Civil rights narrative, casting new light on the role this banker, activist and humanitarian played. The central argument of this work is that wheeler exemplified the activist business demand that often stood at the center of the freedom struggle, a figure that continues to be under analyzed. He was often overlooked due to emphasis on the more incendiary elements of the movement, protests and mobilizations and other dramatic events. I am on this panel because i studied North Carolina civil rights history. Again, i can speak to the ways in which brendans book is making a really significant intervention in the history, not only of civil rights writ large, but the Civil Rights Movement and the black struggling North Carolina in particular. So from wheelers perch at mechanics and farmers bank and dunn, he was a consummate insider and powerplay or who understood the calculus of social change dictated variegated approaches and the pursuit of freedom. This is one of the questions i want to knock around with dr. Winford in terms of the dynamic interplay that we see with wheeler and the ways in which he is trying to operate in the middle of the 20th century. We are introduced in the book to a figure that embodies the potential for and the limits of social change. This is a muchneeded contribution to the story of the black freedom struggle in both North Carolina and the larger region. Again we have lots of pockets of scholarship and i think we are still very much in the process of connecting the tissue when it comes to the civil rights period and the role of activists, bankers and businessmen, the way in which these roles breed and merge and demerge in particular moments. Because of wheelers tenure in business and politics, he can be found in many places regarding civil rights in North Carolina. To be sure, one cant talk about this without mentioning wheeler and his accomplishments. However, these frequent mentions have been no substitute for an indepth historical analysis for wheelers role in the movement in the state and the nation. Brandon winfords book fills a significant gap in the literature and illuminates the analyzed relationship between black economic institutions, mainstream economic infrastructure, and the evolution of black freedom in the nation and North Carolina. The book cracks institutional history and serves as a reminder of Mechanics Farmers Banks role and other black economic institutions in the movement. Brandon displays a solid command of sources at his disposal. I really needed the wheeler papers available when i was working on my book, open books greater freedom for North Carolina, and they were not available, so i am green with envy brandon was able to access these papers. And he does such a great job using the wheeler papers. That really comes out and shines through in his book. So the presentation of the material, i think is really thoughtful and meticulous. He spent a good a lot of time a good deal of time, a lot of time with the wheeler sources and i think he has produced a work that will be essential reading for anyone doing research on civil rights in North Carolina and the region. His insights on the perils and prospects of racial change from an institutional perch like the one wheeler possessed point the way to the necessity of understanding more studies like this one to analyze the historical intersections he illuminates brilliantly in this book. His writing style is accessible and wheelers story is rendered in a humane and critical fashion. I could go on and on about the book. Brother brandon, i appreciate your contribution, i appreciate this book. I think it is also important that john wheeler is a graduate of to point out morehouse college, always very important to point out. Some of the takeaways and things i am looking for in chopping it up with you and our guests, you talk about the nature of activism and refer to black business activism, so i am curious about how people are thinking about what activism can and should look like in particular moments. I am curious about how you are thinking now that the book has been out for a little while, how your thinking has evolved when it comes to how you are thinking about activism and the types of activism wheeler tried to engage in. I think about the late great ray gavins, one of my professors, when of the deans of North Carolina civil rights history, a titan in the field. The title of his book is the perils and prospects of southern lback leadership, and that is a phrase that knocks around a lot in my mind when i read your book. Just in terms of the perils, the benefits, the high risks and high rewards associated with wheelers style and brand of leadership and also wheelers theory of change. I am curious about what you see in wheelers time as perils and prospects of his style of leadership, in rosie was able to make in the struggle for freedom, and how change should look from our Vantage Point in 2020. Another question is a central notion of wheelers and a large contingent of folks in the movement, one of the operating premises was that racism was bad for business, that the south couldnt move forward as an autonomous region without combating racism, that the active combating of racism will move us forward, that racism is bad for business. So it begs the question. So what if it is great for business . What if racism is making us really profitable . What if racism is not in fact bad for business . How do we contend with the profitability of racism, oath in his movement, with the urban renewal controversy in wheelers time . How do we contend with the realities in his movement, but also, how do we contend with the realities in this moment . In terms of thinking about your work. Like taylors work on the housing industry, thinking about the relationship we have, the relationship activists have to the intractable nature of White Supremacy and different sorts of analyses we can produce when we think differently about that dynamic. And finally, what does progress look like . You talk a lot about in the book about progress. And again, this is very dynamic. So what does it look like . Is it simple . We move from progress being a simple representation i shouldnt say simple, representation is a complex thing, we move from that to trying to make and sustain fundamental structural changes. So the nature of progress, how can and should it utilized in an effort to secure greater freedom . I could go on and on, but i will not. But that is what ive got. Great book. Looking forward to chopping it up with you all. It is my great pleasure to be participating in this roundtable for professor winford. I have to say this but it will make me look like an old head. I remember back in the day meeting brandon at a conference more than 10 years ago and knowing at that point that i met him, that we would be at this point in the nottoodistant future. I have always had a lot of respect for him, and it makes us feel a little more secure to know that the future of the historical profession and the black experience is in good hands. Brother mckinleys comments were profound and insightful and introspective, and i just hope what i offer dovetails with what he says. I am not an expert in the history of africanamericans in North Carolina, so my comments are a little broader, but i was thinking very deeply about brother mckinneys questions that made me want to go back and reread the book myself. Winfords meticulous book uses wheelers multifaceted life as a point of departure for exploring the possibilities of what black leadership entailed in the jim crow south, mainly North Carolina, more specifically durham. Winfields work includes black Business History, africanamerican history in North Carolina, africanamerican viagra, political history, the history of the black south and the history of the Civil Rights Movement. I thoroughly enjoyed reading winfords book, what i would classify as an intellectual and political biography of wheeler, a man who wore many hats he was president of a black bank, educator, politician, powerbroker, member of the president s committee on equal employment opportunity, contributor to crafting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the first africanamerican delegate to represent North Carolina at the dnc, businessman, lawyer, activist, i could go on. He was, in essence, a universal reformer who was involved in seemingly countless movements and struggles and monumental events and local national and organizations for close to five decades. His rise to fame beginning in the era of the Great Depression is remarkable, and i am embarrassed i was unaware of his contributions before reading winfords book. Winford argues the role of black businesses during the Civil Rights Movement need to be reconceptualized by historians. He maintains, if we are fully to understand how central economics was to the Civil Rights Movement, we must consider black business. Winford explains in a straightforward narrative style how wheeler said and thought things in the past and uses concepts to describe his protagonist, including the notion of a new south prosperity and the black business activist. Such concepts could be expanded upon by future historians. Winfords chronologicallyorganized study lords wheelers early Family History to demonstrate how he was socialized to embarq on a career of banking, law, politics, and Civil Rights Activism. Further contextualizing wheelers future endeavors, winford offers a history of m f bank, highlight wheelers role in desegregation in North Carolina from the era of world war ii through the donning of the Civil Rights Movement that situates wheelers contribution to several landmark antidiscrimination lawsuits. His discussion of blue versus durham is interesting, and i thought about the tactics of Charles Hamilton houston prior to brown versus the board of education, and unpacking the excellent biography on the man who killed jim crow. Winford overviews the 1957 sit in movement in durham, demonstrates that during the peak years of the modern Civil Rights Movement, wheeler, who supported student activists, adopted a unique approach, often operating behind the scenes. The nuanced manner in which winford describes as wheelers approach suggests wheeler, especially as a member of the president s council was able to use his influence to challenge the employment discrimination, fight for africanamerican Voting Rights and representation in positions of power. And winford explores wheelers work in the durham redevelopment commission. According to winford, wheeler helped the Africanamerican Community for supporting Public Housing while challenging why white owned banks to democratize their practices. He also says that wheelers support of urban renewal had its shortcomings. Winford touches upon wheelers legacy, symbolized by the naming of the u. S. Courthouse in durham after him in 2018. Winfords work is more than simply an account of an under acknowledged black leader. He certainly tells us everything i think we need to know about wheeler, but he places wheeler