discrimination, which can be remedied in the court, we should all be happy that, in fact, today, americans regard, regardless of color, have the franchise and are able to decide in the ballot box who they want representing us. host: in addition to the heritage website, how can folks follow you on this issue? guest: i write a lot at national review online. i am a regular contributor there and i have many articles published at nro about voting andly issues. host: nicole austin-hillery, how can people follow you? guest: the brennan center website best way to follow me. i along with my colleagues engage in intellectual writing on these issues. i would also urge your viewers to go to the leadership conference on civil rights website. the brennan center, along with several other voting rights organizations are working jointly to try to ensure that we

work to ensure the legislation. in response to the shelby count e decision to ensure that all americans are protected and continue to be protected under the voting rights act, the work that we are doing to try and move this work forward. it's well documented on their website. host: we will conclude on that note. to both of you, thank you very much for being with us. guest you are welcome, steve. thank you for having me on the show. host: all this week, we will continue our look back at the legacy of lyndon johnson and the great society program. get the full schedule online at cspan.org we will turn our attention to the issue we focused on our first half hour here on c-span's washingt"washi journal," the state of race relations today. you can begin dialling in: s

202585. 3883. all weekend on c-span's book t.v. and c-span's american history. our focus is welling are learn about people who traveled on the pony express and the calf, mormon trails all of this which passed through casper, wyoming. . >> we are here at the distributetive trails. the oregon trail, the mormon trail,cal trail and the pony express trail. it didn't matter why you were going west. if you were going west, you had to come through your casper,

wyoming because the south pass was the only pass that allows a wagon to be able to trans verse that. con sequencely, all of the trails come through casper, wyoming. these early explorers, basically -- see the outline of the state of wyoming. this square basically shows south pass, whether you are going to the great salt lakes, whether you are going to the oregon territory for free land, or whether you are going to california for gold. this represents some of the early explorers. the best known explorer in wyoming is none other than jim bridger. he wasn't that well traveled, but he did a great amount of documentation in his diaries. he was the first white man, we believe, to have discovered the great salt lake. it's his diaries. when you compare him to another

explorer, john c. fremont you will see how some were very well traveled and some stuck to certain areas. >> we hope you tune in this weekend as we focus on casper, wyomings as our local contents vehicle travels around the country. this weekend on c-span 3s american history t.v. and on cspan-2's book t.v. one of the photographs from this morning's washington post looking at the situation in ferguson, missouri, the first night of a curfew which has since ended. see the confrontation over the weekend a ult persistent crime rate plagues rahm emmanuel. this from the "l.a. times," jails with revolving doors. prison realignment brings a

surge in early releases. phone lines are open. we hope you dial in. joining us is tony from fort lauder daily, florida caller: i am really concerned, i am concerned that people in certain precincts of society refuse to let people get ahead. if you look almost in every case with an islamic jihadists and extremists in the middle east, with the people in the south who can't forget the civil war and in this case with civil rights act visits who did so much good work who can not relinquish those days when they were important and relevant.

they will not let us get ahead. if we don't get ahead, we are going to be just like people in the middle east who are trapped 1400 years ago. guest thank you for the call. this morning, front page of "the washington post" 2 lives intersected michael brown 18, darnl wilson crossing paths on a summary day that would turn deadly just minutes. blake from leland, mississippi, good morning. caller: before we begin to talk to race he relations, we need to think about rep parations. the cotton jinl fueled the american economy in europe. banks made billions and trillions of dollars and we are still benefitting from that but no one wants to address the facts that our schools are missed you were.

our neighborhoods. in other words, 90% of the people are supposed to police the whole world. right? since we didn't have no draft, you basically are going to use the poor of this society to defend the whole world? yet only the wealthy capitalize off of this? i mean this capitalism is a failed system, built on racism, built on slavery and it's doomed to destroy this country. guest blake from mississippi, a cbs poll that came out last year on the 50th anniversary on the march on washington focuses on americans' views on race. in this survey the 40% of blacks say there is a lot of discrimination compared to 15% of whites who say that. peggy joining us from snellville, georgia. thank you for joining the conversation. peggy, are you with us? let's try john from mooresville,

