Transcripts For CSPAN3 American History TV In Hattiesburg MS 20160522

Railroad town, earning it the nickname pub city. Today this southcentral Mississippi City is best known as the home of the university of southern minute southern mississippi and camp shelby, one of the countrys largest Training Bases. With the help of our comcast training partners, over the next hour here how they became a center for the Civil Rights Movement. Instance, weg, for had registration. Africanamericans could not register. Everything was still segregated. A lot of the businesses, restaurants, and hotels were still under these kind of old jim crow laws. Later, the story of a hattiesburg washerwoman who saved her lifes earnings and then gave it all away. She started out by boiling clothes and a big tub in the house. She would wash them, she would hang them up to dry, and when she ironed them she would put them out there as well. She started out by charging a dime, if you can believe that. From a dime i guess she went to a quarter and then maybe up to . 50 and a dollar. What was amazing about her, she put up her money and she never spent it. First revisit the home of a vernon damer. A civil rights leader whose home was attacked by the ku klux klan. It came as a result of the orders from the head of the , who said go annihilate him. They came to kill the whole family. My husband was vernon damon senior. He worked to try to get africanamericans registered to vote. He had been in the sunday school and part of the choir. Cotton,commercial tending as much as 70 acres of cotton. My dad was one of the founders of that branch of the acp. Establish. Men to at that time it was definitely out an underground organization. He felt that having the opportunity to vote because he couldnt vote, was the pathway hopefully to first class. Itizenship there were places that blacks couldnt go that the white could go. The row house was the only places where the bathrooms for black people. Colored on the doors, colored was for black people. Ven the water fountains they were sidebyside, a white fountain and a black fountain. Colored fountain is what they really called it. My dad and other black citizens in the nearby town of hattiesburg, mississippi, only about 5. 5 miles south appear, they would go pay their property taxes, their poll taxes my dad did that religiously. They would go to the Voter Registration office to register. The registrar would refuse to let them register. , he was just paying poll tax. He had pushed for black people to be able to vote. He knew that that would make a change. Now, during the two or three days before they came in and killed him, an announcement was made on the radio that people would be able to pay their poll tax and they wouldnt have to go to the courthouse. Anyone who didnt have the money, it was just two dollars, he would pay up for them. The banks wouldnt loan us any money. Even the banks hed already done business with. By that time by the time they , wegotten so many threats slept in shifts. We knew it wasnt safe. They were sleeping in shifts. Was on active duty protecting the people that wanted to take their lives. Didnt find that out until my dad the home was destroyed in my dad lost his life. There was always guns in the house, but this one time when i came home, my family wife and three kids im career. I came home and my dad said hey, dont walk in front of a window at night. They pull the curtains. Then he told me why. There was a gun in every room. That didnt bother me. That was the first time i was introduced to that level of fear. 1965 we stopped sleeping in shifts because we stop getting the threats around christmas. They had to carloads of klansmen coming into our property. They hit the haute they hit the house. Even if the house was on fire, they were shooting in the house. By that time he was returning fire from guns because he kept loading guns. He tried to get the children out. Set both facilities on fire at the same time. They were shooting into the flames to make sure that if the flames dont get you, we are going to. They came to wipe out my family. Bedroom her out of the and put her out. I was holding my shoulder, pulling the window. I made it moved. I turned around to get ready in the window fell down. I could not get the wiow up again. I hit it so hard to my shoulder that i fell out of the bottom sash. They were burned on both arms and the forehead. He got burned real bad. By the time my dad got out, he had stayed inside too long, holding the clan off that was firing into the structure. By the time he got out he had inhaled too much of the fumes. Burned. I went to the hospital. The baby was crying because she was scared. Call dr. John. Vernons doctor. To see about betty. Betty was crying. He left betty and then we came back to work. They put them both in the same room at the hospital. Better. T he was getting everyone else could see that he was not getting better. Here, thererived was a site along with the Grocery Store about 100 feet from the house that was still smoldering. He had already passed away. Were law enforcement, spectators, news people just covering the site. My dad was a highly respected man. From the community was surprising to the white population in short, because it was hostile. Sure, because it was hostile. They said if it can happen to vernon, we know it can happen to us. They laid aside their fear and said a, weve got to do something. They had the leader of the naacp. Charles came down and organize the marks. The black neighborhood, the courthouse. He begins make demands. The black community put up a oil cut that was successful. They made the demands that the community had. Time they demanded how could you have this dispute with this White Society . The president got involved. Johnson. He sent a telegram to my mother and our family expressing his regret and his condolence to the family. They went to prison but didnt stay long. They wanted to come back and 98 but he died in prison. It was terrible because i had to take the witness stand. I had to testify for them each time. I was the leadoff witness every time. I dont know how many times i took a stand trying to get something done. What i hope is that that time , the things that we experience , ithis country, our country hope they will never happen again to anybody. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our Comcast Cable partners to showcase history of hattiesburg, mississippi. To learn more about the cities on the current tour, visit cspan. Org cities tour. We continue now without our look at the history of hattiesburg. There is an essay by shirley, age 14, that says what do i think about hattiesburg . Its an unfit place to live because of the people that make up this town. The whites have their way, if they kill one of us, they get away with it. What are we going to do about this . Nothing but take a stand for equal rights. Today we are in special collection at the university of southern mississippi. We are part of the library here. Today we are featuring different collections from the civil rights materials. This manuscript material, oftentimes when you have your president s and governors and stuff, they all know to keep their papers. It is kind of the normal just average everyday person like us, you know, who dont realize that what they have the so valuable and that people can learn so much from it. What we strive to do here in relation to our civil rights materials is collect the experiences of the People Living during the movement. Just the nature of the collections, much of this material we are the only institution in the world who has these. After brown versus board of was when several new segregationist groups were created. You had the white citizens council, kind of the uptown klan. These would be Prominent Community members. Also going you are to have the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. A state agency whose sole purpose was to prevent integration. They kind of casket understates rights. These organizations, along with the clan and other groups really had an impact on mississippi and hattiesburg and just the way of life in mississippi. Hattiesburg, for instance, we have had Voter Registration. Africanamericans could not register to vote. Everything was still segregated. A lot of the businesses and restaurants, the hotels were still under these kinds of old jim crow laws. One of the things i want to show, prime to freedom prior to freedom summer to show the kinds of things that happened in the area, they have the story of these two young boys. This is february of 1964. Edgar and randy williamson. They were in jones county, the county north of hattiesburg. These two boys were eight and nine and had never attended a day of school. The information about them was in the paul johnson papers. He was the governor at the time in 1964. This is particularly about this letter. This is the condensation of a very voluminous file. That they had you never been to school because they could not find a school that would take them. Legally according to the 1 8 rule in mississippi, they were legally white, but because they did have this one drop of blood, they were discriminated against. They did get into school but this is a perfect example of the day today things of how africanamericans or people of africanamerican ancestry were really impacted before freedom summer. So, mississippi was chosen. Ecause of the dire need the Race Relations in the state were not the best. Under the main Umbrella Organization of civil rights groups, you had various other organizations involved. Including the naacp, sclc, and core. These groups came together to brainstorm and organize freedom group, but they were the that did most of the work. Bob moses, or i still believe lives in jackson, was the one who organized this and got this going. Really this was not a regional effort or local effort. This was a National Effort to really do something very local. , the to freedoms summer summer of 1964, the 12 weeks during the summer 64, volunteers starting in february of 1964, sncc, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee started advertising and getting people to volunteer to come to mississippi around the country. To set up Freedom Schools. To help to register africanamericans to vote and to help with other initiatives to really give confidence and a joint a voice to africanamericans in mississippi. Once the volunteers were brought together they went to what is now Miami University in ohio for training sessions. This is where they were taught to selfdefense. Sort of drop and roll and get into a ball. They were also given different documents and different kinds of materials. For instance, each person was given a list of freedom songs. So often in the Civil Rights Movement you have so much of this we shall overcome, this little light of mine, these are important songs. The volunteers were actually given copies of the lyrics so that they could participate in different singalongs. From thewill see Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party move meeting at one of the local churches that they are, you know, Holding Hands and singing before or after a meeting. In may people started coming into town, across the state. Hattiesburg was one of the main locations for the freedom summer. When they got here there were several things that they were taxed to do. Ne, set up the Freedom School you would have africanamerican children and adults who would attend