An a ante bell um. Please welcome the 15th director of st. Johns church. Welcome, good evening. My name is rob fisher. I am thrilled to our friends at the White House Historical association asked you to provide space for tonights conversation. Stewart asked if i would share history about this historic room, so i will share that this church was completed in 1816 not only did he decide this church, he was working on rebuilding the white house he belt the Decatur House, and if you go and sign the Decatur House, you look up, its a similar it was built as a greek cross, so an even four sides. Just six years later in 1822, they expanded the building to make room. We dont know who the architect was tragically latrobe had already died. If anyone is in interesting of helping us solve the mystery, we would love to know, the belltower is a very beautiful addition to the church. Indiana side the belltower, it houses a bell forged by paul reveres son, its stamped 1822, boston revere. Its not the only revere bell that came to washington, but it is the only one that is still in its place and being used for its original purpose. Its interesting, too, to think about this bell, this is the only building on Lafayette Square that goes back to the era it goes back to, that is still being used for the purpose for which it was built more than it 00 years later. Im very happy to say we are open most days of the week. We welcome anybody who likes to come in and just spend time and be in this gracious space. I also feel compelled to mention it usually looks different than it does tonight. Stewart was telling me this could be practice for our new teleevangelism ministry, which i do not intend to develop. James mass i son was president in 1816 when st. Johns opened. The church decided to offer him a special pew that would be reserved for his use anytime hi wanted to come to church that would be the president s pew. Back then they were actually boxes. You rented your pew box. He was able to use his pew box free of charge. He received that offer. A 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. They wanted his pew to be among the other people here for prayer and worship. That tradition continued where the pews that exist now that youre sitting in. That president was president s tyler. He personally made sure the president s pew would be in the exact location that the pew box beginning with mass i son. Its the fact that every president has wore shipped in this space at least once. Many have become regulars, and some have even become members of st. Johns during their presidencies. One detail that really stirs me is to think about the time during the civil war when Abraham Lincoln would walk alone across the park from the white house in the evenings. His regular sunday Morning Church was new york avenue presbyterian church. But in the evening he would walk across the park, sit in the last pew on the south side right over there. You can imagine what was on his heart during those evenings, as he came for a bit of space, a bit of quiet, time to reflect, to pray. He would always leave just before the independence of the service so he could leave undisturbed. Its a prior of mine that this space will continue to serve as a place where people can come and have reflection, can have a little bit of space and grace in a city that moves very quickly. I want to say to you all, our aim is to be open to all people, no matter what background, no matter what 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 we are about to have tonight, and its important to say its good to remember in those early years, those people who passed through this space, who lived and spent time in the neighborhoods surrounding this building, all of those people, no matter what color of their skin, no matter their stature, no matter their disposition, everyone was affected by the economic and the moral reality. Of institution of slavery. In one historical detail i want to leave you with, a poignant note, the second rector of rector from 1817 to 1845, his name was reverend william hawley, he would have the practice of baptizing africanamerican babies and marrying africanamerican 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 and in the church archives, we have the registers of all the baptisms and all the marriages, and in some of them we see the notes where it says where it took place. When he would marry africanamericans, he would usually do it in his home and his family would be the witnesses. On january 11th, 1828, reverend hawley married emmaline mathews and william praits. Elmmaline was listed in the registry as colored and william was listed as slave. And just think, the very next wedding listed in the same registrar took place in the white house for John Quincy Adams son. Thank you all for being here tonight to have this important conversation that we are privileged to host and i will now welcome forward my good friend, stewart mclaurin, the president of the White House Historical association. [ applause ] thank you very much, rob. And to reverend fisher and the people of st. Johns church, its wonderful to be in your historic home, in this historic neighborhood here tonight, for this very, very important conversation. I also want to thank the string queens who performed for us, as you were coming in. Theyre our local washington, d. C. Group, and its 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. And it encourages you along with everyone here to dive deeper into the topic that well be unpacking for you this evening. Im here tonight on behalf of the board of directors of the White House Historical association, our National Counsel on 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 at 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 was built by slaves. In the days that followed, our phone lines, our email, our internet, our press office, our 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 this story. We know anecdotes, but we need to know names, we need to know dates, we need to know specifics. Its the peoples house, the white house, but we need to know about the people that built the house. And the people that impacted it beyond the president and the first families. He was very generous to introduce his historians at the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture to our historians and thus began a threeyear project, delving into this topic. During that time, we had the privilege to host a Decatur House, a group called the president ial leadership scholars. This is a program that is a collaboration of the president ial libraries and foundations of president s clinton, both bushes, and president johnson. And they bring together these young, dynamic early career leaders. And they were at a program at Decatur House right across the park where, as rob said, is our headquarters. They went up into the historic slave quarters that night and i think they were intrigued, encouraged, maybe a little inspired, but they took us to task that we needed to do a better job of telling that story and interpreting that space. So we folded that story of Decatur House and the last remaining example of slave quarters in the president s neighborhood into this story that were telling tonight. We previously, this week, earlier this week, unveiled our website, emphasis on this topic with a treasuretrove of Research Documents and papers and at whitehousehistory. Org, you can find all of those when you go home tonight and encourage your friends to do so as well. This is not the end of what well be doing. This is really the beginning. Were raising the curtain on this conversation and we want to encourage it through our continued research and Ongoing Program that well be undertaking, as well. This fits with our mission. We