along with women working outside the contraband camps, women in the contraband encampment were also working to make sure people were were educated. one woman in particular, mary dines, she was literate, and so she would have tablets and would write down scriptures for people to learn to read and write. so now we have seen a few of our sites on our walking tour in old town. but the national women's history museum is continuing to tell more of these stories. rachel: our hope is that building a national women's history museum on the national mall will not only educate and inspire, but it will help complete the story of american history. announcer: you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. >> honolulu is hawaii's capital

city. in thehe largest city state with about 350,000 residents. next, we continue our special look at hawaii with a visit to the state capitaol. >> aloha. kalyna english -- hawaiian history is very unique. we were an independent monarchy, then a provisional government, then he republic, then a territory, and now a state. behind us is the first state capital of hawaii which was the royal palace. then it became the seat of the provisional government of hawaii , and then the seat of the territorial government. when hawaii became a state, we joined the union in 1959.

in 1959 to 1968, this was the state capitaol. the senate sat in the throne room. the representatives sat in the cafeteria. around the building were small add-ons for offices. this was the first state capitol. on the grounds are the pavilion on the front. on the other side where the kings and queens of hawaii were crowned, and today these used for the inauguration of our governor. our governor takes the oath of office in the coronation pavilion. we also have the military barracks on the palace grounds now. this was moved here when they built the new capital which we will be going to in a few minutes. they moved the barracks brick by brick and rebuilt it on the palace grounds to preserve it so they could build the new capitol in the 1960's. follow me and we will head out to the new capitol.

we are coming to the palace gates. i would like to point out to you the royal coat of arms or the seal of the kingdom of hawaii. the crown of hawaii, the cape behind, and the model of the kingdom of hawaii. the life of the land is preserved in righteousness. the stripes of the hawaiian flag . ae sticks were to signify certain area. all of this supporting the crown of you why -- hawaii. the state seal evolved from this coat of arms. on the palace grounds, today in modern times, only the white flag will fly on palace grounds. not the american flag.

we still use the royal coat of arms on this piece of property. as we come out of the palace come to the new state capitol. the capitol was finished in 1969, opened in 1969. and it was built to symbolize the islands of hawaii. it carefully, you can see it is completely surrounded by water. this is fresh water from the springs underground here. completely surrounded by water, to symbolize we are an island state. we are always surrounded by water. water is integrated into everything we do. the columns represent coconut trees, one of the staples of life for us in hawaii. you can see the coconut branches at the top. there are eight columns going

down and eight across. why is this significant? the eighth major hawaiian islands are represented by each of the columns. has 132e of hawaii islands. the northern islands are uninhabited. sevenuthern islands, inhabited and one uninhabited, each represented on one of these columns. if you look up, you will see the new seal of the state of hawaii which is based on the coat of arms of the kingdom of hawaii. from here, we are going to walk over and stop at the queen's statue, a memorial to the last queen of hawaii, and then we will start going into the capitol and i will show you the rest of the building. now we are between the palace and the new capitol building. statutethem, we have a of the last monarch of hawaii. in 1917.d away

but she was overthrown in 1893 by american forces. the american military landed, took over the government buildings, and overthrew the queen. in her hand, she is holding the constitution of 1893 and a song she wrote. the queen was trying to restore the civil rights of the hawaiian people. forcedther the king was to sign the constitution in 1887 called the bayonet constitution because they surrounded him in the palace, pointed bayonets at him, and said to sign the constitution. it stripped civil rights of hawaiians from voting and participating in government. when the queen ascended to the throne, her promise to the people what she would restore civil rights. the constitution she is holding was restoring the civil rights of the native hawaiian people. american and western sugar

planters were not happy with that idea. that is what triggered the landing of american troops and the takeover of the government. waystatute in many represents a transition from our queen toystem with the a modern democracy. it is ironic she was overthrown for trying to restore democracy and civil rights to her own people. we honor the queen here. this is why she is given the central plot between the palace building ascapitol a reminder of our past and what hawaii went through, and also a ve theer of the great lo hawaiian people had for their monarch and queen. i want to welcome you to the center of the hawaii state capitol. this is the rotunda area.

