With us on the Independence Day weekend professor what is july 4th mean to you . [laughter] it means Frederick Douglassw. You could have the general celebration we have a different perspective from the africanamerican aameri community is a long history to understand the distinction in terms of the celebration for one community and a lack of the observance on the other part and what does it mean to those who have a history of bondage of segregation and jim crow to you have to understand the sensitivity from one community to another. Obviously Start Talking about the history of this country and the roles of africanamericans to provide that celebration is a whole other question. The f we have been at the forefront of the battle of freedom for justice and liberty for erfurt fr update number one so in terms of the boston massacre since that moment across the years the matter what type of internet or turmoil or conflict order world war the people were involved didnt you find a contribution of africanamericans what Frederick Douglass was saying at that time is what does it mean to have your socalled celebration . So with this holiday period. With your book autobiography of a people using 5,000 africanamericans fought in the revolutionary war. Guest exactly. But of those the most heroicaeri i always think of the individuals that stand out like solomon and peter and one stood out because he was a flute player with the revolutionary war three people marching to the drama of the flute player if somebody else was holding a flag but theyre well could have been there with his contribution that he made to provide that musical inspiration that has always been part of this country that was inseparable for the people of fielding the guns going out to battle and then using that civilRights Movement. But now back during the revolutionary period providing thatat instrumentation as well ast picking up a gun at some stand point but also with the naval situation with that naval participants. So that is the beginning as part of the understanding that history of that evolution of the military inn this country. Host are there to separate histories going on in the United States . That is always true. Almost from the beginningt from when you look at it from the origins of the country and going back to the africans that was brought here to understand that treatment and the distinctions rand a stand of the indentured servants servants and so the history of the black people in the state of new york so to be in detroit of a microcosm in with those two separate societies and a very dramatic moment in history that is sharpened by conflict so that every billion end of 1967 or 1968. And to move inevitable and that conflict with the tension and turmoil so with that treatment of the restrictive covenant for those africanamerican people so those two separate communities or societies to be inside United States of america. So that separation from the beginning to bring the twomo communities together and then from the emancipation days the with the treatment of africanamericans. Host in your book black panthers period the dedication. Tuva panthers who dared to challenge one of the most repressive governments. Guest the black Panther Party is almost emblematic and to speak truth to power and then and that is the opportunitye kind other then those academic stuff into be the illustrator of the book and so at that time with the goal of the panthers and what i tried to do with that exhilaration is matched thatat graphic interpretation and then to a sorb the entire imagery that she presenteddougla also the graphic artist in the illustrator so what we try to do there is given another perspective of the treatises and it all of those individuals of thehu Panther Party to give that another eight gold for those who were just introduced to the panthers many of them were coming out of that experience to have that g opportunity to have that visual representation of the black Panther Party. Some people may take issue of the worlds most repressive government in your dedication you dedicated to the panthers who were there to challenge one of the worlds most repressive governments. Guest yes. Think we are talking about one of the most repressive governments and that wase their perspective and how they viewed that and they live with that particular understanding so i try to find out what do they mean or how do they deliver and then the reaction across the country was a very violent period in terms of what was happening in the Africanamerican Community is ao this is an outrage coming from them but sometimes expressing resistance it can take a violent turn and that is not the first time. We have many elements of black people fighting back. That is the untold story of africanamerican history. The whole sense of resistance with the idea that we went along with the way things were. Histor so i have highlighted which the resistance took a violent form which the black pants the black Panther Party you had charismatic individuals with of leatherac jackets and march to a different beat against this Oppressive Society. So that was their perspective we may have argued with that to have different strategies with a different kind of tactic with those of ideological approaches but they wanted to do dramatize in such a way thats to pick that up so that was a revolutionary practice going on so it was universal and a global expression. It was the winds of change across the effort can continent. So fighting againster portuguese were fighting against south africa or what was happening and other parts of the continent like algeria so those kinds of things were in the year air with the same type o understanding to move against the Oppressive Society but to do that in a violent way because as john brown said you can otherwise host with a black pewters the natural heir to Marcus Garvey . Not