ALA MIDWINTER MEETING 
PRESIDENT'S PROGRAM
SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2008 ‑ 3:30 ‑ 5:30 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA, PA 
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER: 
KAREEM ABDUL‑JABBAR 

[Applause.]
>> LORIENE ROY: Boozhoo, hello.  I'm pleased and honored to serve as your 2007‑2008 President of the American Library Association.  Megwitch.
[Applause.]
Thank you for your support.  This year, we are organizing activities that involve celebrating community, collaboration and culture.  Along with this Presidential Program, we are coordinating three taskforces:  Supporting LIS education through practice, Workplace Wellness, and the Circle of Literacy.  On Friday, many in the audience may have attended and participated in the Forum on Education.  Watch soon for the Forum to be restaged in Second Life.  Joe Sanchez, PhD student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin will be coordinating this virtual event.
Check out the Workplace Wellness website.  We will have additional material on Workforce Wellness available for you on National Library Workers Day, April 15, 2008.  We will join you in celebrating National Library Week with the theme "Join the Circle of Knowledge @ your Library." 
In addition to these three taskforces, we are hosting discussions related to three special projects, a National Library Camp for young people, a National Oral History Project for retired/retiring librarians and meeting effectiveness podcasts.
Our speaker this afternoon, Dr. Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, brings to us his connections with education, history and, yes, basketball.  There are few things I love more than reading, children and basketball.
I do want to share just a thought about basketball.
In his Alex Award‑winning title "Eagle Blue:  A Team, A Tribe and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska," author Michael D'Orso wrote about the appeal of basketball to native peoples:  "It's a deep, complex game whenever these boys face their uncles and cousins and brothers and friends in front of their families and neighbors, the whole village.  The undercurrents of pride, honor, challenge and respect run deep on both sides, on all sides.  It's far more than simply the boys testing themselves against men.  That's natural, any time, any place, the rites and rituals of coming of age.  What's different here, what amplifies everything, enlarging it far beyond the bounds of the basketball court, is the men's need to establish themselves, to say:  'This is who I am' in the face of having all that, they are stripped away from them ‑‑ their language, their culture, their history, their pride.  With so little ground left to stand on, they stand here, on the court, all of them, the men and the boys, with the whole village watching." 
Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar added his observations of Indian basketball in his book "A Season on the Reservation:  My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apache.”  "The crowd liked the frenzy of the game more than anything else, perhaps even more than winning itself.  These normally quiet people liked the chance to scream and stomp their feet for a while each week during the long winter on the reservation; they liked to give vent to the things they kept inside the rest of the time.  Perhaps basketball, in its own way, had become a kind of catharsis and healing ritual ‑‑ not just in Whiteriver, but in many other places as well."  
We stand here, our colleagues, our ALA members, also playing our version of basketball, our team, often the underdogs, rising to the challenge of our game of play.  Day after day, night after night, we play our run‑and‑shoot game of building our collections, providing services, responding to community needs, and what better connection to our work and play than a man like Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar.  
Dr. Abdul‑Jabbar personifies our celebration of community, collaboration and culture.  At the age of 17, he had the opportunity to participate in the Harlem Youth Project which sparked his interest in black history and the Harlem Renaissance, the subject of his latest book, "On the Shoulders of Giants:  My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.”
Following his stellar basketball career, Kareem volunteered as a teacher and coach on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona.  He used the game to show players that there is a way to escape the hopelessness that seemed to surround them due to poverty and the lack of economic opportunities.
As a star basketball player, Kareem learned that a team has to act as a unit; they can't just do it all as individuals.  In life, as in basketball, we all must work together to achieve success.
I'd like you to join me in welcoming Dr. Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar.
[Applause.]
(Standing Ovation.) 
Joining us this afternoon on the stage will be Janice Rice, Janice?  Ho‑Chunk Nation.  And Wanda Brown.  Janice is the current President of the American Indian Library Association and will now recognize Kareem for his work with native children.  Could you please come to the stage?
[Applause.]
[Laughter]
>> JANICE RICE: It is my honor and pleasure to present you with gifts from the American Indian Library Association.  I present you with the wampum disk necklace.  Indian nations of the northeast coast use the wampum when they are preparing beads and making covenants.  And I present that to you today.  The necklace was blessed and crafted by Bear Paw Caldwell of the Amapi Nation.  It includes prayers for your continued good health and prosperity.
Dorothy Young, a Ho‑Chunk elder, designed and created a starburst medallion for you.  Please wear this when you travel to First Nations communities and remember that your literary work has touched many.
[Applause.]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you so much.
>> JANICE RICE: In honor of your experience in the Southwest, the American Indian Library Association is honored to present you two poster art prints by Lee Marmon, who is a Laguna Pueblo artist and photographer.  He is father of the famous author and poet Leslie Marmon Silko.  May you enjoy life and prosper.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
>> LORIENE ROY: Wanda Brown is the current President of the Black Caucus of ALA.  She will add an acknowledgment of Dr. Abdul‑Jabbar's scholarship of African‑American history.
[Applause.]
>> WANDA BROWN: The Black Caucus of the American Library Association, BCALA, is pleased to welcome Dr. Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar to the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association.  We thank President Loriene Roy for this opportunity and we applaud her efforts toward inclusion.  We join the American Indian Library Association in the celebration of the literary contributions Kareem has given us, especially his work with education and literacy.
BCALA serves as an advocate for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information resources to the nation's African‑American community.  We celebrate those giants that lit the torch.  We appreciate those giants, like Kareem ‑‑ 
[Laughter]
‑‑ who carried the torch.  We appreciate, and therefore, we strive to educate, recruit and empower future torchbearers, future giants, just like Kareem.
With that said, BCALA would like to honor you, Kareem, by pledging to distribute 100 copies of your literary work "On the Shoulder of Giants" to teen centers within public libraries throughout the Southeast.  Thank you.
[Applause.] 
>> WANDA BROWN: And this is for you, too.
>> LORIENE ROY: On behalf of the American Library Association, I also would like to extend a small token of our appreciation.  This plaque reads "Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar: In recognition of bringing forward role models in African‑American culture through your scholarship, writing and support of reading." 
[Applause.]
We are now eager to hear from Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar.  From the NBA to ALA, we welcome you, Dr. Jabbar.
[Laughter]
[Applause.]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you very much for your very warm and rousing reception.
[Laughter]
And I really would like to thank the people here that managed to get a podium that was to my scale.
[Laughter]
I'm not used to that.  It's a very pleasant development.  Oops.  It's a lot different from the goggles I wore when I played, but I can't do my speech unless I can see.
My guess is that over the years, you've had quite a few people stand up here and describe how if it weren't for some childhood experience in a library or guidance by a particular librarian, they wouldn't be standing here addressing you.
I'm no different.  If I hadn't stumbled into the Arthur Schomburg Center for Black Culture in New York City as a teenager, I probably would not be here today.
Oh, I still would have had my same career as a professional basketball player, after all, look at me.
[Laughter]
The good lord prepared me for that endeavor.  But I'm not standing here today as a basketball player.  I'm standing here as an author, an historian, and a book lover, all because of a library and librarians like you.
[Applause.]
Thank you.
My love of reading started early as a gift from my father, who read books like many people pop mints.  Whenever I had a question, he would just hand me one of his books and tell me to look it up.  And it would be very frustrating for me.  I would want to have a conversation with him about whatever the subject was and he'd say, "No, you've got to make the effort and read and learn how to discern these things for yourself."
And since he had as many books as I had questions, that took a lot of time.
[Laughter]
In fact, he used to go to the booksellers down on the lower east side and buy books by the pound, literally.  They'd weigh the books on a scale, and based on the weight, that's what he would pay.
