in hands above the website? .. >> host: well, bradley graham is the new co-owner along with his wife, lissa muscatine, of the well-known independent bookstore, politics & prose. mr. graham, good luck to you, and booktv looks forward to continuing our relationship with you. >> guest: we do too. thanks very much. >> next, in the black history of the white house, clarence lusane

presents the history of african-american men and women who were employed at the white house in the 20th century. this talk from the harlem library in new york city is about an hour and a half. >> came out because this is really a good opportunity for me to have a chance to not only present my ideas and to talk about the book, but also to have exchange and get ideas from people. and as i've been doing these book talks about the black history of the white house, one of the things that i'm discovering is that there's more and more that people are able to contribute. and particularly being down in washington, d.c., i'm getting more responses of not what's in the book, but what's not in the book. because people are saying, oh, you know my grandfather used to

cut grass at the white house, my uncle used to work there as a butler. so there's a follow-up to the book that i'm going to try to do to really capture a lot of these stories that the book, i think, has helped to let people know that these are important. they're not just family stories, but they're actually stories that are important for, for all of us. let me, first, thank the harlem public library for having me and the human bookstore. these are important institutions in our community, and we should always make sure we celebrate and herald the work that they're doing. and i also want to thank my publisher, city life. and, in fact, my editor is here who was just superb -- [applause] as we went through the process. now, what i want to mainly talk about today is some of the stories that are in the book, a little bit about how i got my motivation. now, on january 1st this year in

arizona a new law came into effect that, essentially, bans ethnic studies. and in texas last year the conservatives took over the review of the board, the state board of education, and they changed the rules so that -- and they changed the curriculum that's going to the textbooks so, for example, slavery is no longer mentioned. and they changed it so that no longer will there be references to the positiveness of the civil rights movement. about two weeks ago in tennessee, the tennessee tea party had a meeting with the governor where they wanted to change the curriculum for the schools. so these questions that we think are just questions about history really are debates. and they really are about different perspectives on how we understand how this country has evolved and who has been on what

side of particular kinds of questions. and as usually with historical debates, often they really are about contemporary issues. so when they talk about, well, the civil rights was really about states' rights which is not true, they're really talking about the politics of the day and an argument that states' rights is what should be governing the country as opposed to obama. right, so in a big kind of way the issues that i'm talking about in the book appear to be just kind of located in history, but in many ways they really are tied in to the issues we're dealing with today. and what i wanted to do was to give a context for trying to understand and to realize what the significance of having african-american, a black american in the white house and a black american family. in 2007 and 2008 as i traveled

not only around the u.s., but around the world because much of what i do with my work is international and as i went to brazil, as i went to south korea, as i went to england, people were constantly asking what's up with obama? can he win the election? will he survive? what does it mean to have a black person in the white house? and one question that came up was, why is it called the white house? right? now, you know, i could have given a glib answer like, well, look at it. you know, white people owned it. but as a scholar, you should do more research, you should have more of a precise answer. so that initially started some of my beginning to look at the history of the building itself because it's an iconic representation of what has been argued of american democracy, american freedom, american liberation. but within that body, within

that structure, within that institution itself i argue it has carried all of these contradictions around race throughout american history from the construction of it all the way up to barack obama, michelle obama, sasha and malia coming to live there. and so as i began to do this research, and initially i was, like, let me find a book, let me find something, and there was nothing there. or there was very little and it was scattered. so as i've automobile -- often done, when there's a hole, i try to fill it. i said let me do a book, maybe 150 pages, but the book grew to about 550 pages. and that's because at one point the book began to write itself. as a writer you start writing, your ideas are expanding, but then the book starts to take shape, and it really starts to

pull you in a particular kind of direction, and that's what happened with this book. and there's one particular transformation that happened from my early conceptions to what ended up being the finished product, and that's the narrative of individuals who have been in and around the white house. and each chapter opens with an extended story about a particular individual whose narrative really kind of captures and embodies that particular era. and what i really wanted to give voice and life to these individuals that all of us who grew up learning american history, black history, world history were never taught about and were never exposed to. and these are individuals who were critical in helping to understand how the contradictions around race and the white house really existed. the opening lines of the book,

