Transcripts For CSPAN3 Watch Tour Of The National Museum Of African American History And Culture 20170412

Millionth visitor through these doors. Tonight we will take you through the doors of this museum that chronic will the American Experience and also telling a shared american story. Well be live for the next 2. 5 hours. In 40 minutes well be tabbing your calls, tweets, facebook posts for curators. Were joined inside with Robert Wilkins to talk about how this me psi seeium came about. He is the author of the book long road to hard truth. Thanks very much for being with us. Thank you. Its a pleasure to be here. So talk of this museum began back in 1960 teen. It took a century to be built. Walk us through the process. Back in early 1916, in march or so, gentleman named ferdinand de soto lee, created a nonprofit called the National Memorial association, and its goal was to construct a physical memorial here in the Nations Capital to hont contributions of negro soldiers and sailors who had fought never war from the ref liegs nary war up until that time. Within a couple years the Organization Broad end its mission to want to construct what they called a National Memorial building to negro achievement and contributions to america in all fields of endeavor from business to education to the arts, et cetera. Essentially a National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture. So it began literally 100 years ago. Behind you just some of the historical photographs inside the me seeium that talk about the experience from slavery through culture through the inauguration of barack obama. Its amazing, i mean, theres so much for this museum to cover, but they do it just expertly well. I mean, i couldnt be prouder of the way that the smithsonian has handled it. When you think about it, the people who were inspired to create this were, in part, responding to the movie birth of the nation which was essentially a racist slander against the africanamerican people and argued that they were a burden on america in that the ku klux klan was needed to kind of set things right in the south. One of the first rallies that National Memorial association had in 1916, the flyer across the top had in all capital letters birth of a race and it was right after this movie right here in washington. So they were responding to that and affirming that we needed to be recognized as not a burden on this country but as contributing to it. And just think about the irony of 100 years later this Museum Opening with barack obama presiding over that dedication ceremony. A decade and a half ago our network focused on american writers and one of them James Baldwin who i know testified before congress in the late 1960s and you quote him in your book. What did he say about the need for a museum like this . He was very supportive of it but he warned congress, he said, my history contains the truth about america. Its going to be hard to teach it. And i paraphrased baldwin with the title of my book. But he said that we were interconnected people, black and white, and he said that this history had to be told. Im quoting from him, he said, i am the flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone. I have been here as long as have you been here, longer. I paid for it as much as you have. It is my country too. Do recognize that this is the whole question. My history and culture has got to be taught, it is yours. Really profound statement, but i think it was a quite accurate statement. And this museum i think does that. It tells the nations story through the lens of africanamerican people but it is the nations story. I want to talk more about this museum but i want to talk but as well because youre a judge in the d. C. Circuit court of appeals. You quit your job many years ago with two young children, or one son and one on the way. What did your wife say when you said you were going to focus on this . Well, luckily she didnt say, you know, im divorcing you. But she was very supportive and we agreed to, you know, live off of our savings and eat a lot of beans and corn bread and go from two salaries to one when i left my job and she was seven months pregnant with our second child because we saw this as a quest. We saw this as something that needed to happen just like the Holocaust Museum needed to happen, the museum of the American Indian needed to happen. We needed to find a way to support efforts to make this museum happen. But what motivated do you this . There were a lot of things. At the time i was a public defender here in washington and i dealt with so much tragedy every day. I had so many clients who were young people who didnt have much help or selfesteem who were African American and didnt really have any sense that their people had contributed to this country. They really werent adequately taking advantage of the opportunities that they had. And i wanted there to be a place where they could see how much people had sacrificed for them to make this country better, to make them to make there be opportunities for education and to vote. And perhaps to make them see themselves differently. And so in a way, this working on this museum was therapy for me because it helped me feel like i was contributing to something and perhaps helping to build something. How did two world wars and then more recently 9 11 delay this project . Well, you know, they got going in 1916, but of course the United States entered world war i in 1917 and that took the project off worse and similarly as they were gaining some steam in the 1929 and trying to move this project forward, because Congress Actually passed a law to authorize the construction of what was essentially this museum in 1929, of course you had the Great Depression and word war i interfere. And the Africanamerican Community was trying to survive during the depression and support the country during world war ii and they were focused on victory at home and victory at victory overseas and victory at home with civil rights and hopefully Voting Rights and the end to segregation. And so all of those things took really priority over efforts to create this museum. And thats really part of the reason why it took 100 years for this to come into being. The role of congressman john lewis, what was it . Congressman john lewis is the hero here as he is a hee roer for so many other things. He started working on this issue from the time he got to congress in 1986, congressman nikki lee land was leading efforts, congressman leeland was tragically killed in an airplane accident and john lewis picked up the mantle and fought for this through good times and bad times and ultimately built a Bipartisan Coalition around the time of 2000, 2001 and recruited key republican support from then senator scam brownback, j. C. Watts and president bush and soois Vice President cheney among others. So he brought everyone together to be on one accord to get this done. Were going to get a tour with mary elliot and then talk about the museum but i want to talk to you about the location. What did the state department have to do with this site. In fighting for location on the mall, i and others did a lot of research and we learned that pierre lon fontd designed the Nations Capital for president washington. They actually designated this site here at 14th constitution for a building. And later in 1911, the state department drew up plans for their headquarters to be at this location. They ultimately built their headquarters later about a mile away, but we used those two designs to argue that this site was historically appropriate for this museum. In that this museum should go on the mall and that this site was available because there were many people who were arguing that the mall was full, that there was no room at the inn, so to speak. But i think the merits of our argument prevailed. Well thats my next question if the who gave you the resistant . What was their argument that you could have a museum but not on the mall and if not on the mall then where . Well, they felt that the American Indian museum was was going to be constructed on what they thought was the last appropriate site for building on the mall based on plans that had been drawn up in the 60s. And so they wanted this museum to be constructed either in the arts and industries building, which is an existing building next to the Smithsonian Castle or just off of the mall. And our argument was that this is americas front yard here in the national mall, and this museum should be here. As john lewis put it, he grew up in the south having to enter white peoples homes and establishments from the backdoor, and he didnt want this museum to be at the backdoor, it needed to be in the front yard. Not surprisingly, on a springlike day here in washington, d. C. , this museum was crowded coming in earlier this afternoon. And as we said at the top of our program on cspan 3 history tv, one million visitors and growing. Did you ever expect it to be this popular this soon . You know, i knew that the nation was thirsting for this museum, but i have to confess i didnt know that the reaction would be this positive and this strong. And it really heartens me to see it. I think its long overdue, obviously, but also just the quality of the museum itself. The smithsonian just did a phenomenal job, the founding director lonny bunch and his staff are just, you know, the top experts in their field and theyre just really put together Something Special here. So walk us through the process involving president george w. Bush and republicans and democrats on capitol hill to finally get in project under way. What happened . What transpired . So you had republicans and democrats come together and say, look, enough is enough, this has been talked about for decades, lets build this museum, it needs to happen. And so in may of 2001, legislation was introduced, it had all of the leadership from both parties as cosponsors, looked like it was set to go, and then september 11th happens. And that really took the wind out of the sails of the movement to build this museum because congress was completely preoccupied with capturing osoma bin laden, war, patriot act, homeland security, the economy was going down, and it looked like this museum was going to be, you know, delayed or perhaps even put off track for indefinitely. But congressman lewis and the coalition that he built reached a compromise and said lets create a president ial commission to plan how we can move forward. And i was honored to serve on that commission, and that Bipartisan Commission wrote a plan, how we could move forward and determine that there would be support for this with private funds and with collections, et cetera. And we delivered that plan to congress and congress acted on it and passed legislation practically unanimously in the house and senate stand was signed by president bush in 2003. So lets quickly talk about the numbers. What was the final price tag in how much u how much federal dollars, how many in private dollars . And how many artifacts . Is there a count. So i believe that the final price tag for this building was 540 million. Congress agreed to put up half and smith skoen sewnian had to raise the other half. My understanding is that theyve raised over 330 million, so they raised their half and congress put up their half. I believe that the number of art facts, i mean its in the tens of thousands, i dont want to quote a number. And they digitized hundreds of thousands of objects so theres a virtual presence for this museum as well. Is it a mem jal . How do you describe this . I think it is in part a memorial. Its a memorial in the sense that its a long, overdue recognition of all of the sacrifice that people have african descent have made in this country. And really it honors the quest for frame th for freedom that theyve always had and in a way have made this country much better by making this country live up to the words in the constitution and in the bill of rights for all people and not just for some. As the author of the book, long hard road to truth kwoets final question has it met your expectations . Definitely it succeeded my expectation. The building it self is beautiful, its a magnificent structure, its an engineering marvel. But the content, i think that the exhibits really speak to the essence of the Africanamerican Community and the culture. Thank you very much for being with us here on cspan 3. Thank you trr was my pleasure. And were going to show you the exhibits dealing with slavery and freedom with mary yell jot when we come back in about 25 mooelz minutes well open our phone lines. We want to hear you when we come back live to this museum. Lets start look at one of the opening labors for the slavery and freedom exhibition. Right behind me is the label that speaks to the making of the Atlantic World. Its powerful because we actually featured the story of queen inzinga who was one of the leaders along the western african coast. She was in West Central Africa and she was over the maximumbinddy people. She aligned with the portuguese, dutch all in an effort to keep her own frem being enslafd as well as from being behind in the slave trade. But youll notice that underneath her story say quote from the german disscent. It says while i add miltd i am sick end at the purchase of slaves but how would we do without sugar and rum . Whats important about that statement is to really think about the morality of this particular story. What moral obligation dos we have to each other . Concentrate on that opening line, i admit that i am sickennd at the purchase of slaves but then again, i must be maximum for how would i do without sugar or rum . Its very important that we look at those moral issues as we go through this exhibition. And i have to point out as well, that we do not start this exhibition with the story of slavery, we start this exhibition with the story of humanity and we actually start in africa looking at it as a continent made up of many people, place, society, cultures, intellect. So lets go ahead and look at some of the other objects in the exhibition. As we discussed, we just came through the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade looking at the making of the Atlantic World ant global economy. The driver of the trade at that time was sugar and that driver of the trade actually moved forward the effort to ship as many human beings across the Atlantic Ocean forced in dlaf slavery. So now we come to the story of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage of course being that space transporting africans from the west coast of africa throughout the americas, across the Atlantic Ocean. Were fortunate to feature some dynamic objects in this case insluding artifacts from a slave ship found off the coast of auj africa. This actually left lisbon, went to mozambique african, picked up africans on its way to brazil to sell them as enslafd africans. The ship crashed off the coast of south africa. Were very fortunate to have organized with George Washington museum, museums of cape town and partners in mozambique we were were able to identify this shipwreck off the ocean floor off south africa. One of the key markers to identify this is the shipwreck are a slave shipwreck in particular is some of the Archival Research revealed there were 1400 balance lis stones on the ship. Though were used to offset the human weight. And we know for a fact there were balance lis stones on this ship because we found them on the ocean floor. So were excited to be able to if he ture those in this particular case in the passage. One thing that visitors will know t note is we do not have images in this space. We wanted those who went through this experience to speak for themselves. And while we talk about this human story, the human story extends to everybody, so youll hear voices of those who were enslafd, but youll also hear voices of crew members, youll hear voices of slave ship surgeons all discussing, in fact, the horrors of this experience, but also understand, again, there is a important understanding of the resistance, the resilience and the survival. We think of human suffering but you also have to think of the power of the human spirit. How could someone hold on to live through that experience. Which ses their spirits when thus confined soon becomes fatal. Every moment perhaps more instances than one have found that the living and the dead fastened together. Across the way from the Middle Passage space is the Transatlantic Slave Trade space. Again, we look at one of the themes, profit and power opposed against the human cost. In that was we have it designed so you see the business of the trade are and how everyone benefited from the trade. But bealso look at the human cost through the voice dollars of those who were enslafd and the process of enslavement. One of the objects id like to point out to you in that particular space is the foxs wage book. The wage book features the wages that were given to crew member whos served on a slave ship. Again, looking at the human story. So we look at the crew members on the slave ship and that document actually tells us two things. One, it lets us understand that everyone benefitted from the trade. But then you have to ask yourself, why would someone serve on a slave ship . We often think, well, perhaps they wanted to gain passage to the new word rld or they needed to feed their family or, in fact, going back to that moral issue, perhaps they thought it was just nine to make money and profit all the sale of humans. But its important to note when you open up that book that many crew members actually committed suicide or ran away. Again, this goes to that Human Experience the the mooum Human Experience extends to everybody. And looking at the people below in the hulls of the ship, we understand that slave ship crew members would pack the hulls of those ships tight pack or loose packing, and that experience often times the slave ship captain said how much cargo you can bring depends on how many small enslaved people you can fit into the hull of a ship. Its a very powerful story. So now were going to go into the ka lonial north American Space of the exhibit tigs. Allow me to explain to you some of the design treatment that weve used to help unpack this story. In fact, we breakout the section by region because this is not a monolithic story. Africans in america shaped the landscape and were shaped by the landscape. So, the regions that we breakout inslud the chesapeake where we actually look at the making of race. Then we move into low country down in the carolinas and the gulla islands and in georgia area. And that allows us to look at enslaving skill. Then we come to louisiana and we consider the convergence of cultures and final lit north we look at the urban environment and a merchant system. Whats important to note is in each these space dollars theyre dog dmun a pattern but they each have their own unique features but its important for me to let you fwhoe that pattern. From the beginning you see some of the regions of africa where many the people came from and, two, in the specific regions of the americas, particularly north america. But youll also see how the laws change over time and start to the define whiteness and you start so ehow africans become black in america pnts you start to see the status development of all people in north america to plantor elite to yeoman white farmer to poor white, free black, and enslaved african. Youll look at work in the space, youll look at life in the sas were escape in the space, and then we really start to unpack the story of freedom through the story of rebelian. And of course we hum nan nize everything so we feature individual stories, personal stories about people who actually lived, labored, and rebeld in these spaces during this time. All of this is foundational to the development of the nation. And so what comes next is the fight for liberty. But, remember i said slavery and freedom was from the beginning so the fight for liberty is a national fight, but the fight for freedom is one that had been going on amongst africans from the time they were carried from the interior all the way to this point. So why dont we go to the section on the paradox of liberty where we really start to unpack the story of what liberty and freedom means and this Pivotal Moment in time as the nation is taking shape. So weve come from colonial north america and we are passing through the story, a powerful story about the revolutionary war. Well, nosz now as i mentioned were entering into the paradox of liberty but let me show awe a powerful object thats personal and speaks to gene kneology and the importance of the role it plays in helping to tell this story. Again, we enter into this revolutionary period and theres freedom everywhere or so one would think. Freedom and liberty are the call of the day. Here we have a space that looks at free communities of color that were all over the nation at the time, believe it or not. But one of the pointed objects that we have also shows while there were free kmunts of color, there were limits to that freedom. We were fortunate fob contacted by a woman elaine thompson, a wonder frl woman in virginia who took the time to really take care of her family heirloom piece. It is this handmade tin owned by her ancestor joseph tram he will. He actually made that handmade tin to protect, as i like to say, his freedom. In fact, it was used to protect the freedom payers from 1852. Those freedom papers were vastly important to him because at any moments notice someone could challenge his freedom and he would have to prove that. He had to regster every two years in virginia and it gives us a little more insooiight on being free during that time. Sadly elaine has passed on but she was tsz the steward of her familys history and she was able to unpack quite a bit of her familys story. But were very fortunate because at this point her great niece has now picked up the manned will and she is carrying it forward. She wrote a book at age 9 with the assistance of her great aunt and now shes getting ready to rewrite that book at age 16 and carry that research further. So the were looking further to working with her more on unpacking the story of this family and the significance of joseph trammal during the period of slavery and freedom and his status as a free black man. Now lets look over the paradox liberty. We talk about the free communities of color. Well you imagine at the time you have free African Americans who align with enslaved African Americans, again a collective voice fighting for freedom. But theyre fighting for freedom in a nation founded on liberty but still maintaining slavery. Directly behind me you see the cast figures of Benjamin Bana ker and Thomas Jefferson. This is a platform featured in the exhibition with wherewe unpack that story of soitss of freedom. Included on that platform are mombet who petitioned for her freedom and won as well as phyllis wheatly, all voices of freedom. Whats very poushl to me about the connections between banaker and jefferson includes Benjamin Banaker stating African Americans are brilliant, they are human, they contribute to the development of this nation and deserve to be free. And excuse me if i pair paraphrase but Thomas Jefferson said you are the exception and freedom was not going to come during his particular time in life. So, now why dont we go forward and look at making a way. Again, remember, this is a human story so in the midst of all of this inhumanity, you still have African Americans, again, fighting for freedom, fighting for liberty, fighting for the nation to recognize them as citizens in this world. Right. But, as we go forward, we look at well there were laws restricting them, African Americans found ways to go around those laws and hold on to their humanity. Why dont we go to the section on making a way out of no way. Understand that many things happen after the after the revolutionary war, including the development of the cotton gin in 1793 and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the end of the slave trade in 1808. What did all of that mean . Please note the space that were in right now. Directly front of me is the tower of cotton which say marker as the driver of the trade, no different than sugar was during the early period. So as we come out of this paradox of liberty and we look at directly to my right all of these pieces of legislation from the declaration of independence, the constitution, bifl rights, all through 1820 compromise, 801830 com promows, dread scott decision, and then you see paired with those actual excerpts from speeches,er is months, from newspaper articles all written by African Americans speaking back to the moment. To my left is the story of the domestic slave trade. Again, remember, 1793 the cotton gin is pro dooused, 1803 the Louisiana Purchase takes place. That means that theres more land to cultivate cotton and cotton is high demand and ts its being produced more he fishently but that has a higher dehand o african bodies. And husband, wives, moerngz, fathers are all be sold to produce more cotton in the fields down south. At the same time this is a story of slavery and freedom, so those same men, women, and children are fighting for their freedom all along the way fighting freedom for this nation. One of the more pivotal stories is of that nat turner. Were fortunate to be able to feature a boibl that we understand was owned by nat turner at the time of his es swap and at the time of the rebellion. He is pivotal because like in other things that took place throughout the african diaspora, it made an impact on this country. Laws tightened up, and hiel those laws itemen up, still African Americans found ways to go around thoselize laws. Allow me to point out we have a section directly behind me entitled make a way out of no way where we look at the black codes, slave codes, codes that define status and ability, a autonomy. So African Americans free or enslaved often times were rejiktd more than you can imagine. For example, illegal to marry, illegal to read, illegal to gather, illegal to practice their faith. One of the oobts that i like to point out is, again, a family object. We were unfortunate enough to be contacted by ms. Shirley burke in detroit who reached out to us and donated her ancestors vile vi olin that he was given by a slave owner to perform at gatherings at the plantation site. We were fortunate to restore the vi lin and have it on display here. That vi lin is important to the law regarding illegal to gather, often times African Americans in the hush of night would find ways to gather and practice their faith, find ways to gather and actually leisure and love one another at the same time. So, allow us to go down the hall hall and go see the slave cabin next which is a very poinient sorry and its a community story. Again, this is a shared history. So weve come from the story of the driver of the trade being cotton and were in the antibell lum period and again we see the nation and all the activity going on. And the development of legislation all deeply embedded with slavery. We also look at the human story of African American men, women, and children finding ways to go arou around black codes and slave codes but also that personal experience of being sold away on the Auction Block and that position of power also associated with that experience on the Auction Block. Its posh to note one of the design features we have is that we have a wall filled with excerpts from bills of sales and broad sides. So you will see a young boy sold for 5. 