what sheridan does is obviously says, you know, we've got to start to retreat. when sheridan says to them retreat? he rides along the line. by the way, one of his staff sergeants says general, take your hat off so they'll see you head. he will write very subsequently after cedar creek that the defeat there in the valley and his feelings were beyond measure. no, it's not beyond measure. that drum roll of victories, that burning and destruction of the fertile valley assured lincoln's reelection. and with the reelection of

lincoln, only time was left until apamatick. thank you. [ applause ] >> announcer: next week, we'll be back for the final session from this conference organized by the virginia civil war commission. historian gary gallagher will talk about the importance of studying military history. the civil war airs here every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. and sundays at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> next, on american history tv, a group of former capitol pages talk about their time spent in washington. they reflect on the various

assignments and duties they carried out for members of congress and discuss the benefits of the congressional page experience. the u.s. capitol historical society hosted this one-hour event. >> hello. we're just waving. >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is jerry papazian. i am currently the president of the u.s. capitol page's alumni association. the alumni association was formed in 2009 as a nonprofit organize sairgs of former members -- former pages of the u.s. house, u.s. senate and u.s. supreme court. this afternoon is a kickoff of

the first-ever all-class homecoming reunion all classes of former pages. we have pages represented here today and through the weekend that served from 1940s to the prent. now, we're here today cosponsoring this event with the u.s. canal historical society. we have two parts -- we have a panel of firsts who you'll hear from very soon. our second group panel is the panel of the house and senate historians who are going to give a visual presentation. now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce don cannon, the vice president of the u.s. capital historical society for scholarship and education. don is a third-year veteran. and we appreciate working with the society and putting on the events this weekend.

don? >> well, thank you very much, jerry. and thanks to you and to chris cobey and to everyone with the capitol page alumni association who has put this event together. as jerry mentioned, i've been doing this kind of thing for almost 30 years. i know how difficult this can be. actually, i'm only 33 years old. you wouldn't know it to look at me. i know how these things can age you. thank you, jerry, so much. i'm going to put on briefly this ball cap of the association that jerry was kind enough to give me. i feel a little bit like carol hardy now because you're probably expecteding to see cokie roberts up here to moderate the panel discussion.

unfortunately, a family illness has made it impossible for her to be here. earlier, jerry had asked me if i had been willing to pinch hit for her. feeling that that would never occur, i said sure. now, some of you may recognize that name. if you're a boston red sox fan, you should recognize that name. on september 3rd, 1960, williams was at bat and found the ball off his foot. the manager called on gerald hardy to go up at bat. hopefully, i won't have the same results. i'll try to do better. but we'll carry on and fortunately, like the boston red sox in the 1960s, day finished 32 games behind the new york yankees.

ir don't have to worry about winning because i have a better team here to carry on. it's my pleasure to represent this during our 50th anniversary year. our anniversary theme is your capitol, our mission. 50 years promoting informed citizenship. so it is very appropriate that we take a look in this program at some of the historic firsts and the history of democracy's messengers, the capitol pages who have served congress. i had a fantastic introduction planned for cokie roberts. i just want to share a little bit of it. cokie is a member of the board of trustees of the u.s. capitol historical societies. and i know if she could have at all made it possible to be here, she would have been.

but i was looking forward to introducing her so i could embarrass her. you know, over the years, i've introduced hundreds of people. historians, scholars, authors, current and former members of congress, some of whom probably thought in their own eyes that they were legends. but cokie rob erts is an authentic, official living legend. in 2008, the library of congress gave her that designation and award as a living legend. i've never, ever had the honor of introducing a real living legend. the embarrassing thing i would have said is that among the list of living legends so designated by library of congress is big bird of sesame street. but, anyway, on with the show.

i'm going to make a brief introduction of the four panelists and then we will thrwe it open to them to make brief opening stants. and i'm sure that will lead to an exciting and informative discussion of their careers as capitol pages. we welcome your input. there are three microphones here. and as we come to that point of time, just come and line up and make your observations, we'd appreciate that. let me introduce our panelists in alphabetical order. first, ellen of lakeman. ellen, please just raise your hand.

ellen grew up in dundee, illinois and was the first female page nominee. she earned her bachelor of science degree from the university of illinois. she worked for a relations agency in chicago. her boys both played golf. one professionally and one for the university of dayton. daryl j. gonzalez, daryl. daryl gonzalez, ph.d. is the author of the definitive history of the page program entitled the children who ran for congress. a history of congressional pages. dr. gonzalez has worked in

education for more than 20 years. he earned his ph dchlt from the university of maryland and has his degree from alfred university and frostburg state university. he lives in maryland with his wife and four children. he appointed us the first female page to the u.s. house of representatives in 1973 by the honorable carl albert, speaker of the house. after living for two and a half years in paris france, felda made her home here in washington, d.c. where she still resides. felda has had a multifaceted career and presently is a businessmanagement process improvement and quality assurance consultant and perhaps she'll explain to us what that actually means.

