what it means is having the right future. live, takinge you whatever job you want and living the way you want and spending your money how you want. to be an american means that ,here is a sense of camaraderie , we can comee together and say we are american. american. we are all and we are also individuals. >> voices on the road, on c-span. the c-span cities tour expand -- travels the country, this year we visited 24 countries to

learn about their history and life. we will look at highlights of some of these stops. we begin in selma, alabama. alabama,n selma, african-americans were denied the right to vote. there were folks throughout the south that did not want these people to have the right to vote

. they can be considered second class citizens. poll taxes would be the price you had to pay per year in order to get on the voting rolls. say i live here in dallas county and allke 60 dollars taxes are one dollar a year. raise that isa $40. -- thenf my 60 will go i will have 20 which i have to feed and flow my kids. there are not very many black people who will have extra money left over to pay a poll tax. on something when i have an extra dollar left over and i go down to this courthouse and i show up saying i would like to register to vote.

i would go to the county registrar, have my poll tax ready. takes my pollnel tax but he also administers a literary tax. that tests could take many forms. ask me the name of the probate judge in the county or the state on -- of alabama. now i have to scramble to name all these probate judges who are in charge of enforcing the law. any information in 1965. it was rough for me to do that. it could be in the form of a question. politicalive me a

test, i have 30 minutes to complete this test. a larger group of folks were coming to take it for a white patron coming in to register they might pay the poll tax and only have to answer 20 of those questioned -- questions. integralne of the most pieces of the voting rights movement. there were protests every day from the beginning in 1963 when a committee came to work your in selma, they began rallying the youth in selma. their parents were not necessarily joining and just yet. they researched in 1965 when the

southern baptist leadership conference came in with dr. king. going from january until sunday in march of 1965. if you have a protest that was coming and directed at the courthouse most people will wind up on this side up here and down the side of the building. if you guys see it to where the clarks where share of would be standing, protesters would be lined up to get into the voter registration office. lined up around the building singing protest songs and chants.

at brown chapel church this is one of the movement choose -- churches, to hold meetings and training sessions and the meaning of the civil rights movement. this is one of the oldest churches in the city of selma. tonightere to tell you that the businessmen, the mayor of the city, the police commissioner of this city and everybody in the white power structure must take out responsibility for everything that is wrong. knowtting the folks here

that the movement now has a new voice. thecounty voters had been hereorganization working to achieve the voting rights for african-americans. conducted voter registration classes throughout the county. from the 1930's through the 1950's to attack the problem's african-americans not having the right to vote. 1963, -- were the boys here in the area. they were beginning to go to places that had not been touched by the civil rights movement. they were working with the young folks here in selma to prepare them for the workers civil

rights, for rights they were not even old enough to have. think of the foundation and in 1965.rk they began in the basement of tabernacle baptist church. the interesting thing about it wascle baptist is built by black architect in the 1950's. segregation orders prevented african-americans to enter a building on broad street. baptist church was built the architect played a trick on the city officials. it has an entrance on broad street but the real answer -- entry is the side. it is called the church with two faces.

ofy didn't work just out tabernacle baptist. they were over at the first baptist church here in selma, right down the street from where we are right now. the headquarters for many befores including right freedom day in october of 1963 when dorothy -- was the main attraction. she gave encouragement to those who would go out and protest at the club -- county courthouse. movement had at push because of the fact that there were so many factors for this issue. you had a population that was mostly african-american. blackwere 240 registered voters in the entire county.

there would also be education that will be needed to make this successful. -- towards african-american protesters, -- sheriff jim clark. he provided the type of resistance that groups needed in order to make selma voting rights. came back to soba and brought money -- selma and brought money. he had been seen as someone who can lead the masses and speak our whitley and inspire pieces. he brought a lot of motivation with him. he also brought the media. the media put the nail in the coffin for the circa -- voting

rights issue. civilere only practicing disobedience they were still sheriffstreated as of clarke's attitude towards them. we made our way from brown , during the voting rights movement did three separate time. 1965 theloody sunday, protesters gathered at the church in the playground area in order to be prepared to go all the way from selma to montgomery. how did they get the idea to it was a directs action they wanted to take. veteran andas a

during the night march on 1965 he wash in shot by an alabama state trooper . eight days later he died. they wanted to do something that was honor, they decided that to the alabama state capitol and laying it is -- it on the steps. instead of actually taking his body to montgomery they continued with the idea to mount -- march two montgomery. protesters left the church in the afternoon and progressed down the street to alabama avenue and they walked out here on broad street and cross the bridge. march -- madethe

of alabama state troopers and share of deputies that had been deputized by the local sheriff for her, jim clark. though they were a little bit scared, they continue to put one foot in front of the other and marched 100 yards before the end of the bridge before they were stopped by major john a cloud. them this isaid to an unlawful assembly and you have two minutes to disperse and go back to your churches or your homes. john lewis said may we have a word with the major? 30 seconds later he gave the order for the troopers to advance and they did. is what we know as bloody

sunday. alabama state troopers, the sheriff deputies rush the marchers right here on this bridge back across the bridge leading -- beating them with billy clubs and even furniture wrapped in barb wire. these marches and back throughout the city. there are accounts of law enforcement officials throwing young women into baptismal pools at the churches. this significant is the fact that there were so many media cameras that were capturing this moment. there were still cameras and also national news hosts who were there filming this action. that night in the middle of seemberg the country got to what was happening on that day here in selma, alabama.

there was a call to come down and marched on march the ninth. he wanted them to come down and be the face of the march. the next morning he got were there was an injunction. it had gone to federal court and frankontgomery king thereified dr. would be an injunction against the march. king promised all these folks they would march, beginning on march the eighth through the ninth, two marches

but not violate a federal court injunction. he got on the phone with some of the top people in washington including the president and they came up with a solution that he will march to bloody sunday where the attack began and then turn around. this march became known as turnaround tuesday. they were two dozen folks a gathered at brown chapel church, to turn right here on water avenue and cross the bridge right here. as they crested the top of the bridge that same sea of blue stared them in the face. the alabama state troopers and state troopers. they saw this sea of blue, dr. king saying and then he turned around. the majority of the people on the march did not know that those were his intentions. only the very top people were

privy to this information. you had to this of people who assumed they were marching all the way to montgomery. indeed, they turned around. were happy about the turning around because they didn't want another bloody sunday attack the others were very disgruntled. fight for their voting rights were student groups from the university and alabama state university. there was the death of another young man named james reed who was a unitarian minister from bachmann. he had come down from boston to be a part of the march and he was eaten by white citizens here in selma for his involvement with the movement. he died about two days later from his injuries, he is known as the secular martyr. his death inspired a lot of thought from white citizens

across the country. that's another reason this is called turnaround tuesday. frank johnson the federal is for onrt judge began cheering march 11. others who are involved with the opposition,e governor wallace and jim clark, thought would disrupt public safety. pretty much saying this march would be necessary for african americans to obtain the right to vote. a march of this scale seemed to be appropriate, the ruling was issued on march the 17th. they had only four more days to get everything together to go to

montgomery. on march like first 3200 people gathered right around the church to begin the march from selma to montgomery. street,e down filled in right on alabama avenue, to broad street and across the bridge this time with no sea of blue. they marched for five days and four nights. and continue to march all the way until they got to the on marchtate capital 25 of 1965. >> they told us we would not give here. there were those who said we would get here over their dead bodies.

knows thatld today we are here and we are standing before the power in the state of alabama saying we can collect nobody turn us around. >> two months later the voting rights act of 1965 in sharing that african-americans would be granted the right to vote and was the cause for african-americans having their right to vote in sure by the federal government. this march and this demonstration and the realization of the desire of african-americans who have the right to vote since the end of reconstruction. [singing] >> gobbler shoe. >>the c-span cities tour have made 24 stops this year.

highlights from the year continue as we take you to fairbanks, alaska. airfield had as much to do as any facility in the army with running world war ii, but not a single shot was fired. the military value of alaska was noted clear back in 1905 when , oftenant larry mitchell some fame who grew up to be the commander of the army air corps came to alaska to put in a telephone line from chicken to valdez. as a result of that station billy mitchell later on testified in front of congress that the strategic value of alaska was enormous.

