fire", watch book tv on c-span two tonight. >> lillian hellman was a 20th-century playwright over her play "the children's our" -- "hour". the controversies running her work, he is the chair of the theater department produce a part of the great allies lecture series at the university and they will provide the video. >> hello and welcome to how great allies lecture. it is -- the 20th american playwright author lillian hellman. let me express expedition to the corporate sponsor of this program, one of our program

sponsors, the generous support has helped this presentation and others possible. we are also grateful to the individuals who provided funding for the series, without it would not be possible. we invite you to make a gift to great lives, you can go do so by going to our website. you will find information about how you can make a donation. to introduce our speaker, greg stahl is professor of theater, chair of the department of theater and dance at the university of washington. he has served as a managing director of the woolly mammoth theatre company in washington dc , as a panelist for the ohio arts council, and evaluate for the endowment of the arts.

professor also provided leadership to the hayes memorial crypt -- quilt and is an expert in social justice and the arts. a director and course administrator, he maintains an active consulting practice in the areas of audience engagement, planning, and resource cultivation in arts organizations across the country. it is a true pleasure to welcome to deliver the final presentation of the 2021 series, greg stahl. thank you. david: thank you. i am grateful to be a part of these lectures, i am also grateful for you for

supporting this series. we read that lillian hellman would be a provocative style -- subject for the series. i knew that her life and work would serve as a solid foundation for my talk. i cut my theatrical teeth on the realists. those who grip on -- two create a new genre in rejection of the rise of romanticism. writing plays a focused on the ideas, dreams and relationships of ordinary people and how those lies juxtaposed against the american dream. these writers oddly familiar to you, tennessee williams, arthur miller, joined by others whose bodies of works are sometimes overlooked but added complicity to the canon. clifford of debts, -- clifford o'detts.

it also paved the way for an american style of acting, this emerging method of realistic performance, the place of the american realist gave rise to the acting techniques being taught by stella adler, sanford meisner, the american realist or pivotal in my training. remain a central to how i respond -- they remain central and how i respond. as a young student of theater i accepted her prominence without question. what i discovered in undergraduate school there was some who thought or a lesser talent, a tad too melodramatic to be considered an american realist, a writer whose import was overrated. whose plays or reversible -- question about merit. i was forced to look more closely at her writing and the source of the critique. i became convinced that omitting

her from the pension had more to do with how she bumped up against her expected role and status as a woman than it did with her talent and success as a writer. today, several months of looking more deeply into her life and writing, making discoveries that shine light on the darker corners of her work. i cling to this truth. i know that she was a much more complex -- complicated person than the were the collimated -- then the words collected. her legacy is duplicate entangled by the person that she was -- is deeply entangled by the person she was and the person she wanted to project an who -- and who she wanted to be. to casper in the shadow of suspicion -- to cast her in the shadow of suspicion. those who diminished her saddest late in life, her strength,

determination, and fortitude are the reputation of being difficult. devalue of her life -- the value of her life is still unfolding after her death. it will result in the confirmation of her stature as one of america's greatest playwrights. she was widely known to maintain unyielding control of her words, demanding that her place be performed as written. she was active, disruptive in the rehearsal room. marking notes to actors and directors and and demand that she honors the intent of her work. she devoted great energy to documenting her own narrative and a series of three highly lauded memoirs. an unfinished woman, largely her reminiscing about her life and career, in 1973, a series of portraits of people who

influence her writing and life into mento -- pentamento and an angry cut of the mccarthy out -- and an angry book about the mccarthy era. . behind the memoirs i found more biographies more revealing. a historian at clumber university penned a difficult woman, the challenging life and times of lillian hellman, offering evidence to convict realize the challenges she faced as she came into her own. deborah martin's, a professor, painted a solid portrait of hellman, and live with fox's -- a life of foxes and scoundrels.

