althea gibson, a five—time grand slam winner during the 19505. an incredible feat, considering it was during a period where black americans were banned from most tennis clubs. muhammad ali, jailed and stripped of his heavyweight title, for refusing to be enlisted into the us army and fight in vietnam. then there is tommy smith, mexico city, 1968. the demonstration regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of sports. a silent gesture heard around the world. we had atrocities just before i stepped on the victory stand. you had dr martin luther king. you had the kennedys. you had malcolm x. you had a plethora of murders, of social movements, being gathered and i think ‘68 was one of those times when people would have to stop, and they did stop and think of why that victory stand had to happen. it is not plentiful in thought that tommy smith wanted to do it, but it was his responsibility to show that need and i think the athletes today are doing basically the same thing, people like colin kaepernick, who has been seen

i mean, the golden era of muhammad ali, jim brown, althea gibson, and think of hank aaron, who broke the record of babe ruth and we might add, reverend sharpton, just this year, not long ago, the major league baseball decided to accept the records and fuse them from the negro leagues and the major leagues. that's going to challenge a lot of records and put on a different setting of those system players. like mr. aaron who hit 30 more home runs per year more than any other figure in the game and an extraordinarily conscientious and awoke activist, there's no doubt that has transferred over to a lebron james, a candice parker, the nba players, the nfl players, the wnba players and we've moved from merely having outrage against social just in hank aaron's day, then to social service in the 90s and then i think now back to social justice activism. what i mean by social service, go to a hospital, see young kids, go to, you know, visit and help people build homes who are poor. but now it's about social justice, economic inequality and racial antagonism that we have to confront and i think

and i remember that althea gibson, who was the first black to ever win a major in tennis, was cindy sheehan-roe. and i celebrity with her book, "i always wanted to be somebody." and since then i have fought very hard for race and gender and all of us, because we all are in this together, and she must, must, must be kind and good to each other. and i think-- i think kamala harris, vice president kamala harris and president biden have those qualities to bring us together and to see kindness and to see-- and to reveal great character. because character's revealed. it's revealed. ask they have revealed agreement character along the way so far, particularly president biden with all the loss, personal loss he has had in his life. and i think when he was in arlington today, i was thinking that he thought-- i think he always thought beau would be the president, the child he lost. so it's-- it's really amazing how he keeps bouncing back and how resilient president biden is. >> woodruff: it is. >> it really is. and i admire him so much, and he truly, truly cares about people. he has empathy and compassio