Some might find paying by the pound somehow demeaning to the book's content, but I loved the idea.  What could be more democratic?  No matter how famous the author, how big the advance, how desperate the publisher's height, all the books are treated the same.  I liked this because it recognizes that a Hardy Boys mystery that some 10‑year‑old boy is reading under his bed covers with a flashlight has the same value as a Pulitzer prize winning author that some professor is forcing his student to read.
During the summer of 1964 I was 17 years old, the star of a championship basketball team and an A student.  I didn't have to give too much thought to my future because that path ahead seemed as clear as it was inevitable.
Then something happened that shattered that path forever and changed me.  My high school coach was a terrific coach and a great human being, but at half‑time of a game that I was playing in a very unfocused, lazy kind of way, he blew his top.  In trying to find a way to press my buttons and get me back on track, he used the “N” word.  It was an uncharacteristic and unfortunate choice of words that shocked and angered me.  I managed to play the second half with the skill and focus that was expected of me, but something had changed in my relationship with him.  All the trust and close connection we had established over the years went out the window, and like Humpty Dumpty was not going to come back together again.
Although I had been born in Harlem, we moved further uptown when I was three years old.  Having spent my elementary school years in a mostly white school, living in a mostly white neighborhood, I had become a little removed from my own culture.  So removed that I didn't even realize I was removed.
I had been well versed in the music of the African‑American culture by my dad, who was a jazz musician and a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music.  He exposed me to the greatest jazz music of the Harlem Renaissance and explained to me the mysteries of the bebop revolution.  But I no longer knew much about the people of Harlem.  Although I visited Harlem regularly since moving away, it was usually only for holiday get-togethers or basketball games.  I'd arrive, play some ball, run an errand or two, and immediately leave.  In many ways, I was more like a tourist.  
I had been pretty content with that lifestyle.  After all, I was something of a local celebrity.  I liked being on a championship team and I liked having both black and white fans cheer my name.  But I got a wakeup call that let me know where I really stood.  I usually spent my summers at my coach's camp; but after that incident with him, that was the last place I wanted to be for the summer.
In May, I found out about a program for Harlem's high school students that grabbed my attention immediately.  It was officially called the Harlem Youth Action Program, or HARYOU.
In order to reconnect with Harlem, I signed up as part of the Harlem Youth Action Program.  HARYOU was the city sponsored antipoverty program designed to keep kids off the street and teach them something about their heritage.
The man in charge of our little group of overachievers was Dr. John Henrik Clarke, the head of the Heritage Teaching Program.  Dr. Clarke wanted the young people of Harlem to learn about and understand their own heritage.  
When he had taught Sunday school as a younger man, Dr. Clarke was dismayed by the fact that the Bibles he was using never portrayed the people from the African areas in Biblical stories as black.  Moses's wife Zipporah was from Ethiopia, but in the Bibles that Dr. Clarke used, she was portrayed as white.  Moses visited the land of Cush, which is today known as Sudan.  He also visited another area of Africa called Punt which is today Somalia.  In both of these instances, the people living there were portrayed as white.
Then Dr. Clarke read "The New Negro," the anthology of essays, fiction, art and poetry compiled by Dr. Alain Locke, that helped define the goals of the Harlem Renaissance.  Dr. Clarke, who had been so inspired by the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, shared his passion for African‑American history with all of us.  But somehow his message seemed directly tailored for me.
Dr. Clarke said, "History is not everything, but it is the starting point.  History is the clock that people use to tell their time of day.  It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography.  It tells them where they are, but more importantly what they must be."
This is when I first understood the main difference between the two passions that would dominate my life:  Basketball and history.
My coach had taught me how to play basketball, how to win games, but Dr. Clarke taught me how to find my place within my own community, within my own history.  
In a way, it was appropriate that my cultural awakening came through the use of the “N” word.  I had been a little too comfortable being the young basketball star, a little out of reach with the kind of racism that others faced on a daily basis.  Ironically, it was my coach, who by keeping me immersed in basketball, kept me insulated.  And it was my coach who reminded me that such insulation was the fantasy that could be shattered at his discretion.
That was all over now.  Dr. Clarke encouraged us to explore our own paths as well as what was going on in the streets now.  My coach wanted us to become great basketball players, to achieve personal success.  Dr. Clarke wanted us to become great African‑Americans, to be enlightened.  Dr. Clarke hoped that by teaching ‑‑ that by training Harlem's youth in areas such as art, music, social work, photography or journalism, those trainees would be able to make Harlem a better place when they became adults.
“In regards to our precious young people,” he explained, “they are really the seeds of tomorrow's crop and our hope for immortality rests with them.  They owe it to themselves and to us to pick out the finest things among us as examples, follow these examples and improve upon them.  They are the thinkers of tomorrow.  They are the makers of tomorrow.  We changed the world once; we will change it again.”
Our assignment as members of the journalism workshop was to produce a weekly journal about life in Harlem.  Our teacher's supervisor was Al Calloway.  We worked out of a tiny office in the basement of the 135th Street YMCA annex.  While the rest of Harlem enjoyed the warm sunshine of summer, we pecked away on the ancient black typewriters in that dank, windowless room.  Mr. Calloway's assignments forced us to do research, some on the streets but a lot at the Arthur Schomburg Research Center for Black Culture. 
I was copy editor, so I had to do a lot of fact checking.  And that meant that I had to go down to that building a couple of times every week and figure something out or make sure that we had our facts right.
Originally, the Schomburg Center had merely been a branch of the New York City library system, but thanks to Puerto Rican‑born black scholar and biblophile Alfonso Schomburg, who donated his enormous collection of books on black history, the Schomburg Center was one of the world's richest sources for learning about black history.  For me, walking into the Schomburg for the first time was like discovering the Holy Grail.
Surrounded by all this information about the past, of my people, I felt unleashed.  I returned again and again with a monk‑like devotion.  I poured over every sacred scrap of information I could find out about the Harlem Renaissance, black nationals Marcus Garvey, black revolutionary W.E.B. DuBois, the poetry of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, the fiction of Zora Neale Hurston, and Walter Thurmond.  All these talented young men and women posed all the questions that had been bothering me all my life, but I never found anyone I could ask.  Now I didn't have to.  I could just read their insightful words and feel myself filling up, not just with knowledge, but with pride.  How could I be a senior in high school and not ever have heard of the Harlem Renaissance?
I learned everything I could about the Harlem Renaissance; mostly I learned how similar the Harlem of the Renaissance era was to the Harlem I was standing in.  Unrest, frustration and distrust were as thick as the humid summer air.  Black militants such as Malcolm X denounced racist injustice from the same soapboxes that Marcus Garvey used to speak from.  Malcolm X's Nation of Islam, which advocated a separatist approach to achieve racial equality, was at odds with the views advocated by Martin Luther King, Jr.  At one speech in Harlem, some black Muslims actually stoned Dr. King.
The following year, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.  Racial tensions went far beyond just blacks versus whites.
That June, I met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  As a favor to Dr. Clarke, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the participants of the HARYOU program.  Dr. King was still a few months away from being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but he had already been announced as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year."  I didn't particularly agree with the philosophy of nonviolence.  I had trouble believing we were ever going to get what was due us without putting up a fight.  Still, like most African‑Americans, I couldn't help but admire Dr. King's courage, dedication and boundless optimism.
When he spoke, all things did indeed seem possible, even a community where men can live together without fear.
I covered Dr. King's address as a journalist for our Harlem publication.  My press credentials allowed me to take part in the press conference Dr. King held after his address.  There I was, a 17‑year‑old kid huddled together with all the seasoned members of the mainstream media, scribbling away on my pad.  Holding my tape recorder in my shaking hand, I got the opportunity to ask Dr. King a question of my own:  "What do you think the significance of Dr. Clarke's program is to the people of Harlem?"
Dr. King replied that there was no doubt the program would be successful.  In fact, it already was a success because from that day forward, we understood what we needed to do with our lives.  We knew it had to be something that affected the African‑American community in a positive way.
That June encounter with Dr. King left me filled with hope, but all that changed one month later on July 18th.  Here's what I wrote about that night in my book that has just been mentioned, "On the Shoulders of Giants."
“It was a hot and muggy Sunday.  Everything was sticky.  My clothes, the subway seats, people's stares, even the air.  After spending a lazy day at the beach, I was returning home when I decided to stop off at 125th Street to browse for jazz records before meeting up with some friends.  I had heard about a Congress of Racial Equality rally that was supposed to take place around the same time, and I thought I'd check it out so I could possibly report on anything that might be noteworthy that happened.
“The rally was the protest about the shooting death of a 15‑year‑old African‑American boy named James Powell by a white off‑duty police officer, Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan.
“The shooting had occurred two days before and there had been peaceful protests throughout the city since.  Stepping out of the subway entrance was like walking into a war zone.  Gunshots echoed.  Glass shattered.  One thousand desperate feet pounded past me.  I ducked behind a lamppost wondering where the shots were coming from.  People were smashing storefront windows, running wild through the streets either in fear or in rage.
“The riot had started outside the 123rd Street police station a couple of blocks from where I was crouching.  Rocks, bricks, bottles were hurled.  Garbage cans were set on fire and retail stores were looted, including those selling guns.  A police officer with a megaphone had tried to calm the situation by shouting ‘Go home, go home.’ Someone in the crowd shouted back ‘We are home, baby.’
“Now, here I was running and panting along with everyone else, scared that my height would make me an easy target for a nervous cop.
[Laughter]
“Yet, I also felt part of the collective rage that emanated from the people running beside me.  We were running hard and fast, fueled by anger and frustration, dragging behind us the heavy chains of history.  It was those thick chains scraping the pavement that caused the sparks that ignited that night.  Maybe if we ran hard and fast and far enough, they'd disintegrate and we could break through the time barrier and emerge all fresh and rested in the Harlem imagined by those visionaries of the Harlem Renaissance:  A Mecca, a paradise, a home.  
“But those were the fevered dreams born of fear and anger.  As much as I admired Dr. King, tonight I just wanted to pick up a brick and throw it.  For the cop who shot James Powell.  For my high school coach.  For the teachers at my high school who didn't think it important to teach us anything about anyone with a black face.  
“Of course I didn't.  I had learned enough about history from my own studies at the Schomburg Center to realize that looting and bricks did not affect real change.  Some government suits would make a sympathetic speech, create a panel that would investigate the causes, dump some money on a couple of neighborhoods, plant a few trees here and there and hope the dragon would go back to sleep for another 10 years when it would be some other politician's problem.
“The riots lasted five days with one person being killed, 100 injured and 520 arrested.  The FBI would classify the riots as 'attack on all constituted authority.'  Our little band of teenage journalists could have told them that much.  Hell, Zora Neale Hurston said as much when she wrote, ‘Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.’”
A week later, I was back at my coach's camp named "Friendship Farm."  After everything that just happened, I could barely stand to look at the name of the place without wanting to break something.  When my three‑week sentence was up, I returned to Harlem, walking the streets where I had so recently been running for my life.  The rioting was over.  Much of the white press was condemning Harlemites as a 'bunch of thugs looking for an excuse to loot a new TV.'  Yeah, there was some of that.  But that was like saying the Boston Tea Party was a bunch of looters after free tea.
[Laughter]
Did we really fight the American Revolution so we could get cheaper tea?
After the riots, as I walked along the streets of Harlem, I realized that this summer had been a rite of passage for me, a leap from being a child of the projects to being a citizen of Harlem.  I knew what my place in history was, who my people were and where my future pointed.
I left Harlem to attend UCLA in the Autumn of 1965, but in the more than 40 years since then, Harlem has never left me.  When I think back on that summer from the heights of the giant's shoulders I have since stood on, I can see much more clearly what effect it had on me.
Three lessons emerge from the turmoil of that summer, lessons I've been able to apply throughout my life.
First, it isn't enough just to read history.  Zora Neale Hurston said "Learning without wisdom is a load of books on a donkey's back."
To read about the past for the sake of curiosity is merely gossiping disguised as study.  Not much different from reading a glossy magazine to find out what cologne Brad Pitt prefers.  What's really important is what we do with the information we discover, how we use it to motivate ourselves into some form of action to better our own lives and the lives of those in our community.
Action doesn't always have to be attending rallies or marching.  It can also be much more personal, such as helping a neighbor, volunteering in a classroom or teaching our children about our collective past and our collective values.
Secondly, I learned the value of educating myself.  Even the well‑meaning teachers at my school taught only the same things they had been taught using conservative textbooks that repeated the same propaganda that had been repeated before them.   
I would never forget that first day at the Schomburg Center as I poured over book after book of African‑American accomplishments in every field:  The arts, science, education, politics, all at a time when everything around them conspired to discourage their achievements.  After all they had to overcome to fulfill their dreams, wasn't it even worse to ignore them?
That library was a portal through which I could see the real world, not just the one I had been shown in carefully edited books.  Every day I spent there I felt lighter, as if some unknown burden was being eased off of me.
When I stepped out of that building, I was energized and inspired.  Seeing all that had been accomplished before me, I felt I could do no less.
But what about all those black kids who only know what they've been taught by those who only know what they've been taught?  What hope do they have of recognizing their talents within?
I learned it isn't enough to be content with whatever paltry facts the school system teaches our school children, we must teach them ourselves to have a curiosity about the world, a skepticism about anything they've been told is true, and a skill to find out the truth for themselves.
The third thing I learned from that summer was the power of words.  The ability to clearly, logically and passionately articulate ideas goes much further in affecting long lasting change than tossing a brick through a Circuit City window.
Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech opened more hearts and doors than any burning car.  Malcolm X's “Brotherhood” speech following his pilgrimage to Mecca brought more respect to Islam and support to Civil Rights than the sight of young Black Muslims in black suits and bow ties.  
Words are not meant to placate anger or diminish it in any way.  The anger was real, justified and well‑earned.  But the point was to use that anger to change the circumstances that cause the anger.  And history showed us, that wasn't going to happen by burning down our own neighborhoods; it was going to happen by registering to vote and using those votes as a currency to purchase change.
Some historians believe the economic blow of the Great Depression of the early '30s killed the Harlem Renaissance.  "The depression brought everybody down a peg or two," Langston Hughes wrote, "and the Negroes had but a few pegs to fall."
Some historians say the Harlem Renaissance ended not because of the Great Depression but because prohibition was repealed.  Most liquor was available everywhere.  White people stopped coming to Harlem, and black fell out of vogue.  It would be sad indeed to think that one of the greatest artistic and intellectual moments in American history was fueled only by booze.  But it's no worse than believing that hard economic times for African‑Americans who lived through the Harlem Renaissance just when they most needed the principles it taught.  
I don't agree.  The Harlem Renaissance didn't end; only its popularity in mainstream America ended.  Even though fewer white publishers were willing to take a chance on black writers, fewer records by black musicians were sold, fewer Broadway plays by black playwrights were produced, fewer black artists were commissioned to paint murals, sculpt public statues, that only meant that the white benefactors had disappeared.  
But it was in the crucible of those bad times, without the fat support of white benefactors that the black community showed what they were made of.  They endured, but with a lot fewer resources and opportunities.  And that's when many African‑Americans distinguished themselves.
The public relations part of the Harlem Renaissance may have died, but the effects it had created were stronger than ever.  Just because the gardener who planted a seed retires, that doesn't stop the plant from growing.  Even though Claude McKay and Wallace Thurmond stopped demanding attention, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, others sprouted up to take their place.
Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey might have faded away from view, but Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald commanded attention.
The guiding principles of the Renaissance survived and flourished despite the Depression, despite the repeal of prohibition, despite the imprisonment of Marcus Garvey, despite the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, despite the drugs that infested the streets of Harlem for three decades, despite being ignored by politicians, both black and white.
