Episodes
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In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's government passed a new conscription law requiring certain male citizens to report for military duty if chosen through a lottery. Wealthy men could buy their way out. Black men were not considered citizens and were exempt from the draft. When New York City conducted it's first draft lottery on July 11, 1863, the anger of aggrieved poor white residents had boiled over. By July 13th, a mob of thousands of primarily Irish Catholic rioters directed their anger first, toward military and government buildings before turning on anyone in their way, police and soldiers included. Finally, the mobs turned their sights onto Black men and women, their homes and businesses. The violence continued for three days until about 4,000 federal troops arrived in New York City fresh from the Battle of Gettysburg to quell the ravenous hordes. Estimates of the death toll range from 74 to 1,200. Some experts estimate that dozens of Blacks were killed. 11 Black men are on record as being lynched. Several thousand Black residents were made homeless. Millions of dollars worth of property were destroyed, including an orphanage for African American children. The 1863 New York Draft Riots and Massacre holds the distinction as one of the worst insurrections in U.S. History aside from the Civil War, and certainly the worst riot in New York’s history. Guests in this episode include, Author, Historian and Northwestern University Professor, Leslie Harris.
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By 1840 there were nearly 190 African Americans out of more than 4,000 residents in the town of Westchester, located in what is today part of the East Bronx. In 1849, several Black men formed the first Black church in the Bronx, known as the Bethel A.M.E. Church, and the only African burial ground in the borough. The Black community surrounding the church was made up of mostly laborers, farmers, skilled craftspeople and service professionals. Not only did the community of Westchester offer African Americans a bit more safety than Manhattan, but it also offered abolitionists more secluded areas to organize. Once such abolitionist is David Ruggles, one of the most prominent anti-slavery activists and abolitionists of the 19th century. Ruggles also had a presence in Westchester. He was associates with one of its residents named Uriah Copeland who was a founding trustee of theBethel A.M.E. church. Guests in this episode include Author, historian and Professor, Dr. Prathibha Kanakamedala as well as librarian and archivist at The Bronx County Historical Society, Dr. Steven Payne.
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Episodes manquant?
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WEEKSVILLE
The predominantly African American settlement of Weeksville was a beacon of hope at a time in pre-Civil War New York when Blacks had suffered major legislative and legal setbacks, including discriminatory voting laws that stripped most people of African descent of the right to vote. Weeksville was founded in the early 19th century by free African Americans. It provided African Americans and people of African descent, a place to live where they could enjoy community, relative freedom and safety, economic opportunity, a place to worship, where children could learn - and unlike many other places at the time - a place where people of African descent could dare to pursue lofty ideals of prosperity and happiness.Weeksville attracted people from both the North, South and even the Carribean. Guests include: Allen Hillery, a data scientist and lecturer at the The Macaulay Research Assistant Program at The City College of New York; Scott Ruff, Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute; and Jeffrey Hogrefe, Associate Professor of Architecture, Humanities and Media Studies as well as Coordinator of the Architecture Writing Program.
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Newtown was settled by free African Americans in 1828, after New York state abolished slavery in 1827. It was nearly forgotten to history until, in 2011, a construction crew digging on a site in the present-day Elmhurst community of Queens, New York happened upon an iron coffin that contained the well-preserved remains of a Black woman. Forensic evidence and research proved the woman was the daughter of a prominent Black couple in the free African American community of Newtown in the 19th century. The re-discovery revealed the existence of many more unmarked graves as part of a larger burial site that sparked a major effort to save it. Guests in this episode include, author, historian and Professor, Dr. Prathibha Kanakamedala. She is an Associate Professor of History at Bronx Community College CUNY, a faculty member in the M.A. in Liberal Studies Program, and the inaugural faculty co-ordinator of the Public Scholarship Practice Space housed at the Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center. Her research looks at community-building, race, and citizenship in Brooklyn and New York’s 19th-century free Black communities.
