The cspan cities tour travels the country exploring the american story as we c takec booktv and American History tv on the road with the support of local Cable Television provider we visited 24 cities in the last year and over the next two hours we will looknd at highlights frm some of these stops we began our special feature in milwaukee. So this is a photograph of the lynching that occurred august 7, 1930 in marion, indiana. James cameron to a 16 was supposed be the third person hanging from the tree but he survived the lynching. His friends, abe and tommy, were killed that day by a mob estimate between ten ten and 10 angry whites. Often misidentified as 1000 lynching. It it was a northcentral indiana when the lynching took place. So y we ended up writing a book that he called a time of he actually started to write those when he was in jail awaiting his trial and then when he is finally convicted and sent to prison he finished writing the book. James cameron was born in wisconsin in la crosse, every 25, 1914, and his family moved around. His dad was a barber and eventually they made their way to indiana so the growth as a child in indiana. Eventually as an adult he moved to milwaukee in 1952 and made this his home for the rest of his life. When he was going up in indiana and is his family moved there, indiana was a state that didnt have a significant number of africanamerican people. Primarily they didnt because back in the 1850s they banned black people from living in the state of indiana in the constitution. They didnt have a great many blacks in the state and the town he lived in, kind of a mixed down, a small industrial town, a local factory, a lot of farmers are a lot of farmland around marion, indiana, and so it was a state that had very kind of mixed reviews from blacks because of the racial dynamics of the state. The 1920s and 30s indiana had more ku klux klan members than any other state in the country so very heavy presence of ku klux klan members there and really made indiana estate that was not the most attractive for black people to live in. The events leading up p to august 7, 1930, the night of the lynching 7 took place, the day before James Cameron who is known as jimmy by his friends or apples, was outside hanging out and his friends pulled up in a car. His friends abe and tommy and they say do want to go for right . Sure, so heres this 16 year old jumps in a car with his 18 and 19yearold friends friends and as their driving they go out by the river outside of town and they tell them on the way there were going to rob somebody and get the money to get another car. He wasr like, wait a minute, i didnt come along for this. I. T. State in the car. When they got down to the river there was a car park there and they told him we want to go we want you to go to the car and drive the car. Go overcome open the door and say stick them up to the people in the car. He was very nervous about it. He didnt want to do it. He made a bad decision. 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 then man in the car s a 23 year old white guy who was one of his best friends in town, actually the best tip or at a shoeshine stand. He realized i do want to be part of this. He gave begun t back to abe and tommy and he took off running. As he was running, a short time later he heard some gunshots and then he ran all the way home. The authorities realize who the three boys were pretty soon after the shooting took place. A farmer across the road toward the shots, took the man to doctor in town to be treated. Before he passed with her that night he identified the three boys, cameron and abe and tommy as well. They already knew they werewe ad he went and arrested the three of them almost immediately. Once word spread around town and some of the neighboring communities that the minute passed away late that night, somebody put his bloody shirt, they hung outside h a window and inflamed the crowd even more. Rumors spread that sexual assaulted the woman in the car that night even though they never touched her. The rumors spread and eventually by the next morning there was a crowd of thousands of whites in town and they were intent on going into the jail and taking the three boys out and lynching them. Eventually they went in and took abe and tommy out and murdered both of them, hung them on a maple tree right nexte to the courthouse which is about a block away from the jail. They went in lastly to get cameron and did the rope around his neck. They were dragging him through the crowd. People were punching him, kicking him, spitting on them, calling all kinds of names. He recognized a lot of the phases in that crowd. These are people he knew. Somee people they consider to be friends of his. As he approached the tree he lookeded up when he saw abe and tommy dead hanging from the tree and he thought that he is going to die next, siu said a prayer to god, asked god to forgive him for his sins and then he says he heard a soft voice they came over the crowd that was really loud and boisterous enchanting we want cameron, he came very quiet. He said he heard a voice that said leave this young man alone. Yet nothing to do with these crimes. Miraculously they let them go. They allowed to to get back to the jail. He had been beaten very badly. He ended up losing a kidney as result of the beating. The sheriff snacking out of the jail laterja that night to take them to neighboring community for safekeeping, and then he sat and he waited a a year before s trial. He was tried not for the murder. He was tried as an accessory before the act of manslaughter, and he was convicted and sentenced to four to 20 years in prison. He served four years before he received his pardon. The photograph which depicts abe and tommy hanging from the tree in many indiana that photograph was taken by a local photographer who actually staged the photograph. He actually had some branches cut off of a tree to get a better view. He put lights in front and behind the bodies and asked people to pose in front of the bodies and he took that photograph and sold thousands of copies of it. About