the book it means so much to me. thank you. [applause] just a reminder you can purchase and have the book have the bookp this evening and once again thank you all for being with us and thank you again to the peabody library. have a good evening. ..

. >> please know that you will be recorded and wait for the microphone to come to you. we will conclude and have a book signing right here at the table and we have copies for sale that 20 percent off thank

you for buying books here at harvard bookstore. and with the independent bookstore think you and now please silence your cell phones. and i'm pleased to introduce tonight speaker professor of law at yale university where he has taught for over 30 years serving as a law clerk for justice marshall has eight honorary degrees the author of 15 books of nonfiction and fiction and a novel that was 11 weeks on "the new york times" bestseller list. today he is here to present

his new book invisible of a black woman lawyer and with intellect and grit and "the new york times" best-selling author is a riveting story one with enormous residence we are so pleased to have the author here with us tonight so please join me to welcome stephen carter. [applause] . >> thank you for that kind introduction. and also to the harvard bookstore inviting me back the last time i was supposed to be here i canceled at the last minute with my family and they said don't worry we will reschedule and now three years later i am here. [laughter] it is a pleasure maybe you

know, me better for my fiction but this was a book rolling around in my head for a long time. so in a sense talking backward. so with that historical moment that gave rise to it so look at the 19 thirties. there was a war that black gangs of harlem were wiped out or subjugated the harlem mattered because it was the most lucrative territory in the country for organized crime because that was played by more people in harlem so it was a big deal but that

numbers game in other ways does not cry from civic reform because it was time to get serious about the mob and investigate. but the district attorney in new york at the time was in the pocket of the mob with no intention to do any types of investigation so the runaway they said they want us special prosecutor to organ --dash to prosecute organized crime they eventually gave in and at that point dooley who was running for president and that is how he came to public attention he had some conditions that he would hire his own staff in his own offices nobody with any connection to the government in new york would

work for him and he hired 20 young lawyers that were labeled the 20 against the world with 19 white males and one black woman and she is the subject of the book invisible. so as some of you know, she was my grandmother so imagine being a black lawyer and a woman lawyer in the thirties in new york at a time when the bar was deeply segregated by race is actually against black leaders at the time there were very few black women lawyers that was a big deal and moving

from coast to coast to see this in newspapers about hiring his staff those whose job was to investigate but he said to understand in a conviction of tax evasion or prostitution something called a real crime. loan shark. or murder or municipal corruption or drug running because through those political ambitions so in

those areas with their own little cubicles there were 19 but the furthest was the black woman. this one was a working mom this was loan shark this was corruption this one was working on drug smuggling and so on. so the black woman at the end of the hallway she was working on prostitution because what they discovered was come to my office you can speak to my assistance what crimes are bothering you drug czar sold. and there was some of that but mainly they were concerned about brothels and streetwalkers you may remember that term.

so he had a problem he had to take the complaints seriously but he had no intention of taking a prostitution case taking it to the black woman on the staff to make it clear because of crime in new york. so one of the things that happened historically the few female prosecutors they were assigned to the women's quartz the child abandonment cases. and when the because they never got out.

but i think a different person to complain about that the career was over but because of those investigators in dewey's office she had a hand in prosecution that it was not a mob activity. and then with every other illegal activity but then to pay nothing to the mob. long story short spending a lot of time and then but nothing else would touch this. and then to finally put together and develop a pretty good case against prostitution in new york those that were

thought to be the head of the mob was murdered and eventually luciano became the most powerful mob leader in mobster history so now they were the target. the problem with do we he couldn't peg luciano with any crimes. but spending a lot of time on the record talking to the women were involved that could connect luciano to prostitution. so finally the very first 193-6160 police officers not even vice officers were sent to raid any brothels simultaneously because the idea was to arrest the women

because the fixer gets her out of jail so she doesn't turn states evidence so they took all the fixers the night before very quietly they were all gone so they arrested 100 women and they brought in a judge to set high bail that they cannot possibly make in order to hold them as material witnesses then they waited for them to turn. what you should know as a footnote is nowadays that is a staple of the prosecution and the reduce the sentence for turning but there were a lot of serious lawyers high up in the bar that thought that was

