white house history.org where there is a treasure trove on the history of ep slaved persons of decatur house, those enslaved in lafayette park, as we call it today, who built the white house, and those enslaved to the early american presidents in the white house. thank you for all being here and thank you in support of our historic mission. thank you. [ applause ] >>> weeknights this month, we're featuring american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every 3. tonight, oral histories with food soldier foot soldiers with the 1960s civil rights movement, beginning with gloria grinnell during her time as a student at richmond virginia union university. she also describes the culture shock she experienced as a californian attending college in virginia. watch tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern. enjoy american history tv this week ander weekend on c-span3. >>> every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on american history tv on c-span3, hearing about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u.s. presidents to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience and logging into class. >

the white house after it was destroyed by the british in the war of 1812 and in 1818 he built decatur house which is now the home of the white house historical association and if you go inside the decatur house and you look up, you see a very similar entrance. it is almost like a miniature of this dome that we have in our church space and the original church was built as a greek cross. so it was an even four sides and just six years later in 1822, they expanded the church building to make room for more seating. we don't know who the architect was who did that expansion and who built the bell tower. tragically, latrobe had died in new orleans. if anyone is interested in helping us solve the mystery, we would love to know. the bell tower is a very beautiful arpddition to the chuh and inside the tower it houses a bell that was forged by joseph revere, paul revere's son. it is not the only revere bell that came to washington, but it is the only one that is still in its place and being used for its original purpose. it's interesting, too, to think about this building. this is the only building o

house historical association, and it's my privilege to well you, many of you back to historic decatur house and the white house historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. tonight is one of the annual national heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u.s. capital historical society and the u.s. supreme court historical society. we have our wonderful colleagues here tonight and my great friend jane campbells the new president of the capital historic society, and i'd like to welcome you here today. on june 4, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. the suffragists used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to their cause. and tonight we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure womens right to vote. but before i introduce our speaker i have a couple of other introductions and things i'd like to share. first of all, we have guests from smith college here tonight, the washington club of smith college. stand up. they're our special guests tonight and we're honored

but the statues out there representing the heroes, that the homes here like decatur house with his wife susan, the cameron house which was -- i forget, cameron was a senator i think. senator cameron from pennsylvania. who had a gorgeous younger wife i'm told. who was having an affair with her neighbor henry adams. where do we get -- >> henry adams got around. >> and i could say this because i was married at saint john's church, my four children were baptized there and two were married there. why was i -- because covering the white house for over seven presidents, i was the youngest kid on the staff. i had to go over every week and cover the president of the united states going to church at saint john's. it is the only church i knew in town when my future husband bill -- but what is it about the real estate of the white house that the suffragists realized was kind of their pot of gold. >> none of it was an accident, right. so the cameron house headquarters originally if you're going to set up a d.c. office of a political movement and want to have access to federal power, that is a pretty

this was proposed by the same architect who designed decatur house. this pyramid was supposed to be 100 by 100 feet which would've been one of the tele-structures in the united states at the time -- tallest structures in the united states at the time. it would have been made of marble, which would've been very expensive at the time. is this for a man or pharaoh? with the united states be different from other countries? there were comparisons with egypt, ancient rome, the into greeks, but ultimately this measure is defeated. public opinion turns against the idea of creating a grandmotherly. they argue it is not what washington would have wanted. --grand mausoleum. they argue it is not what george washington would have wanted. this issue of enterin putting ha new place never goes away. the nephew of george washington is solicited by the virginia general assembly and they propose moving washington's body to richmond to be placed under a monument that is not been built yet. another attempt, but this time by state government. congress gets wind of it. they