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Sandy Ground was settled in 1833 by African-American oystermen fleeing the restrictive industry laws of Maryland. It boasts as the “oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the United States.” Located on the southwestern shore of Staten Island near plentiful oyster beds, Sandy Ground was a once-bustling community supported by farming initially and oystering, beginning in the 1840s. Sandy Ground is also believed to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad.
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An exploration of what was once the 19th century settlement known as Seneca Village. Before Central Park was created, the landscape along the Park’s perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Street was the site of Seneca Village, a community of predominantly African-Americans, many of whom owned property. Over time, other immigrant groups began to settle there, though it remained a predominantly African American settlement. By 1855, the village consisted of approximately 225 residents, made up of roughly two-thirds African-Americans, one-third Irish immigrants, and a small number of individuals of German descent. One of a few African-American enclaves at the time, Seneca Village allowed residents to live away from the more built-up sections of downtown Manhattan and escape the unhealthy conditions and racial discrimination they faced there. By the late 1850’s the city took over the land on which the village sat through eminent domain, and about 1,600 people were displaced. Seneca Village had been all but forgotten until its history was rediscovered in the late 20th century. Guests include archeologists Diana Wall and Nan Rothschild and Bard Graduate Center Professor, Dr. Meredith Linn. Listeners will also hear a previously recorded interview with historian Cynthia Copeland.
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Part 2 of an introduction to the Black elite or "the colored aristocracy" in antebellum New York City that also highlights some of the prominent Black leaders of the era. The Black experience in the city prior to the Civil War varied and was contingent upon different socioeconomic factors. New York's Black elite were often educated, entrepreneurial and socially-minded, similar to the more embellished portrayals on the HBO series, “The Gilded Age.” However, many leaders among the Black elite were also heavily involved in the liberation of African Americans and played important roles in the anti-slavery movement. Others took a keen interest in the education of Blacks, which was seen as a both a privilege and a vehicle of upward mobility. Still, others became prominent religious leaders, which were highly revered positions at the time. Black high society of the 19th century has historically been an under-explored part of American history, in part, because of the stereotypes of African Americans formed during Reconstruction. Guests in this episode include Professor Carla Peterson, author of the book, Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City.
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An introduction to the Black elite or "the colored aristocracy" in antebellum New York City. The Black experience in the city prior to the Civil War varied and was contingent upon different socioeconomic factors. New York's Black elite were often educated, entrepreneurial and socially-minded, similar to the more embellished portrayals on the HBO series, “The Gilded Age.” Black high society of the 19th century has historically been an under-explored part of American history, in part, because of the stereotypes of African Americans formed during Reconstruction. Guests in this episode include Professor Carla Peterson, author of the book, Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City.
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Part 2 of an exploration of Black neighborhoods and enclaves in antebellum New York City during the 19th century. It includes the final years of slavery and the unraveling of the institution as a stronghold on the economy of antebellum New York, due in part to the actions of anti-slavery activists and abolitionists; gradual emancipation and the beginning of the nearly 30 years it took for slavery to be abolished in the state of New York; how white ruling elites in New York worked to control Blacks as they transitioned from enslaved people to free men and women; the first schools established for Black people in New York and how Blacks used education (particularly the African Free Schools) to improve their circumstances. Guests include, Author, Historian and Northwestern University Professor, Leslie Harris.
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An exploration of Black neighborhoods and enclaves in antebellum New York City during the 19th century. This episode illuminates: the origins of what would become Wall Street as a slave auction block; slavery's history in Manhattan beginning in 1636; how intertwined slavery was with New York's economy; the first free black community in Manhattan and how it evolved into one of the most notorious Black communities in Manhattan prior to the Civil War; and how free Blacks and enslaved Blacks co-existed in the same city. Guests include, Author, Historian and Northwestern University Professor, Leslie Harris.
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This season will focus on free Black communities and free Black societies during the antebellum period of the 19th century in New York, specifically New York City. They include one in each of what would become the five boroughs of New York City: Seneca Village in Manhattan; Weeksville in Brooklyn; Newtown in Queens, Sandy Ground in Staten Island; and the community surrounding the Centerville AME Church near Westchester, which was part of the present day borough of the Bronx. This deep dive into this time period will also include an analysis of free Blacks and people of African descent in Manhattan who, rather than living exclusively or predominantly Black neighborhoods, lived in enclaves. Finally, this season will also focus on the New York City Drraft Riots and Massacre of 1863. It is considered to be one of the worst insurrections in US History.
