00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:01.801
[announcer] Major funding
for this program

00:00:01.801 --> 00:00:03.737
was made possible by

00:00:03.737 --> 00:00:07.741
the Uhrig/Vournas
Charitable Fund,

00:00:07.741 --> 00:00:11.745
The Summerlee Foundation,

00:00:11.745 --> 00:00:14.748
the Jonathan Logan
Family Foundation,

00:00:14.748 --> 00:00:17.751
Joan Douglas Murray,

00:00:17.751 --> 00:00:19.519
Jeanne and Mickey Klein,

00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:23.323
The Nancy P & Richard K Robbins
Family Foundation,

00:00:23.323 --> 00:00:24.691
and by

00:00:24.691 --> 00:00:26.760
Nancy Blachman,

00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:29.763
the MFI Foundation,

00:00:29.763 --> 00:00:32.032
Humanities Texas,
the state affiliate

00:00:32.032 --> 00:00:35.468
of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.

00:00:35.468 --> 00:00:38.705
And also by Marci Rubin,

00:00:38.705 --> 00:00:42.008
Alice Kleberg Reynolds
Foundation,

00:00:42.008 --> 00:00:44.210
David Wallace Douglas,

00:00:44.210 --> 00:00:46.679
Edwina and Tom Johnson,

00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:48.715
Peggy and Matt Winkler,

00:00:48.715 --> 00:00:51.084
Linda and Howard McCollum,

00:00:51.084 --> 00:00:53.053
Louis Black.

00:00:53.553 --> 00:00:55.688
A complete list of
funders can be found

00:00:55.688 --> 00:00:58.892
at lizcarpenterfilm.com.

00:00:59.993 --> 00:01:01.494
[Bella Abzug] Our next guest,

00:01:01.494 --> 00:01:04.497
we know her the most
and love her the most.

00:01:04.497 --> 00:01:08.101
She is co-chair of ERA America.

00:01:08.101 --> 00:01:09.235
Here she is,

00:01:09.235 --> 00:01:10.336
Liz Carpenter.

00:01:10.336 --> 00:01:12.705
[energetic music]

00:01:12.705 --> 00:01:17.277
- Her character was formed
by the tall tales of Texas,

00:01:17.277 --> 00:01:19.212
by the frontier spirit.

00:01:19.212 --> 00:01:21.714
[energetic music]

00:01:21.714 --> 00:01:24.584
- Liz Carpenter spent
34 years in Washington.

00:01:24.584 --> 00:01:27.520
She earned the nickname, the
P.T. Barnum of the White House.

00:01:28.188 --> 00:01:31.958
- I went off to Washington with
my journalism degree in hand

00:01:31.958 --> 00:01:33.526
and my virtue intact.

00:01:33.526 --> 00:01:35.695
I still have the journalism
degree. [laughing]

00:01:35.695 --> 00:01:37.764
[Brian Williams] Carpenter was
a trailblazing journalist

00:01:37.764 --> 00:01:40.233
who was hired to work
for Lyndon Johnson.

00:01:40.233 --> 00:01:44.037
[Dan Rather] Liz Carpenter
was the insider's insider

00:01:44.037 --> 00:01:46.039
throughout the
Johnson presidency.

00:01:46.473 --> 00:01:49.109
[male reporter] She served as
Lady Bird's Press Secretary.

00:01:49.109 --> 00:01:52.112
- Liz was devoted to mother

00:01:52.112 --> 00:01:55.482
and the rest of us just
had to live with it.

00:01:56.282 --> 00:01:58.084
[Liz] I love politics.

00:01:58.084 --> 00:02:01.754
Fans, bunting, "Yellow Rose
of Texas" playing,

00:02:01.754 --> 00:02:03.990
you know, it's fever
to my blood.

00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:06.626
[woman] What is the
single most trenchant

00:02:06.626 --> 00:02:08.928
piece of advice that
you always give?

00:02:08.928 --> 00:02:12.232
- Answer all your phone
calls before milking time.

00:02:12.732 --> 00:02:15.235
- Liz's sense of humor
was part of her power.

00:02:15.235 --> 00:02:18.171
- Sex was rampant
throughout the city.

00:02:18.171 --> 00:02:22.675
Starting right here in this
building where, in 1926,

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Calvin Coolidge
laid the cornerstone

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[audience laughing]

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and didn't even know it.

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[woman reporter] Liz Carpenter,

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former Press Secretary
to Lady Bird Johnson,

00:02:34.487 --> 00:02:37.023
colorful speaker for the
Equal Rights Amendment.

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[energetic music]

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[Liz] When you have had
a front row seat

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of the greatest show on Earth,

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if you don't think
it's something special,

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you know, you must be just a
piece of jello or something.

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- Elizabeth Carpenter:

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irrepressible and
irreplaceable,

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Liz Carpenter.

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- Will you welcome
Mrs. Liz Carpenter?

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[audience applauds]

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[keys clacking]

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[keys clacking]

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[typewriter dings]

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[typewriter carriage return]

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- The time was World War II.

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A young woman from
a small Texas town

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came to Washington
seeking fame and fortune.

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She ends up paving the way

00:03:14.494 --> 00:03:16.529
for women in government
and journalism.

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Liz Carpenter did so well
that she stayed in this town

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of transients for 34 years.

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[big band music]

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[phone chimes]

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- I went to Washington
when I was 22.

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I'd never seen a
Republican until I was 21

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and it was a terrorizing
experience. [laughing]

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I came from the 10th
Congressional District,

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Austin to be exact.

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And for my graduation
present from the

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University of Texas,
got a trip to Washington.

00:03:54.701 --> 00:04:04.110
[big band music]

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You didn't come to Washington
in those days without

00:04:06.512 --> 00:04:08.348
calling on your congressman,

00:04:08.348 --> 00:04:11.251
but he was in the South Pacific.

00:04:11.618 --> 00:04:14.220
There to meet you and
shake hands with you

00:04:14.220 --> 00:04:16.422
was Lady Bird Johnson.

00:04:18.424 --> 00:04:22.228
I'd beaten the paths around
the National Press Building.

00:04:22.228 --> 00:04:26.132
Really stood in awe of those
doors that read Look Magazine

00:04:26.132 --> 00:04:28.601
and, and New York
Herald-Tribune

00:04:28.601 --> 00:04:31.771
and a lot of publications
that I was too intimidated

00:04:31.771 --> 00:04:33.640
to even go in.

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- The obstacles to females
in journalism were immense

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and that pattern pretty much
was all over the United States.

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[paper rustling]

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[Donald] The people who owned
the newspapers

00:04:50.757 --> 00:04:51.791
and ran the newspapers

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and edited the newspapers
and hired reporters

00:04:55.161 --> 00:04:56.229
were all men

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and they believed that the
news was man's business.

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They didn't see
a role for women.

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If women were going
to do something,

00:05:02.969 --> 00:05:04.771
it would be society reporting.

00:05:04.771 --> 00:05:08.074
- Rising young star who
is now in Reno herself

00:05:08.074 --> 00:05:10.343
to divorce her second husband.

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[Donald] Liz Carpenter
was not about to cover

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social receptions.

00:05:13.813 --> 00:05:15.448
That was not her interest.

00:05:15.448 --> 00:05:18.117
She really wanted to be
in the political mix.

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She wanted to be
out in the campaigns

00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.288
and in the thick of it,

00:05:22.288 --> 00:05:24.457
and she had a kind
of personality

00:05:24.457 --> 00:05:27.260
that got her into
things in some respects

00:05:27.260 --> 00:05:29.862
because she was
determined to do that.

00:05:30.863 --> 00:05:33.333
- One of the things to
never forget about Liz

00:05:33.333 --> 00:05:36.536
is that when Liz was coming
of age as a journalist,

00:05:36.536 --> 00:05:39.872
there were not Liz Carpenters
before her

00:05:39.872 --> 00:05:42.542
in whose footsteps
she could follow.

00:05:42.542 --> 00:05:44.143
She was the footsteps.

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- I was lucky.

00:05:45.645 --> 00:05:47.013
I knocked on all the doors.

00:05:47.013 --> 00:05:49.849
I had my scrapbook of all my
clippings that I'd written

00:05:49.849 --> 00:05:51.784
for the Austin
American Statesman

00:05:51.784 --> 00:05:53.353
and The Daily Texan

00:05:53.353 --> 00:05:57.657
and looking for a job and it was
wartime, 1942, that summer,

00:05:57.657 --> 00:06:01.227
and I got a job, $25 a week,

00:06:01.227 --> 00:06:03.629
part secretary, part reporter,

00:06:03.629 --> 00:06:05.832
but I worked
for a small news bureau

00:06:05.832 --> 00:06:10.570
and from that, I got that
most wonderful passport

00:06:10.570 --> 00:06:12.305
to power and that was,

00:06:12.305 --> 00:06:13.740
or to watch power,

00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:15.575
and that was a press pass

00:06:15.575 --> 00:06:18.411
to cover Eleanor Roosevelt's
press conferences

00:06:18.411 --> 00:06:20.012
and Franklin's.

00:06:21.581 --> 00:06:23.383
[Donald] Starting in 1933,

00:06:23.383 --> 00:06:25.885
Mrs. Roosevelt holds
a press conference

00:06:25.885 --> 00:06:29.922
and she decided that she would
only invite women reporters.

00:06:31.824 --> 00:06:35.194
All of a sudden, news bureaus
like the United Press,

00:06:35.194 --> 00:06:38.364
which had a policy, don't
hire women reporters,

00:06:38.364 --> 00:06:40.366
suddenly had to hire
a woman reporter

00:06:40.366 --> 00:06:42.602
because that was the only
way they could get a reporter

00:06:42.602 --> 00:06:45.338
into Mrs. Roosevelt's
press conferences.

00:06:45.338 --> 00:06:48.541
[gentle upbeat music]

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[Liz] I walked under those
great elm trees and I thought,

00:06:51.577 --> 00:06:53.179
"Is this really me?"

00:06:53.179 --> 00:06:54.881
And I walked up the stairs

00:06:54.881 --> 00:06:57.917
and we got to the second
floor and Mrs. Roosevelt,

00:06:57.917 --> 00:07:00.620
tall and erect
was standing there

00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:02.588
and she shook hands
with each reporter,

00:07:02.588 --> 00:07:05.758
of which there were just
about 26 newswomen.

00:07:07.727 --> 00:07:08.995
She had enough faith in us

00:07:08.995 --> 00:07:13.132
to learn something about the
sicknesses of the country then.

00:07:13.566 --> 00:07:15.802
She was interested in causes.

00:07:17.203 --> 00:07:18.971
[Bruce] How did you
cover the Congress

00:07:18.971 --> 00:07:21.374
or did you cover just
the Texas delegation?

