Clinton praises progress since Civil Rights Act

As top DFLers prepare to raise money for Hillary Clinton's possible presidential bid, former President Bill Clinton was in Minneapolis Monday to talk about civil rights at the University of Minnesota. He also received the Dean's Award from the university's Humphrey School.

Former President Bill Clinton says the U.S. has made great strides since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"We have made so much progress. We are less racist. We are less sexist. We are less homophobic than we used to be," he said in his remarks. "Our one remaining bigotry is we don't want to be around anybody that disagrees with us anymore."

Clinton's wide-ranging talk touched on income inequality, the need for prison reform and better access to health care and immigration reform.

"If you want to continue to have America flourish, we have to claim one of our advantages that nobody ever talks about: we are younger than Europe, younger than Japan and if China hadn't changed its one child policy, we would have been younger than China," he said. "And having lost it, I can tell you youth matters."

Clinton referred to the stalled immigration measures in Congress as one example of an idea that has bipartisan support. He said Democrats and Republicans should look past politics -- and scheming about how a change in the laws might benefit one party or the other -- even in an election season.

"The promise of the Civil Rights Act was not to have the Democrats earn the African American vote forever. Or lose the white rural married vote forever. It was the promise of everyone being in the debate. And we all need to start that again."

Ticket proceeds from the event are going to university scholarships to promote diversity