tavis: good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight we continue our tribute to poet and activist to maya angelou who died in her home of north carolina at the age of 86. dr. angelou is one of the nation's most celebrated art cyst whose excellence made her a star. she received the presidential medal of freedom. i had the privilege of speaking with dr. angelou many times on this program. she was a wonderful and caring friend and her insights remain a beacon for all of us. like so many others i'm saddened by her death but on nored to have -- honored to have shared her life. we're glad you joined us. a tribute to dr. maya angelou right now.

>> and by trixes to your pbs station from view -- contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: i'm always honored and humbled just to be in her presence but to have the chance tonight to sit with the brilliant dr. maya angelou, playwright, civil rights

activist, producers actress and friend. she's a true rennans woman. thrilled to have her on the stage in los angeles. my dear sister, nice to see you. >> my dear, my delight. tavis: i'm just so happy to see you all the time. i'm glad i have a chance to see you because we have time to talk. nothing to sell. >> as i said, bring it. tavis: i'm going to bring it then. you own a place in harlem. you moved down south. >> i sure do. tavis: when did you buy this place? >> i love it. it's claiming its history. the people had it snatched away from them. now, mind you somebody else's fault. some of it was the harlem nights fault. but when it came to them what had happened, they began the systematic improvement of

claiming their history. so people in my block down the street to -- kareem abdul-jabbar has a place. and further down the street, henry lewis skip gates has a place. and roberto has a place. the taxi driver and the people who sell newspapers all know where these luminaries live. so a person was bringing a taxi driver was bringing someone to my house. and he slowed down, the driver d he said where would i find martin lewis park. he said are you looking for dr. maya angelou. tavis: they love you. >> yes, they do. tavis: there are a lot of folks for a lot of reasons that don't

like us. it wasn't just america that dropped the ball but there are a lot of folk out there, angela who don't like us these days. are they justified not liking us. -- liking us? >> we had done some ugly things. but we had done some good things before. the good things sort of balanced out the evil things. me ver, because of this against the world and you're not it. and i don't like you because the way you call god your color or something because of that, then i don't have to make any effort to know you. at one time, tavis smiley, americans where not looked at with hate in various places in the world. and i've lived everywhere except asia. and i speak a number of languages as you know.

tavis: i heard you speak them. >> i heard them not as here's. i was living in the place and i heard how people spoke of americans behind their back. at one time people were proud to know an american, really. at one time you could sit in or at the theater in televive or in medina -- tel aviv or in medina in morocco. you could hear a guy white or black and say that's an america. i'm from indiana. how are you doing? and you don't speak english? [laughter] it offt charm we've worn because of our reluctance to be

and act as intelligently as we know we should. and we have allowed ourselves to be moded into some of the dangerous shapes of some leaders who themselves will live in great luxury and can afford to protect themselveses somewhat. but -- themselves somewhat. but we are losing some birthright which we really dangerously will live without and maybe die without. if we don't plan to do the right things, we will reap the wrong things. it goes without saying and you a 't have to be, you know, brilliant biochemist and you don't have to be -- you don't

have to have an i.q. of 150. just common sense tells you to be kind. many be kind. tavis: you said to me that being kind is what we got to be. you said that courage is the greatest of all the virtues. if you don't have courage, you can't practice any of the other virtues. it takes courage to be kind. >> you can develop courage. i don't think anybody's born with courage. i think you may be born with a flare to brag dose yo. courage, you develop courage by doing small things. you wouldn't want to pick up a 100-pound weight without picking

up five pounds. with courage you start by doing small things courageously. such as not sitting in a room when racial majorities are majored about. i won't sit in a room with black eople when the word that belittles whites is used or that belittles japanese or jews or muslims or latinos, i will not. i know it's poison. i will not sit in a room when black people when words -- the n-word is used. i know it was meant to belittle a person. so i will not sit there and have that poison put on me. now a black person can say, oh, you know, i can use this word because i'm black. well, tavis smiley, when the word was developed, it was developed as poison. f poison is in a vial p.

o-i-s-o-n in it with skull and bones it's poison. you can take that same concept and pour it into back varyian christian -- tavis: it's still poison. >> you just say, -- and pour it into bavarian crystal -- tavis: it's still poison. want you to know the absolute impact that you really have on people. >> no, i don't think that's for me to figure out. that's not my work. my work is to be honest. my work is to try to think clearly then have the courage to make sure that what i say is the truth. i don't have to tell everything i know. just make sure that what i say is what i truly believe and that

i have worked at it. i have mulled over it. i have meditated. i have prayed over it. before i came here today, i prayed mightily not just for the audience or for you, but for the crew just in case i have something to say that might help somebody, might clarify, you know? to be a rainbow in the clouds. tavis: you're prayers as usual have been answered. you know, this officially makes you the most recurrent guest on this tv program. you have the title the one who i talk to the most. you got my attention when you talk about truth. let me ask you when i ask you to expound on that notion. i think anyone could argue whether you're look at government, corporate america or beyond, there's a sacrificing of

truth, a lack of truth telling but let me shut up and ask you if you agree or disagree. >> i do agree but not just in government. it seeps down so that people are not telling the truth and the family, you see? and even in the the stores and the beauty shop. the beautician does your hair and knows she's burned something. and instead of saying i'll make good on that. and she says, oh, that's not burned. it's unfortunate. but all virtues and vices begin at home and spread abroad. so if the vice begins high up, it does seep down. but if the virtue began high up, it also will seep down into in great aggregate of society.

