- [Announcer] Fans, if it wasn't for the courage and progressive thinking of a US senator from Indiana who drafted important legislation in 1972, we might not be enjoying tonight's WNBA game.

The passage of Title IX 40 years ago created equality for women in sports.

(audience cheering) - For opening night, which was in 2000, we wanted to honor those that helped us get the franchise.

The fieldhouse is filled all the way to the top, totally sold out, first professional women's team in the state, and I'm taking it all in.

I said, "Look at this place!"

I'll never forget when he turned to me and he had tears in his eyes.

These women who are getting ready to play in this game, none of this woulda happened without Title IX.

- [Narrator] Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana couldn't have imagined any of this at the start of his career in politics in the 1950s.

State legislator, Speaker of the Indiana House, then US senator, his meteoric rise spanned some of the most transformative years in American history.

From the Kennedy Administration in 1962 to the dawn of Reaganism in 1980, Birch Bayh served 18 impactful years in the US Senate and influenced the lives of every American through his legislative work.

And his work was a direct product of the times: the end of Camelot, the rise of conflict in Vietnam, the fight for civil rights, and the struggle for gender equality.

He represented Indiana, and his battles at the Capitol were the battles of the everyday American.

(reverent music) - [Announcer] "Birch Bayh: American Senator" is made possible through the generous support of: the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, Sarah Simon, and the following.

(car whooshing) (gentle acoustic guitar music) - [Narrator] Birch Evans Bayh, Jr., was born on January 22, 1928.

His father was well-known around the state as a referee, an athletic director, and coach at what is now Indiana State University.

His mother, Leah, died of uterine cancer when Birch was just 12 years old.

Birch and his sister Mary Alice spent their formative years on their grandparents' farm in Shirkieville, Indiana, near Terre Haute.

Athletic and gregarious, Birch excelled in school and 4-H.

He attended Purdue University to study agriculture and enlisted in an 18-month stint in the Army between his freshman and sophomore years.

While serving overseas as a military policeman, he helped German children start community gardens to stave off hunger, garnering the attention of "Reader's Digest."

He won his battalion's marksmanship award and was captain of the baseball team and even became a champion boxer.

- He was a doer from a very, very young age.

He had goals; he wanted to achieve them.

So, Birch Bayh was never a late bloomer.

He was always ahead of the pack.

- [Narrator] Back at Purdue in 1951, he spoke to every single member of his senior class and, with the help of his fraternity campaign staff, was elected class president.

After graduation, he took part in a public speaking contest in Chicago.

His speech was entitled "We Grow Serving Others."

Between sessions, he spotted Marvella Hern.

- A lotta people thought she might be the first female governor of Oklahoma 'cause she was a governor of Girls State.

She won speaking contests all over the state of Oklahoma.

He turned around at one point and saw her and said, "Hello, Oklahoma, come over here and join Indiana."

They were immediately sorta taken with each other.

And I think he lost in the semifinals and she beat the guy who beat him to win the whole thing.

- [Jim] It was not just a love match, it was a political match because she was very smart.

- [Narrator] In 1952, the couple started married life on the family farm in Shirkieville.

- Many, many farmers in Indiana in the 1940s and '50s were very sophisticated.

Quite a few were Purdue graduates, and Birch Bayh was that sort.

That farm is an important part of his life, an important part of his political career.

As much as he liked it, he had wider ambitions.

- There was sort of an elder in the community, he approached my father and said, "We're trying to find bright young people to run for office "and there's a race for the State Legislature coming up.

"Why don't you give it a try?"

- I think it was a three-member district and they wanted Birch to run because, number one, the name was good.

Birch Bayh, Sr., his father, had been one of the most prominent basketball referees in the history of the state.

Birch was clean, was a non-drinker, didn't play around, was a straight shooter, young and attractive.

It was a natural to get him to run for that seat.

(light upbeat music) - [Narrator] Bayh ran for one of Vigo County's three seats in the Indiana House.

He met with all 112 precinct committee members and formed solid relationships with labor unions.

His legwork paid off.

And in November of 1954, at age 26, he was elected as the youngest member of the Indiana General Assembly.

A year later, Marvella gave birth to a son, Birch Evans Bayh, III, whom they called Evan.

(traffic whirring faintly) - Conservative leaders of Indiana in the 1940s and '50s were very powerful and had a significant influence, but there also created a response, a backlash.

So, by the late-1950s and the early-1960s, there was a kind of liberal breeze blowing through the state, just to the benefit of a guy like Birch Bayh.

- [Narrator] After a successful reelection, Birch was nominated as House minority leader in 1957.

He decided to pursue politics full-time as a career, sold 120 acres of the family farm, and used the money to attend law school at Indiana University.

The 1958 midterms saw Democrats gaining seats across the country, and the Indiana House went from 28 Democrats to 79.

At age 30, Bayh was named Speaker of the House.

He worked on juvenile delinquency legislation and education reform.

(rocket roaring) - The Russians launched Sputnik.

This was a major turning point in US history.

Somehow, we were beaten into space by the Russians.

Why?

The attention turned to American schools.

