Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

Podcast Episode with Clyde W. Ford the author of Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives in the Making of White Power and Wealth

May 06, 2022 Dr. Akilah Martin and Orrin Williams Season 2
Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series
Podcast Episode with Clyde W. Ford the author of Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives in the Making of White Power and Wealth
Show Notes

An interview with the author of one of the best books we have ever read, Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth, Clyde W. Ford.

The Roots Watering Hole podcast series proudly presents an episode with Clyde W. Ford author of, Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth. My co-host Dr. Akilah Martin and I agree that this book was one of the best reads in our experience. We were intrigued by how for example, Clyde through recounting the case of Elizabeth Key and the impact it had on what would become the legal/extra-legal status of African descendants in terms of what I call enslavement policy and then the long term consequences via the social contract and the settler colony racial caste system in existence to this day.

 There is so much more for you the reader to peruse when you buy Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives in the Making of White Power and Wealth. If you are able, please purchase the book at an independent bookstore. Prepare to have to rethink much of what you think you know about the making of America.

 Find Clyde W. Ford’s bio here:

 Clyde W. Ford was born in NYC. He's the author of thirteen works of fiction and non-fiction. He's also a psychotherapist, an accomplished mythologist, and a sought-after public speaker. 

 In 2006, Ford received the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award in African American fiction. In 2019, he was named a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award in African American nonfiction. In 2021, Clyde received the prestigious Washington Center for the Book award for Think Black, his memoir about his father, the first Black software engineer in America. Clyde also won the Nautilus Book Award in Social Justice and was named a finalist for the Goddard-Russo Prize in Social Justice for Think Black. 

 Clyde was honored as a "Literary Lion" by the King County Library System in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2019. He was voted "Best Writer of Bellingham, Washington" in 2006 and 2007 by readers of the Cascadia Weekly and he received the 2007 Bellingham, Washington Mayor's Arts Award in Literature. 

 Ford is currently a speaker for Humanities Washington, an affiliate of the NEA, where he presents a program entitled, "Technology, Race and Social Justice," around the state. He is also the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Publishing Project at HarperCollins. Clyde has participated in hundreds of media interviews and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, New Dimensions Radio, and National Public Radio. 

 He lives in Bellingham, Washington where he enjoyed walking in the mountains and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

 Please take the time to read an excerpt of the book here: http://www.ofbloodandsweat.com/

 For bonus interviews with Clyde see:

 Good Morning America

 An interview with librarian (yes, we love librarians) Mary Kinser

We will close this episode out with a thank you to Clyde W. Ford. Oh, and for a special treat you can find two episodes with his sister the incredible Dr. Claudia Ford on the Roots Watering Hole podcast website, so double your listening pleasure!