and she says well, send it to gwendolyn brooks. you know who she is. yeah, that's the laureate of illinois. send it to her. and a few months later i heard from gwendolyn brooks. she called me in. to her office and she said, look, young man, i don't know what you intend to do with your life but you ought to be a writer. and that made something of an impression on me. [laughter] >> and from there that ended up totally redefining myself and as you know, i went on to become a columnist for the "chicago sun-times" at the age of 19. and my path was sort of set. >> clarence tells a wonderful store about how he got hired on the "chicago tribune" in the 1969 and the west side has gone up in flames and the "chicago tribune" looks around the newsroom who they could send to the west side and they knew nobody and so clarence got fired. >> i think i got in on some of that same energy. i mean, the beginning was the 1965 riot in watts. i mean, you're talking about a time when for reasons we probably need not go into in depth, most major metropolitan newspapers saw no

and she said send it to gwendolyn brooks, you know what it is. i said that is of fort lauderdale illinois. she teaches at such and such college. so i send it to hurt and a few months later i heard from her. she called me and she said look, young man, i don't know what you intend to do with your life and you ought to be a writer and that made something of an impression on me. [laughter] so from there it totally redefined myself and i went on to become a columnist for the chicago ton vv kurson times and might have was set. >> we both know clarence page very well. he tells the story how he got hired on "the chicago tribune" when the 1969 west side gone up in flames the tribune looked around the newsroom to find out who they could send who knew the west side and there was nobody. clemens gets hired. did you have a similar experience getting into the business? >> not exactly but i think i got in on some of that same energy. the beginning was the 1965 riot. you're talking about a time when for reasons we probably need not go into in depth needed to bec