Every township in Indiana literally had a high school.

They didn't have the resources to prepare in math and science especially.

So, he and Don Foltz and Wayne Townson, they were the ones that pushed through the School Reorganization Act, and that ended up consolidating schools across the state of Indiana.

- I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

- [Narrator] John F. Kennedy had defeated Richard Nixon by a razor-thin margin to win the presidency.

In 1961, the young president and the Space Race had Americans looking toward science and the future.

Back in Indiana, Birch Bayh made some farsighted goals of his own.

He graduated from law school and set his eyes on the US Senate.

(light upbeat music) - His political campaigns were intensely grassroots, on the ground.

He'd go to factory gates, he'd go to Rotary Club meetings, thousands of hours on the road, talking to people one-on-one, in small groups, retail politics.

We have remnants of that today, but very, very little like the way it was in Birch Bayh's day.

- [Narrator] Birch Bayh visited each delegate face-to-face to win his party's nomination.

His opponent in the general election would be incumbent Homer Capehart, who had served as senator for 18 years.

- Homer Capehart was like generations of senators from Indiana, just seemed to be completely out-of-date, and Birch Bayh was the future.

- [Narrator] Both talented speakers, Birch and Marvella divided up campaign stops, allowing them to cover twice as much ground.

Between Labor Day and the election, Bayh delivered 300 speeches.

His three-person staff also created a modern multimedia campaign on radio and television.

- They were always trying to get people to pronounce Birch's last name right.

It wasn't Bay, it was Bayh.

And so, Henshaw came up with, "Hey, look me over, "he's your kinda guy.

"His first name is Birch, his last name is Bayh."

After that, Mary Lou Conrad wrote the rest of the words to the song, and that jingle was played thousands of times.

- [Narrator] The Cuban Missile Crisis in October looked as though it might sink Democrats in the election, but Kennedy's peaceful resolution actually gave some a late surge.

The president came to Indianapolis just days after the ordeal to stump for his fellow Democrat.

In the end, Birch Bayh won by just .3% of the vote.

♪ Indiana's own Birch ♪ - I think most people agreed in Indiana that your theme song or your campaign song was one of the finest they've ever heard in an election campaign.

Did this help you win?

- I'm certain it did.

A campaign is like a business.

It takes a number of ingredients to be successful, and this was one of the things that we felt were important ingredients.

It was an important ingredient in obtaining victory.

(birds chirping) - There was a distinctive period which I've called the Last Great Senate, which indeed one could argue was the only great Senate.

And interestingly, I would say it was an 18-year period that coincided exactly when Birch Bayh was in the Senate.

He came to Washington with what I would call sort of a "gee whiz, oh shucks" kind of attitude that was very endearing and genuine.

- [Narrator] Bayh asked for assignments on the Public Works and Judiciary Committees.

He got both.

Birch was a star on the congressional baseball team.

Marvella was featured in "Life" magazine.

Both Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy drove Birch and Marvella around DC neighborhoods to look for a new home.

The couple was Indiana's version of the Kennedys.

- Mostly what made him good was (pausing) he applied himself on the issues, he knew how to work with people, he was universally liked.

And that was a Senate unlike what we've had in recent decades.

That was a Senate where Democrats and Republicans worked well together.

- In that era, which was such a different era in the United States Senate, which was controlled, largely influenced by Southern Democrats who later all became Republicans- So, for a young, more progressive politician like Birch, if you're gonna get anything done, you gotta get along with them, and he figured out how to do that without compromising his principles.

- There was a belief that America was getting better and better and that we young folks could move that forward.

It didn't last.

- [Narrator] Life in the US was no fairytale.

Black Americans were fighting against continued racism and Jim Crow segregation.

- I came along when Riverside Park was in existence, and I knew not to go there.

I knew certain drive-in restaurants I need not go there.

Even in the '60s, when we would pull into a restaurant, the only black guy in the car, they actually walked up to the car and said, "All right, you guys, I have to serve him, "but I don't have to serve you, so I won't serve you.

"What do you want, N-word?"

Now, those instances occurred right here in Indianapolis, my hometown.

- [Announcer] Now an address by the president of the United States, speaking live from Washington.

- [Narrator] On June 11th, in a televised speech, President Kennedy proposed legislation to end segregation and guarantee rights for Black Americans.

- I am therefore asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public: hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments.

This seems to me to be an elementary right.

Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do.

- [Narrator] Days later, the president introduced a Civil Rights Act to Congress.

(protestors singing) (audience applauding) Martin Luther King quickly pivoted.

♪ Freedom ♪ ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪ - [Narrator] And made the goal of the March on Washington to pressure legislators.

- What do we want now?

♪ Freedom ♪ ♪ Freedom ♪ - [Narrator] On August 28th, he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to 250,000 people on the National Mall and roused support for the bill, but the Southern Democrats in Congress found ways to stop it.

- [Announcer] Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (audience cheering) (upbeat marching band music) - [Narrator] On November 22nd, 1963, Birch Bayh was on a plane bound for Chicago when the captain announced the president had been assassinated.

- [Reporter] It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route.

