are being created that contribute to the conduct. just want to say that because we could stop it earlier. [applause] >> i want to thank the panel for being here today. i was in the civil rights movement as well. we marched in -- down on canal street. down at woolworth's. we closed down the university. then, from there, we sat down. we could not leave. they threw pies at s. from there, we got jailed three times. the dogs were put on us. the fire hoses. all this in new orleans, louisiana. we met with dr. king. he came to our church.

he was beaten. you could see that on television every night where the ministers were beaten trying to get people to vote down in new orleans and baton rouge. when i came down here, the same thing was going on. we went to san francisco state university to get my credentials and my master's degree. we had to close the school down to get to ethnic studies. the police marching on us at san francisco state. after leaving new orleans and coming here, it was still a fight. comparing the schools, yes, i can see the different -- i can see the difference. those parents are there, and they bring in money for those schools, and they have all kinds of book fairs and arts festivals, computer labs, and at

hunters point, it is a whole different story. you do not have a computer labs there. we do not have a parent involvement. it is a total difference. >> your perspective on jamal, awaiting the decision on whether he will be executed or spend his life in prison. >> he should be released. [applause] one of my professors actually is working on his case, so i have been following through her visits and conversations, but i think it is the quintessential example of what is happening with the intellects in our community. he is a brilliant brother. if you have not gone on youtube and seen him offering his insight on any number of social political issues -- i mean geopolitical issues, what is happening in afghanistan and iraq, what is happening with

education in this country. his analysis -- the death of his insight and analysis i think is just undeniable -- the debt -- the depth of his insight and analysis is just undeniable. it is a reflection of how comfortable and distracted many of us our -- us are that we have not created a more sustained movement around cases like this. i voted for barack obama. i would vote for him again when the time comes. at the same time, i get asked this question so often, right? are we post-race? are we past racism because there is a black man in the white house? the question is, i mean, was england post-gender with margaret thatcher? indira gandhi, was in the a post-gender when bolivia elected its first working class

president, where the post-class? i mean, it is a reflection of the dichotomy. the movement -- you cannot deny the accomplishments of the movement. the human rights movement, which we need to begin talking about more, and malcolm x began to increasingly before he was assassinated, but the thing is, these smokescreens get thrown at us, and we fall over and over again. happen with clarence thomas in a certain way, right, you know? in a more evil way, many of us have gotten comfortable because rock is in the white house, but he cannot be most effective unless we are on his ass, right? we voted, so i will go home now, and see you in four years. the republicans, the tea party, all these folks, they are on his ass, so if you believe that

all that there is power in that position, and there are folks that make convincing arguments about a black face on white supremacy, so there is complications, but can progress be made? can progress be made with that position? absolutely. but while we honor and acknowledge that, we have to look at the masses of folks, and i think jamal represents the conditions of the masses that we need to be focused on. >> did you want to say something? it looked as though you were starting to say something. >> i will say, he said the same thing i was thinking. people ask me how i feel about having an african-american president. i said i had ambivalent feelings. on the one hand, i know that he is only one man and he can only

do so much, and he only has four years to do it, but we as a people have to unite locally in the city, and first, you start in the home, and then you go to the community, and our churches, where the movement began, in our churches. i still feel that barack obama is doing the best he can for one man, from what he inherited from the other administration. [applause] >> thank you. first, i would like to say thank you to awele and the san francisco unified school district and the african american center and everyone else involved in bringing this

program to the san francisco public library on black history month. secondly, you were speaking about the constructing the narrative paradigm, okay? what indicators and trends? because of your work that you have done in the prison systems, particularly with young people and older african-american males -- since they are under attack, what indicators would you like to see work on first? because it has to be a start somewhere. we can all start in different places, but what can we do collectively to start making change? >> excellent question. the sister just a little while ago talked about breaking the public school to prison pipeline. that is one concrete thing that we can focus our energy on. i know there are folks in this room actively working on that. there is also building a corrections to college pipeline,

the present to employment pipeline. the incarceration halls in communities pipeline, so building those mechanisms. i spent the last year once a month working with a reentry group in boston, and it actually was funded by obama's stimulus plan. everybody wonders where the stimulus program money went, and one thing if it was fun this program. working with the oldest anti- party organization in new england, which ted kennedy was a champion of. we created a series of workshops for the whole year based around a human-rights platform. not looking at these folks who need to be saved but as folks who can engage in a dynamic process to think critically about the situation they are in, understand the situation they are in so they can make informed choices and the other folks on to the information they are getting.

