1 00:00:05,549 --> 00:00:08,699 - Every president since George Washington has had to define 2 00:00:08,719 --> 00:00:11,869 what we mean by the words "We the People" 3 00:00:11,963 --> 00:00:14,781 and "a more perfect union." 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:16,808 In moments of harmony and conflict, 5 00:00:17,728 --> 00:00:20,303 of growth and severe distress, 6 00:00:20,397 --> 00:00:23,231 in times of triumph and tragedy, 7 00:00:23,458 --> 00:00:26,717 each of our presidents has had to make a choice 8 00:00:26,812 --> 00:00:28,528 to take us forward or backward, 9 00:00:29,815 --> 00:00:31,907 to unite us or divide us, 10 00:00:33,485 --> 00:00:37,245 to greet the future with open arms or a clenched fist. 11 00:00:37,397 --> 00:00:40,640 The choices they made and how they acted on them 12 00:00:40,659 --> 00:00:43,993 is the story of the American presidents. 13 00:00:44,146 --> 00:00:47,005 (melancholic music) 14 00:00:51,595 --> 00:00:55,171 Race has shaped America's story from the very beginning. 15 00:00:55,324 --> 00:00:58,658 The very fact that slavery continued to exist 16 00:00:58,751 --> 00:01:00,827 after the creation of our republic 17 00:01:00,846 --> 00:01:03,513 ensured that there'd be fierce struggles 18 00:01:03,607 --> 00:01:05,089 over our founding ideals 19 00:01:05,109 --> 00:01:07,776 of freedom and equality for all. 20 00:01:08,003 --> 00:01:10,928 Every president since Washington has had to face 21 00:01:11,022 --> 00:01:13,907 those struggles and the cruel realities behind them. 22 00:01:15,026 --> 00:01:16,785 Throughout our history, 23 00:01:16,936 --> 00:01:18,845 the rights and opportunities of black Americans 24 00:01:18,864 --> 00:01:22,198 have been curtailed by law or practice. 25 00:01:22,351 --> 00:01:24,626 Growing up in the segregated South, 26 00:01:24,853 --> 00:01:28,204 it's a truth I became aware of from a young age. 27 00:01:28,298 --> 00:01:31,466 I was fortunate to spend a lot of my early childhood 28 00:01:31,693 --> 00:01:35,044 in my grandfather's little store in the mostly black part 29 00:01:35,139 --> 00:01:40,216 of Hope, Arkansas where I saw him treat everyone the same 30 00:01:40,310 --> 00:01:44,220 regardless of their race, but when I was 11, 31 00:01:44,314 --> 00:01:47,390 I learned just how uncommon my grandparents' attitudes 32 00:01:47,542 --> 00:01:51,153 toward race were among most white Southerners 33 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:52,988 when the Little Rock Central High crisis 34 00:01:53,215 --> 00:01:54,990 rocked my home state of Arkansas. 35 00:01:56,401 --> 00:01:57,325 And for the first time, 36 00:01:59,221 --> 00:02:03,239 I saw up close how decisive presidential action 37 00:02:03,333 --> 00:02:05,792 could help to overturn Jim Crow. 38 00:02:06,986 --> 00:02:11,840 (dramatic music) 39 00:02:14,327 --> 00:02:16,994 - [Chief Justice] Do you, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 40 00:02:17,014 --> 00:02:19,072 do solemnly swear. 41 00:02:19,090 --> 00:02:22,742 - [Dwight] I, Dwight D Eisenhower, do solemnly swear 42 00:02:22,761 --> 00:02:25,078 that I will faithfully execute the office 43 00:02:25,171 --> 00:02:27,914 of the president of the United States. 44 00:02:28,007 --> 00:02:30,025 - It's an extraordinary thing to be a general, 45 00:02:30,252 --> 00:02:31,860 and then to transition to a political career, 46 00:02:32,087 --> 00:02:34,321 and it was difficult for Eisenhower to do that, 47 00:02:35,848 --> 00:02:37,273 and a key to his political success is that 48 00:02:37,367 --> 00:02:38,849 he had that it thing. 49 00:02:38,944 --> 00:02:41,203 He had that character thing. 50 00:02:41,430 --> 00:02:44,522 He was a person that people wanted to be around, 51 00:02:44,616 --> 00:02:46,333 and that's just political gold. 52 00:02:48,937 --> 00:02:51,955 Eisenhower's presidency is a really important one 53 00:02:52,107 --> 00:02:54,007 in the history of race relations in America. 54 00:02:55,385 --> 00:02:58,703 - As we move through the mid to late-1950s, 55 00:02:58,722 --> 00:03:01,223 the period he becomes president, 56 00:03:01,374 --> 00:03:04,041 America had come out of World War II 57 00:03:04,061 --> 00:03:09,231 feeling confident and powerful, had conquered fascism. 58 00:03:10,642 --> 00:03:13,309 incomes were increasing a growing middle-class. 59 00:03:13,403 --> 00:03:17,239 Lots of things were getting better for a number of people 60 00:03:17,466 --> 00:03:19,741 which is in part also why the civil rights movement 61 00:03:19,968 --> 00:03:21,985 is so important because there were things 62 00:03:22,079 --> 00:03:25,038 that weren't getting better for a whole number of people. 63 00:03:28,477 --> 00:03:30,210 - Eisenhower grew up in Abilene, Kansas. 64 00:03:33,590 --> 00:03:38,501 He had no black friends. (melancholic music) 65 00:03:38,595 --> 00:03:43,265 He then went on to a career in the segregated US military. 66 00:03:46,770 --> 00:03:50,755 So in a sense, he really had no notion of what it was like 67 00:03:50,849 --> 00:03:51,773 to be black in America. 68 00:03:54,169 --> 00:03:56,945 - What we have to consider about Eisenhower is that 69 00:03:57,096 --> 00:04:00,340 Eisenhower doesn't really understand the lengths 70 00:04:00,433 --> 00:04:03,868 that the South will go to to preserve segregation. 71 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:07,605 - He wasn't looking to make civil rights 72 00:04:07,699 --> 00:04:10,041 his main issue in the 1950s. 73 00:04:11,686 --> 00:04:14,020 He wanted to build the Interstate Highway System. 74 00:04:14,113 --> 00:04:16,356 He wanted to get the economy humming. 75 00:04:16,449 --> 00:04:19,192 He wanted to help corporate America, 76 00:04:19,210 --> 00:04:22,362 and suddenly civil rights is dumped on his desk daily 77 00:04:22,455 --> 00:04:24,531 through his eight-year presidency. 78 00:04:24,624 --> 00:04:27,033 - Dwight Eisenhower might not have been interested 79 00:04:27,126 --> 00:04:28,977 in claiming civil rights as his own issue, 80 00:04:29,204 --> 00:04:31,629 but civil rights was interested in Eisenhower, 81 00:04:31,723 --> 00:04:34,874 and it came to him in 1957, 82 00:04:34,967 --> 00:04:36,651 at the town of Little Rock, Arkansas. 83 00:04:39,806 --> 00:04:42,640 (dramatic music) (people shouting) 84 00:04:42,734 --> 00:04:44,492 This was a explosive moment 85 00:04:44,644 --> 00:04:47,220 in the modern civil rights movement. 86 00:04:47,313 --> 00:04:48,738 - In order to understand Little Rock, 87 00:04:48,890 --> 00:04:53,626 you have to start in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education. 88 00:04:56,006 --> 00:04:58,064 Now, Brown v. Board of Education rules that 89 00:04:58,157 --> 00:05:03,069 separate but equal is in fact not equal 90 00:05:03,738 --> 00:05:05,347 and ends segregation in education. 91 00:05:06,758 --> 00:05:08,350 This becomes the law of the land. 92 00:05:11,188 --> 00:05:12,762 - It's one of the most important decisions 93 00:05:12,914 --> 00:05:14,356 of the 20th century, 94 00:05:14,583 --> 00:05:16,340 and it would shape race relations in America 95 00:05:16,434 --> 00:05:17,609 for the rest of the century. 96 00:05:19,011 --> 00:05:21,345 It was the direct existential threat 97 00:05:21,439 --> 00:05:22,989 to the Southern way of life. 98 00:05:25,351 --> 00:05:27,093 (dramatic music) 99 00:05:27,186 --> 00:05:28,828 Eisenhower wanted things to go slow. 100 00:05:31,541 --> 00:05:34,617 He feared that all of his Southern friends 101 00:05:34,769 --> 00:05:36,936 would stand up and say, "This is an outrage, 102 00:05:37,029 --> 00:05:39,697 "that this is an invasion of our state's rights. 103 00:05:39,716 --> 00:05:41,791 "This is going to set off racial conflict. 104 00:05:41,943 --> 00:05:43,960 "This is gonna be destabilizing." 105 00:05:44,112 --> 00:05:45,778 And as it turned out, Eisenhower was right. 