His Historic Program and event. We just completed a Film Festival showing i am not your negro and our particular guest and keynote speaker spoke about that particular film. Since she is a biographer for James Baldwin. His voice is very significant to detroit. He is a founder of metro times but has had deep experience in terms of launching the black Study Department at wane state university. Herb in many ways is like malcolmx having foots in harlem and detroit. We are very happy to have him and dr. Rita kiki edozie here today. I would like to give you background on dr. Edozie. She is the former director of studies at Michigan University and professor of africanamerican relations and african affairs. She has written seven books. Five in print and two forthcoming and several Journal Articles and book chapters on Research Topics that include the comparative politics and International Relationships of africa, global development, and panafrican and diasper studies. Her recent books, the african unions africa, in 2014 and we have very proud of a book Rita Kiki Edozie edited. Malco malco malcolmx university of michigan world view. It is an excellent work and available in the bookstore. The book featured today is in our bookstore and we want a complete sell out of that book black detroit. T the professor is the recipient of the sudy of africanamerican life and history and the Charles H Wright museum of history. The fanny lou hammer award for outstanding leadership and service in the african world, for the National Council of black studies in 2016 and honorary professor and Research Associate at the university of south africa. On behalf of our board, our executive management, of course our president and ceo wanita moore we welcome you and want you join you in welcoming to the change dr. Rita kiki edozie. [applause] juanita the man of the hour. Come on now. Herb boyd is an activist, journalist, College Teacher and photographer who dedicated his wide ranging career to the concerns and causes of africanamericans their culture and history and awardwinning author and journalist boyd has written and edited 24 books making her perhaps one of the most prolific authors out of detroit. [applause] absolutely. He has written countless articles for National Magazines and newspapers including the amsterdam news. Very important journal in our africanamerican experience. He has been a freelance reporter for over 30 years. We shall overcome the history right movements as it happened is one of the important books of our time. He would see the book was published in 1995 and won the american book award for non fiction. In 1999, boyd won three first place awards for the new York Association of black journalists for his articles published in the amsterdam news where he has been a frequent contributor for 33 years. Notice the numbers. Very extensive commitment to this work covering Harlem Community indepth. Black panthers for beginnings, 1995, the autobiography of the people; three centuries of africanamerican history told by those who lived it, race and resistance, africanamericans in the 21st century, the harlem reader, we shall overcome; a history of the civil rights movement, the life and times of sugar ray robinson, a biography of James Baldwin. Herb wrote an important book in 2013, the diary of malcolmx and was inducted in the literary hall of fame for the writers ha hall. Boyd has been the managing director of the black world today along with his writing. That was once one of the online leading publications online. He is a graduate of Wayne State College here in michigan. He taught in the bronx and currently teaches at the city college of new york. Our accolades couldnt be higher. We are selling this book tod today black detroit; a peoples story of derm nation purchase this book for yourself and your children. It chronicles detroit from the 1700 to the present. A lot of important facts that speak to the 1967 detroit rebellion which is being led in a Major Program here on july 23rd. Herb boyd, again, please give him a round of applause. I think we can stop right there. So, good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. I want to start or prtodays discussion by thanking three detroit institutions that are the subject of the book and made this event happened. First is the Charles Wright human of africanamerican history. [applause] and especially charles farrell, for making sure that the Charles Wright human remains a space of educational consciousness. Thank you for that. And someone who is not here, maybe she is not here. I dont know if she is here but she writes a prefrace for this book. Her name is the reverend dr. Joann watson. She is here she wrote the forward to the book and it is fantastic. Thank you for your work, dr. Watson. You are a Cultural Institution for detroit. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Very good. Very good. The third person is, of course, todays author and native detroiter. He is the author as Charles Wright as introduced him as of 23 books and this is the 24th . 