We're back with another edition of The Federalist for Radio Hour. I'm Emily Drishenski,
culture editor here at The Federalist. As always, you can email the
show at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr
LST. Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts into the premium version
of our website as well. Today we're joined once again by the one and
only Brian Kilmead, who is out with a new book. It's called Teddy
and Booker t how two American icons blazed a path for racial equality. It
is out November seventh. You can go to the website for information on live
signings and all that good stuff. Brian, thanks for joining us, Emily,
thanks to having me on. I appreciate it. I'm excited to dive
into this book. I wanted to start though, just by asking you journalists
to journalist, what it's been like in the last couple of weeks. We're
this towards the end of October. October twenty third, in the midst of
like the craziest news cycle ever, How on earth have you has her team
at Fox been keeping on top of everything? Well, I mean, I
got the Saturday show too, with Saturday's at eight eastern, nine eastern,
excuse me, and that's it just never stops. Even on Sunday, I
found myself probably working on it for five hours, just talking to people,
trying to stay on top of things and try to get a perspective on what
really is going on. So there's so many elements to what's going on.
First off, Israel was attacked, the horrific way in which they were attacked
and the organized fashion which AMAS pulled it off, that's a story. The
response with the air strikes, that's a story. The response to the world
community saying cease fire, that to me is a crazy story. The fact
that we won't point out that Iran's behind all of this, and the fact
that China and Russia might be pulled to the ultimate marrionette strings, I think
is extremely important. And then to see the pro tests not only one hundred
thousand in the UK, but around the world and around our country on our
college campus is for drum roll, please, Hamas and the Palestinians caught me
totally by surprise. And you know, something that you work in the space
a lot is historical illiteracy and We've talked before about the importance of writing the
books that you do write and telling the stories that you tell. Is there
an element of that when you look around the country in the last few weeks
and just say, do people actually know the history or are they just kind
of spouting off here? But if they didn't know anything about history, they'd
say, what's a Palestinian? Or where is Israel? That's ignorance to me.
For some reason, they've been going to school on anti Americanism, which
including anti American allies, and I don't know where they get this from.
I mean, are the same kids that don't want to put out the garbage
or go outside and play in the street despite the urgings, are the same
ones who will go ahead and spend an afternoon marching against people who just massacred
twelve hundred others. So where does this come from? I mean, if
you want to come back and talk about the palest Indians eating a homeland,
that's very nineteen nineties. Since since they allow Hamas to take them over,
they voted them in, allow them to be the most popular group around,
allow them still to represent them most to support the rocket attacks on Israel despite
eighteen thousand working on a daily basis. I just don't know where it comes
from. Are you pro terrorists? Now? I didn't think there'd ever be.
There was no rallies in the street for al Qaeda or ISIS, So
I just didn't think this was to be an element that we'd have to deal
with. And for you to say, well, historically they belong to a
homeland that has nothing to do with it, and it's not true. And
now you have a situation where it's so obvious that the administration's policies of approaching
a run again has blown up in their face again and is the cause of
all again, and they won't say it is flat out maddening. You know,
the like I say, of Teddy Roosevelt, looms large over American American
foreign policy. In this book, you touched a little bit actually on Spanish
American war and Cuba, but focus mostly on Teddy Roosevelt's domestic policy. I
wanted to start just by asking if you could tell us a little bit about
this point. You make that so interesting. You refer to Teddy Roosevelt and
Booker T. Washington is quote the heirs to Abraham Lincoln. And actually I
think the last time we talked on the show, you had your book out
on Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, and you say that they're airs of the
Lincoln Douglas relationship as well, which I or their partnership, which I thought
was really really interesting. Can you tell us more about that point. Yeah,
I mean, thanks to the question. And here's the thing. People
say, well, you don't want to talk about race, it's going to
be controversial. Well talk about American history. I am not somebody that goes
over America did everything right all the time, And how dare you bring up
anything negative? That's not me? And that's not any body that clearly wants
to preserve our history and win the war in history. Don't rewrite it like
sixteen nineteen project did, supported by the New York Times, inaccurately. What
I wanted to do was talk about along the way slavery was happening around the
world, it came to our continent with the formation of an ancient as wrong
as they knew it was from Washington to Jefferson. They didn't know how to
get rid of it, and they didn't, and then we have a civil
war, and then out of the Civil War, we lose this hero called
Abraham Lincoln who emerged out of nowhere. Nobody were to think he was going
to amount to anything. An impactful lawyer would have been a lot, let
alone the first Republican president who didn't have the majority, who had to preside
over a fractured country and brought it back together. And I said what I
said, what I still believe is nobody did more damage to our country,
even when it comes to Pearl Harbor and nine to eleven, than John Wilkes
Booth because if he was able to survive the eighteen sixty we wouldn't the need
of the nineteen sixties, but we had him. Douglas provides with Grant and
starts trying to heal some of the rifts that took place because of the compromise
of eighteen seventy seven that said, hey, if you let Garfield win,
because he was in a we were in a hung election and Sam Tilden,
the governor of New York, and Garfield were in basically a deadlock. And
the deal they caught was the South said, yeah, we'll give you Garfield,
but you just get the Union troops out of the South so we can
run this thing like we wanted to. And for many people that meant going
back to separate but equal, the gmcrow laws and the different water fountains and
where you sit on the bus, and it just caused the division among races
in many sections of the South. So who would emerge to help bring us
forward? Did it just happen? No? A guy like Booker T.
Washington, who remembers being a slave until he was nine, hearing Union troops
say come to the big House and say read something which he thinks in retrospect
was the Emancipation Proclamation, says you're free. Remembers packing up with his mom
in a wagon and going to West Virginia and working in the salt mines,
where all he wanted to do was learn to read and write. And he
finally would get that wish through a series of circumstantial things in personal will.
And then Teddy Roosevelt. He was born rich. I got it. His
family was affluent. I understand it. But he wasn't supposed to survive childhood.
He couldn't even go to public school. His asthmen breathing was so bad
most people didn't think he'd last weighed about ninety pounds until he was fourteen years
old, and then gradually he built up his body like he built up his
mind. And even though his mom was from the South, his dad was
from the Union, he understood that America had to come together some things he
said, just like Lincoln said that you'd go out man, that's racist.
Absolutely, he was a man of his times. But for the most part
he said, how do I make things better? And who is this?
Booker? T? Washington? And as they leaned on each others as its
you watch two people gain power and prestige while working together and making America a
better place along the way. And I just thought, instead of keep talking
about the George Floyd's and the Malcolm X's and a lot of people talk about
the vision, what about the people that work so hard to get us where
we are? And that's what I thought. I'd bring out, no names,
but how they combined to help America become a better place. You make
an important point, and it's one that you make in the Lincoln book as
well, about how neither Lincoln nor Teddy Roosevelt are perfect. They don't have
perfect records when it comes to sort of striving towards a more perfect union.
On the question of race. Tell us a little bit about how Teddy Roosevelt
sort of grew throughout his own life on these questions. I mean he never
was around I mean in the North, you weren't around slavery. You know,
there was I remember even people tell me in the you know who grew
up in the sixty being their eighties now and say, you know, we
never saw the colored water fountains, we never saw the colored bathrooms. You
know, there was Negro League baseball. But besides that, we saw gradual
coming together. And the South there was a different experience, and basically the
word was in the South, you know, you live your life out live
ours. We'll go to our schools. You go to your schools. And
they was a belief among a lot of white not all that the blacks were
inferior. Why well, that's how they were brought up. Why was that
because African Americans weren't educated, you weren't allowed to. But as the education
took root and more and more came up through the system, people's stereotypes just
fell fell by the wayside. And probably the biggest example of someone one of
our founding fathers is Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin had slaves, and then little by
little, as he grew older and traveled around the world and became the wisest
man on the planet maybe ever, he realized there's no difference. It's just
a matter of education, and he became the ultimate abolitionists. You can grow
in your life. There were beliefs that you had in your twenties that you
do not believe anymore that you're in your fifties and sixties. It doesn't make
you a bad person. We continue to grow. So would you know,
hearing his mom talk about the South, when he went down to the South,
he would go down and see people that deserve respect. He would see
a guy like Booker T. Washington being worshiped by Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan
and Rockefeller, and said, who is this guy? And they writes a
book up from slavery and it changes perception because this is one of the most
remarkable stories I ever read. I got to meet this guy and they meet
in his office in Manhattan. He's like, yeah, I'm a vice president
now, but you know, when I become president, you know, I
would love to meet with you and go see this Tuskegee university that you founded.
