dr. king delivered the eulogy for the little girls. and it was there because of what it had to in birmingham sunday. we intensified to get the right to vote in mississippi and alabama and especially the south. >> host: what is the longest and she did in jail and prison? >> guest: the longest time i spent in jail was in mississippi during the freedom ride. it was about 44 days. jail is not a pleasant place. to be in jail and alabama, mississippi, but to be in jail, you lose your freedom to go and just be in a crowded sow or crowded cellblock.

the food, it's not the best. but you're there. we conduct nonviolent workshops. we went bang songs. so old pharaoh to let my people go. coetzee: silas, bound in jail. no money to go in that bail. but it was there that we became a circle of trust, a band of brothers and sisters. ..

>> guest: the coca-cola policy considered south africa they were influenced to change the plight of things in south africa with another major corporation. >> host: washington please go ahead with your question or comment for representative lewis.

>> guest: . >> caller: thanks for c-span. i watch daily and love it. thank you, congress then lewis for your endurance and your hard work to build a more perfect union. i am a little nervous. the conservative movement -- i was watching bill moore the other day and they had a guy on there that was a part of the tea party and they said that they were winning. the conservative movement has been winning by using narratives that pull this country further and further to the right. aren't the so-called privileges of the ely's -- elites and isn't there a way that we can take some of my spare words like entitlements and other phrases

that they use and flip the script on them and flip it back on them and show them how they are actually the ones that are succeeding. they cannot win. they gerrymandered that when in the districts that they couldn't otherwise bland. i mean what else can we do to flip the script? >> co. to work together and somehow i -- the means and methods must be caught up in the end that we seek. we want to create a more perfect union and a more peaceful union, the just union and the waves must be more peaceful and just and fair.

we cannot use the methods and techniques of another group. we are all in this thing together and we must look out for each other and we must care for each other to be able to move towards the beloved community at peace with itself. >> host: e-mail i've never had the privilege of meeting you someone that i expect to beat respect and admire but i am a school mate of the associate justice clarence thomas and am deeply disappointed in his judicial philosophy. do you have any comments? >> guest: as a member of congress i had been invited to testify when he was being considered to become a member of the supreme court. i was one of the people that

testified. i just didn't think he had the temperament and i didn't share his political philosophy to be a member of the united states supreme court. i just think as a nation and as a people we can do much better. >> host: have you gotten to know justice thomas? >> guest: over the years i met him long before he became a member of the supreme court. as a member i was one of the few african-american members of congress at the time, may be the only one to meet with him. >> host: rochester new york, please go ahead. >> caller: i haven't seen you since 1964. i was a member of sncc and as a

matter of fact -- >> guest: i remember very well. i was the chair of the student nonviolent coordinating committee and i should have mentioned her as one of the women that stood up. she was so brave and she was tough and she had a great voice and she knew how to use the voice to organize and she was courageous. >> caller: . >> guest: i remember very, very well and other fighter on another leader from that of the mississippi. >> caller: yes, he got me

involved. >> host: if you could give us a brief synopsis of your life. tell us what you have been doing since sncc of 1964. >> caller: i was there in 1963 and 1964. as a matter of fact i've been working with the group that he talks about that got into the college. i thought it would be reckless -- recluse. i'm about four years younger than john. >> host: sorry about that. i thought you were finished. >> guest: speethree for your

work over the years. >> caller: representative lewis i want to thank you. you put your life on the line for what he believed in. now, i called richard butler in a legislative hearing that i was testifying at a bigot to his face and i got a lot of threats. but as you can hear here, i'm sl alive. i was at that deal for trade on -- trayvon and there were so many people there. where i am disappointed in the civil rights movement is this year in february it was the 100th birthday of rosa parks and in central florida, we did nothing. in july of this year the 65th

anniversary integration of the military which i have to thank truman for the cause in the marine corps in the organization i would have felt bearable if i had served. thank you for your work. my philosophy is organize and educate because that brings so many people that don't know about how the civil rights movement moved out. >> host: thank you sir. >> guest: i agree that we must continue to organize, mobilize and also educate and inform. that's why knowing your history and studying history -- and people need to read. when i was very young growing up in alabama i had a wonderful

teacher who said to me over and over again read, my child, and i try to read everything. >> host: this is an e-mail from christine and she writes senator, thank you for serving the country. what is your point of view on the use of the n-word which is my generation? >> guest: i don't think that we should use the n-word, it's negative and we shouldn't use it in music, it just shouldn't be used. we should respect the dignity of every human being. >> host: could he tell us something about by your trust in that we may not know? >> guest: there's a great deal about him. he grew up in pennsylvania, he

was early committed to the way of peace and the way of love and nonviolence. back in the late 40s he was doing something called the journey of reconciliation. it was similar to the freedom rides of 1961. early on, he was looked upon as a socialist. it he was smart and a wonderful organizer. he lead in organized labor and he was a fighter and a crusader for social justice. he was very hopeful and optimistic. he believed that somehow and someway we could truly build an integrated society, society

where no one would be left out or left behind. he was a wonderful friend. >> host: was his homosexuality a big deal at the time? >> guest: i think that during the 60s that people within the movement, within the civil rights movement discriminated against him simply because he was gay. they didn't want to see him out front. they tried to prevent him and keep him from being the head leader of the march on washington in 1963. without without byron ruston there would have been a march on washington. >> host: wasn't a known fact that he was gay? >> guest: most in the civil rights movement through, and at one time he had been arrested on

a charge i deleted was out in california or someplace because he was gay and people tried to hidtry tohide that, but he neveo hide his homosexuality. >> host: and walk with the wind this is somebody that you quote, somebody writing about you. and if you could tell us who this is. the poker game continued as i moved away into the bear hollow sounding living room. one of them on the floor cause my ie and began to sway and bump his head towards me. he had a round body with a roly-poly ganny -- fanny. there was nothing militant about john, he was all love and soul and just to be with him made you smile inside even though you knew that he would never make it because he was too sweet. his dancing was laced with

mistress. we grooved to the center of the floor and in two minutes we are putting on a show. >> guest: i think that was the actress, i think that was shirley mcclain writing that about me. >> host: do you remember this? >> guest: i remember very well. she wanted to meet people within the movement. there was a gathering at my place and she was there and i saw her many times after that she was wonderful. she likes so many of the people from the entertainment world, they wanted to get to know people within the civil rights movement. it wasn't just shirley mcclain, but it was individuals who became very supportive mike harry belafonte and tony bennett

and at the end of the march from selma to montgomery, they wanted to identify the march on washington. they wanted to say we stand with you. i remember bobby dylan coming to the delta, the mississippi out on the field singing and playing his music. joan and others, peter paul and mary. they all were there. those were the days of hope and optimism that people were prepared to put their bodies on the line, to use -- their ability and capacity to say yes,

we stand with you, yes we are with you. >> host: you are 73-years-old. any plans to retire? >> guest: i am 73 but i don't feel like i'm 73. i feel much younger. and my own staff -- they are much younger than i. that they cannot keep up with me. >> host: is that a point of pride? >> guest: i'm very proud, we have a race in atlanta. i don't use the ride in the car. i run into there would be hundreds of thousands of people. i would literally run through the streets of atlanta shaking hands with people. >> host: congressman the night after he won in september 2, 1986, 1 of your staffers had arranged for a limo to take you to the victory party.

