on monday, tune in for programs from our archives from the life of martin luther king jr. also, jackie cushman shares her thoughts on how to move the country from political polarization to common ground. ... >> vice provost of faculty engagement at the university also professor of culture at the steinhardt school also founder of the center for and co-author of us political campaigns. the winner of the 2012 ralph

award also ellington as the block chain society as a global member driven ecosystem and with cryptocurrency projects across industries and for social impact. the members passive investors primarily of technology of one.5 trillion of investment capital so we are celebrating a book tonight that is a very compelling story that's an important story that is lesser-known in the annals of tech history but people working toward social justice with racial justice to black lives matter published by

oxford university press its pleasure to have you. welcome to city lights. [applause] >> thank you to all of you who have come out to those who will trickle in along the way. there is a great place to be. wrapping up what that has been a month and a half long to her - - tour and there's no better place to end up this place in this historic moment. we were just telling the gentleman before we started that where i was headed next to city lights and everybody forgot about the book. they just said oh my gosh. i grew up there. spent all this time there. go to the bar on the quarter. so that's a great thing to be here. to talk about this book and

thank you for joining me tonight. >> to give you some back story about the book and get into some conversation so i feeling we may jump off course. and at some point. so i will start by telling you where the journey started for me and that was very simply to explain or try to explain black lives matter. here was this movement , powered by a digital technology by those who harnessed the tools that people have not managed to do

since the late 19 fifties. that's to put the issue of race and racial justice and really the issue that black folks suffer at the hands of us criminal justice system back to the us public agenda. not since the early seventies has that happened that come 2014, everyone across the country knew who black lives matter was what they stood for and what their message was.

even if they were not predisposed to agree with their positions, found themselves agreeing and said yes, black folks are treated differently in terms of criminal justice so where did this movement come from? and don't just materialize out of thin air. so where was the genealogy quex where do they trace their lineage quex and with the racial justice work and the facility and the knowledge of relatively new technology. i thought i knew the story i was going to write for anybody who has written a book, you know the anxiety there is when you thank you know what you are writing about and then you find out you have no idea for ago that happened over and over the course of writing this book because it did start off with black lives matter. the more i started to go back in time to find folks like davi david, the story just

began to change. discovery after discovery of different people in different times and different stories that compels me to say there is something bigger and broader. but starting where he first began in the nineties where everything happens a natural place to start but you all remember the nineties. if you are thinking of black folks and technology what are the two words you undoubtedly remember or talked about? anyone? you were too young in the nineties. [laughter] the digital divide. that was the way in which we

began to think of black folks in technology as much as other policymakers had good reason to point out the gap between access to technology i thought there was a tremendous erasure affected so i usually put up on the screen a number of five.6 million. the number of people in 1995, african-americans who had computers at home at home and on line 1995. but that is what we know nothing about because we presume black folks do not have access therefore they have contributed nothing to this platform. so my story began to try to

understand who were the five.6 million? what were their stories? where do they come from? and that's where i first met david. so i want to start the story there reading a small portion of the book. i didn't know that david hadn't got his copy from oxford yet. so maybe this will be a little surprise. [laughter] but i want to read it and then i will ask you to finish the story to talk about what this moment met it's called the battle for black cyberspace and it starts here beginning aph 1861 america engaged in a great civil war.

january 1st 1863 abraham lincoln emancipation proclamation for two years five months and 18 days nothing changed for many slaves then major general had troops arrive in galveston texas there he read the proclamation the people of texas are accorded the proclamation from the executive of the united states all slaves are free. this involves right to property before the slaves and the connection and that exist between them between employer and free labor. so black people commemorated the day and call it juneteenth the day that ended slavery and a brief period of reconstruction. 130 years later to the day, david ellington assumed

the role it was historical when the slave received word she was free at all started in 1994 as jenkins worked up meanwhile malcolm went back down to give david a glimpse of the future. i will stop reading right there but david tell us about that beginning and that moment it might be a little hyperbole but what is the significance of what you and the team and others launched quick. >> of course, thank you for inviting me and hosting us.

