some of the same type clothing that the bomber in birmingham was supposed to have worn.ses in there. we were pleased that some of the things that would immediately tie him back possibly to birmingham were found. that was our main focus at that point. we wanted to catch the guy who killed the police officer and injured the nurse. >> then, investigators find a clue. >> today investigators in north carolina hope to get a warrant to search a truck found over the weekend. the truck belongs to eric robert rudolph, a man sought as a material witness in the fatal bombing of an abortion clinic in birmingham, alabama. >> a search of the truck reveals no sign of eric rudolph. police prepare to head into the mountains of north carolina for what will become the largest domestic manhunt in fbi history. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomor

if you're watching us on wvtm, alabama's 13 in birmingham, learn the impact of greek immigrants on birmingham's culture at beyond barbeque and baklava, that is the "early today" event of the day. >>> bill, thanks so much. >>> early look at headlines in entertainment. simon cowell's rating boost may come in the form of britney spears. she is close to inking a deal as judge on x factor for $15 million more than jennifer lopez makes on "american idol." reports had cowell trying to woo beyonce for $100 million. we didn't believe that. >>> madonna's latest album notched biggest album debut of the year, but also just recorded the biggest second week drop for a number one album, ever. >> marc anthony filed for divorce from jennifer lopez, seeking joint custody of the twins. >>> there will be no axl rose or guns 'n roses reunion at the rock and roll hall of fame ceremony. rose told more like warned, the hall, not to induct him. since the band's angry 1996 split, rose has wanted nothing to do with his former members, and made it clear today he still feels that way. >> cold november rain, my favorite. >>

>> what role did it have been birmingham?h african-americans and school board left out of their classrooms. in terms of the foot soldiers, they really used their freedom of speech when they chose to go out and march. they help martin luther king. he thought that bringing speech and religion against government would help us. >> what about the other side? >> the birmingham commissioner in the 1960's the up laws said that there were laws against boycotts and that african- americans could not do this' and could not do that. he also petitioned them saying that they should not be able to have the same rights as caucasians. i honestly believe that, if the first amendment had not been part of the bill of rights, we would not have civil rights voting passed in 1965 or we would not have the civil rights act of 1964. i think that the first amendment truly is the best amendment there is in the constitution. otherwise, we would

birmingham, alabama. steve perry, good morning. how unusual is this?e. i've never seen a school district taken over simply because the adults on the board were acting so badly that the state's commissioner decided that they couldn't be trusted to run their own school system. >> it sounds like it's completely bizarre. they have also directed the board to secure books, records, documents, minutes from the meetings, e-mails, phone records, accordance as well. they haven't really framed the takeover, though, as if they are looking for fraud, but it sounds like it. >> they haven't. they haven't. soledad, what -- i think what they want to see is that the district is, in fact, can be trusted in the hands of the adults who are supposed to be running it. this is not a small school system, nor is it a school system that is without its academic challenges. on the same token, it's within a community that has a longstanding history of civil rights and hard work. i was down there not long ago speaking with the birmingham change fund and it's a group of young profess

but that does change 1963 when he witnessed through papers and television the birmingham riots, protest riots, protest, the fire hoses, the dogs disrupting the protesters and he was horrified. that is when he began to understand we have to do something. soon after he spoke out eloquently against segregation and the need for additional legislation. that led to a civil-rights act and voting rights act. >>host: the was his presidency successful? biv vicki did not achieve everything piece that out to do. he was more out to be reelected than push for issues. he learned as the president of the first year he struggled with foreign policy issues with the berlin crisis a summer meeting in khrushchev that did not go well. he admitted. he learned to be more calculating, think before he spoke, a tendency to use rhetoric that is the most inflammatory come led talk about the need to build a fallout shelter. it raised levels of fear that a nuclear war might occur but with the cuban missile crisis, he is much more restrained. he tried to keep their rhetoric cooler. >>host: professor what is the new fro

change though in 1963, when he witnessed through newspapers and new television at the time the birmingham riots and protests and police chief connor, the dogs and fire hoses disrupting the protesters. he was really horrified by the. i really think that's when he truly understood or began to understand that civil rights is something we need to do, something about, and soon after that, in june 1963, he spoke out very eloquently against the segregation in the south and the need for additional civil rights legislation. that ultimately to the civil rights act of 1954, and to a lesser extend the voting rights act of 65. >> his three years and the presidency, were they successful? >> i would say over all. he did not achieve everything he set out to do. i think at times he was more interested in getting reelected in 64 than he was in pushing for issues. i think he learned as a president, which i give him credit for their kids first year in office he really struggled with his foreign policy issues, in particular like with the berlin crisis that summer, his summit meeting with khrushchev in vienna

. >>> if you're watching us on wvtn, alabama's 13 in birmingham, the impact of greek immigrants on the culture and cuisine, at the beyond barbeque and baklava at vulcan park museum. that is the early event of the day. >>> here is an early look at headlines in entertainment. simon cowell's rating boost may come in the form of britney spears. she is close to inking a deal as a judge on the show for $15 million. that is more than jennifer lopez reportedly makes on "american idol." reports had cowell trying to woo beyonce for $100 million a year. we didn't believe that. >>> madonna's latest album notched biggest album debut of the year, but also just recorded the biggest second week drop for a number one album ever. >>> marc anthony's break-up with jennifer lopez is official. he filed for divorce, he is seeking joint custody of their twins. >>> finally h, there will be no axl rose or guns 'n roses reunion. rose has warned the hall not to induct him. is that axl rose? >> i don't know. >> since the band's angry 1996 split. rose has wanted nothing to do with the former members and made it cle

many abamans agree, one in "the birmingham news" said,spen mantra of the birmingham beltway state and local government. another said, i'm more concerned about the flagrant disregard for the damage by the beltway. it goes right through the farm of adele turner. the beltline goes through her farm that she and her husband have had since 19506789 big, federal deficit spending, a big beltway, a big porkway, right through her farm. amendment also prohibits construction of highways in foreign countries which this bill contains. >> mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be -- the house will be in order. the gentleman may continue. >> the house is still not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. if members will please refrain from conversations on the floor. the gentleman may continue. mr. polis: mr. speaker, the bill before us provides gas tax funds , $30 million a year, for a 325-mile canadian baconway, right through the yukon out of the pocket of american families into the canadian baconway. the next time my colleagues are at ho

i'm a birmingham native.ay, i am in a historical park which in the first week of may, 1963, it public safety commissioner confronted marchers, telling them to stop marching, it was a violation of safety, but they utilize their first amendment rights, which states that have the freedom of speech, petition, assembly, and to work as they please. today, i am going to visit three destinations that are important to alabama's history that utilize the first amendment. i am going to the 16th street baptist church, the high school, and one more place, which will be disclosing the end of the documentary. now, our first destination, the 16th street baptist church. ♪ turn me around nobodyoing to let ♪ [applause] [unintelligible] all places. >> our first destination is the 16th street baptist church. it was here where assemblies were made and held. the southern christian leadership conference organized demonstrations and gave speeches in that pulpit. we held several meetings of 16th street baptist church and other places.

at the age of five he was arrested and spent time in a birmingham jail after joining martin luther king's protest. jeff hager, abc2 news. >> great news there. >>> you want to know who else made this list? head to abc2news.com where you can click and find all the 100 names right there on our home page. congratulations to dr. hrabowski. >>> mayor stephanie rawlings-blake along with students, parents and teachers pushed for the bottle tax proposal to fund schools. the mayor wants to increase it from two cents to five cents. she toured john eagan howard elementary school school. >> i'm standing here because he can't fight for what he needs. a lot of times the city has to stand in and pass things so we can really begin to flourish and pass on. >> the mayor's efforts to get general assembly to pass it failed this year. >>> the clock is ticking and the state education program is watching each passing second by marking it with a dooms day clark it. scribed of represents when the state's so-called dooms day budget will go into effect july 1st. they said education would be severely hit. anne arunde

