A lecture by historian, professor and author of 45 books and counting, Dr. Gerald Horne, titled “How Trump Happened: A View From History,” brought more than 400 people to Macalester’s Alexander G. Hill Ballroom on the evening of Friday, Feb. 6.
Horne presented as part of the annual Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies. Horne is a Moores Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Houston.
El-Kati taught for decades at Macalester and the University of Minnesota, while also leading teach-ins at churches, community centers, high schools and living rooms throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul.
His impact on the Macalester community has been immense. As Tinbete Ermyas ’08 described in her piece for Macalester Today: “[El- Kati’s] deftness is inspiring, but it’s also something more: For generations of Macalester students, especially Black students, it’s been a lifeline. Professor El-Kati introduced them to themselves — through ideas and activism — igniting a kind of self-discovery that’s hard to articulate.”
The event that bears his name intentionally blurs the boundary between campus and community. One of El-Kati’s core ethos was bringing together what Sedric McClure, Macalester’s co-director of the Community Engagement Center and dean of Multicultural Life, as well as one of the event’s organizers, described, “the town and the gown.” El-Kati brought together the St. Paul community and the wider intellectual and academic community.
The lecture’s audience itself reflected that intention. Students and professors were joined by neighbors and leaders of the St. Paul Black and African American community. The evening opened with a traditional African drum performance by local musician Christian Adeti that engaged the audience in dance and call-and-response.
Horne’s lecture argued that the current political crisis — like all political crises — is not an accident but an outcome produced over time. He framed Trump’s election as the product of centuries-long patterns rooted in settler colonialism and class collaboration, which entails of partnerships rooted in whiteness across wealth statuses. The latter has, according to Horne, repeatedly undercut more radical labor and multiracial movements in favor of preserving the mythological American whiteness.
“Class collaboration, of course, hampered the militant wing of the labor movement, having a notably devastating impact on the working class,” Horne said.
Horne linked the erosion of militant leftist labor organizing during the Red Scare to contemporary attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Anti-communism, he explained, weakened the left flank of American politics, exiling Black thinkers like Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Horne also drew connections between U.S. foreign policy and political violence at home. He described how violence justified abroad or historically returns domestically and presently.
“If a nation is founded on Indigenous genocide and mass enslavement of Africans, do not be surprised if violence inheres in the resultant society,” Horne said.
The lecture was followed by a question and answer section that showed the breadth of Horne’s expertise. He fielded questions on everything from Cuban petroleum supplies (he estimated correctly that they only had 15-20 days worth), to the future of social media in activism, to the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
That expertise can be explained by his final answer, advising a recent Macalester graduate who asked how he came into his own political and intellectual development.
Horne’s answer? One to two books a week, and two to three hours of reading the news a day.
