is still the agency that does that. those are high >> watch the communicators on c-span two. next, on american history tv, we learn about muslim and arab culture in detroit. sally,, center for arab american studies. we recorded this interview at the american historical association annual meeting in washington dc. it is just over 15 minutes. sally teaches history but is the centerrector of

of american arab studies. how long has detroit, michigan been a locust for arab population? >> for the arab community, dating back to the 1890's. >> what started it? >> people were coming to the united states at that time. there was economic hardship in the mountains, which is where the early immigrants came from. the silk economy collapsed, sup -- elapsed, so people had to go in search of other opportunities. they moved west. a lot of them were peddling. that is the way the early immigrants got there economic footing. detroit was the center for peddling for ohio, for michigan. those were mostly christian arabs. the muslims followed. >> a very different climate for them to adjust to. sally: i say this all the time, why here, why michigan?

the community grew after 1914 when henry ford had his five dollars workday and the auto industry took off. that is when the muslim immigrants came. both communities have more than a century in michigan now. >> is it not just lebanon? sally: from yemen, morocco, palestine. the larger arab world is represented. the big groups in detroit are iraq, lebanon, syria, palestine coming him in. >> is it the largest concentration of native air people in the united states -- of arab people in the united states? sally: michigan does not have the largest population. if you look at a city like dearborn, half are arab americans. a smaller city is majority muslim. you have arab majorities in places and muslim majorities in

other parts of town. there is nothing else in america where you see this intense concentration like to do in detroit. states, new other york and california, have other numbers. -- have higher numbers. i read in some of your work at the interesting phenomenon happening is that the population overall is going down, but the air of them pop -- the arab relation is increasing. sally: this is what i am looking at now. arabs have been leaving michigan. of thends on which part community you are from, how long you have been in the state. when community of palestinians -- one community of palestinians saw the success lebanese were having an detroit getting into the gas station business. have aanese seemed to number -- have a monopoly, so they went to cleveland and

copied what the lebanese had done in detroit. young people are leaving for jobs. if you look at the city of detroit, which has been continually losing population since the 1950's, but in the last decade dramatically so. and 2000 and between 2000 and 2010, the neighborhoods where you saw population growth happening in the city, the only places you saw population growth were in the spaces of muslim immigrants, mostly arab, muslim immigrants are moving into. a majoritylso been african-american population. what has been the intersection of the culture's overtime? teensyou go back to the in 1920's, the new brought -- the new migrants to the city had a lot in common.

they were generally not well generally not skilled workers, moving to the city's four rural areas. a cityck of being in that was a new cosmopolitan city was something they all had in common. the air of immigrants in particular in the early period, they had to fight to qualify for naturalization. number of landmark legal cases that took place where of907 and 1926 americans were arguing they were whites, because in order to be eight naturalized citizen, you had to be a free white person. thislegally had to make case that they were white to be considered it. this is a big deal for the community. a lot of the air of americans lived in white, working-class neighborhoods. they grew up in -- a group and assimilated among other

immigrants that had come from europe. there was a solidarity that people found between themselves. mosques, iffirst you look at the people who attended them, witnessed what was going on, they always commented on how it was a diverse crowd. also madeous leaders a point of saying this, that in churches, churches are segregated. this place is not. people are equal coming regardless of their geographical and racial origins. .his is part of the appeal communities, the might have lived separately, but they collaborated them especially on religious -- in religious zones and on political

fighting colonial them -- fighting colonialism. that is maybe more in the early time. because of the fact people were living and the city became more polarized racially in the 1930's and 1940's in terms of housing and stuff, the community had separate trajectories mid century. 1970's whens and the new left rose up, use our new solidarity is being created between blacks and arabs. rose up, you saw new solidarity being created between blacks and arabs. other people see just polarization. it depends on where you are situated. >> if you were to walk through neighborhoods, would you see mostly arabic on shops lines or is there a simulation? sally: there is almost no place

where you would see only arabic. primarywill be the signage, but a lot of businesses have arabic. it is a community that is more than 100 years old, but also majority immigrant. if you talk about the arab community. the south asian community in michigan is the fastest-growing population in the state. they are basically a post-1965 migration. you have a lot of immigrants in the community. it depends on where you go. dearborn, you see a lot of arabic. although a lot of american arabic business owners there, my food is about hello food. i am amused that when you're in dearborn, when you first drive on to michigan avenue from detroit, to the east of dearborn, one of the first businesses you see is a strip club that has a big sign on the roof that says hallal chicken. is in inverse. -- that sign is in english.