25th host fantastic. We are going to talk about this book obviously but this is not just the only book he has written. It is an honor to be with you again, dr. Boyd. And lets turn to the book and have a great discussion. Let me start by describing how the Detroit Free Press calls the book. Chronlogical, stunningly detailed look at detroits incarnation and development through the eyes of those ignored, marginalized, or unh unheroled because of their color. All the stories of the book are of black detroiters. It is a thick book, very detailed, very comprehensive, very interesting. We will have a conversation today about the highlights. Let me just provide some of the highlights before i go into a deep conversation about over things you rely in this book. This is a book that will tell us ability detroits role in the underground railroad, the gateway to canada, for fugitives and slaves. This is a book that talks about detroits first city as a plaque in downtown that remembers the first africanamericans to be deployed as units against the confederates during the civil war. A whole chapter on this. This is a book that talks about detroits guilded age. The cultural and social havens such as the richards and sugar ray leonard, joe lewis, malcolmx, elija mccoy, smoky robinson who you grew up with. This is a book that talks about detroit as a vocal point of the great migration and how detroit becomes the social engine that gave rise to the National Urban league. It is the location of the osage creak trials on the east side. This is a book about detroits race rebellion. Not just 1967 but 1833, 1943 and then 1967. This is a book about detroit as an early american arsenal for democracy. It is a book about black workers producing a fourth black mayor in a major american city. It is a book about 1963 march on detroit is a precursor to the march on washington. That is right. It is a book about the black church, the early beginnings of the black church but also herb boyd talks about a shrine of the black sedona. This is a book that gives us the history of threats of police brutality. This is a book about detroits music, about the r b and motown but it is about blues, rock and roll, gospel, jazz, techno, and detroits foundation in fostering these musical genres. It is a book about the musical studies at wayne state and things i didnt know is wayne state was a hot bed of political activism. Boyd writes in the same classroom one could find communist, socialists, black nationalists, members of the shrine of the black madonna, the republic of africa, the nation of the land, black panthers and members of the lead of revolutionary workers all in the same classroom. So collecting herb boyd on the book subtitle now, not the title but the subtitle a peoples history of self determination. The Detroit Press cites you as saying detroit is about people. And people need to look at the peoples perspective. She is still just as alive and she is right here. [applause] stand up mom. That is my mother. [laughter] beautiful. [laughter] you know, next to her is another woman who has been for all of the years i have known her, that in the early 70s. We were at Wayne State University kiki. She was with me and trying to educate and deal with the political scene there and suggest, it is very intense. That is my wife. [applause] somewhere running run here is my brother. He works the room for me. When he left alabama with me. My brother had already done reconnaissance in the city checking out what would be a fit for us. Brought us about a couple of months before the 1943 right. We always like to make the distinction between a right and a rebellion. We like to make that distinction. [applause] it was a race riot. We have some photos that go back to capture some of the intensity of that time. I do not know that they are necessarily in chronological order. But this was coming out of the 1943 riot. My mother had seen a lot of the turbulence that occurred there but you know 1943, it is kind of like in the middle. You have to go back and in black detroit i go back to 1701. All the way back. When cadillac was called the black prince. Where did that come from . It may have had a certain dose of melanin but anyway, landed in 1701. You know with every generation you had a kind of influx of africanamericans coming in. Most of them in servitude and most in bondage. Looking at the evolution and struggle. The odyssey of black people in the city. Because a lot of that people are aware that slavery existed right here in detroit. You look at new york city for example. People are not aware that slavery was in new york city. At one time there were more slaves in new york than in the carolinas. They had a mayor there called fernando boyd. And his thing was lets secede from the union. Often draw parallels from new york and detroit in the book. 1863, draft riots there is a nice comparison there between what was happening in new york and what was happening in detroit. Almost for the same reasons. You know you talk about the black and Irish Community and they were at each others throats in terms of jobs and housing. If you go down to the 1943, we had one in harlem in 1943. Go to 68, 67 the same kind of scene. Also the same kind of conditions that created that. When you go back to look at the selfdetermination, lets talk about how people overcome a number of challenges and obstacles. Because when they first arrived here in the 1920s in a critical mass, it was an issue of housing, an issue of jobs, an issue of social welfare. We had people who pioneered the whole idea, concept of putting together an urban league. The urban league of course was centered in new york. But detroit was kind of the test case of that. And washington and dancy were absolutely tireless in making sure that these blues people. Most of them coming in from alabama yall because it was a streamlined migration. You know . My family, we went up to detroit. Straight up. Joe lewis, straight up. We can go on and on. And of course will come later on too. One of the things i really enjoyed about