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Many experts view the 1898 Wilmington Insurrection and Coup D’Etat as a turning point in the fortunes of African Americans in North Carolina and across the nation. The 1898 white supremacy campaign that led to the Wilmington Massacre was an all out assault on Wilmington’s Black middle class and provided a blue print for the white supremacy campaign the following year that effectively barred African Americans in the state from voting at the polls and participating in politics until the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The strategies employed by the white supremacy campaigns in North Carolina were replicated in states across the South and used to disenfranchise African Americans across the country. The more political power White Democrats gained, the larger the leverage they held in political engagement with White Republicans - and the more inclined White Republicans were to disregard the majority of their African American supporters when it became politically and economically advantageous to do so, which was quite often.
While the 1898 Wilmington Insurrection and Coup D’Etat was the beginning of the decline of Wilmington’s Black Middle Class, this was also around the time Durham’s Black Wall Street began to emerge as an economic engine of Blacks in the Bull City. 1898 was the same year what would become the Durham-based North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded, which would eventually grow into the largest Black-owned insurance company in the world and one of the largest Black businesses in the United States at its height. The leaders that helped steer Black Durham’s growth did so with the cautionary tale of Wilmington serving as a reminder of the fleeting nature of good fortune.
After decades of prosperity and growth, the root of the demise of Durham’s Black Wall Street mirrored that of scores of thriving Black communities that also emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century and declined in the middle to latter part of the 20th century: Urban Renewal. The racially discriminatory practices that formed the infrastructure of the federal government’s Urban Renewal program that carried on into the 1970’s was paraded throughout the country under the guise of urban revitalization. However, in the case of Black Durham and dozens of other Black communities nationwide, promises of new and improved housing, transportation and business opportunities never came. Instead property was demolished and/or seized by governments, residents and businesses, were displaced, wealth was lost, education suffered and highways were built straight through African American neighborhoods - like Durham’s Haiti community - a final nail in the coffin to whatever prospect of prosperity remained. Over the next several decades Durham’s Black community continued to suffer economic decline, never to regain the level of prosperity it once knew. Today, many Blacks in Durham face poorer outcomes than their forefathers and mothers did a century prior.
Similarly, following the 1898 Wilmington massacre, the African American population in the once majority Black city continued to decline as social, political and economic opportunities for Blacks in Wilmington dried up while the state of North Carolina became an increasingly racially hostile place to live. The loss of wealth stemming from the Wilmington Massacre coupled with the loss of opportunities that followed continue to manifest in poor socio-economic outcomes for Blacks in Wilmington in the present day.
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Not only was Pauli Murray was one of the most important Civil Rights leaders that Black Durham ever produced, she was also one of the most important Civil rights leaders of the 20th century. Murray was a jurist and activist who contributed some of the legal groundwork to the civil rights movement. Pauli gained national attention during her failed attempt to study at the all-white University of North Carolina, which is when Murray developed a life-long friendship with the first lady at the time, Eleanor Roosevelt. Murray was a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and helped form the nonviolence-focused Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Murray went to the University of California Boalt School of Law where s/he received an LLM (Master of Laws) degree. In 1951 Murray published the book, States’ Laws on Race and Color. Thurgood Marshall, head of the legal department at the (NAACP) at the time, described it as the “Bible” for civil rights litigators. Shortly after her book Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, came out in 1956, Murray took a job in the litigation department at the law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton, and Garrison. In 1965, Pauli became the first African-American to receive a JSD degree from Yale Law School. The accolades go on and on. So why isn’t Murray a household name? Murray never sought a public profile. Though experts surmise that her gender non-conformity must have been a factor. Nevertheless, recent efforts to give Murray the recognition she deserves have shined a brighter light on her incredible life.
