and that's why, of course, with sclc, when people were getting upset and saying why are you worrying about the vietnamese, the whites of appalachia in and he said, you know, god does not see color, you know? very powerful. yes. >> um, you're so well prepared to write this book, were there some surprises that you encountered along the way? >> yeah. you know, the real surprise happened earlier. i thought this book was done about eight years ago. and i had a lock on it, i had a very fancy publisher, had a neat thesis, and it really was the split between the black and the white king. and how he moved from black audience to white audience. and i started hearing things i hadn't heard enough, but i just heard enough to know that here he is with unlettered black folk in the black belt discoursing -- [inaudible] and then i got a tape of king at an scl retreat lecturing on marx, and he says, now, marx was a jew. and he's reflecting on his jewishness and how it affected the creation of marxism. and then i start listening to the tapes where when king was with the sclc preachers, you know, the pr

but he heads the organization that my father founded, the southern christian leadership conference, sclc which is really more of a direct action activist organization. it's really, for lack of a better word, the frontline organization with the king legacy. so you will see him and hear him from time to time speaking out on very topical issues. of the day. and i will certainly pass on to him that you were inspired by his, you know, speeches and his spirit. i think he really -- he has a big heart, and he really cares about people. sometimes to his detriment. and i always say the key to any public life, if you're living -- giving your life to public service, you also have to balance it because you want to be around so that you can continue to give back, you know, receive and to give. well, this has been wonderful, and i wish i could do this all evening. unfortunately, they're saying we have to cut it short. but again, thank you for your interest, your -- i can feel the energy and feel your spirits and the real sincere and genuine questions you've posed and comments you've made. please contin

made perfect sense to try to represent their cause, even though his staff and the inner circle of the sclc said this is a tribe. you don't want to do this. this is a mistake. we go to washington. you're making a left turn into memphis. he said no, we've got to do this. this is the perfect illustration of the were trying to do in washington on the local scale. so he comes to memphis and marches down beale street, which the city looked into memphis know its not become the bourbon street of further out to delta. it is certainly overcrowded and overdone now. and it was the classic avondale of black america for over a century. our treated passage that has to do with the march that king that. it started off well, but things turned awry. it became clear that the march was taken over by some young radicals who had different ideas about nonviolence, who had different ideas about which way the civil rights movement should go. and because of that, because of the violence that breaks out with the leading and writing and the police or to crack down on it. because of that, king realizes he has to come b

so i was the youngest sibling in my family, and my older brother and my father were involved in the sclc, we grew up in d.c., and, you know, i felt like i was part of it because they told me everything that was going on. and so being, you know, loving athletics and being aware of the civil rights movement, um, you know, i was finely attune today that moment -- attuned to that moment. and the way you said dr. king described throwing a rock into a pond, that signifies perfectly that moment for me. it was like a metaphorical and literal punctuation point to the whole civil rights movement, it was so impactful, so meaningful, you know? i just wanted to say that. and also i had a question. one of the things that you guys stood for was, you know, getting the ioc to reject rhodesia and south africa from participating in the olympics, but i'm wondering, and i don't mean this to sound sarcastic, but why didn't you demand that of the united states at the same time? >> why didn't we what? >> demand that the unite not be able to -- the united states not be able to compete in the same -- >> go ahead,

>> i spent four years with sclc and for about a year i drove for he and the king family. >> reporter: you where dr. king used to hang in this town. >> you got it. >> reporter: he's in familiar territory, especially on the street named for the man he knew so well. >> we're on martin luther king boulevard. that's where he at 14 years old for two weeks, daddy king got him a job. >> reporter: when you're driving around with dr. king and you're a young guy, was he an intimidating guy? >> no, not at all. i wouldn't have to worry about driving. he was a terrible driver. >> reporter: but he had a great sense of humor, right? >> great sense of humor. he would crack jokes, a great sense of amusement about him and you would never know that he just came back from -- he said, i'm not going to live to be 40 and which i didn't. he was assassinated when he was 39. he never had fear in life. >> reporter: from behind the steering wheel, houck saw history unfold at every turn. >> that is where martin luther king would be in his office talking about selma, what kind of strategy they will do for the settl