when they return on tuesday, at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2. >> visit c-span's new online store at c-spanshop.org to check out the new c-span products. with the 117th congress, we are taking preorders for the congressional directory. every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operations. shop today at c-span shop.org. >> african-americans have been contributing to american society for centuries. their history woven into the fabric of the country. in the next 90 minutes, we will share stories of african-american pioneers in business, civil rights, law, and education. first, an author whose book "reclaiming the black past," explains how it is misused in popular culture and what can be done to change it.

>> the majority of americans do not know much about african-american history. largely because of how they are taught about it in high school. sometimes even in colleges and universities, where normative standard u.s. history courses do not cover the black experience in much detail. in most secondary schools, the majority of young people learn about the most basic things pertaining to slavery, perhaps the harlem renaissance, and the civil rights movement. i would argue that it is slavery and the civil rights period that shape most people's views of african-american history when they are studying black history in schools. for this reason, sometimes people get caught into the paradigm of thinking about black history from the "deficit model," or looking at black history through the lens of massive amounts of oppression. certainly the black experience

is predominated with notions of oppression and repression through the modern civil rights movement. but one has to strike what i would call a delicate balance between themes of victimization and oppression, and perseverance, resistance, and survival on the other hand. in my most recent book, entitled "reclaiming the black past", i argue that most americans'perceptions of african-american history are based on how they are presented through vehicles in popular culture. many americans' perceptions of episodes, events, personalities from the past are largely shaped by hollywood films, and sometimes by documentaries. but primarily by hollywood films. i don't want to be too anecdotal, but i can say i have had many students who have

viewed certain films and come to me and said they understand a certain experience based on that hollywood film. if we take for example the green book, that was recently applauded at many levels, it won many awards. there are some serious problems with how the green book not only supposedly represented the notion of what the green book meant for african-american communities, but also based upon the reputation it had of the civil rights movement in general terms. the green book was designed to serve as a kind of guide to african-american families and individuals who decided to travel to the south to visit families, to go on vacation, etc. they pointed out in this book spaces that were safe for african-americans to stay in during the period of segregation. in the film, it seems all of the

places that are safe places for african-americans to stay while they are traveling are rundown, for example per just watch the film and you will see those different scenes. when they depict the protagonist traveling south, they depict him as if he had no notion of what life was like for black people in the south and again, this is done for purposes of hollywood, but this is how it plays out in many cases and lastly in that film, like many other hollywood films dealing with black history, there is this kind of black hero who is played side-by-side with her white hero and the white hero becomes the white savior in many cases and that is exemplified in "the green book" as well. we have to think critically when we look at these hollywood films

and there are scores of them. there are more than a dozen hollywood films that have been released since "help" in 2011 to the present and they continue to be produced and we have to look at them critically because on the one hand, there are scenes in the film that portray certain episodes and african american history that can be used for critical points of departure. in other ways, they are largely oversimplifications of complex phenomena that happened in the past. phenomena that happened ine past. it is challenging for people who have not been exposed to it is challenging for people who have not been exposed to let's say the underside of u.s. history or the mistreatment historically of black people to really be able to confront it and then deal with it. i think me misrepresentations of accra pagan american -- african-american history and popular culture stem from the fact that the producers of these

films are seeking to make money. if you are seeking to make money in the united states by producing films, you have to be concerned with who are your viewers. the majority people seen films ending as states are usually white americans. if you are going to show episodes or events in black history which often times have themes of victimization, resistance, and oppression, you have to be cognizant of who your viewers are. so these producers tend to package african-american history in a manner that will be digestible by their white audience. they keep that in mind, at least that is what i think. sometimes they don't consult enough with historians to get the quote unquote facts more correct in many cases. in a perfect world, i think that african-american history and the black experience would be for lack of better terminology

integrated into the quote unquote master or normative narratives of the u.s. past. that would be ideal. it would be ideal when we talk about u.s. history and write about u.s. history, all groups be given their fair due. we have to be cognizant of this as we go through demographic changes and there have to be connections between professional historians and high school teachers, element tree school teachers, and also the public sphere and popular culture. professional trained historians should be more active in the public history movement. they should be will more active working with museums. working with the national park service. professional historians should

be more active working with high school teachers so they can translate to them some of these important issues in u.s. history they can therefore go on to translate to their students. i have been teaching african-american history for about two decades and it is challenging to break down complex phenomena in history to college and university students. it is even more challenging, i would think, to break down these concepts to younger students in high school, middle school. when we try to make things digestible, we can run the risk of oversimplifying things. we can acknowledge history is very messy but it is also something we can categorize in different ways. any time something enters into the mainstream, it runs the risk

of being oversimplified. we have to pay close attention to portraying accurate portrayals of the past while creating a story people want to see and are engaged by. >> continuing our look at african-american pioneers, mathematician katherine johnson's work in the nasa space program played a -- she was featured in the movie "hidden figures. >> she is right behind you, mr. harrison. >> does she handle analytic dion entry? -- geometry question mark -- geometry? >> absolutely, and i do.

>> which one? >> geometry and speaking. >> do you think you can find me the -- >> yes, i prefer it over euclidean coordinates. >> catherine has had the fortune of having hollywood shine a light on her life. there are people in west virginia that had no idea what katherine johnson did everyone the movie hidden figures came out, it showed everyone who katherine johnson was, what she did, and how profound she was in the pages of american history. catherine was hired as what they call a computer -- called a computer. she did mathematical type equations for nasa. what they didn't realize what she was more than just a pewter.

