C-SPAN Arrives in Birmingham

The Local Content Vehicles pulled into Birmingham Saturday night.  We have worked closely with our cable partners at Bright House Networks to organize a very busy week in the Magic City, and we are very excited to explore this southern city's rich history and literary culture.

Former Birmingham Mayor "Bull" Connor

We kicked of our visit with an evening tour of some of the city's most notorious landmarks.  Jim Baggett, the archivist at the Birmingham Public Library, walked our cameras through the city's streets on a tour he calls Birmingham Noir. Mr. Baggett shared stories of political intrigue and talked about the scandal that  nearly destroyed former Mayor Eugene "Bull" Connor's career. Mayor Connor held the office in Birmingham from 1957-1963.  We also spoke to Mr. Baggett about the Birmingham Public Library's role in the community.

After last night's tour of Birmingham's darker side, BookTV visited with Jack Reiss, the owner of the Alabama Booksmith this morning.  The book store has been operating for over 20 years and specializes in Alabama authors.

Also this morning, we spoke to an auditorium full of students at Lawson State Community College.  Washington Monthly named Lawson State one the top 50 Community Colleges in the country and the White House recognized Lawson State as a "Champion of Change," because of the College's efforts to build a more educated workforce.  While at Lawson State we interviewed President Dr. Perry Ward (on right) about the schools role in the community.

Civil Rights Leader Fred Shuttlesworth

American History TV (AHTV) is spending the day with history professor Horace Huntley.  Huntley is an expert on the Civil Rights Movement in the city.  He's taking our cameras to the downtown Masonic Temple, which was a center for voter registration efforts in Birmingham.  He will also take us to Fred Shuttlesworth's grave.  Shuttlesworth was at the forefront of Birmingham's Civil rights movement.  He passed away in October 2011.  He was 89 years old.

Knoxville Programs on C-SPAN2 & C-SPAN3

We hope you caught some glimpses of Knoxville on C-SPAN2's BookTV and C-SPAN3's AHTV this weekend!  Our week in the Marble City took BookTV to the University of Tennessee's Body Farm, and behind the scenes of the University's collection of letters and papers written by Andrew Jackson.  BookTV also visited Alex Haley's farm and learned about the author's life after writing his novel, "Roots."

American History TV (AHTV) dug deep into the roots of Knoxville's founding with a visit to one of the city's first houses.  William Blount built Blount Mansion after moving his family to Knoxville in the 1700s. Blount was a signer of the U.S. Constitution and eventually helped Tennessee gain statehood.  AHTV also traveled outside of Knoxville to Vonore, TN where Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian, created the Cherokee's writing system called a syllabury.

In addition to the historic people and places we learned about on our visit, we also met with several of the area's leaders including the Mayor of Knoxville, Daniel Brown as well as the Mayor of Knox County, Tim Burchett.

If you UT fans weren't able to get away from this weekend's game against South Carolina, you can watch the pieces from Knoxville at anytime online at the Local Content Vehicles website or you can stream the pieces on C-SPAN's Video Library.  Just search the key word "Tennessee."

We would like to give a huge thanks to our partners at Comcast for making our visit to Knoxville such a success.

Next stop... Birmingham, Alabama!

Knoxville through the Centuries

Knoxville's history spans many generations and many critical time periods in our nation's history.  The city was the only capitol of the southwest territory before Tennessee became a state in 1796.  We learned about the beginning's of the city's history during visits to the William Blount Mansion and the James White Fort.

We learned about the impact the Civil War had on Knoxville.  The war literally pitted neighbor against neighbor, because the city did not clearly belong to either the Confederates or to the Union.  This created a divisive sentiment across Knoxville, but a visit to the city's Old Gray Cemetery shows the wounds of war didn't permanently separate Knoxvillians.  You can see Confederate soldiers buried next to Union soldiers. 

The 20th century brought prohibition to Knoxville.  The city went dry before Prohibition became the law of the land, and stayed dry after the repeal of the law. 

These are just a few of the pieces I'm working on for AHTV's Knoxville weekend on C-SPAN3.  Tune in on October 29th and 30th to learn more about these parts of Knoxville's history.

Adrienne

Knoxville's Rich Literary Culture

Is it just me or have some really great authors come out of Knoxville?

I have just finished my week in Knoxville and I couldn't have had a better time.  The weather was perfect, the people welcoming and more authors than I know what to do with.  Local columnist and author Jack Neely spent two days talking with me about some of the great Knoxville authors such as James Agee, Cormac McCarthy and Nikki Giovanni.

I also visited the Alex Haley Farm right outside of Knoxville.  I was able to tour the Langston Hughes Library there as well as speak with Kathy Stookesbury-Long about Alex Haley and the time he spent in Knoxville.

Paul Bergeron met me in front of the Mabry-Hazen House to discuss his book "Andrew Johnson's Civil War and Reconstruction."  Forensic Anthropologist Dr. William Bass talked to me about his memoir "Death's Acre" and how the body farm came to be at the University of Tennessee.  And finally, Fred Brown and Jeanne McDonald discussed how the south shapes its writers from their book, "Growing Up Southern."

Thanks for the great interviews Knoxville!

Tiffany

Welcome to Knoxville!

We started the week as a guest on Knoxville's NewsTalk 98.7 radio host Hallerin Hilton Hill's morning show. We found out that HE is the true C-SPAN Junkie! 


We joined Comcast and the East Tennessee Historical Society for the "Knoxville Week" kick-off event at the East Tennessee History Center.  Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and City of Knoxville Senior Director of Policy and Communications Bill Lyons welcomed C-SPAN. Dr. W. Bruce Wheeler gave the keynote remarks about the history of Knoxville and its role in the future. Comcast worked with us on coordinating the many logistics for the week...special thanks to Comcast's Russell Byrd, Susan Arp with SRW Associates and the City of Knoxville.  We would also like to thank Cherel Henderson and the staff at the East Tennessee Historical Society for co-hosting a successful event with Comcast and C-SPAN.


We arrived in Knoxville this past weekend and jumped right into the rich history.  We toured Knoxville Civil War sites with Frank H. McClung Museum's Joan Markel and learned about the city's early history at the William Blount Mansion. Blount was one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution.

On the literary scene, we talked with Professor Dan Feller about "The Papers of Andrew Jackson" series. The University of Tennessee Press has just released Volume 8. We met local author Martha Rose Woodward at the Sunsphere where she talk about her book "Knoxville's 1982 World's Fair". She explained how Knoxville was picked to host the world's fair and what impact it had on the city.

On the education front, we visited with the teachers and students at West High School and Farragut Middle School. 


More to come on our visit to Knoxville!!


Debbie, Tiffany and Adrienne