american history tv all weekend. the national museum of african american history and culture recently opened in exhibit looking at the 1968 poor people. -- poor people's campaign to shift the focus of the civil rights movement to economic issues. reverend king was assassinated before the campaign got underway in washington, d.c. a panel of activists and smithsonian museum staff look at this legacy. this is about one hour. >> it is our pleasure to welcome you to this meeting events for city of hope. you are in for a wonderful discussion from some brilliant people. my name, because they told me, -- it is my pleasure to be the deputy director of the national museum of african american history and culture. we are going to get started in a moment.

i want you to know who these lovely young men are. they are both named mark. which is very convenient. mark mario, distinguished president of the national urban league, and mark steiner, who is a brilliant journalist and a former and current activist in social justice. you will hear a lot more from him. they will be joined by more people you will see shortly. to get us started, i would like to bring to the podium one of my favorite people at the smithsonian. he is a distinguished leader of this institution. his official title is the elizabeth mcmillan director of the smithsonian national museum of american history. he is part of our top collaborators in the work that we do, particularly with the exhibition space we have at the

american museum. john. [applause] >> well, good morning. it is a pleasure to welcome all of you to the international museum of american history. i would say, if ever there is a time in america when we need historic understanding, as well as museums that present history in ways people can understand their role in democracy, it is today. it shows you the prime example of that as we have a major show on american democracy. one of the key components is the way citizens can participate in our nation. one of the key ways of doing that is through protest. honoring protest and understanding it in the context of a larger arc of america history is important. i would also say we have been honored and privileged to have

our wonderful neighbor in this building providing extraordinary shows. it has also been an honor to watch the development of the museum next door. working with them and understanding ways in which american history is presented that includes all of us over the art of our history is fundamentally important to where we are going in the future. for that, we thank the whole team of enormously for what they have done, what they have taught us. i would say, most importantly, what we are all going to do together to help us understand who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. thank you all very much. [applause] >> john, thank you.

i am happy to report we have been joined by peter, who you will be hearing from later. welcome, peter. and as promised, one of the folks who makes all that we do possible is our founding director. he is kind of our north star, lonnie bunch is a veteran of the smithsonian institution, former director of the chicago history museum. for over 13 years, he has done the work to lead with his vision, the creation of the national museum of african american history and culture. he has traveled the country and the world gathering artifacts, making friends, raising a lot of money, and getting a wonderful team of colleagues, some of whom are with us today.

we would not be in this situation of having a museum that has been called a gift to america without his leadership. please join me in welcoming the founding director of the smithsonian's 19th and newest museum, lonnie bunch. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i am so pleased that you are here. i am pleased because this is an important moment for us, for the smithsonian, for the city of washington. thank you for being with us for this media briefing. let me first of all thank you for the leadership you have given for more than a decade in helping shape the museum. i also want to acknowledge the partnership we have had with john gray. the museum of american history has been our closest collaborator and most important

-- and one of our most important partners. i think, just like in the exhibition we have done, it it is made better by the touch of american history. john, thank you very much for your involvement. i'm pleased to have our special guests here, who will share their perspectives on this important story later. thank you, gentlemen, for being with us. in 2018, there will be so much attention and discourse about the 50th anniversary of the assassination of martin luther king jr. at the national museum of african american history and culture, we decided to his -- decided to acknowledge that moment, by helping the public remember his legacy and the issues, some of which are still unmet, but he challenged america to address. while many celebrate his leadership for the battle for a just for racial justice, and his last campaign, the struggle for

economic justice, is often undervalued and less understood. when recalling resurrection city, people often remember the rain and the mud, but not the meaning. they remember the brief duration of 43 days, went resurrection city was populated, but not its long-term impact. often people think that after resurrection city, the war on poverty was one. -- was won. to understand the poor people's campaign, it is essential to remember the year of 1968. 1968 was the year when all of the pain, violence, hatred, fragmentation, and all the hope of the 1960's seemed to combust. america was volatile and fragile with great political, racial, and generational chasms over the war in vietnam, the long hot summers of urban unrest, the murder of dr. king, and later

