Transcripts For CSPAN3 Commemorating The Reconstruction Era 20180107

Be here and humbled and honored by the turnout and look forward to taking questions and comments from the audience. Goare here because, one year today, president obama created the First Ever National park site devoted to reconstruction. We have dozens devoted to civil war. Of 2017, wenuary one devoted to reconstruction. People who one devoted to reconstruction. We set up this roundtable to bring together some of the played crucial roles in making that happen. To understand the process by which it came to be and give them a chance to tell historians and we should learn from it how we can be helpful and interesting partners. And to hear tales of how it came to be. I am crackdowns of the university of california. Im going to do a sound test. Bear with me. Hooray. We are in good shape. I am kate may serve from Northwestern University and im going to introduce the panel and go ahead. We decided every person on this panel is extraordinarily accomplished. To cut to doing that, the chase, we would to a short introduction. Michael allen was not able to be here today. In case you are going from your written program, mollie ross is here. She has done a lot of work for the park service. No one can take michaels plays but she will speak from the perspective of someone who was in the park service. Eric was not able to make it but he will come later for video that he made specifically for this event. He will be hearing from him virtually. Om the governor of arizona from 1978 to 1987 was the u. S. Secretary of the interior from 1993 until 2001. He is acting as counselor to Governor Brown of california working on issues of water reform. Eric stoner is a professor of history at columbia. His book was a reinterpretation of the. Mollie ross spent over 35 years in leadership in the National Park service i4 retiring. She helped president obama established 15 National Monuments including this one. Billy kaiser ling is the mayor of Beaufort South carolina. Prior to his election he worked on capitol hill. , we will asker do the first, we will ask the first question it began when i left law school. I had always kind of what the historical antecedents were of the revival of the civil rights on the american agenda. Beginning a promising. Right after the civil war and it disappeared from the agenda. Some years later, i am secretary of the interior, thanks to bill clinton. And we are in the monument business. I got acquainted with a academic who, in my judgment more than any other person has brought reconstruction back into its place in American History. I got acquainted with them and he said we ought to go down and i will show you around. Beaufort Port Royal Center as the best a living example of all of this reconstruction history. So we trekked off to South Carolina. Eric was my guide. , met all of the usual suspects the irrepressible mayor, mike allen from the park service and got a nice view of what this was all about the this seemed to be agreement that this was the right place to memorialize the reconstruction. Beginning terrific and all went downhill from there. Washington washington and looked at the clock and realized i was in the last few months of my administration and there was on a chance of getting this the agenda in the last 60 days of the administration. Reconstruction had no meaning. Most people thought reconstruction must ports refero highways and urges and highways and bridges and ports. Back andnally came checked around and gradually got with their work. On. There was not much going on. The park service, mike allen and South Carolina and his people were really jazzed by this. At the top of the park service in washington, no one had ever heard of the reconstruction. Comesars ticked by the Obama Administration. Andnearly 10 years have gone bd i thought we were back in business. I thought it was a slamdunk. But it was not. The people and in charge of these issues did not have much urgency. The peopleit was kind of still n the past. There were interesting objections. Was that we have to have a specific place owned by the federal government in order to ground legally ground the proclamation of a National Monument. So i call billy up governmentsoy what is down there that is owned by the federal gecko not a popular idea. Second obstacle was the Obama Administration was saying, before we use the antiquities, we want legislation sponsored was saying, before we use the antiquities, we want legislation sponsored locally to provide a platform of public discussion. And wonderhe atlas whose Congressional District. Dad news. The Congressional District representative was mark sanford. Nice enough guy but he was not going to connect with this. To bring this towards momentum, talking with these folks i said we have to think out of the box. Maybe the sponsor does not have to be a congressman from the district. Who else is down there in South Carolina . All of a sudden, we see the obvious. Clyburn, a wonderful, well known congressman. , he had, during my time been a champion of preservation. The clock is ticking. It is now 2016. The clock is ticking. It is now 2016. I picked up the phone and made an appointment to see a congressman clyburn. That was the end of my real yes. Vement i will do anything. That was the end of my real involvement in. He lit up and saidbut you said n to penn center, go talk to dr. Lawrence. I spent a day in penn center. Ok. Me back and said, then it happened. That is the end of my story. Here is a lot more asked eric to speak to his role with secretary babbitt. Now we will cross our fingers that the magic of technology is on our side. [inaudible] the story begins 1, it 18 years ago in 2001 received a phone call from the secretary of the interior. He said he read my book on reconstruction. I responded i found this surprising. Washington politician was and scholarly tones. He invited me to washington to discuss how this might be remedied. I flew down, had dinner with him. Of the next couple of months ive prepared report on possible venues for a site. Reconstruction took place in innumerable places. Concluded buford was the ideal spot for recognition of that pivotal aero. As Willie Lee Rose pointed out, reconstruction begin in beaufort and the surrounding areas during the war as numerous groups, former slaves, cotton growers, others triedy and to work out the others tried to work out the news that is of the emancipated slaves. Every key issue related to reconstruction black political power, the rise of black areation and many others played out in microcosm in the buford area. Reconstruction lasted longer. Ere than anywhere else here because the unionbecause the und the island early in the civil war and the white population , little fled destruction took place. This area was the perfect spot to educate the public about the spot in our history. Icretary bob lynn and discussed the idea to gather support. Wasthing i learned historians are to get involved. Need to navigate the comics world of local and washington politics and a symbol an array of support. National park [inaudible] page Putnam Miller who was historians cannot accomplish anything without allies. We also learned that congress, in some ways, operates like characters in the godfather. Every member has his or your own territory. The congressman from the buford had no interest in or real knowledge of reconstruction. Had no interest in or real knowledge of reconstruction. When confederate veterans pressured them to do the project, they agreed to work even the congressman from the area proved unwilling to press the case in congress. Mark sanford, who represents buford although he is more buford although he is more famous for other activities, lent his support to promote the project under president obama. Also, when the Bush Administration took office in we also learned that congress, in some2001, his successor was e in. While healing from colorado, he likelyexpressed sympathy for td confederacy and state sovereignty. Not views to encourage enthusiasm for reconstruction. The project languished for years. Project languished for years. But a new generation of and new leadership at and new leadership at the park service succeeded in bringing it to fruition. Reconstruction is too big and important a construction to be confined to a single site. Everyone knows that without some familiarity it is impossible to understand issues central to us who should be a citizen, what rights they should enjoy, who is responsible for enforcing them s responsible for enforcing them, how to protect americans against terrorism, who should vote. We need more reconstruction monuments. I am more interested in erecting new site then dismantling ones that exist. The public presentation. It needs to be brought in and diversified to reflect our contested history. My experience with this project convinces me that most americans are anxious to encounter new ideas. We have an obligation to disseminate the fruits of uptodate scholars in as many venues as possible. Let me close by saying i regret not being able to greet secretary babbitt again. The photo will not be shown of the two of us in late 2000. The secretary delivered inspirational, short speeches about the importance of this project. Knowing full well that in 1988 he did seek good nomination. Good nomination. I tried, he said. I could not one with only the npr vote. Ii compliment that his eloquence and said he should run for president. Said you were only three years older than bernie sanders. I say go for it. We have to make an announcement. Next, mollie ross. Given your involvement in the establishment of National Monument throughout your career, what did it take to get the reconstruction monument proclaimed by obama . I am so honored to be with this group. Be the historian. My job was a great one for me. It took a village and some of the village leaders are here to get this proclaimed. There are legal and policy requirements that must be met before the president can exercise authority under the antiquity at. The reconstruction era National Monument demonstrates how much more is usually needed to protect the place and tell its story. Lets focus on the policy. Fin been 1906, Congress Passed the Antiquities Act in which the congress delegated some of its power under the property clause to the president. In brief today, the president is onhorized to proclaim national on National Monument objects of historical or scientific interest. Located on federally owned land here 16 president s, republican thehim or crack have used act to create over 150 National Monuments. What are the objects of historical or scientific what are the objects of historical or scientific interest in this National Monument . Read the proclamation as the objects are described in the narrative. The objects include the baptist paul. And beryl on st. Helena island. The former camp sachsen where the first africanamerican regimen mustard and trained and and the emancipation proclamation was ready and celebrated on january 1, 1863. Located on navy land in port royal. Firehouse was, too many historic properties. Actll that the antiquities says the objects must be on land owned by the federal government. Of the objects i just mentioned, only camp sachsen, on the navy ground, belonged to the federal government just before the National Monument was proclaimed. Through the remarkable several, including penn center, the buford baptist and rick activist churches and the kaiser ling family, donations of land have been for theand were made federal government. All of these land transactions had to be completed before the president could act. Beyond meeting these legal requirements, the administration wanted to know whether there was public support for a National Monument. Thanks to the efforts of many, we were inundated with the letters of support from private and public individuals and organizations. Including historians, with almost no dissent. Two representatives introduced the bill to establish the reconstruction era unit in may of 2016. Local and not National Newspapers carried compelling auditorily. On december 14, 2016, the New York Times carried a wonderful op ed by none other the nk and greg and eric. All of this effort, needed in a Public Meeting posted by representative clyburn on december 15, 2016 at the brick wrapped his