it is a public square. it is completely even with the street. everything is wide open. everybody can come in here. it is built to be accessible by the public. highly used by the public. we are very unique as a state capitol in that we do not have a dome. the architects and the people of hawaii when they were building this decided a dome was like a volcano. everything goes up to the governor's office and out to the people. we have a wide-open sky as the dome. and then we have this piece of art called "aquarius." about one million pieces of tylan here. it is supposed to be a reflection of the sky on the balance of thehe heavens and the earth and the below."as "as above, so

everything has to be in balance. there is one red piece that the artist put in. people come in to find where the red piece of tile is. the hawaiian state capitol is built to be open and accessible like this. now we have come into the senate ofmbers of the capitol honolulu. it is unique because we are shaped like a pecan -- volcano, like an island. the chambers are actually underground. the people sit on the ground level above the senators. that was specifically built into the building to remind us as senators that we work for the people and also to allow people the opportunity to observe all of the proceedings. the senate chamber is very unique in that it represents the ocean and the moon. the chandelier in the middle is

made up of about 600 or more not less shells, and it represents the moon. the tapestry behind that is reminiscent of the canoes coming across the ocean from the south pacific, how the polynesians first came to these islands. and then we have a blue carpet which represents the ocean, the calming effect of the ocean and the moon. the opposite side, the house chambers directly opposite of us, everything is red, golden or. tapestry in the background --resenting okino and fires a volcano and fires. the house deals with urgent issues. the senate has the calming affect. together, we are one.

all of the furniture is made out of precious hawaiian hardwood. today, it would be almost impossible to find enough to do this. it is very valuable wood. the chamber itself is very large. it is built to carry the voice. we can whisper on this side and you can hear it on the other side of the room. hawaii became a state in 1959. we were admitted to the union as a package. there were two territories left at that time eligible for statehood, alaska and hawaii. alaska was democratic. hawaii was republican. the debate in congress at the time was the balance of power. they could not admit one without admitting the other because two republican senators and two democratic senators would keep the same balance of power. for they did not expect was alaska to turn republican and why to turn democratic. that is what happened.

just before statehood, party politics switched in hawaii with democratic and alaska went republican. they did not change the balance of power on the national level so both states were admitted. as we talked about earlier from the palace coming over to hear, the senate evolved from the house of nobles in the kingdom of hawaii. after the american takeover, the throne room became the senate changers the less chambers. monarchyed from the into the modern republic and part of the united states. hassenate in hawaii still the notion of the house of nobles. the house of representatives came from the house of commons. interesting fact for hawaii.

our british common law -- our common law is british common law. we followed the british system before this. when you look at the common law of hawaii, people from north america say the common law is different. that is because we are actually british-based. the state of hawaii embraced the ideas of democracy. one of the most significant ones 1970's, hawaii adopted the prepaid health care later themany years central government copied and became obamacare. we have prepaid medical for everybody in hawaii. that was put in place in the early 1970's. president obama used it as the model to create the national healthcare system that was in place then and is trying to be dismantled them. we said whatever the federal government does, we would like

to maintain what we originally have. we had it before the fed relation -- federal legislation. if it should go away, we want it to remain. hawaii was one of the first states to legalize abortion. that was right after roe v. wade. they quickly adopted the legislation here. we were one of the first to adopt legalized abortion. hawaii was really advanced at andtime in social policy multicultural policy. we have been able to pass workers rights, unions rights, sick leave, family leave, things like that, in the early years. today, gender equality, marriage equality. now we are talking about housing

equality and nondiscrimination in housing. of aill have the ideals vibrant democracy alive here in the hawaii state legislature. native hawaiians are not recognized by the federal government. most american indian tribes are recognized as needed people. they have a government to government relationship with the federal government. but not in hawaii. in 1978, there was a constitutional convention. we created the fourth branch of government. in hawaii, there are four branches. the three and in the office of hawaiian affairs. it is setup to look after the interests of the native , over the former crown lands, making sure the revenues make it toe lands

the office of hawaiian affairs for the benefit of the hawaiian people. cultural issues, language issues. languages,antees two so you have hawaiian and english. in the senate, our orders of the day are issued in hawaiian and then english. anyone can come in testify in hawaii and or in english -- hawaiian or in english. thanks will accept checks written in hawaii and and english -- hawaiian and english. when you go to the bank, you have about five different languages including japanese, english, and hawaiian. hawaii is the southernmost state in the united states. we are the south. we are way, way south. that is the thing about hawaii. we are the most remote landmass anywhere on the planet, anywhere on the whole planet.

to get to hawaii is a 5.5 hour flight from anywhere to get here. by ship, three or four days. we are isolated. when you got here, you realized how different this place is. violence -- af set of islands dependent on the outside for everything. we are dependent on the outside for our food, power and , for building, everything around you is imported. when most people come here, the first thing they realize is this is a different place. it feels like the rest of the country. same currency, same language, saying forms of government. but it is different. something is different. that is different, our extreme isolation.

for us to be a vibrant and healthy society, we have to become a lot more self-sufficient. we are looking at that. in thel is 100% energy next 20 years. we are on our way. we are starting to innovate and come up with ways to do that. food, same thing. how do we create food independence? looking at building materials and how we use better materials and cheaper materials we don't have to import. i think for someone visiting for the first time, understanding hawaii is a unique culture, a unique place, a unique history, and we are one of the many shades of the american society. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to hawaii to learn more about its rich history.

