Transcripts For CSPAN3 Tavis Smiley Death Of A King 20180113

Transformative book he has ever written. One thing i can tell you about tavis is he is serious about this museum and he is serious about dr. King. He will often kneel down and pray at this site because dr. King meant so much to his life to continues to mean so much his life. For those of you who never met he is ave got to know down to earth guy. He is just like your brother. He is a person that you want to talk to. My first introduction to tavis mosttavis gave some of the thoughtful commentary i have ever heard. Tavis is a brilliant young man and he has been brilliant for a long, long time. I know in some ways he is controversial. But what i will say to you is tavis always thinks for himself and whether you agree with him or not or like it or not, he does speak for himself. That is what i love about him. Friend. Longtime he is much like a brother. I understand that he did play at. He alpha chapter i could go on about travis tavis. I have loved him since i first him. Him and didnt know i want to introduce to you and certainly present to others, a man who is an icon in his own time and he is not that old. Because icons are usually old. And an honorlege to welcome him. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome tavis smiley. Tavis did she get me with red lipstick . Mama, you were on tv, on cspan, you got lipstick all over you. Thank you for such a wonderful introduction. That is the secondbest introduction i ever received. I only say that because i had an engagement the other day and the person who was there to introduce me did not show up and i had to introduce myself area [laughter] tavis it is always an honor to come back to this great city of memphis. Beverly used the word iconic. This is an iconic town. When i get toppy come to memphis to do anything. This money is not just a museum. A nationalst monument. It is, for me, sacred space. This is sacred space. And as she intimated, whenever i , sometimes i speak to my sister who lives here. I never, ever come to this town without walking out on the balcony at 1 00 in the morning, 2 00 in the morning. I never come to this town without giving homage to the person i regard as the greatest ocratic small d democratic public intellectual in the history of this nation, americas greatest democratic, public individual. That martinnk luther king is the greatest american this country has ever produced . That can stop a barroom brawl. I can debate you. Pay my respects to the life and like a sea of dr. Martin luther king junior. Let me say a quick word and i want to save some time during the q and a q a. Thank cspan for covering this event tonight. Please thank cspan for being with us. Cspan is one of my favorite everyls, and you know february we would have a state of the black union symposium. They have been so kind and , but to, not just to me help live up to our greatest ideals. So, we want to thank cspan. Let me start by thanking beverly and her team. I feel like you are family. I come here so often. Memphians, but let me take a moment while i am on National Television but let me take a moment for a quick commercial for this grand facility while we are here. If you have not been to the National Civil rights museum, you need to go. This facility is oneofakind and i was completely blown away with how they squeeze all of this richness out of that little budget. Im still trying to figure that out. The architecture firm, the. Cademics if you are watching us on cspan tonight or today and you have not been to the National Civil you can check out graceland later. Would america have been america without the negro league knee negro people . One has to acknowledge america would not be if it were not for the contributions of african americans. I think people ought to be judged by the best they have been able to produce and i believe dr. King was among the best. Was a man. He was not a movement. A wholement entailed lot of other people. Some we know. Some we do not know. And many paid the ultimate price with their lives. We are working to create a nation that will be as good as its promise. So, this is a great city and facility. And everybody watching, make sure that you come through this facility. I am always getting texts and emails from people who are heard me talk about this. They have sent me a message. So, that is my commercial for this facility. Lets give them a hand for the wonderful work that they have done and are doing. Think part of what is wrong we arer country is that not enough in dialogue. I do want to leave time for your comments and questions. Let me go about something that bev said in her wonderful introduction about my visceral connection to dr. King. I took a long time to write a book called what i know for sure are car what i know for sure. Is my story of my life i hope there is more to come. I want more of it. Aboutt book i talk defining a similar moment in my life and its always hard to tell the story because i do not want to drag my family through this. Atn i was a 12yearold kid, my church, i was accused of we werehing accused of doing something we had not done inside the church the minister never had a meeting. Never asked us a single question. I did not know i have been accused of anything. And in front of the entire thech, he stood up behind pulpit and he said to me, just me. Igated my sister and it is the kind of embarrassment as a 12yearold kid is tough to process. My parents were sitting there and they were obviously humiliated. They had not been spoken to. I had not been spoken to. This was a major, major embarrassment for our entire family. We sat in the second row. On this side of the church. This is our row right here. Dad set there. Mama set there. All the rest is lined up. Undone completely by this accusation and embarrassment. And we didthat night something we had not done before, but on that particular night and youve got to understand the only place a black man could have any stature was in the black church. There you could be a deacon. There you could be a trustee. And mother were very much in love with the church. My father got home that night and he completely snapped. He beat my sister phyllis and me so severely we were in the hospital for weeks in traction. That is how severe the beating was. As a 12yearold kid i could not understand why this happened to me. I did not know why we had been accused. I did not know why he had done that in the church. I could not understand. I could not understand any of this. I hated my parents. I hated my mom for not protecting me. I hated my dad for losing his temper and snapping. I hated my dad for not even asking us we were kids. We work not to be believed, to anything to be told except to get in the room. I could not understand. For some reason i do not know churcha deacon in my when i got out of the hospital gave me a gift. And the gift was a box full of king recordings. Of motown fame had the good sense to have an engineer follow dr. King