(upbeat music) - For over the past 60 years, Arizona PBS has told incredible stories of Arizona's distinctive people, beautiful landscapes, and treasured history.

Now relive those memories we've pulled from the vault.

Hello, I'm Alberto Rios, revealing the stories behind Arizona's Hispanics who put their lives on the line to serve in combat during World War II.

They were known as the Hispanic Flyboys and the civil rights fight makes its way into the 48th state.

From The Vault presents another edition of "Arizona Stories."

- [Narrator] The year, 1964, the location, the state capital, the issue, a public accommodations bill.

- Well, you were denied those rights to go into a public place of public accommodation into a restaurant, into a hotel, into a drug store, sit down and have a soda like anybody else.

- [Narrator] Diabetes stole Clovis Campbell's eyesight in recent years, but the state's first black Senator vividly remembers the protest of March 30th, 1964.

Campbell was a member of the House of Representatives.

- We had a bunch of young people who were far bent on making sure that the message got across.

We wanted the Public Accommodation Bill.

Unfortunately, the police start to come down and wanted to arrest people.

Of course, they start blocking off entrances to the state buildings.

- [Narrator] Brooks was president of a local chapter of the NAACP.

He and vice president Lincoln Ragsdale Snr., coordinated the protest.

These pictures belong to the Ragsdale family.

- We made a conscious decision to confront the Senate particularly where Senator Giss of Yuma was stonewalling on the Public Accommodations Bill.

- [Narrator] The bill would force businesses to end decades of discrimination toward African Americans.

- I traveled with white Presbyterian preachers, all of whom were young, and we could not eat at restaurants.

I remember one evening we went into a restaurant and we sat and we sat.

And obviously these young white men did not understand.

And finally, I said, we are not gonna be served.

- [Narrator] The protest could have erupted into more of an emotional confrontation but police treated protestors gently, using blankets to carry people out of the Capitol.

Governor Paul Fannin wanted no violence.

- Paul Fannin had a very poor understanding of how a class of people in these United States could feel left out.

Paul, understanding that what we give them should be enough for them, and we don't kick them around, we don't do anything with them or for them.

- [Narrator] Brooks vividly recalls an encounter with an aspiring attorney who vehemently opposed the bill.

- A young man came out and accosted me as leader of that group.

And to say that public accommodations was not necessary and giving all of his legal reasons why we ought not to have it, and the reason why we ought to be still.

And that young man was Mr. Rehnquist, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

- [Narrator] Lawmakers eventually passed the Public Accommodations Bill, but after Congress approved the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

- I welcomed the protest, because it did do some things.

It did make some people stand up and listen, even though it took a while to get it passed.

- [Narrator] For those who participated such as Clay Cavness, the protest was a validation of sorts.

- Here was this backwater, which was very conservative, which was untouchable by outside currents.

We were very much behind the times and here we were just participating in the energy of the times.

It was not supposed to be expressed here, and it was, so it was very gratifying.

- [Narrator] For Reverend George Brooks, the protest set the stage for later civil rights victories - [George] We've come a long way, but so has society.

Society in the whole has gone much further than we as a class of people have gone.

(people singing) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Lorraine] What an outstanding display.

It just makes you feel magnificent.

- [Narrator] They were finally crafted in silver and copper with an odd collection of images, of cactus, together with mermaids.

Elegant gifts from people who lived in the desert to a seafaring marvel that would bear their state's name, USS Arizona.

- [Lorraine] And it was used when dignitaries came on board, when they had the changing of command ceremonies.

- [Narrator] And on some special occasions, they brought out.

- [Lorraine] The Arizona Miner - [Narrator] A 41 inch bronze, another gift from the people of Arizona and its mining companies.

But as storm clouds approached in late 1940, the Navy refitted the Arizona for war.

Finer things like the silver and the statue were removed.

And after that, the miner became a mystery.

- [Lorraine] It was lost.

Nobody could find it - [Narrator] Such stories about the Arizona fascinated Lorraine Haislip.

- [Lorraine] I've always had love of history.

- [Narrator] For 11 years now, she's been collecting memories from men who served on the Arizona.

She's already filled one large album - Right now, I have enough material that I think we could do another three books, at least.

I've studied this so much.

