african-american men sitting on juries, there are seven wards in washington. each ward has at least one american counselman on the counsel, and the world paper does this series about the rise of negro domination in washington, and so from the paper they talk about as washington as an exemplar for all that is bad about reconstruction. not con incidentally or relatedly, this is the summer that the 15th amendment is passed in the wairpt -- winter, and when it's out for ratification to the state and that 15th amendment was the amendment that said that nobody could be prohibited in the states, nobody could be prohibited for voting on account of race or previous condition. ..

disfranchising is a good as appropriate and those folks also cite washington because the laws during a republican congress that washington, d.c. was its franchise so they talk about washington as a model for what they're doing and kind of say look the republicans in 1874 come 1878 thought this was fine when dhaka you go along with

what we are doing now, but on the positive side, but i see as a more positive note washington also becomes for african-americans and example of a place with some of the best educational institutions in the country, and so how word university was founded in 1867i think in the public schools in d.c. although segregated become some of the public schools become terrific including a preparatory high school that leader becomes dunbar, so growing out of the period i write about washington becomes an example of educational opportunity for african-americans to its kind of unparalleled elsewhere. >> once again thank you very much, professor for sharing your book with us and will be available outside to sign right

outside the door. symmachus was hosted by abraham lincoln presidential library museum in springfield for more information, visit alplm.org. former advertising executive alexander quit his high-power job to take a series of minimum-wage jobs which he wrote about in his book, you want fries with that. mr. alexander describes his life working as an ice cream skipper, pizza delivery man, a

construction worker and fast food jockey. from florida this is about 45 minutes. >> thank you so much for coming. this is amazing. thank you on c-span for watching. you all can't see it, but there are about 700 people here. [laughter] the thing the was the killer i appreciate you giving the people being willing to turn in traffic, the copps, a highway patrol, i don't know if you saw there was a swat team out there to try to control some of the people of the upper deck who were going to get unruly. [laughter] so thank you all very much for coming. the name of my book is you want fries with that a white collar experience life at minimum wage.

i was in the advertising profession for about 14 years, and year 13i started daydreaming about other jobs, and i went on-line as if one of those professional personality profiles, and i put in my likes and dislikes, and the only to jobs they could come up with me that fit me for snipers and beer tasters. they were not hiring any one of those categories. sali talk to my wife and married to a st as you can tell from the book title. i am about done here. and she said yeah i think you aren't that day is that it's either quit or take a hostage and i would just assume you quit and let's see what happens next so we have always been nervous

about our money and we save and felt like we had a buffer that could help us through this transition so i left the advertising world and we figured we would simplify. remember that tv show kung fu where he walked to the earth and all he had was his bag we figured that's what we'd do? just quit spending so much money. the problem with that, of course, is you can leave the white-collar world but the white collar bills don't leave you. they are in hot pursuit, especially if you own a home and between the insurance and taxes and the prescription drugs i'm not telling you anything you don't know. reason we are here in the land of the free is and free. so - he was working and she was

sort of keeping us from collapsing into the canyon of doom but i thought i don't know what i want to do yet, but the least i can do is bring some dough into the household and i had always heard people die, you got and deliver tips, you've got which twenties in your pocket, right on. so i went to apply for a job as a pizza guy and it turned out to don't apply for a job as a pizza guy, you sign up for a job as a pizza died and they told me go over to the training and then come back. i came home with $100 a night, that would keep you floating for a bid, and what occurred was it became very evident to me quickly that a pizza guide delivers pizza so they can buy

gas so they can deliver more pizza so they can buy gas and deliver more pizza. it didn't take me that long to figure that out. i thought there was something going on here because the pizza guys i was delivering with they were all great dudes, but the math wasn't working out with them, and it became very apparent to me very quickly and i thought to myself that must be because of this sort of good bit of a lifetime as a problem solver you know, and to work white-collar job what people pay you for is to come up with solutions and increase efficiencies and that's how it your brain works, you walk into the situation, analyze it and let me be of help. well, you know, the pizza people

don't want any help. if they want your opinion they will beat it out of you. [laughter] this multibillion-dollar industry works quite well without your or my input, thank you very much. and i got me thinking about the whole minimum wage world, and that sort of over late and we have the fantasy of i'm going to chuck it all and walk away from this high stress job and and work the landscaping crew and i'm going to sit out there pushing the lawn mower and i'm as guilty as the next guy. i will go out there and work the minimum wage world.

