we begin with a visit to nashville s ryman auditorium as author david ewing talks about how the venue became a place for political rallies, civil rights events and home to country music s grand ole opry. today we re at the historic ryman auditorium in downtown nashville, tennessee. it definitely tells the history of both things it is famous for. it was built by a river boat captain who was famously converted under a tent in downtown nashville in may of 1865. after his conversion, he believed that traveling ministers should have a permanent home inside that was large enough to take the large crowds of the traveling ministers who came to town. so captain ryman built the ryman auditorium and it opened at first in 1892 as a tabernacle. so that s the church part of the history. the music part of the history, the country music part, deals with the grand ole opry which came here in 1943 after being in many different homes in nashville, and stayed here until 1974 when the new opry
was the busiest freshwater shipping channel in the world. and it still is today. today, we are in downtown detroit. there is a lot of development. people are opening up restaurants and stores. had the valley not been destroyed, much of the downtown development would be done by african american business owners. this weekend, c-span s cities tour visits detroit. with the cooperation of our comcast cable partners, for the next two hours, we explore the city s history. would begin at the detroit historical museum to learn about the inventions and people that helped make detroit the motor city. we are at the detroit historical museum and about to walk into a wonderful exhibit called america s motor city could: detroit has been the motor city capital of the world since 1915 when there were over 42 companies making cars and another 75 companies making parts. while other towns build cars, we built lots of cars. prior to 1900, the detroit area enjoyed a wealth of strong manufac
we have three exhibitions in this gallery and those exhibitions cover 15th-century africa and europe all the way to today. some of the themes we cover include holding onto humanity under some of the most inhumane conditions. we look at the harsh realities of slavery and freedom, the resistance and survival of a people. we look at africans and african americans shaped the world as well as a nation. we look at how they shaped the landscape. that means socially, politically, economically, geographically, as well as culturally and intellectually. what is important for people to understand is we look at these stories as human stories. they are told through the african-american lens. this is a shared history and you will see yourself throughout this exhibition. let s start looking at one of the opening labels for the slavery and freedom exhibition. behind me is a label that is to the making of the atlantic world. we feature a story of someone who was the leader of the west african
scars on hundreds of thousands of veterans. it is also true that these veterans organizations were important fraternal organizations. veterans became an important voting block in both the south and north. they were also a political force. host: we are seeing the sights and sounds of soldiers beginning to stack their arms, which would have happened 150 years ago today here at appomattox courthouse. we will go next to eagle point washington. caller: it is eagle point oregon. host: diane, i m sorry. i had that incorrect. caller: i have a little bit of background and then a question for mr. blight. i was born in oregon, raised in oregon. i lived in charleston, south carolina and atlanta, georgia for 20 years respectively. i am a person that did not understand the civil war when i was growing up. it was glossed over in our education. it didn t really mean much to me when i lived in georgia and south carolina. i caught the civil war fever terribly. when they raise the hundley, it w
i have been watching these events on c-span for the past four years. i have noticed that the majority of the participants and the attendees are middle-aged to elderly like google. i can say that because i am one. i wondered, with the makeup of the country changing and supposedly the white race becoming a minority in the country by 50 years from now will these events, do you think that these well read bird will be well as well remembered then as they are now? dr. blight: you raise a very interesting problem. why don t african-americans come to civil war sites? first of all, last night there were hundreds, if not 1000 or more african-americans out here. an extraordinary performance here on the main stage behind me. they held a mock symbolic burial of a former slave woman named hannah reynolds who was killed here on the morning of april 9. no one ever knew where she was buried. they do her name and who her master was, her owner and the african-american community of appomatto