in Historic Context and reveals how wheeler interacted with contemporaries and local policymakers. Equally important, winford avoids the pitfall of hagiography, demonstrates ability to think creatively and critically and tries to understand and disentangle why his subjects thought and acted in the matter they did. The final word on wheeler most likely has not been written. As one seasoned biographer remarked, the notion of a definitive biography is fictitious. But one thing remains certain in my mind, future historians and scholars who explore wheelers life and work will use winfords book as a starting point. He is the leading authority on this historical figure and i believe winford has indeed set a high bar. Thank you, so much. There is not much i can really add but more superlative. The striking, sepia toned cover of brandon winfords biography captures an austere, dignified John Hervey Wheeler. The his head slightly cocked, wheeler peers intently off to the side, perhaps at some unseen collaborator, but just as likely an unwitting opponent. Wheeler spent much of his professional life as an executive at the africanamericanowned Mechanics Farmers Bank, where he started as a teller and worked his way up to Bank President by the early 1950s. He waged frontline battles for economic and civil rights. In his book, dr. Winford uncovered dr. Wheelers pivotal role in the civil rights struggle from the 1950s to the 1970s, and similar ways to a generation of cultural and social historians who were emancipated by the struggle for black rights. Dr. Winford makes an important salvo in the scholarship that takes a harder look at the economic dimensions of the Civil Rights Movement. These reconsiderations are occurring in response to the unmistakable push to pay closer attention to how activists put their money where their mouths were, and the consistent pull to untangle racial inequality in the present time. The achievement of the Civil Rights Movement stand and start contrast to persistent wealth gaps, economic insecurity and lack of wellbeing continued to plague africanamerican communities. So in addition to assessing the movements success on questions of economic justice, scholars like dr. Winford are rethinking the roles of africanamerican Business Leaders. Traditional narratives often judge the Business Elite as inherently resistant to social change. They say they capitulated to white power structures and capitulated because of their dependence on africanamerican consumers. Dr. Winford complicates this onedimensional assessment, revealing the complex engagement with the u. S. Political economy among elite africanamerican Business Leaders and elite institutions like africanamerican banks. His work explodes the simplistic binaries of accommodation, protests, civil rights and black power. Dr. Winford offers a meticulously detailed, thoroughly researched book laced with revelatory insights into the treacherous racial, class and economic terrain africanamericans like wheeler navigated in the long civil rights struggle. Dr. Winfords work reveals how africanamerican elites thought greater inclusion not just in u. S. Society, but all the economy. Dr. Winford and i have spent more than a decade working on remarkable black Business Leaders, passionate, committed social activists and complicated human beings. For me, it was the first africanamerican woman Bank President and for him, it was wheeler. We both understand the necessity of not becoming enamored with our subjects, but neither of us can deny the extraordinaryness of the people who ignited our imaginations and animated our scholarship. I cant miss the opportunity to to share with the roundtable and those who are watching something about the extraordinaryness of my scholar brother brandon. In 2014, when i began looking at contributors as coeditor for a special issue of the journal of africanamerican history, a colleague told me about brandon. She really reminded me about brandon, because we had crossed paths a couple of times through my mentor, juliette walker. And brandon made it a point to stay in touch, meet for coffee at conferences, and over the years, we have shared our work, he comes up with fabulous ideas, a workshop, he sent me some incredible sources and we dreamed of a future collaboration. I am reminded of one spirited Text Exchange we had a little while back about a popular book that will remain nameless. But i remember telling brandon that what was missing from this work was a recognition of a respect for the creative ways black people worked around White Supremacy, and all the forces that told them you will not succeed. And i wrote in a text that you needed to love black people if you were going to talk about how they dreamed for possibilities and freedom. I can say unequivocally brandons love of black people is so long, so high and so deep. We are not ready for what he has in store for us, how he will transform and push forward the narrative of black Business History in the new millennium. I want to give dr. Winford a chance to address questions from the panelists, dr. Mckinneys questions about black activism and any other issues he might want to address. Thank you all for attending. Thanks to dr. Harris for putting it together. I have been impressed with this monthlong virtual conference. I learned so much over the past few weeks. Let me thank my fellow roundtable panelists, doctors mckinney and covey. I cannot put into words how i cannot put into words how thankful i am for their support and encouragement over the years, reading my work, and sharing their wisdom with advice and nuggets. I have long admired their work. But also, the last one that jeanette made their examples as, selfless scholars is what always stands out to me. Scholarship stands outcome of those examples of what it means to be a scholar, what it means to love black people, is something that stands out. I will take a moment to answer some questions posed, and speak also to some of the critical points made by terrel and jeanette. I will begin by talking about access to sources. I initially acquired the john wheeler papers in 2006. The papers ended up being fully processed in 2016, so it was 10 years. The library made the materials available to me but i had to do oldschool notetaking. I couldnt take digital images. When they were processed and i came back to it and transitioned to the book from the dissertation, i was kind of lost. I already looked at this but i o not know where it was. That was a great process in that it forced me to adjust the digest the material and make decisions about what can i take notes on, what can i crossreference in other collections across the country, so it made me work from that standpoint. So i really got to know these sources. And for people interested in this kind of work, black business and civil rights, there are 109 linear feet of John Hervey Wheeler papers. And this is just part of what is available from the John Hervey Wheeler foundation, what can be said about his career and more broadly, what can be said about black business. So i am excited about the possibility of projects that other kinds of will come from the john wheeler papers. I want to address the changing ature of activism. John wheeler begins his activism in the 1940s amid the naacp legal strategy so he comes in a particular moment. He goes to law school in the 1940s. He looks at the possibility of himself being a lawyer in this postwar period. One thing he often said, particularly thinking about generational transference of leadership, he often said the black leadership that came before him, they had to be very careful in how they dealt with the white leadership. They had to basically walk a fine line because they didnt have the kind of legal redress later Civil Rights Activists would have. So they had to be very careful. Because there was danger in asserting Citizenship Rights for africanamericans. He understood this very much. So i think about this idea of the changing nature of activism and think about it in terms of how john wheeler looked at the changing nature of activism. He kind of articulated the struggle for civil rights as in certain phases. He talked about the legal phase, the direct action phase, and then he talked about the implementation phase. One could argue that, with the implementation phase, it was something he felt was more challenging for africanamericans, because that was when you began to really challenge institutionalized racism. And it really accessed resources in terms of what africanamericans could get. His activism was as much a response to the strategies that were necessary, and also the ways in which strategies, you could build on strategies. So within that context, he looked at it from that standpoint. And i think he understood that, as time moved forward, and as certain strategies came to their end, one had to find other ways. I think that is why he was so engaged with student activists in the 1960s. This book was foundational, the perils and prospects of southern black leadership, that was critical in terms of writing a black biography and engaging ideas and being able to think about someone who doesnt really sit in a box. I talk a lot about him sitting outside this box. And i got a lot of feedback from folks who would encourage me not to think of john wheeler as this radical. And he didnt like those kinds of terms, he didnt like the term black martyr. So once i started to think of them outside that box, i could understand that his sense of activism, he wasnt necessarily beholden to a kind of activism. He was interested in strategies that would help him work his larger goal of africanamerican economic rights, so citizenship for africanamericans as a pathway to black economic power was ultimately important for his idea of this new south prosperity. I was going to save some of that for the questions and answers, but going to the point about this not being the last word on ohn wheeler or black business, one thing i am struggling more with in transitioning from john wheeler as a banker, i am becoming more interested in questions about how we think about black business and banking and bankers on their own terms. We often talk about them in terms of their limitations on what they could not do for the Africanamerican Community because of limitations with access to the larger marketplace. But i am interested in their customers, their employees, their communities. What happened with communities inside this bank when you engaged this fight of Economic Life for africanamericans . Part of that ongoing conversation deals with hat. I will end my comments because i know we are running short on time and am looking forward to the q a if we have time. We do. We have two questions. Im going to give you both questions. So that way you can enter them both and if we get another one i will let you know. The first, im going to be the read the question and explain what he think it is she is asking for it she is asking, should black show empathy for the new, financially struggling experimental