at certain parts of the movement. He gets paid to follow dr. King around and record many of his speeches. I know most of us think i was about to say most americans think that king gave only one speech in his whole life, but then it hit me. Im in memphis. , he gave twoow speeches. The audience trying to figure that out. The mountaintop speech he gave before he died. Most americans think he only give one speech i have a dream, and they think the speech only has one line in it. I want my children to live in a where they will be judged not by the color of their the content of their character. I want ask you to go any further. I know that is all you know. Thank goodness berry gordy had someone following them him to record the speeches and he put some of these out on lp that this deacon in my church had collected these records. For whatever reason, he gave that box to me as a gift. I finally got a chance to put those records on i mean old school lps these young folks do not know what we are talking about. I finally got a chance to listen to those records. And i heard king talking about the power of love. He was talking to a nation about the power of love and not the love of power. He was talking about the fact that love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend. He was saying love is the most powerful force in the world. He was talking to the nation. He might as well have been talking to me. Not figure this out. As ard king saying to me 12 year old kid, feeling guilty and not even knowing why, i heard king saying to me, as i hated the world, hated my mama and daddy and everybody else in , you are goings to have to love your way through this. Hate is not an option. Revenge is not an option. You are going to have to love your way through this. Youve got to find your way to toe kind of radical empathy get yourself through this. I could hear king talking to me. Presentation every , he was infusing me with this notion of love. Love, love, love. Kings life, J Edgar Hoover and the fbi listed him as the most dangerous man in america. I will say that again. The fbi listed king as the most dangerous man in america. I ask you, how can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon you are using is love . My preacher said, you all missed that. My preachert said, i think i just said something and you all missed that. How can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon you use is love . Are you feeling me on this . I think that means that love is the most powerful force in the world. That is why they were scared. We might put one other weapon in martins pocket. He used the power of love, but he also had ideas. Victor hugo was right. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. Martin had the right idea at the right time and this notion of love and service. King said all the time, lifes most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for us . Service he talked about all the time, he lived to that. I hear king talking to me as a 12yearold kid. Youve got to love your way out of the situation. My sister did not have the benefit of hearing those king records. Her life when another direction. Crack addict. Had a number of babies out of wedlock. Im happy to say she eventually went tod to memphis, school, but it took a while for at her graduation, what a happy day that was i was footing the bill for. But the only thing are you all feeling me on this . The only thing that kept me from feeling better and evil and full of revenge and hatred was king introducing me to the notion of the power of love. As a 12yearold kid, he became part of my dna. As a matter of fact, on the night of my 40th birthday, i was in houston, texas, about to be as one of the youngest people in the nation to have a school named after him. That night in the hotel room in houston, i almost died. Is. Pixie aided asphyxiated through four times. I was having a major anxiety attack your it i was crying and heaving. Just an ugly scene. Like something out of the exorcist. The i got through the night. It took me a few days to figure out what had happened to me. What happened to me was i was feeling also tough pangs of guilt because i could not understand how i was about to martin. Ger than martin is dead at 39. How is it that i am living to be 40. It took me a few days to deal fully i gotd they through it. That is how connected i feel to this man. Tot is how i was introduced dr. King. You will read about that somewhat in the introduction to the book. When you see me anywhere, if you watch my tv show or hear me on public radio or see me on pbs or anyplace, you will not talk to me for too long a time without hearing some kingian reference being made because he is as much a part of me as my mom and my daddy. He is in my dna. He is in my spirit. Since i was 12 i have only had one goal in life, other than not embarrassing my mama. Do my small part to make the world safe for his legacy. Do my small part, whether it is on radio or television, i want to do my small part to make the for his legacy. I could have written this book a long time ago. Now is the right time to put this book out. Why . Sanitizedow been so and sterilized and romanticized and in some way so demonized i semiJesse Jackson dont ayako i sound like Jesse Jackson, dont i . [laughter] tavis he is so sanitized and sterilized to be truth of who he was one day will be irrecoverable. Its hard to change that narrative. We have to confront what i would call an urban legend about dr. King. About dr. King. Is he is just a preacher with a smile on his face saying i have a dream and we shall overcome and free at last. That is not the complexity of the man. I believe every one of you in comes to know who we really are in the dark and our lives. Ays of in the dark and difficult moments that is who that is when we discover who we are. That is who you are going to who is riding with you. You will find out in the dark and difficult days who is going to be faithful to the end. You find that out in the dark and difficult days. Anyone ever have a dark and difficult day and you looked around and saw who was there . Mmhmm. Dr. King is no different. You know dr. King and you do not know how he traversed the most dark and difficult days of his life, then with respect, you dont know him yet. If you have him frozen in some frame at the Lincoln Monument Lincoln Memorial with the march on washington, you have him framed in 1963. You really do not know who he is. The next five years, he evolved on a whole lot of things. The man who said i have a before in the last years his life, his dream had become a nightmare. That is what martin said. The man who was fighting for integration told hell above told helle but harry belafonte, for all our work on integration, i believe we have integrated into a burning house. Hold on. This is going to hit you hard. One of the last calls martin made from this location, one of the last calls he made was back to his church in atlanta to speak to his secretary about his