For regular updates please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter by going to a vromansbookstore. Com. If you see a question on the list that you would like to ask into the offers to answer, you can click the light button on the question and we will try to answer as many as time will allow. If you are interested in supporting the bookstore by purchasing a copy you can click on the purchase button directly below and it will take you to the website where you can continue. They are selling Digital Audio books and ebooks for those interested. With that let me introduce you to our interviewer and author. An awardwinning journalist and producer at npr. She began her career as an entertainment digital trader and helped shift the focus to communities of color. During the time as a radio producer shes done stories on history, language, access and culture. Her work has been featured in the new york times, nprs code switch, hourly weekly and more. The author tonight is eric a former Sports Editor and his work on sports history and culture has appeared in espn magazine, sports illustrated, outside, the daily beast, dead spin and American Sports writing anthology. He was born and raised in la and spent many hours with attending soccer stadiums in city traffic to the games as many of us have. Hes here tonight to present the book stealing home, so i would like to now turned over to them and before we get to the q a session later we will let you know so please enjoy. Thank you so much. Host thank you for the introduction. Guest hows it going . You are muted. [laughter] now i can hear you. I just went to say congratulations on the book [inaudible] guest its a good feeling. I remember opening it and seeing the actual book in hardcover. It was surreal. Host i can imagine. I want to hear a bit more about your career and how it all came together for you to write this book. Guest it was in my head before i even had a career. I was a High School Student and one of the central characters in the book spoke to my u. S. History class and told the story of his life and he was a housing official in the city of los angeles who was kind of dramatically blacklisted for his part in the communist party and the reason he was outed as a communist as he was trying to develop a Public Housing project in the land where Dodger Stadium analysis and his story kind of begin with this phrase doctor stadium shouldnt exist and i was a kid who loves baseball so that was a shocking to me. It always stuck with me. As i grew up and became a journalist and a writer, i never really let it go and i think on some level i wanted to kind of at my contribution to the story of Dodger Stadium and the communities that preceded it that whole time. Host when you heard that phrase but it shouldnt exist [inaudible] guest he gave a brief rundown and if you read the book you will see he was a true believer in Public Housing. His belief is that it shouldnt exist because it should be the site of the heights which would have been a very grand Public Housing project. He didnt get into the community too much and as i learned more about them i came to have a much deeper understanding of kind of the real tragedy of the story which is that families lost their homes and ultimately was sold to a private businessman. There is a lot of drama and incentives but that is kind of what happened. Host we had this conversation earlier and talked about the decision for you to not just make it into an article that [inaudible] i dont think that i could have fit everything into an article. I wanted to tell the story as completely as i could within reason. As long as they would be. When you are writing an article there is a certain length and focus and if you go beyond that it starts getting deceiving and doesnt do justice and i knew the subject of this book needed a longer telling on the page but also more time and research. As a journalist you only have so much time to get to the next story or deadline and i couldnt have sent enough to turn this into a magazine story. Host in the book there is a lot of history and they also talk about the tension but you also gave advice about people in different chapters. You specifically focus on the two characters. When i first started i didnt have to specific. I had kind of a broader idea that on one level as a storyteller, the best way to tell the story is through peoples lives and something about those stuck out to me. She was a remarkable person who in many ways was pretty normal. A mother and grandmother but she also ends up with these forces that swung her life around and theres something about her that caused her to resist those forces in a way that other people didnt end up not because they couldnt or didnt want to or whatever it was, there was Something Different about her personality that drew me in and when you hear about the story you often see the images of the families getting evicted from their house and i was curious what was it about this family and their journey that led them to be evicted by Sheriff Deputies were that didnt happen to most of their neighbors. Frank was the inspiration for the book in many ways. He put the story in my head. He was also just a fascinating character. He lived a life that felt like something out of the movies. He was bit by a coyote as a child. He went from being a conservative methodist to a radical communist. They have multiple second acts in his career and after the book is over he goes to jail to protest. He just was a handful and also somebody who the ambitions and careers were similar to being thrown into chaos of the forces beyond his control and i was curious about that. Host [inaudible] what did you think came together in your research . Host guest i knew that it was a dissenter on this inflection. 1949 or 50 when the Housing Authority is ejecting people evicting people and i knew that was going to be where they met and i knew that their lives were going to go Different Directions after that. So a lot of the work and the book was first of all kind of getting their timelines down and seeing what they were doing and then kind of balancing how to tell the story in a way that they would eventually have a tragic meeting i guess. Host [inaudible] ive also seen stories [inaudible] or is that something you found difficult guest it wasnt so difficult that it was impossible. Some members of the family wanted to speak about her and some didnt. I dont think i reached out to every single person. I know i didnt, because theres too many. Its a testament to her that she was a person who kind of left an impression on those who knew her includinand putting her grandchn some of whom were gracious enough to speak with me. Test. So more specifically in that er era. I think if you lose your home that is painful. And dad is visceral. And to be still really hurt for it. There were no amendments made by anybody. And the experience of being mistreated by government and then get onto your life to that community. And ive never experienced that myself. And with that serendipity. And then it doesnt just go away. And all the greatgrandchildren. And there is greatgrandchildren. And with that activism. And then the inheritedra trauma. And with those kinds of events. And then they have lingering effects on the community. I was struck repeatedly and to criticize the media. But i was struck our transparently onesided with that propaganda was in the fifties. So reading the actual articles to be blatantly untrue and that left an impression for sure. So i love the picture. It is amazing that reading in the fifties and was mind blowing. Of those experience . One thing that i loved and it is with that responsibility so my favorite memory of writing the book and just to hear those stories. And then since i started writing the book and then to see any product. But i got a chance to tell the that of the stories. Normally there are not those historical images. But then you have to do that and and then to go out of pocket and in the book i really wanted for me that would be special and different to give the impression so i would ask adam if he would draw the book for me a little bit and it came out great. And is really excited about that. Has that changed anything for you . And that is the section of the book and i came to believe that to struggle with that kind of question is i love the dodgers but that part of my life and i wanted to explore that a little bit and if you love something its okay to be critical of it. Its good to say i love this but its not right like with your religion or religious family. L. A. Has a lot of problems i dont think anybody would tell you otherwise so its okay to say this is wrong and this wasnt right. So much more about the city of l. A. County and us history but that question if you can of the place and have problems with that at the same time expanded. And then if that was impacted by this. And to go to the present so what happens . And to be the guilty party not too criticize the dodgers but it is a failure of government more than anything else think the dodgers and city of l. A. And there should be any knowledge minute what happens but that would be a very basic first step im not a member of those communities and of the eminent domain. So thats not for me to say. But just to Say Something would be reiterated. And in the year 2000 when the dodgers were owned they had a small ceremony and they extended the olive branch but it was a very much one time deal and now they dont talk about this its not really on the agenda what about the places that are no longer there . You go to legion park some of the roads are still there but they are not the same. For the construction it changes the landscape geographically what the area would look like. Where people who live in the community will go to legion park and then you talk to the others and the truth is that generally it is not the same. With hundreds of thousands of tons of dirt for new access roads and freeway interest. And the area los angeles. And with the lincoln heights. And those nearby areas. And other parts of l. A. Like long beach. Not just like banished from the country but to go back into the city where everybody else was. And then we went back to whatever neighborhood it was is. In the same that we had before. And that was one of the big losses. And that was evicted. And then the housing projects were scratch. It was almost empty. And then to come back on friday nights and hang out. It was a strange feeling. So be entertained and enjoy the book first of all in with a deeper understanding of this story of l. A. History and the power work and cities was a revelation to me writing it for sure. And into that very quickly. And it is still happening. Absolutely. The look at the us the communities being affected and to interpretations. And then we would ask any followups that may be interesting. And then the continued affect things like this. That are affected. So do you use sees similarities with gentrification in los angeles now . Yes. That was a very specific set of circumstances. But if you look at the underlying dynamics in deciding what could happen to that land. That is very much happening. But if they did anything about the fbi problem . He was tailed for decades by the fbi. That communist Party Membership and he found this out much later he asked them in the eighties for his file thats when he found that he had been tailed for decades. He actually didnt know until he was an older man. And hadnt fbi on on agent on him entire life. Have you heard anything from the organization . No. Nothing at all. There is no baseball right now. The dodgers may be too distracting. But to comment on the book. I have not heard anything. [laughter] and those that you have answer during the course are the questions and the emotions of people that you interviewed and we talk about that and definitely still feeling those echoes of what happened that andrew a asks almost immediately what was seen as a representation or does that overshadow the presence . And that cut off. So the one thing about the dodgers but that intention of every president at the time that was not there goal. There goal actually was to be to increase the franchise. But he wanted that to be a place because i wasnt always the place and wanted to reach those audiences. So how do you broadcast that in spanish . I dont know how many more have been employees since. So there is always in east l. A. Hated the dodgers but im not sure that is totally true i cannot imagine they would be those fancy for an 1881. And in those communities in l. A. And that was a phenomenon that was truly universal and the appeal went beyond any one grou group. I didnt know much about the history of baseball and had a pipeline and then to define their teams from los angeles. Especially in northern mexico. And it was popular all throughout the time. But obviously from other countries like cuba and japan. The only professional baseball right now is taiwan and korea. Im covering similar things you already talked about. Did you in on interview anyone from the family for confirmation . Actually i was fortunate that they allowed me access to his papers and files from when he was planning a stadium. We are thankful to them for the book because i was not fully aware of what version of line visionary that he was. And then with all these entertainment things. It was the first person to see it as a familyfriendly experience. That is a level he was thinking on. And then to dive into it it was great. And then also as a baseball fan. We have a time for a few more questions. Sometimes they will say yes. There is project then the general project to create a centralized or more corporate friendly and less worried about people. And then so i guess as the l. A. Audience a have to worry about that. And even if you think about Public Housing one of the reasons they want Public Housing in those communities was because of the need to find something to do. They have part of the conversation. But really we are after the air. What you are a quote doorprogressive or conservative as Business Leaders we might product development. You were probably talking about leaving the city and then at Dodger Stadium that could happen. So what wouldve happened . And with that link between trends and baseball in the book . If it has actual profiles to see what he but i will say ancient and the that they are doing that their age. To more questions. As a culver city teacher i am proud you are at a graduate of the school district. [laughter] when did you start learning spanish . When the invasion program. But then after the birth occurred dog i feel that women have them but they come in and out of style. Or the privacy. And then to have a part of that or it is up to you if you have final thoughts or questions . So we talk about autocratic weather that is it the communities that acknowledge there are . Also the Biggest Community never three and then to put up the book for and so he went to get a look at what my woman looks like, that word the be the way to do it. There are three communities,. Yes. And then you have the video. That is fantastic. Think he is a very much for doing this and being a part of the first patrol background it was fantastic. Taking having us. This has been great. Thank you everyone. Everyone is there has shirts and if you have a question or those excerpts from it and i felt it was late in the game to do that. If you t you want to relive the again thank you and on behalf of a vroman this bookstore. Welcome to this Virtual Event about how the south won the civil war i am a professor of history and studies that Yale University and this afternoon i have the pleasure of being in conversation
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