you take your efficiency driven solution self into the swage become minimum-wage and they want to know what you think burger king and mcdonald's, they have managed to stay in business without my input. but they have. wal-mart and speed and the pizza places, the ice-cream stores, all the jobs i've worked they don't, and need alexander to provide his brilliant insight. they just want you to be there. the haven't invented a robot yet that will do that yet, so that's your job. i talked to my wife and i said what i'd like to do is take a year and work minimum wage jobs and see if a book doesn't come out of this.

and again, she is a saint and said why don't you call your agent? i had an agent hoppin new york city, a guy named keith gorman, who i had from a previous manuscript that failed to sell. i called him up and i said i got this idea. this is good. he's like bring it on, i said the name of the book will be you want fries with that a white collar burnout experiences life at minimum wage and i will spend a year working these jobs. he says i love it. how far along are you? i'm like this phone call. [laughter] he said well, great, get out there and do it. and i said well, dude, this involves me going out and working the jobs. you've read my stuff, you like the style i write, i've sort of got this humorous thing down.

maybe you can go to a publisher and selling it in advance. he's like yeah, yeah, like a presidential autobiography. i'm like exactly. [laughter] so, off i went just a leap of faith i thought you know what, in that whole world the publishing world the very cynical, you know, they are not folks that are going to tell you that's a great idea if you don't think that it is. so bless her heart she said the fourth and the do it and she has a great sense of humor and i come home from these jobs and she would say what happened today, what's the story, and that kept our marriage together i think. the jobs that i worked during this year were as i said i was a

pizza delivery guy, and then i scooped ice cream, and i worked as a laborer on a construction unit and because i have no skills i was just the dude who did demo and carried stuff out to the dumpster. it was an interesting note. no matter how many tons of stuff you carry to the dumpster you know, no muscles appear. you just get sore. i thought it would be like i'm at the gym picking up heavy stuff. it doesn't work like that. let's see. and i was an orderly and training in an emergency room which the people who work in the emergency room should make more money than donald trump and that's a fact. then i worked as a cashier at one of the national fast-food chains. i don't name names because there's so much litigious stuff in here.

and then my last job was sort of a fluke. i work as a cowboy on a city slicker wagon train in wyoming and i have a good friend who lives out in montana, and he would call me and say what jobs are you working now? he thought it was all hilarious. he's like i have a friend organizing the wagon train. maybe i can give you a job on that. i can give you a job on the chuckwagon you can scrub pots. i'm like that sounds good. currently i'm working as a cashier at a burger world, you know, going to wyoming for ten days in the big sky country, sounds pretty good. i arrived out there and james had told what he thought was a harmless practical joke by telling the organizer that i was the finest horsemen that he had ever met and choose to train

cutting horses so i charge part of the section of the wagon train and i was able to fall back and thank you all for paying your taxes because i was a marine officer. i was lieutenant and as a lieutenant, you are trained to look like you are in charge even though you have no clue about what's going on. so i would stand my hands on my head and i would squint. look, i'm going to go over and chat with the customers. why don't you go satloff elkus for me. i didn't know how to saddle horse, and then i get up on the horse and i would stay in the saddle the whole day and all the guests are thinking he is a cowboy, cowboys eat lunch up in the saddle.

it's because i didn't want them to see me falling off the horse or having to remount. the experience was pretty amazing. i would say i learned a lot of stuff. writing the book i was always aware of the fact that this was fine and an offer doing something for a book. and so i made a fool to myself i would never make fun of my co-workers. you know, some of them are kids and knuckleheads and should be made fun of but some of them have just gotten bad breaks in life. you get raised by a lousy enough set of parents and they will smash the motivation out of you

by the time making that next step comes along. so the issue where is all pointed out the corporations, the sort of crazy rules that they send down, and i remember in the pizza place i would read the memo on how to deal with a customer in a no delivery zone. that's got to be a war zone for the pizza place not to deliver. they will bring down a pete's a guy and he will lead on an fingar wild you go to the door to get the pizza out there. and it was just this thing written by a puerto rico and for years about how to deal with these people. and i just remember in the store laughing out loud thing to myself these people have never even been in a pizza store. the guy answering the phone is 16 he's not going to say well, sir, we respect your desire for

pizza, but currently we are unable to deliver into that zone and it always ended the same way. would you like to do a pickup? we can have your pizza ready in 15 minutes. and like i said, pizza is sort of where i realized that this was going to be if an experiment , and i worked some corporate jobs, some independent jobs, and i've been really surprised and very pleased about the reaction they've gotten to the epilogue sort of where iraq up my thoughts on the experience. the book is not -- it's not political. i'm not giving solutions. i'm not saying like all of our political candidates who have the solution to fix the world as we know it. the epilogue is just my insight

into the experience, and i've been really amazed. i've got an e-mails from a leedy in south africa who read the book and said this book should be required reading for anybody who is about to graduate from school. hang on a second. my phone is ringing. mama, at the signing. [laughter] i understand. yes, they are all being nice to me. no i have not told them i love you yet but i'm going to. okay i've got to run. love you, bye bye. [laughter] sorry. so, it was a great experience. it was a lot of fun. the coolest thing about all of it thus far is getting around to

come to the cities and meet new people and it's a lot fun. i think that i promised the book will make you laugh. i've gotten a couple stories from somebody, a friend of mine who was on an airplane and there was this person just laughing like an idiot, and on the way out they were like what are you laughing at? i'm reading this book, you want fries with that? so there was very flattering and very exciting. what i will do is i will sort of wrap things up here. i will, before taking questions, i will ask all of you and my new friends on c-span as a first-time author the book is published, the publisher should set out, they do their best in

terms of publicity, but a lot of it is good luck. get out there and sell your book. so from the bottom of my heart, what i would like to see is please, for the love of god, you too my friends. [laughter] you read but you also got to give presents, right? it's just about the right price, not the sort of price where it is let's get engaged but it's that price of your kind of a good friend, here's a good book. you know, not like i really love you but i like you, i love you, you know, it's right in that price range. so yeah, i would love to take any questions from anybody who would like to ask something.

the guys in the upper seats i'm sorry we don't have the microphone up their. but thank you all for coming anyway. [laughter] >> did your agent get you an advance? >> for the first time author that's the way it works, what is in the industry standard advanced. it's a little more than i make on a night of delivering pizzas, but less than a good night for a good week that construction. >> is this the first book you've written? >> that is a wonderful question, young lady. >> it's a sort of funny when you are a writer it's not a book until it is published, and so i've written some manuscripts

and had a couple that made the right to the finish line. they were right there and i was like yes, yes, and then the collapsed did 1 foot short of the finish line so this is the one that's made it through all of the filters and, you know, maybe it's because the other ones were not good enough or the timing wasn't right. one of the manuscript which will wendi hopefully the book that you read, one of the rejection letters sent to my agent was i agree this is the funniest book i've read in five years, but, fortunately, this type of a genre isn't telling at the moment. and i'm like no, no, no. you're supposed to not like it and rejected, not like it and reject it. [laughter] yes, sir? >> did you ever get accused of

being overqualified for these jobs? [laughter] >> that's a really good question. i had to fit on my resume. i said i graduated high school, then i said i went into the marines which i did, i just didn't say i was an officer, and then a friend of mine john and water into julie martha will terse work on a tree farm and i said i worked with them the last 15 years. but i tell you, your resume doesn't so much matter on some of these jobs. one of the chapters is about my attempt to get hired buy not one but two of the big box stores and failing to do so. i thought you go income of a check for polls come here is your greeter is vast and it doesn't work like that. you go in and there is this

computer and you filled out your information and next you're taking a personality test and it's these really weird m.b.a. like questions and a daughter is going to be efiks for felons. [laughter] but it's not. it's very complex. the thing i like to tell myself is i didn't get hired because there's a box that says when are you available one of them was essentially 24/7/365 and if you don't clich batt box i don't think you have a shot because the big box stores in terms of entry level jobs are very desirable, there's benefits and some security. wal-mart and speed and target and home depot are not going out

of business tomorrow because the economy may be dipping. in one way to spend your rebate check -- [laughter] $600 worth of these books could bring a lot of smiles all around the country. [laughter] the answer to your question is yes i was overqualified, but i would do a little fibbing. yes, sir. >> did any of your minimum wage employers nor the time you're going to write a book on this experience? >> great question. they did not know and i had a couple of rules for myself pertaining to that. because i wasn't going to tell them i was going to write a book my plan or my role to myself was i couldn't tell anybody else i was writing a book. so i delivered a large pepperoni