her scholarship is the basis of my talk supplemented by hellman's's writing and journalistic accounts of her activities. her papers are held by the airy ransom center at the university of texas at austin and remain a valuable resource to researchers. she was born in 1905. she was born to german-american jews in new orleans, her mother was of the well-to-do family and her father a local michel suleiman -- shoe salesman. because she was advancing and age, 23, and her prospects for marriage were diminishing the family agreed to the union and provided a respectable dowry. they use the dowry to begin a shoot manufacturing to sufficient business that survived only a few years. when it failed, max and juliet

were excised from the neuhaus family and had no choice but to trust her own future. max joined the ranks of traveling salesman and found success peddling issues out of town. -- shoes out of town. -- the primary caregiver to the young girl. this would prove to be a difficult relationship for hellman but a significant one. and when -- and one that influenced her worldview. she taught her the values of human decency, to be loyal, honest, to never lie, to help our neighbor, to respecting differences in others even when those differences were extreme. in he memoirs, hellman describes zephronia as he certain level of my life. on her tutelage she informed her of her belief system. one might surmise that she informed hellman and all that she pursued.

when hellman was five the family moved to new york where it appears for the next eight or nine years, each year in the city and part in new orleans, zephronia did not move with the family. hellman preferred her life in the south to new york, i was recording herself as a southerner. -- always regarding herself as a southerner. hellman came into her own identity, how different she was from those around her. a distinction that may have carried through her entire life. she hailed from a wealthy society family but grew up in the class -- middle class. she grew up as a jew, she was a southerner the spent half of her early years in new york city, and acquired a life experience that push the limits of her

southern sensibility. she became a woman who navigated the world of men, pursued her own pleasure when she was supposed to be dividing the pleasure of others appeared the thought of the expectation for dependence. after two years, borten yearning to find russian she left school and got a job as a mini script reader at a small upcoming publishing house. this proved a pivotal first offer her as a put her in the middle of an industry that would be her home for the rest of her life. she met and married arthur koerber, a press agent and aspiring playwright. after marrying on new year's eve the two embarked on a honeymoon in paris, where she explored europe butter has been a victim -- began -- explored europe without her husband and began writing. after returning to the states alone, she wrote book reviews for the tribune, about dating

and sleeping with other men all with koerber's knowledge and consent. she was holding in the footsteps of her village friends, those who thought -- thought relationships outside of marriage. -- a screen on a job, he found his wife a position with samuel goldman reading scripts, a pursuit that had little interest for hellman's and she was determined to become a writer. during a return trip to new york she suffered a miscarriage and in a letter to koerber she revealed the sadness she was experiencing at the loss. adding, if you are still entertaining the idea of a divorce, now is your time. signaling that the marriage had been faltering for some time. when she returned to hollywood she was introduced to samuel

hammett, a well-known writer of detective novels. he was 36, she was before. he became the man with whom she would have an enduring relationship for the next 30 years. she soon separated from her husband and returned to new york. neither husband nor lover you are by it she pursued relationships with men at explored the full potential of her sexual self. while koerber remained loyal and in love, her boyfriend, will stumble with her pursuits, have the reputation himself of being a married man who regularly slept with whatever women fell into his immediate orbit. when hellman eventually decided to divorce koerber and declare her relationship with hellman they embarked on a stormy relationship until hammond decided to move to new york. after a brief stint of the pierre, hammond moved in with hellman.

