and medicare has a lot of cost sharing requirements, premiums, co-pays, deductibles. medicaid steps in and covers those. when you look at that small group of people who are already the medicarething program has to offer, we spend 42% of the medicaid budget on that population. that is staggering and not well known, and is critically important. a huge component of that is around cost-sharing, premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, and that what makes this relevant here today. so, tricia talked about the reason why we are here. part b premiums going up, a medicare solvency issue. when you exempt a large portion, 70% of medicare beneficiaries,

landsit disproportionately on the remaining 30%. some of that 30% are the higher income medicare beneficiaries and andrew talked about their issues and it will hit retired people, and a lot of folks. but it is really going to hit state medicaid programs. the irony is on some level, it is not going to directly hit the 9 million lowest income beneficiaries. because medicaid is going to take the entire hit. i would caution you not to think that that makes it free because anytime medicaid takes a big hit like that, there are going to be repercussions, trade-offs, sacrifices that have to get made either elsewhere with this population, or elsewhere in other populations, and that is

something that is really important we need to pay attention to. one of the themes you have heard and you will continue to hear is that a lot of things just don't make sense. and i would continue to hammer home the fact that the reason we are here at all does not make sense. medicare solvency is important. i get that. we all get that. the solvent. -- it needs to be solvent. but it just is not make sense we as a nation, as a society, need to acknowledge there is a large portion of the most vulnerable and frail and poorest individuals who cannot afford to pay the part b premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc., but rather than saying, we thoseing to waive

responsible these or exempt them, what we do is we shift the tax burden of doing that on to state government. state governments that are also trying to provide, again, long-term care services, and really trying to fix the health care system for the most fragile and vulnerable in society. these things don't make sense. having the spike does not make sense. having the spike in medicare part b premiums disproportionately impacts states. doesn't make sense. chris talked a little bit about the impact in ohio. you are seeing that in every state. we have a handout in the packets, our partners at a group called federal funds information for states have put together a 50 state impact projections over what this will mean, and the short version of that is, this

simple change, this simple increase in the part b premium is going to increase medicaid's spending by $2.5 billion. and that is obviously state and federal spending. the state's share is $1.1 billion. again, how does that make sense? any time the state medicaid programs see a spike in costs like that, and again we saw this last year where the potential hit was going to be much, much higher. now thankfully, congress stepped in and did something about it, but there was still a hit. but any time there is this kind spike, in the best case scenario what it will mean for states, they have to slow down some investments they are making in real health care

transformation, in delivery system reform and improvement. frankly the worst case, the real world scenario is states are going to have to make trade-offs. and they are going to have to look at, what are we doing in terms of eligibility? what are we doing in terms of benefits for other populations? and what are we doing for reimbursement rates for providers, across the system? this is a closed system. we don't get to print money at the state level. and it makes no sense again for the medicare program for policymakers to be shifting the tax burden of medicare solvency on to the state medicaid program. if you want to shift it around within federal pocketbooks, that is fine. but don't shift it back onto the states where we actually have to balance budgets and where we cannot print money. i think what i would just say in

closing here is that it is a real frustrating thing to be up here again, the deja vu thing. we don't need this to be another medicare doc fix or sustainable growth rate where a clearly nonsensical policy just keeps revisiting itself, year after year after year, and we go through this panic, go through the worry, and we have to go to congress to say, can you fix it for us this year? because maybe they will, maybe they won't. they addressed it last year and fixed some of it. not all of it. and every time we do that, you have to come up with offset,s and those offsets will be meaningful as well. this is not make sense. and i would just leave you with a broad thought, which is medicare solvency, medicaid pays

for it, medi-can't do it anymore. we need to fix this big-time, big picture, and permanently. thank you. >> we have had five terrific presentations, plenty of time for your questions. but let me just offer three of my own observations as a result of this discussion. the first, medicare is a complicated program. it is not easy for people to understand all the interactions, all the choices that people face, and its interaction with social security is complex. so this is difficult. as an issue. it is something that i think, particularly those of you in the congress need to get your heads around because, as matt says,

this doesn't make sense. ok. number two. we have to acknowledge the fact that the things we're talking about today are not understood by most medicare beneficiaries. i am willing to bet that those of you in the congress have not received much mail yet or anything, but believe me, when this hits, you will receive outraged cries. this is an issue we see coming, that is going to be very painful, but yet, i think, thank you for c-span being here, we have a lot of work to do. andelp people preparing anticipating what could be a very difficult set of increased costs. the third observation is, i want to go back to something that

tricia pointed out, which -- this is about the interaction between social security and its cost of living and medicare and the way premiums are set. you might say, why are they so out of sync because shouldn't the social security cost-of-living incorporate and reflect the higher costs medicare beneficiaries face? guess what? it does not. cost of living is based on the experience of those under 65, not the experience of those who are eligible and receiving medicare benefits. so, it is built-in to the way that we measure is a disconnect. and that is playing out now in very painful consequences because social security is practically, without a cost of living, and health costs

continue to go up, even fairly modestly, but it is a disconnect that is creating this issue. and so my pitch coming back to the mission of the national coalition is we have more work to do around keeping medicare costs reasonable, keeping health care system costs reasonable so that people can actually enjoy the pension benefits, or wages that they have because right now, we are taking away, whether you are working, whether you are retired, we are taking away some of those benefits with higher higher health care costs. so now, i think it is time for those of you who have questions, or comments. yes. there you go.

and i'm opening the floor. if you would, please stand, identify yourself, because c-span would like to make sure that we hear you. go ahead. [indiscernible] >> what would be the percentage if they did that same formula this year? does that make sense? >> does anyone know the answer to that? >> unfortunately at the moment we don't exactly know, because official numbers are not available for a couple weeks, so it really depends on where it ends up being. the estimates, they will probably be another $10 to $15, on top of what they are already paying, so i don't know what

percentage that is, but it is that small. >> just a second, let the microphone catch up to you. >> thank you for your presentation. great job, about potential problems for agencies and beneficiaries. i wonder if we have an idea about the administrative burden related to social security? -- is different premiums that the central concern? >> yes, it is. tricia, do you want to take this? tricia: it is a concern. as john said earlier medicaid , has got more complicated and medicare has got more disconnected from social security with the age of retirement changing. there is a greater burden on social security and not too many

resources at social security to address the questions that people have when they come in, and to deal with differential payments and social security checks. >> if i could actually just add, it is more complicated at this point to not let it happen because congress has not done anything yet. they have about two months to implement the reverse changes in -- if congress were to intervene, and change the calculation again. the social security administration has not been proceeding as much as they can with the assumption that the changes will occur if we have to wait for congress to come back in a lame-duck and do anything that leaves very little time for them to implement the new updates. the longer we wait, it becomes more complicated for them. >> i think your question is really quite important because

it is a practical matter of congress, they are not likely to act until well until late november, early december. and that does not give social security very much time at all to adjust. we are also having to do with the fact of staff cutbacks and shortages in social security administration. the combined effect is that this is a crisis for the program to deal with all of this complexity, all the differences, and still get people their checks on time and the correct amount. >> yes, in the back. >> hi, i am autumn campbell. i have a comment and certainly welcome any response from the panel. at the same time that this issue is happening, the senate labor appropriations committee has

approved a measure for fy17 to eliminate the state health insurance assistance program nationwide program that provides , a free counseling services to medicare beneficiaries in terms of helping them choose the medicare options that are best for them and for their pocketbooks. i just wanted to say with this complicated issue happening with more medicare beneficiaries seeking counseling, can you comment if that makes sense, or your thoughts on the move by the senate to remove that counseling program at the exact times and the like this is happening? >> i can say that we are concerned about it. we value the ship programs. we are hoping we are working towards that not getting enacted when it goes through the process. >> i hope that a full understanding of the complexities people now are facing reinforces the need to

have the ship program to understand their choices. --s is really a central essential service. it is not optional. >> if i can just add onto that, thinking about what medicare beneficiaries are being asked to do, we are about to launch into the medicare open enrollment period, and there has not been much press attention, or other attention, focus on the decisions of people -- decisions people should be making between october 15 and december 7, and that is something the ships have provided enormous support for. social security can do some, but really can't do that much in this area. ships i really needed, as is more public education to really drive people to compare their options and make changes, and they will be needing this information, including what it means for their underlying

premiums, including part d. just on the part d point, because of not sure this point was made, the hold harmless does not take into account the part d premiums. so for people who see an increase in their part d premium and have it deducted from their social security check, they could well see a reduction in their monthly payments from social security. so in that sense, it is important to bear in mind two things. one, hold harmless is focused on part b, not part d, and two, it pays to shop, and people may want to look at their part d options before the end of the open enrollment period. >> thank you, tricia. the whole point here was to try to protect people from an actual cut in social security benefits. we are now going to see that, most benefits cut for millions of seniors because of the increases in drug costs and

increases in part b as well, so this will be again, a very difficult issue for very, very many people. other comments or questions? yes, right here. as i'm listening to you discuss increases in medicare premiums, i want to know if that will directly impact medicaid enrollment possibly. is there any correlation? impact it directly medicaid enrollment? i think you can definitely see, if you have got a portion of the population who is not held harmless, and does pay a big chunk of this, they can spend down faster into medicaid, thereby growing the rolls. i think, i don't know how i would exactly quantify that, but i think you could definitely see some impact there. again, the largest challenge

would be, you know, as medicaid would take the $2.5 billion hit for paying this, what has to give. and i think that the challenge is, when you step back and look at, on a macro level, you know, what is medicaid doing that is optional? it is things like long-term care. prescription drugs. those things are technically optional in the medicaid program. those are the things that would be on the table if the state finds itself in a bind to try to figure out, where am i going to come up with this new $2.4 billion? that will be the biggest concern, to me. >> i could envision how people might look for more information about where they can get help when their premiums start to go up. there are many people with low incomes who are eligible, but are not receiving medicaid, or

not part of what is called a medicare savings program providing premium assistance through medicaid. and as premiums go up, it would be easy to see how somebody would say, how do i get help with this, and that might lead them to apply for these programs that they would not otherwise have gotten. it would also be them to call their member of congress, and to call service providers at the aging network, anywhere that with peoplecontact who might have information. this is, i think, going to be big as soon as people understand what the locations are personally. any other comments or questions yes, right here. >> i am nathan hogan. i wonder, what do you think are some proposed solutions that congress could pursue in order to protect that 30% who are not covered by the hold harmless principle? >> andrew? >> unfortunately, because of the

time constraints running to the end of the year, we are really looking at what is the most feasible in the short term on a bipartisan basis to get done. solutionost realistic is a continuation of what they did last year, where they allowed a slight increase to where the actuarial value would be for everybody, and then not allow the rollover from the 70% to thethe 30% -- on 30%. this involves kind of taking a loan from the future medicare program and paying it back with a monthly surcharge. so it's not ideal. it's probably not the best solution. but right now, it's one of the more feasible once. >> i would characterize what we are talking about now as not solutions, but rather band-aids. we are trying to prevent injury to millions of medicare beneficiaries, and this is a regrettable situation.

we were here last year with the same kind of message. we are not hope that here again next year. band-aids are only good to kind of postponed the need for more fundamental action, so i would echo matt's characterization, that this is not where we want to be. this does not make sense for the long-term. but, given the time constraints, given the realities that we face, maybe the best we can hope for now is another band-aid to get us through another year. >> last year's solution was not ideal. it was not meant to be a one-year solution, so i think in what was written there as part of the 2015 balanced budget act, the use of a zero cola. the problem this year, we have a near-zero cola which has triggered some hold harmless issues. >> that is certainly correct.

thank you. >> i would just reinforce all of that to say, let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. i can we do need a band-aid now. but this really does call for a broader, more thoughtful look at why we are doing what we are doing, how we are keeping medicare solvent, and just the constant reliance of keeping medicare solvent by shifting the tax burden to state in little ways, in large ways, just doesn't make sense. but that is a big policy change, and that is going to take time to really wrap our arms around it, but it needs to be done. >> i want to thank everyone for coming. i want to thank our audience on c-span. i really hope this has been helpful in understanding really a quite complicated problem. but a timely one. and i hope that we can arrive at, whether it is a band-aid or

whether it is more fundamental solutions, i hope we can avoid having to have the same discussion next year. thank you all for coming. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [indistinct conversation]

>> tonight on c-span, the recent supreme court oral arguments in the case of buck versus davis. considering whether duane buck's trial counsel was ineffective and whether his death sentence was the result of racial bias. the supreme court oral argument, tonight on c-span at a clock p.m. eastern -- 8:00 p.m. eastern. tomorrow, house speaker paul ryan and donald trump at the first congressional district of public party of wisconsin fall fest fundraiser. wisconsin senator ron johnson and wisconsin governor scott walker will also attend, live at 3:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> before the second debate

between hillary clinton and donald trump, we are looking back to past presidential debates, saturdays on c-span at 8:00 p.m. eastern. this saturday, the 1992 down hall -- town hall debate between president george h.w. bush, arkansas governor bill clinton, and businessman ross perot. >> if you move your factory south of the border, pay one dollar per hour for labor, no environmental controls, no pollution controls, no retirement, and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south. >> if indeed all the jobs were going to move south for lower wages -- there are lower wages now, and they have not done that. i have just negotiated with the president of mexico, the north american free trade agreement. >> you have to increase investment, roll the economy, and reduce the deficit by controlling health care costs, improving reductions in defense, cuts in domestic programs, and asking the wealthiest americans

and foreign corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. >> and then the 2000 presidential debate between former texas governor george w. bush and vice president al gore. >> if our national security is at stake, if we have allies, if we tried every other course, if we are sure military action will costs arend if the proportionate to the benefits. >> i would take the use of force very seriously. i would be guarded in my approach. i don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. i think we have got to be very careful when we commit our troops. >> and the 2012 debate between president barack obama and former massachusetts governor mitt romney. >> if we do what i'm planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, north america energy independence within eight years, you are going to see manufacturing jobs come back. >> we can't just reduce traditional sources of energy. we also have to look to the future. that's what we doubled fuel

