed from someone who was a master campaigner himself. i am not sure robert byrd would have put it this way, but he was a rock star. [laughter] [applause]

finally, to all of you, to the family and friends who have lost 10 now and love him as before -- who have lost in now and let him as before, let me share what i have learned. these are will be there. returning each day, often randomly and quick end by little things, but you will be sustained by the priceless grace of memories in the gift of faith. and so it was with robert byrd, as he looked forward to being reunited as he is now with his precious erma. he made history that few others in the senate chamber ever have. he lifted up countless lives as few senators from any state ever have. someone will take robert byrd's seat, but no one will ever fill his place. [applause]

>> today, as west virginians, we mourn the incredible loss of our friend and our protector, our senator, robert c. byrd. and yet today, we also celebrate his remarkable life. this is not an easy balance for us. from the southern mountains to the northern panhandle, we have shed so many tears at the learning of his passing. yet, we stand together as the people with warmth in our hearts, knowing that his legacy will live on in and grateful

that the nation pauses to day to honor him. senator byrd was in so many ways the embodiment of what it is to the embodiment of what it is to be a west virginian he made me and all of us so proud to be west virginians. he took such a pure joy and ferocious, unyielding pride, not just in the senate as an institution, but frankly, in pulling the levers of power for west virginia and west jordanians, for people, for education, veterans, health care, for economic opportunity. he reveled in the power that he had through the grace of his persistence and the intensity of his focus. it was in his blood.

it was his sacred cause. robert c. byrd reached great heights because of the purism of his purpose and the depth of his determination. every day, i intimately witnessed that senator byrd never forgot where he came from, and he never let up, even when his heart was broken. first, with the tragic death of his young grandson. and then, i know a part of him was lost forever when his beloved erma passed on. watching him hurt was deeply agonizing for me and for all who

loved him. we saw each other constantly, obviously, on the floor of the senate. i wished so much there was something, just anything, that i could do to try to ease his pain, because it was so, so obvious. when senator byrd and i would see each other, as we did obviously a lot on the floor of the senate, since erma's passing, sometimes he would take my hand ever so gently and press it and hold it against his cheek. he was talking less in those days, but we were communicating. to sharon and i and all of west virginia, robert byrd was our

family. yours, hours, all of ours, and all of those that are behind me, and it was his special touch that made us all shine. senator byrd, thank you. we will miss you. from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. and always, we honor you in wilmore new -- will mourn you. [applause] >> rev. clergy, mr. president,

mr. vice president, mona and marjorie, senator byrd's family, grandchildren, great- grandchildren, his hardworking staff, members and colleagues of his from the senate, leaders from the senate, speaker of the house, members of the state legislature. you know, i just never really thought he would die. just never really thought he would. although this day is not unexpected, it is unexpectedly difficult to stand here to say goodbye to senator robert c. byrd, our senator, our chairman, our mentor, our friend, our big daddy. [cheers and applause] he was so eloquent, so erudite,

that is a daunting to find the words that can encompass the enormity of the man and all that he has left behind. all around us, senator byrd has left his legacy to the state in the nation he loved. we could talk about the bricks and mortar, the records set in both west virginia and national legislate tours, but senator byrd quite literally has paved our way to the future. he has paved a path to the future. but i believe that his most lasting legacy will come from the example that he said with his own life, with his own life, full of lessons for each of us to learn from and build upon. senator byrd never stopped learning, and he never stopped working. despite the obstacles of which we all know and the setbacks that would immobilize less determined individuals. he was a great reader, a great

reader of what he called the greatest book of all, the bible. of histories from ancient rome to the 20th-century, to poetry. and believe you me, from memory. i heard it often, whether on his staff in driving him back and forth between washington and west virginia, or even as his congressman driving him back and forth to west virginia. i heard such recitations very often. and they kept me awake while i was driving the car. [laughter] i have always been working for senator byrd. for over 40 years, on his staff and in the senate democratic cloak room. and now, over the last few days, as his congressman. and when senator byrd had a problem, when he needed help on an issue, he would always call his congressman, and i would be there to help him in any way i could. he loved beautiful words, and he

loved to share them. the congressional record and our public libraries are much richer for it. no bible nor dictionary went .nread by senator byrd a lover of history, he put history to work with more passion and power and promise than anyone in the republic's history. but while he relished history, he lived for the future, the future of his great state and our great country. he was unapologetic to critics of his efforts to bring federal programs and dollars to west virginia. to him, it was a labor of love. and when robert c. byrd loved, he loved deeply and for all the days of his life. to senator byrd, the constitution, yes, it was not as a historic relic, but rather the living, breathing soul of the republic. he was its greatest defender and its most impassioned promoter. it is fitting that this lover of history, the guardian of the constitution, the son of the senate, is being memorialized,

even as the nation celebrates independence day. senator byrd may not have been a founding father, but this adopted son of a west virginia coal miner would have been right at home among them. yes, he could hobnob with kings and queens all over the world and princes and princesses, and he could scold presidents of the united states -- [laughter] [applause] but you know, my friends, you know as well as i know where he was most comfortable. that was either in my parents' home in beckley, west virginia in raleigh county, or in my home or in your home. he was much more comfortable sitting down to a dinner of beans, corn bread and onions, and sipping buttermilk. [applause] he competed only against himself to work the hardest, to do the most, to cast the greatest

number of votes, to be his very best. in doing so, he inspired generations of west virginians. yes, senator byrd, in the words of one of his favorite poems, has now "crossed the bar," crossed the bar. he has set sail on a journey to that farthest shore where his beloved wife waits for him. and i know i speak for my colleagues today, representative alan mollohan and representative shelley moore capito, saying godspeed, my dear senator. in his role as president pro tempore of the senate, senator byrd represented the entire senate at significant national events. his compatriot during those events, our speaker of the house of representatives, who is joined here today by our majority leader, steny hoyer, but our speaker knew senator byrd almost as well as we west virginians.

they traveled together. they represented both bodies of this great country of ours in many different forums. the speaker's and senator byrd's approaches to statecraft are as similar and it -- in that no detail is too small. every vote counts, no vote is taken for granted, and every person matters. they both share a passion for people. ladies and intimate, welcome the speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi. -- ladies and gentlemen, welcome the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. [applause] >> good afternoon. mr. president, mr. president, mr. vice-president, leaders reid and mcconnell, bishop grove, so many friends of senator byrd who

are gathered here, i am so pleased to join my colleagues from west virginia. mr. rahall, who is a chairman and a great leader in the congress that the united states. congressman alan mollohan, who is a chairman as well. shelley moore capito. i am pleased to be with them, as well as our delegation and the house of representatives, led by our leader steny hoyer in the house. [applause] i bring, as speaker of the house, i sadly have the privilege of bringing the condolences of the house of representatives to marjorie and to mona and the entire out byrd family. as a friend of senator byrd, i do so with great sadness. but happily, thanks to the byrd family, some of us had the opportunity to sing senator

byrd's praises in his presence in december, when he became the longest serving member of congress in american history. [cheers and applause] i noticed it then that senator byrd's congressional service began in the house of representatives. in those six years in the house, he demonstrated what would become the hallmarks of his commitment -- his love of the people of west virginia, his passion for history and public service, and his remarkable oratorical skills. and i am going to talk to you about his service in the house briefly. in 1953, this is one of his earliest speeches, he came to the floor of the house and he said "i learned quite a long time ago before becoming a member of this house that there is an unwritten rule in the

minds of some, perhaps, which is expected to cover the conduct of new members in a legislative body to the extent that they should often be seen but seldom be heard. i have observed this rule very carefully up until this time, and i shall continue to do so. however, the book of ecclesiastes says, to everything, there is a season, a time to keep silent in a time to speak." and he decided it was time for him to speak. [applause] he went on in that speech, one of his earliest speeches, he went on to quote not only the bible but shakespeare, rudyard kipling, and daniel webster. and mr. president, this was a speech about world trade. [laughter] though he thrived in the house, when he moved on to the senate, senator byrd remarked that he

was happy to leave behind the limitations on speaking time on the house floor. [laughter] on a personal moment, i will never forget a dinner i hosted for him in the early 1980's when he was running for reelection at that time in california. after dinner, we did not know what to expect. we were all so nervous to be in the presence of such a great person to what did he do? he pulled out his fiddle and regaled us with west virginia tunes and told us great stories about each and every one of you. [applause] that was an act of friendship that i will never forget. later, when i came to congress, i told senator byrd how my father, who had served in congress, gave me the image of a coal miner carved in coal. it is the only thing i have from my father's office as a member of congress. it had been a gift to him from

jennings randolph, who had represented west virginia so well -- [applause] and is that in my father's office when he was in the house of representatives. it now sits in the speaker's office. and it is in my west virginia corner, along with a silver tray from senator byrd, which i love, especially because it is engraved, "with thanks, from robert and erma." in the beginning of my comments, i mentioned a speech of senator byrd's on the house floor. that day in 1953, he quoted the words of daniel webster. these words, when you come to the capital, are etched on the wall of the chamber, high above the speaker's chair. and these words will come to define his leadership, but he voiced them in that earliest speech. senator byrd said, "let us develop the resources of our

land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its greatest interests and see whether we also in our day and our generation may perform something worthy to be remembered." daniel webster. senator byrd's service and his leadership were more than worthy to be remembered for many generations to come. and as my colleague said, it is very appropriate that we're celebrating robert byrd's life and putting him to rest in the week of july 4. he was a great american patriot. and as governor manchin said, we shall never see his likes again. may he rest in peace. amen. [applause]

>> my name is harry reid. i am the leader of the u.s. senate. [applause] i have the honor today to speak for those members of the united states senate now serving and who have served. i also want to speak for those staff members who are now serving the u.s. senate and you have served. 18 years ago i left my home in it nevada and needed something to read on the airplane. i pulled out of my little library a paperback that i had read a long time ago, "the adventures of robinson crusoe." i enjoyed it. it was easy reading. but fascinating, i had not read it in a long, long time.

i came to -- [no audio] i know how much he liked to read, and i wanted to oppress and that i had read something -- i wanted to impress him that i had read something. [inaudible] he leaned his head back, like i had seen him do many times. his eyes rolled back toward the heavens. he paused for a moment, and then he said, 28 years, two months, and 19 days. in case anyone does not know, that is how long he was on that island. now, i was astonished. i do not know how long he had been on the island, and i had just read the buck. [laughter] robert byrd knew it to the day, and he had not read the book in 50 years.

it was hardly the first time i had been dumbfounded, and it was hardly the first -- and i was not the first to be dumbfounded by this man's brilliance. we have all marveled at the print that is balanced mind. one he said generously gave to the people of this state in this country. a few years before barry goldwater died, he wrote a letter to senator byrd from his home in arizona. just to tell him how much he admired senator byrd's gift for remembering and reciting even the most obscure facts. here's what barry goldwater said -- keep it up, because when you get to heaven, i am there, and i want to have someone to listen to. [laughter] robert byrd did not just memorize and catalog things for the heck of it. in fact, he once advised a crowd here in charleston that the purpose of an education is not

simply to make the mind a storehouse of information but to transform that mind into an inquisitive and innovative instrument of knowledge. he could never quite quench his thirst for learning. he was without limits in his mind. the first and his family to make it through the third grade, senator byrd once said he craved acknowledge the way a hungry man craves bread. and he can send it -- consumed it in untold fashion. he grew by doing so, and he changed by doing so. he never stopped learning. learning from others are even from his own mistakes. and with every new lesson he learned, he also learned how much more there was to know. robert byrd could dispense knowledge as well as he exhorted. it was because he was a tireless lerner that he became a perilous

teacher. no one was his peer as a teacher. i remember how, in his precise, poetic voice, he taught us to protect the traditions and its strength in the senate that the united states and warned as to avoid the hazards that weakened the senate of our own. he taught me to carry in my pocket a copy of the constitution. all senators sort to support it and defend it. i of course have it with me today. i have every day. my old when he gave me first is worn out. it is in a treasured spot at my home. this one is fairly new. the handwriting is not as good as the first one, and i am not going to read the personal note to me. but he cited, cordially, robert c. byrd, united states senator. robert byrd always kept that

charters are close to his heart because he loved his country. we will always keep his memory so close to our hearts because we loved him. when the founders conjured this constitution, robert byrd treasured when he imagined the people's representatives who would fill the great positions they prescribed, i believe they had the senior senator from west virginia in mind. they really had to. they outlined only a few characteristics of the united states senator. his age, his citizenship, his residency. if they had only kept writing, i am confident they would have described robert c. byrd in full. he was exactly what they intended. eloquent, steadfast stewart at the nation's founding principles, fiercely loyal to the state that chosen, forever faithful to his constituents, his country, and its constitution.

it is hard to believe america's longest serving member of congress was once a freshman senator, but he was. in the summer of that first year in the senate, 1959, the charleston gazette ask the young robert byrd to name his highest ambitions. "if i live long enough, i would like to be the chairman of the senate appropriations committee ." why did he dream that? [applause] why did he not aspire to the white house for the governor's mansion or some other high office? it is because robert murch -- is because robert byrd knew that he could best of his neighbors and his home of west virginia in that chair. he knew that that was his first and most important job. [applause] he knew that was his first and most important job, as their

representative in the senate. of course, just as he had predicted, robert byrd did indeed live long enough to hold the gavel that he coveted. 30 years to the day after he assumed the title of center, he assumed the title of the appropriations chairman. trading in the title of majority leader to do so, and then he lived in served for two more decades. though he did more than anyone before him and probably more than anyone who will ever again, he never thought he had done enough for west virginians. and as we watched him work, we learned another lesson -- i did. we all learned another lesson, to never forget why we serve and where we come from. he once wrote, "west virginia is indelibly written on my heart and will be there until my body has returned to the dust." noah has meant more to a state than robert byrd -- no one has meant more to a state than

robert byrd did to west virginia. [applause] the u.s. senate has never meant more to anyone than it did to robert byrd. it is true that his records of longevity are astounding. after all, think about this, he served in served in our nation s for more than a quarter of the time our country existed and longer than a quarter of today's sitting senators and the president has been alive. by virtue of his endurance robert byrd new and worked with many of the greats of american history, but it is because of his enduring virtue that he will be forever be remembered as one of the greatest. his career cannot be counted by the time he worked, but we should measure in the lives of those for whom he worked. his accomplishments are not in some of the millions of dollars he brought back to cities like huntington, but the millions of families he brought out of the same party that he endured.

on the last day of his life -- [applause] on the last day of his life, robert byrd felt just as strongly about the principle of just mentioned as he did the very first time he rode to speak as a state legislator in this beautiful state capitol building behind us. in that speech, which, of course, he memorized before delivery, he said "to me, the dollar is second repaired human misery and suffering of the welfare of the help desk and dependent children come first." he was teaching us from day one, and he never stopped. that does not mean he did not also loved his remarkable records of public service, he did -- rankings that will never be suppressed. he was sure the proud of it. i have no doubt right now robert byrd is battling his head looking down from the heavens and saying, 57 years, five months, 26 days. [applause] [applause]

