People had their social networks, their continuities. And one of the interest things that has come out of that, those connection connections and they found a black congregation, particularly the clergy. In this discussion im going to talk too much about men, but males have dominated in some ways the kind of conversation about american politics for a number of reasons. So there are a host of characters, im not going to talk about all of them, but there are some things that i really want you to Pay Attention to. One it says Indigenous Community organization. Black churches are Indigenous Community organizations and its an indigenous because it is controlled by the people at the very lowest level, at the ground level. And i dont mean that in terms of status, but at the ground level. And therefore it can you see this other word it creates its own organic leadership. It belongs to its own community. And well talk about that a little bit more some of these terms. Electoral politics, public personalties. All of these go in there but one of the things that youll see note is that black clergy people, whether male or female, have to build a support system, have to be affirmed by its own people, thats what i mean by organic leadership. And that organic leadership is crucial, crucial, crucial to black church black churches, black american politics and so on. In 1972, this was one of the few books that tries to examine black politics by charles v. Hamilton called the black preacher in america. It came out in 1972. Professor hamilton is still alive. He is a political scientist and he is best known for a book he wrote, coauthored with Stokely Carmichael called black power, the politics of liberation. And you can see up at the top there its highlighted. The politics of liberation. So professor hamilton began to study in some ways clergy behavior and he ended up writing a book on one of the people will talk about, Adam Clayton Powell, jr. , the political biography of an american dilemma. Very few people have studied activist clergy with the exception of Martin Luther king jr. , who gets a lot of ink like abraham lincoln, now. More ink is spilled on lincoln that than anybody so preacher in america, he wanted to take this wide sweep in the 1970s to look at it. In book comes in the context of a book you already read. There were a group of books coming out shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther king so all of these books were coming out after the assassination of king as a minister, king as a leader. There were a number of books coming out and people were thinking about what did black history mean . Particularly in the era of black power. And what did that mean in a revision of black history . Of course if i can get to this work. So you can see in the 1970s along with your book, there were tons of books coming out about slavery, revising the kind of estimation of slavery and all of them made reference to slave communities and slave churches and the invisible institution, as it was called. All of them made references to this or gene genovese asked the question why didnt slaves in the United States rebel more . Why didnt they rebel like they might have done in, say, a place like haiti. What kept slaves from rebellion . And what he comes up with, his marxist formulation, is that theres a kind of paternalism and that religion was one thing that kept slaves from rebelled so these were kind of books that were coming out. The slave community, o wanted t understood how people understood what was going on at the time. And i give you the backdrop of the books because its important to understand that this conversation is in an academic conversation with other books. So if you thought about it for a moment, if you thought really hard about whats going on, in the 1920s the American Academic establishment wrote that pretty much slave we was a good thing and that people were happy with them. And that after reconstruction, africanamericans were no place to be in politics and so they kind of got road out of politics. So this was then a kind of reversal of this. This became a long going conversation through the late 1950s, through the early through the 60s, through the 70s and, of course, we keep getting new studies, but i just wanted to put the context in here for you to understand hamiltons book on the black preacher. So what was that role . Was it the role of passfication . Was it the real of charlatan . So the context for black preachers is this. Black preachers as much american as apple pie. And what i mean by that is black preachers come out of the same stuff that White American preachers come out. So the same stuff that you might have heard of billy graham or billy sunday or from George Whitfield in the 18th century down, richard allen, all of those are coming out of the same source material. Theyre using the bible. Theyre evangelical in the protestant sense. And, of course, the they are showmen. All religious leaders have to be showmen. I dont mean that insultingly, i mean that if you say the mass you have to be a performer. If youre a rabbi, people want you to be an excellent orator, they dont want to be bored when you give expression. So in some ways theres all of this performance that goes with this. And so africanamericans, though, are in this oppressive situation of slavery and then postslavery building institutions so that people can live. So how they engage regionally and how they supported social inequities. I love this. This is taking place harlem. Here lies jim crow a Funeral Service for jim crow that took place on the street. You know, so the social inequities, jim crow, racial