Civil rights narrative, casting new light on the role this banker, activist and humanitarian played. The central argument of this work is that wheeler exemplified the activist business demand that often stood at the center of the freedom struggle, a figure that continues to be under analyzed. He was often overlooked due to emphasis on the more incendiary elements of the movement, protests and mobilizations and other dramatic events. I am on this panel because i studied North Carolina civil rights history. Again, i can speak to the ways in which brendans book is making a really significant intervention in the history, not only of civil rights writ large, but the Civil Rights Movement and the black struggling North Carolina in particular. So from wheelers perch at mechanics and farmers bank and dunn, he was a consummate insider and powerplay or who understood the calculus of social change dictated variegated approaches and the pursuit of freedom. This is one of the questions i want to knock around with dr. Winford in terms of the dynamic interplay that we see with wheeler and the ways in which he is trying to operate in the middle of the 20th century. We are introduced in the book to a figure that embodies the potential for and the limits of social change. This is a muchneeded contribution to the story of the black freedom struggle in both North Carolina and the larger region. Again we have lots of pockets of scholarship and i think we are still very much in the process of connecting the tissue when it comes to the civil rights period and the role of activists, bankers and businessmen, the way in which these roles breed and merge and demerge in particular moments. Because of wheelers tenure in business and politics, he can be found in many places regarding civil rights in North Carolina. To be sure, one cant talk about this without mentioning wheeler and his accomplishments. However, these frequent mentions have been no substitute for an indepth historical analysis for wheelers role in the movement in the state and the nation. Brandon winfords book fills a significant gap in the literature and illuminates the analyzed relationship between black economic institutions, mainstream economic infrastructure, and the evolution of black freedom in the nation and North Carolina. The book cracks institutional history and serves as a reminder of Mechanics Farmers Banks role and other black economic institutions in the movement. Brandon displays a solid command of sources at his disposal. I really needed the wheeler papers available when i was working on my book, open books greater freedom for North Carolina, and they were not available, so i am green with envy brandon was able to access these papers. And he does such a great job using the wheeler papers. That really comes out and shines through in his book. So the presentation of the material, i think is really thoughtful and meticulous. He spent a good a lot of time a good deal of time, a lot of time with the wheeler sources and 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. His insights on the perils and prospects of racial change from an institutional perch like the one wheeler possessed point the way to the necessity of understanding more studies like this one to analyze the historical intersections he illuminates brilliantly in this book. His writing style is accessible and wheelers story is rendered in a humane and critical fashion. I could go on and on about the book. Brother brandon, i appreciate your contribution, i appreciate this book. I think it is also important that john wheeler is a graduate of to point out morehouse college, always very important to point out. Some of the takeaways and things i am looking for in chopping it up with you and our guests, you talk about the nature of activism and refer to black business activism, so i am curious about how people are thinking about what activism can and should look like in particular moments. I am curious about how you are thinking now that the book has been out for a little while, how your thinking has evolved when it comes to how you are thinking about activism and the types of activism wheeler tried to engage in. I think about the late great ray gavins, one of my professors, when of the deans of North Carolina civil rights history, a titan in the field. The title of his book is the perils and prospects of southern lback leadership, and that is a phrase that knocks around a lot in my mind when i read your book. 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 you see in wheelers time as perils and prospects of his style of leadership, in rosie was able to make in the struggle for freedom, and how change should look from our Vantage Point in 2020. Another question is a central notion of wheelers and a large contingent of folks in the movement, one of the operating premises was that racism was bad for business, that the south couldnt move forward as an autonomous region without combating racism, that the active combating of racism will move us forward, that racism is bad for business. So it begs the question. So what if it is great for business . What if racism is making us really profitable . What if racism is not in fact bad for business . How do we contend with the profitability of racism, oath in his movement, with the urban renewal controversy in wheelers time . How do we contend with the realities in his movement, but also, how do we contend with the realities in this moment . In terms of thinking about your work. Like taylors work on the housing industry, thinking about the relationship we have, the relationship activists have to the intractable nature of White Supremacy and different sorts of analyses