a storm was in april of last year, that was right before the tornado outbreak in tuscaloosa and birmingham, alabama. >>> abc2news.com is your source for everything that happens in tornado alley. teams of storm chasers, many stream video live so you can see them as they race to get close so they can get pictures of the storms. go to abc2news.com/weather and click on the tornado alley link at the top of the page. the there will ver be another hurricane irene ever game. the name irene is being retired from hurricane names. normally a name can be used every six years, because the 2011 hurricane killed 49 people and caused $15 billion many damages, it won't be used again. >>> man prosecutors and police say was responsible for a double fatal hit and run crash that killed two girls last summer will walk free. the verdict came down a few hours ago. brian kuebler joins us live with more. >> the teenagers were killed when police say it was ruben dunn who hit them on mlk and kept going. it was the same argument put on by prosecutors this week but didn't stick with the baltimore city jury who acquitte

the biggest difference between those and the ones we have dealt with previously, tuscaloosa and birmingham, these tornadoes were weaker, people survived when they were hiding in their bathrooms, their tubs. we are going to see accumulating snow in portions of eastern oregon into the mountainous areas, mountainous areas to the north of boise. spokane looks like we could see the snow levels coming down to the valley floor. pretty crazy stuff that it's that chilly out there. also with the chilly air coming in, sunshine in the morning in the northwest. we city tsee the instability sh popping up. the air mass is cold enough that we get small hail, too. we'll watch that from medford northward up to oregon. the mountains dealing with a little bit of snow. we're okay today, arizona, las vegas, is looking okay. that's a lse showers in the mt. shasta area. san diego, okay, a little cool. >>> looks like we're done, we've had one big storm after another in the west. looks like we'll get a break towards the weekend. >> that's a good time for it to happen. >>> coming up, internet giants squabble, airlin

dynamic country in latin america terms of rnational tr rror: rort gwynne,ar from the university of birminghamn studying the roots of chile's dramatic economic success and the effects of this rapid change on the chilean people. chile strengthened its market economy and export programs in the 1970s and '80s under a repressive military regime now as a democracy, its annual imports and exports were each around $18 billion by 2001. oe pos e uc of imar economicctivities, meaning e harvest ofrops or ts e for instance, chile produces one-fifth of the world's copr. this is a satellite image of the escondida mine. che extracts resources from an incredible range of natural environments. the barren ground cover surrounding the mine reveals one of the driest places on earth-- the atacama desert. gchficot is much like north america's, the abut in reverse. here, it's the north that is mostly dry and brown, is mbut as you movsouthica's, thtoigher latitus,e. the green color of this thatsatellite photomosaicown, reveals an ecological zone with great potential for market-motivated exports. along chile's coast,

head the second inaugural address and the letters from birmingham jail and the passages from the classic history that has been written about the country whether it's written in the last month or 100 years ago. let them discover not just the pull of history, but again, how these people and those moments can come back to life and convey with a powerful use of our language. i couldn't agree more about it has to be done early. if you want to get a child interested in the founting fath fathers, have them read ben and me about a mouse that lived in ben franklin's hat. my first was historian when i was 6. he said of all the great ideas, they were not ben's. they were his. it's very well research and superbly written. i used it with my own children and grandchildren. it always works. these things work. generation after generation. always get them to read above their level. never ask them to read junk. boring tedious history. forget about memorizing dates. that's what books are for. you can look them up. >> thank you. >> i do have something i would like to say in response to that. some of my most