00:07:21.374 --> 00:07:24.143
- Well, primarily Texas
and the Southwest,

00:07:24.143 --> 00:07:26.546
Arkansas and Oklahoma
because I represented

00:07:26.546 --> 00:07:28.981
the Arkansas Gazette
and the Tulsa Tribune.

00:07:28.981 --> 00:07:30.750
By this time, I'd had two babies

00:07:30.750 --> 00:07:33.219
and my husband was a newsman.

00:07:33.219 --> 00:07:35.488
It was the happiest
of worlds for us.

00:07:35.488 --> 00:07:41.227
[upbeat music]

00:07:41.227 --> 00:07:44.897
- Carpenter News Bureau, like
a lot of big fancy bureaus

00:07:44.897 --> 00:07:50.002
like Newsweek and UPI, were
in the National Press Building

00:07:50.002 --> 00:07:54.640
and Liz and Les were a
formidable journalistic bear.

00:07:55.441 --> 00:07:58.110
They were both topflight
reporters.

00:07:58.444 --> 00:08:01.113
They were doing
individual stories often,

00:08:01.113 --> 00:08:03.149
but they did work as a team

00:08:03.149 --> 00:08:06.118
and that increased
their reputation

00:08:06.118 --> 00:08:08.521
in their reporting ability.

00:08:08.521 --> 00:08:12.925
[upbeat music]

00:08:12.925 --> 00:08:15.294
The few women that there
were in journalism,

00:08:15.294 --> 00:08:16.863
most of 'em were single,

00:08:16.863 --> 00:08:19.298
but Liz, of course, married

00:08:19.298 --> 00:08:23.302
and by the time her second
child, Christy, was born,

00:08:23.302 --> 00:08:26.539
she was calling congressmen

00:08:26.539 --> 00:08:29.008
from the obstetric ward.

00:08:29.642 --> 00:08:33.312
That just sealed her
reputation as a dogged,

00:08:33.312 --> 00:08:36.182
persistent, go-get-'em
kind of reporter.

00:08:36.182 --> 00:08:40.019
[upbeat music]

00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:42.021
- Having a full-time working mom

00:08:42.021 --> 00:08:45.024
was having a mom that
was constantly distracted

00:08:45.024 --> 00:08:48.961
by her job and what
she needed to do next.

00:08:48.961 --> 00:08:51.864
And so she wasn't always
attentive to detail.

00:08:51.864 --> 00:08:56.235
And so one time, I'm about
eight or nine years old,

00:08:56.235 --> 00:08:58.871
my mother had gone to
the veterinarian

00:08:58.871 --> 00:09:01.841
to pick up our pet
dachshund, Missy,

00:09:01.841 --> 00:09:05.578
and came home with the
dog, opens the door,

00:09:05.578 --> 00:09:07.813
Missy spills out onto the lawn

00:09:07.813 --> 00:09:09.415
[dog barking]

00:09:09.415 --> 00:09:13.920
and my brother and I went,
"Mommy, that's not Missy."

00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:16.889
She had brought home
the wrong dog.

00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:18.491
[dog whimpering]

00:09:20.092 --> 00:09:22.194
[energetic music]

00:09:22.194 --> 00:09:24.597
[Liz] In 1954, I'd
become president

00:09:24.597 --> 00:09:26.766
of the Women's
National Press Club,

00:09:26.766 --> 00:09:29.335
which was a great thrill.

00:09:30.169 --> 00:09:31.871
[Don] It was an
important part for her

00:09:31.871 --> 00:09:35.875
because it established her
rank among women journalists

00:09:35.875 --> 00:09:38.778
and it also identified
her with a lot of the men

00:09:38.778 --> 00:09:40.513
who were government officials.

00:09:40.513 --> 00:09:42.582
Of course being the
president, being someone

00:09:42.582 --> 00:09:44.383
who was on the board,

00:09:44.383 --> 00:09:48.187
it raised her profile
considerably in Washington, D.C.

00:09:48.187 --> 00:09:52.925
[upbeat music]

00:09:52.925 --> 00:09:54.393
[Announcer] Next
Meet the Press,

00:09:54.393 --> 00:09:56.696
America's press
conference of the air.

00:09:56.696 --> 00:09:58.264
[Ned Brooks] And now, seated
around the press table,

00:09:58.264 --> 00:10:00.366
ready to interview
Governor Shivers,

00:10:00.366 --> 00:10:02.435
are Jack Bell of the
Associated Press,

00:10:02.435 --> 00:10:04.604
Elizabeth Carpenter
of the Houston Post,

00:10:04.604 --> 00:10:07.440
Sam Kinch of the Fort Worth
Star Telegram.

00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:09.976
- Governor Shivers,
let's talk about 1956

00:10:09.976 --> 00:10:11.644
and what Texas will do

00:10:11.644 --> 00:10:14.046
at the Democratic
National Convention.

00:10:14.046 --> 00:10:15.214
- We should be on a par

00:10:15.214 --> 00:10:19.251
with covering stories toe to
toe with our male colleagues

00:10:19.251 --> 00:10:21.887
and then when it came time to

00:10:21.887 --> 00:10:24.957
go to a professional engagement
at the Press Club,

00:10:24.957 --> 00:10:26.959
we couldn't go

00:10:26.959 --> 00:10:29.495
and Liz made the
breakthrough for us.

00:10:29.495 --> 00:10:32.932
She somehow negotiated with
the National Press Club

00:10:32.932 --> 00:10:37.737
to allow women to sit in the
balcony and that was in 1956

00:10:37.737 --> 00:10:40.339
and that was our first
foot in the door.

00:10:40.640 --> 00:10:43.309
- Liz lobbied with
visiting dignitaries

00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:45.444
to say you don't
wanna speak in front

00:10:45.444 --> 00:10:48.614
of a segregated audience.

00:10:50.650 --> 00:10:54.186
One of the people who did
agree was Nikita Khrushchev.

00:10:55.354 --> 00:10:58.457
[Liz] Khrushchev, who helped
break some ice for us,

00:10:58.457 --> 00:11:00.960
because he wouldn't come
and speak there

00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.928
unless they were men and women

00:11:02.928 --> 00:11:05.598
and it was a way of
shaming the United States

00:11:05.598 --> 00:11:08.134
for having this bad policy.

00:11:08.134 --> 00:11:09.969
- He was very proud
that he would not speak

00:11:09.969 --> 00:11:12.438
to the Press Club unless
the women were invited

00:11:12.438 --> 00:11:16.142
to come downstairs and they
were, for that luncheon only.

00:11:16.142 --> 00:11:19.278
[audience applauds]

00:11:19.278 --> 00:11:21.480
And it established Liz
as an activist,

00:11:21.480 --> 00:11:25.051
as someone who was out there
determined to get women

00:11:25.051 --> 00:11:27.453
full-time privileges
of being a journalist.

00:11:30.823 --> 00:11:32.324
[Liz] There is a thrill

00:11:32.324 --> 00:11:36.696
in watch somebody climb
up the political ladder.

00:11:36.696 --> 00:11:40.800
There's a great sense
of being for that horse.

00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:43.002
[people speaking indistinctly]

00:11:43.002 --> 00:11:44.904
- Shortly after
the inauguration,

00:11:44.904 --> 00:11:48.808
she got a call from Johnson
saying, "Liz, I'd like you

00:11:48.808 --> 00:11:52.178
to come join my vice
presidential staff."

00:11:52.178 --> 00:11:54.580
And she became
highest ranking woman

00:11:54.580 --> 00:11:57.249
that had ever worked
for a vice president.

00:11:57.249 --> 00:11:59.919
She was a troubleshooter,
she was a speech writer,

00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.154
a press wrangler,
an event planner,

00:12:02.154 --> 00:12:03.155
an advance woman.

00:12:03.155 --> 00:12:06.992
She did anything and
everything that LBJ needed

00:12:06.992 --> 00:12:09.895
during those vice
presidential years.

00:12:09.895 --> 00:12:17.737
[plane engine slowing]

00:12:19.105 --> 00:12:20.740
- The Kennedy, Johnson trip

00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:24.276
to Texas in November 1963

00:12:24.276 --> 00:12:27.747
was to be a, quote,
routine political trip.

00:12:27.747 --> 00:12:30.616
That's the way it was
viewed at the networks.

00:12:30.616 --> 00:12:31.917
No big deal.

00:12:31.917 --> 00:12:34.420
Dallas was to be the last stop.

00:12:34.420 --> 00:12:37.423
[crowd cheering]

00:12:37.423 --> 00:12:39.391
[gunshots popping]

00:12:39.391 --> 00:12:41.227
[male reporter] It appears as
though something has happened.

00:12:41.227 --> 00:12:43.796
- And I heard this rat-a-tat-tat

00:12:43.796 --> 00:12:46.432
of what we thought was somebody

00:12:46.432 --> 00:12:48.901
throwing a firecracker
in the crowd.

00:12:50.236 --> 00:12:54.039
Suddenly, you were at Parkland
Hospital walking past the car

00:12:54.039 --> 00:12:57.309
and for the first time
you saw the enormity.

00:12:58.310 --> 00:13:00.312
[Judge Sarah Hughes]
I do solemnly swear.

00:13:00.312 --> 00:13:01.580
[Johnson] I do solemnly swear.

00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:03.716
[man] Were you present at
the swearing in?

00:13:03.716 --> 00:13:04.884
[Liz] Yes.

00:13:04.884 --> 00:13:06.952
Pressed against the back wall.

00:13:08.053 --> 00:13:11.624
Somehow some spirit
helps you know

00:13:11.624 --> 00:13:13.292
you've gotta do something.

00:13:13.292 --> 00:13:14.393
And what I could do,

00:13:14.393 --> 00:13:17.263
because I was the
only writer along,

00:13:17.263 --> 00:13:20.166
all my intuitions as a reporter
was that he would be asked

00:13:20.166 --> 00:13:23.636
something when he got to
Andrews Air Force base.

00:13:25.771 --> 00:13:28.107
And so I started scribbling,

00:13:28.107 --> 00:13:32.511
I guess the most important
58 words I ever wrote.

00:13:34.313 --> 00:13:37.983
[LBJ] This is a sad time
for all people.

00:13:38.951 --> 00:13:43.122
We have suffered a loss
that cannot be weighed.

00:13:43.989 --> 00:13:48.594
For me, it is a deep
personal tragedy.

00:13:51.163 --> 00:13:54.366
I will do my best.

00:13:54.366 --> 00:13:57.002
That is all I can do.

00:13:58.304 --> 00:14:02.374
I ask for your help

00:14:02.374 --> 00:14:04.276
and God's.

