The Daily Signal - Bob Woodson’s New Book Is Reminder of Black Triumphs in US History

Episode Date: August 12, 2021

In response to The New York Times' controversial “1619 Project,” Bob Woodson, founder of the Woodson Center, launched an alternative, 1776 Unites.  Woodson's initiative includes a series of essays and a school curriculum that recount the facts and stories of America’s founding and black history. It is from these essays that inspiration came for Woodson’s new book, “Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers.”  The stories and facts in the book, which was released in May, are important “for all people to know, to get an accurate understanding of America's past—the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Woodson says.  He adds that the “message of the book to America is, if blacks could achieve these great things of creating their own railroad, if we were able to build our own Wall Streets, if we were able to achieve in schools, and reduce the income gap … then we need to apply these old values to a new vision.”  Woodson joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share some of his favorite true stories of American blacks' success detailed in the book and to share a bit of his own personal story.  We also cover these stories:  The Senate takes a big step toward passing Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending package. YouTube suspends Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., from its platform for a week. Conflicts over mask policies in Florida continue to mount.  Listen to the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, August 12th. I'm Doug Blair. And I'm Virginia Allen. Bob Woodson has spent his career serving low-income communities across the nation. With the rise of critical race theory and the 1619 project, Woodson formed 1776 Unites, a group of scholars dedicated to telling the whole story of America's past. From the groundbreaking work of 1776 Unites, Woodson has authored a new book, red, white, and black, rescuing American history from revisionists and race hustlers.

Woodson joins the show today to explain why he wrote the book and the stories and facts within it that are so significant for this moment in history. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. And now on to today's top news. The Senate has taken a big step towards passing Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending package. The Senate voted directly down party lines Wednesday to approve a blueprint of the massive package. The House is currently on summer recess but will return to D.C. early on August 23rd to begin review of the bill. Committees in the House and Senate will begin working on the details of the package when they return.

So far, we knew that the $3.5 trillion bill, provides funding for a litany of leftist agenda items, such as climate change, free community college, and universal daycare. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the bill would be paid for by making corporations and the wealthy finally pay their fair share. While all Democrats voted to advance the spending bill, Democrat senators Joe Mansion of West Virginia and Kristen Cinema of Arizona said they voted for the legislation in order to keep the problem. moving forward, but have expressed concerns over the large spending package. Senate Democrats will need the support of all their members to pass the $3.5 trillion bill under a budget process

known as reconciliation that prevents Republicans from using the filibuster to block the bill. The vote to approve the blueprint of the spending package came after a series of quick amendment votes known as a voterrama that began Tuesday afternoon. Many of the amendments, to the spending package passed and failed right along party lines. A proposal to restrict federal funding for K-12 public schools that do not resume in-person classes failed with all GOP senators voting for it and all Democrats against. A bill intended to create more energy independence in America also failed along party lines, with all Democrats voting against it.

The Hyde Amendment, a piece of legislation that prevents the federal funding of abortions, was approved. All Republicans and Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted in favor of the Hyde Amendment. Senators voted on dozens of other amendments before finally casting their vote on the spending bill around 4 a.m. Wednesday morning. YouTube has suspended Senator Rand Paul from its platform for a week following a video released by the senator that claimed masks are ineffective against the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the company removed the video and issued a strike against Paul channel for what it called, quote, medical misinformation. In a statement, YouTube said, quote, we removed content from Senator Paul's channel for

including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19 in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies. We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views. This marks the second time in a month that YouTube has removed a video uploaded by Paul, citing misinformation. Senator Paul released a statement criticizing YouTube for the suspension writing, quote, I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth.

In another article released on Liberty Tree, a website run by Paul, the senator included a link to view the removed video on Rumble. Conflicts over mass policies in Florida continue to mount. After Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a ban on mass mandates, three Florida school districts announced they would still require their students to wear masks. The counties of Alachua, Broward, and Leon said they would still require their students to wear masks despite the governor's ban. So, earlier this week, Florida's Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sent a letter to the three county boards informing them that he is launching an investigation to look into their. non-compliance with the mask ban. Corcoran wrote in the letter, There is no room for air or leniency when it comes to ensuring compliance with policies that allow parents and guardians to make health and educational choices for their children.