mission civil rights leaders have vowed to make the city of sanford's name as important as selma and birmingham are for racial justice. as hundreds marched on the place where trayvon was gunned down. >> we'll use sanctions, use boycotts, we'll use civil disobedience. we'll use every weapon in the nonviolent arsenal. >> i think that we just need to relax a little bit. >> reporter: julie just said what many here feel. in this place that calls itself the friendly city. proud of its historic downtown and waterfront promenade. merchants say tourism is down. >> i feel sorry for the family and sorry for the kid, but he's passed away. enough is enough. >> we came because the parents asked us to come. >> reporter: and one person who encouraged protestors to come was this freshman at trayvon marlten's high school. >> he came from our school, and he was friends with a lot of people, and people were really close to him. he was like family. >> that was nbc's ron allen reporting. marches in martin's honor were also held in long island, michigan, and even in london. the shooting remains under investigation. >

and to atlanta and birmingham. rain soaks i-10, from tallahassee to new orleans. and by this evening, it will be snowy on parts of i-84 and 90 in the cascades and northern rockies. >> and if you're taking to the skies, airport delays are possible in atlanta, charlotte and new orleans. >>> well, some quick thinking on the part of a 3-year-old boy in colorado springs turned what could have been a tragedy into a very happy ending. >> the boy's dad had just stepped outside his car in a convenient store parking lot, when someone jumped in and sped away with the boy still inside. the carjacker let the boy out in front of a nearby house, where he had the presence of mind to ring the doorbell in the middle of the night and say, help me, i'm cold. he was able to say his name and his parents' names. and police reunited the family. >> smart kid. >>> there is heartbreak, though, for a chicago area family this morning after her husband and father died in a bizarre attack. anthony hensley drowned when his kayak was overturned by an aggressive swan. swans are known to be protect

. >> julie in birmingham, alabama. probably the last. caller: hello? >> yes, go ahead, please. to . caller: julie, are you there? to yes, i am there be not. caller: i think that your book is a wonderful thing. it is a great idea. the reasons behind it are very important, and i just wanted to say thank you for writing the ok

this is the time of year we dealt with the tuscaloosa and bir birmingham and horrible weather last yearming up, an ugly divorce battle. the ugly truth from a former child disney star. and the actress who says everyone's out to get her. >>> plus, one of the entertainment world's biggest earners earns just a little bit more. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. h a car insurance claim. ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man. [ dennis ] only allstate puts their money where their mouth is. yup. [ dennis ] claim service so good, it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can always count on them. unlike randy over there. that's one dumb dude. ♪ the new claim satisfaction guarantee. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in m

wrote a letter from a birmingham jail. only this day, that 17th of april, he had to raise the question, why are we here, we're here because injustice is here. and 49 years later, we come into this room in this senate building, muslim, jew, catholics, they want to know why we are here with visitor badges, we are here because injustice is still here. how all of america paused when it is that we heard the glaring report about trayvon martin. here is a young man, not driving while black, but walking while black and profiled and we all have the 911 tape to prove it. what is his crime? he looked suspicious. we get to a place that in middle class america, you have suspicious because you have on an athletic uniform. what is your crime? you're suspicious because you have a bag of 69 cent skittles, or, in fact, a can of arizona iced tea. what is the crime of millimete s millions of americans who are now afraid to walk outside of their homes? not that he was with the bad company. it's not that he was apart of a gang it was not that h

. >> read lincoln's second inaugural address, read the letters from the birmingham jail. read the great passages from the classic history that's been written about the country whether something was written last month or something that was written 100 years ago. and let them discover not just the pull of history but again, how these people and those moments can come back to life offin convey with a powerful use of our language. and the -- i couldn't agree more about it has to be done early. if you want to get a child interested in the founding fathers, have them read a book called "ben and me," by robert -- >> we doe. >> you know it? it's about a mouse who lived in ben franklin's hat. >> good, good. >> and i encountered him my first revisionist historian when i was 6 and he said that all of ben's great ideas were wonderful, but they weren't ben's. they were his, amos's. and it's very well researched. it's superbly written. i have used it with my own children, with my own grandchildren. it always works. >> all right. these things work, generation after generation. always ge

