virginia johnson was one of the first to join.'t until i was graduating from the washington school of ballet that the director came to me, and she said, you know, you're going to have a career, you're a really wonderful dancer, but you're never going to be a ballerina because of the colour of your skin. it was following the assassination of martin luther king in 1968 that arthur mitchell decided to set up a dance company for black people in harlem. arthur mitchell was the principal dancer with the new york city ballet, and he was the first african—american to achieve that level in a major american ballet company. he looked around at this neighbourhood and said, these kids don't have a future. education is terrible, the schools are failing, nobody cares about them, they don't have a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. but if i teach them ballet, i'm going to give them something else to draw from within themselves. we started with 30 children and two dancers, and everyone said i was crazy because i was using a european art form, c

virginia johnson was one of the first dancers to join the company.gton school of ballet that the director came to me and she said, "you know, you're going to have a career, you are a really wonderful dancer, but you're never going to be a ballerina, because of the colour of your skin." it was following the assassination of martin luther king in 1968 that arhtur mitchell decided to set up a dance company for black people inharlem. for black people in harlem. arthur mitchell was the principal dancer with the new york city ballet and he was the first african—american to achieve that level in a major american ballet company. he looked around at this neighbourhood and he said, these kids don't have a future. education is terrible, the schools are failing, nobody cares about them, they do not have a way of breaking the cycle of poverty. but if i teach in ballet, i am going to get them something else to draw from within themselves. we started with 30 children and two dancers and everyone said i was crazy, because i was using a european art form, classical b

virginia johnson is now the dance theatre of harlem's artistic director.the royal academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. but for now, from me and the rest of the witness history team, goodbye. some crisp sunday sunshine across a large swathe of the uk today, but despite this, temperatures have struggled to get much above freezing. this was planted in cumbria earlier this afternoon. showers down the east coast and cloud across southern england will fade through this evening, clear skies for england and wales, but more clout for scotland and northern ireland, bringing rain, chiefly into northern scotland as the night wears on. a milder night here. some frost across southern scotland. dry and just above freezing for northern ireland, but a widespread frost across england and wales. this frontal system is grazing northern scotland, continuing to bring outbreaks of rain through the day, heavy and persistent at first, turning patchy. there could be outbreaks of rain into the central belt in southern

johnson played a very significant role in that. you know, katherine is about dashes from a small town about two hours from west virginia state university. we had the privilege before the rest of the world fell in love with katherine johnson, to have her beautiful face on our campus at the tender age of 10. she was unable to go to high school in her hometown because of the hue of her skin, so she and her family had to pack up and travel for two hours to west virginia state university. we have then an elementary school and a high school that were part of the university at the time. so a young katherine johnson with all of her mathematical skills and intelligence came here, and graduated at the age of 15, and then entered what was then west virginia state college, now west virginia state university, and left us in 1937 at the age of 18, and she never looked back. so, in 1937 when katherine graduated from west virginia state university, she went into the field of teaching. she was inspired here and understood the very significance of teaching and paying it forward. so she went into teaching, for about 13 years. katherine entered nasa at a

he will be brought and compelled to surrender at appomattox courthouse in virginia. johnson will surrender in a larger surrender, a fascinating story if you have a chance to read what goes on at bennet's place. it is not the last surrender but it is certain the war is effectively over at this point. confederates burned richmond to keep most stuff out of union hands. this burnt district was fascinating to photographers and on april 14th, 1865 the union reraises the flag over fort sumter, even right when the war is ending. it is a consequential month in april, a lot of things are going on. on that same day, april 14, 1865, union and confederate soldiers almost fraternizing in capital square at richmond. i don't think they're getting along super well, but there's not a lot of animus. that same day abraham lincoln decides to go to ford's theater to see "our american cousin." i think you know the story. he is sitting inside that booth with his wife and two guests. john wilks booth sneaks in the little door, shoots the president, jumps on to the stage and yells "sic semper tyranus

virginia an important satellite of this new negro renaissance. she was a poet and she first became known to other members of the new negro renaissance through meeting james weldon johnson, who was visiting lynchburg, virginia to establish and accomplishestablish a new c swenser was involved in creating what was one of virginia's first chapters of the naacp. she and james weldon johnson became great friends. johnson read some of her poetry. sent it back to his friends in harlem who then began publishing her poetry in new negro renaissance pub lication such a the crisis and other publications. and through her poetry, which was widely admired by her peers, spencer became good friends with many important black culture literary and intellectual features in the middle decades of the 20th century. many of those figures visited the home she and her husband had in lynchburg. basically, you name an important black cultural figure of that period and they likely stayed at ann spencer's home. they were known as very gracious hosts and she was an avid gua gardener so she had beautiful gardeners and would regularly host literal conversations about culture in her home and in her garde

