i will begin with you, charles ogletree?at should we be talking about in the weeks and months and years to come that come out of this incident which has put a focus on it? >> ironically, it is exactly what we heard from rodney king two decades ago, high can't we all get along? i mean that is the theme that has to be a part of this, and we have to deal with the frustration in the black community, in particular but among others as well that how do we justify the death of this kid without any resolution, even a civil one is not going to be appropriate so i think these conversations are easy, and conversations with people who may not be friendly with you, i normally get a lot of hate mail and e-mails from this conversation but that's fine i deal with people like that all the time, but at least we are having a dialogue and i think we can have a dialogue that will make us go forward in trying to understand the cocommunicate drums of race which is a very big problem. >> rose: noah feldman? >> in addition to the racial questions, th

professor ogletree is also author of "the presumption of guilt."son, host of "make it plain" on sirius xm radio. i'd like to bring in what "the new york times" editorial board has already written about the president's remarks today. the board writes the "in the narrow confines of the trial, all talks of race was excluded and the stand your ground element in florida's self-defense law was not invoked by mr. zimmerman's lawyers. in the broader more troubling aspect of mr. martin's death, race and florida's lax gun laws are inextricably interwoven." people who watched the trial were happy the president brought up the two elements of the american judicial system that has racial elements. >> i've known president barack obama since he was a student at harvard. a quarter of a century since 1998. today for the first time he unequivocally and completely embraced the black community. i'm not saying only the black community, but there was something profound and personal as a father, as a parent, as a president, that came through. what i thought was most effec

but with all due respect to charles ogletree, the professor is wrong. i would ask you, lay on the table right now the evidence of how the president has been trying, tree, to have a conversation about race -- no -- >> action. >> i'm talking to professor ogletree. let me finish my point. >> that's just a conversation. >> i don't think that we have a litany here of things, of moments, where he's tried to have the conversation. to the contrary, respectfully, he's tried to avoid the conversation, number one. number two, when he says a politician can't have an impact, so yes, he gives a wonderful spe speech, but he basically kicks it back to community leaders, business leaders, celebrities and athletes, and that's real, but the president can't absolve himself of it. and number three, i don't believe the president doesn't believe that he can have a role in leading us in a moral conversation. this is not a political issue. this is a moral issue. i don't know how he can't lead us in a conversation on this, but he can on gay marriage? he can on a litany of other

but i want to play what professor charles ogletree said today on "now" with alex wagner. he discussed this notion that the president was somehow pushed and this was not a passion or calling. let me play professor ogletree. >> i just had a conversation with president obama yesterday after talking about some of this on the morning shows is on sunday. he really wants folks to move on this issue. he doesn't want to chair it because he wants the nation to give him some ideas. >> what is your take on that assertion? >> you know, i have a problem with that. it doesn't make any difference whether the president was pushed to the podium or the president went to the podium voluntarily because he felt a passion, a need to speak out. the fact is, he did. that is something many people have been waiting for for a long time. i have to say, the president spoke very movingly, very eloquently, and most importantly -- actually, two things. he used the presidential bully pulpit to say, we have a problem and we're going to have to have this conversation, dialogue, and hopefully beyond that, ac

. >>> joining me now is harvard law professor charles ogletree. he was a mentor to both the president and first lady when they were law school students and even before they met each other. >> that's right. >> i covered president obama when he was senator obama and running for president. i watched him through the jeremiah wright mess when he stuff with him. have seen some things that were overtly about race in his administration. this was a different guy. >> this was the most explicit commentary he's ever made. i listened very intently to his comments about trayvon martin after his death in 2012. they were cautious. but this was wide open. talking about race. talking about opportunities. talking about his own plight being someone walking into an elevator, being fearful -- women were fearful of him. so i think it was a very candid address and i hope it starts a discussion among all of us about race. >> because this has not been what he has wanted to be about. he's always been as you say very cautious, but also really reluctant to, you know, be the a

harvard law professor who taught both barack and michelle obama at harvard, charles ogletree.r and pbs host tavis smiley and president and ceo of national urban league, marc morial. welcome to all of you. >> thank you. >> what a unique moment friday was for this presidency, for any presidency, and congresswoman, i want to start with you. describe the impact of the president coming out at the white house, speaking about race in such a personal and frankly off-the-cuff way. >> i was very proud, quite frankly. i think that it was timely, but more importantly, i think that he could feel the anger t

joining me now is harvard law professor charles ogletree.y pleasure, reverend. >> so professor, the supreme court struck down a key part of the voting rights act. but now the attorney general is going to use a different part of the law to protect those rights. take me through that. how does that work? >> this is very important. i have to say this for eric holder, he has been a dynamic attorney general like janet reno for clinton, going all the way back to the attorney general for president, lyndon baines johnson. he has done this by saying we've written this into law. congress has passed it as recently as 2006. it makes a big difference in getting people to vote you. tried to stop people from voting with voter suppression in the 2012 elections. you try to stop people from voting after the march across the edmund pettis bridge in 1963. none of that worked. he is going to use every single tool available to him to make that happen. he has made this very effective today by saying i'm going go to another provision. it's going to be very clear. an

joining me to talk about this, charles ogletree of harvard law school. noah feldman of feldman of harvard law school and dan abrams, a lawyer at abc news. >> people feel something went wrong with the system, and that may be lack of sophistication with criminal trials and the burden going forward and the fact that the defense did a good job in a sense of putting trayvon martin on trial, which he should not be on trial, he is the victim in this case. >> but in reality that is what happened. and i don't criticize the defense lawyers for doing what they did, they d

ogletree said before the question -- >> and then he backs away.r, one of the things on race, you know, david said, he wants to back off. when he was thinking about running for president, one of the greatest assets he thought is just him winning the presidency, he could be a total failure as a president. winning the presidency meant he was going to have broken the ceiling for african-american men. the simple action was going to make him a role model and say, you know what, young african-american men have -- it's not just about getting out of poverty through athletics, or through entertainment. there are other ways. he was going to be a role model. >> tim robinson said, no caption necessary. >> pushing immigration reform, among americans under 5 years old, whites are a minority. we're going to have a very different conversation in a few years when it's much more multi-ethnic. i would be fascinated to see how the racial discussion will look. >> it's already transforming. the discussion is already changing about the dynamic of the nation. but the impo

first up tavis smiley followed by harvard professor charles ogletree. >> this town has been spinningrue. he did not walk to the podium for an impromptu address to the nation. he was pushed to that nation. a week of protest outside the white house, pressure building on him in the white house pushed him to the podium. >> i disagree with tavis in a profound way. president obama has been talking about race and doing things about race for a long time. the reality is he walked to the podium, he wasn't pushed to the podium, he walked to the podium. he's been trying to have this conversation. this is the event in the justice system that pushed him to this level. >> jason, who is right, pushed or walked? >> a mixture of both. he stumbled out there. barack obama has been less than eloquent and forthcoming about race. anything he says about black people he has to sprinkle an element of blame and cultural chastisement. this is the point where he said, look, there are protests that are going to be happening within 24 hours in 100 cities across the country. if there was ever a time to say somethin