The book and documentary’s title, Stamped from the Beginning, comes from an 1860 speech given to congress by Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America. In the speech, Davis calls Black people inferior and “stamped from the beginning,” or subordinate since their creation.

“Black Americans are still suffering in this country and it’s because of these racist ideas and it hasn’t changed,” Williams says. “It has taken on a different form. It morphs into something else that is more contemporary, but it’s the same thing.”