coming through the southeast bringing some of the showers and storms into atlanta, coming out of birmingham headed up toward asheville this morning. this is what it's providing, the moisture us for and the cloud cover and those showers that are coming out of the western carolines and -- carolinas and southwestern virginia headed toward the washington metro. the models i think are underplaying the showers that are coming in our direction. i think this will be a little farther east than what it's showing at 9:00. i think the rain is going to be pretty much over us here with some showers around. any thunder will be confined well to the south. the showers on and off through the day. you see it's not everywhere but that threat exists with that green area spotchy around here. tomorrow we turn nicer for a couple of days before another system brings us a much bigger rain event later saturday through monday. 60 today. showers at times. tonight down to about 50 or so. 70 tomorrow, nice thursday. pretty nice friday. we'll be in the mid if not upper 70s. by saturday afternoon showers and storms will be

robin in birmingham alabama.too. >> uh-huh. >> i do not understand the right-wing mentality that says that poor people in this country should have the same standard of liveings as people in a third hv world famine stricken country. refrigerators and air conditioners are not luxuries. >> right. >> i don't understand why they think -- >> people died in chicago -- >> yeah. >> they die in birmingham without air conditioning. that's just nuts. >> right. >> don't you love how being lectureedly multi-millionaires like sean hannity about how to be poor better. you have a refrigerator and air conditioning. >> what an elitist. >> yeah. [ nbc "nightly news" theme ] >> i love this. more of the same parties if elected. the republican parties economic platform going to be the same as the bush years, just updated. meaning even worse. >> great. >> awesome. >> somebody said let's see -- she said it is lowering taxes so small businesses can grow blah blah blah blah blah wa wa wa wa. she was asked how is that different from the bus

when is there an appropriate time people need to go back and read the letter from the birmingham jail written by martin luther king. and and what did bush and what why did he write that letter because ministers and city leaders are saying you guys are outside agitators were organized long down here and this is inappropriate it's not timely a when is a timely to demonstrate and protest when you think that there is injustice. and speaking of that in justice in the in the national media and the mainstream media in america there's not a lot of coverage because trayvon martin case is a sample of at least in the first few weeks you mention three weeks there's not a lot of mention of crime against african-americans i mentioned during the break i mentioned the phrase black on black crime white on black crime and my response was a remark my response is that you know why do i not hear the term white on white crime i suspect that just as many white people kill right people in america i suspect that if you go to a predominantly hispanic community most brown people kill brown people so why don't w

nation's civil rights leaders have vowed to make the city of sanford's name as infamous as selma and birmingham were in the 1960s for racial injustice. as hundreds once again converged on the place where george zimmerman gunned down trayvon martin and claimed self-defense. >> we'll use sanctions. we'll use boycotts. we'll use civil disobedience. we'll use every weapon in the non violent arsenal. >> reporter: in a rare public comment, martin's older brother said he does not believe zimmerman's relatives, who claim his brother attacked and threatened to kill the crime watch volunteer. >> that doesn't sound like my brother at all. >> reporter: this week on piers morgan tonight, robert zimmerman insisted his brother had to fire to save his life. >> and there would have been george dead had he not acted decisively in that moment when he was being disarmed. >> i think we just need to relax. >> reporter: julie tongs just said what many feel in this place many call the friendly city. proud of its historic downtown, m merchants say business is down and everyone wants the tragedy resolved by investigator

that's why we didn't see a joplin or tuscaloosa or birmingham type of situation out of this. all in all, five fatalities is bad enough but we did not see widespread devastation through the region. a lot of those twisters were open farmland. in the pictures, you know, still amazing. there's still a lot of damage out there. it was probably more tornado chasers out there with this outbreak than ever before. so, if there were tornadoes out there, they were spotted. the one thing about the woodward, oklahoma, tornado. that was actually the third tornado warning of the day. it happened right about midnight and it looks like the tornado sirens did not go off. so they're going to be investigating exactly what happened there and why those people didn't get more of a heads-up. so yesterday we had ten more tornadoes. that's 136 reported tornadoes over the weekend. that storm is now over wisconsin, and get ready for an unbelievably warm day off the east coast. it's the same storm system that's responsible for the warmth. we have showers and thunderstorms in louisiana. the tornado threat

