and in january of 1985i was receiving comments from to readers who like to my findings, made suggestions for revisions and recommended me to the press for publication. however in the editors were waiting for another redo to respond. the long-awaited evaluation did not arrive until july of 1985. comparative study of white and black women in the suffrage movement. which i declined to pursue. my frustration nearly stymied

me, however one of my fellow editors at feminist studies explained that the press reflected the views of many white middle-class scholars, who, unable to see beyond their own experiences, needed books about women to be placed in the context of their own lives. sheahan courage me to give the press a bid of what they wanted to read, then proceed with my focus on african-american women. this strategy was a wise one, but summer and did and i was back to teaching full time, doing committee work and raising my teenage daughter as a single parent. ten years later i was on sabbatical leave again. with a faculty to the smithsonian institution wary reproach my manuscript, listening to martha's advice. in 1995 i submitted bids to the indiana university press, where my colleague, darlene clark hine

was senior editor. the reviewer is supported my work and the press offered me a contract. african-american women in the struggle for the votes, 1850 to 1920, was published in 1998 and the following year it won the association of black women historians book prize. as african diaspras studies began to become recognized by scholars in mainstream institutions, those of us at the hbcu like howard university, spelman college, north carolina central university and morgan state university seemed to be pushed aside. this was disturbing because we had been in the trenches early in the struggle for field

legitimization. this cycle seem to continue. more often than not, hbcu scholars overlooked for key speaking slots unless one of their colleagues at the mainstreamed table intervened, nominating them for a chance to present at a major conference. on a few occasions, this happened to me. further explaining what i see as the pervasive nature of ivory tower doorkeepers the often overlooked or dismiss the worth of black women historians, especially those of us who teach at historically black universities and colleges. nonetheless, we have made a way when there was no way. thank you. [applause]

>> our next panelists and speaker, dr. sharon harley is associate professor and chair of the african-american studies department at the university of maryland college park. she received her ph.d. in the united mac history in 1981 from howard university. she is the editor of women's labor and the global economy, speaking in multiple voices 2007, and sisters circle, black women and work published in 2002. publications better outcomes of the ford foundation research seminars she directed and code directed. she is currently working on a monograph titled, tentatively titled, dignity and damnation, a historical study of the intersection of gender, labor

and citizenship and the lives of african-americans in the united states. dr. harley. [applause] >> thanks deborah. i'm going to begin by asking you what i ask my students, which are the following five organizations do you think i was a member of in the late '60s? the naacp, clark, sncc, the urban league or the black panther party? almost all of my students said the urban league. [laughter] i told them i am sure i look like an urban league sister, but the fact of the matter was, i was a member of the black panther party, so i am asking you to imagine how i looked in the late '60s. the angela at davis style afro, the black panther party button, and the huge lie would grab the

one that had healy newton, with the double lacked-- rick of bullets in the shotgun. i usually had an all black outfit on, and that was my introduction to graduate school. the year i graduated, unfortunately i was the only african-american student to graduate in that class from st. mary's college in indiana and, and my parents had just, just for horrified about what had happened to their daughter, who had gone to a catholic school in the midwest to play field hockey. [laughter] who also was in fact a catholic, and you graduated with this big afro. they had pleaded with me to take a button off. there was not much they could do about my hair at that point, but

as a committed radical person at the moment, i kept a button on. i had a big afro and i could see my parents slinking down in their chairs. so, that was what i brought to graduate school. i went to graduate school first and antioch college in washington and that for me was seven. not the caplet heaven i envisioned when i went to st. mary's but they have been for political activist. all of my professors and my fellow classmates were leftists. somewhere accused of being communist leanings. the res jacko dill, and others and we wrote about the political economy of everything. so, when i graduated from antioch, my sister set me down and said i was culturally deprived. i had never gone to historically black college and i should apply to howard university, the black

mecca. so, i did. i applied to howard and it was not at the radical place that i was looking four, but it certainly was a place of self-empowerment. in fact there were many of us who were former activist who ended up that howard. i think is the movement waned we were looking for a new home so bernice johnson reagan was there, i was there, rosalyn terborg-penn, janet house in harris, so we go to howard and the first person was rosalyn terborg-penn and rosalynn and i just traveled around campus, had lunch together and rosalyn, i don't think you know, was a role model for me because rosalyn had been there for a while and rosalyn, for those of you know rosalyn, rosalyn really extends itself. rosalynn new notch students from the african-americans from the u.s., rosalyn had a full

collection of diasporas friends on the campus. she had friends from the caribbean, from africa so rosalyn included me in that circle. i hadn't quite given up my interest in radical activism and the like. so my first graduate seminar paper was on cooper. she was a radical in terms of her struggle for women's rights, her struggle against sexism wherever she found it, and her affinity for working-class people. but, i wanted more. so i started writing more about black women's labor history, to find a place for my interest in kind of a radical social justice movement. and then i started writing about people like lowry richardson, who for me epitomized a person who was very radical but didn't really care what people thought

about her, and so i wrote about her and i went to new york and i interviewed her. like many people, i thought she had passed away because she seemed to have not been on many people's radar, and i think it was something about that movement of-- that really made heard not want to have a public face, and they really know am trying to encourage her to write her own autobiography. but radicalism extended for me beyond the political realm and i want to look at radical african-american women wherever i found them, so i then started writing about black women in the underground economy. so, i wrote about sessom mhatre hugh was back here in washington dc. she was considered sort of like the woman al capone of the washington d.c. area. she was radical for me in the sense that she refused, and she said, to make, to allow men to

have all the fun. why should women have fun? so she found a place for herself in the joints in washington dc. she became a very powerful figure and her radicalism extended beyond the economic realm. she had been a very much discriminated against wells u.s. at a high school. she was a darker skinned african-american women and many of the very first and classmates of kurds at done barn had spoken very disparagingly about her, so is your business group, her numbers backing business, she then took on a new avenue of economic enterprise and that was, she ran a house of prostitution. she said in one of the interviews conducted by htc journalist that she often only

heard the the white women or fairs the and african-american women, and she was radical and a sense that once she went to washington d.c. first dor to purchase a fur coats. she could see that people look at yours if you didn't have the money for the coat. so, people would bring, she said a coke that looked like it was made out of some kind of radsan, so she would reject it and this went on and on until finally she said none of these cuts that my bill and she dropped all of this money on the floor. so, that was one continuation of my sense, my transition from radical activism in the streets to radical activism in the academy. my last and most recent article was about to leftist radical women. it was about louisa thompson and