we took malcolms idea. we got the united nations convention of the rights of a child. we constructed some of the basic elements. over the years, we created human rights report cards where the young folks in me this organization, who were just coming home, one month they did a report card with a graded the public schools. the next month, they greeted the police in their community. the next month, they greeted the health care services in their community. all of these things -- there's an international convention that says young people have a basic human rights. not citizenship rights but human-rights that need to be protected around the world. everybody in the united nations assembly signed this except for the united states and somalia. we have begun to gather the information. i have a little bit more literature year if you want to talk afterwards, and some examples of that, but that is one of the things we need to do.

let's look at the fundamental violations of our rights that are happening in your community and think about how we can elevate this to a level of international acclaim. it may seem a ways down the road, but if we are working in solidarity to actually gather this information, while we're fixing the problem at the same time, i think that is one plausible direction for us to go in. >> hello. thank you for coming. in a native san franciscan. i have actually two questions. one is i had the experience of staying in atlanta, georgia, for several years, and one of the things i saw was the prosperity and how they actually really took care of business. is there any way to kind of model that system or progress

that was made in atlanta and kind of import it into the black communities that we see here today that struggle economically? i think that that would be something to take a look at. and also, how or what would you sugst to shed light on the lynching that still continues in the south in counties like forsyth? >> i do not know about different cities. different cities have different demographics. in atlanta, -- i speak about atlanta because that is where my son lives, in atlanta, georgia. in atlanta, you have the african-americans who go away and they come back. they are educated, and they are more goal-oriented.

they are more goal-oriented, and therefore, if you teach the children to reach for the sky, and they will study hard. most people from atlanta are a little more conservative. >> do you have something you would like to add to that about economic situations? >> i definitely think -- this is -- you know, the old saying, it is not rocket science? some of this stuff is harder than rocket science because it involves people, and we do not always act in a logical, decisive way. elaine brown i heard say a little while ago that she lived in atlanta, and we always talk about how great atlantic is doing, but we do not own nothing

in atlanta. they look like they are doing good, they have the cosmetic liberation, right? cosmetic change, cosmetic liberation, but when you look at who owns most of the city, right? who is in control of the power in the city? it may be marginally better for black votes in some other places, but there are still fundamental issues with the school system. look at the endowment of emory compared to some of the black universities and colleges in atlanta. entrepreneurship is a big part of it. i did not understand and nobody told me what is involved with buying your own home until i was in my second law school, where is the my counterparts, the white students i was in class with, they had had that information coming up. it was just second nature. i asked the guy across the hall

from me what his folks did. but told him my mom was a nurse and my dad was a teacher, a soldier before. he said his father was the deputy prime minister of jordan. i was like, "ok." minute court partner -- my moot court partner, he said his father owned three swiss banks. i think even before entrepreneurship, it is financial literacy. we need to educate ourselves about what these resources are. it is financial literacy and really wealth literacy, understanding that there are different kinds of wealth beyond just monetary wealth, but you need to understand monetary wealth, spiritual well, the social capital we have and understand how to cultivate those things and invest them

properly. those are important skills. at the same time, i do not think black capitalism is the solution to the problems of black folks who have been the victims of capitalism's boot. >> making sure that that kind of information becomes available. that could be the subject of what we deal with in black history month. you know? hal the wealth is developed. who developed it. loans what? how one gets to own it. we could do that. it could be touchy, but it could be useful. i'm just saying that we could use occasions for teaching about things that could make a difference. so i just say raise questions, and sometimes, raise hell when you raise the questions. [applause] >> i wanted to know if there was an african-american district attorney working in texas to review some of the cases that were -- i guess, tried, and some

of the evidence was not valid. looking through investigating some of those cases to find out if they should be released because of the false information that was acquired. >> the attorney who has been the lead on the team that i have been in communication with is a guy by the name of morris moon, and he would be the person i could ask to find out the answer. there is actually a be a working on that, but i know there have been so many cases -- there is actually a d.a. working on that, but i know there have been so many cases that have been exposed, especially with dna testing. it is almost like every other week. there does need to be somebody looking into it from that angle. of the top of my head, i do not know, but i could definitely get that information. >> how can we make it not just

black history day, not just black history month, but every day be black history and honor that? thank you. and how do we really teach our children, our students really not what the media portrays, not what -- but really, what happened? i did get a chance to experience "eyes on the price" and i thought that was just the tip of the iceberg -- experience "eyes on the priceze." >> i do not know how to go about it, but what i would suggest is the reason why i did what i did, why i was brave enough and courageous enough to not give up my seat, because so much history was in my mind, and one of the things they were always asking me was why i did not get up when

