>> well, part of robert smalls' work will be involved on the sea islands and the establishment of a black yeomanry on the sea island, the ownership of land, the working conditions on the sea islands. a lot of people don't realize this, but the sea islands were a boom area after the civil war. good industries, good jobs, good wages, plus numerous pharmacy that were gained by the former slaves on to sea island. and what destroys them will be in many ways really greatly diminish this will be the depression in the 1920s where actually they'll go down to -- wages will drop to 20 cents a day. in the 1920s, the sea islands around port royal had a population of 40,000 people. by 1940, it's down to 20,000 because people have to leave the area to find new jobs and such.

he set up a legacy in the sea islands which does last well into the 20th century, and then conditions, economic conditions will completely change the area. one of his greatest legacies, though will, be where i work on parris island. while he was a member of the south carolina legislature, he pushes for a naval station at port royal. when he becomes a u.s. congressman, he puts petitions before the u.s. congress for the establishment of a naval station at port royal. and in the 1880s, the united states navy will establish on parris island the port royal naval station. this naval station is eventually moved to charleston, but it becomes now the home of the marine corps recruit depot where i work. and just to put a quick plug in for our museum, please come down and visit us, and also come and visit penn center out on the sea islands as well where you can follow more of the story of robert smalls.

>> i would say that one of the things that robert smalls didn't complete was indeed, even though for a short period he did have this power base, this political power base, he wasn't able to maintain it. again, not through any fault of his own, but because of the forces of the democratic party and the ku klux klan and the democratic rifle clubs. and he essentially was trying to do what other american ethnic groups had done in this country in terms of using politics, using political power to build an economic base. again, we see it in the 19th century and early 20th century over and over again among the irish, among the italians of how they use politics to help their groups to build economic power. and he was thwarted just as most african-americans in the late 19th and at the turn of the 20th

century were thwarted in their efforts to use the political system to build an economic power base. >> i would -- i would just add this too that, you know, when smalls basically ends his political career, we find him continuing to fight. we find him in 1895 in the south carolina constitutional convention, which had been called to reverse everything that had been done, or at least to -- i need to rephrase that to reverse the most essential thing that had been done in the 1868 constitutional convention, which was to enfranchise african-americans. convention w was to franchise african-americans. and he tried to stand up and

prevent the disfranchisement of black south carolinians. that work remains unfinished because of what is going on in south carolina under the guise of voter i.d. and it's happening in other places too. so this is robert smalls' unfinished work that all of us have a responsibility to take up and to continue and to push forward and to work with all other progressive forces. and understand what's going on here because the dismantling of the right to vote in the 1890s in south carolina and other places in the south was the precursor to the massive oppression of people across the board in every aspect of life. so we need to -- we need to take up this effort and to do what smalls did and hopefully we will

be more successful than he was able to be although he gave every ounce of his energy in 1895. >> i think we have time for a few more questions. >> i think it speaks to the point that dr. dulaney made when he said when did the civil rights movement start for african-americans? it started at the very beginning. and robert smalls was part of that ongoing struggle to secure important rights for african-americans and it reminds me of the saying that says people must forever be vigilant in terms of holding on to the positive changes that came out of that struggle. that's part of the work that continues to be done. >> sir? question? >> question. my name is robert david ross and i'm -- i'm a performing artist

with the south carolina arts commission. now, my question is -- and comments i have two questions. is that -- since robert smalls was very concerned about education. he was passionate about that, now, did robert smalls started the public school system in america? or just in the state of south carolina? and also, to add to that, since we lack on visual images of great african-americans especially our robert smalls we would like to suggest that we would like to have an image, a picture, a color picture of robert smalls in every public and private school in the state of south carolina because it would be a good motivating

factor for our youth who have been struggling in their self esteem to be associated with an african and to see robert smalls' picture when they are coming into the school. it would generate a sense of pride to say this african was about education. i can be like him. i can motivate him. but we need those images in the schools. and we would like to hear the response from the panel and for them to assist us in this effort because we need men and women of courage here in the state of south carolina. we need help. and i would like for you to respond and i thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> robert smalls started the -- proposed the resolution to

create the public school system in south carolina, not in the united states of america public schools of course go back to the 18th century common schools in boston, in new england. the south didn't have public schools. and again that was one of the continue contributions that dubois pointed out in the article that i cited earlier that in the south there was no public school system, no common schools, primarily because we have slave holders who dominated the politics in the states -- in the southern states and basically they didn't want to spend their tax dollars who were not slave holders. they send their children to the north and overseas and dirt farming upcoming white people weren't of any interest to them. and they didn't want to educate the enslaved african-americans. so i teach african-american history is one of my stories is

to tell about robert smalls and his proposing the resolution to create the public school system and match it in texas, an african-american from harrison county proposed the legislation in texas to create the public school system. so indeed, robert smalls, again, he is more intimately involved in creating the public school system down in buford county. >> and i want to add one point to dr. dulaney's commentary and that is, there were no wide-spread public schools in south carolina. you do have a few instances where planters or other individuals set up schools for their families. and in some cases, a few cases, african-americans were allowed to attend. but again there weren't any widespread public schools.

