https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/04/06/tom-hanks-jeffery-robinson-short-film-about-1876-contested-presidential-election/ [click thru to watch videos]

Tom Hanks and Jeffery Robinson on short film about 1876 contested presidential election

By Washington Post Live

0:14 / 32:39

Tom Hanks and Jeffery Robinson join Washington Post Live on Thursday, April 6. (Video: The Washington Post)

Actor Tom Hanks and former American Civil Liberties Union deputy legal director Jeffery Robinson have produced a new short film about the contested and consequential 1876 presidential election that was resolved in a backroom deal. Hanks and Robinson join The Washington Post’s Kate Woodsome to discuss “How to Rig an Election: The Racist History of the 1876 Presidential Contest.” The animated short will be distributed by The Post Opinions section.

https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/7jEOkozhVcQBICcWzg9kdX?utm_source=generator

Highlights

Hanks on the importance of truth in history

3:17

“As Ben Bradlee said … ‘The truth, no matter how painful, is much less dangerous than a lie in the long run.’ The idea that some degree of learning about our history is going to be made either illegal or so far removed that you’ll have to go off and work in order to determine the truth of what happened in our past … I think is insulting to us as Americans … It’s going to rob us of the progress we have made as Americans.” – Tom Hanks (Video: Washington Post Live)

Robinson on activism: ‘Hope does not cause action’

1:14

“If you are going to have conversations about why America looks like it does today, then you have to be armed to have those conversations. And I mean armed with facts … It’s important to understand that action causes hope. It’s not the other way around. Hope does not cause action. So, if you are looking for hope, the first place to look is in the mirror.” – Jeffery Robinson (Video: Washington Post Live)

Hanks on how people can protect democracy

2:30

“It’s never as simple as a protagonist, antagonist circumstance. Not now. Not in [2023.] There is a position to be made, but it has to be made from a place of ‘let’s find out what is the truth and let’s find out what is the narrative.’ I think the concept of narrative is supplanting the concept of facts … If we don’t learn now, then a lesson is going to be lost for our posterity. And that ain’t America.” – Tom Hanks (Video: Washington Post Live)

Robinson on American history and white supremacy

4:09

“The Civil War was based on a concept about Black Americans that had been steeped in our culture for a quarter millennium. For 246 years. And so, it’s important to remember, do you really think that people are going to give up beliefs that have been honed over that period of time, simply because they lost a war? The White supremacy that was a part of what caused the Civil War didn’t go away at the end of the Civil War. It was still bubbling there.” – Jeffery Robinson (Video: Washington Post Live)