law 50 years ago as part of the civil rights movement has changed our country and what has happened in those years. yes, we have centuries-long information to impart but how we continue the dialogues of today is truly important and how we understand how it is that we got here in our nation is truly significant. so we hope that you will continue to participate with us on this journey and continue to think about our history through the lens of migration. thank you. [applause]

next, inside the u.s. capitol to learn about the history of the house of representatives page program. the program began in the early 1800s and continued up until 2011 when due to technological and staff changes, pages were no longer critical to the legislative process and the program was ended. one of the oldest parts of the capitol's house wing. >> history going back to the 1800s.

we don't know when the first pages served in the house. the tradition of having messengers and a page is simply an messenger, an errand runner. in u.s. legislative practice it usually has involved in the u.s. congress young boys between age 8 and 16. who would run all kinds of errands for members of congress, on the floor, rounding up members, things of that nature. we have a couple of accounts that kind of place it in the 1800s when the first pages -- young boys, served in the house as pages. there was an eyewitness account of the house door keeper thomas crackston on the floor with his nephews. and these were the first accounts of pages. it developed over a couple of

decades. by the 1820s, we began to see pages showing up in expense eports in the house where we can say definitely that's a page. that's a floor attendant. and it developed over a couple of decades. the pages were young boys, in the house they were a little older, preteens, and young teens. the idea was that a younger child was much more liable to take direction. if you had an older teen, you might not get such compliance. and the thing too about the house is it was meeting in a chamber which is now modern national statuary hall. the old hall of the house was very cramped. it was filled with desks. it was really packed with members at an early point in its existence. and the idea was that you wanted young, fleet of foot boys who

and he kept a fantastic diary. nd he had one point is watching the pages on the floor. he refers to the diary as tripping mercuries, moving about the floor. in his era, it would have been 18 to 20 pages who were serving. that time the pages tended to be boys from washington, d.c. and its environs. sometimes they were sons of members or sons of federal officials. but a lot of times they would be orphans or children from destitute families who congress was looking to get a hand up.

the paid for pages in that era was good. they were paid for $1.50 at the beginning of the 1800s to -- to $2.50 per day. at the end of congress, they could get a large bonus from the members. it was a lucrative enterprise paging in the 19th century. >> one of the things that's interesting about the visual history of pages is that there's such a part of the legislative process that they don't really get noticed in terms of paintings and prints until a little later. until you start seeing illustrated journals like harper's and leslie's illustrated news. it's not until the 1850s and early 1860s that they start showing up as party engravings. in fact, one of my favorite parts about that is they're kind of used by the illustrators as a commentary on what's going on right then and the rest of it

-- the rest of it -- the image. because the images are often -- they're of the chamber. the big space with a lot going on and an accompanying story that's going tell you all of the details of what's discussed on the floor and what that image i there. we have an 1861 news print and the article is talking about how fractious is chamber is. here are several folks in here yelling to be heard, trying to make their point. and right in the front there's a little page and he's looking towards where some of the yelling is going on. and he is silhouetted. one of the things that he's there for is so we know oh, consternation and confusion as

to why this is happening is part of what's going on here. it isn't regular. but according to the london illustrated news, its's unusual because it's unlike what they're used to. that moves along often just a few years later in 1869, thadias stevens is giving what is considered his last great speech a lot of heads and suits here. if you're an artist, that would e tough. he's got a pair of pages here and they're not just presents sitting on the steps as pages did. but they're wrapped by the great thadias stevens giving one of the last speeches everybody knows he's not long for this world. that goes on and on in 1877. there are little pages sitting down here as part of a really lengthy process in 1877 to solve

the problems related to the disputed presidential election of the previous fall. it's so lengthy that some of the poor fellows here on the steps oh it was roster have fallen asleep. some look plane exhausted. one of the things the artist is letting us know, this is late at night, it's going on for a long time. it might feel a little tedious to the average joe which is what the page stands in for. pages weren't just in the chamber, of course. they were out and about doing other things. >> one of the things that the pages would do in the 19th century prior to having a lot of staff on capitol hill, pages performed a lot of administrative jobs that staff do now. one of them was to have go out sometimes late at night and round up members from the boarding houses or from their hotels from a late night

vote. we have a wonderful memoir by a page who served in the early 1870s, his name was augustus thomas. he recalled having to sit through what he referred to as sophomoreific drivel. he said the pages would be sitting on the rostrum nodding off to sleep. if they could behind the rostrum, they would be playing a game of marbles. but he'd say we always have that problematic member who would demand the call of the house in the wee hours of the morning just to make a point for his colleagues and the pages would have to sift out through the city as process servers rounding up the delinquents. so pages would do a lot of things. in the 19th century, we didn't have office buildings or members or staff.