-- computer. she was a mathematical genius. that is what katherine johnson was. >> godspeed, katherine. 4, 3, 2. >> john glenn said this computer that was built calculated his trajectory into space. he wanted that verified by catherine. he did not ask the mathematicians from m.i.t. did not ask the mathematicians from stanford or harvard. he asked the early and mathematician from west virginia state university to calculate my trajectory and make sure i get home safe. that says a lot about what catherine was not only two nasa but the individuals she worked with.

they put their lives in her hands. what she meant to nasa was we won the space race. katherine johnson played a significant part in that. she is from a small town two hours from west virginia state university, white sulfur springs. we had the privilege before everyone fell in love with her, we had the privilege to have her little beautiful face on our campus at the tender age of 10. because she was unable to go to high school in her hometown because of the hue of her skin. her family had to pack up and travel two hours to go to west virginia state university. we had an elementary and high school that was a part of the university at that time. young katherine johnson, with all of her mathematical skills and intelligence, came here and she graduated at the age of 15. and then she entered what was then west virginia state

college. she left us at the age of eight teen. in 1937, she went into the field of teaching. she understood the importance of paying it forward. catherine entered nasa at a time when african-americans lend america overall was still living and dual worlds. we had a white america and african-american america. katherine was having to delicately walk in both worlds. she went to work every day and gave nasa and the astronauts, none of who look like her, 100%. as she said, in spite of how i am treated, where i can go and eat, what i can do. i'm going to come here and fight

to make sure i do the best job possible for my country and the space race. while at nasa, there were three significant space ventures katherine played a significant role in. one was alan shepard, the first individual who entered into space. katherine captivated the trajectories for that mission to happen. she played a significant role in john glenn. john lennon had said about his life at the end of his life, he would not venture into space if katherine johnson was not checking the calculations on his spaceflight. the actual flight with john glenn, when he orbited the earth, katherine johnson played a significant role in that. we also know she played a significant role in the moon landing. those are three pivotal moments that changed space travel and

how we in america see nasa today. i had the pleasure in her 99th birthday to be with her at the green briar. at 99, i was in awe of how sharp she was. we laughed, we joked come we had a great time. she is as radiant and beautiful at 99 as she was when she walked our campus in the early 30's. i started asking myself, as people learn more and more about katherine johnson, and the university she loved so dear, we have to do something to help recognize her and make sure history never forgets how profound she was. helping nasa when the space race. i got a team of faculty and staff and students together. we started brainstorming.

i said, we are going to honor katherine johnson by placing a statue right here in her campus -- our campus. we had 8-9 months. the goal was to do it for her 100th birthday. [applause] >> dr. katherine coleman johnson, you are no longer hidden. >> on august 25, 2018, we had katherine johnson and about 1000 fans and supporters right here in our campus. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [applause] >> on that day, it was beautiful. she was able to be with us.

she loved the statue. her family was in awe. it was a crystallizing moment that katherine johnson, regardless of what she does from here on out, she will be a part of west virginia state university forever. today, her story is inspiring people around the world. in fact, it is said catherine -- katherine like to count everything. the rocks in the yard, everything she could get her mind around. when we dedicated the statue to her in her 100th birthday, i told her i knew something she could not count. that was the number of people she has inspired. that is the katherine johnson story and it is my hope young men and women of all races and economic backdrops will take

more time to learn about this incredible american icon. >> in the early 20th century, madam cj walker designed a successful line of hair care products for black women. her entrepreneurial skills made her the wealthiest african-american is this woman in the country. susan hall dotson takes us through an exhibit that shows the story of madame walker's life and work. susan: madame walker was mainly known for being an entrepreneur. having her hair care line and cosmetics company. she was born in 1877 -- 1867 and delta, louisiana. we are talking about the throes, the vestiges of slavery and enslavement. she was the child of enslaved parents who then became

sharecroppers. poverty was a way of life for them. working hard and diligently from sunrise to sunset, from a very early age, was part of her life. she was orphaned around the age of six. move to vicksburg, mississippi, with her sister. she flew, once again to st. louis to work with her brothers who were barbers. many worked on farms, many were sharecroppers but most were not able to get an education and were not able to have the job of their dreams because of this termination and segregation laws. these were laws as opposed to biases and feelings. these were hard codified laws that prohibited women in general from living and working where they wanted, particularly

african-american women. she went to vicksburg and decided it was not a strong enough base for her, so she came to indianapolis. it was the crossroads for railroads, distribution into the south, and to the east, into the midwest. and the far west. she thought this was a great place to start and grow her business. it has a decent sized population of african-americans. the growth for her business was not just because she empowered herself but her employees and agents. she sold her ware by way of agents and she also had beauty culturist. she chained -- trained her agents to go out and sell not just for her but for themselves. women who were long dresses, cooks, maids and other positions

were able to get dressed and -- she went around this country crating this network of people selling her products. madame walker was about uplifting and encouraging her race as well as her employees and her agents. here you see original documents of a diploma, in recognition from a college. for and this is not given to one person in particular, this is just a stock one that would be in her collection, but this is what it would look like. women who were her agents, if they came together, they could bond, they could continue to learn. but to make sure they understood that they were special too, she created these very special collection of cj walker agents,

complete with her photograph. because it was about her and her branding of herself on her business. there is a myth we can dispel that madam walker invented the hot comb. she did not invent the hot comb, but her agents used the hot combs. these are circa 1915, courtesy of her great great granddaughter. these are exact examples of her work and her products from the 1920's. this is what they looked like, this is the original drawing for her wonderful hair brower -- hair brower. -- hair grower. through her earnings, she became a philanthropist. she was very generous with her family and her friends and her agents.

she also became active in the civil rights of the day. she left indianapolis, because she felt the treatment here was pretty oppressive. even though she had so much going far -- she owned her own property, owned her own house, owned her own factory, but felt it was still in the throes of jim crow segregation, and it was punitive. she thought people in new york or more inviting, and interested. so she moved to harlem. this is one of my favorite items of the collection we have in the library, as well as in the exhibit. it is a letter to the president of the united states at the congress of the united states. it went to president woodrow wilson, and it is about the silent protest, the negro silent protest parade on fifth avenue.

all the women are dressed in white and the tilted marched in front of them, dressed in white. at this was a planned march to talk about in protest against all lynching, people who were being lynched by mobs without trial. to date, there is still no anti-lynching law in america. history is often based on stories that people tell, and the facts and documents and papers that are culminated to get to that point. but what makes history poignant is who tells the story, and we often hear people stories by people who are not there. so it is very important to hear african-american stories, women stories, told by african-american women as well as african-american men.

so to elevate an iconic person like madam walker is important, because her legacy not only touches all women in american history as well as black history, it reframes her life as a woman, that she was more than just a pretty face, she was more than somebody's wife. she was the entrepreneur. she was the president. she was the president. she was the philanthropist. she was the activist. >> our look at important figures in african-american history continues as we hear about thurgood marshall, who made a career fighting segregation. charles al feldman recalls the life and work of the first african-american supreme court justice in his book, "thurgood marshall: race, rights and the

struggle for a more perfect union." charles: you can't understand thurgood marshall that he is not just a black man, he is also a lawyer. the law shows his perception of the world is much as the color of his skin does. he would say, i don't need to put my hand in front of my face to know what color i am. he knew he was black. he knew the situation he faced. he had grown up in the jim crow south. he had seen the discretion -- the destruction of a committee that segregation brought about, but the same time, he was trained as a lawyer that gave him -- that gave him the lens to understand segregation, and gave him a way to fight back. thurgood believed in the law and the constitution. he believed the american legal,

political and constitutional system was fundamentally sound, but it had a cancer on it. and that cancer was racism. that cancer was segregation. and his job, like a surgeon, was to cut out the cancer, remove the cancer and leave what was left to be healthy. and that is what drove him. thurgood as a young man had the nickname goodie. he was a happy-go-lucky jokester, he was the class clown. he was a good student, but the class clown. he used to say he kept on getting sent to the basement and having to write down lines of the u.s. constitution and by the end of school, he had memorized the whole thing because he had done it so often. there were events in his life that showed him the impact of jim crow segregation. he grew up in a happy, middle-class family in one of the least dangerous places for a

black man, which in the upper south would be maryland. he went to college, and he wasn't this driven crusader. he didn't like segregation. he was angry about segregation, but he didn't know what to do about it. but in college, when of his best friends was langston hughes, the poet. langston hughes would travel the world, and had very strong feelings against segregation. and finally, his senior year, he decided to get serious about his work and about dealing with these problems. i think the last event that really got him is, he was traveling with friends to pennsylvania and the car broke down. so he stopped in a maryland

down, and they are getting the car fixed and a cop comes up and says boys, what are you doing here? just getting our car fixed. good, get it fixed, because i don't want you here by sundown. if you are hereby sundown, you won't be leaving. so they got the car fixed. thurgood had wandered off and as they are leaving, he is running to catch up, jumps on the car, doesn't make it, ends up injuring himself in a very private place, and he ended up having to take a semester off to recover from this injury. and that threat, leave by sundown or else, i think that was the last piece of his young life. when he went to law school, he found a way to channel that anger. when thurgood graduated from lincoln university in pennsylvania, he had to decide, what am i going to do? there were not a lot of options

at the beginning of the depression. he could become a preacher, a teacher, a businessman, he hated business, preachers made no money and while teaching was in his family line -- his mother and both his grandmothers were teachers -- it didn't pay very well. so he decided to become a lawyer. he wanted to go to the university of maryland law school in baltimore, only a short trolley ride away from his home. but they wouldn't accept him. the story is unclear whether he applied and they turned him down or he never applied because he knew that would turn him down. he told the story both ways. that is the danger when you have a storyteller as your subject, they never tell the same story twice. but it left him better. he went to howard in d.c., commuting every night from baltimore to d.c.. and had a new mentor, the dean of the law school, charles hamilton houston.

and houston was creating what he felt were the ground troops for a legal attack on jim crowe segregation. thurgood became his protege, his top student and good friend. and when thurgood went back to maryland to start his practice, the situation of a young man who had graduated from an elite, white college, he had come back to maryland, wanted to go to law school, talked to thurgood about it and he said, we are going to take these guys on. they had him apply and they turned him down and then they said, why did you turn him down? he went to amherst college, graduated with honors, why would you turn somebody who is well-educated down?

and the answer was black -- and the answer was, he was black. that was the opening he needed. so they brought suit, they brought trial, houston came down to help argue indent thurgood was his cocounsel. and the trial judge in the maryland court said, you are right, there is no reason to exclude him because of his race. there is no black law school and you have got to let him in. it went up to the maryland appellate courts, and they agreed. and that was the first big victory they had. the problem was that that only affected maryland. they needed to have the same victory in the supreme court of the united states, and that is what they continued to work for. houston and thurgood were what we call test case lawyers, looking for that perfect case to bring before the court to get the ruling they wanted, to

change the law, the interpretation of the law, that would bring about social change. at this point, charles hamilton houston had moved to new york, where he became head of the legal division for the naacp. there are wonderful letters between thurgood and houston, where he says thank you for the $25 you set for the work i did for you. it is really tough here. what charles hamilton houston did is, he convinced the naacp to hire thurgood as his assistant. he did a lot of traveling and wanted somebody in the office, so thurgood grabbed the job. it paid $200 a month. he moved to new york, got a place in harlem, he and his wife , and dug into this work, which really was his life's passion. he worked as an assistant for the next three years, 1938,

1939. charles hamilton houston's health was never good, so he decides to resign his position with the naacp and go back to teaching at howard. and he convinced them to have thurgood be his replacement. at that time, the irs was getting on the naacp about fundraising because they did lobbying and also did legal work. so they created a separate legal arm, the legal education and defense fund inc.. the lawyers called it the inc fund, and thurgood was named the head. he was running his own civil rights law firm, a public interest law firm. granted, it only had three lawyers and a couple of assistants, then they would go to six lawyers, but they carried on this fight, this consistent, step-by-step campaign to find

cases to bring up the logical and legal inconsistencies of segregation to the justices of the supreme court, and to educate them so that in brown versus board of education, they said segregation has no place in education. the next year, when they had brown ii, which dealt, thurgood pushed to segregate now, in the next three years, in the next five years, and what he got was desegregate with all deliberate speed. and he said, what does deliberate speed mean? and he was told, s-l-o-w. it wore him out. >> we intend to maintain

separate schools in georgia one way or another, come what may. we are not going to pay any attention to a political decision by an incompetent, political court. >> he began to negotiate with the kennedy brothers about a judgeship. kennedy won the presidency in 1960 in large part because of support from the african-american community in northern states where they could vote. he knew he was going to have to name one or two african-american judges, and one was going to be in new york. bobby kennedy, the attorney general, offered to thurgood the seat on the southern district court of new york, a premier trial court in this country, the head of all commercial matters. it was the largest of the district court. and thurgood said, no, that is

not going to work for me, i need a job on the appellate bench. and bobby said, you can't have that. and thurgood said, i grew up with nothing. that is fine by me. he was playing poker with the kennedys, the kennedy needed somebody and it had to be thurgood, mr. civil rights, so he got an appointment to the second circuit court of appeals. he became a competent circuit judge, not the best, but he had gotten good at his job. he worked at it. one day, he gets a call from the president, someone comes in and says judge, there is a call from the president. the president of what? the president of the united states. >> just thurgood marshall from new york on nine. >> thank you. >> yes, sir. >> judge, how are you? >> fine, sir.

i have a rather big problem -- >> i have a rather big problem i wanted to talk to you about. i want you to give it some real thought, because it is something i have thought about for weeks. and i think we can think about how it affects us personally, we have got to think about the world and our country and our government, and then ourselves, way down at the bottom of the list. i want you to be my solicitor general. now, you lose a lot. you lose security and the freedom that you like, you lose the philosophizing that you can do, and i am familiar with all

those things. [indiscernible] well, you won't lose any. i want to to do it for two good reasons. one, i want the top lawyer in the united states to represent me before the supreme court to be a negro, and to ba da -- and to be a damn good lawyer, and you are. number two, it would do a lot for our image abroad and at home too, that this is the man the whole government has to look to to decide whether he prosecutes a case or doesn't. >> but thurgood knew he was being groomed for the supreme court. he knew that johnson wanted to name an african-american to the

supreme court. thurgood argued cases before the supreme court, one of the big ones was miranda versus arizona. and then ramsey clark was named attorney general under johnson. at his father, justice tom clark, said, i can't stay a justice when my son is the attorney general. so he resigned the seat. at a party for tom clark, johnson says, thurgood, you're not going to get the job. i have to pick somebody else. thurgood says ok. johnson makes a call, i need you at the white house for an event. one of the guys says, i need you to see the boss. he sits down in front of johnson & johnson says, thurgood, i want you to be the next associate justice on the supreme court of the united states. and he went on to a court he was

very comfortable with. it was the last year of the liberal warren court. but then, nixon becomes president, he names two justices including rehnquist, a very, very conservative justice, a more moderate conservative in blackmun, and he begins to name justices to the court who are conservatives. he is primed to change the nature of the court. he doesn't say so in the 1970's, but the court is beginning after 1973 to shift to the right. by the 1980's, when reagan appointees come on, there is now a clear majority that is conservative. and thurgood finds himself more and more in the minority. so he would write this memo, "i will in due course submit a dissent.

thurgood is one of the few justices who wrote more dissents than majority opinions. he wrote 300 dissents and they were angry and they were frustrated. as time went on, he became more frustrated and angry and he said, i am going to stay at this job until i die, it is a life appointment and i am going to serve it. but by 1991, his health is bad, his eyesight is gone, he can't walk, he has trouble breathing, his heart is not so good, so his wife says please come get off the court. so he announces his resignation. an 18 month later, he would be get -- 18 months later, he would be dead. the great irony is that had he stayed to his death, it would have been george h w bush to named his successor, who named justice thomas, who thurgood had no respect for. snake is a snake, but one thing

is a black snake, and he was talking about justice thomas and his views. had he died in office, his replacement would have been chosen by liam jefferson clinton who just three days earlier had been sworn in as president. thurgood always saw the end name. -- and came -- th -- thurgood always saw the end game. he took the insults. he thought he was there to do in the system, not to rail about how the system treated him. same thing, he knew he could outrank senators and get what he wanted. as i said in the book, he was mr. justice marshall, and that sounded perfectly fine to him. >> four years after his

groundbreaking admission into the segregated university of mississippi, james meredith marked a moment of transition in the civil rights movement. in his book "down to the crossroads," the author explains what happened in the marks that began in memphis in june 1966. >> the meredith march against fear is the last great march of the civil rights movement, the last time you see major civil rights organizations come together for a common endeavor. it becomes a lobbying tool for political change. in that way, it is the end of an era we can trace with birmingham, selma, the march on washington and other iconic events of the civil rights era. the march against fear is also a beginning. it introduces the slogan of black power. it ignites controversy in the national media over that slogan.

but it also becomes a tool for african-americans. these simple words come to mean so much in terms of black consciousness, black history, black beauty, black political organizing that it became part of the fabric of african-american life. so "down to the crossroads" is the story of the march the took place in june of 1966 over three weeks. one man, james meredith, and an epic civil rights odyssey that marches through mississippi over three weeks, into the mississippi delta. it is failed with tales of african-american people registering to vote, defying white supremacy, staking claims to freedom in ways. it is also a story of political debate. the civil rights movement is that a crossroads and martin luther king represents one tactic within the move in terms

of his embrace of nonviolence. but the march is most famous for popularizing the slogan black power. and black power is critical of the older civil rights movement, particularly its emphasis on nonviolence. and much of that story is the key to "down to the crossroads." >> they don't want us to use black power. i've got news for them. [applause] what lack power -- what black power was supposed to do was bring black people together. >> by 1966, you could argue african-americans had seen more political progress than they had seen in any generation since

reconstruction, passage of the civil rights act, the voting rights act, optics and black voter registration, black voter mobilization in south and north in ways that are unprecedented. and yet, there is profound frustration in african-american communities, signaled through violent outbreaks including in the watts district of los angeles. it is also a time of political frustration over what african-americans see as the slow pace of federal reform. yes, the voting rights act has been passed but it hasn't changed life on the ground for african-americans. so it is a time of expectations by african-americans that haven't been at by life itself. james meredith is one of the most fascinating characters. he was born in central mississippi. his father is an independent

black landowner who shields his children from the worst aspects of segregation and raises to be very proud, very independent, conservative in their values. meredith spends time in the air force, 10 years, he is a military veteran, spent time in japan in the 1950's, so that frees him from the dictates of american jim crow. but he wants to come back to mississippi. he enrolls at jackson state university, but it is his ambition to attend the university of mississippi because he believes that will allow him to progress the most. after a court case and lawsuit, he wins the right to attend. that spawns a federal crisis. james meredith becomes the first african-american to attend the university of mississippi, but

after violence on campus, the deaths of two innocent people, the national guard being called out, the violent white supremacist response against him, he graduates from ole miss in 1963 is perhaps the most hated african-american percent in mississippi by whites. when he begins his march against fear, he has stated ambitions -- two stated ambitions, to encourage black mississippians to vote. meredith leap this was a time to get more african-americans to vote. he starts to amass more political power. that is the second aspect of his stated aims, he sees it as a walk against fear. if he, james meredith, can walk from memphis to jackson, 220 miles, and do it safely, he will show other african-americans

that they have less to fear. he has a third understanding, he desires to return to mississippi for political reasons, wants to one-day run for office, and does this to raise awareness, build a political base and create alliances with black political officials. he stepped out of the peabody hotel in month this -- peabody hotel in memphis on june 5, and marches, he is faced with harassment on the way, whites buys haim in cars and yell racial epithets. on the second day of meredith's march, june 6, it is relatively uneventful, he comes to the town of fernando in north mississippi as they were marching south down highway 51. he is very enthused. he gets a warm reaction from african-americans, they promise him they will register to vote,

they say they will support him, and across the court square, white people are looking on angrily and frustrated and are disturbed in what they see in this african-american mobilization. era death is in a good mood as he marches south from fernando. he is going down a dipping stretch of hill south of hernando, and there is a few reporters in cars, law enforcement officials, he has a few marching companions. and then, a white man emerges from a galley, and he goes -- gully, and he says, i only want james meredith. people scatter. he shoots him. he shoots him a second time. a third time. meredith is a sprawling. his head is covered in blood. [people yelling]

meredith is very seriously wounded. an ambulance takes him to memphis. there are reports that he dies as a result of the gunshots, which creates a media frenzy. that ends up leading to all major civil rights organizations dissenting on memphis, determined to carry on james meredith's march. they say we have to follow up and show we are not going to succumb to this cultural intimidation. ray wilkins, whitney young, martin luther king, stokely carmichael are all coming to memphis with activists from around the country, pressed from around the country, people who decide they want to be part of the civil rights movement and want to participate. so what began as one person's walk earns into a three-week civil rights extravaganza with activists, reporters, leaders debating political strategy, with the march is going to look like. and as they hash out what the

marches going to look like, they are telling the story of the future of the civil rights move. we are in the civil rights museum into the lorraine hotel. the lorraine hotel in the 1960's was the only nice establishment and african-american could stay in as a visitor in memphis at that time, because of segregation. the motel since the 1930's had housed every major black entertainer, black elliptical figure that came -- black political figure in memphis. martin luther king's room, 30 seven, became center of a debate on what the march was going to look like. this was the night after james meredith was shot. it was just a meeting at a church in memphis, and all the leaders are crowded into king's room debating the future of the march, and what it means for the civil rights movement.