106 00:05:45,872 --> 00:05:49,391 (shutter clicking) (melancholic music) 107 00:05:49,542 --> 00:05:52,227 - Eisenhower really didn't want to be involved 108 00:05:52,454 --> 00:05:55,379 in trying to solve the country's racial problems, 109 00:05:55,473 --> 00:05:57,065 but in assessing the situation, 110 00:05:57,292 --> 00:06:01,127 Eisenhower was animated by the fear of chaos 111 00:06:01,220 --> 00:06:02,979 if he did not bring the full authority 112 00:06:03,131 --> 00:06:06,699 of the federal government to play in this particular crisis. 113 00:06:09,246 --> 00:06:13,731 - Now increasingly, what we end up seeing is that schools 114 00:06:13,750 --> 00:06:18,086 become contested spaces of segregation and inequality, 115 00:06:19,572 --> 00:06:22,257 and this is the case in Little Rock, Arkansas. 116 00:06:24,319 --> 00:06:27,153 Little Rock prides itself on being essentially 117 00:06:27,246 --> 00:06:31,266 a moderate city where people have gotten along, 118 00:06:32,919 --> 00:06:35,178 but things are very different when we get into 119 00:06:35,330 --> 00:06:37,772 the intimate space of the school. 120 00:06:39,334 --> 00:06:41,943 Now predictably, Brown v. Board of Education, 121 00:06:42,094 --> 00:06:44,687 it creates an explosive situation 122 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:48,508 where nine black children 123 00:06:48,601 --> 00:06:52,436 go into a situation where white segregationists, 124 00:06:53,790 --> 00:06:58,275 a white mob, have essentially gotten together to conspire 125 00:06:58,369 --> 00:07:00,036 to prevent these black children 126 00:07:00,130 --> 00:07:02,446 from coming into the schools. 127 00:07:02,466 --> 00:07:07,385 (dramatic music) (people shouting) 128 00:07:09,364 --> 00:07:12,474 - So the Little Rock Nine are a collection of young people, 129 00:07:12,625 --> 00:07:14,809 and that's really important to know, young people, 130 00:07:16,387 --> 00:07:18,980 who were selected through a vetting process 131 00:07:19,207 --> 00:07:24,377 by the local NAACP to challenge the, or frankly, 132 00:07:24,395 --> 00:07:27,489 to be the Guinea pigs to integrate Central High School 133 00:07:27,716 --> 00:07:30,492 in Little Rock, Arkansas. (melancholic music) 134 00:07:30,719 --> 00:07:32,994 - Well, at this moment, the governor of Arkansas, 135 00:07:33,221 --> 00:07:35,163 a man named Orval Faubus who actually was 136 00:07:35,314 --> 00:07:38,241 a World War II veteran, who had served in Europe 137 00:07:38,335 --> 00:07:40,251 while Eisenhower was the supreme commander. 138 00:07:41,505 --> 00:07:43,896 He stepped into the mix. 139 00:07:43,990 --> 00:07:47,416 Orval Faubus smelled a political advantage here. 140 00:07:47,569 --> 00:07:49,677 He figured I'm gonna get on the side of the segregationists 141 00:07:49,829 --> 00:07:52,180 because that's good politics here in Arkansas. 142 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,351 - We are now faced with a problem, 143 00:07:57,579 --> 00:08:00,188 and that is the forcible integration 144 00:08:00,415 --> 00:08:02,690 of the public schools of Little Rock 145 00:08:02,842 --> 00:08:05,509 against the overwhelming sentiment 146 00:08:05,603 --> 00:08:07,153 of the people of the area. 147 00:08:08,865 --> 00:08:11,348 - Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard 148 00:08:11,368 --> 00:08:14,277 to come to the school and to stand guard, 149 00:08:14,429 --> 00:08:17,597 and their role allegedly was to keep the peace, but in fact, 150 00:08:17,690 --> 00:08:19,207 their role was to make it impossible 151 00:08:19,358 --> 00:08:21,284 for the Little Rock Nine, the nine black students, 152 00:08:21,378 --> 00:08:23,527 to come into the school. 153 00:08:23,547 --> 00:08:27,790 (dramatic music) (people shouting) 154 00:08:27,942 --> 00:08:32,345 - There must have been 1,000 Arkansas National Guardsmen, 155 00:08:33,948 --> 00:08:36,140 and their job was to keep us out. 156 00:08:37,394 --> 00:08:40,636 (dramatic music) (people shouting) 157 00:08:40,789 --> 00:08:44,148 So the first day, we were barred. 158 00:08:45,068 --> 00:08:47,068 We didn't go into class. 159 00:08:48,405 --> 00:08:52,198 There were people who wanted to lynch us. 160 00:08:53,968 --> 00:08:58,580 - They're not simply met with armed forces or local police. 161 00:08:58,807 --> 00:09:01,249 They are met with a mob, and they are met with violence. 162 00:09:02,919 --> 00:09:03,976 What the mob is doing 163 00:09:04,070 --> 00:09:06,904 is ensuring that the racial hierarchy 164 00:09:06,998 --> 00:09:11,759 of Little Rock, Arkansas is upheld, and it escalates. 165 00:09:11,986 --> 00:09:15,597 It escalates and it continues to grow and grow and grow. 166 00:09:17,917 --> 00:09:19,601 - [Douglas] So Eisenhower is certainly 167 00:09:19,752 --> 00:09:21,494 being brought up to speed, 168 00:09:21,587 --> 00:09:24,347 and I'm sure he's being shown the movie clips 169 00:09:24,441 --> 00:09:26,274 or the film clips. 170 00:09:26,425 --> 00:09:28,851 - [Will] And now, Eisenhower began to see the images, 171 00:09:29,003 --> 00:09:33,522 and there are some searing photographs of white students, 172 00:09:33,617 --> 00:09:36,342 their faces contorted in hatred and anger, 173 00:09:36,435 --> 00:09:39,287 screaming at Elizabeth Eckford and a few 174 00:09:39,438 --> 00:09:41,030 of the other students who were there that day 175 00:09:41,124 --> 00:09:43,124 trying to get into the school. 176 00:09:43,275 --> 00:09:44,942 So this was an explosive situation, 177 00:09:45,036 --> 00:09:48,087 and Eisenhower was profoundly distressed to see it. 178 00:09:49,132 --> 00:09:52,375 (ominous music) (bird cawing) 179 00:09:52,469 --> 00:09:55,285 Eisenhower loathed the idea of using force, 180 00:09:55,305 --> 00:09:58,047 and he was seeking a way out, 181 00:09:58,199 --> 00:10:01,059 so he invited the governor to come to see him up in Newport. 182 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:04,537 (helicopter blades whirring) (camera shutter clicking) 183 00:10:04,555 --> 00:10:06,389 - Eisenhower leaves the meeting thinking 184 00:10:06,541 --> 00:10:09,558 that he's convinced Faubus and that Faubus is quite rational 185 00:10:09,711 --> 00:10:13,137 and will go home, and this all will be nipped in the bud, 186 00:10:13,231 --> 00:10:14,805 and what happens? 187 00:10:14,899 --> 00:10:17,241 Oh, Faubus does the exact opposite. 188 00:10:20,722 --> 00:10:22,163 He says, "All right, 189 00:10:22,390 --> 00:10:25,074 "I'll withdraw the Arkansas National Guard, 190 00:10:25,168 --> 00:10:28,336 "but now I'm gonna leave it in the hands of local police, 191 00:10:28,563 --> 00:10:30,897 "and I'm gonna leave it in the hands of the mob," 192 00:10:30,915 --> 00:10:35,677 and so the crisis escalates even further because now, 193 00:10:36,513 --> 00:10:38,587 the mob is unchecked. 194 00:10:38,682 --> 00:10:40,330 Now, they are even more vicious, 195 00:10:40,350 --> 00:10:42,517 they are even more dangerous. 196 00:10:42,744 --> 00:10:44,911 - [Douglas] Eisenhower was put in a corner. 197 00:10:45,004 --> 00:10:47,004 Orval Faubus pushed him into a corner, 198 00:10:47,023 --> 00:10:49,006 and that's not a place you wanna put Dwight Eisenhower, 199 00:10:49,100 --> 00:10:50,775 especially when he's president. 200 00:10:54,772 --> 00:10:56,939 - [Bill] President Eisenhower's been put in a corner. 201 00:10:57,091 --> 00:10:58,607 He wants to avoid using force 202 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:00,535 to integrate Little Rock Central High School, 203 00:11:00,686 --> 00:11:03,187 but since governor Faubus has now left 204 00:11:03,206 --> 00:11:05,114 the nine black students who want to enroll 205 00:11:05,266 --> 00:11:06,874 exposed to a white mob, 206 00:11:07,026 --> 00:11:08,876 the president might not have a choice. 207 00:11:10,455 --> 00:11:13,697 Above all, Eisenhower is adamant that the law of the land 208 00:11:13,717 --> 00:11:16,275 as defined by the Supreme Court must be 209 00:11:16,294 --> 00:11:20,722 faithfully executed and the Constitution respected. 