church. Here is how i describe this. Approximately 200 people packed the Historic Church and over 40 speakers representing a broad, diverse spectrum of local community expressed strong support. Said this isndance a story that must be told now and offered their assistance. Tick tock. Take tock. Could we get everything done . Bibliographies, deeds all had to be readied. The reconstruction and run National Monument was the last monument created by president obama on january 12 and published in the federal register on january 19. That is where you can find any of these. Administration we had not been sure we could complete so many plotrk but heart, soul and bring into this effort and it happened. President obama, secretary sally jewell and the park service director, john jervis wanted to tell the full story of america. The National Park Service Really wanted to tell the story. Michael allen has been working on this. Focusing on reconstruction was necessary. For the susquehanna centennial remembrance of the civil war. Luckily, the basis for this god created billy cars doing. Luckily, National Park service was able to work out an arrangement with the department of the navy to include camp sachsen. Jim clyburn worked long and hard hard. Thanks to everyone. Everyone has talked about the. Entrality of locals or without support on the ground, this could not have happened. What did it take to bring together a local effort . What lessons did you and other people learn from the early 2000 that got stalled . What can historians learn from your experience of trying to pull together that kind of support . Lesson, and i say this in just isnt sometimes you cannot rely on highlevel government officials and historians. When they started this fin bank 2008, they did not understand they had our Pressure Cooker in terms of local politics. And, in that Pressure Cooker, you do not take the top off. When they trusted congressman wilson to carry the ball in the house and they took the top off. Put they got burned, top back on, and we waited. In 20 years, a lot changed. The reality is, the local politics was not so much our problem as a question about whether or not we could get something going fast enough. If the biggest obstacle was time, frankly. Thesecond part of it was antiquities process. People and say, would you donate a building today . And we are hoping the president will sign a proclamation within the next week to use that building. The park service was in an awkward position. Under antiquities, they had to be quiet advocates. They could be facilitators but could not be out front. When you go to someone to give a orlding or give an easement take a restrictive covenant out of a deed, everybody had to act in good faith from the park service. They were not allowed to say where they were going. They had to be cautious because they were not allowed to solicit. Someone has to offer. The Antiquities Act was difficult. When i setport he isis Journey Holding us together because we got bigger and better ideas. Then, there is the converse another foundation that secretary babbitt was involved in. They were involved in guiding people through the process. Buford and i did not understand the Antiquities Act. They had been there and could guide us. Because i had been interested in a grantly, i hired writer to help us. Dolores frenkel is here and will do a panel tomorrow on where we go next. But, we were able she said lets build the foundation. So we god National Endowment for a teacher ands institute. In buford, there was a buzz about reconstruction. Peoplewere staying in hoping houses, eating at the restaurants. We created a buzz. I don the phone. Michael allen could not ask people to do things but he could tell me who to ask. 167 historians from all over the country wrote letters of support. Theot to the point where deputy chief of staff called me and said enough with the letters. If i have to keep reading these letters, we will never get your work done. It was africanamericans. We even went to confederate groups and said this is a new world. There is a chapter in our history that has never been written and it deserves a chance. I think the most telling moment two or three days after the declaration of the monument, i got a call from sally jewell in said is itboth fair to say this gecko . They both said we never thought you could get this done. The amount of work on top of the work for the two other monuments that the park service was doing in a region i think they had never done a monument before. There was a huge learning curve. But we did it out of drive. It is passion. Ollie was there we had the public hearing. It was very important. Since the public is supposed to drive the antiquities process. We added the brick church across from penn center. To most peoples surprised, except me, the church was overflowing. To a lot of peoples surprised we had people from schoolchildren to old people, black, white, every kind you could imagine. The passion that emanated into that church shocked the director. That we were able to crystallize this sense of hope. It really was a sense of hope. Someone from the park service in atlanta said this is the first public hearing where we did not have people come and talk about they need jobs or economic development. The central message from the 50 or 60 were several hundred who spoke was that we want time to hear the real story. It is time for the truth. That is all we want. When the elderly africanamerican woman that up with a wrinkled paper covered in cellophane she said, see this . This is the deed to my greatgrandfathers property. Book, youd a history he was given 40 acres and a mule. He paid 8. 