there's was not a relationship --ttheirs was not able to ship out by marriage so they pursued others. she remained close to koerber, dependent on him for emotional support even while she nurtured relationships with a variety of other men. hammett continued to see -- hammond continued to see other women. they worked valiantly to predict their modern sensibility about their romantic arrangement. they did discuss marriage, even going so far as hammond convincing his wife to get a divorce but the two remained unmarried partners for the rest of their lives. hammond was finishing the thin man which he dedicated to hellman, she was writing short stories which regularly weren't rejected by magazines. -- were rejected by magazines. they rented an apartment in the

florida keys, this is where hellman completed her first play "the children's our". --hour. she wanted to write plays, plays with a more -- that were more reflective of the time. while a serious place but ideas were not the place being produced on broadway, she was adept at writing characters and dialogue that espoused big ideas and captured the imagination of the audience. hammond suggested part of the plaintiff hellman, a court case involving two female teachers who were accused by a student of having a natural affection for each other. -- unnatural affection for each other. she for each draft apart while pushing to strengthen -- she eventually shared her work who agreed to put the piece on properly. -- put the piece on broadway.

it played 361 performances in the years that followed. please with a play's -- while pleased with the play's success she was appalled less about the false accusation so much so that she worked diligently with them to ward off censorship of the plate. the children hour was the first to talk about this and strip caitlin's been content. the -- strip censored content. -- as the organization's first case focused on gait rights. the ban was upheld about the case brought into public awareness the issues surrounding censorship of gay and lesbian ideas and began the curtailment of the public sensor's power

--censor's power. adding insult to injury, the play was deemed to his or beatable to be considered for the full surprise at writing -- consider for a pulitzer award. the children's hour was not about lesbianism, she turned the focus of the central conflict into a heterosexual love triangle and agreed to title the film these three. her second plate proved unlike her first -- play proved unlike her first. focus on the labor strike when a factory owner tried to save his fellow enterprise by cutting wages and laying office workers. she thought the play a perfect tale of the plight of labor in the 1930's when well-intentioned

people become victims to a much larger and justice. -- injustice. she thought it was a more complicated plays in her first, one to propose a clear dilemma of morals. in the final installment of her memoirs she recalled the failure of the second work more damaging than failure will ever be again and hunted where -- her with a question that her first light was merely an accident to write a box office hit created a challenging threshold of success for her and one theft she was eager to secure. -- one that she was eager to secure. she never 20 broadway theater that was -- she never joined the broadway theater that was growing. she wanted that audience to connect with her characters. to recognize them from their own lives and ponder the questions that their conflicts posed. in an interview, she offered the

truth must be the main objective of anyone who seeks a form of literary expression. if a person does not want to involve themselves with the truth he has no business trying to write at all. her third work "the little foxes" secured unquestionably in her place as a major american playwright. the commercial success, the original production open in 1939 . the subject on the surface, it recalls her own wealthy southern relations in the guise of the hubbards. the consequence of how the quest of wealth can crusty values of the family and disability of society -- crush the values of the family and destroy society. when she observes there are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it.

and other people who stand around and watch them eat it. sometimes i think it is not right to stand and watch them do it. critics hailed "the little foxes" as one of her well-made plays. it had a stronger voice and she intended. it solidified her silent proved her ability in the form. william kerr described her as having an almost masculine control of the more melodramatic emotions. a muscular arm that comes down on a situation as though it was an envelope. he thought he was destroying extraordinary clear -- bestowing praise. although she rejected the notion she was a woman playwright, saying she was a good playwright. she said "i am a playwright, also happen to be a woman. i am not a woman playwright".

she penned eight original place, -- which explores the resin as he is him and fascist indentures -- which explores the nazi rain. eign. the autumn garden, the most famous -- her favorite play. -- and his relationship with his two unloving sisters -- loving sisters. to have triumphed as a playwright and a writer of big ideas amidst such uncertainty, it was characteristic of the century to be in his ordinary accomplishment. to do it a woman is exceptional. the legacy of lillian is more

complicated than her scripts. we have to contend with her larger-than-life persona formed on beliefs and behaviors that caused the country to question her patriotism. it resulted in a serious repercussions that would define the later part of her repaired like many in the literary circles of the time, she was outspoken in the 1930's and 40's about the politics of the world. even as she was learning about them in her travels throughout europe. she was even attracted to the socialist notions of the nazi party, and she understood that the anti-semitism. she was a well-known anti-fascist, anti-nazi, pro-stalinist, a member of the league of american writers. social and political group that was formed by the communist party usa. she was a member of the communist party from 1938-1940