There has been a shooting.

Parkland Hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound.

- I can remember exactly where I was when I heard that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

The grief was deep and intense.

And in some ways, that assassination was maybe the first, the first burst of the balloon, the first time that, oh, maybe the world is not Camelot.

- [Narrator] Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One.

Five days later, he addressed a joint session of Congress.

- No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long.

(audience applauding) (morose music) - [Narrator] The nation was reeling.

Hope turned to uncertainty.

The vice presidency was vacant and wouldn't be filled until after the 1965 inauguration.

Constitutional experts began to ask, "What if John F. Kennedy had not died, "but remained alive yet unable to function as president?"

The Constitution was unclear.

- It didn't answer the question of: What is a disability that triggers this succession provision?

Who judges that there is a disability?

It didn't provide for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency.

- [Narrator] As chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, Birch Bayh and experts from the American Bar Association convened to address an issue that had been left unanswered for decades.

John Feerick was part of that group.

- They've been working with us since the 1880s after Garfield was assassinated and Chester Arthur, who succeeded him, put before Congress all the questions that they should be dealing with in terms of reform.

Took a long time to find its way into the Constitution, and Birch Bayh was key to that.

His being able to rally the members of Congress like no one else was doing on this subject was remarkable.

- [Narrator] The 25th Amendment had begun its journey toward ratification and was in the Senate by summer.

(audience applauding) - [Lyndon] My fellow Americans- - [Narrator] In his 1964 State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson proposed the War on Poverty, the first of many innovative domestic policies.

But at the top of the agenda was lingering civil rights legislation that had failed to pass the previous the year.

- The Senate was described as the only place that the South didn't lose the Civil War, but the Senate had always been the place where civil rights legislation went to die because of the filibuster.

- [Narrator] After a 54-day filibuster, the civil rights bill came to a Senate vote on the evening of June 19th, 1964.

Senators Ted Kennedy and Birch Bayh stayed late to enthusiastically vote for the landmark legislation.

That night, Ted also had to accept his party's nomination at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention, an event where Birch Bayh was keynote speaker.

After the vote, Kennedy, his staffer Edward Moss, Birch and Marvella, and pilot Edwin Zimmy boarded a small plane and flew to Massachusetts together.

(somber music) - I remember the woman who was staying with me while my parents were gone came in and looked in on me that night and thought she was looking at an orphan because the first reports were that the plane had gone down and that no one had survived.

And looking at the wreckage, I mean, it's a miracle anybody got outta that.

- [Narrator] Tragedy strikes again at the Kennedy family, but the blow to Senator Ted Kennedy is not fatal.

The crash of his befogged plane in an apple orchard near Springfield, Massachusetts, did, however, kill his pilot and his aide.

The senator's back is broken and his guests, Senator and Mrs. Birch Bayh of Indiana, are less seriously injured.

- And he kicked the window out and carried Marvella out away from the plane.

And then she said, "Birch, don't go back, I smell gas.

"I smell gas."

And he said, "I gotta go back "and see if anybody else is alive."

And he said, "I looked in the window "and I thought Ted was dead."

And then, he says, "I still have the image "of the white French cuffs and the cuff links, "and his fingers moved.

"And I yelled to him, and he groaned.

"I carried him out like a sack of corn."

They got to the hospital and he called Bobby and said, "I have some bad news.

"Ted and I have been in a plane crash."

And Bobby said to him, "Did I lose him too?"

- [Narrator] Ted Kennedy would spend the next several months in the hospital.

Two weeks after the crash, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson on July 2nd, 1964.

Birch Bayh was there and received one of the ceremonial pens used to sign the bill.

- Lyndon Johnson took on the task and he used his great abilities to move the country forward on civil rights.

And it was the greatest moment of the Senate and it was the greatest legislative accomplishment, I think, in our history.

- [Narrator] Of course, the stroke of a pen did not end the fight against racism.

The Civil Rights Act was unpopular in Indiana.

And that same week, three civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi.

Johnson was up for reelection.

And that summer of 1964 at the Democratic National Convention, he would choose Hubert Humphrey as his running mate.

Presidential aide Bill Moyers made a case for a young up-and-comer to deliver the keynote address.

He wrote, "Birch Bayh is young.

"He established himself as a symbol of the new order "in American politics.

"He comes from the Midwest.

"He's a talented speaker, "a fine and articulate platform artist.

"He's an avid Johnson supporter "and would be most cooperative in developing the speech "to be delivered at the convention."

Though Birch did not end up delivering the keynote address, he chaired the Young Citizens for Johnson Committee.

The Bayhs became close to the president and his family.

- The president and Lady Bird invited my parents over for dinner one night and my mother had to call back and say, "We can't find a babysitter, we can't come."

And the response was, "Oh, bring the boy with you."

I was dressed up in my one little suit and I had a little tie on and my mother had said, "Now, I don't wanna hear anything out of you.

"If you don't know what fork to use or knife to use, "just look at the woman on your right or left "and do whatever she's doing."

Then after dinner, the president leaned back and put his big boots up, his big cowboy boots up on the table.

My mother informed me later that presidents were allowed to do that, young boys were not.

- [Narrator] August of 1964.

North Vietnamese fired on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Congress granted the president full military powers in Vietnam (gun firing) and fighting escalated.

Johnson won the election and by 1965 introduced the Great Society, domestic policy that shaped life in America, including Medicare and the Voting Rights Act.

But protests for civil rights and against the Vietnam War dominated much of political news.

Opposition from members of Congress began heating up.

- [Lyndon] Of course, when you stay in office a while, they like to be critical when you have a war on your hands.

I didn't start this thing.

I didn't make this commitment.

But I had my choice of evacuating out there and running or standing and fighting.

- [Birch] Well, Mr. President, it's just that because of your friendship to Marvella and me I've had the chance to hear you and see this great burden that you're carrying around, and that just imposes a double obligation on me to watch out when these sons of bitches start out trying to make a fool of you.

- And there was still this view that the domino theory that, essentially, if you lost one country to communism, all the others would fall.

But it changed fairly rapidly with the Fulbright Hearings in 1966 illuminating that the premises of our policy were bad.

Interestingly, Johnson crumbled pretty quickly because he was torn over the war himself.

- Birch makes his first trip to Vietnam just prior to the beginning of the Tet Offensive.

He decides this is a mistake and he ends up joining the chorus of his colleagues.

LBJ said to him, "If you need to take shots at me "to help yourself, it won't affect our relationship."

- Let me tell you, my friends, I went to Vietnam in January.

I saw those boys that were being shot at.

I've corresponded with them since.

And frankly, they don't care whether Republicans or Democrats are elected.

They want someone who will stand up and tell it as it is and try to stop this war, try to get a just and honorable peace so that they can come home with their families.

That's what they want.

(audience applauding) - [Narrator] In 1968, opposition to the war in Vietnam increased and Johnson did not seek reelection.

To protect his own campaign, Bayh did not endorse Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy.

And McCarthy said to "Life" magazine, "Birch Bayh could find a way to hide in a field of stubble."

- It was a balancing act in many respects to remain a friend and associate with the Kennedys at the same time an ally and friend of the president's, but Vietnam became a matter of conscience.

- [Narrator] When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, Birch Bayh remarked, "That this man of nonviolence should meet a violent death "will remain an indelible smear on the face of our nation."

Just two months later, Bobby Kennedy was shot after winning the California primary.

"Another light has gone out of our lives," Birch Bayh said.

The summer of 1968 was turbulent and a whirlwind campaign season for Birch Bayh.

- He's interested in another amendment to abolish this outdated Electoral College system.

- [Narrator] Marvella was a force of nature, meeting with women's groups and speaking at sold-out events.

Gordon Alexander, a new addition to the senator's staff, became an advocate for minority communities.

Birch promoted his book about presidential succession, "One Heartbeat Away," on the press circuit.

Birch Bayh used his trademark retail politics and his record in Washington to campaign for another six-year Senate term.

He beat Republican William Ruckelshaus by 3.5 percentage points.

Republican Richard Nixon beat Democrat Hubert Humphrey to win the presidency.

Lyndon Johnson went home to Texas.

- The change of 1% of the vote would have resulted in the election of a man to the presidency of the United States who had fewer votes than the man he was running against, despite some of these rather landslide Electoral College victories.

- [Narrator] Birch Bayh had long been a proponent of abolishing the Electoral College.

In 1969, it seemed it just might happen.

- So, my view, which is essentially the American Bar Association view as of that time, is that every vote in a presidential election should be equal to every other vote.

And the only way you're gonna get there is you have a direct popular election.

Why shouldn't we have one person, one vote for president?

And that's what Senator Bayh stood for.

- [Narrator] The Bayh-Celler Amendment to abolish the Electoral College made it through the House and was even endorsed by President Nixon.

In the Senate, it was filibustered by Southerners and senators from small states, who said it would diminish their influence.

It was stopped in its tracks and never reached that point again, yet Birch Bayh supported election by direct popular vote for the rest of his life.

- We have a history of one man, one woman, one vote in the United States.

And it also makes a great deal of sense that a majority of the people ought to elect the president, not a minority.

- [Narrator] In his first year in office, Nixon was eligible to nominate two justices to the Supreme Court.

The first, Warren Burger, was appointed easily as chief justice with a 74-3 Senate vote.

Nixon proposed to fill the second vacancy with Clement Haynsworth.

- When Nixon introduced the Haynsworth nomination in 1969, again, Birch expected to support it.

And increasingly as he was learning about things that Haynsworth did as a judge where he didn't recuse himself from matters in which he had his own financial stake, there were ethical matters that he was just not paying attention to.

- There have been some who've said, "Well, you're just against this man "because he's a Southern conservative."

Well, surely there must be some judge from the southern part of this country who is a conservative who doesn't have all of these unfortunate financial entanglements.

Why can't we find him and let the president send him up here?

I personally feel that the president's prestige or Senator Bayh's prestige is not nearly as important as the prestige of the Supreme Court.

