taking your calls, tweets, facebook posts for curators. we're joined inside with robert wilkins to talk about how this museum came about. he is the author of the book "long road to hard truth". thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. it's a pleasure to be here. >> so talk of this museum began back in 1916. it took a century to be built. walk us through the process. >> back in early 1916, in march or so, gentleman named ferdinand de soto lee, created a nonprofit called the national memorial association, and its goal was to construct a physical memorial here in the nation's capital to honor the contributions of negro soldiers and sailors who had fought in every war from the revolutionary war on up until that time. within a couple years the organization broadened its mission to want to construct what they called a national memorial building to negro achievement and contributions to america in all fields of endeavor from business to education to the arts, et cetera. essentially a national museum of african-american history and culture. so it began literally 100 years ago. >> behind you just some of the historical photographs inside the museum that talk about the experience from slavery through culture through the inauguration of barack obama. >> it's amazing, i mean, there's so much for this museum to cover, but they do it just expertly well. i mean, i couldn't be prouder of the way that the smithsonian has handled it. when you think about it, the people who were inspired to create this were, in part, responding to the movie "birth of the nation" which was essentially a racist slander against the african-american people and argued that they were a burden on america in that the ku klux klan was needed to kind of set things right in the south. one of the first rallies that national memorial association had in 1916, the flyer across the top had in all capital letters "birth of a race" and it was right after this movie -- right here in washington. so they were responding to that and affirming that we needed to be recognized as not a burden on this country but as contributing to it. and just think about the irony of 100 years later this museum opening with barack obama presiding over that dedication ceremony. >> a decade and a half ago our network focused on american writers and one of them james baldwin who i know testified before congress in the late 1960s and you quote him in your book. what did he say about the need for a museum like this? >> he was very supportive of it but he warned congress, he said, my history contains the truth about america. it's going to be hard to teach it. and i paraphrased baldwin with the title of my book. but he said that we were interconnected people, black and white, and he said that this history had to be told. i'm quoting from him, he said, i am the flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone. i have been here as long as have you been here, longer. i paid for it as much as you have. it is my country too. do recognize that this is the whole question. my history and culture has got to be taught, it is yours. really profound statement, but i think it was a quite accurate statement. and this museum i think does that. it tells the nation's story through the lens of african-american people but it is the nation's story. >> i want to talk more about this museum but i want to talk but as well because you're a judge in the d.c. circuit court of appeals. you quit your job many years ago with two young children, or one son and one on the way. what did your wife say when you said you were going to focus on this? >> well, luckily she didn't say, you know, i'm divorcing you. but she was very supportive and we agreed to, you know, live off of our savings and eat a lot of beans and cornbread and go from two salaries to one when i left my job and she was seven months pregnant with our second child because we saw this as a quest. we saw this as something that needed to happen just like the holocaust museum needed to happen, the museum of the american indian needed to happen. we needed to find a way to support efforts to make this museum happen. >> but what motivated you to do this? >> there were a lot of things. at the time i was a public defender here in washington and i dealt with so much tragedy every day. i had so many clients who were young people who didn't have much help or self-esteem who were african american and didn't really have any sense that their people had contributed to this country. they really weren't adequately taking advantage of the opportunities that they had. and i wanted there to be a place where they could see how much people had sacrificed for them to make this country better, to make them -- to make there be opportunities for education and to vote. and perhaps to make them see themselves differently. and so in a way, this working on this museum was therapy for me because it helped me feel like i was contributing to something and perhaps helping to build something. >> how did two world wars and then more recently 9/11 delay this project? >> well, you know, they got going in 1916, but of course the united states entered world war i in 1917 and that took the project off course. and similarly, as they were gaining some steam in 1929 and trying to move this project forward, because congress actually passed a law to authorize the construction of what was essentially this museum in 1929, of course you had the great depression and word war i interfere. and the african-american community was trying to survive during the depression and support the country during world war ii and they were focused on victory at home and victory at -- victory overseas and victory at home with civil rights and hopefully voting rights and the end to segregation. and so all of those things took really priority over efforts to create this museum. and that's really part of the reason why it took 100 years for this to come into being. >> the role of congressman john lewis, what was it? >> congressman john lewis is the hero here as he is a hero for so many other things. he started working on this issue from the time he got to congress in 1986, congressman nikki lee land was leading efforts, congressman leeland was tragically killed in an airplane accident and john lewis picked up the mantle and fought for this through good times and bad times and ultimately built a bipartisan coalition around the time of 2000, 2001 and recruited key republican support from then senator scam brownback, j.c. watts and president bush and vice president cheney among others. so he brought everyone together to be on one accord to get this done. >> we're going to get a tour with mary elliot and then talk about the museum but i want to talk to you about the location. what did the state department have to do with this site. what did pierre la enfant have to do with this site? >> in fighting for location on the mall, i and others did a lot of research and we learned that pierre lonfont designed the nation's capital for president washington. they actually designated this site here at 14th constitution for a building. and later in 1911, the state department drew up plans for their headquarters to be at this location. they ultimately built their headquarters later about a mile away, but we used those two designs to argue that this site was historically appropriate for this museum. in that this museum should go on the mall and that this site was available because there were many people who were arguing that the mall was full, that there was no room at the inn, so to speak. but i think the merits of our argument prevailed. >> well that's my next question if the who gave you the resistant? what was their argument that you could have a museum but not on the mall and if not on the mall then where? >> well, they felt that the american indian museum was -- was going to be constructed on what they thought was the last appropriate site for building on the mall based on plans that had been drawn up in the '60s. and so they wanted this museum to be constructed either in the arts and industries building, which is an existing building next to the smithsonian castle or just off of the mall. and our argument was that this is america's front yard here in the national mall, and this museum should be here. as john lewis put it, he grew up in the south having to enter white people's homes and establishments from the backdoor, and he didn't want this museum to be at the backdoor, it needed to be in the front yard. >> not surprisingly, on a spring-like day here in washington, d.c., this museum was crowded coming in earlier this afternoon. and as we said at the top of our program on c-span 3 history tv, one million visitors and growing. did you ever expect it to be this popular this soon? >> you know, i knew that the nation was thirsting for this museum, but i have to confess i didn't know that the reaction would be this positive and this strong. and it really heartens me to see it. i think it's long overdue, obviously, but also just the quality of the museum itself. the smithsonian just did a phenomenal job, the founding director lonny bunch and his staff are just, you know, the top experts in their field and they're just really put together something special here. >> so walk us through the process involving president george w. bush and republicans and democrats on capitol hill to finally get in project under way. what happened? what transpired? >> so you had republicans and democrats come together and say, look, enough is enough, this has been talked about for decades, let's build this museum, it needs to happen. and so in may of 2001, legislation was introduced, it had all of the leadership from both parties as cosponsors, looked like it was set to go, and then september 11th happens. and that really took the wind out of the sails of the movement to build this museum because congress was completely preoccupied with capturing osama bin laden, war, the patriot act, homeland security, the economy was going down, and it looked like this museum was going to be, you know, delayed or perhaps even put off track for indefinitely. but congressman lewis and the coalition that he built reached a compromise and said let's create a presidential commission to plan how we can move forward. and i was honored to serve on that commission, and that bipartisan commission wrote a plan, how we could move forward and determine that there would be support for this with private funds and with collections, et cetera. and we delivered that plan to congress and congress acted on it and passed legislation practically unanimously in the house and senate, and it was signed by president bush in 2003. >> so let's quickly talk about the numbers. what was the final price tag in how much federal dollars, how many in private dollars? and how many artifacts? is there a count. >> so i believe that the final price tag for this building was $540 million. congress agreed to put up half and smithsonian had to raise the other half. my understanding is that they've raised over $330 million, so they raised their half and congress put up their half. i believe that the number of art facts, i mean it's in the tens of thousands, i don't want to quote a number. and they digitized hundreds of thousands of objects so there's a virtual presence for this museum as well. >> is it a memorial? how do you describe this? >> i think it is in part a memorial. it's a memorial in the sense that it's a long, overdue recognition of all of the sacrifice that people of african descent have made in this country. and really it honors the quest for freedom that they've always had and in a way have made this country much better by making this country live up to the words in the constitution and in the bill of rights for all people and not just for some. >> as the author of the book, "long hard road to truth" final question has it met your expectations? >> definitely it succeeded my expectation. the building itself is beautiful, it's a magnificent structure, it's an engineering marvel. but the content, i think that the exhibits really speak to the essence of the african-american community and the culture. >> thank you very much for being with us here on c-span 3. >> thank you. it was my pleasure. >> and we're going to show you the exhibits dealing with slavery and freedom with mary elliot when we come back in about 25 minutes, we'll open our phone lines. we want to hear you when we come back live to this museum. >> let's start look at one of the opening labels for the slavery and freedom exhibition. right behind me is the label that speaks to the making of the atlantic world. it's powerful because we actually featured the story of queen nzinga who was one of the leaders along the western african coast. she was in west central africa and she was over the mbande people. she aligned with the portuguese, dutch all in an effort to keep her own people from being enslaved as well as from being involved in the slave trade. but you'll notice that underneath her story say quote from a gentleman of european descent. it says while i admit i am sickened at the purchase of slaves but how would we do without sugar and rum? what's important about that statement is to really think about the morality of this particular story. what moral obligations do we have to each other? concentrate on that opening line, i admit that i am sickened at the purchase of slaves but then again, i must be mum for how would i do without sugar or rum? it's very important that we look at those moral issues as we go through this exhibition. and i have to point out as well, that we do not start this exhibition with the story of slavery, we start this exhibition with the story of humanity and we actually start in africa looking at it as a continent made up of many people, place, society, cultures, intellect. so let's go ahead and look at some of the other objects in the exhibition. as we discussed, we just came through the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade looking at the making of the atlantic world and really the making of a global economy. the driver of the trade at that time was sugar and that driver of the trade actually moved forward the effort to ship as many human beings across the atlantic ocean forced into slavery. so now we come to the story of the middle passage. the middle passage of course being that space transporting africans from the west coast of africa throughout the americas, across the atlantic ocean. we're fortunate to feature some dynamic objects in this case including artifacts from a slave ship found off the coast of south africa. the sao jose went to mozambique african, picked up africans on its way to brazil to sell them as enslaved africans. the ship crashed off the coast of south africa. we're very fortunate to have organized with george washington university, the university of cape town and partners in mozambique we were were able to identify this shipwreck off the ocean floor off south africa. one of the key markers to identify this is the shipwreck are a slave shipwreck in particular is some of the archival research revealed there were 1400 ballast stones on the ship. though were used to offset the human weight. and we know for a fact there were ballast stones on this ship because we found them on the ocean floor. so