All language subtitles for A.E.S15E07.1080p.WEB.h264-CODSWALLOP_track3_[eng]

In England,

the nerve centre of
a heroic rescue operation

that remains the pride of a nation...

You cannot overestimate
the effect this had

on the country's morale.

..a dilapidated mansion in Virginia

that found itself perilously close
to the front lines...

..until one day, the fighting
arrived right at their doorstep.

..a palatial ruin in Estonia that
hosted a formidable empress.

She would make it her mission

to uncover the secrets
of its wealth.

..and in Detroit,

a colourful facility where
a champion made his name.

Nowhere is anyone celebrated like
my father is in the city of Detroit

and that all started
in this building.

Overlooking the English Channel
is an ancient stronghold

with a modern secret
buried in its bowels.

We're on the south coast of England

looking out over
the white cliffs of Dover.

There's a medieval castle that
stands out on a promontory

and commands the entire terrain.

There are holes carved out
of the cliff face,

concrete and metal constructions.

These windows offer a glimpse
into a subterranean labyrinth.

And as you get into
the chambers underneath the ground,

you see desks, you see typewriters,

you see all the things you need
to run a modern office.

There's electrical equipment,

huge machinery.

It's like a time capsule.

One wonders,
"What's happening here?"

Why is all of this infrastructure
under the ground?

You feel like you're seeing
something that had to be protected,

the nerve centre
of something very, very big.

This facility was called
into service

during a moment of national crisis.

The survival of Britain's army
and Britain itself

hung by a thread.

Dover Castle has been standing guard
over Britain's southern coast

since the 12th century.

It's been adapted for defence
through the ages

and by the late 1700s,

Britain was at war
with Napoleon Bonaparte's France.

Tunnels were excavated
to meet the threat of invasion.

So, the original tunnel was
constructed about 1797

and were designed,
really,

just to be
extra accommodation

for lots of troops.

There were about 2,000 soldiers
living down here

at the end of the 18th century.

But that invasion never came

and they were soon shut up
and abandoned.

That was until the arrival of a new
threat from Europe

in the 1930s.

By 1938, war with Nazi Germany
seemed inevitable.

So, the Dover Castle tunnels,
safe from aerial attack,

were converted
into naval headquarters.

Retired Admiral Bertram Ramsey

is brought back into service
to organise

the defence of England.

He had his own quarters here

but also, he had this amazing view

right out to the harbour beneath us
and into the Channel.

Ramsey and his team's job was
focused on controlling the Channel.

But very soon,
the workers in this facility

found themselves directing
a rescue mission.

This operation would become
famous around the world

known simply by the name of the
French town where it took place,

Dunkirk.

In 1940, very rapidly,
the German armed forces

encircle the British and French
armies

in and around Dunkirk.

Loire and Calais had already
been taken...

..and they found themselves
more or less surrounded.

Nearly half a million British
and Allied soldiers

were marooned on the beaches.

The British and French armies
are about to be annihilated

by the Nazis.

If they didn't get the men
off those beaches,

the remaining Allied forces
would be destroyed

and Britain would be defenceless
to Nazi invasion.

Ramsey was ordered to plan
and organise Operation Dynamo

to bring back across the Channel
as many soldiers as possible.

With less than a week to prepare,

Ramsey and his team worked
around the clock making plans,

gathering resources
and mobilising ships.

The main docks had been destroyed
and the beaches were shallow.

Even at high tide,

British destroyers could get
no closer than a mile from shore.

Troops would have to be ferried out
to the big ships on small boats

under constant artillery fire
and aerial attack.

Ramsay's team scrambled
for solutions...

..but they soon ran out of time.

On the 26th of May 1940

the order came in
to commence Operation Dynamo.

The first few days were disastrous,

Only a small number of soldiers
were actually able to

escape those beaches,
less than 8,000 on the first day.

But a discovery offered hope.

In Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk,

the title of the first timeline
in the film

was The Mole.

It's actually the name
of a concrete breakwater

which provided a vital lifeline
back to England.

