Live coverage of the 28th in rural southern festival of books in downtown nashville, tennessee. We are alive today and tomorrow with several authors and their events. You can find a full schedule at book tv and you can follow us on social media. Booktv and facebook. Com to get behindhe the scenes of videos andeq pictures as well as schedule updates. Were gonna kick off the festival with author beth macy. They were two africanamerican brothers who were kidnapped and forced to perform in a circus in the 1899. As about their mother as will researched for them for over 28 years. This is live coverage of the southern book festival on book tv. Good morning. As a reviewer i read a lot of books and one of my favorites is true of mine. It took her 25 years to unearth the saga required painstaking research on multiple fronts as she writes to entangle a century of whispers from truths. The result is deeply moving and endlessly compelling and such an intricate tale that is worthy of not one but two subtitles. Two brothers a kidnapping into mothers quest and also a true story of the jim crow south. It has been a short lifted and long listed for the Andrew Carnegie metals for excellence. She won more than a dozen awards. Her first book factory man was on numerous best of 2014. And is in development for an hbo miniseries. Please join me in welcoming beth macy. Thank you for being here. It has all the elements of a southern gossip novel but its true. Can you explain how you first heard about the story. As a Young Journalist who arrived in 1989 to white feature stories i took two years to muster the nerve to mr. The great niece. A newspaper photographer have told me that based on rumors she heard growing up its the best story in town but no one has been able to get it. By the time i poked my have into hers tiny restaurant with the idea of a writing a story about her famous great uncle it was very clear that all personal details are working to be closely held trickling out in dreads and drabs and very much on nancys timeline. The first time i asked if i could interview willie museum was that in his 90s she pointed to a homemade sign on the goodie shop wall that said i customer has stenciled the words on a white painted board and given it to her as a gift. The sign said sit down and shut up. Willie was that now or would he ever be available for comment so hoping to generate some goodwill for a feature story on her uncles i wrote a feature about her restaurant a place where the menu never changes and isnt even a written down you disposed to know. They could already recite the daily specials that i would daily commit to memory. Wednesday is fish. Friday is ribs but you better come early because of the ribs always sell out quickly. The line out front starts forming at noon and not a moment before and later usually if nancy has to run home to check on uncle billy and finds him in the midst ofil a bad day the favorite special was tuesday spaghetti. Cle nancy also kept a painted rock on top of her Cash Register it was a gift from her preschooler whom she helped raise. She was that about picking it up presumably should a customer offend her. When i returned for lunch two days after my story ran because rib fridays were my favorite nancy shook her finger at me and it was cleared i was not getting anything close to a pat on the back. Her mother. Dot sat nearby. And cringing about what her daughter was about to say. Nancy had been ready to send me packing the first time i walked in the restaurant. Persuaded her. D in my i actually saw the very first episode. Of the young and the restless. Over the characters and i was hoping to peel potatoes. Much to nancys issue again. Victor newman was a scoundrel. We both agreed. I brought out a bunch of crazy white people thats all. Pain customers i may have added but she was in no mood for back talk. She was leaving now it to feed uncle billy interred him in his bed as she often did throughout the bed throughout the day. If nancy had her way it would have stayed buried where she thought i belonged. The first time she heard it she was just a child and she found the whole tale embarrassing and painfully raw. The year was 1961 and lacking white people like wanted toop know where they white orb black. Have they been trapped in a cave. These men deserved respect nancy new. They did not deserve the gawkers who came by their house at all hours banging on the front door. By the time i came on the scene no one talked about savages or circus rates in front of nancy. The skin was nearly right is as the soft chef coat. She baked bread. And she was every bit as fierce. Even red who knew that. He and never contemplated bringing of the subject up with them that was a one exceptionally guarded family had to take baby steps. Think of them as the tribe. If you fall out with that one of them they will come roaring back at you like an army. It was ten more years before nancy warmed up enough to let me and a cowriter author a newspaper series and only after the death in 2001 he was 108. She didnt reveal much though. She invited my fellow reporter inside the house exactly one afme. She made a reference to a family bible that we were not permitted to view and for years after the series ran whenever i visited the restaurant she hinted there was so much more to the story than she had found. Wspape our newspaper was the same one and the then mocked her families of virgin a version of the story. It have looked the other way when city officials decimated to historic black neighborhoods. Ghborhoo or as they called it negro removal. They cheered when the city knocked on hundreds of Community Homes and buildings including the holiness church. I myself had used a pair of pregnant black teens to include that story. It was a story that went viral between that term