>> in my heart goes out to those people but if i could spend a little more time being a politician and less time being a president. >> . >> and the managing librarian

of the brooklyn heights branch of the brooklyn public library as wech eagerly anticipate the opening of our brand-new branch it is my pleasure to introduce the event tonight on the free black brotherhood i'm so excited to be given this honor due to the connection between friends of the brooklyn heights group and a robust group that supports the brooklyn heights library that connection and as a branch i was asked if you be interested and after discovering the story behind the book and just jumped at the opportunity as

the accolades in felicity group and then threw her friend on board the brilliant author of manhattan beach this has become an event and we knew and with an economy hall sharing with the world the free black brotherhood founded in 1836 supporting its community through the civil war and reconstruction and the birth of jazz the nonfiction narrative is american history that needs to be shared and highlights voices that need to be heard as a deeply personal story as a defendant in the community of the brotherhood spirit the book is a treasure i'm deeply excited about the conversation we are about to enjoy on economy hall the

hidden history of the black brotherhood. take it away. >> hello. hello everybody thank you for being with us i'm incredibly excited to spread the word about this remarkable book which i n have been talking about for some years now which has surpassed my every expectation a to be a work in history with an enormous sweep covering a lot of ground with a tremendous importance but yet so readable and fun. and is very complex work the best place to begin is where you begin in your introduction. tell us how this book came to be and it is a book that

started with your father. >> thank you for being here. he worked at home but i looked in the closet and i saw all the journals i said this was an important part of history. >> can you describe what are the journals and what is the organization that produce them? >> the journals are the minutes of the meetings of the society and the black men that started in 1836 that when i realized after reading the journals that this was

probably the most influential and prosperous organization in the south before or after the civil war. >> what years do the journals cover quick. >> from 1836 through 1935 the organization lasted at least to the 19 fifties with more than a 100 year period there are some places that are missing the journal from 1842 there are a few gaps that i can put that research. >> your father always pronounced in the french way so could you explain what this organization did and what the role was in the community that it served?

>> basically it was the humane society if somebody died they would take care of the burial expenses so how it grew over the century as politics became more important they became much more politically active and very involved of what was going on in the united states and in the world. >> you describe growing up in new orleans erasure of your community history in which you were told stories by people with various memories of the past that they had heard about the past that somehow did not quitee connect with the official history and there is a beautiful quote you said

each spoke of the past with the passion of the man wrongfully accused of a crime he repeats over and over his accounts of them out one —- of what was his innocent so what were these stories trying to assert or tong prove what was missing from the official history. >> the history of the black community exactly what the white supremacist you have to understand i went to segregated schools andf we knew what wasas going on but the oldest words is us down and then they would say did you

know his grandfather did this her great-grandfather did that? so when we went to high school i remember distinctly asking with that white supremacist narrative which is the black people do in new orleans and she said nothing. >> so i wonder what was interesting to me was the distinction two different definitions of creole that existed as you were growing up. can you talk about that? >> yes i can depending on who you're talking to but in my time figuring white supremacy

started to show its ugly head post reconstruction and what we adhere that in the daily newspaper when you hear about creole food that creoles are white and not negroes. that's against our understanding because we spoke french and one thing i would like to make clear creole is not a color. sometimes people think if you are light-skinned youbu are creole but it doesn't it just means the old world and the new world met in the wheezy in ha black people can be any range of color and they are

creole. rarely are they white but some married europeans down the line and they are white creole. we did not make that distinction in my neighborhood because we just felt it was mixing the old world and new world we were not into race and color anyways. >> talk about your own history and they are some fun stories and as part of the first indians to come to the united states he married a black creole woman because she was a black woman who spoke french. she was the granddaughter of

the enslaved person but firsted comes up so all the children were born free that is different from the other side of my family where the great-grandmotherth had children by her own are also and then born enslaved and then they were enslaved until they were at least 20 years old. so asking my grandchildren who is your family? they say she wants to know? so that's all what went down in new orleans they make that

what you say perfectly mirrors what you describe about the community and the economy which was disturbing but in the 19th century multiethnic and incredibly inclusive i was very struck by the fact the economy puts out the chinese that might want to join. can you explain to those of us who do not know necessarily about the south and at the 19th century? >> i like that terminology. the people who had privileges because we are living in a segregated system there were places that were whites only and even those that are nonwhite so essentially to

