And heres a look at whats on prime time tonight. We kick off the evening at seven eastern with jeremy mccarter, coauthor of hamilton the revolution. At 8 p. M. , sean wilentz talks about the need for Political Party ands partisanship. At 9 15 eastern, fox news eric bolling weighs in on the virtues that define the United States. And at ten on after words, Karen Greenberg takes a critical look at laws enacted to combat terrorism. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. K tv on welcome to the 3 2nd annual Chicago Tribune printers row lit fest. I want to give a special thank you to all our sponsors. The theme of this this years festival is whats your story, and we encourage you to share the stories you hear this weekend on twitter, instagram or facebook using hashtag prlf16. You can keep the spirit of lit fest going all year by downloading the printers row app where youll find all of the Chicago Tribunes premium books content, free and discounted ebooks for subscribers and the complete printers low lit fest schedule. Row lit fest schedule. Todays program will be broadcast live on cspan2s booktv. If theres time at the end for a question and answer session with the author, we ask that you use the microphone located to your right so that the home viewing audience can hear your question. Before we begin todays program, we is that you silence your cell phones we ask that youan silence your cell phones and turn off your camera flashes. Please welcome todaysand interviewer [inaudible] [applause] interviewer. Talk to us. His public,ty defender, hoyt have chicago iconic newspaper. Thank you both for being here for this conversation. Lets get started by talking about your personal connections to the stories you are tellingful both of you have given birth to stories you have personal connections to, so what led to these topics . Start out, natalie. Sure. So, im a chicago native. I went away to school, work other places, moved back here about ten years ago, and started working for wbz, the npr affiliate station in chicago. And covering the south side men i was covering housing issues, affordable housing, public housing, economic development, and then i real iowaed i was really covering segregation, covering inequality, and i found that my thesis was until we address the inequities well never be this world class city, and i was living it as a home buyer on the south side. Growing up on the south side. Felt like segregation was something that was just accepted in our region. That we yeah, were segregated. Next . And we dont really think about why it is and why it continues to be that way. Write its like air and water. It just is. And i wanted to interrogate that some more and use my own personal story of attending public schools, my parents and grandparents Housing Choices and my own horrible housing choice that left me not living the socalled american dream. So, i worked for the chicago defender from 1991 to 1996. I should say that as a i was a graduate of the university of chicago, a Fresh Graduate of the university of chicago in 1991, and i didnt really know anything about the defender. Id never really if id heard of it, it hadnt registered as something important. Another friend of mine, who was a white jewish guy from the university of chicago also, recommended me for the job, and in the course of describing the defender to me he definitely mentioned that it was an africanamericanowned newspaper. But i have to say that didnt register to me as something significant but a we were in my mind, what was a post racial era and some newspapers were going to have black owners and some newspapers were going to have white owners. Only when i walked in the door and saw the historic artifacts, the newspapers going back to at the early part of the 20th 20th century, the portrait of Robert Abbott, looking down on me in the lobby, his words inscribed in the floor. Really started to get an understanding i was in a special place. The defender was a wonderful place to work. It was very busy and exciting place to work. We heard i worked there about the newspapers history. The owner had fostered the great migration, that another owner later on had integrated the u. S. Armed forced if didnt know whether all those things were true until i really started to write the book, and started to see that the things we had been told were absolutely correct and even more so. So, in other words the dream of writing a book was always there from the tomorrow i worked at the newspaper. Now, you talk about when you walked into the office, how surprised you were that the staff was majority black. You also talk about how you didnt know, even as a student, who was living on thesouthside. Natalie does that surprise you or strike you as surprising that someone who is not africanamerican can be on the southside but not be sort of have access to that type of history . That doesnt surprise me. Specially if bogey going to the university of chicago because they probably put a time south of the midway. The university is trying to change that image now. And i think a lot of students are not adhering to that kind of rhetoric, and they even have their own newspapered called the southside weekly, where they good on the southside. That doesnt surprise me. You were probably living in hyde park bubble when you were at u of c. How decide that research the issues you write about, segregation and how the city can be separated to that point where a