displaced from their neighborhood known as "crawfish bottom," the 50 acres of land located near the kentucky river became the site of the city's capital plaza in the 1960's. >> "crawfish bottom" was a neighborhood in north frankfort, kentucky. initially it was the place where nobody wanted to live. it was where the poor people lived because it had the cheapest housing. it was the area of frankfurt. so that really was attractive to recently freed slaves in the late 1860's in the early 1870's. it also was very attractive to the families of prison inmates who had families that would move up and needed cheap housing because there were basically incarcerated. a lot of families of

incarcerated prisoners, free slaves, and a great deal of poor immigrants families. and, again, this area of frankfurt was flooded oftentimes. and so the housing was oftentimes considered dilapidated. a lot of people in the early newspapers were calling for the cleanup of this neighborhood in the 1870's and 80's saying someone should do something about this neighborhood. really, i would say it was a pretty wild place between 1870 in 1930. it had a reputation as being a bad part of town, and during that time, the reputation was probably well-founded. a lot of wild activity. a couple of logging facilities here. it would slow down from eastern kentucky. they would get paid and go crazy for the weekend. and so a lot of the joints and

saloons, a lot of the prostitution was actually occurring in this neighborhood. so that is what contributed to this reputation that this neighborhood had. interestingly enough, historians got a hold of that. one of the earliest historical references to the never read is an the 1930's, 1940's. historians started to refer to it as the cd underbelly of frankfurt. so once historians get ahold of it that version of the neighborhood really became entrenched in public memory. and so despite the fact that the neighborhood really in the 1930's, '40's, 50's became just the poor close-knit neighborhood, it was known as this part of town. >> what was the demographic? >> it was known as the black part of town, but that percentage was really, the majority was very slight. oftentimes it was very much

irish. it was very much sort of immigrant. all of them were poor. a very working-class neighborhood. police officers. folks who worked in the hand factory, the local distillers and the shoe factory who all live in this neighborhood. very much a working-class neighborhood. interestingly enough the most recent residents who live there in the 1950's to be interviewed for the project remember it as an integrated neighborhood before integration. time after time people were talking about how they were unified more by class, more by their economic situation than the fact that the report then there were divided by the fact that there were white and black. so that was an interesting perspective that i did not necessarily expect when history interviews were being done. it was really need to hear that. >> so what happened to "crawfish

bottom"? >> let us said, calling for the destruction of the neighborhood since the 1870's. that call was persisted. greater frankfurt fell like this was a bad part of town. 1913 they did a major study with a documented the sons and a lot of the pictures in my book are from this photographic documentation, it just amazing. but a lot of people were likening slums to disease and so there was a lot of calls for cleaning of the neighborhood. to the 1950's when urban renewal is release of the nation, that's when frankfurt decided that crawfished bottom at that point referred to as the crop or the bottom was wiped out the of urban renewal and replaced with civic centers, hotels, the ymca,

state government buildings, the state to our. applause of shops. you know, the vision was that this would be kind of a pedestrian mall that you could walk in shop and what not. we've are standing on the corner of the grounds of the old state capitol in frankfurt. right across the street from the old state capital is really where "crawfish bottom" began, which is interesting that you have the state legislature right across the streets from what was considered the bad part of town. it was considered the neglected part of town. and you are a stone's throw away from where laws were happening. but it was actually about 50 acres that was taken out by urban renewal. and so there are a lot of questions, even with people who lived there that could not really give a consistent answer as to exactly what blocks and

streets made up the neighborhood, which is kind of the fun of it. to hear them talk about these sort of shifting boundaries of this neighborhood and what you considered to be crossed. some people said it was just the border of plan and washington whereas some people would say, well, that was, but the rest of it was bottom. some people would say the whole thing was crop. some people would say that crawl was really these four blocks, will be on that was the bottom. so it was an interesting exercise, i think, in memory and public perception. public memory of, you know, where people lived. interestingly enough there was also something that they were remembering. so these were things that they had, you know, the person who did the interviews would bring a map and show a map of the neighborhood. they would like and it sort of say, well, this was here and here in here. it was not like these were

