Transcripts For CSPAN3 African American Businessman John Her

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 something i want to knock around with doctor whitford in terms of the dynamic play we see with wheeler and the ways hes trying to move and operate and navigate in the middle of the 20th century. In the, book we are introduced to a figure that has the potential for and limits of social change. This is a muchneeded contribution to the historiography of black struggle, or the North Carolina and the larger region. We have lots of lots of pockets of scholarship and we are still dealing with the task of connecting the tissue when it comes to the civil rights period, when it comes to the role of activists, when it comes to the role of bankers and businessmen, the ways in which these roles emerge and the emerge in particular moments. Because of his influence and the length of his tenure in the business of politics, wheelers presence can be found in various monographs regarding the civil rights in North Carolina. To be sure, one cannot tell the story of the movement accurately for the entire state without mentioning wheeler and his many accomplishments. However, these frequent mentions have been no substitute for an indepth historical analysis of wheelers role in the movement, both in the state and in the nation. Brandons book fills a significant gap in the historical literature, in addition to reintroducing scholars and students to wheeler. The book illuminated the still under analyze relationship between black economic institutions, larger mainstream economic structures of the evolution of black freedom in the nation and in North Carolina in particular. The book also does the crucial work of crafting and institutional that serves as an important reminder of the role that mechanics and farmers and other black economic institutions played in the region during the movement. Brandon displays a very solid command of the sources at his disposal. I really needed the wheeler papers available when i was still working on my book, greater freedom for North Carolina. So i am green with envy that brandon was able to access these papers, and he does a great job with using them. That really comes out and shines through in his book. The presentation of the material i think is very thoughtful and thorough and meticulous. He has clearly spent a great deal of time with these sources. And it shows in the work. I think he has produced a work that will be essential reading for anyone doing research on civil rights in North Carolina and the region for some time to come. His insights on the perils and prospects of change from an institutional perch like the one wheeler possess will point the way toward an understanding of the necessity of creating more studies like this one that emphasize the here to four under analyzed historical intersections that he illuminates rather brilliantly in this book. His writing style is accessible. The wheeler story is rendered in a humane and critical fashion. I could go on and on about this book. I really appreciate brother brandon. I really appreciate your contribution. I appreciate this book. I think its also important to point out that john wheeler is a graduate of morehouse college. Thats always important to point out. Some of the takeaways in things that i am looking forward to chop it up with you brother and our guests, you talk about the nature of activism. You referred to black business activism. Im always curious about how people are thinking through and thinking about what activism can and should look like. So im curious about how you are thinking now that the book has been out for a little while, how you are thinking has matured and evolved when it comes to how you are thinking about activism and the types of activism that wheeler tried to engage in. I think about the late great ray gabonese who is a professor and mentor of mine, one of the daines of North Carolina civil rights history, a titan in the field. The title in his book was the perils and prospects of southern black leadership, a book by gordon blane hancock. That phrase, the perils and prospects, that is a phrase that knocks around in my mind a lot when i read your work, just in terms of the perils, the benefits, the high risks and high rewards associated with wheelers style and brand of leadership and also wheelers theory of change. I am curious about what we see in wheelers time has the perils and prospects of this style of leadership. What inroads was he able to make and freedom . How have these connections changed from our Vantage Point here in 2020 . Then the other question that we can knock around is a central notion of wheelers and folks for a large contingent in the movement. One of the Central Operating principles was that racism was bad for business. Right . The south could not move forward as an autonomous unit without addressing entrenched White Supremacy, without addressing the way and the deleterious impact of racism on all manner of institutions. That is a central notion. The eradication of racism, the active combatting of racism will move us forward. Racism is bad for business. So its sort of begs the question, what if its great for business . What if racism is actually making us really, really profitable . What if racism is not, in fact, bad for business . How do we contend with the persistence and the profitability of racism . We see this with the urban renewal, with the urban renewal controversy and wheelers time. How do we contend with these realities in his moment . Right . But how do we contend with those realities in this moment in terms of thinking about your work and putting your work in dialog. So thinking about the relationship we have, the relationship activists have, to the intractable nature of White Supremacy and the different sorts of analyses that we can produce when we think differently about that dynamic. And then finally, what does progress look like . You talk a lot in the book about progress and this is a very dynamic thing. What does it look like . We moved from progress being simple representation, representation is a complicated thing. We moved from that two instances of trying to make and sustain fundamental structural changes. Right . The nature of progress. How can and should it be utilized in an effort to secure greater freedom. I could go on and on, but i will not. So thats what i got. Its a great book. Im looking forward to chopping it up with you all about it. Its my great pleasure to be participating in this roundtable for professor win furred. And i have to say this and it will make me look like more of an old head, but i remember back in the quote unquote day meeting brandon at an association for the study of African American life and history conference more than ten years ago and knowing at that point that i met him that we would be at this point and in the not too distant future. I have always had a lot of respect for him and it makes us feel a bit more secure to know that the future of the historical profession in the black experience is in good hands. Brother mckinneys comments were so profound and insightful and introspective that i just hope that what i offered dovetails with much of what he said. Im not an expert in the history of African Americans in North Carolina. My comments are a bit broader, but i was thinking very deeply to brother mckinneys questions and comments that really got me thinking about a bunch of stuff, making me want to go back and reread the book myself. Wind furreds meticulously researched book uses wheeler is multifaceted life as a point of departure for exploring the possibilities of wet black leadership entailed in the jim crow south, mainly North Carolina more specifically. Winfords scholarship contributes to several overlapping historiography and historical sub fields, as professor mckinney pointed out, including black businesses, African American