symposium on leadership in the 20th century. up next, a panel of historians discuss president harry truman's leadership and how he interacted with three prominent national politicians from texas. former secretary of state madeleine albright opens the comments. it is about 50 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the harry s truman scholarship foundation, former secretary of state, madeleine albright. [applause] ms. albright: thank you. good afternoon and welcome. i am truly delighted to be here with all of you in to celebrate public service and the legacy of

harry truman. as someone who believes passionately in the importance of america's global leadership, i have a natural love and affinity for harry truman. but my affection for him is rooted in something more basic. he was my first american president. my family and i arrived in america november 11, 1948. a week after he narrowly beat his opponent in 1948. that was some time ago. in fact, i tell my students now that i went to college about halfway between the invention of the ipad in the discovery of fire. [laughter] ms. albright: so, it was much later when i became secretary of state and the question arose as to where to hold a particular ceremony. the event was to mark naito's decision --nato's decision to

include:. i cannot think of a more appropriate place than the truman presidential library in independence, missouri, a place devoted to the man whose vision is responsible for nato. as i stood there, i was so excited that i cannot help to use in old czechoslovakia expression, hallelujah. [laughter] ms. albright: i was equally excited to hold a ceremony in washington to formally rename this building in honor of president truman. in 2002, i was honored to be asked to serve this foundation. harry truman was both a remarkable precedent and a remarkable man who spoke often about the importance of promoting young leaders.

he wanted this foundation to be a living memorial, encouraging educated citizenship and political responsibility. for the past 40 years, thanks to the generous support of congress and the american people, that is precisely what this foundation has done. surveying the problems facing our country, i think we can all agree its mission is more vital than ever. it is a great pleasure to be about to convene this symposium and to have a conversation on the past, present and future of public service. to get that discussion started, it is my pleasure to introduce the executive treasury, andy rich. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you, secretary albright, to be vice president of the truman board into all of the officers and the trustees of the truman foundation, to the many distinguish guests.

it has been my privilege to lead the day to day management of the german foundation. i am in 1991 truman scholar myself. i am so pleased you can all be with us today to celebrate the truman foundation's 40th anniversary. how important our work is at a time when public service is all too often extraordinarily difficult and undervalued. the truman foundation was president truman's idea. toward the end of his life he told his admirers he did not want a brick-and-mortar monument, he encouraged a living memorial, an institution that support new americans from every single territory that value service to their communities and this country as much as he did. that is what the truman

foundation has been doing for four years now. we have selected more than 3000 public service leaders in the community in which they can be helped and make an even bigger difference in the life of this country. 40 years into our work we have a wonderful track record, and so this afternoon we pause to take stock in to celebrate. i want to thank secretary of state john kerry and everyone here at the state department for hosting us this afternoon, and i want to extend special thanks to the center of american history at the university of texas, alston for sponsoring this event with support from the bernard foundation. we cannot have found a more perfect sponsor in the real partner for this event. as many of you know, he was the governor of texas and i 70's and served in the legislator when harry truman was president.

the center at ut austin holds his papers and also those of such revered public service figures as former house speaker sam rayburn and former vice president john garner. they were contemporaries and in some cases good friends of president truman and each embodied his same spirit and commitment to public service. so, that will be the subject of our first panel and we have four distinguish historians with us. we have the centennial professor of history and professor of government at the university this university of texas, austin. he has written books including a bestseller on franklin roosevelt. we have the director of the lyndon johnson library and museum at the university of texas next to the center. he is the author of four books and is an expert on lbj and the presidency.

we have professor of history at the university of houston. she is also an expert on the presidency in presidential congressional relations in the 20th century. she is currently writing a bargain three of john garner. he has written books on many of the leading public figures of the 20th century. he has been a tremendous partner to us on this symposium. our sincere thanks again to him and went to turn it over to don in our fellow panelists for the first discussion this afternoon. [applause] >> well, it sounds like -- can you hear us ok? all right. we are on. thank you andy for that introduction.