daddy, daddy king, his copastor. One of his last calls was to talk to his family. Martin had a practice and policy every thursday or friday of calling in his sermon because back in the old days most of these megachurches they have the announcements up on the big screen now. The big screen. Back in the day you remember the Old School Church bulletin . We are trying to save trees now so we have everything electronic and digital. Back in the day you would have these bulletins with the sermon topic for that sunday morning. Somebody say amen. Get the in and you bulletin. King had to call his sermon in every thursday and friday. For only traveling he did, he always got back to atlanta on sunday. The one place that he found solace was in the pulpit of ebenezer. They loved him and never needs are. So king made a phone call back to his church to tell them what his sunday morning sermon was going to be, had he made it back to atlanta on sunday morning. He was killed on his balcony thursday night, and if he made it back on sunday he was kind to preach hold your seat why america may go to hell. I can hear folk watching right lying. Ing, tavis, youre no, its real. On sermon was going to be sunday morning why america may go to hell. He did not say america was going to hell. His thesis was if we do not deal with the triple threat of racism, poverty, and militarism, we are simply going to lose our democracy. Is notmocracy sustainable. He was right then and he is sure enough right now. If we dont start to deal with the racism, poverty, and militarism threatening this very country, we are going to slide into hell. Martin was going to preach a sermon called why america may go to hell. If you tell the average american the i have a dream mann said america may go to hell this is what i mean when i say we dont really know who dr. King was. We do not know how he had to navigate that last dark and difficult year of his life. Ofhad to walk that last mile the way all by himself. Why all by himself . Im glad you asked. He steps inside the Riverside Church in manhattan and he gives 1967. Ch april 4, in that speech, dr. King calls america, this country, your country, my country, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. That is a damning indictment to call your government the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. Who won ar. King Nobel Peace Prize. It was also in the 1960s. In america. With a black man. Telling some white folk. Telling america. A black man called a communist at the height of the war offering antiamerican rhetoric, you, america, are the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. You can imagine that did not sit well with a whole lot of people. Every media outlet turned on him overnight. I live in l. A. I can guarantee you one thing. You know this, most of nobody becomes a success over night. There is no such thing as an overnight success. I can tell you Something Else. Go can go from being a success to being persona non grata overnight. You can go from being a success to being irrelevant overnight. Dont believe me . Exhibit a, ray rice, and a number of other examples. You see my point . I am not trying to demonize him. Im just saying, one day you on top of it, the next day you underneath it. It can turn on you real fast. But dr. King steps to that podium in riverside, and he is that and then some until 7 00 that night when he called america the greatest purveyor of violence the world and told us we have to deal with racism and poverty if you are going to deal with democracy. He said it is time to end the silence because silence sometimes is betrayal. Sometimes is betrayal. King left the church and that night, he had a huge he got like seven Standing Ovations during his speech. So he was like, cool. Woke up the next morning, every major newspaper, every media outlet in the country castigated him the next day you. You read this book death of the king, you are going to see what the liberal New York Times said about king the next day and it is going to embarrass you. When you read what the liberal Washington Post said about king the next day, it is going to hurt your feelings. When you read what Time Magazine wrote about king the next day, it is going to make you cry. The media turned on him sooner than right now and quicker than at once. That is how swift it was. They turned on him overnight. The media turns on him first. Including, i might add, the black media. We going to come back to that. The media turns on him first, and then the white house turns on him. Keep in mind now, martin has worked with Lyndon Johnson, the president , to pass the Voting Rights act and the Civil Rights Act so they cool, until this speech. When martin gives this speech, now the white house is out to get him. The white house turns on him. He Lyndon Johnson meets with other black leaders from that point forward, but martin if disinvited to the white house. So the media turns on him. White house turns on him. And then White America turns on him. The last poll taken in his life found at the harris poll that 75 hear me three quarters of the American People thought that dr. King in the last year of his life was irrelevant. 75 . Black folk, hold on to your seat again. In the last year of his life, almost 60 of black people thought dr. King war was persona non grata. When i say black people turned on him, i mean, roy wilkins and the naacp. Wait until you read the book about what they said about dr. King. The only other black Nobel Peace Prize laureate was on the board for the naacp at this time, and the naacp wrote and passed a resolution to condemn dr. King, and when ralph bunch saw the language, it wasnt tough enough for him, and he spiced it up even more. Ralph bunch personally, personally, spiced up the language in the resolution to condemn the other lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize lawyer, martin king. So roy wilkins, the naacp, ralph bunch, the only other black peace prize winner in this country, turn on him. They went in publicly on dr. King. Adam clayton powell, jr. , love that brother, but when martin was concerned, hater. Straight hater. Was hating on dr. King as it was one of the most difficult passages to write was a passage in this text even though adam clayton paul has been hating on dr. King publicly, doc is such a loving man examples of folks hating on him and he was loving them back as hard as he could. He knew paul was after him. He had been talking about him like a dog publicly. He invites martin to his home one night, and martin went anyway. That is like daniel walking into the lions den on purpose. He knew where he was going. But he went anyway. You read the passage about what Adam Clayton Powell did to dr. King to to his face at his house, you wont believe it. And we are National Television, on cspan, so im not going to quote for you it is in the text i am not going to quote for you because i cant, what Thurgood Marshal said about dr. King. Yeah, that Thurgood Marshall. The leading journalist