public policy, about black identity, relating to a contemporary politics impose the importance of dubois? the turn of the century. >> what the book focuses on is what has his best known book, and that is most influential. but in many ways not well understood book. .. the influence idea that more than any other 20th-century african-american thinker dubois is five, you asked about it. he has cast a shadow over the other african americans the risk of but more generally beyond just the world of african-americans, but just a shadow over anyone who has thought about african-american identity. part of the idea's going back to the canine and engaging to block -- dubois political thought, if we arrive at some of the assumptions and our own thinking about many of these issues. >> in the west 113 years are so, what practical effect has dubois had? where is his lineage? >> of course he was one of the great inspiration's of the civilized movement. i think it is well known that john mearsheimer is deaf. i used that, roger wilkinson. the announcement of du bois as an epigraph. and he says there, you kn

you can see the train leaving the station near church and dubois. that does not mean the damage has been repaired. we got an update saying the single tracking trains from west portal to the embarcadero. still noninbound service from the. n judah and j line right now. this bus not in service right now but aboveground muni buses still working this morning. now what happened. i want you to take a look at this. this is work yesterday after a train with a damaged piece of equipment a pentograph entered the wire. it connects the vehicle to muni's overhead wires. under ground service went down around 11:30 yesterday morning. shutting down five lines. lines k, l, m, and j which all caused a lot of confusion. passengers took a muni metro train to a church station. and could transfer to a j or n vehicle. they immediately made shuttle buses available for riders. inspectors tried to do what they could and help direct passengers. >> got here at church and dubois. went inside and pulled down 500 feet of wire. knocked down some of the power source and pulled the s

dubois. he went on to graduate with honors from the university of michigan law school. he excelled at michigan while waiting tables at a local fraternity. he is little known today but walden really inspired a generation of african-american lawyers including vernon jordan, a lawyer -- the counsel among presidents who i'm sure some of you have heard of. jordan called walden so impressive. he said, quote, i wanted to be a lawyer just like walden. i wanted to walk like him and talk like him and hang out my shingle on auburn street just like walden. above all else, pragmatists like walden and the black college president prioritized voting rights as the path to black power. and here we see walden challenging the so-called white primary, the laws, the tradition of excluding african-americans from the vote in georgia and elsewhere. and here is the result of his activism in 1946, after the fall of the white primary blacks lined up all over the streets in atlanta, eager to exercise the franchise. and yet walden and other pragmatists were called uncle tom's and the question is, wh

dubois, and how jackie robinson had broken the baseball barrier. and we remembered the opera singer who was not allowed to sing in the hall and had to sing in lincoln center. all the discrimination and the local in justices. like, everything was separate and unequal. the school was inadequate. we could not go to the hospitals. they built a house adjacent to the main hospital. the white people were not supposed to be in the same room with an n-person. you know the n-word? i said to myself at the end of the day that i love my country and i'm glad that that day, i took a stand. i saw through the supreme court that the flaws that america had tried to correct them by removing those horrible signs -- "white" and "colored." i said when i testified at the trial, i went through how we were treated, and the lady dramatize it, so i do not have to go through that, but it is the whole system of separate but unequal. it is understates rights -- is under states' rights. after lincoln had freed us from slavery, they instituted this law, separate but equal, and the

trying to do and what the pragmatists were trying to do is reconcile the theories, the philosophies of dubois and booker t. wilson while battling white supremacists. moreover, i think it's very notable that the criticism of school desegregation and particular that walden offered came to be shared by lots and lots of people in the civil rights movement. now, all of whom brought something more complicated than integration. then, of course, people came to understand that one needed nurturing teachers, a good curriculum and representation on school boards, for instance, so you could say he was prescient. above all else, i would argue, a bottom-up view on constitutional history, not these unsung warriors, organizerses, women, men in interaction with national institutions helped to shape and give meaning to the constitution. they were people on the ground and yet they were law-shapers. they were law interpreters even lawmakers. if you begin to consider their role in the passage of the landmark civil rights legislation. now, i talked about a few people who were public figures and you're already fami

dubois said, "to have a satisfying work and work that the world needs is as near to heaven as one can." this is what i wish for you, the class of 2011, from the bottom of my heart. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much. thank you, beate sirota gordon, a mills woman who has changed the world. thank you. >> on september 25, nine african-american students faced down a mob and helped integrate little rock central high school. many gene brown was one of the nine. she spoke in little rock talking about the civil-rights struggle during her lifetime and what they mean to today's graduates. this is about 15 minutes. >> faculty, staff, a graduate, your friends and family, i have asked if i would make people cry. i said this was not about me, this is about them. when i first guarded thinking k, i couldn't think of anything that had to do with a lot. i did not think i knew anything. my doctor reminded me using words that question my mental health that i might know something about the law. she reminded me i went to jail for sitting in. i may convicted tree hugger. [laughter] i have

dubois said. "to have satisfying work and work that the world needs is as near to heaven as one can get." and this is what i wish for you, the class of 2011, from the bottom of my heart. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you, beate sirota gordon, mills woman who has changed the world and continues to change the world for a more peaceful and just society. thank you. >> on september 25, 1957, nine african-american students face down a mob and helped integrate little rock's central high school. minnijean brown trickey was one of them. she spoke at the university of arkansas, talking about the civil rights struggles during her lifetime and what they mean to today's graduates. this is 15 minutes. >> faculty, staff, a i have asked if i would make people cry. i said this was not about me, this is about them. when i first guarded thinking k, i couldn't think of anything that had to do with a lot. i did not think i knew anything. my doctor reminded me using words that question my mental hea