Built to protect
the harbour from rough seas,

it was more than 1,200m long

heading out into deeper water.

You could pull destroyers
alongside the mole

and you could get soldiers to walk
out onto the end of the mole

and get aboard the destroyers.

For the troops waiting in line,
however,

they were sitting ducks
for the Luftwaffe.

Diary entries describe
the psychological terror

as the soldiers anxiously awaited
the dreaded scream

of the German Stukas.

And they really are
a harrowing read.

They speak of the desperation,

the fear of the potential danger
that was coming their way.

Despite these Stuka raids,

the mole was working

and the number of rescues
began to swell

so Ramsay desperately requested
more destroyers.

The admiralty were worried about
the fact that they were losing
ships out there.

They didn't want to lose
those ships.

Ramsay actually had to persuade
the, uh, admiralty,

um, that the larger ships
were necessary.

But Nazi forces were closing in

and Ramsay knew he couldn't rely
on the mole alone.

He called on the seafaring people
of Britain for help.

Ramsay decided to enlist
the support of the little ships,

some of them sort of N-boats,

some of them commercial boats
and ferries

who were...had a shallow
enough draught

to be able to get close in
to the beach.

Gradually, troops began to see
more and more rescue vessels

on the horizon.

The British people had rallied
to Ramsay's call.

Fishing smacks, lifeboats,
sailing barges,

watercraft of all kinds,
crewed by volunteers,

bravely ventured into enemy territory
to pick up stranded soldiers.

In just over a week,

Ramsay's operation had been able
to rescue 338,000 Allied troops,

a remarkable feat.

This was over ten times
what they'd hoped

and in large part,
thanks to civilian boats.

90,000 men were left behind

but it's seen as a great victory

and proved to be
a pivotal turning point in the war.

The next day,
Churchill gave his famous speech,

"We shall fight on the beaches.

"We shall fight on the
landing grounds.

"We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets."

You cannot overestimate the effect
this had on the country's morale.

In the months that followed,

the Royal Air Force repulsed
Hitler's aerial assault

and secured victory in what became
known as the Battle of Britain.

The island was now safe
from Nazi invasion

and when the United States
joined the war in December 1941

it could be used as a base

from which to launch the biggest
seaborne invasion in history.

From 1942,

Dover Castle functioned as a
centre for Allied headquarters

to direct the invasion of Europe

and it would involve using
one of America's greatest generals

as bait.

A section of tunnels was used
in the planning of D-Day.

So, this space would have been
known as Q Dover

and it was part of, uh,
an elaborate hoax.

Q Dover was set up
as a communications base

to direct a hugely ambitious
deception plan.

In the run up to D-Day,

Operation Fortitude was set up
to feed false intel to the Nazis.

The Allies are going to convince
the Germans

that they're going to go across
the Channel from Dover to Calais...

..shortest distance.

Meanwhile,

the Allies are gonna land
in Normandy,

There has got to be
a convincing picture

of an Allied army
properly positioned

to cross from Dover to Calais.

George Patton was selected
to lead this army.

He was the leader
the Germans feared the most.

They considered him
the Allies' best general.

So, while Omar Bradley
and Bernard Montgomery

and Dwight Eisenhower
are running the real invasion...

..George Patton is put in command
of First United States Army Group

which doesn't exist.

Fake tanks and trucks

as well as fake camps

were created as part of
an entirely fictitious army,

positioned in the east of England
to support the idea

of a Dover-Calais crossing.

They create fake radio networks

communicating all around
the fake units

and the centre for coordinating

all of the deception operations
of Operation Fortitude

is right here in these tunnels.

The 6th of June, D-Day.

Operation Fortitude has completely
deceived the Nazis.

German commanders hold back
from committing

against the Allied invasion
in Normandy.

They're still waiting
for the real invasion

to come across from Dover
to Calais.

Two months later, some
German commanders still believe

that Patton's phantom army was real.

It was one of the greatest
deceptions in history

and the Nazis bought it,

hook, line and sinker.