good morning to you caller: the first thing i think you need to do is hand out a bunch of tissues. when people start talking about reparations and the list goes on, those were people in the past. we are where we are today, equal opportunity. sure, there is some discrimination, but i grew up in the south, and i am about 50 years old, and i grew up where white people played with black people and we were all friends and we were still friends. all of the sudden now, the administration is pushing racial separation and antagonism. let's look back to the past hundred years of the destruction of the educational stim deployed to destroy free market capitalism. now we have nothing but total progressive iism in the universities and america is the

problem. you know, if you listen to f it bill ayers, america is not the great satan imperialist. we have done some stuff that's not great. >> that's the first it thing de souza admits. but we are the best experience for operating a government under the consents of the governed instead of having to ask government for permission that there ever has been in the history of the united states. guest okay. caller: unfortunately, there will be some racism and discrimination in people's hearts, but i thought that i was hopeful that when this president got elected he would say, i am an american president, which he did on camera. he said, i am not a black american president. i am not a white person president. i am an american president. well, that has turned out to be wrong because the left is the still pushing their progressive agenda to take this country to a socialist/marxist state guest thank you for the call.

the president is back at the whitehouse tomorrow before returning for the second week of his vacation on tuesday. this is from one of our viewers on the earlier conversation dealing with the voters' rights act saying challenging a voter's self identification should only happen in a problable caused of fraud context. some news from helena montana as montana democrats c announced a replacement with is it senator walsh announcing he would not seek a full term following charges of plagarrism and it was announced amanda curtis, a first-term representative from mont montana will be on the ballot. she will challenge congressman steven danes in the senate race. story inside "the washington post" john from herndon, girnling. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. thank you for taking my call. host: sure call the on

caller: call i think twe shoul learn how to respect each other and talk to each other. the problem is when our politicians attacking the president, the name calling doesn't solve the problem. this country, everybody has a problem with race. i want to go back to the first. i think the police need more training because what you see as the police officers today, they assume things. when they pull you over they don't respect the person they are pulling over. they approach with an aggressive way that will start fights between the officer and the individual. i believe this hate thing did not start. they need more training. i think that's -- guest: john this is from the detroit free press. it's called warrior police, grenade largers, m-16 arrivals needed? officers say yes. there is a related headline this morning

from the hartford current that has a military look for police. do you think that police departments have too many weapons? caller: i think that what we used to have is the police officers, they used to lead the neighborhood and the officers used to know about people around them. what we don't have today is police officers who watch some kind of shows that they go after the houses and break in people's doors and harass them. >> will not help the problem. i think what we need to do is we should train theples how to you respect the police officers. people respect the uniform. when the office has approaching you with an attitude, the people will become angry and try to defend. what, after all, that's how they don't communicate better. really what i see today here is is distressing. >> thank you for the call.

from the "st. louis post dispatch," the scene as one person critically injured and shooting seven others were arrested by the way, as the curfew went into effect. there was a news briefing at 3:00 in the morning. one reporting that the tear gas and smoke bombs used to disperse a group of defiant protesters. details available online next call is jackie from east lake, ohio. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. my first comments is that i am so tired of c-span bringing on the heritage foundation. there has to be other -- other groups in the washington area that could bring out the information. it seems like they are on every day, and on c-span 1, 2, and 3. my next question -- my next comment is race relations in the united states have deteriorated since the -- since our president

has taken. he is my president and just like george bush who was my president. i showed him respect and i felt respect from mr. bush. yes alternates agree with him. but i didn't call him names. i respected him for his -- for what he was doing. there is no respect for our president. >> that's why -- and there is no respect for our law enforcement officers. host: thank you from the call from ohio. this is the front page story of the richmond times dispatch: former republican governor bob mcdonald prepares to take the stand this week in his defense. the prosecution in the mcdonald kyle has laid out the case arguing the governor sought to conceal loans from a wealthy businessman but was it criminal? diana joining us from alexandria, virginia. your thoughts on all of this, diana? caller: yes. good morning. i want to say that 50 years ago, we started fighting the jim crow

laws and civil rights movement and back then, martin luther king stood up for the rights that we should have, a fair way that would keep up with the cost of living. somewhere along the line, our black leaders like jessie jackson and al sharpton for the past frust years, all they have thought about is: will you donate some money to me? will you pay me? and then they get paid and blacks, as a whole across this country gets left behind. >> that's why the laws have advanced to the point where 50 years ago, you could be in woodstock smoking weed. now, half of our black men are sitting in jail because they smell weed or get caught smoking weed or something that the boy was doing, not armed robbery. he stole so far leaves to roll up weed. >> happens because we don't have leaders in our community to look

out for our economic advancement. guest: front page of "the new york times" says missouri nightly curfew. george from oak hollow, florida. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. i have to say that after 50 years of viewing civil rights, i think we should start looking at civil wrongs because this unchecked adulation for obama has really given me pause because i have never heard one black person on c-span say anything. the guy has done nothing but wrong. aside from that, we have to look as if blacks are correctively innocent for some reason. guest from the "l.a. times," on

edge, joe from salem, ohio, your thoughts on this? caller: thank you for having me on, first. and i had a couple of comments. first, when you had nicole on, i had a question. i know she can't answer, but, you know, just curious if we wouldn't be better off with more research. honestly half of the people who vote today, i don't think they have any great he had he had case. maybe that's the problem. people need to hold themselves accountable. i he got shot because he wasn't following laws. when we blame police officers and everyone else for what we do, then that's just making society worse. host: host: joe, who do you blame? caller: first off, the person who walks into a store to steal, to rob, and has no regard for,

you know, for what's write in society, and i believe he has to blame himself. two, everyone knows it's illegal to -- should the police officer have shot him? the police officer is doing a very hard job but i don't believe people who walk around and take whatever they want -- i am a working white man. i have been that what i my whole life. host: host: okay. caller: i go to work and i hear if i take a civil service exam, i get a detraction on points or they get bonus on points if you are a woman, if you are black. you know, now, it's illegal to discriminate against homosexuals. i am not racisracist. i am not sexist and could care less if somebody wants to be gay but i don't think they should have more rights than me. host: host: i will leave it there. jay from auburn hills, michigan good morning, jay. caller: good morning. host: host: how are you today? go ahead action please call call

thank you for letting me on. i tried for years to get on c-span. i am a 68-year-old. good morning. host: go ahead. you are on the air caller: i am a 68-year-old black male. when you talk about racists in america, what happened to the black people like me irfind it back and forward and i pray every day that i don't turn around and do something stupid to the people who are trying to do a stupid thing to me. now, lately, in georgia, tennessee and florida. on the freeway between tallahassee and georgia and these young white people are

throwing metal on 75. if i was stupid, i could got out, if i had a gun and shoot. but i am not that stupid. host: what did you do? at all at a caller: the state police, giving us the finger, calling all kind of n words. each time i went to georgia the last year, we were attacked by these young people. and it needs to stop. it needs to stop. thank you. host: thank you for the call. next from euless, texas, good morning as we focus on the issue of state race relationships. go ahead, carl. caller: good morning. this is carl. host: go ahead caller: this is paul. host: yes. caller: we used to line up and have fights and everything at the school with knifes and chains and stuff until they

broke it up when they was doing immigration with blacks and whites, segregation. it was sad after many years, i got older, i said, man, this ain't right. you know, this is crazy because we are all -- all of us got red blood in us. if a man is dying, if you are die, you are a white man and you needed a black man's blood, you would take it or you would die and you are no good in life. i don't understand why, you know, they go rob stores and there is a tale, when they break the law, the law should have been taken care of. host: thank you for the call. christina from a augusta, georgia. caller: i am listening to everybody talk. i grew up in boston, massachusetts. and i grew up there when the

busing started, and i grew up in the south end, which was all mixed. and when the busing started, i couldn't understand it because my friends, a total rainbo of mix, and they are my friends. i see it now and i see our government promoting racism and hatred amongst whites and blacks and spanish, more now than at any time in history. and i wish the people of america would stop listening to them and listen to the person standing next to them and keep your eyes closed because if you just listen to the person, you would realize: what are you mad at anybody for? this is ridiculous. our country is being destroyed, and there is no reason at all for it, the color of somebody's skin? >> the most ridiculous reason to hate somebody. and i just don't understand it.

