WEBVTT - Ep 8: Finding Eunice 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:15.400 Novel. Before we begin, a content warning the following episode 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:22.439 contains difficult themes and violence. In twenty fourteen, there was 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:28.000 a show running on HBO called Boardwalk Empire. Boardwalk Empire 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.440 takes place in nineteen twenties New Jersey during Prohibition. It 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.680 follows the life of corrupt politician Nukie Thompson, whose underworld 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.480 connections to some of the country's most notorious gangsters help 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:45.120 his bloody rise to the top. Steve Buscemi plays Nuckie Thompson, 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.120 who's based on Enoch Johnson, a real life New Jersey 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.360 politician and crime boss. The second to last episode is 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.920 called Friendless Child and is set in the early nineteen thirties. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.480 Will Thompson, Nukie's nephew, is working as an assistant district attorney. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.800 His boss, a black woman, tells him to pull all 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.600 the prostitution cases north of one hundred and tenth Street. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.920 You need me too, mister Hodge does. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.880 Will resent the instructions, and the unnamed black woman becomes conciliatory. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.680 I'm sorry, okay, I don't make the assignments. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.119 Would be any different if you did. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:29.280 Yes, it's not a big role, but it's based on Unis, 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.600 and from what I've learned about Unis so far, watching 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.840 that scene made me almost angry at this portrayal of her. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:40.679 I know you're good at your job. 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:47.400 Mister Hodge does too. I doubt Unics would have tried 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.559 to sue the sensitive male ego in such a simpering way. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.120 The character is named in the credits as Beatrice Carson. 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.520 That's similar enough to Unice Carter. Right when it aired 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.440 in twenty fourteen, many people thought it was totally and 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.959 utterly ridiculous, unrealistic, but not because of the simpering. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.200 They were like, oh, this is made up. You're just 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.440 inserting black people into places where they weren't. But the 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.560 thing is, there was a black woman prosecutor. And it's 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.520 not even just that not everyone remembers Unice, but that 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.600 people don't even believe she could have existed. The idea 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.280 that she could have existed seems like a fantasy to people. 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.800 When I first learned about Unice Carter, I was so 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.520 excited to find out about her life. The more I read, 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.399 the more I alternated between being sad, frustrated, and angry. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.800 Unice was a well known woman of her time, a 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:52.960 published writer, a socialite, daughter of a well known trailblazing 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:57.640 couple a prosecutor. She is the reason one of the 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.040 most notorious mobsters of all time was sent to jail. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.359 Unis had so many recorded accomplishments and yet still manages 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:11.440 to be an obscure character in American history. You could 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.120 have a string of first after your name and still 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.400 be forgotten. How much does a black woman have to 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.920 do in order to stay bold faced throughout history. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.880 I think it's really fascinating that she was so prominent 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:33.600 at the time. I think I knew a little bit 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:35.600 about the things she had done, but I actually didn't 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.800 know that she had achieved notoriety for them at the time. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.640 I think when it comes to black history in the 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:49.080 US specifically, often we remember people because their legacy can 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.960 be used to serve a particular narrative. And I sort 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.040 of wonder if, for Unis, she just never really fit 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.360 neatly into any particular narrative. Which is not to say 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.920 she's not remember at all, but she's not as much 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.880 of a household name as she could be, given the 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:07.920 things she accomplished and how well known she was in 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.000 her heyday. I think also there has been a real 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:18.279 erasure in US history of Black people who were movers 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.440 and shakers or who had access to power in their time. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.480 I think that it speaks to who gets remembered and 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:27.000 who doesn't. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:32.880 But it's clear that Eunice, perhaps more than anything, wanted 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.880 to be remembered. She had a certain type of ambition. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:39.800 She wanted to move in certain circles and to be 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.400 recognized in the world in a certain way. She wanted 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.840 people to know that she was smart, that she was accomplished. 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.240 She wanted to have some proximity to power. She wanted 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.200 to be a judge. That was ultimately what she felt 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:55.400 she wanted to do. The things Eunice Carter did were 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.640 seen as so out of the ordinary for a black 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.680 woman at the time that when she appeared a character 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:05.200 in a television show many decades later, viewers didn't think 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.760 she could have even existed. Why. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:15.640 I suspect she would think it's because she didn't get 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:17.400 to achieve everything she wanted to achieve. 