boycott, j. edgar hoover had in his sights within a month and was starting to monitor him and surveil him. we have a lot of lessons to learn. i m convinced, i mean, i m convinced that this is part of the difference in the racial reactions to the snowden and nsa, i grew up with the assumption that the government was listening, in part because i had, you know, parents and uncles who had been involved in the movement, and because of your point about hoover, the assumption was, it was an ongoing joke about everybody s fbi file and the idea that folks were listening. i said to harry belafontbelaf you ever forget the numerous conversations you had with dr. king, just apply them to the freedom of information act. exactly! if you forget them, don t worry. somebody s got a transcript. i appreciate so much all of you being here. before we go, i just want to listen, in case folks don t know, a. phillip randolph, if you ve never had a chance to see him or hear him, when we come back, we re
some extraordinary foot soldiers. we ve got some amazing people who have been doing work in newtown, connecticut, when we come back. but i do want you to listen to a. phillip randolph as we go to break. what was in your mind when you conceived of this assembly? well, mr. gronski, we had in mind the idea of building a massive thrust, in the interesting of awakening and arousing the consciousness of the nation on the issue of civil rights. alert.
who said to fdr, describe the condition of working people and black people in this country and fdr famously said to him, i m not disagreeing with you, but you ve got to make me do it, which has become a watch word today, and his protege, it was just announced on thursday, east going to be winning the presidential medal of freedom. my favorite thing that happens. black, gay pacifist. these are the stories that must be told. and out as a black man, out as a gay man, out as a pacifist, out as a communist, in that moment, and in fact, life magazine, their cover after the march on washington isn t of dr. king standing there giving the dream speech, it s of a. phillip randolph and ruston. and close adviser to dr. king. in the world of nsa right now, as soon as you start organizing the montgomery for the bus
kind of point implicit in this, which is this narrative, the very simplistic narrative we tell ourselves, that it had to do with changing hearts and minds and this kind of evolving moral ethic and so on. but more often than not, this is about self-interest and political pragmatism. that s how we get that executive order 8802 in 1941. roval h roosevelt has other interests. this is how we get the march on washington and the kind of liberal concessions that people make, especially in the context of the cold war. we were just talking about this. but part of sit a requirement that we believe the press will report on it. so part of randolph s ability to get those concessions is the believe, don t embarrass us. because the press will report on it, right? and when they do, we ll have this both domestic and international effect. and i think it s really important to look at who organized the march on washington. you were just talking about phillip randolph.
do you feel that we re going to see that this weekend in florida going forward? are you hearing from people that because they ve cut back on voting early voting days and stop the churches from souls to the polls which is the sunday before election day, that that s really going to have a backlash effect and get people to come out and vote even more in florida and it may have been a spirit that people may have been lulled asleep a little bit because of a political process and now when you try to take my rights and when you try to make it more difficult for me to vote, then that re-energizes me to be able to go out and do what i know i m supposed to do. so i think it s going to backfire on them. people are excited. that s all i ve heard. i haven t heard one negative thing about the souls to the polls. we re working with the a. phillip randolph and you re going to be preaching the whole