of 20 to 30 feet. he's done target practice. he can hit stationary targets 20 to 30 feet. >> would-be assassin, john hinckley, fires six shots. this weekend on american artifacts, the race to save a president. today at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv, this weekend on c-span3. this monday, watch american history tv in primetime on c-span3 with a l 34th president dwight david eisenhower. at 8:00 p.m., architect frank gary on his design for the eisenhower memorial. following that at 9:00 a.m., the president's granddaughter susan eisenhower, her opposition to the gary designed eisenhower memorial. at 10:30 p.m., an archival film about president eisenhower produced by the u.s. army. good evening, and welcome to

the 2012 c-span tour, central arkansas, kickoff event. how are you doing this evening, central arkansas? >> with the help of our comcast cable partners we bring you little rock weekend on american history tv. spending a week in both the capital city and its sister city of north little rock just across the arkansas river, our team of local content vehicles producers visited historic sites, museums and other archives to talk with ex-per pe ex-pert experts on the history of the area. the nation watched the story of the historic integration of little rock's central high school unfold, on the other side of the river at north little rock high the fight was as fierce but the outcome much dig different. >> as we walked, the crowd got more intensified. they kept on telling us and calling the same thing over and

over and over and over, you're not supposed to be here, go home, go back to your own sch l school, this is in the your school. we don't know what's going to happen. we don't realize what's going to happen. >> we'll hear the story from one of the african-american students who helped to integrate little rock high. >> this is a really great flag, too. >> then in 30 minutes we take yaw you behind the scenes to the arkansas state archives, a preview on civil war flags, curator of the collection, time for the 150th anniversary of the war. >> when these young men were out on the battlefield, this was their honor, their badge of honor. >> the relocation centers are supervised. >> a little known story of a world war ii japanese internment

camp in arkansas, one of only two camps east of the mississippi. the art and artifacts made by its residents there. >> i think the fact they took so much pride in the things they were making and they worked so hard to create these little things of beauty tells you a lot about the spirit of the people who were in the camps. so i think that they really used the art as a way of expressing hope in a time that sort of seemed hopeless. >> all this and more as comcast and c-span bring you to little rock on american history tv. >> this school and i formed a relationship probably long before 1957. i grew up in the neighborhood, i played in the yard, but you couldn't go inside. we watched football games through the holes in the fence. this was basically our school, we thought, for three months out of the year. in the summertime we had a great time here, but when school

started, you didn't walk on the campus. in 1957, integration was big, i'm sure, all over the south, but it didn't really hit us until central high. and after that, then i think everybody started to feel that we were being segregated again. >> the scene at north little rock, the first day of school in '57 was every bit as difficult and those six students who attempted the integration were extremely brave and really got no credit. it was probably 40 years before anybody wrote anything about that incident. >> i looked forward to school starting, but the day -- the night of the day before school started, i had my clothes laid out and i was ready to go to school. my aunt, whom i lived with at the time, told me that i was not going to school that day, i was going to go over to a friend's

house. and they were all there. five of the other guys and myself. i didn't know what was happening. they explained to me what was happening. we're going to try to enter northern hirock high school. they gave us a couple rules. stay together, walk together, keep your head up. don't act like you don't want to be here, like you're afraid. keep your head up, walk straight ahead. as we walked, we got in front of chester's grocery store, the crowd intensified. in other words, there seemed to be more of them. and they were just swarm iing. as i looked down the hill, back there, you could see heads of people. they seemed to be waving like heat. there were so many of them, we could not figure out what they were doing, but we didn't speak,

not even to each other. the ministers spoke among themselves. we didn't say anything. we kept walking. as we walked, the crowd got more intensified. they kept on telling us and calling the same thing over and over, over and over, and over and over. you're not supposed to be here, go home, go back to your own school, this is not your school. things of that nature. and it kept on and on and on. we stopped right here and we started to walk again right about here. and by this time, there was a crowd behind us and there was a crowd coming from this street, as if they were standing there waiting and they were coming from that way. so now there are people all around. as we started up the steps right here, then the crowd did the same thing. they just all surrounded us. this big sea of people.

