>> our city tour staff recently traveled to hartford, connecticut to learn about its rich history. learn more about hartford and the other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> booker c -- booker t said to him, we have kids covered here in alabama. kids inas literally elementary school who are suffering. african-american kids are getting poorer education. this is separate and not equal. >> tonight, documentary filmmaker talks about her latest "rosenwald."

>> first rosenwald says, why don't we just use the kit houses? the best thing booker t. washington ever did was say, no. i want the communities to build it. so these were dealt. .- were built it morphed into 5000 schools all over the south. >> tonight on c-span's q and a. >> monday night on the communicators, republican fcc communicator discusses key fcc,s considered by the including the speed of broadband

climate across the u.s.. he is joined by the washington post technology reporter. >> one of the things i found the 21st century there is a democratization of entrepreneurship. i have seen people use that broadband connection to build businesses who in the previous era would have to migrate to one of the coast or wither on the vine. because of that connection they are now able to innovate, and i think that is something that is powerful. the communicators, monday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> fdr and truman white house awayer george elsey passed . he was considered to be one of the last living links to president nixon's legacy.

allinterview focused on his -- on his knowledge of the waning days of lyndon johnson's presidency and richard nixon's campaign. he is a tucked at length about his own white house career. this is a 15 minute portion of his interview. george: my boss of naval intelligence transfer to the white house and took me with him to a place called the map room. on map room was a small room the ground floor of the white house, which had just been a reception room. it had been converted into an intelligent munication center, where fdr and his associates hour of any day could come in and get a briefing on the war. information was constantly going constantly flowing in.

we'll so served as the secretariat for all of fdr's communications that went to winston churchill, joseph stalin , and other prominent wartime figures. we received the messages, took in.men -- took them we were also communicators. , onever roosevelt traveled or two of us would be with him to encode and decode the message is that flowed back and forth from washington to him, because all classified communications to him had to go through the map room. it was a fascinating job. we never knew one day or the next what kind of information we were going to be handling or who we were going to meet. -- withchurchill fell

the churchill came to visit roosevelt during the war. church hill was fascinated by anything military strategy and used our map room more than fdr himself did. we got pretty well acquainted with the fellow. when i say well acquainted, there is a difference in status between military reservist and the prime minister of great we were but he knew who and we could speak freely and frankly to him, answered all his questions as best as we could. >> do you recall an episode or churchill?th winston george: i think the sharpest those days wasf was back in43, he washington again to discuss

allied strategy with roosevelt and our chief of staff. a very sharp message came to fdr and to churchill also to relate on to london, from stalin, wanting to know when the allies are going to move on the second front. stalin was under intense pressure on the eastern front, and he needed some action on the west to relieve the tension on the soviet-german front. now the war in north africa was cleaned up, we had been the germans there and were ready to invadedand had just sicily and intended to move onto mainland italy next, stalin thought we were hurrying away allied forces and strength on

sidetracks, we should be attacking mainland europe and nazi germany directly. he was demanding an actor, when are you going to act on the western front you -- demanding an answer, when are you going to act on the western front? we haven't decided. i was on duty alone, i had the night watch that night. the map room door suddenly opened and in came roosevelt, churchill, our chiefs of staff, and their chiefs of staff. all of them had been upstairs, a very congenial dinner. they came in to settle business. what are we going to say to "uncle joe," as they commonly referred to just of -- to joseph stalin. britain and the united states had not agreed on what the next step should be. general marshall, taking the

lead for our side, was insistent on the earliest possible attack across the channel in normandy -- normandy itself had not yet been decided it on. -- decided on. the british said, we are not ready, we being the allies. we do not yet have enough landing craft, we are going to be fully occupied in the mediterranean. . here are the two sides, the americans pressing for an earliest as possible attack and the british holding back, wanting to further solidify the situation in the mediterranean. this went on for a couple hours. a good deal,aking fdr mostly sitting and listening and at some point amused at this angle between the british chiefs of staff and the american chiefs

