now this particular rifle was prepared specifically for roosevelt. it has the presidential seal engraved on the breach. and of course roosevelt was famous for the bull moose party. and there is a bull moose engraved on the side plate of this gun. >> watch c-span cities tour of springfield, missouri, saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's book tv. and sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. >> next, we'll take you to kansas city, missouri, for a look at the city's role in the civil rights movement. we'll start with mayor sly james. >> physically, kansas city is 318 square miles. it is 480,000 people spread across those 318 square miles

for a density of about 1,460 per mile, which is pretty sparse when you get right down to it. we're roughly, 29, 30% african american. about 11% latino, 5% various mixes of immigrants and various cultures there. the rest caucasian. kansas city has variety of neighborhoods. it has an extremely sophisticated purpose and culture. things that people might not expect. we have tremendous sports teams. we have great art. it's a place of variety and a place of music and barbecue. one thing i can tell you as a mayor is that all cities have similar problems. we have issues that we have to deal with crime. just like everybody else, too many guns on the street, too much gun violence, too many homicides. we have to deal with that. by educating kids. because one thing we know is that seldom do you have ph.ds shooting each other on street corners. you have people who are

undereducated and therefore have fewer options who feel hopeless. and when you feel hopeless, you feel angry. and when you feel angry, you lash out. and if you happen to have easy access to guns, oftentimes that's with a gun. the things that i remember and the things that hold me close to kansas city are the times that i was in high school growing up in the 1960s. graduated in '69. and we had all of the things that other cities had, the panthers, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, the drug culture, the ant anti-vietnam phase. everything was here all at one time. one thing i learned about kansas at this point in time is we tended to be softer on all of those issues than others. our riots were not as vast. and we came together to put those out. and we moved forward. we learned how to get along with each other, although we still remain unfortunately in mind and

opinion too segregated. we have to do more to bring our people together across color barriers. and we're working on that seriously. but the things that i remember or the things that i grew up with, growing up in a time, in a city where there was a lot of conflict and watching how this city dealt with that conflict in a way that kept it together without it falling apart and moving forward. we're at the negro leagues baseball museum, historic 18th and vine in kansas city, missouri. here we document the story of black baseball in america in general and the professional negro leagues specifically. essentially, you just walked into an old ballpark. the only difference in this old ballpark is that you're going to meet some new baseball heroes. and of course when you walk into the ballpark, the first thing that you see is the field. here it is the field of legends. and the field of legends as you can see is a mock baseball diamond that houses 10 of 12

life-sides bronze sculptures of negro leagues great. they're cast in position as if they were playing a game is that they represent ten of the first group of negro league players to be inducted into the baseball hall of fame at cooperstown. so that is how our all star team is chosen. on the outside looking in is the late great john buckle neil. the only one of our collection of statues that is not in the national baseball hall of fame. certainly international he should be in the hall of fame. neil buck, who is also the co-founder of the negro baseball museum is managing this all-star team that we assembled. really our guests come in. they peer through this old chicken wire. they see this incredible display. and we hope it invokes the desire that oh, man, i can't wait to get out there and walk amongst the stat use. but at the negro leagues baseball museum, we segregate you from the field. we wanted our viewers to experience what segregation was

like. knowing full well that they were good enough to play in the major leagues, so close to it yet so far from it. so for most vantage points in the museum, you can see the field, but you can't get to it. the only way that you're allowed to take the field at the negro leagues baseball museum, you have to earn that right. and you do so by learning their story. and by the time you've beared witness to everything that they endured just to play baseball in this country, then the very last thing that happens here is now you can take the field. let me introduce you to rup foster, the genius. it would be rup fosser who would establish the negro leagues here in kansas city at the old ymca. the building still stands. as a matter of fact, it is right around the corner from where the museum currently operates. that is where the contingent of baseball team owners met in 1920 to form the negro national league, the first organized

national black baseball league. they would go on to operate for 40 years, from 1920 until 1960. jackie robinson breaks baseball's color barrier in 1947. but 13 years after jackie breaks the color barrier, the negro leagues are still operating and operating with a relatively good deal of success. because it took major league baseball 12 years before every major league team had at least one major black baseball player. but it was the legend, without question the greatest baseball mind this sport has ever seen and virtually no one knows anything about him, even though he is rightfully in the national baseball hall of fame. sometimes lost in the romantic nature of these heroic athletes and courageous athletes who overcame tremendous social adversity to go on to play this game that they loved is the fact that negro leagues baseball was thriving black business enterprise, third largest black on the other hand business in this country. but the impact that it had in spawning other businesses

