Kicking off with josh king who wrote off script. , aaron follows with a book called political suicide. Author of the book exit right, people who left the right. We finish up with politicians and inegalitarians and Hidden History of american politics. The event is underway now. Please fold up your chairs at the end of the event. The hardworking folks appreciated. Theres also a question answer please, to microphone so we can all hear your intelligent question. Do make your questions a question. [laughter] and politics and prose we are dedicated to generating dialogue in our community through literary events every night of the year, here in our flagship connecticut store, other busboy imports locations and other venues. Tomorrow night we night we are hosting Kareem Abduljabbar for his newest tonight we are honored to bring you a Crucial Panel of voices on race in america. This is a necessary and difficult conversation x we are honored and humbled to have it here at politics politics pro. April ryan is our moderator and the person who brought all these great minds together. April is White House Correspondent and Washington Bureau chief for american urban radio networks. Her white house report is the First National radio feature broadcast directly from the reporthouse, and through it she is the author of the best selling the presidency in black and white. An unwavering dedication to never accepting easy answers. Please help me welcome april ryan. [applause] accepting easy answer. Please help me welcome april. [applause]. Thank you so much. Can everyone hear me . Can everyone hear me . Okay. Well let there be sound. Good evening and thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and washington d. C. Tonight and for those of you at home to discuss something that is a very impactful and important right now. Issues of race and pleasing, lawenforcement and the community. Tonight on the table we will discuss all of lives to discuss black lives in blue lives. We started out the summer in louisiana with the fatal please involve shooting of a black man. Then we saw the aftermath of a Fatal Shooting of a man who had a registered gun in his position possession. Then more shootings occurred. This time in dallas, texas in retaliation for what happened in the other cities. It was a still very sad. A Police Officer was injured and five were tragically killed. And louisiana, shots ring out again. Three Baton Rouge LouisianaPolice Officer skill. And just today, president obama was in baton rouge, louisiana and he met with the families of alton met with the families of alton sterling and also those Police Officers and families who were killed. Not long after that we heard about cities like milwaukee, please involve shootings there. And so on. And just just down the road in the city where i call home and the professor calls home in baltimore, we see no convictions paid six Police Officers charged in the death of freddie gray. They released a scathing report against the Police Department in matters of race but acknowledge the city Police Department [inaudible] these problems of tension in the community and police is farreaching. Here is a fact. I talked with the head of homeland security, jay johnson recently. He said that when theres a problem between communities and lawenforcement, when trust is broken it becomes a National Security issue. Once again, when trust is broken between the community and police, at the National Security security issue. You ask why . Because the Police Department asked us to Say Something if we see something. So the trust is broken if there is a breach. I want to to introduce my great panel this evening. Next to me is michael, a law professor from the university of baltimore. He is an author and International Political consultant. A civil rights, human rights and constitutional expert. His latest book, ghost of jim crow. We also have eddie, please raise your hand. He is currently, you see them on tv all day today. He is currently is currently the chair of the department of africanamerican studies at the william s professor of religion and africanamerican studies at Princeton University in his latest book, democracy and how laced race still slaves the american soul. Also with us today, the esteemed and one and only who has long been recognized for her progressive and insightful observation. She is a labor and colorful commentator. Her latest book is, i will be better off. Cant wait to wait to hear what she had to say. We also have victoria, she is an amazing woman. She has written so many novels and you wonder why the novelist is here, because she has a book out called stand your ground. Stand stand your ground was an naacp image Award Winning book for 2016. She has done so Much Research on the issue of stand your ground, lets give all of our panelist a great round of applause. [applause]. We have one person who is stuck in new york and she sends her apology, joy reed whose book is still on sale here. She is supposed to be hash tagging and sending me a question today so you can hear her voice at least through social media. One thing were going to ask you all today, as, as you are sitting here theres only one thing we ask of you. If youre in the conversation and you are enjoying the conversation, how many of you are on social media and have your phones, i know we told you to turn him down or off. Turned them down and mute it, i want you to bridging the divide. Hashtag bridging the divide. Thats what thats what this is about, its about solution. When we talk about solution and we talk about the critical issue of policing, so many of us are young and we think it is just been happening the last couple of decades or years, yeah, here some a mans going on over here. It is not an issue that just