to a friend of mine that i went to high school with who is a very fancy corporate lawyer and he opens the door -- [laughter] and he says prioleau, how's it going? [laughter] man, it's going great. and i gave him the pizza and he gave me the check his wife had written and stiffed me for a 2-dollar tip so let that be a lesson to you you never know who the pete saddam eight may be -- who the pizza by may be. this was 5 miles from my house never happened but one thing that did happen is the first night i was on the cash register so i got to say you want fries with that? [laughter] and a busload of kids were coming home from a sporting

event so i am sitting there trying to figure out how to hit combo one, pickles, no manny's, and i look over and there they are coming through the door like i don't know, 45 of them. right about then my wife showed up to poke her head in the door to see how things were going on my first night and there's a line of 45 kids and she's looking at me like -- [laughter] yes, ma'am. >> which minimum wage job did you enjoy the most? and also, are you presently working on another book? >> i'm happy to answer both of those questions. the minimum wage job that was most fun was doing the cowboy thing but that's not really fair because the was a sort of weird anomaly. i would have to say that the job that was the most fun was

working construction because although i was a talent labor i got to watch all these craftsmen come through and watch the house take shape and i also got to understand the insanity of construction economics which involves you pay the general contractor and he doesn't use that money to pay the people working on the home, he uses it to be the people who are to jobs back and it sort of this strange thing where who knows who owns what money. you keep shawinigan and sometimes you get paid and sometimes you don't. the answer to the second question in my working on another book? yes. lagat my agent as a result of the first manuscript which is a humorous history of the united

states. then in each era of a point of which lessons we should have learned and then give examples the last 40 years but clearly we have learned exec cleaves what to revive them a right on that and we will see how that goes. the book i'm actively riding right now is a book about what is it like to write a book. so there will be a chapter about coming and meeting all of you and my friends on c-span and there's several million manuscript submitted each year to agents and publishers that were turned down and that says to me there's got to be several million people out there that are curious about why didn't my book make it? prioleau alexander you can't even spell his name. how did he get in to this gig? liesman?

>> last week i was in new jersey and got to. elizabeth preludin speak and as an author she was talking about to perk creative process she explained in her case it was the book came first, there was a book that wanted to come out. do you feel that way in your writing process that there is a book that wants to come out of your do you struggle to make the book come out of you? >> that's a great question. you are all asking wonderful questions. being a writer is an awful affliction i wouldn't wish on anybody, and there are ten books that our ideas i think would be fun and funny and would make everybody laugh and help them see the bright side of life or the brighter side of life.

so yes, it is very much the writers that persevere and making it into this business of publishing its because they can't not right. sad thing is i bet there are 500 riders out there every bit as brilliant as karnack mccarthy and they are not discovered yet and they may never be discovered. and what the right because they have to as opposed to the want to. >> that's why they self published. >> that's a big industry now. the nice thing about self publishing now is you can do it on demand. you don't have to print 50 dolls and books and, you know, deutsch can give him his gifts or your

friends that think you are a good writer. so self publishing is a big business now. yes, ma'am? >> is their anything you miss about the advertising business? >> that is a wonderful question, too. miss working with the other creators and the a collector smeary. my job was a creative director. so i was sort of the dude that came up with the idea and it was wonderful because i got to work with it it was a tv spot i got to work with the tv crowd. radio spot i got to work with them. print i got to work with the art directors, and there was a lot fun. but as i look back, the greatest challenges that i just can't stop smiling now that i am out of it. [laughter]

yes, ma'am. >> you alluded to something i suspect it. when burger king first started the did extensive training of their people but i suspect the last few years that stopped happening. did you get any training for these jobs? mick >> the issue with -- america now runs out sprint 24/7/365. and a fast food burger world used to open up at noon or 11 and closed at seven because they served lunch and dinner. now they and just about everybody in hundreds of different businesses are open from six a.m. to 2 a.m.. so their systems are designed where you could work shift at fill in the name in total

silence. there's no need for interaction. it reveals their job and because the job is always going on, the restaurant is always open. so i think the training has suffered, and end of the berger will fly worked at i insisted they let me see the dvds that were the training tapes, and i actually had to come in off the clock to watch the tapes because they were not interested in showing them to me. i was like i've got to see them. of course i was thinking about the book. the first was on a smiling and greeting the customer. [laughter] now, i could see a dvd on smiling once you realize you worker berger world, but smiling

and greeting the customer, you would think of what sort of be human nature. the funny thing is i went to the devious deal could dvd and as you know the dvd player is sitting there. if you lose the remote you are stuck because you can't get to the commands. so at the end of the session and there would be a quiz so you're supposed to take the real motive and scroll down and hit play. will they lost the remote so all we could do is hit play and don't select answer number one. how many times you think it was the right answer? if zero. ayaan by swear i think the machine was getting mad at me. [laughter] it was quite an experience. yes, sir.