of the day, and other black media outlets, turned on dr. King. So, the white house has turned on him. The media has turned on him. White folk turned on him. Black folk have turned on him. And if that is not enough, inside his own organization, he could not get a consensus to support him on his opposition to the vietnam war. Him to give want that speech in the first place. As a matter of fact if you read the story, his own organization, dr. King founded the organization. His board of directors passed a resolution to condemn him over his stance on the vietnam war. His organization. Writes a resolution to condemn him. I would hate for them to come after me. I willrow negro start signing the checks around here. Here is your pink slip. Goodbye. Dont let the door hit you where the good lord split you. But dr. King was so loving and so kind, he was going to adams house for dinner. His organization is voting to condemn him, and he still got the same vote on the board, having dinner with them and trying to understand why they feel this way. This is what you call radical empathy. I am not quite there yet. Called radical empathy. Everybody has turned against him. And on top of that he feels the death angel hovering in his space every day. He knows theres a bullet out there with his name on it. He is telling everybody in his inner circle he knows his time is limited. He knows that moment is going to come, and it is coming soon, and they did not want to hear that because they love martin so much. Loretto loved him so much. Ralph loved him so much. They did not want to hear he was going to die, be murdered. So he couldnt talk with them. Everybody else has turned against him. Who does martin turn to . It is a good thing that before he was a civil rights leader, before he was a ph. D, before all of that, he was a preacher. He had that one connection, he did have that connection, and there are stories in the text that would make you cry. It made me cry and i have written the book, i have read it 25 times, i am still crying every time. Im skipping over certain parts i dont want to cry no more. There are parts where you see martin at night crying himself to sleep. Some nights he cant sleep. He is outside looking up at the stars just singing singing, trying to pray and pull himself through this moment. One night they cant find martin. It is 3 00 in the morning, they cant find him. Theyre at motel and eventually discover him outside on the balcony. He is out there just standing in his pajamas in the middle of the night singing, rock of ages, left for me, let me hide myself in thee. Shay say, martin is they say martin, is , everything all right . Martin just kept on singing. They went back to bed, they came back at 7 00 in the morning, martin was still on the balcony in the same spot, in his pajamas, still singing, rock of ages, cleft or me, let me hide myself in thee. You read in this book some of the sermons he gave. Youll learn a whole lot more talks. In the last year of his life he speaks in this book all the way through from one page to the last. His voice is loud and clear in this text. In the last year of his life, scriptureook at the he was preaching on sundays, as much as to himself, as to the parishioners. Trying to pull and push and pray himself through and often times confess himself through his own situation and shortcomings. Servant. Was a public he was not a perfect servant. This book does not shy away from his shortcomings, faults and frailties. He was not human and divine. Just human. We dont shy away from those shortcomings in his life, but that love he talked about, day in and day out, thats who he was. The most depressing part of the book is to realize let me say very quickly. I say this everywhere i go and i certainly want to acknowledge this on cspan dr. King has three principle biographers, taylor branch, david garrow, and claim on carson. Book is written without the heavy lifting that has already been done with branch and gero and carson. What makes this book different is it is the first book that looks just at that last 12 months, april april 4, 1967, april 4, 1968, the first book ever looking at just the last 12 months. It is the first book i might add that tells the story in real time. So we put you in the space with dr. King. As a matter of fact in this book, he is never even dr. King. To you and to me, he is doc. I want to humanize him for you, take him off that pedestal, and put you in his inner circle so you know him as dr. Doc. Dont think i am talking about somebody else. We are talking about doc, and all throughout the book you will know him as doc, like his colleagues and coworkers and friends knew him as doc. I will put you in the space with him, and it is like a realtime movie where you going with him every step of the way for the last 12 months, until he arrives in memphis at this sacred space, the Lorraine Motel here at the national right civil rights museum. But he is pulling, and praying, and confessing his way through this, because his time is limited. He knows he is living on borrowed time. The most depressing part is to realize that with all the folk around him, he still essentially died alone. He dies alone. And i hate to say this to you, and please forgive me for putting it in such stark terms, but the truth of the matter is that we helped to kill dr. King. We helped kill him. You might say, tavis, thats a strong indictment. Maybe so. But we helped to kill him because we abandoned him in his dark and difficult moments. The media abandoned him. The body of politics abandoned him. White folk abandoned him. Black folk abandoned him. His own inner circle wasnt there when they should have been. You realize that we now know that dr. Kings treasurer, james harrison, was a paid fbi informant inside his own circle. ,he has got fbi informants. His treasurer is an fbi informant. One of the photographers covering him every day is a paid fbi informant. So on the inside they are sending reports back to the fbi every day. Think nothing of his being under surveillance and wire tapped everywhere he went. So the depressing part is that martin had to navigate this by himself and essentially died alone. The autopsy on his body as you may have heard, he dies at 39. You trivia buffs martin and , malcolm both dead at the same age, 39. But the autopsy reveals he has the organs, the insides of an almost 65yearold man. The stress and the pressure was killing him. And we abandoned him, and we helped to kill him by not being there for him, and turning a deaf ear and blind eye to truth he was trying to tell us about how to save our democracy by dealing with the racism and the poverty and militarism he kept putting in front of us every day. Thats the depressing part. Or like Jesse Jackson says, thats the slummy side. Heres the sunny side. The good part of the story, the good news of this story for me is this. All those hours of surveillance tapes, all the wiretapping tapes, hours and hours and hours and hours of tape, not