210 00:11:20,873 --> 00:11:24,058 (dramatic music) 211 00:11:24,210 --> 00:11:26,452 - Orval Faubus, he said, "We'll see what happens 212 00:11:26,471 --> 00:11:28,896 "when those students come to school now, 213 00:11:29,048 --> 00:11:31,290 "now that there's no soldiers there to look after them. 214 00:11:31,309 --> 00:11:33,809 "I sure hope there isn't any violence," he said, 215 00:11:33,962 --> 00:11:36,220 "and I sure hope nobody gets shot." 216 00:11:36,239 --> 00:11:38,555 What Orval Faubus was doing was ginning up 217 00:11:38,649 --> 00:11:39,741 the hatred in Little Rock. 218 00:11:41,745 --> 00:11:45,246 - Eisenhower found himself without much of an option, 219 00:11:45,397 --> 00:11:49,417 that the governor in Arkansas was refusing his authority, 220 00:11:49,568 --> 00:11:51,085 and if he let that happen, 221 00:11:51,237 --> 00:11:54,313 so many other Southern governors would then have 222 00:11:54,406 --> 00:11:55,882 the precedent to do the same thing, 223 00:11:57,318 --> 00:12:00,653 and Eisenhower wasn't gonna let that happen. 224 00:12:00,671 --> 00:12:03,931 It would be chaos, and it's not hyperbolic to say 225 00:12:04,083 --> 00:12:06,434 it could lead to a second Civil War. 226 00:12:06,585 --> 00:12:09,270 (dramatic music) 227 00:12:11,423 --> 00:12:13,608 - [Will] Now was the moment Eisenhower had to act. 228 00:12:15,837 --> 00:12:18,262 - [Dwight] We are a nation in which laws, 229 00:12:18,281 --> 00:12:20,114 not men, are supreme. 230 00:12:21,676 --> 00:12:25,787 Mob rule can not be allowed to override 231 00:12:26,014 --> 00:12:30,124 the decisions of our courts. (dramatic music) 232 00:12:30,351 --> 00:12:33,035 - He decides to send in the 101st Airborne 233 00:12:33,187 --> 00:12:34,945 to enforce the law. 234 00:12:34,964 --> 00:12:36,856 This was one of America's proudest, 235 00:12:36,874 --> 00:12:40,134 most storied military units, liberated Europe, 236 00:12:40,286 --> 00:12:42,303 and that was not going to play a role 237 00:12:42,530 --> 00:12:45,306 in defending the Constitution in Little Rock. 238 00:12:47,126 --> 00:12:49,644 - Here, we have the president of the United States saying, 239 00:12:49,795 --> 00:12:54,874 "I am fully prepared to use the full force of my office, 240 00:12:54,892 --> 00:12:56,967 "of the federal government, 241 00:12:56,986 --> 00:13:01,280 "in order to uphold and enforce the law of the land." 242 00:13:02,992 --> 00:13:05,551 We haven't seen these kinds of deployment of troops 243 00:13:05,570 --> 00:13:10,331 used since Reconstruction. (dramatic music) 244 00:13:11,167 --> 00:13:13,501 (soldier shouting) 245 00:13:15,839 --> 00:13:18,673 - We had a real show of force, 246 00:13:18,824 --> 00:13:23,511 soldiers that were ringed all around the school, 247 00:13:25,590 --> 00:13:28,307 and we had helicopter overhead. 248 00:13:30,928 --> 00:13:34,096 When we walked in the class, 249 00:13:34,248 --> 00:13:37,859 we were surrounded by a cadron of paratroopers. 250 00:13:39,696 --> 00:13:43,680 It took the entire United States Army 251 00:13:43,700 --> 00:13:46,942 to get me into high school. (laughs) 252 00:13:47,095 --> 00:13:50,037 (melancholic music) 253 00:13:52,266 --> 00:13:55,359 And it made you feel great. 254 00:13:55,378 --> 00:14:00,289 You felt like one week, here we had a mob of people 255 00:14:00,441 --> 00:14:04,960 who were trying to keep us out and that we were now 256 00:14:05,113 --> 00:14:08,723 being able to go into the school with the support 257 00:14:08,874 --> 00:14:11,708 of the United States Army. 258 00:14:11,728 --> 00:14:14,970 I'm the first African-American to graduate 259 00:14:15,064 --> 00:14:19,567 from Little Rock Central High School, May of 1958. 260 00:14:21,905 --> 00:14:24,130 - That was very heartening in Arkansas 261 00:14:24,148 --> 00:14:28,984 to suddenly have Eisenhower, the hero of World War II, 262 00:14:29,078 --> 00:14:33,205 on the side of young people integrating Central High. 263 00:14:34,809 --> 00:14:37,067 - We received the Congressional Gold Medal, 264 00:14:37,086 --> 00:14:40,904 the nine of us, and the person who presented it to us 265 00:14:40,924 --> 00:14:46,743 was President Clinton, an Arkansan to another Arkansan. 266 00:14:47,171 --> 00:14:50,839 (people applauding) 267 00:14:50,934 --> 00:14:53,434 - 40 Years later, we know there are still more doors 268 00:14:53,661 --> 00:14:56,178 to be opened, doors to be opened wider, 269 00:14:56,330 --> 00:14:58,773 doors we have to keep from being shut again now. 270 00:15:01,018 --> 00:15:04,019 40 years later, frankly we know we're bound 271 00:15:04,172 --> 00:15:06,188 to come back where we started, 272 00:15:06,340 --> 00:15:09,784 after all the weary years and silent tears, 273 00:15:10,011 --> 00:15:13,345 after all the stony roads and bitter odds. 274 00:15:13,364 --> 00:15:16,365 The question of race is, in the end, 275 00:15:16,517 --> 00:15:18,626 still an affair of the heart. 276 00:15:20,612 --> 00:15:23,464 - And so, we wind up with this extraordinary story 277 00:15:23,691 --> 00:15:26,709 of a president who was not prepared to deal 278 00:15:26,861 --> 00:15:28,360 with the crisis of race in America, 279 00:15:28,379 --> 00:15:29,804 didn't really understand it, 280 00:15:30,031 --> 00:15:33,623 but the crisis came to him and found him. 281 00:15:33,643 --> 00:15:36,644 - By sending in the 101st Airborne, 282 00:15:36,871 --> 00:15:40,297 Eisenhower sends a signal to those states 283 00:15:40,316 --> 00:15:43,300 that will try and defy the federal government that, oh no, 284 00:15:43,319 --> 00:15:44,727 I'm going to preserve the union, 285 00:15:44,879 --> 00:15:46,654 I'm gonna uphold the law, 286 00:15:46,881 --> 00:15:49,824 and I'm going to knock down your disorder. 287 00:15:49,975 --> 00:15:51,383 It just so happens that he does it 288 00:15:51,402 --> 00:15:53,052 in defense of civil rights, 289 00:15:53,070 --> 00:15:56,646 and it's this moment that helps him understand 290 00:15:56,666 --> 00:15:58,390 what is at stake in the struggle 291 00:15:58,409 --> 00:16:02,169 for the civil rights movement. (hopeful music) 292 00:16:07,493 --> 00:16:09,659 - School integration happened in the Arkansas of my youth 293 00:16:09,679 --> 00:16:11,920 because president Eisenhower took action 294 00:16:12,073 --> 00:16:15,074 to enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court, 295 00:16:15,092 --> 00:16:18,686 but exactly 100 years earlier, a different president, 296 00:16:18,837 --> 00:16:22,931 James Buchanan, took different action 297 00:16:23,026 --> 00:16:26,435 to influence the ruling of the Supreme Court itself 298 00:16:26,587 --> 00:16:29,088 in a very different direction. 299 00:16:29,106 --> 00:16:32,682 Buchanan pressured the court to rule that black people 300 00:16:32,777 --> 00:16:37,446 had no rights and that slaves were property, not people. 301 00:16:37,598 --> 00:16:40,449 The case was called Dred Scott v. Sanford, 302 00:16:40,601 --> 00:16:42,117 and it would set back the fight 303 00:16:42,270 --> 00:16:44,712 for racial justice for decades. 304 00:16:46,698 --> 00:16:51,552 (dramatic music) 305 00:16:54,615 --> 00:16:56,515 - Presidents have to have moral authority. 306 00:16:57,727 --> 00:17:00,302 Eisenhower had that moral authority. 307 00:17:00,396 --> 00:17:05,382 He was a military leader, had a great deal of respect. 308 00:17:05,976 --> 00:17:09,361 People expected him to do the right thing, and he did. 309 00:17:10,815 --> 00:17:12,073 Buchanan did not. 310 00:17:14,226 --> 00:17:16,135 - James Buchanan was from Pennsylvania. 311 00:17:16,228 --> 00:17:18,079 He had been a Congressperson. 312 00:17:18,230 --> 00:17:19,413 He was Secretary of State. 313 00:17:20,750 --> 00:17:22,249 He was a diplomat. 314 00:17:22,476 --> 00:17:25,144 He was a minister to Russia at one point, 315 00:17:25,162 --> 00:17:29,239 and he won office largely because he'd been away 316 00:17:29,258 --> 00:17:33,743 from the country while a lot of the battles 317 00:17:33,763 --> 00:17:35,596 about slavery were taking place, 318 00:17:38,008 --> 00:17:40,826 so he never really had to take much of a position, 319 00:17:40,845 --> 00:17:43,437 but he was sympathetic towards the South. 