Will speak with local authors about the citys history, starting with its link to booker t. Washington. And in about 20 minutes, the Chemical Spill that contaminated charlestons water system and then in 50 minutes, theWest Virginia teachers strike. We begin with booker t. Washington. Booker t. Washington was for 20 years the spokesman and leader of African Americans in america and at the time we had horrible jim crow race notes in the south, that didnt happen here in West Virginia. It was a different sort of Race Relations and what he observed with his heroes was the building of a black middle class and that became his path, his career path as he went from dusky to being a National Celebrity. Booker was born in a place called hales ford south of roanoke virginia, 220 miles from here and in those first nine years he was a slave boy. He didnt have pants. He wore a slave boys shirt, shoes were two wooden slats with a piece of leather across each toe across thetop. He wanted very much to go to school. He saw like children going to school and wanted to do that he wasnt able to do anyof those things. They leave the farm in virginia in 1865 pretty soon after the civil war ends. Theres a soldier, Union Soldier who comes to the farm and reads the emancipation proclamation announcing they are free and that they can leave. And his mother cries. She says she never thought we she would live long enough to heat see her children liberated. West virginia did not have the devastation that the confederate south did area this area was except for a short training of four months was under Union Control the whole war. And throw out westward you did not have the economic devastation that you had in the confederate south. Another big difference after the war, the other thing that was different is the slave population was very small. Probably the smallest of any area in the slave south. And that was Something Like four percent of the states population was for African Americans so there wasnt that threat by number and of the power elite in West Virginia that was posed by lax, lightskinned in the deep south. The family came to malden because washington ferguson was the stepfather was working here for the rough nurse in their saltworks, in their salt factory and also in their coal mines that they had herein malden. He sent money to his wife in order to get a horse and buggy to bring her and the kids to malden and they found the Wonderful Community of christian believers that were centered in the bruckner quarters and she gets the job first as a chambermaid for the rutgers and then as a cook and to get them to hire cook as a health boy knowing that he would learn total graces, he would have their big library available and that he would have a lot of opportunities that otherwise he wouldnt have. As an important part of his thing with the bruckners was that he developed a familiar relationship with mrs. Bruckner, she was a yankee lady. She was the second wife area she really likes booker, you really can do no long. Shes always asking her how my getting on, thats a quote that she gives area what do i need to do. It was honest, he was hardworking and very bright and i think she appreciated his talent and i think she did something for him that gave him the selfconfidence that probably carried him through his career because his career was full of crisis and dark hours but he was able to see himself in her eyes , reflected as a perfect being. He was here until he was about 15 and he went to hampton to school for three years. He would go during school time and come back in the summers and the second summer that he came back his mother passed away suddenly and it was really a hard time for him and he credits mrs. Ruffner as being his friend and helping him get back to hampton for his third year. When he graduates from hampton hes the top student in his class and he comes back here to teach school and he says that the those are the favorite years of his life when he came back and taught school in malden but he was restless that this wasnt enough so he went to washington to seminary to see if he wanted to be a minister, that didnt fit and then he tried reading for the law, that didnt fit so he was trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted to do area and this was important in his future career, West Virginia was having a referendum on where to place the state capital and charleston was one of three cities. Oxford and martinsburg so people in charleston had a republican and democrat leader to organize talks that they could go out and convince other counties to vote for charleston and booker was one that was supposed to go along the Railroad Route and go to four or five counties to convince them to choose charleston so it was a speaking tour, his first speaking to her, very successful. All these counties voted overwhelmingly maybe not because of booker but he was able to the africanamericans that were in that county that were mostly coal miners and farmworkers and that started him down the road of being a public speaker and im not sure he was known for that but he did thousands of people every year. He would have to are yours, he would be on the stage with the governor and a congressman and a senator and he would always be the star speaker. He wasincredible. Booker was working at hampton as a teacher when folks from teske alabama requested that an educator be sent there to start a school. And so booker went down at age 25 and on july 4 1881 he started a school trustee. He was really just using some abandoned building. Everything there had to be built. 