of staff. finally, the chairman of the british military group reached for a pencil and pat and rode out a tentative answer to stalin. he passed it across the table to the chairman of our chiefs of staff and roosevelt personal staff. he did some editing, read it aloud. it was not giving stalin what he wants to know, it was explaining the difficulties we were facing in planning the next step. a lot of jargon that didn't address stalin directly, because they could not agree on what to tell stalin. to me to smooth out, and after they left i typed it out and sent it off by code to the soviet union. memory vivid map room was that night, seeing our leaders, military and civilian,

tangling and not able to make a major decision on what the next steps are going to be. the decision that was finally made was made a few months later when they met again in quebec, canada. at that point the american succeeded in persuading the british to attack normandy in the spring of 1944. from august of 1943 until the spring of 44, i was one of the few youngsters who knew the day and where it was going to happen. d-day and where it was going to happen. >> another secret you knew about was the manhattan project. about theknew manhattan project, but very was to because -- this

become a joint project. it was also agreed significant final work should be in our country for security reasons. britain in 1942 and 43 was still british sentus scientists to our country. thats agreed to this agreed this was to be a cooperative joint venture. americans began to pull back and not share everything they knew with their british counterparts. this infuriated churchill, and we began to get a number of very pointed telegrams from church hill to roosevelt, which came , protesting this lack

of promised cooperation. i began to become aware of the manhattan project because of the quarrel between these two men on what the degree of cooperation was going to be. gave roosevelt a document, did he write on it? george: usually the messages, if they were from church or stalin, would come back to us for filing. they are now in the library, of course. not always. sometimes he would give an answer to admiral labor he -- admiral leahy, who would sometimes put in what they thought was fdr's wishes in their own words and passed to us. we were aware of what was going on. i very rarely saw a longhand to note from fdr. occasionally we had some but it was not normal.

>> tell us about what role you played in changing the presidential field created -- presidential seal. george: in late 1944 congress passed a law, creating the five star rank for the senior admirals and generals of world war ii. in due course the army, military, and navy came up with designs for these new officers. roosevelt saw and was not at all .appy my flag only has four stars. flag wouldntial appear to be out ranked by military flags. this is the sort of thing that can get very upset. very tiny things could get fdr upset.

like many of the names chosen for the ships that were under construction. he insisted on passing the name of every new naval vessel that was to be built during world war ii. a phenomenal waste of time for commander, but fdr had been assistant secretary of the navy in world war i, and he always referred to my navy. at one time the general marshall said, the army is also yours, please don't forget that. the human interest stories came our way all the time. fdr told his naval aide, do something about this.

i was delighted this would serve as a challenge. i sought out an expert on heraldry and designs. very quickly we came to an agreement. and the coat of arms should be in full color, rather than dark blue. coat of arms in the center, a circle of 48 stars around it. roseville at this time had died. they had too much to think about is worry of a simple matter. by september of 45, there was

time to be given such a chore of cash a chore is this. such a chore is this. in navy day -- on navy day 1987, the new presidential flag was hoisted and shown to the public for the first time. some feeling of pleasure about this. hundreds of men and women had buted their hearts out, presidential assistants don't leave anything behind to show what they did. though is one thing i left behind. it survived, because the same flag today exists, changed only by the addition of stars by hawaii and alaska. every time you see the president of united states on television, you will see him behind a

lectern, and there is the seal of the president, which i like to refer to as my seal. >> you also changed the eagle. tell us why that actually happened. said there ise one thing we have to change, the is disgracesflag the 1880's, when someone had the idea that in order to change the presidential seal from the seal , we shoulded states turn the eagle's head to the left. on the great seal of the united states it goes to the right. that was back in the 1880's. in heraldry, when an animal's head is turned to the left, that is an indication of illegitimacy