person who was not africanamerican could live in the city and not have exposure currently to a paper like the defender . The think about chicago that is unique from other segregated cities is that we are diverse. About a third black, white, and latino. But within that the good and bad is that were a very neighborhood centric city. The neighborhood the city that works. Our neighborhood identity is we have 77 official neighborhoods but even within those even more neighborhoods. So, its vulcanized. So thats positive in some ways and that guess for all races and if you were white on the southside, you had your parish, you precinct, so you didnt have to leave. So while that fosters great ties and great community, itself also can be very damaging because you dont get to see the rest of the city and how amazing it is, and that there is so much more to it, and were also large. We are a massive city geographically speaking, and so these things are assets and also deficits that keep segregation going. The only thing i wanted to add was the university of chicago was a bubble in academic sense as well, in that i studied English Literature but i dont recall an africanamerican author being a part of that. I dont raleighon for i dont recall leon forest being taught in hi english lit class sod there was that sense of a bubble. For me, going to the defender meant i got to go into the rest of the city. That was the thrill of it. I could finally explore and be part of this city i had been told was a big, dangerous place. So that was really i feel deeply indebted to the defender for opening chicago to me, not just in the physical sense of kind of empowering me to go all over the city, but also in teaching me to the history the city, the rich, vibrant history, the history that has made chicago a pivot point for so much of american history. Now, both of you your books are different. I look another your book as a history. It gives us Historical Context not just of the defender but the black community in chicago, but the black community in our nation as well and natalie, your book is more contemporary but you both hit on some similar notes. We know the defender as being a power and a force that helped to spur the great migration, but that wasnt always the case. Its true. The owner of the chicago defender Robert Abbott is someone who had come through chicago at the turn of the 19th, 20th centuries, and he was someone who knew that there were not jobs really available for africanamericans in the north. He was trained at hampton university. He was a printer. He was an attorney. He was the only africanamerican graduate of his class at kent college of law. Did not work either as a print ore or an attorney because of the barriers of discrimination in the city. So he was not initially in favor of people coming to the north. Even when world war i started and the number of immigrants to the United States stopped, and the demand for American Products surged such that factories and slaughterhouses in chicago and the unions in the same entities, lowered their barriers and wanted africanamerican workers. Robert abbott still didnt support the great migration. He only moved toen editorial position in the newspaper where it was encouraging the migration when he saw that the departure of africanamerican workers of skilled workers from the south was damaging the jim crow economy, the economy of the segregated south. That is when he saw that the migration could be a weapon against segregation, and he then began to wholeheartedly endorse it as a manly act of retribution. One of the ways it was described. So one of the ways that africanamericans could impact the south and the politic of the south was by leaving the south and coming to cities like chicago, and natalie, your family had a personal investment in coming into chicago. This is the 100th 100th anniversary of the great migration to chicago, and my granddaughter is a great migration, and so even the most contemporary, i spend time talking about the history of the gravity migration, and using my grandparents story and the housing policies that were that greeted africanamericans as soon as they stepped off the train on 12th street, when they arrived in chicago. So, on my moms side, my grandparents came from georgia, my grandfather was in world war ii. It was either harlem or chicago. His childhood sweetheart was in chicago so that made the choice easy. She was here because her cousin, who she was raised as like a sister, lived here. Thats how the migration world. A Family Member was hear and others followed. My fathers side, and we dont know why, we had family here before the great migration, and my grandfather ran away from home in nashville, tennessee, because he hated the south, and he hated the racial violence he saw. Two of his brothers had to leave town, one was accused of raping a white woman. One got into a fight with white boys, had to take him to new york in the middle of the night. So he he graduated from inglewood high school, and im done with the south. And my grandmother was from springfield, illinois, and they worked jobs, actually my grandfather were printers row litfest, he worked or art donly, printmaker, and my grandfather was a Pullman Porter, and there the story of black chicago theyre the story of black chicago. Chicago is miles and miles and miles of black middle class neighborhoods, and despite all the even though were both writing. Chicago, these are national