Started with thirty. Now you got thousands of people there. And when
they get to know each other, he becomes a member of the Tuskegee Board.
Now, if you asked him, he said, well, white's are
smarter than blacks, but not him. In Booker T. Washington, he
though, was the smart one of the smartest men he ever met. He
says he was a credit to the human race, not his race. So
did he say some things earlier that even his ren and I interview for this
book. We have a special coming out in November fifth, and it'll be
on Fox Nation. If you miss one, it airs live or if the
war prevents it from being aired. But tweet Roosevelt his great grandson who knew
and played at Sagamore Hill when his wife was still alive. Tayo Roosevelt's wife
was still alive. So yeah, there's some things that you would curl your
hair if you read it. But for the most part, this guy went
to bat and said it to Booker T. Washington. Get me some judges
they're not don't get the best, that don't get the best because of cold
with their skin. Just get me the best postmaster was a prestigious position right
there. People who control the docks, get me somebody that we can trust.
And then he became an advisor. So if this guy was a racist,
they thought that races were in f one was superior than the next.
Why was he colln on Booker t Washington to be his eyes and ears on
the ground. And then he had that controversial dinner which shouldn't have been controversial.
Were invited him to the White House, and he invites him to the
White House step dinner with his family, and we think, so what Back
then it was a big deal because they said, why now you're elevating blacks
and white state quote status, which the North was fine with but the South
wasn't. So that pushed everything forward. It brought everything out. If you're
a racist, we heard from you. If you weren't, we heard from
you too, And it brought everything forward. So you know, you'll see
him say things in his writings that maybe he thought that whites were better than
the blacks early on in his career. He wasn't saying that at the end.
And they became as good as friends as you can imagine. And I
just don't know how if you see a guy like Boger T. Washington,
who makes his gets himself by fear force here force a college education at Hampton.
And then when General Armstrong, who ran Hampton University or College, was
asked, we need a recommendation. We're going to start a college in Alabama.
Who do you suggest? The need a white guy? And he goes,
now, I got a black guy. He's twenty four years old.
His name is Burger T. Washington. They said no thanks, He goes,
no, No, he's the guys, the only one I recommend.
He goes, all right, send him. When he shows up, it's
a dilapidated shed. He's got to get students, he's to get a curriculum.
He's got to get teachers in three weeks. And he does it,
and there's a leak in the roof, and some students would hold an umbrella
over his head. And he starts with twenty two students and he ends up
with thousands on a scrolling campus. And all those students wouldn't just learn to
read and write, they learn a trade. Why, he said, because
some people aren't willing to hire you. So you have to prove invaluable and
be your own craftsman. Whether it's agriculture, whether it's blacksmith, everybody will
learn a school, skill and a trade. It sounds almost like Mike Rowe
you know, learn the trade. Don't tell me how smart you are,
tell me what you can do with your hands. He saw that, and
they built a whole university themselves. It was okay, when you're done,
we need you to build another building. When you're done, I need you
out in the fields growing food because we need to sell that food. And
I'm tired of buying bricks. We're going to buy a kill and make our
own bricks. They'll be the best bricks around and they work. And then
little by little people would say, my pre preconceptions about African Americans has totally
changed because I saw how productive they were at Tuskegee, and hundreds of years
of conditions just fell by the wayside. And then people said, how can
I help? And you had this guy who was born a slave, had
the most influential people in the world helping him. And instead of just saying
I want the money, he said, I just want to bake this school
bigger and maybe and launch other HBCUs. And he created a curriculum that still
stands today that rifled rippled through Africa on down. And when I went to
Tuskegee, they gave me four or five professors. One was more inspirational than
the next. Who as if Booker T. Washington was still on that campus.