school to learn about voters rights. AfricanAmerican History had never been taught to people in mississippi. To be able to learn about context was a really important part of the movement. The Group Brought brought them copies of ebony magazine. Evil in mississippi had never seen these. Many of these were banned and not sold. This picture shows a group of men working through the magazines for the first time. Bygine being surrounded images that dont look anything like you. This was really an important move to see that these publications were there for africanamericans. So, within the schools they would have different homework activities. Some students would get around and write essays about what they liked about hattiesburg. Students would write about their experiences with Race Relations and the Different Things going on. A lot of the writing was cut into newsletters. The Student Voice for the had their ownwn newsletter for students written by students. You know, theres an essay by shirley, age 14 that states what i think about hattiesburg. Its an on prominent people would come to town to spread the movement. Much of this was linked to folk tradition. Pete seeger came into town and met with the Freedom Schools and performed. In this picture you see him speaking to students and really talking to them about what they were going through. Their thoughts on things. This just shows how someone as nationally prominent and same is going to come into town and work on issues related to Race Relations. One of the things that the people in hattiesburg were given was a handout for the hattiesburg power structure. This is a wonderful document for people to be able to get a sense of the fact that, for instance, the newspaper publisher reported directly to the mayor. This was a way for the city government, some say, to take control of what was in the media. And kind of make sure that hattiesburg was viewed in a positive light. You know, of course, the hattiesburg power structure was the white community. Africanamericans did not hold any kind of elected office of any kind. They werent in the chamber of commerce, the Police Department or anything like that. One thing i want to point out on the graph is that with the chamber of commerce directly reporting to the citizens council, it went to prove again how these segregationists were really entrenched in everyday kind of prominent White Society. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission did have fights. Do ould come around and kind of follow people and infiltrate the activities here in hattiesburg. These blue sheets of paper are the reports of operator 79. Operator 79 was an undercover officer posed as a civil rights activist and volunteered in hattiesburg with the freedom summer offices. First sentence of this is the split between the naacp and cofolk widened with insults being passed. Report on what was happening between the different groups that were hit involved in the summer and how it played out. I also think he did a little bit of editorializing. He would make judgments about how, you know, black men and white women were hanging out a lot. All that they do is smoke cigarettes. You know, they all love communism. Different things like that. There were different gettogethers. Events to bring people together. Not only the volunteers, but also community members. Volunteers were staying with local residents, which could dangerous for the residents who had bullets shot through their vehicles shot up and various other things. This particular picture takes place at the vernon tamer farm. This was the kelly settlement just outside hattiesburg. He was very active in registering africanamericans to vote. A local civil rights activist. Greatld also have these parties with hayrides and picnics and all kinds of great food. It was a great way for the to become more comfortable with the volunteers and the other way around. This particular sign, left on a tree outside his home, it just shows you how the kind of intimidation the people in the area did experience. Two years after the freedom summer he did his house was firebombed. He did die later from the effects of smoke inhalation. You know they did do a lot of Amazing Things and really motivated locals. But there was still this violence and intimidation. The freedom summer had a large impact on hattiesburg. It encouraged people to be more sure of their protest. Different programs came out of the freedom summer, such as i think headstart came out of it. It became very important to mississippi schools. You also had people willing to push for integration in the area. Because of the confidence in the tools that people learned, they were able to change their lives in the community. Our Comcast Cable partners worked with cspans city to her staff when we travel to hattiesburg to explore its history. Home to cap shelby, the largest state owned training site in the nation for active or reserve components. Learn more all weekend here on American History tv. We are here in hattiesburg, mississippi at st. Pauls methodist church. It is important because we were very active during the civil rights days and it was home of Freedom Schools during 1964. We are going downstairs into the fellowship hall. This is where we were. The children. We were all here. The teachers were spread out into small groups around the room. If you will notice, here is a class here where one of our teachers was working with us. Thats me with my head turned. That on any given day, 20 to 30 children were here at this location. There were six locations in 1964 for Freedom Schools. Here at st. Paul these were some of the original chairs that we set in as students. Normally for us for church for the summer we would have litigation bible