00:00My first impression of Barney was that he talked faster than anybody had ever known in my life and that
00:06half of the time I couldn't understand what he was saying. I guess I thought in a way that he
00:09was kind of a smart aleck.
00:11Barney is clearly the product of his background. I mean, Bayonne, New Jersey, at the time he grew up, but
00:17both of his parents were incredible. And Bayonne, you know, he had to be a survivor and wasn't an age
00:22of street fights as much as it was an age of a battle of wits.
00:26From the time he was a teenager, he wanted to be in Congress. You know, there are people who want
00:31to be doctors, lawyers, accountants, plumbers. He wanted to be in Congress.
00:35I met Barney when he was 16 years old at a sweet 16 party and he was a ready politician.
00:41He was sitting in the backyard and he was telling everybody about the world. And he was a kid. He
00:47was puffing away in a cigar. Brilliant and voluble and funny.
00:51I mean, he was just a smart guy and therefore he understood, you know, he could tell he was doing
00:55right and wrong. But I'm saying some of these issues were a question of the ability to empathize.
01:02When Matthew Evers was assassinated in Mississippi, the NAACP had a very mournful march. And Barney and Bill Rubin were
01:13the only two white people who marched in that parade.
01:15He was as vocal in our behalf as we were in our own behalf.
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