the book which comes out in the way you talk about detroit is the biographical nature. But this is your story. You tell the story of detroit through your experiences, right . In fact, it begins in the introduction saying, we were part of a great migration of africanamericans leaving the south. He talked about growing up in the jeffries projects. The jeffries. There was a little bit of a rivalry there. Tells about the experience migrating. Talk about your mother. To detroit and the early experience. First of all, the first great migration. We always have an adjective but that refers to the 1920s. That refers when henry ford had the five dollars a day and the chicago defender really propagated that notion. It spread all over the country. However when you look at the black people in alabama, mississippi and georgia, when they heard that they already had some incentives given the ku klux klan and you know Knight Riders down there. They had all of this and motivations in the world to get out of the south but here comes this five dollars a day possibility. You know, he talked about sharecropping. It was the subsequence of the, during the reconstruction. As he moved into the 20th century. Most black people in the south you know, if they were lucky even, in a sharecropping situation. That meant that like tennessee, you owe your soul to the company store. Each year at the end of the au had to tally up and find out the land owner is saying that you owe me for working my land. You understand . That was the situation. So here comes this author and it was a flood. The influx was so great that we could talk about the social welfare that was necessary to get some refuge for these incoming blues people. Most ended up being confined in glass bottles. And restrictive covenants had much to do with you know it was kind of like the in a particular region of the city they had some benefits also because it meant that all of the black lawyers, black doctors, black laborers could all live right next to each other. And benefit enough so that the class amalgamation was going on at that time. Certainly, there would be the opportunity to have contact with people of another class. And of course that is the beginning. The melding of the black middle class in detroit. That is another narrative, a very strong theme you know in the book in terms of the coherence. How that comes together you know from one generation to another. But in 1920s it is Ford Motor Company. At the same time as people were running to get these jobs and the factories of course, africanamerican workers ended up at the point of production and sense of working on the most hazardous, the jobs and that was the beginning kiki. You gives look at that migration and the influx of the population, the dramatic increase in the africanamerican population here in detroit in the 1920s. It will happen again in the 1940s, during world war ii with the arsenal of democracy. Again, black work is at the point of production. And an increased population. Of course with increased population there is intensity among the various ethnic groups. I want to go back a little earlier. Sure. Many of us had been quite disappointed with the fact that john legends underground had been canceled after the second season. However, read the book who, he recounts the story of blackburn affair and the role that detroit played in the underground railroad. Sure. In your second and third chapters. Can you recount for us the importance of the blackburn affair and the underground railroad and the role that detroit played . I think earlier we had a sculpture. Let me see if i can go back to it. And dwight was a fantastic sculptor, he did the sculpture down at the waterfront where you have these group of black people were looking across the Detroit River to canada. I think it is the next one here. This year particular. Many people have come to detroit and sometimes i think they scratch their heads and say what is that all about . This symbolizes the underground railroad. When you have people like William Lambert, george baptiste, william webb, madison lightfoot. You can go on and on in terms of the pioneering abolitionists. They were joined at some extent by the white abolitionists. Many of them being quakers. Because William Lambert had been schooled, educated and lived among the quakers when he left new jersey and arrived in detroit. For me he is in an phenomenal individual. He was one of the conductors of the underground railroad. When i talked about that in my class is the first thing in their mind is the a train or the d train. And i am like no but this was a process. The byway in which these fugitive slaves can get away from bondage. Get away from socalled peculiar institutions. And end up in detroit. Citizen here, the sculpture symbolizes the people and certainly after 1850 we had the fugitive slave law, when the act was passed it meant that although, we have the blackburn case, the blackburn affair. His runaway fugitives arrived from louisville kentucky and thought they had found a safe refuge away from these bounty hunters. But with the passing of the 1850 slave act that meant you had to go a little bit further. And these people are looking across the Detroit River to windsor. And sometimes even windsor was not far enough. You have to keep going. Amherst berg, up for one into ontario or onto toronto. And of course chatham later would become a very profound community of abolitionists that was up there. We can talk about anderson who is one of the black men who john brown. You can talk