based on my counterparts and the problem solvers' caucus, there is just too much power into few hands, with not enough getting done for the mecca people, and i fear that will not change. announcer: what conversations saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org. listen with the free c-span radio app. announcer: next, an american history tv exclusive. visits methods to learn about its history and literary life. for seven years, we have traveled to u.s. cities, bringing the literary scene and historic sites to our viewers. you can watch more of her visits as c-span.org/cities tour. when we study the history of memphis, tennessee, there is pre-april 4, 1968 and post april

4, 1968. dr. king still had his nonviolent resistance following, but after the aftermath of the assassination of malcolm x, you have the formation of the black panther party, you have carmichael calling out for black power to take control of their own neighborhoods, so there was a split in which ideology and philosophy was the most effective way to combat civil rights in america. martin luther king began to be overshadowed by these young black militants. he was not in the receiving a very high approval rating in the black community at this time, it was as if the african-american communities turned their back. this was only supposed to be a d tour for martin luther king jr., coming to memphis. he was going to lead a march. and his ultimate goal is to get the washington dc later that month for his proposed poor people's campaign.

segregationists and those opposing his mission at this time are saying he cannot have a controlled march in memphis, there is no way that he will be successful in washington. dr. king is extremely taken aback by this. not only that, but he has a rift in his own group. there are members that want to go to washington, others that believe that they should be here in memphis. so he is against a lot of pressure, scrutiny and distress during the weeks leading up to his assassination. 1968, he arrived here in segregation was the law of the land. we still lived in the jim crow south. so there were white and colored signs appearing in all public facilities and accommodations. when dr. king returns in 1968, the civil rights act of 1964 has been passed, eliminating jim crow in america. the voting rights bill is signed

in 1965, giving african-americans the right to register to vote without discrimination. and we are engulfed with economic injustice, and the most important thing at this time was the war in vietnam, which would be one year to the day of his death, he denounces the war at the riverside baptist church. and that really takes a turn into involving dr. king in the movement. >> i want to make it clear that i will continue with all of my might, with all of my energy, and with all of my actions, to oppose that abominable, evil, unjust war in vietnam. workers strikeon began when two workers are killed on the back of a garbage truck on february 1, 1968, 11 days later 1300 workers strike against their employer. and primarily trying to get a

better working environment for themselves and their families. dr. king saw what was going on and he was invited by the reverend james lawson and he vows to come to memphis to lead a nonviolent campaign. once dr. king returns to memphis on this day, there is a poor going on in the back of the march -- uproar going on in the back of the march. most people associate dr. king is the primary organizer of the march, but he was not, he just agreed to participate in it. there are riots. it was chaos beginning to take place downtown on main street, to the point where dr. king was forced to retreat from the march to go to the nearby holiday inn. he returns to the city of memphis on wednesday, april 3. flight 381here via from eastern airlines out of atlanta. his flight was delayed,d ue to a bomb threat on that morning.

he checks and at the lorraine motel around 11:30 a.m. it was one of the more upscale hotels in downtown memphis for african-americans. dr. king had been here prior to his visit before on april 3. the time he stays here specifically, he stayed at a predominantly white hotel on march 29, the holiday inn where vermont and he is receiving criticism saying, how are you asking african-americans the boycott white merchants, when you are giving business -- when you are not giving business to the all black hotel. so they checked into a room 306. he meets with clergymen. he was also going to meet with lawyers. he was facing an injunction to have a successful march the following week on monday, april 8. he met with his lawyers as well here at the lorraine motel in room 306.

dr. king on that day is feeling emotionally drained. he is suffering from flulike symptoms, he is suffering from laryngitis. it was my the lowest point of his life. later that day, memphis has tornado warnings in the greater memphis area. there was a scheduled rally that night at the nearby mason temple. and he does not think that there will be a large turnout because of the inclement weather. so he sends reverend abernathy and investor andrew young and a young jesse jackson to speak for him in his place. rev. jessee jackson, andy young, and reverend abernathy arrive and they see over 2000 people have come. and they are all of plotting, thinking dr. king is right behind them and once they realize this was dr. king's crowd, reverend abernathy called dr. king at the lorraine hotel and urges him to come and greet the guests who have come in the weather to hear him speak.

was dr. king arrives, it is about 30 minutes later, and he says is something on this night he had not said at any of his other profound speeches in the past 12 years during his duration as a leader in this movement. >> like anybody i would like to has a long life, longevity its place. but i am not concerned about that now. i just want to do god's will. and he has allowed me to go up to the mountain. and i have looked over, and i have seen the promised land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we are the people that get to the promised land. >> what we didn't know was that this would be the last public address dr. king would make. 24 hours later he would be

assassinated by a bullet. on the day of april for, dr. king was waiting for andrew young to return from federal court to have the injunction lifted. and once this happened, dr. king is in a significantly jubilant mood. once young returns around 4:00 p.m., dr. king and andrew young and other members are having pillow fights here at the lorraine motel. dr. king is scheduled to go and eat dinner at a minister's home, reverend samuel billy kyles. he comes to room 306 and gets ready around 5:20 p.m., at about 5:50 p.m. on the day of april for, dr. king steps outside of room 306 and he greets people in the parking lot. >> so we are stepping outside of the room to lorraine motel balcony where dr. king stayed. we are actually standing in front of the room he stayed in,

