Ok. I want to welcome everybody to this press conference. Im bob woodson, the president and founder of the woodson center. Were sponsoring the 1776 gathering today. We also want to welcome our new partners, the Washington Examiner. They will be publishing our essays on their website. One a day for the next 12 days. They have a wonderful editorial today. Also, all of our essays are listed on our website 1776united s. Com. You can read the essays. I also want to thank our sponsors. , who couldnt be here, but he has a representative, also, mr. Lawrence, one of our great supporters, who helped us do this. The reason that we are gathered is to address the 1619 project, the good news is that it has stimulated a much needed debate within the black community. The quality of life in the black community has been served over the past two centuries with the quality of the debate within. During the 19th century, there were three areas. One, there were those who believed in recolonization, that we should return to africa. This was briefly embraced by president lincoln and marcus garvey. The second, the insurrectionists. They were for violence. Nat turner. Remember. The third were accommodationists, booker t. Washington and others. This debate was in the black Community Service as well. Thatg the 20th century, debate occurred within the civil rights movement. People dont realize, in the 1960s, we had our own Tea Party Movement within the civil rights movement, where everybody first thought we should have a legal challenge of segregation. While the students at greensboro, they believed the pace wasnt fast enough, they started the sitins. Dr. King was dispatched from atlanta to discourage those students from doing that. And they said to him lead, follow or get out of the way. But the leadership did not embrace it. So that was one of the currents. You saw the splintering of the civil rights movement. Lc because of these different divisions of how we should pursue the path forward. Then you had your , the blacknists panther party, the republicans believed we should have a separate state in the United States. You had malcolm x. Elijah muhammad. It was a healthy debate. In the last 50 years there has been no debate in the black community. We hope that 1776 will spark this kind of competition of ideas and approaches. But what we are troubled about 1619 is that it defines america as being in curable he racist racist, and rightly white people are beneficiaries of privilege and also are victimizers and all blacks are victims. This negative message is dangerous to the future because nothing is more lethal and it do a good excuse for failing. Our inner cities are ablaze toxic drugs and predatory violence. 1619 says that these conditions by slavery and the shadow of jim crow. But this is patently untrue. If that were the case, the fact that more blocks are killed by other blacks today than were killed over a 50year period by 9 11 everye have a six months, that condition did not exist prior to the 1960s. There essays will out the truth, and the truth is that black americas future was never defined by oppression, it was to find but our response to oppressive circumstances. In other words, when white people were at their worst, we were at our best. When we were denied access to hotels, we built our own. Newsaint teresa in york, the st. Charles in chicago. When we were denied access to business in the brownsville section of chicago, there were 731 businesses owned by blacks in the city of chicago, and 100 million in real estate assets. Between 1930 and 1940, when the segregation was the rule of of representation, or the Unemployment Rate in the black community was 40 , we did not respond to that oppression by killing ourselves. In fact, the marriage rate was higher than any other group in america, because of our strong elderly peoples, could walk safely in our communities without fear of being mugged by our their grandchildren. Forward he between 19401960 from 82 down to 40 . Timere well on the way mending ourselves. So the reality is that black america is defined not by americas birth defect of slavery, but it is defined by the promise that america if we were to abide by the principles, the direction given to us by 1619, what they are saying is that america is an evil empire. Tot america does not deserve be supported because its fundamental principles are corrupt and hypocritical. What they are really saying to the thousands and thousands of blacks who give their lives in the military defending this nation, that their sacrifice was for naught. We reject this notion. Theseo believe that if , it has go unchallenged serious implications for our national security, because if as 3000saying, schools now have been given this disastrous curriculum, can you imagine a 10yearold black child growing up for eight years, bombarded with antiamerican propaganda . They are going to be called the pawns who join the military to defend why would you want to defend a nation that you have been told is corrupt and immoral . Theyre not going to be willing to join the police force to protect us. So it is important for this narrative to be challenged. But we are not going to engage in political debate. Americans are tired of gladiatorial combat. What we are offering is 1776 is an inspirational alternative narrative to what people are offering. Scholars, our activists, the doors and the activists the activists are living examples of the founders principles and their actions have served to transform in the inner city communities. So what we are going to do is am going to ask some of them to come up and share their essays , so that you can get some of the details. We hope to develop curriculum so that we can present to our k12,. Ur children, and alternative people are inspired, ladies and gentlemen, to achieve when they are given victories that are showeringnot always them with injuries to be avoided. In this garbage thats coming down from the scholars and writers of 1619 is most hypocritical because they dont live in communities suffering the problem. So they are advocating something that they dont have to pay the penalty for. So we believe that we are creating a kind of intellectual kidso by already telling in underperforming schools, the reason that they are killing and mugging each other is because, its not your fault. Its refusing. If you are having babies out of wedlock, its not your fault. Right now we are seeing a disaster. These killings. , we hadouis this spring 16 children under the age of 14 market on the streets by other blacks. And only arrest. Onebut the writers of 1619, they dont have families living in those toxic neighborhoods. So what we are going to present an uplifting story of uplifting stories in our essays about how people are achieving against the odds, so that we can inspire this nation. And again, we are delighted that we have the opportunity to offer a compelling alternative. It is not enough to tell people what not to read or what not to study, one must give them alternatives that point to what they should study. We are also pleased to have in our group, stephanie deutsch, who has a book on schools. Her husband is the greatgrandson of Julius Rosenwald who with booker t. Washington, established the rosenwald schools that close to the education gap in the south in the 1920s and 1940s. It was eight years for whites and five years for blacks. They closed that gap within six 20 years. If racism were the culprit, how did we achieve in the presence of those circumstances . So we are going to be presenting evidence. I am going to ask right now, dr. Ben lowry to step up and offer some comments to us. Thank you. I am professor of the social sciences at brown university. I have been a friend of bob woodsons and a collaborator for 35 years, and i am very happy to be affiliated with this project. I wont take a long time to say again what he has said, but i am here for two reasons, i believe in america and i believe in black people. Something tells me when i read that document that the 1619 project authors dont. They dont believe in america. We are not a city on the hill and i am sorry to have to report , i get the impression that they dont believe in black people. Ill be brief. This great nation abolished slavery. Slavery was a fact of human civilization since antiquity. Abolition is the new idea. And that is a western idea. Not possible without the Democratic Institutions that 1776, not in possible without the ideals of the enlightenment there were actually embodied in Political Institutions in 1776. There is a reason why democracies that have come along in the 200odd years since have often thought to model their s on the document that were created in the era of 1776. So i believe in america. Not perfect, but perfectible. And i believe in black people. Slavery was a long time ago. The idea that the specter of slavery still determines the life of africanamericans astonishes me. We have shown and will continue to show that we are not only baubles at the end of the string being pushed this way and that. We can raise our children. We can educate them and build this and create wealth. We can conduct ourselves in the manner that deserves to be honored and emulated by others. And i believe that this project, the 1776 project, is the essential step in that direction. Thank you. [applause] i am going to i am going to introduce now rowe. Good afternoon. It is humbling and my honor to be here. Parentsid1960s, my emigrated from jamaica to the United States with their two sons. Trepidatione because they fully understood the history of this country. They were fully aware of americas legacy of slavery and they knew that we would have to confront and eventually overcome issues of race, but they also need something else, they believed in this idea of the American Dream. They believed that despite this nations history their two , children could pursue a better life. And because of my parents love their example, their 48 years of , marriage and before my dad ofsed away, and because their incredible opportunities, i have experienced in this exceptional country, my mom can literally watch me now and see the embodiment of what she and my dad dreamed up many years ago. For the last 10 years, i have run a network of public Charter Schools in the bronx and manhattan. Our more than 2000 students are primarily black and hispanic and almost all from lowerincome communities. The dreams that the parents in the school that i lead have the same as permissions for their children that my parents had for me. They dont believe that their kids are doomed because of americas past, on the contrary, they choose our schools because we build within them a sense of what is possible. Last thing our kids need to hear is that they are in a perpetual state of victimhood. I am a credit we honored to be a part of 1776 because it is the future of the next generation that matters more than in fact what we believed in the past. Our kids ultimately will succeed not because they developed a mindset around enslavement, rather we need to liberate the next generation to share stories of success so they develop a sense of empowerment. Thank you. [applause] now, we have a very exciting , ang man, Coleman Hughes student at columbia university, prolific writer and one of our rising stars. Bob. Ank you, i dont have time to share my entire essay but i just have a few brief comments. The question we are here to ask today is what makes america unique . Put differently, if you are to review any nation on earth in anonymous lineup, how would you be up to tell which one is america . Increasingly, our institutions and universities seem to answer in one voice, oppression. Racism, it is often said, is in our dna. It is set to be our essential characteristic as a country. Of the pick america out lineup because of our tendency to exploit in the week, and to value profits over humanity. Today, we are challenging that false narrative. Any argument