>> too short a soyuz person to get caught on videotape providing those kind of instructions, but based on my work working with him in the marine corps, working within the army and air force and with division i football program, educating boys and men around preventing sexual violence and talk about masculinity, i know for well -- full well these are attitudes around the country. not just in the black communities but white and asian community's all over. it's a mass community problem and have been women for generations who have been working to address it and to get men to own up to our sexism, own a car sexual violence, own up to our battery and emotional assaults, and to do something about it. also pleading with me and to work as allies do not abuse of men's ally, but create some searching, to challenge people like to short. unit, who are espousing ideas that we produce violence against our girls and women. there's a coalition, -- >> we are the 44%. >> marc and i both signed on as allies for the project are for me as a male i think it's important, very important for men to see other men and young boys to see other young boys who stand up and speak out against this. challenge sexism right there when it happens, to confront the violence when we see it happen, when we think is happening or when we know something about it. to me, that's one way that we can begin to change the culture. because from what i understand, too short has begun to retreat, has he not? based on the response. >> based on the fact folks are going to organize. this is the thing, and this is to your point, right? let's just use the drop squad strategy as a last resort. but what do we need to do before we can have two drop squad? too short. so part of that is it's an organizational mechanisms already in which folks respond to do you all know what 44% stand for? the fact that 44% of the women in this country were sexually assaulted and raped are under the age of 18. consider that never for a second before you start blaming allñ this on r. kelly.ññññ right? it's not like he raped all ofñ them. so with a dynamic first it starts as an individual petition, then it moves off the color of change which is both the 50,000 signatures, right? denigrates this coalition that is going to be a national movement because if we're going to talk about protecting our girls we need to be talked by protecting all girls within this kind of context. the same kind of strategy and mechanism we are using to be easily applied to do the same thing in terms of pushback in terms of media racism. this is the beginning of the organization, the drop squad strategy is the last resort. what i'm going to do before the point in time. i keep saying -- when you talk about what it means to be in the room and part of the failings of what has been the last four years with barack obama is that we got in the room but we don't know what the hell to do once we are in the room. right? yeah, we are included but included means you don't get to elect somebody, one of the way she help that person to govern is to hold a person accountable. if you never tell him what to expect of him you can't expect him to do it just because he loves you. >> that's a point that all of the contributors to transcend make. they say listen, he said if we can, not yes, i can. washington said in his critique about the meeting and african-american president, american president, he said whether paralysis of analysis. we almost reneged on our side of the bargain that he said i will run but i need the backing. now he is there, what is everybody else? van jones makes the point as well, but none of us have worked in an administration. but he said come he got scared, he would look around, there was about 1000 people to work within kind of a government administration. and he said he looked around and he thought where did everybody go? where were all the people who were there who had donated $1.5? what happened to all the people who are out there in the grassroots, knocking on doors, social media campaigns? where did everybody go? he said, we have been left alone. you need the microphone to make a comment. this man has been waiting patiently. >> i think the brother in fact, the army, the professor of your are both correct.íoííóííno this approach has to be multifaceted, and i think, i've been sitting here gazing back and forth between redefining black power and your backdrop, transfixed, that's, right nowó we're at a stage in which people go in different directions. they have to take where they come from, the things they have a similar along the line come in terms of expertise, to bring us to a greater good.oóñoñw and i decided at the time ofo which i came along, i went away? but not upstate with my brother over your.ooo i went to the united states air force, and that was my choice and it worked well for me in thy context of the '60s and '70s and going through the time. >> thank you, sir. can take a, from the lady in the back? >> i sort of agree with you, -- >> can you hold a microphone closer? >> to the point where you didn't think there was much racism in our schools. racism permeates our schools. i am a retiree from the board of ed. the example of that is a failure of too many of our children, yes, the parents need to be a part when they come home, should they do their homework and make sure they read books. but we have a tendency to make excuses. i know your next comment, you were making excuses, but it comes across that way. now, getting back to would the gentleman said in the back -- >> can you hold the