what happened? >> guest: i said no, we are going to walk. i've always wanted to walk up or down the street in atlanta coming and we literally got out and we walked. that's my wife walking with me. and it was proud and just a wonderful evening to be able to walk -- there is nothing like a victory march or victory walk. >> host: bill in massachusetts you are on with author and congressman john lewis. >> caller: i want to offer my assessment of the situation. i've been analyzing this for about half a century. i want your comments. i belief that a lot of tragedy

in the last decades that people assessed the situation properly. i belief that there is obviously white racism -- racialism can cm excusing him and i also believe that there is black racialism into the white and black racialism -- no one has the guts to talk about it. the only thing we do talk about our comedians. i want your opinion and i want to also add that the emmett till case if you analyze it and are honest about it is a sexual crime because all he did his iss whistle that a white woman or make a comment about a white woman and look at the price he paid all because of whistling. that is psychotic and pathological and people don't even talk about it in terms of the basis of his murder. so i would like your assessment on the racial situation

ultimately just above that what you tend to agree that there is a sexual aspect to racialism that people approach? >> guest: it is my hope and it is my belief that somehow and in some way we should never put anyone down, hate or castigate someone because of their race or their color or because of their gender. we should look upon each other as being a fellow human being come our fellow brother, fellow sister, that we are all members of a human race and hate is too heavy of a burden to their as martin luther king jr. would say

-- his father heard him say many many times eight is too heavy of a burden to bear. >> host: how old were you when emmett till's murder happened? >> guest: august 28, 1955. i was 15-years-old. i'd been working in the cotton field when i heard it and it shocked me because i had cousins about the same age living in buffalo and niagara falls in new york and they would come south during the summer and i kept thinking it could be one of them. it could have been one of them. >> host: did it scare your family or your neighbor's? >> guest: i would hear people say you must be careful of what you say and what you do.

but my family at the time, a lot of things they just didn't talk about. they were very quiet. but every so often i would hear things like the knight riders may be coming. they didn't mention the clan that they would mention my fighters. but years later they would say the knight riders were the clan. they would come to certain areas but i never knew of the clan coming into that part of alabama but i would hear the clan in montgomery or birmingham or someplace else but not around where i grew up. >> host: do your every the first time he met you met a whe person? >> guest: yes. i do.

we had people come by from time to time what we would call the rolling stone man that would be selling something. it could be an old broken down bus or pickup truck and it converted into a mobile store. he would be selling things like maybe sugar or flour or a flavor of something. and sometimes my mother would want to trade, which i didn't like trading a chicken for cooking oil or something. >> host: before you -- but that was your first interaction?

>> guest: yes. >> host: and here's a picture right here. do you room for the first time that you've realized that black people were treated differently than white people? >> guest: when i would visit with my parents in the little town of troy and go to the theater to see a movie on a saturday afternoon, all of us children had to go upstairs to the balcony and all the little white children went down for a coat stairs to the floor. i saw the signs in the warner of the story of a water fountain. it would be a shining fountain marked white and then there would be a little spigot in the same corner marked colored. or you would go into a store and see a sign that said white men,

colored man, white women, colored women. i saw that as a child. >> host: did you ask your parents about it? >> guest: i would ask my mother and i would ask my father today i would ask my grandparents, i would ask my uncle's wife is and why that and sometimes they would say boy, that's grown folks business. and sometimes they would just say that's the way it is. don't get in the way. don't get in trouble. and that's what i tell young people today. rosa parks, doctor king inspired me to get in the way to get in trouble, necessary trouble. i didn't like those signs. so i wanted to do whatever i could to bring down those signs.

>> host: congressman lewis, it is an honor to speak with you. it is my deepest conviction that we need economic justice and a programmatic trust to lift blacks out of poverty similar to a marshall plan in world war ii. contrary to what many people say, we have to target the blacks in particular who are economically so downtrodden due to ever legacy of slavery. so my question is what can be done to target for eradication of black poverty because symbolism without substance is nothing. >> host: second time we have got enough called. >> guest: back in 1963 and 64 and 65 the lead to a philip randolph made a proposal to the president, to congress to introduce something called the

freedom budget. and i believe -- i'm not sure about the number but he's proposed something called a budget of $100 billion to free people and liberate people from their legacy of slavery and its never considered by the president or by members of congress. but we do need something that would free and liberate hundreds and thousands and millions of our citizens not just african american but all people. >> host: rusty e-mails and since you were so close to the bobby kennedy and martin luther king jr., please tell us your warmest memory working with both men. >> guest: martin luther king jr. was a special human being.

i admired him and i loved that man. he was my inspiration. he was my theater. he was like a big brother. to be at the march o march on wn 50 years ago, and to be there when he said i have a dream, a dream deeply rooted, acome in american dream in keeping with the american dream can't he see him transform the steps of the lincoln memorial, i could hear him now and see him now. i just wish more people would understand. and years later, to be exact, on

april 4, 1967 he delivered a speech at the riverside church in new york city and i watched every student in every young person in america, every member of congress could read that speech and listen to that speech on tape. >> host: is that the one where he came out against the vietnam war? >> guest: that is the one he came out against the war in vietnam and he spoke about the bombs that we were dropping in vietnam, the aftermath, the result that would affect america. and it's that you later that he was assassinated. >> host: when is the last time you spoke with him? >> guest: i was in a meeting with him in march of 1916 in atlanta at a place called

pasco's restaurant. it was a place where -- one of the few places in atlanta for years where black people and white people could meet and eat together, sit down together for a long time. it was in the air of atlanta university where you had at morehouse college and spellman n and atlanta university and clark college, my atlanta clark university where he would organize people come asian american and native american, hispanics coming together to go to washington for the poor people's campaign. he was unbelievable. he was a man that was so funny at times and so serious at other

times. and on one occasion i remember us being in alabama and we were passed by some we should get something to eat because if we got arrested and go to jail he thought it was so funny. and sometimes he would say to me do you still preach? i said yes conduct or king and he would laugh he thought it was so funny. >> host: and you called him doctor king cracks. cracks. >> guest: i've always said doctor king. i had so much respect and love for that man. he was unbelievable. and bobby kennedy, i admired h him. he inspired me.

he was very fond of paraphrasing the words of george bernard sh shaw. some see things as they are and i dream of things as they never were and say why not. he needs that. he was a dreamer and a believer and on one occasion, he said in the spring of 1963 he said i now understand. he understood the command he felt in his heart that the struggle was all about. so when doctor king was assassinated and he came to atlanta for the funeral, he was one of the few white politicians in america that could walk the

streets of atlanta for more than a mile per doctor king, the heart of the african-american community. >> host: did you ever meet with or try to meet with sir answer hand or james earl ray? >> guest: i never try to meet with either one. >> host: jackie in louisville kentucky. go ahead, please. >> caller: it is an honor to meet you, mr. lewis. here in louisville, -- >> host: you have to turn down the volume on your tv. >> caller: here in louisville

and in hopkinsville i have a son walked up and he's been locked up for six years now and the judge is the one that is keeping my son walked up all because the law that he has quoted to them and that he learned about being locked up and all the racism is still there and hopkinsville and there are others still there doing it the same way like they used to do it back in the 60s but they are doing it now in a different sneaky way and it's still there. >> host: what's the charge? >> guest: they have him charged with 38 robberies he

didn't know where he was going come he didn't know the people, plus he had his son there with him and all of it is because this judge. he is in supposedly on his case and the prosecutor is doing everything to. >> host: let's hear what the congressman has to say. >> guest: as a member of congress i've not been a lawyer and not from louisville, i cannot give you any advice. i would suggest that you talk and speak to the local officials and community leaders in louisville and hawkinsville. >> host: a couple of callers have raised the issue of young african americans in prison.

michele alexander's but the new jim crow is about the size of the black prison population, much of it because of drugs. how do you feel about the legalization of drugs? >> guest: we have to find a way to break the cycle. it is a pipeline for so many of our young people and so many young african americans that are being sentenced for many years. we've got to stop it. the attorney general has said that we are going to find a way in this administration to lessen some of these convictions. the prison system has become a real industry in many parts of our country. in mosand most of these crimes y

are nonviolent crimes. we have to redirect people away from the prison system. >> host: washington dc. >> caller: i don't think anybody said good afternoon to you yet. >> host: thank you. >> caller: it is an honor to speak with you, congressman. let me just say that all of this stuff is going on and i called your office i guess it was about two weeks ago now, before this shutdown, and i was talking about health care in this country, and i was telling your office and i left my phone number but i know you're busy and i live in dc and they said he's in georgia and i said well i understand that.

