Tavis Smiley is the host and managing editor of Tavis Smiley on PBS, and The Tavis Smiley Show from Public Radio International. He is also the author of 16 best-selling books. Here, he talks about his latest opus, \u201cDeath of a King.\u201d
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Kam Williams:<\/strong> Hi Tavis, thanks for the time, brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tavis Smiley:<\/strong> Always nice to speak with you, Kam. KW:<\/strong> I have lots of questions for you from readers. Attorney Bernadette Beekman says: I know that your book deals with the last year of King\u2019s life when the tide was turning against him, such as the Black Panthers, Ralph Bunche, and others in the movement. Now Dr. King is viewed as a martyr. Was it difficult for those still living to now speak negatively about King?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Good question, Bernadette. Now that he is a dead martyr, rarely do people speak negatively of him. My point is that it\u2019s easy to celebrate and applaud dead martyrs. The problem is that when King was here and in our faces, and talking about inconvenient truths, like what he called the triple threat facing our democracy\u2013racism, poverty and militarism\u2014everybody turned on him. Yet, 50 years after his assassination, what do we see when we look at Ferguson, Missouri? Racism, poverty and militarism! We have deified King in death, so it\u2019s easy for people to say nice things about him now. But in life, we demonized him. KW:<\/strong> Harriet Pakula-Teweles says: An historical biography of the last year of Dr. King\u2019s life, no matter how beautiful a tribute, is it really what we need to read now to get it right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Absolutely! The answer\u2019s \u201cYes,\u201d because we come to know who we really are in life during the dark and difficult and desolate days of our journey. If you think you respect and revere Dr. King, wait \u2019til you read this book. You\u2019re going to feel that way even more so afterwards, because you\u2019ll get to see how he navigated the most difficult period of his life, the last year of his life when everybody turned against him. That\u2019s what fascinates me about him. After reading this book, you\u2019ll have a different appreciation of Dr. King. It\u2019s important to see him in his full complexity, and be honest about the fact that we help to kill King because we abandoned him. And once we abandoned him, we isolated him, which made it easy for someone to assassinate him. It was a three-step process. KW:<\/strong> Editor\/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: Do you have any interest in entering politics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Let me put it like this, \u201cN, O, NO!\u201d And put that in caps. KW:<\/strong> Patricia also says: I think this is one of your best books. I just finished reading it. I found your discussion of Coretta Scott King\u2019s influence on her husband very interesting, as well as her contributions as an activist, and her criticism of the Civil Rights Movement\u2019s lack of focus, and the roles played by women in combat. About your research process: Did you make trips to Atlanta, Montgomery, the Lorraine Motel and other places in Memphis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Yes, all of the above. The short answer is I traveled extensively, I interviewed extensively, and I researched extensively. Still, I couldn\u2019t have done this book had it none been for the work of Dr. King\u2019s three principal biographers: Taylor Branch, David Garrow and Clayborne Carson. Those guys did the heavy lifting which made it easier for me to do a book just focusing on his final year. As for Coretta, she\u2019s really an unsung heroine. I\u2019m glad that Patricia took away the critical role that Coretta played not only in Dr. King\u2019s life, but in the Movement. I\u2019m glad that we were able to weave that into the narrative effectively. KW:<\/strong> Patricia says: You quote Dr. King asserting that \u201cOur nation is sick with racism, sick with militarism, sick with a system that perpetuates poverty.\u201d If Dr. King were still alive, what do you think his assessment of present-day America would be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Excellent question! He\u2019d pick up right where he left off, talking about that triple threat of racism, poverty and militarism. Even in the era of the first black president, racism is still the most intractable issue in this country. Regarding poverty, half of all Americans are either in or near poverty. Poverty is certainly worse for African-Americans now than it was during King\u2019s lifetime. And there\u2019s a highway into poverty, but barely a sidewalk out. This is not a skill problem, it\u2019s a will problem, and King would be challenging us about the lack of our will to eradicate poverty. On militarism, the growth of the Military-Industrial Complex has been exponential since his assassination. If he were here now, he\u2019d have a strong critique of the American empire\u2019s militaristic approach to the world. And frankly, he\u2019d have a strong critique of the Obama administration on its use of drones. KW:<\/strong> Patricia says: You wrote that this book