surely graham dubois. in a letter to a socialist, sewed of communist leanings, but in the end she turned out to be the most radical of these three women and the remembered that a form that i organize, and i was going to drop her because i thought maybe she was to reform-minded. not radical enough, unlike the other two. she didn't have any communist or socialist leanings and they insisted i keep her. in the end i concluded that many killam burroughs was one of the most radical of these three women because the other two women could operate in the white baptist or radical activist but she had to face black men and black men in the church and stood her ground. so, i am going to say a few

things about my transition. in my article, i say that, i and my peace with my most recent publications which seem appropriate. as it reveals my initial political and research interest in graduate school, when i was an active is studying radicals in the united states and beyond. my most recent article, radical labor politics, focuses on a group of progressive late 19th and early 20th century race women who courageously fought against racial violence, especially lynching, capitalism, racism and sexism in their internal communities and the larger white society. to write about these and other women who come vetted social justice, wherever they encountered it, in nightclubs, business offices, churches, organizations, hotels, theaters and even leftist political

rallies feels like coming full circle. the academy may have relocated this name-- name was person, and the person's name was an essay but you can go back and look at it. [laughter]

this nameless person did not think that a person from a historical black college should be ten year at the university of maryland. and, this african-american chair of the department actually had his own personal relationships with historical black colleges. his dad had been president of the state university. and so, he'll think was quite surprised, as the right in my essay in the secretary, how could he make it without the secretary giving you information? it was the secretary told me, i am not sure what the chair is thinking about. you should look at the stiller letters people have written about you. so, he was in many ways shocked that i was tenure at the university of maryland and about

the quality of the letters of the gatekeepers, in all forms and all colors. thank you. [applause] >> as you can say-- see when we entered the university we brought new research issues with us and also new research subjects so i want to thank you so much sharon for that. some of you may be wondering about the nature of the book, telling histories. is top heavy for obvious reasons, with people who are tenured. [laughter] yes, so i was particularly pleased when our last contribute their agreed to share her story of becoming an historian with us because she wasn't tenured at the time. and she still is not, so she is

still being very, very brave. dr. crystal feimster is an assistant professor in the history department at the university of north carolina at chapel hill where she teaches a range of courses and african-american history, women's history, southern history and oral history. sheeran trippi hd in 2000 from princeton university. she has published several articles, one a new generation of women historians invoices of women historians, the personal, the political and professional as well as an article on nuriel sowden and notable american women. she is currently working on a manuscript-- [applause] congratulations.

and it was, before it was titled women and the politics of rape and lynching in the american south, and it is forthcoming from harvard university press. crystal, thank you. [applause] >> you can imagine my surprise when deborah asked me to contribute to the buck. i just kept thinking, why is she asking me to do this? i have nothing to say. i kept thinking, what will i write about? it took me awhile to figure it out. before me, i figured out that the most important thing for me to talk about and to think about was how i got to the place that i was when devra asked me to do

that, and i won't say that it didn't come with you know, it was not crystal as they say, but i can point to more positive things the negative things. and it was those moments when bad things happen and i was sort of the outraged or shott that reminded me that i had come out of a long tradition of african-american women historians and scholars who had supported me and created a community that made my work and my existence in the academy actually possible. i started my as saying, which was-- with one of the first real incidents that i had as a black woman, working on african-american women and working on trying to challenge a masculine narrative about

lynching at old miss. even when i think back about it now, i am often surprised that i was so taken aback. when i got to old miss i was the only african-american participant on the program. it was a graduate student conference and maybe the second or third year that they-- they do this conference every year for a graduate students. and i don't think they expected me to be black, because my last name was feimster, i was at princeton, so i think it was a surprise to a lot of the people that i was african-american, and it is funny, i was in one of my mad research jepsen i had organized it around this conference. i remember calling her, where am i? i have landed on another planet. [laughter]

the fact was, and i got there and it was everything that you can imagine. old miss, the only black person, from princeton, i am working on gender and talking about black people and some of the people did not want to hear that. they didn't want to hear it from me. one of the things that i realized, it wasn't just because i was black and female. a lot of the animosity had to do with the fact that i was at princeton. people were not happy with that. i want to into the details of how brutal the commentator was and all of those things and how people came up to me afterwards and tried to say, we are sorry, we are sorry. but i will say that after that, i went back to princeton and i think i even wrote an e-mail to nell from the road saying, oh my god, what have i got myself

into? i was not prepared for the response and i wrote her a long letter of what happened. she e-mailed me back. she said, crystal, let me welcome you to the long-suffering, much to be used community of black women academics. now, why would this experience come to a surprise to me in 1997? i have to start the beginning. in some ways my academic career has come full circle. i was an undergraduate at you see chapel hill in '94 and i am a assistant professor on the faculty there. when i arrived at chapel hill there were two african women on the faculty. nell painter had been to there, hermine bennett, so the department in a sense, i'm not going to say that it is burford now or was perfect then but had

a history, having african-american faculty members, people teaching african-american history. i took one of my first survey classes, american history 1865 to the present with tara hunter, so right off the bat i came into history not thinking about the limits, but it was very clear to me what the possibilities were. i had tara hunter who was working at that time on african-american women, organizing its workers in atlanta, so right up the bat everything seemed possible to me. i remember once walking across campus with nell before the mrs. if the conference and tony larsen had been on the cover of time something and nell was, i cannot believe this, i never would have imagined. i was looking at her like, really? [laughter] so we had this long conversation.

i am the oprah generation. oprah is on tv. black women are everywhere as far as i could see, so i started off fig u.n. see. my sophomore year, darlene clark hine came. i had the opportunity to have lunch and dinner with her. she encourage me to consider african-american history, women's history. i was not convinced that the time but she was there saying to me, this is possible, you should think about this. by my junior year, i was involved with women studies as well. i was a double major. barbara harris at the time was really motivated to convince me to become a historian and was the president and ambassador. she got the dean to give me money to go. a it was my first historical-- that year was off the hook. i don't know if people remember, but it was like eveyln

higginbotham, debra gray white, nell painter. i just remember going in, this is the club of one to be a part of. there were graduate students who were there, and as far as i could see, there were black women and i wanted to be part of that, and then i went off this summer after my junior year to do an mlk, work it the mlk project as a research assistant and i met leslie harris there. my partner in crime, ms. eric armstrong, who does african-american women's history at delaware. after that i thought okay, i am doing this, i am on board. i applied to graduate school. eric cut and i hooked up in their senior year to go to the black women academy conference that was at mit so you can see it was a snowball effect.

