ny spaces, educational spaces, but most importantly this political space, the congress of the united states, a genuine support by the majority for immigration reform. join us for conversations with congressman bill shuster and congressman luis gutierrez tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org, and listen on the free c-span radio app. ♪ >> what does it mean to be american? that is this year's student-cam competition question. we asked students to answer it by producing a short documentary about a constitutional right, national characteristic or historic event, and explain how it defines the american experience. we are awarding $100,000 in prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000. this year's deadline is january

20, 2019. for more information goodwell our website, studentcam.org . >> descendents of presidents convened at a congress in washington dc. massee interview mckinley, a descendent of grover cleveland and president mckinley. you are here because you work with the organization but also because you are the descendent of two presidents. massee: on my maternal side am related to grover cleveland, and

on my father's side, to william mckinley. i'm the great, great nephew of william mckinley and the great, great-grandson of grover cleveland. host: how does families get together? massee: my parents married in the two became one. host: were your parents aware of their lineage when a married? massee: had no clue. had no clue. my father was a longtime history so duringat uga, the course of time at the breakfast table we talked about presidential politics, presidential descendents. i learned so many stories from both families from those conversations i had with him. host: the two are very different. massee: they are. they are. mckinley.s start with what do you want people to know about him since you have studied his legacy and his life? massee: everybody remembers he

was assassinated in buffalo, but the most important thing, and robert mary's book is brought that to light, is how powerful an impact his presidency gave the country, because we had industrial revolution, expansion around the world, tremendous growth. times,hink a lot of sadly enough, both grover cleveland and william mckinley are often forgotten. but through books that are written about both, and especially mckinley, and you remember karl rove's book about we mckinley, i think he is revered but in times past he has often been forgotten. and my hope is that through the course of time and the great efforts of the white house historical society which jacqueline kennedy founded in 1961, through those efforts with

education, preservation and legacy, learning about those presidents, they will certainly be remembered. and i'm trying very hard to do that. host: we visited the mckinley memorial in canton, ohio. what a structure. tell our audience how that came to be. the william mckinley memorial back in the day, people revered him, and you know the significance about the roses they wore back in the day, when he was assassinated. ohio,e citizens of especially since several were assassinated, thought it would be fitting to come together and actually create a memorial to his legacy and his memory. and he is probably, in my opinion, ohio's most revered united states president, because he was not only house member, but also, the last u.s. civil war president. legacy that that

produced, in addition to the fact that he was assassinated, himably contributed to having this wonderful memorial. it really, truly is. , the sizes impressive of the memorial itself. i understand the first lady was very involved in the building of it. massee: that's correct. host: the first lady's memorial museum is also on the same campus, so we you talk about mrs. mckinley and her legacy and role in the white house? massee: absolutely. awonderful aide, wonderful wife to william. you know the story about her having epilepsy and william mckinley was such a wonderful husband, that when she had epileptic seizures at dinner time, she would graciously put a napkin over her face and recover and they would go on with the dinner. but because they lost both

children, that's the reason he has no direct descendents, as both of the young daughters died in infancy. thei think she, because of death of both daughters and certainly the assassination of it cost her toy, want to memorialize mckinley. firste white house ladies's home is actually a her home. did you know that? home ist ladies' actually her home, beautiful structure. i think hillary clinton inaugurated the home back in the day. att: if one were to look that time, it was a time of great disruption, technological change, industrial change, a lot of parallels to today. we are going through the digital revolution, there are challenges with immigration as there were back at that time, and the

purpose of studying history is to help us understand our time today. what would you take away from the mckinley era that would help people understand the time we are going through? massee: like you said, technological advances, and we were just expanding of rapid speeds and money was being poured into the country for industrial expansion. that,k we can learn from and today we can take the strides to make sure we have the infrastructure to be able to proceed, and cities can understand how important that is. because i think they were doing it by happenstance and hoping for the best, and sometimes that didn't always work out. we can learn from the past, we can learn from those mistakes that were made during those times, mckinley's times. especially that particular time, because we radically changed in

the early 1900s. host: you are more closely related to grover cleveland? massee: surprisingly. america's only non-sequential president. what else should they know? massee: they should know he had a beautiful wife. a great story has been passed down in my family. sad, and francis was so sad, after they were defeated, and she said to the people at the white house, take care of the china because we will be back in four years, and they were back in four years. the romance they had prior to them getting married in the white house, it was just a love story that will in due are the test of time. she was married in the white gown. a beautiful

george cleveland, the grandson of clover, was at this event. found that actual address, the wedding dress that actively exists, in the white collection atdies the smithsonian. it's just a powerful display of how wonderful and how elegant she was, and i think people will certainly learn from history from the. host: there was an enormous age difference between them? how does the family process that information? massee: i think it was a love story that was kindled by francis's father. dear, dear friend of grover and upon his death, i think grover felt the need to make sure frances was taken care of. he was a lot older, 25 to 30 years, but i think at that time

she trusted him. he was the guardian for many, many years, even prior to mr. olsom's debt. they had trust they had a wonderful family. host: they didn't like life in the white house and tried to protect the family? francesa lot of times, would take the children by cares to sites off campus from the white house, and unbeknownst to the press or anybody that was around, they would secretly do mid-day or sometimes in the evenings when no one would be suspect. and i think she was very much, she controlled how her children would be seen. they also built houses and

