To make it not all critics were convinced however director Spike Lee who had just won for his screenplay black Klansman said about green book quote The ref made a bad call and n.p.r. News the Dow is up 111 points this is n.p.r. News. The president of Nigeria has taken an early lead in official results from Saturday's vote N.P.R.'s a favorite quiz starting reports the party of his main challenger has swiftly called into question the tallies calling them incorrect and unacceptable initial returns from the Electoral Commission put President Mahmoud wadi in the lead winning 4 of Nigeria's 36 states to date while the main opposition candidate are to Quebec or prompt here in the capital Abuja but it's early days yet the chairman of People's Democratic Party which a 2nd has rejected the results which he said were being manipulated for his governing party to retain power international observers have been giving their assessment of the election the joint us National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute mission concluded the poet had lost some of its credibility because of the last minute week long delay the electoral commission blamed on logistical to choose or stop them n.p.r. News. 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Foundation This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross the movie Green Book won 3 Oscars last night including best picture we're going to talk about the new documentary The Green Book guide to freedom which will be shown on the Smithsonian Channel tonight the Green Book was a travel guide that was 1st printed in 1906 in the era of segregation listing restaurants hotels shops and gas stations that would serve African-Americans and that were safe for them in 1967 following the signing of the Civil Rights Act The Green Book stopped publication Our guest is the director of the documentary you Ruba Richen she tells the story through archival home movie footage and interviews with descendants of African-Americans who use the green book and the children of business owners who were listed in the guide the film shows the challenges and dangers black travelers faced the limited options they had while on the road and the role business owners listed in the book played in the civil rights movement Richen is the director of the documentary program at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism her previous films include The New Black and promised land we can spoke to fresh air is Dave Davies about the Green Book Well you're Ruba rich and welcome to Fresh Air One of the things that makes the film so great is footage from the air and interviews from people who recalled this these events how do you gather the material. Well in terms of the footage we initially went down to the National African Museum of History in Washington d.c. There are a Smithsonian partner and as soon as I started to see this footage it's amazing home movie footage of African-Americans traveling vacationing working I wanted to tell the film through this archival footage I really wanted to have a home movie feel to it because that's what the Green Book was about was about African-Americans traveling for you know vacation for to visit family and what their experience was like and also the industry the automobile industry as we say in the film was a huge employer of African-Americans helped us as we came out of the South from the Great Migration and get these jobs in these in the car factories and to the middle class and upper class so the automobile is very significant for the African-American population Well let's talk a little bit about kind of what conditions were like that led to the need for the Green Book and I want to hear a little scene from the film where we hear 2 sisters reminiscing about traveling when they were kids their names are Jennifer ivy and Karen Allen Baxter who speaks 1st. We would go quite soon and I remember the routine had been by dad would get out 1st check it out and we sat in the car that he would come out after a few minutes and say Ok we can go where but Jennifer reminded me of one time where we had reservations for the hotel in the hotel reservation and when that he showed up they said all the sudden there was no red some things and he got back in the car very quickly and was upset it was because it was late at night and dark he said down the row some place I remember my mother being very upset and we ended up in the hotel. Well our motel that was a converted barn and I remember me saying it's not like the animals will still be here and it gets. And that's from the film the green book a guide to freedom our guest is the director Ruba rich and just talk a bit about the challenges African-Americans faced traveling back in those days. You know Karen and Jennifer are from New York they travelled through New England with their family and that instance happened when they were traveling to New England and I say that because it's important to understand that this was not relegated to the Jim Crow south the dangers and the humiliations and the fear were really all over the country and in fact in some ways the South was a bit easier to navigate because there were signs so you knew exactly where you could and couldn't go whereas in the north and the West there weren't necessarily the signs but still the same the same conditions so African-Americans had to figure out where they would go where they would be able to sleep and where they would be served and as you just heard they would walk into places sometimes and would be denied and then of course there's the danger the potential threat of violence that met African-Americans there are places called sundown towns that are all over the country mostly in the north and the West and these were places that African-Americans had to leave before the sun went down sometimes there were signs sometimes they rang a bell so the workers who worked the black workers who work there knew they had to get out of the town and these were all over the