apartheid, jane crow, sexual apartheid. Voting, economic disparities. Black ministers in a way different than their white counterparts have had to encounter not just the kind of religious lives of their own people but the very laws that constrict the lives of their people and its important to note that for a while, not now, but for a while the clergy were the most educated people in the United States. So we forget in the 19th century that many of the people who were educated were clergy. This is why Morehouse College was called Atlanta Baptist seminary. Spellman college was called Atlanta Baptist seminary for women, and so forth. These were the educated people and therefore they would take a place in leadership. And, of course, we have now gone over and over again the institutional parameters of the African Methodist Episcopal Church with the starting wilburforce college. These were the educated people and normally your educated people become leaders, spokespersons, whatever the case may be. Because we created indigenous institutions, because institutions, the politics of black people learn politics internal to their institution. So ecclesial politics is first. Where does your politics begin . Inside the church organization, inside the team pal organization, inside the rabbi and so forth. So this is where the ecclesial politics become very important, because its a Training Ground so if you want to learn how to lead you need to have an organization to lead so the womens auxiliaries such as the women weve read about in the church of god in christ, all of those places where people get training to have leadership. Leadership to and they learn how to play politics. How do you organize your coalition within the church to get something done . Or how do you persuade the clergy that your program is valuable . So Church Politics was the first. As i told you about my grandfather, he became a deacon on sunday and that was a very important role. That was a very political role because you had to be elected deacon in your church. You didnt just become a deacon and then, you know, you want to remain on the deacon board so you had to learn how to roberts rules of order, procedure. Ecclesial politics was a Training Ground, even at the church that you think has no similar 0, it has organization. And everybody forgets that that was an indigenous learning training. My grandmother, born in 1906 understood roberts rules of order better than people i see running the meetings here at ku. And she could rule you. She had a seventh grade education, she could rule you out of order and knew all of the procedures and i was like where did you learn all that . We do this at our church meetings, we take minutes, we take copious notes. So ecclesial politics and then theres ecclesial politics between the jer cli. That is if youre in an ecclesial system, a bishop system, you run for bishop. How do you become a bishop . There are people who selfappoint themselves bishops and they start an organization and start calling themselves bishops but there are also people that you have to have that conferred by the people and the other clergy to vote you up the sort of chain and that also requires organizing in politics so theres nothing like going to a Baptist Convention, an ame convention, a Church Convention of any sort to watch the politics happen because people operate at a very high level and this was a Training Ground for a lot of the people. So this ecclesial politics is a part of that indigenous organizing that is going on. Making sure that people learn the rules of order. I want to give you one example. These are two baptist ministers. One is joseph h. Jackson. He was the head of the National Baptist convention and the other one you well recognize, was Martin Luther king, jr. King wanted joseph jackson, a chicagoan then to use to be more aggressive about civil rights and joseph h. Jackson did not want to do that at all. He thought that the church shouldnt be in politics. And im going see if i can switch here for a minute, if it will work for me. Come on, come on. Somethings winning there. All right. Its slow. So in kansas city in about 1961 the National Baptists met in kansas city and there was a controversial action going on. So this is from the kings you should look at this cite, the king global cite. As a controversial leader of the National Baptist convention, he wasnt controversial, he was elected over and over again even if he had to do it kind of semi fraudulently. Hes like a political leader, right . Jackson often clashed with other baptist ministers including Martin Luther king jr. Who believed jacksons opposition to the use of civil disobedience to achieve civil rights was too conservative. So you have to persuade your people at the convention who should be in. So jackson was not an uneducated man. Very sophisticated, born in mississippi, went to Jackson College which is now Jackson State University then went to Colgate RochesterDivinity School up in rochester, new york where Frederick Douglass is buried. Then he came out here to the midwest, went to an interesting place to get an m. A. At a jesuit school, Creighton University up north from us in omaha. He was ordained as a baptist minister and so forth. He thought the church shouldnt be in politics. But the thing about jackson was in chicago he was very much in politics. He was very much aligned with mayor richard daley. He was very much aligned with daley and others because he wanted his people to get jobs. He wanted his people to get things and in schick politics that meant that you had to be aligned with the machine, the daley machine. So while he on the one hand was saying no, i dont want the National Baptists to be involved in this civil rights too much, he on the other hand in chicago politics tried to be kind of like a mini political boss. So anyway, by 1960, theres afternoon altright battle to take over the convention from jacks jackson. And at the 1961 convention, you see this paragraph, in Kansas City Missouri down a block from us jackson and taylor both claimed the presidency there were two people who Gardner Taylor who was a famous black preacher from new york city, brooklyn, Concord Baptist Church and a scuffle broke out and a man got pushed off the stage and died. Now you know, baptist ministers, all church canning get in a stufl but they got in a scuffle. Of course what happens is that jackson would blame king for this and right skcurrilous opeds. But this is the internal politics of a community. However bad this might seem, this was a struggle and it led to the formation of another Baptist Convention called progressive baptists. Remember i told you one baptist cant really tell another baptist what to do . These are the internal organizing politics of a community and so but all of them knew the procedures, the ways of moving and there was always a power struggle. A power struggle for who will run the institutional levers of the community. During reconstruction there were roughly 2000 black elected officials nationally, and they were all males, given the 15th amendment and roughly a third or more with clergy. I point out to you Henry Mcneil Turner was in the georgia statehouse the other day that he as an ame bishop. And they were a part of it because they were the reading populous. Now, the question was whether or not these clergy people were on the side of their own people or whether on the side of or were they too easy to compromise . This is the question that scholars asking all the time. Do they compromise, are they selling out the people . And theres a myth always that black clergy are selling out their people for their own selfinterests. Some are, some arent. But this is a kind of thing that black clergy had to be the spokesman because many of them, not all of them, had access to the kind of education that was needed to make legislation. One thing that you have to understand, black faith, religion, grew up in oppression. So it had to speak of protest politics. It had always to address the issue of inequity. Not as a matter of a local church issue but as a national issue. Slavery was a National International in many ways. Slavery went from argentina to all the way up to north america through the caribbean so clergy were always speaking. This one particular clergy really wanted to say he called for slave rebellion. He believed that slaves should rebel against their masters. But he thought this because first of all he said it violated his own theological proposition, the savage. He said slavery violates sabbath. And so the often missed point is that this is a violation of the saabage and that means that this is not a god given institution they are damaging people, they are working people, even god took a day off on the seventh day and the sabbath ought to be honored. Slavery had stretched its dark wings of death over the land, the church stood silently by the priests, prophesized falsely and the people love to have it so its throne is established and now it reigns triumphantly. Nearly three million of your fellow citizens are permitted by law and Public Opinion which in this country is stronger than law, from reading the book of life. You couldnt even read the bible because slaves couldnt read. It was against the law. So hes a good protestant. Its the book, its the bible for him. The protestant version of the bibl bible. He dies and is buried in monrovia, liberia. So like Henry Mcneil Turner, people begin to think, oh, maybe i should return to the african continent. But you see this is a long tradition of people protesting the very public sphere. This is not a new thing in black life. Womens movements within black protestant churches are also a political ground scholars study club women a great deal, but more women went to church than they did join black womens clubs. Ill probably get hit by some of my scholar friends who study black club movements, but more women went to church. More ordinary women went to church and this is where they learned their politics. They first learn their politics sometimes in support of or against their clergy. Sometime s they learn politics n support of our against their clergy. If they didnt agree with their clergy they withhold funds. If they want their clergy out, they would whisper. Three, many of them were married to the deacons if they were baptists or other forms and they would say get that person out. So its a form of politics going on and black clergy, as ive told you before, are trying to make sure they dont make sure that women dont do dont amass too much power. So its a power struggle, sometimes about who is going to control. Womens movements within black protestant churches are all over. Methodi methodists, episcopal, you name it. Of course our reading was from women of the church of god in christ. Im going to move up a bit because this is my man. Reverend ike. You see creflow dollar, if youre a student of black chunks you watch these people and if you havent seen them you can go on youtube and see them. Reverend ike is one of the most fascinating americans. And why i jump is because most people associate black clergy with reverend ike or the big televangelists. But hes kind of the father of televangelists and the prosperity gospel. Thats been around a long time, before reverend