00:14:04.276 --> 00:14:06.679
[somber music]

00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:08.147
- As we got off
of the helicopter

00:14:08.147 --> 00:14:09.815
on the lawn of the White House,

00:14:09.815 --> 00:14:12.451
the President said,
"Go with Lady Bird

00:14:12.451 --> 00:14:14.053
and help her all you can."

00:14:14.053 --> 00:14:17.356
[camera clicks]

00:14:17.356 --> 00:14:20.125
[Dan] In the minutes and hours
and for that matter, days

00:14:20.125 --> 00:14:22.328
after the Kennedy
assassination,

00:14:22.328 --> 00:14:27.299
Liz was a key to holding
the Johnsons together

00:14:27.299 --> 00:14:29.301
and by extension,

00:14:29.301 --> 00:14:31.370
helping to hold the
country together.

00:14:34.707 --> 00:14:36.141
[Liz] Johnson said to us,

00:14:36.141 --> 00:14:38.878
"Think of where people
can be used best."

00:14:38.878 --> 00:14:41.580
[camera clicking]

00:14:41.580 --> 00:14:45.818
I said I wanted to be Press
Secretary to the Lady Bird.

00:14:45.818 --> 00:14:47.052
That was the part
of the White House

00:14:47.052 --> 00:14:48.687
I'd covered the closest

00:14:48.687 --> 00:14:52.424
and no newswoman had
ever been in that job.

00:14:52.424 --> 00:14:55.761
I was made that and Chief
of Staff for Lady Bird.

00:14:57.663 --> 00:14:59.932
[Julia Sweig] Lady Bird Johnson
is the first First Lady

00:14:59.932 --> 00:15:03.035
in the United States to put
together a professional staff,

00:15:03.035 --> 00:15:06.338
to make the East Wing
really part and parcel

00:15:06.338 --> 00:15:08.374
of the political operation

00:15:08.374 --> 00:15:10.342
of the entire White House.

00:15:11.110 --> 00:15:14.046
What Liz did was
build the bridge

00:15:14.046 --> 00:15:16.749
between the West Wing
and the East Wing.

00:15:17.583 --> 00:15:22.221
- Lady Bird really
admired Liz's brains

00:15:22.221 --> 00:15:25.391
and her knowledge of Washington.

00:15:26.425 --> 00:15:29.028
[Dan] Liz had a very good eye

00:15:29.028 --> 00:15:32.097
for the emerging television age.

00:15:32.097 --> 00:15:34.767
Remember that Lyndon
Johnson is elevated

00:15:34.767 --> 00:15:38.370
by an assassin's bullet
to the presidency

00:15:38.370 --> 00:15:40.539
at the very moment
when television

00:15:40.539 --> 00:15:44.877
and television news were
becoming, for the first time,

00:15:44.877 --> 00:15:47.479
the main source where
most Americans

00:15:47.479 --> 00:15:49.148
got most of their news.

00:15:50.215 --> 00:15:53.152
- Liz was brash and earthy

00:15:53.152 --> 00:15:55.587
and Lady Bird was buttoned down,

00:15:55.587 --> 00:15:57.122
but she got a huge
kick out of Liz

00:15:57.122 --> 00:15:58.590
and she knew that Liz
gave her something

00:15:58.590 --> 00:16:00.592
that she didn't have on her own.

00:16:09.468 --> 00:16:12.171
- Liz could be very strong.

00:16:12.171 --> 00:16:13.272
Guess what.

00:16:13.272 --> 00:16:15.908
Same thing was true
about Lyndon Johnson.

00:16:20.079 --> 00:16:21.780
- But it was a
volatile relationship

00:16:21.780 --> 00:16:23.916
because Liz, she would speak up.

00:16:25.918 --> 00:16:28.253
- I remember once when
they got the two new dogs,

00:16:28.253 --> 00:16:30.155
Him and Her,

00:16:30.155 --> 00:16:31.156
oh, she spoke up

00:16:31.156 --> 00:16:33.659
and said they have a
really nice doghouse

00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:35.961
and somebody asked her,
"How do you know?"

00:16:35.961 --> 00:16:37.696
She said, "Because I
sleep there." [laughed]

00:16:37.696 --> 00:16:39.832
[energetic music]

00:16:39.832 --> 00:16:42.668
- She pushed daddy, but
she pushed everybody.

00:16:44.103 --> 00:16:48.640
I was shy and shy was not
a word in her lexicon.

00:16:48.640 --> 00:16:53.178
- I don't think that
Liz got the memo

00:16:53.178 --> 00:16:56.115
that I wasn't her child.

00:16:56.682 --> 00:16:59.618
It was just easier to do

00:16:59.618 --> 00:17:03.022
that which she was
instructing you to do

00:17:03.022 --> 00:17:04.523
than it was to figure out

00:17:04.523 --> 00:17:08.293
how come you had a
justifiable excuse

00:17:08.293 --> 00:17:09.595
not to do it.

00:17:09.595 --> 00:17:11.130
- For minor offenders,

00:17:11.130 --> 00:17:14.867
we're going to have a large
guillotine erected on the mall

00:17:14.867 --> 00:17:16.568
punishable in that manner.

00:17:17.202 --> 00:17:19.138
[Lynda] She was
just right out front

00:17:19.138 --> 00:17:22.007
charging hell with
a bucket of water.

00:17:22.007 --> 00:17:26.578
- And that sort of
mindset worked really well

00:17:26.578 --> 00:17:28.547
with Lyndon Johnson.

00:17:28.547 --> 00:17:35.687
[gentle music]

00:17:35.687 --> 00:17:37.056
[cows moo]

00:17:38.590 --> 00:17:40.492
[Liz] My roots
are deep in Texas

00:17:40.492 --> 00:17:43.562
and I know that it
shaped me a lot.

00:17:46.565 --> 00:17:49.201
Growing up in the small
town of Salado, Texas,

00:17:49.201 --> 00:17:51.336
population about 150,

00:17:51.336 --> 00:17:52.438
in the house that was built

00:17:52.438 --> 00:17:55.741
by my great-grandfather in 1852.

00:17:56.608 --> 00:18:00.846
- Her great-grandmother,
who helped build the house,

00:18:00.846 --> 00:18:03.415
created the first literary
society in the entire

00:18:03.415 --> 00:18:06.418
state of Texas in 1858.

00:18:08.253 --> 00:18:12.291
These were women who could
recite lengthy poems by heart.

00:18:13.292 --> 00:18:18.197
All of this really gave Liz an
appetite to become a writer.

00:18:20.132 --> 00:18:22.267
In the early 1830s,

00:18:22.267 --> 00:18:27.372
women who came to settle in
Texas were women of grit.

00:18:30.576 --> 00:18:32.211
It's really not
surprising at all

00:18:32.211 --> 00:18:35.280
that Liz spent a career
being a trailblazer

00:18:35.280 --> 00:18:38.417
because she was directly
descended by people

00:18:38.417 --> 00:18:41.086
that were literally
trailblazers.

00:18:41.320 --> 00:18:44.556
My mother was heavily
influenced by stories of people

00:18:44.556 --> 00:18:49.161
like, like her great aunts,
Luella and Birdie.

00:18:49.161 --> 00:18:52.764
Luella was one of the first
woman in the state of Texas

00:18:52.764 --> 00:18:55.601
to graduate from a school
of higher learning,

00:18:55.601 --> 00:18:57.336
Salado College.

00:18:58.837 --> 00:19:01.507
Birdie would dress up in white,

00:19:01.507 --> 00:19:03.809
get in a carriage and
go up to Capitol Hill

00:19:03.809 --> 00:19:07.646
and lobby on behalf
of the suffrage cause.

00:19:08.647 --> 00:19:10.782
[Jessica] So what is it
about Texas women?

00:19:10.782 --> 00:19:14.820
Why so many amazing
leaders come out of Texas?

00:19:14.820 --> 00:19:16.421
Barbara Jordan,

00:19:16.421 --> 00:19:18.757
Dr. Clotilde Garcia,

00:19:18.757 --> 00:19:21.059
Martha Cotera,

00:19:21.059 --> 00:19:22.628
Sissy Farenthold,

00:19:22.628 --> 00:19:23.962
Ann Richards,

00:19:23.962 --> 00:19:25.464
Liz Carpenter.

00:19:27.666 --> 00:19:30.169
So Liz's personality
is not a surprise.

00:19:30.169 --> 00:19:32.638
She's raised in a family
that raises strong women.

00:19:32.638 --> 00:19:34.206
That's what they do and
they've been doing it

00:19:34.206 --> 00:19:36.108
for generations.

00:19:36.108 --> 00:19:43.348
[gentle music]

00:19:43.348 --> 00:19:45.450
[Liz] My mother moved us
down to Austin

00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:49.354
and we lived in various
houses around the university.

00:19:50.055 --> 00:19:52.691
You could go to the
University of Texas

00:19:52.691 --> 00:19:56.295
for $12.50 a semester.

00:19:56.295 --> 00:19:58.697
I ran for vice president
of the student body

00:19:58.697 --> 00:20:00.532
and I was the first girl

00:20:00.532 --> 00:20:03.502
that hadn't just run
for a secretary,

00:20:03.502 --> 00:20:05.337
and I won.

00:20:10.175 --> 00:20:13.011
[Bill] How old were you
when you first met Johnson?

00:20:13.011 --> 00:20:16.248
- I think I was 23.

00:20:16.848 --> 00:20:20.319
I was covering LBJ for the
Austin American Statesman

00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:22.888
and so I went by
his office every day

00:20:22.888 --> 00:20:24.723
and he was a congressman then.

00:20:25.357 --> 00:20:26.725
He read my copy.

00:20:26.725 --> 00:20:29.061
It meant a lot to him
for the simple reason

00:20:29.061 --> 00:20:30.996
that it was the main
paper in the district

00:20:30.996 --> 00:20:32.898
he was representing.

00:20:32.898 --> 00:20:36.335
You were important to him too,
and so it worked two ways.

00:20:37.169 --> 00:20:39.838
- Liz and Daddy, they
were both showmen

00:20:39.838 --> 00:20:42.541
and later I think he was
a little jealous sometimes

00:20:42.541 --> 00:20:45.744
'cause Liz could get
better press for mother

00:20:45.744 --> 00:20:48.113
than anybody could
get for him.

00:20:49.514 --> 00:20:54.119
[Liz] I was a good cross
between LBJ and Lady Bird.

00:20:54.620 --> 00:20:55.787
I had known them both.

00:20:55.787 --> 00:20:57.756
I had covered them both.

00:20:57.756 --> 00:20:59.925
I understood the

00:20:59.925 --> 00:21:02.427
sort of demands on both.

00:21:03.729 --> 00:21:06.531
- You weren't the President's
favorite employee.

00:21:06.531 --> 00:21:07.566
Why did you say that?

