Podcasts about jim crow

The first movie ever screened in the White House wasn't Casablanca or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It was The Birth of a Nation: a Ku Klux Klan recruitment ad that glorified white rage bloodlust. A century later, Trump's White House is the sequel: staged propaganda to glorify lies, violence, and hate against freedom fighters–otherwise known as antifa–otherwise known as World War II veterans who won the war against tyranny. Because if you're not antifa, you're pro-fascism.  Trump is the Frankenstein monster of America's darkest chapters: Jim Crow, McCarthyism, Watergate, and reality-TV nihilism. But the heroes who stormed Normandy didn't die for us to cower before a spray-tanned con man. Which brings us to the Epstein Files: the panic button of MAGA-land. If the Epstein Files were nothing, Trump and Mike Johnson wouldn't be working so hard to shut down our government and prevent a vote. “Teflon Don” has gotten away with years of crimes, including inciting a violent attempted overthrow of our democracy, which led to several deaths, including of law enforcement. So why is he so panicked about the Epstein Files? The truth will come out, as it always does. And remember: bullies only understand strength. So keep pushing, keep shouting, and for the love of democracy: Release. The. Epstein. Files. This week's bonus show continues our conversation with Zerlina Maxwell, host of Mornings with Zerlina on SiriusXM's Progress Channel and author of The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide. Find her weekday mornings, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET, on SiriusXM Progress, channel 127. For our Patreon supporters at the Truth-teller tier ($5/month) and higher, we have an exclusive for you: an odd development that hit our inbox. We'd love to get your thoughts on it over on Patreon. To hear this full bonus show, be sure to subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit for all bonus shows, all shows ad-free, invites to exclusive events, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available, and you can even give the gift of membership. Thank you to everyone who supports the show–we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!    Show Notes: Top House Democrat seeks Jeffrey Epstein financial records from Dimon, other bank CEOs https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/09/bank-records-epstein-dimon-raskin.html?taid=68e78b8c80da070001f243a1&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter   Trump's NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs   Florida Lawmaker to Meet With Putin Envoy Dmitriev This Month https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/10/09/florida-lawmaker-to-meet-with-putin-envoy-dmitriev-this-month-a90763   We Are Elated by the Gaza Ceasefire News. Now, the World Must Hold Israel to Account for 2 Years of Genocide https://open.substack.com/pub/zeteo/p/gaza-ceasefire-hold-israel-accountable-genocide?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email   Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump's Closest Friend' https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU08/20250227/117951/HHRG-119-JU08-20250227-SD006-U6.pdf   Trump Has Second 'Yearly' Check-Up In Just Six Months: He's going to "stop by" the doctor's office while he's at Walter Reed Medical Center for another event, the White House said. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-yearly-doctors-appointment_n_68e7007be4b0b4458cb6da16   Publisher Removes Melania Trump Claims From Book, Issues Apology https://www.newsweek.com/publisher-harpercollins-uk-removes-melania-trump-claims-book-issues-apology-10844442   Racist KKK glorifying film Birth of a Nation became the first film shown in the White House under Woodrow Wilson: https://woodrowwilsonhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/WWH-SCHOLAR-SPRING-2023-Hashimoto-Elizabeth-FINAL-PROJECT-BIRTH-OF-A-NATION.pdf   Shadow Network: The Anne Nelson Interview - Part II https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2022/5/11/anne-nelson-part-02?rq=Focus%20on%20the%20family

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner discusses Our Fragile Freedoms, a new collection of essays exploring a range of topics, including debates over slavery and antislavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the battle to dismantle it, and modern debates over the Constitution and how to teach American history. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. Resources Eric Foner, Our Fragile Freedoms(2025) Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019) Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (2010) Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988) Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at programs@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr Explore theAmerica at 250 Civic Toolkit Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube Support our important work ⁠⁠Donate

With America In Major New Administration & the Political News View Headlines Changing Everyday, This Book is Particularly Intriguing Now!!In 1974 John Egerton published his seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie. Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker and award-winning author Frye Gaillard carry Egerton's thesis forward in The Southernization of America, a compelling series of linked essays considering the role of the South in shaping America's current political and cultural landscape. They dive deeper, examining the morphing of the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan into the Republican Party of today, the racial backlash against President Obama, family separation on our southern border, the rise of the Christian right, the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the death of George Floyd, and the attack on our nation's capitol. They find hope in the South too, a legacy rooted in the civil rights years that might ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption. Tucker and Gaillard bring a multiracial perspective and years of political reporting to bear on a critical moment in American history, a time of racial reckoning and democracy under siege.Frye Gaillard is an award-winning journalist with over 30 published works on Southern history and culture, including Watermelon Wine; Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America; The Books That Mattered: A Reader's Memoir; Journey to the Wilderness: War, Memory, and a Southern Family's Civil War Letters; Go South to Freedom; A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost; and The Slave Who Went to Congress. A Hard Rain was selected as one of NPR's Best Books of 2018. Writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama, he is also John Egerton Scholar in Residence at the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. He is the winner of the Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction Writing, the Lillian Smith Book Award, and the Eugene Current-Garcia Award For Distinction in Literary Scholarship. In 2019, Gaillard was awarded the Alabama Governor's Arts Award for his contributions to literature.Cynthia Tucker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist who has spent most of her career in journalism, having previously worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an editorial page editor and as a Washington-based political columnist. She has also been featured as a political commentator on television and radio. Tucker's work as a journalist has been celebrated by the National Association of Black Journalists (who inducted her into its hall of fame), Harvard University, and the Alabama Humanities Foundation. She spent three years as a visiting professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and is currently the journalist-in-residence at the University of South Alabama.© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!2025 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

"Poverty is a choice to allow that to go on in the city," says Denzell McCampbell, and that fire fuels this Detroit is Different conversation. In this episode, Khary Frazier sits down with McCampbell—four generations deep in Detroit, raised in a Persian neighborhood rooted in union jobs and Alabama migration stories—to unpack his run for City Council in District 7. From his mother's firsthand memories of Selma's Jim Crow violence to his father's UAW legacy, McCampbell threads together personal history and public service. He breaks down what it means to organize against environmental racism where factories sit next to family homes, why “our solutions are in our neighborhoods,” and how expanding voting rights and fighting disinformation are extensions of Detroit's long struggle for self-determination. This isn't just campaign talk; it's a vision of Detroit's past and future colliding—one that calls back to Mayor Coleman Young's political movement while looking ahead to what equitable development and true public safety could mean for Black Detroit today. Whether you lived through Eyes on the Prize on PBS or you're just waking up to how policies shape your block, this is a powerful sit-down that roots politics in people and legacy. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

On this encore of episode 454 of The Nurse Keith Show nursing and healthcare career podcast, Keith interviews Maria Smilios, the author of ⁠The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis⁠. In the course of their conversation, Keith and Ms Smilios discuss how numerous Black nurses fled the Jim Crow south in search of opportunity in the non-segregated north, and how many ended up working at Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, a facility focused on the treatment — and to a large extent the warehousing — of thousands of TB patients. Listeners may be shocked to learn that the American Nurses Association barred Black nurses from being members until they gave in to pressure in 1949, despite Black nurses' impressive contributions to the development of the profession. A native of New York City, Ms. Smilios holds a Masters of Arts from Boston University in Religion & Literature where she was a Henry Luce Scholar and a Presidential Scholar. She also taught Essay and Research writing in the university's writing program.  In 2007, she left Boston and moved back to New York City to teach at an all-girls high school. There she created and ran an intensive summer writing program for teens.  Maria formerly worked as a development editor in the Biomedical Sciences editing books in lung diseases, pediatric and breast cancer, neurology, and ocular diseases. It was during this time when she read a line in a book that led her to discover the story of the Black Angels.  Through writing the book, she has become in involved in advocating for affordable and accessible TB drugs in TB-heavy countries, working with and supporting organizations such as EndTB and Partners in Health. In the past, Ms. Smilios has written for The Guardian, American Nurse, Narratively, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, and The Forward among others. The Black Angels is her first book. Connect with Maria Smilios and The Black Angels: ⁠MariaSmilios.com⁠ ⁠Maria on LinkedIn⁠ ⁠The Black Angels on LinkedIn⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠X⁠ ⁠The Black Angels on Amazon⁠ ----------- Nurse Keith is a holistic career coach for nurses, professional podcaster, published author, award-winning blogger, inspiring keynote speaker, and successful nurse entrepreneur. Connect with Nurse Keith at ⁠NurseKeith.com⁠, and on ⁠Twitter⁠,⁠ Facebook⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, and ⁠Instagram⁠. Nurse Keith lives in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico with his lovely fiancée, Shada McKenzie, a highly gifted traditional astrologer and reader of the tarot. You can find Shada at ⁠The Circle and the Dot⁠. The Nurse Keith Show is a proud member of ⁠The Health Podcast Network⁠, one of the largest and fastest-growing collections of authoritative, high-quality podcasts taking on the tough topics in health and care with empathy, expertise, and a commitment to excellence. The podcast is adroitly produced by Rob Johnston of 520R Podcasting.

Chris Paul and Burning Bright dive into Sinners (2025), Ryan Coogler's stylish, vampire-infused crime drama. They unpack the film's layered mix of organized crime, race, and spirituality, exploring how the story of two brothers, Smoke and Stack, goes beyond surface-level culture war narratives. From period-piece reflections on Jim Crow and Prohibition to the symbolic power of music as both liberation and temptation, the hosts trace themes of freedom, fellowship, and deception. They spotlight how Coogler flips expectations: vampires sell “unity” while embodying enslavement, and entertainment becomes both healing and a trap. With sharp insights into character dynamics, cultural commentary, and theological undertones, Chris and BB argue that Sinners delivers more than anti-woke bait, it's a Trojan horse of deeper truths about power, consensus, and the human struggle between worldly desire and higher purpose.

