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Backstory on Obama college tape

On The Last Word, Daily Voice editor Keith Boykin, who attended law school with President Obama at Harvard, weighs in on a video of then-student Barack Obama speaking at a protest.

>>> during his press conference yesterday, president obama said the reason he called sandra fluke after rush limbaugh called her a slut and a prostitute is because he never wanted his daughters to fear the consequences of publicly taking a stand on a controversial issue. he may have also been thinking of his days as a law student . back when barack obama was sandra fluke's age, he too was a law student and he too took a risky stance on a very public controversy at the time in 1990 . harvard law school had only three black tenured professors and five women professors. professor bell protested the lack of diversity by taking unpaid leave until the university hired a woman of color. students at the harve ar law review were among the most cautious grooming themselves then for senate confirmation hearings, attorney general or the supreme court . speeding away from controversy wherever it may erupt on campus, but the harvard law review never had a president quite like barack obama . knowing that prestigious law firms aren't eager to hire leaders of protests, he took the risky step of siding with professor bell. this posting of the young barack obama 's taking a stand.

>> and i remember that the black law students that organized an orientation for the first year students. and one of the persons who spoke at that orientation was professor bell. and i remember him sauntering up to the front and not giving us a lecture, but engaging us in a conversation and speaking the truth. now, how did this one man do all this? how has he accomplished all this? he hasn't done it simply by his good looks and easy charm. although he has both in ample measure. he hasn't done it simply because of the excellence of his scholarship, although his scholarship has opened up new vistas and new horizons and changed the standards we will be writing about.

>> joining me now is one of the leaders of the student protest and harvard law school in 1990 , keith boiken. as we hear that sound as the camera is panning toward barack obama . it could have been him speaking somewhere yesterday. you were one of the few among us who heard him then who hear him now. could you see in that barack obama standing there with the microphone that day the kind of thing that might be in his future?

>> i had no idea at that time, actually. we were in the midst of creating a movement for diverse it tiff on campus. and we invited barack to speak because he was the first african- american president of the harvard law review . he got up there and gave a wonderful speech, he spoke about derek bell . he didn't speak about the issue of diversity, but about derek bell . the idea that people are trying to vilify him today is astounding.

>> this is the business of fox news. they decided that derek bell is one of the great american radicals. and tenured harvard law faculty have always been among the most threatening among us. i mean, people like him are thought provokers, they push ways of thinking about different things. tell us about derek bell .

>> well, you know, if you look at that rally, most of the people who war there were not black. it's a reflection of how popular derek bell was as a professor at the law school .

>> and beyond the law school .

>> and beyond the law school as well. he had a critical impact of critical race theory , he was a mentor to me and many others. i spoke at his funeral services last fall, it was amazing that hundreds of people showed up at the riverside church in harlem to show their support for him. the president of nyu came out and spoke, it was a reflection of the type of person he is. and the idea that barack obama would come and embrace him and show his support for him, there's nothing controversial about that at all. nor is it even news. i saw this videotape four years ago, when a producer from a different network showed it to me and asked me what i thought about it. i said, there's nothing to it. it's just barack obama expressing his support for a presser at harvard law school .

>> pbs has had the footage since 1990 , fox is trying to pretend like this was hidden in some dark secret about the president's past affiliations. it seems to me it's pretty impossible to get in trouble by an association with a member of the harvard law school faculty.

>> yeah.

>> that's never happened before in our history.

>> the whole idea that somehow barack obama or others would want to hide this -- why would anyone want to hide this speech. it shows him speaking without a teleprompter, speaking so eloquently. and speaking about an issue most agree with.

>> it wouldn't be easy to get the president of the harvard law review to show up at any form of protest. talk about that.

>> well, it was an act of courage on his part to come and speak. he had not participated in some of the rallies we participated if. we had sit-ins and demonstrations, he didn't do all that. he came and stuck his neck out at a time critical importance when professor bell was about to leave. that was an act of integrity that i respect about him.

>> i think we all see in that video now what the future had for him. keith boykin thanks for joining

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