To begin our program, please welcome the honorable donnie artech, mayor of the city of hampton. [applause] please take your seats. Good morning and welcome to the 400th anniversary of the first african landing commemorative ceremony. It is my honor to welcome Governor Ralph Northam and first lady pamela northam, Lieutenant Governor justin fairfax, attorney general mark herring, senator mark warner and senator tim kaine. U. S. Representative bobby scott and representative elaine luria of virginia. Representative karen bass of california, and representative william clay of missouri, speaker of the house of delegates burkland cox. Bonsaiounselor lawrence of the apathy of her wanda former Virginia Governor cheryl , liles, former Virginia Governor robert mcdonald, former missouri governor eric greitens, former representatives james moran and mf payne, chief judge Roger Gregory of the First Circuit court of appeals members of the governors , cabinet, members of the virginia General Assembly,
[applause] please take your seats. The morning and welcome to 400th anniversary commemorative ceremony. It is my honor to welcome the lady, thend the First Lieutenant governor justin fairfax, the attorney general, senator mark warner, and senator tim kaine. Scottepresentative bobby and a representative from virginia. Bass andative karen from missouri. Speaker of the house of for thes, first counsel embassy of wanda. ,he former Virginia Governor the former Virginia Governor robert mcdonald, the former missouri governor greitens, former representatives james payne, members of the governors cabinet, members of the virginia General Assembly, including senate ,ajority leader Thomas Norment portsmouth mayor john wrote, the members of the 400 years African American history federal museum, Deputy Assistant secretary of fish and wildlife parks, National Parks service officials, including daniel lla,h and david ve members of the Hampton City Council and other special guests. On behalf of the mem
Supremacy. The National Constitution Center Hosted this event. Welcome. You heard the passion of professor gates downstairs. Were going to jump into this conversation. I think you can tell it is important to bring as many school kids as possible to come see that incredible exhibit. William height stat with me and announced the School District and the Constitution Center are launching a program to bring tens of thousands of philly School Districts to the constitution School District every year. Wow. Were calling it the constitutional ambassadors program. Were going to go seek support, and those great kids are going to start these experiences in their class, come see the civil war exhibit and the Constitution Center and connect to classrooms around the country using our virtual constitutional exchanges for our long conversations about the constitution, moderated by a judge or a master teacher. Wow. Thats great. It is an amazing project and were so excited to share it with you. Professor
Professor gets downstairs and all of our colleagues. So were just going to jump right into this conversation. The one thing i have to say is i think you can tell, it is urgently important to bring as many schoolkids as possible to come see that incredible exhibit. And that is why i am thrilled that last week, dr. William highs, the superintendent of the School District for philadelphia sat with me on this overlook and announced that the School District and the Constitution Center are launching a program to bring tens of thousands of School Districts to the Constitution Center every year. Wow. They are calling it the constitutional ambassadors program. We will go seeks a port and great kids are going to start these things in their classroom. Come see that civil war exhibit and see the Constitution Center and then connect to classrooms around the country, using our virtual constitutional exchanges for our long conversations about the constitution, moderated by a judge or master teacher.
Off north carolina. This was part of a seminar the. Without further ado, let me introduce our first speake he has received many awards including the National Trust for Historic Preservations president s award for Historic Preservation and many, many others. His talk today is the ship that saved the nation, the monitors recovery and conservation. Please welcome mr. Quarstein. [ applause ] thank you. Well, you know, on march 8th, 1862 it was a terrible day for the union. In fact, it turned the tide, it appeared in favor of the confederacy when the css virginia emerged from the Elizabeth River and sunk two major union warships, the cumberland and the congress. The union navy was in disarray. People were in the white house looking out the curtains, down the potomac, fearing that this super weapon, as they would have called the merrimack, as southerners called the virginia, would be there soon and the war would finally end in a confederate victory. But all was to change as if magic, because