nominated twice for the pulitzer prize. the author of i think one of the great books about the civil war, america! which was in the library a few years ago talking about it and talking about the importance of the evangelical religion in american politics leading up to the civil war and in some senses, the decline of evangelical religion, certainly the righteousness of evangelical religion after the civil war in the beginning of post-reconstruction era and jim crow. it is i think a great book that refrains from what we have thought about the civil war and what we thought about race and religion in america. in a sense, you get his generation whose new book, when government was good is the subtitle. it may seem like a distant path for some of us today. we phrased also the conversation about the place of government in american history and particularly executiveleadership . it's really a book about truman and eisenhower and johnson who was the coda about those who came after. here in kansas city, home of harry truman and the presidential library, the great presidential library, we know a lot about truman and his executive leadership, particularly in foreign policy, great decision-making and he made the world we know today. less about his domestic policies but david goldfield maintains the case that with regard to race and to the inequalities in american life which we are concerned with today that truman took some of the first steps in using executive powers of the presidency. these aggravating the army, creation of the fair housing act. etc. and to advance the cause of equal citizenship. for all americans. >> what may be more surprising and certainly was to me, is the view of dwight eisenhower. again, a local boy who made good, just down the road in abilene. but eisenhower is a fascinating topic. he also taught how to desegregate the armed forces or we might put to harry truman officially desegregated the arms forces and dwight eisenhower, former general of the army, his orders for the white house were hard for the army to ignore, impossible to ignore. he actually desegregated the army. and with regard to schools, an important and interesting point from the book that it took only about 28 months for dwight eisenhower to desegregate every single school including the schools in this now on military bases. in 1955, they were all desegregated. that isn't the only family of course that david goldfield uses. it's interesting that of course as a follow-up to the decision which of course is also a local decision, a toby can decision that ultimately happens here first as you know, a decision that was made possible because of who dwight eisenhower put on the board. and the follow-up to that is that one of the most interestingexercises in executive leadership . you can make the case, david goldfield that eisenhower, a great pragmatist, worked behind the scenes consistently and powerfully but very pragmatically to desegregate schools, and to advance the cause of the civil war and civil rights. there's an interesting story where he contacted billy graham to ask for his help and billy graham is willing to help but in a very moderate, progressive way. he suggests as of course many in congress do that we need to go very slowly so it doesn'twork really well with billy graham at first . but eisenhower's insistence in this and when the governor resists a courtorder, about integrating central high school, little rock . and why eisenhower sends 101st airborne, to make that integration possible. he calls on billy graham again and at this point billy graham and i quote, in the book he billy graham goes a little bit of a step further and he says to the president and i quote, is this to offer brace for sending troops against american citizens who were at the first time american troops that send internet south since 1877. billy graham assured the president it was the only thing you could do and you could use billy graham's support. there are interesting sideline in this book that reorients, as any good historian will do, make us reframe our view of people. eisenhower established an innate to look at government contracts and to show how important it was inputting the vice president in the united states which nixon charged. they looked at 1000 government contracts that were show discrimination cases and they were able to provide corrective action in 93 percent of those cases under the signature of richard nixon. this is a powerful book. itis about how we look at government , and what we think government could and should do. and most importantly, it is about what government should do. we should not treat all americans equally. it's a stunning review of how hard that was for americans to do and to think about the things that happened in the lifetime of some of us here. the gifted generation by which david goldfield means the guests that we got because of executive leadership in the white house both in education, civil rights, or whatever it might be. and the extraordinary efforts by a number of presidents to make that happen and of course it's still not complete. >>. [applause] >> it's great to be back in kansas city. i'd like to thank the kansas city public library, an institution that's recognized for the program and work it does in the community and also i've enjoyed working with grady day books. in 2011, i attended the 50th reunion of the samuel j tilden high school class of 1961. and i was struck by several things. first i was struck by the fact that this was a working class neighborhood, because in new york city we have neighborhood schools in the working-class neighborhood but these kids had become very, very prominent adults . one person developed the intel processor. another graduate developed the rape kit that's used by law enforcement all over the country. another became a rock 'n roll entrepreneur and introduce bands like genesis into the united states and i can go on and on but the point was that there was nothing really explored that invalidated us but the other thing that struck me was that all of them had benefited from government programs. most of us could not afford to attend college without the help of government. most of us could not afford to