Transcripts For CSPAN3 C-SPAN Cities Tour Visits National Parks 20240711

Of land with locations in every state. More than 325 Million People visited these sites last year. Over the next 90 minutes, well feature a mixture of Natural Beauty and history at eight different parks around the country. We begin outside of cleveland. Well learn how the canal plays a major role in western expansion. The ohio canal is part of a twocanal system that was put in place in the early years of america, built between 1825 and 1832. And basically its a water transportation route that connected lake erie with the ohio river which is part of a large idea, a National Water transportation route. In the early days of america, we had 13 colonies all situated along the atlantic seaboard. And our leaders at that time saw a problem. That problem was we needed that country to expand westward. However, there was a big obstacle. The appalachian mountains. Our first president , george washington, happened to be a canal engineer, had an idea. That idea was to create a transcontinental water transportation route using two canals, the erie canal that would connect hudson river, lake erie, ohio river, mississippi, all the way to the gulf of mexico. In the early days of america, we didnt have a big federal government. In terms of funding and implementing the canal depended on the states. So fortunately the state of new york had a champion there, de witt clinton, who became their commissioner and got the job done through the state of new york. He rose to become the governor of the state of new york. Ohio facing a similar challenge in terms of funding, et cetera, you find its on the verge of bankruptcy. The canal project is worth more than the value of ohio. The state of new york backed the bonds and it was de witt clinton who came to ohio for the groundbreaking. Why . Guess what, it made a lot of beneficial difference to the state of new york including the fact that new york city became the only port that would export and import goods making it the Financial Capital of the america. In ohio, we had a fellow by the name of alfred kelly who became the commissioner and took it on as his lifelong legacy, if you will, to make sure that canal got built on time and under budget. Its 309 miles in length. It goes from cleveland to port smith, ohio, on the ohio river. The construction began in 1825. By 1827, july 4th, the first boat from akron to cleveland docked through the canal port in cleveland. By 1832, the entire system was complete. It made a tremendous difference. For the nation, it allowed us to start to rationalize our economy. It allowed us to have internal trade. Prior to that, all of the seaboard states depended on exporting in order in terms of making money and delivering goods and services. This helped america expand westward. By doing so, i mentioned new york city became the Financial Capital of the country. Ohio rises from a wilderness to be the third most populous and the third richest state in the union by the 1860s. Canal life was a slowpaced life. Canals, boats, went 4, 5 miles per hour. Were standing next to a lock right now. And there would have been numerous locks to allow those boats to basically navigate the terrain and topography. These became elevators that lifted and lowered the boats as they made their journey. It was cramped quarters. Oftentimes, you would find cattle and people sleeping in the same boat. Some were travelers, some were goods being delivered. It was a hectic life but at a slow place. The goods that were moved along the canal from ohio eastward were grain, wheats, things of this nature. Things that were farmed here. We became the bread basket of america for a reason. This was a good place to grow things. And new england became a good place to make things. So basically we had this barter trade system that was part of our National Economy growing that had one hand food, on the other hand, services, goods, machines, et cetera. The canal in ohio paid for itself. What is significant, in cleveland, we had our way lock. The way lock was how you made money with the canal. The difference between its original weight and what was docked in at the port of cleveland, that where you got your taxes, thats where you made your money. In 1874 when the railroads bought the mile of canal land in the city of cleveland to put a railroad track, we took that weigh cancal. We still use the weigh canal in 1874. We were still making money on that canal. Railroads arrived in cleveland in 1854. The guy who helps bring the railroads to slooecleveland, the guy who championed the canal. The railroads had an Immediate Impact on canal. The canal did stay in use all the way up until 1913. It had a different use. It started to become a place where people would go on a weekend, they would have a boat, they would travel up and down the canals. Many times, canals, when they were put in place, would have General Stores or taverns and people would i guess in their day go pub crawling, if you will, using a canal boat on a sunday afternoon. One permanent legacy of the canal was the fact that in cleveland, especially, the river valley became the center of storage, it became a port, it became a Manufacturing Center of the city itself. So thats where the wealth of cleveland grew. It was all based upon the fact that you had that canal as clevelands first port there. As time went on and manufacturing obviously rose, city of cleveland grew. We became the fifth largest city in the country. We had major, major steel mills and oil refineries, thanks to John Rockefeller. And there was a consequence environmentally to those uses. Prior to the Environmental Protection agency and regulations for water and what you can put in water and rivers, et cetera, there were no regulations. And so, you know, in cleveland, you had situations where, for instance, standard oil and John Rockefeller basically refined oil along the banks of the river, when they did so, there were certain byproducts that he could not find a use for and therefore they ended up in the river. It was told and reported that at one time we had a fire in 1957. They went and measured the gunk that was on the top of the river and it was more than 8 inches deep of oil and other byproduct that is were flammable. But the story itself, although its bad, it really had tremendously positive outcomes. It inspires earth day. It helps pass legislation that creates the United States epa. It helps pass the clean water bill, the clean air bill. If you look at all of the consequences of that particular river fire, the positive far outweighs the negative of that. And cleveland, due to that river fire and due to the exposure it got, we pretty much are the beginning of the environmental movement. In 1974, Congress Passed legislation that created the Cuyahoga Valley National park. And it became the central feature of the National Park. Were still whats called an area of concern. Theres still work to be done in terms of completing the job of cleaning up the river. But the needle has gone dramaically to the positive end. Were just about through the area of concern. In fact, in 2000 then president bill clinton introduced a program called the American Heritage Rivers Program and he basically put the invitation out to anyone who thought their river was significant enough to the story of america to compete for this new designation, we did. We competed for the Cuyahoga River as part of that. And the story was told to choose what was going to be the first ten rivers to be nominated for American River status. He read through the list and said, where is the cuyahoga . Didnt they apply . And the answer was, no, they did apply. However, they didnt make the cut. He goes, this program is all about the Cuyahoga River. And the reason he said that was, its the comeback of the cuyahoga that is the story today. This area that were in right now, became Cuyahoga National Recreation Area in december of 1974. It became Cuyahoga Valley National park in the year 2000. With that comes a new idea for bringing National Parks to people. Most of us arent going to get to the gates of the wildlife refuge, but if we have National Parks nearby, we can get to those. They started making National Parks in urban areas. We have a backbone thats a braided backbone with the ohio and erie canal, a braided backbone with the cuyahoga City Railroad