seven years after the photograph was taken, a young jewish guy actually saw the photograph and he thought it was a lynching in the south, and so he wrote a poem called bitter fruit. Eventually he turned that bitter fruit poem into a song which Billie Holiday performed and made famous. The reason the story was so important and the reason he wanted it published was because he relies lynching was such an important part of American History and a part of American History that is never taught in school. He wanted people toe get an eyewitness account of the survivor of the lynching toth se exactly what the dynamics of a lynching were. He eventually opened up the museum to tell those stories to humanize the victims of lynching so people wouldnt just see them, a name on a piece of paper or a photograph of some who was murdered. He wanted to humanize the victims of lynching so that we could begin l to develop a grear understanding of what happened in thatt time, one led to the lynchings, how widespread they were and really understanding just another part of American History. Most americans have been led to believe that lynching was kind of a tyn southern institution, t lynchings occurred all over the country. The lynching of cameron was in northcentral indiana, and are several other name is lynching photographs. Theres a famous one from omaha, nebraska. Theres a very famous one from duluth, minnesota, and believe people in the walkie most people are not aware of the lynching in milwaukee as well in 1861, a young man was lynched right here in milwaukee. And you look at history of lynching, historians tell us there were 5000. Many, many others weigh more than that i would never document. The documentation came from a variety f of sources the naacp kept a database. The Tuskegee Institute kept the database and the chicago newspaper also get the database. Most of the lynchings that we know of come from stories that were in newspapers. It would be a small account in a newspaper and there were upright types of lynchings that occurred. You and some that were kind a small party of people who took somebody in the backwoods and murdered them. Then you and others that were known as spectacle lynchings like the one that cameron survived where literally thousands, all the people from the community who were white would be there as part of this festive environment. People from neighboring communities would come into the town for the lynching. People temple to think it was just is angry that but it was a very festive event for the people who were there participating. Like in marion come all the blacks in marion literally had to leave town because they were frightened that they would be that the mice as they left until a couple days later for the came back into marion. But in 1979 it took a really, really important trip the lead to the foundation of the museum. He went on a trip to the holy land with his church in 1979. When they were in jerusalem they visited the jewish Holocaust Museum. As he and his wife were standing in this garden he says, we need a museum like this in america to tell what happened to black people and all of the freedom loving white people who have helped us along the way and america. That was the genesis of his beginning to think about starting the museum and giving us the navy gave it, and eight years later, about eight and a half years later he opened the museum on juneteenth day of 1980. The museum never had a great deal of Financial Support to make a sustainable and build an endowment. Eventually the recession after the 9 11 attacks, the Great Recession in 2007, doctor cameron passing away on june 11, 2006, all of those things negatively impact the museums ability to stay open and we are forced to close the museum in september of 2008 because we literally ran out of money. The museum is in in a very good place now because we were able to kind of continue doing his work after the physical museum closed. Just a couple of years ago there started to be talk of someone building a new building that would have some spaceil for the new lock Holocaust Museum and so here we are in that space now. We are still installing it hoping to open the museum sometime before the industry. We are excited about the opportunity to continue his work in a way that we were never able to do it before with a worldwide reach, with the new physical museum and still continued to have our Online Presence as well. In are look at some of the highlights from the lastt year continues as we take you to rochester, minnesota. Do you consider yourself a politician . Do i consider myself a politician . Well, i guess so. I have my own party though. Does it have named . Theres no president in the party. Theres no president or Vice President or secretaries. Its kind of hard to get in. Is there a right wing, left wing of the party . No, its more in the center. Kind of a upbeat scale. Most people think bob dylan is a leftist or somehow associate with the Hippie Movement of the 1960s or Something Like that. The voice of the generation of the 1960s which was a label he detested. They would look at him as perhaps a great leader of the antiwar movement. He never went to an antiwar march. Partisan. You cant stick him in depressed or republicans. And i would also see that you really cant see that he is exactly left or right. There were certain themes of the come through through his life. About is politics. The subjects are social justice, support for the underdog, suspicion of institution, and authority and concern about abuse of power. Those things are necessarily the domain of the right or left. And i say the most people have a misconception about what bob dylan is. Off dylan grew up in northern minnesota. Having minnesota. And that is a portion of minnesota known as the iron range. This kind of a specialist in minnesota. In a wouldve gone to the iron age and state late 18 hundreds or early 19 hundreds, wouldve been a hotbed of radicalism. You would run into socialist and communist, these are folks working deep underground and iron minds. This is part of the Labor Movement that existed in america at this time. And so dylan himself at one point said that more suspicious of bankers going up and communist. And of course bob dylan grew up in a jewish household is that it mayday mint minority im the iron range as well. So obviously this might have an impact to im his support for the underdog and that sort of thing. The answered my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answered my friend is what blowing in the wind in the 1960s, early 1960s, 1950s as well, the Folk Movement in america sprung up. It was certainly a by and large, a leftist kind of movement. Interest in civil rights, antiwar, that sort of thing. So you look at the early songs about dylan, weve got things like everyone knows blowing in the wind. Masters of war would be another one. But there were more topical songs, sung about in mattel for example. These types of songs were written by many of her folk centers see as well. So what happened is that dylan sort of progresses beyond that. By the mid 1960s, many starting songs that arent exactly songs you can put your finger im. Its all right mom, bleeding or right like a Rolling Stone rated they were visited with almost a hallucinatory dive boat lyric so what happened as American Society is changing people start to read in a very heavy political message in dylan at a time where if you are really looking at is objectively coming couldnt see that the songs are necessarily overtly political. Diplomat who carries im his shoulder, a siamese cat and people will resist me. There must be some deeper message. Johnnys in the baseman and im im the pavement thinking about the government. Why does it see what you thinking about the government, but you the listener then, and just your own meaning into that. So has brought really offering answers throughout the sign. His voice of a generation thing, he says the answered is blowing in the wind. Well, is the great song. If i were to make a playlist of 1960s music, that song would be im there. But the answered is blowing the wind is particularly helpful if you are surfing for answers. So thats how we have to understand his political output. Again, thats one mean join i see has brought exactly what people say. Photograph of you, you are wearing a tshirt. Nobody. Mean something. I like to know. I like to know what it represents you because you are part of that. I had it really look at it that much. I thought about a great deal. People are looking to bob dylan for the answers. It is a great thing to youtube. Bob dylan press conference 1965. No matter which one you hit, its one be great. If you start to say about what it mustve been like to have every little thing that you do or see it looked at so intently, how many times do some may see what is the meaning of the shirt you are wearing right now. Well, what you gonna do that. And just had to great im a person. I say any thinking person that was in his situation would just find a lot of this in name. I believe thats a big reason why he really got away from the voice of the generation protest music. He saw it as in my opinion anyway, a son is the prison. Once he got locked in to being this one thing, he could never get out. 71965, it was electric. He started playing electric guitar rather than just acoustic and a monica. And you into his concert, and yield at him and booed him and how dare he. And that sort of thing so once again, i say you looked at all of that and said no thanks. Is the by 1966, is out of there. He goes to upstate new york, and starts having children and start writing love songs and sort of domestic bliss. In the sort of thing. So the holo dylan. After 1966. The irony is the 1970s, join it becomes a bornagain christian, he for the first time is telling his audiences, i have the answered and a lot of people are very interested then in hearing what his answered is. In the public news reaction to the new dylan by the 1980s, even remember now where whole generation from the 1960s. So theres a whole group of kids growing up in the 80s and i wouldve been one of them, were watching mtv. And bob dylan he was a great songwriter but he has brought may be the most mtv friendly persona. Her 14 yearold anyway. So, it really depends im which public at this. Because the baby boomers are now adults, they got mortgages and jobs and not following music is closely so in some ways, dylan is flipping through slipping through the cracks a little bit. Join we are the world comes out, he is invited. He sings im that. And so has brought forgotten, but he has brought quite the same public figure that he had been. And as a dylan fan, join people find out that im a dylan fan, some people will see i like the songs but not and i see listen deeper. By the way his voice is oft awesome and very good. Its like, the coat, is broken in. And thats join it fit the best. And so, it really is the remarkable artist he is rated it might not necessarily be everybodys favorite style of music but something he has said will resonate with you. Sue neck making 24 steps in the last year, t making 24 stops in the last year the cspan cities tour explores the history and literate life of selected american cities. Next up a look look at one of our segments from rapid city, south dakota. We are here in south dakotas black hills in Custer State Park and were at the State Game Lodge which is a 1920s era building that was constructed several years before president Calvin Coolidge made his summer white house here in 1927. President coolidge andnd the fit lady Grace Coolidge stayed here for nearly three months from june through september 1927 while they were on vacation that summer. Calvin coolidge took office in 1923 when he was Vice President , Warren Harding died and so he served out the last little bit of the term and he was elected to his own term in 1924. He came to south dakota in 1927 when a lot of people were speculating we keep waiting that oneno for another term in 1928 d was widely expected that he would, but he came here in 19277 because looking for place to escape the t oppressive summer n washington, d. C. And mosquitoes and bugs and the tension of the white