we can produce when we think differently about that dynamic. And finally, what does progress look like . You talk a lot about in the book about progress. And again, this is very dynamic. So what does it look like . Is it simple . We move from progress being a simple representation i shouldnt say simple, representation is a complex thing, we move from that to trying to make and sustain fundamental structural changes. So the nature of progress, how can and should it utilized in an effort to secure greater freedom . I could go on and on, but i will not. But that is what ive got. Great book. Looking forward to chopping it up with you all. It is my great pleasure to be participating in this roundtable for professor winford. I have to say this but it will make me look like an old head. I remember back in the day meeting brandon at a conference more than 10 years ago and knowing at that point that i met him, that we would be at this point in the nottoodistant future. I have always had a lot of respect for him, and it makes us feel a little more secure to know that the future of the historical profession and the black experience is in good hands. Brother mckinleys comments were profound and insightful and introspective, and i just hope what i offer dovetails with what he says. I am not an expert in the history of africanamericans in North Carolina, so my comments are a little broader, but i was thinking very deeply about brother mckinneys questions that made me want to go back and reread the book myself. Winfords meticulous book uses wheelers multifaceted life as a point of departure for exploring the possibilities of what black leadership entailed in the jim crow south, mainly North Carolina, more specifically durham. Winfields work includes black Business History, africanamerican history in North Carolina, africanamerican viagra, political history, the history of the black south and the history of the Civil Rights Movement. I thoroughly enjoyed reading winfords book, what i would classify as an intellectual and political biography of wheeler, a man who wore many hats he was president of a black bank, educator, politician, powerbroker, member of the president s committee on equal employment opportunity, contributor to crafting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the first africanamerican delegate to represent North Carolina at the dnc, businessman, lawyer, activist, i could go on. He was, in essence, a universal reformer who was involved in seemingly countless movements and struggles and monumental events and local national and organizations for close to five decades. His rise to fame beginning in the era of the Great Depression is remarkable, and i am embarrassed i was unaware of his contributions before reading winfords book. Winford argues the role of black businesses during the Civil Rights Movement need to be reconceptualized by historians. He maintains, if we are fully to understand how central economics was to the Civil Rights Movement, we must consider black business. Winford explains in a straightforward narrative style how wheeler said and thought things in the past and uses concepts to describe his protagonist, including the notion of a new south prosperity and the black business activist. Such concepts could be expanded upon by future historians. Winfords chronologicallyorganized study lords wheelers early Family History to demonstrate how he was socialized to embarq on a career of banking, law, politics, and Civil Rights Activism. Further contextualizing wheelers future endeavors, winford offers a history of m f bank, highlight wheelers role in desegregation in North Carolina from the era of world war ii through the donning of the Civil Rights Movement that situates wheelers contribution to several landmark antidiscrimination lawsuits. His discussion of blue versus durham is interesting, and i thought about the tactics of Charles Hamilton houston prior to brown versus the board of education, and unpacking the excellent biography on the man who killed jim crow. Winford overviews the 1957 sit in movement in durham, demonstrates that during the peak years of the modern Civil Rights Movement, wheeler, who supported student activists, adopted a unique approach, often operating behind the scenes. The nuanced manner in which winford describes as wheelers approach suggests wheeler, especially as a member of the president s council was able to use his influence to challenge the employment discrimination, fight for africanamerican Voting Rights and representation in positions of power. And winford explores wheelers work in the durham redevelopment commission. According to winford, wheeler helped the Africanamerican Community for supporting Public Housing while challenging why white owned banks to democratize their practices. He also says that wheelers support of urban renewal had its shortcomings. Winford touches upon wheelers legacy, symbolized by the naming of the u. S. Courthouse in durham after him in 2018. Winfords work is more than simply an account of an under acknowledged black leader. He certainly tells us everything i think we need to know about wheeler, but he places wheeler in Historic Context and reveals how wheeler interacted with contemporaries and local policymakers. Equally important, winford avoids the pitfall of hagiography, demonstrates ability to think creatively and critically and tries to understand and disentangle why his subjects thought and acted in the matter they did. The final word on wheeler most likely has not been written. As one seasoned biographer remarked, the notion of a definitive biography is fictitious. But one thing remains certain in my mind, future historians and scholars who explore wheelers life and work will use winfords book as a starting point. He is the leading authority on this historical figure and i believe winford has indeed set a high bar. Thank you, so much. There is not much i can really add but more superlative. The striking, sepia toned cover of brandon winfords biography captures an austere, dignified John Hervey Wheeler. The his head slightly cocked, wheeler peers intently off to the side, perhaps at some unseen collaborator, but just as likely an unwitting opponent. Wheeler spent much of his professional life as an executive at the africanamericanowned Mechanics Farmers Bank, where he started as a teller and worked his way up to Bank President by the early 1950s. He waged frontline battles for economic and civil rights. In his book, dr. Winford uncovered dr. Wheelers pivotal role in the civil rights struggle from the 1950s to the 1970s, and similar ways to a generation of cultural and social historians who were emancipated by the struggle for black rights. Dr. Winford makes an important salvo in the scholarship that takes a harder look at the economic dimensions of the Civil Rights Movement. These reconsiderations are occurring in response to the unmistakable push to pay closer attention to how activists put their money where their mouths were, and the consistent pull to untangle racial inequality in the present time. The achievement of the Civil Rights Movement stand and start contrast to persistent wealth gaps, economic insecurity and lack of wellbeing continued to plague africanamerican communities. So in addition to assessing the movements success on questions of economic justice, scholars like dr. Winford are rethinking the roles of africanamerican Business Leaders. Traditional narratives often judge the Business Elite as inherently resistant to social change. They say they capitulated to white power structures and capitulated because of their dependence on africanamerican consumers. Dr. Winford complicates this onedimensional assessment, revealing the complex engagement with the u. S. Political economy among elite africanamerican Business Leaders and elite institutions like africanamerican banks. His work explodes the simplistic binaries of accommodation, protests, civil rights and black power. Dr. Winford offers a meticulously detailed, thoroughly researched book laced with revelatory insights into the treacherous racial, class and economic terrain africanamericans like wheeler navigated in the long civil rights struggle. Dr. Winfords work reveals how africanamerican elites thought greater inclusion not just in u. S. Society, but all the economy. Dr. Winford and i have spent more than a decade working on remarkable black Business Leaders, passionate, committed social activists and complicated human beings. For me, it was the first africanamerican woman Bank President and for him, it was wheeler. We both understand the necessity of not becoming enamored with our subjects, but neither of us can deny the extraordinaryness of the people who ignited our imaginations and animated our scholarship. I cant miss the opportunity to to share with the roundtable and those who are watching something about the extraordinaryness of my scholar brother brandon. In 2014, when i began looking at contributors as coeditor for a special issue of the journal of africanamerican history, a colleague told me about brandon. She really reminded me about brandon, because we had crossed paths a couple of times through my mentor, juliette walker. And brandon made it a point to stay in touch, meet for coffee at conferences, and over the years, we have shared our work, he comes up with fabulous ideas, a workshop, he sent me some incredible sources and we dreamed of a future collaboration. I am reminded of one spirited Text Exchange we had a little while back about a popular book that will remain nameless. But i remember telling brandon that what was missing from this work was a recognition of a respect for the creative ways black people worked around White Supremacy, and all the forces that told them you will not succeed. And i wrote in a text that you needed to love black people if you were going to talk about how they dreamed for possibilities and freedom. I can say unequivocally brandons love of black people is so long, so high and so deep. We are not ready for what he has in store for us, how he will transform and push forward the narrative of black Business History in the new millennium. I want to give dr. Winford a chance to address questions from the panelists, dr. Mckinneys questions about black activism and any other issues he might want to address. Thank you all for attending. Thanks to dr. Harris for putting it together. I have been impressed with this monthlong virtual conference. I learned so much over the past few weeks. Let me thank my fellow roundtable panelists, doctors mckinney and covey. I cannot put into words how i cannot put into words how thankful i am for their support and encouragement over the years, reading my work, and sharing their wisdom with advice and nuggets. I have long admired their work. But also, the last one that jeanette made their examples as, selfless scholars is what always stands out to me. Scholarship stands outcome of those examples of what it means to be a scholar, what it means to love black people, is something that stands out. I will take a moment to answer some questions posed, and speak also to some of the critical points made by terrel and jeanette. I will begin by talking about access to sources. I initially acquired the john wheeler papers in 2006. The papers ended up being fully processed in 2016, so it was 10 years. The library m