i had just been elected to congress as barbara jordan had just been elected to congress. somehow, they selected me and they agreed -- no one had called me or told me, they selected me. and when i knew anything, i walked out my front door, and nbc was there. and that's how i heard about it. then someone called me and explained to me what had happened, that there had been this compromise, and i didn't have any choice. i had to do it because they had all gone out on a limb. to say that this would be the compromise. now, i had just gotten married a month before. so this was really -- i wasn't even planning to get involved in any of this kind of activity, but i found myself chairing the democratic convention in the longest session that has ever taken place. you know, when i think back on it, there were so many contentious issues. there were issues of seating, the alabama delegation. there were issues of vietnam that were going on there. i had always been someone opposed to the vietnam war since i generally had been identified as a liberal and a peace person over the years. and

no one takes barbara jordan's place, he sat in the seat. so a big part of my roots was from texas, so when mickey and i met up, there was a big affinity we had, and his family sort of adopted me, so mickey and i became like blood brothers very fast. mickey had been going in and out of africa delivering food. mickey was an incredible guy, and be i loved mickey leland because he had no sacred cows. he would step on any sacred cow, you know, anywhere. i remember, for example, we went in the house dining room one day, and there were a number of my more conservative colleagues sitting at one of the tables in the dining room, and mickey said, ron, come with me. we walked up to the table, and he said how are all you brothers in the sheep caucus this morning? how would you like to have a couple of colored fellas sit down and have breakfast with you? [laughter] i mean, but mickey had a way of cutting through, you know what i'm saying? everybody, they laughed and they cried. but we sat down, and we had breakfast. but mickey had this wonderful way, i

but there was one african-american woman there who was shirley chisolm and barbara jordan and i were elected at the same time. and we came in and we were really should i say unusual. but somehow, i had to tell you i was treated very well in washington. i had great opportunities. i had a chance to serve on appropriations. i had opportunities to get my legislation passed. and it was a marvelous experience. i have to say as i look back on it, i had no regrets. it was tremendous. i came to congress in a very unique time. i came to congress at the first time when it was not totally seniority. so i got on appropriations by election in my caucus. in the california caucus. i did not get there by seniority, obviously. and i did not get there by anyone selecting me. i ran for appropriations and i won within any caucus. there is no question the fact that i was on that committee, had real implications for the district that i represented. you know, i represented a district that had a lot of air force contracts that had a lot of defense. and i was able to help them tremendously. even though i wasn

and of course he worked with congresswoman shirley chisholm and barbara jordan and charlotte digs. i was blessed and privileged and fortunate to have had a chance to meet them and to see them work and to see how they interacted and healthy lead in terms of his input into these other great founders of the congressional black caucus and using his expertise and his perspective to bring people together. it was just quite an amazing army, but because he is quite an amazing and billion man. ron move forward in this institution coming from congress has a ba, anti-4 candid it. i know he will tell you about how he got to the armed services committee. but i never saw him waver as he moved up the ranks in the armed services committee. he alternately became chairman of the armed services committee in the mid-90s, but could you imagine sharing the armed services committee coming from berkeley, setting a standard where he said, you know, we have got to have a rational same defense policy which means looking at where we can cut the military budget so that we can invest in our domestic priority. w

study of african-american life and history, whose executive director is a woman, and also to barbara jordanumously. she had a wonderful collection, as if she knew that we would want to hear more from her and learn about her. and her collection is based at texas southern university. >> wow, that's amazing. talk a little bit about plans for 2012 and civic engagement. >> well, this is an election year, national election year. and each year, the foundation, part of our mission is educating the public and engaging people on policy issues. and so, what we'll be doing throughout the year, trying to hold various forums to educate the public around some of the key issues that may come up in the various campaigns. so, the day after our event at eatonville, we will have a forum, and metropolitan a&e church. we have joined with the harvard university black alumni association and the society there at metropolitan. and what we'll be doing is we'll have a forum on what the 2012 election means for african-americans. and we have ron christie, who's a republican, and congresswoman terry seoul, who's the demo

