good morning and welcome to mosaic. it is a privilege. we are fortunate today to have what i call, not alone in saying this, but he was once the editor of the religious tribune. he was over at the post. in the late 60s and early 70s, he was a community organizer.

always there working for justice in our community in oakland. then here all his life. welcome. >> it is such a pleasure to be here today. >> tell us about your background. >> my parents come from oklahoma and mississippi. but i was born in oakland. and attended schools in oakland and i've had the opportunity to travel all over the country as an activist and as a participant in the civil rights struggle. >> you told me earlier that you hadn't taken a course of journalism but you are gifted. >> no, i didn't take any courses in journalism. i always got great grades in writing and composition. remember as a youngster, a

spelling bee champion and so i've always you know >> when you started realizing that you had that gift, what made you leave to working in the community. >> well, my mother used to tell me that i was named after paul dunbar. and she read to me all his poems as a child. so, it left an indelible impression. so, i think that i was stamped from birth. to have a respect for the written word and the joy in the respect for it. so that's what got me started. in 1965 when i was a reporter

for the oakland post i went to selma. i had an opportunity to have 14 hours of exclusive interviews and walks because i doubled as both a reporter. and then usher. >> to montgomery. that was when i waited for journalism and civil rights activism. >> as you mentioned, what did you think of the movie and the creation event. they captured the essence and it was accurate. and those scenes of showing doctor king that was real. so, the viewer got a chance. one of the other reasons we said that was because, i saw myself in there.

so, the movie was definitely accurate. >> when i met you in the late 60s, you were so involved in the community. so, i immediately withdrew to all the work that you're doing. what inspired you to continue to work that collects >> it's a unique approach. in 1966 we used to monitor this was long before the black panther party was even organized. so, i done a lot of work with black churches and with civil rights organizations. so, we formed a team called the black caucus this is prior to the congressional black caucus. we formed a black caucus and 147 lakh churches were members of that caucus. i think that the church that

you come from was also one of the constituents. and, so i was the chair of the black caucus. and we took on every issue. whether it was unnecessary hysterectomy or whether it was the school systems and lack of blacks and administration whether it was a voting patterns of the district and citywide elections and so forth. >> we are going to come back to that and bring us up to today to see what we are doing. >> thank you for being with us.

did his fire score change click >> well, the current system is in a home.

when i introduced paul cocker, he was a member of the school board but, he did run for city council back in 1971 way before anyone. coming back then. >> it is mainly an educational campaign. i ran to expose the district elections where even though you run from a district, he had to be voted on citywide. and even though i won the district, in which i wanted to represent, i lost that even though i had 70% plus of the

district. >> what were some of those issues? >> the same as they are today, adequate housing, the better recognition of our schools, of jobs, getting more jobs minorities and, the contracts for minority contractors. so, the issues of equity and fairness streaming through every single strata. of the society. and those issues remain today. there is an inability for african-american men to get jobs, the unemployment rate and the issue of police brutality. we didn't call it profiling in those days. we just knew about the police. we had a group that would literally follow the police. he would get out of the car and

we would go to recite what was now consider the miranda rights. we would tell people that they should cooperate but there was a limit to what can happen. and i wound up getting arrested. for interfering with that. >> this was just held last month. >> what did you think of those efforts? >> i think that the mayor's conference is in the wake of that last month they had talked about that incident for that tragic occurrence. that was on the minds of those people all over the country. there were talking about how they are instituting race and equity departments to be more sensitive. i met with stephen benjamin who is the mayor of columbia south carolina because i had worked in south carolina when i was at the southern elections fund

helping to get that selected in the 70s. when i talked to him, he's also the national president of the black mayors. so, i told him how we were going to organize with him to help mobilize voter registration. because i've seen the wave coming based upon all of those now speaking out on voting rights as of one of those issues that it sprang from. those families or individuals that were killed. >> going back to that awful tragedy, some of the things that people are talking about, what are those things that you think are so important? >> well, one of the things that came out was the issues of gun control and another thing that came out was a flag. and i think that the mormon republican you know giving them

the kudos. he spoke out and essentially he cut off the ring inbox then a lot of republican legislators. they forced them to back down and reverse their position. the same thing with hillary clinton. she was a strong voice. forced every race to the table. romney embraced raised in a very constructive way and it caused a lot of others to do the same. as a result, some of the things that you are seeing now, we established a dashboard display with the voter registration and the voter suppression. and the role that churches and faith-based institutions are playing throughout the 11 states of the old confederacy and others like the new confederacy. like ohio and michigan.

they are the new confederacy. so, what they are doing to remove those barriers. >> tustin is over the news. one of the holiest places here. you have such a great background in churches also. religion, spirituality. what is your perspective on that? with an emphasis on the spirit and on the bible? and how you to process that in terms of community organization. i think that the real change in this country is coming with the role, especially for african- americans as the church of an institution has been the pivotal point. all of our great leaders come out of the church. the voter registration drive was generated by congregations both black and white.

