out pretty quickly if this is someone who understands the customer. i know that is not directly the question you are asking, but -- >> right. his cost one of the starters? >> particularly. for a consumer operation we look the atlantic costly billing materials around $30 or $40. maybe it is higher value added. >> right now you mentioned enterprise and consumer. >> we look at both. if you look at the things going on around drones, those applications could be around monitoring or applying .ertilizer with surveillance those can support significantly higher price points. >> one other thing i wanted to talk about was stuff breaking.

people see that is symbolic of the broader movement where they have these nightmares of everything malfunctioning in their house. how do you think about that? >> in the context of robotics, it will do a lot of that for you. automated demand response with peak energy times, we always have to give that control to them. counter to how the machine usually works. >> maybe a more general way of looking at that is that these turn off the automation? >> exactly.

what about the drone space and industrial space? are there crashes and stuff? >> when something goes wrong, you just go down. >> redundancy is one of the things you have to go down. it just gets more complex when you are up any air. >> what about you, boris? what about being on stage at apple? >> it was an amazing experience. that was our first coming-out party, we worked on that for four or five years. we have had a lot of the same challenges, where fundamentally that is defined

in a way that is robust and capable, giving you the capabilities that you will need for a long time. alternate flexibility on the software side to expand the experience over time. keeping it enjoyable and entertaining, a lot of that goes into the original design. being upfront where you cannot predict the things in the software, that becomes one of the most original parts of the process. >> i know that normally you work , thestandards and drones biggest issue in terms of the most obvious thing in the air? >> no one has stepped forward or put anything in place that allows us to regulate. i am working with an thenization that separates

drone companies that do things for good and for bad. they are both working with , building the blueprints of what an intercity highway would look like, with pickups, stations, using that to lift up the economy and the city with registration, tall prices and all of that. the dividing line, as a technology provider, how much will have that? >> a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure that is in place. the ones who put the technology in place for them as well. up,y time something hooks no one looks at it, it gets shut down.

that you all things can do, at some point. >> we are basically running out of time, but one last lightning round question, 10 years from now, what is one thing that humans do that will be done primarily by robots? >> self driving cars. >> installing thermometers with drones. >> thermostats. >> entertainment will have much higher levels of intelligence than today. >> thank you guys for joining us. [applause] ♪ >> in this final panel from the annual techcrunch conference, the ceos of twitter talk about their company. ♪

>> hello, everybody. with me today is jeff wiener, ceo of linkedin. he led us through a successful ipo. be talking with him today about the future of linkedin and how it fits in with the rest of the world economy. first, just tell me a little bit about what is happening at linkedin right now. you have this thing you started talking about late last year that sounded like it was going beyond recruiting sales in the basics of your business now. the value that is created today at linkedin is what we call professional graph with professional connections up to three degrees, getting your foot in the door, helping you to better leverage your network to

create value. our longer-term vision, if you look out 10 years, is much bigger than that. we would like to develop the ,orld's first economic graph mapping the global economy. more specifically we want to digitally represent every economy in the world. >> a job? >> a job, for example. >> it is not just about full time work, as it has been historically. we want to obtain. we would like there to be a profile for every company in the world. with the launch of our university profile capability, we would like there to be a profile representing every organization in the world. we would like to see a professional profile for every member of the global workforce. we would like to ultimately

overlay the professionally relevant knowledge and installation for each of those individual companies and universities, to the extent that they would like to share it. our goal would be to get out of the way and allow each of those to forect to american value capital. intellectual capital, human capital, going to work, in doing so we hope to play a role in transforming the global economy. >> what would that look like for global business? >> for starters, it is challenging for small businesses to compete with larger companies with an small communities. for that small business to have a profile and represent, for lack of a better term, their talent rant, that is what the small business is all about, the vision of the founders, making a difference within their local community. for people to be able to connect

with the company. people for whom that makes a lot of sense. >> what does that look like, as a user? >> you can do a search for company within a specific geography. that company's profile emerged and will be a tab in the profile for careers. the founders of that small and medium-sized business will have an opportunity to show the world what that is all about. historically there are much larger enterprises. >> what do you need to do for linkedin to get there? >> the beauty is we are already down that path. >> it already sounds like a business as a job opening. >> job openings would be a part of it. company profile page, knowledge, business intelligence

, a professional profile for every individual ultimately finding work, it goes way beyond jobs. it is about making sure that people in jobs have access to the right knowledge. to your point, in terms of what we are to do that we referenced earlier is off and running. people may not realize this, we have north of 3 million profiles on linkedin. there is a lot of work that has already been done to lay the foundation to make this a reality. >> what is next? >> continue to scale by dimension. continuing to improve our homepage experience, which is now generating billions of updates on a weekly basis, each of which is customized for the who theyl memories of

are, skills, ambitions, connections, industries. linkedin today is a first trade magazine based on individuals for sharing. users now enable -- >> what about software? there have been rumors that you are integrated with sales personnel in separate ways for businesses. are they a competitor? are a partner today. >> what about in five years? >> i think they will continue to be a partner of ours. they will facilitate what we call social selling. ,everaging the network ultimately converting foot would've been a cold call to a warm prospect. >> tell me more about your software development process. use, for your company to

pushing them out to the public. >> i think you are referring specifically to how we have eaten in our own restaurant? for our platform employees. it is important to draw a distinction between what historically has been a public professional network, which is what linkedin is, where most of the information being shared is publicly available, and a private professional network in the enterprise where there is sensitive information. in linkedin we are building tools that enable us to get more value from our own platform. and to the extent that we generate the right kind of engagement and product enhancement, we would then be in a position. >> it sounds like a chatter

interface that you might offer. bewe would want it to specific and unique to what we offer today. greater emphasis on professional identity, for example. there are no clear plans to offer that is a product, we are trying to leverage plans for the employees. >> who do you consider a competitor for the economic route? basically doing a professional be a muchey seem to broader player. who else is doing that? no company right now that has a professional focus and scale that we do. we are not focused on the competitive landscape. social platforms that operate with far greater horizontal focus to enable third-party developers.

we are going to stay focused on the exclusively professional context. our members want to keep their professional and personal lives separate. that context has served us well. >> search engines? out theree were any getting focus in a professional context, that could help, but that is what we've focus on for greater relevancy and value. to your point earlier, large companies are going to be thinking about how they leverage platforms to make employees more successful. choosing a new dynamic. >> tell me more about your plans. from afar it has been hard for me to tell if you are trying to

make linkedin into a bloomberg type of service, where you have your professional network. what are your feelings in the program for transitive properties? >> the objective is to be the with anyoneap form who wants to share relevant content for scale and for membership to be able to tap businesses to be better on the job. net influencers have been a big move in that direction, shifting the perception of what linkedin is all about. historically some people would have called it a rolodex or a way to get a job, but with the launch of influencers following 2 million or more of our members

, sharing this information on how he built the company, he is not alone. >> you are not going to get into the news business, per se? you are going to aggregate that and provide your own personal blog posts? would be athat it lightweight layer. we are extremely fortunate to have a tiger team of dan roth, who we hired from fortune. for us it is not about the editorial at the exclusion of machine learning, or the exclusion of social connectivity and viral dynamics. it is all three of those things, making the best of those disciplines. >> so, you're looking at things up -- things like medium is being the competitor?