stories, and these kind of discriminatory policies greeted africanamericans in the north, and despite all of the policies, like redlining, covenant, contract buying, the fact that africanamericans still bought homes and still created vibrant neighborhoods i think is astounding. I absolutely agree. In your book, you i want to go back to some of what you were talking about, natalie. You talk about your grandfather and how he hated the south but also had a grandfather who was a pullman port center. Thats the same grandfather, yes. Can you telephone us about his history as a Pullman Porter . I can tell you also he was a bartender at the playboy mansion on his weekends off when it was here in chicago to earn some extra money. My grandfathereds are deceased, and being a Pullman Porter was way to get into the middle class, and so it was a very good job. My grandmothers worked also bass black women worked. My mother was a cook at doolittle elementary and my grandmother was a secretary for federal agency, and the thing that was passed down to me is that the reason why we did well is because my grandfather lived off his tips. We like to tip good service at restaurants because of that. And those tips allowed them to leave princeton park, a Ridge Development on the south side a rental development on the south side to then buy a home in the burnside area of the south side of chicago. I asked you about it because something that writes bat in the history of this book the defender. Its generally know the Pullman Porters helped to distributed the defender and did a lot more than that. The ports were Incredible Service workers. If of you can imagine the trains in the 19th, early 20th 20th century, unair kennedy, rocky unair conditioned, rocky, dirty, unpleasant experiences, and the porters in these contexts would create a pristine environment. A five star hotel and restaurant come byed in a very tiny space. They were really highly skilled and i think revolutionary in that way also, that they really thought about how to transform these environments. At the same time they were also very much integral to the operation of the the defender individual porters worked with Robert Abbott this was startup operation the way a startup web site is today. It was really in Robert Abbotts land ladys dining room that the newspaper was born and operated for the first few academic few decades. So porters would come in with newspapers they collected from the trains that they worked on, and that was the early wire service for the defender. They would take articles from the newspapers and clip them and rewrite them for the defender ozen. The porters would go back out and help distribute the newspaper and this is described rather romantically in the sense of porters distributing bundles to towns all the south if the reality is even more powerful which is that the porter sold subscriptions. Another way to make other few extra dollars and also, if you can imagine, the bond of trust that must have been there for a Small Business owner, farmer one, in the south to exchange a hardearned dollar for a newspaper subscription in a city far away. They must have believed the newspaper was going to come and the newspaper was important, and Robert Abbott and other employees employees of te defender took that as a bond. They were going to make sure not a matter what those subscribers government the newspapers every week on time. Natalie in your book you write about your own parents taking in the newspapers every day. Taking in the sun times and the Chicago Tribune and also subscriberrers to the defender talk about their news habits and the support of the africanamericans. The neighborhood i grew up is in chatham, which is traditionally a stable black middle class neighborhood, and anytime theres a National Story about black middle class neighborhoods the reporter is going to come to chatham. It was a great place to grow up. There were a lot of strong africanamericanowned Business Owners who lived there, a Hair Care Company had a house there ice cream was in chatham. Soft machine headquarters and johnson hair Care Products were right on the outskirts of chatham, and we were taught to support blackowned business in the neighborhood. It wasnt really that hard. We didnt have everything. Remember going to college on the east coast and thinking, this black neighborhood doesnt have any blackown end businesses. This isnt like chicago. And it was very deliberate patronage, this is beyond barbecue joints and beauty and flower shops there were other businesses that were there, and im a journalist, probably i like to read and write but we also got all the newspapers, and part of the reason i went into journalism because i felt like my communities werent covered. It was just about crime and may hem and thats was a Despicable Police called the south side. Think the soon times dibuilder than the tribune pow buted the dever gaves stories you didnt hear. It had ups and downs. It was daily, which was unusual, but sometimes mistakes slipped into the paper, and i remember at 13 circling the mistakes. Was into writing and my dad said, well, you shouldnt be part of the problem. You should be part of the solution. Why dont you be a journalist . So i used to have this dream of coming back to chicago and saving the defender and being the publisher, and i have a master of newspaper management and thought, im go to run the defender. Now im in radio. Natalie, there is a concept or sometimes a stereotype that there arent many businesses in the black community, and i know you write about that there is an assumption there are not businesses that are retail and your research proofs thats not truth. Its a little built of both. Theres anyway Nascent Research called retail redlining where companies dont dom black neighborhoods mitchell book is about race. Not about class. Class comes into it busing agree aggression affects you whether youre low income, working class, middle income or upper income. You could be black and a six are figure household in a black neighborhood and still live in a food desert, meaning you dont have a grocery store. People think capitalism is green. But theres an version to black dollars. So, thats one part of it. The other part the informal economy of blackowned businesses, businesses not on the books, and then there are established businesses. Chatham also had two blackowned banks at the time. And independent bank and seaway bank which is still around and now theres Illinois Service federal, which was in brownsville originally, and started by men who were here from gravity migration, and then they have a branch in chatham. So from banks to bakeries, to real estate agencies, to dentist us. There are businesses there, but there can be more and the challenge also outside of the Big Companies coming, is the access to capital that black businesses dont receive. Historically, what role did the defender play in helping black businesses grow and helping them get attention . At first the defender was the largest blackowned business in chicago for a number of years. And in the way that it brought my migrants to chicago and focus it their electoral power as well as their financial power, the newspaper really was the progenitor of a lot of the other businesses in the city. Johnson publications, for example, john h. Johnson was a classmate of fred, who also lived in chatham for many years. But fred and john h. Johnson were classmates in high school, and fred gave john johnson some help and some temp plats and other types of practical assistance, that would help him launch anything negro digest which became ebony. All of these businesses have root the defender and johnson port angeles and the defender became rivals for some time later on. So they have an intermingled and interesting history between them as well. Natalie, earlier you talked about your grandfather fleeing the south because he didnt like the racial violence inflicted and you talked about the accusations of rape. One of the things the defender did write about that was walker case and i was hoping you could talk about that. Sure. This is a case in 1911 in which a man named a. B. Walker, his lived in the taken of washington, georgia. His wife was raped by the owner of the plantation, and mr. Walker got a weapon, a shotgun, and killed the plantation owner. Knowing what was likely to happen to him, he turned himself in to the local sheriff, who i couldnt make this name up, his name was sheriff w. O. Bobo. And sheriff bobo took mr. Walker into custody and then decided in the middle of the night, as often happens in the south, he was going to transfer mr. Walker to another jail. Why he decided to do it in the middle of the night ill leave you to assume. Of course, as often happens, group of a mob of men came out and seized mr. Walker and took him off to be lynched to be killed. But the mob was so drunk that mr. Walker was able to escape. Now, mention all these details but a of of the details were reported not just in the chicago defender but also the atlantic constitution and the Atlanta Journal and news the one difference in reporting is the initial incidence in the whiteon the other hand constitution and journal and news was not described as a rape but as some sort of misunderstanding. Or some sort of other incident. And this was is a pattern cow fine repeated many times over in the conflict over narrative between what was happening and what wasnt happening in the south. And the constitution in the journal of news could agree offense the defender cover and today if the defender is correct then the honor of every gov is impugned so say sent two detectives up to chicago to arrest Robert Abbott, the publisher of the newspaper. Well, mr. Abbott was able to call on some prominent people in the community, ed wright, civil right attorney, and considers George Cleveland hall, the local representative of booker t. Washington and a physician at providence hospital, and ed wright whereas a great attorney and took one look at the warrant that the pinker tons produced and said this is a warrant from georgia to arrest an editor in the state of emand he tore up the warrant and ordered the pinker tons out. Explaining to them that chicago was a city with 40,000 africanamericans. That there were africanamerican police officers, africanamerican elected officials, and an africanamerican National Guard unit, and there was no way that these pinkerton detectives were going to take the africanamerican editor of the newspaper of that community anywhere. The pinkertons were toso frighten bed thees incurrenter the put ed wright on the payroll for several decades until he passed away. I think its a great incident to bring up because it shows the strength of Chicago Community that the Chicago Community really was behind this newspaper in a way that i dont think you would find in another community. I brought it up