So really i want to thank everybody for being here today. All right. Lets get started. Todays session and conversation is about equ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ race study. I want to get started, first lets give our guest a round of applause. [applause] i want to start off first with some of the introduction in jeffs book. The introduction on the crisis cycle and i want to hit a couple of points and open it up to jeff and dr. Cunningham. Mark, is it okay that i call you mark . Please, please. Race makes itself known in crisis, in the singular event that captures a larger pattern of abuse and pain, we react to crisis with the flurry of words an sometimes action. In turn the reaction sparked its own backlash about rage, justification and denial, the cycle turns next towards exhaustition, complacency and before we know it we find ourselves back in crisis. They are not abstract thing and impact real people and real life in terms of poverty, annual income and schooling, inscars r
Here. I want to talk about the brown decision. It occurred before you were born. What was the discussion, if any, in your family or what was the feeling about what this might mean . My parents had quite a different take on government and the issues of race. My father actually in the discussions actually thought it was ridiculous that the highest court in the land even had to come to the conclusion of discussion that separation separate but equal was immoral. He always saw things in terms of moral and immoral. Had the discussion to make a decision to make the facilities equ equal. His attitude was, son, they can try for the next 20 or 30 years to make the facilities equal, but the only way my children will have a quality education is that i got to ep sunsure that i happens. I have to make sure it happens before they enter kindergarten by reading to them, having them read to us, reading in the newspaper, go together library. I will never trust the government to ever educate my children o
This program is about 90 minutes. Mr. Bond Justice Thomas, thank your for being with us on explorations in black leadership. I want to begin with a question about brown v board. Did you have some sense that this was a big deal . Justice thomas well, not at the time. The big deal was learning the multiplication table and learning how to add, but as the years went on, particularly 1956, 1957, you got a sense of it because there was quite a bit of talk about it. My grandfather was very involved in the naacp, for example. So you heard that. You also heard, as i mentioned when i wrote my memoirs, that we saw the impeach earl warren science along the highway. Signs along the highway. Later on, i would figure it out that it was the chief justice of the United States and he was in trouble. Mr. Bond i guess there is no way i could ever say would you ever think youd be sitting at the building where girl worn worked . Where burrell worn earl warren worked . Did you have some idea of what it might
Justice thomas i did not think i would even see the building where he worked. Mr. Bond did you have some idea of what it might mean, what it could mean as opposed to what it might have turned out to mean . Justice thomas you know, my grandfather was an interesting man. And he felt that as you as these rights were vindicated, that we had an obligation to measure up, to use them. I would give you an example. When the Savannah Public Library finally desegregated and we were allowed to go to the main library, his point was that we were obligated to use it. That is, we had to show up no matter what and we had to read books because we finally had a right to do so. When it came to education, as the rights became available, we had an obligation to use them properly. So he would say to me, in 1964 when i went to the seminary which was previously allwhite, he said, dont shame me and dont shame the race. In other words, you have to perform. Mr. Bond do you think that the brown decision had someth
You also heard, as i mentioned when i wrote my mem wires, that we saw the impeach earl warren signs and i always wondered who this earl warren was. Later on of course i would figure it out, that it was the chief justice of the United States and he was in trouble in part because of brown. I guess there is no way i could say did you ever think that you would be sitting in the building where earl warren worked. Not only didnt i think of that, i didnt think that i would ever see the building where he worked. Now, as you found out what it meant as you grow older, did you have some idea of what it might mean, what it could mean as opposed to what it may have turned out to mean . You know, my grandfather was an interesting man, he of course, dominated our lives and he felt that as these rights were vindicated that we had an obligation to measure up to use them. I will give you a separate example. When the Savanna Public Library finally desegregated and we were allowed to go to the main librar