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.680 From the teams at iHeartRadio and novel. I'm Nicole Perkins 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:53.440 and this is the final episode of The Godmother, Episode eight, 0:05:54.640 --> 0:06:07.039 Finding Unice. On November seventeenth, nineteen forty two, Eunice writes 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.880 Dewey a letter. Six years have passed since the Lucky 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:16.640 Luciano trial. Her handwriting is sure and strong, no splotches, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.719 no words crossed out to fix any mistakes. At the time, 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.839 she's still working in the Prosecutor's office, but she's in 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.760 a new role now, one that Dewey promoted her to 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.159 just a couple of years earlier. The letter opens with 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:35.960 dear Boss, handwritten on what looks like quality paper, but 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.840 Dewey has left the Prosecutor's office by the time of writing. 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:44.039 In nineteen forty two, Eunice is congratulating him for recently 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:45.679 winning the election for governor. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:51.200 After the case things changed. Dewe became very well known. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.920 He was a big crime buster national reputation. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.960 And Dewey uses that popularity to launch a successful political career. 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.600 He was Governor of New York from nineteen forty three 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:04.560 until nineteen fifty four. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.400 As governor, Dewey signed into law the ives Quinn Act, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.400 which made New York the first state to ban job 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:16.640 discrimination based on race, religion, or creed. He increased unemployment 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.600 and disability benefits, and helped create the state university system, 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.080 plus many other accomplishments that helped make the Republican Party 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.160 more progressive than it had been before. But there's one 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.360 big twist of his career that must have chafed His 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.320 new life in politics puts him in a position where 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.160 he has to undo one of the biggest triumphs of 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:42.800 his career. During World War Two, New York's government finds 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.560 themselves in need of a very particular kind of deal broker. 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.360 At that time, New York's waterfront had less of a 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.800 touristy vibe than it does these days. It was run 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:54.440 by the mob. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.000 The waterfront was the Fulton Fish Mawaukeet, and fish was 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.040 a big racket. 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.720 But World War Two is underway and the US Navy 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.680 sees that it's imperative new York's port is protected. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.800 New York was a huge port, even bigger than in 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:15.760 many ways than it is today. 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.520 The US Navy needs someone to persuade the mob controlling 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.080 the port that they should work with authorities to keep 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:27.120 New York safe. Someone the mob will trust, and who 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:31.200 better than the former boss of bosses who's been languishing 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:36.240 in prison for the last decade, Lucky Luciano himself. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.640 He uses his connections within Italy and his connections through 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.360 organized crime groups across New York to make sure that 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:53.319 the ports remain free, safe and open during World War Two. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.920 If you see anything suspicious, you have to pass the 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:57.720 word along. 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.839 Because of his operation, Lucky gets himself a deal. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.840 Jay ed go over later, so sarcastically remarked that they 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.280 did everything but give Luciano the Naval Cross. 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:15.480 He's pardoned, and not just any pardon, but a pardon 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.560 from the Governor of New York himself, which by nineteen 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:26.880 forty six is of course Thomas E. Dewey that had 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:27.320 to hurt. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.080 Luciano was released from prison in forty six and goes 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:31.680 off to Italy. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:37.040 Lucky remains active in organized crime, silently financing ventures in 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.480 New York, Las Vegas, Cuba for the most part from 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.480 across the ocean, until he dies of a heart attack 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.760 at Naples International Airport in nineteen sixty two. His body 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.800 is buried in a cemetery in Queens. His path and 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:59.240 Dewey's are finally unspoiled, which leaves Dewey and Unice. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:04.200 I have no doubt that Dewey respected Unice and Eunice 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:08.439 I think respected him she actually campaigned for him. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.560 But governor of New York is no small feat. He 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:16.240 doesn't just have pardoning power as governor, he can also 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:22.600 appoint every election Eunice is by Dewey's side. Dewey even 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.800 makes a bid for the White House in nineteen forty 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.640 four and forty eight, unsuccessfully, of course, although it was close. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.640 At any moment in that eleven year reign, Dewey could 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:39.599 have helped Unice achieve her own career ambitions. 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:45.199 He was very comfortable singing her praises as far as 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.480 the role that she'd played, but he never reached the 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.600 point where he was comfortable giving her a public face. 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.959 It was kind of a point of controversy that he 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.480 could have appointed her as a judge. He never appointed her. 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.439 I don't think you can look up and go. He 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.400 just never had the opportunity. Why didn't he appoint here? 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.960 He knew she was very confident, She was very devoted 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:16.320 to him. 