Much of the complex is still empty
and closed to the public

but it's possible to visit
parts of the tunnels

and stand in the spaces that were
so crucial to Britain's survival

and Europe's salvation.

Near the town of Farmville, Virginia,

nestled among poplar trees

is an unusual relic of the Old South.

The classic grand home in
Virginia would be, you know,

white wood, columns.

This is different.

It's got an elegant turret
and ornate slate roof

and a beautiful arch
welcoming you in.

When we move inside,

the rooms have pretty much been
stripped bare

but there are still
the trappings of wealth on display.

But when the nation split apart,

this mansion was caught
in the crossfire.

And the fortunes of
the war went, you know,

back and forth until one battle

changed the entire direction
of the war.

It was the largest calvary clash
in American history

and the man who lived here

was right in the thick
of the action.

And the family waited uneasily

for news from the front lines
until one day,

the battle arrived
right at their doorstep.

Ann Stone spent her childhood
summers visiting this old mansion.

It was overwhelming as a child
cos this house scared me.

It was dark and I can remember
sitting on the floor

and playing
with the little soldiers.

My brother, the oldest one,

this is where he found
the Civil War uniforms.

Constructed around the 1830s

Ann Stone's great-great grandfather
moved in

when the nation was
on the cusp of war.

John Hughes Knight, Jr

was a prominent planter
and lawyer

born just 30 miles away.

In 1860, he bought this place

and moved his wife
and three children here.

The mansion was just part
of a vast estate

that covered 1,000 acres.

They had stables for the horses,

a smoke house for preserving meat,

even an icehouse

to keep themselves cool
in the summer.

The Knight family lived here
in ease and luxury.

But this privileged lifestyle was
built on the backs of the oppressed.

30 enslaved workers ensured they
were waited on, hand and foot.

The country was increasingly divided
over the issue of enslavement

with the abolitionist movement
gathering pace in the North.

With some states wanting to
suppress the spread of slavery

and other states wanting
to perpetuate it,

the battle lines were drawn
and both sides prepared for war.

Virginia joined the Confederacy

and like much of its population,

the Knight family
supported the cause.

On April 12th 1861,

the first shots of
the American Civil War are fired.

John Knight immediately
signs up to fight.

As a relatively wealthy man,

he can supply his own
horse and tack.

So, he joins
the cavalry as a sergeant.

His Confederate regiment immediately
skirmished with Union forces

who had crossed into Virginia.

In the Civil War,

cavalry played an outsize role
because of

the huge spaces of North America.

Basically, cavalry units had
the mobility and the range

to raid and to forage and to
strike terror into the other side

and the South generally
had the better cavalry units

at the beginning of the war.

So, John Knight is in one of the
elite units of the Confederate Army.

John's family, back at Poplar Hill,
had little idea what was going on

or whether John was even still alive.

This was a time when press accounts
of the war were very sketchy.

The Knight family relied on
letters from John

which would wend their
way very slowly

back from whatever front line
he was on.

Ann recalls reading her great-great
grandfather's accounts from
the front lines.

I remember the feel of it.

There was a lot of personal,
you know, recollection.

"Kiss the babies for me."

Very personal, where you could see

it had to have been agony.

He wrote about the meagre rations

living on one meal of crackers
and poor quality beef a day

and the difficulties sending
and receiving mail from home

which left men feeling isolated,
hungry and cut off.

In 1863,

General Robert E Lee's
thrust northwards

threatened to take John,
now a lieutenant,

further from his family.

This Gettysburg Campaign,
which is Lee's bold foray

into the north to try to win
a great victory on Union soil,

John Knight is part of this.

His Virginia cavalry unit
marches with Lee's army.

But Knight's campaign was soon
cut short in dramatic fashion.

On the night of June 8th,

John Knight and his men are camped
near Brandy Station, Virginia,

100 miles north of the
Poplar Hill Mansion.

Well, little did they know,

they were being watched.

In the early hours,

they were suddenly woken
by a cacophony of noise.

Bugles rent the air
and gunshots sounded

as 11,000 Union cavalry charged
Confederate positions.

