Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Kerry Speaks at Rally in Minnesota; Remembering the Civil Rights Act's Signing
Aired July 02, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A look at the top stories now. He's been called the greatest actor of his generation. Now Marlon Brando is dead at the age of 80. The two-time Academy Award winner passed away Thursday in Los Angeles. No immediate word on cause of death.
Hostage released. A Pakistani diplomat in Baghdad calls it, quote, "great news for us and our nation." A Pakistani man freed by militants in Iraq is reportedly already on his way home. His captors had said they would behead him unless Islamabad broke ties with Baghdad and the U.S. released all Iraqi prisoners.
And rising death toll. Four more U.S. troops have been killed by insurgents in Iraq. In the past 24 hour, two Marines and a soldier have been killed in the so-called Sunni Triangle west of Baghdad. Another soldier killed by a land mine in the northern city of Mosul. Eight-hundred and sixty-two U.S. troops have now died in Iraq.
As the Federal Reserve announces plans to raise interest rates, the Bush administration is signing the praises of a rebounding economy, but his likely opponent in the November election sees things quite differently. Democratic Senator John Kerry spending the holiday weekend on a bus tour through Midwest. While there, he's expected to take the president to task over the nation's economy.
We're going to listen in live now as Massachusetts senator is speaking from Cloquet, Minnesota.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... If you think Dick Cheney is cursing now, wait until November 2nd when we finish doing what we're going to do.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to get the job done.
I can tell you that I knew I was here because I could smell the burgers and I could smell the onion rings from Gordy's High Hat. I got close enough and here I am.
I want to thank you, all of you. I am so honored to be here. And the smell of those burgers and the onion rings is just whetting my appetite.
I've got to tell you, coming out on a bus tour like this, getting a chance to unwind is very, very special. Back in Washington, people's idea of unwinding is just taking off their jacket. That's about it.
Here, you get a chance to talk to folks. You get a chance to listen to what's really happening in America -- and not happening as the case may be.
And although it's different, we're going to have a little bit of difficulty persuading the Washington press corps that coming here is not real culture shock. I had to explain to them that not every town in America has a Starbucks. And they're getting used to it, slowly.
(LAUGHTER)
You know, while running for president, I have had the unbelievable privilege of traveling, crisscrossing, one side of this country, north, south. It is so special to go from big cities to small towns, from coast to coast.
KERRY: And I can't tell you how excited I am to kick off our celebration of America right here in northeast Minnesota in the heartland.
Thank you for the honor of being here.
(APPLAUSE)
We've come to this birthday party 228 times. And it's a party we never get tired of. And we particularly don't get tired of it this year because this year Cloquet is celebrating its own 100 years of birthday, and we honor you for that.
(APPLAUSE)
I think you would agree with me that as we love the relationships with our grandparents and parents as we grow up, as kids become adults and have kids, as we go through the writing of American history, we all think that each birthday is better than the last one. It's hard to believe that in 1776, when we declared our independence and embarked on this bold experiment, and that's what it is. It is a bold experiment and it's still a bold experiment, still being written, the results of which are still there to be determined as we go forward.
When we began, we were only 13 colonies standing up to the most mighty empire on the planet.
Our greatest weapon was our founding promise and our driving purpose that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is what defined our nation. That is what made this different from every other effort on the planet. And that is what emboldened those founding fathers who went to Philadelphia at the risk of hanging at the end of a British rope if they failed.
And because of that promise, we did win our independence, we did secure our freedom, we did launch the greatest democracy in the world. And it's because of that promise that today right on this day we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a bill that is rooted in our founding ideal that all people are created equal no matter what their race, no matter what their religion, no matter what their national origin.
(APPLAUSE)
We're here in this street today, kids and adults, waving American flags, holding out our dreams because we believe in our guts, in our hearts, that all Americans are deserving of an equal shot at the American dream, not just a few, that all Americans are deserving of a job that actually pays the bills, of a decent education that allows you to go forward, that all Americans have the right to drink from the same fountain of opportunity.
KERRY: That's what this fight is about.
(APPLAUSE)
Today, we are embarking on a journey to celebrate that promise, to celebrate the spirit of America. It begins here in Cloquet where, for 100 hundred years, you have lived that spirit.
