art, stuff like that. the soul of books isn't going away. there are a lot of really interesting people coming up in the trade. they may do it a little differently from the way things were done 20, 30, 40 years ago but they're doing it very well if you're going to be enormously successful.

there is so much to see and too many accomplishments to mention, but here is the tip of the iceberg. april ryan is a 30 year journalism veteran and esteemed member of the national press club and has covered the three presidents at the white house correspondent for the network's. it's featured in the newscasts on nbc, cbs, cnn, msnbc and fox and also found their way to the page of the nation's top newspapers in 2008 april conducted an exclusive interview with president bush in the oval office about america's international policy with african-american countries in 2009. she traveled to mexico and

trinidad and also traveled aboard air force one and interviewed president and mrs. bush while flying to the gold coast for the one-year anniversary of hurricane katrina. if being a reporter is sent hard enough for the acumen, growing and has appeared as a roundtable panelist with george stephanopoulos and the changing political climate with the obama era on the today show it has gone head to head with chris matthews discussing the topics on hardball it has been a regular contributor on cnn in a regular panelist on the washington watch. despite noting all of these accomplishments, i have a major headline about april ryan.

she is a mother, a proud mother of two daughters. which in part is why we are here tonight to discuss the new book the first and race in black-and-white. it's an autobiographical sketch that examines what it means to enable themselves and their children to constructively engage the race and racism. they showed a willingness to stake out strong and unpopular opinion. isn't that a real mother for you? please join me in welcoming april ryan. [applause]

>> good evening everyone. i had a lot of friends far and near from baltimore. i am telling you in this politics and prose i want my fellow white house compadres that i've known for 20 years to raise your hand. yes, thank you. they've worked with me to help me look halfway decent when i'm talking with you anywhere i talked to thank you all for coming out tonight it is a big night tonight. i want someone to let me know what the announcement is because i hear that it's going to be kind of a print task but none the less. i'm a white house correspondent for the radio network and i am

so thankful to have celebrated 20 years january 13. i'm now covering for president and i still feel like i'm 17 so that is a good thing but in minutes of all of that i became a mother a couple of years ago. maybe about 14 years ago during the process as a white house correspondent, and this latest book, the second book after this one a year later this one came out and this was borne out of baltimore. im a child of baltimore, a product of baltimore. i frequent areas where freddy gray was taken into custody. i go to church in some of those areas.

see me at the white house i am still very much in the community. there was another that had to tell her daughter or her daughters were mothers that had to tell their children about the race. it's a conversation that w conve twconversation between thetwo hs book is an attempt to try to help us navigate these waters because right now they are very murky. it seems like the other is having a problem today in the country. such years ago or so, my daughter -- my children to be outside like any kid that's what happens is they want to go outside and play with their nerf gun archery sets. so we went outside, they went outside and they said you know who's at the white house, then

she said because the little boy was killed for playing with a toy gun. imagine my backyard that has an open field behind it and there are no fences. you can see from the street to the backyard so she was concerned about my daughter and the possibility of something happening and that is the reality today so she did not in her little minandher little mine understand what the reality was and what was in the news happening. so what we did when i came home she said is true and i said yes it is true. i had to show my 7-year-old a video of a child shot dead by policapolice officer with a toy. this is the reality that i have to deal with and that was my first conversation with my child

about race. you want to give your family sugar and spice and everything nice. but then after that, there were more issues. how can i ask about the principles that cannot deal with them in my own home so then i will never forget the day i'm sitting in my little booth at the white house and yes, claustrophobic sneak not apply. i'm sitting in the booth and i'm watching my city and watching rockthrowing, and i am in tears like okay it's down there it's

not going to come my way picked up my children for me which was one of the best things that could have happened. school did until the kids why they were ending school at the time they were. they didn't tell the kids why there would be no afterschool programs. the kids just went home. so i picked up my daughters and

you know you cannot shelter in place children without [inaudible] >> so i said okay we are not far from the store so we picked up a couple of things thinking that it was going to die down but it kept going. so i said i'm going to stay home from work and work from home maybe 15 miles away from where all of the activity was happening. so i stayed home and we got a call in the middle of the day. the children are going to be let out of school early there will not be any afterschool programs because the fear is if they were coming after us, there were copters with shuts down doctors offices an into the mcdonald's d the chick-fil-a. yes, then you know there's a problem. so again, knowing that if you shelter in place you'v place yoo go to the source.

