♪ >> welcome to nashville, tennessee on american history tv. in the 19 century, it earned the souththe athens of the because of its reputation as a wealthy and refined southern city. today, nashville is known for its ties to country music. with the help of our comcast cable partners, we will exhibit two exhibits at the country music hall of fame and museum. one about music raging political gaps in the 1960's and another about the origins of country music in nashville. now call country music comes from the confluence of the fiddle that came over from ireland and the banjo that came over in the minds of african slaves. resultose combined, the was the music that came to be called country music. it was not originally centered in nashville. it was in large part a radio .tation this year >> later, visit the civil rights movement at the nashville public library and learn how nashville became a model city for integration in the south. it was the only methodical and strategic movement led by students in the community. wake up ins didn't 1960 and decide to change the world. they had been training in nonviolent techniques for a time such as this. we visit the hermitage, the home of andrew jackson and look at a new exhibit on america's seventh president. >> we are in the museum in the andrew jackson center and our jacksonabout andrew exhibit is called "born for the storm." is the most extensive exhibit we have done. the title comes from a jackson was warned for a storm and a calm does not suit me." that could not better encapsulate the life of andrew jackson. we have entered into the exhibit and i'm standing next to the model of two log buildings, here for a very specific purpose. it is reminiscent of the kind of house jackson may have inborn in in south carolina in 1767. what is interesting is the areer building next to it two buildings here at the hermitage. the larger building is the one andrew and rachel lived in for the first 17 years. it was built in 1797. it's the oldest building on the site. the building after they moved here in 1804, half of which was the kitchen for the log house and the other half was a labor where the cook lived. over here, the large panel lays out jackson possibly early life. he was our first president who was the son of immigrants. his parents came to north america from northern ireland in 1765. just a couple of weeks for jackson was born, so he never knew his father but was raised with his mother and two brothers in an aunt and uncle's home and treated somewhat like a servant. that contributed to his nature. he was born on the frontier, the first president not from one of the virginia aristocratic families or from massachusetts. he was largely self taught in his ability to communicate and his ability to express his ideas grew over the course of his life. writer andrceful direct, not unlike his speaking voice. but acessarily eloquent, forceful writer with greater clarity as his life went on. the panels you see here talk about the origins of the war of 1812 and the war gave jackson the opportunity to put himself on the national stage. before 1812, jackson had achieved a level of prominence in tennessee and helped to write the first tennessee state constitution and was our first congressman from tennessee. but it was the war of 1812 that was a springboard for him to national recognition. was perhaps not the best conceived war in our nations history and as the panel here graphically shows, it was a sort of grudge match between great britain and the united states. the panel is from a political cartoon at the time. outident monroe is punching king george of england and king george has a black eye and bloody nose. pause whenme great it was proposed that we use it, but people 11 because it so graphically illustrate what the americans intentions were with that war. the purpose of this panel is to help remind americans today that orleans was aew vital city to the growing america. as the united states was developing, the allegheny mountains run parallel to the east coast here. for the settlement and people moving into the area between the mountains and mississippi river, new orleans became the exit point for all the goods they produced. so new orleans was a choke point, a point of exit and entry that was of great importance to the economic growth of the country and, as thomas jefferson said in his request for congress to approve the louisiana purchase, whoever owns new orleans that isn't us is our enemy. by late 1814, america's interest and focus as well as the british focus was on new orleans and waiting to see what was going to happen as the british were sailing across the gulf of mexico and jackson was moving orleans,s to new assembling a ragtag army of american regulars am a volunteer militiamen from tennessee and kentucky, creel's, native new orleans who were not quite certain which country they had an allegiance to get. pirates.hman and even on the early morning of january 8, the battle finally takes place. through some miscommunications by the british, they are put into a vulnerable position of having to attack jackson's fortifications in a battle that lasts somewhere between 35 and 50 minutes. jackson's severely outnumbered troops have a stunning victory. jackson had almost 5400 men altogether. the british had almost 8500 men at the battle. jackson ended up with a total number of casualties, teen of the disparity of casualties guns the nation. it reaffirmed america's relief that this country existed because of the hand of divine reachinge, yet again in and ensuring the country would survive. it gave the europeans a newfound respect for what they had up to then considered a fly-by-night experiment in self-government. we wanted to give young people in particular a sense of how popular jackson was and we use the term rockstar because there's no other term we could come up with that letter characterized him in the modern mind. as soon as the war was over, jackson was given a chairman this number of honors. honor.are struck in his people want uses of his hair and jackson is given a number of ceremonial swords that would be ,he highest type of recognition you see here one of the ceremonial swords that he received. jewelry.s given there were pamphlets, songs and poems written about jackson and the battle of new orleans. thate looking at a panel the takes his first presidential campaign. there were four principal candidates in the campaign. andrew jackson, john quincy adams, william crawford and henry clay. clay hated each other through the remainders of each other's lives. jackson won the most number of popular votes but did not win the majority of votes. then the remainder were divided between john quincy adams, henry number four.ford's not a majority opinion and the electoral college they did some worse trading. this is called the corrupt clay supposedly approached adams and said i would give you my vote if you promise to make me secretary of state and you get elected president. place, the house of representatives elected john quincy adams president and jackson lost out. theson was furious and felt will of the people, the most number of people voted for him as opposed to the other candidates. as a result of this worse trading, the people's will has been -- had been circumvented by the aristocratic washington. jackson's loss in the , jackson and his supporters determined he was not going to lose a second time. yearsnt the first building friendship and support from the state legislatures and the average citizens across the country. prepared tokson was go to combat with john quincy adams for the presidency. this part is called the political circus -- political circuit and it is to give people a chance to see the cacophony of voices and opinions going on in 1828. there are songs written about jackson and things that were said in the press and spoken about him both pro and con. to help people understand these were not reserved and every bit the 21st century. there was concern about him having been a military chieftain and jackson had fought in a dual. he had several of his military shot for what he considered he had a complicated background as well as not being a political insider. by the same token, the average american saw this man as someone who was for filling america's promise. he came from a very humble background and had eight himself i-12 through determination through will, through perseverance, through his faith. jackson has a landslide entry, but the casualties include his wife, rachel. they had a complicated beginning to their marriage. she was already married to another man. she marries jackson, they discover her first husband had eightt divorced her and gave him grounds to proceed with a divorce and they had to remarry. that beginning affected the rest of both of their lives. during the campaign, jackson understood she would become an issue. she stayed at the hermitage for a great deal of the campaign knowing a little bit of what was going on, but there were pamphlets and newspaper articles written about her. she was a topic of conversation at a time when women of this social status were not talked about in the same way and her reputation questioned and how man. you elect a jackson one about two weeks after he was declared victor. he suffered a heart attack and died five days later. the display case is a veil made by rachel by a group of her friends who were putting a wardrobe together for her to take to washington and coaching her on how to behave in that society. in script at the bottom is jackson, each