it is a great privilege and an honor for us to sponsor this celebration of the 40th anniversary of the truman scholars program. i also want to thank andy rich and secretary albright for really the outstanding job that they have done in pulling together this program. it has been about a year since we were talking about this and we are so delighted we have reached this point today. i also want to acknowledge this, we received really substantial funding for this program from the audrey and bernard rapoport foundation in waco, texas and i just want to have a shout out to them as well before we get into the program. i want to add that the decision

for us to support this conference was very easy to make, primarily because the truman scholarship over the past 40 years has made such a significant contribution to the public good with all of the gifted individuals, students who the truman foundation's support has made possible for them to go to school and to interpublic service, and so it was easy for us to sponsor something that was going to celebrate that. also, it gives us the opportunity, the center the opportunity to bring to attention our own work and furthering knowledge of the research and teaching we support and facilitate. it is also a fact that andy mentioned that we have the sam rayburn library in the john garner museum. we also have a very, very close

working relationship with the lbj library, our next-door neighbor at the university of texas, austin. we have three experts, as andy mentioned who will join me in discuss the relationship harry truman had with three texans who were among the most influential and well-known political figures of their day. cactus jack garner was speaker of the house of representatives and he was later vice president for the first two terms of franklin roosevelt's administration. his protege, cactus jack's protege, john garner was sam rayburn who was the longest-serving speaker of the house in american history and rayburn's crochet lyndon b. johnson was vice president and then president of the united states himself.

so, let's begin the discussion today, turning to dr. nancy young who will start the discussion off about john garner and harry truman's relationship. >> they were cut from the same cloth in many ways born and raised in rural backgrounds. they did not have the formal education of a john f. kennedy. they both appreciated the experiences of a common man and woman. that is what drove them to public service, i believe. don already mentioned garner was fdr's first vice president. they share skepticism about that office of a both held with garner once observing that the

vice presidency was not worth a couple of warm spit. that is a sanitized version of the quote. there is a less sanitized version, and i will let your imagination take you wherever it does. harry truman, not to the outdone, made a similar observation about the vice presidency, that it was like the fifth tit on a cow, no way to really change that one around that i could think of. [laughter] >> hopefully that will suggest to you the common bond of the two men. gartner was truman senior and garner was in the vice presidency when truman came to the senate so he was the presiding officer in the chamber. garner gave truman the same advice he gave all new members and that was to be quiet and learn how things were for a while. garner did serve as a mentor to

truman when he was a young truman's washington, d.c. home, you would see on his small bookshelf a few books, a two-volume biography of andrew jackson, the bible, stories of great operas, and a biography of john garner. garner and truman did not always think alike and perhaps the most important moment where they disagree was with fdr's plan in 1937 to expand the size of the supreme court. the supreme court had been deciding against measures and fdr did not want the trend to continue with pending court

cases, so he hoped that expanding the size of the court will solve that problem. truman was happy to support the president in that regard but garner said, "i will oppose it with all of the strength that remains to me but i do not imagine it will be any good. why the president asked congress to commit suicide, it would do it." so a little frustration there. not that long after in the 1940 presidential election, garner made a brief challenge to fdr that did not work out well for him, so he left washington dc, saying he would never go back again and he never went back again. some had mistaken that statement as a resignation from politics overall, and that would not be true because garner remain very involved in politics until he drew his last breath. when truman became president, he said of garner, when garner was vice president, there was hardly

a day when at least half the members of the senate did not see him in his office or talk to them somewhere in the capital. in the past four years when henry wallace was vice president i am sure there were only a half a dozen senators in the office. you can draw your own conclusion. garner provided a model for truman in how to approach is increasing role in public life. 1948 when truman saw reelection to the presidency in his own right, he made a series of. source throughout the country. one reason he did not visit was giving up on any hope of carrying southern states with thurman splitting off into the dixie party. truman did get to texas and he made a special point of going on a whistle stop resume and meet

with his old friend, cactus jack garner. truman needed texas to win the white house. he campaigned very well in texas and throughout the country. sam rayburn said he was one of the folks very good from the back platform, a crowd of 10,000 people showed up to greet truman at the train station at 6:50 in the morning and the high point was a breakfast garner have for truman served on the back porch of the home and the crowd cheered. they cannot care so much about truman's civil rights agenda, but a friend of john garner in that is all that mattered to them and he did indeed carry texas. truman came back to visit garner one more time in 1958 for a celebration of his 90th birthday. truman's airplane was delayed