so we went to the store again. this time as we were walking out i said get everything you need and i was telling them what was going on. but it was the explanation on the moment when we were leaving the store and i was in my minivan my oldest daughter was in the front of the car and she and i both saw a truck going through a maze in the parking lot and was a red pickup truck and there were two flags in the back. one of them happened to be a confederate flag. it was like dousing the oil on the fire. my reporter hat came on and took

the title. i say this as a sign of hate and as i was driving fast to pull out my phone to take a picture she started to cry. we needed to navigate the water to let them know. my child attends a predominantly white wealthy school and the kids are talking. how can i discuss matters of race at the white house for america but not talk about it in my own home? april was from baltimore and is a mother with children. they saw what was happening and they also saw it in that via google viral video. i'm going to start the reading

off march the seventh for those of you that have the book, flying down with president obama to selma alabama. i asked a question about the post-racial versus post obama and he said i would not eat what they did with similar moments but the passage of the civil rights act of 1964 or 1965 those were massive changes and the legal status that represented the fundamental breaks and the tragic history and the pillars of the 13th or 14th amendment of the civil rights act of the 60s. those are presented the represee dismantling of discrimination in the country. nothing is going to compare to that moving forward. our work is to build on that work that we see a the discriminations still occurring

but increasingly it has to do with the ongoing legacy of the divided society. closing the opportunity gaps, closing the wealth gap that has been passed on from generation to generation because they were so wide and that involves not one piece of legislation that required a host of different efforts and that means investing in early childhood education and making sure everybody has health insurance and it means th that e kind of public-private work that we are going through m doing thy brother's keeper and it means stem education and science engineering. they are not going to be one silver bullet that's going to be a sustained effort on a variety of fronts to take us to the next journey towards a more just society. i was on our way to selma alabama for the 50th anniversary

of bloody sunday and those words still ring true today. but again, who are we. so this book goes to the heart of the matter serious when you talk about race. >> we still have a society that is divided and i'm going to go back to something of this song where we are a united divided states. hd was of policing are very important. that's one of the pieces i start in this book. in the community there is a

coming-of-age truth for our young black man called talk and it's something about the figures give their sons or equivalent and it's meant to be a lifetime tool that might help them to strategically navigate through actions with the goal of awarding altercations and it can be life or death for some. i know it sounds 1956 piece but now more than ever that is the reality more than 60 years later the essence of the talk is the father telling his son bad policing resulted death be it intentional or unintentional it is the truth and unavoidable in the communities. when i was on a tour promoting my book i was amazed how white people responded to the "washington post" article detailing the number of murders.

the story was titled police shootings in 2015 approaching 400 nationwide. those statistics represent the first few months of 2015. a questioner asked me if i was shocked and i said very nonchalantly, no. the questioner was stunned by my approach to the question. i explained i am the daughter of a black man and a sister of a black man and i also admit that i have been racially profiled by police. we call it having while black. it is so common that it's referred to as dwp. more than anything i'm part of the community that consistently beats the drum when those crimes have been. at the same time we try to come

to grips with the inconceivable pain that happens over and over again in the communities. what this book does this puts a spotlight on the issues of race from the mother's standpoint of people who have heard from their mother and in this book i talked to president obama, then, former president obama who talked about his mother and how she explained what it meant to be black in this society. i talked to so many parents to include congressman lewis whose mother was actually against him being in the civil rights movement. the book focuses on women because we are the first influencer, we are the first teacher and if you look at the stats they show we are increasing the number at the head of household so therefore the talk is now figured from a

man to a woman and it's not but it's also a woman and her son and daughter so that's changed. and how our perceptions about race you can legislate but after a while it's about the heart. are you having these conversations and what are you telling your children about race. i want to go to the congressman john lewis. pressing for the mar mark of the first class citizenship his mother wasn't in support of th this. there may be an explanation for the attitude and other mothers they didn't want their children on the front lines making them sacrificial lambs for our quality.