You've lived it in a way that rebuilt this town after it burned. You've lived it in the men and women that you've sent to war. You've lived it in the way that you've honored people when they returned. You've lived it in the mill that has helped your economy and fed our families.
And over the next few days, that bus right over there is going to continue our trip across the heart of America, from Independence, Wisconsin, to Independence, Iowa, and little-known to anybody, I know it, at the crossing of route 53, highway 53 and 33, we passed a parking lot called Independence. And that's truly independent, I'll tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to visit towns. We're going to visit farms. We're going to march in parades. We're going to eat barbecue. We're going to play a little baseball. And we're going to celebrate who we are.
And I'll tell you what: We're going to honor the values that built our country and strengthened our communities.
Family, responsibility, service, these are values that are rooted in the heartland.
Teresa and I and our family have been honored as we crisscrossed Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin and other parts of the nation to be invited into your homes, to have you, sort of, look at us, just with the honesty of your feelings on your sleeve, in your eyes, sometimes with tears, as you shared with us your stories.
KERRY: One of the best things that I've witnessed throughout this campaign is that you can hear the beat of patriotism and see the promise of our country leaping out at you every single day in communities like this, all across our country. You can hear it on family farms when the sun rises. And you can hear it on the factory floor where the churning of machines are the sounds of America's strength.
You can also hear it on Main Street. You can see it and feel it where family businesses are open to friends and you have friendly sidewalks where people actually say hello to each other, and homes where you never lock the doors.
You can smell it at a barbecue. And you can hear it at baseball games where the crack of a bat resounds across the town. And you'll see it this Sunday, on July 4th, with the ripple of the American flag and the dazzling display of fireworks.
But we're not just celebrating the fireworks. We're not just celebrating a day. We're celebrating the sound and the spirit of America. It's the promise of the American dream. And it's the reason that we have gathered here today on a beautiful day, because on November 2nd of this year, four months from now, that sound, that spirit, that promise from the heartland, will renew our country again.
(APPLAUSE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Presidential hopeful John Kerry on his three-day bus trip through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Pumping up his presidential campaign, talking the economy there.
We're going to take a quick break. But I just want to tell you straight ahead we have two very special guests. We're talking about a pretty historic day when it comes down to Civil Rights. Forty years ago today, do you remember what happened? Well we're going to talk about it with Congressman John Lewis and Jack Valenti straight ahead, right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The biracial daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is taking new steps to publicly embrace her lineage. On a monument to Thurmond at the state house in Columbia, South Carolina, the name Essie Mae Washington Williams is being engraved under the names of his four other children.
Williams is reportedly overjoyed. The 78-year-old also says she'll apply for membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She says she's eligible through her father's lineage.
Thurmond was once a strong segregationist. Williams waited until after his death to go public about her parentage.
PHILLIPS: On the morning of July 2nd, 40 years ago, with the stroke of a pen, President Lyndon Johnson outlawed public racial discrimination. Prior to this signature, restaurants and other public facilities could put out "white only" signs.
I want to introduce you to two men who were part of that historic day. One, a powerful political insider, the aide to the president of the United States, and white. The other, a man fighting to get such power and the attention of every political insider that could help his cause. He's black.
They didn't know it at the time, but today they look back and see how they helped change civil rights together. They join me now, Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Georgia congressman, John Lewis.
What a pleasure to have you both.
LEWIS: Thank you very much. Delighted to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's terrific.
Thank you, Jack.
Let's start with you, Congressman Lewis. Let's go back to "bloody Sunday, March 7th, 1965. We have this photo of this trooper I guess you could say pretty much attacking you. What was going through your mind at that point? Did you ever think you would be in the position you are today?
LEWIS: At that moment, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death and I thought I would be left there on that bridge in Selma, Alabama, and that I wouldn't have an opportunity to participate in another march, another protest.
But if someone had told me then that one day I would be a member of the House of Representatives, I would have said, You're crazy, you're out of your mind. You don't know what you're talking about.
PHILLIPS: You probably get asked this a million times: Do you ever think about that moment in detail, that day, that trooper, his face?
LEWIS: I do think of it in great detail from time to time, because I see the photographs. I see the video. And I often wonder what happened to this man. And I often wonder what was it about him and the others that made them attack and beat us the way they did?