attend graduate school without the help of government. most of us could not afford to do their research without , that feels lovely. thank you. [laughter] we couldn't conduct the research we conducted without the help from the government. in 1945, america was a very different place from what it was in the 1970s, just about 25 years later. because in 1945, we had a large marginalized population of roman catholics, jews, sons and daughters of immigrants . african americans. and women, but by 1970, as a result of federal activism, these individuals were making their way into the american enterprise. and by making their way to the american enterprise, they were not only doubling themselves but they were building a great nation and i say yes, let's make america great again. like it was back in the 40s, 50s and 60s.so this book is a story about class and other people too, as well as the presence who shepherded this legislation through the congress. >> :hyde, >> already. there you go. filled in high was firmly rooted in the east section of brooklyn. many of the students parents had moved to the area just afterworld war ii. it was part of the odyssey that russian , jewish and italian immigrants or their offspring undertook the lower east side to brownsville in brooklyn and then to east flatbush. it was an aspirational middle-class, mostly working-class neighborhood and it included some public housing as well. the dutch reformed church where we held our cub scout meetings was a lingering remnant of the time when the area comprised large homesteads and farms. now, synagogues, jewish community centers and roman catholic schools and churches were the dominant institutions of the district. along with tilden high. but the protestants attended tilden high and i met one. during my three years of attendance. of the 5000 students who enrolled in tilden in the early 1960s, 97.9 percent were either jewish or italian . by one estimate. by the time they reached high school and likely before all of us understood that white protestant men ran the country. dominated its politics. its major corporations, it's elite educational institutions and the clubs that perpetuated that power. many understood firsthand including myself how these folks discriminated against blacks, jews and italians which is why we understood that we have to be not only as good but better. which fit well with the chip on the shoulder attitude of brooklynites. i recall many of us crowding into a square at eastern parkway in brooklyn on a cool fall evening in 1960 to hear and see candidate john f kennedy campaign for the presidency. it was exhilarating to contemplate the possibility that one of us for that is how we view kennedy could actually become president of the united states. there on the makeshift wooden platform, congressman victor and he was oh, born in sicily and congressman nanny seller whose grandparents were respectively jewish and catholic, german immigrants. these were our people. and it suddenly seemed as if a barrier had been breached. it was the beginning of many such breaches and that wonderful decade. we did our part. but we also had an active and resourceful governments at our backs. >> and there you see the leaders of tilden high school and let's see. there i am. i had my buddy holly hair. >> there, but the interesting thing about this picture is that i am the boy president of the class. there was also a girl presidents of the class and we shared all the offices equally. mail, you can see the officers with two women and two young men and that's how we grew up. we succeeded the cause of our families, our teachers and our peers. but also because the government created opportunities and infrastructure, education and work that provide us the tools and the confidence to take and lead careers until we foundwhat was right for us . most of us left college and grad school with no debt, imagine that. benefiting from an array of federal programs that advance oureducation , some entered professions that did not exist a few years earlier but emerged before because of federal research plans. these members of the gifted generation came to adulthood confidently in a confident nation. we possessed the freedom to learn, to experiments, even to fail. ultimately, we discovered a life that provided a likelihood and fulfilled passions. >> our stories are told many times over across the country. good government aided that process of discovery. together, we held to build the nation. my book, their history, that of their generation. so let us begin our exploration. >> this is harry truman. grew up not far from here as many of you know. harry truman was a cowboy, something that he didn't particularly like. rolling through missouri alone, 22 in 1906, and age when many young men in independence were embarking on careers, harry was stuck behind a mule or in this case two mules. thiswas not his choice. he had enjoyed school , history, latin and math but his labor was necessary to save the family farm. harry was born into a middle-class family in 1884. his mother martha truman, she was quite a character. she imparted her love of classical music, books and theater to harry. there's one of the common themes of these presidents, they all had very strong, welleducated mothers and pretty much dolts for fathers. their fathers failed at everything . it was the mothers who created these great figures. now, harry really wanted to go to college but he couldn't , so he went to kansas city. and i have a quote here from a journalist at the time, and i didn't realize the last time i was in kansas city but i sure as heck i'm going to explore it now and as one journalist of the time noted, you want to see some sin, forget about paris and go to kansas city. probably the greatest sin industry in the world. can you imagine that? well, kansas city was a bustling place. harry first got his immersion in politics at the 1900 democratic national convention that was held here and he flew up to the oratory of william jennings bryan, an orator from nebraska and he also enjoyed the nightlife in kansas city as well, a great polish pianist piotrowski came to kansas city along with the metropolitan opera, so kansas city wasn't the