felda has a daughter, chelsea in the d.c. area and immediate family in the tulsa area. she is working on a book about the importance of embracing and planning for change vmt frank mitchell was raised in illinois and was selected to become the first african american page to serve in the u.s. house of representatives in the 20th century. with the consent of then minority leader of michigan, congressman paul finley of illinois chose mitchell for this historic assignment in 1965. as a page in the republican cloak room, he witnessed many historic moemts of the civil rights movement, including the floor debats for the voting rights act of 1965.

he was later employed as a writer and editor for northwestern bell and is deputy director of communications for the illinois attorney general's office. mitchell also started his own public relations firm and served as the executive director for illinois fatherer hood initiative. so now, let me turn the program over to the panelists and we'll proceed since we're here in the capital by seniority. therefore, frank, we'll lelt you begin by making a statement. anything you'd like to share with us? nothing like seniority to make you feel young. my experience in becoming the first african american page was totally unexpected.

as as you may or may not realize. i was just an average 15-year-old playing basketball, seeing my girlfriend when i could, you know. and my mother got this call that they wanted to consider making me a page. i was kind of a geeky guy who i read the newspapers and watched the news and things like that. i wrote my congressman when i was 10 years old. because they were talking about paid television. if they only knew about cable bills today. and he wrote back. but, anyway, that they brought myself and four other boys down to springfield illinois and interviewed us. later that evening, they called me and said that i had been slekted and that on wednesday, i would be flying to washington, d.c.

so that meant i had about, i don't know, 54 hours to get ready, to pack, to buy a suit or to say good-bye to my girlfriend and my bodies. and jay david jones escorted me to washington. we had lunch and then we went to meet mr. finley, gerald ford and less aarons. gerald ford was the house minority whip at the time. and then, after a few minutes discussing some things with them, we went into an antiroom and cameras still, video were there, probably, i don't know, agt or ten of them.

it was quite the whirl wednesday experience. i want to emphasize this was 1965. frank mitchell became the first negro ever to represent. an it was replayed from tulsa to tampa to spokane. and it was in the middle of the civil rights movement. it was three weeks after martin luther king had been turned back. it was two months after malcolm x has been assassinated. my mother let me go. she let me come to washington, d.c.

i'm still amazed. i was 15 and most of the other pages, the boy, the caucasian boy pages, most of them were 16, 17, 18. and a lot of them were from the district area from maryland and virginia. so on the weekends, they could go home, take their laundry, that kind of thing. they had to find me a place to stay. he agreed that i could stay with him. and i did with -- he had a 2-year-old, a fairly newly married, and another son on the way. it was tight in the two bedroom apartment. believe me, the second baby came about a month after i arrived. and the older baby thought i was the new baby that mom and dad had been talking ab.

i'm sure we'll get into it, but there were lots of experiences i had. but i want to be clear i never felt unwelcomed. >> so i don't know. >> yeah, i'm the next oldest. i was nominated in january '71 by senator percy about a month after paulette was no, ma'am nalted by jacob of new york. my story today is about the period of time between january and may when paulette and i were actually sworn in. i would characterize it with a true life experience with the adage that you have all heard. two things to never watch being made. laws and sawages.

unlike paul 2k8 ette, i packed my bags, moved into a women's dorm on capitol hill. across the parking lot from the new set of office building. most of the other residents were f.b.i. secretaries. at the time, under the wise ed gar hoover, secretaries had to live in approved housing. my family and i spent a couple days meeting with percy's staff. and on the appointed day, my parents and i were marched down to sergeant dunphy's office along with the paper work from mark tryce that certified i was qualified to be sworn in as a page. we were accompanied by percy's top aide and said here we are.

dunphy shook my hand and said that he could not, would not swear me in. it was keend of like a relationship that breaks up before it everyone starts. it felt like ellen, we can't date. but don't worry about it. it's not you, it's me. the percy's aid seemed genuinely surprised. my parents and i were dumb struck to the point where we didn't think to ask was this a political miscalculation? some time later, percy said the strategy was confrontational. and there's no exple sit rule expressly prohibiting girl pages.