i do remember the mit conference was the first moment that i sort of got a little bit of what i could expect but it was hard to take in because they did have a very different experience. i remember sitting there, every time some black women would come up to the mic, it is like, it is hard, it is hard being the only one. [laughter] they did this to me and they did this and all my god. erica is like all like, what are we into? darica had been working with evelyn brooks-higginbotham is an undergraduate at the university of pennsylvania. i remember i was making a pact, we have to take care of each other. we are never going to be alone. we have got each other, right? and that has been the case. we have been a support for one another whether it is professional or personal. i was going to princeton. i was going to work with nell

painter. i mean, my experience has been really different but at the same time, that mississippi experience really sort of pushed me to see that my experience was exceptional in this sense that i ended up in places where i was lucky enough that there wasn't just one, but that is not anymore. that conference was the first time i was just one, and it was brutal. i came back, i was the graduate student rap, not the african-american person but i was at that time in many ways on sees twa and mev road about that experience. i got overwhelmed with letters from white women, black people saying, you know, i remember having an experience like this and this story just sort of poured out of me. then i got my first job and that

was the first one at boston college. but, what ultimately sustained me through those moments of hardship was the community of people who have supported me from day one, whether it was a wreck that when we were undergraduates, when i was a princeton, one nell was the only one in the history department. debra gray white was down the street. her graduate students came and nell had a cohort of graduate students. in b.c. and i realized what had taught me is you've got to build community. you've got to reach out to people of other schools and i did that and i continue to do that unfortunately i am in a department now where there are for african-american women. tara hunter unfortunately is long gone to princeton. myself, heather williams and german jackson are there, so i

feel once again extremely lucky to be in a community coming in a field where people believe it is necessary to help each other and that we can't do this by ourselves, even if we are the only one, we have got to depend on each other and watch up for each other. on that no, thanks for watching out for me@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ú

academy. some of those old fogeys in the 1970's and to see the riches that have come as a result of that. i see a few other contributors and the audience. we do have time and i'm not going to put you on the spot but if anyone who is here would like to share something, either about their time in the historical profession where something about telling histories or something that you think this audience as

well as our viewing audience. i don't know if you know but we are being filmed by c-span, the book so we will be disseminated of course all over the united states. [laughter] so, does anyone who is here, any of the other contributors have anything to add? yes, one that what you step up to the mic? this is wanda hendricks who is also a contributor. [applause] >> i am going to shamelessly promote something. at the time that the book came out, when it was sent to us, after reading all the stories, we all showed up, many of us appeared at the organization of american historians conference in march in new york, and it was the perfect time because at that

point, we had raised enough money for the creation of the award for the best book in african-american women and gender and darlene clark-hine has contributed to the book, and it is the first award named in honor of an african-american woman in the oah and waive institutionalizing black women's history, so that means that any monographs that will come out by these younger scholars will receive recognition and in perpetuity so it can be taken away. so we have actually, in part because of debra's help, we were able to raise the money for that and also in part because of the association of black women historians and a number of the scholars who also, authors of the articles in the book, people were very much interested in

making sure that this legacy of african-american women's history continue. so it was a really wonderful opportunity to have this book come out of the same time and have this all together and sort of people to announce that we have this award. by the way, darlene clark-hine was my mentor. i was the one he didn't say anybody's name in my article but if you know me, you consort a figure all of this out. [applause] >> asthma this fishiest, it was largely due to the efforts of wanda hendricks that this award, the darlene clark-hine prize will be awarded by the organization of american historians, so thank you one the. [applause] we have another one of our contributors from texas southern. >> i would like to undergird what rosalyn said.

ed hbcu, many scholars or historians are under recognized. i went all the way from coming through graduate school without having a female mentor, but as rosalyn said, you make a way out of no way. i was employed at texas southern university. we had very few resources and taught classes with 60 students each but the success, my success as a historian has been networking with fellow black historians such as rosalyn, darlene and debrah. thank you. [applause] >> another contributor, professor jennifer morgan hill is now at the new york university. >> i just wanted to, i was really struck because i had a similar experience when debra asked me to write, reflecting on

the way that my career as an academic is always been in conversation with black women and with mentors, often from a distance but that i was always part of this community. it strikes me both as the need for mentoring and the desire to find mentors across time and space as the constant, but the other thing i really wanted to point to orth wrought there is that i feel like crystal and i are both of the generation of which were really the only one, except when we are. so that there's a way in which our work, when our work, we are in a place in which the topic is intersections of race and gender and of course we are not the only one. when we are at old mist, when we are at harvard on a conference of important transitions, when nobody's talking about slavery except for me, then you have that experience of people coming

up after words killing, i can't believe that just happened to you. those moments i think are changing because the assumption that okay we have done that, we all know we need to be talking about race. we all know we need to be talking about gender so it sneaks up a new on ways that it is institutionally there are these enormous absences, and that we need to be attentive to them. exactly, in different ways. exactly, so, and thank you debra. [applause] >> so, we have time to take questions from the audience, so would you please step up to the microphone and you might want to identify yourself. >> i don't have a question as much as i have a comment. my name is karmen harris and the

mississippi professor of history at a place called the university of south carolina of. >> which used to be usc spartanburg. i am wanda hendricks cousin, even though she does not know it. [laughter] she got their undergraduate degree at the school called limestone college with-- my grandparents lived 2 miles and i took piano lessons from the time i was 12 or 15 emmit both ended up being students so darlene clark-hine. i won't get into the pay those only to say that, i have just gotten ten year. [applause] at the moment that happened i also had a disappointing experience of having a chair use student comments which seemed to be mocking me because i was teaching civil war and reconstruction. the students in just me not qualified to teach what i teach. i don't want to focus on that.

