Texas to learn more about its unique history and literary life. For nine years, weve traveled to u. S. Cities, bringing the book scene to our viewers. Watch more of our visits at cspan. Org. Amarillo is in the center of the texas panhandle. We affectionately call ourselves the capital city of the texas panhandle. We are approaching 200,000 people in this next census area census. Thats a marker for us. Its one of the most unique things, travel around and talk to other mayors, our superpower here in the city of amarillo is that we think regionally. While we do have geographic boundaries that define how many people live inside our city, we truly dont think that way. We think regionally. We think of world communities that belong to us. We are their city. Right now, we are standing in the historic depot. Its significant because when you think about building the entire city of amarillo, the materials for building our city came through this depot. They arrived by rail right here. Our city has grown. We started as a farming, agricultural town. Now we are an urban center for the texas panhandle of 500,000 people. None of that could have happened without this location being right here by the rail. So much of our industry and our materials to live daytoday lives came right here. The depot is vacant. We are not using it today for train stations. We dont have Passenger Service in our city anymore. E are a significant hub its important in the coasttocoast travel of marketing goods by rail. We still an important part of that. The reason that amarillo was such a key point in the railroad was the catalan history. We traded cattle back and forth through kansas city through the panhandle region. Also our agricultural commodities. We, cod, corn. We shipped those all over the nation. It is such a rural area. It was so difficult to get to come it really expanded the food supply for the nation. It was a huge economic boost toward local Rural Economy to have the railroad here. Whether that was in 1890s or the 1950s, the railroad has been an important part of the amarillo economy. Largest problems is that we are isolated. ,rom a geographic point of view we are the spot that everyone comes to. We are the spot. Its hard for us to change sometimes. We get set in our ways. We dont have a lot of driving forces to change us. We are isolated. Continuing to have a mindset that adapts to and looks for change and looks renovation. Sometimes we struggle with that. The flipside is that taking what could be a week as and making it into a strength. We are pioneers. We like to solve our own problems. We dont look to a government or somebody else to help us do that. We put our hands to the plow and push harder and work harder until we figure out the solution on our own. I love that pioneering feat spirit in our community. We are very interested in local politics, statement politics, and national politics. Everyone is interested in the election that is coming up in november 2020. A lot ofdoesnt have variance in its voting record. To see be interesting whether or not we draw any candidates here to come and talk to us. Our voting record is traditionally very conservative. We are known, one of our districts here, our Congressional District is known as the most conservative district in the nation. District 13. Go back and look at our voting record. We vote republican more than any other district in the country. It makes sense. , a blip on theg conversation point. There are assumptions that go along with that. Does not drop local candidates to campaign here. We are a very american city. Right now, a little bit of a renaissance. We are experiencing a lot of positive momentum. I think theres going to be a curiosity about our city. Theres going to be a curiosity about amarillo as people watch us move up through this renaissance, through the art, through the culture, through solving problems, through working together. Its going to be an exciting 20 years for amarillo. Of the women we give credit to as being part of the canon or the set of great artists, shes always in it. Survey of american art, she will not be left out. Shes one of the highest grossing Women Artists of all time. Fors interesting to study the history of american artists, the history of Women Artists. She lived in some a different places in the united states. She gives us a good perspective of how different spaces can influence an artist. She was very versatile about nature. The west was something that was her love. Her love of the west was born here. We are standing in front of georgia okeefe skating. s painting. It was done in 1915. She was teaching here at west texas state college. She did the piece based on an abstraction of the canyon. She was here twice. Here is interesting. Between 1912 and 14, she was in amarillo teaching for the Public School system. 