what is called the cleveland park section of washington, and grover cleveland used the white house as an office? right. that's exactly there is a ton of correspondence that exists from that time, because he was a voracious reader and writer. and at the time we didn't have the archives like we do today, the presidential archives. so when he left office, all those letters, all those documents were taken by him. i was talking to george just yesterday about how much volume and they still exists, are trying to give those to the museum and institutions like princeton to preserve and definitely keep those, but it's a lot of information. host: where are the bulk of his papers now? massee: they are at princeton. host: and what is their connection to princeton? massee: princeton is the place

the grover and frances retired to buried it's a crazy story, but i've been told this many time. grover did not like woodrow wilson, and at the time woodrow wilson was the presidet and hes children are woodrow wilson's children to play together, because there was a little bit of a rift. so they did not play together. but that's the connection, he retired to princeton. talking aboutre the cleveland children, he had a daughter that became famous and who eventually passed away, baby ruth. we have a candy bar named after baby ruth. tell us the family stories about baby ruth. massee: so the actual candy company contacted the cleveland family to put the images of the baby and also frances on that. and we have tons of political memorabilia, tons of souvenirs

that have been given away, and they actually contacted the family to actually allow both images on the candy bar. ruthadly, like you said, passed away and sadly, susan, she was pregnant with a child at and both happened at almost the same time. so she did not get a chance to say goodbye to ruth before she passed away. host: i think it was in her early childhood? massee: that's right, and they were afraid the disease, i think it was did. , they were afraid the disease what affect the child. and everybody thinks that that candy bar was named after babe ruth's, but that was long past that time. and you hear it from the candy

company, they will actually say that it was named for baby ruth, and you see the likeness on a lot of the candy wrappers. both were beautiful. she was a beautiful child, frances was a beautiful woman, so why not put that on the display? host: let's talk about you and your interest in politics. you mentioned talking about the family history around the kitchen table. when did you take a serious history in american political history? not until like junior high. my dad always talked about it, because i had to other brothers, he was talked about politics, he always talked about the presidency and presidential descendents. but i think junior high really piqued my interest and caused me to take a greater look at it, and the fact that i had the legacies of both families. researchly wanted to and read as much as possible, so i think probably my junior high

years was the timeframe i became really, really interested in it. and dad showed an even greater interest, and we went to a lot of the historical sites, the mckinley museum and the library, and grover cleveland's grave site in new jersey. was notuld say i really as familiar with it in early high, but i think junior high school, college, and the interest i had probably caused me to have an even greater interest. your is it a coincidence profession is political communications? massee: that's exactly right. i've been privileged to write for some of the greater people, newt gingrich, john boehner and also the current speaker, paul ryan. very specific speeches, i don't stuff, but it's

been a thrill for me to write for them on policy things that i thoroughly enjoy it or it of my work is corporate communications. being partis it like of the community of presidential descendents, is there a lot of interaction among you? massee: no. i hate to say it, susan. we attended the new york mayor's presidential luncheons they used to have, probably 25 years ago. probably in the last i would say five years, people have become more interested. and i approached the president of the white house historical association about six months ago about wanting to create an event for the presidential descendents, because it is something that has not been done , but hopefully going forward we will actually have more reunions. i would hope we have an annual dinner that we could have in

different locations around the willry, and i hope that we as i think it is so important, as you learn so much you share experiences, you share stories about the presidential families, and i just love to be around people that are a lot like me. host: if you had to say your perception of being a president or a wife in the white house is different from folks who don't have this history, how would it be different? do you have a different appreciation for the job? massee: i think i really do. probably the greatest word would be respect. these two men gave of andselves, william mckinley grover cleveland, to aspire to greater office. and i will tell you, what a sacrifice, and especially during times that were quite strenuous for this country.

and i think i do have a greater respect for the office, i have a greater respect for the people that occupy that office and the sacrifices that they definitely make each and every day. you miss family time a lot of time, and i know for a fact we mckinley, the gazette of the way they had to travel back then, lost a lot of that time with his young daughters because they traveled by rail to different events, and he was apart from his wife for a good bit of time and that was traumatic because of her illness. host: thanks for visiting with us. nice to meet you. massee: same. pleasure. the c-span bus was recently in honolulu, hawaii for a stop her.r 50 capitals to join us october 6 and seven as we visit hawaii on c-span, book tv, and american history tv.

exploring hawaii's history and culture as well as public-policy issues facing the state, saturday on c-span at 7:00 p.m. erie-- 7:00 a.m. eastern the director of hawaii's office of planning talks about affordable housing. coleman with his book on the life of a legendary native hawaiian surfer. the university of hawaii for the extensive book collection of late u.s. senator nouye. in and on washington journal, the executive director of the blue planet foundation on renewable energy efforts in hawaii, on american history tv on c-span3 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. we visit the valley of the priest, along the north shore of a wahoo, and the polynesian voyaging society in honolulu.

at four clock p.m. eastern, three short documentaries about inaii, the 1956 film soldier hawaii, the 1924 film the hawaiian islands, and the 1952 onjean's santos go. cinescope.s supreme court justice antonin scalia a was nominated by president and sworn into office on september we 6, 1986. he died in 2016. bookshelf, the book "american original: the life and constitution of supreme court justice antonin scalia."

she appears with barry friedman. they discussed the life and legacy of justice scalia the thesis that the supreme court responds as much to popular opinion as constitutional precedent. joan: i thought i would start with the last chapter of the book. many of you are familiar with the second amendment case the court decided a year and a half ago. time thethe first supreme court said there is an individual right to own firearms in the constitution. wrote thatlia opinion. it was the biggest majority opinion he had to date. i start my last chapter with him at his desk with his pack of mabo