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Host Chris MSNBC:
Welcome!

Host Richard Valeriani:
I am Richard Valeriani, former NBC News correspondent. I covered the civil rights revolution in the south, the events in Birmingham, AL, Philadelphia, Mississippi and Selma, AL.

Host Richard Valeriani:
I'm ready to take your questions about that period now.

Host Chris MSNBC:

bobbyroy:
I think it is appropriate, as an introduction, to give an overall view of the marches purpose etc.

Host Richard Valeriani:
The overall point of the march was to dramatize the campaign for the right to vote of millions of black Americans in the South who were denied that basic right in the world's greatest democracy.

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Host Chris MSNBC:
Welcome!

Host Chris MSNBC:
Please ask those questions!

Martin:
How has being at various marches affected you and your opinions?

bobbyroy:
What was the importance and position of Jesse Jackson in those days?

Host Richard Valeriani:
If you look at the pictures on the television in black and white, it seems like a very long time ago. But, when you think about it, it was only 30 years ago, 3 decades that this basic fundamental right was denied to a variety of means to so many American

Host Richard Valeriani:
citizens

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bobbyroy:
Where was Jesse Jackson, was he too young at the time ?

Host Richard Valeriani:
So the Civil Rights Movement shows Selma as the laboratory for dramatizing that injustice. Selma was chosen for a particular reason, I think, because the sheriff there was Jim Clark, a belligerent, pugnacious, racist cop

Martin:
Do you feel that African American leader today carry the same mental awareness as they did some 30 years ago?

Host Richard Valeriani:
with a hair-trigger temper, who would in effect symbolize the forces of segregation and it was anticipated that his reactions, which were in effect predictable, would help the cause

Host Chris MSNBC:

Martin:
How has being at various marches affected you and your opinions?

bobbyroy:
What about Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace. Was he a total racist ?

Host Richard Valeriani:
Well, I think that it was somewhat shocking for those of us who went from the North to the South in those days to find that kind of latent segregation. That's not to say there were no racial antagonisms in the North, but the society

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Martin:
Hello Chris I haven't been involved in any March. This is why I ask.

Host Richard Valeriani:
I came out of in south NJ was nothing like I encountered when I first went to Mississippi and Alabama. So I think my first reaction was simply shock, to see drinking fountains labeled for whites and for Negroes, facilities for Negroes and whites.

Jack:
Back to what you had said previously, you're saying the march was intentionally staged to induce a violent and dramatic reaction for the local authorities?

Host Richard Valeriani:
And it was just shocking, even to me, to understand that people simply could not vote in the United States of America, I simply could not think of anything more shocking

Host Richard Valeriani:
So I think it's not a question of how the marches affected my opinion, I have to say as a reporter, I felt that my opinions did not matter. I was not there to report my opinions, I was there to report what I found and what happened.

Hillery:
Where are we today?

Host Chris MSNBC:
Watch Time & Again tonight ....they will discuss this topic tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
http://www.msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeAndAgain/default.asp.

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Host Richard Valeriani:
And that basically is how I saw my job. Frequently, I was criticized by both sides, the demonstrators felt that I wasn't helping them, but I did not see it as my job to help them. And the so-called white establishment or the power structure in those

Host Richard Valeriani:
communities felt that I was indeed siding with the so-called outside agitators. So I was constantly being criticized if not excoriated by both sides. .

Host Richard Valeriani:
Which meant to me that I was doing my job.

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Host Chris MSNBC:

bobbyroy:
What was the importance and position of Jesse Jackson in those days?

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Host Richard Valeriani:
Jesse Jackson, in those days, was unknown. I don't remember Jackson almost until the very end, he was not a significant figure certainly in Birmingham and Selma. He was with Martin Luther King when he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968

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Brecht54:
Were there any photographers around when you were attacked in Marion?

Host Richard Valeriani:
A lot of people felt that Jackson was kind of opportunistic about exploiting his relationship with King, but he was not one of the participants in the so-called Long Marches.

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Host Chris MSNBC:

Jack:
Okay I'll bite, what was his involvement in the march?

Host Richard Valeriani:
No, I was there strictly as a reporter, as I said reporting on the events, frequently being attacked by both sides. At one point being physically attacked in Marian, AL, during a nighttime demonstration, the night that Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed

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Host Richard Valeriani:
(No relation to Jesse Jackson) And I was hit over the head with an ax handle by a white bystander, and luckily he hit me with a round house swing, like with a baseball bat, rather than coming over the top, otherwise I might not be here to talk about it

Host Chris MSNBC:

dew:
You say Richard is a former NBC correspondent. Is he retired?

Host Chris MSNBC:
He will be on Time & Again tonight!

Host Chris MSNBC:
10 p.m. ET

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NewHere:

Host Richard Valeriani:
I do some periodic freelance work, some writing, the only things I have done since leaving NBC in 1988 have been some voice-overs for PBS, some videos for private corporations. I was in a movie called "Crimson Tide"

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Host Richard Valeriani:
But essentially what I do now is engage in what's called media training, which is to coach people in how to handle themselves in print and electronic interviews

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Host Chris MSNBC:

bobbyroy:
Which is the place with the WORST human rights that you have been at

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Host Richard Valeriani:
The scariest place I think that I have been in, or that I was in during that period, was Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was just downright scary. That's where the 3 young Civil Rights workers were killed in 1964.

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Host Richard Valeriani:
The hatred was almost palpable. It was a very scary place and we had to rely on the Mississippi State Highway Patrol for our safety at that time and I must say we didn't always have a great deal of confidence

Host Richard Valeriani:
in the people who were supposedly there to keep law and order. But I'm now talking about the domestic arena, not international.

Host Chris MSNBC:

Jack:
What was the emotional state of the participants - determined, angry, violent?

NewHere:
it's amazing how inhumane people can be, and how easy it is to just look the other way......

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Host Richard Valeriani:
The emotions were across the board. After "Bloody Sunday", when the marchers attempted the first time to go from Selma to Montgomery and were crushed by the AL State Troopers with horses and teargas and billyclubs and whips,

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Host Richard Valeriani:
the reaction was, on the part of a lot of people, to go get shotguns and engage in a form of insurrection. But the philosophical underpinning of the movement that was led by MLK was non-violence, and people who, I think personally a lot of

Host Richard Valeriani:
whom might have preferred violence at that stage, understood the need not to lash back physically and in the end that tactic proved to be the right one, at least strategically the most effective one

Martin:
Were you provoked at any time

Host Richard Valeriani:
So by the time of the actual march there was a whole range of emotions, victory at being able to do it, resentment on the part of the participants who'd been killed and also I think there was a slight sense of relief,

Host Chris MSNBC:
Watch Time & Again tonight ....they will discuss this topic tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
http://www.msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeAndAgain/default.asp.

NewHere:
I have read about serious human rights violations being wide spread in the military services, Do you think this is seen more in the south than other areas?

Host Chris MSNBC:
Our guest will be on Time &Again tonight!

Host Richard Valeriani:
accomplishment that a federal judge had endorsed the right to march and therefore the marches had the protection of federal troops, National Guardsmen I believe, so they knew this march would probably be free of violence

Host Richard Valeriani:
But I think ultimately there was a feeling during the march, if there was a single predominant emotion, it was one of triumph

Brecht54:
Were there any photographers around when you were attacked in Marion?

Host Richard Valeriani:
There were, but the problem was that that night we knew there'd be trouble from the very beginning, because the very moment we arrived the streetlights had been shot out

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Host Richard Valeriani:
But more important, people had sprayed black paint on the lens of our cameras, and that had never happened before. So nobody took pictures because it was just too dangerous. Night time demonstrations were in a way

Host Richard Valeriani:
provocative and dangerous to start with, but to go in there and turn on a TV light, it was dangerous

Host Richard Valeriani:
And there were some cameramen who simply refused to work at night, saying it was too dangerous

Jack:
Richard - are there any conflicts in other parts of the world today that you could compare with the situation at that time?