efficiency standards on cars. by the middle of the next decade, any car that you buy, you will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. >> watch past presidential debates, saturday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. watch anytime on www.c-span.org, and listen at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the c-span radio app. >> the second presidential debate is sunday night at washington university in st. louis, missouri. watch our live coverage of 7:30 p.m. eastern for a preview of the debate, and at 8:30, the predebate briefing for the audience. at 9:00 p.m., live coverage of the debate followed by viewer reaction, your calls, tweets, and comments. the second presidential debate. watch live on c-span. watch live or on-demand using your desktop, phone, or tablet at www.c-span.org. listen to live coverage of the debate on your phone with the free c-span radio app, available on the app store or google play. a for the next 90 minutes,

book tv exclusive, our cities tour visits grand rapids, michigan, to learn more about its unique history and literary life. for five years now, we have traveled to u.s. cities, bringing the book seen to -- scene to our viewers. you can see more at www.c-span.org/citiestour. first up, historian and author richard norton smith gives a look at grand rapids and previews a biography he's writing on the 30th president of the united states, gerald ford -- 38th president of the united states, gerald ford. >> that is grand rapids, and the grand river, which opens the book, which divides the city, and which in many ways defines the city. ,n the west side in the 1820's a baptist missionary put down roots, and the year or two later on the east side, french-speaking entrepreneur showed up who was as eager to

sell liquor to the indians as the reverend mccoy was to save their souls. it set the pattern, in some ways, for the two faces, if you will, of grand rapids, god and mammon, westside and east side. both sides of the river banks, for most of the 19th and early 20th century, were covered over with factories, furniture factories, back when grand rapids was the furniture city, the furniture capital of the united states. but the city now, that has replaced them, in many by that, the ed ford museum that was opened in 1981, located downtown at

president ford's insistence in the hope that it might spark the beginnings of an urban renewal. a genuine urban renewal. when i decided i had another book in me, there were folks here in grand rapids who were interested in having a big comprehensive david mccullough-ask biography of gerald ford done. anyway, one thing led to another, and so a year and a half ago, after publishing the rockefeller, i had the opportunity to move back to grand rapids, and i have been working on the ford biography ever since. to ford,so much personally and publicly. the popular notion is, nothing much happened during those two been years.

there are people who skip over it, ford. it is like, nixon and carter then reagan. seems outp back, he of his depth. he is preceded by these three ,hakespearean figures, kennedy assassinated in his prime. there will always be a sense of what might have been. johnson, tormented by the war. nixon, with the soaring vision in international affairs, but self-destructive nature. those are things that are worthy of shakespeare. between nickdge ixoniand pragmatism -- n

pragmatism and reagan conservatism. , aause reagan was reagan larger-than-life figure, because he was so telegenic, because he was witty and in his own way, like john kennedy, a master of the media in a way ford never to getrd tends foreshadowed at the very least sitting at the desk, looking down on the ford museum and his gravesite, located a few hundred feet from here. books, this is what a book looks like before it is a book. these are the tip of the iceberg, but this is essential research material for the next months, therenine are piles of histories, oral histories set by themselves, but

there is a whole section, several files dealing with his congressional career, a pile devoted to the contest in which he became house republican leader in 1965 with reminiscences from people like donald rumsfeld, who were instrumental in managing that campaign. i think he was, one of the things i have learned, gerald ford was much more ambitious than he let on. i think you was perfectly willing, by the way, rather like ronald reagan, to the underestimated, including intellectually. there are worse things in politics, strategically, then to be underestimated. anyway, in 1948, he went into the race underestimated as a political force.

he out campaigned the incumbent all his life. extraordinary physical stamina. loved campaigning, loved rubber chicken, loved stale over a tory he was at home. unfortunately, when he became republican leader in the house, it really exacted a toll on the family. mrs. ford and the children. because at that point, he was on the road over 200 nights in the think, well, i think he felt guilty. in later years, about that. he was a young man, and he was climbing the ladder, and he could see his life's goal, which was to be speaker of the house, in front of him.

this is, first and foremost, a workspace. with whatols begin any writer relies upon. these are books on european and american history. collector, andph at one point in time, had managed to assemble a complete set of the presidents, which i liquidated a number of years ago . ever since then, i have been collecting sporadically. people who are either heroes or just object of fascination. this wall illustrates both. orson welles, charles foster kane, and above him, another authentic genius, charles dickens. it is sort of a homecoming, in some ways. i live here for six years when i

was director of the ford museum. and the library, in ann arbor. i went away, did a couple other libraries and institutions, and then wrote the rockefeller book. and, but i knew before i finish that, some days i wondered if i would ever finish that, that there had to be a life after rockefeller. fortunately, the president's mother was a pack rat. she saved everything. he saved everything. she kept scrapbooks. they grew and they grew and they grew over time, and there are about 65 immense scrapbooks. they are absolutely invaluable source. , to be in myciting

position, is to be able to almost, day by day, trace the evolution, the growth, of this individual, of this young man, his first serious love affair was with a supermodel. "cosmopolitan"r and other magazines, a woman playedhyllis brown who million in reverse -- pygmalion in reverse. she was a worldly sophisticate who introduced him to new york. she took him to the rainbow room in the hitter. she taught him to ski. they were famously featured in a six play -- page in 1940. a magazine

phyllis brown was part of the eastern establishment set. gerald ford spent more time at yale than the university of michigan. it really was the chrysalis out a, he hade emerged as never been east of ohio before he went to yale. school, in many ways. he was offered legal jobs in new york and philadelphia. but he knew even then he wanted to come back to grand rapids. i think he knew even then that he had his eyes set on a political career. the other hand, did not see herself leaving her glamorous modeling career in new

york and living in grand rapids. so they agreed amicably to go their separate ways. but it was a relationship about not which a great deal has been written, but which i think was absolutely pivotal in reshaping the man that she referred to as d from randhey a see rapids. the popular notion of grand rep -- of gerald ford is vanilla. , he couldd was a man be a fervent partisan, but he also embodied civility and respect for his adversaries. he literally went to his grave

believing he didn't have an enemy. , actually,n the wall not,igned, believe it or by all four presidents at the time of the dedication of the bush library. if you notice, two of the signatures, gerald ford and president bush himself, have all but disappeared. the presidents used to complain, beingtandably, about besieged for autographs. above all, every time they got together, there are group photos taken, there were literally hundreds of people who wanted them to sign these. i believe it was president ford's idea that they would all photo,0 copies of this and no more. and each of them would have 100 to distribute as he saw fit. any book that has credibility " in thee "critical

broadest sense of the word. that is actually, and i thought long and hard about this book. i wase i wondered if perhaps perceived as being too close to the board. i ran the board of the museum, and delivered one of the eulogies at his request, at his funeral. come, the president has passed on, and indeed, mrs. .ord has passed away enough time has gone by, enough paper has been opened, supplemented by hundreds of interviews that i was doing, and that others had done, and i had access to for the first time. above all, the timing was right. writings,uried in his

a great line which i am using is the epigraph of the book. because likeat you most politicians, he wasn't particularly reflective. he says, my whole philosophy of life is i don't assume somebody is trying to screw me. think about that. contextout that in the of today's politics. think about that in the context of the politics of watergate. with his hands tied behind his back. the ford-nixon relationship was close. -- in a way, politicians always talk about my friends and they devalue the word. they were friends. they were friends, they were

allies. he believed richard nixon. i think he literally, the thing he neveron't say forgave him, but he never forgot. hisdid he ever get over thatpointment and surprise nixon lied to him. john niche -- john mitchell lied to him. the week after the watergate in, fordord -- break happened to be in a meeting with mitchell. when they were alone, he said, john, what's going on here? to you know anything about this? and mitchell swore up and down he didn't. ford accepted it until he couldn't accept it. one thing is not known. 1976 election,he bill simon, his treasury secretary, came to him and asked

him if he would pardon mitchell, who had been convicted of watergate-related offenses. ford said no. it was almost as if one pardon was enough. but there were limits to what he would forgive. him.ell had lied to , you spendould say 25 years around washington and you are surprised that people fudge the truth? know, for better and for worse, that was ford. in my eulogy, i said emotionally, he never left grand rapids. it is a wonderful town. a place of beauty, 200,000 people.

