Thank you for going to show us around memphis today. Producer,rd winner you have been a lifelong resident of memphis. Yes. I been here all my life and i grew up, i had a crazy childhood growing up with the temptations of the house and the duty , just yound al green know all these cool people. We will go by the stax museum into the civil rights cesium and the Lorraine Hotel in just some cool memphis places. Should we go . Were going into the downtown now. Townis is a cool part of this just been under development for the past 10 years. Blacks is predominantly and any of maybe 60 africanamerican. Know, i think the Race Relations today are way cooler than they used to be an memphis have a lot of nightclubs and restaurants where you see blackandwhite and all races, all classes. We are driving on to beale street right now, beale street is known as the main through way for memphis. Beale street, nicole at the home of the blues because this bobby blue king and bland and all the blues greats came to hone their craft and to get their message out to the world. Was thethe day, it whole neighborhood, it wasnt just this one street, there were several streets. Came tois where elvis learn how to dance and do all the things that he did it. It was a huge influence for blues and rock n roll. It is still, theres a lot of clubs and restaurants and shops and there is still music being pumped out of here. Seven days a week. Its a vibrant entertainment district, one of the top Tourist Spots for tennessee. Were outside the National Civil Rights Museum was on people know it, the Lorraine Motel in what is noteworthy about what happened here for those who dont know . Were the reason is, that the site where dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Museum,an extraordinary a huge piece of American History. How to people in memphis react to having Something Like that happen here . Was a terrible thing. People were rioting and looting in the city got a lot of famous musicians and singers like william bell and others to get on the radio and say hey, guys, lets stop the rioting, stop the destruction. Itse all hurt, but now time to come together and figure out how we can heal and fix these problems. Isthe thing about memphis most of the popular music, the most influential American Music came from memphis, blues, rock n roll, soul. Call it souls will usa, its the area where soul and just the threemile radius you got to legendary studios, Aretha Franklin of birth home, isaac hayes lived down the street, booker t and the mgs grew up around the corner. Stax, the Music Academy, the souls will charter school, the stax museum. For being anknown immigrant workplace the 1960s when there werent many integrated workplace in the south. Exactly. After dr. King was assassinated, thats when the great al bell started doing even more stuff. Under albert bells rule, stax became the second largest employer of africanamericans in the country like next to jet magazine. Vaccine example is of the music is coming out during the civil rights era. Was one of the huge successes and that time. Liturgy in the mgs, the stuff my dad was doing with the Willie Mitchell combo, theres a lot of groups that were completely integrated. The spirit kind of went on into the 70s. There was a lot of stuff going on ine vietnam was going the early 1970s and i love the music was people were making songs about the war and al green comes along see in this song hey, lets stay together, what about love, what about happiness , i think that started a change in the climate in the country. Al green, still here, still preach the message of love. Still preaching, still singing. We are going on the hill road to see the full roscoe tabernacle also notice the church of the reverend bishop al green. Al green was one of the first artists to sell millions of albums. He may be the last Great American stalls there soul singer. He stepped away from recording pop music and now is a bishop in a church here still seeing in the church. Singing in the church. I think he struggled with music and then finally came to terms that there is nothing wrong with singing about love. Right now, we are up on graceland. This is all this world. Musicon the right we have the a left, graceland itself. Stuff,g of racism and you know people want stuff, you know people want to ban elvis when he first came out because it is that he was dancing like a black person. The didnt want his records played, there were certain neighborhoods that he couldnt move into. Elvis was a real pioneer and he went through a lot of stuff to get his music out. And all of the city, we have seen stax records, into the National Civil Rights Museum, weve seen al greens church. Is there something you want people to know about memphis, is somebody who has lived across the country than ever been here and theyve not heard of it, how would you want your city to be represented . The city is a to other people come to experience. The memphis on come to experien. Here, you feel different here than you feel anywhere else. The cities tour staff recently traveled to memphis, tennessee to learn about its rich history. Learn more about memphis and other stops on the to her at cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching America History tv all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Clerks the Midterm Election of 2018 change the balance of power in congress. We democrats taking control of the house and Republicans Holding the majority in the senate. Members now prepare for the new congress in january. , new leaders, watch the process unfold on cspan. We are in front of singer isaac hayes cadillac. Cspan is learning more about the citys history. Stax records was over putting out still music from isaac hayes, otis redding, the staple singers but was also known for being integrated workplace and i just 60 south. More about the labels history. This sound is unlike any