>> madam secretary, we pledge our 72 delegates to the next president of the united states. ♪

>> all weekend, american history tv is featuring hattiesburg, mississippi. was founded by captain william harris hardy, a confederate railroad builder. the city was named after the captain's second wife hattie. about hattiesburg all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in special collections in hattiesburg, mississippi. his collection is very large. we have boxes of archival

material related to theodore bilbo. signed photos his he would distribute to fans. he was a mississippi politician 20the first half of the century. he was a state congressman, and by the 1930's he had been elected governor, and he had put in two terms as governor. term at the end of the 1920's, and of the 1930's and then served a term for years later. then he was elected to the u.s. senate in the mid-1930's. he served until 1946 when he was removed from the senate.

-- removed from the senate after being elected for a third term because of bribery charges and because of his views regarding race relations. very well-liked within the state by poor white residents. because he really took advantage of the new deal project to improve the state. and to really help a lot of rural white people. as governor of mississippi, he made the decision in the 1930's to remove all the presidents from 3 major universities in the state. the university of mississippi, what is now mississippi state university, and mississippi university for for women. he removed the presidents and replaced them with people -- i think one was a real estate agent. another had just received his

bachelors degree a year before. he removed all the people -- this is what was claimed -- that didn't like him. he removed professors that went against him, the president, and replaced them with his cronies. a lot of his friends that were often not qualified suddenly received positions in the universities in the state. this particular document here is a report of the executive committee of the association of colleges, which is one of the accreditation units for universities. they did their own investigation. they put not only the 3 schools whose presents were removed, but they put southern mississippi on probation. that was something that made a lot of headlines. it hurt bilbo's career a good bit.

what he was known for and what people around the country came to identify with bilbo was where his views on race relations. as u.s. senator, theodore bilbo, one of his possible legislative ideas was the greater liberia act. this act was something that bilbo proposed to provide an opportunity for african americans to move to africa. [laughter] the "back to africa" program. it was a way for bilbo to removed african-americans from everyday american life. what was unique about this plan blackt he partnered with nationalists group. he partnered with the universal

negro improvement association, which was marcus garvey's group, to collect signatures of people who would be willing to move to africa to start anew. one thing you will notice from this petition is that the handwriting is the same on every line. you can see, maybe someone wrote it out and copied names from a phone book. but really, we think this was the presentation copy so you could read handwritings. a lot of african-americans supported this initiative. they felt at the time, there was no way to get equal rights in the united states. and this was across the country, not just in mississippi. they thought this was their only way to find land and create something for themselves.

as part of the greater liberia act, which we have a copy of, the u.s. government would invest $15 million to secure land and transportation for anyone that wanted to move to liberia. this was 1939. with world war ii in play, this was put on hold and forgotten. it shows just one of the ways in which bilbo tried to segregate the country. not only was he anti-african america,n but he did not care for italians, jewish, hispanic , or hawaiians it would seem. and it just says

"hawaii" on it. it has thoughts from various people on making hawaii a state. this particular letter is written by a gentleman from west virginia. this collection has a lot of mississippi stuff, but his reach was national because he was such an outspoken person. this person writes, "how would you feel to stand up and be by an white trash" n-word. "america is a white man's land because our ancestors fought and died for it. when our program and sisters left europe, they had no thought of making black people equal. people like you and me must work harder because there are so many white americans not interested in keeping america white. in closing, i beg for the pride of our nation, do all you can do to keep hawaii out of the union.

i am sending newspaper clippings in case you doubt my word." you can tell that this person obviously approached bilbo because he knew that he would be sentimental and understanding of this particular person's thoughts. this is a copy of the response he sent to this person from west virginia. it says "i thoroughly agree about making hawaii the 49th state. i have been opposing it along and will keep on fighting it we -- will keep on fighting it. we just do not need a state with the kind of folks that largely make up hawaii. the mixture is too bad." because of his beliefs, he received a lot of pushback as well. a lot of organizations, a lot of people fought to remove bilbo from the senate and prevent his

election, and wrote in complaining about his beliefs, not all in agreement. one particular letter. we have three or four folders just labeled "hate letters." one of them comes with this clipping from a newspaper article. it accompanies a letter on u.s. naval air station letterhead. from it's addressed to theodore june 1946. "the man" bilbo. he often referred to himself as "the man." "dear sir, we just read an article about you. it was very enlightening, but after , we woulde column like to ask you one question, not knowing much about animals.

in the picture, which is the jackass? the one in the background, or the one with the hat on?" this was sent to walter winchell, a popular television media guide at the time. in bilbo fashion, we have his response. one thing to point out is that on the top of this letter, someone handwrote "nasty" at the top. that gives you the tone of his letter. keep in mind this is from a u.s. senator. it's addressed "dear jackasses, on june 28, while in the midst of my campaign for reelection to the u.s. senate for a third term, your letter came to my office in washington. i note with interest that you have just read a dirty lying, contemptible article published by "time." let me take the time to tell you this article is a tissue of damn lies. it is written in an attempt to bring about my defeat for u.s. senate in mississippi."

it goes on, calling them a bunch of names. of course, defending himself. he does make note of walter on thel being copied letter. he calls him names often called to jewish people. he wraps this letter up, "i am very sorry of your low mental status. when you finish your service with the navy, i hope you have an opportunity under the g.i. bill, which i helped pass, to go to a school and become to a intelligent enough to learn the difference between a white mule and a jackass." also in response to bilbo, there were other more organized campaigns. father devine was a cult leader in the early 20th century. he believed in integration and peace and equal opportunities for everybody.

but he started an anti-bilbo campaign. this is father devine. he is posing with this gentleman, who just happens to be from mississippi. parts of his campaign ran in newspapers. another example of the campaign includes -- this particular one says "we sleep together in queen anne's bed." he will have ones like "we eat together, we drink together, we take baths together." it reinforces the equality between the races. the things that people want to know about bilbo, more race relations things. bilbo embraced the new deal programs under roosevelt and brought different commissions like the gaming and wildlife commission to the state.

that increased roads and dealt with various legislation. a lot of the new deal programs, the ccc, the pwa, he embraced to bring in new jobs. he was a man of the lower class and helped increase the quality of life. theodore bilbo kept getting reelected and reelected, you know. even with all of his publicity that most of the time was not positive, he kept on getting elected. people may wonder, why? well, in mississippi, of course the only voters were white voters. he wasn't catering to an african-american audience or any other group of voters. because most of the state was rural and poor, those that were benefiting from a lot of his programs. a lot of the state fully supported segregation.

a lot of these things were kindred. i also think his personality, his interviews in a bathtub smoking a cigar. that was a lot of the appeal to bilbo and why people kept voting for him. but the end of bilbo's life, he was removed from the senate because of bribery and race relations issues. he died within the next year of cancer soon after his career ended. nowadays, talking to university groups, many people don't know who theodore bilbo was. even though theodore bilbo's legacy has fallen to the wayside, people can learn more about him by looking through his papers. and kind of the things that he did for the state of mississippi, controversial or not.

>> our cities tour staff recently traveled to hattiesburg, mississippi to learn about its rich history. learn more about hattiesburg and other stops on the tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> i am a history buff. i do enjoy a seeing the fabric of our country and things -- just how they work. like something i would really enjoy. >> with american history tv, it gives you that perspective. >> i am a c-span fan. >> each