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>> welcome to the 31stannual mlk day symposium here at the university of michigan. my name is robert sellers. i'm vice provost forequity and inclusion as well as the chief diversityofficer for the university. it is my great pleasure tohost this morning's event. the university of michigan'scelebration of mlk day in the form of its mlksymposium represents one of the most extensivecommemorations of the life,

legacy of the reverend dr.martin luther king occurring anywhere in the world today. in addition -- [ cheering and applause ] in addition to this morning'sprogram, there are scores of other events occurringon our campus in celebration of mlk day. many of these events youcan find in the booklets that have been handed out.

i strongly encourage you andinvite you to attend as many of those events as possible. we have a reallyexciting program today. this year's themeis sounds of change. the format of today'sprogram is a bit different from previous years. it includes formal remarks, afree-flowing interview, singing and dancing, perhaps somelaughter, perhaps some tears. i think you'll enjoy it.

before we get startedwith the program, i do want to take thisopportunity to welcome those of you who are watchingtoday's symposium on our livestream feed,including those of you who are at the detroit center,as well as those who are at the various overflowauxiliary facilities on campus. see me? let's wave. [ laugther ] i would also like to takethis time to acknowledge

and welcome a special groupof high school students and their parents who are in attendance todayhere at hill auditorium. would the students and parentsfrom southfield and ypsilanti who are here as part of thegear up program please stand? the gear up program is aprecollege enrichment program administered by our office of academic multiculturalinitiatives. as i mentioned earlier, wehave a really, really full

and exciting program today. so why don't we goahead and get started? first up are some openingremarks by our president. dr. mark s. schlisselis the 14th president of the university of michigan. in his short two-and-a-half-yeartenure as president, he has consistentlyarticulated a belief that while talent isequally distributed in our society, opportunityis not.

he's also made it ishis personal mission to address this paradox. and this personal commitment canbest be seen in his commitment to making the universityof michigan more diverse, more equitable, and moreinclusive as a community. and the best evidence ofthat is his championing and his directing of resourcesto the university's diversity, equity & inclusionstrategic planning process. he's been a wonderfulpartner to work with.

he's also been a friend. it is my great pleasure to introduce presidentmark s. schlissel for our opening remarks. [ applause ] >> thank you, viceprovost sellers, for that very kind introduction,but more importantly for all of your work and dedicationto the university of michigan. last fall, we were pleased

to unveil the university'scomprehensive strategic plan for diversity, equity& inclusion, and rob's outstanding leadershipwas essential to that effort. we're also proud to appoint him as the first chief diversityofficer in the history i'd also like to thank you allfor joining us today in one of our nation's largestcelebrations of dr. king's life and work. it's an honor to behere for the university

of michigan's 31st annualreverend dr. martin luther king jr. symposium. i want to express my upmostgratitude to the faculty, students, and staffall across the campus who have made thissymposium so special, including the university of michigan reverend dr. martinluther king jr. symposium planning committee, the office of academic multiculturalinitiatives,

and of course ourspecial guests, amy goodman and issa rae. that was almost acoach-harbaugh scale applause. [ laughter ] this morning's otherspeakers and performers i'd like to thank, and theindividuals throughout our campus who are holding events aspart of this symposium this week and for the coming weeks. one of those is ourannual youth day event

which is taking placetoday until 3 in the modern languagesbuilding directly behind hill. it's coordinated by one ofour outstanding scholars and leaders, dr. henry meares,in our school of education. i also thank everyone who isusing this important keynote to engage with issues or toteach via our livestream. this year, the university of michigan is commemoratingits bicentennial and our almost-200years of achievement

as a public university. over the course of 2017,we'll be celebrating u of m's amazing impact onsociety, and the people and moments that helped shapethe institution we are today. one of those momentscame 55 years ago when the reverend dr.martin luther king jr. came to our campus. his 1962 visit included ameeting in the michigan union on civil disobedience andtwo lectures right here

in hill auditoriumduring a momentous and challenging timefor our nation. the six themes of ourbicentennial are designed to help us honor theuniversity's legacies in leadership in the mostimportant issues facing society. the themes are serving thepeople, pursuing ideas, creating and inventing, teachingpowerfully, challenging society,and forever hailing. the university ofmichigan's role

in advancing civil rights is anindelible part of our history with deep ties to each ofour bicentennial themes. throughout our 200-year history, members of our communityhave led the way and made landmark contributionsduring this journey toward equality. our bicentennial wouldbe much less historic without their effortsand commitment. so as we honor our first twocenturies and begin a third,

let us use this occasionto both celebrate and learn from those who came before. we can celebrate and learnfrom the student activists who have demonstratedthat we must do better, and we must neverforget that the fight for justice is ongoing. we should honor theresearchers who proved that there's a compellingneed for diversity in higher education, and that auniversity cannot achieve true

academic excellence withouttapping into the rich diversity of the public it serves. i want to honor the members ofour community who persevered in their support ofdiversity over many decades through court casesand changes in the law because it's theright thing to do. i hope that our university --the university of michigan -- will always be known for socialchange, with students, faculty, staff and alumni who envisiona better, more just world

and who want to helplead us there. likewise, i hope that we'llalways learn and listen to those whose voices andactions created the sounds of change, the sounds ofchange we're examining with the theme statement ofthis year's mlk symposium. these sounds resonate among usall and remind us of the work that still needs to be done. i'm proud that the universityof michigan is a place that can unite a diversearray of talents, people,

and perspectives inservice of social justice. as the theme statementsays, dr. king realized that the preservation of anation is based on how willing and often its citizens playtheir instruments in harmony. this quality is perhaps our mostimportant strength as we work to see greater levelsof diversity, equity, and inclusion. together we are creating thesounds of change that will truly and fully let freedom ring.

here at the universityof michigan, we're a home of students who speak out against hatredand discrimination. we have scholars like professormartha jones who's using the bicentennial to stimulatethinking about those moments in the university's historywhen we did not lead the way for equality, and eugene rogers who directed the michigan men'sglee clubs acclaims performance of "seven last wordsof the unarmed".

we have innovations like theyouth civil rights academy which uses a digital portalto teach high schoolers about civil rights, allowsthem to share their experiences with one another, andlearn how to effect change. and our poverty solutionsinitiative which, tomorrow, will announce researchgrants to help develop and test interventions toalleviate poverty in several of our region's communities. i know there are many, many moreindividuals at the university

of michigan who are helpingto define our third century i want to thank everyone who'shelping us uphold our shared belief that diversity,equity, and inclusion are key to individuals flourishing,to educational excellence, and to the advancementof knowledge at our great university. we must work together to advance and articulate thesecherished michigan values into our third centuryand beyond.

thank you all very much. >> thank you, presidentschlissel, for those inspiring remarks. in this country, we oftenbegin large gatherings such as major sportingevents or events like this with the singing ofthe national anthem. however, recent events have ledto a more thorough interrogation of the cultural and politicalmeaning of this practice. in keeping with thisyear's theme

of the mlk day celebration,sounds of change, we will hear a special renditionof the national anthem. this special rendition may causeyou to re-examine your own view of the most patrioticof practices. but before we hearthe special rendition, dr. mark clague will providesome framing remarks before introducing our specialperformers. dr. clague is an associateprofessor of musicology in the school ofmusic, theatre & dance.

his most recent publication isentitled "oh, say can you hear - a cultural biography of'the star-spangled banner'". please welcome to thestage dr. mark clague. >> when he begankneeling during renditions of the us national anthem, nfl quarterback colinkaepernick recruited "the star-spangled banner"as a vehicle for protest. his act sparked anational conversation, changing a game-day routineinto a weekly reminder that,

for too many americans, the dream of justiceremains elusive. kaepernick's use of theanthem as protest is not new but rather a vital component of the anthem's own200-year american history. in writing the lyricwe know today as "the star-spangled banner", francis scott key joined alyrical conversation called the broadside ballad tradition.

this common 18th and 19th-century socialpractice invited amateur poets to write new lyrics towell-known melodies. these new words were publishedon single sheets of paper known as broadsides; hence thename the broadside ballad. they could go viral,reprinted again and again in newspapers across the nation. while we only rememberone today, my research into the history

of the united states'anthem has recovered more than 100 different sets oflyrics that americans have sung to the tune we recognize asonly "the star-spangled banner". these broadside balladsnot only celebrate; they criticize and they protest. as sounds of change,these songs put heart and soul behind their argumentsin a social-justice symphony that imagines, debates, and reimagines what itmeans to be american.