letter in a different style. clearly, she never got to where it because she never made it to washington. technically, she was never first lady. one of the things i'm really proud about here is we pride ourselves on telling the whole story on jackson. there is nothing we shy away from and we have a we embrace controversies. jackson had nothing but controversy. the one most people are aware of removal ormerican the indian removal act of 1830. the reaction had always been a touchy one starting from the founding of the country. in typical fashion, jackson ended up being the guy who pushed native american removal as part of his program. the majority of this country and congress approved engineering removal. the majority of americans saw this as a positive thing at the land inopen up more particular. one of the other well-known topics of jackson's presidency is what is today called the bank war. holdank was created to federal funds that had been collected through taxes. of credit.jor source believed, and there's strong evidence to some word that the bank was using its influence to buy votes in congress and jackson saw this as a corporation using its influence to protect itself and disadvantaging the average citizen and that government was implicit in prejudicing the average citizen against the wealthy and well-connected. the bank war became a clash of wills between andrew jackson and nicholas it'll who was president of the bank. yet great power and influence in these two men were unwilling to back down. jackson basically battle the bank and the many heads are the boards of trustees of the bank. course, through the basically destroyed the bank and is often criticized about his attitude toward paper currency. what we don't remember today is that in jackson's time and not an till the 20th century, the federal government did not issue paper currency. it did not have the backing of the federal government and often times have little value. jackson's attitude about paper his experienceom at having lost money, but the fact he believed gold coin or silver coin represented true value. ist you see to my left jackson's carriage. he purchased this for himself while he was president and this is what he used to ride around washington dc. at the end of his presidency, he had it shipped back here and used it at the hermitage. aparts nothing we have from jackson's mentioned that received the status he to having a carriage of this type in the last years of his life. after the presidency entering the presidency, jackson was one of the most popular man in the united states. two thirds of the country adored him and one third hated him. no one was ever ambivalent about jackson but he maintained that level of popularity. he was seen at this -- he was seen as the next george washington and we contend he should not be forgotten because he played a major role in inspiring the common man and help ring the country see the possibility of everyone having a voice in this democratic government. all weekend, american history tv is featuring nashville tennessee. staffspan tennessee tour visited many sites -- nashville was founded as a permanent home in 1779 and was originally part of north carolina. more about nashville all weekend here on american history tv. >> i think it ranks right up -- mountt wert in vernon or monticello. it speaks to a man of significant wealth. jackson is considered to be one of our wealthiest presidents. it's an eight thousand square foot house. , youu were coming here would have an very impressed by e-house of this magnitude. andrew jackson and rachel .rought -- this property it was originally 425 acres in size. next 41 years of jackson's life, he added land to the property he bought and sold. thehe time he died in 1845, plantation was about 1050 acres. jackson understood that clearly part of your power derives from the stage you are on and they were building a grand stage for him. the front is very grand. called greek revival which was the height of style and eight teen 30's. we think of jackson as representing the style and it appealed to americans because of the greek democracies. as you approach the driveway, it's shaped like a guitar. the front of the mention, you see a two-story portico that ran across the house of the galaxy -- it is clearly very aate-of-the-art 41835, just very imposing house. nucleusan building the in 1819 and their financial position had turned around specifically and they were ready to build a house of this size. was moved in in 1821 and it basically the same building as this. rachel died in 1828 and in the , the house was expanded and at one point, the house burned. is center hallan on both floors and in four rooms, to on each side of the hallway and a stairway in the center hall. flyingme, you see the stairway that we have today that while jackson was here. the contention was you were supposed to go wow, or whatever the 1838 version was. tall,ilings are 14 feet the rich moldings, the crystal chandelier, the wallpaper. today, when you go into someone's house, people will have things sitting out to tell you about their style and taste and that's the same here. the house went through three phases. constructing the original house. jackson is elected president, rachel dies and his son is grown and married. they had two wings to the house and one is a large dining room to accommodate the nurse that they had here. the other ends up being jackson's library. it very balanced. in octoberok place of 1834 and it was a chimney fire. the chimneys had not then proper youee cleaned and clearly would use these in fireplaces all the time. this one happened to be in the chimney. at that time, the house had a cedar roof. the next thing you know, you are off to the races. they called in slaves from the field and were able to empty some of the second floor, but most of it was lost, including 's project. even today, we know little about badly for the house was damaged. his wife and grandchildren had to move out. years tolmost two rebuild the house. but the final result was the far grander impressive, some might call it pretentious house than the one before. even when they lived in the visit andrewould and rachel jackson. lafayette came when he was traveling to the united states. aaron burr came after he was vice president. martin van buren, james k. polk on house, especially during the presidential years, the house was filled with visitors all the time. if you were a dignitary coming to visit, you would have come to the front door because you were an important person. you would have been greeted by a short woman named hannah who was head of the house and kind of rule the roost. she would invite you to come in and size you up and decide how important you are. clearly you are important because you would come to the front door. did not know general jackson, you would have been escorted into the front parlor and been allowed to wait for him there. he would have been laying out objects that would show you what an important man you are about to meet. jackson would let you wait in the front parlor long enough so that you could absorb this and have a sense that this is a big deal guy i'm about to meet. then he would tell you about the battle of new orleans, which was the pivot point in his life. spendory is he would longer telling about the battle than an accident fight. -- inantle in the dial the dining room made of hickory wood with the bark still on it. the story is a legend that has come to us from the family -- man whole was made by a served under jackson at the battle of new orleans and each year, he worked on the mantle only on january 8, which is the anniversary of the battle. since 1840.re is thek the dining room important place. the two most significant rooms have the adjoining library and to me, that's the beating heart of the house. the library was the local epicenter. in his retirement years, jackson never wanted to give up eating president, so he's continually firing off letters to subsequent presidents and two people in congress making sure they were following on policies. had jackson endorsing you to run for any office or to get a bill passed and had jackson's endorsement, very likely it would pass. it was a very busy room and , there were personal items brought back, things he was very proud of. we have 750 of those volumes. one of the things people love of items large mounds on the floor. he was kind of a political junkie. and these have marginal notes. bedroom is very personal, all of the furniture is original. are reproductions of what was there the day he died. it's a personal space and it is the room he died in on june 8, 1845. one of the stories that is interesting, sam houston was very close to jackson. in their last years, he was much like a son. he wanted his young son to meet jackson, so they travel from texas to nashville. they arrived just a couple of hours after jackson dies. so the visual i think it's great. the families clustered on the bed, sam houston is holding this boy up over the heads of the heily so that he could say had seen the face of andrew jackson. i hope people visit the hermitage and leave having a better understanding of jackson who is a complicated man, i than far more complicated public opinion today characterizes him as. he was a man of great passion and determination. he could be very fierce at times. he could be very tender and concerned. it really depended upon the situation. a better understanding of this man who was considered second only to george washington. comcast cable partners