Bank was created to spur Economic Development of the emancipated African American population in the postcivil war era. Despite significant financial contributions, the bank failed in 1874, leaving tens of thousands of depositors in financial ruin. Up next, a panel of civil rights and Business Leaders discusses the issue of black poverty in america 150 years after the creation of the freedmans bank. This event from the National Archives is about two hours. Host the first guest on our panel is miss donna o wins owens. An awardwinning journalist who served as an editor for outlets nationwide, she contributes to essence magazine. Magazine. Her byline has appeared in many places. Please give another hand for donna owens. [applause] our next guest is from the office of the comptroller where he leads a department of Community Development located in washington, d. C. Related to a staff responsible for outreach to bags and Community Partners for the creation and distribution of educational materials. Prior to joining he was the director of Affordable Housing sales at freddie mac. Please give a warm welcome to mr. Barry wides. [laughter] our next justices civil rights entrepreneur just is guest is a civil rights entrepreneur. He is also the bestselling author of two books, his most recent top 10 book for 2014 for essence magazine and for ceo read and business strategy. It is the only definite is the bestselling please welcome mr. John hope bryant. [applause] and today i want to thank you very much because we have a special guest in her long list of accomplishments, it is more and her long list of accomplishment is more than just one alone. She does the chief executive officer of the kingston, and internationally renowned speaker who spoke to the united nations. She is a graduate of Spelman College and earned a masters of divinity from emory university. The eldest daughter of Martin Luther king and karen is stuck in, she continues the legacy of nonviolent. Coretta scott king, she continues the legacy of nonviolence. [applause] our next guest gives needs no introduction. It was an advisor for dr. Martin luther king jr. The first africanamerican elected from the south since reconstruction. It was appointed by president carter to the united nations. He served as the mayor of atlanta, bringing jobs. His awards include the president ial medal of freedom and the french legion of honor. A man who needs no introduction, ambassador andrey on. And i have the distinct privilege andrew young. [applause] and i have the distinct privilege of introducing my Fraternity Brother of seeing him in every story from across the country, roland martin. [applause] roland certainly glad to be here, we want to get right to it. They want to avoid the snow. Although d. C. Does not know how to handle the snow. Lets start this way. 50 years ago i was visiting d. C. And standing in front of the white house and going for a walk and i look to the left of the white house and i go, this explains america right here. There is only one department that shares a long with the white house and that is a department of the treasury. At the end of the day it is about money in america. How important is it for us to understand the freedmans bank in the evolution of black folks in this country, realizing the foundation of america is money . Anybody can jump in. Andrew it was obvious that people who were in slavery were not ignorant. There were 27 black millionaires in the louisiana at the time of slavery, at the time of emancipation. There were tradesmen and craftsman who have done all kinds of things. But they understood that in addition to the right to vote to be free you had to have access to capital. So a group of preachers meeting with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass insisted that there be some vehicle to provide access to the economy for the former slaves. It was out of that discussion that the whole we can make a joke about 40 acres and annual what they were very serious. But they were very serious. If you have a liar and a means of if you had land and a means of producing food you could survive, otherwise you were a slave. Figure out the bank but it did not last long because shortly after john, you need to Say Something about that. Shortly after lincoln died it was just a matter of days before they pulled the rug out under the back. Bank it took a little longer. I was in congress in 1973. The last member of congress in georgia was out in 1875. I was elected in 1972. For 100 years we had no Political Representation but they also took the economic representation by undercutting the freedmans bank. It was reenslave. Reinstatement enslavement. John the wanted all of my years made the observation that you just made the treasury is interconnected and there are tunnels that lead underneath because they needed to make decisions with the civil war and then go to treasury and pay for it and come back to the white house and formalize what they paid for, go back to the department of war. But no one, particularly no one who was a respected member of the media elite or civil rights community, has ever made the observations you made, which was brilliant. That they share a lawn. They share a lawn with money and political power. That is a quote for somebody. [laughter] but the story is deeper than that and i want to thank my Government Relations cheap for forcing me to go on a tour when i was here and i went to the ford theater i was on away when i found out lincoln signed the legislation for the freedmans bank. You are sitting in front of the white house, the treasury is here, you have the bank here. Here is the treasury annex. So the president could have put this in the place you wanted. Any place he wanted. The couldve put it in maryland or on the outskirts. Put it where you look out the window and you could see if the candles were burning and people were working. And it gets