- [Narrator] The nomination did not get approved by the Senate and Haynsworth was defeated.

- Senator Fulbright of Arkansas told Birch, he says, "Mark my words, I know Richard Nixon.

"If we defeat this guy, "a worse one's gonna come down the pike."

- [Narrator] Nixon next put forward Southern District Court Judge G. Harold Carswell.

Senator Norman Hruska commented in support of Carswell.

"There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers.

"They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they?"

- Carswell had made speeches about always supporting segregation and he will compare himself to no one else on his views about white supremacy.

And he ended up finding himself opposing and leading the opposition to the Carswell nomination, just as he had only five months earlier against Haynsworth.

- [Narrator] Carswell was also defeated in the Senate.

On his third attempt, Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun for the Supreme Court.

He was approved by the Senate, 94-0.

Six Democratic senators, including Birch Bayh, refrained from voting.

Birch Bayh became a household name.

- It certainly elevated him nationally.

He became a very serious presidential possibility because of the visibility he had and the relationships he had with progressive groups that made up the heart of the Democratic Party at that time.

Nobody thought those nominees could be defeated, and Bayh spearheaded the effort to defeat them.

- Opposing him in public the way he had done so prominently during Nixon's first year in office was not gonna be forgotten by people from Indiana.

- [Announcer] It's just a matter of seconds now until the beginning of the 1970 Indianapolis 500.

- Birch got a real graphic political reminder when he went to ride around in the pace car around the Indianapolis 500 and was booed around most of the track.

And he said to me, "Bobby, you haven't lived "until you've been booed for a third of mile."

(pensive music) - [Narrator] As the Vietnam War raged on, a common plea for protestors was "old enough to fight, old enough to vote."

The Supreme Court had upheld rights for 18-year-olds to vote in federal elections, but not local or state.

Holding two separate processes at the polls would be costly and confusing.

Birch Bayh argued that in order to avoid chaos on Election Day, federal action was required.

His Subcommittee for Constitutional Amendments had been conducting hearings on the matter since 1968, and the 26th Amendment, allowing 18-year-olds the right to vote in all elections, would be the fastest ratified amendment in history.

In February of 1970, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments was holding a hearing on the 26th Amendment when the National Organization for Women, or NOW, interrupted the meeting.

NOW was a proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, a piece of legislation that had been proposed around the time of women's suffrage in the 1920s, yet an amendment explicitly guaranteeing equal rights for women had never passed.

Bayh spoke to the protestors and soon added the ERA to the subcommittee's agenda.

- [All] Sisterhood is powerful!

- Equal rights to have a job, to have respect, to get into graduate programs, to get into schools, to training programs.

We're the first to be laid off and the last to be hired.

They aren't frivolous demands at all.

We just want what men have had all these years.

- [All] Sisterhood is powerful!

- [Narrator] Laws that were supposed to eliminate gender-based discrimination in the workplace were not being enforced and universities and schools that received federal dollars continued to treat women unequally.

- I went to college in the '60s, so I understood the differences.

I worked two jobs at LA State.

And 20 miles away, Arthur Ashe had a full scholarship to UCLA and Stan Smith had a full scholarship to USC, and it's just because of my gender.

- [Narrator] Bernice Sandler, an educator at the University of Maryland and member of NOW, documented discrimination against female employees at her workplace and around the country.

She helped Representative Edith Green and Patsy Mink draft an early version of Title IX.

They joined forces with Senate co-sponsor Birch Bayh.

He was working extensively on women's rights with his ERA legislation, but the amendment was far from ratification.

Title IX seemed achievable and it hit close to home.

- Title IX we know today as what opened the door to women in college sports, but that was not its original intent.

He was quite interested in higher education because his wife, Marvella, had wanted to go the University of Virginia.

They would not accept her.

They had a quota for women at that time.

That always really bothered him.

So, when Title IX came up, his interest was to make sure that higher education which was receiving federal assistance, federal aid, would not discriminate against women.

- [Narrator] Birch Bayh presented the bill on the Senate floor on February 28th, 1972.

He said, "It is an important first step "in the effort to provide for the women of America "something that is rightfully theirs: "an equal chance to attend the schools of their choice, "to develop the skills they want, "and apply those skills with the knowledge "that they will have a fair chance "to secure the jobs of their choice "with equal pay for equal work."

There is no explicit mention of athletics, but for many women Title IX is best known for the boost it gave to female sports programs around the country and the opportunities it provided women in the classroom and beyond.

- If you wanted to go to Harvard and get a medical degree, they only allowed 5% of the class to be women.

That's really why it was passed.

And (pausing) Senator Birch Bayh wrote out this 37 words which equals Title IX, but in those 37 words, the word "activity" is in there, and that's why sports ended up being covered.

If that word hadn't been in there, I don't know if sports would've been included.

(audience oohing) I mean, for me, it changed everything.

- I consider the Title IX legislation probably the biggest piece of legislation that helped women besides the right to vote.

If you look at opportunities, not just in education, sports was as big as anything.

I got to be walking proof of something that he did with his life and legacy that truly benefited me personally.

