c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. and this weekend on booktv on our weekly author interview program "after words," congressman darrell issa talks about his involvement in key congressional investigations including benghazi, fast and furious and the irs targeting controversy. also the weekend the former head of the defense intelligence agency, retired lieutenant general michael flynn, will talk about fighting terrorism, a look at the election of africa's first female president and a report on the misuse of federal funds by states and local governments earmarked for the poor. plus, an inside look at a homicide squad in maryland, and math professor andrew hacker questions if advanced mathematics should be required in schools. and those are just a few of the programs you'll see on booktv this weekend. for a complete television schedule, go to booktv.org. booktv, 48 hours of nonfiction

books and authors. television for serious readers. >> here's a look at some authors recently featured on booktv's "after words," our weekly author interview program. manhattan institute senior fellow heather mac donald looked at the state of policing in america. ney that would ya holt profiled the women instrumental in the development of america's space program in the 1940s and '50s. and historian pamela haig looked at the history of gun ownership in america. in the coming weeks, karen greenberg, director of the center on national security at fordham university, will report on the steps taken by the department of justice to combat terrorism since september 11th. eric fehr will discuss his time in iraq working as an interrogator for a private military contractor. also coming up, "wall street journal" columnist kimberly

strassel will argue the political left is using scare tactics to silence conservative speech. and this weekend republican congressman darrell issa talks about his time as chairman of the committee on oversight and government reform. >> congress has given up much of its power. periodically said we'll punt over to the administration. then when the administration takes all the power you give them -- and like most bureaucracies takes more if they can -- we often find our constituents saying, where do we go to get fairness? how is it that unelected officials are making vast amounts of laws? but the other part of it is an interesting one. the courts when addressing the oversight of congress, have always sided with the legitimate requirement and obligation of the administration to comply with our oversight. >> "after words" airs on booktv every saturday at 10 p.m. and sunday at 9 p.m.

eastern. you can watch all previous "after words" programs on our web site, booktv.org. >> during booktv's recent visit to cleveland, ohio, we visited the cleveland public library to learn about the life of harlem renaissance writer langston hughes. >> [inaudible] >> today we are at the cleveland public library, and we are in the special collections department also known as the

john g. white special collections department. today we are looking at our langston hughes archive. we collect langston hughes materials because langston hughes came to cleveland from 1916 to about 1920. he attended high school here at that time, and he developed a relationship with several of the librarians here. and he stayed connected to the city and to those librarians, and we have correspondence that he gave -- wrote to some of them. he came and visited the children's room and composed a poem and wrote in the date book. we have that. so we had a basis for a foundation, and then we just have over the years built on that and tried to collect materials that relate to his time in cleveland.

happening son hughes was an african-american -- langston hughes was an african-american poet. he was prolific from 1924 to, i think, 1967. and during that time he composed over 60 books, plays, musicals, poems, columns. he was a very prolific and important african-american writer, and he developed a lot of these styles and genres of literature, poetry such as spoken word that are popular today. he was influenced by the african-american culture. when langston came here, cleveland was starting to change. because you had waves of eastern european migrants here, immigrants coming here for factory work for the war, and

you had the wave of african-americans who were coming here also seeking employment. prior to that there was a small african-american population in cleveland, primarily successful, and cleveland was always an integrated city. but with that second migration, that's when you started to see a shift in the racial relations in the city. during langston hughes' time here, he lived in about five different residence cans. he said he -- residences, he said he lived in a lot of basements. he enrolled in central high school which was one of the first public high schools in the country, first in the city. and he wrote for the belfry owl which was the student newspaper there. and in 1928 they did a compilation of some of the poetry that students had written

while at central, and this is a book of verse. he wrote introduction to it, and he also contributed two of his early poems. and it was at central that he developed his love of writing, and he was introduced to the work of carl sandberg and walt whitman through his teacher, ms. weimer. and he also composed a poem while there that's kind of famous, "when susana jones wears red." and that was a poem he wrote about a young lady that he saw, that he saw, i believe he saw her at either central or somewhere else at a dance. but that was one of his first poems that he composed. during that period when langston hughes was here from 1916 to 1920, one of the things he did

is he met a couple, russell and rowena dulles, and they started a settlement house called the playhouse which was the forerunner to what today is known as the carimou house. it was a place for young him froms to come and learn -- african-americans to come and and learn art, drama and writing. so dulles and hughes became friends. hughes would go to their house and read books and talk with them, and they really liked him. and he later became one of the first art teachers there. one of the things he learned -- [inaudible] was art. he had considered becoming a draftsman. he really liked art, and he learned the process through her. and how to be me meticulous andw to finish things. so he took all these skills and taught the children. and throughout his life when he

would come to cleveland, he would stay in contact with the couple and help raise funds. he was one of the -- he was the first artist in residence at the playhouse, and he created several original plays. the playhouse is significant because the it was a place for local and not prominent, nationally-known artists to hone their craft. they were exposed to not only hughes, but a very well-known local artist. many local african-american artists who became prominent started at karamu house, and then they went to clearland institute of art -- cleveland institute of art, judy d. smith

who was the first african-american to graduate from that school with a traveling scholarship. so karamu got a lot of people started. and this is a photograph of him looking at the architect's drawing for what was karamu house, what is now karamu house. one of the plays that he composed there was a musical called "a great day." and he wanted to do a play based on the nativity, a gospel play based on the nativity. it is best known now as black nativity. it's performed all over, and he created that especially for karamu. after langston hughes left cleveland, one of the places he went to was new york. he became involved with the movement known as harlem

renaissance, and that was also a time when he was being published. and he and zora neale hurston, wallace thurmond, aaron douglas, they got together, and they created a magazine called "fire" which was devoted to younger negro artists. this is a facsimile of the magazine "fire." langston was working as a -- he was supposed to be going to columbia university when he was in new york, but he ended up spending a lot of time in harlem. and his career at columbia was short. so he later attended lincoln university and traveled a bit. he wrote his first book of poetry which was "the weary blues." this is a copy of it. and whenever langston would

write books, when he would come to visit he would always sign a copy of the books and donate them to the library. so this is a signed copy. and this is from 1931. and he was in cleveland during 1931 for a good amount of time. his mother had relocated, and he came to the library frequently during that time. this is just a photograph be from our -- photograph from our collection. when he was working in washington as a busboy in a hotel. and that's when he met lindsay. and lindsay kind of spread word about langston hughes and got him known to mainstream audiences. one thing that is very interesting that we have in this collection is one year langston hughes, this is from 1959.

this was his christmas card that he sent out. and as you can see, he was a pioneer in photoshop. he was doing this before there was photoshop. he cut this by hand. and i think it's interesting because it shows not only his artistic skills, but that he had a good sense of humor. this is a letter that langston hughes wrote to a mr. wesley hartley in los angeles, california, in 1957. and, basically, it is a letter summarizing his life when he first wrote poetry. he references writing his first poems in the belfry owl, the school magazine of central high school. and in his autobiography, he talks about central high school,

his establish teacher, ethel weimer, who had a great influence upon her students, guiding us to good poetry and helping those who wanted to write. many of her pupils went into various fields of writing such as journalism, creative writing and publishing. so he always referenced central high school and his time in cleveland and how it was important to him. this is a broadside which is a printed item printed on one side, and this is a broadside from 1966 of a poem called "the backlash blues." it's from his last work which was called "the panther and the leash," and that was his last, his last book of protest poetry. and the poem "the backlash blues" is about the state of african-americans in the '60s at that time.

he makes reference to the vietnam war and and being treated as a second-class citizen. he says you give me second-class housing, second-class food, and whenever i try to do something, all i get back is the mean old backlash which is a reference to slavery and being lashed, being whipped. and at the end of the poem, he says that the world is full of folks like me who are black, yellow, beige and brown and that it's big and that the population of the world is changing.

that was the first time she met lacy hughes and she took the poem, and they made it into a song, and it's one of the most famous renditions of the song was on her album. and at that time, when he died, when lacy hughes died, she put in the song, when lacy hughes died, and she talked about how he encouraged her to be the best artist she could be. so, from then on she would