in martin luther king's room here at the lorraine hotel, stokely carmichael and other members drive out roy wilkins of the naacp and whitney young, the establishment they gears with alliances with the federal government that relationships with resident lyndon johnson. that leaves martin luther king as the key moderating force on the march and shapes what the marches going to be. it frees stokely carmichael to use the march to introduce the notion of black power to the country. the marchers decided instead to detour into the mississippi delta, the most fertile region in mississippi, an agricultural region. it is also the region most notorious for racial oppression

and also has the highest black population. the reason they diverted into the delta was to reach more african-americans and particularly get more african-americans to vote. in the midst of the second week of the march, halfway through, they come to the town of greenwood. greenwood is a small city in the delta where sncc had a long history. greenwood was the center of civil rights organizing for freedom summer. stokely carmichael was a key figure in greenwood, had associations with all kinds of figures in greenwood. that was the site selected for introducing the slogan black power. advance organizers started talking to people ahead of the martin said we are going to drop the slogan black power. king that they had to go to

chicago for another civil rights campaign erie he wasn't on the march. so that freed him to have an identity rooted around carmichael. marchers congregated at a park in the heart of the greenwood black district, maybe 1000 people there. carmichael shows up, the rally in progress, and on the back of a flatbed truck with a bullhorn, carmichael starts speaking about the situation, about vietnam, problems for african-americans not just in the south, but in the north, and the need for political mobilization. what we need now is black power. he tells the crowd, what do we want? black power. black power. the response is thunderous. black power is addressing not

only the frustrations of african-americans at the moment, but the aspirations. frustrations of the very slow pace of federal reform, the fact life hasn't changed materially for many african-americans over the course of the movement, despite guarantees of citizenship that are slowly starting to emerge. it is frustration also perhaps with the tactic of nonviolent, always asking him african-americans -- always asking african-americans to be on a higher moral plane, and frustration with white liberals in particular for their uncertain commitment to the civil rights movement, and with federal officials as well. there is frustration, the notion that black people should be able to control their communities, to take pride in black history, black culture, black beauty, and those have stayed as part of a

fabric of the african-american community. tensions get very high. part of it is the dynamic among the marchers themselves. when martin luther king and stokely carmichael are on the march, they have a friendly relationship but have ideological differences and are hammering those differences out along the way. the civil rights movement needs both a martin luther king and a stokely carmichael, they both realize that. they have to deal with the march and what it is going to look like. king gets carmichael to agree that while people are going to chant black power, he is urging the leaders not to use it in their public speeches, trying to defuse the controversy that is already rising. because on the national, black power is something threatening. but all that is external.

by the last week of the march, the strategy of white mississippi officials is starting to change. early on, they bent over backwards to try to protect the marchers, to ensure that when they tried to register to vote, it was done so without much resistance from local whites commit because they didn't want any more incidents. their strategy early on was, let them pass through and we can go back to the way things work. by the third week, they realized the federal government doesn't want anything to do with the meredith march. unlike selma the year earlier, which lyndon johnson used as a vehicle to help pass the voting rights act more radical groups -- voting rights act, more radical groups are hostile toward johnson, so he doesn't get any benefit from the march. canton, mississippi is the last stop before you hit jackson as a final destination at the marchers decide to camp on the

grounds of a white elementary school. they rally at the kenton courthouse, marched through the streets, arrived at the elementary school, there are no law enforcement officials so they take to the field and start to put up tents. all of a sudden, police cars rolled up, car after car after car after car, and state police emerge and put on riot gear. and they shoot teargas. they don't use it for crowd control, they use it to punish the marchers. they are shooting right into the crowd, attacking people literally with teargas. it is as gruesome a scene as you can imagine. as folks clear, police start beating people and kicking them, and the federal response is nil. so that heightened tensions leading into jackson. but on that last week and, 15,000 people participate in a

march through jackson, the largest civil rights demonstration in the history of mississippi until that time. ed ends with a rally at the state capital in specific -- and it ends with a rally at the state capital. james meredith returns to the rally at the end, and the march as an important legacy. about 4000 people registered to vote over the course of the four weeks. black mississippians again and again defied the culture of intimidation, the culture of fear. the march is filled with stories of, they arrive at a town, black are watching, on the other side of the street are the town white people, and the white people were convinced that there black didn't want anything to do with these people, they were happy in their situation, and again and

again, black get up and walk alongside martin luther king and stokely carmichael and the others, they want to be part of the civil rights movement. in so many of the towns they come through, they either reignite the civil rights movement in the tower they started. so many towns, the civil rights movement hadn't even come to. sharecroppers and poor farmers and teachers and all these others participated in the march. the march empowers them in ways that are unique. they can embrace martin luther king's ideas of nonviolent integration and stokely carmichael's ideas. one thing the march can teach us is how we make a better country, how we build coalitions, how we resist negative trends in our lives today.

