Gentlemen. We just completed the Film Festival showing im not sure negro by james baldwin. The keynote speaker spoke about that particular film and since he is the biographer, the most important voices. Herb boyd is a founder of the metro times and has an experience in launching at Wright State University now very extensive and in many ways like malcolm x. Having spoken at harlem and detroit. We are happy to have him and doctor reda the former director of studies at michigan State University and is currently professor of International Relations and african affairs. Shes written seven books, five in print and several Journal Articles on topics that include the comparative politics and relations of africa, corporate development. An exemplar for the studies excellent work if you havent seen it, though bookstore and of course now the book entered today we want a complete sellout of that book. Also the Award Recipient of the Outstanding Dedicated Service to the community by the association for the study of africanamerican life in history into the charles h. Wright. And the university of south africa on behalf of the board and executive of course president and ceo the staff and volunteers would welcome you and like you to join me in welcoming to the stage doctor rita. [applause] the man of the hour and activist, journalists and College Teacher whos dedicated his wideranging career to the concerned and the causes of africanamericans. The culture and history and awardwinning author and journalist hes writtenand edited 24 books making him one of the prolific authors out of detroit. [applause] hes written accomplished articles at the National Magazines and newspapers including the amsterdam news is very important journal in the africanamerican experience, where he has been a freelance reporter for over 30 years. We shall overcome the history of the movementhasnt happened as an important book of course he would say and i agree it was published in 1995 that won an american book award for nonfiction. In 1999 he won three firstplace awards for his articles published in the amsterdam news where he has been a frequent contributor for more than 23 years. Three centuries of history told by those who lived it. Conducted both in the literary hall of fame for the writers of american dissent at Madison Square garden hall of fame. Purchase this book not only for yourself befor but for your chin into the next generation if chronicles from the 17 hundreds to the present. Please give a round of applause. [applause] i want to start in the preface todays discussion by commending three exemplar Cultural Institutions. First is the museumand making sure it remains educational consciousness. [applause] thank you for your work you are a Cultural Institution for detroit the third person is todays author. The author of 23 books and this is the 24th 25. A prolific author its not the only book that hes written and it is an honor to be with you again lets turn to the book and have a great discussion. It is a chronological detail it is unheralded because of color. I agree all 29 chapters and the 400 pages of this book are the stories you speak about. Books are very detailed and interesting. We will have conversations about the highlight and let me just sort of provide some of the highlights about the themes that you relay in the book. You will tell us about detroits role in the underground railroad this is a book that talks about detroits first city in downtown that commemorates the members of the regimen among the first to be deployed as minutes against the confederates. A whole chapter on this. This is a book that talks about the gilded age profiling the social and cultural. Sugar ray leonard, malcolm x. , elisha mccoy. The great migration and how detroit becomes a social engine that gave rise to the National Urban league. It is the location of the tria trials. This is a book about the race rebellion not just 1967 but 1833, 1943. And then in 1967. This is a book about detroit and the arsenal for democracy. The march on washington [applause] this is a book of the history of the threat. Fostering the musical genres my favorite is a book about black studies and radical intellectualism. The members of the league. So, reflecting on the books subtitle a peoples history of selfdetermination is about people and people need to look at peoples perspective. People need to know that it comes from detroit. The language, the experience, the kind of fortitude and certitude and certainly intelligence. [applause] 97 years of age she is so just as alive and she is right here. [applause] next to her at wayne State University we try to deal with the political scene that is very intense. [applause] he left alabama with me. My mother had already done her bit, since here in the city checking out things and brought us about a couple of months before the riot we like to make this distinction between a riot and a rebellion. It is a race riot, no doubt about it and they have a couple of photos that capture some of the intensity i dont know if they see it as Chronological Order but that certainly is coming out of the riot and of course my mother was right on the weakness to see a lot of the turmoil that occurred. But 1943 is kind of in the middle. Within a generation you have the influx coming into servitude and this is the start of the foundation for me looking at the revolution and a lot of people are not aware slavery ended right here in detroit south and they are not aware that it was in new york. Draw some parallels to the. Going down to 1943 and almost for the same conditions that created that. When they first arrived here it is an issue of housing and jobs they pioneered the idea. The National Urban league was centered in new york but detroit was kind of the test case of that and they were absolutely tireless making sure most of them came in from alabama and there was a straightline migration. Of course rosa parks is going to come on and on the connection is live and that the foundation of detroit. One of the things i enjoyed about the book which comes out in the way you talk about detroit is the biographical nature. You begin the book and the instruction. You talk about your mother in detroit. When they put out that 5 a day and then the chicago defender complicated the motion its spread all over the country however when you look at the people in alabama, mississippi and georgia they already had some incentives. They had all the motivations in the world to get out of this house but here comes this 5 a day possibility. You talk about the sharecropper as the subsequence in the reconstruction period in the 20th century. The influx was so great to talk about the social welfare that was necessary to make it comfortable. They can all live right next to each other and benefit the class amalgamation going on at the time but that would be