i think i was inspired by michele alexander's booke." >> it is my pleasure to say, ms. colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to m

michelle alexander calling it the new jim crow. between the 1960's and 1970's, the prison population across the country doubled. in the 1970's and 1980's, it tripled. in california, and build no new prisons between the 1960's and 1970's, the height of political action. between the 1970's and 1980's, they build more prisons in california alone and in the past 100 years. one thing that has happened is the warehousing of black folks in these facilities. if you think about what slavery is, the parallels, it is not just a metaphor when you talk about modern-day slavery. slavery denied black folks the ability to be mobile. you were trapped on one location, in a plantation. it broke up our families. it subjected us to daly wants and violence. anything can happen to you -- an example to you for somebody else. it exploded us for our free labor. all of those things happen in prison today. the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and over 25% of the world's prison population. that is a big part of the equation. i am not waiting for superman,

those of you who have read michele alexander's booke, it says that this needs to be a national conversation. part of the national conversation, i hope, is here. that is why we are going to turn it over to you, to engage in some conversation with our guests. >> i just want to say to the young people today, especially teenagers, boys and girls, some of whom might have been incarcerated, what advice would you give to them? >> first thing i would say -- believe in yourself. if you do not believe in yourself and have some kind of faith and try to work hard, and listen to your teachers and take advantage of all the resources that you have, learning resources. >> today is super bowl sunday. what can our black men in the nfl do to help us have some great people? that is the only place i get to see a positive role model is by watching sports. i think we have a lot of cultures we could really bring together, but we are not joining. >> great question. in 1968, when we saw the black system in the air, that did not happen in a vacuum. it happened in the context of a broader movement. i think we have to

. >> i don't know if michelle alexander's work talks about the disenfranchisement in the prison system. >> when i first saw this, the north carolina pretty starkly, both at registration and then at voting. so you immediately think disenfranchisement whenever you see that kind of agenda because we know that's going to be -- that there will be a gender gap. if you look across states, it seems to be relevant to disenfranchisement laws. there's this gigantic gap. >> it's definitely historic. you go back and look at the documents particularly around when women were trying to get the vote. the issue with the black vote vote and it's not going make a difference. if you get black women to vote, it's going to be a problem. >> it gets messy. if you go badge to nashville in the teens, you find white republican women working with black women in pursuit of the franchi franchise. >> up until the point of when the amendment actually came through and then there was a huge split, working with, to the extent black women said we'll leave as long as you actually take out the states rights piece. but anywa

certain votes when you just read about it well part of the id well let's move on to you ok michelle alexander is an author she's written about our criminal justice system the war on drugs houses all considered the new jim crow and so she has this op ed in the new york times basically reminding us that more than ninety percent of the time people actually don't go to a full trial with a jury if they're arrested for something they have to just take the plea bargain and usually go you know serve a little bit of time in jail but she says that the system could actually be crashed if everyone took advantage of that sixth amendment right do you think that's true totally one thousand percent true yes of course i mean we don't have a criminal justice system at least those original vision we have a plea bargain factory system and that's it so the government says you have committed even a first time offense you've committed this thing we have a jailhouse snitch that pins you at this crime that you didn't commit and you can either go to jail for ten years if you fight it or. we'll give you one year on the

it's a vicious cycle of our young men being part of what sister michelle alexander calls the new jim you plantation. >> do you think the movement was made stronger because of the women in the movement? >> absolutely. i mean, i think there's no question that throughout history from the middle passage to now to slavery to all thingings we've gone through that without the strength of our women, that we would not be here, period. that certainly, certainly was eves to me as a young man growing up in the movement and black panther party, absolutely. >> believe me, i was enlight ped by the panther party. being a student in temple university, doing papers on two people, and i want to know the status. if one still exiled in cuba and the other still in prison? >> yeah. the simple answer to both of those are yes. she's still exiled, and probably will be given the nature of what happened, what i talked about, us moving towards the right in terms of policy, and in south africa, when nelson mandela was president, he had reconciliation hearings saying, listen, things happen on both sides, have a co

been cut so you are setting up this vicious cycle of our young men being part of what sister michelle alexander calls the new plantations. >> de think the movement is stronger than the movement being part of the party? >> i'm sorry brother could you repeat that? >> you think the movement was made stronger because of the women's movement? >> absolutely. no question throughout our history from the middle passage to now to slavery to all the things that we've gone through that without the strength of our women we wouldn't be here, period, and that certainly was evident to me as a young man, you know, going up in the movement and the black panther party. absolutely. >> i was enlightened by the party being a student at temple university i did pay. i ( on some of them right. the simple answer to the both of those are yes she is still exiled and probably will be given the nature of what happened but i talked about us moving towards the right in terms of the policy and in south africa when nelson mandela became president he had truth and reconciliation hearings and was able to sit down and say listened

lot of young men being part of what michele alexander called the new plantation. >> do you think the movement was stronger with women being part of the black panther party? they you think the movement was made stronger because of the women in the movement? >> absolutely. no question that throughout our history from middle passage to now to all the things we have gone through that without the strength of our women that we would not be here period. that is certainly evident to me as a young man growing up in the movement. >> i was in line by the panther party being a student at temple university. i did favors to the colleague. i hope i'm pronouncing it right. i would like to know the status, still exile in cuba and colleague still in prison. she is still exiled. >> and probably will be given the nature of what i talked-about us moving toward the right in terms of policy. when nelson mandela became president, sit down and listen. things happen on both sides. let's have a conversation so we can move over. most other industrialized civilized nations have a limit of the amount of time they

murphy e-mails in to you, professor, please comment on michelle alexander's thesis in the new jim crow that today's system of has incarceration is a reinvention of the under caste of slavery and jim crow. >> guest: yeah. well, i think that professor alexander's book has been useful to, in publicizing and in highlighting the problem and the injustice of mass incarceration and hyperincarceration and hyperpunitiveness in america. the united states imprisons a larger percentage of its population, by far, by far than any other advanced society in the world. and it does this, in my view, needlessly. i think that, um, we are creating needless misery in the way in which we are just wasting lives by putting people in prison who ought not be in prison. and be so i'm glad that she's shone a light on that, and i think her title, "the new jim crow," has focused people's attention on that. on the other hand, do i have some criticisms with the title? i do, because, you know, the system of jim crow segregation was a very specific system. it was a function of explicit white supremacy. what we have now

. >> alexander, gretchen and tim, thank you for being with us this morning. >>> michele bachmann at 7d her thoughts on the rush limbaugh controversy which continues and, of course, a 2012 race. she will weigh in on that, as well. >>> 39 minutes now past 6:00 a.m. and, still ahead, something the surgeon general wants you to know about kids and smoking and here's a hint. it ain't good and it ain't getting better. elizabeth cohen is watching it closely and she'll explain in just a moment. you're watching early start. what's this? [ male announcer ] quaker oatmeal squares have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares on facebook. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today