I want to welcome you all to the California Historical society. We are deeply honored for our dear partners and friends. The San FranciscoPublic Library , you cannot ask for better friends. This is part of the one city, one book extravaganza. It allows us to present this incredible panel today. Thanks to jim jones junior, who had hoped to be with us today. He was unable to participate due to health reasons. The California Historical society is honored to hold the peoples temple collection. Repositoryen as the in 1983. We have worked with many survivors and many historians and students who want to learn about what happened in jonestown. We are proud to be the largest repository of these materials. The digitization of super eight films. A broader collection of materials. We invite you all to research it. All of our panelists have taken advantage of this collection. Preserving fbi files, photographs and other items. You back to our library over my right shoulder. It is the portal to our remarkable collections. Henderson has laid out a number of pieces from the collection. Some of the letters that david used to write his book. You can hold history in your hands. I will introduce my colleagues. Get the conversation going. We can take questions later. We are deeply honored that cspan is here. You will have found little cards so youlank can ask questions. Feel free to jot one down. Part of our team will come and collect the cards. We can answer a lot of questions in good time. John cobb. He is one of the few surviving members of the peoples temple. He was born into the temple. Of thatly was part first pioneering effort who moved out from indianapolis to Redwood Valley in california. He was a member until the groups tragic and in 1978. He was in georgetown with the Basketball Team. He lost 10 members of his family in jonestown. He is currently writing a book about his story. We are all wishing him well. Marshall kilduff. He walked over from the chronicle building on fifth admission. Writing long career of mostly for the chronicle but also a very powerful piece that was not accepted by the chronicle. He has given voice to politics , development, city affairs. Hea native of San Francisco, went to palo alto. He can integrate depth of narrative. He coauthored suicide cult, history of peoples temple and jim jones. Mr. Talbot, author of the book. Fade thoserations who actively remember being here 1978. T november of season of the witch is the book. By david talbot. Is being read widely this week. He was the founder and editorinchief of salon. Com. He figured out the web long before anybody else. Are you wearing your glasses . I have sensitive eyes. He has lovely eyes. Created a whole new way to consume knowledge. After leaving salon, he increased his reputation as a historian. We are welcoming in him into the fraternity of historians. He just finished a book on the kennedy brothers. Jones worked at mother and rights for the new yorker, rolling stone, and many other publications. Eugene smith. Oldad just turned 21 years prior to november 1978. Wrote, jonestown was the force that sealed me and dictated my immediate future at that time. My only responsibility was to survive. Smith lost his mother, his wife and his infant son that day. The rest of his life dedicated to remembering and persevering. He must bring us knowledge from the depths of his heart in his memory. He turned to writing. His recent articles include one for the jonestown report. He is also an work on a book. Please join me in welcoming them. [applause] i will ask david first to provide a brief historical context. Share with us the time, as you so beautifully show us, after the summer of love and the rise of the counterculture. It helps us understand the rise of peoples temple and the reverend jones. T my new book is about the dark history of the cia. The context for peoples temple is that you really have to look at what was going on in the city already. The social disruption and the redevelopment the tour at the heart of black San Francisco. That was the seed in the garden for jim jones two establishes clinical roots in this town political roots in this town. Couldnt have done that if the fillmore had not been hollowed out by the San Francisco redevelopment agency. Soulre out the heart and of what was once known as the harlem of the west. Vibrant middle class black community. Talbot, is joe making a movie to continue that legacy. To this day, you have a defining a declining africanamerican population. It has been robbed of its portable power. When jim jones came here from Redwood Valley, he was moving into a political vacuum. Forceame such a powerful because he was a master of manipulating people. Finding out what politicians weaknesses were. Att his turn ons were exploiting them. He delivered bodies and votes. 1975 was a key turning point. Narrowly wone a due to voter fraud. San francisco has to analyze what it did to the Africanamerican Community to allow that redevelopment or negro removal as James Baldwin called it. I am often reminded of that quoteful James Baldwin that American History is more beautiful and more terrible than anything written about it. The horrors of urban renewal. Targeting the japaneseamericans. Also the africanamerican communities. They had moved into some areas that had been held by japanese. An incredible cycle of displacement. In comes a man with great charisma and charm and power. To ask john and eugene to share some firsthand experiences. John my experience is unique in probably two or three other people that were born into peoples temple who are still living. Readf the things that ive have been factual things. Missed was the daytoday occurrence of peoples temple lives. Several people made that temple function. They would it functioned perfectly without jones. Toward the end he was just incapable of doing anything. How do people live . Why were the people there . It was not a mindless cult. Many people i know who are still alive today are very successful. We were able to integrate back