for more information on these and other best-selling books go to usa thetoday.com. >> booktv is live at the thirteenth annual harlem book fair from the langston hughes auditorium at the new york public library center for research in black culture. we will bring you seven hours of coverage from this year's book fair. our schedule begins with a talk on the state of african-american literacy brought to you by michael lomax, president of the united negro college fund.

the first panel focusing on the late manning parable's biography of malcolm x. a panel on african-american economic history. our coverage will continue three hours from now with a panel discussion on african-american humor. that will be followed by a panel on african-american history and finally about six hours from now we will wrap up with a discussion on the first years of the obama administration. that is coming up in the 2011 harlem book fair. right now united negro college fund president michael lomax on the state of african-american literacy. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to the thirteenth annual harlem book fair. i am max rodriguez, founder of

the event. [applause] >> thank you. i would like to thank you for joining us for a conversation in community, conversation in books, conversation on who we are, where we see ourselves, where we hope to see ourselves and how we get there. that is what we do at the harlem book fair. we assess ourselves and celebrate ourselves and plan for ourselves and our families and children and our community and bring in the author's that talk about the theme that drive our everyday life. we have them come up and say a little more about what you may have read on that page or what you would like to read on that page and that is the harlem book fair. the intention of this event is to create boy for acknowledgement of each other,

self acknowledgement or assessment for access to information and ways and means by which to use that information for a better tomorrow. that is the harlem book fair. thank you for joining us. within that conversation we all know there are statistics. we know in the moment what we feel about education. where we land in that state. it is accessible or a challenge. we meet it well or don't meet it well. the whole range. for us as a community it is the foundation. it is a foundation that constantly needs to be supported. we always have to inculcate into our children the importance of reading and education. it really is how we as a community have lift ourselves

up. a natural partnership that i am humbled by and happy about is the relationship we have developed with the united negro college fund. it seems to be such a natural and easy marriage. i have asked dr. michael lomax, president of the u n c f to talk about the state of african-american education and literacy. there are many messages that are given but not often enough do we have a chance to make public announcement about who we see ourselves to be. what can be righted and how we get there. with no hesitation at all let me

gratefully and joyfully and happily present dr. michael lomax, president of the united negro college fund. thank you. >> thank you. i am delighted to be here and to be a part of this thirteenth annual harlem book fair. and to help inaugurate what i hope will be an ongoing relationship with this wonderful institution in harlem and hopefully around the country. i have been asked to address the state of african-american literacy and education. the name of this event, the venue in which it is being held, the lineup of speakers and composition of the audience would seem to point to an upbeat assessment. here we are at the harlem book fair in an auditorium named for a great african-american poets,

novelist and playwright, langston hughes who was almost from his adulthood from the time he came to new york in columbia university in the early 1920s was almost a continuous lifelong resident of harlem. we are in the library named after and build on the collection of a great afro caribbean bibliophile, arturo shown bird. we are around the corner from another harlem book fair venue named for another african-american poet, one of the leaders with langston hughes of the harlem renaissance and subject of my doctoral dissertation. i used to teach literature. sonia sanchez and i shared offices at spellman college.

i look further down today's program and see not only my former office made sonya sanchez but dr. julien mallow of the college for women and a distinguished author in her own right and my colleague, dr. carlson around, from atlanta university and a distinguished educator for today. he will talk about humor. something african-american college presidents don't talk about enough. serving over this cornucopia of african-american accomplishments we can marvel at this curious thing to make a poet black and bid him or her sing. a look back at african-american literacy and education dictates a mixed verdict. we have come far in this century

and a half since the civil war and emancipation but we have a long way to go on our education and literacy journey. we have within our community a cohort of well educated and highly literate men and women but we have an enormous population of brothers and sisters who have been passed by, denied the education they need and deserve and because they have been passed by face uncertain and insecure prospects. and yet even more hinges on education than the futures of individual men and women. it is the future of a community. the future of harlem is the future of black america and the nation's future. it has been just over a century since the first wave of the

great migration barack african-americans to harlem in large numbers. it was then termed a city within a city. a city of refuge as harlem renaissance short story writer rudolph fisher termed it in that wonderful story that appeared in the landmark volume of the new negro in 1925. city of refuge. now so many of those refugees are in another generation returning south. harlem has ridden the cycle for the harlem renaissance followed by a punishing depression in a hard period and now an unsettling period where it is today. social taboos have evaporated

harlem real-estate, becoming a boom. demographics are shifting and the economics of remaining in harlem are unsettling residents who go back generations. the challenge today is whether harlem can both prosper and be a community of opportunity for african-americans and at harlem goes so goes the nation. whether it can will depend on large measure on the education it offers students of color. will it offer them the education they need from preschool through college to build their careers, support their families and give back to their communities? education that will qualify them for the jobs that will allow them to afford to stay in this