country right and it was really striking how many more sundown towns there were in the north and Midwest and West than in the deep south Why would that be you know I think it's because the South had legal segregation I mean it was legal and that's where you know obviously with the history of slavery and all that there was a system that was set up to discriminate against African-Americans and in the north and the West that system was not as sort of visible even though it was still there so I think that the sundown towns I mean there were you know they were all over and that races. That was throughout the country these were specific places where African-Americans were either run out of the towns for various reasons or they just never allowed African-Americans to live in the town and these are places where African-Americans worked during the day but had to say Yes exactly and if you happen to be driving through some downtown without knowing it was a sundown town yeah that you would not do that. You know when a lot of us are on a road trip you take for granted that when it's lunch time you know you could find a restaurant or maybe you want to grab some food in the car or go to a grocery store and get stuff for a picnic an African-American family in this era faced a whole different challenges they really had to prepare think hard and prepare before they left the absolute Yeah absolutely you know at the screenings that we've had we've had people stand up after the screenings and talk about how they remember you know their mom wrapping the fried chicken to bring on the road and the the fruit that they would bring and you know and they would just drive and not stop or they knew only where to stop specific places we had one woman say you know she never knew why we only went to certain places but you know as she got older she knew that that was because they were using the green book The Family was using the Green Book and only going to the places that were designated and they did they had to prepare for these for these long journeys and there's the matter of using the bathroom that's hard to plan how did people figure out how to do that. Well a lot of times there were you know you used the green book to figure out where you go where you could do that where there were gas stations and restaurants you had to go on the side of the road I think that one of the things that is interesting is Rosa Parks before she was you know the woman that we know who refused to give up her seat on the bus she worked investigating harassment of African-American women in the south and one of the places that African-American women were most vulnerable was on public transportation or on train stations because they could not they didn't have access to the facilities and had to go in the open sometimes so this is a very deep reality that African-Americans lived with and a big a really big part of our experience that we don't talk about really when we talk about the black experience you know we have often have a very narrow lens in looking at African-American History and I think that the green book allows us to look at so much more you know one of the men in the book so that when they would travel he would bring a sheet in case they needed some kind of a screen or barrier just so papers that are lame sells Well exactly exactly your Ruba rich and new film is The Green Book a guide to freedom it premieres at 8 o'clock Eastern time tonight on the Smithsonian Channel it's also available for streaming on the Smithsonian Channel we'll be back in just a moment this is Fresh Air his program is underwritten by tells therapeutic massage group they accept most auto and workman's comp insurance each of their licensed massage therapist has over 10 years experience in pain relief trauma resolution injury recovery energy balancing an exquisite relaxation tells their period massage group is located at 1332 goose store for road sweetie in town more information 575758380. 68. This is Fresh Air and we're speaking with filmmaker you're. Her new film about the travel guide to help African-Americans find places they could stay and eat back in the days of segregation is called The Green Book freedom so how did they get started. It was created by a man named Victor green Victor Hugo green 1st you know very good at branding called The Green Book and he was a postal worker based in Harlem and he had a Jewish friend who had a guide to places in the Catskills where Jewish families could go and have recreation and and pleasure and be safe and he thought that would be a really good idea for African-Americans he knew that we needed such a guide he also had a wife named Alma and Alma had family in Virginia and they would go and they travel from New York down to Virginia to visit family so he experienced what it was like to drive on the segregated roads and how did he get the information for it's a big country I mean up there was no Internet obviously in that he didn't call long distance from Tim Lee I don't know how did he build his network Yeah I mean it's pretty it's pretty incredible right he did this all before computers he was kind of the one of the original crowd sorcerer's he had his ad network of black postal workers and that was one of the industries of course where African-Americans could break into the Postal Service and he had a network of black postal workers who were he would get information from so you know where the black business is where the black communities let me know and they also encouraged business owners to advertise in the book so these postal workers would be out you know delivering mail and they saw black businesses and they would tell them about the Green Book and encourage them to advertise in it and then a little bit later he would always say in the green book like in the pages of The Green Book he would always say please send in your businesses sometimes he would target markets that he was looking for hey we need more listings in you know Springfield Missouri