the harvard law school hosted this 50 minute event. wilkins sits here is a graduate of the harvard law school, have many honors, to the u.s. court of appeals district of columbia 2014. he is a native of indiana with a bs in chemical engineering. judge wilkins served as a law to the united states district court for california. in 1990, he joined the public and -- service district later for several years. firm02, he joined the law as a partner handling white-collar defense, intellectual property, and litigation matters. served as the lead plaintiff in wilkins in the state of maryland, a landmark civil rights lawsuit that inspired nationwide executive reform. invited him to come and speak to my class after this. he has also played a key role in the establishment of the smithsonian national museum of african american history. his work led to the congressional authorization of the museum and the selection of this location. he was named one of the 40 under 40 most successful young litigators. he was one of the 90 greatest washington lawyers in 2008. he was appointed u.s. district judge to the district of .olumbia this is a wonderful record and i'm deeply proud to be able to have him speak to you today in the hope you enjoy it. >> thank you and good afternoon. it is quite an honor to be here and introduced by someone with the scholarship and the and the gravitas of a professional so i thank you for introduction. thell try to take you down long road of hard truths in 25 minutes or less. i'm a recovering public defender and trial lawyer so it's hard for me to stand still but now that i'm a court of appeals judge, i have to have a more dignified manner so i will try to stay here at the podium. -- the long road to hard truth was inspired by the words of james baldwin who testified before congress in 1968 about a proposal to create either a national museum dedicated to black history and culture or some sort of a national commission to promote the study of black history and culture. he told congress "my history tells the truth about america, it's going to be hard to teach it." in his words is the answer to why it has taken 100 years for this museum to go from conception to its opening this coming saturday. to take you through that journey, which is recounted in more detail of course in the book. you might wonder how did i get involved in this. in,s a practicing lawyer why get involved in a museum? it's a complicated answer but i will try to boil it down to a couple things. the immediate interest was someoneby the death of who i care deeply about, a gentleman was was a member of my church and we worked together on for teenage program boys and he passed away rather suddenly and my wife and i went to visit with the family. there were a lot of church members there and they were telling these wonderful stories duringrowing up segregation, deficit patient in the civil rights movement, how it affected them in a dilapidated school while they saw their white counterparts writing and new school buses and going to fancy schools. one person commented how he never seen a new book until he the blacklege because schools only got the nubs that had been used passed down from the white schools as far as the chalk goes and the leftover books. there were a live is really amazing stories they were telling it as my wife and i drove home, i said why don't we have a museum to tell these stories and that is what sparked .t for me it was also sparked by my experience as a public defender and someone who was a plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit. i had been stopped along with other family members by the maryland state police and they insisted on searching our car for drugs and it didn't matter that i explained i was an attorney and a public defender and i named the u.s. supreme court case that the officer was violating. [laughter] of that mattered. he said they had a lot of problems with rental cars and he needed to search our car and we were going to have to wait for a drug sniffing dog to be brought to the scene. we learned that the officer was just following orders. he had gotten the directive that went to all the troopers and his barracks a couple weeks before his stop that directed them to stop blacks in rental cars becausehrough that area they were trafficking in crack cocaine. but he had his orders in his orders were targeting african-americans in rental cars. and partd the lawsuit of the settlement required the police gather data and reporting to us as to who they were stopping and searching and what they were finding. they were searching for black motorists for everyone white motorist. the lawsuit ultimately went on for 15 years. it was in the midst of that primarilyd recognizing clients in seeing the pain and suffering and under education of the broken families of the criminal justice system that made me want to be a part of something positive, something affirming, something that could perhaps bring the country together. it was a victory parade for the union troops after the civil war . president lincoln had been assassinated, president johnson was at the helm. the confederacy have been the country decided it was fitting and proper to honor the union troops who had saved the republic. it was front-page news. every newspaper in the country. any superlative you can imagine was used to describe it. the name of it was the only cream review of the armies. there was not a single african-american combat soldier that took part in that review. they ultimately stage their own review for black troops in harrisburg, pennsylvania. president johnson later by the district of columbia to be reviewed by him and he addressed them afterwards. community was thrilled about this. finally some recognition. but the occasion was bittersweet because the message he delivered thatese black soldiers was living and focus on upright life and working in being industrious and attending to your families and not living -- life of and once you have proven your you can becomebe citizens but don't think just because you fought in