The four main principles are more important than ever.  First, study your own people's history to see what greatness has been achieved and to realize what greatness you are capable of.
Educate yourself.  Not just by mimicking what your teachers or leaders say, regardless of their color, but by honing your mind to think critically.
Three, dedicate yourself to your community so that when one member moves ahead, we can all move ahead together.
Four, maybe the most important of all, sing, dance and laugh.  The Harlem Renaissance was born out of severe repression and hardship, yet it produced some of the most lively, joyous music ever heard.
Life challenges us to do the right thing when everyone else isn't, to show mercy and compassion when others show hate and spite, to be patient and steadfast when others try to push us in different directions.
I've seen a lot of photos of Malcolm X looking dour or thoughtful or holding a gun and I've seen a lot of photos of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. looking determined or hopeful or earnest.  But the photo of them I like most that inspires me as much as any speech either of them has made is the one in which they're standing next to each other and they're both laughing heartily as if they had just heard an off color joke.  That's how I'd like to remember both of them, as embodiments of the spirits of the Harlem Renaissance that helped create them.  Despite criticism and threats from whites and blacks, they never lost their dedication and commitment to their people.  And rather than despair at all that needed to be done, they celebrated the good that has been accomplished, still able to laugh at what is joyous and ridiculous in life.
The Harlem Renaissance never ended.  The reason it never ended, the reason all of its principles and lessons still thrive today, still influence and guide a whole new generation is because of people like you who keep it alive, people like you who provide a haven for that confused boy or girl who has come to the library not just to finish his school project but to discover something about themselves, something about who they are and who they might want to be.
When you help that child discover the right book, you are passing along the weight of words that will forever become a part of who they are and who they will be.
The librarians at the Schomburg handed me such books, and their words have given me substance.  As a result, I have tried to pass along the history books I've written, if not the history we learn from the past, then at least the joy of knowing we are part of a larger community that extends beyond neighborhoods, beyond borders, and, thanks to libraries and librarians, beyond time.  And that's why I'm standing here today.
[Applause.]
Thank you very much.  I just want you to know, tomorrow I'll be at our booth from 11 to 2.  I'll be signing copies of my book.  Let me see what booth will I be?  That will be Booth 1317.  And if you want to find out about my book and the project, I've done an audio book and we're also working on a documentary movie.  And you can find out about that at www.osgmovie.com.  It's a pretty interesting website and it will give you a taste of what I've been about for the past year and a half.
There are several microphones here.  Well, there are two right here in the center aisle.  I'll be doing Q & A, so please don't be shy.  I'll talk to you about anything, even basketball.
[Laughter]
Yes, sir?
>> Hi, thank you so much for being here.  I don't really have a question, but I had the good fortune and honor to meet and interview Arthur Ashe, who was an athlete who was dedicated to literacy and giving back to the community in ways that are just so unprecedented.  I think it's an honor that you're here and it's great to see Arthur Ashe's spirit is alive in you and you have your own spirit that's contributing.  Thank you.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well thank you.  You know Arthur and I ‑‑
[Applause.]
Arthur's senior year at UCLA was my freshman year at UCLA, so we did cross paths.  And when he was doing his book "Hard Road to Glory" he called me and asked me to help him with a little bit of his research.  I directed him to a few sources that he used in putting that book together.  He was truly a great man and I miss him dearly.
>> How are you doing?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Just fine.
>> My question is:  Was your birth name Kareem?  And then exploring your history, including changing your name, so what does it mean?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: My birth name was not Kareem.  I took the name Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar when I accepted Islam.  My family name ‑‑ 
[Applause.]
My family name was Alcindor from the West Indies.  It had all to do with my spiritual conversion and my wanting to assert my Islamic identity.  That's what that was about.  
It wasn't about politics.  A lot of people made that mistake when I did it.  Muhammad Ali took a lot of heat for all of us when he made the choice to change his name.  And I was very fortunate to come behind him and not have to deal with as much of it because of his sacrifice.
Yes, sir?
>> Mr. Jabbar, I'd like to call you Kareem if I could.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Absolutely.
>> I am very proud to meet you and stand here before you with my father‑in‑law, Dr. E.J. Josey.
[Applause.]
(Standing ovation.) 
And I would like also to ask if you would indulge us at a convenient time that we could have a photo with you if that's possible because he'll be leaving tomorrow morning before your book signing.
But I wanted to say ‑‑
[Laughter]
‑‑ how proud I am to be saying these words to you with him here with me.  You have always embodied the truest spirit of advocacy.  You have done it with grace and dignity.  I am very enlightened by all you have done to enhance the role of athletes, as activists.  You are in the truest tradition of what is good and the spirit of the athlete.
I don't know if Dad would like to have a word with you, but I want you to know that he has been an activist educator his entire life.  And I'd like to talk with you about the project we're doing, the documentary on the life of E.J. Josey.  Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I would have to say that I was very fortunate to have the example in front of me of people like Jackie Robinson and others like him.  I didn't figure this out by myself.
[Laughter]
That's why I named my book "On the Shoulders of Giants."  If it were not for people like Dr. Clarke or Paul Robeson, again I would not have had the example to manage to achieve what I have achieved.  So I want to thank the good doctor because I know he probably contributed to that in some way and we all honor him, thank you.
[Applause.]
>> Let me just say for those who are not aware who Dr. E.J. Josey is, Dr. E.J. Josey is the founder of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. [Inaudible]
[Applause.]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: My pleasure.  Thank you for stopping by.  Congratulations,  Doctor.  Thank you for all you've done.
>> He was the first black man to be President of the ALA.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: That's wonderful.
>> Hello.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Hi, how are you?
>> I'm fine, how are you?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Just fine.
>> I wrote my question down so that I could remember it.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Okay.
>> A lot of times it's easy to encourage and inspire children because their minds are so fresh and they're open to change, but what about adults?  How would you inspire adults that are rebellious, set in their ways, fearful, don't like to read and have nothing but a negative view of life?  How would you inspire that person?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Actually people like that are easy to inspire because they've made a lot of mistakes.  And if you remind them of their mistakes and the times that they ran into that brick wall and got a bloody nose, people remember those things.  I know I do in my life.  And none of us in this room have escaped that situation.  Some of us are a lot more like the people that you're describing to a much greater degree.
But if you can remind them of their failures and then show them a way that they can do something without having to have that painful experience, I think they usually listen to things like that, especially when there's some information that shows them a clear path to their goals that does not involve pain and setbacks.
So I think it just takes patience and understanding who you're dealing with.  But that's how I would do it.  That's all I can say about that, without you giving more specific example ‑‑
[Laughter]
‑‑ I would have to just speak to it in those general terms.
>> Thank you.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: My pleasure, yes.
>> Thank you for everything you have done for all of us, but I also am a great basketball fan.  And I'm going to ask the question everybody else in this room really wants to ask as a basketball fan.  I saw you play a lot in Milwaukee.  What do you consider your greatest basketball moments?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I've been so blessed to have so many great basketball moments, it would have to come in ‑‑ at times as a professional athlete for me beating the Boston Celtics in 1985 was my greatest moment. 
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 
But in college, I also had an extraordinary experience and I got to play for one of the greatest coaches that ever stepped on the planet, John Wooden.
[Applause.]
So being part of three consecutive NCAA championships, that was very special, too.
And high school was wonderful.  I was part of a 72‑game winning streak in high school and won three consecutive New York City School Board championships.
So in the limited world that you have as a high school student, that, again, was an extraordinary experience and something I enjoy and still have lots of laughs about.
There's a picture of me on the cover of my book, I'm the tall skinny guy.
[Laughter]
I'm 16 years old and it's just amazing.  At that point, I look at that picture and say geez, at one point I actually was innocent, you know.
[Laughter]
Thank you for your question.  Yes, Ma'am.