we're excited to be able to feature those in this particular case in the passage. one thing that visitors will note is we do not have images in this space. we chose to allow the first person voice to carry the space. we wanted those who went through this experience to speak for themselves. and while we talk about this human story, the human story extends to everybody, so you'll hear voices of those who were enslaved, but you'll also hear voices of crew members, you'll hear voices of slave ship surgeons all discussing, in fact, the horrors of this experience, but also understand, again, there is a important understanding of the resistance, the resilience and the survival. we think of human suffering but you also have to think of the power of the human spirit. how could someone hold on to live through that experience. >> the despondency which seizes their spirits when confined soon becomes fatal every moment perhaps more instances than one have found that the living and the dead fastened together. >> across the way from the middle passage space is the transatlantic slave trade space. again, we look at one of the themes, profit and power opposed against the human cost. in that way we have it designed so you see the business of the trade, the development of the plantation system, and you also see how everyone benefitted from the trade. but we also look at the human cost through the voices of the enslaved in the process of enslavement. one of the objects i'd like to point out to you in that particular space is the fox's wage book. the wage book features the wages that were given to crew member who's served on a slave ship. again, looking at the human story. so we look at the crew members on the slave ship and that document actually tells us two things. one, it lets us understand that everyone benefitted from the trade. but then you have to ask yourself, why would someone serve on a slave ship? we often think, well, perhaps they wanted to gain passage to the new world or they needed to feed their family or, in fact, going back to that moral issue, perhaps they thought it was just fine to make money and profit off the sale of humans. but it's important to note when you open up that book that many crew members actually committed suicide or ran away. again, this goes to that human experience the human experience extends to everybody. and looking at the people below in the hulls of the ship, we understand that slave ship crew members would pack the hulls of those ships tight pack or loose packing, and that experience often times the slave ship captain said how much cargo you can bring depends on how many small enslaved people you can fit into the hull of a ship. it's a very powerful story. so now we're going to go into the colonial north american space of the exhibition. allow me to explain to you some of the design treatment that we've used to help unpack this story. in fact, we breakout the section by region because this is not a monolithic story. africans in america shaped the landscape and were shaped by the landscape. so, the regions that we break out include the chesapeake where we actually look at the making of race. then we move into low country down in the carolinas and the gulla islands and in georgia area. and that allows us to look at enslaving skill. then we come to louisiana and we consider the convergence of cultures and finally the north we look at the urban environment and a merchant system. what's important to note is in each of these spaces, the treatments are done in a pattern but they each have their own unique features but it's important for me to let you know about that pattern. from the beginning you see some of the regions of africa where many the people came from and, two, in the specific regions of the americas, particularly north america. but you'll also see how the laws change over time and start to define whiteness and you start to see how african-americans become black in america. you start to see the status development of all people in north america to plantor elite to yeoman white farmer to poor white, free black, and enslaved african. you'll look at work in the space, you'll look at life in the space, escape in the space, and then we really start to unpack the story of freedom through the story of rebellion. and of course we humanize everything so we feature individual stories, personal stories about people who actually lived, labored, and rebelled in these spaces during this time. all of this is foundational to the development of the nation. and so what comes next is the fight for liberty. but, remember i said slavery and freedom was from the beginning so the fight for liberty is a national fight, but the fight for freedom is one that had been going on amongst africans from the time they were carried from the interior all the way to this point. so why don't we go to the section on the paradox of liberty where we really start to unpack the story of what liberty and freedom means and this pivotal moment in time as the nation is taking shape. so we've come from colonial north america and we are passing through the story, a powerful story about the revolutionary war. well, now as i mentioned we're entering into the paradox of liber liberty. but first let me show you a powerful object that's personal and speaks to genealogy and the importance of the role it plays in helping to tell this story. again, we enter into this revolutionary period and there's freedom everywhere or so one would think. freedom and liberty are the call of the day. here we have a space that looks at free communities of color that were all over the nation at the time, believe it or not. but one of the poignant objects shows that shows while there were free communities of color, there were limits to that freedom. we were fortunate to be contacted by a woman elaine thompson, a wonderful woman in virginia who took the time to really take care of her family heirloom piece. it is this handmade tin owned by her san -- ancestor. he actually made that handmade tin to protect, as i like to say, his freedom. in fact, it was used to protect the freedom papers from 1852. those freedom papers were vastly important to him because at any moment's notice someone could challenge his freedom and he would have to prove that. he had to register every two years in virginia and it gives us a little more insight on the personal experience of being free during that time. sadly elaine has passed on but she was the steward of her family's history and she was able to unpack quite a bit of her family's story. but we're very fortunate because at this point her great niece has now picked up the manned -- mantle and she is carrying it forward. she wrote a book at age 9 with the assistance of her great aunt and now she's getting ready to rewrite that book at age 16 and carry that research further. so the we're looking further to working with her more on unpacking the story of this family and the significance of joseph trammal during the period of slavery and freedom and his status as a free black man. now let's look over the paradox liberty. we talk about the free communities of color. well you imagine at the time you have free african americans who align with enslaved african americans, again a collective voice fighting for freedom. but they're fighting for freedom in a nation founded on liberty but still maintaining slavery. directly behind me you see the cast figures of benjamin banaker and thomas jefferson. this is a platform featured in the exhibition where we unpack that story of voices of freedom. included on that platform are mombet who petitioned for her freedom and won as well as phyllis wheatley, all voices of freedom. what's very powerful to me about the connections between banaker and jefferson includes benjamin banaker sending his almanac to thomas jefferson and stating african-americans are brilliant, they are human, they contribute to the development of this nation and deserve to be free. excuse me if i paraphrase, but thomas jefferson said you are the exception and freedom was not going to come during his particular time in life. so, now why don't we go forward and look at making a way. again, remember, this is a human story so in the midst of all of this inhumanity, you still have african americans, again, fighting for freedom, fighting for liberty, fighting for the nation to recognize them as citizens in this world. right? but, as we go forward, we look at well there were laws restricting them, african americans found ways to go around those laws and hold on to their humanity. why don't we go to the section on making a way out of no way. understand that many things happen after the -- after the revolutionary war, including the development of the cotton gin in 1793 and the louisiana purchase in 1803 and the end of the slave trade in 1808. what did all of that mean? please note the space that we're in right now. directly front of me is the tower of cotton which is a marker as the driver of the trade, no different than sugar was during the early period. so as we come out of this paradox of liberty and we look at directly to my right all of these pieces of legislation from the declaration of independence, the constitution, bill of rights, all through 1820 compromise, 1830 compromise, dread scott decision, and then you see paired with those actual excerpts from speeches, sermons, from newspaper articles all written by african americans speaking back to the moment. to my left is the story of the domestic slave trade. again, remember, 1793 the cotton gin is produced, 1803 the louisiana purchase takes place. that means that there's more land to cultivate cotton and cotton is high demand and it's being produced more efficiently but that has a higher demand on african bodies. and husband, wives, mothers, fathers are all be sold to the lower south to produce more cotton in the fields down south. at the same time this is a story of slavery and freedom, so those same men, women, and children are fighting for their freedom all along the way fighting freedom for this nation. one of the more pivotal stories is of that nat turner. we're fortunate to be able to feature a bible that we understand was owned by nat turner at the time of his escape and at the time of the rebellion. nat turner is pivotal because it really made an impact on this country. laws tightened up. still, african-americans found ways to go around those laws. allow me to point out we have a section directly behind me entitled make a way out of no way where we look at the black codes, slave codes, codes that define status and ability, autonomy. so african americans free or enslaved often times were restricted more than you can imagine. for example, illegal to marry, illegal to read, illegal to gather, illegal to practice their faith. one of the objects that i like to point out is, again, a family object. we were fortunate enough to be contacted by ms. shirley burke in detroit who reached out to us and donated her ancestor's violin that he was given by a slave owner to perform at gatherings at the plantation site. we were fortunate to restore the violin and have it on display here. that violin is important to the law regarding illegal to gather, often times african americans in the hush of night would find ways to gather and practice their faith, find ways to gather and actually leisure and love one another at the same time. so, allow us to go down the hall and go see the slave cabin next, which is a very poignant story and it's a community story. again, this is a shared history. so we've come from the story of the driver of the trade being cotton and we're in the antebellum period and again we see the nation and all the cacophony of activity going on and the development of legislation all deeply embedded with slavery. we also look at the human story of african american men, women, and children finding ways to go around black codes and slave codes but also that personal experience of being sold away on the auction block and that juxtaposition of power also associated with that experience on the auction block. it's important to note one of the design features we have is that we have a wall filled with excerpts from bills of sales and broad sides. so you will see a young boy sold for $5. $5 for a young black boy is what the excerpt says. understand that $5 is the monetary value but the value of that young boy to his mother, to his brother or sister is immeasurable. that gets us to the story of life, work, and enslavement and looking at the many complexities of this experience during the n period. we're fortunate enough that we were able to receive a call from the island historic preservation society that wanted to donate a slave cabin to our museum. they knew that we were looking for a slave cabin to help tell this story in a real way. they had one from the point of pines cabin in south carolina. what's really powerful about this cabin is on the front side we interpret it looking at slavery. on the backside we interpret it looking at freedom because, in fact, that is where the union army camped out during the period of the civil war and you see where land is given to the african-american community and taken away several times until it is taken away for good. notice the cabin behind me. what's important about that cabin is not unlike where people locked up animals at night that worked in the fields, not unlike the enslaved men, women, and children, this really could be considered a pen. but african american men, women, and children again through resistance and resilience and bonding on to their humanity found ways to love one another, to practice their faith, grow gardens on the side of their cabins ton supplement their diets and to create new cultural practices. while we look at life, work, and enslavement, in this same space we break down members. community, the new nurturers, builders. solomon williams was a blacksmith on the plantation. we look at his story. he created an ornate drill bit that was used practically every day for work on the plantation site. had say gentleman that had no education but this drill bit is an architectural feat. and you look at his same skill set he used to create a grave marker for his wife pest used those same skills to create grave markers for members of the community throughout his plantation site. but he no doubt as a blacksmith created the shackles that were used on the enslaved on the plantation site. again, that gives more depth. we don't look at a broad stroke just like in colonial north america, we don't rook at just what he wore, what he ate, when he got up in the morning, how much land he cultivated. in fact this is a man and his story is told through life in terms of how he designed those ornate grave markers, work in terms of his inability educated but still being able to create that double heellism drill bit and in terms of enslavement being responsible for actually creating the restraints on the plantation site. so that takes us next to the story of the coming of the civil war. so allow me to take you around and we'll talk about the coming of the civil war and how actually complex that story is. it's not just north versus south but there were many voices involved in this fight. so we've just come from the slave cabin. and one thing i want to point out with a