one single, solitary time ever is martin ever heard contesting the humanity of any human being. Nothing derogatory, nothing dismissive, nothing demonizing. Ethicer words that love he talked about, he lived that thing. In public and in private, he was who i thought he was. And thats a beautiful thing. To withstand the scrutiny of history, and for your hero, for your man to end up being as advertised, to end up being exactly who you thought he was, and thats the beauty of this story. I also hope that this book would not just be a look back at the last year that would allow us, i hope, to love and appreciate and respect and revere him even more. Not just for the holidays and monuments and postage stamps and libraries and schools and streets. Thats all good he deserves that. But the best way we honor him is to make the world safe for his legacy. What this legacy . Justice for all. Service to others. And a love that liberates people. Justice for all. Service to others. And a love that liberates people. Thats the essence of his legacy. I want us to look back and try to appreciate him more by understanding what he had to deal in the dark and difficult days and how he got up every day. And some days it was difficult to get up and tell the truth but he did it. There is one story that one day martin got up, got fully dressed, suit, tie, socks, shoes, everything, fully dressed, and couldnt get out the door. He turned around, got back in the bed, fully clothed, pulled the covers over his head, and just cried, and cried, and cried. Didnt know what else to do. This is what martin king was going through in the last year because we abandoned him, because we turned on him, because we helped to kill him by shunning him, by making him a pariah, by making him a persona non grata. But i hope the book will also be a cautionary tale. And the cautionary tale i hope is simply this. That our society will pay a heavy price if we continue to ignore our Truth Tellers. Uhhuh. There are people today that go against all the odds of getting us to hear the truth about what were doing to the environment. And we think Global Warming and Climate Change is a joke. Breathe, the air we we somehow think thats a joke, and we just turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to folks trying to get to us deal with the Inconvenient Truth of what were doing to the environment. Ignoring those truthtellers. Folks trying to get to us trying to get us to understand that poverty is threatening our very democracy. That poverty is now a matter of national security. 1 of the people cannot continue to own and control 40 of the wealth. The top 400 richest americans have wealth equivalent to the bottom 150 million of us, and we still think we can call this a democracy . It may be a plutocracy, it may a an oligarchy, but it is not democracy. Those numbers are not sustainable, and we do not want to hear the folk trying to tell us the truth about what poverty is doing to this country. Dont want to hear it. We got folks trying to tell us the truth about this Drone Program we have on steroids. Dont want to hear that truth. Im sad to say, made reference earlier in the introduction that some people kind of hated on me and disappointed me and called me everything but a child of god for the last 70 years. Im used to that now. I can tell you one thing. This is for all the folk who feel that way. Its about to get worse. Because i wrote this book about dr. King. I got a whole new boldness now. If you thought i had said some stuff, i got more for you. I got a whole new boldness when it comes to telling the truth i know. Let me just say this though. I recognize i do not have a monopoly on the truth. I could be wrong. Theres the truth and theres the way to the truth. And im always on that journey trying to get to the truth. But every one of us is obligated, obligated obligated , in our lives to commit userses to seeking the truth and speaking the truth and standing on the truth and staying with the truth. That is the message of kings life, the message of his life, to seek the truth and to speak the truth and stand on the truth, and stay with the truth. Thats what is killing our democracy. Not enough folk willing to tell the truth. So we keep ignoring these truthtellers, and if dr. King were here today, he without question would have campaigned before you ask this question in the q and a we go into in two minutes if he were here today, before you ask, he would have campaigned for barack obama, he would have voted for barack obama, and then he would have become his chief critic. How do i know this . In the book you are going to read, the closest thing king experienced was having a black president. The closest thing was working to elect the first black mayor of major american city, which is now pretty standard. You about mayor warten here, so this is common now in america. Black mayors. As a matter of fact cities have , been doing so badly lately, negroes, you can have it. Be mayor, go ahead. You notice how white folk pass stuff off when it gets so bad . Maybe that is what obama is president now. You can have this. You fix it we going to take it , back. But you can have this right now. All jokes aside, king went to cleveland repeatedly. King went to cleveland repeatedly to help elect carl stokes, the first black mayor of cleveland. So that is how i know he would have campaigned for obama and voted for obama and then become obamas biggest critic. Two stories of cleveland, one funny and whatnot, the funniest story in the book one of the funniest dr. King was a funny guy. Was a jokester and a prankster. The last day of his life he was at his hotel. What is he doing . Pillow fighting with andy. Jumping up and down on the bed like boys little boys, pillow fighting hours before , he died. He didnt want his work to be taken for anything less than what it was. Didnt put that image out but a funny guy. There is a funny story about a moment where dr. King encounters some prostitutes in cleveland. Its not what you think. Its a funny story. But he goes to cleveland repeatedly to campaign for carl stokes, carl stokes is elected, and speaking of the disrespect king was getting in the last year of his life, carl stokes uses him to campaign for him but read in the book what carl stokes did to him his face the night that he won the election. Going to break your heart. What stokes did the night after he won. So, king would campaign for obama, voted for him been glad , he won, and then became his critic on what three issues . Racism, poverty, and militarism. Barack obama has used more drones than george bush did. He has a Drone Program on steroids. Hate if you want, but thats the truth. He has killed more innocent women and children than george bush did. Hate if you want, but that is the truth. We ares fighting we say we are fighting terrorism, but we are creating more terrorists at the same time. As you kill innocent women and children, what do you think their relatives and loved ones are now vowed to