The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln, acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that haven't been seen for 160 years. Measuring the Man brings together, for the first time, every substantive comment Frederick Douglass made about Abraham Lincoln. Spanning more than three decades, this revelatory collection traces Douglass's complex, evolving assessment of the man who led the nation through the Civil War and emancipation. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America.There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

BioPhil Allen, Jr., PhD is a theologian and ethicist whose research and writings include the intersections of social structure, race, culture, and theology and ethics of justice. He has authored two books: Open Wounds: A Story of Racial Tragedy, Trauma, and Redemption and The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency From MLK to Darnella Frazier. He is an affiliate assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, a poet, and documentary filmmaker. Dr. Allen is also founder of the nonprofit Racial Solidarity Project based in Pasadena, CA. As a former Division 1 college basketball player, he has enjoyed opportunities as a guest chaplain for college and professional sports teams.Phil Allen Jr., PhDAffiliate Assistant Professor | Fuller Theological SeminaryPresident: Racial Solidarity Project (RSP)Philallenjr.com | openwoundsdoc.comInstagram: @philallenjrig | @the_rspThreads: @philallenjrigFacebook: Phil Allen, Jr.Substack: @philallenjrLinkedIn: @philallenjrWelcome to the Arise podcast, conversations in Reality centered on our same themes, faith, race, justice, gender in the church. So happy to welcome my buddy and a colleague, just a phenomenal human being. Dr. Phil Allen, Jr. He has a PhD. He's a theologian and an ethicist whose research and writings include intersections of social structure, race, culture, and theology, and the ethics of justice. He has also authored two books, open Wounds, A Story of Racial Tragedy, trauma and Redemption, and the Prophetic Lens, the Camera and the Black Moral Agency from MLK to Dan Darnell Frazier. He's an affiliate assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, a poet and a documentary filmmaker. Dr. Allen is also founder of the nonprofit Racial Solidarity Project based in Pasadena, California as a former division one college basketball player. Yes, he has enjoyed opportunities as a guest chaplain for college and professional sports. Hey, you're not going to be disappointed. You're going to find questions, curiosity ways to interact with the material here. Please just open up your mindset and your heart to what is shared today, and I encourage you to share and spread the word. Hey, Phil. Here we find ourselves back again talking about similar subjects.Danielle (00:18):Welcome to the Arise podcast, conversations in Reality centered on our same themes, faith, race, justice, gender in the church. So happy to welcome my buddy and a colleague, just a phenomenal human being. Dr. Phil Allen, Jr. He has a PhD. He's a theologian and an ethicist whose research and writings include intersections of social structure, race, culture, and theology, and the ethics of justice. He has also authored two books, open Wounds, A Story of Racial Tragedy, trauma and Redemption, and the Prophetic Lens, the Camera and the Black Moral Agency from MLK to Dan Darnell Frazier. He's an affiliate assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, a poet and a documentary filmmaker. Dr. Allen is also founder of the nonprofit Racial Solidarity Project based in Pasadena, California as a former division one college basketball player. Yes, he has enjoyed opportunities as a guest chaplain for college and professional sports. Hey, you're not going to be disappointed. You're going to find questions, curiosity ways to interact with the material here. Please just open up your mindset and your heart to what is shared today, and I encourage you to share and spread the word. Hey, Phil. Here we find ourselves back again talking about similar subjects.Unfortunately. Well, how are you coming in today? How is your body? How's your mind? How are you coming in? Just first of all,Phil Allen Jr. (01:51):I am coming in probably in one of the best places, spaces in a long time. The last two days have been very, very encouraging and uplifting, having nothing to do with what's happening in the world. I turned 52, I told you I turned 52 yesterday. So whenever I see the happy birthdays and the messages, text messages, social media messages, literally it just lifts me up. But in that, I also had two people share something that I preached. Oh, 10 years ago, what? And one other person, it was 17 years ago, something I taught that came full circle. One person used it in a message for a group of people, and the other person was just saying, 10 years ago, about 10 years ago, you preached a message that was, it impacted me seriously. He didn't know who I was, and he the dots, and he realized, oh, that's the guy that preached when we went to that. And so that, to me, it was so encouraging to hear thoseBecause you never know where your messages land, how impactful they are, and for people to bring that up. That just had me light. Then I did 20 miles, so physically 20I feel great after that. I'm not sore. I'm not tired. I could go run right now, another 10, but I'm not. Okay. Okay, good. Today is rest day good? Yes, I did a crim community resiliency model present workshop.I dunno if you're familiar with, are you familiar with crim?Crim was developed by Trauma Resource Institute here in Claremont, California by Elaine Miller Carra, and they go around the world. They have trainees and people around the world that go into places that just experienced traumatic eventsThe tsunami in Indonesia to school shootings around the country. So here, obviously we had the fires from January, and so we did a workshop to help. What it is is helping people develop the skills, practical skills. There are six skills to regulate the nervous systems, even in the moments. I was certified in 2020 to do that, and so I did a co-led presentation. It was great, very well received. I had fun doing it. So empowering to give people these skills. I use them every day, resourcing, just like when you asked me, how are you in your body? So for a moment, I have to track, I have to notice what's going on with my body. That's the firstSo we teach people those skills and it is just the last few days, Monday, Tuesday, and today already. I just feel light and it's no coincidence I didn't watch the news at all yesterday.Okay. Even on social media, there's no coincidence. I feel light not having engaged those things. So I feel good coming in this morning.Danielle (05:32):Okay, I like that. Well, I know I texted you, I texted you a couple months ago. I was like, let's record a podcast. And then as you alluded to, the world's kept moving at a rapid pace and we connected. And I've been doing a lot of thinking for a long time, and I know you and I have had conversations about what does it look like to stay in our bodies, be in our bodies in this time, and I've been thinking about it, how does that form our reality? And as you and I have talked about faith, I guess I'm coming back to that for you, for how you think about faith and how it informs your reality, how you're in reality, how you're grounding yourself, especially as you alluded to. We do know we can't be involved every second with what's happening, but we do know that things are happening. So yeah, just curious, just open up the conversation like that.Phil Allen Jr. (06:28):Yeah, I think I'm going to go back to your first question. I think your first question you asked me sets the tone for everything. And I actually answered this similarly to someone yesterday when you said, how are you in your body? And for me, that's the first I've learned, and a lot of it has to do with community resiliency model that I just talked about, to pay attention to what's going on in my body. That tells me a lot. That tells me if I'm good, I can't fake it. You can fake how you feel. You can fake and perform what you think, but you can't with the sensations and the response of your body to different circumstances, that's going to be as real, as tangible. So I pay attention first to that. That tells me how much I'm going to engage a subject matter. It tells me how much I want to stay in that space, whether it's the news, whether it's conversation with someone. My body tells me a lot now, and I don't separate that from my faith. We can go through biblical narrative and we can see where things that are going on physically with someone is addressed or is at least acknowledged. It is just not in the forefront emphasized. So we don't think that paying attention to what's going on in your body matters,When you have that dualistic approach to faith where the soul is all that matters. Your body is just this flesh thing. No, God created all of it. Therefore, all of it's valuable and we need to pay attention to all of it. So that's the first place I start. And then in terms of faith, I'm a realist. I'm a Christian realist, so I put things in perspective. The love ethic of Jesus is an ideal. Scripture is an ideal. It's telling us when you look at Christ, Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is also called the son of man. And from my understanding and my learnings, son of man refers to the human one, the ideal human one, right? He is divinity, but he's deity, but he's also a human, and he's the human that we look to for the ideal way to live. And so this perfect ideal of love, the love ethic of Jesus, I believe it's unattainable on this side of heaven. I think we should always strive to love our enemies. But how many people actually love their enemies? Bless them. I saw what Eric, I think his name, first name is Erica Kirk forgave theOkay? I'm not here to judge whether that's real or if she felt obligated because I know some Christians, they wrestle because they feel obligated to forgive almost immediately. I don't feel that obligation if my body is not in a place where I can just say, I forgive you. I need to get to a place where I can forgive. But let's just say it's very real. She is. I forgive this young man. How many people can do that? We admire it. How many Christians will just say, I forgive, genuinely say, I forgive the person who killed my children's father. So it's not that it can't be done, but sustained. There are few people who could do what in terms of relative to how many people in the world, what Mother Teresa did. There are few people who can do that. There are few people who could do what Martin Luther King did who could practice non-violence, risk, jail and life and limb for an extended period of time. So I'm not saying it can't be done, but sustained by many or the most of us. I just don't believe that's realistic. I believe it's always something we aspire to. And we're always challenged throughout life to live up to that ideal. But we're going to fall short probably more often than we want to admit.(11:12):So I don't try to put the pressure on myself to be this perfect Christian. I try to understand where I am in my maturity in this particular area. There's some things I can do better than others, and then I go from there. So I look at what's happening in the world through that lens. How would I really respond? There are people I don't want to deal with. They are toxic and harmful to me because here's the other part, there's also wisdom. That's faith too.Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, shall lead you in. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but the Holy Spirit shall lead you. No, the spirit of wisdom is what I'm trying to get to in John. This Holy Spirit is called the spirit of wisdom. Holy Spirit is going to lead you into all truth, but it's also called the spirit of wisdom.Is faith too. And it is there no one way of doing things.It's where I feel the most settled, even if I don't want to do something.I went through a divorce separated 10 years ago, divorce finalized a couple of years later. And I wanted so badly to share my story through people at my former church, family, friends. I wanted to tell, let me tell what happened. I never had peace about that in my body. My body never felt settled.Settled, okay.Because I knew I was doing it from a place of wanting to get vindication, maybe revenge. It wasn't just as innocent as, let me tell my side of the story, if I'm honest.It was, I'm going to throw you under the bus.But in that moment, I didn't because I didn't feel settled in my spirit. People say settled in my spirit. Really, it is also my body that I should do that wisdom says, let God handle it. Let God bring it to the surface. In due time, people will know who need to know. You don't have to take revenge. When they go low, you go high. In that moment, that's what I felt at peace to do. And I don't regret it to this day. I don't regret it. I'm glad I didn't because it would just been even more messy.I have conversations with my grandmother who's no longer with us, or I recall conversations we had. So when I was young, and I tell people unapologetically, I'm a mama's boy and a grandmama's boy. Women played a significant role raising me. So I'm close to mom, grandma, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, my sisters, and I'm the oldest of all my siblings, but women. So my grandmother, rather than going out to parties a lot, I would prefer to go to her house. I lived in high school with one grandmother, but sometimes I would go to my other grandmother's house and just sit and she would have a glass of wine, and we would just talk for hours. And she would tell me stories When she was young,Would ask her questions. I miss, and I loved those times. An external resource, if this can be an external no longer here, but she's a person. She was a real person. I think about what if I'm having a conversation with her, and she would never really be impulsive with me. She would just pause and just think, well, and I know she's going to drop some wisdom, right?So that's one of my sources. My grandmother, both of them to a degree, but my mom's mom for sure is I would say her feet. So I'd have these conversations. I still don't want to embarrass them. I don't want to make them look bad. I want them to be proud of me toDay. So that helps me make decisions. It helps me a lot of times on how I respond in the same way we believe that God is ever present and omniscient and knowing what we're doing and what we're thinking and feeling and watching, not watching in a surveillance type of way, but watching over us like a parent. If we believe that in those moments, I pretend because I don't know, but I pretend that my grandmother is, she's in heaven and she's watching over all right now, and I'm not offering a theological position that when they die and go to heaven, they're still present with us omnipresent. Now, I'm not saying any of that, just in my mind. I tell myself, grandma could be watching me. What will grandma do? Type of thing. So that becomes an external resource for me as well as mentors that I've had in my life. Even if I can't get in touch with them, I would recall conversations we've had, and they're still alive. I recall conversations we've had and how would they guide me in this? And so I remember their words. I remember more than I even realized.Danielle (17:59):And that feels so lovely and so profound that those roots, those, I want to say ancestors, but family, family connections, that they're resourcing us before they even know they're resourcing us.So they're not unfamiliar with suffering and pain and love and joy. So they may not know exactly what we're going through in this moment, 2025, but they do know what it is to suffer. They do know what it is to walk through life. It's heavy sometimes.Phil Allen Jr. (18:43):Yes, yes, yes. They prepared me and my siblings well, and my mom is the encourager. My mom is the person that just says it's going to be okay. It's going to work out. And sometimes I don't want to hear that, but my grandparents would say a little bit more, they were more sagacious in their words, and they would share that wisdom from their life, 80 plus years. And even with my mom, sometimes I'll look back and be like, she was right. I knew she was right. I knew she was right because she'd been through so much and it is going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It always is. And so I don't take that lightly either.Danielle (19:40):When you come to this current moment with your ancestors, your faith, those kinds of things with you, how then do you form a picture of where we are at, maybe as a faith, and I'm speaking specifically to the United States, and you might speak more specifically to your own cultural context. I know for Latino, for Latinx folks, there was some belief that was fairly strong, especially among immigrant men. I would say that to vote for particular party could mean hope and access to power. And so now there's a backtrack of grappling with this has actually meant pain and hate and dissolve of my family. And so what did that mean for my faith? So I think we're having a different experience, but I'm wondering from your experience, how then are you forming a picture of today?Phil Allen Jr. (20:47):I knew where we were headed. Nothing surprises me because my faith teaches me to look at core underlying causes, root causes in an individual. When we talk about character, what are the patterns of this person that's going to tell us a lot about who this person is, they're in leadership, where they're going to lead us, what are the patterns of a particular group, the patterns that a lot of people don't pay attention to or are unaware of? What are those patterns? And even then, you may have to take a genealogical approach, historical approach, and track those patterns going back generations and coming to the current time to tell us where we'reAnd then do the same thing broadly with the United States. And if you pay attention to patterns, I'm a patterns person. If you pay attention to patterns, it'll tell you where you're going. It'll tell you where you're headed. So my faith has taught me to pay attention to even the scripture that says from the heart, the mouth speaks. So if I want to know a person, I just pay attention to what they're saying. I'm just going to listen. And if I listen intently, carefully, what they've said over time tells me how they will lead us, tells me how they will respond. It tells me everything about their ethics, their morality. It tells me what I need to know. If I pay attention, nothing surprises me where we are, the term MAGA is not just a campaign slogan, it's a vision statement. Make America great again. Each of these words, carry weight again, tells me, and it's not even a vision statement, it's nostalgic. It's not creative. It's not taking us into a new future with a new, something new and fresh. It is looking backwards. Again, let's take what we did. It might look a little differently. Let's take what we did and we're going to bring that to 2025. Great. What is great? That's a relative statement. That's a relative word.(23:36):I always ask people, give me one decade. In the last 400 plus years since Europeans encountered, 500 years since Europeans encountered indigenous people, give me one decade of greatness, moral greatness. Not just economic or militarily, but moral greatness where the society was just equitable, fair and loving. I can't find one.Because the first 127 years with interaction with indigenous people was massacre violence, conquest of land, beginning with a narrative that said that they were savages. Then you got 246 years of slavery,Years of reconstruction. And from 1877 to 19 68, 91 years of Jim Crow. So you can't start until you get to 1970.And then you got mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex and racial profiling. So for black folks, especially seventies, and you had the crack of it, the war on drugs was really a war on the communities because it wasn't the same response of the opioid addiction just a few years ago in the suburbs, in the white suburbs, it was a war, whereas this was called a health crisis. So people were in prison, it was violence industry. So now we're in 1990s, and we still can start talking about police brutality, excessive force. And since 1989, you, it's been revealed 50 plus percent of exonerations are African-Americans. So that means throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties, people who have been put in prison, who unjustly. And that affects an entire community that affects families. And you got school shootings starting with Columbine and mass shootings. So tell me one decade of America greatness.So if I pay attention to the patterns, I should not be surprised with where we are. Make America great. Again, that's a vision statement, but it's nostalgic. It's not innovative. It's taking us back to a time when it was great for people, certain people, and also it was telegraphed. These ice raids were telegraphed.2015, the campaign started with they're sending their rapists and their murder. So the narrative began to create a threat out of brown bodies. From the beginning, he told us,Yeah, right. So project 2025, if you actually paid attention to it, said exactly what they were wanting to do. Nothing surprises me. Go back to the response to Obama as president first, black president, white supremacist group, hate groups rose and still cause more violence than any other group in the country. But they have an ally in the office. So nothing surprises me. My faith tells me, pay attention to the underlying, pay attention to the root causes. Pay attention to the patterns of what people ignore and what they don't pay attention to. And it'll tell you where you're headed. So nothing surprises me,Danielle (27:39):Phil, you'll know this better than me, but Matthew five, that's the beatitudes, right? And I think that's where Jesus hits on this, right? He's like, you said this and I'm saying this. He's saying, pay attention to what's underneath the surface. Don't just say you love someone. What will you do for them? What will you do for your enemy? What will you do for your neighbor? And the reward is opposite. So a lot of times I've been talking with friends and I'm like, it's almost, I love Marvel movies. And you know how they time travel to try to get all the reality stones back and endgame? IA lot of movies. Okay, well, they time travel.Following you. Yeah. They time travel. And I feel like we're in an alternate time, like an alternate, alternate time zone where Jesus is back, he's facing temptations with Satan. And instead of saying no, he's like, bring it on. Give me the world. And we're living in an alternate space where faith, where we're seeing a faith played out with the name of Jesus, but the Jesus being worshiped is this person that would've said yes to the devil that would've said, yes, give me all the kingdoms of the world. Let rule everything. Yes, I'm going to jump. I know you're going to catch me. I can be reckless with my power and my resources. That's what I feel like all the bread I want. Of course I'm hungry. I'm going to take it all for myself. I feel like we're living in that era. It just feels like there's this timeline where this is the Jesus that's being worshiped. Jesus.That's how I feel. And so it's hard for me, and it's good for me to hear you talk about body. It's hard for me to then mix that reality. Because when I talk to someone, I'm like, man, I love Jesus. I love the faith you're talking about. And when I'm out there, I feel such bristle, such bristle and such angst in my body, anxiety like fear when I hear the name of Jesus, that Jesus, does that make sense?Phil Allen Jr. (30:05):Yes. Yeah. And that's so good. And I would you make me think about white Jesus?Like the aesthetics of Jesus. And that was intentional. And so my question for you real quick, how do you feel? What do you sense happening in your body when you see a brown Jesus, when you see an unattractive Palestinian, maybe even Moroccan Ethiopian looking, Jesus, brown skin, darker skin, any shade of brown to depict what Jesus, let's say, someone trying to depict what Jesus might've looked like. I've seen some images that said Jesus would've looked like this. And I don't know if that's true or not, but he was brown. Very different than the European. Jesus with blue eyes, brought blonde hair. What do you sense in, have you ever seen a picture, an image like that? And what do you remember about your response, your bodily response to that?Danielle (31:14):Well, it makes me feel like crying, just to hear you talk about it. I feel relief. I think I feel like I could settle. I would be calm. Some sort of deep resonance. It's interesting you say, I lived in Morocco for two years with my husband, and he's Mexican. Mexican, born there Mexican. And everybody thought he was Moroccan or Egyptian or they were like, who are you? And then they would find out he was Mexican. And they're like, oh man, we're brothers. That's literally an Arabic. They was like, we're brothers. We're brothers. Like, oh yeah, that's the feeling I have. We would be welcomed in.Phil Allen Jr. (32:00):Wow. I asked that question because whenever I've taught, I used teach in my discipleship group a class before they were put into small mentoring groups. I'd have a six, seven week class that I taught on just foundational doctrine and stuff like that. And when I talked about the doctrine of get into Christology, I would present a black Jesus or a brown Jesus, Palestinian Jesus. And you could feel the tension in the room. And usually somebody would push back speaking on behalf of most of the people in the room would push back. And I would just engage in conversation.