59 for it. Nothing was given to him. Yet, the history books continue. O tell the story one of my colleagues on council know, mysaid you great, great grandfather was in the artillery in the Confederate Army and we have a picture of him in our living room. I have always thought of him as a hero. But i still think of him as a hero. But he was on the wrong side here and it is time the truth be told. Over and over and over. Not one person wrote a letter to the editor, a letter to the file or came to the event and spoke against this project. It was clearly one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life to know there is that much and thatt much honesty much integrity in a small southern town that has a huge history. So much of which has been missed told were not told all. Is that what you wanted . Obviously, everyone can tell i do not care about this. Let me throw question to all three of you. What is next . Ande want to build on this this is going to be a stepping stone. What is next . Asked the historians. I am on the ground. Us have been working on getting the story told. A have grants and enlisted number of historians. One is dr. Phone or. We want to be able to use modern technology to tell the story. Our plan is to donate whatever we create to the park service and integrate it into the development. Dream thatfurther for sites out of how many did you visit . Let the mayor of charleston called me on monday and ed, billy, i went to the 100 40th of emancipation day parade. Ending charleston he said, do you know who read the emancipation their . I said i have been there and through reenactment and played this character but cannot remember his name. He said, do you know who he was . I said no. Ownerd he was a slave fending South Carolina who decided he was going to become an abolitionist. He did not think what he was doing was right here he sold his andes to his brotherinlaw moved to ohio. He got to ohio and that, we a minute. Im supposed to be helping these people get free. I am an abolitionist work he went back to South Carolina, fromased his slaves back his brotherinlaw. He paid a premium for all of them. He took them to ohio and freed them. Then he came back to South Carolina where he worked aggressively. He was a baptist minister here , we had theline Baptist Church of buford which owned for churches occupied by africanamericans. They had transferred all but one of them. They transferred it to the congregation. When mollie and the lawyers were doing the research to get the easement at that time, they realized there was an exception in the deed that said, should it no longer serve as a house of worship, it would have to be given back to the church. You cannot play an easement on a property that has that position. 5 00 p. M. , the, white Baptist Church of buford voted the to give up any rights they had to allow this to happen. There are so many stories to be and the incredible amount of work has been done. I hate to be keep going. Brick baptisty at church, africanamerican, two masters degrees, grew up in big charleston, 20 miles away. It was not until 10 or 15 years moved to become the pastor at brick Baptist Church that he even knew that penn center existed for that brick church here was a moved to be learned guy, a man of god who did not know it. This is a very, very exciting time for those in buford. I think the challenge, going forward, especially for historians is how we spread this message nationally. Into therate it National American story. Lookingwe are not just at a really compelling National Monument. But that monument empowered a backlight and informed our national experience. How do we do that . Suggesting toby thatrians and politicians we brought in the narrative of the civil war. That is an event which is deeply embedded in our National History. Story tends to be a war of conflict, story resolution and transformation. I think of all of these significant monuments all over the country. From many perspectives. But they are warmongers. Is not need to do rewrite the story, but expand it and do it in context of that slice of American History that we are familiar with. I will just add to that because i think we have mayor kaiser lang looking at the ways to project the stories that beaufort tells to advance communication. Secretary babbitt, talking about making this story national. , we relatedamation to the three, very important amendments to the constitution and how that changed our and was a potential for opening up brandnew freedoms. To bes a story that needs told and banged lots of places and then banged lots of ways. Ofharge everyone to think how that story can be told, where it can be told. The National Park service, my career, tells stories through places. That is one way to tell a story. It can be a compelling way to tell a story. Reassured then National Historic landmark theme study on reconstruction is now out. And if is typically how we look at where else the story can be told with places. I veryse can be done . Much believe in the park service and patrolman telling the american story. I think, in this day and age people need to know this history. The last question want to ask the panel before we open it up becauseence questions there are so many historians who may be have not been involved in public history or work in universities as professors or students, in your experience and the work that you have done, how do his or he and enter a conversation like this . If you want to take up what you were saying and go the next step, what would you advise the people to do . I would say call greg. Get their advice about writing editorials for the new york example of moving in the public advocacy with the tools you have at your command. Connections need to be made between leaders in the park service, historians and the park service and those outside. The park service has a glorious history of historians. But there have been blows to it in recent decades. It stillhoping attracts the historians. And i encourage you to check that out if that is of interest. I know that i work with wonderful people. Is not as strong a discipline as it once was for the park service. Takes the right support from higher levels to make it. I will tell you that i immediately turned to glenn jones in the park service. He was wonderful and helping. And other historians. We had roberts, his wife and others. They have been wonderful supporters of these efforts. Service tog the park your symposium, creating an interest. I am a want to be historian. There are so many people in the park service who love what they ofand telling the story history. Whatever connections you make with people, they can generate interest. I guess that is what i have to add. Not that i have not spoken enough. I just see, when i read or hear another story about construction , its relevance to problems we are dealing with today. To linkn find a way them. I have young, africanamerican men, caucasians to models who have grown up thinking they were victims. Who dont know that there greatgreatgrandfather was a survivor. That these free people were incredibly talented. Robert smalls is probably one of the smallest and most affect the politicians effective politicians there ever was. But there are ways of getting these kids to have hope and see they come from stock that was successful. See this, bute during the reconstruction time when you have former slaves as entrepreneurs and you have white entrepreneurs and everybody was working together, it was the most financially prosperous my little town has ever been. That is why we have the fusion party at the end. To goaid, we do not want backwards. We dont like this jim crow thing. Find a problem that is relevant today, dig into the reconstruction and see what you learn and i bet you can tie together things that are going to help us with things were going through, which is not very now. Right thank you also much. We invite questions from the audience. Weve been asked by cspan to the you ask questions at microphone in the center aisle. Some people want to come forward, we would love to have you ask questions of our panel. The microphone in the center aisle. Some people lets get this st. Rate your hand. Go. Come on up. President ial is material. [laughter] thats true leadership. Question [indiscernible] what do we do with that kind of subtext the clash or whatever reconstruction what is the political narrative . Think when we got involved with the National Parks service, we were curious about this question. We convened a group of eminent historians to talk about the National Park service and people said, are you willing to tell a story about tens of thousands of murders. Political violence. And to their credit, over and bob sutton and others, chief historians, said we have to do it that way. We have to tell this story not its the second revolution but we have to tell it is a story that involves both sort of extraordinary possibilities it unleashes. That does not mean there are not tensions are challenges or i amations and a superinterested in hearing other peoples takes on that id i was very optimistic that from the beginning those people came in really primed to do it. I dont think everybody was quite as prime does they were. I think sometimes they had to be stubborn to try to defend these points of view but at least that was my experience in early times. I mean the park Service People we work with took great pride in the traditions of the park service valuing the highest level of scholarship and there was plenty of precedent for the park service hiring academics to write studies like we did. They were people they should be calling upon. Probably people already in the profession that have done this kind of work for the National Park service and to give you an example, we wrote this study as sort of an overview of reconstruction and the meeting greg talked about, we decided there would be six teams within the study. One of those is a lyrical fire once. To write that chapter, we drew heavily on the work of stephen hahn and other people. Ant is in the area and in edited way, just as we would have written it. In anon edited unedited way. It remains to be seen how that gets substantiated in the monument. Kindoping the site, what of the interpretation happened there. One model i think its interesting that i wish Michael Allen was here, he talked a lot about, a lot of the public history work is done talks about the idea that an interpreter in history as a process and part of what you are doing is engaging you might be so delivering information people find surprising or upsetting but the goal is not necessarily to just kind of bomb them with it but engage in a conversation about what they are learning and what it means to know that. I would imagine in dealing with difficult issues, or i would also hope that they would take that and part of a model, right . This is some of the most difficult aspect of American History and many people cannot be expected to easily sort of excepted, particularly if what they have always heard in the past is something quite different than what they are now hearing. Is athink that there gradual going on here that is really important. Remember, president obama, in addition to declaring the reconstruction National Monument then led on to Issue National proclamations for the freedom riders in the south and for selma, which i think is significant. Anythere was really not significant controversy your backlash to that. These are small indicators that we are starting to see an opening up in the Film Industry after and it is a very powerful facet of American History and we are starting to see a few portrayals of this Time Beginning to emerge. It is going to be a continuing process. Obama administration, it was really geared to telling a fuller story of america and telling it honestly and educating. There was the birmingham and freedom riders monuments also created. Also stonewall created in new york. Cesar chavez. Harry at tubman was a National Monument before it was made into a National Historical park. Soldiers in ohio. , the people i worked with in the park service and its leaders during the Obama Administration were very, very excited about this and wanted to have the highest scholarship. There are times in the park service where issues, for example was not until the early 2000s that the park service was able to fully discuss slavery as the basis for the civil war. And so that took a transition in the park service, the opening i think that the secretary has talked about. So theyre going to be these tensions. There is a time now that who knows what we can say at this point, but there will always be people that care deeply about this and the park service i am sure who will keep working to tell the full story. Next question please. [indiscernible] my question is relevant to the last point, is there any danger that the National Monument might be overturned or changed or rescinded, anything like that by the Current Administration or in the future . Thank you. Well, in this current political environment one hesitates to make any comprehensive pronouncements about this. I mean, it seems like anything is possible unfortunately. Been my sense been much directed at the cultural and Historical Monuments and the reason for monumentsat the utah bears ears which has a significant cultural and historic component are about publicarge areas of land. That draws in all of the resistance to public land and all of the pushback from mining, gasenergy industry, oil and. Always spending heavily and aggressively to try to eliminate the offset of public land and protection of public land. As long as opposition is around, unfortunately to be part of it for the landbased National Monuments. The one thing i would add to larges even on those landbased ones that are under some threat now and we saw what the president did two bears ears and Grand Staircase escalante, those issues will be litigated in the courts. There are folks ready for that. The better reading of the laws on the side of the folks who think this was an illegal action by the Current Administration, so that is really hopeful but i totally agree that the smaller ones, the historical ones, that were not on the list for review and i do not think they would be. Ahead. Afternoon, thank you very much for the panel. My name is deborah. I work with the same education project. 10the approaching our anniversary. We have been focusing on teaching this year, teaching about reconstruction for all of the reasons everybody said here so i will not repeat those. We are finding teachers responding positively, getting excited. Audents looking at it from new lines. This year, our plan is to launch a campaign where young people around the country identify sites and their communities and design. Whether it be a plaque, a monument, load those on with digital technology. Create a collective map. And hopefully advocate to have a formal plaque and their city. We have a list of distinguished advisors and we will followup with everybody on the panel here. Mike question could be in front of everybody. Will you will say yes . The other question really is, any advice you have for young people as they are approaching this and particularly in other parts of the country that do not think of themselves as in the two to reconstruction, how to see those connections. If you are to think locally, while the gz that looking like . Any thoughts, we would love to get your feedback. A quick note of encouragement, some to 5000 teachers from across the country from every state, small towns, large cities, have signed up to access lessons so i think we are at a point in this political time when people are looking for truthtelling. Billy, this is for you. See the woman right there . She is going to talk a little bit about that tomorrow. In on specifically honed what you described almost. Andengagement, the taking sitespecific is getting the kids to the center to realize what it means. Church, getting them to the sites. Taking them to the tree where the immense patient was red. Explaining when the emancipation was red, it was said and believed my many of the slaves, tens of thousands that if they did not get to the tree at the time it was going to be red, they would not be free. Are going to we work on an up to do this by water see get a sense of how they how far they had come to be there at that new years celebration. I think it is just what youre doing. It is engaging the kids and learning history that they are thenwise not taught and asking them to begin to go to their social studies or history teachers and begin to fill in those blank pages. Those blank pages that just need to be filled in, they can be part of educating the next generation and in the way that the generation that preceded us was afraid to. Can i add something . I will add one thing. Last winter about this time, i got any mail from the person. Many of us get emails from people working on National History projects but this was different. It was, i am soandso, i go to such and such high school in massachusetts. You got some of these, too. Said did air. There was a not bad. So didpecific eric. Op. S an then i got another from another student and another. Finally was like, is this an assignment . Did your teacher tell you to do this question mark and found out this teacher in massachusetts had designed in assignment that students either had to write to one of the three of us that wrote the oped, or right to the president about the monument or there was something else. The students had to reach out to somebody and Say Something about what they had learned and what was next. I later it ended up emailing withthe students had to reach t. I said tell your teacher high from me. Boston area, basically, he was very interested in reconstruction and the history of africanamericans in boston and he had designed an assignment that was about figuring out what the precivil war of africanamericans in that area looked like. They made a simple website. It had a local, local component of learning something about your community that you might not already known file also thinking about this time. Meeting way back when, we pretty quickly decided that although historians often greaterut a reconstruction or reconstruction happens everywhere. There was a northern reconstruction, i reconstruction in the west. We focused on the exconfederacy. That was for reasons at the time you could not possibly do it all. There are so many stories from the postcivil war time about things that were in dramatic flux in the united states, in the north, in the west. That has not really been a focus of the things we have done or the National Park service has done but there was 1. 1 we compiled a really big list of existing park Service Sites with potential relevance and dad included homestead sites. The Buffalo Soldiers site. Various indian war sites, right . You could incorporate gilded age labor dispute sites. If you construe things broadly like that, yours talking about you are talking about a lot of sites. There is always a reference to the oped in the New York Times. Theres also one in the washington post. The purpose of those coming out when they did was we felt that your office was so overwhelmed that if the white house read this and sought moving along they would give you more support. [laughter] reveal a fact and lingis that billy kaiser billy is really from brooklyn. This side of brooklyn. [laughter] thank you all of you for appearing on the panel today and for your incredible work making this monument reality. We are in a moment where it seems like discourse is broken. Reactionary at nonationalism is on the rise. Inconvenient, unwanted information is simply dismissed as fake news. I come here today and i hear the story about buford, which sounds at this time is much like fiction as if a decade ago someone were to tell me donald trump was resident. President. I am a historian. I believe in absolute specifically specificity of events. You cannot expect the same outcome regardless of plays and time. Works ine to ask, what buford which is not working and so many places around this country . How did this happen . There is only one guy that can answer that question. Well, first of all i think that the reconstruction experience and the presence of the military make it a typical. People, black and white though segregated in my childhood, were no strangers to each other. Said there was not the same kind of fear. And sat down with the leadership to create this partnership, we trusted each other because we knew each other. We may not of been as friends, we may not of gone to school together, but we were familiar with each other and we trusted each other. But the answer that you ask for is the answer that this country is asking for and that is for people to sit down around the table and have some conversations. To quit twittering, quite fingerpointing, quite namecalling and sit down and have some honest conversations about what we are creating and generation. The next and to beaufort, being a diverse little southern city, we have had the ability to do that on a very regular basis. We changed the agenda title for our city council meeting, but that is the way we run our government. That is the way we try to run a civil city. The country is desperately in need of that. The book the secretary is going to write over my name is to choose to belong. How city decisionmaking can save america. The mayor was always committed to the idea to eachple had to speak other. Even people who might not be comfortable in his position at fort sumter as the sort of secessionball process started on the 150th anniversary. Then there became the increasingly strident backandforth in newspapers and charleston. Groupsed in some historians are not always happy to talk about and said i want you to say what ever you are going to say and print to each other and if you want say to each other i dont want you to say it and print. It does not have to take this kind of tone. Think that was coming from, South Carolina coming from there is he does, you know, he always conveyed that kind of credibility. He did not agree with everything everybody said but he did create spaces where people, including people with very antagonistic views could speak and i think other organizations did the same. I went to see the sons of the confederacy and i remember the trouble you got into. I said, were going to do it. Our goal is not to erase history because history will be told in many ways over time. Our role is to include history stories that have meaning. I do not want to take a thing away from you but i want to wed to it. I want to add to it and it is only fair that you give us this opportunity. The biggest component, they sat on their hands. Which was the best they could of done. Had a unique ability to sit down, i do not know if it is been said, michael is african american. He had some issues and the africanamerican community. One of his biggest dishes was trust around the subject of the land. Those who have studied the understand. On almost stoodn who up was the one person at the Baptist Church. He was not opposed to the main human but to the monument but he felt if they put an easement on the church, they can lose the church. Why did he think that . Because his brother work owned a piece of property and someone asked for an easement to build a road, it was granted and they blocked access to this mans road and he ended up losing property. So going back to the 40 acres and a mule and the ownership of land that was clearly stolen and abused by surveyors who would go in and survey 10 acres but only come out with a or two that were needed for the survey. So land was a tough issue and michael had to have some very serious talks because that is the huge piece of the culture there which i think is very unique to beaufort. Freedhad large numbers of slaves and africanamericans who do own land. I will lead one little story to that. I learned so much on this. The importance of land to people in the area was one of those things. When we first started talking to penn center and penn center is a wonderful place that has a history beyond reconstruction as well, it is tied to the civil other movement and many things. Martin luther king retreated there. Blacks and whites could meet there. It was a very important place. The board loves penn center. June, down with them in just six months or seven months before final action was taken by january 2017. June 2016, and we are at the site, and we in the federal government said, you know we can only do , that if the objects of historic interest are on lands owned by the federal government. And we had no authority to buy your land. It is not within the boundaries of our Current National we do not have any authority under our legislation, to buy your land. There is a party under the Antiquities Act to accept donations of land. And the meeting just stopped. And one of the Board Members said passionately you are asking , us to give up some land . Do you know how important that is to us . As dr. Foner said, this was a place where ownership of land, one of the places this was worked out for reconstruction own that land to was important. That is why the construction of this National Monument with the donations and the understandings that were worked out, was really quite a coming together of a lot of people. Ple. Some of these points were made. I am going to try to ask this question a different way. This be implemented to include other reconstruction sites . Notably the tragedies. You have the colfax massacre and also native americans in the late 19th century is there a way we can include this . Maybe not this administration but future administrations, on the successes and failures of reconstruction and that can be implemented through all of American History . Thats a really interesting question because im thinking about many of the discussions of alternate reconstruction sites and i just got a glimpse of it, but there were some really extraordinary. Ites in louisiana i cant answer the question except to say that is a great. Uestion how should we, and on what terms, expands the recognition and participation of the park service and others for some of these remarkable sites. Tell us how. Able here we are talking about the construction of monuments during thenstruction and it is process that involves a huge amount of people and bureaucracy. There are lots of other ways to do commemoration of things that are not being remembered and commemorated that are not as possible. Way, one of our hopes is part of what this monument could accomplish, the history of reconstruction in public and therefore spur more activity. Ocally around this history and one example that is connected to the National Park service is what a bunch of memphis. D in from their partnership anyway, there were a lot of people involved. It was practically a years worth of commemorative work around the memphis massacre that add that had not really been recognized publicly. So there were forums and public libraries. There were curriculum for teachers and students. It culminated with an academic symposium. But straight to your point, this is all about talking about the impact of an episode of thatndous racist violence was never suppressed in the city itself. I think that is a wonderful example and a very successful example of the kind of thing that can happen in a lot of places but does not involve and has thensfers kind of complexity we are talking about here. I have a couple things i want to add to the topic. When we went around we would see because theylso were enacting legislation or because of past independence, they did not talk about reconstruction even though you could not really talk about the title of the without talking about reconstruction. Site. Is there on the for the goals of the superintendent. Some of it is about getting work for the mps. Video in stuff for a the Golden Gate National center. Theres also the reconstruction connection. And they look at how they can embed that in places like you 70. That is one. The second is finding places. There are places that have existed with historical structures. There are other places that have structures that really could reveal more and more of the story. All you have to do is find a babbitt,secretary like michael and others. Third, there is the idea that the National Park service have explored places like the underground railroad, building a network apart that altogether are telling a combined story that leave you from place to place and pull you outward. Its not as if this is the only place you learn this. Our group has a vision to follow the network route. I dont think we have an expectation that the park service and part of the federal government that may not even have a budget in 15 days but i think what we are finding takingl governments are up this. Think we are getting to a point offrom , we have assets. Called the mayor of bluffton, South Carolina and said, such and such a house was used by so and so during reconstruction do you have somebody who can write that story . And even though it might not be part of the monument or part of a park, maybe not even open to the public on a daily basis, we can develop a story digitally and have it as part of this. And i think you will find historically, in small towns, we have waited for someone else to do this, but i think like other. Hings, its catchinghistoricaln people want a piece of it. Quite frankly, reconstruction in South Carolina is a very hot in a nice way a very hot topic. I want to make sure we get one last question. Leon from the journal of labor and working class is true. Apart from the new sites for the parks, which strikes me as a laudable goal, it strikes me it has relevance to one other contemporary issue, maybe project, that involves historians. We all know cities and campuses around the country, theres an ongoing contest about memorialization in statuary around the issue of race, because of the slavery era. Why not, as historians and historian activist, instead of making the focus contesting the , in the spirit of offhandedlyner said, why not around the destruction or in debate with the old statuary there be a new reconstruction, of its advocates, its a victims, and so on . Mr. Babbitt a powerful suggestion. John oliver has covered that. [laughter] he did an episode of monuments he wanted to see and one of them was robert smalls. In charleston,g they are trying one thing, too low. To take in this case, its a big monument, john calhoun. Publictead to invite the to come in and do a contemporary interpretation. What it was then. This is what we think it means now. History i need not tell you all is not like chalk on a blackboard. You need not erase it. You can look at it differently. I think the mayor has been very, very clever to engage his community. Lets not tear it down, but lets be honest and put more interpretation to it about how we see it today. [chatter] we continue our coverage of this weekends American Historical Association meeting in d. C. Youre watching American History tv on cspan3. Welcome kate masur. She is a professor from the university at evanston, illinois. We followed your Panel Discussion just a moment ago. What was your take away from what you turn with former governor habit and the others . Dr. Masur it was such a pleasure to be together with a group of people. Governor babbi