when we went to mississippi in the 60s and so forth, a lot of white volunteers were spurred by their denominational proof and desire to reach equity. this is a principal church which, when i worked in the south. he stuck a blow at the heart of that. black freedom. and that's why when the lds church rolled out recently the freedmen's bureau names, they rolled out 4 million names of those who used to be on plantations and that the

government released their names with that information now going throughout the country and black people, every black person will have an opportunity to have the alex haley experience. >> the mormon church has done this. and, of course, they bought the names from the national archives. and, they put it on the computer desk. and it was met and freely distributed. you can type in your name. and go all the way back to 1865 when lincoln emancipated the slaves. and that will help you then have a journey towards that. that's the role of the church. and you will see black churches working with them. >> let's go back to that. please join us.

welcome back. if you been with us, you know that they talked a lot about the involvement of our churches. you heard the expression i'm spiritual not religious. >> yes. i believe that i don't know what you mean by your spiritual but not religious. i think that we are all god's children. i tried to simplify the notion. we all have cell phones. most of them have gps requirement. and to be religious and

spiritual, that means that you have to be in a tune with that heavenly father or some supreme being. where was heaven itself. religion teaches us that his eye is there. so, if it's easy for us to understand that a satellite can follow us, the supreme being invented and created man could track each and every one of us within a spiritual gps system. so, i know that i received signals because, they didn't

dial my number. so, why couldn't god send a message? and say, go, let my people go. i think that the spirit is the signal. that communicates with us. it is the energy that drives each and every one of us in our systems. >> that's my concept of trying to use a modern digital technological terminology to explain a complicated as you would say, epistemological costs. >> maybe i should start but you know, to get back to your earlier question, going to call. on the cell phone and want to thank him for his spirit for

making that call to america that they want to remove the flag. going to interview him and ask him what he now thinks about removing voter suppression because, i think just like in the bible he thought he was going to go and curse somebody and god sent a message to test his tongue and he wanted a blessing. i think that romney saying something positive could trigger a blood of a positive reaction around the voter suppression. >> that's great. >> i used to be a religion editor. and i remember, i wrote a featured article about you. about coming back home to the church that you grew up to pick and, they always say that a profit here is there.

you always prove that you can be an honorable man and come back home and be honored by your congregants. >> it was an honor. it was great. >> you know you live down the street from the church. >> and you've been there how long? >> i've been there where i live now, i live two blocks from where the kindergarten and i'm 71 now. so, i'm still there. >> i saw something you know the whole city of oakland gave you applause and kudos. tell us all about that. >> was so proud to receive and honor by some city officials in the city of oakland honoring the work that i had. and are still doing. as the co-owners of the newspaper being an advocate.

>> 45 years you been married. >> choose one of the original freedom writers. >> went to baltimore from dc and i just met the man who is the national president of the congress of mayors she is from baltimore. and i told her about how my wife had been a civil rights pioneer. my wife also went to the march on washington. while i was at selma she was involved in civil rights actually in new york. >> great history, great involvement. think that people are hearing you and are inspired or challenged. where would you say people need to start to have that kind of commitment and have that kind of legacy. >> number earlier, i mentioned about these names, the bank records that the mormon church

elated. i think that people should do a search of their family history and their family roots as a beginning appreciation of how far we've come. how would come this far by faith. and that i think that we should have the alex every individual can and should have the alex haley experience. and i think that that will be more likely road to damascus experience. like the burning bush experience. it opens our eyes and that database, that the mormon church laid out we are going to perforate all over the country with a weekly tabloid and all the black churches and those congregations to show people

how to take the inspiration from the love of their families to convert it into community action. the roots is key to building the tree. because, the roots of the tree, you should know them. and that database, it is tantamount to the rosetta stone it is tantamount to the scrolls. and, it will be the key to making you, because when you know your history, you develop pride, dignity and a sense of unity with their own people. >> that's very good. we haven't talked about this either. >> thank you. >> you can see why we invited them to be with us. join us in our last segment.

i hope that you been with us. being inspired and enlightened by paul cobb. the icon and i hope you are not alone in saying that. he's the owner of oakland post. this is 52 years old. we have nine newspapers. we also have a spanish language favorite and that, so we're also

going national with an insert that will be distributed in every african-american congregation that will lay out issues like black history and will deal with the how-to's of what the african-american community can do about policing issues and economic development. >> when i was in oakland, the paper was always delivered at our church. i don't remember you know. >> we distributed our paper. 75% of our 100,000 circulations is distributing to houses of worship's. and because of these numbers, we solicit and gain advertising because of the reach.

in the newspaper business you are allowed to calculate that for every person that picks up a paper they usually give a number of 1 to 5. so, you can say that with a pass on rate >> i love newspapers. but you know >> yes the printed word will never vanish. >> [laughter] the printed word will always be there. but, we are also recognizing the emergence of technology. we've expanded to the website. we'll be using the innovations as a link for the multi pack plan performance in the presentation of the news that is a part of the newspaper. >> did you mean to write the

editorial? >> yes, i did. >> ra. that's one of the highlights. >> i will be writing about this program and going to tell everyone to get up and look at mosaic. >> soon, sometimes we are on youtube. because of that. >> thank you, paul. >> that was great. see you next month.

live from the cbsn bay area studios this is kpix 5 news. the area fire crews on high alert spot fires popout. firefighters battled the blaze golf course, the cause and what may have sparked it plus at least six people were injured after a balcony happened to collapse in malibu. good morning happy mother's day i am devin fehely, let's check our weather with meteorologist darren peck who is tracking today's dangerous conditions.>> it is good news on the wind