The Great Debate: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley and the Civil Rights Revolution

On February 18, 1965, an overflow crowd packed the Cambridge Union to witness a televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The subject was “the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.”  Nicholas Buccola will revisit that historic debate and discuss its continuing relevance to this country's persistent racial divide.