Georgetown History Professor Michael Kazin and Khalil Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, discuss the legacy of the 1912 election. The historians also discuss the progressive movement and how it relates to 2012 election issues. According to Kazin & Muhammad, all the candidates in 1912 considered themselves "progressives."  We recorded this American History TV interview in Milwaukee at the Organization of American Historians annual meeting.

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From the Milwaukee meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Columbia University history professor Eric Foner and University of Iowa history professor Linda Kerber discuss the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the "birthright citizenship" provision.  The historians argue that birthright citizenship dramatically changed American history for the better, and that the provision is unique to the United States. Professor Kerber also discusses women's citizenship in U.S. History.

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Delphine Hirasuna talked about her book The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946 and the exhibit based on it held at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery March 5, 2010.

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Declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995, Little Tokyo near downtown Los Angeles has been the center of Japanese culture in Southern California since the early 1900’s. We tour the Japanese American National Museum with docent Bill Shishima. He was born in Little Tokyo in 1930 and during World War II spent three years in Wyoming at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment camp.

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50 years ago, on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while being held in prison for his involvement in a city-wide civil rights protest called the Birmingham Campaign. King’s daughter, Bernice King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, joins Alabama’s governor, Birmingham’s Mayor and others for the unveiling of a historical marker aside the Birmingham Jail.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham civil rights campaign. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after being arrested for taking part in the protests. The campaign gained national attention after local officials used dogs and water cannons on kids after they took to the streets in what was known as the “Children’s Crusade.” A panel of authors and historians recall the turmoil of the time, as well as how Birmingham has chosen to remember its past. This event was part of the Alabama Historical Association’s annual conference.

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At the direction of Congress, the voices and experiences from the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century are being documented in an oral history project. This effort is a collaboration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Civil Rights Campaign in Alabama. The protests gained national attention after local officials used dogs and water cannons on kids after they took to the streets in what was known as the “Children’s Crusade.” This event features first-person accounts of the events in Birmingham that spring, including remarks by those who took part in the children’s protest, as well as student leaders of a boycott of segregated businesses. The discussion took place at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. 

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June 10th marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s commencement address at American University, when he called for high-level negotiations with the Soviet Union, a nuclear test ban treaty and an end to the Cold War.  This is a conversation with two veteran journalists, Tom Brokaw and Nick Clooney, on the Kennedy presidency and the significance of his “Peace Speech.”  This program is hosted by American University’s School of Communication and the Newseum, which is featuring two new exhibits on the Kennedy presidency – “Three Shots Were Fired” and "Creating Camelot".

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The National Park Service rededicates Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and after a six-year restoration effort, Americans can once again see the house much as Lee knew it.

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