Transcripts For CSPAN2 C-SPAN Cities Tour Exploring The American Story 20240713

The cspan cities tour travels the country exploring the american story as we c takec booktv and American History tv on the road with the support of local Cable Television provider we visited 24 cities in the last year and over the next two hours we will looknd at highlights frm some of these stops we began our special feature in milwaukee. So this is a photograph of the lynching that occurred august 7, 1930 in marion, indiana. James cameron to a 16 was supposed be the third person hanging from the tree but he survived the lynching. His friends, abe and tommy, were killed that day by a mob estimate between ten ten and 10 angry whites. Often misidentified as 1000 lynching. It it was a northcentral indiana when the lynching took place. So y we ended up writing a book that he called a time of he actually started to write those when he was in jail awaiting his trial and then when he is finally convicted and sent to prison he finished writing the book. James cameron was born in wisconsin in la crosse, every 25, 1914, and his family moved around. His dad was a barber and eventually they made their way to indiana so the growth as a child in indiana. Eventually as an adult he moved to milwaukee in 1952 and made this his home for the rest of his life. When he was going up in indiana and is his family moved there, indiana was a state that didnt have a significant number of africanamerican people. Primarily they didnt because back in the 1850s they banned black people from living in the state of indiana in the constitution. They didnt have a great many blacks in the state and the town he lived in, kind of a mixed down, a small industrial town, a local factory, a lot of farmers are a lot of farmland around marion, indiana, and so it was a state that had very kind of mixed reviews from blacks because of the racial dynamics of the state. The 1920s and 30s indiana had more ku klux klan members than any other state in the country so very heavy presence of ku klux klan members there and really made indiana estate that was not the most attractive for black people to live in. The events leading up p to august 7, 1930, the night of the lynching 7 took place, the day before James Cameron who is known as jimmy by his friends or apples, was outside hanging out and his friends pulled up in a car. His friends abe and tommy and they say do want to go for right . Sure, so heres this 16 year old jumps in a car with his 18 and 19yearold friends friends and as their driving they go out by the river outside of town and they tell them on the way there were going to rob somebody and get the money to get another car. He wasr like, wait a minute, i didnt come along for this. I. T. State in the car. When they got down to the river there was a car park there and they told him we want to go we want you to go to the car and drive the car. Go overcome open the door and say stick them up to the people in the car. He was very nervous about it. He didnt want to do it. He made a bad decision. He let the peer pressure get the best of him. He opened the car door and as soon as he opened the door he recognized then man in the car s a 23 year old white guy who was one of his best friends in town, actually the best tip or at a shoeshine stand. He realized i do want to be part of this. He gave begun t back to abe and tommy and he took off running. As he was running, a short time later he heard some gunshots and then he ran all the way home. The authorities realize who the three boys were pretty soon after the shooting took place. A farmer across the road toward the shots, took the man to doctor in town to be treated. Before he passed with her that night he identified the three boys, cameron and abe and tommy as well. They already knew they werewe ad he went and arrested the three of them almost immediately. Once word spread around town and some of the neighboring communities that the minute passed away late that night, somebody put his bloody shirt, they hung outside h a window and inflamed the crowd even more. Rumors spread that sexual assaulted the woman in the car that night even though they never touched her. The rumors spread and eventually by the next morning there was a crowd of thousands of whites in town and they were intent on going into the jail and taking the three boys out and lynching them. Eventually they went in and took abe and tommy out and murdered both of them, hung them on a maple tree right nexte to the courthouse which is about a block away from the jail. They went in lastly to get cameron and did the rope around his neck. They were dragging him through the crowd. People were punching him, kicking him, spitting on them, calling all kinds of names. He recognized a lot of the phases in that crowd. These are people he knew. Somee people they consider to be friends of his. As he approached the tree he lookeded up when he saw abe and tommy dead hanging from the tree and he thought that he is going to die next, siu said a prayer to god, asked god to forgive him for his sins and then he says he heard a soft voice they came over the crowd that was really loud and boisterous enchanting we want cameron, he came very quiet. He said he heard a voice that said leave this young man alone. Yet nothing to do with these crimes. Miraculously they let them go. They allowed to to get back to the jail. He had been beaten very badly. He ended up losing a kidney as result of the beating. The sheriff snacking out of the jail laterja that night to take them to neighboring community for safekeeping, and then he sat and he waited a a year before s trial. He was tried not for the murder. He was tried as an accessory before the act of manslaughter, and he was convicted and sentenced to four to 20 years in prison. He served four years before he received his pardon. The photograph which depicts abe and tommy hanging from the tree in many indiana that photograph was taken by a local photographer who actually staged the photograph. He actually had some branches cut off of a tree to get a better view. He put lights in front and behind the bodies and asked people to pose in front of the bodies and he took that photograph and sold thousands of copies of it. About seven years after the photograph was taken, a young jewish guy actually saw the photograph and he thought it was a lynching in the south, and so he wrote a poem called bitter fruit. Eventually he turned that bitter fruit poem into a song which Billie Holiday performed and made famous. The reason the story was so important and the reason he wanted it published was because he relies lynching was such an important part of American History and a part of American History that is never taught in school. He wanted people toe get an eyewitness account of the survivor of the lynching toth se exactly what the dynamics of a lynching were. He eventually opened up the museum to tell those stories to humanize the victims of lynching so people wouldnt just see them, a name on a piece of paper or a photograph of some who was murdered. He wanted to humanize the victims of lynching so that we could begin l to develop a grear understanding of what happened in thatt time, one led to the lynchings, how widespread they were and really understanding just another part of American History. Most americans have been led to believe that lynching was kind of a tyn southern institution, t lynchings occurred all over the country. The lynching of cameron was in northcentral indiana, and are several other name is lynching photographs. Theres a famous one from omaha, nebraska. Theres a very famous one from duluth, minnesota, and believe people in the walkie most people are not aware of the lynching in milwaukee as well in 1861, a young man was lynched right here in milwaukee. And you look at history of lynching, historians tell us there were 5000. Many, many others weigh more than that i would never document. The documentation came from a variety f of sources the naacp kept a database. The Tuskegee Institute kept the database and the chicago newspaper also get the database. Most of the lynchings that we know of come from stories that were in newspapers. It would be a small account in a newspaper and there were upright types of lynchings that occurred. You and some that were kind a small party of people who took somebody in the backwoods and murdered them. Then you and others that were known as spectacle lynchings like the one that cameron survived where literally thousands, all the people from the community who were white would be there as part of this festive environment. People from neighboring communities would come into the town for the lynching. People temple to think it was just is angry that but it was a very festive event for the people who were there participating. Like in marion come all the blacks in marion literally had to leave town because they were frightened that they would be that the mice as they left until a couple days later for the came back into marion. But in 1979 it took a really, really important trip the lead to the foundation of the museum. He went on a trip to the holy land with his church in 1979. When they were in jerusalem they visited the jewish Holocaust Museum. As he and his wife were standing in this garden he says, we need a museum like this in america to tell what happened to black people and all of the freedom loving white people who have helped us along the way and america. That was the genesis of his beginning to think about starting the museum and giving us the navy gave it, and eight years later, about eight and a half years later he opened the museum on juneteenth day of 1980. The museum never had a great deal of Financial Support to make a sustainable and build an endowment. Eventually the recession after the 9 11 attacks, the Great Recession in 2007, doctor cameron passing away on june 11, 2006, all of those things negatively impact the museums ability to stay open and we are forced to close the museum in september of 2008 because we literally ran out of money. The museum is in in a very good place now because we were able to kind of continue doing his work after the physical museum closed. Just a couple of years ago there started to be talk of someone building a new building that would have some spaceil for the new lock Holocaust Museum and so here we are in that space now. We are still installing it hoping to open the museum sometime before the industry. We are excited about the opportunity to continue his work in a way that we were never able to do it before with a worldwide reach, with the new physical museum and still continued to have our Online Presence as well. In are look at some of the highlights from the lastt year continues as we take you to rochester, minnesota. Do you consider yourself a politician . Do i consider myself a politician . Well, i guess so. I have my own party though. Does it have named . Theres no president in the party. Theres no president or Vice President or secretaries. Its kind of hard to get in. Is there a right wing, left wing of the party . No, its more in the center. Kind of a upbeat scale. Most people think bob dylan is a leftist or somehow associate with the Hippie Movement of the 1960s or Something Like that. The voice of the generation of the 1960s which was a label he detested. They would look at him as perhaps a great leader of the antiwar movement. He never went to an antiwar march. Partisan. You cant stick him in depressed or republicans. And i would also see that you really cant see that he is exactly left or right. There were certain themes of the come through through his life. About is politics. The subjects are social justice, support for the underdog, suspicion of institution, and authority and concern about abuse of power. Those things are necessarily the domain of the