Transcripts For CSPAN Cities Tour - Detroit Michigan 20240714

Our city store visits detroit, michigan to learn more about its unique history and literary life. For eight years now, we have traveled to u. S. Cities, ringing the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. You can watch more of our visits at the span. Org beauty store tour. Org cities air at the Detroit Museum and we are about to walk into an exhibit called americas motor city. Detroit has been. The motor city capital of the world since at least 1915 when there were over 42 Companies Making cars and another 75 Companies Making parts. While other towns build cars, we built lots of cars. The detroit area enjoyed a wealth of strong manufacturing, a lot of it based in the building of carriage bodies but also in building iron stoves, building Railroad Cars, realworld wheels and the rails that go with them. Understood the manufacturing process but also how to deal with steel, iron, rubber. They had all the engineers, designers and toolmakers and the tools they needed to make an automobile. Let us outside if the first car that troubled on the streets of detroit. What were looking at here looks very much like an oldfashioned wagon. We just dont have a horse in front of it. The horses are sitting inside the vehicle. There is a motorized carriage, a horseless carriage. This was the first car to operate on the streets of detroit. Charles brady king. Henry ford king was the guy who designed the car and designed the engine that went inside of it. There was an unusual engine, a fourcylinder engine, went at the time people were using a double cylinder engine. So it was a very powerful vehicle. Charles brady king and oliver martel, who helped him with the engine drove this thing in detroit. Henry ford was there in a bicycle about 25 feet behind chasing them. Starting in the 1870s and 1880s, people started understanding that you could take a steam engine and apply it to an automobile. Eventually, he was used to do that. Electric cars. Existed before gasoline engines. But a gentleman from grand rapids, also here in michigan, developed a gasoline powered engine and took it to the columbia exhibition in 1893 in chicago. He showed it off to everybody, and a lot of guys from detroit, chicago,ing, milwaukee, cleveland, all of them saw this gasoline engine and all of a sudden the gasoline engine became the most popular way of foreign cars. Probably the biggest. Of them these vehicles into was the lack of decent roads. The bicycle folk, people who enjoyed riding bicycles had started a movement called the good roads movement to make the roads better. For the bicyclists got the roads paved. But what you got outside the city center, which here in downtown detroit would have been just a mile or two around the city, you were back on country roads. And in detroit, it is mostly clay. If it rains, you were in trouble. That was the biggest challenge for early motorists, they were constantly getting stuck in the mud. Charles brady king went on and started the king automobile company, the king car company, and he put out a number of cars. Most of them handbuilt. He adapted the assembly that she hadnt he hadnt abducted the Assembly Line yet. He then went on to sell the company. On the 50th anniversary, he had this replica built so people could see him and he drove this car down the middle of town to show off his big invention 50 years before. So what you are looking at is in car made here in detroit. Ransom some sort of his company, one of the first to get into the business. Ing unfortunately, his factory burned down as he was about to go into production. The only one that survived was the curved dash. 1901. Rted producing it in it became the most massproduced automobile in the United States. He figured out the. Assemblyline. Something that most people credit. Henry ford with. Both of those gentlemen learned about us ambulance from other products massproduced in detroit. He learned from chicago stockyards where they used the Assembly Line to dissemble meat. He brought the Assembly Line to detroit and he started massproducing the curved dash car. It became one of the most popular and most affordable early cars in detroit and into United States. He started his old model works here in detroit, but eventually lost the company and it became an offshoot of the General Motors organization, which was being formed around this time. General motors renamed the oldsmobile, which of course, is a popular brand in the United States for many, many decades. Outdone, ransom returned return to his hometown realnsing and started a oldsmobile, most of them would probably recognize that from the produced, acord he name adapted from a band in the 1970s. There were a number of companies that were trying to get going at this time. Charles brady king was trying to get his company going. There was a Company Called. Mozier which is making beautiful luxury automobiles prior to 1910. Both those companies were out of business as the rest of the detroit auto business started going. Henry ford stumbled through it. The first two of his Companies Went out of business. The second one was taken away from him and eventually end up at into the cadillac motorcar company. So with his third company, Ford Motor Company, he started developing several different models not far from this museum over on pickett avenue. Each one of them had a letter denomination. And fsas doing as and bs and ns. Eventually he got to be there model t, but it was a Long Time Coming before his is this manager said, henry, youve got a good car here lets market it and sell it,. And eventually he did he made most model ts in hyde park. They were turning out thousands , millions of cars during that decade. There was a point in 1915, 1920, when half the automobiles on the roads in the United States were made by the Ford Motor Company in Highland Park. At the time he was making model ts a lot of companies decided it was a great idea. Some of those companies werent necessarily involved initially if automobile manufacturing and that the folks who run the detroit news started to start own company. The guys who had the biggest music store and piano manufacturer in detroit decided to start on automobile company, the Hudson Company, which was basically detroits Large Department store. Like macys or marshall fields. To Hudson Company decided start its ottoman facture with red shafer at the lead. Chargingreal hard leader of the automobile business here in detroit. In 1915, detroit had 42 manufacturing Companies Making automobiles, and another 70 some making parts. We saw in the latter part of the 19 teens, a lot of organizations coming together. Was buying up a lot of companies and incorporating them into the General Motors brand. Ford had isolated his plant in Highland Park and had consolidated his plant in heaven park and it became the largest industrial manufacturing facility in the world. We also had walter chrysler, who was picking up the maxwell and briscoe names and coordinating those into the chrysler brand. Or three of them public of to the top and it became what detroit was on for. Detroit early Industrial History prior to the turn of the last century brought in many immigrants, mostly from western europe figured they settled here and took good jobs and helped build the industries they were involved in. Following the turn of the 19th century, we had quite an influx of people from mediterranean europe,s, from eastern that really helped build detroit into this wonderful melting pot of various neighborhoods, polish neighborhoods, serbian, lithuanian, hungarian, russian, lots of folks who were living amongst each other and working together in the car companies. In fact, i have heard the brooch plant described the rouge plant described as the tower of babel because of all the different messages being spoken on the same assemblyline. Many of those people who came here settled, and their families have worked in the plants for years, many generations one after another. In the 1920s and 1930s, the great migration brought both white and black workers into the factory arena. Black workers tended to be in the dirtier and tougher jobs, in the foundries, in the works. White workers tended to get the assemblyline jobs. During world war ii, much of this changed. A lot of younger guys took off to fight in the war and the whole process within the plant started to include older workers, women, handicapped