. >> guest: barbara jordan, who--who--who when she spoke, it was like god himself was speaking. she had a powerful voice, and what she said had great content and she did not waste her words. she... c-span: and jerome waldie, behind her on the right, there with the glasses, and then paul sarbanes again. >> guest: right. another individual that--that--that had figured, even up to today, so that this picture is one of my favorite photographs, and--and it was published in life magazine when they were doing a story on what happened during the impeachment of the president. c-span: if you had a choice, would you rather shoot black and white or color? >> guest: they're both important. i--black and white has archive value--that's the beauty of it. you know when you're shooting black and white that anything that you photograph is going to last long after you're around. when you shoot color, color is much more fragile. it certainly gives you life the way life really is, which is color, but the film doesn't have the long life. they're--they have improved it greatly, but when you're shooting

so i say thank you to the honorable barbara jordan, one of our colleagues and a member of the congressional black caucus and stand here today to reject any undermining of the legislative intent and the coming together of republicans and democrats that voted for that extension at the time she was in the united states congress. now we come some more than 30 years later when we re-authorize the voting rights act in 2007, there was a lot of rumors that thought that we were extinguishing the voting rights act. in fact, i want to put on notice all of our colleagues that the voting rights act is always in essence in the crosshairs, in jeopardy, when i say that, for people who believed wrongly about the voting rights act. the voting rights act of protecting voter rights again is to make sure that seniors, to make sure that the disabled, to make sure that those who face hardships -- as we recall there were enormous hardships during hurricane katrina when the citizens of new orleans were literally blocked from voting just because of the infrastructure collapse. in the terrible conditions in alabama a

in 1973 barbara jordan of texas and andrew young of georgia became the first african-americans electedom the south since the 9th century. 19th century. the growing ranks of african-american members in congress marked a time for formal organization and coordination of black efforts. and what occurred then in early 1971 was that 13 african-american members of congress led by charles diggs of michigan created the congressional black caucus, and we have an image of the early caucus on the far right. the mandate was to address, quote-unquote, permanent interests that were important to black americans. to advance african-americans within the institution of the house and the senate. to get them better committee assignments, the get them -- to get them into leadership. the cbc also forged a legislative agenda and a cohe's e voting bloc -- cohesive voting bloc. representative louie stokes of ohio who was a cbc cofounder once noted blacks never could rely on somebody in congress to speak out on racial questions, but they can with the caucus. and among the cbc's early achievements were passage of

. >> a couple of weeks ago, barbara jordan, they mentioned her papers and the significance of those as>> exactly, exactly. bernard forrester was one of the awardees from texas southern and kevin chschappel, both with tie to the association, so i felt like a proud mother that day that the awardies were connected to the association, but it was a fabulous event for a fabulous foundation that does really, really good work in terms of the community. >> how does one become a member? i mean, we're putting up the web address. how does one become a member and get involved, particularly younger people? how do you reach out to them? >> exactly. as dr. scott mentioned, the way young people learn and communicate is much different than those of us who have been around a little bit. and we're addressing that and need young people to get involved, because we know that the stories of black history and our struggle and triumph are really important and serve as the wind beneath the wings of so many of our young people. so, we have done things, like we have a facebook page and we tweet, not me personally,

children that i encountered in jordan's housing projects on after the rise the mothers who cuss me out because i come straight from courtenay st. john suit with more pearls than barbaramy 10 can of a honda civic -- i have a colombo theory of the card. the more dented it is, the more it will be worth it when it is stolen or further dented. i've had five windshields bashed out. i keep a terrible corporate i now have the prettiest. but back then i took my little 10 can car, went down to 110 and found the century freeway and got off. where jordan 108th street, and i went to come and i just marched in their because mercedes had said connie, latino families are moving into this african-american housing project. talk about african-americans who never recovered from slavery. five generations in public housing. no one has ever worked. i estimated the unemployment rate was 70%. what we are facing right now in our sustained recession/depression, they would be throwing a party over the levels of unemployment that we are suffering now. 20% unemployment would be a gift in this community because there are no jobs. there are no jobs for the underclass. in the surrounding area we hav