some of these "star-spangled"lyrics demanded the right to vote for women, one helpedelect president abraham lincoln, others pray for enduring peaceduring times of endless war. by far, the most rivetinglyric among all i've found to date is one titled"oh, say do you hear", a song that invokes thehorrors of slavery in a nation that claims to be free. this 1844 antislavery lyricwas written just west of here by dr. e.a. atlee ofbattle creek, michigan.

atlee was a stationmaster inmichigan's underground railroad. he sheltered and helpedguide escaped slaves through the midwestto freedom in canada. his powerful lyric wasfirst published right here in ann arbor in a localabolitionist newspaper titled "the signal of liberty". the song, which you'll hear in afew moments performed by school of music, theatre & dance master[inaudible], cameron gray, and pianist paula [inaudible]attained national prominence

when it was reprinted byactivist william lloyd garrison in his abolitionistnewspaper the liberator. atlee's words refractkey's already-famous lyric to question how a nation canbe celebrated as "the land of the free" whilesome four million of its people remain in chains. why is it important to hearatlee's lyric today on this day when we celebrate the legacy of the reverend dr.martin luther king jr.?

today when we have longforgotten the more-than-100 conflicting lyrics,some to the tune of "the star-spangled banner"throughout america's history, we may mistakenlythink of the song and the nation it represents as things absoluteand unchangeable. however, a song, aswell as a nation, must be animated by people. a song must be sung.

a nation must be led. both song and nation arethus living expressions, expressions of an unchangingpast, an urgent present, but also a futurethat is up to us, a future that wemust sing into being. a lyric such as "oh, say do youhear" reminds us that creativity and passion can givevoice to the silenced. they can create change. they can inspire harmony.

although more than 150years old, atlee's song for freedom challengesus this day. it challenges us toreimagine what it means to live here and to live now. it challenges eachof us to write and to sing our ownnew song of the nation. so as i turn the stageover to cameron and paula, let me offer a reminderand a charge. first, while "oh, saydo you hear" sounds

like the national anthem, it is not precisely the nationalanthem, so there's no tradition of standing to this song evenas we honor atlee's vision of freedom and justice. my charge to you,however, is to engage with the visceral languageand passion of this lyric which is printed on theback of your program. please absorb the pain and thehope expressed, and then listen for the cries of injusticein our own world today

and strive to make a difference. oh, say what do you hear? [ music ] >> oh, say do you hear,at the dawn's early light, the shrieks of those bondmen,whose blood is now streaming from the merciless lash,while our banner in sight with its stars, mockingfreedom, is fitfully gleaming? do you see the backs bare? do you mark every score

of the whip of the drivertrace channels of gore? and say, doth ourstar-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free,and the home of the brave? shall we ne'er hail the daywhen as freemen shall stand the millions who groanunder matchless oppression? shall liberty's shouts, inour heaven-rescued land, ne'er be shared by the slavein our blood-guilty nation? oh, let us be just, erein god we dare trust; else the day will o'er takeus when perish we must;

and our star-spangled bannerat half mast shall wave o'er the death-bed of freedom-- the home of the slave. >> now that was powerful. it is now my pleasure to inviteto the stage alyssa brandon who will do the honors of introducing ourkeynote speakers. alyssa brandon is anundergraduate student in our college ofliterature, science, and art. she is majoring in communicationstudies with a minor

in japanese languageand culture. alyssa is a former seniors' newseditor for the michigan daily and a former senior editorfor michigan in color. please join me in givingher a warm welcome. >> it is my pleasure tointroduce the 2017 university of michigan martin luther kingjr. symposium keynote lecturers, i'm particularly excitedto introduce our speakers because i admire them so muchas writers and storytellers. considering my work as aformer senior news editor

for the michigan dailyand a former senior editor for michigan in color,i appreciate amy goodman and issa rae for sharing storiesthat are sometimes difficult to express, stories thatexpose harsh realities but are necessary to buildempathy and to encourage others to be unapologeticallyauthentic. their work inspires writerslike me to continue our fight for justice and inclusion. and today i'm confident ourtwo uniquely phenomenal keynote

speakers will inspire you, too. first, i will introduceamy goodman. amy goodman is an award-winninginvestigative journalist, author and syndicatedcolumnist, and the host of "democracy now!", which justcelebrated its 20th anniversary and airs on more than800 public television and radio stations worldwide. a true hero of real news,she has worked tirelessly from the front lines duringthe world's most revolutionary

moments to producegroundbreaking news coverage from the independencemovement in east timor in 1991 to the dakota accesspipeline protest at standing rockindian reservation in north dakota just last year. as a result, goodman is arecipient of several awards and honors in andoutside of journalism such as the rightlivelihood award, widely known as the alternative nobel prize.

she is the 1998 recipientof the george polk award for the radio documentaryshe co-produced, "drilling and killing - chevron andnigeria's oil dictatorship", which exposed the oilcompany's role in the killing of two nigerian villagersin may of 1998. goodman also won numerous awards for the radio documentary sheco-produced from her coverage in east timor, includingthe robert f. kennedy prize for internationalreporting, the alfred i.

dupont-columbia silver baton,the armstrong award, and more. she's the author of fournew york times bestsellers. and her latest book"democracy now! - twenty years covering themovements changing america" looks back over the past twodecades of "democracy now!" and the powerful movementsand charismatic leaders who are reshaping our world. goodman's work demonstrates thepower of independent journalism and the strugglefor a better world.

everyone, please join me inwelcoming one of the heroes of journalism, amy goodman. >> thank you. it is such a greathonor to be here. and i really look forward to interviewing issa raein just a little bit. for those of you who haven'theard of "democracy now!", yes, we started 20 years ago on ninecommunity radio stations -- five of those pacifica radio.

pacifica radio founded in 1949in berkeley, california (kpfa) by a war resistor who cameout of the detention camps and said there has to be a mediaoutlet not run by corporations that profit from war but runby journalists and artists. and that's how pacificawas born. as george gerbner, the formerdean at the annenberg school of communications at theuniversity of pennsylvania, would say, "not run bycorporations that have nothing to tell and everything to sell

that are raisingour children today." and so pacifica was born. kpfa in berkeley, '49. kpfk in los angeles, 1959. my station in newyork, wbai, in 1960. wpfw in washington, 1977. and kpft in houston, 1970. that's the only radio station -- kpft in the petrometro of houston --

the only radio station whosetransmitter was blown up. they went on the airin the spring of 1970. and within a few weeks, theku klux klan strapped dynamite to the base of the transmitterand blew it to smithereens. when they got back on their feetand rebuilt the transmitter, the klan strapped 15 timesthe dynamite to the base of the transmitterand blew it up again. oh, they blew it up in themiddle of arlo guthrie singing "alice's restaurant",restaurant,

which i thought was a good song. so then they work formonths to rebuild. and in january of 1971,it's a national event -- they're going back on the air. arlo guthrie comes back tohouston to finish his song live on the air, and thatphoenix rises from the ashes and it still broadcasts today. i can't remember if itwas the grand dragon or the exalted cyclops becausei often confuse their titles.

but he said it washis proudest act -- blowing up the pacificastation -- i think because he understoodhow dangerous independent media is. dangerous because it allowspeople to speak for themselves. and when you hearsomeone speaking from their own experience,whether it's a palestinian child or an israeli grandmother,whether it's an uncle in afghanistan, an aunt in iraq,whether it's a young person

from ferguson or someonepoisoned in flint, when you hear someone speakingfrom their own experience, it challenges the stereotypes. i'm not saying you'llagree with them. i mean, how often do we evenagree with our family members? but you begin to understandwhere they're coming from. it makes it much less likely that you'll wantto destroy them. that understanding isthe beginning of peace.

i think the media canbe the greatest force for peace on earth. instead, all too often, it'swielded as a weapon of war, which is why we haveto take the media back. now i just told youa story of history -- the klan blowing up the radiostation more than 40 years ago. i cannot believe in 2017we are still talking about the ku klux klan today. how is it possible?