>> Dr. Jabbar, I'm one of the people who's just slightly older than you and really feel like that we saw you come of age in basketball.  And then it was decades before I realized that you had grown up and become a historian and a contributor to our society in a whole different way.  And during that time I moved from Alabama to the Washington, D.C. area and began to take opportunities myself to learn things that I had never learned because all of us were ‑‑ of learning history.  In many ways, many of us, our pride in terms of being presented to us, we certainly have many opportunities to go find it.
And I grow discouraged.  I can't imagine how discouraged those who are still left behind are.  But I'm actively involved in a school system in D.C., and so I do get a firsthand chance to see children who aren't getting the chance that they need.  
I have become a supporter of reparations for African‑Americans of all forms of slavery and all the residual effects.  But my question to you, I come asking:  Are there particular ways in which you find that we can be effective in educating all of ourselves and helping to make a difference in how we live together?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, I think that ‑‑ I really appreciate your sentiments in what you just described.  I think the only way to do that effectively, to address those issues, is by opening doors, opening doors for young people who are denied the benefits of education, trying in some way to heal that wound.  Because it's still a gaping wound.  It's not just a scar.  It's a wound that needs to be healed.  So that's the most important thing:  Educating young people, especially in our inner cities, who don't have the opportunities, the educational opportunities that are more available to people who have ‑‑ who are more affluent.  
That is something ‑‑ that disparity really continues and it creates, in the succeeding generations, the same problem.  And we have to figure out some way to address that issue and stop that wound from bleeding.  And if we can do that, I think we can make this nation a much better nation and move forward.  We still have a lot of work to do, as individuals and as a nation.  
And I commend you on what you're doing because every teacher ‑‑ I feel that teaching is one of the most important professions that we have in this nation, and teachers are underpaid and not given the resources they need to do the best job that they can do.  And that is a crying shame in this affluent nation that we have, that we can't figure out a way to fix that.
[Applause.]
So that's one thing that I hope changes.  
Yes, sir.
>> I would like to ask your thoughts on the tensions that exist between Islam and American culture back then and the ones that exist today.  Do you see it as a similar dynamic or has it changed?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I certainly did not ever see any tension between Islam and American culture that we've had since 9/11.  What's happened since 9/11 is very unique in my mind.  Muslims in America were a very small minority and really were a blip on the map in terms of the number of Muslims and their impact on American society, very minimal.  Very minimal.  
And then we have fanatics who come and do what they did and cause the pain and the fear that's been part of the situation since 9/11, and it's totally disproportionate to their power or any value in their message.  Their message is the same message as the Ku Klux Klan, you just switch it over from the Ku Klux Klan to Al‑Qaeda, it's basically the same message of hatred and intolerance.
And that is not part of what America is about.  And that really is not what Islam is about.  So it really shouldn't be ‑‑ the problem should not exist basically in dealing with a religion because Islam really doesn't teach that.  But fanatical people have distorted it to the point and caused enough harm, both here and in the rest of the world, to cause the fear and anxiety and paranoia that has gripped our nation and changed our mind about who Muslims are.
People ‑‑ a lot of people don't know that a number of Muslims fought and died during our American Revolution.  The French contingent under the Campe de Lafayette had Moroccan soldiers and infantry soldiers that fought during the last phase of the Revolutionary War.  People aren't very much aware of it.
The first nation ‑‑ the first country to recognize America as a sovereign nation was the Kingdom of Morocco, again something that a lot of people don't know about.
So I see no reason for it to persist that America has a problem with Islam.  That should not be.  And I hope it's solved quickly.
[Applause.]
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Thank you so much for allowing us to ask you questions.  I was in New York City recently and I visited Harlem and I noticed a sense of a new Renaissance going on there now.  But my concern is:  Is it a Renaissance of commercialism?  Or is there something going on there that's deeper that where the music and the dance and the spirit will come out again?  And I was just wondering what your views are about present-day Harlem.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Present-day Harlem is going through an economic Renaissance, absolutely.  I would like to quote one of the movers of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson, in about 1920, he predicted that at some point the real estate in Harlem would become so valuable that the people living there would not be able to participate in the economic revival because they did not own their own homes.  And that's what's happening right now.
But black Americans who did go through the trouble of buying their homes and staying there and dealing with that have realized a great profit or increase in the value of their real estate, and now Harlem has become a fashionable place again.  It won't be the same as the first Harlem Renaissance because a lot of the ills that created that have been dealt with, but it's still partially happening.
But I think for the most part, it's a positive occurrence because the crime has dropped and the positive aspect of what historically Harlem has stood for, those values still stand.  And I'm happy to see that.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Hi.  I wanted you to be sure you know that there are a lot of fans of the Harlem Renaissance here today and that we are real happy about your book and bet that you had a lot of fun writing it.
I was wondering if you would indulge us a little bit with imagining, which I'm sure you probably did while you were writing it, that you were there as a young man during the Harlem Renaissance.  And tell us what happened, just describe to us a little about what you would have been doing, who you would have been meeting, talking to, dressing like.  Let us have a little bit of fun.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Actually it's very personal for me because my grandfather immigrated from the island of Trinidad and went to New York in 1917.  He was part of the great migration to New York that occurred that created the Harlem Renaissance.  
So I can just imagine myself as my grandfather walking the streets and being able to hear all this great music, the music of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, they were able to do musicals on Broadway for the first time that impressed the whole world.  People came to Harlem from Europe just to hear jazz music.  Stravinsky and other people like that were just knocked over by jazz music.  I believe, yeah, Stravinsky when he came to New York, he said "I don't want to hear any classical music.  Take me up to Harlem, I want to hear Duke Ellington's band play." So that is something that always turns me on.
I guess for me personally, I would have paid much more attention to my piano lessons at that point.  
[Laughter]
My dad tried to get me to practice.  I wouldn't practice.  But after high school, I always had dreams of possibly being a Thelonious Monk or Bud Poe.  So I would have practiced piano a lot more.  So I would have got to see all of these people live and in person.
In doing the research for my book, I've had a chance to talk to and interview Maya Angelou, who knew a lot of the people of the Harlem Renaissance.  She arrived there in the '40s and I got to talk to a lot of the people who were some of the lights of the Harlem Renaissance.  So I've been able to hear a lot from her.  She knew Langston Hughes very well, and he would take her to his home and read poetry to her and share thoughts and experiences with her.  That's been an extraordinary experience for me.  Doing the research for the book was more fun.  I could have stopped at that point.  Thank you for your question.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Hi.  I have a question regarding how did you combine athletics with literacy?  I am in my first school library teacher position, just graduated.  And I am an athlete and I also love reading.  I want to know how when you work with the natives and in other areas, how did you combine literacy with sports to get them to be able to have more of a well‑rounded education other than just sports?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, in trying to get young people to read, you have to be able to show them that it's something that they need.  It's something that will enhance them and make them more of what they want to be.  A lot of young people don't understand that.  They think that whatever it is that they're focused on is all that they need to do.
So I get the opportunity ‑‑ I'm coaching now for the Los Angeles Lakers, and I deal with young men who are making millions of dollars a year, yet they are challenged to read a written page.  And it hurts me.  You know, I don't want to see that.  They're not fully developed.
So in order to deal with that, I encourage them to read.  I give them books.  And I let them know that they need to know more than just the skills that they've developed as athletes in order to make it in this world.  It's one thing to make a whole lot of money and it's another thing altogether to keep it and make it grow and to use it profitably for good ends.
When they get to understand that, some of them get back to reading and learning about literacy.  And that includes financial literacy.  It's not just reading books.  You have to know what finance is all about, what money is all about.  They're making great salaries.  Sometimes I'm like Charles Barkley and I say geez, I was born too soon.
[Laughter]
Given the salaries that they're paying people these days.  But if you can just explain to them that being well‑educated and knowledgeable will help them in everything that they want to achieve, I think you'll get past the reticence of learning.
>> Thank you.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: You're welcome.  
Yes, sir.