virginia an important satellite of this new negro renaissance. spencer was a poet. she first became known to other members of the new renaissance through meeting james weldon johnson. and spencer was involved in creating what was one of virginia's first chapters of the naacp. she and judson became friends. johnson read some of her poetry. sent it back to his friends and harlem and publishing the poetry in publication in the publication sister of the crisis. through her poetry which is admired by her peers, and spencer became good friends with many important cultural, literary and intellectual features in the mid-decades of the 20th century. as i say her lynchburg home became an important satellite of this new renaissance. you name an important black cultural figure and a likely stay at and spencer's home. and spencer was an avid gardener. she would regularly host literary conversations about culture in her home and in her garden. some of them included w.e.b. dubois. we have a letter from him to and spencer. they first met in 1898 and became very close friends. this is a letter from w.e.b. dubois, mentioning he's a visit he's going to be making in 1934, and asking he

in virginia, democrat presidential candidate michael bloomberg says the election victory for boris johnson is a ka catastrophic warning for democrats. >> the public clearly wanted a change in the uk the change was much more rapid and greater magnitude than anyone predicted i think it's sort of a catastrophic warning to the democratic party that you're going to have to have something that can beat donald trump the tunnel >> the tunnel to towers function says it will assume the mortgage of slain officer he was killed this week during a confrontati confrontation. >> the family of detective joseph seals, we're going to pay your mortgage. the tunnel to towers foundation will pay your mortgage before christmas so you never have to worry about your mortgage again. >> detective seals leaves behind a wife and five children you're up to date. that's the news update this hour back to you. >> our thoughts and prayers with his family thank you. >>> let's get a check on the markets now. the dow and s&p hitting highs this morning stocks pulled back but are trying to stay in positive territory. the dow se

johnson possibly victory. if you look at recent elections here in the united states democrats won the governor's mansion in kentucky. maintain the governor's mansion in louisiana. we won total control in virginia. these are three southern states. caution people making big judgments about specific collections, specifically elections in another country. -- doug: i feel good about where the party is headed and where we are on infrastructure. it remains to be seen who the nominee will be. host: philip i will give you the final minute. phillip: how republicans and donald trump's campaign messages to those key states and getting the enthusiasm, closing the enthusiasm gap is the key to the whole ring. host: philip is the author of ."e book "fire them now doug is a principal at s katie knickerbocker and remind viewers of the podcast. doug: be electable, it is on any podcast platform. apple podcast, spotify. we have to have you both. ho >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is the final day of our authors week series where we interview authors from across the loop -- the political spectrum and joining us today rich lowry is, author of the book -- todays

clinton 8687, johnson knew, the governor -- john sununu, the governor of california, and the white house chief of staff who was a major force in encouraging this summit. then, jerry of virginiaand he was succeeded by terry branstad of iowa on -- when president bush came into office. all of them were very eager to have governors involved in any discussions about education. so, president bush determined he in fact wanted this conference not to be his agenda, but a joint agenda. so, governor branstad appointed a task force on education, cochaired by governor clinton of arkansas, and governor carol campbell, a republican from south carolina. it's important to remember the national governors association, since it was created in 1908, has been a bipartisan organization, and has maintained that bipartisanship for more than a century, which is, at least in my view, very impressive. i would like to begin by asking president clinton to share with us his thinking, and the thinking of his fellow governors as we went into the process of deciding how we were going to make the best use of this time well.ere i think it's worth emphasizing that by the time this meeting uva, aned, at the enor

johnson possibly victory. if you look at recent elections here in the united states democrats won the governor's mansion in kentucky. maintain the governor's mansion in louisiana. we won total control in virginiaese are three southern states. caution people making big judgments about specific collections, specifically elections in another country. -- doug: i feel good about where the party is headed and where we are on infrastructure. it remains to be seen who the nominee will be. host: philip i will give you the final minute. phillip: how republicans and donald trump's campaign messages to those key states and getting the enthusiasm, closing the enthusiasm gap is the key to the whole ring. host: philip is the author of ."e book "fire them now doug is a principal at s katie knickerbocker and remind viewers of the podcast. doug: be electable, it is on any podcast platform. apple podcast, spotify. we have to have you both. this thatill be back, will do it for our program for today. we'll be back tomorrow morning, in the meantime have a great sunday. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions