He struck out his own name from the registration book. They crossed out their names and dropping out of the school. With the events that were rocking him. Remarkably the northern correspondent noticed them in the library and failed to make the connection between that statue in and the student noting the bust of john hed calhoun and leaves it at that. Many northerners king apparently included assumed that when africanamericans share of the last names of leading white southern families that they or their families have been owned. White southerners did little to disabuse this. The races can no more agree in the same classes in school and college of a the kid of the family. There is no telling how he would agree to this. The bonds of whiteness that connected him to complete strangers among the states caucasian population. They railed in a letter over quotes. And political power. In the wake of henry haynes enrollment. They tendered their resignations in protest. He put out a statement. This accepts the wretched resignation that due to the public the resignations were caused by the admission as a student of the medical department. A gentleman of irreproachable character. Recognizing this as a cause of this resignation the sport cannot regret that as spirit so hostile to the welfare of our state will no longer be represented the university. Its university. Its a Common Property in all of our universities. Described in the press as being as white as any of his ancestors. With the a hard and fast racial lines. I think some of you may recognize this. At the statewide convention. Not in spite of its congregations blood relationships. I attribute a great deal of our present depression to the fact that we had been so closely aligned. And with the social position which accompanies will especially if it be into wealth. All understood what he meant when he spoke of the congregation members close alliance of ancient wealth. The churchs application was representative. As rights became ever more race based. They were turned back to all white forces. Most places at desegregations. Have re segregated them sometimes with violence. In texas the clan bragged that it was hunted down and killed every africanamerican member of the reconstruction era a new police chief hired in 1886 a free man of cover who was the highest ranking policemen in america. By the early 20th century the number of African Americans could be counted on one hand and when they retired they were replaced by whites. Most living trust only us and never known in all white force. Even after the reestablishment. In 1878. They have remained one third of men of color. The court was reset your gated resegregated in similar fashion the department simply stopped hiring africanamerican off nearly 200 africanamericans were serving as Police Officer during the height of reconstruction by 1880 there were 60. In 1905. In 1909 the lasting they died in their boots. The 1910 federal sentence should not a single africanamerican Police Officer in the deep south. The final rollback of integration took place where it have all begun on the streetcars. Only in 1912 did the state legislature introduce a bill requiring students dash megacities of a 30,000. A category that included only charleston. A lot of this book you dont know if to laugh or cry. There is a lot of absurdity in it. But very painful. A less expensive segregation bill was introduced that year in the Charleston City Council to require separate white and colored sections within the same streetcar. Mayor grace publicly came out in support of the Streetcar Company president. The flex will plant in which whites would be seeded from the front and africanamericans from the rear. On the grounds that it was not likely to cause any race feeling because it would give them a fair amount of the seating room. As in new orleans adjudicating race on the fly. Proved difficult. That Charleston Brown community had ceased to self identify. Did not make their skin tones any less ambiguous. They began speaking of black negroes and white negroes. As a memoir of one africanamerican recalls. At one time they look like whites than they used to do what they wanted to do in charleston. It made everything strict. They got to the place where they needed to identify themselves as a race. Even after four dash make formal protest sizzled. Mixed race people still relished the height of the absurdity. We used to get together in pairs of black and white young women. And keep laughing and talking. Put your money in walk right past the conductor. Dont even notice that he is looking. We would go exactly halfway down the street car where no one else was sitting and take seats. Now the conductor would start to fidget. And that white passengers look to the conductor and the looking with start to bear down on the conductor because it was his streetcar on his streetcar he was supposed to uphold jim crow on behalf of all white people. Each new white man or woman got on our looked. Until he couldnt take it. You dont belong back there with the colored. The first time the conductor said anything. We pretended not to know who you was. When he finally did Say Something the game was almost over. At last he would stop the car and tell us you girls at the way youre supposed to. And then we both get up together and walked to the very last seat in the back that was empty. How the white stripe would chuckle. They didnt say anything disrespectful and we obeyed the law to the letter. The law was a farce but that did not make it any less staining. Race was a myth yet it became the most important factor in every americans life. He would write in 1923. There are no races here since were also thoroughly mixed. And yet the black man is a person who must ride jim crow in georgia. His bitter joke was that there was no scientific reality of race outside the painful social reality with racebased rights now the law not the law of the land racism was real even if race was not. The epilogue of my book traces of some of these families and mixed race families into the jim crow era and you see a pattern of a disown meant discernment this discernment can work in different ways in the cardoza family. The unmixed side which incidentally as openly jewish in latino but now in this white category rises higher and higher and by 1932. That side of the family is appointed to the United StatesSupreme Court in washington dc. Meanwhile across town. His cousins from the openly mixed side are running the hairstylist operation and in a redlined neighborhood near howard university. Now both sides of the cardoza family are excelling but they are excelling in different competitions one for that mixed race side. The highest accomplishment is owning a successful small business. You also had disappointments between generations here you have richard t greener as we saw the first nonwhite graduate of harvard. His daughter takes the name bell dacosta green passes herself off as a woman of portuguese descent and she moves to new york city and she becomes the liberian dash make the liberian of j. P. Morgan. Its one of the first great collections of european manuscripts. And its all built by this woman bell dacosta green. This little photo here is from an omaha newspaper hot newspaper in the 20s that was doing a series on professional women of a credible accomplishment. Even today. Thats not bad for a librarian. But the price that she pays is that she could not cannot acknowledge her own father. A man any daughter would be incredibly power proud to have. Even more so. A story i came across in new orleans where the famed plaintiff who took a the case to the Supreme Court to attempt to have separate but equal ruled unconstitutional. His greatgrandson is active in civil rights circles and is trying to tell the story of his illustrious ancestor homer at the time is categorized. Meaning someone of roughly seven european greatgrandparents and one african great grandparent. The africanamerican describes the as white as the average white southerner. In the 1920s centers identifies him as a white man. His descendent tells us stories over the years in the 40s and 50s after he have passed his descendents would have families. And the children would come out different colors. And sometimes the lightskinned children would move to the suburbs and mary whites and lead a white life disowning the africanamerican siblings and their families in the city. Thus maybe the most painful way that they can work. I want to close with this man who i think is well known in this community. The Reverend Richard harvey kane the re founder of the Mother Emmanuel Church church after the civil war. I dont know if everyone in the community is aware of his ancestry he is the son and the father born in africa and a cherokee mother. He is presumably half african and half native american. He is elected from this district to the United States congress he offers this quote almost a benediction on the floor of congress in 1874. I believe god designed us to live here together on this continent to develop this great idea that all men are the children of one father. We are here to work out the grand experiment the homogeneity of nations. Its a beautiful sentiment and given his own background even more moving. At this point i think we will move directly into the workshop time. [applause]. Race work is work. It really is work. And when we began looking at. You can kind of rest for a while. When we began looking at this whole notion of the accident of color if racial awareness has been constructive in this country cant wait uncreated or deconstructed through our own intentional efforts. In our fears and vigilant to make sure that we are based on the quote that we heard from kane just a minute ago. That we are all one Big Happy Family and god. Here we find a quote from James Baldwin is not a romantic matter it is the adorable truth all men our brothers that is the bottom line. If you cant take it from there you can take it at all. Now the chief and i always say were brothers. Every time we introduced ourselves to others. We have really become so close were not kidding. It was by accident. It was on purpose. We were thrown together and as a result god to the rest. The same is true for us tonight. Sometimes we find ourselves you could be riding in a squad car was someone else and you could think it was an accidental thing but there may be some intentional design for you to truly get to know the individual and the person can be in the backseat. And give you a context whereby you are able to head empathy compassion, and it pushes you beyond the limits so that you might be able to grow. This sunday at mount Zion Ame Church some eight years after kane made this comment in congress and was the pastor of mother emmanuel during the reconstruction eight years later norman spirit was a pastor of that church and led hundreds of members from emmanuel walked away from that wooden structure to find the first brick structure owned by blacks right next door. In 1882. On sunday and that very same as a part of the festivities emanating from Middleton Place im a middleton you know. And because im a middleton the Middleton Committee from the place activities decided that they were going to go to the church of middleton and they chose mount zion because i was the pastor. All of the middletons white and black. We will culminate that reunion for the series as one grand big family. Their facilitators at every table. I weighed a no waited a no who these people are. They are there to help ensure that everyone in your area has an opportunity to speak. They will keep track of time. They will explain reemphasize what im explaining here in the front of the room. And they will record mentally. Many of us will report out from the tables the things we wish to say. Speak your own truth. No one can take that away from you. And listen to the truth of others. It may be quite different we are not at these tables to convert anybody. We just came to listen and learn. Be honest and considerate. Some of these are very tough issues and make certain that you say earpiece and others had appropriate airtime. We remember the past we are looking ever so hopeful towards the future. And stay on