"more than a quarter of u.s. prosecutors owned slaves. at least eight of those presidents had slaves while they were president, and those slaves existed in the white house." we were never taught this. we were taught about thomas jefferson and george washington and kind of the work they did around building democracy, freedom in the u.s. we were never told these other sides of the story. now, we kind of knew george washington had slaves, we kind of knew thomas jefferson was getting it on with sally hemings, you know, we had those stories, but we didn't have the full story, and we didn't have the full context, and we didn't locate it into the evolution and the history of the white house. and so part of what i was, began to uncover were all of these just remarkable, fascinating stories about individuals who came through this process. so what i want to do is talk a little bit about kind of that

history, bring it up-to-date and then really open it up for your questions, comments and like that. now, the white house itself, the pill that we -- building that we now call the white house didn't exist, of course, when the country was first founded. and, in fact, washington, d.c. did not exist. under the constitution and then under a specific act of congress in 1790 it was designated that virginia and maryland would cede a certain part of their territories in which the nation's capitol would be built. and this would be a ten-year process because they were projecting that this would be one of the grandest cities to exist in the world at the time and that it would take ten years to make this happen. now, part of the reason they said maryland and virginia is because these were slave states, and the southerners who

controlled and dominated the politics of the 13 colonies wanted to make sure that the south and slavery in particular was being protected in this process. and so they conceived this notion of ten years to build the white house and the capitol in the whole city. now, who's going to do this building? now, george washington initially said he wanted white europeans. and they put the call out, but there were not a lot of white europeans who wanted to get over in a boat and come over to the new country and dig trees and throw rocks out on the side of the road. so they had very, very, very little success in recruiting, so they turned to who they usually turned to who built most of the grand buildings in the country in that period, people who were enslaved. and, actually, we have a great deal of information now on the individuals who worked and

built, built washington, d.c. and built the white house and built the capitol. for example, we know that there were people who did unskilled labor, for example, washington was basically a jungle. it was just trees. somebody had to cut the trees, somebody had to drag them out, somebody had to lay -- build in roads. dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, hard, hard, hard work. this was mostly slave labor. but there was also skilled labor that was carried on by people who were enslaved. for example, we know at least five of the carpenters who built the inside of the white house -- tom, harry, john, paul, we have their names -- were black. and they were enslaved. now, there was probably free black labor that was involved and, of course, white labor. but black labor, it was loved in washington d.c.

and in the capitol and in the white house. and they were burnt down in 1814, and it took three years to rebuild. again, they relied on slave labor to do that construction. now, meanwhile, in this ten-year process while they're building the nation's capitol, the issue is where will the president and the rest of the government be? and for a short period they were in new york, but eventually then they all moved to philadelphia. so washington and his entire household, including his black slaves, all moved to philadelphia. now, he had two problems in philadelphia. one was that it was the center of the abolitionist movement in the country. this is where you had the most number of free blacks. this is where you had the quakers, and they were on it. and they had set up the underground railroad, they were doing petitions, they were doing lobbying, they were fighting to get rid of slavery, right? this is what george washington

comes into with his household of at least nine blacks who were enslaved. the other problem he had, though, was that in 1780 the pennsylvania state government had passed what was called a gradual abolition act, and it said that anybody who came, any person who was enslaved that came into the state, if you stayed for more than six months, you could be free. now, this was a good deal. washington, apparently, didn't know this before he move today the state and realized he had a problem. and so, we have evidence he wrote letters to his staff saying, i have a problem. and he tried to get around this because there was initially a loophole in the law that said if person left within that six month period, when they came back, the six months would start all over. so washington came up with a plan to rotate people in and out

of pennsylvania to try to get around the law. now, initially, they closed the loop, but washington continued to rotate people in and out. now, there were protests against washington and others who kind of petitioned him. now, this is where it really gets interesting. one of the individuals who was enslaved to washington was a woman named onie judge, this is my new hero of life. and onie was a young woman, probably early/mid 20s, who was mostly enslaved to martha washington. of she helped to dress her, she did cooking, she did household kinds of work. and she found out somewhere in 1795, 1796 that martha washington was planning to give her away as a gift for a wedding to one of her relatives. now, what this meant was that whatever promise the washingtons had made to their slaves, that

at some point you will be free when we die, was going to be out the door. and so onie began to make her plans -- [audio difficulty] >> the washingtons found out through just complete accident. and so they decided to go after her. because even though as president of the united states and someone who declared himself as antislavery, you would have

