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when blacks will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get a head man, when whites will be more right. [laughter] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, award winning american poet, writer, commentator, a civil-rights activist, and educators ,nicky giovanni. the university distinguished professor at virginia tech and one of our nation's most widely read poets. [applause] >> in the spirit of martin, this is a sacred pole. poem blood has been spilled to sacramento it. that was a magical time. height of "silver away. here i ...

maybe 20 steps from where we are sitting is the speaker's office that al smith used. the current speaker, sidney sheldon -- sheldon silver, i am so sorry about that. and there is a portrait of al smith. >> the came from the same district. they both are democrats. they both were speakers of the assembly. it is interesting when you talk about -- it is almost 100 years ago that smith was speaker. 100 years later we have a speaker from the same district and political party. the neighborhood is still a very diverse neighborhood. smith became speaker on a fluke. new york state reapportionm...

invitation. i feel right at home here because it is often said i share the politics of alfred e. smith and the ears of alfred newman. it is an honor to be here with al smith. i never knew your great- grandfather. everything senator mccain told me, the two of them had a great time before prohibition. [laughter] >> i am not surprised by the final repeal of the 18th amendment. when this matter was submitted, they would readily see it had no place in our constitution. it would be very difficult if not impossible to explain to those who come to this country to make it their business to se...

[laughter] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] . the series airs live every friday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern through december 9. you can see tonight's program again at 11:00 p.m. eastern. for more information, go to our website, c-span.org. you will find appraisals by historians and portions of their present -- and portions of the commentary. >> it has been almost 30 years since the proposal of a memorial to honor dr. king. sunday, what the official dedication of the memorial in washington, d.c. >> next, re...