>> Dr. Jabbar, I was wondering if you would contrast the athlete that we have today, the African‑American male athlete, or in some cases female, with the challenges that you've faced back in the Civil Rights era as an athlete?  Are the athletes today, the Michael Vick situation and the rape allegations, the dope and the inflated salaries, it is, in a way, a crisis and the integrity of the athletes.  I was wondering in light of what you did in the Civil Rights.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I think what the main problem is today we have so many of these really superb athletes, they come from single‑family homes where the parent that raised them had such a struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, they didn't have the chance to go into the detail that needed to be done in terms of creating a whole human being.
My grandmother, number one, and then my dad were not going to let me grow up and not be well‑schooled.  My grandmother, she spoke with a West Indian accent and she would tell me that I was not going to be an ignorant rich.  And she meant that.
We don't have that type of family influence.  When you have a single parent home, so much gets tossed out because there's no time.  I see that as one of the real problems there.  And somehow that has to be made up for.
Like, say, in the Harlem communities in the '30s, even if it was a single‑family, a single parent family, other adults in the community would be surrogate parents and they would tell the single parent what was going on with their kids and they would watch them and they had a rapport with the teachers at school.  And there was a real sense of community.
And that's not happening in the same way that it was and that's a real problem.
So I think we need to help all parents of all descriptions do what they need to do to raise their children.  They are our most precious resource, and we need to pay a lot more attention to that.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> I would like to thank you for being here.  And I just wanted to let everyone know that I, too, stand on the soldier of giants. I am an IMLS university scholar, North Carolina Central University.  And what that means is I would not be here today if it were not for Dr. E.J. Josey.  And I am proud to say ‑‑ and I was so surprised to see him here and am so honored because he fought to have diversity within the field of librarianship.  And I am so honored.
[Applause.]
And I wanted to thank you, as well, for being such a prominent role model for not just academics and athletics, but just as being a human being, a gracious and upstanding African‑American male that we can have all children look up to.  All children look up to.
[Laughter]
And adults, as well.
[Laughter]
My question to you is:  I know that you have a very prominent role in bringing people or just all people to history to have knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance.  And my goal is not only to become an archivist to be able to preserve those memories but also be able to advocate for children's literacy.
And my question to you is:  Do you or would you have any plans to ever do a children's book or to work with a librarian to do a children's book?
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Yes.  In answer to your question, right now I'm talking to a publisher about doing a series of children's books.  Well, smaller books for children.
It's such an important thing.  Too many times ‑‑ I remember in the history books that I had when I was growing up, the only time anything referring to black Americans, the only thing that I saw in that book was the issues of slavery and Civil Rights.  And they were very ‑‑ they were glossed over very quickly.  And there was no depth.  There was nothing of substance for black students to hold onto.  And it made history seem like the word his‑story, not "our" story.  It has to be about all of us.  Black Americans have contributed so much to what America, what makes America great from day one.  And not enough of that is known.  So we have to fill in those blanks.
The first history book I did, "Black Profiles in Courage," really was an overview of American history to point out those areas that were not covered.
You mentioned earlier that you have some connection with North Carolina.  One of the other participants in the HARYOU Act Program that I mentioned in my speech, Laura Turner, is working in Charlotte.  She's a librarian right there in Charlotte.  And I haven't spoken to her since then, but I've heard that that's where she is and that's what she's doing.  And I know she has the same motivation that I do because we stood side by side that summer of '64.  So you might want to look her up.  Her name is Laura Turner.  
Yes, thank you.
>> Good to see you here.  Good to acknowledge the work that you've done in the field of sports and this field of writing and addressing the issues.  One of our concerns of those who work with young people is that they have gotten caught up in the genre of their literature today.  
And one of our challenges, reading we faced with the urban literature, we finally have them reading now.  We have books and we can move them on; but because of the proliferation of urban literature, it looks like it comes out of the basement copies of a diner.  Many of the talented authors that are available today never get their books into their hands because they can't get out of that urban literature stage.
We are always looking for a solution.  We are always looking for solutions from those who can ‑‑ within the profession and without the profession.  So my question is kind of piggybacking to some of the earlier questions would be:  Do you have a recommendation and some ideas that we can try to plant in our young people's minds of reading a broader scope of literature than just what comes out about the hoochies and the S's and the B's that they read today in urban literature?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: In answer to your question, I think we have to find a way to help parents give them the tools to put in their children's hands so that there is something to counter balance popular culture.  Hip hop culture, whatever you want to call it.  To me, in many ways, it glorifies ignorance and not knowing.  It glorifies it.  
And we have to have available to parents and people who want to guide children in a positive direction something that they can put in their children's hands that show them that there are alternatives to this that are much more positive and much more fulfilling to their lives than the things that they see.
We have to have a counterweight to Snoop Dog and Jay-Z.  That's absolutely necessary.
[Applause.]
Until we find the means to do that, we're going to continue to have this problem where you have a culture that glorifies violence and misogyny and being ignorant.  That should not be the only thing that our children encounter as they are growing up.  
And the peer pressure that they have is enormous.  And in order to overcome that, we need a powerful tool.  And knowledge is power.  And the knowledge that they can absorb through positive examples in history, et cetera, will go a long way to having an effect on that.  But that's going to take an effort by all kinds of parents all over the country, because it's not only affecting the black community; it's affecting all Americans, black and white.
I was turning the channel.  They got Spanish language rap, and it's just as bad as English rap.  So something has to be done about this problem.  Something has to be done.
I have even seen ‑‑ I was in Hawaii.  And they got Samoan rap, the same thing in the Samoan language.  So it's going around the world and something needs to be done.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Yes, Dr. Jabbar, thank you for accepting President Roy's invitation to be here today.  We're glad to have you.  But I wanted to ask you about, in addition to your books, you also have your audio books.  Tell us a little bit about that and how that came about and how you are packaging that with your written materials.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, the audio book was an idea that someone suggested to me and my partner, Deborah Morales.  It just seemed to be like a good idea.  I have gotten some really interesting people to read.  So we've got Avery Brooks, Jesse L. Martin, Bob Costas and Stanley Crouch to read chapters from my book and then I read the answers to each of those chapters.
And also we were able to intersperse in there period recordings.  So we have Langston Hughes reading some of his poems.  We have Maya Angelou reading.  We have Jesse Owens describing his Olympic experience and the live broadcast of the 100‑meter race that showed Hitler up.  You can listen to it.  It's become very interesting.  
Herbie Hancock and Will.I.Am collaborated with a young lady from Canada to do some of the music from that era and re‑record it.  So we've got music.  We've got poetry.  We've got references to drama and interviews with some of the people who participated in it.
One of the members of the Harlem Rens basketball team is still alive.  We got his interview on there.  We have his quotes in there.  I interviewed my coach, John Wooden.  He played against the Harlem Rens in the '30s when they toured in Indiana.  He talks about playing against them.  He played against Willie Smith and Fat Jenkins and Tarzan Cooper and the guys on the Harlem Rens basketball team.
It's been so much fun.  I tell you, doing this has been much more fun than I ever thought.  I've enjoyed it thoroughly.
The audio book will be out in the next month or so.  It'll be in four chapters.  You'll be able to hear ‑‑ there's one chapter on the Great Migration, which describes the background and causes of the Harlem Renaissance.  Then we talk about the music literature and art and that aspect of the Harlem Renaissance.  Then we talk about the sports aspect of the Harlem Renaissance.  And then we talk about jazz and how it affected my life and my interaction with some of the jazz greats that I've known in my life.
>> Just an addendum.  Avery Brooks is a good choice.  He's from my hometown, Gary, Indiana.
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Oh yes.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> I'm so glad to see you here.  I'm a fan of yours, fan of your basketball and of your scholarship.  I have a couple of questions.
One, I know that athletes are often stereotyped as stupid, as ‑‑ and I wondered how you dealt with that stereotype when you were clearly not that.  You loved reading and you loved scholarship.  That's the first question.