that says america is defined by racism and White Supremacy must explain why america is a number one destination for black and brown migrants all over the world. Any argument that says the constitution was nothing special must explain why nations all over the world have copied it. Any argument that says the institution of slavery is what makes america unique must grapple with the fact that slavery was practiced in almost every society on earth until just a few centuries ago as well as the fact that most of those societies have done far less to far less than america has to acknowledge and atone for it. Two points to americas worst sins is to point out what it is least unique about us and tax it to pass it off as a defining feature. America is far from perfect. But to say this is to point out a banality. Has ever beende or ever will be perfect. Our challenge is to make incremental progress, to create , as it were, a more perfect union. We can either raise in next generation of americans to see the countrys worst sins as its defining feature and see the american experiment as corrupt, or we can teach them to see the country as it is. We can teach them to see the country that migrants all over the world leave everything behind for. In other words, we can teach them how to pick america out in a lineup. Thank you. [applause] now it gives me a great pleasure to introduce my longtime friend, clarence page. He is no stranger to anyone in washington or the country. Much, bob. U very i am not going to read my whole essay either. You all can do that at your leisure. I just want to say how i came to be involved with this. Great thing about being a journalist is sometimes your stories have a tangible effect on your own life. That was how it was when i met bob would send some 30odd years ago. One thing about him is that i was also working on a panel called lead story at the time. Group one thing that was always a nagging point of discussion for us was, where is our agenda as a people . Ever since the 1960s, our need for a new agenda was very apparent. Trying to bring people together around certain points was very difficult. 1776brings me to the project, because one of our Big Questions was, what do we do now . One thing about would send that he said to me, he quoted abraham maslow, if the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to look like nails. The application was very obvious. If the only tool we have is civil rights, and that its wonderful tool when appropriate, everything will look like a civil rights problem. And you cannot fight everything out in the courts. You also need to build some solutions from the grassroots. You need to go to the people who are really been directly affected by the problems and see what they think needs to be done, then put that together people woulder like to do, and you see where you can meet together on Common Ground. Something thats a geographic place thats unknown in washington these days. But Common Ground is a nice place to be. When you go through history, you find thats where we move ahead. So i was very disturbed when the 1619 project, for example, gave the impression that white people didnt have anything to do with the liberation of black people, as if there werent any white people in the abolitionist movement. I think Frederick Douglas would be very upset to see that kind of impression, that kind of message being given out. I see a lot of stories all the time i was telling bob about how i was surprised as i was trying to figure out how President Donald Trump had defied my predictions and actually won the election, that i was directed by several friends to, why do you read a hillbilly elegy vance, about poor white people in appalachia . I was surprised to see that j. D. Vance and i have the same hometown. We were there in the last great war of postcold productivity. A factory town that over time, with the changes in economy, changes in politics and all, in more recent years, it went from being an allamerican city to be known as having one of the worst opioid addiction and overdose problems in the country. I was shocked to find in 2017 that my hometowns city budget, 10 of it the Previous Year had gone to ambulance calls. Thats the sign of complete deterioration, degradation, breakdown in a community. I have another unusual friend, Charles Murray i first met Charles Merrick in the 1980s the straw i first met him in the 1980s anyhow. I love turning short stories into long ones, please forgive me. [laughter] but i was upset with charles for various flaws i saw in the bell curve which he coauthored. In 2011 he came out with a new book called coming apart which focused only on poor white people. He got so much heat for talking about race, he said, im going to write a book about poverty without talking about race. So he focused on white people. I said, charles, i love you. Because he made so many points in this book that i have been saying for years, but white folks have the same poverty problems as black folks. We have different skin color, basically. I call it the colorization of poverty. When i was a kid back in the 1960s, and lbj started the war on poverty, i was an upper bound worker. Upward bound worker. There was a time that poverty had a white face, a white appalachian face. Then after watts, poverty became black. Life magazine, saturday evening post, look, publications, for you young people, that were once very popular in america. That is where we got the visual profile of america. Were still in that stage today. When you say poverty, so many folks think of a black face. They dont see that we have problems across the line. Ive talked with j. D. Vance and we have compared notes. We could see that in deed, we do have a Common Ground, and that is we all want to have a more productive america. We want to see the American Dream revived. For so many folks, the American Dream is just a fantasy. Talk about aspirational, to me, that is what the declaration of independence is about. I