slave cabin is we can talk about object and their importance in the historical context but what's important to note ben is how we acquire these objects. so in the process of actually dismantling the slave cabin, we actually had community members come out and help us unpack the story of the community. included in that community are the descendents of the enslaved as well as the descendents of the slave-holding family. we were fortunate enough to meet with both groups together and talk about the importance of this history come together general public to get a deeper understanding of what it is to be american and all the nuances of this particular story of slavery and freedom in the u.s. now, we know about slavery and freedom and we know that there was a civil war which had a major impact on this nation. we look at the story of the civil war and keeping the union together and embedded in the ses secsession papers is slavery. but remember they fled to the lines as they came closer to where many of these plantation sites were located. at that time the confederates demanded their property back but the union army declared them as contraband of war and they were able to keep them approximately these men, women, and children thunder fight for keeping the union together into a fight for freedom. as such, one of the greatest speakers of our time and one of the most influential members of the african-american community and america itself is frederick douglas. frederick douglas led the charge on pushing for freedom and in constant dialogue with abraham lincoln ensured that are african-american men would fight on the battlefield for their freedom. right behind me is a dynamic broadside that we were fortunate to receive where you see a call for men of color to arms. you can only imagine how powerful that must have been for african american men to understand that they could suit up and fight for their freedom and ensure the freedom of the generations to follow them. again e, frederick douglas played a pivotal role. while he ensured that african-american men could fight in the army he was influential in a constant dialogue with president lincoln to ensure that freedom came through the emancipation proclamation and the 13th amendment. we would be remiss if we told the story about the civil war and left out the story of women's involvement in the civil war. when you visit you'll see artifacts that speak to the efforts of charlotte forten grimky who educated many of the people who were at these contraband camps. you'll also see the story of harriet tubman. she also served as a union spy. and finally you'll see the story of susan king taylor who not only served as a nurse but ultimately opened up her own hospital. why don't we go forward and look at some of the artifacts that speak to freedom during the period of emancipation. how do you tell a whole population of people that they are now free? in fact, those same men that frederick douglas fought for to ensure that they were able to fight for freedom on the battle field were responsible for carrying things such as this, this very important tiny but powerful handheld emancipation proclamation. they carried a handheld proclamation from plantation to plantation and told men, women, and children they were no longer enslaved. >> we are back live at the smithsonian national museum of african history and culture and we want to continue with specialist mary elliot. thank you for the tour. now a chance for more questions. we appreciate you being with us. >> thank you. i'm excited to speak with you. >> we want you to participate 202-748-8901. on facebook at facebook.com/c-spanhistory. we talked with judge wilkins about the location of this museum. let me ask you about the design. people drive by and say, what is it? >> that's a great question because the exterior of this building has a lot of meaning just as much as the content of this building. so we were fortunate to have the form of a group of three architects who came together to produce this building. and the shape of the building is inspired by a ver ran -- veranda post. that would have sat outside of a building seen along that western african coast where many of the enslaved came from. that would have held up a porch. and we have actually the ver anda post that inspired the shape of this building. at the top of this post is a corona design, three tiers, and mimics those produced by bla blacksmiths. equally important is the type of shell that surrounds the building. and that is actually based on an a ga algorithm that was inspired by the iron works produced by blacksmiths in south carolina and louisiana. and i also want to point out that many people look at the building and while the architects really were inspired and our director really talks about that sense of rising up, one of the things that's really moving to me is even while we're sitting here in the history gallery, the sense of rising up and the sense. human spirit, while we know this history has a sense of human suffering, there's also that sense of the human spirit even below the level of the ground. >> and history that is in this neighborhood, this street, washington, d.c., as slaves made their way along constitution avenue up to the eastern market. >> right. so we know that in alexandria, virginia, there were several slave dealers offices including the offices for isaac franklin and john armfield, price and birch. but many of the enslaved which is something powerful to think about when they were being marched in coffles, they were being marched past the capital building, down pennsylvania avenue. and where our satellite offices were located there was actually the site of a slave auction site. so it's very powerful to think that where we are there was slavery and there was freedom in the midst of this nation coming into being. very much directly in front of each other. >> we're going to get to your calls in just a moment here on c-span 3's american history tv but there are two exhibits i want to talk to you about the first of all you mentioned this during the tour. the slave cabin. what does it represent? >> the slave cabin is -- it's a powerful story and while we are -- i'm very excited about this slavery and freedom exhibition. i love the fact that we, you know, of course we had to start during the early period talk about the transatlantic slave trade. but i bring that up because quite often people think of slavery and they just think antebellum period. but the slave cabin, i find it powerful that it embodies this history in thinking about slavery and freedom, thinking about the juxtapositions of profit and power to the human cost. so if you look at that cabin, not unlike when people put animals in a pen at night, that it was similar. you're locking away people, right. but in the midst of that inhumanity, african americans held on to their humanity and they still found ways to love each other, even though there were chances of them being sold away. they still found ways to practice their faith, they still found ways to create cultural practices. and so the idea of holding onto your humanity under the conditions that they were in was very powerful. but then again, like i said, there's that human cost and there's the profit and power. so the people who held that land, the people who gained from the labor of these enslaved african men, women, and children, right. the other part about that cabin that's powerful is i say it really embodies the importance of this exhibition. in taking apart that cabin every day for a week the community gathered to see this history being dismantled, to be taken up to washington, d.c. and ultimately put back together to help tell this story. well, the community included the descendents of the of the enslaved and the descendents of the slave holders. so while people wrestle with this history, here you have them come together and they built the community together. and, again, we can talk about the inhumanity, but there's also that human element, how people relate to each other even through some of these harsh realities of our history. and so it was really powerful to see that unfold and to see people wrestle with this history and to see people add layers and context to this story. so i think that's a really powerful object that helps people kind of sit and think about this experience and what it means. >> the second exhibit, and we should point out for those watching at home that some of the exhibits are dark, including the sao jose which is a slave ship. two questions how did you find this and what does it represent? >> well, just to give a little context, it was a slave ship that started in lisbon, portugal, went to mozambique where they picked up captive africans. they were on their way to brazil to sell these african-americans into slavery and the ship crashed off the coast of south africa. we were fortunate to connect with george washington university that was already working on this effort and it came together that it was our museum, george washington university, the zico museum, folks at the university of capetown. and we actually pulled together to identify this ship to make sure that we were able to, in fact, raise some of the artifacts from the ocean floor so that it would allow us to tell this story. and i say tell this story in a new way because one of the things that's important is think of the notion of when was the last time you heard about people telling the story of slavery and that early part of slavery through maritime archeology? it's quite powerful because this was a global enterprise and we know there were slave shipwrecks all over. so in addition to the archeology, it indicates there were 1400 ballast stones on that ship and they were used to offset the human weight. so we have those stones on display standing in for the men, women and children that were on that ship. it's very powerful because it shows us commerce and captivity. >> we came out with a new american president survey. we had a call from south carolina this morning that struck me, talking about the business of slavery and the importance of slavery on the southern economy, which ultimately led to the civil war. so as you walk through this exhibit, how do you tell that part of the story? >> trans-atlantic slave trade undergirded the development of the atlantic economy, right? once you get to that ante bellum period, slavery helps pave the way leading towards the revolutionary war. then you see that slavery undergirds the economy, the u.s. economy. cotton and even the sale of human bodies, right? so it's a hard fact. cotton and bodies so it's a hard fact. but we hate to think it was inevitable that this had to happen. so from the beginning of this exhibition we asked people to think about the moral issues. i'm sure people may have said in the tour that i gave, i admit i'm sickened by the purchase of slaves but i have to admit i must be mum for how would we do without sugar and rum. while it's true that slavery undergirded this economy, what were the moral issues people were wrest ring with? you'll see on the freedom and open space, the cacophony of activity going on, 1793, the kregs of the cotton gin and 18039 purchase of the louisiana territory, 1808 the end of involvement in the slave trade from north america, right? but you also see how it rises that cotton becomes the driver of the trade and you see that slavery sem bedded in all of these pieces of legislation because people are aware that it's important to this economy but also you see the domestic slave trade, how northern it is that they are shipping people down south to cultivate more and more of this cotton, and, again, it becomes this driver of the trade, but always remember there's that juxtaposition of profit and power and the human cost. >> born in oklahoma, raised in silver spring, and you're peace at about this issue. >> i'm very passionate about f.as a matter of fact, a lot of people ask me when you -- when you were work on this exhibition, how difficult was it for you to read some of these things and see some of the graphics, but to tell you the truth when i read some of the quotes, i thought to myself, people really need to hear this. >> let's get to your calls. david is first up from here in washington, d.c. good evening. >> caller: yes, how are you? >> we're fine. thanks for your question. >> fine, thank you. >> your question. >> caller: coming into the pictures gallery i see pictures of emmitt gill displayed permanently. do you plan on displaying the pictures of the four girls killed in the birmingham bombing prominently on the walls? >> at this time we actually -- the exhibitions are set. they are set for at least ten years i accident know if they would revisit putting in the images of the little girls. i think the images are right at the space where the 16th street baptist street church is located. there should be the images of the little girls right there on the reader rail. most of the exhibitions, all of the exhibitions right now are set for ten years, yeah. >> we'll go to are a showed joining us next from great neck, new york. mary elliott is here inside the mousse yumd and welcome to c-span 3 history tv. >> first of all, mary, want to say great job and appreciate your commitment to this huge project. >> thank you, thank i. >> mary, my question is looking at this on tv, there's a stat sue and how much of an impact did the haitian revolution play in slavery in america, especially the purchase of the lala territory from napoleon? >> well, that's a great question and the haitian revolution was significant and understand, you know, you can't talk about the haitian revolution without talking about the african diaspora and the connections between the african-americans and elsewhere so we start, for example, our film on the revolutionary war with the fact that africans in north america had always been rebelling, right, so the fight for freedom against the backdrop of a fight for liberty was nothing new for them, but when you think about the african die sprarks and i want you to think about haiti in two ways. one what, was the influence on africans around the world because the maritime system allowed for black men to travel along that maritime system and spread news. what did that mean? how did it inspire others, right? and then also when you had the haitian revolution and the success of the haitian revolution, what did that mean in terms of it impact on leadership here in north america, here in the burgeoning nation and planters who were concerned about what was it going to mean to african-americans who might also pursue their own freedom in the same way so it had a deep impact in that manner. >> you said on the tour that everyone is in this story. how so? >> well, we start this story with humanity. we do not start this story with slavery and so when you look at the notion of humanity, while this story is a story that's an american story, it's a shared industries, and it's a human story, and so that human story is told looking at this through an african-american lens. that lens looked out on to an interracial world so i'll give you a example. while we tell many stories, for example, about benjamin banniker and stories of folks like joegs trammel and his flow dom papers, right. at the same time many people would be