exactly more of malcolm x. And to get to before you get to markets. Santry universal Negro Improvement Association that throughout the 1920s because at 1. In 1922 had almost 6 million members with the Garvey Movement across the caribbean in particular so thats connection the panthers have with malcolm x because he is fascinated and the Panther Party came into existence almost one year later. October 1966 because of those elements develop right in harlem so there was a Certain Energy or inspiration that they picked up from malcolm x so any thinker or movement. Host in your collection of exit essays it is it written that we live in a short memory culture that detonate dominate the black life therefore it is for repsol them formerly taught dirty bomb was discussed. The author is right but with that particular publication actually have three doctors with me and really the book is a reaction to many miracles a very controversial biography of malcolm x and we put our Heads Together on that something had to be said to counter those inclusions that was reached in his book but i had read Something Like 75 reviews and i approached the other three coeditors to propose the idea it was published by thirdworld press because we figure what he said and i stood right with him across the years but had some differences coming to the interpretation and rather than personally so why round of these other thinkers for the most part those that were taking opposition . It may not be fair to summarize it is complicated and involve to sell water to be reacting to . Where the problems that he presented . When you have 35 different writers for the most part then we bring some that support him with the balance but what they talk about he talks about is an absence going back to the creation of black steady that was not properly reflected and something had to be done about that a rerun of a period where it was pivotal in terms of educating to get the perspective and a critical analysis of what was going on from thent educational standpoint in this country and he is mitt is superb teacher and publisher and poet and basically it was his idea to pick up of a project so i felt comfortable adding that he would propose with the analysis and i talk to him the other day the whole project he is involved with now to deal with a donaldld Trump Administration so that continues that same type of legacy we talk about change in our society. Host coming out in 2012 that was before the National BookAward Winning book. With maya board . You reve an essay in here by mr. Coates. You have to go back to read his essay with a balanced approach his book between the world than me that has been phenomenal and rightfully so he is very insightful commentator on the times so the next generation for those older folks or the elders in their particular publication ir know his father very well and over the years of course, he is a former panther himself so we say the truth doesnt the fruit doesnt fall that far from the tree and that is far the elements of that generation to understanding. So we have this tremendous respect for him and what he is doing now there some of those other people that began to see him the Second Coming like of James Baldwino a and he disavows that to a certain extent but they say that they finally have someone with that statement sensibility from where we are as a people to speak truth to power and carriesad on that tradition with a similar perspective and analysis and a command of words because he lived in the command of the literature and how to present that in such a way to resonate for the ordinary person out there but also be academics who require more with the presentation. So that strikes a nice balance between the street people who can connect with those ideas that the same time of the academics who b demand more intellectually. Host you wrote a biography of James Baldwin 2008b said there seems to be a resurgence of everett discussion is that fair . No doubt. The matter where you look you have baldwin i was looking at Justice Sotomayor from the Supreme Court she was quoting James Baldwin. Bal there is a film that made the rounds i am not your negro and that is significantly important so i had the opportunity to redress that film in pittsburgh that the film and Arts Festival to talk about the significance of baldwin begin they have three or four publications that they play off the title but those essays that comprise them and baltimore with his magisterial debt this is the epitome of James Baldwin addre with those inequities that exist in our society i can understand people going back to revisit that 1963 publication but it is the eternal. It wont go away baldwin will not go away because he is so prophetic. He was dealing with a situation that his time with a number of problems or issues with the same pertinent concerns todayad that he addressed back then. That is why his words havein meaning today because that is germane to our days. So from a legal standpoint or a film maker whenever of academics and journalists that has an amazing conference in relevant ways and his trauma in terms of the playwright so the public clarion as the of voice for the people so to understand he was speaking and addressing issues of his peop that have not gone away so no you see people that sample his words to their creative endeavors. That speaks to the power of perception what he understood not only his personal life but he was one that was exemplary about feelings with that articular avoid to address those issues that it continues to resound today so you are absolutely right in terms of the omnipresent he continues to be from of prophetic and literary standpoint. Host you met him . Psi mets had a couple of opportunities back in the day for go one evening i escorted him home. My good friend is an attorney who is a phenomenalro film maker is to documentarys on portuguese