thing else. Stax is got. It comes to how you feel. It comes from a place of talent and love it also for a place of working together in the studio where everyone is on equal footing and equal terms, just black and white working together. And working together as a team. You know it when you hear it, i stax record is a stax record very to get bigger not from anything. Hold on, im coming we are in the original home of stax records here in memphis, tennessee. Its a record label that existed from 1957 to 1975 first called satellite records and started in a jim steward wifes uncles garage on the north side of memphis where they recorded some country singles and that his realize there may be a future investors she exited out a second mortgage on her house and bought a brandnew tape recorder and they got a new studio and brunswick, tennessee about 30 miles from where we are standing right now and they recorded the first r b act called the bell tones, a 92nd single called fooling love. The first black artist jim stewart ever worked with in the light bulb went on and he the typeone, this is of music that maybe he would want to make even though he was a country fiddle player by evening and a banker by day, but also it was the first record he made the got on the radio and it was the first record that sold. If they really make those r b records elevated to go somewhere where there was abundance of talent. They were looking for spaces here in south memphis where we are now in the got an old movie andter for 150 a month transformed it into and transformed it into what eventually became stax records. They are very special people and they really understood the power of music, what they could do, the power of opportunity, the power of empowerment. It was right at time when here in memphis, a time of segregation from a time where blacks and whites didnt mix. But they feel they can do here is greater Workplace Environment where people can create freely where music it happened in the Creative Arts could have been in young people without opportunity, not just black and white working together integrated workplace in the segregated south, this is a place where young people were paid to make music, were paid to work in a record store, were paid to stuff envelopes and send things out through the mail. And this was their vision all along. Ity did not see color when came to hiring employees are working with people he wanted to do, they came into this neighborhood and they really embraced the neighborhood have a great shoot them so neighborhood and the neighborhood embrace them back because the door was always open a stax records. If you have an open door policy. With acords starts off single called i love you. Takes offappens as it from there, and let it records hears about this great new music he made on a memphis and they want to districts music in the sense of artists down here, but really, things take off when i got into otis redding shows up in 1962 and gets stuffed up the microphone he sings these arms of mind and the world sort of goes like this and really nothing was the same here at sex records or in the world. Stax records or the world. He really was the first major crossover artist it was plain to white audiences, otis redding kind of started and sammy davis ases to town to take over the house band that it was one of the greatest instrument will be, carla thomas and in some 90 riser kate up some guy named up. C hayes shows it was always a place were civil rights was hard to ignore. Its only committee when they came in came into the front door and reported to work everyday to they just forgot everything that was happening in the world outside of these four walls. Have gottenartists drafted and were sent to vietnam and they had issued a couple of songs talking about soldiers experience in vietnam but really had not taken a deep dive into the issues of the day. 1968, it was difficult to ignore that anymore with dr. King being assassinated here in memphis area and so many stax artists then al bell to and waso the mix working in a position of management who had marched with dr. King, it was really hard to ignore what was going on in the outside world. And stax gets thrown into the mix right away on april 5 with the unrest in the city and the Mayors Office for the First Time Ever sort of knowledge and stax records and calls them and ask them if they can provide any artist to go on debbie dia, the largest like Radio Station in the area and other outlets to basically call in order the station in calm the people down, so speaks of the writing didnt get worse and unrest didnt grow. And while they participated in that and did their part, it was not it was with a lot of sadness and a lot of anger and things began to change, the front door that was always open was closed. In 1960 and after is sort of the artists in the Company Start into embrace this role within the black community and is al bell put it, it was their job to take care of the people who were buying their records. The majority of people buying the records were black. Can change my color, cant change my skin. Artists are taking on Stronger Political stands on some issues from isaac hayes was notably and stax becomingsee a company that understood Corporate Social Responsibility before that was even a thing. Theres remarkable story in this remarkable sort of progression that they undergo, followed soon thereafter on the severing with the relation with Atlantic Records where there is some contractual sleightofhand, stax finds itself is a Record Company without records at that point, have no control over inthing that they released partnership with the letter record so every otis redding, everybody in the mgs, all of it was gone. They had were alternate tracks are things that are in the vaults that they had not put out yet and that any new artist or new music they could record. Efforts anded their they pulled