shocked that we have that fox's wage book on display in our transatlantic slave section. >> which is what. >> >> it's a book that contains the wages that were paid to crew members who served on the slave ship. what's really powerful about that is while we know the horrors of what went on in the hull of this ship, people should has know about the human experience on deck, and so crew members were beaten often, and it was a hard police officer. obviously being in the hull of a ship and being enslafrd was the a harsh reality but we would be remiss if we did not tell the whole of the human experiences so one thing to think about with or two things to think about with the wage book is, one, everybody benefitted from this enterprise of slavery, from the crew member to the elite to even the nation states, right? but the other thick to think about is why would someone serve on a slave ship? what is it to gain passage to the new world? what is it to feed their family or with a it simply that they thought this was morally okay and they wanted to make money. when you open that book and you found there were many crew members who committed suicide and many who actually ran away. >> you can join in on facebook.com/c-span. remember, all of our programming is available online any time at c-span.oregon. our guest is mary elliott and our next caller is charlie from winter park, florida. go ahead, please. >> caller: hi. yes. thank you, miss eatol for entertaining my phone call, and my question is why are we not having more open discussions about the democratic party's role in creating racism recall and segregation as a result to maintain the institution of slavery and to prevent african-americans from matriculating into mainstream america? >> i actually -- what i love about this museum, and that's a great question, is that we look at this almost in like a 360 way, right? we look at all the different factors that get us to where we are, and so we don't look at one particular party. we look at what's going on in the nation at different moments in time, so what's happening with democrats, what's happening with republicans, what happens with the election of 1876, right? i'm going to give you an example of different perspectives that all of this is steeped in issues of race. let's think about it, it's race, it's class. you have the kansas-nebraska act. i tell people there's a case along the wall. we have several cases where we look at legislation going all away i long from the declaration of independence all the way to the 15th amendment. what we learned in secondary school, probably sat in class and sat okay, okay, can we get to recess, okay, but now we've paired this with african-american first person voices, so we took excerpts from speeches, sermons, newspaper articles, all written by african-americans, bring this story to life. when you look at the kansas-nebraska act and you think of, for example, all the people who were fighting to end slavery. i say this in context to your question because we include everyone's voice, and so included in those voices are the free-soilers, and the free oilers, if you think of poor white and yeoman white fires and plantar elite and real people of color and enslaved africans. the american different perspectives on why we needed to lead perslavery. why are you giving away all these large tracts of land and i need access to land, too? you are giving away these large tracts of land that the planter elite can continue slavery and i need my piece of the pie. a poor white person would have to say why do i have to compete with free labor and there are different opinions as to why people are fighting against slavery in the same thing when you look at racism in this nation, there are many different reason, economic, social, and they still have to be dealt, but i would not narrow it down to just one political party to talk about that. >> this is a tough question to answer, but on average, if a plantation owner was purchasing a slave, how much did he pay? >> that varied. we have on our wall for the domestic slave trade, we have a little boy, and we -- we papered that wall with excerpts from bills of sale, and so we wanted people to see, again, the juxtaposition of profit and power and the human "channel 4 action news" and commerce and activity, a little boy $5, and we know that's the monetary value, but the value of this little boy to his mother was a lot more, right? on average you could see someone, a man, it varied. if you have a man who is in good health and who may have proven to be very valuable in the field could, go for tens of thousands of dollars. all right. could you have someone else who could go for $3,500. so it varied, and it varied depending on what their skills were and their capabilities, yeah? >> our next caller is from las vegas. alma, thank you for waiting. thank you for your yes. >> caller: hello, miss elliott. thank you and congratulations on the triumph of your museum. it's absolutely museum. number one, i realize in the part that i saw before you can't get into every aspect of what you're telling, but i wanted to know if you have anything there that talks about the abolitionists pause they were very, very powerful in helping move the freedom of african-americans along and very briefly when i was looking at your slave cabp, i couldn't help thinking of the cattle card at the holocaust museum in washington, the similarities of the two museums are just overpowering, and i was wondering do you think that at some time in the future there could be a labration between the two museums for schoolchildren of all ages that when they visit one, they could visit the other and see that this is, as you said before, a human story? thank you. >> thank you for the call from las vegas. mary elliott. >> those are both great questions and a great suggestion. let me talk about the first thing, about the abolitionists. from the beginning when you come through slavery and freedom, you see that africans were fighting for their freedom from the time they were torn away from the interior of, you know, africa and brought along to that western coast. and then when you go into colonial north america you see that we really punch the story of freedom through the stories of rebellion. i stay that because agency is important that african-americans, africans in north america, south america, the caribbean, had been fighting for free tom all among. bloc agent sill is very important. as you come around the exhibition and enter the section on the coming of way, we falk about abolitionist efforts, right, and, again, we would be remiss if we it not speak about the international collaborations to end slavery so it's a great question because you have people like john f. kennedy and william loidolt gharltson and then you is there someone liz and david hoyte who was one of the free-soilers and he was fighting against slavery and he had his own reasonable to fight against slippery and we have his map that's blood stained fight against slaveriry. he was killed by a mob, and there chop various roobs why and, again, people like john brown saw that it was morally wrong and they fought valiantly to end this. >> let's go to chanel joining us from bakersfield, california. good evening. >> caller: hi, good evening, and thank you miss elliott just for your passion and knowledge and eloquence with which you describe the exhibits. i'm from baltimore originally so i cannot wait to get home and visit. >> great. >> caller: i lost foucs that you may to the fact that this is a human story. that is not only american history. this is world history, not just african-american history, and one of the pieces that always struck me when i was learning about the slave trade in school and one of the things that you often hear as a rebuttal for the fact that enslavement continued as an oppression in an oppressive system is the role that native african-americans played in the transatlantic slave trade. how does the museum explore this juxtaposition and the roles and had a the motivations for the role of native africans in in a system? >> that's a great question, and actually we made sure that we addressed that directly. in our section on the transatlantic slave trade we look at, again, the juxtaposition of profit and mother to the human cost and we do it through urnsy. with you have european currencies along the way in a show how gostsz sanctioned the trade it. the guinea coin with the elephant and it castle on it and you can see the government traded in gold and enclaved africans and we had currency from the west of america because well he cannized some of the questions that came our way, bull these are important issues you may have addressed. we talk about the many renks why, so, fore, the again who tried very hard to avoid are being involved in the slave trade and while you see in fact early on europeans and africans come together through trade, and that trailed included humans, right, but oven times that was because of war fare, people sending off their enemies away, right? at the same time people were involved in trade to pay off debt. at the same time there were people who were involved in trade simply because they wanted to make one. so we wanted to make sure that we addressed the various reasons why some native africans would have been involved in the frayed. >> let me follow up on that point. we did an interview with the chief justice of the united states john roberts and said the founding fathers most everything right except on this issue, and yet slavery was also prevalent in many other countries. so what it made it unique here in the u.s. or different? >> well, there's a feature in the exhibition on slavery and freedom where we look at sugar as the driver of the trade, and i'll just you one example. sugar is the dreifort trade and we know sugar was produced in different parts of north america, louisiana included, you think in south america and the caribbean, people look at how many people came to north america. 400,000. 3 million to brazil, right. on that chase the we have in the chase a rustic sugar pot that was used to boil charlottetown sugar canadian. it's surrounded by faux sugar but we were label to many work with people who loaned us beautiful itemsy will lated to sugar. these are all juxtaposed and when you read the label the more that the rate was seven years so if you think of the economy in north america, you think of the crop systems in north america and have you sugar. you have rice. you have cotton. you have tobacco. you have wheat, right? of and there's this sense of having longer life span, depending on the crop system. in south carolina though i can't kenai there's a seven-year life span there because sugar, cotton, rice was a very demanding crop, right, and then north americans also, i hate to use the word, perfected a way to retain their. human property, and that is a hard way of putting it, but it is true, and you also see built time you get to the antebellum period how they are breeding and enslaving people. >> appropriately now hour next caller is from columbia, south carolina. good evening. >> caller: good evening. >> go hey head, caller. >> yes, hello. how are you. >> caller: good evening, how are you? this is a outstanding show. a couple years ago i had an opportunity to see here in columbia an exhibition from the holocaust museum that was a traveling exhibition here. i know your museum just opened, but i'm wondering if you have any ideas of developing a traveling exhibition for people who are not able to get to washington, d.c. to see that exhibition because that's extremely powerful. >> thank you, or able to get a ticket which is a whole other story which we'll talk about later. >> that's a great question and we actually have -- i have some really amazing colleagues, and i have to say this since i mention mid my colleagues. while i'm a museum specialist and i co-created the slavery exbirks i would be remiss if you didn't mention the other co-curator, dr. nancy burkoff and also a young laid, a young scholar who assisted us as well. in terms of the traveling exbigsz, our director has charged us with making sure that we start planning some opportunities to do traveling exhibitions as well as opportunities to partner with institutions across the nation and throughout the world to doll exhibitions together. when we open during the grand opening which had an exhibition of sorts that we sent out all over the world so that people can see some of the dynamic objects that we have, and that was really through like panels so that they could see some of the objects and see some of the stories that we're telling through these objects so we were fortunate to have that are at the point of grand opening but we also made sure that there were sights across the nation that also featured some of the things that we have in the exhibition. the other thing that we do very well, i believe, is if you go online, we have some wonderful stories associated with these object and even if you can't come here you can see the objects and hear the stories of the objects, not just the history of the object but how we acquired the object which is really powerful to hear it from the perspective of a curator and team that helped bring this to life. >> we want to thank you and the entire staff opening the doors for the tour and our programs on this president's day weekend. thank you very much. >> it's been my pleasure. >> follow us on twitter at c-span history and we have a tweet from a viewer who wants to know how people can donate family heirlooms to the museum. >> i would give you my home phone number but that wouldn't be right, but that -- we would love to hear from people all the time, and we actually have a way that you can go online on our website where you can fill out donor information to let us know what you have, and then we review the documents and put you in touch with the appropriate staff member of to follow up with you because we have many curators that focus on different subject matter, yeah. >> in the tour you talked about nate turner. >> yeah. nat turner. >> nat turner. >> yeah. so nat turner, we're fortunate to feature what we believe is his bible that he held on to at the time that he was captured. nat turner is the well-known gentleman who led the revolt, the rebellion in southampton, virginia, right? we had about 70, a group of 70 african-americans free and enslaved who fought their way towards freedom. the revolt was ended. they were actually caught. nat turner, however, got away and stayed in the -- in the swamp areas. he urlt maltly wltimately was c put to death. it really does say a lot about what people risked for this freedom. there's a statement down in the section on the paradox of liberty and mom beth who sued for her freedom said if i had one minute of freedom i would take it so nat turner and the rebellion in 1831 says a lot about people who think i would rather have death than be enslaved, and they risked their lives, not only to gain their own freedom but in many ways making a point that freedom was everything by any means necessary. >> kenneth, good evening, from california. what's your question? ken, you with us? >> caller: hello. have i lost you? >> please go ahead. >> caller: many people want to talk about everybody's history but black history, and