track. And then avoid side conversations. How can we make the on audible truth. In some ways it makes the betrayals of the past all the more painful. What if you discovered that someone was your cousin at your table and their skin was on the same color as years. How can we then make the and honorable so that we all become validated in our humanity and we become lifted in our dignity as individuals or children of god and certainly individuals who are not active but we had been created for a purpose. We will have an Immediate Exchange with the author. [inaudible conversations] alright now we are ready to hear from you. Let me have your attention. Great discussion. So based on what you have discussed at your table maybe you have a point not sitting on a soapbox. At this time before we get a question to what we are to head interaction with him based on your questions based on your reactions. Since we are on cspan this evening if you are speaking you need to use this and mike and your preaching voice. Who will ask first. First of all. I have a big mouth aside back in a worry about that. My name is damon porta. I am a descendent of the james import of who you spoke up a little bit earlier. I spoke about this here not too long ago. We are gonna talk later on but theres one thing i want to ask about. You mentioned about the boycott of the street car in South Carolina in early 19 hundreds when they were starting to segregate. They try to do that in columbia around 1905 there is so little documentation of that did you find anything or research about that. Think you for your question. There is a wonderful book called right to ride it. About resegregation streetcar systems. A lot of focus on richmond as i remember. Thats where i would go for that particular story. You mention the ground fellowship society. They werent word always looked down upon. For the advancement of themselves and others we would quickly teach that. In actuality. They also help them advance themselves. Here at the table now. The family she was 99. A picture of her family. And with the audible truth. Let me tell you one thing. We were in love. It was not always to be ashamed we were in love. If nothing else comes out. Level solve it. I can answer that. I think you raise some very interesting points about that ground fellowship society. For it certainly by the collapse of reconstruction in 2h century. They can curdle into a kind of color as a that is very troubling but i think the concept of roundness can go to waste. There are limited aspects. He is about saint were not black we are black and were also white. It can get us out of the the black white minor. Binary. In the reconstruction time this is when they start to fight for their rights of all americans in africanamericans this is a community that in the lead up to the civil war is often cozied up to their white relatives in the hopes of getting certain privileges. Crucial break in the reconstruction time that i detail. I think its important for us to recognize with the heroic and more tragic aspects of that. My name is walter bovis. For a lot of people i am the very image of what you expect if you go to st. Marks. Light skin stray hair all of that. I am a brown Ownership Society descendent. Im also a holloway descendent which is part of the whole Brown Fellowship Society think. Im also a Middleton Family descendent and not through save through slavery. Not in the mansion but the grandson of the grand son. Theres a lot going on here. One of the things thats interesting about this. One of the things that he didnt know that i shared with him was that South Carolina never passed the one dropped role. One drop of black blood makes you black. South carolina did not and no less than pitchfork so that you cannot do that in South Carolina. Families are to mixed up. They would then had to be re classified into colored which wouldve been the term then. There is an amazing moment that i recaps recaptured in the book. In the 1890s one of the state constitutional conventions. They were called to remove political power from african africanamericans in the state. The rather strict definition of what a colored person is. There is only six africanamericans at the entire convention and one of the white delegates stands up and says any of you to pass this role. There is not a single caucasian on the floor of this convention. They do ratchet down the percentage that is required to be a negro in South Carolina. There is also a really fascinating set of issues with this. There is a case with the state Supreme Court where the decision makes a distinction between being physically lack and legally black it says that a person of high social standing can be considered white even if he has the same African Heritage as someone of low social standard he would become desperate colored. The other one is a gambler its always been a series of these very careful and difficult navigations. They have their own they are very powerful and significant. We a member she has not been back. Revealed in a very holy moment publicly. She said she have never disclosed to anyone that her grandfather her father was black. All of her life she was evading and escaping. Because she did not want to injure that stigma of being considered black in charleston. When we look at uttering those liberating truths some of us even in our own family dynamics. We have with individuals who are legally black i do not write at Mount Zion Church i met 33rd pastorate but in its history individuals who were much lighter and fairer skinned than i they were pretty much the congregants at that church. With the Methodist Church and also like Central Baptist Church although they were legally black they were all very high gala. Until recently even i would not had been eligible to be pastor at mount zion because i am too dark. So when you look at the 33 and you start seeing the coloring its not until the 80s that they became darker i may be the darkest. If i dont have to stand our concern was at this family issue and the fact that in families we tell stories and how we tell the story whether its uncle george on