the mansion in new york. her book will be on sale afterward. it is my pleasure to introduce margaret oppenheimer. [applause] margaret: thank you very much. july 3, age 33, a distinguished new yorker wrote a note in his diary. the celebrated colonel burr was married to the celebrated mrs. jumel. his choice of adjectives was interesting. not distinguished, but celebrated. celebrity had the same connotation it does today. someone who was known to the public but not always with approval. today, i am going to talk about how eliza jumel and aaron burr became public figures, why they married, and what happened after these two celebrities joined hands. ladies first. eliza jumel is on the right. she is painted here one year before her marriage to aaron burr next to a portrait of him painted after the ceremony. eliza jumel was born betsy bowen in providence, rhode island, in 1775. about 2.5 weeks before the battle of lexington. there was absolutely nothing in her beginnings to suggest that her name would one day be known around america. she was born in indescribable poverty. by the time she was seven years old, she was living in a brothel with her mother. when she was older, she stayed twice in a providence workhouse when her mother was on unable to take care of her. when she was 10 years old, the overseers for the poor bound her out as an indentured servant, and meaning that from the age of 10, she would be living and working in a stranger's home. this was not a promising beginning but the young betsy bowen was a survivor. she did what so many celebrities have done, she reinvented herself. as a young woman, she got herself to new york city. she adopted a more fashionable name, calling herself eliza. she worked as an extra in the theater, in the park theatre on park row. most importantly, she married a wealthy french merchant. this sounds easy but it was not in this day. this was a connection she knitted without parents negotiating for her, without financial assets, without prominent family connections to offer. this marriage vaulted her into the upper-middle-class. she and stephen lived in lower manhattan. one point, just off broadway near bowling green. they kept a carriage. they also acquired a country estate 9.5 miles north of the city. it was then the countryside, today it is washington heights. here is the property they acquired today. is known as the morris jumel mansion and it is well worth visiting. they also purchased property at the corner of broadway and liberty streets, three blocks south of wall street. they paid about $14,000 -- be envious. this is their broadway frontage, the building on the far right, in 1848. they owned additional frontage around the corner on liberty street. after the fall of napoleon, they also spent some years in france which gave eliza jumel more opportunities to reinvent herself. here is where they lived for several years, one of the most elegant addresses in paris. eliza assembled an art collection, turning herself into a connoisseur. this was the largest collection of european art assembled by a private citizen of the united states up to that time. she had 242 european paintings. she also took great pride in having contacts at the court of louis the 18th, which she would later exaggerate in the united states to improve her social status. their time in france ended with the panic of 1825, which threatened her and her husband's security. he put her country home in new york city in trust, possibly at her urging. that meant it would be hers for life, free to manage as she wished and safe from his creditors. even if he predeceased her, she would not have to worry about spending her widowhood in poverty. she acted beyond this to ensure financial security. in 1826, she returned to the united states before husband. she used a power of attorney to put almost all the remaining real estate, including those broadway buildings, in trust for herself for life. so, she transmuted herself into something very rare, a married woman who was also a proprietor in her own right. stephen died at the age of 67, a few years later in 1832, turning her from a wealthy wife into an even wealthier widow. but -- and there is always a but with her -- she was a celebrity rather than a true grande dame. until late in her life, people always remembered that she wasn't born into her status. word got around about the way she had transferred her property into her own name and most people -- at least most men -- disapproved. she remained an outsider. she was not a member of the new york elite. in contrast, her soon-to-be husband aaron burr was born into the social status she dreamed of entering. his father was president of the college of new jersey, today princeton, which he attended. on his mother's side, he was the grandson of the famous cleric jonathan edwards, who wrote the sermon "sinners in the hand of an angry god." he served bravely for five years in the battle of independence. he served in the battle of quebec. he trained as a lawyer after the war, serving in the new york state assembly, and also new york attorney general. he also served a term in the u.s. senate, beating alexander hamilton's father-in-law. in 1800, when thomas jefferson was elected president, aaron burr became vice president. here he is during his time in office. in spite of his fine beginnings, by the time of his marriage to eliza jumel, he was celebrated -- even notorious -- rather than distinguished. in 1804, he ran for governor of new york. he was defeated because of slurs about his character disseminated by his political rivals. he lost. shortly after the election, hamilton said something derogatory at a private dinner party. word got back to aaron burr. you all know what happens. aaron burr challenged hamilton to a dual. they fought on the dueling grounds