1916 to 1918, she came back and got a faculty position here at west texas state normal. She was from wisconsin. She was interested in midwest farm life. She grew up on a farm. She had some exposure to middle america. The broad basis of the west really struck her. It changed her aesthetic. We think that this was her first exposure to some of the stuff that she sought out as part of her lifestyle and aesthetic later. Several underdeveloped areas of the okeefe scholarship, one is her writings. Treating her as a writer that was creative, a maker of works of art. There have been some great later books that have been public. I think the majority of people who love okeefe dont appreciate what a good writer she was. The other thing that we havent done a lot of work on that my book tries to do is the war. We think shes a pacifist. Its about nature. She wasnt making direct art. She does the piece that is a flag. Thats the one piece you can directly connect to patriotism. When you look at the depth of what she was writing, she wrote daily. We can trace her feelings coming in and out of the war years. She has amazing opinions about what it means to be a soldier. What it means to be a woman who cant be a soldier. That was really exciting for me to find, a new way to understand history through okeefe and to understand okeefe through history. I think her position shifted. That is so honest. She falls in love with a cowboy here who was not her student that was a student at west texas state normal. Hes considering signing up. Hes considering quitting school to sign up. She talks about how they lay under the stars and talk about this. Who is imagine, anybody struggling with someone going away for a while, should you go or how am i going to feel, she says, should i marry him or not . Should he go to the war or not . She struggling with the things you can imagine yourself struggling with. She is so relatable. Shes not this grumpy, antiwar figure. She talks about her brother whos in training camp. She visits him. The first time she visits, she cant figure out why shes doing this. The second time, she is inspired by his friends. That idea of her going in and out. One time she writes about how its hard to even tie her shoes during the war. To do daily Life Activities when she knows people are dying. She writes about how, i could be a murderer. Shes thinking, what would i do around dying people. This was real stuff that we all would assume she thought about. Nobody paid attention. Its this brief moment in history. America was only part of the war for basically one year in 1917 to 1918. Thats exactly when she was here , exactly when she was writing almost daily. We have this incredible archive of it. Even directly, we learn about soldiers. So many of her students became soldiers. Her brother was a soldier. Pilotan ted read became a. He wasnt a pilot in world war i. He started building jennies around that time. He was building for aviation. We can learn things about camp life through her. She was in touch with these people. Theres just so much that you can learn in these letters. It takes a close reading. Every page has a discovery. Artefe was the head of the department which he came here in 1916. There was one person in the art department. She was the only person in the art department. She was on a faculty of 24 people. I moved here like her for the job. I came to the department that has grown out of what she was leaving in 1916. People get really interested in walking the footsteps of okeefe. You go out to the canyon, you find out what she saw and did. Maybe i fell into that myth. I also wanted to get a little bit more historical accuracy. Abel would always say, okeefe did this or that. I wanted to know from her what she said. Thats what i have so much fun discovering. Sometimes, artists dont write. We dont what they thought and said. Okeefe wrote prolifically but privately. If you want to know what she said, she said it. In her own words, in her handwriting. I was interested in going back to the source. I think that that digging to hear her voice was something i was really interested in. This letter book can teach us so much more about this artist and how profound and interesting and creative and spunky and a strong woman and all of those things. They can teach us about okeefe. It can teach is about so many other things that she was no observer about. She was a constant observer about somebody different things. As an heart historian, i want people to take away the Art Historical aspects of it. Also as a historian and someone who has discovered that this place geographically is so rich and so many histories, i want her to be a new voice about that. Established in 1926, u. S. Route 66 was one of the original highways in the u. S. Highway system, carrying motorists over 2400 miles from chicago, illinois to santa monica, california. Book, dr. Ellen lingle and nick ehrlich captures scenes along the route that speak to its past. In amarillo, we rode along with them, following the path of the old highway. Why do you think the highway is still popular today, even after decades after it was decommissioned . And has a lot to do with nostalgia today. Placeswant to revisit that maybe they experienced as a child. That is a huge part of the nostalgia. Theres another kind of nostalgia as well. Its called animal you. Its a desire to visit a place in the past that you never experienced. Americans, and for International Tourists of all ages, route 66 was almost only something they heard about. Car, ato do route 66 by motorcycle, or bicycle today, its getting to visit a distant past that theyve only seen in books. When route 66 came through town in 1926. Our airport was not here. Today, you can drive on northeast date and you run into a fence that is now protecting the modern airport. But the road kept going. In fact, amarillo is one of three cities along route 66 in which the road is now buried by the modern airport. Here is where the fence and the gaydar. Gate r. If you get up high enough, you can see a bit of concrete from the 1920s that was still left here. The outerjust along ring of the airport and runs up to one of the current runways. I just saw a plane take off here. It crossed over route 66. It is still there. Hardly anybody knows about this little fragment of the mother road that is hiding in plain sight. Write the imac eight, thats where the old road was. Where did this idea for this book start . Ellen and i met on facebook. That sounds cliche these days. We did. Groups forfacebook route 66. She and her husband in germany had been wanting to pursue a book project as they had been over to america a couple of times prior and had done a lot of photography on the road. They wanted to partner with someone from america who knew the route and was prepared to write about it. May ofa blind date in 2015. They asked me via facebook if i would like to meet them for dinner in downtown amarillo. I said, of course. I would love to do that. We met and had dinner. They pitched the idea. We fell in love with each other. From that point forward, ellen and i started working on the structure of the book, where we wanted to go, what kind of shots , what kind of narrations we wanted. Already an, who was accomplished author, decided he was going to be our manager. He kept us on task throughout love that. Throughout all of that. We begin our joint effort in september of 2015 on one of their subsequent trips. We traveled extensively the next sitesyears, visiting many along route 66. Whatat i could experience ellen was experiencing and more specifically what she was seeing through the lens of her camera. That had a big part in the naming of our book. Route 66of time through the lens of change. It was not just clever wordplay. It was little truly what we were doing. We wanted to chronicle change. Thats a recurring theme in the classes that i teach as well. I think its important to know your history, how it all began. Noteits important to take of where you are today. The only way to plan for the future is to know your past and your present. Thats what we wanted to do with the book. In those photos, we were able to chronicle the decay of many things that were once prospering along 66. But also, the emergence of new businesses along 66 as well as the evolution of older businesses. Yet is is a dead instead yet. I dont the delever be dead. I dont think it will ever be dead. Some parts are but other parts rely. Parts of it are alive. Some things did not change for the better, but other things did change well. Businesses andll they are still out there meeting the needs of tourists today. We are coming into downtown amarillo on pierce street. We will take a look at the herring hotel, built in 1926 in 5. 5 months. A 13 story building. Amazing someone could do that in 5. 5 months. They cannot build an overpass in two years these days, much less a 13 story hotel. It was situated just feet through 66. Opening december four926, only a month and route 66 route 66 days after the birth of. They had a big gala new years eve of 1926 and they were in business for good. Had beeng hotel, abandoned many years. And ads a lot of money lot of tlc, but it could be something again today. It had 600 rooms. It had condos before condos were a thing. They had fullsized living quarter apartments on the upper floors and this is where movers and shakers stayed. Club wheret had a could and cattle barons hang out and do business in the old days. It had on the second floor a coffee shop. There was also a big ballroom on the second floor. This was the premier establishment in amarillo. We are on the southwest. Route 66 going through town. We have the Historic Courthouse and library on the right. With nice, modern structures with reflecting surfaces across the street. The tallest fort worth andn denver at 31 stories. Building,he garfield undergoing renovations. It will reopen in 2020 as a marriott monograph hotel. That is part of the experience here in amarillo, being able to see the old amid the new, and how it comes together. You can see the photography. She is influenced by good street photographers through the years. She could really see the juxtaposition of the old and the skyscraper, the old signs and streets. Are in the far western reaches of the western panhandle. On the interstate because route 66 was obliterated here in the 70s. 1970s. We are getting off at exit zero, and visiting the coolest ghost town along all of route 66, amarillo. We will cross the freeway and get onto a strand of old route 66, the last strand in texas going west and the first strand if you are going east. With that in mind, we are going to stop at the First Last Motel line. State it was the first or last thing you saw, depending which way you were going. We are standing inside the longhorn cafe, built around 1951 in glenrio. This is where everyone had their first or last meal in texas. It was an exceptionally busy, successful cafe, because it was conveniently located in the middle of nowhere. People could fill up their bellies, tanks and cars. If they were tired, they could get a room at the motel in the back. Was a way, glenrio happening town in the 1950s. This was definitely in the book. We had a lot of fun photographing this and i had fun writing about it. Alongo was a busy place route 66. It is hard to imagine cars would be stacked up five and six deep at the gas pump in the middle of nowhere, especially since it is so quiet today. All we have to do is look to the freeway, 1 4 of a mile north, and that is where everybody is. College football as many are aware is a big deal in the state of texas. Familiarpeople are with friday night