and the Cuyahoga River. This was created out of land that had been used in some instances abused, left in ruin, because it was a wasteland in some places that people didnt see any potential for. And yet we cleaned it up, we let nature do what nature does, and now were the 11th most visit National Park. Theres a huge story here, a story of can i say redemption . If we allow nature to do what it does best, if we give it the chance to do what it does best and not interfere and help it, then the land cant recover with environmental legislation and laws and with things that we have in place. Now we have a river that is coming back to life. The environment has recovered. Yes, it was degraded because of man. But it was also helped by man and it has allowed us with that helped, it has recovered to recreate this great green area we have now. From the Cuyahoga River in ohio we now travel to the banks of the Mississippi River and gateway arch National Park in st. Louis where a monument to americas westward expansion has become a recognizable symbol for the city who played a vital role in it. Most people, just like i was when i first saw it, when you see it from a distance, you think, oh, thats kind of interesting. Its kind of cool. And then the closer you get to it, you realize how really massive it is. And getting up to the base of it and touching it, looking up the 630 feet to the top, it really is very, very impressive. I think the closer you get to it, the more impressed you become. Right now were standing close to the famous gateway arch in st. Louis. 630foot tall stainless steel structure that was designed back in 1947. But not built until the mid1960s and completed in 1965. Each year we get about 2 1 2 million visitors who come to see the memorial and see the arch. So its a very busy place, especially during the summer months. The gateway arch was designed by a man who was born in finland. He came here to america when he was 10 years old with his father who was a very famous architect. He mainly had worked just with his father up to the point in time when an architectural competition was announced for what became the arch that you see behind me. The competition was for Jefferson National expansion memorial which was a National Park service site founded by a president ial proclamation in 1935 to commemorate st. Louiss role in the westward expansion of the United States. 12 years after the founding of the park, an architectural competition was held to decide what the memorial itself would look like. And basically, they had about 90 acres of land to work with. 40 city blocks had been torn down, completely raised of all of their original buildings, to make way for the memorial on the st. Louis river front. Each architect that submitted a design proposal could really do whatever he or she wanted. It could be a huge sculpture, a series of museum buildings. They did want one central feature to be in each of these designs. Some people put an obelisk in, some people put a big kind of monolithic rectangular block or something. He decided to go with the idea of an arch and it was only after he kind of designed the arch that he realized, oh, it forms a gateway. So its really appropriate for the idea of a memorial to st. Louiss role as a gateway, to have a gigantic gateway on the river front. On the inside its made of three quarter inch carbon steel. We have a sandwich. In the lower portions of the sandwich, its filled in with concrete. In the upper portions, there are steelreinforcing rods that keep the sections apart. Its a unique structure because theres no girders that form the shape of the arch. Sometimes visitors are surprised because they havent read about the arch to learn that they can go to the top of it. They think maybe its just like a big piece of Outdoor Sculpture and you can look at barrelshap capsules that fit five persons in each one and on each leg of the arch there are eight of those capsules that form a train that run on a track. With people get into the capsule its hanging from the tracks. As they go to the top, by the time they get to the top its on top of the track. So in order to accommodate that and make sure that people arent going to be flipped upside down, it actually shifts and turns to keep the car level. It doesnt go ride like something at a county fair or six flags or something, but its a unique experience. A lot of people really prize the experience of riding in these strange little capsules up to the top and getting the nice view that they get from the top of the arch from thorrer isvation deck right at the top. Right now were in the midst of a multimillion dollar project that is being funded by many different entities that are partnering with the National Park service to kind of revitalize the park itself and to make it more accessible to people. For many years weve been kind of an island surrounded by highspeed roads and what is going to happen is kind of a lid is going to be placed over the highway so that you can walk directly from the city where you probably would have parked your vehicle without having to cross any major streets. Its really this iconographic symbol of st. Louis sort of like what the space needle is to seattle or the Empire State Building or the statue of liberty is to new york. There are certain symbols that immediately identify a place on the map to people and the arch is the one, the one for st. Louis. Right now we leave the city once considered the gateway to the west and travel through the great plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the Colorado National monument near Grand Junction to hear how one man helped preserve this area on colorados western slope. I think everybody is just amazed by the its not a widely publicized presence here and the Public Service doesnt advertise. So people find out about this because they read magazine articles or they see features like youre preparing and its not our typical colorado scenery. Its not what most people think of when they think of colorado. So it comes as a pleasant surprise to folks who find it here. John otto was a kind of a vagabond, not in the sense that he was a na nair do well, but he didnt have permanent roots. He was attracted to this area around 1907 by the promise of employment on a water line project and i guess this was just the type of country thanks really appealing to him and so he issue gbegan to agitate for creation of a National Park here. First thing he did is he wrote a lot of letters to prominent people trying to get this established as a National Park and he also constructed a lot of trails to afford access into the canyons and on to the rims of the monument. Im sure the local people came out on sunday afternoon and they hitched out a wagon and so on. One of the other things he did was in 1926 he started collecting buffalo nickels from the kids in town, and used that money to transport a couple of bison in here. He wanted to establish a herd of bison in the monument. The elks club conspired to bring in a couple of elk. John got some money from the chamber of commerce to build some fences to contain these animals and for many years we had a bison herd now. The elk took one look around and they went on the south end of the high country, but oddly enough theyre coming back into the monument now impeach we. Were seeing more and more elk sign and they were confined to a really small area and they had a really adverse impact on the resource, but that was the kind of thing he did. He was interested in boosting the area and promoting it and so on, but there was no concerted effort until john otto came here to set this aside as a National Park or a National Monument. There are a couple of distinctions between National Parks and National Monuments and one of them is legal relating to the method in which it was established and the other is more based on its resource qualities. Otto agitated for the creation of a National Park here, but the creation of a National Park requires an act of congress, and so its much more difficult to do. The National Monument can be established by a president ial proclamation, and so although john otto wanted a National Park it was much easier to establish a National Monument and thats what happened when president taft proclaimed the area in 1911 the other distinction is resource based and generally the National Monument is set aside in recognition