so the dgsz was made that i would stay in washington. they put me on the payroll and i would work in his office until this got resolved. well, days turned into weeks. but i don't regret this time because i now know few pages ever get the opportunity to work in their sponsor's office. here i was shoulder to shoulder with the press secretary, the foreign relations guy, the domestic relations guy, the guy who opened the mail, the caseworkers who helped constituents deal with problems with social security et cetera. even then, the lady who was in charge of the softball team. even though as a minor certified snat employee, i was entitled to go to page school. mr. dunphy managed to see to it

that i was managed to enroll. while this was all happening, the legislative issue is lurching along. as a his toric note, it kind of makes you scratch your head and wonder why this is an issue. the rules committee created an ad hoc subcommittee to investigate girl pages. now, the nicest thing i think i can say is that they worshipped at the church of the sta kus quo. given an opportunity to move society forward was to delay it as long as possible. now, this was disheartening. but like frank, i have to say

that at the gras roots level, the support of the boy pages was incredible. in the first a.p. story, announcing paulette's nomination, there's a quote from a page named greg king who said don't worry, paulette, it's not that hard. there was another set to discover rule 282. senator percy showed our pictures to all of the boy pages and that fast had more than a dozen volunteers to escort us anywhere we want today go on cap 208 hill. from the dorm to school to work back to the dorm to the movies. for ice cream. all of this time, i expected to start school any day. and another boy page would meet me in the hall way, kind of like to give me the spanish homework.

in early march, the subcommittee held hearings. we were very excited but nervous because the committee chairman announced the school. and it was his intent to evaluate the entire page program. i thought the more you broaden this, the more complicated it gets and the more you could derail girl pages. well, senators javetz and percy testified, took qs and as of senator fred the subcommittee members had many questions. pay. accommodations. what the girls would wear. supervision, safety. they spent a lot of time talking about kicking the can down the road and not do anything until the dorm was built, which we all know is time measured in decades, not days.

they wondered if the job was too physically strenuous. paule trksz te had a nice come back. can you run as fast as the boys. she said no. but i'm a very fast walker. the senators wondered if the gender barriers all over the hill should break down. it was unbelievable. and at some point, the rules were read into the record. curfew, don't walk alone at night, make sure someone knows where you are. mr. dunphy testified and his opening remarks were i feel like the villain in this piece, which resonated with me. here's a report from the hearing. a transcript of everything that was said. and someone, i don't know who it

is, hopefully, decided to append a map of capitol hill. and here it is. and it notes the locations of all of the page residences and also the pages where crimes were kmilted. so i guess that was a nice touch. now, you mielgt think once a hearing was held and a report was issued, something would happen. you would be wrong. on april 27th, our senators, along with others, introduced legislation on behalf of girl pages. it was reported out of the rules committee on may 7th. and so that's the story about making laws.

let's move onto sausages. [ laughter ] >> well, i guess it's my turn now. i had a little bit different experience with getting to the start of being page. i came to washington with my parents in the summer of 1970. we drove in a 1968 lincoln continental. and it seemed like a long way. anyway, we finally got here and we did the whole tour thing. dad dragged us through every, you know, possible thing that you're supposed to see as a child when yoi come here. and one day rksz the four of us came up to the capital building and mr. albert flew into his office up here in the capitol building. and we happen to run into him and he invieted us to lunch. when we were at lunch, he was asking my sister and i what we thought about what we'd seen.

i don't remember what my sister said. and i said why aren't there any girl pages. and he looks at me and says well, felda, i guess it's just an unspoken rule. and i said it's not fair and i would like to be a page. he says well, we'll look into it and we'll see what we can do. so i went back home and started writing letters, you know, and the first letter i got back was so exciting. all of this beautiful franking and it looks so important. and it was one of those lovely letters, thank you, but no thank you. we'll keep trying. but i did keep writing. and as the time neared for me to go to the university of oklahoma, my belief in it started to wane. i didn't begin to think it was really going to happen. and then i got a call from

charlie ward in early mid may in '73 asking me if i wanted to be the first woman page. i said, well, you have to ask my parents. he said it's all right. we've already spoken to your parents. it wasn't about being the first girl page. it was abbeing able to come here and being able to do what the boys were able to do. it was a little bit easier for you and the way it happened to you, but not any easier in the way you had to make it happen. the way that the rules were the way they were, it is just so unfair. and then there were the whole problems of where are you going to stay and who's going to watch over you. heaven knows you're a girl and you can't possibly do that for yourself. so now you're going to months down the road anyway, so i already better be able to do

that. my father was a little bit offended asking him to sign a release saying that nobody was responsible for me and they didn't ask the boy pages for any of that, either. so he was very upset with that. but i was already 18. so he was okay with that. we can go ahead with this. it was so great to get here. it was the summer of 1973 rksz we had the watergate hearings. we were dealing with all of that kind of stuff. and i came here from such a tiny little town and my whole eyes were open to what an incredible, new experience this was and this beautiful city that was glittering and full of energy and people and important people and lots of people.