unethical to offer a reduced sentence in return for testament if you do the crime you do the time. you don't have a special way to get out of that as inherently unreliable. and it was his guy. he thought it was terrible that dewey was treating that sentence for information but in the end luciano was indicted for prostitution and fled to hot springs arkansas where he was tracked down almost arrested for offering a 50000-dollar bride and then brought back and convicted but

all because of this woman and doing her work in the cubicle at the end of the hall. now in this. and then that is overused but when it comes time to try the case dewey and three white male assistance so she didn't have that particular one but at this pattern repeats itself when he became the district attorney and the tammany hall leader one of the most powerful politicians in the state of new york she did the research and got people to turn but the assistance you ended up doing the work i'm

saying dewey is not grateful to her he acknowledged her publicly when he became da he appointed her at the largest bureau in the office at the time where she was out doing 71 male lawyers. with a successful career. so one of the stories so her parents were big black activists both of them to become a very prominent republican and with the republican party of civil rights and heavily involved in

the political campaign and decided as evidence that he was not prejudiced and was the head of the biggest bureau and so on. was a traditionalist and a conservative list and those who have the degrees from harvard who was very badly treated at and why you a scholar with the wonderful dissertation in his literary circle but also something else he was a communist. a member of the communist party a high ranking member a

serious committed communist only running 700 pages that was twice as long as martin luther king fbi file so the two of them with one conservative traditionalist republican obviously in the 19 forties but she thought her brother was hurting her career so from that office with distinguished careers so for example, rogers he was both

secretary of state and attorney general was one of 20 against the underworld a very distinguished federal judge was one of the 20 and the underworld the highest court in new york there were six or seven of them she never got to be a judge she quit after ten years that she never actually achieved that but it was because of her brother he went to prison to refuse to name names and those who know my work know that i'm very big on tolerance shutting people down out of various jobs but you

cannot get work at the time he worked in the factory for a while and then he finally left the country and went to ghana. and in the soviet union and in china but he never came back. in 1951 here was his sister who was a prosecutor and a trial lawyer he never went to her for advice he never asked her to help him in any way. he went his way alone and after he got out of prison 20 years later he died ten days apart from each other but toward the end of their lives they did correspond a little

bit when he was in africa and she was in new york but they never actually reconciled so there is that tragic side but i want to focus on with the barriers of the time about people breaking through barriers when the stakes were very high. my grandmother for me was just a very scary woman. so she scared us i didn't know anything about her life at the time. so what i saw to be

intimidating and scary was part of that determination that carries her to succeed in ways that she did to become one of the most famous black women in america. there are a lot of famous black women in america but to profile life magazine and in the country and radio shows and television was young. she was very well known because of the luciano trial that gives a prominent edge. and now as an activist in the party as well. i also want to say the work in this book i'd did not do alone. my daughter helped to come via

principal researcher on the book who did a lot of interviews and dug into the archives so this book reflects her work as much as mine. she could not be here tonight that she was not able to. so any other aspects that you want to talk about. something else about eunice. in addition to being a lawye lawyer, back in the 19 thirties she was talking about sexual harassment publicly nobody really thought that was important and it one particular speech in 1937 for example, and men that use their position of power to force women into intimate relationships and she said in

the speech burning in oil is a little too good for men of that sort. civil rights activist didn't talk about it. but they see this as a distraction if they try to free women at the same time they would never get to the heart of their cause and to give the speech in greece and to talk frankly those that are not allowed to be full citizens and to talk about it as a dictatorship that after a

while if you are treated a certain way she calls it the dictator within so she was way ahead of her time on that issue as well. so the last thing i want to mention it she also came from an extraordinary family. her parents were big and important activist. her father's name was william who worked for the ymca that was a big vital organization with chapters all over the world. most famously had lunch at buckingham palace gave speeches in tokyo and switzerland a very conservative man but a big

activist as well they work very closely hand-in-hand with the rhetoric of 19th century. her mother who is known as addie among other things shows three black women who went to europe in world war i with the black troops. hundreds and hundreds of white women went to now work with the uso type run by the ymca so the troops had a place to unwind but for all the thousands of black troops only three black women and then she wrote a best-selling book about the treatment of black soldiers during 11 - - world war i that is still referenced today. so she was also called a field

