that women can do society better than men have done. >> heather coxe richardson on the new roles that women assumed on the workforce and in politics in the 19th century. focused onp it issues like prohibition and women suffrage. the 1968 republican and democratic national conventions. >> resolute without being bellicose, strong without being arrogant. that is the kind of america that will build the piece of this world. >> the time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountains so that we may see the glory of the don. and a newfor america dawn for peace and freedom. richard nixon accepted the

republican nomination and hubert humphrey accepted the democratic nomination. ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor share stories about traditions. >> whenever a justice has a birthday, they bring in someone and we toast them, point or girl and sing happy birthday. meter,issing our chorus because most of them cannot carry a tune. >> the supreme court curator catherine fitz will talk about culinary customs dating to the 19th and 20th century. for our complete schedule, go to c-span.org. >> our comcast cable partners worked with c-span cities to her staff -- c-span cities tour staff. it is home to brigham young

university. learn more about it here on american history tv. >> our culture is who we are and when we look back at how our life theylived, the lived and how difficult it might have been, that reflects on us because that is who we are. those are our roots. in the bits and pieces that we uncovered tell that story. the most important thing about archaeology is finding the pieces of history that complete the story. the differences over the meeting earlyoriginate with the

lds church in the eastern united states and the central united states. the meeting house for them to worship and was always there. but the problem was building one when you first arrived. so when you come to a new area, they would build a fort and for years, they would meet together in a fort for worship. itself bringsuse up brader cohesion to the community. life,omes the center of especially of the latter-day saint community. after they had been in utah valley for seven years, brigham young finally told them it was time to build the meeting house. in 1856 they built -- began construction.

in 1861, they thought they were almost done and they built the capstone to go over the door that said erected in 1861. unfortunately, it took another six years to finish the building so it was completed in 1867. it took them 11 years to finalize the building. 20 years later -- 10 years later, the second tabernacle was begun. the first meeting house continued to be used, but it became more of a civic center where they could hold county fairs and they can house art and sometimes they even removed the benches and played asked paul in it. they really did take on this community-social aspect more

than a meeting house. 2010, the second tabernacle caught on fire and burned in december oak 2010. it was such a tragic loss for the community. everybody loved that building. it was still the heart of the community. so when it burned down, everyone is afraid of the walls that were left standing would be torn decidedt the lds church to convert it into a temple. as soon as that happened, those historians and members of the community who knew there had been an original tabernacle and decided to find out if anything remained of that.

departmenttory didght equipment in and ground-penetrating radar, much like seismic work where you send signals through the ground and it located the foundation of that original meeting house. through that, they knew that it had not been completely torn down that the base part still remained. we were called in to do some testing. it was just a couple months after that that they asked us to fully excavate the foundation. littleso fun to find bits and pieces that were important to people of all ages. to find artifacts

that fell to the floor board in the basement. we were able to find a lot of coins. nickels, dimes, pennies. some of them had holes drilled in while -- where they would use them as a necklace. we found little trinkets and charms that girls would use to hang around there next. we know there was a lot of cooking going on in the basement and we found plates and other cooking and eating utensils. aspectilled in another of what was happening in the building. they were eating and socializing. that is a big part of lds and pioneer life, socializing with each other. pencils fromslate the school and educational aspect of the school.

andven found a lead will it it led shock ball in the bottom that somebody had lost. we found cheese and doorknobs and other aspects. interestingly, the building appears to have been electrified in the 1890's. the power plant was built up one ofanyon and probably the first buildings if not the first building to receive was thisty in the west first tabernacle and the adjacent second tabernacle. so we found electric lightbulbs and other wiring suggesting that they had finally brought lighting into the building. just as important as the meeting house to the early pioneers was -- we were able

to find this small building that they had constructed on the southwest corner of the --ernacle where they had with just enough room for a baptismal font. in the center they probably had a stove to heat the building. font wassmal constructed with wood planks but it was probably lined with plaster. they would extract the water from the well to fill the baptismal font. time, lift finally laid them into theht dismal font with a could fill it with the pipe.

importance of the center rock in the middle of the building is that is where the stove was set and they could probably keep the water so that when they got baptized, the water was warm and not freezing. that was a big thing for them in the winter. in this case, we have a few of the items that represent some of the architecture within the building. some of it was hidden architecture. we have pieces of the metal stove, the bottles that were tossed into the structure when it was abandoned. decorative pieces of the wall that show us with the building looks like. base that column would've helped the main support for the structure and we found eight of these in the basement

supporting the main floor up above and the roof. and what hasrved been visible in the parts that were not visible or just rock. all of the rock put into the foundation was quarried on the mountains and brought down by a horse and wagon, during the wintertime often where they which is a lit out into things like this to construct the building. and we pieces of slate found several slate pencils. not only was this used for meetings but at times the building was used as a school. so we have little pieces of that educational aspect of the

building. the block where the meeting house and the new temple set are still the center and the heart, chest as they were in the 1860's. even though you have busy cars rushing by and shoppers and government buildings around it, that is where people go to feel the heart. it maintains not only its historic visual character, but it's feeling of character. in most lds communities, it is the same thing.

those central squares or public squares are always the heart of the lifeblood of that community. >> our cities to her staff recently traveled to provost, its to learn more about history. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> next, we hear from historians and activists reflect on the historical arc of the civil rights movement. discussiont of a called the future of the american -- of the african-american past. this is one hour 40 minutes.