You are thinking about records and things like that, has any of you do any research on that concern . That is always been something really pressing to met to know where im from in termss of africa. I know it is difficult because of the fact that the history of being enslaved you were dispersed children and adults and such. So has any of you historians ever address that concern . Will isis stood researchers for 35 years. About. T. About 70 were working on family history. Family history is a big part of what the archives staff assist patrons with. So if you have not asked for help, go ask for help. Of course youre going to find the records of enslaved people. You have to realize that you have to search the white records. He had. You have to search the deeds, the wills and very honestly, sometimes theyre not there. County courthouse bern, family got rid of the plantation records. It amazes me when i go see a pilgrimage a pilgrimage home. A lot of times the family home they still have the plantation records there on display in the pilgrimage home. Theyre not available available for you to research if theyre in that home. He a lot of times the family took the records, a lot of times the family destroyed the record into not want to have that memoryha again its taking up space in their new, modern home. Sometimes the records are not available. Someti but if you can identify aif you possibility of a white family, the records might have found a way in. What i found is when i went to the Archives Office there was a so much that you could actually research and i got as far as unfortunately they named the people in the same category as they did animals. But they didnt go so far as to naming those plantation owners and then from there the question is, the question that i had was where those people came from prior to that. But they put a federal seal on those records. So my question question is, dont you think people deserve to know where theyre actually originally from will the answer is yes they do. But the records must exist for that possibility. Now to find out where youre from, dna testing would help with that. For africanamericans in a big way. But again, that is a field that, i have not pursued. I would deal with the paper records myself. I think on that note we need to cut it off. Where getting the signal from the back of the room. I think our time is that. Thank you very much for coming and thank you chart to our panels for good discussion. N. [applause]. Heres a look at upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. Tomorrow starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, we are live in new york for the brooklyn book festival featuring author discussions on topics that range from immigration to digital privacy, the military, Campaign Politics with the likes of ralph nader, thomas frank, Molly Crabapple and more. Next saturday, september 24 book tv is live from the 16th annual National Book festival in washington. Our coverage includes author talks from pulled surprise from Pulitzer Prize winners, and that gordon reeve, stacy ship as well as your calls for authors bob woodward, ken burns and representative john lewis. Coming up next month as the southern festival of books in nashville, tennessee from october 14 through 16th. Also the boston book festival. For more information on book fairs and festivals on book tv and to watch previous festival coverage click the book fair tab on the website, booktv. Org. [inaudible] [inaudible] hello. Welcome. I am jack. Health professionals today consider the lgbt Networking Organization it was founded back in 1983. That is 33 years ago. As a nonprofit, professional has a threefold mission. One, career. We offer seminars and workshops i career transition and professional development. Two, community. We help members build lgbt business relationships at breakfast and after work mixers. Three, culture. We programmed theater parties, screenings, walking tours, bus tours, bus trips and author appearances like tonight. When we are happy to welcome back to Health Professionals favorite. For ten years he directed movie features and produce new stories at us weekly. He is conducted q as with dozens of newsmakers and has provided commentary on cnn, msnbc, good morning america, and the today show. As a media manager at family equality council. He was present for last years Marriage Equality arguments at the Supreme Court. Please welcome bradley jacob. [applause]. At the miami herald, she was a member member of the Pulitzer Prizewinning investigative reporting team. At the Washington Post, she has reported on the failure of local groups to provide services to people with aids. Her investigative reporting has led to changes in federal law regarding huds housing programs for the poor. She is the distinguished coauthor of love wins. Please welcome debbie. [applause]. Form policy magazine has named him one of the global thinkers. They included him in the annual out 100. As the named plaintiff in last Years Supreme CourtMarriage Equality case, he became the face of the movement and a legal groundbreaker. And he is the coauthor of love wins, the book book is National Launch we celebrate tonight. Please welcome jim. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] the mayor and possibly the governor will be here. I think that will probably be a group talking on that. None one i know that what orlando will come up here and there and our conversation. We embrace it, but i do want to start out talking about jim and the journey so lets begin. Lets start with the last name. If you google oberg fell, one of the first thing that comes up is our president struggling to pronounce her last name. You are not there. He was pronouncing your name wrong and when i rewatch to clip the day we went Marriage Equality and the president called you on your cell phone and were able to capture it and we are able to hear the whole thing. I heard that phone call actually avoided pronouncing your last name there. How did it feel, lets talk about that phone call. When did you know that you are going to be getting a call . At some point that day someone said to me, we have given a couple of phone numbers out in case anyone wants to call you. Thats all they said. With the with the implication that it could be someone important. For me it came as a surprise, but i think anything couldve happened in that moment and it wouldve been a surprise. I was just overwhelmed and in this moment where he cannot process what was going on. So couldve been any person calling and i wouldve been amazed. It was the president. For me, im really thrilled cnn happen to be there and im glad it happened and because after i spoke with the president every interview after that the very first question was, what to did the president say, what did you say . I will tell you i havent transcript right here, he said barack, your buddy set im really proud of you, your leadership has change the country. Youre bringing up lasting change. I cannot be more proud of you and your husband, he said he was proud twice. And then he said to the cnn anchor. Thank you mr. President you couldnt put it into words. Your stuns and it was like nothing ever dreamed up. Yet and when people asked me that i had no idea, i have no memory whatsoever what the president said or what i said. In fact i was nervous. I wandered over and over today form complete sentences . Was i polite and respectful . I had no idea. To be able to watch the was one of those moments of okay i can relax now because at least i did not make a fool of myself. Does not the first time youve spoken with the president. You had talked with him at least once before, earlier that week at a pride celebration at the white house. Correct. I met i met him earlier that week at the white house for the pride month reception. Didnt he give you some kind of clue that it was going to happen . I was wondering that sounded like an ethical breach . What i remember him saying is that we are all looking for to some positive news were hoping for some positive news this week. Something along those lines. I dont know that he had any clue. I dont think he knew. But he was hopeful and that gave me hope. Will that was really wonderful. Your voice described yourselves as an accidental actor. So take us back and quickly summarize if you would how your name ended up as the lead plaintiff here. In 2013, june 26 of june 26 of that year when the winter decision was announced, might john, my partner of over 20 years which had als and was bedridden. I was the primary caregiver at home. When the decision was announced i leaned over and hugged him and kissed him and said lets get married. He said yes and then we had to go through the painful process of figuring out how to do that. But we made it happen. We came home from maryland where we got married in a tarmac on a medical jet. We got back to cincinnati. Those all we wanted was to get married and live out johns days. We had no other plans. By virtue of friends running into a friend of theirs whose a civil rights attorney telling her story, that civil rights attorney got in touch. In our first conversation with us he doesnt that that change the course of our lives which turned into a change in our country. It wasnt planned, it happened and we filed suit in the state of ohio. And that was in federal court and we won. Later we are combined with five other cases from three other states and we lost an Appeals Court and we filed with the Supreme Court. The. The question was, how did it become known as ober fell hodges, it wasnt anything complicated or special. It was just by virtue of timing. When the Supreme Court we had the lowest case number. Thats all it was. Where all the lion share of or burka and how did it feel having this. Im the baby of six in all my siblings and nieces and nephews so that the one that lives in manhattan, are still in northern ohio. [inaudible] [inaudible] they were completely supportive of john and me from the very moment john came into my life. Theyre just thrilled and happy and glad that it is not them in the limelight. You do not strike me as a limelight loving person, so as someone who has really sought it, you are an it professional, so was there ever a moment where you are like, i dont know if i want all of this, i dont know if i want my name and the paper. Or if i want to be this icon. I never think of myself as an icon. So so i have never thought of it that point. When we initially filed suit there is some trepidation knowing that our faces, our names, the video of us would be in the news and around the country. Theres always trepidation with that because we are not public people. We are very private. I never wanted to be someone that people recognize or stop on the street. But over over the past two years it happened over and over. It happens on street corners here, it happens walking at time square in at airports, all across the country people see me, they they recognize me and stop me. Even though it is not something i wanted, i would would not trade it for anything. They stop me simply to say thank you. To shake my hand, tell me stories, share photos, to hug me when they cant think of anything else to do. So many of those interactions result in tears. Every single time that happens it is the best payback for any anonymity that i have given or suffered. I would do it all again just anoint those personal interactions are the gift that i get every single day as a thank you. [applause]. Take us back to that june last year. I heard that you went to the Supreme Court every day pretty much thinking that it might be the day. Tell us a little bit about that and when did you get an inkling, if not from president obama that it might be happening on the 26th . I was told by several people you really should start showing up in d. C. In midjune. This is a big decision and typically they hold off on those decisions until the end of the term. They said start showing up in midjune just to be there. So starting june 15i was june 15 i was in d. C. For every decision day. At that point we all thought well, monday june 29 because they had only scheduled decision days on mondays. So we thought monday june 29 is likely