that time, but we had kids. sides ofn the other the railroad tracks because we were poor kids. so we didn't have anything to lose, but we did not tell our parents. >> c-span continues it special feature of selma, alabama with a tour of the voting rights museum. >> i have been working with the museum since it opened in 1993. goals for themary voting rights music was to identify -- museum was to identify and document the people we call the foot soldiers of the voting rights struggle. everyone has seen the old pictures and video tapes of dr. king leading the civil rights marches, but then you see all of these people walking in back of dr. king in those marches.

thee are the people we call foot soldiers. you see, these were people that went with dr. king every day. some of them got beaten. some of them got put in jail. things that happened to the leaders of the movement happened to regular people. were not thehey leaders of the movement, when the new law was passed, the voting rights act was passed, all the voting demonstrations ended. most of those people went off, back to their regular world, to their family, to their jobs. because they were not the leaders of the movement, no one ever went to seek them out, to interview them, and to document why did they participate and what do they contribute to the history? when we opened the museum in 1993, we made that one of our

primary goals for this museum. when you walk through the museum, you will see footprints mounted on the wall from people the marches.n the march on bloody sunday, when people were beaten and tear gas to endged -- forced their march, or the march from selma to montgomery. [inaudible] when the constitution was first established, they limited who could participate in the right to vote. the people that were left out of that process were african-americans and other minority groups, so there was a struggle to get everyone included in that process. and women were included in the process in 1920, but it was not all women, it was women who owned property. if they were taxpayers, they could be put on the voting log. every sunday, the first weekend in march, we induct new members into the women's suffrage

gallery. on march 2 of this year, we brought several women to the gallery, so we continue to add people to the women's suffrage gallery so we can continue to highlight women. because many times, women are the invisible workers. they did work but would not get the recognition that men were getting. so we wanted to highlight their efforts and their work by giving them their own special gallery to highlight their efforts. we know from our history that even though they struggled for the right to vote struggles to include all citizens, the law did not listen to their struggle. one of the oppositions was the ku klux klan. when we tell the story of the struggle, we have to tell the story from both sides, because we know there was opposition. exhibit, showing some of the memorabilia they used. monro, the ku klux klan also a replicated symbol of the cross. they were burning crosses in front of the leaders' houses to

give a signal to the leaders that look, we know what you are doing and if you do not stop, we down next.our house so they were trying to stop the leaders from participating in the work. the clan terrorized people in many ways. in early days, they would take away black people's property. they would later go back and say this is to try to stop you from registering to vote. they would use those scare tactics, but it was prevalent throughout the south. not just in alabama, but throughout the south. war, therehe civil were three new laws passed. the 13th amendment, 14th amendment, and 15th amendment. the 13th amendment gave black men the right to vote, and they started voting in the southern states. they were able to get black men elected to congress as a result of black men having the right to vote. that process went on for about 30 years when black men elected

black men in congress, but at , they all the 1900's basically changed the state law period, andear pro stateall jim laws. they said before you have to vote, you have to do some additional things. one of those rings was you had to pass a test, which was called a literacy test. another additional thing was you tax.o pay a new state poll but no one could pass the literacy test because they had trick questions on the test. like how many -- was in a bar of soap? people could not pass the test, but as a result of those new laws, they made black men who had already voted to take the test as well.

did not know how many bubbles were in a bar of soap, so they were taken off the voting list. as a result, with the people losing the right to vote, the black men elected to congress working out of congress. when the election came around, no one would vote for them. now we are standing in the museum church gallery, because we know black churches during the civil rights movement in the voting rights movement had a pivotal role in supporting the movement. those were places that people could gather and hold their as part of the normal church service meeting they could also include information throughat was going on the community. many of the pastors would use those opportunities to inform the public as to what they needed to do to bring about a change and a new way of life for their community. the church was very, very important. [inaudible] churches include brown's

chapel, and west baptist church. those churches were very, very important to the civil rights movement and the voting rights movement. churches are important, but we need to be more active and get those churches involved with participating in social change. and in this voting room, we have an actual voting machine that when african-americans in the right- community got the to vote, this is the machine they would cast their votes on. for people to see. you had to be educated on the process. also talking about the literacy test, they also had other versions of a test. would ask how many jellybeans are in a jar. you had to guess how many jellybeans were in a jar or cotton balls in a jar. so they had various versions of someoneor would have