Host Richard Valeriani:
A point I think should make here is at that time in that situation it was particularly dangerous for newspeople because they became specific targets

Host Richard Valeriani:
Especially people who were on TV, because our faces were seen and we were known

Host Richard Valeriani:
I have been in combat situations which you'd think would be more dangerous because of bullets flying and bombs going off, however in that situation you were not the specific target. But in places like Selma or Marion, you knew that

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Host Richard Valeriani:
certain people were gunning for you personally.

Host Richard Valeriani:
So in effect, I thought it was lot scarier

bobbyroy:
What about Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace. Was he a total racist ?

Host Richard Valeriani:
George Wallace was total politician of his time. He was once defeated, I don't remember if it was for the governership but a state wide office and he claimed he was "out-niggered".

Brecht54:
What did you do to protect yourself?

Host Richard Valeriani:
And he said he "would never be out-niggered again" meaning in order to be elected at that time, you had to be more segregationist than anybody else

Host Richard Valeriani:
And obviously, as once the Voting Rights Act was passed, and suddenly hundreds of thousands of black people in AL could vote, George Wallace changed his tune

funhog:
what a guy

Host Richard Valeriani:
And so, incidentally, did the mayor of Selma, who was at that time a young man named Joe Smitherman, and when I went back to Selma something like 20 years later,

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Host Richard Valeriani:
Joe Smitherman had been elected mayor again with the help of black voters, because he and Wallace shifted with the political winds, and as a matter of fact, one night several years later

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Host Richard Valeriani:
my wife got a call late at night from somebody, I wasn't there, she said "Who is this" and he said "It's Governor George Wallace of Alabama and I just wanted to tell Richard thanks for all his coverage and I'm sorry for all the things I did"

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NewHere:
I have read about serious human rights violations being wide spread in the military services, Do you think this is seen more in the south than other areas?

Host Richard Valeriani:
That's an area I cannot frankly comment on, but I would have to point out the military services have offered good opportunities for people all across the board in advance of the rest of society

Host Chris MSNBC:

Jack:
Back to what you had said previously, you're saying the march was intentionally staged to induce a violent and dramatic reaction for the local authorities?

Host Richard Valeriani:
I am saying that the demonstration, not the march, was staged in Selma with, I think, the knowledge aforethought, that given the character of Jim Clark, yes, they would provoke a violent reaction

Host Chris MSNBC:
Watch Time & Again tonight ....they will discuss this topic tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
http://www.msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeAndAgain/default.asp.

Host Chris MSNBC:
Our guest will be on the show tonight!

Host Richard Valeriani:
which would ultimately benefit the cause, just as Birmingham was chosen because they knew Bull Connor, chief of police, would react in a violent manner.

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Martin:
The March was a counter measure.

Martin:
Do you feel that African American leader today carry the same mental awareness as they did some 30 years ago

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Host Richard Valeriani:
I think that it's more difficult for them today because in a way 30 years ago, it was in a way easier because the injustice was so flagrant, so blatant. Black Americans could not eat in restaurants, could not drink at water fountains, could not vote

Host Richard Valeriani:
So it was a lot easier to fight for de-segregation than it was, or is now, to fight against the subtler forms of racial prejudice and antagonisms.

Host Richard Valeriani:
I have a sense that today there are people looking for, even black leaders, looking for easy solutions simply by playing the race card, when that may not necessarily be the principle problem.

Host Chris MSNBC:
While covering the civil rights movement, what individual person most inspired you personally and why?

Host Richard Valeriani:
I don't think that I would use the word inspire. There were a number of what I would call inspirational leaders for the movement. Obviously MLK, principally because of his oratorical abilities, but there were, at the time, any

funhog:
I think the media tends to push the "race issue" into to many of the current events of the day just to make a bigger news story.

