Lawrence douglas. Do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the Common Wealth of virginia and that i will faithfully and impartially discharge all of the duties incumbent upon me as governor of virginia according to the best of my ability so help you you god. Congratulations. [cheers and applause] thank you. Great moment. How did you know you we wanted to get into politics. I didnt want to get into politics because i didnt wanting to around smiling and begging for votes and asking for money and i thought, politics is what i would call unrepresentative of people but i ran my mouth all of the time from day one, as a kid and i get so much and people said why dont you run, they didnt really mean to run, they mean run away from them and quit running your mouth and i just felt that people particularly those that i had come to know that were a part of my being, they didnt have representation to the extent that they needed and lincolns words for for the people, by the people and why werent we there and so to that extent i ran to be a part of what i would go call party, the decisionmaking process in this country where did you grow up and what was virginia like during that time . I grew up in the east end of richmond right across Famous Church that i went to, the first african baptist church. All of my schools my Elementary School was not up had no it had outdoor toilets, in the city of richmond, no cafeteria, no auditorium and the principal was white, all the teachers were of color. But the finest and best teachers of the world because they looked upon us as their children and they had responsibilities as well but the true truancy was something that you didnt know about. I was 10 blocks of st. Johns church, henry made his fame speech give me liberty or give me death. No one can take it from you, she said as it applies to me, she said, absolute absolutely. When you tell a kid that, in this case i believe so much as my mother would say that i really believed that that there was something that was wrong and that i still nevertheless could overcome that but her thing was, youve got to be the best at what you can be and i tried. What was going on in richmond during that time . Everything, segregated. So it wasnt full and my mother would always tug me to back of the street and i would say, why dont we sit here . She never would explain to me that color, et cetera, et cetera. And then she did tell me what it meant and she said, thatll change, thatll change but you just do what you have to do. What was that First Experience like stepping into politics . Well, i was never encouraged by the leadership in the in the black community, not the leadership but the people and i found it very interesting because i was running in the city at large, they never had a member of the senate since the short period of reconstruction and i was the first person to be elected to the state senate since that short period and it wasnt lonely because im not standoff person and i was able to form friendships in the senate pretty quickly and to i didnt understand politics. I didnt know that much about it. As a matter of fact, i knew nothing and i found out how little i knew when i got there and i said, wow, but i was very lucky to be able to have formed some of the friendships. I had a friend of mine from virginia, he was a senator, the slave revolt took place, he said, im going to vote for it. Hes my best friend. Dont you vote for that because this isnt doing what some people might think and the difference is theyre looking at at it all mean. Take that one word out. Just take you shall to such and such thing or this organization may do such and such a thing. The state shall, it changes everything. So i was able to learn some of that. When i first got there, the we didnt have offices so people would gather on the floor and talk beforehand and they would say we would go to lunch. I would see some of the guys, two or three of them standing and i would push myself into the crowd and i would start nodding like i knew what they were talking and i didnt know what the hell they were talking about. Its time to go in session, i guess we should get together, half hour after session, fine with me. I had pushed myself into it and some called it sharp elbows but i learned that people could disagree with you on occasions but they were united with your cause because i had people who would say, how can i go to lunch with you, you just got through voting up against my bill, you said, yes, i hadnt vote against your bill i wouldnt be next election cycle to vote for anything because my people would not have allowed it, they dont know. I had people in virginia was first state to have a legislative holiday for Martin Luther king. Took me eight years to get it. I got it passed in the senate, the house would kill it. I would get it passed in the senate and the governor would veto it and it passed in the house and the senate and that process went on. See, when you are changing the constitution you have to wait until a brandnew election of the full body comes in. Thats why it took eight years. Many of the people who voted against the measure came to be patrons of the bill and helped me to get it passed and so its that single experience showed me that as hard it is to understand virginia of all places being the first state to have a legislative holiday for Martin Luther king, if that can happen, all of the things could too. Can we talk about when chuck came to you to try and rally the rob. Rob, sorry. The minority vote. What was your reaction when he came to you asking that . Well, i helped him to get to be elected Lieutenant Governor and that was done relative to showing that he could bring a change. He did say prior to running for Lieutenant Governor that if doug wallace is going to run, i wont go. I told him im not going to run and i ultimately repeated in 1977 by describing the office of a lowt governor is Lieutenant Governor and far more