With Comcast’s proud support, this weekend Aug 5 and 6 the C-SPAN Cities Tour takes Book TV and American History TV to Tacoma as they explore its rich history and literary culture.
In the 19th century, Tacoma was chosen as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. That and more figures into its rich history. Here’s what C-SPAN has to say about the coming weekend.
As Book TV and American History TV air the segments throughout the course of the weekend, they also offer all of the respective programs together:
- BOOK TV TACOMA: SATURDAY, August 5th at 9 am PT/ 12pm ET (on C-SPAN2, Comcast channel 25)
- AMERICAN HISTORY TV TACOMA: SUNDAY, August 6th at 11am PT/ 2pm ET (on C-SPAN3, on Comcast channel 150)
BOOK TV (on C-SPAN2) – Sat., August 5 at 9am PT/12pm ET
Among our programs Saturday on Book TV (C-SPAN2), we’ll interview Tacoma’s first African-American Mayor, Harold Moss. In his book, Fighting for Dreams that Mattered, Moss recounts his role as a politician and the important part that he played in the civil rights movement in the Pacific Northwest.
Also featured is author of God in Captivity, Tanya Erzen. She’ll share the history of faith-based programs in prisons and the role religion plays in the U.S. prison system. All this and more (see listed below) as we highlight the literary culture of Tacoma, Washington.
- Russell Holter, Rails to Paradise: The History of the Tacoma Eastern Railroad 1890 -1919
- Leon Grunberg and Sarah Moore, Emerging from Turbulence: Boeing and Stories of the American Workplace Today
- Marian Harris, Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare
- Justin Wadland, Trying Home: The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound”
- Katherine Baird, Trapped in Mediocrity: Why Our Schools Aren’t World-Class and What We Can Do About It
American History TV (on C-SPAN3) – Sun., August 6 at 11am PT/ 2pm ET
On Sunday, all of our history programming from the city will air on American History TV (C-SPAN3). We’ll visit the Tacoma Narrows Bridge with historian Michael Sullivan to hear about its collapse into the Puget Sound on Nov. 7, 1940. The bridge was considered the third-longest suspension bridge in the world. Today, the story of the 1940 collapse is used as a case study for civil engineers and the study of bridge design.
Also featured in our block is University of Puget Sound Professor Andrew Gomez who shares the story of Tacoma’s Chinese Expulsion. Known as the “Tacoma Method,” the city’s Chinese population were driven out of the area in 1885. Today, the Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park represents the city’s acknowledgment of the Chinese expulsion and serves as a reminder of the city’s multicultural past, present and future. All this and more (see listed below) as we highlight the history of Tacoma, Washington.
- Northern Pacific Railroad – Michael Sullivan, Historian
- Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe – Susan Roher, Washington State History Museum
- Chief Leschi & Medicine Creek Treaty – Cynthia Iyall, Nisqually Indian Tribe-descendant of Chief Leschi
- Great Hall of Washington History – Gwen Whiting, Washington State History Museum
In addition to the programming listed above, visit the Hot Shop! – located inside the Museum of Glass – watch the art of making glass using our 360 video: https://youtu.be/z3aucRkXUvE
Visit our special Tacoma city page, where each segment will be available to view after it airs! In addition, all video segments will be available indefinitely in our C-SPAN Video Library. For more information about the C-SPAN Cities Tour and programming, visit www.c-span.org/citiestour
That photo above is of producer Scott Hummelsheimp putting some of these shows together.