but we all have health issues in this country no matter what city or county or state we live in. and after hearing you speak you know, the 50th anniversary on of the march on washington i said i'm calling john lewis, that's all there is to it. and so what i was trying to express to your office and i wanted to speak to you so much and get in touch with you -- i am a diabetic, a type ii diabetic and for two years the doctors couldn't do a thing about my diabetes. i'm a very active person. i know what to do -- >> host: i apologize for interrupting but we are a little short on time if you could get to your point. >> caller: okay. i just wanted to know -- i just want to say i healed my diabetes. i have healed those going on ten years and i healed my kidneys. i didn't have to have any of that stuff done.

and i just wanted to talk with somebody to see if i could get in touch with somebody on capitol hill to help and i thought about you after seeing you and i know your history. i just need somebody if i could call your office back tomorrow. >> guest: i will be in the office tomorrow, leave your number and i will call you back. >> host: do you get a lot of calls nationwide? >> guest: we get a lot of calls from all over the country and some from time to time that we get a lot of calls, and our staff is very small. people think we have a large staff but it's actually a very small staff and we try to be responsive and we try to answer the e-mails. >> host: but at the same time you are elected by the people. >> guest: i'm elected by the

people of georgia and it is about 750, 700,000 people, and it very hard to keep up with everybody that we try to be responsive. >> host: do to feel that president obama has been vilified? >> guest: if my mother were alive this is what she would say, she would say this president barack obama has been called everything but a child of god and that's the way that she would put it. i think president obama is one of the most -- i have known a lot of presidents. i have met with every president, i've been in the meeting, i've had a one-on-one for the most part with every president since president kennedy. president ronald reagan on one

occasion invited me to come to the white house and i didn't understand why he wanted me. he was signing some piece of legislation and invited me to come and he made a point of saying as a young man here today who was here so many years ago, he was signing a housing bill, and i had a wonderful talk with him. >> host: i only served two years with president ronald reagan and ira member president ford -- the only president i didn't meet with in the white house with president nixon. >> host: why not? >> guest: he never invited me but president nixon after he was out at the airport at washington, he said to me you are jerry lewis.

and i said no i'm john lewis. i said jerry is from california and i'm from georgia. and so we would chat for a while at the airport and -- >> host: what was your relationship with george w. bush? >> guest: it was wonderful. i got along with him. i talked with him and i remember saying to one of my stuff people he said how do you feel working with an american hero and the staff person didn't know what to say so he said i don't work with him or something like that really. but i got to know both of them. bill clinton? >> guest: bill clinton is a friend. he wrote something about march 1

the buck and it was wonderful for what he wrote. >> host: congressman john lewis has been a sounding voice in the quest for a quality for more than 50 years and i'm so pleased that he's sharing his memories with the civil rights movement as america's young leaders in the march. he brings a whole new generation with him across the edmund pettis bridge from the past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands. that's bill clinton. >> guest: he came to selma and he is the first and only president that came and walked across the bridge as the president. and president obama came when he was running. and today i consider -- to have

president clinton, president obama and president carter, to have these three presidents at the 50th anniversary of the march on washington and to speak before the three of them, it was too much. i don't know what my mother would have said or my father would have said to be standing on the steps of the lincoln memorial with three presidents, it was almost too much. >> host: walking with the wind is john lewis' memoir, life lessons of the vision for change came out in 2012 and march, book one in 2013. you are watching in depth on booktv.

recalls confederate general robert e. lee surrendered to the ulysses s. grant led union forces out of the clean house in virginia on april 9, 1865. this is about 45 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much for that very kind introduction. it is a pleasure to be here. robert e. lee surrendered u.s. grant april 9, 1965 and is for most americans a familiar tableau. the men mac in the house of mclean here in a modest central virginia courthouse. lee or a fine dress uniform and embodied the proper gentility of the southeast planter delete and

grant dressed casually in a uniform and represented the hardscrabble farmers and wage earners. after awkwardly exchanging pleasantries about the service and the mexican war, the man agreed to the surrender terms that ended the civil war. in essence, grants term set free the soldiers in the army of northern virginia on their honor. the promised they would never again take up arms against the united states. grants back in the many and leaves a stoic resignation and defeat not only reunited the north and south that prepared the way for america's emergence as a world power. this is an edifying story and a comforting one that casts the surrender in a moment of healing that transcended politics via today i was told you an altogether different story and suggested that what happened here on april 9, 1865 is even more significant and fascinating than we have realized. the surrender was an inherently political moment that would set the terms of the unfolding debate about the meaning of the

war. lee and grant were leaders of tt go through this and so each man moved to stake out a position. the surrender was a negotiation which he secured honorable terms for his blameless man and the piece was contingent on the north could behavior to be at the union victory was one of might and overwrite. it was no negotiation. he could be merciful precisely because he had render him powerless and discredited his cause. the terms designed to affect submission and the union victory was one of right over wrong and the piece was contingent on the south could behavior. the competing visions would exert a profound influence over the postwar politics yet grant and lee didn't craft the surrender terms in isolation. as it unfolded the country men and women with crowd at the scene and invest the surrender with their own agenda and aspirations and dreams and these included the dreams of freedom itself. in the eyes of african-american

soldiers and former slaves more than the union had been for decades that april day his surrender was for them the moment of the promise of emancipation finally fulfilled. three distinct understandings of the surrender as a moment of frustration, this is the confederate interpretation of dedication and the liberation took shape on april 9 in 1865. and i will suggest that the dates over these terms reveal not only the bitterness between the victors but deep divisions in each society north and south. we will begin with the confederate interpretation. april 8, 1965 he said in response to grant's suggestion that the confederate cause was hopeless and at the time had come to capitulate. he wrote to be frank i do not think that emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of the army that is the restoration of peace should be the object ids tire to know whether your proposals would lead to that end

and i cannot meet you with a view to the surrender of the northern virginia but as far as your proposal may tend to the restoration of peace, i should be pleased to meet you. in using the word restoration twice, he began to elaborate his vision of an honorable peace. what did he mean by restoration? it was of course the favorite scene of the northern peace democrats who deplore the lincoln administration's conduct of the war particularly the advent of paint to veto an invitation and sought to return the union is the way it was at the 1864 campaign slogan. he had hoped that the battlefield victories would swell the chorus of the northern dissent and to bring the north to the negotiating table, but his understanding was distinct from that of the northern democrats and it was rooted in his family culture and in that of his native virginia. like many others of his generation and the elite bloodlines he was steeped in nostalgia for the days of the early republic when the other states almost took it for granted that virginia would be

the leader and when they felt a proprietary pride in the union. an honorable peace was restored to the south the prosperity and influence that he associated of the imagined past before the nation drifted away from the principles of the virginia founders. from april 1865, restoration would be his political keyword and we see that cropping up again and again and again. his postwar correspondence three to six months after the surrender he wrote to his friend the following lament. as long as the virtuous dominant so long as the happiness of the people secure in ever versatile god save us from destruction and restore us to the bright hope and prospects of the past. this was a backward looking view of the peace. his hope for restoration would promisbutpromised not only on na but on the case his army was blameless and he elaborated that on april 10 in his farewell address drafted under the guide by charles marshall and it began

after four years of arduous service marked by the courage and fortitude the army of northern virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. the troops remained steadfast and he continued to dress that fashion even in this bitter hour from the consciousness of duty performed. his address immediately took on an iconic status that has profound resonance to his starving and exhausted troops that yankee army seemed endless and encompassing. the actress had layers of meanings and deep tangled roots. for the white southerners the reference to the overwhelming numbers and resources was a sort of code and in the context of the ideology and the confederate creed numbers conjured up the army of mercenaries, seduced or coerced into service and having no stake in the fight. resources conjured up images of factories and cities in which an exploited underclass turned out the material of the war at the