because i think it also shows how the defender selected their news coverage, and kind of did two things. Illustrates the fears and the concerns that africanamericans in the south had, like the grandfather who decided to flee, and those concerns were very real and very much alive. So they were able to that only just gives voice it to but put it in a context for africanamericans. So, thank you for sharing that story. Sure. Natalie in your book, you touch upon some of the things ethan talking about. The power of the black community, having this collective group of people who now have political power, who have a will power here, and you write about that a little in your book, when youve write about the joys of growing up on the southside. Tell us a little about bit that. Even though im i wouldnt trade my upbringing and when this is isnt about integration is so great because we need white people. Its about proximity to power and proximity to resources. And theres nothing bad with black spaces, black institutions, and maybe im contradictory but im okay with my contradictions. Want it all up dont want segregation but i also want black stuff, too. And so growing theres something about chicago, black chicago, that i think is very tribal in a good way. Im friends with children that my my friends parents are my parents friends theres just a lot of connections in communities, and we know people going back our families go back decades or or childhood friendships go back decades, and i think that we sometimes were so beat upon right now in chicago, that we dont even see the own beauty of our communities and our neighborhoods, and i know people from other cities have been, like, wow, theres Something Special about black chicago you. All know each other. The city smells like barbecue. This is the people you all know and the connections. This is look at all these its just amazing, and ive heard that ever since college. Once you leave and youre like, oh, this not that it didnt think it was great place but all we hear is negativity about our city, and i think its important to remember these strong histories and legacies and also to see theres still strength here now, and i think weve seen that strength in the wake of mcdonald the wake of repairations. No other cities have been awayations to victims of police torture. Theres a lot to be done but a lot to celebrate in our community. So theres this joy that i see in black chicago. That not just the same negative narrative that we have heard foredeck for decadeses. Im one of those people who are awed with people like nat my who know people from considering the. You know, ethnic doesnt mean person of color in chicago, ethnic means white. Or theres a certain identity thats there. And so the Business Community came together with harold washington, you know . Its noted that ed gardner pledged, you know, were going to have enough voters registered x. If you look at the numbers of the voter turnout in 1983 and 1987, it was like i dont want to misquote my own book, but it was, like, in the 90th percentile. Only four elected senators, u. S. Senators. Half of them were from chicago. Before we open it up for audience questions, i wanted to talk to you a little bit about the audience of the defender, both historically and presently. Who was a subscriber and how many times was the issue of the defender right . At its height, the defender had sales of around 300,000 weekly. The defender was a weekly from its birth in 1905 to 1955 and then it became a daily news paper until the midtwo thousands when it was scaled back. So at its height, in the 1920s, it had sales of around 300,000, but those have to be multiplied by a factor of at least three or four, probably many more times to really get a sense of their readership. If you can better the africanamerican population at that time was around eight, 9 million, you are really getting to a large proportion of the adults in the africanamerican communityun around the country the africanamerican population around the country. Thats really what the defender was. It was the First National communication vehicle for africanamericans, the first social media. People during the migrationck would communicate back and forth through the pages of the defender. Since her book has beenre published, have you found more africanamericans talk to aboutt their own subscriptions or that they also read the defender . Not too many. The defender was definitely you, now i will say the most avid and dedicated readers of the newspaper are white politicians because they absolutely have depended on the africanamerican vote all really from the earliest years. And right, the attorney that i mentioned in 1911 later became the first africanamerican committeeman in chicago and they are the ones to meet in the actual smokefilled rooms to divide up the jobs and contracts and other political spoils. Going back to that legacy is where you really have that political power and matters of political power that politicians deeply respect. Would be remiss remiss if i didnt mention the defender started also a showcase of politicians from around the country. You cannot win as a politician in the state of illinois without making an appearance. That assure you. In your first of all, we havt to have corruption in our community. In your book coming also provide some solutions. Why did she want to pontificate on solutions and race problems . Specifically they dont give solutions. Heres