St. John stretch reverent rob fischer. Law welcome good evening my name is rob fischer i am the director of st. Johns church, and i am thrilled that our friends at the White House Historical association asked us to provide space for tonights conversation. Stewart asked if i would share a little bit of a history of this historic room that you are sitting in tonight, and so i will share with you this church was completed in 1816. The architect was Benjamin Henri vitro, and not only did he designs church, he was working on rebuilding the white house after it was destroyed by the british in the war of 18. 12 in 1818, he built what is now the home of the historical association. And if you go inside the dictator house, and you look up, you see a similar entrance. Its almost like a miniature of this dome of we have in our church space. The Original Church was built as a greek cross, so it wasnt even four sides. In just six years later, in 1822, they expanded the Church Building to make room for more seating. We dont know who the architect was, who did that expansion and who built the bell tower tragically electrode had already died at that time. He had died in new orleans. And i imagine there might be some historians in the room, and if anyone is interested in helping us solve the mystery, we would love to know the bell tower is very beautiful addition to the church, and inside the bell tower, it houses a bell that was forged by paul reveres on. Joseph review. Its stamped on, it says 1822, boston review. Its not the reviewable that watch came to washington but it is the only one that it is still in his place, and being used for its original purpose. It is interesting to to think about this building, this is the only building on lafayette square, that goes back to the area that it goes back to. That is still being used for the purpose of which it was built, more than 200 years later. And im very happy to say that we are open most days of the week, and we welcome anybody who likes to come in and spend some time and be in this gracious space. I also feel compelled, to mention that it usually looks a little different than it does tonight. Stewart was telling me this could be practiced for our new teleevangelism ministry. Which i do not intend to develop. James madison was president in 1816, when st. Johns opened. And, the church decided to offer him a special pew that would be reserved for his use anytime he wanted to come to church. That will be the president s pew. Back then, there were actually boxes, and you rented your pew box. And he was able to use his pew box free of charge. He received that offer, and the decision was made to put the president s pew right in the middle of the people. Rather than up in front, which was the high status pew boxes. He wanted his pew just to be among all the other people who were here for prayer, and warship. And that tradition continued in 1842, who are the pieces that exist to who is the low that you are all sitting in, and 1842 the president was president tyler. And he personally make sure, that the president s pew would be in the exact location where the pew box had been, beginning with madison. It is a fact that every president beginning with president madison, as warship in the space at least once. Many have become regulars, some have even become members of st. Johns, during their presidencies. When detail that really stirs me is to think about the time during the civil war, when Abraham Lincoln would walk alone across the part from the white house. In the evenings, his regular sunday Morning Church was new york avid to presbyterian church, a few blocks in that direction. But in the evenings, he would walk alone across the park and he would sit in the very last pew on the south side right over there. And you can imagine what was on his heart during those evenings as he came for a little bit of space, a little bit a quiet time to reflect and to pray. He would always leave just before the end of the surface, so he could leave undisturbed. Its a prayer of mind, that the space will continue to serve as a place where people can come and have reflections can have a little bit of space and grace in the city that moves very quickly and i want to say to you all. Our aim is to be open to all people, no matter what background no matter what don denomination or faith tradition. We want to be here for all of our neighbors. A house for all people. Now, i am really excited for the conversation that we are about to have tonight. And it is important to say, it is good to remember that in those early years, those people who passed through the space, who lived and spent time in the neighborhood surrounding this building, all of those people in a matter of the color of the skin, no matter their stature, no matter their disposition, everyone was affected by the economic and the moral reality of the institution of slavery. And one historical detail that i want to leave you with, a poignant note, the second director of this church, from 1817 to 1845, his name was reverend william hollen, he would have the practice of baptizing African American babies and marrying African American couples in his home. And as the historians in this room who have been working hard on the essays that are being produced, know very well, we dont have all the records that we would like to be able to tell the story as fully as the story needs to be told. Of that time. But we have in our own registers that we have collected upstairs with church archives, we have the registers of all baptisms and all the marriages and some of them we see the notes. It says where it took place when he would marry African Americans, he would usually do it in his home, in his home and his family would be the witnesses. On january 11th, 1828 reverend halle mary Emily Matthews and william emma lane was listed in the registered as colored. And william was listed as slave. And just think, the very next wedding listed in the same register, took place in the white house. For John Quincy Adams son. Just thank you all for being here tonight, to have this important conversation that we are privileged to host. I will now welcome forward my good friend, stewart mclaren, the president of the White House Historical association. applause thank you very much rob, to reverend fisher and the people of st. Johns church. Its wonderful to be in your historic home, and this historic neighborhood, here tonight. For this very very important conversation. I also want to thank this who performed for us as you are coming in. They are a local washington d. C. Group, and it is wonderful to have them with us tonight and i hope you enjoyed their music. applause to our friends joining us tonight by cspan and on facebook live, welcome we hope you enjoy this conversation. It encourages you, along with everyone here, to dive deeper into the topic that we will be unpacking for you this evening. I am here tonight on behalf of the board of directors, the White House Historical association, our National Council and white house history, many of them are with us tonight. Welcoming you all for this wonderful conversation that our historians have been working on for several years. It was in may of 2016, at a speech at the city college of new york, and later that summer the Political Convention in philadelphia. First Lady Michelle obama delivered a speech on both occasions, that included these words. I wake up every morning, in a house that is built by slaves. In the days that followed, our phone lines our emails, our internet, our press office, or historians, were all inundated from the public, the press, people wanting to know the story behind those very compelling words. My first call was to dr. Lonnie bunch, that will be part of our conversation tonight, say lonnie we need to know more about the story. We know anecdotes but we need to know names, we need to know dates, we need to know specifics. It is the peoples house. The white house. But we need to know about the people who built the house, and the people who impacted it beyond the president and the first families. He was very generous, to introduce his historians at the National Museum of African American history and culture, to our historians and thus began a threeyear project delving into this topic. During that time, we had the privilege host the cater house, a group called the president ial leadership scholars. This is a program, it is a collaboration the president ial libraries, and foundations of president clinton, both bushes, and president johnson. They bring together these young dynamic early career leaders, and they were to program the cater house right across the part, will robson is they went up into the store, and i think they were intrigued, encouraged, maybe a little inspired. And i took us the test, that we needed to do a better job of telling that story. And interpreting that space. So we folded that story, that the cater house, and the last remaining example of slave quarters in the president s neighborhood, into the story that we are telling tonight. We previously, this week, earlier this week, unveiled our website. Emphasis on this topic, with a treasure trove of Research Documents and papers. White house history. Org, i can find you can find all of these when you go home tonight and encourage your friends to do so as well. This is not the end of what we will be doing, this is really the beginning, we are raising the curtain on this conversation, and we want to encourage it through our continued research and ongoing programming that will be and taking as well. This fits with our mission, we were founded in 1961 by first Lady Jacqueline kennedy to give a nonprofit, nonpartisan, department to the white house. Every year we provide non taxpayer funding to maintain the Beautiful Museum standard of those state rooms that you see on the state for the white house. But also important to mrs. Kennedy, was an education mission. She challenged us to teach and tell the stories to the white house insists rudy, going back to seven 1972, when George Washington selected a piece of land across the street, and hired the young irish architect james to build a white house. We do that through public programming, such as tonight. As books, publications, magazines, robust website, social media, a podcast. Many other ways, we have teacher institutes, where we bring teachers from all over the country. We engage students, and i actually have some friends of mine here tonight who are students. Reverend fisher mentioned the president s pew. Seated in the president s pew tonight, our students from Calvin Coolidge high school in washington d. C. They participated in a podcast with me, and a wonderful students and i would like them to stand. A bit here, there we are. [applause] tonight, they are in the president s pew. One thing we like to think of as educators is we plant the seed and we water the seed but may never see the results of the education. We hope one day these students and their peers are back here, maybe as the president of the United States. It is great to have them here this evening. We had the privilege of having two wonderful presenters tonight. David is the cofounder and coexecutive chairman of the carlyle group. He has been the chairman of the board and held positions with Many Organizations including the Smithsonian Institutions duke university, foreign relations, and many others. He has a heart and passion for patriotic philanthropy and invests in places involved with history, like the White House Historical association, our sister institutions that are supporting causes, Great