i was asked, and my answer would always be history had me glued to the seat. [applause] i think that what is left out of american history -- you should not be ashamed to say that we enslaved these people and mystery these people, a race of people. it should be included in the american history, and it would be every day. [applause] >> really quickly, it jolla i went to school with named sol williams said, "stealing as was

the smartest thing you ever did. too bad you do not teach the true to your kids." that line says so much. -- a scholar i went to school with. it is not just about changing lives of black people, but changing the lives of everybody by teaching true history, which includes jim crow and slavery before it -- but before that, the first people to walk the planet and develop situation -- civilization came along the nile river valley. if we teach african history as human history, history will require that you incorporate our story and tell it the right way. [applause] >> just to say that in terms of how teaching history can make a difference to these test scores that we are also obsessed with, i had a piece of news from mississippi where the book,

"putting the movement back into civil rights" -- are you familiar with that? the superintendent has agreed -- and your piece is in it, awele -- the superintendent has agreed that it be used districtwide. just this week, i was hearing that the rigor and relevance of the material actually got students engaged and got the score is up. while the score is being up is not the only thing, i do want to say there is real value in making curriculum relevant, truthful, and rigorous, and one of the ways of doing that would be to embed all of this into all subjects all year for all the students. [applause] >> if i could just show that on friday, ms. colvin spent the whole day at alameda county juvenile hall, and i think we saw eight different units of

young men and women, 14 to 18, medium-security, and they were riveted to their seats. when we were looking like we were running out of time, we were told not to worry about the time. they shared poetry. one young woman suggested how -- they share how they are trying to transform their lives, and listening to her story and transformation, and it was a very powerful date. >> this is for one of my heroes, claudette colvin. and a local hero of mine, because we have freedom fighters right here in our midst, and we do not always celebrate them. francisca sanchez, who is seriously about her business about getting the shackles off. i want to do this to honor them,

and to thank you for being here. give yourselves a big round of applause. [applause] all i've got is some fish and a few loaves of bread. and a whole lot of folks have got to get fed. but seven seats were made in under seven days, the first man was forgiven when he missed the hague, the branch was taken by a dove to a book that was built before a flood, if a rainbow sent out a sign, if someone was told to sacrifice his own son and told to hold up before he was done, then the fish and bread that i just said is all that i've got, is all that i need for me to get fed and for me to feed a whole lot of folks in need because they set me on fire. when they look back, i was chilling. i had to fight like 10 older brothers, and because i had this

dream, so they sold me out to a band of bandits and one day was commanded to stop, drop, when i got this fish that i found while fishing around, under water with the daughter of the pharaoh, the child was chosen to force the pharaoh to free his folks from a foreign land, repair everywoman, prepare every man, prepare every child, all you've got is that right in your hand. all i've got is some fish and a few loaves of bread, and a whole lot of folks have got to get fed, but i believe. i believe i can part the sea now and then, and then put it back together again. i believe i can kill any giant dead if i believe in my heart. back when we were kings, back when we were able to see processes. when a whole woman with no vote

because she conceived immaculate, and a good baby daddy was something even got to be, where we could heal the sick and make the blind see. we believe in believing, so i believe in believe, and i believe they can come in the night like a thief and knocked out each of uncertainty's teeth and take away all your disbelief because the fate that lived through leprosy is a fate that will live through a chevy, a fate that can make amounting get out of bed is a phase i believe that i believe can spread fish and a few loaves of bread. i believe i can make wine out of tap water, and i believe i can go break dancing and walk on water. i believe i can fly. i believe i can soar.

i never thought i could be so free, but i believe on flying away on a wing and a prayer, and who could it be? believe it or not, it is just me. believe it or not, the fish that we got and the bread i just said is all that we got, is all that we need for us to get fed and for us to feed a whole lot of folks in need. thank you. [applause] >> let me ask the audience to thank our two guests on stage. [applause] and then, i'm going to invite

awele to come up. thank you for your questions today and your participation. >> you are very welcome. >> before we go, i have one announcement and thank you, and then, we want to acknowledge the sponsorship for today's program. i want to give a big thank-you to linda brooks burton. [applause] because linda brooks britain last march invited me to plan this program, and i want to thank helen, who i work with in san francisco unified because she introduced me to bryonn bain, and she always introduces

me to the various artists that come in to work in the school district. as i learned about bryonn and experienced his presence and i was thinking about putting together this program, it just clicked -- why not bring the two together to bring this link from the past unsegregated jim crow to what is happening in the 21st century and that has been happening? i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our

sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to mrs. colvin

and also to byrin bain for telling his story, but thank you for coming so that we can say thank you to miss colvin for being a living history maker. join us. thank you. ♪ lift every voice and sing