several civic minded billionaires have been extraordinarily generous, and whose generosity is reflected in some world-class medical facilities,research the convention center. a hotel, several hotels that have sprung up along the river. president ford was offered a very nice site on the outskirts of town to build the museum. and he thanked the would-be envisionedhe always putting it down town. i mentioned election day 1976 when ford came back, the night -- there wasesent a torchlight parade. the secret service was worried.

they didn't know if they could authorize the parade, because there were so many empty storefronts, so many vacant buildings on the main street in grand rapids, they weren't sure that they could adequately protect all of them. spark that led to today's grand rapids, which is a world-class city, anyway you look at it, and it is still reinventing itself, in some ways was struck that night five years later, in 1981, on the same day that they opened the museum. they have a daily routine which down basically don't sit and dosame time everyday things methodically.

often will get up in the middle of the night and work for , when i can't sleep. and i can take it up later in the day, or in the afternoon, and in some ways i wish i was more conventionally disciplined. but in the end, the other thing that surprises people is, i am technologically illiterate. longhand.ntionallyi write everg i write the first draft longhand. gerald ford is a surprising figure. wasn't a partye loyalist, but he started his career as an insurgent, and he ended his career as an insurgent . at the end of his life, he and

mrs. ford were marooned in a moment -- in a republican party that was increasingly hostile to their pro-choice views, for example. he told someone not long before people had better prepare themselves for the coming of same-sex marriage. norm,ected it to be the and in relatively short order. he is the first american president to sign his name to a petition for gay rights. again, as we get older, our attitudes harden along with our arteries. , weave more to conserve become more conservative. at the same time, nostalgia for all those factors

come into play. he wasn't like that. woodrow is too simple. he was remarkably open-minded. and compassionate. the schedule i am working on will allow me to basically re-create the ford presidency in something very close to real-time, a little over two years or so. i ameyond that, i mean, living with them, as i say, in a kind of unique intimacy that any biography -- biographer has with his or her subject. they are never far from your thoughts. >> you know what would be a great book? a whole selection of articles about, contemporary writers we would invite to join

us, about growing up in grand rapids. was it different? wasn't very similar? -- was it very similar? what is the story about growing up in grand rapids? put together a collection of stories from different periods, reflecting on growing up in this community. and always in the background, what was the other story about the city growing and changing and becoming something different. discovered,hing we each generation has its own version of the story, and we were able to go back all the way to the earliest days of the city. we found a native american watomie, invited to go to a mission school. and get what he called a white man's education. and he did.

player -- 8 p.m. l player, a singer, a writer. he said, i will go back to my people and show them how we can integrate and become part of the newcomers. the problem was, they hadn't gone through what he went through. he did nsa and we began the that he calleday "trapped between two worlds." he the -- become a teacher, and then something tragic happened. first of all, he became close friends with a young woman in the community, not a native american, and was told by her father on no uncertain terms that that was going to go nowhere, and he had to stop immediately. then, he went back to his people, and they looked at him with suspicion. you're not one of us anymore.

so here is an educated young man with high ideals, and instead, ended up between both worlds, no longer comfortable in either one. that is part of growing up. that is what a lot of people encounter as they move from one place to another, one generation to another. his was extreme, but it happens to a lot of people. that became one of the generating ideas as we put this book together. to?ooked at, who'd we talk one man kept popping up. we knew we had to do it. so we looked around and sure ,nough, gerald and betty ford they had written biographies. maybe we will find something, they will be writing most about their years in washington. not so much. they both had very good insights , and i think probably, as they worked on their biographies, one it to make sure that their

hometown was very much included. the story that caught my eye, the one we used among others, because we gave gerald ford in particular good coverage, was when he talked about, first of all, he is adopted. his mother remarried. his birth father was not a part of his life. when he was maybe 16 years old, in high school, and he worked during the noon hour at a little cafe across the street from his school waiting tables and all of that, one day, he looks up and this fellow comes in, and says, i am your father. the man he really did not know. it turned out, it was his real father, who lived in wyoming but he had gone to detroit to buy a car and on his way back to what will gong, he said, i by grand rapids and talk to my son. he got there, ford sat down with

him, as he puts it in the book, they talked. but he said, i was not interested in getting to know this man. i was not interested in what he had to say. he had basically abandon my abandoned my mother and me for all that time. and he said very clearly, and to the people of grand rapids, it was the testimony they wanted to hear. they note -- no his adopted father as an outstanding member of the community. he said, my father was gerald king.not leslie lynch i am gerald ford junior, not someone else. , here was our chance to get real insight into, in this case, a prominent man, and a story about his life that i don't know how detailed it had

ever been told before. but there it was. he was quite happy to have us use it. were a lot of people who published parts of their stories, almost without exception. there were some cases, but they gave us permission to use, with no restrictions, i think this is a book they wanted to be a part of. one of the things we were conscious of, and took some ioking and searching, and would confess, we should've done the, looking for not stories of the winners who always get to write history, but all of those who are part of history, and those who work at one time called minorities, more specifically characterized by their nationality and whatever. but anyhow, we were looking. we found al green, his biography was new at the time.

i was pretty excited to find it. it was good stuff. and i was right. arkansascame here from as a youngster, i guess maybe around 10, about to enter junior high. the neighborhood he moved into was a pretty rough neighborhood. but they were not receptive to newcomers. why should this family from arkansas be well-received in our city? every group feels that way. the outsiders are always the outsiders. you may feel like you look like those here, but you have to earn your stripes. l was not the biggest kid and he got bullied and pushed around . finally, one day, the biggest bully pushed him too far, knock him down, kicked him, shoved

him, worked to them over. he came home that night, and his and hecleaned him up, said, i will take care of it, mother. he said he fell on the playground. the next day, determined to set things right. on his way to school that day, he checked behind a store and wrapped a coke bottle, and empty coke bottle. thought it was the first time he had ever stolen anything. we will let that one go. it was a rough neighborhood. he took that with him, and found the bully, and he clocked him with the coke bottle. he hit him hard. he said so in his biography. just to be sure, he gave him another whack or two. and he got them down. all of a sudden, everyone treated al green differently.

