Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth 20140705

[applause] outside the books are for sale. We hope you will pick up a copy. Thank you. Thank you everybody for attending and thanks to mr. Banks and ms. Demery. Copies of finding the dragon lady are on sale now and ms. Demery will be signing books just outside of the auditorium. Thanks everyone. Enjoy the lit fest. [inaudible conversations] up next, peniel joseph. He talks about the misconceptions on the Civil Rights Movement and obamas place in race relation. He is the author or editor of five books including waiting til the midnight hour a narrative history of black power in america, dark days, bright nights and his 2014 release stokely a life. Host who was kwame ture . He was born stokely in trinidad and he became a civil rights activist and is most famous for poplarizing the term black power on june 16th 1966 in greenwood, mississippi. He becomes this icon of the late 1960s. Stokely carmichael is going to be the most controversial black activist since malcolmx. He is friends with Martin Lurther king junior and he is a black panther. He leaves the United States to go to west africa and for the next 30 years becomes this revolutionist panafrica organizers and changed his name to kwame ture in honor of two political leaders and he takes one of their first names and the second name is the another man. Host what part of the Civil Rights Movement was he involved in . Guest he was involved in all of it and that is what is so interesting. As Stokely Carmichael he is involved in every major action between 19601965 during the heroic period and during the second half he is a sitin demonstrator and he is a freedom writer. He is arrested for the first time on june 8th, 1961 in mississippi. He spends weeks in mississippi worst prison farm. He is a Howard University Student Activist and part of the nonviolent action group. And he spends time in mississippi every single summer where he is working with sharecroppers, young people and working own voter registration. And during 1964, he is the director of the second Congressional District in the mississippi delta. He marches are Martin Luther king. And he went into alabama into a county that is in the black belt of alabama and they work with sharecroppers and started independent organizer and that is the original black panthers. As the chairman, he is representing the radical face of the Civil Rights Movement and this militant, radical insurgency that is known as black power. So carmichael and civil rights he is a key organizer and the only major black power figure who did that kind of day to day organizers. What was his relationship with john lewis . Guest they had a Good Relationship starting out. They met at a restaurant and john lewis going to be on the freedom rides in may of 1961 they will go into alabama and there is a couple bus and lewis is going to be at a dinner and stokely is going to meet him at the dinner and some of activist on the buses call it the last supper because there is 12 of them not counting james farmer and they are feeling like their lives are in potential danger. Their lives were in danger as we know. Their buses are going to be violently attacked in alabama. You know, stokely eventually is going to join that crusade by june but they are friends. John lewis said when he meets Stokely Carmichael and he is spending time with him in jail he likes him on the spot. They will become advisaries because stokely replaced john lewis and john lewis is a very courageous activist and heroic figure and wanted to continue to be chairman so once he is replaced by stokely there is a bad feeling that are a result of that. Host was it because of the nonviolence of john lewis . Guest it isnt really just the nonviolence. Stokely was a daytoday organize within the committee and john lewis was chairman but by 19651966 john lewis is going to whitehouse conferences and he is really a figure who is not necessarily in touch with the daytoday activities the same way someone like stokely is. It was becoming more and more radicalized and that is because of what they experienced on the ground. Stokely carmichael said in the south activist experienced raw terror and that means Police Brutality and local vigilante but the fact the government was as proactivity in defending us and the struggle for freedom and democracy like they should have been. And finally, Atlantic City in 1964 is a turning point because they formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and fanny lieu hammer who is a sharecropper from mississippi is one of the leading activist and organizes of this Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and what they try to do is organize an integrated delegation to be seated at the Democratic Convention in atlanta in august of 1964. They think if they play by the rules the democrats will allow them to be seated. But they sent people to say johnson doesnt want the mississippi regulars to walk out and cause a scene and cause all of the seven delegates to walk out. So true democracy is lost at the Democratic National convention. It isnt lost on people like bob moses or people like hammer. They were activist who were organizing for citizenship and they were tramped on boy by the Democratic Party. And Stokely Carmichael starts to argue there is though way to get political power except independently. The Democratic Party isnt going to be a vehicle for black power. Some people disagreed and some continue to be tied to the dmc but for Stokely Carmichael we will see a push for independent and then black power. Host did stokely have a relationship with president johnson . Guest they never meet but they talk about one another and they are aware the other exist. What is interesting there is johnson privately talks about stokely. We have tapes and you know different interviews where people are saying he heard them speak about stokely. He is very critical of carmichael and carmichael is a huge antiwar activist and antivietnam war activist. And his antiwar activism is inspirational to dr. King and they talk about that. In april of 1988, we interviewed kwame ture a few months before he died and he talked about the fbi. The fbi is welladvanced in german Chemical Warfare in this country. And there is no question that after the assassination of mart Martin Luther king they claimed they had to change the method of eliminating what they consider to be leaders. And of course german Chemical Warfare is the best way. How would they are done it with you . Anyway. If in the