. >> you mentioned earlier paul robison from your new book, "paul robeson: the artist as revolutionary. you write, you cannot fully appreciate how the jim crow system came to an end without an understanding of the life of paul robison. robison pioneered the struggle against jim crow throughout the 30s and 40s. >> guest: that is true despite the fact that i wrote it. that is to say that paul robison, bracco marketing bourne passed away in philadelphia in 1976, leading scholar as an undergraduate at rutgers university in brunswick, new jersey or his stars at the, baseball catcher in athletics generally turn on the spare and goes to columbia university and graduate on the fast track to becoming a lawyer but is diverted although i should say that he also is an early reformer of professional foot tall. but his career as a lawyer was diverted and he stumbles to performance and becomes a leading actor, a kind of precursor of denzel washington or will smith if you like. not only on the silver screen, but also on stage of several signature roles. a good deal of starter is created and wondered w

reality on the ground.of the l >> host: you mentioned earlier paul robinson from your new book, paul robisonthe artist is revolutionary, you're right, you cannot fully appreciate how the jim crow system came to an end without an understanding of the life of paul robinson. robinson pioneered the struggle against jim crow throughout the 30s and 40s. >> guest: that is true. despite the the fact that i wrote it. that is to stay that paul robinson, black american born born in new jersey in 1988 passing away of philadelphia in 1976, leading scholar as an undergraduate of rockers university where he starts in the gridiron at stars as a baseball catcher. he leaves there and goes to columbia university graduates. he was on the fast track of becoming a lawyer but is diverted, although i should say that he also was an early performer and professional football. his career is diverted and he stumbles into performing. becomes a leading actor, a kindr of precursor of denzel washington, and will smith if you like. not only like. not only on the screen but also on stage, a fellow is his signature role. a goo

once that point was raised, paul robison became ousted. they took away his all-american. they are braced him off the list at princeton. then mohammed ali did the same thing. he said this isn't just a problem of black people, this is a systemic problem. i was wondering if -- what is the message? is the message that what we are trying to explain to people is that racism hurts all workers and we need to build a united movement to bring it down? is that -- and i think that is what the message should be. i was wondering, what do you think about that? carmen: that is what we have learned over the past almost two years of having conversations about race. obviously there are multiple ways to have a conversation about race. the number one way that we have been able to bring people together is this narrative that racism hurts everyone. what is the impact it actually has on her workforce? -- on our workforce? we did a town hall in minneapolis. there was a worker that said, i have to wake up an hour early to mentally prepare for the racism i'm going to have to deal with when i get to

he's the author of several books on race and history including his most recent paul robison, the artist as revolutionary. for the next three hours, gerald ford will be answering your questions. >>

ghostwriter and biographer i was a friend for years before the end of his life and he always said robison. also, paulunior i met him. i worked at the new york historical society when they did the exhibition in 1998. after i solved the exhibitio sai noticed while i was reading it i noticed air curs and i worked in book publishing and the time and that was my job but they allowed me to do some corrections and that's how i met him. i heard him speak on booktv and they all use what i consider the correct pronunciation. >> host: thank you. emily sounds pretty fascinating. i won't refer now. >> guest: i plead guilty. i think that may come from pronunciations i've heard in north carolina that i left in fact the correct pronunciation. i knew lloyd brown. i think that he's passed away by now. as a matter of fact, for many reasons i regret she was a biographer and that's because for a while i was thinking about doing a book on the relations between germany and america which has been quite extensive but not necessarily covered extensively. the biography of his bottom is quite good because often you run into peo