james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own. i understand he has a selection to read as we begin today. welcome. thank you for being here. >> let me thank the schomburg and kevin and especially you for allowing me the opportunity. i've decided to read from the introduction if that's okay. i arrived on a hot saturday morning the day after leaving new jersey. this was the beginning of my stay as the recipient on the eastern shoreastern shore of man 1809 escaping slavery at the age of 18. learned to read and write and attend class at yale university he went on to become a minister and 49, the faculty awarded him an honorary doctorate and it was the first time i believe a european university bestowed an academic honor and here i was who wrote about religion and race in the united states flying across the world to accept an honor. i met james in american graduate student studying at heidelberg as i checked into my apartment house number two, number 64. he was charged with getting me settled on my first day. we walked up three flights

that's from james baldwin. this is, i think, one of my first copies from the 1990s. i thought it was my first one, but i have been informed it has notes like on almost every page, right. it is all -- but there's one that is floating around that is all torn and whatever that i think i had before this. but this inspired me to do something. this has been 30 years in the making, so maybe 35, chris. so during the george floyd thing, as you know, i was sitting here and leading a lot of the coverage and people were asking me what do i do, what do i do, what do i do. and i didn't know what to do, and one night i just sat down and i started scribbling things and i contacted someone, and, so, we came up with this, which has been really rushed. it has been really short. it has been less than six months to put this out. so this is an ode to james baldwin and the fire next time and it is called "this is the fire." for me this is not about celling books because you know i have a full-time job. i do two hours here, i do a bunch of other things, but this is -- i really think that th

write, what i would aspire to write even though i can't write that could, it would be probably james baldwinthe fire of next time. autobiography essay that tells a story and is internal but also paint a complete portrait of new york and preachers and pimps, you know. there's an entire world from a few square blocks that suddenly gives you a picture of all of america and a sweeping history. i've read books like that. that was my creative writing class so there's no doubt what i thought about writing is a memoir, those were my models as opposed to a traditional presidential memoir, i met with such and such are prime ministers such and such. how well i seceded in tracking that more literary approach to it, it will be up to the readers but that was certainly part of what i was trying to do of course james baldwin didn't have to stick in long explanations of the financial crisis or nuclear negotiation so that was a disadvantage. once in a while you get in that flow and realize oh, i've got to kind of do a little history here and try and find that balance, sometimes that was tough. >> thank you. y

it is really inspired by james baldwin. it starts off with a letter to my great nephew. and i start by saying i dedicate it because you know over the past couple of years i've gone through a lot, we've covered all of this. and i just want to read something to you, okay, because this is how i start. i start with -- i said "it's to the memory of those who paved the way with gratitude to those who march in their foot steps, james baldwin, my sister lisa and all the not so obvious heros who daily take a stand for truth, like the not so obvious heroes who were at the capitol who were helping to save our democracy and the lives of people like those police officers who were there." and i start with a letter to my great nephew like james bad ldw and i saturday down and this was on may 25th and i said, "i heard a dying man call out to his mom p mama and i wept for the world that will soon belong to you." and that's how i start this book. >> and remind people, "fire next time" was very resonant in the 60s. it was two essays that had come out earlier, baldwin, we all know he was, h

james baldwin did not have to stick in long excavations with the financial crisis and nuclear negotiations was a disadvantage. every once in a while you get in that flow and realize i've got to do a little history and work here and try to find that balance was sometimes tough. >> thank you. michelle, will ask some more now. >> you are writing this book during a time of tumult and transformation in america when you write a book you have a conversation with yourself but there's also all this noise that is happening in the world and you have to decide to integrate what you tune it out or let it in. this is a time when your policies were under interrogation and in some case being fully raised by the current administration so what or how much did that influence you when you were writing this book and i imagine it was having a 5000 pounds elephant on your shoulder while you worked on her own work? >> it is interesting i don't think it affected it that much. partly because even though my ended up breaking this up into two volumes i had a pretty clear sense of the arc of the story. i know how the

amy: and professor eddie glaude, and feel free to channel james baldwin, if you'd like, which i think you can't help but do, if you can talk about what your feelings were on saturday as you watched joe den and kamala harris ascend the stage in wilmington, delaware, what this all means? prof. glaude: well, you know, my initial reaction was, thank god we're going to see the back of donald trump's head, that the disaster of the last four years, at least embodied in the trump administration -- stephen miller, betsy devos, william barr, the whole gaggle of folk, giuliani, the children -- all of those folk will be behind us soon, and, of course, the symbolic significance of kamala harris as the first black vice president, the first black president of south asian descent and caribbean descent and the like. i was thinking about the national council of negro women. i was thinking about the atlanta washerwomen strike of 81. i was thinking about the women's political council in montgomery, who were the backbone of the montgomery bus boycott. i was thinking about ella baker and fannie lou hamer.

she worked with james baldwin with the same press. not old enough to work with baldwin. [ laughter ] but the same press and so many other towering figures. and i'd like to salute president jorge pedron and mitchell. those are the two leaders. let's give them a hand. 31 years. [ applause ] that's a beautiful thing. and that kind of alliance, too. latino brother and the jewish brother, i like to see that collaboration and coagulation. [ laughter ] but "black prophetic fire," well, i just want to begin by saying, see, i am who i am because somebody loved me and somebody cared for me, and somebody attended to me. [ applause ] so i'm trying to keep track of my own fire that i got from irene and clifton and cynthia and cheryl and the reverend baptist church and my vacation bible school teacher. these were people who provided and lived experience and answers to the voices for questions, how does integrity face oppression? how does honesty face deception? how does decency face insult? and how does virtue meet brute force? integrity, honesty,

so that is part of what i was trying to do of course james baldwin dinner to stick a new long explanations of the financial crisis for nuclear negotiations that was a disadvantage if you get that poetic flow and then realize i have to do a little history and a little work to find that balance was sometimes tough. >> when you were writing this book during a period of transformation in america and then have that conversation there is all this noise and you decide to what degree will you let that out and when your policies were under interrogation and fully erased by the current administration how much of that influenced you when you were writing this book? i imagine it was like having a 5000-pound elephant on your shoulder while working on your own work? >> i don't think it affected that much partly because even though i ended up breaking into two volumes i have a pretty clear sense of the arc of the story. and i know how the story ends at least with donald trump coming into office. i have already internalized and understood what his presidency were do and what he stood for. so what i was wr

your standardbearers are the young jewish son of an immigrant and black pastor who hold doctor james baldwin think about how far we've come, at the. [cheering] about how far we've come. we are running against lisha bonnie and clyde. of corruption in american politics. two united states senators who, when they learned of this pandemic that was bearing down on our shores, when they learned about the threat posed by a virus now killing more than 300,000 of our fellow americans, their first call was to the stockbroker. rather, we deserve better in retirement is coming for david perdue and kelly loeffler atlanta. [cheering] we have bigger and better things to discuss and david and kelly. like where we go from here as a people. we go from here as a community, as a state, as a nation. we had four years of hatred and racism and bigotry and lies and incompetence but donald trump is leaving. [cheering] georgia voters donald trump packing. you did that. [cheering] so now it's time to rebuild. now it's time to build in america defined by love defined by unity, define compassion and empathy, those are th

buckley, the founder of the "national review," and james baldwin, the author and dssayist and playwrightil rights activist, among many other things. or not the american dream comesr atthe expense of black people in amica. and this was a debate that i was kind of slightly obsessed withr e better part of seven years, i'd say. book about it.ublished a his name is nicholas bucola. he's a professor of political science. the book is called "the fire is upon us." >> it just seemed to me just suca amatic moment and ch an important one. so, these two movements that did so mtoucefine 20th century political history, to have these two finigures clawas just - just irresistible. >> what was really utscinating at was just seeing the way that the same issues that se urround race that weeing play out now were the same issues playing out 55 years ago. and when you tch that debate, ou can see that even though times have changed, policies know, we approach race and equity in this country hasn't really changed that much in 55 years. >> sreenivasan: you also took a trip back to your hometown tac see how the l

come out reading this book understanding that there's a prophetic voice and we were talking about james baldwin earlier. there is a prophetic voice that a writer or a civil rights leader or an activist or a movement leader can use to motivate and mobilize and change society. and that prophetic voice often times is the thing that will open up possibilities for politics because it's changing people's hearts and changing people's minds. but the language of politics itself is very rarely moved or shaped or, by that kind of prophecy. because ultimately you need votes and that is a much more in mario cuomo's terms, it's prose and not poetry so part of my challenge as president was campaigning in poetry using a writer's sensibility to describe who we are and what we might be but once you get the governing and i'm dealing with mitch mcconnell and john weiner and ben nelson and robert byrd and sometimes progressives in particular overestimate the degree to which high rhetoric is going to actually move votes. because. >> and what i wanted to add to that and where i wanted to go from there is young people

it's good to talk about james baldwin, and a whole lot of others.e have a coke lot of people that are the real thing. but i've 6 am here. is the peak of the tradition here. >> thank you. my name is our mandala, i want to ask you in light of obama's inauguration speech on thursday heavy can you tell how well he did or not well he did -- undocumented immigrants is a largelyd]0>a marginalized group? >> i appreciate that question. ■ that -- that are dear brother barack obama, he was pressured by the magnificent wave of activism of young emigrant brothers and sisters from all around the country. i was blessed to be a small part of it in arizona, washington d.c.. we marched in from the white house. looked like we had a chance of a snowball in hell at the time. it took him a while to do it. near political calculation, they want to do it before the election. okay he's a politician like any other politician we understand brother barack. we want the moral conviction. i applaud what he did yesterday. i think he should have gone further. folks need benefits, he