," whoever controls alaska controls the world because of its strategic location. " shortestlike the distance from the west coast of california to japan is a straight line and it is not good if you look at it you will see that a straight line between say san francisco and tokyo comes very close to the aleutian islands. that's why the japanese were interested in controlling that during world war ii. today, it still has the strategic value. they can get to europe and the far east days faster than forces for -- from anywhere else in the world.

1939.uction began in hangar one to my rare in october of 1930 -- 1939. they poured the first 5000 feet above the runway here. the purpose of the regional facility was to house a cold whoser test if attachment sole mission was to test airplanes in the cold environment of the subarctic in fairbanks in order to learn how to operate in the cold environment. we have all seen pictures of waist gunners durning -- during war to shooting out through an open window. was electrically

heated and that system was developed right here at land army airfield area --. it gets cold here. we are sitting out here in 70 read temperatures on the 21st of june. six months from now we will not be sitting out here. there will be two or three feet of snow all over the installation. it will be 10-20 degrees zero butt below sometimes it does get even 60 below zero. fluid stop being fluid so it ands special materials operating procedures in order to work in a cold environment like this.

bombing of girl armor -- of pro-harbor actually began u.s. participation in world war ii and its impact was not until later. september of 1943 until september 19 45, this was the transfer based for almost 8000 airplanes. right here, they were transported to the russian air force and russian pilots took them from here to the eastern front. airplanes, two hundred 50-300 per month. -- 250-300 per month. these airplanes were taken by the russian pilots. they did a lot of things to prepare the airplanes for shipment to the eastern front, primarily they took off the u.s.

insignia on the airplanes and painted the red star on it, so americanstop being an airplane and become a russian airplane. those people that brought them up here were part of the air transport command. and when they got here, they got on a transport plane and taken right back to montana to pick up more airplanes. 300 a month, they needed to keep the flow going. so when they got here, they were turned over to the russians. the russians serviced them with cold-weather oil and hydraulic fluids, they tested the airplanes to make sure that they were airworthy. then they left. how that helped them in world war ii, those almost 8000 airplanes were used to put eastern air pressure on the nazi forces and relieve some of the

pressure of the u.s. and allies approaching from the west. lend ogram was called lease. there were millions of tons of rolling stock and other materials, as well as airplanes, given by the u.s. to its allies in europe. and its ally in russia. i personally think it was a misnomer. none of that equipment ever came back. nobody ever paid for it. a value on that equipment would -- would be, even in the 1940's billions and billions. at the outcome was the victory of world war ii. in the 1950's, when the cold war heated up, the air force had on2s and be 36 is, they went strategic nuclear alert. 's 8755 feet, ladd

it cannot be longer because of the river is off the end of each part of the runway. 1961, the airof force left ladd and went to the base,e weather alternate named it aisles and. beganed the runway, and setting nuclear alerts with b-52s and 36's. the russians were our allies. i never returned -- referred to them as our friends. here,5, the russians left and in less than five years we were sitting nuclear alert against a primary soviet threat. ladd armyary of 1961, airfield became wainwright army airfield. from remained that way

january 1961 to september 2006. in 2006, the air photo manager hired me. -- airfield manager hired me. the first job he asked me to do was to get the airbase renamed ladd army airfield. there were a couple reasons. first of all, this was the only army garrison anywhere in the army where the airfield had the same name as the garrison. two, there is already a wainwright airfield in alaska, it is to the north, almost to the arctic ocean. and there was confusion by aviators about which wainwright to land on. one of the big reasons was, the people of fairbanks never stopped calling it ladd field.

announcer: making 20 four stops this year, the c-span cities tour explores the history and literary life of american cities. our highlights continue as we take you to flagstaff, arizona. why choose the moon as our goal? they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? why 35 years ago fly the atlantic? why does rice play texas? we choose to go to the moon. we choose to go to the moon -- [applause] moon ine to go to the this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. because that goal will sort of -- will serve to the best of our

energies and skills, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, when we are unwilling to postpone, one we intend to win. and the others, too. [applause] early 1960's, president john kennedy said, we want to galvanize our country to do something very bold. it was the space race, so we wanted to do something bold to beat the russians, let's do it by sending humans to the moon and returning them safely before the end of the 1960's. as the country is starting to think about going to the moon, one of the questions we had was, how do you know where you are going. because if you travel to a foreign country, you take a map with you. if you travel to a foreign world, you better have a map so you do not hit the side of a mountain or run into a greater. -- creature. so it was a critical part of

preparing to go to the moon. we are inside the clock -- clark observatory, it was established in 1894. well before arizona was even a state. so when they came out here, -- had grown up back east, he got iferested in -- and realized he was going to build an observatory back east it was not ideal, because in the 1980's you had the proliferation of electric lights shining and looking at the skies and making it difficult to see the stars and planets. so what he decided to do was go to the american southwest. he sent an assistant, andrew thelas, who tested territory and chose flagstaff. it had dark skies, is at 7000 feet, the highest educated -- elevation. and it was kind of like the

swimming pool, when you open your eyes everything is kind of fuzzy because the water is bending the light. air does the same thing, so the more air you are looking through, the more distorted the stars are going to look. so the higher you go, the less air to look through. so the higher elevation, dark skies, it is a great location. drive around flagstaff and look up on mars hill, where the observatory is located, you see the dome of the telescope standing 40 feet tall like a birthday cake on top of the hill. inhe decided to set up here 1894. in 1896, he had the telescope built, 24 inch diameter, 32 foot long refracting telescope. that means it uses lenses instead of mirrors to collect the light. he built it in 1896, and it was used in mexico for about one year, then brought back in 1897 and it has been here ever since.

this is really a classic instrument, classic as part of scientific history, american history, cultural history. the first evidence of the extending nature of the universe was collected using instruments on this telescope. and pluto, although it was not discovered with this telescope, it was important in that search and the study after they discovered it. so it has done a lot of good research. over the last several decades, it is not used for research anymore, but education and outreach. the last major research done with it was mapping the moon. it is a unique thing that was done with this, something that captures our imagination, especially as we are approaching the 50th anniversary of the first manned mission to the moon. apollo 8 flew to the moon in december of 1968, then neil armstrong and buzz aldrin took the first steps on the moon in 1969, july.

