All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S13E05.D-Day.Castle.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

In England, the nerve center
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.

And a palatial ruin
in Estonia

that hosted
a formidable empress.

She would make it
her mission to uncover

the secrets of its wealth.

Overlooking the English Channel
is an ancient stronghold

with a modern secret
buried below.

We're on the south coast
of England, looking out

over the White Cliffs of Dover,
towards France.

There is 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 an 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 center
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 defense
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.

War with Nazi Germany
seemed inevitable by 1938,

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

were converted
into naval headquarters.

Retired Admiral Bertram Ramsay

is brought back into service

to organize
the defense of England.

He had his own quarters here,

but also he had
this amazing view

right out to the harbor
beneath us

and into the channel.

Ramsay 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.

Loon and Calais
had already been taken,

and they found themselves
more or less surrounded.

Nearly half a million
British and Allied soldiers

found themselves 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 defenseless
to Nazi invasion.

Ramsay is ordered
to plan and organize

Operation Dynamo,

to bring back
across the channel

as many soldiers
as possible.

With less than a week
to prepare,

Ramsay and his team
worked around the clock,

making plans,
gathering resources,

and mobilizing 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 May 26, 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
soon 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 harbor
from rough seas,

it was more
than 4,000 feet 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 described
the psychological terror

as the soldiers anxiously
awaited the dreaded scream

of the German stukas.

I mean, they
really are harrowing weed.

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 numbers 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 Admiralty

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 civilian boats,

some of them commercial boats
and ferries,

who had a shallow enough draft

to be able to get close
into 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 are left behind,

but it's seen
as a great victory

and proves 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 U.S.
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 center
for Allied headquarters

to direct the invasion
of Europe.

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

as bait.

2
Beginning in 1942,

a network of tunnels
under Dover Castle

was used in
the planning of D-Day.

So this space
would've been known as Q Dover,

and it was part
of 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's got to be
a convincing picture

of an Allied army
properly positioned

to cross from Dover to Calais.

George Patton is 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,

are 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 unit.

And the center
for coordinating

all of the deception operations
of Operation Fortitude

is right here
in these tunnels.

June 6th, 1944.

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
is 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

a white wood, columns.

This is different.

It's got an elegant turret,
an 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 cavalry 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,

'cause 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 a thousand acres.

They had stables for the horses,

a smokehouse
for preserving meat,

even an ice house
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.

Thirty 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 12, 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 skirmishes

with Union forces,
who had crossed into Virginia.

In the Civil War,
cavalry played an outsized 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

would have 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.

But 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 be agony.

He wrote
about the meager 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 northward

threatens 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 is soon
cut short in dramatic fashion.

On the night of June 8th,
John Knight and his men

are camped
near Brandy Station, Virginia,

a hundred miles north
of the Poplar Hill mansion.

But little did they know...

they were being watched.

2
On the night
of June 8th, 1863,

Lieutenant John Knight
is camped near Brandy Station,

100 miles from his home,

when he's 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 leap
onto their horses,

many half naked
and without saddles.

And it becomes intense,
brutal, close-range combat

fought with sabers 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 claim victory,
but a vastly improved

and more organized
Union cavalry

proves they can
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 falls sick with a fever,

and is 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 command

and starts pressing on Richmond
and pushing into Virginia,

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 watch out?

Were they on the lookout?

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 arrive

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 leave the house a mess,
but intact,

and the family unharmed.

These Union soldiers are merely
hungry and desperate.

John Knight is present
at Appomattox

for General Lee's Confederate
surrender, on April 9th, 1865.

Knight rushes back
to his family,

possibly that same day.

And then after the war,
Poplar Hill Mansion

and its surrounding estates
had kinda returned to "normal."

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

Because Poplar Hill Mansion
had been the center

of a slave economy,

and suddenly
all these enslaved people

were technically emancipated.

And yet 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 the 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 migrate 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 realize these
people really did live like that

there's a level
of embarrassment and 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 center.

In Estonia, 30 miles
from the capital Tallinn,

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 the settlement.

There are compounds

that could've 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?

During 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.

2
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,
the champagne,

had to be chilled
in the cellar.

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

a lot of foreign technology,
foreign practices into Russia

to modernize 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 the 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

who were working for free.

Serfdom was a form of forced
labor, which tied peasants

to the land they worked on
and the nobles who owned it.

These servants had
no real freedoms to speak of,

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, the Empress
had a change of heart.

Realizing 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 personally owned
half a million serfs

and enabled landowners
to sentence them

to hard labor in Siberia.

If 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 serfs quickly backed down.

A man called Mick Keevy
was identified as the leader

of the uprising and singled out
for special punishment.

So in this spot
in front of the big barn,

200 soldiers formed two lines,
and Mick Keevy had to run

four times through
this corridor of men,

each man beating him
with a wooden stick.

They deport this
barely-living Mick Keevy 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 the 1860s

did little to improve
daily lives of peasants,

but crucially,
it gave them the freedom

to organize.

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.

2
During the carnage
of the Second World War,

Kolga Manor was captured
by Hitler's Nazi army

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 a thousand years
of life here.

Kolga Manor tells a great story
of how Estonian people

preserved their folklore,
their culture,

their language throughout
the different 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 Corps Reserve Center,"

so clearly this is
a military structure.

Despite its stark, functional
exterior, inside is a riot

of color 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 U.S. 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 center 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 Lakes states
formed naval militias,

and these were the forerunners

of the U.S. Marine Corps
and naval reserves.

With their numbers growing,
a modernist-style facility

was constructed.

It would become known
as the Brodhead Naval Armory.

This armory opened in 1930,
but almost from the start,

it was more than just a place
for military training.

The Great Depression,
which hit the Detroit area

especially hard, forced
its owners to adapt the site.

To raise money
to maintain the armory,

it became a premier
civic event 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 turmoil.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
a liberal reformer was running

against the incumbent president,
Herbert Hoover,

who many people saw
as responsible

for this Great Depression.

In October of 1932,
both candidates came to Detroit

to give speeches.

Roosevelt chose the armory
as the location for his address.

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 program involved 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 Yaeger to decorate

the armory's mess halls, bars,
corridors, staircases.

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.

2
In 1932,
Detroit's Brodhead Naval Armory

would host the debut
of an American icon.

Joe Louis Barrow II's father
is considered

one of the country'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.

Every day, he would leave house
for school with his violin case,

but never turned up
at the violin teacher.

Young Joe
told a little fib to his mother.

Instead of going
to his violin lessons,

he enrolled at a program
to learn boxing.

In 1932, age 17,
he entered his first

amateur fight,
here at the armory.

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.

Lewis would go on to become
heavyweight champion

and held the title
for nearly 12 years.

But December 7th, 1941,
changed all that.

Pearl Harbor 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 armory spent the war
serving on the home front.

After World War II
and the Vietnam War,

the U.S. military began
reducing its footprint

across the nation.

The armory ultimately
closed down in 2004.

After decades of neglect,
there's finally hope

for the Brodhead Armory.

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.