Knight and his comrades are caught
totally off guard.

Startled, they leapt onto
their horses,

many half-naked and without saddles.

And it becomes intense, brutal,
close-range combat

fought with sabres and pistols.

Brandy Station was, you know,
14 hours of mayhem.

The biggest cavalry battle
of the American Civil War

and the biggest cavalry battle
ever fought

on the North American continent.

Confederates claimed victory

but a vastly improved and
more organised Union cavalry

showed they could finally compete.

And it's kind of a morale
turning point.

Afterwards, the Union cavalry forces

feel that they can contest
with their Confederate opposites

on nearly even terms.

In the aftermath,

Knight fell sick with a fever
and was sent home to Poplar Hill.

While the Knight family waited
to see whether John would recover,

word of the disastrous Confederate
defeat at Gettysburg

reached the house.

The news only motivated Knight
to return to the heat of battle.

Once fully recovered,
he rejoined his regiment

but they were forced on a long
retreat by the new Union commander,

Ulysses S Grant.

After Gettysburg,
when Grant takes commend

and starts pressing on Richmond
and pushing into Virginia,

you know, Poplar Hill Mansion
finds itself near the front line.

Eventually, they were pushed back
to Appomattox

just 20 miles from his home
at Poplar Hill.

You can just imagine
the Knight family

holed up in this house,
watching the horizon.

And it was all women,

hustling around to get
the valuables out and all that

and I wondered, "Were they up here?"

And you know, on the watchout,
were they on the lookout?

But one morning, the children living
in the house look out the window

and they see smoke
and out of that smoke emerges

grizzled men in blue uniforms

marching towards them.

Hungry stragglers,
cut off from the main Union army,

arrived at the front of the house
where the family has gathered.

They're standing outside
with six children,

including a baby wrapped
in a comforter

as the men start
ransacking the house.

And they start looting the place and
looking under furniture and beds

and taking anything of value.

The men left the house a mess
but intact

and the family unharmed.

These Union soldiers were merely
hungry and desperate.

John Knight was present at Appomattox

for General Lee's
Confederate surrender

on the 9th of April 1865.

Knight rushed back to his family,
possibly that same day.

And then, after the war,

Poplar Hill Mansion and its
surrounding estate

kind of return to normal.

But, you know,
what was normal after the Civil War?

Because Poplar Hill Mansion
had been the centre of
a slave economy

and suddenly, all these enslaved
people were technically emancipated

and yet the...the losers
of the Civil War, you know,

they don't really admit that
and they expect, you know,

that they're gonna retain control
over these people,

if not through formal slavery,

through some kind of
indentured servitude

or sharecropping arrangements.

There was a lot of debate
among the political leaders

of the country and victorious Union
at the end of the war

and really, the watchword was
reconstruction and reconciliation.

So, there was not much push at all

to ensure that the formerly
enslaved population

was treated with any level
of respect

let alone equality.

Many African-Americans
did migrant north

where they had a chance
to start a new life.

But for those who didn't,

their options
were extremely limited.

The mansion remained in
the family for generations

and Ann recalls how they clung
to the old ways.

The great-grandmother died in 1960

and they had maintained
this antebellum lifestyle

right up to the day she died

and when you realise these people
really did live like that,

there's a level of embarrassment,

guilt.

The last enslaved man
born at Poplar Hill

doesn't die until 1935

and one wonders what would
have been more amazing

or disappointing to them,

how much things had changed or
how much they'd stayed the same.

Life at Poplar Hill was reflected
in the wider region

which was hugely resistant to change.

In fact, the county in which
this house resides

was one of the very last in the
country to integrate its schools

and they only did so
after a Supreme Court ruling

forced the issue in 1964.

Ann's family sold the estate in 1960

and since 2000, it's been left
to gather cobwebs and dust.

A local preservation group
has been established

with aim to secure funds
to buy it and protect it.

If successful, they hope to turn it
into an education centre.

