University of California, Los Angeles / Stanford University
Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles and a fellow at Stanford Universitiy's Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences; author of The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender and the Origins of the LA Riots
Georgetown University offers reconciliation for slave past Georgetown University has come clean about its history with the slave trade . Will other schools step up and do more? Georgetown University has not just documented its unsavory past, it's offering assistance to the descendants of slaves it sold to Southern plantations. Is that the same as "reparations?" What about other institutions involved in the trade?
Is 'Warfare' a Thing of the Past at the LAPD? Video of police misconduct wasn’t as common 25 years ago as it is today. The spectacle of LAPD officers beating Rodney King was a wake-up call, but didn’t persuade a jury in Simi Valley. When the cops received not-guilty verdicts, the city exploded. We hear from veteran officers who say they’ve changed. What about their tactics? Have they gained the trust of marginalized communities and people of color?
Is Los Angeles Still a 'City of Quartz?' In 1990, Mike Davis wrote City of Quartz, insisting that Los Angeles was not a west coast utopia, but a dystopia instead. Two years later, the Rodney King riots seemed to make him a prophet. His book is still used as a text for understanding LA history, even though Davis failed to predict the city's massive immigration. What did he tell us about economic inequality, race politics, the role of developers and architects — and community relations with the LAPD?
Slavery and California UCLA is in possession of the first edition print of Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir that describes how he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The book, of course, is the basis for this year’s Oscar-winning best picture, 12 Years a Slave . The renewed interest in Northup’s work prompted UCLA's Brenda Stevenson to revisit California’s history of slavery, something most Californians know little about.
The First Prison Memoir of Black Man Discovered Historians believe they've authenticated the earliest recovered memoir written in prison by a black American. It dates to 1858 — before the Civil War and emancipation. The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict , or the Inmate of a Gloomy Prison, has been a mystery since it was discovered by a rare books dealer in upstate New York. Now it's authenticated under the name of Bob Reed, believed to have been born a free man who learned to read and write in reform school. Brenda Stevenson is a history professor at UCLA, author of The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins : Justice, Gender and the Origins of the LA Riots, discusses its historical significance.
Has Hollywood Come to Grips with American Slavery? Last year, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained graphically depicted the brutality of American slavery, but almost in comic book form. Now comes, 12 Years a Slave , based on the autobiography of a free black man who was tricked into servitude. Has Hollywood caught up with history? Brenda Stevenson, Professor of History at UCLA and author of The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins , is a student of family life of slaves in the South. Salamishah Tillet, Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, is author of Sites of Slavery .
A New Look at the Origins of the LA Riots The devastating Los Angeles riots of 1992 have been blamed on the white jury that acquitted LAPD officers of abusing a black man named Rodney King. But a new book argues that the stage was set by another court case the year before, when a female Korean grocery store was given probation by a woman judge in the shooting death of a 15-year-old black girl. The book is The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins by UCLA history professor Brenda Stevenson.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.