ike there was in American History it was Norman Vincent peal. Be happy, think and grow rich, all of this other stuff, positive attitude. So having good faith would confers value. These have always been within the american psyche, from the 19th century. Being positive, being selfreliant. But there was nobody quite like ike in this regard. So this is from the new york times, this is his obit. And in the these were kind of lines that ike used, you see in the third paragraph here, it says closure ee your eyes and green. Hell tell his 5,000 parishioners at the red carpeted stage at the former lowes palace on 175th street in washington heights, thats way up town past harlem in new york. Now, much of it is a dominican neighborhood. This headquarters of his United Church of science living institu institute. Money up to your armpits, a room full of money and there you are, just tossing it around in it like a swimming pool. Like the cartoon character little richie rich. His exhortation was quoted by the new york times, said it was a vivid sampling of ikes prosperity called prosperity now, or just plain thinkonomic yes, sir, just thi s. And people associate the black clergy with ike, but even the ikes had a social role. Even the ikes had a social role and well get to that. But then we have another kind of black clergy outside of protestantism in the nation of islam. Debate stemming from alternative theology as a challenge to the state. Now Elijah Muhammad is probably most misunderstood and misinterpreted in many ways because he was his faith was nationalist. He believed that black people were priority and his cosmology came that way. Ill see if this will work for us but theres a part of the interview i want to show you. We can see a devil out there. But actually when we say it, we mean a man or a people that weakness is not safe. It spreads. And others are affected by their weakness. And the west man we say is the devil. Why . Because of hes weak physically. The reason i show you part of this is Elijah Muhammad built an organization with a kind of interesting conglomeration of christian theology, of islam, to try to pose for an identity outside of the statesanctioned black identity that is in his era you were born negro, you died negro and you were impoverished and he was trying to come up with a cosmology thats different and that he is trying to reshape the minds of people he considers that are poor, misguided, and he is trying to build an organization where they have some strength of identity. Now, his targets were people who were migrating from the south like he did. His targets were people who had Substance Abuse like he had once had in detroit. His targets were these people and he tried not to make himself known too much until a discovery of the nation of islam by television, by this guy mike wallace in a documentary the hate that produces hate that they discovered there was a whole nation of islam. Now i know you all know about malcolm x, but nobody really knew this organization outside the black community really until it hits television. And he has a substantial following of people in major cities, philadelphia, chicago new york. And hes trying to give an alternative identity. My colleague at princeton, her name is judith wisenfelde has written about in in a book called a new world coming about great migration religion, about the transfer and for someone like Elijah Muhammad, he sees the problem is is the old style Christian Churches are the real problem here because it pacifies, as he argues, it pacifies the people. And he wants something that will make them selfreliant. Now hes not that much different in the practicality of what the church of god in pryce is doing. Modesty of dress, head covering, good work ethic, family life in theory. But this group along with Marcus Garvey becomes the target of fbi investigations already. Because these are alternative. And Elijah Muhammad is a little bit controversy. He was rooting for the japanese because he said thats a colored people that may defeat these europeans. And theres a long history of black people until world war ii being enamored with the japanese as a colored people that might beat back the european imperialism without questioning the imperialism of the japanese. So hes got an alternative. And secondly he goes to jail because he refuses to fight in world war ii. So he is seen as a threat to the state whereas the other people were talking about had not been seen as a threat to the state in its politics. One of the great characters of all time and very interesting in the depression era is Father Divine. I know you all havent heard of Father Divine. Theres Father Divine and theres daddy grace but were going to just talk about Father Divine. Father divine also uses his religious notions to offer an alternative. And the first thing you notice is his wife. Right . Now, this is the 1930s. In 1967 the Supreme Court rules against the state of virginia in loving v. Virginia on interracial marriages. But he says his religion allows him to marry whoever he wants to. Lets take a little peek. All over the country followers pour in by car and by special divineowned buses to pay homage to his name. They receive his blessing from a loudspeaker connected with his inner sanctum. Peace everyone. Simil. Sumptuous is the food. So Father Divines different than reverend ike, actually Father Divine is feeding people during the depression and he is also providing some kind of that Peace Mission is supporting some kind of alternative identity for people so religious eid s the are different. Hes not challenging the kind of structure in the same way that lid