I feel like I've been floating over the ship and living part of it.

- She feels like she's come to know these sailors even those she's never met.

- This McClafferty, I read the deck logs, and I see his name so much, I says, what did you do now?

I even talked to them while I'm reading the deck log.

And I says, what have you done now to get in trouble?

- [Narrator] Some families have shown Lorraine letters written by sailors on the Arizona.

- Sunday morning.

Good morning, my darlings.

I just finished reading over all of your letters, honey.

[DeJean] And I believe I can realize better now how hard it is on you than I could before.

Your letters have changed a whole lot.

- [Narrator] It was a lonely sailor named DeJean Corey, writing to his wife and baby back in the States.

[DeJean] The way things look at present in Japan, I don't know when I will see you.

- [Narrator] There are other letters from men on the Arizona stored away in the collections of the State Capitol Museum.

Personal photos also have been donated, glimpses of life on the ship, dating back to its early years.

- [Speaker] August 5th, 1923.

I'm having the time of my life.

I suppose mother has told you I am aboard the best ship in the Pacific Fleet, in USS Arizona.

- [Lorraine] Their pride was beyond belief and I believe it was even more on the Arizona than any, because this is what I've heard.

- [Speaker] Laying about one mile off Seattle in the harbor.

- [Narrator] The year that letter was written in 1923 the Arizona docked in Tacoma, Washington, and a five year old boy came aboard on a tour.

- Well, it's just so, so large.

- [Narrator] Lorraine's future husband.

- It seemed like you could see forever, see one end to the other, you know - [Narrator] Charles could see all the way into his future.

In 1935, he would enlist in the Navy.

And before long, he got to serve on the Arizona - And we went onboard board there, I'm telling you, it was just a thrill, thrill of my life - [Narrator] For new sailors, there were rights of passage.

- They have a real ritual on there, I'm telling you.

These guys, they were all covered with blackened grease.

They'd come up with smear you with grease and everything.

And they beat the hell outta us.

And they'd have boxing matches, wrestling matches and you had to wrestle Marines and everything else.

And I didn't want a part of that.

Softball teams, they had baseball teams, they had football teams and stuff like this.

- [Narrator] They needed a little fun to break up the monotony of their work - [Speaker] May 6th, 1941, there really isn't very much to write about because we do the same thing day in and day out - Learn how to swab and sweep and scrub and all that sort of stuff.

- [Narrator] Now scrubbing the deck wasn't so simple, it was a tightly choreographed art.

- And go, back and forth, Then the boss would holler, switch.

And they'd move to another one.

- I can see all this, I've heard the stories of how they swabbed the deck, how they twisted the mop, so that when it came down and he showed me, that it just fans itself out.

- [Narrator] Lorraine learned all this, not just from living with Charles.

Long before she married him, she fell in love with another former sailor from the Arizona.

Lorraine was married to Ed Marks for 39 years until he passed away.

- [Ed] Darling, I believe I'm going crazy.

While I was sitting here yesterday.

I wrote this little poem and of course it is dedicated to you.

- [Narrator] Now as historian for the USS Arizona Reunion Association, Lorraine is still discovering little bits of history of the ship, like Gene Corey's poem to his wife.

- [Gene] Irma, the rolling sea whispers when I try to go to sleep.

So I stay awake to listen to see if they bring messages from the deep.

- I mean it was, and it still is very emotional.

- [Gene] Honey, I must close for tonight as it has grown late.

So I will dream of you and baby, your ever loving husband, Gene.

- [Narrator] Gene Corey was riding from the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, December 1st, 1941.

His last letter.

- This is why I do what I do, and the more I do it, the more I want to do.

- [Narrator] Much of what Lorraine does is like detective work, sifting through piles of documents, tracking lost pieces of the ship's history.

And sometimes the tedious months of following a paper trail finally lead her to the right person.

- And he says, and by the way, I think we've got something else here that might come from the ship.

And I says, oh, and he says, yeah, it's a statue of a miner, and I about fell through the floor.

People have been looking for that for years - [Narrator] When the statue was taken off the ship before the war, it was crated and stored, but a confusing label made it hard to find.

Now the Arizona Miner is back in his home state, at the Capitol Museum - [Lorraine] To see it after everybody had been looking for this for so long, I think that's great.