right or left. And i say the most people have a misconception about what bob dylan is. Off dylan grew up in northern minnesota. Having minnesota. And that is a portion of minnesota known as the iron range. This kind of a specialist in minnesota. In a wouldve gone to the iron age and state late 18 hundreds or early 19 hundreds, wouldve been a hotbed of radicalism. You would run into socialist and communist, these are folks working deep underground and iron minds. This is part of the Labor Movement that existed in america at this time. And so dylan himself at one point said that more suspicious of bankers going up and communist. And of course bob dylan grew up in a jewish household is that it mayday mint minority im the iron range as well. So obviously this might have an impact to im his support for the underdog and that sort of thing. The answered my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answered my friend is what blowing in the wind in the 1960s, early 1960s, 1950s as well, the Folk Movement in america sprung up. It was certainly a by and large, a leftist kind of movement. Interest in civil rights, antiwar, that sort of thing. So you look at the early songs about dylan, weve got things like everyone knows blowing in the wind. Masters of war would be another one. But there were more topical songs, sung about in mattel for example. These types of songs were written by many of her folk centers see as well. So what happened is that dylan sort of progresses beyond that. By the mid 1960s, many starting songs that arent exactly songs you can put your finger im. Its all right mom, bleeding or right like a Rolling Stone rated they were visited with almost a hallucinatory dive boat lyric so what happened as American Society is changing people start to read in a very heavy political message in dylan at a time where if you are really looking at is objectively coming couldnt see that the songs are necessarily overtly political. Diplomat who carries im his shoulder, a siamese cat and people will resist me. There must be some deeper message. Johnnys in the baseman and im im the pavement thinking about the government. Why does it see what you thinking about the government, but you the listener then, and just your own meaning into that. So has brought really offering answers throughout the sign. His voice of a generation thing, he says the answered is blowing in the wind. Well, is the great song. If i were to make a playlist of 1960s music, that song would be im there. But the answered is blowing the wind is particularly helpful if you are surfing for answers. So thats how we have to understand his political output. Again, thats one mean join i see has brought exactly what people say. Photograph of you, you are wearing a tshirt. Nobody. Mean something. I like to know. I like to know what it represents you because you are part of that. I had it really look at it that much. I thought about a great deal. People are looking to bob dylan for the answers. It is a great thing to youtube. Bob dylan press conference 1965. No matter which one you hit, its one be great. If you start to say about what it mustve been like to have every little thing that you do or see it looked at so intently, how many times do some may see what is the meaning of the shirt you are wearing right now. Well, what you gonna do that. And just had to great im a person. I say any thinking person that was in his situation would just find a lot of this in name. I believe thats a big reason why he really got away from the voice of the generation protest music. He saw it as in my opinion anyway, a son is the prison. Once he got locked in to being this one thing, he could never get out. 71965, it was electric. He started playing electric guitar rather than just acoustic and a monica. And you into his concert, and yield at him and booed him and how dare he. And that sort of thing so once again, i say you looked at all of that and said no thanks. Is the by 1966, is out of there. He goes to upstate new york, and starts having children and start writing love songs and sort of domestic bliss. In the sort of thing. So the holo dylan. After 1966. The irony is the 1970s, join it becomes a bornagain christian, he for the first time is telling his audiences, i have the answered and a lot of people are very interested then in hearing what his answered is. In the public news reaction to the new dylan by the 1980s, even remember now where whole generation from the 1960s. So theres a whole group of kids growing up in the 80s and i wouldve been one of them, were watching mtv. And bob dylan he was a great songwriter but he has brought may be the most mtv friendly persona. Her 14 yearold anyway. So, it really depends im which public at this. Because the baby boomers are now adults, they got mortgages and jobs and not following music is closely so in some ways, dylan is flipping through slipping through the cracks a little bit. Join we are the world comes out, he is invited. He sings im that. And so has brought forgotten, but he has brought quite the same public figure that he had been. And as a dylan fan, join people find out that im a dylan fan, some people will see i like the songs but not and i see listen deeper. By the way his voice is oft awesome and very good. Its like, the coat, is broken in. And thats join it fit the best. And so, it really is the remarkable artist he is rated it might not necessarily be everybodys favorite style of music but something he has said will resonate with you. Sue neck making 24 steps in the last year, t making 24 stops in the last year the cspan cities tour explores the history and literate life of selected american cities. Next up a look look at one of our segments from rapid city, south dakota. We are here in south dakotas black hills in Custer State Park and were at the State Game Lodge which is a 1920s era building that was constructed several years before president Calvin Coolidge made his summer white house here in 1927. President coolidge andnd the fit lady Grace Coolidge stayed here for nearly three months from june through september 1927 while they were on vacation that summer. Calvin coolidge took office in 1923 when he was Vice President , Warren Harding died and so he served out the last little bit of the term and he was elected to his own term in 1924. He came to south dakota in 1927 when a lot of people were speculating we keep waiting that oneno for another term in 1928 d was widely expected that he would, but he came here in 19277 because looking for place to escape the t oppressive summer n washington, d. C. And mosquitoes and bugs and the tension of the white house. Coolidge vetoed a farm bill and there was a farm depression going on and south dakota was the epicenter of that. Crop prices and reduce by about 62 during the early to mid 1920s in south dakota. How the arm release bill. It was the plan to buy up surplus commodities and then dump them im the International Market and raise prices for farmers here. Coolidge vetoed that radiated government intrusion. In 70 did that, farmers and ranchers in the midwest and west, a really angry with coolidge. And the idea took hold that he kind of need it to go somewhere in for his Summer Vacation and then sense, Alonso States were considered, wisconsin, colorado, different places but he settled im south dakota. Coolidge and president s before him, and had a tradition of setting up summer lighthouses and almost always been in the east conceivable or close to there. So it was really unusual for president by coolidge come this far west. What would happen was a 26, south dakota mayday failed attempt to attract coolidge to set up a summer white house in the black hills. Not that time coolidge said was just is it too far away any wouldnt didnt say he be able to transact business out here to stay in touch with dc. In 1927 as mentioned, he vetoed the house and built and all of a sudden, he had more than a reason to come west for his vacation. But also south dakota had a sort of legendary former governor and then u. S. Senator and rebecca. He was instrumental in attracting coolidge to the black hills. To hurt nor back was a big fan of the mcnary how good farm release ability really wanted brinkley job here. And talk to bump up that bill. But also with this mountain called rushmore, there was an attempt to carve Mount Rushmore and is only a few years at tha that. And no carving it taken place at the time. Fundraising was happening in peter was part of that local Committee People to raise her name to carve Mount Rushmore. He knew if he could get the president out here, it would really boost aspect for that as well. Hopefully become easier to raise her name by getting attention to this project. And then the third reason was really, nor back knew it would be a huge boost to tourism in the black hills. This was a time join automobile tourism was just beginning. Black hills was trying to market itself as a destination for terrace even though we were sort of backlog of time. Sooner back knew that if he could get the president out here, huge for tourism. Rapid city the black hills would have state lines and papers all of the country and there would be pitcher and stories about the beauty of the black hills. So peter nor back really made it his personal mission to recruit Calvin Coolidge to black hills and did so. And he was instrumental in getting him to select this as his Summer Vacation spot. Fully set out here, in june 1927, and his days were really scheduled. He stayed here at the state game watch and generally every weekday warning and a driver would load them up in a car and had a little bit of dance for a model t, and drive him over 32 miles of gravel roads down out of the black hills and then north to rapid city. He had his office in the old Rapid City High School which is downtown rapid city. He went into a converted french teachers classroom join they had moved into a big mahogany desk im him and cleared out all of the students desk. He conducted business there. Then huge set up with telegraph lines and Communications Equipment that they had set up there for the summer. And he was but his warnings in his office in rapid city, and he had twice press conferences with about two dozen reporters who followed them out here from washington. And then he would be driven back here to the game lodge at about 1 00 oclock every afternoon. And he and Grace Coolidge, have lunch here at the State Game Lodge. And then in the afternoons, they would go sightseeing, they would go fishing. They really traveled all over the black hills and saw just about everything that was to see in those afternoons during the three months that they were here. Coolidge us obviously, nicknamed sally cow. He is very reserved person and in washington dc, reporters who cover him their new him as a very silent character. In a standoffish almost. That was what was so fun from the mountain black hills and he was given a 10gallon hat by people from the future who is trying to recruit him to come to their summer rodeo. Anywhere that 10gallon hat numerous times and sort of became part of him. He was given a full cowboy outfit in horse by Boy Scout Troop from custer. And he dressed up in cowboy at one point and he really kind of handed up for the cameras. It is really out of character for embry to secret Service Agent had second sort of childhood experience here like he had woken up in a dimestore cowboy anomaly release and have a lot of fun. So its really fun sort of just bizarre summer which are president here for three months, just becoming a part of the area. I say my opinion of coolidge was probably like a lot of people join i started the research im this project. He is sort of an unknown silent character. And unknowable in a lot of ways, and so is really refreshing to research this book and find out they really did have