The Leon County School Board announced Tuesday that parents will be able to opt their child out of wearing a mask without giving a reason for doing so. But Alachua and Broward counties have yet to budge on their mandatory mass mandates. Governor Ron DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pusha, said Monday that paychecks could be suspended to the superintendent or school board members of the counties that refused to allow kids to opt out of the mass mandate. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Bob Woodson about his new book, Red, White, and Black, rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers. conservative women, conservative feminist. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen, and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are particular interests to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called

feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcast. Bob Woodson is the founder of the Woodson Center and the author of the new book, Red, White, and Black, rescuing American history from revisionists and race hustlers. He joins me today to discuss his new book and his lifetime of service to America's struggling communities. Mr. Woodson, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for inviting me. Well, before we discuss the book, I want to chat.

about the inspiration, really, for where this book came from. One of the more recent initiatives of the Woodson Center is 1776 Unite, which was really established in response to the New York Times Controversial 1619 Project. So if you would, just tell us a little bit about 1776 Unites. Well, as a veteran of the civil rights movement that I've spent all my life using, the values and virtues of the founders of this country. I was outraged in 2019 when the New York Times published 1619, a book that tried to revise history and define America's birth date as 1619 when the first 20 African slaves

arrived on Ashores, and then they wait on to conclude that as a consequence, America, should be defined as everything should be viewed through a rends of racial animus, or racial discrimination, and that all whites of victimizers and all blacks are victims. Well, I was outraged. And so I assembled the group of black scholars and a cross-section of activists to respond to this outrage. And so we published a series of essays to count. of the argument being promoted by 1619, but we didn't want to engage in another round of gladiatorial debate. What we wanted to offer the public is an accurate, inspirational and aspirational alternative narrative that will show by examples that black America has never

been defined by oppression, and America should not be defined by its birth defective. of slavery. Powerful. Now, your new book, Red, White, and Black, Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers, it is described in a great sentence in the kind of Amazon review of the book as an indisputable corrective to the falsified version of black history presented by the 1619 Project radical activists and money-hungry diversity consultants. So explain, if you will, a little bit more about really the mission of the book and how 1776 Unites laid this wonderful foundation for the book.

Well, first of all, we think what the Pulitzer Company did was take this false history and they have promoting it through our public school system. So children are being taught curriculum that America should be defined as an oppressive, racist society, and blacks are America's perpetual victims, and that our history is from plantation, I mean, from slave ships to plantations, the ghettos, to welfare. What we are doing is providing an alternative set of curriculum, and so we took some stories from the past that there were 20 blacks who were born slaves who died millionaires. When we were denied access to hotels, we built our own, our own medical schools, 100 colleges throughout the country. So in these essays, we just chronicle all of the successes that blacks have achieved.

We had the highest marriage rate between 1930 and 1920. These are important facts for all people to know to get an accurate understanding of America's past, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And so we had 15,000 downloads of our curriculum in the first two weeks because Americans are eager to receive accurate and uplifting and inspirational account of how this rich nation has achieved all it has achieved. I think you're so right. People are so hungry to know the truth and to know really the full picture of Americans. past. Obviously, we can't ignore America's past of slavery and segregation. But I think you all have done such a beautiful job through 1776 Unites, really aiming to tell that, that full story. And then that's translated so, so beautifully in the book, as many of those essays are now all just

beautifully compiled in the book, Red, White, and Black, rescuing American History. from revisionists and race hustlers. You mentioned some of those stories that you share in the book about African-Americans who have overcome against all odds. Would you mind just sharing maybe one or two of those stories that really touched you personally? Yes, one of my favorites. I said America doesn't have a race problem. It has a grace problem. And so there are all kinds of examples, and I'll give you a couple.

of what I call radical grace in action. A. B.N.A. Robert Smalls was built in Sumter, South Carolina, a slave, and he found himself one of six member of slave crews during the war of civil war. He found himself one of six members of a crew of a supply ship in Sumter, South Carolina. And so when his master went off on a Friday night to dine, he commandeered the ship and picked up the families of his family and the other slave crew members and put on the boss's hat and his coat and maneuvered past five southern garrisons and turned the ship over to the Union Navy. he was celebrated and result of that Lincoln allowed blacks to fight into civil war. After the war was over, Robert Smalls became a wealthy businessman. He also during reconstruction, served in the House of Representatives.

He went back and purchased the plantation on which he was a slave. And because the wife and the children of the slave owner found themselves destitute, Robert Smalls took them into his house, and because she was delusional and never realized that slavery had ended, he permitted her to even sleep in the master bedroom. Robert Small is an example of radical grace in action. And so that's one celebrated a story. Another one, Biddy Mason, who was born 18, 18, in Mississippi, since her master was a Mormon, she walked 1,000 miles of Mississippi to Salt Lake City, attending the sheep and also delivering babies, and she had three of her own, one by the slave master. After a short while, they went to California where she became a free because that's a free state. But Biddy Mason was a midwife, and for 10 years, she made $1.50 a day, and she saved her money, purchased land downtown Los Angeles, and built homes.

And as a result, she became a philanthropist, and she was the founder of the A&B Church. And when she died, she was worth about $5 million in today's dollars. There are other remarkable stories of resilience and perseverance in the presence of oppression. And so the book is filled with examples that only in America with all of its flaws could you find some examples of achieving against the odds. That's so wonderful. We are talking with Mr. Bob Woodson, author of the new book, Red, White, and Blanche. rescuing American history from revisionists and race hustlers.

Mr. Woodson, I'm familiar with the term revisionists, those who essentially revise history in order to further a specific narrative or an agenda, but I'm not too familiar with the term race hustlers. What do you mean by that? What I mean by that, there are people who profit off the people. of promoting this fake narrative, a false narrative, that America is incurably racist and that racism is in its DNA. And in order to resolve that, companies are racing to hire consultants who come in to do racial audits, school systems, or hiring people to do critical race theory.

training. Universities are hiring as diversity counselors. Companies are hiring people to come in and do racial training. You know, anti-racism.

Abraham Kendi book, he's making millions on selling books. Canaanesey Coates, his race grievance books are required reading at universities. And so he is becoming, all of these people are coming wealthy at the expense of the American public. And so that's, it has spawned an entire industry of people who make a generous living off of the grievance and pain of people. You know the Black Lives Matter founder. They found that she has purchased $3.5 million worth of mansions in the California community.

And that's just another example of racial profiteers that we call race hustlers. So this book and 1776 Unites is such a direct response, as you say, to the 1619 product to critical race. theory, obviously at a very, at a very significant moment in history. Mr. Woodson, what has been your journey? As you have personally kind of thought about America's past of slavery and segregation, what has your journey been of processing through those things? I was born in South Philadelphia during the Depression, during segregation, but we lived in a close-knit blue-collar neighborhood

where all of the households had a man and a woman raising children. But my dad died when I was nine, even my mother with five children to raise. She had a fifth grade education and had to work hard. And so my dad moved us out of that neighborhood into a better place. and since my friends were a year older, and they graduated before me, so I dropped out of high school, went into the military where I served and was the greatest decision in my life, but I was stationed in the deep south. And when I took courses from the University of Miami, I had to take them on the base because of segregation.

I could not attend campus. So I know what segregation is like, and afterwards I got out of the military, worked full-time, got an undergraduate degree from Cheney State University and then a master's degree from the University of Penn. And then I became active in the civil rights movement, but became disenchanted with that movement when I realized that when many of the people who sacrificed who were poor, just opening the doors of opportunity was not sufficient. efficient they had to be prepared, but the civil rights leadership had suddenly began to morph into a race grievance industry. And so I left the civil rights movement and from then and so now, worked on behalf of low-income people of all races. My personal goal and the goal to the Woodson Center is to de-racialize race and desegregate poverty. The biggest challenge we face in America is upward mobility for low-income people of all races and ethnicities. And there's where we should be directing our time and attention and not on race issues.

It's also insulting for blacks to assume that we must have the rules, the standards lowered as an act of, of racial reconciliation. This has just been so insulting to me personally and to our organization. And so we are trying to return America to the America of Dr. Martin Luther King, where we're judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. And I do, Mr. Woodson, just want to take a moment to thank you for the work that you have done at the Woodson Center over so many decades. I love the model that you all have because you all decided, all, all, we're going to go into those struggling communities,

those low-income communities. And we're going to look for the leaders. We're going to look for the organizations that are already there working on the ground. We're going to partner with them because they know what their community needs and we're going to come alongside them and give them what they need and support the work that they're doing. And I think that's, it sounds simple, but in many ways it's such a ground. groundbreaking model because it's very different from what we see the government often try and do and what sometimes we'll see other organizations do. But I know you have been involved in changing

so, so many lives. So thank you for the work that you have done at the Woods and Center. Well, I thank you. And we're being joined now. I mean, the very fact that the books sold out in just two weeks on Amazon, we sold about 15,000 books. within a matter of a few weeks. Amazon did not anticipate. The publisher did not anticipate that response. And so they had to publish on demand for a month. And now they're resupplied.

So we're very, very pleased at the receptivity on the part of the public for information that is inspiring and supporting the fundamental values and principles of this fine nation of our. the very fact that people of color risking their lives to come to cross our borders. And yet people who are here are promoting this false narrative that racism is in America's DNA. Yeah. We are talking with Bob Woodson, author of the book Red, White and Black, rescuing American history from revisionists and race hustlers.

Mr. Woodson, I know there's so many wonderful essays in the book, like you say, the book sold out. People have just been snatching it off the shelves, virtual shelves. I know there's so many wonderful essays in the book, and I'm sure it's very, very hard to pick a favorite. But do you have one that has personally really touched or impacted you or that speaks to you in a really significant way? Yeah, the one that I guess that I favor, well, actually, there are two of them. But the one that I enjoy reading is when one of our essays looked at the impact the slavery had on the family. And so he looked at six plantations, the records of six plantations, and to look what the state of the marriage was. And they found that 75% of those slave households had a man and a woman raising children.

Some could legally marry other children. But right after that, there was just a lot of men. marriages occurred. And another example of resilience and perseverance against the odds, the medical document the fact that 75% of those slaves were illiterate. But yet within 40 years, that 75% illiteracy shrunk to about 25. And when the Freedmen's Bureau sent Aides South to teach Black how to read, they reported that there's little that the government can do because the Sabbath churches, the churches on Saturdays were doing a yeoman's job of teaching blacks how to read. and those family compositions, the black nuclear family of a man and a woman raising children,

continue to prosper for a century up until 1965, also that the poverty rate in the black community declined from 1940 to 1960, from 82% down to 32%. So there were, what I'm fascinated by our essays, it documents the fact that when whites were at their worst, blacks were at their best. The other essays by John Sibley Butler that talks about in 1929 in the city of the Bronzeville section of Chicago,

where blacks were redlined and segregated, They produced 731 black-owned businesses, 100 million in real estate assets, with an out-of-wedlocked birth under 12%. So those are my two favorite essays, because it talks eloquently about, it documents evidence of resistance to perseverance. So then what happened to shift now with so many kind of impoverished areas across America and we see, you know, income levels falling and obviously high rates of single African-American mothers? What changed? What slavery could not do with 100 years than Jim Crow could not defeat. government policies from the 60s absolutely devastated the black community.

Urban renewal wiped out all of the commercial centers around the country, like the Greenwood section and the Black Wall Street in the 60s. But we went from a market economy to a social economy. when social policies and the 60s with the poverty programs, where they separated work from income, remove the stigma of welfare, and the government actively recruited blacks into the welfare system. Millions, according to Fred Siegel's book,

The Future Once Happened Here, Blacks began to flood into the world, the welfare system, what the leftist social scientists predicted came true, and that is outer wedlock burst with four, dropout drug addiction, criminal behavior, and all of these declines came in response to the poverty programs of the 60s, where black civil rights leaders migrated into becoming elected officials in these cities, and they, They were the managers and distributors of the $22 trillion in poverty programs, where 70 cents of every dollar went not to the poor, but those who served poor.

So we, the poor, we created a commodity out of poor people. And so that's why all of these combinations of actions and policies that were taken on the part of the government served to devastate. devastate the black family and those communities. And that's why we have the mess that we have today. So then what's your message in the book to those who read the book, to those who visit 1776 Unites and look at the school curriculum, your many essays? What is the message that you want them to take about how we can move forward? The message in the book is that people are motivated to change and improve when they are presented with victory.

that are possible, not injuries to be avoided. And so the message of the book to America is if blacks could achieve these great things of creating their own railroad, if we were able to build our own Wall Street, if we were able to achieve in schools and reduce the income gap, if we were able to do these things in the past, then we need to apply these old values to a new vision. And the Woodson Centers with this initiatives are using this, because we're pointing to, we have supported contemporary examples of communities being restored from the inside out and the bottom up. We have supported those grassroots leaders that,

have the same attitude of resilience. And so we think we should build on these centers of moral and spiritual excellence and invest in those. That's what we must do. So the Wilson Center, we give examples of the Pineywood School, 115 years old, a black boarding school in Mississippi that takes in families that are in crisis, children of families in crisis, 96% of these kids go on to college. It is a Christian boarding school that's mandatory chapel, mandatory work.

And so what the Woodson Center is about is identifying these islands of moral and spiritual excellence that reflect the values of the past. And we must promote them and make sure that. We propagate them throughout the country. And Mr. Woodson, you've been so faithful to do that throughout your career. I want to congratulate you on your recently announced retirement. We know that you're not going away. As you say, you're going to continue writing and researching and investing in American communities. But we really are truly thankful for the work that you have done at the Woodson Center.

and we encourage all of our listeners. Go to Amazon and get red, white, and black rescuing American history from revisionists and race hustlers. Also visit 1776 Unites.com to read the many, many essays. You can download the curriculum for students there. And, of course, visit the Woodson Center website to learn about all their many initiatives and the work that they're doing across America. Mr. Woodson, thank you so much for our time today. And thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to share with your listeners. And that'll do it for today's episode.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and IHeart Radio. Please be sure to leave us a review in a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Virginia Allen and Kate Trinco,

sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, please visit DailySignal.com.