(32:52):And usually after I would speak to them about and get them to understand some things, then they would start to settle. When I would get them to think about when was the white Jesus, when was Jesus presented as white and by whom and why? And why would Jesus look this way? Everybody else in that era, that time and that spade, that region would've looked very differently. Why do you think this is okay? And then someone would inevitably say, well, his race doesn't matter. And I heard a professor of mine say it mattered enough to change it. Absolutely. Why not be historically accurate? And that was when the light switch came on for many of them. But initially they were disoriented. They were not settled in their bodies. And that to me tells a lot about that's that alternative. Jesus, the one who would've jumped, the one who would've saved himself, the one who would've fallen into the temptation. I would say that that's the white Jesus, that what we call Christian, lowercase c Christian nationalism or even American conservative evangelicalism, which has also been rooted in white supremacy historically. That's the Jesus that's being worshiped. I've said all along, we worship different gods.(34:30):We perceive Jesus very differently. That's why the debates with people who are far left, right or conservative, the debates are pointless because we worship different gods. We're not talking about the same Jesus. So I think your illustration is dead on. I'm seeing a movie already in my head.Danielle (34:58):I have tried to think, how can I have a picture of our world having been raised by one part of my family that's extremely conservative. And then the other part not how do I find a picture of what's happening, maybe even inside of me, like the invitation to the alternate reality, which we're talking about to what's comfortable, to what's the common narrative and also the reality of like, oh, wait, that's not how it worked for all of my family. It was struggle. It was like, what? So I think, but I do think that our faith, like you said, invites us to wrestle with that. Jesus asks questions all the time.Phil Allen Jr. (35:46):Yes, I am learning more and more to be comfortable setting a table rather than trying to figure out whose table I go to, whether it's in the family, friends, whomever. I'm comfortable setting a table that I believe is invitational, a table of grace as well as standards. I mean, I don't believe in just anything goes either. I'm not swinging a pendulum all the way to the other side, but I do believe it's a table of grace and truly, truly, rather than trying to make people believe and live out that faith the way I think they should, inviting them to a space where hopefully they can meet with God and let God do that work, whatever it is that they need to do. But I'm comfortable creating a table and saying, Hey, I'm going to be at this table that's toxic. That table over there is toxic. That table over there is unhealthy. I'm going to be at this table.Danielle (37:05):How practically do you see that working out? What does that look like in your everyday life or maybe in the discipleship settings you're in? How does that look?Phil Allen Jr. (37:16):I'm very careful in the company I keep. I'm very careful in who I give my time to. You might get me one time, you're not going to get me twice if there's toxicity and ignorance. And so for example, I'm in the coffee shop all the time. I rotate, but I have my favorites and I meet people all the time who want to have coffee. And I'm able to just yesterday three hours with someone and I'm able to put my pastoral hat on and just sit and be present with people. That's me creating a table. Had that conversation gone differently, I would say it certainly would not have lasted three hours. And I'm not making space and giving energy to them anymore because I know what they're bringing to do is toxic for me. It's unhealthy for me. Now, if we turned around and we had some conversations and can get on the same page, again, I'm not saying you have to agree with me on everything, but I'm also talking about tone. I'm talking about the energy, the spirit that person carries. I'm talking about their end goal. That's me giving an example. That's an example of me setting a table. The sacred spaces that I create, I'm willing to invite you in. And if we can maintain that peace and that joy, and it can be life-giving, and again, we don't even have to agree and we don't have to be in the same faith.(39:03):I have conversations all the time, people of other faiths or non-faith, and it's been life-giving for me, incredibly life-giving for me, for both of us I think. But I won't do that for, I've also had a couple of times when the person was far right, or in my dms on social media, someone appears to want to have a civil conversation, but really it was a bait. It was debate me into debate. And then next thing you know, insults and I block. And so I block because I'm not giving you space my space anymore. I'm not giving you access to do that to me anymore. So for me, it's creating a table is all the spaces I occupy that are mine, social media spaces, platform, a coffee shop. Where am I attend church,Right now I don't. And my church is in that coffee shop When I have those, when Jesus says with two or more gathered, there I am in the midst. I take that very seriously.When we gather, when me and someone or three of us are sitting and talking, and I'm trusting that God is present, God is in the space between us and it is been life-giving for us. So all that to say, wherever my body is, wherever I'm present, the table is present, the metaphorical table is there, and I'm careful about who I invite into that space because it's sacred for me. My health is at stake,Time and energy is at stake. And so that's how I've been living my life in the last five years or so is again, I don't even accept every invitation to preach anymore because I have to ask myself, I have have to check in my body.Right? No, I don't think this is what I'm supposed to do. And then there's sometimes I'm like, yeah, I want to preach there. I like that space. I trust them. And so that's me sharing a table. I'm going to their location, but I also bring in my table and I'm asking them to join me at the table.Danielle (41:46):I love that you check in with your body. I was even just about to ask you that. What do you notice in your body when you're setting up that table? Phil? What would you recommend? Someone's listening, they're like, these guys are crazy. I've never checked in my body once in my life. Can you share how you started doing that or what it was just at the beginning?Phil Allen Jr. (42:13):So community resiliency model, the first thing we teach is tracking,Noticing and paying attention to the sensations that's going on in your body,They're pleasant or unpleasant or neutral. And for me, one of the things I noticed long before I ever got connected to this was when something didn't feel right for me, I could sometimes feel a knot in my stomach. My heart rate would start increasing, and that's not always bad. So I had to wait. I had to learn to wait and see what that meant. Sometimes it just means nervousness, excitement, but I know God is calling me to it. So I had to wait to make sure it was that. Or was it like, I'm not supposed to do this thing.So we use this term called body literacy, learning to read, paying attention to what's happening in the body. And that could mean sometimes palms get sweaty, your body temperature rises and muscles get tight. Maybe there's some twitching, right? All these little things that we just ignore, our bodies are telling us something. And I don't disconnect that from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knowing how to reach us, how to speak, not just a word of revelation, but in our bodies. And once I learned that, I trusted that God was in that. So I learned years ago when I was supposed to say something publicly, if I'm in a public space, I knew when I was supposed to say something. It took me a couple of years and I figured it out. And this is before ever learning, tracking and all this stuff.My heart would start racing and it would not stop. And it'd be the sense of urgency, that thing that thought you have, you have to say it now.I'm an introvert. I speak for a living. I present, but I don't like to say anything unless I have to. And I learned I could sit through something and be calm and comfortable and not have to say a word. But then I also learned that there were times when I'm supposed to say something here and I started listening to that. So paying attention to those sensations, those things that we ignore, that's happening in our bodies because our nervous system is activated for some reason.Danielle (44:57):I love to hear you say it. And also it's one of the things I think we naturally want to turn off when we're in a high trauma environment or come from a high trauma background. Or maybe you don't know what to do with the sensations, right?Can you just say a couple things about what moved you over that hump? How did you step into that despite maybe even any kind of, I don't know, reservations or just difficultiesTracking your body?Phil Allen Jr. (45:33):Getting language for what I was already doing, because with crim, one of the things that was revelatory for me was I was like, wait a minute. I already do a lot of these things. So for instance, touch and feel can settle out. Nervous systems, surfaces, you can put your hand, I have my hand on my armrest. It's smooth. If I'm nervous about something, I can literally just rub this smooth surface. It feels really good, and it can settle my nervous system, right? A sip of water, a drink of water can settle your nervous system. These are not just imaginations. This is literally how the body responds. You know this. So when they gave me language for things I had already been doing, so for instance, resourcing. And you had asked me earlier, and I mentioned my grandmother, if you paid attention to my face, I probably had a smile on my face talking about her.Because that resource, it brings up sensations in my body that are pleasant.My heart rate slows down. I could feel the warmth in my cheeks from smiling. So that's something that I tap into. And that's one of the ways that you can understand tracking when you think about a person, place, or thing that is pleasant, and then pay attention to what's going on in your body. And it might be neutral because it takes a while to be able to learn how to identify these things. And when I started doing that and I realized, wait a minute, my body, I feel settled. I feel at peace when I do this or do that. And that's when I said, okay, there's science behind this. And so that's when five years ago is when I started really like, I'm going to continue to do this and share this and practice this. I use it in my nonprofit racial solidarity project because this is how we stay engaged in the conversation about race. We get triggered, we get activated. A nervous system says threat. This person is threat, or this idea is a threat, especially when it disorients what we've been taught all our lives. And we get defensive, we get impulsive, and we argue and then we out.(48:18):So I use this as part of mentoring people to stay engaged by giving them the skills to regulate their nervous system when they're in those conversations, or if they're watching the news and they don't like what they see, they want to turn the news or they want to just shut it off. Some people hear the word critical race theory and it's already triggering for them,Absolutely. And what do you do? You check out, you disengage. You get defensive. Well, that's not necessarily how they feel. It's what they're sensing in their body. Their nervous system is triggered. So if they had the skills to settle that regulate their nervous system, they could probably stay engaged enough to listen to what's actually being said. It might actually come to, oh, I didn't realize that.Danielle (49:18):It's so good to hear you talk about it though. It's so encouraging. It's like, oh man. Being in our bodies, I think is one way. We know our faith more, and I actually think it's one way we can start to step in and cross and understand one another. But I think if we're not in our bodies, I think if we maintain some sort of rigidity or separation that it's going to be even harder for us to come together.Phil Allen Jr. (49:51):I'm crazy a little bit, but I ran running, taught me how to breathe. No other practice in my faith taught me how to breathe. And I don't mean in a meditative kind of way, religious kind of way. I mean just literally breathing properly.That's healthy.Danielle (50:13):It is healthy. Breathing is great. Yeah.Phil Allen Jr. (50:16):I want to be actually alive. But running forces you to have to pay attention to your body breathing. What type of pain is this in my knee? Is this the type of pain that says stop running? Or is this the type of pain that says this is minor and it's probably going to go away within the next half a mile?Right. Which then teaches us lessons in life. This pain, this emotional pain that I'm feeling, does it say, stop doing the thing that I'm doing, or is this something I have to go through because God is trying to reveal something to me?Running has taught me that. That's why running is a spiritual discipline for me. The spiritual discipline I didn't know I needed.Danielle (51:07):Yep. You're going to have to, yeah, keep going. Keep going.Phil Allen Jr. (51:10):Sorry. I was going to say, it taught me how to pay attention to my body, from my feet to my breathing. It taught me to pay attention to my body. When I dealt with AFib last year is because I pay attention to my body. When my heart wasn't beating the right way, it was like something ain't right. So I didn't try to push through it like I would have 10, 15, 20 years ago, paying attention to my body, said, stop. Go to urgent care. Next thing you know, I'm in an emergency room. I didn't know that with all this stuff attached to me. Next thing you know, I got these diagnoses. Next thing you know, I'm on medication. And fortunately the medication has everything stabilized. I still have some episodes of arrhythmia. I don't know if it's ever going to go away. Hopefully I can get off of these medications. I feel great. Matter of fact, I didn't take my medication this morning. I got to take 'em when we get done, brother. So all that to say, man, paying attention to what's happening in my body has helped me to deal with this current reality. It's helped me to stay grounded, helped me to make wise decisions. I trust that God, that though what I'm reading in my body, that the spirit of God is in that,(52:46):Is knowing how to speak to me, knowing what I'm going to pay attention to, what I'm going to respond to. Oh, that's how you read that. You're going to respond to that. Okay. That I'm going to urge you and prompt you through these bodily sensations, if you will.Danielle (53:10):Yeah. I don't really have a lot to say to answer that. It's just really beautiful and gorgeous. And also, please take your medicine. How can people reach you? How can they find out more about your work? How can they read what you're writing and what you're thinking? Where can they find you?Phil Allen Jr. (53:33):So on social media, everything is Phil Allen Jr. So whether that's Instagram. Instagram is actually Phil Allen Jr. PhD.It. LinkedIn and Facebook. Phil Allen Jr. On Facebook, there's a regular page and there's an author page. I don't really use the author page. I'm trying to figure out how to delete that. But the regular page, Phil Allen, Jr. Threads, Phil Allen Jr. I don't do X, but LinkedIn, Phil Allen Jr. My book Open Wounds. You can either go to your local bookstore, I want to support local bookstores. You can ask them if they have it, open Wounds, the Story of Racial Trauma, racial Tragedy, trauma and Redemption. And my other book, the Prophetic Lens, the Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier. You can find those books on Amazon, or you can go to your local bookstore and ask them to order it for you because it supports your local bookstore. Or you can go directly to fortress press.com and order it. It goes directly. You're supporting the publisher that publish my books, which helps, which actually helps me most. But those are three ways you can get those books. And then hopefully in the next year or so, I have three book projects. I'm kind of in different stages of right now that I'm working on, and hopefully one comes out in the next year.Yeah. Year and a half. We'll see.Danielle (55:21):That's exciting. Well, Phil, thank you so much. I'm going to stop recording. As always, thank you for joining us and at the end of the podcast, our notes and resources, and I encourage you to stay connected to those who are loving in your path and in your community. Stay tuned.Kitsap County & Washington State Crisis and Mental Health ResourcesIf you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call 911.This resource list provides crisis and mental health contacts for Kitsap County and across Washington State.Kitsap County / Local ResourcesResourceContact InfoWhat They OfferSalish Regional Crisis Line / Kitsap Mental Health 24/7 Crisis Call LinePhone: 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://www.kitsapmentalhealth.org/crisis-24-7-services/24/7 emotional support for suicide or mental health crises; mobile crisis outreach; connection to services.KMHS Youth Mobile Crisis Outreach TeamEmergencies via Salish Crisis Line: 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://sync.salishbehavioralhealth.org/youth-mobile-crisis-outreach-team/Crisis outreach for minors and youth experiencing behavioral health emergencies.Kitsap Mental Health Services (KMHS)Main: 360‑373‑5031; Toll‑free: 888‑816‑0488; TDD: 360‑478‑2715Website: https://www.kitsapmentalhealth.org/crisis-24-7-services/Outpatient, inpatient, crisis triage, substance use treatment, stabilization, behavioral health services.Kitsap County Suicide Prevention / “Need Help Now”Call the Salish Regional Crisis Line at 1‑888‑910‑0416Website: https://www.kitsap.gov/hs/Pages/Suicide-Prevention-Website.aspx24/7/365 emotional support; connects people to resources; suicide prevention assistance.Crisis Clinic of the PeninsulasPhone: 360‑479‑3033 or 1‑800‑843‑4793Website: https://www.bainbridgewa.gov/607/Mental-Health-ResourcesLocal crisis intervention services, referrals, and emotional support.NAMI Kitsap CountyWebsite: https://namikitsap.org/Peer support groups, education, and resources for individuals and families affected by mental illness.Statewide & National Crisis ResourcesResourceContact InfoWhat They Offer988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (WA‑988)Call or text 988; Website: https://wa988.org/Free, 24/7 support for suicidal thoughts, emotional distress, relationship problems, and substance concerns.Washington Recovery Help Line1‑866‑789‑1511Website: https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/injury-and-violence-prevention/suicide-prevention/hotline-text-and-chat-resourcesHelp for mental health, substance use, and problem gambling; 24/7 statewide support.WA Warm Line877‑500‑9276Website: https://www.crisisconnections.org/wa-warm-line/Peer-support line for emotional or mental health distress; support outside of crisis moments.Native & Strong Crisis LifelineDial 988 then press 4Website: https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/injury-and-violence-prevention/suicide-prevention/hotline-text-and-chat-resourcesCulturally relevant crisis counseling by Indigenous counselors.Additional Helpful Tools & Tips• Behavioral Health Services Access: Request assessments and access to outpatient, residential, or inpatient care through the Salish Behavioral Health Organization. Website: https://www.kitsap.gov/hs/Pages/SBHO-Get-Behaviroal-Health-Services.aspx• Deaf / Hard of Hearing: Use your preferred relay service (for example dial 711 then the appropriate number) to access crisis services.• Warning Signs & Risk Factors: If someone is talking about harming themselves, giving away possessions, expressing hopelessness, or showing extreme behavior changes, contact crisis resources immediately.Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that. Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.