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coo dot com slash federalist. That's amazing. One of the things I found
very interesting at the beginning of the book, too, is you actually have
some quotes from Bookert Washington, Teddy Roosevelt about each other. Can you tell
us Moore Brian about how they felt about each other's You sort of like what
their mutual respect looked like. Yeah, I'll give you a great story.
So after they had dinner together with his family and all the controversials sprung up,
and they said to us, Alves, we got to keep our friendship
under wraps. Now, if you're gonna come over, it's probably going to
be mid morning or late afternoon, no meals. That's just the reality of
America at the time, where some portions of America. They went to Harvard,
they both were being honored. They sat separately, even though they were
good friends. So one day, Boogertie Washington's waiting for a train and a
man walks up to you and said, you're the greatest. You're a white
guy walks up to and because you are a great man, maybe America's greatest
man. And he goes, no, No, that's our president, Teddy
Roosevelt. He's the greatest man. He goes, I used to think so
until he fight you out for dinner and he said, what, so,
do you understand what he's saying. I used to think he was great until
he invited you over for dinner and he retold this story. He said,
that's what I realized. Now, I think he's a scoundrel. He finished
up with That's when he realized, I have to let certain sleeping dogs lie.
So if the Johnsons were racists and the Doyles weren't, I don't hate
the Johnsons. I'll deal with the Doyles and maybe well they'll see the way
we work together. That'll change their minds. That was his attitude. Those
speeches were about, don't hate, don't if you hate, you give in
to them, don't let a man or a woman hurt your self esteem.
Don't that that's still your choice. And all these things that make you better
people today they were forced to deal with on a regular basis back then,
and it's great lessons for life. And he told Teddy about the story.
He's like, you know, that's who we're dealing That man was honestly didn't
know he was insulting Booker T. Washington by putting down Teddy Roosevelt. And
that's the mindset. And you had them work together. And Minnie Cox famously
a postmaster, a black woman in charge of a proceder's position. There were
protests against him, and in the end she ended up standing by her and
put up with the protests and made her take the position she was willing to
give up. William Cummings to a very similar position. Black man living in
the South. He's like, this is my pick and I'm not budgeting,
and that's it. There's other things that when the Buffalo Soldier controversial happened.
Controversial happened, and these Great Soldiers that he fought with in San Juan Hill
in Cuba and the Spanish American War. They got in trouble. He basically
court martialed them all. He said, because if one did something wrong,
they all should pay the price. And Booker T. I said, don't
do that. He did it anyway doors and he says, I can't because
if you lose, I will lose influence in the White House. And my
goal is to further the cause of Tuskegee. And if I'm on the outside
because of her personal choice, it doesn't help Tuskegee. And Roosevelt said,
okay, I understand. So they had they used each other, but they
respected each other, but they both understood their cause. You know, the
book Booker T. Washington is such an interesting figure in the way that he's
been, I guess perceived over the last one hundred years. There's controversy now
among there's this debate famously that's raised about Booker T. Washington versus W.
B. Du Boy. What can you say, Brian about how the legacy
of Booker T. Washington has maybe shifted as the American left has embraced more
and more radicalism. And you know, Ben Chavis Ben Jealous rather is on
the back of this book, and he's was head of the NAACP, and
he's obviously wv the Boys is guy. And he said, you know,
boogety Watch was controversial why because he dealt with the situation at hand and tried
to make it better rather than point out everything that was wrong and make a
stand. He was less activists, more action. He said, let me
start a school in an area and do as much as I can in the
era in which I'm born. Wv DE Boys talked about inequality and treatment and
where you sit and with this can't stand and Boogeti Watch was too accommodating.