cosmopolitan place, unfortunately for kerry, his father's efforts at forming failed. and he with some of the back east to help out the family and hence that picture of him behind the mule. well, world war i was a turning point for truman. in that it got him out of the farm and he thought he never go back to the farm. which about the. and instead, he went into politics, county politics, jackson county politics and was quite successful and eventually he ran for the u.s. senate at the behest of the director of the brothers. truman's election, flabbergasted both the national press and his peers in the senate. the new york times referred to him as henry truman. new york times, all the news that fits. >> the times business the senator as quote, a room from pendergast. harry received a lukewarm reception from the senate colleagues. many in the body viewed him as the senator from pendergrast.he was never referred to as the senator from missouri. and republican senator george w noris in nebraska, a noted reformer characterized harry as quote, boys. and refused to him so it was a pretty tough going for harry once he made it into the senate. but he earned the respect of his fellow senate colleagues and by 1937 he was peeking out on the issues of the day. we were in the middle of the greatdepression , and he said in his maiden senate speech, we worship money instead of honor. but it's a pity that wall street with its ability to control all the wealth of the nation and to hire the best law brains in the country has not produced some statesman, some men who could see the dangers of bigness and of the concentration and control of will. instead of working to meet the situation, they are still employing the best law brains to serve greed and self interest. people can stand only so much and one of these days, there will be a settlement. of course, that agent history. . >> well, as you know, harry truman became president. he became vice president in 1944, and between the time of his nomination in july and roosevelt's death in the following april, he visited with franklin d roosevelt a total of two times so he had no clue what was going on in the government. basically he spent his time in washington in the subterranean office of sam leyland, the democratic speaker of the house. drinking bourbon. and it was as one such gathering that he got a call from the white house to come and speak and he had no idea what this was because he was rarely summoned to the white house but he went to the white house and when he went home that evening to his small apartment on connecticut avenue, he was president . of the united states. >> now, harry truman was interesting and here you see him being sworn in. harry truman faced this great conundrum. the world was winding down, it would soon be over. you saw his depression by going to war. the war was over, are we going to go back into depression. he wantedto hear up , to gin up government, to make certain that we wouldn't get back into the depression. we had the g.i. bill. which allowed 8 to 9 million servicemen to go to college. none of the employment rights and it was also true because our economy was changing. we had an industrial economy but the beginning of the 1923, we began to ship way more service-oriented, more knowledgeable economy helped by depression and war that would become more and more prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. in other words, we need people with college educations. and truman saw. >> and he poured lots of money into college education and also poured lots of money into housing. these folks coming back to housing and here you see one of the earliest developments, a house built almost entirely with federal government funds. here you see some kids enjoying it. here's a classroom in 1952 and i guarantee you this piece was going out not normally dressed like that. so there was another trend in postwar america. the tyranny of the second world war, women entered factory work and enter jobs that they normally would not have during normal times . they liked it. some of them didn't want to go back. some of them wanted to get an education, like this young woman from st. charles missouri who attended , i'm trying to think of this small institution. oh yes, the university of missouri. she attended and graduated from the university of missouri and she wanted to be, an advertiser, and the best place to become an advertiser, and work for an advertising agency is new york city so she went to new york city and started to rise through the ranks. it was an age ofmad men, as many of you know , where men dominated the advertising industry, but she made her way. the interesting thing about when that telling is that the letters to the editor of life magazine work scathing, absolutely scathing. they said well, she would be better off changing diapers in st. charles missouri or she's taking the place of men who really need the work, women shouldn't be working and they should be home taking care of the kids. so this is from 1948 and i did some research about gwenda telling and to make a long story short, he was a pioneer in the women's studies movement in the 19 80s and 1980s at many universities around the country, so she put her efforts to good use. also, women wanted to go into professions, professional schools. they wanted to be lawyers, they wanted to be doctors and here you see a young woman at the university of chicago medical school. there was resistance against that too don't forget, in the 1950s , many of the most prominent institutions had quotas against women." as against jews. they had quotas against italians. i have a quote from jc koning, the president of harvard. who was saying okay, in this particular class are going to admit 10 jews and five italians. we've come a long way. since that time. the other stain in american life was immigration. in 1924, we passed the immigration act which surprisingly, 1924 and that immigration act severely limited immigration from southern and eastern europe. now, what religions were predominant in southern and eastern europe ? >> the reasons given and many of these will sound familiar. they won't assimilate very well. they are just different and their