tonight's program frederick douglass is a matthew mike lecture in biography for fall 2018 it was in honor of a man of great intellect and passion specifically that i would like to thank the entire family for the generous support of this lecture series. [applause] as well as your ongoing support we do two of these per year so keep your eye out this spring for the next. i would also like to thanks to our trustee and all the councilmembers who have all the great work and support but also we had former governor assistant governor david paterson in the off - - in the audience tonight. [applause] welcome. the program will last an hour and also including question and answer session those will be written questions on notecards if you come into the auditorium if you didn't receive a pencil and notecards staff will go through to give you one or swing by later to collect and also a book signing following the program that will take place in the main smith gallery and books will also be for sale and we hope you turn out for that. now welcome david back to the historical society in addition to be a tru

one of the things he does in the summer of 1864 is call frederick douglass to the white house. in a private conversation with douglas, he talks over this momentous scheme to have douglas had a network of recruiters or messengers, black men whose job it would be to go into the south behind confederate lines and give news of the emancipation proclamation to slaves far from the scenes of battle and far from the lines of the union army. and to encourage them to run for federal lines. what you have in 1864 is abraham lincoln talking over a plan of a massive slave runoff that is not so dissimilar from what frederick douglass had discussed at times with john brown in the 1850s. again, the radicalism of the change that is wrong over the course of the war. the point is, lincoln is thinking he's going to lose, he also sees that most slaves still remain enslaved. upwards of 500,000 enslaved men and women runaway to union lines during the war. the vast majority remained behind confederate lines during the war. the vast majority did not reach union lines or come within the union lines as th

the actions flew in the face of celebrated black abolitionists frederick douglass and william wells brown. advocatedd brown temperance, like prominent reformers who believed of staining from alcohol could improve the individual and the nation. douglas and brown further argued that alcohol function as a cheap release that rob black men of their will to resist oppression. slave men understood drunkenness as a means of liberation, and slaves in the army continued indulging in this protest. during slavery, enslaved men and women escaped the totalizing oppression of plantations by throwing parties beyond controlling masters. the parties allowed enslaved people to take control of their bodies in ways that the slave owners did not intend. women reclaimed their bodies primarily through dressing up. donnedn fancy close -- fancy clothes like white women. and even alcohol, though it broke from the thinking of important black individuals -- soldiers continued to use alcohol as a means of liberation. whiskey alsoter -- freed his body. being captured by police and civilians clothes after new orleans ni

few upheld and jefferson davis less i forget that there was another view advanced by others frederick douglass and abraham lincoln and this was for the fourth of july talking about the declaration of independence but he talks about the constitution as a glorious liberty document. as lincoln said in the course of ultimate extinction. it was that argument more than any other in the crisis that led to the republican party come abraham lincoln for the presidency subsequent debates this emerges as the most accurate. it is praiseworthy but misleading. a woeful misreading. lincoln and douglas were correct about the crucial matter, the exclusion of property in man and came closer to what the framers had done that when william lloyd garrison and this is not just an academic fine point for understanding why lincoln and douglas were correct, political and constitutional history from the revolution to the civil war that is profoundly different into the matter of property and van and the constitutional status was the central question back in 2013, professor gates invited me to give lectures which is about

read publicly, even in churches so that jordan anderson along with articles about haiti and frederick douglass -- it radicalizes things. reading the bible itself or yourself was radical. now, here were all of these black political figures that overnight showed children they have a chance. lydia marie childs' vision and that of jordan anderson was moving faster than congress was. you know the movie "lincoln" -- they dramatically pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery right at beginning of 1865, january 1865, but it takes almost a whole year to get it ratified. kentucky is a holdout. the union holdout. trying to preserve slavery until the last. finally, in 1865, that 13th amendment -- but it has to come in stages. three consecutive amendments. the 14th amendment because you have a radical republican majority in congress that overrides andrew johnson and the presidency and we of the 14th amendment ratified in 1868. which grants citizenship. and then have the 15th amendment ratified in 1870 which gives african-american men the vote. of course, it will take another 50 years to give women the vo

as frederick douglass reminded us, our can mean nothing without demand. you know that. you know that. so are you fired up and ready to go? are you fired up and ready to go? are you fired up and ready to go? all right. senator bernie sanders, thank you for being with us. applause]d bernie!e, bernie, senator sanders: thank you. thank you, berkeley. i am honored and pleased to be here today at this great group of people. thank you all very much for being here. for electing one of the great progressive leaders , not only in california, but in the united states of america, my good friend barbara lee. i am here today for one simple endon, and that is we must one-party reactionary rule in washington. four years ago in america, we had the lowest voter turnout in this country since world war ii. [boos] senator sanders: a lot of working people do not vote. people of color did not vote. and young people did not vote in very strong numbers. in fact, throughout this country, almost two out of three americans did not vote. koch brothers the and other billionaires bought hundreds of m

