lincoln and frederick douglass. now in our next presenter's book, he tells the little known story of how two american heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship and how that process changes the entire course of history. i am pleased talking to the stage new york times the best-selling author and fox news host mr. brian kilmeade. as much as as much as i enjoy the standing ovation when you start with a standing ovation, you'd only go backwards. so that's what i worry. so i appreciate everybody being here tonight. i've never been invited to a book festival. so to be invited was great to have a book ready to go with fantastic, and i'm so glad everything lined up to be here in a beautiful saturday, and there's no kentucky basketball scrimmage that's keeping all of you busy. that would allow you to show up. but i think we have a few things in common. i don't care about politics. i think we all love the country. we also know where we come from has not been perfect. it's not been a straight line, but we always get

when justice quotes frederick douglass, the famous quote, "leave us alone," and he also quotes frederick douglass in one of my favorite opinions of justice thomas. education means freedom, life and liberty. he also talks about consequences . other examples i can think of, in the mcdonald case, the second amendment incorporation case, he talks about the need to disarm poor black people at the time, the ratification of the 14th amendment, and now he talks about consequences -- the court can safely say this is unconstitutional because members of the court to not live in the neighborhoods where people are going to suffer lives. i think in some sense, you can call that the highlighting of consequence, also like shaming. not that those consequences are driving his decisions. he is telling -- he has never had justice scalia's sharp tongue. he has never said anyone should put a bag over their head. these interesting cases, particularly race cases, but also about average, ordinary americans that will suffer from mistakes he feels the court is making, he is not afraid to say we do not live in the

so went back and did a recording of "the narrative of the life of frederick douglass," which is kinddst of all the race discourse that's going on now, it's really brilliant perspective on some of the drivers that have -- have brought our country to where it is and douglass is just brilliant, just brilliant so check that out. it's really, you know -- because look, black history month just ended, so what better time than now to check out frederick because it's american history, after all, you know? >> seth: it is american history. and the biggest mistake i think anyone makes is slotting black history into one month when it's, you know -- it's crazy to think that it belongs in one place. >> yeah, because, you know, black folks didn't do the slavery thing by themselves, you know >> seth: yeah. >> you know? [ laughter ] it took a village, as they say, or took a nation so, yeah, so check that out, if only for the appendix alone, which is just stunning he, like -- he like, dissects the hypocrisy of slavery in america like a surgeon at a hog slaughter. it's just unreal it's just piercing so,

and again frederick douglass said it john lewis said it. mandela said it. they all said without free speech as john lewis said the civil rights movement would have been a bird without wings, but i think that that message is being lost. i think we're losing that battle internationally. do you what's your dad? no, i i tend to yeah and maybe especially in democracies. unfortunately, i think that you know in a lot of of states where they face censorship and repression they intuitively get that that you know free speech restrictions will harm the the powerless more more than anyone else, but but i think this this idea is is really unfortunately and and and and i don't know the best way to counter it. hopefully, you know a historical approach and awareness of what went before is part of is part of the solution, but i would also, you know, look at europe, you know free speech restrictions in hungary and poland are actively being used against the lgbt+ community. for instance that that should tell you something and and and and so so and so so and you know look at t

an american slave by frederick douglass. currently reading as she mentioned a minute ago the bible the new international version. harlem shuffle colson whitehead's new book the sweet fly paper of life by roy decar carava and langston hughes beaufort delaney and james baldwin through the unusual door. this is edited by stephen wick swing times by zadie smith and the price of the ticket by james baldwin mr. baldwin's name came up three times. on your list cheryl cash and why is that? well, nobody beats james baldwin is a you know 20th century writer for for me. for the power of his language for the truth-telling it would and and his own emotion and passionate would just jump off off the page, you know. i've worked very very hard fifth book. to be a writer and to be a good writer who's i have literary ambitions and you know, i find myself going back to baldwin and he he was also a writer who was engaged with the civil rights movement engaged with the civil rights of his time. i i try to be so he's inspires me on so many levels,