workers. There was a real change in the dynamic on the factory floor. This dynamic is affected today in the people who are still working in the business. We still have immigrants coming into detroit to work on the automobile business or work for many of the suppliers that either started here or have satellite offices here because it strengthens the automobile business. Detroit is still a very dynamic town as far as the folks who live here in the different backgrounds. It has really given detroit a stronger community. Sometimes there are some battles, sometimes there is some lack of acceptance, but over time, we have worked to get through those problems. What we see behind me here now is an Assembly Line a real sm. This is a body drop portion of the cadillac Street Assembly plants. When the that some dilemmas closed, eight donated this to us and we brought it into the museum and set it up. N actual 1970s era body drop operate. The assemblyline was an idea that had already been established. The choice manufacturer is really took advantage of it to a wonderful degree. When forgot going with his model t, he had efficiency experts who came in and mature his moving assemblyline was of the most efficient way to make a car. Took the number of hours necessary for building on automobile somewhere from 30 to about two hours. It was a tremendous change and it made it possible for henry ford, who had started selling the cars at about 800, to bring that price down to about 500. It made it much more affordable for normal working man to be able to get an automobile. While the assemblyline was rate for the manufacture process, actually turning out a car quickly, they were very tough on the workers who had to be in the factories. The factories themselves changed. When the automobile business got started here, most of the factories were built along the old new england mill style of architecture. They found that that was just not going to work for all the foil, all the big heavy stamping machinery they needed they needed, a different kind of architecture. Albert kahn became the foremost industrial architect in the United States by building is feasible floor for automobile plants. And they got big. The assemblyline took over these big plants. They would employ thousands of people. Up in Highland Park, we got great postcards where every three years, the number of people working there goes up by 10,000. To the point where he has 50,000 employees working in one major plant. These people are working hard. And it is dangerous work. It is very repetitive, they are doing the same thing every day. To day they kind of change up jobs. They come up with economic ways of designing machinery. Back then, there was none of that. Initially, these jobs paid living wages. But then henry ford decided one of the best things he could do if he wanted to get the best workers was to raise the wages. And in 1915, he instituted what was known as the five dollar a day wage. Now, not everybody got five dollars a day. You had to be a very good worker, you had to sign some papers and agree to do some things. Ford would actually send people out to look at your house and make sure you were living in good conditions and taking care of your children, and maybe even going to charge. So the five dollar a day was not for everyone, but it really did change the dynamics of working in detroit. Once people heard about these jobs, they started flowing into town to take them. Initially the people who got those jobs were very often people who worked in other industries. They might have worked in Stone Building or the shipbuilding manufacturing industry, which detroit. N but because ottoman fracturing paid better, they pulled workers from those industries. In the 19181924. Period4, the federal government kind of shut down. It made it harder for Automobile Companies to get those runnable employees feel we had so they started to recruit down south. Going down to the appalachian area recruiting whites and they were pulling blacks out of the hardscrabble farms down in georgia and mississippi and bringing those folks up here. It very much changed the dynamic of the city in detroit. We had a large number of immigrants come many of whom didnt speak english or were firstgeneration english speakers. We also had a number of blacks and whites from the south who brought their own baggage with them. Some of it was good the music, the food was wonderful. Some of the other baggage not so great. The south had a long history of racial discrimination. And in the 1920s, the whites who would come out of appalachian states brought about with them. And detroit had a huge contingent of the ku klux klan here, probably second only to the southern states. We were the northern stronghold. They would have marches down woodward avenue that would include 10,000 people in white robes. They burned crosses on the front lawn of city hall, on the front lawn of the courthouse. They helped get a really bad mayor elected. There was some serious baggage that came up with those folks. It took many, many years until well after world war ii to really start to address those issues. And some of those issues we are still living with today. Voice, aunions are a source of protection. Joel the formation of unions within automobile factories and plants came relatively late. There were enough immigrants here in detroit and people coming in constantly that it was pretty easy to replace either for workers or workers who fought the corporation for pay and days off, things like that. Most workers work six days a week and sometimes would even go in the seventh day for the extra money. It was during the depression when times were toughest in detroit that really the automobile manufacturing workers started pushing back. It was in the 1934, and a 2, growthme period when the of the uaw, the growth of the Teamsters Union in a detroit changed attitudes within the plant. The big strikes were the sitdown strike, but soon after that, there were strikes that kelsey hayes, s chrysler, ford being the last one to go was really quite a contentious change. This was not happy times. Union workers were fighting hard automobile management who didnt want to give up in a control in the plant. They wanted worker bees who would get eight and go home and back. Lk the union guys thought they had a pretty good feel of what was wrong some of the manufacturing, both from the injury standpoint, the pay standpoint and from doing things better. These things turned into battles, fights that involved clubs, actually. We had a couple of clubs loaned to us by the Walter Luther library across the street. These were basically automobile parts that were coopted to be weapons. These were the things that the union guys who were fighting back, who were shutting down these plants, saying, unless we get what we need, you are not going to get your cars. Eventually, cooperation became the byword. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Automobile Union started working with the corporations. The automobile workers the union started supporting both africanamerican and white workers in the same plant. They started getting cooperation from the corporation as to how things were going to run better. Corporations are asking how this could happen. Today, the u. A. W. Folks, the teamsters, the people who work in the plants and the executives are now working together. Unions are now partners in the process. Ring the Auto Industry today in detroit is so much different than it was even 50 years ago. 50 years ago, almost all the cars in north america were built in northeast michigan. Now they are built around the world, in other countries, in other states. There are other countries building. In this area, many other companies that now reside in detroit are from japan or germany. They bring their technology here. Of the big three, ford, General Motors and chrysler, chrysler is now owned by an italian company. There has been a real change in the nature of the business as far as manufacturing goes. The Profit Margins are so thin in design,ency efficiencies in manufacturing, in seo practices, all those things have to be in sale practices, all those things have to be refined for a company to remain viable. Detroit has always had ups and downs. We became a onetrick pony as far as what we hung our hats on for the economics of the city and of course, when there is a recession, the first thing people dont buy is an