probably was greater than any other business during that time in the african american community. welcome to the street hotel, the prime example. the street hotel was black on the other hand hotel right here on the corner of 18th and paseo here in the historic 18th and vine jazz district. but let me tell you, it wasn't a travesty to have to stay at the hotel. because you're f you're black and visited kansas city, this is one of the few places that a black person could have to stay at a hotel. and it was by far the most majestic of the black on the other hand hotels or motels that were here in kansas city. this depicts the sitting room of the old street hotel. you could walk in the sitting room of the street on any given day, and man, you might see sitting in one of these chairs former heavyweight boxing champion joe lewis. or at this time the fastest man in the world, jessie owens. here is the legendary orchestra leader lionel hampton.

hampton loved the kansas city monarchs. so much so that my dear friend, the late great john buck o'neal who was managing the monarchs at the time would put hampton in a monarch uniform, and he would sit on the bench and serve as an honorary coach there is the beautiful lena horn throwing out the first pitch at an all-star game. the legendary jazz musician cab calloway had his own semi grow perot black baseball team. so did louis armstrong. interestingly enough, all the jazz musicians wanted to be baseball players. all the baseball players wanted to be jazz musicians. so it was only fitting that they would come here to 18th and vine where you had the best of both worlds, jazz and baseball. yeah. and so kansas city in 18th and vine was jumping. a jazz musician could get a gig in kansas city when he couldn't get a gig anywhere else in the world because you had all the nightclubs had music. the clubs galore here at 18th and 12th and vine.

so this place was wide open. and baseball and jazz kind of intersected. yeah, that intrinsic mixture of jazz and baseball which radiated from 18th and vine and made it one of the most recognized street cross sections anywhere in the world. changing time looks at world war ii. here we had the irony of young black soldiers dying fighting the same racism in another country that we're being asked to accept here in the states. that led to the movement of integrating america's so-called national pastime. the sentiment was this. if they could die fighting for their country, they ought to be able to play baseball in this country. that led to jackie robinson being handpicked from the great kansas city monarchs. again, jackie place here in 1945. at the end of the '45 season, signed his contract to play in the dodgers organization. he would spend the 46th season

in montreal in the dodgers farm system. and then in 1947 make that monumental walk on the field as the member of the brooklyn dodgers, forever changing the game of baseball. but more importantly, forever changing this country. there is no question that jackie's breaking of the color barrier is one of the most significant events in american history. as a matter of fact, the museum makes the bold assertion that robinson's breaking of the color barrier wasn't just a part of the civil rights movement, it was the beginning of the civil rights movement. 1947. this is well before those more noted civil rights occurrences. this is before brown versus the board of education. this is before rosa parks' remuse forecast toll move r refusal to move to the back of the death. dr. martin luther king jr. was a sophomore at morehouse when robinson signed that contract. president truman would not integrate the military until a year after jackie.

so for all intents and purposes, this is what started the ball of social progress rolling in our country. well, the integration of our sport is bittersweet. it is bitter because i'm not sure the african american community was aware of what it was losing when we lost the negro leagues. the negro leagues had been so greatly impactful in spawning black businesses and helping create the dynamics of a thriving black culture. when we lost the negro leagues, we lost a lot of that. yeah. segregation mandated ownership. and so with integration we did lose that. and so the degree of ownership that was so prevalent during that era of segregation in the african american community, i don't know if we will see that level of ownership again. i certainly hope that we will. but we lost a lot. yeah, and so it was good for the soul of our country, integration was. and ultimately the integration

of our sport which triggered integration in our society in a much broader fashion. it was good for the soul of our country. it moved us in ways socially that i don't ever think fathomed was possible. but it was devastating economically. we finally make our way to the field where we are greeted by this uniform display. and of course these incredible life-sized bronze sculptures of negro league greats anchored on the mound by the legendary leroy satchel page. there are few, if any whoever did it better than the legendary leroy satchel page. what the negro leagues teaches us is very simple. in this great country of ours, if you dare to dream and you believe in yourself, you can do or be anything you want to be. you see, these athletes dare to dream to play baseball. they had no idea that they were making history. quite frankly, they didn't care

