Vice president of Public Programs at the new york public library. Its a privilege for the library to host tonights program celebrating Mike Wallaces new book, greater gotham. The longawaited sequel to his book gotham. Greater gotham picks up the story at the turn of the last century, a period when new york experienced unparalleled growth, expansion and consolidation when much of the infrastructure was developed and when many of our institutions were founded including this one at the new york public library. Incidentally the room in which we are seated was carved out of what was once the reservoir and there is a great illustration of that in the book. Its a special honor for us to host this program not only because of the importance of the book and its subject matter but also because mike wallace who is a fellow in the Coleman Center for scholars and writers and a resident in the allen room researched a good deal of the book right here in the librarys archives. The librarys holdings on
When i left i went out into the world into the community to learn in life and how to be a man. And their workshops all along the avenue they are not there in more. And that discrimination not be faced from the darker skin students chasing kids hold afterschool calling him cracker as they fly at the st. Running into your yard there was a day at woodstock them. But one day their mother said we will put an end to this. Close the gate let them come up and chase them back into that corner to that big pail of water but overhead she doused them with the big bucket of water and said steve my kids alone. But that was the dynamics of the integrated neighborhood. Really not of racial tension but she is said j. Pittsburg figure all but one of his major plays whether it is urban redevelopment and coming of drugs or urban renewal later in the 1990s. So he and his plays really capture like that spurred history. To have a real sense that he walked the streets of the School District and he never drove
History and conversation with us. And to kind of create a space to put that history of conversation with the president and struggles today. Tonight we are going to be talking about black power and political refreshment. It feels a timely in the moment we are in. I think most of you who have been here before also know that every two months i like to talk about rosa parks. Many of you know i am professor Jeanne Theoharis and i wrote a biography of rosa parks and this would have been her 100 third birthday. In honor of that, colleagues have built a new web site called rosaparksbiography. Org to challenge the ways in much of our public conversation today theres a kind of dangerous distinction being made between what is being treated as the good old Civil Rights Movement and the movements for Racial Justice and black lives matter today and these are dangerous distinctions and i think really looking at the history of rosa parks and particularly looking at criminaljustice. Really challenges t
Pushing him. Richard mur dock was the more shocking one. He was smart and you would think he would be a good one and he turns around talking about a pregnancy and the case of rape being a gift from god after the aikin thing. As just a political comenitator i argue with both points and that is why you should never run me for any office. That is why one thing i think tea partyers and i say that about people who were not involved in politics but are getting involved you have to learn these are different skills of being a politician and running for office. You can see it with democrats having a lot of good politicians and i dont mean about their ideas just in political skills and i would recommend to you and you may laugh but i am right. Joe biden, dick durbin, mcconnell is good politically and they know how to say things in a way that attracts voters. The job of a commenitator is we are trying to change peoples mind. A politician has to take the voters like they are and win their vote. Ai
Something we want to talk about and that we want you to return to read and learn from as we have about whether it is we face now. And we do in this country face an extraordinary structure that has done the things that were so upsetting. One example referred to by all of us, democracy in those days was a word that was akin to a chaotic, disorganized, messy, negative, negative, negative. We lived in a bizarre reversal. Now it is the holy of holies. We celebrated democracy the way we celebrate cowboys in the old days. A complete fantasy, a makeup so that we can indulge this desire as an economist i keep saying this and i know some of you have heard it from me before. We go to work. We spend five out of seven days a week and when we go to work we enter a place in a capitalist society that is the absolute opposite of democracy. A tiny group of people, major shareholders and boards of directors make all the decisions thousands of employees not to speak of the communities where they work have