or what have you so you know. It was a real early form of crowd sourcing and of course the distribution he was able to partner with as so gas station and so distributed the green book in its gas stations Well the that's a big deal because corporate America were not exactly open to you know black employment certainly not black managed back then absolutely So as a really interesting case of how a corporation was really trying to be like on the progressive edge and we should probably just say for younger listeners this is the parent company of what's now Exxon So a big price for oil company right yes it was standard oil then and it was owned by Rockefeller Rockefeller was one of the owners and Rockefeller was married to a woman her last name is Spellman they were from a family of abolitionists Spelman was the started the h b c U's Spelman College in Atlanta the women's college so there was a history of working to advance racial after American rights that Rockefeller had and he hired black chemists very earlier as so did they had they marketed to the African-American community you know they were also smart and they knew that this was a potential customer base right so he began this in 1936 when you know the auto industry was booming and a lot of African-Americans got jobs and could afford cars and were traveling more how did he market it against the us so gas stations were a good way yet that's so gas stations he ventured he printed around 15000 copies and somebody actually got up at one of my screenings too and said you know what it's also important to remember that not everybody bought a copy they would share a copy so they would pass it to their neighbor to their family member who is traveling you know who's about to take a road trip and I think it was word of mouth and the businesses had had them as well and so I think it became the. Distributed 15000 copies because of the s.-o. Connection that really you know gave it a visibility that I think other travel guides didn't necessarily have cause they were there were some other black travel guides too but the Green Book was the one that was the most well known so it really was nationwide it wasn't primarily in the Jim Crow South No it was nationwide I mean Victor Greene started in New York he started with New York listings because there were places even in Harlem at the time that African-Americans were not allowed to go to even in the you know African-American Mecca there was segregation de facto segregation so he started it with New York listings and then soon it went all over the country really by the 2nd or 3rd edition and then he was all over the world by the end he had incorporated Europe Canada Mexico the Caribbean and I think it's also important to to know too that he started it as it was called The Negro motorists guide and then really by the early 1940 s. He incorporated the negro motorists guide to travel and vacation so that's another part of it too that it was. The guide to help African-Americans go to and find places where they could have vacation and leisure and recreation so safety was a big part of it obviously but this pursuit of leisure and vacation was also a part of it yeah I want to talk about some of those resorts but 1st what other kinds of businesses were in it besides hotels and restaurants. Gas stations were listed clubs liquor stores resorts beauty shops tailors in the early ones there are doctors office and hospitals I mean because that just goes to show you as someone says in the film the the breath of businesses and services that African-Americans were locked out of at the time right auto repair could be a big deal if you're on the road Absolutely yeah if your car breaks down we can all you know not all of us know how to change a tire on the road so author of repair and gas stations were definitely a big part of the Green Book. Besides places to stop and stay Victor green started advertising resorts tell us about a couple of it yeah very early on the African-American vacation resorts started to be listed in the book and one of the places that we profile in the film is I do wild in northwest Michigan I had a wild was one of the biggest black resorts in the country it had they said they were you know during its heyday in the early fifty's 25000 people coming up to I don't want and it's have such a fascinating place it was developed it started being developed in 1910 so really really early on African-American middle and upper class were coming to this you know coming to buy lots and build houses one of the early developers was a the 1st African-American surgeon at the University of Chicago who started buying plots there African-American developers real estate owners so it really allows us to see to the how the African-American middle and upper class have always been a part of this country as well and they had amazing entertainers who were there. Sarah Vaughan Louis Armstrong dying Carole all the entertainers would come title wild and it was a safe haven that's what how everybody described it was a safe haven where African-Americans could go and go into the lake and own property and have friends and reunite and really have a community and it's still there I don't while the still still there they are folks who are trying to redevelop some of the buildings property there they have a vents there it's really a beautiful place and there are other ones too and there was American Beach in Florida Highland Beach in Maryland Murray's dude ranch in California Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts I mean there these African-American resort vacation resorts were all over the country one of the other interesting things about the film is that you know how many businesses that were advertised in the Green Book were owned by African-American women. As we were you know developing the film and finding the stories the women owners became you know a real part of what we were finding a real part of the you know how we we were telling the story and one