room 306. he checked in on that wednesday. and he was approximately standing in this position here. once he steps outside of the room about a quarter till 6:00 p.m. on the day of the assassination. martin luther king jr. steps outside on the balcony and members of the southern christian leadership conference are statedg -- here. reverend jesse jackson approaches him. and he asks dr. king what time is dinner. he says we will be there shortly, but i dr. king himself responds and said, reverend jackson, where is your tie? jesse jackson says, a pre-would visit for dinner is -- a prerequisite for dinner is appetite, and i have that. the two men left. he is introduced to a musician named ben branch. he asks dr. king what song he wants played at dinner and a dr. king responds with "precious

lord, take my hand." and i want you to play a real pretty. his chauffeur calls upon the balcony and says, doc, you should go and grab a jacket. before martin junior can respond to mr. jones, a shot rings out at 6:01 p.m. and dr. king falls wounded, and he is lying here on the balcony. [gunshot] immediately, when the shot rings out, the memphis police are running into this way and many of his associates, including reverend andrew young, bernard lee, jesse jackson and reverend abernathy are saying, no, go that way. the shot came from this area, where we have seen the infamous photograph taken. three minutes later he is taken to the hospital and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. ♪

[singing] handprecious lord, take my homeme stand handmy home lead me ♪ >> the city of memphis was very

much like the rest of the country in how it dealt with the aftermath of dr. king's death. people are angry, they are frustrated, and we see that frustration play out in a number of different ways. so we see these urban uprisings in a lot of cities, over 100 cities have these uprisings where the frustration and anger boils out onto the streets and the neighborhoods. memphis is like a lot of cities in that way, where that is happening. because it was not just dr. king's death, there are issues bubbling under the surface. in memphis, it was the sanitation workers strike, but in other cities it was social issues pushing the tension within the community. and this sent people over the edge. memphis, while we did have the uprisings, we also had a silent march. and that was where thousands of people came on april 8 and

walked to city hall in a silent march. and the reverend james lawson sent out a memo, today it would be the equivalent of a tweet or extractionsexplicit -- instructions of how to behave and people respected those instructions. and they marched silently with signs that said honor king and racism. and it was a crowd of people of different backgrounds, religions, races, ethnicities, who decided upon the city to say, yes, this man of peace died violently, but we will not react to violence with violence, we will react to it with peace and love in the way that dr. king would want us to do. the sunday after dr. king was assassinated, which was palm sunday, the city came together and held a rally called memphis cares in eh crump stadium.

and in that stadium, reverend benjamin hooks and james watson came together and said, we are the community as mathis, not the national spotlight, but as a community we need to talk about what happened here, because this is not ok. we still have the issue with the sanitation workers, but there was something happening in our city as the community that allowed this to be the place where dr. king was assassinated. we as a community have to wrestle with this. this was facilitated by a car dealer who really was not part of the social justice, but decided that this was not right. and he decided to take a stand. and he ended up having to leave the city for some time, because he became unpopular, because he hosted this method scares event cares event.

they kicked out the media. they wanted this to be a moment of healing and a conversation among the citizens. there were difficult conversations had. >> i have heard some people say, i am sorry that it happens in memphis. it is too bad that it happened in memphis. . or again, i have heard people being,g that this human like you and i, in the full prime of his life is shot down, executed in cold blood. that is not repentance. mean whetheres not or not business moves away from memphis. repentance is not being concerned whether or not people outside of our city will have a good feeling about us. how can anyone have a good feeling about memphis when one

of the finest sons of this world of ours was shot down in our streets? [applause] >> in a matter how much we try -- and no matter how much we try, from now on until there is no longer any written history, memphis will be known as the place where martin luther king was crucified. toit is a city that has had wrestle with that legacy over the last 50 years. perfect,ity is not but it is conscious of that legacy. and it is continuing to deal with that. very much like the rest of the country. i think it would be a disservice to single memphis out in that way. it is a city that has allowed this museum to flourish, has supported this institution, and is very much like the rest of the country -- there is racial

inequity, economic inequity, it is a hard conversation to have. it is a hard issue to deal with. and like the rest of the country, we are dealing with it and we will continue to do so. >> the 1968 memphis sanitation strike was at a crossroads in the civil rights a story. -- it wasoderate city more moderate than other areas in the deep south and it was considered the midsouth i'm a but it was on the banks of the mississippi. african-americans and whites lived in a pretty decisive and

divisive community. the sanitation workers did not make the same as white counterparts. they only made about one dollar an hour, you could be fired for being late, after one minute. you had no pension. you were given no other grievances. you are not able to be a driver on a truck, you are only able to ride in the back of the cap. the sanitation workers took the job because they felt like it was going to be a study -- steady job to have. if you worked 90 hours a week as an african-american sanitation worker, you could still receive government assistance. good work 90 hours and only make a little over $100 an hour, so this was not really the right way for african-american men who are just trying to live and to take care of their families, to live off of this wage. jones, going back to

fought thetlessly better the wages and conditions for memphis sanitation workers. was heldlly was -- h together by a strong, when two werers, cole and walker, killed in the back of a garbage truck on february 1, 1968. it was a thursday evening, these two workers, mr. walker and mr. cole were on their route. it is inclement weather, there was a very large thunderstorm going on. and at that time, but sanitation workers were unable to fit into the front of the cab, so in order to shelter themselves in the back of the truck, they got into the back. the truck that they were writing had alreadyding in they had been told it was a faulty truck. so the two men are crushed to death in the back of the truck. the city of memphis provided only $500 checks in response to

the two men's deaths. the $500 almost was garnished because of the wages and taxes taken out of the checks. in one case, one of the men was not even able to have a proper burial, he was taken to his hometown in mississippi, some 90 miles south of the city. and this is what led to a strike of 1300 sanitation workers, 11 days later. they wanted better wages, they want a better working conditions for the sanitation workers at this time. they wanted to file for grievances, such as pension, better pay, better work uniforms, and just to be treated with a little more dignity. and of course the city of enough toich had just read the numeric, he was adamantly against this, that is when the strike took place.