existed and made the girls the object of radical even Rush Limbaugh joined in with a rant. When they dropped out of school shortly after my story ran it was devastating. Words linger and words matter and its not possible tove predicted the fallout they can have on the subjects life. It would take me 25 years finally to earn somethingncys r nearing the trust to convince her that i was that once more eye candy pet of peddler. L in 2013 when i hit a snag updated and write a story on the pregnant teens more than 20 years after the original explosive first story it seemed fate that one of them that they lived just around the corner from the north ranch house. Physically threatening medemandn nancy reassured me that you dont need the permission to do the story. You just in the knee mind to write your book. T, months and yet, a month earlier her permission is exactly what i thought. The com id given her in advance reading cap deep. Race rel i found it particularly hard to navigate. It did keep detailed decades of a black furniture workers. It says the end thats. Ough his nancy said it has been that way down through history. A friend of my moms she be vacuuming down the steps and the husband would be feeling her up from behind. So she told the man first thing dont make me open up your chest. By which she met with the tip of my knife. They come along way. It was by no means a give me. She was in her mid 60s and recently retired after closing the goodie shop. I wanted her help delving into the family story. I will think about it she said. In the message was clear i was sent to call back. She would call me. It was almost christmas. , ps. More than six weeks later zero she enjoyed making me wait. She finally called. T. I waited so she could give it to you as a christmas present. On what condition she said no matter what you find out whatt your research turns up after a member in the end they came out on top. I knew the stories ending. They were all of him who establish that care. I was less certain about would force them in the servitude into servitude in the first place. Vi the work was compensated howow exactly during the hardest year of jim crow have george and lily managed to escape. Frua how was it knowing that this was so close yet so far away and did you ever feel like giving up . I did give up because she said no. She actually said they would hold the interview until after he passed away. Didnt w she didnt want anything written about him until he passed away. She said youre too curious. She didnt think i could hold the interview. She didnt believe me. Now she says oh when you walked into that shop the first time and you just thought i would give you the story i said to myself,met scratch has met her match. You call yourself a unicorn in the rank of journalism . E fore how is your sting and power allowed you to write both of your books. Both of which required very deep reporting. Not a lot of books get written from rural american. Most reporters move on after a few years. An some of our best reporters are now at the New York Times a done great step. Stuff. I decided to stay. A i stayed for 25 years. Im still writing stories. It began with my time at thatest Roanoke Times. Im able to write the stories these stories because i had time on my side. Time equals truth. So maybe she didnt want to talk to me in 1991 she let me do the restaurant feature that i started just spending time there and sometimes i was thinking maybe shell let me to the story but it became they are my story begins. They can lead me to other people in the community and at the time in the early 90s in newspapers across the country diversity was a big push. They were much better staffede then. I have this fantastic first editor. She was tough as nails. In the paper was spending a lot of emphasis on having more black editors and supporters and doing stories that more accurately reflected the diversity in our community. If i was writing a general i story about something and they have a 23 black population. If one of my four sources was an africanamerican she would send it back. An it was great training for Young Journalists. I measure the papers have the resources to do that now. But that was wonderful. Training. That led me to a beat that i was the family beat reporter. I had been changed to work outside of my zip code and to be getting stories that nobody else really have the entrees into because i spent time with immigrants refugees, i have really kind of made that my beat. One of my favorite characters in the book he passed away recently. A dista he was a distant muse relative. He was an 11yearold boy in 1927 when harriet muse got her sons back. The job after school was he would help a blind man sell brooms in the city market that he made. So have this wonderful insider view to the story and he was there when they came home that night. So hes 98 when i interview him for this book. But i knew them because i have done numerous articles on him before. I just think because i have made those connections in theec community i was able to get people to trust me but it was really the time the fact that im still there. These are my people i know them. Eady to they trust me. And maybe when she said yes go ahead 25 years ago you might not had been ready to write the book. Joanne was that newspapers first black reporter. And so the neighborhood and the little micro village only the very old people still refer to it as jordans alley. And joann was able she doesnt live in that neighborhood but, she goes to church there andnd she was able to put me in touch with 80 and 90yearold and 100yearold people who could help me bring that neighborhood alive. One of the questions of the story was what happened how a ald she get them back and alsoso where their lives better in the circus than they wouldve been