He has had a long relationship with the iconic leader. Kings speeches changed the courts of his life at extremely vulnerable time. My father lost his temper that night. He beat us so severely we were in the hospital. I was able, thanks to martin, to get through that and go on and do what i have been blessed to do with my life. Smiley, a political commentator weighs in on american leadership. God respected president obama. He is in office six years before he gave a major speech on poverty and income inequality. He said americas president disappointed the country following the shooting death of michael brown. You have that kind of militarization taking place, the president ought to be intimately involved. So, i thought it was an epic fail but he didnt step statesman. He is putting a new spin on his resume, a contestant on dancing with the stars . I figured i would do one last stupid foolish ridiculous thing before i turned 50. This is it. I spoke with tavis at our studios in new york as he was about to celebrate his birthday king. I want to start with the book and its probably fair to say you were obsessed with dr. King, you listened to his speeches, competed in contests. Uhhuh. Where you spoke his words. When i was 12, my father did something once in his life. It never happened after that. It had not happened. My father lost his temper one night. I had been accused of something in my church which wasnt true. Sadly the minister didnt call me or my sister. My sister had been accused as well. Didnt call us in but no questions asked got up in front of the entire church and in front of this massive congregation and accused my sister of and i of having done something we didnt do. My sister and me to be grammatically correct. My father lost his it temper that night. He beat us so severely we were in the hospital, both of us for almost two weeks in traction. I am a 12yearold kid sitting in this line, in this hospital, trying to figure out how this has happened to me. How did this happen . A member of my church bequeathed to me this gift box full of lp recordings of dr. King. Berry gorey rubbing mowtown followed speech. Speech had one line in it. My children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of stair their skin but by the content of their character. Later, gordy put out some of these records, this guy at my church was collecting them. He gave this to me as a 12yearold when i am trying to figure out why this is happening to me, i hear the love in his voice and the hope in his soul and the reassurance that was for me. So here king is, speaking to the nation about love and the power of love and how love is the only force that can turn an enemy into a friend. Nothing in the world is powerful he is talking to a nation. He might as well have been talking to me. I could hear him saying to me, tavis, you are going to have to love your way through this and hate is not an option. You have to forgive people. Spoke to me in a profound way. While he had been dead for years, at that moment, he really saved my life. Gratitude . Yes. Your psycheittic now psychic and prophetic. I am about to be 50. Kid. 20s years . Yes. About to turn 50. I said to myself a year or so that for my 50th birthday, the gift i wanted to give, not to king. This book it in many ways is my love letter to him. I wouldnt have made it to 50 had he not saved my life at the age of 12. Experience. I was able thanks to martin to get through that and go on and do what i have been glets to do with my life and career. My sister went the exact opposite direction and she became a crack addict, had a number of kids out of wedlock and had a rough life. I am glad to say after all of those years of struggle, she finally got it together, went to nursing school. Her life is on the right track now. It was a different journey for her and i owe it to that guy who spoke to me in profound ways and changed my life. You were talking about his words, his powerful words. Is what most of us remember. Most of us know him as the man who gave that speech, as the man who was the great civil rights leader, who stood up to your focused on the last year of his life when things had changed pretty dramatically. Why did you died to do so that . Because his three principal biographers without their work, i couldnt have done. Taylor branch, David Darrell and clayborn the they did the heft heavy lifting to give us the history of the legacy he left. This book is on the last year of his life april 4th why is that year important . Because april 4, 67, he is here in new york, to give the speech beyond vietnam. Riverside church in manhattan. He uses this phrase, refers to america as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. Thats in a strong indictment nation. A backlash. Everything started to turn against him. Talks about the triple threat racism, poverty and as long as this nellingro was in the lane of civil rights but when he talked about Foreign Policy or moral documents, and the money you are wasting over there in vietnam should be spent here at home and the bombs that are dropping there are landing in the ghettos and barios of American City and that war is the enemy of the poor, they turned on march tin king in that last year. In a pretty substantial way. I am old enough to remember the accusations of him being a communist and the reality was, it wasnt just White America who turned against him you write about how 75 of whites thought he was irrelevant at that point. A good majority of blaningz believed the same thing. Young people being attracted to more militant. We have so diefied him in death. Its hard to jux tap on this it. I had forgotten that. Absolutely the white house turns on him this voted on the two most important pieces of legislation in the 20th century now against johnson. The white house turns on him. The media turns on him. White america turns on him and then black america. Number was almost 60 in Black Thought he was persona nongrata so that the naacp and roy wilkins, the young and the urban ling comes out against king. Him. History would be incomplete if we different know. I think we have come to know who we are in the darkest most difficult days of our lives if you think you know dr. King but you dont know the difficult moment, you dont know him yet. You cant appreciate him as i do until you understand how he