it began on february 12, 1968. approximately 1300 sanitation workers struck against their employers, the city of memphis, and this is when the official strike begins. to theponse of the city strike was, with all other strikes in the past, it was met with resistance, with impression, -- with impression, it was not very welcoming for those who supported the strike. and in february, on the 23rd, there was a much that happened in downtown memphis. over 100 were arrested and hospitalized. but this really does not see the type of violence until after dr. martin luther king jr. returns to the city of memphis on thursday, march 28, 1968. the reverend james lawson from united methodist church, who we saw was the organizer of the sit in movement in the earlier

part of the decade invited dr. king to come to memphis. the arrives on march 18 and he received a wonderful reception at the nearby mason temple. and there he tells reverend abernathy and others that we are going to come back to memphis and we will march on behalf of the sanitation workers. 1968.hey is march 28, once dr. king returns to the city of memphis on this day, there is a war going on in the back of the march, just one hour after the march takes place a 16-year-old from south memphis by the name of larry payne is killed by a memphis police officer. dr. king is assassinated on

thursday, april 4, at 6:01 p.m. at the lorraine motel. immediately after his death, many began to feel that this was the worst of the sanitation workers received the minor increases to take the life of a man that far for equality, but what it does do is it showcases to america that a nonviolent movement creates a violent response. of all the five political assassinations that occur in the decade, dr. king's is the only one that results in violence and immediateits aftermath. i think with the assassination, the pillar of nonviolence slain here on the balcony of an african american hotel really prompted the mayor and other lawmakers to fix this. 12 days later, the city of memphis reaches a strike resolution with the sanitation workers. they are given a minor raise, but they are given better working conditions, better

costumes. and as of last year, the sanitation workers, around 13 or 14 of them finally receive a pension for their service with the city of memphis, 50 years ago. today, sanitation workers here in the city of memphis face a completely different experience than they would have had 50 years ago. they are receiving pension, better working wages, and are given the opportunity for growth within their -- the city of memphis's department. the legacy of the strike was to show that even after the declaration of independence, the passage of the 14th amendment, which said all things will be protected under the law, that they were still not treated as men. and that we will risk our lives. and a man comes to the city and actually sacrifices his life so that men are treated as men in the united states of america.

>> you cannot understand memphis without understanding cotton, because it has such an impact on not just the economy, but also the social fabric of the city. the role of cotton in memphis's history and economy is central. it is, for much of the 19th century it is the industry in memphis. example, memphis .hips 23,000 bales of cotton in 1859, 20 years later, the city is a shipping over 300,000 bales of cotton. so within a 20 year period, you can see the growth of the industry. there is no other industry in memphis in the 19th century that is that large. what is big is cotton. if you are going to make real money in the south, cotton is

where you want to be. memphis very quickly, after its founding in 1819, became a center of the cotton industry, because of its transportation location. it was right at the mississippi river. so if you are a cotton planter in rural shelby county or other parts, as well as north mississippi, then you ship -- you would bring the cotton to memphis, so that you could reach the wider world. to sell your goods to a large industry. said, by the 1830's memphis is an. and beginning in 1847, the railroads begin to develop, which provides another opportunity to ship caught the

two other points. in 1857, the methods and charleston railroad is open, that connects the mississippi river with the atlantic ocean, which is crucial to the growth of this industry, because this means you can very easily ship cotton that is being produced in the surrounding region, bring it to memphis, have it processed, then it is loaded onto the measure 10 -- the memphis charleston railroad, shipped to charleston and then it can be shipped to england. in the 1850's and 1860's, the textile mills in england to rely on southern cotton. and memphis is a key component to that. and then come at the same time, soon after you have the development of the cotton exchange, where people can buy and sell cotton. so if you are somebody that wants to invest in cotton, you may not be picking cotton and he may not be involved in processing it, but the other key

part of the industry is the buying and selling of cotton. so at the cotton exchange, what you will be doing is getting economic reports of from liverpool an other parts of england, other parts of europe, and what is the price of cotton today? it is five cents a pound. so you either buy or sell your investments. and it was very common for speculators to go to the cotton a hugee one day and make amount of money and walked out rich. the next day they show up and lose everything. so it was a gambler's market in many respects. the cotton economy not only affects those that are directly involved in the economy, it also indirectly affects everyone. it means that demographically you have a lot of rural people who come in to memphis to sell their cotton, to take advantage of places like beale street,

where they can drink and gamble and later on see a movie or see a show. so it creates a sort of regional tourism industry in the city as well. but a key factor in all of this in terms of demographics is the slave population. the fund industry, whether it was the picking of cotton or the shipping of cotton, all relies on slave labor. and that means that there is a large african-american population in memphis, walking the streets every day, working in all of the industries that we have been talking about, but particularly the cotton industry. so at the various water called gins, where they process the cotton, and get ready to ship to market, the african-american slaves are doing the work. 16,000, there were about african-american slaves in

memphis. and there were about 300 free persons of color in the city who had either bought their way out of slavery, or had been emancipated by their owners and allowed to stay in the city. inthe population of memphis 1860 is about, um, 35,000. so we are talking a third of the population, roughly speaking, are african-americans. and so it creates the white-black dynamic in memphis that dominates the city for the 19th century, the 20th century and well into the 21st century. the civil war did change the cotton economy in memphis. during the war, the south could not ship cotton to europe. and so england, for example, further large textile mills, they began buying it from egypt.