of one spectacular feature. In this case, the erosional qualities of the monument. The National Park is like multiple National Monuments all thrown together. So, for example, yellowstone which was the first National Park has its wild life values and has a Mountain Range running through it and it has a high elevation lake and it has the thermal features and so on and thats generally what sets parks apart from monuments and there are its a fuzzy boundary between them and there are areas that are National Parks and that probably should be more monuments and vice versa. Ottos early attempts to make the monument accessible include building trails to the canyons and also pioneering the road on the east side of the monument called the serpents trail and the serpents trail served not only to afford access to the monument, but also afforded access for ranchers living south of the monument and access to their land and so on. So at some point otto envisioned that that serpents trail would be the starting point for the road he called the union road which would continual of the way from the Grand Junction area to southern california, and he was a big schemer. He was always dreaming of these huge projects and so on, and thats one of the reasons that he eventually left the monument is that other forces thought theyd like to have that same road, but not running over the monument and running over the grand valley basically along the route of the railroad, and basically, along the route of interstate 70 today. Otto ended up on that because he was so vociferous. That was one of the things that helped ease him out the door. Beyond the serpents trail, though, the park service thought that there would be some value in having a road and otto also did that would ride around the rim rocks so that people would have these spectacular vistas when they drove around and entered the monument. So in 1929 the park service had already established drawings for what is todays rim rock drive and some work actually started on it with the money from the chamber of commerce and some other sources. But the road to construction didnt start in earnest until the start of the great depression. In 1933 after president Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, in his first hundred days he did all kinds of things to stimulate the economy and one of them was the creation of the civilian conservation corps. There were several camps of ccc enrollees in the monument and basically those men, along with some local folks built the rim rock drive. Its a road that could not be built today, i mean, for environmental reasons and cost reasons, though one would attempt such a project. I think at the peak of the project there were as many as 600 people working on it. A lot of the work was hand work using mules and picks and shovels and such, but they did have some mechanized equipment and did a lot of blasting and so on, as well, and it wasnt just the ccc. The Works Progress administration hay presence here, the emergency Recovery Administration and so on. There were all of these socalled alphabet cal agencies that worked here during the depression years. They built a bunch of really fabulous sand stone structures, but most of that work was done by local stone masons and local experienced men, they called them and they endure to this day and theyre all on the National Register of Historic Places and really gorgeous buildings. John otto said this was like the heart of the world to him and that was the feeling a lot of us had who have been privileged to work here. Its a terrific place so i would urge anyone who has the opportunity or is coming this way is to take the time to pay us a visit. You can spend two hours driving across the road or enjoy a threshold experience with a short hike or you can commit to a longer stay. There is a lot here to see and do. Since the establishment of yellowstone in 1872 the National Park system has grown to 419 sites across the United States and u. S. Territories. We now take you to one of the most recognizable Mount Rushmore National Memorial near rapid city south dakota. The Mount Rushmore memorial in the heart of south dakotas black hills. There it is, the 60foot head of george washington. Three others are to follow will be honored in unveiling ceremony. When i look at the president s the first thing i think about is some individual achievements from each of those people, but really what they do for me and what this whole memorial does for me is it reminds me about what they stood for. Standing for freedom, for democracy, for republics. I get to think about that every day. I get to share that with people every day. I meet people from all over the world who might not know who those president s are, but they understand what freedom means. The original idea was by done robinson who was a state historian and he would carve statues in the round and he was going cut all of the way around and have people like lewis and clark chief red cloud saj. Sacajawea, and borden said you are not thinking big enough. Selecting the four people that are up there and the four president s, that was the artist, and when you look at them you can kind of figure out why they were selected. George washington, our first president , the person who gave up the power, he could have stayed in power. He was very popular. Thomas jefferson, a lot of people would say that must be because of the declaration of independence, but thats not why the artist chose him. Borgland chose him because of the louisiana purchase, doubling the size of the country. Lincoln, you can probably figure that out and keeping the country together during the civil war and taking care of the nation. The challenging one, Theodore Roosevelt. Selected by the artist, but he wasnt the most popular guy at the time. So borgman selected theeder roosevelt, so he took them from being bound by the oceans and he was also the president who was standing for the common man and both of those things resonated with the artists. Two of the four were slave owners. Does that engender a discussion, as well amongst and you all talk about that and your interpretation of these president s that washington and jefferson . Some of the president s were slave owners. There was discussion that pops up around the property around that, and theres not as much discussion as you might expect because you think, well, thats a major controversy. When it does, its certainly something that we step forward and were talking about. All of our interpretive programs here. Any time you hear a park ranger talking about something and presenting the program. They did their own research and they put their own program together and do their own presentation. So we dont focus on one thing in particular, its the passion of the interpreter and we have had some. Their focus was slavery, but president s who wrestled with slavery. Can you discuss where mt. Rush owe more is . Mount rushmore is in south dakota and south dakota has the black hills if youre on the western side of the state. If youre looking at rapid city ware about 2,000 feet higher than rapid. Some people referred to this as the turtle on the prairie. You can see the black hills from a long distance. Tribes that had considered this a sacred site and considered the black hills a sacred site. They were referencing and they could see it in a distance and it looked black because of the pond ro Ponderosa Pines so you can see it across the state of south dakota. Over the years, there has been discussion from native americans and others about the location of the black hills thats sacred to the native americans and right here you have something that represents to some people the u. S. Government policy towards the native americans has not always been looked at the same way. How do you all what do you talk about when you tell people about that issue and Mount Rushmore . There was some controversy right from the start carving in the black hills. That controversy came from tribal people as well as people that today we would call people who are ecologists. The tribes they were looking at a place that they would come in and honor and have honor ceremonies and spend some time and in 1925, that wasnt looked at the same way we looked at it today. Today we do still have tribal people, and we try to honor some of that through our interpretive programming, and we also have a