Original Air Date: 11/15/2022 Today, we take a look at our extremely steady history of political violence from the Revolution, through the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, into the Civil Rights era, the Militia Movement and domestic terrorism, and now to our current once-again-radicalized, right-wing movement willing to use and tacitly condone violence as a political tactic. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube! BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Capitol Attack Wasn't the 1st Violent Incident in Congress - Inside Edition - Air Date 1-20-22 Ch. 2: A history of US political violence Part 1 - Americast - Air Date 11-2-22 Ch. 3: Storm of White Right Wing Violence Isn't Coming... It's Here Featuring Luke Mogelson Part 1 - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 9-15-22 Ch. 4: Political Violence Is No Anomaly in American History - System Check - Air Date 1-8-21 Ch. 5: Today's Republicans were made in the 1990s - Part 1 - The Gray Area with Sean Illing - Air Date 11-7-22 Ch. 6: Storm of White Right Wing Violence Isn't Coming... It's Here Featuring Luke Mogelson Part 2 - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 9-15-22 Ch. 7: Pelosi Attack Leads to Conspiracies, Obama Crushes GOP - The David Pakman Show - Air Date 10-31-22 Ch. 8: A history of US political violence Part 2 - Americast - Air Date 11-2-22 Ch. 9: Political Violence - In the Thick - Air Date 11-4-22 Ch 10. Today's Republicans were made in the 1990s - Part 2 - The Gray Area with Sean Illing - Air Date 11-7-22