worked with the c-span cities tour staff when we traveled to nashville, tennessee to explore its history. tennessee was declared a state and national became the capital in 1812. after a temporary move to murfreesboro became capital again in 1826. learn more about nashville all weekend here on american history tv. >> for a long time, there is a divide between the musical part of the city downtown and the polite city society. there was this notion that nashville would be the athens of the south. we even built a fit -- a fake acropolis to prove it. but people don't come to nashville for the athens of the south. they come here because it is music city, it is the city of song. it has been absolutely transformed by the music. at the entrance to the sing me back home exhibit. it's essentially the beginning of the country music timeline. we take it all the way through to the present. now call country music was in the early days something that was a practical use. they got people through their chores, people out in the field doing the at home laundry or what have you, passing time, they played little guitars called parlor guitars for playing in the parlor. a way entertainment and to speak your heart in song. there wasn't a notion of i'm going to do this to get amos. before the 20's, nobody was ever saying don't quit your day job because there was never that ♪tion what we now call country music comes from the confluence of the fiddle that came over from ireland and the banjo that came from the minds of african slaves. two instruments combined in the american south, the resulting sound was the music that came to be called country music. centeredt originally in nashville. it was centered in the american south regionally. nashville came to be music city in large part because of a radio station here called wf m, 6:50 a.m.. ♪ in the 1920's, they started a barn dance. a bunch of different acts would come and do a song or two and they would broadcast it on the radio. wound up with a radio tower that was 50,000 watts and it was designated a clear channel station, which meant no one else could be on 650. the result of that was you could hear it of the rockies and way down south, you could hear it up north, sometimes even into anada and gave performers national audience. in 1920's, there was a broadcaster. ♪ they have been piping in music he took york city and over as a barn dance and was and says for this the past hour, you've been listening to the grand opera. became thee to what longest-running radio show and america. this grand olee opry, that was a magnet for performers and musicians. differentround to at the finally arriving ryman not a dream downtown. you have the performers here and now you need some songs for them to sing and places for them to record. magnet andecame a that led to it being music city. that, music city could be cincinnati, ohio. ♪ instrument heard on the grand ole opry was a harmonica played by an african-american guy named the ford bailey. ♪ growing up in middleton, he was a sickly child and he would lay on his bed and mimic the sounds he heard through the window, the train or the fox chase, and he could replicate those sounds on his harmonica. that was in the trick for the radio, even in days of stark and segregation, he could be a radio star and became a key member of the early grand ole opry, traveling through this aggregated south on package tours with white performers. he was extremely popular former. a lot of people of a certain age will talk about their musical upbringing and say the grand ole opry on saturday night was a gathering point for them and was onemily, if there radio in the neighborhood, people would gather together and you got a familiar tea with these performers because it was then every week and never. they felt like they came to know and hillke many perl monroe. it became a regular part of their lives. ♪ this music to this day does take people back home who grew up in that kind of environment. it was a lifeline to the broader world, but it was evident that the kind of music people were making on their own front porches was valid enough for broadcast elsewhere and was something that was legitimate and worthwhile. out for display that are iconic and that say a lot. stand two feet away from hank williams sued with the blue musical notes, that shows you something about that man and you get a sense of his spirit and his whimsy. times, people didn't have the visuals of these entertainers. these days, we've got video screens up on a either side of the stage and a big one behind them and you don't have to do a whole lot, but stand and strom is that's what you want to do. days, everything was part of the entertainment and the seats they would wear would tell the stories of the songs they were singing. if you had a hit, you might yet a suit about it. hank snow had a song called the golden rocket. ♪ so they made him a suit with the golden rocket train. we have that suit here on display. i think it says something about the times and the music. at the precious jewels exhibit at the country music hall of fame museum. where we keep and display six of the most iconic instruments in our collection and in the history of this music. the big bang of country music occurred in the border town of bristol, tennessee/virginia, just barely on the tennessee side of state street in 1927. 1927,uly, early august of a producer came down from the to recordhe was going hillbilly musicians. the notion being you could sell what they called talking machines to folks in the south if you had music they were familiar with and they liked. .o they essentially had tryouts they set up a temporary recording studio and he came in and recorded a whole bunch of people. two amazing discoveries were made there. one was jimmy rogers and the other was the carter family. ♪ jimmy rogers was stricken with tuberculosis. it was a death sentence and he knew that. with the short time he had in his life, he was going to do what he wanted to do and what he wanted to do was make music. he heard about the bristol sessions taking place, these tryouts were the victor talking machine company and made his way to bristol. he recorded their on this tar. you can see it's a working man's guitar. callerthe sound hole is -- is carved eight/four/27 which was the day he recorded at bristol. neither of those songs became huge hits for him but they were enough for him to be called up north and wound up seeing an absolute superstar not just in country music, but in american culture for a few short years. his influence remains today. the other grand discovery at the bristol sessions was the carter family. maybelle carter, sarah carter and ap carter. a little over 30 miles from bristol. it took them all day to make the trip, 30 something miles. they had to forward the river and patch tires. ♪ maybelle did not have this guitar at the time. the guitar she played there in the stylesheet played in became known as the carter scratch. that's what most acoustic guitar players do today. it was the most imitated style of the 20's and 30's. it remains something people use. your playing melody notes on the low strings and chords on the higher strings. a year after the bristol sessions, the carter family was starting to seeing -- starting to see some success. ought this guitar, twice as loud as any guitar on the market. it needed to be loud because her style was one of the signature elements of the carter family. over the be heard strident singing. she purchased this guitar -- this had in someone who was poor not long before that. she purchased it for 275 dollars, which equates to about $4000 today. talk about lou grass music's formation which was in december of 1945 at the ryman on a torilla him. that happened when earl scruggs met up with bill monroe and join bill monroe's bluegrass boys. bill monroe was the father of bluegrass music. it was something that was here to him and his mandolin was very dear to him. ♪ this mandolin was his favorite possession. they went in with a fireplace poker and found a mandolin and broke this thing into 150 pieces of wood and monroe was heart rogan. backandolin was sent company and was repaired. what was 150 pieces of wood became an instrument again and ricky skaggs, a great bluegrass musician played it before it was broken and after it was repaired and says it still has a beautiful sound. up withmandolin meeting the banjo overall scruggs that created bluegrass music. ♪ earl grew up in north carolina and developed a way of laying the banjo with three fingers rather than to and a bluesy style and a rocket fueled speed. ♪ intricatelay really pieces on the banjo. i asked him how did you know what you are doing was different from what other people were doing and was a value to listeners? theaid i was working at lily thread mill in shelby, north carolina. gradyner breaks, me and wilkie would go sit in the back of his car and he would pick guitar and i would take banjo. men started to gather around after while in one man got so excited about what he was hearing that he took off his hat and threw it on the ground and stomped on it. i said that's hard on a hat. that's the first time i realized i was doing something different. the gibson company says this banjo is responsible for every banjo sold since 1945. nobody played the banjo like role scruggs until earl scruggs came along. after he came along, everybody seeks to play it like role scruggs. -- earl scruggs. another central element was leicester flats, guitar player flatt.lester he played this amazing