i find intertwines with black history and jewish history. my question is who owned all the great estates in the south where the buildings were built by of the sflafs who owned the textile miles and who most profited from slavery in relation spot jews? they don't talk about that and i want to hear some answers. >> thank you. kenneth, we'll get a response. >> well, there were jewish slaveholders, we know that, and we know that there are many people who owned, you know, banks in the u.s. who were v.ed in slave pri but in story, kenneth, again, it involves everybody. so there's no one group that well call out. inwas invested in in enterprise and everybody benifited from it except for those who were enslaved. i can't say personally i could narrow this down is talking about judgment jewish people of involved in slaflry because, again, it was a cross-section of people, and you are right tlrm were african-americans. >> at its peak how maniful slaves were in america? >> by the time eman pace came i believe it was 4 million and i understand at the time the value of enslaved people exceeded the value of land in the nation at the time. >> and on average, what was the life span of a slave? >> on average, i believe it was into their -- some it was into their 20s and some it was a little bit later but not really beyond 50. >> doug is joining us, newport news, spra have a, with mary elliott. >> >> caller: hello, miss elliott. it's a pleasure to talk with you. i'm an enthusiast myself. how have you reached out to the indians, the american indian groups, particularly the cherokee and the creek. very people know that the second civil war was now the over a black woman, a woman named morning dew and also the buffalo soldiers helped on the trail from florida to oklahoma u.currently there's a dr. anderson who has a reparations lawsuit pending against the tribes who held slaves in the war. they were given reparation money that was supposed to go to the slaves hand the slaves never got it so i was just wondering what have you guys reached out to the native indian tribes and what's been the response and what are you going to do in the future? >> thank you for the call. >> thank you for that question. actually, we're fortunate to be upped the umbrella of the smithsoniania which includes the national museum of the american indian and we're very proud to be able to work with our colleagues alternate museum. we have done public about programs. that was indivisible where we looked at some of the relationships, the various relationships between the naff can american and faith american industrial. we have an ongoing relationship and public information from tarz ann to tonto hand looking hat some of the stereotypes, right. we are currently discussing future activities to explore the relationships between american indians and african-americans in the another future and around the fall. so there's a lot of public programming being done right now, planned right now, so that we can unpack this history a little bit more and bring in a few more scholars who can help share had a little bit more of the nuances, the details of the relationship between these two groups, and when we look at, that it's not just looking at where these groups separate but also where they come together because it's very important to look at bolt. >> time for up more call. suzette, you're on the air with american history tv. >> let's go to xavier joining us from mime. you get the rafferty question. >> caller: thank you. how will you doing, miss elliott in the. >> i'm noonlfulful. >> caller: when i was growing up my mom had african-american enpsych pied yads in the home so from reading though encyclopedias when i was a kid i went to elementary school named after a black man and as i was going to school i went there from first grade to this. grade, had people of african-americans, so on the first day you start memorizing who these people are and there's' lot of things about cav canny american history that i know: i was wondering howl do we get to where we care about our culture. >> thank you. we'll get a response. >> that's that up, and my dad had some 8.5 by 11 cards from "ebony" magazine and plastered our walls during negro history week, right, and we had to go around the house and memorize these icons of african-american history and american history. i wish we could get back to having those card, but thank god we have this museum, right? so we see many young people coming to this museum but the caller before you who asked about how do we get this information out to the world, how do we get it out to local communities and i have to tip my hat to many of the smaller museums that are local history museums that are local african-american history museums. that's vastly important. the other thing i would say is we have an education department here that's robust and that's the working with education, educateors across the nation, to help share these stories in the classroom, and we're look towards curriculum development and also early childhood education, but lastly i have to say thrl, it is incumbent upon the older generation to take children by the hand and share their stories. some of the stories in this mousse um, many of them actually, we can attribute the success of collecting to family stewards, steward of this history, genealogy is extremely important, and while we can look towards books and we can look towards museums, sometimes it's just good to even tell your family story, and that really gets young people interested because it's personal. >> oral histories. >> yes. >> this is an impossible question with half a minute left. >> oh, no. >> if there's one place in the museum, one exhibit that is an absolute must see, what is it from your standpoint? >> well, that's a hard question and i'm going to make this quick. i say slavery and freedom is a must-see exhibition but i really say the history galleries. you have to see everything, so where we're sitting right now, you go down to slavery and freedom and see the story of the domestic slave trade and the story of the domestic slave trade includes isaac franklin, one of the most successful slave traders during the antebellum period. takes his profit and turns it into power and purchases eight plantations, including angola prison, the site of one of the worst prisons in the nation today. by the time you get to the security gallery you see the angola prison guarder to and this help unpack us the element of slavery and even today we're dealing with the prison industrial complex. there's no way you can look at this history in a vacuum. it's all connected. >> thank you so much for the tour and your time. we'll come back again and appreciate your appreciation. >> thank you so much. in was great. >> we'll move from the civil war period to the post-civil war era into the william rights movement with will yanl pretzer. he'll provide a tour through the next half hour and he'll be here to take your calls and questions as we continue live on c-span 3's live american history tv. william pretzer: i am the senior history curator. >> my name is bill pretzer and i'm the senior history cureicator here at the museum and we're entering the exhibition defending freedom and defining freedom, the era of segregation. at the end of the civil war, african-americans who were released from their bondage immediately sought about creating their own lives with their own resources. and one of the first things many of them tried to do was to reconnect with family members who had been separated during the era of slavery. they traveled the country looking for their relatives. they placed ads in newspapers, primarily church-related newspapers, seeking to define their kin folk. they wrote ledders to the freed man's bureau hand they wanted to reconnect and build communities amongst themselves so one of the major elements of that process was creating all black towns not welcome in the wider society. a number of african-americans reconnected with their families and created towns where they built not only their homes like this building out of poolsville, maryland, what was then called jonesville, maryland in northern montgomery county boston schools and churches in those communities this original building was build by john hall in 1872. it compares or contrasts rather with the slave cabin you've seen earlier by being a two-story building. it was a measure of his and his family's ambitions an optimism for the future. they actually had just bought land so they were free hold formp farmer, not tenant farmers or sharecroppers, and with others in their community they built one of the first, up of nine actually all black towns in montgomery county in the late 1870s and 1880s. it was a mark of their independence and it mirrored towns across the country. this building was still in use as a family home though highly renovated and well into the 20th century and the family that sill owned the home once it was, abandoned after researchers had found this in what is now poolsville, maryland. our researchers went up and examined the building. we have to take off the siding and the interior white board to see what the logs underneath looked like. we contracted well a buildings comfort tore and dismantled the building log by log and restored the parts of it that we could restore and pre-placed a few parts and then rebuilt it here in the museum. again, log by log for this display. there are actually hundreds of ex-cabins that were inhabited by enslaved individuals that have been reused decade after decade. the slave cabin that we saw earlier in the tour in our slavery and freedom exhibition was occupied until the 1980s. most of them have had -- this been reconstructed, updated, vinyl siding, but the current inhabitants don't even realize that underneath the shell of the building is the structure of had a former slave cabin. we'll see the rest of the response to this kind of independence with the creation of a seg xwalted society and the response with that to the civil rights movements in the 1950s and '60s. at the very end of the civil war african-americans had civil rights in the form of the confederacy and in fact had voting rights and produced legislatures in which over 1,900 african-americans had served in state legislatures in southern -- in southern states. in 1877, the political compromise removed northern troops from the former confederacy. that allowed white society to begin a campaign of removing the civil rights that african-americans had received at the very end of the civil war and recreating slavery by another name, a segregated society. what we have called -- come to call jim crowe. the initial elements had changes in state laws which limited the rights of of a cap americans hand limit their trying to move and to vote and to surf on juries, high temperatured their economic rights but it certainly wasn't imposition of new laws. it was the both of those laws by a reign of terror quite frankly and the symbol of that terror has come to be the ku klux klan but the klan was not the only element of terror. it was a broad hi societal effort that's epitomized by the klan. founded in 1865 the klan was established to enforce new kinds of laws, and the creation of a new type of white supremacy. african-american society was attacked on all levels, not just simply physical violence, but psychologically and intellectually and by the deniable of all of theirs rights prmpt persian gulf cav can americans if helped them create their own so side and allowed them to voice their concerns for the future. the white hood became the symbol of the ku klux klan and was widely seep across society protecting the identity of individuals, although in most communities everyone knew who was underneath the hood, but it wasn't just the physical terror epitomized by the klan and by the lynchings that the klan and other parts of society conducted. more than 4,000 individuals were illegally murdered with no consequences on the perpetrators from the 1880s into the 1940s. it was a constant part and the rest had to do with a physical and psychological component. the publication of a book, "the knee grow, the beast" which perpetuates the idea that african-americans were put on earth. they are not their own human. that kind of intellectual structure and the psych lonely call makeup that that had on white society as well as detrimental effects that it had on african-americans that had to resist the constant barrage of negative information about them, created a sense of terror that was constant and unremitting, and yet african-americans responded in a number of very creative ways. it wasn't simply physical terror, but it allowed things like a constant depp gracious of of a american, what happened in 21st century america was a reminder to white people that african nerns were interior and reminders to african so side as individuals and as product before i members of society. the response of the african moan was an expression of their own vision for the future show they built escationle institutions. they built civic and community organizations. they focused on their churches. they created entrepreneurial enterprises and they valued the black press, a free press that communicated information. they built a society within the larger society that both responded and protected them from that larger society but also expressed their own values and their own sense of what the future could be for themselves and for their children. ♪ in the early 20th century, there was a massive beginnings of a massive migration of african-americans from the rural south to northern cities. in great migration, as it's called, changed the character and allowed more opportunity for african-americans to engage in modern society in those northern cities. it also changed the character of their sense of them selves and their opportunities so in the 19tos right after world war i. where of a cap americans had served in great numbers, particularly in france, in the military, there some what -- an f-flor essence, an engagement of the expression the knew negro or the negro renaissance. this is the migration of the negro by jay lawrence, an art tifltic retrospective looking back on the artitivityic of movement, massive numbers, millions of african-americans to northern cities between 1910 and 1940 h.by the mid-20th century jim crowe society was well established north and south in the united states and in the west follow that matter. the tradition, however, of response to that jim -- to expand civil rights where african-americans and then by the 1950s and '6s, just after world war ii where african-americans, again, served in the military and came home to a segregated society that did not accept them entirely, the notion of a concerted bi-racial civil rights movement grew and took on more added energy and strength. on the other side of this whites only door we have instances of violence against african-americans who were active in the civil rights movement before there was a civil rights movement. in the 1940s and '50s activists constantly tried to put pressure on white society to allow greater civil activity for african-americans, economic rights, legal rights, but particularly voting rights. one of the major proponents of voting rights in florida, for instance, was harry