- [Narrator] The gifts once given to a battleship, reminders of the place it was named for, have come back to Arizona and now they help us to remember.

But to remember more than just what happened at Pearl Harbor.

- [Lorraine] It's a sad situation and we can't forget them, but just for the Arizona to be remembered for that, I don't think they would want that.

It should be remembered for what she did, she served her country for 25 years.

She sailed this high seas and showing her power, her pride.

The feeling that you see when you see these pictures of the ship as she's flying through those waters, it just, I still feel proud.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Alongside old Route 66, on the outskirts of Williams, stands a monument to a man in his mountain.

Bill Williams, known as Old Solitaire, Williams was Arizona's most colorful mountain man.

A prolific fur trapper, renowned good shot, and legendary trader, he roamed the mountains of Northern Arizona and much of the West for over two decades.

Old Solitaire was killed by Indians in 1849.

Soon after, a fellow frontiersman named a 9,000 foot peak after him, and the nearby town of Williams followed suit - [Narrator] There was no more dangerous a job during World War II than flying bombing missions over enemy territory.

185 Arizona Hispanics served as pilots, co-pilots, bombardiers, gunners and radio operators.

One such pilot was Mesa resident, Gilbert Orrantia.

Orrantia flew 50 missions in B-25s in 1942, then returned stateside to become a combat flight instructor.

Orrantia was born in 1917, in Clarkdale.

And graduated from Clarkdale High School in 1936.

He attended what was then known as Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe for two years.

Orrantia met all the requirements to become a pilot and was undergoing psychological testing when the doctor asked him about his nationality.

- You're a Mexican, aren't you?

Yes, I am.

He says, you're going to have a hard time.

Well, my reply to that was very simply, look, if I have passed all the examinations, you put your signature on that piece of paper, and I'll take my chances with the best you got.

And if I can't cut the mustard, I don't deserve to be a pilot.

He says, well, if that's the way you want it.

I said, that's the only way I want it.

- [Narrator] Orrantia rose to the rank of second Lieutenant.

His first mission was in Northern Africa as a co-pilot - [Gilbert] As we're going over the field in all this flak is bursting around us and we're jumping all over this sky.

I look over to the left and they hit a ship, and it was one of my buddies that we had been all the way through together, And they blew that ship apart, but you know, they all got out, they all got out.

- At 86, Orrantia is still able to climb into the cockpit of a restored B-25 at Mesa's Commemorative Air Force Museum.

- You had to learn these by heart, they'd blindfold you, and you'd say, well, this is the compass, and this is the flight indicator.

You'd have to touch it and tell 'em what it was.

- [Narrator] One of Orrantia's most harrowing experiences came on a low altitude bombing mission.

His job was to fly 200 feet above the ocean and skip bombs on the water, like a stone into an enemy ship.

- [George] I remember we were so low that my tail gunner would say, Lieutenant dip the tail, and I'll get us some fish for lunch or for supper.

- [Narrator] During that mission, enemy fire tore into his aircraft, blowing away part of its tail.

- Took the co-pilot and myself, all our strength to move that and hold it there.

So we are holding it and we get to an airfield, there was a little English airfield called Boone.

So we landed there.

Pretty soon, here comes the British in the Jeep, and they look up at the rudder and it's all blown to heck.

We had gotten down and looked at it.

And they went around the plane and looked at it and they said, "Blimey, how'd you blokes get that aircraft on the ground?

I said, well don't know, but there it is.

- [Narrator] There were other frightening moments for Orrantia during his 50 missions.

Like a belly landing when his front nose gear would not deploy, or the time his plane's windshield was shattered.

After the war, Orrantia worked as a community activist and a professor of foreign languages at Mesa Community College.

It's been over 50 years since the Hispanic Flyboys of World War II took to the skies.

But like those for whom they fought, the Flyboys will not soon forget it.

- [George] It was a wonderful experience.

I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world and I loved flying them but I didn't particularly care for people shooting at me and stuff, but that comes with the territory.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (Native American singing) - [Narrator] It is a harsh and unforgiving land, but for generations the Apaches of San Carlos have called this desert their home.

