Exemplified the activist businessman that often stood at the center of the freedom struggle. A figure that is really frequently under analyzed and continues to be under analyzed i would add. He was often overlooked due to an emphasis on the more incendiary elements of the movement. Protests, mobilizations and other dramatic events. I should add that im on this panel because i in a previous life, i studied North Carolina civil rights history. And so, again, i can speak to the ways in which brandons book is making a really significant intervention here in the history, not only in the civil rights period and the writ at large, but also the Civil Rights Movement and struggle and the black struggle in North Carolina and particular. From winners perch at mechanics and farmers bank in durham, he occupied a critical space. He was a consummate insider and power player and understood the calculus of social change dictated various gated approaches to the pursuit of freedom. This is certainly some