with mechanical problems in dallas so he did not get there until late in the evening passed garner's bed time of 8:00, so they agreed to talk the next morning after agreeing that they were a sight for sore eyes. i think that sums up nicely the garner-truman relationship and i will turn it over to my wiser and more learned colleagues. >> you want to talk about rayburn? >> sure. i would love to. [applause] >> i would add that 8:00 was pretty much truman's that time as well. they did not miss out on much. harry truman and sam rayburn had a lot in common. they were both small-town southerners. they both prided themselves on their plain speaking, straight

shooting character. they would tell things the way they saw it. they did not feel inclined to mince words for political benefit. perhaps most important at least for the relationship between the two, they were loyal democrats and they would stand by the democratic party. there was a lot in the background of the two that might have made them friends, but the fact that they became important political partners was less ordained. in fact, it was largely a matter of accident. the accident was the death of franklin roosevelt. sam rayburn came to real political power before harry truman day. he was speaker of the house starting in 1940. truman was a member of the senate. he developed a certain reputation during world war ii

in terms of keeping an eye on government spending on the war. that brought him to national attention or at least the attention of franklin roosevelt, and when there was a revolt in the democratic party in 1944 against henry wallace, roosevelt was looking for someone that he could talk into the vice presidency and he would not create another revolt in the party. harry truman was sufficiently registered that the party accepted harry truman. truman's appreciation of the vice presidency and was elected. he shared john garner's low opinion of it. while he was try to find what to do with himself, he used to hang out with sam rayburn. rayburn had this hideaway deep in the bowels of the capital

where what he called the board of education used to meet late in the afternoon. they would share their favorite drink and they would ruminate on politics in washington and the state of the democratic party. harry truman was in sam rayburn's office on a moment to stay in 1945 in april when he got word that a call had come from the white house and it was important he called the white house so be good. he called the white house. the first thing he said, according to somebody that was there, he puts on the phone and he said, "jesus christ and general jack." he knew that something was up. he went to the white house and discovered franklin roosevelt had died and he was now president of the united states. he realized that his relationship with sam rayburn all of a sudden have become very much more important. it is a surprise for both of them. when harry truman became

president, he had no idea that he was about to launch two revolutions in american affairs. a revolution in domestic affairs that did not go as long as he wanted. it would take another 15 or 20 years. harry truman was the first president since reconstruction to believe that the president needed to take a positive role in improving race relations. harry truman, for example, was the one that issued the executive order to desegregate the military. that is one that hung fire while truman was still president, but it was essential to the relationship between truman in rayburn. the other, perhaps more far-reaching revelation was that harry truman launched an american foreign affair and in

both of those areas, truman made rayburn uncomfortable. he had an idea that after world war ii the united states might gradually proceed from responsibility for world affairs of the taken after pearl harbor and but somehow approximate the previous attitude of the country toward the rest of the world. truman realized this would not work. the world would not remain peaceful and but not remain well ordered unless united states continue to play a large role. one of the moments in which harry truman had to call on sam rayburn was when truman was presenting congress with what became the marshall plan. i will let truman tell the story. he invites sam rayburn into his office. i called in sam rayburn and when i told him what we had in mind, he would not believe it. his first reaction was just like everybody else. he said, we cannot afford it. he said, mr. president, it will

bust the country. and i said to them, this instrument, sam, if we do not do it, europe will have the worst depression in its history and i do not know how many hundreds or thousands of people will starve to death and we do not want to have a thing like that on our conscience. not if it is something we can prevent, no we do not. if we let europe go down the drain, then we are going to have a bad depression in this country and you and i have both lived through one depression and we do not want to have to live through another. do we, sam? rayburn says, no we do not. he said, harry, how much do we figure this is going to cost? he says, i never told sam anything less than the whole truth. that is the kind of relationship

we have. i looked him in the eye and said, is going to cost about $16 billion, sam. but then, truman went on to say, he had worked on behalf of saving the government money during the war. now, sam, i figure i save the people of the united states about $16 billion with the committee of mine. [laughter] >> you know that better than anyone else. now, we are going to need that money and we can save the world with it. rayburn says, every, i will do my damnest. there was another moment when sam rayburn essentially came to the rescue of harry truman. he describes this from the perspective of john garner when

