We travel to bryanCollege Station texas. Coming up will feature the citys local authors including Nikki Van Hightower. Then 12 minutes would visit the museum of the american g. I. And about the role Elvis Presley played in the Cold War Army in the 1950s. Later in about 45 minutes the story of the the hello girls of world war i. We begin our special feature with the mayors of bryan and College Station. One of the wonderful thinks about bryanCollege Station come get to cities, one community. The universe you start in the 1870s, the city of brian start a couple years before. Really right after the civil war. There was a railroad from houston that was marching its way here come stop before the civil war and then after the civil war it continued on and brian for the first years after the civil war struggled to get it selfcreated but was able to do that. In 1876 the University Got its first six students and the city of brian was really getting going and airy you see around us today are still some of the first buildings that were being built at that time. 25 years ago this ferry was a ghost town. Because of the growth of the state and the growth of texas a m its critical for manual within the city of bryan. Where only seven football field away from the main campus and the line between the two cities is blurred not just and how we Work Together but its geographically blurred. Texas a m found in 1876 as part of the moral act, one of the landgrant institutions. And over time it grew but it was five miles from the nearest town, brian. Nobody knew about a town called College Station except for the fact in 1938 when some alien and professors and faculty and staff got together and said lets create our own city. So they were able to charter the city and were growing, but were going somewhere between three to five and sometimes look at more percent ever sillier which makes us the 16th 16th Fastest Growing community in the country. We have the greatest disparity of any city in the United States regarding the number of students to the number of nonstudent population. We had just under 160,000 students who are on this campus 60,000. By 2025 there will be 25,000 students just in the college of engineering which would make it one of if not the Largest College of engineering in the country. Agriculture, just as its name implies, that first letter, thats what it was all about. And while yes, bryan is a different town. You can step from one can into the next. Theres a tradeoff year. Its a compatible tradeoff because we both realize it something to bring to the table that for the good of all of our citizens. The histories of the city of bryan and texas a m have been interwoven together from the very beginning and we continue to flourish into the future with our history being intertwined. The cspan cities tour is on the road in bryanCollege Station texas. Up next Nikki Van Hightower on her book that woman. There are almost many people in city council as it were last week and the opinions which is as strong. I will take it as a discovery act against all the women of the city of houston and i will personally do all in my power to organize my own intellect more sensitive and what people. Those women who won all the rights did not need any spokesman for the bigger making themselves heard loud and clear about abortions and homosexuality. Shouting about an flagwaving makes tremendous publicity. But remember, the church and motherhood made this country. What i think . Want . It gives us a chance to do what youre supposed to do, you know, freedom, equal rights. She doesnt represent me. Why not . Well, i dont believe the things that she espouses. You think youre doing just fine without them . Im not saying we dont need she just doesnt represent me. No one knows how this all come out but one thing can be said right now. No one in City Government can remember any single issue that is ever caused so much public response. Whats it like being a feminist in texas in the 1970s . Well, i suppose if you kept her mouth shut it wouldnt be bad. If you met with other people who thought the way you did but that wasnt the way it was with me. There was a new mayor in houston. I had come back in 1974 and he was elected in 1974. And in 1976 he was elected again. He had under great deal of pressure by womens groups in houston, he had created this position of womens advocate. Part of the reason was because a woman had never been elected to City Government in houston, and so they were all men and there were making decisions about the lives of women. I got the job in 1976, yeah, 76. I was hired by the mayor, and i had a Job Description that was very general, very big. I was supposed to everybody out doing everything, and there was no line about authority i had. There was no authority. In that sense i i say it was a token position. What were some of the issues they would even with . They were not dealing with any issues. The issues that were out there was women were making far less than men. Women made about 55 cents an hour compared to what men for every dollar that men were making at the time. Women held virtually none of the highlevel management positions in the city. There was a high degree of sex segregation and that explain part of reason in pay and women were in womens jobs and i was mainly clerical, cleaning jobs, along that line, and men were in all the others, men were in the professional jobs. Also women were put into professional jobs are oftentimes given different titles. To something i ran into. Every given different titles and paid less. So a a man was hired as an acct and paid and i scoured. A woman was hired as a bookkeeper doing