when it will happen. The week of the 22nd i was there on monday and that was the day they then announced that we are going to release decisions later this week on thursday and then they also added friday. And that was when we all started to think wait, friday june 26. That is a somewhat important date for the gay rights movement. So we all started thinking is going to be on friday. So we thought it was the Supreme Court took my place in line. I was in the public line and the ms through this morning was vastly different from every other morning. It was lighter, looser, it was happier. I think it was because most of us in that line thought june 26, we think this is a sign. People seemed happier and more upbeat. And then the other really amazing thing every time we had been in court in the public line handing out the tickets for the public spectators, every time we have been in line for oral arguments in oral decision days those tickets were bright orange. That morning they handed out the tickets and we are all still chatting and i looked down at the ticket and i noticed someone something nobody had remarked on. I held up the ticket and i said you notice anything different . The tippet the tickets that they were lavender. What better sign. It had been orange every single time. That morning they were lavender. So we all thought it may be a sign. Okay so are you inside . I was inside and after standing in line getting the tickets they let us into the courthouse where we kill some time killing some more. We edited the entered the courtroom and were seated. The chief justice said Justice Kennedy will read the first decision. And they read the case number and i had only memorized at the day before. With a case number came out i jumped in my seeking my noise squeaked and made some kind of noise. I was sitting behind friends and i grabbed their hands and im happy to report they still have their fingers. In Justice Kennedy started to read his decision in my first reaction was that we won well, i think we did. He read more, i thought we won event well im not really positive yet. And then it sunk in that we did actually win. I just burst into tears. All of round the courtroom you could hear and see people crying. There was this amazing electric feeling of joy and happiness. For me there is this wonderful moment of, perhaps for the first time in my adult life, of being honest with myself about who i am and honest with others, in that part of my life is the first time i felt truly like an american. To hear the Supreme Court justice say you know what john, jim, joe, rob they are here, all of the other plaintiffs in this case, theyre more than 30, you all do matter. Your relationships matter. Your children matter. I felt like part of we the people. I felt more american at that moment i felt more american at that moment that i ever had in my adult life. [applause]. Not only that but Justice Kennedy essentially referred to you in his writing. He he read no union is more profound in marriage than it embodies the high so i do of love, sacrifice and family. In forming a Marital Union to people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate marriage embodies the love that may endure even past death. So that was unquestionably you. Yes. And also david jane joined our case in ohio. He and his husband have been together for years, they they have three adopted children and they had married earlier in the summer. His husband died unexpectedly. So there is another way to were there with me as part of this fight to say, our husbands death certificates deserve to be accurate. Wonderful. So lets talk a little bit about what happened then. It was interesting coming out of the courtroom. You. You cannot get out because there were crowds. Describe what that was like. I was there, our attorney was there, james with the aclu, douglas and mary who argued the cases. The case in court. They were there and there were other plaintiffs there. We there. We all gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom. We were getting ready to exit the building and go down the stairs and in my mind i am just picturing all of those landmark cases, all of the important cases when you see this image of the plaintiff or plaintiffs walking down the steps, those iconic photos. In my mind im thinking, i get to do this. This this is really going to happen. Suddenly all of the Police Officers went running down the building and to the front steps. Nobody said anything. So we started heading that way and another officer said, im sorry you cannot exit that way. You that way. You have to exit out the side of the building. And i felt disappointed. I felt but i want to walk down the stairs. In that moment i felt kind of selfish thinking that. But it was one of those images, those rights that kind of go at that building and with these cases. But we exit the side of the building and the reason is because the crowd push ward pass the barricades and they were on the steps of the building. There is such a sense of celebration out there. People push their way forward. So for safety sake they did not want us walking down the steps in the midst of a big crowd. We exited exited the building and were on the sidewalk. Then we walked on the plaza and our attorney and i are leading the group and were going to the crowd and i didnt really realize this, debbie is one who pointed it out as you lead the group to they split before you like the red sea i think back to that and i can see it i just it realize it at the moment. Walking through that crown this palpable sense of joy on the plaza and to see the tears, and the faces on all those people its one of the Beautiful Moments of my life. I realized in that moment that im glad i didnt get to go down the steps. Because maybe i would not have had this experience. This experience is better because in the midst of these people because the 30 plus plaintiffs ni, we did this for everyone. We did not do it for us. I got to celebrate with everyone. I will never feel bad about not having that iconic photo of walking down the steps. I would give it back for that expe