congress must reauthorize the violence against women acts and the frederick douglass -- act and fully fund the ashon day alert act. finally, we must enact the act introduced by congresswoman tally. we must work together to confront and tracey this pressing problem. the core function of government is to protect the safety and security of the people. that's the essence of the social contract. we have to secure and fortify the social contract for women of color all across america. i look forward to hearing the testimony of the witnesses today. and i yield back to you, ms. kelly. >> thank you. with that, i now recognize the distinguished ranking member, ms. mays for an opening statement. >> thank you chairwoman kelly and thank you chairman raskin as well. you look great. i am glad to see you are doing. i thank the chairman for holding today's hearing on such an important issue. in my hometown of goose neek south carolina two years ago in september of '19 there was a huge human trafficking and sex trafficking bust. these issues are happening all over our country unbeknownst to many today.

you know frederick douglass. purged black men to join the civil war on the union side because he was convinced that if they did their standing in the country would be as regular citizens and w would be too boy said the same thing in world war one and neither of them got any credit. in fact, what happened was when they came home and uniform they were met by white terrace who said where that uniform again, and you will die. and that happened to one of the people that i'm that i write about. oh you want to write you want to talk about isaac woodard at this point indeed. let's let's do isaac woodard was a he went in as a private came home as a tech sergeant. he was working with a with a an all black unit in in the on the pacific fit in the pacific theater. and when he came home. was on a bus. going home to winnsboro, south carolina, north carolina. where his wife was waiting for? and he when they made a stop he had to go to the bathroom and so he told the driver i need to go to the bathroom. and the driver said no. a

so for example frederick douglass a famous abolitionist had escaped slavery in maryland and was still sought after by his former master and a group of abolitionists paid. his master to free him and mott saw that as a unprincipled stand because no human should be able to be sold. so she and her her group never used their money to pay for a slaves enslaved people to earn their freedom. which is kind of a a principled stand but if you were a former slave, i'm not sure you would have agreed to that principled stand certainly douglas didn't right. yeah, megan. um, so by personal relationships she mean that? it's kind of hard for a woman to go out and protest and reform when her own husband is opposed to the cause. yes, i think that would be part of it. you know, you had to have a husband who agreed and and if you were a true woman you should have been able to you know, pursue your own moral callings and that would be an example of what she's talking about and about how women can't reach their own sphere until they are let go by you know, but by the oppression of the household, yeah, lindse

i think that -- you know, frederick douglass encouraged black men to join the civil war on the union side because he was convinced that if they did, their standing in the country would be as regular citizens. and wb due boys said the same thing in world war i. and neither of them got any credit. in fact, what happened was when they came home in uniform, they were met by white terrorists who said, wear that uniform again, and you will die. and that happened to one of the people that i write about. >> do you want the talk about isaac woodard at this point? >> indeed. let's do. isaac woodard was a -- he went in as a private, came home as a tech sergeant. he was working with a -- an all-black unit in the -- on the pacific -- in the pacific theater. and when he came home, he was on a bus going home to winnsboro second quarter -- north carolina, where his wife was waiting for him and he -- when they made a stop, he had to go to the bathroom. he told the driver, i need to go to the bathroom. and the driver said, no. and -- in fact he said, no, god damn it. and isaac woodard said, talk the m

constitute the present day american color line again in the old days of frederick douglass booker t, washington and wb the boys this cast line was bold and clearly marked. today it has become blurred and it's often ignored until this inward moment occurs. you see this is what i found in my work. the white space when the anonymous black person enters the white space others there immediately try to make sense of him or her. to figure out who that is what the game the sense of the nature of the person's business. whether they need to be concerned. in the absence of routine social contact with black people stereotypes stimulating from the iconic ghetto. often rule white perceptions placing almost any unknown black person, especially a young male at a social distance. the anonymous black person is immediately burdened with a deficit of credibility and symbolically relegated to the iconic ghetto with all its pejorative. connotations. most often erc a signifies trouble and security may be summoned. now such states such stereotypes persist not because of the individual's merit as a person bu