all of those astronauts, plus every other one who walked on the moon, everybody else who traveled to the moon, trained in flagstaff. they learned geology, tested instruments. they also learned about reading maps. that was something that was important and done here at the observatory with the telescope. the bad thing was that the critical things that he was involved with with going to the moon, they were involved in another way. in 1962, the second group of astronauts were named. you had the mercury seven, they flew up and it did the mercury flights. showing how we could get into space. alan shepard was the first american is based. he rode for 15 minutes, came back down. then the second group. when they came on, jean shoemaker in flagstaff, who had brought the branch here specifically to prepare for the moon missions, he spoke with

nasa and other scientists and instead, if we are going to play to send people to the moon, we need to do more than plant a flag, we should do science. what better way to learn about the origins of our planet and who we are, than by studying another body in the solar system very similar to ours, our partner as it were? in january 1963, the next nine astronauts, the second group that included neil armstrong, frank borman and others, they came here on a very cold day. they flew into flagstaff airport, they flew onto planes, in case one crashed not all of the astronauts would have perished. that was the thinking. they flew in these guys and they were rock stars. we were met by the mayor in fans wanting autographs. they went to media crater because if you are going to go to the moon and do geology around this cratered area, why

not prepare for that with the there is?rved crater they went to the local crater to see what it looked like. then they went to the observatory to study the mapping and see how these features are depicted on maps, because they will have to read these maps and relay what they are seeing to the real features. then at night, after dinner, they broke up into three and each group went with folks. some of them stayed here at the observatory with this telescope, someone to northern arizona university with their telescope, and others went to the naval observatory flagstaff station located about four miles from here. three different groups, using three different telescopes the astronauts agent looked through the telescopes to see the moon and where they would be going. in one day, they could see what

an actual impact crater looked like, how they are depicted on maps, and what the moon's craters actually look like. so the upshot is, the first trip was very successful. you have to realize the value of training the astronauts to do geology and all of the future groups of astronauts who went to the moon came here to flagstaff to train. we are out in the field, we are several miles from downtown. not very far from sunset crater, which was the volcanic feature that erupted tens of thousands of years ago. cindersire field has from that explosion. when the astronauts were training, they went to sunset crater and other places. but nasa realized they wanted another place to train, something that was even more

accurate for the lunar surface in terms of craters. based on an usgs, image from the moon, created this crater field. they looked at this image from the orbiter and they dug holes at different depths. filled them with explosives to create different sized craters and there were 400 plus made here. they set the charges, glue them up and it was a cataclysmic explosion of craters. they took aerial photos and realized that this was really effective and it really did look like the craters on the moon, not necessarily the exact geology, but the orientation of everything.and so from 1968 through the end of 1972, the astronauts came here for training for the earlier missions, before they had the

rivers. -- rovers. he came uprising their tool carriers. they described the rocks and they surveyed the landscape. later, for the last three missions they brought rovers here and practice to driving them. this area is not protected. it is national forest service land. there is a second field that they created that is one mile away, it is in the open under a recreational area, a lot of the craters have been worn down. but this is a nice shape 50 years after it was created and we can see this nice crater. kind of a little bit of a rim around it, from when it originally excluded. this is the largest -- excluded. this is the largest one and we are on the northwest corner of the field. a lot of other craters around here that we can see. it is really a neat thing that anybody can come and see.

founded bytory was an amateur, he was not a professional astronomer. he was a guy interested in doing astronomy, he put his money where his mouth was. clyde, who discovered pluto, he was an amateur astronomer. he grew about a farm -- on a farm and at nighttime in kansas, what was there to do, he looked at the sky. he built his own telescopes. discovered the planet. astronomers and other places could not find it and he did. while professionals are of course making great discoveries and inspire us, astronomy is in the realm of not just professional astronomers. if you have an astronomers and r places could not find it and he did. interest in it, you can really do a lot with it and just look up. and you can get excited about it. announcer: the c-span cities

tour has made 24 stops this year, as we explore american cities. more highlights from the year continue as we take you to pearl harbor in hawaii. ♪ >> the battleship missouri, 53,000 ton flagship of the fleet becomes the seeing of an unforgettable ceremony, marking the complete and formal surrender of japan. in the bay of tokyo, the u.s. buchanan comes alongside, bringing representatives to represent the final capitulation. journal of the army, douglas macarthur, the supreme allied commander boards the missouri. admiral nimitz, the fleet commander and admiral halsey welcome macarthur and his chief of staff aboard. admiral nimitz escorts macarthur to the miranda deck, where the

20 minute ceremony is to take place. it is sunday, september 2, 1945. ♪ >> right now, we are on the o level, the veranda deck. 1945, we now call it the surrender deck. this is where the japanese assigned to the unconditional surrender ending world war ii. behind me is where the tables were that day. the ship looked at different. the nice canopy overhead was not installed, the target behind me was turned to 30 degrees. that was to make more room. if you look above us, you would have seen thousands of the members of the missouri, and crews from other ships, trying to get a glimpse of what was about to occur on the deck. now at 9:00 in the morning when

the ceremony was supposed to start, members of the japanese delegation were making their way on board. there were 11 of them and they made their way up the ladder. and on the deck at 902 a.m., general douglas macarthur, admiral nimitz and halsey descended from above just start the ceremony. after some opening words, the first person to sign the surrender document would have to, mr. should commit signing behalf of the japanese delegation. n the representative signing on behalf of the japanese military. the list macarthur was the third. he signed it supreme allied commander, he did not represent the united states. that would be admiral nimitz. following him, the rest of the allies signed in order, including canada, france and the netherlands. there are two copies of the signed documents, because one was to be kept by the u.s. and one by japan. so we do not display the originals, for obvious reasons.

we have replicas on board. the originals are in the national archives. and in a war museum in tokyo. we have a replica of one of macarthur's pens, he used six pens to sign the documents. he only had to sign his name twice, but instead he chose do use expense for douglas, mac andd arthur on the first and on the second. he did this for a simple reason. one that we still do today. what he wanted to do afterwards was give the pens away as souvenirs. he stepped up to the megaphone and said, these proceedings are closed. he gave a signal and above the missouri over 1000 allied aircraft flew in formation. end,e beginning until the 23 minutes. that is all it took that into the bloodiest conflict in human history. ♪ we are back.

and we have now come to recognize this part of the ship for an event that happened in world war ii. and it is a touching event, and it tells you about the ship and its crew, particularly the commanding officer. in the battle of okinawa, the last great naval battle of the war, the missouri saw herself under, causing attack. -- kamikaze is a word that means a lot and has a lot of feelings attached to it because of world war ii, but the word is older. it goes back to the 13th century when japan was twice under threat by the mongolians and twice and they were wiped out by a typhoon. this is known as divine intervention. this divine wind is whether japanese called upon in the last year of the war, but the girly the battle of okinawa, to save the country one more time from the threat of invasion. it is this threat that the missouri faced on april 11,

1945. that day, a pilot was spotted off of their star board side where we are standing. he came in love. missouri's guns all took up firing on it, hitting him a few times, but still he came in and plane42, he slammed his into the side of the missouri, just behind here where you see these. that day, the left wing of his plane, the fuselage and 500 pound bomb he was carrying fell into the ocean. they did not cause any harm directly to the missouri or the group. the bomb did not detonate. the right wing flew onto the missouri and it spilled fuel as far forward as the surrender deck, and ignited a huge fire. other ships thought that she was thinking, but her crew was so fast and the response that they managed to put the fire out in minutes. they did a headcount and founder that nobody from the missouri crew had been killed, there were only some minor injuries. now, as they began to clean up

the wreckage of the wing and parts spilled on the deck of the misery, they found the body of the pilot. captain callahan, the first commanding officer, after finding out that the body had landed on board, made the order to take the pilot's body below deck to prepare for a full military funeral. you can imagine the members of the missouri who are not particular happy, but they respected their commanding officer and followed through. that night, several members of the crew stayed up and sewed a japanese rising sun naval flag. and the next morning, april 12, 1945, on the deck behind me there was a funeral held for the pilot. six men stood holding the body of the pilot with a bugler and a chaplain. the captain said a dead enemy is no longer your enemy. and at 9:00 a.m., the chaplain said simply, commit his body to the deep.