the lesson you learned is, you have to treat those who don't treat you well, you have to respond. he was biblical. his father trained him, he sang , apart of the green brothers singing group, in churches. i knew about turning the other cheek, he said, but sometimes you just have to assert yourself and you have to be strong. existence, his whole in school, changed from that point on. we used it because i think a lot of people know stories like that. a lot of our readers maybe have been bullied, or they may have been the bully, or saw it happen. so we thought, this is another part of growing up. this is another piece of thin ice. this is another story to tell. we used that one, as well. we found other writers, we knew they were known locally but didn't have a larger

audience. in one case, has a larger audience now. a vietnameseed was refugee. her father came here after the fall of saigon. she came here as a little girl into the family. a precocious little girl. she was a good student. she came and had been told over and over, if you study hard, you will succeed and you will get the recognition you deserve. , i was put into a classroom think grade school at this point, a young girl, and she studied hard. she knew she was getting the best grades, competing with another girl for the best grades. one particular teacher had a stuffed lion, a stuffed animal that got passed around to the student who had done best. and her goal as a

student was to one day win the prize, to have that lion sitting on her desk as the best student of the class. she knew she deserved it. but it never came to her, until right until the last week of class. she kept holding out hope that one day, it would be hers. she walked out of the class with a degree of bitterness about the whole experience. and reflected on it in a book she wrote later about her growing up in grand rapids, and asing in grand rapids later an adult, any city that really prides itself on how it deals with refugees. grand rapids does. in place.od programs she was able to point out that there are flaws yet in the system, and in the people. they may have the right

instincts, but they can't quite always bring themselves to the right behaviors, and that is certainly true of the city, and other cities, as well. t, a there is levi richer friend of mine. anyway, he would never claim skill was writing, but he does a good job. he is also involved in native american activities and activism. he is a pottawatomie by birth. he said, -- he wrote a piece called "i wasn't raised in indian." it was an early story of a man trapped between two worlds. levi wrote about growing up in a family where his parents and grandparents really impressed upon him the need to assimilate. , in a lot of

different ways. those who know levi knows he can move in many circles. as he got older, he became -- began thinking more and more about being a native american. grades,e in the later he had a class where the sun was to read the declaration of independence. like anyone who reads it, he liked the first part of a created equal and all that. later in the declaration, he pointed this out, because i don't remember reading this. it references the savage warfare of the native americans, the savagery. he said, wait a minute. am i not created equal? on really, a personal journey that he is still on, of both learning his betteritage, learning it , and at the same time, making sure that others know it, as

well, educating others about it. repeat, but as they repeat, they are always new, there are new nuances and parts to the story and ways to respond. heaven knows, in our modern age, the mere fact of all the social media gives us a whole host of new ways to respond to the issues that we deal with. i haven't things talked about, but the book does, is the role of religion here, the importance of that to this community and specific religions. , but truth be known, the editor told his own story about growing up in a strict religious family, in which his father decided that they, the children shouldn't be going out on halloween, which is , and christian holiday

begging for candy or all that. instead, his father decided his children would reenact martin luther's nailing of the 95 theses on the church drawer -- the church door in germany. not a lot of kids know that story, but that is what they did. he was martin luther, he was the eldest. he pairs down the 95 theses and they get burned, and maybe that is what the kids liked most, there was a fire in the alley behind their house while they acted out the whole story. , i think,ells us gives us insight into the strength of different religious communities. in this community. and the strong feelings they have about preserving their particular version of religion, of christianity, in this case. and that goes into some of the

stories, as well. does in more than it some other communities, although i am sure the people who live in the south would point out that ,he baptists are very prominent as calvinists are in grand rapids. growing up in grand rapids means in part, it is a reminder that the kids here, just like kids everywhere, are going to go where theye periods will be challenged. they will be making choices, and their parents aren't going to be there to help them make a choice . their job is to prepare them, but sooner or later, those choices become theirs. how they get through that and move on into different, later stages in their life is an important part of the whole growing up process. in grand rapids, we concluded,

we are not that different, but , good a nice microcosm writers, a lot of insight that we could pull together and tell a story that was specific, because of the names of the people were specific and people knew them. but we hoped they had meaning the on grand rapids, to others going through the same experience. >> charles houston is one of the more, the least well-known members of the civil rights movement that everybody needs to understand if you will talk about civil rights. you can't talk about civil rights without a discussion charles hamilton houston. the book is actually a semi-biographical approach to investigating the themes of labor and race between 1895-1950. in history, particularly the history of the civil rights

movement, there is a discussion among historians about how to actually view the civil rights movement. there is the short civil rights movement, and the long civil rights movement. additionally, people tend to across thepopular country, the civil rights movement from brown versus board of education moving forward. charles hamilton houston's life is from 1895-1950. he is really responsible for laying the groundwork for brown versus board of education, and mcneil's- and biography, a fantastic work, is called "groundwork." as a doctoral student in labor history, as i looked into his cases and the more deeply into them, a number of his cases were , in one formlabor

or fashion or another. that is how i really dug into this book as a project. when you examine what the status of race and labor was like in 1890's, you really have to talk about plessy versus ferguson, the 8096 supreme court decision -- 1896 supreme court decision that institutionalized segregation throughout american society. in the 1890's, particularly in louisiana, and i will talk about homer plessy, because homer plessy, from the new orleans , and the society in new orleans, the members of new orleans within the community, were really looking for a way to challenge the increasing number encroachments on the african-american life as it

dealt with segregation. because you have to understand, we are coming out of reconstruction. the democrats, who were labeled by woodward and the people of the time were -- as redeemers, work trying to reestablish white authority over african-americans . the laws, one after another, are being passed that begin to segregate society, cut african-americans out of an integrated society. milieu really informed houston's early upbringing. he was born in 1895. houston becomes interested in the law by really confronting plessy. for the first time as a young man. a little bit about his education, he leaves high

school, graduates in 1916. he is prepped at one of the best high schools in the country, in washington dc, and he goes on to amherst and graduates cum laude. he didn't really experience the segregation and the kinds of, the cruelties associated with the racialized nature of the united states at the turn-of-the-century. verye is aware of it, aware of it. there are times when he is not able to socialize, not invited out to same sorts of group activities. so he is conscious of it. it's hard not to be. he is certainly not naive. for a young man who was an old soul, he loved music, loved piano, played really well, was

very well read. after his experience at amherst, he goes back home after graduating, and he kind of knows what he wants to do. he is curious, and he goes back to howard, his father secures a job for him. he starts to teach english classes, whatever he can teach at the time. he is a young person working at a very elite university, howard university. world war i comes along. world war i, and it is interesting reading his writing, because he knew it was coming. he knew, although the wilson administration talks about how we will remain neutral and are not getting into the war, in fact, the war is coming here. , and heentum builds wants to understand his place in what is going to happen. then, once war is declared, there is an immediate issue

about the draft. because now, the military is segregated. young man, who has a wonderful education, a and he clearly belongs in the officer corps. but there is no black officer corps. he leads the way, along with a number of other colleagues and students at the historically black colleges, to advocate for . black officer corps that the way the wilson administration framed the war, we are fighting to save the world for democracy. you could read it on big signs and in the newspaper. houston'se nice, in mind and other african-americans, to have democracy at home. maybe start with a black officer corps. they add this -- they advocate for it, and the administration