the photographs in the portraits at the dinner table and hes just there and served in the confederate or if he is a member of another community most of us at this table are old enough that we did not had much experience with anyone of color. Certainly not in the accepted ways of academia we did not go to school with them. We did not go intermix socially we still dont do much in churches. We have a hard time with that. And what it is to say things to one another that could be hurtful but the state of them is a story we need to tell. Im not sure to ask you a question about that but the storytelling of how we see in our generations at this table we see there is progress of acceptance and interaction and someone that we did not had at the same time theres so much more that we see that needs to be done. How can we accelerate that with this conversation. One thing that is important to remember is we have more in common than we realize. I think thats part of why we eat okra soup at this event. It reminds me of a famous quote that maybe has never been fully completely understood after the storm. He was an africanamerican man a native of california and have been living in teaching at architect planning in australia. After going to some Community Meetings he threw up his hands its like dealing with the sunnis and the she has. This is at the time of the iraq war. I think what he meant or in my interpretation was not just that they were at each others throats. Coming from australia and california it seemed like these people have so much in common. The eighth the same food. They socialize in the same quirky ways. And yet when you get them together they think they have nothing in common. Just as if you were i have nothing in common. I think its important to get out of our bubbles and traveled to the extent that we can. When a black man in a white man run into each other on the new york city subway they look at each other askance. There is truth to that. We are ready to move into our section. James baldwin also said its up to you. As long as you think you are white there is no hope for you. As long as you think your white im going to be forced to think im black. So what might these first moves look like. How might black identify based on the previous point. We are mixed. He is all sane as in the white identified court. White identified americans have to make the move on this front. The question i wanted to discuss at the tables and how might black identified americans respond. What are you all gonna do we are ready. It will be good for you to be up here. The strategies that white people can do. In order to advance anybody first. I have a hundred different answers and certainly i was talking with my group that even though being a black american that i grew up in rural South Carolina were talking about the group but i was protected because my parents is that better. In our group we were talking racism and how the black respond. Our parents protected us against racism my father have a car so i was not thrown into the speed dash streetcars. In talking to a lot of my a lot of my white contemporaries would say that when it they were coming up they did not know anything about it. They literally nevers thought about the separate fountains. They too were not affected by racism but it was probably take all day to talk about many of these things but maybe i had been decentralized that i had been thrown into so many categories and even in charleston when i worked for the School District and we wrote that ethnic history of South Carolina. I worked with all facets. It dealt with black, jews irish. Native americans, so i worked with all of those groups and so my decentralization that i have certainly been able to accept and note the contributions of all of those groups. Not just africanamericans so i could go on forever but im in have to leave so to you bill. He was talking about Richard Harvey kane. Everybody loves dash mike knows knows my love for emmanuel. A statute was a mate in lincolnville South Carolina which was founded by Richard Harvey kane in 1867. And on saturday they are going to rate dedicate it. Run on up to lincolnville if you are in town. 17 miles Bedroom Community they are going rededicate the area in lincolnville. When you mentioned Lincoln Harvey kane. It sparked my interest because he is one of my heroes. [applause]. I think one thing that is important that is all too often white people talk about all of the black kids are sitting together. At the School Cafeteria why is there so much selfsegregation. Because of the history of the country its on white people to make spaces open rather than to point a finger of others for self segregating. The other aspect of your comment that struck a nerve. The ethnic history of South Carolina which is very rich and much richer than most people know. Especially people from out of state. I think part of what is important. In interrogating and unpacking this. As a think about all of the variety that it covers up. Whiteness is about creating an exalted racial category of the people who come from different places with different traditions i know we have a family friend growing up and his mother was sicilian. The idea that these two people are white not only physically but culturally their cultures could not had been any more different. This relationship can work. And she never went dancing again. Thank you. I was a civil rights activist. 