i said a couple times it looked mike 10,000 people out there. the truth is, the paper reported the next day, it was about 500. maybe my feeling had something to do with thinking there were that many. we started up the steps. as we started up the steps, they started up the steps. we walked on up all the steps. and about right here, after we had gotten to the top of the steps right here and gone up to the school, the crowd now is in their little circle, here. somebody put their fingers right on the back of my neck. all they said is, i just want to see what a -- feels like. i've never known what it was. i've been asked if it was a boy or girl. i can't tell you. about this time, they know

what's going to happen. we don't know what's going to happen. we don't realize what's going to happen when we get up those steps. just when we got here, we were stopped because the doors flew open and two men came out. and they walked right up here. the ministers walked all the way up on the flat part here and started talking to them. and i imagine -- i don't know what they said, because down here the people are still behind us. the noise is still intense. and they talked for about two, three minutes. and they seemed to come to some kind of understanding because the ministers came back to us, turned us around, and we started back down the steps. >> they later did meet with the school superintendent who basically said, look, you saw the crowd out there, they don't want integration right now.

and we just, you know, you got to go back to jones high school which was the black school in north little rock at that time. it was not until the '66/'67 school year that black students entered and more fully enrolled at north little rock high school. the first black graduates were in the spring of 1967. >> this school, these steps, this whole thing, it had a fear for me that i could not fan thom. in fact, i live in this city and i have ever since the 1965, but i never came back up here again. but since then, i've had two sons to graduate from this high school. my grandsons graduate from this high school. and i've got a granddaughter attending this high school now. i feel that what we did was necessary, and at the time, it

helped. and i would do it again, if i had the chance. all weekend long american history tv joins our comcast of central arkansas cable partners in little rock to showcase its history and literary culture. founded in 1836, little rock has a population of about 200,000 people and gets its name from a rock formation on the banks of the arkansas river. you're watching american history tv on c-span3. >> douglas mcarthur was arguably one of the most influential military figures in our country's history, and we're actually, we're filming in the birthplace of douglas macarthur in arkansas. mcarthur's father, captain

arthur mccar thur was in the u.s. military following his service in the civil war and came to little rock, arkansas, in 1959 and spent about 18 months here serving at the arsenal that existed on the site where our buildinglocated. he brought to him with little rock his wife. they lived in an apartment that's contained in this structure. the following january, douglas was born here and spent his first six months in this building. six months after his birth, his father was transferred outside of arkansas and he only came back to arkansas one time in this life in 1952 when he was 72 years of age. during that return visit in 1952, here on these grounds, for the first time publicly, he acknowledged in a speech to 10,000 people that he was returning to the place of his birth. for us, that's the very

significant part of our site's history, our building's history. we embrace mcarthur and proudly include him in the name of our museum. 1952 was a very pivotal point in mcarthur's career. in fact, that brings us to this room that we're standing right now. in april of 1951, after a very lengthy military service that spanned three worldwide conflicts. world war i, world war ii and korea, mcarthur was relieved of command by harry s. truman. it's important for us to consider the korean conflict occurred five years after the end of world war ii and that was a conflict that had spanned all over our globe. millions of people had died. lives had been uprooted and affected by it. and then here we were five years later, you know, getting into another conflict. for americans, it was in a country that most people in

america had no idea where it was. and the united nations forces who were led by general mcarthur, and he disagreed with the way the war's been conducted and made his disagreement, made his disafwreemt agreements with president public and because of that president truman suicide de needed to relieve him of command and bring him home. >> i found myself compelled to take this action. generaling a arthur is one of our greatest military commanders but the cause of world peace is much more important than any individual. >> at the time, mcarthur was held as a hero. he returned to this country after a very lengthy absence and was received by parades on the west coast and east coast. he addressed a joint session of congress. >> mr. president, mr. speaker, and distinguished members of the

congress, i stand here with a sense of deep humility and great pride. >> and, as i said, he was welcomed as a hero. but the issues that have been examined since that time, i think transcend even the korean war. the issue of civilian control, of the military, of the issue of the containment of communism and why we were fighting in korea, and for i think an overlooked issue and that is the issue of the conduct of a limited war versus the conduct of a total war which i think really is the crux of what mcarthur's dilemma was in fighting the korean conflict. if you look at the way wars have been fought from world war ii prior to that time, the basic philosophy was simply this.