one lesson from the march in particular is that people of different political orientations can work together. there is a myth that during the civil rights movement, everyone share the same goals. quite the contrary. the civil rights movement was filled with people debating strategy, coming at the movement from different angles. a successful social movement isn't about everyone believing in one common tactic. rather, it is about people having different ideologies trying to find a way to work together. and those of us who engage in direct activism and try to work in more established channels today, those things can work together. >> we will stay in memphis as our look at african-american history continues. on april 4, 1958, -- 1960 eight, dr. martin luther king jr. was

assassinated on the balcony of the lorraine hotel. today, the hotel is part of the national civil rights museum, where historian brian jones shares details of dr. king's final days. >> when we study the history of memphis, there is pre-april 4, 1968 and there is post april 4, 1968. dr. king still had his nonviolent resistant following -- nonviolent resistance following, but you had a malcolm x, leaders such as stokely carmichael calling out for black power to take control of their communities, so there was a split in ideology and philosophy on the most effective way to combat civil rights in america. martin luther king began to be overshadowed by these young, black militants. at the time, he was not really

receiving a high approval rating in the african-american community. this was only supposed to be a detour for martin luther king coming to memphis. he was going to lead a march at his ultimate goal was to get to washington dc later that month for his proposed poor people's campaign. segregation's on those opposing dr. king's mission at this time were saying dr. king could not have a controlled march in memphis, there was no way he was going to be successful in washington. dr. king is taken aback by this. not only that, he had a rift in his own group. members of the sclc wanted to go to washington and others believed they should be here in memphis. so he is under a great amount of usher, scrutiny and stress during the weeks leading up to his assassination. before he arrived here in 1968, segregation was still the law of

the land. we still lived in the jim crow south. there were white and colored only signs appearing at all public facilities and public accommodations. when dr. king returns in 1968, the civil rights act of 1964 has been passed, eliminating jim crow. the voting rights bill was signed in 1960 five, giving african-americans the right to register to vote without discrimination. and we are engulfed in economic injustice and the mode important thing in the country was the war in vietnam. one year from the day of his death, dr. king denounces the war in vietnam in new york city at the riverside baptist church. this takes a turn to an involved king we see in the movement. >> i want to make it clear i am going to 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. >> the sanitation workers strike began when two sanitation workers were killed on a garbage truck in 1968. 11 days later, 1300 workers struck against their employer, trying to get a better working environment for themselves and their families. dr. king saw what was going on in memphis and was invited by the reverend james lawson. he vowed to come to memphis to lead a nonviolent campaign. once dr. king returns to memphis on this day, there is more going on in the back of the march. most people associate dr. king as the primary organizer of the march, but he was not, he just agreed to participate in it. there are riots, chaos began to take place downtown, to the

point where dr. king was forced to retreat from the march to go to a nearby holiday inn. dr. king returns to memphis on april 3. he arrives via flight 381 on eastern airlines out of atlanta. the flight was delayed due to a bomb threat. he checks in at they lorraine mode -- at the lorraine motel at 11:30 a.m. the lorraine motel was one of the more upscale motels downtown for african-americans. dr. king had been prior -- had been here prior to the visit. and the reason he specifically stays here on april 3 is that he stayed at a predominantly white hotel on march 29, the holiday inn, and he is receiving criticism, how are you asking african-american to boycott white merchants when you are not giving business yourself to the all-black lorraine motel?

dr. king and reverend ralph abernathy checks into room 306. he was going to meet with clergy and also meet with lawyers. he was facing an injunction to have a successful march the following week. so he met with his lawyers here as well in room 306. dr. king on that day is feeling very emotionally drained. he is suffering from flulike systems -- flulike symptoms, laryngitis, one of the lowest points of his life. later that day, memphis has tornado warnings. there was a scheduled rally that night at the nearby mason temple and he doesn't think there is going to be a large turnout because of the inclement weather. so he sends abernathy, reverend young and jesse jackson to speak in his place.

abernathy, young and jackson arrived at the temple and they say 2000 -- and they see 2000 people. they are all applauding thinking dr. king is behind them. once they realize, reverent abernathy calls dr. king here and urges him to come to speak. dr. king arrives about 30 minutes later, he says something on this night that he hadn't said in any of his other profound speeches in the past 12 years during his duration as a leader in the movement. >> like anybody, i would like to live a long life. longevity has 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 seen the promised

land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will 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 april 4, dr. king was waiting for andrew young to return from federal court to have the injunction lifted. once this happens, dr. king's and a jubilant mood. when reverend young returns to the lorraine around 4:00 p.m., dr. king and deborah young and other members of the sclc are having pillow fights here at the motel. dr. king is scheduled to eat dinner at a memphis minister's home. he gets ready around 5:25 p.m..

at 5:50 p.m. on april 4, dr. king stepped outside room 306 and greets people in the parking lot. we are stepping outside of the room to the lorraine motel balcony where dr. king state. we are in front of the room he stayed in, room 306 that he checked in on that wednesday. he was approximately standing in this position. once he steps outside the room around a quarter to 6:00 p.m. on the day of his assassination, martin luther king jr. stepped outside on the balcony and members of the southern christian leadership conference are standing, and one of the first to approach is reverend jesse jackson of rainbow push. he asks dr. king, what time is dinner? he says, we are going to be there shortly, and dr. king responds and says, reverend

jackson, where is your tie? and reverend jackson says a prerequisite for dinner is an appetite, and i have that. the two men laugh. he is then introduced to a memphis musician called big doc branch and he asks dr. king what song he would like played at dinner that night and dr. king responds with "precious lord, take my hand" and i want you to play it pretty. his chauffeur says, you should grab a jacket. before martin luther king can respond, a shot rings out at 6:01 p.m. and dr. king falls wounded, lying here on the balcony. immediately when the shot rings out, memphis police are running this way. many of dr. king's associates, including reverend andrew young,

bernard lee, jesse jackson, ralph abernathy, are pointing and saying, go that way, the shot came from over here, as we see in this photograph taken approximately three minutes later. he is taken to st. joseph's hospital and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. ♪ >> ♪ precious lord, take my hand take my hand