00:21:07.566 --> 00:21:08.567
- I don't know.

00:21:08.567 --> 00:21:09.968
I suspect there were times

00:21:09.968 --> 00:21:13.639
that me in my impetuous way,
well he would call me

00:21:13.639 --> 00:21:16.575
and say, you know,
"Liz, if you don't learn

00:21:16.575 --> 00:21:19.411
to keep your mouth shut,

00:21:19.411 --> 00:21:23.081
I am going to give you to the
Johnson City Foundation"

00:21:23.081 --> 00:21:24.416
[both laughing]

00:21:24.416 --> 00:21:25.651
[audience applauds]

00:21:25.651 --> 00:21:28.787
- And this
administration today,

00:21:28.787 --> 00:21:30.756
here and now,

00:21:30.756 --> 00:21:35.794
declares unconditional
war on poverty in America.

00:21:36.495 --> 00:21:38.130
[Liz] Lady Bird wanted to help

00:21:38.130 --> 00:21:41.133
translate the President's
program into people

00:21:41.133 --> 00:21:44.336
and one of the, kind of,
glories of my job was

00:21:44.336 --> 00:21:47.906
to shape together what turned
out to be about 47 trips

00:21:47.906 --> 00:21:50.909
around the country and
bring flesh and blood

00:21:50.909 --> 00:21:53.912
to the war on poverty
that Johnson had launched.

00:21:53.912 --> 00:22:03.822
[lively music]

00:22:03.822 --> 00:22:07.526
[Julia] Liz had this
trifecta of skills.

00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:10.762
She did policy,

00:22:10.762 --> 00:22:12.331
she did the media,

00:22:12.331 --> 00:22:14.299
she did politics.

00:22:17.703 --> 00:22:21.673
So every time Lady Bird
traveled anywhere,

00:22:21.673 --> 00:22:23.775
Liz put together the itinerary

00:22:23.775 --> 00:22:28.313
knowing what it is her most
important constituent wanted.

00:22:30.015 --> 00:22:35.487
[energetic music]

00:22:35.487 --> 00:22:36.955
[Liz] She was the first person

00:22:36.955 --> 00:22:40.025
who went up into Appalachia

00:22:44.529 --> 00:22:47.799
and was shown around by
the same superintendent

00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:49.835
of schools in that little county

00:22:49.835 --> 00:22:53.739
that had shown Eleanor Roosevelt
around 25 years before.

00:22:55.507 --> 00:22:58.710
And you had the feeling that
they hadn't seen anybody much

00:22:58.710 --> 00:23:02.914
since Eleanor Roosevelt and
not a great deal had happened.

00:23:07.686 --> 00:23:12.157
By taking a newsworthy
person to the scene

00:23:12.157 --> 00:23:14.693
of the good example

00:23:14.693 --> 00:23:19.698
and making it extremely
easy for the press

00:23:19.698 --> 00:23:23.068
to cover the story,

00:23:23.068 --> 00:23:25.704
making it possible for
the photographers

00:23:25.704 --> 00:23:29.408
to get close to make the
picture that would move,

00:23:29.408 --> 00:23:31.777
you did help draw
the curtain back

00:23:31.777 --> 00:23:35.280
a little bit wider on a problem

00:23:35.280 --> 00:23:37.549
and a possible solution.

00:23:38.950 --> 00:23:44.089
She was telling the success
story of the Great Society.

00:23:49.194 --> 00:23:53.765
[man] What did you think
about Vietnam?

00:23:53.765 --> 00:23:56.701
Why did he pursue the
war so consistently?

00:23:57.369 --> 00:23:59.438
[Liz] It hurt terribly

00:23:59.438 --> 00:24:03.208
and he said to Mrs. Johnson,
"I can't pull out

00:24:03.208 --> 00:24:05.243
and I can't stay in."

00:24:06.111 --> 00:24:08.647
Vietnam was just
a nightmare to him

00:24:08.647 --> 00:24:11.716
because that wasn't the
war he wanted to pursue.

00:24:11.716 --> 00:24:14.119
He wanted to pursue
the war on poverty

00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:16.254
and to his eternal credit,

00:24:16.254 --> 00:24:19.324
he managed to keep the
Job Corps and Vista

00:24:19.324 --> 00:24:21.059
and all of the
programs going

00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:25.831
even though we were having
to fight the war in Vietnam.

00:24:26.631 --> 00:24:31.570
[people chanting indistinctly]

00:24:31.570 --> 00:24:33.472
[male reporter] The Democratic
Convention began with a hassle

00:24:33.472 --> 00:24:36.241
between Negroes and
Southern white supremacists.

00:24:36.575 --> 00:24:39.411
But President Johnson was
nominated by acclamation.

00:24:39.411 --> 00:24:41.480
[country music]

00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:43.682
[Liz] The president asked
me to come up with an idea

00:24:43.682 --> 00:24:46.518
for how to best
campaign in the South.

00:24:49.788 --> 00:24:51.823
- It was Harry Truman who
said to him, "There are a lot

00:24:51.823 --> 00:24:53.859
of people in this
country who don't know

00:24:53.859 --> 00:24:56.862
where the airport is, but
they know where the depot is.

00:24:56.862 --> 00:24:58.697
Go out and find 'em."

00:25:01.166 --> 00:25:05.704
- The Whistle Stop Tour
of October 1964

00:25:05.704 --> 00:25:09.641
was another
barrier-breaking display

00:25:09.641 --> 00:25:14.479
of political bravery by Lady
Bird Johnson and Liz Carpenter.

00:25:15.981 --> 00:25:21.520
The Civil Rights Act had
passed in July of 1964,

00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:23.989
the South for Lady Bird Johnson,

00:25:23.989 --> 00:25:25.390
despite the Civil Rights Act

00:25:25.390 --> 00:25:30.061
and despite the Goldwater
campaigns was very much in play.

00:25:30.462 --> 00:25:33.365
She understood that it
was possible that LBJ

00:25:33.365 --> 00:25:36.034
and the Democratic Party
would lose some of the South,

00:25:36.034 --> 00:25:37.869
but she wanted to give it a try.

00:25:38.470 --> 00:25:41.172
[Liz] The President wanted
her to go on the Whistle Stop

00:25:41.172 --> 00:25:43.542
because he knew that
Mrs. Johnson would be

00:25:43.542 --> 00:25:44.976
loved in the South.

00:25:44.976 --> 00:25:47.746
He knew that he did not
wanna default the South.

00:25:48.713 --> 00:25:52.350
- Now Mrs. Carpenter, what's
the main purpose of this trip

00:25:52.350 --> 00:25:54.386
as far as
Mrs. Johnson's concerned?

00:25:54.386 --> 00:25:57.155
- Well, Marlene, obviously
there's an election on

00:25:57.155 --> 00:26:00.725
and she's helping carry the
story of this administration

00:26:00.725 --> 00:26:02.160
and of her husband's record

00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:07.999
to eight states down
1,682 miles of railroad track.

00:26:07.999 --> 00:26:10.001
Big cities, small towns,

00:26:10.001 --> 00:26:12.437
the byroads and the crossroads

00:26:12.437 --> 00:26:16.408
and a lot of places where the
candidates don't always go.

00:26:16.408 --> 00:26:22.047
[lively music]

00:26:22.047 --> 00:26:24.115
♪ Hello, Lyndon

00:26:24.115 --> 00:26:26.851
♪ Well hello, Lyndon

00:26:26.851 --> 00:26:31.456
♪ It's just great to have
you there where you belong. ♪

00:26:32.691 --> 00:26:35.026
[Liz] She was the
perfect person to do this

00:26:35.026 --> 00:26:37.862
because she loved
being from the South.

00:26:37.862 --> 00:26:40.632
- Nothing could be finer
than to be in Carolina

00:26:40.632 --> 00:26:41.766
in the morning.

00:26:41.766 --> 00:26:43.034
[crowd cheering]

00:26:43.034 --> 00:26:46.705
[lively music]

00:26:46.705 --> 00:26:49.474
[Liz] When you're in the
towns of 50,000 or less,

00:26:49.474 --> 00:26:52.811
people come from
hundreds of miles around.

00:26:52.811 --> 00:26:56.948
You've got these fantastic
telegrams from little towns

00:26:56.948 --> 00:27:00.151
along the way saying
nobody important has been

00:27:00.151 --> 00:27:02.487
through here since Buffalo Bill.

00:27:02.487 --> 00:27:05.223
Please have your
train stop here.

00:27:05.223 --> 00:27:06.424
[train whistling]

00:27:06.424 --> 00:27:12.063
[energetic music]

00:27:12.063 --> 00:27:15.000
The first two or three
stops were so successful

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.003
there were more people boarding
than we've even counted on.

00:27:18.003 --> 00:27:21.673
♪ There's a train
coming down the track ♪

00:27:22.273 --> 00:27:26.177
♪ Gotta move on
and looking back ♪

00:27:26.945 --> 00:27:28.113
♪ There's a train

00:27:28.113 --> 00:27:31.916
[Liz] We had about 225
reporters who were on the train

00:27:31.916 --> 00:27:34.019
and I'd given them advice,

00:27:34.019 --> 00:27:35.820
if you get left behind,

00:27:35.820 --> 00:27:38.423
look for the advance man
or take up residence

00:27:38.423 --> 00:27:40.191
and vote democratic.

00:27:41.660 --> 00:27:46.131
[Julia] Liz was sharp when it
came to understanding

00:27:46.131 --> 00:27:51.136
how to translate action into
politically useful publicity,

00:27:51.136 --> 00:27:54.172
so she stuffed these two
trains with journalists

00:27:54.172 --> 00:27:58.309
from around the country
and from around the world.

00:27:59.978 --> 00:28:02.347
[Luci] She had been a
journalist, she had understood

00:28:02.347 --> 00:28:05.350
how hard it was sometimes
to get a seat at the table,

00:28:05.350 --> 00:28:08.620
so she made sure that no
matter how many dignitaries

00:28:08.620 --> 00:28:11.723
had to squeeze into
that train, by God,

00:28:11.723 --> 00:28:13.291
the people were gonna
be able to come in

00:28:13.291 --> 00:28:14.893
and get their story.

00:28:15.560 --> 00:28:16.561
[camera clicks]

00:28:16.561 --> 00:28:19.464
And the coverage that
the Whistle Stop Tour got

00:28:19.464 --> 00:28:21.566
as a result, both
internationally

00:28:21.566 --> 00:28:25.003
and domestically, was
universally positive.

00:28:25.003 --> 00:28:27.806
Not just the civil
rights message,

00:28:27.806 --> 00:28:31.076
but also this being
something unique

00:28:31.076 --> 00:28:33.344
for a First Lady
to be undertaking.