just got back from monticello, another long story i wont get into. I am going to wrap this up, but just as Thurgood Marshall refused to celebrate the bicentennial of the constitution , but he did celebrate the improved constitution, because the original constitution wasnt perfect, that it had the mechanism for its own improvement. That is where i am today, ladies and gentlemen. I feel like we all know where we stand now. We are all aware of Common Ground. We need to talk about how can we move Forward Together . Thank you very much for your patience. [applause] next, i am going to introduce dr. John sibley butler, longtime friend and probably the nations foremost expert on the history of blacks in business. Many years ago, we sponsored his research and we published a magazine with pictures of four black men in durham, North Carolina in their 90s. All of them had retired from own businesses. It was john butler who had found them and written about them. I would like to ask john to come up and offer his remarks. Thank you very much, bob. I came here some 30 years ago said, my interest is in the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship and success among blacks. A former columnist was there and he said, you better document everything because nobody will believe it. [laughter] i did a book called entrepreneurship and selfhelp among africanamericans. Im a southern louisiana boy who grew up around aspirations, surrounded by southern university, Daily University xavier university, fourth , Generation College graduate. My question has always been, whats the algorithm for black success. I trace the success from the early 1700s, great scholars such as w. E. B. Dubois, being a scholar i also look at all of the work done in the Negro College since its inception. Right now im doing a book now on the relationship with success in america. Basically, if we look at that algorithm, what are we talking about . As we have noticed some 35 or 40 years ago, the whole idea of looking at success and having a future is very, very important. I can remember bobs work in st. Louis, i can remember us talking about, how do we really, really change what they call the inner cities . All black americans are not inner city blacks. Im a fourth Generation College graduate, fourth generation of success, how does that happen . The algorithm then is to concentrate on changing the narrative, first of all, about what america is about. As bob said, it is the inspiration. Black america, it is inspiration of how we create institutions and organizations. Its very, very difficult, but different from detroit because of the black population. Nashville is different than detroit because of the success of the black population. People have confused segregation with homopholy. [indiscernible] the 1910 census, blacks were more likely to be employed than any other group in america. Beyond homopholy was a development of private schools and public schools. Whether it was more house or spellman. So therefore, by the 1960s, black southerners were more likely to be College Graduates can anybody in the country. That is because there was a emphasis on coming together. Problem in the committee, lets solve it ourselves. When i did my research in North Carolina, talking to those black traditions there, i said, how did you create such an entrepreneur spirit in the 1920s and 1930s . They said, we sold all our problems by not asking White America what they did to us. ,his is in line with our group that is really, really interested in coming to america and saying the following there is no other country in america was this tradition of giving people an opportunity to move from point a to point b. In my opinion, when i look at the work i am doing now on the algorithm of success, there is nothing like the relationship between innovations, entrepreneurship, selfemployment, and creating a future for future generations. Thank you very much. [applause] next we want to introduce jason hill, who offers some remarks on his essay and his work. My name is jason hill. I think that the 1619 project, like every project, presupposes an answer to the question, what is the moral meaning of a phenomenon . Project offers an indictment of the United States of america, a country that i think is the greatest, most unprecedented phenomenon that has ever existed. I came to this country as an immigrant with 120 in my pocket and went on to become a College Professor and the author of many books. And in my latest book, we have time, i, at that didnt realize it, but i was answering a question to the 1619 project, what is the moral meaning of america . And in that book i sought to give an answer. And that answer is america is an ethical state. Why do i say america is an ethical state . It ties it back to the 1776 project. America is an ethical state because and i make the claim that race was always endemic to this country but race was metaphysically irrelevant to the construction of this country. Wasreason i say race metaphysically and continues to be metaphysically irrelevant to the meaning of america is that i realized early on in the constitution that race would never, ever be something, a phenomenon that would determine black peoples fate and destiny. Estiny irrevocably what i was showing was that there was something in that emancipatory but provided for the tools of the inclusion of black people into the what i call the domain of the ethical, into the widening pantheon of the human community, so that blacks and other minorities would suffuse the american landscape with narratives of their own, and continue to expand this wonderful experiment, which is not a hermeticallysealed phenomenon, but an openended system. And that the voices of black people and the lives and agency of black people would continue to be a constitutive feature of this Great Republic of ours. The 1619 project would have us believe that blacks are not part of the moral meaning of america. What my project is partly doing is