♪ ♪ >> c-span is on the campus of unc chapel hill in north carolina, where we are learning about the area history. it is the nation's oldest public university. up next, we learn about its founding. >> today, we are on the campus

of university of north carolina at chapel hill. it is the first state university in the country. this is a contested claim we argue with the university of georgia about. the university of georgia was chartered first in 1785. later butter came they were first to open and had graduated a couple of classes. the university and the city were founded at the same time so when this area was selected as the site of a university, there was no town or village here. there were a few neighboring farms, and anglican chapel on the side of the carolina inn, but no town to speak of peer down the day they laid the cornerstone, they had an auction of town lots so that they understood that if the university was going to succeed, they needed to have a town around it to support it, to provide businesses, places for people to live. the were in essence born on same day. the university was chartered in

1789. the ground broke for the first building in 1793 and then about 1.5 years later, in 1795 when the university opened, they held an opening ceremony in january, 1795, they had events on campus here. no students showed up. it took another few weeks before the first student arrived. he came over 100 miles from near the coast of north carolina. he was the entire student body for two weeks before more students drifted onto campus. for its first century it was a , school for white men only. it was only until the 1890's, women were first admitted and in the 1950's, that's when african-americans was allowed in. it is really impossible to talk about the history of the university without talking about slavery since laypeople were involved in the construction of all of the early campus buildings. is behind building me.

we also know that slavery played a role in the financing of the university. this was due to the fact that state legislature did not originally a lot funding to the university. instead, they provided funds through this. unclaimed properties, that property would revert -- become the ownership for the university. the university would sell it and take the proceeds, usually in the form of land. there are a number of cases where the university inherited enslaved people and immediately ordered them to be sold to finance the university. leading up to the civil war, slavery was an integral part of life in the town of chapel hill and at the university of north carolina and students and faculty were overwhelmingly on the side of the confederacy. dwindleds life kind of in the years up to the civil war. a lot of students left to

enlist. the university stayed open, but barely. at the end of the war, troops made it in to chapel hill. the university administrators and other state leaders managed to negotiate to prevent the university from being destroyed, fromhere were soldiers many regimens housed on campus and in nearby towns. things really began to change for the university and the town in the 1880's and 1890's. a branch of the railroad finally came into town and was west of chapel hill. a couple of textile mills developed. finally, industry for the town and nearby communities began to develop outside of the university. in 1890, the university really becoming ave toward modern research university, so this meant expanding enrollment, developing her graduate school, and really making a more concerted effort to be involved

in a positive way for the life of the state of north carolina. so the university really began to grow in prestige and in national reputation. i would say in the 1920's and 1930's and this was when it was embarking on ambitious before building and growth campaign. in some extents, inspired by state universities in the midwest and other parts of the country. but university really begin to engage with not just the state of north carolina but also the region. and those kind of academic programs attracted students from all over the country and they brought a lot of attention to university facility and begin to develop this reputation as a regional leader, certainly, but also a national leader and also in public higher education. the university today is different than how it was founded. some of the buildings is still here but it is hard to imagine the rustic isolated place from 200 years ago from what it is now. what u.n.c. is now is a modern global public university. has deeply commited to the state

of north carolina but also has ties to programs and research facilities all over the world. so it's still located in the heart of the state and it is at the center of public life in north carolina. and that's something that's really important. cities tour -- you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. from the national world war ii museum's annual conference, historians james holland and richard frank discussed two grim events that took place in june and july of

1944. a hitler's youth division's execution of canadian pows at an 11th-century abby in normandy, france, and the mass suicide of japanese civilians who jumped off cliffs to avoid capture by u.s. forces during the battle of saipan. this next session is kind of a tough as the allies made great one. gains during june of the axis 1944, powers responded. not just through combat, but also through acts of retribution and reprisal. to lead our panel's descent into barbarism, it's my pleasure to turn the stage over to dr. jason. he is a valued member of our institute for the study of war and democracy. he came to us with special partnership for the defense p.o.w. and mia accounting agency where he worked on cases to help bring unaccounted service members home for identification and burial.