not many people have heard this story, even though it is when we tell at the missouri. the reason why no one has heard it got no press coverage, nobody talked about it, that is because april 12, the day of the funeral was the day that president roosevelt died. it was the day that harry s truman wasn't sworn in as the next president. -- was sworn in as the next president. we are inside the import cabin on the missouri, this is a large space and well decorated. it is for the captain of the missouri when the ship is in port, specifically, or when he is out visiting dignitaries and he needs to act as a diplomat in a foreign port. so the uss missouri mello oil association has a very large historic collection, in large part of it has actually been donated by former crewmembers. the collection spans from the turn-of-the-century, with the original battleship missouri come all the way to modern day, with the current uss missouri submarines. while we are here we have pulled out some artifacts.

two are important pieces of the ship's history. they are both fragments of the plane that hit the missouri in 1945. so the piece on the left still has factory paint on it, while the piece on the right was taken by a crew member and vanished -- member and painted. they have had different lives, but they both ended up back here. the next two things we have on display today are again from that attack on the missouri. actually twots are pieces from something larger. they were both recovered by two members of h division, the medical division on board the missouri. when captain callahan gave the order after the attack to take the pilot down below, the body eown below deck to th

dispensary, they brought the body in and prepared it for a funeral. at some point in that process, the commanding officer of that division, dr. lance income as well as a corpsman, came upon two fragments of the scarf the pilot was wearing and we have them here. one is quite small. and then this one from the medical officer is quite large. bear the same pattern. it is a very faint flower pattern. they are two of our most fragile artifacts. year, as weoming redo our display for the 70 for the anniversary of that attack, one of these fragments will go on display to the general public. but for now, as they are fragile, we keep them in a climate controlled area. so one of the most important set of artifacts we have on the ship are known as surrender cards.

they were given to the groove the missouri who were on board for the surrender ceremony as a way to verify and for them to prove to everyone they were on board. each one of them is signed. by theosely, signed here fleet admiral, admiral halsey and admiral nimitz. and you get the commanding officer, murray. and you also get douglas macarthur's signature and it bears the name of each individual crewmember, so this w, third class. we only have a handful of them. they are incredibly rare, and incredibly important in telling the story of the surrender. the next two documents we have are actually -- they show the timing for september 2, 1945. they recorded each person coming on board from the japanese officials to win the ceremony

and, and when each person ship leaves as well. you will note that the ceremony ends at 9:25 a.m., the japanese officials have left the missouri by 9:29 a.m. in the morning. so we have already seen how detailed a battleship's schedule and plan can be, one of the things we have are the plans of the day. the detail everything that will happen on board that day, down to the exact times. we have one from august 30, 1945, that bears a line written by the ship's second in command, commander leon, that is incredibly telling and bears the weight of what was about to happen in a few days on board. it says "we have the energy, ability and strength to prepare for and put on a glorious show for the grand finale. if each of us does all he can in this last push, then, as i said long ago in newport before the commission, when children gather

around and to say, what did you do during the great war, we will all answer simply, i was on the missouri." uss missouri is about the bow with u.s. arizona -- uss arizona. the start for the americans was the attack on pearl harbor, december 7, 1941. for the americans and the rest of the world, the final end of world war ii was the surrender ceremony on september 2, 1945 aboard the missouri. so by having the missouri here in pearl harbor, we have the bookends of world war ii for the united states. beginning on the arizona, the end of the missouri. as she sits about about the arizona globe uss missouri's 16 inch guns pointed symbolically over that ship, she is able to stand watch over the sailors forever entombed in the arizona's haul. the c-span cities tour travels the country, exploring the american story.

this year we visited 24 cities to learn about their history. our look at highlights from the tour continues as we visit memphis, tennessee. >> 1968 sanitation strike was at a crossroads in this verizon story. 1968, memphis was a moderate city, more moderate than other areas in the deep south. it was considered the midsouth, but it was on the banks of the mississippi. african-americans and whites still lived in a pretty decisive and divisive community. african-american sanitation workers did not make the same as their white counterparts, and if so there was a great amount of tension going on in the city of memphis at the turn of the year 1968. the workforce of the sanitation workers in the city in 1968 was about 70% african-american, 30% white. sanitation workers that were

african-american only made about an hour, you could be fired after being late one minute camille had no pension and were given no other grievances, you are not able to be a driver on a truck. you were only able to ride in the back of the cab. the sanitation workers took the job because they felt like it was going to be a steady job to have. if you work 90 hours a week as an african american sanitation worker, you could still receive up to government assistance. you could work 90 hours and only so it was of $100, not the right way for african-american men who are just trying to live and take care of their families, to live off this type of wage. mr. jones going going back to to4, effortlessly fought better the wages and conditions for memphis sanitation workers.

its -- the last straw was when two workers are killed in the back of a garbage truck on february 1, 1968. it was the thursday evening, these two sanitation workers, mr. walker and mr. cool were on their route. it was implement weather, there was a large thunderstorm going on. at that time, black sanitation workers were unable to sit in the front of the cab, so in order to shelter themselves in the back of the truck they had to get into the back into the truck that they were riding in had been already been told it was a faulty truck. a malfunction occurred and the two men were crushed to death. the city of memphis provided only $500 in response to the two men's deaths. $500, in a way, were

garnished because of wages and taxes taken out of their checks. in one case, one of the men was not even able to have a proper burial in memphis, he was taken to his hometown of tallahassee county, mississippi, 90 miles south of the city. this is what led to a strike of 1300 sanitation workers, 11 days later. they wanted better wages, they wanted better working conditions for the sanitation workers at this time. they wanted to file for grievances, such as pension, better pay, better work uniforms. and to be treated with a little moredignity that men -- dignity. and the mayor of memphis was adamantly against doing this, so this is when the strike decided to take place. 1968,an on february 12, approximately 1300 sanitation workers struck against their employer, the city of memphis.

and that is when the official strike began. the response of the city to the sanitation strike was, as with all other strikes in the past, met with resistance, met with open russian. it was not a very -- o pression. it was not very welcoming for people who supported the strike. ad in february, there was margin that happened in downtown memphis. over hundreds were arrested and hospitalized. but this really does not see the type of violence that takes place until after dr. martin theer king jr. returns to city on thursday, march 28, 1968. the reverend james lawson from the methodist church, who we saw an organizer of the sit in movement in the early part of the decade, invited dr. king to come to memphis. he arrived on march 18 and he

receives a wonderful reception at the nearby mason temple. he tells reverend abernathy and other aids that we are going to come back to memphis and we will march on behalf of the sanitation workers. march 28, 1968. once dr. king returns to the city of memphis on this day, there is uproar going on in the back of the march, an hour after it takes place a 16-year-old from south memphis by the name of larry payne is killed by a memphis police officer. dr. king is assassinated on thursday, april 4, 1968 at 6:01 p.m. immediately after his death, many began to feel was the worst

of the sanitation worker to receive the very minor increases take the life of a man who fought for justice and equality, but what it does do is and showcases to america that still a nonviolent movement creates a violent response. of all the five political assassinations that happen in the decade, dr. king's the only one that results in violence and uproar in its immediate aftermath. i think it was a stain on america, the pillar of nonviolence being slain here on the balcony of an african american hotel. it really prompted the mayor and other lawmakers to fix this. 12 days later, the city reaches a strike resolution with the sanitation workers. they are given a minor raise, but they are given better working conditions, better costumes. and as of last year, the sanitation workers, around 13 or 14 of them finally receive a