african-american leader frederick douglass declared the right to vote was the keystone of the arch ofhuman liberty. it became clear to the majority that the constitution should include a new amendment guaranteeing the the right to vote, and that becomes the 15th amendment. the constitution now defines the new birth of freedom. citizenship and the right to vote. with citizenship secured by the 14th amendment and the right to vote with the 15th amendment, african americans can protect themselves from their former owners through the rule of law, by standing for political office, and could choose their own leaders with free debate and honest ballot. with citizenship and voting rights in the 14th and 15th amendment, black political participation mushroomed. voting was soon followed by office holding, also state legislative seats in states. several statewide officers, particularly mississippi and louisiana, two black mississippians and 14 -- were u.s. senators and 14 served in the house. they were almost entirely republican and joined by white allies in the republican party. i'm just going

look at this week's new releases continues with history professor david blight's biography of frederick douglass in cyber war, kathleen hall jamison, director of the university of pennsylvania's annenberg public policy center, weighs in on russia's interference in the 2016 election. and in "we are the nerds," journalist christine chafkin reports on the growth and culture of the web site reddit. hook for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on booktv on c-span2. ♪ >> on constitution day c-span visited the national constitution center in philadelphia where we asked folks, what does it mean to be american? >> i'm home, you know? you know, when you feel like you're at home, so you feel like you're comfortable to live here. >> well, for me what it meant was that i was blessed to have been born in a country, one of the countries with the most freedom for people, for all people to pursue happiness in life and joy with your families and a living. >> freedom to pursue your dreams and opportunities. friendship, getting along with everybody here i

during black history month, this black history month celebration, president trump said that frederick douglassas a man who was being recognized more and more. then at his rally tonight, he was raving about black unemployment numbers and telling black people to vote for him. how can he be an advocate for people of color if he doesn't even understand the history? >> he really can't be, and i don't think most americans of all colors are not going to be persuaded this time. i think they've had enough. you know, the president keep mischaracterizing history. he can't keep not being concerned about facts or using, you know, mischaracterization of facts. he can't keep doing that. time is up. people are going to go to the polls, and i think a lot of people are going to demonstrate that they understand. they're tired of hearing the mischaracterizations. >> michael higginbotham, i wish we had more time. our time is up. thank you very much. have a good weekend. >> always a pleasure. >>> new reports tonight that saudi journalist jamal khashoggi may have recorded his own death on his apple watch. with mount

that is why you see -- at least one of the reasons you see -- frederick douglass settle in rochester and publishes newspapers in rochester. the first women's rights convention was in seneca falls, which is a little further down the erie canal. were the moral crusaders that had come out of the revivals. i want to turn to what is probably best known and one of the most imaginative out of all of these characters. a young man by the name of joseph smith. smith was from a very poor family. like many of the settlers along the canal, they lived in new england. they had a farm in vermont. and they lost their farm. and i mentioned the tedious work that went into creating a farm out of a forest. if you could not pay your mortgage, you did not get credit for all that work. all the improvements went back to the owner of the land. so when you lost the farm, you lost 7, 8, 10 years of labor. worklabor, 14 hours of every day. suddenly, it was gone. down to a city which straddles the canal. they went to work doing day labor. hard labor, saving money. his mother painted oilcloth to try to sell to peo

frederick douglass lived there, the famous abolitionist. >> jimmy: yeah. >> it was a safe haven for slaveshey'd come up using the underground railroad. they get there, they'd get them on boats. get them to canada. and these people would live free. and that was insane for me to find out because i was like how did they convince black people to get back on boats? that's like -- [ laughter ] it's mind-boggling. you couldn't tell me that was a a smooth process every single time. >> jimmy: yeah, yeah, i guess so, yeah. yeah, they probably -- yeah. >> you have to be hella convincing, jimmy. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: you would have to be, yeah. >> you guys, it's 2 2018 and black people, we still don't mess with water. >> jimmy: no, no, you really don't. no, that's not one of your -- [ laughter ] >> so that's why i love traveling because, like, i learn things -- i've been everywhere. the andy warhol museum in one city you go. it's just learning america is what i enjoy. >> jimmy: how about outside of america when you go because you've done different continents. >> yeah. >> jimmy: you've done -- i mean

