Watch: Rangel Compares Tea Parties to Segregationists

In an exclusive interview Wednesday on NY1's "Inside City Hall," Congressman Charles Rangel all but called some of the opponents of the health care reform bill racist, comparing them to protestors who fought against the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

"I was involved in the civil rights marches in the '60s. And I have been badgered, cursed at and spat at by groups in the South and I want you to know and your viewing audience to know that the group that were in Washington fighting against the health bill and fighting against the President, looked just like and sounded just like those groups that attacked the civil rights movement in the South," Rangel said.

In his first interview since stepping down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rangel also responded to some of the accusations that forced him to give up the post.

Rangel said he resigned as chairman after he was barraged with Republican attacks and unfair press coverage.