Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Death Of A King 20

This museum and he is serious about dr. King. When tavis comes to memphis even if he doesnt come in to talk to the staff he will often kneel down and pray because dr. King meant so much to his life and continues to mean so much to his life. For those of you who have never met him you have got to know hes a downtoearth guy. He is just like your brother. He is a person you always want to talk to. My first introduction to tavis, tavis gave some of the most thoughtful commentary that i have ever heard. Pappas is a brilliant young man and he has been brilliant for a long time. I know in some ways and among some audiences he has been a little controversial but when what i will say to you about tavis is tavis always speaks to himself. Whether you agree with that or not or whether you like it or not he does speak truth to power. That is what i love about him. He is a longtime friend. He is for me personally much like a brother. I love him like one. Ive met his mother who he has brought to the museum. I understand that he did play at the alpha chapter in indiana so for those of you who happen to be caps in the room i want you to know that about them as well. I could go on about tavis because i do love the tavis and have loved him on there since i first heard him and didnt know him. I want to introduce you for introduce some and present to others than man who is an icon in his own time. And hes not that old. Icons are usually old but he is already an icon. It is a privilege and an honor to welcome him back to the National Civil Rights Museum. My friend mr. Tavis smiley. [applause] thank you for coming out. Let me start by thanking eberly. Such a wonderful introduction. That may well be the second best introduction i have received. The person turned to dismay did not show up that i did it myself. [laughter] other than that it was awfully nice and i want to thank you. Let me just say it is always a delight and always an honor to come back to this great city of memphis. Memphis is an iconic town in the history of this great nation for all sorts of reasons. And im always honored to, especially when i get a chance to come to this National Civil Rights Museum. This for me is not just a museum. Its not just a national monument. It is for the sacred space. I mean that literally. This for me is sacred space. Beverly ashanti made when i come to town sometimes i speak in town and they see one of my sisters who lives here. I come by to see her and i have never come to this town without walking out of that balcony and sometimes at 1 00 in the morning, 2 00 in the morning as the schedule allows. I never come into this town without coming to that sacred space in paying homage to the person i regard as the greatest democratic small d the greatest democratic public intellectual in the history of this nation. Americas greatest democratic small d and let me say it another way i think dr. King is the greatest american we have ever produced. I could debate you on fdr and i could debate you on Abraham Lincoln but dr. King is the greatest american this country has produced. I come to this city and i always come to this sacred space to pay my respects to the Great American Martin Luther king, jr. Let me just say a quick word about the book and i want to save some time for q a. Let me ask you to thank by way of applause thank cspan for covering this event tonight. We thank cspan. [applause] cspan is one of my favorite channels and for those who follow my work you know for 12 years every year in february we would have the state of the black Union Symposium and cspan cover that live every year for a dozen years or so. They have been so kind and generous notches to me but to other persons in this country who need a space to try to help america live up to its best ideals and cspan is a great channel. Im always delighted to take the opportunity to cover something we are doing so want to thank cspan for covering this gathering tonight. Let me start by thanking beverly and her team and all the wonderful people on the staff here. I feel like im family because i come here so often. I was just here in april when this facility reopened and was rededicated. I think a good number of olympians have come through this new and improved National Civil Rights Museum but let me take a moment while we are on television and i think theres a dancing with the Stars Television camera so that may take a commercial for this grand facility. Every good where i go i talk and tell people the time if you have not been to the new and improved Civil Rights Museum may need to go. Is a oneofakind in this country oneofakind in the world and i was completely blown away. I knew how much money they had to work with and how they squeezed all of this richness out of that little budget im still trying to figure that out. Beverly and faith in and the architectural term and the professors and academics. Pulling all of us together they did a magnificent job. If youre watching us on cspan tonight or today if you have not been to the National Civil Rights Museum in memphis eucom. Plan a vacation to memphis. Check out graceland after you do this. But come to the National Civil Rights Museum and be enlightened and encouraged. Be empowered by the telling of the story. Deposit great black intellectual once asked what america has been america without her black people . I think you can answer that people without demonizing any culture or race but one has to acknowledge america simply would not be here were it not for the contributions of africanamericans. I believe every race of people ought to be judged by the best i have been able to produce. I believe dr. King is among the best that our people are produced. This movement was not just about king. Am i screwed to say that. King was a man. He was not a movement. The movement entailed a lot of other people, some we know and some we dont know and many who paid the ultimate price with their lives to help make america a country that will one day be as good as its promise. We aint there yet. We are working toward becoming a nation that will one day be as good as its promise and that journey would not be as far along as if this were not the grand contributions of black people all the way down to sanitation workers. This is a great city and a great facility and i want everyone who was watching on cspan, make sure they make plans to come to this part of the country, be sure you come. I have seen so many friends just since april and every time they come they feel the need to tax me to prove to me that they are here. Im always getting texted emails and facebook posts from people who have heard me talk about the national museum. That is my commercial for this facility. Lets give an applause for all of the wonderful work that they have done and are doing here at the National Civil Rights Museum. [applause] let me jump in to talking about this because i think part of what is wrong with this country as we are too often engaged in monologue and not enough in dialogue and i want to leave time for your questions and comments about this Great American dr. King and this new book the real story of dr. Martin luther king, jr. s final year death of a king. The me go back to something that beverly mention about my visceral connection to dr. King. This is tough to talk about in part because i took a long time to write a book called what i know for sure. Its my memoirs, the story of my life. I hope there is more life to live. Its the story of my life. The book is called what i know for sure in a notebook i talk about the defining the moment of my life. Its always hard to tell the story because i dont want to drag my family into it. I think you can appreciate that the one i was a 12yearold kid i was accused, was one of 10 kids. I had nine brothers and sisters and when i was a 12yearold kid at my church i was accused of doing something, my sister and i fill us who live here we were accused of doing something we had not done inside the church. The minister of my church we were called into his office, never at a meeting never asks a single question there was no conversation. I didnt know that i have been accused of anything. The entire church he stood up behind a pulpit and essentially castigated my sister and me in front of the entire congregation. It was the kind of embarrassment that a 12yearold kid, its hard to process. My parents were sitting there and they were obviously embarrassed and humiliated. They had not been spoken to and phyllis and i have not been spoken to. This is a major embarrassment for our entire family. The second row was called wow. That was our row. We were on the side of the church. This was our row are here. My dad sat here and my mama sat here and the rest of us lined up in a row. He looks at us and phyllis and i are done completely by this accusation embarrassment. My father got home at night and he did something that might yet never done before and has not done since. On that particular night given that level of embarrassment you understand in the black community the only place a black man can have any stature is where . In the black church. There you can be a deacon. The black church was the only place in a certain point of time and this countrys history where you have stature. My mother and father were involved in the church and they were thoroughly embarrassed. My father got home at night and he completely snapped. He beat my sister fill us in me so severely that we were in the hospital in traction. Thats how severe the beating was. As a 12yearold kid i could not understand why this had happened to me. I didnt know why we have been accused. I didnt know why he had done that in front of the church. I couldnt understand why i wasnt called in for a conversation. I hated my parents. I hated my mom for not protecting me. I hated my dad for losing his temper and i hated my dad for never asking us when we got home. We were kids and we were not too believed that we were never asked or told anything except get in your room. I couldnt understand at that moment. For some reason i do not know why except for the fact that god must have put it on his heart a deacon in my church after i got at the hospital, taken my church gave me a gift and the gift was a box full of king recordings. Barry gordy of motown fame had the good sense to follow dr. King around at a certain part of the movement. An engineer from motown gets paid to follow king around and record his presentations during his talks and speeches. Most of us and some of you. I was about to say that most americans think that king only gave one speech in his whole life. Then it hit me i am in a memphis. You all know he gave at least two speeches. The audience is trying to figure that out. They dont get the joke. The announcement he gave before he died was here in memphis. Everyone knows that but most americans think having only gave one speech in his whole life. I have a dream and i think the speech only had one line in it. I a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin. All of you know because that is all, the only part of the narrative that we ever get. Too many of us think he only gave one speech that had only one line in the thank goodness barry gordy of someone following him around. Gordy eventually put some of these features out on lp. This deacon in my church had collected from these records and for whatever reason he gave the box to me as a gift. I finally got a chance to put those records on. I mean oldschool lps. The needle, you know. Young folks you dont know what im talking about. I finally got a chance to listen to those records. And i heard king talking about the power of love. He was talking to a nation about the power of love and not the love of power. Too many of us have gotten a twisted. He was talking about the fact that love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend. King was saying that love is the most powerful force in the wor world. You was talking to the nation but he might as well been talking to me. Are you with me. Are you with me on this . I could not figure this out. I heard king sing to me as a 12yearold kid we broken apart and broken in spirit feeling guilty