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Black women have often been omitted or written out of history. This much is true when it comes to many women leaders of Black Durham in the first several decades of the 20th century, when Durham, North Carolina’s Black Wall Street was at it’s height, as well as Black women across the state of North Carolina during this time period. As a result many Black women have never received the recognition or credit they deserved, in life or afterwards, for the contributions they made to their communities and society. This includes many Black women who took on central roles as de facto, sometimes clandestine political figures in the Jim Crow era after the disfranchisement of Black men in 1900. Some of Dr. Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore's work refocuses attention on these women by exploring the instrumental and interconnected relationship of gender, class and race in North Carolina politics.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows -
Black women have often been omitted or written out of history. This much is true when it comes to many women leaders of Black Durham in the first several decades of the 20th century, when Durham, North Carolina’s Black Wall Street was at it’s height. As a result many Black women have never received the recognition or credit they deserved, in life or afterwards, for the contributions they made to their communities and society. Much of the work of the late Dr. Leslie Brown focused on analyzing the lives of working class, middle class and elite Black women and men in relation to working class, middle class and elite White women and men in Durham, North Carolina. In doing so she amplified the lives and voices of Black women who played pivotal roles in the upbuilding of their community, particularly during one of the darkest moments in the history of the state following the Civil War: the period immediately after the disfranchisement of Black men in North Carolina in 1900. Brown’s work was groundbreaking and significantly expanded what is understood about the social fabric of what was once known as the “Capital of the Black Middle Class.” Similarly, Dr. Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore has also spent a great deal of time refocusing attention to the central role of Black women as political figures in North Carolina during the Jim Crow era by exploring the instrumental and interconnected relationship of gender, class and race in North Carolina politics from the period immediately prior to the disfranchisement of Black men in 1900 to the period when Black and white women gained the vote in 1920.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows -
The pioneers and leaders of Black Durham during the early 20th century are often lauded for steering their community through the challenges of living in the Jim Crow South while creating some of the most successful African American-lead businesses, educational and financial institutions of the era. The legacy of Durham’s Black Wall Street along with the historic and prosperous Hayti community remain among the more celebrated of their accomplishments. Often absent from dialogue surrounding this history are the complicated choices that Black Durham’s leaders had to make in order to facilitate the development of their community, and how those choices impacted their own constituents as well as the race as a whole. Black Durham’s citizens sometimes had competing viewpoints and disagreed on what direction the ship should be steered in order to support African American advancement. Additionally, while stories of Black Durham’s leadership are often drawn from scholarly sources, listeners will hear from the direct descendants of two of Durham’s most influential pioneers: John Merrick and Dr. Aaron Moore. Not only were the men business partners and friends, eventually they also became family. Greensboro, NC City Attorney Charles D. Watts Jr., Esq. and his sister, Eileen Watts Welch, who serves as the President of the Durham Colored Library, Inc., offer personal perspectives on their family history and legacy.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows
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An exploration of the complicated intersection of race, class and politics in Durham, North Carolina. Black Durham’s leaders played an integral role in the “Upbuilding” of their community and overcame great obstacles that were common at the time in the Jim Crow South. In the absence of African American political representation after Jim Crow legislation eviscerated Black political participation, Durham’s Black leaders became de facto representatives on behalf of their community, which allowed them to liaise with White city and state leadership in order to facilitate community progress. This does not mean African American leaders in Durham solely relied on a paternalistic relationship with White stakeholders to assist in the advancement of their race. Durham’s African American leaders leaned heavily on their own expertise and institution building acumen to create opportunities for people of color in Durham that continued to pay dividends for years to come. On the other hand, there were other African Americans districts in Durham and most of their inhabitants were not well off like the Black elite or middle class in the historic Hayti neighborhood. Many African Americans and people of color in Durham were poor or working class and struggled to make ends meet. This fact is often absent in discourse surrounding Durham’s Black Wall Street. Class distinctions between the wealthy or well-off, the poor, and everyone in between in Black Durham, mirrored those of White Durham. Additionally, while racism was a burden for all people of color, class distinctions often determined the degree to which that burden impacted the daily lives of Blacks in Durham.
