Will see tuesday, wednesday, thursday of next week we have signings for the following week we have signings and even more coming. If youre not on our email list and youd like to get on the email list, we would be more than happy to put you on there. Today, we are very happy to have doctor gerald horne back with us today. Cspan is also that when you come up to ask questions, come up to the microphone. This is all being filmed to be broadcast. They are here to talk about two new books, stormy, the heavens. The book is so new that gerald just saw today. [laughter] its published by our friends at black classic press and were happy to see them do yet another good book and the story of the associated lega negro press is the other book you will be discussing and hopefully we will have him back in a couple months. He usually comes out to the pan african film festival. He has a couple more books coming out in january and hes been passing out flyers. As you all know hes a professor of history down at the university of houston, he received his law degree from cal state berkeley and a phd in history which he has used too extensive effect from Columbia University so please welcome doctor gerald horne. [applause] thank you very much for the introduction, its always a pleasure to be back in l. A. , even more of a pleasure to be my favorite bookstore. And, its going to be deja vu all over again because the last time i was here i was talking about this book, the counterrevolution of 1776, and at the time i went down on my knees to apologize to black people, indigenous people, progressive people for the incompetence, the maltreatment that historians have inflicted upon many of our struggles and not able to tell us how we got to this point and i wanted to make an introduction. Now of course, when i kneel, think people think im emulating Colin Kaepernick in the National Football league of athletes, and that, there hangs the tail because as was mentioned in a few months of the back youre talking about two new books, one is on the apocalypse of secular colonialism. This book basically. [inaudible] this new book starts in 1588 and goes up to 1688 and in other words it deals with the original project that led to the english colonial sediment and the roots and origins of the United States and widespread, capitalism and slavery. I think, to connect these two points is that some of you might be wondering, these athletes, they started off protesting about police brutality, but somehow the whole thing got hijacked and now supposedly its about the National Anthem and the flag and all that. And i think that apparent conundrum can be explained. Theres a whole saying that every strike is a dress rehearsal for revolution and in the United States, any protest is seen as a dress rehearsal for revolution and therefore is understandable if you accept that why that protest has now been translated as a critique of the National Anthem and the flag because our detractors see our protest and given the fact as ive said in this book , the fact is that black people and native americans were fighting in the white mans country. Too that extent, even though some of us, apparently they have not forgotten it, this is why we have these protests aboupolice brutality, they see something much deeper and much more profound. In a sense, they are correct, in a sense. Now, having said that, i wanted to get that off my chest. Oh, i have to mention this book too. This book is also coming out in february. It is on black americans and the relationship to tokyo tokyo before the bombing in 1945. One of the most important global relationships that we had, relationship that encompasses. [inaudible] and i think that this books, even though its historical has relevance given the Current Crisis in north korea and washington which, i remember in june i was in washington d. C. And i went to bed not knowing if i was going to wake up the next morning because the 45th president had issued so much threat i thought the world was going come to an end. Fortunatelunfortunately, thats not a joke the way things are going. I think this book provides useful background and context, not only with regard to this crisis of north korea, but the looming and larger crisis which is with the peoples republic of china which many in washington and wall street see as being in the passing lane and therefore there needs to be a showdown sooner rather than later as a direct result. So, with that introduction, now let me turn to this book, storing the heavens, asking americans for the early right to fly. This book deals with the fascination, if not obsession that people of african descent, particularly in north america had with the concept of aviation. Now, as you probably know, the Wright Brothers have been given credit for the invention of the airplane, kitty hawk north carolina, although there are brazilian calendars to that claim and as i point out in the book, you have black people before 1903 who were trying to event find devices so they could figure out a way to get out of this place. But certainly they won the race to the Patent Office which, in a society like this is whats important. Black people decided they needed to know more about aviation because early on, aviation was being used as a tool to enhance our oppression. The first documented use of airplane in terms of aerial bombing takes place in libya, circa 1911, 18 years after the Wright Brothers socalled invention. By 1921 there is the bombing of black wall street, im sure there is a book in here about that that is to say this black community in tulsa oklahoma which was attached from the air contemporaneously you had Southern Africa, you had black people being bombed from the air, as a direct result, Marcus Garveys organization we decided to take a dedicated interest in aviation, this was seen as a complement to the black stark line, the shipping line that was going to be