5 for a young black boy is what the excerpt says. Understand that 5 is the monetary value but the value of that young boy to his mother, to his brother or sister is enmesh usual. That gets us to the story of life, work, and enslavement and looking at the many complex sit ties of this experience. Were fortunate enough that we were able to receive a call from the island Historic Preservation society that wanted to donate a slave cabin to our museum. They knew that we were looking for a slave kab cabout cabin to help tell this story in a real way. They had this in South Carolina. Whats really powerful about this cabin is on the front side we interpret it looking at slavery. On the backside we interpret it looking at freedom because, in fact, that is where the union army camped out during the period of the civil war and you see where land is given to the Africanamerican Community and taken away several times until it is take enen away for good. Ntsz the cabin behind me. Whats important about that cabin is not unlike where people locked up animals at night that worked in the fields, not unlike the enslaved men, women, and children, this really could be considered a pen. But African American men, women, and children against through resistance and resilience and 408ding on to their humanity found ways to love one another, to practice their faith, grow guardens on the side of their cabins ton supplement their diets and to create new cultural practices. While we look at life, work, and enslavement, in this same space we break down members. Community, the new nurture rerz, builders. Sol man williams was a blacksmith on the plantation. We look at his story. He created an innate drill bit that was used practically ifr day for work on the plantation site. Had say gentleman that had no education but this drill bit is an architectural feat. And you look at his same skill set he used to create a grave marker for his wife pest used those same skills to create grave markers for members of the community throughout his plantation site. But he no doubt as a blacksmith created the shackles that were used on the enslafd on the plantation site. Again, that gives more depth. We dont look at a broad stroke just like in colonial north america, we dont rook at just what he wore, hae ate, when he got up in the morning, how much land he cultivated. In fact this is a man and his story is told through life in terms of how he designed those or nate grave markers, work in terms of his inability educated but still being able to create that double heellism drill bit and in terms of enslavement being responsible for actually creating the restraints on the plantation site. So that takes us next to the story of the coming of the civil war. So allow me to take you around and well talk about the coming of the civil war and how actually complex that story is. Its not just north versus south but there were many voices involved in this fight. So weve just come from the slave cabin. And one thing i want to pibt pint out with a slave cabin is we can talk about object and their importance in the Historical Context but whats important to note ben is how we acquire these objects. So in the process of actually dismantling the slave cabin, we actually had Community Members come out and help us unpack the story of the community. Included in that community are the descendents of the enslaved as well as the descendents of the slaveholding family. We were fortunate enough to meet with both groups together and talk about the importance of this history come together general public to get a deeper understanding of what it is to be american and all the nuances of this particular story of slavery and freedom in the u. S. Now, we know about slavery and freedom and we know that there was a civil war which had a major impact on this nation. We look at the story of the civil war and keeping the union together and embedded in the success sessi secession paper slavery. But remember they fled to the lines as they came closer to where many of these plantation sites were located. At that time the confed rates demanded their property back but the un yorn army declared them as contraband of war and they were able to keep them approximately these men, women, and children thunder fight for keeping the union together into a fight for freedom at and as such, one of the greatest speakers of our time and one of the most influential members of the Africanamerican Community and america itself is Frederick Douglas. Frederick douglas led the charge on pushing for freedom and in constant dialogue with Abraham Lincoln ensured that are africanamerican men would fight on the battlefield for their freedom. Right behind me say dynamic broadside that we were fortunate to receive where you see a call for men of color to arms. You can only imagine how powerful that must have been for African American men to understand that they could suit up and fight for their freedom and ensure the freedom of the generations to follow them. Again, Frederick Douglas played a pivotal role. While he ensured that africanamerican men could fight in the army he was influential in a constant dialogue with president lincoln to ensure that freedom came through the emancipation proclamation and the 13th amendment. We would be remiss if we told the story about the civil war and left out the story of womens involvement in the civil war. When you visit youll see artifacts that speak to the efforts of shore legality for the and grim kwhoi educated many of the people who were at these contra banned camps. Youll see the story of hair iot tubman, she also served as a union spy. And finally youll see the story of Susan King Taylor who not only served as a nurse but ultimately opened up her own hospital. Why dont we go forward and look at some of the artifacts that speak to freedom during the period of emancipation. How do you tell a whole population of people that they are now free . In fact, those same men that Frederick Douglas fought for to ensure that they were able to fight for freedom on the battle field were responsible for carrying things such as this, this very important tiny but powerful handheld emancipation proclamation. They carried a handheld proclamation from plantation to plantation and told men, women, and children they were no longer enslaved. We are back live at the smithsonian National Museum of african history and culture and we want to continue with specialist mary elliot. Thank you for the tour. Now a chance for more questions. Thank you. Im excited to speak with you. We want you to participate 202748ate 900. And for those in the mountain and specific time zone 202 New Hampshire 7488901. In wrous on facebook at facebook. Com cspan history. We talked about judge wilkins about this museum let me ask you about the dee sign because not without some kroess people drive by and say what it is . Thats a great question because kpt tier yore of this building has a lot of meaning just as much as the content of this building. So we were fortunate to have the firm of agile, free line, bond, who a group of three architects to came together to produce this building. And the shape of the building is inspired by a ver randa post that would have sat outside of a building seen along that western african coast where many of the enslaved came from. That ver anda post would have held up a porch. And we have actually the ver randa post than i inspired the shape of this building. At the top of this post is a ker ronna design, three tooerz, and this building mimics the top 6 that post. Equally important is the legality is type of shell that surrounds the building. And that is actually based on an alga rhythm that was inspired by the iron works produced by blacksmiths in South Carolina and louisiana. And i also want to point out that many people look at the building and while the architects really were inspired and our director really talks about that sense of rising up, one of the things thats really moving to me is even while were sitting here in the history gallery, the sense of rising up and the sense. Human spirit, while we know this history has a sense of human suffering, theres also that sense of the human spirit even below the level of the ground. And history that is in this neighborhood, this street, washington, d. C. , as slaves made their way along constitution avenue up to the eastern market. Right. So we know that in alexandria, virginia, there were several slave dealers offices including the offices for Isaac Franklin and john armfield, price and birch. But many of the enslave kwhd is something powerful to think about when they were being marched in kof fells, they were being marched past the capital build, down pennsylvania avenue, and where our satellite offices were located there was actually the site of a slave auction site. So its very powerful to think that where we are there was slavery and there was freedom in the midst of this nation coming into being. Very much directly in front of each other. Were going to get to your calls in just a moment here on cspan 3s American History tv but there are two exhibits i want to talk to you about the first of all you mentioned this during the tour. The slave cabin. What does it represent . The slave cabin is its a powerful story and while we are im very excited about this slavery and freedom exhibition. I love the fact that we, you know, of course we had to start during the early period talk about the Transatlantic Slave Trade. But i brang that up because quite often people think of slavery and they just think ante bell um period. But, the slave cap bin, well while it is in the ante bellum period, it embodies this history in thinking about slavery and freedom, thinking about the positions of profit and power to the human cost. So if you look at that cabin, not unlike when people put animals in a pen at night, that savd function on their land, it was similar. Youre locking away people, right. But in the midst of that inhumanity, African Americans held on to their humanity and they still found ways to love each other, even though there were chances of them being sold away. They still found ways to practice their faith, they still found ways to create cultural practices. And so the idea of holding ton your humanity under the conditions that they were in was very powerful. But then again, like i said, theres that human cost and theres the profit and power. So the people who held that land, the people who gained from the labor of these enslaved african men, women, and children, right. The other part about that cabin thats powerful is i say it really embodies the importance of this exhibition. In taking apart that cabin every day for a weekt community gathered to see this history being dismantled, to be taken up to washington, d. C. And ultimately putback together to help tell this story. Well, the community included the descend dents of the of the enslaved and the descendents of the slave holders. So while people wrestle with this history, here you have them come together and they built the community together. And, again, we can talk about the inhumanity, but theres also that human element, how people relate to each other even through some of these harsh realities of our history. And so it was really powerful to see that unfold and to see people wrestle with this tlistry and to see people add layers and context to this story. So i think thats a really powerful object that helps people kind of sit and think about this experience and what it means. The second exhibit, and we should point out for those watching at home that some of the exhibits are dark, including the sal joe say which is a safe ship. Two questions how did you find this and what does it represent . Well, just to give a little context, it was a slave ship that started in lisbon, portugal, went to mozambique where they picked up captive africans. They were on their way to pra sil to sell these africans noon slavery and the ship crashed off the coast of south africa. We were fortunate to connect with George Washington thufrt was already working on this effort and it came together that it was our museum, George Washington university, zika museum, folks at the university of capetown, and we actually pulled together to identify this ship to make sure that we were able to, in fact, raise some of the artifacts from the ocean floor so that it would allow us to tell this story. And i say tell this story in a new way because one of the things thats important is think of the notion of when was the last time you heard about people telling the story of slavery and that early part of slavery through maritime arc keyology . Its quite powerful because this was a Global Enterprise and we know there were slave shipwrecks all over. So in addition to the arcology, it indicates there were 1400 balancea stones on that ship and they were used to offset the human weight. So we have those stones on display standing in for the men, women and children that were on that ship. Its very powerful because it shows us commerce and captivity. We came out with a new american president survey. We had a call from South Carolina this morning that struck me talk about the business of slavery and the importance of slavery on the southern economy slavery. Which led to the civil war. So as you walk through this exhibit how do you tell that part of the story. Just like the transatlantic trade slave, when you think of what was going on how it undergirded the development of the atlantic economy, right, once you get to that antebellum period, slavery helps pave the way leading towards revolutionary war, then you see that slavery undergird the u. S. Economy, cotton, even the sale of human bodies, right, so its just a hard fact. But we hate to think it was inevitable that this had to happen. So from the beginning of this exhibition we asked people to think about the moral issues. In the kour tour i give, we have that statement, im sickened by the purchase of slave but how will we do about sugar and rum. What were the moral issues people were wresting with. Youll see the open space, you see the activity going on. You see 1793, the creation of cotton gin, you see 1808 end of involvement in the slave trade from north america, right. But you also see how it rises. That cotton become the driver. You see that slavery is embedded into legislation because people are aware its important to the economy. You see domestic trade, shipping people down south to cultivate the cotton. Theres that junction position of power and the human cost. Youre passionate about this issue. Im very passionate about it. As a matter of fact people ask when you were working on this exhibition how difficult was for you to read some of it and sew the graphics. To tell you the truth, i thought people need to hear this. David, good evening. Caller . Fine how you are. Fine thank you. Caller in the future to you plan to display four girls killed in the Birmingham Fire on the walls. At this time the exhibition are set for ten years. I done know if they would revisit putting the images of the little girls. I think their images are right at the street with the 16th street bombing is located. There should be the images of the girls on the reader rail. So but, most of the exhibitions all of the exhibitions are set for ten years. Welcome to cspan 3 American History go ahead. Caller i want to start by saying great job. Thank you. Caller mary, my question is theres a statute, my question is how many of impact did revolution play in slavery in america especially post the purchase of the louisiana territory from napoleon . Thats a great question. You cannot talk about the hatian revolution without talking about the die as pore rate, we start for example, our film on the revolutionary war, africanamerican have been rebelling right, the fight for freedom was nothing new for them. When you think about the african i want to think about haiti in two ways. The maritime system allowed for black man to travel and spread news. What did it mean. How did it inspire others, right. When did that mean in terms of impact on leadership here in north america, here in the burgeoning america. So it had a deep impact in that manner. You said in the tour that everyone is this this story. How so . Well, we start this story with humanity. We do not start it with slavery. When you look at the notion of humanity, while this story is a story thats an american story, its a shared history and its a human story. And so that human story is told looking at this through an africanamerican lens. That lens looked out on to an interracial world. Ill give you an example. While we tell many stories, or benjamin banker or stories like joseph and freedom paper, at the same time we have that wage book on display in the transatlantic shave trade section. Which is what . A book that contains wages that paid to crews members who served on the slave ship. While we know what went on in the hull of the ship, people should know about the Human Experience on deck. Crew members were beaten. And it was a hard life, being a slave was a harsh reality but we would be remiss if we didnt tell the whole of the human story. Two things to thing about with that foxes wage book is everyone benefitted from this slave trade. But the other thing to think about is why would someone serve on slave ship. Was it to gain passage, feed their family or they thought it was morally okay and wanted to make money. When you open the book, you will find many crew members who commitmented suicide and joined away. All are available on cspan. Org. Charley from florida. Caller thank you for entertaining my phone call. My question is why are we not having more open discussions about the Democratic Party role in creating racism and can segregation as result to maintain the institution of slavery and prevent africanamerican from matriculating into mainstream america . What i love about this museum thats a great question. Is that we look at this in a 360 way. We look at the factors that get us to where we are. So we dont look at one particular party. We look at whats going on in the nation at different moments in time. Whats happening with democrats, whats happening with republicans, what happens with the election of 1876, right . Im going to give you an example of different perspectives that all of this is steeped in issues of race. Lets think about it, its race, its class. You have the kansasnebraska act. We have several cases from declaration of independence all the way to the 15th amendment. What we learned in secondary school, can we get to recess, but, now we paired this with africanamerican first person voices so we took excepts from newspaper articles written by africanamerican to bring the story to life. When you look at the act and you think of for example, all of the people who were fighting to end slavery, i say this in context to your question because we include everyones voice. Enshrouding in that are the free soiler, if you think of poor white and planter and free people of color, the many perspectives on why we ended slavery. A yeoman white farmer. Why are you giving all of these large tracts of land and i need access to tracts of land too. Youre giving away these large tracts of land so they can cant to pursue slavery. I need my piece of the pie. There different opinions as to why people are fighting against slavery. The same thing when we look at racism in this nation, there are many different reasons, economic, social and can they have to be dealt with. But i would not name it down to one political party. If a plantation owner was purchasing a slave, how much did he pay . That varied. We have on the wall for the domestic slave trade, we have a little boy, we paper that wall from excepts of bill of sales, we wanted people to see the junction position of power of the human cost, commerce in captivity, 5. But the value of this little boy to his mother was a lot more. On average you can see a man, if you have a man in good health and who may have been proven to be valuable in the field could go for tens of thousands of dollars. Someone else could go for 3500. It varied on the skills and capability. Next caller from las vegas. Caller congratulations on your museum. Thank you. Caller its actually magnificent. Another one. I realize in the part that i saw before you cant get into every aspect of what youre telling, but i wanted to know if you have anything there that talks about the abolitionists. Because they were powerful in helping the freedom of africanamericans along. Very briefly, when i was looking at your save cabin, i couldnt help but think of the cattle car at the Holocaust Museum in washington. The similarities of the two museums are overpowering, do you think theres going to be collaboration between the two museums for School Children of all ages, that when they visit one they can visit other as you said before a human story. Thank you. Thank you for the call from las vegas. Mary elliott. Those are both questions and get suggestions. Let me talk about the first thing, the abolitionists. From the beginning when you come through slavery and freedom, you see that africans from fighting from time they were torn away from africa and brought along to that western coast. And then when you go into colonial north america we punch the story through rebellion, africanamericans, africans had been fighting for freedom all along. So black agencies is important. As you come around the exhibition and you enter coming on war, we talk about abolishist effort, we would be remiss if we didnt talk about to end slavery. You have people like john brown, people like William Lloyd garretson, and then you have someone like david hoyt was one of those free soldier fighting slavery that is his bloodstained map he was killed by a mob. We talked about many people gave for this cause to end slavery. And there could be various reasons why, but again, people like john brown saw that it was morally wrong so they fought valiantly to end this. Joining us from bakerfield, california. Good evening. Caller good evening. Thank you for your passion and knowledge and eloquence in which you describe the exhibit. Im from baltimore originally so i cannot wait to get home and visit. I love the focus that you pay to the fact that this is a human story. This is not only American History, this is world history. One of the pieces that always struck me when i was learning about the slave trade in school and one of the things that you hear as rebuttal for the fact that enslavement contributed as an oppressive system is the roll that native africans played in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. How does the Museum Display the role of the nay vtive africans that system . Thats a great question. We made sure that we addressed that directly. We looked at the juxtaposition to the human cost and we do it through currency. You see for example, the coin with the elephant and castle you see the government sanctioned this in gold and sanctioned slavery. We have currency from the western coast of africa, we want people to understand we recognize questions thats going to come our way. These are important issues we want to address. So we talk about native africans were involved in the slave trade. But we talk about the many reasons why. So, for example, the queen who tried very hard to avoid being involved in the slave trade, trying very hard to avoid her own people being enslaved. You see early on european and africans come together, be and that trade included humans because of warfare. At the same time, people were involved in trade to pay off f debt. At the time same there were people involved in trade simply because they wanted to make money. So we wanted to make sure that we address the various reasons why some native africans would have been involved in the trade. We did an interview with the chief justice of the United States john roberts, and he said that the Founding Fathers got everything right except on this slave issue. What make it unique here in the u. S. Or different . Theres a feature in the exhibition on slavery and freedom where we look at sugar as the driver of the trade. Sugar is the driver of the trade, we know it was produced in different parts of north america and louisiana included. You think of in south america and the caribbean, people look at how many people came to north america, 400,000, 3 million to brazil, right . On that case we have in the case a rustic sugar pot that was used to boil down sugar cane. Its surrounded by faux sugar. But we were fortunate to work with our colleagues at the Cooper Hewitt museum who loaned us objects related to sugar, sugar tongues, these two are jux juxtaposed on each other. When you read the label, it talks about the morality statistic. When you think of the economy in north america you think of the crop systems and you have sugar, rice, you have cotton, tobacco, wheat, and theres a sense of having longer life span depending on the crop system. In South Carolina there was a sevenyear life span because rice was a demanding crop. And then north americans also, i hate to use the word, perfected a way to retain their human property and that is a hard way of putting it but its true. You see by the time you get to antebellum period how they are breeding enslaved people. Our next call ser from columbia, South Carolina. Good evening. Caller good evening. Hello. How are you . Caller outstanding show. My question is a couple of years ago i had an opportunity to see here in columbia an exhibition from the Holocaust Museum that was a traveling exhibition. I know you just opened but do you have any idea of developing a traveling exhibition for anybody not able to get to washington, d. C. To see that museum. Or able to get a ticket. Thats a great question. We have i have some amazing colleagues and i have to say while i am a museum expert, i would be remiss if i did not mention dr. Nancy burrcow, and young scholar who assisted us as well. In terms of the traveling exhibitions, our director has charged us with making sure to opportunities to do traveling exhibitions and partner with nation throughout the world to do exhibitions together. When we opened, during the grand opening, we had an exhibition of sorts that we sent out all over the world to everybody can see the dynamic objects that we have. That was through like panels so they could see the objects and stories that were telling through the objects. So we were fortunate to have that. At the point of grand opening. But we also made sure that there were sites across the nation that also featured some of the things that we have in the exhibition. The other thing we do very well, i believe, if you go online, we have wonderful stories associated with these objects. Even if you cant come here, you can see the objects and hear the stories of the objects, not just the history of the object but how we acquired the object which is really powerful to hear it from the perspective of a curator and a team too helped bring this to life. We want to thank you for opening the door on this president s day weekend. Its been my pleasure. We have a tweet from a viewer who wants to know how people can donate family heirlooms to the museum. I would give you my home phone number that wouldnt be right. We love to hear from people all the time. We have a way to go online on our website where you can fill out donor information to let us know what you have and then we review the documents and put you in touch with the appropriate staff member to follow up with you because we have many curators that focus on different topics. You talk about nat turner. We are fortunate to have his bible that he held on to at the time he was captured. Nat turner is the wellknown gentleman who led the revolt, the rebellion in south hampton, virginia. He had group of 70 africanamerican free and enslaved who fought their way towards freedom. The revolt was ended. They were caught. Nat turner got away and stayed in the swamp area. He was captured and put to death. But it does say a lot about what people risked for this freedom. Theres a statement on the paradox of liberty and mumbet who sue for her freedom said, if i had but one minute for freedom, i would take it. So nat turner says a lot about the people who think i would rather have death than be enslaved and they risk their lives to gain their freedom and making a point that freedom was everything by any means necessary. Kenneth, from california. Whats your question . Ken, you with us . Caller hello. Have i lost you. Yes, please go ahead. Caller i thought i lost my transmission. Many people want to talk about everybodys history but black history. And inter2009 black history with gifts from jewish history. My question is, who owned all of the great estates throughout the south where the buildings were built by slaves, who owned the tax company and who most profited from slavery in relation to the jews. They dont want to talk about that. And i want to hear some answers. Thank you. Kenneth, well get a response. There were jewish slaveholders, we know that. There were people