Listeners will hear from the late Dr. Leslie Brown, who was an expert in the history of Black Durham and specialized in history during the Jim Crow Era. Guests in this episode include Dr. William Darity, who is the Director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, a Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, a Professor of African and African American Studies as well as Economics. Listeners will also hear from Professor Henry McKoy, who is the North Carolina Central University Director of Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and Managing Director of the Eagle Angel Network.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows
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Black Durham’s success did not end with Black Wall Street. Durham’s Black Wall Street was located in the historic Hayti community. Many community members believe it was named after the independent Black nation of Haiti. The neighborhood was the principal residential district for most of Durham’s Black middle class residents and the center Black Durham’s business, educational, cultural, and religious life. Hayti was a model for other African American communities across the nation and an example of what was possible. The Hayti community and Durham flourished in the Jim Crow South and largely managed to avoid the sort of aggression, and terror that was common for Blacks at the time. However, Hayti was not the only Black neighborhood in Durham. Many African Americans in Durham were not not wealthy or middle class like those in Hayti. A significant portion of people of color were poor or working class and struggled to get by. Many labored in the city’s tobacco factories, which sprang up following the tobacco-driven economic boom Durham experienced in the late 19th and early 20th century. Guests in this episode include Hayti Heritage Center Executive Director, Angela Lee. Listeners will also hear from Duke University Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Robert Korstad.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows -
The beginning of an exploration into the community of Durham, North Carolina in the period following the 1898 white supremacist campaign that led to the Wilmington Insurrection and Coup D’Etat that same year. The tobacco boom in Durham in the late 1800’s helped establish the city as a center of enterprise in North Carolina. Durham’s burgeoning population in the late 19th century accelerated the city’s economic growth further still, which continued to be fueled in large part by the tobacco and textile industries. Over the next several decades the city continued to draw migrants, including Whites and Blacks, in search of steady employment and business opportunities.
Just as a small group of White entrepreneurs capitalized the proliferation of enterprise in Durham and became very successful, so did a group of African American entrepreneurs and professionals, who, over time, became patriarchs of Black Durham and de facto spokesmen for Black people in the absence of Black political participation or representation for African Americans in North Carolina. The men were responsible for the founding and success of a number of enterprises, including North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, which later became North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company: the first black-owned insurance company in the state and the largest in the nation, The street it was located on in Durham--Parrish St.-- became known as Black Wall Street. At its height, Black Durham was considered the “Capital of the Black middle class” in America: a reputation that earned acclaim from some of the day’s most prominent leaders, including Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois.
Guests in this episode include Duke University Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Robert Korstad, as well as North Carolina Central University business, Professor Henry McKoy.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows
Several musical selections are also provided by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. -
Almost immediately following the white supremacist campaign that culminated in the 1898 Wilmington Insurrection and Coup D’Etat came the 1900 white supremacist campaign that culminated in the “Suffrage Amendment” to the North Carolina constitution, which helped engineer the near complete elimination of Blacks from voter participation in North Carolina until the voting rights act of 1965. This campaign would change the course of North Carolina’s social and political trajectory - and result in seemingly immutable ramifications for African Americans in North Carolina for decades to come: the effects of which the United State’s continues to see in the present day. A number of experts have asserted that the 1898 white supremacist campaign was a blueprint, not only for the 1900 white supremacist campaign in North Carolina, but also for similar acts of oppression and violence across the Jim Crow South. Guests in this episode include David Zucchino - New York Times Journalist and author of Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Listeners will also hear from attorney Richard Paschal, who is also the author of Jim Crow in North Carolina: The Legislative Program from 1865 to 1920.
Musical Attribution:
1. Title: African Moon by John Bartmann. License, disclaimer and copyright information: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Link to Music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/african-moon
2. Title: Window Sparrows by Axletree. Licensed under a Attribution License. License, disclaimer and copyright information: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Link to music: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Axletree/Ornamental_EP/Window_Sparrows - Montre plus