PHILLIPS: Now, Jack, when all this was going on, you were very involved in politics. You were an aide to Lyndon Johnson. Tell us about the mind set of Lyndon Johnson and why he wanted to make civil rights a priority. And what he said to you and how you advised him as his aide.
VALENTI: Well, first, it's a great honor to be on this show with one of America's greatest heroes, John Lewis.
LEWIS: Jack, you've been very kind, jack. It's good to be with you, my friend.
VALENTI: Well, you're a great hero, John, and we're in your debt.
On the very night of Johnson's first night of his accession to the presidency, I flew back with him from Dallas, having been in that motorcade when President Kennedy was murdered, and in that photograph.
As he lay in bed, with Bill Moyers, Cliff Carter (ph) and I surrounding him, sitting around that big bed, I guess it might have been midnight on November the 22nd, '63, he brought up fact that the civil rights bill was languishing in the Senate, wasn't going anywhere, and that by damn he was going to get it out of there and pass it. And he was going to make it on the moral issue, the moral imperative, and force everybody to come to that line and cross it.
It was an extraordinary experience that this man determined that the first priority on his agenda was human justice and civil rights, and he made it all come true.
PHILLIPS: Well, Jack, Roy Wilkins, who was the head of the NAACP at that time, he said some pretty powerful things to you with regard to how he felt about Lyndon Johnson and what Johnson was doing for the black community.
VALENTI: That's right. We were in a meeting in the Cabinet Room, with all the great black leaders, Dorothy Hite, whom I saw yesterday, Phil Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Whitney Young, Clarence Mitchell and Roy Wilkins, of course, were the largest among them all. As we left the meeting, he put his arm around me, and he said, Jack, don't you realize that God moves in strange and wondrous ways?"
And I said, What do you mean, Roy?
He said, don't you find it odd the greatest friend the Negro in America has ever had turns out to be a southern president?
And I must say, I kind of misted up a little bit on that.
PHILLIPS: Congressman Lewis, you were telling me how JFK was so inspirational to you. I asked you that question, why did you decide to get into politics? And did you ever think you'd be in the position to change policy that really fought against you for so long? And then Lyndon Johnson, so tight with JFK -- it's interesting how this all came about.
LEWIS: Well, I was deeply, deeply inspired by President Kennedy. I watched the campaign of 1960. I could not even register to vote in Alabama. My own mother and father could not register to vote for President Kennedy. But he was elected.
And years later, I met him, in May of 1963 or June of 1963. And we developed a friendship. And later, when President Johnson became president, he invited me to the White House when he signed the Voting Rights Act of '65. And I will never forget that.
So all of these men, Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., just coming there to testify before a committee, or meet with the others...
PHILLIPS: And all those white men. I mean this was pretty shocking. LEWIS: It was all white men. But when I met with them and talked with them, you saw them moving, you saw them changing and growing. And I became convinced that they were convinced that it was the right thing to do to get this legislation passed.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about that legislation.
Jack, you remember that day. Let's just bring us back to it, 40 years ago.
VALENTI: Well, the day of course was the climax of ceaseless, relentless persuasion on the part of Lyndon Johnson and all the people around him. I know that in the days leading up to the vote on the Civil Rights Act of '64, as later we did on the Voting Rights Act of '65, he told me, he said, now, here's some congressmen and senators I want you to talk to. They're southern congressmen and senators, but you talk like they do, so by God, you go up to that Hill and you get their vote.
And I would go in there and say, senator or congressman, President Johnson wants you to know that if you vote with him, he'll never forget. But if you vote against him, he'll always remember. We played -- we played it tough.
But he was determined that he was going to pass that bill which was so locked up deep in the bowels of the Senate, that it looked like it could never get out. But he got it out.
One other anecdote: I remember in December '63, a conversation he had with Senator Russell, and he told him he was going to pass that bill.
And Senator Russell said, Well, Mr. President, if you do, you'll not only lose this election, but you'll lose the south forever. I remember Lyndon Johnson saying in words I have never forgotten, he said, well, Dick if that's the price I have to pay, I will gladly pay it.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. There's no way I can wrap this up. I'm going to let you two wrap this up. I know this is the first time you've talked today, on this pretty historic moment.
Congressman Lewis, if you would like to tell Jack what he has done for you.
And Jack, I'm going to let you say the same thing to John.
LEWIS: Jack, let me just thank you for all of your -- for your good work and for never, ever giving up or giving in, for never giving up, for keeping the faith, for keeping your eyes on the prize, for holding on. You made a lasting contribution to the cause of civil rights and human dignity and the nation. And we're grateful and indebted to you for your leadership and for your vision, my friend, my brother.
VALENTI: Listen, John, my brother, I embrace you and I thank you. When I say you are one of America's greatest heroes, I'm not dealing in hyperbole, you are. What you endured and how you stood steadfast, your valor and your spirit and your fidelity to your country. God, you're a great inspiration, John, and I love you.
LEWIS: I love you, too. And I wish you well.
PHILLIPS: Jack Valenti, Congressman John Lewis, what an absolute pleasure. Gentlemen, thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD:: More blunt talk from comedian Bill Cosby at a Chicago conference. Cosby called again for change in black families.
Byron Harlan with CNN affiliate WFLD in Chicago has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: We cannot protect ourselves if the picture of ourselves is in a trough.
BYRON HARLAN, CNN AFFILIATE WFLD REPORTER (voice-over): It was Bill Cosby, the educator, who spoke with force and conviction to a crowd of mostly black people who wanted to hear more about his views on race. The message was electric, direct and clear: Stop blaming others for the problems with black America.
COSBY: It is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat.
HARLAN: Bill Cosby has been in the hot seat for his remarks at Howard University last May. That event marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to desegregate American public schools. He said, too many low-income African-Americans are not doing their part to improve their situation. He also says parents are failing children.
COSBY: Please, stop it. Stop your cursing. We want to ask the parent, stop yanking that child.
HARLAN: He also criticized entertainers, producers and black comedians for reinforcing stereotypes.
COSBY: We're going to call each other names of ugliness. Comedians coming on TV, my man is so ugly, you're ugly, yuck, yuck. That's all menstrual show stuff. I'm tired of this.
HARLAN: Bill Cosby says he's especially tired of music that glorifies bad behavior. Young people hear it, they emulate it, and he says it's up to parents to take control and stop it.
Byron Harlan, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, how do you interpret Cosby's keeping it real speech? We want to hear from you. E-mail us at livefrom@CNN.com. We'll share some of your responses in the next hour. That's right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 2, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A look at the top stories now. He's been called the greatest actor of his generation. Now Marlon Brando is dead at the age of 80. The two-time Academy Award winner passed away Thursday in Los Angeles. No immediate word on cause of death.
Hostage released. A Pakistani diplomat in Baghdad calls it, quote, "great news for us and our nation." A Pakistani man freed by militants in Iraq is reportedly already on his way home. His captors had said they would behead him unless Islamabad broke ties with Baghdad and the U.S. released all Iraqi prisoners.
And rising death toll. Four more U.S. troops have been killed by insurgents in Iraq. In the past 24 hour, two Marines and a soldier have been killed in the so-called Sunni Triangle west of Baghdad. Another soldier killed by a land mine in the northern city of Mosul. Eight-hundred and sixty-two U.S. troops have now died in Iraq.
As the Federal Reserve announces plans to raise interest rates, the Bush administration is signing the praises of a rebounding economy, but his likely opponent in the November election sees things quite differently. Democratic Senator John Kerry spending the holiday weekend on a bus tour through Midwest. While there, he's expected to take the president to task over the nation's economy.
We're going to listen in live now as Massachusetts senator is speaking from Cloquet, Minnesota.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... If you think Dick Cheney is cursing now, wait until November 2nd when we finish doing what we're going to do.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to get the job done.
I can tell you that I knew I was here because I could smell the burgers and I could smell the onion rings from Gordy's High Hat. I got close enough and here I am.
I want to thank you, all of you. I am so honored to be here. And the smell of those burgers and the onion rings is just whetting my appetite.
I've got to tell you, coming out on a bus tour like this, getting a chance to unwind is very, very special. Back in Washington, people's idea of unwinding is just taking off their jacket. That's about it.
Here, you get a chance to talk to folks. You get a chance to listen to what's really happening in America -- and not happening as the case may be.
And although it's different, we're going to have a little bit of difficulty persuading the Washington press corps that coming here is not real culture shock. I had to explain to them that not every town in America has a Starbucks. And they're getting used to it, slowly.