city of refuge in the twenty-first century? the kind of educational available to a few. can we make it available not just to some but to many? that like any important change involves some disruption in the lives of people and institutions. some, i am referring to the lawsuit of the teacher's union and the naacp that brought chancellor walcott's education reform. the lawsuit that has been decided against the naacp last week. some shrink from that disruption preferring to sacrifice the futures of the many who need an education for the welfare of the few who are charged with providing that education but are falling short. the future of african-american

literacy and education in harlem will depend on the outcome of battles like these and in whose favor they are resolved. the battle is over and the students won this time. parents will get to choose where they can send their children. but it may not always be so. for the first four score and seven years after the declaration of independence declared that all men were created equal it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write. wasn't just -- it was illegal. people could go to jail for teaching african-americans to read or write. the prohibition was not unconsidered. those who decreed it and enforce it knew that slavery could not prosper in an environment where slaves got the opportunity to

get education and freedom of self expression. even after emancipation. even after the end of the civil war, even after the passage of the constitutional amendment that purported to guarantee equal protection of the law it would be another century, another 100 years before the first supreme court decision that equal education was a constitutional right. today that jim crow laws and school segregation laws are off the books. hardly a college or university of the nation's 4,000 colleges at universities doesn't include black students or black administrators. african-americans surge at the head of the nation's largest corporation. and african-americans it's in the white house. by any measure, that is

progress. if that is one of erica, there is as well as we well know another america. in this other african america, of 100 students who start in ninth grade only three -- only three will complete college compared to ten white students. ten is nothing to be proud of but the three is appalling. much of the difference between the college graduation rate of people of color and the majority population is financial. the cost of college and the inability of millions of family income that keep pace with the cost continues to be the single largest factor in the inability of families of color to send their sons and daughters to college and the inability of those sons and daughters once

enrolled to stay in college and graduate ask any african-american college president what is the number one barrier to staying in school, paying tuition. the country in other words has allowed more out of neglect and indifference than by intention the development of a system of defect code educational failures that impact all children and acceptably and more children of color severely. who pays the price? most immediately low-income african-americans and other people of color. students who end their education after high school will learn over the course of a career $1 million less than their college-educated counterparts. they earn less because the best paying and fastest growing jobs and careers require college as

an entry level requirement. the next level of jobs, the assembly line jobs that require only a high school diploma and a good work ethic the great majority of those jobs have evaporated. when people came from the south in the 1920s and 30s and 40s to new york and pittsburgh and deflate, left the farms to come no. they came to work on the assembly line. they didn't have to have a great education, just a great work ethic and they could earn a good living and support of family and buy a home and move on up but those jobs don't exist anymore. if the jobs at the top require college and factory jobs have disappeared or moved offshore what is left for the high school graduate? answer, the bottom rung of jobs. the low-paid service jobs.

there are those who say that is okay. that we have enough college graduates and we don't need any more. a few months ago i debated a pair of these college the nighters as i call them, college professor at a writer on a pbs debate and posed this question to them. is this the answer you give to your own children and grandchildren when they ask you whether they should go to college? do you tell them you don't need to do that. we have enough of those. they didn't answer. they didn't need to. we know the answer. that is not the answer they give their own children. that is the answer for somebody else's children and we know who that is. it is not only non college graduates who suffer. families pay the price. low incomes mean less security. less ability to send the next generation to college. communities suffered too.

lower incomes and less security translates to less taxes paid which means less money for schools, roads and parks. nor is the price communities pay the nominated warmly in dollars and cents. college graduates vote at higher rates and volunteer at higher rates and give blood at higher rates. they are more engage citizens. businesses a high price for educational neglect as well. their competitiveness the pans on their access to a college educated workforce and if they can't get those college-educated employees their competitors in china and india and singapore and other countries can. and believe me they are producing more college graduates. this is a bleak future but it does not have to be hopeless. there's a tendency even within our community to throw up our hands at the challenge to regard large numbers of low-income

children of color as the on hope. i am here to say not only that there is hope but there are solutions. take the challenge of helping low income children of color go to college and stay through graduation. for more than a decade unc and a bill and melinda gates foundation have partnered on the scholars program. each year this program awards good through graduation scholarships to 1,000 low-income students of color. african-americans and hispanics and american indians and after more than a decade after granting 14,000 of these scholarships gates scholars have a five your graduation rate of 88%, double the number of non students of color. a six your graduation rate of