across the river and we hawking, new jersey. aaron burr shot hamilton in the abdomen. hamilton died the next day. aaron burr's reputation never recovered. it was blighted even further over the next few years between 1804-1807, aaron burr made a quasilegal attempt to seize land in mexico and what is now the southern united states. this resulted in a trial for high treason and high misdemeanor by the united states supreme court. he was acquitted. in jefferson in his second term as president, he was against aaron burr. further attempts at prosecution were likely. aaron burr fled to europe. as late as 1812 when he returned, he had to slip into the country under a false name. ultimately, he returned to the practice of law in new york city and that is what he was doing in 1833, the year of his marriage to eliza jumel. the question remains, what brought them together? the undoubted attraction was eliza jumel's money. aaron burr was a brilliant man in many ways. he was a genius at seizing opportunities. he was a compulsive debtor, totally unable to save money for tomorrow. i found quite a few records of the new york court that have not previously been examined in his literature. they show him time after time borrowing money, promising to pay it back, and then defaulting. for example, i found five cases between 1819-1829 in which aaron burr borrowed money, given promissory note, and then was unable to pay. in another two cases, he asked someone to supply goods or services and he never paid them. then, in 1833, two months before his marriage, he had to find a new place to live because he was evicted from his lodgings for nonpayment of rent. i have circled the address where he lived, one block behind city hall. these cases are only the ones that made it into court. there must have been far more incidences where he borrowed money and did not return it. in his defense, i will say that i think he typically intended to pay back the money he borrowed but was simply unable to control and spending. the most telling argument in support of this is something that occurred three months after his marriage to eliza jumel. aaron burr took the risk of conducting a deal that was highly questionable ethically because it would provide him with a regular income of $500 twice yearly for the rest of his life. then, he almost immediately did himself out of this valuable annuity. he used the agreement as security to get advances from the manhattan company, the future chase manhattan bank. he had only received two of his promised $500 payments when he was so overdrawn on his account that the manhattan company seized ownership of the bond that he had given at security. so he would not be a put a claim any more of these $500 payments which otherwise would have been his for life. to put the asset that he squandered into perspective, as late as 1850, a working-class family of four could live in new york city for $600 per year. aaron burr did not seem to be put to manage money. a marriage to eliza jumel would give him a big pot of money to spend. eliza jumel had motivations for the marriage. on the one hand, she would soon have to begin settling her first husband's estate. aaron burr with his knowledge of the law could help her protect her assets. but the main attraction of the marriage was the opportunity to enter social circles that had been previously closed to her. aaron burr still had enough friends that she could anticipate that this marriage would pry open social doors. aaron burr was a very charming man. for a woman who had to struggle for social acceptance, it must have been very flattering to have the courtship of a man who had held this country second-highest office. both parties entered it willingly. they married on july 1, 1833, in the front parlor of eliza jumel's mansion in washington heights. here it is today. eliza jumel was 58, aaron burr was 77. how long do you think this marriage lasted? [laughter] margaret: any guesses? you are optimistic. [laughter] margaret: and they married on july 1, 1833. they were separated by the end of september. by november -- by the end of september, aaron burr had left the mansion. by november, they were separated for good. a year after the marriage, on july 11, 1834, eliza jumel filed for divorce. she filed on the 30th anniversary of aaron burr's ruinous duel with hamilton. [laughter] margaret: what went wrong? >> [indiscernible] margaret: well, i don't think she thought quite that far in advance. it seemed a promising marriage on the surface. as to what went wrong, the closest indicator comes from an incident that occurred in june, 1834. she was out and about in manhattan and she saw william dunlap. he had been the manager of the park theatre where she had worked as an extra 20 years before. she stopped to speak and dunlap wrote in his diary later in the day, asked after aaron burr and eliza jumel replied, i don't see him anymore. he got $13,000 of my property and spend it all or give it away and had no money to buy himself dinner. i had a new carriage and horses -- he took them and sold them. dunlap was absolutely appalled at her frankness. what confidence can be placed in the words of such a woman, it can be hard to say, he wrote, that their marriage makes anything told of him credible. for a woman to be critical of her husband to a mere acquaintance was not done in his social circles. if we are going to be critical of the behavior here, aaron burr's was far worse. to put $13,000 in perspective, that has the buying power of $370,000 today. in contrast, eliza jumel had $13,000 to spend a few years later. she used it to purchase 217 acres of land in saratoga springs, which she rented out to farmers, assuring herself a steady income. at the end of her life, her $13,000 investment was worth about $400,000. you can see the land she owned. they were ultimately sold after her death. as an interesting fact for those of you here -- notice that the referee in charge of the estate was a man named ruggles. 