[inaudible conversations] >> good evening welcome. we are delighted to have eric motley who is here to share his story with us of medicine park please silence your cell phone we are also very glad

that c-span booktv is here to film the event. so introducing eric this evening those who are instrumental to set up this event and our title as advocates so we will give them a warm welcome. [applause] >> thanks for coming to our invitation tonight we are thrilled to have eric visit with us we are calling it his first visit -- is that better? so we are thrilled to have him here visiting with us i hope this is his first visit right now we got to know eric

through the leadership the board. >> i had the privilege to know eric we were fellows at the aspen institute and recently it went through a transition of leadership and i am the premier biographer of our time and eric shepherded the process with wisdom and diplomacy that would make you shake your head it was a very honored position nobody could have handled it as well and we think eric surely have been the president and we expect him to be there in some form but we are proud to have him here today as a senator.

>> we will let him tell his story himself. thank you. [applause] >> i thought you were going to do a duet. what a real pleasure to be here at this independent bookstore one of the greatest in the country and it is a wonderful reminder of the origins and the importance of ideas and how ideas bring us together to really shape communities and the barksdale's for your hospitality i have had an incredible day here and some of you who have been tagging along but i met bailey this morning it was the most incredible experience the most

interesting of students you should feel very proud of the investment you are making in education here in the city and to be here to celebrate this evening with you is absolutely incredible. i had a mentor who once said to me that if you are very fortunate the sum total and culmination and is rem you're thinking rapid eye movement or the group but it is relationships over memories i had the good fortune to have people like the barksdale's and those experiences they have afforded me on this journey have been unforgettable. so i have a book to sell and i have a book for you to read it

is called medicine park it is a memoir you think what you have to tell us about your life? you are only 40 years old but it is the intersection of my own life and gratitude very special place so i will tell you two stories very briefly. first it is about medicine park and how that came into being and in 1880 group of slaves with nothing except the shirts on their back and hopes of aspirations of what it could be for them to realize the jeffersonian ideals for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness was led by eli who could read and write and he asked the hundred friends to join him my grandfather's grandfather was one of those. they purchased a plantation

called the maize plantation the first two structures they developed were a church to a god who delivered them to the new promised land and a school because they felt the true liberation was realized to the opportunity only real education could afford and in that place and evidence of god's grace to put their hearts and minds together to create a community he wrote we are part of an inescapable network of destiny and what impacts you impact me. that is the story of a group of people at the height of ideals he wanted to live the american legacy. the second story involves individuals george washington motley the grandson of the founder john wesley he

remembers two things about visiting his grandfather as a little boy the shotgun house on the plantation and over the front door a simple wooden cross a reminder that he was created by something much larger than himself but over the back door was a picture of abraham lincoln that his great-grandfather had extracted from the newspaper to remind him that god uses individuals to bring about changes in transformation in society. so my story intersects because in the 1960s a little girl was born in one of 14 kids the mother discovered she is dying of cancer she asked neighbors if they would consider adopting one of the 14 and how do you choose? i don't have

the slightest idea but they chose her she promised great potential and they thought perhaps with nurture she may realize her own aspirations. so little barbara. became barbara motley and nine years old and it aged 18 she gave birth to a bundle of unformed possibility. that's me. [laughter] and she decided not to embrace her all the more but this child with the hopes and aspirations all these people in this community became manifested in their dreams and hopes with this little baby that this child could realize he had a right to be here and was created by a god from all

things on nature here on earth also that i was part of a community much larger than the motley household and with that rights and responsibilities of this great country and the last great desire is i'm have the opportunity in life that only in education could provide so everywhere we went they made it known to neighbors and friends we have a little boy we want to go to college and get a good education. my grandmother could meet a guy at the grocery store with university of wisconsin sweatshirt and say did you go? i want my grandchild to go to college. i've never been to wisconsin i don't even know where it is. just talk to him. the great inflection point in all of our lives and we remember them but with

medicine park until a couple of stories of individuals who were there for every twist and turn along the way. the teacher sent a note home to my grandparents telling them of my academic failure and in medicine park i was known as a precocious interesting kid the designated university kid and when people would call me little einstein i'm not sure if they knew who it was but it sounded good but that i went to first grade teacher writes a note to inform her i have been demoted to the turtles now may grandmother is not one to discriminate but she knows the difference and she knows one individual who thought who could remedy the situation she called and madison bell the founder of medicine car