about the later. After the whole abolitionist Second Baptist Church was very instrumental. And matthews was going to be instrumental later on. We cannot ignore the church and this coming together in terms of resistance. The whole idea of selfdetermination. It was coming from a number of Church Leaders who were with the Abolitionist Movement but no one more pronounced or profound then William Lambert. His story, that would make a fascinating film to see the kind of stuff he went through. The mysteries that they put together, they had a secret code, a secret language. They had trained all of these individuals on the underground railroad. In case you encountered some of the bounty hunters out there. It was so instructive and later on his involvement with Craig Matthews church. And his involvement in the educational process. People like richards who was a pioneering black woman in terms of the first africanamerican to teach in the socalled Public School system here. So we have this conjunction and it is a collaborative situation from one generation to another. Each spurred on by the other. Taking this influence and enthusiasm for the breakthrough occurring in the previous generation. We are going to see that happening time and time again. And this whole odyssey of black detroit. As of yesterday i believe we now have in detroit Aretha Franklin way. And this evening continues. You write about the gilded age of detroit. Angie sennett occurred after the civil war. From 1870. And you say that this was a bountiful era for the city. It established the city as becoming a gateway to the west. Sure, no doubt. But you tell us that this is the Foundation Upon which many of the citys contributions in music occur. Oh yeah. You talk about motown kind of premusical genre in detroit before motown. You say that this opened the way for the contributions that we later see in motown. Kiki, that opens up the cultural theme and we can talk a lot about the black workers. In terms of the Union Movement and how they were a formidable, in that particular odyssey and development. We can also talk about the entrepreneurial, the family. Even elijah mccoy. People talk about the real mccoy. He had some connection here to the city of detroit. So the innovations that were coming from the geniuses who were tinkering around. He was from, henry ford took advantage of in terms of their innovations and creativity, betty and her book she will get into individuals who were very fundamentally insignificant for the whole Ford Motor Company. You cannot ignore black creativity on the labor front. Because people who work at a point of production are always looking for a way to make the job a little bit easier for them. So you have that kind of innovators coming along. So beyond the political and entrepreneurial and economic front and even the religious and spiritual front, you had the Cultural Foundation of this city. And my goodness, all you have to do is go over into the library and you have the azalea hackney collection. What an amazing woman she was not just as an artist or performer but also the compiler. Very interested in securing our cultural artifacts. And there you can find a repository about africanamerican music. She was just tireless and gathering that material and making it available for the next generation. She was a very good singer too. She taught many other singers including some of the great ones who came along the 1940s and 1950s. That is from the classical standpoint more or less. Then you have the blues where john lee i was driving the other day and went past maxs, an old blues joint. Apex was another important blues joint. The raven lounge. It was like blues alley in terms of moving out of black bottom, and out of hastings street. Before jumped all the way to 12th street you know where the blues was very prominent there. But in terms of the blues in the city cannot ignore that. And it carries on into several important singers of the next generation who picked up that particular genius that existed. Of course you cannot ignore barry gordy in the evolution of the music in the city in terms of motown which becomes the soundtrack of a generation. I kind of grew up with all of the people that moved around the city of detroit. Members of the temptations, the holland brothers, along with dozier, all of them that were in and around the neighborhoods. Smokey robinson, and jeffries projects, right across the hall was the jeffrey family. They had nothing to do with the projects. They live right across the hall and they were the causes to smokey robinson. So whenever smokey came over with claudette and them they would rehearse over there. So we heard a lot of those songs long before they were recorded you know . It was an opportunity like my mother was just fantastic in terms of their living space for us where she put me in contact with so many different cultural developments. Thank you mom for doing that moving us around that community and putting us and i never left any of those neighborhoods behind. If i was in near black bottom all that out to eight mile road, i think we have like an image of when i was on eight mile road when we had the wall, there is a well out there that separated the community. The wall is still there but you have a certain kind of creativity added to in terms of the details there. Rosa parks, the bus and what have you. So it shows again that even when you have some symbols of separation, we find some ways to kind of give it a cultural turn. To give it a certain kind of emphasis and what it means to us