point we looked in the Green Book is they're all online and there are just tons of these advertisements that women had sent in women business owners had sent in that's one of the backbones of our community African-American women and we have always been entrepreneurial and had that spirit of business creation I think even today African-American women are the largest fastest growing number of entrepreneurs so you know they owned restaurants and beauties pollers tourist homes and they're all through the book and it's really a wonderful way to bring that history through the Green Book right and some of them are very small businesses but some of these women were really like major business leaders in their communities you talk talk about assimilating Alberta almost in spring Missouri tell us about her yeah she was amazing I wish I had known her but we talked to Alberta's grandchildren and Alberta own and Albert is a hotel in Springfield Missouri and she at one point she was one of the only listings in Springfield she started with a snack shop and then she was able to buy I think the local hospital the land for the local hospital had closed the local hospital close and she but that property showed up and it had said yes it's just. You know it's a great Exactly and and then bought that and created Alberto's motel and Alberta's I mean everybody came through Albert as they talk about James Brown coming through and all the singers and she was really a woman about town she had her own money she was independent she had the family working there working the motel it was a real thing and unfortunately it doesn't it's not still standing but her grandchildren have really brought her story and kept her story alive. We're listening to the interview Fresh Air's Dave Davies recorded with your rich and director of the new documentary The Green Book which will be shown tonight on the Smithsonian Channel the documentaries about the travel guide for African-Americans that's also referred to in the title of the feature film Green Book which won the Oscar for best picture last night after a break we'll hear more of the interview Ken Tucker will review a reissue of to Ray Charles country in Western albums and John Powers will review a spy novel about an African-American woman working as an f.b.i. Agent during the Cold War I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air. Our Family Foundation supports w.h.y. Wise fresh air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from creative planning an independent wealth management firm whose advisors are fiduciary legally bound to act in their client's best interests or at creative planning dot com n.p.r. Wealth management redefined. And from Viking taking travelers to the heart of the world cities including Amsterdam and Vienna offering a small ship experience with a shore excursion included in every port more at Viking cruises dot com. This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross let's get back to the interview Dave Davies recorded with filmmaker you're ruber rich Her new documentary The Green Book guide to freedom tells the story of the travel guide 1st published in the priest civil rights era listing places across the country were safe for African-Americans to eat shop stay overnight and find medical help while traveling on American highway the documentary will be shown tonight on the Smithsonian. What role did the business owners that were in the Green Book play in the civil rights movement there were some interesting stories or weren't there yeah you know I keep saying we we've seen the footage of you know civil rights footage of marches and poses big ill put upon African-Americans after Americans fighting back but who pays for for the movement who movements cost money and the green book lists one of the places the Gaston Motel in Birmingham Alabama whose owner is a man named a.g. Gaston Gaston was one of the most successful black business people up until that time multimillionaire he had many different businesses and one of those was the gas the motel and the gas and motel was one of the headquarters where Martin Luther King Dr Martin Luther King fought the Birmingham campaign and with the Birmingham campaign was an effort to desegregate the businesses downtown and Birmingham was policed by a notorious racists sheriff who had a lot of power in the town Bull Connor So the photo footage that we you know that we found so Martin Luther King at the motel with Dr Reverend Abernathy a really orchestrating this campaign and a.g. Gaston was the owner let them stay for free and also gave money even though he disagreed he was more conservative and he disagreed with a cunt confrontational approach initially so he and Dr King would kind of go at it about you know what's the right way forward to fight you know to fight for civil rights but he's really unsung hero of the movement and so it was really wonderful to be able to talk to his niece Carol Jenkins who is an esteemed reporter in her own right about that history right after say one thing that made this part of the story. Really fascinating is you know when when movements for change occur years later we know kind of the outcome and it all seems pre-determined back then there were these real debates mean how far how hard can you push How far do you go and potentially alienating other supporters and King was pushing harder Gaston was an established businessman and so while King was pushing action on the street Gaston headlines of communication to the department store owners and. Did they work together did they I mean how did that was it an alliance was it in what was the relationship. I think it was an alliance and also a given given take so there are things I know that King did that gas and did not support one of those was the children's March during that campaign they had all the students come out and March in gas and thought that was a bad idea and there was violence around that and Gaston didn't want the children was worried about