20 years later, president mckinley pays him a president ial visit to teske, its the most important institute for African Americans in america. Hes celebrated as a great educator. His philosophy was that we will educate peopleat tuskegee to send back home to their home towns to be , to educate others and to build that black middle class and that was his goal. And he got that from his heroes who, his parents bought a house in malden to integrate and he saw them as their Church Members working hard to help future generations rather than themselves to build a black middle class and they were successful and he thought that was the path at all to be taken in the deep south. He visited malden every year, he was very devoted and would come every year and he was a National Celebrity after he gave the atlanta cotton state exhibition speech called the atlanta compromise, a seven minute speech but it made him a National Celebrity and he always cultivated his celebrity status. He was always photographed in a coat and tie. Hed have a hat on if you was outofdoors. There was a newspaper article where he comes to hunt and fish and relax and hes hunting. He has a gun hunting with a coat, tie and polar and then hes also fishing, he has a fishing pole with a coat and tie and he would not be photographed looking casual or anything else. He was, at a time when celebrity was new, he was very conscious of thatabout building that and maintaining that. When booker would talk about being in West Virginia he didnt tell the facts. He saw it as a way of manipulating the story that hes telling. There were several instances, when he went to hampton , he said i was presented with two sheets and it was a puzzle and i didnt know what to do so i flunked on the first one, and on the second night i stepped on the boat and he couldnt have lived through all of his years years and not new what sheets were for and how they work. He also said at hampton and this to me is shocking but he says on slavery that in hampton he learned about eating meals with table cloths and napkins so he couldnt,that could be. Maybe he didnt use a tablecloth and the napkin with the rocker but he wasnt very far away from it. So he tells that to make it clear but what hes saying isnt about table cloths and napkins. What you saying is he in his life did not experience those types of normal social graces and that simply wasnt true but again, he was trying to tell a story and the story was more important than the facts that were involved. Theres an interesting issue two, when he rose up from slavery he serialized it in a magazine. In that magazine theres a photograph of the home and the caption says this was the home of booker t. Washington left when he went to hampton, its got a whitewashed front, nicelooking place. Very tidy. The fence is up, everythings fine but he never used that photograph again. The photograph he used later was one that was current and it showed clotheslines and it was falling down with boards falling out of the house. It looked really sad. When they bought the home in 1869 four years after they were slaves it looks pretty good. It was a good nice substantial home and he didnt want folks to know that would make it look like he lived a pretty blessed life. Theres a governor, governor William Mccorkle wrote his memoirs and he wrote that all those complaints that booker t. Washington had about living with general bruckner were true. You lived a very comfortable life and i think thats true and his biographer says that he learned and lift up refined life with the rockers and that something he wanted for himself but its also that life was important for him to prove he used his himself his life as an example to the nation large that look, look at me. Im a successful person and i happen to be africanamerican. So hes using his life as an example of an encouragement to blacks but also as an example of proof of equality to whites. Booker t. Washingtons life in West Virginia was important and informative for him. It was because of the frontier values that were here where the whites really were not aristocratic like in eastern virginia. They believe people were worth, they had selfworth. They believe in individual but it was a combination of all these things coming together at gave him the idea of an American Dream and gave him the idea of building a black middle class throughout the staff. Jq dickinsons in charleston West Virginia, once the salt capital of the United States area next to learn about the history of the salt industry here and how a few dickinson is reviving. A few dickinson saltworks is a revival of a Family Business that started in the early 1800s and my ancestors started evaporating and crystallizing along with about 50 other manufacturers in the region which made this Little Valley here in West Virginia the largest salt producing region of the country so we are on top of the trapped ancient sea. Its the impetus ocean. Its a 400 to 600 millionyearold source so this has been redesigned by freshwater aquifer which basically means it runs under like a salty river. And this was pushing up in springs in places was how it was discovered mainly by large animals. First deer and elk, buffalo were here. Native americans came for hunting and gathering for themselves and then as the european settlers moved west across Allegheny Mountains they found this a valuable source of salt which we take for granted today how important salt was before refrigeration. So the salt industry to grow in the early 1800s. The family, the dickinsons , the truth berries started to grow this industry. And it was an industry that grew on the backs of slaves. The valley, beacon all valley was one of the largest industrial slave uses in the country like many Others Industries but there were over 5000 slaves in the valley and to hundred 50 on this property alone. So by the 1840s, we were the largest salt making region of the country, most of the salt was leaving here and going to cincinnati , also called core, was because of all the hog farming going on in ohio. Once the meatpacking industry started growing up in chicago, the market in cincinnati started to wane the salt industry here really sort of to go away to the dickinson family madesalt until 1945. And then my brother and i revived the business in 2013 area i grew up here in the valley and the salt history of our family just wasnt somethingthat was shared. I vaguely knew that we made salt at some point but i didnt know anything more than and then i started digging into a Family History when i was in my 40s and at the same time filling my pantry at home with salt, because i thought it was so fascinating, different salts from around the world. And then it was just an aha moment. We decided to revive the salt industry because of several key points. One, we had this amazing Family History that our ancestors made salt for 160 years here but also the movement of chefs and consumers towardshighquality food. Made by producers they could trust. So we dont add anything to our salt and we wanted to be produced naturally. With solar evaporation and then we had harvested and its a product of Mother Nature rather than the product of a machine. So were here outside and out field and our were going to walk you through the salt harvesting process that starts