influential in the senate. Didnt you say that before, yeah, because this is now. I spoke to one of his persons, minority adviser author murphy. I said, arthur, i tell you what im doing, im forming now in 1972, i think, i started the black democratic caucus, not the legislative caucus and i didnt want necessary elected officials and i wanted people in the communities, legislative leaders, Community Leaders or church leaders, fraternity leaders. I wanted people who could not only reach people but they had the respective and they said and i was able to finally get that done and refer to it in the book and to have 500 people to attend, you know how hard it is to get to roanoke, virginia, i didnt want the cameras to show a few people came. So after that, after we formed we started developing strength, i said to him, i told it to murphy as well, these are the things that i want you to commit to. One, that you will sign the bill, that you will believe in the opportunities for registration, i called it postcard registration at the time that you will end the sending of moneys to the schools that segregate and the private schools with vouchers, et cetera. The night of the election when the returns were coming in, it was showing that he was losing by 75,000 votes and people came to me and were giving me a fit, if it hadnt been for that damn letter that you had sent out that said this is what we were doing, we wouldnt be the election, i understand that. Later in the afternoon the votes started coming in. When he won by 100,000 votes and the numbers and turnouts were attributed to the African American communities, thats one of the times in modern times that that vote was shown in virginia unfortunately some of that is disappearing across America Today. People continue to take that vote for granted. When you hear people say that that vote is being taken for granted, when you hear young people, minority people say that they dont vote and they dont get involved, what is your reaction to that . I understand it. I clearly understand it. When youre talking about we have to thing to the base, what base . What have you done for the base . Tell me what you see today that the people who still live, the problems with education, everybody, theyre going to do something for education, then how did it get to how it is, it means that you didnt. If youre in charge, one of the things that i employ is that if youre going to be involved in the political process, then i want to be a part of the politics, the decisionmaking. What i speak of is what guides me being a part of how money is spent. I believe in spending for necessityies. Theres time for that to come, but right now we are interested in what we really need. What happened President Trump in his plan for infrastructure development, he had a great plan for that, one of the speeches i had ever heard was when i was mayor of the city of richmond in 2008 and he said, our cities are not the drawbacks to metropolitan rules, they are the engines and we need to make certain that we keep that. Well, they didnt want to get into supplemental in the plan that he put forward, stimulus program. It would have been if he could the back on it, okay, the first thing in this program should include some of these things which means you bail the banks out and Insurance Companies but what are their obligation to plow back, trump is going to take much of what obama put in place and remove it and its going to get the money and a lot of the credit for it because somebody as he says, look at the cities, look at education, look at the numbers of people who are not even in school. So we are in need today more of people in our communities than elected officials because they form their own groups. But dont get away from the people, i felt people, i take a poll every day as i go to the streets. People know me well enough to be able to feel that they can talk and come up to me and say, look, i want to ask you something, fine, lets talk. And i keep an ear to the ground. People are always politicians hear what they want to hear. People hear what they have to hear. A lot of people dont know but virginia has the smallest voting population of minority plaque voting population of any of the southern states. Its only about 15 . You were surprise today hear that. Most people dont know that which means i had to go up into the community, to the other 85 of the people and first place i started my campaign was in southwest virginia, coal mining country. Went into the mines, talked to the people, stayed in their homes. I never would stay in hotels. I only stayed in the homes of the people that i met or that i had known from our legislative experience, i never campaigned, didnt campaign on the interstates, i campaigned on the Country Stores in the barbershops and i would learn, i was learning that one of my friends, wherever you go you have to shake every hand. If you misone store i also learned going to the local newspapers and the local radio establishment people read their local newspaper, they listen today their local radios and i went to every one and they welcomed you and i also like to emphasize that i stayed 60 days straight campaigning across every independent city in town in virginia, some near 300 and i never had a Single Person to refuse to shake my hand, never or to deny me access for being able to run. And i was pleased with the reception and how you cant take people for granted, i went into one store, the man was sitting there and i shook everybodys hand and it gone through and ready to leave somebody with me saying, you didnt shake that mans hand. We called them a left hand and i would take that and give it to the president and shake with right hand. I would always look back to see if they thrown it into the trash yet and i did that and as i was leaving somebody said you didnt shake that mans hand. Youre right. A man was sitting on the barrel, top of the barrel with a straw hat on, beard and overalls, red