religions art, there are two different from the predominant protestant religions. also, we're going to admit criminals. maybe even communists and people with diseases. and finally, these people are not very well educated, they're going to become a burden on government. all of this sounds familiar. these arguments are being used today. instead of catholics and jews just substitute muslims and you get the same argument. this little girl, so moses is 11 years old although she looks much, much younger. she's a leading board distinction in bremen germany in 1946. all of her family was killed during the holocaust. but she was one of the lucky few who were allowed to come to the united states. it is a disgrace and harry truman pointed this out many times. it is a disgrace that we and switzerland, much smaller countries than the united states, took in more refugees from southern and eastern europe in the united states. after world war ii. >>. >> this cartoon i think says it all. you see harry truman, what happened to the one we used a half? us immigration policy. this is from 1946. truman wanted to change the immigration laws. but there was very little public support. it wasn't that public opinion was clamoring for more immigrants. these immigrants were so different. so he used various subterfuge is to try to expand. it didn't do much good. eisenhower ran into the same problem and you can imagine the soviets . they're sayingto the world , they discriminate against catholics and jews. and the soviet union is open to anybody. anybody that's catholic or jewish, they're welcome to come. of course, there was a long line to come in but you get what i mean. >> this is isaac woodward. isaac woodward served during world war ii. he was a sergeant. and of course, he was decommissioned in 1946. and he took a bus from fort benning georgia where he was mustered out of the service. still wearing his uniform. he was home in vanderburgh south carolina. he figured that because he went overseas to against fascism abroad, that he could fight against fascism at home. so as one of the stops that his boss made, he tried to enter a whites only restroom. he was arrested and taken to a prison where then the sheriff down shout his eyes. >> harry truman heard about this and you have to remember about harry truman, independence missouri was a southern town. and in fact, his mom, probably expressed the fact that she stopped on a copy of harry at beecher stowe's uncle tom's cabin. it was different in abilene kansas. one of the eisenhower brothers was abraham lincoln , you can figure out the fanfare there. and mary ellen truman, truman became president and she went to the whitehouse . the sort of gently said mom, you're going to put you in the lincoln bedroom and she said i just as soon sleep on the floor. and when he introduced harold to one of his friends, a congressman from mississippi, you know, this man never met a republican until he was 18. and he said he wasn't missing much. so you get the idea, the background that truman had, yet he transcended it because this was unfair to him. all people should be treated as equals. so he became the first president to address the naacp which he did in 1947. i don't mean to say that these policies only existedin the south . these are some of the things i tell my students. people think racism is something that no, it's in the south but this is a wall and we talked today about building walls. this is a wall in detroit separating a black neighborhood on the white neighborhood and their race riots in chicago, detroit in the 1940s as african-americans tried to move in to white neighborhoods. and i will read this but you can see, this is in miami. which normally we don't associate with racial problems. and here's harry truman speaking before the naacp. the letter apologizing to his mom for what he was going to say because he knew his mom did not, would not have approved. >> what truman was not only a first president to address the naacp, he was also the first president since reconstruction to submit a civil-rights packageto congress . and this was, it didn't get path obviously. a survey taken at the time showed six percent of americans favored civil-rights limit legislation. if you took the south out of that survey, it was one percent. 21 ports to present is even a strong argument. and this is the mark of all of these threepresidents . they were frequently ahead of public opinion. one was president obama so we are leading from behind. eisenhower, johnson had to do that. they led the front. and just when let me review a brief passage including truman's presidency. truman placed before the american public the disparity between the declaration of independence and conditions in postwar america with respect to racial, religious and economic inequality. the message would remain there for every subsequent election until congress and the president could agree on a formula to implement policy to level the playing field for everyone. some breakthroughs would come relatively quickly while others were still waiting. >> truman's class placed oratory to write by contemporaries as both anachronistic and divisive, reflected a deep seated sense that the nations prosperity should be shared, not imported and that government had a responsibility to use his portion of the profits to invest in the people, in their education, and their housing, in their jobs and to ensure of all a fairness in enabling them toreach their most . truman spared and was not merely a slogan that was the basis of his governing philosophy. that was early baby boomers born just before and during his presidency , those objectives would define him as the gifted generation. now we move to eisenhower. and you see eisenhower with his mom i asked over. he was very, very close to his mother. and eisenhower like truman, came from a ne'er-do-well family. but his mom was a college graduate which by the way was unusual for women in those days . and she instilled a love of books and education in young dwight. one of his brothers, arthur eisenhower roomed with harry truman in kansas city so the eisenhower family had some connection. that on his own was about what, 150 miles west of here so dwight