here and are well and goes down 350 feet to draw the brine up to the surface to fill our tanks. We pump about 7500 gallons of rhino a week. To move through our sons houses. These are ourholding tanks where we settle the brine. We have three of them, their 2500 gallons each. And we need to settle the brine for about five days and then feed it into our son houses. Where it starts to evaporate area we are in the quincy son house which is one of our three evaporating houses. To the brine in here in these big beds where it evaporates. Were taking it from four and half percent saline 82 15 and a half percent. During that time you have Calcium Carbonate precipitate out and then we feed the brine off the calcium and into crystallization. This process takes anywhere from 5 to 10 to 15 days depending on the weather, were very much at the whims of Mother Nature. So were in the building that we call the granary is what our ancestors called the building where the actual range form or the salt crystals. So were looking at a bed here that is full of salt which we fill each one of these 26 beds in this building with about an inch of the evaporated brine and found that 15 percent saline 80 and we let continue evaporating until it crystallizes which happens at about 25 percent saline 80 is when the solids form so its the hardest with the salt we use big scoops of scrapers and we basically just great the salt until into a pile. Like this. And put it into these scoops. And then we put it into a bucket where it drains back into the bed. And stays for a day until we take it into our Production Facility where we dry it and package. We are in our Production Facility, the salt comes in here after it strained in the granary for a day and then we put into our drying room where we have dehumidifier that pulls extra moisture off the salt. Then it goes through a cleaningprocess where we go through the salt. And just for Quality Control make sure its hundred percent salt. We call out anything thats notsalt with freezers. And just to make sure were getting 100 percent salt into the jar. Our finishing salt is our flagship product. We also produce what we call poplin salt or cooking salt and then we have a grinding salt. And we do some flavored salt. We dont West Virginia ramp salt, rents are wildmountain onion. Very, very indigenous to West Virginia and we do a applewood smoked salt. And also a bourbon barrel smoked salt. We are all over the country in over 600 accounts nationwide. Restaurants and retailers as well as ecommerce worldwide and thats exciting. Its a little piece of West Virginia goes everywhere. I do see us as an ambassador for the state of West Virginia. Its not a roll that was given to us but i think everybody in the state is an ambassador for what we love. We love our state and we love the companies that are here. Anything that we can do to lift each other up is important to me. And important to most other West Virginia producers. We are learning about the citys history and literary scene. Next we speak with West Virginia spokesperson Emily Hilliard in her work to document the cultures that make up appalachian heritage. In West Virginia we have a lot of people across the state who may not identify as artists but are extremely creative. Extremely important in how they are preserving in their own way these traditions in their community from storytelling , to fiddle tunes. So we want to help these people do the work that theyre already doing and practicing their art form. With the West Virginia Folklife Program we document prisoners, preserve and support traditional artists. Cultural heritage practitioners and cultural communities across the state area so basically, i travel all over the state and do oral histories and documentation of banjo players, fiddlers, neon sign makers, independent wrestlers. Ramadan Fast Breaking dinners. Serbian chicken roasts, any kind of aspect of Cultural Heritage or someone who practices a artform or a food way or some kind of practice of folklife in the state. And in thinking about how we choose tori for the West Virginia for life program there is somuch to document, so many people to talk to. And sometimes when i hear about a singer who is in her 90s, will be a priority. Someone whos very old and has a lot of stories to tell that will kind of push something to the top of the list. Also, stories that kind of complicate the narrative about West Virginia. Either internally or outside area and you know, stories that show Real Community cohesion. So ive done a lot of work in the swiss community. So i worked pretty intensely with alicia over a year document in their food ways traditions and Community Festivals like their swiss version of mardi gras with papiermcchc masks where they parade from one dance hall in town to the other which is about two blocks and carry lanterns and then have a square dance under an effigy of old man winter and then at midnight, they cut him down from the rafters and burn him on the bonfire and of course they all sing country roads. So how can you not document a story like that. When you think about the term appalachian, i think we often think this is inside the region to, we often think about what scott irish and doing the work i do people think these are the old tiny ways of white folks in the mountains. But actually, there is a lot of diversity here. Maybe not specifically but when youre looking at who is preserving and maintaining Cultural Heritage, their own Cultural Heritage we have serbian communities, lebanese. Muslim, africanamerican, italian. Swiss, runs the gamut. And i think some of the narrative about this place is being kind of a modestly white. We have kind of internalized so when we use the term appalachian we need to think about what that might be a code word for. And how that we can shifted so that its an inclusive term that includes everyone who lives here and is engaged in the place. My goal for my audience is not necessarily the world outside but its for the communities themselves. They are kind of twofold so its both but i want the community to say you got this right. Warts and all, its not necessarily this romantic perception of the place but you got it right in all its complexity. [singing] was lost but now see. In 2014 there was a significant chemical leak that spilled into the elk river, a tributary behind me. The effect this leak had on the citizens of charleston and the issues they are dealing with