bandana on his neck and tobacco greases in his wallet. I wanted to know if you read this. I thought you were going to pass me by. No, no, i have something that i want to ask you. Thats why im here. I want to talk about this abortion. Oh, my god i could have gone away from this talk. I have to stay here to hear this and i started my spiel, the government has no right it aint no mans business no way, is it . No. Wow. Now, who would have believed that man sitting on that barrel looking as i described that would have that view. It was what i was raised to believe. Then we are the same people, we just need to see more of it. There are more things that connect us and unit us than divide us. We should emphasize that. Where do you think this disconnect comes from . Politics to be professional. Ive still got it simply of the lincoln for the people, by the people. I think it comes from overvaluing the estimation of those who serve as pundits and look how they totally missed the last election, totally and still havent recovered from it no terms of saying, we were wrong, look, we didnt get this right. What is it that you didnt get right . Anybody that takes a poll every day to find out whats going on, thats not the name of what america is. Where we are today in america is a reset for a period. Bernie sanders was hitting on the left with donald trump on the right. I saw people on the republican side not being united at all. No one would have believed. I thought bush would have been the nominee. I voted for Hillary Clinton but i also knew that in so doing she needed a relativity, thats why i supported tim kaine because i thought he could provide that and he wasnt utilized in the way that i thought he would have been utilized so where we are today we are in as theodore would say in somehis books of making of the property and the last one i read he wrote was america in such of itself. Every 30 years or so theres perform that takes place in america, we are still in search of ourselves, can we get to where we need to be . Yes, we cant do it by fingerpointing, as Lynden Johnson said, come, let us reason together. Diversifying the people that are out there for people maybe seeing more of themselves, more minority representation and maybe even more minority involvement in politics. All right, as i said to someone yesterday, we have more minority representation in America Today than ever in the history of the country. I think better or worse . And i leave that answer to you but i will further respond to you by saying, thats not the answer. Question isnt who you who the representatives are, government is the people, joyce, i keep going back to lincoln. Its simple. If we have those who understand that their responsibility is to represent us not themselves and that in so doing, if they dont, we say, thank you, we dont need you anymore. We will get those who can and if what youre doing isnt proposing to be representative of us, we want that change by the next group of people we put. No, i dont think the answer comes as the necessary racial quarter basis of increasing that number. The question is in america the representation of people has drawn to being more selfserving than serving the people. Look at Lyndon Johnson who was like wise the president of all people, what he fought for thurgoog marshal and used his professional persuasion to get to mississippi and georgia decided Richard Russell to come on out. Look, im going to do this now. Now you tell me what you need, now having said that, i think obama really did try. I was one of the first persons to publicly come up that had politically ties to endorse obama. Hillary had everybody. She had most of the black caucus, very few people endorsing obama. I did because of everything you mentioned, the hope, the possibilities, now, having said that, one of the things that hear so much of Thurgood Marshal was more than just a Supreme Court bench. I knew him personally because he had appointed me to be virginia representative ncaa education fund, i succeeded robertson and that is what is here in the book as well. Thurgood spent time educating the other members of the birchl saying, look, this is what we are talking about, this is more than just black and white in terms of a law, this is what this effect is and this is the lack of it. His contributions really havent been measured in that regard but the effect of it has been. Hes made it clear to you that im not here to represent those people, i represent everybody. Look at the decisions that have come down 8 to 1 with thomas being against. A man almost beaten to death and the court decided that his civil rights has been violated, thomas voted no. Why do i give you that backdrop because people are saying, who represents that group of people on the Supreme Court today, who would you describe as being a representative of the black voice on the Supreme Court. You couldnt way thomas, right, no. What if the president had Three Chances to at least name a black person, whether that person got nominated or not, got confirmed or not at least show your belief, that didnt happen. Very few most president s dont get a chance to name one. Look at some of the things he did. Closing guantanamo, of course. Wars that we shouldnt have been in, of course, but its difficult, but the time spent in doing that takes away from the positives that he could have and unfortunately those who were in many instances advising him spent more time saying that would be the safer course to take. Take the rule less traveled sometimes. Whether its safe or not, make a highway where there was only a path and i think obama has been a good president , its too early to talk about the legacy, but people who who thought at the time thought the time had come unfortunately there would be those who would say to them, you had your chance. This is a new day. Thats unfortunate. I dont think events should be events should be part of process because it goes back to lincoln, for