steve osunsami, abc news, birmingham. >> and our thanks to steve and everyone who joined him in that report. >>> and tonight, our modern american families are starting to plan family vacations. and today, we learned how much the average american family vacation will cost. and also, the number one destination. this year, abc's paula faris, a new member of our abc news team, brings us that story. >> reporter: with summer just around the corner, you may feel a little burned if you're just starting your vacation planning. and the modern family is going to pay the price. families driving this summer will spend 6% more on gas than they did a year ago. and if you are flying, tickets are up a whopping 18% since 2010. a $400 coast to coast flight today is 72 bucks extra out of your pocket. how can you navigate through the turbulence? travel consultants. that's right, agencies are back, and reportedly flying high, after experiencing two consecutive years of growth. largely because travelers can't spend hours on websites and are booking more extravagant vacations to number one destinations like

then of course, a little girl from birmingham, alabama, the most segregated big city in america, where her parents can't take her to a restaurant or a movie theater but they have her absolutely convinced she may not be able to have a hamburger at woolworth's but could be president but becomes secretary of state instead. america has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect. i think we'll do it again and it will be a good thing because it is critical that the freest and the most compassionate and the most generous, this extraordinary place, this exceptional country called the united states of america also continues to be the most powerful. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. that was truly inspiring. a deep look at our history where we are today and what we need to do in the future. that's exactly what the country needs to hear. thank you very much for that. we now have some time for some questions from the audience. we have some ground rules here. we have two people in the aisles with the microphone. so if you could wait until they come to you a

natasha in birmingham, michigan. you are on. >> hi, i understand that she did some research on wal-mart. did you have been to run into any of the employees that are so poorly paid or are not given enough hours to work so that they have use food stamps? i think that is just appalling when the ceos of the companies are billionaires?. >> for the book i worked undercover at wal-mart so is working alongside folks in both detroit and kalamazoo area. and it's definitely true that a lot of people do not make enough money at wal-mart to sort of pale their bills and so there cannot be stamps on the program. also natasha you are familiar with this from michigan, there is also a very strong sense using government benefit any service grapevine figure out how to do that is if they can. >> you also write about learning that people, families, husbands and wives were together bombarded people stay for a 10 year period with the dynamic behind both of those things click >> this is interesting for me. and that's been a shift i was worki

crazy alert poltergeists appalled a nation paul bin birmingham england is being frequented by a creepy customer a groping ghost customers and staff at the one hundred seventy year old queen's arms pub report that a ghost residing in the pub frequently pinches their ball. and staff have nicknamed the ghost grasper after casper the friendly ghost except grasper is a bit too friendly actually be seen here a waitress at the pub is one of grasper is victims still local newspaper quote my instant reaction was that it might have been a sleazy bloke trying his luck but when i spun around ready to give him a piece of my mind there was no one there the staff of the pub of called in a team of ghostbusters to investigate grasper and his paranormal pinching so watch out ladies drunken men may not be the only thing a lot to deal with next time you go to a bar. after the break the only national organization focused on the needs of restaurant workers held a rally here in washington d.c. drawing attention to the struggles these workers face dr jill stein green party candidate for president was at that

. >> birmingham, alabama, kathy, a democrat, you're on. hi. >> caller: hi, i'm so glad you brought this up. walmart has been a thorn in my side for years. i saw a show on msnbc that tons and tons of manufacturing plants that they have in china. they're also hiring, i saw this woman, her 10-year-old brother is working at one of these plants in china, and they also, when i came down here from al -- from new jersey, alabama, i couldn't believe this so-called union they have down here. they start their workers at $7 an hour. what kind of union is that? you know? and walmart is supposed to be such an american institution, but what really, really irks me now is that i'm on social security, and i have to shop at walmart because they're the cheapest place around, and they're not doing right by the people of this country, and by the people of china. >> thank you, kathy. >> i think one of the reasons walmart and this investigation has gotten so much attention is that it is walmart. there have obviously been labor and environmental issues surrounding