sending goods and people around the globe and aviation was seen as a complement to that. Then of course there is the question of black people training as pilots and i spent quite a bit of time in this book talking about John Robinson from chicago via mississippi on one of the early black pilots who took his skills and talents to ethiopia in the 1930s to help to repel the invasion of ethiopia in the 1930s. He also became the chief pilot of the imperial majesty and has been given credit for helping jumpstart the Ethiopian Airways which is the leading carrier on the continent and this fair to nip knit together the entire continent which is to say helping to achieve the possibility that you might have to fly by london or paris but you can fly by Ethiopian Airways, and directly from west to east, and this Ethiopian Airways was no small measure by this black american and when he died in 1954 in an airplane crash, the streets were lined playing homage to this iraq figure. Another topic that i deal with in this book is that black women in particular became interested in aviation early on. Diane mcintyre who is one of our leading choreographer, her mother was a leading. [inaudible] and she even choreographed a piece that you can probably find somewhere, perhaps on youtube about these early black women pilots. As a matter of fact, i have some new information in this book about the origins of the Tuskegee Airmen who have been celebrated given their role in world war ii, 1941 1945, and willa brown, who was an early black woman pilot was one of the women who was excluded from participation. It couldve been the tuskegee air people or air force, didnt necessarily have to be the air man as it turned out. We also talk about the struggle in terms of black passengers which was a major struggle. It was sort of a patchwork of the segregation. [inaudible] it took a major struggle to change that. A major role in the process played by the naacp who are dispatching staff and lawyers from the atlantic to the pacific and often times have to take airplanes as a result and they are subjected to jim crow and the legal staff then begin these fights just to preserve the right of their staff and lawyers in a non jim crow fashion. Then theres the struggle of black flight attendants who, at one time were almost all women, and there was a monumental effort to keep black women from being flight attendants, a rather ugly thing was said about their physical appearance in order to keep them from that particular job and i wont reset the details here, you can buy the book and find out what those entail, and then of course the key black people, keeping them from being pilots in flying commercial airline spread this is also a story not only in terms of John Robinson and the solidarity with ethiopia because he was not only the only black pilot who traveled across the seas to contribute his aviation skills, theres also a story in this book that is to say just as we were trying to use aviation as a tool of liberation, as the bombing of libya and to suggest there was a companion effort to use aviation as a tool of oppression in the now defunct Pan American Airways was a major contributor to that process of oppression that is to say they opened up flights to apartheid south africa early on and saw that as being a part of their mission, there was a major campaign, as you know, not only in black america but in africa to try to curtail the landing rights of South African airways, a process that eventually triumph and was a major step toward the isolation of the regime. This book, nates in 1957. That is not only the time when donna comes to independence in march, its also the time when there is a major civil rights protest in washington d. C. , a companion effort to the betterknown 1963 march featuring doctor Martin Luther king, but 1957 also marks the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School and you may recall that the u. S. President was under enormous pressure because the United States is trying to appeal to african nations and independents like ghana and in the caribbean, barbados, et cetera, but this was very difficult given the fact that black people and people of color were treated so atrociously. President eisenhower felt compelled to send troops in the classroom to help protect these black students from being mauled. And parenthetically, i should add that i was in little rock doing research and listen to public radio, and one of the little rock nine as they were called because we are marking the 60th anniversary of their desegregation was cited for the proposition that even today there are members of the little rock nine that are still being harassed by an event from 60 years ago and the inference that i drew from that is an inference that ive stated before in allstate again, i think our historians have done a disservice by underestimating the resistance two steps to a quality and contrary to what the great african leader once said, they are claiming these is victory and in a sense theyre telling lies. Its misleading us and does not prepare us for the catastrophe we are now facing with this con man, certified misogynist occupying the oval office. These historians are not preparing us for these eventualities and then when they happen, often times they are dismissed as anomalies, aberrations, et cetera, as opposed to being part of a chain of causation and a consistent pattern, if youd like. In any case, back to this thread of 1957, little rock also happens at a time of sputnik, moscow sending a satellite into outer space, and as many of the black opinion molders were saying, the sputnik was a result of the u. S. Ruling being more concerned about the race race than the space race, that is to say they were wasting Human Capital by keeping black people as far away as possible from Higher Education for example, administering education to us and this was handicapping the nation