i think a lot about the speech that frederick douglass gave in 1894 shortly before his death to an audience of schoolchildren in manassas, virginia, black school children. think about everything that he had achieved that had been undone. he fought for emancipation, for abolition, emancipation and equal rights. and by 1894, the civil war has been won, emancipation happened. but jim crowe has taken over. the south wins the peace. there's violent segregation and an epidemic of lynching. and he tells these schoolchildren to hope, that what is necessary in challenging times and the more challenging the times are is to do the hard work of figuring out where hope lies. >> jill lepore, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you for having me, walter. >>> and in these bitter times, it is always instructive to know how americans were able to overcome historic divisions and in the aftermath of today's resignation by ambassador nikki haley join me tomorrow for my exclusive interview with james melville, the respected u.s. ambassador to estonia who has resigned his post because he feels he can no

he became so engaged about the legacy of frederick douglass, for instance, that i ended up with thatappointment. when we said he does not see color and he does not see gender , that almost is colorblind and colorblind means you need glasses, it means you can't see. blind is not good, blind as bad. i chuckled a minute ago when you said he sees green. ,he other one he sees is red because he says i don't care what color are skin is, we all bleed the same. in my representation of what i believe, i actually believe the president appreciates things like gender and ethnic histories and things like that, but he does not want to have those indeed. now and i misinterpreting that? so he can see, but it does not tear us apart, it unifies us. i don't want to get too far past that. what do you think? >> that is a great point. it was something i was reflecting on yesterday. that president trump used a lot on the campaign and it is a word that people don't really seem to say very much anymore and certainly you did not hear it said very much in politics. in politics, usually what you heard and partic

[laughter] frederick douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. [laughter] [applause] america i was driving when i heard you die they swerved into a ditch and left into the dream i dreamed unconscious in the ditch. america i dream you must believe your body and anybody and stood beside. you try to claw your way back into the ditch and begin to wail and weep and match your teeth and my tears beat yours in the ditch, america. they carry me down the stream. a slave on the run and egyptian queen even in my dream. i want to say thank you a whole lifetime worth of thank you's to carry louis gates junior not only for his beautiful introduction which i must somehosomehow learned to treasue because he spoke it in this belief because it can't be true. i think them not only for his introductions but also for choosing along with the other members of the jury my books for the anisfield-wolf book award. but i think endlessly steven pinker and simon for the same reasons. i can't imagine even one person reading any of my book books let alone find p

he was looking at the experience and became so engaged about the legacy of frederick douglass that i ended up with that appointment. when we say that he doesn't see color and gender that almost as colored shirt-- colorblind and that means you need glasses meaning you can't see because blind is not good. it's bad. i chuckled a minute ago when you said he sees green so that is one color. the other when he sees his red because he says i don't care what color our skin is, we bleed the same. in my representation of what i believe i believe the president appreciates things like gender and ethnic histories and things like that but he doesn't want to have those impeded. am i misinterpreting that? he can see but it doesn't tear us apart. unified us. i don't want to get too far pass that. what do you think? >> that's a great point and was something i was reflecting on yesterday. there's a word that he uses and used a lot in the campaign. it's a word that people don't really seem to say very much. certainly you did not hear it said much in politics because usually what you heard in particularly

if you read frederick douglass, you will see that he fights a duel. when he stands up to the slave breaker, he is given over a slave breaker who will beat him and with him until he says comes and takes on the role of an enslaved person. douglas said i am going to stand up. and douglas his mind he does a fight if you read the section of douglas his autobiography carefully, he says, from that time on i ceased to be a slave. he sees that is the moment of his liberation. he is technically a slave. no one knows the person he is fighting with. that is the case with douglas. it's a complicated story. think about this. the message of resisting, the methods of resisting slavery -- slave rebellions. that is what nat turner is all about and other people who engage. someone like nat turner gives up his life. if nat turner is the guy who is willing to die in order to attack slavery, this is a challenge they don't normally get. when you run away you are not risking your life in a way that not turner risked his life. from the master class point of view, all these me