helps make that happen. is part of the first african-american officer corps in the history of the united states. this will be a trend with houston all along. he is a trailblazer, first in a number of different areas. blackjack pershing had a reputation for being an egalitarian when it came to race and leading black soldiers. he meets the soldiers as they are ready to disembark and head back home at the end of the war. their than lauding service, rather than applauding the accomplishments that had been made, the sacrifices made, he essentially tells the black soldiers that are there that they need to go home, get jobs, and behave. and he goes home. head, you shaking his

can just see in the way he writes about that experience, that it is just another in a step of, this young man who is confronting the issue of race and segregation and injustice and inequality. and wondering how best to confront it. then, there is the last moment on his way back to washington dc, he and a friend are on a train in philadelphia, getting rated -- ready to go back home, sitting there in uniform. there is a white gentleman back off to the side. he is shaking his head. lunch, and he has his lunch delivered, but he winds up getting up and moving. houston is very conscious of it. he actually gets up on his way politely, houston

asks, did you move because of us? the man looked at him and said, well, i can't help the way i was raised. houston walks away and he mentions in his writing that he was glad he didn't die in the service of a country that could treat people like this. and really, he is now beginning to formulate a more mature understanding of what he wants to do, and when he comes back, he is convinced the law is going to be it. he is accepted to harvard law -- as, a prestigious prestigious than as it is now, even more so. he was going to become the first african-american to graduate politicaltorate in science from harvard law. he is also going to be the first african-american who is the editor of harvard law. he wants to be able to understand and teach the history

of the constitution. he is a constitutional lawyer. he also wants to be able to be as well prepared as he can to go cadre ofepare a african-american lawyers who would go out and do the good work that needs to be done in the united states. there were woeful numbers of african-american lawyers in the united states at the time. partly because of plessy versus ferguson and no access to the kinds of education it takes to prepare yourself to be a lawyer. really, those are the seminal moments he confronts plessy, that prepare him to become the charles houston, really, that we all know. , what was hisat professional working career? between 1925-1950, that 25 year period is enviable by any

measure. i think one of the real tragic life is of houston's that he was born with a congenital heart defect. he was aware of it, and as he intoetting older, but even the late 1930's, 1940's, particularly in the 1940's, his doctor was telling him to just slow down, slow down. , the a testament to really motivation of charles houston, and the dedication of charles felt so that he compelled to do the work that plessy, toto undo make the world a better place for the people of the united states, white and black, put --

but particularly african-americans suffering under segregation. , and this isities what i argue in the book, were really in three different areas. he had this three-part strategy that unfolds between 1925-1950. it wasn't going to be enough to just do law, although it was a critical part. that theeally demanded strategy go forward in legislation. inestimable -- inestimable time on the hill. when you read his congressional testimony, it is fascinating, humorous, in the way he plays people. he sets them up like a skilled lawyer can do. it is boom, boom, boom, then he sweeps them off. inhe is not only involved

himself, but he encourages people within the legislative to write legislation that will be there. he is involved, he is the first african-american on the federal employment and practices committee. he works in that capacity under two different presidents, roosevelt and truman. resigned under both, because of integrity, really. they weren't true to their word. he let them know that and resigned. under fdr, he resigned and came , he came the president back to serve the country. but he encouraged the development of fair employment practices committees at the state level. he wants to see a groundwork, a perfectell, and a example is, out of his encouragement, new york state has a fair employment practices committee that outlaws segregation and unequal pay.

, the successting rate there. part of what i try to argue in reasons is, one of the we don't know houston as well as we know, for example, his student and later supreme court justice thurgood marshall, is that because most americans learn about civil rights from 1954 forward, we don't hear about houston. and even though people who knew him at the time referred to him as the father of the civil rights movement, when you talk about people eulogizing houston in this role, was a wonderful speech that had in the conclusion, from dr. king in 1959, making a speech to lawyers. lauds the careers of

charles houston and thurgood marshall, and says people will know the names of charles houston and the good marshall for the rest of time. it is a great example of how learning and the conversations we have about civil rights have been impacted by the way it gets framed. right? people like dr. king and thurgood marshall understood the role of charles hamilton houston. at you cannot have conversation about the civil rights movement in the united states without the inclusion of the work of charles houston. >> i propose that no other nation shall have any chance to use our silence as an alibi for all teary or designs -- ulterior

designs. i propose action now before it is too late. i propose it for the sake of a better world. i say again and again, i propose it for our own american self-interest. he first came to notoriety as one of the leading isolationists. he had been a crusader for world involvement,rican following wilson enthusiastically when wilson declared war on germany. like so many americans disillusioned happened -- with what happened after that. after mussolini and hibbler tler becamei belligerent, he said, we got burned already. we don't want to be burned again. he argued for a strict neutrality act to keep america out of what looked like a european war. in that way, he was a leader in the fight with franklin

roosevelt as roosevelt tried to engineer aid for great written and -- great britain and people who would become our allies against hibbler -- hitler. late in the war, vandenberg came forward and said, things have to change. ownffect, he reversed his position, and said come isolation was no longer possible for the u.s. as a global power, that we had to take leadership on the world stage or relinquish it to darker forces. and by making that shift in the last months of world war ii, he pulled a lot of american public opinion with him, and really, helped enable the changes in america's rise to leadership. who grew up in grand rapids with an interest in politics, i had always been curious about vandenberg's life. vandenberg was one of these ambitious kids.

his father had a business that nearly went broke in the panic of 1893, when vandenberg was nine years old. he was always doing odd jobs and things to support the family, but once he was in high school thrived, he was editing the school newspaper and he thrived on political news. won in a speech that second place in an oratory contest in 1900, on the peace conference in the hague in 1900. already, he is thinking about foreign policy as a teenager. he started reading the congressional record when he was 15. that is what he thought of himself. for years before he built the house, at the age of 22, he was editor of a medium-size daily newspaper. from then on, he is covering

every republican political convention, and his mentor and part owner of the paper is the senator named william weldon smith, the senator best known the titanichaired investigation, the first hearing held in the senate caucus room. vandenberg has a mentor like that, and then, in 1911, vandenberg chairs the campaign that michigane had coming to it, in statuary , for anthe capital abolitionist senator named zechariah chandler. he gives a speech in statuary hall as a dedication, as he would then be a 27-year-old newspaper editor. he is fueling the political excitement, covering conventions, being mentored by a senator. speaking of the halls of

congress. he had the bug. he couldn't resist. then, it only become a question of, what is he running for? as a young man on the go, he prided himself on being an oratory, and was a popular after dinner speaker and luncheon club speaker. to run fored him congress or lieutenant governor or governor, but he really wanted to be senator. he is in his 20's and 30's, and it is like, i don't want to bother with the peanuts, i want to be senator. withrived at the senate great advanced billing and an unwillingness to be quiet and be on a backbench for a while. no sign of humility, which didn't sit well with some of his colleagues. he was cocky about things. people really resented that. were two or three generations ago, there was an understanding that if you are a freshman, you have to wait your turn. he wasn't willing to do that.

that rubbed people the wrong way. when the depression comes along, he really is, he is accused of vacillating, because he is sometimes supporting roosevelt and sometimes not. his fellow republicans aren't sure what to make of him. weave a fineto political line as michigan tilts more and more away from being a purely republican state, and it also means he is not entirely reliable in the eyes of his fellow republicans. because he had been so visible before the war, fighting american involvement, he became in effect, the republican spokesman in foreign policy. after the death of one of his , who diedilliam borah in 1940, vandenberg was unquestionably the voice of the republican party in foreign affairs.

in 1943, as the 1944 election was coming up, the republicans had a big conference on mac and island in northern michigan, and kinac island in north and michigan, and he wanted to get a platform for the election. in 1940, the platform was torn apart by robert half and wendell wilkie having two different visions of what republicans should stand for. vandenberg puts the group island and mackinac gets them to agree that republicans would support an international organization after the war, what became united nations. even as roosevelt was planning the creation of the united nations, he wasn't talking about it, because he didn't want to have the british with their colonies, or the soviets with their concerns about eastern europe, starting to argue and jockey for position,

>> vanderburgh was addressing ept fromoosevelt k being debated. ,e is taking the republicans expressing support for a new --m of beleaguered nations the league of nations at a time when no one else is talking about it. that identified him with a new way of thinking for the republicans and because the democrats weren't talking much about it for the americans. when the united nations was being discussed franklin roosevelt knew he couldn't make the mistake woodrow wilson did when they created the league of nations. his part of the league contains no republicans of any stature.

he brought it back to the senate and the republicans who were in the majority said what is going on here? despite seeing vandenberg as arrival knew that he needed him for the credibility of the american delegation to the united nations. he had no choice. february and march of 1945. in april of 1945 roosevelt dies. harry truman becomes president. functioned as his own secretary of state. really he was out of his depth in major foreign-policy discussions. so secretary of state is not strong. truman, who had not

been included on what roosevelt was planning is unschooled in where things stand. so, vandenberg goes to san francisco as the most influential american delegate. he has truman deferring to him. he is helping set the stage what the united nations charter is going to look like. >> no nation can immunize it dealt by its own exclusive action. only collective security can stop the next great war before it starts. quincy found himself being lionized -- >> he found himself in lionized in the country looking to him as a voice for rational approach. nothing utopian. the wasn't going to be one world. one of his republican rivals and written a book called one world.

people thought maybe we should have a world government. isolationists coming back out of the closet saying bring the boys home. let's wash our hands of what is happening. thatnberg said we can't do but we have to look after american interests as heart of a global structure. it was advocate of dwight eisenhower. they were friends and rivals for control of the republican party throughout the 1940's. the understanding was vandenberg does foreign-policy and tap does domestic policy. he's always chipping away at vandenberg. sometimes tapped takes -- sometimes tapped takes a hunter -- sometimes taft takes a harder

line. here ill ins back 1950. eisenhower is his hope for the future of the country. tapped -- his riv al was taft. vandenberg in his last months of about hearing a radio broadcast of eisenhower and feeling like my legacy is going to live on through eisenhower. there are those strains we still see today being played out. vandenberg was immersed and help defined. legacy is the notion of bipartisanship. the first gulf war comes about, you have a republican president

and an accrediting control of congress. the cry goes up, where is there a vandenberg among the democrats? later when clinton is contemplating a response to the cry goes up where is there a vandenberg? that role of the leader of the loyal opposition that will not sacrifice their principles that will work with the president in these tough foreign-policy moments, that is when we most miss him. that is when he is most iconic. the best in american government. the grand rapids history and special collections department at the public library. we have one of the largest

archives in the state of michigan. we are in the furniture room and andave over 3500 volumes hooks on furniture, furniture design, how to make furniture, all different topics. our analogs include -- our catalogs. many rapids is one of a lot ofere there was furniture manufacturing. one of the reasons was this collection of books on furniture. in the 1870's three major show their furniture at the philadelphia and they won 1876

awards. they impress everyone at the show and that put grand rapids on the map. as they kept developing the collection of books here was another thing that helped elevate the status of grand rapids. we had all of these manufacturers making quality furniture, we also had one of the largest collections of books on furniture. we were serious about furniture and going to make those things. we are quite a look at photographs that show how this collection developed, where it was located and how it came together. we're going to look at the and at local connections a couple of the gems of the collection. chippendale and

we will talk about how they collect -- connect back to the collection. one item i found that was excited is this picture. it says on the back these are furniture books in the reference room. early 1900s.the it is showing the early collection. this other next picture shows the room it was then. i love seeing this room in the early 1900s. there is something about that that is really cool. grew they ranion out of room to put all of those books. most were kept in this reference room but also stored throughout the library and we have a couple

catalogs. one of the largest and most well-known furniture companies in grand rapids into the 1930's. have a collection of -- they were written by the employee, for the employee and contain information about day-to-day life of employees, the different things they did. 3-5% of the workforce consisted of women. as men went away to war they had to fill in with women. women were doing everything from running machines and staining and sanding pieces of furniture to working in the office. here, aour collection large volume of periodicals on

the furniture trade. asre were a lot of magazines well. i have the furniture and manufacturer by the 1920's. there were five or six magazines based here in town. book out this specific because it has a nice article in the collection we have here at the library including the library director talking about some of the different books he was purchasing. the library was aggressively pursuing furniture books and trying to fill in gaps in the collection and get some of the notable books in the field. so they were sending away to different places and purchasing books. one thing he learned was they couldn't just send a letter to request a book. by the time they got there it would be gone. they had to send a telegram.

the local newspapers reported on the growth of the collection and in 1916 they said it was one of the finest collections in the country. that the library may have more books than the library of congress which is not too much of a stretch in this specialized area. archives we are in the of the grand rapids public library. feel it but it is cool in here. we keep it temperature controlled so we can preserve documents and photographs and everything we have for as long as possible. behind us we have extensions of our furniture design collection. these are mostly oversized works and we keep more of the

decorative art and architecture in here. we are to look at one of the gems of the library furniture design company. it is by chippendale. i want to talk about this model book, a list on furniture held in the grand rapids public library. this was published in 1928 in connection with 100 semi annual housing markets. the book thations we are going to look at. ons the most famous book furniture ever published. this is one of the volumes samuel felt strong about. he wanted to secure it for the collection. cabinethippendale was a maker in england and he was active in the 1700s. cabinetmakers were thought of as

tradesmen. architecture was the fine art. he was the first cabinet maker to publish an elaborate volume of his designs. it would have been considered audacious at the time, thinking that furniture design was as important as architecture. he self published the work. they would buy the book when it was published. subscribers were included in the volume. it includes gentlemen and cabinetmakers. hence the title of the book. if you were more of a member of could see what furniture you would want to purchase. if you were a cabinet maker you could make that picture. here.e the title page

you can see it is a very old book. this is a first edition. inwas published a year later 1755. a third edition in 1752. 1754 is harder to come by. it is unique that we have one here. i want to point out one of the pages and here, it is full of designs. chair was hisked personal favorite. this is the design that he thought was the best he had done . a nice piece of work. contains 161 engraved plates and it is said to be one of the most famous books on furniture ever printed. work.s a notable

works on architecture. it is very large. 25 inches by 18 and a half inches. it has a nice design on the cover. this is a book that the library director searched for for 20 years. this is the first volume. there are three volumes. it took a long time to find a complete set. it is rare to see a complete set. this is the title page of the book. you can see this amazing full-page illustration. there are 100 illustrations in the volume. this is some of the most notable works that they completed. adam was scottish architect. he was known for changing design in england and bringing a light feel to architecture. the volumes show the work that