40 years before, he was a young man assigned to collect the evidence in the jumel-burr divorce. new york can be a very small town. what doomed this marriage was spending patterns. jumel's financial strategy was buy and hold. aaron burr's strategy was borrow and spend. when she filed for divorce, she obtained an immediate separation in goods from aaron burr so that he could not have access to her money during the divorce proceedings. most of the bill of complaint in which she requested the divorce details the ways in which he had been running through her money. strictly speaking, none of this financial business had any weight in a bill of divorce. in 1834 in new york, there was only one ground for divorce. adultery. luckily, aaron burr was a ladies man. for about one year before his marriage, he had been closely acquainted with a 25-year-old woman named jane and had almost certainly been her lover. jumel used this relationship against burr. she arranged for someone to testify to having seen him and jane engage in adultery in jersey city in august, 1833, one year after his marriage. supposedly, the servant had spied on them through windows. she had crawled on a shed adjacent to the back window of the house. she had turned back a blind, peaked through the slats and saw the couple entangled on the setee. she knew what she was seeing. i realize that you think this evidence sounds implausible but i must point out that during this time, in order to get a divorce, you had to supply dates, time, and detailed circumstances of the adultery. that meant that virtually every divorce awarded in new york state relied on manufactured evidence. for instance, i read another divorce case from the 1830's. a dress maker supplied evidence for adultery. according to her story, she went upstairs to a bedroom to get fabric that was stored in a closet. she opens the door, observes the couple in the act of adultery on the bed. at this point, most of us would mumble an apology and back out. not this witness. she testifies that she retrieved the fabric from the closet. then she exited, having had ample time to assure herself of the identity of the couple. jumel's case was actually better than most because she brought in other witnesses to testify that aaron burr had had a relationship with jane before his marriage to eliza jumel, including the landlady of his former house. aaron burr contested this divorce strenuously. the question is, why bother? he was already separated, the marriage had fallen apart. the answer is, eliza jumel's first husband's estate had not been settled. once settled, if aaron burr remained married, all of that money would be his. in common-law, man and wife one person and that person was the husband. aaron burr could have spent every penny without asking her permission. if he wanted to retain his recently acquired money. he had to avoid divorce. he accused eliza jumel of committing adultery herself. with eight different men, no less. here, we can see her at the mansion, presumably the site of some of these exotic trysts. a divorce petition would be dismissed if the person asking for the divorce was unfaithful. aaron burr's case turned out to be nowhere as good as eliza jumel's. his accusations against her which included an accusation of adultery with her coach man -- the accusations were found to be totally implausible. he nevertheless continues to fight the proceedings with at least 15 different delays and adjournments. when eliza jumel was awarded the divorce, on july 8, 1836, he appeals the decision immediately. the battle only ended with his death two months later on september 14, 1836. in an indication of the estate of his finances, his executors declined to serve. eliza jumel was left the victor. she won against aaron burr unlike alexander hamilton. the marriage cost her dearly. he ran through a massive amount of money in a short time that she could have used for future security. she also had to pay lawyers to secure the divorce. i will say that legal costs then were just as bad as they are now. very cleverly, eliza jumel managed to turn this disastrous marriage into an asset. she used it as a way to gain the social status that she had desired for so long. by the 1850's, she was traveling in europe as madame burr, widow of the second vice president of the united states. as to whether she could actually claim the title as opposed to being the divorced wife, well, that is an interesting little wrinkle in her biography. but i don't want to spoil the story. so the answer to that question as to whether she was a widow or divorcee, you will have to read the book. thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and we are open to questions. [applause] yes? >> what was burr's primary mode of -- [indiscernible] margaret: he wanted to speculate, because he felt that his speculations would bring so much money that he could live as he wished and not worry about finances. unfortunately, he tended to be wrong about these speculations. but that was the idea, anyway. yes? >> the mansion, they have a plaque that says, at some point after burr moved out, he got ill and was tended during his sickness at the mansion? margaret: that is correct. i mentioned that burr moved out of the mansion by september 1833, and jumel and burr were separated for good by november. the reason for this wording is that in october burr was walking down broadway when he lost the use of one leg. he had suffered a stroke. jumel took him back into the mansion to take care of him, and he was there for about a month. they apparently argued quite a bit during that time period, and ultimately burr was moved out again to his law offices, and that was it. so there was an attempt at a return. i saw this hand first. >> hamilton purposely missed. do you think burr was going to be president? because the killing destroyed his political career. margaret: i'm sorry, do you mean if burr had not killed hamilton, might he have become president? i think probably not, simply because when burr was jefferson's vice president, jefferson had been very careful to marginalize burr. he saw him as a great political rival. i think burr would have had a very difficult time recovering from that. that said, i am of the parties who think that burr did not intend to kill hamilton. i think it was meant to simply be a wound that would end the duel. he apparently was quite upset after he saw that hamilton was mortally injured, and tried to come up and talk with him. he knew what a disaster hamilton's death would be. but also, his time to be president had come and gone. >> tell us a little bit about what happened with the mansion after she died? margaret: well, eliza jumel's estate was tied up in court for years. and, in fact, the fight over her estate ultimately went to the united states supreme court twice. as the estate began to be settled, the mansion was sold in 1882 in an auction, and it was bought by the widow of eliza jumel's adopted daughter, and eliza jumel's great-niece and her husband. the three of them, all relatives of eliza jumel, lived in the mansion until 1887. and then they sold it. the last private owners were brigadier general ferdinand earl and his wife, lily. when ferdinand died, his widow sold the house to the city in 1903, and it was turned into a museum. margaret: we will withdraw that question. another question? >> was there a legal separation? margaret: first of all, burr and jumel did not have children. they married when jumel was 58 and burr was 77. with her first husband, stephen, jumel did not have children. but about six years after the marriage, when they had concluded they were not going to be blessed with children, she and her husband adopted the illegitimate daughter of her sister. so this girl, mary, was raised by the jumels, becoming mary jumels. that, she actually, it was her daughter who became one of the owners of the jumel mansion after the estate. the second half of the question, remind me again? well, in late september, burr just left the mansion. he was brought back. he left in november. there was no formal separation. on july 8, 1834 on the anniversary of the duel with hamilton, when jumel filed for divorce papers, she requested and received a form of separation in goods from burr until the divorce proceeding should be concluded. so she did have a legal separation at that time. eliza jumel left a will. it did not please her family. they went to court. they overturned the will. when you overturn a will, that means the decedent is declared to have died without a will. that opens up the door to any other claimants who think they have a right to the estate of someone who died without a will. when eliza jumel died, thanks to her buy and hold real estate tactics, her estate was worth about $1 million, which is comparable in buying power to $15 million today. there were a great many people who wanted that money. there were many claimants, of whom the most persistent was a gentleman named george washington bowen, who claimed to be her illegitimate son by george washington from her days in providence to you laugh, but she brought her case all the way to the supreme court. there was a lot of litigation. when she died in 1865, as late as the 1890's, the lawyers who had represented the various parties in the estate litigation were still fighting among themselves over the legal fees. it went on and on. yes? >> [indiscernible] margaret: that's a difficult question to answer. she died in 1865. by 1884, the, her family had reached settlements with all of the semi-valid claimants. the last bits of the estate were not sold until 1888. but as late as the end of the century, maybe even 1903, there was someone who claimed to have inherited george washington bowen's claim to the estate, and the sold pieces pieces of the jumel estate, which by then belonged to other people. so he got into quite a bit of legal trouble over that. but in terms of actual sales of the estate, i would say it ended in 1888. in terms of the fights among lawyers, i would say the end of the 1890's. in the back? >> do you know if that was legal, for women to do that? margaret: most of, well, the united states then was under common law inherited from english law. this was a bit complicated for women, because they could not purchase property without their husband's consent. he had to give them a power of attorney. the only way they could hold property separately was if it was put in trust for them to be managed by them with the help of the trustee. and some parents actually put land and property in trusts for their daughters before the daughters married. now, widows were in a different situation. being a widow was the most advantageous financial situation for a woman with means, because she could then buy and sell property as a single woman, without the consent of any male relative. so, eliza jumel was much freer as a widow than she would have been as a wife. does that answer? ok. >> [indiscernible] the intention of burr, it was clear that he went after money. why was she planning to get married in the first place? margaret: she wanted a social status that would come from being the wife of a former vice president of the united states. she also could not have known how bad with money burr was. it was something that was known within certain circles in new york. lawyers would have known it, because burr was in and out of the courts. people of his social