Elijah Muhammad is, but hes in essence doing the same thing. Creating businesses, trying to create jobs at the height of the depression and creating a sensation. Do you have a question . Got to go to the mic. Okay. So my question is why is this on . Yes, its on. My question is why is it okay like why were they calling him god . Like, why is that okay . His eyes . Because usually its blasphemy if people are calling other people god, and especially well, i know in the muslim religion thats reallied be but also in christianity, too. And judaism as well. Its blasphemous to call yourself god. Hes calling himself god for a number of reasons. One that he is delivering the manna from heaven and people buy into it or they go along with it. We cant tell. Some people actually believed, some people are like im getting things from this dude and while it lasts it lasts. There were attempted investigationsov s of Father Divines Peace Mission and i forget how the details of the story but one of the kind of investigating people died and he said, you know, i told you. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, because he was using, like, upper case g instead of lower case g. But that was all i had. Thats a good question. And were they praying to him . Huh. Were they praying to him . They were giving adoration. We dont know if they were praying to him or just saying as long as hes delivering goods. This is the tricky part, right . We dont know if the people in this and, of course, this is shot to give him more publicity. So its shot in the positive. But it is a radical alternative than whats going on in the general society, hes breaking rules and hes saying religion can break the rules and that feeds political struggle. Thanks. So he says that his religion allows him to marry whoever he pleases. Was his marriage legal in the eyes of the courts . Thats a good question. We dont know. There are several different biographies on him and several different really good books. About three of them as i can think of. We dont know. Was she the money funder . But they were in a relationship. But the difference is that clearly he has also a social mission involved. Hes engaging people at their very basic need food, jobs, businesses. Both he and Elijah Muhammad are in that regard trying to create a broader infrastructure that provides people for their needs because the state blocks people from their those kinds of things. And by breaking the rules, saying im allowed to marry outside my race, well, hes got to be a bad man because hes doing something that nobody else is doing. The only other person who could get away with that would be jack johnson, the boxer and of course he got jail time, but not Father Divine. One of the great churches that was established in the United States that still exists in 1808 is abyssinian baptist church. Abyssinian is one of the names that you can look up, used for ethiopia or the kingdom abyssinia. And this very fair man in the back there is the pastor of the abyssinian baptist church, the reverend Adam Clayton Powell sr. Adam Clayton Powell sir and he will move abyssinian baptist dplurj sort church from its rou midtown location where central park is in the 50s up to harlem and they will build a building in 1925. In fact, a building that all these children are standing in front of. Adam Clayton Powell sr. Was a traditional pastor. Now, harlem had several large churches, all kinds of different churches, st. Phillips episco l episcopal, abyssinian and the list of churches could go on. A sizable Roman Catholic church. All black in this neighborhood but abyssinian had the stories history because it will become the storied history of his son Adam Clayton Powell jr. Adam Clayton Powell jr. Will inherit the church and this is a very interesting thing, churches and religion become nntd a number of religion become the Family Business so if im the son or daughter of a rabbi, i might become a rabbi, if im the son or daughter of a baptist minister, i might become a baptist minister, and i will learn even if i dont become that, i will learn politics at the foot of my father or grand father or whoever it was. Adam Clayton Powell was this sort of social gospel. He had all kinds like Father Divine, running roughly contemporary, he has all kinds of social operations coming out of abyssinian baptist church, to serve the needs of people who are in desperate, who are looking for jobs, who are desperate, looking for a job, looking for the good life. But preachers have to service their congregation in ways at all kinds of levels. Not just an abstract spirituality, but at the level of jobs. The Church Functions as a social service unit. This is his son. Adam Clayton Powell jr. Playboy, baptist minister, married to jazz and the stage actresses and in 1941 he was elected on the democratic ticket as new york citys first black city council member. After serving on the council for three years, in 1944, adopted a progressive civil rights platform. Centered on fair employment and a Successful Campaign to serve in the house of representatives representing harlems 22nd district. When powell took office in 1945, he became the first black congressman from new york state. Having chicago roots, hes johnny come lately. Chicago, we like black congressmen in the 20s. Im just saying, you know. But there was nobody more flamboyant than adam. What was his he looks very white. Whoa. Yes, but black people can look white, right . So i was wondering, was his mom black . No, his mom was very fair skinned. We have this crazy rule in the United States, right . The racial drop of one drop of whatever blood of