Americans have forgotten and im not talking about a handful of places but in all of the major public universities and colleges large and small, public and private. If your purse the typical American Literature professor and ask why there are no black writers on the syllabus, where is Richard Wright or Langston Hughes or james baldwin, you would probably be told that they were not worthy of inclusion on aollcuul but i think that all disciplines in the liberal arts have that impacted for the better. You address some of the critiques lot dash an africanamerican studies. With this doodoos first learn these demands first the students started just by negotiations and medium is and trying to do research to demonstrate this was an appropriate area of inquiry but in light of foot dragging and a lack of change the students the tactics. They engaged in direct action protest, the classic form of protest. They went on strike, occupied buildings, organize demonstrations. Because this was a time in American Society where we had summer after summer after summer of serious urban unrest many College Administrators were nervous. What we found is that what i found in my research is that they granted this concession and said we will give you an Ethnic Studies Program and did not mean that they actually thought these fields were legitimate or serious areas of academic inquiry. They were trying to placate students and that this would go away, maybe it will dissipate. The students will move on. Not really a serious academic endeavor. There were absolutely wrong. What the students did was create the infrastructure for home and field of American Research and intellectual growth so that today we feel africanamerican studies kind of like to these programs. Ii think that scholars in these fields are produced awardwinning scholarships. They have gained a firm place in american higher education. And that senses and it is a story of incredible resilience and success. Despite long odds and intense opposition. That is still click on michael. One of the figures of the late 1960s1960s that inspired this phase of the black freedom struggle. Black College Students across the country greatly admired Stokely Carmichael who was a student at Howard University that was one of the most important civil rights organizations. After the achievement of the Civil Rights Act leaders set their sights one of the leaders of that shift away from the south to the north to the west and crisscrossed the country. Really inspired students to take action. What was the importance during this Student Movement . Thats a great question and is counterintuitive. Counterintu itive. Historically black colleges and universities would be sights of struggle. At a time when many were trying to widen opportunity and predominantly white institutions. What students have come to learn by the late 1960s is that integration as it was playing out in American Education and american schooling was not a twowaya twoway street. It was really coming at the expense of black institutions. While desegregation, equal rights, full inclusion, certainly remained the main call by leaders, by black civil rights leaders and leaders of the black power movement, there was a concern that the brown ruling the way it have been implemented to the extent it had been implemented very slow and piecemeal meant the loss of black institutions, black teachers, black principles, and many black schools that were Important Community institutions have disappeared, been shut down in the aftermath of the implementation of brown browns reported that in the state and local level. Hbcus, black colleges and universities even though they might be funded by white legislatures are funded by white philanthropists were important black Community Institutions they gave crucial administrative and faculty jobs to black professionals and had a much better rate of producing black graduates and white universities, particularly in the areas of law, medicine, and other professional fields. Instead of integrating a ladies institutions in the white universities they want to preserve and defend and upgrade and modernize and improve black colleges and get more black control over the funding and running a black historically black colleges. Two more funding for state legislatures, the curriculum after them for a new era. Host what happened . Guest jackson state is in jackson mississippi. A season of violence inflicted on black students by law enforcement, state, local, National Law Enforcement that was often called in to question protests. And that led to serious loss of life that most americans dont no about. Many people dont know about the students killed at kent state. A few people know about the students killed the jackson state, but there were at least a black students killed and many more wounded and injured on various College Campuses during these years. Jackson state, police opened fire into the windows of a womans dormitory. Can you imagine . They did that at jackson state. They killed two young black men at Southern University in baton rouge. They fired into a crowd killing students in the back. The same thing happened at orangeburg South Carolina in 1968. Law enforcement shot and killed three students in the back as they were running away. Thisthis is an example of the kind of heavyhanded lethal in many cases resistance in opposition the students phase ii were trying to literally improve their colleges, gain access to the middle class. Colleges are seen as the bedrock of the american dream. Studentsstudents were trying to realize that for themselves and they faced mass arrest and violence, including lethal violence on many campuses. Host who is the black revolution on campus written for . Is it a scholarly text, accessible to the general public . I wrote it hoping to reach multiple audiences. I wanted to reach undergraduate students and i wanted colleagues and other historians to read it, but i wanted a ride or public to read it. This is a story that many people can relate to. 1960s are a critical time in american history. Many changes are in the 1960s, affirmative action club black studies, ethnic studies, ethnic studies, latino studies, womens studies all come out of this time. What is atwhat is at the heart of this is human drama, human stories. There are people stories in peoples lives at the center of this book. Ibook. I did not want it to be filled with academic jargon even though i wanted to make a scholarly intervention. As a human story and incredible struggle and aspiration and contribution at the heart of the book. Host here at northwestern university. A hotspot fora hotspot for the black movement of the 60s and 70s . Surprisingly it was. You would not think it would be aa hotbed of black radicalism, but in its own way it was because it was right next to a Major Urban Center that had a really important local civil rights struggle, local black power struggle with very important organizations and leadership. Many of them came to chicago. 