the murder of robert kennedy. out of this pain and uncertainty emerged the poor people's campaign. a campaign shaped by both hurt and hope. it sought to find a way to a multi racial collaboration, to alleviate the poverty that defined too many communities. this exhibition allows us to appreciate the planning, the sacrifices, and the commitment to fulfill dr. king's dreams at the heart of the poor people's campaign. it also repositions dr. ralph abernathy as an effective leader of the post king civil rights movement. while it is clear resurrection city did not end poverty, it did help focus america's attention on the vast and diverse array of americans trapped by poverty. by examining the six-week

encampment on the national mall, it is hard not to see the contemporary residents of the poor people's campaign. after all, the mall has been the site of some in the moments where people have demanded a change in america. african americans used this expanse of land from the lincoln memorial to the capital to demand equality from marian anderson in 1939, to the march on washington in 1963, to the poor people's campaign, to the million man march. it has become sacred space to ask america to change. the images and artifacts within this exhibition are reminders that despite the economic growth and prosperity that has shaped this nation since 1968, there are still millions of americans without access to the american dream of economic opportunity. we hope this exhibition encourages visitors to

re-examine dr. king as somebody who demanded an america where economic opportunity would accompany demand for equal political and social rights. one of the strength's of the poor people campaign is to bring people together of many different backgrounds who shared one common thing, they shared an understanding of the pain of poverty. they shared an understanding of the pain of poverty. they shared a commitment to using that diverse coalition to prod, to push, to demand america live up to the promise of the constitution and the declaration. in essence, like dr. king, they dreamed of an america that not yet existed. but they were willing to sacrifice so much to make it so. ultimately, this exhibition posits that average citizens can help america to be made better, can help america to live up to

our stated ideals, and the best way to honor the ultimate sacrifice of dr. king is to cross those boundaries that divide, boundaries of race, gender, ethnicity, to demand a fair and freer america. thank you very much for being with us this morning. [applause] >> thanks so much, lonnie. i also would like to ask the curator of exhibition to join us in the seats up here. and after that terrific flaming up here, myant you love. yes because you are the curator. what the heck? as aaron is getting situated, i want to remind everyone that we are live streaming today's event. and i know lonnie wants to know

ais, particularly being twitter-er, it is #cityofhope. and you can go to our twitter feed, and find the exact link because the letters that my brilliant colleague sent me are much too small for me to see. http, i am lost.lise but, #cityofhope. you will find the brilliant tweets they have done. we are going to start with questions of the panelists that i am going to raise. and then we are going to follow the questions from you. so please be ready because it won't be long. i am going to start with mark morreale. he is not only the distinguished president of the national urban league, the largest civil rights organization in this country, and one of the oldest organizations, he is also the , andr mayor of new orleans he is only 25 years old. it is amazing. [laughter]

tell us the role of major civil rights organizations like the urban league, the naacp, the legal defense fund, the power behind this day. these days are important. but, mark tell us about the role , of those national organizations in galvanizing , and what thaton looks like today, mark? marc: thank you very much. good morning. happy new year. and i do apologize and i will have to excuse myself at about 9:29. because i have to catch it in a clock train to philadelphia to make another presentation at noon. so thank you for allowing me to go first. this is what is important reflecting back 50 years. the historic civil rights s, the naacp, the national urban league, the southern christian leadership conference the naacp legal , defense fund, national council

of negro league men -- of negro league women were united in the 1960's to do things. the march on washington as an , example. while more is made of differences, the historical record demonstrates that these organizations worked together in unison, even with some spirited debate about whether the best tactics was litigation or direct action in protest, or whether the best actions were later on a more militant and strident approach that was championed by many young people. what is striking to me about 1968 and about this campaign is how meaningful the economic bill of rights that was published by

the poor people's campaign, is today. ,hey published a bill of rights and i am going to read it because i think this is the heart of why i believe that in many respects, what this ought to be about is we now must pick of the 1960 84 people's campaign, a and runnew. anew.un the first bill of rights was meaningful job at a living wage. the second was secure an adequate income for those who cannot find a job or do a job. access to land for economic uses. access to capital for poor people and minorities to promote their own businesses. ability for ordinary people to play a truly significant role in the government.

this poor people's campaign, which was really an iteration by martin luther king to do a number of things. one, to pivot and expand to a focus on economic justice and economic rights in a very determined way. understanding that the 1964 civil rights act and the 1965 voting rights act were important tools and pillars, but they were missing dynamics in how people's quality of life could be improved. the second thing determined about this poor people's campaign was it was multicultural, multiracial. there was an intentional effort to meld together, and this was poor whites, latinos, and african-americans in a concerted, visible effort to push this economic bill of rights.