(LAUGHTER)
You know, while running for president, I have had the unbelievable privilege of traveling, crisscrossing, one side of this country, north, south. It is so special to go from big cities to small towns, from coast to coast.
KERRY: And I can't tell you how excited I am to kick off our celebration of America right here in northeast Minnesota in the heartland.
Thank you for the honor of being here.
(APPLAUSE)
We've come to this birthday party 228 times. And it's a party we never get tired of. And we particularly don't get tired of it this year because this year Cloquet is celebrating its own 100 years of birthday, and we honor you for that.
(APPLAUSE)
I think you would agree with me that as we love the relationships with our grandparents and parents as we grow up, as kids become adults and have kids, as we go through the writing of American history, we all think that each birthday is better than the last one. It's hard to believe that in 1776, when we declared our independence and embarked on this bold experiment, and that's what it is. It is a bold experiment and it's still a bold experiment, still being written, the results of which are still there to be determined as we go forward.
When we began, we were only 13 colonies standing up to the most mighty empire on the planet.
Our greatest weapon was our founding promise and our driving purpose that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is what defined our nation. That is what made this different from every other effort on the planet. And that is what emboldened those founding fathers who went to Philadelphia at the risk of hanging at the end of a British rope if they failed.
And because of that promise, we did win our independence, we did secure our freedom, we did launch the greatest democracy in the world. And it's because of that promise that today right on this day we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a bill that is rooted in our founding ideal that all people are created equal no matter what their race, no matter what their religion, no matter what their national origin.
(APPLAUSE)
We're here in this street today, kids and adults, waving American flags, holding out our dreams because we believe in our guts, in our hearts, that all Americans are deserving of an equal shot at the American dream, not just a few, that all Americans are deserving of a job that actually pays the bills, of a decent education that allows you to go forward, that all Americans have the right to drink from the same fountain of opportunity.
KERRY: That's what this fight is about.
(APPLAUSE)
Today, we are embarking on a journey to celebrate that promise, to celebrate the spirit of America. It begins here in Cloquet where, for 100 hundred years, you have lived that spirit.
You've lived it in a way that rebuilt this town after it burned. You've lived it in the men and women that you've sent to war. You've lived it in the way that you've honored people when they returned. You've lived it in the mill that has helped your economy and fed our families.
And over the next few days, that bus right over there is going to continue our trip across the heart of America, from Independence, Wisconsin, to Independence, Iowa, and little-known to anybody, I know it, at the crossing of route 53, highway 53 and 33, we passed a parking lot called Independence. And that's truly independent, I'll tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to visit towns. We're going to visit farms. We're going to march in parades. We're going to eat barbecue. We're going to play a little baseball. And we're going to celebrate who we are.
And I'll tell you what: We're going to honor the values that built our country and strengthened our communities.
Family, responsibility, service, these are values that are rooted in the heartland.
Teresa and I and our family have been honored as we crisscrossed Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin and other parts of the nation to be invited into your homes, to have you, sort of, look at us, just with the honesty of your feelings on your sleeve, in your eyes, sometimes with tears, as you shared with us your stories.
KERRY: One of the best things that I've witnessed throughout this campaign is that you can hear the beat of patriotism and see the promise of our country leaping out at you every single day in communities like this, all across our country. You can hear it on family farms when the sun rises. And you can hear it on the factory floor where the churning of machines are the sounds of America's strength.
You can also hear it on Main Street. You can see it and feel it where family businesses are open to friends and you have friendly sidewalks where people actually say hello to each other, and homes where you never lock the doors.
You can smell it at a barbecue. And you can hear it at baseball games where the crack of a bat resounds across the town. And you'll see it this Sunday, on July 4th, with the ripple of the American flag and the dazzling display of fireworks.
But we're not just celebrating the fireworks. We're not just celebrating a day. We're celebrating the sound and the spirit of America. It's the promise of the American dream. And it's the reason that we have gathered here today on a beautiful day, because on November 2nd of this year, four months from now, that sound, that spirit, that promise from the heartland, will renew our country again.
(APPLAUSE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Presidential hopeful John Kerry on his three-day bus trip through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Pumping up his presidential campaign, talking the economy there.
