douglas told me like the speech betty walked away. johnson joins lincoln at the reception and i'm going to let frederick douglass. tell the story of what happened next. this is from douglas's 1881 life and times of frederick douglas. so it's about 16 years. later. i was standing in the crowd when mr. lincoln touched mr. johnson appointed me out to him the first expression which came to his face in which i think was the true index of his heart was one of bitter contempt and aversion. seeing that i observed him. he tried to assume a more friendly appearance, but it was too late. it is useless to close the door when all within has been seen. his first glance was the frown of the man. the second was the bland and sickly smile of the demagogue. i turned to this is dorsey douglas is cool, my friend and said whatever andrew johnson may be he certainly is no friend of our race. it's it's a great passage. douglas is a great writer. i am an english professor and i like the metaphor of this idea of a door. sorry. let me go back. oh the door opening and closing showing johnson's true feelings the thing i want to emphasize abo

frederick douglas made reference to lincoln. he always quoted that divine reparations sentence. the one about the 200 years of unrequited toil and every drop of blood drawn with the lash being. paid by another drone with the sword i think in a way that is what is offered to to african-americans. it is an admission of the nation's guilt. it's an acknowledgment that god was all along on the side of the slave. and it's a kind of vision of divine reparations and the fact that frederick douglass so latched on to that passage i think is in isn't indication that he understood what what lincoln was doing there with that with that line. think thank you very much indeed for that and thanks to all of you for this parsing of these. centrally important speeches. it's so meaningful to learn with all three of you. we have just seven minutes left or only constitution center will lose to end on time, but i think that's enough time for one question to each of you and some very brief closing thoughts. so michael brougham bonnie zedek a

welcome to them frederick douglas with paul by this so are other blacks the lincoln invited the first delegation of african americans the white house in august of 1862. he asked them to to rally their communities a free blacks to leave the country. they said mr. president, we're americans where we're going. hey, we're gonna have to get used to us now. it's it's been argued that that lincoln was trying to temper the negative reaction that he expected the emancipation proclamation. he may have just felt that there was such such terrible racism that the communities couldn't live together. he said to that same group of blacks. no community has ever suffered worse harm than my people. he spoke of whites as my people not americans and my people has it on you. nonetheless frederick douglass said despite all the ways in which they or the policies in which they have lincoln said he disagreed with he said he was the first great man as he put it who never may be conscious of the difference of race. without i think we're going to open to some signings if anyone would like to get a book. thank you

author, when is the author writing or saying what is in the document, and what you see here is frederick douglas, who students should be familiar with and should immediately call to mind the abolitionist movement before the civil war and the essential part frederick douglass played in that movement, and so here you have a former enslaved african-american, frederick douglass, os become through the publication of his narrative and through his public speaking, as become a well-known figure for the abolitionist movement to establish that enslaved peoples in the united states were able to promote their own freedom, to argue for it, it was significantly for this document to situate that desire for freedom within the traditions and ideas of the united states itself. while students may not remember douglass is giving this speech in rochester, new york where he was invited to give a fourth of july addressed by local abolitionist. in this regard, students can think about the audience of douglass's speech. it is clear douglass is speaking to a white audience celebrating the fourth of july, and he is situat

my hero frederick douglas once said a man's right rest in three boxes ballot jury box and cartridge boxe constitutional rights. and we have the right to use them all. period. my next guest was a las vegas police officer at the time of rout 91 harvest festival shooting the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. joins me now sir thanks so much for joining the program. you know i'm a reasonable man. we still don't even know the motive of that shooting, sir. and yet we're supposed to disarm ourselves and wait for the cops and our government to protect us? the cops have been demonized as you know sir, and our government officials just simply aren't doing anything. >> well thanks for having me lawrence and i do believe that you know, in this country i have this amazing ability to protect ourselves with firearms. that is guaranteed in our constitution. i think you hit nail on head as you mentioned law enforcement is overstaffed they're underappreciated quite often in many parts of our countries and they do sometimes take 30 seconds to two minutes to get to the location where you're at. and s