everywhere she went light followed a muscular lady and she came over to our house a retired teacher in her early '80s and took the know and all i could hear her say from the kitchen is we believe in resurrection. she came from the room she and my grandmother started to talk they invited me in and then he said we believe in resurrection. so couple days later in church with a public service announcement to stand up in front of the entire congregation to say brothers and sisters little motley over here he was a rabbit but now he is a turtle and we believe

in resurrection. we will restore him to rabbit status. i tell you this story because it is a story of community. two things that changed my life i will be at the motley house this afternoon i will help him with his reading and whatever reading matter you have by the motley household this afternoon and for two hours anti- and my grandparents set on the back porch and you have thought a the paper drive was taking place at our house. they brought by the 1945 almanac that year 1972 life magazine a jet magazine and encyclopaedia britannica. [laughter] only volume l anything that begins with the l i am your guy.

[laughter] also a volume of english first my table of contents was "in-depth" but was shakespeare and he ate and then there was appalled that i committed to memory there was a time of the meadow to grow in the stream and every common site from the perils of the freshness of the dream and this i know two passed away a glory of the earth. aunt schein and her sisters all retired in their 70s and came by the motley house every day for two years to trued her lung -- tutor a little boy into rabbit hood.

this is a house that your grandfather's grandfather built. he was a slave who believed in the american dream. you have to memorize the american constitution and the declaration of independence. the whole thing? we will start with the preamble and every day at the beginning of every session i had to stand and recite from memory the preamble to the declaration of independence we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. it is the precept and your country and yours. you own it and i would recite the apostles creed. and then as a reminder where i was coming from and for two years these retired teachers

who had nothing except love in their hearts imparted wisdom social security, mathematics, history and the basic precept i tell you that story because it underscores the basic efforts of this memoir we are all a part of that inescapable network and with medicine park we worked high place that was inspired for those who had dreamed of aspirations to make america work and we believe to make individual sacrifices one at a time for the entire community was far better than wisdom i tell you this story there a lot of little eric in the world starting to grow into their own person but then realize their own aspirations that we could experience who we are collectively in a very

political polarized confusing part of society we are told daily what is wrong with america the medicine park reminds us there are things that work in community is one of those beautiful institutions that bind us together the principles and values and precepts that under good -- our own sense of community that each of us have a part to be the bearers of light to create community wherever we go. one last story. my grandfather had a great desire to be exposed to books was very fitting place for me to be speaking to you. after the books were delivered i had an appetite for anything that had a page to be turned

and he organized all of our neighbors to weekly take me to the montgomery public library 20 minutes of outside of where we lived in the country to experience the joy of being surrounded by books and everything enveloped in its pages. my grandfather was in the i cannot for two hours psychologically unable to go to a place he could not go into for so long. turning on his radio scared it would turn down the batteries that he would just sit i would go in like i was going to a great library of alexandria but on one occasion from those books that surrounded me i saw a very elderly white man in a wheelchair.

black valet standing at his side and an attendant i would look up and he looked down i will down and he would look up we caught each other's gaze but at the end of the day the librarian said okay little motley boy it is time to go. i gathered my books i looked up in the elderly gentleman and was staring at me. with a long pod he nodded as if affirming something. as i raced out of the library to tell my grandfather who i had met a city will never guess who i just met he said who? george wallace himself. history has a long arc my

grandfather wanted me to live in the realm of hope and understanding history and the complexities of history but to live in the promise of what could be and in that library in 1982 sitting there i realize that history does have an arch as the great social philosopher said nothing that is worth doing could be accomplished in a lifetime therefore we are saved by hope nothing good or beautiful in the context of history nothing. no matter how beautiful or good or virtuous could be accomplished alone so therefore we are saved by community life is filled with

incidents and accidents and providence and all along the way i have been fortunate enough to meet teachers and preachers and local philanthropists and people who cared and teachers who stayed after school to realize the potential that the human material of life you see through with execution and mine has been a tremendous odyssey of grace and gratitude. thank you for being here i hope you enjoy reading the book. [applause] i was just reminded of a supposed to read something that i will take questions if anybody has questions and then i will read a paragraph. any questions from the floor?

