charlie: certainly toni morrison. toni morrison is a huge deal.arlon: when i was a deep in church, some of the novel "shame" i read and i had these big rivals with the leather binding around it and i would slip my book inside it and the preacher is saying we are all going to hell and i am laughing reading the book. when i first read that book, i was so appalled by it. guy, and am a dickens a net messing with narrative like that never occurred to me. reading it, it gave me permission to write in a certain way. if similar way with toni morrison. i grew up in a very british colonial education. the idea that books like those existed never occurred to me. charlie: you eventually left the church. what happened? just disillusionment? marlon: disillusionment, change of geography. for biggeras looking answers than that. jamaican church can be very sort , a lot of praise and worship, not a lot of intellectual thirst. -- lie: is it easier charlie: marlon: and believing that. thinking i am sustaining myself that way says not something necessarily that i ever

she was also a literary scholar having written one of the most important on toni morrison. she teaches at barnard college. she will be our first speaker. cheryl wall is a leading scholar. i can't they give anyone who knows more about zora huston. she's the author of black women writers, lineage in tradition and women in the harlem renaissance and she's a beloved professor rutgers university in new brunswick department of english. our final speaker is transfixed. many of you may know mitch. he has quite a profile as a curator of important cultural figure in our art scene. a writer, a scholar of hurston. he is the coeditor of a special issue. as well as contributing editor at the james baldwin revealed. please show me in welcoming these extraordinary speakers and writers. back there is never enough time to talk about zora hurston. i would simply question that would now meet our panel to give opening statements at out there thought on zora neale hurston. if you are able to consider this question in the context, although whatever you say i think will actually interest the quest

. >> certainly tony morrison. he was a huge huge deal. salman rushdie. >> rose: why. >> salman rushdie because his story is set in church. because when i was deep in church and somebody length me his novel shame and i'd have these really big bibles with a leather binding around it and i would slip this book in me inside and the preacher is saying you're going to hell and i'm laughing because i'm reading about the three sisters. i was so appalled by it because i was again a dickens guy, a victorian and the idea of messing with narrative like that never occurred to me. reading it, it kind of gave me permission to write a certain way. the symptom with tony morrison, i grew up in a very british colonial education. books like those that existed never occurred to me. >> rose: you left the church. what happened, just disillusionment. >> disillusionment, change of geography. you know, i think was looking for big adversaries than that. because the jamaican church can be sort of what we call clap in church in america a lot of praise and worship. no

context you have to history of racism in the country then you are actively just remembering to use toni morrison's language. that in some way is the primary way that we maintain our innocence in the country. ta >> you talk about one issue that it branches out into another and for those of you that have sort cell phones, whatever you have, social media devices you can say it a little perkier. bridging the divide. >> i have a question how should the identities enter without validating the narrative's? narrative's? >> i like the fact we have a very diverse crowd and this is one thing i love you are involved in the conversation. we are talking together, not like people talking to white people, i don't want to talk about that right now, but we are all talking together trying to find a solution and understand the dynamic of history. >> we used to wear a shirt back in the day it's a black thing you wouldn't understand. and the idea was you had to enter into our experience in order to engage in the strugglev but you have to be committed to justice. as a part of what i argue is you have to be able to decon

beard of toni morrison, maybe we just need more memorial like that, individuals coming out of slavery walking across the field, walking away from a ship. that is my first -- eric foner: we have to limit you to one question. does anyone want to respond? annette gordon-reed: i would say yes, we need additional monuments, but as i was suggesting before, not everybody is equally important to the united states of america. most of the confederate generals , if there is a difference between being someone who is a founder of the united states and someone who tried to destroy the united states. so we can start with all of them. [applause] annette gordon-reed: that one is easy to me. it is not just from the standpoint of race. but insult to the union soldiers, people who gave their lives for the union to other than what david talked about, this notion of reconciliation. it's much more important for them to get along and do justice for african-americans. i don't see how that's a question. washington is not going to be renamed. there is no country without george washington. you just have to take

i love the way you handle the tony morrison quote on envy of the world. that was priceless. >> i went in the marine corps in 1970. lesterie, pennsylvania, got down to the south and i was amazed how the southerners were treating, you know, everybody and i saw the movie "help" which i thought was absolutely a picture shot of what the south was like and the way that the blacks were subjugated. it's phenomenal. terrific movie. another movie that has to be mentioned is "waiting for superman." and you hear that about how the unions, the teacher unions are giving this idea of what's happening. ty teach out here as a substitute teacher in california, and i try to bring up what the democrats were in control of the south that caused all this. i mean the deaths in mississippi, the complete destruction of society, i look at detroit, i look all over. and there sits joe reed. i would like to ask how much of his retirement salary after 47 years as a teacher. you look at what the teachers' unions have done to this country and how they don't do one thing -- >> don, you're