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.120 Dewey was progressive enough to appoint Unice to his team 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.080 and express admiration for all of her hard work. But 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.400 why was it so hard for him to help her 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.760 move to the bench. It's clear she was a star 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.040 on the rise. But her career seemed to plateau while 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.640 the men in the good old boys network surrounding her 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.320 kept climbing to success. I honestly can't say I'm surprised 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.480 that Dewey had no problem taking advantage of Unice's support 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.120 and expertise without letting it pay. 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:46.480 Off for her. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.320 But why was unus so loyal to Dewey when he 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:54.040 didn't seem interested in helping her without benefit to himself. 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.439 It all seems to follow that old axum. Black people 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.360 have to work twice as hard to get half, and 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.120 that's not accounting for the unique challenges of being a 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:08.960 black woman. Unis may have felt that a judgeship could 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.839 have created a legacy for her, would have written her 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.680 more firmly than anything else could have into the pages 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.120 of American history, but it didn't happen. That's not to 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.520 say she didn't make an impact. Unice's work with Dewey 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.079 did leave a precedent of sorts that continues to influence 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:32.240 the modern justice system. Unice didn't pioneer these things, but 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.319 she was part of a pivot in the American legal system. 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.160 Like Dewey's joinder law used so effectively to convict Lucky 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:46.080 Luciano in association with his co defendants. Modern iterations of 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.920 that law are still in use to this day, sometimes 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:51.880 in ways that UNICE would have supported. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.840 It's actually what groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:00.319 used to bankrupt the Ku Kuk Klan in certain cities. 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.720 But in the criminal world, laws like the Joinder law 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.120 have often been used in ways that are heavily racialized, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.560 like targeting gang violence in la and New York. 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.920 Those investigations are often heavily raced based. They're looking for 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:21.160 young black men who have certain associations, who wear certain 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.120 kinds of clothing, and really sweep in large numbers of 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.400 people in the community in the effort to try to 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.880 turn back gun violence in a particular area. 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.760 We've even seen it used against protest movements. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.440 We've seen that in the state of Georgia, where the 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:41.800 governor has gone after activists attempting to stop the creation 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:46.240 of a large training facility near Atlanta called cop City. 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.280 None of these were inventions of UNISES, and she's not 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.720 responsible for the way they've evolved into their current forms. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.880 But I do wonder whether history would have remembered units 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.959 better if she'd worked against the system as it was then, 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.440 instead of from within it, whether or not she yearned 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.040 to dismantle it change it. With her very presence in 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.320 those rooms of power, history has seemed to remember the 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:18.120 radicals and the protesters a little more clearly. I think 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.640 back to her essay breaking Through that road map of 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:26.320 sorts she wrote for her own career trajectory, but also 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.960 of the people of Harlem trapped in the modern ghetto. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.200 Could she have imagined that nearly a century after she 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.680 wrote those words, thirty eight percent of those imprisoned in 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:43.080 the US are black, despite being only thirteen percent of 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:48.600 the country's population, removed from their communities in service to 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.200 a sprawling brand of law enforcement that her own work 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.440 helped lay down in history. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:04.320 A problem with situations like Unice Carter is if you 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.000 are the one person, if you are one of few people, 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:15.040 and you don't have meaningful access to power in that office, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.000 and you don't have a meaningful voice in that office, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.880 it too easily devolves into tokenism. Right, It's too easily 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:29.200 transformed into Now the institution is using you to validate 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:35.040 itself because it's gone out and created a more diverse workforce, 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.800 and you yourself find that two years, three years in, 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.360 you really haven't been able to shift the institution. 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.520 Unice, perhaps sinsing that the judgeship was never going to happen, 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.400 quits the world of law for good in the early 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:50.360 nineteen fifties. 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.880 If you are somebody who is trying to rock the boat, 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.520 you are always subject to the status quo rocking it 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.960 right back. And that applies for anyone rocking the boat, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.800 but I think it applies with special force to black 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:03.920 people who are trying to do that. 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.360 Unice's guiding belief has always been help me further my 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.480 career and I'll be loyal to you. But the flip 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.800 side of that coin is the toll it ends up 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.280 taking on Unice's personal life, because when those dreams don't 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.120 come to fruition, she looks for someone to blame and 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.240 finds him a little closer to home. 