and today, where historic civil rights organizations are, we continue to carry the banner in many respects. on many, many fronts. we are now extremely active, not only in litigation and direct action, but many of us are active in a very, very concerted way around impacting public policy. congress, is in the or the agencies, the state capitals, city halls, county halls, municipal courts -- we are active in ways that do not always make front-page news. they do not always generate a conversation on cable/political news. but in many ways we remain the , sustainable, reliable, consistent infrastructure that continues to fight, i think for the vision, not only of martin

luther king, but of whitney young john lewis, roy wilkins, , thurgood marshall, malcolm x, and others, many of the great leaders, who championed civil rights, human rights, and economic justice in the 1960's. we are the inheritors and legatees of that. and the work every day to see how we can push it. be a renewedhas to effort to help poor white people, poor black people, poor latinos, working whites, working blacks, and working latinos, that they have more in common when it comes to economic issues than in division with each other. in today's america, culture and race, culture, sometimes as a code word for race, has divided the body politic, which means

that something so simple, like raising the minimum wage, or pushing the country toward a living wage, cannot find the light of day here in a congress of the united states. said, plus states have forget the congress, forget the president we will do it on our , own. so, simple, important things cannot get done because politics of race, the politics of culture gets in the way. i will say that at the national urban league and the urban league movement, we have always had a distinct focus on economic issues. a distinct focus. we put tremendous effort into trying to derail this ssed tax bill. a tremendous amount of effort into trying to help people understand why the country could do better, and why the problems of economic disparities are

real. i will stop with this, two years 40th2016, we did the anniversary report of the state of black america. gave us a chance to take an introspective look at how far we had come. the truth is is that the country 1963 toat progress of 1976 and 1978 when it comes to the reduction of poverty and the improvement of living conditions for people at the bottom of the economic ladder. since 1976, relative economic disparities have not changed much. the distance in income, home ownership, the stagnation of wages. since 2000 in this country, the average working american at the

bottom 80% have seen about a 10% to 50% pay cut because -- 10% to wagesy cut because their are not keeping up with inflation. that is the here, that is a now. we have an opportunity. kinshasha: i have to interrupt you. marc: last thing. because i will have to excuse myself. i will say this, our challenge is not to make 1968 a year of nostalgia, year we look back in all we do is reflect. and we say what might have been. but to use this time to renew the commitment to economic justice in poor people. kinshasha: thank you very much. [applause] my next question is to peter edelman, he is no stranger to the movement for social justice. indeed, he has dedicated his life to it. as i talk, please fill in the remaining seats, folks who are

waiting to get in. there are seats particularly in the front row. don't be shy. just duck under the cameras when you comment, if you will. -- duck under the cameras when you come in, if you will. peter is an american lawyer, policymaker, and law professor at georgetown university. one of the reasons we are so delighted to have him is he was a witness and active part of the movement, the moment that brought us to resurrection city and the poor people's campaign. a former justice department official and also a member of the staff of senator robert f tour of these mississippi delta was a pivotal part of what led us to resurrection city. peter tell us about the genesis , of that moment. bring us back to the time. of course, we do not want to be in nostalgia, but

history counts in history matters. take us back, and give us a sense of what that meant. peter: well, thank you bury much. first of all, i want to say thank you very much to lonnie bunch and jackie, and everyone associated with this. it is so important to us and our family in a personal way. to bring this back now is vital and important for our country. so, thank you to everybody who played this happened today. -- thank you to everybody who made this happen today. i am a little bit like zoellick in this story, if you remember woody allen. say, that wes you had met in mississippi earlier end at, and that did

that stage of our lives by getting married. we are coming to 50 years later this day. it is personal for us. the relevance to our conversation today is marion had gotten to the quite friendly with robert kennedy, as well as with me. they liked each other a lot. robert kennedy had really good taste in the people he chose, who he respected. in one day, i believe it was october, although in your research, you will remember exactly when it was, came out, was in town. he said why didn't marion and i come out to his house for lunch, which we did. lunch, he end of

said, if you don't mind, i would like to take a swim in the pool, and then we can all go back to work. so, he was in the pool and the two of us were sitting on the side. and he said, marian, where are you going when you go from here? and she said, well, i'm going .own to see dr. king and i and others will be talking with him about what would she do -- with him about what we should do next? and they were searching. those are difficult times, as we all know, interns of the inement -- as we all know, terms of the movement, and dr. king had taken the movement north earlier, outside of chicago, and that was difficult. it was very clear going back to themarch in 1963 that issues had to go from the

question of rights to the question of, what you can do with that right, and primarily, whether people have good jobs that they would be able to support their families and be part of the american dream? but the question was what next? so, marion said to him do , you have any thoughts? and robert kennedy said, well yeah, actually. i think what you ought to do is bring people to washington to stay, and tuesday, and to keep on staying, until people -- to stay, and to stay, and to keep on staying until people in washington get sick of it and decide to do the right thing. there were some other possibilities.

that was the thought that it would be such a great statement of the needs with regard to poverty, and poverty and race connected. and so, marion took that to dr. involved inrybody lc, and that is how the poor people's campaign started. kinshasha: you are so modest. you played a little role in this, i believe. [laughter] kinshasha: give us two or three words on what maybe you did? i know you still have the love story of the century, but give it up a little bit. about your role in particular. peter: well, i of course, was working for robert kennedy, so my role was to be on his staff.

as one of his legislative assistance -- assistants. it changed my life. it changed my life because i got married to marion, but also it also changed in the same direction having worked with robert kennedy because i had the opportunity to go with him, and i think everyone knows the way he learned. and he had to touch things scare he had to hear from people. he had to see people. and all the ways that we learned -- he read and in all of the other ways that we learn. he went to places where united states senators did not. most often senators from the same state didn't go out to see low income people, whether it was in cities, or especially,

rural areas. so, i learned from that. and it changed my life because i have been working on those issues ever since then. in one way or another. is that enough? kinshasha: much better. thank you, peter. our second mark, but the first bark i saw today and a great guy, mark steiner is the founding president and ceo of the center for emerging media. before he had gray hair, he was an important activist, his oral history is upstairs in the exhibition. and he had a particular role in working with white folks from appalachia, an important part of the multiracial, multi-dinner multiracial, multi generational coalition that led to the poor people's campaign. bring us back to those times and tell us about your role, and why you are still such an activist today. mark i am happy to be a part of : this exhibit. thank you for asking me to come down today. in 1968, i was 22, and had been

connected with a group called "the young patriots of chicago." they came out of the union for abs and income now, which was organizing projects. -- organizing projects across the united states. the founding mother of that movement was a woman named peggy kerry. her story was brought to light and used numerous times. peggy came from a ku klux klan family. she had been a member. -- she had been a member of the klan. her son, who served six years in prison for murder, for manslaughter, was also a member of the klan. and he became the founder of the young patriots. and who were the young patriots? placeo, you know, was a people from the south, alabama, mississippi, came north to

whether you are white or black. you went to chicago. and so, most of the white folks of tennessee,ains mountains of alabama, mountains of mississippi, ended up in chicago in a neighborhood called uptown. poor--- somes a was a poor, white ghetto. town,was a gang in that in the neighborhood, called the goodfellas. was a gang -- and gang of streeta kids. they were organized by youngblood, peggy, and others. a guy who is here the other weeks was one of the last remaining patriots in the country. term.in brother was

everybody had to have a street name. they started a free clinic, like the panthers did. they were part of the original rainbow coalition, the young lawyers, the brown berets, in chicago. and they formed a group that really got the establishment and made the pd very upset because it was a coming together of poor communities across racial lines. and really quickly to give you a , sense of what that means, it was a way of living in resurrection city. it was a meeting place in chicago where a number of panthers were there. bobby lee was one of them. he was the person who founded the rainbow coalition. it was his idea. but bobby lee was the one who started it, and he just passed away. it was this meeting of folks from the south, white people, and uptown. they were talking about how we had to stand together against police brutality, and the slums and fight these landlords and

have decent schools and more. and i remember this older white guy in the back of the room stand up. and he said -- i'm not going to use the word -- but he said, if that is what them n's are doing, i'm marching with them. and bobby lee and the panthers' reaction was to walk over to him and they hugged him. that's why, brother, we are walking together. after a while, the man learns that was not the word to use and his consciousness was raised. so this whole battle around poor whites and poor blacks in that period was about changing consciousness, fighting and struggling together, and it really just changed a lot. so, they came down from chicago to resurrection city. and i just want to add two things. a lot of demands were made.