frederick douglass was well aware and said the fugitive slave law is the greatest gift to the anti-slavery movement we have yet received. he also said the best way to stop slave catching is to slip -- kill a slave catcher. >> from your work, from the stories that you vote, the cne perspective that we have not covered yet? if you convince yourself that you are not complicit in crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated in the society of which you belong, you are letting yourself off the hook too easily. they were complicit before 1850. the textile industry depended on slave grown cotton. everyone was walking around clothes made by slaves. to bed one night, good, compromise unionists and woke up the next morning as stark mad abolitionist because the flavor problem had come to boston. somewhere, i would like to think that he realized his hands were not cleaned before then either. responsibility. whether we needed -- whether we live near the mexican border or not. as citizens, we have to figure out how to act, who to vote for, who to support and what to do to arrive at a rational, huma

word moderate often gets attached to him, and he was moderate compared to charles sumner and frederick douglass, they were frustrated with him. come was so moderate, how when he was elected, seven slave states said, we are out of their -- we are out of here? the way i talk to my students about it is the southerners read him right. when he said, i am placing slavery in the path of ultimate extension, it might not have been fast enough for those of us who think it should been extirpated immediately but they took him at his word in that regard. that tells you something about what he was about. andblackett: the irony, history is full of ironies. the irony is if the slaveholders had stayed put, they would not have lost their slaves. they go to war, and as a result, they lose their slaves. so that was a dumb policy. the point of: from view of self-interest, it was definitely dumb. prof. pinsker: let's open this up to the audience. representatives will take around microphones. raise your hand if you want to ask a question, and make sure you wait until the microphone gets to you before you start speaki

do we want to silence frederick douglass, or do we believe in the power of rhetoric and persuasion to challenge hegemonic power. so i think again, the core problem here is the victim knowledge he narrative, but is definitely having consequences in how we define speech. and just to finish, as eugene probably brought up, to say well, we have not seen six dozen instances of somebody challenging racial preferences being shut it down, that is because there is a massive informal censorship going on on campuses. most professors have their heads down. there are a very few remarkably courageous students who are willing to stand up and challenge the orthodoxies. i can guarantee you and promise you that fewer and fewer people are willing to suggest themselves to what brett weinstein and nicholas crist august experienced at yale and evergreen state university. >> if i could just respond very briefly. we are really in agreement about the need to protect all speech including offensives, and why that is important for people who do not have power, for more than anyone else. what i'm talking about is

. >> frederick douglass achieved the american dream, all those women who thought for women's suffragejapanese were interned in the 1940s were more american than anyone could have imagined. i would argue that people who fight for full citizenship by legality or dignity, that is what the black lives matter movement is about, dignity. i would argue all of us fighting for full citizenship are defining what america is in this country. [applause] >> i agree with josÉ and i really do think we have the power to make sure that everyone in this country reaches their full potential and live the life that they deserve. and i really hope you keep working hard toward your dreams, that you don't give up and someday very very soon we will all do the right thing for you and support you and continue to make sure you do achieve the dream you are working so hard for. [applause] >> unfortunately i think we only have time for one more question but there will be a book signing at 11:00 i want to remind everybody of. >> thank you both for sharing your really powerful stories with us. in addition to the quest

we just finished four weeks on figures of reconstruction, frederick douglass, charles bingham, callie house, the african-american seamstress who advocated for rights, telling the stories in the podcast in this exhibit about the civil war is a great way to connect. it is crucial and if we can do that, i think will you -- we will be in great shape. >> he has a very sexy story. >> i guess we can tell it, it is only c-span. he has a wooden leg and the story was he jumped out of a window after a carriage accident -- >> husband came home. >> he lost his leg and i think it was jon adams who said he wish -- wished he lost another. he was searching for the original, more perfect union. >> we have the beginning, right here. >> he married nancy randall who -- he was quite the character. you can do something with him. let's talk about the many modern depictions of lbj and movies, how does the librarian's foundation respond, if at all, especially when i stray from the truth. >> there are three dramatic depictions in recent years, a film called rob reiner called lbj with woody harrelson playing lbj

was looking at the experience and all of that and he became so engaged about the legacy of frederick douglass, for instance, that i ended up with that appointment. when we say he doesn't see color and he doesn't see gender, that almost says color blind. and color blind means you need glasses. it means you can't see because blind is not good. blind is bad. so i chuckled a minute ago when you said he sees green. so that is one color. the other one he sees is red because he says, i don't care what color our skin is. we all bleed the same. so in my representation of what i believe, i actually believe the president appreciates things like gender and ethnic history and things like that but he doesn't want them to impedes. so he can see but it doesn't tear ah paus apart. it unifies. what do you think on that? >> this is something i was reflecting on just yesterday because when -- there's a word that president trump uses, and he used it a lot on the campaign, and it's a word that people don't really seem to say very much anymore. and certainly you didn't hear it said very much in politics because in