- [Narrator] After Senator Bayh's defeat of two of Nixon's Supreme Court nominees, he gained widespread attention and even considered a run for president in '72.

However, after Marvella had been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy, the thought of a national campaign on top of his legislative work made the decision clear: A presidential bid just wasn't possible.

Nixon won in a landslide against Democrat George McGovern.

His diplomatic trips to China and the USSR and the winding down of military action in Vietnam made him a popular choice.

- We today have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam.

- [Narrator] Shortly after his inauguration, President Nixon would announce that an agreement had been made with North Vietnam.

1973 would prove to be an impactful year.

- January 23, 1973.

The agreement on- - [Narrator] President Nixon's former aides and five other men were found guilty of wiretapping and burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate building the previous summer before the election.

It was discovered that all had been paid by the committee to reelect the president and the administration had attempted to cover it up.

Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina would preside over the hearings to investigate the scandal, beginning May 17th.

The country was enthralled.

- If the many allegations made to this day is true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States.

And if these allegations prove to be true, what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money, or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable, their most precious heritage: the right to vote in a free election.

- I was obsessed with Watergate.

It seemed impossible to believe that a president of the United States had engaged in such outrageous violation of all known law and ethics.

And I haven't gotten over it yet because it was one of the times when this nation came closest to a mortal blow to the democratic process.

- [Senator] Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?

- I was aware of listening devices.

Yes, sir.

- [Narrator] When it was revealed that there were secret recordings of the president's conversations, independent prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed the White House to turn over the tapes.

Hoping to avoid this, Nixon demanded that his attorney general, Elliot Richardson, and assistant attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, fire Cox.

They refused and resigned.

This Justice Department upheaval became known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

- Birch had been overseas, and he said he actually found himself wondering as he's flying back to the United States whether he would be whisked away from the airport by administration.

And we really felt that a coup was possible here.

It was a pretty scary period.

We had some reason to believe that we were being watched and that we were being targeted.

- [Narrator] The investigation also uncovered the Nixon Administration's master list of political opponents.

Senator Birch Bayh was at the top of the list.

That October, scandal struck yet again.

Spiro Agnew resigned.

It was discovered he received construction kickbacks from his time as governor of Maryland.

- The proceedings required by Section 2 of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution have been complied with.

- [Narrator] The 25th Amendment was used to appoint a new vice president, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford.

By the end of the year, he was confirmed in both houses by strong majorities.

In the shadow of the ongoing Watergate investigation, Birch Bayh continued his legislation efforts.

He was the architect behind the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Act, which separated young offenders from adults and ensured prisoners would be protected from a sometimes violent and corrupt corrections system.

- Therefore, I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow.

Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.

- [Narrator] On August 8th, Richard Nixon delivered his resignation.

Gerald Ford became president, and again with the 25th Amendment in place, the vice presidency did not stay vacant for long.

- Raise your right hand and repeat after me.

- [Narrator] Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

He was easily confirmed.

- Do solemnly swear- - [Narrator] In the summer, Bayh ramped up for his '74 campaign.

This time around, he'd have to do the majority of the road trip around the state without Marvella.

She became the co-chair of the American Cancer Society.

The senator's opponent was Rhodes scholar and popular Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar.

Birch Bayh, his son Evan, and his staff would cover 90,000 miles campaigning around Indiana from June 6th until Election Day.

Their slogan was, "One man can make a difference."

And as always, he made time for ice cream.

- He loved to meet people and visit every Dairy Queen in the state, which he was famous for.

I think he was usually a cone guy.

- He carried his spoon in the briefcase.

- Dairy Queen might not be open.

We'd go to a convenience store to get a quart of ice cream and just eat it.

- He has a vanilla ice cream cone, I remember it vividly.

I don't think he ever met ice cream that he didn't like.

- [Narrator] In September, Ford pardoned President Nixon and it became clear that Republicans would suffer come Election Day.

In the end, the senator bested Lugar by over 75,000 votes.

Lugar later said that Birch Bayh was a first-class campaigner and he learned a lot.

The two would remain friends long after their political careers were over.

(gentle music) Birch Bayh's 1975 legislative agenda was full.

He was the chair of the Transportation Subcommittee of Appropriations and put plans in place for a new DC subway system.

He also helped to create Amtrak and Conrail.

He again called for outlawing Saturday night specials, handguns with little sporting value that were consistently used in crime.

It looked as if the Democrats had a real shot at the presidency, and the field had already become crowded.

Bayh's Senate accomplishments were an asset, but also a hindrance, limiting the time and attention he could give to campaigning.

Nevertheless, on October 21st, 1975, from the farm in Shirkieville, Birch Bayh threw his hat into the ring.

- And if I can be president and can help pull us together and help restore our confidence in the future, can help create an atmosphere of hope and faith and love in the finest tradition that we've grown up to understand is what America's all about.

- And it was a formative experience for me because I took a semester off of IU and drove out I-70 to Des Moines, went all over Iowa, staying in people's homes and speaking at schools and coffee shops on his behalf.

I thought, "This is the way politics should be, "not all money, not all media, "but actually people to people, "sitting down and talking about things."

- Jimmy Carter reinvented what a presidential campaign would be in Iowa.

He brought hundreds of volunteers from Georgia.

He spent most of his waking time visiting every city for months.

Well, Birch was seen as a very strong candidate, but finished behind Carter in Iowa.

- [Narrator] Next up was New Hampshire, a traditional primary with substantial press coverage.

This time, the results were Carter, Udall, then Bayh placing third.

- [Reporter] Birch Bayh was at the busy Park Street subway station.

- [Narrator] A few days later at the Massachusetts primary, Bayh only received 5% of the vote.

The momentum had clearly run out and so had the money.

- The difficulty, of course, is he does the "aw, shucks" stuff in Indiana.

At the same time, he's a very smart, sophisticated, and fairly liberal senator in Washington, DC.

And that, of course, became one of the major attacks against him.

- [Narrator] Bayh dropped out of the race.

Jimmy Carter would go on to win the nomination and the presidency.

- The Republican Party was still stinking from Watergate, so it was a logical, very logical thing that voters would choose a Democrat.

They would choose Jimmy Carter, who seemed to come from outside Washington, outside that world of the Beltway of Washington politics.

He was a peanut farmer from Georgia, as he told us.

- We've seen walls built around Washington and we feel like we can't quite get through to guarantee the people of this country a government that's sensitive to our needs.

- [Announcer] Jimmy Carter: a leader, for a change.

- [Narrator] With the presidential bid behind him, Bayh renewed his focus on legislation.

He tried again to end the Electoral College.

He also proposed an amendment that would give Washington, DC, representation in Congress.

He introduced resolutions to honor Martin Luther King with a national holiday and designated February Black History Month.

Bayh argued for increasing America's fuel independence through the use of biofuels like gasohol.

He supported civil rights for institutionalized people, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.

He held town hall meetings throughout his home state and worked to connect with Hoosiers.

- The guy cared so damn much about the constituents in Indiana.

Here's a guy that cares enough to ask you, "Joe, how's the person in your neighborhood being impacted?"

Very few people in his neighborhood looked like me or suffered through what I was going through because of the color of my skin.

He wanted to make sure that the legislation he supported or was reinforcing was having an impact.

- [Narrator] Extended trips back to Indiana laid the groundwork for the upcoming 1980 campaign.

But in January of '78, the Bayhs received news that changed everything: Marvella's cancer had returned and it was terminal.

There was a new technology that could determine a cancer patient's response to chemotherapy, but the Bayhs were disappointed to learn it was unavailable to the public.

Discoveries achieved through federally-funded research were often ensnared in patent restrictions.

Birch went to work with Republican Bob Dole on crafting legislation to address the patent bureaucracy.

- Bayh-Dole was an effort to basically give those rights back to the universities, small businesses, colleges that were developing these partially federally-funded innovations.

One company that got formed under the new Bayh-Dole environment: Google.

- [Narrator] Marvella became more spiritual and focused on issues important to her in her remaining days.

She debated Phyllis Schlafly on the merits of the ERA.

She finished her memoirs and promoted the book nationally.

Through her work with the American Cancer Society, Marvella Bayh showed the American public how to live with cancer.

(gentle music) Her life ended on April 24th, 1979.

She was 46 years old.

As Birch suffered from the death of his wife and partner, he focused on his upcoming reelection campaign.

He had received his first committee chairmanship as leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

This role made him privy to state secrets and required him to have a more substantial relationship with Jimmy Carter.

This national prominence, however, had costs at home.

- When inflation set in, when the energy crisis came, you get into the Carter years and you've got all kinds of economic problems.

At that point, being a Democrat and being a liberal becomes a handicap.

- [Narrator] In November 1979, 52 Americans were taken hostage at the embassy in Iran.

Gas shortages and unemployment were widespread.

By the new year, Ted Kennedy challenged President Carter for the Democratic nomination.

Of the 34 Senate seats up for reelection in 1980, 24 were held by Democrats.

The party was in trouble.

Bayh stayed neutral, endorsing neither Carter nor Kennedy.

His campaign staff went to work, but it was an uphill battle.

- Our argument is, "Yes, Birch is the incumbent.

"Yes, he's been there a long time.

"Yes, we have a lotta problems.

"He's not responsible for the problems "and they'll get worse if you get rid of him."

How do we sell that?

(laughing) - I would like to have a crusade today and I would like to lead that crusade with your help, and it would be one to take government off the backs of the great people of this country and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well because you did them and made this country great.

- Which is not a- - [Narrator] In the general election, President Carter faced Republican Ronald Reagan.

- [Announcer] Every so often, a young- - [Narrator] Bayh's opponent was two-term congressman Dan Quayle.

- [Announcer] He's part of a new generation of leadership we need, now and for the future.

- The radio announcements were just unbelievable.

I said, "They couldn't be talking about Birch."

I mean, they just blasted the airwaves to where us Democrats were not believing, "Oh my god, Birch did that?

"Oh, I can't support him anymore."

- I'm on a crusade for a new generation of leadership, a generation of leadership that will make America work again.