as a people as they move on. I used to play up against that wall. We lived on pinehurst. That is a couple of blocks over. We would walk that wall. Most when eight mile road in the neighborhood was very important in the 1950s for me. Is that come in . On my goodness. I want to single him out because the photos that we have in the book were given to me, dale and i have been together for years working and different publications and everything. I really thank you for all of your work. [applause] i think this is one of dales photos right here. Good timing dale [laughter] that is what happens when moving from one neighborhood to another. The north and was probably the most, the longest and most beneficial neighborhood i lived in. 8732 cardoni. I was driving her downtown where we are staying at the it was really john p boulevard. Now washington boulevard by john conyers boulevard. So we point out the russell street baptist church. It is still there. But right across the street used to be the drugstore. That was sidney boswell, he was a student of mine and we talk about the whole entrepreneurial thing in black detroit. So that is important. Begin to look at how these black businesses all the way back to the they are important elements of have a culture and the jazz, they say nothing about jazz at one time kiki, you could in the 1960s actually 1950s, 1960s and into the 70s you cannot talk about any kind of a major ensemble, a major quintet, trio, quartet, orchestra that did not have an africanamerican from detroit. Not one [applause] i had the opportunity to work very closely with youssef. He taught me lessons on the flute. And what he met in terms of audio physic music. Check that out. No jazz for you. Physio psychic music. A great photo in the book about him and my mother. So the whole music thing and i think about tim cox and Charles Moore the thing about teddy harris i mean you talk about some of that. I mean jerry lynn now she is now heading up the Music Department at the university of pittsburgh. I was on the phone coming that he is unto james carter. You know the young people and the photograph books that i did with Lenny Sinclair and barbara weinberg, Barbara Barefield now. It captures the essence of how the music was so absolutely prominent here in the city of detroit. It was so spread out you know there was not enough room here. You had to go further, all the way to europe and all the way in paris. You know hugh lawson, betty carter. You can go on and on with the jazz musicians and the r b musicians. That came out of the city. I mean just absolute, we populated the music world. The music universe out there would not be complete without full discussion of the africanamerican musicians from out of motown. I learned the review at the Apollo Theater in 1962, i mean it was like whoa i know beans bose. He wrote fingertips for stevie wonder. Marvin gaye, stevie wonder, those who put together the concepts. And marvin stayed on and so that is like the music that captures the whole spirit of the 1960s. The antiwar movement. All of the individuals had connections with the whole motown experience. Before i ask my next question, do you think you may be able to get me an autograph . With smokey robinson. Can you arrange that for me . [laughter] smokey, come on [laughter] i got a job okay. So take us to the politics that you recount in your book. You describe detroit as being not just a hotbed for black activism but also a sort of 4runner for black civil rights. And he recount the story so very eloquently. Can you talk about the role that you feel the incidence had and in launching detroit as a precursor, if 4runner for black civil rights. Nationwide. Yes, your mom incident and that is one of the things about black detroit. I have an episodic approach. That is like there have been like milestones of detroit history that need further elaboration. A lot of people do not know about the blackburn affair. So i spend a whole chapter on that. A lot of people know very little about the role of africanamerican soldiers from detroit in the civil war. You know that has to be discussion. We spoke about the Abolitionist Movement, that is significant and it had to be discussed. Then when you move down to the turnofthecentury in the 1920s you know you have this here great migration. That is another great episode in american history. You see detroit is in the fulcrum of that. In the epicenter of this great migration, the whole concentration of africanamericans here. When you get down and you do not get out of the 1920s, deal with 1925. This is the each time i am town one of my partners, reverend dan. Dan used to teach with me at Wayne State University. He was in the classroom. He enumerated all of the individuals and organizations in the classroom where i needed dan to help me out. Because he had so many different philosophical and ideological positions that were so pronounced. We had to make sure that we navigate that course and not you know, incur any kind of upset coming from that particular group. So you have to be careful how you navigate that territory. It was very tricky political terrain. With danny obama said we did very well. Danny lives on the east side. Every time i go to see him i go by the garland residence. That is where ossian sweet moved in. An allwhite neighborhood, 1925, this young dr. And his bride. They moved in over there and meet with the hostility. Again, we talk about the similarities between detroit and new york. Same kind of experiences happened in parts of new york. The same period of time