place that we set up in the court that is the lakota heritage village. So every summer we hire cultural interpreter. These are people who are lakota and they come in and talk about the lakota story. So were trying to share the importance of the black hills for all of these people as well as what that sculpture means. Its a balance the sculptor had started in georgia and he had started in stone mountain, georgia, and there was a conflict there. He left and came up here to work for done robinson in the state of south dakota and the first challenge was finding a place to carve and finding something appropriate and he and his son lincoln traveled in the site until they found this big granite outcropping. Your next challenge is how do you turn that into a sculpture . As an artist, the first thing borgland had to do was make small sizes and make them bigger and bigger until he gets to a 1 12 model and we today have the original 1 12th model so every inch of that model is a foot up on that sculpture and as youre sculpting, and when youre looking at the mountain youre talking about granite. Very fine grain. Tough stuff. So 90 of that sculpture is carved with dynamite. I dont always think of dynamite as an artists brush, but it certainly is in this case. In 1927 when they start the blasting, thats the very beginning. There were people coming up here visiting the sculpture watching that whole carving process the entire time. So there wasnt a formal opening day. They had multiple dedications for each president and borgland was big on dedications and celebration because he knew thats how he would get everyones attention and thats how more funding would come in and he was going to washington, d. C. , approaching congress and the president and trying to getmore money. Always trying to get more money. There were times his workers werent getting paid and he was putting his personal money into it. Y is he was making a trip to washington, d. C. In march 1941 to ask for more money. He stops in chicago on the way and he has an operation and dies as a result of that operation. So his son lincoln takes over the work. Lincoln had started here when he was about 12 years old so he was brought up with this. He knew all of the different jobs, blasting, drilling, pointing. He is an artist himself. So taking over the sculpture must have been both side and wonderful and lincoln declared that sculpture was completed october 31, 1941. People talk all of the time and ask all of the time about adding someone up on the sculpture. Many president s have been mentioned and many other people have been mentioned. It wont happen. The sculpture is complete. The great stone faces of four president s stand in lonely silence as the last workmen leave borglands mighty project, machinery is dismantled and all of the cleanup work was abandoned. His son lincoln put away models and Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were the last of the four faces. Borglands hand carving tools are laid away, tools of an unfinished masterpiece. The even though unfinished it stands as an eternal shrine of democracy and of four great americans who helped carve this enduring nation. There are 83 National Monuments in the National Park system. The most of any designation. Next we visit petroglyph National Monument, one of the largest of its type in north america. Today were at petroglyph National Monument, specifically were at the volcanos day use area in albuquerque, new mexico. The volcanos day use area provides trails to five volcanoes and it looks out over the city of albuquerque out towards the mountains. The volcanoes are important to petroglyph National Monument because they begin to tell the story, the geologic story been 200,000 years ago, a fishsure formed, a crack in the earths crust and hot, molten lava came out in six volcanic eruptions and some spreading a couple of miles to the east. As these eruptions took place they flowed out over layers of soil that were here in the rio grande valley, and as these layers hardened. They hardened into the salt so what weve got here is a 17milelong curve linear, on black boulders where we got 48,000 petroglyphs. While were here at the vns the story of petroglyph National Monument isnt just about a single petroglyph or petroglyph concentrations. It also includes the volcanic cones and the mesa top that spreads out towards albuquerqu. The pueblo people would carry it to the top. We have edz of them carrying water for farming and sometimes they would send their children to keep the rabbit away from their crops. So we see many ancient trails up here and this becomes part of a larger spiritual landscape thats important to most pueblo people. Were here at Boca Negra Canyon about half way along the 17mile escartment and we will be on the mckau trail and its 113 feet tall. These black boulders once came from several sheet floes from the volcanoes. Boca negra canyon is the easiest place to see petroglyphs and most of the 150,000 visitors stop here first. This is one of the first petroglyphs for people who come to petroglyph National Monument might see. Its a carving on to the rock and pueblo people would use stone chisels and hammers to pack, a braid and cize the dark black patina exposing the light color of the rock which stairies it a great, some people ask me how they were together, and theyve known about them since their creation stories. Modernday archaeologists date most of the images from 1200 to 1650. A few are older, those that are done by spanish sheep herders that were part of the land grants. In the 1970s, archaeologists came out to the west mesa and began to inventory these images. Later, interest in these grew and eventually it became a National Monument. To the pueblo people, they believe that the petroglyphs choose when and to whom to reveal themselves. Sometimes its the shadow. Sometimes its the glare or sometimes its juf the attitude and the sensitivity with which we look at the petroglyph images that reveal themselves. Sometimes telling people not to touch the petroglyphs is not enough. We know that nobody should touch the petroglyphs, but we do give people an opportunity to touch an artificial boulder that weve created for such purpose so they get the touching out of the way. We want people to understand that these are sacred images and they continue to be important to the pueblo people. Eventually, over time a patina will form and thats whats meant to happen, but until then we ask people not to touch these images. Petroglyph National Monument is one of the few National Park units thats actually owned and operated not solely by the National Park service. Petroglyph National Monument is managed by the city of albuquerque and the National Park service and we Work Together with the city to help protect and preserve these resources for the future. In the last 20 years weve had several challenges, Land Acquisition being everything for everybody and the creation of trail, vandalism and the construction of roads through the monument and the expansion through the general aviation airport and probably the biggest challenge is the storm water runoff from upstream suburban development because were completely surrounded by the city of albuquerque. As you walk the trails of petroglyph National Monument and youre looking along the enskarpment, you may notice large concentrations of boulders and thats where you will see large concentrations of petroglyphs. We are in the heart of the piedras canyon where there is a dense concentration of petroglyphs. Piedras marcadas canyon is home to 5,000 of them. Were seeing an animal over here ask were not sure what it means. Maybe something that looks like a sheep brand or maybe a cross and those what may have been carved by sheep herders and i see something that might be a bird and unidentified animals up on the rock. Here we see a concentration of boulders with mini hand images of different sizes. Some of which have an additional appendage. The pueblo people believe if a child is born, missing a finger or with an additional toe that thats a sign of power. With the concentration of hand images here, we have to wonder why . Maybe its because people passed through this way. Maybe this is a type of a calendar. We dont really know. Only the people who carved these images know for sure. What we do know is if we followed the arroyo from the heart of the piedras