rendering that piece of nonsense as what it is, nonsense. Whether theyople, were slaves or entrepreneurs or crop sharing farmers, have always graduated to the moral meaning of this country. As a disclosure of possibilities. It is an aspirational country, and blacks have always pinned their aspirations on the best in america. It is aor the call for the best within us, and a call for an exercise of moral excellence. Thats just a little bit what im doing in my project. Thank you. [applause] and now, carol swain will come and share her very exciting paper. Im carol swain and im a former professor of Political Science and law at vanderbilt university. And i was also a tenured professor at princeton. Ive known bob for more than 30 years. The essay i wrote for this project is titled Critical Race Theory and its destructive impact on america. Its an essay that you can read. I believe that what i have to offer thats most important for this 1776 project is my life story of having been a high school dropout, one of 12 children born and raised in rural poverty. I dropped out after the eighth grade. I married at 16. By the time i was 21, i had three small children. I earned a g. E. D. , went to a Community College and got the first of five degrees. I was able to graduate magna cum laude from my fouryear college. People came into my life, and the ones that took an interest in me and steered me forward, they were white. And many of them were white men. And these people encouraged me that i could do anything. And i did not see myself as handicapped because i was black, i was a female, i was poor. I didnt see any of that until i got to graduate school. And then i learned that i was oppressed, that i was poor, that i was black, that i was female, and that i couldnt do any of the things i had already done. [laughter] so i believe the 1619 project offers a very crippling message to our children. And i was spared from having that message brought to me. And i believe that if i had been exposed to that, if i had internalized that negative message, i dont believe i would have been able to do the things that ive done in life. I believe in america. I believe america is the greatest country in the world. Im a patriot. I want to do everything that i can for this nation to bring it together. And i think that we need to learn to love and respect each other. And this negativity that is seeping into our schools, this teaching for one thing white children are being shamed, theyre being told to be ashamed of themselves because of the color of their skin, and black children are told that because of structural discrimination, that they cant, they cant, they cant. We have to counter that. We are at an important Tipping Point in this nation. What we do matters. And i believe that the 1776 project, that this project is an important historical moment. And we need people to get behind us. We need to make sure that our message reaches white, black, asian, hispanic, everyone. America is a great country and we need to fight for it. Thank you. [applause] im glad im not following her. [laughter] from are now going to hear sparks talib starks. Thank you. Greetings. Dont let the nice suit fool you. Im from the hood in philadelphia. Actually im from two hoods. The first hood is an environment where criminality and violence litter the landscape. Its a place where homicide is the number one killer of black males between the ages of 15 and 34. The second hood is just as dangerous, and it is arguable that it is more detrimental to ones wellbeing and development , because it kills dreams and aspirations. That heard that i am talking hood is victimhood that that i am talking about is victimhood. And this hood is being force fed to us and peddled by a racial grievance industry whereas the physical hood is being sustained, which essentially is a byproduct of leftist policies , but that is another story for another day. Anyway, on this valentines day, the 1776 project is bringing a message of love. And sometimes love can hurt, like the truth. And here is the truth that may be hurtful to some peoples ears, these people who have agendas. America is not a racist labyrinth that is specifically designed to stifle the advancement of black people. And our police are not badged bogeymen who, as they are often made out to be. So with gods help, this 1776 project will indeed break the gravitational pull of racial victimhood that seems to be omnipresent in this great country. Thank you. [applause] i now want to bring wilford riley up. Hi. So im will riley. Im an associate professor of politics at Kentucky State University and im the author of the books hate crime hoax and taboo. Do have a nice, natural baritone as well as a nice, natural tan. [laughter] ill back up a little bit. I dont think i need the mic, honestly in a room this size. , the title of my essay is slavery doesnt define africanamerican history, something i believe to be obviously true. Obviously these, as have been noted, are severalpagelong scholarly pieces, thanks to the Washington Examiner for bestshing these series publishing the series over a series of days. Slavery obviously is a human universal. People of every race were sold as slaves although for whatever reason this is not taught very often in the schools. There was an entire slave trade, slave trade that focused entirely on the sale of white europeans to primarily black masters in northern africa. Slavery existed everywhere in the world until the modern west stopped it around the 1850s. So thats point one. A second point in the essay is that obviously, given that we have no slaves today, there was an Antislavery Movement in the United States for roughly the same time as there was slavery. This movement won in the end. This was a Movement Made up of many black and white people of goodwill. And as most things do, the campaign for slavery proceeded incrementally. In 1808 a law was passed prohibiting the importation of slaves, essentially crippling the atlantic slave trade. Finally, obviously, it cant be forgotten that we freed the slaves in the United States at terrible cost. During the civil war, about 600,000 americans, most of the m men of the north, were killed. I did the calculations on the back of a playing card deck coming here. That was one for every 9. 