exactly the same thing. By this time the 1964 Civil Rights Act title vii of the 1964 civil rights i four Civil Rights Act had been passed. It just wasnt the worst and no one was paying any attention. And so i would send in reports and reports, and i would lobby the mayor and lobby of the authorities, and david listen to be very carefully and sympathetically, and then nothing would happen. Theres really nothing i could do. I have no power, no real power. It was just what it did, however, do was alert not only the women in City Government at the women in the city of houston that there was this thing called a womans advocate and they could go to her with problems. I had very few solutions for them but one of the things that started landing on my desk at the time call after call was abused women. We had no shelters. We had no rape crisis hotlines in the city. The city wasnt going to do. It were not interested in it. So i started working with other womens groups in the city that were also knowledgeable and fairly concerned, very concerned about what was going on, and we put together an organization. It was called the coalition of Womens Organizations to try to get something started. Shelters for women, information and referral for women. Because all these calls, like where do i go for this . How do i get a lawyer . Who cannot talk to about something . They were come to me and i was sitting there with the phone all my desk and that was about it. I talked to another Civic Organization of women, told them about the situation, and they set up a womens information or Referral Service and started scrounging around the city for referrals that they could make to women who needed help. But the new organization of womens groups, the coalition decided they would have a rally to talk about what they were doing and new opportunities for women, new services that were going to be available for women, and they asked me to be the keynote speaker, and i was doing womens advocate. So i went out and talked about the difficulties of women employees, the discrimination that they were facing. I talked about the violence against women and how we needed shelters and hotlines for women. I talked about womens reproductive rights and how important that was for employment and the decisions they could make in life. And i talked about the need to ratify the equal rights amendment. Well, it wasnt a week later that a a group of women and men went to city council complaining that i had no business talking about these issues, that wasnt my job. And they reduce my salary to a dollar a year from 18,000. I know they loved that. I mean, they didnt really want to fire me. They wanted to tell me who they thought i was, and what they thought i was was a dollar a year person, a nobody. Nobody told me, the media came to me. I was in a meeting of he walked in and they said did you know your salary has been reduced to a dollar a year . What you think about that . I said, well, im not going to be working for a dollar a year but but i need to go find out about what happened. Thats when i i finally met wih the mayor, and i said what is it . What am i doing that makes i thought that was my job. And he said, in that sense he told me youre just a lightning rod for the. He said you indicate what they dont want to see. Their power is lessening. This business of coming to city council and complaining about what i was doing, because i spoke at a rally, he says this was a setup. They were waiting all along to do Something Like this, and so they had me in their sites. How long did you have that position . I stayed there almost exactly two years. A little over two years because the mayor didnt run again in 1977. It was right after the International Womens year, and so he decided he wasnt going to run for mayor. A lot of people were giving him a a hard time as well. So a new mayor was elected. His name was jim macron. I spoke to him right after he was elected but before he took office and i said, well, whats the future of the womens advocate . He said, well, he said, id like something should done and he said i think we can work things out. He said i will ask you to send me a Job Description of what youre going to do, what you will be doing. He said, then lets get back together and talk again. Well, it wasnt but a few days later, once again the media came to speak to me and said did you know that the new mayor, did you know the new mayor had just fired you . And i said no, i didnt know. Ill have to go find out. So i went to his office, had to wait a little while. I said why did you do that . We were talking. I had sent you a Job Description and we were going to see if we could work things out. If youre going to fire me, that was okay, its your right to do that, but why didnt you tell me . He looked at me foolish picky saturday said oh, im sorry, he said. I should have. But there i was at the downtown rotary. Well, the downtown rotary was an allmale club, and the art anymore but they were then. He said, it just seemed like a good time to do it. I saw on the evening news and all clapped and he said he would fire the womens advocate. I thought, these powerful men and i have no power whatsoever. Why do they care . I just didnt see it. But anyway, he said, but dont worry about it, you dont have to rush out. Take your time. Nobody is going to bother you. I did. I stayed for three months. I looked for a new position. In the meantime we had set up the womens center. We had a real headquarters, a place, a lovely place that was donated to us by the Womens Organization that was 50 years past its time because women didnt have tea and do the kinds of things they have done in the past. So to let us have the building, and we got it fixed up with a bunch of volunteers and that became the Womens Centers headquarters. We got the Rape Crisis Program going 24 hours a day seven days a week. And we were able to purchase a large building for the shelter. So we had done a lot. We were raising money and serving thousands of women each year. What is your pay on the state of womens rights today . I think we done a lot. I could really feel it when i was reaching teaching my course of women in politics. Their attitudes were so different. They would talk about these issues. They wanted to have careers. They wanted to have the freedom of their life. They thought men should carry half the responsibility for child care. Their expectations were real high. They were going to be disappointed because it wasnt where they thought it was. But just the fact that they thought that this was what they could do. This was a big battle that had been one. And women, of course, have jobs now. We still havent made that big crash in the ceiling to present at the United States. Another year. Were working on it. But women are in management positions now. They certainly dont hold them as they do with men. They are elected just about all legislative offices, a lot of gubernatorial offices. There is women in the senate, so they are making their way there. Its still a lot slower. They still dont have access to money that men have. We dont have an equal rights amendment on the books. However, we have a lot of good federal legislation that covers a lot of that, and so on the whole i am feeling quite good. We are still fighting over a womens right to choose. I thought that would be gone a long time ago. At that would have an equal rights amendment a long time ago. And still there still that feeling that, oh, gosh, if we dont pin this on women, that they are mainly reproduces and do those jobs that the whole world is going to come crashing down on us, and so theres still a lot of the junk out there but the fact that women expect more and he will do something about it, not everyone would, that a lot of women will do something about it. I i scan it for the museum of the american g. I. Were up next we speak with author brian linn on his book elviss army. More candidates gathered here today then visit president eisenhower westerly. The event, the first and only News Conference that the army has permitted to its bestknown sergeant, Elvis Presley. Just prior to his departure for the United States. I tell the story of elviss army because the remark and ultimately. I was saying if you will do what an interesting and army eventually working change come social trend, military change, technological change this is the best army you can study. He got very dismissive and he said that was a terrible army. It had Elvis Presley in a bit what kind of army is Elvis Presley . As a historic i thought thats a really interesting what kind of army does have Elvis Presley . What kind of Society MakesElvis Presley serve . And what is the army that elvis enters . What does he army want from him . What this is elvis expect frome army . All those questions then spun out and became part of the book. Historically, asked today, the United States has always been a small professional force, hopefully of lifetime soldiers. Theres always been a Strong Division between officers who tended to be educated, and the enlisted personnel who tended to be tradespeople. Soldiering being a trade. That was pretty good. It was described in the play from here to eternity, so forth. Were it changed is in the 1950s with increasingly sophisticated technology. So you could no longer have lifetime privates people with a six great education who, served and societies margins. By the 1950s people that are capable of putting together a missile or a computer affixing a tank, and suddenly you have 500 military occupation specialties, and that requires a Skilled Labor force thats very, very different from the previous 150 years of the United States army. When alice was drafted he was drafted in many ways the first Peacetime Army the United States had ever had. We had conscription made a year before world war ii but elvis was in the first draft the army and thats a very unique and very distinct military force that the nation has never had before or since. In many respects it was militarily ineffective because extremely high turnover. On the other hand, it was an enormous social experiment. It was the first peacetime attempt to bring people from all over the United States from all sorts of socioeconomic groups, from all sorts of education, religions and so forth, with them all together and create a sort of National Army out of that. One thing that conscription people forget is its a contract. Theres an individual contract nowadays so anyone can do this but conscription is a social contract. The American Public agrees that at that time their male children between 1825 have an obligation, but they also expect the contract back from the army that they will be better people when they will come out. So the army needed as i said about 500 m. O. S. S, military occupation specialties. If you volunteered you had a choice, assuming you get past the Qualification Test of becoming a mechanic or Computer Science or electronics, all these very high skilled jobs. That was one attraction, to provide unskilled people with skills. I have to say in many respects it was their successful. If you look at american productivity in the 50s and 60s and even into the 70s you were seeing the results of the Technical Education program all over the place. The second thing was education, to come