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ♪ i have hear of a land on a farm homea beautiful

it was built by jesus on high and when we get there we never shal die a land where we'll never grow older i have heard of a land on a far away strand

it's a beautiful home it was built by jesus on high and when he gets there he never shall die never where he'll never grow old when he gets over there he will never grow old never grow old

never growhere we'll old never grow old never grow old in that land where we'll never grow old we'll never grow old when and that last has been won when our troubles

and all our sorrows are over when all of our trials they will all lend and together and together when we get there we will -- never grow old never grow old in that land where we'll never grow old we will never grow old

never grow old in that land where we'll never grow old ♪ [applause] [applause] >> that was beautiful. ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present the 42nd

president of the united states, my dear friend, president bill clinton. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. governor, all the members of senator byrd's family, mr. president, mr. vice president, madam speaker, congressman rahall and all the house members here, senator reid, senator mcconnell, all the senators, thank you, senator rockefeller and thank you, vicki kennedy. i'd also like to thank all the i'd also like to thank all the people here who at the time of his passing, or ever worked for robert byrd who helped him to

succeed for the people of west virginia. i thank them. and, i want to thank the martin luther king male chorus. they gave us a needed break from all these politicians talking up here. i want to say first that i come here to speak for two members my family. hillary wanted to be here today and she paid her respects to senator byrd as he lay in state in the united states senate before making a trip on behalf of our country to central and eastern europe. i am grateful to bob byrd for many things, but one thing that no one has given enough attention to in my opinion today is that while he always wanted to be the best senator,

and he always wanted to be the longest-serving senator, he wanted every other senator to be the best senator that he or she could be. and he helped hillary a lot when she came to represent the people of new york. i am forever grateful for that. now, everybody else has canonizing senator byrd. i would like to humanize him a little bit. because i think it makes it more interesting and makes his service all the more important much. first of all, most people had to go all the way to washington to become awed by, you might even say intimidated by robert byrd. not me. i had advance experience before i got elected. [the first] time i ever ran for

office, at the opening of campaign season in arkansas, below the waccamaw and ozark mountains, which were once connected to the appalachians, we had this big rally. and the year i started, don't you know, robert byrd was the speaker. 1974, april, i'll never forget it. it was a beautiful spring night. and he gave one of those stem- winding speeches. and then he got up and he played the fiddle, and the crowd went crazy. and you know, in 1974, in a place like arkansas or west virginia, playing the fiddle was a whole lot better for your politics than playing the saxophone. [laughter] so i am completely intimidated. so i am completely intimidated. and then all the candidates get to speak. to speak. they're all limited to four or five minutes. some went over.

all the candidates for governor and every state officer. and then the members of the -- people running for the house of representatives, there were five of us. we were dead last. and i drew the short straw. i was dead last among them. by the time i got up to speak, it had been so long since robert byrd spoke, he was hungry again. byrd spoke, he was hungry again. and i realized, in my awed state, i couldn't do that well. so i decided the only chance i had to be remembered was to give the shortest speech. i spoke for 80 seconds. and i won the primary. and i owed it to robert byrd. [applause] now, when i was elected president, i knew that one of the things i needed to do before i took the oath of office was go to the senate and pay my

respects to senator byrd. in 1974, when i first met him, he had already been the leading authority on the institutional history of the senate and the senate rules for some years and he certainly was by the time i was about to become president. so i did that. and i got a copy of his history of the senate, and his history of the roman senate. and i read them. still on my bookshelf in my office in harlem in new york city today because i was so profoundly impressed. profoundly impressed. now, robert byrd was not without a sense of humor. for example, i was once ragging him about all the federal money

virginia. and it was bad for -- i mean, i was from arkansas. we weren't much better off than you. we weren't any better off than you. and every friend i had in arkansas said, he's just a senator. house. we don't get squat compared to what they get. what is the matter with you? i what is the matter with you? i was getting the living daylights beat out of me about once a week. so i said to him, early in my first term, i said, you know, senator, if you pave every single inch of west virginia, it's going to be much harder to mine coal. and he smiled, and he said, the constitution does not prohibit humble servants from delivering whatever they can to their constituents. but let me say something,

seriously. he knew people who were elected to represent states and regions and political philosophies. we're flesh and blood people, which means they would never be perfect. he knew they were subject to passion and anger. passion and anger. and when you make a decision, that's important when you're mad, there's about an 80 percent chance you'll make a mistake. and that's why he thought the rules and the institution and the constitution were so important. and he put them before everything, even what he wanted. i'll never forget when we were trying to pass health care reform, in 1993 and '94. senator byrd was a passionate supporter of the efforts we

were making, just as he was of the efforts that president obama has made. but we only had 55 votes, and we could not defeat a filibuster. and so i said, "well, senator, why don't you just let me stick this on the budget, because that's the only thing you can't filibuster." that violated something called the byrd rule. the byrd rule. they knew he was running the senate. they just go ahead and named the rule for him. so, i said, "you know, you really ought to suspend this, because the budget is going to be bankrupt if we don't quit spending so much money on health care, and we can't do it if we don't offer health care to everybody." and he looked at me and he said, "that argument might have worked when you were a professor in law school.

but you know as well as i do, it is substantively wrong." he wouldn't do it. then in his defense, he turned right around, and he worked his heart out to break that heart out to break that filibuster, and he was trying till the very end not to get me to give up the fight, because he thought if we just tried, we could find some errant republican who would make a mistake and vote with us. he would never give it up. the point i want to make is, he made a decision against his own interests, his own conviction, his own fight. and that's one reason i thank god that he could go in his wheelchair in his most significant vote at the end of his service in the senate and vote for health care reform and make it real law. now, i will say this. now, i will say this. if you want to get along with senator byrd, and you were having one of those constitutional differences, it was better for your long-term health if you lost the battle. i won the battle over the line- item veto.

oh, he hated the line-item veto. he hated the line-item veto with a passion that most people in west virginia reserve for blood feuds, like the hatfields and the mccoys. you would have thought the line-item veto had been killing members of the byrd family for 100 years. it made his blood boil. by've never been lectured anybody, nick rahall said that. till bob byrd has lectured you, you have never known a lecture. i regret that every new president and every new member of congress will never have the experience of being dressed down by senator robert byrd. and i'll be darned if he wasn't right about that, too. the supreme court rule for him instead of me on the line-item veto. all right? the point i want to make here is a serious one.

he did as good a job for you as he could. as far as he was concerned, as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as too much for west virginia. but the one thing he would not do, even for you, is violate his sense of what was required to maintain the integrity of the constitution and the integrity of the united states senate, so that america could go on when we were wrong, as well as right. so we would never be dependent on always being right. [applause] let me just say, finally, it is commonplace to say that he was a self-made man, that he set an example of lifetime learning. he was the first, and as far as i know, maybe the only member of congress to get a law degree while serving in the congress.

but he did more learning than that. and all you've got to do is look around this crowd today and listen to that music to remember. there are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for senator byrd, and the newspapers, and i read a bunch of them. and they mentioned that he once had a fleeting association with the ku klux klan. and what does that mean? i'll tell what you it means. he was a country boy from the hills and hollers of west virginia. he was trying to get elected. and maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. and that's what a good person does. there are no perfect people. there are certainly no perfect politicians. and so, yes, i'm glad he got a law degree. but by the time he got a law degree, he already knew more than 99 percent of the lawyers

in america, anyway. the degree he got in human nature and human wisdom, the understanding that came to him by serving you and serving in the senate, that's the people from the hills and hollers of west virginia, in their patriotism, they provided a disproportionate number of the soldiers who fought for our independence from england. and they have provided a disproportionate number of the soldiers in every single solitary conflict since that time, whether they agreed or disagreed with the policy. [applause] the family feeling, the clan loyalty, the fanatic independence. independence. the desire for a hand up, not a hand out. the willingness to fight when

put into a corner. that has often got the people from whom senator byrd and i sprang in trouble. because we didn't keep learning and growing and understanding that all the african-americans who have been left out and left down and lived for going to church and lived to see their kids get a better deal, and have their children sign up for the military when they're needed. they're just like we are. that all the irish catholics, the scotch irish used to fight. everybody. the italian immigrants, the people from latin america who have come to our shores. the people from all over the world. everybody who's ever been let down and left out and ignored, and abused, or who's got a terrible family story. we are all alike. that is the real education robert byrd got, and he lived it every day of his life in the united states senate to make america a better, stronger place. so not long after, maybe right

before senator byrd lost erma, before senator byrd lost erma, i said in a fleeting world of instant food and attention deficit disorder, he had proved, and so had she, that some people really do love each other till death do they part. i've been thinking about that today, thinking maybe we ought to amend the marriage vows and say that till death to us part and till death do bring us back together. together. i -- i admired senator byrd; i

[applause] liked him; i was grateful to him. i loved our arguments, and i loved our common causes. but most of all, i loved it that he had had the wisdom to believe that america was more important than any one individual, any one president, any one senator. that the rules, the institutions, the system had to enable us to keep forming a more perfect union through ups and downs and good times and bad. he has left us a precious gift. he fought a good fight. he kept the faith. he has finished his course, but not ours. if we really would honor him today and every day, we must remember his lessons, and live by them.

thank you. [applause] [applause] >> the next person i have the honor to present is a man who served with our beloved senator byrd for 36 years in the senate, almost longer than any other senator. would you please join me in giving a west virginia welcome to the vice-president of the united states, joe biden. [applause] >> bishop, rev. clergy, mona and marjorie, the entire family, if you didn't already know what,

it's pretty clear the incredible esteem your father was held in. i know you've known that your whole life. to my fellow members of the senate, you know, i was telling the president when i got elected the last time and had a great honor the running with the president, i was elected vice president and the united states senator in the same day for my seventh term. and in talking to -- and i got sworn in for that seventh term because we thought we might need a vote there in those first couple weeks. and every time i sat with the leader -- i never called senator byrd senator -- i always called a leader -- when i sat with the leader, i could see the look in his face and he said, joe, you sure you're making the right decision giving up the senate for vice president? because as senators know, he

reappeared the senate. as danny inoue went into chambers, we walked in together -- he said, if you had stayed, you would be number two. i am still number two, danny. ladies and gentlemen, mr. president, yesterday i had the opportunity to pay my respects to leader byrd as he lay in riposte to the senate chamber. i met a family than and again today. and the last time that happened was 50 years ago -- the last time that that chamber i revere served as a resting place for anyone was 50 years ago. but although i and my colleagues

behind the reviewer the seven, robert c. byrd elevated the senate. the other great men and their families would have chosen for them to lay in state in the rotunda. but bob byrd and his family chose to lay in state in the senate chamber. and to me, this is completely appropriate, having served in a 436-plus years. for the senate chamber was robert c. byrd's cathedral. the senate chamber was his cathedral, and west virginia was his heaven. [applause] [applause] and there's not a lot of hyperbole in that. every person in the senate -- as my colleagues behind you can tell you -- brings something special about them. i'll never forget having

privately criticized a senator when i was there the first year. i was sitting with the previous leader, senator mansfield, who was an incredible guy. and he told me that -- he said, why are you upset? and i told him about a particular senator railing against something i thought was very worthy, the american with disabilities act. and he went on to tell me that every member of the senate represented something in the eyes of their state that was special and represented a piece of their state. well, if there was ever a senator who was that embodiment of his state, if there was ever a senator who, in fact, reflected his state, it was robert c. byrd.

the fact of the matter is, the pick of the banjo, the sweet sound of the fiddle, ramp dinners in the spring, country fares in the summer, the beauty of the laurels in the mountains, the rush of the rapids through the valleys -- these things and not only describe west virginia, but from an outsider's point of you who has been here many times at the invitation of jennings randolph and robert c. byrd, it seems to be -- to me they defined a way of life. it's more than just a state. and robert c. byrd was the fierce -- the most fierce defender of not only the state, but the way of life. i think the most fierce defender that probably this state has ever known in its history. you know, robert byrd did use

the phrase, "when i die, west virginia will be written on my heart." and i used to kid him, i said, "you have so many stocks iris down there, get on that knowledge it was an irish catholic named joyce who said that first." reverend, he quoted everybody else, but when he used that phrase he never acknowledged that it was james joyce to said, when i die, dublin will be written in my heart. all he would do is laugh. the fact of the matter is, virginia was not only written in his heart, but he wore it on his sleeve. he took such pride in this place. he took such pride in all of you. i remember he asked me, one of the few races he had -- it was a race -- whether i would come down because i was the young guy and i could come down and demonstrate to everybody that i could not keep up with robert c. byrd, which happen to be true. and i was -- i think, nick, you were at the dinner. we had a jefferson-jackson day

dinner down here, and robert c. byrd did something never happened before in all the dinners i've spoken that. he stood up and he said, "we're honored to have senator joe biden from delaware here tonight, and, joe, i'd like to introduce you to west virginia." then he spent, as nec will remember, the next probably 10 minutes talking about everyone in the audience by name -- where there were from, what they had there were from, what they had done, how they had fought through difficulty. and he said, kind of like johnny carson, "here's joe." well, i thought it was pretty impressive, literally. robert c. byrd asked me to speak, but he knew the privilege was mine, not the people to whom i was speaking.

he was devoted to all of you like few senators in the 37 years i was there, 36-plus years i was there, that i have ever, ever known. he was fiercely devoted, as you've all heard, to his principles. principles. even once he became power , he always spoke truth to power, standing up for the people he proudly was part of, and you heard it many times today but it bears repeating again, in defense of the constitution he revered. i always wear a flag pin, but i was afraid he'd be looking down today because every time i'd wear the flag pin on the floor, he would grab me, take my pin, and put on a constitution pin. that's the pin i'm wearing. so, boss, i'm wearing the pins. [applause]

robert c. byrd said many things, but once said "as long as there's a forum in which questions can be asked by men and women who cannot stand in all of a chief executive, and no one -- one can speak as long as one's feet will allow one to stand, the liberties of the american people will be secure." 11 president's new robert c. byrd. he served, as he pointed out, concurrently with them, not under them. [applause] and 11 presidents -- where they all here and two are here -- can attest to the fact that the always showed respect but never deference. and he stood in all of non. he had a credible, prodigious memory that i will not take time to regale you about.

i just remember one time sitting with the queen of england had a formal dinner, and he decided the entire -- the entire lineage of the tudors and every year each one had served. and she sat there, and i thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head. it was like, what did i just hear? she learned about relatives she probably forgot she had. as also noted, robert c. byrd was a parliamentary library, a keeper of the institution of the senate, and he was the institution itself. but to me and many people here today, like guys i see -- bill bradley, jim sasser who left the senate for greater pastures, and i hope better remuda ration -- remuneration -- we used to kid about that, too -- but i -- for

a lot of us, he was a friend, and he was a mentor and he was a guide. nick and i were talking a little bit earlier, because nick -- i commuted every day for 36 years in the united states senate, too rigid and 50 miles a day, and robert c. byrd was a stickler about when he did set votes. and i drive down from washington and i called nick on his big old car phone that i first had -- it was about as big -- and i'd say, nick, hold the phone. i can see the dome. -- hold the vote. -- hold the vote. finally, endicott on and said joe -- senator -- how far awaken you see the dome? because he'd be the one to go to the leader and say, can you all the votes have a more minutes for biden? as long as i was behaving, he held the vote. but when i found myself in disagreement i'd stay there to catch a 7:00 train, he said a vote for 7:00. and i'd walk up to him and i'd

say -- he stood in the first riser -- and i'd say mr. leavitt, we got an hour. he said the vote for 7:00, and possibly for setting it at 10 to seven sort of get the train? he'd go like this -- the look of the clock, looked at me, looked at the clock and say, no. [laughter] i misbehavede once. i voted with george mitchell on a matter relating to iners -- miners and that was a big mistake. he literally took the roll call sheets with every senator's name and how they voted. he took the roll call sheet, had it framed, had minding circled in red and literally -- literally, had it screwed to the ornate door frame in his office then as the chairman of the

appropriations committee. so every single senator coming to see him would walk out, and that i had, they'd see biden circled in red and know darn well better not vote against robert c. byrd ever. you think i am joking. i not joking. then i got in his good graces. i tried to run for president and said i don't want any senators running for president. i said, why, mr. leader? he said, because you never come back to vote when i need you. so i made a promise that no matter where i was, if he called me and said he needed my vote, i'd drop whatever i was doing and i'd come. and i kept the commitment -- the only one, i might add. that got me back into his good graces again. the points is that this is a man that knew exactly what he was doing. after i was elected in 1972 as a 29-year-old kid, i was number 100 out of 100 in the senate security.

and leader byrd offered up -- he would then the whip -- he offered his office to meet to come down from delaware so i could have a place to interview staff members. it was in his office, and in that connection his secretary put through, that i received a call telling me that -- about an accident which took the life of my wife and my daughter. and when they were very, we held a memorial service a couple days later in delaware where thousands of people showed up, and it was a bone chilling slate day of rain. and people couldn't get in the church. and i never do it initially, but robert c. byrd -- and i think you may have driven him up, nick -- drove up on his old with nick to that church.

he stood outside for the better part of an hour in a driving rainstorm where the temperature was below 32. when my brother saw him and ask him to come in, he said no -- he wouldn't displace anyone. he stayed there for the entire service. when the service was over, he got in his vehicle and he drove back, never attempting to be noticed, never seeking that to know, as my deceased wife used to say, the real measure of generosity is what you do what and no one ever do you did it. well, robert c. byrd did that. i was appreciative of what he did, but i quite frankly didn't understand till a couple years later i was in his office, and behind his desk was a huge blue

cast in bronze. hisas michael's boot -- grandson's boot. and all of a sudden, it came so crystal clear to me who this guy was. i'd known him, but i understood immediately what he was about. for him it was all about family. it was not just, -- erma, his beloved wife of 69 years. it was not just his daughters, his grandchildren, great- grandchildren -- all of whom are in our press today. it was an awful lot of you. i bet if he were here he could look out and name -- debut, and tell you what your father or mother did for him, what your grandmother or grandfather before him, and how you make such and such of yourself. clearly in his own life, robert

byrd suffered a lot of hardships. you all know the story -- losing his mom, being raised and adopted by an aunt and uncle, growing up in a home without electricity or water, having to work at an early age. he had an incredible, incredible determination, one that i don't think any of my colleagues have ever witnessed, would be my guess. but, you know, this man was -- it wasn't just that, as president clinton pointed out, that at age 47 and as a sitting congressman he -- or 45 -- he went and got a law degree. i don't know that you know -- you probably do, mr. president -- he got that law degree without having a college degree. and at age 77, he went to marshall university and completed his work, getting his college degree. because to him, in my view -- and i don't know, the family would tell you this -- to him, i

think he felt there was something wrong with the fact that he got the law degree without graduating. he didn't need that undergraduate degree, but it was bob byrd. it's a " john stennis, plauen to the hedgerow and to the end of the road. the road. the remarkable thing about it is he traveled a hard path. he devoted his life, though, to making that have a little easier for those who followed. this is a guy who continued to taste and smell and feel the suffering of the people of his state. he tasted it. that's why it was so deeply ingrained in him. it wasn't just a moral obligation. this guy remembered. nd unapologetically -- as has been pointed out -- did everything to improve the lives of the people of delaware by stealing all the money from delaware, texas, california, he

could possibly get. remember, governor, the other two campaigns ago he is getting beat up for tried to move -- was a two campaigns ago -- to have the fbi move down to was the -- . at the national press was beating him up. and i was on the floor with him. and he just got ripped a press conference about that. and he -- you know how he used to grab you by the arm, walking back -- he said, joe, i keep they keep throwing the in the briar patch. but i tell you what, you west virginians 0 a lot of people in delaware for a lot of money with should have got and you got. [laughter] i just want you to know that, so be nice to the rest of us. and by the way, if you doubt any of it, you just drive here and you cross the robert c. byrd drive, robert c. byrd appalachian library, library and learning center, robert c. byrd clinic, the robert c. byrd federal building in charleston and on and on. and on and on. but ladies and gentlemen, of

course it's more than the name we are not going to forget. it is his courage. he died like he lived. he died like he lived his life. he never stopped fighting. how many people would have on -- hung on as long as he did? how many people would have had the ability to get back out of that hospital bed and get in a wheelchair and come in and vote, vote for this? he never stopped thinking about his people and the things he cared about. speaking several weeks ago, this week actually, when robert byrd said "like jefferson and adams, i'm inspired to continue serving the land i love to bear very best of my abilities, for the whole of my years." well, he served the land he

loved. he served the people he loved. he served the people who were in his blood. and because of that service, you have gained it greatly. and with his loss, you're the first ones who will feel that loss. but it's not just west virginia alone. it is all of us. i said to him -- i said of him when i learned of his death, i was on an error in the for the president's in cleveland, and i said, you know, to paraphrase the poet, we shall not see his like again. had he been there, he would have said, joe, that shakespeare, hamlet, acts i, seen ii, an actual " is i shall not look upon his like again. mr. leader, were not going to look upon your like again.

i am not even going to ask god to bless you because he already has and i know where you are. and they got bless your family, may god bless the state of this country, and may god protect our troops. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> it is truly an honor for west virginia to post all the dignitaries who came today and i really on behalf of the great people of this wonderful stay thank each and every one of you. it really just shows how many lives senator byrd has touched. over two months ago the man i of going to introduce to you are the us by coming and paying tribute to our fallen miners at big branch.

and we appreciate that so much. honoring them and honoring their families and all the people who worked so hard to make this country what it is repaired and ladies and gentlemen, it is truly my father now to present to you the president of the united states. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. to mona and marjorie, and to senator byrd's entire family, including those adorable great- granddaughter's that i had a chance to me -- michele and i

offer you our deepest sympathies. friends,r byrd's including the speaker of the house, the majority leader, the republican leader, presidents clinton, vice president bided, vicki kennedy, nick rahall, and all the previous speakers -- senator rockefeller for the outstanding work that you've done for the state of west virginia. to his large family -- the people of west virginia -- i want you all to know that all america shares your loss. they will find comfort in a verse of scripture that reminds me of our dear friends -- the time of my departure has come.

i have fought the good fight, i have finished their race, i have kept the faith. it is interesting that you heard that passage from several speakers now because it embodies somebody who do how to run a good and long race, and somebody who knew how to keep the faith -- with his state, with his family, with his country and his constitution. years from now, what i think of the man we memorialize today, i'll remember him as he was when i came to know him, his white hair fall like a mane, his gait steadied with a cane.

determined to make the most of every last breath, the distinguished gentleman from west virginia could be found at his desk until the very end, doing the people's business, delivering soul-stirring speeches, the head of the speeches, the head of the appellations -- appalachins in his voice, stabbing the air with his finger, fiery as ever, the years into his 10th decade. he was a seventh icon, he was a party leader, he was an elder statesman. and he was my friend. that is how i'll remember him. today we remember the past declined to such extraordinary peaks. board cornelius calvin sale, jr. -- corny, he joked, for short

-- his mother lost her life in the great influenza pandemic of 1918. from the odd and uncle who raised him a bit west virginia's coal camp, he gained not only his byrd name, but his reverence for god almighty, a love of learning that was nurtured at mark twain school. and there he met erma, his sweetheart for over 70 years, by whose side he will now rest for eternity. unable to afford college completed what could to get by, finding work as a gas station attendant, a produce a salesman, a meat cutter, and a welder in the shipyards of baltimore and tampa during world war ii. returning home to west virginia after the war, he ran for the

state house of delegates, using his fiddle case as a briefcase, the better to stand out on the stump. before long, he ran for congress, serving in the house before jumping over to the senate, where he was elected nine times, but held almost every leadership role and vegetable, and proved as capable of swayed others as standing alone. market a row of milestones along the way. august serving member of congress. nearly 90,000 votes cast -- not a single loss at the polls. a record that speaks to the bond that he had with you, the people of his state. transplanted to washington, his heart remains here in west virginia, in the place that shaped head, with the people he loved. his heart belonged to you.

making life better here was his only agenda. giving new hope, he said, was his greatest achievement. hope in the form of new jobs and industry. " in the form of black long the benefits and union protections. hope through roads and research centers, schools, scholarships, health clinics, industrial parts that bear his name. his early rival and the late friend ted kennedy used to joke about campaigning in west virginia. with his bus broke down, it's had got hold of the highway patrol will ask where he was. it said i am would robert byrd highway. and the dispatcher said, which one? [laughter]

it is a life that in measurably improve the lives of west virginians. of course, robert byrd was a deeply religious man, a christian. and so he understood that our lives are marked by sins as well as virtues, failures as well as success, weakness as well as strength. we know that there are things he said -- and things he did -- that he came to regret. i remember talking about the first time i visit with him. he said there are things i regret it in my youth. you may know that. and i said, the of us are absent -- none of us are absent

some regrets, said it. that is why we enjoy and seek the grace of god. as i reflect of the full sweep of his 92 years, it seems to me that his life bent toward justice. like the constitution, he tucked in his pocket, like our nation itself about robert byrd possessed that quintessential american quality, and that is a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, the capacity to be made more perfect. perfect. over his nearly six decades in our capitol, he came to be seen as the very embodiment of the senate, chronicling its history in four volumes that he gave to be just as he gave to

president clinton. i, too, read it. i was scared he was going to quiz me. [laughter] but as i soon discovered, his passion for the senate's past, his mastery of even its most arcane procedures, it wasn't an obsession with the trivial or the obscure. it reflected a profoundly noble in polls, a recognition that of a basic truth about this country that we are not a nation of men, we are a nation of laws. our way of life rests on our democratic institutions. precisely because we are fallible, but it falls to each of us to safeguard these

detentions, even when it is inconvenient, and pass on our republic more perfect than before. considering the vast learning of this self-taught center -- his speech sprinkled with the likes of cicero and shakespeare and jefferson -- it seems fitting to close with one of his favorite passages in literature, a passage from will be dick. there that and there is a catskill eagle in some souls that cagelike died down into the black as gorges and sort out of the the give and become invisible in the sunny spaces. and even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains -- so that even in his lowest swoop, the built- in eagle is still higher than the other bird upon the plain,

even though they soar." robert byrd was a now to the eagle -- mountain eagle and his lowest swoop was still higher than the other birds upon the plate. may god bless robert c. byrd. may he be welcomed kindly by the righteous judge. and they his spirit soar forever like a catskill ego, high above the heavens. thank you very much. [applause] >> monday, americans for tax reform hosting debate among the candidates for republican national committee chairman. moderated by grover norquist and it tucker carlson. live monday from the national

press club at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> we provide coverage of politics, public affairs, and american history. it is all available to you on television, radio, and online. we take c-span on the road with our digital content vehicles, bringing our resources to your community. now available in more than 100 million homes. a created by cable, provided as a public-service. >> of rights pioneer benjamin hooks was laid to rest in april in memphis, tennessee. he died in his home after a long illness. this portion of the funeral is about an hour and 45 minutes.

>> when i think of ben hooks, i think first of the francis. -- of francis. she was his assistant, his adviser, she was his sweetheart. she was his ally and his friend. we all love of francis and think so much of her today. [applause] ben was a patriot. he was a storyteller, a great storyteller. he could turn a phrase inside out and turn the audience inside out when he was turning to the phrase inside out. he was a visionary leader.

a 100-year-old woman was on the board when he was elected leader. she said he lifted us up at the naacp. [applause] ben hooks was a pioneer. he was a pioneer as the first federal communications commissioner in washington and may have been more of a pioneer then you or i. in 2007, when the president gave him the medal of honor, i hosted a reception for him in the center's dining room in washington. he created quite a commotion. everyone wanted to see dr. benjamin hooks. senators came by. everyone who worked in the senate wanted a picture or an autograph. i talk to him a little bit

about a conversation we had in 1978 when i was elected governor. he politely declined to be in the governor's cabinet because he had more to do to help the naacp and the nation. he said he did not want to be in the governor's cabinet. he wanted to be the governor. [laughter] [applause] right, francis? he said he had planned to be the governor. he was going to be the first african american republican governor of tennessee. [laughter] "i was going to carry, meant this big -- i was going to carry memphis big." been hoax and that date was sad and angry over the injustice he still saw in this country. he always could find a good.

he could see the good in this country while he also saw injustice. he could see what we could still do. today, we celebrate and we find the good in the life of our dear friend, dr. benjamin hooks. and we praise god for his life among us. thank you. [applause] >> i would like to identify one of my good friends. i saw him somewhere. where are you? standout. you have a new job. you can still stand up. my man, take care.

one of the fellow clergy standing in issues, dr. benjamin hooks, we bring to you a pastor of a baptist church here in memphis, tenn.. then, following the a presentation, we will be blessed by the musical talent of kirk wailem, one of the outstanding brothers. he can do it. you better get ready to put your seat belts on. please come up in that order. thank you. >> to the hooks family, specifically ms. hooks, and

other members, i greet you in the joy of jesus. to the body of this temple of delivering, my brothers and sisters, members of the clergy, and members of their greater middle baptist church, i am privileged to stand and speak on behalf of the metal baptist church but also to speak in a personal way of the relationship and the french ship of the hooks family with myself and my family. my relationship with them to extend more than almost 47 years ago as a student at the high- school where mrs. hoax taught me science in the seventh grade -- mrs. hooks taught me science in the seventh grade. i was influenced by their warmth

and friendship. i never realized that i would return to the place where it all began for me and to assume the pastorate of the church where the favorite son of memphis and the hero of the state of tennessee once stood. i am blessed to be at that place. as i reflect upon the life of dr. hooks, it came to mind, as i listened to him over the years and listened on the greatness he has done an even experienced many of the things he has done, it became obvious to me that the centrality of his life and the propellant force undergirding the very principles and the very nature of his determination to

seek change in society was in his face. he had a faith that would not shrink and would not crumble under the brink of any earthly work. he was convinced that if we were to believe in christ and accept him for what he was and what he stood for, we must reflect that in our relationship with each other. it is been said that you can always determine how much a person loves the lord by his or her relationship with humankind. without a doubt, dr. hooks relationship with humankind was never wavering or uncertain. as we come together today and remark of his accomplishments and the things he has done to improve the quality of life for the totality of the human condition, we praise god for him. but also, we come to understand

death. it death is what god has brought in to be for the coming together of people. what i have discovered is very interesting and how god describes death. he says, "precious in the site of the lord is the death of his sins." he said, "blessed are they who died in the lord for the rest from their labor." how can you use such language? i have lost a loved one. we have lost a friend. we have lost a gallant warriors. we have lost one who was anchored in the dirt and who fought for justice and righteousness. how could death be blessed? it dawned upon me that that was god speaking.

there is a language that god can use that you and i cannot use it. the language that he uses conveys in meeting that is far beyond our ability to comprehend or to interpret. the bible was written in two languages. there were other languages, but the one that we understand, most familiar, is that of the greek and hebrew. the greek definition for the word "blessed" is -- the first definition is happy. god is happy. and for those who are blessed and precious in his sight. those who give themselves to a purpose beyond themselves. benjamin hooks did.

he gave willingly. he gave believing that he could make a difference in the world. not only for himself and maybe never enjoyed it for himself or by him, but there would be those who would come behind him who would benefit from what he had done. in order for you and die to live, we must learn to give beyond ourselves. secondly, there is a definition that says you are well off. well off? well, let's look at it. it declares that what he had here was not as a grand as what the lord had promised. those who died in the lord reap the benefits and the blessings of their sins. while many of us live and do work and serve and labor to do all that we seek to do, we may

never received the thanks from those whom we have served. but god is ever so grateful that we have loved him enough to give the very best that we have and that others might be blessed. so god says to him, benjamin hooks, you are well off now. you are in the presence of heat, in who is holy. you are in the presence who you have talked about for so long. you are in the presence of grace that you have described that you have never seen before. you are in the presence of angels who sing day and night, and you are in the presence of a son that never goes down and shines brightly. benjamin, congratulations. congratulations. i don't know about you, but i am waiting on the day when god will say to me, as he has said to

benjamin hooks, "well done, my good and faithful servant." congratulations. let us not just come to celebrate his death. or to speak kindly of him. but let us do as the orchestra that was forced to play in the absence of their conductor. they had prepared for this great presentation. many of the members of the orchestra decided it would be best for us to cancel the performance. somebody said, "oh, no. we have worked too hard and too long in order to present this moment." let us go forth and to keep our eyes on the conductor's stand.

remember what he taught us. my brothers and sisters, today, let us remember what benjamin hooks, us. as the tea party rises, let us remember that we must band together gallantly. as the throes of the evils in our society raises its ugly head, let us remember what he taught us. when we get weary, remember what jesus taught us. let us not grow weary for we shall reap if we pay not. benjamin hooks is reaping because he did not fail. congratulations. home at last on the street of glofry. [applause] ♪

>> to the superintendent, the presiding clergy, two of my long time friends, pastor billy kyles as well as their rev. dr. julian hope, to the hooks family, mrs. francis, our former first lady, to mrs. pat, sister pat, sister mildred and brother raymond, to allow you, my brothers and sisters, i thank god for the opportunity to stand here just to say a word on behalf of our fallen leader. i am grateful to pastor at mason for his kind words. i shared with dr. mason the

other day. i said only dr. benjamin hooks could do what he did for you and for me. i knew dr. mason in los angeles. and we both pastured here. i left los angeles and went to succeed dr. hooks and my home town of detroit. dr. mason left los angeles to succeed dr. hooks in his hometown of memphis. only dr. hoax could do that. today, my brothers and sisters, we celebrate the life and remember the legacy of our fallen leader, my friend and my brother, the reverend dr. benjamin hooks. i stand here today on behalf of the mirror of the city of detroit, who came by on monday. when his body was lying in

state, he gave me a personal request. he said for the flowers, could you do me a favor? what is that? could you speak on behalf of myself and the city of detroit to and let ms. hooks knows how much detroit loves dr. hooks. we say to memphis and the world, thank you. for letting dr. hooks abide with us for 30 years in detroit. we gave him a presidential sendoff on monday night when his body left the church. i also received a phone call of thehe president' congressional baptist convention. he asked if i could convey to you that the entire family

shares with you in this great loss. he sent over a letter to give to you on behalf of the progressive national baptist convention. and i also stand here today as a pastor, missionary baptist church in detroit, michigan, where dr. hooks served for 30 years, from 1964 to 1994. i never will forget 31 years ago, 1979, when i first met dr. hooks at the baptist church in detroit where he came to preach for our 60 its church's anniversary. of this great civil

rights leader. and i was in awe of this great naacp leader. little did i know i would be allowed to succeed him as pastor. immediately after succeeding him, i established a church in detroit. he would preach every august and the church would honor him. i think got last year in august when he preached. we unveiled a portrait of dr. hooks that now hangs in the fellowship hall at our church. we loved dr. hoax. dr. hooks load the church. -- loved the church.

the list goes on and on. the countless others, how much we love dr. hooks. thanks to the family for allowing his body to lie in state there in detroit on monday night. personally, let me say as they take my seat, that i thank god for sending me to succeed such a great leader for such a time as this. dr. hooks was a champion of freedom, a warrior for justice, a profit of god, and indeed a prince of the preacher.

he was my friend. he was a mentor. he was an elder statesman. more than that, he was a servant of god. this past january, january of 2010, dr. hooks insisted that i come to memphis to preach at greater middle baptist. he insisted that i preach the kings' day sermon. he told me when we talk on the phone. he said for the fall -- he said i had so much of dr. king's spirit in me. he said i want you to comment preached for the celebration at the church. little did i know, that would be the last time i would see him alive. i thank god that day, as he struggled to get here, i watched

him and he reflected upon the life of dr. king. he said, brother flowers, i am only here because my and your creatures. and i would've stayed home because i am on dialysis. i had to get here to hear you preach one more time. i am so glad to get there. and i am so glad that i had a chance to talk about my mentor and my friend, dr. king, in honor of dr. hoax. i am so glad that my late adoptive mother. dr. hooks had a special bond. we had a special relationship. he told me and said, "you are my pastor and you are my friend." as i leave you, mrs. hooks, i say to you, i remember the last

sermon that he preached last year at the church. the topic was entitled, "it is your turn." little did i know, how important that message would be. when the lord called him home last thursday, those words rang out in my ear. it is your turn, roslyn brock, to go to another level. it is your turn, benjamin jealous, to go to another level. it is your turn, michael hooks ii,. it is your turn. all of the young freedom fighters to stand tall and to go higher because of the soldiers of old are leaving here one by

one. good night, dr. hooks. i will see you in the morning. thank god for a job well done. he is a servant of god. of the battle is won. it be not dismayed when men will not believe you. he will understand and say, "well done." when i come to the end of my journey, when the battle is won, carrying the staff and across of redemption, he will understand and say, "well done." well done, our good and faithful servant. well done, reverend dr. benjamin hooks. well done. we will see you in the morning. in the morning. when the bells are ringing. in the morning, when the choir

will be singing. good night, dr. hooks. i will see you in the morning. [applause] ♪ >> let the church say amen. >> amen. >> we are getting through this program. [laughter] i am about halfway through. let us make sure that as we come forth, make it essential but make a short. help me, somebody. [laughter] >> amen. the superintendent has asked that pastor brandon porter would

speak on behalf of the church and god of christ all over the nation. you may, this moment. then we will hear some music from none other than kirk wailem. >> thank you. bless you. certainly, i stand in behalf of our presiding bishop as well as our senior bishop for the area and the chairman of the general assembly. mr. blake wishes he could be with you here today, but his schedule would not allow. his heart is certainly with you. he sends this note. it the church of god in christ joins the rest of the world and honoring the extraordinary life of dr. benjamin lawson hooks.

he was a renaissance man. he was an attorney. he was a criminal court judge, a businessman, a respected civil rights leader, and a powerful preacher of the gospel. he was the first african american commissioner of the federal communications commission and later as executive director and ceo of the naacp. president bush awarded the presidential medal of freedom to hooks in 2007. president obama recently characterized him as a trailblazer. others describe this remarkable individual as a mentor, down to earth friend, a man of action, and an icon. without a doubt, dr. hooks was a true american patriot, a peaceful warrior, and a hero to

all who fight for equality and for social justice. he challenged us to learn from the struggles of the past generations as we progressed towards the future gains and possibilities. his passionate battle against racial prejudice is, bigotry, intolerance, inequity inspired us to join together for the permanence of peace, fairness, and the opportunities for all. dr. hooks will be sorely missed by his relatives, church, family, and others who loved and admired him. we mourn his passing the celebrate his life, ministry, social contribution. he leaves a wonderful legacy of hope and promise that will live on in the hearts for many years to come. the world is a better place, and

we are better human beings because he lived amongst us. this 21st day of april in the year of our lord 2010, bishop charles edward blake. god bless you. thank you. [applause] >> we are moving right along. let me ask at this moment that all of the elected officials present here today. it would you just stand for this moment? all the elected officials. in the audience, all over the building. [applause]

thank you so much. it is my understanding that we have now rep from president barack obama, and i will not mess up his name. michael, are you here? i do not want to mess up your name, michael. tell me your name. easy name.an >> thank you. good morning. i am humbled to be here. to the family, gathered dignitaries, on behalf of president obama, are wonderful first lady, a senior adviser and the entire white house, i want to offer my condolences to all of those here who have loved and

learn from dr. hoax. to his family, i offer my deepest sympathy on your profound loss, a loss that this community experiences. while president obama could not join us today, i have a letter from him and in a moment i will share his word with you. i can confirm to you, first hand, that from coast to coast, millions of mourners are reflecting and morning on a life of dr. hooks today. they have written their thoughts to newspapers, the naacp, and the white house. he has left a profound mark on our country, and not many people can hope to accomplish in several lifetimes what he accomplished in just one. a soldier, a patriot, a businessman, a preacher, a

tremendous lawyer. he served as the head of the naacp for 15 years, leading this iconic organization through challenging times. he will remain always in motivating force and our constant pursuit for fairness, equality, and justice. we will all see to that. a life in which benjamin hooks showed us how to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with god. president obama mourns his loss, too. i now want to read the letter he has written to the family of dr. benjamin hooks. april 20, 2010. dear friends, michelle and i were so sad and to learn of the passing of dr. benjamin hooks. please accept our sympathies as

you mourn his loss and reflect upon his life. as a civil-rights leader and a pastor, he holds an extraordinary place in our history. the federal communications commission and earned the presidential medal of freedom. he will be remembered for his dedication to our nation's founding principles and for his faith. he will be sorely missed. michelin tire will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. it may his strength guide you and make your memories of him continue to bring you great joy and pride. sincerely, barack obama. thank you. [applause] >> and now, let's hear from this wonderful musician by the name of kirk wailem. [applause] ♪

[piano playing] [piano and saxophone playing] ♪

♪

♪ [applause] >> everybody, stand up. it is half time. everybody, a standout. let your blood circulate for just a minute. don't go anywhere now. you may have your seat. i was informed that they are trying hard to get all of this on the air, trying to get the media to cover this, but they will need our cooperation. it would be very good if those of us who are coming at this time, if we could just hold our

conversations to at least five minutes or less. do you think we can handle that? can we handle that? we don't want to be just the consumers of what we have done. we want the whole nation to see it. we can get close to it by following that direction. thank you very kindly. >> kirk wailem, world-class musician, born and bred in memphis, tenn. [applause] does that mean i cannot do but 5 minutes, too? [laughter] someone representing the

governor's office -- i did not see him. it is the governor here? all right. someone who i have so much love and respect for, he was the youngest person to speak at the march on washington, congressman john lewis, 23 years old when he spoke. [applause] following will be interim mayor joe ford. and then it will come back to a musical tribute. congressman, on the way to being a senator. [applause]

>> francis, my friend, my member of thell numbers o hooks family, thank you very much for asking me to participate. ben loved us all. we were all one family. one people. one house. you may not know, i first met benjamin hooks when i served on the board of a southern leadership conference in 1962 under the leadership of martin luther king jr.. when i first met ben, i knew then that this man, this man of god, was a remarkable man.

i believe in his soul. the impossible was possible. he believed that this nation had the capacity to live up to its highest dream of democracy. he was not afraid to hold the standard height. maybe, because he was an extraordinary human being, a good man. he was a minister, a soldier, a lawyer, a judge, a federal commissioner, and a civil-rights leader. fourth 30 years, this man, even the pastor of two churches at the same time, one in detroit and one in memphis, i used to enjoy him at the national civil

rights museum here in memphis as they did a few years ago. it reminiscent of good friends, dr. king. so many others. like whitney young, he was a wonderful man, a wonderful friend who worked with his dear wife frances to bring about changes in america. i believe that benjamin hooks and should be remembered as one of the founding fathers of the new america. he had the capacity, he had the ability to bring [unintelligible]

into the open late in order for us to deal with it. ben helped to liberate not just people but a nation. there are people who come along from time to time that talk about missions or mandates. some of them are like a firecracker. they just pop off. others are like a pilot light. they just keep burning. ben was like a pilot light. they can send others to the frontlines. benjamin hooks never played it safe. he was not a broadway show. his fierce intellect, his commitment to justice -- he had the power to move an audience

and inspire a people to action. benjamin hooks was a warrior, a fighter to the end, a man of great persistence and great determination. benjamin hooks -- this man, i got to know. i saw him at a board meeting. this is what we should do. he was a kindred spirit. when this nation called him, he was there. when our problems of society commanded his leadership, he never gave up pretty he never gave in. he kept the faith and he kept his eyes on the prize. he was a man of vision, a man of courage. benjamin hooks fought for what

was right, fair, and just. ben, my dear friend, my dear brother, we love you. we deeply miss you. one day, one day, we will see you, and we will all be together again. [applause] ♪ >> good afternoon. francis, the entire hooks family, the elected officials, distinguished clergy, there is so much talent and grace in this church. it is a cumulative reflection on the life of benjamin hooks. your presence and your greatness is embodied in it

benjamin hooks with respect that you pay him. one of the things more difficult than following john lewis on a program would be to follow benjamin hooks at the pearly gates. reverend hooks was a warrior of the spoken word and one of the few silver-tongued giants. nobody has distinguished and great as all of the clergy people who are here could utilize a person that benjamin hooks could. he had a special talent. i was privileged to be with them at the white house when he received the presidential medal of freedom. he was so proud to receive that metal and was even more proud when his wife frances was there with him. he was a lucky man to have

francis hooks. she gave up being a teacher to be a first lady. she gave up being a teacher to be at the side of benjamin hooks. he was a lucky man. when he came to congress in october, francis was with him. congress people revered him and were honored to be there and hear him speak. yesterday in the house of representatives, my chairman of detroit, a hero in his own right, offered a resolution that passed the unit states congress, honoring the life and achievements of dr. benjamin hooks critic speaker nancy pelosi personally signed it last night and asked me to present it which i would do in just a moment. [applause] the speaker who broke the glass ceiling asked me to give her

personal condolences to the family and her regrets for not being able to be here. benjamin hooks came to the inaugural last year because of terrible weather. he was not able to attend. i extend my condolences to his family. i was lucky to have him as a friend. times are getting tight in this country but they are getting better. * must be getting tight in heaven as well because god took benjamin hooks from us, a life well lived. [applause] ♪

>> abraham lincoln died on april 15, 1865. when his cabinet secretary heard the news, he said, "now, we belong to the same ages." 145 years later, on april 15, 2010, dr. benjamin hooks departed his life. now he, too, belongs to the ages. ms. hooks, family, friends,

honored guests, superintendent, and members of the clergy, today is a difficult day for me as a county mayor and as a long life friend of dr. hooks. this past thursday, the world lost one of the pioneers of the civil rights movement and a force for oppressed people everywhere. the citizens lost a leading minister of god's word and a respected neighbor. but for those of us here today, we have lost a beloved mentor and friend. for over 40 years, dr. hooks was a close, trusted friend of mine, to my father, and to the entire ford family.