and that continues after the war. so the markets are diminished. they do not disappear by any means, but they are diminished after the war, because there are other con producers that join in the economy. so, cotton prices in the late 19th century begin to fall. and you have a lot of people who are dependent on the cotton economy, because they do not know anything else, so they continue to grow cotton every year.. the industry ships it out, makes money off of it, speculates on lower. the prices are that means that there is essentially, except for one or i -- exept for world war i, the cotton economy is depressed, so memphis is forced to move beyond cotton in the early 20th century

and they begin to embrace industrialization. and the city gets a ford motor plant, international harvester, firestone built a plant here, as well as additional railroads. that means that goods manufactured here beyond cotton can also be shipped out of the city. during the great depression, the cotton economy had collapsed, but world war ii calms and there is a huge need for contin. and therear ii comes is a huge need for cotton. protect weapons. it is used for artillery, to swab cannons and artillery pieces. huge needis also a for uniforms for soldiers and

sailors and marines, so the content industry -- the cotton sincery begins to grow the end of the 19th century and begins to expand and grow. and after world war ii, the cotton industry in places like holland, which had created a thatn -- a cotton economy was destroyed during the war, memphis is able to exploit that far cotton and europe, and that rises. and combine that with the growth of technology. exist, and now it is all done on computers. speculatorscontin and the library -- we have had speculators in the

library, trading on the phones right there, while they are talking to you. so it has expanded. it is different because there are fewer people growing cotton. nobody's picking cotton by hand anymore. but if you go into rural shelby county and fayette county and north mississippi and eastern up arkansas in september -- eastern arkansas in september and october, you are going to see a lot of cotton being picked by machines. so where it would take 50 people to pick a field, now it only takes one guy on a tractor, on a cotton picker. so the industry has changed and that there are fewer memphians involved in the industry. but in terms of how much money it brings into the city, either directly or by shipping it indirectly, is still huge. millions of dollars flow through memphis because it is a

transportation hub, and that includes cotton. 's legacy for memphis is a two-edged sword. on one hand, it is the reason in many ways memphis grew beyond its small routes. had there been no cotton economy, there may have been no need for a transportation hub at this location on the river. it is possible without cotton that memphis would not exist in the 21st century. however, we can't forget that that is being done on the backs of enslaved people. so it sets up a foundation of any quality, a foundation of discrimination that memphis is going to deal with with the rest forts history -- deal with the rest of its history, up to this point. so the legacy is strong. it remains an important part of memphis culture.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] jockey usually looks kind of derogatory, in the way that he is constructed. and they might think jacob burkle was a slave master, because of this statute, but it was completely the opposite. he was actually on the underground railroad. if the lantern was burning, it was safe to come to the safe house. if you do not see the lantern burning, that means it is danger, do not come in it was therefore a certain purpose, -- it was there for a purpose, giving notice to runaways that jacob burkle had a safe house here, and you can come in now that the light is on. this is the safe haven

underground museum. it is the burkle estate. it was owned by jacob urkel jacob burkley -- during slavery, and the house slaves. to slid hide it is one of the few safehouses soare aware of in this area, it was very significant and helping slaves escape to freedom. jacob burkle was a german immigrant. he emigrated to the united states after the german revolution of 1848, when an oppressive government was placed in leadership. jacob burkle left germany to avoid that suppression, so he and thousands of germans emigrated to the united states. he happened to settle in the south, and here was another oppressive system, slavery. so he decided he would

personally become involved. that house was built in 1856. in 1856 this area was on the outskirts of memphis. it is very secluded. jacob burkle owned the stockyards, so he had hundreds of animals in this area, he owned the entire block. the house is located two blocks from the mississippi river. that was very convenient because that was the way by which jacob burkle would help the runaways escape. the underground railroad was a system of clandestine activities, of agents, of ,onductors, of stationmasters and everything was secretive. safehouses, modes of there were all

kinds of secrets that took place in order to make this underground railroad a success. this is a flight to freedom map. the red lines you see on this map indicates secret routes on the underground railroad. this lets us know there were wereal routes, and their more than we see on this map even, because they are still finding safehouses. this is memphis, and noticed the lines coming through memphis. they are starting in louisiana, following the mississippi river, this line is very wide in memphis, that lets us know a lot of runaways came right through here. many of them hit right here in jacob burkle's home. now they want to cross the ohio free to get into the states, the light green states of the free states. these gold states here are slave states. once they cross the ohio river,

they can be free. memphis was a hub for slave trading because of its locality. it is right on the mississippi main mode ofas a transportation for bringing slaves into the area, and of course there was cotton. cotton was known as king , so they needed slave labor to produce this cotton. about 12 blocks from jacob there was a city directory where these slave markets were located. negroes wanted, there is depot, so you had several slave markets in memphis

during the time jacob burkle was hiding slaves on his property. this group, one of the main industries in memphis, slave trading. secret, so means they had secret methods of theunicating, along with safehouses and hiding places. but there was a secret language. enslaved africans were forbidden to read and write, so they had to construct a language the slave master could not understand. our great would hang their quilts on the close line to a are them, but when they hung those quilts on the close line during slavery -- on the slavery, theyring

would hang them in a certain chronological order that gave a root to canada. so it were part of the underground railroad that had secret languages, there would be a monkeywrench quilt over here, that would be the first hung on line, to get ready because you are going to run away. the next one would be the wagon mode ofhat would be the escaping, whether it is a wagon or boat, or however you were going to escape. so each quilt would hang out for a certain period of time, you would learn that code and do what it says. it goes on and on. the monkeywrench turns to the wagon wheel to canada, to the crossroads, and you are crossing and the satin bow

ties tell them to go to the church and get married and exchange double wedding rings. and then the flying geese, stay on the path. all of that sounds very much confusing, but each one is fairly significant, and they knew what it meant. the flying geese would mean that they are flawlessly -- mean that they are following the north path, going north to canada. and they will always look for the north star. this is the north star quilt here. once they follow the north star, they know they are going north, so they had to learn to read the stars, the north star in particular. so all these codes were in the quilts. this is just one of the many secret codes they used.