truman is running for election in 1948 and his stance on civil rights has prompted a revolt within the democratic party and strom thurmond has led and is about to lead half of the south out of the democratic party. truman is trying to shore up support in the south. he goes to texas. jack garner holds a breakfast for him and sam rayburn rode on the train with him. sam rayburn invited him to texas where he holds a reception and he says that, everybody, nobody

is going to come so we are going to make sure texas turns out for a democratic president. rayburn himself has some questions whether the timing was right for civil rights reform that truman proposed. he was a good enough democratic to say, this is our president and we are going to stick with him. he invites all of his friends and they all show up in the gives a speech on his behalf. he emphasizes not civil rights, because he knows that it's going to be devices and texas, but he emphasizes foreign policy. speaking of truman's foreign policy and is a candidate, his shoulders are broad enough, his heart is big enough and his mind is keen enough. i do not know if all of the texans come into the recession were listening but this was sam rayburn, so they were going to come. margaret truman went along on a trip and she recalls to the

guests coming to the rayburn's house, they came in droves and they kept coming. they kept coming in such numbers that they alarmed the secret service. the secret service, i should point out, that harry truman would be the object of a fascination, and the secret service was worried and so they wanted to make sure that everybody that came to the reception, and sam rayburn stood up and said, i know every man, woman and child here and i will vouch for them. rayburn was willing that everyone should, and face truman. he did not want to give more of a party necessary when he realized some of the guests were coming through the eating line twice. he said, shut the door, they are coming through twice. anyway, his support for truman was absolutely critical in

holding half of the south for truman and that is what gave truman the victory in 1948 and made possible the completion of truman's revolution in foreign policy including the north atlantic alliance, the korean war and so on. it was this partnership that made truman the president that he was. again, rayburn did not agree with everything, but he believed truman was somebody he could see i to eye with. i will leave rayburn the last line and this is something truman would have endorsed, "any jackass can kick a barn down but it takes a carpenter to build one." [applause]

>> thank you. let's hear from mark about his relationship with lyndon johnson. >> you that. let me start by adding lbj's contribution to despair in the vice presidency. he said with very earthy language from texas, johnson said that the vice president was like being stuck in a screwing match. like the gentleman nancy and bill have spoken about, lyndon johnson and harry truman were very much cut from the same cloth. both were born of modest means in small-town america, what we may call flyover country today. they never forgot where they came from. truman never went to college

although he read every book in the independence, missouri public library. both men were accidental presidents, stepping into the outside shoes of their eloquent harvard educated predecessors. franklin roosevelt and lbj after the assassination of the eloquent and graceful john f. kennedy. when truman took office, the washington post did not have a high opinion of him. we would be less than candid if we did not recognize that this that has been thrust upon him. and lbj said of kennedy, he was

a great public hero and anything i did somehow, if it wasn't approved of, it would always say that president kennedy would have done it better, that he would not have made the mistakes that i made. yet both truman and johnson made near great presidents. they shared an acute sense of social justice. while truman and johnson never forgot where they came from, the advancement of causes of civil rights, where civil rights policies were immensely unpopular, truman desegregated the military and pushed in vain for civil rights laws. johnson passed a trilogy of transformational civil rights legislation, passing the civil rights act of 1964, to break the back of jim crow in the south, the voting rights act of 1965,

and the fair housing act of 1968. they both shared a great personal bond. lbj rose from the house to the senate during truman's tenure in office, eventually becoming the senate minority whip during truman's last years as president. johnson admired truman and considered him a mentor. truman had many daddies, as he called them, including sam rayburn. he also considered truman, in some ways, a daddy. when lbj became president, he often paid tribute to harry truman, perhaps anticipating his own post-presidency and hoping that well goes around goes around, he lavished them with raise and attention, showing truman that, while he was gone back to his modest life in independence, missouri, after leaving the let -- the splendor of the presidency, that he certainly wasn't forgotten. this is a taste of a telephone conversation of johnson calling

truman to express his congratulations after johnson won a landslide victory to earn the presidency in 1964. you will hear truman and lbj very clearly and then truman brings on his wife beth to talk to the president as well. or ask mr. president, i love you as everybody in america does. i am so honored that you would take the time to call me. >> [indiscernible] >> when you look at the truman doctrine and nato in all that it -- that's one good thing about me. i got since enough to know it. >> you are all right in my book.

i just want you to know, as long as i am in that office, you are in it and the privilege of it, our power of it, and our purpose of it that you can share and your bedroom is up there waiting for you and your plane standing by her side and your doctors and anything you want or need. >> when i'm able to travel year-round, i like to come to see you. >> tell mrs. truman that we love her. but anything that you want or need, you tell her. let me tell her. >> hello? >> mrs. truman? >> oh, we are so happy. >> i know you are. you are as responsible as any to in the nation that wonderful work you have done.

he always had time for me. >> naturally. >> he has a ways talk tomorrow if his party and his friends than he did at himself. you make him watch himself because he is no spring chicken. [laughter] >> that was magnanimous on the part of lbj. it was just a tad self-serving. and lbj host desperately that his successor will take care of him in the same way that he was taking care of his predecessor. when lbj signed medicare into law in 1965, he insisted on doing so with the trial -- the truman library, since truman had tried and failed to pass similar legislation when he was president.

at the signing, lbj paid tribute to truman for planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into the care of the sick and serenity to the fearful. he then presented the first two medicare card numbers, numbers one and two, to harry and best truman, respectively. in so doing, he called him, truman, the real daddy of medicare and was in all likelihood paying tribute to one of his own daddies at the same time. lbj also took great comfort in being around truman, another who had shouldered the burden know the presidency during a turbulent and ultimately a very consequential time. in 1968, during a trip to the west coast -- from the west coast back to washington, lbj insisted on visiting truman in independence along the way. with lbj aide larry temple, to

propose the visit, best truman declined saying that harry had company recently and he was a tad bit worn out. lbj was not want to take no for an answer and he was sure that best truman didn't understand that he was coming to independence and wanted to call on him. so he insisted that larry temple asked again, which larry temple dutifully did. he called mrs. truman back. she reluctantly consented, but she had conditions. she ordered that there be no more than 10 people in the presidential entourage trampling on her lawn and on her living room rug. the president was supposed to show up at truman's house at 2:00. a little after 3:00, finally, the presidential entourage arrived.

and johnson bounded up the steps to the porch of the truman home, thrust his hand out and said, hi, mr. president. sorry we are late. without missing a beat, truman replied, you ought to be. it is your own damn fault. if you had left on time, you would have been here on time. [laughter] and then there was a presidential entourage. larry temple began counting all those in lbj's party trampling on mrs. truman's rug. he stopped counting when he got to 20. as lbj said after his visit with the 33rd president, "i feel stronger when i leave him." my guess is that harry truman felt a little stronger, too. [applause]

>> you know, we've been talking and i was referring to cactus jack. you know, nancy, you want to explain where that comes from, cactus jack? >> sure, before jonas garner went to the house of representatives, he went to the texas state legislature, which by the way, he used his seat in the texas state legislature to draw his own congressional districts, one that he was sure to in. when he did multiple times over. but when he was in the texas state legislature, the lawmakers were debating what the state flower of texas should be. and most people know that it's the bluebonnet. the jonas garner was a proponent of the prickly pear cactus being the state flower of texas.

and he lost that battle, but gained the neck name cactus jack as a result. i can only imagine what parents in texas would think if they had to plant their children down in a patch of prickly pear cactus. maybe it's a good thing that garner lost on that one. >> we produced a documentary on the life of john s garner. truman figures prominently in it. pbs broadcast at the last couple of months. i think it covered about 80% of the previous market. i want to recommend it to you for viewing. the sam rayburn library is a

division of the center of the briscoe. . i'm interested in truman's relationship with the sam rayburn library. i think it's sort of provides an insight into what probably most of us already know about germans love of books and reading. -- about truman's love of books and reading. i think it was reader's digest. he received this cash award, and rayburn had very little money when he died. he was kind of like truman who never accumulated any personal wealth at all. he didn't know what to do this money. he was against, you know, he didn't like to take money from lobbyists or anyone else. anyway, truman suggested to him that it would be a great idea to have a library. he suggested to truman -- excuse me truman suggested to rayburn

