Transcripts For CSPAN3 African American Voting Rights 20240711

And stillents today, there is nothing in the communityto show that foot soldiers were. Thank you very much. Presentation. L gina, we are going to go to you next please. Joe, thank you for sharing your story there. Of oralese kinds histories that really make these us, and tod real for tell these stories bring more of the cultural outreach that is so necessary for us to have and connect with. In fact, that is part of the mission of the National Park , the selma to montgomery trail. That is what was the underpinning for the commemoration that we had, and for the 19th amendment this year , to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, that andted, suffrage for women through the constitution. In our though, commemoration, wanted to keep in mind two things that the National Park service must , but not allo all women achieve the right to vote with the passage of the 19th amendment. Second, the struggle was very much defined by class and race and religion. Those are the things we want to in anyre we put forward commemorative events that we did. We set the first point in the rightnot all got to vote because of the passage of the 19th amendment, because history is not pretty. It is not clean. It is not clearcut. The stories, we must tell them in all their complexity. I want everyone to think for a moment, in your school days, when you were learning about the womens Suffrage Movement, think about images that were used to tell the story. You may recall some images of Elizabeth Cady stanton and susan b. Anthony looking over some papers to push forward for the suffrage rights. The silent sentinels that were standing out in front of the white house in linkin park. Even today in protests, but they were there, petitioning against woodrow wilson. Jailedwomen who were during these movements. When you think of those images, do you see black women . Present in those images . More often than not, you dont, because those images are reflective of how the story have charge of who was in those stories. The black women who worked as hard as anyone else working towards suffrage, who were able tohere, were not be represented in a full way. They were often marginalized. Their stories were marginalized. Well,is body knows very after the congress we went through in the last month, the stories of ida b wells barnett and mary Church Terrell, and my favorite, maggio walker, who we will talk a little bit more about and use her as an example to open up these stories that we were telling in the commemoration this year. That intersection of race and gender is very critical to talk about when we are talking about suffrage, the movement for suffrage is about civil rights as well as political. To makeoint we wanted sure we got across is that the struggle, which continued for 19th, 20ther the , it wast was passed guided by class and race and religion, as i mentioned. Vote, as youto mentioned, josephine, was restricted for black women in particular, and black men as literacy tests and grandfather clauses. For the rest of us outside of that, the question of whether you were a citizen or not. These are the part of the stories that the Parks Service wanted to make sure that we told in our commemoration this year. We also knew that we had to use a variety of means to get those stories across. You can still go to nps. Gov and see the website about the 19th amendment and womens history. You will be pleasantly surprised, im sure, about the variety of people who are represented on that page, and our using programs, programming, we started planning as an agency two years before the event itself, and of course, when coronavirus comes in we have to pivot, pivot, pivot. I think it made our programming even more relevant, because we were going through a lot of the virtual platforms. The things that we were doing that might have reached a group of people right there at these individual communities were put on virtual platforms and had a wider reach, and you can still pull them up and see those events today. Particularly the one that was done by womens rights, where they had an equality day and invited them to learn about those pioneering suffragists, including descendents of Elizabeth Cady stanton and Frederick Douglass and maggie lena walker. These types of programs we were able to experiment with and still have something very effective today. Finally, we also made a point to create partnership, reach out to other organizations. We realized, we are not completely all alone, the only expert, the last word, the final check of what was happening. We need to work with other groups, other museums, other organizations to bring out these stories that we wanted to make alsowere told, and involved making sure that it was an intergenerational approach. Tapping into the energy of the s who had newional ideas and fresh ways of reaching a larger audience. At the same time, reaching back to get those oral histories and presentations brought in to make the connection so that we were reaching a wide group of people. With this years commemoration, which does intend in august august, and in we want to bring out the stories that were always there. To put a lens on the stories and bring focus to what happened before so we can see what happened in the past better. We can see better going forward. Thank you for that. Its a great segue. Its almost likely planned. Share with us your thoughts. Thank you so much. When we had our preview meeting, i made sure to tell both of you that i was very thankful to be on the panel with you. To hear you speak today, ive been out of park service for a year and a half. Just coming from the park service, i heard you speak about the Maggie Walker site. It is always so exhilarating. Thank you so much for sharing your familys history. To me as a museum professional and also a historian, the thing that always tabs at my syllable is being able to at my soul is being able to hear oral histories but also being able to hear it from the family. I feel that is something that is very unique to what we have in our field as africanamericans. We really do make sure to reach out to the community to get those stories. Thank you. I am overwhelmed. That was totally off script. Thank you both and thank you all. Thank you for having me here today at a conference. I feel like i am back home. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having me. I am the executive director of the association of africanamerican museums. I have been here as executive director as of this month a year and a half. That is why i am stumbling because i am like, park service. I used to be there for 11 years as a grants Management Specialist and then also the africanamerican civil rights branch. I am sure a lot of you out there, outside of this box i am in have in some way, shape or form have had some connections with me. Just having those conversations and now being in this position, i am always reaching back out to make sure all of my folks are doing well. The association of africanamerican museums has been around for 42 years now and we are the organization that really preserves, protects and interprets african and africanAmerican History and culture not just in the United States but also internationally. The thing i always love to say about members is when we are collecting, we do it legally and respectfully. The reason i say legally is nobody has knocked on any of our doors and said, you stole that from us. Can you make sure you give it back . Everything is labeled there. Is always a document being signed. Like i said earlier, we really just make sure we are in the community. The majority of our museums are formed in the community and are of the community. When we are doing our collecting, when we are collecting oral histories, all of that is in the community from which we serve. The other thing that is really important about that is sometimes you can have a museum that is in the community. We do not have those problems. They see themselves in our exams. As a matter of fact our museums. Something i can share with you as an example is in memphis, there was a protest right after george floyd was murdered. This protest started at city hall and ended at the National Civil rights museum. To me, that speaks volumes because those protesters should have it could have chosen anywhere protesters could have chosen anywhere but they decided to end at the National Civilrights museum. That is happening all over the country. In washington, d. C. , protesters were congregating at the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture. Going to the Smithsonian Anacostia museum Anacostia Community is imputed that is look Anacostia Community museum. This is happening all over the country. And to me, it is heartwarming that those out doing the work, making sure our liberties and we still have a quality, that we are still reaching for after all of these years, to come to our museum and use them as beacons of hope. Something else like ajena mentioned, we make sure to work through partnerships. No one should work alone. The more the merrier, the more you can get done, just like this panel. Im sure you would love to hear from me for an hour, but my family gets tired of my voice after little bit, so its ok. I say that to say partnerships are important. To the park service and as well as asalh. We partner with Fort Monroe Authority and the Charles Young museum, it is a site but once they come in they turn into a museum. The washington dc office, we have partnered with. This is making sure the park service, as they need help figuring out how to do things and how to expand their reach, we make sure we are doing that correctly with our museum. Ajena knows that very well, i tapped her on the shoulder and say, i have this idea for Maggie Walker. Are you tired of my ideas . Im thankful for her because we have to do the work together. As i think about the 19th amendment and how our museums interpret and protect that history, we do not really have the problem preserving the history of the untold. Something important to us is you will always see the Suffrage Movement of africanamerican women in our museum. It is just a matter of making sure people understand it and are coming to the museum to get that information. Something we also work to do with our museum, there are exchanges and people are doing a lot of personal things now so we have had to pivot, the entire conference in august was virtual and museums are doing programming virtually. This is the time for us to partner and to make sure we are doing right by our ancestors. I think it is very telling that our panel is right after the president ial election. We get to talk about all of the things that could have happened, should have happened, im not going to lead that charge, i will let alan do it. But we are the folks who could be the change we want to see, and i am thankful for that. Alan thank you all for your introductions. We want to get into some questions and remind folks if you are listening and you have questions, you can submit those in the chat function and we will get to them as we are able. Jo, i wanted to go back to you. One of the things i have learned and am becoming more familiar with racial violence in the country is often times, lynching and racial violence are thought to be random. Someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time and something was done to that person. What your fathers