the the children being attacked but also to Gaston bailed King out of jail he let them stay for free and he does talk about how he realized that there needed to be a more confrontational approach when he saw the hoses on the people in the park and you know the strength of the hoses were literally making someone barrel down the sidewalk and he knew that things had to change and that confrontation was going to you know it was the only way to attack this problem and there's this amazing footage I think it's in the parking lot maybe of the a.g. Gaston Motel in Birmingham in which Gaston himself is announcing an agreement to integrate some of the shopping areas right absolutely yes so they did win in that they had an agreement with the business owners for to integrate the downtown now of course right after that riots and violence kind of blew up all over the country so you know there was progress made in this particular moment but it's certainly didn't solve the problem of what was happening nationally we were in the midst of the heat of the movement the green book was published over a 30 year span but I'm curious whether the copy in the book addressed issues of racism and discrimination and discrimination or did it simply accepted as a fact of life and say this is how we're going around it wasn't. The later additions where you had where you had the book addressing what the conditions were in one of the later copies in the sixty's it says you open it up and it says Know your rights and it had to you know the places the civil rights laws that were passed on a state level in every state but it was not a political necessarily a political book remember how it was being distributed is being distributed by a white owned business so it was was going to be too political in in its pages but it did have I mean just that business being the Standard Oil Company and it's go Yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah I mean I would imagine that there's a certain you know he knew what he had to do in order to get wide distribution but later in the later in its pages it did have more acknowledgement of you know what was going on and the fight for civil rights that was happening in the country. Were there why don't businesses advertising in the book also yes there were there were white owned businesses I don't know if they advertise I don't necessarily see any advertisements in terms of like pictures I do remember seeing in 11 Chinese own business that advertise in the book I remember that so there were there were some white owned businesses and other other races as well who own businesses in the book so the Green Book ceases publication in 1967 is that right that's right $967.00 is the last year it's published right and I but I guess that obviously has to do with advances in the civil rights movement and the end of legal segregation that's right and what did that mean for all these businesses that were you know that offered these services over the decades it's kind of the unintended consequences of desegregation I mean when when we had segregation we also had many businesses that served the African-American community and that we went to as African-Americans obviously with the and of the passage of the Civil Rights Act that ended legal segregation the businesses opened up and that meant that African-Americans could now go to the Holiday Inn not just the gas and most health for example and it also meant that there was competition for those African American dollars and with that competition you also need money in order to to have your place meet certain standards or to have it you know be able to compete against the Holiday Inn or what have you and that was a challenge for black businesses you know we had these businesses and were entrepreneurs but we didn't necessarily have the economic support from the banks for example that could help us maintain these businesses so what you find is that after the passage of the Civil Rights Act Many of these businesses started to close right and there's plenty of footage in the film of parking lots that are overgrown and. Buildings you know in disarray about a 3rd of them still standing right that's right about a 3rd Yeah is there an effort to preserve or revive these business yeah there is in some cases one of the most exciting cases is the gas and motel where the National Historic Trust made the Gaston designated to Gaston a historical landmark and is in the process of renovating or will begin renovating the motel for reuse So that's a really big effort that was helped by the fact that it was there President Obama named it a historical landmark in places like I had a wild there's definitely an effort to get African-Americans and not just African-Americans but people to buy land there or to renovate to hold on to that history it's more of a you know unofficial effort but that those efforts still are going on you know your film comes out the same year as the feature film Green Book barring legal Mortensen and personal alley based on the story of Tony Vella longer driving Don surely the African-American pianist around the south have you seen the green book movie The Yeah Yeah and you thought before I saw I had you know definitely had kept up with the the sort of criticism it was getting around of course is winning a lot of awards but the criticism it was getting from the family of Dr surely that this was you know a story told by the white drivers perspective and that's certainly the case it's not really it's definitely through a certain lens that's the white driver's lens but in terms of the Green Book The thing that I found frustrating is that it only shows places that they go to you know through the green book as being really as dumps as really not nice places. And that's not the case there were so many you know there more than 9500 listings in the book over the years and places like the gas and which was considered the finest Negro motel in the country so that was frustrating to see that portrayal of the Green Book in the film and the other thing is that they only used it they only picked up the Green Book when they were in the south and that plays into the mythology that this was you know racism was something that was only in the south so those are my 2 big criticisms in terms of you know how the Green Book was portrayed well you're rich and it's been great thanks so much for speaking with us it's been a pleasure thank you so much for having me you Ruba Richen directed the new documentary The Green Book guide to freedom the film will be shown tonight on the Smithsonian Channel and we'll also be streaming her interview with Fresh Air's Dave Davies was recorded last week the documentary is not to be confused with the feature film Green Book which won the Oscar for best picture last night Coming up Ken Tucker reviews the reissue of 2 Ray Charles albums of country music songs this is Fresh Air. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Home Advisor matching homeowners with home improvement professionals for a variety of home projects from minor repairs to major remodels homeowners can read reviews of local pros and book appointments online at Home Advisor dot com. I'm from the Alliance for lifetime income a nonprofit composed of financial services organizations working to educate Americans about options for securing protected lifetime income in retirement more at Alliance for lifetime income dot org This is Fresh Air in 1962 Ray Charles released 2 albums that became surprise hits Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music volumes one in 2 at the time few popular black artists had released collections of country music songs now the 2 albums have been rereleased in a single collection rock critic Ken Tucker has a review. Makes known good prose not. What. Made her as me. I'll get along. With. My $962.00 Ray Charles had fused rhythm and blues and gospel in an artfully gritty way that came to be called Soul music he'd already demonstrated his interest in jazz but few of his admirers foresaw where he'd next turn his restless ambition Charles had moved from Atlantic Records to a.b.c. Paramount records in an effort to gain greater control over his career. And I've been allowed to ask we. Bought him we did. A. Good thing you were. More. Or you don't know that's you don't know me which Ray Charles would have known as a top 10 hit for Eddy Arnold in 156. The story goes that Charles called a.b.c. Producer Sid feller and asked him to compile a list of recent country hits from this list Charles took about 2 dozen and cut his interpretations of them over the course of 2 recording sessions one in New York City and one in Hollywood in general the upbeat numbers were recorded with a tight little band and Ray Charles as backup singers the Ray let's the ballads were recorded with a string section led by arranger Marty page plus some studio backup vocalists. You can hear the smoothness applied to the latter material in a song such as you win again written by arguably the greatest country songwriter Hank Williams Well the the it is the in love loses. On the whole was. The year of the season. Yet still running and. I don't know a little. Sillies both in. High and just can't go lone. You we're going. To leave. A lot of mom I'd like you to listen now to Hank Williams' own recording of that song because it illustrates a problem I used to have with Ray Charles whose version of country music you hear is the. Older hour. That you see we are running around. On soul that I. Should leave but man. I just came told you when to dance. The live bottle. You can hear the intentional rawness and Hank Williams version to be sure Ray Charles his own vocal style his remarkably expressive roar has its own . Kind of rough passion but when I 1st heard Ray Charles as versions of country music when I was a teenager I scorned them I found his interpretations mawkish and the arrangements fussy. Like so many firm opinions formulated in adolescence This was of course idiotic I was too young to wedded to a false notion of authenticity to hear the mature beauty and passion that rippled through so much of this music. The you know Good. Old friend. That version of Don Gibson's I can't stop loving you hit number one for a Charles and help turn Modern Sounds in Country and Western music into a major pop hit. The album became A.B.C.'s 1st 1000000 seller elated the record label released Volume 2 just 6 months later and it too was a smash hit. The it takes the. News from the box and there's a reason. You're a girl older and no longer. Believe in. All my. Years Gone the bomb on it was wearing off. From the song. Set and lose. Big. Like so many pop culture revolutions conceived by African-American artists Ray Charles is venturing to country was initially perceived condescendingly as a novelty my how interesting a soul singer tackling Hank Williams. But as was clear to anyone with an open mind and ears what Ray Charles was doing was seizing country music and extending its reach as American music something every citizen could claim as his or her own as such these 2 albums now stand as great democratic gestures whose beauty remains on d.m. And Ken Tucker reviewed the reissue Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music volumes one in 2 you. Were. The. Lone. Been hog a goalie the. Home we. Know. After we take a short break John Powers will review a spy novel about an African-American female f.b.i. Agent during the Cold War This is Fresh Air. This is. The new thriller American spy 1st time novelist. Tells the story of a theme male African-American agent in the f.b.i. Who gets involved in a Cold War operation in West Africa are critical large John Powers says that Wilkinson is a real talent whose new book takes us places we haven't been about half way John Le Carre Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy It's why George Smiley is discussing the inherent paradox of the cover stories that spies adopt the more identities a man