t. moore and his wife harriette. the moores were active in the civil rights movement, both educateors, and they had registered many african-americans in florida to be able to vote. on christmas day 1951, a bomb exploded under their bedroom in their home in broward county florida. harry was killed outright and harriette died a few days later, but they were only two of several martyrs to the civil rights movement before the board v. brown, board of education case desegregating schools in 1954 and of the montgomery boycott instituted by rolesa parks. there's ban constant number of individuals who fighting northerly civil rights before that -- who those events drew national attention. whole were killed by the terrorists involved in trying to preserve white supremacy. harry moore kept his wallet, his pocket watch and then his wife harriette wore the small lady's wrist watch. the small locket which harriette wore contains photographs of her husband and herself. these are personnelments that survived the popping in their mom in 1951. another example of pre-civil rights era activism comes from the example of esau and jeanie jenkins in john's island south carolina just outside of charleston. the jenkins created a society group called the progressive society which operated a cooperative store, a small motel, a gas station. they also bought a volkswagen van in the late 1950s, and they began ferrying individuals from john's island into their jobs in charleston but it wasn't simply a transportation service. during the ride from the island into town and pack at night janie would teach the individuals literacy skills, teach them how to read hand write and particularly she would use the constitutional of the of the state of south carolina to teach them about voting rights so that they would have the opportunity to take the test and apply for voter registration so they combined a service along with an opportunity for african-americans to gain their rights. in the miltsds of a segregated society, transportation was one of the great challenges for both african-americans and whites. how to create separation for whites but allowed the transportation for the black community. this railway car built in 1923 was only in 1940 renovated to create separate sections, that is, the system became more restrictive as time went on and as more african-americans joined the traveling ranks, but long distance travel, this car was made for the southern railways and traveled between washington, d.c. and new orleans. had to acdate the notion of increasingly segregated society. let's go inside and take a look. as a white passenger, i would look at this portion of the car and say, okay, these are nice large seats. i'm quite comfortable here. i've got lots of room. i can look out the windows. i can enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere because when i get back here i see i've got room to store my large luggage. i don't have to keep it right on my lap, and i've got a restroom with a lounge that allows for smoking out of the main car and a fairly large restroom that's quite accommodating for passengers, but if i was the an african-american passenger i would walk into tooization and say, all right, these seebts are fine but if i have a pag i have to keep it with me right on my lap or on my feet. there niece no other accomodations except for a smae vul toil the area with no lounge. in other words, it's very tifrpt for off cap members and clearly an inferior experience. ♪ william pretzer: when the supreme court of the united >> when the supreme court of the united states announced that separate but equal was inherently uning equal in american education in the brown v. board case, it opening the door for opportunity for other african-americans to argue about that same kind of inferiority and separate but equal situations. in 1955 rosa parks with a long career in activism decided that she couldn't take it anymore, that she really needed to find out what her rights as an african-american so she tre fused to give up her seat on a because. marks who works as a seem stress was showing -- this was her project at. similarly another woman earl el on in the civil rights woman was not a 40-year-old mayor eeld woman with a job but a 14-year-old high school student by the name of carlotta walls in little rock, arkansas, who wanted the best education show could get. many carlotta signed up and became what what is once known as the hill many rock this noinl. >> the dress that car lot rarngs wore the first day of school in 1957 when she in fact was denied and it was a press that it expressed her desire to get the best its canned put and move forward and achieve her am itses. quite a different story is a 1-year-old white student at duke university in 1960. joan was a devote christian and simply figured that the civil rights movement expressed christian values and, therefore, joined citizens in durham, north carolina and ultpill because -- i spent four years, one of the freedom writers, arrested, served time in mitts muss and carried with her the element of an interracial, multi-level cooperation that would lead to civil rights for all americans. this is screen's vest in which she collected all the buttons that she had that represented the various causes that she believed in and created her own monurmt and memorial and reminder of her activities in the movement in the early 1960s. of course, martin luther king was the inspirational leader of the 1960s civil rights movement and has become the symbol that have movement for many americans, though as we've seen he was certainly not the only individual who was primary to that movement and those days. in 2014. king posthumously and his widow credit kre-- credioretta scott were awarded the medal of honor. many ces and therefore began a larger approach to they began a larger approach to a change in america. at this point we're going to move on to the next exhibition, a changing america, 1968 and beyond. having left are the exhibition on the era of sessiongation we're moving to the final exhibition in the three-part history categories, a changing america 1968 and beyond, and you can sense a difference in the tone and the tenor of the african-american liberation movement. the late 1960s was an era of black power and also an era of the transition of the philosophies of lieutenant lieutenant. particularly his development of the poor people's campaign, a multi-racial campaign for economic justice and the end to poverty that king had initiated just before his assassination in 1968. the mural behind me is one of the representations that have campaign which was embodied in resurrection city, a tent city here in washington, d.c. in may and june of 1968. king's vision was for a multi-racial campaign that would bring americans, native americans, african-americans, latino americans, puerto rican americans, poor while individuals from all parts of the country to washington, d.c. to lobby congress and the presidency for economic changes, not merely civil rights for one group but for changes in the fundamental economic situation in a would alleviate poverty in america. this mural that was painted, one of many painted on the mywood that would make up the tent city that housed 3,500 individuals on the mall in washington, d.c., represents that kind of multi-racial character of the campaign. it contains a number of representations from chicanos, clearly made by individuals, bolt african-american and chicanos interested in the movement who brought their concerns and their culture to washington, d.c. for this moment. we're assuming it was produced in part by students from california, the university of the pacific and the university of california at los angeles, but it's also evident that this could have been representing a number of individuals from various parts of the country including the use of the language which expresses the hope that off the can be eliminated in the united states. with king's death and the advocacy of his widow continued the campaign. they had permits from the federal government to set up on the national mall. the weather was terrible, and for six weeks they tried in vain to lobby the federal government for lobby the government for fundamental change. at the end of the six weeks the federal government bull doetzed the city and evicted the residents and then basically ended the campaign. pm members of the people's campaign who were washington residents maced to find out where the bulldozed had been taken to a local will and went by that base later that negotiate and resurrected hand salvaged some of the people, other documents and other items were kept until they were donated to this museum. many think that the black empowerment campaign was in opposition of civil rights. in fact, the in slenlt fill os fife -- philosophy of martin luther king. newton is the premiere example of this sense of militant opposition to american society that the panthers supposedly, allegedly represented, but in, fact, much of their campaign was about self-defense for african-americans, the same kind of self-defense in a had been seen earlier with the deacons of defense and earlier efforts in the microsoft and other areas of american african life imposings violence against their society. part of the black panther campaign, a major part was social reform, educational reform. health care and house, the freedom to get an education that was outful for them and. an element we want to focus on and make more widely known to the american public is the whole notion of survival programs, that the party was developing a whole series of activities and pioneered the idea of legal aid, of health clinics, of educational programs and of free breakfast programs for schoolchildren recall, that the social reform that the panthers symbolized was as important, probably more important than the militaristic side and the militant activities that were highlighted in the press at the time. another element of king's evolution was his development and opposition to the vietnam war, an issue that rent american society in the '60s and early '70s. king, in 1967, straight out said one of his greatest disappointments was america's failure to deal with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and mill tarrism. african-american soldiers served in vietnam, some willingly, some reluctantly, but they all took pride in their service, and they all did their utmost to serve their country, a tradition that had continued on from earlier wars in american history and since the vietnam era. the vietnam tour jacket was a common memento acquired by soldiers on r & r, often in okinawa, an island off of japan, where they would have them embroidered with symbols of their service. in this particular instance, an african-american soldier not only had a tour jacket made to commemorate his service in vietnam, but he had it adorned with symbols of black power representing his dual commitment both to the black power movement and to his own service in the vietnam war. also in this area of a changing america exhibition on the black power era is elements of the broad concerns, basically a renovation of the new negro movement or the harlem renaissance of the early 20th century, a concern with literature, with culture, with representation. and so particularly the development of black women writers, black feminists, critique of american society, the development and growth of shirley chisolm, the first black woman to run for a major party nomination for the presidency, a political force. on all of those levels, through culture, politics, popular culture representation in mass media, the black power movement renovated and created yet another new african-american way of expressing themselves and of taking power, of being represented and being in control of their own circumstances. and that created opportunities for subsequent generations. >> and we continue live at the national museum of african-american. we continue with bill pretzer. thanks for the tour. so you walked us through the 20th century, the civil rights movement, the vietnam war. let re-establish where are we physically in the museum right now? >> right now we're in the orientation gallery to the three history exhibits. so from this space, visitors would go down our large elevator all the way to the bottom level to begin the exhibition on slavery and freedom that mary elliott took you all through, then move on to the area of segregation exhibition and finally a changing america in 1968 and beyond. and that would conclude the three history galleries here in the museum. >> then you move upstairs through the culture museum. >> move upstairs to level three, which is our community galleries, exhibitions on sports, military history, making a way out of no way, which is about self-help, and then the power of place, a set of regional studies of african-american life. and then to level four, our culture galleries. exhibitions on music, visual art, theater, film, and television, and cultural expressions. >> there are a couple of questions i have from the tour, but let me again remind our audience that we want to hear from you. our phone lines are open. so give us a call. if you live in the eastern or central time zones. be sure to follow us on twitter at c-span history and check out on our programming on our facebook page at facebook.com/c-span history. the number one question, how do people get a ticket for this museum, and why is it so hard? >> it's hard simply because we're so popular. it sounds impolite to say that, but the simple case is that we have been overwhelmed by the response of the public for this museum. >> so you didn't expect these crowds? >> we expected crowds. we did not expect the level and the sustained amount of interest in the museum. since we're limited by the fire marshal on the number of people we can take into the museum at any one time, we simply have to spread out that process and help people get those tickets in advance. the way to get tickets either as an individual or via a group is to check out the museum's website, nmhhc.si.edu. the front page, the home page has how to visit. go there. it will explain how to sign up for tickets, how to call for tickets for groups, nonprofit groups, community organizations can get bulk tickets. they come after an amount of time in the sense that we have to ask people to wait a couple of months simply because the response has been so overwhelming. >> i logged on today. if i want to get a ticket, it's late may or early june right now. >> that's the case, yes. >> let me ask you about some of the exhibits. a lot of questions about two african-american justices of the supreme court, thurgood marshall and clarence thomas. how are they represented in this museum? >> the fact is that we created exhibitions based on themes that were determined by exhibition teams. and as it turns out, thurgood marshall is represented by his fraternity dues card and simply by a quote based on the brown v. board desegregation case of 1954. there's really nothing about him as a supreme court justice. justice clarence thomas is represented in a small display around the confirmation hearings and the charge by anita hill that led to a great deal of controversy. but then ultimately his confirmation and seating on the court. >> but