there's a difference between facts and the truth. you can tell so many facts, you never get to the truth. you could tell the places where the people who the times when the reasons why, the methods how, blah, blah, the truth may just be absolutely blinded over by all that. what does it mean to the human being? how did the human being survive that? what does it happen to his -- what happens to his soul? what happens to your heart? that's what you want. so that's the truth. and i think that if we tried telling the truth to the children -- see a number of people lie to children and think ey're making it good because children have not been exposed.

they say oh, we're not prejudice. prejorities.cial he says that to the children. but the children see it at every dinner party, every cocktail party, every holiday, all the people look just like him and like his family. then the time sooner or later they say do they think i'm a fool? or they do and maybe i am, so i'm going to act just as they act. that means they haven't had enough courage to say i like you and i hope you like me. would you come over and you know, have a glass of apple juice with me. we might make a friendship here. tavis: to that point i wonder at this precarious and pro pi shouse time in america's history

whether or not you think that as human beings we are going to hell in a hand basket. when you look around there are all kinds of evident to suggest somehow as human beings we got off the track somewhere? >> do i this what? >> do i think human beings are going to hell in a hand basket? >> the very fact that you ask that question means they're ok. they have the struggle to do, they have a lot to do. but we ought to be fearful if the question wasn't asked, you see? if people didn't wonder and openly asked the question. where are we going? how does it fit? what does it cost? not in money, not commercially, but what does it cost in my soul ? whatwhat is happening to me?

if you did not ask that question, i would really be terrorized. tavis: when you list names like rosa parks, dr. king, and let me andw in dr. angelou everyone knows the profound love i have for you. when you throw names out there like that, i wonder whether or not the folks who are watching our intimidating -- intimidated by these examples. >> i am alarmed when i hear of people speak of the icons as if they are not human.

or write books about them. it they have always been that. that is not true. say that these people were larger-than-life. they were not. they were human beings like you and me. some terrible things happen to them. some of them failed and some triumphed. to let the young people know that these were human beings. a will say, you mean to tell me with the life and death of martin luther king and mauka max and the kennedys, we haven't gotten any further? no. you have to tell them that these were ordinary human beings in extraordinary times and behaved extraordinarily.

but they are just like you. and that work remains to be done. tavis: no introduction necessary, my favorite guest of all time and more appearances on this program than anybody in the country. how are you? >> wonderful. tavis: you look wonderful. what does this day mean to you? centuries.ack over it is hallelujah, it is thanktulations, it is god, thank my country. thank loretto and thank everybody. i am in an attitude of gratitude. does this day, from your perspective, say to america? is saying to us all

by this day, i am proud of you. you see? here on the mall, i am the twist in between lincoln and jefferson and washington. , i amare great presidents not a president, and i am standing on the small, i am being told by my country that i can be proud because they are proud of me. you make me eat in the kitchen, but someday you will see how beautiful i am. and i will be in the dining room with you. i am.u see how beautiful tavis: what does this say to every day and ordinary americans about the kind of contributions

you can make? become, i think, the greatest american we have ever produced. >> it means say? that everybody can do it. ways, people make martin luther king and mauka max and all of them seem larger-than-life and that is dangerous because it tells young people that you can never be that. young people ought to be able to see. asians,es, white ones, hispanics. they ought to be able to see that and say, yes, i can. what is the legacy of this great man? >> love. not sentimentality, but love. the element that keeps the stars permanent.

tavis: that is why i love you. you and thank you for the opportunity. let me get philosophical with you for just a second. let me hit it and quit it. you said something a moment ago that made me think about this. i was in a conversation the other day with a mutual friend and dr. west was making a philosophical point to me, and i got it, that every one of us dies a failure. don't believe in success because we all die failures. i asked him to unpack that for me and he said, essentially, we die failures because in the end, there is stuff we didn't get done. nobody gets everything done while they are here.

some projects never got started so i wonder if you agree with that and if so, what is on your list of things you didn't get done? with mr. west. we have bright minds in our world. however, i think we are also geniuses in that we did get something done. to even be able to dare to say shows incredible intelligence and courage. dohink that what we have to is see that we dared. we are a group that has decided not to eat our brothers and sisters that may be delicious, but not only to not eat them, but a cord them some rights.

and to try to love them, whatever that mr. he is. we are successful. we are triumphant. to bee are trying charitable and kind. trying to be loving. i think absolutely we are successful. at the same time, we live such brief lives that we can't get anything really done and we have to count on those yet to come. we live about that long. is less than a second. i live about that long, and the chance i have to be important is the chance i have to bring one piece of sand to the making of

the pyramid. but i can do it. and if others do it, we build the pyramid's. i have daughters. white ones and a black ones and fat ones and 10 ones and gay ones. i have daughters. muslimjewish ones and ones. i know because they e-mail me and write to me from all over the world. it is a blessing because the one thing they know is i will not lie to them. , but iot always be right will try to be right. and i will not tell everything i know. but i will try to make sure that what i say is the truth.

about being a human being and about being alive. tavis: i love that. this. close with i have a copy on my wall in my house. every day as we walked past this particular wall. poem, aa wonderful great sister named my angelou. you are my poet, my friend, my sister, my mother, and my favorite guest. >> hello to our brand-new world. tavis: her passing at the age of 86 is a loss for all of us. as always, keep the faith.

>> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. >> join me next time for a conversation with arianna huffington with a conversation and performance. that is next time. we will see you then. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> be more, pbs. >> be more. pbs. >> be more. pbs.

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