murder reminds us all of is that in most instances, violence frequented among africanamericans was not random. It was targeted against those who were the most successful because people in White Communities did not like symbols of success like your father. How does that play into the story of your father, elmore, and the book you wrote, the penalty for success my father was lynched in alabama . Josephine first we have to be aware these things are still happening. When the lynchings occurred, many tried to hide their faces so people would not know where they were. Many times they were being led by sheriffs and other officials. So it appears the same kind of thing is going on now and i do not want people to think this is something that just happened in the past. It is still going on. Alan we have the Funeral Service for john lewis several weeks ago and we lost a great man. We lost a great man. One of the comments shared by former president bill clinton was an offthecuff remark about Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Committee under his leadership may be going in the wrong direction. You had mentioned stokely in the work being done in alabama. It was a different kind of organizing you got from other civil rights organizers who were working at the time. Something different from the nonviolent philosophy. Can you speak to that a little bit . Josephine the kind of nonviolence being worked through could not and would not have worked in Lowndes County. These people, once you strike us, we are going to strike back. So stokely, he said he did not want people to think he was thinking of black power as white power, he was talking about the masses being able to get together and use their numbers as strength. That is what he thought of as black power. And dr. Jeffrey spoke, you will see a lady there sitting with a shotgun. People were in tents, and at night, drivers would drive by and shoot into the tents until they fought back. Alan Lowndes County played a particular role in the Voting Rights struggle because you have selma to the west and montgomery to the east. Lowndes county became the place where if you were a smith organizer and you did not want to be out on the road after dark, so Lowndes County became a safe haven where people could stay overnight and seek shelter in the community. Could you talk about that, the role Lowndes County played in the Voting Rights struggle . Josephine yes. Several families owned their own homes and could afford to participate without a lot of revocations. They lost businesses but because they owned their own home, they could be out in the movement more. Mr. Jackson owned property and he knew these young men in montgomery and selma were going to get killed. So we had a house and he let the smith workers live in the house. It is called the Freedom House now. That is one of the ways the Lowndes County people kept people safe. Alan we just saw on the screen the cover of the book and the sandwich board the organizer is wearing with the picture of the black panther. Move on over or we will move on over you. Its a little bit of a different sentiment than we shall overcome. This portion of history is less wellknown than other elements but the interesting story is these are the original black panthers because after the development of the Freedom Organization and selection of the symbol of the black panther, they got a call from some young men in Oakland California asking if they could adopt that symbol for their use for the black panther party. At some point we will have a conversation about that. Ajena, we are talking about the 19th amendment, womens suffrage, and i wanted to get your thoughts on the march that took place in washington on pennsylvania avenue in march of 1913. It was a march to press for the ratification of the right for women to vote, but it was segregated. What role did africanamerican women play where what role where they forced to play in that event . Ajena alice paul organized the march. She had witnessed the Suffrage Movement in england, which was more radical than here in the United States. She was geared up to make sure women would come from all over the country and gather in washington dc for the march. There was a delegation and she came along and was prepared to march with them but washington dc is in the southern part of the country so the organizers approached and said to the black women who were going to be part of it, including Delta Sigma Theta sorority, they would not be able to march alongside. They would have to march in the back. It was a segregated parade so they would not offend the people in washington dc who could not fathom having an interracial march because jim crow was still in force. Ida b wells did not deal with that. She was not going to march toward the back. She did not join the march when the delegation of her state moved out at first but when they came back she slipped in and marched along with them. Mary Church Terrell took another route of compliance. They did march in the back of the parade, but what that story shows to us, i hope, is that there are individuals in different approaches to segregation. Different approaches to try to reach the same goal. Sometimes it will work, depending on who you are and what the situation is. We have to take time to look at how all of those things come together, not condemn one way or another way. You have to take in the full context to understand what was happening. So these stories will help us see when we are in our own situation today, it is all right to take different approaches, depending on what was happening at the time. Alan thank you for that. I wanted to follow up with another question. Can you talk about who Maggie Walker was . She was one of the