American monuments like the Lincoln Memorial in washington, he has helped save. He has been a giver of transformational gifts that allowed us through the center to have programming like this and undertake the resources we do. We are grateful for him for that support. If you have the opportunity to watch him on his television show, i know you will enjoy that, as i have. He is recently an author of a book. The american story. And will you all receive a copy of this book later tonight as you leave. Our other presenter is the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the first africanamerican and first historian to hold this Important Role in our country. [applause] you know him well as the founding director of the National Museum of African American history and culture. He was the first person i called when this Initiative Came into our radar. He is the author of a book i really encourage you to read this. It tells a wonderful story of someone who was able to move and mix and make things happen across political lines. That is a wonderful thing, in this day and time. His role is the same regardless of who the president and the first lady may be. Our role is to support the people in the United States. He is the advisor on too many boards, including the committee for preservation in the white house, which we worked with closely. Were honored to have david and lonnie with us tonight. Please welcome them to the stage. [applause] do you think in 1816, when this was opened, that you and i or our ancestors would have been here . We are honored to be here tonight. This is a terrific place to talk about the white house history and slavery. At the African American and culture museum, if i want to get tickets to see something, how do i . Everyone has been calling me. I have tried to say that i am no longer there. I have been struck by the desire that is so great that a few months ago, a woman called and said she wanted tickets and i said i do not do that and she said, you have got to give them to me because i was your girlfriend in seventh grade. When you are 13, you remember your first crush. I gave her the tickets. So that is the technique to use. So that museum, it took you how many years to get that from beginning to end . I worked on it for 11 years. How much money did the federal government give you for that . We had one staff, no collections, no money, no idea where the museum would be. The smithsonian had 1 million to get started. I spent that in like two weeks. Ultimately, you have got artifacts given by citizens of the country. How many were given to the museum . 70 came from peoples basements and attics. We realized that the idea of the culture and history still available, we felt the only way we could do it was to get people to share with us stories and histories through the collections. You have mel turners bible. Harriet tubmans shawl. What is the most popular item . A red cadillac that i did not want and did not think was important, which shows you how many people have been to the museum since it opened . 7. 3 million. What is the average time someone spends going to this museum . 4. 5 hours to 5. 5 hours. It tells you people will spend the time to understand and think about and debate. We are pleased this has become the kind of site that in some ways almost a pilgrimage site. People feel the need to be a part of it. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with you to create that museum. The taxpayers only put up 200 million. How much did you raise from citizens across the country . About 250 million. How did it happen that this country had slavery . Was it ordained . How did it come about . You had two systems created. The spanish, when they began to bring africans, and some slaves as early as 1650. In the United States, you have the first africanamerican coming in 1690. The process of becoming a slave took time. Initially, the africans were like indentured servants. In 30 or 40 years, it was clear that africans were then restricted to slavery for life. You realize slavery is both an Economic System of labor, later a system of social control, as more and more africans come to this world. I think the most important thing to remember is slavery from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, was the most dominant institution in the United States, that almost every aspect of the culture, politics, foreign policy, industry, was all shape either slave trade slavery, the labor of slaves, or the money invested by slave. When you think on the eve of the civil war, more money was invested in slaves, in the enslaved population, then the business combined. It is so essential to understanding who we are. That is why this is so important. This is an essential story to helping us understand who we once were and who we are today. Did they work for a few years and then leave or was it clear they were slaves . It was clear they were viewed as different. The way we can tell by formal records, is the 1640s to 1660 that we see the institution of slavery. A total of 20 million slaves at one point were here. How many were brought over . More in central and south america than the United States. Only 13 of the millions of africans taken and brought to the new world, only 13 came to the United States. More were from brazil and the caribbean. That 13 became such a large portion of the population that it really began to outweigh initial numbers. Larger numbers were in brazil because they died more rapidly. The agriculture was better developed because of sugar and the like. That is where it started. The United States brought over about 800, 000, 600,000 africans, who came to the United States. They reproduced and so forth. At the time of the constitution we have about half a million slaves . A the time of the civil war, 4