On today's show, we're talking to Duke University assistant professor Dr. Justin Leroy about his newest book, The Lowest Freedom — Racial Capitalism and Black Thought in the Nineteenth Century.
Leroy talks to us about an idea: racial capitalism. It’s a theory that capitalistic principles essentially arose concurrently with that of racism. He essentially argues that if we scratch the surface of many issues related to economic inequality, we'll see a history of race beneath it.
Black thought leaders like prominent Wilmingtonian David Walker are one of the first to be featured in his book. Walker’s 1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World inspired abolitionists around the globe. Leroy explains that Walker’s writings argued that Black Americans couldn’t have true freedom without economic independence.
We also talk at length about Frederick Douglass, one of the most infamous Americans, and Ida B. Wells, a bold Black journalist who documented lynchings across the country. They, too, had ideas about what economic success could and should look like for Black Americans.
We also make connections to our modern-day audience: how debates from the past are still very much with us, the use of tariffs, the efficacy of labor unions, and ultimately the inequities that exist between workers and employers.
Justin Leroy, Duke University, author of The Lowest Freedom: Racial Capitalism and Black Thought in the Nineteenth Century
Figures from U.S. history explored by Leroy
