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When I first read "The 1619 Project" in the New York Times, all of these concepts marry together in each of the essays, but these specific episode titles – "Democracy," "Race," "Music," "Capitalism," "Fear" and "Justice" – can you talk about why you chose to break down the series that way?

“I was being booked into totally White situations, singing the kind of songs that White singers sing. I didn’t fit the rhythm and blues or race‐music mold. I’m more like a Judy Garland in presentation. Lena Horne, Billy Daniels and Herb Jeffries could pass, musically. But I couldn’t. I can’t hide the fact that I’m a Black woman.”

He then decided to focus on “race music,” then the term for rhythm-and-blues and gospel.

Specialty Records’ growth paralleled, and perhaps defined, the evolution of Black popular music, from the ‘race’ music of the 1940s to the rock n’ roll of the 1950s,” music historian Billy Vera wrote in the liner notes to “The Specialty Story,” a five-CD set that came out in 1994.

Openly discussing race, music, masculinity, cultural appropriation and nothing less than the American dream, the pair come off as kind-hearted boomers — grateful for the changes that have marked their lifetimes but realistic about the limitations of their generation and the progress yet to come.