In Estonia, 30 miles from the
capital, Tallin,

is a grand ruin that once hosted
a formidable empress

stamping her authority
on her new kingdom.

The forest stretches out
in every direction

and you can see a smattering
of villages in the distance.

Then you notice a settlement.

There are compounds that could
have been farmyards or stables.

At the heart of this complex
is this huge, grand building

with tall, imperious columns
rising up around the entrance.

And when you go inside, oh, my god.

I mean, these rooms are just
absolutely palatial,

high ceilings,

beautiful mouldings,

fixtures for, like,
enormous chandeliers.

Whoever built this place
was certainly wealthy.

But where did all this money
come from?

At a moment of great upheaval
across a vast empire,

this lavish building
drew the attention

of one of history's
most powerful women.

She would make it her mission

to uncover the secrets
of its wealth.

Nele Reial is a local historian

who grew up in the shadow
of this extravagant structure.

When I was a kid,
this was my playground.

I had no idea that

the great world leaders
stayed here

or the decisions that changed
hundreds and hundreds
of people's lives

were made here.

This manor house is one of
the oldest in Estonia

with roots going back
to the 13th century.

By the mid-1700s,

it fell into the hands of a man
called Carl Magnus Stenbock.

Carl Magnus and his descendants
would build one of the grandest

and certainly, the largest
manor complexes

in Estonia.

So, now we have entered
to the welcoming hall.

All the walls were covered with
the portraits of the ancestors.

The Stenbock family's
rise to prominence

coincided with an era of great change
in the Russian Empire...

..and the arrival of a
now iconic empress.

In 1762, the Russian Emperor's wife

launched a rebellion
against her own husband.

She forced him to abdicate

and possibly, even ordered
his assassination.

And almost overnight,
she becomes the ruler,

the autocrat of the entire
Russian Empire

including this wedge of Estonia.

She would become known as
Catherine the Great.

In 1764,

Catherine embarked on a tour
of her new kingdom.

High on her list was this complex,

Kolga Manor.

With Catherine coming,
you had to put on a good show.

They had to really put out
the best silverware

and the best food and drink.

The white wines and the champagne
had to be chilled in the cellar.

She preordered, for example,
six bottles of champagne,

12 bottles of Burgundy wine,

bottles of arrack,

wine vinegar and quantity-wise
the biggest was

the distilled and undistilled vodka.

There were 20 different
kind of meat.

You only name it, they had it.

But the Russian leader wasn't only
here to enjoy lavish banquets.

Catherine was an extremely
enlightened tsar,

western-looking, reform-minded

who was determined to import,

you know, a lot of foreign
technology, foreign practices

into Russia to modernise it.

So, she would go on these trips

around different regions
of the empire.

The manor and all the land around it
were making a huge amount of money

and Catherine wanted to know
how they were doing it

and whether it could be replicated
across her empire.

She found a vast estate
sprawling across 130,000 acres

and stretching out to the coast.

Within it were various
profitable industries.

She wants to see
the farming operations.

She wants to see
the forestry operations.

She wants to go out to the coast
and see the shipbuilding.

But it was all based on
an ancient system of exploitation.

The manor was super wealthy

because on this land
were living around 10,000 serfs,

uh, who were working for free.

Serfdom was a form of forced labour

which tied peasants
to the land they worked on

and the nobles who owned it.

These servants had no real freedoms
to speak of.

They could be bought and sold
and lived in extreme poverty.

For the nobles like the
Stenbock family,

it was incredibly lucrative.

It's not hard to make a fortune

when you don't have to
pay the staff.

On taking the throne
a few years earlier in 1762,

Catherine had given serfs
certain rights

and even considered plans
to emancipate them.

However, having seen
the riches on display

at places like Kolga Manor

and realising the support of powerful
nobles was crucial to her empire,

she would go on to
strengthen the system

she had once condemned as inhuman.

By the time of her death in 1796,

she had enabled landowners

to sentence their serfs
to hard labour in Siberia

and personally owned
half a million serfs.

These serfs get poorer and poorer.

The Stenbocks and
other such landlords

get richer and richer.