pension for their service with the city of memphis. today, sanitation workers in the city of memphis phase a completely different experience than they would have. they are receiving pensions, better working wages and given the opportunity for growth within their city of memphis's department. at the legacy of the sanitation workers strike was to show that even after the declaration of independence, the passage of the 14th amendment, which said all things will be protected under the law, that they were still indeed not treated as men and it we will risk our lives, and a man comes to the city and actually sacrifices his life, so that men are treated as men in the united states of america. announcer: the c-span cities tour has made 24 stops this

year. as we explore the history and literary life of american cities. are highlights from the last year continue, as we take you to lay, sue arizona -- lake hobbits to, arizona. >> the colorado river is the only major river in this part of supply, ithat will mean, it supplies 40 million people total. it is a big deal. there would be major problems if it dried up. this is the economy and at the lifeblood of this area of the world. the colorado river borders two states, california and arizona. california and arizona have historically not gotten along particularater, in from the colorado river. in 1922, the river compact was authorized by congress. it need to be ratified by all of the states within the watershed

of the colorado river, all states except for arizona signed right away. arizona thought that california was getting way too much water, and so they refused to sign it. they continue to refuse for years and years, decades afterwards. was constructed in 1935, completed in 1930. the primary reason for constructing the dam was from metropolitan water district of southern california, so they could access the colorado river water as part of their entitlement on the river. and to draw that to the los angeles area and down to san diego. as ite construction, commenced, the arizona governor, benjamin moore -- not like the paint -- but he sent a six militia out here from the arizona state infantry divisions and he wanted to find out what was going on.

so they sent to them hereto kind of inspect the progress. that california was actually starting to build on the arizona side, that sounded alarms to the governor and he sent out 100 militia to say, you are not going to do this. that was rectified fairly quickly. this happened in the span of about nine or 10 months in 1935. actresult was there was an called the rivers and harbors act, passed by congress, the authorized the construction of parker dam. so after that every thing was smooth and went according to plan. the first cement that actually was put in place was sometime in 1937. of in 1938, the last bucket cement was put in and they completed it and started filling the lake.

on october 16, 1938, this lake formed. the primary reason for this lake to be formed, again, was from metropolitan water in southern california, but in 1968 another act by congress was passed called the colorado river project act, which authorized the construction of the central arizona project, another aqueduct that goes from phoenix and tucson and beyond. in essence, today we have about one million acre-feet of water going to los angeles, which if you do not know what an acre foot is it is about 326,000 gallons, enough for two families for a year. and another one and a half million acre-feet goes to phoenix and tucson. this river, just from those two population centers and at the service area the water providers service, is about 20 million people. it is a significant population. the rest of the water goes

through the dam, through hydroelectric generators, the capacity for power generation, it goes downriver and services large agricultural concerns down the river. as far away as the imperial valley of southern california. so the houma area gets other water from this river, as well as other individuals or individual farms all the way down. so it services a lot. conflicts, we have been through those ms amounts. amounts over mass the years. between all the states. but we cannot just tie things up in court forever because nothing will get done, because some of these cases that have been taken to court have taken decades long. it has created careers for lawyers. instead of conflict, we have 2002,ed, since about

2003, to cooperate with each other. we have done so up to this point and hopefully will continue to do so. so good cooperation between not just the good players, but all of the entities that are dependent upon this river. areexample, the city, we 100% dependent on the river. we do not have groundwater that will sustain the city if the river went away. the river creates the aquifer. so when the river dries up, the aquifer draws down. we are 100% on that. we want to make sure that whatever the big picture is taking place, we are the little fish and all of this, but we want to make sure that we can sustain ourselves as well. that is what we are trying to do. most visitors who come to the lake, to the city, to visit -- that is our economy for the city and they do not realize the lake is here to serve 20 million

people's water supply, or for agriculture, for all the crops grown. so they look at it like a playground. it is a lake to have fun in, that is part of the deal. but they do not, i did nothing they realize. so we try to educate as much as we can in town with the water conservation, to tell them what is here. announcer: traveling the country to explore the american story, the c-span cities tour has visited 24 cities this year. up next, look at highlights from santa monica, california. >> we see almost 9 million people per year come to the peer, people from all walks of life, all interest. there are almost as many different reasons to come to the pier as there are people who visit it. if you walk down it on any given

day and ask what brought them here, you would get a different reason from each one. it is a walkable place that you can get away from the city. once you begin walking commuting not realize you are only a block away from downtown, you realize you are over the ocean, at the beach. in a unique environment that really is not a part of the city. book is "santa monica pier." we released in 2009 to commemorate the first 100 years. the story has a wonderful arc and ups and downs, it is almost ending, then the community saves it. then it has to go through some growing pains again, then it meets a natural disaster. then it grows again. it is a wonderful story from fishing, to an amusement park, to the harbor. and it has been home to many, many interesting stories. municipal pier open on

september 9, 1909. opened as a public utility to run sewage into the ocean. it was built for a specific purpose to solve a problem for the city. it did open as being distinct and unique in the fact that it was the first ever entirely concrete pier built on the west coast, with the concept it would last forever. theyity held a parade and held concerts and competitions, athletic accommodations on the beach and in the water to celebrate the opening of the pier. the idea of the concrete pier was that it would last forever, certainly longer than the wooden ones that were traditionally built. the concrete piles lasted all of 10 years before the inner ironworks started resting, that is because the construction of it was with beach sand.

it allowed the saltwater in to rest the ironworks. 1921 wereiles in replaced with treated wood and piles. so in the 1920's, we had a concrete deck with a wooden piles underneath and ultimately the concrete was replaced with wood, and we had an entirely wooden pier up until the 1980's. in the 1980's, storms tore down the west end, it gave way, the piles gave way. a third of it was destroyed. in 1989, the city rebuilt it with concrete again, a much better mix this time. and a wooden deck. so we have tried all sorts of formulas and i think we have the right one now. >> in what capacity has it been used over the years? >> besides being used to run sewage out into the ocean? it has been used for greater things since.

early on, it was declared the best fishing spot and santa monica bay, which is ironic when you thing about what they were doing to the ocean at that time, but the reason it was declared that is because people had not been fishing in this part of the bay until they were able to. and what they were pulling out at that time was the fish, among them was very large, black seabass, which is a protected species today. they were pulling out at the beginning of the 20th century these six foot long, black seabass. about 800 pounds. they lived to be 80 years old. they are protected today. in 2005, they caught a juvenile off of the end of the pier, about three feet long, so still pretty young. everybody had to have their picture taken with it because it is a legendary fish. fishing has always been a very important part of the existence of the pier.