when the presidentelect, donald trump, was running for president,he was asked about disavowing support fromdavid duke, former grand dragon of the ku klux klanand klan chapters, whether he would do that. and he said he'd haveto think about it. when was the last time you hearddonald trump say he had to think about anything beforehe commented on it? but on this issue --

on this issue, hehad to weigh it. what was it thathe had to weigh -- which klan chapter inthe united states it was? this is extremelyserious as we talk about the ku klux klaneven in the last week. watching the confirmationhearings. "democracy now!", which began on nine radio stations 20years ago, now broadcasting on over 1,400 publictelevision and radio stations

around the countryand around the world. simply a news stationpicking us up every week, simply a testament to thehunger for independent voices, people describingtheir own experience. but to be there watchingthese hearings, the confirmation hearings ofthe various cabinet picks. let's go to senator sessions. the first of theconfirmation hearings in the senate judiciarycommittee,

the very same committeewho, 30 years ago, rejected senator sessions-- at the time, not senator. but president reaganhad nominated him for a federal judgeship. and when a president nominatesa federal judge at that time in 1986, the factthat he was denied by the senate judiciarycommittee -- that had happenedonly once before in the previous half century.

so what was the controversy allabout in 1986, 30 years ago, that was raised againthis past week? when senator sessions wasus attorney in alabama, he presided over the indictment of leading votingrights activists. evelyn and albert turner -- albert turner, close ally ofdr. king -- marched with him. and they were considered theleading voting rights activists in the black belt ofalabama where, for years,

no african-americans voted. they had brought the numberup to something like 70,000, and so they were indictedfor voting rights fraud. even the judge at the time threw out half the chargebefore the trial, and then the jury acquittedthem of all remaining charges. it was that indictment,that trial, that led so many of the democratsand the republicans in the senate judiciarycommittee to say no.

it was ted kennedy at the time,the senator for massachusetts, who said, "mr. sessions, it'sa throwback to a shameful era which i know both black and white americansthought was in our past. it's inconceivableto me that a person of this attitude isqualified to be a us attorney, let alone a unitedstates federal judge." the quotes that were raisedat the time, the deep concern that senator sessions, that jeffsessions had called the naacp

and the aclu un-american, hadtalked about the klan saying -- and this is just being quotedtoday in the new york times -- saying he thought the klanwas okay till he learned they smoke pot. he was turned down by thesenate judiciary committee. and so the rage of so many when they heard he wouldbe the chief law enforcer of the land -- enforcingthe law for whom? and so in the two days ofhearings, at the end of them,

a historic moment took place which many said should'vetaken place at the beginning. a sitting senator challengedanother sitting senator in a confirmation hearing. never before happened. new jersey senatorcory booker -- spoke out. he was followed by congressmember john lewis, the icon -- icon of the civilrights movement.

congress member cedricrichmond, who also spoke, said, "i want to express my concernabout being made to testify at the very end ofthe witness panels. to have a senator,a house member, a living civil rights legendtestify at the end of all of this is the equivalentof being made to go to the back of the bus." you see, when a senator or acongressman wants to testify in a hearing, they areaccorded the privilege

of testifying first. and so there they were at theend, only one republican senator on the judiciarycommittee remained to hear their testimony. senator sessions wasborn in selma, alabama. his name steepedin the confederacy. jefferson beauregardsessions iii, named for his fatherand his grandfather. that name, jeffersonbeauregard sessions.

jefferson for jefferson davis, the president ofthe confederacy. beauregard -- general pierrebeauregard who quit west point when the confederacy secededto oversee the opening salvo of the civil war, thefiring on fort sumter. selma, alabama. and that also brings us to thisweekend and how honored i am to be here on martin luther kingday honoring the great civil rights, human rights leader.

john lewis. you may have heard about thetwitter war over the weekend, but wars have two sides. it was the president elect, preparing to become presidentthis week, took the time to attack john lewis, iconof the civil rights movement, many-term member of congresswho this past week said on nbc he did notconsider donald trump to be a legitimate president.

in response -- in response, donaldtrump tweeted that he represents acrime-infested district, and that congressmanlewis is all talk, all talk, all talk, no action. so we engage in "democracy now!" in fact-based journalism. i can't even believe thatterm is being used today as if there is another kind.

[ laughter and applause ] but let's go back tothe historical record. "all talk, no action." march 7, 1965, bloody sunday. a young man named johnlewis, one of the organizers of the student nonviolentcoordinating committee (sncc), led 600 other votingrights activists. this was just days after yet another youngafrican-american man had been

killed by police. this was back in 1965. led voting rights activists over the edmund pettusbridge in selma. edmund pettus bridge,named for the us senator, confederate soldier, former grand dragonof the ku klux klan. led the voting rights activistsover the edmund pettus bridge. and they were attacked byalabama state troopers.

this nonviolent groupwas met by massive force. john lewis would not stop. his head, his skull,was fractured, and he continuedwith these marches. dr. king would joinon the second attempt and the third successfulattempt to march from selma to montgomery. no matter what yourpolitical persuasion, it is hard to describejohn lewis as a man

who does not take action. i'm so excited to bespeaking with issa rae today who represents a hugechallenge and has broken through so many glassceilings in her work. i want to talk aboutthe importance of culture and resistance. on march 21, 1915, morethan a hundred years ago, a motion picture was screened for the first timeinside the white house.

president woodrow wilson satdown to watch d.w. griffith "the birth of a nation",the film considered one of the most nakedly racist ofall time, falsifies the history of reconstruction, depictingafrican-americans freed from slavery as the dominant,violent, oppressive group. wilson said of the film, "it's like writinghistory with lightning. my only regret is that itis also terribly true," the president said.

the film would serve as a powerful recruitingtool for the kkk. one hundred years later,another film was screened at the white house, thistime at the invitation of the first african-americanpresident. the film was "selma". the film's director,ava duvernay, watched it with thefirst couple. i met with her at the sundancefilm festival where i'm headed

in a few weeks inpark city, utah. in 2012, she was the firstafrican-american woman to win the festival'sbest director award for a previous film. she said, "it was so beautifulto be in the white house in 2015 with a film like selma knowingthat in 1915 the first film to ever unspool at thewhite house was 'the birth of a nation'". "selma", the story ofone of the key moments

in the civil rights movement. you know that story. selma to montgomery-- the march led by none other than john lewis. police beating and bloodyinghim, fracturing his skull. duvernay's film put thatmarch into historical context. she said, "selma is a storyof justice and dignity. it's about theseeveryday people." that's what i loved about it.

it's about the powerof the people. it is also the film aboutdr. martin luther king jr. who played a central rolein organizing the marches. she said, "there's been nomajor motion picture released by a studio, no independentmotion picture in theaters with king at thecenter in the 50 years since these events happened whenwe have biopics of all kinds of ridiculous peopleand nothing on king." ava said, "no cinematicrepresentation that's meaningful

and centered," so itwas just something, she said, "i couldn't pass up." how important it is tohonor dr. king today? i was here at the university ofmichigan just a few years ago on the 50th anniversaryof the first teach-in around the vietnam war. the first in the countryhappened right here and educational activeresistance. i was here with thelate, great tom hayden,

who just recentlydied, who was one of the most critical organizersof that and was a graduate of the university of michigan,editor of the michigan daily. and that's what i want to speakto when it comes to the legacy of dr. king and hisbravery in so many ways. in 1967, april 4th, one year to the day before he wasassassinated, dr. king took to the stage, the podium at theriverside church in new york where we just celebratedour 20th anniversary.

the riverside church-- a historic place. thousands packed in to hearthe great civil rights leader. he was speaking out forone of the first times against the war in vietnam. he was warned even by his innercircle, "martin, don't do this. you've got the presidentof the united states, the most powerfulperson on earth, wrapped around your finger. you got him to sign thecivil rights act in '64,

the voting rights act in '65. this is not your war. do not alienate him." and he said, "no." he saw the war as partof a seamless web. and he addressed theaudience and he said, about the country he loved,about the united states, his own country, he said,"it's the greatest purveyor of violence on earth."

he was castigated. the mainstream presswent after him. i have the life magazineissue, the washington post. in other papers theysaid he sounded like he was reading ascript out of a transcript from radio hanoi, that he haddone a disservice to his cause, his country and his people, towhich he simply doubled down and kept on speaking outagainst the war, saying, "i cannot possibly speakout against the violence

in the ghettos in thiscountry and not speak out against what is happeningabroad against," he sadly said, "my country, the greatestpurveyor of violence on earth." a year later, april 4, 1968,he would go to memphis to march with sanitation workerswho were simply trying to organize a local of afscme(the american federation of state, county and municipalemployees) and he was gunned down at the lorraine motel. a man who never fearedspeaking out, standing up.

one of the women who reallywas responsible for his launch onto the main stageof this country -- yes, women -- was rosa parks. rosa parks -- who, on december 1, 1955, sitsdown on the bus in montgomery, alabama and she launchesthe modern day civil rights movement. you might say, "whytell her story now? it's one story we know so well."

but the media getseven her story wrong. a few years ago when rosa parksdied, we at "democracy now!" raced down to washington. she was the firstafrican-american woman to lay in state in the capitol rotunda. then her body was brought to a local church beforethe huge funeral in detroit. and there were thousandsof people. oprah was inside.

cicely tyson was inside. and thousands were outside. they had erectedlarge, loud speakers. and it's often moreinteresting to be outside, so we're interviewing people. we asked a collegefreshman, a young woman, "why are you out here?" and she said, "oh, i emailedmy professors this morning." she said, "i told themi won't be in class;

i'm going to get an education." and as we went downto washington, i remember cnn talkingabout her. every network talkedabout her -- no question. but they got it wrong. they said, "rosa parkswas a tired seamstress." that was true. they said, "she wasno troublemaker." that was wrong.

rosa parks was afirst-class troublemaker. she knew exactlywhat she was doing. rosa parks was the secretary ofthe local naacp in montgomery. she worked under e.d. nixon. he was the presidentof the local naacp. he came out of theradical labor politics. he had organized withperhaps the greatest organizer of the 20th century, a.philip randolph, who would go on with bayard rustin, theblack gay pacifist activist

who organized the 1963march on washington. well, a. philip randolph and e.d. nixon organizedthe brotherhood of sleeping car porters, thethousands of black conductors on the pullman trainsall named george. i mean, not namedby their mothers, but that's what the passengerswould call them -- george -- named for the owner of thepullman trains, george pullman, which shows you why theywanted to be organized.

and so e.d. nixon,radical labor politics, and rosa parks had beenorganizing for years to challenge the racistlaws of the south. she came out of -- she went tothe highlander center to train where black and white togetherwere working to strategize. i talked to pete seeger justbefore he died, and he talked about perfecting"we shall overcome", the song, at highlander. and he described how dr. kingonce came into highlander

when he was justfinishing the song, and he asked peteto sing it for him. and he sang it. and dr. king went awayand he said to his friend, "that's a catchy tune." it becomes the anthem of the modern daycivil rights movement. but rosa parks knewexactly what she was doing. she was an activist, and themedia denigrates activists.

but what can be more noblethan dedicating your life to making the worlda better place? if you're involvedin social change, you help to build a foundationso that when a moment comes that you cannot predict,you have built a foundation that will help determine thefuture that will make history. that's what rosa parkswas doing for years. you know she sat down on thebus before and refused to get up as other young women had.

but this was the magic moment. december 1, 1955, shesits down on the bus. she is rested. her friend, jo annrobinson, starts -- at the time, it wasmimeographing thousands of leaflets to beginthe bus boycott. the montgomery improvementassociation has its meeting december 5, 1955, a few dayslater when rosa is in court. and they choose as their leadera young minister who just moved

into town, dr. martinluther king. they launched the bus boycott. within a year, the transportationsystem is integrated. dr. king makes history. rosa parks -- how incrediblybrave this woman was? because just go back a fewmonths before she sat down on that bus -- it's thesummer of emmett till. emmett till, a 14-year-oldboy from chicago.

he's the only child ofhis mother, mamie till, and she doesn't want himin the city for the summer, so she sends him to money,mississippi to be with his aunt and uncle and his cousins. and one night, he's rippedout of bed by a white mob. he's tortured, he's beat,and he ends up in the bottom of the tallahatchie river. they said he wolfwhistled at a white woman. emmett had a stutter.

and his mother taught him,"before you speak, when you feel that stutter comingon, whistle." when his body was dredgedup and sent back to chicago for the funeral, his mother didsomething incredibly courageous. she said she wantedthe casket open for the wake in the funeral. she wanted the world tosee the ravages of racism, the brutality of bigotry. and so thousandsstreamed by and saw.

and then jet magazine andother black publications took photographs of hismutilated, distended head, and they were actuallypublished. and they were engrained intothe history of this country. mamie till had something veryimportant to teach the press of today -- show thepictures, show the images. could you imagine if, for justone week, we saw the images of war which continues? afghanistan -- the longest warin us history continues even

in iraq and syria and yemen. if we saw the images of war,if we saw the front page of the papers every day -- just imagine for one week ofa child dead on the ground and a story about whathappened to her and her family. if at the top of every tv and radio newscasts we heardthe story of a woman in yemen, her legs blown off by a clusterbomb or by a drone strike, who she was, why she wasin this wedding party,

who was getting married. if we saw those images ofa soldier dead and dying for just one week -- americansare a compassionate people -- they would say, "no. war is not the answer toconflict in the 21st century." showing the images, why itis so important to support and to engage inindependent journalism. this past labor dayweekend, the "democracy now!" team went to north dakota

to cover the standoffat standing rock. i daresay -- i daresay if dr. martin lutherking were alive today he would've also gonethere in this past year. the standoff at standingrock is about a pipeline -- the $3.8 billion dakota accesspipeline that takes frack oil from the bakken oilfields of north dakota through south dakota throughiowa to illinois and then hooks up with a pipeline tothe gulf of mexico.

and it goes aroundnative american land, the standing rock siouxreservation in north dakota. the people of mandan innorth dakota said no. the people of bismarck,the capital, said no. the native americansare just saying, "treat us like anyother north dakotans." but the energy company, theenergy transfer partners, is trying to build this pipelineunder the missouri river, the longest river in northamerica, and the people

of standing rock are saying no. and what we are seeing nowis the largest unification of native american tribes indecades from latin america, the united states, from canada. april 1st, the firstresistance camp, the sacred stone camp startedby the informal historian of the standing rock sioux,ladonna bravebull allard. she opened her property andsaid, "come to the banks of the cannonballriver and resist."

and then hundredsand then thousands and more camps grew up. and that is the standoff. so we went to seewhat was happening. we covered the movementschanging this country and changing the world. and what we found horrified us. it was a weekend,a holiday weekend. the people did not expect thedakota access pipeline company

to be building. they were going toplant their tribal flags in an area they consideredtheir sacred ground. we were filming as we went up. and then they saw the bulldozers at full tilt diggingtheir sacred ground. they had just given a mapof that ground to the judge who had shared itwith the company. and the company, the next day,because the judge was going

to rule in a few days, leapfrogged over where they wereworking and went after the sites that the native americanshad identified. and the people said no. and they came upon the property, they pushed backthose bulldozers. incredibly brave. just standing therenonviolently saying no. and the bulldozers pulled back.

and then the pipelineguards released dogs. they unleashed dogs and pepperspray on the native americans. we just kept filming. we showed a dog with itsmouth and its nose dripping with blood, native-americanblood. it was horrifying. even the dogs would pull back, and the guards wouldpush them into the crowd. but ultimately, the nativeamericans would not stop even

as they were bleeding,even as they were bit, and the dakota access pipelineguards had to pull back. we went back, postedthe video online that labor day weekendthis past september. and within 24/48 hours, on facebook therewere 14 million views. "democracy now!", we broadcastthe images of the dogs and the horror ofpeople around the world. the networks -- cnn, cbs,nbc, abc, al jazeera, msnbc,

bbc homepage, theglobal homepage, canadian broadcasting -- native sites all over theworld ran the video footage over and over. show the images. president obama wasin asia that week -- not asked by a us journalistbut by a young malaysian woman who saw the video and thepictures online what is happening with thedakota access pipeline.

he said he would come backto the states and find out. and that weekend, when thejudge ruled against the tribe, the obama administrationsaid no. they would stop the drillingfor a moment to evaluate. and on december 5th, theyreleased their final decision that the final permit wouldnot be granted for now under the missouri,which is water for more than 10 million people. and yet, hundreds and hundreds,over 500 native americans

and their allieshad been arrested. and when we put out thatvideo, came back to new york, a few days later the northdakota authorities issued an arrest warrant for me. i didn't take it personally -- [ laugther and applause ] because i thought it was amessage to all journalists. "do not come to north dakota." which is exactly what alljournalists needed to do --

is to go there andto show the images. we went back -- we went back to challengethe charges a month later. and as we flew into bismarck, the prosecutor admittedhe didn't have any grounds for the charge and dropped it, though he would rechargeme with riot. i asked my local north dakotalawyer what does that mean. he said, "it would only meana month to a year in prison."