that, you know, we don't have enough libraries. why don't you take that money and set up your own library someplace and it was really the seed, the kernel that made rayburn go on and create the sam rayburn library. in doing so, one of the things that also came in to play is the truman saw to it that, when rayburn provided absolutely critical support in the congress and led the house, as you were pointing out on the marshall plan, the greek government presented sam rayburn with a vase that was more than 2000 years old. and it is incredibly valuable. it is an amazing piece of art, ancient art. anyway, they presented it to him and truman suggested to rayburn,

if you get that library build, that will be a great place to put that vase. so that all came together and provided some impetus into creating this really wonderful community and state resource that we have in the sam rayburn library. truman also played a role in connecting the national archives to plan a library and set it up and so forth. then he told rayburn that he would come and dedicate the library, the museum, when it was ready to open. in 1957, truman, who is now a former president, makes the trek to texas, for those of you whose geography of texas may not be that good, is between dallas-fort worth and just northeast of dallas-fort worth, near the oklahoma boarder, or

the red river. truman went down and gave the dedication speech for the sam rayburn library. we have film of that and it is a great movement. stop this -- scott briscoe and truman, we talk about how important it was that john s garner was to truman's campaign in 1948 in texas. as you may recall, the odds were strongly against harry truman being elected president in 1948 to his own term. everyone expected thomas dewey to win that election, including thomas dewey. and as the democrats were split, the dixiecrats with strom thurmond and everything, it was very critical that truman could carry texas and no one really gave him a chance.

that is when this visit with garner, as you already mentioned, was so important. lde,when he came to uva there was some question. garner split with roosevelt when he left washington. he was against social security. he was against labor unions. he was very unhappy with the second new deal, which is the so-called liberal new deal. he was very supportive of the reforms of wall street and the banking industry in this country. he was a small-town banker himself. so there was some question about whether garner would be that act to and supportive of truman. because of the democrats coming back to the white house.

it was never a question. it was never a problem. garner was a huge fan of chairman. governor briscoe was the host for this. he was not governor at this time. this is 1948. but they concocted this harebrained scheme with garner . uvalde is sheep and goat country in southwest texas. it is to the west of san antonio. so they were all sheep and goat racers out -- razors out there, they did not raise cows. he decided to get a goat and put clothing on it and put a sign on it that read dewey's goat. when garner and truman came in in the convertible into town after truman's train arrived and they were going to have breakfast, they would take the goat -- they would have the press there from san antonio and the normal press that accompanied the president, and they would have the president

and sheep and goat raisers, and the go -- this is a different world than we live in today. [laughter] so same back in the convertible with a john s garner, and present dewey's goat to president truman. and there was some question about whether this was in good taste or whatever. so they did do it. they brought the goat out and truman is sitting there and you can see the shock on his face when they picked up this goat and dumped it on his lap. do is go. and then governor briscoe does his little speech. well we are going to get dewey's goat. and here it is. like that. and john s gardner starts laughing and said, you know, dewey's goat is probably going

to have a call from nature any minute here. [laughter] so maybe dewey's goat ought to leave. so they picked him up and so on. another quick story is, when do we told garner he would be back for his 90th birth day, he was there, as everyone in texas new, john s garner liked his bourbon. as a test, you needed to have a couple of glasses of urban with cactus jack when you visited him. of course, truman liked his bourbon also. so they drank together the night that truman spent in you valley. and president truman actually slept in the briscoe home that night, in governor briscoe's home. so president truman had a couple of glasses of stiff bourbon. it was then time for them to go to bed. truman got up and he turned to governor briscoe and said, bob, now listen.

i need for you to call bass and tell her that i'm fine, but that i've gone on to bed and then he left. a little later on, come to find out he did was because best absolutely for bade him to drink and he knew come i when he got on the phone, she would be able to pick up that he had been drinking and he didn't want to deal with it. [laughter] i think we've got about three minutes here. >> you talk about the modest means that truman had upon leaving office. indeed, he went back to the same home that he and bess had lived in before he went to washington in 1934, which had been owned by his in-laws. and didn't have a lot of money. if not for the sale of family farmland, he would have been broke.