>> that is much more broad-based and the special context. our job is to package up the most content we can find for our members. >> are you still working on your developer platform? i know you have launched a few versions of that. are you still pushing that would developers? >> we are. we are approaching roughly 100,000 developers. >> salesforce being one of the better examples? >> yes. 1.5 million share on linkedin buttons on the internet . toin terms of sharing data other sites? similar to the facebook api? looking at anything like that, or are you more focused on being a content publisher? >> etiquette will evolve over time.

we are investing heavily in mobility. people have to be tethered to their desktops in order to get valued to the platform. >> tell me more about what is happening with the part these days. you seem to have people without work looking to get new jobs. so, linkedin has become a natural way for them to do that. what are the trends you are seeing right now in the workplace? what industries are growing? what jobs? what skills? >> in terms of the growing have seen fairly consistent patterns over the last several years where the technology sector, financial , health care, those are all high-growth industries.

interns of broader, off network trends, the fracturing of work sectionalon -- network trends. want to or because the long-term full-time opportunities do not exist as they once did. probably, one of the most important dynamics that we track is the widening skills gap. do not realize that with unemployment where it is in this country, while it is improving it is still higher .han we would like it to be opportunities are being created by new technologies. but the technology is evolving so rapidly, it is challenging to keep up.

new jobs is not equal to the loss of jobs. do i have to be a developer or data scientists? >> i do not think so. you can just look at silicon valley. we have asked for 400 or 500 jobs in the last four years and roughly two thirds of those are not technical in nature. look at the resurgence of the economy in a city like new york, mayor bloomberg would be the first to tell you that they created 300% more jobs than that .ost housing starts are starting to come back online and create jobs. companies creating those

kinds of opportunities for folks to leverage what historically had been in efficiency. there is certainly economic value their that is important. >> where do you see that going? right now there are some bright spots in technology, with massive losses. how do you see this going over the next five years? the first is education. not just primary reform. it will take a generation to improve. not want an antiquated system teaching kids to be ready for the jobs that once were rather than the jobs there are. things like the adaptive learning platforms. would love to see greater focus on vocational

training. jobs that exist today. if we can do a better job making sure the current workforce is better trained to take the job that exist, a lot of retail jobs have been at it for the past several years. if we can end the job through , i thinkl training that could have a medium-term impact. immigration reform is critical. and as a this country i amt most importantly familiar with this to some degree, obviously. >> i do not think integrated reform is one thing or another. there are millions of people who were born in this country who

are working hard and trying to figure it out. and then you have situations where people in silicon valley speak about the jobs referenced earlier. jobs with significant skills required, they are not being filled because the bar for to work inside this country are too high. 40% of the fortune 500 was founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. trainingte opportunities going forward. >> resolve these sites, hiring

and firing each other based on it is not online really what linkedin has. posting someone's developer work. >> we refer to that as a deferred identity, where you are not necessarily listing experiences, but you are showcasing work for a portfolio that is written or other artistry. one of the things we are doing along those lines is evolve the profile experience. so that it is really like a portfolio and you chance to information,ous

patents you have generated. to provide as much flexibility as possible for professionals of any background to showcase their identity. >> what might that linkedin for -- look like for linkedin in the future? syncing up the linkedin profile and that sort of thing? >> that is something we have already invested in and we continue to see good traction there. ultimately our goal is to enable members to generate value no matter where they are. if that can include taking elements of their professional identity wherever they are going , we would like to make that possible. >> great. thank you so much for your time. give him a big hand, everybody. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] has a next guest management style that he teaches in course form to his employees. [applause] >> what is happening? thank you for having me here. i love coming and talking to groups like this. you as of the most fun -- are we going to do post? you're the most fun stage of the company, so many of you. when it is just a few of you and anything is possible and there are no barnacles on the you are up allt, night, out of printer paper, ceo

buying printer paper, it is an amazing time for the company. come here i want to and talk to you now for just a few minutes right before lunch about how to lead? there are two or three of you saying -- are you the leader or am i the leader? why is that important? stage, if you do not deal with these things, this function becomes embedded within your company. that means this function becomes learned and a part of the culture of the company and it is almost impossible to eradicate. i want to talk to you about two specific things to take away from here today about how to manage and lead your company's. the first is the ultimate paradox of being a manager or leader. quite simply this -- as a

leader, you need to care deeply, deeply about your people while not worrying or really even caring about what they think about you. managing by trying to be liked is the path to ruin. that is easy to say and easy for many of you to think -- i do that, i am direct with people, but the reality is that there are all of these little ways that managing by trying to be liked creeps into the organization. you will walk down the hall and talk to your cofounder about something they did that annoyed you the other day, something they need to change, and as you go down the hall you think -- they are busy, working on all this stuff. looks like they are having a rough morning. i will talk to them tomorrow about it. are trying to create some

award between two people. the way that you deal with it is instead of getting them both in the room and talking about the fact that there is this thing we have to go to and i need you to do this, you kind of tell the two people to different things. you go to the first person and say -- i decided you're going to do it and you call the second person and you say no one wants you to do it more than i do, but right now i have to let this other person, but don't worry, you will get the next thing. do not leave that way. the way that you build trust with your team and your people is by being forthright and clear with them from day one, communicating with them based on clarity, not based on -- i hope they per search -- they perceive this in a positive way and feeling good. that is the most important management tip i can give you,

understanding that paradox, understanding how important it is to care deeply about your team without worrying about what they think about you. i want to tellg you, and it is critical here in san francisco, and technology, in silicon valley. it is this -- there are many different ways to be successful. ok? the problem here in san francisco and silicon valley -- silicon valley is we lionize these personalities and set these people up to be these amazing genius leaders who do everything right and books are written about them. showing us how to do things the way that they do it. they are constantly on television and in the media when things are going well. this is how the person does this thing, this is why they do it

this way. we take notes and we feverishly try to imitate what they have done to be successful, but the reality is that these people are the same people they were 10 years ago and will be 10 years from now, when it may not work at all for them. the same person who is lionized nothing 10 may be years from now. it is critical, some guy trying to create your company and your culture, that you absolutely internalize this fact. there are many different ways to be successful. conversation with ben silverman, ceo of pinterest. he said -- you know? it is like all these guys, these women out here, the leaders we look up to, it is like they all have this cool superpower. it has enabled us to do these amazing things that are all different.

i thought that was an amazing insight. when i tell you an employer who to find your own means of being successful and to understand that there are many different have anbe successful, i agreement in ben silverman's language. find your individual superpower, whatever that is. if you do those things, if you and you manage, through deep caring about your people, without worrying for the thing about you, you will be as successful as you can possibly be. always remember that when you're thinking about communicating clearly with people -- you may think that people are fooled if you tell them what they want to hear, that they are not fooled. as a leader, you are totally transparent.

if you try to lead in a way that is not indicative of who you are, they will see it, they will see through it. you will then lose the trust of the team. very short "how to lead." have a great lunch. [applause] ♪ you are watching c-span. here is a look at our schedule for this new year's afternoon. next, a look at civil rights issues from the annual conference of black legislators, followed by the history of the with of u.s. presidents, changes in power of democratically elected leaders around the world. tonight at 7:00 we continue our encore presentation with craig hiserbrook, who discusses new book, the king of sports, the impact of football on

america. here is a preview. most politicians are only interested in combustion without power and campaign donations for themselves. business executives seem greedy and even antisocial, here to destroy jobs in return for larger bonus. elections have become contemptuous of average people. no part of society is losing faster than faith institutions. what brought that on? >> that is in the section where i have a chapter that i ask about the evidence that i have seen of this in the book. there i am talking about coaches, who have become revered figures in american life.

i think the coaches have become substitute father figures for a lot of american society. we do not believe in politicians anymore. businessmen, clergy, but coaches still seem like people who practice tough love and will be a good father. >> see our discussion today at 7 p.m. eastern, huron c-span. tonight at 9:00, highlights from the second season of the original c-span history series, first ladies, which looks at the lives and impact of our nation's first ladies. tonight? 20th century first ladies. including newsreel footage, archival video clips, on location tours of homesteads and historic sites, radio broadcasts, and more.