We're going to take a quick break. But I just want to tell you straight ahead we have two very special guests. We're talking about a pretty historic day when it comes down to Civil Rights. Forty years ago today, do you remember what happened? Well we're going to talk about it with Congressman John Lewis and Jack Valenti straight ahead, right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The biracial daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is taking new steps to publicly embrace her lineage. On a monument to Thurmond at the state house in Columbia, South Carolina, the name Essie Mae Washington Williams is being engraved under the names of his four other children.
Williams is reportedly overjoyed. The 78-year-old also says she'll apply for membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She says she's eligible through her father's lineage.
Thurmond was once a strong segregationist. Williams waited until after his death to go public about her parentage.
PHILLIPS: On the morning of July 2nd, 40 years ago, with the stroke of a pen, President Lyndon Johnson outlawed public racial discrimination. Prior to this signature, restaurants and other public facilities could put out "white only" signs.
I want to introduce you to two men who were part of that historic day. One, a powerful political insider, the aide to the president of the United States, and white. The other, a man fighting to get such power and the attention of every political insider that could help his cause. He's black.
They didn't know it at the time, but today they look back and see how they helped change civil rights together. They join me now, Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Georgia congressman, John Lewis.
What a pleasure to have you both.
LEWIS: Thank you very much. Delighted to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's terrific.
Thank you, Jack.
Let's start with you, Congressman Lewis. Let's go back to "bloody Sunday, March 7th, 1965. We have this photo of this trooper I guess you could say pretty much attacking you. What was going through your mind at that point? Did you ever think you would be in the position you are today?
LEWIS: At that moment, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death and I thought I would be left there on that bridge in Selma, Alabama, and that I wouldn't have an opportunity to participate in another march, another protest.
But if someone had told me then that one day I would be a member of the House of Representatives, I would have said, You're crazy, you're out of your mind. You don't know what you're talking about.
PHILLIPS: You probably get asked this a million times: Do you ever think about that moment in detail, that day, that trooper, his face?
LEWIS: I do think of it in great detail from time to time, because I see the photographs. I see the video. And I often wonder what happened to this man. And I often wonder what was it about him and the others that made them attack and beat us the way they did?
PHILLIPS: Now, Jack, when all this was going on, you were very involved in politics. You were an aide to Lyndon Johnson. Tell us about the mind set of Lyndon Johnson and why he wanted to make civil rights a priority. And what he said to you and how you advised him as his aide.
VALENTI: Well, first, it's a great honor to be on this show with one of America's greatest heroes, John Lewis.
LEWIS: Jack, you've been very kind, jack. It's good to be with you, my friend.
VALENTI: Well, you're a great hero, John, and we're in your debt.
On the very night of Johnson's first night of his accession to the presidency, I flew back with him from Dallas, having been in that motorcade when President Kennedy was murdered, and in that photograph.
As he lay in bed, with Bill Moyers, Cliff Carter (ph) and I surrounding him, sitting around that big bed, I guess it might have been midnight on November the 22nd, '63, he brought up fact that the civil rights bill was languishing in the Senate, wasn't going anywhere, and that by damn he was going to get it out of there and pass it. And he was going to make it on the moral issue, the moral imperative, and force everybody to come to that line and cross it.
It was an extraordinary experience that this man determined that the first priority on his agenda was human justice and civil rights, and he made it all come true.
PHILLIPS: Well, Jack, Roy Wilkins, who was the head of the NAACP at that time, he said some pretty powerful things to you with regard to how he felt about Lyndon Johnson and what Johnson was doing for the black community.
VALENTI: That's right. We were in a meeting in the Cabinet Room, with all the great black leaders, Dorothy Hite, whom I saw yesterday, Phil Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Whitney Young, Clarence Mitchell and Roy Wilkins, of course, were the largest among them all. As we left the meeting, he put his arm around me, and he said, Jack, don't you realize that God moves in strange and wondrous ways?"
And I said, What do you mean, Roy?
He said, don't you find it odd the greatest friend the Negro in America has ever had turns out to be a southern president?
And I must say, I kind of misted up a little bit on that.
PHILLIPS: Congressman Lewis, you were telling me how JFK was so inspirational to you. I asked you that question, why did you decide to get into politics? And did you ever think you'd be in the position to change policy that really fought against you for so long? And then Lyndon Johnson, so tight with JFK -- it's interesting how this all came about.
