she sounds like shirley chisholm. it itchisholm. it is as important for me to run as a woman as it is a run as an african-american. put someone i have been out of the campaign come i spent a lot of time covering the campaign, there are a lot, particularly of black women over a certain age.a certain age. women over 60, my benchmark black or white or latino very excited about this idea for a lot of women regardless of race if you like the country has kicked that and it is now time for this next big step forward and are progress is a modern country, forward to have this opportunity. it's a powerful message women across the racial divide. as you find pockets of black women, in general black women under 16 is still have feeling about clinton because of 2,008 command i do fine and occasionally. and ii do that. >> do you think that it can be overcome? >> a smart campaign can overcome it. hillary does not have a tremendous overwhelming advantage. far and away is multiple candidate and it is the reason she maintains an advantage over bernie

shirley chisholm comes in and interrupts the plan. richard nixon wins. it is a disaster. that is sort of energy saying we will take care of that. african-americans looking to the party. helping, winning, capable. jimmy carter fell apart, and the response of the democratic party is to say we will walk away from things like that, adopt the crime, tough on crime message of you are and our opponent. it will be more like that. these issues we don't care about, we can talk about that. jackson wants to be on the ticket, sorry. as you see african-americans being pushed back, these fractures existed under the surface. they burst forth because now you have the southern democrat's insulin trying to repay what he saw as a debt of his. no, i was the 1st black president. you are with us. and this is a fantasy. again, he was talking about the war. african-americans reminiscing, no, it is hillary's time and he saw it has been years and decades of underlying fractions burst open. .. and pulled them both, hold both of their heads at the same time that the clinton comes in and one of the wa

thought i lived in cleveland at the time coast of became mayor you talk about -- you mentioned shirley chisholm and said that the civil rights committee wanted stokes to run. she sort of jumped the gun, but it is facts like that that i think people will read this book and just be amazed. >> thank you. >> let's talk about the title and what it means specifically in terms of affecting the relationship between president obama and the clintons and the racial divide. when did this divide 1st manifest itself? what specific things do you attribute it to? also, do you feel it is more personal or more philosophical? is it about bill clinton the politician, hillary clinton, politician, or is it about more personal? >> it is a great question. the 1st crack that spreads is in 1968. four years after the civil rights act, three years after the voting rights act, and you have president johnson was heroic in the eyes of many african-americans suddenly pivoting away from the resourcing of the war on poverty which was meant to rescue not justjust black people but also wife were all-americans from poverty. you se

then we moved with shirley chisholm to put her on the rules committee and she broke into power there. then we got charlie rangel to run for and got him elected to the ways and means committee. and that's probably another one of the greatest moves we ever made, because here today in 2007 he is now the chairman of that powerful committee which in the year that we got him elected, there had never been a black serving on that committee. and so it was in that context that we also issued the -- this declaration of independence and a black bill of rights and all of that. and all of that was about the time also they had the black convention, black elected officials convention in indiana, gary, indiana. there was just a lot going on we were doing everything we could to eradicate past discrimination in this country and to try and change our country to make it a better place for all minorities. during those early years the nixon administration -- the congressional black caucus, under the leadership of charlie diggs had attempted on several occasions to get an audience with president nixon for th

you while no i saw somebody's tweet and i can't keep up but shirley chisholm once a tremendous amountof talent -- that was true then and in 72 standing up and sing or run for for the president denies that america no matter what people say about my ethnicity and my gender and all of us but particularly women stand on the shoulders of a bold sister like that. she said i'm running for the poor. i'm running for children. that's what we need. we can't leave anybody. we don't leave anybody behind. >> hell yeah to all of that. [applause] >> i must have been something real bad in a past life. you said a few things that struck me because i think when we think about who's running the world is women and people of color but we are not running politics. we are not getting the contracts. we are not pushing back on people that are making the decisions talk to people where they are and telling the candidates you know your last name is a little too latino. so the yard signs say chiquis or on your list people are constructing very constructive use of u.s. hyperprofessional buying into the respectabilit

in fact, as you trace in the book, part of it is about the issues but it's also if we trace shirley chisholmgn played so brilliantly. but then i thought well, wait a minute, maybe the play is for african-americans en masse to join our friend the republican party and actually -- if that party is about to split, do you join that party, push in the a different way and 50 years from now hope for something different? >> ironically enough you as a professor of african-american history know that. there were letters to both parties saying we want to look at your platform. this was in the early 1960s. so the idea of playing in both parties was nothing new, even to the most out in front non-accommodationalist actors back in the 1960s. but african-american, i think, have felt so pushed away by the republican party that unless their rhetoric fundamentally changes, the rhetoric of their most public voice, people like rush limbaugh, it's off putting to african-americans and rejectionist, i don't see african-americans doing that but i can see a big movement toward independence, toward not being affiliated

congresswoman shirley chisholm once said that tremendous amounts of talent or lost to the society because that talen wears a scourge. that was true then when she of the kurds in 1972 to stand up and say i will run for the president of these united states of america matter what folks have to say about my of new city or gender. us, we stand on the shoulders of a bold sister like that when it was not popular. she said i am running for the poor. i am running for children. that is what we need. we cannot leave anybody. we don't leave anybody behind. robert. i love robert. >> i will take that. [applause] i must have done something bad in it as life. -- in a past life. you said a few things that struck me. when we think about who is running the world, it's women and people of color and people in this room but we are not running politics. we are not getting the contracts. we are not pushing back on people making the decisions to talk to people the way they are. telling candidates of color that your last name looks to let you know, let's make that smaller, let's go with your first name. the yard s