that man was frederick douglass. here we are nearly 160 years later in the room where abraham lincoln and frederick douglass stood to unify the nation toward i'm joined by my incredible first lady, jill, and my incredible vice president, kamala harris. and the second gentleman, doug. doug is a hell of a lawyer, by the way. as president i have the honor of bestowing the medal of freedom on our nation's highest civilian honor on a group of truly extraordinary people. who gave their sacred effort. shape the culture and the cause of america. let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you have done to help this country. [applause] you all literally embody the nation's creed. out of many, one. a collection of people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and talents from different generations and different genders, using the remarkable gifts and unwavering passion to strengthen our resolve as one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. it matters. it really does matter. as

frederick douglass monthly at a different publication called the new national arab.hat was before the war were all kind of taking along the same lines, working towards the same goals. some of you may be wondering how much of a reach these newspapers had. ther, newspaper of frederick douglass had about 3000 subscribers at his peak, the same as "the liberator." in a population, about 33 million in 1860, having 3000 subscribers is not huge. but, given they are a fringe movement, even before the civil war, the abolitionist gain rs several thousand subscribers for many of these newspapers, doing a pretty good job in getting the word out. douglass follows along, following the example of william lloyd garrison , first and foremost, trying to expose, this is what slavery is really like, we will make it impossible for you to ignore these facts. these newspapers are consistent of reports, brutality, several examples, one issue of the north star in the late 1840s, talking about three slaves were hung in south carolina, another slave was hung in virginia for stealing some pork.

that man was frederick douglass. here we are, nearly 160 years later, in a room where abraham lincoln and frederick douglass stood to unify the nation. i'm joined by our incredible first lady, jill. >> we're joined by incredible vice president kamala harris and second gentleman doug. doug is a hell of a lawyer, by the way. finally get to get to practice again, huh? and for the final time as president, i have the honor of bestowing the medal of freedom on our nation's highest civilian honor. on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort to shape the culture and the cause of america. so let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to help this country. you all you all literally embody the nation's creed. e pluribus unum out of many. one. collection of people of different backgrounds, beliefs and talents from different generations and different genders, using the remarkable gifts and unwavering passion to strengthen our re

he's frederick douglass. interestingly, douglass, as you say in the quotation up here, he he's inspired in part by the example of william garrison and the liberator. so douglass is working slavery in many different kinds of ways he's he's published in his autobiography. he's giving these spellbinding lectures on the lecture circuit, trying to persuade northerners to oppose slavery, but then inspired in part by, the liberator, he decides in 1847 that he's going to start publishing his own newspaper. and you can see here he's picking up on on the the style of the liberator and goals of the liberator to express sympathy for african-americans in slavery. he's talking about this sympathy for my brethren in bonds. and he's talking about it's scathing denunciations of slaveholders, again, exposing those sins is much of what the abolitionist presses is trying to do is faithful exposÉs of slavery. all of this impresses douglass. and so he decides in 1847 he's going to create his own newspaper. and this is called the n

frederick douglass. here we are where abraham lincoln said unify the nation.led to join kamala harris. hell of a lawyer, by the way. [laughter] for the finalal time at the artf restoring the middle of freedom and a group of extraordinary who gave their sacred. let me just say to you, thank you for all you've done for this country, you embody the nation's out of many, one. people of different backgrounds and talents and generation in different genders, remarkable giftss and passion spent on our results as one nation, under god, liberty and justice for all. it matters it really does matter.. rock stars, sports stars. feed the hungry give hope to those who are hurting. it's amazing your innovation,zi hugh inspired so many lives. you answered the call to serve inan the lead others to do the same.e you defend the values of americans even when under attack. together incredible mark on our country. showing us it's possible as a nation beyond our capacity representing families and communities and appreciation same time. i would like to recognize those who are no longe

. >> that that man was fred -- frederick douglass. later where he stood with abraham lincoln to unify the nation. i'm joined by our incredible first lady, jill, incredible vice president kamala harris and second gentleman if doug. doug, he's a hell of a lawyer, by the way. [laughter] finally going to get to practice again, huh? [laughter] for the final time as president, i have the honor of bestow thing the medal of freedom on our nation's high civilian honor 40 on group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people. who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort to shape the culture and the cause of america. let me just say to the each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to help this country. ms. -- [applause] you all, you all literally embody the nation's creed, e e pluribus unum. out of many, one. collecting the people of different backgrounds, beliefs and talents, of different generations and different genders using the remarkable gifts and unwavering passion if -- on our resolve as one nation under god,

frederick douglass was a writer, you see. i mean, he was he was of our greatest writers by way, you know. and he understood the power of that, you know, my heroes, ida b wells was a writer. you know, james baldwin was a writer these are important. martin luther king, by the way, was a writer actually a really good one to you know what i mean? so i don't know where we are as a people without books, without writing. and so i was motivated by a desire to, on one level, demonstrate craft and talk about the craft, but also talk about the practical application of the craft and how to craft shapes our world and how it shapes our life. and to, you know, put some emphasis on that. you write about all of your books, kind of like as your children. would you mind reading that? it's on page 89, you have it. i got a book. i just to have a book. oh, beautiful. okay. yeah. oh, my actual children and my wife are not offended. um. almost of them, actually. okay. just to contextualize this. um, this is from a chapter where i'm going wild enough

you know, he shared a pulpit with frederick douglass in 1844. he actually intended to praise douglass in his speech. and for complicated reasons, he did not. i would love to know whether this did two people talk to each other. i mean, i wish there was some way to find out, but emerson's interactions with actual black people were scanty. and i think that's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. what you've assembled is extremely impressive of the way you deal with it, the way most have immersed yourself and all sorts of emerson. that's for sure. to ask one of those naive questions, which is why emerson walked through this huge labor. yeah, that's a good question. i haven't been an emerson fan boy my entire life. i really think was. around 2000, 25 years ago. the short version that i was having a very miserable time in my life in all sorts of different ways and as i've discovered, people who are in the midst of great tribulations are kind of often drawn to emerson. and it doesn't seem logical in a way, because he's not a personal essayist and he c

garrison, does not belong to lincoln, does not belong to maria weston, does not even belong to frederick douglass. it belongs to charles sumner. i put charles sumner in this incredible small but influential of non-presidential ents in american. that small benjamin franklin alexander. susan b, anthony. martin luther king jr. charles sumner rounds out that starting five right there. i think these people these folks this fight that group five is more influential than many presidents. but i put them in that group of non presidents that were extreme important in american. sumner does all that he does with remarkable. remarkable honesty. he's unbelievable. he's unbridgeable. he never, never compromised a principle for, the sake of political expediency that i could fight. so he does all of that while keeping up that sort of virtue that is very, very real. he also does all of that with some severe personal shortcomings. he's imperious. he looks down as his nose is at people. he's condescending. he's really elitist. he is almost humorless. he has a very difficult time getting along with people does not ha

a great marylander, frederick douglass said, "if there is no struggle, there is no progress.g. black lives matter! man: black lives matter! woman: black lives! crowd: matter! woman: thank you so much. ♪ reporter: not only may this actually be the most important election in our lifetime, it certainly will be the most unusual. ♪ reporter: states across the country are turning to mail-in voting in this election in an effort to allow americans to vote safely during the pandemic. holt: while most americans support the option of mail-in balloting, president trump launched a new attack on it today as he trails joe biden in the polls. president trump: they're gonna be sending out 80 million ballots. where are they going? who are they sending them to? they're trying to rig this election. reporter: the president's failure to address the pandemic continues to hurt him in poll after poll. asked if he would accept the election results, the president said, "i'll have to see." president trump: the only way we're gonna lose this election is if the election is rigged. remember that. it's the

the white house, president carter's journey from joint base andrews will take him across the frederick douglass memorial bridge. he'll travel into d.c. past the washington monument and the national mall, and then down pennsylvania avenue to the u.s. navy memorial. there, his casket will be carried to a caisson, a horse drawn military carriage, for the funeral procession to the u.s. capitol. there at the capitol. dignitaries will be on hand for a service in the capitol rotunda. vice president kamala harris, house speaker mike johnson and the new senate majority leader, john thune, will deliver eulogies after the service. members of the public are invited to pay their respects as president carter lies in state at the capitol this evening and through tomorrow ahead of his state funeral on thursday. let's go live now to cnn's phil mattingly, who is at joint base andrews just outside d.c. and, jeff, special air mission 39 is due to land any minute. >> yeah. special air mission 39. most people will look at the flight and think it's air force one. that's obviously only the case when the current presid

but camino, the constitution is a document that i think, to frederick -- frederick douglass, who was great interpreter of the constitution, who talked about how the constitution was used as a tool for oppression in that particular instance he was talking about the institution of slavery. but it also could be a document wielded for emancipation. that could be wielded for liberation. a lot of that depends on the ways in which the american people choose their leaders and our constitutional democracy. it is really up to all of us to engage in each generation with the constitution, and we have had before us generations of activists, abolitionists who worked to make the constitution through the amendment process a document that is more inclusive, that is more gala terrien, that is more just. and it is up to all of us to make good on the promises in the constitution and vote for people who will manifest that promise of the constitution. and, you know, i do think the founders envisioned that there would be people who would try to seek power in the united states who might use it for corrupt m