the politicians get us into a war. they send the military figures in to fight the war. the objective is to destroy your enemy, and then the politicians negotiate peace, and then you try to return to normal. and that's what happened in most of the wars up through the end of world war ii, but the advent of nuclear weaponry totally changed the way warfare could be conducted, because if you went into a conflict with the goal of totally annihilating your enemy, with the use of nuclear bombs, you would not only destroy them, but you could also destroy yourselves and our entire population. so the idea, the way that wars had traditionally been fought was changing, was evolving, and for someone like macarthur, who in 1950, he was 70 years old. and you have to understand that macarthur had been trained in the military tactics of west point back in the early 1900s. and the tactics he been trained

on how to fight a war, worked in world war i, in world war ii, but with korea, he was having to work under constraints that went totally against the way he had been trained, yet the realities of having to conduct a limited war dictated you could not totally go against, and throw everything you had, all your arsenal of weapons against your enemy. you have to correct macarthur for believing in his principles to the point he was willing to sacrifice his military career for those principles. he had been taught all of his life, from his father being a military man to his military service that you obeyed your commander in chief. heave he was going publics with disagreements with his commandingef and many would feel that he did so because he felt like his point was so right that he was willing to sacrifice his career, which he ultimately did. truman fired him.

brought him home. and the war continued on until its conclusion a few years later. now, we, today, have the benefit of hindsight and there are people today who would argue that had macarthur been allowed to pursue the war as aggressively as he wished, to go on in and invade china, that we would not be seeing the -- the geopolitical influences that are there today, between north and south korea. but you have to remember at the time that all this was occurring, five years after the end of world war ii, and was this country, was the world, ready to go into another potentially worldwide conflict over north and south korea? >> since i took the oath on the plane at west point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but i still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that

day, which proclaimed most proudly that old soldier never dies. they just fade away. and like the old soldier of that ballad, i now close my military career and just fade away. an old soldier who tried to do his duty as god gave him the light to see that duty. good-bye. [ applause ] hosted by our comcast of central arkansas cable partner, c-span's local content vehicle recently visited many historic sites in little rock, the capital of arkansas.

learn more about little rock all weekend long on american history tv. north little rock is all of our square miles are places i have a great deal of affection for but this one is special to of us. the old mill was built in the late 1930s. it was originally built by a developer who built the lakewood area which is one of our residential subdivisions and it was dedicated to kind of reflect a bit of art, in fact, a lot of art. the concrete, as you can see around, is actually -- looks like petrified wood, but it's concrete. you know, the mill was actually never an operating gristmill, but it was constructed to

reflect that kind of an ambience about the city's and the country's early history. and milling flour and turning it into bread. but it was done by an artist, actually, out of mexico. a fellow by the name of rodriguez was commissioned by the matthews family to come up and build this as a part of that residential neighborhood. and over the years, the city took it over. and now operates as one of our parks. one of the things that's interesting from a historical note is that this old mill is probably the only standing structure or structures that were in the movie "gone with the wind." the history reflects that that got on the script list of scenes and the opening credits -- wasn't on very long -- came up and we now claim that title from a literary standpoint. there's a lot that goes on here.

you know, readings take place, weddings take place. we have folks who rent it for various things. and it's just become a symbol of north little rock. so we're awful excited about sharing that with people who come in from around the country. and frankly, it's a little bit of heaven on earth, at least from those folks who get to enjoy it here in north little rock. so we want to welcome everybody presently, as your viewers, to north little rock's old mill and ask them to come whenever they have a chance to be in the neighborhood. all weekend long, american history tv is in little rock, arkansas, to explore its rich history. you're watching american history tv, 48 hours of people and events telling the american sto story. >> the historic arkansas museum is located in downtown little rock. the museum encompasses five antebellum houses situated on their original foundations. the houses are used to interpret

the lives of 19th century urban slaves and slave owners. >> this is the brownly house built by robert brownly for his brother, james, and james' wife, isabelle. they had two slaves. one was tabby. we don't know the name of the other slaves. tabby is the slave that would have spent her time caring for the house and the outbuildings. where we are now is the bedroom. this is typical of a middle class bedroom. this is dated approximately 1848 to 1852. we know mrs. brownly did needlework, so we have placed items in here that she might have use d working with yarn. mrs. brownly married james when she was about 14. she came here when she was 16 years old. she was a young bride. she was away from home. far, far away from home and was