he just blew me away. i forgot that. specifically, and for you to even tie that in and remind me that today we launch the service intentionally. we didn't say it's coming it's a tie that into the emancipation but your eloquence really captured it better than i could have. so i was an entertainment lawyer in los angeles. even further so why would i even care? so i went to howard university for graduate school and i got a masters degree in african

politics. i had a passion but i really wanted to know my culture and in the black community we walked around like kings. so i went for two years and got this degree so it was always a part of my life but that i knew i wanted to go to law school. so working to make a long story short i ended up going to law school at georgetown. i knew i wanted to start at least my practice on the west coast i lived overseas i went to tokyo and i came back then i graduated and then moved to l.a. was doing entertainment law and all of my clients were black. surprise mostly during the early stage of hip-hop and r&b

so at the time when gangster rap was just starting death row and all that. but i realized i was getting my feet wet in this medium and i was excited about it. and this guy, since i lived in tokyo that there are seven or eight black people in tokyo at the time. [laughter] so we all knew each other. especially in that age group. separate from the military guys. so anyway there is one guy he was a dj but he was born in south africa raised in namibia but his family was refugee and was persecuted so they went to

sweden. tall and beautiful and handsome he was a model in tokyo. so we became friends and stayed in touch i move back to america then go to law school. we stay in touch over the years. he reaches out to me. he went to mit undergrad and stanford but i told him to come visit you first. i said fine he came down and he came over he goes up to stanford to start school there to get is undergrad and masters in computer science. and now of course i'm an entertainment lawyer in los angeles so i'm better. [laughter] he comes down all the time he

thought he was just going to go to school. [laughter] so eventually i go to visit him. he was living in palo alto and apparently the computer science students call the lab the dungeon. and it is a dungeon. so he says you can come and i've got to work but come into the lab to see if i can do this project so he sits me down in front of a computer and i'm trying to keep myself busy and it's a room full of computers it's before the

fancy stanford we have today somehow one of my favorite games was a fellow. i was playing this game it turns out it was the university of stockholm something this is back when it was still text. so i try to get out of it this strange guy sitting next to me and i can't figure it out and i can't find malcolm. i said do you know? he said if you want to find stuff use this thing that i created.

just a list of names it was yahoo. it was jerry yang. he just got his phd him and his partner so this is the world i got exposed to. so when i saw that, being an entertainment lawyer and in my culture, i saw there was nothing there was only 2000 links. this is before the world wide web so that's when all graphics and sound and video was added before that it was just text science and dod with the department of defense. so i decided there was something here so i went back to l.a. and that's when i

started. and i would be with him on the phone and go back and forth and finally i said not black that's too hard so we came up with that noir. >> that's one of my favorite parts of that particular conversation in the book. >> you and malcolm, david was approaching middle-age lawyer,. >> weight. [laughter] i was only 30. [laughter] >> this is malcolm he was a young geek his vision was dead on but malcolm was there to remind david of the execution

of his proposal of that technological charm. he suddenly realized the network of black culture was an opportunity for the venture that began exploding in their minds. first out of the gate they discovered the company with that name already existed selling hairnets also to point out that there is an online service that already existed he suggested cyberblack and he squash that that was too hard i could easily go down that path but then i had to say this is the 21st century it's about communication and creating a place for people to talk and debate and have fun and this is about inclusion. then it happened in tandem. malcolm said that and he said

no noir and he said no noir unbelievable. that's great. we were doing a project together but that is exactly what happened. >> then the story moves on ultimately he has a plan. and the magic man handing out buckets of money and brought you all in, you made your pitch and the rest was history. in a previous version of the book there was a chapter entitled remember when the internet was black and it has everything to do with net know our - - net noir and that

recognition that this will be big. >> yes. by the way as the last piece we built this for six months and then juneteenth is when we launched it. what happened it's also because my then wife who has since passed was working for a company that was in communications president of aol and his first initiative is i will fund and identify as soon as he announced that companywide my girlfriend at the time said send your ideas

about net noir and introduced it to ted we were the first company funded by america online. motley fool that is still around but there were six of us so i golf and that's exactly what he wanted he knew content would be compelling and those that remember online services with the 1200 baud and being. 2400 and then a well carpet bombed america that was back in the day of compuserve. so that's how they wanted to step away.