that community is here 24 hours a day, and very happy that we still have the pier. of course, it has been used as an amusement park. from 1916-1930, with the wooden roller coasters and the fun houses and things like that. then there is the merry-go-round. it still exists today, that is the original to 1916. that particular merry-go-round has been here since 1947. concept ofy-go-round the amazement park has remained at since the early days. and then in the 1920's, there was a large dance hall, the largest ballroom in the world. it became a feature of the pier. it was only here for 40 years. it had a very distinct life of its own. used not only as a dance hall, but ultimately as a city convention center, a roller rink. varietythe first ever

show, that was broadcast live on television in 1940. so that is part of the history. part, people like charlie chaplin was one of the first there. errol fled had his yacht and not harbor. that is a unique history to the peer. in the 1940's, the yachts were displaced by fishing boats because the u.s. navy had taken over san pedro and the harbor there and so the fishing, the commercial fishermen had nowhere to unload their catches, except for here. it became the primary spot for fishermen to deliver their catches to feed basically the community. and so the santa monica pier became a focal point for that and even more of a fishing pier than it already was. they pushed out the yachts. and in the 1960's, it was

getting ready run down and the city would try to figure out what to do with it. there were many ideas. some wanted it to be a causeway, a highway would run along the santa monica pier and out to malibu on the islands. and there was the idea of a large island with the convention center and a nice hotel. and using it as a bridge to that. tearing down the pier and building their own bridge. all of these concepts surrounding the pier in the 1960's, so the community rallied and they put a stop to it. the city had planned to tear it down but but the community said no. in 1983, storms wiped out the west end, which seemed like a tragedy at the time, but woody it did was create a clean slate -- but what it did was create a clean slate for the community to figure out what they would do with the pier. now what can we do to really make it a very special place that everybody can enjoy and it

will become viable? the concept of the amusement park returned. to make it family-friendly. a new amusement park was built, after they finished rebuilding in the early 1990's, 1996 the park opened. and it changed everything. the visitor ship was a much more -- it was much more family-friendly and open to all. comfortable and safe. people could come and enjoy a nice afternoon and not worry about the old pier and had been. but to enjoy anyplace that was vibrant and full of color and comfortable and safe. that is what we get to enjoy today. ♪ standing at the end of the santa monica pier, as far as you can go without going for a swim. at one point this was considered the end point of route 66, the mother road. that is because this was as far as he could drive back in the

day. not the official end of route 66, by the end of the journey that most people finished as they were driving route 66. it is a very special place. ier is a little more than a quarter mile. you are getting your steps when you walk to the end and back, you are getting a good half-mile walk just to the end and back. and so it is good exercise, uneven surface. you know, it is old, the rickety wooden boards. they really added the experience. and they help put it into a sense of place. and people have been walking on these boards for over 100 years now. since the book was published, i have learned so much more. people have told me stories like about peterson, who was a very famous lifeguard, a very well respected lifeguard. being the greatest watermen that

ever lived if you ask surfers. that is the title he was given. he was also a wonderful craftsman and he built paddle boards and dories. he was an inventor. he invented the peterson tube, which i had no idea was the reason, but he was the inspiration behind the orange tube you see at swimming pools and beaches all around the world, invented by pete peterson at the santa monica pier. it is incredible the things that have come out of the woodwork. a nine-year-old girl inspired the first ever public paddleboard club in 1940. how wonderful fun and fitting for the pier to be the home for that, that is a sport that has appealed to adults and children alike, just like the pier. founded right here on the santa monica pier. beach volleyball, the two-person beach volleyball, the most popular sport at the summer olympics now, it started here next to the pier.

it goes on and on. when i came, there was no west end, no amusement park. it had been torn down by the storms and it was being used by those visitors, basically as a bridge to get to the beach. santa monica has broad beaches, but they are hard to get to because they are at the bottom of the cliff, so the ier was the bridge. it was not very popular, it was not very well respected. but through time, we grew together and it has now become home to 9 million visitors a year. and i have grown to be the person who can tell its story. and we did that together. i think that is pretty clear. the c-span cities tour has made 24 stops of this year as we explore the history and literary life of american cities. a look at highlights from the year continues, as we take you to springfield, illinois.

we are in the abraham lincoln presidential library down in the stacks, and we are in the most secure area of the facility. this is the vault. this is where we keep more than 1600 documents written by lincoln, as well as many of the pieces that he owned, objects he owned and interacted with during his life. and today i want to show you some books that we have in our collection that are very special, they were very special to abraham lincoln. when off, abraham lincoln, he was elected president in 1860, it is not as if he was entirely unknown. remember, he was a member of the illinois legislature, he had served a term in congress, he really was one of the most prominent politicians from the state of illinois. in large part mother popularly was due to his successful debates against stephen a douglas, the sitting senator on the democrat side in 1858.

abraham lincoln challenged him in illinois for that senate seat in 1850. and they debated, three hour-long public debates on seven different occasions during the campaign season. two years later, the same two individuals squared off against each other for the presidency of the united states. rest of theet the country know who abraham lincoln was, and what some of his political positions were, he worked with a publisher to publish the text of the lincoln douglas debates. and we have a really special aspy of the lincoln-dougl debates, they republished in 1860 -- they were published in 1860. lincoln was given a number of copies and on occasion he would give folks an autographed copy. this copy he hand wrote with

pencil to the honorable abraham jonas, with respects of the famous signature, a. lincoln. abraham jonas is an interesting individual. he was a lawyer. he was a member of the jewish faith, which is very interesting for the 19th century. first, itr was the was said, the first member of the jewish faith to settle west of the appalachian mountains, which is very interesting. but jonas was a supporter of lincoln and the republican cause. abraham lincoln gave him an autographed copy of that book and that helped introduce him to the world in 1860. there is a another piece in our collection that, again, i cannot believe that we have this in our collection. this was a campaign biography that was written by william dean about abraham lincoln

for the 1860 campaign. there are a number of mr. lincoln's political speeches throughout the book, and it also contains a narrative of his life. abraham lincoln got his hands on a copy of his biography and he went through it and noticed inaccuracies. and what helincoln's political s throughout this book, and that also contains a narrative of abraham lincoln's life. copy oflincoln got a this biography. he went through it and he noticed there was an accuracies. what abraham lincoln did, he went through an annotated it himself with a pencil. you see here on page 41, he circles and then puts an asterik next to the final paragraph. itread, it is supposed that was at new salem that lincoln, while a clerk in offett store, first saw stephen a. douglas,

and probably, the acquaintance was renewed while lincoln's proprietorship. lincoln circles it and says, wholly wrong. first saw douglas at vidalia, i never saw him at offett. he notes the month in the year that he first saw his political opponent. throughout this book, abraham lincoln makes annotations. he is the most written about american of all time, and there are some 18,000 books written about abraham lincoln. many of them are great. many of them are inaccuracies.

just think about it mr. lincoln gone through each of those 18,000 books and wrote about the inaccuracies. he prevailed over stephen douglas and the other two candidates. during the campaign, his wife, went to new york city where she bought her husband a new suit of clothes, s for she bought clothe herself and little boys. what she also bought was this leather bound set of the complete works of washington irving. what is interesting about this set, we know, this is the set that mary took with her to the white house because mary was so good about writing antedating the books that she owned. she writes in here, mary lincoln, 1860. she brought them to new york, and she brought them back to springfield and i bet you she bought them thinking our husband

would prevail in 1860, and she want to see this sophisticated volume sitting on a shelf in the white house. i want to show you one more book in our collection. this is a book that abraham lincoln would have been really proud of. this is long before he is elected president of the united states. this is highlighting a really significant achievement in his life. day, abraham lincoln is still the only president in american history that actually obtained a patent. he was something of an inventor. in 1849, he received a patent for his invention that he called an improved method of lifting vessels over shoals. how can boats get over sandbanks in rivers and how can we help navigation. is accepted and it is printed in the 1849, 1850 volume

of the patents for the united states. incolj -- a.a, l lincoln has obtained his patent. rob lincoln tells us that when he went to washington while his father was a congressman, he was able to visit the government building in washington and see his dad's model on display. it is an honor to work at the abraham lincoln presidential library, to be able to handle the documents that abraham lincoln row and left behind, to be able to handle the everyday objects you used. it never gets old to interact with these pieces. it is humbling and in many ways, it is a dream come true to not only deal with researchers but also visitors from around the world who want to learn more about abraham lincoln, to learn more about american history -- it is a deep privilege. traveling --