we are stepping into a side porch here in jacob burkle's home. there were no walls, this was all ", there was no ceiling there as well -- this was all open, there was no ceiling there as well. we see the large door that opens into the seller, the main hiding area in jacob burkle's home. -- into the cellar, the main hiding area in jacob burkle's home. we don't believe the runaways came down these same steps that we came down.

see some brick steps. at the top of the brick steps, there is a brick wall. that would not seem logical. no one builds steps and puts a brick wall at the top. there was actually a door at the top of that last step that has been closed in now, but the door opens from the inside as well as the outside, and that is the end of the house right there, at the other side of that wall. so from there, they could go down to the mississippi river from here, which is about two blocks. on the side here there are openings, they could get air and light through these holes, and we could see the holes from the front of the house from here. burklets us know jacob more than likely built this house with the purpose of helping slaves to escape. us thisaeologists told was the first room that was built in the entire house.

10. room is maybe eight by jacob burkle would have provided them with food, clothing, coverings. they might have waited here for or fivehts -- four nights, and he would have made them comfortable while they were here. and he would make sure that they next point, which would have been the mississippi river. the underground railroad was so secretive that it would have been too dangerous for jacob burkle to know the entire route. had someone suspected that he was engaged in underground railroad activity, he could have been beaten and forced to tell where that next stop was, so it was best that he not know.

no one agent knew the entire route. wasave taught escaping subjected to so much cruelty, whatever was in the mind of the slave master or slave catcher, and that could have been some dismemberment, the could have been beatings, pouring salt on their wounds after they were neckn, restrained with shackles, any, restraint the slave master had or could construct. person like jacob burkle who assisted runways, he would have been subject to death. there were many conductors or agents on the underground railroad who were indeed put to death because of their activities. we are talking about the south,

and slavery was the order of the day, so definitely he would have been subjected to harsh punishment. we are quite sure there were others. jacob urkel would not have been the only one. there were others as well. it is fortunate that the family of jacob burkle passed down the story of the activities that took place here at jacob burkle's home. that is how we know the story today. this house is very significant, for people to tour the museum and get a clearer understanding of what the underground railroad was all about. safehousesnumerous throughout the united states. we are fortunate this house is in the south. they were enslaved in the south so they were running from this

were people who sacrificed their lives to help them, right here in the south. ♪ being played] >> memphis is thought to be the birthplace of rock 'n roll. coalescede the genre to create this sound. elvis being here, bb king, johnny cash, giving us the title of the birthplace of rock 'n roll. there isn't another city like it. hisphillips, this was vision, his studio. he opened it to record the blues music that was being played in memphis, on beale street, at a

time when most people in this area saw no value to that music. he received a lot of criticism just for recording blues, but he felt this was a true form of music, there was true emotion, true feeling that people weren't getting from pop radio of that time, which was kind of schmaltzy, very tame songs and arrangements. that particularly the younger people in america were looking for something different, they wanted something they could relate to more than that kind of useful energy,that raw and that's what he was looking for. 1950,ened this place in and memphis in those days was a hugely segregated city.

sam felt music was a way to tie people together, because you could segregate restaurants, schools, but you couldn't segregate music, you couldn't stop somebody from turning on the radio and listening to something. so he sought music as a way to transcend all these racial issues and tensions that we were having, not only in memphis but throughout the country. here,ose the storefront 706 union avenue, for the studio. this was the first studio in memphis. most other recordings in memphis were done at radio stations. that's why guys like sam him out of a background field, they knew about radio, they recorded live music and radio. we are in the control room right now.

this is where sam worked and was also his office, basically. and you can see this is the kind of gear he used, very simple equipment. he would look at this window, this glass partition. this is the cutting room out here where all the musicians would be playing. and the room in the front was the little office, the waiting area, marianne was the office manager here. so that's it, you had these three rooms, and it is incredible how they affected our culture. the first acts that he recorded work blues acts and a little country, he also recorded country music as well but he was more interested in the country acts that were doing something different. at that time you had country groups in memphis that were slowly starting to incorporate rhythm and blues songs into their repertoire.

so he was only interested in country if they were doing something different, but primarily it was for the blues artists. and a few blocks down the street , there was no hint of the wealth of the talent of people he could bring here. it started with a record called rocket 88, recorded in 1951 by jackie princeton and ike turner. and ikee brenston turner. most rock 'n roll historians credit it as being the first rock 'n roll record. ♪ 88" being sun] the first few years, sam was

kind of struggling. again, he obviously wanted to be successful but he wasn't intentionally recording music just because he you it was going to sell. he was recording music because he liked it. 's the time he sold elvis contract he was almost bankrupt, he was about to lose the studio. here,lvis recorded something sam offered in those days was a custom session recording. in, pay foure dollars, record two songs you wanted to do. there's a famous story that says mother,ded it for his kind of a sweet story like something elvis would do. it's not true, he didn't record it for his mother. most likely elvis came in here because he wanted to hear his own voice recorded. he never heard his voice

recorded before. he helped to make a real record in here, and it turned out elvis would have to wait about a year before he got a call back from sam phillips. it's an interesting story about why elvis finally got a call back here at sun. it so happened there was a demo ofording that had been made an inmate at the tennessee state penitentiary, singing this song that he had written. and it was this very beautiful, song.y well, they lost track of who this man was coming they couldn't find him, maybe he had been released or something, so they were searching for someone who could duplicate or sound andlar to this man's voice, somehow they contacted sam phillips and asked, do you know a singer who sounds like this guy so we could recut this? song?