it is important to remember some of them because it is relevant to 2018. this is 1968. and one of those demands was $35 -- in $1968 to end poverty in america every year. $35 billion they were demanding to end poverty in america. they were also demanding half a million new houses a year to be built in america so that every slum was torn down. and in those days, we used the word slum. until every slum was gone, every house would have to be rebuilt. those are some of the demands. the land the master for to appalachia, southern farmers in mississippi, alabama, and georgia, and chicago farmers in the southwest united states demanding land. for themselves, land that was stolen. those were all really important.

so we had this encampment there. up from chicago. i was are reliving in d.c. i was working back and forth from chicago, but i was also helped start the liberation news service, working with the washington free press. hadthat encampment actually the confederate flag flying in the poor white encampment. symbols on the jackets of the young patriots was the confederate flag. very different time and perception of what that meant. and they used it as a way to teach other poor white folks poor white folks what racism was about. and what that flag meant. it was interesting, the way people looked at it then and how it was used at that moment. and so, people got really sick

and that can't. sick, i guessot they stopped in dayton. they said that the food was poisoned along the way. and many of them were safe during the good part of the kamman. but the thing about this was there was a lot of tension inside of the camp, and a lot of love inside of that camp. were -- as the story was told about how many of the gang members were paid by the police to disrupt the camp. and there was that tension. you could tell that tension was there. because there were gang members with the campaign and gang members who watched with perimeter, and those who were causing trouble all the time in the camp. so the tension was there. and there was tension inside the

camp between activists who lived in the mud, in the huts, as we did, and people who stayed in the hotel. and then we actually marched into the hotel one day while jesse jackson and others were eating at the dining room table, we were sitting in the mud eating out of the pots. we didn't like that. we had a conversation about what that meant for the future of the campaign? remember what king wanted to do for this? this was his idea. he wanted this to happen. he believed in a multiracial army of the poor. he believed in a black-led movement. and he wanted to disrupt washington d.c., 24 hours ago, civil disobedience, to change the nature of america. this is what he wanted when he died. when he was assassinated, the mantle was picked up. to me, it was one of the most important moments that we have forgotten history is resurrection city. and what it meant to be inside that city. and i will close with this, the last day in that city, for those

of us left, were attacked by the police with bulldozers and tear gas. and they tore into the camp and tore it down, and people fled and there were people arrested. and that was the day i will never forget. i could ill feel and taste the tear gas. it was a really heavy and intense moment carrie and talking about bobby kennedy, one of the things i will never forget, it was when bobby kennedy's body went past the camp and everybody moved. thousands of people came to surround that moment when the casket stopped and the train stopped, and people hpontaneously begin singing hymm of the

republic" as his body passed. that was huge. even though i didn't believe it, looking at it now, i realize now that bobby kennedy was a man who changed dramatically as a human being, a politician in this country. i do not understand that then. then, he was one of those establishment figures. in retrospect, i understand who he was, what he meant at that moment, and why so many people were crying and singing when his casket passed the camp. so, i will leave it there. kinshasha: mark, thank you. this is living history, ladies and gentlemen. before i give lonnie the last word, i want to introduce you to aaron bryant, our curator of visual culture and photographer at the museum. he is a brilliant young man who created this exhibition. i want to say one word about the difference of when you put visual history to the lens of visual culture. then i will ask lonnie about one of his favorite subjects.

ambiguity. ok. i still want to ask you this question about ambiguity. they don't know it. come on. >> i was wrong, it is #city oft? hope 19 68. >> this is a visual culture exhibition. when you walk through the gallery, you are going to notice photographs, graphics from protest signs. a couple of other things you want to pay attention to are the media pieces. space, wee gallery discovered footage of the entire campaign where hearst followed the caravans coming from memphis . they also recorded the king memorial service and followed

the caravan from memphis, which started the campaign all the way to the evacuation of resurrection city. and the inevitable demolition. this is incredible footage that we found that has never been seen before. we are presenting it for the very first time in this exhibition. we also have surveillance media that we are presenting. that has been seen by a select few people. we are presenting it publicly for the first time. we also have a number of photographers representing robert houston, who is here in the audience. [applause] >> we also have laura jones in the front row, the photographer we are presenting. as well as photographs by roland freeman, joe friedman, ron

comedy, and claret walking's. , thesee clara watkins are new discoveries we found about 1600 frames of photographs of caravans coming to resurrection city. but they had not been seen before. we found the negatives at the smithsonian. when they heard about this exhibition, they called and asked if we would like to have the negatives transferred to our collection. of course we said yes. the other thing to pay attention to is with all of the color. with civil rights exhibitions, we are accustomed to seeing photographs and media images in black and white. what we are doing, which i think is innovative, is showing the civil rights movement. we are honoring the memory of king's life and memory. we are showing images in color. that is incredible.