the former head of the obama administration's initiative and the ceo of the partnership five the mothers are the ones that have to bear the greatest burden. at the end of the day when there are things we have and ordered d it is the mothers that are the primary carriers. we have seen it from slavery to reconstruction and i would even say mothers today have been at the forefront of peace movements. this movement, the most successful movement in the nation'nations history for chand have the support of the masses and some were even closed. a small minority supported the movement. they supported doctor king during this movement. the movement. i'm going to fast forward.

his mother was so vehemently against marching in him going to troy state. doctor king who called him the boy from troy told the family who purchased for 300 acres of land, excuse me the 100 acres of land for $300. doctor king told them they could lose their land. he marched, he was bloodied and

he marched. he still wasn't for that guess what, it took him and the others in the movement to help create the atmosphere to support the voting rights act and that is when it was passed that's when she decided i am with you and not only did she say she was with him but what she did is she literally started registering people to vote herself. i talk in this book about another trad trayvon martin and sterling who said i can't. and harry belafonte talking about his mother and how he said

he was an activist before he was an entertainer and his mother told him never see in inequity and won't go to fix it. so there are influences as women and leaders. she talked about how her mother influenced her and how her mother when she was a kid in her church. he is a great man trying to make a change in this country. but in the church some of them said i'm not going to do it. i encourage you to read the pages. there is another piece i want to share with you, one of the most

recognized in the country or some would say she is but had a conversation befor the former ar to president barack obama and former president barack obama. we talk about the importance of winning but when we drill down i want to open up to questions. now imagine a true life story of a woman that achieved the ultimate in the 21st century washington, d.c.. she wanted the most influential and recognizable of any gender race or any status confronted not only by the conditions of being unseen but was also in the crosshairs of the mental situations i noticed. an example of the obama administration first lady michelle obama would leave the secure white house, 1600

pennsylvania avenue, her home at the time to go out for walks and exercise personal agenda of collective campaign. she would walk the streets of washington, d.c. around the white house unannounced and in most cases unnoticed. she was rarely recognized and because of that, the walks continued and she went every day workers, tourists and residents there for them most part she took walk blocks from the whitee without fanfare and those she encountered along the way this stature ask woman, the wife of the leader of the free world was not recognized. she was nearly invisible to all of those unknowingly encounter occurred in her walks. dating back from chicago they would take walks with her. this makes the point what was experienced every day so that you don't notice her you

certainly are not going to notice others. she reminds us how this is obama has been impactful in her duties as the first lady and human being and that has caused everyone to take another look. with that, thank you. [applause] this book is dear to my heart because i pulled out a lot of stuff in my personal experiences and one thing i will tell you that my mother always told me it's not what they tell you but that's what the answer to. my mother is gone to glory now that i keebut i keep her with my to bring it to my children and other girls that i encounter. with that i would love to open up to questions. thank you and don't be shy.

>> i served on a board confronted with instances of racial tension on the college campus. she said i feel so this should give and debate the -- i feel so chagrined. they don't see race. how would you as a mother adjusts the comment and respond to someone who told you as a mother my children don't see race. >> there is a woman that is here with me. she's the author who said something to me and i was complaining about something. someone was having these moments and she said you know something,

and she marched with doctor king and with a lot of people to help create a just society. she said that his wife when he marched for. i said you are right. but they don't understand it and they don't see or feel the racial issue. they need to understand it. my mother always taught me whenever i drove for she drove somewhere. why is she telling me about a gas mask, she wanted me to carry onto the wakon to the white houe after 9/11. when we would sit at the kitchen table we might have peanuts or something she would say you know how many users there are?