at home which is the question what was that life. Was it better than life on the road. I was able to drive around with these older people and i didnt always drive around but i always got my best stuff when i drove around. Because people not only with what they were seen withn jogging in our memory they were just more comfortable because they were both facing forward. It was a technique i used i did that and locked in factory man. I will start to hear the same story but the next time i would say soandso said this. And so thats my ml. S i drive around. You also say kitchens are great place. Thats where everybody lands at a party. Everybodys in the kitchen. Because people are more comfortable in the kitchen because thats where we live. I always ask if we can do the interview in the kitchen i usually have some questions written out in my reporter and its easier. Its easier if i have all my stuff on the table. Its really cut i want people to be in the kitchen. Thats where they live. In my state in one place we have it limited yourself in terms of material because just a few blocks away from this another person wrote another bestseller Henrietta Lacks is about a block away in Jordan Valley from where the music in my left. Just remarkable. I think probably everybody has these remarkable stories but they came from this one tiny place. And theyre very different story. Wrote a the facts and the story that you wrote are so few andbe far between that the evidence and research played an important role. And at what point in the process did you realize that there be so vital and how did you use them. There w i was there was at there was a historian. He said he reminded me that circus managers would often change their name the brothersch were very darwins missingnk link. They were never called george and willie muse. I could type that in. But i wouldnt necessarily get all of those other names. I have to be really cognizant of that and also the photographs themselves became a great reporting tool because those are the news clippings. They were so skewed. They never recorded what they actually said. They even went to the trouble of putting the dialect but it was really clear that they didnt actually talk to her but the photographs was in controversial evidence. When i sought to me they looked like a scared younger brothers that have been taken from their mother they weres told that she was dead and they should quit crying. I just studied it and then somebody said theres a person in charleston who studies historical cost you mean. He blew it up and he sought so much more in the picture then my eyes could see. He noticed that that seems were stretching and there was some care given to the roots of these boys. Ru his ties and the suits are too short. During this time you have that evidence. You can kind of really start to look at whats going on in that picture. Your family stories of willie telling everyone willy telling everyone when he was little he would look after him there was a popular song in 1914. And so, you can layer the facts with interviews and stories and memories. In the documentation as it exists on this very racialized rationalized lens. Ness. The pictures were just great. I found this picture. , this is it was from around 1917. So mr. Burns writes a memoir in which he brags about buying them and making them a pain proposition thats more proof. He was proud of it why wouldnt he be. They thought he was subhuman. So this picture i showed to nancy when i found it and its the first picture of them with incidents. We werent driving around butt it prompted a memory. The first time they were handed pictures was just to be a photo prop. One of the ways that they would make extra money is that they would have pictures of their acts than they wouldonon sell them. They were they were called pitch cards. They thought certainly they cant play instruments. It turns out they were kind of geniuses. They could hear a song and play at once. Including willie at the willy at the end of his life. Weve a recording of him singing its a long way to and orary. Hes playing his guitar. In the front boards are just totally born down. When nancy saw that photo she was able to lead that layer. They were wonderful musicians. Its the only known picturestu of them. G and once their mother got them back and was able through very protracted legal battle to get them paid you can see in the pictures they are more agencies in their life. R so thi this is a casual backyard picture they have that friends they played music. I interviewed people who remember them play music. And it gave them this agency and this power that musicc does. Writing makes me feel good. Music made them feel good. And he gave them something to do in a gave them self power. Can you describe what their life was like in the circus im sure at least 13 yearsso went by. The documentation is skim on that. N but he said they were kind of guarded closely in the beginning they were illiterate they were never allowed to the school. She taught him how to write his name even though he was totally blind and that was a big moment for him. The sideshow managers it was really the only person he and i ever said anything bad about. And he really hated him he remembered him but once she got them back and make new they could come home after that even though they tried to take advantage them and notad pay them they became happier and as i say that was really the only world they know. The wr they travel the world and became famous in the headlines of the New York Times. They became famous they performed before royalty in england one of his things. He was able to to buy that and pay for that. Thats what she did by getting that legal settlement. Et when ever i would ring he would always say housekeeping one of the real heroes is the