Friends, it's 1980.

Leaders of the '60s and the '70s won't get us through the '80s and neither will their ideas.

- He hasn't passed one bill.

He hasn't provided one job.

He's not solved one problem.

As your senator, I've solved problems and wanna continue to have the chance to do just that.

- [Narrator] A Senate investigation into President Carter's brother Billy kept Birch in Washington and off the campaign trail.

By election night, it became clear that change was on the horizon.

- We turned on the radio and the first race we heard about was that Dan Quayle had defeated Birch Bayh.

And I said to my wife, "They're all going down," and by that I meant all the liberals who went down.

It was a sea change in American politics.

It launched a conservative era that has pretty much prevailed up to this moment.

- [Narrator] Reagan won in a landslide, and so did Quayle.

On election night 1980, Birch Bayh addressed a distraught crowd at campaign headquarters in Indianapolis.

- And my father went up to the microphone and he said, "I would like to begin tonight by thanking "more than a million of my fellow citizens "for encouraging me to take up the practice of law."

That's how he handled it, by making light of the moment.

The sun'll come up the next morning, and way worse than losing an election is not standing for anything.

- And he had a tradition of the morning after the election going out to one of the UAW plants in the Indianapolis area and shaking hands.

He did that after the election, after he lost.

And he said a lotta people, a lotta voters, a lotta those guys just couldn't look him in the eye.

- [Narrator] Birch Bayh returned to the Capitol to wrap up his 18-year career.

The patent legislation he had written with Senator Bob Dole was on a lame-duck session agenda.

On the final day, in the final minutes, Senator Russell Long, an opponent of the bill said, "Birch, you can pass your damn patent bill "and I'm really gonna miss working with you."

The vote was unanimous.

President Carter signed the bill into law on its last day of eligibility.

And with that, Birch Bayh's time as a US senator had come to an end.

(gentle music) In the following years, Birch Bayh continued his life as a private citizen.

He practiced law and married Kitty Halpin, Christmas Eve 1981.

They had a son, Christopher Bayh.

Evan followed in his family's political tradition, becoming Indiana's secretary of state, then a two-term governor and eventually a US senator.

Birch became a grandfather.

He and Kitty lived in Maryland, but frequently returned to Indiana to visit family and friends.

Birch Evans Bayh, Jr., died on March 14th, 2019, at the age of 91.

The impact of his 18 years in the Senate are still visible in America today.

Debate over Electoral College reform continues.

In the last six presidential elections, the winner has lost the popular vote twice.

- We may have an election 10-20 years from now where the candidate who had 30 million more votes lost the election because of the Electoral College system.

- [Narrator] The Equal Rights Amendment fell short of ratification before the original 1979 deadline, yet there is renewed interest in seeing it added to the Constitution.

- The issues of ERA when that was on the table, when it was a major source of controversy and debate have not gone away.

They're still on the table.

- [Narrator] And in 2022, Title IX celebrated its 50th anniversary.

- Any public or private high school, college, or university that receives federal funding, for the first time, they had to spend it equally on boys and girls, and that had never been done before.

- [Narrator] Birch Bayh's leadership and ability to work across the aisle were part of a productive Senate where he secured two constitutional amendments, more than any other person since the Founding Fathers.

- The Senate is supposed to be the place where the tough issues get worked out, bipartisanship, more thought given to issues, little extended, although not unlimited, debate.

That concept of the Senate is the one that worked in the '60s and the '70s, and that concept of the Senate has been lost.

- [Narrator] Remembrances of Birch Bay's political career are often dominated by history-making accomplishments and failures, the headlines that have stood the test of time.

But Birch Bayh often described himself as a problem-solver and more than once was quoted as saying, "One man can make a difference."

- That's what it's all about to me, being able to reach out and help people who need help.

And I think most people in Indiana wanted me to do what I thought was right.

And they didn't always agree with me on issues, but I think, in their heart, they thought, "Well, Birch is doing what he thinks is right, "and that's what we elected him for."

If you do what's right, in the long run, history will be with you.

(bright big band music) ♪ Hey, look him over ♪ ♪ He's my kinda guy ♪ ♪ His first name is Birch ♪ ♪ His last name is Bayh ♪ ♪ Candidate for senator of our Hoosier State ♪ ♪ For Indiana, he will do more than anyone has done before ♪ ♪ So, hey, look him over ♪ ♪ He's your kinda guy ♪ ♪ Send him to Washington ♪ ♪ On Bayh you can rely ♪ ♪ In November, remember him at the polls ♪ ♪ His name you can't pass by ♪ ♪ Indiana's own Birch Bayh ♪ ♪ Hey, look him over ♪ ♪ He's your kinda guy ♪ ♪ Send him to Washington ♪ ♪ On Bayh you can rely ♪ ♪ In November, remember him at the polls ♪ ♪ His name you can't pass by ♪ ♪ Indiana's own Birch Bayh ♪ (reverent music) - [Announcer] "Birch Bayh: American Senator" is made possible through the generous support of: the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, Sarah Simon, and the following.