him cells of by the bootstraps and they embark on this yearlong campaign to reestablish itself as a power player in the recording industry. Artists,t signing new the start signing distribution deals with the labels, all these things are happening within very short order and they start churning out more records and they are again doing it altogether and they start putting out all the stream music and a culminate in early 1969; a soul explosion, the release of 30 singles and 27 alms at one time. Unprecedented, never happened before a huge risk for the company to do it. Bell have faith in their artists and products. They throw a two Weekend Party here, they sell a few Million Dollars of stock and really reestablish themselves as a label. Mental nudges him into, stax is growing and culminates in this concert that shows the cultural impact. Is a new day, a day of black peopless, a day of black taking care of black peoples business. Together, we are unified, and on one accord. But when we are together, we have power. And we can make decisions. With a time was for a concert ensure that you could bring together phenomenal African American audience and a validly africanamerican slate of performers and have it come off peacefully. Story, 100zing 12,000 people of the only coliseum in august 1972, one dollar to get in, no issues at all. Throughout the entire event. Who is the man who would risk his neck for brother man shock you see this remarkable showing of the black community in a positive light and so we in america especially in this country had a negative view of life, innercity life and black neighborhoods in black communities. If its a really positive spin on it and it shows what stax became, which was this indigenous African American art form of soul and r b music and gospel music. From that point on i just 75 it does become a bit of a struggle and essentially scion with only stores arent able to get the product is you arent able to get the product to stores and on selling records, money is not coming in so starts to fall on hard times and register are starting to dry up for our and production in some of the distribution deals, some of the artists they are trying to break didnt hit. They are really kind of grasping at straws throughout the latter half of 1974 in the first part of 1975, they are paying people out of their own pockets and that asure that folks and from 200 so employees federal agents show everyone out, its a tragic and an abrupt violent and to such remarkable story into a family that he done so much good for so many people. And goeses in 1975 into receivership in his option, a property auction and early 1977 and all equipment get sold, the mixing boards, the consoles, all the recording equipment, a lot of other things that were here but of course the big things are the master tapes and those get sold to fantasy records in california and other companies to have the pre1968 rhino reissue otis redding and some of the other music but really when you start to see 20th and 25th anniversaries of things that happen in the 60s, new interest starts to come back to stax and starts to take off late 80s and early 90s. In citizens informer artists that employees at stax records of the local philanthropists come together and start the Parent Organization outcome of the souls will Foundation One of the first things they did in one of the most important things they did was based out of the stax was academy. His Afterschool Program serving between 100 and 120 students grades six through 12 every year. Sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away sitting on the dock of the bay time the Music Academy starts in 2000 and the museum opens in 2003, was served between 55 and 60,000 visitors from all over the world each year. And really what this goes to show us a longlasting impact of this music. I think for a lot of stax a for thets been work that theyve done. Fact that they can come in here and see their record on the wall and see their story told and really come to a place that honors the work that they did that have been forgotten for so long. You during legacy i think is several fold. Think ay, the story i lot of people are still drawn to and connect to is the idea of being an immigrant workplace in the segregated south where black and white could Work Together on equal terms. To the echoes back opportunity you gave to young people. This is the story of young people given the space and the time to do extraordinary things. I think its understanding the value of community, is understanding the memphis, stax does not exist without memphis. It does not exist about self memphis and it doesnt exist without people who lived within two or three blocks of the studio here. Were only doing our job of the story lives on in memphis and and the city in which this was was made feared it only happened here with sex records, it only happened here in memphis, tennessee. And i thank you the cities tour staff recently traveled to memphis, tennessee to learn about its registry. Learn more about memphis other stops on the cities tour at cspan. Org cities tour. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend, cspan3. In 1929, mexico abolished slavery. A few years later, the revolt of texas declared independence from mexico and the us to some of slavery expanded. Historian alice long gardner talks about the tension along the texas Mexican Border during the mid19th century. American history tv recorded the interview at the western History Association annual meeting, taking place in san antonio, texas. 20 us from san antonio, texas is alice baumgartner, a graduate of university in the fall of 2019, professor of history at the university of Southern California and if you could, take us back to the early 1800s, the issue of slavery in mexico and in texas. Was people are really surprised to hear that slavery existed in mexico in the 19th century. A 1580 in