Well, Boogetysh says, no, I got to make improvements in people's lives.
I can't ask for perfect and sacrifice the present. And people say,
well no. Then he gave in. He gave in to a lot of
the biases and go, okay, let's not bother each other. Well,
we can live separately. You can live your lives, you can do our
lives. Let's all agree. We're American. And for wbb D Boys that
was a terrible message. No, no demand equality everywhere. Now I understand
where he's coming from. When you see inequity, you see people don't get
hired or don't get picked up cab because of the color of their skin,
or you feel that police, you know, if video shows it, police
are being inequitable to you because they're being acting right in a racist way.
He'd wanted to make a major stand. There were linkings going on in the
South, and they said, you know, why didn't he make a bigger
deal of it. Why because if he started standing up for every linching in
the South, that would hurt Tuskegee and their ability to educate African Americans by
the thousands every year and gradually change this country. What he would do is
under the wire, he would provide money and legal fees and lawyers for blacks
that got themselves in trouble in situations that they didn't do anything wrong, interracial
relationships or things to that nature. And he saw the inequity in it,
but he said, in the big picture, what's going to help my people
more in this country? More? And when WB the boy says, I'm
going to protest every wrong. They both had merits, but they didn't really
coexist. He kind of resented Booker T. Washington's fame and prestige and the
crowd in which he walked. You know, he go to the North and
he basically would be knocking on doors. A lot of stores slammed in his
face. Others would say, come on in, what do you need.
I need some money to finance my school? What is your school about?
Here it is, I will support you. Here's one hundred dollars. And
then when people like William Carnegie or the Rockefellers heard about it, they were
in awe of it. They saw it in action, and they supplied it.
And he felt as though I would lose my influence and that financing if
I stood up for every wrong. So it's a debate still going on.
I'm not saying WB. Du Boys doesn't have a merit, but what did
he do? He gave speeches, he formed an organization, and he died
in Africa, living a life to seventy something years old. And he didn't
form schools, He didn't educate people, he didn't set up a legacy like
Booker T. Washington. It's still paying off today. He didn't look at
things bigger than himself, than my view, And if you want to know
old Booker T. Washington created. Just walk onto campus at Tuskegee and you'll
know the question of patriotism, that's another one that you deal with. We've
talked before about the amazing speech that Frederick Douglas gave at the dedication of the
park Lincoln Park here on Capitol Hill. Amazing speech and you're write about it.
I also want to ask that, in the context of Booker T.
Washington and Teddy Roosevelt may factor into this as well, how did he look
at this country that had, you know, put him in a less than
equal position with his white peers as white compatriots when he was born. How
did Booker T. Washington perceive the country and how did Teddy Roosevelt how did
they muster that sense of patriotism. I mean, Frederick Tugla's pointed out in
that speech that Lincoln was a great man, but you know, he was
a white man's president. And he also pointed out how much you learned from
Lincoln saying that I was impatient. I wanted everything right away, and in
the end Lincoln was right. He had to wait for the emancipatient practulation,
wait to let African Americans fight for their freedom, wait to put them in
the army, even though Frederick Douglas woul ultimately be his number one recruiter and
put his two sons in the army. So he respected where Lincoln was coming
from, but still impatient for what Lincoln wasn't doing because he's saw so much
promise in him. And the same thing, Booker T. Washington loved his
country, and he traveled around and one thing, and I'll just paraphrase it,
he said, I thought African Americans had more rights and a little bit
more equality overseas, but they were happy in their position. What African Americans
maybe had less rights and more and didn't have the power, but they would.
They were aspiring, they rise up. The aspirations were hot, like
were great. But it was almost as if he was looking at the UK
and looking at what we now know is Germany and France and saying, it's
almost a castle. They're not moving in America. There's there's no there's no
saying where they where you will stop. And he said, for example,
look at me and look at others. By the way. The other thing
he was doing was educating black women, and that was also and gave them
power and prestige. And in fact his wives he lost two passed away.
They all had huge roles in the university and fundraising and great teachers, sot
a lot of equality there. He saw the potential in America was much greater.
He just saw that we had further the go, but once you got
there, there was much further to rise. Where he felt in Europe they
might have started ahead, but they don't move anywhere in society. He saw
that early. That's also what makes us great is there's no there's no cap
on how much how successful you can be. However you gauge that success.
It's amazing that there's a parallel now between Booker two Washington and Teddy Roosevelt in
this modern concept or this modern context where Teddy Roosevelt himself has been the subject
of I guess you could call cancelation attempts. He's heavily criticized right now by
the standards of twenty twenty three. Is that also something that speaks to how
we're losing our ability to gauge the value, the patriotism, the heroism historical
figures. Brian, Yeah, I mean to that whole presentism. I'm going
to judge every historical figure by my values today as if people are going to
be judging us the same way. I hope that the worst is over.
But they boxed up Teddy Roosevelt's statue that was in front of Museum of Natural
History which his family founded, which contains a lot of the artifacts that he
found and shot. You know, he's big into he's big into taxidermy and
shooting these I guess lions and tigers and elephants and everything. So he was
biging. They're all over his house too, And they box it up.
Why because it shows him on a horse, American Indian on his right and
an African American on his left. They said, well, it looks like
he's above them. He's on a horse. But they packed it up and
send it out to North Dakota where he's going to be having the first Tay
Roosevelt Library. And I've talked to them. They are really pumped up about
this library. It's a few years away, but they've gotten that statue in
others and Doug Brinkley is part of it. Net o'keef, he's a former
network executive. They're going to bring him back. And what I think is
Tay Roosevelt's going to come back strong because he's a mix. He was taken
down corporations because they thought he had too much power. That should make democrats
happy. He also would be a big time environmentalist and saved so much federal
and preserve so much federal land. That'll make environmentalists happy. He's also a
capitalist. He was a self made man that said you got to pull you
rope, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and overcome everything else do. You
got to do it and be tough. He's also a law and order guy
who was a former police chief who walked around and cracked down on illegal immigration
and advantage and migrants were being taken a job and made sure cops got back
on the beat and brought discipline to it. And then he was a war
fighter or also something maybe traditionally military is more Republican. So it's really hard
to eliminate a guy that blends so many lines in my view. The Watchdout
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you get your podcasts. Before I let you run, Ran, I want
to ask if there's anything as you were researching and writing this book that you
learned about either Teddy Roosevelt Brooker, T. Washington or both of them that's
surprised you. Was there something new that really sticks in your mind as you
were putting this book together? Yeah? I mean Booker T. Washington.
I was studying this before Frederick Douglas. I felt, let me just go
right back and get that in order. And I read both what I always
started off as both their biographies. I want to know what they wrote and
they said about themselves. You know, Frederick Douglas did. I kept up
dating his biography. Booker T. Washington did the same thing. But I
read up from slavery and I said, if half of this this is the
best example. You know, we think about Norman Vincent Peale, and we
think about Napoleon Hill thinking grow rich, Norman Vince Hill Peel the power positive
thinking. We think of Anthony Robbins in personal power. And you talk about
envisioning success and saying you and believing in yourself and all those affirmations and then
forming up a strategy and deciding what your short term and long term goals are.
There there's a science to success, and if you set yourself on a
path to doing it, who's ever listening? You can get there? You
know, whether it's to be the best teacher, a college professor, write
your own book, have a home movie, be a great actor, be
a fa fantastic farmer, own your own form, whatever it is you want,
your own retail store. How are you going to get there? Who's
been doing it to successfully? Eccludes all of this Booker T. Washington was
doing before he could read. He was envisioning being able to read. He
was looking at letters on a sack that he thought was the first letter to
his name and thinking of himself, what does that? What is the word
be? What does B mean? You know, how do I learn this?
He was envisioning things that he wanted to happen, and they would materialize.
And I'll give you an example. Booker T. Washington hated work in
the salt mines. He was claustrophobic, was horrible work. He wanted to
be in school. But his dad, his stepdad, said, you know
you got to work. You and your brother have to work with me.
So they work in the Dean couldn't go to school. One he's just envisioning,
I gotta go to school. I gotta go to school. One day,
walking back, he sees two of his friends and they're complaining. He
goes, where you coming from? Because I just quit my job. This
woman's impossible. What do you mean? She wants us to work as like
a housekeeper, upkeep and do everything around her house and take care of everything.
And I can't do it. Whatever I did was wrong, he said
himself. Does she looking for somebody? Yeah? So he walks in.
He's a mess. She looks at him, says, I love that job.
Goes okay. She walks in. He seems really stern. He quickly
realizes when he takes the job gets permission to quit that he's not to stir.
She just wants things done right. She teaches him how to dress,
hygiene, how to hold himself, and then teaches him to read letters first,
and little by little tasks how to do things. And he is such
a sponge because he wanted to be something with his life. Now they talk
about when you want to be successful in life, you have to envision it.
You got to close your eyes and think about it, whether it's in
the morning or right before you go to bed, in the middle of the
day, wherever it is. That's what this guy did. He envisioned it,
and then he said, I'd love to go to college. He overhears
one day some of the guys he used to work in the salt mines talking
about if you get to Hampton College, they will let you in. They'll
find a way to get you in if you show you want to learn and
have basic education. So he's like college, what's that? He researches it,
hops on a wagon and heads that direction, runs out of money,
works on a yard. Such a good worker because of Missus Ruffner that brought
him, taught him how to do everything right, correctly and with integrity.
And they wanted to keep me. He's like, no, I got to
move on, goes to Hampton College, shows up, He's a mess,
keeps on showing up. Then finally they said, if you want to get
into that school, if you want to get into this school, why don't
you clean this classroom? And guess who knows how to clean a classroom?
To the point where he comes back and knows I cleaned it. He goes,
who helped you? Because nobody goes, I want to watch you clean
the next one she does. They clean the whole school together, and says,
you can go to night school. You'll be a janitor during the day.
He ends up being one of the best students Hampton ever had, coming
back and teaching night school and being a position to get the job at Tuskegee
because General Armstrong white guy said, I love this kid. He could do
anything. And he ends up going to Tuskege. And I ask you for
those people say you know, I got terrible parents, and I got no
money, and I got a lisp or I'm dyslexic. I challenge you to
have a more challenging life and book a t Washington where if you want to
do something with your life, you can envision it, it can happen.
And to me, to see this come forth in his books and to see
people talk about him the way they did, and to know where he came
from is unbelievably inspirational. As Teddy Roosevelt could have sat back and said,
I'm rich, My parents are rich, No big deal. He finds a
way to survive and then takes his greatest weakness, which is his body,
and makes it his strength. He becomes so determined to reverse his feebleness and
his unhealthiness that his dad ends up getting him waits and says, you're such
an animal, I'm gonna get you waits. He builds up his body,
ends up boxing in his college, and since he had no socialization, only
his sisters, he ends up coming to his own at Harvard. And Okay,
I know he was a man of influence. He had a great father
and a fantastic mother, but he didn't have to That physical illness as a
kid shaped who he became. It made his greatest weakness his greatest strength.
And then to see that greatness in each other is an American story. No
contact got him. Then they made their greatness, came together and they helped
this place called the United States of America, make progress where we had to
make progress, and as in race relations, so to me, both those
stories totally different, very inspirational, and together these two are unstoppable. The
book is called Teddy and Booker t How two American icons blazed a path for
racial equality. It's out November sevent You can go to the website for information
on live signings. Brian kill me. Thank you so much for joining us
again. Thank you, Emily, appreciate it, thanks for having me on.
Of course you've been listening to another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour.
I'm Emily Trishinsky, culture editor here at the Federalist. We'll be back soon
with more. Until then, the lovers of freedom and anxious for the first
You got me right, well you wrong. H