>> the national black caucus of state legislators recently held its annual conference in memphis, tennessee. the closing session focused on civil rights issues, including voter id laws, gun license prevention, and charter schools. speakers included the former executive director of the national action network, the head of the trayvon martin foundation, and the maximal spokesman for a gun safety advocacy wrote -- group. roland martin moderated the nearly two-hour discussion. >> how are we doing? i want to thank all of you for being here with us. we expect to have some engaging conversation. say -- look,ere to go ahead, officially getting

dressed, there is no tie on here. -- doug looked at this and said -- this must be a working session, so he said no tie. i was going to take mine off in a minute to make everyone feel more comfortable, since he is so underdressed. doug forgot that this is a conference of black people and we dress up. >> i should have known better. >> for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, for the after party. the after after party. and then just going to bed. so good to see so many of you taping this. we know that folks are watching on c-span as well. first we will introduce our panel. it was a smart move for them to leave. texas a&m, texas, the reason people left years ago was it was

texas. you know that is right. they came to the alamo and i said come back. we are always kidding and having fun. i keep telling him to wake up, that he is delusional. i was joking with our panel, first off. "slavery by another name, the reinstatement of black america." he has also been the director of public programs at the miller center and has held a weekly public affairs television forum program and is a correspondent at the washington post.

doug? [applause] alicia bass is the mother of jordan russell davis, her son was shot and killed in jacksonville, florida, november 2012, the age of 17, murdered by michael dawn, who had been agitated about how loud her son and his friends had been playing music in their car. he went on to claim stand your ground. i believe nine shots were fired into the vehicle when the police arrested him, he claims he saw a gun, the tip of a shotgun. the police did not discover any gun at all. of course, she has gone on to begin the commonsense legislation network and moms for

common sense in america. [applause] all right, next up i want to introduce you to the executive director of the trayvon martin foundation. say hello to kim mccrea, part of the nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing gun violence and helping victims families, also serving as the sounding board and consultant to martin's parents, as well as sabrina and tracy in the loss of their tragic -- tragic loss of their son, kim mccrea. [applause] last, certainly not least, tamika mallory. she recently stepped down as the national executive director for the national at chin network, reverend sharpton's organization. recently, this past january, she had been involved in a variety of social justice issues and has

been recognized by multiple publications as a leading voice when it comes to the critical issues facing our country. give it up for tamika. [applause] as we look at the various issues, in terms of what is facing our country, the purpose of this is to deal with a civil rights platform moving forward. before we go down that path, you have folks determining today what civil rights are. thinking about how everyone is embracing that term, we need to understand what comes along with that. each one of you, from your perspective, what do you consider to be a civil rights platform, or defined as civil rights in 2014, from your perspective? anyone know?

>> i would like to address what is happening with gun laws in this country. it has become an output epidemic. not only in my case, with my son, and trayvon as well, we have sandy hook and aurora, the d.c. navy yard, and we have seen disproportionately what has been happening in the black community based upon the gun law. we have been watching very diligently what has been happening with the loopholes in the law. we have taken the federal self-

defense law and watered it down. under the stand your ground law you are finding people that are able to use their guns in any way that they choose to. for example, the stand your ground law basically allows a person to use their gun, use their weapon based upon a perceived threat. they do not even have to prove that there was a credible threat. another loophole is that individuals, the individual actually creating the threat, creating the conflict, those in the visuals are able to use the stand your ground law. >> you think that we should view gun control legislation is a civil rights issue? >> and human rights. >> ok. >> douglas? >> i agree with that.

the few -- the focus on human rights is pretty essential. in terms of what we are really talking about in many respects is not what the civil rights laws say or the execution of civil rights laws or what the constitution says, we are talking about whether all americans, especially young people, know that they can live in a secure society and one that is not pushing unfair obstacles to achievements. i throw it out as a bit of a challenge, people who say that they are motivated on civil rights, they have gotten distracted in many respects. particularly legislators, they have gotten distracted on civil rights, which is about not letting the things that used to happen happen. we have all of these laws in place to stop what used to happen, and what used to happen for the most part has stopped. the grotesque examples of civil rights violations around voting and other things have largely

gone away, we have these laws in place to prevent the things that used to happen, and now we are in this kind of technical argument all the time about whether the laws are being fulfilled or not. do we still need the voting rights act? the civil rights act? the supreme court justices wind up making rulings on these technical distinctions and we all get frustrated, which is partly because we seem to have lost the narrative of what it is all about. it is about what the society is that we are creating. the young people, the mothers, showing them that this is not going to happen anymore. civil rights is a part of that. i think that some leaders, like many of you, probably need some new scripts, new narratives to talk about these things in a different way. >> how would you define civil rights in 2013? >> it is so ironic that we are here, one year to the date of what happened. since then we have had 109 laws passed, 39 to tighten the

restrictions. people probably say -- hey, we are solving the problem, but guess what? 39 laws are probably more than we have ever seen. i can tell you that from ms. mcbeth's point of view, from sabrina tracy's point of view, if there is one law that would help to prevent what they have gone through, then it is a significant change. 17 years old, trayvon martin, walking. he has the right to walk. he has the right to chew gum.

he had the right to do some of the simplest things. but it feels like if a person's civil rights have been violated only for walking home, you think about something crazy happening in new york when the young kids purchase gum. because it is so expensive, what happens to them? the conversation about civil rights is still abstract. as legislators may be the conversation becomes -- what happens when a person feels these issues? what should they have done? is there something or someone in place that they could call? some kind of legislation or policy in your state to address that? a legal recourse? moving forward we want to be able to make sure that we are educated in making sure that there are policies in place to make a difference. >> i have seen different groups come to black civil rights organizations and say -- stand with us on civil rights, get

when we turn around and see issues very specific to african- americans, those same folks are not standing with us. how can we be able to get a broad group across the country to understand that you cannot simply look at civil rights based upon your perspective, but if you want folks to stand with you, you must also stand with us. >> that is absolutely a challenge. you know that there are issues and segments, going back to answer the first question, i think about the civil rights movement of today, that is looking at any policy,

profiling, or oppression. if you are determined that those things are wrong, everyone should be involved in addressing those issues. so often you see race becoming a major issue when people separate around things that they know are wrong. we hear people talking about what happened to trayvon martin. although many people knew what happened to him, they were not willing to stand with sabrina and tracy, they just did not feel they were a part of the conversation. if those people had decided that they would stand with us in our fight -- [applause] it is certainly a challenge. i think one of the things we have done, our legislation, community leaders, it is their turn to deal with the issue. we want to have relationships with whatever it is, with these folks that we see as being grass is greener on the other side, issues.o not challenge them on

it is as if we do not remember that they used us in their time of need. i think the challenge for us as we said at this time and we talk about our issues is knowing our values. until we get to the point where we get to the place where we say that our children dying are just as important as what happened in newtown. certainly, the newtown shooting hurt me to my core. and i think about that today, it is so scary to think that your child could go to school and just be killed. to see what happened in colorado yesterday. at the same time, i am on the streets of new york all the time. annette robinson is here as an assemblywoman, we have seen newtown happening every day. in brooklyn, in cities across the country. wherever the people are in chicago, in louisiana, and it is not national news. again, we all ran to newtown.

we were writing stories about it. it is on tv one. that is true. that is absolutely true. but it is not mainstream news. and it is unfortunate. again, we write stories and show up at these events, protests and do these things, but when it is our turn, these people do not stand with us. >> obviously i believe in the civil rights issues, looking at mass incarceration, that is a huge issue. we are going to go through this by topics, like how you create a platform moving forward. i was speaking last year at an naacp event. i had a civil rights leader tell me -- roland, we have gotten more support from her public and

-- republican governors on this reform then we have from democratic governors. the reason i am starting this, there are a couple appear -- a couple of people appear elected who are democrats. how many of the folks up here who are elected are republicans? none. i am asking that question. why am i asking that question? [laughter] i am asking that question because -- if we are talking about secrets with mass -- sentencing reform and mass incarceration as an issue that we care about, what happens politically is if there is a republican governor who says that i agree with you, there is a hesitation on behalf of black issue managers not to help them -- black elected officials to work with them on that because

it might help them with reelection. i do not want to be seen as helping them. the question i ask for you, to the legislators, what is more important? your party or reform? your party or the principal? .e the princip >> we are going to say principle. >> when attorney general eric holder made the announcement early in the fall about changing requirements in the way that the department of justice sentences, that is more of your problem than a federal problem, the vast majority of victims come to state prisons, but it is true that what they have been able to do, as little as it is, being honest about that, and they have said wonderful things about their opposition for mass

incarceration, but they have done extraordinarily little. i had a conversation with the attorney general a few months ago saying that i know you want to make changes, but you are the mass incarcerate or and chief. they recognize the difficulty of the question and that the victims of crime who are disproportionately african- american want to see tough enforcement. it is a tough thing. there is no doubt that they have had more support in congress and from republican governors, from conservatives who have been more supportive of the structural changes because of the political views. it is politically easier for republicans and there is a fiscal thing. >> to that point, we are discussing this issue on tv one and i had a brother who told a police officer -- yes, but -- i he was a former police officer. he said motive.

i said stop. where i came from was -- their motive is fiscal. you are saying republican governors and legislators, their motive is fiscal. they are saying we cannot afford to keep locking people up, keep building jails, he said that his was moral. i said i did not care what the motive is, but that the solution was in place. that goes to the issue. again, we are being honest here. if you are a black legislator in north carolina, you're governors republican. if you are in florida, your governor is republican. tennessee, alabama, georgia, your governor is republican. so, if mass incarceration is going to be a civil rights issue, we will have to work with republican governors.

