Congressman John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan first entered the House of Representatives in 1965 and is now considered the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus – which marks its 40th anniversary in 2011. In this oral history from the collection of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Conyers discusses his long political career, including the story behind the creation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former President Gerald Ford. He remembers Dwight D. Eisenhower from the perspective of the Michigan congressman that he was in the 1950s. Topics include the 1952 election and the GOP’s domestic agenda, McCarthyism, civil rights, and Ike’s legacy for the Republican party. He also discusses the day he took his young sons to visit Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm, and the impromptu lesson the former World War II general gave the Ford boys on one of this nation’s most storied battles.   

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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with former CIA chief Soviet analyst Ray Cline. He details the growth of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Eisenhower – and describes Ike as a “man devoted to the facts” who valued intelligence as a wartime leader and as the nation’s chief executive. Topics include U.S. covert actions in the 1950s, Soviet relations, the Korean War, CIA involvement in Iran, Sputnik and the so-called “missile crisis.”

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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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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell. Mr. Brownell was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s senior campaign strategist in 1952, became Attorney General in 1953 and served in that capacity until after the Little Rock integration crisis in 1957. In this oral history, Mr. Brownell talks about his relationship with Ike, the election, U.S. involvement in Korea, and the Warren Court.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with journalist James Reston. He was the New York Times Washington Bureau Chief during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, and he offers his observations about Ike’s foreign policies, his relations with the GOP’s conservative wing, and the influence of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He also explains why the downing of an American U2 spy plane led Eisenhower to consider resigning the presidency.

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From the Eisenhower Legacy Collection, unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former staff secretary and defense liaison officer to President Eisenhower, Gen. Andrew Goodpaster. After World War II, Goodpaster served with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in the late 1950s. In this interview, Goodpaster explains Ike’s views of the military industrial complex, his ideas on military spending, and working with Congress. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. C-SPAN 3’s American History TV is airing a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. 

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of several key events from the civil rights movement, including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington. Lonnie Bunch, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, is joined by curator Elaine Nichols to introduce the museum’s Civil Rights Oral History Project, which was conducted in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. We’ll then see an oral history interview from that collection with Rev. Joseph Lowery who, along with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with former Central Intelligence Agency Director William Colby. After serving in World War II, Colby joined the CIA and became a strong opponent of the Communist Party. In this interview from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection, Colby speaks about post-war America,  the rise of communism within and outside the United States, and how the American government got involved in the Cold War. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. 

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Iver Bernstein discusses the causes and consequences of the New York City Draft Riots of mid-July 1863, that resulted from the federal draft for additional troops to fight in the war. Mr. Bernstein spoke at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s 2012 Civil War Symposium.

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