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.320 She was never made a judge, but I think she 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.680 always felt that it was because of Alvius' politics. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:42.440 As in Eunice's younger brother Addie and William's only son 0:16:43.480 --> 0:17:03.160 Alfaeus hunting. When there's anything going on in my life, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.600 good or bad, I turned to the group chats, A 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:11.120 bad date, a single thumbs down, emoji a good date, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:16.920 thumbs up A very very good date. Well that gets 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:17.760 full sentences. 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:20.880 My impression of Unice is not that she was someone 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.000 who had a lot of close girlfriends or friends who 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.239 she really talked to about everything that was going on 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.919 with her internally, people who she hung out with and 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:32.880 gossiped with and confided in. 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.040 The picture I see of Unice in her later years 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:45.439 is a lonely one. I find myself yearning still to 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.800 know what kind of friend Unice was, Who does she 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:54.879 share secrets with, share her dreams with? But there doesn't 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.320 seem to be any of that in Unice's life. For 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.879 a while, Unis has one friend, Mary McLeod Bethune. 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.199 Bethoon was that person, even though they had kind of 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.159 a mentor mentee relationship, but you know, they were also close. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.800 Mary McLeod Bethune is a civil rights activist and educator. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.480 Unice met through her mother, Addie Hunton, but they eventually 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.760 have a major falling out over something that seems kind 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:26.080 of trivial looking back. Unice is hoping to be chosen 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.639 to represent the National Council of Negro Women at a 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.680 major event, but she isn't and for some reason or 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.919 another she blames Mary for the fact that she was overlooked. 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.600 That was just a sad thing. You know, when you 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.720 watch two friends break up, and it's just depressing. I 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:48.320 think sometimes her personal relationships they weren't always great. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.439 There's another anecdote about Unice that also speaks to me 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:58.040 about her loneliness. It's a memory of Lyle Carter Junior's, 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.760 Unice's only child. He lived most of his childhood away 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.320 from his parents, often on long stays with extended family 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.480 and Barbados. But on one occasion, when Lyle Junior is 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.840 around eleven or twelve, he finds himself alone with his 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.560 mother and Eunice asks Lyle Junior for advice. Does he 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.240 think she should get a divorce from her husband? His father. 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.680 There have been rumors of affairs throughout Unice's marriage to 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:31.560 Lyle Carter sor her dentist husband, but there's something tragic 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.720 about the idea of Unice asking her pre adolescent son 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.960 for advice. She could have used a girlfriend at that moment. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.080 Her marriage, from what we can tell, wasn't the happiest. 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.720 I can't say for sure why that was, and I 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.040 certainly am not influenced to blame it on her ambition, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:05.600 just doing my personal principles. But yeah, but I reading 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:13.920 the correspondence with Bathoon, I can see how her attitude 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.800 would make personal relationships difficult for her. 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.520 Sometimes she could have used even a sibling to turn 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.359 to at that moment, But Eunice's path and the path 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:29.800 her younger brother Alfaeus took they went in totally different directions. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.159 Alfaus Hunting was a scholar and an activist who was 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.320 a tall, slim man with a thick mustache and eyebrows. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.280 Possibly Alfaus had been her companion during the riots in 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:47.320 Atlanta and their mother's adventures in Germany. Like Eunice in adulthood, 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:52.160 Alfaus is committed to the project of racial uplift. 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.439 Not only African American people, but all people of color 0:20:54.680 --> 0:21:00.719 and fighting for working class rights, fighting for unions, fighting 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.920 for national liberation against colonialism. 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.919 Also, like his sister, he works with some major leading 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.200 figures like Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Boyce. 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.360 But unlike Unics, who remains in the Republican Party her 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.560 entire life, Alphaeus takes a sharp political left turn. 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.639 Alpheus was a communist, like a real communist. 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.119 The same year that the Trial of the Century unfolds, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.600 Alpheus makes a career choice of a very different kind. 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.760 In nineteen thirty six, al Faeus officially joined the Communist Party. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.720 He was active with a lot of left wing organizations. 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.520 He was a supporter of Mao and Stalin. He was, 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:43.879 you know, the real deal. 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.560 I think that was the beginning of the troubles for Alphaeus. 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.840 It's fascinating to think of Alphaeus finding his way to communism. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.040 My siblings and I are all very different from each other. 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.600 But my older sister, the firstborn, is the golden child 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.600 of the Fa family. She always does the right thing 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.040 and is the kind of person who waves as strangers 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.399 like they're best friends. She also keeps the peace. My 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.800 mother says, I'm her rebel, but I tend to set 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.320 up tougher boundaries than my sister and my brother. Plus 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.760 I'm the middle child, It's my birthright to cause a 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:24.160 little havoc. Alphaeus is the baby brother, the only boy. 