had. The more the express the person. This fan dance of identity with its many concealments and Revelations is central to American spy and excitingly sharp debut novel by the talented newcomer Lauren Wilkinson spanning 3 decades and leap frogging from New York to the Caribbean to the west African nation of Burkean a Faso this literary thriller leads us into unfamiliar territory it pushes a little known slice of American interventionism and it shows us the workings of the intelligence community through fresh eyes those of an African American woman the book's heroine a narrator is Marie Mitchell a one time f.b.i. Agent whose tale like so many spy yarns begins with an action sequence an intruder breaks into her Connecticut home to murder her with 3 young twin sons in tow she flees to her mother's home in Martinique and from there the smart contradictory woman begins writing a letter to her son's explaining how she became a target centering on to keep periods of her life this letter is the book we were reading we follow Marie's childhood in sixty's New York when she worships her larger than life sister a wannabe secret agent who later died under mysterious circumstances and we follow Marie again in the 1980 s. When she's become an ambitious but frustrated f.b.i. Agent in The New York bureau doing small time work she doesn't believe in she gets snitches to spill info on a harmless Pan African group that the feds think is radical things pick up when Maria's approached by a slippery CIA man named Ross he recruits are for an undercover mission involving the Marxist leader of bricking a fossil Thomas Sankara a real life historical figure who was known as the Che Guevara of Africa Sencore is coming to New York to address the u.n. And Marie's mission is to cozy up to the radical. She does and as she begins falling into the Charismatics in chorus spell Ross censored Burkean a fossil for a secret operation whose goal is something he won't tell her and I won't tell you yet rest assured that American spy will not only keep you turning the pages it will do much more than that Wilkinson steeps or thriller in a complicated awareness of huge thorny themes race Cold War a morality the politics of our intelligence services and the ease with which we can become complicit with deeds We actually a whore really lives in a world in which identities are fluid light skinned blacks pass for white colleagues pass for friends traders pass for allies intelligence agencies pass for defenders of liberty Marie herself has many identities starting from the fact that she's a black woman trying to make it in a society run by white men which means as her policeman father tells her that she's already living the double life of a spy it's easier he says if they think you're one of them small wonder that Marie finds herself inspired by son Carla a man who says and acts on what he truly believes all of this has got an American spy compared Le Carre and though it's not as elegantly tools as the master's finest the historical background sometimes gets a bit sticky Wilkinson urns the comparison likely Carre she knows that intelligence agencies are run by individuals protecting their own interests which in Marie's case means the famously white white men of the f.b.i. And the CIA who look down on black agents doubly so a black woman and just as le Carre never tires of showing the ruthlessness of the British ruling elite So Marie reminds us of America's own dark practices be it the F.B.I.'s leading role in the murder of black panther Fred Hampton or the CIA's leading role in the toppling and murder of popular foreign leaders our government didn't like. If you had all romantic about American intelligence agencies welcomes and will make you wonder if you should be in recounting her life as an American spy Marie wants her sons to both understand what she did and to learn from it and what exactly should they and we learn from an anti communist mother drawn to a Marxist revolutionary a black woman who served the white power structure that she knew kept her down the simple answer is that there are no simple answers no moral absolutes in politics or in life if you divide the world into the damned in the saved read tells us you've missed the point of her story. John Powers reviewed the new novel American spy by Lauren Wilkinson tomorrow on Fresh Air My guest will be Pamela Adlon comedy series better things begin season 3 this week she plays a character who like herself is the single mother of 3 who's also helping take care of her aging mother while trying to keep up her career as an actor it's the 1st season without the input of the series co-creator Louis. Severed ties after he admitted to sexual misconduct I hope you can join us. A digital media. Directs the show I'm Terry Gross. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Amazon Web Services whether it's searching for life on other planets or helping enterprises reinvent their industry use. Works to help technology scale to meet the challenge. From Home Advisor homeowners with home improvement professionals for a variety of home projects from minor repairs to major remodels homeowners can read reviews of local pros and book appointments online at Home Advisor dot com. 'd God. You are listening Nicky are easy 88.7 f.m. From Alamosa Colorado New Mexico 98.7 f.m. To watch and also streaming online at k r z 8 dot org connecting cultures along the upper Rio Grande a region in. The. Daily weather forecast for Monday the 25th of February in the same ways Valley in South Central Colorado today sunny highs in Alamosa of 3640 so watch 34 and crest done 35 tonight mostly clear lows in Alamosa 5 San always 17 so watch 12 and Crestone 70 in the north central New Mexico today sunny highs in towns 47 Red River 37 almost 40 to 45 tonight partly cloudy lows in town 17 Red River 13 almost 20 and Santa Fe 24 Thanks for listening to stay tuned for more weather updates. Who. Were really expecting here soon as 1971 does headed into the movie.