the other side of town there is a hipster hamburger place with a green wall, just all recycled wood, and if earnings -- and the furnishings and a rethink. they tell you where all of the ingredients come from. lal restaurant, but it doesn't say it. ethnic enclaves, use the arab signage, but you see entrepreneurs taking their wares into the mainstream. those both coexist. scholarshipour changed after 9/11. looking you tell us about the changes that have happened to them in the overall u.s. culture since then? obviously, it has been a challenging period. it is gotten more challenging in

recent years. if you look at some of the studies done immediately after, it has been up and down. there was a rise in hate crime, rise in anti-arab, and increasingly anti-muslim sentiment that followed. also, you had the liberal establishment reaching out to ,he arab and muslim community and a lot of major foundations and universities and big mainstream institutions were trying to fight these crimes. fight the prejudice that followed the attacks. if you did studies of public opinion, you would find a lot of americans had better opinions of islam in 2012 than they had in 2010. something had moved there. the population became more aware of this community. there was a lot of sympathy for the community, but more recently, we, especially with the rise of trump, but it didn't

begin with trump. we have seen this incredible rise in islamophobia. in the last year, the number of hate crimes across the country, assessing muslims in particular, also jewish americans, other minority communities have skyrocketed. this is a problem and threat. aboutt can you tell me arab and muslim participation in the political process? , ify: i was going to answer you think about how things change, that is how society views these populations. but the impact on these communities of being viewed in this negative way or being thrust into the mainstream in a new way in the last 17 years has driven incorporation for these populations, driven a political participation am a driven --nomic produces patient political participation, driven economic participation.

in the lastr, couple years, just like you see women running for office and minority candidates running for office, we have a muslim arab running for governor of michigan right now. he is doing very well. to 2 million close dollars already. he has spoken to people in every county in the state. he has raised money and every county. we have two women running for congress, both arab muslim women. one is the daughter of a hallal butcher. another is running in an upper-middle-class suburb to the north of the city. she is running a great campaign. another woman just announced she is exploring running for the seat that john conyers just vacated. she was a state representative for detroit for many years. these women are very dynamic. not running as arab

americans. they are running because they are well connected to their district and the political issues of the district they represent. only have one- we arab muslim in the state legislature right now. that is going to change in the next couple years. we have quite a few more people running. dearborn for the first time has an american -- has an arab-american majority on its city council. people in these starter positions politically are they moving on to run for state offices. happening int michigan in terms of representation. michigan is a microcosm of what is happening national. ofan speak to the examples detroit, but there are many people running all over the country. >> does your work with the center have you intersect with state and local government and the federal government in any way?

a consultant in and having to understand policies for the population or for the government in understanding culture and anti-terror movements? sally: our center is somewhat new. they were trying to create a happened ate 9/11 the university of michigan you're born, but the politics made the center a challenge. this is my second year being a director -- being the director. they were waiting for us to get tenured. [laughter] i think a lot of us who do arab-american studies have done consulting. i have worked with the census bureau. with state people more than with federal people. right now, the group i am is the intermediate school district. there are a lot of new families coming from yemen because of the war. they are coming under duress.

money,n't have a lot of so the various school districts in michigan, the lower income districts are seeing this mushrooming of the yemeni population. they don't have chairs in their classroom. they don't have enough bilingual teachers to help with the program there. they don't know had a comedic it with families. of the things we have been doing is working with school districts to make sure they understand the demographic patterns so they can plan for the future. working in some communities with realtors to steer you many families to communities that have space in their schools as opposed to neighboring districts that are overcrowded. there is planning going on in trying to accommodate the populations. yes, we do consulting as a field. a lot of us work with different

parts of the government, depending on our specialization. for us in the center, we are skilled, because we are dealing more with local government. >> how did you find yourself in this? when i first graduated from college a long time ago, i moved to michigan for personal reasons. i had worked with nonprofit organizations in washington, d.c. that worked in the middle east. because they had connections in the arab community, when i came to michigan, people suggested i go work for the central service agency in dearborn. there, i grew up in louisiana, so i am a southern girl. ,earborn is a home to a factory which was the world's largest , overrial facility

100,000 employees. this is where the hunger march took place. when i got to michigan, i moved into this arab neighborhood. what struck me as interesting and exotic about that space was the working-class history. the fact that the neighborhood had historically been so multiethnic and now was an arab neighborhood. how did that transition take place? that is what led me on this journey. >> thank you for telling us about the new center and your work. we have learned more about detroit's history by talking to you. thank you so much. sally: thank you. >> you're watching american history tv, 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on ccn plea -- on c-span3. follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and to keep up on the latest history news.

>> monday night on the communicators, democratic fcc discusses the fcc's rejection of net neutrality, spectrum auctions, and how to expand broadband throughout the u.s. she is interviewed by brian fung. earlier you brought up the federal trade commission, and this week there was a big court decision involving the ftc's authority and whether not a -- and whether or not it can sue at&t. draw fromns do you that court ruling, it and particularly about this loophole? >> i try to start things out on a positive side. there is one must loophole, claritythe court gave

as it relates to whether or not there is authority, whether there is a mix of common carrier or not. there was clarity there. what isalso clear is still troubling to me, that the ftc is still not the expert agency. it still is not the agency that has any background of when it comes to a common carrier or net neutrality regulation. the agency still does not answer or come into play unless a harm is done and unless you can prove unfair or deceptive practices. .hose are very high furloughs communicators, monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two.

>> behind me and the shawnee milling company. it is one of two locally owned businesses that have been open -- that have been in operation for over 100 years. come with us as we visit these two companies and learn about their history and why their to shawnee remains strong. >> it has very interesting history. 1891, south of the town here, across the river a man came and built the wooden mill. he was there until 1895, and then the town want