2 slaves freed. So if the usa owed a bill for slavery, you could argue that we black and white, have both , already paid it in blood. So all of this is discussed in the essay. One final point in the piece is that many modern black problems seem to have very little to do with slavery and a great deal to do with the social revolution of 1960s. The clearest evidence i can find of this is that theyre mirrored among our white countrymen. So in 1938, for example, according to the economist walter williams, the illegitimacy rate, if you want to use that term, for africanamericans was 11 . For 4 for whites, good caucasians as well. Forillegitimacy rate black americans is 74 , around 55 for hispanicamericans, around 60 for native americans, and 42. 3 for the entire country regardless of color. This is a national universal problem that clearly by definition has nothing to do with slavery. I suspect that if you look at opiate abuse in poor white neighborhoods, and Gang Violence in africanamerican neighborhoods, those are things that on both sides are far more serious than if we were fighting each other in the street. We cant make excuses, we just need to Work Together and solve his problems. I am a supporter of the 1776 project for one simple reason. I think some things are commonsensical, obvious truths that youve heard from athletic coaches and preachers and mothers and fathers your entire life. One of those is the United States of america, while it has flaws, is a Pretty Good Society if you look at freedoms or income or virtually anything else on a global basis. It is not especially hard to succeed in the United States of america. People regularly come from countries where without anyone agree at all, cars are a luxury item, ethiopia and vietnam and so forth, and out of form much of the native population of the usa. I think this is possible for anyone of any color in the United States of america, even personal responsibility and hard work, theres absolutely no reason whatsoever that middle class africanamericans or our appalachian countrymen should be held to a lower standard than recent immigrants from the developing world. That is racism. [applause] going down here to natashlata fields. I am latasha fields and i am honored to be here. I was asked why do i support 1776 . I call myself the Younger Generation and i represent that america is a great country. I have been fortunate to connect with bob woodson and so many of the people who stand behind me. I have been fortunate to testify before the u. S. Congress about poverty in this country. We can achieve through hard work, perseverance. I was a 17yearold teen mom. And again, i stand here today as a married woman, almost 15 years, with four children. I stand as an advocate for quality education. I am also a 13 year home school mom. So you cant tell me what we can or cannot do in this country. You cannot tell me about the liberties and freedoms that have been afforded to my family. When it comes to africanamerican history or i have beeny teaching my children for 13 years, it is not black history or white history, it is american history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Were one, and they will learn the truth. I thank god for this opportunity to be a part of such phenomenal people. And as we come together and as we embrace the truth like mr. Woodson continued to tell us, not to debate, but to have an alternative. We all stand here today as an alternative. And we all look black. Well, some of us. [laughter] so we are the alternative. Our children can succeed. They can be successful. Showing my children, and we have been doing this since 1642. A man . A man amen . Amen. And so we can succeed in this country. I thank god to be a part of such a beautiful, beautiful project. And i just want to tell my family and friends and the people of this country, we love you. We love our children, we love our youth, and every parent wants best for their children. Amen . Amen. [applause] before introducing our last speaker and taking questions, i want to acknowledge in the room the presence of one of our leaders, mr. Tyrone parker, the president of alliance of concerned men, in the back. [applause] tyrone and his group, over many decades, as exoffenders themselves, have witnessed to exgang members and brought about peace in these communities through just will and determination to do so. And he and Carl Hardrick and Curtis Watkins and others who are part of the woodson family, we just praise you and thank you for being a part of it. Another one of those neighborhoodhealing agents, as i call them, is tony mcilwain, who ive known for four decades. He is one of our leaders in the city of detroit. And i want her to give remarks and then well take questions. Ok. My name is Toni Mcilwain from the east side of detroit. Im talking about an area thats 80 to 85 at or below the poverty level. What did i do . I went and lived in that community and i decided that we are better than what people said we were. And i took that community and i developed block clubs, i developed neighborhoods. They cleaned up that community. They went back to school. We were able to reduce the crime by 40 in two years. 