thought he would have said, she's gone, i'm representing the country, let it go. they wouldn't let it go. and so they went after her. so initially, now, they sent an envoy. they were embarrassed about it, so they tried to do it in a subterfuge kind of way. so they sent an envoy to meet with her and sit down and say, onie, if you come back, we'll work it out, all is forgiven, and eventually we'll let you free. and onie was, well, i'm free now. and so i don't really see the point of this discussion. i'm not going pack. i'm not going back. so that program failed. so then washington decided, well, we'll send the slave catchers after her, and we'll have my nephew go, and we'll figure out a way to kidnap her if you bring her back. but she was warned, and so she never -- so she was able to get away, and the washingtons never got her back. she never went back into

slavery. and, in fact, she lived to be very old, i think well into her 80s. she learned to read, she became active in her community. and even though she never went back into slavery, all the rest of her life she was, basically, a fugitive. given the laws of the country at the time. now, think about it. this is a young woman who, basically, challenges the most powerful person in the country. this is not just some small farmer, this is the president of the united states with all of the military, all the political power in the country at his beck and call. but she's so driven by her own desire for freedom, not to mention she writes about or talks about the inspiration from the haitian revolution which had happened in the early 1790s and whether you were literate or not, every single slave in the country knew about the haitian revolution. but she was also influenced by the american revolution. so think about it.

her and the people who were enslaved to jefferson and these other presidents, they were there at every moment when the discussions and the debates about american democracy, american freedom, the principles of the country were happening. they had more of an ear and more of an access to those debates and discussions than any of the journalists, any of the scholars, any of the people who were writing about government at the time. so how could they not be influenced? how could they not understand these contradictions much more profoundly than anybody else out there? now, most of them didn't have the opportunity to's escape and get -- to escape and get away, but she did. she was one of the people who said, i will risk it all. if she got caught, the washingtons really wanted to punish her, you know, send her down to mississippi somewhere, you know, it could have been really, really horrible. she said, i've got to go. right? we were never told this story. there was another individual who

was enslaved to washington named hercules. hercules was washington's cook. apparently, one of the top five cooks in the country. he would have been on that show, "top chef," right? because he was the man. [laughter] and hercules was in philadelphia at the same time as, or part of the time when thomas jefferson was there not only with sally hemings, but sally hemings' brother who was his cook and who had been trained in france to cook just like off the hook. right? now, at one point sally hemings' brother buys his freedom, but the deal is jefferson says you can buy your freedom, but you've got to train somebody else to cook for me before i let you go. which he did. now, he's in philadelphia at the

same time as hercules. hercules had to see this going on. he had to, he of course knew that onie had escaped. so hercules at one point takes off. washington looks for him, never catches hercules. hercules is gone. again, we don't get these stories, right? now, another character said -- studied about in this period was paul jennings. and paul jennings was enslaved to the madisons, john and dolly madison. now, he was there when they burnt down the white house. in fact, the very day that the british were down the road and they could see the smoke coming from other buildings, he was in the white house packing stuff. and they took off, like, within an hour or so before the british actually got to the building and burned it down. now, we actually have details

about this because he actually wrote a memoir in 1865 and was actually the first memoir won by somebody who actually worked in the white house. then he talks about his relationship with dolly madison which is interesting because when madison died, there had been a promise that he would be freed. dolly didn't free him. and it took him a while, up until 1847, for him to actually make enough money to buy his freedom. but then he talked later how dolly madison went into very hard times because all her friends and family abandoned her, and he actually had to bring her food, had to give her money, had to help take care of her, right? the worm had turned, right? now, one of the things that he doesn't talk about is his role in an 1848 slave escape plot in washington d.c. one of the larger during the

whole period of slavery. and what the deal was was that, this was in april, that on a saturday night while there were parties and good times going on in the city and this was a particular week because the city was celebrating the revolutions that were taking place in europe. the abdication of the french monarchy, other revolutions in other countries. they don't see the contradiction that they're celebrating revolution and freedom and they have all these slaves. and they're having parties, and it's a saturday night and the plan was individuals would come because on saturday night many of the slaves were not, didn't have to be on the plantation. and they had some freedom to move around, that they would come in groups of one and two down to the docks, and they would get on a boat. and then the boat would take off in the middle of the night. and by the next day when it was realized that they were gone,