in and say we have $200,000 or 20 percent of our company and then to have 5 percent of the company so we would have them in - - a million-dollar valuation it's like you are in the mob. and we wrote this checks ago raise more money so these were the first venture capital professional money invested because people started to include new york online primarily that was a predecessor to us but then we realize there was an opportunity so not only about

corporate strategic and distribution but corporate money from ted with aol and the venture capital money from centcom that was terry jones. >> so what does it mean for you to think or to know that and lived the first big commercially successful venture capital backed property of the we are one - - online to bring millions of folks to this new media we didn't know what it was going to be for but to think about the black internet service. but also looking back knowing

what we know now of technology and the landscape. >> a lot of hype and a lot of media attention so we fortunately were not in the digital divide basket. that we were doing pretty well. so that was our target market. so that puts them in a certain category. so we demonstrate the mercedes-benz. all of that came about. how did it feel? my dream was to make sure all these conferences i was at this theater and it was packed

all these guys with pocket protectors were announcing the grateful dead cd-rom. obviously not online are connected to the internet so we literally went to their and then online services and then the internet. but the point being a guy who studied african politics to know the content we are american pop culture for sure. so i want to make sure our culture was not left out of the revolution program is determined. i was passionate about that.

so think where is the black thing? and that is how i was determined. so mit undergrad. and a chess champion his second language is japanese and going to stanford he is a nerd with a personality. so it wasn't as much of an issue. and that it has turned into a bit of a business. and reminding me three or four weeks now that npr and midway through to open the lines to the colors there is a woman

i'm forgetting her name now but the name was lakisha i was part of the net noir engineer coming from harvard remembering the magic of that moment. and then to get all the attention. >> i'm glad that you mention that it was totally a team. we had upwards of 100 people and 150 employees and consultants i was in south park and it was just pathetic but truly for those directly, yes.

it was magical and anybody could empathize to do that all hottest cutting edge tech thing called the internet that mocks our culture and everybody looks at it. i lived it so this has been an amazing experience for me that was amazing. every day i was ready to go. and it was magic and i'm glad everyone involved the overwhelming majority of people involved felt it that were a part of it so it is that type of role. you don't work for me but we worked together and you have your role. stay in your lane but let's do this together.

>> moving on to one last thing to raise a little chunk of where we are and it has everything to do with the fact that by the end of the nineties to transition out net noir and aol is sold and malcolm was out and many black folks that were entrepreneurs and building things in the technology space that all of this was gone i won't say forgotten but i remember you telling me early on we were a big thing but not since. and leticia called up and was the same way. and all those that were a part of this.

so there is a sense for me that black software is two stories to see the table of contents. and that's because they represent two stories that i ultimately found and told compelled to tell the story of you that history had missed in these revolutionary moments. and where you have done this talk of black software with little cocaine. so i want to talk about the cocaine to wrap up. [laughter] because it's one of those

stories my wife still says i don't know why you have that in the book. it's real. and it's one of those things you don't lose no matter what. it's in the book somewhere. so silicon valley held the revolution from the region that radio outs lot radiates out outward down past san jose. it was named for invention and entrepreneurship in the region had long ago helped subvert the microchip of the disk drive in the personal computer in the 1980s cocaine was the most preferred and best distributed. they sold dreams in those spaces and the government sponsored research centers to provide a new frontier to

build new tools with which to master the universe and to capitalize investment it brought to market the satisfaction that comes from dreams. cocaine was tailor-made to fit that you those of the daily grant grind pervasive drive to succeed in the capacity to aspire. the section goes on to talk about what we know and are all too familiar with that cocaine in the 1980s took a trip down from this area and down the coast to south-central los angeles where it changed chemical technology then wreaked havoc on los angeles and ultimately the rest of the country in the form of crack

cocaine which we are familiar with the aftermath. so when people ask it really is the stories in the cocaine story is how another technology and i was doing this years ago and they say what you talking about black software quex can it be racist or the internet or technology be racist? what are you talking about? i wanted to provide a different kind of analogy that we could very well see how it changed in the transformation to engage with different communities like black and white. so it is a way to talk about