00:28:34.179 --> 00:28:35.714
[Liz] For four days,

00:28:35.714 --> 00:28:39.350
you stayed on the
big news shows,

00:28:39.350 --> 00:28:41.419
you had five minutes
every night,

00:28:41.419 --> 00:28:44.355
time you can't
buy in a campaign.

00:28:44.355 --> 00:28:45.857
In some ways, I guess

00:28:45.857 --> 00:28:48.593
because there was
controversy along the tracks.

00:28:52.897 --> 00:28:54.432
- A happy-sounding
Whistle Stop Tour

00:28:54.432 --> 00:28:55.667
and the saltwater taffy

00:28:55.667 --> 00:28:58.203
and the kind of fun
campininess of it

00:28:58.203 --> 00:28:59.671
contrasted quite starkly

00:28:59.671 --> 00:29:02.674
to the danger and foreboding
that they were going into.

00:29:02.674 --> 00:29:05.043
[crowd cheering]

00:29:05.043 --> 00:29:06.544
[Liz] We wanted
to go to the towns

00:29:06.544 --> 00:29:09.247
that nobody else could get into.

00:29:09.681 --> 00:29:11.416
Anybody can get into Atlanta

00:29:11.416 --> 00:29:12.884
and out with their hide on,

00:29:12.884 --> 00:29:15.019
even if you're for
Civil Rights Bill.

00:29:15.019 --> 00:29:16.621
We took Savannah.

00:29:16.621 --> 00:29:17.722
It's tougher.

00:29:22.427 --> 00:29:24.596
[Julia] By the time they got
into South Carolina,

00:29:24.596 --> 00:29:30.034
the hecklers were filled
with racial slurs.

00:29:31.302 --> 00:29:33.204
As the train moved south,

00:29:33.204 --> 00:29:38.042
they had to send secret service
dogs and a dummy train ahead

00:29:38.042 --> 00:29:41.579
because Lady Bird Johnson
had received death threats.

00:29:42.914 --> 00:29:52.924
[tranquil music]

00:30:00.732 --> 00:30:04.435
[crowd cheering]

00:30:04.435 --> 00:30:07.005
Of the eight states
that she campaigned in,

00:30:07.005 --> 00:30:08.840
they won three.

00:30:08.840 --> 00:30:09.808
They won Florida,

00:30:09.808 --> 00:30:11.943
which they never thought
that they would win.

00:30:11.943 --> 00:30:14.479
They won Virginia and
they won North Carolina,

00:30:14.479 --> 00:30:16.447
but the rest went to Goldwater.

00:30:17.182 --> 00:30:19.851
[male reporter] The voice of the
people was heard in the land.

00:30:19.851 --> 00:30:22.153
Sixty-eight million citizens
of the United States

00:30:22.153 --> 00:30:25.490
go to the polls to exercise
their cherished franchise

00:30:25.490 --> 00:30:27.358
and an overwhelming
mandate is handed

00:30:27.358 --> 00:30:29.027
to Lyndon Baines Johnson,

00:30:29.027 --> 00:30:31.629
36th President of
the United States.

00:30:33.031 --> 00:30:35.033
[Julia] The United States
had just invested

00:30:35.033 --> 00:30:37.869
hundreds of millions of dollars
into American cities

00:30:37.869 --> 00:30:39.337
through urban renewal

00:30:39.337 --> 00:30:42.006
[explosions rumble]

00:30:42.006 --> 00:30:44.209
and into American highways

00:30:44.209 --> 00:30:46.444
through the interstate
highway system.

00:30:48.847 --> 00:30:51.115
All this big
infrastructure money

00:30:51.115 --> 00:30:55.053
had huge environmental
consequences, mostly negative.

00:30:57.789 --> 00:31:02.126
- We were in a terrific
hole in the 1960s.

00:31:02.126 --> 00:31:04.229
Lady Bird realized
there was an opportunity

00:31:04.229 --> 00:31:09.334
to make her big statement
about cleaning up America.

00:31:10.735 --> 00:31:11.836
- All her life,

00:31:11.836 --> 00:31:15.340
she had been interested
in planting the roadsides,

00:31:15.340 --> 00:31:17.909
which are our largest
national park.

00:31:17.909 --> 00:31:20.345
And so this was a chance to

00:31:20.345 --> 00:31:22.914
hold that flag high from
the White House

00:31:22.914 --> 00:31:27.385
and, my goodness, how we
woke up sleeping beauty.

00:31:27.385 --> 00:31:37.762
[energetic music]

00:31:37.762 --> 00:31:39.330
- Any other wife
might tell her husband

00:31:39.330 --> 00:31:41.199
to clean up the backyard.

00:31:41.199 --> 00:31:42.901
Mrs. Johnson told the
president that he ought

00:31:42.901 --> 00:31:46.404
to do something about the
nation's automobile junkyards.

00:31:46.404 --> 00:31:49.774
Now her cleanup suggestion
has blossomed forth

00:31:49.774 --> 00:31:53.745
into the president's nationwide
beautification program.

00:31:56.281 --> 00:32:00.385
[Liz] Suddenly, you had a host
of telegrams, letters,

00:32:00.385 --> 00:32:03.121
phone calls,
requests for meetings

00:32:03.121 --> 00:32:07.525
from what I would call the
believers, conservationists.

00:32:07.525 --> 00:32:09.794
It was like a great awakening.

00:32:11.696 --> 00:32:14.465
Environmentalists everywhere
suddenly had a voice

00:32:14.465 --> 00:32:16.401
in the White House.

00:32:19.203 --> 00:32:22.273
One million daffodil
bulbs were planted

00:32:22.273 --> 00:32:23.741
on the banks of the Potomac.

00:32:23.741 --> 00:32:26.077
Then it was the biggest
planting in the history

00:32:26.077 --> 00:32:29.714
of the world, I suppose
since the Garden of Eden.

00:32:35.153 --> 00:32:37.889
The President wanted to
go through very much

00:32:37.889 --> 00:32:41.626
and let's get busy and
get the bill passed.

00:32:42.093 --> 00:32:45.563
This is a typical Johnson,
called me one day and he said,

00:32:45.563 --> 00:32:47.999
"Liz, I want you to put
on your best perfume

00:32:47.999 --> 00:32:50.635
and your tightest girdle
and go up to the Hill

00:32:50.635 --> 00:32:52.804
and talk to those
Texas congressmen

00:32:52.804 --> 00:32:56.174
and tell 'em I want their
votes for this bill."

00:32:56.174 --> 00:32:58.509
So I did just what
he told me to.

00:32:58.509 --> 00:33:01.145
And I was back in about
an hour and a half

00:33:01.145 --> 00:33:03.948
and he said, "Well,
what'd they say?"

00:33:03.948 --> 00:33:07.118
So I said, "Well, I think
we'll lose Omar Burleson,

00:33:07.118 --> 00:33:08.953
who's from Abilene, Texas.

00:33:08.953 --> 00:33:13.624
And he said, "Go to that
phone and you call Omar

00:33:13.624 --> 00:33:16.127
and you tell him Air Force
bases can be given

00:33:16.127 --> 00:33:18.029
and they can be taken away."

00:33:18.029 --> 00:33:23.267
[audience applauds]

00:33:23.267 --> 00:33:29.307
- Today, there's a great
deal of real joy

00:33:29.307 --> 00:33:32.677
within me and within my family

00:33:32.677 --> 00:33:36.447
as we meet here in
this historic East Room

00:33:36.447 --> 00:33:41.486
to sign the Highway
Beautification Act of 1965.

00:33:41.486 --> 00:33:43.855
[audience applauds]

00:33:43.855 --> 00:33:47.325
[Julia] Lady Bird talked always
about being able to find herself

00:33:47.325 --> 00:33:48.893
and find peace in nature,

00:33:48.893 --> 00:33:51.129
and I think that
really carried on

00:33:51.129 --> 00:33:53.331
into what she wound up
doing in the White House

00:33:53.331 --> 00:33:55.466
on the environment
with Stew Udall,

00:33:55.466 --> 00:33:58.136
who was the Secretary
of Interior.

00:34:00.538 --> 00:34:01.639
- Udall had talked

00:34:01.639 --> 00:34:04.375
to Mrs. Johnson when
he accompanied us

00:34:04.375 --> 00:34:07.378
on that trip in
August to the West.

00:34:08.713 --> 00:34:12.583
He began to see that he had
a very responsive First Lady

00:34:12.583 --> 00:34:14.585
to the wanders of nature.

00:34:16.254 --> 00:34:19.190
- Lady Bird swooned
over the Tetons.

00:34:21.692 --> 00:34:24.762
Udall would later say
that it was that trip

00:34:24.762 --> 00:34:28.232
that turned Lady Bird
into an activist.

00:34:31.202 --> 00:34:33.104
Liz really saved
the day when it came

00:34:33.104 --> 00:34:35.440
to promoting environmentalism

00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:37.875
and particularly the
National Park System.

00:34:38.609 --> 00:34:41.379
Why do we want the first lady
standing at the White House

00:34:41.379 --> 00:34:43.014
reading a report?

00:34:43.014 --> 00:34:46.050
Let's get out there and
enjoy these national parks.

00:34:46.050 --> 00:34:48.553
[Lady Bird] What does it take
to make a national park?

00:34:48.553 --> 00:34:50.021
It takes a dream.

00:34:50.021 --> 00:34:52.290
[audience applauds]

00:34:52.290 --> 00:34:54.058
- Wherever Lady Bird went,

00:34:54.058 --> 00:34:58.196
Liz was planning it as
a kind of extravaganza

00:35:00.765 --> 00:35:05.236
and she understood the
value of a big press gaggle.

00:35:05.236 --> 00:35:09.540
And Liz brought them to
remote places in America.

00:35:10.074 --> 00:35:11.609
She convinced everybody

00:35:11.609 --> 00:35:13.111
that you're nobody in journalism

00:35:13.111 --> 00:35:16.147
if you're not on Lady Bird
Johnson's big adventure

00:35:16.147 --> 00:35:18.149
to the Rocky Mountains.

00:35:18.149 --> 00:35:27.625
[gentle music]

00:35:27.625 --> 00:35:32.096
And hence, it started getting
the newspaper coverage

00:35:34.932 --> 00:35:39.103
and you see this massive
uptick in visitation going on.

00:35:40.171 --> 00:35:44.342
It elevated environmentalism
as a national issue.

00:35:50.014 --> 00:35:52.517
What was happening
in California?

00:35:52.517 --> 00:35:56.654
Ancient 2000-year-old redwood
trees just being clear cut.

00:35:58.523 --> 00:36:02.460
Ladybird came in into a huge
redwood battle in the state

00:36:02.460 --> 00:36:03.761
and took a lead

00:36:03.761 --> 00:36:06.297
of making sure the coastal
redwoods were saved

00:36:06.297 --> 00:36:08.266
near Eureka, California,

00:36:08.266 --> 00:36:11.502
in what is today
Redwood National Park.

00:36:11.502 --> 00:36:15.506
[people speaking indistinctly]

00:36:15.506 --> 00:36:17.441
There's never been,
not only a First Lady

00:36:17.441 --> 00:36:21.045
like Lady Bird Johnson in
the environmental realm,

00:36:21.045 --> 00:36:23.481
but she's one of the most
important conservation

00:36:23.481 --> 00:36:26.450
environmentalist in
American history.

00:36:27.852 --> 00:36:31.222
The Great Society was
an incredible moment

00:36:31.222 --> 00:36:34.892
of bringing a new
conservation awareness

00:36:34.892 --> 00:36:37.495
to the American people,
which became

00:36:37.495 --> 00:36:40.331
the environmentalism of today.

00:36:50.708 --> 00:36:54.078
Anything you look at that
Lady Bird Johnson accomplished

00:36:54.078 --> 00:36:56.214
in the environmental realm,

00:36:56.214 --> 00:36:58.716
Liz deserves a lot of credit.

00:36:59.584 --> 00:37:03.654
Liz would promote these
adventures which captivated

00:37:03.654 --> 00:37:05.890
the American public at a time
when there wasn't a lot

00:37:05.890 --> 00:37:10.161
of good news due to urban
unrest in the Vietnam War.

00:37:12.330 --> 00:37:15.700
- I shall not seek

00:37:15.700 --> 00:37:18.402
and I will not accept

00:37:18.402 --> 00:37:21.105
the nomination of my
party for another term

00:37:21.105 --> 00:37:22.773
as your president.

00:37:23.874 --> 00:37:27.678
- In 1969, Nixon is
inaugurated President

00:37:27.678 --> 00:37:31.382
and the Johnsons head back
home to the LBJ Ranch.

00:37:31.882 --> 00:37:33.851
Liz stays in Washington,

00:37:33.851 --> 00:37:36.354
writes a bestselling
book about her adventures

00:37:36.354 --> 00:37:39.390
in the White House and
starts working very hard

00:37:39.390 --> 00:37:42.793
on behalf of the National
Women's Political Caucus.

00:37:42.793 --> 00:37:49.734
[upbeat music]

00:37:49.734 --> 00:37:50.968
[male reporter] Today,
throughout the land,

00:37:50.968 --> 00:37:52.236
there is a growing demand

00:37:52.236 --> 00:37:55.106
by some women that society
begin to treat them as men,

00:37:55.106 --> 00:37:57.108
different from men,
but equal to them,

00:37:57.108 --> 00:37:59.443
both in jobs and in politics.

00:38:00.077 --> 00:38:02.980
[male reporter] Liz Carpenter is
active in the women's movement,

00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:04.915
not only in her native Texas.

00:38:05.916 --> 00:38:09.253
- My plan today is to make
this a hot pants speech,

00:38:09.253 --> 00:38:10.254
[audience laughs]

00:38:10.254 --> 00:38:11.722
long enough to cover the subject

00:38:11.722 --> 00:38:14.125
and short enough
to be inspiring.

00:38:14.625 --> 00:38:18.629
- She was a Texan, so you felt
that warmth and friendliness

00:38:18.629 --> 00:38:21.565
as if there were no
social strata whatsoever.

00:38:21.565 --> 00:38:27.071
You know [laughs], she had
a vision, a unified vision

00:38:27.071 --> 00:38:28.906
that was far beyond

00:38:28.906 --> 00:38:32.610
what most people in political
life would have thought.

00:38:32.843 --> 00:38:35.813
- And we gather here
because we're determined

00:38:35.813 --> 00:38:39.083
that women have a stronger
voice in the party structure

00:38:39.083 --> 00:38:41.185
where we are perfectly
willing to trade

00:38:41.185 --> 00:38:44.855
that outmoded phony
mantle of protectionism

00:38:44.855 --> 00:38:48.025
for some equal pay
and equal right.

00:38:48.626 --> 00:38:51.429
So, let me warn you, watch out.

00:38:51.429 --> 00:38:53.331
Here we come.

00:38:53.331 --> 00:38:55.833
[people speaking indistinctly]

00:38:55.833 --> 00:38:59.804
- In the very early '70s,
everything was discriminatory.

00:38:59.804 --> 00:39:01.972
It was blatant.

00:39:01.972 --> 00:39:04.175
I meet Liz Carpenter first

00:39:04.175 --> 00:39:08.713
at the National Women's
Political Caucus in 1971.

00:39:08.713 --> 00:39:10.314
A lot of us were amateurs.

00:39:10.314 --> 00:39:15.186
She was a person who had been
inside in a very high position

00:39:15.186 --> 00:39:18.189
and she was an expert
in getting press.

00:39:18.189 --> 00:39:19.857
[Gloria] The purpose of the

00:39:19.857 --> 00:39:22.059
National Women's
Political Caucus

00:39:22.059 --> 00:39:26.831
was to press on
enunciate women's issues

00:39:26.831 --> 00:39:30.201
in a unified, bipartisan way.

00:39:30.201 --> 00:39:32.670
That probably sounds
impossible to the people

00:39:32.670 --> 00:39:36.307
who are listening right now,
but it was possible then.

00:39:36.307 --> 00:39:37.575
- In a historic decision,

00:39:37.575 --> 00:39:39.377
the Senate voted
84 to eight today

00:39:39.377 --> 00:39:41.412
to approve a
constitutional amendment

00:39:41.412 --> 00:39:43.681
guaranteeing equal
rights to women.

00:39:43.681 --> 00:39:46.550
The proposal goes to the
states for ratification.

00:39:49.520 --> 00:39:51.522
- My people came here like many

00:39:51.522 --> 00:39:54.859
of the Texas families
in the early 1800s.

00:39:54.859 --> 00:39:57.528
It was very much a partnership
between men and women.

00:39:57.528 --> 00:40:00.264
They didn't stop to argue
over who picked up the rifle

00:40:00.264 --> 00:40:02.266
if there was a massacre.

00:40:02.266 --> 00:40:08.506
So, to think that equal rights
are not deserved by people

00:40:08.506 --> 00:40:12.543
who are sharing equal
jobs is ridiculous.

00:40:12.543 --> 00:40:15.446
- Today there are 100
members of the U.S. Senate.

00:40:15.446 --> 00:40:16.781
One is a woman.

00:40:16.781 --> 00:40:20.217
There are 435 members of the
House of Representatives.

00:40:20.217 --> 00:40:21.719
Twelve are women.

00:40:21.719 --> 00:40:23.087
There are no women
in the Cabinet

00:40:23.087 --> 00:40:24.889
and none on the Supreme Court.

00:40:24.889 --> 00:40:26.891
- The National Women's
Political Caucus,

00:40:26.891 --> 00:40:28.692
which was born last July,

00:40:28.692 --> 00:40:30.461
it was kind of a raucous caucus,

00:40:30.461 --> 00:40:33.297
but there was a
shock treatment in it

00:40:33.297 --> 00:40:34.298
and a lot of truth

00:40:34.298 --> 00:40:36.634
and it made people
stop and listen.

00:40:36.634 --> 00:40:39.303
These women do have
something to say.

00:40:39.303 --> 00:40:41.105
So I think it's
beginning to change

00:40:41.105 --> 00:40:42.907
and more women
are willing to run

00:40:42.907 --> 00:40:45.242
and there's a contagion
to it, a fallout

00:40:45.242 --> 00:40:47.278
for everyone that runs,
there are 10 more women

00:40:47.278 --> 00:40:49.547
who say, "Say, why don't I run?"

00:40:49.547 --> 00:40:53.918
- Liz was an inclusive visionary

00:40:53.918 --> 00:40:57.755
who was willing to
bring out any talent

00:40:57.755 --> 00:41:00.057
that she could find

00:41:00.057 --> 00:41:03.093
to be a part of the army
of talent of women

00:41:03.093 --> 00:41:04.495
around the country.

00:41:04.495 --> 00:41:08.599
- In 1963 or 1964,

00:41:08.599 --> 00:41:12.136
we didn't have many people
registered in Mississippi.

00:41:12.136 --> 00:41:14.772
But today we have 60%

00:41:14.772 --> 00:41:18.142
of the Black population
registered in Mississippi.

00:41:18.142 --> 00:41:23.080
We have 42 elected officials
in the state of Mississippi.

00:41:23.080 --> 00:41:26.183
And one day you'll be
proud when you can say,

00:41:26.183 --> 00:41:29.420
Senator Fannie Lou Hamer,
'cause I'm on my way, baby.

00:41:29.420 --> 00:41:30.454
[crowd cheering]

00:41:30.454 --> 00:41:34.258
- In 1971, the great
civil rights icon,

00:41:34.258 --> 00:41:35.993
Fannie Lou Hamer,

00:41:35.993 --> 00:41:39.763
decided to run for state
senate in Mississippi.

00:41:39.763 --> 00:41:43.701
So she called Liz and asked
her to come to Mississippi.

00:41:43.701 --> 00:41:52.142
[upbeat country music]

00:41:52.142 --> 00:41:54.645
[woman] We sat in a
small television studio

00:41:54.645 --> 00:41:56.347
in the Mississippi Delta

00:41:56.347 --> 00:41:59.884
and the interviewer said
to me rather curtly,

00:41:59.884 --> 00:42:03.120
"What are you doing
in Mississippi?"

00:42:03.120 --> 00:42:05.656
But what he was
really asking was,

00:42:05.656 --> 00:42:08.459
"What is an uppity, Southern
white woman like you

00:42:08.459 --> 00:42:10.127
doing in Sunflower County

00:42:10.127 --> 00:42:12.229
campaigning for an
uppity Black woman

00:42:12.229 --> 00:42:14.798
like Fannie Lou Hamer?"

00:42:15.366 --> 00:42:18.402
I tried to answer the obvious,

00:42:18.402 --> 00:42:21.205
"I am here because
I AM Southern,

00:42:21.205 --> 00:42:22.740
because I AM white,

00:42:22.740 --> 00:42:25.476
because I AM a woman,

00:42:25.476 --> 00:42:29.513
because hopefully, I am
a thinking American,

00:42:29.513 --> 00:42:31.882
and because Fannie Lou Hamer,

00:42:31.882 --> 00:42:35.085
one of 20 children in
a sharecropper family,

00:42:35.085 --> 00:42:36.554
knows more about the problems

00:42:36.554 --> 00:42:39.089
of Sunflower County
than anyone else

00:42:39.089 --> 00:42:41.659
and she'll do
something about them."

00:42:47.064 --> 00:42:50.434
- Now, unfortunately, her
campaign was not successful.