what i want to focus on is the comfort i feel in this room. crystal talked about the comfort. i was there and it was off the chain. i met a lot of people, dr. washington actually commented on my paper and i remember from what she said of that conference, i was doing something on african-americans in extension work and i called them ignorant. she used the word of gentle criticism and i have never forgotten that. it really transformed how i thought about the history of african-americans of lower class. i have got to back up for a second and give propst amaya white jewish thesis adviser, who at clemson university encourage me as a black woman to take pride in myself. i am not going to say what a black male professors said in a class, ripping off of something that said black women were known to be promiscuous and when i

corrected him in front of the class he knew all i was doing by the next class, knew i was an undergraduate accounting major and try to encourage me to go into accounting. so, he was great, and they went to the birch when i was at michigan state's thugging under darlene. i am reminded about to bottle of wine she took the enemy were parting really hard one night. this was just a wonderful place. i look at people like ms. petri who i met in '95 and '96 at a conference in houston. my big child know who was my 2-year-old, i was still breastfeeding in my husband who is also a scholar in tow, sitting at some of the talks on feeding and talking about history. dr. markon, who was then i think africans of america, and i always tell people when you come on the screen, i know her, she

parties could. [laughter] so, for me, it is just, it was exciting to be able to come to say that on one level but to also emphasize that black women historians have a long legacy. i talk about my pfizer because of darlene clark-hine. when i when on the job market i had 38 inner viers and five on campus. tour three job offers for the first year i did not accept the job because i was pregnant and the second year i took a job and the next year i got a different job because the people at that job, because i thought they hired me to teach african-american history and then told me i didn't want to be a soprano who sang one note and ended up where i am now. that is something of felt would talks about the power pouches the bonus change. whenever i see darlene clark-hine in most places it is like five open the magic door

and i really appreciate that. i used your work in my own where can i just wanted to say how much i appreciate all that you have done for all of us who are falling in the hopi can live up to the standards you have set. [applause] >> hi, hello. i am from illinois university and bhagat recently ten year did last year. [applause] my question to the panel is, i would like you to come each one of few latika please talk about how do navigate the political minefields in the profession or within your own, with done your own administration sector institutions? if you can talk about what were some of these obstacles, not just in her literature but also, but also-- thank you.

>> to be perfectly honest, i can't say that i had a strategy. [laughter] and because there really wasn't anybody, i didn't have a mentor. i am of the first generation that basically we mentor ourselves, but i sort of just did what i had to do and did what made sense at the time. i did have very close friends and people, who helped me, and they were not usually the people who you would expect them to be, so that they didn't come from the dissertation committee per se. , a lot of them came from young scholars who were getting their ph.d. and my graduate student

cohorts. i was doing african-american women's history, and they were doing what they were doing, but we did share some of the same kinds of experiences, like how to get, how do you get on a panel. i mean, there really are some basic things that one does have to do at a very early stage in one's career. you have to get papers, the matter how painful that is and therefore you have to meet people. you have to go to conferences. i met rosalyn and i met sharon at the association for the study of african-american life and history at the oah and at the southern and let's remember that these are the times, not for the association, but for the organization of american historians and dha, the american

historical association with there weren't a whole lot of black people and we would see each other at every single meeting and we will look for each other, and then we would party in somebody's room. and, it was like i would get some steam from this association to go bacg #o)@@ @ @ @ @ @ @

i always felt a scholarly community, so at the moment when i first went to african-american studies at college park, i was the only female faculty member and most of my colleagues or africanist's, so i needed more. fortunately i was in washington so i built the committee at the library of congress, so one day i would see david levering lewis, lawrence levine, and whole matter of people, so that was my community. i would teach, i would go to the library of congress and be there six days a week to the point that my sister said that she was slightly embarrassed. because i went there so much. the second thing is even though i complained about howard not being the mecca radical, it

surprised me that a number of radical people look-- went to howard like stuckey carmichael. it was decided self-empowerment. rosalyn and i have never were told, at least not openly that we could not publish a volume of book is graduate students. we were never told that. a couple of publishers told us that the needless to say we had a fellow graduate students to contribute to that volume. the of the thing is that when i have got to be very challenging with the eye named chair of african-american studies, i applied for an administrative position, just to leave the african-american studies and lo and behold the became the dean of undergraduate studies at the university of maryland and then i realized how white the school was. and i would go back to my

african-american studies office and i would not turn on the lights and sit there because i didn't realize how white the university was, because my whole life was either in the african-american studies department or and washington d.c. at the library of congress. then there was corridor learned up. she did allow for this first generation of african-american historians. she organized conferences, she included us, so i will always be grateful to her for that. and then, building this community was really important to me. when i got the ford grant, what i did was to organize and the black women historians, black women mainly to vote about women's work, and then the next year i got-- that was when ford had money, or least they were giving it to me. this was such a powerful five

years seminar, and we always produced a book because the conversation is one thing but scholarship is a different thing. and so the next year, when that one was finished i did one of the women of color, and invited the key luis and other people. the point that want to get that, one year we looked around the room and the average age, and we were being generous, in the '50s but some were in the '60s. so we invited powers to join the group. i spend a day with the junior scholars and shared with them how we build community, how are love of respect for each other and paid for them to come a day early. i wasted my time. gwinnett jr scholars came, they didn't have any deferential respect for anything that we had done to build the foundation. [laughter] they were not going to be on all of these committees that we had been. they were going to do their scholarship and that was it.

so, i think, my point is that the foundation we build, hopefully they won't have to do the same kinds of things, but what they did discover, they had to come back to us in the end, because we are the mentors who would help them get to where they were going, and they can do it alone. some of the same junior people did not come to the seminars, who didn't do with the things that we expected them to do, had to come back and ask for a letter of recommendation and had to come back to us to say why didn't i get this or that or the other. [applause] >> my motto is make a way when there is no way. so come i didn't particularly have a strategy other when there is no way i have got to find a way. i was fortunate at morgan state

university to know and work with benjamin. i have learned through my experience with elsie lewis that you find a senior person, who looks at you in a positive way, and you try to, and i did not know the word mentoring so much then. you just try to keep track of them and let them know you are around. unfortunately elsie lewis developed alzheimer's and that was tragic for me because she used to write recommendations and do things for me, but after a while she couldn't. ..

i was amazed that he -- that's kind of a little -- litter a kind of i don't know what it is, but it was a very good idea. but we went to people like dorothy porter was another person sharon and i worked with all the time, and these folks were born in the early 20th century. so they were old enough to almost be over grandparents. i'm not going to see parents

plan almost -- they were between let's say in grandparents and parents, and i think that's very important. so i understood how important it was to deal with my elders, and like what you're saying happened. a lot of young people today don't respect their elders, and i don't mean bad mouth them or whatever but they don't understand those who came before you had to blaze the trail and you have to learn from them so you don't reinvent the wheel. >> i want to just say that i agree with everything that you all said but i also want to add that i think your metaphor is appropriate. that is a minefield. there is no strategy. i mean, you're going to get blown up sometimes. that's just the way it works. [laughter] there is no strategy, either your on the field or you're not and if you're in the academy and