behest of rapacious capitalists. secessionists have seen the burgeoning wealth and population of the north as an indictment of the northern society of its social instability and accession with the bottom line. the address is reference to the unsurpassed fortitude of the confederate troops parts and -- part and parcel of the north. the founders of the southern way of life had made a staple of the claim that southern men accustomed to master the end of the waves were made of stern stuff than the northern wage slaves. lee was well aware of the ideological freight to be a cren inviting union troops hadn't been the equal's of the confederate ones into the central attributes of men his farewell address made a political statement. by denying the legitimacy of the north military victory of the confederates couldn't deny the north's right to impose its political will on the defeated south. here are lee moved on a second front to cast the surrender terms in the best possible light hoping that her role could come for his men on the measure of

immunity from the reprisals at the hand of the victorious federals he requested if they were able to meet that each individual confederate be issued a printed certificate signed by a union officer as proof the soldier came under the settlement of april 9. granted readily assented to his request in keeping with the language of the terms of parole certificate vouched that if a soldier observed the law where he resided he wouldn't be disturbed. union men and match into the certificates would remind the confederates of the obligations intended upon the status of the prisoners of war but they emphasized it will not be disturbed and in their eyes it represented the promise that honorable men wouldn't be treated dishonorably. in the confederate interpretation of the surrender terms imposed conditions on the north and in april 29th 1865 interview with the new york herald, he warned of arbitrary y or vindictive or revengeful policies rejected by the republican administration the

southerners would consider the surrender terms in the breached and would renew the fight. testifying before the congressional committee investigating waves of anti-black violence in the south he defended the policies of andrew jackson which had brought the confederates 'over and again cautioned that the north must be re- strained and conservative in its approach to the union for that was the best way for the northerners to regain the good opinion of the south. the main point is plenty has a a reputation in the modern day for having counseled resignation and defeat. but for the confederates in the postwar period he wasn't a symbol of submission but instead a symbol of unveiled pride and measured defiance. confederate civilians imagine that the very surrender to scenes as an enactment of the superiority to grant. a revealing report on the conference at the mclean house circulated through the confederate newspapers in late april of 65.

a report in which he offers grant his sword but grant refuses to take it. according to the newspaper account, grant turns to him and says general, keep the sword you have wanted to buy your gallantry. you haven't been with but overpowered and i cannot receive it as a token of serving her from such a brave man. of course he never said any such thing but the report seemed credible to the confederates because it affirms the need to affirm tfora firm to the interp. the confederate emma holmes wrote that union officers cheered for him if he left the house and that the rank-and-file yankees dared not to utter a single word to the defeated rebels. why were the yankees so reticent and even submissive? he explained they feared the lion. in the year after the war they not only again and again invoked the overwhelming numbers and resources interpretation of the defeat, the sentiments of the farewell address they also invoked the appomattox terms and

particularly the well not to be disturbed claws as the shield against social change and the looming battle over the black civil rights. republican efforts to get the e free people in measure the quality and opportunity and protection were met by confederate protests that such a radical agenda was a betrayal of the appomattox terms and the prospect of black citizenship as one virginia newspaper put it disturbs us. in short, the confederates believed that he had drawn a line in the sand. the north carolina poet put it most simply urging them to model their behavior on that of lee she wrote in the summer of 1866 that he had, quote, not stooped his proud head once since he surrendered to grant. confederates would observe to terms with more than this, she insisted an honorable enemy should not be zaire. it is idle to attempt to force the confederates to say and feel they were wrong.

from the start of thi this viewf things was resoundingly rejected and by his inner circle and the vast majority of the union soldiers and civilians. it was an admission of wrongdoing and a change of heart but grant saw from his defeated foes. his rhetoric or restoration held no charm to the union general and grand expressing his support for lincoln in 1864 election explicitly rejected the phrase peace with restoration of turning back of the cloth. he associated such with the defeatism of the peace democrats and with the specter as grants put it up the restoratio at thee south of the slaves already freed. grant rejected the notion that he had in any sense negotiated at appomattox. in his view he had all the cards on april 9, 1865. grant felt the meaning of the terms to be unmistakable. he wrote i never claimed that the parole gave the prisoners any political rights whatsoever.

i thought that was a matter entirely with congress over which i had no control. but simply as the general in chief commanding the army i have a right to stipulate the surrender on terms that protected the confederates lives. the terms listed on military calculations grant felt certain on april 9, 1865 that shouldn't he surrender all of the rebel armies in the field and that as grants put it we would avoid bushwhacking a continuation of the war. in the union interpretation, the terms didn't set his men and free. technically they were permanent prisoners of war whose freedom was contingent on their good behavior. the surrender was for grant an indication on many levels restoration as the keywor key wf indication is grant. he was aware of the fact that over the course of the war mini northerners in the union army and government press attributed the almost superhuman qualities as grant put in his memoirs. grant knew all along that the rebel chief was mortal and the

surrender vindicated him enough knowledge. moreover, he had long been stung by the charge leveled by the antiwar copperhead preston north that he was a merciless butcher. he felt undisguised contempt for the stay-at-home traders and antiwar copperhead. now with his defeat and grants showed leniency it would fall from his shoulders at last. more than anything the surrender in his eyes was the triumph of the just cause of the union. the unions trying in vindicated the principle by the majority and the founders belief in the perpetual union and th union any of the soldiers are presenting democracy to outfight the conscripts of an autocratic society. the downfall of the confederacy unburdened the south into the nation of slavery and institution to all civilized people not brought up under it as grants put it very at now it was open for the union's ethos of the material progress and the white southerners could be disentangled from their subservience to the slaveholding class as grant saw.

grant lenient surrender he hoped would he send hasten the politl conversion of the defeated confederate to the creed of democratic self-government and freedom. grant didn't believe that he and his men were to be blameless. he described the secession as a sin and a crime that he believed as he put it up for every there must be a chance at a time and in his mercy again was designed to affect the atonement is grant made no concession to th confederates and his generosity he believed was the generosity of the conqueror whose victory was total. ..sident and enduring among northerners as lee's interpretation did among southerners. among the northerners who embrace grants policy of magnanimity were abolitionists of radical republicans, part of the argument of my book as americans across a spectrum embraced magnanimity, but

investors very different kind of meanings. he was charged at the time they confederates and copperhead sabbaticals, abolitionist of radical republicans were intent on vengeance against the south. the historical record suggests otherwise. in the eyes of abolitionist such as the influential gold editor, magnanimity with the means to achieve a purpose namely the ascent of the south to manc northerners thought grants magnanimity. in other words, an emblem of moral authority. approved at the civilization based on free labor is of a higher and more humane type than that a sense lavery. greeley continued, i won as many rebels is possible to live to see the south rejuvenated and transformed by the influence of free labor. what fitter face to the likes of lead them to bear witness to the unfolding social revolution. this is how greeley saw things. northerners who embrace scratcher and such this outcome

we don't want to inflict further punishment. we want you to change. confederates responded to demands for change is a form of punishment. this contest of the surrenders mean he did not simply pick the south against the north or even the confederacy against the union. instead, he pitted those who favored a thorough social transformation of the south against those who rejected -- transformations. here we have the theme of divisions within each side. the north-south conservatives fear the peace democrats, copperhead reload for their political republican party of lincoln to treat the surrender is a vindication and a mandate. and so these democrats rallied behind the confederate interpretation of appomattox. in their valor, endurance and skill, the new york world insisted southerners were equal to the north. the confederacy was subdued by overwhelming numbers. here's lee's interpretation lock stock and barrel. the south was divided. my southern unionists, that oppose confederacy during the war, rallied behind green