into society. A lot of people say was involved politically. That was the driving force. I look at the same things happening today. The things that people are looking for today, education, health care, housing, being able to put food on the table. Once you became a member of the peoples temple, you did not have to worry about that anymore. Those basic needs were provided for you. I have talked to a person that i knew whose family was part of peoples temple. I wish there was Something Like peoples temple today. Kids today need that structure and purpose. There were a lot of terrible things that happened. But the reason why people were there was the functionality. It has really been missed. Write isdriven me to that the people who are no longer with us, their story has never been told. Died and were labeled as people who were casualties. Some of the people didnt want to be there. The choice to leave, they would have. But there was so much more that was missed to that whole story. Jones hasess of jim been repeated endlessly. People are ready to hear, what else happened there. What are the facts . That is what has driven me to write. I was born there. I had a different understanding of it. I saw it for what it really was behind the scenes. My mother wanted a better life for her kids. My father eventually followed us. There were other reasons for it. It would be a lot different from what is out there so far. I would love to come back to some of those stories about the daytoday life in peoples temple. We believe that we were all created equal. Eugene i came into the temple when i was 15. In detroit we were part of Aretha Franklins fathers church. We have been catholic, we had been baptists, we had been nondenominational. I revolted around 12 or 13 and i said im done with this. She had heard about jim jones. I went to hear him speak at irwin junior high in fresno. I didnt really come back and i was 18. Then i moved into a commune in San Francisco. For me the temple was a candy store in the sense that there were no limits on what i could do. To happiness. Imit no end to my learning. In seventh grade i was already reading at a 12th grade level. Having a woodshop. Having a construction crew. It all seemed normal. Must donate would have a meeting or willie brown would have a meeting or jane fonda. Something about this has to be real. So you assumed. What happens after a. That jim jones became background noise. The other people there were your family. Because they didnt want to leave their family there alone. They didnt want them to be abused or possibly hurt. Or interrogated because you left. Guilt,ople stayed out of some people stayed out of responsibility. We never called old people old people. Or ere the responsible repository of knowledge. When they spoke, you are expected to listen. They passed on their knowledge to us. Jones was a little bit different. Getting there was an adventure. Eing there was an adventure there was a certain urgency to it. Were they under attack . Were they going to take the children . Were they going to bomb us off the map as if it never happened. There was a certain fright. These potholes which is huge. You can see the jungle. You only see what was in front of you. Pavilion hear the miles away. It was very close to venezuela. It was a disputed area between uyana. Ela and gio jumping off the trailer and going to the pavilion. See my wife who was just weeks away from delivering a baby i not see my mother in over two getting there and acclimating was easy. Staying there was difficult. Inmarshall, you started work 1976. A reporter for the chronicle. Investigating the peoples temple church. About it forite the chronicle but not accepted. How close the chronicle editorial leadership was to jim jones. Publishing his article. If you are trying to get me fired, you are doing a very good job. These idealism driven accounts of the church. The weight would look to a reporter was nothing like that. This church was hostile, very enclosed, didnt want to deal with the world except on its own strict structured terms. It went everywhere on its own. In as a totale unit. They did some recruiting. But they were by and large themselves, on buses, from Redwood Valley. It was especially true if you are a reporter asking questions. Can i look your temple . Can i meet your people . Very difficult to be a historian. Very circumscribed and bounded world. Chronicle, the churchs letter the hell out of my boss. A new guy on the job would want to know that and be accepted. Church, theyo the sat me in the front row right. Ext to my boss the aspects of the church that were very troubling. Your life was really not your own. They broke up families. Your money got turned over. If you are a woman, you are at a special disadvantage, to put it delicately. It was not always as idealistic as you may hear. The church ran away. Becauset to guiana their time was up in San Francisco. Politicians so what they wanted and they took what they wanted. Then they said you cant blame me. It is a whole other side of the story. Forgetfulness and choosing what you want to remember. That is one of the worst parts about this experienced. There is no memorial in San Francisco to this thing. When the bodies were brought back, those that were not are now in a corner of the oakland cemetery. Pulled away from the story. A lot of little figures political figures are still hard at it. There are a lot of names of god that havestory gone through this story. The story continues to have fingers into the present. Is in a lot of tumbles right now. The dollar signs are bigger. Could Something Like this happen again . Could someday show up with an answer . Claims of future good things. But neverace value examined. That is where i look for this story. The peoples temple itself, it is now u. S. Post office. The only congressman ever killed in the line of duty was leo ryan and jonestown. This stuff is still buzzing around in many different forms. That is my story. Thank you all for that description. We will continue our