a democrat might say -- i do not want to be seen as soft on crime. how do you say to leslie that -- legislators this is what is going to happen moving forward, not getting stuck in the party, when some of your fellow white democrats might not help with the reelection? >> i go back to knowing our value, right? the community members are not doing enough to push that. as the elected officials, you should not just be able to do what you want to do because we put you in office. our voice has to be present. we have to be able to speak out and speak to the elected officials. we do not do that. we vote people into office, elect them to our seats, and then we do not even talk to them again. until they show up at our church a few months later getting our vote again. we do not put the proper

pressure on these people. we do not say we want you to work on this issue. i have to tell you that a lot of times when i talk to members of the community, they do not even know what the issues are, where the governor may or may not be on these issues. in some cases they do not even know who the governor or the elected official is. before we can even get to the answer about how to deal with it, first you have to make the officials feel accountable to the community, meaning the community must feel accountable to itself. i know that is not the answer you're looking for, but it is the reality. there is no pressure from the bottom up. >> not only that, but once you have given the pressure -- i have gone all around the country and have spoken to local, federal, state legislators, and what they say to me particularly on the issue that i am so passionate about, it is broad for every issue. where are the people that support what you are saying? .

we have given you that to stand up on our behalf. you have got to give your constituents the tools to speak out. for example, people across the country ask me -- there are not very many minority women discussed, why is that? i cannot tell you why. i do not know why. i am always trying to recruit people. what happened across the country is happening disproportionately to our people. so, i always say that i cannot answer that. i will tell you that this group, this organization has gone beyond and given people the tools to stand up and say what is important to them. as legislators who devise what it is you need to do, you need

to give people the tools. give them an easy, quick way to go ahead and call the legislator. you can provide the information for them. you have got to give people the tools to use their voice. therefore, you are the voice. for us. >> i would think that most to know who sense the president is, but they did not takehat the tu support or t you oppose. be conversation needs to given. it needs to be a greater discussion. think about stand your ground. that law passed in 2005. in 2012 everyone was like -- stand your ground?

is that? no one knew about it. it was a breakdown of communication somewhere. as we continue to have these kinds of discussions, often the constituency get stiff see the end of the around up, things and they say that they have not heard from representatives so and so on ask, why, z. if he or she's here at the and not one of your constituents can appeal to you about a better way to make sure. >> with voter suppression laws, it was the same thing.

started running around, elected officials were calling , but they waited until to engage thee constituents. they have to find ways to engage and work closely with their communities. a lot of them are doing a lot of great things, but they are doing it alone for no reason. there is no lack of capacity or energy. we have a lack of organizing people and sticking with a particular plan. the stand your ground issue is going to take a lot of work to gear people up again for the midterm elections in 2014 to get them to understand the implications of what can happen. right?

up whene have to gear we had people engaged and paying attention to the issue? the follow-through is not the capacity or the energy. >> i will agree with all of that, but quick question, any of you from massachusetts? i gave a speech in boston a few months ago and i was astonished justarn that massachusetts passed its three strikes law this past year. with an african-american governor who said he would not sign it, and then he signed it. i was astonished. how could it be that in this age with this discussion you still have places where there is supposed to be real influences from people that care about this , and yet nonetheless? the bigger point here is that there has to be a kind of

mobilization. where are the pro-affordable care act rallies? i miss those. similar to these issues, it is strange to me how often these conversations happen and there are so many people who feel the way that most of you do, but we do not hear from them. the conversations are inside the statehouse. working across ideological boundaries, that is a part of the future and part of .hat i saw a minute ago you have conservatives and republicans concerned about these issues, that maybe the reason they come to the table, but that conversation should not just be about correcting the cocaine typeseen and shortening sentences, but

also let's talk about why it is that the justice system continues to mistakenly convict huge numbers of people -- and the numbers are huge, who did not convict the crime -- commit the crime? we know that, now, from all sorts of studies that have been done. there are really large numbers of people. i could run through the math, but there are large sums of people in prison today for things they did not do. that is just a statistical, provable fact. it is not just that they are unlucky. we fall into that trap. this is unfortunate, let's find a way to help them out, when in reality no one ever tries to help them out, they just sit there forever. but it is not that they are unlucky, it is that we have a system of justice -- i am a bit of a historian on this, my book is a history of how we wound up

with the criminal justice system that feeds our addiction for putting black men into the custody of the state. system this historical that is designed to fail black people in particular, fail anyone who is not part of the main establishment mainstream. worldd up with this crazy where you have people in prison who did not commit the crime, arrested by a black police officer, black district attorney, sentenced by a black judge. all the mistaken actors were white people? in this world maybe it is not so obvious or clear. police chief justice, black managers, black mayors, targeting individuals who were stopped by the police 200 and 48

times. >> and arrested for criminal trespass were going to his job at a convenience store and then being arrested for entering the property where he had a job. these things are going on, but if it turns out there is a hunter somewhere ready to talk penitentiary system reform for fiscal reasons, yes, people should work with them and bring them into the conversation. make, point i wanted to going back to senator ted kennedy, no child left behind, he worked on that with president bush. in 2004, hebush understood the issue and wanted to know how to get it done. i have had these conversations with people over the years. they were not so sure -- how was it going to look?

others, ie you on 10 am on the other side of the rope on those 10 issues, but the issues are the most important. we have seen these laws being passed across the country. we have seen the supreme court rule. laws, i throwarea this out to you, i believe it is a mistake on the part of black and hispanic legislators. to your point, we are framed in the voter support -- voter suppression issue, framed within the framework of african americans and minorities, many of the laws negatively impacting college students, others as well, when you see polling locations being moved. they are very popular, they get moved to a place without many people.

the advice you have for legislators here, in terms of dealing with coalitions beyond background. anybody? >> absolutely, coalitions are very important. i do not think we could get anything done with one particular person, party, or population. coalitions are very important. a lot of times we, our people, do not want to be a part of it because we want the credit for being the one who came up with the solution. >> looks like some of them agree. >> when i was talking earlier about power in the room -- people here that i mentioned, that is a power in this room. we have annette robinson here, the assemblywoman from brooklyn.

i see melanie campbell, the president of the coalition of black representation. lester.o, norma jean deidre malone, a mayoral candidate. i could go down this list of people. is already power here. the question is -- before we leave will people get together and say -- who was on the other side we need to call? when we have conference, is it for us to make conference or have social media? of thewrite the list folks that we need to call. i know that melanie does it all the time. on the affordable care act she just had a rally where people got out information about people signing up. but who joined? who said they would help to

support and lift your voice and encourage. with the concept to leave. that is where we got this from. saying that they have their stuff together, we want to join them and work with them. [applause] so much infighting amongst us, it has been very difficult for other people to join and unite with us, they do not take us seriously. we need to build a coalition, a broad coalition of people that do not necessarily like us but agree on the issue. looking at the voter laws that were passed in texas, using student ids at state universities, but you can use your gun permit? law thatudy the voter

was passed in north carolina, the exact same thing. that was passed by college students, and not just lacked once. i have studied this issue. we have been talking about it on radio and television. what i have got to do is brought in, broaden -- brought in -- brought in the -- brought in the broaden the issue. it is not just about black senior citizens, it is about white folks as well. as part of the platform going forward, we are talking about specific laws, but we have to brought in who the laws are impacting. i was reporter at "the wall street journal" until about a year and a half ago.