status would have known it, because he would have tried to borrow money from them. but she was not in the loop of those upper-class circles and the gossip that went on, so she could not have known he was going to be as he was. >> is there any evidence that george washington even knew eliza jumel? margaret: i hate to spoil the story, but let's say there were problems with george washington bowen's claim. it did raise a lot of talk at the time. i'm sorry. i don't want to give away the end. [laughter] >> i don't know how many people know who he was. i have an attachment to him -- when i grew up, i read through a leather bound set of his diaries. he's a pivotal person in the building of new york, so when he made that comment, were burr or eliza jumel within their social circle? margaret: they were not in his social circle. i actually looked at a number of occasions where the new york elite gathered together. parties, a famous costume ball. the jumels never showed up on those occasions. they just had not cracked that social circle. in fact, another new yorker who was accepted commented on the marriage. jean pintard. when he wrote about the marriage, he started with the words "wonders will never cease." and, -- i can read you what he said. wonders will never cease. last monday, colonel burr married ms. jumel, at her elegant country seat in harlem heights. he added of burr, "he is remarkably alert for his years and what he has gone through, and can now retire." this is a play on a latin expression. he says, burr can retire with gentlemanly leisure, but certainly not with dignity. he clearly thinks this is a very declasse marriage. burr is marrying down. that gives you a feel for what eliza jumel had to deal with. nobody would forget her origins, until ultimately she lived to the age of 90, people forgot and she got what she wanted. other questions? >> your interest in studying -- margaret: i began volunteering at the morris jumel mansion, her former home, now a museum, in february 2011. within a couple months, i realized she was a fascinating subject. i got interested first in her husband, who was a very successful merchant, but really nothing is known about him. i started to learn about eliza, and realized there were many legends that could not be true, and other legends that were interesting to explore. from there, i went on to spend four years researching and writing this book. you really only heard a very small part of eliza jumel's story. there is more. she got into a riproaring battle with her first husband's brother and sister over his estate, which was in chancery for seven years. then there was the story of his trading activities. he was a very clever merchant, trading with france during the napoleonic wars. ahead of the privateers and naval ships on the waters at that time. there is definitely more to that story. ok. [applause] one more? >> one final question. >> how close was the relationship with the family? she claimed she bought their furniture and carriages. margaret: the relationship with napoleon the first grew up a little later, when it became popular to know about napoleon. she was actually on good terms with some of the people at the court of louis the 18th. this was one of the incongruities that attracted me to the story. she was said to be a supporter of napoleon, but also moved to the court of louis the 18th. there appeared to be a little contradiction, because louis the 18th replaced napoleon. there's also an interseting sentence that her husband wrote to one of his nephews in france. he said, we are going to dieppe for the summer, but not until after the coronation. i don't know if that suggests he and eliza may have had an invitation to the coronation of charles the 10th of france, who followed louis the 18th. so they did have imperial connections, just not quite the ones you always hear of. >> we have a lot of unanswered questions, which can only be answered if you buy the book. i will be happy to sell it to you. thank you for coming today. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> american history tv on c-span3 features program that tell the american story. some of the highlights for this weekend include tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures and history. marial university cristina garcia on the united states refugee policy since world war ii, who qualifies as a refugee and how that has changed over the years. at 10:00 on real america, our final program in this series on senator fulbright hearings. investigating the united states policies in vietnam. secretary of steen dean rusk testifies on behalf of the johnson administration policy on vietnam. sunday morning at 10:00 on road thehe white house rewind, 1960 west virginia democratic primary debate between senator john f kennedy of massachusetts and hubert humphrey of minnesota. this was only the second debateion -- televised in history. >> he must courageously search for a lasting he's with justice and freedom and he must understand the complexities of this armament to devote -- disarmament negotiations. and because i believe strongly in my country, and it's destiny, and because i believe in the power and the influence of the next power and his vitality and forth will be the great factor in meeting the responsibilities we will face. >> at 6:00 on american artifacts, we will tour the louisiana whitney plantation museum that traces its history to 1752. >> the story of slavery is integral to the history of the united states. we do not talk enough about the inequalities of african-americans and what they have faced in this country and we do not talk enough about our role today in perpetuating that inequality. it is significant i think and also a lot of his store excites -- historic site address it in fits and starts and it is important for people to come here and get a complete understanding. >> for the complete schedule, go to c-span.org. year, c-span is touring cities across the country exploring american history. up next, a bit test a look at our recent visit to greenville, south carolina. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> good evening my fellow citizens, this government as promised has maintained the closest surveillance of the soviet military held up on the island of cuba. within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive misses -- missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. the purpose of these bases can to provide a than nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere. crisis took missile place over an extremely tense 13 day. in october.riod >> there was only one combat the talladega, rudolph anderson, was from greenville. statesn when the united military began observing maritime shipment into cuba from the soviet union. theegan flying missions in u-2 aircraft over cuba. these were secret, strategic, high altitude reconnaissance missions. we were snapping photographs of what was going on in cuba. it became apparent that the soviet union was developing medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate range ballistic missile sites in cuba. kennedy informed the nation on october 22 from the oval office. it is considered the most alarming speech of the cold war. >> this sudden, clandestine decision, to stage a weapons for the first time outside of soviet soil is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo. it cannot be accepted by this country. if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again, by either friend or foe. >> americans were terrified with no idea of what was going to happen. if it would lead to all out nuclear warfare between the united states and the soviet union, potentially leading to world war iii. there was a select group of air force pilot that had been trained through the dragon lady program, the nickname of the youtube. anderson was -- of the u2. fromson was in this group the beginning. he was allegedly the top highlight in the air force. he had over 3000 flight hours, over 1000 were in the u2. he volunteered. he took off from mccoy air force base in florida at 8:10 a.m. he flew over cuba. he took his photographs of the installation. around noon, he was shot at. two surface-to-air missiles were launched from the ground by the soviet military. they were not under orders to do so. we are unclear what exactly happened. they were launched by the soviet fusesry and the proximity were used to detonate them by the aircraft. shrapnel punctured his flight suit and it seems he died nearly immediately. believed thata this established war with the soviet union. kennedy did not believe that and they continued to engage in communications with her chef at the -- with the kremlin in moscow. thankfully, they resulted the next day with an agreement that ended the crisis. both men, both leaders, realized that this could mean all out nuclear conflagration. this memorial was initially developed in may of 1963. less than one year after major rudolph anderson death and the crisis of october 1952. he was born in this area. he played in this park, cleveland park quite a bit as a boy growing up. he was involved in the boy scouts. he loved to fly from an early age. avesta circle elementary school and greenville high school. his senior yearbook quote was -- good humor is the clean loose sky of the soul. that gives you a little insight into his character. after his death, the united states was extremely keen on returning anderson's body to the united states from cuba. there was a funeral here in early november, about 1800 local people attended the funeral. he is buried in woodlawn cemetery here in greenville, south carolina. major anderson was 35 at the time of his death. a father to two sons and had a daughter who'se name was robin, on the way. his wife received a letter from president kennedy. it has a handwritten message from the president on it -- your husband's mission was of the greatest importance but i know how deeply you must feel his loss. greenvillehere in are extremely proud and continue to take great route -- great pride in anderson. as a journalist in the 1960's commented, he died so that thousands, millions of us did not have to carry that sets quite an example. tour staffties recently traveled to greenville, south carolina to learn about its rich history. learn more about greenville and other stops of our tory on -- of our tour on c-span. you're watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> the black panther party for self-defense, more commonly known as a black party advocated for the civil rights of black americans. tv,ext, on american history former black panther party member discusses why she joined the party and her involvement movement.lack power she is interviewed by the university of pennsylvania professor. new york university cohosted this event. >> welcome everyone. >> ok, welcome everyone. welcome to the kickoff event of black history month here at nyu gallatin. welcome to the spring semester, and welcome to a very terrific event that we have planned for you this evening. it's a wonderful way for us to start the semester. nyu gallatin is an interdisciplinary school of individualized studies within new york university. in the urban democracy lab, who is sponsoring this event tonight is an initiative within gallatin. we seek to provide a space to debate, and promote alternative urban futures that are just critical and sustainable. and sometimes come in thinking forward, one of the most important things we have to do is think back and look back critically, and listen to those lessons they had to do just, which is why we are event tonight.