the problem. Now policymakers go fix it i wanted to be a little descriptive with the book, so the last chapter i talk to artists and the politicians and policymakers about what they think can be done to mitigate segregation. I was probably less optimistic going into the book and became more optimistic as the yen. There are lots of things that can be done. There is no one silver bullet, but there are lots of things that are done on the local levels to promote fair housing, to promote better schools that are equitable and also integrated. Solutions out there. If the political will, so maybet that should make me pessimistic because of it is not fair. It is not about that there are any ideas. I dont even think segregation has talked about. I dont think it is talked about among any elected officials. I talked to the School District can bring up segregation. They say we want every child to have a great education. Of course you can. No one really wants to talk about segregation. Scho chicago has the most amazing scholars on these issues. People have often asked what would you do if you are mayor . What would you do if you were mayor . I would try to create a nonpolitical blue ribbon panel. People in the neighborhood level, but the scholars that all of these universities from chicago state to usc to northwestern who research the issue on housing. They have their research. They know what works, but no one is asking them. No one is listening. My one little hope is that this conversation moves forward. I think it has a little bit nationally with ferguson and baltimore because all these places have the same thing in common. State sanctioned segregation. So wrote that these folks are so well researched and beautifully that its clear you have a love for the topic you are writing about. You not only for the southside and new for the defender. I want to see if theres any questions from the audience. If you take your questions to the microphone because wereni quickly running out of time. Thank you for being here. I really enjoyed being here. Basically i want to say that i am from new york and it was really different for me to come here to chicago because in new york, everyone is like anen tody immigrant. When i work, even today, when im with my coworkers, especially black coworkers, they will say wow, you know some in about black people. He can lift every voice better than me. I look at them really odd because in new york we all have this really eclectic style. My playlist includes opera. It includes rap music. Its kind of interest in. Yo my question to you is when you look in to this audience, why do you think that there is a majority of white people here compared to black people . And especially since her book is about the southside. I guess i will try to answer. Its probably the audience of the late fast because i had other book events where there is a majority of black people in the audience. I think it is more reflect give up the festival then it is the t topic. That it can be about the segregation, to because we are at downtown majority white space and im sure that when you do book signings on the southside, the audience is much different. Er. I mean, sometimes i feel likeofn this area is kind of neutral. Most people come downtown for something, even if its a parking ticket at city hall. This to me is less of a contested space as maybe other parts of the city, where people may not feel welcome or may not know. Im not trying to diss the late fast because i am here. There arent a lot of we havt a lot of other festivals and institutions that sponsor things in the city and neighboring africanamericans, but it may not be an audience. Some of these institutions, whether museums or other festivals are trying to reach her work on their outreach to get out of their sweet spot of the demographic that might most be attracted to the event. I mean, i guess what i want to add to that is that isp noticed ive had a very strong response from africanamerican readers to the book, which i really, really appreciative of. You know, i can see the geographical sales from amazon on the internet. It has been really i have been really so thrilled to see small towns all over the south where sales have been reallyder, good. I know that those are africanamerican readers because i can tell from the geography it is very much like a map of where the africanamerican population is in the country. I guess i will just add that i do really hope publisherse black understand that the black leadership, the africanamerican leadership in the country as large and very enthusiastic and excited about books and outreach is going to be rewarded. If i can send a message to publishers out there, that is what i would like for them to really understand that black readers are hungry for books that appeal to them. Im really encouraged by the results. I want to add that i want white audience does, too. Often e a majority white spaces because often segregation is seen as a black problem. Issues in black communities are seen as a black issue and this is also a weight issue. I to have different kinds of audiences and i never look at having a majority white audit for a book event as something negative. I want to to hear this story. This is not a blacks array. What was the defenders attitude and would they sell at two retailers on the southwestbu side . So, block busting with ae technique used by Real Estate Brokers and agents to essentially drive down the