this war in the help of the union when that you have earned the rights of citizenship now. the african-american community was on some form of citizenship preparation. i think that is symbolic from the greener view itself. it was really a rebuke because a lot of the black soldiers had fought up thinking they were fighting for their freedom and their right to full citizenship. that is what frederick douglass and others had said. the grand army of the republic, which is the major union army veterans group stages a reenactment of the grand .eviewing 1915 in washington about 20,000 of them make it to washington, d.c. to participate in this reenactment of the grand review. this time, the black soldiers are allowed to participate. jim crow was the law of the land and socialthe events activities or for the white veterans and not the black veterans. they found people to drive them around and organize activities for these black veterans. again, the african-american community felt this was bittersweet because we could marja but only as second-class citizens. committee which was headed lawyer named ferdinand lee, he and several others from not citizens committee decided to incorporate that following year and a net call the national memorial association whose goal was to build a permanent memorial in washington to honor the contributions of black soldiers and sailors in every war from the revolutionary war up to that time. organizingt of that effort, the u.s. enters world war i and once again, black soldiers participate and serve their country. the movement to honor black soldiers is even stronger but it therebecause they decide is an honor here in the nation's capital for all i can american achievement not just in participation with the military but all areas of life. we need to build a memorial negro achievement and contribution to america. an african-american architect .ame of edward williams they got legislation to create this building. there was a lot of opposition, especially from southern legislators. ultimately, the only way they were able to get something 1929 was forch 4, the bill to be stripped of any funding so the original bill provided that organization would get funding because they would need to raise another $500,000 to construct this building and the only way they could get a that once theyld raised $500,000, congress would release $50,000. the timing was not so great justse march 4 of 1929 was a few months before october 1929 when the stock market crashes so to beot a good time embarking on a private fundraising effort. the commission that congress created to try to build this memorial building went to see president herbert hoover and asked for federal funds. the meeting didn't go well. he refused even to take a photograph with this prominent group of african-americans who were appointed to this presidential commission to create this memorial building. his policy -- every delegation of boy scouts or western union employees came in they were white, he took photographs but not black. get a pictureeven with the president. the effort eventually dies off and is forgotten. the next major movement toward this comes in the mid-1960's concurrent with the black studies movement and black arts .ovement there is legislation introduced .n 1965 there are hearings in 1968 and came just a few weeks after the commission report. it had been deemed by president respond to theto rights it had take a place all over the u.s. in 1967 in the report, they had famously said the nation was basically being cleaved into and that there were two nations, one black and one white and they were separate and unequal. and thethis report specter of all of these problems in the country and the rioting and you have this variety of people come and say we should do this, this could be something that can lead to better understanding, that could lead to unity and young african-americans boys and grows in men and women to feel like a sense of being a part of the country and like they are being respected and understood and everyone from james baldwin to had taken over his organization. all of them were in favor of doing this. but it goes nowhere. the next movement, phase of the movement, comes in the , the980's and this time goal of the movement is squarely to create a national museum that will be in the national mall and washington, d.c. mickey leland, a congressman from texas, and congressman john lewis, just elected from georgia, lead that effort. congressman langland was killed in a plane crash in africa while he was visiting some relief and refugees that he was working with. picked up thewis mantle and became the leader of the effort and eventually continued fighting on for 15 years later until legislation ultimately got passed in 2003. interestingly, the smithsonian was indifferent to this venture in the mid-1980's. they felt like perhaps a national museum etiquette to african-american history was not needed. you -- they were being pressured by congress to look into this and to consider supporting this and they created a committee to study the issue headed by a lawyer and historian in the same professional. this committee led by miss brown concluded that there should be a national museum and it should be part of the smithsonian and the smithsonian board of regents endorsed that effort and agreed to support the creation of this museum. good, peopleooking thought this museum could happen and it could happen within a few years. senator paul simon of illinois led the effort in the senate and got legislation passed in 1992. this agreement about where the museum would be located and whether it would get an adequate sized building and a building in a prominent location would cause there to be dissension in the house and congressman gus savage of chicago maneuvered the house rules to kill it in the house so it doesn't pass the house. the next session of congress has been defeated so john lewis is able to get it passed in the house in 1993. they thought this is great and .ow we will be able to do this senator jesse holmes decides