40 , because we were able to do that. Theres one thing i noticed, one of bobs letters that he sent me, is that god do not select the capable. He selects those and makes them capable. And i was grateful for that, because i saw a neighborhood transform from a deteriorating neighborhood to a liveable neighborhood. But not only did i see the neighborhood transform, i saw residents of the neighborhood 50 , blocks, 5,000 residents lived in that area, and they are now called the heroes of their own families. Im grateful for that. Why do i think the 1776 is important . Why do i think that . Because were part of it. We are what we are supposed to be where we can lift our own selves up by our own bootstraps. And im glad that i was able to lift myself up and to show the other people in that community that they too can lift themselves up. So bob, i want to thank you for what you have done, bringing us together, because by god, we are the incapable, able to be capable of changing our own neighborhoods. Thank you. [applause] well be glad to take whatever questions you may have. Questions . Yes. You can come to the mic. This isnt necessarily directed at any specific person but it is maybe a thought that i was kind of wondering if the presenters had in general, which was that, do any of you think that we are at a point where in terms of elections, things like that, we are past the point where we just talk about the black vote as this monolithic thing, as if every black person is going to vote the same way in an election . That is what joe biden still is banking on, this idea of having 40 of the black vote, that started to deteriorate over time. Do you think that were at a point where theres enough economic social diversity among black people in this country at this point, where youre not going to be a but to just say, to the black vote is going go to this or that candidate . Is there enough diversity of opinion and lifestyle that those days are over, do you think . Well, we are trying to, with 1776, to present to the country, and particularly black america, a reason to think more independently than what theyve been told. You can go to any, any city in the country, whether its the governorship controlled by republicans or democrats, the conditions of lowincome people are all the same. The answers will not be found through electoral politics. But if i could speak politically for a second, my goal is not to republicans and make them democrats. I want the black vote to be an independent swing voter. I want them to get sophisticated enough to vote their issues, and to form strategic alliances. Its insulting, when i see politicians say, all weve got to do is go into a black audience and say were against racism, vote for me. I think, also, if you look at our history, it we could vote, in terms of community. So i think what bob is saying is that what were doing is concentrating, and everybody having their own individual aspiration of how they would like to vote. Its not necessarily just on the established expectations, but a swing vote thats really, really related to the community where you are. But right now, theres no diversity in terms of viewing the black population. Its just being viewed as a monolithic kind of situation. But, you know, its kind of where you are in life, i dont know if i would rather vote or have the concession stand to sell popcorn to the people who are voting. [laughter] i would say that if we look at the Public Opinion polling, and if i were to look at the black youth and people that i talk with, i dont believe the black vote is monolithic. I believe that black people have reached the point where theyre looking around, and theyre both their votes are up for grabs. This next election, if i were to make a prediction, i think the republicans and donald trump, i know youre not supposed to be political, but i am speaking as a political scientist now, i think that 20 of the black vote would be reasonable. Just a quick comment on that, in addition to dr. Swain, im a political scientist by background as well, i think this is really an empirical question. Right now there are large, pretty well funded movements it, where the goal is moving African Americans away from the mainstream of the democratic party. You can wager on this, this is something that people are interested in seeing in progress, will that happen . Thats an empirical question. I do think that theres an interesting background here, that if you look at, for example, churchgoing, or attitudes towards transgender , the Africanamerican Community is a fairly conservative community. More conservative than most caucasian communities, the large majority. Africanamericans have become an 80 to 90 democraticvoting wheelhouse basically because of the use of the race narrative. Thats an empirical fact. Joe biden running against mitt romney was one of the most milk milquetoast, moderate individuals you can imagine, the antiracist head of bain said, quote unquote, im going to put africanamericans back in chains. This is easily searchable on google. This was said to cheers. That is how you managed to get 80 of the black vote consistently. Will that continue . Well see. Backlasha conservative to change that right now, i will say, and that is being studied in Political Science. , even thegest barrier whole votersuppression issue that is supposed to be popular, it turns out that the states with the most restrictive voter laws have the highest black turnout. [laughter] and also, the biggest barrier to voting is apathy. In the last mayors race in washington, d. C. , in ward 7 and 8, less than 6 of the people turned out. And this is a pattern in newark, trenton, other cities, where blacks, democrats have been in power. Is turnout rate apathy the biggest barrier to people voting. So i just dont think the answer is through the electoral process, it is a cultural problem, it is an internal problem. Somebody had a question . This is more a nittygritty than an abstract question. You mentioned the 1619 project, it already has an educational curriculum that is going to thousands of schools and let you plan to do something in that area too. Where are those plans, what kind of material would they be, when will you get them to the schools, and what is your timeframe on that . We plan to develop k12 curriculum. Joe young is here from hartford, connecticut, one of the countrys foremost cartoonist not cartoonist, animators whew [laughter] an animator to reach young people. And were going to commission him to do an animation on 1776. We want to produce videos. I think the impact of your film on clarence thomas, we need hidden figures. I went to a gathering in virginia, in fredericksburg, virginia on a saturday afternoon, where the author was in a in an auditorium womens college. It seats 1000 people. There were 1,300. The fire marshal had to turn people away, hundreds were turned away. Her book was sold out. It was sold out in the local bookstore. 