- [Narrator] As the summer wore on, the fair faced problems of its own.

After an early burst of crowds, attendance sagged.

- There were a lot of concerns that the fair was not going to be able to end in the black, and East Coast papers would constantly point to this impending failure, this financial disaster that was about to befall Chicago.

(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] The White City was built as a vision of the future, an antidote to the labor and social unrest roiling Chicago's streets.

- They thought if they built this rational city, the people would be different sorts of citizens in that you would walk through this ordered place, and, in your own life, become more ordered and logical too.

(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] But that order reflected the deepest divisions of the present.

To Black activists Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, the White City was a place that excluded them and their contributions.

- It was clear from the very start that there was no place for them.

The White City was the White City.

- [Narrator] In 1893, Chicago was home to roughly 15,000 Black residents, about 1% of the population.

Many were accomplished business owners, professionals, and civic leaders.

(suspenseful music) - They believed in their country and they believed in their place in it.

They were not asking for a handout or a hand-me-down.

They had earned it, and they had earned it with blood, sweat, and tears.

They were not going to take being excluded lightly.

- [Narrator] Douglass and Wells printed a protest pamphlet and handed out 20,000 copies.

Douglass agreed to help organize a Colored People's Day.

Wells refused to participate, fearing it would become a spectacle.

Among her concerns were reports that fair officials planned to entice Black visitors with watermelons.

- Ida B. Wells said, "Nope, not gonna do it."

Frederick Douglass not only said, "I'm going to do it," he was the keynote address speaker.

- [Narrator] As Douglass spoke about America's failure to protect African Americans from discrimination and lynching, hecklers shouted at him.

Douglass paused, set down his notes, and demanded to be heard.

(suspenseful music) - Everybody who was there was absolutely impressed, including many of the skeptical members of the white press.

And so this was a wonderful stepping stone for the African American experience in spite of how it might have appeared at the moment.