creating the mississippi state prison he believed that the money made from convict leasing and chain gang should go to the state instead of private entities and thus the mississippi state penitentiary was born the prison itself is a reform so parchment prison comes about at the turn of the last century as a as a way to sort of. undo what some people are see as the problems of the comically system and in particular governor the governor at the time james vardaman who is an unapologetic white supremacist actually runs on the campaign of white supremacy. believes that the problem with comically scene was not really the sort of. human rights abuse that it was but rather that he saw it as sort of lining the pockets of the plantation class that he was a white supremacist populist and believed that this sort of state run plantation style prison would instead be a way of sort of socializing african-americans to their place which he saw as. manual labor the reform that led to the establishment of parchment was also white supremacist in its intent. as i mentioned james james vitamins the person who established. parchment and he's actually incarcerated people on the grounds of parchment with

john lewis was actually arrested in 1961 in the state of mississippi, was sent to our state penitentiary for what evidently at that time was believed to be a crime of going to the restroom. so, we as mississippiens have a complicated past, we know that, but we're looking towards the future and that's certainly what we did when we made the decision to change our state flag. look to the future and create a prosperous economic future for all mississippians and i'm happy to have the opportunity to bring people together. it's been a challenging time to bring people together and focus on what we believe can make mississippi an even better place to invest capital and even better place to create jobs and even better place to raise a family. neil: you know, governor, you did run across some resistance who didn't liken the confederate flag to racism. and many in nascar when they took the confederate flag away from their events. so they did not equate it to racism. how did you feel about the resistance you encountered on that front? >> well, what i would tell you, neil, is that i completely reject

north carolina, alabama, mississippi, into new orleans without the possibility of being arrested jailed and beaten. we were jailed. >> we were beaten. we were put in a state penitentiaryople couldn't register to vote when we came back here in 1963 for the march on washington. i was here when dr. martin luther king jr. said i have a dream today. a dream dooply rooted this the american dream. and to come back here 45 years later, it is almost too much. >> "the new yorker" reported that as obama left his swearing in, lewis approached him with a sheet of paper and asked the new president, the first black president to sign it. and he did. he wrote, because of you, john, barack obama. >> yes. >> president obama went on to award john lewis the presidential medal of treatment in 2011. tell bus the bond between these two men. >> president obama had a huge appreciation for the leaders of the civil rights movement and informed a lot of his choices in life and he understood that he stood on the shoulders of these heroes, including john lewis. john lewis talks about voting rights in that clip you played. but it was because he almost died on that edmund pettus bridge that the votin

mississippi. and in jackson, we were arrested, hundreds of us. we filled the city jail, the county jail. and later, we were transported to the state penitentiaryparchman. brian: how long were you in parchman? rep. lewis: i was in parchman for about 40 days. brian: what impact did it have on you? rep. lewis: parchman gave me time to reflect, gave me time to contemplate, gave me the sense that i'm like a tree planted by the rivers of waters and i shall not be moved. it gave me a greater sense of determination and stick-to-it-ness that when i got out, i was going to continue to do what i could to end segregation and racial discrimination in the american south. brian: you'd been in congress how many years? rep. lewis: i've been in congress at the end of this year would be 26 years. brian: how did your autobiography do? we were last together talking about that a number of years ago. still selling? rep. lewis: the autobiography, memoir, "walking with the wind," it is still selling. it's doing very, very well. as a matter of fact, in many high schools and some colleges and universities around the country, it's required reading. brian: why did mr. wil

mississippi. and in jackson, we were arrested, hundreds of us. we filled the city jail, the county jail. and later, we were transported to the state penitentiary at parchman. brian: how long were you in parchman? rep. lewis: i was in parchman for about 40 days. brian: what impact did it have on you? rep. lewis: parchman gave me time to reflect, gave me time to contemplate, gave me the sense that i'm like a tree planted by the rivers of waters and i shall not be moved. it gave me a greater sense of determination and stick-to-it-ness that when i got out, i was going to continue to do what i could to end segregation and racial discrimination in the american south. brian: you'd been in congress how many years? rep. lewis: i've been in congress at the end of this year would be 26 years. brian: how did your autobiography do? we were last together talking about that a number of years ago. still selling? rep. lewis: the autobiography, memoir, "walking with the wind," it is still selling. it's doing very, very well. as a matter of fact, in many high schools and some colleges and universities around the country, it's required reading. brian: why did mr.