deeper than that. Two months before the freedmans bank, and addresses, georgia secretary in justice, georgia, the secretary of war meets with ministers to ask what they want after the war. They didnt say welfare, entitlements, handouts. The did not say reparations. They said they wont land. We want to do for ourselves. They got 40 acres on the coast 40,000 acres assigned to them. Within 30 days, 40,000 former slaves occupied the land planting in an agricultural age in the most unattractive land possible because whatever you put in the ground will be in jamaica tomorrow. It is the beach. The generals were so impressed with him that the next month they said lets reward them with a mule. That was not a slight, that was like giving somebody a crack today track today. It was a good investment. It was not a legislative act, it was done in the field. The were away from congress. Two months later, lincoln signed the Freedmans Bureau act. You want to talk about radical Public Policy, hold on. Lincoln green lit 40,000 acres for former slaves and then created a bag and brought it to the capital to teach the language of capital wonder he was killed no wonder he was killed. And jackson heard rumors everything lincoln did but he could not reverse lincoln did. That is where the klan came from running people off their land, it was nothing personal, it was economic. This was about running you off of your land so they could claim economic interests. Frederick douglass comes in and the gamers come in and game the back and changes the bank charter and over 10 years ruins the bank. Come in with a stellar reputation, not a spot, not a blemish. Not only did they produce is like they put in their own money with the Treasury Department tells me today is 20 million. It was Million Dollars of his own money for a bank he knew that every chance of failing. 20 million of his own money for a bank he knew had every chance of failing. Today it would be one of the top 100 banks in america today. Imagine how that would change everything. So when you say how important this is, i felt like this is like the magna carta. Underneath all of the problems with poverty. Roland indeed i have a dream speech, your father only mentioned equality one time. If you will go beyond the soundbites people here every year, the mountaintop speech and he talks about boycotts in that speech. He talks about freedom and inalienable rights meeting i want the same thing the white folks get when they are born. He was dealing with economics because he came to a conclusion that you could go to a park and a hotel and if you did not have Economic Freedom than you do not have freedom in america. They get up from their pick it up from there. [laughter] that is probably set up. Called a set up. Bernice youre right. I will go out on a limb with this. I think my father strategically understood that they had to deal with segregation in the south first because what good was it to integrate the money, and that money was going to circulate in a small community. We had to gain access through civil rights legislation and Voting Rights legislation. In the back of his mind or the front of his mind perhaps he was already looking at addressing the Economic Issues of america. In the 66, that is when he began to build into this. Like you said, five weeks after lincoln signed this in april three months, four months after my father announced the poor peoples campaign, two weeks before, it was assassinated in april he was assassinated in april. This irony do not think it is an irony, what a coincidence exists. And when you start delving into the issue of wealth and money and particularly when you Start Talking about bringing everybody along, it becomes very threatening and it should not be. And the beauty are think of what is happening through operation hope is that it is lessening the threat and my personal opinion. Because you are coming at it in a different way by saying, lets look at this as helping freemarket enterprise. You understand what i am saying . So yes, that was a heavy emphasis for my fathers work and a lot of people forget that. I say he had threes beatings three freedoms he spoke about. The freedom to participate in government, the freedom to participate in life, and the freedom to peacefully coexist. Those are what he addressed in i have a dream. Didnt i warn you . [laughter] andrew we could not talk about economics in 1955 because the House Unamerican Activities Committee was calling anyone who mentioned economics and they were putting white folks in jail. The genius of your father is that he did talk about economics but he always talked about it in biblical terms. [laughter] i mean, he quoted the bible. And he talked about a slavery of egypt and wandering in the wilderness of segregation and coming into the Promised Land of creative integration. That is an economic theory but she could not use the economic language because at that time he could not use the economic language because at that time it was really you think it is right wing now. Just to think in economic terms and rosa parks never talked about integrating the buses, she just talked about human dignity, being treated fairly. It is not that she did not want those things that we deliberately the book we deliberately pretended to be as conservative as we could be b but we deliberately pretended to be as conservative as we could be. I hate to remind you but it was when he started talking about money and pulled together 23 different racial and minority groups and age groups, everything from aid to dependent children to the Welfare Rights Movement to the aarp which did not exist than, everything from everybody that was poor. Hispanic, asian, native american, were brought together in atlanta, the 23rd of january, right after his birthday. He only made it to april once he started talking about economic justice. And i think we tried our best to stop