about making history. they just wanted to play ball. but the passion, the perseverance, the determination, the courage that these men demonstrated in the face of adversity would not only change our sport, it changed our country for the better. tom pendpendergast was a political boss in the city dur about the '20s and '30s. how his influence both good and bad helped shape the city and politics. >> tom pendergast was the political machine boss of kansas city from really in control from 1925 to 1939. the political machine got its start from tom's older brother, jim pendergast, who came to kansas city in the 1880s and got started establishing this

machine in the first ward of kansas city, which was in the industrial west bottoms down by the river. there were many -- there was an irish community, african american communities. it was very diverse. a lot of working class people. and jim pendergast had sal loans, aloan -- salons. and he went precinct to precinct building this machine that was based on favors. basically helping people get jobs in exchange for votes, helping people through giving them loans that you didn't have to get a formal bank loan. and jim would loan the money, settle gambling debts, skimming money off of the top of illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution and so on and so forth. and when jim pendergast, he was

getting older. his health was failing, and his younger brother tom pendergast got started in the machine around the 1900s. machine around the 1900s he was elected city alderman. in charge of streets for a few years in the early 1900s. tom pendergast was in a position to take over the machine. by the time jim died in 1911. >> the legacy of pendergast family has been beat up and twisted and turned. so many times over the years today's kansas citien doesn't understand who he was and what he did. both good and bad. the pendergast family came here in the 1870s. what a lot of people don't realize is that they were tom pendergast and his brother jim and the seven siblings were sons and daughters of immigrants. and came here as working class

young men looking for jobs in kansas city. and when big jim pendergast just through sheer popularity won the seat as alderman for the first ward. a real influential ward with the immigrants and african americans. and immigrants. they grew up in a sort of a poverty themselves. they empathized with the working people. tom follow ld his brother into politics. became a deputy constable. for the city court and became took on other positions within is the city. and took over in 1910 as a city counsel man. an alderman like his brother had been. and i think when you follow the trajectory of kansas city and the economy and its growth with the immigrant groups coming in. people looking for work.

tom built his kingdom if you will his political kingdom on serving those under served people. in other words he knew that unlike today when politic ts make intangible promises they're going to save the world and make the country prosper for everyone. tom threw the years delivered tangible things for people who needed them. whether it was medicine, whether it was coal. whether it was food. more importantly it was jobs. he learned early on the way to a persons heart is through his dignity. and with the job comes dignity. especially when he got into the depression era where so many people were out of work trying to raise families he knew the best thing he could do for anyone for a lifetime of favors returned is to get that person a job. >> a political machine it's basically a started to describe

it with the act of doing favors in exchange for votes. when you boil it down to its base element. that's what it amounted to. it's being tied in to organized crime and other elicit activities taking bribes and kick backs. and using influence to make sure that your preferred candidates are elected. and then once you control the city government, by 1925 the pendergast machine had full control of over the city. they had five out of nine city council members were hand picked by tom. through the city council they appointed henry. who city manager. and city manager position was really more powerful than any

other position in kansas city at the time. when ever they did city construction projects, he would make sure the contracts went to companies that were owned by tom pendergast. and pendergast he owned mostly construction companies. there was basically everything from quarries to cement. to there was a mix company. he had insurance companies. he had liquor companies. of course. which at least officially they changed to beverage companies during prohibition at the time. and so all of those city contracts went through mcroy to pendergast and had gets this

money. there's a circle op money. and pendergast is always getting his cut. and people affiliated get their cut. in exchange he gets votes. >> i'm not trying to justify the pendergast legacy of vote fraud. and government control. but i do want to balance it with the fact that kansas city wouldn't the city it is today in the many good ways if it hasn't been for tom pendergast. he helped funnel money this during the depression from the new deal. with a ten year plan. which they used tax dollars to put people to work. building a lot of these major structures city hall. the courthouse. the auditorium. all those became public works projec projects which he helped control to garner the money to put people to work. he split jobs during the depression so one guy would work

