Nomination, and Adlai Stevenson accepted the nomination. In 1948 the first televised conventions where president harry truman accepted his partys nomination. The failure to do anything about high prices and the failure to do anything about housing. My duty as president requires that i use every means within my power to get to laws the people need on matters of such importance and urgency. And at 6 00 on american artifacts, well take an early look at the new Smithsonian Museum of African American history and culture with its director, lonnie bunch. The museum opens its doors to the public in september this year. Were able to get an amazing collection of movie posters such as the ones behind you. Thats an early movie poster from the 1920s. And that is part of our job to help people relearn the history they think they know. That movie poster is from spencer williams. He is known by most people playing amos andy. Yet he was one of the most important black film directors in the 30s and 40s.
Into law by lincoln five years earlier and the only one in that original group founded in lincolns home state. Indeed one of the reasons i was drawn to come to illinois last year to take the job as law dean is the prospect that the university of illinois can build upon the legacy of, and become linked with lincoln in the way the university of virginia is associated with Thomas Jefferson. Who to my mind was not as great a president and not as great a person. This brings me to a fourth question, why bob woodward . That might be the easiest one of all. Many people consider the New York Times the countrys newspaper of record. But bob woodward of the rival Washington Post is americas reporter of record. He has been at the post for 45 years and is responsible for two of its Pulitzer Prizes for investigative coverage of water gate and also 9 11. But mr. Woodward is much more than a reporter. He has an inciteful and prolific historian of, among other things, americas president s. In this regar
Meeting. And i had the luxury of time, two fulltime assistants. We looked at all the contemporary coverage of the pardon, got all the memoirs, got the legal memos from the ford library. I kept going back to interview ford. And to try to piece together what happened. I interviewed him in colorado a number of times, where he had a home, and many times at his main home at rancho mirage, california. I remember the last interview asking him, why did you pardon nixon . He said, you keep asking that question. I said, but i dont think youve answered it. And then he said, astonishingly, ok, im going to tell you. And he then said what happened is that al haig, nixons chief of staff, came and offered me a deal. He said, if you guarantee that the president will get a pardon, he will resign and you get the presidency. And ford said, however, i rejected that deal. I knew i was going to become president. Nixon was finished. So theres no way he could work that deal in the way haig described. And passi
And 40s. That is one of his films. Things, the amazing beautiful green, that alina for. Is leena. Own, that and black exploitation movies. This is eddie murphy from Beverly Hills cops. Both what the movies were and what they were about, the struggle to define and control ones identity. Take a quick look and then we will move to the last stop. The goal here is the realize that comedy plays an important political role as well. Theater,evision, respected the exciting and wonderful moments of the museum. The other thing, this museum was about views. We want to create opportunities for the public to really get some great views. Outside here, we will take you to the open look where you really get a great deal of the Washington National mall. Hold onto your hat. The windows are clean. I am so pleased. You can come and get this does vistas. You can see everything. When the fall comes and there are no leads, you can see the white house. This is part of our desire to give people these moments. I
Ways about the war. And so its very hard to its very hard to pin that down. But i really think that the kinds of evidence that im looking at, it is not just data. These are the words that the participants used, and everyone says nothing but slavery. Now you mentioned in passing, reconstruction. Thats a whole nother book and whole nother field. But basically my take on reconstruction, very subjective. Just like Everything Else ive been saying. Reconstruction would not have been so bad if the southerners had done had responded appropriately to what the war was about, and that, in good faith, ended slavery and truly ended slavery, and slavery relate practices and provided blacks with the right to participate in politics, to vote, and to have representatives in government which was only allowed for the short time while the north was there to enforce it. So the stories about all the economic ravages on the south, there wasnt much left to ravage. And what the south was really concerned about