in to gaza decisively. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] more live coverage with president biden talking about community investment with the boys and girls club in milwaukee and we'll have thative at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. earlier today, house lawmakers met to examine a proposed rule from the consumer financial protection bureau to regulate payment apps and digital waltz. watch the entire house financian c-span. c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store and browse through

apparel, books, home decor and accessories. c-span fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or at any time at c-spanshop.org. host: we're joined by robert woodson, the founder and president of red, white, and black, rescuing american history from revisionist. thanks for giving us your time. guest: pleased to be here. host: remind people of the woodson center, what's its purpose? guest: i founded it 33 years ago and serves leaders. we have 350 grassroots leaders in 39 states and go into these low income neighborhoods and■ find grassroots leaders providing leadership to restore those communities from the inside-out. we provide training and technical assistance and access to capital so that they can take a program that affects 10 people

and spread it to a hundred and then grow from within. of capits the woodson center funded? guest: funded by private donations. we have thousands of individual donors. so it's all private. and we're really happy with the support we're getting for the rk twee doing. host: we'll talk about that work in just a second. i want to talk about your book, though, "red, white and black: rescuing american history from revisionists and race hustlers." what prompte book? guest: i think it was in response to hanna nicole jones' 2019 book, "1619", when she disparaged the country, said america should be defined not by 1776, the signing of the declaration of independence, but when the first slaves arrived and her conclusion was that amic racist and that all white people are villains and all black people are victims.

and so we wanted to scholars an, not to offer a counterargument, but to offer a counter inspirational narrative. so we talked about -- telling about slavery in defining america. no one wants to be defined by the worst of what we were in t past. so we wanted to tell the complete story of black america's experience, not how we suffered under how we achieved resilience in the process of it. so the book tells courageous stories of how blacks overcame slavery -p in jim crow and how we prospered in the midst of oppression and the best resistance to oppression is performance. so we have some exciting chapters that document our ability to achieve.

when whaoeupts were at their worst, we were at our best. we built hotels, railroads. in this book we talk about the resurrection of black america. no the just crucifixion. host: how much of the concept of america's history with slavery is -- should be taught or at least should be focused on? guest: i think we should -- i be with them on that score. we should be talking about slavery. but that's■u crucifixion and let there. you got to talk about resurrection, not just crucifixion. done is offer an inspirational alternative that talks about how some blacks are born slaves and died millionaires. how when we were denied access to hotels, we built our own. we even built our own railroad 8 when we were fired from the

dock. we went into our own sources■k f capital in the churches and our burial societies. and so the endless stories of how we achieved in the face of■ oppression and not just became victims. so it's a very inspirational -- we've developed curriculum from the book that's been downloaded 150,000 times since its publication. the book sold out the first four weeks it was published. very rare does a book of essays sell out and that's the thirst there is among the american public for honest, complete inspirational stories about how you achieve. in other words, to change when y are shown victories that are possible. and not injuries to be avoided. so this is what our focus is, it's been very well received.

host: as far as black history month is concerned, i was going to ask if you have a favorite period or what do you think stands out as an important thing to know? guest: this is the only place in the world where someone could be born a slave and died a millionaire. like robert smalls. from south carolina. he was working on a southern ship, supply ship. and he and six of his crew member when they -- the ship's master went for dinner, he stole the ship, picked up his family members, and then they garcons d turned the ship over -- garrisons and turned the ship over to president lincoln celebrated him throughout and robert small was the first commissioned officer in the navy. and after the war was over, he became a very wealthy businessman and went back and purchased a plantation of which

he was a took in the destitute wife and children of the slave master and because she was delusional, he permitted her to sleep in her that is an act of radical grace. and there are endless other examples of the 13, the golden 13. in 1943, blacks were■= not naval of so eleanor roosevelt persuaded her husband to train them. so the navy was going to give these 16 college-trained black men in eight weeks what they gave 16 weeks to white cadets. when these brothers found out what the dea, they covered their windows of their barracks and stayed up and studied all night and when they were tested, they scored in the 09th percentile -- 90th percentile. so the navy said they cheated. the navy retested them

individually. they scored in the percent -- 93rd percentile. that score today stands as the highest anyone ever achieved today. soo this demonstrates that the best defense against disrespect is superior performance. host: robert woodson our guest at 10:00. if you want to ask him questions it's (202) 748-8000 for republicans, independents, (202) 748-8002. black voters, if you want to ask our guest a question, (202) 748-80 use that number too to text us if you wish. if you look at the issue, what our organization does, and crime in communities, what are the root causes, typically? guest: i think, first of all, i can tell you what is not. it is not systemic racism. nor is it a legacy of slavery or jim crow. that is just not true.

wh is is when, in the 1960's, with the families being destroyed and faer black america, our scholars looked at the state of the black family after slavery. they looked at six plantations. about 75% of all slave families had a man and a woman raising children. the nuclear family continued for a hundred years after that. in 1930 to 1940, when racism was enshrined in law, we have the highest marriage rate, elderly people could walk safely their communities without fear of being assaulted by their grandchildren. children were not shot in their cribs. but all of this changed in the 1960's when the government, after the civil rights act was passed, and the government entered and it decimated those institutions that created railroads and hotels and schools, those what we call mediating structures that stand

in between individuals, they were decated by the 1960's. when you separate work from income, when mothersaid -- when they had children, you know, so you -- that's when the crime rate began to soar, at the point of the 1960's. until today. because you've got the destruction of the family, the core values that used to define black america. that's what's under attack and that's the only way it can be fixed. government problem, it is a moral and spiritual crisis that results in people losing when you lose respect for life, you will take your own or someone else's. that's why the suicide rate is highest among upper income whites and homicide is the leading cause of death of children. so it's a lack of meaning and

content that's miing and that's the only cause of it. and the solution is there as well. host: you said it wasn't racism. you said it wasn't jim come to t conclusion, though? guest: because i was born in 1937. in a low-income black neighborhood in south philadelphia. during that period of time, elderly people could walk safely. children were not -- never heard of a gun fire all the time from when i was in school. i in her heard of children -- i never heard of children being killed in their crib. more blacks are killed today in one year than was killed in the south 50-year period of lynchings. these are inconvenient truths that we have to and that problem can only be solved internally. it's not going to be solved by making whitefair

and just. it's going to be solved by addressing the crisis of values within the community and we at the woodson center have successful models of when you approach the problem of violence and despair by re-engaging people and taking responsibility for themselves and embracing supportive values, restoring families. when you have -- we've got proof that once you engage these communities, they can take some of these old values and apply it to a new reality. and president of the woodson center, robert woodson. our first call comes to you from larry. democrats line from maryland. you're on with our guest. go mng. i have two questions. or two comments. the first question was with regards to some of the political