half a day and another guy work half a day. two jobs instead of one. he guided us through the depression. they say he had city government in county government in one pocket. and the under world in the other pocket. and he used those influences to do a will the of good. and of course lined his pockets at the same time. >> 1932 the power actually went statewide. when he got guy park elected. and they had inflounce for the state of missouri. representation at the democratic national convention. in the 1930s, the pendergast eventually selected truman to be senator for missouri. and he was elected in a statewide vote. and but at this point through

pendergast i believe the number was he could produce about 70,000 fraudulent or ghost votes. in any given election at this time. with that the sheer number of votes that he could produce out of kansas city that would be tallied and they were official. whether they were real or not. he had that the power to to do this. >> at a time of extreme project in the 1920s and 30s. for instance the ku clux clan was in kansas city for a convention. 10,000 clans men. did a parade down main street. or grand avenue. while in the con vejs one of the chants was good-bye tom good-bye joe your crooked gang has got to

go. they were referring to tom up and down guest and joe shan shon. his sometimes ally and sometimes competitor on the political scene. locally. one of the reasons that the kkk targeted tom pendergast was he was later described as man of equal opportunity. he treated african americans as voters first and foremost. he helped any group that needed it as long as they were registered to vote. but i think that's another side of the pendergast machine that wasn't copied or replicated in other cities. he reached out and woshlged with all the different communities. black, white, when it came to election day. everybody's vote was the same. >> eventually in the late 30s, 1937. he got involved in an insurance

kick back scheme. and actually the scheme it's not clear whether he broke the law with the scheme itself. i'm not a lawyer. so i can't explain that. where he ran into trouble is he didn't report the income to the irs. for income tax. on this tax return. so just like al ka poen it was the irs. that finally caught up with tom pendergast. and he was indicted in 1939. and went to jail in eleven worth. the federal penitentiary. he was nothing by this point by 1945. and pendergast died. natural causes. truman came to his funeral. truman who just became vice president came to the funeral of

tom pendergast. during wartime. on a military plane. it's a big controversy. and weeks later, roosevelt died. and truman was president of the united states. so truman could never completely distance himself from the background with the machine. and he owned it. he said that pendergast always kept his word. and he wasn't going to abandon his friend. so. so what we're trying to do is complicate that history. and i've done a little bit of that in this interview. but we are building a web site that will include currently we have about 9,500 scans of original documents.

we have photographs, letters that people have written to one another back then. i mention the court cases that unvail voter fraud and crime. and it's an interactive web site. that will combine this original documents with new scholarship. so we have reached out and 2015 to 18 different professors. who were or museum professionals or historians. who have produced full length articles that they would go on the book. there's some new ideas in there. or new topics that just haven't been explored in any kind of depth before this. we're taking web site versions of those. a little bit shorter geared to the public audience. and those will go on the web site.

everything will be linked together. so when you're reading the essay you can click and see the documents that support the research. you can go read the court case that put pendergast in jail. and it's not as dry as a typical court case might sound. when you think about everything going on at the time. the scope is focusing on pendergast and the machine, and then exploring all of the implications of machine rule. in kansas city. especially in the 1920s and 30s when they were at their peak. >> did he manipulate votes? yes probably. did he employ maybe heavy handed guys to convince you to vote the right way at the poll? yes he did. did he vote dead people. he did.

at the same time it was like a father figure almost i think considered himself a robin hood figure. who used the cash he made from much of the cash he made from bribes and kick backs to put people to work and provide services. i one time interviewed a guy who remembered growing up in the 30s. and he had a younger sibling that died at maybe age three. and he said we were poor, dad was out of work. he goes and we had the funeral and the casket and all this. we buried our brother. and went to the morgue to pay for it. and pendergast had already taken care of it. it was those things that earned peoples lifelong loyalty. because in days when times are tough and people are poor, it's they don't care about the politics so much. they don't care who the office holder. they care how am i going eat today. how will i feed my family. how can i find a job. and they did that through

pendergast. >> now we return to c-span tour of kansas city, missouri. author explores wealth inequality in the u.s. including fees charged for housing, work, transportation and school. >> payment for a service rendered. or a good provided. that's basically what in effect a fee is. for much of recent sort of history 20th century we thought of fees covering an administrative cost. so you go to dmv and it's a price for what you have to pay for the them providing you a driver's license. it's cover that cost with nominal revenue or profit. for the gov