so i have come here to selma because my people are suffering. i have come here to help you sing come by here my lord, somebody is suffering and that is why i have come to selma. now, if i can find the pages i'm going to quote from that are not out of order. more or less managers think. king's since of communion in the meetings was an only to lift up his people because a lot of what he was always doing was elevating his people into the biblical narrative. he put an end to the crucifixion. this is the cross we bear for our people. or he was putting them to exodus or the other stories of testament delivers but sometimes it was the indignant king and this indignant king when he seized with racism was an angry black preacher. and he would say it is the black man who produced the wealth of the nation. and if the nation doesn't have enough sense to share its wealth and power with the very people who made it so. and i know what i'm talking about this morning. the black man made america wealthy and before long he fell into this poetic meter that you ofte

nobody knows actually of the story of the residents of selma, alabama. our feeling was if we could preserve this starting with this book, then these electronic archives and then moving on to the protection of the rest, we will all know because the one thing the lawyers do know is they knew it's important. they are verbal. they're literate and articulate and as you're about to see, they can tell very low key but nonetheless important stories. so what we're going to do now is have some of the lawyers who have contributed to the book read the excerpts they've selected and i'm going to start i think with -- i want to make sure i get all the facts right but we're asking michael ratner, the president of the center for constitutional rights, which has been running and organizing and coordinating this entire venture. there's no lawyer working on guantanamo who hasn't been coordinating with the operation of the center. michael, i'll ask you to do the first reading. [inaudible] >> yes, i say. [laughter] >> all right. i've been introduced. i'm michael ratner. i'm p

johnson won a pulitzer prize for distinguished national reporting of the civil rights movement in selmaalabama. mr. johnson is the author of sleepwalking through history: america in the reagan years and the battle for america 2008. he cowrote herblock with carry katz. for more information visit herblockfoundation.org. >> we're at frostburg state university speaking with thomas a. lewis author of brace for impact. tom, to start off with, what do you see as the major threats to our current way of living? >> well, that's the content of most of the book. it's a long list. what i did was organize it into the threats that i see gathered against our systems that sustain us. i look into food, both the food that we grow and the animals that we raise. i look into water, the supply of water and the treatment of wastewater. and energy. oil and electricity. and each of those categories is of a system that has been increasingly industrialized and is increasingly in peril of failing. mortal stress on all of those systems. and usually people don't look at them all at one time. you get people specializi

>> yes, my cat, i love selma.ually think one of the best parts was the hands-on philanthropy. i had my own book drive and gave books to women in prison and that meant a lot to me. >> and the worst part? >> putting my marriage through the wringer, even our sex life was redesigned by oprah. >> really? >> yes. >> is it better as a result? >> it was, let's see. it got a little boring, to be honest. i'm sorry, jim. it got a little boring. but now there's more flash to it, that's for sure. >> now that you're not living oprah. >> towards the end of the experiment you write in your book, everyone keeps reminding me that i should be having fun with this. and those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard. i'm not sure how they expect this year to be a big party. i barely see my friends, i'm bleeding money. i'm always busy, busy. i've allowed so many tv experts to poke into my marriage. there's a lot of mending to do. in the end, was it a successful experiment for you? >> i think i came to a lot of self-realizations that

in fact, one of his most famous speeches was in 2007 commemorating selma and the demonstrations that occurred in march 1965 that really culminated in the passage of the voting rights act several months later. and famously, king and others are really turned away from the edmund pet decision bridge, there's going to be a lot of violence against those demonstrators. john lewis is going to be brutally beaten. it's really one of the iconic images of the civil rights era. and what obama said, senator obama said then at that speech was that the new generation of civil rights activists were the joshua generation. he called dr. king's generation the moses generation, and it was really the joshua generation. people like him who were going to see the promised land. so he really put himself directly as an heir and beneficiary of that civil rights movement. now, in contrast we really never talked as a nation about black power during the election, and when we did, it was only in a negative context connected to the reverend wright and racial controversies. one of the things i wanted to show and arg

over 16 million index cards with the names and biographical information of people who live in europe selma who had survived or died. but every person who wanted privileges as a refugee, had to register. some of you might have heard two years ago there was a whole story that a very important archives in germany was open to the public for the first time. i am sure it was a big story in the states as low. but what nobody wrote to is a very important part of that archives had actually been open in israel for the last 50 years. i went to that fiat to find david and it is interesting because they never used his material before and for some reason i had the mr. again notion the files or somewhere else because it was all about the jewish but it did not take me long to figure out that most of the people were nine jews. what is interesting about the information is that is not only the date of birth about world war ii activities but also what happened after the war. emigrating to australia in 1950. today in been pressing the day she is in prison and purse as an example. it had the date of the immigra

in 1965 he traveled to selma, alabama, to visit martin luther king, jr. who was in jail. in 1976 at a party for mack, the president of the naacp said, i say thank god for mac mathias. he was an outstanding advocate for congress. he was committed to the environment, he proposed legislation to protect the chesapeake bay, a antetum natiol battlefield and helped to create the c&o canal historical park. in the 110th congress he traveled to washington to help lobby fellow republicans for a bill to combat election fraud. was a leader for campaign finance reform. a subject that the congress would have to revisit in citizens united v. the federal election commission. he remarked that no problem confronting our nation is greater than that of our steadily eroding confidence in our political system. he was so right. he understood that democracy is depended on inclusion and on citizens who participate in the process and have confidence their view also be heard and fairly considered. today i urge my colleagues to pause for a moment to remember a gentleman from maryland who cared deeply

if they want the money up on the milk thing and get more message, they need to get the footage of selmang that kid. >> why are you looking at me. >> the sports illustrated swimsuit edition, they washed out danica patrick's tattoo. what was that all about? are tattoos not sporting anymore? >> listen, you remember that night you and i got blasted at smith and wilensky's and i got that tramp stamp, i've got to get that off. >> bill: are tattoos so big in our culture now? >> they watched it out. >> bill: i'm not hip, membersil you're the hip guy. >> if ear we cloaking this in the first amendment g-sting, what happens when they take it off and what's happened to my america. >> bill: still to cokocomden ni tackles the wanda sike's comments at the dinner. hey -- who's our best presentation guy? carl. tell carl he's coming to new york with me. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] he is. just last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they print, bind, and ship it. the presentation looks good, r

king in the mass meetings and the special communion he established in selma and birmingham and a lot of small towns across the black belt. after having done that we i return to the king's crossover address to white. we understand a different. we can hear the earthier blacker white operating in the midst as well. i'm not going to say much about the most famous pieces of that tonight. and the questions we can get into that. if people have questions if i had a dream. for tonight's purpose, i'm really just going to try to evoke this backstage king as it were. king we know was an unbelievably dignified person. and dignity, the mask of dignity was very important to him. and when he introduces himself to the larger white society, right after the montgomery insurgency, in the book stride to freedom, he writes in the first couple of pages, he striked the loftiest persona. he describes, i was driving back fast. listening to the towns. listening to music playing. he goes on listening to the architecture. he was a very refined person. we know there was somebody in there with him in the car. ther

one of his most famous speeches was in 2007 commemorating selma at a demonstration that occurred in march 1965 that really culminated in the passage of the voting rights act several months later. famously king and others are really turned away from the bridge. there is going to be a lot of racial violence against those divestitures. john lewis who is the head of the student nonviolent coordinating committee will be brutally beaten. it is one of the iconic images of the civil rights era. what senator obama said then at that speech was that the new generation of civil rights activists were the joshua generation. he called dr. king's generation the moses' generation, and it was really the joshua generation, people like him, who were going to see the promised land. he put himself directly as an air and beneficiary of the civil-rights movement of. in contrast we really never talked as a nation about black power. and when we did it was only in a negative context. one of the things i wanted to show and argue in this book was that the black power movement, even though it was a very combative move

including the then senator obama peaden fact one of his most famous speeches with in 2007 commemorating selma and the demonstrations that occurred in march, 1965 that really, needed in the passage of the voting rights act several months later and famously king and others are turned away from edmund pettis bridge there's going to be a lot of the racial violence against the demonstrators. john lewis, head of the student nonviolent coordinating committee is quick to be brutally britain to be competing to read it one of the images of a civil rights era and what obama says, senator obama said then at that speech was that the new generation of support activists were the joshua generation. he called dr. king's generation the moses generation and was the joshua generation. people like him who were going to see the promised land. so he put himself directly as an air and beneficiary of the rights movement. now in contrast we never talked as a nation about black power during the by-election and when we did it was only in a negative context connected to reverend wright and racial controversies. one of th

host: selma, alabama, is next. caller: i want to ask about george wallace.volution from being a staunch segregationistç and standing in a schoolhouse door to being voted in by black members in alabama. i want to know his role of being a stealt politician in alabama, if anything, and i will hang up and listen. guest: a great question. i served in the alabama legislature from 1982 to 1986. george wallace's last term as governor after he had been shot and was trying to change his image. it was a great question and may help me explain this idea of stealth politics. george wallace agonized over his role in the history books. there it was in black and white. i hadn't met george wallace before i entered the alabama legislature. i was aÑi relatively progressiv professor. we formed a relationship in which i think he saw i was interested in doing things differently. i used to meet him at the mansion, and i could see the agony, and he used to tell me, we need to change things. he would tell me, do whatever you can to help black people and poor white people in alabama.