gorbachev. watch monday on the c-span networks. >> this weekend, american history tv is featuring lynchburg, virginia. c-span cities tour staff recently visited many sites showcasing its history. 1786ity was established in in the eastern foothills of the blue ridge mountains. learn more about lynchburg all weekend here on american history tv. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> the ultimate in suspense. that is how you could talk about the book of esther, because here we have history's first attempted holocaust. haman was the at off killer of

that day and the holocaust was narrowly averted. and books that perceive this book, we have the story of what happened to be minority of those who would return to jerusalem after the decree of cyrus. >> my father came from a family that had been in virginia since the 1600s, had been in this area, the lynchburg area, campbell county, virginia since 1834. his father died when he was 15. his twin brother still lives in the home place. he began to go to church and lynchburg and he became a christian and he decided he wanted to go to bible college and study at lynchburg college and be an engineer because it didn't involve any public speaking and he hated public speaking. went to baptist bible college in missouri, and after several years came back to lynchburg and founded the applied a lot of

business principles in the church in the road to be church and started almost immediately into radio and television broadcast ministry. fundraising was a big part of it a k-12 school and later -- not much later, but 1971, the college, the university, and he was a pastor first, but he had inherited a lot of entrepreneurial traits. so he apply those to his ministry, to the school, and that was a big reason for the phenomenal growth. he just thought differently than most pastors do. my father founded thomas road baptist church in 1956. the growth of the church was astronomical. it started with 35 adults. former bottling company

facility that still had syrup on the floors. it was a very humble beginning, but it grew so fast, in 10 years, there were over 1000 television ministry, started at that time, and it became national. he was one of the first national religious broadcasters, and so, his ministry had really skyrocketed and been super successful. and he started liberty in 1971. liberty university was founded because in the 1970's, 1960's, christian you were a -- evangelical christian young person and you wanted to attend a christian college, you really -- the only choice you had was a small college with limited academic offerings, mainly bible schools. somethingher thought is wrong. there ought to be a world-class youngsity for evangelical

people, like notre dame's for catholic young people, like brigham young is for mormon ncaa divisionhas academic facilities, excellence. and the really wasn't one. he wanted to change that. everybody thought he was really dreaming because it was a small town in virginia and he had these lofty goals for the university, and a lot of people thought it was crazy, but that was the vision from day one. that is why it was founded. we are seeing that vision fulfilled now. be to god ♪ >> beautiful singing, congregation. funded by contributions from listeners. airtime on would buy radio stations across the

country. it was a constant struggle to raise funds to keep it on the air. i think it picked about 1987. it was a national program for 17, 18 years, but there were some scandals and some unrelated -- in some unrelated television ministries in north carolina and louisiana, and that caused a lot of the donors to stop giving to all the ministries. so, that was about the time i finished law school. and i came in as a general counsel to the university. manage themainly to debt, because the university was no longer receiving

contributions from the television ministry, and so we really a to restructure the universities so that it operated on its own tuition fees. it took is about 10 years to get a stabilized. and about another 10 years after that before it really exploded. that phenomenal growth over the last 10 years has given us the resources now to rebuild the campus, so liberty is in a very good position to fulfill its vision, to continue to train generations for christ. are the fifth largest university in the country, if you count all of the online students. celebratingwe are, together on this very joyous occasion, and there is no place in the world i would rather be to give my first commencement address as president than here,

with my wonderful friends at liberty university, and -- [applause] president trump: and i accepted this invitation along time ago. i said to jerry that i would be there. and when i say something, i mean it. >> i think liberty students voted, when they voted in the primary, they supported marco rubio i think trump was fourth or fifth down the list, but by the time the election him around, a lot of them saw what i saw i and him and 80 -- 84% of .iberty students voted for him the same thing was true with evangelicals across the country. background,trump's they were really pleasantly surprised with how he has come around on issues that are important to evangelicals and how he has really been the best president for those issues, and really, i think he's going to end up being one of the greatest

residence we ever had. a lot of evangelicals thought i lost my mind because trump was with casinos and whatever else, and i felt like -- i had seen him applying business principles to an entity that was in financial trouble could do to isn around, because that what i spent the first 20 years as an attorney here doing, and i thought the country needed the same thing. i just thought that career politicians who had not done anything in the real world did not really understand anything other than politics. they get into a rut where all they care about is getting reelected. there was a fresh face, outside the system, had been in the real world, had been successful. ♪ >> my father was criticized for ,upporting reagan by christians

and jimmy carter was a sunday school teacher, southern baptist sunday school teachers, but most evangelicals came along and saw that, ok, this person might not be the best choice to be my pastor or my sunday school teacher, but he takes the right position on the policies that are best for my country. reagan won for that reason, trump won for that reason. president trump: never stop fighting for what you believe in and for the people who care about you. carry yourself with dignity and pride. demand the best from yourself and we totally unafraid to challenge entrenched interests and failed power structures. does that sound familiar, by the way? >> one thing the press never understood about evangelicals -- they are scratching their heads. how can they support somebody like donald trump?

what they don't understand is that evangelicals were the ones to were the most antiestablishment of any group throughout history. jesus spent more time condemning the religious elite of his day, the establishment, then he did anyone else. reformation, it was the evangelicals leaving the established catholic church because it was so corrupt and it pawn of- pretty much a the governments of europe. it was evangelicals who left europe because they were antiestablishment. it was evangelicals who bought in the revolutionary war because they were sick of the establishment. so, when evangelicals supported trump more than any other president they have supported in recent memory, what the press never understood is two things. one, they hate the establishment. they are independent.

they don't want the good old boys to run things. they don't want the career politicians to run things. they want the average citizen to run things. the whole christian believeat evangelicals is based on the idea of forgiveness and redemption and that we are all sinners. so, evangelicals and have no wholem supporting somebody is a center, because evangelicals believe everybody is a center -- somebody who is a sinner because evangelicals believe everybody is a sinner. at all foroblem evangelicals to support someone like trump. you can be a good christian without being holier than thou, without wearing your religion on your sleeve. it is part of being a good christian to be successful in business or whatever career you

choose -- how can you help other people, like jesus taught, unless you are successful yourself and have something to give, some way to help? lesson, and just the core teachings of jesus, loving your neighbor as yourself and loving god, if they can pick up those principles while they are here and go out and repeat them thousands of times over what has been done here, i think that would be the best legacy possible. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to lynchburg, virginia to learn about its rich history. learn more about lynchburg and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> c-span's history series season two will

begin with a look at mccall of versus maryland in 1819. exploring this case with us are sarah peterson, associate law professor at the university of beck,nia, and mark killen the author of "macola versus maryland: securing a nation." watch or listen with the free c-span radio app. for background on each case, order a copy of landmark cases. an additional resource, there is a link on our website to the national constitution center's interactive constitution. >> next, a discussion of ernest hemingwa