tell you the truth if you look at many communities the black community in the united states you will see that nonwhite people go right into the black community m often the black community tends to be quite inclusive in the south especially because people needed each other and they work together. and they did not believe in racism we didn't believe in the promise it did not make any logical sense to us. >> your title economy hall comes from a new place can you talk about that place and its history about the importance is a place to hold meetings? let's talk about the actual

place of economy hall. >> in 1836 the economy buys a piece of property and in 185720 years later decided to build another home they heard other organizations did it so it will be across the street from the original building so they built the home in 1857 they had balls there and the philharmonic end theaters and opera in the civil war approach became increasingly political so people would come down and that's about to vote they did voter registration drives it became very important to the dnc so that community general - - survive through my generation so my brother discovered them his

friend was one of the last members of the founding society they said they were getting ready if everything that was in there nobody wanted the books where you take them s to the dump so now we know more and 100 years. >> so now let's talk about the physical documents. your father talk - - took the menu described him building a cupboard to put them in and luckily to have a house that was elevated enough that katrina did not damage these documents which were already water damaged because you mentioned your father had to put them out in the sun and let them drive because they had been rained on in the dump truck which is painful to

think about. but many years past and you became a journalist and a writer of children's books. talk about your return to these books it really you did not have a d very deep contact with intel then. >> i knew the books were there the whole time because when i was a child everybody said once the books got into the house don't touch them. 's what was in the back of my mind are sometimes have look in the cabinets and then it would seem like too much trouble after i had been away for a long time and i wanted to read in seeing when i saw the handwriting alone but they

were very educated. but with my cousins cousins i knew the name to find out he had been a schoolteacher and all sorts of things and that was fun to find out. >> surprising to me is the beauty frankly of the excerpt from the document love is a beautiful dream the aspiration from the known to the unknown the way ravaged by prometheus. ravage the world only because he needed to love.

that is not what you expect to find in the leading minutes but we did. so it is striking in the sense these are literary documents were you surprised at the hold the ended up taking over you in your own literary life? >> i was definitely surprised how literary they were in it makes sense because i knew my father and my father's friends there always telling each other we could do this i write in the book how he couldn't get the phd in the united states so he had to drive not to live in a place without segregation is fence idea need

to stick around here. so with these encouraging words it was surprising that is the spirit in the community and in my life. >> what about the language of the documents? you mentioned a friend of yours described it as french-american. what is the language like and how is it different from just french or american english? >> is not english until about 1926 they are writing entirely intl french but the sentence

construction so when they start to get around americans around the time of the civil warot they got around the americans which i thought was beautiful because he would say that. >> i'm curious of the process of the enormous undertaking of synthesizing 100 years of documentation into a historical work.

and i would love to share the timeline of how that occurred. so where were you in your life at that time when did it become a full-time project? take us through your interactions with them. >> only now. so 20 years ago i went to read the journal for then to try to summarize what was going on is something i really cannot understand because the french was too difficult from st. peter's university

speaking between 16 and 18 languages what does this mean? so after i did that and as i was going along with it with my neighbor so that is a family name so that made me a little closer to it and then then the spiritual thing would happen for who committed suicide? and i was in the library. i didn't know who this guy was.

and she said that is my ancestors and she didn't know any committed suicide. so i just have to continue this but i was trying to be a published writer and then got a full-time job as a teacher was some short stories that were possible and it fits the timeline. >> of course you had tremendous which is your own community in a sense gave you

the oral history component of this story when you did not even want to listen to that. what degree did you reengage with that community in the role of oral historian to get out this picture and what were those experiences like crack. >> that was supposed we are all cousins down here but to be 100 years old and then advancing from economy hall and thend with the.

>> do you feel it further enriched your relationship to your community? >> sure. if you know anybody from new orleans we can live somewhere in the spirit and then to be more connected then her parents from her parents and ancestors from the 18 fifties. but i get that because i always carry new orleans around with me.

>> it so lucky began the project when you did because you can't a moment so a lot of the stories are fading and it's so crucial to get to people and record them while they are still here and can still remember. >> the four people i was talking about 100 -year-old woman and her daughter they start to see the names of people that i knew from the older families but through the whole process it was luck i

was a writer and found something in the book. >> that there are chances that i recorded in the minutes how many meeting minutes references the ghost? it's somee of these historical events then there is a ghost talking about the real thing that happens. >> so now i'm curious the fiction writer and journalist undertook the mammoth job to crystallize the history and

material into a story and you make simple traces on the eve alluded to earlier focus your gaze on one particular person? but we can say bogey in english. >> he is a fascinating figure if you can tell us about him and what it was about him that made you feel like that there were so many things going on in order for it to move and not justl by the historical account and from 1812 from

1892 and had a very long life that was against the law for the enslaved to read it was on this item wasn't supposed to but hear became part of the reconstruction government of the grand marshal celebration so they didn't mention him but he started off life but he has beautiful handwriting and every once in a while he would

give us spontaneous pulling someone who just ends up it is just wonderful. to give the poems and is politically active in what was named homer all of the oldest boys were named after writers. so it was really fun. >> so the commenting of his sensibility and own literary awareness he was present through so many historical events and in the economy that

made him to be the guy that can bring you all the rest. >> he is the go to guy. >> so then he gave us the contents page to see what comes up in the minutes and also if anything important happened he would make! 's so he was a really easy person to follow. >> in one of these people just a person who lived in the community for more than 100 years. >> it must feel as if you know

him. like you know his personality and what matters to him like he was a housemate. >> he is a lot of fun and at one pointum they get in arguments and then he wrote at 1.1 did not agree with another and so he hit him with his cane so the two men came to the meeting and they talked about this but because of your insult and your cane and then to write word for word it is not my apologies but it was

beautiful writing. >> so in the chat the links are appearing for this book there iss an amazing anecdote and a remarkable tidbit was a very fun book to read and encourage you to buy it for you and your loved ones and a big part of what makes this book so readable but the other part is you because they bring us into these moments with the soul array of tools that i think you bring us and put us in the moment and it's tremendously compelling you

also have a gigantic quantity of footnotes but also in your own imagination so can you talk to us about the craft challenge of deciding where to draw the line about what you are willing to imagine and how you negotiated those questions? >> in the setting of the scene it is proof but leaving economy hall 1863 talking about the vote for black men november so i was able to say

as an example to walk into the room but he would not give the speech from outside so you know he has to walk into the roomeg but if the defense secretary said 6:00 o'clock the nobody what this and so he walked into economy hall just about the time the sun was setting, the room was warm because everybody kept on their overcoats i'm just the people if you figure those in the room it would be sweaty and moist but i can do that because it is an imagination

from those that were in the newspaper the quotes ever in the journal and also kathy nelson who would not let me get away and asked me but we call it ursuline street now when was it an avenue in 1862 are in 65. >> i found five references so everything that's in there has been checked out. >> it's not so much imagination as using your tools to connect the factual dots in ways that bring the sensory quality of it to life in the moment.

>> fiction itself i have to feel fiction this is the type of reader that i am to take in information but for me to feel anything of my readers feel anything it is the sound that they are hearing. >> if you all want to read something else i have a lot of pieces that are very sensuous. not sexy but in the way talking about what it felt like after katrina.

>> i mentioned katrina now and i want to ask a question because i am surprised to hear that you write in your book the biggest g disruption of the community that you are tracking going back to the early 19th century is katrina that has really fractured the community in certain ways that is shocking to me that in all those years event of this century is the one to be so disruptive. can you talk about that quick. >> most m of the's people are these delegations was in the downtown area of new orleans so the flood came in to the neighborhoods so we lost that

connection and a lot of them there was one couple that drowned in their house who was very closely connected but then they were getting heart attacksy and it is where people stay. >> so that disruption to the downtown neighborhoods flooded out so that did us in. >> and you mentioned a diaspora to a city that has

not returned i believe it is 100,000. >> they said e not returned so houses were flooded so that had we have enough to pay for the houses people are having all kinds of problems like that. >> usually from out of town.

and those who bought the house for $5000 from houston to atlanta that is what the economy was there to do that is what we don't seem to have anymore. but i have friends and still live here in there.

but they were operating with enslavement that's to educate one another and to help one another. so they needed to get anything. i can remember when relatives and friends came to the house they framed up the back of the house. they were cooking food the guys came and they framed up the house and half a day. on the tele committee was built. wondering how the economy has

reacted and to so much history. >> what can i say. so it is that personal. [laughter] >> that is exactly what is goinghe on and if they are not inhe the book then why am i in the book? > so funny it is a measure i cannot even imagine being part of a community like that and it is so telling and it's humane. nature.

