(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato, way more importantly, as we're down here in Atlantic City at the NJEA Convention, we're with Karyn Parsons, an actress.

You may recognize her from "The Fresh Prince."

About, what were those years?

- What were they?

- [Steve] Yeah.

- They were magic years.

- No, what year?

- But how long about?

(Steve and Karyn laugh) - Wait, so- - '90 to '96, that sound right?

- You were a kid.

- I was ten.

(Steve and Karyn laugh) - And so, what's so fascinating is that's not the reason we're talking to you today.

- No.

- You are making a difference as a writer.

And this is the book.

We actually just interviewed the filmmaker about Garrett Morgan.

Tell us about this book, "Saving the Day, Garrett Morgan's Life-Changing Invention of the Traffic Signal."

- Yes.

- Tell us about Garrett Morgan and the book.

- Well, this book is one of the stories by Sweet Blackberry, which is my non-profit organization.

- Say it again, Sweet?

- Sweet Blackberry.

- Website's up now.

- Yeah, thank you.

And our mission at Sweet Blackberry is to bring little-known stories of African American achievement to kids.

'Cause there are so many stories out there that are being lost completely that we're not hearing about.

Garrett Morgan is one of those stories that was brought to me.

You know, I think I learned about a handful of stories about Black history in school, great stories, great people, but there are so many more, and so many more that are really important.

Important for us to know about, important for children to understand that even with adversity, what they are capable of, and I think Garrett's one of those stories.

He was an inventor who invented, among other things, the traffic signal, but also the gas mask.

But the traffic signal that we use today, the three stop, - That's right.

- Or the three-tiered traffic signal is from Garrett, and a lot of people don't know that that was from a Black man.

- And he called himself the Black Edison.

- The Black Edison.

Did he call himself- - He did, no, I wouldn't just say that.

I had to research this.

- Okay.

- But what's fascinating is that the filmmaker who, actually, Philip Musey, - Yeah.

- Who we also interviewed.

He told me something that was, I shouldn't say it's hard to believe, because it's painfully realistic.

Garrett hired actors, white actors, to act that they were him, - Oh.

- To sell his ideas.

- I'm not surprised.

I had never heard that before and I'm dying to see that film, to learn a little bit more, but that part of it I've never heard.

But it makes sense, and I think there are so many, there are a lot of Black inventors, like Lewis Latimer, Garrett Morgan, who have contributed so much to our society that we take for granted, and we don't know about.

I can't imagine how many more there were who didn't get credit for their work, didn't get credit for their inventions.

'Cause if you think about the times, and I'm sure it was very easy for other people to make those patents, instead of the Black people that did.

- So for you, Karyn, this book, and you also, I believe, recently subbed with Nick Ferroni.

- [Karyn] I did, yesterday.

- [Steve] We're interviewing Nick as well.

So you go to Nick's class.

He's a great teacher.

- [Karyn] He's an amazing teacher.

- And what's the setup?

What are you gonna do there?

- Well, I went and I, God, I was with the history.

I got to be sub for a history class, which was fantastic.

- Wait, you were the sub.

- I was.

I mean, I didn't mean to become a history teacher, but in my own way, I've kind of become a history teacher by writing these books.

And short, animated films about historical figures, and about historical accomplishments.

I didn't mean for it to happen, but I ended up there, and Nick kind of, you know, he guided me through a little bit, but I got to talk to the students and it was really fun.

I did history, drama, and English.

Writing, creative writing.

- What'd you see in- I'm sorry for interrupting.

What did you see in those kids when you were telling them what they needed to understand, and had never even heard of?

- Well, it was, what was really great, and I told Nick this, is they were so engaged.

They're high school students, so, you know, and I have a high school student at home, and so he doesn't listen to me all the time.

But I had this- - Join the club.

(Karyn and Steve laugh) - I've got this group of kids who are asking such intelligent, thoughtful questions, really engaged and interested.

And we're talking about, like I said, there was theater arts, there was the history, the kids in history, and the kids in English, and they were all interested in these subjects and in these areas.

And they had such great questions.

I was really impressed.

I mean, Nick's a great teacher, so he set really good foundation for me to come into and talk to them.

It was a lot of fun.

- Now, what I'm fascinated by is your connection to this convention.

- [Karyn] Yeah?

- Talk to us about that.

- Well, I mean, I love being here at this convention.

I mean, this is, I look out and it's so big, and it's so well attended, and these people have come because they care about our children so much.

In spite of all that's going on right now.

- Stuff, all the stuff.

- These are people that really care, regardless.

They are getting to what's most important, which is the children.

And bringing the truth to the children, and bringing whatever they can to enhance and better their education.

That means everything to me.

We know how hard it is for teachers.

We know how little teachers get paid and regarded.

And then you've got librarians right now too, as well as school librarians, that are having people threaten them.

My mother was a librarian.

- [Steve] Really?