before it was criminalized. in 1947 she was offered a lucrative screenwriting compact which he refused which -- when it told her she could not be a member of the communist party. the -- and as senator joseph mccarthy went up questions into the -- refused to hire anyone who would not respond to questions of the house on american antiquities committee. she wrote an editorial in defense of the hollywood 10, a group of directors who were cited in contempt of congress for not testifying before the committee. when others worked appearing before congress, the hollywood

10 refused to do so. they served time in prison as a result. in language oddly present, she took the committee to task and it just died -- chastised the industry of forwarding. it was a week of turning the head in shame she wrote, of the horror seeking politicians making the honorable institution of congress into a honky-tonk show, listening to craven men lie, to lick the boot of their fellow fires, publicly trying to correct the lives not of strangers but of men with who they have worked and eaten and played. why this particular industry, these people, have it anything to do with communism? of course not. there has never been a single word of communism in any american picture at any time. seldom been ideas of any kind. naturally, men scared to make patients about the american --

who have allowed the word jew to be spoken in a picture, men who took more than 10 years to make anti-fascist picture, those are frightened men and you pick a fight and the first. they will leave the others to the slaughter for you, they frighten my to ease her -- easy. i suggest the rest of us do not frighten so easy. it is still not un-american to fight the enemies in one's country. let us fight. she spoke in opposition to the nazi party in 1962, she considered refused to testify but decided she had nothing to hide and will speak freely of her own thoughts and actions but refused to speak of anyone else. having been critical of others who transcended at the hearings and named names to deflect attention and she responded to the committee and a two page letter the recent part, there is one possible -- i am not willing

to bring back trouble to people. when the pass association with them were completely innocent of any talk -- my past association with them were completely innocent of any talk or subversion. i do not like disloyalty in any form and if i ever seen any i would answer it my duty to report it. to me, and human, -- in human and dishonorable. i cannot and will not cut my conscious is to fit this year's fashions even though i long ago came to the conclusion that i was not a political person. i could have no comfortable place in any political group. i was raised in an old fashion american tradition, there were certain homely things that were taught to me. to tell the truth, not to bear false witness, not to harm my neighbor, to be loyal to my country, and so on. in general, i respected these

ideals of christian honor and it is well with them as i knew how. it is my belief that you will agree with these simple rules of human decency and will not expect me to violate the good american tradition from which they sprang. i would therefore like to come before you and speak for myself. i am prepared to waive the privilege against self-incrimination and tell you everything you wish to know about my views or actions if your committee will agree to refrain from asking me to name other people. if the committee is unwilling to give meet this insurance, i will be forced to plead the fifth amendment at the hearing. aware of the lies that were being propagated in washington and growing paranoia that was sweeping the nation. she revived "the children's hour" because his relevance was palpable. then the crucible, the

quintessential -- unable to prosper with a black list, she had no choice to turn her attention to ensure that she had the means to live as he chose. in the years following her appearance before the committee she was refused to work repeatedly and was forced upon jewelry to sell her acre state -- to sell her state and claiming to be disbelief broke. she maintained a comfortable life in her eastside townhouse, staff who attended to her needs. during this time she also invested in broadway productions that were meaningful to her including the crucible which ended up paying handsome returns. both hammond and almond suffered through audits of the fb -- federal bureau of taxation, and were found 20 tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. they, along with others on the blacklist, asserted that this was unfair and malicious

targeting as a result of their dealings with the house un-american activities commission e. -- committee. they did followed hammond to his grave -- the debt followed hammond to his grave. she wrestled with the fear of poverty that came from growing up with the growth of her middle-class parents into the life of her wealthy grandparents, despite being in an age for women increasingly worked outside the home she had to develop a strength of personality that some labeled aggressive and rude. to command the attention she needed to manage her affairs. she used her money to live comfortably if not eloquently, to dress well, to help the causes that were dear to her, and to ensure that she would have what she needed to care for her aging self as well as those she loved. in this spirit, she maintained absolute control of her work and saw two men ties at every turn. -- to monetize it at every turn.