>> and i have to remind everybody i'm not responsible for the ancestors so you have to make a choice. and then do something on your own. >> you are in new orleans right now. is this the house where you grew up? yes. it is the house where i grew up. >> and this is the house that we went to but i lost my dad

he had a heart attack. so this is very special to me. >> it's something we could not do and then nature of the meetings and is a silver lining where so much of this took place. i feel i'm seeing questions come in and we will hear from some of you. io>> what is there a connection between the economy in the church?

>> they were very attached to the catholic. religion the very beginning so for example it did not recognize that narrative they were attached there for a while so after the civil war and at the end of reconstruction and many walked away from the church and we started to see them to talk about the séance with spiritualism because the catholic church was

segregated. >> so staying close to your computers some people are having trouble hearing valley have a question about the family connections to your book you know the family? >> yes. [laughter] >> it was also his grandchild. >> thank you for mentioning that. members saying it with the louisiana constitution and

thenin lincoln went to the south and the southern states back into the united states but louisiana t came back without the right to vote for blacks. so many blacks decided they would have a convention and then the police came and they killed everybody that they could in the room. i think his son was nine or ten years old they shot out his eye and he was almost killed trying to come out of the building and almost killed but coming out the door he

killed the other guy and he could run away he said the floor was slippery with blood but what i wanted to mention isas the history that right now that we think everything we do is new but it is not. these men were fighting for voter registration and the people who are trying to stop voter registration and there was police violence and they remember the white supremacist group and with the elected officials and there were mobs and militias. >> if you can learn something this book to realize there is a playbook happening

in the 1860s for those that are coming down the pike right now. because he will know when they start denigrating people and then to threaten them to have something going on. >> how was economy hall related to plessy versus ferguson? >> one of two black mutual aid societies plessy versus ferguson was in the 18 nineties with hundreds of mutual aid associations and then the president of the

economy society but then to be involved in taking the plessy case to court. and we know that many of you are in support of the legislation. and with the jim crow law. and with the united states supreme court. >> and i went to ask one question and then to have fairly soon but so many

associate new orleans with music with jazz in particular butri you write a lot about music in the book can you talk about the economy and its relationship to music over time? >> if you go because the economy has music all the way through. and then while it is driven out of jobs in one of the places they play music is economy hall that have a party.

and then it goes to the poor people to the nuns. if you can't win then the was armstrong also went to economy hall. they are the first one outside of new orleans. >> did it have members that were enslaved as well as free people of color? >> they did not. they were probably a little snooty. and then to have homes in italy and france. no more than the new york societies. but then the second thing in more important thing but then

was slavery with free people of color and then they started to that the free people would insight from the haitian revolution so there was a good reason for them to be afraid they really didn't want to free people of color they went go to jail. it is the social close one —- a social class thing. >> when this is done i urge you to look at the chat so

that means more to you than it does to me. we are out of time but i will askst you one final question but it is a tough one. from the economy's mission to help one another and teach one another while holdingng out a protective hand from suffering from humanity youan cannot shoot much higher than that. we live in a moment of such tremendous division and racial tension and political strife so what can economy hall tell us if anything? of how to improve our own situation? >> and then from the teen 581

—- 1858 there is african blood in those areas those that were oppressed unjustly and then to come out of the isolations for they would like to see us forever united for one another. so what we could do is not have hatred in our hearts for one another. >> that's an excellent note to end s on. thank you all for joining us and please, i urge you to buy theoo book. thank you so much we hope you

all enjoyed the conversation tonight is much as i have. if you haven't had a chance to read the book economy hall i absolutely urge you to it is a treasure. i all have a wonderful night.

>> larry kudlow will you write a book about your time in the trump administration? >> i don't have anything planned at the moment. i am very busy. i am loving life. never say never. but not at the moment. >> how many jobs do you have? [laughter] >> we have foxbusiness every day between four and 5:00 o'clock p.m.