who owned banks who invested in slavery. It involves everybody. Theres no one group that we call out. Everyone was invested in this enterprise and everyone benefitted from it except the ones that were enslaved. I cannot say i would narrow this down to just talking about jewish people involved in slavery. Because it was a Cross Section of people. And you are right, in fact there are jewish people who owned enslaved africanamericans. So. At its peak, how many slave were in america . At the time of emancipation came i believe it was 4 million. I understand that at the time the value of enslaved people exceeded value of land at the time. On average what was the lifespan of a slave . On average, i believe it was into their some it was into their 20s, some it was later but not beyond 50. Doug, newport news, virginia. With mary elliott. Hello, ms. Elliott. Its a pleasure to talk to you today. Very interesting subject. Im enthusiastic myself. How have you reached American Indian group particularly cherokee to very view people the second war fought on black women, he name means morning dew. The Buffalo Soldiers helped on the trail of tears from florida to oklahoma. Currently theres a reparations lawsuit pending against the five native tribes who held slaves during the civil war. They were given reparation money that was supposed to go to the slaves but the slaves never got it. Have you reached out to the native Indian Tribes have there been any response. And what are you going to do in the future . Thank you for the call. Thank you for the question. We are under the umbrella of the smithsonian and are proud to work with colleagues at the museum. And we have done joint programs with them, programs with them. It was hosted by the museum of the American Indian that was indivisible where we looked at the various relationships between the africanamerican and the native american community. We have ongoing relationship with the American Indian museum. There was a program on from looking at from tan to tar zahn, or tarzan to on ttonto. Looking at the stereotype. We are discussing future activities to explore the relationships between indians and the africanamerican. Theres a lot of programs being planned right now to unpack the history a little more and bring in a more scholars to share in the details of the relationship between these two groups. And when we look at that, its not just looking at where the groups separate but also where they come together. Its very important to look at both. Time for one for call from denver. Suzette, youre on the line, American History. Lets go to xavier. You get the last question. Caller how are you, mrs. Elliot. Im fine, thank you. Caller i was im 44, i will be 45 in april. When i was growing up my mom had africanamerican encyclopedias in the home. And from reading those encyclopedias in the home, and i went to charles elementary. It was all of these black people and bio on them. From first through fifth grade you walk through and start memorizing who these people are. But if i was not in africanamerican school and my mom didnt have the encyclopedias in the home, theres a lot about the history that i would not know. In 2017 black people do not take it as serious like they did 30, 40, 50 years ago. How do we get back to where we come from in our culture and everything. Xavier, thank you. Well get a response. Thats a great question. I will tell you when i grew up my dad had several 8 1 2 by 11 cards that he got from ebony magazine. This is negro history week. We had to go around the house and memorize the icons of africanamerican and can american histories. Thank god we have the museum. So we see many young people coming to the museum. The caller who asked how do we get out to the community, i have to tip my hat to the smaller museum, we have Education Department that is robust, working with educators across the nation to help share these stories in the classrooms and looking toward Early Childhood education. But lastly i have to say this, it is uncouple bent upon the older generation to take children by the hand and share their stories. Some of the stories in this museum, many actually, we can attribute the success of collecting to family stewards, stewards of this history. Genealogy is extremely important. And while we can look toward books and museums, sometimes its just good to even tell your familys story and that really gets young people interested because its personal. Oral history. Yes. This is impossible question with half a minute left oh no. If theres one place in the museum thats an absolute must see, what is it from your standpoint . Thats a hard question. Im going to make it quick. Slavery and freedom is the must see exhibition but i see the history gallery. Where we are sitting right now, you see the story of the domestic slave trade and story including Isaac Franklin, one of the most successful slave owners. He purchases eight plantations one is the sight of the angola prison today one of the worst in the nation by the time you get to the segregation. That guard tower unpack slavery, it helps us understand that afterslavery came the system. Even today were dealing with the prison industrial complex. Theres no way to look at it it into vacuum. Its all connected. Thank you. This was great. Were going to move from the civil rights with william pretzer. He will have a tour and then hell be here to take your calls and questions as we continue live here on American History tv. My name is bill pretzer. Were entering the exhibition defending freedom, defining freedom. Africanamerican released from bondage sought about creating their own lives with their own resource. They tried to reconnect with family members who had been separated occurring the era of slavery. They travelled the country looking for their relatives. They placed add in the newspaper seeking to find their kin folk. They wrote letters, they want to reconnect and build for themselves. They created all blacktowns not welcome in White Society a number reconnect walt disney their family and created towns where they built their home like this building out of poolesville maryland but also schools and churches in those community. This particular building was built by john haul in 1874. It compares a contrasts with the slave cabin you saw earlier. It was a measure of his and his familys ambition ask optimism for the future. They bought land. With others in the community they built one of the fairs one of nine, all black towns in the late 1870s and 1880s. That was a mark of their independence. And it mirrored towns across the country. This was in use in 20th century. And the family that still owned home decided to denote it to the museum. After researchers found this in poolsville maryland. We had to take over the siding and interior white board to see what the logs underneath looked like. We contracted with a building conservator. Restored the parts that we could, replaced a few pashrts a then rebuilt it here in the museum logly log for this display. Theres hundreds of cabins that were inhibited that had been reused decade after decade. The slave cabin we saw early was occupied until 1980s. Most have been reconstructed. Updated. Vinyl siding. But the current inhabitants dont realize the shell underneath is the structure of a slave cabin. Were going to see the response with the creation of a segreg e segregated society and then the response to that with the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s. At end of the civil war, africanamericans had civil rights in the former confederacy. In 1877, the political compromise removed northern troops from the former confederacy that allowed white africanamerican had received at end of the civil war and recreating slavery by another name, a segregated society what we call come to call jim crow. The elements had changes in state laws which limited the rights of africanamericans, limited to right to move, limited right to vote, limited rights to serve on juries. Limited their rights. It was support of those laws by a reign of terror and the symbol of that terror has come to be the klu klux klan. Founded in 1865 the clan walank established to enforce new kinds of law and the creation of new type of white supremacy. They were attacked on psychological and denial of their rights. Africanamericans responded to that in a way that allowed them to express their own vision for the future. The white hood became the symbol of the ku klux klan and was widely seen across society protecting the identity of individuals, although in most communities everyone knew who was underneath the hood. But it wasnt just the physical terror of the klan. More than 4,000 individuals were illegally murdered with no consequences on the perpetrators from the 1880s into 1940s. It was constant terror, and intimidation. The other part was not so physical, it had to do with intellectual and psychological fear. Africanamerican were put on earth to serve other people. They are here as servants for society. That kind of makeup on White Society as well as the detrimental effect on africanamericans who had to resist the constant barrage of negative information about them. Created a sense of terror that was constant and unremitting. And yet africanamericans responded in a number of very creative ways. It wasnt simply physical terror but it involved things like a constant denigration of after dan americans so that into types what have become collectibles in 21st Century America were ak which chully constant reminder to white people that africanamericans were inferior and constant reminders to africanamericans that white set did not value them as individuals and as productive members of society. The response of the Africanamerican Community however, was not simply defensive. It was expressions of their own vision for the future. And so they built educational institutions. They built community and civic organizations. They focused on their churches. They created entrepreneurial enterprises. They valued free press that integrated information. They built a society within a Larger Society that protected them from that Larger Society and expressed their own values and sense of what the future could be for themselves and for their children. A typical american approach to life. In the early 20th century, there was a massive beginning of a massive immigration of the rural africanamericans from south to the northern city. This great migration changed character and allowed opportunities for africanamerican to engage in modern society in those northern cities. It changed character of their sense of themselves and their opportunities. So in the 1920s right after world war i where africanamericans served in great numbers particularly in france in the military, there comes an engagement with cultural expression that has became known as the negro renaissance. This is the migration of the negro by jacob lawrence. A retrospective looking back on the experience of movement, massive numbers, millions of africanamerican to northern cities between 1910 and 1940. By the mid 20th century, Jim Crow Society was wellestablished north and south in the United States and in the west for that matter. The tradition of response to that Jim Crow Society, efforts to expand civil rights for africanamericans had continued since the late 19th century through early part of the 20th century. By the 1950s and 1960s after world war ii they came home to segregated society that did not accept them entirely. The notion of a concerted by racial civil rights grew and took on energy and strength. On the other side of this whites only door. We have activity civil rights before there was Civil Rights Movement. In the 1940s and 50s activists tried to put pressure on the society. Economic rights, legal rights and particularly Voting Rights. One of the major proponents of Voting Rights, in florida was harry t. Moore and his wife hariette. They were active and they registered many in florida to be able it vote. On Christmas Day 1951 a bomb exploded under their bedroom in their home in broward county, florida. Harry was killed outright, hariette died two days later. They were two of several martyr to the civil rights before the board v. Brown education case deseg grating schools in 1954 and before the montgomery boycott by rosa parks. There were a number before that those particular events drew National Attention who were killed by the terrorists involved in trying to preserve white supremacy. Harry moore pocket watch and wife wore the lady small wristwatch. The small locket contains photographs of herself and her husband, harry. These are the personal elements that purr vooifd the bombing of their home in 1951. The bombing in 195s the bombing of their hoe in 195u the bombing of their home in 195r the bombing of the home in 195vi the bombing of th home in 195v the bombing of ther home in 195e the bombing of their home in 195d the bombing their home in 1951. Another example of precivil rights era, comes from esa, just outside of charleston, they created society called Progressive Society which operated a store, small motel and gas station. They also bought a volkswagen van in the 1960s and began ferrying people from their jobs into charleston. It wasnt simply a transportation service. During the ride from the island into town and back at night, ja janie would teach the individuals literacy skills, teaching them to read and right. She would use the constitution to teach them about Voting Rights and take the test and apply for voter registration. So they provided service along with opportunity for africanamericans to gain their rights. In the mist of the segregated society, transportation was a challenge for both africanamericans and whites. How to create separation for whites but allow the transportation for the Africanamerican Community. This railcar was only in 1940 renovated to create separate sections. That is the system became more restrictive as time went on and as more africanamericans joined the ranks. But Long Distance travel this car was made for southern railways and travelled from washington, d. C. To new orleans. Had to accommodate the notion of increasing segregated society. Lets