buildings and streets. those were gone. >> ready the families go the merger and have? >> that is a little bit of a controversy. a great deal of promises were made by the city, promising public housing, affordable housing options. the city really fell short of its promises in terms of saying that we were going to provide alternative housing. folks ended up going everywhere. wherever they could afford to live. a lot of the feedback that we got in the interviews really was saddened by that fact. not so much the loss of the neighborhood as much as it was the loss of the community where people and saying, you know, i am the only african-american in this neighborhood, and i couldn't tell you who lives next door to me. in reality what they were living in when there were here in the neighborhood was really a situation where they checked on their neighbor. their neighbor had not been seen, you know, that day,

someone is, to knock on the door and make sure there okay into a, sort of, contrast that with the, you know, putting people into amino, maybe a nicer neighborhood but one that had complete lack of community was really disheartening for most of the residence. so i think that is where the feelings of frustration, the feelings of resentment about the whole process came about. so the folks to were displaced by urban renewal for the most part pretty much resent the process and were frustrated by losing that sense of community. now, had this city delivered on the promise of providing the housing that they had once stated there were going to provide, that might have been a little bit different, but at least according to the residents those options were not there for them. and so that is where a lot of

the frustration began to unfold. >> how did you come across the story? >> i was the archivist to have this oral history collection. i worked at the kentucky historical society. we had a collection of over 8,000 interviews. one of these collections was just called the crop. it was -- i attended a presentation being given early on by one of my supervisors. and he had done these interviews back in 1991 as part of his works on his master's degree at the university of kentucky. he had done these interviews and written papers. he was giving these old slides show -- he's a slide show presentations to rotary groups, clubs, you know, a historic

frankfurt. he was just giving these drumbeat of people knew this. really it's a good part of town, and this is why. in some ways, again, into far in the other direction at times saying then never locked doors and that don't know what these people talking about. i think what happens is that is where i became really interested in seeing the two sides of history being batted about and curious as to not just the story of the neighborhood, but looking at how the process of creating history actually happens. and so that is when i gravitated to that correction and thought, well, this is a story that needs to be told. >> book tv was in frankfurt, kentucky, as part of our cities tour were revisited several southeastern cities of the next few months. to bring you a taste of literary history and culture, our partner with local affiliate. for more information on this and

events from other cities visit c-span.org / local content. >> what you reading this summer? book tv wants to know. >> well, i always read in the summertime. it's a great time to catch up. and one book i just got finished with is too big to fail. a very good book. this book details the financial crisis of the last few years. i've read a lot of books on the same topic, the big short and the financial shock. there have been a number. but this is the last one i read. and if it is a book that details the series of events that led to

the financial collapse starting from the early crisis born in sub prime lending, no income, no job type loans and how people actually made money selling those. those mortgages were sold on the idea that there would be a will to refinance when the housing market -- and that it impossible. it cost them -- is actually a fascinating book that i enjoyed reading. i kind of live did, but it is fascinating to see. also read in repulses book on the financial crisis. so this is an area that i really want to become a much better student of, and this book help me do that. too big to fail. another thing and reading right

now, just about done. the ready and love. she is a good friend of mine, and i admire her willingness to question tradition and conviction, and chief nemesis is like the idea. question. at a time when you find some people who offer ideas based on tradition and precedent, what has happened, she is one he says there is this of the tradition, inquiry professor adam green sees me, and questioning. her book basically is, you know, talking about how as the moderate islamic world has an opportunity to really

incorporate liberty into freedom. and as we look, there is no doubt that the book she is writing is actually an important perspective because that is exactly what the people pet terrier square indonesia and all over the region by saying. they believe that they can have their faith and liberty and they don't have to live under authoritarian governments. she is one who is really raising some important questions. so, you know, i really, you know, i am reading this. i do it all the time. i'm sure i'll be done with this book and probably a few hours. and i will be on to something else. i have a book. i have not opened it yet, but it has to do with the history of investment