the opportunity to have contact with people of another class. That is another narrative and how that comes together from one generation to another. At the same time as people were running to get these jobs they are hazardous and the worst paid jobs because the janitorial or the jobs that were relegated in this kind of desperation they face in the south so they begin to look at that migration and influx of the population was a dramatic increase in the population here in detroit in the 1920s. Its going to happen again in the 1940s. Again they are at the point of production and increase population and there is intensity among the various ethnic groups. I want to go back a little earlier than any of us have been quite disappointed at the fact that the underground had been canceled after the second season. However he recounts the story and the role that detroit played in the second and third chapters. Could you recounts the role that detroit played . Lets see if i can go back to this fantastic sculpture he did the one at the waterfront where theres a group of people looking across the detroit riv river. Many people come to detroit and this symbolizes the underground railroad when you have people like Madison Lightfoot going on and on for these pioneering abolitionists many of them being quakers because William Lambert had been schooled, educated and lived among the quakers in Trenton New Jersey and arrived in detroit. He was a main investor of the underground railroad. It was a process to get away from bondage and the socalled peculiar institution and end up in detroit. It symbolizes the people and when that act was passed they arrived from louisville kentucky and thought they found a safe refuge but with the passing of the slave act that meant you had to go a little further if so these people were looking across the Detroit River to windsor and sometimes that wasnt far enough, you have to keep going to ontario or toronto and of course chat him later on would become a very profound community of abolitionists. Its beginning with William Lambert and Frederick Douglass comes to detroit. The selfdetermination. Its the mystery they had a coding and they trained obese individuals on the underground railroad in case you encounter some of those. In terms of the first africanamerican to teach iafril system, so we have this conjunction and its going to be a collaborative situation from one generation to another entertainment enthusiasmwe will see that happening time and time again in this whole odyssey. We now have in detroit aretha franklin. You write about the gilded age of detroit and say that it occurred after 1870 and you say that this was a bountiful era purpose of the budget established the city as a gateway to the west. This is the Foundation Upon which many of the cities contributions of her. And you talyou talk about this f genre in the trade and that this opens up the way to the contributions that we later see. That opens up cultural theme and we can talk about the workers in terms of the Union Movement and how pivotal they were in that particular odyssey and development and we can also talk about the entrepreneurial family and people talk about the real mccoy to the city of detroit for the innovations that were coming from the geniuses in terms of their creativity. You cannot ignore the creativi creativity. You have those innovators coming along so above the entrepreneurial firms you have the Cultural Foundation of the city and all you have to do is go over lloyd avenue and go to the library and you have the collection. What a phenomenal woman she was not only as an artist and performer but a compiler of artifacts and their you can find she was tiger woods for the nextgeneration and a good sailor, too. She taught many others including those that came along in the 1950s. That is from a classical standpoint nonetheless. I was driving up the other day and went past an old blues joi joint, it was blues alley along the way in terms of moving out obefore it jumped all the way to 12th street where the blues or very prominent. But in terms of the blues and the city, you cant ignore that and it carries on into several important singers in the next generation that picked that genius that existed. Then in terms of creating motown is the soundtrack of a generation, the members of the temptations, the holland brothers, Smokey Robinson. Right across the hall it had nothing to do with jefferies projects but they were the cousins who Smokey Robinson so whenever he came over they would rehearse so we heard a lot of the songs before they were recorded. My mother was fantastic finding a living space for us. She put me in contact with so many different social develop so thank you. [laughter] if i were near black bottom all the way to 8mile road. When i was on 8mile road when we had the law if separated and its still there with a creativity added to it we find some ways to give it a cultural turn and a. M. Emphasis for what it means as a people as we move along the. Of the neighborhood i want to single him out because the photos in the book were given to me. We had been together for years working different publications and everything and i thank you for all of your work. [applause] this is one of his photos right here. Thats what happens moving from one neighborhood to another. The north end was the most beneficial neighborhood i lived. My mother and i. , i was driving her from the towers in highland park. We are driving down the freeway and point out the Baptist Church is still there and it used to be boswell drugs. Of course we talk about the whole entrepreneurial thing so they look at these businesses all the way back to the problem family. Theres important elements of the culture. 1950s, 60s and 70s you could end talk about any major ensemble that didnt have an africanamerican from detroit. That has the opportunity to work very closely with my mentor who taught me some lessons on the flute. It was generated by the system as a phenomenal musician. The whole music thing. She is now heading up the department in pittsburgh. I was on the phone talking to james carter and the photograph books i did and it captures the essence it goes all the way to europe. They go on and on with the jazz musicians that came out of this. The music universe wouldnt be complete without motown. He was reluctant even to do that but they stayed on the case and came out like whats going on so that was the music that captured the whole spirit of the movement and all of those individuals had connections. Do you think you might be able to give me in autograph a. The politics that you count its not just a hotbed for both civil rights and you recount the sto story. Can you talk about the role that you heal a in detroit as a precursor of this for the black civil rights nationwide
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