homesick and very unhappy and she was a bit sickly as well, so robert brownly speaks of tabby, her slave, very briefly in his memoir. he says isabelle took her passions out on tabby. we don't know exactly what that means except that she was treated badly and that robert brownly noticed it. we are walking through what would be the breezeway and actually in the summer this is the coolest part of the house. we open both doors and most of the family's time was spent out here. they might even bring the dining room table and bring it out here to have their meals. this is the parlor. this is where if mrs. brownly had been inclined to do entertaining, this is where she would have done it. isabelle brownly was taken from her home when she was so young. she came to arkansas when she was still a teenager and had not been married to james brownly

for very long. they arrived in 1848 and they left in 1852. isolated here, andin 1852. she returned to scotland while her husband, james, went to california. so a few yards away from the brownly house is one of the outbuildings. this is the brownly kitchen. this is where tabby would have had her own bedroom and would have done most of her work for the brownly family. she was responsible for the laundry. she would have bn cooking all . she would have tended the garden. and she likely was responsible for any work done in the smokehouse as well. she was the only slave of the brownly family, and so tabby would have been responsible for maintaining the household

altogether. this is the work area of the kitchen. everything in here is actually reproduction, although it is authentic 1840s, 1850s furniture. a typical day for tabby might have been, she gets up in the morning and she begins cooking a morning meal. her cooking of the big meal of the day typically would be done by noon or 1:00 and then in the afternoon she would work on, perhaps, repairing clothing, making clothing, cleaning, things like that. generally the cooking was done before the hot part of the day. ladies of the house typically worked alongside their slaves depending on what the work was that was to be done. polishing of silver, often the algside the slaves. since tabby was the only slave, isabelle probably worked alongside her doing most of the tasks that needed to be done.

the ashley family was unusual. the ashley family lived another block near here and they made an effort to keep their slave families together, but that certainly was not typical here. the talk in t you were a slave, that you would want to be a slave of the ashley family. the ashley family gave their slaves a little more autonomy than some of the other slaves in town would have had. there were many more of them, so their duties were more specific. they were to come and go, not as they pleased, but as needed, to take care of the things done in the household which was true for tabby also. that would have also been true for tabby. so as your cooking, your tasks might include going to the market to buy more food which would have been on an account by the family at the store. slaves, in general, in towns had

more autonomy than slaves on plantations did. so in that respect, the ashley family was not that unusual, but the ashley family was known to be kinder to their slaves than isabelle likely was to tabby. this is tabby's bedroom area. this would have been pretty much her own space. right here what we have set up is somewhere for her to hang her laundry in case of rain. looks like it might rain today, so any laundry she hangs to dry, she'll hang on these bamboo poles here. this is her bed, and it is like a murphy bed. so it will fold up against the wall in case tabby needed more room in here. she has her own fireplace that she probably would have kept lit most of the time. and we do have some things that she might have had, little boxes for anything that she wanted to keep things in. there were a lot of slaves in the area who aspired to learn to

read. especially after learning that the ashley slaves, almost all of them were literate, so tabby probably was one of the slaves who would have attended one of william wallace andrews' prayer meetings. william wallace andrews was one of ashley's slaves when he was a minister and would conduct prayer meetings at his home. and during the course of his prayer meetings, he taught the attendees to actually read the words in the bible. i think tabby probably was one of those slaves who would have gone to one of those prayer meetings. i was very surprised by the autonomy the slaves were given, how they were not just permitted but required to come and go without constant permission from the slave master. there were things that they were expected to take care of during the day and in the court of tse that, if you were required to go to the market, required to go to

the river to meet a shipment, you were expected to do that and you didn't have to have a pass to do so, as the slaves on plantations did. slaves on plantation had to have a pass to move from one plantation to the other, even if they were going to go visit their families. slaves in urban areas were expected to come and go and they were not required to have a pass to do so. i think people have a conception of slavery, but not so much of the individual people. what we try to convey here is that the slave experience was as varied for the enslaved people as life would have been for free people. no two slaves had exactly the same experience. all weekend long, american history tv joins our comcast of central arkansas cable partners in little rock to showcase its history and literary culture. founded in 1836, little rock has