today. January 2014 was when we experienced the mch m chemical leak into the elk river that contaminated the Drinking Water of charleston and the nine counties surrounding area. The effect of that leaky tank was profound. This isnt the first time we had seen contamination but it was certainly the first time we saw it on this grand of scale and affecting this many people and the people who were affected which was everyone , it wasnt just people at the hollow or this subsetof people, it was everyone from every socioeconomic class. Just paralyzing to charleston and thecommunity. Charleston, i consider in the southcentral part of the state the heart of West Virginia is centered around the can on river and where the elk feeds the can out in the heart of town so its one of our most population density areas will charleston and the valley has been chemical valley because theres a lot of largescale chemical plants around the river. Its one advantage that big River Systems bring is that they can accommodate the types of needs that Big Manufacturing Companies have so several chemical manufacturing plants have been along the cannot and the charleston area for years. We see these chemical storage tanks along our landscape or along our rivers is just something that were used to. Ive driven rhinos on a tax on a daily, weekly basis and i thought i didnt know what was happening there, they look old and rusty and i thought it was a retired tank farm and not much was happening. Little did i know there were these very dangerous chemicals being stored there in tanks that were not being maintained and were not being inspected. And the corrosion, there was a hole in the bottom of tank 396 where the chemical and ch m leaked into the soil. There was not a secondary containment, a way to contain the spilled fluids so it was just moving right into the elk river. Possibly for days. The approximations ive seen is around 10,000 gallons eventually leaked out of that tank. Mchm is a cold cleaning chemical so it is associated with a process to clean coal so it can be used for production for burning whatever its being used for. So it was being stored there on the elk river just a mile and a half upstream from the largest Drinking Water system in West Virginia. Right upstream from theintake. When then discovered and it was through a citizen complaint because this chemical mchm had an odor to it. It smelled like licorice, a sweet smell and people near those tanks driving by and picked up on this smell and reported that. That led eventually to the company reporting the leak to state authorities and that put in motion i think somehow the Water Company learned about it and made decisions based on the information they had and by the time and one of the decisions they made was to not close to intakes but to try to handle the chemical and treat it to its base level. That didnt work and instead, people had this chemical coming out of their, out of their showers and were exposed to it and that led to this cascade of events. About one in three people reported experiencing some kind of physical symptoms due to exposure to the chemicals. The chemical once it went into the elk river was treated as a plume that was being tracked, they know how fast rivers and water travel so they watched this plume because theres no real way to clean it up or take it out of the river. There were some containment that they were trying to do, but it was largely unsuccessful, too late. And so the next place they were worried about was huntington, West Virginia, because thats Drinking Water supply for huntington, went on to cincinnati, louisville. I mean, all of these Water Companies i believe shut their intakes down to let that plume go by. So it affected it shows what we know to be true, that water flows downstream and that we are all connected by this. And what happens upstream in West Virginia because we are a Mountain State, a headwater state, are feeding all of these major River Systems that millions rely on for the Drinking Water, that it really matters what happens in West Virginia. The company that owned the leaking company tank was free to industries. It didnt take long until we saw that company filed for bankruptcy protection, and it became clear pretty quickly that this company was stepping out, stepping out of their accountability, even though there were some court cases that followed that, the bankruptcy in terms of monetary reparations, that just wasnt going to be available, which brought a whole set of other questions, how has this Company Operated so irresponsibly so long . Where was the oversight . They were clearly a bad actor in our community and at history of shady things going on. So the fact those tanks were, 396 wasnt the wasnt the only tank that was in bad shape, that tank farm had been neglected for so long, something i think people found unbelievable how that could have happened and why wasnt that caught in some way by regulators oversight mechanisms that we should have in place. That question led to a whole other set of questions around him committed to oversight and regulation. Because in a place like West Virginia, charleston, where we have the chemical industry, we have the coal industry, oil and gas who are saying regulation, or overregulation impedes our ability to bring in new jobs. You get this argument which is i think a false choice that we have to choose between weakening regulations so we can bring in more jobs, like what were doing and what was brought to light by Freedom Industries situation, is that when we loosen regulations we are making ourselves more vulnerable to these kinds of disasters. We have to do both. We have, regulations or actually, i are to protect us and they are there for good reasons. And there are companies doing things right, following the law, and then there are Companies Like freedom industry who werent. Where is the enforcement in oversight i think is the whole situation brought to light. It was, the first time i think people realized where the Drinking Water comes from, and had made that connection, oh, this comes from the river. I heard that around the state. It really was an awakening, not just West Virginia but really for the nation. We are vulnerable, and we are still vulnerable. Cspan is in charleston, West Virginia, learning about the city history literary scene. Up next we talked to Candace Nelson author of the book the West Virginia pepperoni roll about appalachian culture. One of the things thats important is appalachian is rooted as storytelling so i think that food, culture he can do that because we passed the stories through recipe, along through the items that you made with your grandma that are not specifically measured. Appalachian food is very complex. Theres a lot of layers. Appalachia is a huge regions of this bunch of different components that make it what it is. While many think of appalachian food is being the sort of monolithic scotch irish cuisine, its really many, many layers. We have foods that are inspired from the south, from italy but most notably appalachian food is really rooted in place. Youll see things like foraging for vegetables and youll see canning to preserve those vegetables too long hard winters. We use our ingenuity to really live off the land in some way. I write a lot about how my grandmother really inspired a lot of my food habits. I remember foraging for morels way back when i was younger, and she would batter them and fry them come at a just that it was neat we could go out behind her house and find something in the woods that we could eat. I think that preservation and that resilience really plays a huge role in our food place. Appalachia is known for many different kinds of foods we are known for our local needs, known for our fruits like pompoms. We are known specifically home to the pepperoni roll. The pepperoni roll is a small piece of dough that envelops a spicy steak or slice of pepperoni. The pepperoni roll was inspired by the coal miners in the area. So in northcentral West Virginia we had a huge italian immigrant population, and their interest in some sort of meal they could take underground that was self stable, delicious, easy and affordable. Some along the lines between agents 271938 we devised the pepperoni roll. The pepperoni roll is gaining popularity not only within the borders of the state but even outside of the state. We see pepperoni roll pop up in washington, d. C. , in pennsylvania and ohio. But i think what makes it really special is its really rooted in our culture and our industry. Because it has roots in our coal mining history, it really means a little a little bit more to us traversing appalachian food all over the place. You will see things like our salt at restaurants in large cities pick use some of our food in local restaurants but the one thing that makes appalachian food what it is is its roots in place, and placebased food has the stories that you might not necessarily capture when they are extracted from the place. So while those are delicious and they can make meals even better, its really important to know that farmer that griffin or that roadside stand, were you able to pick it up because they mean something more. Its that smalltown farm income. Its how that person is putting the kids to school. Its so much more than just the flavor and the recipe. Its how we survived from these ingredients and made them part of our food culture to make them still popular. I think preserving the history and heritage of appalachia, specifically appalachia food, so important to the people in this region, that the biggest thing for us is to continue to document that history and pay tribute to these different traditions and write down those recipes and save those seeds and really try to keep the culture alive and keep the place based in appalachian food. We are in West Virginia capitol city of charleston home to the Mountain Stage radio program. The music show is urban stations around the country on npr. Up next we speak with Mountain Stage host larry groce for more on music school in West Virginias culture. Welcome to another Mountain Stage with a host larry groce. Mountain stage is a two hour radio show composed of Live Performances, musical performances from all kinds of music, all across the usa and all around the world. The music varies from african bands to oldtime appalachian fiddlers, and everything in between. 1983 in december we started Mountain Stage regular broadcasting. It was once a month. By 1986 i think it was 26 shows later we were national. Now we are on 240 station in america. From the beginning our idea was to show as many different styles of music as we could reasonably, and thats what we still do. There have been so many folks, many of them of course before anybody else ever heard of them, people like lyle lovett and Mary Carpenter way back in the early 80s, and Alison Krauss when she was 19. We had sheryl crow was on our 300th anniversary. Nobody knew she was. And then there were people who are already very established when they were on the show, like bill monroe and Ralph Stanley and joan baez and judy collins and the band, in randy newman. Going to finish this hour with a band from up in morgantown, West Virginia. Please welcome for the first time to the Mountain Stage, hello june. Weve had probably between 250300 different West Virginian musicians have been featured on the show. We dont just put them on the show because theyre from West Virginia but when they reach a certain level of talent we want to give them exposure. Many people think West Virginia, okay, fiddle, banjo, bluegrass, oldtime country and thats it. Thats not it. People do like that. We like it, too. We also like jazz and singer songwriters in indie rock. We like a lot of stuff and so did the people of West Virginia so thats what were trying to show. This isnt abnormal in West Virginia. This is what West Virginia is. Its one of the most open and accepting places of all kinds of things that of ever been. We want to represent West Virginia. Nobody ever asked us to say Live Performance radio from the Mountain State of West Virginia. I started doing that. Because i wanted to. I wanted people to know where we were from. There were times in public radio when that was not popular. They wanted you to be like nowhere so that people could put it on their station and you wouldnt seem like is produced by their station. We said no, will not do that. You will always do took it some West Virginia because thats who we are. If you dont like that, then im sorry you dont have to run the show. We will tell you where we are from. We also went to represent West Virginia, hopefully, by the personality that the show has. We want to try to reflect what we think is a West Virginia personality. By that i mean we are straightforward, we are warm, friendly. We are not cute, you know. We like the people that we put on. We