>> you are watching american history tv, only on c-span3. in pasadena,dium california hosts college football's oldest postseason game. the rose bowl. held every january 1, it caps off the new year's day celebration which begins with the rose bowl parade in the

morning. visit where the planning for the tradition takes place. [applause] [speaking foreign language] ♪ >> pasadena is known for the rose parade and the rose bowl game. it has established the identity for the community over the years. it goes back to 1890. at that time, it let the world know that we have these amazing floral flowers and citrus growing in the winter months when the sun was up and temperatures were tempered. while the rest of the country was under snow. over the years, many people only know pasadena because of the rose parade or because they have

seen the rose bowl game. welcome to tournament health. it is the wrigley mansion, owned by the written, purchased in 1914. for now, let's talk about where it all began. we have just had our 130th rose parade. the first parade was in january 1 of 1890. it started with the valley hunt club, which is literally three blocks down the street. it is the oldest unit in our equestrians. it has been in everyone, quite literally. one of the interesting things about the parade is that we never do it on sunday because in 1893, it fell on a sunday. we decided to hold the parade on the second. the story we get is that if we lord'sarch on the gold will notgood lord o rain on our parade. and theld be hitched up

tournament organizers were afraid the horses would be spooked by all of the noise and commotion. the parade was basically horse-drawn carriages, until the early 1900s. and then the floats developed into bigger and bigger and bigger things, to now we have floats that are 100 feet long and fly 40 or 50 feet in the air. this is the place where we do all of our planning for the parade. of theally work in each rooms of the wrigley mansion. they said it was purchased by the wrigley's in 1914. 18,500 square feet. 22 rooms. it has only five bedrooms. and it has 2000 square feet of closet space. there is a long story to that.

in 1914.ey bought it miss wrigley thought this was her parade. she had eight chair where she watched the parade. in the bill -- ill 1940's and 1958, she died. the family decided there was no better place they could put it then in the hands of the city of pasadena. they gave the house to the city .f pasadena >> when you look at the rose parade, there are three major aspects of the rose parade. the floats, the marching bands that come from across the country and we also have our equestrian is him. -- equestrian. we want to maintain that historical perspective and it is those components that make up our parade. when you talk about the cost of the parade, it is not cheap.

the tournament partners with the city of pasadena and we split the cost of putting on the parade. we pay for half of the costs. the cost that is fastest rising for us. as we try to secure a 5.5 mile parade route, we want to ensure our parade is safe for everyone coming to see it and they can come with their families and have a good time. we have major sponsors that we work with. we do a lot of work throughout the year. the parade generates a strong economic impact for the southern california region. not just for pasadena but the entire region. for our study this year 2018 parade. and the direct economic impact was well over $200 million. annually, we are generating an

economic impact of over $200 million for the southern california region. pasadena gets a good share of that. do, you other events we can go to downtown los angeles, we do things in orange county and we do things throughout the region. we generate a lot of economic activity for this region. at a time that is traditionally slow. travel over the holiday season has been completed. you are coming up to new year's day. >> come up to the second floor. before we do that, i want to stop to show you this extraordinary silver trophy. ,t is the extraordinary trophy that was, of all things, one by in 1914, 15, and 16. isabella coleman, who was still

in the business of building floats when i joined in 1977. take a look at this float, which is indicative of the early floats. it is merely a wagon that is decked in flowers. if you look at this next flow, that is the kind of change in building that isabella coleman champion. it is not a whole lot different from what we do today except they are larger, grander, and heavier. we take a look down here at all of these trophies that we have collected. --have a -- two are capes two archives. these are trophies that have been given to the tournament of roses that people have found in their garages or addicts -- attics over time. i am going to take you into the first bedroom, which is the grand marshals room.