school but this was different. Church not focused on related activities. Some of them were a lot different. It was the summer of 1964 in the plan to get africanamerican to part of thee server was to establish the freedoms over children would with any initiative and that was the Freedom School environment. Hattiesburg in 1964 was a time of change in the tightly. There were six here, particularly white from the north were here to help the residents. The africanamerican. Register to vote. Churches,in various preparing the residents and their Political Rights if it is ready to register to vote. It was also a time of children were included. For the first time the children were able to interact with white young people where we had attended allblack schools prior to this time and didnt have the opportunity to interact with other races. At the time at the st. Paul United Methodist church i did not know what to expect. At the time, who was a domestic, was very adamant that i was going to attend this school and i really didnt know what to expect. Once i was in this school i really, really enjoyed it. Weres a time when we exposed to subjects. Not just the basic subject, reading, writing, and math, but we were taught black history. We were shown books where we were in the books. We were never in our schools maybe we had a book with George Washington carver, but we had a book with lack history. We were exposed to literature and poetry. Music from another standpoint. Not just choral music. Music where we were taught how to play the guitar. We were taught freedom songs of the time. For me probably the most significant thing was being exposed to the oratorical content. Students from other churches were brought to hear. We would have oratorical contests. We were taught the skills of debate and speech. It opened our eyes to a world leader in hattiesburg, mississippi and what we were just getting into in school and exposing us to other things. But there was also a time where during the school we were taught that there is some danger it was also a time where during school that there is some danger that you could be up exposed to during that time. They advise us on what to say and what to do if you were approached by other people. How to react and what to say if someone comes to your house. We knew there was a danger element as well. That was the summer of 1964. Most of the volunteers left, but the ideas in the subjects and activities that we were involved in gave us the desire to become involved and to make sure that the ideas were around in the future. For me, it shaped my future and how i thought about mississippi, the nation and the world as a whole and us as africanamerican people. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] all weekend, American History hattiesburg,ng mississippi. It was named after the second wife, patty. Cspan visited many sites showcasing the history. Learn more here on American History tv. This building opened in 1922 for africanamerican soldiers. Camp shelby is a Training Base located just a few miles outside of hattiesburg. In 1941, president Franklin D Roosevelt wanted a home away from home and that was the importance of the organization. They were all over and this was a place they could go not think about either the war they were training for or being out in war and combat, a muchneeded break to come have some holes wholesome fun and not think about world war ii. There are only a few africanamerican centers else worldwide. It is really unique for this forrg to have had African Americans. We house the africanAmerican History museum. I like to start with the quote we have which says there has been no war fought within the United States in which africanamericans did not participate. Though there was a time when africanamericans were not treated equally, there was a misconception that have notmericans always fought in american conflict. That is not true. We talk about one of the first people to say, i want to fight and serve my country. It has always been the case. Exhibit, oneoldier of the first africanamerican regiments during peace time. Are charged with protecting settlers. Behind me, we have the first female to enlist in the United States army. Of course, women were not allowed in the military at this time so she disguised herself as a man and change her name to william. Is a significant story because she is the first female to enlist in the United States army that is documented and on record. We have a story unique to hattiesburg. A buffalo soldier who lived in hattiesburg for quite some time, he participated in the spanishamerican war and we have a complete set of his medals he was awarded for his service. That is very rare. We have entered into world war ii, where you start to see many changes. Military,omen in the our breaking barriers panel. You have more leadership ,ositions for africanamericans the first africanamerican and generalhe army, Benjamin O Davis junior, the first africanamerican general for the air force. I am standing next to our exhibit for ruth, the native of hattiesburg who enlisted in the military. She was a nurse during world war fornd was sent to care generals during the war. She was not always treated kindly but was determined that she would do her job and do it well. A photograph, one of the reasons we have her standing with her handson her hips. She became the symbol of the whocanamerican females said, do as you will but you will not break my spirit. Actually ran straight to enemy territory. Africanamerican and were charged with supplying troops on the front line with muchneeded supplies. The route ran through portions of france and delivered over 400,000 tons and supplies dared a threemonth operation and it was very effective. Around