story, the solution lies in the person of robert harlan. >> robert harlan iswas a person of mixed race. he was believed to be the son of harlan's father and an enslaved woman. some dna tests later on suggested that may not be the case, but nonetheless, he was believed to be a member of the harlan family and had a special relationship with john's father. he was in a position to help john marshall harlan when harlan wanted to get on the supreme court. northern liberals were very skeptical of this kentuckian who came from a slave owning family. though behind the scenes, robert harlan was able to reassure people of john harlan's good intentions regarding african-americans in a time when most people doubted him. and then he went on to become the greatest defender of african-american rights of his time and perhaps of american history. >> you talk about the sort of the gilded age and a lot of these issues, not just the race cases that, but economic cases that were the the supreme court sided with the moneyed interests over workers on things like work hours and that s