another notable black journalist was max robinson. 1978 became the first african-american to co-anchor a network news broadcast. robinson's smooth baratone was so compelling that a racist news station once hired him to read the news with the screen blocking his face. imagine having a voice so irresistible that even racists say, you ain't touching my daughters, but you can penetrate my ears all you want. now, despite facing discrimination, robinson became a success, and he did it in style. legend has it that robinson once showed up to cover a fire in los angeles while wearing a fur coat. that's like wearing a fish net vest to a funeral. which is also something i did in my three-part youtube documentary "nobody wants to hit this." the "new york times" called it pitiful. bitches. and, finally, zernona clayton, who was the first black woman to host a tv show in the south, opening the door for future black women television hosts like oprah winfrey, tam ron hall, and wendy williams, who i will not say anything bad about because i'm not tryi

host: lawrence roberts that is a cbs news report, max robinson's voice, the longtime journalist now passedway telling the story of may day 1971 which you have captured in a recent book by the same name. in a nutshell what is the story of may day? mr. roberts: the book focuses on one season of dissent you see in washington in 1971. it is the most intense fusion of dissent in washington's history given how many protests there were and how long they were sustained. they were about antiwar movement's effort to force president richard nixon to bring an end to the war in vietnam which had been raging for six years, and what happened in the spring of 1971, all of these different elements of the peace movement came to washington in some sort of chaotic choreography and held a bunch of different demonstrations that started with vietnam veterans against the war. there was a mass march around the white house. and the finale of this several weeks of demonstrations was called may day, and it was put on by a group from a part of the u.s. calling themselves the may day crowd and the idea was to bring tho