she understood that writing and a theater were not hobbies, business endeavors. -- what business endeavors. -- a practice that she held throughout her professional career. as a result she negotiated ruthlessly. she don't even allow snippets of her work to be performed without royalty and regarded her literary prophecies -- properties with vigilance. she died of lung cancer having lived -- hammond died of a lung cancer where she had a medical that is what in the library so she could provide for his care. despite his was the just success -- despite his success he left little besides his literary work. he left his state to hellman and his two daughters. his state was encumbered by a lien and the government refused her offer to settle for $5,000

advising her instead to sell the assets to settle the debt. in a shrewd financial move she sold the state to her friend arthur cowan for $5,000 and he in turn gifted the state back to her making her the soul owner of hammond's work. she set her sights on increasing the value of the literary state and managed accordingly. her daughters were alarmed at the inheritance that i fall into hellman's hands but realize that without her the state would be worthless. she honored her wishes and made disruptions to his daughters. she spent the -- distributions to his daughters. she spent the last years of her life in -- yale, berkeley, and altar college. she found she enjoyed it very much but she relished connecting with young people, adored being the center of attention, and

while she was hired to teach playwriting she also espoused that the real challenge was teaching her students how to write. during this time, she also cultivated speaking appearances and negotiated for respectable if not impressive fees. she took on a freelance writing assignments and other publications -- freelance writing assignments. she was agreed to the key to the advancement of women was an economic one. how does one make a will liberated womanhood? unless there are jobs and opportunities for women to have. she was revered in the 1970's by young feminists as a woman who had forged her own path, reveled in her sexuality, achieved professional success. how could there ever be a liberation of women unless they can earn a living?

and went on to conjure -- who slammed the door and opened it for women's liberation here it would happen to her after she slammed the door she asked, walk of -- who washes the dinner parts, if you are a sex object unless the woman who slammed the door can by yourself dinner and get out of the winter wind. his became a mantra which she emphasized again in an interview with bill moyers, i do not have to tell you how deeply i believe in women's liberation. it comes down to whether or not you can support yourself as well as a man can support himself. there was enough money to make certain decisions for yourself rather than independence. when barbara walters went into the same issue, she suggested she was on the other cult figure to the movement she replied, "it is probably due to the fact that i lived with a man so very long without marrying him".

even while she placed herself at odds with the rhetoric of feminist she was venerated as one of its champions. she knew what she needed to do to become the woman she wanted to be and she fought hard to acquire the means she needed to create the wife -- life she wanted for herself. in the end she wanted to support herself, to be independent, to have a home to retreat to at the end of the day. she thought that a higher calling than what she perceived to be the feminist doubles of the women around her. -- feminist troubles of the women around her. she took fictional liberties in her memoirs, despite having accolades for generating avis rental income rumors subsisted that she shaped her recollections. she shrugged off the critique blaming her poor memory. as questions amounted and her reputation impugned, she dug in,

she demanded evidence. everything came to a head when writer and critic miriam mccarthy came on a show to promote her new novel. she asked mccarthy about overrated writers and she called out lillian hellman. which i think is a dishonest writer, she really belongs in the past. she continued to the interview -- continued the interview, by asking the mccarthy what was dishonest about hellman. "everything. every word she writes as a light. including and and the. as soon as the episode aired she filed a lawsuit against mccarthy. the two were literally computed berries -- literary contemporaries. everything that hellman cared