secretary and her job was to go to town where it had become so dominant that the black community had become subdued and frightened she would travel these towns by herself and give these rousing speeches feeling that they could do something to face the kkk intimidation so to be aware of the dangers but nevertheless for what we know to be quite unafraid and then left the naacp for other reasons that she was the only female field secretary and she began to feel a little bit mistreated doing this fieldwork at the time so that

ran deeply in the blood of eunice. so this great accomplished woman the book is called invisible in part because at the time she started out she was pushed aside fish is a great period of being well known but now mostly forgotten you can find her and compilation of history but the fight about her isn't quite right. and then i realized that it was meant to celebrate the attempts the council but to tell her story and in the process i have come to realize this woman who once terrified me is someone that i really, really loved and i'm very proud thank you very much i'm happy to take your questions. [applause]

thank you. there is a microphone there. . >> there is a lot of material in your story and then to become comfy and cozy and then lucky luciano was let go. you have information about that quick. >> his papers reflect dewey was snookered into letting him go with that intelligence that pressured him to be governor of new york because allegedly

he would arrange protection on the docks in new york and make contacts of these associates like in sicily to land easier those are probably not true that was largely invented but they do tell that he was very resistant to letting luciano go. but on the condition that he would accept extradition but he has become a romantic feature to a lot of writers but they have not looked at the trial transcript so it's

pretty clear there was no framing going on. that we differ over what he was convicted of. >> you alluded to your grandmother's brother's treatment at harvard her brother came to harvard in 1921 to get a masters in literature and had gone to howard as an undergraduate and while there he was informed although a one-year masters program, when i first came

across for those that were told under amherst are also giving masters degree in one year so he was quite upset and he resisted it and frankly the reasoning he could not afford he did not have the money. but to be compared to people's income at the time. he had trouble to get around that requirement right after that episode and then to develop that house system to

do a lot of good things for harvard but he decided those negro students really should not live in houses because they would not be comfortable there. there was a huge battle but overruled by the corporation but he was a graduate student that was very current at that time. . >> what effect does the work with franklin fraser to hire as an investigator?

so the prosecution began before the prosecution of luciano. and to have a role with the other harlem numbers guys so let's do the first one for. >> fraser. in 1945 there was a riot in harlem and after the riot mayor laguardia appointed a commission and it was said of the majority of members.

so that was part of the commission there are some accounts that say the great sociologist he was the research director. and there is a story but fraser did not get paid until they big city hall but they came very close in the book some private correspondence that goes back to the commission's report so the

raids that led to the arrest of heinz and then usually directed and as your great uncle was popular on the streets and then when he was finally arrested it actually cost something on the streets. so he was great and colorful and wonderful man and owner of the cubans games. but to testify against heinz.

so when eunice was prosecuting gangsters partly because it was popular because the residents of harlem were employed in the great hall of fame. so now just wait one minute. . >> i am more interested about your grandmother when how old you were when you knew her or

your grandfather. >> so my grandpa died when i was in high school i didn't know any of these stories because my grandfather had died he was a dentist in harlem and they met in the 19 twenties and she was involved in designing and creating a free dental clinic in harlem that appears to be when they met. they had a troubled marriage. he was quite the philanderer. and i told you about eunice's mother addie first came to

prominence in the late 19th century on the duties of black motherhood and she preached the future of the race was dependent upon black women basically staying home to raise children that he never stayed home she was out doing speeches and preaching about marital stability. because there was a duty to the race not to leave her husband but find a way to patch it up. but they did this apart briefly in the mid- thirties but we cannot pin down exactly when even assuming that actually occurred.

a very iraqi - - rocky marriage with patch things up toward the end and because the diagnosis of cancer in the fifties so he had to sell his practice she suspended other activities in order to care for him. but as for my memories just some family stories. she's to come visit us every year at christmas. she would come on a train. she had a fear of flying. she would come on the train i remember meeting her awash in ten union station and then shumake virginia ham with more salt than you could picture but it smelled good and tasted very good. the other memory either waving her off for a meeting her dockside to get on the ocean liners she had very expensive taste. you had to go first class and

was always wearing expensive furs. even back when her husband was alive needed a mansion instead of an apartment and finally furnished. but then then we realize that she had money to have this generation in harlem where people were determined to be turned out a certain way and segregated society they could do the same you could decide but i do want to say something admirable about it. there was something admirable