320 00:17:44,999 --> 00:17:46,774 - Buchanan was a Northerner, 321 00:17:46,925 --> 00:17:51,445 but he had also won the support of pro-slavery states 322 00:17:51,672 --> 00:17:55,524 and was driving a pro-slavery agenda, 323 00:17:55,676 --> 00:17:59,361 and he was trying to cement that 324 00:17:59,513 --> 00:18:02,957 into the DNA of the country. 325 00:18:04,627 --> 00:18:08,871 - And he believed that this court, this case, 326 00:18:08,965 --> 00:18:12,691 and his ascendancy to the presidency was an avenue 327 00:18:12,710 --> 00:18:16,637 for solving the issue of the expansion of slavery. 328 00:18:18,957 --> 00:18:21,976 (melancholic music) 329 00:18:23,646 --> 00:18:28,632 Dred Scott was an enslaved man who started a legal case 330 00:18:28,726 --> 00:18:33,612 that is one of the most infamous cases in American history. 331 00:18:35,491 --> 00:18:37,992 - Dred Scott was my great-great-grandfather. 332 00:18:39,662 --> 00:18:43,313 He fought for 11 years for his freedom, 333 00:18:43,332 --> 00:18:46,125 and his case was a major catalyst for the Civil War. 334 00:18:48,171 --> 00:18:51,154 - Dred Scott had been born in Virginia, 335 00:18:51,174 --> 00:18:55,968 but was taken to Mississippi, and then to St. Louis. 336 00:18:57,829 --> 00:19:00,589 He also had spent time in a free state, 337 00:19:00,683 --> 00:19:04,576 the state of Illinois, and in Wisconsin territory, 338 00:19:04,595 --> 00:19:06,428 which was free. 339 00:19:06,580 --> 00:19:08,522 - Scott was staking a claim 340 00:19:08,749 --> 00:19:10,983 that because he was living in free land, 341 00:19:12,269 --> 00:19:15,196 he could not be a slave and therefore 342 00:19:15,423 --> 00:19:18,090 deserved the rights of citizenship. 343 00:19:18,108 --> 00:19:21,443 - And so it ends up in the US Supreme Court, 344 00:19:21,537 --> 00:19:24,930 and that's when things really start happening. 345 00:19:25,023 --> 00:19:30,026 (dramatic music) (people chatting) 346 00:19:30,362 --> 00:19:32,604 - James Buchanan contacts a couple 347 00:19:32,623 --> 00:19:35,216 of the Supreme Court justices because he knows 348 00:19:35,367 --> 00:19:37,051 that the Dred Scott case is coming up, 349 00:19:37,202 --> 00:19:41,889 and he tells them that they should resolve the question, 350 00:19:42,725 --> 00:19:43,557 the question of slavery. 351 00:19:45,561 --> 00:19:47,970 - In other words meaning don't just settle 352 00:19:48,122 --> 00:19:49,713 the case of Dred Scott, 353 00:19:49,732 --> 00:19:52,641 but say something that will help us decide, 354 00:19:52,793 --> 00:19:56,403 once and for all, whether or not slavery can be extended 355 00:19:56,555 --> 00:19:58,647 into the territories. 356 00:19:58,799 --> 00:20:01,075 - It was very clear that Buchanan was trying to 357 00:20:01,226 --> 00:20:06,247 sway the courts by influencing at least two judges 358 00:20:06,474 --> 00:20:08,082 to vote in a way that would allow him 359 00:20:08,233 --> 00:20:11,477 a major majority decision, 360 00:20:11,495 --> 00:20:14,755 and that decision he preferred to be pro-slavery. 361 00:20:16,908 --> 00:20:19,909 - [Melody] What is unusual is that a president 362 00:20:19,929 --> 00:20:22,388 would try to influence the court that way. 363 00:20:23,507 --> 00:20:25,507 This was so blatant. 364 00:20:25,659 --> 00:20:27,993 - On the day of his inauguration, 365 00:20:28,012 --> 00:20:32,731 he moves to take the oath and to give his inaugural address. 366 00:20:34,092 --> 00:20:36,443 (people applauding) (pleasant music) 367 00:20:36,595 --> 00:20:39,596 Essentially, he stands before the United States, 368 00:20:39,615 --> 00:20:41,448 those gathered to hear him, and said, 369 00:20:41,675 --> 00:20:44,100 "This is a decision for the Supreme Court. 370 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:47,846 "It's a constitutional decision, and whatever they decide, 371 00:20:47,865 --> 00:20:51,683 "I'm going to cheerfully accept it," when in fact, 372 00:20:51,702 --> 00:20:53,961 he already knew what that decision was going to be 373 00:20:55,706 --> 00:20:58,948 because he had tampered with the decision-making process 374 00:20:58,968 --> 00:21:00,859 of the Supreme Court. 375 00:21:00,878 --> 00:21:05,764 (people shouting) (people applauding) 376 00:21:07,810 --> 00:21:09,868 - The most important part, I think, 377 00:21:09,887 --> 00:21:12,721 about the Dred Scott decision is that it declared 378 00:21:12,873 --> 00:21:14,315 that slaves were not citizens, 379 00:21:15,985 --> 00:21:18,894 and Justice Taney went further, and I'm paraphrasing here, 380 00:21:19,046 --> 00:21:22,472 but pretty closely, that slaves, black people, 381 00:21:22,491 --> 00:21:26,493 had no rights that a state should be bound to respect. 382 00:21:29,740 --> 00:21:33,392 - Today, we're still reeling over the fact that we were told 383 00:21:33,410 --> 00:21:36,962 that they were property and not people, 384 00:21:37,915 --> 00:21:40,674 (melancholic music) 385 00:21:40,826 --> 00:21:43,177 and I personally believe that the psyche 386 00:21:44,572 --> 00:21:46,347 of African-Americans was damaged, 387 00:21:49,243 --> 00:21:51,334 and there are many people who are still suffering 388 00:21:51,354 --> 00:21:55,147 from that today. (melancholic music) 389 00:21:58,085 --> 00:21:58,767 - [Jonathan] When I think of 390 00:21:58,861 --> 00:22:00,769 the African-American experience, 391 00:22:00,863 --> 00:22:04,590 so much of it is a wrestling over who belongs, 392 00:22:04,608 --> 00:22:06,608 who can be a citizen, who can be an American, 393 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:07,868 who can be fully human. 394 00:22:09,446 --> 00:22:12,097 - [Melody] Certainly, Buchanan underestimated the damage 395 00:22:12,116 --> 00:22:14,541 that was done to the nation, 396 00:22:14,768 --> 00:22:18,545 and so what you see is even greater tension 397 00:22:18,697 --> 00:22:19,546 between North and South. 398 00:22:21,550 --> 00:22:25,627 - So Buchanan's legacy is one of pushing the country 399 00:22:25,721 --> 00:22:29,539 further and closer towards its ultimate fracturing 400 00:22:29,633 --> 00:22:31,466 leading to the Civil War. 401 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:31,633 (dramatic music) 402 00:22:35,623 --> 00:22:36,972 - The quest for racial equality has come close to being 403 00:22:37,066 --> 00:22:39,958 completely extinguished many times in our history. 404 00:22:39,977 --> 00:22:42,736 Thankfully, great leaders and everyday citizens alike 405 00:22:42,963 --> 00:22:46,314 have kept that struggle alive even in the darkest times, 406 00:22:46,409 --> 00:22:50,727 and at key moments, presidents have helped us move forward, 407 00:22:50,746 --> 00:22:52,579 none more than Abraham Lincoln did 408 00:22:52,731 --> 00:22:55,641 with the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage 409 00:22:55,734 --> 00:22:58,310 of the 13th Amendment ending slavery. 410 00:22:58,328 --> 00:23:02,497 Sometimes, presidents made what today seems small gestures, 411 00:23:02,650 --> 00:23:07,669 but at the time they were made, had a big, symbolic impact. 412 00:23:07,821 --> 00:23:10,180 Theodore Roosevelt was one of those presidents. 413 00:23:11,659 --> 00:23:15,251 The decisions he made to advance and embrace equality 414 00:23:15,271 --> 00:23:18,605 took place one person at a time. 415 00:23:20,334 --> 00:23:25,261 (dramatic music) (mechanical clicking) 416 00:23:25,839 --> 00:23:28,240 - Theater Roosevelt was a human dynamo. 417 00:23:29,952 --> 00:23:34,788 At the age of 41, he had been an assemblyman in New York, 418 00:23:36,016 --> 00:23:38,459 the head of the police commission, 419 00:23:38,686 --> 00:23:40,777 the assistant secretary of the Navy, 420 00:23:40,871 --> 00:23:44,590 the governor of New York, the vice president of the country. 