it's called "this is the fire," an ode to james baldwin, this is the fire.l come together, how we approach the subject, and how we can actually make things better. we talk about policing and friendship and all kinds of things. and you know what, cheers. so, go, order it on -- if you have the full screen, put it up. amazon, you can preorder my book and your book. >> or in book stores. >> speaking of friends of all different types -- >> love this. anna navarro was good enough to hang out with us. >> hey, boo! >> there's cha-cha. >> happy new year! >> here i am in my regal black pajamas. you aren't going to be the only ones. [ laughter ] >> by the way, it was christmas and it was my birthday and i'm still waiting for the copy of the book. [ laughter ] >> you just had a birthday, what, three, four days ago? >> yeah, i'm the same age as dionne warwick, in my 30s. >> happy 35th. happy 35th. where's al? is al already asleep? >> al is probably watching twilight zone marathon or something like that. you know, we celebrated and we did some of the rituals and superstit

don, i know your new book deals so much with civil rights, and james baldwin, and the like.iden on july 4th, urged americans. he said we're going to rip the roots of systematic racism, and it was an important statement when biden made it. i think tomorrow will be about unity. but i think biden on week two and three will have to be a fighting, happy warrior. we'll have to collectively take on all of the crises and the management that we haven't done properly during the trump administration. >> thank you, the book was number one on amazon today, and it talks about the issues we're dealing with. so i appreciate you mentioning it today. president trump has raised the idea of starting to new political party in recent days. it's unclear how determined he is to do this. but what would that mean for the republican party, and what would that mean for this country, because i think it would mean good news for democrats. they would say, bring it on. because it splits republicans. no? >> i don't know that trump would do that. i think with the party, don, the party just can't be, again, i

and so you know, as james baldwin said i have to be an optimist because i'm alive. the problems we are confronting. the dynamics that produced trump are still very active in this society. the anxiety around immigration, the anxiety around race, the way in which those compound the economy that truthfully does not serve many people, struggling just to get by from day to day. and the way that that has been weaponnized and used to fuel xenophobia, racism and so on. those are very real dynamics and very real problems and they will not be easily defeated but i don't think that they are permanent. and i don't think we have to always preseum that we can't come out. >> trevor: will be be an exciting 12th round, hopefully we get to chat with you again afterwards, jelani cobb, thank you so much for joining me on the show. >> thank you. >> trevor: we're going to take a quick break, we'll be right back after >> that's our show for tonight. but before we g as you know, coronavirus pandemic is as bad as it has ever beenment but luckily our first responders are still out on the fro

james baldwin says, what you have to do to tell you this isn't you does more damage to you than anyoneach this point where we now have people storming the capitol with the confederate flag with swastikas claiming it's their nation because we never had honest conversations. we talk about the fact that george washington had wooden teeth. we talk about how he ripped the teeth out of his -- and put them in his own mouth. >> we debate the stuff, we fight about it. that's what good open democratic culture is. this idea there's some great patriotic education that everyone needs to take in uniform is so offensive to the very democratic underpins of the entire enterprise. >> if we want to have a basic education, we have to base it in fact. i'm not against having a universal understanding but that has to be based in the fact that we are a nation that practiced u.s. chattle slavery for centuries and it has repercussions in every aspect of public safety we have today. >> that is "all in" on this monday, mlk cay. the rachel maddow show starts now. >> good evening, chris. thank you, mitch appreciate

this is what james baldwin says.ve to do to tell yourself this isn't you does more damage to you than anyone else and this is what has been going on in america, and we have reached this point where we now have people storming the capitol with the confederate flag with swastikas essentially claiming it is their nation. we don't talk about the fact that george washington ripped the teeth out of his enslaved africans and put them in his own mouth as his dentures. >> the final point to me that is absurd here is, look, we debate all of this stuff, we fight about it. that's what good, open democratic culture is. people have arguments about history. that's why academic debates exist and there's a million on everything. the idea there's great patriotic education everyone needs to take in uniform is so offensive to the very democratic underpinnings of the entire enterprise of a free people. >> right. well, i mean if you wanted to have a universal education, we just need to base it in fact. >> right. >> so i'm not against havi

she teaches a lot about what james baldwin called the price of a ticket for those african-americans andfrican-american women who achieve success, so it is a labor of love and i'm happy to have been able to write about her life. >> i had the good fortune to meet her. i look forward to reading that they would -- meeting that. beverly, can you tell us about your work? also, the women's studies program. beverly: i started teaching at the angus department in 1971 -- at the english department in 1971. my students -- i would say students anywhere -- had no idea that there had been black women intellectuals, and black women writers. even black women in a civil rights movement. i started my teaching at alabama state university and i did not know, while i was there, that joanne gibson robinson, who also taught at alabama state, founded the women's political council, which was responsible for the montgomery bus boycott. i said to myself, as a member of that department, i don't want my students to leave here without knowing about how robust, amazing black women's literary political and intellectual

no way of knowing more and more i was coming to feel that wait and see wasn't an then you quote james baldwin, there's never a time in the future which we will work out our salvation. the challenge is in the moment. the time is always now. there were people in san francisco who said who are you to run for district attorney? why did you feel it was maybe necessary for you to jump in there and run for district attorney at san francisco? >> in 2003 i decide to run for district attorney at san francisco and challenge and income but the consummate old political family of san francisco. he had been in office for two terms. his nickname is kale because he is known as being a boxer who knock people out. and when i decided to run because i thought that i could do the job better, people said to me, well, nobody like you has ever done this before, we will not be ready for that. or you are too young. why don't you wait some time, or it's not your turn. people would say it's going to be so difficult, so we run away from hard work. i didn't listen. i was all excited, then i were sitting in a room waiting f

i'm inspired by the words of james baldwin, i love america more than any other country in this world. and exactly for this reason i insist on right to criticize perpetually. so, here is my testimony. on june 2nd, 2020, racial justice protesters peacefully gathered at the lincoln memorial to protest the death of george floyd and other black americans at the hand of the police. they were met with row upon row of military police in fatigues and armor, lining the memorial steps. the day before, on june 1st, at least nine military police aircraft hovered in the sky over washington. two helicopters eventually swooped low and attacked usually reserved for combat bones battling the protesters with tropical storm level winds and park police unleashed tear gas and fired rubber bullets to clear a nonviolent crowd from lafayette park so that president trump could stage a photo op. d.c. metropolitan police arrested 315 protesters on june 1st, 2020. the fbi knew that extremists were preparing to travel to washington to commit violent and war on january 6th. the insurrection was openly plotted on so

i will fair -- paraphrase a quote by james baldwin, i can love and work with anyone except for thoseppression and not my humanity as a person. what i can hope we can come together on is how we can get children back to school safely, i have a five-year-old in the background, hopefully he doesn't join us. do wen person, but how get the economy back on track? i get emails from people waiting for unemployment since the summer because they don't have jobs come through no fault of their own. rollout, getting people vaccinated and keeping them safe in the process. i hope those are things we can come together and work on that impact everyone in the country, not just one party. >> thank you so much, congresswoman nick chemo williams. we know that you are waiting for the results as we are watching them here at home. thank you for joining us and for taking your time. >> in georgia, you have a new political voting block that is clearly emerging. we are talking about asian american voters. we discovered the population may be relatively small, but growing at quite the pace, especially among new vo

and i'm recalling now james baldwin's book, the fire next time. and here's what he said about hate.ubbornly is the sense that once their hate is gone, they'll be forced to deal with their pain. and, joe, you were right. politicians and leaders are actually manipulating vulnerable people who need help from the government in order to scapegoat others -- black, brown, asian, immigrants. it's a diversary tactic that has gone on too long. we need profiles of courage. people like sasse and romney to finally have the kind of human accounting that this country needs. >> mr. attorney general, we've heard of about 53 arrests, most for curfew violations in washington. as you look at the pictures yesterday and contemplate what happened yesterday, this morning, why weren't more people arrested? >> well, i think there were two facets, if you will, of the events yesterday. there was the initial gathering and protest. and, of course, march to the capitol. and the incursion on the capitol. federal law enforcement officials should have been prepared for that. i do ask you to go ahead and pull the vid

we learn from martin about the promise of overcoming, from james baldwin about doing the work otherwise path about what he wants you to believe about who we need to beat. take a listen and we'll talk about what he did. >> from now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the capitol's very foundation, we come together as one nation, under god, indivisible to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries. >> this is our historic moment of crisis and challenge and unity is the path forward. and we must meet this moment as the united states of america. if we do that, i guarantee you we will not fail. we have never, ever, ever, ever failed in america when we've acted together. >> the last part is everything. so now he gets to the acting part. how is he going to walk the walk? we saw today a slew of executive orders. actually, we saw yesterday, a slew of executive orders that will carry into today and they are not all about the pandemic. some are. and this will be the early set of challenges. let's go through what he did and