Transcripts For CSPAN2 20170416

Also that evening well be at busboys and poets bookstore in the Nations Capital to cover a talk by Yale Law School Professor James foreman. Hell be discussing his book locking up our own crime and punishment in black america. Wednesday we head the new york where journalists amie parnes and Jonathan Allen will talking about Hillary Clintons 2016 will talk about Hillary Clintons 2016 campaignful well also be in dallas where tony smith will discuss his book, why wilson matters. Thursday were in durham, north carolina, for a talk by benjamin waterhouse, history professor at the university of north carolina. His book, the land of enterprise, charts the development of business in america. Well also be at the smithsonian s museum of Natural History in washington, d. C. With a report on the impact that humans are having on our planet. And on saturday and sunday, well be live from the Los Angeles Times festival of books. Featured authors include annie jacobson, hugh hewitt, Adam Hochschild and lisa lucas. Thats a look at some of the events booktv will be covering this week. Many of these events are open to the pluck. Look for to the public. Roar for them to air in the look for them to air in the near future on booktv on cspan 2. We were flying down with president obama on air force one, thenpresident obama, to selma, alabama. And i had asked him a question about, quoteunquote, postracial versus postobama era. And he said i would not equate my election with seminal moments like the emancipation proclamation or the passage of the civil rights act, the Voting Rights act. Those were mass you have changes in legal status that represented fundamental breaks in americas tragic history and were the pillars, the 13th amendment, 14th amendment and 15th amendment of civil rights acts of the 60s. Those were, those represented the dismantling of formal discrimination in this country. Theres nothing thats going to compare to that. Moving forward, our work is to build on that work, to fine tuna work where we see formal discrimination or statesponsored discrimination still occurring. But increasingly, our work has to do with dealing with the ongoing legacy of a divided society. Closing the opportunity gaps, closing the achievement gaps, closing the wealth gaps that inevitably has been passed on from generation to generation because the gaps were so wide. And that involves no one piece of legislation, but it requires a host of different efforts. It means investing in Early Childhood education. It means us making sure everybody has health insurance. It means that kind of Public Private work that were doing through my brothers keeper. It means getting more africanamericans in s. T. E. M. Education, in math and science and engineering. And so theres not going to be one silver bullet, but, rather, its going to be a sustained effort on a variety of fronts that will take us to the next leg of this Journey Towards a more just society. Wow. That was on our way to selma, alabama, for the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday. And those words still ring true today. But, again, who are we . So this book really goes into the heart of the matter. When you talk about race and this is kind of piggybacking off what president obama said, thenpresident obama isnt it strange to say thenpresident obama . Its just been ten days. [laughter] or eleven days, i dont know, i cant even keep count now. But the bottom line is that we still have a society that is divided. And im going to think about, and im going to go back to something, my childrens favorite singer, leslie odom jr. , and this song called seriously. We are our united divided states. So when it comes to matters of race, africanamericans still have the highest numbers of negatives in almost every category. And issues of policing are very important. Thats one of the pieces where i start in this book. Traditionally in the africanamerican community, the american black community, there is an instinctive coming of age truth for our young black men called the talk. Its something black fathers or father figures give their sons or equivalents. Its meant to be a lifetime tool that might help these boys strategically navigate interactions with law enforcement, with the ultimate goal of avoiding altercations. The talk can spell life or death for some black males. I know it sounds so 1950s and 60s, but now more than ever thats the reality in the modern age more than 60 years later. The essence of the talk is a dad telling his son in blunt terms that some bad policing results in death for our black men and boys. Be it intentional or unintentional, it is more than a soulful truth. Its an unavoidable fact in our communities. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on monday, and two of this years winners have appeared on booktv. First up, the winner for fiction, coulson whitehead, who talks about the underground railroad. And then coming up in about an hour, Heather Ann Thompson will recount the attica prison uprising of 1971, blood in the water, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history. Welcome back. Everybody. Lets get started. Get im leyla, im your room host for the day