tavis: a good evening. from lawsons, i am tavis smiley with a conversation with the equal pay act that carries her name, ledbetter. she spent nearly 20 years working at a goodyear plant where she is subject to unspeakable sexual harassment. despite court setbacks, she took her battle to congress where, in 2009, the lilly ledbetter fair pay act was passed. it was the first bill that president obama signed into law upon taking office that year.

>> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it is the cornerstone we all know. it is not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better pierre >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: if there are times when you think one person in our world cannot make a difference, consider then lily ledbetter. born into poverty in a small alabama town, she picked cotton to help support her family household, a home with no running water or electricity. in 1939, she went to work for

good as base year in hopes for a path to the middle class. but it turned into a nightmare with constant sexual harassment, low pay, and discrimination. in 2003, she won a landmark case, only to see the decision over turned by appeals court, a decision supported by the u.s. supreme court. for two years, she traveled the halls of congress, telling her story to anyone who would listen. she finally convince enough members of congress to approve the legislation that bears her name. in january 2009, the very first bill barack obama site after being inaugurated president was the lilly ledbetter fair pay restoration act and the new book about her truly remarkable journey is called "grace and grit, my fight for it will pay and fairness at goodyear and beyond." it is an honor to have you on this program. >> thank you.

i am delighted to be here. tavis: let me ask you the first thing that jumped at you when i first got a chance to go through the book. for all the respect and admiration that i and so many others have for you at what you did, why did you stay at a company almost 20 years that treated you so horribly? >> it was a good job and i was good at my job. i enjoyed it. and i felt like i was being a trailblazer for those women and the other minorities who would come after me. i felt that i would be making a difference. at the same time, i thought i was earning good pay. i thought they were treating me fairly. and to my shock later on, i fod out they were not. but i did enjoy my work and it was a good job for a woman. tavis: what exactly were you doing at goodyear? >> the plant that i hired in was

a tire production plant. i wanted to be part of the radio division. that is where i was assigned. i was a supervisor and later an area manager over the production area where we produced the components or the tires were processed them. tavis: i love the town you were born in. possum trot, alabama is a small town you were born in. take me back to the beginning. tell me about where you were born, the surroundings, and what it was that made you work so hard to get all at goodyear. i think that is connected to how you were born. >> i was born in one of the poorest rural counties of alabama. it was a little area known as possum trot. everybody they're pretty much was in the same boat, so to speak. we were all very poor. we live in a two-room house, no running water, no electricity, very little comforts of life.

we raise our food. i had to pick cotton on the farm in the fall and i had to chop cotton in the spring to earn extra money for the family, to help get necessary items for school. it was just a hard, hard life. i was encouraged to get a good education. but one of those lessons that i learned as a young person taking that cotton and chopping in the spring and fall was to give a good day's work for a good day's pay. i knew that if i did i get the cotton in my sack to be weighed up at the end of the day, i would not get paid very much and i would be in trouble, too. tavis: tell me about your family in that 2-bedroom house. >> my family consisted of my mother and father. i was an only child. but my father's mother came, my grandmother came to live with us because her husband had died and

she did not have anywhere else to live. so she lived with us. that was the four of us in a two-room house. tavis: i said 2-bedroom, but it was 2-room. >> there is a big difference. [laughter] tavis: i take the correction. i got it. let me ask you how long it was before you ever saw running water in a house and when you saw electricity. at what age were you then? >> i was in the third grade. my parents bought 3 acres from my mother's father and they built a four-room house. we actually moved up in the world. we had four rooms. we had indoor plumbing and a bathroom and a little back porch. and then we had a big porch on the front of the house that went all the way across. it was screened. we enjoyed that. but we really went up a little bit in the world.

we had electricity and running water and we also had indoor plumbing. so that was really a great change in our lives. tavis: you eventually major way to goodyear. but you also worked some other jobs along the way. what did you do before you actually made it to goodyear? >> i was a district manager for h&r block in the anderson area of alabama. i managed 16 locations. there were satellite or company- owned offices. prior to that, i was assistant to the financial director at jackson university, making awards for young people to stay in college and helping them to get a college degree. tavis: tell me how you sought to work at goodyear and how that came to be. >> they had built a new plant in 1929. it was one of the oldest factories that goodyour own. but they built the radial

division in 1976. i wanted to be a part of that because i knew that radial tires was a part of the future. i wanted to be in management. so i interviewed over several months and made the cut and was hired february 5, 1979 on the management training program. there were five of us on that training program and i wanted to be assigned to the radio division. so i talked to everyone that i could possibly get into their office about that. i was able to get into the radio division. but in my almost 20 years of employment, i worked in every division in that factory except shipping. tavis: how long were you at good andyear before the sexual harassment started? and what form of sexual harassment are we talking about? >> the first devaluation that i

ever got, the department form and i had said that, if i would meet him at the local motel, that i could be rated number one. but if i did not, i probably would be at the bottom of the list. it caught me off guard kid i had really gone fast -- it caught me off guard. i had really gone flustered. i could not afford to jeopardize my job. so i excused myself and left his office. the next day, i went in and asked if i could finish that meeting and he said, no, your part is finished. you are at the bottom of the list and that is it. that is basically when a lot of my troubles started. it was that and then it was sort of progress on for a while. then i was moved into another area, away from my area manager's job, with this man running the entire trial. it was a constant sexual-

harassment from the time i got in at the beginning of the shift to the end. it was finally down to, if you do not go to bed with me, you will not have a job next week. i saw college tuition bills, mortgage payments, car payments, all of the household expenses coming due and those bills flying in and i could not afford to lose my job. so that is when i asked for help from the h.r. department and they started an investigation. it still did not look good from the way they took it so i called the equal employment commission and filed a charge. tavis: through all the drama, you eventually became a manager. you work your way up. there is a story that you tell in this book which is one example of the way you were talks to end the way you were treated, not as any other employee, but as a supervisor. the's a story of a guy who

told you one day -- this is pbs and i have to clean this up for family television -- but he basically said to you, i take orders from one b at home and i will not take orders from another b at work. >> that is right. that particular employee had a really good job. he was there for a long time. he signed off that job. he took another job possible to get away from me. he did. he left. he had to go work somewhere where he could work for a man could but most of the men, later, they learned to respect me and it worked out a little better. but he did. he signed off. tavis: during all of this time, how did you sustain your hope? how did you go to work every day and not feel like you're very humanity was under attack? i go back to the beginning of the conversation on how you entered this every day. >> going back to that rural

section where is born and reared in, if you do right and you persevere and ethics are where they should be and you treat your fellow person/worker and your workers with you right, it will work out. i go back to those old westerns that i used to attend in the movies as a child. the cowboy in that white hat always came out in the end. he won because he was right. and he would get beat up and shot at and all that, but he would always come up winning. i felt that i knew what i was capable of doing. i felt that if i could continue to show improvements in my capabilities and held my head up that it would come out and they would recognize what i could do and what i was capable of doing and be appreciated. tavis: the issues that you were confronting, when they turned into a case, when all of this became litigious, when

litigation can into the picture, how did it feel for you to have the company that you were so desperate to work for, that you fought to get into and fought to prove yourself -- how did it feel when that company was fighting you in court? >> it did not feel very good. in fact, it did not feel good the last few months i was there as an employee. the retaliation and -- you know, people ignored me and would not talk to you or share information -- it is really devastating and it really is bad for your personal morale, too. you feel like you have lost your dignity, you have lost your respect, and you really do not know which way to turn. it is really devastating feeling for an employee. that is when i went to the equal employment commission. i was so fortunate that i got an interviewer that would drag out of me all of the answers which

she needed that really helped me in the long run could in fact, my attorney told her later what an outstanding job she had done to get all of that iormation because i was so devastated and humiliated, to have to go into that office and say that i am a manager at this large corporation and they do not treat me right. it sounds like i am a whiner or a complainer. and that is not why was. tavis: i assume there were other women in the workplace. number one, how were they treated by some of these men? and how did these women treat you? >> the other women that were there were treated basically the same. i was so fortunate. there were two women who testified on my back--- on my behalf at trial. that is really what made the jury sit up and really take notice when they heard their

stories. but they were not treated well either. one of them had 22 years of service and finally just took it as long as she could. she sold her retirement in her service and left a goodyear and was a supervisor at honda when she came to testify for me. the other lady had been promoted to an area manager's job. but when she asked about her race, they said we are not giving it to you. and she worked a few more days and they still would not give her her raise -- the difference of being a secretary to an area manager. so she went back to her day shift job of being a secretary. tavis: there is a wonderful story in the book -- wonderful story is the wrong way to put it -- but it is arresting the day that you were handed a note and you still do not know where the note came.

somebody had a note that got delivered to you. and on the note was written some salaries. and this is how it came to your attention that you were being maltreated when it came to your pay. tech me -- take me back to that day. >> that note was in my mail at work. i had a little slot. each one of us did at work. if we had any work knows, it was always put in that little slot. i got to work and there was that note and my name and the three men -- the four of us had the exact same job, just a different shift, but the same operation. and i was being paid 40% less than either one of them. and the salaries written on that paper was only the base salary. i was being shortchanged in overtime. it suddenly hit me about my retirement, my 401k, my

contributory retirement, and my social security -- all was based on that. and i was just sick, devastated. i just could not understand how i would ever make it out on the floor and get through a 12-hour shift. but i continue to try to muster up my feelings and i finally decided that i had to do it. i could not leave. i could not afford to quit. i picked up my clipboard and went to the floor and did my shift. but when i got home, i told my husband the next morning. i said i have to file a charge with equal employment commission an issue of debt. i will tell you now, if i start this, we will be in this eight years. and it actually took me nine years from that 1998 time to when i got my final verdict. tavis: in moments like this -- i say all the time that the three most important things in my life our faith, family, and

friends. those are the things that really mean the most of me. i suspect, in a moment let the crisis you endured, you had to call on all three of those. tell me more we talked about how you grew up. but in these moments, you need your husband. in your kids. you need your friends. how did your family and friends respondhen you took on a major company like goodyear. >> my husband said, what time you want to leave? he drove me to birmingham which was 75 miles from where i lived. my family supported it from the time i started. i have a son -- now he is 50. my daughter is 53. i have grandson's could i have a son-in-law and a daughter-in- law. and they all supported me. and they were behind me. i had a strong faith, a strong religious faith, which you need.