first africanamerican women to register to vote after the 19th amendment was ratified. Tell us a little bit about who she was and is there anything in her personal papers, anything she wrote or said that gives us insight into how she felt . Clearly she thought it was important, but what was in her heart . Ajena she was born in 1864 in richmond, virginia and grew up during the time when reconstruction was ending. The 15th amendment was passed when she was a little girl. She knew with the rights were. The right to vote were being stripped away from black men during jim crow and africanamerican women like her had limited opportunity. When she got the opportunity to be the leader of an Organization Called the independent order of sainthood, she looked at the organization as a way to expand rights and opportunities for community. She was a powerful Community Leader and civil rights activist and became nationally known for starting a bank in 1903. She used the newspapers to speak out for civil rights and against jim crow segregation and injustice. She was also a member of National Association for colored women, to speak out against lynching and to speak out for civil rights for women. They were involved again trying to make sure the right to vote was applied universally. When you had the rights granted to black men in the 15th amendment stripped away, Maggie Walker and the women of the nac w knew they had to use their platform the best they could to get rights back. So she starts out and by 1920, she is very much advocating for womens suffrage. As soon as she could after the passage of the 19th and amendment, she went right down to city hall and registered to vote. She was also a woman who lifted herself up to be quite privileged. As a Bank President and leader, she did not forget those who had less, those who did not have what she had and she used her position to help educate and enroll black women to register to vote. That was her challenge. We are in the south, richmond, virginia. So registration for women was segregated and you had more registrars working to register white women than you did for black women. Ms. Walker went out there and said, put me in. I will do it. They didnt let her do it, but over the course of three days, in spite of all the obstacles they had facing them, they were able to get 2500 women registered to vote. They would continue as a community to educate, get people prepared for the literacy test, to help them pay the poll tax. She would continue until she passed away in 1934, right at the beginning of the modern civil rights movement, showing there is a reason to work, even if you do not get to see the benefits of it for yourself, it is important to lay the groundwork for the next generation to keep building on it. Alan thank you. I have a question. The national Voting Rights museum and institute in selma, alabama, has a slogan on their website that read, hands that pick cotton can pick our president s. That is a powerful slogan. Can you talk about how museums in your universe are tackling the issue of black Voting Rights . Vedet sure thing. Thank you for the shout out for the sorority. We are beaming. Thank you for the question. I can definitely answer that. All of our museums are convening to start a revolution. It is a quiet revolution, but it is a revolution of Voting Rights and making sure people are registered to vote, taking sure in the community they are getting out to make sure people understand the gravity of what it is to not vote. I am learning a lot of our museums are trying to address a generation of people who do not understand how important it is to vote because they do not see the person they want on the ticket, so they are like, no one is moving me, i will not vote. I will not call their names because they will blow up my phone, and one phone is connected to every device in my house since we started social distancing, but one of my members told me they are so woke, they are asleep. That is basically what everyone is combating, trying to wake up, like in spike lees movie, it is serious. Making sure the communities in which they serve understand what will happen if we did not vote. What it looks like when we dont vote. The trends of what has happened in the past, of why it is important for black people to get out and vote, people have lost their lives to vote. The thing that sticks with me is thinking about how long africanamericans, i heard stories growing up about how my greatgrandparents had to walk five country miles to get to a polling place, and it is real. It is serious. There are people who died. Blood, sweat, tears went into making sure we could vote and we cannot just sit back. This is not a time for us to be quiet and sit back and allow things to happen to us. We have to be the change we want to see and i feel like we have enough members who have done the work and are still here and can tell us what it was like trying to make sure people could vote. Jo has the whole story about her dad and making sure in Lowndes County people can vote. This is happening all over the country. Its not just Lowndes County. It does not matter where you are. I think its funny that people think these same problems are not happening in the north. I am from new jersey. I can tell you, they were happening. In summary, our museums are in the communities even when it is not something we are supposed to do because of covid. We are doing it safely, but we have to be out to let people know it is important and that this is not a time to be quiet. We have to act. Alan to follow up, what some of the best examples you have from the museums in your association about the way they are interpreting the Voting Rights story . We have world history, video