The second question is with all your scholarship and your reading of history, I wondered if you had any time to read any fiction.  And if so, who are your favorite authors?  Who has inspired you?
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Okay.  Well, let's see.  It's going to be tough for me to say all my favorite authors, but let's go.  Raymond Chandler, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexandre Dumas, Elmore Leonard, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Those are ‑‑ I've read a lot of their fiction.  I haven't read just history.  But as you can tell, I like detective novels.
[Laughter]
I'm sorry.  What was your first question?
>> The stereotype of athletes ‑‑
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Unfortunately, athletes have been stereotyped as stupid because too many of them take the easy way out and let their athletic side be the only side that they show the world.
My parents weren't going to let me do that.  So I didn't have a chance to do that.  Basketball was like a reward.  My mom always gave me positive reinforcement when I made the honor roll.  She encouraged me to be smart and not to be just an athlete.  And I took it to heart.  I didn't realize what it meant at the time, but I'm so glad that it happened.
I was also very fortunate to have really good teachers in grade school that encouraged me.  My seventh grade teacher, she was wonderful.  She said "you have a great opportunity as an athlete, but don't let that be the only part of you that gets to shine."  And I took that to heart.  And it never occurred to me that I should be doing any less.
I also benefited a lot from the example of people like Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson.  My mom was a baseball fan, and I was a Dodgers fan starting from day one.  So Jackie Robinson was a big hero of mine.  And my mom used to talk to me about how articulate he was and how he carried himself with dignity and pride and that all had to do with how intelligent he was.
And it made a lot of sense to me.  So I just was very fortunate to have the right people in place in my life that pointed me in the right direction.  And my dad wasn't going to tolerate me going in any other direction, anyway.
[Laughter]
And my dad was a police officer.
[Laughter]
So it wasn't like I could escape discipline.  That was part of it.  But thank you for the question.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> I wanted to thank you for going into the audio book field because in our family, including myself, a lot of us have difficulty reading.  Our portal into books is the audio experience that then, well, "hey, I want to read that" or "I want to know more about that."  So I really want to thank you for considering that and considering going into a documentary field, too.  Because many of our users today in the library are coming to books through other medium first because that's easy for them and helps them to get excited about something.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well thank you.  
Yes?
>> Good afternoon.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Good afternoon.
>> Another archivist in the audience.  I am very interested in hearing from you where you're getting your primary source research from.  I hear that you spent a lot of time at the Schomburg Center.  And I would like to know if there were other places in the country that you have found to be very interesting to do that kind of research.  Or are you at this point working simply from the Internet?
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I don't ever work from the Internet.
[Applause.]
I have to have a book in my hand.  I have to be able to have the book actually there so I can refer to it.  The Internet confuses me.  It's overwhelming.
Fortunately, I learned how to type in high school, so I'm a little bit ‑‑ I have some facility with it, but not very much.  But I like to have the book there in my possession so I can refer to it when I need to and I don't have to deal with the keyboard and all those little things.  It's very difficult.
My kids ‑‑ my daughter's here.  There were times when she had to come and change the clocks when we went from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time because the digital age kind of was a little bit daunting for me.  Fortunately I had books.
So I'm still old school when it comes to research.  I enjoy research, too.  It gives me an excuse to have to read and get into some depth and learn a few things.
>> So is most of your research done through secondary resources such as books?  Or do you also look at collections?  
I know the Schomburg they have several collections of materials that would give you insight into, say, the composers or the performance of the Harlem or things like that.  I'm just wondering if you've had the opportunity to look at any of those things firsthand.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: When I went to Schomburg, I got into the microfilm, because my big passion was reading old newspaper stories because the newspapers gave you the most accurate account available at the time.  So it was like at the same time as whatever subject I was trying to cover.  So I really enjoyed going into the microfilm library and looking things up on microfilm sources and taking what I needed from there.
But for the other authors and stuff, I would just go and get their works and read and find what I wanted to find and use it in that manner.  And I have a room full of books because of that.  But I enjoy them.  They're very precious to me.  
Yes, Ma'am.
>> I found everything and many of the historic reminiscences that you had very, very fascinating.  I want to think how we might capture some of those for some of these reluctant adult readers, the basketball players that can't read?  Some of the younger people in a former life I used to teach reading to, you don't have the kind of high interest content at a lower reading level.  And I think things about the Harlem Renaissance and some of the characterizations talking about your reminiscences of Jackie Robinson, some of the heroes of the Harlem Renaissance movement, if that can be cast at a reading level that would entice the older person who is still at a lower reading level and how you might think about doing some of that with your books.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: That's a very interesting proposition.  I really haven't thought about that.  Hopefully some of those people can get the audio book and listen to the audio book and get some of the information off of there.  
I don't know how to ‑‑ it's very difficult to take the ‑‑ let's say the poetry or these small novels, et cetera, and condense it down for someone who doesn't read very well.  So somebody has to read it for them.
>> And it's even more difficult to teach people reading with very basic child‑like materials.  And that's one of the turnoffs.  And I think one of the things that can entice that person to read something other than hip hop or something really substantive is when it's cast down at a lower reading level and then they would be more interested.  They would love to read about your ‑‑ how you achieved basketball success, perhaps.  But cast at a level that they could read about it.  So I'm just offering that as a suggestion.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you.  That's some food for thought.  I really appreciate that.  Thank you.  
Yes?
>> Good afternoon.  It's obviously ‑‑ you're a well‑rounded person.  And I have a question about one of your many sides.  Is it true that you studied with Bruce Lee?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Yes.
[Laughter]
>> What did you learn from him other than the obvious? 
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Bruce Lee obviously reinforced what I learned from my coach John Wooden and some basketball coaches that preparation ‑‑ you have to be prepared for everything.  He dealt with the area of physical encounters with people that don't like you.
[Laughter]
That's what martial arts is about.  But in disciplining yourself to deal with those problems, you prepare yourself and give yourself some confidence that you wouldn't necessarily have.  
So you can ask my daughter, I made her and her sister and all my other children study martial arts just because I wanted them to know that at some point if they had a problem with or an altercation, that I cared about them and I wanted them to be prepared to deal with that unfortunate circumstance.  Of course that's never happened to her, but it was part of it.  I'll never forget the look of relief on her and her sister's face, they got their yellow belts and I told them all right, you're done.  And they were like oh, thank God.
[Laughter]
But that was what I learned from Bruce.  It's a discipline that enables you to have some confidence and to help yourself if you ever have the unfortunate circumstances to be confronted with a bully or somebody who uses violence to solve their problems.  You do have an answer for that.  And unfortunately, that's part of life and something that you have to learn to be prepared for.
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Hi, thank you also for your program.  Maybe a quarter of a century ago, possibly longer, I had the privilege to meet you when you suddenly came along on a very hot day to the textile museum in Washington, D.C. 
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Yes, yes.
>> And to see the Oriental rug collection.  And it was a great privilege.  Do you still love Oriental rugs?
[Laughter.]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Yes.  Yes, I still love Oriental rugs and I still have many of my rugs.  They're very precious to me.  I gave my daughter one.  She could tell you about it, maybe.  She's not going to talk.  She's very shy.
Yes, sir.
>> I have a burning political question.  Who do you like for President?
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, I was on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" in August and I declared for Obama.
[Applause.]
I think he has the talent and intellect to unite this nation and get us back on track to being leaders and not bullies.  It has really bothered me the things that I've seen during the Bush Administration, the elimination of habeas corpus.
[Applause.]
What do they call it?  Extraordinary rendition and torture are not what America should be about.  And I hope that whoever wins the next election will deal with those issues in a way that makes all America proud and happy to be Americans again.
[Applause.]
Yes, Ma'am.
>> You have indirectly mentioned my home town so many times tonight.  Because I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, the home, and we're very proud of Pee Wee Reese, who was Jackie Robinson's best friend and roommate.  And of course our great coach I believe was your assistant coach at one point, maybe, at UCLA, Denny Crum?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Denny Crum, yes.