they did and allowed people to see their designs, see how they went together. adam was known for being very detail oriented. he wanted everything about the designs to fit together. he wasn't just worried about the architecture. he was looking at the inside. he wanted to make sure the ink was of a design that would fit in with the rest of the house. you have all of these illustrations showing designs and how they fit together. the over 100 illustrations that are several that are hand colored. here we see one of them. this was an example of the highly noted engraving work of the time. it's even more amazing to have this hand colored version. now that we have taken a glimpse

at furniture design collections, i hope you take away how complex this area of furniture design is. we collect this information at the library because it is part of our culture and heritage and our future. it is our role here to correct the history and the story of our community. we are here to preserve those things. if we don't no one else will. always had a huge interest in freedom of expression. why do the justices vote the way they do. the supreme court justices, it's this question of what extent are they influenced by law and influenced by politics? of history of freedom expression at the supreme court has been long. we have seen different phases over time. freedom of expression was important enough to the constitution that it was the

first amendment in the bill of rights. clearly it is important. freedomstart studying of expression, some go back and look at the sedition acts at the time of jefferson and things like that. lessodern look is more or starting in the 1900s. it is cast very broadly. it includes a number of different things. we are used to talk about freedom of speech. there is also freedom of the press and the first amendment mentions the right to peaceably assemble. the supreme court has recognized there is a right of association intertwined with those things as well. freedom of expression is cast very broadly. it is not just your ability to write an article. it is the ability to associate for a political clause -- political cause.

there is even symbolic expression. something like burning a flag or a draft card. that is a physical act. some may say that is just conduct but it has a component of expression to it as well. -- i begin with the warring court and go through the roberts court in 2012. i start 1953 with the earl warren court and cover a 60 year period. i read every supreme court decision related to freedom of expression and i coded everyone for a variety of different variables. one of the things they talk about is how i analyze things statistically. it gave me a great opportunity to see how things change just by reading those opinions. 1950's, one of the things we had was mccarthyism. there was a witch hunt against

communists in the night states. there are any number of cases where people who are just alleged to be communists are fired from their government job, deny an opportunity to travel or even put in prison just for doing things like planning to publish a newspaper that would express communist ideas. during that era majority of the court turned a blind eye to freedom of expression. court,ed like the majority of the court was caught up in the hysteria of the era. justice black and justice douglas remained steadfast in their support of freedom of expression through this time and pointed out we have this cold war going on with the soviet union. what makes us different?

what are the values that stand out in america? one should be freedom of expression. we don't want to criminalize people because they may have joined a communist group in college or attended a communist speech, or offered a different viewpoint. part of freedom of expression should be the ability to make mistakes, to offer opinions that may not be popular. the solution is other people can respond to those ideas and correct them. , in the 1950'se and 1960's we get the civil rights unit doing more active. there are any number of cases where the power of the state is brought to bear upon groups like the naacp or other organizations. there is a case in 1963. naacp versus button. virginia tried to make it difficult for the naacp to

organize. they passed a law limiting the solicitation of legal business. it was clearly targeted at the naacp. they didn't like them having meetings and telling people the government is not allowed to do this to you under the constitution, has anybody had experiences with this type of discrimination? they're looking for clients and then would litigate when they had a strong set of tax. virginia tried to clamp down but the court recognized freedom of expression, freedom of association as well protects unpopular ideas. oft because the government virginia doesn't like what the naacp is doing doesn't mean that can be shut down. we start to see the court is going to stand up for less popular views, views that are being politically marginalized by those in power. that gives us a hint. we do need freedom of

expression. we needed to apply equally for everyone. full-blown idea of different standards of review . content neutral laws. is the well-known case new york times versus sullivan. casewas an interesting where a civil rights group had taken out an ad in the new york times and it describes some things that happened in terms of suppressing protesters in montgomery, alabama. an elected city commissioner of montgomery, alabama. that basically he was libeled by the content of this ad. he said there were factual sameuracies, none of which material to anything specific to him. it was not that germane to the case.

made it easy law for him to win a judgment. this case goes to the supreme court. the supreme court decided to rule in favor of the new york times, a victory for national media. we don't want -- you can imagine a system where every state makes it easy for citizens to sue a national media company for libel. there is a victory for the new york times. it was also a victory for the civil rights movement. one of the things the court said is that debate on public issues , robust be uninhibited and wide open. that type of spirit informed the court's decision making later on. mostly cases in 1972 where they sided new york times versus

sullivan and talked about we need this robust debate. we want to have a battle of ideas. we want people to disagree. that is how we will make our government stronger. holding accountable. the civil rights movement did happen influence. they help to bring up those precedents. when i look statistically, the biggest factors and how the justices are going to roll our their political values. liberal toto which conservative makes a difference. and when the government content-baseda way or content neutral way that does make a difference to the justices. the government was discriminating against communist expression. these were laws that we clearly look at today saying those were

content-based. the court didn't really look that way in the 1950's. the government one a lot of those cases. when they settle on this principle of content neutrality the justices look more strictly at anything that discriminates on the basis of subject matter, the idea, the message expressed. it's interesting to think how does the first amendment apply in new types of expression? one of the recent cases, citizens united involve this nonprofit group that wanted to both run ads and sell on cable tv this production called hillary the movie about hillary clinton. the campaign reform act said that because citizens united was a nonprofit corporation they were limited in how much they could spend in the days leading

up to an election. so basically this group sued and said you are discriminating against us. we are not able to offer our message because of bipartisan campaign reform act. the court ruled in their favor by a 5-4 decision. it was a close decision and hugely controversy all. one of the things the justices in the majority said, you can't discriminate against a viewpoint of a nonprofit corporation. you can't restrict them from getting their message out. however, the justices in the dissent said we put these type of restrictions in effect before going back to buckley versus blago. it's not that we are keeping corporations from participating in politics.

it is just if they're going to do it they need to do it through a political action committee. for the dissenting justices they thought within the framework of content neutrality the bipartisan campaign reform act was narrowly tailored to prevent corruption and that distortion of the marketplace of ideas without restricting too much expression because corporations still had that outlet of political action committees to get involved. the case the supreme court is going to take some tough cases, the easy cases don't need to go to the supreme court. what we tend to see is the court taking some very cutting edge type of issues. how does expression apply to violent video games. what about lying about military honors? different areas like that. they are wars to evolve -- forced to evolve.

overall i would say there is a strong embrace of this framework of content neutrality. content neutrality is not a straight jacket. it is just a framework. different justices can apply it differently and come to different conclusions because they are motivated by political values and attitudes. >> our visit to grand rapids is a book tv exclusive. we showed it to introduce you to the c-span cities tour. you can watch more of our visit /citiestour.g a million people without power in the state of florida. after hurricane matthew hit the state officials released the storm had knocked out electricity over a wide stretch of the state's eastern coast.

more than 100,000 people in the orlando area without power. the store making its way to south carolina. under curfew. the worst of the storm expected to move into carolina overnight. among -- nearston daybreak. russia is being accused by the united states of hacking and trying to interfere with the political presidential election. official saying they are confident the government directed the breaches of e-mails including those with u.s. political organizations, ties like the democratic national committee. president obama is in his home state, home city of chicago. he did some early voting and attended