traversed and navigated the last year. The march tim i love the best is not the martin of i have a dream. Its not the martin of the montgom reece bus. Its the one who with everything and everybody turned against him kept speaktion truth, kept telling it like it is. He would not back down. Very much of what he was thinking. Was he depressed . Actually, what do you think would have happened to him if he hadnt have . Do you think he would ishave be marginalized further or overcome year . He was depressed from time to time he was admitted into the hospital in number of times over the last few years for what they said was exhaustion and felt this death angel hovering over him. He was driving himself to organize Poor Peoples Campaign faster than he typically would because he felt that things time was running out. Marchnalized in the last year of his life because the bugeos elite and the younger black folk were getting excited by carm ichael and brown and newton and the black power and black panther thing. He didnt have a constitwains in his community. You talked about how martyrdom may have muffled his negligence. The fact that has he become a martyr has that not allowed the diefication, to have the importance of his message resonate that much further . Parts of it. Thats the problem. Is the dream part, the part with shall overcome, the part america is better than this, what we end up getting is to be frank action a lot of pablum and plattude when it comes to dr. King rather than dealing with and drilling down on his message. When is the last time we have had a real discussion about ratesism, poverty and militarism. With respect to pompom, he was in office six years before he gave a speech on poverty and income equality. King would have had something to say about that. We are with a Drone Program on steroids on the one hand saying we are fighting terrorism. We hate the entire so on issues of race, this guy would have something to say about this. You are watching talk to al jazeera. When we come back, more on poverty, politics and race. More with it was smiley. Hundreds of days in detention. Al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. Thousands calling for their freedom. Its a clear violation of their human rights. We have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. Journalism is not a crime. I am a antonio morra. I am speak with it was smiley. He has completed a book on march tin king, jr. s life. Has it been 46 years later . If he saw a black president , if he saw there has been racism and country . The best example of what he might say today because i dont want to put words in his mouth, the closest thing to him seeing a black president in his lifetime was his seeing the first black mayor of a major American City, carl stokes and he spent a lot of time for him to get elected mayor. So, he certainly would have involved himself in the campaign if he had been asked to use. Might have asked him because his truth is so subversive, they may not have wanted him on the campaign trail. Obama would have said i love you but i will be your critic and i will push you and hold you accountable to those things that are in the best interest of the american people. Dr. King never believed that anything he ever had to say could love. He always tried to give his critique in love but he wasnt afraid to give a critique. Its interesting because in fact going back to before the election where barack obama became president of the united states, you werent uncritical of the president. You brought up issues and you got a lot of grief for it. How do you feel about the president today and has he done his job . Especially when it comes to race which i know in 2011, you said blacks. I think that the president has a difficult job. I certainly am putting and praying him not to be a garden variety politician but to be a spaceman. He could have been that. He missed the opportunity in ferguson missouri to be a statesman and chose to be another garden variety politician, send somebody else there, eric holder but didnt want to get involved. Ferguson . He should have. Even though Martin Luther king dent go to detroit and we go back to riots that happened in his time . King wasnt president , though. Obama is. I make the distinction. King is a prophet. Obama is the president. The president of this country as far as i am concerned whether black or white, if there is a imagine crisis nus country, it a city next to a major city like fire. This thing has been military tarized. The city is burning. Beats en and maced, the president audit to step into that situation. I am not going to let barack obama any more than george am bush for not going to new orleans. It was less about black and white and wrong and white and the dignity and the humanity of fellow citizens. If you are the president of the united states, i dont care if they are black, red, brown, oriole, when you have that kind of militarization the president ought to be intimately involved. I thought it was an epic if fail when he didnt step into the role of being a statesman and instead to be a calculating politician while he shouldnt get more involved you have the city that is majorly africanamerican. We recently had the on my show, consider this, we had one the top officials from the naacp. And he talked about how one of the problems was the lack of participation in elections by it africanamericans in ferguson and that may have led to them having so little representation. Why is that happening, and what needs to be done because that has to be a part of this conversation on race. King said he was living that the negro in the south could not vote and the negro in the north had nothing for which to vote. A look at voting. One instrument of justice, one i hope instrument. But for whom were they voting . What were the choices . I am prepared to critique them in ferguson for not having voted in higher at higher levels in the past. Back to kings philosophy, for whom were they voting . What were their choices really. I was 12k30i7b9d. I am skeptical of the Democratic Party for using this issue as you have been reading lately to whip up africanamerican voters to get them turned out for the midterm elections. Its a cynical ploy. An interesting question which is is there a problem with the Africanamerican Community becoming so identified with