him, to slow him down. But he understood that his days were numbered and that he did not want to be he said, everybody is going to die, no choice about that. You do not have choice about when you die and how you die. The only choice you have in life is what you die for. And he was determined to die for the poor. Even so much that when we were you did not tell us you did not tell us. He did not tell us. It was Harry Belafonte and myself talking about taking the energy of the movement into politics and we said you can go on to bed and get some sleep you do not have to be up until 6 00 tomorrow night, you can get some sleep. As he walked to his room he said, you all go on to washington, i am going to cut the 6 00 plane to memphis. And i said, well for . What for . And he said he will meet you in washington. It was almost illiterate on his part, when he felt his days were numbered you wanted to be with the poorest of the poor and chose to be with garbage workers. Roland i want to go with you and deal with your previous job, houses. Most americans are able to build up wealth through houses. You look at the housing patterns in america from day one. At the end of the day, that is how americans create wealth. Pushing into segregated areas and purchasing homes at a higher amount than they were worth. The new have the various laws, the covenants. And then you have the various laws, the covenants. The show homes for a profit and invest that in education or savings. It becomes the present day, and you cannot ignore the reality of the racial dynamics of housing playing a Critical Role in economic inequality between whites and blacks in america. Recognizing that in the last six years we lost 53 of black wealth to the home foreclosure crisis, it will take two generations to recoup that money. Were talking about a freedmans bank that dealt with investment, focusing on the economic condition of africanamericans. How then do we present day deal with these financial policies that are contributing to the same inequality . John what you are getting at is how we can incentivize Financial Institutions as federal regulators to provide access that allows people to purchase homes to build wealth. It has been difficult since the financial crisis, credit has tightened although i think it is using. Easing. They are relaxing policies in order to make it easier for folks to purchase homes, requirements related to the mortgage insurance and so forth. As we evaluate bags in terms of how they are serving all of the markets including low income individuals banks in terms of how they are serving all of the markets including low income individuals in terms of the Community Reinvestment act. This was intended to allow all americans access to Financial Services and we reevaluate banks in three every three years and make the examination public and they are very detailed. It is a matter of both the incentives from the regular doors regulators to provide the necessary oversight to ensure from a fair lending standpoint they are following the law and incentivizing them through special provisions under the Community Reinvestment act to entice them to make loans in innercity to individuals with more flexible financial terms. Roland ron susskind says there was a moment in 2005 where the banks said that we have no choice but to follow them because they will determine our fate. Did we fail if not demanding mandated in not demanding mandating that they refinance loans as opposed to voluntary, did that contribute to the present day when it was without taxpayer money they could not survive . Was that a mistake . John i am familiar with the specific incident in his book but over the course of the financial crisis through the Home Affordable Mortgage Program that the Treasury Department administered, there were millions of people who were able to take advantage of refinances of relief under the fannie mae and freddie mac programs as well as tarp. Roland in the book they said that some 4 million were supposed to be impacted john when you look at the tarp program, as well as people assisted, and voluntary loan modification by the Financial Institutions, a very significant number of people were able to take advantage of those programs and try to work out a situation. There were admittedly a lot of people who lost homes might have been able to save them but for mistakes in terms of the way the policies were administered but a large number of people were able to use a variety of programs. Is really saying that i am a regulator of them are the audience and i am not saying a word on this. [laughter] but good try. And by the way, the 72,000 former slaves that lost money in the freedmans bank, they got half of their money back because of the occ. The comptroller of the currency on wound it and it unwound it, and they tried to give the money back to former slaves and they got half the money to the depositors. As was before fdic insurance. This was before fdic insurance. Andrew we talked about what could have been if instead of bailing out of the top they gave every mortgage holder a years free mortgage, suspended the mortgage for a year. It would have shared in the bailout. There were several women that have that proposal available for the president and they were blocked from seeing the president. The president never got that option on his desk. It was larry summers, rahm emanuel, and the people who protected the president from the realities of poor people. And it is not for people, i mean it is the middle class it is not poor people, i mean it is middleclass homes. The banks still made the money but the middle class would not have suffered. Roland gary frank told me that he wished he could have helped those folks. Andrew there were three women three women who had proposals that would have bailed the economy out from the bottom up. And the white house. Now they saved the economy for the rich. Ro