1965, 1966, 19671965, 1966, 1967 that had as there goal to widen opportunities to a much larger group and to, you know, transform the curriculum and convert northwestern from an overwhelmingly White University with an overwhelmingly white or euro centric curriculum into a multiracial learning environment with much more access and opportunities. They lost struggle in 1968. They plan to sit in. They engineered a really successful protest. They take over over the building for a couple days. A great media strategy. They were able to win many demands driving today and has one of the phd program, one of ten or 11 in the country that can serve phds and africanamerican study. Host what is your background . Guest initially as a young person i wanted to be a civil rights lawyer. I grew up in connecticut and came into political social consciousness as a young person in the 1970s and was very taken with the black liberation movement, the womens movement. Just the words like equality, freedom powerful and important. When i went in the high school and college i was very much taken with the social movements and the issues they were raising wanted to fight for justice and have the opportunity of taking history classes in college and saw particularly in the study of African American history and the black political thought that many of the issues that i thought were urgent in the contemporary, many of the issues i wanted to pursue as a lawyer, the deep historical roots and that they were being debated and played out and africanamerican history, and i, and i found it to be a vital area of inquiry. I decided to go to graduate school in history as a result and change my career plans. I really have focused all of my research and scholarship in the area of social movement and black radicalism seeing what i wanted to bring out in my research and book is the extraordinary impact that the black liberation struggle has had a democratizing American Society more broadly. Host the black revolution on campus is th [inaudible conversations] thanks for coming out tonight on a beautiful spring evening. A few housekeeping items seized turnoff for silent your cell phones. We will have a question and answer portion we are recording and cspan is videotaping so please come to the audience microphone. And please call up your chairs and clean them against so they will give more space for the book citing. I read all of the events in the store if youre not familiar with politics prose sign up for the email were operating inside for busboy implications so were doing more than ever. Were so happy to have our friend back with us who has been here four times before to talk about his book 1920 the year that made the decade roar this is not your typical. I dont drink coffee i thought it was the taste. But maybe instead. [laughter] it is my lack of coordination so ask your forbearance i am a flawless speaker but i may have been done in by a coffee stain. 1920 was a remarkable year not just because of the events that they were harbingers of defense that what happened later in the decade, later in the century and even to events which happened in this century to of the major events. Thursday september 16, 1920 Trinity Church on wall street the final bill from the tower sounds the noon hour at that precise instant a horse standing in front of the Jpmorgan Bank across the street explodes. The horse explodes into so many pieces that nine and could ever be found. I will not be questioned. [laughter] it was attached to a cart into the side was the equivalent of 100 pounds of dynamite in addition to the 500 pounds of cast iron of when it occurred had the effect of shrapnel and it was lunch hour wall street was full of hungry men and women from the financial institutes going to restaurants or going to the parks to sit and eat their lunch more than 400 injured and 38 killed and a few of those would die in the hospital within a week it was the first terrorist attack ever in the United States and the worst intel Timothy Mcveighs detonated the lives of 168 people in Oklahoma City 1995 the legislatures started to talk about homelands security. They didnt call it that they started to talk about making it more difficult to pass through the portals of ellis island. Who set off the bomb and why . Were they ever caught . 1920 was the only year in which to amendments the constitution of United States to a defect the first was the 18th amendment that made it illegal to sell or buy or manufacture but not to drink alcoholic beverages of course, we know that as prohibition and starting in january 16th 12 o 1 00 a. M. And ended titters 16 at 12 02. [laughter] many people made their own version most commonly ab year that people called home brew for this reason prohibition was the greatest doityourself project in the history of this country and brought the family closer together than it ever had before. The others in the kitchen and washing up the judge sister is in the pantry. Fodder in the cellar mixing the pops jihadi is on the front porch watching for the cops. [laughter] Americans Still respected the law generally but this one specifically was to contrary to human nature and among those were rotary Club President s doctors veterans of the great war and on one bizarre occasion a lawmaker himself. In the lobby of the Office Building of the house of representatives a fellow named to look guardia invited reporters interest and cameramen and Capitol Hill Police force to watch a demonstration. Llord yet blended to parts of tonic that was easy to obtain that any drug store to one part near beer with minimal alcoholic content so it was legal under prohibition of those of reports say that the taste talks like dishwater left in the sink overnight. But procordia stirred the of ingredients. The cameras zoomed in. Up brewmaster was standing by to sample of mixture. I think he was on the payroll. And davis said the police should try a. And whether they should arrest the man a congressman everybody broke the law they did not know what to do so they fled. Chances are some of them ended up in their favor