as we know, a lot of the people in the tea party movement are create -- crying out crazy as you think they are. bulldozing sandwiches and all those other things the representative described. among the crazies, there are people who are just zealot and then nobody who is 21 or 18 who has the right to vote should be prevented. that is an example where there are actually people in american who, in fact, our potential allies. in georgia, where i live sometimes -- i know there are that was that he did

in georgia by a coalition of groups, local theme party and things should have been passed. and it had to do with support for charter schools, traditionally a nonaggressive issue, but it was overwhelmingly supported by african-americans. it went through because african- withcans are so fed up school systems that have failed them for the last 150 years. there are national alliances and unconventional positions and i think that for legislators this will be driven by them to figure

out what the new alliances will be. >> what is so interesting here is we know what the companies will do. we know that. what are you going to do differently? i agree with what you're saying, thishat is the real take? year? or year after year? what is the difference between what happened this year, the year before, or some other issue? in terms of someone making a difference, i think that that starts now. talking about the coalition, at the important, but same time that is reaching into the pockets of people who do not

expect or require a miracle. they expect the network to be a part of something that is lacking. maybe they do not expect the american jewish federation to come in. when people realize that there is a change in what they are they start to engage in what you're doing. it mostly continues with the normalcy of what we always do. maybe this is a time when it is , butnger business as usual it will be a true legacy for you and your family. >> we talked about the issue of gun control legislation. i would frame it this way and i would like for you to start in

talking about looking forward when it comes to legislation. year on my whole radio show and television show with a phrase that was forbidden. it was created as a negative rather than positive. they embraced the phase on the hill, reinforcing the negative. that does not make sense to me. but i would say that that is the exact same thing when it comes to gun control. people who require -- who desire more gun laws should stop using the phrase gun control. when you use the phrase gun control, you are raising a red flag for the folks who are armed amendment, itnd

immediately says -- my god, the government is trying to control me. if you're talking about advancing legislation when it comes to the issue of guns, should the discussion not be framed around gunfire? which means something totally different. >> and gun safety. gun safety. with our organization we found far less conflicting arguments for those who are for stricter gun control. we are talking about gun violence, gun safety. you have a suburban white mom that believes in the second amendment and who still believes in gun safety. absolutely. we found 90% of the people across the country want

commonsense background legislation. and when you talk about control, there again those individuals in the nra, you are taking away their second amendment right. and so you have to change the rhetoric so that there is some compromise. even within myself and my organization, we would love the stand your ground laws to be repealed off the books and therefore it was

working with a verbiage. understandg i do not -- what are the legislators and who share an hate the law. historically, those individuals are likely supportive of republican officeholders. what i do not understand is why supporters of gun laws have not been more aggressive in utilizing law enforcement to say lawait a minute, enforcement hates this law is. if they hate it, you are not opposing us, you are opposing them. we have been on this issue for long time.

are the sheriffs? where are the district attorney's? >> they believe they have a lot to lose. they are not going to speak out. people say to me all the time across this country -- i really am for gun safety. the governors, the legislators, they do not want to lose their standing. >> but your legislators know how this process works. there will be other things included in the legislation. why did you vote for that?

without realizing it is coming up is removed. in the stand your ground case, in which we are all very aware , there was the pressure. guess what? people start making phone calls and putting the pressure on, it will be different. that will help to encourage you everyday we are losing eight kids each day to gun violence. this still ties into legislation of gun laws.

i have been to numerous protests. i have seen pro-life supporters holding up fetuses and others who had been impacted by and getting an issue when it comes to getting the organization past, i would have 100 mothers with lifestyle pressures on their sons and daughters that have been killed, portugal it -- forcing the legislators. >> years ago it was emmett till. let america see.

they have these binders. not the mitt romney binders. -- she asks for a photo of a young person who the graduation, photo, the class photo, whatever. and i think whatever we try to have a nice discussion about gun as effectiveis not as opposed to forcing someone to actually have to see the niche that is a result. that and roland,

i think it is important to talk about -- we say gun violence, we talk about the area we are dealing with, right? black ontalk about black crime, black gun violence, there is just not enough. the media is not present, not a light onlp shine what is happening. i don't with the death of a four-year-old baby in new york last year. he was on the playground at an who wasr another girl 15, she was stabbed to death in that same part. caskets, order special the smallest one, they did not have his size.

there for the first day, but after that they were not present. his mother has been very involved in the activities. she has gone out to protests. unfortunately, it does not get covered. what happens is our legislators disappear. they show up and then they are gone. they are not consistently dealing with the issue. because those are the people who bring the cameras. asking a dumbfor question, we are talking about establishing an agenda, how many the illinois black caucus? who is from illinois? how many people? >> 30. >> 30.

and going until 7 a.m.. the black caucus will be on various corners. each one of those 30 members one of asked to bring their colleagues from another party, or another fellow democrat, or whatever. you have 60 legislators literally standing in the community where there has been violence, talking to young people about the various issues, where you see the report come on sunday. that is a different tactic. you have a republican legislator who believes in the second amendment and says -- i hear you, but they do not

ownuse they have their experience and you have to bring them to the carnage to understand it. and in new york we went out to the corners, the hotspots, with ministers, black officials, community members, every friday, saturday, sunday night, until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. i will tell you, again. people showed up. people were not -- cameras were not there, people that -- things started to fizzle away. when you say this, it sounds >> answer, important to

remember, it is true that every member of the media -- i can tell you, we are desperate and falling apart. ago, and when people complain about when the media did this or that, i will guarantee you 99% of the time it is not about a conspiracy, it is about incompetence polls -- incompetence. the media is not the solution it once was, and for sure the big that in tv cameras and changes of course the legislation -- that is not the model anymore. the model is you can make your own media and you are talking about that. you have to do that all over the place. what yourself out there -- >> social media -- >> and it is about theater. journalist, but i will tell you it is the theater of policymaking and the theater of legislating action that does attract attention whether it is in the traditional or nontraditional media.

continue toat there be hearings in congress that move from one committee to another committee about what happened in benghazi? is there any possibility that that is going to end up in some legislation or some meaningful thing? no. it is just a show. you give doing it over and over again, you hijacked other committee meetings to talk about this topic because the people organizing understand there is an audience i will react to that and overtime there is a lot of news coverage of it and there is a tremendous amount of activity around it on the internet. so i would ask -- when was the last time any of us saw a story -- and maybe we have seen them -- but when was the last time there was a story about the origins of a gun that ways used to kill a police officer? have we seen a story? -- that story? shouldn't it be that if you are a policymaker or legislature that is concerned about this,

shouldn't it be that not just the terrible, tragedy stories we are more familiar with in terms of the sad news, in terms of the young people get killed in these terrible circumstances, but when a police officer dies, that is something that even the second amendment folks know, will all be in agreement about how well,ble that is, -- what doslatures we do to legislate to make sure this is not happen again? that is the other thing i would point out is that immediately -- a year ago, immediately after that terrible tragedy, there was that on my campaign that mayor bloomberg financed that had the actors, and some of it actually turned me off, who are these actors, why are they the ones telling me what i should think , but people reacted to it in a lot of different ways. it actually had momentum and it did make a difference. and then it went away. i think a lot of people -- i do not think the movement toward

more gun safety legislation or gun violence legislation, i do not think it was defeated by the other side, i think it was as resisted long enough for the movement to back off. >> in fact, that was one of the issues, as it was unfolding, after newtown. the opposition -- and they were simply waiting for it to fizzle out. they were waiting for the attention to shift. and that is one of those things in terms of how you had to actually keep it going. go back to the other issue, i will go to the floor with questions and comments in about 10 minutes. let me ask this question first, because i think it ties into all the things we are talking about, one of the things we keep hearing is narrative and storytelling and communication. or straight -- stored state legislators ?r elected officials

how many of you have twitter accounts? how many of you use your twitter accounts? [laughter] twice today? that is it? how many of you are on facebook and are asked -- active facebook users? how many of you are on instagram? now, here is why i ask him put that out there. have an all, i do increasing number of younger users who are on instagram compared to twitter and facebook. i put that out there because you actually have to be on all of them because that is where people are. i know some of you are sitting here saying man, look, that is just way too much, but the reality is, and you might be saying that, but do realize and

understand how social media works. between facebook and twitter, i have got about 400,000 followers. so when somebody says something out that can be retweeted that all 400,000, so while you are leading people out there who can be getting information, and to understand to douglas' point -- people are not watching the evening news the way they used to, i literally read and get more stories every day through my social media accounts then going through any one particular news source. you ares a legislator, trying to speak to issues, you are trying to create public policies, you have to be using social media to your advantage will stop when douglas talked about the issue of creating your own media, the same thing happened, when you look at live

streaming, when you look at all the efforts to stream your own content, if you are doing something, a particular rally or whatever, and you are streaming your content, you are not waiting for the local affiliates to show up. gol all your constituents to here to watch our live rally. that is how occupy wall street -- and folks are going to their live video stream. we have to embrace all of those ways of communication, communication to drive this public policy issue. i want to go to one final issue before we go to the floor with questions. you made this point i want to come back to it. you mentioned education, and you mentioned tartar schools, and the issue of education, i believe, also is a civil rights agenda. about what happens with education, if you look at the numbers of those who are , they are largely black and hispanic.