any questions from the floor? very little about george wallace for you cannot grow up in alabama without knowing something i knew he embodied everything that prevented me from going into that library and my grandfather in a very thoughtful and measured way who i tried to capture was a very 40 and type of individual his sensibilities were remarkable and decorum is forms the way that i engage with people today not willing to excite and anger but always wanting to create a frame of how began to explain to me the complexities of history around george wallace and told me who he was and help me to understand what had occurred

and in such a way that i could appreciate that in 1980 these these individuals who had nothing about these dreams and hopes their descendents were still living as a nation of who we are as a country and my grandfather wanted me to realize my chad change and progress was made often slow but made and to acknowledge that he also wanted me to see myself beyond the library and all that held for me in the future and for that i will always be grateful. my grandmother was a housekeeper for a white family in montgomery that happened to be duck fitzgerald she cleaned house for a family that lived right next door to the fitzgerald and got to know

them as much as a housekeeper could. so one of the daughters of this family went to washington d.c. on a trip and brought my grandmother back and it was a snow globe of the white house and my grandmother kept it on the table like every southern woman she would dress up on the sunday before church or saturdays before weddings and funerals and i would always stand her side as she would tell me stories and i would always fumble with the souvenir and she was a one day you can be in that snow globe my first day going into the white house every now and then fantasy meets reality all i could think about was going into the white house thinking

of my grandmother standing at her side holding the snow globe. she was also very fortunate to work for a woman who always sent things home he needs things to read give him the new york times. then one occasion she sent him a crate of albums maybe 15 or 20 longplaying records that had wonderful pictures on the front i will never forget my grandfather pulling up to pick up the vegetable crate to bring in the creative albums into the back porch of my grandmother telling me mrs. peabody sent to those take these records home care of the little boy something to listen to my grandfather brought out the record player and i chose the album because

the woman on the front was in the glorious costume of color and put on the album and it didn't sound like anything i had ever heard before. it was jesse singing the last four songs of strauss. absolutely divine the human voice doing somersaults in mid air my first introduction to opera and i turned up the volume so loud the kids next door had never experienced anything like this may be at the most amazing grace in church the kids across the street ran over asking what are you going to? too curious to ridicule to open to ideas and it was one

of those wonderful defining moments when you are introduced to a new idea behind the guest beyond comprehension changing your life forever. i have said so many of the stories i have met teachers all along the way i went to stanford and went to birmingham because i had a high school teacher who believed i had a great potential to study literature who stayed after school every day to help me with my applications i got a scholarship and went to stanford the president assured my grandparents unbeknownst to me that he would take care of me during my time at stanford to win the ambassadorial scholarship little did i know there were no black people in scotland. [laughter] and i show up on rotary

ambassador scholarship and i have a lifetime of pressure and learning the president told me at the end of the first year we had developed a beautiful relationship he said what will you do once you leave? i said i haven't decided just yet and he looked at me amazed. remember the sacrifice and commitment of those who believed in me and said that is the first time i think you have not known what is next think about it and come back tomorrow. after that i returned and he looked at me and said if you are serious about your future that i will provide you a full scholarship to stay in scotland for four years to do a phd but and then to accept a

job because you feel are intellectually just as capable as everyone else who applies for the opportunities before you so i stayed at st. andrews for another three years until i completed my degree but on one occasion a classmate asked if i would go home for the weekend to see another part of the country he thought his mom and i would hit it off he would smoke three cigarettes every minute i thought it would be a nightmare but he picked me up clean-shaven regarding his car going to the countryside of scotland. i knew very little about his parents except they worked in london but had a scotland -- a house in scotland and every

three would come home. that is all i knew so going to the countryside breathtakingly beautiful you would've thought handle composed messiah there and the queen mother's birthplace then go around the bend and restart down the drive and i said patty, where i'm from it is against the law to trespass and he said this is my home. this is your home? he said that as the groundskeepers cottage. so we go down the winding path another ten or 15 minutes and then there is a great castle sheik, with about everything

that disney has informed you what a castle should look like. i recognize wanted to he gets out of the car he goes in and a valet comes out to help me with my luggage and i turned to the valet trying to maintain a sense of composure like this is normal and i say i recognize the union jack what is the other flag? that is lord patrick you mean patty? that is his father's flag and the other flag that is his office don't you know it is lord chamberlain to her majesty the queen and his