or dishonor. direction,change the so we changed the direction on the new presidential seal. about what isblic correct and incorrect in heraldry would not been a dark -- not mean a darn thing, so i wrote the white house saying, because the war had just ended, president harry truman had decided to turn the eagles head to the right, because by facing the right it would be facing the olive branch of peace and turning his head away from the left, which was the aeros of war. he wanted to honor the fact we were going to keep the peace of the world. that is the story. >> you can watch his complete oral history interview on c-span.org. monday's martin luther king junior day, and with congress

not in session, we have featured programs on all three c-span networks. 1130:30 a.m. eastern -- p.m. -- 11:30 a.m. eastern, a debate -- university of wisconsin professor william p jones and the books of march on washington, jobs, freedom, and the forgotten history of civil rights. hadhen philip a randolph ,ent to organize this march everybody said you need to get martin luther king, you need to get his support. he went to martin luther king and martin luther king said, i will support you but let us expand the goals of the march. the march is not just about winning equal axis two jobs by way of employment is given nation, it is also about winning the rights of the vote in the south. aree discusses his --

presented if john -- representative john lewis discusses his role -- on monday at 2 p.m. eastern, roham alvandi. >> iran will have to look to a third power to reserve its independence and sovereignty against the imperial ambitions in russia. they moved to germany to play that role. after the second world war iranian statesman looked to the united states, with no imperial ambitions and a history of colonialism in the region. 1963 interview with dr. martin luther king junior on his approach to nonviolent -- his approach to civil rights. for the complete holiday set for the complete -- for the complete

schedule go to c-span.org. >> just two hours ago allied forces began an attack on military forces in kuwait. these attacks continue as i speak. ground forces are not engaged. this can -- this conflict started august 2 when the dictator of iran invaded a small helpless name -- helpless neighbor. kuwait was crushed, it's people realized. -- people brutalized. five months ago saddam hussein started this brutal war against kuwait. the 28 countries with forces in the gulf area have exhausted all reasonable efforts to reach a peaceful resolution. they have new choice -- have no choice but to drive saddam from kuwait by force. on attacks are underway

military targets in iran. our -- h hour, 1991. that was when the first bomb , and when on baghdad operation shield became operation desert storm. over 600 planes were launched that tonight, basis throughout the arabian peninsula, from the indian ocean, from even as far as the united states. >> to give you some idea, within hours, we24 to 48 to support the

striker package. there had never been any launch as big in the history of the air force that incorporated that many tankards. >> in their opening attack the allies combined their stealth and precision technology, and electronic warfare tactics and the classic elements of mass and surprise. >> we had been here since august. he was used to seeing that every as well as most kind of airplanes. that's what we wanted him to see. radar warning the capabilities of the iraqi radars, our attack aircraft are forming with tankards, so they were able to top off their fuel at the last moment before heading off to the target area.

>> although they were less than 3% of the coalition fighters, more than aruck third of the targets on one day. >> the actual first step that was taken, that one could not a -- een stopped, was the red seauiser in launched a tomahawk land attack missile. over 50 cruise missiles were launched that night. they would arrive 10 minutes after the first f-117 strike. >> the first thing was taken down the sides of the armed forces. apache gunships took sites on the border. this cleared the way for non-stealthy fighters heading

towards western i ron -- western iraq. and f-117 took out the thehern -- that controlled reporting sites. stealth fighters penetrated the heavy defenses around baghdad. flew 32 f-117's right into back that didn't >> their next target was the principal telephone communication facility, also dubbed the at&t building. it was their central, note in the whole country. >> you remember when the cnn guy was reporting, and he went blank . that was the bomb hitting the at&t building.