lights, High School Football is a big deal here. Texas does not have any monopoly on that. Game in yale,as a harvard, princeton, Ivy League Schools in the 1800s before it spread to the midwest, south, california. Historically, there is an Uneasy Alliance between universities and athletics. Havents really wanted to intercollegiate athletics. Over time they got carried away. There were problems with pay fority, injuries, play athletes, student athletes taking money under the table, not really being students, not following what rules there were. Universities started to assert control over athletics over spaces for college athletics, over athletic departments. Lateis the point in the 1800s where universities are growing quickly, creating departments. Departments of history, chemistry, physics. They are getting specialized. There are fears of those potentially sending their , taxpayers, do not understand what is going on at the universities. Edmund james, president of the university of illinois, said we need to find a way to connect to the people outside of the can see whato they is going on on campus. Settledthese professors on football as a way of doing that. There are all kinds of ideas in the early 1900s within the psychology or sociology department, there needs to be the building of stronger men for society. At least for some of these professors, they see football as a sport that does build stronger men or gives the potential. Demonstrating the manly potential at these universities. Almost likehletics a permanent part of the university, which i do not think they anticipated initially and they started that process of asserting control over athletics. 1890s you see big crowds coming out. All around the country there are concerns about the injuries some young men are experiencing. There is one in particular. It really illustrates what was going on in the 1890s. There was a game between the universities of georgia and virginia. Was injured georgia severely on the field. They took him to grady hospital in atlanta and he later died of the injuries he sustained in that game. Not the only person to die of similar injuries in the early 1900s, but this is a famous case because at the time the Georgia State legislature was in session. There was a serious push in the ende of georgia in 1897 to College Football. They were actually going to outlaw it. The mother of the son who died it isveeto this bill, important, manly. It should not be ended just because my son was injured. The governor and his message said this is a manly game, an important game for developing american manliness. He vetoed the bill. His mother is seen as a woman who saved College Football in the state of georgia in the 1890s. That story was reported all around the u. S. There was major concern this game was deadly, dangerous for americas young men, colleges. The president of New York University said, we need to bring people together in new york city and have a conference where we figure out what to do with football. 1905ember and january of 1906, representatives came together and decided to reform football. They were not going to abolish it, but try to change that. They created a national organization. Very typical of the reform movements of the early 1900s. If you want to fix national problems, you create national organizations. The ncaa is a good example of that. They changed the rules, legalized the forward pass. Before 1906 there was no forward pass. It was a way to make it safer and easier to see what was going on on the field so the rules could be enforced. Ncaaimplement that and the starts hardcore in forcing amateurism after 1906. Some see it as the football crisis. Theodore roosevelt was part of that, too. Athletic leaders of princeton and yale and harvard to the white house in october of 1905 and said, you need to fix this. It has come down to us in lore as Teddy Roosevelt saved football. In reality, he got the ball rolling, brought attention to the issue, but it is really the convention in new york city a couple months later that really does start the reform of College Football. The history of coaching is really fascinating. Intercollegiate athletics that in the u. S. There are athletic departments that virtually any college and university in the u. S. With intercollegiate athletics, professional coaches, the ncaa. It was established in 19 five 1905 to fix the problems. When you have national bureaucracies like the ncaa, it is really hard to undo or get rid of this ritual. It is very much a central part of american colleges and universities. John mccarty was a fascinating texas pioneer. During the 1920s he was here in amarillo, texas and the newspaper editor and a publisher. The materials i am going to show you and talk about today are 1920s through 1940s. He has several books he has written about the area. One i wanted to show you a little bit about is called maverick town. I know this does not look like much, but it is something and this is a bound volume of an unpublished at the time manuscript. Editorhardworking edited its. It was hand tied on parchmentlike paper. I wanted you to see the manuscript he edited and got ready for publication turned out to be his opus. This particular one i think will be about 29. We have lots of materials in this room. Contemporaries are locally a locally famous artist. Have probably not been seen in about 100 years. Was a cowboy, who had handled broncos and various ranchers. He worked with charles good night, one of the founding