in terms of the numbers, you look at the schools, you look at where they are located. those parents are saying i am sick and tired of being sick and tired of these failing schools. yet when you have folks who come in and begin to say ok, you were on steve perry last night, one of the folks out there when it comes to education reform, when he is talking about charter skills -- charter schools, which are public schools, when you begin to talk about vouchers and online, i will give you an example that to me is problematic. in illinois, i will not name this legislator, but there was a group of folks that had an online charter school. this legislator opposed it. came on my radio show, and i said question -- have you talked to any of the parents of the kids who go to the online charter school? no. have you talked to any of the kids at these schools? no.

why are you opposing it? i believe a kid should go to a brick-and-mortar school. i said you do know that this generation of children come out the will of knowing how to use an ipad. education andk at retaining information is far different than this generation. before you stand out here and go to the state capital, trying to get this thing thrown out, why don't you go take the time to talk to the very people who go to those schools and say hey, is this working? she finally did, so they realized it was a dumb idea to shut it down. this is a perfect example to me when we talk about education that would happens is we are wedded to a traditional educational system, and if our kids are the ones largely

failing, why are our black legislators -- i want to be clear here because many are in this room -- many of our black legislators are in the way of changingfront our system. that may offend people in this room, but do not act like i do not know the real deal. if you are talking about education as a civil rights, and the issue is not always just budgets and money, how do we get black legislators to look at it as maybe it is not a question of just public schools but realizing that if there is a different way to make sure our kids get educated, we support that different way, and it might mean public, private, charter, homeschool, online school, i do not care what kind of school if you are able to show results and we back that. l knew we were going to go

there. >> i think the thing you're talking about with the parents is very important. in new york city used to that happening with the may oral a legend. election. they voted for him but they said they will fight him on charter because they want to make sure charter schools are alive and well in new york. but you cannot win the battle of going against parents because the parents want options, and i support that. i think once we put that down and say we're going to stop fighting and now we will look at how to strengthen public education because i believe the public schools should be strengthened, but we are going to look at how we strengthen them across the board, then we will be able to get to that place and it is a difficult space. issues one of the many we deal with is this old-school mentality of holding on to what wasn't saying we are not going to change. onto what was and

saying we are not going to change. your point about parents is very important -- parents want to have options. if you live in a neighborhood where you know the school in that community is no good, you are going to want to send your of there just for the sense being part of a movement to save public education. we want to abort the public school, but much child so has to be educated somewhere. clear, my brother is a teacher, my sister's three teacher, my wife, my mama is a teacher, my wife, educator, and so what i tell people is i am against sorry teachers, sorry principles, sorry administrators , sorry school boards, sorry mayors who have control of the schools -- and so if you sorry, i do not like you. let me be clear -- i do not like sorry journalists, i do not like sorry media executives, i just do not like sorry. the reason i am putting it out there is because when you were education, many

african-americans get emotional about this because education for a lot of us, our parents, that was the gateway to the middle class. so we think that if we're going against a certain thing, oh, i'm going against my mom and dad. no, i am talking about that kid you are talking about. it is also problematic for me, and steve brought this up last night, and i had some heated conversations with people. it is problematic for me for folks who saying i do not like a particular way of education when they actually are not sending their kids to public schools. a legislative standpoint and a parental standpoint, it is for difficult to say i want this education for your kids but i have a choice. i know we get scared by that, and i know -- look, i understand the reality of who is funding many people campaign, who is giving donations, but i go back the numbersipal --

do not lie. the kids failing look like the people in this room. ,o do we either force a change or do we try to say no, let's just hope this current system gets better with a new five-year plan? when each of you speak to this issue of education reform and how do we drive it when it is about our students and those parents because those are the folks, according to their studies, more than two thirds of the available jobs for the next- generation, the kids today will not be able to fulfill those jobs because they will not have the educational requirements. >> one thing i will say right off the bat, first i should disclose that i am a pretty -- my personal politics are pretty conventional, liberal, democrat voter can a guy, i grew up three hours south of here in the first chat -- class of children in mississippi to begin the first day of first grade bike and white together --

first grade, black and white together. 1969, 1970. i grew up in a town where my whole childhood, i was making a book about it, i am making a movie about it, was all about the struggle over the schools and civil rights and black kids and why kids and whether we would be together or not. and now more recently i and my wife and a few other people from downtown atlanta started a charter school. we started the second one in atlanta. now -- we started on a 16 years ago and it is now a 700-student school and to campuses and it is the most racially and economically diverse public school in the city of atlanta that has great performance. that is not to say that all charter schools are great. i am not a 100% their perfect, but that is a case study in which some real good has been done, and some a black kids and why kids another kind of kids go together to school. that happens in almost no other place in a place like atlanta. even the public schools, the two or three other public schools

that have any why kids at all generally speaking have only why kids because of where they are located in the city. so were some of this relates back to some of the other issues in terms of gun violence and others is that one of the other ways to try to stop things from -- some of these terrible things from happening is to have a place, a society in which the george zimmermans of the world ared andas sc ready to do some impulsive thing to somebody else because of the way they look like. certain sensesre were more american children go to school together and recognize they share values and share society, i think it will have impact on other things we talk about. more legislative part of this story, and because i have been so involved in this, i can go on for a long time, but the main thing i will say is that i do not understand, i really go right to agree

with you, roland thomas i really do not understand on this more than any other thing in terms of ors inlegislatur particular, the traditional public school formula of these local school boards and every county having three or four different ones and they're all made up of these yahoos who do not know anything about education or because they got mad about something that happened to their daughter anything great, so they run for their school board, they do not , theyack about education are not particularly good leaders -- there are some exceptions to this, obviously, but any and, it is a bunch of amateurs, and they have budgets that are usually the same size as the county government or the city government that they are part of, so just as much money being spent, coming out of the pockets of your constituents. you have the history of terrible leadership for the first 100 years -- because those that are starting after the civil war --

those things started after the civil war. what did black people get? nothing but obstacles and abuse. and the last 40 years, what have they gotten? failure after failure. failures are not limited to african american boards or whiteboards. what i can speak to is the structure. i have become a radical on this. i think there is no argument in defense of the traditional public school structure in america, and legislators, whatever they look like, ought to be able to say ok, let's look at something completely new and different. know ine be clear -- i terms of how folks view this issue, and i think -- i say this because i believe out of all civil rights issues out there, i respect every issue we talked about, there is no more fundamental issue as relates to our people as a civil right as education. there is no other issue because

when you look at the numbers, we cannot talk about income inequality and talk about education. you cannot talk about mass incarceration without realizing that 90% of the people in illinois prison and through chicago public schools. the biggest issue out of any prison across america is illiteracy that is tied to education. we can go down the line and education is that primary linkage, if you will. to your point, douglas, the advice to the legislator is you do not support failure anywhere. if a charter school fails, get rid of it. but a traditional public school fails, get rid of it, find things that are successful. what happens though is when it is time to begin to have the discussion about change, we have to be honest. we have many black school board members, black city

councilmembers, black state legislators who -- i am not sure about that -- i will say it -- you get pressure from teachers unions, you get pressure from other groups, and that causes folks to say no, no, no, yet thousands of our kids are sitting there failing. so how do we move folks to create an agenda in 2014 where education is at the top of the list and is not is a question of let's put more money in? some folks have all the money in the world is still not know what in the hell to do with it. >> i think this will be something that will be very difficult to do because what shadows over all of the things that we are talking about today is that basically people in the black community are just trying to survive. and a lot of parents from day to day, you deem them as not being involved in their

children's lives, they're just trying to make a buck, they're trying to feed them, they are trying to make sure that they get to work every day, so there again, yeah, it is a very difficult question -- how do we engage the parents? how do we engage the community to be active and what is happening in the public schools? they're struggling with my a day-to-day basis -- am i still going to have my job? -- those are all things that supersede what is happening educationally. that is a huge -- >> look, it is, yet when that kid is 18 though, and cannot no, letnnot graduate, me also put this out there -- we brought it. one of the reasons black folks cannot create wealth is because when we have a family member who does graduate, who does go to college, and when that african-