interpretation and reveled in the fact that the noble crankiness army had wrought lead to show the surrender was a vindication for white southern unionists, too. no americans held markie maher asserted mark for that land that vandermark a new era in african american spirit for them, do you victory vindicated the cause of black freedom and racial justice. i appomattox, blacks and liberators and liberated and the grant family across the virginia countryside from petersburg to appomattox. lee's army tried on april 9th to break free of the federal trap, only to find its last escape route blocked by soldiers in blue. six regiments of the color troops with one other in the wings. when they heard of capitulation, the black troops exultation knew no bounds. they shot it, dancing thing and embrace each other with exuberant joy. the black regiment number 2009 and i were a microcosm of black

life in america. included slaves trained at kentucky's camp nelson and philadelphia's camp william penn. they included men who became race leaders in the postwar era such as the ground to story george washington williams and the baptist editor william jay simmons. paternalistic mentor to none other than ida b. wells. probably soldiers regardless of backgrounds, the presence on the battlefield was the culmination of a long struggle. as we know the had turned away black volunteers claiming african american men did not possess the patriotism and courage but kept faith to war with their golden moment. when regiments, got their chance to fight, they proved their mettle at dozens of engagements. indeed the u.s. et regiment and appomattox inconsiderable action. they survived a bloody nation and federal 1864 an acronym warfare of the overland campaign in virginia and in the trenches to the siege of petersburg,

entering a city in triumph when it on april 2nd. african american soldiers are keenly aware that even after getting all this proof of courage, their march to equality can still be turned back someone as powerful confederate army first on the field. the government viewed on any soldiers for so many slaves. black soldiers do there in less than as a social experiment, test their citizenship and so northerners hope and expect to be wooden and fail. not surprisingly given the context, black soldiers seized on this critical role in my surrender is a vindication. as william cochran of the regiment set to put in a letter quote, we the colored soldiers have fairly won the race by loyalty and bravery. thomas morris chester, a correspondent embedded with the army of the james reveled in the fact that the u.s. et prejudice participate in the campaign that

gave forces as trophies to the union army as he put it. many white officers share the conviction the role and the last battle had nsa says. edmonton and calgary recounted the scene for his mother and sisters in a letter. he wrote the morning of the ninth team. the calgary was being pushed back rapidly towards the station. why was it with victory so near went over the hill, a dark column was a spike coming down the road in close column. what a relief from the office of suspense. the colored race at those men the lies they brought relief to us. we urgent determination in a cool black faces. moreover, african-american troops understood themselves to be an army of liberation whose defeat of labels that nailed the coffin of slavery itself. abundant evidence exists that slaves i appomattox is a freedom day. for many common with the very moment of emancipation, the moment of defect go emancipation

that had long since been passed. virginia's place for the first to hear the tidings of the surrender and significance of the event. his classic autobiography up from slavery remembers how when the war closed on the day of freedom came to southwestern virginia. a union officers reading of the emancipation proclamation and asked that the april surrenders that brought the long-awaited moment of deliverance. interviews in the 20th century african who had been slaves in virginia at those such published reminiscences. fannie barrier number that slaves in virginia burst into spontaneous songs when they learned that we was escaped and had raised the white flag. for that moment as she put if they knew they were free. as news of the surrender travel to the south, slaves are free from the event appomattox experienced grants final triumph at the end of their enslavement. for example, james h. johnson of

south carolina lamented after president lincoln's freedom proclamation in 1863, the status quo is slavery kept on right if it had. it was only when general lee surrendered he observed his interview that we learned we were free. for some farmers faced him in the date of the surrender structured the very sense of time in history. alaska washed and told her interviewer conduct it by the federal writers project, a new deal agency in the 1930s at alaska washington told her interviewer, the first thing our member was living with my mother about six mouth about the year 1866. i know is 1866 because of his after the surrender in the surrender was in 1865. just as appomattox persist in the memory of many x-rays, it was an enduring presence on the commemorative calendar on surrender day festivities began in southern virginia as early as 1866. blacks in mecklenburg county on the north carolina border commemorated april 9 because

that's besides, if they've never been beaten, the emancipation proclamation would've been to no avail. african-american soldiers pivotal role as agents of liberation with five remake pride within black communities. george washington lends itself a veteran of the appomattox campaign noted in his landmark history of the race in america published in 1883 and appomattox in the last hour of the slaveholders rebellion, the brilliant writing a black troops and ensure the salvation of the union. the fact that african-american soldiers had defeated lee lent additional symbolic meaning to the surrender for me and his army further virginia typified in the eyes of the u.s. et slaveholding elite and its racial superiority. according to thomas morris jester, the confederate capitulation was especially sweet because it was a review to the first families of virginia, o'reilly dubbed after the surrender fleet footed virginia. and sure, men such as lance and chester made and insisting bold

claim that in defeating this enemy, african-american troops had dealt a death blow to all of that army stood for including slavery itself. they insisted not only the union armies victory emanated from his superior virtue, but also the black troops in particular example by that virtue. most important, african-american soldiers interpretations of the surrender inscribed a civil rights message into the night and in his terms of the surrender, emphasizing the promise of appomattox. like veterans depicted the free people and soldiers in particular as agents of national feeling. blame his 1888 history of the troops in the war of the rebellion praise black soldiers for dignity and christian humility. those were his words. he wrote, after the confederate army had been paroled, the troops cheerfully and cordially divided their rations and welcome them on the march back to petersburg. the c++ forgiveness was

expressed in the of ex-rebel soldiers who freely mingled with the black conquerors. it was a spectacle of magnanimity never before the test. as william saw, african-american magnanimity of appomattox is the exercise of moral authority, a conscious effort as purposeful as grants an act of to break the cycle of violence slaveholders has a lot perpetuated. in the year after the surrender, each of the three interpretations that outline, restoration, lays emphasis on vindication and liberation, that of williams and others came to incorporate an argument about the lost promise of appomattox. adherents of each interpretation argue that their political opponents have betrayed the true spirit of grant's magnanimity. again, everyone embraces magnanimity, but the investment was different meanings. for lee and his followers, the radical republicans were the urge betrayers at the appomattox covenant for imposing a regime of black suffrage and political

representation that contravene the promise and parole terms southerners would not be disturbed. for creatine is followers, andrew johnson was the urge betrayers were capitulating to be his idea that the piece must bring the restoration of power to the southerners. confronted with what he called the foolhardiness of the furniture they need johnson the blindness of the southern people to their own interests, grant had adapted. he would write in this number is, i gradually worked up to the point where he favored immediate franchise that for african-americans. they should dispel that they should control the nation grant was deeply disappointed by the refusal to give the victors they are due. frantically to task on the same he was behaving badly. setting an example of forced acquiescence of gretchen and pernicious and that's a fact as to hardly be realized.