happened. It is an issue that was with jim crow and slavery. I would like to thank politics and prose for having us. I want an cspan for televising it. Im happy to be here with our panelist said thank you for keeping us in line tonight. Im happy to provide sump Historical Perspective on this. In fact the word patrolman dates back a couple hundred years of course to slavery time. That was was when individuals were hired to catch a slave. That is when patrolman comes from. There were patrols to catch fugitive slaves. This issue goes way back in terms of police, community relation. I think doctor king said it best during the dark days of the Civil Rights Movement when he was very discouraged and he said the arc of a more universal law but it bends towards justice. When i think about race in america, criminal justice issues, education issues, economic issues, i think about that arc and how it has a bent toward justice but has been a long one. Quebec to the original document, the declaration of independence. We hold these truths that we are selfevident that all men are created equal. A lot of people would say thats a selfevident line not a selfevident truth line not a selfevident truth if you look at what transpired. I wish thomas jefferson, i wish the founders had left jeffersons original paragraph that he wrote in the declaration. I wish they had left it in for the final one. He critiqued the International Slave trade. He criticized king george for kidnapping individuals from a distant land whenever him. I wish the founders wouldve left that in the final declaration. Who knows what impact out a pad on the Abolitionist Movement for 100 years. I am not focusing on the negative, i recognize as many of you do that there have been tremendous changes and progress in this country over that long arc. We have ended slavery, we ended jim crow at the public accommodation we have been elected and reelected our first black president. This is monumental. This is progress. This legislation we have passed antidiscrimination legislation hasnt made a huge difference and many minority families in this country. Let me give give you an example of my own history. My data mail goal both volunteer. Who is your uncle . You may have heard of him, he is one of the longestserving in the country, first africanamerican federal commissioner. Somebody who fought for civil rights in this country until he died in 1998. The judge when he was it you lost in 1952 he won more oral advocacy awards than any other student in the history of the law school. Where he won the prize three judges were there, one, john w davis the had a law firm on wall street. One of the most successful at that time and also two months later he would represent the board of education against linda brown and thurgood marshall. John w davis who im sure did not vote for to win the award, two other judges do, john w davis one up to the three finalists and asked them to congratulate them and asked them to come an interview at his firm in new york. My uncle got neither a congratulatory handshake nor an offer to interview. 30 years later i graduated from that same institution in 1982. I had 1982. I had no honors like my uncle and i graduated thank you lottie. There is a reason for that. We pass laws, antidiscrimination laws. We encourage policies and practices from corporations to open up, to be more inclusive of women and racial minority. Many families have been impacted by this. Progress doesnt mean postracial. I recognize the progress but it doesnt mean postracial. When you look at what is going on today, the going on today, the inequities that exist today they are widespread, 18 1 in terms of wealth accumulation between black and white families today, 18 1 and that is worse than what existed in south africa. I know you want to interrupt me. Thank you. Thank you. Will come back to you because will have audience questions and will now lets go to you at a. Talk to me about the long arc of issues of justice when it comes to the department of justice. They have been issuing pattern and practice statements and studies, talks to me about what were seeing and how it relates historically and to today as it relates to policing. Let me first thank politics and prose and thank you april for this important conversation. Particularly in this moment. What i want to do is kind of narrow the scope of the question. And perhaps begin with what will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Current Commission this is in the aftermath of the riot, the uprisings, rebelling, however we want to describe them. And they tend to account for why American Cities were exploding across the city. The Current Commission report came out with a study that in its initial form was more radical than in its final form. In effect there were two americans and at the heart of the conflict was this relationship with the police, underneath and there were a host of interesting recommendations. Some more progressive than others. Within that report there were a host of recommendations from policing. And we continue to see that. The Current Commission report to milwaukee, what have we seen . We continue to see this antagonistic relationship between africanamerican communities and Police Departments. The department of justice has been pushed, not on, on, we dont want to just do celebrate those but we they have been pushed to do their job so many ways by politics of disruption. Black lives matter, and all of its instantiations have insisted that criminal justice be on the front line. It is precisely the aftermath of the murder of Trayvon Martin. In the aftermath of the deficit murder of Michael Brown and the doj report and the fbi and investigation and of course what they found and what they didnt find, the