it will be his personal mission to and northmuseum carolina full of busters it and can never become law. when i became interested in in thehe effort was dead organizations and correlations have been disbanded. i gathered some people including someone in this room standing in the back, professor juan sullivan, together to figure out how we could get this movement ustarted and a group of which included his wife and others, they are graduates of , we got together and formed a nonprofit to try to figure out how we could do this. initially because the arm is fearing congress did not seem hospitable, we look to see if there was a way to do this outside of the smithsonian. congressman john lewis was able to build a bipartisan coalition .round 2001 to support this senator sam brownback of kansas, , came on board and made it his mission to make sure this museum would happen. so did congressman jc watts who was in the house republican leadership, senator max cleveland, lewis's fellow democrat from georgia, came on board and they were the four musketeers so to speak who led the effort in the house and senate on both sides of the aisle to get this done and what was amazing was they were able to get all of the leadership on the republican democratic party in the senate and house behind it. the chair and ranking members so appropriations committees when they introduced legislation in 2001, they had all of these key players and at that press conference, you had everything , youthe four i spoke about had rick santorum there from pennsylvania, you had the new senator hillary clinton there. you had this assortment, this ofartisan assortment legislators there so the senator brownback even remarked doing anything hardly ever. to support there this national african-american museum that they thought needed to be built and needed to be built on the national mall. but wewere going great had another issue with timing just a few months later, september 11, 2001. that changed the whole legislative focus in congress. toward the patriot act, new department of homeland security, investigating what went wrong, intelligence steames and it took the out of the momentum for this end we had to kind of go to a plan b, which was to create a presidential commission to further plan and make sure they would be the fundraising and private support for this museum to get it done. i serve on that commission and .hared the site commission it was a controversial issue in we investigated sites and found in this bipartisan commission unanimously agreed on legislationh draft so the time has come to symbolize after all these things, thisassing .useum needed to be built congress passed the legislation in the house and by unanimous consent to the senate. the issue of its site was very controversial. congress couldn't agree. issue to thed that smithsonian board of regents. in january two dozen six, the board of regents voted to place -- 2006, the board of regents voted to place it directly adjacent to the washington monument. and spoke toi met becausestice roberts one of the duties of the chief justice is that he or she is the chancellor of the smithsonian board of regents. , ief justice roberts jokingly said thank you for granting my motion. he remarked how after you have been nominated to become chief justice, the lawyers from the white house told and there are these other duties you have the record.the your chancellor of the smithsonian but don't worry about it. it is monday and retain things you would have to take care of and it is largely ceremonial. in the very first meeting he attends after he is confirmed is the meeting where they vote on where to place the national museum of african american history and culture, hardly mundane. home inmuseum now had a the smithsonian hired the fabulous director lonnie bunch who did all of the work to gather the collections and raise the money and designed the building and give the testruction of construction so it would open this coming saturday. so we are at the end of this after they100 years movement began. what does it mean? i think it means different .hings to different people one meaning of this museum is unity. it will be a place where we can come together and look at the efforts over the years by people of goodwill regardless of their race, their background, ethnicity, their station in life, their religion, who came together to try to improve the lot of african-americans enbridge some of the gaps in this country -- and bridge some of the gaps in this country. another meeting it has is -- meaning it has is to tell the story of the struggle to become a more perfect union, to describe the compromises and thatmodations of slavery really sullied the constitution. and how slavery tour the nation .part it took a war to preserve the union and constitutional amendments and his statutes and litigations and protest to try to get this country to live up to the ideals it was supposed to represent for all citizens. but had not represented for african-american citizens. the museum i think is also the story of the power and the moral significance of recognition and respect. began, 1916 when this the leader in congress was an illinois congressman named leah negus dyer. theas also the leader of efforts to pass federal anti-lynching legislation to try to stop the scourge of lynching know was going on. ultimately, we will see the ultimate power of recognition and respect when president obama gives the speech and throws open thisoors of this museum saturday. the presidential commission seeking to create this national museum could even get to the president of the u.s. to take a photograph with them. the photographer who was with the delegation that day was a black man named addison scurlock. he took photographs of all sorts peoplerable events and in the african-american community and because of that, his photographs are now in that .useum and you can go see them towent from 100 years ago scurlock not even being able to take a picture of the president to when african-american president opening the museum that