some may argue they played a bigger role in american history, especially thurgood marshall. >> well, we know there are thousands of stories that we could have told in much greater detail. we simply can't include all those stories all at the same time. we've done our very best to find the kinds of stories that we think resonate with people, both the known and unknown stories. and so this is a living museum. just like our understanding of history changes, we reinterpret. we find new information. this is a conversation about what we will include in the museum in the future rather than looking at what we've already done in the past. >> a living museum, despite its size, would still limit its face. what's not included that you would like to see included down the road? >> my own interest is in the history of science and technology, and that's an interest that many, many people have had, and they've made it very clear to us that they're very disappointed that we have not done more with african-americans' involvement with science and technology. and so we're looking for ways in the future to first of all build the collection, the basic resource of any museum are the artifacts, the documents, the photographs that deal with a particular subject matter. and then to figure out how we would employ those artifacts either in programs through our website or in a physical exhibition within the building itself. >> what does the term "jim crow" mean? >> jim crow is the legal and cultural creation of a segregated society that oppresses african-americans in the united states between the 1870s and the 1960s. >> let's get to your phone calls again. malcolm is joining us from asbury park, new jersey. go ahead, please. >> caller: hello? >> yes. you're on the air. go ahead, please. >> caller: yes. a name is malcolm. i wanted to know since hip-hop is an original art of america, is it included in the museum too because that's the last original art that americans produced, and it's all the way across the world now. it's even in commercials. >> sure. thank you for the question. >> malcolm, that's a great question, and i'm really happy to say that hip-hop and rap music appear in actually several different exhibitions in this museum. first of all, our musical history gallery entitled "musical cross roads" contains a number of examples of hip-hop. the exhibition, a changing america, 1968 and beyond, also has a large public enemy banner. remember, it was chuck d of public enemy who talked about in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, hip-hop as black people's cnn, that is the source of information. then we also have about musical expressions in our cultural expressions gallery. so, yes, hip-hop is well represented within the museum. >> from the post-world war ii era to the present, was it easy or difficult to get artifacts for the exhibits? >> it was probably actually more difficult in a way than some other curators have had finding exhibition material for their particular subject matter because recent history is not seen as historically important. a lot of people had things in their attics or basements, and if they were a hundred years old, they figured there might be something of importance. but if they're only from the 1990s, well, who is interested in that? so we had to really go out and encourage people to talk about what they might have, what we were interested in in terms of cultural or social history, political history, and then to convince them to allow us to see what they had and what they were -- and what possibilities we saw to make them accessible to the public and to tell the stories that were important to tell. >> and about you, a native of sacramento, california, then in deer born, michigan, at the henry ford museum for two decades? >> yes. >> before coming back to the smithsonian. >> yes, in 2009, to work on this project specifically. >> let's go to james in las cruces, new mexico, with bill pretzer. >> caller: hello, yes. hi. i have a question about the social reform program of the black panthers and why it has been relatively neglected. i wondered if you could speak to that. >> jamie, thank you. >> i think there was an impression created by the media and quite frankly by the u.s. government in the 1960s and early 1970s, that the black panther party was essentially a black terrorist group, a racist organization, and so its survival program, its community-building programs, its creation of free breakfast, of literacy programs, legal aid, housing programs all were played down by the media because it was more exciting to see issues of conflict. so the black panthers have really gotten a bum rap, and what we've tried to do in this exhibition actually is to display material from their survival programs to offset that kind of overwhelming media impression that was originally created. >> who was emmet till? >> emmet till was a 14-year-old chicago boy who went to visit his cousins in money, mississippi, in 1955. he went into a store, had an exchange with a white female clerk. four days later, the clerk's husband and his half-brother took emmett till out to a riverside. they tortured him. they murdered him. they threw his body into the river. his mother retrieved the body, insisted that he be buried in chicago after a public funeral and an open casket so that the american public could see what racism had done to her son. the emmett till murder is a tipping point in the civil rights movement in this country. we know of dozens of individuals who became the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement in the early '60s, who were teenagers or adolescents in 1955, and for whom the emmett till murder was frightening and maddening. they knew they didn't want to grow up in a world that allowed that to happen. and so they were willing to put themselves on the line and to become active in the civil rights movement just a few years later. >> and his casket is on display here. >> yes. he was originally buried in alsip, illinois, just south of chicago. in 2 kwl005, the fbi, trying to reopen and re-examine a number of cold cases of violence against african-americans during the civil rights movement, disinterred his body, exhumed his body. they conducted tests, and then he was reburied by law in a different casket. the original casket ordered by his mother in 1955 was simply stored by the cemetery. his family retrieved the casket in 2009. they knew lonnie bunch, the director of this museum, because he had been the director of the chicago history museum in earlier years. they talked with lonnie, and they agreed to donate his casket to this museum with the understanding we would preserve it, restore it, and put it on display in a respectful way to continue what his mother, mamie till mobley, wanted, which was to make his death not be in vein. >> were those responsible tried and convicted? >> the two individuals, the two white men, were put on trial. they were both acquitted. they then acknowledged in a paid interview with "look" magazine that they had, in fact, committed the murder, but double jeopardy obtained, and they were never retried. >> we're going to go back to your tour, but talk about president obama having toured this museum and his reaction. >> president obama and his family took, i believe, two separate private tours with the director, lonnie bunch, of the museum. and i think their responses were pretty typical of most people's responses. this is a pretty amazing collection of artifacts and stories that are told in a direct and yet very respectful way that one can laugh. one can cry. one can feel in awe about the things and the history that this country and african-americans have participated in over the past 500 years. >> we should point out the museum includes the oprah winfrey theater, which is directly across from us. we'll continue more with the tour with bill pretzer, come back in about five minutes with your calls and comments. >> black power in the civil rights movement opened up opportunities for african-americans in all realms of american life -- politics, popular culture, literature, economic entrepreneurialism. oprah winfrey has become one of the great icons of late 20th century. starting her talk show in 1986, she developed an empire that went beyond the business and talked about individual self-empowerment, creative opportunities, educational opportunities, and used her wealth and her influence to promote the kinds of ideas that the civil rights movement leaders and the black power leaders had advocated. her career exemplifies that kind of opportunity and making the most of it both individually and collectively. ms. winfrey was kind enough to be a supporter of this museum and donated they artifacts from the last showed aired in 2011 of her daytime talk show. in 2008, barack obama created a multi-racial coalition that brought him to the presidency, a coalition that mirrored the type of multi-racial coalition that mart martin luther king envisioned in 1968 for the poor people's campaign. barack obama's presidency did not represent a post-racial society as we have come to understand. still, it represented a marked departure from previous american political life and created a new image of the black man and the black family in the lives of many african-americans and americans. for whatever his legacy in terms of policies and the administration, his personal legacy and his impact on american political life will be seen as a very positive element in the future as historians consider and reconsider the impact of his presidency. we are lucky enough to have a president in barack obama who understood the impact of history and the importance of understanding history. so the artifacts that we have received from the white house include the dress that michelle obama, the first lady, wore at the anniversary -- the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march on washington and the comments signed by the president that he made on that occasion, acknowledging the history and the importance of the 1963 march on washington in which he makes clear that every generation has a responsibility to increase the rights and opportunities that all americans enjoy. and it's that kind of opportunity and those challenges that is represented not only by his administration and by his understanding of history, but by the black lives matter movement and others who seek ways of creating a more equal and just american society. the goal, the american experiment that we continue to have. i think the history galleries really demonstrate the power of social change through activism, that nothing happens by chance. i think they also demonstrate how the values represented in these exhibitions are quintessentially american values. they are been opportunity. they are optimistic. they are resilient. they are about enlarging the experience of all americans, african-americans and others. they are a very optimistic american expression of overcoming the odds and of succeeding, and we think that's a very positive sign. and we hope that's the message that positive change comes about and is absolutely possible as long as one is involved in the values and the processes of american democracy. >> bill pretzer, let e continue with the tour we just saw on tape. you really do put the story in history here. >> we think that the best way to teach history is by telling stories and making those stories personal and dramatic, playing out the real human experience. many visitors have told us that visiting this museum is an emotional experience. and as intellectual or as content-rich as the stories are, we recognize that very often it's the emotion that keeps it in our memories and helps us understand that content. and so we're intent on telling stories well. >> this is the african-american museum of history and culture. so let's talk about a cultural icon, chuck berry and his car. what's the story behind that? >> of course you would start a musical exhibit with chuck berry and his red cadillac convertible. our staff, particularly the curator of music and performance, and our museum specialist were contacting numerous performers and talking about how to preserve their legacies, their individual legacies. and often they would begin with the performer's manager and staff rather than the performer him or herself. kevin had made arrangements with the staff of chuck berry to go visit him in his home and talk about acquiring the red cadillac. he showed -- kevin showed up. chuck berry was not exactly convinced he was willing to donate the cadillac yet, so kevin sat down, and they talked. they talked for quite a while, and they had some ice cream bars together. and finally chuck decided that kevin was okay and that this museum was an okay place. so they went to get the cadillac convertible. they had a wrecker come to hoist the car up on the truck. the winch broke. they to push the truck up onto the truck. then they had to get it out of the mad, get ud, get it on the towards washington. then chuck and kevin talked about chuck's very famous guitar, maybelline. at that point kevin recognized he had a plane ticket to come home. he called me, and he said i've got a seat on the plane, but maybelline doesn't. can i buy a second ticket so maybelline can have a seat on the plane coming home to washington? and i said, yes, absolutely. we could spring for that plane ticket. and so maybelline and the red cadillac got to washington, d.c., to this museum. >> great story. let's go to elaine in nashville, tennessee. thank you for waiting. go ahead with your question. >> caller: yes. mr. pretzer, do you believe the creation of a national museum for african-american history and culture will limit or enhance the integration of african-american history in other museums and historical sites? >> we think it's going to promote the attention on african-american history and culture in all kinds of organizations, and we're very intent on promoting that idea. we're already partnering with the national museum of american history, with the national museum of the american indian, with the smithsonian latino center. we're encouraging all kinds of organizations to find ways in which this -- in which we're able to talk about a variety of stories from a variety of perspectives and not just one. so we really do think that this institution will promote the interplay and the discussion between those various perspectives so that we can develop, quite frankly, a new national narrative that is more inclusive and is more attentive to the varieties of people that have made up this nation. >> we'll head out west to tucson, arizona. john, you're next. >> caller: yes, dr. pretzer. a comment and a quick follow-up question. in the galleries that you've just so succinctly described to us, you allude to many themes that can be embodied in the u.s. military experience in the post-civil war. can you tell us what the plans are or what's available today interpreting the evolving role of african-americans in the u.s. armed forces? >> absolutely. on the third level of the museum is an entire exhibition entitled "double v," military experience of african-americans. it ranges from the revolutionary war up to the wars of the 21st century. so we have a number -- several hundred artifacts, and we tell the story of men and women who have served