again, marshall stearns. >> a white professor, western mass. >> he brought the langston hughes up.de an automatic connection. i was not a professional pianist. i was not a professional musician. to make a long story short, he knew my interest in africa and african culture. as it turns out in 1961, their very first summit of african americans going to africa was in nigeria. and langston was part of that movement. and then later on with a great melba, i asked langston if he would write a freedom poem for me. the african country was just getting independence in 17 african countries got their independence in 1960. i wanted to create a work of music, this freedom of africa. langston wrote a freedom of home for me and also wrote the words to song i call "african lady, a close third dedicated to our mothers, sisters, the african women who were always in the background, who always support us. and finally -- >> can you play a little? which one? "african lady"? sure. ♪ >> you mentioned the freedom poland. do you remember it? >> what we did was this. as a boy, i was always upset in movies. th

my favorite american poet happens to be langston hughes, and that is because i was fired from my first teaching job from reading his poetry to my fourth graders. it was too dangerous. i was fired for curriculum deviation. i was hired shortly after for curriculum development by the johnson administration, but my favorite: world wide happens to be the irish poet william butler yeats, and they are lines many of us learn in school and then forget. he say the worst are full of passionate intensity. we need that passionate intensity on our side, on the side of the children, and i beg the president to summon the courage and audacity to give us the prophetic voice. if he does not, it will be a terrible betrayal of his growth. he will miss the opportunity to leave behind a legacy. tavis: we are clearly headed to a real debate about austerity. i do not believe austerity is the answer. some do. there will be a debate in coming weeks, but talk to me about this notion of compassion. there was this movement eight, 12 years ago to present that as an alternative, compassionate alternative. what happen

bros bierce -- ambrose bierce, langston hughes had all been sort of fascinated by the fact that at their moment in history there were all these euphemisms that were used for drunk. and, of course, in doing the book i had many, many helpers, some of whom are in this room tonight, that they go back to shakespeare, and a lot of them are unscrambling euphemisms in shakespeare. for example, when falstaff comes into the room and he's coming in the like this squinting, and so that was the word for drunk. so a lot of what i've been fascinated with, i've written a number of books, but more than a dozen are books about language, and they tend to be -- they range from the very serious books like i've done a baseball dictionary which has been in three decisions and is now about 10,000 entries which is more than most people want to know about baseball, but i look upon language as a recreation, as something, you know, i guess the term is recreational linguistics which is the ability to use languages as a placing, what drives at the cross word puzzles and scrabble games and things like that. language h

or they will name them for langston hughes, frederick douglass. i do not think a lot people should let them name the schools. [laughter] [applause] they should name it for people they do not like. [laughter] here are a few points. i will be unfashionable tonight. everyone in washington seems to think the way to solve the problems in our schools is to not give them another cent, another penny, to improve and make the schools look like places that are inviting and respect the value of children. aesthetics count. do not do that, but beat up on their teachers. that is the trend today. [applause] attack the unions. i heard about the teachers union from teachers in l.a. last fall. i flew to chicago to stand with them the day they went on strike. they were right to go on strike. [applause] i will tell you something. i am in schools all the time. when i was a young teacher, i remember this. schools are overwhelmingly -- the teachers are women. you go to a convention, if you are a guide, there are like 50 women for every guy. it is wonderful. i love it. [l

or they will name them for langston hughes, frederick douglass. should let the name the schools. [laughter] [applause] they should name it for people they do not like. [laughter] here are a few points. i will be unfashionable tonight. everyone in washington seems to think the way to solve the problems in our schools is to not give them another cent, another penny, to improve and make the schools look like places that are inviting and respect the value of children. aesthetics count. do not do that, but beat up on their teachers. that is the trend today. [applause] attack the unions. i heard about the teachers union from teachers in l.a. last fall. i flew to chicago to stand with them the day they went on strike. they were right to go on strike. [applause] i will tell you something. i am in schools all the time. when i was a young teacher, i remember this. schools are overwhelmingly -- the teachers are women. you go to a convention, if you are a guide, there are like 50 women for every guy. it is wonderful. i love it. [laughter] when they scapegoat teacher unions, the ruthless way

guest: listening to the caller, servants may of the point from langston hughes or he says "i, too, am american." there are african-americans who wanted to be part of the country, not necessarily feeling that the americans want them to be part of it. i would say going back to the first inaugural, because somebody had to clean the seats and do the labor work that made these inauguration's happen. going back, many instances that was in slave labor. sometimes they were free african-americans. but to a great degree, it was enslaved labor. that was part of building the white house and the capital. we look out on the mall and see that long line between the capitol and the white house which will be filled in with people during the ceremony. we should also not forget that those two buildings and the mall itself had been the place where slave auctions were held, people were captured and marched through the city came to that mall. so there's a lot of history that is resonating there as we look at these events unfold. for all of this to culminate in 2008 with an african-american becoming presiden