biography, black political history, the history of the black south, and the history of the long Civil Rights Movement. I thoroughly enjoyed reading winfords book. I would classified as being an intellectual and political biography of wheeler, a man who wore many different hats. He was the president of a black bank, and educator, a politician, a powerbroker, a member of the president s committee on equal employment opportunity, a contributor to the crafting these Civil Rights Act of 1964, first African American delegate to represent North Carolina in the dnc, a businessman, a lawyer, and like professor mckinney, i could go on and on. He was, in essence, a universal reform or who was involved in seeming list countless movements and struggles and monumental events and local and National Organizations were close to five decades. His rise to fame began in the era of the great depression. Its remarkable. Im a bit embarrassed that i was unaware of his contributions before reading winfords book. Winford argues that the role of black businesses in the Civil Rights Movement need to be reconceptualize by historians. He maintains that quote, if we are fully to understand how central economics was the Civil Rights Movement, we must consider black business. Moreover, wheeler and his civil rights agenda provides an instructive case study for this. Winford is old school in his approach to interpreting and framing history. I am a fan of this approach. He explains in a straightforward narrative style how wheeler viewed things in the past. At the same time, he does introduce a few concepts that helped describe his protagonist, including the notion of new south prosperity and the black business activists. Such concepts could be adopted in or expanded upon by future historians to write about African American leaders like wheeler. Winfords account chronologically explores wheelers upbringing, family history, and early years in order to demonstrate how he was socialized to embark on a career of banking, the law, politics, and Civil Rights Activism. Further conceptualizing wheeler s future endeavors, winford offers a history of the efforts of early black businessmen in durham, and the winford highlights the struggle for black educational quality and the segregation in North Carolina through the dawning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. He situated with his contributions to several landmark anti discrimination lawsuits during the period. His discussion of blue versus durham is particularly interesting. I thought the tactics of Charles Hamilton houston prior to brown versus the board of education something that generated on the man who killed jim crow. In the context of the conventional Civil Rights Movement, winford overviews the 1957 sit in movement in durham and student activism, while unpacking wheelers activism. He demonstrates that during the peak years of the modern Civil Rights Movement, wheeler, who supported student activist, adopted a unique approach, often operating in his own ways behind the scenes. The nuanced manner in which winford describes wheelers approach reminded me somewhat of booker ty washingtons shrewd strategies. Winford suggests that wheeler, especially in his role as a member of the president s committee on equal opportunity and as president of the Southern Regional council, was able to use his political influence and savvy to challenge employment discrimination, to fight for African American Voting Rights, to advocate for African American representation in positions of power. And in the final chapter, windward explores wheelers work in the interim Redevelopment Commission and the North Carolina fund. According to winford, wheeler helped by going from housing the many africans that democratize the practices. At the same time winford acknowledges that wheelers support of urban renewal projects had a short coming. His brand of black business activism did not always truly benefit the most of African Americans. In his brief conclusion, winford touches upon wheelers legacy, symbolized in the naming of the u. S. Courthouse in durham after him in 2018. Winfords work is much more than simply an account of an under acknowledged and influential black leaders life work and accomplishments. While he certainly tells us everything that i think we need to know about wheelers time on earth, he adeptly places wheeler within numerous historical context. He points to how the leader evolved during his life, and he reveals how wheeler interacted with his contemporaries, junior activists, and local and National Policy makers. Equally important while doing so, winford avoids the pitfalls of hay geography. He addresses the socalled five seas of historical planting. He demonstrates the ability to think creatively and critically, and he strives to understand why his subjects thought and acted in the manners that they did. The final word on wheeler, most likely, has not been written. As one seasoned biographer has remarked, the notion of a definitive biography is fictitious. But, one thing remains certain in my mind. Future historians and scholars who seek to explore wheelers life and work will be compelled to use when for its book as a starting point. He is after all the leading authority on this historical figure, and i believe that winford as indeed set a high bar. Thank you so much. Theres not much that i can add. Not much more than i can add but more superlatives. The striking tone of brandon winfords biography captures an austere and dignified John Hervey Wheeler. His head is likely cocked, wheeler pierce intensely off to the side, perhaps at some unseen collaborator, but just as likely to an unwitting opponent. We are spent much of his professional life as an executive in the African Americanowned mechanics and executives bank North Carolina. He started as a bank teller and worked his way up to Bank President in the early 1950s. The engagement backroom racial diplomacy as well as waging frontline battles for economic and civil rights. In his book, doctor winford uncovers wheelers pivotal role in the civil rights struggle from the 19 1950s to the 1970s. In many ways, a generation of social and cultural historians being emancipated by the movement for black freedom in the mid 20th century. These historians transformed u. S. Historical methods scholarship. Doctor winford makes an important salvo in the scholarship it takes a harder look into the economic dimensions of the Civil Rights Movement. These reconsiderations are occurring in response to the unmistakable push from the sources to pay closer attention to how activists put their money where their mouths were. Into the insistent pole to untangle the roots of economic inequalities in our present time. The achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in terms of removing illegal barriers to accessing education, boating and to public spaces, stand in stark contrast to the persistent wealth gaps and economic insecurity and lack of wellbeing that continue to plague African American communities. In addition to reassessing the movement success on questions of Economic Justice, scholars are rethinking the roles, scholars like doctor winford, are rethinking the roles of African American Business Leaders. Traditional narratives often judge the Business Elite as inherently conservative and resistant to social change. They argue these elites kind of capitulated to white power structures and defended racial segregation because of their dependence on African American consumers. Doctor winford complicates this onedimensional assessment, revealing the complex engagements with the u. S. Political economy among elite African American Business Leaders and elite institutions like African American banks. His work explodes the simplistic fine areas of accommodation, protest, of civil rights with black power. Doctor winford offers, as my other colleagues said, a meticulously