subsaharan, african, you are black. And powells proudly claim their blackness, even though adam was originally born with blond hair and blue eyes. You see his baby picture. But hes black and his father is black and they are the blackest of black, right . So give you a little clip of adam. I stood one day before the greatest ruler of this day. God said to moses, whats in your hand . Moses said, lord, ive got a stick, thats all. He said let me use whats in your hand. And god used that slave boy with a stick in his hand to divide the red seas, marched through a wilderness, drained water out of rocks and people to freedom land. Whats in your hand . Whats in your hand . One with god. Always. Walk with him and talk with him and speak together and fight together and with gods hand in your hand, the victory will be accomplished here sooner than you dreamed, sooner than you hoped, sooner than you prayed for, sooner than you imagined. Good night and god bless you. So adam was cool, all those things, and he led in the congress until he was unceremoniously put out of congress in the late 1960s. Adam, unfortunately or fortunately had a little trouble in an island called biminy. That island seems to be a sticky place for politicians. Both he and a president ial candidate gary hart both, you know, probably got caught on the monkey business, let me put it that way. And others. Again, the father son business and leadership and political, Martin Luther king jr. s opinion of Martin Luther king sr. And he was the grandson of reverend Daniel Albert williams, the second pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist church. His brother, a. D. , albert, named after his grandfather. Was also a baptist minister. So the kind of ways that ones learns leadership is in the context of the eclesial politics. Right . How to galvanize people, how to bring people together, how to win a majority. All those things are useful when you go into the electoral politics, whether youre the mayor. And, of course, we dont live far from kansas city here. We have a sitting Congress Person representing kansas city, missouri, Emanuel Cleaver ii. He is an ordained methodist minister. So these kind of ways that the Training Ground for family is the politics. So politics becomes very, very important. Anytime youre running an organization, youre engaged in politics. Whether youre the School Principal or youre the superintendent. You still have to bring people together. And how are you going to do that . And when there are oppositions to your point of view, these are the kind of questions that these are kind of the Training Grounds where people learn, learn theyre in their politics. Is at the local level. So black people learn politics from their local organizations. One of the few women that i want to point out to you is a woman i met when i was a high school student, addi l. Wyatt. She worked as a meat packer between 1941 and 1954 combining that with looking after children, organizing the facility with her husband and increased involvement with the labor union. Packing house and Food Alliance workers union. By the early 50s she was a well known activist and in 1953 was elected Vice President of our branch becoming the first black woman to hold a Senior Office in an American Labor union. In 1955, wyatt was ordained into the church of god, not the church of god in christ, but the church of god where her husband was already a minister. Now, wyatt worked on the south side of chicago organizing labor. And they served together at the vernon Avenue Church of god in christ in chicago and she was quite the dynamic person. Once again. She is not at the national level. You dont read about addi wyatt at the national level, but she is an operator. She understands both the internal politics of church because shes married to a minister and becomes one herself and shes also a labor organizer. Again, having the experience of bringing people together to work. Im going to show you a bit of an interview with her talking about her labor experience. Shes older then. I was impressed how could two two young black women meet with two white bosses and achieve a success that we have achieved. I was told that it was because of the union. It was a violation of the Union Contract and she explained it to me. And i was moved to the extent that i wanted to do something to help this union. I didnt know what the union was, but i knew that i needed help and here was a place that i could get help. I knew they wanted to help other workers, and i found out that i could help by joining with them and making the union strong and powerful enough to bring about change. So walker, adi wyatt combines that with her own religious belief, that working people need protections. And that became a very, very important aspect of it. When i met her as a high school student, she was trying to convince us how why we should be thinking about what labor meant, not only as a sort of way of keeping wages at a certain level, but what it did for peoples lives immediately. How do you protect peoples lives . So for her, she combined both of these things and became a very important local leader in the chicago area. Outside of chicago, not a lot of people know about her. But when my era, she was a very, very important local labor leader and religious voice because she could go into all of those many, man protestant churches around chicago and talk about what Labor Protections meant for otherwise people, why it was important. And she saw this not in this interview, but she saw this as a religious duty, as well. You have a question . Yes. So in her in the union and when she became part of the church, did