song?ut this but marion at a loss said, what about that kid elvis? the reality is elvis never actually recorded that song. he startedcident recording "that's all right mama" and it was something sam wanted, something different, and they forgot about the ball ad. ♪ mama"] all right ♪ >> after "that's all right mama"

was released, it was popular in this region. sam was a small label, he didn't have a huge outreach. he would literally have to drive around to recor -- to radio stations with records in his car to give to djs to play the songs. so it definitely created a sensation, but it was just a regional hit, it wasn't a huge chart hit or anything like that. the impact is incredible when you think about it because not only did it influenced so many musicians in this area to try to do something similar, that kind of makes of country and blues, guys like johnny cash, jerry lee lewis, thoseerkins and beyond people, it reached the whole world, people in europe and

people in england. in fact, the rolling stones and the beatles were influenced by these old records that sam had made. they weren't huge hits but it affected pretty much everything we are listening to today, a ripple effect on top of that. elvis'sing of contracting about because sam, even with elvis, he wasn't financially that stable yet. he also knew that being a little, independent label, he had done all he could for elvis. he did not have this huge promotion engine behind him to get him out there to the rest of the country. needednew elvis really management, someone that could ,eally take his career further so he saw the selling of elvis's

contract as a mutual benefit, for both of them. sam, with that money, was able to keep the studio going and keep recording other great toists, and that deal went rca records. and one of the big negotiators of that deal on the rca side was colonel tom parker, a manager of country singers in nashville. and through colonel tom parker, no artist in history had ever been promoted and marketed like that before. first bigbecame the superstar because of the marketing push that came behind it. sam was here for 10 years, a 10 year lease on the building, he never actually owned it. 1950. in 1960 he moved down the street and opened up another studio.

today, this kind of all started in the 1980's, mid 1980's. it has always been pretty much toursourist destination, during the day and at night recording, it has been about recording ever since then. we get hundreds of people a day from all over the world coming through this place. older people that have waited their whole lives, they will tell you that, i have waited my whole life to be in this place. , it is notas something dad, it is an ongoing fascination people have with myth ofce, the kind of this place. it is a legendary place, like the name says, a legendary studio. ♪

blue suede shoes" being sung] the largest of archives dedicated to one individual that exists here in the united states. and the archives at graceland, we have over 1.5 million documents, books, wardrobe. the space is 3000 square feet treated gave us the opportunity to explore the collection. a lot of visitors want to see jumpsuits, we have over 30 on display. it is what people really connect with because of shows and concerts and what they remember.

cars, the cars are huge. if you are not an elvis fan, a lot of people love car collection. the biggest item in our collection, the lisa marie airplane. 19 75buys the plane in and uses it over 200 times in two years. as you drive down elvis presley boulevard, you can't help that see it o. capef the pieces is the that goes from elvis's a low on and at the end of the show he tosses the audience the cape that he has on during the final song, and it changed hands the couple of times, was in a private collection. when the owner passed, he actually willed it back to the estate.

after hisflorida, passing his mom called and said, and he had something he wanted to graceland. and a week later the cape was here. display andways on always has his name attached to it. 1995 and itck in was only missing one stone. keeping up with the archives is not just displaying things and telling stories. there is a lot of care, preservation, restoration work. had items restored over the years, including musical also a carthere is that is probably the most difficult thing we did. it was a 1973 stats black hawk, the last car elvis drove. we went to the company in north carolina, had the car shipped in

under high/conditions, -- under -hush conditions. it took months to do the proper preservation of the car. it was difficult because it was one of the biggest projects we had taken on. the most challenging part of an archives that creates everything under the sun is the fact that it includes everything under the sun. documents get brittle, so you don't want them in a dry footage, film,eo photography likes to be stored cold, wardrobe needs a certain temperature, so finding that archivalium in our storage that keeps everything at the proper preservation level, even though some things might need to be a little colder or a little warmer, finding that even balance because we have so many

materials stored at one place. and then the preservation of it all. our collection is relatively young. we are not restoring hundred-year-old silks and we're not doing tapestries that were made several hundred years ago at the vatican and things like that. we are storing and caring for gabbard he or 1970 plastic fruit or 1970g for gabardine, plastic fruit. young and it is a lot of synthetic stuff, so people don't know how it is going to react 100 years from now. tellsollection really elvis's complete story. it tells the story of a loving an, of a friend, a father,

d, a teen idol, a the king leading man, of rock 'n roll. it gives people insights to who elvis was, not only the person but also the entertainer. ♪ comes out ofthat the speakers is unlike anything else. stax comes from how you feel, a place from talent, a place from love, it also a place of working together in a studio where everybody is on equal footing and equal terms, black-and-white working together. you know it when you hear it. record is unlike anything, you can pick it up from the early 70's. ♪

we are in the stax record, the staxinal home of beal records -f records. the sister of the owner realize there might be a future in this and took out a second mortgage on her house. first ry recorded their eltones.t by the va ♪ the first black artist jim stewart ever worked with, so the

