Montgomery Weekend on C-SPAN2's Book TV and C-SPAN3's American History TV

Special Alert for Mar. 18, 2016

Montgomery Weekend on C-SPAN2's Book TV and C-SPAN3's American History TV   This weekend, come along with Book TV and American History TV to Montgomery, Alabama! Hosted by our Charter Communications cable partners, our C-SPAN Cities Tour staff visited numerous locations to explore the history and literary culture of the city. The programs below will air throughout the weekend on their respective networks, as well as featured all together in programming blocks at the times listed below.   Tune in this weekend for these programming highlights:

Book TV on C-SPAN2, Saturday at Noon ET:  Hear the story of Alabama's political history from Steve Flowers, political commentator and author of Of Goats and Governors as he explores how past governors have played an important role in shaping Alabama politics. Hear about the stories of black officeholders as Richard Bailey, author of Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags, explores post-Civil War Alabama's political process during the Reconstruction period. Learn about the life of civil rights attorney and author of Bus Ride to Justice Fred Gray as he recounts his role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which for many begins the modern civil rights movement. Visit Alabama State University's Special Collections as archivist Howard Robinson shows us books and manuscripts relating to the civil rights movement and some of the individuals who played a key role in this era. Learn how past Montgomery residents of the Antebellum era spent their leisure time during the four decades preceding the Civil War from Jeffery Benton, author ofRespectable and Disreputable: Leisure Time in Antebellum Montgomery. Go inside the last home of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald as executive director Willie Thompson shows us artifacts from their lives. Hear author Nimrod Frazer talk about his book Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division which recounts the history of the 167th Infantry Regiment during WWI.

American History TV on C-SPAN3, Sunday at 2 pm ET:  Visit the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks is credited with starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City bus. Museum director Felicia Bell shares the story of the 381 day citywide boycott. Tour guide Rickey Brown highlights the unique areas inside the museum and explains the impact the boycott had on the city. See items from the Governor George Wallace Collection at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archivist Haley Aaron shows us items related to George Wallace's political career, his position on integrating the University of Alabama, and the assassination attempt that left him wheelchair-bound for the remainder of his life. Tour the "Alabama Voices" exhibit at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Director Steve Murray shows items in the exhibit that tell the story of Alabama's past from its Native American history through Reconstruction. Tour the first White House of the Confederacy, which served as Jefferson Davis's home for several months after he was named president of the Confederacy. Past regent Anne Tidmore shares the story of how the Davis family lived in the home for only a few months before the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond. Visit Montgomery's historic Greyhound Bus Station, one of many stops where Freedom Riders were attacked along their route in 1961. Dorothy Walker, director at the Freedom Rides Museum, Alabama Historical Commission, tells the story of the Freedom Riders as they left Washington, DC, and traveled through the South to challenge illegal segregation laws related to interstate travel. Learn about the role one Montgomery intersection played in the city's history from the Civil War to Civil Rights Movement. Historian Mary Ann Neely talks about the significance of Montgomery's Old Court Square, and how it played a part in beginning the Civil War and how it would play a role in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, a century later. Tour Alabama's State Capitol with Alabama Historical Commission docent Aroine Irby. Jefferson Davis was voted president of the Confederacy from inside the Alabama Capitol and was later inaugurated on the capitol steps. Learn about the governors who have held office including the state's first and only female governor and the story of a man elected governor after committing murder during the campaign.  For more information about the C-SPAN Cities Tour and programming, visit www.c-span.org/citiestour.