studying civil rights images for a long time, it is rare to see so much color in a neck's omission. i think it speaks to the importance of visual culture, particularly at this time in our nation's history. 1968 was a transformative period . i think the visual culture represents that. kinshasha: thank you. thank you all panelists. a couple of other people who are ken jaden, here. the lead architect for resurrection city, and the -- one of the young folks who helped out that day. i will open the floor for questions. state your name where you're , from, and if you want to direct her question to a particular panelist please do so. yes, please. >> i'm allison keyes.

i am wondering what you guys think, in 1968, there was poverty. this was a huge change from now. i'm wondering what you think should happen going forward? as the legacy of this campaign happens, as king's birthday approaches, what do you think should happen now? >> the first thing i think we need to understand is that everything we are hearing from some elected officials and others, i guess we are in a place where we don't talk about political parties. we are hearing all the time that the things we have done about poverty in our country have failed. and that we need to get rid of all of them and people would be better off. this, of course, is totally wrong. the thing we do not understand,

i would say, as thoughtful people in our country, is that we have made a great deal of things, policies, that make a huge difference. first of all, in the 1960's, poverty was cut in half. in 1959, we had 22% of our people living in poverty. by 1973, it was 11%. the number of reasons for that, the civil rights movement was one of the major reasons and that. -- in that. african-american poverty went down from 55% in 1959, to 32% in 1973. now, it is still not acceptable, but now it is about 23%. we've been making a difference. the policies we have, the programs we have, whether it is

social security, food stamps, income tax credit, a huge series of things, the fact is we would have twice as many people in poverty, around 90 million people, as opposed to the 43% who we deem as poor right now. we should be shouting that from the mountain tops. these programs, these people that want to cut into or get rid of our making a tremendous difference in the lives of people in a country. -- in the lives of people in our country. we need to say that over and over and over. what do we do know? number one, we fight back what is going on. that is absolutely what we have to do. the fact that we still have 43

million people who are poor, there's some reasons for that. yes, we could have done more with public policy. but the fact is, it is a changed economy. we don't have the good jobs that were there after world war ii, the end of the 1970's, the deindustrialization of our country has left us -- we are a low-wage nation. nobody in our leadership, except some individual people, are really addressing that. there is a long list of things we need to do. we need to end mass incarceration, improve our education, we need to have affordable housing, a lot of things that need to be there. but the absolute heart of it is jobs, just as it was in 1963, just as it was in 1968. jobs that get people a decent income.

that is the heart of it. how do we do that is a big question. i will just say that it's a complicated thing. it means we have to have different politics. we need to have people across lines of race, ethnicity, young and old, women and men, who are demanding a different kind of approach to all of these things, for all of us. when we can do that and have different people who are the public officials, and a different position that we have as a nation, all of us, then we will get to fulfilling the dream that dr. king and everyone else had the time. kinshasha: thank you. we have time for a few questions. we have one person at the mic over here.

we are going to wrap up because we are going to be -- our curators will be giving a tour. there will be an opportunity for media to do individual interviews which our staff will help facilitate. yes, sir? >> very briefly. my name is melvin hardy. how do we as small civil society groups lever this exhibition to do better coalition building across the american narrative, across the geographies that are american? and how do we support you in this work? >> that's a very tough question. [laughter] in three minutes or less. kinshasha: much less. let's try 30 seconds. if you're lucky. >> i can do that. the difference between now and 1968 is there was an

identifiable mass movement that people across the board identified with. the civil rights movement and antiwar movement gave birth, especially the rights movement, to other movements. there was something people to coalesce around. we don't really have that at the moment. i think it is going to take a lot of hard work. from small groups all over the country to pull that together. to build up your it i have been thinking about that a lot. i think we are facing in some ways, we still defined poverty the way we did in 1964. poverty is different in 2018. in terms of how we define it. it is much broader than most think it is. i also think it is very hard to organize this because poverty in america today, i think, is worse.