martin guitar. is one ofrt said this the greatest rhythm instruments ever made. he would play a distinctive g run in a lot of the monroe music flat and scruggs formed with the foggy mountain boys. that's a beloved instrument. i have seen people stop here and like it is a memorial of some kind and in a way it is. martin dhank williams' 28 songwriting a tar. you can see the scratches from hank's fingernails. he was a comet in this music. he was around for a very short time and raised a ruckus in that time, thought of as the hillbilly shakespeare, someone who wrought a new kind of poetry to country music. ♪ it's not the falling star that lights the sky, it's the silence of the things. he's a poet. died at the age of 29 and the back seat of the car on the way to a show and his music lives on. i'm hoping that people are inspired when they see something associated with bill monroe or roy a cuff or mother maybelle carter so that when they go home and bring this music into their own lives, it gives them a different entry point and a deeper feeling for who these people were and what these canle did and how that resonate through decades and even centuries. >> all weekend, american history tv is featuring nashville, tennessee. it is home to fisk university, a historically black institution established just after the end of the civil war. hosted by our comcast cable partners, c-span's city tour staffs visited many sites showcasing the city's rich history. learn more about nashville, all weekend here on american history tv. >> the national convention of the republican party has been called for the day of august 5 and the hour of 10 a.m. that day and hour having arrived, i now call the convention to order and declare it to be in session. ♪ of 68, it was the opening day of the convention. >> the republicans will a tribute to the past and anticipate a glorious future. there will be a message televised from walter reed medical center from former president eisenhower, the only president they have had since hoover and hear a speech from goldwater, their most recent loser. >> they expected to run out of money and out of tape. out andected to run they decided to record it despite the fact they would have to reuse those recordings for the evening news show, which was seen as the primary purpose. now this experiment is basically in its 48 year. we are the university that again recording the national evening news in the late 60's and we have been recording it ever since. he was a graduate of vanderbilt university and he was touring new york in 1968 in the spring. while there, he had arranged to tour the network news operation of abc come a cbs, and nbc. as he was doing the tour of that, he asked if he could see a show from a little over a week ago. the answer was no because they reuse the tape. we only keep things about a week and then they reuse the tape. time, it doesn't sound reasonable because tape is so cheap and now we have dvds and they are so cheap, but at that time, tape was extremely expensive and they were using two inch quad tape. i have no idea what the price would have 10 but i'm sure a couple of hundred dollars an hour. it was a very expensive thing to do, just to keep the tape, so they were used it. this was upsetting because he realize that unlike the 1860's where a few want to study civil war coverage, it was in the newspapers and newspapers had not all survived but a lot of them had survived. where as the evening news, which people were watching all across the country wasn't surviving even if you weeks. he was not the kind of person who didn't do anything. he approached vanderbilt university. from the beginning, the primary part of this election was reporting the national evening news show. coverage when the started, there are three networks, three evening news shows and they were watched by people everywhere in the country. was just thoseng three shows. events as aspecial primary special event. days, it was very controllable because the networks were primarily entertainment operations. they would only do an appearance that it had a certain amount of significance. >> can america meet this great challenge? or a few moments, let us look at america, let us listen to america to find the answer to that question. >> in the modern world, that has changed a little bit now that you have cnn and fox news channel. in both cases, they can do an appearance just because they are available to do it. much more minor things get covered. >> this is an abc news special report -- the gulf war. now reporting from new york, peter jennings. >> we covered the 1991 gulf war. >> the u.s. military is sending a rack off dying regime a message loud and clear -- we are in baghdad now and we are not leaving. you are. >> we did the 2003 war in the gulf and we've done major hearings. this collection is it is a collection of news coverage. we do have the events but we are collecting news coverage -- the fact that nbc decided to cover it is part of what we are doing it was designed as a research collection. in early years, it was intended for research and we expect all the research to be done on paper. study i remember being done by a vanderbilt professor. that was a study done on paper. that matter of the bugging of the democratic headquarters at e watergate apartments last june, -- non-paper ideag was 768 days, a pbs special on watergate. they used the collection extensively. it used to be that there was a particular tape that was the most requested tape in the archives and it was the nixon farewell address. mr. nixon: to continue to fight for the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorbed the time and attention of both the president and the congress at a time when our entire focus should be on the great issues of these abroad and >> therefore, i shall resign effective at noon tomorrow. > and that remained true probably through most of the '80s. thing as ow no such the most requested. the depression is too big and too diverse. easy news is e diverse, for that to be true anymore. but there have been some that -- still bottom very still popular.s got a kick out of because tour on thegiving a news people from another country. one was from kenya. the one from kenya as was dong through the depression, you want to see the moon landing. >> and incidentally, you can use shadow -- >> he was not able to see it. e was old enough to see it but couldn't see it because of where he lived at the time. -- we don'thave the do special coverage for nasa. so we don't have the actual moment of the landing, but we evening news on monday that landing. >> today, the two americans who landed and walked on the moon, the first and most dangerous steps on the voyage home. ever had anything blasted into orbit from the moon's surface but neal armstrong and buzz aldrin in their lunar module succeeded. it would d failed, have meant certain death. >> we played that for him, and that, so excited about because he was able to see this thing he'd known about but which able to see when it happened. >> and now, it's the one that comes up the most often. [music] convention of '68, the because it was in '68 ing cord that convention. one was the reagan assassination attempt. >> it's about to happen. watch the president. stop it. not a great moment, but during attempt franklin was on the air, the gunman, alleged gunman, identified as one john hinkley, jr., 23 years old from greenley, colorado. hold on just a moment. this was about the suspect. >> and he had that information. he is really upset and is yelling at people to get it itht and i like that because people e problem news have with live coverage, that they're covering an event that it won't go away and they don't have anything to say yet. he two channels we actually recorded some of that are the 24-hour channels are fox and cnn. channels are not very similar. people think they're similar, but they're not. cnn, we began recording in late '88. >> cnn special assignment has new information on targets in the middle east. targets for terror. a cnn special assignment throughout the day wednesday. and have been doing recordings on it from that time forward. began when we we began was because it was the first time i could get it. because at that time, we didn't cable access at the archi archive, but cnn sort of grew up on group coverage. wolf blitzer is at the pentagon right now. olf, what have you for us at this moment. >> there are some indications at the pentagon that this war may now and that ight going on ent may be television later to explain what exactly is going on. breaking nowat was with their sort of rise to real prominence, being the gulf war, cover that ity to around 24 hours. sort of as -- that's their star, and for that reason, forments and ing changing this and changing that, and we find them -- in some harder find them much to record than we do fox news fox news ecause channel is very different from that. fox news channel came at a later time. it has a lot of very tightly around news hows shows and fox is a little less events and to the stay as long as the events at cnn. not that it doesn't when they warrant it. if they have that thing which is entertainment n and news, which is the kind of talk show forment, the bill 'reilly show and things like that. so they really are two different animals but for us, we just 24 hours. it's just not possible, because too much time after the fact trying to get the descriptions descriptions up under our web site so people can do research on it. thing i would say is that the thing you learn