like the audience very much, and we want to give them something. West virginians are generous, kind and warm and friendly, but they are not in your face. They are not great self promoters but definitely if you need help you will get it here and what to have that personality. We want people to listen and think wow, feels like friendly nice warm place. Go out and hear live music wherever you are. Just as soon as you can. You have been listening to Mountain Stage Live Performance radio from the mountainous state of West Virginia. On the campus of university of charlson were up next we get a collection of political cartoonist and charleston native kindle ventral. He was an american cartoonist or in frasers bottom in 1896. He worked for 46 years began in 1922 until 1968 for the charleston gazette. During that time he produced over 30,000 cartoons. His early cartoons were centered around the dog wagon restaurant and centered around the discussions that were heard there and were about real people and real stories about what was happening in charleston at the time. But by the early 40s and world war i, Kendall Vintroux transitioned from doing the dog wagon cartoons exclusively, or nearly exclusively, to doing more political cartooning. Those were are more often pickp by other newspapers, and at some point in the 50s and 60s they came to the eye of president truman who frequently would request copies or actually the originals of cartoons that caught his eye. His cartoons were First Published of course in the gazette and were often come when they were on a subject that was applicable to external audiences, they would be published and other newspapers. He had a number of offers to go to other newspapers, and he was known to say that charleston was as far from frasers bottom that he wanted to get. What were looking at here today is some of the examples of his early works, not only works but work during the 1950s and 60s. These are examples of his character style, the way he would draw an image in the way he actually began to portray the people around him. One of the things that hed like to do is he like to create images such as this individual that individual or even this as everyday people, and the people for what he would see around town, so he had sort of this unique idea about showing his work and being sort of a plain folk type individual. These are some of that you can actually relate to. If a look at his work and begin to compare, a lot of his work is similar to the cartoonist during that time. He doesnt really do a lot of the things the cartoonist would do whereas he would show people as people turkey would show people as animals. He wanted to create something that again had that human feel. He didnt want to make them in a less than what they were. Its always the respect he was trying to portray. It was the respect of the individual respect of the idea and i believe thats why he was really popular during this time is because he was showing respect. He wasnt demonstrating some of the negativity that you would see in the cartoons during that period. The negative style of cartoon is usually what we refer to as propaganda. This in itself is propaganda. Its a type of propaganda but if we are looking at that we sort of remember that come we look to it when it good example would be dr. Seuss looking at his work when he would draw the individual as animals, especially the japanese japaneseamericans. They had animal features because we could look at them as lesser human beings. The way he was drawing his characters here were more as playful, somebody would see on the street. These are individuals that he became familiar with and he would see them. He drew them as charleston individuals, charles tony evers. They had a little bit of a potbelly. They may have with of a look about them but its the people he saw everyday. I believe the way he was drawing his characters as everyday people was due to his upbringing in West Virginia. Because it was a way to respect your elders, with respect those around you. And so we translate that into his drawings, his upbringing and his family and his experience in the first world war. In showing respect to the individuals and to be as provocative as some of the other individuals during this period. Many of his cartoons are held at institutions across the country, syracuse university, the library of congress. Having a collection of them here in charleston provides that context and reminds West Virginians who often are stereotyped as being unsophisticated, but it reminds them that world quality cartoonist, musicians, et cetera come from West Virginia and are happy to be here and sometimes stay their entire careers. Cspan is in charleston, West Virginia, are we learning more about the cities history and literary scene. Up next we take you inside base Camp Printing that uses oldtime letterpress techniques to great new works of art. Flip the switch to turn on the motor and i have to come back here to turn it on. All right. Its a different process than Digital Printing that is widely used today, you think thats why it stands up looking at the posters you can see in conferences in the type, the not just and just as historic quality. You can tell when you feel it, you are touching something that was handmade. Base camp is a letterpress shop. We print posters, invitations, greeting cards come basically anything on paper using oldfashioned Printing Presses spirit we try to keep our process of printing identical to the process back with oldfashioned Printing Presses were modern technology. The way we work when were creating a poster or an invitation, we actually use biblical type. We handset individual letters and, to create imagery we handcarved out of linoleum blocks. Basically creating a giant step and then just using that template, that type and the blocks and just printed it one color at a time what at a time. We have a pretty small retail space what people can come and shop for greeting cards and posters. And that after that the rest of the space is our studio, so its an open room where you can just peek through and you can see us working and you can see us setting type and running the presses. Its cool to be able to have this space set up the way we do. Because when you walk in you immediately smelled inc. And hear the presses, like this is a working studio. Thats pretty good. This collection is owned by the Creative Arts college. Its a collection of thousands of engravings that were once used to print deed fax. Theres really detailed and beautiful, a lot of agricultural like imagery. Now the collection is open to me and a few other printers to create some original works with it. We are creating artwork but also reliving history in a way. A reason why i love letterpress is because you can find these things that were once made for a specific purpose, but youre able to like we use them and repurpose them and give them a new life, something that might not affect ink on it for 100 years, like its to be on a Mountain Stage post with shovels and ropes. We make a poster for every Mountain Stage show. We will make posters for whats in businesses. We make original artwork about West Virginia. We have worked with tourism for posters and postcards to anything we can make to plaster and like celebrate, like everything thats happening here in West Virginia. I feel like if you ask anyone who was born and raised here, theres just a certain effect it has on a person. Its an unexplainable love for this place that is like deeply rooted in you and to be able to put that into art is so fulfilling. There isnt a lot of positive representation of West Virginia sometimes. Its like the way that it feels complex sometimes they can feel defeating living in this beautiful place like may be not as what else like fully recognizes. It almost feels like you have a secret that you want to tell people about, and so like to be able to have this opportunity to share how i feel about this state, like, like bike, and what we have been given, its really all we want to do. In 2018 West Virginia teachers went on strike having on the steps of the West Virginia capital. Up next we learn what their grievances were at the conditions that they were dealing with. This is the West Virginia state capitol, and in february 2018 this was the site for multiple rallies for the West Virginia teacher strike. Teachers assembled on the steps filling all of the space on the ground and up the steps. There were speakers on the steps speaking out to the crowd. This was a strike for mainly over Health Insurance, benefits, and also teachers were striking for a raise but most would say this was for the Health Benefits because their premiums were going up so high that even if they receive some kind of increase for living expenses, inflation, they were actually giving a a decrease in their py because of their Health Insurance premium. There was also something the state had proposed when they would have to wear these apps and the tracking their steps and meals in order to get discounts on their Health Insurance. They were very upset about that, and they were already ranked very low in salary among the states. I think it was 48 or 49th. Theyre very upset about that. Also, i think it was unrest over the way they were kind of being treated in these negotiations are some of the legislators, disrespected i think some saw that because they were women, because they are care workers, and so there were these insults bandied about, that they were babysitters or kind of glorified babysitters as teachers. There was disrespect for the profession that permeated some of these negotiations to begin with. Many of the teachers that were striking were kind of inciting the mind wars history, when striking miners went out for better working conditions and higher pay and the Southern Coalfields of West Virginia, and those Southern Coalfields were led the teacher strike this time. And many of the teachers signified that history by wearing red bandannas around their neck, and in the mind wars there was Something Union miners were around their necks partially to prevent friendly fire but also to signify that they were Union Members to it was the one thing they union gave been at they didnt have to buy from the Company Store if they did want to go to the Company Store because it was run by the company. They could identify each other with these red bandannas that they were around their neck. In West Virginia some say thats the origin of the term redneck. Instead of derogatory term, they see it as a source of pride. This is about labor struggle and solidarity among workers. The strike i believe was nine schooldays from february 23 to march 7, and then there was kind of a ripple strike last year because its still not fixed. The teachers received their raise when they struck in 2018. It was an omnibus bill that was proposed in 2019 that was just one of these huge bills that has all these issues addressed. It was very long and complex. One of the things they did, while it did give teachers a raise, it would also open up the state to charter schools, which the teachers vehemently opposed. And so even though it was, given this economic benefit, it kind of showed they were really fighting for the classrooms and their working conditions and how this would affect their students. They struck to shut down that bill. Then in the special session in the summer, the legislators still passed a bill that would open up the state two of you charter schools. It was kind of a strategic move to do that when teachers were not in school, so they couldnt have the strike power. But yes, theres still no affixed to pih so we will see other plays out in the legislative session this year. I think a lot of teachers realize they are not necessary in touch with other teachers across the state. They might not know with others and other School Districts are doing. So this was a way for them to all gathered on the steps and really gave them a sense of their own power. So i think they begin to see themselves as a unit. Also it was true for teachers across the country who were really looking at West Virginia as a model, and so as some of the strike photos came in from arizona and kentucky at oklahoma, some of the signs i saw said dont make us go West Virginia on you. So it sort of became a verb, West Virginia became a verb that referred specifically to teachers striking, which is just amazing. Twice a month cspans city tours takes booktv and American History tv on the road to explore the literary life and history of the selected city. Working with our Cable Partners we visit various literary and Historic Sites as we interview local historians, authors and civic leaders. You can watch any of our past interviews and tours online by going to booktv. Org and selecting cspan cities tour from the dropdown at the top of the page or by visiting cspan. Org citiestour. You could also follow the cspan cities tour on twitter for behind the scenes images and video from our visits. The handle is cspancities. Has a look at some of the authors who have appeared recently on booktvs after words, our weekly Author Interview program. There should be consequences that are known by everyone and are applied fairly and evenly, and they are not always applied fairly and evenly. I think that the disregard and distrust of the legal system is another factor to take into serious account, but a teacher was tough like your mother is usually very well regarded by the students because they have high expectations. They are expressing a belief in the capacity of the young people to actually live up to those rules. Our legal system that is inconsistent doesnt earn that kind of trust, and when we dont have people trusting the legal system, it cant operate. The police dont get the information they need. They dont get the help from the community about who actually was to blame. And so in part this call for forgiveness in the law on my part is a way to say thats one way that we as human beings earn trust with one another. After words airs saturdays at 10 p. M. And sundays at 9 p. M. Eastern and pacific on booktv on cspan2. All previous after words programs are available as podcasts and watch online at booktv. Org. Recently on booktv, Charles Schwab talked about his life and investment career. Heres a portion of the program. And a sort of flash of couple big numbers on me and having come from really zero money myself, 55 million was a whole lot of money for the whole of the company, and i think i own maybe 40 of the company which is a lot of money, let me tell you then, 1981. So we finally decide to do that, to make the transaction happen because i was faced with as we grew and grew we needed more and more money to grow. You need that in capital and i was turned down by many venture capitalists along the way and certainly wall street didnt come to my aid because we were creating competition for them, just lowering the prices and making Great Service for customers and thousands of customers were joining our company as clients. They didnt want to finance it t any for the flight a tough time raising money. So it was a very attractive thing at that time, my age, and the development of the company. But soon over the next three or four years it became clear that we were under the wrong umbrella and had to work our way out of their. Not only that but they ran into huge problems. Thats what i mean. Huge problems. They lent money to the greek shipping guys that went down the tubes and argentina, that all kinds of loans in south america. It went on and on and on. And so there to sell the big building, big tall building. Downtown san francisco. They sold a couple other subsidiaries, italian subsidiary. So i said hey, sell us. [laughing] so i convinced them to sell us, and that was another interesting story about, they said okay, we will still you, sell you to the highest bidder. I said thats terrific. But you know very well that i am not for sale. You can sell the company. Im going to start a Similar Company right across the street, and it was a real threat because i was going to do it. I was little upset with them because going back would make the deal with them, our stock, we had a stock for Stock Transaction and the stock was like 24 a share. That was top kick in the next four years it went from 20 204l the way down to eventually Something Like nine. I was an unhappy guy for many reasons. That was my total net worth, my wife is over in the corner, she is sort of shy. Its a nontrivial point. They could sell Charles Schwab but they couldnt sell Charles Schwab the person. Right. Name and likeness, sort provision in there that wasnt for sale. And so, and serendipitous that i used my name and face by that time in advertising. So i was getting, people identified the company with me, and so i dont know who they are going to sell it to when the guy, the namesake goes down the street about a block and opens up another similar competing company. So anyway we came to terms. They were really happy. They ended up with five, six times what they had paid me for in compensation, in five years time. So that was a good return for the. To watch the rest of his talk visit our website booktv. Org and search for Charles Schwab or the title of his book, invested, using the box at the top of the page. Next week an anonymous person believed to be a senior official at the Top Administration will release a book critical of the president. Its titled a warning, published by 12 books. According to the Washington Post which received a copy of the book i had a publications, the author reflects on why he wrote the book anonymously. I have decided to publish this anonymously because this debate is not about me. It is about us. It is about how we want the presidency to reflect our country, and that is where the discussion should center. Some will call this power dispute my feelings are not hurt by the accusation nor am i unprepared to attach my name to criticism of president trump. I may do so in due course. The anonymous author is expanding an oped they vote for the New York Times in september 2018 titled i and part of the resistance inside the trump administration. In the new book the author corrects an assertion they made in their opinion piece from last year. I was wrong about the quiet resistance inside the trump administration. Unelected bureaucrats and cabinet appointees were never going to steer donald trump the right direction in the long run, or refine his malignant management style. He is who he is. Next weekend booktv will host a journalist discussion on a warning. In addition you have from joe klein who was the longtime anonymous author of the clinton era novel, primary colors. Check your Program Guide or booktv. Org for schedule information. Booktv continues now on cspan2, television for serious readers. Good afternoon. Welcome to todays discussion of an important book called border wars inside trumps assault on immigration. I name iss Carlos Sanchez and im a Senior Editor Texas Monthly magazine and i am based along the border in the rio grande valley. Before we dive into this topic, please remember to silence your cell phones, and please share your experience on social media using the hashtag txbookfest. The authors will be signg
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