michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our families. it subjected us to daly wants and violence. anything can happen to you -- an example to you for somebody else. it exploded us for our free labor. all of those things happen in prison today. the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's prison population. that is a big part of the equation. i am not waiting for superman,

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 m

those of you who have read michele alexander's booke, it says that this needs to be a national conversation. part of the national conversation, i hope, is here. that is why we are going to turn it over to you, to engage in some conversation with our guests. >> i just want to say to the young people today, especially teenagers, boys and girls, some of whom might have been incarcerated, what advice would you give to them? >> first thing i would say -- believe in yourself. if you do not believe in yourself and have some kind of faith and try to work hard, and listen to your teachers and take advantage of all the resources that you have, learning resources. >> today is super bowl sunday. what can our black men in the nfl do to help us have some great people? that is the only place i get to see a positive role model is by watching sports. i think we have a lot of cultures we could really bring together, but we are not joining. >> great question. in 1968, when we saw the black system in the air, that did not happen in a vacuum. it happened in the context of a broader movement. i think we have to