the Democratic Party and voting so overwhelmingly democratic because then, arent they seeing the democrats ignoring them because they are taking them for granted . The republicans ignoring them because the republicans say we are not going to get their votes anyway. I am being a little harsh. You are not being harsh the all. The Hispanic Community is the same way right now. Being ignored by one party and taken for granted by the other. Arent we in the same boat . Black and brown . This is an issue we have to deal with whats crazy about this is and i do mine crazy is that the republicans are too stuck on stupid to take advantage of that. I mean two constitwainses, black and brown who in many respects both feel marginalized and taken for granted by their party. You cant give them another option in their best interest. So what are you to do . Why you need people like dr. King who are willing to tell the truth no matter where the chips fall, bill oreilly, your sparring partner says africanamericans need to take more responsibility about whats happening in their communities. There is no issue in black american that is not a tentacle of the primary issue, poverty. In america, there is a highway in to poverty but not even a sidewalk out. We disexpected from afford a. M. Education and. Talking about leadters not having people for whom to vote t made sense, Martin Luther king was 39 years old. Jessie is in his 70s. Al sharpton is almost 60. The people who were around when Martin Luther king was fighting are old men. You cant lead people unless you love people and you cant save people unless you serve people. The leadership is not about the titles, the accolade. Its about do you love people and are you serving people . What is the depth of your love for fellow citizens . What is the quality of your service to them . By it that definition, we are lacking leaders in every race of people in this country who really love people. Just name can you get to one all of our commoditiecommoditie. You are pretty much good at everything you try to do. No. No. No. Twhauk about that. Yeah. Yeah. One thing you have not been good at is winning e legs. Yeah. I only ran one time. City council and tried to be president of all right. All right. So i lost twice. You lost twice. Great research team, man. No. No. Because of what dr. King meant to me when i was a 12yearold, i decided then that my calling in the world was to use i was a good speaker. Thats why i was in the oratorical contests. I won a lot, most of them. This voice that people would listen to. I knew that i had a passion and i was raised in a large family action nine brothers and sisters, my mom, my grandmother, 13 of us in a threebedroom, one park. I come from humble beginnings. I loved people. I knew people were my first love and i had this gift that i could use this instrument that i have to raise critical issues. So, i thought for me the answer was Public Service. And i make a distinction between Public Service and politicians for me it was Public Service. Long story short, i thought my career was going to be as an elected official. Group. The smiley group. A bunch of employees. All of this, the radio, the t. V. , the books, the foundation, everything i am doing is about one simple thing. How do i do my small type . What small role do i play in trying to make the world safe for the legacy of my hero, dr. King. What that is . Justice for all, service to others. People. Coming up, i will ask tavis smiley about putting a new twist protestors are gathering. Theres an air of tension right now. The crowd chanting for democracy. This is another significant development. We have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live. You are watching talk to Aljezeera America on this weeks show, tavis smiley. We dont do much entertainment. I suspect i will be the first person on this network to utter the following four words . You might be the last. You know what . I never thought i would utter those words either. In part, because if you had asked me this, you know, five, 10 years, the answer would have been no. When they did ask me this year, i told them no 3 times. On the third time they said to me, just take a meeting with us. I took a meeting. Long story short. I sat down at my kitchen table, poured out my pad, pros, cons. It turned out to my surprise, to my horror, quite frankly that the reasons for doing the show outweighed the reasons. The namely because i am about to turn 50. I figured i would do one last stupid, foolish, ridiculous thing before i turned 50. This is it. Was one of the pro did wearing a sparkly costume . I had a long time talk. I am not going to be on youtube with a sparkly costume on. You and i are about the same age. Your knees are messed up. How are you going to do it . Its tough. When i leave here tonight, i am going to a sixhour dance rehearsal. My dancing partner, Shawna Burgess is traveling with me while i am on book tour at the end of these long book tour days from 4 to 6 hours every night, we dance, and its getting me in great shape which is a beautiful thing. A friend told me when you turn 25. He said, you are going to feel like 75. But you are going to look like 25. Seriously i want to do something silly. This is it. Okay fine. I love my parents. I was raised in a very, very strict home. No dancing . No dancing. Not just dancing, antonio, i couldnt listen to secular music. I had to sneak to watch soul train and american bandstand my parents were so serious about keeping us on that straight and narrow path. Sometimes action i think, a little too harsh and trent. I love them to death. A little too hard. So here i was in college. I had never been to a movie. My first movie was purple rain i didnt know how to pay, get in. I had never gone to a movie theatre until i was in college. There were so many things i couldnt do as a young person. I have tried to redeem the time and say here i am, 50. I can dance but you never learned really how to dance. Here is an opportunity. They will pay me to do this. I will vote for you and i stars. My man. There you go. A disease that used to kill peoples in the bunches is now threatening to kill in the tens of thousands. Not just about the tragedy, but tumbling economies and the chance of weak states. Ebola, is the inside story
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