about most -- this spring did not start as a result of the interview, it was a year's long conflict escalated as a result of her remark. they thought they lawsuit would fade away but when it did not she actively began seeking evidence of misrepresentation and hellman's writings, asking for proof of falsehoods hellman may have fabricated. she accumulated a collection of evidence appointed to her mutilation of truth and in some cases examples of pure fiction that hellman proposed as fact. the threat of a trial seemed to energize both parties, even as mccarthy worried about it's effect on her health and finances. it was clear in hellman's circle that she wanted nothing more than to bankrupt mccarthy. "i feel i was treated in a most brutal fashion and while i have

no desire to ruin her or anybody else i have heard no words of apology or attempt to make one". the tories were parading for is an associate and accepting the groveling apologies -- known for accepting the groveling apologies it was known that mccarthy was unwilling to say that she was sorry. as the two parties did not culpability, nearly four years passed before a court date. those years the disagreement polarized the literary community. -- the the knee forcibly among writers whose work relied on the integrity of their words. -- these forcibly among writers whose work relied on the integrity of their words. this letter contemporaries wondering how she could put herself in this place so late in her life. she always fell back on he believed that her memories were

just that, shifting, fleeting, and flawed. she believed that she should be afforded the privilege of perspective of writing her life, or truth should be accepted as she remembered and recorded it. she never conceived herself as a lie and took offense at those who label her as such. "what i have written is the truth as i saw it, the truth as i thought does not have much to do with the truth. it is a bit -- it is as if i formed a picture puzzle and he told overturned". she became increasingly weak as she battled with mccarthy, nearly blind from cataracts and glaucoma, had trouble walking, strokes that seem to exacerbate her contiguous responses to the world around her. despite her infertility, friends remember that she was always quick to accept an invitation,

regaled dinner companions with delightful stories. her friend remembers that for her final years her anger was more focused, after it became a free-floating tempest that rained on friend and flow a lot -- foe alike. growing old irritated lillian as he did -- i am totally unequipped for getting older she told nora who interviewed her for the new york times. no one ever told me i was going to get older. she died on june the 30th, 19 84, the day after she attended the dinner party hosted by friends on her beloved vineyard. as legend has it or she prepositioned a dinner guest and invited him to return home with her. before she could face mccarthy incorporate death did not stop the accusations -- mccarthy in

court. death did not stop the annexation. the enemies sees the opportunity to pastor in the image of their choosing. after remembering the people who have worked or her throughout the years, hellman's will divided in thirds, one to benefit the island children, and other -- another to support writers on the world, a third fund, the end, which was to be distributed according to the political social and economic beliefs which were radical of the late hammond was a believer of the karl marx. she gave fodder to her haters and the difficult 20th century of which she was a full and final contributed -- contributor with her being cast in the role of a villain. there appears to be a softening of spirit. her lifelong support of social justice and the court to patients she has made to the american theater.

-- add the code she has made to the american theater. -- contributions to the megan theater. -- if flies in the face of her desire to not have her work gendered but it recognizes at last the enormous contributions she made to the field. as the american realists have had to yield to a more contemporary approach to truth in the theater, we have to recognize the abiding influence of those writers who lead the change and led the charge and paved the way for all who followed. writing a play is a political act. it establishes a voice, a record, an intellectual and emotional challenge. not for lillian and her courageous -- if not for lillian the might have -- we might have a different relation of our nation's history. -- collection of our nation's

history. wendy observed what is remarkable and undeniable about lillian hellman is that she wrote major plays and most women's voices were silenced. she played an amazing part in american history and was meticulous in maintaining a political conscience. as late re-examined the legacy of lillian hellman, we must do so with a lens that acknowledges the fractured world in which she lived. we had to confront how much of the personality for which she was ashamed was a result of living in an era where women were expected to be quiet and differential. we must understand that the pursuit of the life she wanted was an affront to how society would have her behave. if her quest to write her story, to mythologized her experience was born by her knowing that the contributions of women often are

overlooked as history gets written. she played with the truth still vexes the record, the whole of her narrative compels a challenge to the nature of truth. the influence of perspective, the veracity of experience. her island neighbor imagined and maybe that her life, with his strong loyalties, combative courage, and abiding hatred of injustice will and -- will eventually be considered her greatest theater. thank you. ♪ >> and washington, d.c. phonetic violence erupted in the halls of congress, the two men and a woman believed to be members of the puerto rican nationalist gang in november 1950 attended the assassination of president truman, opened fire from the visitors galleries. five congressmen were hit, then

