Assess0. The United States . Guest well, thanks for having me. Thats a wonderful by broad question to open with and challengen weeing. We are living a moment of crisis, lard to deny. Weve been through a spring dominated by Public Health crisis that with us. Were facing now also so el crisis that is as old as our country, the struggle for racial equality and for human equality. But then also is very much of this moment, and forces us to confront challenges in our society that had trouble with in recent years. This is a time that makes us wonder how strong our institutions will perform to be, how well rise to a challenge like this. Think you cant help but see it as a team of crisis but because it as time of testing its also a time to think about what americas strengths are, walt we are good at and how we can bill on that to address the enormous problems. Host how did we get here . Guest well, thats an awful complicated question. Our country has always tried to strike a balance between th
Of this screen and theres others at the atlanta History Center. We will have q a on your screen ill try to get to them, as many as them as time will allow. Doctor Bettye Kearse as a retired physician, geneticist and nominated essayist for the other madison is her first book it follows a nearly 30 year quest to confirm her lineage. It was called roots for a new generation, Bettye Kearse thank you so much for being with us. Im very happy to be part of this program. Host most of us grow up thinking up as james mattis, wrote the first draft of the u. S. Constitution and bill of rights, what did you think . What were you told about him growing up. Guest well, i was told mostly what everybody else was as you said he was an important figure in American History. But, i was also told that he was my great, great great, great grandfather through his relationship with one of his enslaved cooks, her name was karine. So he was my ancestor. And reminded of this, always remember you are a madison you
Now this is a self selecting crowd. I know some of you already know who Frances Perkins is, but a lot of people dont. So, lets start by asking this question. How many of you know who Frances Perkins is . Oh, yes. This is great. Good, good, good. How about this . How many of you know someone on Social Security . Please raise your hand. How many of you know someone who is receiving Unemployment Insurance or who has ever received Unemployment Compensation . How many of you know someone working a 40hour week . More or less. Frances pirngs work. How many of you know a 12yearold who has quit going to school so she can work fulltime in a factory . Frances perkins work, her ban on child labor enacted in the fair standards act made it possible to keep kids in School Longer instead of in mills and factories. Its awfully noisy here. I want to talk more so you know about the breadth of Frances Perkins accomplishments. A middleaged woman waited expectantly to meet with her employer at his residence
Challenges our society has had trouble with in recent years this is a time that makes us wonder how strong institutions will be how we rise to a challenge like this but because at the time of testing but also think of americas strength what we are good i had as a country and to address the enormous problems. Host how did we get here . Thats a complicated question. Our country has always tried to strike a balance between the dignity and quality of the individual on one hand and some strength of community on the other our society in the past halfcentury has emphasized the individual, liberty, freedom, dy that has brought some enormous advantages and benefits but there is another side to the coin that can look like fragmentation and isolation and alienation and loneliness and we have seen all that and era marked by a crises to the financial crisis to a pandemic that forces us to look to the sources of our strength and ways to drive us to the history and politics is not always good at doin