in the various military conflicts that the united states has been in even before there was a united states given the french and indian war and then the revolutionary war. a key element of that exhibition is a hallway in which we display plaques representing all 53 african-americans who have been awarded the congressional medal of honor. as one walks down that corridor, one is walking towards a picture window which looks out on and frames the washington monument. it's quite a sight. and just beyond the washington monument is the lincoln memorial and then arlington national cemetery, where so african-american and all american soldiers have been interr interred. we think that display is a really important part of the museum and the museum's presentation. >> that includes the tuskegee airmen. there are still a handful alive. have they come here and seen the exhibits? >> we have been very blessed to have a number of the tuskegee airmen come to visit as individuals, as pairs of individuals, as small groups. we have a tuskegee airplane, one of the first trainers used by the tuskegee airmen in the early 1940s as they were trained to fly for the united states air force, army air force. and so we have had a long tradition of working with them. many of them were able to take flights in that plane as we brought it across the country when we first brought it into the museum in 2012. >> you're excited about all of this. >> i'm exceedingly excited. i get that excitement from my own passion for this work but also for my colleagues. this is a really terrific group of people who embarked on a mission, and that was it. it wasn't a job for any of us. >> i'm hoping that being conveyed to those watching at home, the people who have been here, and you've been so gracious to let us come in on a sunday evening and share this museum. let's go to eunice, joining us from hempstead, new york, with your question. >> caller: my question is when i was at the black museum in washington, d.c., i did not find the civil rights bill that was signed in i think it was 1965 by dr. king and whitney young. and why is whitney young -- is he in the black museum because he had a lot to do with giving the civil rights bill. to understand the civil rights bill, we black people must understand it so other people will understand the immigration laws bill because both of them is similar to the same. that's my question. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> absolutely. the civil rights movement and the various actors, whitney young, martin luther king jr., john lewis, stokely carmichael, all of those individuals and the foot soldiers in that movement are all represented in the era of segregation gallery that we walked through. the civil rights act of 1964, the voting rights act of 1965, the fair housing act of 1968 are all represented either as documents in those displays or in the videos that talk about the legislation that really made the difference and broke the back of legal jim crow segregation. >> be sure to follow us on twitter @c-span history and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span history. and a question on our facebook page. the oldest photograph in the museum. do you know what it is? there's a lot of old photos behind us by the way. >> right. we probably have a tintype from the era of the civil war. there's certainly one of frederick douglass, for instance, so that would have been made in the mid-1860s. photography is a brand-new technology at that time. there's various versions of photography, normal the fit the think of but rather on small tin plates. so one of those tin-types from the 1860s is probably the oldest image we have in the collection and on display. >> about 50 feet behind us is the waterfall and the words of martin luther king. what does it represent? >> we built a commemorative space with a large round waterfall and a series of quotes on the walls because we felt that individuals visiting this museum may need a space in which to gather themselves, in which to think back to memorialize their own family experiences, to acknowledge the pain and the hope that the african-american experience in the united states represents. in a manner of speaking, it was modeled after the hall of remembrance at the holocaust museum. many people equate the various museums conscience around the world. the holocaust museum, this museum, museums of the jewish experience in germany. so there is a moment where we wanted to provide people with the opportunity to quietly remember. >> let's go to clarence in west covina, california, with your question. >> caller: yes. i want to know did you have those women that was in "hidden figures"? are they displayed there? and if not, why not? and will they be exhibited in the future, or what's the story behind them? >> thank you, clarence. a new movie getting a lot of attention. >> well, a new movie, but actually an old story. in the 1930s and '40s, a number of african-american women who were extremely adept at mathematics were hired by the precursor of nasa, the national aeronautics and space administration to do calculations that led up to americans in space. three particular women have been profiled in a very important book entitled "hidden figures," and a recent motion picture. one of the debuts of that motion picture was held right here at this museum, and the actors as well as some of the family members of those three women were present at that debut screening of that movie here in washington, d.c. at the museum. we are currently in conversation with the families of two of those women to see what kinds of artifacts we could bring into the collection so that we can include their story in the museum. i think i mentioned we don't do very much with science and technology. we weren't able to put that into the first generation of exhibits. we're looking to do that in the future, and certainly those three women and other women and men who have contributed to the american both space program and science and technology generally will be highlighted in that exhibition. >> let me ask you about the bookends of the black power movement and black lives matter over the last 50 to 60 years. what are the parallels? what are the differences? >> well, i think the parallels in many ways are representing ways of responding to similar kinds of conditions, that is, we talk a lot about, throughout the museum or at least the history galleries, the kind of violence that has been perpetrated on african-american communities. well, the black power movement, particularly the black panthers, who explicitly said we are trying to prevent the tradition of oakland, california, police harassing and brutalizing african-americans. we're the black panther party for self-defense. and so that inspired much of the black power movement. similarly, the black lives matter movement is a response to what is perceived as an ongoing set of atrocities against african-american particularly young men. the techniques are very different. modern technology allowed black lives matter to communicate and plan very quickly in a matter of hours using modern digital technology, facebook and texting, et cetera, whereas the black panther party had to use a weekly newspaper to communicate their goals and their activities to their followers. >> before we take this next caller, a reminder we do an awful lot with teachers as part of the c-span in the classroom effort. it's on our website at c-span.org. let's go to brian joining us from baltimore. >> caller: good evening. thank you for taking my call. a couple of quick questions. first, the reginald f. lewis maryland museum of african-american history and cultu culture down the road in baltimore has done an excellent job partnering with the department of education to put together an excellent african-american curriculum. they do ongoing staff development, professional development opportunities for teachers. my first question is are there any plans for the national museum of african-american history and culture to do similar types of projects either with nonprofit organizations or any local or other school districts, maybe department of education? who knows? my second question is more personal. as a charter member, i've been trying to log onto the charter member ticket site, and i've been having some difficulty getting any dates. is there any information about how that site is going to be up and running again, or will that be up and running again to get tickets? thank you. >> brian, thank you for the questions. so about the educational programs and partnerships with other organizations, we have a very active education programs department, created a series of early childhood programs as well as teenage programs. we work a lot with both school groups and with teachers and caregivers. so those programs have been actually ongoing for the last eight years with particularly teacher education and caregive programs and we intend on expanding that. there is educational material on our website, and we are currently doing a program around national history day where members of the staff are working with students on their national history day projects. in terms of accessing the website for charter members, i have to admit that as a curator, that's something i don't know very much about, and i would have to say that you would continue to try to work on that website. i'll bring it to the attention of our public affairs staff to see if we can't work out any glitches with that website right now. >> and, sharon, you get the last call from maryland. good evening. welcome to the program. >> caller: thank you very much. i have to say thank you, mr. pretzer, for your interest, your knowledge, and your enthusiasm about the museum. i have to ask you could you talk more about black adventurers such as andrew beard, who invented the coupling device, or garrett morgan with the street light or granville t. wood with a telephone device. >> sure. >> construction of the underground tunnel. can you talk to us about that? >> sharon, thank you. a lot of stories to tell. >> there are lots of stories and we're looking forward to telling them. i can say in fact we do have garrett morrison gas mask on display on loan from his family. so we have one inventor very prominently displayed in the exhibition, making a way out of no way, talking about the importance of education and innovation in american history. there are dozens of stories. lewis latimer and his work with the electric lamp. medical such as charles drew. we're in the process of trying to collect material from dr. drew's family dealing with the development of blood banks. we're also looking at percy julian's family and talking with them about the inventor, the developer of artificial cortisone, so important for medical procedures. so we're looking at a range of innovators both in science and technology. there are plenty of publications. there are some movies about them as we've noticed. there's a lot of material known. we need to put it all together with the artifacts. >> bill pretzer, final quick question as people walk through this museum and you look at their faces, what's their reaction? what's going through your mind? >> i'm thrilled at the variety of people who come through this museum from a variety of nations, of different ages, of different races, and they are taken with the storytelling. and they find it relevant to their lives, and they are respectful of each other and of themselves. and i think that's much of the lesson that we are trying to convey. >> we will conclude on that note. the senior krcurator here at th museum, bill pretzer, thank you for being with us. thank you for opening the doors at the national museum of african-american history and culture, part of the smithsonian. all of our coverage is available on our website. thank you for joining us here on c-span3's american history tv. >> american history tv on c-span3. this week in priermme time, starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern, tuesday night, u.s. army special forces detachment stationed in germany during the koelcold war. >> destroying critical targets like radio stations and power plants while the other guys would cross over the walls to hit these targets. rail yards. >> wednesday night, black voter suppression in the 1940s. >> during the congressional debate, representative lewis ludlow of indiana said, quote, what a travesty. we're sending knee grows by the multiplied thousands to the firing line to die for freedom while telling them though shall have no part or parcel in free dod dom at home. >> urs ththursday night. >> already by june of 1829 when he'd been president for three months, jackson was writing friends that the only things that can prevent our liberties to be crushed by the bank and its influence would be to kill the bank itself. >> and friday night, an interview with senator john mccain on the vietnam war's impact on his life and the country. >> i don't hold a grudge against the north vietnamese. i don't like them. there's some that i would never want to see again, but at the same time, i was part of a conflict, okay? and i thought they were some of the meanest people i've ever met in my life, and i never want to see again. but there were several that were good people and that were kind to me. so that's why it was much easier for me to support along with president clinton and others the normalization of relations with our two countries, to heal the wounds of war. >> watch american history tv this week in prime-time on c-span3. >> each week american history tv's real america brings you archival films that provide context for today's public affairs issues. ♪ >> the 90th congress's first session had reflected the contention over vietnam and the urban crises. nevertheless, the congressional machinery had managed to finance the war, keep the important domestic programs going, and pass some key legislation. included in the bills passed, the largest increase in social security benefits in the program's 32-year history, the operational funding of the model cities concept, a new rat control program, and expanded federal jurisdiction over the control of air pollution. anesthesia more remarkable was the recent history of consumer legislation. with the passage of the holson meat act, the full record would show more accomplished consumer regulation in a two-year period than in all of the other 88 congresses combined. one of the honored guests for the bill's signing on december 15th was author upton sinclair. as a young man, his articles and books had been the first real attacks on the gruesome horrors of the slaughter houses and meet packi -- meat packing plants in america. >> i have heard them all, and we have answered them all. our answer is, yes, it is for labor. yes, it is for the young and the old and the worker and the businessman, the farmer and the teacher, and the student and the patient, and the doctor. our fight is not for part of america. our fight is for all of america. >> at the traditional lighting of the national christmas tree, the president and the first lady joined the nation in celebrating the holiday season. >> you can watch this and other american history programs on our website, where all our video is archived. that's

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