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Published 03/03/2020 | Reading Time 1 min 42 sec
By BWSTimes Staff
TULSA, Okla. — Actor Danny Glover and former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport paid a visit to KBOB 89.9 FM in north Tulsa. Glover and Newport are campaigning in Oklahoma for 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders for Super Tuesday.
Newport was the mayor of Berkley, California, from 1979 to 1986. In 1981 Bernie Sanders became the mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
“We used to be called to the eastern universities like MIT and Harvard and places to talk about our approach to public policy because we are really into building cities from the bottom up. Bernie and I became very close friends. When we used to go to conferences on mayors, I was on the advisory committee. He [Bernie], the mayor of Cleveland, and Harold Washington used to always get together… I got to know Bernie, then,” Newport said.
On air, Newport recalled the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and remembered when Sanders was the co-chair of the Congress of Racially Equality (C.O.R.E) during the ’60s, which lead to Sen. Sanders’ arrest on several occasions.
The famous actor from the classic The Color Purple chimed in, sharing, “This is a generational movement, and where we place ourselves in. We were a part of a generational movement of change back then. This generational movement has indicated another step. It sells to elders, like myself and Gus, who know that we’re intricately a part of this movement as well — because what we’ve learned in the past is how we’ve been able to identify some of the things that maybe didn’t come across our viewpoint at a particular point in time.”
Glover then added, “We’re at a crisis now, whether people want to believe it or not with climate change. Who are going to be most affected by climate change? Poor people…If indeed we are able to change this around, we will not only have a president who’s going to respect who we are on our community’s main streets, but he’s also going to respect other governments who are trying to find other ways in which they can mediate their issues in their own communities with environmental and issues development issues.”
The legendary actor and civil rights icon also spoke about gentrification in urban areas and their concerns with the privatization of education.
To see more of Bobby Eaton’s and Ramal Brown’s exclusive interview with Danny Glover and Gus Newport watch below.