u. S. If we were given equality after the evolution . What i think ms. Mills is asking is a question about how should black look at the current financial picture of the country and tie that back to slavery and missed opportunities for africanamericans, and how africanamericans should perhaps see the United States political economy nationally and globally. And then we have another question from kendra boyd. She says, i really enjoyed reading the book. Can you talk a little more about wheelers relationship with his wife and how she influenced his ctivism . Dr. Winford the first question is a really complicated question. One way i will answer is this. I like to think about this postcivil war period, directly after the civil war, and i think about the idea of economic emancipation, and her book does a really good job in giving us the economic sense of this transition from slavery to freedom. But one thing we dont often think about is the way we look at reconstruction as exercising or becoming this political democracy. We talk a lot about politics and one thing we dont tend to talk about is the idea of how reconstruction was economic democracy, and looking at the ay africanamericans had economic understanding of their freedom from the very beginning. It is important for us to understand our own ideas about economic freedom, economic independence, and how best to achieve those possibilities. In this moment, i like to use a term that, we really got a sense that our country and institutions, we were a living from paychecktopaycheck, and in this moment, things like covid, police brutality, all of that is showing us the limitations of capitalism, the fact that there were no systems in place to help sustain us in this moment of crisis. And so when i think about africanamericans and their economic positioning, we see some of where we are today when we think about this moment. So there are lessons and strategies, even what is happening today, we are creating other kinds of strategies to maneuver economically around our traditional systems. That is one way i try to think about that question. In terms of kendras question, i think that is a really, really good question. Misses wheeler, her father was one of the founders of the Mechanics Farmers Bank. She was when they got married, when john wheeler asked her father for her hand in marriage, her father told her she was not going to sit at ome. When they got married, it was an understanding that she was going to set about moving forward in her career, as much as he was going to move forward in his career. So she becomes his librarian. She preserves africanamerican culture and literature as the head of the Black Library. One of the things she was able to do in that sense was to put together a forum for africanamericans to come together and discuss works by authors like paul murray. She set up a thing like a bookmobile. So she kind of in her career, she moved the Black Library forward and positioned it to become a part of the city library system. In terms of her activism, separate from john wheeler, she was very involved in womens organizations in durham. Typically during the 1960s, she was pivotal in ensuring that student activists had facilities where they could strategize, but also where they could just take a break. She is very much in parallel, sort of running parallel to John Hervey Wheeler. One of the things that im sorry to interrupt you. I think we have a sense of her activism. But i have three more questions. Dr. Winford go ahead. We have a question, from devon. He actually asks three questions. So i will pick just one. I am sure you can talk with him afterward. How does the book the color of money parallel or diverge when it comes to your understanding of wheeler, and with the Mechanics Farmers Bank institutionally. And then i will jump in with the other questions. Dr. Winford it is a really smart book. It is more it is a legislative history of the impact of the field of banking n black Economic Life, more so than it ever is a history of black banking. And in that, it does a lot on public policy. In that, she provides some history of black business and black banking, which is not in detail, but then she sort of skipped over black banking, the nuances, the ways in which those black banks were in existence, they had an impact on africanamerican communities, churches and schools, black homeownership. So i think that conversation gets overlooked because we are thinking so much about the comparative analysis of where africanamerican banks. By 1959, africanamerican banks had 48 billion. We tend to think of the limitations of black banking outside the context, but it is a really smart book and a good legislative history on black banking and Economic Life. Also, it doesnt really do that much when it comes to black banking in the south, which is what i am really interested in. The majority of africanamerican banks were in operation in the south. I think there is a lot we can do in having a conversation about the broader history. We have a question from wanda williams. She asks, did wheeler favor activism that targets Financial Independence in the form of strengthening the stilluntapped black consumer strength over whiteobtained legislative channels . And i will join that with a question from dr. Margaret briscoe, who asks how wheeler ddresses black wealth in light of the fact that blacks spend less than 5 on black businesses . I think those are questions about the role of buying black and what economic rights look like. Dr. Winford those