the staff that was there was really bare bones. so the pages performed a lot of tasks, not just delivering messages or filling water glasses on the floor or lighting a cigar for a member or lighting a lantern. but they would haul firewood in for the members in to the old hall of the house in the wintertime to feed one of the fireplaces in the old hall. they also worked in the document folding room. copies of speeches and committee reports would be prepared to distribute it to members and to their constituents in the districts. and this was endless hours of work. so the pages kept the institution running and kept the legislative process running. >> that reminds me, one of the nifty artifacts we have, some of the other things that pages were doing.

one of the things you were discussing is how pages -- what pages were paid. and some pages would be able to supplement their income by doing something like this. this is a page -- a receipt for a page who managed to get this many people to order up extra copies of a speech by benjamin butler. and it was to be printed at the congressional globe office. you can see, there are hundreds. bepg minute butler ordered up 2,000 copies of his speech to distribute. others ordered 100 apiece. by doing that, you would get a sort of commission if you were a page. this is a rare example of seeing this in action. we know from memoirs that's something that pages would do. but this is a great example of exactly how they did it and the receipt that he got for his hard work. that's a lot of people to round up.

>> we have a newspaper account, one page who actually made $400 on certain speeches given around the time of the mckinley tariff debate in the 1890s. >> that's a lot of money then. >> it was. >> and the pages would go around on the floor and collect utographs. that was banned in the latever 19th century. but a lot of ways to supplement the income to live in d.c. >> it's true the chamber could make it crowded making it great to have little messengers running around. another wave of crowdednd in the chamber came into play with the pages is eventually after who got the seats cram in the back where you couldn't hear anything, they instituted a lottery. the 18th -- the first half of

the 19th century, the 1940s. but certainly by the 1860s, they have the pages drawing the numbers. they have one of the most senior head pages blind folded at the speaker's rostrum. your number came out first, you got your pick of seats. certainly they already had sort of been sitting by -- in party blocks by then. but where you were going to be often would be whether or not the magic ball of that was your number was pulled by the blind folded page. and it became one of those things that was written about a lot in newspapers because it became a ritual of the opening of congress and people would write about the blind folded page. you can see how crowded everything is and how important it would be to get a good desk assignment. the poor page just holding the glass of water for the member who's speaking on and on.

we have artifacts that are wonderful examples of how the pages lived and what they did. one of the ones that's my favorite is a page uniform from 1907. this is roy tasco jr. he was a page in 1906 and 1907. he loved being a page so much that he kept his uniform. and just a few years ago, his descendents found it. he had kept it so carefully, they didn't even find it when died. kind of wonderful. influenced by military attire. so at some point, the -- he and the page program were becoming more formal. he had close connections to joe cannon, the speaker of the house. it's possible that's why in is such a fancy uniform because of his connection there.

my favorite thing isn't the military part, it's the fact that right along the top, in case you missed it, it says, "page," as he's running around, he's easily identified. most of the time, though, the identification wasn't written on your neck. it was a little button or i think they were a numbers badge. we have a few of those early buttons though it might have been obvious from their age but also just sort of cover themselves with the core of the page brethren. this page fraternity pin is from the 1930s. it's from a whole raft of information who served as a page at that time who donated not only this, but some other objects to show exactly how great it was to have the access to the capitol. things like his membership card

in the little congress. a ticket to get in to the capitol into the galleries. when herbert hoover was giving a speech. so a lot of things there. we've learned so much about it than just what's in the artifacts. >> we did an oral history with mr. rupp. he at that point he was 90 years old. and the memories of being a page were just so fresh he lit up when asking these questions. he served for four years in the early 1930s. 1932 to 1936. so he was here longer than the typical page wulz. -- was. for him, it was a full time job as a teenager. you had great memories of him coming to the chamber and hearing speeches by fdr. he heard fdr's inaugural. he was up on the platform. >> i know it was in 1933 and