automobile. We always say if a country catches cold, detroit catches pneumonia. The last recession was really tough on detroit. Ford Motor Company had kind of ceded and consolidated and they were able to ride it out. General motors and chrysler both had took claim bankruptcy to survive and get a bailout from taxpayers. That was really to off on both the eagles and the outlook of people in detroit really tough on both the egos and the outlook of people in detroit. Detroit is doing quite well. Detroit is a different animal. We have dealt with these ups and , incredibly resilient. People who love cars really love cars. And there is an ingenuity, kind of an intuition about how an automobile ought to be made. What it can do for you. This return to either hybrids or electric is really exciting. So it is an exciting time to be in the automobile business, and there is no better place to watch the automobile business than here in detroit. The link of the city of detroit and the city of windsor is not just a link of two cities, it is a link of two nations. Canada and america are the two biggest trading partners in the world. The bridge connects at our worst, 16 billion in trade a countries. Th 150,000 jobs rely on this network of transportation and international trade. So it is a tremendously important part of our history and has been since precivil war. During prohibition, detroit is responsible for bringing in 75 of all illegal alcohol route into this country for the 14 years of prohibition. That comes to our neighbors from the south, windsor and canada. Here in detroit, in the 1800s, the city called motor city was stoned city usa, cigar capital of america. We werent on the sporting in Raw Materials, but finished materials. There were days in the 1860s where you had 7000 210,000 Railroad Cars waiting to be transported. Her to come in via train and went for them across canada vice versa. The backlog made the conversation about either a tunnel or bridge take the national forefront the 1870s. Something has to be done because we had storehouses filling up, waiting for the transportation that was very slow because fairies can only transport 50 to 75 cars at a time, not quick enough to catch up with what the train was a to bring in en masse. As the detroit grows in the boomtown following the civil war, building both a tunnel and later, the bridge. We had two tunnels under the Detroit River. One was for train transport. Completed in 1910, it cost for years to build, at a cost of 8. 5 million. Then in 1930, president hoover aesses a button that rings bell simultaneously here in detroit and across the river in windsor and that opens in detroitwindsor tunnel. At just shy of a mile, it is the first underwater nationconnecting tunnel in the world. Today, it has been operating seamlessly since that time. It had a 50 million renovation in the 1990s. It sees over 10,000 cars a day. The detroitwindsor tunnel transports mean the people, 98 cars, 2 trucks. The railroad tunne transports only phrase. It can be gerber baby food, baby food, you name it, if it goes through america him and goes through the tunnel dependent on it is not hazardous or explosive material. The Detroit River was the busiest freshwater shipping channel in the world, and it still is today. Through our train tunnel and through the ambassador bridge, things are transported through the entire world. Show maps everywhere that michigan products and detroit products have made it through the world. There is not a continent we dont touch. The ambassador bridge was completed on november 15, 1929. When it opens, it is the longest extension bridge in the world. That record for just about four taken. Before it is but when it is completed, what it is known for is the height, at around 152 feet, it allowed shipments of freighter traffic to travel below it. As opposed to other pages that would stop commuter traffic when it had to close. The bridge itself is completed by one man, it was not municipally owned. At its earliest conception, it is a toll bridge. Today it is still owned by an individual, who charges five dollars a car to travel from canada to detroit or detroit to canada. Traveling across the ambassador bridge is nearly 10,000 cars a day, plus another 2007 tracks. It is the Main Transport for semi trucks leaving america and going into canada into michigan. We see everything on those trucks, from gerber baby food through countless cereals made here in michigan, beer, iphones, everything that has to be traded. Again, between the two Biggest International trading partners in the world, you can imagine the size and scope traveling between the bridge. When the ambassador bridge opens in 1929, and in 1930 when the tunnel opens, they are heralded as engineering marvels. They put detroit on the map not only architecturally but through prosperity. Being it what to bring in the tobacco that makes our cigar manufacturing flourish at the turnofthecentury. Bringing in the wrong steel and a guard to make our automotive stove industry and later our Automotive Industry flourish. When the bridge opens it 1930, it is during prohibition. For the short, it is really tight to who we are for detroit, it is tied to who we are as an Industrial City and ahab. We have to have these methods of transport the goods we would be wark going through civil series, which would be destroyed the industrial product in america, holding product here detroit. When the windsor opens between the two countries, it is monumental to the city of detroit growth. Coupled with the opening that connects the great lakes to the eastern seaboard, we have become a transit have for the entire country. As International Transit hub, it plays into our role in world war building and shipping out the war materiel that supports the armed forces. We are able to become a hub of industry through the 60s, 70s and 80s, and today we are still known as the motor city. We couldnt be without access to these shipping channels that are really battle to the industry and prosperity of the region, not just detroit as a city or windsor as a city. When you talk about the legalities of International Border crossing, which ever it is, that is rife with issues and concerns. Especially national security. When a bridge opened, best when the ambassador bridge opened, you could walk right up to the border. People used to picnic under the face of the bridge. Post 9 11, security. Concerns meant that is all close off and the nearest could get to the base of the bridge as a general citizen was about 150 yards for security. It also meant we have had to be aware of human trafficking, Illegal Drugs being brought to the city, illegal and counterfeit booze and products that are reputable coming through. They are border protected by border security. We also have coast guard that monitors the traffic on the river coming across making sure what is brought into the city is legal. , it is tireless work enforcement across multiple agencies. That includes border crossing, border security, Michigan State police, and Detroit Police, all who have to work in conjunction to metro what is traveling across the river and into our city is safe. For the last nearly hundred years, the ambassador bridge, coupled with our two tunnels, the train tunnel and the civilian tunnel under the Detroit River have been a huge part of commerce for the region. As detroit continues to grow, we are building a new bridge span, and it will fall just north of where the current ambassador rises. As we travel through the next hundred years, detroits influence will be made in its production and manufacturing. And coupled with fact is the transport of finished goods and Raw Materials in and out of the city. The chance of creating another manufacturing marvel like the largest span or longest span in the world, those titles simply cant be made in detroit because of river isnt long enough. By the idea that we were the first to build a bridge like that certainly speaks to the idea that one day we will create more innovation with our modernday bridges. [singing] right now we are in a place called 54 sound, in what basically was and still is the main music studio. This is where George Clinton recorded a number of his numbers explosion. E eminem this is where all the eminem music would come out of this room. This is rather romantics recorded. There were others, too over the years. So this is a really iconic place. The detroit music scene that center around motown. Because that is what everybody knows. In trustingly interestingly, motown is sort of the middle of the story. But the part of all the stories of all the other joiners of music, played a big role in the sound of detroit. It is known for motown, but it is actually known around the world for some of these other areas as well. What was happening in detroit at that time, this is starting around the 1900s to the 1910, 19 ,0s, and then into the 30s was detroit was starting to become the automotive epicenter. Before that, detroit was a major manufacturing city. They were famous for offense and even cigars among things like that. But then when the car company with ford turned into the assemblyline, that is when people really started migrating up here. Musiciansf jazz started to migrate up here from the south, kind of like the blues and actually the motown people, a lot of them, started to migrate up to detroit for jobs. So you would have a number of musicians who also worked often at ford or dodge, and played their music at night, initially. Then they became more famous and that became their career, and so forth. [jazz music playing] pepper adams was a really big name. Yousef lateef was a big name that came from here. In the jazz world, many of the people who later became the funk brothers, the sound machine for motown, came up as jazz musicians, james jamerson, earl van dyck, and others. They had these Southern Roots as well. What happens with motown in gordy is aberry heer, a songwriter, and lewis,n a bill with joe i mean, he was little on the cards, but nonetheless, he thought this is not so great, i , am getting my head beat in and he already wrote songs and then started writing songs that already had hits. He discovered he was getting pennies on the record. His good friend, Smokey Robinson from detroit, they were tight together. He said, youre making a couple that is kind of how it starts. U the detroitng Public School system had great public music programs. He started scouting around for kids in the music programs who may be had singing groups, the guysations, those that had that would stand on quarters and sing. He would look for them in particular. He won by one started signing these artists. Motown was catching on with white audiences, africanamerican audiences all over the country. Knows this is coming from detroit. Motown is still happening. What some people refer to as the with thef punk music mc5. They start to deconstruct the music, so to speak. At that point, with the mc5 and then whathe stooges, happens is detroit becomes the epicenter of that kind of music. For a time, everybody wants to sign a detroit group. , heking back to motown signed everybody. Record companies are flooding into town after the mc5 were stooges. S were the they all want their Britney Spears or whatever. They came looking for the next mc5. A law of bands were assigned to major labels. Other groups start to come to the surface and then things start to change from that. The next music thing that started to happen in the late 1970s is hiphop. They are being inspired by the sugar hill gang and people from new york who were some of the earlier wrappers. Buildind of start to their own little scene. Eventually, that scene brings starts to bring them in contact with kid rock, who started here. Broke through, it became everybody wanting to sign a hiphop group. Happeningme that is in detroit, techno music is being developed by these High School Kids down in michigan. Like mixing different records and making sounds and to makeng them danceable things. Then i would probably say, after the eminem phase of hiphop ,roups takes place internationally, the techno sound explodes. Internationally, people are coming to detroit to find the techno sound. Locally, some of my students are techno people, but not as many as you would think. I dont know if it has ever caught on here quite like motown did. Motown would probably be the pinnacle of detroit music development. You look at it, you can see what comes before and after that connects back to it. Even with the mc5, they would do motown stuff in their own way. Hookers motor city burning is about the 1960s here. They recorded that and would perform that on a regular basis. What techno music is, mixing different kinds of music together. You have got to be innovative in detroit. That creates a different kind of artist, who is always thinking outside the box. Through think back jazz, through techno, all of those different genres are happening because of people who think outside the box. During our time in detroit, we met up with a tour guide who took us around the city to tell the story of the africanamerican experience here. Begin outside of forward field, home of the detroit lions, which is located in the heart of downtown detroit. Fieldare now in the fort parking deck. In the 1920s through 1950s, this would have been the center of the africanamerican business district. Entertainment district grew as africanamericans were migrating south to north. Thousands of africanamericans are leaving the south, leaving conditions of jim crow in the south. They are leaving sharecropping and looking for jobs at places like Ford Motor Company. They are coming to detroit and making a decent wage. Because of property discrimination, they cannot own property everywhere, but there are certain sections where they can. The africanamerican residential and business and entertainment district, from the 1920s to the 1950s, there are 350 blackowned businesses in or close to this area. This would be the center of africanamerican business activity. Clubs, restaurants, jazz all the things that are part of africanamerican needs and culture would take place right here in Paradise Valley. Up being destroyed after the 1956 interstate highway act. The federal government passes this act where they will fund highways throughout the country. Leadership detroit at this time chose to put it down the main street of the africanamerican community. Eminente the land by domain, which includes shops, restaurants and stores. Actr the interstate highway of 1956, by the mid 60s, most of Paradise Valley is destroyed. Many of the first wave, when they move their land, are going to have to find other places. Up in an area where jewish residents are starting to leave. Africanamerican migration in and around the city follows jewish migration. More likelynts are to rent and sell play sister africanamericans than any other ethnic group. Into lynnwood, grand river. Bet neighborhood is going to where they 1967 uprising occurs. There never will be a center of africanamerican Business Ownership in the city. We lose that when we lose Paradise Valley. Africanamericans of that time called it need grove removal negro removal because people were being removed from their homes. They only got two weeks notice that they were getting kicked out. There is already wealth inequality between africanamericans and whites in detroit and that will deepen that, because now you have lost everything and have to start over again. When we are in downtown detroit, their businesses opening up, restaurants, stores. Had Paradise Valley not been destroyed, much of the Downtown Development would be done by africanamerican business owners, who would have been growing since Paradise Valley. You have blackowned businesses in the 1930s, what would that look like in 2019 had they not been forced to relocate . Announcer 1 during our trip to detroit, we made our visit to the southwest of detroit in dearborn. Henry ford opened a Museum Opening hoping to teach visitors about Industrial History. Today, the complex includes greenfield village, where you can tour 80 acres of historic holdings. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation shares stories of discovery and exploration that are unique to the american story. Continuing our tour, next we had greektown for a stop at detroit public library, the sight of the old city jail, the location of the citys first race riot. Location ishis occurred toising free to free two people from jail. They had been raised in louisville, kentucky and escaped because one had been sold down and her husband did not want to lose the woman he loved. Came to detroit to get far away from kentucky. Because of the 1793 fugitive slave law, going to ohio was still risky, because bounty hunters can take you from free states back to wherever you escaped from. Ohio, where they had been for a while, was too close to kentucky. Bounty hunters were always in and out of ohio, bringing people back to slavery. When they arrived here, thornton was working as a brick mason for a couple of years, making a living for himself. Wife is a swing stairs eight seamstress a seamstress. They are living a free life here in detroit. Two slave catchers come to the city of detroit in 1833, because they have word that thornton and Ruth Blackburn are here. Familyve been seen by a member related to thorntons slave owners. They come to the jail and hire them for 50 apiece and all four of these armed men go in and apprehend them. They are going to bring them here and hold them in the jail over the weekend. They are held here from friday until monday. They are going to hold them here because they want to wait for a steamboat to come up the river to take them to ohio. Fromit is just a wagon ohio to kentucky. They will be held here in the jail from friday to monday, but there are a number of black people here in detroit who are determined to free them. They do not want them to be enslaved. Two of the people who are part of this our young women, caroline and tabatha. Those two women, along with another group of africanamericans meet at a home and come up with a plan to free them. As they are working on that plan over the weekend, on sunday after church, they come here to the jail to visit thornton and Ruth Blackburn. Thorntons visitors are all turned away. The sheriffs deputies do not allow him to have any visitors. He is kept inside a jail cell behind bars in shackles. Him,are that worried about believing that he is the mastermind behind the escape. Ruth is allowed visitors, because they are not as worried about this woman, which is really going to end up being a big problem on their part. Caroline and tabatha are going to go into the jail cell. While in the cell, they are praying with her, because they believe that prayer changes things. They bring her food, because the jail food is horrible. While they are feeding and praying with her, caroline switches close with ruth inside the jail cell when the sheriff and deputy are not paying attention. When the sheriff and deputy remove them from the jail, they say, visiting time is over. Tabatha lightfoot walks out with ruth the blackburn wearing caroline frenchs close. The officer does not know this is the woman they are holding. They walked right by him. They had already arranged to put rutha blackburn on a boat. She crosses over to canada and she is free. Another state where the fugitive slave law does not apply. The next day, caroline french lets them know, i came here yesterday to visit rutha blackburn and switched close. She walked right by you and you didnt even know. Now, she is in canada but she is free and you have to let me go. Bounty hunters want to use caroline french and sell her to make up the money. Hey have lost they want to sell her, but a crowd has shown up outside, hundreds of people outside this jail and they are there to free caroline french. There are only four people, the sheriff, deputy and four slave catchers, but there are hundreds of people here, so they let caroline french go, hoping that will quell the crowd and get them to go away, but the crowd is also there for thornton and in the course of them trying to , the sheriff is mortally wounded. He has not killed then and there, but he will die later of his injuries. He is attacked by members of the crowd. The deputy and the two slave catchers have to try to keep the crowd at bay with their guns so they are not killed, but in the course of that, the crowd has taken thornton, put him on a wagon and whisked him away. He also crosses the river to canada, reunites with his wife, and they are both free. Thornton and rutha blackburn will move to toronto and start the first taxi company there. The people who freed thornton and rutha blackburn will be the founders of second baptist church, the Oldest Black Church in the state of michigan and the foundation for the underground railroad in michigan, particularly in detroit. Faith and freedom go hand in hand in the city of detroit. History in africanamerican communities in detroit is built on the foundation of fighting for freedom and using that as part of their faith. Continuing our special look at detroit, we learn more about the citys role in the history of the underground railroad, codenamed midnight, detroit was often the final stop in the u. S. Before freedom seekers made their way to canada. Revisit we visit the second baptist church. Detroit is known as the gateway to freedom. There is a statue that attracts a lot of commemoration and there is one facing our statue on this side. Gateway to freedom means this was the passageway to get to canada, to freedom. The underground railroad was a loose mechanism for the freedom seekers to escape to freedom. Especially,he north they were safe havens, because the ideal way to get across from the slave states to the free states. There were a lot of safe havens throughout illinois, indiana, ohio, pittsburgh and so forth, as well as michigan. The future founders of second baptist got involved in the underground railroad before they were even a church, before they were a place of worship, back in 1831, when thornton and rutha blackburn escaped from kentucky. In community was involved helping them escape. Future members of second baptist were very involved in that escape. We didnt become a place of worship until 1836. Is the oldest congregation for people of color in michigan. One of the oldest in the midwest. We became a congregation because we got tired of worshiping in our homes. We were members of First Baptist for several years, but because we were segregated at first not permitted to participate fully, we petitioned the church for our own place of worship. That was granted in 1836. Second baptist has always been active with the community and concerned about the wellbeing of the community. It was only natural that we would be involved with the underground railroad in helping freedom seekers on their way to canada. Second baptist was the destination, because of a committee that would go down to those plantations down south in the middle of the night and instruct slaves on how to escape. They didnt help them escape, but they gave them instructions on what to do once they got across the masondixon. Second baptist was wellknown on the plantations because of the committee here in detroit. The Vigilant Community committee was a group of appellations started abolitionists started on the east coast. Three formulated the Vigilant Committee and they were the ones who would go down to the plantations to instruct the slaves who wanted to escape. When the freedom seekers arrived in detroit at second baptist, they were taken into the safe as thee now refer to station. They were housed in a room in the basement, they slept on punk beds. Bunk beds. Ave unk beds they did have a chance to rest and when it was safe, they would go on to city barn and then on across the river. Hey would go across on a boat second baptist was the first station here on the way to canada. Station atlso a Saint Matthews of piscopo Saint Matthews at piscopo Saint Matthews episcopal. There is only one site existence where that took place. Sanctuary we are taping in this morning is not the original whenuary for that church they came over in 1857. The original sanctuary is downstairs. That is the room where Frederick Douglass came down. It is the room where john brown visited Frederick Douglass that is the room where a reverend who was a white minister here for 10 years, the last conductor of the when thend all road, 13th amendment was ratified, freeing the rest of the slaves, the Community Came to listen to a reading of the 13th amendment. It is extremely important that we commemorate, we remember, and never forget how important detroit was to the underground railroad, because it was one of the most prominent sites, one of the most prominent ways put in use going to canada, because of our close proximity. The underground railroad was an undercurrent and underlying foundation of the history of detroit, because it was instrumental in the growth of the community, because a large part of the community was made up of freedom seekers and helped detroit grow to what it is today. Continuing our look at detroit, we will go back into the city history to learn how it became one of the greatest industrial hubs in america by the turn of