mother. Can you describe her persistence and bravery and how she became what you and others had called a bad in our quest to get her kids back. It was a very harsh place to be an africanamerican. City code that said it where you could live segregation was so ingrained in everything. At the circus blacks were tolde they have a set in the back ifun there was a carnival they would make one day out of the seven day stretch the day that africanamericans could come but the circus only came for one day. They have come to her she told relatives that her sons were with the circus in 1927 the top Law Enforcement official was the founder of the localhe kkk which was the largest in was state. Theres a picture of them. And it was a respectable institution. So when it pulls up at 6 00 a. M. Goes over to the fairgrounds thats where they set up. Fairgrou thats where they have the rallies. The rar it was one of the rare places. There werent seats. They would go from one part of the stage the other as each act demonstrated their skill. I have a picture of her. And then i know how the sideshow worked. And then have the brothers remembering their onstage plane one of their songs. And they cant see very well and they see her come up. Willy elbows george and george elbows him and there is our dear old mother, she is not dead. And the police come and ringling lawyers, they want to take the brothers to the next stop. And the mother wants them home. The manager says theyre my children and had paper work that had their last name as his last name. And somehow she got them she got the she talked the police into letting her bring them home, not going back to the circus. And then not only that, a couple of days later, she hired a really young ambitious lawyer and she filed a lawsuit against the greatest show on earth. I mean, that was moxie. And she kept at it. She kept at it because whenever they could, because they could get away with, they would not pay them. So the manager would switch them to another show. Ringling was paying them and he would switch them to some other show and he would pocket the money and then she she and another she found another lawyer and through this very clever, but kind of awful sounding legal arrangement. She had them declared incompetent. So the court was in charge, if the checks bounced they would go and find them and they might be in canada, in oregon. They would actually, this lawyer and a bail bondman would find them, track them down and get the circus to pay up. And figuring out how they did that was another to untangle. There was no internet and she was illiterate they were written about in the New York Times, but in roanoke, this they would get it now in roanoke. Its amazing that she intersected with them finally. It is. It isment. And when told the story has been largely untold mainly because of their race and social status and not to mention their disability. Help us understand this widespread story of erasure and interviewing after the ordeal. I interviewed one of the reporters from in roanoke, and i he remembers whenever an africanamerican was in the news he had to put comma color, in and that gave me feedback what it was like being a reporter then. And i wrote down some of the quotes of the way the media treated the reunion. And the Roanoke Times from the day after she found her sons, the Family Reunion was quote, was told of in the newspapers, others talked of it all the while, humming happy mammy songs, never reported the family. Not that they were developed in mental capacity which i refuted over and over again in interviews. A new yorker piece the following year in 1928 said. They did as they walk, their eyes didnt quite focus and loved monkeys and kangaroos. Their eyes didnt focus because of albinism and the Fried Chicken had given out in roanoke. Theres no mention of the years of servitude and blacks are considered subhuman. Theyre happy and they didnt mention the laws or servitude. Theyre back and happy it was surreal and the predominant way that people saw it. Its heart breaking and shocking and thats the world theyre trying to create and thats the challenges they face. Here you thought it was a book about the circus, it certainly is and theyre endlessly fascinating stories about the circus, but its so much about race and here you were, this the Roanoke Times reporter and they were one of the many paper, how did you get them to trust you. And what were some of the stories that they told you as you were driving around . Well, one of the one of my story beacons was joanne poindexter. Shes now retired in her 60s and she called up basically the older ladies in her church that had grown up in the neighborhood and asked if i would interview them. She helped me in my career. When i wrote that pregnant and proud story that got me in so much hot water, half that i had a hard time getting africanamerican people to trust me in the city. I didnt mean to make those girls the subject of ridicule, i honestly didnt, but thats what happened and she would actually go out to interviews like there was a church that was starting and it had been a crack house and i was trying to get the neighbors to open up to me about it because i wanted to do a story on thats a pretty cool story, the crack house turning into a church. And joanne went around the neighborhood and vouched for me. And she did the same thing much years later with this, too. And again, they had read my stories and seen the work i had done since then. Where i wasnt just doing like drive by anecdote reporting, i was digging in, spending time with people and so, i think i was able to reap the bounty of just my time there. Well, one low point in your research, you complained to canadian historian jay nicholas about the difficulties of your tasks and she gave you a valuable people of