they would have such a head start that they couldn't be caught. so people started coming down, they started getting on the boat. about 70, 80 people. they get on the boat, and they take off. and they're doing fine, but then they run into a storm, and they have to pull to the side. now, meanwhile, back in washington, d.c. as it turns out someone who for different reasons it's been speculated turns them in. and says, yeah, they escaped. now, the slave owners had realized that people were gone, and they were putting together the posse, but they were going to head north on foot which is how they thought people had escaped until this individual told them, no, they got on a boat, they went south. so they got into a boat, a faster boat, and they ended up capturing everybody and bringing them back to washington, d.c., many of whom ended up going, sent, like, deeper into the

south into much worse kind of conditions. now, paul, who was involved in the plot with two other freed black men, was not on the boat. and for whatever reason, he was never tied in to it. and it wasn't actually until after he died that it became clear that he actually had a role in this, this gigantic escape, right? but these are the individuals who during the period of slavery were absolutely fascinating. that they were never talked about or we were never told about. elizabeth keckly. this was a black woman who was born into slavery in missouri and eventually bought her freedom. she had a very serendipitous live, and she just kind of encountered all kinds of historic characters just out of the way she lived. as it turns out, the person who she was enslaved to in missouri was one of the lawyers who

argued at the supreme court, the dred scott case. the dred scott decision was the 1857 supreme court decision that, among things, said blacks have no whites are pound to respect, and it also said slavery is fine. she just was connected with that just out of being connected. but she bought her freedom, came to washington, d.c. in 1860 and one of the first -- and she started her own business. she made dresses. she was, apparently, really great at it. one of her first customers was vania davis, the wife of jefferson davis who became president of the confederacy. now, in 1860, at the end of 1860 after washington was elected, all the southern senators and representatives started resigning because they knew war was coming. as far as they were concerned, this was the end of the union.

we're starting our own country, we're leaving. so jefferson davis also resigned. and they were preparing to leave. now, vania comes to elizabeth and says, well, we're leaving, why don't you come with us? and when we win the war and come back, you can come back and be with us in the white house. right. now, elizabeth says that doesn't sound like too good a plan. first of all, i don't support you guys in the war and, second of all, no. right? so she says i'm not going down that road. now, later on she gets introduced to mary lincoln. and she actually becomes her best friend forever. they become really tight. she does all of her dresses and all of that. but even more so they bond as women, they bond as sisters, and they become really, really,

really close. when lincoln dies, when lincoln gets assassinated the first person mary looks for is elizabeth. both of them had lost children, the lincolns lost a son while they were in the white house, and during that same period or elizabeth had lost her son in the war. so they bonded at several different levels. and then after the war when mary lincoln -- similar to dolly madison -- was on really hard times, and this was in the era when after you become president you become a gazillionaire like now. if you didn't come in rich, you weren't necessarily going to get rich coming out of it. so mary lincoln actually had really hard times, and elizabeth was there for her quite a bit of the way. elizabeth also wrote a book, some of which created strains between her and mary lincoln because mary felt that there were too much personal information that was put into the book. now, the other thing about elizabeth was that the

relationship with the lincolns, she also was very instrumental in organizing and mobilizing people who had left the plantations, basically escaped from slavery during the war and who had all kind of conjugated into washington d.c. they were called contrabands, but there was tens of thousands. and she organized for their release. and then after the war she was very active in organizing for people who had come out of, who were freed from slavery after that period. so these are like really fascinating characters throughout all of this period. so when the obamas get to the white house, these are the ghosts. you know, it's often said that obama stands on the shoulders of lincoln and kennedy and roosevelt, but he's also standing on the shoulders of these guys. and of these individuals who

risked a great deal, who sacrificed a great deal in their lives, and their stories need to be known, their stories need to be told as well. lots of these stories, but, actually, let me open it up some for you guys. any questions you have, any comments you have about the work i did and about the subject more generally. yes. >> [inaudible] oh, okay. well, in the regards to your last comment about obama standing on the shoulders of his ancestors, i think that's an appropriate end for this wonderful discussion. alice walker did a essay on why she supported obama, and one of the things i was really touched by was she stated everything that you've discussed more in a spiritual way, that all of those millions of africans that toiled and slaved and died building that white house, that they were waiting for him. and i felt that was one of the