marcadas, and the 1100room adobe multiple plaza structure located on the rio grande, and it was important to them because of the location to the petroglyphs. The high peaks where mother earth meets father sky and they would come up here and they would follow spirit ways. They would say prayers. They would make offerings and they would carve images into the rock. Sometimes its a form of passage way. Others might be beingi image and for many pueblo people they say they would go on to the next world through the petroglyph images. They would call this place the place people speak about. It belongs to all of us. All americans not just today, but future generations. Its a place of respect. Its a place of solitude. Its a place of wonder. While petroglyph National Monument story predates the United States of america, the selma to Montgomery National historic trail in alabama marks a watershed moment in our nations history. Stretching 54 miles through central alabama, in 1965, protesters walked this route to the state capital demanding equal Voting Rights for africanamericans. National park Service Guide April Baldwin tells the story of the march and what led to them. Many people think that the selma to montgomery march strung up overnight and was a oneoff idea, but there had been a Voting Rights Movement Brewing here in selma alabama since the 1930s. Here in selma, alabama, and in many places throughout the south africanamericans were denied the right to vote not because it wasnt their constitutional right, but because there were folks throughout the south especially in positions of power that did not want these folks to have the right to vote. That way they could be considered secondclass citizens. Poll taxes and literacy tax were two of the methods that were used to dishearten africanamericans the right to vote. It was a fixed price you have to pay per year to get on the voting roles. Say i live in the rural area, and our taxes are 60 a year and the poll tax is 1 a year. So 40 out of the year of my 60 entire year income will go to the rent, but then ill have 20 in which i have to feed, clothe and provide some sort of comforts for my kids. So there arent many black people who arent going to have extra money left over to pay a poll tax. Now lets say on some whim that i have an extra dollar left over and i go down to this courthouse here and i show up saying i would like to register to vote. So i would actually go up to the county registrar. I would have my poll tax ready. Now if mr. Colonel, lets call him that and hell take my poll tax for the year and hell administer a literacy test which will be another type of barrier, that africanamericans faced when attempting the right to vote and it could take many forms and it could be how many counties are there in alabama to which i would say 67. He might ask me to name every probate judge in the county or in the entire state of alabama. So now im going to have to scramble the find the names of all of these probate judges who are in charge of enforcing the laws of these particular counties throughout the state. There wasnt any google or any type of wikipedia that would tell me this information in 1965 so it will be pretty difficult for me to do that, so that was just one form of literacy test to take and it could be in the form of a question as to how many gallons of water flow in the river, or he could give me a political test that would be 68 questions long and i would have 30 minutes to take the test, if you had a large group of folks coming to take it, whereas a white patron, they might have to pay a poll tax and only answer the questions whereas an africanamerican would have to answer all 68. Were in front of the courthouse. The Voting Rights movement started in 1965. There were protests every single day beginning in 1963 when the Student Coordinating Committee came to work in selma. They began rallying the youth of selma to come down here and protest where their parents werent necessarily joining in just yet. So you have this place where marches were being led to every single day during the summer and fall of 1963 and then resurging in 1965 when sclc the southern christian Leadership Conference came in with dr. King and there were marches continuously throughout that time going from january up until bloody sunday in march 1965. On any given day during the Voting Rights movement if you have a protest thats coming and directed at the Dallas County courthouse, most people will sign up on this sidewalk here down the side of the building and you might have sheriff jim clark standing right at the top of the steps. So if you guys see into where the door is, and thats where sheriff clark will be standing. You will have protesters lined up to get past him into the Voter Registration offers. So you would have folks lined up, wrapped around the building singing freedom songs and protefpr protest songs and doing chants so anyone walking by might hear a good woke up this morning with my mind, and steady on freedom i woke up this morning with my mind, stayed on freedom i woke up this morning with my mind, it was stayed on freedom hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah here we are at brown chapel a e church and it was one of the churches used in the movement to hold training sessions and hold meetings of civil rights union. Dr. King actually gave his first chief in the city on january 2, 1965. Im here to tell you tonight that the businessmen, the men of this city, the Police Commissioner of this city and everybody in the white power structure of this city must take a responsibility for everything that jim does in this community. Pretty much announcing his presence and letting folks know that the movement now had a kind of new voice. Throughout the 1930s the Dallas County Voters League really had been the Main Organization working here in selma to achieve Voting Rights for africanamericans and they were the main People Holding Voter Registration drives and conducting Voter Education classes for blacks throughout the county and in the city and they worked throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s in order to really attack the problem of africanamericans in selma not having the right to vote. In 1963 in february of that year sneaks into the first representatives here, but not lafayette and his wife callia to be the sneak in the area. Sneak was beginning to go to places that were touched and they were working with the young folks here in selma to prepare them for the work of civil rights and to march for rights that they werent old enough to have. So sneak really laid the foundation and the groundwork for lc to build off of in 1965. He did not meet her in brown chapel a e church and they began in the basement of Tabernacle Baptist Church on broad street and the interesting thing is tabernacle and the church has two faces. It was built by a black architect in the 1920s and during that time ordinances prevented africanamericans from entering or exiting a building on broad street which is the main street that runs through the middle of the city. So when Tabernacle Baptist Church was built in the 1920s the architect kind of played a trick on the city officials. So there is an entrance like the facade of the building has an entrance on broad street, but the real entrance to the church is on mentor avenue. So its called the church with two faces and this is where he began doing his own nonviolence resistance training for High School Students and others who were interested in protesting for the right to vote. He didnt just work out of tabernacle baptist. They moved their op raerations they moved to the first Baptist Church in selma, alabama, where we are now. They served as headquarters for many mass meetings including one right before freedom day in october 1963 where Dorothy Height would given couragement to those who would protest at the Dallas County courthouse. Selma was the logical place for the civil Rights Movement to have its push because of the fact that there were so many factors that made it a hotbed for this particular issue. So you had a population that was mostly africanamerican. There were only 240 registered black voters throughout the entire county, and then there also was agitation. The proper type of agitation that would be needed to make this movement successful. So you had a sheriff here who was very level ij rebelligerent africanamerican protesters and his name was sheriff jim clark really provided the type of resistance that groups like sclc needed in order to make selma the stand for Voting Rights. So its said that dr. King and he brought things when he came down to selma. He brought money from the sclc and their donors who were able to get people bailed out of jail and he brought motivation and we have a big person like dr. King as someone who can lead the masses and inspire people. So he brought motivation with him and that was the inspiration for a lot of adults to get involved with the movement and he brought the media and the media is where they put the nail in the coffin for the Voting Rights movement here. They were able to show that even though these protesters were nonviolent and they were only practicing civil disobedience they were still being mistreated because of sheriff clarks attitude towards them. So we just made our way from brown chapel a e church to the Edmund Pettus bridge which is a movement that africanamerican protesters in selma during the Voting Rights movement would have made three separate times. The first that we know of bloody sunday. On sunday, march 7, 1965, protesters gathered at brown chapel a e church in the playground area to get their wits about them and be prepared to go from selma to montgomery. How did they get the dwrod have a march from here in selma all of the way to montgomery . It was actually the direct action that they wanted to take in response to the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson. Jimmy lee jackson was a 26yearold veteran who lived in marion, alabama and during a night march in february 18, 1965 in that city he was shot by an Alabama State trooper while protecting his mother and grandfather from being assaulted and the marchers in selma wanted to do something that was in honor of Jimmy Lee Jackson and they decided that taking his body all of the way to the state capital and laying it on the State Capitol to show George Wallace how important Voting Rights were to them and the right thing to do. Instead of taking his body to montgomery they continued with the idea to march to montgomery, but they chafmarched with his spirit. Protesters left the church in the afternoon and progressed down, and took a right on alabama avenue and then walked right out here on broad street to cross Edmund Pettus bridge. As they crested the top of the bridge here, those who led the march saw a sea of blue and this sea of blue was made of Alabama State troopers and sheriffs deputies and citizens that had been deputized by the local sheriff here jim clark. So when they crested the top of the bridge they did feel a twinge of fear, but even though they were a little bit scared and even though the fear did rise inside them they continued to put one foot in front of the other and marched about a hundred yards of the edge of the bridge before they were stopped by john cloud. Major john cloud as the marchers approached him actually said to them that this is an Unlawful Assembly and you have two minutes to disperse and turn around and go back to your churches or your homes. John lewis said may we have a word with the major. The major responded there is no word to be had and in 30 seconds later he gave the orders for the troopers to advance and they did. And the melee that ensue sid is bloody sunday. The deputized citizens marched the marchers right here on this bridge, meeting them with knight sticks and billy clubs and furniture wrapped in barbed wire as tear gas canisters were going off and they beat these marchers not just here at this bridge, but back throughout the city and into the carver homes area where we were. There were accounts of these Law Enforcement officials throwing young women into baptismal pools right down the street from brown chapel. That was the first attempt and what made this attempt significant is the fact that there were so many media cameras that were there capturing this moment. Not only were there still cameras from the birmingham news, but there also were National News hosts who were there filming this action and that night in the middle the entire country got to see what was happening here on that day in selma, alabama. After dr. King found out about the march and all of the things that had happened to the protesters in selma, alabama, he put out a call for clergy members to march on tuesday, march 9th. Upon he wanted these folks to come and be the face of this particular march, but the next morning when he arrived in selma he got word that there was an injunction that was placed on the march by George Wallace. The injunction had gone to federal court judge Frank Johnson in montgomery and he notified dr. King that there was going to be an injunction, and thats two days after dr. King had promised all these folks that we were going go out here and go march 9th. How does he keep his word to these people who are important to selma and beginning on march 8th all of the way to march 9th for the right to vote for africanamericans and also want violate a federal Court Injunction and including the president and fbi representatives and they came up with the solution that he would march to the spot of bloody sunday where the attack began and then turn back around. And this marks as what became known as turnaround tuesday. On the morning of march 9th, there were 2,000 or so that gathered to turn right here on water avenue and then cut up the bridge right here so as they crested the top of the bridge this time that same sea of blue stared at them in the face. It was the Alabama State troopers and the sheriffs deputies from Dallas County. So as they saw this sea of blue, dr. King, who led the march knelt and prayed. They sang freedom songs and then he turned around. The majority of the people on the march very much ally all of the people on the march did not know that those were his intentions. Only the very top people in sclc were privy to this information. So you had about 2,000 folks who assumed that they were marching all of the way to montgomery, but indeed they turned around. And there were many, some who were happy about the turning around because they didnt want another bloody sunday attack and there were some that were extremely disguruntled and that led to snake leaving selma and continued their rights with student groups from Tuskegee University and Alabama State university. After the ministers march there was the death of another young man named james reeb. He had come down from boston to be a part of the march and that night he was brutally beaten by white citizens in selma for his involvement in the movement. He actually died about two days later from his injuries and hes known as the second martyr of the Voting Rights movement, but his death actually inspired a lot of thought from white citizens across the country. So thats another reason that this day is known as turnaround tuesday because whites attitudes toward blacks having the right to vote started to change. He began hearings on march 11th. He heard from many civil rights leaders, he heard from josa williams and jon lewhn lewis an clark, the governor, governor wallace other ands who were not fond of the march and thought that it would disrupt Public Safety and after this, he issued his decision pretty much saying that this march would be necessary in order for africanamericans to obtain the right to vote and there was an injustice done to folks in the city of selma by those issuing the injunction that the march of the scale seemed to be appropriate. That ruling was issued on march 17th and they made the entire trek from selma to montgomery. Beginning on march 31st, more than 230 people gathered at chapel a and e church that began from selma to montgomery. They took the bloody sunday route and came down sylvan street and came right down alabama avenue and progressed across broad street and across Edmund Pettus bridge and this time with no sea of blue staying at different camp sites which were typically black farms in Dallas County, and lance county and a catholic complex in Montgomery County for four nights and continued to march all of the way until they got to the Alabama State capital. On march 26, 1965. There are more than 8,000 of us started on a mighty walk from selma, alabama. They told us we wouldnt get here. There were those who said we would get here over their dead body. All the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of alabama saying we aint going to let nobody turn us around. A few months later the Voting Rights act of 1965 was signed ensuring that africanamericans would be granted the right to vote and this march was the direct cause for africanamericans having their right to vote ensured by the federal government. So this march and this demonstration has been the realization of the desire of africanamericans to have the right to vote for over 100 years since the end of reconstruction. God bless you. From selma and civil rights in 1965 we travel back 100 years to virginia and the end of the civil war. Appomattox courthouse National Historical park is where well hear about the historic event and what life was like in the village after the war. Im standing in front of perhaps one of the most famous courthouses in the United States where really nothing of significance happened. Appomattox courthouse. The name is pretty confusing. Courthouse, one word, is a building like the one behind me and situated in the village of Appomattox Court house, two word, which is the village. Its where general lee sur rented rendered to ulysses s. Grant bringing the end to the civil war. This town has a lot of history to its size. Today wed like to talk about why Appomattox Court house is so famous. We would like to talk about some Untold Stories. This side of the courthouse is a village complete with a tavern, stores, lawyers offices and stores. The town was no more than 130, 140 in 1865. It is an unlikely lace for two large military forces to meet. General lees army of Northern Virginia and general grants multiple armied force of about 63,000 men, all told about 95,000 soldiers within a sixmile radius of here and unlikely because its where neither army wanted to be, but its where they ended up and as fate would have it for general lee his army was practically surrounded here by general grants forces and on the morning of palm sunday april 9, 1865, general lee around 1 30 in the afternoon general lee would meet general grant at the mcclean house, and one of the nicer upper middle class homes, and they would meet in the parlor to agree and discuss the surrender of the virginia effectively bringing about the end of the war. That is certainly a crucial story, nationally significant and its no doubt the reason that this has been designated a National Historic site. However, there are plenty of Untold Stories about appomattox, for over 150 years, many people have referred to it as the place where the nation reunited. Of course, for students of history, we struggled with that idea. If that were true, the 150 years that have that have followed the American Civil War dont make a lot of sense. In fact, during the centennial, the 100th anniversary of the centennial in 1965, a tremendous celebration took place here marking the occasion. Meanwhile, the schools in appomattox county, as have many across the state and appomattox is five years away from integration in 1970. So why isnt it the place where our nation reunited. Part of the story starts with the large field behind me. Something that a lot of people dont realize about Appomattox Court house is that there were two battles fought here and general lees decision was not arbitrary to surrender. He was brought to that decision because of the military realities literally that surrounded him. In the field behind me on the morning of april 9th the battle of Appomattox Courthouse was fought. It would put over 20,000 federal soldiers on this field behind me. During this battle that raged on in the morning of april 9th, was there one known civilian casualty of Appomattox Courthouse. It was a woman named Hanna Reynolds. Hanna reynolds, like 52 of all human beings that live in the appomattox county at that time was enslaved. She was enslaved by dr. Samuel coleman. She lived in a home about one mile to the west of where im standing in the epicenter of the battlefield on the morning of the 9th. She was very unfortunate to be hit by a con fid rfederate arti shell. She was tended to by surgeons from the infantry unit. She was able to survive another three days. She died on april 12th, that wednesday. April the 12th is a very important date, too, in the history of appomattox because it was on this very road that im standing on on april 12th that confederate infantry stacked their arms and their flags and ammunition all along this road. In fact, you could say that the individual confederate soldier actually surrendered on this road and not in the parlor of the mclean house the way general lee did. Hanna reynolds dieing on april 12th meant that in a way nah she was mortally wounded as an enslaved woman and in a way she died an emancipated woman three daysenslaved woman and in a way died an emancipated woman three days later. Its given us cause to explore the story and others like it a little more deeply. Exactly what did happen in this village and in fact throughout the south and the country in the weeks and the months that followed the surrender. In history, it seems to almost always be a good idea to ask the question so what . General lee surrendered to grant on april 9, 1865. So what . The arm of Northern Virginia would fight no more. Thats a big so what . What about the enslaved population of appomattox and the state of virginia, what was their future and the future of former slave holders and older and middle class whites that did own slaves and would still be deeply affected by what was about to happen. We will head down to the village of Appomattox Courthouse and well visit the kelly house that could also be known as the Robinson House and explore the story right here in the village that shed some light also of a National Significance of what happened after the surrender. Here on the eastern edge of the village of Appomattox Courthouse we find a contrasting building. Behind me is a home that was known as the kelly house at the time of the sur rernd. Unlike the mclean house and an upper middle class home of 3200 square feet, perfect for the surrender meeting for lee and grant, the kelly house far more represents far more what is in south side virginia would have lived in in the mid1860s. It is down here that we find an excellent example of an untold story. We talked about what happened to Hanna Reynolds immediately after the war and unfortunately, she passed away from wounds received during the final battle, but down here at the kelly house on the eastern end of the village, we find an excellent example of what happened next after the r surrender. The kelly family was completed in 1965. It was a large one and there were five sons in this family that all five fought in the arm of Northern Virginia. At least one or maybe two were here for the surrender in their own hometown on april 9th and the stacking of arms on april 12, 1865, but in the years that followed the war eventually this house purchased by a man named job robinson. We dont know a great deal about his early life, but this was a great look at what emancipation looked like in the years following the surrender in appomattox. Perhaps two of the tangible examples of emancipation that you would have seen in the landscape that summer of 65 would have been the development of a freedom in school and the legalization of black education very much so a tarjibngible evie and to be able to form their own churches. In fact, many of these cases these were people that were members of ironically integrated churches. At least physically integrated and the congregations were separated within, but it was the larger white churches where many of the black residents actually attended, but as a result of the surrender got permission to leave those churches and create their own church. The first such church to be created here in appomattox county was galilee Baptist Church. Initially our understanding is in the months that followed the surrender the congregation would form an arbor church, simply meeting outside under the trees, but by 1867 the congregation had been able to form enough money and resources to build a log church that exists just about a mile to the west of the courthouse. About 50 years later in 1916 a new church would be built on the same grounds and thats the church that is still there today more than 100 years later. So the story of john robinson, hes not only a