officer guilty of any crime but they said that the Police Department and ferguson had engaged in a kind of predatory policing that was militaristic to the community. They did it in ferguson, cleveland, newark, seattle, should i keep on going. No keep on going. All of these reports on policing. So much so on policing. So much so that you read this in the news at the seattle tried to hold the city hostage. The judge stepped in and said you need to ask with regards to policing in that community and the union responded will do x if we get a raise. I mean thats fascinating. And then the doj just recently, this is really important filed a brief in the federal case around bail for folks who cannot afford it. For some people to pay like six bail prices and if they couldnt they be in jail. Think of it sandra bland would be alive today if she had 500. Whats interesting about it is that it is progress but its progress as a result of a politics of disruption. This is a result of young people and activists and grassroots organizers putting their their bodies on the line, literally chaining themselves in the lobbies of union halls in manhattan. Interrupting the brunch in manhattan of the top one tenth . Interrupting your commute to work. Home from work, forcing the issue of criminal justice. Forcing the issue in a way that goes beyond the claim of just simply Community Policing code, answers policing, but talking about decriminalization misdemeanors. You can just breathe in the United States break the law. In so many ways. What would it mean to decriminalize so many of the misdemeanors that you reduce the encounter in the contact between pleasing communities. What does it mean to get rid of bales and all the violent crime. What is it mean to decriminalize poverty . So to begin to push the issue, we see from the Current Commission report and now we see that change has happened, not from the beltway out, but from struggles and communities around particular issues. From the outside in. So as we celebrate the progress, we need to acknowledge project mia in chicago. Black Youth Project 100, the train finishers, fight for 15, all of these grassroot organizers who are lifting up the banner of democracy in a moment where we see the most vulnerable under serious attack by the state and its representatives. Its very interesting. Thank you so much for that. Its. Its insightful to listen to your wisdom and understand what is that the foundation of whats going on. Theres some economic peace to this. I want to go to ferguson, ferguson of all places i really try to change the dynamics of what happened there. After the Michael Brown case. We understand they try to raise taxes, to reform the system. And people, does that that work . Does that work after you have a system where theyre focusing in on certain groups and getting revenue from those groups, giving citations just to those groups they can get more money in their coffers for budgetary needs. The ferguson situation trying to read text is from poor who are ready been hit. You have people who you cannot afford to register your car so you leave it in your driveway. This means youre not driving your car, however you get citations for the car that is sitting in the driveway. After you get one you get more than one and then the next thing you know you over 1500 which you did not have. If you had 1500 had 1500 you would registered your car. And then you are arrested for having essentially unpaid warrants and then your spending time in jail. The department of justice found that the way they find people was racially biased and extremely unfair. Ferguson is no different from any number of small places. Lets look at another thing that would happen this week. The judge ruled that their system of elections for the board of education was unfair. Thus they defended the election. Essentially they like people now on an atlarge basis. Three of the Seven Members of the board of education are africanamerican. Where ferguson is much more heavily africanamerican. If they did district elections there before, at at least four of seven africanamericans on the school board. I mean a majority, it would mean that you would be able to do some of the things that ferguson was not willing or able to do. If you look at ferguson and you look at it as a microcosm, you look at the fine piece which is connected to the differential economic status that africanamericans experience in our society. You talk about the Current Commission and the Current Conditions in which africanamerican people live. As lions we have counted since the 1950s the plaque on player rate has been twice that of the white. The poverty rate in the Africanamerican Community is still, at this point about 24 . 40 of our young africanamericans live in poverty. This is more than weve seen in a long time. That number has actually picked up slightly. You mentioned the wealth data and wealth data is astounding. Today is black womens equal payday. That means if a black woman wanted to earn the same as a white man had earned, she would have to work until today, auguse woman there equal payday is april 12 or 13. A latina woman would be working until october. These are some of the inequalities that are basically hardwired into our system. Not to mention the differential levels of homeownership. Not to mention mention the fact that africanamerican homeownership took a real big hit during the great recession. The africanamerican homeownership level dropping. We can virtually, any piece of data that you look at shouts out these inequalities. What is it matter . Wealth matters, first Road Policing because you have something to bail someone out with. Talking about pale, if you have a home you can use the home. More than half of africanamericans don