ladies and gentlemen, please welcome martin frost. [ applause ] >> well, thank you, david. it's good to be back. the former members of congress in partnership with the archives has a series of events like this. and y'all have been great to help us put these on. i think people here tonight will find it interesting. people watching it, streaming it online and people in the audience. before we hear from the truly outstanding panelists who volunteered their time to share their personal stories of civic engagement with you tonight, i'd like to share a quick work about our association, the former members of congress. as fmc, we bring together a bipartisan group of over 600 former representatives and senators who worked together in a bipartisan manner on a wide variety of projects. deepening the understanding of our democratic system and encouraging public service. as an association we've become extremely concerned about the lack of civic education in this country. whether you agree or disagree with our panelists on the issues they advocate, their engagement as citizens is based o

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome martin frost. [ applause ]

i will turn you over to martin frost of the united states association of former members of congress, who will introduce tonight's panelists. 26 years as a congressman from the 24th district of texas. from 1979 to 2005. during that time, he served eight years in the house democratic leadership. for years as chairman of the democratic and a lips congressional campaign committee. and four years as chair of the house democratic caucus. he was a member of the house rules committee, and the house budget committee.

frost in places. that will feel very different. hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm martine croxall.olating campaign finance laws, implicating him in criminal behaviour. this is a witchhunt and it's a disgrace. this has nothing to do what they started out, looking for russians involved in our campaign — there were none. it comes as mr trump's former campaign manager paul manafort is found guilty in a separate court for bank and tax fraud. we'll bring you the latest from washington. the trauma of being a victim of a financial scam — coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with 0lly. third test all over for england.

so, this evening, as you heard from martin frost. we are not debating the merits of the various issues you will hear about. we are probing the advocacy that was behind presenting these issues to the congress. and how, those who advocated, essentially, did it. and how, perhaps, what they did would have to be done a little differently in this century than it was in the last century. so, -- eleanor holmes norton, who i met in her advocacy days, way back when, and i just made the point, i think martin was saying there are 600 former members of congress. did you know that since the beginning of time, there have been about 10,500 members of congress? and guess how many of them were female? under 500. that is still the current statistic. so, it is with great pride that i would like to welcome one of my former sisters. eleanor holmes norton. thank you, jane. >> the question eleanor, are you a civil rights advocate in various guises? what turned you on to the issue -- issues, plural? and what did you do? looking back on your on activism, how