light bulb went on and this was he type of music would want to make, even though he was a country fiddle player by night and a banker by day. if they were going to make our end b records, they were going to go sub -- make our end to be -- make r and b records ever going to have to find a so they got a movie theater and turned it into stax records. and they understood the power of opportunity, the power of empowerment. and it was a time of segregation, when blacks didn't mix if ever, if at all, so what they felt they could do was create a workplace and an environment where people could

create freely, where young people would have an this is a place where young people were paid to make music, paid to work in a record store, paid to stuff envelopes and send things out through the mail. and this was the original along. did not see color when it came to hiring employees and working the people they wanted to. they came into the neighborhood and embraced the neighborhood, ingratiate in themselves and the neighborhood embraced them back, because the door was always open at stax records. records, they do a single called, because i love you. ♪ is the musicens takes off from there, atlantic records hears about this great

music he made in memphis, they want to distribute this music, they send artists here, but things take off when otis redding shows up in 1962. the microphone and sings "these arms of mine," and really nothing was the same at stax records and nothing was the same in the world. he becomes the voice and face of stax records and was the first major crossover artist with then bookerces, and t and the mgs takeover as the house band, one of the great instrumental bands of that era, isaac hayes shows up. ♪ was always a place where civil rights was hard to ignore. it is not like everyone came in

through the front door and forgot everything was happening outside these four walls. number of artists had gotten drafted and were sent to vietnam. one had issued a couple of songs talking about the shoulder experience but had not taken a deep dive into the issues. 1968 it was difficult to ignore that with dr. king being assassinated in memphis. artists, alstax bell was in a position of management and had marched with was hard to it ignore what was going on in the outside world. and stax gets thrown into the mix with the unrest in the city on april 5, and the mayor's office for the first time and calls andtax asks if they have any artists that will go on w dia, the

largest black radio station in people down, calm so to speak, so the unrest didn't grow. participated in that and did their part, it was with a lot of sadness and a lot of anger. and things began to change here at stax. the front door the was always open was closed. embracedstarted to -- started to embrace this role in the black community. ♪ the majority of people buying their records were black. ♪ see moreart to involvement in civic and community causes in memphis, artists taking stronger , sotical stands on issues

a companyax becoming that understood corporate social responsibility before that was even a thing. so there are remarkable stories, a remarkable progression that stax undergoes. stax severed its relationship with atlantic records in 1968, itself as ads record company without records. they essentially have no control over anything they released in partnership with atlantic records. so every otis redding, booker t thathe mgs, the only thing they had work alternate tracks are things in the vault that yet, andnot put out any new music they could record. pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and

embarked on a year-long campaign to reestablish themselves as a rful player. all these things are happening in short order and they start turning out more records. 1969 with thein soul explosion, the release of at oneles and 27 albums time, unprecedented at that time, never happened before and a huge risk to do it. bell, hadewart, al faith in their artists, their product, and faith that the industry and market would respond. they threw a party here, they sell a few million dollars of stock and reestablish themselves as a label. from that point in 1969 until 1972, stax is growing and it culminates with this concert

that shows the cultural impact of stax records. >> it is a new day of black awareness, a day of black people take care of black people's business, the day we are .ogether, unified when we are together, we have got power. they attempted to put on a concert and show you could bring together a predominately african-american audience with a predominately african-american slate of performers and have it, peacefully. it's an amazing story. 112 thousand people at the l.a. coliseum in 1972, one dollar to get in, no issues throughout the entire event. ♪ ["--

had such aple negative view of inner-city life, black neighborhoods and black communities, and that puts a really positive spin on it, and shows that -- shows what stax became, this indigenous form of music. ♪ until 1975 it becomes a struggle for the label. they find a new business with columbia records and all this great music stax is recording notputting up starts getting the market, stars aren't getting the product and if you are not selling records, money is not coming in. falls on hard time, budgets

are drying up for the arts, some distribution deals, so they are grasping at straws throughout the latter half of 1974 in the first part of 1975. porter are david paying people out of their own pockets, making sure folks are able to feed their families, they go from 200 or so employees down to a loyal few dozen, and they come into5, the building and tell everybody they have half an hour to get their stuff out. it's a tragic end to a remarkable story of a company that has done so much good. so stax closes in 1975 and there is a property auction in 1977. the equipment gets sold, mixing boards, consoles, recording equipment, but the big thing are

the master tapes and those get sold to fantasy records in california. other companies start to reissue otis redding and some of the other music, but when you start to see 20th and 25th anniversaries of things in the 60's, new interest comes back to stax and the late 1980's and early 1990's. former employees and local philanthropists come together and start soulsville. musictarted the stax academy, an afterschool program for it great six through 12 every year. ♪ in'on the dock of the

bay"] visitors --00 between 50000 and 60,000 visitors from all over the world every year. of thes the impact music and for artists, vindication for the work they have done. they can see the record on the wall, see their story told and him to a place that really honors the work that they did, that had been forgotten for so long. stax has legacies that are severalfold. the story people connect to is being an integrated workplace in the segregated south were black and white could work on equal terms. for me comes back to the opportunity it gave young space, young people given

and time to do extraordinary things. and it is understanding the value of our community, understanding that stax did not exist without memphis, south memphis. doing our job if the story lives on in memphis and grows in stature. ♪ it only happened here at stax records, and only happened here in memphis, tennessee. ♪ >> memphis is in the south center part of the u.s. next to the mississippi river. memphis is best known for music and food. the blues were perfected in memphis. rock and roll was invented here. city.ul still defines the

