blacks striving across tennessee couldn't stay in most hotels, they couldn't teet at most restaurants, they couldn't ride at the front of most public buses. then in 1962 in the spring, the vanderbilt university board of trust changed its policy and admitted black undergraduate students. in august of 1963 i remember standing in the back of a huge crowd late that month i was an intern in the united states department of justice, and i heard a booming voice, which was dr. martin luther king jr.'s voice, say i have a dream. in 1986 i was a senate aide here and i remember being in the room which is today the republican leader's office, where senators were around a big table and senator everett dirksen and then-president lyndon johnson were writing a civil rights bill. during the 198 1990's, i saw tennessee adopt a martin luther king holiday, swear in its first black supreme court justice. in the 1980's, the university of tennessee hired its first two block -- black vice presidents and it hired its first black high school basketball coach. i saw the voting rights act, helped to elect thousan