you're black and your female or your whatever, it's a minefield, and so the strategy is to survive, right? so that when you step on one of those lines, you know, you can get back up and that is the thing i had to learn. i kept thinking i need that secret, like what's the secret to avoid these faculty meetings where the stuff happens or these exchanges in the hallway. maybe i just lock myself in my office. people say don't talk up the faculty meeting if you are a junior. people give you all these strategies but at the end of the day, shit happens. [laughter] so for me it goes back to what her share in and deborah had said that you have to have community and you have to have support, and i am open my essay with a quote after the mississippi conference and she said this testimony makes a

difference. i still think and hope he will share with everyone you know as a warning and statement of solidarity with those who have encountered similar situations and concluded in their isolation that the difficulties were somehow their fault. your letter can break down this isolation that it displays and to people like us. so again, it's about, you know, not just respecting your elders but talking to them and hearing that you're not alone and this stuff happens but it's not about you. it's about the nature of the institution and how we are going to change it and make it better for the people that come after us. [applause] >> hello. my name is lindsay and i teach at north carolina central university. i finished chapel hill from ipt. and by masters, too. but my experience has been

somewhat different because i am in european history, not american history in that sense, and so many times it is getting more comfortable at different levels now but i have always been the only person in the room and even at chapel hill, first time i taught western civilization i was on the third floor, another graduate student of mine sitting back here who was going to bring my course outlines up to me. so i could be a little weight decollate but i was down in the well. people were standing outside of the room. i said why are you out here, teacher isn't here yet. so she walked around and they were still standing outside the room. why are you out here? the teacher isn't in the room. he looked and, i was down on the well. there for the students were used a black people teaching black experience at chapel hill, but a black person was not supposed to be teaching western civilization at chapel hill. i could teach western

civilization. i had been teaching western civilization. and so once they got acclimated, once i became their teacher they were all right. but also a part of that, someone had to allow me or give me the opportunity to stand up in the well of that room because i could do it and i could teach once again that even as you move forward, we had perhaps the mainstream society more comfortable with black women teaching certain kinds of courses and doing certain kinds of things and wants to step out of that it becomes problematic and much of that still has to be done. i would even argue some of my publications they never knew where to put them. we don't know if we can do that, i mean are you talking about black people in britain? that's not really afro-american, that's not really british, is it?

what are we going to do with this? [laughter] so now people are more comfortable with this in terms of the diaspora and a cetera. now i will say that because i finished the university and no one ever told me i could not pursue european history. no one said you cannot do that. no one even asked me why are you giving it? [laughter] it was the understanding was there and you can do this, you can accomplish it, and because i was at howard university i had the support. when i went to chapel hill i was by myself, okay? i was on my own. but then i was older and i could move through and do certain things. but the questions still broadcast. i once said that john scott, who i was -- she took me in -- she even helped me formulate certain questions but i would say that mr. lewis at the whole university actually introduced me to how to approach. chapel hill never said i

couldn't do it, they just said they didn't know how to help make. [laughter] even in terms of my reading list and comp all of that stuff was european british history. i had to go out and develop my own bibliography of reading list of everything else. they couldn't help me. they said it needs to be done but we don't know how to direct you to do that and if you ever look at my dissertation and wonder why it is so long they didn't know -- they just said keep writing. just keep writing. [laughter] just keep writing. [laughter] my dissertation is two volumes and it wasn't until it was taken over that it was actually cut down to two volumes. one night i went to his house and he had a stack over here. going to leave this out, put this in and even then it cannot to 600 something pages because all they could tell me to do was keep writing. and that is no direction. but in that you still don't stop

because it needs to be done, it needs to be done. on the other side these comments on black women anb@@@@ @ @ @ @ i hbcu. [laughter] what is this about? i'm being harassed the had to do this, they had to do everything the rest of the people had to do

in that class and they felt -- it is true, they had been on these jobs doing whatever else, they shouldn't have to do a map and blah, blah, blah. the reason i didn't have problems is i had been teaching for 20 years and people understood i knew how to do this. i wasn't a junior faculty member. i had a male faculty -- the chair was a male and understood this but these people actually complained they had to do this work. and once again, we may have another downturn and people would look for these kind of secure jobs that wouldn't upset the families and all this other kind of stuff. and so i said this was a new twist and i was in -- what would have been considered a secure situation. but because it's this kind of open and kind of top research. people come back for certification you have other kinds of issues that you deal with and some of it is white

male anchor and it's always that you per say, it is the situation, the lives are changing. your lives are changing. [applause] >> there's a line. >> i have just one thing to say about telling history and response and then i am going to ask for as much as i know everyone has so much to say this could go on for awhile, you know, if you have a question to just make it as brief as possible. but just in explanting -- we have to people who have experienced either teaching or having gone to school at hbcu's and also someone who is younger and has also had the experience of having african-american

mentors -- women mentors. there are 17 autobiography is called kind of different experiences. i am somebody who went to an all white school for all of my life for my undergraduate, for my master's degree, and then for my phd. the very first time that i saw or had an african american professor was darlene clark negative and i didn't have her. i saw her and was like who is this? is this real? and this was in the very late 1970's. so i just wanted to interject that because we do have experience as all kind of experiences are outlined in "telling histories." >> roseanne from african-american and diaspora studies at vanderbilt. i will say two quick things and then my question. first thing is thank you for the book and this session. i really feel both happy and legitimate in this profession

and i felt both those things this after them. the second thing i have to say in terms of scholars from hbcu i have both been taught and worked in traditionally white institutions by whole career and at that point everything professionally my career seemed to be going from a white college tried to find a way to encourage me and said you should think about rosalyn nell painter. and i said well then it might be possible. my question though comes back to something crystal said in terms of how we change the institutions that are lined hills. a lot has been said about surviving and building networks, but one of the things i find most frustrating, and i think ph.d. recede wise i am sitting somewhere between crystal and jennifer is that so many of the obstacles that we are now finding are from people that purport to be either liberal or antiracist, antisuccess or either feminist, yet de -- you know, they have sort of reinvented a new form of the keating and i am not sure what

institutional -- structure and behavior what should we be doing to address that which is a slightly different, you know, so many of you build foundations that let us get where we are but now they are sort of reinventing, sort of door keeping for our generation. >> as the long term quote on quote probably share for life of african-american studies, but i discovered at least at the university of maryland that we would hire good faculty members with ph.d. s, very prestigious places, and other departments will do this, their liberal colleagues will put them on every conceivable ph.d. committee that has something to do with race. and so we had a faculty member who was a quarter line and an african-american studies and in government politics and he was on 15 different dissertation

committees, and these seem colleagues would not support him for tenure, and i said to someone when he got an award for mentoring, he is not going to get tenure at the university of maryland. so whether we like it or not, it is those publications that are 90% and the teaching is probably up to about, you know, 8%, and the two per cent are the committees. so why don't allow any of my faculty members to be on dissertation committees, to be honored more than one committee and the whole university. in fact, we have a list of other african-american faculty members they can call on who are tenure. we have a list, and so somebody has to look out for you because it's nice to be asked to be on these committees and do these things but will not get your tenure. so i just would say, you know, it's nice to be asked, but the answer is no.