memphis is roughly 65% african-american. memphis during the civil war was the heart of the confederacy, and was as racist as any city in america. active,e trade was very in part because of proximity to the mississippi river, and the was huge, andy mostly driven by slave labor. jim crow was terrible here in the early 1900s. but one of the good things is memphis is one of the first cities that allowed african americans to vote, in the early 1900. but -- in the early 1900s. a city ofe not brotherly love. it was a racist culture. we still struggle with that. at the civil rights movement took off here and the leadership

and was very strong integrated city facilities. we are a much more integrated city than we were. we have a long way to go. let me give you an example. was one of the first african americans on the city council, and he told me 25 years ago that if you add up all the city,ss transacted in the i'm talking about going to the grocery store, buying insurance, all the business transacted in the city, 1% is transacted with african-american-owned businesses. that was 25 years ago. i talked to him a year or two ago. it is still 1%, and a city that is 65% african-american. it is not right. it is also not sustainable. it is not good for the future of the city. so we have to change that number.

that loan factors for lower is racism -- for that number is racism. we are working on that. we are talking about contracting with african american businesses, we made it a priority. when i took office it was roughly 12% of contracts with women and minority owned businesses. we have double that to 24% and have gotten national recognition and need to do more. but that is just one example. educational achievement is much higher with white young people as opposed to black young folks. and poverty is much higher in the black community than the white community, so we do have a long way to go. i think we have made tremendous strides in this city and i am very proud of that fact. a memphian,o be immensel

but it want us to do even better. a place of a lot of racial tension but also a lot of racial harmony. the musicians in town, nobody thed about your race, musicians always worked together, even from the earliest times. so there was a strong sense of brotherhood amongst musicians no matter what color you were. in memphis wee took a driving tour of the city with musician, record producer and studio owner drew mitchell. >> thank you for showing us around memphis today. producer,rd winner, you have been a lifelong resident of memphis. >> i corrupt their all my life, i had a crazy childhood at

the house with the doobie brothers, al green. the civil rights museum, the lorraine hotel, there are some cool memphis places. >> should we go? let's do it. townthis is a cool part of that has been kind of underdeveloped for the past 10 years. memphis is predominantly black, maybe 60% african-american. race relations today are way cooler than it used to be. know weis still, you have nightclubs and restaurants where you see black and white and all races, all classes. >> we are driving on to beale

maint right now, the thoroughfare for memphis. street, they call it the home of the blues because this is where bb king and bobby blue bland and all the blues greats came to hone their craft and get their message out to the world. back in the day with an old neighborhood, not just this one street, there were several streets. came towhere elvis learn how to dance and to do all the things that he did. it was a huge influence for blues and rock 'n roll. street today, there is a lot of clubs, restaurants, shops, still music being pumped out of here seven days a week.

it is a vibrant entertainment district. it is one of the top tourist spots for tennessee. >> outside the national civil museum, a lot of people go to the lorraine motel. : that is the site where dr. 1968.as assassinated in this is an extraordinary museum. it's a huge piece of american history. react to how do people having something like that happen here? boo: it was a terrible thing. .eople were rioting and looting this city got a lot of famous musicians and people like william bell to get on the radio

and say hey, let's stop, stop the rioting, stop the destruction, we are all hurt but come togethere to come and figure out how we can heal and fix these problems. the thing about memphis is that most of the popular music, the most influential american music came from memphis, the blues, rock and roll, soul. sville, what we call soul usa because this is the area where soul music started. and just a three mile radius you have two legendary studios, aretha franklin's birth home, booker t and the mgs grew up around the corner. theave stax music academy, soulsville charter school, the

stax museum. ashley: it was known as being an integrated workplace in the 1960's when there weren't many in the south. : it was. and after dr. king was assassinated, the great al bell started doing more stuff. under al bell's rule, stax became the second largest employer of african-americans in the country, next to "jet" magazine. ashley cole and give me an example of some music coming out of that civil rights era. bp -- -- lex voters reading, booker t and the mgs, there were a lot of groups that were integrated. thelove stuff going on,

vietnam war was going on and nearly 1970's, and a lot of the music was, people were making and al greenhe war comes along singing his song, ," whatstay together about love, what about happiness? and that changed the country. ashley: al green's still preaching a message of love. we're going down the road to see the full gospel tabernacle. al green was one of the first black artists to sell my ends of albums. he may be the last great american soul singer. ashley: he stepped away from

recording pop music and now is a still in a church, singing in the church. ♪ >> i think he struggled with making soul music, and finally came to terms that, there is nothing wrong with singing about love. ashley: we are coming up on graceland. elvisworld. on the right we have the lisa marie plane used to fly around in. on the left, graceland itself. people wanted to ban alvis when

he first came out because he sang like a black person -- ban elvis when he first came out because he sang like a black person. elvis was a real pioneer. of stuff to a lot get his music out, and his music heard. ashley: we have seen stax records, the national civil rights museum, al green's church, what are other things that you want people to know about that have never been here? how would you want your city represented? thatit just as abide to it experience,to there is a spirit to memphis and yout lives here feel different here than you do anywhere else. narrator: our visit to memphis,

tennessee is and you feel different here than you do anywhere else. in american history tv exclusive. we showed it to you today to introduce c-span's cities to her. .- cities tour >> live every day with news -- coming up saturday morning, major events for active military and veterans. an author discusses her book , dispatches from the forgotten america. onch washington journal live 7 a.m. eastern saturday morning. c-span, we take a look at major events over the past few months.