homeowner and the cofounder of the church, hes also a businessman. Hes a shoe cobbler, and apparently, a pretty good one because he ran a business here for more than 50 years. John robinson didnt pass away until 1933, but after raising a very large family and a successful business and some of the Robinson Family members are buried in the backyard of the kelly Robinson House. So right here in the village of appomattox county we can see the so what of the sur renter and it unfoals here before our very eyes. We only had to look deeply to see these Untold Stories. Almost 150 years after the establishment of yellowstone, as americas first National Park, there are now more than 60 designated National Parks in the u. S. Today. Next, we take you into the sonnoran desert of arizona to saguaro National Park where well hear about its history and the Park Services efforts to reach a more Diverse Group of visitors. The desert landscape, the amount of wild life that you see, amazing sunsets, the variation in the terrain. This park goes from the Sonoran Desert ecosystem to the top of the Rincon Mountains which get close to 9,000 feet. So the diversity is amazing, and i think thats one thing that makes this park pretty special pretty special is the diversity of the vegetation, the wildlife and the landscape that you see everywhere. The National Monument was established in 1933 and one of the primary reasons for that was for the protection of this Cactus Forest that is surrounding us here. In the 1930s, it was a vast and very dense stand of large and small areas that covered the land behind me. It was shown that the Cactus Forest appeared to be disappearing and many of the mature plants were dying. Impacts from grazing and also from a widespread harvest of mesquite trees impacted this Cactus Forest. They depend on a nurse tree early in their growth for getting established, from being protected from the extreme heat and sun and also from the cold temperatures in the winter. If a seed falls and a cactus is able to get established, it helps to ensure its going to grow. Many of the cactus in here are close to 200 years or potentially older. Usually theyre by the time theyre about 50 years old, maybe 15 feet tall, theyre starting to grow their first arms. Even a cactus that is only a couple of feet on the ground, its been for decades. As time has progressed, you can see now that mesquite, theres a healthy forest in here. Theyre acting as nurse trees again. One thing that you dont really see behind me because of all the trees is the fact that there is a lot of young cactus. We have done extensive surveys in this area using a lot of volunteers and citizen scientists who have come out here and helped us walk across the landscape in a grid fashion to document all of the cactus in a mild square area here. Even though you cant see it looking out across this valley, there are many, many more cactus growing. Every ten years, we have these plots where we count how many nest cavities are in the saguaros, how many arms are on them and measure the population of the saguaros in time. That will help us to understand whats happening in the population. We are on the historic Cactus Forest loop of our East District of the park. We refer to this as the mountain district. This roadway was constructed by the ccc and has served as a primary tourist loop, a way to get out in the park, see the saguaro cactus. You have an opportunity to see what is in this park, gila monsters, jack rabbits, over a hundred bird species, potentially, and all of this unique Sonoran Desert. Our saguaro cactus and many other species, ones that you have to look close to find and then other that is are large and prominent on the landscape. People refer to the desert, they think sparse landscape thats hot and theres nothing there, but, actually, as you can see out the window here, this place is thick with vegetation. Were still really green right now because of the monsoon rains. And its a sea of plants and wildlife out here. 2015 was our highest visitation on record and we continue to see those numbers increase on a monthly basis this year. People are finding their park here at the saguaro National Park and i think across the country, visitation has been increasing and certainly the centennial, the advertising campaign, all of the different initiatives to get people engaged with their parks, in their community and across the country, has i think is has been extremely successful. We want to be reaching out to our the diversity of our communities, improving our visitation, not just in numbers, but in the richness of the visitors that we have at our parks. Representing what america is today. I grew up just south of here as a kid. But then i came up here to the university of arizona to go to school, got my undergrad and my graduate degree here and ive been in tucson for 26 years. Weve got an exploding population here in tucson. Were about 44 latino, and like i said before, i came to college, ive lived here for 26 years and i had never been to the National Park here in tucson. I got recruited out of the local county government here as a Community Engagement coordinator because i was, as they said, the target audience of the next 100 years. So it was almost an experiment to see what it would take to engage folks of my demographic to attend the parks and some folks argue that the park service has not been very inviting. But theres been a concerted effort to engage not just folks of color, but folks of different abilities. A lot of our facilities have been made accessible to folks with disabilities. So that is part and parcel of what is keeping folks away. They think its the old National Park service that is very limited to vehicles its almost like some folks think, were set up for professional hikers. And were not. It really is designed to be accessible to all. Here in tucson, recently, we had funding to establish an all ada accessible walkway. The walkway was part of the old horsemans trails, and we had a horse vandalized, they damaged one of the trails. And the Community Came out and they said, hey, were sorry about that. We want to help out. Heres a small contribution to help repair the trail. And so folks take care of each other here in tucson and they care about making sure the parks are accessible to different folks. Having National Parks, you know, its one of those true american ideas that originated in the United States. The people of this country, we know that they value the National Park system and all of these wonderful places and different resources that we have, natural and cultural resources. Advocacy is something thats really important and being relevant to our current park visitors is extremely important. We want to provide an opportunity for them to get outside, to learn about the outdoors, these resources that the wildlife is dependent upon but that were also dependent on, clean water, clean air. These things originate and National Parks. The more people that can visit and understand that, the more likely we are to have a new generation that embraces the importance of that and wants to protect it into the future. Cspans city tours travels the country exploring the american story. With the support of local capable providers, we bring a history on American History tv. To watch videos of any of the places weve been, go to cspan. Org cities tour and follow us on twitter at cspan cities. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Thi cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies and brought to you today by your cable provider. Weeknights were featuring American History tv programs. Tonight, we visit independence National Historical park in philadelphia to see congress hall. The u. S. Congress met in the building from 1790 to 1800 and ratified the bill of rights there. Our guide is matthew eiffel. Watch beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv on cspan3. A convention was held in seneca falls new york to discuss the state of womens rights in the country. It was seen as the beginning of the womens suffrage movement. It took until 1920, over 72 years later, for women to earn the right to vote. During those years, organizations such as the National American womans Suffrage Association and National Womans Party would form creating a national movement. It was women in every community who led the effort in their towns and s