is speakeasy to drown the frustrations the embarrassment laguardia had caused them. In addition into near beer industrial alcohol is were legal because they were used in various manufacturing processes. But as Beverage Additives industrial of calls were poisoned. They were blinded with real alcohol to increased quantity and thus increase profit. And in some cases to sell bootleg hooch you could not afford better than to commit murder iran in the words of some people government sanctioned murder. One of the destructive products concocted by gangsters called jamaica n. J. An orgy if you drink too much there wasnt much of a chance you would die but to weaken the attendance in your ankle you could walk as if you had a club foot and imagined the american scientist says some of the principles to lead a german scientist to develop of nerve gas third world war ii the Second Amendment passed was surprisingly controversial and longoverdue to finally give women the right to vote for perot despite the bribes to the contrary writeup to last minute and there were occasions when in the middle of the ideals you can see a lobbyist give a handful of pills to a legislator that would nod his head to signify his opposition was now bought and paid for. But the 19th amendment was added to the constitution ironically a few months before the First National election that women vote to join men and to vote out of office the first female president of United States and so far the only female president she wasnt really the president but the president defacto and most american instead not even know about it. Most dont even know about it today. The senator from new mexico was is enraged. We have petticoat government and the Diplomatic Community in washington do the french ambassador to the United States reported back he was dealing with mademoiselle. But the first year of the most wealthy decade we have ever had in this country. Because Americans Still lived under the shadow of the great war the conflict that we could not help but fear it would break out again and whereas the case of the exploding course demonstrated this time it could break out on our own swale as the case of the exploding course demonstrated, maybe it already had. Thought it was a carefree and not wealthy but keep in mind this is their era of rockefeller the vanderbilt descendants along with many others. Those who made millions of dollars from the backs and shoulders of men and women and children, the era of vicious employers and helpless employees. Men who recently returned from fighting a war although manufacturing some of the arms and munitions for the airplanes at the same time others who were not nearly so fortunate were part of the great internal migration and that consisted of africanamericans apart from the cotton fields of the south for the factories of the north desperate for a better life to finding a life just as punishing. And it is not easy to calculate the minimal income tax that exist at the time that the earnings gap between the richest and poorest was greater in 1920 it is today. Coming to the hotel of the plaza hotel and drunk and soaking wet but the men who worked in the steel mills but to deliver blocks of vice but the young girls who spent 12 hours a day, six days a week selling callers on to blouses forced to stand up to read their lunches so they could keep working. Otherwise known as Charles Ponzi was an immigrant to the editor states and determined not to live the life i just described. But there were times he was better off if he did. And by the waiver of legal to offer the Financial Product and the initial ponzi scheme was misunderstood in several other ways also. But before long, so much money was made that a law was passed to make their dealings a criminal activity if he kept selling his worthless paper he became a crook and a ponzi scheme became a reality. Late in the 20th century this institute birdie madoff it was reborn and in 2008 madoff one touche jail for the rest of his life. I suspect that the ponzi game was in them newspaper more iran 2008 and 1920. Most think it is a chain letter but not little. Is much more complicated and involving postal rates in Different Countries and different parts of the world. I dont understand completely in their roots about that in a book. When you come to that section be assured when i wrote is true it is just that he will be confused also. The madoff version lasted almost a decade. Ponzi did not last even one year per curve the he was a hoodlum that his italian mama back, and is doing so well in america he was becoming better to be a more successful all the time and figuratively the streets really were paved with gold if you do which was to take. By the fourth of july ponzi was a multimillionaire. Before the year was over he was a jailbird. Things move very quickly for this most famous of scam artists. But i have this surprises for you. If you read 1920 the year that made the decade roar you will not despise Charles Ponzi bet will sympathize with him and feel for him. One of the fattest tales of a crack ever. Warren harding a republican senator from ohio defeated a democratic senator from ohio and some years later he was voted the 29 best president in the history of the United States. You see what is coming . [laughter] at the time america had had 29 president s. But nine however had presided over an administration as corrupt as harding. And the offices next to that of the attorney general though leaving due later in washington and committed suicide when he was feared he might be exposed as a friend of partings was put in charge of Veterans Affairs and he stole supply from veterans hospitals one or two years after the war they were full and needed their supplies. But he stole them and sold them for his own profit and then with hardings approval escaped to europe and was never prosecuted. The top assistant fear prosecution and he committed suicide. The attorney general was indicted for fraud. And albert was appointed secretary of the interior for the kickback he sold military oil reserves to friends of his for profit it was called the teapot dome because of the shape of the rock formation under which most of the oil recited. But a teapot dome was probably the most transgression intone 1972 when the first and greatest was revealed. Meanwhile harding was setting records for adultery not eclipse until kennedy came along. One day a tour was conducted is sounded like to people banging on the walls of the tiny janitors closet next to the office as buckets are tumbling