action, then nothing is going to change and i'm -- and so many generations before us knew this as frederick douglasggle, there is no progress we have got to begin to hold our congressional leaders more accountable for change >> what role should the white house play here? looks like right now they are standing back and the president is not involved in these talks because he wants to see what happens. we are getting to a point -- i've heard from a lot of democrats on the road sitting there voting rights, nothing hum. gun violence, nothing. abortion rights, nothing how concerned are you that there is not just an appearance any more congress is just functionally inseptember dealing with a major problem, say, in this country. >> frauirst of all, when we say nothing has changed it is a defusing comment because things are changing the kids from parkland and moms demand action, they have changed dozens and dozens of laws around this country and state after state that is making a difference and that movement is growing. i say it's like judging the 1950s civil rights movement as not -- >> this is decades lon

so so all of the wealth in the south, you know frederick douglas is arguing this coming off of the backs of enslaved people. they were making america a reality. so if anybody had steak as americans it was black americans and this was a delicate line for for lincoln because he came to realize along with you know, the agitation of various abolitionists generals philanthropists civilians. he was constantly getting advice from everybody because this is back in a time where presidents like lincoln still meet with people on a week to week basis and hear from the public. it's very different contexts, and we're used to now so he he definitely had to be dragged along to that to that stands and for him. i think the process of enabling it as a war measure under the powers that he had as commander in chief was the way that he could square this this strategy essentially a military tactic that he recognized had value and i think is best expressed perhaps by somebody like henry halleck to grant in march 1863 by saying that every slave removed from the is a white man taken from the battlefield for the c

lincoln prize winning biography a few years ago frederick douglass has moved back to the front of the conversation. so i want to i want to talk about douglas a little bit and maybe use some of the last of our time to to dig deep on frederick douglass and abraham lincoln. now they may have had the most controversial relationship. i think of any african-american historical figure and lincoln. i've i've seen the exact same quotes from douglas used to prove that douglas liked lincoln or douglas hated lincoln, right? so before we talk about the specific meetings or anything like that, can you tell us about what do what do we think or what have we thought about douglas and lincoln and why has that been so controversial? that's a great question. i think a lot of what we think about douglas and lincoln comes from douglas's speech at the dedication of the lincoln statue in washington dc which of course has gotten a lot of media in the last two years is the one that shows lincoln towering over an enslaved man who's rising up from bondage and it was paid for entirely by former slaves started off by charlotte scott a slave from lynchburg, virginia who

new york 1954 on the fourth of july and his speech has been equated a lot of times to the frederick douglass douglas. speech. what is the fourth of july to a black man? same concept? what does the fourth of july mean to an indigenous person? so john quinney gives this great speech and i want to leave you with this and i want you to think on it and i want you to meditate it meditate on it because it means so much. my friends your holy book the bible. teaches us that individual offenses are punished in an existence when time shall be no more. and the animals of the earth are equally instructive that national wrongs are avenged national crimes atoned for in this world to which alone the confirmation of existence adapts them. these events are above our comprehension and for a wise purpose. for myself and for my tribe i ask for justice. i believe it will sooner or later occur. and may the great good spirit enable me to die in hopes. thank you very much for including me. i look forward to your questions and i turn this over to my next elder joe baker. thank you. thank you very much heather joe. hello, eve

and lots of people know about lincoln's interaction with frederick douglass, because douglas would describe them in his autobiographies to some detail. but little has been done about lincoln's interaction with other black people. and so, thanks to the enormous utility of modern word searchable newspaper databases, i was able to dig up a lot of new information. i got everything on print that needs to be updated, thanks to be databases. and so, what i found is that both in springfield and in washington, lincoln interacted with a large number of black people, all of whom commented on how respectful he was, how kind and how generous we. and it was not just courtesy. it was also gestures, actions based on appeals that they made that indicates to my way of thinking that lincoln was instinctive a racial egalitarian. >> fascinating, thank you so much for that and thank you for calling our attention to the tremendous significance of digitized primary text, which have indeed transformed historical research and our understanding of lincoln. no feldman, you've argued so powerfully in your book that the