the 20th century. Welcome to the Detroit Historical museum. We are here at the frontier factories exhibit and this shows us the history of detroit from basically before the city was settled up through the rise of the various industries that take place in the city, about a span of 200 years. Detroit is a french name that represents the straight of water. It separates the United States from canada. At that time, it was one region of land inhabited by the american peoples. This is a representation of what it may have looked like when the french settled this area. There is a long history that took place before this. Human habitation began in this area almost back to thousand years ago, with the culture that we sometimes referred to as mound builders that came out of the Mississippi River area. They left these large burial mounds. At one point, there were six of them in the city. Now there is only one on the grounds of historic fort wayne. The tribes here lived a very prosperous life here for such a long time before european habitation. Toolsere hunting, making and pieces of artwork in their own rights. Some are displayed over here. The pipe at the top of the case was given to one of the settlers very famousy a native american figurehead in this region. You can see in this case some tools that were created, made out of stones, metals and things they would have gotten from the land. Since this region has such a strong connection with Detroit River, these fishing hooks are very interesting. We see people along the river today still fishing for , andation, to get food that connects back to the people who settled here. Detroit was first settled by antoine cadillac, who got permission from a french king to establish a trading outpost on the river. He came with a handful of men who immediately got to work building a settlement. This section represents a ribbon farm. Agricultural is in message settled by the french. Endtretched out on either in long, thin sections. This allowed each farmer to have a little bit of land near the river. This would be used for watering your plants and critically important for transport. This is a very narrow river, it is important not only because of from the getting goods upper reaches in michigan and the rest of the great lakes, but also as a strategic position. Detroit was on both sides of the river, and because of this, they controlled the entire span needing up to the great lakes. It is important from both a strategic aspect and controlling trade. Following the french and indian war, new france became british in 1753. Right now, youre looking at a great model of detroit and what it may have looked like in 1752. This model represents the town and the new fort, which was built by the british. This was after they had torn down the original fort, when the french had built it. You may notice it is a little strange that the fort itself is behind the settlement. The settlement down on the river and the fort is built on a bluff. This would come back to bite the fort, because when the americans took over, they noticed, our cannons cannot fire on the river, and what good is a fort that cant fire on attackers from the river . Downwas eventually torn and replaced with another fort. At this point, detroit was a british city. A majority of the residents were still french. A couple hundred within the city limits, but a lot more on the farms outside of the city. Those ribbon farms i mentioned earlier. In 1805, detroit burned to the ground almost completely. All but a couple buildings were completely destroyed. Acause it happened mid day on sunday, no one was killed. Despite the obvious tragedy of the whole city burning down, this provided a fresh start for a whole new city plan. The bones are still represented in the city today. The new territorial judge as he was on his way to detroit, that is when the city burned down. When he arrived, it was a smoldering ash heap. Fan of the city designer for washington, d. C. And immediately got to work planning a new city grid. His layout of the city provided for wide boulevards, spaces were people could congregate, things that didnt quite naturally occur when the city had grown over time. From himents he took are these diagonal lines, circular plazas. Grant circus park and campus marches are in the city today. I mentioned the importance of the Detroit River as not only a highway for trade, but also for travel. Following the fire, the city continues to rebuild. More people come to the city and because of that location on the Detroit River, the link between the upper and lower great lakes, we see a lot of commerce continue to thrive. We see ships coming back from the Upper Peninsula with iron ore, lumber, things that would transform the city of detroit into a major manufacturing hub. Made 1800s, detroit is already an industrial powerhouse, with the river bringing in resources from the Upper Peninsula and other places in the great lakes region, with railroads being built all the time. Stockpile ofing a resources that would be transformed into other things in of city, like various types metal, the shipbuilding industry, oars from the Upper Peninsula. This would get transformed into things that would transform the country. They turned into ships, railcars, eventually automobiles. It is around this time that detroit gained its reputation as a manufacturing powerhouse. The cspan cities tour is on the road exploring the american story. As we continue our special look at detroit, our tour guide takes us down 8 mile rd, which marks the northern border of detroit. We are headed to the northwest part of the city. We are here at the eight mile wall. It goes by a number of names. It was built in 1940 by a white housing developer building homes. It separates two streets. The federal government, in 1934, had passed the First National housing act, which is going to help workingclass people get home mortgages. It is part of roosevelts new deal and it is the First National housing act. It will create the federal Housing Administration and the Home Owners Loan Corporation. This will help streamline loans and make it more accessible for people to get a home loan. There are some issues here. Loan, the get a home federal Housing Administration states that the neighborhood has to be racially homogeneous, which means people have to be from the same racial and ethnic group. They do not believe that a neighborhood is stable if it is integrated. They wont give loans if the neighborhood is integrated. There is a problem. This is going to help create neighborhoods that had been integrated that will become segregated and new neighborhoods will be created that are from the beginning segregated. Africanamericans had been coming from down south since the early 1900s to get jobs in the factories. Black bottom is where they are allowed to live. Africanamericans are concentrated in black bottom and black bottom is overpopulated. Homes built for one family have two or three families living in them. Some africanamericans secretly move all the way to the north side of detroit, whether it is nothing but empty fields, and build their own homes. 1930s, when the federal government is funding the building of these homes and backing mortgages for those ,omes at low Interest Rates developers are building homes for the federal government and selling them with people getting home loans from the federal government. The neighborhoods have to be nate have to be racially homogeneous. When the government discovers that the neighborhood they are building, on the others is right next to an africanamerican neighborhood, they stop the funding of the building of those homes and refused to back the mortgages on those homes. The developer says, what if i build a wall to separate my white homes from where africanamericans live . The federal government says that is sufficient. He builds a sixfoot wall from eight mile, about half a mile and it separates his home development, which would continue to be funded by the federal government and people would be able to get fha backed loans because of this wall separating africanamericans. Africanamericans would not be able to take advantage of these low Interest Rate home loans, which would be increased in 1937 with another housing act and again in the g. I. Bill after world war ii. Africanamericans wont be able to take any part in this, because the fha will continue that policy that the neighborhoods have to be racially