device. If we wrote only stories of people with stories, you had to use what was at hand. How did the words inspire you . I was beating myself up because there were so many holes still. Thats right, the way she put it like that. It gave me permission and theres a reason i had that because there was institutional racism because of the coverage of it and it just, if i can write about that, i can cast it in even more deeper context and that really helps me. And i also complained to one of nancys younger relatives, that it was hard to get some of these basic facts. Like their births werent recorded and the years are listed in numerous different years in the documents. And the i was just complaining to a younger relative, so she told nancy and nancy sent back the message. If she thinks the story was hard to write, she should think about how hard it was for uncle georgi and uncle willy to live, she better pick her ass up. So you picked your ass up . I tried, i tried. Tell us about george and willys life after the circus. Because of that secondary lawsuit where their mother got guardionship, the checks were sent home and most of the money was settled into like a retirement account. When this was, Social Security didnt exist. By the end of 1961, a really nice house was bought and paid for for them and the family, nancy, her mother dot, her grandparents, they all lived in the house together and they took astonishing good care. They sort of protected them, the barber would come to their house to cut their hair, they wouldnt have to go out because people would still say rude things and they watched over them and later, when he was in his late 90s, i think it was, he was in the hospital. Actually, he was incredibly healthy, he was on no medication and, and put him in the hospital and and a nurse put a it was too high and when nancy came in he had life threatening burns it took two years to he heal. The family called her the warden and she was not happy. She, like her grandmother found a scrappy formidable lawyer in town and sued the hospital, which is the Largest Employee in roanoke, and the settlement enabled her to work and have fulltime care for him. And so, some of the best sources of him in his later life are the nurses who would come to the house to tend his burn wound and to take care of him. And its like how the story progresses and in cautionary tale and what the parents would say. They all Stay Together or you might get kidnapped like eko and iko. And the end of their lives, the wise elders in the community, given the nurses or willy, giving his nurse great advice, to feed them honey. Being better than the person who was mistreated. And i just i think he had a wonderful late life and you described him as being so gracious and he always said god is good to me, even after all hed been through and its on his botombstone. And he said that, god is good to me. She said he had almost a magical quality . She did. Initially, i had a little bit of trouble convincing my publisher and editor that i was going to be able to find enough facts to make this a book so i was asking, i was calling nancy and she had given me permission. Im not sure im going to be able to get this as a book, so finally, i did some more research, i did sort of an addendum to my proposal how i was going to find out all of this stuff and when i finally called and told her i had sold the book. She said, i told you, just remember, they always come out on top in the end. So uncle willy was having this she believed uncle willy is responsible and she thinks the book is going to do really well, because uncle willy is looking out for me and i love that and i hope shes right. [laughter] well, you your books are about connecting with people and about connecting the past and the present. And this is your advice for young reporters, get away from your damn smartphones and computers. Go back to the basics, papers, scissors, be the glue, as a reporter once told you. And can you elaborate how this has been your mo . Documents can only take you so far. Memoirs written, i mean, that was a great find when i found the guy bragging about buying this. All the paper work can take you so far, but theres no substitute for going and meeting people and hearing their stories. I mean, the best parts of the book, i think, are this these gritty, kind of microaggressions that these men and women lived with during jim crow. Like the little girls walking to school past the white ladys house and there were parrots and they were trained to squawk epithets at them. And the ladies, rent collectors who accepted sex in partial payments. Id never have the stories had i not gone out to spent the time to know people and they know me and open up to stories. Thats the heart and soul of your book, i think. Thank you, thank you. In addition to the remarkable story. One i think thing if you comment on. Because the brothers were portrayed in the circus as sort of being i mbeciles. It happened that a lawyer interviewed him, and i took him out to lunch and i was having trouble finding documents. And the Circuit Court clerk helped me find them. And he took him out to lunch. He he said i deposed him. And i said what was he like . He gave me detail. If you think he was mentally incapacitated . Oh, my heaven no. Another lawyer to deposed him said it was mid december and there was a better handle on his Christmas Shopping than he did. And he was blind. He was blind and he knew exactly what nancy was getting and how much money it was going to cost and, yeah. The doctors, the nurses, he just had this way about him. One of the nurses remembers walking up the stairs and he heard her footsteps and he said, who is there . And he she said, its the nurse and he said, does the nurse have a name . You know, like you can tell me your name. How hard was