and a lyndon johnson and some of his colleagues in the senate knew that and they ended up -- in those days, there was no presidential pension. there were no of monuments for former president of any kind. truman had sold a book to make a little bit of money. but given the draconian tax code at the time, lost much of that the taxes. people would send him the book to sign and would not give a return envelope. so he spent about $35,000 by his own estimation in postage alone. so this package for former presidents by lyndon johnson and some of his colleagues allowed for a modest residential pension, around the same amount of money that a ceo at the time would get so that he could set things out in the mail and some other emoluments, including office space. it further saved harry truman

from further embarrassment. and it benefited johnson, too. funny thing. [laughter] >> join me in thanking my colleagues. [applause] >> and i again want to say what a privilege it is for us to sponsor this conference and how much we appreciate you being here. we have more wonderful things that will be happening this afternoon. thank you again. appreciate it. [applause]

>> monday, author malcolm gay describes how neuroscience researchers and defense advanced arearch progress agency working to develop ways for wounded soldiers and paraplegics to use thought to move prosthetic limbs and manipulate computers. >> this is really about trying thatke whole the soldiers are coming back from iraq and afghanistan for much of the century who because of advances -- werearmor were not suffering blows that previously would have been fatal but are now just coming back with amputations. these are young the now women in their 20's, sometimes in their 30's, who have their entire lives for them. lane study the brain and had a missionary zeal to say this is a program that will make his

people hold because we go into them for the service that they did for the country. announcer: watch the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. american history tv airs on c-span3 every weekend, telling the american story through advanced interviews and visits to historic locations. in prime timeare to introduce you to programs you could see every weekend on c-span3. include visits to college classrooms across the country to hear lectures by top history professors. we look at treasures in museums and archives. railamerica, revealing a 20th century through newsreels, the civil war were you here at the people who shaped the civil war , and thestruction presidency, learn about their legacies. all this month in prime time and

every weekend on american history tv on c-span3. next on american artifacts, we see artifacts that tell the story of african-americans in congress in the 20th century. >> on the curator at the u.s. house of representatives. we want to talk today a little bit about the history of african-american representation in the 20th century. >> almost three decades after george henry white leaves -- where there are no african-americans that serve any that the house for the senate, and it has everything to do with the jim crow laws on the books in the cell. over timeat changes during those decades, there is a critical thing going on in this l, where african-americans begin to leave the cell and move

northward as part of a multi-decade movement that would later be called the great migration. , depending on which historian you talk to, 1897 runs through world war ii. it picks up momentum around world war i, as there is a need in the north to fill in a skilled jobs and jobs that had been occupied by men who have now off to fight in the war. you see tens of thousands of african-american moving west for the first time, out of agricultural jobs to industrial jobs in chicago, st. louis, cleveland, pittsburgh, new york, time, the african-american population of those cities increases. the african-americans in those

recruited gradually by the political parties and oscar depriest is a perfect example of that process. southually is warning the , he and his family are part of a group who moved to the midwest to kansas. he actually goes to grade school kansas, butool in he finds his way to chicago in 1890's and moves up through the political system. he becomes a chicago city career hasand his some peaks and valleys. by the 1920's he is part of the republican political machine in alderman. an 1928 when the sitting

congressman from chicago, a very martinl republican name madden who is on the appropriations committee, passes away meet congress, in the fall runs for thepriest seat, and he wins. in 1929 he comes to the house of representatives. things ismy favorite this little tiny button that we have any collection that is from his career. , it has aly small picture of him and one of the things i love most about it is that they are very rare. there probably were not that many of them around initially and very few survived. i only seen maybe one or two others. if you think about this tiny little that, worn on someone's lapel, looking for all the world like any other button, this actually represents a

revolution, the attempt to elect an african-american to congress for the first time in decades. just the presence of this little would have been a real statement on the part of whoever was wearing it, and i love that it has survived and that it has come back to the place that whoever on this wanted depriest to in-depth, which was the u.s. congress. more photographs, artwork and images of african-americans in congress, visit history. house.gov. the westside is a collaborative project between the u.s. house of representatives historian's office in the house clerk's office of art and archives. >> american history tv is marking the centennial of the national park service. we as members of congress about which sites in their state have the most significance for them.