were founded in 1961 by first Lady Jacqueline kennedy, to be the nonprofit, nonpartisan partner to the white house. Every year, we provide nontaxpayerfunding to maintain the Beautiful Museum standard of those state rooms that you see on the main floor of the white house. But also important to miss kennedy was an education mission. She challenged us to teach and tell the stories of the white house and its history going back to 1792 when George Washington selected that piece of land across the street and hired the young irish architect james hoben to build the white house. We do that through building programs, such as tonight, our books, publications, quarterly magazine, our 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. Well, seated in the president s pew tonight are students from Calvin Coolidge high school in washington, d. C. They participated in a podcast with me and wonderful students. And i would like them to stand. Are they here . [ applause ] there we are. And so tonight, theyre in the president s pew. And one thing we like to think of as educators, as we plant the seed and we water the seed, but we may never see the results of that education. And we hope one day, these students and their peers are back here, maybe as president of the United States, sitting in the president s pew. So theyre great friends of mine and its great to have them here this evening. We have the privilege of having two wonderful presenters tonight, David Rubenstein is the cofounder and coexecutive chairman of the carlyle group. He has been the chairman of the board and held senior governance positions with Many Organizations that youre very familiar with, including the Smithsonian Institution, the john f. Kennedy memorial performing arts center, which is the living memorial for president kennedy, the harvard corporation, duke university, council on foreign relations, and many others. He has a heart and a passion for patriotic philanthropy. And he invests in places that are involved in history like the White House Historical association, our sister institutions that are supporting history causes, Great American monuments like the Lincoln Memorial and the washington monument, he has helped save. He has been a giver of transformational gifts that allow us through the david m. Rubenstein National Center for white house history to have programming like this and undertake the research that we do. Were very, very grateful to him for that support. If youve had the opportunity to watch him on his television show, on the bloomberg network, peertopeer conversations with David Rubenstein, i know you will enjoy that, as i have. He is the recent hes recently an author of a book, the american story conversations with master historians. And through his generosity, you will all be receiving a copy of this book as you leave tonight. [ applause ] our other presenter tonight is dr. Lonnie bunch, who is the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Hes the first africanamerican and the first historian to hold this very Important Role in our country. [ applause ] you know him well as the founding director of the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture. And as i mentioned earlier, he was the very first person i called when this Initiative Came on to our radar screen. He, too, is the author of a new book, a fools errand creating the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture in the age of bush, obama and trump. And i really encourage you to read this because it tells the amazing story of someone who is able to move and mix and make things happen across political lines and beliefs. And thats a wonderful thing in this day in time. And his role, as is our role at the White House Historical association is the same regardless of who the president and the first lady may be. Our role is to support the people of the United States and the resources that they have here in washington, the Smithsonian Institution and the historic white house. He is the adviser to many boards, including the committee for the preservation of the white house, which we work with very closely and collaboratively. And we are really thrilled and honored to have both David Rubenstein and lonnie bunch with us here tonight. Please join me in welcoming to the stage. [ applause ] so, lonnie, you think in 1816, when this was opened for james madison, you or i or the ancestors would have been here . The back door, right. So were very honored to be here tonight and this is an Historic Place and a terrific place to talk about the white house, the history and slavery related to it. Just before i dig into that, though, at the africanAmerican History and culture museum, i want to get tickets to go and see something, how do i get tickets to go . Because everybody wants to go see this museum. Well, everybody has been calling me, and ive tried to say that im no longer there. But what ive been struck by is the desire is so great that a few months ago a woman called and said she wanted tickets. And i said, you know, i dont do that. And she said, youve got to give them to me, because i was your girlfriend in seventh grade. Now, i got to be honest, when youre 13, you remember every crush. I didnt know that person from adam, but i gave her the tickets because it was a good tie. So thats the technique that people should use if they want tickets. So that museum, it took you how he many years to get that from beginning to end . I worked on it for 11 years. 11 years. When you took the job, how much money did the federal government give you for that . When we began, 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. So ultimately, you got artifacts largely given by citizens of our country. How many artifacts and historic things did you bring to the museum . We collected nearly 40,000 artifacts, of which 70 came from the basements, trunks, and attics of peoples homes. We realized that the idea that this culture, this history was still available, we felt the only way we could do it, if we could get people to share with us their stories, their families, their histories through those collections. So among the things you have is you have nat turners bible, Harriet Tubmans shawl, but the most popular item in the museum is which one . Chuck berrys candy apple red cadillac. An artifact that i did not want, did not think it was important, which shows you my leadership skills. And how many people have been to the museum since it opened . About 7. 3 million. And the average person who goes to a Smithsonian Museum spends about an hour and a half there. What is the average time someone spends going to this museum . 4 1 2 to 5 1 2 hours. So it really is it tells you that if you Craft Stories in a dramatic way that people will spend the time to understand, to think about and to debate. So were really pleased its become the kind of site in some ways almost a pilgrimage site that people feel the need to be part of. So were really grateful to have the opportunity to work with people like you and the gifted staff to create that museum. So the federal government ultimately put up 272 million, the taxpayers. How much have you raised from citizens around the country . About 350 million. Wow. Okay. Very impressive. [ applause ]. So, lets talk about the great birth defect of this country . How did it happen that this country had slavery . Was it ordained when settlers came over here that we were going to have slaves . How did that actually come about . What you have are really two systems that are created. You have spanish colonies in florida and mexico where they begin to bring africans, some as enslaved people as early as 1550. In the United States or what became the United States, you have the first africans coming in 1619 in jamestown. But the proces