>> jennifer morgan would like -- >> it's a little bit of testifying because the other thing that happened -- my first job was rutgers university where deborah was the chair right before i came up for tenure, and senior faculty members who said exactly that to us, that deborah said you have got to say no, and when i was coming up for tenure she said i'm on your -- you know, it was the year after she was out of the office and she shared by committee and the other debt those of us who've come up in this other generation have is to senior women faculty who have said exactly that, who say you have to just step back a little bit. i just wanted -- i just wanted to say that because i meant to say that earlier but i think it's one of the most important indicators of whether -- whether to were going to succeed or fail as a junior person, and then as soon as you are tenure you have to step up to the plate. you have to do it for the people

behind you. and i think that is a sort of recent tenure think roseanne was saying, like we have to do that, right? we have to do what we can do to help change -- [inaudible] >> i wasn't even thinking about those kind of working people -- [inaudible] i would say probably two-thirds -- [inaudible] >> and i would argue, you know, they might be different. there is the veneer versus the hard core reality what deborah and folks experience that's different from what we experience but i think the

response is the same, right? because the sort of strategy, the ultimate sort of end goal of what this veneer is is the same, it is really about sort of keeping us out or making sure we don't get tenure or what not. so i think that again, this is where we can learn from those folks who've come before us about the strategy is how to survive because i think the end game this same, even some of the tactics are a bit different. >> unfortunately we have time for just one more question. you are in line. >> i am at the center for america's at vanderbilt university but originally from germany, and i ended up here in the united states because i studied u.s. history in germany and african-americans study is really a big affair by you hardly ever get to see any african-americans, and my research is on student migration, faculty exchanges and

i read a lot about white studying in european universities and tebeau eda de boies, there is several articles and that got me interested and i started collecting the names and experiences and stories. there were a few women even before w.e.b. du bois but we don't know anything because back then in the 19th century the discrimination in the german universities was account of gender so there are hardly any accounts and so i collected more and got more stories and went out to angela davis, who studied in france and germany, and i am just wondering how does the story continue into the future? aníbal postscript to that, i contributed -- i helped organize a group to germany last june which was absolutely fascinating. this group of students, their first contact with europe and it

was a learning experience for all of us. we met german students and my honest say -- i must say we were we even met some africa germans and i had the feeling while 100 years ago and even 50 years ago it was really an experience about finding a very different racial climate as a person of color when you go to europe coming from the context and today it was for the students from the university, for our group it was also an experience of the afro germans have in some respects very different experience because they're such a small minority. so basically, i just wanted to throw the question out there what role does faculty and student exchange place specifically for african-american students and specifically also for women and if anyone has any stories to

tell, any reasonings why there is this absence and it's so hard to find anything about it i'm just very curious to find more thank you. >> at jul, i would say a couple of things, and i think one, many of us are now getting to the point we could actually even consider doing research abroad, not just doing research abroad but actually say for example teaching abroad because so many of us like gannett cooper with children and husbands and all this other stuff that we have to deal with in the academy. and there also are just so incredibly few of loss to go around so that -- but also, i would say that the field of the african diaspora is opening up and is changing even as we are

doing african-american women's history, african diaspora and the black atlantic, these fields are now demanding that people not only in particular more african-americans not only african-americans do research abroad but teach abroad and become involved in the universities that want to know. i went to a conference on atlantic history which is in itself also a new field and i presented a paper on the black atlantic at rutgers university. we did a two year project for historical analysis of the black atlantic so, dare i say we have gone from doing african-american history and african-american women's history to, you know,

africans in the atlantic to the entire diaspora and that is that it is growing and growing the that i think that we will begin to see many more african-american profs taking positions abroad. >> let me say i think one of the strategies is to join in these international organizations. i have been a member of the association of caribbean historians now since the late 80's. there's also a fairly new organization, which is the association for the study of the world wide african diaspora, aswwa. to travel abroad and meet students and faculty from other places and then they interact with you and even if you don't get a chance to visit their

site, you e-mail and exchange. we did a book several years ago in the 80's called what is it, quote crow women and the african diaspora," -- "women in africa and the african diaspora," after they had a conference on the african diaspora. most of the people who came to the conference were u.s. based people, whether they were african-american or not. but going abroad, the association of caribbean historians is going to guadalupe and may. aswwa is going to ghana. through these things to make the initial contact and then can find out about the exchanges that might be going. >> and there is the

african-american research and i have been to france and madrid. i didn't go to berlin this year they met in berlin, but they do wonderful work promoting african-american research and actually last week i was at queen's university in belfast on rethinking reconstruction, myself and susan odom and from harvard. of course we were the only ones to talk about gender and i would like to reassure crystal in this sense that people don't really know what you're talking about or may not fully appreciated, persist. i don't care. [laughter] so that -- i did a paper on gender, labor and kind of this expansive sense of citizenship that and the emancipation era, and it was interesting but, you know, a great conference. so i think things are happening. and tom host was a keynote

speaker at this and he is at the academy of sciences in berlin. >> i would like to alt-a you -- think you. we have run out of time although i know we could go on. i would like to invite you to the university of north carolina booths where there will be a "washington journal" continues.

host: joining us now is christopher whatley from the council of state behrman's. can you explain what your agency is and what you do there? guest: it is the oldest and largest of state elected officials. we have been around for 75 years. we help states learn from each other through national and regional offices so that states can implement best practices, but we also spent time tracking what is going on on capitol hill and communicating major changes. host: how much of the state budget's been dependent on stimulus money recently? guest: the recovery act has been a godsend for state budgets. most estimates say that the state budget crisis which still is a crisis and has not gone away would be at least 40% worse if you were not for the recovery

act dollars which are now flowing through the veins of state budgets. host: how much of the overall package has been sent to the states? guest: the amount states are ultimately eligible for a purchase about $300 billion -- there is $500 billion in appropriation and this piece of legislation. states are ultimately eligible to receive or will receive the majority of that. in terms of what is out there now and being spent, it is closer to around $70 billion right now. you'll see a huge uptick in the amount spent by state. the biggest chunks have just arrived in the last four weeks. much of that is for education. host: we're talking about the economic stimulus and how it has impacted states. if you have a question, please call.

