he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to selma by harry belafonte and martin luther king. we live in an era where, obviously, a former actor became president, head of the nra, susan sarandon, people like that, gravitate to a political stance easy, comfortably and passionately. but that is not the extensive history of this country at all. those are lines you did not cross. you did it in peril of your entertainment career. >> i think one of the things that muhammad ali did when he was cassius clay, he was fabulously aware of the camera. he would do anything for publicity. he read poetry down at the bitter end, in greenwich villag village. >> he wanted to get life magazine. he knew -- sports illustrated was good. sports magazine, boxing magazines were good. how do you get in life magazine? a photographer was taking pictures of sports illustrated. this photographer had had life magazine pictures and so muhammad ali knew he took underwater pictures, had done an under water spread for life magazine. so cassius clay still at the time says you know, i work out. i've got this new w

her belafonte said something. once that i agree with he said you know. is you know the same enemies that he had during his time with dark the king are the same enemies that are out there today. you know it could be the grandchildren of the ills of those people but but it's the same people you know just like you have people who have d.n.a. running through them or the social good for everyone you have people out there who d.n.a. is is is to to to be the way they are. and most of these people really believe what did doing they not faking it they believe this they believe they're being attacked and if they are being replaced and and their fear. you know i think we will get much further along down the road when we start talking to one another and listen one another because when i see images and hear things what they're doing. i see people who are afraid and i see these young men and some women in these white supremacist groups and i see that i see really scared people scared to be losing. whole on the color of that's all they have for themselves. thank you so

and until harry belafonte said you have to come down to selma.and sammy davis junior who was born in new york had never gone south of the mason dixon, and he had to be dragged kicking and screaming down to selma. there were aspects of politics where we live in and e.r.a. e.r.a. where they gravitate towards a political stance. but that is not the history of this country. laser were lines you did not cross. i think one of the things that muhammad ali did as caches clay. and he was fabulously aware of the camera he would read poetry till the bitter end he was very interested in musical entertainment. he wanted to get into life magazine. he knew that sports illustrated was good, but how do you get into life magazine. a photographer was taking pictures of him for sports illustrated. and this photographer had had life magazine pictures. and muhammad ali knew he had done in underwater spread for life magazine. so cassius clay said you know i work out. i have this new workout regiment that's underwater. it develops tension and then punching. you should t

and you were introduced by harry belafont ( applause ) >> well, i tell you folks, there's no two waystion. ( laughter ) every day you have people like carlos santana coming into this country and taking the jobs that should be going-- w,laughter and applause ) >> you kife is so delicious for this mexican over here, man. that's one of the things that i always treasure, you know, in my hmcompartment of accomplists. >> reporter: thosemp accoshments are legion, but what impresses most on this occasion is the optimism he's maintained-- an optimism born over three days half a century ago. so many people are cynical i think, 50 years after woodstock, about woodstock, about the woodstock nation, about peace and love. you don't seem to have a shred of that about you. en you look at this what do you see? >> woodstock signifies that we arcan coexist in unity andny with grace and elegance and yeah, ing funky, too. if people want to say, "oh, they're freaking hippies, man. th get on my nerves." well, you know what-- we were so glad that you were not at woodstock, becse at woodstock whatever we had

world --, until harry belafonte said, you have to come down. gone davis, jr. had not across the mason-dixon you know what happen if you did, and he had to be dragged into selma kicking and screaming by harry belafonte. we know sean penn, susan sarandon, people like that gravitate towards a political stance easily, comfortably, and passionately. but that is not the extensive history of this country at all. those were lines you did not cross. you did it in peril of your entertainment career. of the things muhammad ali did when he was cassius clay, he was one of the athletes who was fabulously aware of the camera. he would do anything for publicity. he reppo a tree down at the bit to rent in greenwich village. he was really interested in -- >> saying a musical number on the ed sullivan show. musical lp.ut a he wanted to get in "life" magazine. life was big. sports illustrated was good, boxing magazines were good, but how do you get in "life" magazine? a photographer was taking pictures of him for "sports illustrated," and this photographer had "life" magazine pic

documentary and able to contextualize the contribution to the civil rights movement in a way that harry belafonte and sydney pointe ta pushed him out of the spotlight in the years after sammy died for their own complex reasons. harry wouldn't speak to us . >> i tried but it's difficult . >> if you doing sammy davis junior you're talking about someone for whom the spotlight was breakfast, lunch and dinner. 20,000 hours of videotape, we had almost too much material but in a visual documentary which hopefully will get to see. if you know you have something in the bag that we had performances, we did not know we had them and did not know we could license them or digitize them and show them. so, you don't want jesse jackson, quincy jones or whoever to say there was a night in chicago and sammy got up and he said that we have that footage. . >> i'm talking about documentary biography which is a visual and auditory medium. i would say that sammy davis junior and like you mentioned john wade and mohammed ali, part of the flipside is you deal with subjects to are an embarrassment of riches and the questio

. >> nbc asked me if i would do my own special, and i had always adored harry belafonte.felt very strongly about it. i just touched his arm. ♪ ♪ the sponsor went crazy. my star doesn't touch a black man's arm. >> petula clark says, i'm not doing it over and it's my show and it's going in that way. >> we weren't having any of that nonsense, no way. so it went out the way we wanted it to go out. i didn't really have any other problem with sponsors, but that sort of gave me a taste of what could happen. ♪ ♪ >> in the tv business, the '60s was probably about the last decade during which the sponsors had a really iron grip on content. >> brought to you by dash. >> even if they tried to keep tv this white homogenous whole milk product, the world found its way in. it just had to. >> don't you ever remember to bring a silencer? >> runs a lot of my suit. >> with "i spy" robert culp and bill cosby were equals. cosby is a pioneer in terms of a black male leading a drama. he made race a nonissue. >> the winner is bill cosby. [ applause ] >> we try to put forth an example of the way i