fathers, since there were no blacks since him and jerry. Infaced some discrimination the area, but because he worked with prominent ranch owners, he stayed fed well. In the establishment of the africanamerican community, there were conversations with another founding father of this establish helping to black community separate from the white community. He did that and got the money and resources at that time from the family and other city fathers in amarillo to establish the black community. It was known as the flats. It was closer to downtown, but then as more and more families the, matthew also sought establishment of the North Heights community. They were coming from all over south texas. Sometimes they would come to work the field, the cotton field. This was an agricultural area. Where they came to work on the railroad or things of that sort. That would probably have been around the 1920s because a lot of our churches in the black community were established around that time. The black population, even though they were few in number, they were very close knit and they had established their own resources, grocery stores, churches, schools. Animosity, the he wasopulation here, also instrumental in the dogie club in amarillo because africanamerican boys were not allowed to join white organizations. Maverick boys and girls clubs at that time. They were not allowed to go there. He started the dogie club. Club throughout the years handed down those oral histories. At the time we put the book together, charles camp and another, members of that club, had worked with him and had good things to say about how he helped them become better citizens, better young men, understanding the importance of work ethic and things of that sort. That is one of the things he was able to do with africanamerican boys and he mentors them throughout the years he was here. I think the leaders impacting the community were the leadership of the naacp. And in of the community our churches. Various ministers that had large congregations who also reached unity and gotity their membership and others to Work Together for the benefit of the total community. 1 of the population in the school was africanamerican. A very small population. There were things that were discriminatory. We did not find that in other areas we had lived, been stationed in the past. In coming to amarillo to shop,ust a minor thing it taught me came to amarillo to buy makeup, for instance and it was under lock and key. Asked why the black makeup was under lock and key and the white makeup was out on the counter and i was told by management that is the way it has always been, where are you from . Area, i am not from this but that feels like discrimination to me. Why is it not out like everybody elses . They said that is the way it has always been. If i had a problem i needed to talk to whoever did the makeup. I asked them who sent the makeup, and next time they come around as a sales rep, can we get it changed . Long story short, it took about six months. They never called me. For thed back and asked mber so i could call the representative. With thetouch representative in chicago, to ask if they could have a meeting when we got to amarillo. That happened with management. When they were told they were not being blamed for having the black makeup locked up, they said that is not our prerogative. We no longer want it locked up either. So that was changed. It was things like that. Still, the lingering effects of racism, still in the area. I think this additions and plight of africanamericans in amarillo today is different than it was in the past. Andave better resources better opportunities than we had in the past. We are still like 6 of the population. We are still very few. I think the plight of africanamericans in this community has been a journey through the years. You cannot legislate prejudice and bigotry. Close those gaps. Not only the community you are in, but the community at large, because we all want the betterment of society. We are all human beings in this country together, to make the world a better place. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] our visit to amarillo, texas was a book tv exclusive. For nine years we have traveled u. S. Cities bringing the book scene to our viewers. You can watch more at cspan. Org citiestour. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Created by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. That comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class. We are going to win that election. Have been knocked down, counted out, left behind. This is your campaign. The president ial primaries and caucuses continue tuesday for six states including idaho, michigan, mississippi, missouri, north dakota and washington. Watch our campaign 2020 coverage of the speeches and results tuesday evening on cspan, cspan. Org and listen from wherever you are on the three cspan radio app. The free cspan radio app. Coming up tonight, President Trump visiting the centers for Disease Control and prevention to hear how scientists are testing for coronavirus. And George Roberts discusses how physicians are handling the a break. After that it is newsmakers with congressman gary graves. Republicansut how plan to address climate issues. Signed an 8. 3 billion emergency spending bill into law to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Later he visited the centers for Disease Control and preio
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