at what point -- when will the stimulus phones be fully realized to the states? guest: the peak year in terms of spending is the fiscal year we are in now. states run july 1 until june 30. it is this fiscal year -- 2010, were you will see the majority of funding appear on the books. you will see the majority of contract actions on energy efficiency programs, transportation and how we progress. we are really moving into the peak. were you will see the largest impact of the stimulus dollars -- and to the peak period of the largest impact. host: it was always intended to be temporary estimates as, what happens after that? guest: that is a big question. there is a fiscal cliff that the states could fall off.

the key flexible money that is balancing budgets runs out by the end of the calendar year 2010. as a result, we cannot expect state revenues to have restored at that time. they will still be hurting. states will have to make some very tough calls. they will have to make program cuts, look at revenue measures. certainly, the recovery act dollars are helping and at a moment where our economy is at its weakest. looking forward, we help the economy begins to recover, but it will be a tough time, particularly in the 2011-2012 time. host: can you offer any examples of how it has helped? guest: when you look across the board at each of the 50 states, all but the oil-rich states like north dakota, louisiana, texas who have some specific state revenues coming off their natural resources, all of them

were in dire difficulties. in each and every of those cases, the stimulus dollars prevented them from having to introduce tax increases or make very deep program cuts. it is important to remember what state es do -- medicaid, incarcerate, and such. they laid off teachers, reduce benefits to the poorest who receive help through medicaid, and they released prisoners and lay off prison guards. host: did and that just happen in california? guest: yes, and the cuts would have been far worse if they had not had that amount of federal stem this. but that gives you an example of how bad it could have been. proportionally, even with a flexible money from the recovery act, there have been these extreme cuts. were not for the $27 billion

that california was eligible for cannot those cuts would have been dire. host: let's take some calls. caller: good morning, i'm just waking up and listening. i just want to know -- what did they do? why did they wait until the last minute to decide that they need help? eight years ago, where were you? i mean, what is going on? guest: you raise a very good question. it gets to the heart of the fact that states have been, have faced these volatile crises for a long time. in goodyear's states like california do great. they get revenues from income taxes, largely which is investment in come, but when thethey hit those bums, it is ag

crash. one of the silver linings that may come from this current economic crisis is that even when the stimulus money states are having to make hard choices and having to look at their budgets in general. as many have said, a fiscal crisis is a terrible thing to waste. it does prompt, force you to look hard at your revenue structures. make you look at your programs to make sure you are only funding those that are affected. it could lead to stiff bidding practices that will allow them to be more stable and future downturns. host: we have a comment from twitter. guest: i think the stimulus money is already beginning to create jobs, but modestly. one of the elements is the tax-

side. those earning less than $75,000 per year are eligible for a $400 could. unlike in the bush administration were was backdated and everyone got a check and felt rich in that moment, but unfortunately, felt for quickly because the gas prices went up so fast that the dollars in your pocket quickly ended up in your gas tank -- in the case of the stimulus you're getting this $400 benefit, but it shows up in your paychecks as an extra $18 every two weeks. it does not make you feel rich. therefore, there has not been that kind of political moment where people are appreciative of the check they have just received, but i think you see americans across the country having just a little more money at the end of the month. it shows up and some of the positive economic indicators, or less bad economic indicators we

have seen of the past couple of weeks. the tax benefits are having a modest impact. i think the for structures spending that has been done is bringing people on line and getting them to work. but something disappointing there, when we discussed this stimulus back in december or january, if you go back to those months, you really thought the recovery act was all about infrastructure. you would have thought that there was it hundred dollars billion worth of asphalt in the stillness. but in the end it was only 5%. $40 billion of transportation, water infrastructure, other infrastructure elements. the total $787 billion historic piece of legislation -- although those monies are putting people to work, since there were a modest part of that total, it is having a modest impact. the bigger impacts we have seen on the state level are more in that job saved category were the

teachers are still in the classroom and your kids are still able to go to a kindergarten for there are maybe 25 kids to the class rather than 35 or 40. those are important benefits. but certainly, i sympathize with the collar and with people across america who would have liked to have seen more direct job growth more quickly. host: on the republican line from tupelo, mississippi. caller: good morning. let me comment on what you just said. the stimulus money is not putting anyone back to work. at least not in our area. also, not in many other parts of the country. the stimulus money is being sent overseas. now, the question came up -- i cannot remember the guy's name, but there was $700 billion that

went overseas. he could not tell anybody specifically for that money went. were you watching out for that money and where it went? guest: the callers making a good point. there are concerns that some stimulus dollars could end up overseas. it is not directly. it is not that the $787 billion of the recovery act is being spent directly overseas. these are moneys designed to circulate through local economies, create activity, and put people back to work. they are having a modest impact so far and will have a greater impact in the future. but the caller is onto something. that extra amount that you have at the end of the day as a result of the tax benefits in particular which pretty much everyone in america is receiving

-- that extra $40 you might have as a family at the end of the month -- often you're going down to buy clothing or other products at retail stores. many of those come from overseas. some of those moneys rattling around in the pockets of americans, modest amounts, are indeed being used to purchase products from overseas. they will ultimately benefit those overseas, but i think the core purpose of the recovery act is very much about trading activity at the local level. the caller is understandably concerned that she has not seen enough of that activity in tupelo, mississippi. hopefully, as the projects ramping up and as the country begins to bounce at the bottom and slowly climb back up, that we will see some of that direct evidence and the form of school modernization and renovation in

your area and putting contractors back to work. the kind of repaving projects that mississippi has invested in. host: from worcester, mass., jjiim. caller: yes, the woman who just spoke is actually referring to the federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke. could i speak for a moment and then you could comment? as far as the state deficits go, i think it is basically a symptom of our overall government. until we get control of inflation, i do not think we will get -- never mind the speech, we will not get the country's finances under control.

i wish more people would have called their congressman and ask them to support hr 1207 which is a bill to audit the federal reserve. i was wondering what you thought of that bill, excuse me -- how that would affect the discussion of today's discussion? guest: i am not prepared to comment directly on a hr 1207, but what i can say is that when i'm out in state capitals around the country that inflation is a topic brought up. there is a lot of concern at the state level about the debt load the federal government is carrying, even the states who have dependent on recovery act dollars to help balance budgets. within those states there is a lot of debate. many of those state leaders who are ultimately spending

stimulus dollars may not have voted for it. @@@@ the federal government about monetary policies -- that has not been on the radar screen of the state leaders i'm working with. they are so consumed with the challenge of the moment of deploying these stimulus dollars. but your concerns are shared by many around the country. host: we have another question from twitter.