lots of people know about lincoln's interaction with frederick douglass, because douglas would describe them in his autobiographies to some detail, little have been down about lincoln's interaction with other black people. thanks to the enormous utility of modern word searchable newspaper databases, i was able to dig up a lot of information. everything in print needs to be updated thanks to these databases! thanks -- what i found was both in springfield and in washington, lincoln interacted with a large number of black people. all of whom commented on how respectful he was. how kind and generous, it wasn't just courtesy. it was gestures, and actions, based on appeals that they may. it indicates to my way of thinking that lincoln was and instinctive ratio egalitarians. >> fascinating, thank you so much for that. thank you for calling our attention to the tremendous significance of digitize primary text. it has indeed transformed historic resort and indeed aren't standing of lincoln. we noah feldman you argue so powerfully in your book that the original constitution of 1787 was broken. as

well grant was spoused by frederick douglass even more than douglas espous lincoln. doug frederick douglass campaigned for grant in both 1868 and 1872 and i'm reminded of the story that at the end of the election in 1872 a group of african americans from philadelphia came to the white house and they said they wanted to come to thank president grant what they said was you are the first president elected by the whole people you represent finally that epitome of our republican values. well grant responded and he said well i fully empathize with what you're saying. it seems to me that every person should have a right to travel on any conveyance railroad that they want and then he made this really remarkable statement, but i believe that every american should have the right to vote. because when ron talks about the ku klux klan, they're real effort was to stop the voting. this was voter suppression. this is a white terrorist organization to stop voter suppression of why because they would vote republican. they would vote 80 to 90 percent republican. so grant then goes on t

frederick douglass? so ellis was actually close to douglas particularly after she was exiled from memphis. she can went into his circle she became friends with his second wife and was able to work with him. they collaborated on a protest pamphlet against the exclusion of african americans from the 1893 chicago world's fair the colombian exposition celebrating 400 years of american progress and exceptionalism. and because african americans had been systematically excluded from any of the fair's exhibits only the only non-white people who are allowed to participate in the fair where those who were in the midway exhibits showing the evolution of societies from primitive hunter-gatherer societies up to the great achievements of white americans as you entered into the main exhibition halls of what was literally called the white city. and and so they created a protest pamphlet that wells wrote a substantial portion of she signed her name to the article on lynch law which was most closely associated with her but she also probably wrote if not all substantial portions of the chapter on racial segr

frederick douglass. in 1852, in a famous speech entitled whose fourth of july, ask america if he had a share in the nation's inheritance. douglas was cautiously hopeful about the prospect america might be faithful to the founding rentals and grant liberty and equality to his people, but he had to plead with his audience because of the gravity of the circumstance, a country not standing up to its own ideals. that was in the 1850's. the question douglas posed, which was open at the time, has been answered by history, as a black american intellectual, i can say without equivocation in 2021 that the fourth of july, like george washington, like thomas jefferson and abraham lincoln is ours. these things belong to me, a descendant of slaves, just as much as they do to any other american. the question concerning us black americans today, the fundamental existential question, is not whether we are included within the body politic as full heirs to the bequest of american political culture most emphatically we are, today's question for us american descendants of slaves is not how to battle oppression rather what shall we do with our freed

frederick douglass. he cannot stand on his own ways. all i o ask is given the chanceo stand on his own legs let him alone and then you said mark douglas argues to achieve in every avenue of american life without the meddling of university w administrators. >> that might have been the leaked version. [laughter] >> they are telling us what we need and there are some really goodme insights that the observation that they are not allowing us to exile. i am enormously blessed that i was allowed in high school, very challenging high school to exile so what does it do once you excel in that environment, you take on the next challenge is and they take that away. some years ago i was with some of my college classmates from holy cross and one of them a really great guy he'd gone to stanford law school and a holy y cross had g strict gratings. we were having lunch a number of us and he said do you realize you are in a higher class than i did and how does it feel not to have your achievements a discounted? i think unfortunately, that's what they are doing is taking away the chance to excel by taking away the rules. i was fortunate in high school and the