00:42:50.434 --> 00:42:52.670
That was just the
nature of the times,

00:42:52.670 --> 00:42:55.706
that the prejudice levels
in Mississippi were so great

00:42:55.706 --> 00:42:58.208
that she didn't make it.

00:42:58.842 --> 00:43:04.682
- Liz really takes this to
heart and really supports

00:43:04.682 --> 00:43:07.618
women candidates pretty much
for the rest of her life.

00:43:07.618 --> 00:43:08.686
[man] Are you a feminist?

00:43:08.686 --> 00:43:09.720
[Liz] Yes I am.

00:43:09.720 --> 00:43:11.455
[man] You were an ERA supporter.

00:43:11.455 --> 00:43:13.624
- I was rampant. [chuckles]

00:43:14.391 --> 00:43:16.594
♪ It's your thing,

00:43:16.594 --> 00:43:18.729
♪ Do what you wanna do

00:43:20.030 --> 00:43:22.299
♪ I can't tell ya

00:43:22.299 --> 00:43:23.901
♪ Who to sock it to

00:43:24.301 --> 00:43:27.738
- What a real travesty of
justice that here 200 years

00:43:27.738 --> 00:43:31.909
after this country was born,
we're still standing outside

00:43:31.909 --> 00:43:34.411
of the Constitution
of our own country,

00:43:34.411 --> 00:43:36.080
begging to be let in.

00:43:36.080 --> 00:43:38.115
[male reporter] Liz Carpenter
is a leader in the fight

00:43:38.115 --> 00:43:41.118
for the ratification of
the Equal Rights Amendment.

00:43:41.118 --> 00:43:42.820
Phyllis Schlafly is a leader

00:43:42.820 --> 00:43:46.090
of those women
organized to oppose it.

00:43:46.090 --> 00:43:50.794
[upbeat music]

00:43:50.794 --> 00:43:52.129
- There is a threat

00:43:52.129 --> 00:43:54.665
because there is
a massive campaign

00:43:54.665 --> 00:43:57.501
to prevent state ratification
of the Equal Rights Amendment,

00:43:57.501 --> 00:44:00.771
claiming godlessness and
destruction of the family.

00:44:00.771 --> 00:44:02.506
♪ I'm not trying

00:44:02.506 --> 00:44:04.608
♪ To run your life

00:44:05.242 --> 00:44:08.312
♪ I know you wanna

00:44:08.312 --> 00:44:09.613
♪ Do what's right

00:44:09.613 --> 00:44:12.783
- The women's movement was
viewed as super radical.

00:44:12.783 --> 00:44:15.085
We were throwing away our bras,

00:44:15.085 --> 00:44:16.620
we were all lesbians,

00:44:16.620 --> 00:44:20.324
as opposed to only some of
us being lesbians. [laughs]

00:44:20.324 --> 00:44:23.694
The opposition was saying
kind of ridiculous things

00:44:23.694 --> 00:44:28.465
like there would be no more
male and female restrooms.

00:44:28.465 --> 00:44:31.468
- Abortion on demand and
funded by the government.

00:44:31.468 --> 00:44:34.271
- All the anti-gay
and lesbian laws.

00:44:34.271 --> 00:44:36.373
- Lesbian privileges
to allow lesbians

00:44:36.373 --> 00:44:38.475
and homosexuals to
adopt children,

00:44:38.475 --> 00:44:39.843
to teach in the schools.

00:44:39.843 --> 00:44:43.881
[male reporter] By the end of
1976, with 34 states ratified,

00:44:43.881 --> 00:44:45.482
the movement had stalled

00:44:45.482 --> 00:44:48.352
with only four states
short of victory.

00:44:48.352 --> 00:44:49.653
- I would like to ask you,

00:44:49.653 --> 00:44:52.356
why a movement to ratify
this amendment,

00:44:52.356 --> 00:44:55.392
which started out so
explosively in 1972

00:44:55.392 --> 00:44:57.361
and did so well in '73,

00:44:57.361 --> 00:44:59.630
now seems to have lost momentum.

00:44:59.630 --> 00:45:02.399
- Well, I think this is
true of every amendment

00:45:02.399 --> 00:45:03.634
that's ever come up.

00:45:03.634 --> 00:45:06.537
For instance, even the
original Constitution

00:45:06.537 --> 00:45:08.172
had some hard times

00:45:08.172 --> 00:45:10.507
and only squeaked through
the New York legislature

00:45:10.507 --> 00:45:11.909
by three votes.

00:45:11.909 --> 00:45:17.915
[gentle music]

00:45:24.555 --> 00:45:30.928
[Christy] In 1974, my father
passed away very unexpectedly.

00:45:31.361 --> 00:45:35.499
It was a big blow because
he had been her life partner

00:45:35.499 --> 00:45:38.202
from high school on.

00:45:38.702 --> 00:45:41.905
She started to feel
Washington's just not the same

00:45:41.905 --> 00:45:43.674
without Les.

00:45:46.076 --> 00:45:49.379
And so she picked up and
moved back to Austin, Texas.

00:45:49.379 --> 00:45:51.014
She wrote books,

00:45:51.014 --> 00:45:54.084
she wrote newspaper column
for a time

00:45:54.084 --> 00:45:55.619
and she also go out and speak

00:45:55.619 --> 00:45:58.188
on behalf of many,
many candidates

00:45:58.188 --> 00:45:59.857
and the women's movement.

00:46:00.190 --> 00:46:02.292
- The National Women's
Conference was part

00:46:02.292 --> 00:46:05.262
of a multi-year celebration
of the international year

00:46:05.262 --> 00:46:07.097
of the women.

00:46:07.531 --> 00:46:09.600
Gerald Ford was the president.

00:46:09.600 --> 00:46:13.270
Each state was to develop a
delegation that would come

00:46:13.270 --> 00:46:16.974
to a national convention
to lay out an agenda

00:46:16.974 --> 00:46:20.644
for the advancement of
women in this country.

00:46:20.644 --> 00:46:26.650
[crowd cheering]

00:46:26.650 --> 00:46:28.986
- Every woman who
ever had a wish

00:46:28.986 --> 00:46:31.789
of being involved civically

00:46:31.789 --> 00:46:35.592
or politically was in Houston.

00:46:38.061 --> 00:46:40.063
[woman] The three
first ladies were there,

00:46:40.063 --> 00:46:42.099
Betty Ford and Rosalyn Carter

00:46:42.099 --> 00:46:44.101
and Lady Bird Johnson.

00:46:45.936 --> 00:46:47.905
- It was very exciting for me

00:46:47.905 --> 00:46:50.574
because you have these
three first ladies

00:46:50.574 --> 00:46:53.143
and they're working together
and they're across party lines.

00:46:53.143 --> 00:46:56.513
You had Betty Ford who
was a wonderful advocate.

00:46:56.513 --> 00:46:58.415
You had Rosalyn Carter

00:46:58.415 --> 00:46:59.783
and to see those two women,

00:46:59.783 --> 00:47:03.954
particularly whose husbands
had been against each other,

00:47:03.954 --> 00:47:06.957
to pull together on this
issue that was so important.

00:47:06.957 --> 00:47:08.192
[crowd cheering]

00:47:08.192 --> 00:47:10.661
[George] Across town, there
was an even bigger gathering,

00:47:10.661 --> 00:47:12.596
about 11,000 men and women

00:47:12.596 --> 00:47:14.965
who opposed the beliefs
of most of the delegates

00:47:14.965 --> 00:47:16.834
to the Women's conference.

00:47:16.834 --> 00:47:18.802
Many are fundamentalist
Christians

00:47:18.802 --> 00:47:22.139
and their rally had the
flavor of a revival meeting.

00:47:23.373 --> 00:47:25.008
- Miss Schlafly, you predicted

00:47:25.008 --> 00:47:27.811
that Houston would be the
death of the women's movement.

00:47:27.811 --> 00:47:29.479
What would that mean anyway?

00:47:29.479 --> 00:47:31.615
- The people will
realize if they study

00:47:31.615 --> 00:47:33.016
the plan of action proposed

00:47:33.016 --> 00:47:35.185
by the International
Women's Year Commission,

00:47:35.185 --> 00:47:37.721
what the women's lib
movement is all about,

00:47:37.721 --> 00:47:40.557
that they are for the
killing of unborn babies.

00:47:40.557 --> 00:47:43.060
[Liz] We were trying to
write into the Constitution

00:47:43.060 --> 00:47:44.528
what was not there.

00:47:44.528 --> 00:47:46.363
Equality of rights
shall not be denied

00:47:46.363 --> 00:47:48.198
or abridged on account of sex.

00:47:48.198 --> 00:47:50.234
- Giving homosexuals the
right to teach in schools.

00:47:50.234 --> 00:47:52.870
- But the Jesse Helms,
the Phyllis Schlaflys

00:47:52.870 --> 00:47:56.039
just ran around scaring
everybody to death.

00:47:56.039 --> 00:47:59.076
The ERA has nothing to do
with abortion,

00:47:59.076 --> 00:48:01.378
nothing to do with
co-ed bathrooms,

00:48:01.378 --> 00:48:05.148
nothing to do with all of the
horrors which she has spread

00:48:05.148 --> 00:48:07.351
across the country in speeches.

00:48:08.252 --> 00:48:10.687
- Here she is, Liz Carpenter.

00:48:10.687 --> 00:48:15.192
[audience applauds]

00:48:15.192 --> 00:48:18.495
- How many homemakers are
out there in this room?

00:48:18.495 --> 00:48:19.663
Hold up your hand.

00:48:19.663 --> 00:48:20.898
All homemakers.

00:48:20.898 --> 00:48:23.100
How many breadwinners
are out there,

00:48:23.100 --> 00:48:25.502
people who earn a salary?

00:48:26.069 --> 00:48:28.839
How many out there are under 30?

00:48:28.839 --> 00:48:30.274
That's not me.

00:48:30.274 --> 00:48:31.575
- She was inclusive.

00:48:31.575 --> 00:48:33.944
Everybody was part
of the community

00:48:33.944 --> 00:48:37.180
and that made her
powerful and credible.

00:48:37.180 --> 00:48:39.216
- Who else are we?

00:48:39.216 --> 00:48:42.252
We're voters since 1920,

00:48:42.252 --> 00:48:45.122
and there was a whole lot
of brouhaha about that.

00:48:45.122 --> 00:48:47.257
- She was a heroine for us.

00:48:47.257 --> 00:48:52.362
She was an undaunted person
who had in mind a future vision

00:48:52.362 --> 00:48:56.233
of building a network
of women leadership

00:48:56.233 --> 00:48:58.735
and nothing got in her way.

00:48:58.735 --> 00:49:02.239
- Until the women
of the United States

00:49:02.239 --> 00:49:05.609
are full, equal
operating citizens,

00:49:05.609 --> 00:49:08.812
the cry for human rights
around this globe

00:49:08.812 --> 00:49:11.581
will have a very hollow ring.

00:49:11.581 --> 00:49:17.220
[crowd cheering]

00:49:17.220 --> 00:49:19.589
- The vast majority of people
in the United States believe

00:49:19.589 --> 00:49:20.924
that the Equal Rights Amendment

00:49:20.924 --> 00:49:23.160
should be part of
the Constitution.

00:49:23.160 --> 00:49:25.262
If it were published
in the Constitution,

00:49:25.262 --> 00:49:27.464
then the Equal Rights
Amendment would be

00:49:27.464 --> 00:49:29.833
a signal to the world
that we do believe

00:49:29.833 --> 00:49:31.635
in gender equality
and sex equality.

00:49:31.635 --> 00:49:32.636
We're not just saying that,

00:49:32.636 --> 00:49:34.471
but we actually have
it in our Constitution.

00:49:34.471 --> 00:49:36.974
We are one of very
few developed nations

00:49:36.974 --> 00:49:39.242
that have a Constitution
without sex equality

00:49:39.242 --> 00:49:41.178
guaranteed in the Constitution.

00:49:41.778 --> 00:49:43.480
- It has been hard.

00:49:43.480 --> 00:49:46.783
We were counted out
from the Constitution on

00:49:46.783 --> 00:49:50.487
and we've just had to be
fighting our way through

00:49:50.487 --> 00:49:53.256
to prove that we
can have a voice

00:49:53.256 --> 00:49:56.460
and a policymaking voice
in the government

00:49:56.460 --> 00:49:57.928
of our own country.

00:49:57.928 --> 00:49:59.296
[upbeat music]

00:49:59.296 --> 00:50:00.764
- I rise on behalf

00:50:00.764 --> 00:50:04.601
of those few of us who
are fortunate enough

00:50:04.601 --> 00:50:08.005
to be in the positions
that we are in.

00:50:08.005 --> 00:50:10.340
- Everybody has somebody
who came before them.

00:50:11.675 --> 00:50:13.777
Liz Carpenter forged a path

00:50:13.777 --> 00:50:16.880
that allowed people like
Ann Richards to succeed.

00:50:17.514 --> 00:50:20.550
[Liz] I'm very proud
of the women in Texas.

00:50:20.550 --> 00:50:23.186
There is that kind of zesty

00:50:23.186 --> 00:50:26.790
I can get it done and
that's very much embedded

00:50:26.790 --> 00:50:28.191
in Ann Richards.

00:50:28.458 --> 00:50:31.461
[female reporter] It was billed
as a three-star birthday party.

00:50:31.461 --> 00:50:34.031
Three ladies who have
three things in common.

00:50:34.031 --> 00:50:35.032
They are funny,

00:50:35.032 --> 00:50:36.466
they are born on the same day,

00:50:36.466 --> 00:50:39.536
and they are all Democrats
with a serious mission.

00:50:39.970 --> 00:50:43.740
- Throughout history, laughter
is what is your salvation.

00:50:43.740 --> 00:50:46.009
And there are a lot of funny
things that happen in politics.

00:50:46.009 --> 00:50:47.878
It's a natural stage for that.

00:50:47.878 --> 00:50:51.581
- She was 27 points
behind in the polls

00:50:51.581 --> 00:50:54.051
and so we had a uphill climb.

00:50:57.220 --> 00:50:59.656
- All of a sudden,
the returns came in.

00:50:59.656 --> 00:51:02.759
She got the call
from her opponent.

00:51:02.759 --> 00:51:06.163
She just bolted up
to the platform

00:51:06.163 --> 00:51:09.766
and there, her woman campaign
manager, Mary Beth Rogers,

00:51:09.766 --> 00:51:12.869
said, "I now present
the Governor of Texas."

00:51:16.406 --> 00:51:19.443
Shouldn't be so hard for a
woman to be elected

00:51:19.443 --> 00:51:23.547
Governor of Texas and it won't
ever be that hard again.

00:51:24.281 --> 00:51:28.852
I will also be seeing
that Ann is standing there

00:51:28.852 --> 00:51:31.121
in the footsteps...

00:51:31.922 --> 00:51:32.956
I'm sorry.

00:51:32.956 --> 00:51:34.691
I've gotta do
something about this.

00:51:34.691 --> 00:51:36.059
What am I gonna do?

00:51:36.059 --> 00:51:38.562
I've got to...

00:51:38.562 --> 00:51:39.930
take a stiff drink.

00:51:39.930 --> 00:51:41.731
[laughing]

00:51:42.966 --> 00:51:45.035
[Christy] Liz didn't do
anything quietly.

00:51:45.035 --> 00:51:46.069
Hell no.

00:51:46.069 --> 00:51:47.938
She was always
stirring things up.

00:51:47.938 --> 00:51:49.406
She was stirring
things up in terms

00:51:49.406 --> 00:51:51.274
of her political activities,

00:51:51.274 --> 00:51:54.578
but she was also stirring
things up at our house,

00:51:54.578 --> 00:51:57.581
where she was constantly
throwing parties.

00:51:57.581 --> 00:52:00.650
She'd like to cook up
crazy ideas for parties.

00:52:00.650 --> 00:52:05.455
[upbeat music]

00:52:05.455 --> 00:52:08.091
She would entertain
often in her hot tub.

00:52:08.091 --> 00:52:11.394
It was kind of a mixmaster
of swirling water

00:52:11.394 --> 00:52:15.332
that mixed it up with
writers, with politicos,

00:52:15.332 --> 00:52:20.003
the kind of people from
whom Austin got the slogan,

00:52:20.003 --> 00:52:21.304
Keep Austin Weird.

00:52:21.304 --> 00:52:24.074
Liz did her part to
keep Austin weird.

00:52:26.576 --> 00:52:29.946
- Doing something
that breaks the mold

00:52:29.946 --> 00:52:32.582
gets more and more
important as you get older,

00:52:32.582 --> 00:52:35.452
not to get in that
narrow tunnel.

00:52:35.452 --> 00:52:38.188
And so we get out
when the moon is full

00:52:38.188 --> 00:52:42.092
and we all go woo
woo woo and bay at it

00:52:42.092 --> 00:52:43.793
and you feel so much better.

00:52:43.793 --> 00:52:45.862
And then one of the
great satisfactions is

00:52:45.862 --> 00:52:47.597
it startles your children

00:52:47.597 --> 00:52:51.268
and startling your children
is the real glory of age.

00:52:55.839 --> 00:53:00.844
I have known more or less
personally, 12 presidents...

00:53:03.046 --> 00:53:06.683
from FDR to George W. Bush.

00:53:15.825 --> 00:53:17.327
[Bill] And here you
are with LBJ

00:53:17.327 --> 00:53:19.062
still looking over
your shoulder.

00:53:19.062 --> 00:53:23.033
- I bet. I can feel the hand
print on my back. [laughs]

00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:26.870
♪ There's a little bit
of Texas in everyone ♪

00:53:26.870 --> 00:53:29.539
♪ But a whole lot
of Texas in me ♪

00:53:29.539 --> 00:53:31.675
[Evan] One of the things we
can't forget about Liz Carpenter

00:53:31.675 --> 00:53:35.412
is that Liz was joyful
in the work that she did.

00:53:35.879 --> 00:53:39.216
She never tried to get anybody.

00:53:39.216 --> 00:53:41.484
She never tried to harm anybody.

00:53:41.484 --> 00:53:45.689
She understood that her role
was to be a force for good,

00:53:45.689 --> 00:53:48.225
to advance the cause of the
public interest through her work

00:53:48.225 --> 00:53:51.528
to advance the cause of
democracy through her work.

00:53:51.528 --> 00:53:53.697
One of the many things that
Liz Carpenter can teach us

00:53:53.697 --> 00:53:57.601
is to go back to a time when
politics was not a blood sport,

00:53:57.601 --> 00:54:00.537
but it was about
elevating people

00:54:00.537 --> 00:54:02.439
and elevating the
public interest.

00:54:03.273 --> 00:54:05.242
- ♪ Getting better
all the time ♪

00:54:06.409 --> 00:54:08.578
♪ Getting better all the time

00:54:09.779 --> 00:54:11.848
♪ Feeling like we're
in our prime ♪

00:54:13.049 --> 00:54:15.952
♪ Getting better all the time

00:54:17.020 --> 00:54:19.222
[Liz] I plan to haunt
this planet.

00:54:19.222 --> 00:54:23.093
I want to swing from the
chandeliers in the White House

00:54:23.093 --> 00:54:25.929
on a windy night and
hopefully I'll be able

00:54:25.929 --> 00:54:29.899
to impart some
golden knowledge back

00:54:29.899 --> 00:54:34.070
across the spaces
between heaven and Earth.

00:54:34.070 --> 00:54:41.111
[gentle music]

00:54:42.545 --> 00:54:52.555
[gentle upbeat music]

00:55:42.572 --> 00:55:44.174
[Announcer] Major funding
for this program

00:55:44.174 --> 00:55:46.109
was made possible by

00:55:46.109 --> 00:55:50.113
the Uhrig/Vournas
Charitable Fund,

00:55:50.113 --> 00:55:54.117
The Summerlee Foundation,

00:55:54.117 --> 00:55:57.120
the Jonathan Logan
Family Foundation,

00:55:57.120 --> 00:56:00.123
Joan Douglas Murray,

00:56:00.123 --> 00:56:01.891
Jeanne and Mickey Klein,

00:56:01.891 --> 00:56:05.695
The Nancy P & Richard K
Robbins Family Foundation,

00:56:05.695 --> 00:56:07.063
and by

00:56:07.063 --> 00:56:09.132
Nancy Blachman,

00:56:09.132 --> 00:56:12.135
the MFI Foundation,

00:56:12.135 --> 00:56:14.404
Humanities Texas,
the state affiliate

00:56:14.404 --> 00:56:17.841
of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.

00:56:17.841 --> 00:56:21.077
And also by Marci Rubin,

00:56:21.077 --> 00:56:24.381
Alice Kleberg
Reynolds Foundation,

00:56:24.381 --> 00:56:26.583
David Wallace Douglas,

00:56:26.583 --> 00:56:29.052
Edwina and Tom Johnson,

00:56:29.052 --> 00:56:31.087
Peggy and Matt Winkler,

00:56:31.087 --> 00:56:33.456
Linda and Howard McCollum,

00:56:33.456 --> 00:56:35.425
Louis Black.

00:56:35.925 --> 00:56:38.061
A complete list of
funders can be found

00:56:38.061 --> 00:56:41.264
at lizcarpenterfilm.com.