innocence, ralph abernathy was ahead of king because king was faltering -- in a sense, ralph abernathy was ahead of king because king was a faltering profit. he was a very human profit. -- human prophet. ands: i love the back story these prophetic moments in history. but there is even a story on how he got a newspaper. how he gotory of access to a newspaper. >> there is some debate on this . but i found a rare tape of dr. king preaching. it's the first time he addresses a mass meeting after he gets out of birmingham jail. so on april 22, you can hear him delivering a version -- a version of "letter to arming from- "a letter to birmingham jail." they have to bring you breakfast and they have to bring your lunch and they say, reverend, i know what you're talking about and tomorrow i will bring you a paper. >> talk about his reaction when editorial by these white clergyman who are saying, centrally, that is ill-timed. this is not the right strategy. to me more about the letter or the op-ed piece and then his response to it. >> it is really important to understand the mood he was in. depre

justing this is to explain who's here, obviously, coretta scott king, ralph abernathy in the middle, here's a very young harry belafonte. bayard rustin there who organized the march on washington in '63. so this is at the memorial march for dr. king. but, so the conventional wisdom said that the campaign should be canceled. who else can lead this? who else can do this but dr. can king? and in the aftermath of the violence and the mourning that this prompted, we shouldn't do this. but ralph abernathy, as i pointed out, king's successor said, no, we're going to go on, we're going to move on. and the support for the campaign actually exploded. and i think this is, you know, maybe one of these irony is the that a lot of people who were critical of the campaign initially and had said i'm going to sit this out, i don't agree with what they're doing or the strategy they're doing, or they think it wasn't actually going to you can seed, changed their minds. so black panthers who had scoffed at nonviolent strategy as quaint and outmoded said i'm going to go as one of the panthers that i interv

. >> reporter: juanita jones abernat abernathy, widow of ralph abernathy, believes her church shouldm on what she considers sacred ground, where slaves were shipped in a boxcar during the civil war, where historically black colleges spellman and morehouse once held class in the basement. >> the church is a landmark in the community. and it needs to remain there as a landmark. >> reporter: the city's first offer to friendship, nearly ten times its appraised value, about $10 million. the pressure to move is obvious. you see the white top of the georgia dome stadium and how it looms over the churches. the new stadium would sit where that church is now. and over here, there would be a new roadway around the new stadium. the falcons' owner says no one is interested in force says the church off their property and that he will invest millions in the community. atlanta's mayor says he'll accept the church's decision but hopes they'll take the offer. >> and they will be a stronger church, a stronger organization that is more capable because of the millions of dollars that we're going to pay f

young remembers how fellow minister ralph abernathy discovered an fbi bug while speaking at an alabama >> he said, look here. he took the microphone out and put it up on top of the pulpit. he said, little doohickey, i want you to tell president johnson, i want you to tell j. edgar hoover, i want you to tell george wallace, i want you to tell everybody. that no matter what they think, we are going to be free. and the whole church just cheered. >> but there were no cheers when fbi surveillance caught dr. king in an embarrassing moment. it was 1964 at the willard hotel in washington, d.c. >> a bunch of guys were in the room clowning, and they were having a very good time. and then it quieted down, and someone was left in the room and was recorded in the act of sexual intercourse. and they assumed it was dr. king. >> the same year at another hotel in los angeles, the fbi recorded dr. king telling a dirty joke about the recently assassinated president john kennedy. hoover sent the tape and transcript to bobby kennedy. the fbi tapes did not endear king to the attorney general or the white ho

king was feeling sick and did not plan to speak but did so at the urging of his friend, ralph abernat abernathystored video. this shows james earl ray's return to memphis to face trial for dr. king's assassination. ray was arrested june 8th at london's heathrow airport as he tried to board a flight to brussels. here ray is being red read his rights on the plane to memphis. >>> president obama's just about an hour away from landing in colorado where he will push congress to pass federal gun control laws. the president will meet with officials close to the site of the aurora movie theater massacre. next week, the president will make that same case in connecticut just an hour away from newtown. meantime, here in new york city, gun control from the cities to the suburbs is the topic of the national action network's annual conference in new york. richard lui is there. you spoke with a number of people personally affected by gun violence? >> reporter: yeah, we just finished listening to the immigration reform panel. but the first panel of the day was on that what you just talked about, gun violence.

other speakers include the reverend jesse jackson, juanita abernathy, the widow of late civil rights leader ralph aber in a they, reverend joseph lou re, and the nacc -- and the naacp chair. this is two and a half hours. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm reverend davis the coordinator for the national action network. thank you so much. thank you for being here this morning, especially all of you vf been -- who have been here this week. we have had a wonderful time this week and want to thank all of you who came from all over the country to be with us. now we're about to get started on our program, i would like to introduce our founder and president of the national action network, the reverend al sharpton. [applause] >> good morning. ood morning. good morning and thank you. movement, measure the 2013. we are live on 1190 wliv, c-span, and it will run on c-span again during the week, three times, and msnbc. every year at the end of our national convention, we have the leaders of various national civil rights groups join us to talk about what they have done and we have done in the preceding

politics nation, she is the widow of the co-pilot of the civil rights movement, ralph -- reverend ralph davis abernathy, the one and only ms. juanita abernathy. dr. king called them his favorite -- called him his favorite preacher, the pastor emeritus of the baptist church in cleveland and one of the pre-emflent ministers of our history, the -- preeminent ministers of our history, the reverend otis marks jr. one of the leading figures of the civil rights movement who was in the trenches for the last 50 years, unparalleled in black history, honored to have everend c.t. goodyear. and of course the the founder and president of the rainbow push coalition, reverend william augustus jones augustus junior and justice john scott and went on to found operation push, ran for president and has been a guiding force to all of us. our mentor and on this occasion , i put him on that side so he could, for just two hours, the the young man on the podium again. [applause] reverend jeffrey lewis jackson. [applause] don't mess with me, i put you over here and your piano and again. mannd you'll be an old again. [laughter]