421 00:23:46,284 --> 00:23:49,711 But when Roosevelt became president, 422 00:23:49,805 --> 00:23:55,434 race relations in 1901 were in a terrible, terrible place. 423 00:23:59,297 --> 00:24:02,483 - This is a period in time where all across the South, 424 00:24:02,710 --> 00:24:05,652 roughly three to four African-Americans per week 425 00:24:05,879 --> 00:24:10,549 were being lynched, violently murdered, tortured 426 00:24:10,642 --> 00:24:13,385 as a warning for African-Americans 427 00:24:13,403 --> 00:24:15,245 to stay in their place. 428 00:24:16,815 --> 00:24:20,000 Now, Roosevelt has earned a reputation of being 429 00:24:20,151 --> 00:24:23,912 a kind of racial egalitarian figure, 430 00:24:24,006 --> 00:24:27,991 but he certainly believes in the superiority of white men, 431 00:24:28,010 --> 00:24:31,178 and he's very clear about that, particularly in the way 432 00:24:31,405 --> 00:24:33,922 that he talks about indigenous populations: 433 00:24:34,074 --> 00:24:36,758 Asian-Americans, African-Americans. 434 00:24:36,910 --> 00:24:39,594 He considers them the lesser races. 435 00:24:39,688 --> 00:24:42,856 - Theodore Roosevelt was my great-great-grandfather, 436 00:24:43,083 --> 00:24:47,677 and he was, in several ways, a man of his time, 437 00:24:47,696 --> 00:24:52,682 and he absorbed many of the prejudices of those times, 438 00:24:53,277 --> 00:24:56,428 and his views on race were not what we would nowadays 439 00:24:56,446 --> 00:24:59,540 consider enlightened or egalitarian. 440 00:24:59,767 --> 00:25:02,543 (melancholic music) 441 00:25:03,604 --> 00:25:05,604 But in his defense, 442 00:25:05,622 --> 00:25:08,623 he did strongly believe that every person was entitled 443 00:25:08,717 --> 00:25:11,051 to be judged as an individual, 444 00:25:11,278 --> 00:25:13,887 and he believed that every person should be treated 445 00:25:14,114 --> 00:25:15,889 on their own merits. 446 00:25:16,116 --> 00:25:18,725 - And Booker T. Washington was one of those people. 447 00:25:21,212 --> 00:25:24,565 - Booker T. Washington was my great-great-grandfather. 448 00:25:26,217 --> 00:25:29,628 He had been born into slavery, and he was freed 449 00:25:29,646 --> 00:25:31,813 when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, 450 00:25:31,965 --> 00:25:35,242 and he was nine years old, and then in 1881, 451 00:25:35,469 --> 00:25:37,226 he got word that there was a group of people 452 00:25:37,246 --> 00:25:39,746 down in this place called Tuskegee, Alabama, 453 00:25:39,973 --> 00:25:42,991 and this group had some money to start a school 454 00:25:43,085 --> 00:25:44,710 for formerly-enslaved people. 455 00:25:46,738 --> 00:25:49,238 - He became the principal of Tuskegee, 456 00:25:49,333 --> 00:25:54,077 and he became the most prominent black person in America, 457 00:25:54,096 --> 00:25:56,179 and ultimately in the world at that time. 458 00:26:00,251 --> 00:26:03,270 (melancholic music) (bell ringing) 459 00:26:03,421 --> 00:26:06,589 - Booker T. Washington was constantly on the road, 460 00:26:06,609 --> 00:26:09,167 and at some point, he meets the president, 461 00:26:09,186 --> 00:26:13,447 Theodore Roosevelt, and they developed a relationship. 462 00:26:15,843 --> 00:26:17,934 When Roosevelt was looking to place 463 00:26:18,028 --> 00:26:20,178 federal judges in the South, 464 00:26:20,197 --> 00:26:22,530 he would call on Booker T. Washington to get 465 00:26:22,625 --> 00:26:26,275 his recommendations and to get his advice to edit anything 466 00:26:26,295 --> 00:26:29,630 that had to do with race in his speeches. 467 00:26:29,781 --> 00:26:33,300 - So the two men set up a meeting in Washington, 468 00:26:34,878 --> 00:26:39,139 and it occurred to him instead of a late night meeting, 469 00:26:39,366 --> 00:26:42,309 why not invite Booker T. Washington for dinner? 470 00:26:43,871 --> 00:26:45,720 (melancholic music) 471 00:26:45,814 --> 00:26:50,609 So he starts to send out the invitation, and then clutches. 472 00:26:51,970 --> 00:26:56,047 Is it a good idea to invite a black man 473 00:26:56,066 --> 00:26:58,141 to dine at the White House? 474 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,069 It had never been done before. 475 00:27:01,163 --> 00:27:05,999 He told a friend later, "I was so ashamed that I hesitated, 476 00:27:07,394 --> 00:27:09,561 "that I hastened to send the invitation out 477 00:27:09,654 --> 00:27:11,338 "before I could change my mind." 478 00:27:13,342 --> 00:27:15,992 - When Booker T. Washington received the invitation, 479 00:27:16,086 --> 00:27:20,588 he was also hesitant to accept it because I think he foresaw 480 00:27:20,683 --> 00:27:24,759 some of the backlash that they would get after the dinner. 481 00:27:24,912 --> 00:27:27,170 (melancholic music) 482 00:27:27,264 --> 00:27:31,191 - Social equality was the big fear, 483 00:27:32,194 --> 00:27:34,194 especially in the South. 484 00:27:34,345 --> 00:27:39,591 Blacks would never be welcome to be social equals, 485 00:27:40,351 --> 00:27:44,687 and it had to be prevented at all costs. 486 00:27:44,781 --> 00:27:47,374 (ominous music) 487 00:27:53,698 --> 00:27:58,385 If we look at the lunch counters in the 1960s, 488 00:28:00,038 --> 00:28:03,682 where we can or cannot dine is often a measure 489 00:28:04,785 --> 00:28:06,709 of equality, 490 00:28:06,729 --> 00:28:11,289 and the dining room table at the White House 491 00:28:11,308 --> 00:28:14,901 was the first battle ground in that war. 492 00:28:18,073 --> 00:28:22,467 It was a very low-key, convivial kind of evening 493 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,303 where they could talk about politics, 494 00:28:25,322 --> 00:28:28,323 the upcoming 1904 election, 495 00:28:28,417 --> 00:28:31,752 (uneasy music) 496 00:28:31,979 --> 00:28:36,590 and it was unlikely that you could ever get 497 00:28:36,817 --> 00:28:39,092 Theodore Roosevelt to stop talking, 498 00:28:40,596 --> 00:28:43,430 and the evening ended at about 10 o'clock. 499 00:28:45,934 --> 00:28:49,102 - After the dinner, there was a firestorm, 500 00:28:49,329 --> 00:28:54,107 a backlash, from Southerners because that dinner, 501 00:28:54,943 --> 00:28:56,943 that show of equality, 502 00:28:57,170 --> 00:28:59,571 was something that people could not accept. 503 00:29:01,008 --> 00:29:02,598 - [Deborah] The response, 504 00:29:02,618 --> 00:29:06,077 especially in the South, was deadly. 505 00:29:07,364 --> 00:29:12,125 - There are newspaper headlines 506 00:29:12,352 --> 00:29:16,463 condemning Theodore Roosevelt saying that he has 507 00:29:16,690 --> 00:29:19,466 sort of besmirched or dishonored the White House 508 00:29:19,693 --> 00:29:23,028 by allowing a black person there, which is ironic 509 00:29:23,046 --> 00:29:24,212 when you think about how the White House 510 00:29:24,364 --> 00:29:25,972 was actually built by black people. 511 00:29:27,643 --> 00:29:28,958 I don't think Theodore Roosevelt 512 00:29:28,977 --> 00:29:31,127 regretted the dinner invitation, 513 00:29:31,221 --> 00:29:34,372 and while he did meet with Booker T. Washington again 514 00:29:34,465 --> 00:29:36,149 and continued their relationship, 515 00:29:36,301 --> 00:29:38,443 he didn't ever have him over for dinner again. 516 00:29:39,988 --> 00:29:42,063 (dramatic music) 517 00:29:42,215 --> 00:29:43,898 - When he opened the door to the White House 518 00:29:43,992 --> 00:29:46,217 to Booker T. Washington, 519 00:29:46,311 --> 00:29:49,888 Theodore Roosevelt unleashed a chain of events 520 00:29:49,981 --> 00:29:54,392 that made it possible for what followed 521 00:29:54,485 --> 00:29:57,395 in terms of the fight for civil rights. 522 00:29:57,414 --> 00:30:01,508 It was that symbol of a place at the table, 523 00:30:02,845 --> 00:30:07,681 of being welcomed where no other black man 524 00:30:09,017 --> 00:30:10,241 had gone before. 