Listen, we heard Trump today at the U.N. talking crazy, but also saying Ukraine can get its territories back, and then some. As in, occupy Russia? We'll get into all that in this week's bonus show out later this week for our Patreon members. We'll also break down the crime cabal of Epstein, Trump, and Russia. More soon. For now, Happy New Year! 5786, to be precise. As Jewish families dip apples in honey and blow the shofar, we'd all do well to take inspiration: resilience is the tradition. Which is good, because democracy needs that same resilience right now. Fox News will tell you New York is a crime-hive communist brothel, while Donald Trump–the convicted felon, enthusiastic coup-plotter, and Orban fanboy–cheers on Christian nationalism like it's a Russian gift basket of underage girls. Thanks to Trump, RFK Jr.–a human centipede of conspiracies–used our tax dollars to declare war on Tylenol. MAGA and their Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk tent revival want to drag us back to an idealized 1950s where everyone smoked indoors for their health and also had polio. With MAGA using Charlie Kirk's laser light show memorial to fire up their base, we must and can fight back. That all-important work is in the states. Look to Virginia: a bellwether of the 2026 midterms. This week's guest, Shawn Werner, Organizing and Political Director of Sister District, joins Gaslit Nation to explain why the 2026 midterms start now. But will we even have elections? Here's some hope: groups like Sister District and the Democracy Security Project are training volunteers, protecting elections, and building the infrastructure we need to out-organize the new Jim Crow. Races to watch on election night, for any indication of a blue and angry red MAGA-regrets wave, include Kimberly Pope Adams in House District 82, Lily Franklin at Virginia Tech in District 41, and Leslie Mehta's campaign for the House of Delegates. Win them, and we prove momentum is on our side–and we lay the groundwork to build a victory engine to overcome Trump's desperate shenanigans in 2026. Consider this episode your official invitation to Gaslit Nation's Halloween Party with Sister District on Wednesday, October 22nd, from 6 to 8 p.m. ET. We'll be dressed up in costumes like our lives depend on it and phonebanking for Virginia. Because democracy cannot defend itself. Fight back now, because fighting back in the MAGA Gulag will be infinitely harder. For more on how to join forces with Sister District in these precious days and weeks ahead, and plant seeds of hope wherever you live, check out SisterDistrict.com. And again, don't miss this week's bonus show on Epstein, Trump, and Russia. Look out for that soon. To hear the full bonus show, out Thursday, be sure to join our community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit to get bonus shows, all shows ad-free, invites to exclusive events, and more. Thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism–we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Show Notes: RSVP for our Halloween Party Phonebank with Sister District October 22 at 6pm ET: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrict/event/847185/ Opening clip: https://bsky.app/profile/zohrankmamdani.bsky.social/post/3lzgxaahz4s2q ACTION ALERT: Write postcards urging Democratic voters in California to VOTE YES on Redistricting to Save Democracy: https://www.mobilize.us/thirdact/event/777101/ ACTION ALERT: Send a duck to your rep in Congress to ask them to remove “quack” RFK Jr.: https://www.standupforscience.net/quack-o-grams AOC makes appeal for Democrats' California gerrymander https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/23/aoc-ad-california-gerrymander-00576018 What the Mayor Got Away With Has Already Changed America https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trump-eric-adams-corruption.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n08.FYw4.R_lM6WOHHBMh&smid=url-share Jimmy Kimmel & the FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPToBog_-g How We Got Here: https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2025/5/27/how-we-got-here