eisenhower was born into a struggling working-class family on october 18, 1890. the place was texas , although they moved to abilene, shelby thereafter. eisenhower had a lifelong career in public service and when he was in the military we had very few allusions to what his political philosophy was because of course you're not allowed to do that but he let his foot one time and i quote, it came from his reaction to congressional approval of financial legislation in march 1933 president franklin d roosevelt authority over the nations banking system at the height of the great depression. eisenhower commented enthusiastically but privately, yesterday congress met and gave the president extraordinary power over banking. now if they'll just do the same with respect to law enforcement, federal expenditures, transportation systems, there will be such a revival of confidence that things will begin to move. the point is eisenhower associated government activism with confidence. and when he became president, when the office in 1953, there were pressing problems that of course truman had identified. among them, most of them have all rights. this is a picture, a mug shot of rosa parks just after she was called off the bus in montgomery in 1955. eisenhower completed the desegregation of the armed forces. actually, his wife mainly was the great association and the family, the first thing she did whenthey took office in january , easter was in late march that year in 1953. the first thing she did was order the white house easter egg roll would be integrated for the first time in history and boy, she was not popular because washington dc was in fact a southern town. but eisenhower believed that in order for this nation to prosper, all of its members had to be involved in the american enterprise. and by subjugating african americans, this was certainly not the way to do it and he proved it in many ways. he proved it through his court appointments that really allow the conservative members of his own party, and in fact at one time he threatened to leave the republican party and truman threatened to leave the democratic party and form a party of liberals, just as eisenhower did. and in 19 as you heard, president eisenhower sent troops into little rock, the first federal troops that had entered the south since the 19th century since the reconstruction era. and he was excoriated for this. the saturday evening post which was a republican leaning publication, they said you shouldn't send troops, you should exhaust and force it did exhaust him. eisenhower said we are a nation of laws and law and order must be maintained. a governor or any state officials cannot be by a federal court order. that was the ruling. this is young willie cox. one of my neighbors in charlotte . and in 1953, on july 4, her birthday, she and the family took a trip to the beach in north carolina. and there she contracted polio, just a few months before the salt vaccine was unveiled. and she was paralyzed on the left side of her body from the waist down. and he, she has built her life today, but polio was a tremendous skirt. for those of you were in the 1940s and early 1950s, you know that this was something hanging over you. this summer third of polio. and with the help of the federal government, polio was conquered. the conquest of polio, that imagination soar, envisioning a world without disease or chronic illness. until the 1940s when people got sick, doctors and relatively few medications. by 1956, 80 percent of the drugs in the market had been developed since the previous decade and antibiotics accelerated and accelerated cures and reduce the threat of epidemics. five 1960s vaccines control models, measles and rubella came on the market. government funding research during the eisenhower administration, these advances paid off in longer lives. by 1960, life expectancy had risen to 69.7 years. in 1940 it was 62 years. infrastructure and funding were in place to generate an array of scientific breakthroughs in the coming decades so the gifted generation, the frontier was endless. theywould read the guests many times over . and in fact, eisenhower launched the greatest public works project since the egyptian pyramids and that was the interstate highway program. $900 billion, a lot of money and you can hear people in congress , that's a lot of money. but a lot of people work and kids made our highways much safer. now, the 1960s, or the 1950s was a time of unprecedented prosperity. everything was up, the gross national product increased from 355 billion in 1950 487 billion by 1960 or 37 percent increase for the decade, more important, the wealth was widespread. the median family income doubled between 1945 and 1960. by 1960, the middle percent of americans earned nearly 55 percent of national income. by 2015, they earned less than 45 percent. of the national income. the difference of course that was we had an activist government and now we come finally to lyndon baines johnson. and again, johnson shared many, an assault on the cover of time magazine but this is rebecca baines johnson, lyndon johnson's mom. and the same intelligence, the same motherly devotion to books and education was imparted to lyndon johnson like the mama harry truman and dwight d eisenhower. now, lyndon johnson of the three presidents was probably the poorest. and he went to college for one year and had to drop out. although he eventually finished and he taught at eight mainly mexican-american school in texas. we will house in school, where you can see him in the back, in the back here and it was this experience that was formative lyndon johnson. in realizing that we are wasting resources, unless we activate the resources of all of our people , we are not going to be a great country. and had a tremendous impression on him. and beginning in the 1960s, these resources started to activate. this is betty friedman in 1950 with her son daniel. she's fond of this picture because many people depicted her, although, she had no interest in family. she's just a radical feminist and it's bob. her book, the feminine mystique which came out in 1962 was when the landmark books and there were three landmark books right around