i even tried -- i really found thurgood was a optional age because at that time they are learning to reading to learn. if you can encourage children and give them this tool, they had such an advantage in terms of expanding their education and their frame of reference. >> where the idea for "the dictionary project" come from? >> this idea was from any plumber, a woman who dropped out of school in the tenth grade was in savannah, georgia, and she -- her ability to earn money and understand the world around her and what people were saying, because she dropped out of school. when she was working as a crossing guard in savannah, martin luther king as it off of 95, she saw children were not bringing books back and forth to school and she asked them why, and they said because there were not allowed to take the books home from school. so she bought everybody a dictionary and told them to use it, to help them because she didn't want their life opportunities to be i guess diminished because they didn't have a large vocabulary. and she stamped in each book, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

when thurgood marshall, who founded the legal defense fund and later became the first lack supreme court justice, was asked after his retirement from the bench, what was his most important case. it was kind of a rhetorical question. everyone expected marshall to answer brown v. board of education, the case that begin the end of jim crow, that really changed the direction of american democracy in the 20th century that is responsible for the lives that many of us have been able to lead by turning america away from an apartheid state. he said there is a case he successfully litigated in the supreme were in 1944. it was a case out of texas challenging the all-white primary election. why did marshall regard this as his most significant case? it's because he believed that providing the opportunity for black people who were, at that time, held as second-class citizens, but tickly in the south and largely disenfranchise, that opening up lytic power and opportunity and participation for black people was a critical ticket to full citizenship step full citizenship was a focus of thurgood marshall a

full citizenship was a focus of thurgood marshall and is the focus of the legal defense fund, becausehat is the guarantee in that first line of the 14th amendment. birthright citizenship began with overturning the dred scott decision, and making sure like people who have been slaves would be full citizens of this country. there are many rights and privileges that are associated with citizenship, but most of us regard the ability to vote and participate in the political process as near the top of those indicators of citizenship. therefore, when the right to vote is threatened against citizens who are eligible to vote, we have not just a civil rights problem. we have a democracy problem. over the last year, americans have -- is actually an indication of a deep, corrosive flaw in cancer. and what has been workshop on the black and latino and asian american population in terms of cash now has metastasized and threatens the integrity of the system and democracy. it is important for me to say this, because for many people this appears to be something that arose out of nowhere. it did not. i

. >> thurgood marshall the head of the naacp the majority to protect the rights of the ku klux klan andcalling for his own murder calling for the murder of african-americans. marsha was able to see, i hate this. it scares me but i'm not going to take the role of shutting down another person speech. absolutely we should speak out against violence and absolutely we should speak out against it but not to echo what we are to believe. do we sometimes feels, if it doesn't heard it doesn't -- count. >> i think the first amendment so misunderstood and it's one thing to say guess i've are right to speak another thing to say you have a right to speech and i hate what you are saying. when the founding fathers that the first amendment and the constitution and wasn't a deal. it wasn't the first thing i thought of and also it wasn't entirely free-speech at the time. >> and franklin of all people said when they passed the first amendment they had no idea what the hell they were doing. i forgot how they put it but they put it beautifully. [inaudible] the idea of what free-speech was it's extremely diff

i think what's different now is that -- and thurgood marshall was talking about how uninformed people were back then, we're more informed now because of situations like this, and, you know, hundreds and hundreds of forums, we know now about human frailty because of dna. we know about false confessions. we know more about mistakes and prosecutorial misconduct and bad lawyering. all those things together add up to jurors who are more informed and even prosecutors who are more informed. i'm optimistic in that regard, and i think -- i think we are seeing the end of it. as for the book, i just -- it's important -- i want to say this again. these cases are not isolated. they're typical. that's -- you know, if the reader comes away with anything at all, you know, i didn't write about the o.j. simpson case or the scott peterson case or some high-profile cases. i really kind of studiously avoided those high-profile cases because i think the real point here is that these are the typical cases, and if we're going to have this kind of a policy, this is the consequence to that. the only other thin

i think what's different now is that -- and thurgood marshall was talking about how uninformed peopleere back then, we're more informed now because of situations like this, and, you know, hundreds and hundreds of forums, we know now about human frailty because of dna. we know about false confessions. we know more about mistakes and prosecutorial misconduct and bad lawyering. all those things together add up to jurors who are more informed and even prosecutors who are more informed. i'm optimistic in that regard, and i think -- i think we are seeing the end of it. as for the book, i just -- it's important -- i want to say this again. these cases are not isolated. they're typical. that's -- you know, if the reader comes away with anything at all, you know, i didn't write about the o.j. simpson case or the scott peterson case or some high-profile cases. i really kind of studiously avoided those high-profile cases because i think the real point here is that these are the typical cases, and if we're going to have this kind of a policy, this is the consequence to that. the only other thing

solomon missionary baptist church, the historic pulpit where martin luther king jr., malcolm x, thurgoodall, ts boone and a host of americans -- america's leaders use that pulpit as a stage to spread a progressive message of change. brothers and sisters, put your hands together for the reveille -- reverend charles williams. rev. williams: no justice. >> no peace. rev. williams: no justice. >> no peace. rev. williams: what do we want? when do we want it? >> now. rev. williams: take your hand off of your vote, take of your hand -- take your hand off of my vote. take your hand. everybody make some noise. all my life i had to fight and i am not going to stop fighting now, we ain't going to stop fighting now, we had to fight for the 13th and 14th amendment, 15th, 1964 civil rights in 1965 voting rights. and i will tell you right now, in 2021 we will keep this fight alive over our bodies. we will not allow them to take our vote. we will not allo them to ignore our cause. senators and congressional representatives, they are putting together trillions of dollars that they can spend in their dist

allred, a case won by thurgood marshall that had african-americans a right to say in their primary democracy. we're not talking about something that you go to the store and use for a little while and toss aside because you've gotten tired of it. we're talking about something that makes and breaks this country when we're talking about the democracy to vote. you damn right i left texas and i'm glad i did. you know why, pete? i left texas to give my people the right to vote without them being infringed upon. i had a chance to vote during 2010 and 2012 when poll watchers came to my precinct where i vote personally. let me tell you the chilling effect of that. they had people, chairman raskin, that looked like they were from the proud boys, looking at you like you were in the wrong place. in a minority area, that has a chilling effect. that chilling effect is the pressure of voting. i don't know what you call intimidation. intimidation by any other name is still intimidation. it's intimidating, and the word gets out that these people are at your polls looking at you like they want to arrest you.