In the Jim Crow South, Black newspapers like the Chicago Defender were banned, seized, and silenced. But the porters found a way. Tucked in suitcases, hidden in stacks of linens, they smuggled news, hope, and opportunity across the South for just 2 cents.onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

In this episode of the Chuck ToddCast, Chuck delves into the recent developments surrounding Donald Trump, beginning with his confrontational rhetoric against adversaries and the implications of his actions over the past week, which some argue could have driven impeachment efforts. He explores notable incidents such as Tom Homan's controversial cash exchange and highlights the fundamental challenges to our constitutional principles. The discussion also covers Trump's use of legal charges like mortgage fraud to target enemies, as well as his aggressive, and possibly legally unfounded, attacks on Venezuelan drug boats. He analyzes how such actions may have numbed the public to attacks and assess whether Trump's political standing is now eroding amidst these controversiesThen, journalist and historian Caleb Gayle joins to discuss his new book which highlights the power of untold history and the forgotten story of Edward McCabe—known by some as “Black Moses.” Gayle traces McCabe's ambitious but ultimately failed dream of building a “Black state” in Oklahoma, a vision that drew freedmen west during Reconstruction and briefly united Black settlers and Native Americans. From McCabe's hard-nosed political maneuvering to the competing interests that saw Oklahoma as a battleground for power, Gayle paints a picture of ambition, resistance, and the forces that shaped the region.The conversation also explores how Oklahoma's history—from the possibility of a Black state to the devastating Tulsa massacre—has been distorted or stripped down in traditional teaching. Gayle explains the deep tensions between northern Black elites and freed southern Blacks, the lingering influence of Jim Crow, and the ways Native tribes wielded wealth and power. Looking ahead, he reflects on how today's political climate shapes the writing of history, why context matters more than ever, and what stories he hopes to bring to light in the next decade.Finally, Chuck answers listeners' questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment”Got injured in an accident? You could be one click away from a claim worth millions. Just visit https://www.forthepeople.com/TODDCAST to start your claim now with Morgan & Morgan without leaving your couch. Remember, it's free unless you win!Timeline:(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)00:00 Introduction03:00 Trump targets his adversaries12:00 Trump's actions in the past week would have driven impeachments 14:30 Tom Homan took a bag of cash 16:00 We have basic challenges to our constitution 17:30 Trump target enemies with mortgage fraud charges  22:00 Trump attacks Venezuelan drug boats without legal basis25:00 Unclear that there's legal basis for attacks30:30 Trump has numbed public to attacks36:00 Trump's political standing is eroding39:00 Caleb Gayle joins the Chuck ToddCast 40:45 What made you want to become a history biographer/writer? 42:00 History teaching in Oklahoma is stripped down to its most jingoistic parts 43:30 When did you discover the Edward McCabe/ "Black Moses" story? 46:30 McCabe was a polarizing dreamer who wanted a place to belong 47:30 Blacks and native Americans found common cause in Oklahoma 49:15 Many blacks moved west to escape tumult during reconstruction 49:45 How did Edward McCabe get to Oklahoma? 52:00 McCabe was a hard nosed political tactician but struggled to win office 52:45 Senators told McCabe that Oklahoma could be a "black state" 54:30 McCabe sold a vision of "if you build it they will come" 56:00 The Republican party was hesitant to create a black state 57:00 Why McCabe was the wrong person to create the black state 59:15 The role of the native American tribes in the early Oklahoma territory 1:01:00 Powerful interests competed to control Oklahoma knowing it'd become a state 1:03:15 McCabe spent his resources trying to fight Jim Crow up to the Supreme Court 1:04:00 McCabe concludes Oklahoma won't be a black state or place for black people1:05:00 What happened to McCabe's benefactors in the north? 1:06:30 What would it look like if McCabe had succeeded in making OK a black state? 1:09:30 The creation of "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa 1:11:00 The Tulsa massacre upended the idea of Oklahoma being a safe haven 1:13:15 The wealth of the tribes gave them political power 1:14:15 Gambling licenses were one of the only reparations tribes received 1:16:15 Oklahoma was a crossroads state 1:18:00 What other untold history stories are you diving into, what's next? 1:21:30 The divide between northern black elites and freed blacks in south 1:23:45 The conflict between lineage and freedom in American history 1:25:00 The influence of the current political climate when writing a historical book1:27:00 Handling the source material knowing media bias at the time 1:29:30 What do you want to cover in the next ten years? 1:30:00 The importance of history for giving context to the present1:34:00 Nixon takes to the airwaves1:45:00 Ask Chuck1:45:15 Could Mamdani's style of politics help independents?1:53:00 What do local news organizations need to be successful? 1:56:45 College football update Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this episode of the Chuck ToddCast, journalist and historian Caleb Gayle joins to discuss his new book which highlights the power of untold history and the forgotten story of Edward McCabe—known by some as “Black Moses.” Gayle traces McCabe's ambitious but ultimately failed dream of building a “Black state” in Oklahoma, a vision that drew freedmen west during Reconstruction and briefly united Black settlers and Native Americans. From McCabe's hard-nosed political maneuvering to the competing interests that saw Oklahoma as a battleground for power, Gayle paints a picture of ambition, resistance, and the forces that shaped the region.The conversation also explores how Oklahoma's history—from the possibility of a Black state to the devastating Tulsa massacre—has been distorted or stripped down in traditional teaching. Gayle explains the deep tensions between northern Black elites and freed southern Blacks, the lingering influence of Jim Crow, and the ways Native tribes wielded wealth and power. Looking ahead, he reflects on how today's political climate shapes the writing of history, why context matters more than ever, and what stories he hopes to bring to light in the next decade.Got injured in an accident? You could be one click away from a claim worth millions. Just visit https://www.forthepeople.com/TODDCAST to start your claim now with Morgan & Morgan without leaving your couch. Remember, it's free unless you win!Timeline:(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)00:00 Caleb Gayle joins the Chuck ToddCast01:45 What made you want to become a history biographer/writer?03:00 History teaching in Oklahoma is stripped down to its most jingoistic parts04:30 When did you discover the Edward McCabe/ “Black Moses” story?07:30 McCabe was a polarizing dreamer who wanted a place to belong08:30 Blacks and native Americans found common cause in Oklahoma10:15 Many blacks moved west to escape tumult during reconstruction10:45 How did Edward McCabe get to Oklahoma?13:00 McCabe was a hard nosed political tactician but struggled to win office13:45 Senators told McCabe that Oklahoma could be a “black state”15:30 McCabe sold a vision of “if you build it they will come”17:00 The Republican party was hesitant to create a black state18:00 Why McCabe was the wrong person to create the black state20:15 The role of the native American tribes in the early Oklahoma territory22:00 Powerful interests competed to control Oklahoma knowing it'd become a state24:15 McCabe spent his resources trying to fight Jim Crow up to the Supreme Court25:00 McCabe concludes Oklahoma won't be a black state or place for black people26:00 What happened to McCabe's benefactors in the north?27:30 What would it look like if McCabe had succeeded in making OK a black state?30:30 The creation of “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa 32:00 The Tulsa massacre upended the idea of Oklahoma being a safe haven34:15 The wealth of the tribes gave them political power35:15 Gambling licenses were one of the only reparations tribes received37:15 Oklahoma was a crossroads state39:00 What other untold history stories are you diving into, what's next?42:30 The divide between northern black elites and freed blacks in south44:45 The conflict between lineage and freedom in American history46:00 The influence of the current political climate when writing a historical book48:00 Handling the source material knowing media bias at the time50:30 What do you want to cover in the next ten years?51:00 The importance of history for giving context to the present Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln (Reedy Press, 2025), acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at okaverettephillips@ucdavis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln (Reedy Press, 2025), acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at okaverettephillips@ucdavis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln (Reedy Press, 2025), acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at okaverettephillips@ucdavis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

In Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln (Reedy Press, 2025), acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at okaverettephillips@ucdavis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln (Reedy Press, 2025), acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination—as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders. Omari Averette-Phillips is a PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at UC Davis. He can be reached at okaverettephillips@ucdavis.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On todays episode the gang explore the highest and lowest forms of art and consciousness on the internet while learning about bees and baldness

One of the reasons Charlie Kirk was considered "divisive" was that he spoke out against the civil rights laws, which was interpreted as his supporting Jim Crow segregation. Yet, these laws did not increase liberty but rather imposed a new progressive vision on Americans.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/charlie-kirk-and-sacred-totem-civil-rights

One of the reasons Charlie Kirk was considered "divisive" was that he spoke out against the civil rights laws, which was interpreted as his supporting Jim Crow segregation. Yet, these laws did not increase liberty but rather imposed a new progressive vision on Americans.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/charlie-kirk-and-sacred-totem-civil-rights

In our mythological retelling of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. vanquished the racist apartheid system of Jim Crow in the American South. However, in her groundbreaking new book, historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King's time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—outside Dixie—was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice. As the book description lays out, “King of the North follows King as he crisscrosses the country from the Northeast to the West Coast, challenging school segregation, police brutality, housing segregation, and job discrimination. For these efforts, he was relentlessly attacked by white liberals, the media, and the federal government.” In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Professor Theoharis about the MLK Americans have deliberately forgotten, and what this recovered history tells us about how to fight against injustice today. For full show notes and transcript, click here.Credits: Producer: Rosette SewaliStudio Production: David HebdenAudio Post-Production: Stephen FrankFollow The Marc Steiner Show on Spotify Follow The Marc Steiner Show on Apple PodcastsHelp us continue producing The Marc Steiner Show by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetwork

In our mythological retelling of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. vanquished the racist apartheid system of Jim Crow in the American South. However, in her groundbreaking new book, historian Jeanne Theoharis argues that King's time in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—outside Dixie—was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice. As the book description lays out, “King of the North follows King as he crisscrosses the country from the Northeast to the West Coast, challenging school segregation, police brutality, housing segregation, and job discrimination. For these efforts, he was relentlessly attacked by white liberals, the media, and the federal government.” In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Professor Theoharis about the MLK Americans have deliberately forgotten, and what this recovered history tells us about how to fight against injustice today. For full show notes and transcript, click here.Credits: Producer: Rosette SewaliStudio Production: David HebdenAudio Post-Production: Stephen FrankFollow The Marc Steiner Show on Spotify Follow The Marc Steiner Show on Apple PodcastsHelp us continue producing The Marc Steiner Show by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Send us a textWe dive unflinchingly into Kirk's legacy of inflammatory rhetoric toward Black Americans—from his claims that Black people were "better off in the 1940s" despite Jim Crow laws to his advocacy for public executions. His final conversation before being shot involved blaming "gang violence" (a well-known racial dog whistle) for America's gun problems. This history makes his death morally complex for many in marginalized communities who recognize violence is wrong while simultaneously acknowledging the harm Kirk's platform caused.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty scornfully declares that, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.”So what does “woke” mean? It's become the pet political aspersion that today's kooky right-wing hucksters hurl at liberals, but the hurlers would be whopperjawed to learn that it's was actually coined by and for progressives! Indeed, it admonishes people to be awake to the dangers posed by hate-filled bigots and reactionaries like… well, like today's right-wing extremists.SURPRISING HISTORICAL TIDBIT: The first person reported to have used the word was Huddie Ledbetter, the legendary Black blues artist known as Lead Belly. Among his many classic songs was “Scottsboro Boys,” about nine Black teenagers falsely accused in 1931 of raping two Alabama white women. As a Black musician who traveled the backroads of the Jim Crow South, Lead Belly warned others to pay attention when in a viciously racist state: “Best stay woke,” he cautioned.But—out of blind ignorance, blind arrogance, or both—today's adaptors of the Jim Crow mentality have perverted common-sense wokeness into a verbal whip to lash African-Americans, immigrants, Democrats, women, LGBTQ+ people and all others they don't like (pretty much everyone who looks, thinks, prays and acts different from them). How kooky? They've declared librarians, science, Mickey Mouse, and Bud Light to be their evil enemies. “Don't be woke,” they bark, demanding autocratic, plutocratic, and theocratic laws to coerce compliance with their own retrogressive bigotries.This is Jim Hightower saying… Bear in mind that this is no longer a fringe cult, but the mainstream of the Republican Party, including its top congressional leaders, presidential wannabes, and state officials. Actually, you can easily comprehend what these Humpty-Dumpties really mean by their “Don't Be Woke” war cry. Just substitute the word “sane” for “woke.”Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Marc and Dan talk with Luis Valdes for 2A Tuesday about constitutional carry, concealed carry on public transportation, and whether teachers should be allowed to carry firearms in schools. They discuss Florida's sales tax holiday on guns and ammunition through the end of the year, compared to West Virginia's year-round exemption. Valdes also addresses the history of Jim Crow-era gun laws, current challenges to blanket bans, and the debate over mental health and gun ownership. The conversation includes international comparisons, such as the UK's knife control policies, highlighting the broader fight for Second Amendment rights.

This book sold the same stove, suit, or pair of boots to anyone at the same printed price. When Rural Free Delivery brought it to the mailbox, the Sears, Roebuck catalog landed on Black families' porches it turned shopping from a ritual of humiliation into something closer to dignity. Here's how the Sears mail‑order catalog quietly beat Jim CrowAudio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2mSourceshttps://www.abhmuseum.org/back-when-sears-made-black-customers-a-priority/ https://fee.org/articles/when-sears-used-the-market-to-combat-jim-crow/ https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657923126/how-the-sears-catalog-was-revolutionary-in-the-jim-crow-era https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/19/18001734/sears-catalog-bankruptcy-jim-crow-racism-mail-order

 Emmy Award Winner ArtistNetflix's ground-breaking Paralympic documentary ‘Rising Phoenix' won two prestigious Sports Emmy Awards Keith Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin' Experiences LLC,. It is an organization aimed at bringing a perspective to the issues of access inclusion and empowerment, which affect him as well as others who are persons with and without disabilities. To achieve this multicultural, cross-disability education and outreach efforts he collaborates and conducts trainings with the purpose of strengthening efforts to provide services and information for people with disabilities. The issues he tackles are wide ranging from immigration, criminal justice reform, health care and environmental justice just to name a few. Paralleling with his policy and social justice work Mr. Jones is a multitalented artist who along with Leroy Moore and Rob Temple founded Krip Hop Nation which is an international collection of artists with disabilities. Krip Hop Nation is currently celebrating 14 years with the recent Emmy Award winning success of their title song for the Netflix documentary of the Paralympic Games, Rising Phoenix and its critical  acclaimed sound track.  © 2025 Building Abundant Success!! 2025 All Rights Reserved Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba Amazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS Audacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Dr. Karida Brown drops receipts on the 150-year battle for Black educational freedom in America. From the original "diss track" between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington to today's attacks on the Department of Education, she connects the dots between Jim Crow schools and modern-day educational warfare.Learn why your parents' generation had to desegregate schools as children, how billionaire philanthropists shaped Black education in boardrooms, and why "small acts fall big trees" when it comes to resistance. Dr. Brown's book "Battle for the Black Mind" isn't just history—it's a playbook for fighting educational inequity today.Warning: This episode contains discussion of historical violence, including the execution of 14-year-old George Stinney Jr.Books Referenced:"All Boys Aren't Blue" by George Johnson"Pretty, Powerful: Appearance, Substance and Success" by Ebony K. WilliamsArtist Featured:Charlie Palmer: Fine artist whose painting of George Stinney Jr. appears on the book cover. Palmer's "Divided States of America" series critiques systemic injustice.Connect with Dr. Brown: LinkedIn for daily historical receipts and analysisBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/teach-the-babies-w-dr-david-j-johns--6173854/support.