will house his photographs. saidhearing, james baldwin to congress "i am the flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone . i have been here as long as you have been here, longer. i paid for it as much as you have. it is my country too. we recognize that is the whole question. my history and culture has got to be taught. it is yours." thank you. [applause] we have time for some questions in there is a gentleman here who has a question. >> i understand you have an opportunity recently to visit the museum and the exhibits. can you talk about your impressions and the emotions you experienced in seeing it completed? >> it was amazing to see it. it was a little like seeing your .hild being born the exhibits are great. they have done a fantastic job. it was especially significant being there this saturday because there were a lot of people that had donated heirlooms and artifacts to the museum who were there for this special preview so we saw people standing next to the guitar they had donated that their great-grandfather had played. i saw chuck brown, the go-go's anger, his two sons standing in front of the exhibit that he was .art of as part of the music he was just -- it was so pointed to see these people, to see a man who was the seventh generation descendent of robert the first of african-american u.s. senators and a hero of the civil war ofnding next to the statue his i don't know how many great-grandfathers. impactful to see the power of recognition and respect. you also see the stories told there and the hard truth about america being told there. i think told in a way that is dignified in a way that is ultimately edified. >> thank you for the talk. it was really interesting. going forward, how do you see this museum playing a role in or helping shape the way the country continues to grapple with race and its relationship to race, particularly given the context we are in now with black lives matter and a number of racial justice activist movements across the country. where do you see this museum sitting in. can playk the museum an important role but i think we have to manage expectations. we shouldn't expect that this one building can be a panacea, that it can be a key to race issues in america. but it can play an important role. have ananytime you institution that will help educate people, help them understand context, where we have been, to appreciate progress we have made and also to understand why are we still talking about certain things today that were being discussed 30, 40, more years ago that perhaps can create a more sense of urgency or a sense of context. sayrnor brownback used to as he filed for this museum that andeeded to lance the boil then this means he and could help do that. that we wouldn't be able to heal until we really exposed the history for what it was and am to grips with it, not to sweep it under the road, not to minimize it or act like it didn't happen, to acknowledge it not so we could dwell on it and he mad about it but so we could contextualize it and figure out how to move forward and i think the museum can do that. you talked a little about your personal role in creating a and i for one think your personal role has been under emphasized in the story of the museum. i remember a moment where you sat in my house and told me that you resign your job that paid work.ncome to can you talk a little bit -- i know you spoke about the reasons, the motivations, the things that made you do this. but part of the long, hard struggle is the struggle to believe this can happen. can you just talk a little bit , momentsents of doubt where you questioned, and what made you believe that this could really happen. this with a big disclaimer. don't try this at home. and moreme more obsessed with wanting to see this museum happened, i saw that other museums like the holocaust museum, the national museum of the american indian, there have ton people working full-time push, to create those entities and so it occurred to me that somebody needed to be working full-time outside of congress to try and create this and i decided i would do that. so i quit my job. my wife was seven months pregnant with our second child and it was the best closing argument i have given in my life to convince her to let me do this. [laughter] but we decided we would try to give it a go for a year on one salary and we would eat a lot of beans and cornbread and figure out how to make it, but it was very difficult during that time because most people didn't believe in the vision or even if they were supportive, they didn't take it could happen. bookk about this in the but the engine went out on our main vehicle during that time and would require a $10,000 repair that took all of our nest egg out in one fell swoop. the judge that i had clerked for passed away and i wanted to go to his funeral in san diego but a last-minute flight from washington to san diego was beyond my means so i couldn't who hadhonor the judge launched my career in been a mentor to me so there are times when i felt like i was crazy, that i was a failure. but i resigned to keep pressing on and that is what you have to .o sometimes in watching the example of congressman lewis and others who were devoted to this kept me and gave me the strength and parish , there on but ultimately was an army of people who made you arepen and when part of a movement, part of a collective effort, you can go beyond your own individual doubts and rely upon the courage of others as well. >> forgive me, i came in that late and i was running from class so if this is repetitive, i apologize. i'm sure you have heard this several times. of havinge importance this the its own entity rather than say when the national museum of american history come unto you. >> it's a good question and something that was debated in the 1980's and early 1990's whether there should be a separate museum, whether that orehow was segregationist inappropriate to do. ultimately, the conclusion of a lot of historians and people that it's this was not separate in the sense that