>> booker t said to him, we have college aged kids covered here .n alabama it is really the kids in the elementary schools who are suffering. the african-american kids are getting poor education. it was separate and not equal. kempnar talksiva about her latest film "rosenwald." about building schools and bring early education to children enroll america. -- children in rural america. the best thing booker t. washington ever did was say no, just like in teske key i want the communities to build it. first he's six schools were

built. that's these six schools were built. it morphed into 5000 schools all over the south. >> tonight, on c-span's q and q&a.- c-span's >> all weekend american history tv is featuring hartford connecticut. -- hosted by our comcast cable partners, c-span city tour staff recently visited many sites showcasing its rich history. learn more about hartford all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in the main branch of the hartford public library outside of the hartford history center. we have an exhibit on the life

of venture smith. we are celebrating the 250th regainingy of venture his freedom. hartford was the place in 1760 as a slave,e smith, was pond to daniel edwards and learned to read. it seems symbolic to have the exhibit here in the state capital. we are looking at the cover of this great autobiography written by venture smith. copy from themily university. this is the earliest known literary -- itn is one of the great masterpieces of american literature. ventures people -- his father

was the king and chief of this area, a fairly wealthy place. by age 10 or 11, here he had extensive education. an army comes in and captures is of the searing moments watching his father tortured to death to find the goal -- find the gold of his people. hometake venture from his and march him over thousands of from the interior of west --ica toward the goals coast toward the gulf coast and eventually rode out.

taught by one of the officers of the steward. this gives you a sense of what a human being could be worth. it is transformed from being a human being into a commodity. this was one of the great horrors of the atlantic slave trade. state --hode island rhode island slave ship is heading back. atlantics across the easterndos, and the most sugar plantation islands. 1739, one of the richest places on the face of the earth, venture is being by robinson mumford to

steward, their manservant. at this point he is already on the ship, he is given some education. 11-year-old was put with english, too learn learn how to be a manservant and live in the colonial culture. island,taken to fishers where he is a slave from about 1754.wo the end of island venture marries his wife area we know nothing about here -- about her

except for the phrase, i married her for love. the quest for freedom really comes alive. the whole story of his life is about freedom. venture desires to recapture the inedom he grew up with africa. this is clearly ventures owner, who he has the worst time with. there, a locals fella brings venture here to hartford. instead of selling him he ponds to his attorney

judge in hartford. this is the period. point where he was exposed to a sophisticated household. to a very educated man who would have taught him how to read, and who challenges venture to go home and build a future for his wife and family. venture could get sold that venture gets sold to his last owner, -- venture gets sold to his last owner, oliver smith. great bignture, this strong man, to build his house and business. venture labors they and night to

1760.late money from them,has agreed to sell to sell venture to himself or 85 pounds. he bought his freedom in 1765, and that is why this year i am celebrating -- we are accelerating the 250th of this great event. we are in the hartford history center now. this is where we are building a whole family and a dynasty. this panel talks about real estate, which venture starts to accumulate in the spring of

1775. and the time of the new republic revelation was a symbol of freedom. venture owns more than 130 acres. he's become this person who was brought to america as a traded commodity, has become a traitor in commodity, and becomes very wealthy. and he actually writes this great autobiography, which tells us everything he did, who he was, where he was from, and it is one of the only works he talks about. slavery, and that ultimately freedom in new england. , venture madeer

his last and most important real estate transaction. he bought a family plot, which at that point was one of the most elite aerial grounds in connecticut. himself, his wife, his sons, , his daughter, and his granddaughter were all buried in the plot. tombstone. things, put very simple "an african, son of a king. he was captured and sold and displayed. he acquired money to purchase his freedom.

died in the 77th year of his age. -- of his age." venture sought out to be remembered by way of his autobiography and by his tombstone, and for his family to have a dynasty or a legacy. owners, who were prominent people in the 18th century, are forgotten. his narrative is still in print. city to our staff recently traveled to hartford, itsecticut to learn about rich history. learn about hartford and other stops on our tour on c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. this year's student cam documentary contest, students are telling us the issue they want presidential candidates to

discuss, and we are hearing about the students as they produce their video. here is a tweet from an eighth grade social studies teacher in winston, north carolina. chrisman -- virginia congressman wrote -- students in arizona tweeted -- and senator clark for the tour. tweeted -- the deadline is january 20, 2016. for more information, visit our website, studentscam.org.