a personality that came out here in the black hills. And i say maybe in the most interesting, led the book with the story about what happened this summer with coolidge deciding to it simply commit the presidency here in the black hills. And so it was obvious in 1927, he woke up here in the state game watch like every other warning, and had breakfast and instruments rapid city, and he went to his office there in Rapid City High School in a press is the good two times a week, and it happened to be the fourth anniversary of its presidency when he took office. In some reporters asked him to sum up his first four years in office and he did. He spoke it like about that. And at the press conference by staying, he wanted the reporters come back a little bit later that warning and he might have an announcement to make. Thats the reporters didnt know what was going im. He never done anything like that before but they went away and came back at the appointed time. And while they gone, coolidge had written up a note any and had his stenographer make a few dozen copies of the new and he cut them up into little slips of paper. And he brought all of the reporters back into his office and he told them all to come up and grab a slip out of stanford and the did in the open enough in the southward stigma that said i do not choose to run for president in 1928. And that was how he loved the world knows that he wasnt going to run the date first reporters try to president for tomorrows stigma and more information for the next patient refused and one of the staffers in the back room open the door to the outburst out of the Rapid City High School complex blended telephones and telegraph wires rebirth is new to the country. And coolidge just walked out calmly from that announcement and was driven back here to the cb he wanted to have lunch with his wife in the president. It was sort of the guy that coolidge was. Very understated. And that is how he basically surrounded the presidency here in the black hills by making that announcement. The set off all kinds of speculation about what did he mean by i do not choose for months, there were speculation that he meant the people nominated him and maybe wonder maybe you wouldnt. But he sort of enjoyed watching people scurry around and try to hurt his stigma while he remained silent. But people peeking out out here to the west to basically pander to voters that he had angered with his veto of the formerly skill and people were surprised and confused. You cannot hear and demand political fences that why then would he not then run for presidency again. The a lot of ways he cannot hear really to repair any damage that he had done the republican party. His veto of the harleysville and i say he became convinced he had done that. The party could survive him leaving office. The reasons he didnt want to run again, he had served a little bit of hardings term and then he had served another for your term and feed one another term, he wouldve ended up surfing ten years in office. How something frowned upon by some people in that the colleges had also had a son die a few years before they came out here to the black hills. And coolidge has said that that sort of took away the joy of the presidency for him. And so apparently, he had been thinking about it and perhaps a decision had been made solidified while he was at her and black hills but for whatever reason, the heat then chose that day and made the decision and nobody except maybe one or two people who are very close to him knew this was coming. So it was really a strange thing to have happen a Little High School and little classroom in rapid city. Calvin coolidge is really underappreciated brawl with Mount Rushmore. So that idea was hatched several years before he came to the black hills. They had raised some her name and they had recruited who is then carving Stone Mountain georgia. He left the project and finish to come up here and work im Mount Rushmore. In 1927, join Calvin Coolidge into the black hills, no carving had been started. It had a dedication ceremony in 1925, but there really hasnt been able to get the project going. They hadnt taken a girl but not yet. And still Calvin Coolidge comes out here, he gets really flamboyant character, mayday concerted attempt to recruit president to come to another dedication ceremony in Mount Rushmore. He hired a pilot to fly over the State Game Lodge and drop a wreath essentially inviting the colleges to Mount Rushmore. Psychology eventually agreed to go to a consecration news ceremony because already had the dedication ceremony. Some 1927, while coolidge was here, he was driven to keystone which is the little mining camp essentially at the base of part route rushmore. And because the was in such poor condition, he wrote of course the rest of the way up the horse vault named mistletoe up to brent Mount Rushmore to mason mountain, and then erected a wooden plank platform there were coolidge give a speech. And during the speech, coolidge the effort that was undertaken and rushmore basically entitled the people who are doing it to support of the federal government which was a really big deal. Coolidge was a guy who was a real miser with the federal budget and question everything down to the amount of pencils that the government was buying. He was a real budget cutter. So for him to come out here and see the federal government should give her name to a project that twocar faces into a mountain was really something. And really set the project im a new project three. So he did that, and he received attention all of the country. And during that ceremony, the boardroom actually scaled the side of the mountain and hung over the side of the mountain and applied the first drill bit to Mount Rushmore while coolidge watch. And coolidge after his vacation in the black hills, you move back to washington dc dc and that during the last couple weeks in office, he signed a bill that gave Mount Rushmore is first 250,000 in federal funding. That was great fun spread that open it up. Then ended up taking a long time. Mount rushmore wasnt finishing to the 40s but coolidge really got started. I long for Mount Rushmore at historians, you read the books carefully, give coolidge a lot of credit for getting Mount Rushmore going into time in his future definitely was not certain. Bleach had a lot of people and he interacted with a lot of people when he was at his office Rapid City High School. Uber was a commerce secretary at the time would be the next president. He came out here and visited coolidge in his office. John pershing was bent of world war one euro, came out and visited coolidge here. General leonard wood, Fort Leonard Wood was named after, came out here to visit. Charles lindbergh did a flyover here, earlier this spring lindbergh had done his fly and flown across the atlantic. He was im the barnstorming kind of thing crosscountry. He flew over the game watch. And while coolidge news work here in rapid city was really thrilled with the attention and sort of the celebrities that came to see coolidge while he was here. He also met with a lot of just everyday people, south dakota citizens and politicians and he did make several visits with native americans in the rapid city area. He visited the rapid city and its goal which was boarding school for native american children. He also did a turning the pine ridge indian reservation which is about 50 miles east of here. First out the ghanaians it was an honor that coolidge shows this place. And for people in the tribe, this had been the land. In the treaty at only 60 years earlier. Some were excited were about the visit does not. He was, while he was here, he went to a ceremony where some native americans ceremonially adopted him into the sioux tribe. They gave him a headdress, traditional headdress and gave him native american name. In summary was welcomed by some but there are others really resented that some native americans did that didnt say i shouldnt of been done. Coolidge never came back to the black hills. There was an effort years later im one of the anniversaries of his visit to get the price coolidge to come back here. She did not either. But it was a oneshot thing. Eisenhower did come and stay in the game lodge in the 50s. He said you are not nearly as long but there was another president ial visit to the game lodge later. If you look at the exterior, it does look like more of 1927 except the back then, it was just basically a large house that they coolidge is inhabited. Hotels and banana none of the size of the game lodge. Go inside, still the extensively renovated so that it probably doesnt look a whole lot like what coolidge news experience. Right inside the door there are portraits of Calvin Coolidge and bryce that were painted during the summer of 1927 and they are still here. It was really funny doing the research for this book because we live in panera now or the president goes golfing a few times and is almost how much time is the golfing. President coolidge, he its been weekday mornings working while he was here that was pretty much it. For three months, he was im vacation every afternoon and all summer for three months. As far as i could tell the research, that was not a national scandal. It was even something that people really raised an issue with her got angry with. It was kind of understood that the president need it time to get away. And need it time to relax and get away from the strains of the office. Totally different world back in the now. You can imagine, the president did that today, then see, im just going to disappear in south dakota for three months. That probably wouldnt be accepted like it was back then. So is really interesting, it was a different time for sure. This is such a unique chapter of south dakota history that a lot of people dont know. Maybe because coolidge usually one of the more prominent president s historically, and so i say that people would be really surprised to know the president did come live in south dakota for three months. And didnt have as much fun as he did and i just had a really fun time discovering more layers to the story and all of the experiences that the coolidge news had here. And knowing that we come out here to the game lodge and we drive back to rapid city, really tracing his route and the history is really countable. Just like a said, a unique chapter in history that we will never see repeated. I guess what i would like people to understand about coolidge and south dakota in the back hills and the remote book, is that he found such a wonderful time in the black hills, that it really brought him out of his shell. And it exposed him as may be a different kind of person. And people were used to and i loved how being here in the back black hills and seeing the Natural Beauty here, and being away from washington brought out a different side of coolidge playful side. And a second childhood as i mentioned. And i say that shows what a special place we have here in the black hills. And it is just such a unique chapter of history that will never see repeated again. You can imagine the president will overcome and live in the black i cant imagine a present will ever come and live in the black hills for three months while they are a sitting president , and so its just a real unique, turkey, fun. Of history that it never happened before and will never happen again, and so many interesting things happened that summer. I hope people get out of my book that this is sort of an out of body experience for calvin collegeie to come here and be a different person and enjoy himself and will open up to the people of the u west and the blk hills. T highlights of some of the stops along the cspan cities tour c from the last year continues as we take you to toledo, ohio. When people hear the name Anthony Wayne in this area is a combination of we know him, his name is everywhere. We ride his big i went into the city but knowing specifically who he is, as people, what did he do, who was a . The only thing they can save he, mad anthony. Thats kind of my inspiration to begin rewriting this book. And to bring him to life in a way that hasnt been done before. Anthony wayne b was born, he soe pennsylvania, a wealthy young farmer or outside ofan philadelphia, in 1745. He joined the American Revolution first as a politician in the assembly1775 he joined the Continental Army and he bounded into washingtons camp in april 1776 in washington said hes enthusiastic, isnt he . He then fought inn battles in canada. He fought at washington side from brandywine all the way up to yorktown, as a general he had to learn to be general fick we think of these men as either they won this battle of that battle. We forget when theat American Revolution started most men had no experience in war. The only thing Anthony Wayne knew about war was what he read that Julius Caesar had done. He drove washington mad. He kept telling washington if we do this and do that it will be just like caesar and we wont beat the british. It never quite worked. He came. Almost never lost to school. He could retreat better than anybody. In washington need that a lot. And in a terrible campaign. He was sent to georgia. In a complete physical and ms ms. Physical and mental breakdown there. He pulled himself together. He kind of had a ruined life after that. He could not go back to his family. It sort of was like the best years of our lives pretty canceled back into the routine of leaving. In plantation in georgia, there was a failure. It wouldve been a complete disgrace and throne of congress for having his friend to get him elected in georgia. This was 1791. His life was ronna. His family know matt longer felt anything for him. George washington was desperate for a general. So i came out to the ohio country and against the wishes of his cabinet and just about everybody else, he chose Anthony Wayne. We have one of course the first 13 original collies im the atlantic. But the british have given us all of the land from the operations of the Mississippi River including north of the ohio. The ohio country where were at today. The indians had side or major treaties. Allowing the americans to cross the ohio and go up to about halfway what is now the state of ohio. Americans have settled for the south and the indians remained to the north. George washington said no cost appellations, we dont cross the ohio, but to Start Building nation, with opportunity especially Economic Opportunity land, how will we ever survive. Imposing appellations, causing the ohio in the future, but we are now surrounded by the british and the french and spanish in the indians. So this time simple. Will cross the mountains and negotiate with the indians and will recognize the state over the land and we will buy it from them. Not just once but every year. And call it an annuity. Well set up trading post in trade and eventually we will be one happy people, the United States of america. Im the cheek by the name of general arises up and says i didnt find any of these treaties pretty to put together this massive confederation of all of the indias north of the ohio nhs washingtons administration, you send your man across that river, and will run red with their well have. And he was able to defeat two armies. In George Washington as to make a decision to try again or do i give up. And he does not give up im policy. But he meets another army, hes going to hold the men in check. They have to be perfectly trained. As negotiations fail, then that army has to move against the indians. Washington what he is trying to decide, who am i going to pick. His list of 16 generals. Who were still alive in American Revolution and he said, i need someone brave and sober. These men are old and tired. So where mccoy defines a bloody and he could not remember anything good anthony join his dent im the battlefield. You remember his mistakes. The massacre in continuum of care programs, many of his men, taken is it too many chances in virginia. His cabinet, many people come to him and see, he drink so much. When he is sick, when he almost all of his her name. He just got thrown out of congress. Like i dont fit him. In washington had to go through his own mind is like what do i remember good about wayne. Will is devoted to me. He wrote me letters before every battle and revolution. And join i lost, he read a letter to me telling me it does matter, we are going to win. Hes been advocating me as president of the United States, he wrote letters to everyone staying we need to washington. And he also said,. Ellipsis country. So combination thing, that lolo latinas and dedication. And also wanting the job. And begging for anything. Washington ignored the cabinet and he takes a chance. It was given a job in the spring of 1792, is appointed the commander of the legion of the United States. Is oprah going to give you 5000 soldiers, Previous Army have been slaughtered. In 1791 and he was told trainm trainman. All of the asset officers are dead. She must raise up the officers. He sent first and then he sent downriver to Fort Washington in cincinnati. He will support repo, hundred 2. All the while is being told, trainman perfectly, this new strange organization, he came up with the allegiance of the United States. Get to train them some perfectly Good Washington cisco, pneumonia win. But you cant be so aggressive in trying the frightened indians printer because he knows goucher news and to continue. Well wait until the spring of 1792, he has brought ordered finally appear. Until spring or summer of 1794. He comes about in the summer of 17 and four after George Washington has negotiated with the indians for two years, her and what the ohio river in support of the ohio country. You never know George Washington is so worried does not win but even offered the ohio river to the water. Washington at one point said indians you can have it all. They said no. Great hostility with weve god the backing of the british and the setting up of our country forever. What really pissed George Washington off was this place. It was pre 1974 when he was still negotiating with the indians. The british come down from detroit they should be in detroit. That is american soil but they wont get off of american soil. You can still see at least the remnant of the report. They come down here claiming to protect detroit in the coming down here to arm and support the indians. And that is what effects washington. He said all right, negotiations have failed, Anthony Wayne take your army began marching. Dont dont go dont go towards kiki gonda, one of the capital come up towards the river and make right. At that resort. Somewhere between greenville and the bridgeport, were almost where the certainly were the indians will check. You got to win. Decisively youve got to win. Keep marching even to the port. And if you get there, take the port. So is given quite an assignment. So he marched march and marching marching marching where the indians bear they get to the fort defiance, they kept sending out the runners and make a deal, a treaty, you dont have to fight. And finally, they are marching all of the way up here. Another going to get to the british fourth, august the 20th. In 1794. Its only a few miles. The marching marching marching they get up to the wall is about 7 miles from here. They see the gorgeous rapids down through the river, and william harrison, young kid at the egg to wayne, writes of twain and he said, i say theyre going to get so excited if the battle does begin that the there going to forget to me the orders. Is, orders of the day, charge the masters with bayonets. Which is the old staying from the American Revolution. Im it at that very moment, a shot rang out. A thousand warriors had lined up about half a mile im the slopes. Wayne was astounded at his men were so scared, they panicked at first, but then they did exactly what he said. He had trained his men at the first live of attack, live up to then army in five minutes they had lined up across from them upfront. It is the battle did not last long. It lasted about an hour. It is the union came in and the american left, and then they went up the middle. Given the training of those men, and their artillery, they pushed the indians back through these timbers. From a tornado of pushing back all of the way up to fort vegas is right. Across the river. The indians flood the battlefield in the run for the sports. Thinking the british would protect them. And would allow them to commit to four. But instead the closed doors in the indians face the canadian militia. Close the door in the faces and they said, dont know you. We dont have any problems with the United States of america. The accomack of the battle is that again for at least a off a year, doesnt say he has succeeded. He suffers from depression. And he goes back to fort defiance, and he builds fort wayne. He is ordered to do. That was keeping at the capital of the confederation. He sits and waits, and the anxiety is almost overwhelming. And thats beautiful weather. He is walking back and forth staying i cant do this again. I cannot wait another army, i cannot face another army. We beat them once, we will never beat let me begin. My weve god where are they. And finally, the leader of the shawnee, he is the true leader. Little turkey turtle doesnt win this battle. The blue jackets. Tims and fort ringo and says it is over. You have one. We turn our backs im the british. Were going to accept that live. You can settle. Across the ohio im the other side we will train with you. The fighting is over. In the summer of 1795 north one year after the battle of the prophets, he negotiates this treaty at greenville. For wayne, that was his victory. He said ive got to bring peace and i got to get the americans, my people to sell across the ohio or there is no United States of america. He thought there would be peace with the indians. What does it do for us . America, kicks open the door across the ohio river. The poorest of the poor, people from new england, they come up from virginia. Many people v in virginia finaly free, they are slaves and africanamericans, and live along the western part of the state. Poor southerners, from the backcountry. People come trickling in from great britain. Its the beginning of this hugee migration. What he has one is really ten years of peace. In ten years, ohio will enter the union, america will start looking west. But in ten years the last young man, i shawnee the runs away from the battlefield and runs, gets the gate slant and stays, says will try again. Im going to put together the biggest confederation of history, bigger than little turtle, vigor than blue jacket. In 1805 he starts this confederation. Who will have to defeat him . The young aide aid fighting ate site of wayne at fallen timbers, William Henry harrison will be the great generalre who rises u. Ten years of peace before the war of 1812 where it is finally settled come this country belongs to america and the british let go and the indians let go. Hes given us time to build our nation. Anthony wayne still is the command of the army. Finally its november, december 1796. He wants to come across the lake, get back to pittsburgh. That would be his headquarters and he says, the event of surveyor in hisor youth. Theres a giant triangle between pittsburgh, cincinnati and detroit. If anything goes wrong, my nation needs me, in the week i can be at one of those points. He thought hes. Would be general for at least another year, across the lake he gets an attack of gout. Yes gout hes been sober for mueller and all kinds of diseases and they gout goes through him and he dies in december 1796. Whats interesting is again its not like thehe nation says how d we are, we have lost Anthony Wayne. Anthony wayne in many ways was the past, the revolution. He open the door to the west but it will all be forgotten in the coming battles of first the war of 1812 and81 out west to the civil war. Well take well to remember that this country was hardfought and we didnt win it inevitably. Theres no manifest destiny in the ohio country, and he won. Traveling the country to explore the american story, thee cspan cities tour has stopped in 24 cities in the last year. Up next to look at one of our segments from detroit. What happened in detroit . God forgot about us. Race happened in detroit, foreign competition happen in detroit. Trade deals happened to. Detroi. They built the thing that destroyed itself, the car. They took the car to leave the city. We were the richest, just couple, euna, 40 years ago we were the richest city and now we are the poorest. And now you cant buy a cadillac in the town settled by cadillac. So what happened to detroit happened. Im more interested in whats going to happen. If i can make it better for all of our kids, and im interested in that. Used to be so much money here. They talk about the saturday night drives, a new car every other year and there were so many jobs you could tell the boss to screw it, go across the street and get a job tool and die. We had the greatest school. You didnt need to graduate. Cars were our life and we were cars. Things changed. After the oil shock, people did what the cars. Made poorly, right . Japanese started catching. Factory started moving out of detroit, moving to the south, they are moving to the west, they are moving to the burbs, right . You start to see unemployment, blight, the schools falling apart. And then crackheads, heroin heads, then becomes cartels, then it becomes blood. A black man laying there. A halo of blood coming out and he says, go little man, forget what you saw. The other thing that happened to us in our centuries here is corruption. Corruption started with coleman young, code for the first black mayor, 1930 removed from office abthe mayor in 1945 went to prison because he was abhe had to pay one for his kid too. The sheriff had gold encrusted badge he went away. The county prosecutor one way. 1969 the last, he was republican. The last republican mayor of detroit went to prison and 69 his term ended and 62. When he couldnt explain what 250,000 was doing in his safe on a 25,000 a year salary. The county executives were going to go at magnum was gonna go to prison. He died, he was white. Monica panter went to prison, hwe were so rich, you didnt notice. The uaw was corrupt, everybody corrupt. We took, there was nothing left to take. Middleclass left and then over the course of the last 20 years the black middle class left. So basically poor, black, unemployed. Functionally illiterate. We have left too many people behind. You hear now about detroit come back. You hear that out where youre at . Is it . I see cement being poured sbut see the city that was also americas biggest municipal bankruptcy giving subsidies to billionaires in the name of development but if you do the work and you do the math the publix bank is never replenished. Maybe subsidizing people to work and thats a good thing but theres something called the publix bank which pays for schools, police fire, ambulance roads water if thats not there where we going . Even the trump tax law all states have opportunities on it, places that are down and trying to pumping investment to bring them up but what they really are is tax shelters. Capital gains tax shelters. So you will see development but nobody is moving into it. We will build a hockey arena but we are capturing taxes that were intended for schools and all the schools arent allowed to abecause theres so far in debt and the schools are falling apart and we need to borrow to fix the schools. Yet a very rich man gets in and doesnt share revenue. So you see downtown and everybody out there with what detroit really is 95 percent of detroit is outside ddowntown. You see this and they see it him i dont think johannesburg is a good model for development. I dont. You gotta do something for everybody. Or we had the rise and 67 some people call them the insurrection can people call them the uprising, i say when you tear innocent peoples shift up thats a riot. You think it was bad . They were Walking Around with a anow we have ar 15. Do the math. Im here to tell you weve got to do better by each other. Thats not a liberal thing. Im a conservative. I got a 12yearold girl, that makes you conservative [laughter] bad things happen before, they will happen again. This is the only city in history of the United States that was occupied by the United States army three times during wartime. Lots of stuff was happening. We had riots in 1943 during world war ii. He had riots in 1967 during vietnam. We dont give a aif you are busy. We are in and an interesting place. Then you look at it now, ab screw detroit turn my back on it forever. Number dont you know the math we had to bail out detroit school. Who mailed them out . They took it out of your school district. The detroit kids suffer, new york kids suffer and we are all saying abwhat about our kids . Or the bus system or the zoo or the art museum. Or the road. Flint. You know what flint really was . The rich guy decided to build redundant water system that they didnt need to make money. Union guys, financiers make money and flint was going to pay for it the cost was gonna be this for the water but they would charge the same price to pay for it. Where to get the water . Detroit. Metro detroit. As we know, flint is now back on Metro Detroits water but there is a 7 million year payment for the bonds. So flint come up broke as a joke, is playing 7 million more. Except detroit water system gives them a credit to make the bond payments. So the rich man, the banker, the financier is made whole. Normally supposed to go broke was a gamble. We made him whole. Who pays for flynns bailout . And nobody knows it. Nobody went to prison either. What is this . This is whats going on in america. We can come back. We need to find a reason. Cars, we are not bringing them back. Trump is not stupid. He doesnt really think the jobs are coming back. We all know they are not coming back. What he voted for was, my brother just walked in. The gods ran plant. You are not going to take whats left to check it out. That was the calculus. Everybodys gonna come here. Its a blue state in michael red again. Where have you been the last two years . Do you really care . We are because we are just montana. We are just tampa. We are not a weird place. Weird things happen. Looking at the industry of this town might tell you something about your future. The cspan cities tours exploring the american story as we take booktv and America History tv on the road. This weekend we are highlighting some stocks from the 24 cities we visited in the last year. And to watch videos from all the cities we been to go to cspan. Org cities tour and follow us on twitter at cspan cities. We continue our special feature as we take you to Traverse City michigan. In a nutshell the great house explosion was just that, a fifth power of the atomic bomb it wiped out half the city of 50,000. Half of them homeless in a split second. 9000 wounded and 2000 killed. Its one of the greatest disasters of all time. This is grwhat how big this was. In the midst of the greatest war dominates headlines worldwide for a week because nobody has ever seen anything like this to this point. And we were not again until hiroshima. The bombing in world war ii was nothing close with what happened in the accident. An incredible story. This all happened in the fall of 1917 one month earlier russia backed out of world war i then called the great war now the west of course england, france and canada are terrified of having no Eastern Front and therefore they put 6 million fpounds of explosives in one ship, 13 times the weight of the statue of liberty which is a bad idea. Do not do this at home. Its also high explosives the atomic bomb of the area. Like tmt that did not need to be ignited to blow bup. Because the molecules included in the molecule itself. Highly explosive stuff. Very dangerous, he had to make shells to bomb germans and that was the point of the stuff on the ship. The board up france, emissions factory, build bombs and hit those guys. Instead hit themselves. A month earlier, early november 1917 the ship called the mann block docked in new york part of brooklyn now of course. Take a month to load up the ship with all the stuff. 6 Million Pounds of explosives. To line it up they lied the metal hall with plywood, timbers and they used copper nails. Copper is one of the few models that does not spark when struck. They knew that one spark wwoul know the whole thing up. They spent a month working 24 hours a day to load it up. I guys in the crew are terrified naturally. Tragically after all that care was taken the french government at the last minute ask for 400 bales of benzo airplane fuel usually explosive and after all the care taken they very carelessly left it three barrels or four barrels deep on the bow and stern. Thats your fuse they built the perfect bomb without realizing it. In december i1 they leave at midnight and go up the shore along main on the way to halifax terrified. There are hundreds aboats in the water they plonked 3000 allied ships. Terrified, they want the convoy inhouse and they are held on halifax at night because theyre too late to get past the too metal fences. To keep the boat from going in the harbor. Its been one very sleepless night that night december r 5 waiting to get into the harbor. One of the safest and biggest harbors in the stworld. From there of course our fleets went out in world war i and world war ii. The ideal place to be but not hethere yet. On the morning of december 6, 1917 a thursday morning the ar gates finally down for halifax harbor and more block naturally is dying to get inside. For safety. They are going in there very carefully along the righthand side coming out halifax harbor is a ship called the email. Trying to get to new york to release supplies to help those who have been bbombed. The captain is a hothead. He has no idea what mont blanc has got on it. No emissions why going up that makes the target. Its basically a secret. Hes going way too fast leaving the harbor and passing ships on the left on the left on the left, as with cars you should not do this. You keep doing this sooner or later you find somebody in your lane going your direction thats eexactly what happens at 8 30 a. M. December 6. He sees mont blanc, mont blanc sees the imo and mont blanc cant believe the captain is paralyzed. Freezers he has blasted the horn which is nautical language for im in the right lane, you are not, adapt to me. Imo comes back with two blast which means screw you, i dont care. Im going full blast fraud in the bow going too fast and is not backing off. Again one blast and again two blast. The amount block captain cannot believe this. Playing a game of chicken what you do sooner or later you dont care about the laws you build to the curb. So what are they do . The last second mont blanc ship started hard to the left, the exact same second tragically the imo also comes to its senses and backs off and goes to its right the starboard. They bump in the middle of the channel the benzo fuel knocks over the fire started. The french crew has seconds to get a decision and they do what probably most of us sadly would have done, hopped on your lifeboats and get our bed and telling nobody along the way what had happened. Now you got burning ghost ship that flags perfectly into the base of pier 6. The base of halifax harbor, one of the most popular areas of the city. Him with the cotton they produce and process. This was burning 8 45 am. Thats tragic because all the people are walking to work and the kids are walking to school. You see a ship burning you have no idea whats on it. What you do . You go down to see whats going on hundreds and thousands gathered to watch the go ship berm having no idea whats going to happen next. At 9 04 pm we know the exact split second when this happened. In 1 15 of a second the temperature of the whole expanse to 9000 degrees fahrenheit six times hotter than molten lava the emissions explode in all directions it wont come up, down, left, right, 3500 Miles Per Hour thats about four times the speed of sound. In that split second you got the worlds first almost Mushroom Cloud almost cauliflower. Two miles high. In that cloud is the ship. The ship is disintegrated. The size of a football field. The biggest piece they found was two feet by three feet. The thing is gone. If youre anywhere near it you are also vaporized. Not just dead, vaporized. It also creates a 30 foot tsunami because bottomed out you can see it split the sea basically. Split the floor for the few seconds of the harbor. 30 for heidi nani. So you tmightve been drawn by the sink. Of course then the fire starts all over the city. Half the city is gone in a split second. 50,000 people 25,000 are homeless in an instant. You see the photos in the book it looks almost exactly like hiroshima. Its a desolate area. What happens next half the buildings are gone that includes hospitals nobviously. The wires are down. There is no way to ask for help basically. 9000 are wounded and of the 9000 wounded and 1600 dead instantly of the 9000 wounded, how many can you save . The rational answer is, almost 0. The hospitals are down half the doctors are killed. The wires are down as well. So how can you do this . S . The answer is they saved all but 400. Basically 95 percent are saved and the reason for that is as tragic as this was the twopart story the tragedy is almost as big as hiroshima but the response was so incredibly heartwarming. Strangers helping strangers. All the barriers were broken on religion, race, everybody is helping everybody is agreeable. Then of course throughout the process crucially box and sell within an hour ultimately two trains two ships 100 doctors 300 nurses, all without being asked and they were really allies at this time. Just six years earlier on the floor of the u. S. Congress the speaker of the house advocated for the violent and edition of canada and received loud cheers and find right up in the washington post. We are not friends at this point. They are very suspicious of americans. They sent all the help and thats how you save 95 percent of the victims. Because eof the money coming in from boston, montrcal chicago and the locals in the local spirit, they rebuilt richmond and belted better in about two years. Thats not to say the effect is not lingered. People with wounds from the 9000 people from the explosion you had this blue streaks these cars because the soul forgot into your skin. The gunpowder. My moms aunt lived in halifax and they were taught at a young age when you see somebody with these scars the phrase was, dont stay at the explosion. That lasted for decades after the ecexplosion. The cspan cities tour continues that special look at some of the highlights from last year as we take you to laramie wyoming. Like most people in wyoming at the turnofthecentury he was in urtransplant he was born and raised in missouri but i think jcpenney was a country boy at heart and theres an old explosion you can always take the boy out of the country but you can never take the country out of the boy. I think we see that in terms of the life that jcpenney lived. Even though he was in wyoming for roughly 10 years and spent the balance of his life in new york city, he never lost that essence of who he really was as this country boy who likes small towns. When you look at where he started here in wyoming, a lot of these communities were relatively young, even as he branched into neighboring states. Most of these towns had been incorporated until the late 1800s and some of them werent incorporated until the 20th century. In many cases jcpenney became the first real apartment store that was operating. Told me about his early life . Or was he born how does he end up here in wyoming . Lexi was born in hamilton missouri Caldwell County he was actually on a farm east of their born and raised and spent his entire formative years there. His dad thought he wasnt cut out for agriculture so he steered him towards a career in retail and he basically lined up an internship for jc junior, the jc we are talking about. He started understanding retail from those experiences. Thats really where he cut his teeth on that. He still had his own Agricultural Products he did on the side but his plan was to basically work his way up to the store and the hometown. Unfortunately his father died from tuberculosis and it became very clear that jc was also at risk of that if he stayed in a humid climate. His initial move was to come out west to denver of all places and he started as a sales clerk and what was called the joplins Department Store one of the main Department Stores in denver that has since been taken over by thats where he started out he had an opportunity then to saus savings and by his own butcher shop in Longmont Colorado north of denver. He wanted to get out of denver he wasnt happy in the big city he moved to longmont. At the time about 2000 people. He had deep religious values that pervade him from drinking. His dad was a country pastor and his dad had a huge influence on him in that regard. So when he brought this butcher shop he didnt realize that his greatest clients were the local hotel and shop that was there with the theft chef expected a bottle of whiskey with every order of meat. Jcpenney obliged and provided the bottle of whiskey and felt guilty about it afterwards so he decided im not gonna do that anymore so he didnt do that and then lost the business of the hotel in the process and the entire meat shop went bankrupt within a year. He was completely broke. At that point he noticed across the street was this Golden Rule Store that was operating and he was intrigued by it. He went inside and explored it and understood retail from his expenses in missouri and denver. He got to know the proprietor of that store a man snamed Thomas Callahan also coming out from missouri to start the business. At the time he was doing something rather unusual. The idea of having six stores basically a chain Department Store and that intrigued penny so penny talked his way into being hired as a temporary sales clerk at the idea he probably be let go after the holiday season. Ly instead this Thomas Callahan gave him an opportunity to become a clerk in wyoming and in evanston on the western part of the state. He worked out as a sales clerk he would give him the iv opportunity to manage his own store and own it as a partner with tom callahan. Thats initially what drew him to wyoming. Whats the title of your book and why did you decide to write it . The title of the book is jcpenney the man, the store, american agriculture. I think growing up in rural north dakota, eastern montana, you have to go out of town to do your shopping or in our case go from country into town. My mother took us to a tiny town called hettinger that had a Jcpenney Store on main street and at three years old i couldnt read or write i was illiterate. I was amazed at the atmosphere that was in that building. I was fascinated by the storms astores themselves. As he began to study the stores i began to know more and more about the man behind him, jcpenney himself. Rural america was always a part reof my childhood and my formative years. I didnt realize degree to which it was also a part of jcpenneys and Jcpenney Stores themselves. The deeper i dug into this as it gradually became an academic interest of mine, the more i discovered of this World Connection i had known plbefore and most people hadnt known ad about it either. Thats really what made that book, but waited. s Business Model was similar to what golden rule merchants had started. He didnt open that store entirely on his own. His mentor town callahan and ended another mentor by johnson partnered with him. What was really different about these stores as they were partnerships. An employee that came to work penny prefer to call his employees associates. They had an opportunity for viable ownership and the opportunity to someday not only manage the store but on part of it and share in the profits. I think thats what was more unusual about how he started. As i told you, his father was a huge influence on him in terms m of moral convictions and values, which penny then transferred into his approach to business. Even though the initial syndicate was called the golden rule i think thats really what drew penny to the syndicate was this a religious idea but doing unto others as you would have done to you. Penny took that a step further and he wanted to apply that not only between the store and its customers but the employer and in this case him and the potential employees or associates that came to work for him. Even taking it a step beyond that and the communities that Jcpenney Stores served as well as their own competitors and suppliers. That was what his goal was to practice the golden rule in every facet of that operation. I think when you look at his approach to partnerships it goes back to this golden rule idea. It wasnt about him simply making money and that was the end of it. He wanted to basically share that success with anybody who got involved with him. In the agricultural partnerships that began, ironically, really began at the worst time of his life when he had lost his fortune during the great depression. He was using that same incentive to partner with common farmers. Most of these would have been tenant farmers, hopelessly stuck working for wages on farms they wouldve never owned and probably never even generated enough income to own their own farms will stop penny saw an opportunity with those rural partnerships that he could sort of do a solid for the tenant farmer who was thereby giving them an opportunity to have a better firm than they were even working as tenant farmers on and then they would have the incentive of ownership and sharing the profits of that agricultural operation. One of the first ones was with oren james on the birthplace farm that penny had been born and raised on. When he came back he was a wellknown person nationwide. He was living in new york city at the time she was setting up e those partnerships. He simply walked up to the shack or farmhouse this person was in commode knocked on the door, introduce himself as jcpenney asked to come inside and then present this opportunity. Who could say no . Its very surreal when we think about that today if we thought about Mark Zuckerberg or jeff bezos knocking on somebodys door offering them this kind of opportunity that penny was doing almost stranger than fiction. They continue doing that really through the 1930s through the 1940s and the last of these partnerships were finally dissolved in the late 1960s mainly because his wife that he was s spreading himself too thi between new york city and missouri. There were at least 10 different farming partnerships that were set up and they were substantial. They change the lives of the people who got involved with him. In the book 1 of the later chapters most successful partnerships with two brothers. The series in northcentral missouri and they were able not only to buy the farms out from jcpenney in the 1960s to keep their family on most firms today today both of those about five generations down from them have family farms that are largely traced back directly to jcpenney himself. Do you talk at all about the struggles of the store today and what its gone through in the past few decades . I do. Thank goodness my parents prohibited me from ever owning jcpenney stock. Thats turned out to be a good thing in the last 10 to 15 years or so. I think he would be heartbroken by seeing whats happened to the company. I dont think we can blame it entirely on the rise of the ecommerce. Think really what it is is its deviating away from the values that he built it on. He had a Mission Statement he drafted in 1913 called the penny idea. It was basically seven principles all rooted in the golden rule that he wanted that company to operate by as it continued to grow that at the time he wrote that statement he only had about 30 stores. But within 15 years he would be approaching 1400. I think what happened over time is the company drifted away from those ideas and those tovalues. Thats why it found itself where it is. If youre not treating your employees the way youd want to be treated, if youre not treating your customers the way youd want to be treated or responding to what your customers ouwant and need, you are going to become irrelevant very quickly in the 21st century and i think thats part of the problem. What you hope people take away from reading this book . I want them to see sort of an unusual approach to capitalism. Because i think capitalism gets sort of a bad name. I think jcpenney branded that was a situation you could have winwin situation through capitalism rather than through somebody making a profit and lowering the standard of living for everybody they made the profit off. Jcpenney kept own awareness of everything around him and the idea of trying to do what he could do to make that environment better and he saw his company and his wealth ultimately as a means for what she could do that. Traveling the country to explore the american story of the cspan cities tour has visited 24 cities in the last year. Up next, a look at one of our stops in charleston West Virginia. Booker t. Washington for 20 years was the spokesman and leader of African Americans in america. At the time we had horrible jim crow race codes in the cell. That didnt happen here in West Virginia. It was a different sort of race relations. What he observed with his boyhood heroes was the building of a black middleclass. That really became his career path has he went from tuskegee to being national celebrity. Booker was born in a place called hills ford south of roanoke virginia. About 225 miles from here. In those first nine years he was a slave boy. He didnt have pants. He wore a slave boy short. Shoes were too wooden slams wo with a piece of leather across each toe. He wanted very much to go to school. He saw what children going to school. He wanted to do that but really wasnt able to do those things. They leave the farm in virginia in 18 65 pretty soon after the civil war ends. There is a soldier, a Union Soldier whod comes to the farm and reads the emancipation proclamation announcing they are free and they can leave. His mother cried, she said she never thought she would live long enough to see her children liberated. After the civil war West Virginia does not have the demonstration that the soconfederate south did. This area was, except for a short period of about four months was under Union Control practically the whole war. And throughout West Virginia you did not have the economic devastation that you had in the confederate south. It made a big difference after the war. The other thing that was different is that the slow population West Virginia is very small. Probably the smallest of any area in the slave cell. There was Something Like four percent of the states population were African Americans. So there wasnt that threat by number and of the elite in West Virginia that were posed by black market in the deep south. The family came to mauldin because washington ferguson, the stepfather, was working here for the roughness in their salt factories. Also in their coal mines that they owned. He sent money to his wife in order to get a horse and buggy to bring the kids to mauldin. Once they arrived they find a Wonderful Community of christian believers settled in the bruckner headquarters. She gets the job first as a ab then as a cook. She get them to hire booker as a houseboy knowing that he would learn social graces a library available to him that he would really have a lot of opportunities that otherwise he wouldnt have. As an important part of his ab was that he developed a familial relationship with mrs. Ruffner viola, she was a yankee lady, she was a second wife she really likes booker he really can do no wrong. He is hardworking, hes always asking her how my getting on . Thats the quote she gives my doing well . What do i need to do he was honest he was hardworking. He was very bright and i think she appreciated his talents. I think she did something for him that gave him the selfconfidence ncthat probably carried him through his career because his career was full of crisis and dark hours. He was able to see himself in her eyes reflected as a perfect being. He was here until he was about 15 the second summer he came back his mother passed heaway suddenly and it was really hard time for him. He credits mrs. Ruffner as being his friend and helping him get back to hansen for his third year. When he graduates from hampton hes the top student in his class. He says the favorite years of his life when he came back and taught in mauldin. He was restless that this wasnt enough for him so he went to washington to seminary to see if he wanted to be a minister, that didnt fit that he tried reading for the law that didnt fit. He was trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted to do. One of the things he did, this is very important in his future career as West Virginia was having a referendum on where to place the state capital. Charleston was one of three cities, clarksburg and martinsburg. People in charleston had a republican and democrat leader to organize talks so they could go out and convince other counties to go for charleston. Booker was one it was supposed to go to along the cnl Railroad Route and go to four or five counties to convince them to choose charleston so it was a speaking tour was his first speaking tour. Very successful. That set him on a road to being public speaker. Im not sure hes abhe would speak to thousands of people every year he would have tours he would be on the stage with congressman and and senator and he would always be the star speaker. He was incredible. Booker was working at hampton as a teacher when folks from tuskegee alabama requested an educator be sent there to start a school. Booker went down at age 25 and july 4, 1881 he started to school at tuskegee. He was really just using some abandoned building. Everything there had to be built. He celebrated as a great educator. His philosophy is we will educate people here tuskegee to send back home to their hometown to educate others and build up black middleclass class that was his goal. He got that from his boyhood heroes. To build up black middleclass and mauldin. They were successful. He thought that was the path that ought to be taken in the deep south. He visited mauldin every year. He was very devoted to his sister and would come every year. He was a national celebrity. After he gave the at latin, and state exhibition space a seven minute speech but made him a national celebrity. He always cultivated his celebrity status. Whe was always photographed in coat and tie he had a hat on if he was outofdoors. It is wonderful news people article where he comes to hunt and fish and relax and hes hunting he has a gun hunting with a coat, tie and aand hes also fishing he has a pole with him coat and tie. And he would not be photographed looking casual or anything else. At a time when celebrity was new he was very conscious of that without building that and maintain 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 he is telling. He said at hampton he learned about eating meals with tablecloth and napkins. He tells that to make it clear that what hes saying is not about tablecloths and napkins. What he is saying is he did not in his Life Experience experience those type of normal social graces. And that simply wasnt true. But he was trying to tell a story. The story was more important than the facts that were involved. There is an interesting issue too. When he wrote up from slavery he serialized it in a magazine called outlook magazine. In that magazine there is a photograph of the home and it the caption says this is the home that booker t. Washington left when he went to hampton. Its got a whitewashed front, nice looking place, very tidy. The fence is everything is fine but he never used that photograph again. The photograph he used later was one that was current and showed clotheslines falling down boards falling out of the house. It was a mess. It looked really sad. When they bought the home in 1869 four years after they were slaves. It was a good nice substantial home. He didnt want folks to know that because it would make it look like he actually lived a pretty blessed life. Theres a governor, governor William Mccorkle wrote his memoirs he wrote that all those complaints that booker t. Washington had about living with general ruffner were true. He lived a very comfortable life with them. I think its true in his biographer Louis Holleran said he learned to refine life with the ruffners and that something he wanted for himself. But it was also that life was important for him to prove he used his life as an example to the nation at large that look at me, im a successful person and i happen to be african american. He is using his life as an example and encouragement to blacks but also as an example of proof of the equality to white. Booker t. Washingtons life in West Virginia was important, 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 believed people are worth, they had selfworth. They believed in the individual that it was a combination of all these things coming together that gave him the idea of an American Dream and gave him the idea of building a black middleclass throughout south. This weekend we are highlighting some of our stops along the cspan cities to or from this past year. Exploring the history and literary life of selected american cities. Next we take you to charleston West Virginia. January 2014 was when we experienced the mc hm chemical leak into the elk river. That contaminated the Drinking Water of charleston in the nine counties surrounding area. The effect of that leaky tank was profound. This wasnt the first ntime he had seen a contamination but it was certainly the first time we saw it on this grand scale. In effecting this many people. The people who were affected, which was everyone, it wasnt just people of the holler or this subset of people. It was everyone from every socioeconomic class. Just paralyzing to charleston and the community. Charleston i consider in the southcentral part of the state the heart of West Virginia centered around the cannot river and where the elk meets the cannot in the heart of town. Its one of her most population dense areas. Charleston and the kanawha valley has been coined as chemical value because there has been a largescale Chemical Plant along the kanawha river. Its one advantage that big River Systems bring is that they can accommodate the types of needs that Big Manufacturing Companies need. Several chemical manufacturing plants have been a long me kanawha and in the charleston area for years. We see these chemical storage tanks dotted along our landscape or along our rivers is just something were used to. Im driven by those tanks daily, weekly basis and it never occurred to me, i didnt know what was happening. He looked old they look rusty. Frankly i thought it was probably just retired tank farm and not much is happening there. Little did i know, there were these very dangerous chemicals being stored there and tanks that were not being maintained. And not being inspected. The corrosion there was a hole in the bottle obtain 396 the chemical mc hm leaked out into the soil. There is not a secondary containment way to contain the spill fluids. 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. Mc hm is a cold cleaning chemical. It is associated with a process to clean coal so it can be used for production for burning whatever its being used for. It was being stored there on the elk river just a mile and and a half upstream from the largest Drinking Water system in West Virginia. Upstream from the intake. What has been discovered through citizen complaint because this chemical mc hm had in order to it smelled like licorice, had a sweet smell. People near those tanks and driving by had picked up on the smell and recorded 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 one of the decisions they made was to not close the intakes but to try to handle the chemical hand treat it to safe level. That didnt work. Instead people had this chemical coming out of their taps out of their showers and were exposed to it. That led to this cascade of events. The most common thing people were experiencing were skin irritations and rashes. A lot of reports of headaches and just flulike symptoms. People just werent feeling well. Dizziness, headaches, nausea, diarrhea it was a wide range but when you could actually see the rashes and know that that was after i touch that water it was a pretty strong connection him the Health Department was trying to collect data around the range of symptoms and about one in three people reported experiencing some type of physical symptoms do to the exposure to the chemical. The chemical, once it leaked into the elk river was treated as a plume that was being tracked. They know how fast rivers and water to travel. They watch this plume of mc hm because there is 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. It was too fulate. The next place they were worried about was huntington West Virginia. Because the canal flows down there. Thats a Drinking Water supply for huntington. Went on to cincinnati, louisville. All these water companies, i believe, shut their intakes down to let that plume go by. 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 in Mountain State we are a headwater state was feeding all these major River Systems that millions of people rely on for their Drinking Water. It really matters what happens in West Virginia. The company that owned the leaking chemical tank was Freedom Industries. It didnt take long until we saw that company filed for bankruptcy protection. It became clear pretty quickly that this company was stepping out. Stepping sout of their accountability. Even though there were some court cases that followed that, the bankruptcy in terms of monetary reparations just wasnt going to be available. Which brought up a whole set of other questions of how is this Company Operated so irresponsibly for so long . Where was the oversight . They were clearly a bad actor in our community and had a history of shady things going on. The fact that those tanks that 396 wasnt the only tank in bad shape that tank farm had been neglected for so long with something i think people found unbelievable how that couldve happened and why wasnt that caught in some way by regulators or oversight mechanisms that we should have in replace. That question led to a whole other set of questions around, is our state 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 profitability or impedes our ability to bring in new jobs. You get this argument, which i think is a false choice that we have to choose between weakening regulations so we can bring in more jobs abbut what we are doing and what was brought to life by freedom industry situation is that when we loosen regulations, we are making ourselves more vulnerable to these kind of disasters. So we have to do both. We have regulations are actually to protect us. They are there for good reason. They are our companies doing things right and following the law and then there are Companies Like Freedom Industries who worked. But where is the enforcement and oversight i think is what the whole situation brought to light in a very real way. It was the first time i think people realized where their drinking imwater comes from. And made the connection. It comes from a river. I heard that around the state. It really was an awakening not for West Virginia but really for the nation. We are vulnerable. We are still vulnerable. A look at some of the highlights from our 2019 cspan cities tour concludes as he does it Sheridan Wyoming. [inaudible] [cheering] theres no place better to be the second week in july then Sheridan Wyoming. We put on a worldclass event and we invite you all to come to sheridan. [singing] [singing] this week is the biggest week in sheridan, economically and entertainment wise. And 89 years ago sheridan was dead as a doornail. There is absolutely nothing going on. So citizens decided we needed to have a rodeo to provide Economic Opportunity. And entertainment and that was their charter and still is. Here we are 89 years later still doing the same thing and we hope the Founding Fathers would be proud of that. 1928 and 1929 a wealthy financier family name j. P. Morgan ilbought the historic pk ranch out west of town. For two years they had a big rodeo up in the fields. It was such a big deal. I think there were cars from 23 states. This is a 1928. The people are sheridan said if they can do it why cant we do it here . A group of concerned citizens got together and formed a committee and decided we will have a rodeo. They didnt just start out on small scale they wanted a big professional rodeo from the get go. To put it all together and in 1931 they had their first professional rodeo in Sheridan Wyoming and here we are today. Rodeo is eight events, different stock events from bucking odhorses, livestock roping, spear rustling. The old cowboy skills brought to the modernday area but it all started out obviously they had a contest with bucking horses. We are a prc to rodeo one of the top 30 rodeos and americans are best determined by the amount of prize money you have in your vet. We had people from louisiana, michigan, wisconsin, entered today obvious a lot of the rodeo contestants are from texas, oklahoma, wyoming certainly has a lot of rodeo contestants was on last year in terms of our rodeo we had people registered for our rodeo to watch our rodeo from 49 of the 50 states of america. We are going to get delaware this year im pretty sure. We had people from all over the United States here, 49 of 50, our rodeo stock, but they come from abin joliet montana, and they might subcontract some other stock out. But they been long time i think they been with our rodeo for about 23 years some of the very best in the business. Our job from sankey rodeo is we provide a livestock for rodeos across the country. That includes everything from the cattle to the bucking horses to the bull. We have 64 horses of ours that we brought and released 15 horses from northcote knoxville rodeo out of canada. For the tiedown open we have 100 head of animal for the spear rustling and roping we have 100 head each of those g animals as well. Ask the animals involved in the rodeo particularly the animals in the abthats what theyre born to do. They are born ab these arent animals that are trained to do that. Its what they are born to do. If you think about it, they spend most of their life in a pasture eating hay and they actually work eight seconds a day 20 times a year. Thats their job. Very truthfully the prc a and thus particularly the Animal Welfare first and foremost. We really believe in the welfare of the animals and take the very best care of them we can. These guys are bred to be animal athletes. Its not like a dairy cow, its not like a beef animal. They are bred totally different. They are bred to be an athlete. No different than the horses. Third bred to be athletes. Their nutrition is totally different. Their care is totally different. I always tell people if year getting a really good bucking bull its like winning the lottery. You get the best luck from acupuncture to post meg ab whatever it is they need we will give them a nutrition wise specifically for what they are bred to do. They are going to do their career and at the end of it they retire they get turned out to breed cows and die of old age underneath the tree in the pasture. One thing different about sheridan rodeo as we like to keep a small time feel to it. We want to become some big economic thing. We want to be community about we wanted to be abwe dont want to get too big for our britches. You know what i mean. Another thing that makes us unique is our World Championship indian relay races. Which we started here in 1997. Its become a premier event in the rodeo. Its not a prc a event. Youll be able to see just how exciting it is. It brings a lot of people here that might not be that interested in the rest of the rodeo events. As you tend to see in indian relay races. We have Great Partnership with the Indian Relay Team and indian partner. In general. [cheering] [inaudible] they decided in 1931 they wanted to have the indians. In those days the indians would walk down from the cheyenne reservation and the Crow Reservation to be a part of this show. In those days it was before television before anything else theyd have a huge night shows things called cowboy days and indian nights and they stage these big pageants. With campfires and bonfires because they didnt have lights necessarily then. Theyve always been an integral tpart of it. It flowed over the years and the last 20 years we really brought it back. It was indian relay races its become a thing of beauty. E talk about at our rodeo. There have been no challenges like shortly after the first rodeo in 1931 it wasnt more than a couple years later they became financially challenged. There has been a continuous problem throughout the years, they did not have the rodeo for two years during the war in 1942 in 1943 and in 1944 they started the 50s or the indulgence for the rodeo. It got to the point in 1951 where the rodeo said, do you folks want to have a rodeo or not . So they took a poll. They said yes, we want to have a rodeo so we were alive again and had more Community Support. Over the decades, Community Support from sponsors and businessmen and quite frankly from the public has abdomen load. Typically, we end up around 22,000 over our four day event. Our facility sits about 6000. We will be sold out for sure on friday and saturday. Hoping to have between 2025 thousand. It brings over 5 million into the community, in one way or another. Bars. S, restaurants. The Economic Impact is pretty good. The dollars get turned over several times. So its the biggest economic event in wyoming, thats for sure. Started by citizens. Its been carried on by citizens. Its had a lot of trials and tribulations but it held true to the west and the western culture. Its become an integral part of the community and nobody could imagine sheridan, wyoming without the rodeo. [indiscernible] join us every third weekend of the month on booktv and American History tv as the cspan city store exposed the american story. Watch videos from the cities that we visited since 2011. Go to www. Cspan. Org city tour. Up next on booktv after words. University of virginia history professor sarah milav discusses the political history of tobacco in america. Shes interviewed by former fda commissioner, david kessler. All after words programs are also available aspodcasts