e're all anxious to hear the new president address the joint session of congress. and johnny and mccabe was one along with me sitting in front of the speakers at that time. i just sat there for a -- actually, i was on duty. i just sat there for a little bit. i didn't know they were taking the picture while i was sitting there. >> he also had such a memory and he didn't need any kind of cheat heet or booklet. he was put on the door right off of the chamber which is just behind us. he'd be responsible for making sure who was coming and going was a member that belonged on

the floor. but also he could run in for a reporter or for someone who wanted to speak to a member and quickly get to them and bring them out on to the -- out to the speaker's lobby. he did this for about a year. and one of the stories he told us was that he had -- had to train this young staffer from texas. >> he said we're going to have a new door keeper that's going to work on the door here. i want him to -- you to ntroduce him to everyone and he'll be working for you. and i said, fine, who is he? what's his name? he said lyndon johnson. >> oh. >> i sid lyndon johnson? i said i've known him since he arrived in washington. so he came and worked the rest of the section on the door with

me. and i took him in and introduced him to congressman on the floor and went up and down each aisle. told him who they were, introduced him to the reporters nd showed him. >> it exposed him to a living civics lesson that you never would learn from the pages of a book. there's a continuity of stories that he would tell that stories later pages would tell in oral histories. >> it's true that when you look at artifacts, these are the ones that people saved. it was such an important and life-changing period in their lives. as adolescence is always, but certainly for them, it was. so we end up with things say,

cards, pens, photos of themselves, yearbooks. one of the images they had, it was matted, they saved it forever. pages were all lined up in front of the rostrum and the house chamber with the supervisors in the front and the pages look pretty happy, even though they're being formal. the supervisors look a little more severe. i suppose if you're supervising that many, you want to look severe. but you can see how young they were. and how much this would have loomed large in their memories frer. >> going back to the 19th century, these are young boys, preteens, teens. they did a lot of hard work. but there was a lot of down time too. and the stories of some of the things they did to entertain themselves, i mean, you look in here this is from the

1930s. this is something called the little congress club. it's not just pages, staffers, secretaries from offices who get together for a regular basis for dinner, usually at a local hotel. then they have a meeting afterwards in which they debate current legislation. in the 1930s, new deal reforms or neutrality laws. lyndon johnson got involved in this as well. he led the little congress club. the pages had precursors to this club. in the 1920s and 1930s, the pages had a club calmed the itsy bitsy congress. which the pages when the house was are recess to go to members chaired -- seating or desks or the leadership desks and manage

a bill on if floor and they'd run a debate on i want. in the 1890s, thomas bracket reed who empowered the authorities, the pages admired them so much they started this junior house of representatives and debated the impact of reed's rules. they would do a lot in the chamber to amuse themselves when the house was in recess. so by the 20th century, the house is modernizing. its's becoming the modern institution that it is today. so one of the things that happens is that the pages duties become more defined. and in the 20th cent rip, you see the development of a couple of different page positions. all pages were equal. but there was one page designated as the speaker's page. that page would follow the speaker around and be his

attendant of all times. that's the position of high honor if you had distinguished himself as a junior page. but the vast majority of people who served as pages were what was referred to as bench pages. errand runners on the floor. bring in the congressional record and put them on the member seat. develop messengers to people on the floor. they would run members of the juries to the member's office. for a while, they had pages in the latter 19th century called riding pages. they would be dispatched on horseback down to the executive departments to deliver messages from the house. once we get a telegraph is system in washington, d.c., they become telegraph pages. they don't need to get on horseback anymore. go to the far ends of pennsylvania avenue. some of the other pages in the 20th century, though, who have

more responsibilities are documentarian pages. they sit on the rostrum of the chamber and they're much more involved in the legislative process in terms of delivering the amendments, the bill clerks, and interacting with clerk staff and parliamentarian staff and they also operated the -- later in the 20th century, the bell system that developed to let members know when the vote was on. prior to that, pages would have to scurry out into is it halls of the capitol and shout to members that a vote was going on. you need to get to the chamber. >> the belt system is the congress system. t would call people to vote or to the house came about around the turn of the 20th century when you had enough electricity and this magic new technology to do that sort of thing. this is from the 1960s, it's one of the light boards that you would find in the house office

building or in the capitol that changed a lot of that, from members being called by pages who are running through the restaurant or the office buildings saying what's going on, to lights and an increasingly complicated buzzer signal system that would tell people exactly what was happening. what kind of vote? was it quorum call? all of those things. interestingly, even before that, the inlet chamber itself in a lot of the prints used in the 19th century, you can see the pages sitting right up there on the rostrum so they could see members who want something from them. they would often clap to get their attention or just call them. but at some point in the end of the 19th cent rip, the house installs a buzzer system. and they take each and every desk and draw a hole in it and put what looks like a

doorbell. we have a desk from 1873 that holds the alteration. the doorbell is still there. we wondered why is there a doorbell there. then we were able to find out exactly when that came in to play. >> one of the things that happens in the 20th century is that pages for the first time begin to get formal schooling in their experience here in washington, d.c. in the 19th cent rip, pages just worked in the house. and when they didn't work in the house, they were off. they lived in local boarding houses, they didn't get more fall schooling. that begins to change at the same time we have progressives pushing for child labor laws in the u.s. and for a -- for a formal education system. there were some progressives who looked at the pages and said, you know, they know a lot about becoming a statesman, a

representative for a senator, but they're almost devoid of any ruseful knowledge other than that. so you begin to see the push in the early 1900s. and by the 1920s, the mid 1920s, parents of some of the pages who are increasingly from across the country, they're no longer just from washington, d.c., parents become involved and they establish a private school in the capitol. but the man who starts the first formal education system for the pages is earnest kendall in the early 1930s. he establishes the capital page school in the basement of the capitol. it's both house and senate pages. we have wonderful oral histories of the capitol page school. joe bartlett who would go on to ecome a marine general, he would become a reading clerk in

the house and have a very long house career. he was a page in the early 1940s. he has reminiscences of his page school and how primitive conditions were in the capitol basement. >> it was dank. we generated our own electricity. we brought in a direct current. you could lose it right hen. a private school conducted by he principal, a very spartan baptist gentleman. i liked him but he was straight laced. no question about that. we paid $19 a month for tuition. and the maintenance problems now. the roof leaked.

and it was not completely uncommon to go in there and find on the floor there was a puddle. you would put down blanks so we could arrive at our seats. walk in on the plank, take our seats, hold our feet up and study latin. >> there's descriptions of pages in their spare time going through the capitol basement with terriers and pellet guns hunting the cat-sized rats as part of their -- part of their entertainment. >> rats and pellet guns aren't part of everybody's high school experience. but it's not high school if you don't have a yearbook. > this was not very big. it was a small school. >> the president, the pledge of allegiance, san ray burne, lots

of the other folks involved. here's the democratic chief page. the student council, the faculty. many, many pages. the seniors, the juniors. like any year, people were having their yearbook signed. all of the things -- they went to the white house. these are two varsity letters. this is from 1944 from the basketball team. and this one is the first scholastic varsity letter that was awarded. >> the sports programs, one of the big things the pages did in their spare time, this goes back before the school days, in the earliest account is in the 187 0z. the pages put together a baseball team that would travel around and play youth teams and sometimes they'd play adult staffers here on the hill and win regularly.

house baseball team and senate baseball team. the senate had the house dominated the baseball games. >> they had snowball fights. all kinds of house and senate page activities. i guess at that point they were going to sxool together often. but it was sort of an intra school rivalry. >> right. a tnd day started very early. they would typically be in class at 6:30 a.m. the academic day would be done by 10:00 or 10:30 because they had to go to their respective chambers when the house or senate could typically gavel in at noontime. it could be a long day, especially if it went to a late evening session. >> once it happened and pages from the supreme court, the house, the senate were all together. one of the things that was interesting in reading their

memoirs and interviewing people is that changes in uniform in the different bodies didn't happen at the same time. the house left the nicker era earlier. many were still wearing nick eres. sometimes you can see that in foe foes from the 1930ed, butch the house pages are taking full dvantage of the fact that they can wear a slightly zippier suit. people would say great. wonderful. these are photographs from the 1960s. they both document the first african-american page in the house since reconstruction. who was -- this is appointment of the rival. this is him with his fabulous 1960s glasses in front of the article.

they were both newspaper accounts -- not much in the history of the house, but in the interest of the news as well. >> frank mitchell appointed in 1965, this is on the centennial of lincoln's assassination. a lincoln connection, a civil war connection. he's here among others, congressman gerald ford and congressmanless aarons. > les aarons was the whip. after discussing with them, we went to an anti-room and cameras still video where they are probably, i don't know, eight or 10 of them and other reporters asking questions and it was

quite the whirlwind experience. i want to emphasize. this was 1965. >> frank mitchell the first negro to serve as a page in the house of representatives, the clipping from my hometown newspaper. >> for a long time, we thought mitchel was actually the very first african-american page to serve in the house. but we were able to do some research about the reconstruction period because you have african-american members serving in the house for the first time. there's a total 206. who served in the latter part of the 19th century. two over in the senate. and from the staff levels. african-americans in appointed positions. ur emmroifee, was in 1871, a

member who represented a district that encompassed richmond and a couple of the towns south of the james river, he was a civil war veteran who came on. he became a political carpet bagger. when virginia was elected to the union, he does what he can to represent this district. they adopt martin q. powell in manchester, wisconsin. he comes to the house chamber. we don't know about powell. he was 14 years old. we know his family came over and we heard reports that he was the first african-american page. they ripped and teased him

before i came onboard. he served for about a year. he's the only instance of a page serving in the house in the 1800s that we know of. sort sortly after he leaves, the reconstruction era ends and snim crow were going to place and in washington, d.c. and the appointment of after write can mericans to 1256 positions subsides after that. by the end of the 1800s, there are no african-americans serving in the house. >> one of the great things is although we don't have images and little information about what his experience was, we found it in the records of the treat ooens man bank.

he's depoz silling it in his account. i think it's fascinating and gripping because it's such an example of something set up in the reconstruction. and before the war ends. period to serve the needs of african-americans. he was born to free african-americans in manchester. then used the new programs and resources. i love that alfred powell did too. >> talking about pages in the 19th century, 20th century. talking about boys. it was all boys up. up to 1939, when, briefly for day, we had a girl by name of jean cox appointed by her phatever who was a epresentative.

she served for the opening day, 1969. it was a symbolic appointment. e don't see girls entering the page program really for another more than 30 years. not until 1973 when karl albert of oklahoma is speaker and he had become pen pals with a young woman who had come to the capitol, saw these pages, thought it would be great. found they were all girls and he said we don't feel like this is when the girls should operate. >> i between the annuals of 6 and 7th grades, that's not fair. maybe we can do something about that, he said. so when i went back to school in the fall, i wrote letters to mr. albert. and wrote letters and letters

and letters to mr. albert for many years. finally, one day, when i was just about to graduate from high school, i got a call from charlie ward, the administrative assistant and asked me how i would feel about being the first woman page. i was ecstatic about this. and i said well, i'll have to ask my parent first. he said we've spoken to your parents and it's okay with them. i said absolutely. that's how it began. >> by the latter 1970s, it's about half -- half and half females, half males. it's in the early 1980s that we have the first female based on her grades in the "capitol page school" elevated to speaker position. that's a huge accountment to his right now.

but technology was always changing the job of the pages. you know, whether it was the telegraph which obviated, writing payments so many hings. so technology by the latter 20th century, particularly in the computer age, the hand held smart phone age, begins to oviate a lot of the tasks that they had overtaken. the need for members of the juries on the floor was not that great by the laser part of 201st century. it's cut back on the chores that the pages of old hat had to do. by the early history; that's one of the factors that leads house leadership in 2011 to decide

that the page program no longer is central and critical to the legislative process. >> i was around for the voting rights act in 675 i think medicare also. i felt those kinds of things the legislation was more historic and certainly more important than anything about my appointment. >> we know of roughly two dozen individuals who would serve in

the house or the senate who had been pages as teenagers. but it was an experience that, again, gave some -- a human perspective on the way that congress worked. and an appreciation for the legislative process that you just couldn't pick up from a ook. >> next, a discussion about conservatives barry goldwater and ronald reagan and their impact on the republican party.