because you have to have something to sustain you along with your family. because even the family may occasionally doubt doing what we should be doing. but you have to have those things. and the person themselves, they have to be really, really strong because you are criticized. it is your fault. you don't get many compliments from other people. they do not understand. the think you are causing trouble. it is not good for their job careers, especially if they work for goodyear, where i worked, to support me. but there were a lot of people who would walk up and men do their hand, put it on my shoulder and give me a smile. i knew there were behind me, but they couldn't do anything because their jobs and retirement was in jeopardy as well. tavis: my grandmother was born in mississippi. i was born in mississippi, too.

i am a southerner, too, by birth. my grandmother said to me, tavis, once a task begun is never finished until you are done. do it well or not at all. that was her way of telling me to not start something you cannot finish. sometimes friends doubt whether or not you are doing the right thing could but did lily ever doubt she was doing the right thing was she filed this case? >> no, no. on occasion, i would be up at night. i was a 20-year night-shifter. i would be up at night. my husband would get up and say, are you sure you know what you're doing? i would say, no, but i know it is the right thing to do and i have to do it. i just knew from day one could and after i got the attorney and after i heard from the equal employment investigation, they had said you have one of the best cases that we have ever

seen. the attorney and his firm that took my case were pro bono. and they knew i had a good case. they knew the law was on lilly ledbetter's side. and they knew we should win that case. but, you know, the fact is that sometimes you get up to the supreme court and you depend on those justices to interpret and follow that law that has been put in the law books that they do not always do that. and those five justices changed the law when they made that ruling and their goal was to change it back. so the ledbetter fair pay restoration act put it back to what it was in the ruling in my case. tavis: the supreme court led women down with their decision. you can read about it in her new book. initially, she won a case, was awarded $3 million and that case

was overturned by a fellow appeals court. it made its way up to the u.s. supreme court. and the u.s. supreme court did not do the right thing. i want to put up a quote from a woman sitting on the supreme court at that time, ruth bader ginsburg, who wrote the dissent in the lee ledbetter case. "in our view, this court does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination." pretty straightforward, but at least there were some folks on that court who did understand what you were trying to do. >> that is right. i have had many calls from all over the united states. she was right on justice alito said in the opinion that it did not makes sense -- it did not make sense. he said my problem was not that i was not discriminated against, but it was because i did not

file a charge the first time i t that discriminatory paycheck even though i did not know it. that does not make sense. that is not what the law was. but justice ginsberg hit the nail on the head. tavis: that was pretty crazy. i thought that decision was pretty -- how can you miss the statute of limitations about something you did not even know. you went to work on the halls of congress. you've got congress to pass this legislation. and barack obama signed it as his first piece of legislation after being elected had did you feel that a standing next to the president of the united states? >> that was unreal. i tell you, the feeling that i had that went through my body and my mind and down to my heart, just thinking about what that signature would mean to all

the working families and all of those women and the men that were there that day for that bill signing. they were so elated because they had not been to that white house in eight years. and they were thrilled to be there. it was such a glorious day. i just miss that my husband was not there. you know, i lost him in december 2008, just prior to all this. but he always knew that it would become law. and he supported me right up until his death. that is another thing. life goes on and people have to deal with all of those curveballs you get. and we had some bad ones. he developed cancer and was sick. but he still supported me and he encouraged me to go to washington appeared he would tell me, you go on. and that is what we did. but he supported me and we believed that this was right and it had to be done. it had to be done for all of

those people who are working and will be following in my footsteps for the rest of their lives. tavis: i am glad you did it appeared the book is called "brace and bit." it is -- "race and grigrace and" i am honored to have you on this program. thank you, thank you, thank you. >> thank you. tavis: that is our show tonight. keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit pbs.org. walmartavis: if you are in the tristate area on march 18, please join me at the nyu skirball center for performing arts for a conversation about women, children, and poverty in america. guests include u.s. labor secretary hilda solis, the teachers' union head randi weingarten, financial expert suze orman, and others. for more information, visit our website at pbs.org.

tavis: join me next time for the remarkable story of a d.c. secretary who was chosen as came in a small village in gonghana. >> every city has a martin luther king boulevard. it is a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be