. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literary and social history. it's a story gently tugged at the issues of racism. >> she was a champion of people who helped us get liberated from racism in this country. >> harper lee's first and only novel. >> a masterpiece is masterpieces not because they're flawless but because they tap into something essential to us, at the heart of who we are and how -- >> a masterpiece and a mystery. >> of course, one kept hoping and waiting for the next novel. sadly, that never came. >> i cannot imagine what drove harper to silence. >> thank you. i prefer to pass. >> what did you say? >> well, i have nothing relevant to say concerning the case. however, when i have something relevant to say i shall raise my hand. >> stepped on you. >> serious doubt about your becoming a mother. [laughter] >> you are a son of a bit

>> i was brought up in south jamaica queens. my mom was killed when i was 8. had was forced to live about my grandparents at that point. >> your father disappeared. >> he played no part in my life. >> do you have any desire to? >> not now. i feel like my son now is a better version of me. >> has your father ever tried to contact you? >> no. >> now that you're famous? >> and i'm grateful for that. >> are you curious about what kind of man he was? >> well, it wasn't a whole lot of positive things around in the environment. so i'm not sure who my mom could have interacted with that would have been more influential in a positive way for me at that point. and now i look at it like being an adult, that the mistakes that i made like -- i'm around my son and he does things and he feels like he's doing it for the first time. i don't know if it's genetics. >> he's lucky. i'll come to him as well later in the sense that he's not having to grow up in the environment that you did. >> right. to say you had it tough is to put it mildly. you were left without a parent at 8. a

acting was really based on the fact i didn't want to go to my neighborhood high school, jamaica high school in queensi just didn't want to take two buses. i didn't want to get up in an hour. i knew it was not a great high school. and i said, is there another public school i can go to? and so i auditioned in and then i immediately got -- i mean, told no would be an understatement. but i immediately felt under attack and an enormous amount of really negative pressure, and that's when the kind of street fighter in me stepped up and said uh-uh. tavis: how do you keep from being bitter in the midst of all that? >> i don't know where bitterness comes into it. i've been too lucky to be bitter. tavis: not initially you weren't. >> i don't know. i heard bad things but i wound up getting beautiful parts onstage. my first movie was "diner." my second movie was "tender mercies." i did really good work, yeah. i think i didn't get offered a job between "diner" and "tender mercies." i think it was 18 months or something. but i never got one offer. but i just -- i just kept waiting tables and i just kept saying, i'l