Host Richard Valeriani:
number of inspirational leaders: Roy Wilkins, NAACP leader; James Farmer, head of CORE; John Lewis, who's now in Congress; Andy Young, who became mayor of Atlanta and a UN ambassador, one of MLK's top lieutenants;

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Beth:
Who do you consider the most influential black leader today?

Host Richard Valeriani:
one of Andy Young's predecessors, Wyatt T. Walker, who's now a minister in Harlem; a host of what I call the top sergeants in the movement

Jumble:
I wonder if many people (especially white people) are simply impatient with the outcome of the civil rights movement and that's why there is less sympathy out there for the cause.

Host Richard Valeriani:
People like James Bevel, Hosea Williams, my memory fails me here, but there were a whole range of people who in effect laid their lives on the line, who went out and showed extraordinary bravery considering the conditions they were facing

Host Richard Valeriani:
So King was the perceived leader, certainly, but he could not have accomplished what he did without the support of all these really wonderful assistants.

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Martin:
who are some of the unsung hero of that era

Host Richard Valeriani:
James Bevel's wife was pretty active, but essentially women were not particularly known in the movement, nor did they have significant leadership positions. The preceded the feminist movement.

Host Chris MSNBC:

Beth:
Who do you consider the most influential black leader today?

Host Richard Valeriani:
That's a very, very difficult question, in this country the movement doesn't exist as it did then, so there is no such thing today as a Civil Rights Movement.

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Host Richard Valeriani:
I would like to say, among the inspirational leaders, one of the *great* human beings was Medger Evers, he was just a wonderful human being. And obviously somebody thought they could kill the movement in Mississippi by killing him

Host Richard Valeriani:
Another extraordinary leader in Mississippi was Aaron Henry

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Host Richard Valeriani:
But I would have to say to you that probably, perhaps one of the most influential black leaders in America today is somebody that was very much a part of the establishment, that is Vernon Jordan who is very rich, very plugged in,

Host Richard Valeriani:
and very close to President Clinton, so that I think when it comes to matters of race in this country, he probably has more influence than anybody else.

Manduko:
Can you talk about him a little?

Host Richard Valeriani:
I would like to say what I said on the program. It was an extraordinary period, when I look back on it, it was a seminal period in American history. Certainly for a reporter, one of the great stories of all time. We tended to see it in terms of

Host Chris MSNBC:
Watch Time & Again tonight ....they will discuss this topic tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
http://www.msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeAndAgain/default.asp.

Host Chris MSNBC:
closing

Jack:
Thank you for your time.

Martin:
Thank you for being here and answering my questions. God Bless. buh-bye

Host Richard Valeriani:
individual events, I guess, Birmingham demonstrations, Philadelphia murders, Selma demonstrations and there were all sorts of other battlegrounds as well. But you put it together and it was a revolution

Host Richard Valeriani:
As a matter of fact, NBC ran the first 3 hour documentary in prime time in 1963 and called it the "second American Revolution".

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Host Richard Valeriani:
It was, as I say, an extraordinary period in American history and I personally think that it was also a time of coming of age for television news, because we covered these events night after night, day after day,

Host Richard Valeriani:
showing the pictures. The pictures went into the living rooms of Americans all over the country, and in effect, influenced the policymakers to write laws. I think that before TV, a lot of newspapers in the South did not cover the story very well,

Host Richard Valeriani:
but the pictures forced them to send people to the scene and do better reporting. I think journalism as a whole benefited from that.

buddha:
Did Clinton listen to Vernon Jordan when he (pres.) approved the elimination of minority contract programs

Host Richard Valeriani:
Thank you and good night!

Copyright (c) 1997, National Broadcasting Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

This is a rush transcript provided for the information and convenience of the press. Accuracy is not guaranteed.