she told me the pride of who i come from. none would have ever imagined i would have been at the white house. i think that it's important for those children that live in this beautiful mindset of not seeing race to understand what happened before because it is still here. we are seeing it in small ways. i'm not going to call it out or say anything about it. but we are seeing it today. we are seein seeing a differenty today. we have to be in a mindset to understand this could be happening before and it can be happening now. if we think in the society everything is fine and you won't be able to see it. you need to know what it is and

i hope i answered your question. thank you, sir. .. [inaudible] [inaudible]

i have been in in the struggle for five years. but there is a confusion i left in 1979 and it still been a struggle. the society in this area, they have a very deep understanding of this issue. i think there are a lot of people who fought for independence but now it's surviving because they show him that they love him, they want him to be there while their

children are leaving the country in the day. so, what are the best way to let them know that he is the enemy of them, instead of supporting them to tell the children from the young age after being the leader. is there anyone way to make mother stand strong on this kind of situation. >> oppression under dictatorship is a rough situation. you have to be careful in how you speak out in places like that, i'm sure. but for every point to there is a counterpoint. you have to make

sure that you have your facts together when you put it out because people will always come back. for instance, when i talk about race at the white house and i hear some of the times you race it spitting but when i put the facts out there that are irrefutable from credible sources and if you do that and present them in a way people will ultimately listen. you have to be peacefully armed with facts. i don't want want to tell you what to do in a society where you may really be in trouble, your life may depend on it, because i don't want to cause harm. i know how i would deal it here. facts are a lot of times irrefutable. sometimes when you tell the truth there is a consequence. you have to guard against and find a way. you have to navigate those waters. i believe that parents have a responsibility. let me me give

you a for instance. chris, former prosecutor in the o.j. simpson trial is a dear friend of mine is in this book. i kept asking him to say chris, i need an interview from your mom and he would never let me interview him. you know why, he never never talked his mother about race. his mother is in her old two years now and so to my surprise, to new year's eve's ago he started transcribing his interview in california while he was with his parents and sending it to me. it touched him because he had never heard this from his mother. those conversations are in this book. that is is one thing you don't ever want to have. i'm thankful that my mother was so consistent that i can go to situation and i know what she would say.

and you don't ever want there to be a situation where the child is left not knowing. you want to make it organic but make it a learning experience. i think that parents have a big responsibility and races a piece of it. it is the deepest issue. mothers teach you influence, nurturing, care but they also teach you how to fight. it might be the fight to be peaceful but they teach you how to stand against the crudeness of the world. there is cruelty in the world. they teach you how to stand strong silently or go out there boldly with activism. i'm in a go back to the historic tia had with harry belafonte. the man who walked with doctor king in march with doctor king and slept on pallets and some of

these homes during the civil rights movement of the silva rights marches with john lewis. the man who was under the tutelage of we to boys. they could extend our time in your chair. he said, this is a very important time. he said he's very happy about this time and i thought there something wrong with them. he said, when i talk to him he said to me, this is one of the greatest times because when there's such pain, i'm paraphrasing, with her such pain and i you are hitting rock bottom it is a time for radical activism that creates change. so that is from harry belafonte. one of our guys and pieces of history who is continuing to march. i hope that helped you.

thank you, sir. >> so i did not realize this is the topic of your book by the way. as a mother going back to the reason you wrote this book and having presented these facts to your daughters, how they taken this information and how has it transformed the way they outlook on the people around them. >> you are such a newsperson. i'm glad you said that. my daughters, they go through this very wealthy school a predominantly white school. and they have borders from other countries, from asia and mexico all sorts of places. the black population is not large but it's certainly not the