are really ood questions. One of my big point in the book, and folks like julia walker and others pointed out the sense that africanamerican businesses that were successful, they benefited from segregation and were not so much interested in the coming of integration. If you look at john wheeler and the ways in which he discusses economic rights, it is the opposite. He believed blackowned institutions and his bank in particular were limited in their possibilities, limited to a specific clientele, africanamerican customers. Even in that, they still had to compete with white banks. Even then, they didnt have an exclusive lock on black clientele. So his activism with civil rights and economic rights were very much thinking about, or inline with what was going to happen to black institutions with the coming of integration. He was very interested in tapping a marketplace for his ank. Now in that, this question about what segregation was going to do to these institutions, he understood this particular impact and the possibilities of black institutions declining post integration. One of the things and he was an integrationist in terms of his framework. One thing that was really important was that integration had to be worked out. And in that, he didnt see black institutions, whether we are talking about schools, churches, so on, businesses, he didnt see the decline or the end of blackowned institutions. He felt like within integration, blackowned institutions would be strengthened. In practice, that wasnt necessarily the case. But he was really serious about the ways in which integration had to be worked out. It wasnt about banning blackowned institutions are or whiteowned institutions at all. We have two more questions and i ill give them both to you. Kimberly jordan talks about her family, community and church and how they banked at the bank, how the wheelers were members of the same country club, but she is saying she never heard him referred to as a civil rights leader. And she is asking, do you consider wheelers making the black middle class more accessible to black people a kind of activism . The last question will be from vincent windrow who asks, how did leaders like wheeler leverage their membership in fraternal organizations like rince hall masons . Dr. Winford really great questions. The way that i like to part f it is wheeler is a banker, and he was in a leadership position politically in durham. He led the durham united negro group, a significant voting block in durham. Here were a lot of things that didnt go his way and a used his position as a banker, he had the money bags. So i think that is important to understand the limits of black leadership, but we also have to think about his role in black educational equality, Voting Rights for africanamericans, so there are some things that definitely and also from the perch of his middleclass status, he doesnt have to do what he is doing as a business activist. One of the things he often said, he said he started off on an even playing economically that economically, he already thought he was part of american society. So for him as a business person, someone coming from atlanta to durham to take the kind of action role he ended up taking, was in and of itself a kind of boldness. Part of the ways we have to look at these figures is we have to think in more complicated ways. We have to think about class. We have to think about gender. But i also think we have to get outside of what these leaders should be within the strictures of class within those dynamics. And i think we can better understand their motivations when we do that. That is one way i am thinking about that question. In terms of his memberships, he was a member of many organizations. And i will end here, and this is a criticism and a limitation in many ways, he said he was beholden to institutions. In other words, his go to strategies were the legal approach, organized pressure from organizations, and be a part of the political process was very much important. He was a part of the Democratic Political party in the state and had some positions within the state. All those organizations he was part of, those were part of his civil rights agenda, right. He leveraged his influence in all those organizations to impact these ideas about citizenship and ways that interconnected with the idea of black economic power and ultimately, new south prosperity. Thank you, so much. And thanks to the panelists, and all the great questions. Dr. Winford thank you, all, very much. I appreciate those comments. Thank you for those questions, because those questions are going to be used for my next book as well. Really good questions. Thank you, all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] lectures and college classrooms. Museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Announcer the cspan cities tour travels the country exploring the american story. We have been to more than 200 communities across the nation. Like many americans, our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. Next, a look at one of our ities tours visits. Warren so, were about 4 10 of a mile from the library. And president bush chose this site to be his final resting place. And so in april, about a year and a half ago now, we buried mrs. Bush here. And then in november, after his death in november and the funeral six days later in december, he was brought up here with the up4141 and the special car. And amazingly, there were pe
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