90%. much higher than the overall national graduation rate and comparable to the graduation rate of students from the highest income families. what is the millennium scholar's formula? it is money. a lot of bloody. $1.6 million. it is understanding that students need more than a check. they need academic support. they need mentoring and social support and all the kinds of support students from higher income families, students from families where college is a tradition they need over kinds of support other students take for granted. if you hear anyone say low-income minority students can't get through college, that we can't empower them to get through you tell them yes we can. so we know we can help students of color get through college.

can we help from get to college? can we give them the education before they step onto a college campus that they need in order to do college course work once they actually get there? the answer is yes we can. sometimes people are surprised to hear the president of u n c f where college is our middle name speaking out about free college education but the fact is education is a continuing. it is a pathway. the pathway from slavery to freedom as frederick douglass called it. like any pathway you can't reach your destination without starting at the beginning and state until the end. students need to learn algebra ii and calculus in high school in order to succeed in college math, they need to learn their numbers increase will be coming

proficient in arithmetic in grade school and taking algebra in middle school. it is the same for every course of study, every critical learning skill. in all too many of the schools that our children attend they are not getting the kind of preschool to high school education that will make them competitive. as a result of the african-american students who graduate from high school and enrolled in college approximately half must take remedial courses. that is courses for which they paid full college tuition but received no credit. to learn subjects they should have been taught and gotten command of before they got to college. that is only students who enroll in college. think of the number if we applied that standard to those whose education ends in high school. these numbers like the numbers

for college graduation paint a bleak picture but not a hopeless one. the outlook for improving of free college education our children that has never been more hopeful. for one thing we have the president in the white house to recognizes the value of education in this country who called education the economic issue of our time. a president who has committed billions of dollars to an aggressive program of improving public education. we have in cities and states around the country mayors and chancellors and superintendents who have instituted public school reform designed to start making schools better. not some day but today. in new york, this administration has made education reform one of its top priorities and mayor bloomberg has given two chancellor's, joel kline and

dennis walcott the authority and support they need to make the changes that need to be made. one of those changes has been the growth of public charter schools. charter schools have flourished in harlem. the wall street journal last year reported that harlem had 24 public charter schools serving 707,000 students educating kids in this community. these charters and their leaders like the harlem children's zone led by geoffrey canada, like the chip academy or the success charter schools cannot replace all of the public schools but they are a right now educationally option for students and families who need and deserve a better education not someday, but right now. they are also great education laboratories where innovative approaches to learning can be

tried, tested and refined before taken to scale in the public-school system. and because they are choice options for students who believe they are ill served by the system school they attend, they are a competitive force pushing system schools to get better. not some day but right away. that choice and that competition are absolutely vital forces in making our schools better. absolutely vital. our families need to be able to make the choice and they need to have competitive options to choose from and in giving our children the education they need to prosper here in harlem or wherever they make their homes, that must be our goal. charter schools are not the only force for public school reform in harlem and new york city or

around the country. school systems are working to help teachers and schools improve the education they give their students. teachers who cannot improve, will not improve are being replaced. schools that cannot improve, schools that are failing are being shut down and reconstituted. like change in any great institution in the school system our great institutions, came -- change is disruptive but the ultimate standard has to be the student whose lives are at stake. are they learning when they need to in order to progress in their education through college? are they learning what they need to in order to build their careers to support their families and to give back to their community? when that lawsuit was filed the

location of charter schools where traditional schools and the issue was should we shut down now schools that have been termed failures? those who filed the lawsuit said we should take more time to fix those schools but every day you warehouse a student in a failing school is a that student loses the opportunity to prepare for the competitive world he or she will face upon graduation. if we don't take care of these kids now, their future and prosperity and the future and prosperity of our communities are threatened. some have shrunk from the promise of change and the necessity to make change. you n c f and member communities with college of programs that

educate generation after generation of african-americans including many story figures in harlem's history and culture. it is our considered judgment and firm conviction that the place for those who are committed to the education of the next generation is with chancellor walcott and on the side of disruptive innovation and charter school movement and on the side of aggressive school reform which does not accept failure complacently. with the court's decision in favor of the chancellor's reform measures most though not all of the issues raised in the lawsuit have been resolved. we are gratified by that outcome. unc have did not agree with the position taken by those who filed the suit but with a decision handed down it is time for all of those who oppose to stand together and make sure that the kids get the

opportunity to learn not in the future but right now. for centuries education has been our lifeblood. denied us in slavery it became as frederick douglass said our pathway out of slavery and into liberty. thurgood marshall and martin luther king jr. fought for our legal rights to education but they didn't fight alone. they didn't will the right to education into existence. they mobilized black and white americans to demand rights of education. together they fought and together they won. it is our turn to fight for the right to a good education, they rigorous education. and education that start on the first day of preschool and doesn't end until at least college graduation day. nobody has a child and education.