about the notion in society that was deeply stratified but they tried to do something who else do we have? . >>. >> but i haven't talked about her education she went to smith college graduating in the class of 21 - - of 21 her education was probably painful so to be quite wealthy as an activism and socialist and to pay for eunice's education

when she left and then became part of the harlem renaissance actually inducted into the writers guild only the dozen members at any one time that something you may have heard of with the black writers of the twenties so how did these people get in? i did not vote for them !-exclamation-mark's. and did that for a while and was on a path that may have made her what she used to be

called those who ran harlem society that is the path that she was on and it scared her that wasn't the life that she wanted she published a lot of short stories that she chose a different path most of the big law schools only admitted men and and had a color band but the catholic law schools were also called the black schools

tried to pick up the slack then to give one example the catholic law schools and that particular notion to immigrants to people of color and they couldn't get into the law schools with those restrictions if you look at the history in urban areas you will find them replete is where she went. and then went back before she graduated in the early 1930s she hung out a shingle but

could not get any work so the black woman she defended a man named spencer who is a very prominent gossip columnist in the twenties and thirties and she defended him as he was trying not to pay child support. but he went to jail in michigan probably deservedly i don't know how many years it was. so after law school she ran for the state legislature and she lost. and then took a case involving

two voters whose registration was denied took a case on the eve of the election and one that case and got free publicity from friends so they write wrote how she is out there protecting your right to vote but she lost any way despite them. . >> a little side note about your great uncle that he was a member of the communist party so was a communist party very active? . >> yes. >> if not most prominent it was a prominent section working on that so it's important to remember that history also but i was curious

so to talk about the communist party a lot of black intellectuals were put into the communist party in the twenties and thirties they came out for equal rights for black americans around the time in around 1920 and a lot of black intellectuals at the time when the soviet union was established to see the future and it was not unusual but it was unusual to stick with it after two years they decide that's not the way they would double down so for example, to

have entry into world war ii when germany to be adamantly opposed and then to be turned on and invaded on russian territory. and then to talk about it. and then as an only child and then sent him to barbados to study to spend five or six years and then to the luciano case but and then to be hired by luciano but then to say to

get up underfoot and then as they got back. it with that enormous respect but one little story that he used to say the happiest moment was in the late twenties when his little kid his mother got sick and she had some surgery so she went to florida to recuperate with her mother's best friends he went down with her on the train and that train ride with

his mother six or seven years old was the happiest time they ever had together. he loved that time together but he never told the story when she was alive but it was after she died so i knew nothing of any of that when i was growing up. . >>. >> speed nine. >> that's a very good point the luciano trial made him a

national figure so he decided he should be president. [laughter] so at 938 so after the convention but they didn't get the nomination the last dark horse candidate and it was a compromise and my grandmother became very close between 44

and 48 to campaign for a president with every major party candidate and then to drop that party plan with that political parties platforms but on the cover of the book is a picture of eunice and there is a man next to her and to know exactly the platform ought to say that us campaign and 44 and 48 and talked about her a lot in 44 and 48 winning

the black vote but part of that was a plan that his plan did not work but with the republicans it was called the black vote and in the depression that it was different in the forties and in the twenties. >> time for one more question. . >> what about eleanor roosevelt? . >> she was a great friend and a great fan so there is a

speech that basically she would say with that intellectual presence that is not about the roosevelt but her husband. and then those by civil rights organizations that is a matter of record but those that nevertheless lied to the public that's not true. and those that wish what they could get back in a sense to get back on race issues

waiting on roosevelt. and in his judgment got nothing in return. and the fortitude of the feistiness almost single-handedly with those 19 white prosecutors to her theory thank you all very much. [applause]

. >> one of the things i talk about in the book that he tells a lot of people is to keep your dreams and tells people if they come to him on the campaign trail that you want to go into politics one day maybe in that they are anxious to say that so that's the first step to tell people you want to do something. so he said over the years

growing up so not only speak your dreams that speak them to me. . >> to look at those papers to incorporate these values in the 21st century.

so we said we are fighting for life and liberty so the first part of the organization written by a people on both sides. >> but this is from one or another with the american political cycle with the far right in those rational people are left with no choice but to

pick up one side or another. and this fight with the local leaders first of all. >> host: and you suggest