then trayvon martin is killed in florida, and the country gasps.ountry is, is really on edge. >> here's a teenager wal through the neighborhood where his father lives, committing no crime, bothering no one, who is followed, confronted, and ends up in a physical altercation with a stranger ere he ends up killed. and then the person who killed him is allowed to go home that day. >> the contradiction of this happening in the midst of a black presidency sharpened the irony and intensified the pain i think people felt around this. >> african-americans who had turned out in record numbers for him, who, in some ways, obama owed his presidency to, felt as thoughe wasn't saying enough about race. >> people were pushing him. "say something. are you going to say anything? you're a black man. a young black boy has been murdered by a guy who's a hyped-up, you know, neighborhood watcan. black america is traumatized by this." silence from the white house. nothing-- no leadership, no, no insight. (cameras clicking) >> narrator: finally... >> good morning, everybod

>> my main message is, is toe rents of trayvon martin. um...now, if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon. and, um... you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us ase americans ing to take this with the seriousness it deservet and e're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. l right, thank you. >> it showed and it underscored the complication the difficulties of the first black president weighing in on issues of race. that by his ry presence, by his very willingness to discuss, he himself was bringing the partisan guns to the fight. and suddenly, annnocuous statement became deeply inflammatory to half of the country. >> ...the president had a son, he wouldn't look anything likeay n martin. he'd be wearing a blazer from his prep school. he'd be driving a beamer. >> we have a president who has, who has frozen racial tension in our country instead of thawing racial tension. >> narrator: it blew up on fox. >> the president's goal is to heighten african-american rnout by stoking a feeling of victimization in the african-ameri

he said some comments to a new yorker profile about trayvon martin that case.t it was really tone deaf that he kind of missed the point. so i was at espn, i was on air and criticizing him, which considering his greatness as a player not necessary le. and before i could even make it offset before he ended the show, he had sent me a direct message. he and i had never spoken. he told know call him right away. i waited. i called him. we wound up talking for an hour kind of hashing it out. i guess i would be considered an old school journalist at this point. that was the way it was done. he wrote something. if you done leak it, you had to have that face-to-face. you give him a chance to respond. i found it interesting he was of that mindset. no, i have issue, you don't understand what i'm trying to say. i didn't mean it the way it came out. >> i think what he was trying to say, i think. you know better is that he was going to wait until more facts came out. he wasn't going to have just a knee jerk reaction. >> i think that's a part of it. it's the way he said it, it

the way events may have shifted at the outside of my beliefs killings of brought blacks from trayvon martinndra blatt and so many others name me to question whether i really wanted to call home a place where the police were seemingly paid to kill people who look like me. yet no one had ever said i would have to fight to protect my place in this land i call home. with many others that took to the streets over those killings and believed i was doing so in service of my country perhaps some black-and-white wondered how i could be so even killed and perhaps some white as well as black wanted me to be angry. i did not have time to be anyone's conscience and there was a way for one who does other work for no pay and i'm not thinking of in turn so my belief at bottom held steady and then came the election of donald trump. all stop reading there and just say that the 2016 election to challenge the foundational beliefs that i just read to you about so the question for me became how to proceed in the face of this reality because especially after it came out that the majority of white voters supported

would not have been able to fight for voting rights and gina 6 auld way to trayvon martin if we didn't have that microphone. seen a black ave president in the white house without that microphone. martin luther king, in his when they would start a say, reach ee upstairs because the radio station was there and they dropped the mic down his office on the station. we don't have to knock on the wall no more. we have stations of our own, tv tations of our own because a woman paid a price and took the heard. make sure we were 2020 kathy in hughes. -- cathy hughes. [applause] ms. hughes: first and foremost, thanks to god nd for whom all blessings flow. thank you. big round of applause for our creator. we could have been anywhere else here.orning but we are yolonda, come over here with me, darling. morning for e this a television show. i told her that the youngest worked with was 14. she said, would you take 13 1/2? [laughter] ms. hughes: she's 11. so i am here this morning and ow seen this is my next discovery. am signingio loaneda -- tv nda king for her own etwork on -- i am not from oklahoma

we would not have been able to fight for voting rights and 6 all the waya to trayvon martin, if we didn't have that microphone. we would not have seen a black president in the white house without that microphone. [applause] sclcn luther king, in his office, when they would start a campaign, he would say, reach upstairs, because the radio station was there, and they would drop the mic down to his office and he would talk on the radio station. we don't have to knock down walls and more. we have stations of our own, tv stations of our own, because a woman paid the price and took the risk to make sure we were hurt. me the honor in 2020 -- make sure we were heard. may we honor in 2020, kathy hughes. [applause] >> first and foremost, i give thanks to god from whom all blessings flow. we could have been anywhere else this morning, but we are here. [applause] yolanda, come over here with me, darling. she pitched me this morning for a television show. [laughter] i told her that the youngest i have ever worked with is 14. she said, would you take 13 and a half? [laughter] she is 11 years old. so i

this was when jordan zimmermann when he was sent in, during the trayvon martin case. and he said something that i thought was -- you know, that i thought was in poor taste. and i was at espn at the time and i criticized him on air. and four or five minutes after i criticized him his rep started calling me. he dm'd me on twitter and he was like i need you to call me right away. i called him, and we talked for an hour. you know, for me, it was a breath of fresh air because i come from a school of thought, wherever -- when i was first coming up in this business, usually, you know, that's what happens between journalists and subjects, if they disagree with something, you went back and forth and that's how it was. some of that had been lost. kobe was an old school guy. he called and we hashed it out and we wound up developing a great relationship out of that. months later i asked him to sit down with me at the b.e.t. awards weekend and do a one on one conversation. he could not have been more gracious. he couldn't have been more kind and genuine. and i really got a chance

like trayvon martin, republicans went after him.ey said he was trying to channel up racism. you want him to solve the problems but then, when he tries to address any of them, you dismiss him as just race .aiting guest: i wish he would have been the black president and nominated an african-american to the spring corporate i wish he would've made black issues more of the center hallmark of the campaign and presidency. wish he would not have daft up someone who called him the letter in-word. it is unheard of. that is what this president did. you and i both know that there -- guest: you and i both know that there is a burden we take as african-american men that we don't always get to say what we want to say and have the reactions we want to have because there is a response ability on us that is not on other communities. it is on us to be responsible in the things we say and the way that we act and treat other people. likeeason that people jackie robinson were so successful was because they did not punch the fan that was saying things to