525 00:30:10,260 --> 00:30:13,428 It was the new frontier, and once you see it, 526 00:30:13,580 --> 00:30:15,021 you can't unsee it. 527 00:30:15,173 --> 00:30:15,856 (dramatic music) 528 00:30:20,103 --> 00:30:21,419 - [Bill] With his dinner at the White House 529 00:30:21,512 --> 00:30:23,512 with Booker T. Washington, 530 00:30:23,532 --> 00:30:25,440 President Theodore Roosevelt opened the door 531 00:30:25,534 --> 00:30:27,868 to racial equality a tiny crack, 532 00:30:29,687 --> 00:30:32,038 leaving his successors to decide whether and how 533 00:30:33,691 --> 00:30:35,000 to open that door further. 534 00:30:36,861 --> 00:30:39,195 Almost 50 years after that dinner, 535 00:30:39,289 --> 00:30:43,625 an unlikely president, himself the grandson of slave owners, 536 00:30:43,719 --> 00:30:45,010 would take up the cause. 537 00:30:47,631 --> 00:30:52,392 (dramatic music) (mechanical clicking) 538 00:30:54,638 --> 00:30:58,473 - [Chad] Harry Truman underwent a remarkable transformation 539 00:30:58,567 --> 00:31:00,625 when it came to race. 540 00:31:00,644 --> 00:31:03,311 - I'm not asking you just to vote for me. 541 00:31:03,405 --> 00:31:07,132 Get out there on election day and vote for your future. 542 00:31:07,225 --> 00:31:09,484 - He was a native Southerner. 543 00:31:09,578 --> 00:31:12,987 His family were Confederates. 544 00:31:13,081 --> 00:31:15,156 Throughout his political career, 545 00:31:15,250 --> 00:31:19,477 he exhibited very little commitment, much less interest, 546 00:31:19,570 --> 00:31:23,256 in fighting for African-American civil rights. 547 00:31:24,593 --> 00:31:29,095 That changed when he assumed the presidency in 1945. 548 00:31:30,415 --> 00:31:32,340 (dramatic music) (people applauding) 549 00:31:32,434 --> 00:31:35,493 - [Wesley] When he took on the leadership mantle 550 00:31:35,586 --> 00:31:37,103 of the president of the United States, 551 00:31:37,330 --> 00:31:41,232 and he saw injustice, he took it personally. 552 00:31:42,927 --> 00:31:45,278 He had character, he had backbone. 553 00:31:49,859 --> 00:31:52,619 (patriotic music) 554 00:31:56,774 --> 00:31:59,793 African-Americans always served in the armed forces. 555 00:32:01,521 --> 00:32:04,965 In the Revolutionary War, there were African-American men 556 00:32:05,192 --> 00:32:08,784 who served and fought. (cannon booming) 557 00:32:08,878 --> 00:32:10,136 In the Civil War, 558 00:32:10,288 --> 00:32:12,097 there were black regiments that were put together, 559 00:32:15,143 --> 00:32:19,295 but the majority were consigned to the rear areas, 560 00:32:19,389 --> 00:32:23,299 and for the most part we're not in the front lines. 561 00:32:23,318 --> 00:32:27,045 (propellors whirring) (explosions booming) 562 00:32:27,138 --> 00:32:28,637 - [Chad] However, when the United States 563 00:32:28,732 --> 00:32:31,049 officially enters World War II, 564 00:32:31,067 --> 00:32:34,219 nearly 2 million African-Americans served 565 00:32:34,237 --> 00:32:38,498 in a military that is thoroughly segregated. 566 00:32:38,725 --> 00:32:42,076 They performed incredible acts of heroism 567 00:32:42,170 --> 00:32:46,397 from Dorrie Miller at Pearl Harbor to the Tuskegee Airmen 568 00:32:46,491 --> 00:32:48,675 in Italy and other theaters of combat. 569 00:32:50,086 --> 00:32:53,905 (melancholic music) (people shouting) 570 00:32:53,923 --> 00:32:57,017 - So black soldiers are returning from World War II. 571 00:32:58,836 --> 00:33:01,855 They come home expecting a hero's welcome, 572 00:33:02,006 --> 00:33:04,507 and they find themselves attacked. 573 00:33:04,526 --> 00:33:05,674 They find themselves spit on. 574 00:33:05,769 --> 00:33:09,029 They find themselves ostracized and excluded. 575 00:33:12,108 --> 00:33:14,759 - African-American soldiers, veterans, were assaulted. 576 00:33:14,778 --> 00:33:17,686 Some were killed, pulled out of cars. 577 00:33:17,706 --> 00:33:21,541 Truman saw it happening. (melancholic music) 578 00:33:23,770 --> 00:33:28,697 - Isaac Woodard was a black soldier from South Carolina. 579 00:33:28,717 --> 00:33:32,034 He served overseas in the Pacific Theater, 580 00:33:32,054 --> 00:33:36,798 was honorably discharged in 1946. 581 00:33:36,950 --> 00:33:38,449 He was on his way home. 582 00:33:38,468 --> 00:33:41,135 He got into an argument with the bus driver 583 00:33:41,288 --> 00:33:43,063 about using the restroom. 584 00:33:43,214 --> 00:33:45,881 The bus driver had already alerted local authorities 585 00:33:45,901 --> 00:33:49,069 that there was a troublemaking black soldier on the bus. 586 00:33:50,721 --> 00:33:55,200 They removed him from the bus, and in an alleyway, 587 00:33:56,152 --> 00:33:57,911 began to viciously beat him. 588 00:33:59,730 --> 00:34:02,248 The beating continued at the local jail 589 00:34:02,475 --> 00:34:06,160 where Woodard woke up the following morning blinded 590 00:34:06,922 --> 00:34:10,164 by the blows that he had received by the police chief 591 00:34:10,317 --> 00:34:12,650 and other officers. 592 00:34:12,743 --> 00:34:17,338 So it was a combination of the visceral nature 593 00:34:17,490 --> 00:34:21,843 of Woodard's beating that shocked Truman, 594 00:34:21,937 --> 00:34:26,331 but also recognizing that he was going to continue to face 595 00:34:26,349 --> 00:34:29,109 increased pressure from African-American 596 00:34:29,260 --> 00:34:33,004 civil rights groups and that African-Americans 597 00:34:33,022 --> 00:34:35,615 would engage in civil disobedience, 598 00:34:35,842 --> 00:34:38,601 that they would refuse to fight for their country 599 00:34:38,620 --> 00:34:42,622 if segregation remained intact 600 00:34:42,773 --> 00:34:44,791 in the United States armed forces. 601 00:34:47,796 --> 00:34:50,279 Harry Truman was many things, 602 00:34:50,373 --> 00:34:52,799 but perhaps first and foremost, he was a politician. 603 00:34:54,377 --> 00:34:57,695 So he makes the calculation that supporting 604 00:34:57,714 --> 00:35:02,124 the desegregation of the military will garner him 605 00:35:02,144 --> 00:35:05,386 political support in the North and amongst 606 00:35:05,538 --> 00:35:08,148 African-Americans that will ultimately offset 607 00:35:08,375 --> 00:35:11,484 the losses that he would inevitably have 608 00:35:11,636 --> 00:35:13,486 amongst white Southern Democrats. 609 00:35:14,898 --> 00:35:17,991 - So, he decided by executive action, 610 00:35:18,142 --> 00:35:21,052 he would desegregate the United States armed forces. 611 00:35:21,070 --> 00:35:22,904 Just like that, he wrote it. 612 00:35:22,998 --> 00:35:24,480 Let 'em fight it on the Hill. 613 00:35:24,574 --> 00:35:26,124 If they don't like it, too bad. 614 00:35:29,412 --> 00:35:31,671 - The executive order comes out in 1948, 615 00:35:32,657 --> 00:35:35,341 and 1948 is an election year. 616 00:35:35,568 --> 00:35:38,403 We see not only do African-Americans vote 617 00:35:38,496 --> 00:35:41,072 for Harry Truman in the presidential election, 618 00:35:41,090 --> 00:35:44,759 they change their political affiliation to Democrats. 619 00:35:44,911 --> 00:35:49,931 So 1948 is the first year that the number of black Democrats 620 00:35:50,025 --> 00:35:53,267 outpaces the number of black Republicans. 621 00:35:53,361 --> 00:35:55,937 It is a watershed moment 622 00:35:56,031 --> 00:35:59,181 in American political and social history. 623 00:35:59,201 --> 00:36:03,036 By going in a direction of boldness to act 624 00:36:03,263 --> 00:36:06,764 and act decisively on this question 625 00:36:06,857 --> 00:36:08,374 of equality in the armed forces. 626 00:36:10,861 --> 00:36:14,622 Truman really did fundamentally change the shape 627 00:36:14,774 --> 00:36:16,841 of civil rights within the United States. 628 00:36:22,224 --> 00:36:23,372 - [Bill] President Truman ordered an end 629 00:36:23,391 --> 00:36:25,450 to racial segregation in the military. 630 00:36:25,894 --> 00:36:28,636 President Eisenhower sped the end of segregation 631 00:36:28,788 --> 00:36:30,188 in the nation's classrooms. 632 00:36:31,808 --> 00:36:35,142 But in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson would go 633 00:36:35,295 --> 00:36:39,072 even further in an attempt to overcome centuries 634 00:36:39,299 --> 00:36:42,408 of deeply ingrained prejudice and racism. 635 00:36:42,635 --> 00:36:44,652 He puts the full weight of his presidency 636 00:36:44,746 --> 00:36:47,580 behind the efforts of the civil rights movement. 637 00:36:47,732 --> 00:36:49,974 (people applauding) 638 00:36:49,993 --> 00:36:54,879 (dramatic music) (mechanical clicking) 639 00:36:57,317 --> 00:37:02,095 (dramatic music) (dog barking) 640 00:37:02,246 --> 00:37:05,490 - Once you had the early '60s with the freedom rides 641 00:37:05,508 --> 00:37:07,842 and the birth of SNCC and Martin Luther king 642 00:37:07,994 --> 00:37:10,770 and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 643 00:37:10,921 --> 00:37:14,849 and the fact of showdowns of integration at places 644 00:37:14,943 --> 00:37:17,610 like University of Mississippi with James Meredith 645 00:37:17,762 --> 00:37:21,096 and University of Alabama, 646 00:37:21,116 --> 00:37:23,950 it was clear that civil rights was the issue of the moment. 647 00:37:26,121 --> 00:37:29,772 - The Kennedy administration had started to talk about 648 00:37:29,791 --> 00:37:34,627 and plan for a civil rights bill and to begin 649 00:37:36,205 --> 00:37:39,090 the negotiations necessary to move it forward, 650 00:37:40,527 --> 00:37:45,096 and it wasn't clear what its outcome would be. 651 00:37:46,641 --> 00:37:48,308 (dramatic music) (siren wailing) 652 00:37:48,535 --> 00:37:49,291 - [Reporter] Just a moment, just a moment. 653 00:37:49,311 --> 00:37:50,718 We have a bulletin coming in. 654 00:37:50,812 --> 00:37:52,145 We now switch you directly to the Parkland Hospital. 655 00:37:52,296 --> 00:37:55,464 - [Reporter] President Kennedy has been assassinated, 656 00:37:55,483 --> 00:37:56,632 it's official now. 657 00:37:56,726 --> 00:38:00,320 The president is dead. (melancholic music) 658 00:38:01,731 --> 00:38:04,991 - On the night of November 22nd, 1963, 659 00:38:05,142 --> 00:38:07,401 the day John Kennedy was murdered, 660 00:38:07,495 --> 00:38:09,996 Lyndon Johnson is back home in Washington that night, 661 00:38:12,559 --> 00:38:15,576 and he's lying in bed with his aides all around him 662 00:38:15,670 --> 00:38:20,231 giving orders about what is to be done, and he says, 663 00:38:20,249 --> 00:38:24,402 "I wanna push President Kennedy's civil rights bill, 664 00:38:24,495 --> 00:38:26,512 "and I'm not gonna change a comma," 665 00:38:28,241 --> 00:38:32,310 and one of the aides said, "Maybe you should wait on that," 666 00:38:34,004 --> 00:38:38,507 and Johnson said, "What the hell is the presidency for 667 00:38:38,526 --> 00:38:42,362 "if not to do the big things that other men might not?" 668 00:38:44,107 --> 00:38:48,109 - So here comes Lyndon Johnson who makes the decision 669 00:38:48,261 --> 00:38:51,262 that is his first act as president is going to be 670 00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:53,280 to call on the nation to uphold 671 00:38:53,433 --> 00:38:55,041 the vision of John F. Kennedy. 672 00:38:56,378 --> 00:39:00,028 (tense music) (people applauding) 673 00:39:00,123 --> 00:39:06,034 - No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor 674 00:39:06,054 --> 00:39:10,223 President Kennedy's memory than the earliest 675 00:39:10,450 --> 00:39:13,300 possible passage of the civil rights bill 676 00:39:13,453 --> 00:39:16,454 for which he fought so long. (people applauding) 677 00:39:16,472 --> 00:39:20,048 - So this is where we land with Lyndon Johnson 678 00:39:20,068 --> 00:39:23,236 on a national stage essentially saying 679 00:39:23,387 --> 00:39:27,632 I'm going to push through the most comprehensive 680 00:39:27,650 --> 00:39:30,368 civil rights bill that the nation had ever seen. 681 00:39:31,804 --> 00:39:35,873 - It is time now to write the next chapter 682 00:39:37,234 --> 00:39:39,585 and to write it in the books of law. 683 00:39:40,647 --> 00:39:43,589 (people applauding) 684 00:39:45,485 --> 00:39:48,928 - And then it was on. (dramatic music) 685 00:39:50,748 --> 00:39:55,601 - His obstacle was his own Democratic Southerner friends. 686 00:39:55,753 --> 00:39:59,013 People he dined with, laughed with, partied with, 687 00:39:59,165 --> 00:40:00,898 built his career off of, studied. 688 00:40:04,446 --> 00:40:08,281 - Senator Richard Russell of Georgia emerges over time 689 00:40:08,432 --> 00:40:12,343 as the leader of the Southern Caucus. 690 00:40:12,361 --> 00:40:16,347 That is to say, the group of Southern Democrats 691 00:40:16,365 --> 00:40:19,533 who voted together on a whole range of issues, 692 00:40:19,686 --> 00:40:22,778 but none more so than civil rights. 693 00:40:22,797 --> 00:40:26,707 He was really the guardian in many ways of segregation. 694 00:40:26,801 --> 00:40:31,286 - It was very clear that Johnson was going to have to 695 00:40:31,306 --> 00:40:35,958 push back against Richard Russell and others 696 00:40:35,977 --> 00:40:42,148 who were still holding, grasping tightly to their perception 697 00:40:42,299 --> 00:40:44,317 of what the Southern way of life was. 698 00:40:46,136 --> 00:40:49,714 - Richard Russell believed that LBJ would carry on 699 00:40:49,732 --> 00:40:53,159 the proud tradition of defending segregation, 700 00:40:53,310 --> 00:40:54,660 and then of course, 701 00:40:54,887 --> 00:40:57,145 once he becomes President Lyndon Johnson, 702 00:40:57,165 --> 00:40:59,481 not only is challenging segregation, 703 00:40:59,501 --> 00:41:03,151 but really launching a head-on attack as no politician had 704 00:41:03,171 --> 00:41:05,296 in the United States since Reconstruction. 705 00:41:07,900 --> 00:41:09,825 - Lyndon Johnson is a bully. 706 00:41:09,844 --> 00:41:12,845 He is domineering. He is forceful. 707 00:41:12,997 --> 00:41:17,517 He uses his physical space to intimidate people 708 00:41:17,744 --> 00:41:20,911 in order to get the outcome that he wants, 709 00:41:20,930 --> 00:41:23,430 and he puts all of those things into effect 710 00:41:23,583 --> 00:41:27,084 in trying to get the civil rights bill through Congress. 711 00:41:27,103 --> 00:41:30,012 - Lyndon Johnson tells Richard Russell, 712 00:41:30,031 --> 00:41:34,759 "If you try to get in my way, I'm gonna mow you down." 713 00:41:34,777 --> 00:41:37,036 - "I am a steam roller here. 714 00:41:37,187 --> 00:41:39,613 "We're gonna get the civil rights legislation done," 715 00:41:39,707 --> 00:41:42,041 and Russell said, "You don't know what you're doing 716 00:41:42,192 --> 00:41:44,935 "because if you do it, you will lose the South 717 00:41:44,954 --> 00:41:48,272 "from the Democratic Party," and Johnson said, 718 00:41:48,291 --> 00:41:49,456 "To hell with it. So be it. 719 00:41:49,551 --> 00:41:52,793 "I'll lose it, but I'm not missing this moment." 720 00:41:52,887 --> 00:41:57,223 - Johnson, for all of his pragmatic political skill, 721 00:41:58,467 --> 00:41:59,892 heard the music of history. 722 00:42:01,378 --> 00:42:04,230 - Their cause must be our cause, too 723 00:42:07,068 --> 00:42:12,071 because it's not just negroes, but really it's all of us 724 00:42:13,223 --> 00:42:17,059 who must overcome the crippling legacy 725 00:42:17,153 --> 00:42:19,870 of bigotry and injustice, 726 00:42:21,583 --> 00:42:24,417 and we shall overcome. 727 00:42:24,568 --> 00:42:26,644 (people applauding) 728 00:42:26,662 --> 00:42:33,092 ♪ We shall overcome some day ♪ 729 00:42:35,154 --> 00:42:37,988 (melancholic music) 730 00:42:38,007 --> 00:42:41,342 - So Johnson did it, and he gave the big speeches. 731 00:42:41,436 --> 00:42:44,011 We got the civil rights and voting rights acts done, 732 00:42:44,105 --> 00:42:47,756 and he also lost the South for the Democratic Party. 733 00:42:47,850 --> 00:42:49,400 Dick Russell wasn't wrong. 734 00:42:51,095 --> 00:42:54,763 - But Lyndon Johnson was right that there was nowhere 735 00:42:54,782 --> 00:42:56,407 for the country to go but forward. 736 00:42:58,769 --> 00:43:00,286 - So it's striking. 737 00:43:00,437 --> 00:43:01,846 Here, we have this moment. 738 00:43:01,939 --> 00:43:05,699 The president is signing off on this comprehensive piece 739 00:43:05,852 --> 00:43:07,418 of civil rights legislation. 740 00:43:09,130 --> 00:43:10,921 It's a moment of celebration. 741 00:43:12,467 --> 00:43:15,301 However, few days later, what happens? 742 00:43:16,286 --> 00:43:18,763 America is going up in flames. 743 00:43:20,533 --> 00:43:22,141 - [Reporter] Six days of rioting in a negro section 744 00:43:22,292 --> 00:43:24,218 of Los Angeles left behind scenes 745 00:43:24,370 --> 00:43:26,646 reminiscent of war-torn cities. 746 00:43:26,797 --> 00:43:29,106 (dramatic music) 747 00:43:33,062 --> 00:43:34,561 - [Bill] President Johnson has just signed the single 748 00:43:34,714 --> 00:43:37,806 most important piece of civil rights legislation, 749 00:43:37,825 --> 00:43:40,159 the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 750 00:43:41,829 --> 00:43:44,571 but what should have been a celebration 751 00:43:44,724 --> 00:43:47,574 is quickly overshadowed by the violence that erupts 752 00:43:47,669 --> 00:43:51,003 in the Watts section of Los Angeles and soon spreads 753 00:43:51,230 --> 00:43:53,673 to other cities throughout the country. 754 00:43:53,900 --> 00:43:56,400 The riots reflect what Dr. King calls 755 00:43:56,419 --> 00:44:00,404 the language of the unheard and raised the question 756 00:44:00,423 --> 00:44:03,683 of whether the country is really willing to embrace 757 00:44:03,910 --> 00:44:06,352 the cause of the equality and take the steps 758 00:44:06,503 --> 00:44:08,429 necessary to achieve it. 759 00:44:08,523 --> 00:44:11,023 (ominous music) 760 00:44:11,175 --> 00:44:15,936 - President Johnson, he was surprised, perplexed by the fact 761 00:44:16,030 --> 00:44:19,256 that these tremendous legislative accomplishments 762 00:44:19,275 --> 00:44:24,036 in 1964 and 1965 were not enough. 763 00:44:25,540 --> 00:44:29,616 - You know, he had a disconnect with the larger idea 764 00:44:29,769 --> 00:44:32,619 of what systematic racism was. 765 00:44:32,714 --> 00:44:34,939 He simply was trying to get a law that would 766 00:44:34,957 --> 00:44:38,033 make things better, and it did, 767 00:44:38,052 --> 00:44:39,885 and he deserves credit for that, 768 00:44:40,112 --> 00:44:43,447 but he also was somebody slow to understand 769 00:44:43,540 --> 00:44:45,057 the times, they're a-changing. 770 00:44:46,728 --> 00:44:48,877 It's an era where you have a black power movement starting. 771 00:44:48,971 --> 00:44:50,304 (camera shutter clicking) 772 00:44:50,398 --> 00:44:53,899 The fight against systemic racism had many components, 773 00:44:56,145 --> 00:45:00,314 and now, the streets were filled with anger and rage. 774 00:45:00,466 --> 00:45:05,319 - This suggests, in many ways, the limitations on 775 00:45:05,471 --> 00:45:08,730 these tremendous legislative accomplishments 776 00:45:08,750 --> 00:45:11,658 which were so focused on overcoming 777 00:45:11,811 --> 00:45:13,811 segregation in the South. 778 00:45:13,829 --> 00:45:16,313 There were a whole host of other problems 779 00:45:16,332 --> 00:45:18,924 that beset black communities around the country. 780 00:45:20,836 --> 00:45:25,672 So in 1967, Lyndon Johnson appoints a small committee 781 00:45:25,825 --> 00:45:29,268 called the Kerner Commission after its chairman, 782 00:45:29,419 --> 00:45:30,770 Otto Kerner from Illinois. 783 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,774 - And the Kerner commission embarks on a one-year 784 00:45:35,001 --> 00:45:39,019 investigation into the root causes of 785 00:45:39,171 --> 00:45:43,765 racial rebellion and riot in America's cities. 786 00:45:43,785 --> 00:45:46,527 - Problems of economic opportunity, 787 00:45:46,679 --> 00:45:50,623 of access to education, of police brutality, 788 00:45:50,850 --> 00:45:53,200 of participation in the democratic process 789 00:45:53,352 --> 00:45:54,794 and elections and so forth, 790 00:45:55,021 --> 00:45:57,371 and it was the persistence of these problems 791 00:45:57,523 --> 00:46:02,284 that explain why racial unrest escalates across the years 792 00:46:02,303 --> 00:46:04,970 following the '64 and '65 bills. 793 00:46:06,474 --> 00:46:09,457 - They conclude that America is moving towards 794 00:46:09,477 --> 00:46:13,979 two societies: one white, one black, separate and unequal. 795 00:46:15,465 --> 00:46:16,707 And from there they say, 796 00:46:16,725 --> 00:46:19,652 "The United States must take decisive action, 797 00:46:19,803 --> 00:46:23,380 "or these rebellions and these riots will continue 798 00:46:23,473 --> 00:46:25,065 "for the foreseeable future." 799 00:46:25,159 --> 00:46:29,720 - It goes on to say that white society created 800 00:46:29,738 --> 00:46:33,907 these problems, accepts these problems, 801 00:46:34,060 --> 00:46:38,228 and until white society decides to do something about it, 802 00:46:38,322 --> 00:46:40,339 the problem will continue to exist. 803 00:46:41,917 --> 00:46:46,995 It was a stinging indictment on American society 804 00:46:47,014 --> 00:46:49,573 and the American body politic. 805 00:46:49,592 --> 00:46:53,594 What's striking to me today is that so much of what 806 00:46:53,746 --> 00:46:57,022 they said in 1968 still holds true today. 807 00:46:58,767 --> 00:47:00,359 - We've had 46 presidents. 808 00:47:01,863 --> 00:47:04,864 Those presidents have all governed either in 809 00:47:05,091 --> 00:47:10,202 a slave-holding era, an era of civil war, 810 00:47:11,614 --> 00:47:16,375 or an era of state-sanctioned white supremacy after slavery. 811 00:47:17,378 --> 00:47:20,195 I do believe that fundamentally, 812 00:47:20,214 --> 00:47:25,125 the story of the country is one of imperfect 813 00:47:25,219 --> 00:47:29,555 and temporary victories for the forces of light, 814 00:47:29,782 --> 00:47:31,724 but nothing's inevitable about it. 815 00:47:31,951 --> 00:47:35,060 Presidents are people, people are people, 816 00:47:35,212 --> 00:47:37,137 lawmakers are people. 817 00:47:37,231 --> 00:47:42,568 And so, our whole history is the story of trying to do 818 00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:47,406 the best we can and resist our worst impulses. 819 00:47:49,985 --> 00:47:53,804 - More than 50 years after the release of the Kerner Report, 820 00:47:53,822 --> 00:47:56,582 it's painfully clear that the color of a person's skin 821 00:47:56,733 --> 00:48:00,402 still determines far too much about how they'll be treated 822 00:48:00,421 --> 00:48:03,163 in nearly every aspect of American life, 823 00:48:03,257 --> 00:48:05,591 but the millions of Americans across all races 824 00:48:05,818 --> 00:48:07,484 and backgrounds who continue to stand up 825 00:48:07,503 --> 00:48:10,320 for justice and equality, 826 00:48:10,339 --> 00:48:13,657 they give a new hope to a very old fight. 827 00:48:13,750 --> 00:48:15,175 We're now living through a historic 828 00:48:15,327 --> 00:48:18,996 and long overdue reckoning about systemic racism in America, 829 00:48:19,014 --> 00:48:20,998 about our past, our present, 830 00:48:21,016 --> 00:48:24,259 and how we can move forward into the future together. 831 00:48:24,353 --> 00:48:27,521 I believe Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he said 832 00:48:27,673 --> 00:48:29,690 that the arc of the moral universe is long, 833 00:48:29,842 --> 00:48:32,509 but it bends towards justice, 834 00:48:32,528 --> 00:48:35,862 but he might've said, a little less poetically, 835 00:48:35,957 --> 00:48:39,533 that actually it zigs and zags toward justice, 836 00:48:39,685 --> 00:48:43,537 and only when people are pulling on it with all their might 837 00:48:43,689 --> 00:48:45,464 to bend in the right direction. 838 00:48:47,026 --> 00:48:49,301 That means we've all got to keep pulling. 839 00:48:51,547 --> 00:48:54,974 (chamber music) 840 00:49:00,706 --> 00:49:05,484 (rifles firing) (chamber music)