worse than it was in 1968. i say that quickly. i grew up in the city. i grew up in a working-class neighborhood, it was a tough neighborhood. there were fights. things happened on the corner all the time. just the nature of that. but there were no abandoned houses. almost everybody had a job, even if it was a job that paid low wages, people worked. families were in those houses. it was a cohesive communities. now you have people completely -- feeling completely abandoned in communities that are boarded up. where there are no recreation centers. where there is no chance of a decent job. kinshasha: i'm going to interrupt you because we are going to have marc steiner and marian edelman and other brilliant people in our public programming later. before this becomes that public program and to entice you to come back for that at our museum, i will make lonnie,

beg him to answer a question about that. but also why an exhibition like this, in a history museum, is important? lonnie: i think the most important thing to realize is that is as much as much about today and tomorrow as it is about yesterday. what i think museums do, especially museums like the smithsonian, our job is to help you remember. to remember the stories, to remember this history. but not out of nostalgia, but to give you a useful history. so that in essence, it is to inspire, to challenge, to remind us of what is possible. for me, an exhibition like this is really a wonderful time to thank those who were involved, but more importantly a stepping stone to say the great strength of america have been the people that have challenged, that have prodded, that have demanded it live up to its state of ideals. we hope exhibitions like this

remind us all that we have a responsibility to help america be america. kinshasha: thank you, lonnie. this will be the very last. >> as a gen xer, not to remember but learn and discover. someone who didn't experience that time period in my 20's, i became aware of the poor people's campaign. i question how many people even really know the history of martin luther king and even in a tweet that the king center printed out. we need to get out for martin luther king light. the thing i think our generation did was take what was passed and build on it, or flip the script. i would like to imagine, at this time, if martin luther king came here now, how he would rework

his dream, how he would flip the script? any insight you can offer about things we can study about what his perspective was then, or people who may be lifted, or who historians who have perspective, ways we can take that either rework it for the next 50, 100 years, or flip the script to move us forward. is it even a reality that we can rid of the poor? jesus said the poor you will have with you always. >> because it is a reality, doesn't mean we can't change it. one of the things that history teaches us is there was a time when no one believed he would get rid of slavery. there was a time you never believed that segregation would end. those were realities that were bigger than many think we are facing today. for me, what history tells us, is that each generation needs to take that history, reframe it, draw from it, use it as a means

to challenge. no one is saying looking back at the past gives you the five steps to the promised land. looking back to the past tells you it is possible to find the promised land. you have to figure today what works best. i can see king now tweeting his way. a lot of things we would not have imagined. i think the goal is to make sure there is a baseline of information. let me give you the commercial for museums. museums are one of the few places where people, especially americans, trust. it is one of the few places that will give you relatively unvarnished truth. that, to me, is such a gift. you can take that unvarnished truth and you can interpret it in ways you want. you can take it anywhere you want to go. but it is there for you or that is why the smithsonian is so important. my name is cynthia ward. kinshasha: right on. you will remember that

expression. i want you to join me in thanking peter edelman, aaron bryant, marc steiner, and lonnie bunch. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. former virginia governor douglas wilder at virginia wealth university. >> i have a definition i use for politics. can anyone guess what it is? on word will define politics -- one word will define politics. money. give me something that is a proposition before any tribunal that doesn't involve money. >> sunday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on the west point center for oral history henry hank thomas. a combat medic during the vietnam war. >> my grandfather served in world war i. my father served in world war ii.

always for a black man whenever you served it was your military service you hope would confirm as a first-class, red-blooded american citizen entitled to. >> at 4:00 p.m. on real america. inh the cpac conference washington, d.c., we look back to 1988 when president reagan spoke at a cpac dinner. >> the american people know what limited government, tax cuts, deregulation, and the move toward privatization have been. it has meant the largest peacetime expansion in our history. they won't want to throw that a way for a return to budgets. host: watch american history tv every weekend on c-span3.

c-span, >> -- >> c-span, were history unfolds daily. 1970 nine, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. thomas jefferson force in lynchburg, virginia. we are learning about the history. we speak with the archaeology department to learn about the material culture left behind and what it can tell us about the people who lived here. we have been using archaeology to help understand the lives and landscape of the different residents of this historic national landmark.