price is usually white homeowners who are leaving a neighborhood and then reselling homes to africanamerican at inflated priorities with the result being a large profit margin for the brokers. Early on in the 20th century, and these are africanamerican real estate folks who are doing the block busting and later on you had other folks that were involved in that process. The defender was very much opposed on the editorial side to unscrupulous real estate crack this is it every time. They were really upset very early on in their history by the fact that africanamericans had to pay higher rent for the same unit they would do investigative reporting, which they used reporters who were like enoughs to pass to get the prices and get africanamerican reporters because they were kind of compare them. They would very much a dynamic and i had to have heard that they basically regarded as shooting africanamerican renters and homeowners. In terms of ad selling, they never got a lot of ads for White Real Estate folks in the firstye place. There wasnt any need to ban them from advertising. At first, during the initial years, the folks that were involved in the process were not really it was controversial. On the other hand, they are okay not to speak, block for africanamericans to the regard that they were doing us aand osa service and the priest would go on to become the first africanamerican alterman in the city and later the first africanamerican from the north, the only african or for a long time. It started off as a blog is here. That was his initial claim to fame. What struck me about the defender is the chapter he is amazed how well he is treated. He is very encouraged by the fact that he can stay in these hotels and is accepted by the journalist community. It is clear that the recent events that europe is not as welcoming to mass movements of people who are not european inha this country and the migrations get politicized and xenophobic and islamic arguments come innw that change the way these are used. I was wondering in the defender, how the lens with which a whisper trade to chicago, what can we learn from basic wave the narrative about the migration to other situations where there is mass movements of people integrated. We had a very interesting experience because im the one hand he was very well accepted by the native population and most of the countries and rants, germany, where he had relatives in germany because his stepfather had been reared in germany and had relatives fare as well. But Robert Abbott also face discrimination in the hotels where other americans stayed because the other americans would be offended at an africanamerican was staying at the hotel. They would demand that he would be a bit good and robert had to fight, argue and contest his eviction from the hotel. The only place that he was was sent didnt have to kind of was in berlin where he was fair for journalists in convention and that was the only place ive found where the hotel owners first telling her it at the demands from the White American tourists a day of it cand africanamerican guests at the hotel owner said if you dont like it, you leave. But that was the only place. In right britain, Robert Abbott could not find a hotel here at the hotel that was due toitih british standards of racism. So it was a very he had a very interesting mix. Remember it was one of the few africanamericans traveling up that time is also very wealthy. He was able to purchase access in places where other folks werent able to do that. Ro in terms of lessons for how europe would deal with the migration, thats a toughn question because i cant say that the United States or chicago doubt what the migrations and organizer of passionate way. I would just hope that things were done better now. That is my hope or partial answer to your question. E. Finn, evenfrom a friend of mine this year and is brought a copy of the about the defender with the hopes he would sign it. If your schedule permits, that would be great. Natalie, given her long commitment to the history of civil rights issues and involvement, im sure your book will be on her list, too in her interest in chicago in particular. My question relates to the apparently reverse migration that is now occurring among blacks here in chicago and that they are leaving the city if one can believe that newspapers hade apparently, the narrative that gets into the papers is the old are violent innercity chicago, which i suspect is too simplistic. I would appreciate the respect of on how much of this is realle occurring where this black salve the pain, actually go into because one hears that is the south ironically. And you have any special days on violence in chicago and why it appears to be so much worse thag other cities with getting histories, et cetera. I know its a limited time. Finally, if you can give some references of academics that yoi mentioned, i know its a big question. We probably need anotherg yoa session. Anything you can address. At the Marriott Hotel at northwestern sociologist. I would read her work and that is right there. One person to start with. Chicago has historically been violent. More violent in new york and l. A. , going back to the 1800s, 1900 corporation. People are asking the same question then as they are now. When the question came up about black people live in chicagogo because of violence, it is simplistic. It is a narrative that i dont know why there is no research that a few and those that are 20 years old. The census data show that blacks who are leaving chicago is an old story. Ns we are about to embark on new census data. I can say that black people are like other people. They sometimes want to move to suburbs. We have seen a lot of black people are still in the region, but theyve gone to the suburbs. Its a narrative that is still violent and thats why they are leaving. People make Housing Choices v based on a variety of decisions. Im not saying no one has ever left the city because of that, but its hard to know where people go because theres some limitations to the data on thatt i will let lally tackled. As he says so eloquently, historically there has been aa lot more murders that has not led to black fly. Thats what i would challenge that the said our premise. As nal again, just to kind of endorser she said, theres a lot of factors in White Communities and everyday people make choices on where they live. One i would make primary would be the economy and jobs. You have to look at unemployment and i think if you look at unemployment and place it on ton of the areas where we see blackt violence, it would tell the story all of itself. It is very simplistic to blame a community or blame the acts of violence for the migration that is occurring now. I think its bigger and broader than that. Im not a scholar and our people researching at who could articulate it a lot better than i am. Youll make a i want to add to that as it is a tragedy thata the africanamerican population in the city is declining at the pace that it is. We are losing historical treasure. We are losing an electoralthinke treasure and i think we are squandering a lot of opportunity. What i really love aboutabout na natalies book as i can take a second to praise it. It really shows the south side is what it is, a vibrant, dynamic exciting plays and a great place to raise a family, too. All of those things are true as they have been for decades. E it is really too bad that people dont know that, dont understand that and dont value it. I will add to that because the cultural treasure because theres so much africanamericans have added to the city and natalie does paint an excellent portrait of the vibrancy and diversity of the black community that exists here and continues to exist here. At if you have not gotten a copy of natalie spoke him i suggest you get one. If youve gotten one, get another impassive non. If you have not read this wonderful book, put it on your list. Read 50 pages per day, get another copy and pass it on to someone else did one last this question. Im so sorry. Ibm backs we had time to get one last word from the idea. I think it gave the perfect last word. Buy the book. [applause]ram. Thank you for attending todays program. Natalie moore and Ethan Michaelis books will be available out front. Please visit us at printers prolix s. Org to fill out a survey. You all have a fantastic afternoon. I am a multiple reader comments ive made about a looks at the same time and sometimes ill finish a book all in one sitting. More often than not i read different parts of the book. For example, one book that i finished reading relatively a short time ago which i understand he did a whole segment on as the millionaire and the bard. Im a big fan of six shakespeare and to know that the library is down from my other than i immediately picked this book up and it is terrific about folger, who went to honor three, to buy the folio and the huge collection of not just the folios, but enough materials on shakespeare that he created the folger library. It is a fascinating story of howard and about. Im also reading i am rereading the righteous line. It is a book about how we communicate in a more effective way. You can picture it out and. The elephant is making all the decisions go left, right, forward, backward. The writer explains that the elephant is doing on a lot of times you talk to the writer who is not making the decisions. So it is a really good way to have her you should be talking to the elephant make sense, not the person making the decisions. At a time when there is a political situation, it is important to keep in mind is a hack we ought to be talking to good so it is that i am rereading. I also accepted at the National Gallery week or so ago, a masterpiece. It is about how you see art and really to me i am a great lover of art. You can see beauty in art and 3d objects and everywhere you look. This is also another interest up that i just got. As you can see by my office that i like color. I like art. I also do a mix. Reading i just want to mention this foundational because i was not born in this country. English is not my first language. The librarian but there is than other mentors go up. I do remember she read to a cadre of little kids do but sit at her feet at the library. She read as mary poppins and that really brought out the love of reading for me, which as i said this foundational. I think basically in order to be a good writer, you should be a reader and i am a pretty burry schist reader. Is there anything else you are reading this summer . Well, must receive. Let me see. I also read compilations that short stories on my ipad. When i have time. I have a number of those kinds of books on my ipad. The other thing i want to mention ms. To mention this often when you think about the books that change your way of thinking, there is one book that did that for me when i was in college