>> So what I want to know is:  It seems to me like the college athlete is being really taken advantage of these days.  How do you feel about that?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: I think you're absolutely correct.  The college athletes have been exploited for a very long time.  If you look at the amount of money that the NCAA Tournament generates, it's hundreds of millions of dollars in TV revenues.  And everyone can get paid except the people who create that revenue.
There's something wrong with that system.  These people deserve to be compensated for the value that they create for the different universities.
Also, the different universities, what they achieve in prestige and prominence also, that means a lot.
I would not have wanted to go to UCLA if it had not been for people like Jackie Robinson and Rayford Johnson.  Again, the people who create the value don't get to participate in it.
So I hope at some point they change that system.  There was just something in the paper just recently that said that the NCAA is thinking about letting the scholarship athletes get a little bit more than room, board and laundry and tuition.  That's so far removed from what they really deserve, but hopefully it's a start.  I hope it changes at some point.
Yes, Ma'am?
>> Hello.  My question is somewhat music‑related and going along with something that has been mentioned throughout the discussion, which was hip hop.  And I would like to know your views or how do you see hip hop in relationship to the bebop era?  
Hip hop as a scholarship is growing; and as an academic librarian, we're working with college students.  There are many papers and courses being developed around that subject.  And I would like to know your views on that.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, I think that like anything else, hip hop does have some positive potential, but it never seems to go in that direction.
It's a great opportunity to teach young people about poetry and get them to write poetry and understand it, but if you tried to talk to any of the hip hop people about Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Shakespeare, they'd look at you like you were from Mars.  That's very unfortunate.
Also, I think the hip hop generation, the reason that they had bebop was because the bebop musicians came from an era where in most black families, somebody learned how to play an instrument because of their use in church.  So we had a lot of black musicians because people learned the keyboard to play the organ at church or pianos in homes or any of the various instruments.  And people like Duke Ellington and Count Basie really inspired people nationally to be musicians.
And the hip hop generation, those kids didn't learn anything at home about music or playing an instrument, so they took their parents' records and sampled them and created poetry to go along with the beat.  
It was very creative.  I'm not taking anything away from their creativity or artistry, but it just seemed to get taken over by such a negative mood.  The whole mood of it, it just seems so down and negative.  That's what bothers me so much about it.
I remember I had ‑‑ I would have to watch Yo MTV raps to understand what my kids were thinking about.  I'm glad I did that.  I was able to communicate with them.  But not all parents had the luxury of time that I did to be able to understand that and keep their kids along the right path.
But I do hope that more people like yourself can take the kids who are into that and push them in a positive direction and get them to know more than just the negative side of what hip hop is about.
>> Thank you.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you for your question.
Well, if there are no ‑‑ oh, more questions.  I've got time.  It's okay.  I've got all afternoon.
>> It's very nice to see you.  I bought your book a year or so ago for my husband.  Along with [inaudible] ‑‑ but we liked you instead.
My question is about the NBA players.  We always hear such negative connotations about them.  I know they are doing positive things.  You see during the NFL half‑time whatever about what team has read books to what group of children at the library and so on.  Don't they do that in the NBA?  And why don't they give us more information about that?  Can you affect change to do something about that?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: The NBA has a program that's been going on for at least 10 years now called Read to Achieve.  In all of the NBA cities you have players that go out to schools and read to kids and encourage them to be literate and to read because it's such an essential part of any success that they are going to enjoy over their lifetime.
>> Why don't we see more information and marketing like that like they do with the NFL?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Geez, I don't know.  I know in Los Angeles, for example, they get around and they do get a lot of attention in the media.  I don't know what's happening here on the East Coast; but for the most part, that has been the case that they do get to do things.
A number of NBA players do extraordinary things.  For example, Dikembe Mutombo built a hospital in the Congo where there are no roads.  He built a whole hospital over there.
So you have examples of NBA players that go out of their way.
Chris Webber, who played here in Philadelphia for a while.
>> And from Detroit.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Chris Webber's an educator and he has taken that as a role.  Every year he takes a group of kids someplace historical and lets them have an experience.  And he provides schools with books. 
David Robinson down in San Antonio has a school.  He built a school in San Antonio that deals with inner city kids and encourages scholarship and he provides scholarship money.
>> I guess my question is:  You know that and I know that because I'm a librarian, but I'd say the good majority of the American people don't know that.  And we always see such negative connotations of our athletes.  And it would be really great if we could see more stories about things like this.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Well, I think that has to do with the media because a lot of ‑‑ they take the Michael Vick story and they run with that.  People don't necessarily know about Dikembe.  But I think that is more a problem with the media.  The NBA makes it possible for anybody who wants to know to find out.
>> Thank you.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you.
>> Hello.  I have two questions to ask you.  One is:  In your work with youth, have you come up with any solutions as to how are we to get American youth, particularly ethnic youth, to concentrate more in the sciences and engineering?
Right now our schools of engineering are primarily people of internationals because Americans simply do not seem to want to study science.  And to me that has tremendous implications for the future of our country as a continuing leader in technology and in science.
What is it that turns young people off from science these days?  I realize that you are a historian, but in working with them, you must have had an opportunity to come to some conclusions.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Oh absolutely.  In my book "Black Profiles in Courage," I did a chapter on Dr. Lewis Latimer, who invented the filament for the light bulb and was Thomas Edison's right‑hand man in helping him to product his patents and in teaching the engineering aspect of electricity.
And it's just because of mainly ignorance.  Our young people don't know that black Americans have done so much in the sciences.  They just don't know enough about it.  And if they had the role models that are available in front of them, it would be a lot easier for them to say "Hey, I could do that."
A black person invented the filament for the light bulb and made it a practical device for homes.
Dr. Latimer also did Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for the telephone.  So here we have telecommunications, we have a basis of a black person being instrumental in their invention and development, and most black kids don't know anything about it.  
I think that really contributes a lot to them seeing that as a field that they can't be involved in, yet they all know about Snoop Dog and the Temptations and [inaudible].  It's a cycle that perpetuates itself.  So we have to do something about that in terms of educating them.
>> My understanding is that another side of you is that you have a great interest in art and that you have a fantastic collection of the Buffalo Soldiers and some other things.  Could you comment on your interest in art?
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: My Buffalo Soldier collection was basically military items that were owned and used by the Buffalo Soldiers between the end of the Civil War and the 1920s.  And I did an exhibit at the Schomburg Museum.  It showed for a month there.  And we were very fortunate to have a lot of school kids come and see it.
I've since sent it to a museum in Virginia.  I don't know if they've made it available, but hopefully they will make it accessible to people who want to see it.
Yes, Ma'am.
>> Good afternoon.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Good afternoon.
>> My question to you is:  You talk about who you listen to during the Harlem Renaissance musically.  Who is in your CD player right now?
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Who is in my CD?  Well, the classics, certainly.  Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane.  I like a lot of the ‑‑ some of the Cuban musicians, Chuchito Valdez, Tito Puente.  Tito Puente played with my dad for a while.  So I'm into all of that.
My dad used to take me with him when he would play gigs, and I got to hear such a great variety of music from classical to Latin and everything in between, bebop and Count Basie.  But I guess Count Basie definitely, he dominated in my household.  My mom likes Sara Vaughn and Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole.  So all those things are in there.  We can't exclude Stevie Wonder and the Temptations and the [inaudible].
[Applause.]
[Laughter]
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: All right.
>> Thank you, Dr. Jabbar.
>> KAREEM-ABDUL JABBAR: Thank you.  
(Standing ovation.) 
>> LORIENE ROY: I just want to repeat that he'll be signing copies of the new audio version of "On the Shoulder of Giants" at the iconomy booth tomorrow, 1317, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Thank you for coming to the session.  It is now adjourned.
 
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