of further change, and the seeds of its own demise. i will leave you there. next we'll talk about private property, and how you turn what was once seen as a public right into private property, and the limits on private property. i will see you all next time, wednesday. join us every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern as we join students in college classrooms to hear lectures ranging on topics from the american revolution to 9/11. lectures in history are also available as a podcasts. visit our website, c-span.org/history/podcasts or download them from itunes. >> we are at mardi gras world in new orleans, where work is

already underway for next year's mardi gras float. every year mardi gras world makes floats for owners all over the city. we work with owner barrywnerarrn about how his family has been in the mardi gras business for generations. ♪ citizens of new orleans, welcome to carnival! ♪ >> pretty girl is a celebration that -- mardi gras is a celebration that predates christianity. when i say christianity -- you have the pagan rites of spring and bacchanalia. people were willing to give up praying to certain guns, but

they did not -- certain gods, but they did not want to give up certain celebratory traditions. they did not want to give up celebrating the rite of spring, and that became carnival. fat tuesday is the day before lent. the day of mardi gras can change anywhere from early february to march, and it depends on the date of easter. we are here at mardi gras world in new orleans, which is the home of mardi gras, and home of the studios where we build and produced and stage most of the productions in new orleans. the mardi gras tradition itself came from france. it was a festival where people would celebrate right before the

fasting of the lenten season. they would put on a costume, candies,s, give out toys, trinkets. it grew from a small group of people that did it. when my father and grandfather got involved in this business, there were eight or 10 carnival clubs and parades, and those parades maybe had 4000 members. we call them crewes. a crewe is like a fraternity, a sorority, a club. these crewes represent everyone in the city, and that is why mardi gras has been so unique and successful as it is. mardi gras democratizes. now today, there are crewes

that are men women,, straight, gay, white, black, everything in between, and there are crewes with everyone in them. new orleans is a very diverse population and a very diverse city. in new orleans, we've got 32 parades that happens in that 12 day period. sometimes, our company for example, we will have as many as 150 floats on streets of the city at any one time. we move them, unload them. our job is not just to build the floats, but the logistics to put them together. every year to length does -- tulane does an economic impact study. $0.25 billion dollars

impact. it is like having three super bowl's in our city every year. it fills our hotel room. all of our restaurant are full. it is a big party and a big celebration. our company is the biggest float building company. we build floats for celebrations all over the world. there are about either othe -- eight other companies in new orleans doing this job of building floats. ae carnival crewes have captain, and that captain is a benevolent dictator. the crewes can have as little as floats, and as many as 37

pulling units. the biggest parade will have over 80 floats in it. they will give us an idea of the parade. they want to do a theme. we will come up with some conceptual ideas. they like it or don't like it. we go to color sketches, then go to building the floats itself. >> this is a robotic arm. right now we're putting it on this rhinoceros. i take a 3-d model. sometimes we do our own 3-d models at kerns. thisext step after committee will go over for a hardcoded. -- for a hard coat. they will add more detail with clay. the robot is pretty good, but it

can't get down to the nitty-gritty details. this is supposed to be photorealistic. painter. prop and designs color to the current art director. 1001 arabian nights. we have some updates to do to the turban design, some embellishment on his vest itself. i know he is holding a lamp in the image, but we are trying to -- this is going to the "1001 arabian nights," the title, then moved on to a book space. i am updating t his year's design, which is a completely

different color and design. some of it being touch ups, where it is not a full on job. others i have to complete over in entirety. >> about 20% of the floats are what we call signature events, the ones that -- units, the ones that stay the same every year, like the grand marshall's float, or the jester or butterfly king. these signature floats people are used to seeing here after year. the theme of the parade changes every year. of about 20 different warehouses in new

orleans alone. this building is about 200 ,000 square-- 200 feet. some of the smaller ones are 20,000 to 30,000 square feet. we are working with millions of square feet around the city on floats, and this job is going year-round. busyfore mardi gras, it is busy busy, but it is fun. it is nonstop. you don't get to see anybody, but -- [laughter] your coworkers. is really simple to do. i tried to tell every teacher that comes by how to do it. you just take your posterboard or tag board, cut out your

petal shape. cut your wire. glue them together. --ry parade we work on [inaudible] he wanted to p -- you want it to pop out. you have these hard edges on it. the flowers we do softens up the edges and makes it nice. >> when you walk through the prop shop, they are working on the props. we have a sculptor shop made from papier-mache -- shop, where

they make models from papier-mache. then are is a group that will put it on the forklift, surrounded with the flowers the flower department has built. i am not just working on 2019, but 2020 as well. we are two years ahead of ourselves, because there is literally so much to do. this is why i think mardi gras new orleans is the most unique cultural celebration in this country, and may be the most unique in the world. mardi gras new orleans is not commercial. it is against the law that any commercialization -- he will never see a sign that says budweiser or an attachment on a float, because that it's against

the law. spectators in a mardi gras parade, people become participants. people will be dancing, having a good time, catching beads from people on the floats, so you have interaction there. mardi gras parades are very participatory. we do it for ourselves. we are happy to have people come and visit us. it is something we do for ourselves in new orleans. mardi gras is about families. i have seen members of these organizations, generations of families. on the streets of new orleans, you see generations come together. eating, heating, -- drinking, having a good time, but it is family. it is not broken street -- bou

rbon street, which it has become known for. it is really when families come together. is really new orleans an incredible celebration where you can see incredible pageants floatsnds and beautiful beads and trinkets. it is about families in new orleans. our cities tour staff recently traveled to new orleans to learn about its rich history. learn about new orleans and other stops on average c-span/cities tour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3.

filmmakers&a, discuss their documentary "hit a documentary of faith and resistance to to catonsville nine and those who resisted the war movement. >> they were thought is college aged scruffy protesters. here we were as clergy. the public thought, if they are against this war, maybe i can be against it myself. >> their action did not end the vietnam war, but i don't know how you could argue it did not end the draft. the head of the selective service said publicly they felt they were under attack. clearly you can draw a line from what they did to the draft

ending in 1973. >> sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern q&a.ized's q -- c-span the -- we tv was at spoke about the fbi covert surveillance program cointelpro that targeted student organizations during the civil rights movement. he is the author of "struggle for a better south." utes.is just over 15 min gregg michel professor of history at university of texas at san antonio. what is cointelpro? >> cointelpro stands for counterintelligence og