Thomas jefferson was perhaps the most towering intellectual figure in american life during the 18 hundreds. He couldn't imagine white and black people living together as equals. ibram kendy says, jefferson's book espousing his ideas about the superiority of white people were the most read non fiction book in America well into the mid nineteenth century.
“All men are created equal.” Those words, from the Declaration of Independence, are central to the story that Americans tell about ourselves and our history. But what did those words mean to the man who actually wrote them? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.
Key sources for this episode:
Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People
Ibram Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning
The Racial Equity Institute