grant presented lee for denigrating the union victory at the mere show of force and for encouraging confederates to resist change in the name of restoration. grant learned in that year appomattox but they would enter the political arena to finish the work he began on april 9th 1865. an active african-americans, whites on both sides, but also those who during the long retreat from reconstruction at about the fight for you. all of these people left the moment of promise at the appomattox moment state unfulfilled. however compelling and comforting the image of the surrender is a gentleman's agreement may be, it doesn't begin to capture this complex legacy of appomattox. deep into the 19th century, appomattox is at the heart of the politics of race and reunion and that's what the important people come here and walk the national park and visit this museum and try to understand its artifacts that we can recover and appreciate what this moment

meant in the turbulent era at the end of the civil war. thank you. [applause] >> if you have some time? >> sure, happy to take any questions. speak loudly. i knew i could count on you. yes, sir. >> a lot of people say everything changed with lincoln's assassination. interview, what changed and what didn't change because of lincoln's assassination? >> that's a great question. anyone who knows civil war literature does the assassination would get this impression looking at books on shelves in libraries and bookstores come the assassination assassination eclipses the surrender. you know, scores of books on the

assassination of very few comes to price in the? there has been an assumption that's come along with the notion that the assassination at that moment the northern and post-magnanimity evaporate and there are calls for vegans. they drown out at the imposter is magnanimity. i found something quite different. northerners are absolutely embittered at the assassination and we do see calls for vengeance against those who perpetrated it. but we see a kind of call and response. we see some northerners say we have been too lenient. mencken would've been to the knee. grant was too lenient. now johnson, who they initially believed as an enforcer by richard b. shen, johnson is the right man to correct our course. we suggest as many people upholding the notion of magnanimity and upholding the idea that magnanimity confers moral authority on the north and

as an emblem of its moral superiority. we see just as many sane -- sticking with the argument, let's not make martyrs of these people. let's stick with what lincoln wanted. lincoln wanted a piece characterized by lenient than reunion. the best way to honor the memory is to uphold the spirit of his magnanimity. i find this interpretive lines hold. there's sort of a moment of insurgency. to a surprising degree, they hold. the other thing i found is we know john wilkes booth is in the audience what lincoln what lincoln gives us less famous speech in which he gestures at a night suffrage and modern-day scholarship is tended to say well, if i'm going to run through, this is lashing out against the possibility and all that is true. if they received the news of lincoln for sassy nation and didn't know the details. what they assumed was the

assassination was a response to surrender and had been a very rated by the south's defeat and was lashing out to try to rob lincoln of the first of his victory. what happened you appomattox, the contacts for the assassination of the guys that almost all northerners. we lost sight of that. the connection between the assassination. booth was trying to undo the can of baked very about all that >> any other questions? comments? [inaudible] appomattox was placed in a nation, do you want to revive that in some way? >> something that would fit on a billboard. i think again, the myth of the gentleman's agreement to grant him he is compelling one and not one that doesn't have merit.

these two men -- it is a great achievement for these two men to end the war. better to say. ethically, sometimes people especially these days we'll talk about it long civil war. effectively, appomattox and the civil war. if not massive bloodletting and yes there surrenders to come. yasser's army in the field, but what happens after appomattox is not going to revive hopes. they dicier appomattox. if the effective end of the civil war and a great achievement to end the war. this notion, a narrative about a gentleman's agreement exists from the very start. even some of these editors like really who were arguing about the terms, there's an air error self-congratulation about the idea of america has ended a civil war in a way no country has ever done so before. it is an asserted in american exceptionalism, how remarkable we are able to underwater without massive execution in

reprisals or want. across the spectrum to self-congratulation among people in the next breath will argue about the terms meant. so my argument here is not the novelty clearly on a billboard. i don't think one has to sort of throw up the old billboard so much as remember the surrender was controversial. 700,000 men have for us those eyes. the road to true reconciliation was a very, very difficult one. i think to appreciate the meaning of the surrender for those who lived at this time, we have to remember they look to the inquiry, the two most prestigious men in the country aside from link and an after recognize the two most prestigious men. southerners in northerners look to these meant to represent the respective causes for which so many people had laid down their lives in pieces they had in war. they didn't expect these meant

to be lands in defeat. they saw dennis lyons and assumed that is what they would continue to be. part of the argument is lenient grantor enemies. they had been during the war. how could it be otherwise? it reminds us that down to the cause we don't want to be disturbed. these terms were controversial. i think again, sometimes when people are trying to debunk a myth, they tell you sent in the top is importance is not as greater import. my purpose is the opposite to say it's more important because of the way would have been two sets of terms for for an unfolding debate that we have appreciated. [inaudible] we have a momentous occasion had a cornerstone of that.

and then diminish it in some way because political factions begin to claim pieces of it end make it own. they may lose the essence of romance and created ids. >> that's right. the most surprising discovery of all was with what relish the anti-republican democrats, the just adopt the confederates perspective on things. it just shows you the instant impulse to politicize this. northerners do not celebrate the vic to raise and every moment in southerners lament these defeat. it's political from the very start. this has to do in part with the prize. you know, what might oaktree says is the campaign, the horseback, promulgation of the farewell address.

i show what happens in submitted to the liars and lands in northern cities and communities and lands in southern cities and communities in the impulse to spin the news is instantaneous. political rivals try to use it to political advantage. it happens in japan shows the division within each society, not just between them. >> yes. [inaudible] >> that is not. not was a quote or make posts were brief history by george washington williams and the context for these -- african-americans claim to the idea that surrender is a moment for them in which they were the

big your circle, in which they are dispensing magnanimity. the context for that is very long standing that goes back as far as we can trace debates about slavery. if you have emancipation, you'll have restoring chaos in reprisals. for once to highlight, i think his account there is somewhat wishful. but it served a political purpose to highlight the possibility of racial reconciliation to say appomattox could emblaze racial reconciliation with the answers to all those who said if there's freedom, there's going to be social chaos. there's going to be race weren't so one. williams wanted to allow himself with the forces of progress and civilization and to emphasize magnanimity of african-americans about on that list to do that and offer a counter narrative to a dystopian discourse about what would happen if you had freedom in a union to jury.

[inaudible] >> i don't have a figure up there. really, this is a moment in which they're essentially, you know, the ways described by sheraton and others is that lee and his men out there might've achieved a breakthrough moment i scattering of digging in calgary. when they see the imagery of mass, they realized their hopes for a breakthrough failed. it is the presence of the african-american troops and decided unit reinforcement that causes those white slacks to start going up. indeed, it would be in at the and an african-american postwar discourse that black troops

fired slashdot at least army and that is technically not true. again, it served a purpose and it served a purpose to say we were within the victor circle and that we hope to bring this army that symbolized everything, that symbolizes the very machine that slavery and the planter elite. again, to get back to john's question, part of what i am arguing is that that really happened here is fascinating. i started to talk about the campaign at details, and i try to argue it is a symbol, a much richer set but then we realized and within a symbol of the dream defeat and vindication restoration and liberation. functioning on all those many levels. [inaudible] >> yeah, it was the 116th, i

think the 27th, the 145th. it is all in the book. [inaudible] >> yeah, and one other regiment waiting in the wing. and now, one of the more interesting discoveries for me is how many of the men who were in those armies, who went the officers and later said the army later became prominent race leaders and refer back to the service very proudly. george washington once is the most important african-american intellectuals of this postwar period. and he was there and he considered it very, very important sort of key moment in his life, as descendents and others who would become prominent political leaders. so that is a story. in a way, this is what brought me to the project. i've been interested in lee and grant for a long time, but i was

asked some years ago to give a talk in philadelphia on the subject of june 10th, the emancipation moment in texas, where union forces arrived and announced to the texas place that they are free. in the course of doing research, something they knew little about them i kept running across references to appomattox is a freedom day for african-americans, rep is dated to the 19 dirties. this displays for african-americans persist a really, really long time. sometimes the form of epigrams from christmas addicts to appomattox, covering the spectrum of african-american military service. it is displaced by the world wars and so on, but it really lingers at the moment is alec importance. it goes beyond really didn't play casualties and who in fact fired the last shots. [inaudible]

[applause] [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> kara newman looks at how the commodities market influences what we eat what we pay for. she says the culinary transfer hundreds of years. ms. newman spoke of the world in washington d.c. this is about 40 minutes.

