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Louis Stokes was elected to the U.S. Congress from Ohio in 1969 and served for 30 years – a record tenure, at the time, for an African-American in the House of Representatives. In this oral history from the collection of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Stokes details his journey from a Depression era childhood in Cleveland to the halls of Congress. And he recalls the founding of the caucus – which marks its 40th anniversary in 2011 – and early strategies to gain political power and influence.

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Charles Rangel entered the Congress as a representative from New York in 1971 and eventually served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He lost that position after ethics violation charges surfaced – and his colleagues voted in early December 2010 to censure him. In this oral history from the collection of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Rangel recalls his political career and the founding of the caucus – which marks its 40th anniversary in 2011.

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The Rev. Walter Fauntroy served as the District of Columbia’s first delegate to Congress from 1971 to 1991, and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. In this oral history from the collection of the CBC Foundation, Fauntroy talks about his civil rights work and his political career.

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Yvonne Brathwaite Burke served in the United States House of Representatives from California in the 1970s. In this never before televised oral history from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, she recalls the work of the caucus, her efforts on behalf of displaced homemakers, and an unlikely political battle to save the Capitol beauty shop for working women.

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on James Garfield's life and career. Historians discussed Garfield's military service, his election as president and assassination shortly after his inauguration. Suzanne Miller, the site manager at Garfield's home in Mentor, Ohio, talked about several of the artifacts and documents that Garfield left behind. 

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C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles take American History TV on the road. Throughout the weekend of May 18-20 we feature the history of Columbia, South Carolina.

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Thousands of colonists rejected the War for American Independence and many fled to the British stronghold of New York City. San Jose State University History Professor Ruma Chopra discusses the situation in the city and the perspective of those who looked upon the British as natural allies in religion, language and blood and thought the violence of rebellion was unnecessary and unlawful.

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American History TV visited San Francisco’s Chinatown to follow historian Charlie Chin as he tells the story of the Chinese in America to a group of college students. This is part one of a three-part series on San Francisco’s Chinatown. This portion of the series was recorded in the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum.
 

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Metropolitan State University professor Douglas Rossinow teaches a class on the Iran-Contra affair, which took place in the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration. The Iran-Contra affair stems from Reagan administration officials funding the Contras - who were fighting against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua - with money from the sale of arms to Iran. The arms were being sold to Iran in the hope of gaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon - hence the reason the affair is sometimes called as the “arm-for-hostages” scandal. Metropolitan State University is in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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