valley, lincoln's reelection was reassured and the road appomattox had quickened greatly. thank you. [applause] coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. tonight at eight eastern on lectures in history, virginia commonwealth university films maden student it during the cold war out of fear the u.s. population was falling behind the soviet union and science education. and sunday morning at 10:00 on road to the white house we want, the 1952 and 1948 national conventions. in an 1952, dwight eisenhower accepted the republican nomination and adelaide stephenson received the democratic nomination on the third ballot. in 19 88, the first televised conventions were president harry truman accepted his party's

nomination. the failure to do anything about high prices and the failure to do anything about housing. my duty as president requires that i use every means within my power to get the laws of that people need on matters of such importance and urgency. on american00 artifacts, we take a look at the new society and national museum of african american history and culture with its director. the museum opens its doors to the public in september of this year. were able to get amazing collections of movie posters such as the ones behind you. that is an early oscar poster from the 1920's and then this is part of our job is to help people relearn history they think they know. that movie posters from spencer williams. he is known by most people as playing amos and andy did he was one of the most important black film directors in the late 30's and 40's. >> and sunday night at 8:00 on

the presidency, historian john talk about the process of writing a presidential biography. for our complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org. >> leah wright rigeueur is the author of "the loneliness of the black republican." she is the author of the loneliness of cspan's american history tv interviewed the professor at this year's annual meeting of the organization of american historians in providence, rhode island. this is about 10 minutes. >> you wrote "the loneliness of the black republican, pragmatic politics and the pursuit of power toga what is -- power." what is this book about? prof. rigueur: it looks at the black men and women who worked within the publican party from 1956 to present day.

this spans a huge expanse of african-americans. it has -- is as broad as a jackie robinson, but also includes figures like a whitney young of the national urban league or a jesse jackson of the rainbow coalition. >> you focus on the role of women within the republican party. in the time period we are looking at, 1936 to the present, how have african-american women tended to vote in presidential elections? prof. rigueur: one might describe african-american women as being the backbone of the democratic party. they are the most loyal of constituents and of voters for the democrats. we are releasing this over the past 80 years, since 1936 african-american women have cast their support for the democratic

party and they have been instrumental in winning a number of different elections, most recently 2012 election. the interesting thing about this is that before the switch, the great switch from the republican party to the democratic party, black women were also the most loyal of republican party voters. we can see there is a political consistency to the political activism of black women, whether in the republican or democratic parties. >> once african-american women got the right to vote along with other women, white women as well, most african-american women got the right to vote, they cast ballots for the republican party. when african-americans said farewell to the party of lincoln, black women were among the first to do that as well and

then became supporters of the democratic party. that has remained true to the present day, where they make up the back owner of the modern democratic party. >> when do you first start to see african-american women moving towards the republican party in this present time period? prof. rigueur: the interesting thing about women and political activism is even as they are incredibly loyal voters to the democratic party, we do see them come up occasionally in the republican party. when they do come up, they often have prominent roles during -- roles. in the 1950's, black women were largely excluded from white women's republican activism. they formed their own organizations or join with black men to auxiliary organizations. in the 1950's, the republican women's order organization actually appointed a black woman who was in charge of black women's

outreach for the gop. she travels the country for 3 years, really trying to convince black women to rejoin the party of lincoln and integrate the party of lincoln. >> you have done research on a couple of women in particular. can you tell us about them? prof. rigueur: two of the most active and prominent black women in the republican party in the 1960's and 1970's, they are two really interesting figures. they are liberal, active in civil rights organizations. they are very aggressive in their political outreach within the country. one particularly comes from a civil rights background.

her father was involved in the court case that helped overturn the restrictive covenant. she's one of the cofounders of the congress for racial equality . at the same time she's very active in republican politics in seconds the nomination under nixon for president in 1960. gloria is another figure whose very active in republican circles, and she's very active in terms of economic outreach and pushing for gender equality. she aligns with several black republican organizations. she is unceremoniously hired in the