do . To strike back the evil american empire. So were creating more terrorist s even as we say were fighting terrorism. At this very moment as the president is talking about isis, he keeps using this phrase, we going to degrade and destroy, degrade and destroy. Mr. President , stop saying that. You aint going to degrade and destroy nothing. You might degrade it, and im all for it. Lets degrade it because i dont want us to get hit. So im fall for debraiding, but stop telling the American People you going to destroy isis. Evil is in the world. You aint never going to destroy it. Evil is much a part of the world as is goodness. King said theres some evil in the best of us and some good in the worst of us, but evil is in the world. We are not going to destroy that. Lets hope to degrade and it contain it, but dont tell the American People youre going to destroy it, because you are not going to destroy it. Its just not possible. Given that evil is going to come if you think you can destroy isis, its going to pop up as Something Else somewhere else. One day its hezbollah, one day qaeda, one day it is isis. Evil is in the world. Lets stop putting forth the notion of degrading and destroying. Degrading, im with you, mr. Hazard mr. President , but not destroying. That is not going to happen. Lets check our language here. But dr. King would have an interesting dance to do with president obama. Ive said maybe times before i wonder what kind of business dr. King would have had in the oval office whispering to the , president late as night when he is making war plans because king would have had none of it. The president dish voted for him twice when he finally got there, he said it is the defining issue of our times. But it took you six years to get there . You think king would have been quiet for years . Six six years . King wouldnt have said nothing . No. You keep on rocking your obama and king tshirts. I know the truth. And the truth is that king would have challenged him on poverty. He would have challenged him on militarism, in love, not being being demonizing or divisive or disrespectful. He would have been like me i , hope. You respect the president , you protest the president , but when he is wrong, you correct the president. Thats how you do every president barack obama and any , other of the other ones, respect, protect, correct. Thats how we have to deal with this. It would be an interesting dance on this issue being done with militarism. We cannot drone our way into a world of peace. And so, dr. King would have a lot to say about the american empire, a lot to say about us, 50 years almost 50 years after his death what did we see in ferguson, missouri, the other day . Racism, poverty, militarism. We have some work that has to be done. I hope that this book, death of a king will allow you see the , journey he walked the last mile of the way, how, when he tried to tell his truth, everybody turned against him and on him. He kept getting up every day speaking his truth anyway, and how king finally concluded he would rather be dead than be afraid. Those were his words. Id rather be dead than be afraid. King said, i have no control. You have no control over where you die or when you die or how you die. You only control what you die for. And i come to believe in my life this is tavis speaking i have come to believe that it is better to live for a cause than just because. But that means you have to be willing to speak the truth to , seek it, to speak it, to stand on it, and stay with it. And for those who think that somehow we hating on the president to try to hold him accountable, when you read this book ill close on this note when you read this book, and you read what dr. King said about Lyndon Johnson, and read what dr. King said to Lyndon Johnson, and read the telegrams he sent to Lyndon Johnson, and the press conferences he held about Lyndon Johnson, i have said nothing about barack obama. Not a word compared to what king said about Lyndon Johnson. Always in love, but you have to hold people accountable. President s, great president s, arent born, they are made. And left to their own devices they become politicians and not statesmen. You want a president who is not just going to be transactional but transformational. You have to push them. There is no Abraham Lincoln without Frederick Douglass pushing him. There is no fdr without randolph pushing him. There is no lbj without mlk pushing him. You do it out of love. But you got to push to help president s come to live up to their greatness. We would have a critique today, but this is a cautionary tale and the price that we pay when we ignore the people who love us enough and are willing to serve. S enough and tell us the truth we have to be ready at some point in time to deal with the truth. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening, and i appreciate it. [applause] tavis thank you, thank you, thank you. We have some time for some q and a, and lets jump right into it. Questions or comments, and i will sign your books and lets enjoy some barbecue or whatever. Lets see what you got here. Thanks for coming to memphis. Tavis thank you. You know, you so we are all familiar with he has given two speeches in his life. When he was in memphis, he used a phrase we all use, which is there was an island of poverty here in a sea of prosperity. Tavis that is right. When i have read his writings, i feel like what he was struggling toward in his last years here, and i want you to comment on this, you talked about this more, but i felt like what he was wrestling towards, wrestling towards the truth he may not have been there yet, but i feel like given more time he was heading in this direction. Looking at our economics as sort of a failed system, poverty is was definitely on his radar, and i do think he was struggling to understand why it was so whate and what about were all the factors that were sort of causing this problem that was threatening our democracy. Could you talk a little bit more about whether you think that is valid . Do you see that from him as someone who was struggling toward this larger critique of Economic System in general . What you think he would have done if he had more time . Tavis for the record, the book begins april 4, 1967 and ends april 4, 1968. Now, i think the best part of the book might be the epilogue, but do not read it first. I dont want you to ruin the story for yourself. And so we dont get into this particular part of what might have happened had he lived. Other books do that, but this one doesnt. I am happy to comment on that. He was talking about the redistribution and how america his phrase america is approaching spiritual death because this gap between the haves and havenots was widening in this country, and he understood that his focus had to be on the issue of poverty because that is where the work needed to be done. To sort of level the Playing Field in this country. He was very clear about that. In your question about whether he could