what inspired me most about him, all of the years i knew him, was his personality and his integrity. when he spoke to senators and sanitation workers, he broke free with the presidentce. it did not matter if it was a plumber. he preached to convicts. dr. king was the same man all of the time. no matter where he was, or who he was with, dr. king provided a voice for those less able to speak for themselves. i will miss my friend. but like you, i rejoice that reverend dr. benjamin hooks is

now with the lord. indeed, a life well lived. [applause] ♪ s]iano playin

>> one of these mornings, my lord one of these mornings, my lord one of these mornings, i am going home to live on high oh, one of these evenings, my lord one of these evenings one of these evenings, i am going home to carry out my crown oh

♪ then i am going to live forever i am going to live on forever oh, yes then i am going to move on up a little higher yes, i am going to move up a little higher

i am going to move on up a little higher i am going to move on up a little higher to need the hebrew children yes, i am going to move on up a little higher i am going to move on up a little higher ♪

i am going to move on up a little higher by an going to meet the lord and mother yes, i am going to move on opposite to hire yes, i am going to move on up a little higher i am going to move on up a little higher i am going to meet the hebrew children i am going to move on up a little higher yes, i am going to move on up a little higher gonna meet that lily of the

valley. it will be always howdy howdy it will be always howdy howdy it will be always howdy howdy it will be always howdy howdy howdy howdy howdy hey, hey, hey never, never never goodbye oh, yeah ♪ [applause] >> it sounds like we are still having a church.

let us hear now from a young lady who works so hard in making our national civil rights museum world renowned. sister beverly robertson. [applause] bless you. >> sank to. dr. hooks is somewhere smiling today. i feel as if we have had church and three or four sermons, so we need to pass the collection. i was a little upset to learn that dr. hooks had a term of endearment for you. you were hazel. i want you to know that i felt i was the only one that he called

it as a term of endearment he called me a tree shaker and a jelly maker. [laughter] i have known dr. hooks for about 20 years. the funny thing about him is although he knows my name is beverly robertson, he would call me out publicly at any even. he would grab the podium, rear back, and say, "ms. beverly robertson." that was a tradition for him. and whenever he to give an not count the cost, to fight and not heed the wounds, to toil and not seek for rest, to labor and not ask for reward, such was the life of dr. benjamin lawson hooks.

dr. hooks was persuasive. he was passionate and he was powerful. in his boat, "the march 4 civil- rights" he tells us that the road to freedom from slavery is long and arduous. he reminded us that the same constitution that made our ancestors 3/5 of a person ultimately thbecame indispensabe vehicle that gave us freedom. and he did not just kick the door in. he became the first black judge in tennessee history. he was also one of the attorneys representing the sanitation workers in 1968 and was one of a select few african-americans who

received the presidential medal of freedom. now, dr. hooks was persuasive. he loved preacher stories and he often told the story about a young man who was with his father at church. the pastor was constantly looking at his watch. so, the young man turned to the pastor -- or to his father and said, father, what does that mean? and the father replied, well, if it is a catholic priest, he will be through in five minutes. if it is a methodist minister, he will be through at noon, no matter what. but if it is a baptist preacher, it don't mean nothing. [laughter] of course, present company excluded. dr. hooks will never know the real impact and power and

influence that he had on everyone's life. but i want to relate just a short story about a gentleman who attended our freedom award event last year and he shared a beautiful testament that is indicative of his poignancy and his power. he sent a letter to us about the event and he explains that he is a white man who lives in los angeles. he was born in 1968, so he knew little about the seminal years of the movement. but somehow he felt connected. he decided to come south for a genuine southern experience. he found our website, bought a ticket to see the dalai lama, whom we honored last year, and he wrote the following. "the dalai lama delivered, a beautiful acceptance speech.

humble, charming, funny, and right on point. i did not think that experience could get any better, but then dr. benjamin hooks gave the benediction. i do not know how to describe the electricity and the passion, power and raw emotion that benediction sent through me. we were holding hands and singing "we shall overcome" with folks who knew the struggle. they were not trying to recreate some sense of history. these people were in part in history that they themselves have lived. imparting history that they themselves had lived. it changed me. it was the ultimate southern experience. but more importantly, it was the

ultimate american experience." so, dr. hooks, i realize today that this is your last benediction and as we did you adieu -- as we bid you adieu, we may miss your spirit, but your -- we may miss your person, but your spirit and tenacity and honesty will live on in our lives and in our children's lives and our children's children. we have -- we may have lost a soldier, a gladiator, and a drum major for justice. but heaven is welcoming an angel. thank you. if [applause] >> when i first moved to memphis in 1959, one of the first

friends i had was then and frances cokes -- ben and francis hooks. they treated me like family. i will never forget that. i used to go down to the courthouse and said in the back of the room. he would ask me, is anything wrong? just want to see you preside. the lawyers in those days did not call him attorney hoax. they call him a "old men -- attorney hooks. they called him "old ben." i watched them not use courtesy titles. i would go in the back and i would get charged, i tell you, to see those same lawyers having to say, if it please the court,

your honor, may i approach the bench. [applause] he went down over to the library to get some students out. some students were arrested for going to the library. they were put in jail. he went down there to get them out. and the same library is now named after him. [applause] what a remarkable individual and what great help he had with francis d. that is all i ever called her, frances d. mr. warren from the omega's, are you here?

some of these names -- oh, come right on. >> good afternoon. we want to thank all of the players that have given us an opportunity to have a few words about our brother benjamin hooks. that may ask you to stand at this time. [applause] stephen colby said, one should live. the one true love. one should leave a legacy. -- one should love. when to leave a legacy. we are here to say on behalf of the fraternity that we are still here to support you whenever you need. all you have to do is call and

the omega. we are here for you. when i think about dr. hooks, brother hooks, leadership comes to mind because he was aspirational. he was exciting. he was motivational. also, i think about the passion he had to right the wrongs of this world and the job preaching and proclaim in the righteousness of the father. i'm also reminded of the tremendous sacrifice he made to do all he has done what is the weekend you -- all he has done. what is it we can do to preserve the legacy of brother hoekstra? he was a great leader. if you think so, please give him applause. [applause] here is my question to you as i

take my seat. look how much more and could have done if we had been better followers. look how much more he could have done if we had been better followers. now, i'm not going to say that brother ben here is benjamin hooks. but he is a good man. a good leader.en if let's continue the legacy -- let's continue the legacy by being better followers. thank you. [applause] >> let's hear now from one of -- there were nine black lawyers from memphis when i moved here and russell was one of them come share some thoughts with us.

[applause] i used to come to his office and it would have a line of people waiting to be waited on. i would holler to the secretary, "do i have any calls yet?" just like i worked there. [laughter] >> we got a long time ago and i was raising my hand for a pit stop. [laughter] i will try to be brief. i have known ben all my life. we have had some shared experiences. i tell you about that time after coming back from having that some kids out of jail and a w. willis was with us and ben was

driving. and jim walsh was there. i was sitting next to him. he was a practitioner of resistance through creative suffering, you know. we turned over a two-lane blacktop and came up a hill. it looks like something out of a movie. there were three share of standing in front of the jailhouse and we managed to get up to the jailhouse so they could recognize and we work and got them inside the jail. the sheriff and deputies were keeping these people away, about 10 feet, a way from the chains that separated the parking lot from the entrance to the jail. we got in to talk to these kids and luckily, that jail had been built under president roosevelt

and it was fireproof, bulletproof, and saved. we went in and talk to those kids and said it is pretty rough out there. it is getting dark. we will probably get you out in the morning. do you think he will be our right? oh, yeah, we are safe. you're not getting us out of here. [laughter] and the sheriff said, i don't think you ought to go down that road. i did not know you came that way. i will take you down a different road. if you follow me. he got in front of us and he told the one deputy he had to get behind us. go out and turn right and then go out in the dark and turn left. we want -- we are waiting ourselves through this blacktop

and it was the way to get to the main road. ben is driving and a w. is sitting next to him and he said, it looks like a funeral procession. and he said, what the hell you say something like that at a time like this? [laughter] police car parked on the side of the road and something cracked on the windshield we all ducked and [unintelligible] [laughter] that made a whole lot of sense to me and i got back down to. -- back down, too.

we got into shelby county. but that was an experience that i love to tell. [laughter] [applause] the best thing i can say about ben is that he was a friend of mine. [applause] >> thank you so much. i'm going to announce the next three at one time. dr. shirley green, president of the university of memphis. walter pitahaya, chairman of the hyatt family and foundation. and a musical selections from the baptist church choir and then we will bring on the preacher. she was here early, too.

on time to read bless you. >> thank you so much. i am here because i represent the university of memphis and i'm a memphian. i am here on behalf of the entire university of memphis community. here because i'm a friend of maxine smith and i'm here because i am a friend of mrs. stokes, frances -- mrs. hooks, frances. i want you to know that the university of memphis is the place that is privileged to be papers arehooks

stored. [applause] and we have an honored name, the honored name of the benjamin hooks institute for social justice. [applause] and i promise to all here who have spoken and sung his praises and preach his praises that we will keep alive the legacy of this giant of a man and civil rights leader. and we will provide for prosperity -- for austerity -- posterity a place for his papers and scholarly works. and we will keep alive what he meant to so many of you ever pioneers in the civil rights movement. but let us also remember that at the university of memphis he was a distinguished faculty member

and the department -- in the department of political science and history. he made a significant and lasting contribution when he established the benjamin l. hooks institute for social change at the university of memphis. but think about what it must have been like to be a student in his class. how wonderful to sit and to learn from a great intellect, a great speaker, but a great teacher. a person who was both gifted as an orator and gifted as a scholar. we will remember him also for not only his great deeds, but the fact that he sought into the future that he wanted to be sure that his papers and the people with whom he interacted

would be saved for others to study and to learn from. we are grateful, frances. we are grateful, mrs. stokes. we are grateful, pat. and we are grateful to all of you who knew him for making certain that his legacy will continue through the benjamin hooks institute. i was trying to decide if i would say this one other thing and i think i must. several years ago when i lost my dear mother, dr. hooks came 70 miles away to a little town and a little country church to comfort me. i will say that i am inspired by his great works.

i am inspired by all of the grade honors. and i'm inspired by all of the sermons i heard of the greater mittal baptist church. but i have to say, thank god i had an inspired by having him to comfort made. if thank you. -- thank you. [applause] >> francis, the family, there is so much we can say today about my friend, but it seems to me it all comes down to one overriding thing. benjamin hooks did, indeed, live a blessed life and each of our lives was blessed by his.

that is particularly true for me. for the past 20 years, i have been blessed to call ben my close friend. if he were here today, he would no doubt remind us that in the sacred book that defined his whole life it says, "blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." it also says, "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of god." and finally, "blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." yes, benjamin hooks was blessed. he was, indeed, persecuted in the segregated south. as he fought the civil rights movement. but he was a peacemaker who sought everyone as a child of god.

and it is that reality that comforts us today as we mourn his loss. he talked with canes and presidents, but he was just as comfortable talking to a struggling single mother or a youth in the criminal-justice system. all of us who were his friends were constantly amazed at how he could relate to any person. and that he always knew just what to say to lift their spirits. to give them hope and to direct their lives. i saw it time and time again on the faces of the visitors to the national civil rights museum. as he brought history to life and made the photographs come alive with his stories of courage and principle -- in particular, i remember the impact he had on nobel prize

winners like desmond tutu and the dalai lama and other freedom award winners as he gave them a personal tour of the museum. he was, in fact, there appear and colleague. there is nothing -- their peer and colleagues. there is nothing more moving than the award ceremony for the civil rights museum as leaders from all over the world gathered in memphis to pay tribute to mankind's in during impulse for freedom. impulse for freedom. getting to hear my friend ben each year was special. year after year, he reminded us that he was indeed, a drum major

for freedom. we honor him today with this celebration of his life. but we honor him tomorrow and in the days ahead by remaining true to his principles and to the fight for human rights that characterized his life. today, he has been allowed to go to the mountain and he is looking over and he has seen the promised land. more than that, he has now entered the promised land. and he has found a place where all of us are judged by the content of our character and not by the color of our skin. as ben so often said, we have made a historic strides in our dream of equal rights, but the courage, we leave this celebration of his life today with renewed purpose to a dream

that will never die. i love you, ben, and i will miss you very much. [applause] [laughter] -- [applause] >> good afternoon. i am actually olivia morgan. i'm on the board of the children's health board. my colleague, melanie, sits right over there. and i met dr. hooks about eight years ago when he decided to take on a new project. he had worked on health disparities during his time at the debt -- the naacp and now wanted to start a nonprofit that focused on diseases that impacted underserved children, starting with the impact of lead poisoning. he recruited another line of american history, jack kemp, to serve as his co-chair. he got a small bit of seed

funding and brought me into create the organization. resources were tight all around. dr. hooks wanted to take a new approach to a seemingly unsolvable problem and not everyone agreed with him. the obstacles were daunting, but he was always certain of his vision and of our mission and of eventual success. after a few years to come we started to succeed. he and jack kemp got congress to fund a new grant program to cities to clean up. and he doggedly worked for support to keep the program alive. today, over $335 million has gone through this program to clean of rental homes in 59 communities across this country. [applause] and thousands of children and families have bright futures because of what he did. dr. hooks, though, was not one to sit on his laurels.

i think he was about 80 when he turned to me one day and said, olivia, when we take care of this lead problem we have got to get to work on aids. we celebrated his 80th birthday in washington, an evening that none of us will ever forget. thank you, melanie. congratulations and while wishing poured in from senators and congressmen. the letters and notes coming this past week have been sater in tone, but fall of the same ad -- have been sadder in tone, but full of the same admiration. every member of the c h s staff has a memory of an adventure with him, a dinner spent with the dr. and mrs. stokes and an impromptu changing -- and this hooks and an impromptu life

changing experience. i remember traveling once and there was a big four-lane highway we needed to cross. the nearest cross what was weighed down the street. he convinced me to jaywalk. he was in his 80's and in his wheelchair and i was about seven months pregnant, and i looked it. i mean, i was big. and he said, and libya, just push me across the street here. -- bolivia, just push me across the street here. they will not dare hit us. [laughter] people always recognized him everywhere we went, not just mayors and members of congress. but everyday people, people in offices, security guards, people on the street. you would see that light of recognition in their eyes and they would stand a little bit taller. a lot of times with celebrities,

they want -- people want something for themselves when they see them, an autograph or a story they can tell their friends. but with dr. hooks, they just wanted to thank him for what he had already given them. they would hold the door for him, call the elevator, find him a seat, show him they were the person he believed them to be. on behalf of the ec a just board -- the chs board and colleagues, i want to express gratitude for the life of mr. -- of dr. hooks. and i want to express my gratitude to mrs. hooks and his family. you made each one of us feel special. thank you. [applause]

>> as we prepare now to bring the religious to us -- bring the eulogist to us, now, you knew this was not going to be a short funeral. [laughter] somebody said, i intend to make it short. -- i intend to make it short, no longer jolo -- no matter how long it takes. how are you doing, frances? are you doing all right? i just want to check on you. she is a bossy lady, too. good bossy. [laughter] pastor rev. charles smith is the son of our church, monumental baptist church. i had an illness for year and he

had just come into the ministry and he took care of my services for a full year. you know how i feel about him. he is coming out and we will be in prayer for him as he comes will with words of comfort. dr. rev. charles smith. [applause] miscommunication. >> as we communicate, let the church say, amen. >> a man. >> -- amen. >> charles wallace and michael brooks sr., would you, and? [applause]

-- will you comment? [applause] >> god bless you. thank you very much. i am so honored and privileged to be a designee for the family. there have been so many beautiful things said about the giant. the commercial field put it properly. they said, "a giant is gone." but in the eyes of man, i guess everybody that came from near and far, dr. benjamin hooks was known affectionately as albany benny.le dann he was a tremendous man of god. he inspired us like no one ever before. there is not one was that was not touched by his presence, his oration, by his concern, especially he and frances together. i will not stand by -- before you very long, but i want to thank each one of you for coming

out and supporting him. i was privileged to work with uncle benny as his physician. he had a lot of trust in me. and i did not really see him as a giant, but after all the things and the people, the comments and the accolades, sometimes you do not realize how big someone is. and i'm certainly thankful to be among one of the giants. like iron sharpens iron, he sharpens one of us. brother,with my michael. but we will not stand before you long. we have been here for a while. but i will say that as i have a chance to work with uncle benny, he stripped down to the bone. after the accolades and the support and of the praises and awards, he was a gentle man and

a loving man. he was never the kind of man to let you go without putting something in your hand. he was a seed somewhere. . seed sower. he seated his service seatedseeded his service -- seeded his service. he tried to dive three times. he had a heart attack in louisiana and it it was not for it hines who sent his plane over he would not have made it. and he said, i know that god is keeping me here for a reason. and he got right back into service. the second time he said he felt

he had a heart problem. he had a defibrillator and it went off about 13 times and he said, charlie, i felt like i was shot to death but i could not leave yet. it was not time. then it was this last time. they called me at midnight because they were nice people. they slept all day, but were up all night. they said, i want you to come and to comebenny. and i said i would be glad to see about him. he did not look good. he was in the intensive care and it just looked like he would not even come out of it, but he came out of it. this man, i just do not understand it, i said. and he said, charlie, i do not know what the problem is. [laughter]

the doctors got together and said, he is peculiar. but we do not know what to do. he is trying to go, but god will not let him go. and then finally, we had this conference. they called me in and he said, you know, out of all of the things i have done, i have a wonderful wife that loves me, family, friends and i have done all of these things. he said, i have been fighting for a long time. i recognize that i do not have to fight anymore. the battle is not mine, but the lords. he said i want them to pull this and i want them to pull that. i am in my right mind and i am ready. he said, i want you to know out of all you have done for me, i want you to be ready, but let me go. out of all the things i gleaned

from him was the courage to really face this thing. and we are all going to face it one day. it is going to be stripped down. it is not going to be anybody but me and the lord. the bible says the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in august. he who glories, let him glory -- revealed in us. he who glories, let him glory in the lord. i certainly thank you for the opportunity to work and be a servant for my uncle. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. first of all, to pastor hawkins,

for allowing us to be here in your grace's spirit -- your gracious spirit. all of the clergy and friends of dr. hooks, and especially the naacp and the civil-rights museum and the institute lending us melody and beverley and kim and miss slone and barbara, we cannot say enough of the pressure you took off the family. the people you sent in, dr. gibbons and reverend wright and

nelson rivers, really came in here and took a lot of pressure off of us. it allowed the family to bond together and reminisce and have fun. first of all, we have a very competent, capable, applicable, family.ished a famil any two of us could stand here and represent the family speaking. it would do all stand -- would you all stands, other than the elders? if would you please stand? -- would you please stand? [applause] nancy hooks did not sign

on for all of this. she thought she was marrying a lawyer. she did not note she was marrying a preacher, teacher, civil rights activist and that his tentacles with stretched out all across this world. but early on, all of the family , all of the generations followed her lead in realizing that he was very, very special. andrew and georgia dancy, his in-laws, knew he was special. his siblings knew he was special. bessie and robert hooks, his parents, knew he was special. all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren know that he is special.

we followed that lead in sharing him and embrace it, covered it, revered it that we could share this giant with the world. even at been the lawyer, the judge, and the fcc commissioner and chairman of the board and on the board of universal and tri- state and going on to be a great naacp director, it goes farther than that. bringing up the civil rights museum and the institute, he still managed to nurture family. even with the help of france's -- with the help of francis, she made sure. i know that 55 years ago that the hooks and the dancy's

acted as one. they have a family nucleus that is second to none. they embraced the concept and gave it to us. i think families -- one of the things that we can do instead of mourning, is realize that out of this group we can held the naacp -- help the naacp. the we can help the university. the we can help the civil-rights museum. we can help the children's fund. we can carry this on. -- this torch on. one of the things that he talked to me about last week that he was most concerned of, that we would make sure that we visited

and gave service to his beloved wife, frances. [applause] and that it was enough of us to see that mildred and raymond and ymour thatanet see mor there is enough of us still in town to go by and see your mom if she needs something amber, andy, there is enough of us in town to make sure that all of it does not go on andrea. vicki and the knees, we would love to help with raymond. he wanted that. he told me that. that is what we can do. i'm sorry, guys. the we have been through all of the accolades, but i want to do one other thing.

you told us what he thought about you -- rather, what you thought about him, rev. mason, rev. flowers, all of you, dr. grace, miss duke's, russell, beverley, pit. let me tell you, he loved you guys. [applause] he talked about you guys. in closing, he want -- i want to talk about the experience that i feel that we, as a family, us, as a unit, should remember. a scripture. do not let your heart be troubled. believe in god. believe also in need. in my father's house are many dwelling places. if it were not so, i would have told you. i go to prepare a place for you.

as i go to prepare a place for you -- if i go to prepare a place for you, i will come again and receive you to myself that where i am, there you may be also. let me tell you, francis, guys, ben did not leave us. he did not leave you, honey. he just went ahead of you. if you believe. i believe that it has to be some kind of hierarchy of angels in heaven. and i believe? ben hooks has been called upon -- and i believe that ben hooks has been called upon to assist in their place. and the tone of what he might say to us is that i believe that

he is there for the sole purpose of helping and assisting his believers in bringing us to him. he will be there when you get there. we used to ride with him and long before gps he had specific routes that he lied to take. he gave specific directions. you could not interpret it wrong. now, in this particular journey, the way i listened to him when he said that he had planned his life for this and that he knew it was time to go, but that we were not to follow, that he would be there when we got there, i submit to you that his life work is done, that he was a kind man, a generous man, a caring man eliminated by faith.

and god bless you all -- illuminated by faith. if god bless you all for this is a glorious day. [applause] >> the one thing we have absolutely learned over the last 30 years is that economists and other sages of the economy are not pretty -- very good at predicting what actually happens. >> robert samuelson has written about politics, the economy and social issues for over three decades. he will join us sunday night on c-span's q&a. >> story udall -- stewart udall died in march at the age of 90. three months after his death, his family, including his son,

new mexico senator tom udall and congressman mark udall organized a memorial service. speakers include new mexico gov. bill richardson and former interior secretary bruce babbitt. from santa fe, new mexico, this is an hour and 10 minutes. >> we are ready to get going here today. we are ready to get going. we are starting on time, as dad has requested. [laughter] first of all, happy father's day. [applause] let's have all of those fathers stand up. but we've got a lot of fathers year. [applause]

dennis udall, my brother, dennis, and i will be in your master of ceremonies today. you will see him on a regular basis. family and friends, we have gathered today to celebrate our father's life and legacy. i have already had a lot of tears with many of you. but let's remember, we've got the celebration side. there will also be a lot of crying with these speakers, no doubt. but dad did not have a funeral. he wanted a celebration of his life and i will talk about that in a little bit. we are going to begin with a native american prayer, to do a native american prayer and blessing and i will call on joscelyn -- joshua matahena. he has served in his committee as a school board member, as a

county commissioner. he is an historian on culture and architecture and he is a well-known potter. he actually brought back an ancient technique in his pottery work. please open it up for us, joshua. i believe he is bringing his daughter, alexandra forward with him. [applause] thank you, joshua. >> good morning, ladies and gentleman. the request from the family -- at the request of the family, first, we would like to do the opening prayer. for my daughter, alexandria, if you please, shall we stand? first, she is going to do the opening prayer in our native

language and then she will interpret it in english. thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] good morning, ladies and gentleman. we gather today to honor a great man, mr. stewart udall. he has returned to the heavens above, to the creator. thank you, mr. udall for protecting the earth and

especially helping the use. for all of your sacrifices, may you -- may we continue your legacy. again, thank you, mr. udall. >> [speaking for language,] -- speaking foreign language]

we gather today to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of a great man, mr. stewart udall. mr. stewart udall was a friend to all native people, a friend to our sacred lands, a friend to those who needed their voices to be heard in the halls of power. as one of the most significant figures to protect the american natural environment, he was a friend to all americans. mr. udall was a longtime advocate of mother earth and her

children. he understood the earth is sacred, the waters are sacred, the sky is sacred. with a lifelong dedication to protecting our nation's wild plants, he preserved these sacred places for our children and our children's children. mr. udall brought conservationist and environmental concerns into the awareness of the american people. at a time that we must bear witness to the devastating environmental destruction in the gulf of mexico, when violent floods and earthquakes and fires seem to capture headlines daily, we are grateful for one man's dedication to our environmental and cultural heritage. on behalf of my religious leaders, tribal council, and my people and all indian people, we thank you for all of you did for our people and our land. thank you, ladies and gentleman. and you may be seated.

>> before i call governor richards and out to be our first speaker i wanted to just tell you a little history about palo soleri and what it means to the yudof family. my father, back in the 1960's, called mr. udall to have an amphitheater. paolo soleri was a famous architect and he agreed to do that. the thought was to bring native harvests to a new level of the performing arts. my mother, when she passed away, my mother's a ceremony was here at this amphitheater.

when my father undertook the fight for native american uranium miners, he did so at his own expense in many cases and he had to raise money as a legal fund. my mother worked with him to have pete seeger and ed abby perform here at paolo soleri to raise money. this is possibly where dad asked that we do with the celebration of his life. yes, please, clout. [applause] ]clap. [applause] at any point, anybody can clout and we will break for that. you will hear a lot of wonderful things today about my father and his legacy. dad was very specific about what

he wanted, folks. [laughter] i can tell you, you all know him. if there is any offense taken about the way we do this, is stewart udall. [laughter] and he is fine with that. just to give you a little idea, he selected almost all of these speakers with a little advice from his children, but almost all of these speakers. he told me very specifically, he said, tom, i want them to speak for four minutes. [laughter] he said, four minutes, and he said, you enforce it. because of the votes, i'm not going to enforce it. [laughter] i'm going to get the grandchildren to enforce it. [laughter] and there is a grandchild out here, as all the speakers know, with a sign that will specifically tell you when you have a minute left and then down

to zero. and we, of course, want you to wrap up in a gentle, slow way. we do not want you to just drop off. how to deal with the acknowledgment is very, difficult to -- very, very difficult here. we are departing at a little bit from his advice of the bid because since his departing, the interior building in washington has been named to the storage udall building. -- named to the stewart udall building. [applause] and that effort was spearheaded by the congressional delegation of new mexico and the many other people on the outside, dick mole and many others here who were part of that.

and the congressional members, i want to thank them. sentiment -- senator bingaman is here. martin heinrich. it was their effort. [applause] now we have all of the other elected sit in the audience. and we have people who dad gave advice about various causes. we have aspiring officials that granddad did not win that dad gave advice. -- that ran and did not win that dad gave advice. all of you in that category, please stand up, and elected officials, people involved with him in any way. please stand up. [applause] let's give them a round of applause. [applause] that is the way he told me to do it. we may vary a little bit, but

that is the simplest way because he had so many times in this community and he loved people. he loved to mentor and they were very much part of his lives. -- of his life. gov. bill richardson was one of those very good friends of my father. >> they shared many values and many causes. one of the great ones was passing legislation through the congress to protect the uranium miners. there was a policy involved with that. bill richardson was very important. when it came to clean energy -- you know my father's opinion on clean energy. bill richardson was an adviser to him. he drafted my father to head up his efforts in campaign finance reform here in new mexico.

dad got a piece of advice. one thing that excite my father was the fact that governor richards said was running for president of the united states. he was a big supporter of bill richardson. i give you my governor -- i give you the governor, bill richardson, a good friend of dad.and my [applause] >> senator udall, you are going to have one of the great legacy is that your father brought to this country. boys, clean up that oil spill. [applause] i say that because stewart udall was a man of action. he liked to have meetings. you know how people like to have

meetings in commission. stewart was a man of action. i feel that he is here right now. he has his big paws us. he had the biggest hand. if you ever notice? he was somebody who loved to this land. he loved this country. he loved the wilderness.

his words were as big as a page. he would say, expend in this park. and we did. he said, do not worry about the deficit. that will take care of itself. he did say that to me. he said, be a conservationist. that should be your legacy. he also said, save that college in santa fe. it will only take about $10 million. we did it. he would say, on the task force, he was way ahead of his time. he would say, ban all political contributions from everybody. that was his idea. it was a little difficult to do. i would get these legislators say, can you get someone to contain udall? i would say, amanda will you

tell store to cool down? n my family, the udall's through amanda. jim is part of the udall legacy. i made him secretary of energy. i have given this man four jobs. he is always pushing, pushing, always supporting the family. you know, i came into the udall relationship in a contest with tom. the udalls took me in. i remember one story when i was a young congressman and skinny. [laughter] the story was this. the udalls loved the native

americans. there was an agreement 10 years ago. the big boys, the interior committee, they would not let me in. i was a young congrressman. i had a lot of the navajo nation. a little bit of the conflict was in my district. they would not let me in. i said, i am going to get noticed here. i offered an amendment that said we are going to freeze the moratorium on the navajo-hopi supplement. the now people were with me. the leadership did not like it. neither did mo. he said this was not the way to get things done. the navajo president was against it. everybody was against it.

for a while, i said i would back off. the navajo people wanted it because there were some unsettle plans. stewart udall up to me and he chuckled. he said, you have had fun with this. good work. you got the people behind you. now it is time to govern. we ended up with an agreement. now i have 30 seconds to say this. [laughter] there was a conference recently at the interior department. it was called the great outdoors. i commend president obama and secretary salazar for putting it together. every conservationist, nra, sierra. they were talking collaboration in partnership.

by the way, i am sick of the war partnership. but i thought, what would stewart udall saw? i did a speech that was later blogger whoaby a said i spoke like a high enough. i said we need more wilderness. we need more national parks. we need more scenic rivers. we need more trails. [applause] we have to protect our mustangs. do you know who i was thinking of? i was thinking of what stewart udall would say. i asked stuart ashman. i said i want a building named after stewart udall.