not to marshal and use technology to build wealth and community and to push revolutionary politics but to point back to the ways the technologies were first introduced and produced and utilized to neutralize the threat to the system. so there was a sense for me when that came crashing down there was that inevitability that it was great but couldn't last too long and black folks could not profit and really have a stronghold in this medium until there was a course correction if you will. for now let's wrap up and go to questions that we talked

about briefly several times. and wyatt all disappeared and with that technology landscape for the folks like you back in the day who are owners and entrepreneurs and who are commercially successful in that arena, where did it go? what happened from your point of view? >> the early nature of the media was around advertising. we had a company for six years, a six-year-old company and during that six years at the advertising agency the young kid who just joined even the digital stuff.

so i have to educate them about this audience of black professionals. it became super frustrating. >> there is value and i could give more money to yahoo or google. so that's one piece. so revenue to sustain that business. but there is a really weird. in san francisco i didn't see any black people. but lately but they are all working for twitter and google and pinterest.

that that is a little twist for you. that some of them are starting businesses. they are mainstream. is not like a vertical target. and then starting venture fund so to invest in entrepreneurs of any kind. but you are seeing a lot more black professionals who can code and do all that. maybe not as interesting as i would've hoped to talk to. to see them walking around town all the time. but they meant they bought into that and that's who they are.

they still know their culture. but they definitely work at pinterest or twitter and then deliver. it's really interesting how that evolved. under the occasional maverick but the only business i have seen in tech i rarely see that that's targeted to black folks and black culture. because if you like anything about black folks you need to come to net noir that's how aol positioned us as well. >> so much to say. we could go on for hours. we would keep the room all night. questions for the audience or comments?

>> they are stunned to. >> is there any fear and the black identity politics and what they go after? >> it's a good question. when you read book two of the book, i will put it this way one year ago i remember i pulled out my phone per grade and pick up a paper what am i talking about. [laughter] and the thrust of the story that nypd was sharing their data with ibm to build a new system that would target folks

and then to say this was happening and then the other big story it's been under wraps for five years and there was a moment that i just chuckled and said you've got it all wrong. this is not a five your story it's a fifty-year one and it's a real direct thread everything we see today with facial recognition or algorithm to surveillance or practices, all of that is back to a moment in the mid sixties. so this was just the progression of something that started long ago. so to answer your question there is a lot already coming

down the pike in many respects that i see as a course correction to have us struggle of technology. it is there. we use it. we marshal it for our interest. and then it was powerful. i can find you i know exactly even after all at the same time. it is a push and pull in the inevitable struggle of technology especially with issues of race. >> going back to the continuing 50 years to earlier technology to surveillance and

control there is a certain amount of capacity of citizens to push back when the state does the policing. in the private sector, of course there is a relationship between the private sector in the government and people moving in and out of different sectors. on the one hand there is the power. but how is the use of data collected by this private enterprise by the government entities? >> another good question.

and that you answer already which is and then with black lives matter for those who have use those tools. but to demonstrate over and over are the limits. is not that there is no other venue to push. but there is a limit to technology that you don't own or control and in some respects that you are not familiar with. with the ability to push back and what's on the other side and that is the free flow of data between private companies and governments and shadow

governments and other entities that is almost insurmountable. and then to control the threat. >> i'm sorry i'm very pessimistic. and the amount of data if it is organized the way it is intended to her the way people want to use it is no privacy. look at how bad they are in china because the government has all this data.

but that's okay the government hasn't. it is safe. so how much we think it's okay the private sector has all this data and they are allowed to make money off this data. and yet that's okay. so from now on we have a lot of issues and i don't believe any of them would be anytime soon. by like to be direct and frank. i have been in this game a long time. since 1985 collecting data. you want to have better advertising and better content. but now to constantly tell me everything you are doing is

what i want or is better for me is just live. you have rationalized your behavior and conduct in my opinion. that's my response. >>. >> the younger tech people are not quite as interesting. so what would the right questions be for some of the younger people working in the tech industry to ask? what are the things they should be more concerned about? >> it is hard to respond to that. if you step back this is not our generation. we deftly had our opinions of things that were okay and her parents that we are were crazy we have become her parents. so they don't mind so having