-- of tennessee, kenneth roberts of alabama, george fallon of maryland, alberta bentley of michigan who was seriously injured. observers noted the attack came as they entered an american conference on venezuela, to arouse united state feelings on latin america. -- related to inflame relations with our neighbors. the numbers of shots fires range from 15 to 30, each bullet hole found is a grim reminder to those who were present of the terrible surprise's attack. they gang seized by a shocked by standard was held -- for others who shared in the plot. raffaella miranda, lolita

lebron, andre cordero, the gun builders and accomplices got the distinction of having a -- almost unique in america's history. once in a violence that shocked and stir the nation -- wanton violence that shocked and stirred the nation. >> first lady symposium hosted by the american university's first lady initiative. sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv on c-span3. >> a national historical landmark in virginia was home to one of the lesser-known founding fathers george mason. up next on america artifacts, we visit the property along the potomac river to learn about his political life and his time as a slave owner on the 5000 acre plantation.

he drafted the 1776 virginia declaration of rights, a delegate to the federal convention in philadelphia, but refused to sign the constitution because it did not include a bill of rights. >> the space that we are walking into right now is his office, also a little bit of a fully functional room because during his lifetime this space was also a dining room for his family when they did not have formal gas -- guests. it is also a space for his sons who were copyists, doing all of the copying of his writing by hand. one of his younger sons john remembers being in this space with his father when he got lost amongst his workpapers, being that sort of a copyist person. this is my favorite room in the house because while it was a mason's office it was where a

lot of the ideas that we see in the virginia declaration of rights and constitution he proposed is where they happened. we know that from john, a letter that mason wrote in 1987 -- 1887, he wanted papers from his desk. he was thinking about things that were in the constitution in the space. george mason does not write any of those documents here, in a 7076 he gets invited to go down to the convention in williamsburg and he gets they are a little bit late, not super exploited about traveling -- excited about traveling. he has been asked to write the question of rights for virginia. he very quickly gets fed up with the rest of the committee and decides he is done with them. he takes himself off to a tavern down the street and rice's bit will document that all -- and

writes a document that says all men are equally free. life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and safety, the possessing of property. my thought a little familiar, the first draft of this document ends up in a philadelphia newspaper. we do not know but we think it is possible that this might have had some influence on jefferson's writing of the declaration. it is really important that george mason own people. he also opened the door for us to continue to have the conversation 250 years later. he opened the door to expand to home the declaration of rights applied. when i have apply to me, -- it may have not apply to me, it may not have apply to you, but 250 years later we have this conversation and it does apply

to all of us. it is a very important -- is important that we talk about george mason as we do today. >> american history tv on c-span3, documenting america's story. funding comes from these television companies and more including charter medications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment, that is why charter has invested billions of building infrastructure, upgrading analogy, empowering opportunity and communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> turned communications along with these television companies supports american history tv on c-span3 as a public service. >> 50 years ago on june

13,19971 "the new york times began publishing experts of the pentagon papers, a class apart report the contradicted official accounts of the conflict. next on "reel america" a 1972 film by peace activists. "village by village" is narrated by austin psychologist who begins by describing the project in detail. we first hear president nixon describing the may 19 72 bombing campaign. president nixon: all entrances to north vietnamese first will be mined. forces have been directed to take the appropriate measures within the territorial waters of north vietnam to interdict a delivery of any supplies. air and naval strikes against military