we moved down here about six months ago, and i don't care what anybody says. everybody, white, black, spanish, whatever, absolutely fantastic. it is the way massachusetts used to be when i was a kid. host: you don't see discrimination where you live at the moment? caller: i have not run into it. we have been here since december. the black people down here are the nicest people. the white people. to my experience. let me clarify that. from my experience, the nicest people you will ever meet. as i said, the way people were when i was a kid. everybody watched out for everybody. everybody said, hello. everybody was nice. you needed help, a complete stranger stopped and helped you. >> that's the way it is here that's the way it should be everywhere in the united states. host: thank you for the call. all this week, we are focusing on the legacy of lyndon johnson and the atlantic magazine has a piece available online in atlantic.com. comparing lbj and wondering

whether or not hillary clinton could follow the model of lbj. i s clinton has, as many of the texan president's, could be the barack obama to jfk. she hopes to follow an often ineffective program. the full story available online. what hillary can learn from lbj. conrad from philadelphia, good morning, republican line. caller: yes. i was wanting to make a comment when i hear some of the callers basically stating that there is some prejudice. my opinion on the republican side is that the commentator, it's not about blacks. it's not about whites. if you don't have nobody, no lobbyist defending and working for the blue collar people, you are not going to get nothing. there is no prejudice in the

white house. it's all green. host: robert from south carolina, your thoughts on this. caller: the problem with race relations in my opinion is that the working white people have been convinced that the government is going to take from us and give to them, the blacks. host: why do you say that? caller: have you ever listened to rush limbaugh, the local right-wing pundits. host: robert, thanks for the call. good morning, where are you calling from? caller: washington, d.c. host: your name? caller: frank. host: go ahead, frank. caller: how are you doing? host: your thoughts on the state of race relations today. caller: my thoughts that this country is going all over the -- all over the globe trying to straighten out other countries and their race relations but what about the one in this country? we are all over the place. the. host: david from swimmington, new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host:

host: sure. caller: i grew up in st. louis. i have heard very few people put st. louis in context. i remember being in north st. louis as a child and seeing white flight firsthand. i also remember being with my father once on a friday evening when there was some kind of disturbance on the north side and my father told me to get down below the dashboard because the police were letting the dogs go. host: host: when was this? caller: excuse me? host: host: when was this caller: this was in the '60s. my father, also, through our church tried to help an unincorporated community that had no sewers, no water lines that sat between two affluent if communities and had been on the under ground railroad. my father through our church helped to organize new houses and services, but i don't want to jump to conclusions, but when i try to explain to people where i am from and the racial situation now that i am in the

northeast, people say to me, well, how could there not have been riots there? in north st. louis is one of the most desperate, lost places on the planet. host: host: frank next in lansing, tennessee. your thoughts? caller: yeah. i have been listening to the show here, and it seems to me that the problem that we have here is that every single time one of these issues comes up, like in ferguson, missouri, where they have riots and all of this is blamed on hatred between the races. but the truth is, is that it's not the fault every time that something goes wrong of white people. black people have a tendency to blame every single thing on the white southern male. and true, african-american people have more in common with

southern white people than they do any other people in the country. host: host: about a minute left. last word from general income in illinois. caller: how are you doing? great conversation. there has been some improvements in terms of race relations. it would be naive not to see that but the issue in ferguson has to do with the lack of representation for african-american police officers. i see that oftentimes in schools, a lot of places that service minorities. you have to have a fair number of people that they are servicing. 57 officers and 53 or 54 are white, that's a lack of understanding. i have seen that in schools and certain municipalities. you have to have that fairness. what happens when you have everyone who looks the same, who has the same ideas, you essentially have one opinion. host: host: thank you for the call. for all of you, with your calls and comments on the issue of race relations and our look back with the legacy of lyndon

johnson and the great society program. we will continue that conversation all week. tomorrow morning, on c-span's "washington journal," the latest on the situation in iraq. imran zebari will join us. we continue all week on the great society. thank you for joining us on this sud edition of the "washington journ journal" "newsmakers" is next t hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great week ahead.

emily's list? >> thank you. it is great to be here today. a 29-year-old organization that is committed to electing pro-choice democratic women to office up and down the ballot. what