and lead me home ♪ >> the city of memphis was like the rest of the country in how it dealt the aftermath of dr. king's death. people are angry, they are frustrated, and we see that frustration play out in a number of ways. we see urban uprisings in a locked of cities, over 100 cities have these uprisings, where this frustration, this anger, boils out into the streets. memphis is like a lot of cities and that way, because it wasn't just dr. king's death. there are issues bubbling under the surface. in memphis, it was the

sanitation worker's strike, but in other cities, there were similar issues of racial inequity that were pushing tensions within the community. at this sense people over the edge -- and this sent people over the edge. in memphis, we had these uprisings but we also had this silent march on april 8, were thousands of people walked to city hall in a silent march. the reverend james lawson sent out a memo, today would be the equivalent of a tweet or email, with very explicit instructions of how you are to behave. and people respected those instructions and marched silently with signs that said honor king. it was a crowd of people of different backgrounds, religions, races and deafness of these. they called in the city --

religions, races and ethnicities. they called on the city to respond in peace and love like dr. king would want us to do. the sunday after dr. king was assassinated was palm sunday. memphis came together and held a rally called memphis cares in a stadium, and in the stadium, reverend benjamin hooks and james lawson came together and said, we are a community, as memphis, not the national spotlight, we have to talk about what happened here. there is something happening in our city as a community that allow this to be the place where dr. king was assassinated, and we has a community have to wrestle with this. this was facilitated by a car dealer who really was not part of the social justice seen, but who decided this wasn't right,

and he decided to take a stand. he ended up having to leave the city for a time because he became unpopular because he hosted this memphis cares event. and at the event, they kicked out all the media. they truly wanted this to be a conversation among the citizens, a moment of feeling. and a lot of different conversations were had in that moment. >> i have heard some people say i am only sorry that it happened in memphis. that it is too bad that it happened in memphis. or i have heard people laughing that this man, this human being like you and i, is shutdown down, executed in cold blood. -- is shot down, executed in

cold blood. that is not repentance. repentance is not being concerned about whether business moves away from them this. repentance is not being concerned about whether people outside our city will have a good feeling about us. how can anybody have a good feeling about memphis when one of the finest in this world of ours was shot down in the street? [applause] 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. >> and it is a city that has had to wrestle with that legacy over the last 50 years. the city is not perfect, 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 out memphis in that way. it is a city that has allowed this museum to flourish, has supported this institution, and is very like the rest of this country, 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 that we are going to continue to do so. >> born as a slave in 1858, anna julia cooper made education her life's work, obtaining a doctorate -- a doctorate degree from the sorbonne in paris. we will hear how she used her education to fight for the equal rights of african-americans and women.

>> anna julia hayward cooper was born in slavery in raleigh north carolina -- raleigh, north carolina, some records say 1858, some say 1859. she was literate even before it became legal for her to be literate. and as soon as she had access to the resources, she entered with the first class of students here at the age of 10 years old. saint augustine's was one of the first educational opportunities for african-americans, not only in north carolina, but in the south as well. many of them had not formal exposure to education. her earliest moments would have been immediately going into

service to the teachers. she would have been a teachers assistant. she was a tutor. not only was she learning to read on a higher level, to calculate arithmetic on a higher level, but actually learning to teach from a very young age. when she realized she hit a ceiling, being amongst the majority of the student population at saint augustine's, she advocated for access to more rigor, more talent, and that is when she said i can do the work the boys are doing. i can study greek, latin, higher-level arithmetic. give me the algebra. she did successfully advocate for herself. there was resistance, this

notion we educate girls to become homemakers, maybe nurses, may be teachers. she will not need this higher level of education, this is what the theory was. she pushed against that and continue to grow intellectually, and from here, she launches herself to the next point, and there was a direct route from here to there. this is someone we would call not only a genius, but a lifelong learner. she was in her 60's when she obtained her doctorate degree in paris. she is the first woman of african dissent to obtain that level of degree from that university, as far as we know. she was limitless in her passion for offering not only for herself, access to education,

but offering what the buy would say "to the least of these," access to education. she was a passionate life-long learner, and that was the heart of her story, her life. the cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sex, a party, or a class, it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity. she is known for an extraordinary piece of writing called -- it was published in 1892. her book is a collection of what appear to be speeches, essays.

she moves through reflections on the civil war, on what she thinks needs to happen for the uplift of african-american people. she also commemorates the work of early feminists, particularly new england women and educators, so she really puts into this volume the things she cherishes and the words people have calm her to share at particular moments, particularly at women's rights gatherings, so it is a wonderful collection of her thoughts, her philosophy, her ideology. she is calling herself a black woman, speaking out, lifting her voice, saying these are the thoughts i have to share with the world. she is almost saying, i consider myself a brilliant human being, not in an arrogant weight, but

resists the notion that women are subservient and african-americans are subservient. this is what a woman's mind can create. this is what a black mind can create. let us feel that we expect more of them than they merely looked pretty and appear well in society, not less -- the boys less, but the girls more. >> this city, raleigh, witness to the birth of her, and it bore witness to her earliest attempts at successful activism, bore witness to her becoming a very young widow. this city saw her become educated and turn into an educator.

this city holds her remains in raleigh city cemetery. while her story begins and ends in raleigh, and touches washington, d.c. with m street school, touching ohio, paris. this is an international story, the story of a human voice rising up out of bondage to light the way for others. announcer: this concludes at our look at african-american pioneers. you can watch more on

this is just over 4 1/2 hours. >> the committee will come to order. without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. i now recognize myself for an opening statement. mrs. maloney: good morning. i want to welcome everyone to this joint hearing to the committee of government oversight and reform welcome