LEWIS: Well, I was deeply, deeply inspired by President Kennedy. I watched the campaign of 1960. I could not even register to vote in Alabama. My own mother and father could not register to vote for President Kennedy. But he was elected.
And years later, I met him, in May of 1963 or June of 1963. And we developed a friendship. And later, when President Johnson became president, he invited me to the White House when he signed the Voting Rights Act of '65. And I will never forget that.
So all of these men, Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., just coming there to testify before a committee, or meet with the others...
PHILLIPS: And all those white men. I mean this was pretty shocking. LEWIS: It was all white men. But when I met with them and talked with them, you saw them moving, you saw them changing and growing. And I became convinced that they were convinced that it was the right thing to do to get this legislation passed.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about that legislation.
Jack, you remember that day. Let's just bring us back to it, 40 years ago.
VALENTI: Well, the day of course was the climax of ceaseless, relentless persuasion on the part of Lyndon Johnson and all the people around him. I know that in the days leading up to the vote on the Civil Rights Act of '64, as later we did on the Voting Rights Act of '65, he told me, he said, now, here's some congressmen and senators I want you to talk to. They're southern congressmen and senators, but you talk like they do, so by God, you go up to that Hill and you get their vote.
And I would go in there and say, senator or congressman, President Johnson wants you to know that if you vote with him, he'll never forget. But if you vote against him, he'll always remember. We played -- we played it tough.
But he was determined that he was going to pass that bill which was so locked up deep in the bowels of the Senate, that it looked like it could never get out. But he got it out.
One other anecdote: I remember in December '63, a conversation he had with Senator Russell, and he told him he was going to pass that bill.
And Senator Russell said, Well, Mr. President, if you do, you'll not only lose this election, but you'll lose the south forever. I remember Lyndon Johnson saying in words I have never forgotten, he said, well, Dick if that's the price I have to pay, I will gladly pay it.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. There's no way I can wrap this up. I'm going to let you two wrap this up. I know this is the first time you've talked today, on this pretty historic moment.
Congressman Lewis, if you would like to tell Jack what he has done for you.
And Jack, I'm going to let you say the same thing to John.
LEWIS: Jack, let me just thank you for all of your -- for your good work and for never, ever giving up or giving in, for never giving up, for keeping the faith, for keeping your eyes on the prize, for holding on. You made a lasting contribution to the cause of civil rights and human dignity and the nation. And we're grateful and indebted to you for your leadership and for your vision, my friend, my brother.
VALENTI: Listen, John, my brother, I embrace you and I thank you. When I say you are one of America's greatest heroes, I'm not dealing in hyperbole, you are. What you endured and how you stood steadfast, your valor and your spirit and your fidelity to your country. God, you're a great inspiration, John, and I love you.
LEWIS: I love you, too. And I wish you well.
PHILLIPS: Jack Valenti, Congressman John Lewis, what an absolute pleasure. Gentlemen, thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD:: More blunt talk from comedian Bill Cosby at a Chicago conference. Cosby called again for change in black families.
Byron Harlan with CNN affiliate WFLD in Chicago has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: We cannot protect ourselves if the picture of ourselves is in a trough.
BYRON HARLAN, CNN AFFILIATE WFLD REPORTER (voice-over): It was Bill Cosby, the educator, who spoke with force and conviction to a crowd of mostly black people who wanted to hear more about his views on race. The message was electric, direct and clear: Stop blaming others for the problems with black America.
COSBY: It is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat.
HARLAN: Bill Cosby has been in the hot seat for his remarks at Howard University last May. That event marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to desegregate American public schools. He said, too many low-income African-Americans are not doing their part to improve their situation. He also says parents are failing children.
COSBY: Please, stop it. Stop your cursing. We want to ask the parent, stop yanking that child.
HARLAN: He also criticized entertainers, producers and black comedians for reinforcing stereotypes.
COSBY: We're going to call each other names of ugliness. Comedians coming on TV, my man is so ugly, you're ugly, yuck, yuck. That's all menstrual show stuff. I'm tired of this.
HARLAN: Bill Cosby says he's especially tired of music that glorifies bad behavior. Young people hear it, they emulate it, and he says it's up to parents to take control and stop it.
Byron Harlan, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, how do you interpret Cosby's keeping it real speech? We want to hear from you. E-mail us at livefrom@CNN.com. We'll share some of your responses in the next hour. That's right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