the corner from the world we tell the story of leroy brown, born and raised in hattiesburg. Young age that he wanted to fly a plane. As you can imagine growing up in the 1940s, it was not a realistic dream for an africanamerican boy. He was discouraged a lot. Howis book, he talks about jesse brown was always told, they do not even want you to fly a claim. What makes you think you could actually fly a plane . He did not let those comments did to him. He graduated the top of his at high school and went on to Ohio State University and became the first africanamerican naval aviator. His class at high school and went on to Ohio State University and became the first africanamerican naval aviator. Of the museum, we highlight more recent conflicts. You can see how the military has evolved over time. We focus on operation desert. Torm and the war on terrorism we show those from the area who fell honorably. It is important to tell the story of soldiers who were not butys granted equal rights, they stood tall and said, i want to fight for my country and they saw the bigger picture. I really appreciate the fact that we can see how the military has evolved over time. Thegh those soldiers at time did not know what the end result would be, our museum shows what it is, equal opportunity in the military. Their sacrifices were not in vain. All weekend, American History tv is featuring hattiesburg, mississippi. The city was known for its lumber and railroad industries 19th century. Cspancity tour staff recently visited sites showcasing the history. Learn more all weekend on American History tv. We have boxes related to Theodore Bilbo and his life. This is one of his signed an. Utographed photos he was a mississippi politician in the first half of the 20th century. 1910areer started around by the 1930s, he had been elected governor. Into the 20s and early 1930s, then skipped a term and served another four years later. He was elected to u. S. Senate in the mid1930s. He served until 1946, when he was removed from the senate after being elected for a third term because of bribery charges and because of some of his views regarding Race Relations. A very very wellliked within the states by poor white residents. He took advantage of new deal the states improve and really help a lot of rural white people. Mississippi, he made the decision in 1930 two remove all the president s from , the major Universities University of mississippi, what is now Mississippi State university, and the university for women. He removed the president and replace them with people like, i think one person was a Real Estate Agent and another person had received his naturalist agree the year before. He removed all the people who did not like him. He removed professors who went against him and the president and replace them with his cronies. A lot of his friends who were not qualified received the universities in the state. Report of at is a colleges of colleges in the state. It is one of the accreditation unit units for the diversity. They did their own investigation. The put not only the 3 schools whose presents were removed, but also southern mississippi on probation. That was something that made a lot of headlines. It hurt bilbos career a good bit. What he was known for and what people around the country came to identify with bilbo was where his views on Race Relations. As u. S. Senator, Theodore Bilbo, one of his possible legislative ideas was the Greater Liberia act. This act was something that bilbo proposed to provide an opportunity for African Americans to move to africa. [laughter] many the back to africa program. It was a way for bilbo to removed africanamericans from everyday american life. What was unique about this plan is that he partnered with black flash lowest group. Black nationalist group. The universal negro improvement association, which was marcus garveys group, to collect signatures of people who would be willing to move to africa to start anew. One thing you will notice from this petition is that the handwriting is the same on every line. You can see, maybe someone wrote it out and copied names from a phone book. But really, we think this was the presentation copy so you could read handwritings. A lot of africanamericans supported this initiative. They felt at the time, there was no way to get equal rights in the United States. And this was across the country, not just in mississippi. They thought this was their only way to find land and create something for themselves. As part of the Greater Liberia act, which we have a copy of, the u. S. Government would invest 15 million to secure land and transportation for anyone that wanted to move to liberia. This was 1939. With world war ii in play, this was put on hold and forgotten. It shows just one of the ways in which bilbo tried to segregate the country. Not only was he antiafrican america,n but he did not care for italians, jewish, hispanic people either, or hawaiians it would seem. We have a file, and a justice hawaii and it just says hawaii on it. It has thoughts from various people on making hawaii a state. Visit written from a gentleman from west virginia. This collection has a lot of mississippi stuff, but his reach was national. He was such an outspoken person. This person writes, how would you feel to be called white trash . America is a white mans land because our ancestors fought and died for it. When our program and sisters left europe, they had no thought of making black people their. People like you and me must work harder because there are so many white americans not interested in keeping america white. In closing, i beg for the pride of our nation, do all you continue to do to keep hawaii out of the union. I am sending newspaper clippings