and they did everything they could to destroy paul robeson. i mean, literally.obeson is one that just sends shivers down my spine every time i consider it. and i've been fortunate over the course of my life to be friends with two very important people very close to me. i have lunch with them fairly regularly because he lives in l.a. and the other i never go to new york he doesn't come to l.a. without us getting together. and the two of them are good can friends, and both of them are from the islands, sydney poitier -- studyny poitier and harry belafonte. i only raise that not to drop these name but i only raise it because you cannot talk to sidney poitier for five minutes without him raising his teacher paul robeson. and you cannot talk to harry belafonte for, like, two and a half minutes without belafonte raising the name of paul robeson. so aside from the history books and all all the stuff i've read or seen about paul robeson i feel like for at least 25 years sitting at poitier and belafonte's feet, i've come to here firsthand and know so much about this man

i feel same way about paul robeson. those would be my persons ultimate renaissance persons male and female. we'll see what people think about that, peter. >> host: carol from memphis emails, what are your thoughts about the movie "selma"? >> guest: i saw it a couple weeks ago. it was a good movie. i enjoyed the movie. i'm a big chagrined and a bit concerned about all of the pushback that is the movie is now starting to get. just this morning i appeared on this week on abc while here in town. i got off the air flipping channels and caught a good conversation that my friend bob schieffer had on "face the nation" this morning about the movie, "selma" and how it portrays lyndon johnson. joseph califano, written a piece, head of lbj museum in texas written a lot. a lot of people, front page of "new york times" a few days ago big article in the washington post few days ago. there is a lot of media attention, social media attention, print media attention, being given to whether or not the movie portrays lbj as he ought be port

>> when you were talking about aldridge being in england and russia, i was thinking of paul robeson. was he aware of aldridge an inspired by him? jim barber: i can't answer that, but he could have been aware of him. any number of african americans were aware of ira aldridge. americans don't remember ira aldridge, but europeans more or less to. he met richard wagner, the great german composer, and whatnot. he is one of these characters like george c. marshall. if you ask high school students in america who was george c. marshall, the man that winston churchill said won world war ii, if you ask american high school students, they may not know george c. marshall. but if you ask german students they know he was the man behind the great marshall plan after world war ii. there are certain americans almost better known in europe than they are in this country. i think ira aldridge is certainly one of them. ian cooke: thank you all for coming. next month, jim barber with everett dirksen. thank you very much. [applause] >> here are some of our featured programs for this weekend on the c-span n

but you saw paul robeson saying, we think it is a great idea and we think it is a great idea because the soviets has demonstrated that they know how to move dependent peoples up to the level of independence. they've done what no one else has done. and it -- i -- the next time when you see this is in 1948 because there is all kind of maneuvering going on. in 1948, you have the election in italy. and in the 1946 election, the midterm elections, the communist party of italy gained 40% of the vote. and so, by 1948, what the soviets are looking at as they could possibly have a duly elected communist government sitting in western europe in 1948. and what the soviets, therefore decided, they are not going to get tripolitania. the u.s. has blocked them big time on the council on foreign ministers. so, the soviets come out and say, we believe that italy should regain control over all of its colonies. libya, eritrea and somali. so now you have this big anti-colonial power basically saying italy should regain control of its colonies. and it's colonies meanwhile have made it very clear, abundant

more renaissance woman than american history than maya angelou, and i feel the same way about paul robeson, those are we two persons to the ultimate renaissance person male and female in black america elm we'll see what people think about that it. >> host: an e-mail, what are your authorities on the movie selma. >> guest: i am -- a good movie. i enjoyed the movie. i'm a bit chagrined and concerned about all of the pushback that the movie is now starting to get. just this morning i appeared on this week on abc, while here in town. i was flipping channels and caught a good conversation that my fronts bob she fer had she fer had on face the nation. and about the -- the a powerful op-ed a lot of people front page "new york times" article, big article in the "washington post," so a lot of media attention now, a lot of social media attention, print media attention, being given to whether or not the movie portrays lbj as he ought to be portrayed. i sense now that there are people that are coming at this movie awfully hard now and they're going to do what they took make it difficult for this movie