meet, on various committees. there are float entries for equestrians. as you look around, we have had a large number of grand marshals. now, what is interesting about it is today, the president, is the one who will pick the grand marshall. it is one of the most best kept secrets in the world. i have never known ahead of time who the grand marshall is going to be. have -- the best one up here is the fellow, dr. francis. if you look down below, we have shirley temple, who was the grand marshall in 1939. she was also the grand marshall in 1989 for the 75th rose bowl game. and again in 1999, with the

theme, which is also picked by the president, was echoes of the century. we have had a number of dignitaries. we have had supreme court justices, if i can find it, right here is earl warman. raineds the last time it until 2006, when our grand marshall was sandra day o'connor. another sitting justice of the supreme court. will neverule, we again have a sitting supreme court justice as grand marshal of the parade. here is richard nixon, the first of two times he was a grand marshal. this was when he was a senator. we are going to see gerald ford and, somewhere buried in here, is a guy named ronald ragan. when he was governor of the state of california. as we look up above, we don't always have living grand

marshals. kermit the frog, mickey mouse, we had sully sullenberger who saved 128 people in the hudson river several years ago. to the timengs us where we should take a look at the court room to talk about the rose queens. let's take a look at the portrait on the world -- wall of the 2019 rose queen. the hundred first for the 130th parade. this is queen louise. this is basically the way we refer to the queen. just queen and the first name. that is the same with the princesses. the crown on her head is worth $180,000. it is given by mickey moto each year. and it stays with mickey moto. here is an example of the older crowns.

the one i like the most is the one down here, second row. it is the 1939 rose queens crown. and what is interesting about it, she got to take it home. pinsse it breaks down into for the blouse and bracelets. we are going to step into a room that is not used at all for actually planning the parade but rather for the rose quartz. this is a room in which the rose queen and her six princesses gather to prepare for the 150 events they have had so far this year. maybe i should tell you a little bit about how we named the rose women about 1000 young need to be 17 and no more than 21. the surrounding pasadena community comes in for

interviews. they are extensive. they go through four processes and we wind up with 35 and get it down to seven. queen as she is the one that bubbles to the top as the leader. i have some interesting queens for you. this is our 1940 queen. who is still alive and comes year.or two events every she comes down for the coronation in november and she queens'wn for the luncheon in december. she has met every single one of the 101 queens. pasadena is an incredible community with a lot of volunteerism. the spirit of volunteerism is huge. this is a volunteer driven organization. everything we do is at the

initiation of volunteers and is facilitated by our staff. we don't have a large staff but we have a large volunteer base because these events, everything we do around new year's is volunteer driven. the spirit of volunteerism is the function of the kind of people that live in this committee. the kind of people that want to be engaged and get back, not to just sit back but to actively participate. you get way more out of a community if you are involved in giving back, as opposed to just being an onlooker or bystander. i say that that is one of the reasons that year in and year out, we get som any people that fly. the first requirement is you have to give up your new year's. you can't beat somebody who likes to go out and party on new year's because it is not going to happen with our organization. you also have to be somebody that is in the spirit of public giving and involved in the community connectedness.

us,interesting thing about on the volunteer side, is we take a variety of people. in the first six years, you are doing the same thing as the other volunteers. it is the ultimate equalizer. doctor, a business person, a teacher, a dentist. i am a lawyer. we all roll up our sleeves and do the same stuff. you have to think there is something about this organization that entices people to want to volunteer. i think it is because of what we represent. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to pasadena california to -- pasadena, california to learn about its history. learn more about it and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour.

you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> next, elizabeth todd breland talks about her book "a political education: black politics and education reform in chicago since the 1960s," she describes the overcrowding in african american neighborhood schools and share stories of parents and teachers who pushed for better conditions. american history tv recorded this 15 minute interview at the annual american historical association meeting in chicago. >> professor elizabeth todd breland, your book, "a political education: black politics and education reform in chicago since 1960," what is the premise behind the book and what did you learn? elizabeth: the premise behind the book, in the early 2000, so much of the conversation around education reform was dominated by nonprofit groups, philanthropists, big-city

mayors, advocacy orgat