up here is that the news coverage is about us. i mean, american news is about basically americans. you know, you think of it as eing -- and this is true, you think of it as being about the president, about the senate, and bige supreme court, events that happened here or there. but it also ue, covers a lot of smaller events events that are the kind of events that may be happening for you. focus this evening, amber alerts, formal, organized an entirestems to let community know when a child has been kidnapped. they were moving towards the amber watch system, you get the stories about those kinds of things like nd thathat are in the evening news. they're reflecting the movement that's afoot to try to do about those. i don't think they're necessarily reflecting the fact them.were more or less of people come to the recognition that something had been accepted didn't havears that to be and one of the big movements that was able to rise a lot of tv was the of the tea party. turningovement has been voter anger into energy coast-to-coast as evidenced by a group,r by one tea party the tea party express. the tour began two weeks ago in up da and just wrapped yesterday in new hampshire. but as chief national orrespondent byron pitts reports, the tea party is just getting started. very effective in a very g tv, and was real movement. not necessarily as many people but it was t think, very real and, you know, became while, became a an almost daily part of the news. if you think about the build-up war, tv was d gulf very involved in that. reflecting that was the feeling in the country. >> today, we've had a national tragedy. airplanes have crashed into trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. feeling, i also think very specifically, the feeling , because that's where the world trade towers all, of a need to do something. >> for us, i think in some ways, the future is sort of frightening, but exciting, because the news is changing, it's don't know where going. i mean, television is changing. more people watch television on the internet today than they do someme on tv, according to stories. i suspect those are exaggerated but it is true. on the ter watches tv internet, not on a television set. and even when she's watching it set, it's an sion internet program. so those kinds of changes are things very different. i'm sure they're going to make it very different for us. i do not yet know how. >> all weekend, american history nashville, ring tennessee. -span's city tour staff recently visited many sites sho history.is nashville is home to the grand ole opry, which began as a radio broadcast dedicated to country music in 1925. learn more about nashville all weekend here on american history tv. >> we're here at the tennessee state library archives in tennessee. this is the chief repository of tennessee's history. there are three presidents who tennessee. the earliest is andrew jackson, ne of his successors, james k. olk, and a president that succeeded abraham lincoln, andrew johnson. we'll be looking today at some our collections for two of those presidents, andrew polk and johnson. both are interesting in the ense they were almost accidental presidents. they were not fully prepared for the job. they were -- polk was called the dark horse president." so they came to the presidency somewhat unexpectedly, but yet during e presidents times of tremendous importance nation's l in the history. polk was the 11th president of the united states. in north carolina. as was andrew johnson. and came to the states around 1807. married a woman named sarah childress from murray county and his home as was well as others of the polk family. polk was a protege of andrew jackson's and very loyal to and the democratic party, which served him in good old hickory. young , he was called hickory by some. and as i said, a prominent family.ounty speaker of the u.s. house of representatives for 10 years. his is an image of him as speaker, and then ran for and served 1844 ust one term as president from '44 to '48 and you can see just that in a way it aged him. early photograph. photography was invented during polk's administration and this of him at the end of his administration. there are some documents here polk's o do with inauguration. this was a tremendous event, of nashville, and there to invitations for people come and join the democratic in guration, which was held washington and was another jackson n the cap of and his party which, of course, were based in this state. elected in 1844. term.ves for one interestingly enough, tennessee the native son. they vote for his opponent in 1844 election. that's become tennessee becomes place of the jacksonian democratic party. democratic, of course, but it's in opposition of the whig party that has its in tennessee and a lot of andrew jackson's policies had tennesseeans. there are many things we can talk about but, you know, chief no support there was for federal improvements, such road-building, and those are things that were important to a lot of tennesseeans. jackson also had a longstanding bank th the united states and had a lot of banking and policies that many westerners disagreed with. to me it's interesting that polk -- although he's elected -- does not have the his own state. and he also, earlier, had lost governor in for tennessee. so this is why he's called a president. he wins, but just by a whisker, to carry his own state. so as i said, we inherited polk's personal library and, among those, many ifferent kinds of books representing the scholarly and intellectual interests of the this is a particularly interesting item. this is the gospel of matthew in the choctaw language given to president polk y a missionary who is ministering to the choctaw nation. this is right on the -- in the aftermath of the removal of native americans from tennessee and the rest of the so this is out west that these ministers are working polk is a octaw and a protege of jackson's, would have been in favor of that removal of native from being in the same place as white americans. democratic policy and this is an artifact of those times. the issue that makes james k. polk's president so profound in the development of the united single s the largest territory expansion in the country, short of the louisiana purchase, during his administration. this, of course, is a result with mexico, war which starts in 1846, and goes to 1848, the last year of his presidency, and also, the resolution of some territorial with great britain over the pacific northwest. administration, we gained oregon, what becomes washington.f it's all oregon territory then. comes in, taken from mexico. ost of the southwest, arizona, new mexico, those are part of what becomes known as the gadston purchase and then the state of texas, of course, which driver of the war with mexico. tennesseeans are very anxious to war because they're always in the forefront of expansion, and a lot of them see opportunity in and the p texas southwest and, of course, many texans, crockett, am houston, many of them are tennesseeans, so there's an texas.st family even in and these are some documents. hese are resolutions in the senate addressing zachary taylor in the f the generals war. one of a image here of the chief engagements, battles of he war, was the capture vera cruz on the coast, which is port.ortant and americans needed to have to move men and material to mexico. this is the first time we fight outside of, you know, north america. so it's a big challenge for a whose standing army was only 9,000 at the beginning of the war. o this is a portfolio of lithographs done by naval and given to president memento of the war and sarah, gives it to the state library and archives, so contemporary images in color le of the day and hotography done with the war with mexico. so the jacksonian era of which polk itics of is part is really the golden age of political cartoons. which re instruments by newspapers primarily circulate opinions and actually visualize that, you know, the ancient monuments told in stone, these are telling political issues in cartoon form, and they're amazing things. they're kind of strange to the modern eye, but these are some have to do with cartoon polk, and this 1844 a parody of that election. you see various characters, some texas, which is a pressing issue of how the annexing feel about texas. a k is pictures stumbling in pothole on the road to the white henry clay to the far right is ahead of the pack, does win the election. clay is seen as a frontrunner in rendering.cular so again, you can see political arody cast as a cartoon about foot race among the candidates diverted down to texas. and finally, this particular about the tariff, 9/10 is i dare say americans wouldn't know what a tariff is today, but at the time n the 1840s, it's the absolutely pressing -- maybe the upper most issue in the race, and the cartoon concerns the tariff on ool and protecting domestic wool growers, sheep farm ers and from foreign rers polk ision, and you see fleeing before this charging ram products of of the american manufacturing are being thrown at him because typically, was a contest between manufacturing interest and agricultural interest. again, fairly complex economic issues being depicted cartoons. political so polk's presidency comes to an end in 1848, and unfortunately, dies three months later here in nashville, and what's polk's passingut a that it's a result of cholera epidemic. cholera t's the third epidemic that hits nashville in 1830s. you don't normally think of america being subjected to cholera was a major factor along the river, and even not ealthy elite were immune to it and president polk passes away three months after term ends.ntial the third of tennessee's the last thus far from tennessee is andrew ohnson, also a member of the democratic party like james k. was. a little bit later in time. tennessee.upper-east he was from greenville. johnson comes from very poor background. dies when he's four years old. and his mother and siblings moved to greenville, tennessee, is apprenticed out as a tailor, which is how he makes private citizen. and always makes a lot of his humble origins. johnson is someone who paints champion of the common man and, in fact, supports legislation as a congressman and later, as resident, that definitely benefit ordinary americans. johnson is somewhat of an president. a polished lly politician. as as criticized very much governor of tennessee for his against ded tactics rebels, as he called them, people who sided with the he would put nd them in jail. he put ministers in jail. dictitorial in his running of tennessee during the civil war. and he's not a real polished character. ande's a lot of accusations pretty demonstratable instances drunkenness. and so johnson is somebody that for the roomed presidency. but of course, when lincoln is assassinated, he becomes president. he immediately starts to work. he ink in one sense, understood lincoln's desire to bind up the nation after the war. do that.ion was how to and johnson's approach was, fought ese people against the union, but now, it's time to bring them back into the fold, and he was very quick to start enfranchising x-confederates and allowing them to run for public office and to hold office again. tenorunately for him, the of the country, at least in congress, was very much the opposite. one thing that johnson started doing very quickly was pardoning ex-confederates and allowing their fully restore citizenship rights. and these are two pardons that we have here at the state archives.d this is from someone from east tennessee. one that really feuher.the andrew johnson is pardoning the confederate general nathan forest and forest is the poster hild for exconfederates that needed to be dealt with harshly in the view of the republican party. founded the can ku-klux klan, and he goes so far as to pardon forest. wake of appens in the these pardons and other vetoing theohnson is freedman's bureau. states not to rn ratify the 14th amendment, which s perhaps the foundational chievement of reconstruction, granting due process, regardless of race, creed or color and to ng full citizenship people who were formerly slaves. this is one of the bed rocks of andressional reconstruction johnson won't have any of it. measures. all of those he eventually removes the secretary of war, which is one radical ading republicans, edward stanton and that's the law draw for congress. initiates impeachment proceedings. they vote to impeach the president. harper's weekly, one of the journals of the time, magazine, wspaper and with president johnson being served with papers of to achment, calling him trial. senate.al is held in the it's a great spectacle. there's never been an american to this dateeached that has never been used before. there are tickets that are sold galleries and the senate chambers to watch the proceedings. it's quite a circus, as it were, a very close contest. he's saved by impeachment by one vote, senator from kansas, and prevents te andrew johnson from going down not only as the first, impeached president, but one actually removed from office. his presidency, although remarkably, i think, he eems to have expected the democratic party to renominate presidential candidate. it makes sense. he's the standing president. nominate a new york democrat instead. andrew ntioned earlier johnson is an innately political creature. of his sort of out element at this point. he returns to greenville, but country e is a small town, and it really doesn't suit him. he has political ambitions still, so he initiates a speaking tour of tennessee, hich is represented in these documents here. the ex-president is touring of tennessee.s he tries to win election first a congressman unsuccessfully, to come back through appointment by the state legislature as a u.s. senator, of which works for him for a while, and i think it's johnson as a r former president who's handled hat kind of ultimate political power not to be able to win any sort of election in the years his presidency, he prevails on the tennessee senate to appoint him in 1874 but he's only -- he only serves a month succumbing in 1875. and this final item here is an of his memorial invitation to his memorial by prominent tennesseeans. think the legacy of all of tennessee's presidents, really from jackson to polk to johnson, their championing of american democracy in the common man. jackson, all the presidents were virginia then onebasically, and wealthy new englander. ut jackson really initiates a period when what was then the west, which is tennessee, kentucky, and these southwestern states, begin to call the shots. johnson are both his heirs in a sense that small democrats with a " "d"and they believe in the common man and the presidency should be an agency for promoting those nterests, and that really is what tennessee presidents bring to the american political system. >> all weekend long, american history tv is joining our partners to showcase the history of nashville, tennessee. cities more about the on our current tour, visit c-span.org/citi c-span.org/citiestour. look at thewith our history of nashville. > the civil rights room is a sacred space, in 1954, after the brown decision, the year after king's assassination. purpose of this space is to engage our community and is to pivotal and focus the role that nashville students, ashville's clergy, nashville's elected officials played in crafting this path toward segregated institutions. and so when you walk in this of e, you get an idea something sacred took place right here in this very spot and it are standing, gives it merit and sort of puts nashville into this larger civil rights. think nashville fairs differently than other major cities in the south, one being that during the 1980s, nashville loss of life during the school desegregation or protests. think nashville's story is nique because it was the only methodical and strategical movement that was led by the community. so the students in nashville wake up in 1960 and decided to go change the world. in had been trained nonviolent techniques in 1958 and 1959 for a time such as this methodology f the and the nonviolent techniques that were practiced years and before most students were desegregating downtown southern cities across the country, that's what separates nashville and puts nashville on his larger map of this methodical nonviolent model that it's been known for. v. board brown decision, the state of tennessee decided to desegregate in 1957. we have 13 students who in schools all around nashville. o school expansion was different from school-to-school. you have this image of a mother school.her children to you see the crowd and the protesters holding signs that author of the segregation. you can look at their faces and mother felt.r this this was a first grader. imagine walking your 7-year-old to school for the first time at a previously all white school and there's a mob behind it. found when hings we we had the pleasure of interviewing these participants of this time in our history is differed from school-to-school, from neighborhood-to-neighborhood, nd compare that story of this mother walking through this mob arrold groves f and his mom. different story. he still remembers his first grade teacher's name. mrs. fox. her name as ber well and arrold's story was when school, he nto the felt very safe. you have thee contrasting narratives of what was going on in nashville from are school-to-school and location-to-location. looked southern states to us and felt we were doing a good thing by starting with opposed to what was going on in little rock and clinton, tennessee. you had these high school tudents who had already formed their opinions, who were already prepared and knew what they were getting into. our ere in nashville, students were first graders. nd other southern states thought we were doing a great thing, and so we became known as and we r-step model, would desegregate our public year.ls in one grade a in '57, we started desegregating and it would e, 12 years toashville desegregate. then you had the legislation schools had to desegregate with deliberate speed and fast. one of the stories i think left narrative is le's that our local catholic schools desegregated in 1954. mandate.'t wait for a they decided that they had the brown decision and they were going to desegregate. in eas the public schools the county and outside of the county, it took about three years. interesting the things that happened in nashville in '57, you have a roup, a mob of people, who decided that they didn't think that nashville should schools te its public and that effort was led by a man per.he name of john cas c casperwas from new jersey. left his family. tennessee in clinton and came to nashville and helped organize the white citizens' council, so the group of people who were going to stop schools from desegregating. on of our schools was bombed the first day schools desegregated here in nashville, 1957.hat was september 9, that was the haddie cotton chool, and the one black girl