1970's and later goes on to second the nomination of ronald reagan when he challenges gerald ford for the presidency in 1976. >> how influential where they and how successful were they within the party itself? prof. rigueur: success in terms of what these women were doing, it's a difficult term to define. they are successful in placing themselves in extremely high positions of power. one is deputy general and is the first black woman to do so. that in some respects is a level of power. she has to integrate a number of corporate towards -- boards during the 1960's and 1970's. the problem with that is, what are the kind of a coalition that they have in? -- accomplishments they have been? what kind of things happen as they are

advising these republican officials? on the one hand, one testifying to the u.n. that racism is a human rights issue of the generation, saying we need to be committed to say, eradication of racism every single way. on the other hand, she is the deputy solicitor general. that administration is instrumental in passing several conservative supreme court decisions during the mid-1970's. her civil rights activism isn't enough to really influence the direction of the solicitor general's office during that time period. >> what motivated african-american women to work within the republican party? prof. rigueur: the integral thing have to consider is the

population of african american women that self identify as conservative. many of them are from the south, many of them are married. one of the things that we see is that every day form of conservatism don't always translate into support for the republican party. what actually motivates these women to get involved in conservative causes. for example, we see a lot of like women involved in the national black majority committee, an organization that comes of age during the nixon administration and is funded by conservative republicans. they go on a cross-country tour to talk about stopping crimes, for example. that doesn't translate into support or both for republican officials. >> in your research, did you come across anything that surprised you?

prof. rigueur: there is a lot that surprised me. the biggest surprise was that there were african-american women in prominent positions in the republican party. that goes against everything we know about the partisanship and the loyalty of black women to the democratic party. the other thing that really surprised me is a number of these women have civil rights backgrounds. especially in the 1960's and 1970's, they are committed to pushing an agenda of civil rights that focuses on the eradication or end of racism. and many of them in fact are socially liberal, especially on issues that touch on race. the other thing that really surprised me is that a number of these women were willing to put aside their liberalism on issues of race to support candidates that we traditionally think of as conservative. gloria, even though she is

a liberal republican committed to civil rights, she backs ronald reagan, who is the heir to barry goldwater and the face of modern conservative politics. she does so because she believes she can influence him and she can push the direction of his platform and be a trusted at iser. -- advisor. she does become part of his inner circle. even as she is saying she doesn't support legislation like that, her candidate is aggressively endorsing policies and programs that do just that. >> did your research face any additional questions you would like to pursue? prof. rigueur: there were a lot of lingering questions that came up. one of the most pressing issues that the modern republican party increasingly

turned to black women and placing them in high profile positions, surrogacy, think of donald trump and the campaign which is supported by a number of black women, have proved that he uses the black women's story to talk about anti-federalism, taking an antigovernment approach, antigovernment involvement approach. if you think about the high-profile roles a lot of these women had, it's important to think about how is the republican party using them, and what are they gaining from the republican party? also, it brings up a lot of important questions about what is the nature of work that these women are doing, and how do they navigate oftentimes conflicting identities as they work within the party that seems hostile not only to gender issues, but to racial

issues as well. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, tonight at eight eastern on lectures in history, virginia commonwealth university professor karen rader on student instructional films made during the cold war out of fear the u.s. population was falling behind the soviet union and science education. and sunday morning at 10:00 onward to the white house rewind, the 1952 and 1948 national convention. in 1950 two, eisenhower accepted the republican nomination and adelaide stevenson received the democratic nomination on the ballot. in 1948, the first televised convention by president harry truman accepted his party's nomination. anythingilure to do about high prices and the failure to do anything about housing. my duty as president requires that i use every means within my

power to get the laws the people need on matters of such importance and urgency. >> and at 6:00 on american artifacts, we take an early look at the new smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture with its director. the museum opens its doors to the public in september of this year. >> we were able to get amazing collection of movie posters to such as the one behind you. oscar michelley movie poster from the 1920's. then this is part of our job is to help people relearn history they think they know. that movie poster is from spencer williams. he is known by most people as playing amos and andy. he is one of the most important black film directors in the late 30's and 40's. >> sunday night at 8:00 on the talkdency, historians about the process of writing a presidential biography. for our complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org.

this sunday night on q&a, journalist and author joshua kendall discusses his book, first dance, parenting and politics. from george washington to barack obama. islooking at fathering trying to capture the complexity of human beings and fathering is kind of a way into character. we tend to think this is a bad guy, or this is a good guy. to see that a lot of these men who had been president had different parts. they were compartmentalized. some of them could be very laudable and do amazing things. and some could be really disappointing and horrifies. >> sunday night at a decent and pacific on q&a. next on american history tv, from oregon state university rethinking grand strategy conference. a series of five talks looking at foreign policy leaders, ranging from president woodrow wilson to george h.w. bush. key figuresxamines

of the 20th century between world war i to the fall of the berlin wall. each talk is about half an hour. the entire program from corvallis oregon is about three hours. >> this is our first session for today, the secession for on ideas and reflection points. we have five speakers so we have a full slate. i will give a very brief introduction and turn it over to them. the only difference is because we are being televised i will chair the q&a and field questions while we wait for the boom mic to go around and pick up questions for the cameras. our first speaker will be from oregonnichols state. he will be speaking on the crucible of world war i. chris?