that time, betty freedom's book, michael harrington's book on poverty in america and carson's book silent spring and they all generated interest in the white house and particularly in the johnson white house. and the line between betty friedman and title vii of the 1964 civil rights act is absolutely red. needless to say, the feminine mystique generated quite a bit of controversy. there was one really, really tough review in thechicago tribune by a fellow by the name of ridgely hot , but you do a little research on ridgely hot, one of the things you'll find was that in the 1970s he leaves his wife and three kids and has a sex change operation and becomes nancyhunt . interesting, at least to me for critics of betty freeman. now one of the things that, that johnson was famous for, he get right in your face and hear he's getting in the face of a senator from vermont. and i don't have the picture of him actually touching him but he likes to put his hands on him. there was a scene in the white house when you had george wallace come and visit. he sat wallace on the sofa that had such cushy cushions that wallace was not big to begin with was maybe two inches from the floor and of course, johnson is right in front of him and johnson is a big guy and he gets right in his face. and i just want to read to you one of the great things is that johnson recorded all of his readings. lbj allowed wallace to speak first and the governor presented his usual complaints about governments, federal government interference. the president responded, inching even closer to wallace and looming over him at the same time, i know you're like me. not approving of brutality and he had wallace a newspaper with a picture of an alabama state trooper taking an african-american demonstrator. will not to the ground. wallace replied the troopers were only doing their duty to protect property and the citizens of alabama as well as to ensure highway safety. johnson ignored the required and continued to pound the issue of police brutality, getting the governor to acknowledge that some overzealous law enforcement might have occurred in march. lbj moved on to the question of voting rights for alabama whites, wallace protested that he hadno power over local registrars to control the registration process . >> don't ship me about your persuasive power, lbj's shot back. i saw you attacking leon in georgia and you know what? you were so persuasive i had to turn off the set for you had me change my mind. >> .. letter appeared a college debate. now you've got a lot of poor people down there in alabama. a lot of ignorant people appear you can do a lot for them. your president will help you. what do you want left when you die? do you want a great big marble monument to reach george wallace being built or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine board money and across that reads george wallace, he hated. it was very effect is. of course, wallace and johnson were bonding to bloody sunday, african-americans and their white allies to march from selma to montgomery to protest the lack of voting in 1965. on march 15, 1965, i'm not going to repeat this speech because it's one of the most beautiful speeches in american president has ever uttered. it's right up there at the gettysburg address but of course a heck of a lot longer. he uttered the words we shall overcome, which is the anthem of the civil rights movement and they really, for the first time in anybody's memory, and the supreme court appointed him, but there were so moved by the speech that they applauded and andrew young, a member of the leadership conference at the time was watching the address with martin luther king junior and he noticed when johnson said that, tears rolled down his face . and yes, we had a voting rights act. not a final peace, but one of the landmark legislation. this is rachel carson in front of her microscope. former agriculture secretary benson said she's obviously a communist because she wants to attack the chemical companies and moved johnson to ask the clean air act and the clean water act and you can see the need for the clean water act. this is the tire yuba riverine cleveland which caught on fire and this of course is lbj. lbj accomplished a great many things. if one measures the success of an administration by legislation, then lyndon johnson was one of the most successful chief executives of all time. some of the credit goes to the remarkable 89 congress that the website victory in november 64 appeared between february and august of 1965, the congress passed the voting rights bill, education though, which for the first time ever federalize funds from a housing bill that included supplements to poor families, targeting more than $1 billion for the economic development of that region in a series of environmental bills and the control of billboard advertising. these are only highlights. the johnson administration introduced a wide range of legislation to the congress. the observer said that lbj had set the bar too high, that he himself set himself up for the inevitable fall when they became scarce, but went courageous to forge a society based upon equity and justice. though it did not come point out way, america was a bitter place in 1965 than it was in 1945. their ideals in the work they would accomplish over the next 50 years reflected the transportation in american society. educational petitions come employment opportunities in the political system were much more open and accommodating in 1965 in the night 1045. more people engaged with their country and more people wanted to have a voice in its future. the nation had achieved a balance between individuals thriving and collective responsibility between government action and private enterprise. but it was a tenuous equilibrium. five days after johnson signed the voting rights act, and riots, race riot los angeles. take a look at this. the reason why i put it up here is frankly i can't read it because if i read it, it would make no sense. there is a story that comes with it. john marshall junior high school in brooklyn, now the bethune academy in brooklyn because john marshall was the slaveholder, nevermind he was the first chief justice of