meant more to you than any of your others. I consider it an homage to a legend. What do you think is the most important part of Dr. King\u2019s legacy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> I think Dr. King is the greatest democratic, public intellectual that America has ever produced. What\u2019s interesting is that in the U.S., we regard him as an icon, while elsewhere around the world he\u2019s regarded as a revolutionary. They saw him as the radical revolutionary that he really was. Loving your enemy is a radical concept. Here at home, we\u2019ve sanitized and sterilized him, and failed to appreciate him as the revolutionary and prophet that he really was. KW:<\/strong> Chandra McQueen says: This year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. King\u2019s winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Do you think Obama is as deserving of his?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> I want to be as charitable as I can be, here. It\u2019s been very difficult, sometimes heartbreaking to watch this war President with a Nobel Peace Prize, navigate his presidency. KW:<\/strong> Have you considered having some of Smiley Books translated into other languages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> We\u2019ve translated some, but we could do more. KW:<\/strong> Sangeetha Subramanian asks: What was the most surprising fact you uncovered when researching this book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> That for all the surveillance and wiretapping Dr. King was kept under, not one time was he ever heard contesting the humanity of another human being. KW:<\/strong> Vassar professor Mia Mask asks: What\u2019s up with your campaign against Obama? Isn\u2019t it somewhat self-serving? What, if anything, have you and Cornel West accomplished with your public criticism of the President?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> I am not engineering a campaign against Obama. My work and witness is about holding our leaders accountable. KW:<\/strong> What do you think is the state of black politics in terms of loyalty to the Democratic Party?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> It\u2019s the same old story. Democrats, too often, take blacks for granted, and Republicans, too often, simply ignore black voters. KW:<\/strong> David Roth says: I would love to have a chance to chat with you. I am intrigued by the evolution of the post-civil disobedience African-American identity. Please comment on what Dr. Cornel West refers to as the dousing of the \u201cBlack prophetic fire\u201d and the subsequent co-opting of the \u201cwe-consciousness\u201d of 19th and 20th Century black leaders by the \u201cme-consciousness\u201d of the capitalistic society all Americans operate within. Now that the majority of Black Americans has been assimilated, there is no longer a singular, collective Black voice articulating the call for true equality of opportunity and equal justice under the law, which has led to the marginalizing of the people who raise their voices today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Dr. West is absolutely correct about the black prophetic tradition of speaking truth to power being on life support. KW:<\/strong> Kyle Moore asks: What has to be done to change to the political stalemate we see in Washington?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> We need to elect leaders who understand that leadership is about loving and serving people, not about self-advancement. KW:<\/strong> L.A. \u201cRealtor to the Stars\u201d Jimmy Bayan says: You\u2019ve been in Los Angeles for 30 years. What is it that you still find so alluring about our City of Angels?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Great question, Jimmy. The City of Angels is a microcosm of the world, and so living in L.A. makes me feel like a citizen of the world. KW:<\/strong> Cousin Leon Marquis asks: What was the toughest question you ever had to ask someone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> That\u2019s a question that every one of my guests would have a different answer for, because they all think I ask tough questions. We\u2019ll leave it at that. KW:<\/strong> AALBC Publisher Troy Johnson asks: What happened with the R. Kelly book project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> We published the book, but for any number of reasons, it didn\u2019t sell enough to make the best-seller list. He was afforded an opportunity to tell his story, and the marketplace decided. KW:<\/strong> Troy also says: I really enjoyed, and now miss, the Smiley and West radio program. Why was it cancelled? Any plans for a similar program in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> It wasn\u2019t canceled. Dr. West and I decided to step away from it, primarily because we both just have so many things going on. We\u2019re both very busy people. KW:<\/strong> Troy would like to know: What are the future plans of Smiley Books?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to continue to publish books we think need to be read. KW:<\/strong> Film critic Armond White simply asks: Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TS:<\/strong> Great question, Armond. I ask that myself everyday.
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