>> traveling the country to explore the american story. the c-span cities tour has visited 24 cities this year. up next, highlights from our stop in pasadena, california. at that einstein papers project in pasadena at the california institute of technology. caltech at theo end of 1930. he had been invited by the president of the california institute of technology to visit almost as soon as caltech was found. a universitye around 1920. robert milligan was one of the founders of caltech. he came from chicago. he knew of einstein's work. he knew him personally. towanted einstein to come this new institution to graces this new institution especially

after einstein won the nobel prize in physics at the end of 1922. he arrived here just before new year's eve, 1931. he was driven in a motorcade from long beach to pasadena by the chairman of the board of trustees of caltech, arthur fleming. with whom he stayed with few nights. was watchthing he did the rose parade in pasadena in 1931. einstein was very famous by then , and he was followed by journalists every day. he was appointed a visiting researcher at caltech. he did not have to teach. he participated in seminars. he gave lectures. those lectures were not always publicized because they were afraid too many people which show up.

he gave professional talks. -- too many people would show up. he gave professional talks. einstein decided he would not give popular scientific lectures. it was too much work and it was too difficult. there were many colleagues at caltech who einstein like a lot -- liked a lot, and he interacted with physics faculty, the astronomers, the geologists, and the chemists at caltech. those were the four disciplines best demonstrated at caltech. since then, a lot more than that. is einstein papers project similar to the presidential papers project. publishes thetes presidential papers of jefferson and franklin, and all other presidents.

edition if youd want, like a standard edition of shakespeare. we try to find all documents pertaining to einstein's work in aife, publish them diplomatic transcription or in the original meaning we keep all documents, words and all, if einstein's made mistakes or misspelled someone's name -- which she always did, it is very interesting. -- which he always did, it is very interesting. then we transcribe the way he wrote. 45,000 now approximately graphs, manuscripts, diaries, lecture notes, interviews, calculations and letters to einstein. is unique about our

work is that we place einstein in the context of the scientific community, the political world, the social world in which he lived. and we present both sides of a correspondence. both letters written to him and his replies. as he became more and more lesss, einstein initiated and less correspondence but replied to the world's onslaught. until he was 40 years old, einstein was well-known to the physics community which is very small at the time. after he gets the nobel prize and comes to do the united states for the first time in the 1920's, he becomes very famous. people want to use him for all , enterprises,ns meetings, conferences, lectures, visiting professorships, and so on. that is when his correspondence

grows exponentially. while we have very little correspondence about the young einstein, he did not keep his manuscripts, he did not keep his letters. we have a lot of correspondence for the older einstein. and his replies to it. latest volumesur that we published. here you see the german addition of the collected papers of albert einstein. we published in the original language with annotation, footnotes to every document. documents,y serious for example, a statement at the 60 session at the international committee of intellectual cooperation, einstein was a great supporter of

reconciliation among enemy nations and the scientists of former enemy nations after world war i. he was appointed to the league of nations committee of intellectual cooperation. that is when the also collaborated with milligan who was the u.s. representative on that committee. we have serious items that deal with international cooperation, and we have silly little items like a verse for baker of yeast cake. the text is in german and signed by albert einstein sr. and jr. einstein's. albert there are the ones we were talking about and his son, hans albert einstein. the words in english reads, the teo alberts and te

blissfully outpigged each other. the yeast cake quickly disappeared. sue nothing more of it could be found. with heavy belly and light tart, we pay tribute to our benefactor. that is the person who baked the cake. we have these silly verses and here is the manuscript. that is of this little verse. here you see the transformation and the kind of work that we do. to have xerox copies of these things. now we have high-quality scans. located at thes albert einstein archives in jerusalem because einstein left all of his papers to the hebrew university. we work from the original like , and we transcribe it

explain it, so we explain to the reader that this autographed was writtenned probably in berlin or kiel between the 23rd of july or the 14th of august. we are not absolutely sure and we give some references. we talk about his sons. we explain words like yeast -- it is not an easy word so we have to explain to the reader what it means, and then we say, if the cake was by then kiel, possibly wife of hermann or the sister. translate into english the same document. you see there are footnotes

these conform to the same footnote markers here. when these volumes are available online and almost all of them are at this point, the user can toggle between the german addition and the english edition and click on these footnotes and read the explanations. is of this material available online for free. achievement that i personally am very proud of. thisve succeeded in making available to anybody who is interested in einstein. understanding of einstein's work and the popular understanding of einstein have both changed tremendously since this project began. really upon einstein's death.

so we want the founder of this , whoct was the secretary collected and organized the material, and on the basis of her work, the first database was created in 1979, 1980 in princeton. the first electronic database of the einstein material. since then, this database has ballooned like an expanding universe and every year, we find new material. in light of all of this material accumulated since the 1950's, we have learned a lot and have changed our standard view of einstein. is sitting einstein in a garret to working with pen and paper in isolation, may be

competing or collaborating with changedwo people, has drastically over the last 30 years or so since the einstein project and the volumes that you see behind me have been published. not an isolated genius. grounded as aly student among his students and professors and then later as a young researcher in a scientific community as a presser, member of the academy of sciences, and so on. he was very active. he had huge scientific correspondence in which he discussed not only his own work by other people's work. people ino help other their work. youngo liked to help people and their careers and the development of their work. he was very interested in technology.

and experiments. this is something that is new that people did not pay a lot of attention to in the past. in 1955. he died tomay seem very long ago young people, but it is not that long ago for a historical figure. that means that assessing einstein's legacy will take a long time. we are making available this material for current and future generations of scholars who are interested in how scientific gets develop, how they implemented, how they get accepted or rejected, did einstein care about experiment or did he not care about experiments. so this is something we have shown over the last decade or so that einstein cared deeply about whether his theories are confirmed experimentally.

is very's science complicated and difficult. most people do not have a chance, an opportunity and even the skills certainly in primary school or middle school or even high school to address einstein's work in a deep way. one thing that impresses me he did not have eureka moments. maybe one, when he imagined that acceleration and gravity. -- which is which and why.

aswas described by einstein one of his great moments of insight. examplehave one other where he said something personal , or he says, my heart skipped a beat when the results came out correctly. but everything else was very hard work for you as they say in the pants.t of he sat and worked. he did not achieve great success at a very early age. in terms ofe scale abilities. he try to hone his abilities his whole life to learn new things learned thingse he should have known, but yes, that is what is encouraging for

us to know about him. that hard work and collaboration with people who know better mathematics or who know different aspects of physics might be helpful. itt one does not have to go alone and the inspiration does not bring great results. but hard work does. the c-span cities tour has made 24 stops this year. a look at highlights from the year continued as we take you to milwaukee, wisconsin. ♪