homogeneous. As whitesmoke away from africanamericans, white neighborhoods become racially homogeneous. Attempt to getns loans in their new racially homogeneous neighborhoods, but the Home Owners Loan Corporation has created a map of where loans can be given out and the maps are colorcoded. The green area being, yes you will get the loan and read, where they get the turn the term redlining from, are prohibited. Almost all africanamerican neighborhoods, especially in detroit, are in the red. Takeare unable to advantage of one of the largest welfare programs in American History. You have africanamericans and whites working together, making equal wages, but 20 years later, the whites who have gotten home loans would grow in wealth, not because of their income, but because they own property. Africanamericans make the same kind of money would be blocked from getting home loans, so 20 years later, they will be a wealth gap. 20 years later, they have rent receipts from the brewster project. Africanamericans move into federally funded Housing Projects. Whites can do that or they can get a home loan. As you can guess, most whites take advantage of the home loans rather than moving into a Housing Project. Today, we associate Housing Project with africanamericans and part of the reason why is because of this housing policy, which will not be overthrown until the 1968 fair housing act, past one week after the associate after the assassination of Martin Luther king jr. People in this neighborhood, along with artists, got together and crated this project. Around the elves memorial park, where we are, the largest section of the wall that is exposed without going through a persons backyard. In this section, they did this art project and you can see all of these murals. History, some are just fun pictures, some i just about the wall itself. All of this is telling a story and turning this into a place that people will come to and look at. On one and it is beautiful, but on the other end, it tells the history. I have a dream this afternoon, that one day in 1963, dr. Martin luther king jr. Would give a portion of the i have a dream speech. Announcer 1 continuing our tour of detroits history with a historian and tour guide, we banks oftown to the the Detroit River. Detroit. In downtown this was built in 1960 as a hall and arena, named after the former mayor of detroit, who was a supporter of housing segregation. When this was built, it became the Main Convention center for detroit, and in 1963, dr. Martin luther king jr. , after leading one of the largest marches in 120 5000 history, people would come here to listen to Martin Luther king jr. Give a portion of the i have a dream speech. He would give a portion of that speech in the city of detroit two months before he gives it in washington, d. C. , so people in detroit had a preview of one of the most famous speeches in American History. I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the color of their skin. I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in will be able to they will be able to get a job. In organization in the city of detroit called the Detroit Council for human rights, cofounded by the father of and benjaminin , organized this organization to deal with civil rights issues in detroit, including housing segregation. They believed that a march that would highlight these issues would do two things. One, call africanamericans to pay more attention nationally, but also attach people all over eyes on places like detroit. What it does in the city of detroit is it cements and ongoing connection between labor and civil rights. At that time, the head of the uaw is going to be one of the leaders of the march. He is going to join the march. Ton the governor is going send a representative. The mayor of detroit joins this march. There is anna move an emerging political level, the Labor Movement, and civil rights. That will cement a bond between liberals in the Democratic Party with the Labor Movement and with civil rights leaders. Afternoona dream this that the brotherhood of man will become a reality. I will go up the mountain of darkir and transform yesterdays into bright tomorrows. We will be able to achieve this day when all of gods children, black men and white men, jews and gentiles, protestants and catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank god almighty it really looked like detroit was on the right path. No violence, no real destruction of property. A connection between the Political Leadership in detroit and the state of michigan with the Labor Movement and civil rights. It looks like detroit is a model city. It is handling these issues in a better fashion than many other cities. Is really coding another issue in detroit and that is a deep issue of housing segregation, school inequality, police brutality, and even growing job discrimination in many of the factories. Which arees, deepseated and not going away, they look better after this march, but they are still there. Rough ingoing to be 1967. 1967 clashesin between mainly africanamericans and Detroit Police because the deadliest uprising in the citys history. The 1967 rebellion began on july 23 after an overnight police raid in the city. Violence and property destruction lasted for five days , until michigans governor ordered the Army National guard and president johnson to call federal troops into detroit. In the end, 43 people died. Nearly 1200 ranger. More than 2000 buildings were destroyed. We are inside the made in america exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum to learn about the power of steam from the 1700s until today. We are now standing at the beginning of what is the power exhibit at the henry ford. ,his exhibit traces the Origins Development and flowering of steam power, first in england and then in the United States. The objects collected here relate to the beginning of the development of the industrial resolution. Revolution. These machines were involved in industry. The collection was started by henry ford. Was particularly interested in steam power. He was very mechanically inclined as a child. Emotional,mething because ultimately, he goes on to found a company that has a great deal of investment in technology. All of it powered one way or another by steam or internal combustion. A law of it did not happen intentionally. Steam engines are initially developed in england to pump water out of minds. Like a lot of technology, things produced for one specific reason and up being of interest to people in other ways. That is how the Industrial Revolution gets started. It is the 18th century, a little older than we think. England, thee in oldest surviving steam engine. This is absolutely the representative type of engine of the initial ones built in england and the plight coal mines. Without getting into the technical detail, basically it is a cylinder at that and and the operating cycle there allows its pump to go up and down and pump water out of a mine. In some ways, it is very sophisticated as an Energy Conversion device. It is cutting edge in its day. It looks quaint. From a craft standpoint, it might have been recognizable to people from centuries prior. The difference is the cylinder at the end and what is going on there courtesy of the steam. This was impossible by any other means. It is a singlepurpose solution for another problem and it was a game changer. Minedld was still being by humans. Some of them very young. It was still very dangerous. It was a matter of pumping water out of deep mines see you could mine ever deeper. I think it is no different than what happens now. People look at something and say it is doing that, but i could make it do this other thing. You getting an entrepreneurial streak, you get in innovation mindset, and before you know it, something doing one thing specifically can be made to do something else. Probably the two key individuals early on were bolton and watts. Bolton was a genius manufacturer. Watts came up with improvements to an existing steam engine and their application of steam engines was like polishing machines. Anything that could have a mechanical drive. That sets off a sequence of events where other people start seeing ways of using the steam engine. Built by the bolt and watts company. A pumping house in birmingham, because that is where it was when henry ford acquired it. What is important about this is engines like this where about three times the efficiency