african-american history is also american history and you can't really understand the country and the constitution and the of lots of social and economic and political change in this country without looking at the african-american story. not reallyse, it's separate but it deserves a separate emphasis, it's own emphasis in building so that it does get the proper recognition toause we tried for decades get significant recognition in the american history museum and some of the other museums and that didn't work. having this new museum to really emphasize that story we felt was i think it plays a great role and it's right next door to the american history museum on the smithsonian. so they can have a dialogue and from that dialogue, i think we will all be richer for it. i think maybe one last question. >> thank you so much for coming today and for your effort in all of this. it's really impressive and inspiring. my question is that i'm doing some research on the importance inmemorials and monuments the search for transitional of thesethe importance symbols. i was wondering to what extent you think that the african-american museum will fill the niche that a slavery museum would. a you think it serves as catchall museum that can encompass those things into think it's significant you brought up the holocaust museum because if you look at the list of holocaust museum's and american jewish museums we have in this country, you realize we do see a distinction between naming an atrocity and main -- naming the people who experienced the atrocity. at what point do you think it is important to continue the search for transitional justice and a slavery museum and what advice would you give so it's not the next 100 years before that happens? >> that's quite a question. i think part of your question is an answer to the last question, which is in a sense, this museum is a memorial similar to a national memorial building when .his began in the 19 teens it is also a memorial and that is another reason why it is important for it to be its own entity and building. who thoughtople that this museum should be a slavery museum or who wanted to create a slavery museum. those ofy, we believed us working on this that slavery is obviously important and needs to be remembered and there needs to be cunning a memorial to those victims but you can do that in the context of a museum that tells the story of the whole african-american experience, which is much more than slavery. people can debate that until the cows come home. i am a realist and i don't really care about some of those academic debates. i like to see things done that will push us forward and to find .he best way to get things done i don't know what advice i could give someone who wants to create a slavery memorial or slavery museum other than buckle up, it's a long ride. thank you. [applause] >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, this evening just after 7:00, author allison kibler on the history of in thech in america backlash to the book. , a largeladelphia group of african-americans gathered outside the walnut street theater when the klansman was scheduled to appear. one report estimated that 2000 african-americans came to protest and another 1000 whites came to observe the protest. the play, onef african-american man through an egg at the stage from the gallery and someone shouted "we want no atlanta here." >> sunday morning at 10:00 on the road to the white house rewind, the second 1988 presidential debate between george h.w. bush and michael dukakis. the whiteto bring house is since of strength and fiscal responsibility which will build a strong foundation under which this country can move, grow, invest, and build the best america for its people and our kids and grandkids. >> i wish he would join me in appealing for the american people in a balanced budget in the federal government. [applause] >> i will have liked to have that line-item veto for the president because i think that would be extraordinarily helpful. >> and we take a look at one of the largest battleships built by the u.s. navy launched in 1943 and saw service through the gulf war. >> i want to talk about this citadel with this 17 inch armor. we have this door, which is closed during combat. that door with approximately five tons for the injustice on :00 p.m. eastern, madeleine albright received the great american's award and the national museum of american history. >> then i come back to washington after the convention. the national journal says a woman walks into a cocktail party or and is immediately surrounded i'm in. is it brooke shields? no, it's madeleine albright, much more popular. [laughter] >> for a full tv schedule, go to c-span.org. busur c-span campaign 2016 is traveling throughout virginia this week asking voters what is the most important issue to you in the election and why? >> my name is john david allen. i'm a freshman and the most important issue to me in this election is the immigration crisis,/refugee crisis and the economy. our country has not been doing well economically lately and i feel that the immigration crisis with illegal immigrants coming in is a big problem. will list.is violet i go to longwood university and to me, the most important issue in this election is social issues, specifically abortion and our immigration system. >> my name is colin craney and i attend hampton college and i feel the most important issue in this election cycle is national security. i feel as though we have problems with borders and also with foreign threats and i feel that that is important in this up-and-coming cycle. >> my name is alex. i go to him to sydney college and at think the most important issue in the 2016 election is the economy. >> i'm harrison. i go to hampden sydney college. to me the most important issue for candidates to address would rights.itutional -- values people like thomas jefferson held onto, preserving those. >> voices from the road on c-span. >> each week, american history tvs american artifacts takes us to museums and historical places