Forced by the government to settle here over a century ago, they've had to struggle to survive, and struggle to preserve their culture which gradually disappeared due to the influences and intervention of a non-Indian world.

- White people told our ancestors, don't use your own language.

You can't pray and dance the way you do.

I just believe that these white people thought that our language was strange to them and they were afraid of it.

Or if we danced or put paints on our face, symbolizing something, that they were afraid of it.

They didn't even like our long hair, so they cut our hair.

- We were raised speaking English as our first language.

And my grandmother told me that the world is changing and your life is changing, so your first language is gonna be English.

So I learned English and that's my first language now.

And then I never knew anything about my tradition, because I was taught that that was bad for me, my culture was bad for me - [Narrator] As with many native peoples, some of the most significant impacts on the San Carlos Apaches were made by the religious ministries that came to the reservation.

(church bell ringing) Father Gino Piccoli is the pastor at St. Charles Catholic church in San Carlos.

Like the Franciscan friars before him, he attends to the spiritual needs of his congregation.

But unlike his predecessors, Father Piccoli is committed to helping restore and nurture the Apache culture, by incorporating it into the fabric of parish life.

- We meant well, but we goofed.

And we said, leave your Apache culture and spirituality and become like us European Catholics or American Catholics.

And so I said, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm gonna do everything I can to say, what is beautiful about your spirituality and your culture and whatever is beautiful is of God.

- [Narrator] From the outside, St. Charles resembles many of the old mission churches scattered throughout the Southwest, but inside it's clearly a house of worship meant for Native Americans.

Where at one time the traditional Anglicized images of Jesus and Mary were prominent, there are now Apache representations.

The baptismal font is a familiar component of Apache life, a watering tank for livestock.

And within the ritual of the mass itself, Father anglicized has incorporated many of the same elements found in traditional Apache ceremonies - Paul, in one of his letters, he says, "When I was with the Jews, I was a Jew.

When I was with the Greeks, I was a Greek.

When I was with the Romans, I was a Roman."

- It's good, it's good for the people here, it makes you feel strong, it makes you feel closer to God, to me, it does.

- [Narrator] In addition to efforts within the church, the parish school is also very much involved in keeping the Apache traditions alive in San Carlos.

This is in sharp contrast to the government practice a century earlier, of sending Native American children away from home to be educated in the ways of white society.

- There were a number of parents, who during that boarding school era, they lost their tradition and culture.

And so what they hoped for their children was that they would be able to get a good education, but not off the reservation.

- [Narrator] Building on a solid academic foundation, St. Charles school offers a unique curriculum integrating Apache language and traditions helping to restore an important part of Apache life before it disappears.

- One of the things that we try to emphasize here is trying to keep the culture and the language alive.

There's a whole generation for whom the language was lost.

They came back on the reservation, they didn't know their ways.

Today, we're realizing that that was a big mistake.

And that culture is transferred through language, primarily.

And so we have worked very hard to put an Apache curriculum into the school that incorporates language, cultural opportunities, traditional ways and traditional history.

(speaking Apache language) Friday is (speaking Apache language).

- [Narrator] Developed over a number of years, the curriculum has become increasingly popular, even with the youngest students, who come to school eager to learn the vanishing language of their people.

- It's one thing I asked them from the beginning of the year is what do you expect to learn?

What do you wanna learn in kindergarten?

I wanna learn how to speak Apache.

I wanna learn how to write Apache.

(speaking Apache language) - One of the things that we we're very proud of and we feel we've been very successful with, is our afterschool program.

And for the girls, it means designing and actually making their own camp dress, their own jewelry, all of the things that we associate with the Apache people.

For the boys, it's learning their traditional sacred dances through what we call the (speaking foreign language), more commonly known as the crown dancers.

And it's a wonderful experience.

What we have discovered through the culture clubs and the Apache curriculum is that our children have a better self-esteem.

They have a better sense of themselves.

- [Speaker] If you don't know anything about your culture, your loss, and that's one of the things I love about St. Charles, is that it emphasizes Apache culture.

(singing in Apache language) - What I hope is that in time, by using Apache spirituality, by using Apache language, that what we do here in church, what we do in school, is gonna allow these people to have pride in themselves, to believe in the future.

It's a good reason to help people here (singing in Apache language) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)