they help africanamerican women or did they also help africanamerican men in the sense of the labor union was for everybody. Right. Im just asking because was there a sort of kind of specifically detailed way for africanamerican women to get not only be a part of the union and get helped by the Union Benefits but also by the church as well . Yeah. I mean, of course, all people who attended any black religious organization were working people and they were not always College Educated working people. They were people who worked in retail Domestic Service and cities like kansas city, chicago, omaha, still centers, meat packing and other kinds of things, armor and all those other things. And if you read the jungle along the line in high school and its enough to make you a vegetarian, right . The jungle, but people worked in these conditions and so you wanted to make sure people had safe conditions, that they were properly paid. Kp and so she views her labor organizing with her religious activities. They became one. And she often will come to work with Jesse Jackson later on. Bill gray, not too many people know about him, but the other day i mentioned florida memorial Baptist University down in miami, right, on powerpoint. His father was a baptist minister and his father was the president of florida memorial. So he was also a politician. He became the first in the house of representatives to become the House Majority whip from 1989 to 91. And he served on the chairman of the house budget committee. Those are all big deals. Pay attention to the tax proposals going on right now. If you are the chairman of the house budget committee, you are a powerful chairman, right . Everybody learned from Adam Clayton Powell, jr. , for all of his interesting daliances, he was a politician and served on powerful community to get legislation through and thats how you get legislation through. So powell, bill gray, all learned how to work the system and to navigate it. He is the first person, he died in 1913, too early. He became after leaving congress, he became the president of the United Negro College fund. So to kind of work, hes at a very powerful time being in the House Committee on the budget because hes working really with george bush i. He has to help shepherd him raising taxes because under the Reagan Administration the budget gets out of kilter and they have to raise taxes. But if you looked at his background, you can see that he has learned the art of politics, again, through those organizations that he is trained up in. And that is primarily in his case the baptist church. Jesse Lewis Jackson sr. , people still know who Jesse Jackson is, right . A civil rights leader, a famous chicagoan, somebody im trying to do research on, trying to think about a book project on. Particularly as jackson centers black people running for the presidency. Without Jesse Jackson, 1972 at the Democratic Convention and later on in 1984 and 88, there would be no barack obama. And so Jesse Jackson is in his own ways controversial. Lets see if my other video will come up. Heres i little bio video. After kings assassination in april 1968 jackson split from the fclc leadership. He moved to chicago and in 1971, formed operation bush. To make sure that store owners in the black community did their part hiring black clerks. He believed they need to hire africanamericans and he did that and it was quite effective. In 1979 he traveled to south africa to speak out against apartheid. Jesse jackson supported the palestinian cause. He started using the same phrases he used in the United States. I am somebody. Say it with me. I am somebody. Repeating this. In 1984 he formed a rain bo coalition to fight for equal rights for everyone. That group later merged with operation bush. That same year, jackson ran for president. He came in third in the democratic primaries. In 1988, with he ran and lost again. When the returns came in in 2008 and obama was on on the stage, there were shots of jackson with tears in his eyes. Jackson is a baptist min tisr and continues to fight for equality. His oldest son, Jesse Jackson jr. , served in the u. S. House of representatives. Friends of the downtrodden, friends of africanamericans, he is always there. When theres trouble, jesse is going to come. So that is a very favorable video of Jesse Jackson. When i was working in chicago, kids in the projects would call reverend jackson messy jesse. The point is this unique position has been carved out. Its not just a religious role. It has taken on other social significance for everyone. Any last questions . And im done. I would like to tell you to Pay Attention to William Barber who started memorial mondays in North Carolina and is attempting to start a Poor Peoples Movement in the United States. Again, the same tradition of that peoples spiritual needs are also political. Thank you. Cspan wrr, where history uns daily. Cspan was kraecreated as a publ service and is brought to you by your cable provider. Next a discussion on how world war i impacted africanamericans. Saje matthews believes that this discussion is about an hour. Now, the National World war i museum and memorial with the world war i centennial produced an education letter that focuses on the best Resources Available to teachers and learners. Those that are created here like the videos of these symposium lectures. Which will later be available both on cspan but also our Youtube Channel. If this is your first symposium, you can go back on to our Youtube Channel and see some of our previous lectures, as well. But we also focus on those excellent Educational Resources of our partners like the