WEBVTT - Replay* Know the History, Not Just the Moment 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:00.840 I'm Tamika D. 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:03.239 Mallory and it shit Boy my sona General. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:05.640 We are your host of TMI. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.960 Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and. 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:18.360 Inspiration New Energy. Hello everybody, this is a new episode 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.640 of TMI, and it is the summer. It's August, and 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.600 so you know, things have been a little bit different 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.080 in terms of what we've been doing with the show 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.560 during this month. But we will be back to our 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:37.640 regularly scheduled programming come September after our semi vacation, but 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.000 it's not really a vacation because we still have been 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:45.120 bringing you all very very important content. Last week, my 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.960 son sat down with a group of brothers many that 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.959 I respect, all of them that I respect, and had 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.480 a really really powerful conversation and I hope that you 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.160 all have an opportunity to listen into that. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.360 We're back to my Son the General. You're back. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:07.360 We're here for another week, and today we're jumping straight 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:13.280 into an interview with a very very important political and 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:14.679 civil rights icon. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:17.200 We are at the convention. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.600 We're literally in Chicago at the DNC, and so there's 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:22.520 so much happening. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.240 If you could see everything. 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.560 Going on on the other side, of this device, you 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.760 would know how how busy it is. But it was 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.960 very important for us to bring context because one of 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.720 the things that I think we both know, my son, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:43.360 is that the Internet is telling us all types of things. Misinformation, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:48.160 people uninformed, people don't know history, people really don't understand 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.600 the road that has been traveled to get not only 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.919 to this moment, but the fights that have taken place 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:59.279 and the struggle that has gone on in our world 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.640 and certain me in America, in Black America for a 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.520 long time. And so we asked this icon to join 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.680 us this morning. And if you don't know who he is, 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:16.399 please do your research. We are talking with doctor Benjamin Chaevs, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.919 not just Ben Chavis we so used to calling him. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.720 Ben Chavs. Is doctor Benjamin Chavs, and he his. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:28.200 Current job is the President and CEO of the National 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:36.400 Newspaper Publishers Association. That's the National Newspaper Publishers Association n NPA. 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.600 But he has you have you are here with us 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.760 so many other things that make you a legend. 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:44.000 That's your current. 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.680 Work that you are involved in, which is still a 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:52.359 form of activism, telling our stories to us by us 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.359 in black newspapers all across the country, and I'm sure 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.400 you there. You know it expands beyond that, but you 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.920 are truly a legend in the civil rights movement. We 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.880 just want to welcome you and thank you so much 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.200 for joining us this morning. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.639 Well, thank you, Tamika, my son. I'm so honored to 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.919 be in your presence. You know, Fredick doesn't said it best. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.920 Freedom is a conscious drugg say. Each generation I'm so 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.400 proud of has risen to the occasion. And it's not 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.720 just a simple matter of passion. At the time, I 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.680 wish it was that simple. It was really how to 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.639 renew and regenerate our consciousness as a people. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.560 Who are we in the world, Who are we in America? 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.720 Not only what our past has been, but how does 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.360 our pass inform our presence and our future. That's why 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.600 I'm so honored to be here with you at the 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.960 Democratic National Convention, this pivotal moment in world history. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.280 You know, you know, soroart the system. 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.880 I want you to know all of my family, my mother, 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.040 my sisters, my grandmother, all akas so I got a 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.240 lot of pink and green in Oxford, North Carolina. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.839 Oh so your family, your family picked the right sorority 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.560 to be a part of. I just want to make 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.760 sure everybody knows very serious matter. And Vice President Harrison 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.880 also an AKA, so you know we're on the right track. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.520 Absolutely absolutely. But I'm a native of Oxford, North Carolina. 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.599 I was born in nineteen forty eight, so I grew 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.520 up in the nineteen fifties when everything was racially segregated. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.480 But you know, even though things were segregated, I learned 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:37.920 so much about black history, black knowledge, black scholarship, black excellence. 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.080 And you know, I didn't know that much about white 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.440 people because I was separated from you know, I knew 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.520 about your question. I knew about a popeive, but I 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.480 never saw a white student to my sophomore year in college. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.240 Wow, and what college did you go to? 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:53.400 That? 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.080 To Ben, the first college was Santa Dustin's College at 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.600 HBCU and Raleigh, North Carolina and. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.080 Then answer to UNC. I was a chemistry major. 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.240 And when I tried to get into UH in North 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.120 Carolina State, which is the white school or UNC the West, 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.359 they told me they were not accepting black students unless 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.080 I majored in music. That was I said, no, I 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.839 want to major in science and young Robert music, but 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:26.000 that wasn't my field, and so I was dissuaded, which 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.920 is fine because going to the HBCU the first couple 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.839 of years was the best decision of my life. And 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.920 uh he gave me a grounded So by the time 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.039 I transferred to University of All Carolina to finish my 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.400 chemistry degree, I actually was ahead of the white students. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:42.880 They used to say, well, where did you come from? 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.080 Who taught you this organic chemistry and physical chemistry? 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.520 And uh, you know nucle can, I said, some black 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.360 teachers at a black school. That's what talk. 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.520 Because you know, I think sometimes we underestimate not only 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.600 where we get education, but how we get our education. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.120 And so I grew up in the movement. I was 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.520 got my NAACP car when I was twelve years old. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.680 I started working for SELC Doctor my little kingdom. When 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.360 I was fourteen. Put my age up. We're not supposed 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.640 to drive to sixteens. I put my age up. I 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.120 had mobility. I was driving. You know, I grew up fast. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.520 James Bonder now became very close friends and he used 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.400 to tell me them parting some writing that the pen 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.200 is powerful them to saw it. So I started writing 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.120 for the Black Press when I'm eleven years old in 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.440 the sixth grade, and now, as God would have it, 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.080 for the last eleven years, I've been to president of 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.320 the CEO of Other Black Press of American National Newspaper 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.000 Public and Association. But as to me, could say it 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.360 in the intro, what I do now is informed by 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.440 many decades of other struggle. To me, when you have challenges, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:07:00.040 that's preparation. I once asked Reginald Lewis, who was the 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.600 first black beading. I said, Regel, tell me one word 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.839 out of the English language that led to your financial success, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.920 and he said, preparation, preparation. We have to prepare ourselves 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:16.239 to deal with the struggles. We prepare ourselves to learn. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.560 And then I started working in the African liberation movements 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:20.080 in Africa. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:22.000 I joined the a n C. 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.160 I used to write for the a n C, the 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:30.280 Afghan Acts and youth publication of the SPARE while I 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.920 was you know, in college and high school. And then 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.480 from nineteen sixty three to nineteen sixty eight I was 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.960 the youth coordinator for SELA Christians Leadership Conference until the 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.720 day that doctor King was killed in nineteen sixty eighty 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.360 and eight. So I've been around the blocks a few times. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.440 But you know what, my Sogning Tamika, most of them 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.480 sister in the community that they don't know about the 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.200 nap or the mean Man March. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.840 They know me from the movie Ballet. I was the 0:07:57.880 --> 0:07:58.760 minister in Bellet. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.679 You know, I just told you that I was about 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.000 I was about to bring that up. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:03.520 Just now. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.800 I go to anyhood and they said, that's the minister Flue. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.080 But that shows you the importance though not only our 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:16.920 all tradition, but our our our image, our visual tradition, 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.120 particularly now among millennials and generation disease. Not only what 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.680 we hear or even what we see a hip hop. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.480 Hip hop is what you feel. It's just not what 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.560 you see, but what you hear is what you feel. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.520 And so I think our movement has been successful to 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.600 the extent to which we can not only yes, people 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.360 can feel our impression oh pressure, but can people feel 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.640 our liberation and people feel what we need to do to. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:47.920 Change our quality of life. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.199 And that's why I have so much respect for you 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.640 what you're and Tabika do, because you help people feel 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.400 the reality of our struggle for freedom, justice and required andy. 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.439 I'm sorry, I'm gonna give you a short answers to no. 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.640 I just first of all, it is an honor to 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:07.520 be able to interview you, to be able to know you, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.600 to be in space with you, to get you know, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.560 be able to be tutored by just listening to you, 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:15.840 you know, last night, talking all the times I've been 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.960 in your presence, and just hearing the wisdom that you 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.720 have and knowing how legendary you are. 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.479 And it's a shame. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.240 That our youth are not only no belly, right, is 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.559 only no belly. But when you listen to the history 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.240 you know that you've you've been through. I just want 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.680 to know, like, what what were some of the things 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.960 that you you picked up working with doctor King? 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.240 Well, I picked up working doctor King. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:44.679 Is that. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.880 You know the eloquence behind the podium, The eloquence on 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:55.160 the stage of life is informed by what happens off 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.640 the stage. It's informed by what happens before you get 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.120 to the before you get the mic. You know, before 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.040 you can drop the mic. You got a hold of money, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.360 you know what I'm saying. So as we pick up 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.240 the mic of like I'm talking about, as we broadcast 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.240 as like we're doing now as we articulate, as we 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.640 disseminate information, you know, we're informed by our lived experience. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.720 And so I've been blessed to me and my sign 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:29.679 to have had lived experiences with doctor King, live experiences 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.760 with Malcolm X, lived experiences with Minister farra Con, lived 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.960 experiences with doctor Doctor Height, lived experiences with Rose the Pause, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.080 lived experiences, you know, Nelson. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.359 Mandela, winning Mandela. 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.880 I was with Cuban troops on the ground, and I 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.440 was in the fox over to the troops fighting the 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.440 South African potactic dream in the mid nineteen eighties. Because 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.800 one of the things I found out that you know, 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.560 it's one thing to talk liberation, It's one thing uh 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.959 engage in armstructure. It's another thing to engage in putting 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:05.280 your life on the front line. 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:06.160 You know. 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.320 Look, I spent most of the nineteen seventies in prison 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:11.520 because I be very honest. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:12.199 I was mad. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.280 I was mad as hell, and they killed Actor King 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.880 in nineteen sixty eight. But I learned the channel of 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.680 my anger into something a modus operandi that could help 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.640 inspire to make sure his dream was not assassinated. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.560 How long were you incarcerated, Doctor Ben. 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.319 Six and a half years, but I had a thirty 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.280 four year sentence. I spent most of the nineteen seventies 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.280 in prison. The women to ten case, that's a whole 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.320 I could talk to you about the whole program that 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:38.880 they just on the Wilmington tent alone. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.520 I'm so proud of the young people and women. 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.880 In all Carolina who stood up to racial white supremacy 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:46.920 in the school system. 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:48.600 And because they stood up. 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:54.640 Eight high school student leaders, sixteen seventeen, eighteen year olds, myself, 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.360 I was only twenty three years old and a white 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.520 anti poverty work a woman who was also a Hurrunners. 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.160 With ten of us were sent us to two hundred 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.400 and eighteen years in prison, and I had to launch 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.040 sentence thirty four thirty four years. And so the analogy 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.000 is when I heard that Donald Trump had thirty four convictions, 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.400 thirty four felons, I said, with damn, I wonder how 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.640 much time, how he's gonna get it, you know. And 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.640 of course we got that time because we bought white supremacy. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.040 But one of the things I learned from doctor King 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:28.000 that is so big. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.920 I really don't I don't want you to brush past that, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.000 because that's real. 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.280 That is so so significant. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.200 Not that you were, which you know, we don't have 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.680 any judgment on this show around what people may have 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.200 done and how they you know, what road they traveled, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:52.720 But you weren't scamming and killing or any of that. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:58.800 Your path to being incarcerated was because of your involvement 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:00.800 in the civil rights movement. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.800 Yes, absolutely, and I think that to Meka. 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.960 I'm always indebted to my mentors. I had great mentors, 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:15.679 claud Mchison who founded the Conservational Quality you know, Margaine 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.920 the Kingdom founded the Silicary's Leadership Conference. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.079 I used to drive, I told the car. 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.920 Yes, I used to drive his father, Cleave Sellers and 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.000 Stoker Cormack around when they were in Snick because back 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.640 in the day, you just want any one black odersas 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.640 you in every black if it was black, I'm in. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:34.920 You know what I'm saying. 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.480 That sounds like my parents and my life. How I 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.079 grew up in Harlem. We went to the Nation of Islam. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.240 We went to National Action Network, we went to the 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.040 Black Church, we went to the street corners, we went 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.400 to anything that had to do with black empowerment. At 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.840 the slave Theater, my parents were there. 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.120 So it was one thing I guess I should point 0:13:55.120 --> 0:14:00.360 out anthropologically and geneologically, I was really blessed to me 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.520 and my son to be born in a family. The 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.280 land we live on in Oxton, North Carolina has been 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.480 in my family for over two hundred years. My great 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.000 great great great grandfather was the Reverend John Chambers. He 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.480 was the first brother to Bill Dana as a president 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.880 in minister. But what significant is he was a freedom fighter. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.400 He was an educator. Now this was before the Nat. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:27.680 Turner Insurrection. My grandfather was born in seventeen sixty seven, 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.240 fought in the Revolutionary War, came an ordained minister, the educated. 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.920 But in the early nine eighteen thirty then Turner Insurrection happened. 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.720 The State of Virginia, the State of North Carolina, the 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.880 State of South Carolina, the State of Georgia, State of Alabama, 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.480 and State and Missis passed the law making it a 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.000 fella and to teach black side to read and write 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.880 a felon. So my great great grandfather was an educator. 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.280 So he set up an underground school in Grandma County, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.600 my home county, Native County, his county, and so he 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.280 taught white students by day and black students secretly by night, 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.840 but they caught up with him. My grandfather was beating 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.800 the death. Back in the day there were no cars. 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.200 Every head of horse and bugget and they beat him 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.880 to death, hid his body, cut the head off of 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.680 his horses, and took the head of his horse to 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.120 his wife. And we never found his grave. They didn't 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.640 want us to honor him in a funeral. So I 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.920 grew up with that kind of history in my family. 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.520 I come from a generation, yes, of educators menisince I'm 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.160 in all they menister myself. But the underlying common donative 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.600 common denominated for the males and females in my family 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:44.720 were freedom fighters. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.280 So I had no choice, man, you know. And I 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.640 was in the fourth grade strip uh uh. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.720 Going back to the first grade, I knew what racism 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.080 was and and and I knew that something that we 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.440 should not have been tolerated. So I was one of 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.600 the impatient. Yeah, I was impatient in my family. And 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.520 that's why by the time I was twelve thirteen, fourteen, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.040 I thought I was grown. I'm ready to get it on, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.400 but get it on from the wisdom of the past. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.840 And like I said, I had great mentors. And that's 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.800 when I try to be now to our brothers and 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.960 sisters today as a mentor, not just as a leader, 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.120 but as a mentor, because none of us will be 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.080 here forever. But while we are blessed to be here, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.320 let's pass something on. Let's let's pass something wrong, so 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.200 the next generation won't have to go through the same 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:36.480 things that we go through. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.360 You know, well, doctor Ben, before you go, before you 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.640 go forward on that because one of the reasons why 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.560 we wanted to talk with you today. As we sat 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:54.360 together last night in a very private meeting. You know, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.360 I was thinking a lot about and my son and 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.560 I have been talking about the history of this whole 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.840 idea of the Convention. Right, we know this is not 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:09.800 the first time in Convention history that there has been 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:15.879 major tension around different social issues. And the meeting that 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.680 we were at last night, we were specifically dealing with 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.240 the issue of black and Palestinian liberation and how our 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.480 struggles are intertwined. And it made me think so much 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:32.720 about nineteen sixty eight and the climate for which that 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.080 particular convention took place. And I know you have so 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.760 much that you can share with us about that, and 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.360 so just you know, want to give you, you know, an 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:48.320 opportunity to talk about nineteen sixty eight, Who were the operators? 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.359 What was give us the tea on what was going down. 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.480 I was a young youth delegate from no Colina, my 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.679 home state, nineteen sixty eight. And keep in mind, the 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:07.400 nineteen six convention happened in the wake of doctor King's assassination. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.879 It happened in the wake of Robert Kennedy's assessments. And 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:16.240 then you had Richard Nixon running for president with Spiro Agnue, 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.280 the former governor of Maryland, who were running on a 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.080 law and order campaign, and so lor and O. It 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.520 wasn't just with the Republicans. The Democrats were also Mayor Dale, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.080 who was a Democratic mayor, but he sik the police 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:34.520 on the protest, brutally beating people down as they tried 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.639 to exercise their First Amendment right. I was inside the 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.960 convention center and I was telling somebody last night to me, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.400 what a change time brings. 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.159 From sixty eight to two thousand. 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.240 And four, we couldn't even we had to fight even 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.880 to get be able to sit down in a convention 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.000 in nineteen They didn't want black people to be delicates. 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.440 They didn't want black people to be pages. They didn't 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.720 want black people to have a media station. They don't 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.120 want They were trying to exclude black folks in nineteen sixty. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.119 In fact, Julian Bond Fanner Lou Hayman had to go 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:10.960 to court just to. 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.639 Get the right to sit down in the convention. So 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.600 now we run in the convention. Black women are running 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.000 the convention. You know what I'm saying. And a lot 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:20.720 of times to. 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.520 Me, I'm glad you asked that question because we live 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:29.240 in the present and sometimes the president evil overwhelms us 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.399 or underwhelms us. Well, we we think that what's happening 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.120 today is suspended in today's reality. 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:41.160 But this is a long evolutionary struggle, you know, even 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:41.760 in the DNC. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.640 And let me just point something out, Uh, the Democrats 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.280 were the original white supremacists. And my home state of 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.399 North Carolina, the Democrats were the original white supremacists who 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:54.240 attacked women. 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:55.040 To North Carolina. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.440 Because blacks have formed a fusion with the Republicans, look 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.639 out the script this flip. The Republican Party was once 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.480 a part of Lincoln. Now it's the part of the 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:10.720 white supremacis. Now it's the party of of of far 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.639 white Uh racism and the semitism you just named it. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.960 When was the switch again, sir? Because there's always. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.800 Late late eighteen hundreds. 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.440 Okay, late always this thing that the Republicans is actually 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.560 the party for black people, and this and that that 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.280 you don't know no history. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.400 You got to know that history. The script was flip flipped, 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:32.359 you know. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.160 Uh, Jessin Hams used to be a Democrat. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.480 He became a Republican with the Destocrats. And UH. 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.840 These are the people who fought when Sturgod Marshingtam got 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.160 the Brown decision in nineteen twenty four, uh saying that 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.919 uh surrogate schools was unconstitutional. You had all these people 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:56.720 who wanted to assassinate till Good Marshall, you know, because 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:00.000 of that litigation, because they didn't want black and white 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.640 kids they ever go to school together. Because we may 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.480 find out something, and that is there's no such thing 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:06.640 as white superiority. 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.560 There's no such thing in UH. 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.320 While it lives in ideology of white supremacy, it's a 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.600 fake ideology. It has no substance, It has no anser 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.280 boula other than the brutal. 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.040 Translantic slavery that they engage us, and. 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:25.960 I want to plug a book that's coming out in 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.280 September to make I gotta get through my son, Uh 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.760 Sayty Brown, one of our writers, and the Innate we 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:34.120 just published. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:35.960 You know, it's coming out in September. 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.719 And the translanda slave trade because translanda Satarde didn't just 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.480 started in sixteen nineteen, It started in fifteen hundreds. The 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.399 translation staty was going on a one hundred years before they 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.600 brought the first slave to the Virginia shore. And this brutality, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.360 this inhumanity, Uh you know. So to me, going back 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:02.040 to Tamika's question, I'm honored just to witness what's. 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:03.400 Going on here four. 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:07.080 But that also means we have the responsibilities that what 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.440 are those struggles, what are those alliances we should have? Well, 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:12.800 what can we learn? What do we know about the 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:15.800 Middle East? What do we know about nineteen forty eight? 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:19.040 What do we know about the United Nations? What do 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:21.440 we know about World War two? My father was a 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.639 better than World War One? Do we know the sacrifice 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.879 that Black troops made going to the front line in 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.520