mr. morial: congress is dysfunctional? [laughter] mr.e have gotten away from some of the most onerous parts of no child left behind. more so in the senate and house, there is a very good faith effort -- we don't know if it will be successful -- but republicans and democrats for time are starting to work together. i want to thank you so much, the urban league, other civil rights organizations -- this is not an education law, it is a civil rights law. thatve to make sure whether kids get educated or not is not a state-by-state decision. this is in our nation's best interest. as is the right thing to do for the black community or hispanic community, this is the right thing to do for our country. for the first time ever, our nation's school minority is the majority. whether we will help every child be successful for the whole nation will struggle, and having you and others stand up and say we need to be held accountable, we need to make sure people are graduating, we need to make sure we are measuring progress, that voice from the civil righ

mr. morial: congress is dysfunctional? [laughter] mr.e have gotten away from some of the most onerous parts of no child left behind. more so in the senate and house, there is a very good faith effort -- we don't know if it will be successful -- but republicans and democrats for time are starting to work together. i want to thank you so much, the urban league, other civil rights organizations -- this is not an education law, it is a civil rights law. thatve to make sure whether kids get educated or not is not a state-by-state decision. this is in our nation's best interest. as is the right thing to do for the black community or hispanic community, this is the right thing to do for our country. for the first time ever, our nation's school minority is the majority. whether we will help every child be successful for the whole nation will struggle, and having you and others stand up and say we need to be held accountable, we need to make sure people are graduating, we need to make sure we are measuring progress, that voice from the civil righ

mr. morial, it's great to see you. thanks for being here with us. >> thanks, rachel. thanks for having me and i really appreciate listening to those clips from ten years ago. >> yeah. i feel like -- i'm 42 now, i was 32 then. it's not like i was so young then that i can't remember it, but i was newly shocked, newly very emotional not just about the toll but about the governmental failure that happened at that time. i wonder if you feel like that's being put in proper perspective right now, ten years out. obviously this visit by the president today is a big deal for new orleans, but do you feel like we've grasped it and remember it properly? >> you know, i think that the film clips that you've aired need to continue to be aired. because only by reminding people what happened, only about reminding people about the ineptitude and incompetence at every level of government and the way that people suffered, the way people lost their lives, the way people were in sweltering heat, high humidity, stranded at the convention center, stranded at the dome, on the roofs and attics

748-8000 if you live in new orleans and want to talk to the former mayor marc morial about the current condition of the city. mrmayor, did you face any large hurricanes when you were mayor, and what was your reaction? >> i faced several hurricanes, perhaps the most serious of them was hurricane george's in 1998, which required us to call for a voluntary evacuation of the city and required us to use the dome in the convention center as shelters of last resort. hurricane georges, which was bearing down on the city, could have been katrina. diverted as many hurricanes do at the end and hit the gulf coast of mississippi. that hurricane, i think, was the most serious threat on the city in quite a bit of time. and new orleans has also had flooding incidents, occasioned by heavy rainfall, and we had one or two memorable flooding incidents as a result of rainfall. nothing of the scale of katrina because it's important to emphasize and re-emphasize the failed flood walls on what are called the outfall of drainage canals, and the failed flood wall along the industrial canal were large contributing factors to the flooding

code 8,000 if you livear in new orleans you want o talk to former mayor mark morial about the current condition of the city.en mr. mayor, did you face any large hurricanes when you were mayor and what was your reaction? >> i faced several hurricanes perhaps most serious of them was hurricane georgia's in 1998 which required us to call for a voluntary evacuation of the city, and required us to use the dome in the convention center as shelter of last resort. hurricane georgias which was bearing down on the city and could have been katrina diverted as many hurricane its do at thed an hit the gulf coast of mississippi. that hurricane i think was the most serious threat on the city in quite a bitur of time. and new orleans is also had flooding incidents, occasioned by heavy rainfall. and we had one or two memorable flooding incidents as a result of rainfall. nothing of the scale of katrina. because it is important to emphasize and reemple that the fail ad flood wall, the drainage canal, and the failed flood wall along the industrial canal were large contributes factors to flooding that really took place after hurrica

morial. our freedom fighter for justice, reverend al. and this year i am so honored to have my mom, who is 86 years young, here with me. mrs. campbell, and my big brother, isaac campbell jr., and my colleague tonya tyson, if they would just stop and stand. [ applause ] lady in red. i'm a native floridian. and those who know me know i always talk about my great home in florida. so i also want to welcome all of you here to my home state of florida. urban leaguers, we are one week away from the 50th anniversary of the signing of the voting rights act you heard reverend sharpton talk about that was precipitated by bloody sunday in selma, alabama. it was signed into law by president lyndon johnson on august 6th, 1965. congress later amended the act five times to expand its protections and has always done it in a bipartisan ago, the u. court gutted the law in the name of so-called states rights. by striking down section 4 of the vra, making it nearly impossible for the u.s. justice department to do its job to protect our voting rights. last month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by democrats introduced legislation to remedy t