mic speaker dash we all remember the children who was defending his home out in queens. these italian kids threatened, came onto this property and threatened to kill him and his mother and father and nobody else. what did the father of the dead young man to? killed the father who was defending his family. in court even said what he was going to do. [inaudible] we are too timid and if we didn't have the answers we didn't have when they listed here and realize that we have a little job that they can snatch from you any minute. what their plan i is and too comfortable, no one wants this comfort in front of the television or stay off the phone, what have you. it's amazing we have come out to hue-man bookstore really. >> i appreciate the fact that you get. thank you. >> and standing room only. >> it's really hurtful to know that -- i'm not going to make excuses for our men and our young boys, because they were not taught, you see. our history is the white man has been molesting our women, our girls for years, okay? so they are looking at the way that our men came from that background, and we have a lot of closet pedophiles, yes, in our own community. but it's because everything that is going on, the wife, the mother is left to raise the child. i have one boy, one man, and three grown daughters. i used to have to ask my son -- my former husband who is very good t to me in the finca but fr some reason and another -- [inaudible] once the boy did see him, they're gone. they don't take them to basketball games. they don't take into the. my husband was actually a pool player. see what i mean? we need some real -- >> we need some good examples. army, some of these fathers in the audience, is it fair what this lady is saying? are our husband or our fathers just absence? and if we can take this gentleman's comment. >> it is my firm belief we have neglected the understanding that malcolm and martin can do, that the problem is not just blacks. it is universal. all love white people are discovering the new age, their intentions are gone. medicare is about to be gone. they are available to become a coalition. so we are sitting up here consistently been hammered about the fact that there's a need to concentrate solely upon the backs of my skin color, somebody else's can put something else. we need to get over that and realized this is about people, not just black people. the other thing with regard to, i appreciate the fact there's a whole bunch of fathers who ignore the responsibility of being a father. that young man who first spoke to my son, and i understood that in order for me not to pay prices to the god i believe in, that is going to be my responsibility to make sure that one, he was protected, too, i devote the necessary time so that he could become the best individual, and understand the nature of the rules of engagement of the society that he is in, i think to a large number i've been successful, but charlie here will talk about that. >> we will be right with you in a moment. do you want to go over to this gentleman? >> you asked the question that obama looked around and said where's all the people? >> no, it was actually van jones who said okay, so the election is over, the administration has started, we are here, where is everybody else? >> well, didn't obama this band all those storefronts that he had the support for the people of? >> sorry to jump in, but why is it that we need president obama to officially have things, why can't we stay organized in their own communities anyone? >> i'm asking, when we was organize, once he became president, they need this band all of them, they were together and electing him and networking and going door-to-door. and once he got in the house, he this band all across the count country. >> but why, i asked the same question, but why should it stop us as individuals, why do me the president to tell us what to do? >> i'm not saying that we need a president to does what to do. i'm just curious. do you know why he'd just been -- >> it was the end of the election campaign. that's what all campaigns do. once it's finished, they pack up and they go home, but is still incumbent on us as individuals to say this is what i want to be to try and change. that shouldn't be the president's job. i'm not an obama defended, but should it be the president's job to tell us as individuals what to do within her own commute. and i will open up to the floor. do people feel as though they were abandoned by president obama after the 2008 election? >> i just want to stay -- >> very briefly. >> if you already have the network together, he was moving forward, he had 18, then if other people see that his team was still intact, then they would be more likely to join already. so i couldn't understand why was he essentially does been so we regrouped again with totally been -- >> because part of it is that elections are governed. that is a system that was set up to get them elected. not necessary a system that was set up to help govern. part of what joe and disgusted fashion show and discuss, we should take ourselves to push them to govern. one of the quotes in the book, julianne malveaux i think was or maybe the journalists, talk about that conversation but most of your purchase before the a. philip randolph had with president roosevelt, and a. philip randolph is like i want this and that. roosevelt said that all sounds good but i can't do it unless you elect me to do. when we think about civil rights in this country, lbj, which met in the 1950s he was to the right of the republicans, whose only on the ticket because that was the only way that kennedy could win the election, the closest election in history of the country until 2000. when john f. kennedy got killed, despite the fact lyndon johnson a bit the races, they clearly didn't support civil rights, he had to carry on because there was applicable in this country to force him to carry it takes how to get barack obama to carry the water for those issues that of most concern us whether be the prison at us or complex, no child left behind/race to the top, we could go on and on about the kind of policies that allow the kind of investor in this country because there is not a force out there in terms of our issues that are pushing back. we can expect our national organizations to do that kind of work either. >> i want to say quickly, a belief after barack obama became president of the united states, most of the people who supported him and galvanize their efforts for him went home and laid on the couch. and the tea party woke up and went to work. and attempted to take right over. and i just reinforce what trammell said about not sustaining all of the energy and momentum that was created by his campaign, do you know what i think was and i do remember, i don't know, i'm not sure, i'm not familiar where you're talking about in terms of obama disbanding his campaign headquarters and offices around the country, but i do know that barack obama's team and his cabinet have been working to try and sustain that momentum and reach out to the voters and reject to the constituents. >> to reach out to the fundraisers. >> fundraisers, okay. good point. but i think a lot of people, most, vast lynn jorde people have sat back and watched, as someone who is charismatic enough, powerful enough, strong enough to do all of the heavy lifting on his own. so we sit back and they watch them face an opposition that has absolutely no desire to see him succeed. in fact, they want to see him failed and not only do they want to see the democrats though, they want to see a black person go, they want to see a black man for. they want black people and they want america to see that this experiment of barack obama, the first black male president, was a complete giunta. that's what they want to see. >> just reminded me of something from the book, a conversation with ramona, the communications minister, they would -- we had a long conversation, and she said, you know, she and others did not vote because in their opinion whether politician is black or white, somewhere between our something else, that they are a politician to a politician will do what politicians do. politicians want to be reelected. politicians need to raise money to be reelected. something she said that was really powerful, she said -- he said barack obama is the new crack. he has got people hallucinating. he is the new crack in the black community, and poor communities. and what she meant by that is pretty much to echo what the gentlemen here have been saying, and other contribute to the book was saying, that barack obama is not the messiah. is not the savior. he is one man who coming in a comment is probably trying to do the right thing but he is a politician but she said that we need to not sleep on this, that we can't hand over our agency to one individual. he is someone, he's beholden to congress. we are seeing how that is working out. they're not exactly friendly. they are not exactly receiving him with open arms but he had a majority in 2008. that's not the case now, but he is the new crack. he is sending us to sleep because we are not outsourcing well okay, he is doing his job, what is the job that i am supposed to be delinquent i just wanted to share the. wait a couple of comments. >> -- we had a couple of comments here. >> before proceeding i would like to acknowledge -- likewise, everyone here tonight. i was invited, and i'm glad we are here. [inaudible] [inaudible] the true understanding of african history, will not be -- [inaudible] >> i'm sorry to her you but could you get to your point, please? [inaudible] >> you asked for one. >> absolutely. i don't want to hurry you but i'm just mindful folks do want to make a comment, thank you. >> african-americans were the begin of --?g [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> spent i love the call, politicians are not humanitarians. i'll be using that on that one. >> there was another, i believe at the back. let's take this gentleman here and then we will actually begin. the gentlemen in the back here first place. thank you all for being so good waiting for the microphone and your patience to i really appreciate that. >> in reference to the statement you made about fdr. if you look at barack's administration, -- if you also look at what he did, when he spoke to progressive black caucus, totally what he did up there. >> that was referring to when he said put on your walking shoes? >> that, he was disconnected from the black community. so we can pretend that he is included in us, but it's the illusion of inclusion. do you understand what i'm saying? there's a person, van jones, right? brother has the formula for a great economy. he gets kicked out of the administration. >> but the interesting thing with van jones, he made the point that i asked him very specifically, do you feel that you are more effective in the administration or out, and he said listen, regardless of what lies in the white house administration or out working and the prison industrial complex, he said it matters to me what needs to be done. regardless of for a and i will still continue to do that work. i thought that was a very powerful thing to all of us, whether we're told, we don't need agreeing light that says yes, you can go and organize. we can do that. >> i think that's a diplomatic on van jones is part. >> unit is going to be printed. he's a very smart man. >> but like i said, you know, if you just looked at a figure, it's easy to believe that he was articulate, but when you look at those briefings, if you don't see us in there, guess what? we are not there talked about. >> i see. it's an interesting point. if you and give the microphone back to brian. it when i had a conversation in washington, he's a columnist with the philadelphia tribune in addition to many other outlets, and he was saying he gave a figure, i don't have it in him, but he was talking about, saying press briefings and the number of african-american journalists as opposed to the number of white journalists that were in there. and he was saying, it was quite difficult as one of his colleagues again, a veteran journalist who was having a really tough time at the beginning of the administration getting into both white house press briefings. there's a way us who work in media, the people that are meant to hold the executive branch and congress and the supreme court accountable, if we as black folks and journalist can't get to the table to ask questions, then it kind of becomes difficult for everyone else to do that as well. so you're right, we do need to be at the table. take another comment just down here in the front. >> then we'll take some final comments from our panel. >> thank you. the title of your book, "re-defining black power," and the black power i look at it is from renaissance, civil rights movement, of course malcolm, the panthers, and now we here at barack obama. is it your intention the title of the book, "re-defining black power" come is because we have been through all those stages upon black struggle with we did a black arm stroke and '70s and '60s, and then panthers and everything else.íi now we have barack obama, now we have political power. is it, to your panel is, your title, "re-defining black power" can now is almost like a christmas stand, with jesus, are you saying that barack obama being president is now a new turn, a new course of black power, or is it that all those are inclusive with obama and our? >> exactly. is exactly the second point. i should give you a little background to where we got this from. a collection and the pacifica radio archives called defining black by which has malcolm x and dr. martin luther king, fanny -- fannie lou hamer. we could hear all year for ever and is difficult to say these are the people that signify black power. we defining black power, what we really want to do was kind of mary that continuum as doctor vincent harding talks about, the deepening of democracy. we don't want to talk president obama without also making sure that we pay homage to fannie lou hamer, and all those people who really paved the way for barack obama. even with folks like i were reference shirley chisolm the this is summer we just don't talk about. barack obama was the first african-american to run and win but he was not the first to run. so it's the way we want to make sure we talk about one that you always talk about the other. for me personally, we defining black power is about saying listen, this is how i define my power which may be very different to how you define. some people are naturally theirs. if you are you should go out and lead. some people are natural organizers. if that's what you are you should go out and do. but i don't think we want some to say well, you know, you're from the diaspora, you're african-american, your life should be dictated by low graduation rates, high teen pregnancy rates, high unemployment, high mass incarceration. that's not all that we are, and i love that professor neal earlier said, we talk about the 40 some% of young black boys who are graduating, what about the other 53% who are? why do we not talking about them, why are we not producing models to replicate their success? so we defining black power is about marrying all of those traditions, talking about all those traditions in tandem, but also single, within our own communities, west los angeles, d.c., baltimore, florida or wherever you are, you take back your power, say this is what i'm going to do with it. because the longer i say it's someone else's fault, it's her fault i'm not married or whatever, we are handing over our power. all of these people fought so hard for us to have come after me it's important that if you leave you tonight with nothing else, get in addition to the booker i have to say. but if you leave your tonight with nothing else, nothing else, you kind of say starting tomorrow i'm going to hook up with a young man perhaps his father isn't on the scene for whatever reason, i'm going to bring a young girl to libra to pick up books who reflect to shoot. i'm going to take her, some young children to a theater, or going to help them up with works by people who are doing positive work, like byron, make sure they watched, this is a documentary that byron make it with so many resources with this book, where there is dieter, film, blog posts like what professor neal here does. we have all those resources. we just have to make sure we actually share them as well. >> there is a free cd from the pacifica radio archives forzoqo anyone who purchased the book's pinkie want to make that comment again and hold the microphone? >> how would you say that we effectively hold barack because others came out and critique them and they got a lot of backlash for that so how do you think we can effectively hold him accountable and gain result? >> so, there was nothing wrong with the professors critique of barack obama, president barack obama. the president was the style in which he offered a critique which clearly resonated with multiples as something being less with policies and more to do with a personal affront between the two of them. and so i think that's why they got rejected. i think what is very real is if you think about mainstream media in this country, they have absolutely neglected what is very, very significant left critique of barack obama that is yet as substantial a critique wearing from the right and a tea party, but that could be invisible. it wasn't for folks like black agenda report as an example. we would note that there was a left that said, part of that is the same way that any of these folks make the politicians accountable. you fax them come to e-mail, you write letters, you showed in their office, right? you consciously tell them on not giving you money this month because you're not representing what we do. this is the thing that white folks do all the time to rethink about ralph reed and the success of ralph reed and relationship to the rise of george bush, w., as opposed to his father as opposed to age. ralph reed is going into churches with ballots, right? he sits down with folks in churches. these are the folks you need to vote on because this is what they believe on abortion and this is the kind of policy they follow. we need to just get serious about organizing. those of you who are old enough to remember watching black people for the first time on television, especially if you got a color television, you call all your friends, harry belafonte is going to be on tv tonight a key figure out who in the committee has the color tv and every comes to the house to watch harry belafonte for six minutes. so going to the quote from fred hampton junior, our responsible barack obama, we were so -- we didn't take into account that there's another part of this, getting him into office is the first part. organizing the way every other political group does, because you're right, they don't respect us. break-in before talk about the armed struggle for me to respect us in a political context. santorum enron and all these folks and say whatever they want to say about this because they know that we don't ever speak back to them politically. we don't count to them politically so it doesn't matter what they will say because they don't have any, we don't offer any retribution for the choices they make. >> did you have a comment he wanted to make on that? >> i think marc's point was very well said. i think that they are not going to respect our concerns and issues if we do not vote, if we do not vote in numbers, if we can't vote, if we are disenfranchised as voters. and as marc said, if we are not serious and organized, voting bloc, we have to be taken seriously state and we only come up for national elections, that's the other thing. we never come out for those elections. >> but i do get a criticism of barack obama's administration. i'm also very critical of barack obama's administration. i'm both inspired by barack obama but i'm also reminded that barack obama's administration is facing a level of hatred and visceral and disrespect on the right that makes me want to defend him, right? so i think it's a complicated relationship that we have with the barack obama. i think it's very nuanced, and i think it's a mistake, as you said, to avoid the voices of people on the left, the organizers, the nationalists, the people who have been doing community work and are so is concerned that issues affecting us on a daily basis but i think it's a mistake to ignore those voices and i think it's a mistake for barack obama cannot hear us and not respond to us. the last thing i want to say is that marc talked about how teachers in schools are racist and are enacting their racism against our young boys in school. based on how they been trained in how they've been socialized and how they've been conditioned to see black men as dangerous and threat and criminals, right? i think barack obama is treating -- being treated the same way in congress him on his peers and on capitol hill, the governor of arizona wagging her finger in his face, right? saying that he was a threat. she felt threatened and intimidated by him. the public displays of disrespect of him, the cheapening of his presidency, reducing the value of his presidency, in so many different ways. and so that's the part that for me is a reminder that we do live in a deeply racist society, right? that a systematic and his well at work and play. so we all have a lot of work to do. every single one of us have a lot of work to do. have to continue to organize. we have to continue to raise up our children, raise up our community and the leaders as marc talked about. >> stand up, please. >> just to sort of tied in, do you think there is an issue in terms of not allowing power to our own committee i.e. the relationship of becoming a black man with black women, that is, that both of you spoke to, that the definition of masculinity being that we are partially -- black women and thus not allowing them to reach their full potential because we are quote unquote may be afraid of what's going to sort of occur when their power being unleashed with the community, and sort of my hypothesis being that similarly for what sort of ordering quote whites have gone through, that seeing ourselves as excepting some form of enslavement, allows us to basically be enslaved ourselves? so do you think that until we allow women in our communities -- men and women tough powerful and forced to rule double to eliminate our own enslavement? >> that was a well stated watching, wellpoint, well stated point. i don't know if i can answer it well but i'll just say this but i think we as black and have to become a lot more secure enough in itself. i think we have to do a lot more introspective work to figure who we are and figure out our power. i think we have to divest, we have to let go of the idea that in order to be powerful as a man, that would have to be in control, that we had to be in charge, that we have to make more money that our wives or partners, that would have to where our success on our sleeves, where are such a conquest as a badge of honor. i think where to start to divest in that brand of masculinity and become more secure in who we are, and recognize that the women in our communities are valuable, they are important, and that we all have women in our lives, our mother, our sister or our daughters or important to us. and that the wind that we're involved with, someone's daughter is someone's sister, and someone who is loved and cared about. i think we have to begin to view ourselves in a more human way as men, as men we have to be ourselves as more human. i think we can really begin to deal with our emotional selves, i think that's when we can become more loving and more accepting and more affirming of the women in our lives. >> here's the thing. agreeing obviously with everything by richard said, our communities are best served by allowing the most talented folks to be able to ascend to positions of leadership. can we say that that has historically been the case? no. and so a community in which we accept the talents of black women as leaders, that except the talents of black homosexuals and black gays as leaders, we know all of the heterosexual male names from the civil rights movement, that when you ask a young folks who eligible a group was, you get blank looks and because they essentially have been compartmentalized outside of the history of the civil rights movement. so we do ourselves a disservice by not allowing the most talented folks in our communities to be able to ascend to leadership. just look at stroker, can we think of one woman, for instance, who has the kind of political cachet in our history on the level of martin luther king, or jesse jackson, louis farrakhan, al sharpton, we could go on and on in that regard? folks love to bring of dorothy height as one example but again these are all women have been reduced to a secondary level in our understanding of the. so i just think we do ourselves an incredible disservice by not realizing that power does not have to be heterosexual or male. >> there's really just so much that we could talk about and she won and i just gone, but, unfortunately, we can't leave them here all night otherwise you will never ever have me back. i do want -- >> push my books. >> yes. wow, tremble, i was just going to say that. but seriously, you know, we've had this big conversation tonight and i want to thank marc and professor neal, byron hurt, for coming outside and having this conversation but it's so crucial that what we're talking about in this book is just conversation with seven people, but this isn't just a book for the seven people that are in it. as i said, i know a lot of you, where the able and come from? but a lot of you didn't hear this but this really is a and a project that is for everybody. i'm not joking when i say that we really want, when people look back on this presidency come on this moment in history, whether it is one term or two, the voices are right at the heart of the. we don't want -- i'm a journalist, i'm not an academic. i like to talk to people. i love to talk and intellect and discuss and to the bone and all of that, but people, it's so important, just like fannie lou hamer's voice, because of the pacifica archives to say we can do this and be inspired, that when people, when we are long gone, 50, 60, 70, 100 years, that they can look back and say that's what black folks were talking about during this historic transformative moment. so i urge you if you can, not just support this project, please support black independent bookstores like this one here in harlem. hue-man bookstore. [applause] >> you know, this is how i've been so fortunate to go around the country, busboys commented to come here, it's a beautiful space, bring your children, bring your mothers, bring your aunts and uncles. please get in to pick up a book, read it, buy, even if you just buy one, read it, share it, dogeared. seriously, buy it, share it, read it. this is a cd communicating a free cd with us tonight. listen to the cd with the book. those voices of history are on that cd. said that with her children. listen to that of the audio. i went to detroit probably three years ago now with this audio and play dead to some high school children. they were like 15 to 16 at the time. it was just before the 2008 election. they would listen to james baldwin, who is talking about the murder of the four girls in that church bombing. they said they heard the fire and is void and they said i will go read some james baldwin because i would pick up the book i can hear what he sounds like on the pages, not boring anymore. so books are important. our history is important. the brothers there is said we have to tell our story. you have an opportunity to tell your story, so buy the book, support this project, support the team here at hue-man books. i know they are for sale up front. you guys know i will sign. i'm happy to do. you have postcards on your chip if information is on the back but if you didn't get a chance to make it, tonight, my dear husband, love him is at the back. you can record a video message was and if you consider blog post via the website, redefined black bar.com. but again i want to thank professor marc anthony neal, check out his blog, new black men.com and check out byron's fantastic work. check out -- soul food junkies which has just been approved. but most of all, sorry for, most of all i really want to thank all of you for coming out. time is really the only resource we have, and don't people really have these agents so thank you all for coming up and kind of, you know, i think i kind of like new york. i may come back. thank you very much. i will be here, i will sign them. sankey. [applause] spent is there a nonfiction author book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> it's been nearly 10 years since the release of robert caro's third part of the years of lyndon johnson, and in just a few weeks the fourth line will be published. it follows 1980s to the path to power, and 2003 master of the senate. here he is on q&a in 2008 with an update on how volume four was taking shape. >> this is really a book not just about lyndon johnson but about robert henke and jack kennedy and the interplay of the person us, particularly roberts. it's a very complicated story, but i don't think people know of two very complicated people are and robert kennedy and lyndon johnson. and i had to really go into that and try to explain it because it's part of the story all the way through the end of johnson's presidency, and i suppose chronological it's the moment johnson is passing in 1955 voting rights act. and that's sort of a one way we are up to now. >> watch the rest of this and other appearances online at the c-span video library. and watch for upcoming q&a interview with robert caro on sunday, may 6. >> on april 11, the is department department of justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against apple and book publishers mcmillan and others. >> "the agitator's daughter" is the name of the book and sheryll cashin is the author but she's also a professor of law. at georgetown university. professor cashin, who is the agitator? >> my dad, dr. john cashin, jr., who, may you rest in peace, he just passed this past year spent what kind of an agitator was a? >> well, my dad founded an independent democratic party in alabama at a time when the regular democratic party was dominated by george wallace and the dixiecrat. and despite being a dentist and a two-time five victorian, his abdication was agitation, and he poured hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money, this was in the '60s mind you, and early '70s come into this political party. so that alabamians could vote for lyndon johnson rather than george wallace, and the hundreds of thousands of newly registered black voters would have people to vote for, could not just go but also run for office. and so that was his life's work, and he was very much committed to recapturing the greatness of african-americans. he was very steeped in the era of reconstruction because his grandfather had been a reconstruction legislative and he grew up hearing about his grandfather, grandpa herschel, while he was coming of age in jim crow. and it radicalized him to be living under jim crow in alabama while hearing about the fact that black people used to actually have political power and be in office, including his own family. >> who was herschel? >> that was my great grandfather. handsome man, isn't he? in our family for come he was the first black lawyer in the state of alabama and the architect of reconstruction. i grew up listening to my father repeat this over and over as a teenager. my eyes would roll. and in this book i go off in search for my father's passion. the outlines are there, but he was admitted to the alabama bar in 1878. >> to the alabama bar? >> to the alabama bar. not the first caller's lawyer in the 400 i ca -- in the state. as a radical republican. my father always made it clear, as a radical republican. but he wasn't the architect them because by the time to get elected reconstruction was already closing down. but my great-grandfather, the gentleman in the picture, for the next 40 years never stopped giving up on this idea that people of color how to write -- had a rightful place in politics. attended for national republican conventions and raise a family pet and my father grew up hearing about him. and was determined, as a matter of family honor, restore black people to their rightful place in politics in alabama. that was what my father was all about. >> sheryll cashin, why did you write about your family? what made you take it this far? >> well, i got tired of hearing my father saying he was going to write a book, you know? excuse my french, but dammit, you're not going to write this book. i was terrified that this incredible lord would die with him. and so in my mid '40s, early '40s i should say, i finally just got tired him -- i want to know everything he knew and be sure it didn't get lost but i started in giving him about wanting about the family but also about this political party and everything he did it and it took on a life of its own. i started researching how much was true, and it just became an obsession. >> what did you find as far as how truthful the lord was? >> be careful what you wish for. you go off in search of family history you'll find something to address some things are not. one of the chief part of our lore was we dissented from a benevolent irishman was never a slave owner. a white man. irish immigrant. galore was this guy, john cashin and his brother james came over to the u.s. potato famine, and that one was a slave owner and one was not, and we descended from the benevolent non-slave over, not true. we did descend from this guy, john cashin, but inconveniently he was a slave owner. and not only was he a slave owner, the father of my great-grandfather -- >> hershel father. >> hershel's father. but that guy's father was also named john was one of the more prominent slaveowners in augusta. so here i have to contend with not only did i see -- not only did i descend from slavery, but from considerable wealth born of slavery, and i could tie my family's history of relative advantage, you know, for generations of educated people. my great-grandfather had a classical education in philadelphia, and became a lawyer. i could tie that to wealth in slavery which was new. i reconciled myself to that history by what my grandfather, great-grandfather chose to do with it. he chose to go back to the south, which he didn't have to, and he chose to work for the uplift in people of color. he chose to identify with people of color when, in fact, several of his siblings were pale enough to pass, and they did pass. so he was a bit of an agitator as well. that was one thing i discovered. >> professor cashin, what was your childhood like in huntsville, alabama? >> i had an incredible childhood. almost her birth. my mother took me with her in her arms to a city in in april of 19 -- i was four months old, she gets himself arrested with me in her arms, and that event was a turning point in the sit in movement in huntsville, alabama, and within a few months of that event they negotiated a nonviolent desegregation of public accommodations in huntsville, two full years before the civil rights act, before the water hoses in birmingham. >> did it help that huntsville was an educated system, that it was in northern alabama? did that make any difference? >> what help i think more than anything was at huntsville had tied its fate to the industry. warner von braun was already there. a lot of engineers and scientists had descended on alabama, and the city wanted to disassociate themselves from the racism of the rest of the state and that helped them, you know, to negotiate this quietly. so yeah, from the beginning i have memories -- so, my parents were civil rights activist, and after voting civil rights act, then they turn to politics. i grew up thinking indeed be a stance. that was the party i've memories, my father ran for governor against george wallace in 1970. i have these memories of my summer been taken all around the state, particularly the black belt of the state, those counties that were the center of the plantation, the antebellum era, not surprisingly hundred years later where all the black votes were. and it felt like particularly during the election of 1970, it felt like i had been carried to every black church in the black belt, you know, and i watched my father gave his stump speech over and over and over again invoking the famous line from those deprecate agitation are like, want crops without plowing up the ground, and that's where the line comes from, fred looked douglas, the title, "the agitator's daughter," frederick douglass was my father's hero. he was always quoting him. when he was on the campaign trail in the black belt, speaking to these dirt-poor sharecroppers trying to give them a reason to register to vote and go to the poll, he was always invoked douglas and say, you know, don't sit around waiting for other people to do right by you, as frederick douglass says, go forth and in your power at the ballot box. >> sheryll cashin, what do you teach at georgetown? >> i'm a professor of law. i teach legal history called race in american law, which covers most of the major race cases decided by this reincorporate i also teach constitutional and administrative law, and sometimes property. sometimes local government law. >> when you approach public affairs, or when you send this manuscript to a publisher, what was the answer back from public affairs and why were they interested in the storied? >> well, fortunately i already had a prior relationship with them. public affairs published my first book which was a book about, a book titled the failures of immigration. but it's about why we still struggle to be an integrated society. so i had a relationship with them and i sent a proposal to them via my aging, and they were familiar with me because of the first book in promoting the first book. they knew that as hard as it is to get attention to mmr, if you're not famous, i think they knew that i was a fairly tenacious person. and they also found the story compelling. so thank you, public affairs. >> just a short conversation with georgetown professor sheryll cashin about her second book, "the agitator's daughter: a memoir of four generations of one extraordinary african-american family." by the way, booktv covered professor cashin earlier on this book, and it's about an hour in length. you can go to booktv.org. just go up in the search function in the upper left hand corner and type in her name and you can watch the entire hour. thanks for being with