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.800 I wonder if part of the reason these two siblings 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.360 are so different is so that they can stand out 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:35.399 from each other. Like Uni studies at Smith, a predominantly 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:38.760 white private women's college, with her fees paid for by 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.320 a wealthy friend of their mother. Alphaeus, on the other hand, 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:45.360 works as a railway porter at a train station through 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.879 his college years at Howard University, a historically black school. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.720 I'm not saying he became a communist because he was 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:54.080 frustrated that his sister's college was paid for and his wasn't, 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.119 But he would have been hanging out with pullman porters 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.320 and getting exposed to the labor movement. He did have 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.240 very different experiences. 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.920 In nineteen forty one, as Unice is playing the perfect 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:10.240 respectable Republican, the FBI is creating a file on her 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:16.439 younger brother. One day in May, Alfaz is reading a 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:20.439 newspaper when he comes across his own name. It's in 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:24.119 an article which states that the House of Unamerican Activities Committee, 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.359 created to examine any behavior considered to be a threat 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:32.639 to the public like communist thought, has branded him a communist. 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:38.600 He actually read in the newspaper the charges against him 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.480 before he was informed by the committee that he was 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:42.440 even being charged. 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.440 He writes to the committee demanding the right to testify, 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.119 but it's not until the following year that he receives 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:54.040 a letter from the FBI exonerating him of all charges. 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:00.919 But as the years progressed, his file grows thicker notes 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.119 reports associations. 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:16.000 Presumably al Faeus saw in socialism and communism the path 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:20.199 for African American equality and black liberation. I think Unice 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:22.000 saw a different path. 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:27.280 As their paths diverge, Eunice and al Faus clashed publicly 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:28.320 with each other. 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:31.920 Not directly, but they were ideologically opposed on a lot 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:35.560 of things. For example, when Thomas Dewey was running for President, 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:38.200 ALTHEUS was calling him a reactionary in the press, which 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:39.879 I'm sure she didn't like very much. 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:44.760 By the early nineteen fifties, Unice has given up Act 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:47.480 of Law and is working with a few prominent black 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:50.800 women's associations on their domestic and international efforts. 0:24:51.240 --> 0:24:54.359 She was at the founding of the United Nations, I 0:24:54.440 --> 0:24:56.640 think on behalf of the National Council of Negro Women. 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:01.919 After World War Two there was a lot going on. 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:06.240 One of those things is the UN Convention on Genocide Postwar. 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:09.760 The Convention aims to define genocide so it can be 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:11.479 considered an international crime. 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:15.200 And in the early fifties there was a movement to 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:17.160 get the United States to ratify the Convention. 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.840 Unice wants to get the US on board, and for 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.640 a while it's a family affair because so doaes alphaeis. 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:28.080 Eunice testified before the Senate in favor of for ratification. 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:31.000 She was actually the only black person to testify for it. 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.959 But there are significant levels of pushback against the idea 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:40.080 of ratification in America. One in particular, becomes a sticking point. 0:25:40.480 --> 0:25:45.920 One of the arguments against the US's ratification of the 0:25:46.040 --> 0:25:50.199 Convention was that the US itself was in violation of 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:52.720 the Convention. The number one concern was because of the 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:55.800 prevalence of lynching and overall because of the treatment of 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:56.639 black Americans. 0:25:59.640 --> 0:26:03.560 Imagine Units going to the podium wearing one of her 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:08.280 white lace collars is the nineteen fifties, sir hat and 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:12.040 gloves probably would have been on points. She's standing in 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:15.359 front of a panel of senators, a room full of 0:26:15.400 --> 0:26:19.000 people behind her. She speaks some of the few words 0:26:19.040 --> 0:26:21.240 we have of hers that have lasted through the years 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:24.919 to be brushed off and examined again in the harsh 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:26.000 light of present day. 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:30.399 The situation of the Negro people in this country is 0:26:30.440 --> 0:26:34.679 in no way involved the lynching of an individual or 0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:38.520 of several individuals has no relation to the extinction of 0:26:38.640 --> 0:26:42.240 masses of people because of race, religion, or political belief. 0:26:44.359 --> 0:26:47.840 Over seventy percent of people lynched in America were black. 0:26:49.080 --> 0:26:52.440 That's at least three thousand, four hundred and forty six 0:26:52.520 --> 0:26:56.840 Black Americans. Up until nineteen sixty eight that we know of, 0:26:59.040 --> 0:27:02.359 lynching was off in a form of vigilante justice, with 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:06.320 white people hanging and mutilating black people accused of any 0:27:06.400 --> 0:27:11.040 number of crimes from loitering to making eye contact to 0:27:11.359 --> 0:27:15.640 sexual assault without any formal charges, a way of eradicating 0:27:15.680 --> 0:27:20.600 black life based on race. It was absolutely a form 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:24.880 of genocide. So we don't know whether UNUS really believed 0:27:24.920 --> 0:27:27.920 this or not, but I think she felt we want 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:30.280