Why slavery collapsed in north america, you should not only will look within the four corners of north america but you should look to haiti. And as i said in the previous book, you should also look to the inspiration if not the instigation of british abolitionists in london. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. What to do things like to be on booktv is preview upcoming books and craig hodges is the author of this book, long shot the struggles and triumphs of an nba freedom fighter. Mr. Hodges, this is a june 4, 1992 New York Times story. I want you to explain what this is. Craig hodges, a threepoint shooting specials and one of the leagues best sided Michael Jordan another national basco Association Players for failing to use their visibility call attention to pressing social and political issues. Guest first of all i want to thank god for being here. From its one of those things i was in the Civil Rights Movement. From 1968, my mom was dead of the Civil Rights Movement and for me to get a chance to study our situation, i was blessed to be able to get a chance to go to college and study it and then get a chance to play professional basketball and hopefully have some impact on being on the front line of helping change the condition of our people. When i think about all of us athletes, none of us come with a silver spoon in our mouth. We all grew up in different circumstances but we all have he the same idea of wanting to go back and do the right thing. Thats what thats about. I felt and still feel that we have more to give. Thats been my position all along. Host what is this article referring to . Guest i think a lot of people may come a special in chicago media, they were against michael from the standpoint they felt michael could do more. For me one of the things i feel is we who are given more can do more that is the only you to tell anyone to do what with their money. Lead by example. Hopefully everyone can play along with it and we can do some stuff done and make it happen. Host we are a political activist while he played for the bulls . Guest thats one of those things immediate college what it is. For me im the person that wants to see justice come a person that feels like growing up in the Civil Rights Movement and dr. King being my hero, what he left, he left as far as fighting, to me those are the things i felt i could try to do something about. I was just hoping of athletes and entertainers would get on board. Host was a controversial . Guest yes. I think the biggest controversy was us went to chevy chip, going to the white house, giving the president a letter. When cultural dominance was a concern, that was considered controversial but for me it was a cultural norm because i was taught to have pride in who i am, to study what him and to go out and to make sure that you are responsible personally because you represent more than just so. To me i was blessed like i said to come from a family that a great honor in the community so i want to make sure i tried to do my best to major i carried on your the controversial part of the i believe to other people but i know the impact that it had on my life and the effect it had on me financially as far as my family was concerned just on the standpoint of me playing and playing for a living is something. Within the context of that other people have more power than you have. So having two World Championships and not being able to get a job, was crazy to me. Its still crazy to me when i think in terms of someone has an ability they should have a chance to do what they do if they are not causing anything to anybody post a october 11991, what happened country that was after our first championship. We had a chance to go to the white house when president george h. To the bush invited us. Invited us to come to the white house. For me it was a cultural opportunity, an opportunity for me to not only represent my people but to represent the community and those who are disenfranchised, those who have not been a part of this thing. I wanted to write a letter to the president , let people know that im coming on behalf of myself but i want to lead the way muhammad ali lead. For me i wouldve never had a chance that the white house if it had not been for the championship. I wanted to make sure i realized the opportunity the best i could. It wasnt me being respectful of all. I think was a matter of those were on the outside looking in. Host what did that letter same . Guest wan once again it askd him to consider the issues of the disenfranchised, the poor. And knowing that how we oftentimes, the skills are not balanced, where we can get billions and billions for fighter jets, for military movement but when can we do something for poor people . Basically piggyback on dr. Kings Poor People Movement is still on my agenda because if we can rectify the issues of the poor i think in the rest will into place. Thats something we have to get better at as a nation and thats what the letter was about. Host did you ever get a response treasury never at all. I got a response but it wasnt from him. I got a response from the league saying you cant play anymore. Do you know what i mean . It was kind of shocking because i was taught from elementary school, we wrote a letter to everybody. We wrote letters to our senators and mayors. We wrote a letter to the press in elementary school. So why couldnt i say that . Host what was the reaction from the Chicago Bulls . Guest my teammates, this was the first time i was on the International Scale and people saw me in it. It was funny to me how my teammates at the time we were getting ready at the airport and they were somewhat apologetic for me to the wider audience. It was funny to me from the standpoint, like i told them, theres no reason for you to feel uncomfortable. If youre feeling uncomfortable, thats on your plate, not on my plate. One of the greatest days, the fact that when we went to the capital, at that point in time i felt like man, this is an institution. It doesnt matter whos sitting in the seat or sitting in this white house, continue to learn and socially powerful. Host you put this in your book, trade dodges, how much money were you making that year . Guest by lester i think i made maybe 600,000 hospital that was 1992 . Guest that was 1992. That was marginal. I was in my ninth season, going into my 10th season. But the amount of money i could have received as an unrestricted free agent and impact that could have had on the city is what i measured by. I measured the gap of economics, the gap of jobs, joblessness that if we have the resources, then we can make a difference. We can create some jobs, do some things. So from that standpoint i felt like it was an opportunity for me to make something happen. Host whats your connection to arthur ashe . Guest to me, arthur ashe, i was blessed to see him when he won the u. S. Open. And one of the things i learned at the time as a young athlete and watching on tv was in between sets he would come back and sit down and he would close his eyes and meditate. For me that was so cool, know what im saying . The next time i went out, the coach called a timeout, im sitting there with my eyes closed and hes like what you do and . I had to use it as a different level, know what im saying . For me arthur ashe is like kareem, in my household they were family. Even though they were not there. My own goals, my granddad when they saw me at a young age, these are the athletes to watch and which ones not to watch. Careen, jim brown, muhammad ali, arthur ashe, even Billie Jean King to that standpoint. They were athletes who came to my life that impacted me because my family put it on me to study them. Host you also write the introduced you to apartheid guest thats right. Up to that time i was totally american. Know what im saying . We knew something about the slave trade in africa or whatever but at the time what it gave you was a chance to take a look at another part of the world to see how it impacted us and how we could impact it. He took a fortified stance against it that i learned from. Host from your book, as a black studies major at long beach state, i learned at an early age that black people, even the wealthy of us, have been conditioned to wait for the white man to sign off on our movement. Guest and to that degree, where we are right now, who do we make our ally . Oftentimes we make allies outside of our community and that does allow that trickledown effect to happen. For me we are at a point where its necessary for us to freedom of mind, freedom of resources and freedom of movement from the standpoint that i dont have to apologize for being black. I should have to apologize for wanting to do things for black people so they can be respected in the world order, so that we can take a step up and it will be a thing where we have taken a vanguard position. Make sure we can set things, and agenda in place so that our future generations to understand what it means to be a leader in the community. Host wendy ju experience what i described . Guest probably when i was in elementary school. When your family tells you, you have to be back on this side of the viaduct by 6 00, watched out of being on the west side the it was all about influence. It was never said this is whats going down after 6 00 on the west side. Its not about you being over there because if you are over there, it was more by inference. Likewise summit today when a mother would tell her son when you see the police, make sure you carried yourself and a certain kind of way, they put something on it once and i feel like almost something is wrong with you. You cant be free like somebody else do not is a matter of you are almost marginalizing yourself to bring a tone deaf or you can have a brilliant mind and it might be the next einstein for all we know. But you have been conditioned not to be housebroken, not to feel good about yourself and articulate what youre getting and thats the part of me i feel so blessed to have the family upbringing that i had. My mother like i said was his secretary, so as a young boy im sitting there watching leadership, not from with somebody telling me. Im watching my mom. I am part of him and knocking on doors and doing petition drive for the movement in 68. I was blessed from the standpoint prospect craig hodges come usage and made 700,000 in 1982. How much did you make in 1993 . Guest zero. Host why . Guest i was basically for a better term, blacklisted, blackballed, politically ostracized. For me it was an eye opening experience from a standpoint at that point in time my sons were 11 and 12, and for them to see you play Summer League against professional basketball players, and get a chance to play when the season starts, they question, dad, whats happening . Youve been in this our whole life. We still see a play. Why arent you playing a . And explain to them at that age that this is what can happen. If you stand up on your caused. No one could give me a definitive reason. People were in the lake would tell me hang in there. Charles barkley, hanging there. Dominique wilkins, hang in there. To me, what am i hanging in there about . All i know is anytime i would see anything about it, it sounded great from my into. Craig is mad because he couldnt play anymore. No, it just happened you giunta could ask questions on your behalf whether it be in j. , scotty, dj, patrick ewing, anybody because i wasnt a union rep and that became my play. It wasnt ever about me. This thing aint about the collective. Im still blast being in a sport that made me a team player from the mindset. Ive never been about making my 250 million so i can go by a ballet. Its about me making that might and 1983 so we could see a difference in the city of chicago. It bothered me the president is from your and this is happening here. No way should we be able to condition we can with a number of championships that we are in, the amount of money we make, the number of entertainers and athletes that are funded that our city continues to be wanted it. That bothers me host the wendys unite country when i was in milwaukee, a young brother by the name of troy murdered in 1989, and im watching television and the report comes on, and they say we feel like were living in a war zone. At that time i put my pen to paper and i felt like okay we need an organization. But first we have to see whats happening. Whats happening as violence. When youre sick, surgery is required. So first the operation was to unite ourselves. To uniting point would be saving the youth. Thats where that came from. I wanted to build and or decision and franklin or position where athletes and entertainers could be a part of it and we utilize our visibility under economic input to help existing organizations that were doing things in the community. Thats the basics of it. Host you write in your book that a lot of athletes have charities or foundations because your tax lawyers have advised you. Guest yes. Its easy. Is cool to give a basketball camp or give out some turkey. Get back at school time. What are we really doing . What are we doing on a daily basis . What are we doing on a nine to five basis . My position now is that the way the world is right now, if we are not on this everyday 24 7, man, ive got to worry about my children. Ive got four children. From that standpoint i know that theres work to do and the work that has to be done, youve got to be courageous or get out of the way because if youre not courageous, if youre not willing to stand on the principles that need to be stand on right now, then its going to be that generation thats going to be, like right now we have a group of children who dont care about life. They have no hope. They have no hope of getting to 20. Their mind is if i see jeff on some nice gear, im going to jack you. How does that mentality happening . Why does that permeate . We can do something about that. I know it can happen. Host thats a preview with former nba player craig hodges. His book long shot the