the people, by the people. Do you think that speaks to a lack of understanding of Race Relations in this country that maybe these issues were going to ignore and set aside . Yeah, do i. This gets passed that. No one else gets passed the deprivations of the past. They address them, have we or do we . And unfortunately its not a matter of an apology, but america has never been the great nation. How can we go back to where we were . We all still in search of ourselves that education process has to take place whether its rooted in the community. The unfortunate thing to America Today, we lost the communities. Can we reblame, yes, how reclaim that, yes. Its not just by listening, i am your leader, i am your representative. He was inside drinking wine and looking out of his mansion, where are those people going, after all i am their leader. Theres no such thing as that. Today we need to drill down, drill down and as johnson said again, ca come, let us reason together. There has to be a recognition of theres more that units us than divides, lets get past that. [inaudible conversations] and youre looking at a live picture of the Charlottesville City Council chamber, one of the venues of virginia festival of the book. We have a new more minutes until the next panel begins which is discussion on civil protest and as you can see festival attends are getting settled in their seats, we will be right back with more live coverage. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] a look at the most anticipated books published in the spring. Coming out in march john shares journal entries and her time reporting on the patty hurst trial in 1976 in south and west. New york times former correspondent shorts on chinas global ambitions in everything under the heavens and steven hatch recall his work in liberia during the west african Ebola Outbreak in inferno. Our look at Publishers Weekly most anticipated books of the spring continues with locking up our own, former public defender on the role African American leaders have placed placed in the mass incarceration. Science reporter gina describes how it affected a North Carolina family and Michael Wallace provides history of americas west ward expansion through the illfated journey of the donor party. Being published in may, former secretary of state weighs in on the challenges in inherent to a democracy in democracy, the long road to freedom. Thats a look at some of the books that Publishers Weekly is most anticipating being published this string. Look spring. Look for the titles in the upcoming months and watch for the authors on book tv. But the other contribution that, i think, the that i hope the book has is a discussion of the domestic cadaver trade and this is a trafficking of dead bodies. I traced medical school records, anatomy professors that were involved in the traffic and wrote letters back and forth looking for dead bodies or exhuming them from graves. One of the pivotal quotes that i have from one medical doctor to another, tell me how much it costs for a death stiff. Do tell me what the cost is of a dead fine stiff, one that will cut up fat and doesnt smell strong to be nosed a mile off. I traced this traffic and theres trade in the bodies and i look at the ways in which even after death inflate people were modified. So just two final closing short like onesentence quotes that kind of help me push through this book and that is a quote from elizabeth who some of you may know was the inflate seamstress to jefferson. At the grave, we shall be permitted to lay our burdens down that a new world, a world of brightness may open to us, the light that is denied us here should grow into a flood beyond the dark mysterious shadows of death. I thought that was a powerful way at the way people looked at afterlife and finally, i shared this was when i was a few weeks ago, a slave named mingo wrote a poem on the jail cell wall to his wife after they had been separated and he says to her, dear wife, they cannot sell the rose of love but in my bussom guys, as your tears may start they cannot sell by immortal part. Thank you. [applause] you can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Here is a look at some authors recently featured on book tv afterwards, our weekly author program. Counsel on Foreign Relations richard explore the challenges facing u. S. Policy and author and journalist sofia nelson reflected on the Founding Fathers calls for unifying america. Rhode island senator will offer his thoughts on how legislative decisions are influenced by private businesses and special interest groups. Former chief of the new York Police Departments internal Affairs Bureau charles will describe his work investigating corruption in the police force. Washington times Columnist Bill will provide his thoughts on how the United States can outpace global competitors during the Information Age and this weekend lisa will report on bank and credit something and how it affects the general public. Theres been such a change and i think banks frankly, they make money off of those who have more money. The guy who hired me in the south bronx said by way of illustration, look, lisa, banks want one customer with a Million Dollar and check cashers want a million customers with one dollar. That speaks to the basic million model and no one can argue with that. Banks like every other profitseeking Corporation Want to maximize their profit. The question is whether theyre being ethical in the process or not and whether banks because they have a Critical Role in the economy thats a little bit different from manufacturers should be held to different set of rules. Do i think that it is creating an opportunity for the alternatives and also for other businesses that are springing up now that are looking to kind of solve the problem in another way. After words airs on book tv every saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous after words programs on our website booktv. Org