or not have got that done i dont know. ,i like to believe, but i dont know. He was being so marginalized by that point already. He was being marginalized by the media, the body of politics. They killed him because they did not want him to get to washington to start that poor peoples campaign. King was going to be the original occupier by going to the National Mall, setting up that tent city called resurrection city. And he and thousands of others were going to stay on the National Mall and live there and embarrass the federal government until they decided to do something about poverty. His issue with johnson was, on one hand you can declare a war on poverty, but now you are in a war in vietnam and your resources are being squandered. King said war is the enemy of the poor. And so he understood what he was up against, and what he was up against was being marginalized every single day. And so i dont know how much more he could have gotten done. I always think about that. If he had lived, and Bobby Kennedy had lived and Bobby Kennedy had won, how many things would be different. I think things be different, but at that point, and we are speaking that kind of truth, he was already being marginalized. I think i can say this. He came to my church, and he sang the words, must jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free . No, there is a cross for everyone, and there is a cross for me. Even if you are atheist or agnostic, you get the point. Each of us have a cross to bear. Thats the way our society works. The closer you are to the truth, that closer you are to getting up on that cross. That is the way society works. We dont want want to here the truth, as i said earlier tonight from people trying to tell us , that our democracy is in trouble. My read of history suggests that there is no empire in the history of the world did not at some point falter or fail. Every empire eventually comes down. I dont know if it is our arrogance, hubris, narcissism, patriotism now morphed into nationalism whatever it is and whatever reason, we cannot accept or think about the fact that empires do fall. Giants come down, and we dont even want to think about that. That is what martin was saying to us. That is why he said america may go to hell because he knew that this, this path we were on was not sustainable. A long way of saying, i like to think he would have gotten more done, but i am also aware of how marginalized he was being. And i dont know what that might have meant. Really in question. Thank you very much. Next question. In the back, yes officer. [inaudible question] tavis say that again. The status of the Freedom Party today. Tavis almost nonexistent. I know a lot of folks that were in that movement. People are doing good work with democracy now, probably the biggest and broadest national platform. There are folk who are still doing the heavy lifting and righteous work to remind us that piece is an option. To remind us war is not the answer. But it is not as rigorous as it ought to be, and i think we see that even right now at this moment of war. That is not as rigorous or as vocal as it ought to be. Number two would martin was speaking, he was speaking to a church full of clergy. The church does not even have the sort of prophetic voice that it once had. Secondly. And thirdly let me say these for these black people, specifically my people, and not just black people, but progressives at large how is it in the era of obama, we have become eerily silent on the war question . Is the difference we have for this white house that how do i put this . Our deference is deafening. Our deference is deafening. I take you back to martin, april 4, 1967 when he said sometimes silence is betrayal. We are betraying our country. We are betraying our best ideals. Quite frankly we are betraying the president. We are certainly betraying martin and the black community. We are betraying the best of the black prophetic vision because speaking truth to power even when they dont want to hear when we know we are doing something we ought not be doing. So i am just going to say amazed but burdened, troubled. I have a great deal of angst about how my own community has gotten to a point where we are silent on the issue of war. We know this better than anybody. And we have become our greatest leader. Caught the nation taught the nation about nonviolence. And in this moment we have become silent, black america, on the war question. Not just silent, but some are even supporting this effort. Martin went to the white house until he got disinvited. But he never went in speaking the president s talking points. We got leaders now calling themselves black leaders. They run inside the white house, and they come out pushing the president s talking points. That is not black leadership. That is black accommodation. Not leadership. So i concerned about the status am of this movement, and i just again hope this book we will be a reminder that martin was willing to challenge Lyndon Johnson, always respectfully, always in love. Read the book. I was stunned at some of the things that martin king had the temerity to say to lyndon johnston, but he was just telling the truth. And he said it with a boldness and a conviction that too many of us are afraid to appropriate these days. Hope that answers your question. Next question or comment. Yes. What was what did you see as , the Immediate Impact of his death for those who had in fact turned against him . What happened after he died . Tavis that is a brilliant question. What happened after his death. Some of the negroes started rioting. The other half started crying. Seriously, the minute he dies, everybody as we say in my neighborhood, errybody was sad. The truth of the matter is the less year of his life he had been so marginalized that the first thing some negraoos said was, they killed doctor king. Then they said, what has he been doing lately . Where has he been . I am not being funny. I am being serious. He had been so off of the radar off most peoples lives because he could not get a book deal i did not get in on that. He could not get a book deal in the last year of his life. He was being shunned not that he was ever fully embraced, but he was being shunned by the black church. He could not get a speaking contract. He could not get a book deal. He could not get a magazine to run an excerpt from his book. They shut him down. He was not on the radar the way he had been early in his career. Some folks had not even seen dr. King in a while because he was so off the radar. But everybody got sad the minute he was murdered. Why is that . Because it is easy to celebrate a dead martyr. It is easy to honor a dead martyr. Martin was no longer a threat a threat at that time. And so you can imagine the minute he died, everybody in with condolences and telegrams, they all showed up and atlanta. That is what happened when they all turned back to loving him. You know after after he died. , the same old story. Same old story. Next question