story christmas time she said muslims want to ban christmas in one of the local authorities here in birmingham and use a ludicrous story and when it went the other newspapers looked into it there was nothing to it it was a joke top civil servants sitting in an ivory tower saying that muslims might be offended by christmas and they do not speak to any muslims so these are the stories and if you want me to go you know the examples then look the more the mumbai terrorist attacks in two thousand and eight the british newspapers the day after those attacks said there was a british connection the british muslims were involved in those crimes and what happened twenty four hours later there was no british involvement whatsoever and these are the source stories their concerns are necessary we're not going to judge you let me jump in some ways that each of us enjoy to roger if you want me to give me money roger can give you this is going to hurt your head you know come on let's all have our say look i'd just like three points from ahmed right you speak for moderate islam in europe which is a major proba

you can go to birmingham to date and go to kelley ingram park and you can fit down and talk to the many homeless veterans who hang out there. i don't know if you consider that the magnitude. >> allegedly sacked as i don't want to be misunderstood. the movies one important point. i don't want to be misunderstood. expressing important truth is one thing. i'm just talking about people who chose channel all of the negative and the tree all of many experiences they've never actually had that in many ways to create the human spirit. so now, i don't want to say it all that we should never lie or be deceitful. but it speaks to something all too often in black art in general and bad days and challenge wrappers. i've challenged movie producers. the simplicity -- the simplicity of the character development. in other words, if you watch the god author and the corleone family can be presented as criminals involved in a criminal enterprise but one sends out the dark knight and the mother is very governing figures of familial atmosphere and the grandfather is a murderer, but you get a complex picture

two full years for the civil rights act before the water hoses in birmingham -- >> host: did it help that huntsville was an educated city? that it was in northern alabama? did that make any differences? >> guest: what helped more than anything was that huntsville had tied its stake to the state's history, and there were a lot of people, engineers and scientists had descended an alabama, and the city wanted to just associate itself away from the rest of the state, and that helped them, you know, to negotiate quietly, so, yeah, from the beginning i have memories of my parents, civil rights activists, and after the voting civil right act passed and and then they turned to politics. i grew up in the national democratic party, and i have memories, you know, my father ran for governor against george wallace in 1970s, and i just have memories of my summers being taken all around the state, those counties that were the center of the plantation economy during the antebellum era and it felt like particularly during that election of 1970, it felt like i was carried to every black church in the

summed it up beautifully in that one sentence that we are all familiar with in his letter from the birmingham jail. "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." and that says it all. let justice roll down that's what we are about. >> well sheryl thank you so much for sharing that with us, it's helped us out immensely in understanding lutheranism and protestantism. >> well thank you, thank you very much. >> see what i mean about the context, it brings me back to one of my semi-controversial statements, not that i'd ever say anything controversial, but there is no such thing as religion. i'm talking myself out of a job with that one, but you listen to sheryl pero or rev. lowe and you understand how successful they have been in meeting the needs of the community. i say there is no such thing as religion because there are religious people there are always people practicing in religion and when we move into the social dimension you get that sense it has to meet those needs. ultimately spirituality, religious organizations have to meet those kinds of needs. so it's a challenge though, an

it was a hot bed. >> what role did the first amendment have in the history of birmingham?> my first place was killing gram park. it was known as west park before that and that was where d.j. was held when all the african-american school boards and school girls left out of their classrooms to go and march for their freedom. >> how did the different sides utilize the first amendment? >> well in terms of the foot soldiers, they really, really, really used the freedom of speech when they transient while they marched and they helped dr. martin luther kick. i think that he really wanted to see the world in a better place and he thought that the speech and religion and government help us. >> what about the other side? >> will connor, for example, he was the birmingham health commissioner back during the 1960's in the civil rights movement. he dumping laws that said there were boycotts and he said that african-americans shouldn't do this, they shouldn't do that and he use his first amendment rights. and he also petitions them saying that they shouldn't be able to have the same rig