>> thank you. thank you to the world bank for hosting me today. i appreciate it. i feel the need to start by saying i am not an economist. any food writer. i am a culinary historian. just to explain a little bit about how the book came about, when i first started my career, i wrote about financial topics. i worked with a small consulting company that was then acquired by a much larger conglomerate and i was tasked with creating content about the equities market. the fixed in the market and when the change my life, the commodities market. when i started learning about commodities, of course they realized that there are certain projects such as oil and gold, but there are also products that

fall into the agricultural commodity segment and those in food products like cattle, soybeans, coffee, cocoa. to me it read like a menu. maybe this is a sign that one day would be a food writer. but everything came together for me when i read the financial newsweekly bearing an investment expert jim rogers was quoted as saying by practice. so what does he mean by this? he was advising people to purchase frozen orange juice futures import only futures, which no longer trade now. but he was essentially been buy orange juice and ip can. i practice. right there, that solidified for me what the book concept is going to be. a matchup of food and finance. but i'd love about food is that it really does allow you to tell stories about people, about his re-and in this case about finance to a degree. one of the things i found as i

went along with the history of america's market exchanges runs a parallel course with a history of industrialization it knowledge in america. by this i mean the telegraph. that really help to think a price is around the country and around the world. you were just talking to your neighbors say anything this commodity should be priced at this. you're able to find out what it was priced at in chicago and hamburg in one end of course we have the telephone. we have computers and electronic media now. every good trader has a smartphone in their pocket. also talking about improvement in the railroad system that they import pardoning kenny product from the center of the country where they were largely produced to the east coast, where most of the people relocated. of course the floors of the financial markets have changed considerably over time. we will show you some of those

shortly. what you no longer see or the chalkboards in the whiteboards. everything is completely digitized. you no longer have ankle-deep thickets of trading ticket. in some cases we no longer have trading scores. they closed a year ago and it's a completely different world now. so we have my lovely noted hamburger. i thought it would be fun. i mean, it is a lunchtime event. it are talking about generalities, i thought it would be fun to talk about some of the specifics in this case, they hamburger. so just to backtrack or a minute and explain what a commodities contract is, it is essentially a contract between a buyer and a seller to buyer or seller specific quantity you have a specific good. let's say cattle, and we had a specified point in the futures market.

what is spelled out in the contract is that price. it really goes back and forth. the more often not contract trades and the greater the spread between those trades, the more money can be made. so talking about our lovely hamburger here, just some of the products you see in there. of course we have a hamburger patty commented pete, cattle futures. obviously, you want your hamburger in a bun. so we talk about great features. we talk about sesame seed, a cheeseburger instead of just a burger. she's also trades in locks and barrels. trades a lot less frequently then these features. but it does indeed trade. some of those other items they are either don't trade or no longer trade. i'm not aware of lettuce ever having traded.

onions were once tremendously speculative market and there's a huge scandal associated with onions. if you want to hear more about it during the q&a. so again, we are still talking about cattle. it really has a very long history. a long intertwining with finance. you can see it in the culinary capital and the bull market. this vintage, this is a british livestock painting. i show it to you because i don't think people realize the extent to which the british played an important part in the feast that lead today. not just that we eat so much, but the type as well. this livestock portrait -- the sort of thing was found across many upper-class british trigrams. it is the presence of beef in the picture signified affluence

and comfort and if america built up to the 1800 anthrax epidemic spread to ireland entered britain and as a result they made it be very expensive and very scarce. the greatest love their beef. they turned to america where he had plenty of eve. we started to ship salted eve and live cattle across the atlantic. this image here is the chicago stockyards in 19 were the one. if you peer the background, you might recognize a couple names. the current meat processors it also existed at the time. so again, we have the anthrax epidemic. at the same time, america itself is pushing westward. we are raising cattle in the midwest and the big question became how to connect, how to connect the midwest where the beef was ground and processed

and get it back to the east, where more people lived and beyond across the atlantic to the bracey wanted it. so what happened was the british cattle barons played enormous part in the financing of the railroads. so as those are built up in the 1870s and 1880s, her were involved in financing the railroad. what was really exciting with the act and if refrigerated railroad cars because it meant no longer did you have to ship live cattle, who often did make the journey or weren't in very good shape once the journey was complete. you were able to ship more carcasses or hsp facets delicately called. said by the late 19th century, america was responsible for 90% of the beef imported to england. sounds great, right? one more little wrinkle. the british like they are eve

very well marveled. they were very happy based in the midwest, grazing on grass is and that yielded a very lame beef. so solutions. the british cattle barons and the farmers hit on a solution of finishing arafat and cows with corn. so that worked. the cattle got fatter. it also created this symbiotic relationship between cattle and corn that exists to this day. it's still a very common hedge to trade cattle futures and corn futures together. so you've got the happy prince, the happy farmer selling or corn. who wasn't happy? the americans. they weren't accustomed to this fatty beef. over time, our tastes have adjusted even to the point where

it's been codified into the usda. the highest level now signifies that it is very well marveled among other things that we are only just now getting back to this tradition of graphic beef. we sometimes see it on restaurant venues within certain farms, pressfit each is considered to be a very desirable quality right now. a lot of people don't realize what were doing is going back to our roots. i am going to present my secrets about our food. some of these are not necessarily well-kept secrets. nevertheless, so this photo here, this is the chicago mercantile circa 1949. some people may be saying we traded eggs. yes, we did. there was a time when there was a very active in very speculative arche. in fact, multiple egg contracts

traded. i mention this because one of the secrets to what trade and what does atreides volatility. the more often something trades, the better it is for making money. simply no longer makes money, it all like her trades. the eggs are a good process for this. so even just to walk you through, we have fresh eggs. there are highly seasonal. maybe spring, maybe summer and in the winter months, you did not eggs. they were very hard to get. so some very smart people figured out how to create storage eggs and not above taking fresh eggs and coating them with thin layer of vegetable oil and putting them into cold storage. we're talking about refrigeration here. when the hands are no longer playing, those were people would take them out of cold storage saw them at a premium to

restaurant, two hotels, to other people who could afford to pay higher prices for the storage eggs. take another step further, we also had frozen eggs. those were sold primarily to baking companies. later that was displaced by powdered eggs and eventually as we had increases, advances in technology and in the mall husbandry, we now have eggs year-round. there is no longer any kind of volatility. if you want eggs, but to your supermarket and get eggs as many time if you want. over time, present-day contracts were phased out, storage eight contracts were phased out. we no longer have contract trading at all. same thing also applies to port early futures. again, advances in agriculture

and in refrigeration tech elegy, pork bellies stop trading last year after a 50 year run. cattle futures, though still trade. i believe it has a lot to do with online in fact there's a tie-in but they are also other factors that influence volatility and cattle. a thick mad cow disease and other diseases. and of course, the impact of consumer demand really can't be understated. secret number two. this photo. this is the opening day of the lag hogged contract at the mercantile exchange 1966. you can see the chalkboard they are. again, a relic of the past. let's talk a little bit about how farmers use commodity prices to make decisions. i had a conversation in the

course of researching a book which had harpies assistant professor at iowa state university. just to read to you his comment, as a farmer i can decide whether to present soybeans or corn which will provide a better price at harvest or it can affect the to grow. features are better signal. is it inaccurate signal? no, but the best we have. people are willing to put up contracts and make trades. it represents an actual transaction that will occur. as a firmer come you have to make a decision. should i plant soybeans or corn? should i use the same finite space to raise cattle or to grow something else? these are really important decisions when you're trying to figure out what to plant. so food prices can influence what gets planted. okay, number three.

any guesses on which product is the most traded in america? i heard someone say corn. yes, corn is number one. number two? any guesses? the soybeans. yes, okay. if this marker. and the reason isn't necessarily that we eat so much corn for ease of any soybeans are self, but it's also because livestock consumes the same product. corn is considered by us, but also consumed by cattle, by pigs. it is also made into corn syrup. it is made into corn oil. ethanol and other nonedible products. and soybeans. same thing. the soybeans are consumed a lot by poultry. now, poultry no longer trades. there has been a point in time when chicken futures traded in a turkey futures traded just in time for thanksgiving.

