this week, professor warren goldstein at the university of hartford where he discussed martin luther king jr.s time in alabama and the civil rights movement there in 1963.

next weekend, university of hartford professor warren goldstein teaches a class about martin luther king, jr.'s time in birmingham, alabama, and the civil rights movement there in 1963. for more information about american history tv, including our complete schedule, visit our website at c-span.org/history. >>> all weekend long, american history tv is in beaumont, texas, to explore the history and literary culture of a city where the oil industry in texas got its start. you're watching american history tv, 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. >>> we're in courtroom number one which was the courtroom in which judge lamar cecil presided, i think 1954 through '58. in this courtroom, he made two decisions with respect to desegregation in beaumont. there had been the famous case, brown versus board of education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools ruled that separate but equal was not constitution. and so based on that, there were cases around the united states challenging the jim crowe segregation system. black americans were barred from hotels and restauran

warren goldstein at the university of hartford where he discusses martin luther king jr.'s time spent in birmingham, alabama andnil 1963. this is about an hour and a half. >>> good afternoon, everybody. nice to be here with you. as you can see, this is not the way we ordinarily do class. we don't always have a film crew from cspan-3 here. we are lucky to have them here today. and, because of the lights, it's going to be a little warm in here. so dave has very kindly gotten us each a bottle of water. thank you so much, dave. and caitlin, thank you all. all right. there you go, marris. all right. so, as i said before, what we were going to do today is concentrate on the year 1963. but more specifically, on the birmingham struggle in the civil rights movement and in the life of martin luther king. and, at the center of that, is not only what happened in birmingham itself, but the letter from birmingham jail, one of the most important documents not only in modern african american history, but also in modern american history as a statement of political and religious philosophy.