guest: good question. for the most part they have created a few offices and positions. there has been talk in papers and on the news about stimulus czars with most rates having a person in charge of overseeing the spinning, but it tends to be a modest structure. one give the show and maybe five or 10 people beneath them for a medium-sized state. they're mainly acting like a traffic cop. the stimulus to the states translates into about 44 major program accounts, money flowing into your education department, into your highway department, into your state energy office. in all of these separate accounts, that stimulus czar is trying to make sure that in every account for they are

receiving this. according to the law. there are the most stringent become a build requirements of any peace ever enacted by it is a huge challenge. those administrative structures are really focused on it. for them, the date to watch is october 10. that is the first deadline for them to do comprehensive reporting on exactly what they have spent, how many jobs it has treated, but the rationale was for white they spend their money where -- and after that, after a week, that will all be up on recovery.gov. it will be in a project before the public to examine those and critique them. states are sprinting to ensure they get all that data, that their contracts on how we

projects and other things are fully compliant with all the stipulations in the recovery act. they are doing it with fairly modest administrative structures, but it has required the addition of a few more staff at the state level. host: if the states did not spend the money allocated to them does it go back to the federal kitty? guest: for the most part, on nearly all recovery act accounts to have a court deadline of the end of september 2010, unless otherwise stipulated in the actual legislation. in some accounts there were deadlines to get in your applications, certifications showing how he would spend the money. if you did not meet the deadline, those moneys would be reallocated to other states. one of the biggest was on transportation funding, a huge priority. often the highway spending decisions you make are the most charged, controversial, and emotionally-driven decisions on

the state level. people care a lot about which roads are built and improve. all of the states met the deadlines and got their allocations in four before the deadline. many states were sitting on the sidelines, wishing that the number of states would hope not to go for those funds or that they missed the deadline and they would get a little more, but states are consistently hitting those targets. it is because they are in this difficult fiscal crisis and need every dollar they can get. host: have in the state had problems spending so much money so fast? guest: it is too early to tell. there will be particular programs that might be difficult for states to spend down effectively. the weatherization program -- it provides audits and measures to many different agencies in the states. it has been around for a long time, but was modestly funded

until the recovery act. the act hits and you have a 70- fold increase in funding. that is the single largest program uptick in the entire complicated stimulus package. so, if you have a weatherization office that had three people in it 18 months ago, and now they are trying to spend 70-fold the amount, that is a big challenge. the recovery board at the white house will watch that account very carefully to make sure they spend that money effectively and to see what needs to be done in case those monies are not allocated. host: let's go to our next call from new york. caller: yes, are you more likely to receive stimulus for state benefits if you are in a smaller or bigger city? guest: if you're talking about some of the benefits that individuals receive, whether the tax benefits, extra $25 per week

that people on unemployment insurance receive -- those elements of the recovery act, it does not matter whether you are in the big cities, small town, or in an un incorporated area. but there has been a lot of concern concerning a tripleton areas where much economic activity is located -- that they have received the short end of the stabbing of the main reason is that the recovery act uses the existing federal form letters to allocate how we money, to allocate education dollars. many of those allocations have structures in place to benefit large states with small populations at the same time that the benefit major metropolitan areas. as a result, and total, you

might find a state like north dakota with a large land area and few people received more money per capita than some of the northeast states were you have a very large populations in a small area. there is concerned about equity as a result of those formulas. host: we will go to east point, mich., on the line for democrats. caller: good morning, so far i think the stimulus money for states has been effective in putting police back to work in keeping teachers in their jobs. you are right about the road work here in michigan -- after a winter the roads are demolished. so, we will have to sea in october were the money is being spent. that is all have to say about getting a the people back to work. i totally stand behind it. for places like wal-mart, you go

there are things are made cheaply and you have to return to buy things again. i have never walked into walmart. crime rate is up by 12% and all the small shops go out. i guess corporate america is still making money, but people are still struggling. that is why think health care does need an overhaul -- we're not going to kill the elderly, give me a break. america, host: wake up the next call from georgia on the independent line. caller: yes, and the question for mr. christopher whatley. have the states than any research on how much money state-by-state we have lost by letting these jobs go overseas? i know when i go buy a place, they are always made in china, indonesia -- i am curious -- is

there any research on how much we have lost but letting these jobs go overseas? guest: that is a good question. i do not believe the states have done a specific research in terms of economic impact on the shift of those jobs overseas. what i can say is that states are investing considerable resources to attract overseas investment here. to win at the global competitiveness game. they are making those decisions in terms of opening offices overseas designed to bring foreign companies here to set up factories like the hyundai factories that have come to the southeast, as a result of those concerns that they often see their own jobs in terms of an open, global economy shifting and they realize they need to find the next round of jobs.

one of the good news stories of the last couple of weeks has been that american exporters are doing better than they have a long time. at least in key sectors. states spend a lot of time looking at the economic climate of their states and certainly they are deeply concerned when you see a textile factory moved overseas and suddenly in a town in north carolina it is like a bomb going off on main street. jobs people depended upon for generations are gone. the attention has focused primarily on making investments in their economies to make sure it they are competitive in the global arena, rather than trying to collect data. that has been collected on the federal level and by research organizations, to some degree. host: from michigan again, on

the republican plan. caller: i was wondering, are there specific banks the government is using to hold the stimulus phones per state? it would be a good idea to create state banks. so that the money stays in the economy and people are invested. so you would get an overall growth. everyone working together, rather than giving to those who got billions of dollars in bailout for wrong investment to begin with. guest: that is a creative idea. one reason you do not see an innovative idea like that play now is that for the most part, the way the stimulus works is that it is money flowing through existing state-federal partnerships.

it is not necessarily a big, huge check the state gets and is able to deposit anywhere. in the case of the largest chunk benefiting states, it is just the federal government committing to take up a larger percentage of the costs of medicaid. in that case, the federal government is really not writing a check. it says it will pick up an extra 6% of the cost of this program over the life of the recovery act, for the next couple of years. the federal government is paying those bills themselves. it is not a check that has gone to states. in most program accounts that is how it runs. you have existing funding relationships where either there are federal funds flowing into the state's oooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooow