Race & Liberty in America: Frederick Douglass, Ida Wells, Booker Washington, Zora Neale Hurston . .

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Independent Outlook is the regular round-table conversation from the Independent Institute that provides timely insights and cutting-edge commentary on the most pressing issues of the day. It features Independent’s David J. Theroux (Founder and President), Dr. Williamson M. Evers (Senior Fellow), and Dr. Graham H. Walker (Executive Director), as well as additional Independent Institute fellows.

In this fourteenth episode of Independent Outlook, Independent Research Fellow Jonathan J. Bean joins with Williamson Evers and Graham Walker to examine the people and ideas of the anti-racist, classical-liberal tradition of individual liberty and equality, demonstrating how it has inspired individuals to boldly advance race relations in the United States. Rooted in the Judeo-Christian natural-law tradition, classical liberals have advocated freedom from governmental interference, abolition of prejudicial law, equality under a uniform rule of law guaranteed by the Constitution, and market-based entrepreneurial opportunity.

The discussion covers the antislavery movement, post-Civil War reconstruction, Progressive Era, Republican era of the 1920s, the Great Depression and World War II, and the civil rights era. Citing such influential Americans as Thomas Jefferson, James Forten, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, plus those others too often ignored, Drs. Bean, Evers and Graham demonstrate the major impact of classical-liberal thought as the basis for the movements for liberty and human dignity and how it has helped shape both law and public opinion.

The Independent Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, public-policy research and educational organization that shapes ideas into profound and lasting impact through publications, conferences, and multi-media programs. Our mission is to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity.