it will not be one that never ends. sometimes, we lose track of that. some of us who are the descendents of those immigrants from the late 1800s have kind of forgotten about grandma and grandpa's journey. wille the media visit here reawaken that in many people's eyes. that is what ellis island is all about. it is the story of americans looking for something better, really the american dream. ,i think wheelchairs greatly. -- i think we all cherish greatly. thank you for coming along. we hope that you get to visit personally. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] been a greatays admirer of america, a big

student of american history. of particularly the history its african descended people. "q&a," theight at memoir never look at american in the eye, blank turtles, colonial , and the making of a nigerian american. >> michael formed this impression of watching cinema. cowboys would get her a barn exchange a few words. at one point they would tear each other down and start shooting. mild -- my uncle formed this impression that those of americans would do if you look them in the eye. >> sunday on "q&a." >> we are standing in elliott overlook park with a beautiful look at its bug right behind me. the city, we learn

more about its history. up next, we visit the archive service center at the university of pittsburgh, where we hear about the city's national political figure, dick thornburgh. >> our prime concern has been, use, and remains a concern for the safety of the residents of the area, and of those workers who must carry out the responsibility of decontaminating the unit to facility. >> the most pressing question is which of the alternatives is the safest? if i'm satisfied that there is an alternative which means that description, that i certainly would support it. i am concerned about the safety of this area. ms. watson: we are in the

thornburgh room, looking at some of the thornburgh collection. dick thornburgh is a pittsburgher from the start. you can did law school here and went on to be governor of pennsylvania, u.s. attorney general, and his collection is archived at the university of pittsburgh. the thornburgh collection is large, which is an understatement, considering it is 1052 cartons of documents. in 1979,ected governor on was being sworn in january 16, 1979. he was there with his hand up being sworn in with his wife inside him. -- beside him. he was visited with matters pertaining to the forthcoming came athen a phone call 7:50 a.m. on wednesday, march

28. it was announcing to the new governor that there was an accident at the nearby nuclear plant on three mile island. accidentsd nuclear had amazing repercussions and uncertainties and difficulties ahead. and then the next morning, early in the day, his notes referred to having heard mention of a fuel core damage. and consulting through the whole day, that did not change. but what to do was an enigma. ade nburgh was well enough and knew from the very start of an accident at a nuclear plant was something truly serious. immediately, he had to pull together a very small group of people that he could trust to that emergency

plans for pennsylvania. suree himself had to be that the public, once they knew about this accident, was consistently, appropriately, calmly informed. as time went on, trying to understand what happened, the reports were conflicting. every day, practically every hour, there was a change. this one, for example, says there is absolutely no danger of a meltdown. underlines, these were conflicting reports. someone else said there is no radioactive material released. well, there was. and that became known later that day and ongoing. , andthere was a leak radiation have been released. it was a matter of how much they were going to do about it. the company itself reversed its opinions and its statements

almost hourly. they weren't useful. and his own personnel at that point words nuclear exports. so we really was rather it's the until he can find someone to get the real facts. the news that something it happened on nuclear plant got around the world and the country quickly. reporters came from far and wide. i think by the end of the week, even, there were hundreds of them in the state capital, wanting to know what happened. and the governor himself didn't know at that time. headlines were just usaid's -- u.s. aides see a risk of meltdown have been nuclear plants, more

radioactive gases released. the nation does not understand why or what can be done about it. early on, the governor really did not know the ramifications of some of these releases of radiation. he did advise people in the immediate areas to stay inside. that was a recommendation. just on friday, which was two days later, he asked and advised mothers with young children to go off out of the area, and the pennsylvania government provided locations for them to stay. and they did, for some three or four days thereafter. he did consider ordering an evacuation, but he was very cognizant that there was hazard, great hazard, and doing that without suitable planning or

under any circumstances. unlessloath to do that it became specifically unavoidably necessary. thornburgh was able to get telephone communications with the president on friday. and when the president asked what can i do for you, he said i and folks from the nuclear regulatory agency to tell me what really is going on. the president said essentially, done. a military helicopter up with 10 people from the nuclear regulatory agency to figure it out and let everyone know. carl denton was an engineer with a nuclear regulatory commission. a very smart man, he had only been employed there for six months. but he was the one assigned to go up there to see what was happening. about 100,000 gallons of highly contaminated water in the

primary system that's being circulated around the cooling core. all the water that was billed inside the containment is still inside the containment. roughly 600,000 gallons of highly contaminated water. we see no imminent chance for any of them water being released , but that water has got to be cleaned up, but the water in the bottom of the containment in the water that is in the primary system. the walls of the containment have to be washed down and that decontamination must go on. ms. watson: the agency in washington didn't understand how serious it was until harold and the team got there to take a look, and determined it was pretty serious. but ultimately, they were able to ascertain that the so-called bubble was not going to burst. and there was not one to be a meltdown, which is what language was out there for people's fears.

as a result of that, assurance from harold denton, the president flew up to harrisburg the next day with mrs. carter and met with harold, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and they actually had a tour of the control room. this is all because they had assurance it was not going to blow up instantly, of course. they could go and look and talk to the engineers. after the tour of the control room, the president held a press conference, including harold denton and lieutenant governor scranton. it was a poignant, calm statement on his part, commending the population in the area for their careful thinking and caution in the case of the accident, and praising dick

thornburgh, the governor. after the president left, and the population or the populace knew there was not going to be an explosion, people who did leave return to their homes. the mothers and children who had been away from their homes for little while returned. and things began to really be calm. and the news reports were no , butr accident meltdown thornburgh did a great job. he, in crisis, a builder of confidence. there were many articles like for, where his capacity handling this really serious event had been so successful and appropriate. once it was determined that there wasn't a leak, not an explosion, not a meltdown, that did not solve the problem, just by understanding that. it took years for engineers to

determine how to fix it or it -- how to fix it. cost $1 billion. iner things called harrisburg, event behooved washington to find out what was going to go on, or had gone on. the united states senate, for justle, justin april 19 -- in april 19, wrote to governor thornburgh and said we are pleased to invite you to be the leadoff witness in our committee. we would like your presence. and any principal state officials you wish. one of the pages i pulled out here i thought was particularly telling. the quote from his speech was the toughest decision of all, however, is the one i had to make 24 hours a day throughout the crisis. that was, of course, the decision not to order an

evacuation that would have been unprecedented in its nature -- as well as its potential for harm. having starting off his career as governor, a two-term governor with a massive emergency, his team and his policies, and is balanced budgets were favorably received by the state of pennsylvania. in his concluding times, he was very broadly affectionately justly, nash justly -- i think. >> this weekend, we are featuring the history of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, together with comcast cable partners. learn more about pittsburgh and other stops on the city's tour on c-span.org/citiestour.

you are watching america history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. wood gave adon talk to 30 egyptian leaders about the american revolution and the 1787 constitutional convention at a time when the egyptian experience was still unfolding. od described the challenges facing the leaders of the american revolution and how they devised a constitutional structure that eventually led to stable government. next, on american history tv, gordon wood delivers the substance of his arab spring lecture to the wisconsin historical society as part of their james madison lecture series. this talk, with questions from the audience, is just over one hour. >> thank you. it's a pleasure to us to welcome professor wood