and to be clear, when i say the humanities, and western civilization, that is frederick douglass as much as it is george washington. can the humanities be saved? if so, how? >> i guess i will start. you had me at shakespeare. your version of it. can the humanities be saved? that assumes that they are lost, and i'm not sure that that is the case. i think what dostoevsky said, that beauty will save the world -- we live in a world that is desperate to be saved, and so we are turning, i think instinctively, toward this set of disciplines that we think of as the humanities. to find something that we are missing. universities have increasingly turned in the other direction. if the purpose of university is job placement, we should not have a university. there is a much more efficient way to put young people in jobs than to make them go through four years of coursework and getting into debt, to have their starting job. the purpose of the university is additive. that is, as young people are reaching their maturity, we have an opportunity to turn them into critical thinkers, those who understand t

so heavily and so, you know, i quote a letter that frederick douglass wrote to washington newspaper after the day after the dedication of the friedman's memorial complaining about its representation of a black man is more like an animal than a man. so so people have been a spotting the issues in a problematic statues since they went up it's just that those voices have been effectively squashed through very concerted campaigns to shape what vision of history gets taught especially to american school children. so in the early 20th century the united daughters of literacy a confederate heritage group would do things like ask school boards to stamp unfair to the south in textbooks that they thought. for example a tributed the war to slavery rather than states rights. so i think what we are seeing now is not suddenly new complaints or new defenses. it's just a change in in perceptions and and sort of coming out into public because one side is not so successfully too much down on all right. and and yeah, so i think i have seen a lot of analysis of statue protests with commentators thinking that

for alabama to send as a delegate because it was unlikely that he was going to be you know, frederick douglass or somebody who was a little bit more antagonistic. so booker t. washington gets gets the invitation in my story on the right is quanah parker who's for all intensive purposes one of the major figures in the comanche tribe. he too was a major figure in the at the turn of the 20th century. he might have been he'd likely would have been invited the guy on the left is a congress member from from tennessee. i'll talk about in a second a guy named fetus sims congress member from tennessee. so what would they have? what would they have talked about in 1903? well, they're going to talk about a lot of things right. they're gonna talk about monopolies. they're going to talk about the economic collapse of the 1890s, but one of the interesting things they would have a constitutional convention in 1903 would have talked about is the vote for women. why because it's yes, it's not for almost 20 more years that the amendment comes in in tradition in historical times, but the the franchise for women

frederick douglass. harriet tubman, i hear you going back to the belly of the beast.te brother, john brown. let you know it's not just a function of skin pigmentation. it's ethical cultivation. you got a whole lot of black folk who love everybody but black people. oh, yeah. we talking about morality and spirituality. i'm going in the hole with john brown. might not have the same rhythm i got, that's all right. his heart is in the right place. pleasant gave him $600,000. that was the note he had in his pocket when he was executed from the san francisco, the godmother of human rights, not just of california, but the country. there is greatness. if we lose sight of the examples of greatness, we fall into despair, but also forms of success where we're well adjusted to injustice. i want to be maladjusted. >> wow. >> well adopted to indifference. and indifference is one trait that makes the very angels weep. the city has been evil itself. you're turning your back on the vulnerable. you see your brother and sister on the corner. so many of them on the corner. i had a long di

between abraham lincoln and frederick douglass. now in our next presenter's book, he tells the little known story of how two american heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship and how that process changes the entire course of history. i am pleased talking to the stage new york times the best-selling author and fox news host mr. brian kilmeade. as much as as much as i enjoy the standing ovation when you start with a standing ovation, you'd only go backwards. so that's what i worry. so i appreciate everybody being here tonight. i've never been invited to a book festival. so to be invited was great