it making the leap from writing articles to books . Well, a good friend of mine that was in long time reporter with, ralph, jr. , had written his first book before factory man had come out and gave me the advice, it sounds simple and it was so on and gave me the confidence. Its just like one very, very long feature article, so it was. Its all the same tools, its all the same reporting techniques, and the trust building, the documents, calling around to experts, taking what experts said, running it by another expert, showing a picture to somebody who is an expert on cast assumisum costuming. Its the same skills, but its over more, more time, 100 years, both books covered 100 years and it has to, like things have to kind of did cant be totally apart from this part and this part. In factory man, my editor said the first time he read it, he said it reads like two books, the first part like southern virginia and the second like china. A southern virginia maker, keeping on trade to keep workers employed. What his section was was to build on what was going on in china early in the book, so at the same time it would seem to be more seamless. I had that in my mind as i was writing truevine. This is Boring Office supply shop talk, but i have this stuff called wizard wall, plastered, like a dry erase and you can move it and all over my walls and so i would keep up with little threads that id know id want to keep back to. To me, thats the big difference, youre still writing and i write like, i plot out a chapter and then i put up the sections and i want each section, each chapter to read almost like it would stand alone, but then i want each section to have a little, in journalism kickers, the end. And i want each section would have a kicker and the chapter to have a kicker and then all to sort of feed on what the next chapter will be, so youre leaving people wanting to keep turning the page. So this is such an intricate story, there are so many facets, in the past and present and how did you figure out that structure . You know, i like the way you interweave it. You start with the basic story. And then you go into you trying to get the story. So and then basically, its chronological after that. Except for these digressions and then i say, i did this because that adds another lawyer of context to it and newspapers are not allowed to include ourselves in stories and i always i mean, i always just went along with it, i didnt put myself in stories, but i have written some essays, and i i feel like its almost more honest when were peeking behind the curtain a little bit and showing the leader how we got the information. In factory man, some of the best, most telling details about john basset iii are his constant calling me on the phone. Hes just relentless trying to control the story and what it is. One day, 8 00 in the morning, hes called me three times and my phone was upstairs and i was downstairs. By the time i go up at 8 14, he says, well, i guess youre sleeping in today. Like, can you imagine that . Not being in the book . Like that shows like his relentlessness. And so i would have lost some of the best stuff on the cutting room floor. Thats why i do that. Well, do we have any audience questions . If you could come up to the microphone, if anyone has any questions for beth . Thank you for being here, ive enjoyed so much. Your sign instead of saying sit down and shut up, should say i dont give up. I feel like weve been with you through your journey to write this work and id like to know how you celebrate it when you knew it was going to publish and going to become a book. What did you do to celebrate . Well, i called nancy and i had a little celebration with her and then, my husband and i celebrated because, hey, ive got an income for the next few years. [laughter] and this week, the book comes out tuesday, were going to have a Book Launch Party in roanoke, and nancy and her family are coming, and all of those old ladies that i drove around, i hope, if theyre willing are coming. 102yearold aj reed from truevine who brought sort of the world of share cropping alive for me in this book. Hes going to be i said, now, your niece estelle said she would come and get you because truevine is an hour away. He said if i feel like coming im going to drive myself. I think its going to be really fun and exciting and to me thats going to be the moment like, when nobody celebrated them when they came home in 1927 except to want to see them and ogle them again and i hope its going to be a kind of special thing for the family, almost like a homecoming, you know . So that will be great. You definitely needed a party. Yes. Thank you. Yes, maam . Can you hear me . I can hear you. [inaudible] this is such an important story and i am so glad you never gave up trying to write it. Im wondering if you are africanamerican, would it have been easier for you to get the information or what is your perspective on that . Yeah, i mean, i dont really know because im not. I it took me a long time to understand nancys mistrust of the media and her mistrust of me. I mean, really, i would have held the story if shed let me interview her, but really not until i delved into the way the family had been treated did i really understand this tough, tough layer that she has. And because i was there, she shes read every single article id written, she was kind of judging me for 25 years through the stories i wrote. When i would go in to get my ribs and fridays, she had talk about whatever i had written that had been in the paper shed have a discussion about it and she became one of the people, one of the story beacons in the community that would help me find other stories. I did a tenpart series on care giving for the elderly in 2008 or so, and all the people we profiled in there were people i got from nancy and so, i just think its really important that we have to be inclusive. So, back to the first rule that my old editor caught me, you know, you need to write stories that reflect all of the community and and its how you set up a relationship. It is. And its a joy to do. I mean, there are days when i drive around and i cant believe i get paid to do this. I basically get paid. Like getting a graduate degree in whatever youre interested in and thats, thats why i love what i do. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, beth for your wonderful conversation. Wonderful. [applause] and that was author beth macy live from the southern festival of books here in nashville. Now, in about ten minutes, the next author will be talking about her book and its National Book award finalist, arly russell hopeshield and she looks at the political state of the right. Well being back from the southern festival in a few minutes. So the phrase all lives matter is that in many ways some assumption that is. It is the assumption thatat many of us begin with to say black lives matter highlights the extent that black lives did not matter in the United States and most recently concerning the issue with police abuse andsu violence. And the reluctance to embrace that shows the depth of the lack of understanding of the conditions of African Americans in this country actually is. We can understand that living in a deeply segregated country where white people have no ideali where black people slides are like it is not the same for African Americans to see the lives of white people on television all the time it does speak to the additional problem there is a more general issue with the absence twoseat for whitele people in there is of a number of ways our lives are distorted so talk about black lives matter to bringtt attention to the conditions of black people for most americans are shrouded. You can watch this and other programs online and book tv. Org. President ial candidates Hillary Clinton and donald trump have written several books, many of which outline their world view and political philosophy. De if h secretary clinton about the book and you can find that interview on our website. Published in 2003, living history is secretary clintons time in the white house as first lady. And family pets and authored a Coffee Table Book as life as first lady. In her first book it takes a village she argues society shares the responsibility with parents raising children. Republican president ial candidate donald trump has also written many books, his first several titles released in the 1980s and 90s are accounts of his business and real estate companies. He released several financial selfhelp books. In the recent books, time to get tough and crippled america, he writes about politics and outlines prosperity. Several of these have been discussed on book tv and you can find them on our website, booktv. Org. How often have you heard a politician in the last two years Say Something like this, ill quote a brief paragraph. Many people watching tonight can probably remember a time when finding a good job meant showing up at a nearby factory or a business downtown. You didnt always need a degree. Your competition was pretty much limited to your neighbors, if you worked hard, chances are you had a job for life with a decent paycheck and benefits and occasional promotions maybe have pride of seeing your kids work the a the same company. That world change and for many, the change has been painful, end quote. That happens to be president obama in a state of the Union Address a couple of years ago, but it could easily be almost any politician or either party at this point. With emphasis. With the cultural cohesion, it might have been a republican, mitt romney in the last election, any of the candidates in this election. With explicitness on the equality of that time could have been Hillary Clinton or elizabeth warren, often is. With it could be donald trump calling for rolling back globalization and immigration and recovering what we lost. America isnt what it used to be, the thats the theme of contemporary american politics. And it speaks to a public anxiety that often comes down to a question that is asked in anguish, what has happened to our country . And you know, its not a bad question. Something big and significant certainly has happened to our country. And in its less cartoonish forms. The nostalgia is understandable. The america that our exhausted politics wishes so much, the nation as emerged from the Second World War and the Great Depression was cohesive. It had an amazing confidence in big institutions and Big Government and labor and business and managing the nations, managing the nation together and meeting its needs. That confidence, by the way, is just stunning when you look at what people were saying and thinking in mid Century America from our vantage point. Americas cultural life mid century was dominated by a moral attendance, religious attendance was at a peak, family was strong, birth rates were high, divorce rates were low. In the wake of a war in which most of its competitors literally burned economies to the ground, the United States dominated the World Economy which for a while offered Economic Opportunities to all kinds of workers, with all kinds of skill levels. But almost immediately after the war, that consolidated nation started a long process of unwinding, of fragmenting. Over the decades, culturalized and diversified as struggles against racism, coincided with the massive increase in immigration. Its important to recognize the latter, by the way, we dont think about the scale quite enough. Because of immigration restrictio restrictions, mid Century America had an incredibly low level of Cultural Diversity until those were lifted in the 1960s