--bob bartlett. >> was it because of johnson's presidential ambitions? st people i've talked to have said it was because of his friendship to bartlett. >> narrator: perhaps rayburn and johnson could bridge the divide with dixiecrats over alaska, but there was still the question of hawaii. in the past, tying the two together in one bill had always defeated both. >> we decided to let alaska's bill go forward first, and we thought that once we got the alaska bill through, the hawaii bill would pass without any objection. >> narrator: but that strategy required support from hawaii's delegate to congress, john burns. >> "jack burns realizes that hawaii's only chance is to get the alaska statehood bill passed in this session of congress. then with the precedent of having admitted a noncontiguous territory, hawaii's chances would be much better at a future congress." --ernest gruening. >> "i will work hard for alaskan statehood. if it becomes necessary to drop hawaiian statehood in order to get alaska through, i will do just that." --john burns. >> he was known

was in law school at yale who did a study of the house of representatives, and he told me that bob bartlettas the single most popular member of the house, of all the 435 members. >> bob was universally beloved. i mean, he was able to create relationships with members of congress, both republicans and democrats. he was able, as a voteless delegate, in his years to get nearly 400 measures passed. >> narrator: while bartlett could get congress to help alaska on some matters, statehood for alaska threatened to upset the senate's balance of power in ways that could change the nation. >> the civil rights question was absolutely, completely intertwined. it's built into the dna, the civil rights issue, of the statehood movement. and you can't understand statehood without paying attention to the divisions of the civil rights issue. >> alaska and hawaii were sort of new blood. they had significant minority populations, and they could just be expected to be in favor of civil rights. there were so-called dixiecrats--the southern democrats who were anti-civil rights legislation--and bringing in four new

>> narrator: on the opening day, congressional delegate bob bartlett made the keynote address to the nvention. he laid out the major challenges. >> alaskans desire statehood because they are americans, and americans don't like to live forever as colonists. >> narrator: bartlett said that the story of alaska's natural resources had too often been one of exploitation with very little of the wealth extracted making it into the hands of the territory or citizens. former territorial governor ernest gruening spoke on the second day. as usual, he pulled no punches. it was one of gruening's most impassioned speeches. he said, "we meet to validate the most basic of american principles, the principles of government by consent of the governed, because alaska is no less a colony, and taxation without representation is no less tyranny in 1955 than it was in 1775." >> they knew ernest gruening to be this accomplished, spellbinding speaker, but bob bartlett--i think everybody was just knocked out by what he said about the resources. >> bob bartlett really framed the key question for the convention w

george lehleitner had been helping hawaiians on statehood when he met bob bartlett and other alaskans. lehleitner decided the hawaiians weren't assertive enough, but alaskans had the kind of drive he admired. >> the tennessee plan was cooked up by a new orleans businessman named george lehleitner who sort of studied american history and realized how, when tennessee was proposing to be a state, in 1796, i believe it was, they elected a slate of sort of a phantom or shadow slate of senators and representatives and sent them to washington to lobby for statehood. well, lehleitner suggested, well, with hawaii and alaska statehoods stalled, why not revive it? >> narrator: the delegates knew congress wouldn't grant statehood simply because three would-be congressmen showed up from alaska. however, the ploy could focus national attention on alaska's quest. the delegates placed the tennessee plan on the constitutional referendum scheduled for the spring. it would authorize a special election to choose two provisional u.s. senators and a representative. there was another ordinance that some del