Kent Garrett's guest appearances

Kent Garrett

Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys

Coming From Left Field (Video)

Rachel Lloyd

Majora Carter

Michael Hyatt

Scott Smith

Ryan Leslie

Arlan Hamilton

Bryan Stevenson

Yara Shahidi

Gerald Horne

Clint Smith

Jericho Brown

Musa Okwonga

Natasha Rothwell

Kevin Ross

Carl Hart

OwlTail

Today, we welcomed Kent Garrett and Jeanne Ellsworth to discuss their book, " The Last Negroes at Harvard," a story of 18 remarkable Black men admitted to Harvard’s class of 1963. The book is equal parts memoir, group biography, and history of a turbulent civil rights era. Book:  The Last Negroes at Harvard (2020) https://thelastnegroesatharvard.com/    Podcast: available on Spotify and Apple Podcast   Link to Greg's blog : ZZs Blog   #KentGarrett #JeanneEllsworth #LastNegroesatHarvard #Classof1963 #Harvard #CivilRights #Memoir #GregGodels #ZZblog #ZZsblog #PatCummings #ComingFromLeftField #podcast

Today, we welcomed Kent Garrett and Jeanne Ellsworth to discuss their book, " The Last Negroes at Harvard," a story of 18 remarkable Black men admitted to Harvard’s class of 1963. The book is equal parts memoir, group biography, and history of a turbulent civil rights era. Book:  <a href="https://thelastnegroesatharvard.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Last Negroes at Harvard</a> (2020) <a href="https://thelastnegroesatharvard.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://thelastnegroesatharvard.com/</a> Podcast: available on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6Y0L5oXt9GqOZok0q0HClV" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a> and <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-last-negroes-at-harvard/id1521268233" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcast</a> Link to Greg's blog : <a href="http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ZZs Blog</a> #KentGarrett #JeanneEllsworth #LastNegroesatHarvard #Classof1963 #Harvard #CivilRights #Memoir #GregGodels #ZZblog #ZZsblog #PatCummings #ComingFromLeftField #podcast

”The Last Negroes at Harvard” with Kent Garrett and Jeanne Ellsworth

Joy Keys

KENT GARRETT was born in the Fort Greene Projects in Brooklyn, New York. He excelled in the New York City Public Schools and went on to Harvard College in 1959. He was one of the producers of the ground-breaking public TV program Black Journal and went on to a long career with CBS and NBC News. In 1997, he left the rat race and became an organic dairy farmer in upstate New York.THE LAST NEGROES AT HARVARDIn the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited an unprecedented eighteen “Negro” boys as an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later, one of these trailblazing Harvard grads, Kent Garrett, would begin to reconnect with his classmates and explore their vastly different backgrounds, lives, and what their time at Harvard meant. Garrett and his partner Jeanne Ellsworth recount how these eighteen youths broke new ground, with ramifications that extended far past the iconic Yard. By the time they were seniors, they would have demonstrated against national injustice and grappled with the racism of academia, had dinner with Malcolm X and fought alongside their African national classmates for the right to form a Black students’ organization. Part memoir, part group portrait, and part narrative history of the intersection between the civil rights movement and higher education, this is the remarkable story of brilliant, singular boys whose identities were changed at and by Harvard, and who, in turn, changed Harvard.

KENT GARRETT was born in the Fort Greene Projects in Brooklyn, New York. He excelled in the New York City Public Schools and went on to Harvard College in 1959. He was one of the producers of the ground-breaking public TV program Black Journal and went on to a long career with CBS and NBC News. In 1997, he left the rat race and became an organic dairy farmer in upstate New York. THE LAST NEGROES AT HARVARD In the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited an unprecedented eighteen “Negro” boys as an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later, one of these trailblazing Harvard grads, Kent Garrett, would begin to reconnect with his classmates and explore their vastly different backgrounds, lives, and what their time at Harvard meant.  Garrett and his partner Jeanne Ellsworth recount how these eighteen youths broke new ground, with ramifications that extended far past the iconic Yard. By the time they were seniors, they would have demonstrated against national injustice and grappled with the racism of academia, had dinner with Malcolm X and fought alongside their African national classmates for the right to form a Black students’ organization.  Part memoir, part group portrait, and part narrative history of the intersection between the civil rights movement and higher education, this is the remarkable story of brilliant, singular boys whose identities were changed at and by Harvard, and who, in turn, changed Harvard.

Joy Keys chats with Kent Garrett about his book The Last Negroes at Harvard