was called the people are organized by the gatt Hunter College we had a big fundraiser for the mozambique project i satht right next to him and after it was over robert escorted him home. Po but that was the only real opportunity other than being in the audience to bed engrossed with what he had to say but and to you trembling and asked him of course i was absolutely terrified to walk with such a supreme intellectual but he was not that kind of individual. He was smoking a cigarette chapter to first he would expound on anything under the sun so those . Moments i had with himi rememb remember he came to detroitt soe to speak at conference over linguistics that is when you bionics was going space in we absolutely were enthralled of the importance of bubonic sore black language and then to break it down and specified what he meant in that was a longer essay but the opportunity to be in his presence with back charisma lives with me all these days. Why did he move to france . First of all, he left harlem and 18 years but 1948 he already has killed europe period of developing his writing style. Oh lot of the writers think that way seve you can do out there. To say nothing of those white writers at the time so that was the of purview how do you develop yourself as a writer . Somebody born in 1 1924 in harlem so by the time he is 24 years of agent he is on his way to another country. He has explained his reasons with his own essays but other biographers have picked up on the same issuendert try did he leave this country and why did you choose france . I think the evolving in that way to his early years in going to his high school in the bronx to be under the influence of one of his teachers who taught him french so in terms of the connection to french culture and language that was coming out of the harlem renaissance. So i speculate that may have been the seed that was planted very early and then reading as he did but then at that time you have different cultural developments going non and with his background that seem to be a good place to go to express that space to be liberated if you discover that there will be some restrictions because there is another culture butted did afford him in a private way because with that old writing process was a private affair so here was the opportunity to have a certain isolation for when he goes off to switzerland and becomes even more isolated but it gives them the opportunity for expression you cannot get out there and be involved in the community waikiki and in the state sued afforded him the opportunity to be introspective and in doing so he can now with his first novel for all of those different transformations so then it exploded in such a way i see he was half way ready and he was also surprised but he also tookd the notoriety and recognition he had to come back. And in doing so we will see over the years until the Civil Rights Movement derives thatd is when he becomes more involved what is happening in this country because people feel he was disconnected and gone too long it did not understand what was happening but he had his hand on the pulse the matter where he wasmatter because he was a communicator were understanding that right now with his letters turned over to the Schomburg Center see you get the idea nattily he expressed himself as his own endeavors as a novelist but he wrote all kinds of letters to individuals so eventually take a look at all those letters to get the understanding of what was going on in this country then he had to come back to be a part of it with in particular the march on washington. Host what is your connection to knock the max and his family . I need a drink of water on that one. [laughter] host now i will introduce the program. This is a booktv monthly inwh Death Program we invite one author to talk about his or her body of work we have professor and historianbeginn professor boyd down the glory road 1995 contributions of africanamericans u. S. History and culture and the odyssey of black men in america. And autobiography of a people and also the editor of the book race and resistance, a the harlem reader 2003 we shalle overcome the history of the civilRights Movement as it happened heros of americaries mi more in the third king pound for pound sugar ray robinson. Y, he civilrights yesterday and today and by any means necessary and the diary of malcolm x. In the most recent black detroit that came down this year. Professor boyd will be with us to take your calls and comments over the next two 1 2 hours. Host we will cycld through those addresses again. Now, back to the question of your connection to malcolm x and his family. Guest without malcolm i dont think that would be sitting here with you. His assassination was almost like some extent my birth politically. Although i had been associated with him very early on from 20 years of age reading and in detroit at that time i was in andd around several friends and relatives who were members of the nation of islam they were very understanding with the organization was all about and coaching me in teaching me because i amow just 20 years of age at this point and a highschool graduate i have not been to college. But involved with whole Work Community because when you graduate from high school the dream was to get a job that the automobile factory. To get a job, a car and driver around the community or get a girlfriend. Then by the house and raise a family and all of those things. So i met these individuals out there who were the nonconformist or those outsiders raising issues and saying Different Thingss about life and i was attracted to them. So going to the meetings and then going to a couple of sessions when malcolm came to speak and i was absolutely blown away was amazing to hear the eloquence and analysis that he provided so i said that is it for me i will be down here so every time he c