interpretation, things like that. What are some of the more innovative practices you are seeing coming out of museums talking about protecting and preserving and interpreting the history . Vedet oral history and exhibits. During covid, everything has to be virtual. We have a bunch of museums putting artifacts on their website, having robots in their museum to show certain parts of the exhibit, reading exhibits, they are doing it for people who want to visit museums while temporarily closed. A lot of the museums are slowly opening and doing so responsibly based on covid guidelines. I think what was done at the Maggie Walker site, using a google robot, that is something our museums are implementing as well. A lot of people will start calling you, ajena, about how you got that robot. I used it a lot when i was in park service. It spoke to me. And now the museum sees we need to be more nimble and have to think of creative ways to get to people. A lot of folks are making sure their facebook pages are more pronounced, social Media Presence is more pronounced than in the past. That is Something Else happening as well. For public programming, you can go to the museums website and you will see there is a program that responds with the voters rights for now and will obviously ramp up next month to vote aggressively. Ajena with the google street views we used, that was a couple months back. Google approached us to do the chores but it was on the website. People would go to it and then go on their own. With having to be innovative, we started using that with ranger guided tours showing we could have a ranger on a resume call to take people to the site. Technology has advanced further. When you look into the mirrors that Maggie Walkers house, sometimes you can see the machine reflected in the mirror. It was so big, we could not take it up to do the upper floors. By now technology is such you can take a cell phone and record the tours. Thats another option. It is a way to get the stories told beyond the walls in the museum. It is an incredible tool. Vedet absolutely. Sticking to if when covid first hit, we were trying to figure out what was next, what can we do quickly . A lot of museums were temporarily closing. Closed, wheree not closed. Its temporary. For legal reasons, temporarily closed. Museum professionals were picking up cell phones, taking pictures of the collection. Just pushing it out on social media. You are correct that the machine is huge. Again, just being nimble. You cannot take it up the stairs, it cant go to the secondfloor, it is not designed for that. I dont think rosie robot was designed for that. To live in 2020, as crazy as 2020 is, we were able to shift. If this was 1990 or even the early 2000s, we would not be in the situation we are in now. For all the craziness that 2020 is, i am thankful that we have the technology that we have so we can continue to keep moving and keep making sure that we are in the communities in which we serve. Alan im going to go to some questions from our viewers and im going to start with one from betty pickett. Nelly quandary wrote a letter to alice paul saying that College Women from Howard University should be allowed to walk with white College Women in the parade. The nwp told alice paul what she was doing about it, like black suffragists were allowed to walk with white separatists. Thoughts on that . More of a statement than a question. Ajena i just noticed that in the chat. I am learning as well, because when you go to some of the documentaries that are out now, the way that the story is told is it was completely segregated and when you see the pictures of the march, it has Howard University students marching in a group in the back of the parade. So i would love to look further to see about how they were allowed or that part of it from another perspective. These are the things we need to have to hear the different angles or views so that we can have the fullest picture. Alan yeah, in particular for ida b. Wells, she waited along the side along pennsylvania avenue for the illinois delegation to walk past and she joined them. She was warmly welcomed by her white colleagues. Alice paul was dealing with i think what she felt would be a poor response especially from southern elected officials in congress who had the responsibility for ratifying the womens suffrage bill amendment and i think that was uppermost in her mind in how she responded to the presence of africanamerican women in that march. Ajena choices made in the moment. Alan Beatrice Jones is asking, is the centuryold rgb universal flag a permanent fixture in all aaam museums and if not, why not . Is it in the woodson site . Do you have black flag vendors to maintain your flag needs over time . I guess that is a question for ajena. Vedet and vedet i can answer that quickly from my end. I would need to ask our members. There is a Permanent Collection and a temporary collection. I would need to ask them how it is being preserved, if it is up, and i can get that back to you. I do not have the answer right now because each collection is specific to our members. Ajena as for me, with the National Park service sites, we just have our United States flag and the state flags that we are part of. As far as i know, those are the restrictions that we have. Alan thank you for that. Jo, want to go back to you. We are both an integral part of this coalition for people seeking the designation of the area and wanted to find out why you are supporting that cause and how you think it might protect and preserve the history of the Voting Rights struggle. Josephine thank you for asking that. There are 19 counties and we know that we need more funds because the counties are the poorest counties in the nation. I am interested because as i mentioned, all the work that was done, there is nothing to show for it. People talk about the selma to montgomery march and skip over what happened in alabama. Work that sncc did there, with the workshops, how to run for political offices, we need something to recognize them. I am hopeful that they will recognize the work that was done by sncc, and also recognize the schools built in 1883. I was attending that school. That school is still standing. It is on the national register. Most people have not heard of it. Most people have not heard of the reconstruction legislator. We will focus attention on an area that has done a lot of work but has not been recognized. Alan while we have you, for those of the audience members who have not been to Lowndes County, can you give us a description of which hometown, your home county looks like . What it looked like in the day, and what it looks like now, just to give us a sense of the area. Josephine we have brick homes rather than shacks. The people have been kept on plantations and most of them did not have their own property. You go from mostly shack houses to some houses now that are brick homes. There are still People Living in mobile homes. There is still not Running Water in some places. We have environmental issues, sewage problems and all of that. Lowndes county is still one of the poorest counties in the nation and in dire need. Alan maybe even more of proof that we need to get back on the Voting Rights track, make sure we have the representation necessary. Ajena, want to come to you. We had a conversation about the womens suffrage, the passage of the ratification of the 19th amendment, and we have had the statement from our colleague, betty pickett, rounding out that story. Do you think there has been enough of a conversation nationally about the womens Suffrage Movement and the racial component of that, the racism in the movement, the opportunity for alliances across races, but thatrticular the incidents may be kept black women in a segregated position for a variety of reasons . Have we had enough of a conversation about that . If so, what are the next step . What are the next steps . If not, how do we continue to highlight that story . Ajena i do not feel that there has been enough of a conversation, though we are making Great Strides in trying to bring it forward. As i mentioned, there have been several documentaries that have been premiered in recognition of the centennial. One that was put out by tennessee public tv station, and what was pleasing to me is they made an effort to integrate the story of what was happening with black women and at the same time, they were talking about what is happening with the white women in the majority suffrage organizations. We are seeing progress in how the story is being woven together and it is bringing women of other ethnic backgrounds, racial backgrounds into the stories. It is not done, it is not finished. From the comment there, there are different ways more things to look at, more documents to come out. I am familiar with that letter that was referred to that put another twist on what that picture showed. We need to have people to bring forward these stories so that we can make it a richer presentation, so we can get the conversation going. When i mentioned about the womens rights program, that is going to be rebroadcast on october 24 through the public station in new york. Very interesting conversation about the legacy. That is what is important, for us to look at those who are descendents, and we essentially are all descendents and benefited from what these things were. We still need to have the conversation. Alan weve got a comment. That letter referenced the president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated was written on february 17, 1913 and the way to right wrongs is to uponthe light of truth them. Ida b. Wells. A little bit more information related to that. Put that in your notebook. Vedet, coming back to you, i see similarities between what you are doing now with the association of African American museums and the work that dr. Carter woods did in 1915, getting out the journal of negro history and establishing black history month, back in the day when it was known as negro history week. What are your priorities for using the Museum Community to highlight africanAmerican History, africanamerican culture, the africanamerican experience . Where are you going from here . Tie that to Voting Rights but anything else you are working on at this point to make people more aware. You have a moment right now. Vedet thank you. For us, it is really about education. Much like the doctor, it is about educating folks, making sure that they know their stories. Some people, as much as we, as scholars, would love to say, did you read this book, that book, some people want to do the tangible things such as go to a museum. I am part groups, where people are like, i did not know that until i went to x, y, and z museum and sometimes i am astonished but other times i am like, that is what we are here for, we are here to educate. I went to Virginia State university in petersburg, virginia, which is not far from ajenas site, but i never went to the Maggie Walker site until i was in grad school at howard. I did not know that they existed. It is about making sure that folks are educated and know that our sites and museums are places of knowledge and we have a breadth as well. When you walk through, usually you will see that wall of text, and write under there, there are a bunch of scholars who put that wall text together. There are also reading aides of where the information came from. It did not just come out of anybodys mind. It was something that was researched and folks put in a great deal of work to do it. Jos fathers information, im sure one of my museums has if not the book, they are definitely commemorating that story, whether it is the oral history if they are not, you and i, jo, need to have a conversation afterwards to make sure that this is done correctly. As far as Voting Rights are concerned and what we are doing there, we make it a point when you go to our museums, you will see artifacts about what has happened throughout history for voting, what has happened in these communities, something that is really simple, what is happening right now . There are tons of something that we would call paraphernalia out there, signs going up of who people are supporting, Kamala Harris is the first africanamerican vp i would not be surprised and im not going to say that it is a surprise. I know my museum folks are saying, i need that because im going to need that to put that again, legally, nobody is stealing it off peoples lawns, they are not going around at the end of the night when everyone is asleep grabbing these signs, but i know they are gathering this information and putting it in their exhibits. And in their collections. Doing the same thing with all the protests, whether it is a National Protest or something happening in their state, they are grabbing that information and these protests, all the movements that have been happening it seems like it has been going on for 10 years with black lives matter but i know it hasnt. I know for a fact that our race for equality has been going on since i feel like we came here. Since we were stolen and brought over here. Way over 400 years worth of time where we have been struggling to gain equality. I say all that to say, over 400 years, and i make sure to stay over because everything did not just happen in virginia. I also have to make sure i say this disclaimer because i dont want anybody to come for me after this. Not taking 1619 or any of that research away it is phenomenal, but we also have to know that africanamericans were here before then. In saying all that, the collections are in the museums and what is happening now is going to be part of what our museums are doing. It is going to be virtual for a little bit, but you are right. I should say that the site is one of our members. We have what you guys have. [laughter] alan we have a question for jo coming from laura. I have done one pilgrimage around the white supremacist murder of Jonathan Daniels, episcopal seminarian murdered in 1966. Maybe. Are the people who organized that connected to the heritage area effort in the black belt, and more generally for everybody else, what is the role of Public Private partnerships to get the money we need to sustain this work we need . My students in public history believe that government should lead but the resources are usually not there. I know some private entities view Voting Rights history as more political than desegregation. Jo, you want to take the first part . Josephine yes, Jonathan Daniels pilgrimage is sponsored by the episcopalian church. It is done annually and it is not connected with anything governmental. The people worked with the episcopalians in getting the pilgrimage done, but it is not funded by anyone other than the episcopalians and is not funded by anyone other than by the donations. Alan and for general information, a congresswoman from alabama is in the house of representatives and has introduced hr 5989, and we are hoping for passage of the black Belt National heritage designation act this year. If circumstances lead us to have to restart the effort, we will be up again in 2021, so stay tuned. If youve got any interest in that exactly, you can go right there, congress. Gov, to keep track of the legislation. Ajena, because we are dealing with legislation, you may have to cover your park service badge. We will keep this pg rated for now. I wanted to, as we get towards the end of this panel, i wanted to ask each of you to take a moment and talk to us about what Voting Rights means to you. We have had a little bit of the history, the interpretation and preservation of the Voting Rights struggle, but as a concept, when someone mentions the concept of Voting Rights, here at 5 19 on wednesday, september 30, in the year 2020, what does Voting Rights mean for you . We will start with jo. Josephine i have had a lot of heartache in terms of when i think of Voting Rights just because america was supposedly founded on democracy. The right to vote should be according to everyone. There would not be efforts to suppress voting. Yet everywhere we go, the efforts exist. The other thing that concerns me is then i want to refer back to Lowndes County for a minute a building has one little room recognizing tent city but does not have any of the names of the people of sncc, the people who lived in kent city, none of those people are recognized. Therefore, that history is not being taught to our children. They need to know what blacks in Lowndes County went through to get the right to vote. That is a big concern of mine. I think every black should be making their way to the polls. Every time ones open for any election. We always should have some interest in what is going on. Those are my concerns that we have history that is not being recorded and nothing tangible that our children can see to recognize what happened. The other thing is, when will the people in america decide to to thets commitment principles on which this country was founded . Alan following up on that, a comment from Marthas Vineyard in massachusetts, we need to keep educating in all schools, following up on your point. Ajena, your thoughts . What does Voting Rights mean to you . Ajena Voting Rights, to me, means so much because of our own family history. When i was five years old, my big cousin steve started telling me, you need to vote, you need to make sure when you grow up, you vote. You might think that would have been lost on a little kid but it wasnt. I voted every chance i can get and i brought my son with me when he was about six to the polls and now my son is running for city council in richmond. He drew a picture of us going to the polls when he was in fourth grade. As i am studying to create programs with the park service, i started delving into my ancestors history and found out that one of my ancestors was killed because they were trying to suppress the vote in the area. So i know deeply that the power and the right to vote is critical. To exercise that. It is so important for us to exercise that right to vote to make sure that we can change things. Maggie walker was saying, things economically will not change unless women got the right to vote. One of her speeches from 1912. It was identified way back then, identified as soon as the right was granted constitutionally. We cannot sit down and sit back. It is too important. Alan thank you. Vedet, Voting Rights, what does it mean to you . Vedet that is a loaded question. I just have one word. Mandatory. Much like ajena, i remember when i was little, my mom was like, you are going to vote. I dont care who you are going to vote for, but you are going to vote. All my life, she would tell me what to do but this time, she did not tell me who i need to vote for. I was like, that doesnt make sense. You tell me what to do for the rest of my life, but now you want to be quiet . But what she was showing me was your right to vote is your personal decision, but you have to vote. Then we went to the polls as soon as i turned 18 and i was able to do it. We stood in line. The lines were not as long as they are now, but we stood in line and i casted my vote and the rest is history. I make it a point to tell everybody who can listen that it is mandatory. People literally died for us to have this right. People are still dying for us to have this right and it might not look like that, it might not look like folks are dying because of not being because of voters rights, but that is what it is. If you are locking people up and giving them the death sentence or locking people up and taking away their rights to vote, it is just mandatory. I also teach parttime and i make sure to tell my students, this is your right. This is your right. Please. It is one of those things, you have a right and you abuse it or you have a right and you dont use it. Abuse this one, please. On the good side. Go to the polls dont abuse people, but abuse the right to vote. We need that. It is mandatory. I know i put a bunch of words after that. It was a good panel, so i want to make sure to give you guys what you want so i can be invited back. [laughter] alan all of you came in under your word count and we are in under our time count as well. Thank you for that. One of the things that the Voting Rights issue strikes in me is this notion that history is going on today and maybe this summer, this odd year with the racial reckoning, black lives matter, it is making it clear that history is not something that was in 1893 or 1976, it was five minutes ago and being here in washington, d. C. And experiencing some of the things we have seen over the last couple months since the murder of george floyd has made my colleagues abundantly aware of the fact that as we continue to protect the historic and Cultural Resources that the park service manages, it is not all about the civil war and it did not stop in 1878. We are looking to continue to be good partners with our community partners, with our museum partners, and with our friends and colleagues in the association for the study of africanamerican life and history. I want to thank tonda duncan. Now that the conference is over, she might be able to get some sleep. This woman has been answering emails at 3 30 in the morning and 4 30 in the afternoon and being a great steward and partner for all of this. Devon ferguson, also help set this up. I cant end this without giving a shout out to sylvia cyrus, the executive director of the association of the study of africanamerican life and history, and the president of the association, dr. Evelyn, who continues to do great work in promoting and protecting the africanamerican experience. Im alan spears. Senior director for Cultural Resources at the National Parks conservation association. Please look us up at www. Npca. Org. Make sure you are on the right one because it also stands for the National Police canine association, so make sure you get the right npca. Turn it back over to you and thank you to jo, vedet, and ajena. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this is American History tv, featuring events, interviews, archival films, and visits to college classrooms, historic places, exploring our nations past every weekend on cspan3. On the presidency, university of Mary Washington history Professor William crawley talks about franklin was abouts personality, new deal programs, and his admirers and critics in this talk from the universitys great lives lecture series. The university provided the video. Welcome to todays lecture on Franklin Delano roosevelt. The man generally considered by historians to be the greatest president of the 20th century and even beyond that. Throughout all of American History probably considered the top three greatest american president s along with washington and lincoln. It is an assessment based on the fact he steered the nation through the two greatest crises. One internally, the Great Depression and one externally, world war ii