majority. after this freddie gray situation adults can find their way with it so we can expect children to find their home with it i forgot what they call it this is immunity in their school and some of the by folks are upset because they felt like they said why can't we be apart and my daughter said you can come you never asked. in the and the way she handled it, the teacher just said, you know your daughter learn to diffuse it but she defused it in the way she spoke was very easy and it wasn't insightful. and i said maybe what i have done in my home and the people that she sees that i'm surrounded by and i don't care about race at all, people may

say that i have friends of all races, but i'd lead by example. it's not just the talking, it is how i walk. yes, i talk about i am a proud african-american woman and i'm not going to apologize for that. but i also love my asian friends, my my caucasian friends, my hispanic friends, my friends in the lgbt community. i love people. that has transcended into both my kids. they want to have play dates with all kinds of people. that makes me feel good because we are nation and this is another thing that the majority of children that are being born today are minority. we are going to be a nation that is the majority is going to flit. so i'm glad that my children understand, they see my black artwork in my african statues

but they also see my friends pictures of gatherings and things that we have. and they see different things in our home. but there's also an understanding that we have to come together. i hope i answered that. >> hello. thank you so much. i appreciate the appreciate the time you took to talk about this book. i have more of a comment, i have two biracial adult sons. people just assume he is white. so throughout his life people have used rugged tory language because they think it's a k.

>> and you can just walk away and i finally taught him that know you need to teach these people. you can say my father's black come i take offense of that word and then walk way because it makes them think about what they said and what they seem to was. >> he doesn't even have to say he's black he just needs to say stop it. they assume he's white and if more saying that i think that's sense more of a ripple effect and say stop it and then maybe in in a day or two i'm black, did you know that. >> that's a good point. >> send the punch first. >> thank you, that's a good point. he did tell me that i like putting black on my application because they look at me and say what? >> will thank you. i appreciate that. tell your son i said right on. >> hello dr.. you have established yourself as is an excellent white house reporter. you have done interviews with all of the recent presidents,

they have enjoyed doing interviews with you, i think think you have more interviews for radio reporter than anyone had with president clinton. >> before you go on people are like other people know who you are. so i study people and i wonder, how have you establish the relationship that you have and how do you cover issues in a slightly different way than some reporters. one of the things i'm thinking about is the black farmer in the way that you brought that to attention in the clinton administration. so how did you establish the relationship? >> i don't know. i'm kind of different than everybody else. and during the clinton years, thank you doctor you have some great books.

when i came there to the white house 20 years ago is interesting. i remember some people thinking i was militant because race is not always on the radar at the white house. and it wasn't always on the radar at the white house. it may have been, it wasn't always in a black of the news, but the full and when i came there there a lake who is this kid always asking about black issues. denied and think there's anything wrong with it. so i guess i stood out and replace a man who everyone love. so i just asked and i think in there with an agenda i was just really concerned about issues of race. president clinton recognized me in a still known for that

question and i kept asking him and said when are you going to write your book on race. but it didn't happen and there's a lot of thing that happened. >> reporter: first book. and then president bush, i don't know he's quirky and i think i'm quirky too. and by me asking issues about the black community and he was not known to be were thought to be sympathetic to the black community and particularly around katrina i don't even have to raise my hand he just that i know you have a question and i guess because i've establish the pattern of certain issues that people know me and then president obama i found interesting than president obama, phone interesting before he ran for president, he invited me as a guest at his table for the presidential black caucus dinner.

so i miss black reporter wes by questions and people knew that and if at the table the gives them an inkling. so this president, while he did say in the oval office when he met with president obama is so now i'm running off the mouth on tv. so he had when he was in the oval office with president obama right after he won the election the reporters read their not know why singled out and he said hello. and he said you're good. and i was like, thank you. i turned to president obama and i said make said make him give me an interview and the president look like looked at me like i was crazy. he really did and then president obama said she's one of the best we had.

