Powell is a black law professor, while Rusk is a white former politician.

"I cut my teeth on poverty and social justice issues," Powell said, while Rusk described himself as "an old time civil rights worker, anti-poverty warrior."

"I think we have a different entry point, but we pretty quickly get to the same place," Powell said.

Powell added that some people hear his message better, while others are more inclined to agree with Rusk.

Here are biographies of Powell and Rusk.

John Powell

John Powell is the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the University Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis.

Powell received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

He teaches race and poverty, civil rights law, property law, and jurisprudence, and is founder and executive director of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the law school.

After law school, Powell, became an attorney with the Seattle Public Defender. In 1977, he received an International Human Rights Fellowship from the University of Minnesota to work in southern Africa, during which time he served as a consultant to the government of Mozambique.

Powell later served as a staff attorney for Evergreen Legal Services and as the Director for Legal Services of Greater Miami. From 1987 to 1993, he served as National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Powell has taught at Columbia University School of Law, Harvard Law School, University of Miami School of Law, and University of San Francisco School of Law.

Powell is co-author of "The Rights of Racial Minorities: The Basic ACLU Guide to Racial Minority Rights" and edited "In Pursuit of a Dream Deferred: Linking Housing and Education Polices," "Race and Poverty: Wrongs and Policies: and "Dividing the Nation: Housing and Desegregation."

David Rusk

David Rusk is now an independent consultant on urban and suburban policy.

Since 1993 he has spoken and consulted in over 120 U.S. communities. Abroad, Rusk has lectured on urban problems in Europe and Canada, and in 1997 he served as an adviser to the government of South Africa on metropolitan governance in Johannesburg, Capetown, and Durban.

During 2000 he was a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam and Delft Technical University in The Netherlands.

Rusk attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa as the outstanding undergraduate student in economics in 1962.

From 1963-68 he was a full-time civil rights and anti-poverty worker with the Washington Urban League. He then entered the U.S. Department of Labor, serving as the Manpower Administration's legislative and program development director.

Rusk was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 1975 and was Ways and Means Committee chairman in 1977. He was elected mayor of Albuquerque in 1977 and served until 1981.

Rusk was manager of issues analysis and corporate communications for the Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state's largest corporation, from 1982-1980.

Rusk, who lives in Washington, is the author of "Cities Without Suburbs," "Baltimore Unbound" and "Inside Game/Outside Game."