90 of the audience were black family members. So we really believe there is a thirst in america for virtue in action. And we want to use every means possible to develop a retail strategy. The problem with traditional ways, particularly of conservatives have of trying to push back against this is to publish white papers and then argue it on talk radio. We believe that thats insufficient and inadequate. So we hope to develop teachable retailoriented materials so we will have an alternative. The highest, most popular book on amazon in the socialist section is communism for kids. Wanted to i sort of address the previous question that was asked about whether the black vote was monolithic. And i think its not monolithic , but there is a sort of monolithicity in relation to the democratic party. If you look at the way womens vote in relation to donald trump, that is almost monolithic compared to the black vote. I think this is a larger issue about without sounding condescending or patronizing, about sort of retraining the sensibilities of black voters in terms of their attitudes towards a saver complex, because many black people have been fed a diet of victimology all their lives. I am not an activist, i am an intellectual activist, not a community activist. But when i speak to black people, i say look, white people , are not coming to save you. You are responsible for your own fate. And your destiny lies in your hand. And the procreative choices you make are your responsibility. So i think conservatives have done this speaking as an independent conservative, but as a group, they have done a poor job of communicating to black people, and to the world in general. For example, of the morality of capitalism. That capitalism doesnt lift people outside of poverty and doesnt only have practical benefits, but capitalism is a moral system. This message has got to be sent to blacks, but capitalism is something good. And we hear the idea that black people vote for republicans or vote conservative, that they are voting against their own economic selfinterest. I think they have to be divested of these kind of shibboleths, right . That they are not voting against their own economic selfinterest when they are voting for government about initiates tax cuts for Small Businesses that will then hire them and give them a break and also give them a chance to start their own businesses. So i think this is a sort of educational process that conservatives should take very , theusly, whereas democrats turn up with a bunch of chicken wings and watermelon slices like mrs. Clinton did, and hot sauce. Question that is need to turn up with ideological pamphlets and start conservatives need to turn up with ideological pamphlets and start teaching blacks about the moral basis of capitalism, that capitalism is a good, moral thing in and of itself, aside from the tactical results that it can deliver to their lives in terms of material benefits. Just in closing, i just want to add that america is in a moral and spiritual freefall that is consuming people of different classes and different races. The very fact that in palo alto, silicon valley, that the suicide rate is six times the national average, when 90 of twoparent households, where the parents have masters degrees, the crisis facing the emptiness of a 17yearold daughter, the mother has to face the reality of her 17yearold daughter, she has more in common with the 17yearold black woman who lost her 17yearold daughter to homicide in public housing. We need to address that lack of content and meaning in their lives. One is not insulated because of privilege and one is not shielded because of injustice. Thats why we are committed to taking race off of the table so that we can come together as americans and address the lack of content and meaning in lives that are causing even affluent white kids to overdose on opioids. And so this is our task for 1776. And i want to thank all of you for coming. And this ends our press conference. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indiscernible conversation] live tuesday on the cspan networks, director of the nih institute of Infectious Diseases on threats to Global Health and bio security. At that 12 30 p. M. On cspan. In a discussion on the future of venezuela and guan juan guaido and steps the International Community can take to support the venezuelan people. At 4 00 p. M. , the u. S. Institute of peace host former senior u. S. Government officials on the situation in afghanistan. At 9 00 a. M. , the impact on the Opioid Impact opioid image to make Opioid Epidemic and ecigarettes and vaping. At 5 30 p. M. , bernie is at a rally in las vegas. Tuesday, a debate between senator ed markey and two of his challengers in the 2020 message deuces democratic primary. Congressman joe kennedy and attorney riordan. Or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Next, discussion with craig smith, author of confessions of a president ial speechwriter. Mr. Smith spoke about his experience writing with president ford and George H Dubya bush and evaluated the speaking styles of President Trump and the democratic president ial candidates. It is 50d by minutes. Guest was a fulltime speechwriter for president gerald ford and a h wulting writer to george bush. He served as founding president of the freedom of Expression Foundation in washington, d. C. He has won numerous awards for an awardrch including for political communication. It is with pleasure that i
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