when you had even earlier in detroit with Philip Payton and what they were called blockbuster and of the time and bringing black people into white neighborhoods and terrifying them. And some of them you know Philip Payton and trevor took advantage of it. The same thing with land speculators and realtors and the ossian sweet family moved in. They had bricks thrown through their windows. They were armed to the. They were prepared for that. Shots were fired. An individual was killed. They were tried for that. Comes in, the defender and is a series of trials that he conducted. Eventually but the outcome if it is one thing in terms of whether or not you go to jail or are acquitted. It is another thing to psychological you know the damage that the sweet family endured. I feel it had much to do with the death of ossian sweets wife at the time. And of course later on, ossian sweet himself. But what the point is, here is his family determined to break outside the restricted covenants. Move into this allwhite neighborhood. I was looking at the hard stuff is that Lonnie Wheeler worked with on this book hard stuff. I discovered so much. I thought i had detroit history down cold but, there was so much that i learned even you know Coleman Young was so constructive for me. He was a young person working with ossian sweet. He cleaned up, he swept the floor there seven or eight years of age you know he is over there working with ossian sweet. He talks about you know the whole relationship that ossian sweet had with the community at that time peers that was instructive seeing the early years. And his connection to the sweet family. And of course that struggle there was going to be emulated. We went over on the west side. You have families over there that had gone through similar kinds of a struggle in terms of integrating a neighborhood. We did not have that problem out on a smile that much. Rest well there was not that many. First of all there was not that many. You know if one comes in and then a whole bunch of them then the community would be very concerned about that. So the ossian sweet case is important in 1925. You know he would be around town with his model t ford. He was an emblem of progress in so many ways because he had succeeded and got up and benefited from an education and everything. And here he comes back to detroit. He comes in and out of detroit before is a younger person and working in various places. In the early days up and down the Detroit River but he came back to live here. He saw the possibilities and assemblies that came later on began to see that detroit offers so many opportunities in terms of employment, culture development, education, they say nothing even of the religious spiritual realm where so many ministers out there, politicians. With charles digs up there. He was a congressman. He was one of the few that went down to the emmett till case in 1955. Emmett till many people know the 14yearold kid from chicago that went to mississippi and at the and the tallahassee river because of these White Supremacists that killed him. Charles dietz was down there smiling everything but he was more than that in terms of, in terms of opening the black africans. The little realm kiki, you have easier black pioneers. People, visionaries, for thinking individuals who because influence and have an impact beyond the borders. [applause] you currently reside in new york city but it is good capital of the world and we are trying to eliminate your needs on the on the way you recount debate in detroit to the debate about racialist and police brutality. Talk about the way recount the story. You cannot talk about stress without talking about Coleman Young. Stress is an acronym for many of you. Stress is an acronym for stop the robberies and enjoy safe streets. I did get a whole chapter to that. No there is no way we can do justice to that in the short period of time. All we can talk about is that you go back in time, detroit had four. Some of those older folks remember the big four where we would have like a uniformed officer driving around, three undercover officers and they would cost you on the street. Much of it was that a carryover from the plantation days where Unlawful Assembly is i will take the corner because four of five of us would be on the corner maybe during our doowop thing and there was a need to move on. This seems to be an unlawful gathering of young africanamerican. The year before we had a similar uprising. It was all to do with the fact that our young black men gathering in the wrong place. And then please come along and you have to break up this Unlawful Assembly. You know, i thought this was public space. I will take this corner. The only thing that really stuck the possibility of that erupting as it had done following the rodney king incident is that they had a downward peers of the rain dimmed the opportunity. You move into the 70s with the whole stress thing and there is a continuation of the hostility between the black and the police department. The big boy has to be part of it even have some black Police Officers who were not necessarily kind to us. They had to demonstrate that they were more blue than black. You know, but at the same time we cannot ignore there were a number of Police Officers who were just very much connected and identified with the community. My brother was one of them. For 20 years my brother was a police officer. I dont think he ever fired his gun. I used to see them on campus running around on a horse. But he had that kind of connection to the