of earlier engines. You say i dont have a mine, but i could use it. You are pumping water in a canal system. If you think of a canal system, you will always have water running out of the system. It goes up or down. You need pumping engines to restore and maintain the fundamental level of that system. You are talking about a steam engine tethered to an equilibriumre, the of a canal system is more finely honed. Engines like this were being used as a fundamental part of that and that is an interesting conceptual leap. A power Source Associated with infrastructure. They are not a huge success. They are of interest technologically. The factors here that were different, there are huge amounts of the application of steam power was to do with mining. There wasnt a lot of mining going on here. A woodbased economy. Really, it comes down to, how do you apply steam power effectively to a problem that really needs solving . The problem in the United States wasnt extracting things out of the ground. It was traveling. Often transporting goods over distance. That is how it gets a foothold in the United States. River vessels, like on the hudson. Particularly the mississippi and the missouri and the ohio. You think of what was then termed the western rivers, that was a huge potential transportation infrastructure. It is very easy to get from pittsburgh to new orleans. Very difficult to go the other way unless you could propel yourself. Steam power gets a foothold here in a way that solves problems that are real here. This is one of the earlier engines we had that was built in the United States. Steam power gets adopted in the. Nited states this is an era where engines are smaller, more efficient. They are built in a way that initially allows them to be used on a river going craft. This is a good example of one of those types of engines. The horizontal engine. It is quite cheaply made. It is useful in a mill. It is a good example of steam boat, coming ashore from a and being used in a manufacturing facility. Closely, you can this, like fluted classical columns. Even the base has a classical effect. It curves into red. This is an area where the technology is starting to take on the personality of the people who are building and buying it. It would have been in a back room. It is celebrating something. It is still what we do with Technology One way or another. This is the evolution of an engine like that. You can barely see it, behind this plywood. This was developed by a man who in the United States was as celebrated as james watt was. Look at the immensity of that. You have to understand that it is quite precisely manufactured. There is a massive belt that came off of this. There was a machine larger than this that had to make it. In terms of the scale that we have now, it is huge. It is massive. The move beyond. It is wrong to think of mid19th century manufacturing in europe or the United States as being this bumbling lowlevel amateurish affair. It was the hitec of its day. He was involved like other manufacturers. He took it to a high extreme in terms of standardized manufacturing. When people understand mass production or have an inkling of it, that didnt happen suddenly. There is a component achievement that allowed that to take place. It can be traced back to the 19th century with people trying to standardized casting so you can use they are trying to lines to takey care of meat processing. There is a certain type of interchangeability with sewing machines and watches. Of these very different but complementary achievements. That is what starts to dovetail and converge in a place called Highland Park. In many ways, detroit was like a great many other cities in the United States. It was wellplaced because of the skills that were here and the kind of capitalistic, entrepreneurial atmosphere to look at any new industry and take it all in one way or another. What happens is you get one particular industry that really holds sway. There was a Critical Mass effect that takes place once the moving Assembly Line and the approach to manufacturing and selling the cars of henry ford and his cohorts really changes the face of this whole area. It actually makes it a real hotbed for automobile manufacturing. We are standing on an engine that was used to generate electricity for the Highland Park plan. This is the first one where they produced them in quantity. It is where the moving Assembly Line was developed. Highland park was a big site for a number of reasons for art henry ford to build what became a highly refined, fully integrated manufacturing. The powerhouse grows incrementally from the to these twin engines, they are to engines driving a single generator. Magnificent a part of the avenue, the oval from the street. You probably could have eaten off the floor. It was all most like a temple to power generation. It was fundamental to Highland Parks success. The level we are on originally was installed in Highland Park was streetlevel and everything below was quite buried out of sight. The original floor went all the way up to the engine. This is kind of raised, but initially, it sat in the ground. Very firm, very solid looking. This is one of the nine engines that eventually was generating electricity for the Highland Park plant and all of the machinery being deployed there. It is a hybrid engine. This site is a steam engine. , a valvetten valves system established in the 19th century. This side is internal combustion. Two cylinder engine. This is using gas. This is internal combustion. This is running very hot, like the engine in your car. It has a very elaborate cooling system. Even the pistons are cooled. There is a swinging link you can see there. Things they were trying to do at Highland Park was maximize the efficiency. Farm,ford grew up on a didnt care for farm animals or farm work. He couldnt wait to get out of the farm, but he could never get the farm quite out of him. It informed his industrial enterprises. Waste andf reducing being independent, judicious use of resources, that always informed his approach to design and manufacturing. Were built in hamilton, ohio. The d. C. Generator was built by a Company Called Crocker Wheeler out of jersey. A sticklercker for cleanliness. They were kept in a high state of presentation and the fittings were all very deliberate. Of grace andnd practicality and a good use of nickel plating and other things a high degree of finish. This is what started things up. This is the beating heart at the center of the facility. It is something he was very proud of. In your smart phone this morning to charge it, you connected to a distribution transmission, probably back to a station that is coal power steam powered. Huge proportion of electricity we are using is generated through the medium of steam. Usually three steam turbines, not steam engines. This is actually part of our world now. We are in now, the expectations we have regarding technology, availability of power, those are all stories that emerged from the engine and the equipment we have behind us. Our visit to detroit michigan is an American History tv exclusive. And we showed it today to introduce you to cspans cities ur. For eight years have two cities to bring the literary scene and sites to our viewers. Cspan. Org citiestour. Up, the National Educational association hears from democratic president ial candidates at a farm in texas. At 10 00 p. M. On newsmakers, a discussion on the prochoice Organization Strategy and priorities heading into 2020 elections. At 10 30 it is the about theors, talking book digital minimalism, which questions the value of being constantly connected to digital devices. Cspans three president ial leadership surveys taken between 2000 and 2017, Andrew Jackson drops from 13th to 18th place. Dwight eisenhower rises from the ninth to the fifth spot. Where does your favorite president rank . Learned that and more about the lives and leadership skills of 44 chief executives, in cspans the president s. It is great vacation reading, available wherever books are sold or at cspan. Org thepresident s. The National Educational association held its 2020 president ial forum in houston, texas. Several candidates shared their plan for americas Public Schools. This is about two hours. [speaking spanish] but therew who i am, are very special guests backstage listening. We are Live Streaming for the first time across the country. I will take a minute to introduce myself