the supreme court. the student population today is overwhelmingly african-american and 92% african-american and 1% white. i mention this because something that happened earlier in the 1950s and 60s and relates to a gentleman who is principal of john marshall junior high. by 1958 he was in his fourth year as popular principal. like many administrators he developed a proprietary interest in the school. it was the center of his life in the school's recent deeply troubled him. john marshall is in a transitional neighborhood of crown heights in brooklyn and he requested police protection for his students. the new york school board declined because they associated police protection for segregation in the south and they wanted no part of that. late 1957 a black student at the school a 13-year-old lined white girl in a stairwell. the city board of education held firm to his policy. the call before the grand jury investigating the rape. two more were being investigated another rape perpetrated by a black student to maintain order at the school and the lack of cooperation from education administrators. on the morning of january 28, 1958, claimed to the roof of the six story apartment building in brooklyn and jumped off. the board of education installed police and the school. this is a sequel as i discovered any journalist, george allen decided to go undercover and posed as a student at the school, as a substitute teacher at the school. i won't go into what he discovered, but it was even worse than you might suspect. this actually i obtained a facebook post from one of the students. his name is rachel, four years ago, that is 2013. don't go to this school and you can read it. as you can see, the syntax and the spelling is not very good. so this is what we confronted after the civil rights movement. and you can remember the euphoria and the march on washington. i have a dream martin luther king jr. said. then five years later in 1968 amid the mark in the mud of resurrection city in washington d.c. with the police moving the demonstrators out, we had fallen long away from the ideas of the civil rights movement. and then began the attack on government. see how much better things are without the heavy hand of government coming air pollution and acid rain, monster takeovers , airfares, phone companies can a savings and loans, consumer protection, job safety, ladies and gentlemen, this is not ancient history. and it didn't begin with ronald reagan. it began with jimmy carter. nowadays the adversity against the government as a result of the racial disturbances, results in vietnam, require the leader to take charge and say hey, we haven't had the backs of our citizens. we need to go back to our basic government. as abraham lincoln said, government must do the things individuals cannot do for themselves or can not do well for themselves. so it's as old as our democracy. and yet, beginning with jimmy carter, accelerating with ronald reagan, bill clinton and george h.w. bush, bill clinton and george w. bush and barack obama, government has not returned to its activist state. and here you see the results. use the in the 50s and 60s inequality with increasing slightly, but it really dropped during the reagan administration and never really recovered. progressive taxes during the eisenhower administration, the tax bracket was at 90%. not the corporate rate is at 35% in the new tax proposal knocks it down to 20%. and you can see basically from this grasp of the top 1% share of the total income has been going up, up, up. now i want you to focus on that picture for a little bit. for selfish reasons. that is a beautiful granddaughter. i wrote this book and dedicated it to her. the affirmative state indeed merit economic inequality, expanded civil rights and maintained the prosperous economic order. the role of the state is to maintain a balance in public policy. not privileging one part of society over another. good government strength as a nation. perhaps in to regenerate the nation entitled to that were in the decades after world war ii. what is lacking is leadership to grow and energize the many rather than just a few in the people. thank you very much. [applause] >> if i could ask you a couple questions. >> thank you so much for your wonderful book. [inaudible] imply that there has to be -- [inaudible] so do you think that the hidden was done in american government government -- [inaudible] 's and the leadership that comes [inaudible] >> that's a great question. i'm basically not doing this because it happened before. we were floundering as the nation in the 1870s and 1880s great deal of, great deal of wealth. there were talks on organized labor. it was very difficult times and leaders emerged in the 1890s and the democratic party such as william jennings bryan mentioned earlier and in the republican party, and these are people, but they had this vision that we must serve the commonwealth instead of special interest and a flower during the administration of woodrow wilson and again, he wasn't perfect in some areas, but it's a combination of pressure from the people and the elevation of great leaders and it happened in the late teens and early 20th century and there are no guarantees. >> you mention that president eisenhower -- they work to achieve the vision and i read a study that came out this week -- [inaudible] and they influence our judicial system for the next four decades. >> that's a really good point because a federal judiciary are extremely important and eisenhower really reshape the federal and judiciary in some of the greatest decisions in the civil rights era became of his appointments. his appointment of royal warrant and chief justice of the u.s. supreme court in 1953. his appointment with william brennan and a number of others. the fifth circuit court of appeals in the south. they were absolutely crucial. there is an anecdote that herbert brownell, the attorney general for dwight eisenhower in part in 1962 when he returned to new york city for private practice and he came back to washington for occasion stopped by and saw some of his old friends in the senate including the senate judiciary committee james e. flynn from mississippi. at that