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>> many of them complained about not knowing very much of the they reported that the only chapters they had on black people were that they were slaves and they want to know where they could find information. nothing about the early blacks in greenville. towns a typical southern and black and white, basically. i recall the 1940's and 1950's, , andthere were families two or three families had come into this area from one of the arab countries. and they normally lived in the neighborhoods close to black neighborhoods in greenville because they, too, were discriminated against to some degree.

but greenville was filled at that time with the kinds of bigotry that most of us have learned to live with and accept. black people during that time either place and they stayed in it. and we as children coming up, we, too, knew our place and it was the way things were and it was the way things had always been. i can recall as a child, hearing stories about willie earl, who was a young black man who was lynched after being charged with stabbing a taxi driver in the road. the lynching took place right in greenville. i remember hearing everybody talk about what happened to willie earl. and when we as children with think of being afraid of anything, we with think about what happened to willie earl.

but as we grew older, for some reason, that fear left us because if you can be a young man or a young woman snatched out of jail without the benefit of a trial and brutally lynched, what is it to be afraid of? so when the civil rights movement broke out, many of our parents tried to put fear in us by telling us how dangerous it was. and we realize that it was danger, but that danger didn't bother us. what bothered us was the possibility that we, if we

allowed things to remain the way they were, that we, too, one day could lose our life. the bible says if you save your life, you could lose it, but are you willing to lose your life for the sake of what is right, then you will save it. so we were spontaneous in the civil rights movement. at first, not many activities were covered by the local television station, which was channel 4. there were accounts of it in the newspaper. greenville, as well as the other cities in south carolina, did not get the attention of bernie meehan -- of birmingham, alabama or other cities. but this quickly spread from greensboro to columbia, which had allen university and benedict college, morris college, and even with pretty

station in orangeburg at south carolina university and then into charleston, s.c., and that movement came together, although it was spontaneous at first, it involved into an organized movement of young people. it was at that time that i was actually, believe it or not, at the age of 15 elected to state president of the college chapter of the naacp of the whole state of south carolina. and we began to coordinate our efforts as a state.

we were given an attorney that worked with us, who later became a judge, matthew j. perry, and he worked with us on cases that could be filed, if there were arrests, he handled it. normally we had donald james sampson, who was an attorney and another local attorney who handled those cases. it began to take movement and evolve into a statewide movement that began to garner some attention. so when jackie robinson came to greenville, he was denied access to the waiting room at the airport, and out of that insult, because here you have a baseball

great at the level of jackie robinson being refused the use of the waiting room, and out of that, we had a march on the airport on i believe it was january 1, 1960. yeah, but we organize that march on the airport and we marched from springfield that discharge located at that time on mcabee avenue and the new church is still on mcabee, and we had hundreds and hundreds who came from all over the state and locally to march on the airport, and after that very successful march on the airport, that was when the sit-ins began to occur. the peterson case happened after that. when students came home on summer break, they were arrested at a five and dime in greenville.

there were about four of us who are arrested who were underage, under the age of 16. and we were consequently removed from the city jail and taken to the youth detention center. we were kept at the youth detention center for one week. almost eight days, but it was seven days that we were kept there, and it was no fun. but we didn't stop. as soon as i turned 16, i was back on the trail again. but that particular case, arab attorneys -- case, our attorneys in used in an appeal before the united states supreme court. and the arrest of people on the record were removed from the record, so our names were not listed because we were under age at the time.

the other case i was involved in in columbia was where students rallied from all over the state to protest the fact that the south carolina house of representatives at that time had passed a bill that gave police officers the authority to arrest individuals for disturbing the peace, even if it was on state property. so immediately, we decided that we would have to march on the capital. that was back in march of 90 six -- march of 1961, i think it was march, it could have been march of 1961. hundreds of students came down from the state and students from columbia and morris college and south carolina state university.

in fact, congressman clyburn, jim clyburn was arrested, he was one of the ones arrested during that particular march on the state capital. but they kept us in jail overnight and that next day when we were able to have visitors, who wasn't there but are faithful youth advisors. they stay there all night, even though we were released at that time. but we had some wonderful adult leaders in the movement and there is so much to be told and sometimes i'm hesitant to even talk about the civil rights movement because the history of the civil rights movement, like most histories, is like a wild,

elusive bird that always flies away. you can't put your fingers on it or your hands around it because what i found is that when you are a part of something as life-changing as the civil rights movement, everybody wants to be a part of it, everybody wants their little niche in history. if they marched in one march, they ran the civil rights movement, or they were a leader in the civil rights movement. but there were those that i can recall in greenville who were a part of the civil rights movement from the beginning to

the end. those that did leave and come back, you know, the college vacations, that those who really made a substantial contribution and who stood on the battlefield until as we used to put it, victory was won. announcer: our cities tour staff recently traveled to greenville, south carolina to learn about its rich history. you are watching american history tv. >> we are on the cusp of a and issive revolution consider them both to be progressive. it is time to take stock and

that how this guide did with thought was a real progressive and how can we learn as we move to the next administration. >> bill press talks about his lookthat takes a critical at the presidency. bernie sanders recently spoke out in favor of the book. repeats a point that he makes in every campaign speech. we need a political revolution and-- that is his phrase -- revolution means that progressives have to keep pressure on the next president, who we hope will be a democrat for them tosive and be true to the agenda and not

compromise. ♪ i am trying to decide which candidate to support. i am trying to decide between the governors who have executive experience or some of the other candidates like ted cruz and marco rubio. >> the most important issue to me is national service. there are more than 5 million young americans ready to serve their country for a year with the americorps and peace corps. week american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. the vietnam their parents -- veterans memorial has 400,000 items left since it was opened in 1982. they are stoin