1972. Rewind back. Nothing for black folks. Education is terrible. It have just came out of new york. Africanamerican ministers were powerful. And we won that boycott. Reverend lynch he was down in carlson county. We got doesnt ministers together and we did a bowl on them. We went back in 1981 i was working for South Carolina. I noticed all of the blacks and no supervisors. The director was white. We gotta do something about it. I went to the meeting and i told them what was going on. We have no black supervisors nobody upgrading. What you want to do about it. We want to boycott. I was employed for nine years. I could retire in ten years. It didnt matter. I went home. I gave it up. I talked to mister jim clyburn and i told him about it and he said what i would suggest for you is to do a class action. It was not for me it was for our people. We needed to show that we can make a difference here. I did not take the starter class action. I went to my attorney and ask him. Go and get your unemployment. And lots of rest. Rewind that. We black supervisors. The director who is black. Im proud to say today that you can make a difference. They were very proud and they said look, dont give up. We are with you. Despite of all that happened. Everybody knows you. I made a difference. Thank you. They told the most marketable dash marvelous story. I will tell it. She was in the supermarket there was a black mother with her children and she said she went over and spoke to the mother. I made me feel wonderful. I can also mention that it made the other person feel wonderful. I can come to this conclusion and it may not be right. It seems to me its easier for a white to take an interest in a nonwhite person and start the conversation but what fran did was made a beautiful relationship by reaching out and being open and i think it is just a wonderful story. Lets give all lets give all of them a big hand. And now as daniel is giving his. He will give his final remarks at that time. Chief reynolds will come in close out in whatever way he wishes. The number to pray and were going. Assuming thank you so much for hosting me. I always think about the tension between celebrating the victories without sugarcoating the work that still needs to be done. I was thinking through that tension as you describe your work but you left it. And thats why we all had to be active. You answer the question that was on my mind. We want to acknowledge the successes of the past and the failures of the present and we want to keep on working for the world that we all want to live in. Thank you so much. I tarried that blasted wall down that separates grace church from mount zion. [applause]. And we should remember its worth remembering that that ball was wall was very intentionally constructed in the 1790s somehow i got back up. I think we should intentionally take it down this time and keep it down as a symbol of our united acclamation that we are one. Thank you so much reverend. We had been issued a challenge tonight in the that is that we have to roll our sleeves up and we have to get to work. We have a Great Community here we have a Great Partnership with a lot of collaboration i was talking to kyle on in between some of the presenters we had seven shootings in our Community Last week just in our city. One of which was a homicide. The day before the homicide on monday there was a landscaper working on harris street 16 years old and someone was messing with his truck and he went to talk to them. The guy came back and shot him with a gun for no reason. Thats our reality. Thats a challenge. So we come here to have a conversation and we have to leave here and go to work. Weve important work to do with to treat people with dignity and respect with to do good with who we hire and train and all that stuff we talked about earlier. We actually had to engage in roller sleeves up. We have to do a lot to keep our community safe. That includes crime and traffic issues. You all know about the traffic issues. The number one complaint. Every community ive been to there is a lot of work that we do and unlike the Fire Department who i love my brothers and sisters on the Fire Department. They go and save the cat out of the tree. And save the baby. If i was in trouble i would want them by my side. Not everybody necessarily wants the police always. But we need the police we are the community. We are privileged and honored to be in the midst of these struggles the greatest definition of a leader is leave it better than how you found it. How can we criminally together make this an even Better Community and it right in right in the midst of all these challenges we have an opportunity to do that. We have an obligation we have a responsibility. So im excited about being with you my brothers in my sisters and i encourage you and i think you im excited and i think you dr. Milton and his able assistant who has been helping us get this done. The church. Thank you all for being here tonight. Thank you very much. Im not sure i want to say thank you to kyle on. What is the word agitate. Its the proper confrontation that they talk about. Where there can be no reconciliation without a proper confrontation. And we know it begins within ourselves. I will say, before we have kyle and offered the final prayer that is always problematic for white people not as putting it out there. It is really a marvel. We are grateful for you. If we can at least put ourselves. We read a book by toni morrison. I really do believe in these last few years. That some of those openings have presented themselves. My young 15yearold nephew was writing a short story for school and he wrote it from the perspective from the amd minister. I just think that there is something that is seeping into the psyche that is the psyche of the city that its going to carry us forward and curious far. Please say up prayer for us and close us out. Just grab hands of those of you who are in and around you. And let us pray. Create in us a clean and pure heart of god. And renew a right spirit in us within each one of us. Unlike your piece that surpasses all understanding transform us that we can be your agents for a better place. Let there be peace in South Carolina let there be peace in charleston let there be peace at the intersection of wentworth and let us begin with each one of us. Amen. [inaudible conversations] the new cspan online store. See whats new for book tv and all cspan products. Join us again next saturday at 8 00 a. M. Eastern for the best of nonfiction books. And how you can of policies to support that. Host can you give an example of that innovation you are in favor . Guest ten years ago we were not talking Artificial Intelligence and all the benefits brought about with automation. We were thinking about that and think about the policies we