community. We need more Police Officers like that. Who are connected to the neighborhood and understand the people that lived there. See that we want to open up to audience questions. I just had to ask questions for you. The way you conclude this book. Talk about two great black men. You talk about them very differently. He talk about Coleman Young and you have spoken about him. But you call former mayor kilpatrick the hiphop mayor. Can you sort of talk about how you distinguish these two mayors, black mayors and their roles in the pivotal roles and left detroit. In the whole Political Development in the city. The mayoral thing. You know it is hard to take any particular individual out of the context in which they live. At the same time you have to see an accumulative process from one generation to another. Coleman young was in office for 20 years from 1974 to 1994. His background first of all, he is Coleman Young. We talked about the ossian sweet as a very young child more or less and then on into the United States army. He was a tuskegee airmen. When he got out of the service, that the job at Ford Motor Company and one of harry bennetts, who had a goon squad. They were not sympathetic to the movement and of course coleman was right there running hard because he grew out of the hole labor activism and he was approached by one of those goon squads who went upside his head. Coleman grabbed a steel rod and beat the man upside the head. Of course that ended his career at Ford Motor Company. They put him out of there. But it did not end his activism. Because the whole union labor council. Then he becomes a state senator in 1964. So that was like a breakthrough for him on the political arena. He ran a couple of times for office but not successfully. N64 becomes a state senator and by 74, 10 years later here is the man who is running the whole city. And of course, i have a couple of incidents in the book, in terms of his encountering people who saw him as a state senator. And the whole ms thing he said you called me senator mf. [laughter] senator mf to you. You know he was never that concerned about the colorful language that he used. So there is a distinction. You have to draw from the mayor as you look at the whole kilpatrick or you know so promising when he came in 31 years of age and the potential was so great there. I mean i know bernard, caroline, his mother and father. We watched him grow and develop. So the potential was so great there in terms of the youthful, the whole hiphop thing a bit too much. I think you know you dont compare. You compare one man to another and is no comparison there. Coleman did his thing, kilpatrick tried to do his thing and i am glad to see that archer and others did. The political scene, we have had some very dynamic individuals. The one closest to me was ken we went to different high schools. And again, he talk about the high school, Public School system in detroit. I am a product of the detroit Public School system. [applause] so some good things can come. They talk about some of the negative aspects and i can remember teachers all the way back and nobody in here knows what moore school was. Or bright meyer. On the topic of mayor you conclude the book with by commending the current mayor and being the first white mayor of detroit since the 1970s where detroit had a white majority. You seem to suggest that the mayor is taking detroit in the right direction. I would like you to conclude with how you talk about detroits future moving forward. One of the things i think is important. I think you know im looking at this man back here, that is wrong back there. And this is behind the jones incident. I was out there with ron and with carl dix who they were processing the whole situation with jones. The incident there i describe great detail in the book. I just want to jump, i just want to go to the photos real quickly. So people can see an idea for example charles mckay. Charles mckay, 92 years old. You have got this contract downtown to put this great mural on the wall down there. And this is the one right out front here with the, and the museum showing the unity thing and he is typical you know the artist. So that is back in the beginning. Somewhere between the symbolism of ed dwight sculpture and the beautiful creativity of a Charles Mcgee is a whole stretch of africanamerican culture, artistic creativity. Leave it right there yall. [applause] [inaudible] [applause] we could stay here for hours and hours with the rest and rich history of detroit. We want to sell out in our bookstore today. Which is to your left as you exit out. Have a reception downstairs where herb boyd will be signing the books. Please be sure to write your name on the book on a notepad so he will know the names right into the book. It will help the process move quickly. We would like you to come to the microphone. We have two in the audience. Questions, please be very concise. We are very thankful for cspan and booktv for being here. If you would announce your name and very concise questions. No long statements. We will have 30 minutes of q a. Thank you very much. [applause] can i go with a question . Yes. My name is tim and during the Coleman Young administration my family was able to operate a restaurant at they kicked us out i think during the Coleman Young administration black businesses was able to make a lot of progress. Do see Something Like that happening under a administration. [laughter] not really. Number you know each generation, each administration is fraught with its own challenges. It is hard to get from one thing to another. I mean we live in an age where we have, people are tweeting math all the time. An atmosphere that we have in the nation. To get anything from national and local standpoint what happens in the political realm. I dont have it going in that direction. Thank you. Over here i think. Thank you. I would like to thank you for coming so much. Ive tried for 15 to 20 years to get booktv to come here. Booktv was founded by the former first lady laura bush. I am so proud to have you here. Tonight at 630 you will be in with the same program . Public library . No. Where you going next . You keep going back there. I want to follow you if it is okay. [laughter] next [laughter] over here. [inaudible question] you know, people ask those kind of questions. I would say what do you think . I am serious. What do you think . Well, i think coleman the second is a good person. I think very active in the community. I am not sure if he has all of the. [inaudible] i think there is a lot of possibilities. I am just not sure to what, how detailed it is. That is true. It is hard, again, the potential that exists on the direction. Detroit, lets understand this about the city. If you study the past, to me the past is prologue. What we have in this book is a whole notion of self determination. You know we are going to have to do here because you know the whole cspan thing and my time constraints, i want to save the questions. Yall come out to the table. The people in line right now. Come to the table as a sign both in razor questions with me there. Because emily had to move on. The ability to schedule here. I see that light is getting longer on both sides. So lets do it like that. Okay . No no katie, we have to move out and sign books. Come out and join me at the book signing. [inaudible] speak into the microphone. My name is joyce i think you might remember me. Can you hear me now . My name is joyce i think you remember me, my question is concerning the rebellion and 67. I want to know if your book touched on which is consistent with prior to the 67 rebellion. I found in the Bentley Historical library at the university of michigan that there was a police drive prior to the rebellion which led to a massive, led to police, they were not prepared. So they could not properly man the rebellion which led to the National Guard coming in. The army, this that and the other. I wanted to start is a book touch on this is what was in the archives in the bentley library. I just wanted to know if your book touches on this. [inaudible] i am not saying that is what led to it. Im saying that it is part of it. [inaudible] i have a whole section on that looking at an analysis. Not only in 67 rebellion but also the situation. And then to compare that to some extent between the 1943 race riot and the housing incident. It was out there and kona gardens. Cm to see how these things come together in this time of political, social, Economic Conditions that prevailed and contextualized that purity cannot take it out of context. We understand that cavanaugh came into power in the early 60s. With the whole kennedy idea. The great society, the model cities and everything. If he had listened to conrad senior, he would have been better prepared to deal with that circumstances of 1967. Conrad told him that the simmering underneath the socalled youre talking about is a lot of hostility in the community as it pertains to housing and police brutality. The Unemployment Crisis that was going there. He ignored those particular conditions. They could have been set off, they could have been headed off in the same way that john dancy of the urban league to the 1943 rieck could have been headed off. If they had listened to the counseling of individuals who had their ears to the ground and their hands on the pulse of black community and what it was feeling at the time. So there has got to be some understanding enough conceptualize the moments and see the dynamics. Okay . Thank you. [applause] on the first sunday of every month booktv sits down with an author to discuss his or her body of work. This three hour discussion includes your phone calls and questions. Our july guest will be author journalist and historian herbert boyd. His books include a history of harlem and examination of the works of James Baldwin and a history of africanamericans in the United States. Watch booktv on sunday, july 2 from 12 to 3 00 p. M. Eastern and call in to ask mr. Herb boyd about his books. Every summer booktv visits capitol hill to ask members of congress what are you reading . This is look at some of their answers. I just finished devils in the growth. A book by a man named gilbert all about the life of Thurgood Marshall before he was ever anyones judge but was litigating cases in the south at tremendous risk to himself. Basically fighting for justice. There is a book i want to read, bringing out the best in people. I think every once in a while, it is like to get a new perspective on how you lead a team. I always say you lead people and you manage assets. Kingdom of ice, harry reid recommended this. I just read about the terrific novel called all the light you cant see. Moving into the narrow road to the deep north. Another novel and the sixth extension by elizabeth probert. We want to hear from you. Send us your Summer Reading list via text or video. Or posted to our facebook page. Jonathan morduch and at 11, Mark Pendergrast explores revitalization in atlanta. First up, near is Newt Gingrich with his latest book, understanding trump