>> this is the photograph of the lynching that occurred on august 7, 1930 in indiana. james cameron was 16 at the time was supposed to be the third person hanging from the tree, but he miraculously survived the lynching. 19,two friends were 18 and killed that day by a mob estimated to be between 10000 and 15,000 angry whites. identified as a southern lynching, but it actually was in southern indiana that it took place. memoir andbook, a memories of surviving a lynching. he started to write those when he was in jail awaiting his trial. when he was finally convicted

and sent to prison, he finished writing the book. james cameron was actually born in wisconsin february 20 5, 1914. his dadly moved around, was a barber and they eventually made their way to indiana. he grew up in indiana. as an adult, he moved to milwaukee in 1952 and made this his home for the rest of his life. when he was growing up in indiana when the family moved there, indiana was a state that did not have a significant number of african-american people. primarily because back in the 1850's, they banned black people from living in the state with their constitution. they did not have a great many blacks in the state, and the town that he lived in was a mixed, small industrial town. a local factory with a lot of farmers and farmland around marion, indiana. it was a state that had very

mixed reviews from blacks because of the racial dynamics of the state. and 19 30's, indiana had more ku klux klan members than any other state. so a very heavy presence of ku klux klan there and really made indiana not a very attractive state for people -- black people to live in. the night that the lynchings took place, the day before, james cameron known as jimmy or apples. he was hanging out and two of his friends pulled up in a car. and tommy,s, abe n and they asked the want to go for a ride, and he is like sure. as they are driving, they go out andhe river outside of town they tell them on the way there, we are going to rob somebody and get some money to get another

car. and he was like a, i did not come along for this. but he stayed in the car. when i got down to the river, there was a car parked, and they said we want you to go over to the car and rob people in the car. we will give you this gun, go over, open this door, and say stick them up to the people in the car. he was nervous and did not want to do it, but he let the peer pressure get the best of him. he opened the car door and as soon as he opened the door, he recognized the man in the car as was-year-old white guy that one of his friends in town, the best tipper for the shoe and -- forhoeshine stand the shoeshine stand. he took off running and he continued to run all the way home. the authorities realized to the three boys were pretty soon after the shooting took lace. the farmer across the road heard the shots, came to mr. dieter's

doctor inhim to a town, and before he passed away, he identified the three boys, cameron, abe, and tommy. they went and arrested the three of them almost immediately. once word spread around town and some of the neighboring communities that mr. dieter passed away, somebody put his bloody shirt, they hung it outside of the window to inflame the crowd, and then a rumor spread that they had sexually assaulted mary who was in the car with mr. dieter, even though they did not touch are. the next morning, there was a crowd of thousands of whites in town, and they were intent on taking the three boys out of jail and lynching them. eventually, they went in and murdered both oabe and tommy and hung them on a maple tree right next to the courthouse. they went and lastly to get

cameron, and they had the rope around his neck, they were dragging him through the crowd, people were punching them, spitting on him, kicking him and calling him names, and he recognized a lot of the faces in the crowd. these are people that he knew. as he approached the tree, he looked up and saw abe and tommy dead in the tree, and he said a prayer to god. he asked god to forgive him for his sins, and then he said he heard a soft voice that came over the crowd that was really very loud and boisterous, and .hanting became very quiet he said he heard a voice that said leave this young man alone, he had nothing to do with these crimes. miraculously, they let him go. they allowed him to get back to the jail. beaten very badly, he lost a kidney as a result, and the sheriff's not come out of the jail to take him to a

neighboring community -- the sheriff snuck him out of the jail to take him to a neighboring community. he waited a year before the trial, and he was tried as an accessory before the act of manslaughter. he was convicted and sentenced to four to 21 years in prison. served four years before receiving his pardon. the photograph which depicts itm hanging from the tree, was taken by a local photographer who staged the photograph. he had some branches cut off of the tree to get a better view, he put lights and behind the bodies, and asked people to pose. he took a photograph and sold thousands of copies of it. seven years after the photograph was taken, a young jewish guy saw the photograph and he thought it was a lynching in the south. he wrote a poem called "bitter

fruit." he turned that into a song called "strange fruit." billie holiday performed it. in thes swinging southern breeze hanging from the poplar tree ♪ he wanted it published was he realized that lynching was such an important part of american history, and a part that is never taught in schools. he wanted people to get an eyewitness account for the survivor of a lynching to see the dynamics of what a lynching were. he opened up a museum to tell those stories to humanize the victims of lynching so people would not just see them as a name on a piece of paper or a photograph of the person murdered.

he really wanted to humanize the victims of lynchings so we could develop a greater understanding of what happened in that time, what led to the lynchings, how widespread they were, and really just understand that it is another part of american history. most americans have been led to believe that lynching was a southern institution, but it occurred all over the country. the lynching of cameron was in north central indiana. there are several other famous lynching photographs. there is a famous one from omaha, nebraska. there is a famous one from duluth, minnesota. people here in milwaukee, they are not aware that there was a lynching in milwaukee in 1861 for a young man named james marshall clark in milwaukee. when you look at lynching, there were over 5000 documented cases of lynching and many, many others that were never documented -- the documentation

came from a variety of sources. the naacp cap to a database, tuskegee institute cap a database, and then in chicago, a newspaper also kept a database. most lynchings that we know about came from stories in newspapers. types of a variety of lynchings that occurred. you had some that were small parties of people that took somebody in the back woods and murdered them. you had others known as spectacle lynchings were literally thousands of people, all of the people in the community who were white are going to be there and part of the festive environment. people from neighboring communities are going to come into that town for the lynchings. they think it was just this angry event, but it was a very festive event for the people participating. in marion, all of the blacks in marion literally had to leave town because they were frightened they would be victimized. they left for a couple of days

before they came back. 1979, he took a really important trip. -- het o on a tri went on a trip to the holy land. of 68 years, as they were standing in his garden, he said, you know what, we need a museum like this in america to tell what happened to black people and all of the freedom loving white people who helped us along our way. that was the genesis of his beginning to think about starting a museum and giving it the name that he gave it. eight years later, about eight and a half years later, he opened the museum on juneteenth on 1988. the museum never really had financial support to build an endowment. the recession after the 9/11 attacks, the great recession in 2007, dr. cameron passing away

in 2006 -- all of those things negatively impacted the museum's ability to stay open, and we are forced to close the building in september 2008 because we ran out of money. a very goods in place now because we were able to kind of continue doing dr. cameron's work after the physical museum closed. just a couple of years ago, there were talks of someone building a new building that would have some space for the new black holocaust museum. here we are in that space now. installing exhibits and hoping to open the museum sometime this year. we are excited about the opportunity to continue dr. cameron's work in a way we were never able to do it before with a worldwide reach, with the new physical museum, and still have our online presence as well. cities tour programs air on book tv and

american history tv. upcoming stops in wyoming, ohio, michigan, south dakota, colorado, and indiana. watch any of the segments by going to c-span our work -- c-span.org/citiestour. >> today, we are live with former vice president joe biden 2:30 easternn at for their campaign stop in marshalltown, iowa. live at 6:00 p.m., president donald trump at the lincoln memorial for the fourth of july celebration. an 8:00, former speechwriters for bill clinton, and michelle obama discuss their work and white house stories at the university of chicago institute of politics. watch today on c-span. ♪ travelingpan bus is across the country, asking folks

what does it mean to be an american. means youn american understand the importance of individual freedoms and liberties that can make everything in society possible. our freedom of thought and expression are what make our equality and opportunity so unique in this country, and can better everyone's life are being an american. >> when i think of an american, i think of someone who does the right thing. who defends their rights, who defends their family, and family is a big, big part of being an american because we are all in this together. whenever i see someone, i try to help them out as much as i can, and i always see others who help out those who are less fortunate, and that is what i think of. i think of the military, i think of all of the sacrifice that has come along for being an american. >> to me, america is the greatest country on earth for

this time and place in history. to be an american means to be a part of that greatness, and also believe that great countries come and go. where greatness comes, in order toty maintain that greatness, you have to help others also achieve greatness. >> i think the question of what does it mean to be an american, i think it means you are free. you are free to pursue your dreams. your passions. and also free to speak your mind. and free to live your life. i also think it means responsibility, meaning you are responsible to contribute to our society, be productive, be passionate, be creative. >> voices from the road on c-span. ♪ on wednesday, democratic presidential candidate senator kamala harris of california held a town hall meeting in des moines, iowa.