he said, we are going to get some papers. we are going to get some native american history and name that section of this museum. i said, i want a building. i want a building. we finally found a building, a good building in the department of cultural affairs. it is the ultimate accomplishment. a building that will be named that covers all of america's public lands. it is not just a building in the d.c. new land a building that will cover the first americans. it will cover america's wilderness. that building will be named after that big man with the big hands and the big the voice and the excellence and the beauty

and the great family and the great legacy of the new mexicans, stewart udall. [applause] >> one of our technicians tells me we will take one five- second break. i will use it to take -- to change microphones.

you, governor richards said. thank you so much for that warm and thoughtful presentation. some of you may be feeling this, too, when you lose a father or a grandfather. it is a difficult experience trying to come to grips with it and find out who that person was in your life. the remarkable thing for me and for jill and amanda and all of my brothers and sisters and the grandchildren is how many people have reached out to us in letters and e-mails and telephone calls and things left at the door. it is really remarkable.

they have been sharing things that my father told them, impacts they had -- impacts he had on their lives. just a couple of days when i was flying out on a plane, i was reading one of those letters. it captured everything for me about dad. i will leave the ledger and named -- unnamed, but i will read you this letter. this is a young man who had returned from a mission. his marriage was falling apart. he was seeing his life evaporates in front of him. my father climbed up on a nearby sandstone butte watch the sunset.

he says, "your father gave me three pieces of advice that i keep close to my heart. number one, there are two great themes of life, and decision and regret. try to live in such a way that they feel -- steal as little as possible from you. number two, i have a garage filled with every possible award in honor. it is all nice and has made for an interesting life. however, when you are my age, the thing that will mean more than all that combined is the answer to one simple question. what does the circle of family and friends who knew best think about you? number 3, your life can be thought of as the writing of two stories. one is the story of who you

wanted to be. the other is the story of who you are. the most humbling moment in life come when you privately and honestly compare the two. " that was the kind of impact our father had on people. you are going to have more -- you are going to hear more of it today. my brother, dinnis -- dennis, will come out and share with me these master of ceremonies responsibilities. dennis udall. [applause] >> thank you. i would like to introduce our next speaker. she met my mother and father in 1954. she has maintained a strong relationship and friendship with my father ever since.

donna is a comanche and social activist and founder and president of americans for indian opportunity. she is also founder of the national wittman's political caucus. she has worked with my father many times over the years, most significantly in helping the pueblos gained control of the sacred lake. now we will hear from ladonna. [applause] >> what an honor to be with you today to celebrate this wonderful man's life. he chilly was a man of all seasons. -- he truly was a man of all

seasons. it was a wonderful thing to have the udalls close by. they were about a half a mile from us. they helped me buy a house. they held every bit of selling in washington. this friendship and with our children the same age, we had so much fun using the udall house what i would come up and we would do dances around the porch. it was a great relationship. there were times when he had the opportunity to take the sequoia down to washington's manner. there were different secretaries of the department.

when the udalls came, we knew we would get an invitation. we would meet all kinds of people in different categories and walks of life. just to think this man has probably done -- he has made the national parks, alive. it is vivid in my mind of hemp's going down the rapids -- vivid in my mind of him going down the rapids. some places had medicine. there were medicine places. he made them all live for all of us. there was the story of the national parks.

been -- we remembered that mr. udall it a living part of who we were. the whole family had close relationships. they are relativity. we think of them that way. they are deep in our hearts. these last few years, we were on board the st. new mexico. -- on the board of the st. new mexico. we did some wonderful things together. we had the opportunity to travel the same weekend. he was such a remarkable man

because he was a friend and a thinker. he was thinking all the time about how expansion was the opportunity. in remembrance of him and all of you being here to remember him, i say thank you and enjoy the day. [applause] >> thans, ladonna. you are a great friend of the udall family . my father believed tribes should be given the resources to run their own lives. he appointed the first native american commissioner of indian affairs. his name was bob bennett.

[applause] if any of you know my father, he had five brothers and sisters. we are so blessed to have with us today the three surviving siblings. [applause] i know i can speak for all of the grandchildren when i say that we love these folks delayed and will carry their wisdom and love with us forever. please give a warm welcome to bernie. [applause]

>> there are six of us. i am the sixth. my two sisters decided to pass, so you will be stuck with me today. i want to talk a little bit about my brother. i want you to know where we were raised and what we did. conservation came first. it was required. having said that, my brother was the worst farmer i have ever dealt with. [laughter] he said in the 1930's when the depression came, it did not come to st. john's. we were already depressed. we did not have tractors. we used courses. horses are the stupidest people

in the world in case you have not dealt with them. the day on the firm started by hooking up -- on the farm started by hooking up the horse's first. you knew they would be back. some people think he was a dreamer as he got older. when he was young, he was the same. he never change. he did something that drove me insane. every day, he would go through a dictionary and find a word he did not know. he would use it all day long. [laughter] this is vivacious. that rabbit is vivacious. shut up. [laughter]

he was the first. he certainly was not the last. my father used to say to all of the boys on the farm, irrigation is a science. we said, "the hell it is. it is hard work." one of the things that probably will not get talked about today other than by me is what stewart did before he became a politician. he was a lawyer. he was a good lawyer. he was involved in the integration before integration was even thought of. he was a good lawyer. when i started to practice law, he gave me a piece of paper.

it is called "axioms on cross- examination." it is hand written by him to me. it says, "save this. it is good work." i give that to any lawyer i know. it will take a minute and half, but i am getting there. probably the most important thing he was proud of what his children. he raised 6 great children who are good people, good citizens, and people who contribute to this community. i have always said, i have been married to the same woman for 55 years, stewart was probably

married longer than that. i have always said the person who gets credit for the children is the wife, not the husband. she spends more good time with them than the man does. i have always figured with my kids i will take credit for 10% to 15%. years ago we went to the virgin islands -- my wife and i -- courtesy of stewart. we went to a fancy restaurant with one of the park rangers. it was just the three of us, my wife, me, and him. i said this is a nice table. my wife corrected me and said, that one is better. he look at me and said, i think

it applies, you are the head of the household. the man is always the head of the household. the thing that people forget is that the woman is the neck. [laughter] and the neck turns the head. [laughter] most of the time, the net turns the head so slowly that the head does not -- the neck turns the head so slowly that it does not know it is being turned. he look at my wife and said to me, in your case, that does not seem to apply. [laughter] [applause]

>> one of the favorite things with the grandchildren is trading burr's store is around. stories around. our next speaker, along with several african americans, was recruited by my father in the early 1960's. he traveled to the starkly black colleges to recruit students. 26 years later, he became the first african american to serve as director of the national park service. [applause] join me in welcoming him.

>> good morning. a special salute to the young people who honor us with their presence here this morning. join me in saluting the young people. [applause] i hasten to bring you greetings on the behalf of ken salazar, the secretary of the exterior -- secretary of the interior. to stand before you and to acknowledge the legacy of stewart udall is not easy to do. within four minutes, within one week, within one month, or one year. we recognize that we want to honor his will and testament. as governor bill richardson mentioned and a couple of other

speakers, stewart udall was and is one of america's most revered and respected leaders in the field of conservation. [applause] he is without equal in being able to forge nonpartisan support of major legislation that was enacted in the 1960's. the water conservation act, the national trails act, the wildlife improvement act. that legislation will endure his legacy. they will endure his legacy. stewart udall also was a

confidante. he was a great supporter of president kennedy, president johnson, and certainly ladybird johnson. through their efforts, they were able to energize and to heighten the public awareness about the bounty and beauty of this nation, not necessarily the beauty we find on public land, but the duty on school grounds, throughout the highways -- beauty on school grounds, throughout the highways. we are all blessed by the work of secretary udall and ladybird johnson. in 1987, when i was serving as a

director, we were honored to host secretary udall in a visit to the lbj historic park in my state of texas. we prepared a film on ladybird johnson during that time. secretary udall is prominently featured in the museum. what was so beautiful about that visit was to observe the secretary and lady bird johnson having a conversation and reflecting on their many challenges and some of their disappointments and forging ahead a new era in conservation. ladies and gentlemen, those kinds of french ships are what we need throughout this nation to carry -- friendships are what we need to carry on the legacy of secretary udall. [applause]

allow me to speak about my secretary, my secretary, stewart udall. i probably have hanging in my study alone -- hanging in my study probably, the confirmation of my appointment as a seasonal ranger in the national park. what has to remember that that was before the enactment of the civil rights act of 1964. in my home state of texas, i could not enter the front door where my mother was a short order cook in a cafe. yet, he saw the potential of students in his starkly black colleges and saw that they could go into some of our national treasures to represent this country in preserving those

great treasures. i am short that i know the interior as well as one of my other former bosses, bruce babbitt. when he said i will change the complexion of the work force of this agency to represent more of america in the past, i am shore that there was some mumbling in the hallway, "you are going to do what? ?" he said there will be black faces to greet visitors as they entered the national treasures. [applause] let me conclude with what i think about my secretary. i think about someone who has served this nation well.

i think about a document that has been amended. it has been amended 26 times pitted it is time to get it right. that -- time to get it right. we, the people of the united states, in order to form a perfect union. that is. stewart udall -- that is what stewart udall understood. he understood the 14th amendment, equal protection under the law. he could not wait until congress enacted the civil rights act of 1964. he believes in civil rights for all people. that is leadership. [applause] and lastly, it can be said that

he cared for the work force and the welfare of all citizens. he cared for the quality of the environment for all citizens. he cared for all citizens having access to the enjoyment and use of their public lands. he cared that we respected each other and demonstrate consistently six -- a sense of the other species that inhabit this fragile place that we call earth. he embraced the sentiments of one of my favorite poems, "the rime of the ancient mariner." all things great and small. i think that was stewart udall. he embraced the importance of

legislation that he supported. the mary mcleod bethune memorial. it is something that i know stewart udall embrace. we have a responsibility to our young people. we must encourage them never, never, never to use their -- to lose their zeal for building a better world. continue to encourage our young people. lastly, i salute the legacy of stewart udall in the words of his boss, who was 43 when he appointed a 41 year-old secretary of the interior, stewart udall. this young president said, i am certain that when the dust of the centuries have passed over our cities, we, too, will be

remembered not for our victories or defeat, but rather for our contributions to the human spirit. the most enduring contribution of stewart udall will be his humanity. he has lifted our spirits, which are deep on this occasion, but also in the future, and his legacy will endure. thank you very much. [applause] >> bob, thank you very much.

you can see that my father had a passion for equal opportunity, for justice, enforceable rights. people often ask me, where did he get its? get it? his family. his father swept away years of discrimination when he ruled that native americans have the right to vote. he did that in 1947, seven years before brown versus the board of education. his mother, louise, was a compassionate force for fair play. as a university student, stewart and his brother as they another young student to accompany them

into a student union eating area for lunch. the launch area was segregated. morgan was a black student who was prohibited from eating with white students at the university. the three of them broke the rules. the university had to decide, do you follow the rules and discipline stewart, mo and morgan, or do you change the policy? the lunch room was integrated and free from discrimination from then on. [applause] morgan maxwell, i want to add knowledge him, he has joined us here today. he traveled from tucson, arizona to be with us and honor my father. he was down when they named the foundation the stewart udall foundation. he shook my father's hand and

said, it is great to see you after 61 years. sons are new mexicans. they live in new mexico. morgan, please rise. you get so much banks from the -- so much thanks from the udall family. thank you for been here and thank you for your friendship. [applause] as secretary of the interior, my father took on the racist owner of the washington redskins. in 1962, the redskins were the last all white team. a father, as the landlord of the stadium, told the owner that he had two zero choices. he could integrate the team or he could find another stadium to play in. [applause]

you can imagine this powerful figure. he went ballistic. he went to the president. he went to the attorney general, robert kennedy. backed by father. my father was given credit for creating a winning team. [applause] i told you about paolo soleri. it sits on the santa fe indian school campus. the pueblo indians grundy indian school. they are our house today. -- the pueblo indians run the

indian school. they are our hosts today. please give them a round of applause. [applause] these governors have done so much to improve the lives of indian kids. we know north dakota -- we no indication is the key. thank you for running a good school and focusing on education and the good record that you have. the next speaker is one of my father's favorite nieces. she is the chairwoman of the indian department at the university of new mexico.

my father admired her strong- willed and outspoken ways. please come forward and do your thing. great to have you here. [applause] >> i want to thanks scott, tome and jay. my uncle was a kind, father and mentor to me. when i think about him, i remember him talking about being a boy and listen to the radio at night in a small, isolated northern arizona town. he marvelled that the only station beaming out from far off places he had never been to in california, kansas, an albuquerque -- he talked of a

deep nostalgia for something he could not quite grasp. this remembrance has always resonated with me. the young stewart had ttwo elections to choose from. stay in tiny saint john where he could make a good life. he knew everyone and everyone knew him. or go out into the larger world and make his way there not knowing where it would lead him. uncle stewart chose the and we all know where it led him. i have always look at him as a model of integrity, activism, and idealism from the time i

was the same age as he was listening to that radio beam me out into the night. this is one of his favorite poems, "the road not taken" by robert frost. two roads diverged in a yellow wood. sorry i could not travel both and been one traveler. long i stood and look down one as far as i could to where it bent in the undergrowth. then took the other and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear. the passing had warned them about the same. and so that morning, in leaves

no step had trodden black, i kept the one for the other day. yet know when hallway leads onto way, i doubted if i should ever come back. i shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages hence. two roads diverged. i took the one less traveled by. and that has made all the difference. [applause] >> thank you. you can see why she is such a wonderful teacher and why they treasure her at the university of mexico. our next speaker is herb brown.

when my father left the cabinet in 1969, he had a dream. his dream was to set up a consulting firm that would consult with cities and states in any entity that wanted. it was to focus all of the elements of environmental planning and looking at things over the long term. it was called "overview." herb joined overview in 1970. after that experience, he moved on to do many other things. they became lifelong friends as a result of that three years. i heard my father many times introduce herb as his protege. herb brown, come on up. [applause]

>> tom, i know you are the enforcer. amanda is the chief of enforcement. i will add a little introduction for a moment. the four minutes is going to be exceeded by a moment. stewart -- one hears about stewart as one who changed the lives of many people. it becomes a distraction. but i stand here as one of those. he changed my life and my family's life, my wife's life. i am a disciple of stwart. -- of stewart. we were together talking all the time in the 1970's and 1980's.

either i was in his office or he was in my office. we talked sometimes every day. he represented someone beyond anything other than those of my immediate family. stuart -- stewart like to quote people. he often did it in a way that stuck in my mind. it was an idea that he liked a lot. it was something his friend robert frost had told him personally. it was something i had not heard other than from stewart udall. he told me that robert frost said it was great when a person showed up elsewhere. the person showed up doing

something out of the ordinary from the person's past, something that the person did brilliantly. that was stewart udall. he was a man who showed up elsewhere. he did it a lot and he did it brilliantly. i know him from the day he left the cabinet. i want to speak about the stewart udall that i knew, his values and his qualities, things that are in the public record. they are manifestations of his heart and who he was. i will speak from my own perception of the stewart udall that i knew. i would like to have us think of beyond theall statement. i would like us to follow him elsewhere, to places where i was lucky to watch him go. elsewhere as a philosopher.