sit down and write out the constitution verbatim. people could do that. they would practice writing out the constitution every day. when they wrote it down at the test, they had to get a letter back three weeks later that says you missed one word. try again in three months. two things -- they wanted to be free of the oppressed conviction they were under, and they felt that voting with the means -- of gettinga mean them free. they understood what voting could do, but they felt that it was one process of being free. even though you have been rejected, they would still want to be free, so they kept trying. they never gave up china -- trying, even though people were lost beaten and sometimes their lives, people did not stop because they wanted to be free. of me doingyears this, i have identified one common thread between all the people that participated in that

movement. that thread is that at some point, all of those people lost their fear. through the course of those activities, all of those people lost their fear. it was dangerous, people were getting killed, people were getting beaten, but people were going as low as they could go. so what? i'm going back out there. at that point, when people lost their fear, it was surprising when you could do when you are not paralyzed by fear. poe: of the -- a replica of the selma city jail. this is the cell that martin luther king jr. was put into. at 11 years old, i got placed in one of these jails also myself, two times, fighting for the right to vote. and dr. came to selma king got involved in the movement in selma. the movement came with a

that involves marching to the courthouse every day, and holding what we call a picket line, holding signs. during thegy, workweek week, when adults had to go to work, they start encouraging students -- walk out of school and go to the picket line. that is what we would do. we would walk out of school, we would go to line up at the church, we would get outside and march from the church down to the courthouse. we would stand in front of the courthouse saying give our appearance -- our parents the right to vote or we want freedom or whatever the sign said. when those school buses showed up to take folks to jail, they put everyone in the line on those buses. they did not let nobody leave. they would put you on the bus, they would write you around the corner to the jail, take you off the bus, take everybody up to the second floor.

where the cells are located. they would always separate the boys from the girls. they would pack about 20 boys, each one of these little cells, cells that are meant for one or two people. they would have 20 packed in here. this is your drinking water for everybody. everybody had to drink out of this same tub with the same dipper. you have the one bathroom over here for 20 people. time, if you are 18 years old, dead if you are under 18 years old, you had to stay in here until your parents came to sign you out. so you had to wait until your parents got off work, someone went to your house and telling them you are locked up, and they had to find a ride. to young people, would just because you are a young person, do not think you cannot make a difference. back to your

neighborhood and/or community. if you see something you want to change, go out there and make it happened. this room is dedicated to president barack obama. president, president obama was one of the beneficiaries of the struggle back in the 1960's for the right to vote. struggle, he never could have been elected president of the united states of america. -- foran opportunity to president obama to come and see this exhibit in 2015 for the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday and the selma march. the obamas were some of our to comeguests commemorate that golden anniversary. he came and former president george bush came with him. we are proud of this exhibit because we know that throughout all the suffering and struggle of 50 years, we can look back and say this is a special time.

it was all worth it. it was worth the sacrifice people made, although some evil ended up giving their lives for the sacrifice -- people ended up giving their lives for the sacrifice. it is also an ongoing struggle. 2013, the supreme court issued a severe blow to the voting rights act when they set aside section five of the voting rights act, which was the enforcement, saying the law could be enforced equally across the board around the country. when the supreme court set that section aside, they said that we have to pass new laws to reinstate this section. ongoing struggle today, trying to have congress act on getting that section reinstated. what i think is important that people around the world know about this museum here, it can tell you how you can strive in adverse situations. even though we went through the traumatic events of bloody sunday, we were also able to move forward and with the help

of many other people, were able to get an african-american president elected because people got the right to vote. we want people to know that you can come here and learn and leave here inspired to go back and do what you can in your community. our cities tour staff recently traveled to selma, alabama to learn more about its rich history. learn more about selma and other c-span.org/ tour at citiestour. watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> monday morning, we are live in st. paul, minnesota for the next stop on the c-span bus 50 capitals tour. minnesota education commissioner brent caselli is will be our during washington journal, starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern. >> next on the civil war, yale university professor david blight talks about the political

and often religious rhetoric that frederick douglass used when writing or speaking about abolition or the civil war. this 50 minute talk was part of a conference hosted by the university of virginia center for civil war history. dr. blight: thank you gary, liz, joan, will and other friends. i learned a long time ago that when they invite you somewhere, just say yes and that figure out -- then figure out later what you will talk about, or talk about whatever they want you to talk about. because it is always fun and always important and there is no better audience. virginia -- i am not above promoting a new book, why not? [laughter]