the lesson the child learns is education means work and the harder you work the more education you get. the fight will not be won by mayors or chancellors alone but by charter schools. not by charter schools for the people who started them. the fight will be won -- can only be won if all of us demand that good education that so many of us got become a right for all americans. because if we the people demand, not only will this -- not only will this mayor but others and all the successes and the mayors of cities across this country will make it their priority. in the recent dispute in new york city between charter schools and the unions the most

powerful and surprise invoices were the voices of parents who demanded the right to choose the school, in this case the charter schools that they wanted for their children. the right to choose not some day but now. the supreme court heard them and ruled in their favor. i hope and pray america heard them as well. that their powerful voices will be supported by all of us who want american children of color to get a 20 first century education. when that happens, and i think it will happen, i will ask to return to the harlem book fair to speak on the state of african-american literacy and education and be able to report without reservation that the

state of african-american literacy and education is strong and getting stronger. but for now my method is america has yet to live up to its promise. black children are still more likely to attend a failing school and too many will either not graduate from high school or will graduate with a diploma that does not signal they are college ready. harlem, we have work to do. president obama has challenged us to regain our global position as no. one producer of college graduates. we are not even in the top-10. today to do that, we must double the number over the next ten years of african-americans who graduate from college. 120,000 african-americans earned

a college degree. 120,000 of them were pursuing a college degree. we need to double that number to 250,000 over the next ten years. to do that we must increase substantially the number of college ready high school graduates we produce in every district where african-americans attend school. to do that we must close failing schools and replace them with high performing public schools including charter schools. good schools that will make sure they reach in come. to do that unicef will do its part supporting education reform all across this country but we need you, harlem, to join us in making sure every child gets high quality public education that will prepare them for college, career and citizenship. every child must do that.

a mind is a terrible thing to waste. thank you. [applause] >> i think i went over my time. >> michael lomax, president of the united negro college fund wrapping up his talk from the 2011 harlem will fare from the langston hughes auditorium at the new york library research for black culture. live coverage from the thirteenth annual harlem book fair will continue after this short break. up next a panel discussion of

the late manning parable's biography of malcolm x. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> there's a book about machiavelli sitting on my desk that came out several weeks ago. i want to read that book about machiavelli. there's a book called reckless about what went on in terms of the financial crisis in the country and what led up to it that involves two local businesses, freddie mac and fannie mae. hi am curious to read and find out what happened. there are some things i want to go back and read. there was recently a controversy about huck finn and a professor

who took the n word out of the text and this sparked a controversy about american history in the context of my own book, politically correct speech codes and how inappropriate it was given the fact mark twain and -- samuel clemens wrote it with the power of that word intended. i wanted to take a look at what the sanitized text looked like. i picked up that book and it is sitting on my desk. and then there are two books. i am trying to remember their names. and opportunity to help out authors i am reading. lawrence block is a mystery writer. i think it is called a drop of the hard stuff. it is a mystery novel.

lawrence block is to me a terrific mystery writer. that is of the top of the my list. if i wasn't here i would read lawrence block. he is terrific. and george pellicano writes about mysteries in washington d.c.. has a new book coming out. his wife told me about it because she exercises where i go. i am looking forward to that. he has seen its on streets i travel every day. >> tell us what you are reading this summer. send us a tweet at booktv. >> july was a busy month in publishing news with the liquidation of borders and there has been an update with the google book settlement. sarah wideman is news editor of publishers marketplace. what is the latest on the google book settlement?

>> guest: a hearing took place on july 19th where judge jenny chan heard from various parties with respect to the settlement and he wasn't terribly happy at the current state of things. bottom line was both parties want more time and even though judge chen granted an extension the next hearing will be in september. he is really pushing for something to happen and if the two opposing parties, google and the authors guild and association of american publishers working in tandem can't come to an agreement, he intimated he may have to come to some sort of ruling and essentially force the issue. he would also like to see more things happening. this hearing has been delayed all summer long. originally there was some of -- something supposed to happen in april.

we are being pushed to september and after so many years after the original lawsuit happened six years ago and the fact judge chen has been promoted to the second court of appeals, this was one of his outstanding cases. he would like to have some forward motion and progress and he wasn't seeing that. >> host: who did that the lay benefit if anyone? >> guest: good question. it possibly might benefit google more because they have the least to lose. so many of these books have been scanned related to development. they're selling the books. it is not necessarily in their interests to see something happen. at the same time i am not se