>> right. in fact, there are public schools in charleston before the war but they were called pauper schools because the feeling was if you had money, you would send your children to private schools. you would not send them to these marginalized public schools. charleston has a number that is above the average and there is a legacy that carries over in charleston today. >> on your question about images there are at least three civil war images of robert smalls of which a very good portrait could be made from. buford was filled with photographers and he went to the studios to have his picture taken. >> sir?

>> i name is donald perillot. i have a point of information i'd like to share with the panel and curriculum specialist and the like movement son is a history teacher in alabama. he's visited south carolina limited amount of time. the last time we didn't get to go to fort sumpter. i worked is there since he was here the last time and michael and them allowed them to film me and my peers working on the restoration project. my son asked me for my daddy's medals of world war ii. and i was able to tell him that i was in the gent art fifth army in italy, france, north africa

and these kinds of things. he says they are allowed as teacher -- this is to get the history out. this is where i'm going with this. he can use real life images because he himself -- he said i don't believe it was no slaves. i took him on the self guided tour so his students would be more interested if he could say my father and my grandfather did this in charleston and they can use these real life images and teaching history as he -- as they see fit. i thought that was an excellent instrument that a teacher could use at that level to get children to appreciate and like history. i just wanted to share that with you. when i substituted i don't recall as i walked -- i had -- i subbed at different classes i don't think i saw a lot of that. but i thought that was an excellent way to get them into

history and appreciate it more and they could -- teachers could be allowed to do that. >> thank you. any comments? i have two quick questions and then we're going to wrap it up. quick questions and quick answers. first, any quick comments about how did america think about, perceive, react to the story of robert smalls when the news came out? generally slaves were considered beasts of burden without capacity of big thinking, strategic thinking and the like. and how did that -- the reaction differ in the south versus in the north. quick question. >> well, quick answer, the south probably kept their mouth shut because they didn't want robert

smalls' example influencing the other slaves. when the slaves escape there is a quick flurry in the newspaper and they don't take about it any more. the republican newspapers gave smalls great play. harper's weekly, democratic anti-war newspapers would not. and that's one of the things that dupont and per value drayton said that robert smalls need to be shown as an example to other people in the north to show them that their stereo types are not correct. >> and then last question, i think now generally people know the story, the gist of the story. are there any tidbits, any things that people don't typically know that we should bring out? any nuances of the story, any particulars that we should bring out in our closing moments?

>> well, i'll take a stab at this and go back to the question about who in the 20th century. and i'm going to get at it from a backwards movement. robert smalls, obviously a native, another individual, who comes down and is at penn center to help plan his strategy in the 1960s. both are articulate. both are very well known for their speeches. if nothing else a lot of robert smalls' speeches are written down and are wonderful things. he has wonderful sense of humor and the 1895 convention and such when he makes comments back at pitch fork ben tillman and others as well. both are extremely brave. robert smalls never went around armed after the civil war. there were threats against him. he once commented when you face down an 8-inch confederate

cannon these mean nothing to you. and they were both pacifists. they were pacifists in doing. i'll give to you martin luther king and robert smalls. >> and just to amplify steve's point about the bravery. i mean we forget about that a lot of times. but for smalls and those other african-american men in 1895 at the constitutional convention to oppose disfranchisement and -- this really was an act of courage and bravery. but these men had been through so much already just as you said. but the -- but the other point that i want to make is that in the constitutional convention of course was ben tillman, former governor. and now senator from south carolina and ben tillman had participated in the hamburg

massacre. and to stand up toe to toe with ben tillman was a supreme act of bravery. that's the kind of mettle these men had. >> and it's an act of bravery because many times he was certainly near the end of his career, a lone voice and he was still there and he was still fighting the good fight. >> any -- [ applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you so much for coming out. it's been a long day but it's been a wonderful day. i want to thank our guests and good night. [ applause ] tomorrow on washington journal pedro da costa discusses

job numbers. joan goldwasser talks about the dodd-frank act on debit and credit cards. and we talk with stephanie vance saw her to of "the influence game." this weekend, head to the state capital named in honor of thomas jefferson with book tv and american history tv in jefferson city, missouri. saturday, literally life. former senator jean carnahan on family life inside the governor's mansion. also, a butcher's bill, a provisions list to the university of missouri's special collections. the stories behind eight miniature back loanian clay tablets. >> at one time, in 1967, this

was called the bloodiest 47 acres in america. >> a former warden takes you through the missouri state penitentiary. and walk through the halls of the governor's mansion. once a month local content vehicles explore the history of cities across america. this weekend from jefferson city saturday at noon and sunday at 5:00 eastern on c-span 2 and 3. we had pulled in for the refueling that morning at 9:30. we had moored the ship to a pier in the middle of the harbor. >> the former commander on the "uss cole" on the attack that left 17 dead and 37 injured. >> i was doing routine paperwork when at 11:18 in the morning there was a thunder rouse explosion. you could feel all 8400 tons of destroyer thrust up and to the right. we hung for a second in the air

as the ship was twisting and flexing. we came back down in the water. the lights went out. everything on my desk lifted up about a foot. i grabbed the under side of my desk in a