elsewhere as an author, as a poet, a playwright, a syndicated columnist, and outdoors man, a climber, and historian, a visionary and a complete man. he was a complete man. i recall an evening about 40 years ago. we were waiting after work outside our office at a parking lot. there were about a half-dozen other people. they look miserable after a tough day at their office. out of the blue, reflectively, he quoted the road. he said most men live lives of quiet desperation. a well-known phrase of the roh's. -- of thoreau's.

he actually said how lucky he was because he enjoyed his work. i could feel that every day being around him. he was independent and enthusiastic. he was always reaching for a higher handful. he was a rock climber. we would go over the rocks above the river. he was always reaching for a handful just beyond his fingertips. a remarkable quality is that he always got it. he always got to the next pitch. he always made it to where he was going. when he left the cabinet, the path was laid out in gold. he chose a different path. he put his principles above money. his purpose was to create a new kind of environmental thinking. he called it total environmental planning. in our office, which was a small office right across from the white house, he used to tell

people we were in the shadow of the white house. he was watching over the nixon administration. the corporate chiefs, the captains of industry, parade around our office offering him money to endorse their projects. but he rejected them all. he told them that his name was not for sale. [applause] he kept on planning. he said he was going to consult. i will tell the real story that occurred. one day, a big corporation came in that what it to build a refinery at a place in rhode island. they walked in and after a few minutes of mr. secretary this and that, they said they were offering him $165,000 to work for them.

stewart asked them, what will i do? they could not answer the question. they said they were point to build a refinery. and they said they would said stewart udall in dorset and his pocket would be filled with money. he said he could not dead in on a project -- he said he could not get in on a project like that without asking for sound judgment. he wanted to do a study. that means, you want to have me on a press conference. at the beginning of the study, i have to have the right to say what i did and what i concluded. what i say might be at your facility is no good. it should not be there.

obviously, he did not get to the $165,000. we did not do that project. when he agreed to do television ad for the first biodegradable detergent, it was a dramatic moment. if you remember, back in those days, the love stories or on during the day and they were advertising detergent. it was understood that if he did this endorsement, he would be on the television. the television show would end for an advertising -- for an advertisement and on would an stewart udall. it took a long time for him to come to terms with that. he decided he would do it. but he did it on the condition that he would not get paid any money for it.

instead, he insisted and succeeded in causing the sears and roebuck company to give $25,000 to establish scholarships for indian students. [applause] the way the advertisement was, it went like this. portia was just about to leave her husband. the screen went dark. then you heard a voice. it said, "ladies and gentlem en," and you saw this face and bust. the voice said, "the money from this is used to establish scholarships for indian students." he was a fighter. he knew how to mix it up. and he did mix it up. he was a winner. he fought for the navajo and for the uranium mines and for those

poisoned by the atomic bomb tests. in my presence on the television -- on the telephone, he injected himself into hundreds of controversies where he made the difference. he inspired and he lent his name and his influence to thousands of people around the country struggling to maintain their way of life by saving salt mines or a prairie or a beautiful view or and historical sites. i have never met a person more idealistic than he. he installed wood stoves in his house. he walked into the subway. one day, i walked into his office and he was studying a map of washington, d.c. i said, what are you doing? he said he was trying to figure out a way to get to work by

taking a canoe over the potomac so he would not have to pollute the air. he wrote books and created new perspectives by opening our minds to the rich history of the united states that began in the southwest before the mayflower. he had a vision for the future like a unmasking the disgrace to the consequences of nuclear cover-ups. he was the exemplar of optimism, reasonableness, boldness, dignity, elegance, and toughness and tenacity and culture and integrity and decency. he was a time less man. he was a man who exhibited qualities that would have made him a hero in any age and any era. not a lot of people know this.

the easternmost spot in the united states is in the virgin islands. that spot is called point udall. it is named for stewart. appropriately, it is the first place the sun shines every day. there is a saying that says, by a teacher and by a friend. i was blessed to have stewart udall as my teacher and to cherish him as my dear friend. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

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a member of the shadow cabinet. >> you live truly shadow government ministers. i place particular emphasis on public health. >> when you mean shadow, what do you do? do you have a budget that do have staff? >> i have no budget. but i am the spokeswoman on budget issues and i have a small staff. i am part of the top team of the labor party now. >> what did you run for office? >> i wanted to run to give people a voice. there were no black people at all.

i choose to speak up for people who would not have gotten hurt otherwise. >> the first black woman to be in parliament of this country. >> yes. in 150 years after the abolition of slavery in the british empire. it has been slow progress. >> what were the circumstances of your constituency and where is it? >> my constituency is in london. it is a very large minority community. it has very high employment. when i was selected, back in 1996, that district wanted a representative who reflected their distress.

they wanted to change candidates. but i should say that it was not an all-black district by any means. it does not mean that black minority canada's can only get elected in -- back when i candidates can only get elected in all-black constituencies. >> have many constituents to you have? >> i have 5000 people. >> what does it cost you to run? >> we have really tough fo campaign finance rules when you run for a member parliament. the amount of money you can spend is fixed and it is calculated according to your population.

nobody else, you're national party, is allowed to run your campaign. people cannot buy on your behalf. i remember the cash as if it were yesterday. it was 4,000 pounds. >> it would have been close to $8,000. >> yes. >> how you raise that? >> the party raises it. the party raises it through bake sales, inviting donations. the campaigning in this country is very much door-to-door.

it is about giving literature. now, of course, you can have a campaign web site, but the districts are smaller. so they very much rely on door to door. the national party gets this information and that is the subject of much criticism. but we have tough campaign rules and they serve us well. if i had to raise a lot of money, and may not have been elected 23 years ago. >> do not big business and big unions pour money into the party's and then they -- into the parties? >> there is a limit. it is strictly policed. would you have to do at the end of the campaign is submit all your campaign accounts.

if it is found that you have spent money that you cannot account for, then you can be struck down. one woman was elected and it was a member of her own party that criticized things as she did not put down. >> you mentioned you are very connected to the american media. >> yes. it goes back to the democratic primaries and obama. i was so astounded when obama ran to and i went on line and i heard him speak. i was absolutely spellbound. after that, i followed it on the bbc, which is great.

but i also went online and listened to u.s. media like pbs, like npr, like c-span, because you can get most of them on line. i listen to it -- i listened to it on my mp3-player. i listen to the american media every day. i listen to npr. i listen to "meet the press." i listen to it all the time. obama has made it rebidding. >> we have found in our -- obama rivetade it absolutely relatin ting.

>> we found in our archives an interview with you. >> you happen to be a member of a minority population here in great britain. does it matter at all in the house if you are an ethnic minority? does it matter? >> is there any difference? >> i was elected in 1997 and it was the first time that people of african descent sacked in british parliament. in the 18th century, they had no irish mp's. i think they felt that the black mp's was the second coming of the irish. they thought it would be difficult.

i think there was some trepidation. the thing to remember about the house of columns is that it is not about color so much as it is about -- the house of commons is that it is not so much about color as it is about change. having mp's of collagen 97 is a big change. >> what happened to the -- in 1997 is of color a big change. >> what happened to the -- >> other not as many minority

members as they should be. >> given the system, you are obviously aware of what going saw -- what goes on in the united states. we have over 40 members of the u.s. house of representatives, 3% of 646 members. >> i think it is about 20 something appeared >> under your system, how do you get more minorities elected? >> they put a lot of pressure on the organization. what we do not have is districts that are almost entirely minorities. we do not have district

segregation and so on. in the labor party, progressives want to see more minorities. in the 21st century, they incurred to the political access thing. >> what did you think of what you said 16 years ago? >> it is true. the irish that came in in the 19th century were republicans. and it was disruptive. >> what issues the most been ported to? >> -- which issue is the most important to you? >> i am very concerned about --

i was against the iraq war. i am very concerned about equality and justice. >> what does a district look like? what is the make up? >> traditionally, the people that live in my district where it in the docks and in small workshops. but it now has some very high unemployment. patented unemployment in poor districts have changed and jobs have gone away. traditionally, it was a center of jewish migration. i have one of the oldest synagogues in london in my district. but largely, that the jewish community has moved away, apart from a very vibrant hasidic

jewish community that lived in my district. because they like to live near their synagogues because that to walk to them, they stay put. the traditional jewish committee has largely moved up, but the hasideans are still there. there are people of color, largely people from the west indies, from west africa, asia, vietnamese. the real minority in my district is white anglo-saxon protestant. >> there was an article in one of the papers here. the headline "white britain's a minority by 66" which is 2066.

>> i think stories about migration are very wrong. the migration has dramatically enriched london. whether it is french vietnamesen, of dn shopkeepers, african painters -- london, like new york, is a great city because of migration. the politician likes to stir up is a about it, but inlanengland diverse country. >> is a a big deal that now you're not only a minority, but a minority in the government. as a labour party member for years, 11 years? tony blair was a prime minister.

what is a different feel that you have now? >> is different being in opposition. we are no longer setting the agenda. david cameron sets the agenda. looking at the click of me in 1994, in the early 1990's, i had a really brilliant american in turn named terry sul. all of these years later, she has just been elected as a congresswoman from alabama. she was a brilliant young woman. i am really pleased to see that she is going to be serving her country at the level of congress. >> had it to become an intern for you? >> -- how did she become an intern for you?

>> she wrote to me. she studied at oxford at the time. she wrote to me and said she wanted to be my intern. i know she will be a brilliant congresswoman. >> the u.s. house of representatives and in the senate, they have 15, 18, 30 members on their staff. when she was an intern, how many more people that you have on your staff? >> i had about half a dozen people my staff. and do her very well. i would call her a friend. >> do teacher anything? >> i hope, maybe, she picked up little bit -- >> did you teach her anything? >> i hope, maybe, she picked up a little bit. >> what do think is the difference between being a person of color and being a white guy in politics? >> there are high expectations. it is an honor, but it is a challenge to the minority in

politics. >> are you aware that you are in a minority as you walk around the cost of commons -- the house of commons? >> no. i long ago learned to not notice people looking at me. when i was a new mp and i had friends coming into a copy with me, they said, "got, people are looking at you." you can carry yourself in a humble but assured manner and you cannot let other people question yourself. >> we had lost the last election. we had a leadership election. it was not quite the primary system that you have in the united states, but it did mean traveling all around the country seeing party members and

trying to get support. after the election, there were three or four minorities put forward. but i was concerned that they were both guys. they were all what you would call insiders. i had a political message that i wanted to be heard. i was the only one who stood against the iraq war, who stood up for civil liberties, concerned about the quality and diversity. i felt that i have a progressive message that needed to be heard and i went up and down the country for three months. >> did the others running go with you? >> yes. all the meetings that we

attended, we all went together. party members would seal off of us on the platform and judge between the five of us. we organized other meetings. there were 50 meetings up and down the country where we were all put on the platform and party members had a chance to question us all. >> i listen to a speech that to give the party convention. were you talking about red head? >> they call him red ed, saying that he is a dangerous member. that is not true. >> what is the difference between being a man in the center and being a progressive

in the kind of things that a center person would not before? >> he was for the war. i considered it to be an infringement of civil liberties. i have taken against guantanamo and complicity in torture. -- i have taken a line against guantanamo and complicity in torture. personally, i think that coming out of the credit crisis we should not just be expecting ordinary people to take a hit. we should actually be putting up

taxes on bankers and making bankers' pay some of the cost that it has cost this country to bailout banks. i think we should bear down on bonuses and take some more moderate view on this. >> you said something about this 90-day detention without trial. what was that? >> they tried to bring that in on the back of 9/11 and the fear of terrorism. they wanted to bring in the 90- day detention for terrorists without trial. i thought that was appalling. a fought against it in parliament and i defeated it. a speech made against it, i won an award for it. >> why? >> because it is quite a good speech. >> wanted to give it?

-- when did you give it to? >> i gave it in parliament. that would have been in 1998. >> so the idea was -- one of the things to talk about in your speech, the 90-day detention without trial did not become effective in this country. >> we blocked it. it was defeated on the floor of the house. it was partly by labor party members who stood up against their own party and said that we're not telling them -- we are not allowing this. if we infringed our own tradition of civil liberties and civil rights, that is what we believe. and i still think we were right. >> let me show a clip of that speech. when did you give the speech? >> i think it was 1998.

>> know, when you that the award. >> i think it was this year, it in the summer. >> to talk about your upbringing. >> my parents emigrated to this country from jamaica over 60 years ago. they were that generation of west indian immigrants that helped to rebuild our public services after the war. they would have been so proud to see their daughter contend for the leadership of one of the greatest socialist parties in europe and the party they love. [applause] but we face now -- these will become of the magnitude that we have not seen in our lifetime. of course, there is no question

that we would have had to take tough action on the deficit. but let us be clear and let us keep repeating. these are not inevitable cuts caused by labor profligacy day, is the intention to cut back the welfare state once and for all. >> there is a lot in that that we can talk about. let's start with your parents. when did they come to great britain? >> my parents were amongst the third wave that came to this country. they came to britain in 1951. they both came from the same bill of it -- from the same village in rural jamaica. they came to london separately, but met and fell in love and married. my father worked in a factory all his life. my mother was a nurse. they themselves had left school at 14. but they instilled in me the

importance of hard work, the importance of aspiration, and the importance of getting an education. >> so how did you get into cambridge? >> i went to local public school. in the books i read, people were from cambridge. i thought, why not me? the story of my life is that i keep thinking, why not me? i wrote to my teachers. i remember one to to looking at me and say, "i do not think you're up to it." it was very unusual for someone in my background, a working class background, to go to a top university. but i looked at myself and i thought, " i think i am." so i had to take the exam and go up and be interviewed, but i was at pratt school and i went up to

study at cambridge university, the only black girl in my year. >> the only black role in the entire -- and you into an all woman's college at cambridge. >> yes. >> i got a big kick out of this this morning. i will not show it, but, in the paper, they have an article -- "40th anniversary." the article was from the same college. page three, every day, they have the photograph of a bare chested woman. >> they do. >> and all of the women in the picture are all white. >> is that true? they are always right? >> yes.

>> why is it so popular in this country? >> in many ways, britain is more open about issues of sex and then maybe america. but rupert murdoch will do anything to watches tv specials. >> it is the 40th anniversary of that successful date of the future. >> a lot of guys by the paper for the bare chested ladies. >> there are a lot of well-known names of the list of alums from your college. what was the name of your college? >> it was neiman college. it has been a leading women's college since victorian times. >> had to get interested in reading? >> -- how did you get interested in reading? >> i have always loved reading.

there is something about the written word, even now, a permanence that allows you to reflect. by remaining ambition is to write. >> what was your major? >> history. i believe, if you do not know where you're coming from, you don't know where you are going. >> what part of history is your favorite? >> suppose i am interested -- i suppose i am interested in british history. i'm interested in 19th century history because that is where britain moved to being an industrial society, the crucible of socialization. i'm also interested in american history. >> what part of american history have you read? >> i read about the trade union

organizers. again, that is where americans had to sacrifice for their rights. manufacturers of great wealth. >> what did you learn in history that you have applied to your own life in the commons. >> i think that what i have learned from history is the fact that it can take an awful long time to make change. but change does eventually come. there is a sam cooke and song called "changes were to come." you have to be patient. another thing about history is that you have to hold onto your beliefs. people who hold onto their beliefs are people who are vindicated. and from our recent histoin