Lessons From History

Tell me where you were and what it was like the day that came was kid huh Today the King was assassinated I was in charleston Perform there's a date And in when I got the news I was pleased to run community development programs I was not my way home Awesome Avenue in charleston and I this quite the winner in my House and I sat down Breakfast area and I turn the video I don't know why I didn't turn on the Tv but I turned the radio and I listen I just sat there the rest of the night The Sun came out with me sitting there That's all I want to twice in all these years I've thought about that night and this may be the first time I've really tried to talk about that night uh a lot of people realize the King but this year for the first time in 19 16 he had been preaching disobeying unjust laws In schism that developed much like me everyone's skills today politically a schism a develop in the civil rights community over the whole issue of whether or not King was practicing what he was preaching he came to meet with us and um be sat down with him that night I guess nine 30 10 o'clock in a dormitory room and um When I woke up and was four o'clock the next morning That was most memorable the most transformational Time ever had it was almost like a salt to Paul transformation in the and that's when I started reading all of King stuff stride toward freedom is rest both uh I just I read that book for five time just trying to I read the letter from birmingham jail about a hundred times and here you are serving in the Congress With John Lewis and yours truly how's that make you feel you know I talk about it often um It sometimes you just have to catch yourself because when we grew up in school uh we studied uh civil rights and of course I went to more House which is a school very deep in civil rights history and John Lewis was a big name and everybody knows bloody Sunday everybody knows the picture everybody knows John Lewis but at morehouse when you start reading more about our history and especially then at two lane law school then we find About the other activists that went on and so that's where clyburn gets introduced and to get elected uh coming from new Orleans which we have our own significant civil rights history in new Orleans uh home of classy uh a t zero uh a number of people knows Douglas so to get elected and come up here and I tell people this all the time is so it still feels Money to refer to John Lewis as John or to call you Jim because I grew up saying but for them they would be no me so now let me just flip it since we've talked about that so considering your history with the civil rights movement and sitting in being arrested forming sneak your friendship with John Lewis your friendship with many times and civil rights activists all around the country so now Bank is majority whip the number three person in the Congress highest ranking African American elected official in the country right now um how does it feel knowing that you're doing it now and you're doing it with the black caucus that is not the biggest black caucus that has ever existed in the United States history well uh it's a little bit lucky said sometimes I pinch myself uh because Frankly even when we were sitting in uh as a lot of people know uh I met my wife in jail March fifteenth 19 60 when we finally it uh made a successful I would call it a successful because we got arrested um on that day six weeks uh after the answer that in um the up in greensboro North Carolina I often wonder uh whether I really thought when I was sitting in jail that day Not what we were doing hey veal redeeming value last time I went to jail was also a very impactful night that's was who we can spent three nights in jail should not spend it one but because I learned a lesson that time on people getting the rose mixed up I talked to a story offer about the guy who was supposed to be raising the bail that's right I went to jail he had been in jail that night uh and because he went to He could raise a bail and so we're about to I learn that night that we all have roles to play and should get these roles mixed up I use that story off people was young people say that stay in that lane there uh put everybody has to play their role in the matter is no rollers more important than other because without everybody playing their role you can you can't get it done that's exactly right I think now In the modern day so right uh uh quest for equality and Justice and fairness it back again because some people's role will be the agitated I have to some people's role will be to educate absolutely uh but everybody has a road to place to protect this next generation which I am very fearful of what this country is gonna look like for them if we don't know And get it run right now O of this month they behooves us to not just study history but to remember Jose Santa anna's admission that if we fail to learn the lessons of history about to repeat them it's one thing to learn history is something else to learn the lessons of history and so I would hope that everybody so bitten back customer this year let Some history lessons and I don't think we will repeat them every day