- Yeah, and I can't even imagine that people are coming at librarians because of the books that they have for kids, to offer them, so they can see all different aspects.

- Let's talk about diversity in our books.

- Yeah.

- Or lack thereof.

- Yeah.

- What do you think is really going on?

I'm not gonna get political with this, or it may be.

- It's kinda hard.

- I was just gonna say how ridiculous that premise was.

But from your perspective, having books that tell all kinds of stories - Yes.

- About all kinds of people.

Diversity in our books.

- Yes.

- How the heck did it become so controversial?

Just telling stories?

- I mean, fear, I guess, fear and people...

It's a good question.

And for me, I'm confused by all of it, simply because, as a parent, like, I think all parents want their children to have access to everything.

To learn about everything, to be able to take a look and decipher what feels true, what feels right to them, what makes sense to them.

To understand context and history.

Understand how things brought us to where we are today.

And like, "Oh, okay."

When I was coming up, and we were taught about slavery, for instance, nobody thought that white people were bad in America.

People thought that the enslavers, what the enslavers did, wasn't right.

And that things changed, and we wanted to change things.

Things change, we learn from these things, but nobody was pointing fingers.

Now, today, for people to somehow take these things as affronts, personally, I don't know where that came from.

I don't know when that started, when people started saying- - But it's real.

It's real for so many people who say things like, I'm sorry for interrupting.

- Yeah, no.

- "Wait a minute.

You're teaching Black history, that's one thing.

But to teach," that's the interpretation, "to teach that my sixth grader has some responsibility for..." that's the argument.

- But it's not what's being taught.

I mean, that's not the thing that's being taught.

- Are you implying that there's misperception out there?

(laughs) - Absolutely.

- I mean, and I don't know why, and it's terrible because I think people have, - Yeah.

- I think people have, politically, very deliberately, played into people's fears - Agendas.

- With it, because of their agendas.

And it's sad, because the children are the ones that are suffering because of it.

And I think we all need to get out of the way and look, kind of, at the whole thing objectively, and go, wait a minute.

We wanna serve the children with the best that they can and we can do our parts, as parents, to help guide them, just like their teachers help guide them.

- So think about this.

So this story, "Saving the Day," about Garrett Morgan, the implication is somehow, some would say, "Well, if you're telling us about Garrett Morgan, and what he invented, doesn't that take away from a white- What?

- How?

No.

- That makes no sense!

- And the thing I want people to understand, when you see books like Garrett Morgan, like, about a Black inventor, - Right.

- It's an American story.

This is an American.

This happened here, this is something that we should all be- - Black history is American history.

- It's American history.

We should all be proud of, we should all be excited about, and we should all be excited to learn about it.

Nobody's saying this is a separate, "This is separate, you're not included, this isn't for you."

The opposite.

This is for all of us.

And for children, I wanted, I started this organization, and one of the reasons I did start Sweet Blackberry, - You're talking about - Sweet Blackberry.

- Sweet Blackberry, right.

- Is because I wanted children to understand that because of what a lot of Black people went through in this country, to get, you know, to overcome incredible obstacles, and these challenges, I want children to understand what they are capable of.

And that, actually, obstacles are often opportunities to do great things.

And I want kids to get that message.

All kids to get that message.

- How much do you enjoy, I mean, listen.

Being a superstar, as a very young person, - Superstar?

- Superstar.

A really big star at a very important time in American history, with one of the most popular programs, "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," at the time.

- In terms of being rewarding and having impact, it's not one or the other, but this is huge what you're doing right now.

- Writing books?

- Yeah.

- I love it.

- You're doing more than writing books.

You're teaching, you're helping us understand, and you're putting things in context, and you're motivating a lot of young people.

- Yeah, lucky me.

It's been great.

I've been really fortunate.

I mean, the fact that I was on a television show that we're still mentioning today, you know, all these decades later, I meet young people who say, "It's my favorite show."

And their parents are going, "It used to be my favorite show."

You know, that, and that I'm in those households and getting some people through, or the comedy of that show got a lot of people through a lot of hard times.

- [Steve] That's right.

- That, for me, is a tremendous honor.

I mean, I can't say enough about what an- I used to try to dismiss it and not think about it.

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

And now I've let it land, and realize I was a part of something incredible.

And I'm so grateful and so honored.

Today, now that I'm doing this, the fact that I've entered into this other, for me, creative outlet, it's very exciting for me.

It's new to me, but I'm also bringing things from my acting into writing characters and telling stories.

But to be able to go and visit kids across the country, 'cause I get to go into classrooms and talk to them.

And it's just a really rewarding place.

I'm a lucky, lucky person.

- You're making a difference, and I don't really know of a greater compliment, not from me, or from anyone, or anything more important than making a difference.

You're doing that, I cannot thank you enough - Thank you.

- For joining us.

Thank you.

- Wish you all the best.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

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PSEG Foundation.

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And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

- (Inspirational Music) - (Narrator) Great drive fuels the leaders of tomorrow and today.

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