economic problem. the march on washington of 1963 could be interpreted within a narrow understanding of the civil rights movement as a racial liberalism, liberal consensus. this clearly could not. this is challenging all those notions of class politics, redistribution. rose. >> this movement was challenging so many aspects of the government. people could misconstrue each thing. if they did not understand it, they could easily be swayed by the media giving the wrong information and not the full picture. >> they did focus a lot on problems. >> it was like a handful of problems they were all striving for. it was kind of a lot of challenge to the government. they saw it as a threat. >> polls showed the majority

opposed this movement. as king said, it is easier to integrate lunch counters than eradicate slums. it did not cost anything to integrate lunch counters. now we are talking about something that will cost billions of dollars. we don't have time to look more carefully at the black power perspective. but i want to point you to their notion of the ghetto as a colony. in this chapter, they explicitly claim integration is not a legitimate goal because it is unfeasible and suggests white culture is better than black culture. i will leave you with a quote from stokely carmichael who famously shouted "black power" and got the press attention. he has his creds. he was a serious activist. here he is later. we will explore more this aspect of black power and its perspective on community control and those things at a later date. thank you for your wonderful participation, and i will see you on monday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> today at 4:00 p.m. eastern, and 1939 documentary originally produced for the world fair. you modern cities are unhealthy likely therefore kids to play are a better option.

--reel that is on the america. and you can't c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> alexander ramsey was a politician who achieved recognition and people don't realize that. he was not from minnesota. he and his wife or from pennsylvania. he was born in 1815. he rose through the ranks, he started as a lawyer and then became involved in the whig party, served in congress, and that is how he made connections. that would help him later in his life, including working for zachary taylor. taylor was so grateful the work

ramsey did, he wanted to a point in the first territorial governor of minnesota. ramsey had a career from first territorial governor, the mayor of st. paul, second elected state governor, u.s. senator, serving washington, and secretary of war. we are not sure why taylor chose alexander ramsey to be the first territorial governor. actually ramsey was the third choice. what if history went a different direction? who were the other people? ramsey did except. -- accept. he and his wife or hesitant to come to this area. st. paul was very much a fur trading village. very small. not the capital city we know today. and his wife, to show her sense of humor, supposedly said to him, minnesota, where is that, denmark? it was an unfamiliar place to

people in the eastern part of the united states. as a good wife, in those days, she realized her fortunes lay with her husband and they ended up moving to st. paul and arrived in may of 1849. the house we are in was completed in 1872. it took four years to build. in september of 1872, they moved in. previously to this house, they called it their mansion house. they got the idea for building it from the years they spent in washington, d.c., when he was a senator. it was the same style in the georgetown suburb of d.c. so they knew they really wanted to have their mansion reflective of what was being built on the

east coast. that sign they had arrived in a home they felt they deserved, for a family home and also for entertaining. we have over 14,000 artifacts attached to the site. that is remarkable for any historic site. a lot of the collections are stored here on site. some are stored at the minnesota history center. this is the reception room that would have been used as a visiting space. if you would have been here, she would have special places she would visit with you. it was a room designed to impress visitors. it would only be used during the day. if you had a dinner party in the evening, the ladies might adjourn for some lemonade. and the guys maybe had brandy or

cigars somewhere else. that would have been the intended use of this room, to impress. one of the wonderful things is in 1872 grand piano made for the ramsey's daughter. that was a gift upon her completion after her year in germany. it is in working condition. it is something we do as we can to keep it in good condition. at that point, they would make the anodes made to order and so one of the other pianos being made was for queen victoria's daughters. one of the other items, there are several portraits. one is of alexander ramsey. that was about how he looked when he became governor of minnesota. there were policies you are expected to carry out. we know one of the main things taylor was sending him to do was to get land. this was the time of the

manifest destiny in the united states. it was time in many people's minds, the minds of that era, to gain more land. so in 1850, there were treaties negotiated with the dakota people and alexander ramsey was expected to take part in that, and he did. there were two treaties and they opened up for settlement the area we would call southern minnesota. the st. paul region south to the iowa border and then later on there were various treaties. what happened is the settlers

were allowed to come in. the dakota people were forced onto reservations. that set up a house of cards that would fall down many years later in 1862. very tragic part of minnesota history. an important part of history to know about. people don't realize a lot of the treaties and also the failure of these treaties and annuity payments, harsh treatment of the dakotas, would result in bloodshed years later. this is a spot in the house alexander ramsey used as his office later in his career. it was originally a guest room, but later on this became an office space. you would meet with him up here. there is a lot of artifacts about his time in the various political offices he held. one of them, people don't realize he and his wife were very good friends of mr. and mrs. lincoln. abraham lincoln and alexander ramsey had met in the 1840's as congressman. lincoln was representing

illinois. ramsey was representing pennsylvania. they had that connection and years later, when lincoln was in the white house, ramsey was the second state governor. one of the things mr. ramsey was very proud of was that he happened to be in washington when the civil war broke out in 1861 and was able to pledge one thousand troops on behalf of minnesota to the union and he was able to contact simon cameron about that and he had him write down the offer and take it to president lincoln. governor ramsey was proud of him having the distinguishing characteristic of the first of

northern state to offer troops when the civil war broke out. one of the other items in the collections is ramsey's journal from 1865. i have it open to friday, april 14. and also saturday the 15th. alexander ramsey was the u.s. senator. that is why they were living in the international hotel in washington. his entries reflect a tragic time in american history. he writes about, in the middle of his daily affairs, the assassination of president lincoln. john wilkes booth, he mentions the attempt on secretary stewart and jumps to the inauguration of president johnson. he was one of 10 present that day, including some from illinois. he was proud of that. he was always in the right place

at the right time and always put himself there. it is fascinating to look through his journal. i mentioned some of the things he writes about might not be personal, but they are a great insight into what his daily life was like. it is important to have these objects help tell the story. later in his political career, after he had been a senator, he was also nominated, were appointed, to be the secretary of war. one of the other items in his office focuses on his time as secretary of war. he served in that position until 1881. and then his paper holder he had

sitting on the desk, you can see it states his name and also his title in the hayes administration. the two men had met many years earlier while serving in the u.s. senate. they have been governors. they were part of that club. and then of course hayes had become a friend and was elected. after his time of secretary of war, he served another administration, overlapping between garfield and arthur. the utah commission was put together. they were supposed to explore this problem of what to do with the territory of utah. people wanted to become a state. they wanted to be admitted to the union. there was a problem according to some people because a lot of the people in the area were mormon and they were practicing polygamy. the country was up in arms about

that. so these politicians were sent to that area where they were supposed to interview people in that area and find out what was happening and what they were doing. the committee never really did end up making any decision, utah was later admitted to the union, but people felt strongly about that issue. there are different collection pieces here and the minnesota history center. two we have, when about the doctrine of mormonism and a pamphlet dealing with plural

marriage. so there is a lot more issues, some of those issues we keep hearing about in the modern day as well. fascinating to note some of the same issues people were wondering how to deal with. a lot of people felt in the later victorian era ramsey really helped create what we would consider minnesota. you can say that. i think that is fair to say, you have to be very conscious about what that means in the modern day. everything from ramsey county, a looking at his legacy through a 2014 lentz we can get a understanding of how controversy are yet compelling his legacy can be. we have to be able to address that head-on. that is important to do. >> find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next online at c-span.org\l /localcontent. next on american history tv, author and west point history professor reg re--- professor