i don't know about his life,but that mattered to me. the weekend, we covered whatwas happening in october, and a judge had to rule on whether the charges would bebrought against me the next day. and because of theinternational attention -- when the international spotlightshines on an issue that matters, the people's resistance-- that day on monday, the judge said he wouldn't signoff on the charges against me, and also dropped felonycharges against a number

of native americans who werebeing brought up on charges. the chair of the standingrock sioux, dave archambault, he had been arrestedin the months before. the pediatrician in thestanding rock reservation, deeply concerned about hertribe's health, she was arrested for civil disobedience. and all of them --though, in other cases, people would just get summons -- the native americans werebrought into the jail.

the president, the pediatrician, all of the otherswere strip searched and put in orange jumpsuits. the repeated humiliation. as i end off this talk, i thinkabout winona laduke and speaking to her that day of the dogs. winona laduke of the whiteearth reservation in minnesota who was there said, "i am notgoing to spend the next 10 years of my life fightingpipeline after pipeline."

though it remains to beseen what will happen if the cabinet pickedfor the secretary of state is confirmed the ceoof exxonmobil, rex tillerson, who even mr. trumpcalls mr. exxon. the department of energy. the choice governor rick perryof texas who, when he stepped down as governor, withintwo weeks, went on the board of energy transfer partners, the company that runs thedakota access pipeline.

but winona laduke stoodamongst the teepees and the resistance camps andshe said to jack dalrymple, the republican governorof north dakota, she said, "this is my message. you are not george wallace. this is not alabama. this is 2016," she said. think birmingham,the dogs, selma, the amazingly braveyoung john lewis

and the other hundredsof marchers. this is the historythat we must remember. this is the historywe must relearn. and we need a media;it gives voice to all of the movements today -- theblack lives matter movement, the environmentaljustice movement, the gay/lesbian/trans/queermovement, the war and peace movement,all of these movements that are making thiscountry great.

and back in world war ii, abrother and sister named hans and sophie scholl --they weren't jewish; they were german-christians. but they thought, "whatcan we do in the face of the nazi atrocity?" they decided to put outpamphlets with their professor and other students so that thegermans would never be able to say, "we didn't know." and they published aseries of six pamphlets.

on one of them were written thewords "we will not be silent". they had them spread everywhere-- in alleyways, in schoolyards, in marketplaces --under cover of night. but they were caughtby the nazis -- hans and sophie andtheir professor. they were charged, they weretried, they were convicted, and they were beheaded. but that philosophy, that motto,should be the hippocratic oath of the media today, shouldbe the hippocratic oath

of us all today. we will not be silent. "democracy now!" >> thank you, amy goodman, forthose amazing opening remarks. i especially appreciate theway that you connected events of the past to eventsof the present, and i think it's importantfor us as a community to understand the linkbetween the two as we process and respond to our currentsociopolitical climate.

please join me in givingamy goodman another round of applause. now i will introduce issa rae. issa rae is a criticallyacclaimed and world-renown actress,writer, and producer. with her own unique flare andinfectious sense of humor, issa rae's content hasgarnered over 20 million views and 200,000 youtubesubscribers and counting. she won the shorty award forbest web show for her hit series

"the misadventures ofawkward black girl" -- and has written a new york timesbestseller under the same title. she has since expandedher youtube platform to feature various contentcreated by people of color. issa rae's distinctivestyle and glowing "black girl magic" hascaptured the hearts of millions and has caused her toreceive national attention from major media outlets,including the new york times, rolling stone, essence,vibe, and others.

in addition to making glamourmagazine's 35 under-35 list as well as forbes'30 under-30 list, she has earned a golden globenomination for best actress in the tv comedy or musical -- for her performancein hbo's "insecure" which will air fora second season. issa also appeared on the cover of essence magazine's may 2015game changers issue alongside shonda rhimes, ava duvernay,

debbie allen, andmara brock-akil. in her work, issa rae hascontinually expressed a desire for more people of color to workin production behind the scenes in order to makea lasting impact in the television industry. at a glance, our two keynotespeakers appear to come from very distinctwalks of life. but a closer look reveals thework they each dedicate their lives to exemplifies the powerof narrative and the commitment

to drawing attention tostories often ignored by those in positions of power. their work shows us that, inpart, the sound of change comes by giving a voiceto the voiceless and providing a platformfor those who don't always havea seat at the table so they may have a chance tobe seen, heard, and understood. everyone please join me ingiving a warm round of applause for the dynamic andinnovated issa rae

and welcoming amygoodman back to the stage. >> all right [laughter]. thank you. wow. >> amazing, huh? >> and i get the honor ofasking issa rae questions, but also with help from you because questionshave been submitted. well, you just heard amongother things that issa was

on the cover of essenceas a game changer. and i don't know about you, but i want to know how shebecame this remarkable woman that she is. issa, start off. just give us a little bit ofyour biography before we get to "awkward black girl". tell us about your family,where you grew up, how you ended up doing these webisodesthat broke through the world

and touched so many people. >> well, first of all, it'san honor to even talk to. i've been a fan, and i usedto listen to you on my commute to my passionless job -- starting in 2008/2009. so to be here talkingto you is just a really full-circle experience. i grew up in la. i was born and primarilyraised in la.

anybody from la? [ cheering ] i wanted to come out toyg's "f donald trump", but i felt like thatwasn't very kingly. but i grew up there. my dad felt like my familydidn't have enough discipline -- my brother specifically -- and was like, "we're movingto senegal," where he's from. what?! is there a senegalese?

okay, girl. and so spent some time therejust living with family in west africa in senegal. and then my dad tried tostart a hospital there and the governmentmessed him up. they had so manytrumps over there, and so lost all his money. and then he decidedto start over in la. and my mom -- he movedour family to maryland,

so i grew up there forfive years and lived. i went to predominantlywhite schools and kind of felt out of place. but at home i alwaysfelt like, "oh, i'm the only black girl here. i'm one of two black kids here." and by the time i moved back tolos angeles in middle school, i went to a predominantlyblack high school and just didn't really fit in.

and a lot of those experiencesi mined for my working out. and a lot of my working outfocuses on just those feelings of being out of placeand feeling uncomfortable and feeling awkward andinsecure, which happens to be two shows thati've directed. >> so you're talking to alargely college audience. so can you just touchon your college years -- how you got through them? >> i did go to college.

i went to college. yeah, i went to stanforduniversity and -- >> are you all stanfordgraduates? >> what? okay, girl. go card! so, yeah, that experience wasjust absolutely instrumental in terms of, i would say,jumpstarting my career. a lot of students at stanfordwere primarily focused on human biology,engineering, political science,

and that was supposed to bemy field but i just was drawn to writing and directing. and so my freshmanyear, i was cast by -- i want to say she was asenior or she was a junior -- but she threw her on hip-hopera. and i was looking at some ofthe plays that our school threw or put on, but they werepredominantly white, and a lot of the leads weren'tplayed by people of color. and so here she was takinga story into her own hands,

and she created this productionfrom scratch and produced, directed it, acted in it andcast me in addition to some of my other friends,and it was just -- >> sort of like anearly hamilton? >> basically. i mean, yes. shout out to her. doing it before a man did it. i was very much influencedby her.

and the next year, shedidn't put on a play. and so i was like, "oh,i have an opportunity." so i adopted spike lee's "schooldaze" which really resonated with me at the timejust in terms of the themes they presentedand being at, oddly enough, a predominantly whiteinstitution. and "school daze" was set ina historically black college, but at a lot of thethemes overlapped. and so i put that on.

i produced, directed, andadapted it for the stage and continued to do thatthroughout my college run. and because there weren't alot of students majoring in art or pursuing the arts atstanford, there was a camera and a library thatwas always available. so i would checkthat library out. and on the side, i would dothese short, stupid projects. i created my first web series in2007 just because i was trying to procrastinatenot writing a paper.

>> it was called? >> it was called "dorm diaries"and it was about what it was like to be black at stanford. and i uploaded it to youtube andit caught around our own campus, and then it started to spread toother college campuses like duke and harvard and georgetown. and people were like, "this ismy college experience, too." and for me, thatwas like a moment -- i call it my light bulb moment-- where i was like, "wow,

i'm writing on the sideand i'm trying to break in traditionally," as i was. i was entering contests. i entered a sundancecompetition with a friend and we ended up being rejected. and so to have this directaccess to an audience that was looking at my work wheni was like 21 was insane to me. and that always stuck with me. >> how did the universityrespond to you talking

about your life there? >> they didn't. the administrationdidn't really respond. it's like, "what couldthey really say?" but this is kind of our collegeexperience, so it was mined from some sort of truth. but there wasn't anycontroversy or anything. >> and so talk aboutwhat just exploded on the global stage --"awkward black girl".

>> yes. so "awkward blackgirl" ended up coming about -- i came up with the idea wheni was struggling and hungry in new york, super broke. and i was like, "howcan i make money fast?" and i was like, "ooh, ishould sell t-shirts." and so i came up -- i was justsitting in my room journaling, and i came up with thephrase, "i'm awkward. and black." and i was like, "oh,that defines me."

one of those things iknew the whole time, but one of thosethings i just realized. it seems like an identity thathasn't really been explored in a lot of the televisionshows that i watch, a lot of the filmsthat i've seen. and so, yeah, my firstinclination was like, "i'm going to put these ona t-shirt and sell these and make little animated webshows to try to sell these." and then i was like, "animation?

i don't have money." and then i just gaveup on the idea. there was a catch-22situation going on. and so then in 2011,i produced -- well, in 2000 i producedanother web series. it was a show about mybrother and his rap group. it was a mockumentary ofthem trying to make it in the music industry in la. and as i was buildingthat audience,

i started to take web seriesway more seriously in terms of releasing themevery monday at 10 am. i turned down plans to edit. my friends would belike, "do you want to hang out on taco tuesday?" and i'd be like, "ah,i have to do my job. i've got to edit." and they'd be like, "butyou don't have a job." but, i mean, that,for me, was --

i was treating mypassion like a job. >> how did you do it? how did you get the actors? >> they were like mybrother and his friends. and so -- they kind of had to show up. and it was good for them, too,because it got them exposure. and then i would putout ads on craigslist for actors i didn't reallyknow about, like actors access,

or have the money to be ableto pay people at the time. but also being in la reallyhelps because there are a lot of people who constantly trying. like, "here's my headshotand here's my resume." so that helped. and during that time of justcreating content constantly and consistently, i decidedto revisit doing this idea -- "awkward black girl"-- that i had. and i wanted to cast a friendfrom d.c. who i'd worked

with in "dorm diaries". and when i came up with the ideain new york, it was convenient. she was like, "yeah, i'll come. i'll commute to d.c." but when i hit her up when iwas la a couple years later, i was like, "hey, ihave this role for you. are you still interestedin playing it?" she was like, "girl,i'm a lawyer." "i can't do that.

but good luck." and it was the best thingthat ever happened to me because i felt like iwas running out of time, and was just like,"you know what? i feel like i can play thispart and just put myself in it and ask my best friend,"whose actually here with me today, "to record it." and another friend fromstanford who was a dancer trying to transition intoacting to play my love

in truth or non-love in truth. and uploaded it --edited it and uploaded it. and the rest is history,why i'm here. >> so how long didyou do that for? >> how long did i do it for? i did it for two years-- two and a half years. >> and how did "insecure"happen? >> "insecure" came aboutbecause of that series. i had an opportunity to,in our second season,

work with pharrell williams. he funded our second seasonvia his "i am other" venture. and because of that, itgot a lot more attention. and rolling stone and newyork times reviewed our first episode. and so from there, shondarhimes and "shondaland" reached out to say, "hey, do youhave any ideas for us?" and i pitched them a televisionshow called "i hate l.a. dudes". and that was --

entirely factual. and they were like, "oh mygosh, we hate l.a. men, too." and we talked fortwo hours about it. and in that process, i learnedjust about honing my voice and about speaking up justbecause i was so grateful for the opportunity but alittle too eager and wasn't able to properly navigate notes. "shondaland" was greatabout handholding, holding my hand throughoutthe process just

because i'd never writtenfor television before. and they were just -- theycouldn't be any better in terms of leading me along the way. but in terms of navigatingnetwork notes and studio notes, i was very much a yes-man. i'm like, "yeah, yeah,i'll make it work. okay, that doesn't really makesense, but i'll make it work because this is myonly opportunity." and so when it came timeto turn in the draft,

it just felt voiceless. it didn't feel like my own. and they passed on the project,and i was devastated and i felt like i had blown my one shot. and then a month later,hbo called and said, "hey, we heard that you're free. do you have any ideas -- for us?" and i called my friendsand had a celebration that day. we didn't even have a job,but was like, "hbo called!

it's on!" and after pitchingthe show to them, they bought it in the room. and then i needed -- again,i had never written a show and run a writer's room before. and so my management company inhbo, they said, "you should meet with other people to seeif anybody would be able to run your room with you andproduce the show with you." and they introduced me to larrywilmore, and they were like,

"if you like him, great." he's outstanding. "and if you don't,we'll just move on." and so we met, and wejust clicked immediately. and i credit him with reallyhelping to solidify my voice. >> i mean, your path to success,paved with both successes and failures -- and it'sso important this part about the failure and howyou parlay that into success and you become the firstafrican-american woman

to helm an hbo series,and now it's going into its second season. >> yes. thanks. can i bring y'all home with me? >> talk about directing,writing, and playing you. i mean, when you were backhere, you were saying, "oh, it's the writing that i love." >> i do. i love the writing.

and i do not -- i have nottaken on the directing, at least for "insecure"directing. the directing is primarily doneby the amazing melina matsoukas. she's outstanding. and she knows beyoncã©, guys. come on. but it can be overwhelmingat times just because i'm responsible for -- like if the show isn'tsuccessful, if people don't

like it, it's only on me. and that's where itgets overwhelming. i can sink my own ship. and so there is definitelya lot of pressure to maintain the visionmoving forward. but at the same time,i understand that i'm extremely blessed,and so excited to be able to just have this opportunityto create and to create with people i love andrespect and admire.

and for me, it's been opening somany doors for people around me and people who i've met alongthe way, people i've worked with since "awkward black girl", since i did my othershow "fly guys". and i just see it as aticket to continue to produce with other creators of color, which is what we'redoing currently. and i have an opportunitywith hbo currently with a first-look dealwhere we're producing --

they've basically given meaccess to produce content in the same way that i do on myyoutube channel but for them. and so we're currentlydeveloping a half-hour with another creativewriter of color that i'm really,really excited about. >> so there are a lot ofquestions that people submitted. among them -- "how do you useyour work or plan to use it to push back one-sizeism inthe entertainment industry, especially toward actresses?"

>> one-sizeism? i mean, i tend tocast real people. in watching a lot of myproductions, you'll see that. i literally tap into peoplethat i know because, one, in the past i didn'thave a choice. i was just like, "hey, girl. i know you've got apublic-health job, but can you play thisdisgusting role of germy patty?" you know? and so i don't thinkthat there's an industry --

i acknowledge that there's anindustry standard of beauty, but it's not reflectedin my own work. i tend to try to push up againstwhat's considered classically beautiful and what'sconsidered attractive by hollywood standards. >> another question is -- "what has your naturalhair journey been like," someone asked. >> it's been rocky.

it's been full of experiments. >> you look good, girl. >> thank you, girl. [inaudible] in the back. i'm sorry. all in the back. it's been a journey. i've had to grow to lovemy natural hair, for sure. i think i, when iwas in high school,

tried to hide it constantly because perms andpresses were in. and my mom was always like, "iwould get you a perm or press, but your hair is toothin to do that." and i'd be like, "mom,what do you know?" and i remember taking astand and being like, "mom, i'm going to get this perm. i'm 12, and you can'ttell me anything." and she was like, "youdo not need to do it

because your hair isgoing to fall out." and i did it anyway,and my hair fell out. and my mom was like, "that'swhat your baldheaded ass gets." but after that journey, i cutoff all my hair post-college. and that really, i feellike, changed my life for the better just in termsof embracing who i was. and i felt like the weight thatwe put on our hair is just so -- it's kind of ridiculous. and for me, it allowed meand afforded me a freedom

and a newfound confidence. and now i love my hair. and i work with a greatnatural hair stylist. shout out to felicia leatherwoodwho does amazing styles with all lengths of hair, whether your hairis this long or -- longer. >> can you talk aboutwhat it meant to be nominated fora golden globe?

