i just tried to help. >> host: john lewis, who succeeded you as the chairman of sncc? >> stokely carmichael succeeded me as the chair of the student nonviolent coordinating committee in may of 1966. >> host: why? >> guest: during those days i wasn't militant enough. i got the advantage during the march on washington, but i have always been these in the way of peace and love and nonviolence and that we must come together and not to be divided about we must not care down, we must -- i don't feel even a lot of rhetoric. ideally the end of one to three and abc of producing and doing something and that was the way of the student nonviolent coordinating committee. >> host: at the same time you talk about the generational differences between the traditional black leadership and you as a young leader of sncc. >> guest: during that period, many of us felt that some of the traditional leaders were moving too slow even at the march on washington i said you tell us to wait and be patient. we cannot wait, we cannot be patient. we don't want our freedom gradually, we want it here an

i was a member of sncc and as a matter of fact -- >> guest: i remember very well. i was the chair of the student nonviolent coordinating committee and i should have mentioned her as one of the women that stood up. she was so brave and she was tough and she had a great voice and she knew how to use the voice to organize and she was courageous. >> caller: . >> guest: i remember very, very well and other fighter on another leader from that of the mississippi. >> caller: yes, he got me involved. >> host: if you could give us a brief synopsis of your life. tell us what you have been doing since sncc of 1964. >> caller: i was there in 1963 and 1964. as a matter of fact i've been working with the group that he talks about that got into the college. i thought it would be reckless -- recluse. i'm about four years younger than john. >> host: sorry about that. i thought you were finished. >> guest: speethree for your work over the years. >> caller: representative lewis i want to thank you. you put your life on the line for what he believed in. now, i called richard butler in

being subject sncc engagement control supervision. and age has done its part, too. sl is attrition through fbi surveillance and wiretaps and the like. there's no mafia. no bobs in the traditional sense. they have no bearing whatsoever. when i got here in 1964, my wife and i were driving up from the east coast and came to the top of the hill and overlooked the entire ballet. or just a couple sprinkling nights in the desert. i don't think there was a building taller than two stories high. they tumbleweed came rolling -- i hadn't seen a tumbleweed outside of a cowboy movie. i did think they exist. she said where have you brought me? i brought it to the right place. it was a different town. 70,000 people. now we have 2,100,000 people. we had our social life revolved around a shopping center on saturday and sunday people want a place called vegas village. you saw the alleged mobsters. you saw the politicians and sometimes may have been the same. these are the lawyers,.yours, rabbis, priests. everybody shopped there. it was a very close community. it was different doing b

i happen to think it and then what you have to do is where it has succeeded california sncc sample and arizona is an example and iowa you can ring the competition back. >> referendum. >> you have to take state legislators out and put in a court/nonpartisan analysis and that is what i would do. >> before we go because i see you have your paper there. i'm going to t. this a are you. you want me to tee it up. you just want to go? >> you can tee it up. >> is this going to the floor? bia can go to the floor but i can't talk so the hell with that. [laughter] >> you are about to release a paper. >> i'm submitting an official comment on the pending regulation before the five agencies charging the statute dealing with the question of risk retention in residential mortgages. >> that's going on today? >> the deadline is tomorrow. >> do you want to tell everybody briefly what it is? >> in the legislation in the first place we band the bad mortgages for which by the way it was attacked by "the wall street journal." november 6, 2007 they said i was keeping for able from buying houses because sub-pri

are you still optimist sncc. >> yes, i am. and part of this the reason is being here with julieta.e hesitant to come out in public. now they're chaining themselves to the white house. there's a hunger strike in d.c. they're blocking buses. now it's expanded to their families and inspired the latino community. i truly feel these are the foot soldiers. that's where the movement's going to come because they are not going to yield. and we're all saying or many in the political world are saying immigration reform is dead, it's not happening. it's happening. things are going on. the civil disobedience is up. >> it makes me wonder if where we are is basically in like the 55, 56 moment. if you think about those initial boycotts in the south, in the past '57 civil rights, but it takes another decade before the really big stuff happens. is it sustainable for another decade of activism? >> definitely. >> yes. >> i know for united we dream specifically, we know this is a long-term fight, that even if we were to get immigration reform right now, when we get it, which we will, we will continue f