conversation up here a little bit more and then take questions. I am struck by this remarkable of issues like slavery and poverty coming out timee powerful, tumultuous of 1948 to 1978. Two years in california time is about 20 years somewhere else. The social changes that all of you lived through. Payroll manifest here on the tip of his peninsula. Why someone like harvey milk or george muska ooscone. All of this took place at the same time culminating in an opening for someone like jones to move in. What i am loving up the conversation so far. The yearning for community from dislocated people. You have everything you would want as a child. Food. Ary health care, meeting those basic needs. Wouldnt it be nice if kids growing up today in the mission or really anywhere in the bay area didnt have to worry about those things . Very personal and also very political. Heart of what we are trying to present to people today. John, i like to come back to you in terms of the missing stories. They made their own Community Weather up in the redwoods or in guyana. Own th a week in Redwood Valley. I saw jim jones, i didnt see him as a father. I just saw him as a man. Two of my sons married to his daughters. I wasnt apprehensive about him. I was acclimated to it to where it was my lifestyle. A good friend of mine lives in atlanta. A lot of people for you guys were treated special. You guys were held in such a high regard. Monday morning started off very sleepy. Do more work and probably hang out with jimmy. Tuesdays, same thing. Go to the church. Study. See the teachers or whoever was there. We were very well educated. On wednesday night we had meetings. After school on thursday. Friday we would play games. Our parents made sure we had that experience. Get on the bus in Redwood Valley and come to San Francisco. Have a meeting friday night in San Francisco. Et back on the bus go to los angeles. Play some basketball. Get something to eat. Get back on that bus and get back to Redwood Valley. Morning onin the monday morning. That was our life. That is all i knew. Three disciplined but was also fun. You would not being beaten to do it. You doing it with hundreds of people your own age. It was fun to go to San Francisco and los angeles. They kept us out of trouble. We saw a different lifestyle. We will there for a purpose for our families. Trying to make a better world. We didnt see color. Im good friends with several people now. Older, i didnt see what the other people were experiencing. All these other negatives are documented in many of these books. Im not trying to retell the story. Im trying to tell a whole different story about what life was like in the sample. It was one of many communal experiments. Had his own commune. It was increasingly insular. Increasingly paranoid. A lot of the people who went through social Justice Movements in the 60s wound up in this fortress of people sample. California has an amazing history of communal and social experiments. John you were not privy to a lot of things unless you a member, but once you became a member they would open up to you. I had friends who would come and visit on sunday. It was like you had to be a member to get in. If you just wanted to walk in off the street and come to a service, you could do it. David when you hear about other religious groups and movements, do you ever wince . Does it seem not lesson that you need to learn to talk about . Concern is that so much of this is repeatable. By talking about it and writing does that give people more awareness of their world. John when people have their , they are made up going to believe it. David so much for journalism. John you will have to grab and find things out for themselves. Eugene it is complicated because the temple had a lot of facets. From high graduated school when i moved to San Francisco. My day started at 5 a. M. Crew, ina construction fact i was in charge of the construction crew. We would be building crates to send equipment over to guyana. If you can imagine the materials , it was people phenomenal. When i was on construction los angeles it was completely different. We were either refurbishing the homes are remodeling homes. On the jobsite by 6 00 a. M. We do not work on saturdays. Coming back to get to los we would leave San Francisco at 9 00 on sunday nights. You get directly into your workloads and go to work. It was a very involved environment. A very pushed environment. Terms of people coming freely, that happened on occasion but a lot of times they were stopped at the door. I know this because i worked on security at one time as well. Wednesday nights were always for members only. Those nights will be different from the other nights. A person might be assigned to you to see what you are about. Who would vouch for you. There was a was a line that was followed and was not always the line it you would think is correct. Im not saying that i agree with that or that i think is right. , when newthing was members came, i was observed for a long time. I was called to the third floor and told you are not to be running through all those girlfriends. Youre going to work for the cause. My life to change our ways. Perseverance and focus. I will always be associated with jonestown and the peoples temple and jim jones. Coming back to the u. S. Was just horrendous. We were on the news, we were in the newspapers and magazines. We were all considered crazy. Peoples temple did not attract ignorant people. Obviously eugene and john know many more people than i do. But the people i interviewed were incredibly bright, they were politically sophisticated. For me, it was very enlightening. I was very politically active in the prisoners right movement. , working withr the black panthers. I understood that power of working together. Vision andlitical working together and wanting to change so much that was wrong in american society. As certain point, this visionary , we were losing our leaders, they were being assassinated. The war in vietnam kept grinding on. The racial situation in our ci