go inside and take a look. As a white passenger, i would look at this portion of the car and say okay, these are nice large seats. Im comfortable here. I have lot of room. I can look out the windows. I can enjoy a smokefree atmosphere. Because when i get back here, i see ive got room to store my large luggage. Dont have to keep it on my lap and ive got a rest room with a lounge that allows for smoking out of the main car and a fairly large rest room that is quite accommodating for passengers. If i were an africanamerican passenger i would walk into this section and take a look say, all right, seats are fine, but there no place to store luggage other than a small overhead rack. If i have a large bag, ive got to keep it with me, on my lap or right at my feet. And i look at round and i see theres no other accommodations except a small toilet area with no lounge. In other words, its a much different experience for Long Distance travel for africanamericans and its clearly an inferior experience. When the Supreme Court of the United States announced that separate but equal was inherently unequal in American Education in the brown v. Board case it opened the door to argue about that same inferiority in other area. In 1955 rosa park decide she couldnt take it anymore. That she needed to find out what her right as an africanamerican were. So she refused to give up her seat on a bus in montgomery, alabama. Parkins as a seamstress was sewg this dress at home. That was her project at home. Similarly another woman, was quite a different not a 40yearold married one with a job but a 14yearold High School Student by the name of karlotta walls. In little rock arkansas, who wanted best education because she had vision of becoming a doctor. She signed up and became one of the what became later known as little rock nine, the first nine africanamerican students to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Thats the dress she wore in 1957 when she was denied access to the school. But it was a dress that exemplified her desire to get the best education to put herself forward to be respected as a human being and achieve her ambition. A typical american story. Quite a different story is a 19yearold white student at Duke University in 1960. Joan was a devout christian and thought that the Civil Rights Movement expressed christian values and joined sitins. Became a member of snick and spent four years in the moment, one of the freedom riders arrested, serve time in prison in mississippi and carried with her the notion of interracial, multiracial that would lead to civil rights for all americans. This is her vest that she collected that represented the causes that she believed in and created her own reminder of her activities in the movement in the early 1960s. Of course, Martin Luther king, was the inspirational leader and have become the symbol of the movement for many americans. Although as weve seen, he was certainly not the only individual who was primary to that movement and those activities. In 2014 king and his widow were awarded the congressional medal of honor, the highest award, civilian award for americans. King had evolved through the Civil Rights Movement. Broader critique of American Society including vietnam war and american poverty that affected all races and began a larger approach to change in america. At this point were going to the next exhibition, a changing america, 1968 and beyond. Having left the exhibition on the era of segregation, were moving on now to the final exhibition of the threepart gallery, 1968 and beyond. You can sense the difference in the tone. The late 1960s was an era of black power and also the transition of the philosophies of Martin Luther king jr. , poor Peoples Campaign, a multiracial campaign for Economic Justice and end of poverty that king initiated just bf his assassination in 1968. The mural behind me is one of a tent city here in washington, d. C. In mai and june of 1968. Kings vision was for a multiracial campaign to bring americans, native american, africanamericans, latino american, pew to recpew puerto rican s, to lobby the presidency for economic changes, changes for the fundamental Economic System that would alleviate poverty in america. This must recall is of a tent city that housed 3500 individuals on the wall in washington, d. C. Represents that kind of multiracial character of the campaign. It contains a number of representation from chicanos, interested in the movement who brought their concerns and their culture to washington, d. C. For this moment. Were assuming that it was produced in part by students from california, the university of the pacific and the university of california at los angeles. But its also evident that this could have been representing a number of individuals from various parts of the country, including the use of amiric language which expresses the hope that poverty can be ended in the United States. With kings death, his associate, the hef rend Ralph Abernathy and his widow continued the Peoples Campaign. Tent city, resurrection city had permits to set up on the national mall, the weather was terrible and they tried to lobby the federal government fundamental change. At the end of the six weeks the federal government bulldozed the city and evicted the residents and then basically ended the campaign. Members of the Peoples Campaign who were washington resident managed to find out where the bulldozed material had been taken, to a local military base, and went by that base late at night and resurrected, salvaged some of the material, including this plywood mural. Other materials, documents and parts of the tents were also preserved by activists who literally kept them until they donated it to this museum. Many people think the black Power Campaign was a negation of the Civil Rights Movement, it was in opposition of civil rights. In fact the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther king and the black Power Movement are not at odds, even though one of the symbols of the black Power Movement is this image of newton, one of the founders of the black Panther Party in oakland, california, 1966, holding a speer and a shotgun. Newton is the premier example of this sense of militant opposition to American Society that the panthers supposedly allegedly represented. But in fact much of their campaign was about selfdefense for africanamericans, the same kind of selfdefense that had been seen earlier with the deacons of defense and earlier in the my military and africanamerican life opposed violence against their society. Part of the black panther campaign, a major part in fact was social reform, educational reform, health healthcare, housing, the freedom to get an education that was useful for them. And in opposition to the legal system that was imprisoning thousands of africanamericans with no good reason. So an element that we want to focus on and make known more widely to the American Public is the whole notion of survival programs, that the party was developing a whole series of activities and pioneered the idea of legal aid, of health clinics, of Educational Programs, of free breakfast programs for School Children. The black panthers advocated and symbolized was as important, probably more important than the military side and militant activities highlighted in the press at the time. Another element of kings evolution was his development in opposition to the vietnam war, an issue that rent American Society in the 60s and early 70s. King in 1967 straight out said one of his greatest disappointments was americas failure to deal with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism. Africanamerican soldiers served in vietnam, some willingly and some not, but they all took pride in their service and did utmost to serve their country, a tradition that carried on in earlier wars in American History and since the vietnam era. The vietnam tour jacket was a common momento acquired by soldiers on r r, where they would have them embroidered with symbols of their service. In this particular instance an africanamerican had it adorned with symbols of black power, representing his dual commitment both to the black Power Movement and to his own service in the vietnam war. Also in this area of a changing america exhibition on the black power era is elements of the flawed concerns, basically a renovation of the new Negro Movement or the harlem renaissance of the early 20th century, a concern with literature, with culture, with representation. So particularly the development of black women writers, black feminists, critique of American Society, the development and growth of Shirley Chisolm as the first black woman to run for major party nomination, for the presidency, a political force. On all of those levels through culture, politics, Popular Culture representation in mass media, the black Power Movement renovated and created yet another new africanamerican way of expressing themselves and of taking power, of being represented and being in control of their own circumstances. That created opportunities for subsequent generations. And we continue live at the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture, part of the smithsonian. We continue with bill presser, senior occur ate or. Thanks for being with us and for the tour. Great to have you here. Thank you. You want to see the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement, the vietnam war. Lets again reestablish where are we physically in the museum right now . Right now were in the orientation gallery to the three history exhibits. So from this space visitors would go down our large elevator, all the way to the bottom level to begin the exhibition on slavery and freedom that mariel yot just took you through and move on to the era of session exhibition and finally a changing america in 1968 and beyond. That would con cluld tclude the history galleries in the museum. Then move upstairs to level three which is our community galleries, exhibitions on sports, military history, making a way out of no way, which is about selfhelp, and then the power of place, a set of regional studies of africanamerican life. Then to level four, our culture galleries. Exhibitions on music, visual art, theater, film and television and Cultural Expressions. There are a couple of questions i have from the tour, but let me again remind our audience we want to hear from you. Give us a call at 2027488900 if you live in eastern or central time zones or 2027488901 for those of you in mountain or pacific time zones. Follow us on twitter cspan programming. The number one question, how do people get a ticket for this museum and why is it so hard . It is hard simply because were so popular. It sounds impolite to say that but the simple case is that weve been overwhelmed by the response of the public for this museum. So you didnt expect these crowds . We expected crowds. We were did not expect the level and the sustain amount of interest in the museum. And since were limited by the fire marshall on the number of people we can take into the museum at any one time, we simply have to spread out that process and help people get those tickets in advance. The way to get tickets either as an individual or via group is to check out the museums website, nmahhc. Si. Edu. The front page, the home page has how to visit. Go there. It will explain how to sign up for tickets, how to call for tickets for groups, nonprofit groups, School Groups, church groups, community organizations. You can get bulk tickets. They come after amount of time in the sense that we have to ask people to wait a couple of months simply because the response has been so overwhelming. If i log on today, i want to get a ticket, it is late may or early june right now . Thats the case, yes. Let me ask you about some of the exhibits. A lot of questions about two africanamerican justices of the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, how are they represented in the museum . The fact is we created exhibitions based on teams that were determined by exhibition teams. As it turns out, Thurgood Marshall is represented by his fraternity dues card and simply by a quote based on the brown v. Board desegregation case of 1954. Theres really nothing about him as a Supreme Court justice. Justice Clarence Thomas is represented in a small display around confirmation hearings, and the charge by anita hill that led to a great deal of controversy. But then, ultimately, his confirmation and seating on the court. But some may argue they played a bigger role in American History, especially Thurgood Marshall. Well, we know that there are thousands of stories that we could have told in much greater detail. We simply cant include all of those stories, all at the same time. Weve done our very best to find the kinds of stories we think resonate with people, both the known and unknown stories. So this is a living museum, just like our understanding of history changes we reinterpret, we find new information. This is a conversation about what we will include in the museum in the future rather than looking at what weve already done in the past. A living museum, despite its size with Still Limited space. One of the questions, whats not included that you would like to see included down the road . My own interest is in the history of science and technology, and thats an interest that many, many people have had and theyve made it very clear to us that theyre very disappointed that we have not done more with africanamericans involvement with science and technology, and so were looking for ways in the future to, first of all, build the collection, the basic resource of any museum are the artifacts, the documents, the photographs that deal with a particular subject matter. And then to figure out how we would employ those artifacts either in programs through our website or in a physical exhibition within the building itself. What does the term jim crow mean . Jim crow is the legal and cultural creation of a segregated society that oppresses africanamericans in the United States between the 1870s and the 1960s. Lets get to your phone calls again. 