In the mid-1800s,

Catherine's great-grandson
finally seemed to offer hope

to the impoverished peasants
across the empire.

In 1856,

Alexander II declared his intention
to abolish serfdom.

But the peasants at Kolga
quickly grew frustrated

at how slowly these reforms
were being put into place.

By the summer of 1858,

they'd had enough and
refused to work.

The landlord responds
by bringing in

450 soldiers.

The peasants quickly backed down.

A man called Mikk Kivi

was identified as the leader
of the uprising

and singled out
for special punishment.

So, in this part,
in front of the big barn,

200 soldiers formed two lines

and Mikk Kivi

had to run four times
through this corridor of men

each man beating him
with a wooden stick.

They deport this
barely-living Mikk Kivi

to a penal colony in Siberia.

So, you see what happens
if you try to, like,

you know, buck the system.

And so, really, little changes
for the peasants there

until the Russian Revolution
in 1917.

The emancipation laws of 1861

did little to improve daily lives
of peasants

but crucially, it gave them
the freedom to organise

and in 1917,

the floodgates opened.

In the wake of the Russian
Revolution and the First World War,

Estonia won its independence

but peace at Kolga wouldn't last.

The estate was soon caught up in the
biggest military campaign in history.

Kolga Manor was captured by the
Nazi Army during Operation Barbarossa

and turned into a military hospital.

With Germany's defeat in 1945,

Estonia fell once more
under Russian control,

this time, the Soviet Union.

The manor house was converted
into a state farm

until Estonia won its freedom

in 1990.

Amazingly, in 1993,

the Stenbock family actually managed
to regain possession of Kolga Manor

but by that time,
it was really in a terrible state.

Today, the manor house
has a new owner

who is looking for the funds
to restore it to its former glory...

..and Nele works for a museum
on the site

dedicated to preserving the story
of nearly 1,000 years of life here.

Kolga Manor tells a great story

of how Estonian people preserve
their folklore, their culture,

their language, throughout
the different, uh, oppressions.

So, it can be also a symbol of
the resilience of the people

working for the manor.

In the heart of America's Motor City,

a commanding structure stands watch
over the Detroit River.

Right in the middle of this area
is this huge looming building

made out of substantial
stone blocks.

As you get closer,
you can see a faded red sign

that says
Marine Core Reserve Center.

So, clearly, this is
a military structure.

Despite its stark functional
exterior,

inside is a riot of colour
and artistry.

Several rooms have some really
interesting ambitious artwork.

Most military bases are not
decorated in this way.

So, what is this wonderful artwork
doing here?

This building has a legacy that goes
well beyond its original purpose.

It becomes a launching point for
America's longest-serving president

and is a part of the origin story
of one of its greatest boxers.

Nowhere is anyone celebrated like
my father is in the city of Detroit

and that all started
in this building.

In the late 1800s

the US Government was expanding
its global reach...

..and turned to the citizens
of states like Michigan

to provide support in times of war.

Detroit became a centre
for naval training.

It seems kind of incongruous.

Detroit lies hundreds of miles
from the ocean

but the Great Lakes region has been
part of America's naval history

going back, really, to the
founding of the republic.

Several Great Lake states
formed naval militias

and these were the forerunners

of the US Marine Core
and Naval Reserves.

The Detroit reservists saw service
in the Spanish-American War

and in the First World War.

With their numbers growing,

a modernist-style facility
was constructed.

It would become known as
the Brodhead Naval Armory.

This armoury opened in 1930

but almost from the start,

it was more than just
a place for military training.

The Great Depression,
which hit Detroit especially hard,

forced its owners to adapt the site.

To raise money to maintain
the armoury,

it became a premier
civic events site.

Its popularity was such
that it was chosen

as the locale for a seminal moment
in the lives of two great Americans.

The first was a
charismatic politician,

determined to solve
the country's economic woes.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
a liberal reformer,

was running against the incumbent
president, Herbert Hoover,

who many people saw as responsible
for this Great Depression.