in this battle of ideas, another kind of battle with the former soviet union so this puts pressure on the u. S. Authorities, not least in the area of aeronautics and aerospace and so for those of you who have seen the movie Hidden Figures are read the book, you can see this story is sort of a prelude and a prequel, if you would like to that particular story so, thats where that book basically concludes, although i do have kind of an afterword trying to bring us up to date about current struggles that are taking place in the air because, i should also say that another struggle was not only over the right to go into the cockpit or the right to be a flight attendant, or the right to be not subjected to jim crow and the right not to be subjected to jim crow at airport restaurants, but it was also the right to be involved in manufacturing of airplanes, there was a contempt to keep us as far away as possible and i should mention also one of the reasons i was interested in the subject was because, like many, i am fascinated with the idea that at some point in this century, assuming that Climate Change and nuclear war does not obliterate humanity that at some point in the century there will be an effort to take people to live in outer space, and it occurred to me that the same problems that are occupying us on planet earth will follow us into mars and so i thought i would tell this back story of aviation and reaching the stratosphere which hopefully will be useful when and if that moment comes that our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren are living on another planet so, in any case, thats this book, storming the heavens. Opera Singers were performing a broad. And from ethiopia fame. And was filing stories for the associated negro press. So this story about this journalistic enterprise and the Associated Press that is still with us that plants the articles in the black press meant to be graced with the l. A. Sentinel as those members of the thriving enterprise but it tells the alternative history of that. Because they were covering stories that others were ignoring so then parenthetically the archives is one of the richest in the entire field of africanamerican studies. Some of that isnt microfilm it could be in chicago recommending this to graduate students with their international questions to write an interesting story about agriculture to their archive or show business and actually if you look at my footnotes about aviation are from this as well. So the associated negro press started by Claude Barnett and was started by him as well. During his lifetime he was one of the leading black american figures of that era. Not only because of this enterprise that he was a canny investor because many of us understandably encourage the proliferation of black businesses and i count myself in that category but we have to realize that contradiction that can arise as an investor. For example claude pressured the belgian authorities in the congo of the deprivation committed against african in one paragraph but that on the next he implicates about african art now that is tuskegee is an elmo matter. Emdash alma matter. So of this man before the advent of the cold war had very close relations but was not able to stand the pressure of Frank Marshall davis if you go to your smart phone and look him up you will find 2008 through 2016 he was seen as the evil jesus because he was a correspondent of the united negro press and at a certain point and then mr. Obamas memoir he talks about frank who is a father figure to him. So the right we made a big deal wrongly i should add but i have more detail about his life but i am hoping the right wing picks up the book to find more information on Frank Marshall davis. Wife mac so this is the alternative history of a 50 year period but also it is the paradox of jim crow with figures like Claude Burnett in my estimation got caught up with this mania integration to say make sure as opposed to desegregation but in many ways it helped to undercut his business because as the New York Times and Washington Post bought into integration and many left the enterprise and this is happening at the same time amt comes into its height. He is filing stories in french and portuguese starting relationships of african newspapers, and with the african slave trade. That is to say that the amt collapses in the 60s. So part of the story is told through the paradox of jim crow. In any case, that is this book , and i will stop here and you can lineup there. Do not rush. [laughter] do you have any insight here in atlanta . I think it was the first melanin owned airline and he died of pancreatic cancer. It was in the 80s. There are a number of attempts to foreign and black airlines. There is a guy named starts a business in haiti within a 25 or 50mile radius and taking it back. We have stories about them taking their skills to ethiopia or brazil but there were a number of attempts by these black americans but this is where they connect because Claude Burnett was also wrong was also an investor. In the ethiopian airwaves. And then to undermine his investment that is part of the paradox of jim crow. Mostly those did not take flight because the competition is so stiff. Panamerican airwaves so if these major highly capitalized Airlines Look at these attempts. Stiff if not stiffer. Where did they get their experience . Who was teaching black people how to fly . Thats interesting. Someone some were taught by europeans they were more interested to teach them skills. Then there is the case of eugene. A black american who was born in georgia as a young boy stows away on a ship to france and wants to become a pilot in france. And then stays in france and then world war ii works with the french resistance. So all of these that dont take flight so when there is than many pilots that there is a high mortality rate. Because and then learning how to fl