American Experience
The US Government's Education of Native American Children
Show title: American Experience
Video title: The US Government's Education of Native American Children
Video duration: 1m 48sVideo description: What were Native American children expected to learn in schools run by the US government? The "de-Indianization" program failed, but the toll was devastating.
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Emmett Till's Funeral
1m 43s
At a church on the South side of Chicago, thousands paid tribute to Emmett Till by attending his funeral. It seemed as if all of Chicago was there, and the reaction of blacks was visceral.
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The Kidnapping of Emmett Till
1m 4s
Emmett Till's great-uncle and cousin remember the night he was taken; it was a terrifying experience.
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Emmett Till, a Sacrificial Lamb
1m 6s
No one ever did time for the killing of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old black boy from Chicago, but his murder, and the trial and acquittal of his killers, sent a powerful message, and his sad story spurred the Civil Rights movement.
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No Justice for Emmett Till?
1m 22s
The trial of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for the murder of Emmett Till ended just 5 days after it began, with their acquittal. But reports of the acquittal set off an international firestorm.
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The World Learns of Emmett Till
1m 2s
50,000 people in Chicago saw Emmett Till's corpse with their own eyes. Photos of Till were published in newspapers and magazines, and even white Americans were stunned by the brutality of the murder.
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The Great Migration: From Mississippi to Chicago
1m 15s
Hundreds of thousands of black people fled Mississippi for Chicago in the years between the world wars. Neighborhoods and schools were segregated, but the city offered a kind of freedom black Mississippians could only dream about.
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Jim Crow in Mississippi
51s
An excerpt from a 1960 film by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, an anti-civil rights agency.
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Lynching in Mississippi
1m 12s
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT: Lynching was a danger African-American men faced throughout the South. if a white person harmed a black person there was absolutely no recourse.
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A New Water System for Chicago
2m 49s
In response to cholera and dysentery epidemics, the Chicago Board of Sewage Commissioners selected Ellis Chesbrough to design a new water system for the city. In Chesbrough's plan, clean water from the lake bottom would pour into intakes under a crib two miles into Lake Michigan, then into an underground tunnel to a water tower. From there, clean water would flow into the city's water mains.
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Chicago's Skyscrapers
57s
Skyscrapers were an efficient way to organize businesses within one building. Though skyscrapers were born in New York, the method called Chicago Construction, developed by Chicago architects and engineers between 1880 and 1883, provided the basic structural system for building modern steel-and-glass office towers.
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Elevating the City
1m 33s
In response to cholera and dysentery epidemics, the Chicago Board of Sewage Commissioners selected Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough to solve Chicago’s public health crisis. Chesbrough’s planned system relied on gravity flow, but downtown streets were too low to drain into the river. New sewers raised the city's streets as much as 10 feet. The challenge then was to raise the buildings.
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Chicago's Grain Elevators
1m 38s
Although the grain elevator was invented in Buffalo, the grain elevator system came into being in Chicago—the city built its first in 1848, and by 1858 twelve mammoth grain houses dominated its skyline. By 1861, Chicago's grain trade had increased to 50 million bushels annually -- a rise of over 48 million bushels in a decade -- supporting the city's boast that it fed the world.
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Reversing the River
1m 40s
By the mid-19th century, Chicago was a growing city encountering problems with its water supply and sewage disposal. Ellis Chesbrough was selected to solve Chicago’s public health crisis. Chesbrough’s solution: change the direction of the Chicago River. In 1871, the extraordinary feat of engineering was accomplished—the river now flowed west from Lake Michigan and down to the Illinois River.
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Mount Rushmore Chapter 1
11m 25s
An obsessed artist struggles against bankruptcy, public indifference, and a brutal terrain, to build the great American monument, Mount Rushmore. High on a granite cliff in South Dakota's Black Hills tower the huge carved faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Together they constitute the world's largest piece of sculpture.
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Mount Rushmore Preview
30s
An obsessed artist struggles against bankruptcy, public indifference, and a brutal terrain, to build the great American monument, Mount Rushmore. High on a granite cliff in South Dakota's Black Hills tower the huge carved faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Together they constitute the world's largest piece of sculpture.
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Borglum's Sculpting Technique
2m 22s
After his workers had blasted off the surface rock of the mountain, Gutzon Borglum spent days and nights watching how the light and shadow landed on the mountain. This process ultimately made him decide to deviate from the original plan and shift 20 degrees. Borglum built a studio size model of Mount Rushmore and proceeded to enlarge the measurements on a scale to sculpt the mountain itself.
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Sculpting a National Monument
2m 41s
The Borglum family archives include some historic home movies, early color films of the mountain's sculpting in progress. See Gutzon and the workers in action as they struggle with winches, jackhammers -- and Mother Nature.
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The Scale of Mount Rushmore
1m 3s
Since 1930, more than 50,000,000 people have visited Mount Rushmore, the biggest -- and arguably the most compelling -- monument on the face of the earth.
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Sculpting Jefferson's Head
40s
Even though the workers blasted down 60 feet to find carve-able rock, huge cracks took shape on the Jefferson face. Borglum used a special concoction of materials to fill in the cracks in Jefferson's head, costing additional time and money.
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