Michigan is a pivotal state,

a swing state in presidential
elections, even today.

In the 1930s, it became
kind of a battleground

for one of the biggest showdowns
in American electoral history.

In October of 1932,

both candidates came to Detroit
to give speeches.

Roosevelt chose the armoury
as the location for his address.

Roosevelt spoke passionately
about the need for change.

Roosevelt, of course,
won the election.

He also won the state of Michigan.

Roosevelt's promise of a New Deal
had won him the election.

Now, it was time to take action.

Broad executive power

to wage a war against the emergency.

In his first 100 days,

the new president passed
an astonishing 77 laws

through Congress...

..and signed an unprecedented
99 executive orders.

FDR was able to push through
a whole host of public policies

aimed at getting people
back to work.

There were massive
public works projects,

building infrastructure,
bridges, highways.

However, the New Deal didn't just
support blue collar jobs.

The programme involves something
called the Federal Art Project

which employed some 10,000 artists
across the country.

That project would transform
the country's public buildings

including the Brodhead Naval Armory.

The Federal Arts Project employed
artists like David Friedenthal
and Edgar Joerger

to decorate the armoury's mess
halls, bars, corridors, staircases.

Paintings showed sailors at work
and there were portraits

of some of the US Navy's
most powerful warships.

Beauty and strength were shown side
by side on the walls of the armoury.

The large halls were also used
to host sporting events

and a future icon would literally
make his name here.

The day my father walked
in this building, he didn't know

the future he was about to
embark on.

Joe Louis Barrow II's father

is one of America's
most celebrated athletes.

My father relocated
with his family to Detroit

because Detroit offered a future
that Alabama just simply could not.

Long before black lives mattered
anywhere else,

black lives mattered in Detroit,
right?

You could get a job at Ford.

You could become a part of
the automation boom.

Joe's mother was worried he might
fall into the wrong crowd.

So, she was giving him money
to go and take violin lessons.

Well, young Joe Barrow wasn't
that interested in the violin.

Every day, he would leave
the house for school

with his violin case

but never turned up with
the violin teacher.

Young Joe told a little fib
to his mother.

Instead of going to his
violin lessons,

he enrolled at a programme
to learn boxing.

In 1932, aged 17,

he entered his first amateur fight
here at the armoury.

Perhaps he was trying to hide
this activity from his mother

but Joe Louis Barrow

had himself listed on the card
simply as Joe Louis,

a name that would go down
in history.

He was knocked down, I think,
seven times

but he kept getting back up.
He kept getting back up.

The judges unanimously ruled
that he lost.

And the result of that

was a newfound
determination and discipline.

Defeats bring about the character
that is required...

..to be a great champion.

Louis would go on
to become heavyweight champion

and held the title for nearly
12 years.

But December 7th 1941
changed all that.

Pearl Harbour changed all that.

My father was at the height
of his career.

He knew he needed to go
and so, he enlisted.

Being heavyweight champion of the
world didn't alleviate that
obligation to him.

He was asked to fight
segregated exhibitions.

He said, "I'll fight exhibitions
but they will not be segregated,"

and that was the introduction
for the armed forces

to integrated audiences.

While Joe Louis toured
the front lines

as part of the
Special Services Division,

the armoury spent the war
serving on the home front.

During World War II,
the armoury is used as barracks

and an education centre
for over 1,200 sailors

becoming diesel
and electrical mechanics.

After the war, it reverts back
to it's original purpose

of a training centre for reservists.

But in the decades that followed,

this structure began
a long period of decline.

After World War II
and the Vietnam War,

the US military began reducing
its footprint across the nation.

They didn't need as many bases
and facilities and training centres.

The armoury ultimately closed down
in 2004

and like so many important
historical buildings in Detroit,

it began to fall into disrepair.

After decades of neglect,

there's finally hope for
the Brodhead armoury.

Plans are underway for the nonprofit
behind Detroit's Thanksgiving parade

to restore the building,

providing a space for veterans

and bringing marching and drilling
back to this grand old hall

once again.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media