sex and posting that is okay. while. we have celebrities out there that so they got started and now they are multimillionaires as a result. we live in a different era that you and i don't get. so i don't know. they like to think they are weaved into this impact which is a button to click and never get your hands dirty as far as i am concerned. so it is a detachment. i will not say critique because it's rude and disrespectful of them but i can just comment on the observations. i can make those observations hopefully encouraging them to think a little more about the implications of the impact of

their conduct. i'm in no position to be a judge anymore. >> i will say something similar that comes from having the good fortune over the last few months with a lot of young black folks and folks of color as an engineer or facebook and basically they all say the same thing. i need and want to make some money. that is real. that is part of that. i am hard-pressed to say no you should be all about the revolution right now. and defer all of these things when i have already had my chance, but then they also all say i am alone. i don't feel like i have a

community. i see things that are not going the way i think they should in terms of how the technology is being used. of course what can i do or say? so if there is a question out there for them to ask it is simply when is the right moment? and they are recognizing this prick i have met so many. we do this stuff. and it is fucked up i'm sorry. can i say that? but it is the next and what do i have to give up with the sense of we have to do something better. and that's a question how we support and make it easier for all of us. >> so at google to say wait a

minute. and that is that element out there but for black folks in particular it is sticking our next out. and it's not necessarily true but i'm not inheriting anything from grandma or grandpa. i'm using the first one out the gate and now you want me to risk all this? why did you leave facebook? were looking for a job at google or twitter. they find out. troublemaker. [laughter] >> the point that you identify in your book regarding the

point of san jose and silicon valley. but then to change and express a new way of doing things. and then talking about the cocaine. and the family values. the same family in sacramento and in this area with that old structure in the community.

because my nephew was one of those nerds and the traditional family values. so now they are open in their own way. so that is what so-and-so does. that we know that are there. does that make sense? >> and the support system and the old structure , historically if your great-grandfather was a farmer in your grandfather is a farmer and now to try to find

themselves and a lot of them have migrated to the computer. >> that is really interesting the angle of our those young black folks that the backbone of the community is a double-edged sword. they don't see it or feel it and they will eventually but don't know how to handle it. but is there the argument i will be a billionaire. so it is like a double-edged sword. and i prefer that. and then they look at it.

somebody get slapped because they are female or gay. so if that is really in this community i can live with that personally. but that is an interesting discussion. >> look at the $2 billion and then the younger generation to focus so they like to be direct is the message diluted? >> clearly it does. but i am progressive and my politics. so it's not just about getting

rich. but i also live in america and our society i have no control over. and the white folk majority have decided that they would have a whole lot of money to allow that to happen. that's bigger than me. so tying it back to your point or your question and to be successful in the game. not the black game. and then to know we have our er era. and then the cool school of jaz jazz. to gave birth to jazz and rock 'n roll.

and then motown. so then to let it go. is bigger than all of us and not sitting on the sidelines and that was my passion. so to please understand to my former business partner of 30 years ago to accurately describe that was the passion. so we have to be here and that they know everything about what we do. so we are pop culture. you say a man? who gave you that. take us out of any sport?

really? how would we look like? so we have are valued at many levels as people. and to have pure individual achievement. athletic or singing or the individual, who are we? want to make sure that's on the new digital medium and we achieved it. >> it's time to wrap up. and i would say this anyway. but it's an amazing book for me to write. precisely because it's filled with folks like david who does amazing things with amazing perspective and the time that they experience and live

through but also reflect back on that time and to help us understand a history that is simply not there. and to say it must have taken you years and years of painstaking research. yes. it took a lot of work it's not as if it was not there. that it was not easy to find particularly going back to the 19 sixties and the civil rights revolution was ahead on a collision. so that a great part of me was moment after moment to be blown away by stuff that no one had ever told me. even in the realm i know stuff

about. it's a great book. via. buys several copies. it is christmas. [laughter] thank you for coming out. i appreciate it. [applause] [inaudible conversations] . . . . thank you for being with us. >> it's an honor and a pleasure to be here. >> let me begin with the premise of the book. write this book, they hold dear, challenges prevailing wisdom and through the fogng of