learn more about hawaii and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend , on c-span3. announcer: c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> hawaii is home to about 1.4 million people. is the third largest and most populated island with about 2/3 of the state's population. coming up, we continue our to learnook at hawaii

about how native hawaiians connect their existence to the voyaging canoe. >> she sparked this incredible places of pride in these where the native people were kind of second class citizens. this canoe is a symbol of our ancestors' ingenuity and brilliance. it was a way to show in modern-day how this could have occurred. it was a way to show how the voyages could have occurred. we are at the community college marine training and education center. this is an off-campus site and part of the university system. calledaging society has

this place home for the last 14 years. it is able to be at the dock. the voyaging society is the main caretaker, so this has been her home for the last 14 years. when the voyaging society was one of their first goals was to build an accurate rep. clark: of a voyaging canoe -- accurate replica of a voyaging canoe. for many years, we did not have these in hawaii or throughout polynesia. people wondered how the first people came to hawaii, how did they get here. and other polynesian islands as well. that was the question. name forn is a modern a group of islands that span from the north, hawaii,

southeast, easter island, and southwest is new zealand. that forms this triangle with islands. you have other islands. this is a group of islands that have similar language and culture. that there are three groups of islands in the pacific today. polynesia is one of them. micronesia is another. , thatesia, tiny islands is where the navigator came from. then you have melanesia which includes fiji, those islands. and then polynesia is the last of our pacific ocean, the last of islands settled by people who would have migrated from the

west to the east. our stories tell us, our history tells us, our ancestors came on voyaging canoes from the marchesa islands, part of the pacific. we did not have an actual canoe here, the founders thought it would be important to build a replica of the canoe to prove and show this is what our ancestors did. the building of the canoe was to show that people did migrate with purpose and intention and had the skill and ability to build canoes with the natural building materials they had and rely on nature to cross thousands of miles of open ocean to discover and explore new islands. when the first people got to hawaii, they could go back to the islands they came from and more waves of people could come here to settle and stay on this

island. in 1976 wasyage from here to tahiti. by ours navigated navigator. the polynesian voyaging society was lucky to be introduced to him because they were looking for a traditional navigator who would not use instruments to get to tahiti. in 31 days, he not only successfully navigated to tahiti it hadfirst trip was -- its challenges. the dynamics of the people on board. he went home from tahiti instead of navigating her back to hawaii

. attempt to voyage to tahiti was in 1978. unfortunately, the voyage ended in tragedy within our hawaii waters. , he was lost.age they left in less than ideal conditions. it was stormy. i think part of it was the pressure. crowds of people were there. they said goodbye and wished them well on their journey. when they got into the channel, they ran into trouble because the holes -- hulls were filling with water. the canoe flipped over. she was upside down, still afloat. they were getting far enough south of the island that they

were worried that airplanes .lying over would not see there was a very small chance there would be any boats in the area. strappede crew members his surfboard to the canoe thinking he would go surfing into heating. incredible -- in tahiti. incredible hawaiian hero. he was one of the first lifeguards. never lost anybody on his shift. a well-respected water man. surfboard, commenced the captains to let him paddle -- convinced the captains to let him paddle. he saw the canoe upside down. he could not stand to see her that way and commenced his captain to try to let him paddle to get help.

the captain made him strap on a life vest. found afterng they he left was the life vest coming back. he was not seen after he left the canoe. we have this wonderful plaque on board that memories the sacrifice eddy made -- commemorates the sacrifice that eddy made. those of us who inherited the thecy with this story, importance of safety and leadership. canoes, they stand for so many important things. in addition to first trying to relearn the skill of navigation, how our ancestors sailed, it became apparent she has so much more she could teach us. it is a small space. how you can live in a small space with 12 other people and get along, get to your destination, by taking care of

your resources. the water on board, the food, and also taking care of her. over the 40 years of voyaging, she has been like a microcosm of an island. ofthis most recent voyage our planet, we can apply the same lessons of what it takes to be a good crewmember onboard it takes to be a good steward of the islands we live on, the earth that we live on. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to white to learn about its rich history. learn more about hawaii and other stops at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. announcer: next on american history tv, authors william oldfield and victoria bruce discuss the story of frank oldfield, a united states postal

inspector who helped build a case against an early 20th century organized crime group called the black hand. this italian-american group would intimidate and extort money from small immigrant businesses. this talk is a little over an hour. catherine: good evening, everyone. welcome to midtown scholar bookstore. my name is catherine lawrence. i am the owner of the scholar and very pleased to welcome you here this evening to harrisburg, and especially delighted to have this illustrious panel join us tonight. scott lamar, journalist victoria bruce, and archivist william oldfield. they will be discussing their captivating new book of true crime history, "inspector oldfield and the black hand society." also a very special welcome and thank you to c-span's american history tv and all t