>> it was absolutely surreal. i remember getting the call -- it was like 5 in themorning obviously because the east coastannounces it first. and i remember getting a call atlike 5:30 and just ignoring it because i was like,"it can wait." and then my phone was blowingup, and i looked at the news and saw that i was nominated. and it was a bitter-sweetmoment for me

because i was like,"it's just me." just to know how manypeople work on the show and how many people putso much blood, sweet, and tears -- no blood. let's be real. but just sweet and tears -- into the project. i was talking to melinaabout it, just like, "i wish it were all of us."

and she was just like,"girl, it is all of us. you're the show." and that, in a sense, mademe feel better about it. but it was just such an honor to just even be includedamong the company that i respect andadmire so much. >> and what was yourexperience like? >> the experience? i felt very out of place.

i was just lookingin awe of everyone. i saw denzel walk by,but i didn't talk to him. i know right? i just did one of those. but it was too late. but it was a surreal experience in that everyone was extremelyinclusive and very supportive. i had so many people come up andtell me that they watch the show and they love theshow, and to continue

to keep doing what we're doing. and so it just mademe want to do more. >> so i was looking at etonline that was talking about folks behind the stage,and you were there along with tracee ellis rosswho won for "blackish". >> and like her, you talkedabout planned parenthood. >> mm-hmm. >> this was a verypolitical golden globe. you had meryl streep callingout the president elect.

i'm wondering yourreaction in the audience when you were watching that. and then going backstage, andthey quoted you as saying, talking about plannedparenthood, "they've done so much for our community,for women, for everybody. when i had questions in myadolescence, in my teenage years when i had scares and issues, planned parenthood was thesafest place to go," you said. >> i 100% stand by that.

they've done so much workin preventative care. and just the attack on plannedparenthood is so bewildering, especially -- you and iwere discussing that -- especially when theaffordable care act, when obama care is at stake. when i was insuranceless,that's where i went. and when i felt like icouldn't talk to my mother about certain things,that's where i went. and the idea that it could bedismantled is just absurd to me.

and so listening tomeryl speak up -- i just feel like she'ssuch a responsible artist, and she's someone that i admireand i strive to be like just in terms of speaking out. entertainers in the past havebeen just relegated to the role of entertainment, and i feellike now there's just not -- there's too muchat stake to kind of be silent on those things. and mlk --

he said the day that we begin --our lives being to end the day that we become silentabout things that matter. and i feel like bythat very definition, our president elect iskilling us in a sense because nothing he says matters. go to his twitter account. nothing he says matters inany way, shape, or form. and what he does talkabout only concerns him and his best interest.

and i feel like we're only goingto provoke a sort of change by speaking up, and there'sjust not any room to decoy because you want tocapture a mass audience. i just have no interest inbeing silent about something that might offend others becausei don't want their support. i don't want bigotsto watch my work. i don't need them to. and for that, i admire a lot ofwhat she said because she called so much out and calledon us to kind

of put our moneywhere our mouths are. >> so the day afterthe inauguration all over the country,women are marching in washington --a massive march. you're in l.a. are you goingto be going to the march there? >> yeah, i'll be going in l.a.,joining a couple of writers in l.a. to do the same. >> what about art asresistance, how you see that, and especially today we'resitting at a university

on martin luther king day. where you see politics in yourwork, or do you even separate it from your daily lifeand what you write and what you're conveying? >> i look to sparkconversations. i remember in collegebeing inspired by studying the blackarts movement and how that was a movementfor social change in a very real andproductive way.

i think, now more than ever,i think people are looking -- one, we're looking forleaders, which is -- i wouldn't say lacking at all. i think there's such astrong community of leaders, especially online,and even offline. but i think now peopleare looking to their favoriteinternetainers to say something and to guide themto an action point. and i think, for me,i'm looking for the same

and i'm looking for a community. and i've been meeting withother community leaders just on the side to just figureout what it is that we can do and how we can influence change, especially with these midtermelections we're seeing now. that is the closest time toactually effect any real change in terms of electing theofficials that we want to elect and to encourage peopleto go out and vote when it actually matters.

because this man has controlof the house and the senate, and you're seeing things pass at an alarming rateand in record time. and that's not going to changeif you're not going to get out and go vote again. so, i mean, i think -- idon't ever want to be didactic in my own work, butwe're always going to promote conversations,and especially now. we just feel like a lot

of our storylines willaddress how we talk with our friends,amongst our friends. i think even with -- i havea group chat with friends where we talk about everythingfrom pop culture to things that affect us from day to day. and one of the thingsthat, on a particular day, affected me was thedeath of alton sterling. and we were all just talking about how there wasanother black death,

and how they were sayinghow they had to go to work and face their whitecoworkers and face the fact that they just didn'thave the same -- they weren't carryingthe same burden. they weren't carrying theweight of just frustration. and they can live of this bubble of oblivion, of willfuloblivion. and so we were just talkingabout our feelings and wishing that we could do something,

and ended up startinga fund for his family. and that, for me, was just atiny thing that we could do, that we could use our platformto do and to show, "hey, this is a small, small token. we can raise moneyfor his kids." and so many people reached out. so many people helpedthat we ended up raising over $700,000 for his kids. and i think people are justlooking for actionable steps.

i think people are readyand willing to help. they just want to know how andthey want to know the answers. and a lot of that work is justbeing done through social media. >> as you go to bigger stages,do you feel more constrained about what you can do, likefrom when you were doing "awkward black girl" todoing "insecure" for example, or things you can't dothat you could do first? >> because of thisspecific platform? >> expressing things.

>> well, i used totalk a lot of shit. and that's the only thing thati feel like i've held back, and i kind of don'twant to anymore. i'm way more carefulwith my words. but that just comes from gettingolder and hopefully wiser, and just being careful aboutwhat i choose to speak up about. but other than that, no. i feel like i have moreopportunities to say things. i just want to saythe right things.

that's it. and do you feel in -- you havea larger stage to speak out -- but in your art, in the"insecure", have you gotten into situations where they say,"we don't want you to go there?" >> absolutely not. no. i think, if anything,they encourage it. and that's what i loveabout that particular -- i've always wanted tobe on networks like hbo, and hbo itself justbecause they are very raw

and they're very authentic. they support authenticityin a way that kind of mirrors the internet. i think nothing willever top being able to just create somethingfrom scratch, put it out, and have instant feedback. nothing will top that. and if anything, that's thebiggest thing separating creating work onlineand creating work

for a network -- is just time. but other than that, i feel likei have full creative freedom to approach any subject. >> who have you beenmost inspired by? >> ava duvernay, shondarhimes, mara brock akil, gina prince-bythewood,debbie allen. i just have -- so manyblack women inspire me. i really do justdaily find new women to be awestruck byand inspired by.

and they just meanso much to me. i like to model myselfand my career based off of obviously womenwho i look up to and who constantlychallenge obstacles, and who do the unthinkable,and who do the unexpected. and i consider myselfan impulsive person, and so inspiration for mecomes in doses everywhere. >> ava duvernay just did thisamazing documentary -- "13th". >> yes, she did.

>> which is up for an oscar. and of course, the hashtag#oscarsowhite was coined when she wasn't nominatedas director of "selma" even though thefilm was for the film "selma". what it means to have thosewomen and the openings and what you're trying to donow -- you're talking here; it's not quite forthe next generation. you're just beyond 30. but what you say to peoplehere who are experimenting,

who are trying to find theirway and express themselves. >> to look next to you, and lookfor people who you feel like are as passionate as you are, whothink the way that you do, who don't think the way thatyou do, who are better at things where you find yourself weak,and work with those people, collaborate with those people. >> it fits with thisquestion that someone asked -- "how can young blackwomen learn more about creating positivemedia content as opposed

to just consumingwhat's projected?" >> whew. there's too many positiveexamples around me. i think that's what spurred meinto action -- is just watching. being in college, i think -- i want to say "flavorof love" was -- super popular. either "flavor of love"or "i love new york". i remember seeing those womenand those images on screen

and just being so irritatedby the representation, and knowing that this was beingseen potentially worldwide and not having alternativeimages of black women on television. so i was like, "this is the onlyimage that people are seeing of black women, and it is -- " i was watching an episodeabout one contestant who -- i talked about thisanother time -- who defecated on thefloor because she was --

she had to use the restroomand these producers, these manipulativereality show producers in some cases werejust like, "no. just hold it. we're about to do the,"whatever his equivalent of the rose-giving ceremony was. i think he gives a clock. and they were like,"just hold it." and so she held it for as longas she could, and then she ended

up pooing on the flooron this television show and they aired it. and then she still stayed. he didn't eliminate her. it was the most disgustingimage. and i just felt bad forher because i was like, "this is the onlymeans that she feels like she can promote herself. and it's humiliating, butwhat else is out there?"

and so, for me, i felt likei had to create what i wanted to see at the end of the day. and another thing is thati didn't know any women in my circle who wereconstantly fighting like we see in these shows. so many women in my socialcircles were supportive and are supportive, and areamazing, and are ambitious and do so much, and that'swhat i wanted to see reflected. and so my advice is tojust look into your circle

and project what's real to you. and that's the mostauthentic and truthful type of work you can put out there. >> what is your processof writing? how do you most focus? >> i need to leave the house. if i stay home, i'll startorganizing my itunes library. folding scarves. so i need to leave.

and i try not to force it. i will go out and people watch. if i have a writer'sblock, i will go and try to have an adventure. i like to put myself inuncomfortable situations because i feel like that's wherea lot of my ideas come from. i feel like that'swhere i thrive. then i will let an idea sort ofmarinate, and then just sit down and isolate myself to write it.

>> your next project? >> my next project. i have a lot of differentprojects that i'm working on. i'm writing a film. i'm writing -- i guess morethings that i can't talk about. but i'm collaborating -- as mentioned, withother writer/producers. but i just want to exploreevery media that i can, and that's what i'm doing.

i have the luxury ofbeing able to do that. >> well, since we have to wrap up on this martin luther kingday, your message to people here and to people who arewatching on the livestream, to young women, to youngmen, to older folks about expressing yourself,finding your place in the world and what you wantto accomplish now. >> [chuckles] for me, i wantto continue being authentic. i want to come from aplace of truth, always.

i want to make a differencein a way that's long-lasting and that is impactfulwhen i think about who has influenced me inmy youth and who i've been able to look to as examples. i want to be able to dothe same thing just via art and my appreciation for artists who have extended beyondtheir specific medium to help the masses and toreally enforce a greater change. that's what appeals to methe most, and i'm trying

to find my way of doing that. and it's a journey, but i justreally feel, now more than ever, dedicated to doing that. >> what effect did the firstafrican-american family in the white house have onyou for the past eight years, and then where yousee us headed now? i mean, obviously iremember exactly where i was. i was still strugglingin new york when i saw this beautifulfamily take the stage

and accept the firstfamily presidency -- however you say that. the proper noun forfirst family? anyway, to just see this manexceed all expectations was incredibly inspiring. i was just talking about thiswith a musician who was saying that he feels like his work -- because he doesn'tnecessarily do the same type of music that's currentlypopular,

like trap music currently islike pop music to a degree, and he likes to have sort ofa message in his work and talk about things that matter to him. and he was like, "that kind of stuff isn't reallypopular anymore." and i had a theorythat because we've -- i feel like this presidencyhas encouraged black people to flourish. we can do so much.

and it's encouraged art. it's encouraged politics. it's encouraged justso many facets of life. and i do feel like there'sbeen a celebration period to a degree. but at the same time, there havejust been so many other issues that have kind of been swept under the rug thatwe've ignored. there's been a rise of hateas a result of this presidency

that we've seen bubble up and isthe current cause, i would say, of this incoming presidency. and that is just heartbreakingto know that i saw someone say that the man whowas [chuckles] -- the first black presidentis being replaced by a man who's been endorsedby the kkk basically. and so to know thatwe're entering a time of almost normalizedhate is so scary to me. and i can only hope,which is the message

of this outgoing president,that we can band together and we can block and figure thisout in the best way possible. and again, i want to make thathappen through my own work, but i know that it's goingto take more than that. >> issa rae, thank you so much. thank you very much. >> and thank you, amy. [ inaudible ] >> so did you like that?

please join me again inthanking our keynote speakers, both amy goodman and issa rae. next, it is my pleasure tointroduce dean scott derue who will come andprovide our mlk day charge. scott derue is thestephen m. ross professor and the edward j. frey dean of the stephen m. rossschool of business. please welcome to thestage scott derue. >> rob, thank you forthat introduction.

but even more importantly,thank you for your warmth, your wisdom, and your unwaveringcommitment to diversity, equity & inclusion at theuniversity of michigan. let's all give roba round of applause. it is truly an honor to sharethe stage with people like amy and issa who i believe are icons of our modern day civil rightsmovement -- a fight, a movement, that will and must continue. so let's give them anotherround of applause as well.

it is truly an honor to behere today in this moment of togetherness and to celebratethe legacy of dr. king. you see, like dr. king, ibelieve, as i'm sure all of you do as well, thatit is our privilege and our responsibility to bringpeople together and give voice to those that aretraditionally not heard. i believe, like dr. king,that it is our privilege and our responsibilityto listen to and seek to understand thosevoices, their perspectives,

especially those perspectivesthat differ from our own because that's when welearn, that's when we grow, that's when we progressas a society. like dr. king, i believeit is our privilege to live in a diverse world and ourresponsibility to embrace that diversity to createa better world for all. indeed, our diversity is ourgreatest strength, but only when and only if we createan inclusive community and equity for all.

make no mistake --like any community, like any organization, we are not perfect,but we strive to be. and to me, it's thatunwavering commitment that is the michigan difference. and i am extremely proud tobe part of this community because of that unwaveringcommitment, and i'm proud to be on that journey with you. well, we're about at that time.

i hope you enjoyed today'sprogram as much as i did. please join me in thanking allof today's program participants for sharing with us today. please thank them. this year's symposium wasco-sponsored by the university of michigan bicentennial officeand the ross school of business with support from thewilliam k. mcinally fund. please join me in thankingthem for their support. also, join me inthanking the office

of academic multiculturalinitiatives for providing majoradministrative support to the committee andthe planning process. oami, thank you. this year, as always, themlk symposium was organized by the mlk planning committee,which is made up of a group of dedicated staff and facultyfrom across the university. would members of the planningcommittee please stand? please join me inrecognizing these individuals

for the countless hours oftireless work and dedication that they have givento make this happen. finally, i'd like to bring out on stage our twosymposium coordinators, lumas helaire and mary taylor. these two individuals, alongwith the others that i named, are the reason that we are able to enjoy this wonderful programtoday, as well as to be able to coordinate themany, many other events

that are here on campus. i just personally want to thankthem for all the hard work that they've beendoing over many years. believe it or not, thisprocess will start very, very soon for next year. so get some rest [chuckles]. but thank you very much. i hope that you will agreewith me that today's program is in keeping with thecelebratory spirit

of reverend king's birthday, aswell as the celebratory spirit that went in making thisbirthday a federally recognized holiday. i was fortunate enoughto be a student back at howard universityso many years ago. howard in the house? when we had a series ofmarches on the capitol to make this birthdaya national holiday and seeing literallythousands of folks walking

and braving the cold of d.c.in january and listening to stevie wonder and manyother illustrious civil rights advocates making the casefor this holiday is one of the things thathas shaped my life. i was also fortunateenough to be here back at the very first king holidaycelebration at the university of michigan and feeling andexperiencing that feeling of celebration, comradery,and also a sense that there was stillwork to be done.

i hope the content oftoday's program instills both that celebratory spirit aswell as an understanding that there is stillwork to be done. i hope today's program inspireseach and every one of us to do our part no morebut definitely no less, to do our part to make thisuniversity, this country, and this world a better place. if we do that, thereis absolutely no doubt that we will succeed.

so thank you all forcoming this morning. once again, i invite youto continue to participate in our many other events. if you have questions aboutthose events, please either look at your program or also lookat the mlk celebration website. so i hope to see youagain this time next year. and thank you, goodafternoon, and happy mlk day.

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