so he knows who i am. but we'll see how that relationship works out. it's been interesting to have for me a chick from baltimore who is not from the washington press pool who is not the typical washington reporter to be able to call by name by three american presidents. it's humbling. and then the black farmers, this story ran for like 17 or 18 years. president clinton saw an egregious wrong after the first group of black farmers were paid out because they are discriminated against in the farm loan program. so the second one said we want our money to. he said okay, you get this money but it was not funded by congress. so george w. bush tried to do it and fund it. it didn't happen. then after george w. bush was like were in a recession, those black black farmers are not going to get their money. what happened as i kept asking questions and i was always on

the agenda because and you ask questions on the white house, it changes policy, it can create an atmosphere where people are like we need to put this on the table and so i kept asking president obama about it and eventually the president made sure it happened in congress is working out there now getting paid under the obama administration. you do really don't hear about the black farmers who their case was settled and there was a lot of money. i didn't think we could do. but the problem is, many of those who filed against the department of agriculture during the clinton years died off. and that's the problem. so thank you. >> hello. i think in many ways what you have said about your mother's relationship with you sounds very much like the relationship you have with your daughters.

i also get the sense that you do not avoid talking to issues with them. the one issue that i'm very curious about is of course the black lives matter movement. as i'm sure as you are obviously away the counterpunch to that is all lives matter. that's a tricky one. and i would just like to know what to agree you have address that with your daughters. >> i was tell children that i'm sorry didn't have this, but when there is a problem when you try to talk with them the uis give them hope for a better day. this one thing i was try to do. even though this is happening we work for a better day. i told told them about complying and then complaining. if you have a problem with the police you comply first and then complain later when you're away from the situation. when it

comes to the issue of black lives matter that's a real issue. in all lives matter, women's lives matter all lives matter. but at the moment when there is an issue and we're seeing these visuals, it's real. since black people were brought over to this country since that time we have always had an issue with policing. and now what's happening we have been talking about how we are beaten upper we are killed or what have you, and there has to be this video piece for people to believe. i remember i remember in my lifetime the big piece was like you have to have this video and people have to see to believe it and when they see it they still don't want to believe it. rodney king, that was terrific. so my thing is, it's it's real. it's not a joke. it's real.

so i believe black lives matter is the new wave of activism that is needed. i'm not saying everything they do is right or wrong, but what they're doing is keeping their beating the drum, letting people know that this is still an issue. they don't want to come a lot of them don't want to hear from the white leaders, i believe that's a mistake i wish they would come together in some kind of way because they're dealing with our today because yesterday still are today. black lives matter is real. i have been profiled. i. i had someone pulled me over not far from a house. i thought i was doing the right thing and a friend of mine who was a homicide detective here in d.c. told me said don't you ever let police officers go through your car without getting a

search warrant. and i thought i was doing something good. someone at that time had murdered someone not far from where i was living with my parents at the time. they had a blue volkswagen i was driving a red one. but they wanted to search my car. i was sick that day and i was just running to the grocery store to get medicine because i wasn't feeling well. it was literally two houses from my house and my friend said they could have planted something in your car. i was thinking i was doing whatever you want but i didn't know any better. so, i believe that it is real. but i also believe i have to guide my children to understand what is the right path to take. so if they want to be active i allow them to be active. i say look if you do this the here's the positive and here's the negative. if you do that here's the positive and negative. it's unfortunate that you cannot support people who are having

problems at the moment without being considered racist and haters against police. i police police officers i've dated, who are friends, i have very good relationship with police officers. there police officers who came to my onto and uncles rescue basically they were shot during the day. so i don't have any ill will against the police. i believe in supporting police but rooting out the bad policing. there is bad policing but there's also a great policing as well. that's what i tell my children, too. thank you. >> the last two questions. >> my name is virginia. i'm the mother of a black male in the grandmother of a black male child. i would suggest to to the younger black mothers rearing their children to teach them their history.

our history does not start at play jury. we came from royalty. and this gets left out a textbook. >> when were still royalty. >> right. >> but we need to emphasize this more to her kids as we raise them. i think that will come down on the many youth who have gone astray. i think statistics say 300 have been killed in chicago since the beginning of this year were shot. but these kids don't know who they are. we as black months must. >> we have got to give her children hope for a better day. we have got to let them know that there is something else out there. i was talking to someone who used to be on the school board of baltimore city. there are not teaching children the children are not learning cursive anymore and i'm like what? what is that about. we have got to make them have expectations for themselves.

and they don't. we have to teach them the way to go. and unfortunately we let our children be guided by devices and everything else the street streets are not going to take much over. >> hello. i'm a journalism student and i have an interesting pass, come from oklahoma and went to a predominantly black high school and i lived in tanzania for a while. >> and so i feel very invested in the civil and social rights struggles that were seeing right now. i'm curious as a white male how i can be a part of that without just being a domineering voice and someone who's making assertions about things and how it can actually be part of that

conversation and as a journalist as well. >> you have to figure out what hat you're going to wear. as a a journalist i want to go out there sometimes and i can't. because it's not i'm not objective. i want to get up and say something and i can't. you have to figure out what hat you are going to wear. but i will say this and i want you to remember the sickos back to history. other people who talk about this in the book. you have to go back and look at history, the most expressive movement in this nation was a silver its movement. when it really had some bite that's when white people were in it. why people were actually died in it. some people said wait a minute, you make a difference. all of us make a difference, but

but when you have people coming together not just one group and in this day we still need validation, it is so sad so you make a difference by coming. you make a difference by standing a baby in here and saying that. so look back at civil rights. look back back at some of the old footage. and see the black and the white people hand-in-hand. look at some of the videos blood he sunday, and then the videos blood he sunday and after. it took all of us. it took white people to step in and make a difference. as they say at the white house. the winning pitcher. >> thank you. [applause]

>> probably in competition with you with the level politics and prose. in the shout out that you gave them on the. >> i love politics and prose. >> and you made that very clear. now where you live in baltimore i'm just trying to picture is that anywhere near -- north avenue. >> i'm not going to get into where i live. but let me say this. i am in baltimore. i'm in baltimore. people see me run it through the markets and grocery stores. i'm not in the city i didn't say baltimore county. >> you will not. fair enough. now my friend here of 50 years

at any rate, one of of the things i did want to suggested thank you for your work and i've always said, you know that you have a courage beyond what some of your colleagues have and you have it here and it's no wonder that you're having the success that you're having. i hope hope you continue to do so read i would ask people and i will present this is a challenge for you for president donald trump, is to see that he goes to the national museum of -- i'm glad you said that. and i would say this to all of you if you have not been you want to answer the question of why black lives matter. that is going to end. >> let me say i am very much with you about that. during the campaign he was

saying a lot of things and he needs to see the true history of african-american and let me say they are working hard on getting him there. i understand black history month keep your on it. >> make sure he goes to the lower levels. that's your child. >> it is not enough -- everybody needs to go. and you can't see it in one visit. >> i thank god for -- in that basement, you go go down into the slavery piece. the sugar, just blew my mind to see the fact that they had pieces of the slave ship. they had and when they have that

shackles for the children i lost it. is a mess mother i heard. he said i cannot see my children and those shackles imagine the children who are with the mothers. imagine the fact that they come here in servitude and have to work sugarcane and the average life expectancy. [inaudible] so he needs to see this and to see in front of emmett till's casket and at the table at the counter. and not only that, but in front of the kkk, i had a hard time dealing with that. i couldn't stand it but i was trying to come to terms. i literally had a moment and that museum and i have never seen a kkk outfit before. i had a moment trying to come to

terms that i cannot get myself together. it was a lot. >> will thank you. bless your challenges to get him. year four years to do it. with it. with that, thank you so much. thank you everyone. the book is "at mama's knee". the best bookstore in the world, politics and prose in washington, dc. i want to thank all of you for watching and of course the best channel ever, c-span. thank you. i'm signing books so get your copies, black history month is now. give it to everyone. >> a look now at some of the upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. on march 11 and 12, book tv will be live from the ninth annual tucson festival of books from the campus of the university of