Tribute to the legendary ruby dee coming up right now. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Inc. You. Thank you. Tavis i only have 30 minutes. I cant do justice to your work in 30 minutes. I wonder if you might indulge me and let the tell you about this journey. What might it have been like with your late great husband to be in charge of the program at the march on washington . You guys ran the program that day. The most remarkable thing was malcolm coming to our hotel room. He came in by himself. We were waiting to go downstairs. We were amazed to see him because no one knew he was coming. Let it be known to the proper people he was there and if they needed his help, he would be discrete. Discrete is the word he used. Us to let somebody in that march no. Know. He said other than that he doesnt want his presence known. He doesnt want any attention, but he didnt want anything to go down. Thats amazing. We heard that story. We think of that day as dr. Kings greatest day. Here is malcolm x in the city and came there to tell you he was there. Speaking of malcolm x and ossie , your husband was the only person to speak at malcolms funeral and martins funeral. Yeah, i cant get over it. E were privileged my brother was one of the first disciples. My brother introduced us to malcolm. He introduced us to the whole movement. We had a party. Everyone we knew. So many people came to our little house to meet malcolm. So amused by our first listening to malcolm speed. Speak. He was so young, and he talked for such a long time. I shook hands and said, you are malcolm. I said, you know you kept saying the same thing over and over. He said, what . Inhas a crooked little grin the corner of his mouth. He said, you have to say things over and over before people get the message. I remember that. You said sidney and harry. What do you make of the fact that here is a class with ruby davis and harry . Elafonte what do you make of the fact you are kids in every one of you and of becoming not just good actors and great actors, but all of you went on to become iconic figures . What i would like to remember , that dream that , wel and fred oneill had all became carriers of the dream. Its not really true. They are the dream carriers. The people who pass on the dream for you to carry. You cant back away from it. You have to accept it. You have to pass it on. You have to pick up the weapons tribeense and protect the , and you have to take responsibility, and you have to raise the children, and you have to be an example, and you have there is nogs work. Such thing as backing down. When you finally realize that that is when life becomes exciting. You dont have to be so pervasive. Whatever you do is enough if you can get it together and pass it on. That is one of the things i have learned as i have gotten older. If you are too old to fight, just walk back there and pick up one of those children and walk as far as you can to give it to somebody else. Your assignment is never through. Dont use that as an excuse. We have got to hit it. Hit the bricks. Learned fromve those times and those people. Tavis i could listen to you talk all day long. The calling you and ossie davis responded to, but as an act or, what made you do that . There are a lot of folk of that donto are being told you become an activist. You want to work. You dont want to be on the front line, and for you and ill there wasntsie any doubt that you were just actors. You were citizens. You were black. All the things you have done unapologetically with no thought negative to the impact it might have on your career. I believe in everything having to do with arts. Compare it to being a musician. We learn notes in the scale and songs. Steps andas choreography. You learn about the composers but asu are a musician, an actor you have certain discipline in each of these art forms. As an actor your text is the whole of life. Everybody and everything in it. The art of coming becoming anybody. Its like lending yourself to this astonishing human experience. Its an incredible series of circumstances earring human. Being human. Its something we will never stop defining. Where the odds are so important. Understands begin to the magnificence of being a human being. I find myself having to say that. How dare you think that only do know the truth . Everything, everybody. Our comprehension is even deeper than we know. We couldnt invent something we werent capable of dreaming up. We have the equipment to be and nine stein. Our to be einstein. Thats our equipment. We come with it. Who are we to deny that . We are so magnificent we dont even know it. You understand. Absolutely. How dare we look down our nose at anyone else, indeed, even ourselves . We dont have time to discover how extraordinary we are. Thats one thing i love about this business of acting. You can keep peeling away the levels. You will never get to the end. Whatever bottom you think you have reached you have opened a whole new thing of fish. Keep working. I work. I dont even like the word retirement. To tell myself, who i am and that i am through now. Retire becauseto i am afraid something in me will listen and make it possible. I have to discourage whatever thatthey need is in me amy is in me. You can work through me as long as you want to. This is why i love you so much. We are getting older now. Every time you get to the ultimate, it is like peeling the paper off. You are going to peel that thing back. All new door is going to open up. That is what i am finding in my old age. I say the use of my senior hood. Hood. Th of my senior tavis how do you have this outlook post ossie. Was never agree for. He had us all laughing at his mothers funeral. He wasdnt cry because talking about his mother, and we had to smile. There was something about how we were enjoying and not thinking about the death. When thing he used to say all when he came to the hospital or he goes to a funeral, he wasnt