time, of course democrat john kennedy was in the white house and brown now and e. flynn over these judicial appointments. and so he comes into his office and says jim, how's it going. well, much better since you guys got out of fear. in the southern federal judgeships, kennedy appointed hard-core segregationists. you may have caught the fact that i went from truman to eisenhower to johnson and i skipped over john kennedy. i am not very positive chapter as you will see. >> i wonder if you can comment on lyndon johnson, of the political ramifications of what would happen, especially in the house when he pressed very hard to get an important civil rights legislation passed. can you comment on his actual understanding of what was going to happen as a result of that. >> lyndon johnson obviously knew this out very well. one day after the 1964 civil rights act was passed, which struck down segregation, he turned and said well, you just delivered the republican party for a long time to come. and he was absolutely right. prior to the 1960s, we had a four party system. we have the democratic party consisted of democrats from the south and northern ethnic democrats often insidious governed by democratic party losses. it was a really strange party. the republicans also had a split between the liberal republicans. some friend this area in nebraska and new england and the more conservative reactionary republicans. the full party system frustrated all the presidents talked about, but it got things done because you had to build coalitions. there were never enough votes within your parody to get progressive legislation passed. that beginning in 1948 and truman started this, in 1940 when southern democrats withdrew from the democratic party to form the dixiecrat party, even though they came back in, they broke the spell because in the south, i know this very well because in the south, the only thing protecting republicans were game laws. that is a shooting season for deer and so on. if you wanted to register to vote you had to register as a democrat could it be registered as a republican you never get a job and they probably investigate you. the democratic party in the south was the party of the civil war and you don't forget that. it's as important as religion. but this began to break during the last 10 the south voted solidly democratic was 1944. 1948, 1962, every four years after that, the south was split until more recently it became more solidly republican. in 1980, ronald reagan began his presidential campaign in philadelphia, mississippi. if you wanted a symbolism and a dog whistle to white supremacists, that is where you started your campaign because it was in philadelphia, mississippi the civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964 in the very name philadelphia, mississippi noted this tragedy. so we have two political parties allegedly. some political scientists say that clinton governed as a moderate republican and i have a number of things clinton did which show in 1996 he said the era of a government is over. while he was two decades early and he played a hand in government for some people. his presidency will not go down well, will not fare well among future historians. president obama, also a democrat was better, but you know, bailing out the banks, but not bailing out that the terms of the banks goes to show you both political parties today played to the same constituency it's just that they are in different areas. one in finance and the other in oil and restricted industries. we've got a change that. any other questions? >> david, thank you very much. [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> as we created likewise manner, we know we have to get people on board. we have to interact with people try to co-opt black lives matter. we spent a significant amount of our first year challenging people in around the bed sometimes i would love an artist did not say our lives matter, to not say other communities matter, but to focus on black people and to be okay and the allies and be in solidarity and then we took it after the world. >> so rule number one on this conspiracy that is undermining your aspiration. and they need to be clear because this is the same thing to a mainstream caucasian audience last week in new york city and i will say it to everybody that your problem today is not that you are black or white. it is that you are part of what i call the invisible class. you are invisible to power, invisible to wealth. you don't feel like your vote counts. that's why 100 million people didn't vote. unaired, a guy in the media right now. i won't mention his name. he's done a lot of great thing for social justice and civil rights but he didn't know. that creates an environment where some people become elected in office they don't represent your interests and maybe even public interest, though we endorse that by not voting. when you feel invincible you don't show up in your own life. extremely import point which means the bad guys win. so i want to meet clear here that there is a boogie man in your life. but it's not just your life. 80% of everybody in america because 70% of all americans are living paycheck to paycheck. if you live in new york city make $70,000 a year you are struggling to make ends meet. atlanta georgia making $50,000 a year, $40,000 a year, which is middle-class, struggling to make ends meet. can i get an amen? that was a black men, amen, latino, just in amen. small-town alabama making $30,000 sierra, struggling to make ends meet. a white rural community, struggling to make ends meet. too much month at the end of your money. a third of all americans have to sell their cars to raise $3000. 65% of americans to have $500 in savings for an emergency. 65% of americans own a $500. that's not a racial thing. it's a human thing. something going on in the world. this is a global issue, by the way. 1% of the worlds population don't have open off of the world. i'm going to repeat that. by the way, these are not rich caucasians. these are rich asians, rich russians, rich africans. these are just rich people from all parts of the world who got the memo.

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