or comment. Hold on one second. Keep the faith, keep the faith. So why do you think that prophetic voice is lost now and was lost then . To what extent you mentioned the fbi to what extent do you think that was orchestrated and deliberate . The people did not abandon Nelson Mandela in south africa, and that saved him or we heat or he would have been dead. Losto you think we have living the faith, speaking the faith now and then. . Tavis your question was it deliberate . Absolutely. There is a reason why they forgot him. Powernew the power the was pregnant in his appeal. They knew his message was resonating with people across the country, and they did not want martin king as difficult i should confess this to you. Even his organizers to campaign was difficult. His chief organizer for the march on washington is a guy you know of named russell. Theyve split with dr. King on the vietnam war. Russell [king. He loved him. That crushed him. He would walked away from him, that crushed him. In the book you see what bayard said in an interview publicly about dr. King and the work. Read that, it really crushed him. This was all orchestrated trying to bring him down. They had been doing this for years. The second part of your question very quickly is about what happened to our commitment . The short answer is, everybody has a price. And a whole bunch of folks are selling out. Friends, and imy have thought about this myself every day, that your soul is the most precious thing that you have. Your soul is the most precious thing that you have. You have no possession as valuable and precious as your soul. And whatever it takes to protect your soul, that is what you have to do. Do not sell your soul, surrender your soul, or dont let them steal your soul. Whatever you do, dont sell your soul, dont surrender your soul, and dont let them steal your soul. The problem these days, to answer your question better, is that too many of us have a price , and too many of us are selling out to the highest bidder. We are selling our souls. When you sell your soul, this is that spiritual death that king was talking about but you start to approach because you have nothing to believe in. I believe that we cannot say one thing and do another. You know, we have to always say what we believe and do what we believe. We cant make that sort of dichotomy. That is my assessment. Too many people just selling their souls. Nobody wants to tell the truth. There is a price to pay for it. We talk about lounge inside my own community at various times. I read a piece one time it was kind of funny to me. They used my name as a verb. It was saying, you know, it was saying that you dont want to get tavisized. So i did become a verb. You dont want to get tavisized. It is somewhat funny, but not really because what they were saying was, if you try to tell a little bit of truth, talk about accountability just a little bit, you are going to get tavisized, and that is what happens. I am not comparing myself to dr. King in any way. There is no comparison. Im just telling you in my own walk, in my own church, i am telling you what it means to go from being brother number one to all of the negroes hating me the next day. You have got to keep getting up anyway and telling the truth the was death threats. You have got security when you travel. I have gone through all of that. And so i know that a lot of folks get silent and will sell out to the highest bidder. Because that is a journey they dont want to walk. I was supposed to end up with a bullet in my head. Martin knew it was coming. I think there is a price to pay. For not speaking the truth. Because you know what . I think of it as a greater price to pay. The price to pay there is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. It is a greater price to pay for not speaking the truth. Last question please. You are making me run. I will be outside, i promise. Do you think we will ever find out who actually killed dr. King in this lifetime . Tavis dont hold your breath. I dont know. And for the sake of this book, this book starts april 4, 1967, ends april 4, 1968, then you read the epilogue. Our book doesnt really cover that. This may be the only book about dr. King that does not even include the name james earl a. He is not relevant to the story we are telling. We are telling the story from martins perspective. He knows nothing of James Earl Ray and the monuments and holidays everything to come, so that is where our story ends. Let me close on this note. We will go to the table where i find your books. My again that understanding, the journey that martin had to walk, most of it by himself in the last year of his life we will come to , understand, appreciate, and embrace him in a new way, in a new way. And i hope that for you as individuals, because i have not said it enough tonight, i will say it again, i hope for us as individuals we understand that we do not come into the fullness of our own humanity until we can revel in the humanity of every other human being. You cant even experience your own humanity in full, and total until you learn how to revel in , the humanity of other people and sometimes trying to respect other people and push back against the contestation of their humanity means being willing to tell the truth. I will close where i began. Make a commitment in your life to be as tedious as you can be. Not put your life on the line, not a bullet to the head. I am not saying take a vow of poverty. What i am asking you to do is to be as kingy as you can be. That is how we honor his legacy. Be as kingy as you can be. I know everybody has the capacity to seek the truth and to speak the truth and to stand on the truth and to stay with the truth. America needs Truth Tellers. America needs Truth Tellers, and we are the Truth Tellers they have been looking for. Thank you for coming out tonight. I appreciate it. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 on history bookshelf, here from the bestknown American History writers of the past decade every saturday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch any of our programs anytime when you visit our website, cspan. Org history. You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. American history tv, smithsonian 2022, a fiveyear plan to mark the 175th anniversary by expanding their reach in areas of research and education. They also discussed reaching one billion people a year through a variety of expanded additional arms are investment any an institution hosted this 42minute event. My name is porter will consent. I am the chief of staff at the board of regents for the smithsonian institution. I would like to welcome you to building, and thank you for joining us for this short conversation about the future of the smithsonian. This event is also being live streamed on the smithsonians si. Edu, andedu on facebook live, so i would like to acknowledge our viewership. We will have leaders unveiled their bold vision for growing the institutions reach,