2027488900 in the east half of the country and 2027488901 for those of you out west. Malcolm is joining us from asbury park, new jersey. Go ahead, please. Hello . Yes. Youre on the air. Please go ahead, please. My name is malcolm sanlders, from asbury park. I want to know since hiphop is original art of america, is it included in the museum too . Because thats the last original art that americans produced, hiphop, and it is all across the world now. It is even in commercials. Sure. Thank you for the question. Malcolm, thats a great question and im really happy to say that hiphop and wrap music appear in actually several different exhibitions in this museum. First of all, our musical history gallery entitled musical crossroads contains a number of examples of hiphop. The exhibition, a changing america in 1968 and beyond also has a large public enemy banner. Remember, it was chuck de, a public enemy who talked about in the 80s, 90s, 2000s as black peoples cnn, that is the source of information. And then we also have about musical expressions in our Cultural Expressions gallery. Hiphop is well represented in the museum. From the post worlds war ii era to the present, was it easy or difficult to get artifacts for the exhibit . It was probably actually more difficult in a way than some other curators have had finding exhibition material for their particular subject matter because recent history is not seen as historically important. A lot of people had things in their attics or basements, and if they were 100 years old they figured there might be something of importance. If theyre only from the 1990s, well, who is interested in that . And so we had to really go out and encourage people to talk about what they might have, what we were interested in, in terms of cultural or social history, political history, and then to convince them to allow us to see what they had and what they were and what possibilities we saw to make them accessible to the public and to tell the stories that were important to tell. And about you, native of sacramento, california, started here, then in dearborn, michigan for two decades before coming back to the smithsonian . Yes, in 2009 to work on this pro secretary specifically. Lets go to jane in new mexico. Yes, i have a question about the social Reform Program of the black panthers and why it has been relatively neglected historigraphically speaking . Jamie, thank you. I think there was an impression create willed by the media and, quite frankly, by the u. S. Government in the 1960s and 1970s that the black Panther Party was essentially a black terrorist group, a racist organization. So its survival program, its Community Building programs, its creation of free breakfasts, of literacy programs, of legal aid programs, of housing programs, all were played down by the media because it was more exciting to see issues of conflict. So the black panthers have really gotten a bum rap, and what weve tried to do in this exhibition actually is to display material from their survival programs to offset that kind of overwhelming media impression that was originally created. Who was emit till . Emmitt till was a 14yearold chicago boy who went to visit his cousins in mississippi in 1955. He went into a store, had an exchange with a white female clerk. Four days later the clerks husband and his halfbrother took emmett till out to a riverside. They tortured him. They murdered him. They threw his body into the river. His mother retrieved the body, insisted that he be buried in chicago after a public funeral and an open casket so that the American Public could see what racism had done to her son. The emmett till murder is a Tipping Point in the Civil Rights Movement in this country. We know of dozens of individuals who became the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement in the early 60s who were teenagers or add less en adolescents in 1955 and for whom the emmett till murder was frightening and maddening. They knew they didnt want to grou up grow up in a world that allowed that to happen, so they were willing to put themselves on the line and become active in the Civil Rights Movement a few years later. And his casket is on display here . Yes. He was originally buried in alsip, illinois south of chicago. In 2005 the fbi, trying to reopen and reexamine a number of cold cases of violence against africanamericans during the Civil Rights Movement, disinterred his body, exhumed his body, conducted tests and he was reburied in a different casket, by law. His family retrieved the casket in 2009. They knew the director of this museum because he had been the director of the Chicago History Museum in earl yer years. They talked with lonnie and agreed to donate his casket to this museum with the understanding that we would preserve it, restore it and put it on display in a respectful way to continue what his mother, mamie till mobley, want, which was to make his death not be in vain. Im curious, were those responsible app apprehended, tried and convicted. The two were put on trial, they were acquitted. They admitted they committed the murder but double jeopardy was involved and they were never retried. Talk about president obama having toured this museum and his reaction. President obama and his family i believe took two separate private tours with director lonnie bunch of the museum. I think their responses were typical of most peoples responses. This is a Pretty Amazing collection of artifacts and stories that are told in a direct and yet very respectful way, that one can laugh, one can cry, one can feel in awe about the things and the history that this country and africanamericans have participated in over the past 500 years. And we should point out the museum includes the Oprah Winfrey theater directly across from us. We will continue more with the tour with bill pretzer. Come back with your calls and comments in about five minutes. Jablack power and the Civil Rights Movement opened up opportunities for africanamericans in all realms much american life. Politics, Popular Culture, literature, economic entrepreneurialism. Oprah winfrey has become one of the great icons of late 20th century. Starting her talk show in 1986, she developed an empire that went beyond the business and talked about individual selfempowerment, creative opportunities, educational opportunities, and used her wealth and her influence to promote the kind of ideas that the Civil Rights Movement leaders and the black power leaders had advocated. Her career exemplifies that kind of opportunity and making the most of it, both individually and collectively. Ms. Winfrey was kind enough to be a supporter of this museum and donated these artifacts from the last show aired in 2011 of her daytime talk show. In 2008 barack obama created a Multiracial Coalition that brought him to the presidency. A coalition that mirrored the type of Multiracial Coalition that Martin Luther king envisioned in 1968 for the poor Peoples Campaign. Barack obamas presidency did not represent a postracial society as we have come to understand. Still, it represented a marked departure from previous american political life and created a new image of the black man and the black family in the lives of many africanamericans and americans. For whatever his legacy in terms of policies and the administration, his personal legacy and his impact on american political life will be seen as a very positive element in the future as historians consider and reconsider the impact of his presidency. We are lucky enough to have a president in barack obama who understood the impact of history and the importance of understanding history. So the artifacts that we have received from the white house include the dress that michelle obama, the first lady, wore at the anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march on washington. And the comments, signed by the president , that he made on that occasion, acknowledging the history and the importance of the 1963 march on washington, in which he makes clear that every generation has a responsibility to increase the rights and opportunities that all americans enjoy. It is that kind of opportunity and those challenges that is represented not only by his administration and by his understanding of history, but by the black lives Matter Movement and others who seek ways of creating a more equal and just American Society. Is goal, the american experiment that we continue to have. I think the history galleries really demonstrate the power of social change through activism, that nothing happens by chance. I think they also demonstrate how the values represented in these exhibitions are quint essentially american values. They are about opportunity. They are optimistic. They are resilient. They are about enlarging the experience of allamericans, africanamericans and others. This an optimistic american expression of overcoming the odds of an succeeding. We think thats a very positive sign, and we hope thats the message that positive change comes about and it is absolutely possible as long as one is involved in the values and the processes of american democracy. Lets continue with the tour that we just saw on tape. You really lets continue with the tour that we just saw on tape. You really do put the story in history here. We think that the best way to teach history is by telling stories and making those stories personal and dramatic, playing out the real Human Experience. Many visitors have told us that visiting this museum is an emotional experience, and as intellectual or as contentrich as the stories are, we recognize that very often it is the emotions that keep it in our memories, that helps us understand that content. And so were intent on telling stories well. This is the africanamerican museum of history and culture. Lets talk about a cultural icon, chuck berry and his car. Whats the story behind that . Of course you would start a musical exhibit with chuck berry and his red cadillac convertible. Our staff, particularly the curator of music and performance, dwondalyn reese and music director kevin strait, were contacting numerous performances and talking about preserving their individual legacies, and often they would begin with the performers manager and staff rather than the performer and him or herself. Kevin mailed arrangements with the staff of chuck berry to go visit him in his home and talk about acquiring the red cadillac. He showed kevin showed up. Chuck berry was not exactly convinced he was willing to donate the cadillac yet, so kevin sat down and they talked. They talked for quite a while, and they had some ice cream bars together. Finally chuck decided that kevin was okay and that this museum was an okay place. So they went to get the cadillac convertible. They had a wrecker come to hoist the car up on the truck. The wench broke. They had to push the truck up on the under the truck. Then they had to get it out of the mud. Get it on the road towards washington, and then chuck and kevin talked about chucks very famous guitar, mabelline and chuck agreed that kevin could have mabelline for the museum. At that point kevin recognized he had a plane ticket to come home. He called me and he said, ive got a seat on the plane but mabelline doesnt. Can i buy a second ticket so mabelline can have a seat on the plane coming home to washington . I said yes, absolutely, we could spring for that plane ticket. And so mabelline and the red cadillac got to washington d. C. , to this museum. Lets go to elaine in nashville, tennessee. Go ahead with your question. Yes, mr. Presser, do you believe the creation of a museum for africanAmerican History and culture will limit or influence the integration of africanAmerican History in other museums and historical sites . We think it is going to promote the attention on africanAmerican History and culture in all kinds of organizations, and were very intent on promoting that idea. Were already partnering with the National Museum of American History, with the National Museum of the American Indian, with the Smithsonian Latino center. We are encouraging all kinds of organizations to find ways in which were able to talk about a variety of stories, from a variety of perspectives and not just one. So we really do think that this institution will promote the interplay and the discussion between those various perspectives so that we can develop, quite frankly, a new National Narrative that is more inclusive and is more atentative to the varieties that have made up this nation. Well head to tucson, john youre next. A quick follow up question. In the galleries you have so succinctly described to us you allude to many themes that can be embodied in the u. S. Military experience in the post civil war from the Buffalo Soldiers say through the 20th century. Can you tell us what the plans are or what is available today, interpreting the role of and the evolving roll of africanamericans in the u. S. Armed forces . Absolutely. On the third level of the museum is an entire exhibition entitled wv. Military experience of africanamericans. It ranges from the revolutionary war up to the wars of the 21st century. So we have a number, several hundred artifacts, and we tell the story of men and women who have served in the various military conflicts that the United States has been in, even before there was a United States given the french and indian war and then the revolutionary war. A key element of that hicks is a hallway in which we display plaques representing all 53 africanamericans who have been awarded the congressional medal of honor for their valantry. As one walks down that corridor, one is walking towards a picture window which looks out on and frames the Washington Monument. It is quite a sight. Just beyond the Washington Monument is the Lincoln Memorial and then Arlington National cemetery where so many africanamerican and allamerican soldiers have been interred. We think that display is a really important part of the museum and of the museums presentation. And that includes, of course, the Tuskegee Airmen. Theres still a handful still alive. Have they come here and seen the exhibit . We have been very blessed to have a number of the Tuskegee Airmen come to visit, as individuals, as pairs of individuals, as a small group. We have a tuskegee airplane one of the first trainers used by the Tuskegee Airmen in the early 1940s as they were trained to fly for the United States air force, army air force. And so we have had a long tradition of working with them. Many of them were able to take flights in that plane as we brought it across the country when we first brought it into the museum in 2012. Youre excited about all of this. I am exceedingly excited. I get that excitement from my own passion for this work but also for my colleague. This is a really terrific group of people who embarked on a mission, and that was it. It wasnt a job for any of us. And im hoping that is being conveyed to those watching at home, the people who have been here, and youve been so gracious to let us come in on a sunday evening and share this museum. Lets go to eunice joining us from hemmstead, new york with your question. My question is when i was at the black museum in washington d. C. , i did not find the civil rights bill that was signed in i think it was 1965 by dr. King and whitney young. Why is whitney young, is he in the black museum in because he had a lot to do with getting the civil rights bill. To understand the civil rights bill, we black people must understand it so other people will understand the immigration laws bill because both of them is similar to the same. Thats my question. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. The Civil Rights Movement and the various actors, whitney young, Martin Luther king jr. , john lewis, stokley carmichael, all of those individuals and the foot soldiers in that movement are all represented in the era of segregation gallery that we walked through. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 are all represented either as documents in those displays or in the videos that talk about the legislation that really made the difference and broke the back of legal jim crow segregation. Be sure to follow on switter cspan history and on facebook at cspan. Com. The oldest photograph in the museum, do you know what it is . Theres a lot of photos behind us, by the way. We probably have a tintype from the era of the civil war. Theres certainly one of Frederick Douglass, for instance, so that would have been made in the mid 1860s. Photography was a brandnew technology at that time. Theres various versions of photography, not the film we think of but rather on small tin plates. So one of those tintypes from the 1860s is probably the oldest image we have in the collection and on display. About 50 feet behind us is the waterfall and the words of dr. Martin luther king. What does it represent . We bit commemorative space with a large, round waterfall and a series of quotes on the wall because we felt that individuals visiting this museum may need a space in which to gather themselves, in which to think back, to memorialize their own family experiences, to acknowledge the pain and the hope that the africanAmerican Experience in the United States represents. In a manner of speaking it was modelled after the hall of remembrance at the Holocaust Museum. Many people equate the various museums of conscience around the world, the Holocaust Museum, this museum, museums of the jewish experience in germany, and so theres a moment where we wanted to provide people with the opportunity to quietly remember. Lets go to clarence, west covina, california with your question. Yes. I want to know did you have those women that was in Hidden Figures displayed there, and if theyre not why not . Will they be exhibited in the future or whats the story behind them . Thank you, clarence. A new movie getting a lot of attention. Well, a new movie but actually an old story. In the 1930s and 40s a number of africanamerican women who were extremely adept at mathematics were hired by the precursor of nasa, the National Aeronautics and space administration, to do calculations that led up to americans in space. Three particular women have been profiled in a very important book entitled Hidden Figures and a recent motion picture. One of the debuts of that Motion Pictures was held right here at this museum, and the actors as well as some of the family members of those three women were present at that debut showing, screening of that movie here in washington d. C. At the museum. We are currently in conversation with the families of two of those women to see what kinds of artifacts we could bring into the collection so that we can include their story in the museum. I think i mentioned we dont do very much with science and technology. We werent able to put that into the first generation of exhibits. We are looking to do that in the future, and certainly those three women and other women and men who have contributed to the american both Space Program and science and technology generally will be highlighted in that exhibition. Let me ask you about the book ends of the black Power Movement and black lives matter over the last 50 to 60 years. What are the parallels, what are the differences . Well, i think the parallel also in many ways are representing ways of responding to similar kinds of condition. That is, we talk a lot about throughout the museum or at least the history galleries, the kind of violence that has been perpetrated on africanamerican communities. Well, the black Power Movement, particularly the black panthers who explicitly said, we are trying to prevent the tradition of oakland, California Police harassing and brutalizing africanamericans. Were a black Panther Party for selfdefense. So that inspired much of the black Power Movement. Similarly, the black lives Matter Movement is a response to what is perceived as ongoing set of atrocities against africanamericans, particularly young men. The techniques are very different. Modern technology allowed black lives matter to communicate and plan very quickly, in a matter of hours using modern digital technology, facebook and texting, et cetera, whereas the black Panther Party had to use a weekly newspaper to communicate their goals and their activities to their followers. Before we take this next call, a reminder we do an awful lot with teachers as part of the cspan in the classroom effort. It is on our website at cspan. Org. Lets go to brian joining us from baltimore. Good evening. Thank you for taking my call. A couple of quick questions. First, the reginald s. Lewis Maryland Museum of africanAmerican History and culture right down the road in baltimore has done an excellent job partnering with the Maryland State Department of education to put together an excellent africanAmerican History curriculum, and the museum does ongoing as well as the state department of education does ongoing staff development, professional Development Opportunities for teachers. My first question is, are there any plans for the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture to do similar times of projects, either with nonprofit organizations or any local or other school districts, maybe the department of education . Who knows . My second question is more personal. As a charter member ive been trying to log on to the charter member ticket site and ive been having difficulty getting any dates. Is there any information about how that site is going to be up and running again or will that be up and running again to get tickets . Thank you. Brian, thank you for the question. So about the Educational Programs and partnerships with other organizations, we have a very active Education Programs department, created a series of Early Childhood programs as well as teenage programs. We work a lot with both School Groups and with teachers and caregivers. So those programs have been actually ongoing for the last eight years, with particularly Teacher Education and caregiver programs, and we intend on expanding that. There is educational material on our website and we are currently doing a program around National History day where members of the staff are working with students on their National History day projects. In terms of accessing the website for charter members, i have to admit that as a curator thats something that i dont know very much about, and i would have to say that you would continue to try to work on that website. Ill bring it to the attention of our Public Affairs staff to see if we cant work out any glitches with that website right now. And, sharon, you get the last call from maryland. Good evening. Welcome to the program. Well, thank you very much. I have to say thank you, mr. Pretzer, for your interest, your knowledge and your enthusiasm about the museum. I would like to ask you, could you talk more about black adventurers . Black adventurers such as andrew beard who invented the couplings of ice or gary morgan with the streetlight and gas mask or randall t. Wood with a telephone device. I mean he had electrical and the tunnel, you know, the underground tunnel. Can you talk to us about that . Sharon, thank you. A lot of stories to tell. There are lots of stories, and we are looking forward to telling them. I can say that, in fact, we do have gary morrisons gas mask on display, on loan from his family. So we have one inventor very prominently displayed in the exhibition, making a way out of no way, talking about the importance of education and innovation in American History. There are dozens of stories. Louis latimer and his work with the electric lamp. Medical such as charles drew, were in the process of trying to collect material from dr. Drews family dealing with the development of blood bank. Were also looking at Percy Julians family and talking with them about the inventor, the developer of artificial cortisone, so important for medical procedures. So we are looking at a range of innovators, both in science and technology. There are plenty of publications. There are some movies about them, as weve noted. Theres a lot of material known. We need to put it all together with the artifact. Bill pretzer, final question as people walk through the museum and you look at their faces, what is their reaction . What is going through your mind . Im thrilled at the variety of people who come through this museum from a variety of nations, of different ages, of different races. They are taken with the story telling and they find it relevant to their lives, and they are respectful of each other and of themselves. I think thats much of the lesson that we are trying to convey. We will conclude on that note. The senior curator here at the museum, bill pretzer, thank you for being with us. Thank you. Thank you for opening the doors at the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture part of the smith sonia. Thank you for joining us here on cspan3s American History tv. This weekend cspans city tour along with the help of Comcast Cable partners will explore the literary scene and history of charl lotsville, virginia saturday evening on book tv. We visit the university of virginia to see their first writer and residents. We have a lot of artifacts from falkners time at uva. We have the typewriter he was issued by the university, even with the University Property stamp on the back. We have a jacket that he wore. As you can see when you look at the jacket, it is pretty torn up and ratty. He liked to keep his clothes for a long time. He left this jacket hanging in his office when he went on his last trip to oxford, mississippi when he passed away. On sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, well travel to Thomas Jeffersons monticello. So if you visited monticello, say, 20 years ago you would have come up the mountain and you would have just seen jeffersons beautiful, neo classical villa. What we wanted to do was change that. We wanted to restore the landscape from slavery. If you had come up this mountain top in jeffersons time, the first thing you would have seen most likely would have been slave people. There would have been no place on this mountain top that slavery was not visible. We want to restore that, make that known to visitors who come here today. Well also visit the Miller Center at the university of virginia to learn about their first year project, which explores challenges u. S. President s face in their first year on the job. Lyndon johnson said when he became president , no matter how big your majority is, you get one year before they, the congress, stops thinking about you, the president , and starts thinking about themselves, their own reelection. And at about january of your second year after youve done your first year, all of the members of congress are thinking about their Midterm Election and theyre really cautious about taking any risk to help you get your mandate and your agenda through. Watch cspan cities tour of shar lotsville, virginia saturday at noon eastern on cspan 2s book tv and sunday afternoon at 2 00 p. M. On American History on cspan3, working with our cable affiliate and visiting cities across the country. Wednesday, air force chief of staff general david goalfein discusses readiness, modernization and revitalization of the nuclear force. Were live from the Heritage Foundation at 11 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Wednesday, a discussion about the militarys enforcement of rule also and laws as they apply to free speech and Sexual Harassment cases involving service members. Well be live from the event, hosted by the George Washington university and the American Bar Association starting at noon eastern here on cspan3. The Los Angeles Times has been putting on the festival of books for more than 20 years, and it has become an institution thats part of the community. And if and it is a way that we can celebrate with the readers of the paper and with the city as a whole the very notion of reading. And today when the idea of there being something called fake news is out there, i think that books help us celebrate the way that words and facts are grounded in story telling and in history. Watch our live coverage of the Los Angeles Times festival of books 22 and 23rd on book tv on cspan2. Next, a panel on africanAmerican History and preservation. Moderated by lonnie bunch, founding director of smith tone ya National Museum