years would come to be known as bleeding kansas and helped trigger the civil war. not developould further until it resolved the issue one way or another, is slavery going to expand or is it going to receive. resolved, it was moved to the forefront and then it becomes all-out war. >> later, we visit one of these supportersne of the of the segregation case. of theirere very proud schools, because these were excellent facilities. the teachers all had bachelor's degrees, master's degrees. these were some of the only professional jobs for african-american women in to be

go. >> we begin with a trip to the capitol. it's don't is taller than that of the u.s. capital. ♪ >> the kansas state capitol was built over 30 years, which is kind of unusual. it started after the civil war was over to read we became a 1861, but they9, were not able to start on the building because of the civil war. whence they did it, they did it in sections. we are laid out like the u.s. capital. they started with the east wing.

then they did the south wing that has the former supreme court room and in the north wing library and then finally the dome. it was quite a bit of money at that time, but they did put it out over the 37 years, and we are one of the few capitals where all of the money was raised before they built, so there was no debt associated itself.lding there were equal numbers of free states and slave states. kansas was going to break the tie, and i believe that is where the state lotto comes from -- the state motto comes from. our state motto means "to the stars through difficulty." just talking about how kansans are tough. they can get through anything.

no matter what happens, they are going to make it through. we are currently on the second floor of the kansas state capital. this war has the most famous mural on it, and that was painted by john stewart curry. paint themissioned to story of kansas. showinged off, it is the area known as kansas and the buffalo hunters who were everywhere. and he painted covered wagons heading west. the tragic prelude is the east wing, and then the covered wagons are painted heading west. at one time, kansas was the frontier, and it was kind of the

last civilization before people headed out to california. the main figure is john brown. he towers about 12 feet tall. towering. and then there are two dead soldiers at his feet and they represent everyone who died during the civil war. there's quite a lot of symbolist -- symbolism. there is a gentleman hidden in the background with a top hat, and there is some discussion that that might have been onaham lincoln, and that was the northern side. but he would not have been president at that time since this was all prior to the civil war, but maybe some foreshadowing in their. 80 and aed a turn prairie fire as well.

he represented the death and destruction of the coming storms of war and the natural disasters face. when you look off to the side, it also includes the meadowlark, which is ours state bird. it's over to the left as you are looking straight ahead at all of this tragedy. some people say he was a martyr. some people say he was a terrorist. famous painting and it is art so you can interpret it how you would like. the state library is in the north wing again. that was the last place that was completed in the capital building. at the time, it was about 1900. the state librarian at that time, the first female state librarian, and she had a lot of contributions to the way the

library turned out. she wanted it to be a big open space. they chose stenciling to welcome people. when you look up, there is pineapple stencil. the pineapple is a symbol of welcome. there are also faces with feather headdresses on. then there are bird faces on the side of the wall. she is credited -- she was a populist. kansas is really the only state that had populism. we had a couple of populist governors and big figures involved in the populist movement, but she reminded them, the workers, that when they were designing the library, though the bookshelves were empty at that time, they are at some point would be holding a lot of books. they reinforce to the floor in

that wing knowing there would be books on those shelves. there is a glass floor. at that time, a lot of libraries had glass floors to let natural light filter into the building. when people got electricity, they a lot of times got rid of those. we luckily kept ours. the glass itself goes around the bookcases so you can see in between. we also have two original book lists the librarians can still lifts the librarians can still use today to lift the books up and down from the first to second floor. also, when in the capital, we have the dome tour where you can climb and go to the top of the building. we are taller than the nation's capital by about 18 feet and are one of the few capitals, maybe the only one, there are a few capitals that can go to we consider our seventh floor, but not many go to the very top. we go to the balcony and you can see about 40 miles.

it is a beautiful view number matter what the season. we tell people to go up -- several times a year. spring, winter, and fall, it is very fun to look there. it is very crisp and clear. it is open to the public and it is beautiful. when you come into the rotunda, you look up and see the beautiful glass dome surrounded by all the copper. you look up and think you are looking all the way to the top but you are not. there is another 75 feet of space above that. it is a great tour. we stop and we tell people it is a fun event. if you are scared, we do not make you go all the way to the top. with our recent renovations, we were able to add on quite a bit of space at the ground level. the historic society was given a basically nice visitor center

area with exhibit space. on permanent exhibit, we have john brown, which a lot of people -- to look at his sword. we do not know if we -- if he used it for anything except that he did carry it with him and it is on display here. we also have the original constitution. the first page of the kansas constitution that made us a state is housed here in this building. it is quite a wonderful, original article. it is here and kids can see it and adults can see it. it is on display. some kids cannot read it now because it is in cursive, but we try to share it with everyone. it is housed basically in the center of the building on the ground level. if we were looking up, we would

see into the dome where that is. when you're at the top of the capital, and you can go out on the balcony and look and see for about 40 miles, if you lean back on one of the four corners of the balcony, you can see -- who is a kansan indian warrior. he is a bronze statue and i guess even though i mentioned earlier that it took us 37 years to complete our capital, some people might say it was not completed until 2002 because that is the year we put that on top of the building. there were always notes that there should be a statue on top of the building, and, for a while, the goddess of agriculture was considered. she was considered a little too promiscuous for the state of kansas, so she was not chosen. but it is an iconic tribute to the original people here first. so there was a big ceremony when