had enrolled at that school, and the school was bombed in the pre-dawn hours. fortunately, no one was hurt. no one was there, and the school moved ed to open and forward thankfully to the principal at that time, mrs. margaret kate. very instrumental in thinking forward thinking in having her students journal and happened.n what nd now after major acts of terrorism now, because that was an act of terrorism in 1954, you blow up a school. had her students journal what was it like for them to be able to come back to school and like as it going to be having this one black child enrolled in your school. o this room gives you an idea of what happened after nashville's response to brown, but that sort of just sets the story ork for a larger that happened in 1960. so while the country was looking four ensboro and those brave gentlemen that marched nto the local lunch counter in greensboro, north carolina, on february 1, nashville's sit-in later here.ek but our students have been training in nonviolent 1.chniques before february nashville being a city of the south, we have a large number of istorically black colleges and universities. tennessee state, ani at that state.ow tennessee american baptist college and fifth university. students here who are idealistic and who are going to change the world. the students had been training in nonviolent direction under the f reverend jim lofton who was one of their teachers. jim lofton came to nashville because dr. king asked him to come to nashville. dr. king thought that the south needed a nonviolent leader and studied under discipleship of gandhi. students special in 1950s is that these students trained. they went through this onviolent academy as they called it. ernard lafayette refers to it as a west point training so the students would train. every week, they would train in how not to es in fight back. what does it mean to believe and engulf yourself into this and they philosophy did, and they came up with rules. the five things that you had to be able to do and five things do. you couldn't the first rule is do not block entrances to the store aisles nor outside. students knew that it was gainst the law to block the entrances of the store aisles so they knew they didn't want to break the law. say, do rules go on to not leave your seat, do not have conversations with the floor walkers. friendly and lf courteous at all times and even when the students were being arrested saturday after saturday, they were being beaten, they were being spied pon and they had milk shakes thrown in their face. they would get back up and take their seats. of this he replica lunch counter here. do not strike back nor curse if abused. the students believed that they were following a that they hadson, engulfed themselves, and this was the path they chose to take. effective in e 1960, and we can ask our nonviolent a movement would be applicable to now, but these were the rules that the students came up with. saturday, the students would get up, go downtown where in this very block. they would sit at places like and eens and woolworths take their seats. nothing happened the first saturday the students were owntown on february 13, 1960, the students went down every saturday in february. 20th, y 13th, february february 27th. and this photo here is exactly we're standing. the students marched right on this very block, and so fast-forward 50 plus years, the library and the civil rights room actually sits on the very that the students protested in march and that's why we refer to it as sacred because the students marched right here on this spot. the students were arrested and they were put in jail, and they fine.iven a they had to pay $33. the students refused to pay the fine. that they would stay in jail. they would fill up the jails, burden onould put the the city of nashville. so again, it was methodical. they knew tegic, and what they were doing. in addition to that, february has gone by. easter.s and easter in the spring of 1960, everyone got a new outfit most people shopped downtown nashvill nashville. so the students organized one of the largest economic withdrawals ever had.y has 98 percent of the african-american community in nashville decided not to shop many of the white families were afraid to come downtown and that is one of the reasons nashville's economic to be one of ved the most effective ways. february, by d in spring, they had desegregated several of the lunch counters already. great piece of history is april 19, 1960. those of us who are historians, that date sticks out in nashville's history. local attorneys, alexander luby, who was hired to students and get them out of jail in the predawn 19th, alexander luby's home, which was near the fisk university was bombed. now it's been recorded that the and group who was responsible for the haddie was also bing in 1957 responsible for the bombing of luby's home. luby and his wife were at home time.e they weren't injured. so the students were able to bombing to their advantage. so without instant message and phones, texting and cell they mobilized 4,000 people that same day to march in silence tsu's campus all the way to the courthouse. but by the time they get down to courthouse, the students had called all of the networks, abc, cbs, and nbc and the mayor. they asked the mayor to meet downtown. the mayor at the time was mayor ben west and it took courage and young ion of one of the college students, diash nash, who was a student at fisk university. diane nash asked the mayor a question in front of the camera, in front of 4,000 people in front of the country if he thought it was fair people should be treated differently based on the color of their skin. the mayor goes on to say he had a answer as a man and not as politician. within the next two days, dr. king was speaking in nashville. dr. king was already scheduled to be in nashville and no one knew that luby's home would be mayor's r the proclamation or diane nash would ask him that pivotal question, 4,000 students would march from tsu's campus in silence. within two days, its civil rights foot print had been etched into history. the nashville students took what they had learned in 1959 and the and ns of nonviolence trainings and desegregating downtown lunch counters and they moved on to help orchestrate the rides in 1961, when the freedom rides around the country to abandon the rides losing their lives, nashville students said we must carry this torch. so it was nashville students that had decided we were going going to , we were continue, and nashville students did not stop in 1960. orchestrate to help every major movement of our team, including the freedom ides, albany movement, the march on washington, the bridge soma. ashville students were right there in the forefront, whether it was john lewis, diane nash, matthew walker jr., it was nashville students that helped lead all of those major our time.of fast forward 50 plus years, and now what we're doing in our at the particular here library, we're offering civil rights training to our local law officers.nt the need to have conversations relations in 2016 is just as relevant as it was in 1960. working with our local law enforcement officers, we have been able to bring in law and have a officers conversation, putting nashville into that larger context and race and how did nashville fair? what was nashville doing when treyvon martin incident was going on. what was going on in nashville with michael ened brown and how our law enforcement officers responded questionswe're asking to the law enforcement officers, respond in 1960 the same way responded now. so that training, was how that training -- this was in the second year, and so we have hundreds of local law enforcement officers and agents throughout the entire of tennessee to talk about a civil society and civil rights looks like to the other. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. . sit ncicap.org] >> all weekend, american history v is featuring nashville tennessee. c-span city's tour staff recently visited many sites showcasing its history. nashville was founded as a permanent settlement on 1779, and was n originally a part of north carolina. more about nashville all historyhere on american tv. [music] >> we're at the country music of fame museum in downtown nashville. inside the building of the nashville cats. tonight ♪ you >> we wantd to look at nashville a bunch of when folk and rock artists were with here to record nashville's wonderful session musicians. nd during that time, a lot of perceptions about nashville change. to >> folk music was a big part of the '60s, part of the elvis and era, and bob dylan quickly rose to the top of the scene. he sort of showed that you could write your own songs about any ossible subject, including politics to an extent in the early days. to he fact he could come nashville and record reverberated really widely and brought a lot of people here. >> bob dylan first signed in 1956 to make his album "blind on blind." bob johnson had already been in nashville, worked in nashville, knew the great players here, and person that first started trying to persuade bob dylan to come to nashville to record. one of the great nashville session musicians by the name of mccoy was visiting new york in 1965 and bob said, i want to you come by the studio. making an album with bob dylan. so charlie arrives at the studio bob dylan says, hey, i know you. i've got one of your records, ou know, a record called "harpoon man" that you made. he goes, why don't you pick up there and