of mourner. If you were expecting somebody to cry with you, he was the wrong person. You had to move away from the fear. One of the things he was fond of , we do this and we do that. Sometimes we would have things hard and i would borrow money. Before i know it he would lend the money to somebody else. Just a small example of the type he couldity he had. Have two socks that matched or not. I later came to understand that. It was good what richness was. Say when theways kids started crying, what can we do to fix that . They aree do that and still crying, and he would say, you have to down it and get around it. Thats his favorite saying. Tavis i am pleased and honored when ruby dee comes to see me. She is talked about for her acarnominated role in american gangster. This is her first ever nomination. She is also covered in essence magazine. Every time i see you i am inspired by our conversation. I was teasing her when she walked out. When her people told me she was going to be in town, i wanted to have her on the show, but i almost passed on it. The last time we talked we were in new york, and we are still getting phone calls. People say the best conversation i have ever abducted was with you. We realize we are each other. One thing i realized about being an actor, you are like a big tunnel through which circumstances and racism and sexism, everything passes. It becomes the stuff of what you do. A musician learns the notes. An actor has all those things. It occurs to us that that is the stuff of life. We are all students. We walked through each other. Job is to relax and open the door and let things come through. Careful something comes through that is not going to damage the entrance. This what you make of nomination at this point in your life . The oscars . What do i make of it . You know what . I have to tell you, when i was young, first hearing about the oscars, i was at the bakery shop window looking at all the goodies, knowing i am going to andn there and buy it, circumstances pounded it into me that i didnt have the right to go in there and buy something. Magazines, ande i finally realized i wasnt going to be a starlet in hollywood, and the newcomers that come along from the big producing companies, so i let it go, but Something Else came in. People like you who look into the human condition, but a gate closes so you wont bang your head against anymore store windows or iron fences. It doesnt exist for you anymore. Thats what happened to me. But it came on the ground. In a different sense. There is something about racism. Racism destroys selfconfidence. It stomps on daring. That is what it does to our children. It shortens our reach. We begin to believe everything said about us. We buy into it. Thought i was tough, when i look back, i was all of because i didnt know how to buck the rejection i felt. I backed away from the oscars and hollywood. Now things are different in hollywood. Its part of the world growing in its outreach, and it has looked at fairness and some of the most remarkable people i have known to help break down have beenrs of racism we get all that. Kinds. Tavis every time you come on the program there are four or five jewels you drop. Racism stomps on daring. Thats beautiful. Not everybody. Be one of themld because i was tough. I really wasnt. Everybody keeps saying the same thing, which is it is a wonderful thing for you to be as chronologically gifted as you are and now receiving an academy award. Everyone knows if you are to win on sunday night you would be the oldest actor to ever walk on stage and except an academy an academy award. You dont mean. Tavis its true. I dont want to take away from your wonderful role in american gangster. You did your thing, but is there you think wasole as academy worthy as what you did in american gangster . Things are so relative. I see things i was really proud of. . Avis what are you proud of i am proud of being in ossies play. I am proud of long days journey into night. Then three seasons on public television. Exciting daysmost of my life. To do whatever we wanted to do. They wrote original material. I am trying to desperately bring some of those things back. We were free to do whatever we wanted to do. Although we were limited in budget, they told us how to spend the money. Not because i am sitting here thats one of the things i say about public television. But i done some pictures, freedombelieve in the and Creative Process that permits us to Exchange Ideas without barriers. You understand. Tavis not only do i understand. I am sure the executives will it willt and cut it up. Be used in a spot sometime in the nottoodistant future. I am always honored when she comes to see me. Her name is ruby dee. I love you. All the best on sunday night. Life andlong distinguished career ruby dee earned not only the onerous but the love and respect of her family, friends, community, and her country. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis i am tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation about fathers and sons with carl reiner and his son rob reiner. We will see you then. And by contributions to you to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. I charlie welcome to the program. We begin this evening with a look at the crisis in iraq with dexter filkins, Richard Haass and michael gordon. Syrias imploded. Iraq is breaking up. The monarchy in jordan is getting more unstable by the day. The iranians are helping to mobilize the shiite militias in iraq to fight the sunnies. The saudis and turks are already in sir. I cant you know, i think for president obama, he has tried for both his terms to get out of that region and not to Pay Attention to it and i think hes going to have to reengage in a big way because its all coming apart. Charlie we turn to the world cup in brazil with franklin foer, jeff agoos and tom smyth. There are only so many world cups. Youre always hanging around and looking at