mother is the lady in waiting? yes. so three or four weeks later because there at st. james in buckingham they invited me to be their guest at the queen's annual garden party. it is a white kia fair with arrows and bows and swords and i am standing in line with the great receiving line and the trumpet sounds and all of a sudden everybody starts to sing my country 'tis of the end god save the queen. [laughter] the queen comes out with her lady in waiting and it is patrick's mom. and they draw near me and patrick's mom comes over and says a couple words i'm told the protocol is with an

introduction is about to be made i take it in and this woman standing to our side was most curious as to who i was. at the very end after the greetings had been made in ways given the introduction the ladies in waiting go back into the castle to say come in for a cup of tea before you go back up to scotland the lady turns and audibly says who is he? and my date having had too much to drink? the ambassador to nigeria. [laughter] the lady said greetings your excellency. [laughter] i left scotland and came to the white house with president bush and incredible experience

incredible people committed to public service he said i know your story in the play should come from your grandparents give up everything they had and it is an honor to have you here i know you have heard it before but to whom much is given much is required so throughout my life it has been a constant refrain to whom much is given much is required so while sitting in the oval office i was transfixed thing at a painting on wall and president bush is only he could say, motley what you looking at? why looking at abraham lincoln? all i could think of was to tell him the story that my grandfather had told me about

his great grandfather's house over the front door was across it over the back door was a picture of abraham lincoln. and from the moment i realized how far i had come from edison park the dam was leaving to go to scotland is a day i will forever remember packing my suitcases heavy and heart knowing perhaps this opportunity is great as it was would not allow me to see my grandparents live out their lives one of them would probably surely die while i was away. this couple who had given so much to me in such a sacrifice to my development and growth so i finished packing my grandmother came in and said to me you need to come out

there is a lot of noise outside. i went out to the back porch i swear all of medicine park was there all the people that had given me jobs on the side to save money for college, the retired teachers who to me every day after school the minister at the baptist church and my minister came up to give me an envelope it was very thick and i later learned it was $150 the congregation had collected special offering just to support me going away to school he gave me the envelope another gave me one like a sacrificial gift to god of her collard greens just in case they didn't have those in scotland the minister said a prayer and after the prayer

there was a map and she went to the hood of the car to say show me scotland. probably i approached the car to show her scotland and looked at the map and it was of montgomery alabama. and to be had never been outside of montgomery alabama let alone the united states so this was like sending an astronaut to outer space and with me were going that only their prayers but their hopes and aspirations in their dream imagining the unknown and then i was reminded to whom much is given, much is required.

washington d.c. was at a conference and an attorney from recovery alabama and said no eric motley? he is from edison park the attorney replied no i don't know him and where is medicine park? my friend was taken about because he assumed after he heard me talk about it so much that everyone in alabama knew of medicine park. telling me the story he added he looked at me as if medicine park did not exist or as if it were invisible. i guess in many ways it does not show up on the system for

those who work in the public schools are those who know the story of our community medicine park no doubt is invisible to them. invisible medicine park is the idea for me because those who held into place it is as much of an idea as a living breathing organism to those who never heard of our little community that may not exist the farmers who bought the land and laid the cornerstones and those descendents who still care for it whether they lived there or not it is as large as america to be nurtured in the hearts and minds of medicine park 135 years ago the people there have been trying to make a miracle work for them and less of secure places where all the

roads are paved. to be self-reliant for people could come and work from its inhabitants today over the last decade i publicly share the story of medicine park at washington dinner parties and rotary meetings and church and with work and friends and those that once also lived in a similar place it is a metaphor of places that seem nonexistent these places will exist but are they at risk become extinct? i can only hope not so despite the change the strong pride and commitment to community of the people of medicine park so

the earth cold of a divinely great grandfather and displays gave the community its name the history is who i am that continues to offer in her refuge and solace and most importantly meaning to the ever changing flux on daily existence wherever i go medicine park goes with me. so the roadblock that a face i am grateful for the medicine park community who put me on a path through race or relative poverty rule southern roots and absence of biological parents. the people of madison park bestowed their gifts of grace which i could never repay. life is like that. lessons come about and forever in a deficit position we never

get the goodbyes properly said each one living with the burden of gratitude and for as long as i can remember my indebtedness to others is a prison how my life is been filtered and that awareness is my identity at bay in my first days i was taught by example to count my blessings but now the total run so high i cannot name them one by one so what i found in my thanks to those everyday mentors through circumstances and providence that far outweighs what i may have earned on this. thank you very much. [applause]