What do you get when you take a political insurrection and add one race riot? You get the only political coup in U.S. history. Unbeknownst to Sophie Culpepper, it happened in the North Carolina town where she has always spent her summers shifting Reconstruction-era progress on racial equality towards insidious inequality that would not be properly confronted until the Civil Rights Movement. It is essential to understand the problems of the past to confront those of the present; unfortunately, as this talk reminds us, the U.S. remains troubled by racial discrimination today.

Sophie Culpepper: born in Boston; have lived in Florence since January 2010; endowed and burdened with a Southern American heritage and three younger siblings. Editor of the school newspaper and passionate sub-par water polo player. 11th grade IB candidate at ISF; additionally taking political philosophy, and last year also studied US history (she describes herself as a "chronic nerd").

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx