Im the historian at the house. And my job is to collect biographical information on members, gather lists and to conduct oral histories. We answer reference questions in our office that come from on the hill and off the hill and we try to tell the story of the house which is this very big, very Old Institution in a way in which people can kind of connect with it at a human level. We do that through telling biographical stories or clips from oral histories that give people kind of a human sense of a very large institution. And today we thought we would try and do that with you by telling you about the history of women in congress which is a history that dates back to the early 20th century. This is a nifty piece of campaign femora. Its Clare Boothe Luce memorabilia. And Clare Boothe Luce would have been the republican counterpart of helen douglas. She was well known to the general public. Her career really had started as a writer and editor. She later married henry luce, the founder of
The house collection that have to do with that and a lot of history to cover. And the last African American to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901, george white of North Carolina. Then its a long time before another African American comes into the house, and that is oscar from illinois. We have a couple of very rare artifacts from oscar de priest from the 19 twenties and thirties. Before i launch into this because i love him so much. Matt, tell us a little bit about Oscar Depriest and how he got into congress. There is a period of almost three decades after George Henry White leaves congress where there is no African Americans who serve in either the house or the senate. That has everything to do with the jim crow laws that go on the books in the south. And the way that that changes overtime during those decades, there is a critical thing going on in the south where African Americans begin to leave the south and move northward as part of a multi decade movement that would lat
Good evening, everyone and welcome. Thank you for joining us tonight. My name is hilary carr and on behalf of Harvard Bookstore im pleased to introduce this event with professor martha jones presented her brandnew book vanguard how black women broke barriers, won the vote, and insisted on equality for all joining conversation by nikole hannahjones. Thank you for joining us virtually tonight. Events like to our books are confused to bring authors and their work to our community and her new Digital Community through these unprecedented times. We will be hosting are on our account or our event schedule. On a website harbor. Com events we can sign up for our email newsletter. This discussion will conclude with time for your questions. You have a question if you have questions adding time during the talk dick on the q a button at the bottom of the screen and will get to as many as time allows. I will be posting a link to purchase vanguard as both a link to donate. Your purchases and financi
Thank you for watching wherever you are and really thrilled with engagement level weve had with all of you. Well be doing a lot of fun stuff, and pretty compelling conversations in the fall. I would say would probably not be doing any inperson events since 2021 which is a bit of a bummer obama but we want to be safe and smart with what we are doing. We will keep bringing you guys interesting conversations with authors, so we have everything from a wonderful event coming up in october, a conversation you wont want to miss. Everything from that to a conversation with matthew mcconaughey. If thats not a wideranging list of events, its going to be quite a fall so stay tuned. You can follow all our defense on magic city books. Com. I will go through the whole list here. Tonight im so thrilled to have a conversation with mychal denzel smith in the book that seems like it was written for the moment were living in, although books are written quite a bit before the published in print it and Eve
Cases unjust way and you dont have those that pick up the fruit that falls d from the tree and make jam out of it and i have in my role as an activist been more were tree shake that one that picks up a fruit and becomes one a leg to the office or head of a corporate entity in the private sector and i think theres a legitimate role for both i feel my calling is to be the one shaking trees rather than picking up fruits trying to make jam out of lets get to the jam eaters in a 2nd this book in this book you blame yourself and others becoming complacent under the Obama Presidency at tell me a bit about that and how you see that complacency is creating donald trump well i think that many of us were very supportive then are still supportive of many of the initiatives of president obama during his presidency from health care to Police Reform to other areas and did not do as much as we could to hold the opposition accountable and to hold even some aspects of his own administration that was res