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Tavis: Deval Patrick is the governor-elect of Massachusetts whose personal journey to the statehouse is one filled with hope and inspiration. He grew up in one of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, sharing a single bedroom with his mother and sister. One day, his mother took him to hear a speech given by a guy named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a speech that would change his life.

He went on to graduate from Harvard with honors, and later served as President Clinton's assistant attorney general for Civil Rights. He joins us tonight from Boston. It's my pleasure to say, 'governor-elect;' glad to have you on this program.

Gov.-elect Deval Patrick: I'm glad to be with you, Tavis, thank you. And I do like the sound of it, truth be told.

Tavis: (Laugh) I can imagine. I guess the obvious question for starters, for those outside of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, is how a guy who has never, ever run for public office, has the nerve, one, to run for governor, and then the nerve to actually win?

Patrick: Well, (laugh) it was nerve and hope and imagination and creativity that built this country. That's the first thing I'll say. Sometimes, I think we undervalue nerve. I did realize, and I was warned when I started down this path that I should be prepared for a certain amount of resentment from the political insiders, because I was cutting the line. And I meant no disrespect to them, but I also felt, and still do, that we need a different way in our politics in the Democratic Party, in politics generally, and more importantly, in civic life.

And what we did was work at the ground, at the grassroots, asking people all over the commonwealth of Massachusetts who had checked out to check back in. To understand this is their government, this is their civic life. And if they wanted to have a role in it and an - and an influence on their future, they had to take that seriously, and put their cynicism aside.

Tavis: It's not even just that you're the first African American governor in this state, only the second in this country since Reconstruction. Of course, the first being L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia. But unless I've got my facts wrong, it's been like what, 16 years since you guys had a Democratic governor in Massachusetts?

Patrick: That's right. And some people say that the line for appointments is 16 years long.

Tavis: Yeah.

Patrick: The transition has been a very hectic, but also uplifting and exciting experience. 'Cause we have run it, in some ways, completely consistent with the themes of the campaign. Very inclusive, very outward-looking. We have working groups right now that are going around and holding community meetings to take the input from people about ways in which their government can help them help themselves, so that we build a legislative agenda up from that.

And it's been really, really exciting. And the great thing is that there's so much talent out there, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, too, who are interested in and attracted to that new vision of government.

Tavis: It's funny, everybody thinks that all Black folk know each other, so I've been asked (laugh) a thousand times, how well do you know Deval Patrick? And I've said to people that I have known Deval for years. I've known his work for even longer than that. And that said, Deval, I was shocked, quite frankly, when I heard that you were going to run, because I just never in my knowledge of you, and again, it, it reminds me of that old line, do you ever really know anybody? But I was shocked, because I did not ever consider you as one who might be interested in elective office. Now, did that change somewhere, or I just misread you all those years?

Patrick: Well no, it's not, Tavis, as if I've been planning this and plotting and scheming for years and years and years. Nor is it at the other extreme, that it was just a whim and a flier. I've been interested in politics and in civic life all my life. In fact, as a lawyer, I always used to like that description of the ideal of the citizen lawyer, meaning somebody who comes in and out of public life when you have something to contribute.

I think I was just feeling, Tavis, really frustrated after the last presidential election. Not because the candidate I was not supporting won, that's not all, but just that the whole political discourse was so contrived and stilted. And that the relationships so many of us feel with the people who are running for office seems to be limited to what you get in 30 second sound bites in the last few weeks of the campaign.

And so, I was interested in a different way of engaging people in their government. It's a moment in time, I think, where a lot of people share that hunger, who want a much more hopeful, more long-term commitment to service, meaning solutions that aren't just slogans and sound bites, and all that sort of thing, but really are about serving our long-term interests, and making lasting change. And I think I have something to offer at this moment in time, and evidently, a whole lot of people in the commonwealth of Massachusetts think so, too.

Tavis: Anyone who knows anything about my history, those 10 or 12 people (laugh) who are watching right about now, if you know anything about me, it is to know that Dr. King had a profound impact on my life, although he was dead by the time I discovered I'm. I gave a speech the other day, Deval, where I said to the audience, speaking of Dr. King. Matter of fact, when I saw you Friday in Boston, I spoke at Harvard Friday night. And I said to the students at the Harvard Law School Friday night that I would rather have the living ideas of the dead than the dead ideas of the living.

Patrick: Well said.

Tavis: It's not original, not a Tavis original, but the point is that his ideas are still so living. And so I'm fascinated by anybody who had a chance to actually see him or hear him. That long set up is to say, tell me about that day your mother took you to see Dr. King.

Patrick: It's a very interesting memory, because what I remember, and I was probably five or six or seven years old at the time. My mother took my sister and me to a park on the south side where we grew up to see and listen to Dr. King. And to tell you the truth, Tavis, I don't remember a single word he said. What I do remember is the feeling of the occasion. The solemnity.

That you were surrounded by people just like you. The park was full of people just like you. People of limited means, but limitless hope. And that you felt connected to all those people. And what a tangible force hope was. And I know from that experience and from the experience of my own life that you can build a whole life on hope, and that sometimes when we let the cynicism of the day - and there's been cynicism in every day, all through the march of time.