most powerful statements that could be made. the other point is the things that you say that we don't know, it is unfortunate that a lot of people don't know -- [inaudible] and i had the privilege of going to city college and having one of the best african studies departments in the country -- [audio difficulty] you better believe it. and my grandfather lived to be 100, so i got it from if him too. >> well, no, that's important to know. and, you know, i always, always encourage people to write and find ways to let these stories be spread. particularly around our families. and the stories that, again, seem to be just sort of family stories but really tell stories of particular localities, particular communities. you know, i always argue that, you know, this isn't black history, this is american

history, and it's part of the american history that has been marginalized or excluded. and is so part of our -- and so part of our resurrection of this is to not say this is something separate from the history, but it really gives you the kind of basis to really have a broader understanding of how the country has evolved. yes, ma'am. >> of all of the people that you discovered, you know, in the course of writing your book, is there any one in particular? i know you talked about onie jones, but is there anybody else in particular that really stands out to you? >> yeah. there are a lot of people who stand out. you know, i've spent, you know, decades writing about black politics and black history like that. and writing this book a lot of it was just great discovery for

me and finding these individuals who just were in these pockets of history that nobody knew. somebody i knew but, you know, were not popularized. there was a character named james benjamin parker who in 1901 was standing in line behind the anarchist who was getting ready to assassinate william mckinleyment -- mckinley. they're at this festival, this world festival, a world fair, and mckinley's standing there, and there's security behind him, secret service and police. and there's a guy standing there with his hand wrapped in a band-aid which is hiding the gun, and there's a big black guy standing behind him which is parker. the secret service and the police are focusing on parker. basically, racially profiling this guy like, what's the deal with with him? and they're not paying attention to this guy with this big wrap around his hand, right?

so he steps forward, leon -- i forget his last name -- and, pow, shoots mckinley once. no reaction, nobody does anything. pow, shoots him again. so the first bullet sort of bounces off, the second one hits him in the abdomen. parker takes the gun out, knocks him out, kicks the gun away. finally, the secret service and the police jump into it and, you know, they stop the guy. now, as it turns out, mckinley did not die from the bullets. he died from crazy, poor medical care. so, actually, parker saved his life because he stopped the third bullet from being shot, right? now, this story spreads like crazy because it verifies the stories of people like booker t. washington that black people are willing to sacrifice themselves for the country. and that they're part of this

country, and they believe in it and they, you know, like that. and so this happens in september, and for the next -- and mckinley lives for, like, another 14 days. but the story spreading. -- the story is spreading. people wanted to touch him and take parts of his clothes, all of this. now, the secret service gets embarrassed. so once the trial happens, they even denied it was a black person there. right? this is in the trial's transcript. and if you read, like, the atlanta constitution from the period, even the atlanta constitution which is a conservative southern paper says, you know, that's not right, you know? they were, like, i didn't see any negro there, right? now, of course, you know, he's a hero. so booker t. washington is going around, and he's telling this story, and as a result of mckinley being killed, theodore roosevelt becomes president.

and then on october 16, 1901, roosevelt finds out that booker t. washington is going to be in town and invites him to the white house for dinner. and this is the famous dinner where the -- [inaudible] goes berserk because the fact that a black man is eating at the white house, and roosevelt's wife and daughter were there. so a black man eating at the white house with white women becomes completely unacceptable. there's editorials across the country denouncing roosevelt, the new president. l so roosevelt backs off. initially, they try to deny that washington was even there, but they had issued a press release. so you couldn't quite put the genie back in the bottle after that because all the evidence said that he was there. but it, basically, means that

nobody black is invited to eat at the white house for, like, another 20 years. and if you are going to the white house in that period, you're probably going in through the back door if you're coming in at all. this is october 16, 1901. october 17, 1901 -- the very next day -- is when the building is officially designated the white house. now, this con juncture of these events takes place in the context of this is the high period of lynching, in the high period of terrorism against the blacks across the country. not just in the south. so all of this kind of comes together. so these were the kinds of things i discovered along the way. >> um, my question is it's not surprising about racial profiling.

this has been going on for a long time. once you're black, you're out there. now, my other comment is whats has happened in texas now? this i don't know if you can elaborate on it, but if they have taken history out of the book about blacks, what about the citizens of texas who are black? >> well, texas is very disturbing for a number of reasons. one is that it's the largest book-buying state for textbooks, and many of the publishers base their decisions on what happens in texas on what books look like that go out to the rest of the country. so if they constrict and rewrite the books in texas, that's going to have a ripple effect kind of across the country. the changes that were proposed are being challenged, of course, but it's unclear how far they're

going to be able to really have an impact because it was, basically, conservatives including mostly tea party types who dominated the decision making body. but there were, like, hundreds of changes that were going on. but this, what we've seen in arizona is spreading around the country. so not just texas and tennessee, but other places. we see this, for example, around the issues of the confederacy. throughout the south there is a very concerted effort, and we're now in the 150th year anniversary of the civil war period. it started in 1861, 150 years ago. there's a concerted effort to argue a version of the causes of the civil war that are, basically, incongruent with what really happens. so, for example, there's this idea of states' rights was at the center. in fact, the southern confederacy was actually opposed

to states' rights. now, what happened during construction of the constitution was that states' rights and federalism were kind of mixed in, but the objective of the south was, basically, how do we protect shave ri? so the -- slavery? the best way to protect it is to make sure a great deal of authority is with the states. however, there are some national issues that we should also want federal government protection so the fugitive slave law, for example, and fugitive slave clause and in the 1850 and 1793 slave acts were absolutely opposed to states' rights. right? they absolutely said if you escape from slavery in and you go to massachusetts, if you committed murder, you can be extradited. or massachusetts has the decision to not extradite you. however, if you if you escape fm slavery, you can be brought

back. now, what happened was these states in the north began to pass their o own laws and, essentially, not enforce the fugitive slave laws. if you read the secessionist doctrines from south carolina, mississippi, north carolina, all those states, they specifically name the states that they believe are violating federal laws. and they focus on not only the escaped slave clause, they focus on -- or they're opposed to the allowance of abolitionist societies in all of these states. because they argue that since slavery is protected by the constitution, if the you have an abolitionist society in new hampshire or new york or vermont or any of these northern states, they're committing treason. they're going against the constitution. so they oppose the states allowing these to exist, they oppose states who allow

african-americans to vote, right? because they saw these as anti-the constitution. but what we hear from the neo-confederates is that civil war was, hmm, maybe slavery had something to do with it. it was really about individuals' rights, states' rights and overreaching, overarching government which exactly mirrors the politics of the tea party and these right-wing conservatives who are making the same argument today that the problems in the country are this overreaching, overarching big government hated by a black man to put a point on it. headed by a black man. so you see these kinds of parallels that are evolving. so we really are in a battle over ideas, a battle over interpretation and a battle over meaning because we can't afford to kind of sit back and think that they're not, there will not

be these other arguments out there that, ultimately, have an impact. because how you think about history, how you think about the way the country has e evolved, what issues have been resolved does not resolve impacts on the political atmosphere and public policy. and so it becomes real critical that we really fight for a, an understanding of this process that really is inclusive and that really takes into account these other issues that people want to write out. we all know we listen to michele bachmann, representative michele bachmann just the other week when she gave her response to the, to obama's state of the union address. now, this went out to millions. her response went out to millions. cnn, for some stupid reason, put this on the air. it went out to millions. and she says the founding fathers did everything they could to try to end slavery.

this is just absolute nonsense. it is absolutely untrue. but it reinforces and it tells a perspective that has to be counted, and we have to have an alternative perspective to that. >> your remarks just now made me think of the controversy recently over the writings of mark twain and his use of the word nigger in the most famous text and how these extremists want to redact the original transcript to mitt the word when twain's -- to omit the word when twain's purpose of using it was historically accurate and had all of the negative implications, you know, that it traditionally had. and he had used it for that reason. and it's amazing to me because a lot of this, you know, what

you're saying now it's not so disturbing to me that they put our message out as it was and it went unchallenged, you know, that to me is really disturbing because i think what they're trying to do is, for lack of a better way of putting it, whitewash history so that the evil, you know, of slavery and all this, you know, the vestiges we live with right now cannot be adequately dealt with. and to me, that's the most frightening thing. >> yeah. and let us remember this happened at the beginning of congress. for the first time, they decided that they would read the constitution. now, what they suddenly began to realize as the moment neared was that the original constitution had some problems. right? for one thing, it had the three-fifths clause that said that people who were held in slavery would be counted as three-fifths of a person in order to appropriate the

allocation of representation in congress. it has the slave clause. it has a clause in the constitution that allows for the slave trade for another 20 years. so once the republicans realized that if they actually read the original constitution, they're opening up some pretty ugly gates, then they decided to do what people have been talking about with mark twain, that they're not going to read the parts that are embarrassing. now, how ridiculous is that if you're trying to educate people about the constitution and about constitutional, a constitutional democracy? the reason they want to do that kind of censoring is because the objective is not to educate, but it's actually to propagate. it is actually to advance a particular political agenda that had nothing to do with the degree people really need to understand the constitution, how it evolved and all of that history. that really is secondary or not a concern at all.

it's really about we want to make a point that we're constitutional, and the dem democrats are not. and we're upholding the law, and everything we're doing fits within this, and the democrats are outside of that. so that becomes the real objective. were there other points? yes. >> [inaudible] the whole issue of -- [inaudible] element -- elementary school to junior high school, the interpretation of history has changed dpebding on what kind of professors that we've had. even when you made the remark about sally hemings and jefferson getting it on, it was more than that. it was really a man raping -- >> absolutely.

>> -- a young child. a pedophile. and for years when you talk about the issue of the rape of young african-american children, there was this whole romanticism when you read the literature about the loving relationships. i don't see how loving it can be when someone owns you and how it could be consensual when, again, someone is yielding power over you with. so even that remark about getting it on, this was a man who owned another human being and raped her. it's that simple l. and the kind of denial that we are in as americans, african-americans and whites -- primarily white folks -- about the history of this country and what slavery meant in its entirety is something that we have to constantly work on to bring forth the truth. >> no, you're absolutely right.

the last story in the book, the genealogy of michelle obama. and the earliest tracing goes back to the 1850s, and it's a young woman who is raped. l and then as you trace that history, it's happened time and time again. and, again, this is what when you get a black family in the white house, this is the kind of history that's brought in that we need to know. that we need to have a grasp of. yes, ma'am. [audio difficulty] >> oh. as i mentioned, as i talked to people about obama and as

somebody mentioned, it wasn't just obama's inspiration for people in the u.s. and african-americans, but globally. this is with admiration and with hope and with the idea that if obama wins, if obama becomes president, this has an impact on us in brazil. or this has an impact on black people in england. it had impact on people in egypt. right? so all over the world not only as kind of a repudiation of the bush years, but to some degree a repudiation of american history. now, much of this, some of this was idealistic and unreal expectations, but they were rooted in what people saw and

what people felt even without the details of this journey of african-americans from slavery all the way through to getting to the point where you could get somebody in the white house. so, and as i said in the book, whether obama turns out to be the worst president ever or the greatest president, separate from that this breakthrough and what it meant for people around the world -- and it literally inspired people of african descent? descent in russia, in this canada, in italy, in brazil to run for office. in 2008 because brazil has this weird law that you could run under any name you choose, there are at least eight obamas that ran for office in brazil. [laughter] now, they all lost. [laughter] but they rap. but they ran.

and there are activists now in brazil and other places who argue, who begin to see there may be some value in being engaged in the public policy, in political activism and political movements. so, again, whatever policy deal goes down with obama, that journey has had such a meaning, has had such a significance that it's been kind of a major breakthrough. so as i was kind of getting all of this and starting to try to figure out, so what's the context, what i found was that there was a lack of comprehensive work that could kind of capture all of that. and there are probably more books out on obama than any other president probably than lincoln. and he's only had two years in office, and there are hundreds of books out on obama. but none of them frame this history, and particularly the white house as an icon.

so i, you know, for me that was sort of a way to say some things. and a way to kind of get into the issue that i didn't see out there. yes, ma'am. >> in addition to reading your book, do you -- where did you get the resources to find out the information that you're talking about? >> great question. a lot of it was just kind of digging into the archives and into the file, reading presidential biographies, for example. you know, i read dozens of biographies of almost all of the presidents. i would say probably at least 30 biographies of presidents. and then that leads you town to other roads. -- down to other roads. you know, reading traditional black history from john hope franklin to jerome bennett.

but a lot of it was just sort of what i got from people. so, for example, i was at a party with you all know clayton lebeau, he's the actor that was on "the wire" and that baltimore series? anyway, so i was talking with clayton, and i was telling him, i'm doing this research. he said, well, make sure you write about blind tom. and i was, like, blind who? blind tom, blind tom. he's really, like, an important guy in this. the first black person to be invited to entertain at the white house. i was like, okay, start doing some research on blind tom. turns out that there's not a lot, but one woman has spent her entire academic career writing about blind tom and wrote three books about blind tom. really important books, really good stuff. i tracked those down. two of them were out of print,

but i found them eventually. there's a third, another book that's come out on blind tom. blind tom was born blind, and his mother and father were both slaves. and when they were both sold to this one family called the bethunes or the greens the wiggins -- he had all these different names -- [laughter] and they sold them to one family, and they, basically, threw tom in for along the way because the family said, well, we don't know how we could really use him but bring him along. so while tom's mother and father were working, tom would be crawling around on the floor, and they'd literally treat him like the pet dog. they'd put food out and just leave him. now, it turns out the family had a piano, and the children in the family took lessons. so one day the family's having dinner, and they hear the piano.

and they go in there, and it's tom. he's, like, 4 years old. jamming to the classics. and turns out he's a musical prodigy who, basically, anything he hears he can reproduce musically. vocally as well. and so what does the family do? they exploit him, right? so they say, wow, blind tom. so they create a whole career for him. at the age of 6, 7, 8, and he's traveling around the country doing performances. and he's brilliant. he's, like, ultimately, he's considered one of the most brilliant composers of the 19th century, right? so this is in the 1850s. 1859 he is up in this washington for some -- he is up in washington, and he ends up getting invited to the white house, pew buchanan's white hou, president buchanan's white house, and he does a performance. and he's the first african-american other than people who are slaves that perform, but the first invited african-american to perform at

the white house. now, again, this is information that i was given just by, you know, having this discussion at a party. you know, there was another example. i was, like, at the grocery store, and i talked to somebody, and they asked me if i ever heard of abraham bolden. and i was, like, no. they're like, he's a crazy guy, but you've got to talk to him. it turns out bolden was the first african-american to be on the president's secret service detail. now, this is, like, a totally crazy story because bolden was in chicago and ended up when kennedy was elected, kennedy wanted to expand the service. he ended up being hired to be secret service. and so he was attached to the secret service office in chicago. so he's working one day, and kennedy comes to chicago.

so they're going to provide security. and so at the place where they provide security, they put bolden in the basement next to the toilet, right? this is his assignment, to basically guard the toilet while kennedy's doing whatever, right? so he's down there. as it turns out, kennedy has to use the restroom. so he's standing there, he hears all this noise, and he looks up, and here comes kennedy and the whole crew. so kennedy sees him and says, are you chicago police or what? he says, no, no, i'm secret service. so kennedy says, well, would you like to work on the presidential detail? we don't have any blacks. this is kennedy. new camelot, new inclusion, all of this, right? so bolden goes, yeah, sounds like a good deal. so a couple of months later bolden is sent to washington d.c. now, it turns out secret service is racist to the core. first day there somebody leaves a noose on his desk, they call him the n word routinely. when they travel, he has to be

in segregated housing. this is the secret service. he has to be in segregated housing, the whole deal, right? so after a point he kind of gets tired of it and says, you know what? this is not going to work for me, i'm going to back to chicago. so he goes back to chicago. now, 1963 comes around, kennedy gets assassinated. now, bolden's take on this is that, one, those racist secret service people in washington had told him that they would not give their life for kennedy because of what kennedy was doing for the colored people. and he thought this was something the warren commission needed to know and that he also thought that there were two plots to kill kennedy, one in florida and one in chicago in october and november 1963 that, also, the warren commission was not being told about. there are and so -- and so bolden starts complaining to his superiors that we need to get this information. they're like, no, no, stay out

of this, you know? so bolden decides he's going to secretly give information to the warren commission. so he comes to washington d.c. his superiors find out about it. they ended up arresting bolden, charging him with taking bribes from some other case. he goes to jail. first black secret service agent on the presidential detail goes to jail for three years, part of which is in a mental institution. right? i never knew this story. most of us never knew this story. now, this is tied into bigger issues because part of the reason they went after bolden was because bolden would have exposed something called operation amworld. and this was a plot by john and robert kennedy to assassinate castro. in december is