but culture is the number one consumer of soybeans. at the same time, also dairy cows ate not reduction. just like we have corn and cattle heads, they are also experts to recommend putting together soybean futures against publicly traded companies that specialize in poultry production mike tyson is also another classic trade. again, they're also used for nonedible products. it's important. traders bet on what you eat and what your foodie, too. secret number four. 405. okay, think for a moment about how incredibly bad name it would be if you went to the supermarket and the prices of coffee bounced up and down the same way they do in the commodities market every day. up and down, up and down.

you wouldn't know what to pay for food. you wouldn't know how to budget. it would probably drive people to supermarket crazy. illiterate people at starbucks crazy. you wouldn't know what price you set. it is that the commodities market helps to smooth out those prices over time and that they don't really get factored into the supermarket pricing. at least they don't get factored in right away. there tends to be a lack of about a year to a year and a half if there is a sustained trajectory. you'll eventually see prices going higher or going lower, but it will take a good year, year and a half. so this kind of pricing information is useful for manufacturers as a predictive tool. they use it to help decide what the market will bear for their product when they bring some thing with a process called price discovery. it also helps restaurants in any fracture is manage costs and

profits. i also for the book talked with commodities expert with a really interesting job. he works with tom any, restaurant companies and food manufacturers to help them manage the costs. he used the commodities market is a very important tool. say we are talking about hamburgers again, just imagine what the impact of the 25% spike in cattle prices would dfu with the owner of a hamburger chain. it gives you a couple of options. if you can look into the future and understand where prices are likely to go, even as simple as higher or lower, let alone higher by how much or lower by how much. you can think about raising menu prices, assuming it not going to turn your customers away. you can think about make changes to the product. will they be smaller hamburger patties? you could think about making

substitutions instead of having hamburgers come in the deal turkey burgers. they deal change the entire concept of your restaurant instead of a hamburger chain, maybe i'll have one of those casual salad chains. kind of an interesting side note. i recently went to a conference called star chefs. and sat in on a really interesting presentation. the data make the ultimate right chicken. the chef who is doing the demo explains that he was about his or a fried chicken restaurant because he said i just can't handle the way beef prices and poor prices bounce up and down. poultry prices are about as stable. he made the prediction right then and there that were going to see about more poultry, only restaurant concepts opening up because the price of chicken is so much more stable compared to other proteins. interesting on a much smaller scale how commodity prices are impacting him.

it will impact what i eat when i go home to new york. so also when it comes to packaged foods, there's also an impact. and if there is depending on what the product is. are you talking about a hamburger? a hamburger is beef. it's a very important input. when you talk about things like a box of cereal, it might be a very small input. this comes from the u.s. ea. when you buy packaged goods, like a box of cornflakes, only 15 cents to 20 cents actually goes to that raw commodity. any thoughts on whether alpha money goes? advertising, packaging, processing, labor, real estate, steel, all very input that go into this. when you get down to a companies and more and packaging in iraq

commodities in in your box of cornflakes. secret number five. although i don't personally take a stand on where the commodities market is good or bad, there are people who want to cut the middleman out altogether and not notifying commodity foods. again, if you want to, the secret is out there. you can buy direct from your green market, buy direct from farmers, work with small artist is. there's a lot of things you can do to cut the middleman out of the process. again, that is only if you want to opt-out of find commodity foods. or to know the option is there if you wanted. so with that, i'm happy to take questions. >> thank you very much, cara. i think you kept your presentation within 30 minutes. thank you very much. before we start with the q&a, i

would like to say the photoshop has told me you can buy these books today after the seminar if you're interested. so with that, let's open it up. any questions? go ahead. please go to the mic. if you have questions, please go to either make on the right or left. maybe we'll take a couple and then bundle it and go back to cara. please introduce yourself. >> my name is rosemary. and the president of the international group. my companies in the district. i run a consulting and commodity. thank you for your wonderful presentation on food. looking at your presentation, what would you -- you understood about it and the commodity that is a wonderful presentation.

i come from kenya. what was your advisors say on the united states? but with the best commodity for africa, looking at african growth, development, what do you think we have coffee in virginia, t.? what would you advise the best commodity to be in the united states and around the world? thank you. >> at afternoon. my name is joe murray with new rules for global finance. i am curious. we've heard of commodities as a way to diversify your investments. but then we are also hearing a lot from developing country folks as commodities are used as a tool for investment. it's making prices on food and fuel much higher in importing

countries are much more volatile. i am wondering if you have a comment on that. thank you. >> i start with commodities trader in africa or kenya. i will practice by saying i am not an economist. i am a food writer, but i can tell you that in the course of my research, i found that gustave the is a product that apparently is available in quite a number of countries as a staple. it is a starchy root that doesn't get trade here, but apparently is in good standing to potentially become a commodity in the future. apparently it is rather nutritious, gross file. it might have implications for

pregame a potato like substitute or grade like substitute. so that might be number one with a bullet in my mind. i am sure that coffee, cocoa also probably -- if it grows, if there's a market for it, if there's demand for, some sort of volatility, it is a potential candidate. and then the second question, we'll see if i'm getting this right. the question was about volatility. i'm not sure if i'm getting this right. okay, so how commodities markets contribute to volatility. i think that there certainly a correlation between commodity prices and volatility. i think i may be repeating myself. what we've seen this over the long term it helps to smooth out

volatility. we don't have the same intermittent ups and downs when it comes to the actual product we see on the shelf. i certainly would expect we'll can do need to see volatility day today and commodities markets. i don't perceive that ever going away. if it did, the commodities markets themselves would go away because there'd be few opportunities to make profits. with that, i'm happy to take more questions. >> anymore questions from the audience? >> hi, my name is carrie green. on the food and beverage lawyer with a law firm here in town. i got my start and why. the great market is a very complex market. sales bulk wine is also a

complex market on international issues. how do the two relate to each other? >> hi, my name is your bond. i didn't see fish ores the food. they have a huge volatility, but i don't see those in the markets. do you have any comments without? >> one, awesome topic. thank you. there is not an actual one commodity that is traded in our futures markets. however, there is such a thing as the wine futures markets and specialized in wine futures. you probably know this even better than i do, that pardo has a very active futures market. it's not quite the same thing as cattle trades, but there are

actual funds that exist to put together opportunities to predict -- i guess womack up for a minute for the nonwhite folks in the room. the way wine is made and sold, especially for a product, it is harvested and created and made into wine and put into barrows in put away for a really long time. so that creates a really futures market. you know you have this market. you don't thought the tide until much later on when it comes out of the barrel senate but into bottles and you have either a fabulous vintage or maybe mediocre vintage. that creates tremendous opportunities for batting, will it be good, not so good? over the prices be light? where i was going with this is there are actual investment fund that put together groups of investors who want to buy a

barrel orie pala together and at that in the future this is going to be an amusing vintage. they really great opportunities for batting -- i should stop saying bedding. for investing in wine as the futures product. it wouldn't surprise me to see it go the next step and actually be, a proper commodities contracts in the not-too-distant future. and then the next question was about fish or seafood. it's very astute to notice that now, we don't really have any fish futures trading right now. there are shrimp futures that trade in some of the asian market. we have had in the past also shrimp markets here. they didn't do very well. i think frozen shrimp is what was traded here in the 60s.

we haven't had fresh fish. i know can tuna had been proposed as a commodity. as a rule, products just don't do well. canned tomato sauce was proposed and tried it for a while in the 80s. didn't do very well. went away very quickly. someone try to bring back into tune out. same thing. however, considering all of the sustainability issues around fish, i think there certainly could be a market. i could see semin futures for one being particularly fertile ground. >> so we have a food and beverage lawyer. i didn't even know there was such a subcategory of law. we are learning so much today. okay, i see one more question there. >> i am judy newton. i'm not employed by the world. a food writer and also market

rater for the only farmers market. my question is he touched briefly on not commodity foods. i wonder if you have any sense of how the specialty farmers, not corn and soybean producers are affecting the market. now do they have any kind of effect at all? do you think they might in the future? ..