But you let the cynicism of the day tamp down that hope, make you feel as though you have to trim your own sails and your own aspirations. That that is the thing that holds us back more than anything. And the leadership opportunity really presents, or leadership really presents an opportunity to ask people to life their expectations not just of their government, but of themselves. And I think that was so much of what Dr. King did in his own leadership.

Tavis: I don't mean to get too personal here, and if I am, tell me, and I'll back off. But your mother...

Patrick: You'd be the first (laugh) person in media who said, 'If I get too personal, back off.' (Laugh)

Tavis: Well, I wanna be respectful here. But I think to your mother, there's something poignant here. Your mother did not live long enough to see you elected the governor of Massachusetts, but she did long enough to know that you were running for governor of Massachusetts. Tell me about your mother.

Patrick: Well, my mother was an extraordinary person. A cantankerous and firm and in some ways difficult. But also the proudest and strongest and most committed to her own personal convictions of a person I've ever known. She raised my sister and me mostly on her own, with our grandparents' help. We lived with our grandparents when we were growing up.

She lived with my wife and me and our kids for most of the last 20 years, and got very sick about two years ago. She was in rapid decline at the beginning of last year, and on the day that the 'Boston Globe' reported that I was getting into the race, I showed her the headline in her nursing home bed, and we talked about it a little while and then said goodbye, and she died a few hours later.

So we spread her ashes, the morning of the general election. Before my wife and I voted, before we knew what the outcome was, really just to try to connect that circle. I think she would have been enormously proud of the campaign we ran. Not just the outcome, but the dignity of it, the inclusiveness of it, the humility of it, and I just wanted to bring that back.

Tavis: Mm. You referenced - thank you for sharing that, I appreciate that. You referenced the media a moment ago, jokingly, and then you of course talked about the, the headline in the paper that you showed your mother in the 'Boston Globe.' Back to my being in Boston last Friday. When I arrived in Boston Friday morning to give this lecture at Harvard, I grabbed the 'Boston Globe,' as I always do when I land, grab the local paper, and saw that you'd had a big session the day before, last Thursday, with the media in the state of Massachusetts. And you had some fascinating things to say to the media (laugh) in your first conversation with them.

Patrick: Tavis, you just wanna stir it, don't you? (Laugh)

Tavis: No, no, no, no. I'm only raising that because I'm curious as to what you make - the media gets the chance to sound off on people running for office, but now here's your chance to tell me what you made of the media, and how the media covers political campaigns in a contemporary America.

Patrick: Well it's interesting. What you're referring to is a speech I gave to the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association at their annual luncheon. It's something that governors elect routinely do. And I went and I talked about how in so many respects, for so long in the life of our campaign, many of the experienced political reporters didn't get what we were trying to do.

Because they fundamentally were skeptical, and it's their job to be skeptical, and I respect that. But they were skeptical of, and they hadn't seen before, a successful, modern grassroots campaign that really was about reaching beyond the usual activists and the usual advocates, and the folks who run political machines, large and small. And asking regular people at their doorstep, who had given up on politics and civic life to see their stake not so much in me, but in their own political future.

And that is how we built what has become the largest, broadest, and I think best organized grassroots organization the commonwealth has ever seen. Now, the media missed a lot of that, because the folks that get quoted and get looked to, the wise guys and gals and pundits and so forth, also missed it. It wasn't a model they were familiar with. And my point is just this.

Perspective is about how important it is to change your position from time to time. To look at things a little differently. To be open to a point of view that isn't the usual point of view. And we did that, and built a successful campaign that way. And I'm asking the media to do that as they see how we govern. Because that's actually how I believe we're gonna move Massachusetts forward.

Tavis: This question might be a bit unfair, and I don't even like the way the mainstream media, speaking of the media, has been couching or covering or positioning this story. But there is, as you know, because you're a part of it, this story about these new Negroes, as it were, (laugh) these new Black folk who are running for elective office. You got people like Deval.

They lump everybody together, and I hate that, but Deval Patrick and Harold Ford, Jr., and Barack Obama, and the list goes on and on and on of these new kinds of Black Democrats that the media is trying to pigeonhole, or again to lump together. What's your sense of whatever that story is or isn't? Ought to be, or ought not to be?

Patrick: I think the first thing is that none of us fit in a box, and it's probably the case that an earlier generation of Black leadership didn't fit in a box, either, but they've been put in one. We all of us come from different traditions. I'm a little older than both Harold and Barack. And I did work in Civil Rights, but I also did work in corporate America. I've also led in nonprofits and community groups.

No one else in this race here in Massachusetts had that range of leadership experience. And I think you're seeing more, younger Black people who are emerging from a range of professional and political experience, with a range of political points of view. Democrats and Republicans. And that's good for all of us. What would be even better for all of us is if we weren't lumped in one box, as you say.

Tavis: I say this unapologetically. I am proud of you, Deval Patrick.

Patrick: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: So honored to have you on the program.

Patrick: May I say I'm proud of you? I know about you and your background and everything you do and continue to do. And please keep it up.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program. All the best to you.

Patrick: Thank you.

Tavis: Take care.

Patrick: Take good care.

Tavis: Up next on this program, Grammy-nominated singer Tyrese. Stay with us.