white house to watch and listen to the president. lz granderson, marc moriel, cornell. don lemon is at the white house. he did have a mother, he had grandparents, he had educators. this was a guy who came out of nowhere he graduated from harvard law school and lines up the president of the united states. so if he has that example and can say to these young people, i came from nowhere, look at me, you can do the same thing, that has an impact. reporter: uh-huh. it has an impact. and you heard christian, the young man who was there from chicago saying, you know, it really made a difference in my life when the president sat down with us and told us his personal story. all at once they could relate to
martin. what was it like in there with trayvon martin s parents, such a personal, emotional moment? reporter: trayvon martin s mother was sitting right next to jordan davis mother and since this happened to both of their sons, they have vowed to be each other s support system and you could see that that was so and the president pointed them out and acknowledged them in the crowd. what marc moriel said was right on. he struck the right tone between, hey, listen, for some reason in our country these young men have been oppressed and it s also up to them to achieve. here s what we re going to be doing in five years, ten years, especially from that group of b.a.m. the president s first initiative on young black men, where are they now? where are these guys now? and so we have to look for them to achieve and see where they are in five years, ten years, 15 years because they are going to be markers but also i think that
doors. the head of the national urban league, marc moriel is with us here tonight. yes, yes. i can never forget. these historic organizations. so when my parents got a promotion to northern new jersey, they immediately fell smack into the housing discrimination going on at the time where real estate agents wouldn t show them homes in white neighborhoods. so my parents then joined together with another traditional organization, the fair housing council, where blacks and whites had come together with the idea they could break housing segregation in new jersey in 1969. my parents became part of a sting operation where the white couple would follow my parents. and eventually after a big altercation where my father s lawyer was literally punched by the real estate agent when he found it in some legal going back and forth, we eventually became the first black family to integrate a neighborhood in northern new jersey in 1969. you then went that s an amazing story. then you grew up, you
but there s always a yes at the end of the day. particularly if you develop a skill and a product and you can provide solutions to people, you can add value and people will take that at some point and you just have to stick to that mission. you know, i want to ask the panel a question, as we try to bring this to a close. two weeks ago, we stood in washington and we talked about 50 years since dr. king said i have a dream. and couple hundred thousand people marched that saturday. marc moriel, reverend w. franklin richardson. all of us leading talking about we have to keep voting rights, we have to fight for jobs. 50 years from now, what do you hope they can say, standing there, that we ve done in the 50 years that we ve been out front and we ve been the models that people are looking for? what are the things that we
theater, that late night. my mom didn t want me to stay up late. i would stay up watching the act. it s a historic place that we re here. we ve had a few good ones tonight. amen. amen. let me go back. a lot of us know you in the political headlines, but you were raised by a mother and father. your father by a single mother. and not long after you were born, they faced housing discrimination in washington, d.c. well, it was actually they really rode the wave and were a part of the 60s civil rights movement at the time that lots of people were opening up doors. i know i am where i am right now because of this profound conspiracy of love going on that gave my family opportunities that blacks didn t have at that point. both my parents thanks to work of the urban league became a part of a wave of african-americans entering ibm and other corporations for the first time. the urban league opened those doors? the head of the national urban league, marc moriel is with us here tonight.