american begins to have a job, making $30,000 or more, what happens is that person then becomes the financial supporter and all ofe family, a sudden that person cannot save, cannot invest, and so then of life is's quality affected when they are 55 and 60 because we are having to help pay cell phone bills, pay rent, buy diapers, and the reason i am -- look, i went to all public schools my entire life, kindergarten through college. my wife and i are raising six of my nieces right now, so i am speaking from experience. we gravitateis because of the issue of education. when people say why do you believe in choice it is because you have to provide an option for parents in a failing system. and so how do we begin to say traditionalort

public schools, but i do support trying something else because if it works, let's roll with it. making that a dominant issue in a way 14 and getting lack legislators -- bl ack legislators to be leaders on this? >> one thing that is important for us to look at is schools and committee organizations. we have to wrap ourselves around different models in the schools in our community. that is something we have not done. when you talk about parents being involved, there is a harvard study that says that parents will go to school meetings when the meetings are about things other than just education. they will go if they are going to be talking about health care issues, if you are to be providing resources for where there may be job opportunities, and so on. i think that is also a very key component of it, roland, is broadening what we're doing with public schools and schools in

general so that people feel more attracted to be a part of the process. that we have,ting the fighting we have a we cannot let the walls down and try to look at different systems often gets in the way of people gathering round models and joining in being a part of it. i think this is an important discussion. nobody seems to be able to get us back -- get us past this point. we have had this conversation over and over and have not nailed to make leaps and bounds that this conversation. in new york, one of the issues has been getting labor and elected officials to sit down at the table and work together. we have had a very difficult time doing that. it is for a much so about leadership. so we hope that the new mayor in new york city will be able to, with his leadership, provide opportunities for usc and other labor unions and committee organizations to sit down on look at these models and find out how we strengthen them.

leadership is key to how we deal and that, having leaders position that understand the challenges that everyone is facing, understanding needs of all the community, and are willing to work together. our issue in new york under mayor bloomberg has been that he has been so for public, for charter, that public went to the the wayside.to so you have resistant people because they will not give up public school as opposed to either or -- >> i think leadership is key, having people who are in in public schools, my son goes to a military school in pennsylvania. i was so afraid of the options in new york that i decided to tod them to another state live at another school. so i cannot talk about limiting people's options, but just like i had him there in school, i am a part of many things in my community that strengthens the public school operation here. i think that is important. leadership is key.

>> to that point, it is so funny when i joined the board of students first, my brother is a public school teacher. my scissors a public school teacher. -- my sister is a public school teacher. so guess where i was hearing advice? from the three teachers. now we will laugh questions and statements. i'm going to hold the microphone, no need for you to grab it, no need for you to hold it, if you do, i am going to hit your hand. i know some of you lead a filibuster, you are not on the floor of your state legislature, so i am telling you right now, if you go long, i will cut you. [laughter] come on up. and also, plus, your back is to so camera, so turn this way they can see you. camera there, camera there. comment or question. but that hand down. >> comment.

as the president-elect and the chair of the rules committee were over 37 policies come out of this meeting, i just wanted to be very clear that this is not a social organization. we come here to pass progressive legislation, and we stood in maryland with the trayvon family and we passed a gun safety laws. we pass progressive legislation in our state as it relates to education. we passed progressive legislation. you ask the question -- the first question you asked what's -- what the civil rights mean today in 2013? and no one spoke to economic justice. [applause] justice,have economic then we have educational justice, it is about all of that, and social justice. deliberated for three and

four days, and we brought a new legislators, and we continue to coalesce every single year, and we go to three and four and five in six different states, and we bring in groups and organizations to meet with us to talk about how we move our communities forward. so i just want that to be put on the record because this is a live presentation that the national black caucus of state legislators is a progressive organization pushing our community forward, and we will coalesce and work with any group or organization in this country, black, white, or indifferent. and we do that, and i think that we do it well. asians,with the latinos, african-americans, and native americans. so we look forward to continuing to work with all of you as we continue to push a progressive agenda for this country. >> one of the things i am going to do also after the questions and comments is talk about -- and real quick -- a media

strategy that i think it's also important. some of you individually have executed this, and i will is plain, sir, what if you got? of memphis, tennessee. >> he that the ipad out. >> it is an interesting conversation for the i am a marine also. we are not monolithic in our approach to some of these policies. i have a slight difference of opinion in regards to gun control. the truth is i think we need to be a little bit more courageous addressing personal response ability within our communities, within ourselves also. >> as it relates to what yo? >> as it relates to gun violence and gun control. i prefer not to be told what kind of gone i can own. i would love to own an a ar-15 not too hot but for defense purposes. hey, i would love to own it. >> where do you live?

>> right here in memphis, tennessee. >> you need an a ar-15? >> i would like to have one. here is the thing, here is something that is very important -- in most of our communities, 99.9% of those that are killed through gun violence in our communities are killed by somebody that looks like the person they killed. think about that. so those weapons are not ,urchased through legal means and those weapons are not going gune controlled through control legislation. those weapons are being purchased on the street. now, what that means is this -- we need to start looking at ion in this matter because there are crimes that make us mad and there are crimes that make us fear. we need to start incarcerating and throwing away the key on those individuals that commit crimes and make us scared. it is not a funny matter. sir, i do not know why --

>> go ahead. >> what i am proposing is those individuals -- we'd to start cutting the supply of weapons off at the ankles. those individuals that supply weapons to these minors that are using these murders -- these weapons in the murders in chicago -- >> i spent six years working in i have spent six years working in chicago. is, the problem is that you can literally drive 15 miles across the border to indiana and they have done the studies that have shown where a lot of the gun violence is traced to the guns bought at the several different gun shops in indiana. many other states do not have a border state that is that close, but specifically i know in chicago, because we dealt with it, that is a huge issue there. the gun shop in indiana can sell what ever area that is where a lot of the guns are coming from.

>> here is the thing, and i will wrap this up -- i guarantee you there is not one single gang member going over the border and buying those ones. >> what is happening is others are going to the gun stores, buying the guns, supplying them as well. you can have legislation specifically in chicago. there are loopholes there. that is why i make the point that you have to make it about gun violence and not just gun control. >> i think we are in agreement. that was exactly my point. >> i do not need an ar-15. >> let me finish up. have agendas or pathways for african americans in our communities? i think we lack an agenda in most communities. >> first of all, most of these have a caucus,ou in agenda is established. look -- i have covered places in

illinois, texas, maryland, virginia, ohio. i have folks from various states on my media outlets. i understand that agenda. but to your earlier point, talking about coalition, you can have an agenda for the black talk -- black caucus, but you have to have your coalition building to get it passed. questiono to this here. i see over here, and then i will go over here. i got you, i got you. what you got? representative larry butler from connecticut -- >> state representative larry butler from connecticut. i happened to be 20 minutes away from newtown, connecticut were all that happened. we came up with our gun legislation to address be violence. when that happened, there was this need to come up with this quick addressing thing, not

really get into the substance of it is easy to, so pass legislation about a weapon, that we really haven't addressed the issues about the people who pulling the trigger. let's talk about the social- economic justice. if we talk about chicago in the urban areas, it has more to do with that. also, admit to the health issues for these people. [applause] what we need to do there as well. i can tell you, there is a lot more that has to be done. 26 more people killed in your town. people were 40 murdered. -- 26 more people killed in newtown. we have got to press our agenda and talk about supporting states -- we forced our folks to look

at some of the urban issues like the people who have illegal guns , make sure that these people have a permit to buy ammunition. they cannot just walk into your little store here and buy all the ammunition they want, ok? but the problem is they can go across the border to new york, massachusetts, rhode island, and they can buy ammunition. anyone from new york, rhode island, and massachusetts, please has to law that is going to -- pass a law that is going to keep people from buying ammunition for their illegal weapons, ok? let's chart there. thank you. i'm going to go over here. standup. standup. -- stand up. stand up. >> i am alicia reid. we have 15 african-americans

between the house and the senate, so coalition building is always important. we always have to do that. in ohio, during the presidential election they say how goes ohio, how goes the country. spoke at the annual march on washington. i talked about how we need a we areate initiative. going state-by-state. the new civil rights movement -- for one, do not lose what we already have. the fight to keep what we have and expand and make those things permanent. when we talk about voting rights -- we had a temporary solution, the voting rights act. that is being challenged as regards its constitutionality. in ohio in 2014 we are launching a constitutional amendment on the ballot for a voter bill of

rights. we are moving from just trying to get a bill -- which we do not have the numbers -- we will take it out to the peak will and have a model which other states around the -- we will take it out to the people and have a model which other states around the country -- we will put it in the constitution. i think the new civil rights movement is how do we make what we have permanent? we also have our standard your ground in ohio -- we are rallying around what happened with trayvon martin. we had a rally in cincinnati. i got a text message saying they were introducing legislation in olympus four ohio to have stand your ground. we are fighting that. got a text message saying they were introducing legislation in columbus for ohio to have stand your ground. we are challenging our friends and coalitions.

we are there with you. we ask that you either with us so we can make these things permanent in our constitution. is ae reason this significant issue, because in in bush versus gore decision 2000, it was antonin scalia who said the constitution does not guarantee a person a right to vote. in fact it says you cannot be denied if you are a person of to your when it comes sex. if you pass a constitutional -- allnt in your state right. how are you doing? >> thank you. i am the president of the baltimore teachers union. i guess i am not the only non- elected state official here. >> no, there are more people here. >> i am here with labor. thank you. great, progressive

state. we believe that education is a civil rights and it is important that we offer great teachers to our students. it is not the union that does not support great education. we support excellent teachers in the classroom, and we know the only way out of harvard he and anything is to have great teacher -- the only way out of poverty and anything is to have great teachers in front of our students. >> and to get rid of bad teachers. >> absolutely. there are to be due process to find them another place of employment. another profession. >> believe me -- there have to be a lot of steps of development for teachers. we have programs with these teachers need support. and we cannot just give them six weeks

of training and think they are able to educate our true -- our children. there are cultural differences they do not understand. if you do not grow up in the neighborhood, they do not understand when we say "what's up?" they do not understand that. we are about supporting excellence in the classroom and making sure there are choices for parents. and we talk about building coalition and working with the community so they can provide wraparound services to those students. great teachers, but bad people got to go. some administrators -- i know that. i have talked to many a journalist. here.next right step on out right here. then we will take more of your questions. >> i am from north carolina. one of the things i've heard quite a bit with these issue dealing with education and charter schools, i think it is

important to point out one of the problems with your order schools -- and i am not one of those people opposed to charter schools. i have an open mind. but they are not required to offer free and reduced lunches. they are not required to offer transportation. they are re-segregating our school system economically, socially -- >> that is not the case in every state. it in your state. >> while this system may be failing african-americans, our system is failing all americans. when you look at the stem courses, and in places like shanghai -- they are scoring i. to bewhat we ought talking about is making certainly have year-round schools. maybe we ought to be talking about incentivizing education so we get the best and brightest teachers in our classrooms and the top five percent are there

-- not that we do not appreciate those who are there today -- but many glass ceiling set been broken in america in the last 40 years. i think it is important -- >> why can't we talk about all of it though? as opposed to saying we should be talking about this and this and not this, i am saying this is part of the problem. what should be on the table is traditional public, charter, magnet, a homeschool, online, boucher, everything. cher, everything. you have the marla collins method. works, works. if we start limiting the discussion, we are limiting opportunities. and i get your point about the people in shanghai. i am talking about america where black kids are three and four

levels behind their white counterparts, i cannot worry when i amone in china worried about someone in the suburbs and i live in dallas. behind in the third grade, we know by the time they are in eighth and ninth grade, they will be dropping out. then they will be involved in criminal activities and the department of corrections. in terms of the total picture -- -- you didout today not have access to capital. entrepreneurship. access to credit. we have to broaden our to empower wealth building within the african- --rican and latino immunity. community. >> i agree with you. i am coming back over there. do not worry about it. >> my name is roscoe dixon.

i was in prison for four and a half years. i want to thank you, because i get a chance to look at you for four years on the nn. -- cnn. [laughter] i'm also a former legislator. i'm glad i went to prison, because i got a chance to meet the brothers. i was like a lot of forward thinking, crack cocaine babies, and so forth. i did some research and found out who did it too was. it was really heartbreaking, because we did it to ourselves. -- i did some research and found out who did it to us. has never been passed so fast. tip o'neill was the speaker. his district -- went home, came back, within 24 hours the congressional black caucus

joined with them and put the thing together. years, 10 years mandatory. the judge could not do anything about it. the point is >>. it is this -- the point is simple. it is this. the brothers taught me a lesson. the point i am making -- we have got to get the family back together. almost half of our folk are not voting. they are not voting because they do not have any respect for us or relationship with us. someow that they have done things that maybe they should not have done. some are innocent, as my friend here said, as well. we are a football team and half of our folk are not in the game. we have to get them back in the game and solve what ever that problem is and get them back in the game. we need to read the book by the young lady -- in tennessee.

idaho shows you what to do. kick them out. >> all right, appreciate it. going over here. at going to the front row. stand on up, please. that is you. stand on up. all right. put that hand down. i got you. >> force of habit. .y name is tonya i am these states senator from nebraska. i represent about half of the black caucus in the state -- >> i was about to say there are about five of you and the whole state. >> what is sad about it is about half of our life children are in poverty. children are in poverty. the way policy is written now, there is no express prohibition from going out and creating a charter school.

our challenge -- and we had a big, big fight for lack of a better way to describe it this year in nebraska -- is paying for public education in a state where we rely on property taxes and supplement that with state aid from sales and income taxed. certainly i want to include any and all kinds of techniques and totitutions and access public education and a good education. how do we pay for its when we are already -- what i describe as fighting on the floor for crumbs to subsidize our education? >> i will put this out there first. whenever i hear that particular issue, i remind folks there is a failing school out there that is getting money somehow, someway. when i look at numbers -- i do not base it upon, oh, here is the test score.

we know how kids are reading. if there is a school that has 200 students or whatever and 80%, 90% failure rate in their schools, that particular school is getting a budget allocation. for me, it is not a question of, well, do not take money out. what is happening in that school the multiplier when it comes to resources as well? i am looking at what is failing in that school, versus the failure rate. douglas, go ahead. >> i do not want to walk out of here as the charter school guy -- >> i have no problem with you. >> one thing is i agree with roland. any kind of school that is not working needs to have a trouble surviving, and that applies to order schools. -- charter schools.

resegregation -- i get concerned about that sometimes. you look at places like atlanta were 10 years ago, 15 years ago there were about 60,000 children in the public schools of atlanta and 5000 were white. 55,000 black children, 5000 white children. the 5000 white children, 90% of them attended about four schools in the city and the black children were scattered in all of these other schools that were black. to 99% i am oversimplifying a little bit, but it was mostly that way. 15 years later, you have about 45,000 children in the public school system. the city is growing and growing and growing. the population is going down, down, down. the people abandoning public schools are middle-class african-americans. the middle-class white folks left a long time ago. then you have middle-class white

folks like me coming in through alternative channels. when i hear these concerns about recent forgetting the schools, atlanta schools were so segregated already, it was the traditional outlook school system went back to being an overly segregated world. i cannot see how any alternative can end up further segregating something that is already almost 100% segregated. >> it reminds people that schools are based on a neighborhood concept. when your neighborhoods are largely white, largely black, largely hispanic, your schools will be largely white, largely black, largely hispanic. >> exactly. if you have one race neighborhoods -- and i do not think we will go that direction. there will be people who tried to start charter schools for bad purposes. there will be. there needs to be police against that. >> a rigorous process. >> the ku klux klan should not

be allowed to start a charter school. we all agree on that. but what roland said is what i think is the basic answer. it really is a red herring to say that charter schools are taking money away from conventional public schools. it is moving money around, and it is moving money from schools where people are for whatever reason less inclined to go to. these are public schools that everybody attends. and the money that goes to them is still money that is going to be public schools. if they do somehow -- if they are more in lasses where children are successfully learning, i do not know how you can argue with that. --stions question mark questions? >> what we did in the state of missouri, we had this fight with

education as well. it was a huge fight with labor, the educators, the principendents, the als, everybody involved. we had this fear. charter schools were not performing. charter schools were still not performing at the level public schools were performing at. we had a couple charter schools -- they were still for-profit. even though they are public, the money is still for profit. we had a couple charter schools are closed with a significant amount of money and the kids were left standing outside. that issue had been addressed. -- she hasmember moved on to another public service position -- in nbcsl. we put things in place. we just said, listen -- if we

are going to have them, we put legislation in place. i think all