and not even knowing why. Feeling abandoned. I heard king saying to me i hated the world and hated my mom and dad and everybody in the world i heard king say to me cap this you will have to love your way through this. Love is your only option. You have to love your way through it. You have to give, you have to love. Hate is not an option. Bitterness is not an option. Revenge is not an option. You are going to have to love your way through this. You have to find a way to some sort of radical way to get yourself through this. I could hear king talking to me. Every speech, every presentation he is infusing it with the notion of love, love, love. You realize i will come to back to this. He realized the one pointing kings life Jagger Hoover and the fbi said he was the most dangerous man in america. I will say that again. The fbi said mr. King was the most dangerous man in america. I ask you memphis how can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon you are using is loved . My preacher said you all missed that. My preacher said i think i just read something. And you all missed that. How can you be the most dangerous man in america when the only weapon that you use is loved . Are you feeling me on this . I think that means that love is the most powerful force in the world. That is why they were scared of martin. You might put another weapon in martins pocket. He had the weapon of ideas. I guess victor hugo was right. Theres nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come. Martin had the right idea at the right time and this notion of love and Service Kings at all the time lifes most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others . That love and service he talked about all the time he lived it. That was a part of his dna. So i would hear king on these records talking to me as a 12yearold kid coming up to love your way through to the situation. My sister didnt have the benefit of hearing those king records and her life point in another direction. Sadly she became a crack addict, had a number of babies out of wedlock and lived a hard life but im happy to say she has been relocated to memphis and went to Nursing School and everythings all right now. [applause] i took a wild for her. Her graduation with a happy day that was but anyway her life has turned out okay but it took her a long time to get there. The only thing that kept me from being, are you all feeling me on this . The only thing that kept me from being bitter and evil and full of revenge and hatred was king introducing me to the notion of the power of love. So the 12yearold kid, he became a part of my dna. As a matter fact on the night of my 40th birthday, i was 39 and i was in Houston Texas about to be honored on my 40th birthday is one of the youngest americans to have a professional school in Major College campus named after him for tavis high school communications. I was going to be honored for my 40th birthday in Houston Texas and that night in my hotel room i almost died. I asked exceeded two or three times today couldnt get my breath. I was having a major anxiety attack on the eve of my 40th birthday. I couldnt understand was happening to me. I was crying and heaving and was just an ugly scene like something out of the exercise. I couldnt understand what was happening to me on this particular night. Eventually i got through the night obviously. I got through that night and it took me a few days to figure out what happened to me. What happened on the eve of my 40th birthday was i was feeling all sorts of pain pangs of guilt because i couldnt understand how i was about to live longer than my hero. Martin was dead at 39. How is it that i am living to the 40 when my man is gone at 39 . I couldnt process that pretty took me a few days to really deal with that. And thankfully i got through it but that is how connected a few to the spirit of this man who saved my life when i was 12 even though he had long since been dead. That is how i was introduced to dr. King and you can read about that in the introduction to the book. I want people to understand mike connection in place of visceral and when you watch my tv show on public radio or anyplace else you have never seen anywhere at work talk to me for too long of a time without hearing some reference to king being made. He is in my dna. He is in my spirit. Since i have was 12 ive only had one goal in life and that is to do my small part to make the world safe for his legacy. To do my small part whether on the radio or television or whatever im doing i want to do my small part to make the world safe for his legacy. And this book has another piece and part of that process. I couldve written this book a long time ago. Ive been researching it since i was 12. But now is the right time to get this book out. Why . Because i believe that king has now been so sanitized and so sterilized and so romanticized and in some way so demonized. I sound like Jackson Jesse jackson, dont i . Hes been so sanitized and sterilized at the truth of who he really was this one day going to be irrecoverable. He put a narrative out for too long and its hard to change that narrative. So we have to construct what i would call an urban legend about dr. King. An urban legend circulated by dr. King. An urban legend is that he was just a dreamer with a smile on his face saying i have a dream and we shall overcome, free at last. That is not the complexity of the man. I believe that every one of you in this room and i know its true for me, believe that each and every one of us comes to know who we really are in the dark and difficult days of our lives. When everything is going all right, its all good. In the dark and difficult moments that is when we discover who we really are. Can i tell you Something Else . That is when you are going to find out who is right with you. You will find out who is really with you. Who is going to be faithful until the end . Whos going to be faithful to you unto death. You will find out that in the dark and difficult days. Has anyone had a period in your life are yet to figure out what who you were and he you looked around and s