play it on this next song. nd it turns out that song was desolation road. [music] ♪they need somewhere to go lady and i look out to find ♪ ♪ desalation road >> and charlie nailed it like in one or two tries, and bob dylan was very impressed. producer, bob johnson said, well, if you thought that was easy or if you like him, you go to nashville like that. one of the sh is most iconic country music singers ever. started in the '50s in memphis. bob dylan were close ersonal friends♪ one too many mornings ♪ >> great musical respect for each other's work. even as the country music world, again, was as far removed as you ould get from the perceptions of what bob dylan was, sort of a left wing political singer '60s and johnny cash was seen as an icon of country music, which was associated with conservative politics. their friendship together had a lot to do with changing erceptions of nashville, bringing a lot of rock-and-roll people here. johnny cash had a string of prison s with fullsom and the blues, and was given an abc network tv show. first showest on his was bob dylan and for johnny cash to give a very public of a guy who was considered kind of counter-culture rock hippy will, had a lot gap. with bridging the ♪if you're traveling an old country fest ♪ > one of the major threads of this exhibit is the relationship johnny bob dylan and cash, and one of the neat we have is the song manuscript from the song "wanted man." written in bob dylan's handwriting and the bottom part is in johnny cash's handwriting. in nashville, bob dylan, one of the top i don't have to tell you who bob dylan is. he's the greatest writer of our time. he was at our house and he and i sat down and wrote a song together. if i can find that damn thing and i'll sing it for you. is.h, here it it's called "wanted man." bob d this is a song that dylan wrote for johnny cash while he was staying here in and johnny 1969, cash ended up recording the song album. [music] >> bob dylan and johnny cash a mutual ke had admiration, and they were big work.of each other's bob dylan had listened to johnny cash, you know, growing up. of johnny g fan cash's sun records, sun '50s.dings he made in the they met each other at the 1964 festival.lk johnny cash started recording bob dylan songs, like "it ain't babe." ♪you say you're looking for someone ♪ to pick you up each time you fall ♪ skylineylan's nashville of 1969, and this is johnny on the back of the album cover and johnny won a liner for writing those notes. we have the grammy on display here as well that we got from sun. >> the historical context for the musical stories that we look are the social and cultural and somewhat political 1960s.of the ♪ >> the big musical move ers and '60s were both leading the culture, you know, protest songs were helping inspire rallies to end segregation. perceived er injustices. but at the same time, bob dylan was a result of that culture. just reflecting it. >> so after bob dylan came to ashville in 1966, you know, he became a catalyst for so many other artists to come to nashville and record. everybody from leonard cohen to biaz, simon o joe mccartny, e, paul ringo starr. and another that came was the angeles.om los they made a monumental album in "sweetheart of a rose." >> it didn't sell a ton of records at the time but now is one of the pioneering albums that melded country and rock. know, a rock you sensibilities creating a country sound. one of the key musicians on that was a nashville pedal steel guitarist by the name of roy green. hired him to play on rodeo" and it'sa how rock bands got introduced to the pedal steel guitar. pedal steel is beautiful, fingertip,7 shell bud pedal steel guitar. it's never been on display before, but this is the one that used on that birds album. here's a photo of the birds on the grand ol'opry in 1968 when they were in nashville make the album "sweetheart of accounts, nd by all they basically got booed on ol'opry the grand because their hair was too long. >> in nashville, the political social ncial and establishment in nashville didn't really accept country music. who are a lot of people would like to pretend that the wasn't here, people overall, so you could at the height of the counter culture when there's divisions between sort of ong-haired hippie culture, if you will, that was coming out at the time and more conservative side of nashville was even less enthused. >> we have the unique vantage of looking at how music was made, you know, in nashville '60s and '70s. a very polarized time with what nation withg in the civil rights movement and the vietnam war. here, you had these very baeztical artists like joan coming to nashville to work ith, you know, conservative musicians, and the exhibit kind of shows how, you know, that may though the musicians have disagreed on politics but them together.ht when joan baez came to nashville she e late '60s to record, came with armed guard. she had death threats. wallace ced the george bummer stickers around and at first wasn't sure what she was into but by the time she got done working with the talented great nashville musicians, she had them.n in love with ♪pain is my name ♪ and i drove on the train she left and went back o new york, she wrote a letter to the nashville cats, essentially a love letter where listening to the music they made and crying. putting, i'm working on together another album. it will take me a while, but when i get enough material, i to nashville ack and work with you all. much love and thanks. baez. >> the under-pinning of all of this is just music in the arts a way to overcome the differences. and it's implicit in everything. there's in the a panel that in those terms but it's a part of all the stories here, overcoming the polarization, because people seeing themselves on the opposite side of this very big gulf and i have to say that, a lot of that e today, again, in our politics. this is a very concrete time in where there were concrete examples of how to overcome those things on a personal level. >> true love of mine ♪ true love of mine ♪ ♪ true love of mine . true love of mine [applause] cities tour staff recently traveled to nashville, tennessee, to learn about its rich history. about nashville and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv. weekend, on every c-span 3. this weekend on american artifacts, we visited the smithsonian national air and space museum in washington d.c. a kind artifacts that tell the story of a quest to go higher, faster and farther during the first half century of aviation. here's a preview. >> one of the major technological innovations for war 1 aircraft in world is the creation of a gun synchronizer system. mount a s you could machine gun right in front of the pilot with a sight and as you point the airplane, you can guns and hit hine your target. the problem with that is you have a spinning wood propellor and so the creation of a mechanical linkage set up shaft m on the propellor as the propellor blade crosses in front of the two machine guns or one machine gun, it actually turns off the machine gun and as passed, ellor blade is the machine guns are turned back on. proceeded into 1918 and the entry of the united the war, you have american air service pilots the front being equipped with french aircraft. there's in the a front-line eady american fighter in the conflict. and in this particular shot you see here, that is in american service markings, it was manufacturerof the contracts to make spaeds. the 22nd arrow squad rant was assigned this airplane and a brooks lot named ray painted the name of his fiancee's college on there, and he had three previous airplanes, so it's goes the fourth, and he into combat with this airplane. he scores one aerial kill and 13, some cular spad other pilots in the same squadron shoot down at least five more. so this spad 13 flew with the first generation of american pilots. now, ray brooks -- you know, he his this airplane after fiancee's school. and most people would name their their girlfriend themselves. but he actually made a conscious decision. e didn't want to have this airplane damaged on the field and having a mechanic saying, damaged.is we've got to fix her. he wanted to actually keep her situation so he named it after a college. in its 1918 rth is camouflage but you also see and wings of lage smith the fourth are small black squares that have german crosses and those represent bullet holes shot through the fabric from combat. o those are small little indications of this being a combat airplane and surviving. he squares would have been applied by ground mechanics in the field because there's no recover the etely airplane. and one of the interesting advantages of a strutton wire-braced fabric-conferred airplane is that if a bullet just goes through the fabric, it the other through side. all it needs to be is patched and that's what the job of the mechanic would be, is to patch to restore the integrity watch more of ourting.announce: tour of the air and space museum on american artifacts sunday at 6:00 at 10:00 eastern. this is "american history tv," only on c-span3. >> each week, "american history america" brings you archival parents -- films films that provide context for today's public affairs issues. in 1976, president gerald ford spoke at the opening of the air andian's national space museum in washington dc. leading up to the anniversary, "reel america" is showcasing science films. up next, science reporter: suited for space. half hour nasa tv program, one of 13 produced with m.i.t. and w dbh boston.