>> he said he approached it that the idea would be fun. to these jobs also stress the routt? >> they really didn't because i am just in my nature i'm perfectly comfortable being alone and when you work one of these jobs, although you are around other people you are really sort of alone because the machine is going and doesn't have time for you to goof off and go down to the water cooler and chat with your friends. white-collar world we get around with a lot of that. you work -- you focus for an hour and a half and then you're like i need a break. you walk down the hall to the other guy that works there, you laugh for a few minutes and go back to work. but in these minimum wage jobs that's not part of it. and when you go on break, you go on break with nobody else.

so the stress of these jobs also like to see where they would stress people out they didn't stress me out and i also had the sort of perspective of my stress used to be my going to produce this $25,000 tv commercial and it's going to be lousy verses am i going to hit large fries as opposed to medium friars. [laughter] so it didn't bother me so much. yes, ma'am. >> i just want to give you a little encouragement and let you know i bought your book solely on the premise and i didn't know you were coming here to speak so i was very surprised when you did come. and highlight come it is a very funny book but i liked your

insight. you kind of spoke as if you were those people working in the minimum wage and you gave me an idea of these people that i look at when i go into the grocery store with a wal-mart or whatever, and i really appreciate that. my question is did you attempt to live on a minimum wage or did you do some mind processing on what a budget of minimum wage would allow you to purchase and how you would live? >> first let me thank you for your comment. i tried to do that as i wrote. i'm sure all of you being readers are familiar with pat conroy, and he has the biggest heart in the world and he is a guy who when he's not writing he's running around trying to fix the world because he's such a compassionate guy and he

reviewed it and said it was written with compassion and that was very important to me because i wanted it to be a book that regardless of what you're political affiliation was or if you were liberal or conservative that it would connect with your funny bone and your heart strings so thank you for that. terms of the budget, i tell you, the thing that absolutely blew our mind, and i'm sort of amazed we were so stupid that we didn't know this, we thought lowercase we just eat ramen noodles and water we can pull this off. we are not consuming any more but it isn't consumption that is so expensive. once you buy a home and own a couple of cars we live a pretty simple life, but homeowners insurance and car insurance and

health insurance and prescription drugs and repair and vet bills, we don't even have kids, so i can't imagine the stress. in terms of trying to live on a minimum wage, we would have gotten a complete f even though we were not going out and dying and going to restaurants and that kind of thing. that is one of the things they're really sort of got under my skin is i don't know how families duet. i think the average american salary now family salary with two kids is like in the 28,000-dollar range. how do you do that? white-collar folks like to sort of look down on people when they've got their -- that knucklehead called in to this radio show, he's got $40,000 in

credit card debt. well, yeah, but you and i would, too, if we had two kids and we were trying to live on $28,000. yes, sir? >> did you lose any jobs or get fired or reprimanded? [laughter] >> i did not i'm happy to say. now as a younger man working these jobs back when i really needed to work i got fired from all my jobs. in the marines you learn very valuable things and it's not just the proper technique for sticking a bayonet in to somebody. one of the things is to learn how to keep your mouth shut and you learn how to stand there stonefaced when someone is interacting with you less than pleasant way.

and i think part of it is the fact i knew i didn't have to have this job so it didn't get under my skin. i'm sure i would have got him fired from a couple of them if i hadn't sort of had the laid-back i'm here taking in. my rule on that is i had to work the jobs long enough that if any of you all at some point worked these jobs i wanted you to read it and say he did this. he didn't interview somebody, he didn't follow somebody, he really worked this job. and i bet you are here yet's brother? awesome. i have two friends, to new

friends that are friends with his sister and brother-in-law in charleston so thank you for coming. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> hariette is your aunt and your uncle stevan is the nicest guy in the whole world. [laughter] any other questions? >> [inaudible] >> thank you. john wade goes to my church in charleston and he is the guy who did my web site which is, if you could pan over this way, www.southernfriedwriter.com. john is the one who did my website. he's a wonderful guy. yes, sir? >> did you do all this research for i hear and then start to write or were you writing while you were w