in case you doubt my word. You can tell that this person approached bilbo because he knew that he would be sentimental and understanding of this particular persons thoughts. This is a copy of the response he sent to this person from west virginia. It says i thoroughly agree about making hawaii the 49th state. I have been opposing it along and will keep on fighting it we just do not need a site with the kind of folks that largely make up hawaii. The master is that, too the mixture is too bad. Because of his beliefs, he received a lot of pushback as well. A a lot of organizations thought to remove bilbo from the senate and prevent his election. They wrote complaining about his beliefs, not all in agreement. One particular letter. We have 34 letters labeled hate letters. One of them comes with this clipping from a newspaper article. It accompanies a letter on u. S. Never a station u. S. Naval air station letterhead. Its addressed to theodore the man bilbo. He often referred to himself as the man. Dear sir, we just read an article about you. It was varying lightning, but after reading the comment, we like to ask you one question, not knowing much more animals, we like to found out one thing. In the picture, which is the jackass . One in the background, or the one with the hat on . This was sent to a Popular Television media guide at the time. In bilbo fashion, we have his response. One thing to point out is that on the top of this letter, someone handwrote nasty at the top. That gives you the tone of his letter. Keep in mind this is from a u. S. Senator. Its addressed dear jackasses, while in the midst of my campaign for reelection for a third term, your letter came to my office in washington. I note with interest that you have just read a dirty lying, contemptible article published by time. Let me take the time to tell you this article is a tissue of damn lies. It is written in an attempt to bring about my defeat for u. S. Senate in mississippi. It goes on, calling them a bunch of names. He makes notice of walter windshield on the letter. He calls him names often called to jewish people. He writes i am very sorry of your low mental status. When you finish your service with the navy, i hope you have an opportunity under the g. I. Bill, which i helped pass, to go to a school to where you can learn the difference between a white mule and a jackass. Also in response to bilbo, there were other more organized campaigns. Father devine was a cult leader in the early 20th century. He believed in integration and peace and equal opportunities for everybody. But started an antibilbo campaign. He is posing with this gentleman, who just happens to be from mississippi. Parts of his campaign ran in newspapers. Another example of the Campaign Includes this one says we sleep together in queen annes bed. We drink together, we take baths together. It reinforces the quality between the races. The things that people want to know about bilbo, more Race Relations things. Bilbo embraced the new deal programs and brought different commissions like the gaming and Wildlife Commission to the state. That increased roads and dealt with various legislation. A lot of the new deal programs, the ccc, he embraced to bring in new jobs. He was a man of the lower class and helped increase the quality of life. Theodore bilbo kept getting reelected. Even with all of his publicity that most of the time was not positive, he kept on getting elected. People may wonder, why . In mississippi, of course only voters were white voters. He wasnt catering to an africanamerican audience or any other group. Because most of the state was rule and was rural and poor, those that were benefiting from a lot of his programs. A lot of the state fully supported segregation. A lot of these things his personality, his interviews in a bathtub smoking a cigar. That was a lot of the appeal to bilbo and why people kept voting for him. But the end of bilbos life he was removed from the senate because of bribery and Race Relations issues. He died within the next year of cancer soon after his career ended. Nowadays, talking to university groups, many people dont know who Theodore Bilbo was. Even though Theodore Bilbos legacy has fallen to the wayside, people can learn more about him by looking through his papers. Controversial or not. All weekend, American History tv is featuring hattiesburg, mississippi. A Training School called mississippi college. Cspancity tour staff recently visited many sites. Learn more here on American History tv. I get up early in the morning go to bed at 10 or 11 00. I wore it when i was able to. Month. In the bank every i put so much in the bank. When i turned my business over she was wonderful. She was little and sure and probably weighed 90 pounds. If i had to sum her up in a nutshell, she was amazing, an amazing person who gave. She went to school and only mated to the sixth grade that was smart enough to start doing laundry. Clothesed and ironed for the people down it cant some of then for people who lived in hattiesburg. She made a fortune. Clothested by boiling in a big tub and on the back of her house was a long porch, very long porch. She would wash them and hang them up to dry and which would ironed them, she would do that and put them out there as well. From a dime, i guess she went up to a quarter. Then maybe a dollar. What was amazing about her, and it would be great if a lot of us could do this, she never spend her money. And at some point, her mother said, you know, you need to get rid of this money. She took it to the bank and that is how she started learning to put money in the bank and the money grew and grew and grew and grew. One morning, she went to the bank and the banker told her she had 280,000. She took 150,000 of that money and gave it to the university of southern mississippi so that africanamerican students could go to school. The story of the gift began in hattiesburg. Was he laid out 10 of her savings. She divided up, wanted to give 10 to her church, three others to her relatives and cousins. And the remainder to the university. [applause] she is giving usm 100,000. [laughter] she gave 100,000 to the university in 1995. She doesnt it with a reference to africanamerican students and that round of financial and that were not of financial means. The first award was given in the mid90s, who was a hattiesburg resident. Mrs. Mccarty made her donation in 1995 and almost instantly became a National Celebrity or sorts, which was confusing to her. She did not understand that she had done anything special. She was a woman of great faith. Faith was important to her. Work was important to her. She was living out the values of her faith in making this gift. When people started giving her attention for it, she did not understand it. Of course, everyone else understood that this is not how most people lived their lives. Most people dont do things, save every penny that they have earned and give it away so that others can thrive. It ended up with people calling from washington for her to come. The amazing thing for me was, miss mccarty wanted to go, but she did not want to fly. Dr. Lucas came to me and asked me if i would mind being her companion for these different places. Like on oprah winfrey, we went on that show. They came into the dressing room, they were applying her makeup, which she did not need, but they did that. Opera came oprah came in. She got in her knees and said, i am will periphery. I am oprah winfrey. She said, i am glad to have you on my show. She said, glad to be here. Oprah got up and i talked with her for a few minutes, and she went out. Mrs. Mccarty said, i watch her on television. And i said, i know that you do. She had never been on an airplane, then she was traveling all over the country, carrying the olympic torch. And so it changed dramatically. This woman who had really never left hattiesburg, who had never seen the University Just a couple miles away, was now sitting on the couch with opera. With oprah. We have a store here in Hattiesburg Calle hotd hudsons called hudsons. She wanted to get a coat. People started to gather. Some person said to me, mrs. Tucker, whited to give that why did did she get that university that money to usm and not another school . I said, you should ask her, because she is right over there. I went and got her, the lady asked her to send question. She said well, god told me who to give it to. The black students at the university of southern mississippi, god is the one that told me who to give it to. We are on the countys berg campus of on the hattiesburg campus of university of mississippi. Probably the most significant gifts was the president ial citizens medal from president clinton, which is the second highest honor given to private citizens of the u. S. We wish we have more people like you. I am very proud of you. I thank you so much for what you have done, for the example you set for those all across america. I can tell you she was in love with president clinton. Only because he was the first president that invited her to the oval office and treated her as though she was great. And in fact, the outfit that she wore in the oval office, the president asked someone to go out and pick her out and outfit. When she died, she had the same outfit. She was honored by carrying the olympic torch in 1996. An interesting part of that story, that was the first time she ever wore shorts in her life. At the university of southern mississippi, we presented her with an honorary doctorate, the first ever awarded at this institution. She was also honored with an Honorary Degree from harvard. Here are some of the tools of her trade, her washboard and pot that she washed clothes in. This pot here, she would place it over a wood burning stove. She would boil the water and wash the close in wash the clothes in there, along with these wash boards. These would be for delicate items. I was with her from 1995 through her death, 1999. When they called and took her home to hospice, the one good thing i remember i was on my way to work and i heard something tell me say, go see ms. Mccarty. She said, what are you doing here . I said, i came to see about you. She said, im okay. I said, let me share with you. If ive ever done anything to you or said anything to you in any way that was not pleasing to you, or to the lord, will you forgive me . And she said, you dont have to i said no, im just saying that. Will you forgive me . And she said yes. And if i said anything to you, will you forgive me . And i said yes. And that was when the last times i talked to her. What i found was a blessing for me because of her. I give. Whenever i got, i give. She said, are you miss mccarty . I said, i am. I said thank you. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to hattiesburg, mississippi to learn about its rich history. Learn more about hattiesburg and other stops on the tour at cspan. Org citiestour. Youre watching American History tv, all we cant, every weekend on cspan3. I enjoy seeing how things work and how they are made. I had no idea. With American History tv, it gives you that perspective. I am a cspan fan. Next, Wilfrid Laurier University Professor Darren Mulloy talks about the John Birch Society, a conservative Advocacy Group organized in the late 1930s. Cspan tv interviewed mulloy in providence, rhode island. This is about 10 minutes. What is the John Birch Society . Prof. Mulloy the John Birch Society is a Political Organization formed in 1958 in