This Day in Legal History: George Wallace Calls out the Alabama National GuardOn September 2, 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace once again attempted to defy federal court orders mandating school integration, this time at Tuskegee High School. Just months after his infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” to block Black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama, Wallace ordered the Alabama National Guard to surround Tuskegee High in an effort to prevent the enrollment of thirteen Black students. The integration was ordered by a federal court in Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, a pivotal case that would eventually lead to sweeping desegregation across Alabama's public school system.Wallace's use of the state Guard was a direct challenge to federal authority and part of his broader campaign to maintain segregation under the banner of “states' rights.” In response, President John F. Kennedy swiftly invoked his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and federalized the Alabama National Guard. Once under federal control, the troops were ordered to stand down and return to their barracks, removing the immediate threat of military-enforced segregation.The confrontation at Tuskegee High marked another flashpoint in the broader struggle between federal civil rights enforcement and Southern resistance. Wallace's actions highlighted the lengths to which segregationist officials would go to preserve Jim Crow, even in the face of binding federal court orders. The federal response signaled a growing willingness by the Kennedy administration to use executive power to enforce civil rights rulings on the ground. The Lee v. Macon litigation would go on to become one of the most significant desegregation cases in the post-Brown era, eventually placing all Alabama schools under court supervision. This incident at Tuskegee underscored both the volatility of the era and the legal system's central role in dismantling systemic segregation.Legal technology companies are facing increasing pressure to distinguish themselves from general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT and Claude, which continue to improve in accuracy, usability, and affordability. A recent MIT report highlighted a corporate lawyer who preferred using ChatGPT over a $50,000 specialized contract analysis tool, underlining the dilemma: why pay more for tools that may not perform better? While legal tech startups have attracted about $2.2 billion in investment since 2024—80% of it going to AI-focused ventures—they risk being outpaced unless they can offer superior user experience and domain-specific functionality.Specialized tools often rely on the same large foundation models that power general AI, making differentiation more difficult. However, legal tech firms argue their value lies not in the raw language models but in how they tailor those tools for legal workflows. For example, IP CoPilot identifies patentable ideas—a complex task not easily replicated by general AI. Some legal AI systems, such as Harvey (used by DLA Piper), have gained traction among attorneys, though many still favor ChatGPT.Studies comparing general and legal-specific tools show mixed results: while general models sometimes outperform on clarity or accuracy, niche tools often prove more valuable in daily legal work. Legal tech companies aim to stay ahead by integrating ethical compliance, user-centered design, and security into their offerings. Unlike general models, they can be customized to reflect a law firm's risk appetite or case strategy. Some legal AI tools also incorporate retrieval-augmented generation or are trained solely on legal data, increasing their relevance and precision.Legal Tech Battles to Set Itself Apart From General AI ModelsAs Congress returns from its August recess on September 2, lawmakers face an urgent deadline to fund the government before the current funding expires on September 30. Among the contentious issues is the fate of the IRS budget. House Republicans are pushing to cut $2.8 billion from the agency, particularly targeting funding for tax compliance and blocking resources for the IRS's Direct File tool, which allows free online tax filing. Democrats, meanwhile, are opposing the cuts, citing recent staff layoffs and the need to rebuild the agency's capacity. A temporary funding measure could delay decisions but would disrupt preparations for the next tax season.The Senate has yet to offer a formal counterproposal but has a history of softening House spending cuts, thanks in part to the chamber's 60-vote legislative threshold. Democrats are expected to advocate for continued funding, especially for auditing high-income taxpayers and improving customer service. IRS employees and their union are calling on Congress to fully fund the agency to strengthen enforcement and reduce the deficit.Complicating matters further, several leadership vacancies emerged over the summer, including the IRS chief and a top Treasury post. Nominations are moving slowly, with some being blocked by political disputes, such as over clean energy tax credits. At the same time, Republicans are already considering another tax bill, possibly to amend or expand provisions from the July tax law signed by President Trump. This includes industry-backed changes like increased deductions for pass-through entities and revisiting limits on gambling loss deductions. Expiring tax credits—such as ACA health insurance subsidies—could also trigger legislative action, particularly as midterm elections approach.IRS Funding on Tap as Congress Returns From Summer RecessU.S. District Judge Jia Cobb halted two Trump administration policies that sought to expand fast-track deportations across the country. These policies, enacted in January, allowed immigration authorities to deport non-citizens found anywhere in the U.S. without a court hearing if they couldn't prove two years of continuous residence. Traditionally, expedited removal applied only to migrants caught near the border shortly after entry, but the expansion would have affected millions more already living within the country.Judge Cobb ruled that this broadened approach violated the Fifth Amendment's due process protections, emphasizing that people who had settled in the U.S. had a stronger liberty interest in remaining and were entitled to more than a rushed removal process. She criticized the government for not adapting procedural safeguards for this larger and more established group of immigrants, calling the existing process “skimpy” and likely to result in wrongful deportations.The Department of Homeland Security defended the policy, claiming Trump had legal authority to enforce deportations. However, Cobb refused to delay her ruling pending appeal, effectively stopping the expanded deportation plan immediately. The lawsuit was brought by Make the Road New York, represented by the ACLU. Earlier in the month, Cobb had also blocked another Trump deportation policy targeting immigrants paroled into the U.S. under Biden's humanitarian programs.US judge halts Trump effort to expand fast-track deportations | ReutersA divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that most of President Trump's tariffs are illegal, significantly weakening a cornerstone of his second-term economic policy. The 7–4 decision found that Trump had overstepped his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which he used to justify new tariffs in April and February. The court emphasized that IEEPA does not grant the president explicit authority to impose taxes or tariffs, only to regulate or restrict imports during national emergencies.The ruling does not affect tariffs issued under other laws, such as those on steel and aluminum. However, it casts serious doubt on Trump's broader use of tariffs as leverage in foreign policy and trade negotiations. The decision stems from lawsuits brought by small businesses and Democratic-led states arguing that only Congress has the constitutional authority to impose tariffs, and that any delegation of this power must be narrowly defined.The appeals court allowed the tariffs to remain in effect until October 14 to give the administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump criticized the decision as partisan but predicted a reversal. Experts believe the administration was anticipating the ruling and may try to shift its legal strategy. This case now sets the stage for a major Supreme Court confrontation, especially as Trump also challenges the Federal Reserve's independence.Most Trump tariffs are not legal, US appeals court rules | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Headline: How Smith v. Allwright Broke the Back of the White Primary If you think your vote doesn't matter, history has a powerful story to change your mind. In the latest episode of Trey's Table, we dive deep into Smith v. Allwright (1944), a landmark Supreme Court case that fundamentally reshaped the political landscape of the American South and supercharged the modern Civil Rights Movement. For decades after Reconstruction, Southern states used a web of discriminatory tactics to disenfranchise Black voters. One of the most effective was the “white primary.” Because the Democratic Party dominated the South, winning its primary was tantamount to winning the election. By banning Black voters from participating in these primaries, white officials effectively silenced them without breaking a single federal law. That is, until Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund took on the case of Lonnie E. Smith, a Black dentist in Houston who was denied a ballot. Their victory was monumental. The Supreme Court ruled that barring Black voters from primaries was unconstitutional, violating the 14th and 15th Amendments. The impact was immediate and dramatic: · Black voter registration in the South skyrocketed from around 200,000 in 1940 to over 800,000 by 1948. · The legal victory provided a crucial playbook for challenging other Jim Crow laws, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education a decade later. · It proved that the courts could be a powerful tool for achieving racial justice. However, the fight was far from over. Southern states swiftly invented new barriers—literacy tests, poll taxes, and economic intimidation—to continue suppressing the Black vote. This ongoing struggle highlights why the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was so necessary and why protecting voting rights remains critical today. This story is more than a history lesson; it's a testament to the power of strategic litigation and unwavering courage. To hear the full story of the legal strategy, the risks involved, and the lasting legacy of this case, listen to the latest episode of Trey's Table. #TreysTable #Podcast #SmithVAllwright #ThurgoodMarshall #VotingRights #CivilRightsHistory #NAACP #BlackHistory #LearnHistory

The U.S. capital is disgracefully reinstalling a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, infamous for alleged KKK ties, opposing racial integration, and supporting the expulsion of freed slaves. This decision, after the statue was toppled by George Floyd protesters, isn't about preserving history, but a blatant symbol of bigotry and hatred that activates deep-seated trauma for many. It's a "sermon in stone" demonstrating a disturbing commitment to "owning the libs" and perpetuating white supremacy over fostering genuine inclusivity. This move further exposes how historical figures are wielded to fuel cultural bias, prioritizing fear and prejudice over a truthful, inclusive understanding of our past and honoring a failed traitor.News Source:Statue Of Confederate General With Ku Klux Klan Ties To Be Reinstalled In Washington, D.C.By Mitti Hicks for Black EnterpriseAugust 5, 2025

In this episode, we discuss the life and legacy of James Weldon Johnson. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. He also wrote lyrics for many songs, including “Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing,” popularly regarded as the Black National Anthem. Johnson raised public awareness of lynching and fought Jim Crow [...]

Frederick Douglass made the strongest arguments for abolition in antebellum America because he made the case that abolition was not a mutation of the Founding Father’s vision of America, but a fulfillment of their promises of liberty for all. He had a lot riding on this personally – Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, escaped to the North in 1838, and became a renowned public speaker in Europe and the United States, captivating audiences with his powerful oratory and firsthand accounts of enslavement. Initially, in the 1840s, Douglass denounced the United States as a hypocritical nation that failed to uphold its ideals of liberty due to its support of slavery. He was part of the same radical abolitionist faction as William Lloyd Garrison, who publicly burned a copy of the U.S. Constitution in 1854 a Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society event, calling it “a covenant with death” and “an agreement with hell” due to its protections for slavery. But by the 1850s, Douglas’s views evolved to see the Constitution as an antislavery document that could be leveraged to fulfill the promise of freedom for all. His transformation reflected a strategic shift, advocating for reform within the system while maintaining his fierce commitment to abolishing slavery and securing equal rights. He was also a critic of Abraham Lincoln who later became friends with the president. Douglass disagreed with Abraham Lincoln's initial hesitancy to prioritize abolition and his gradual approach to emancipation, but agreed with Lincoln's eventual commitment to the Emancipation Proclamation and the use of Black soldiers in the Civil War, seeing these as critical steps toward ending slavery and aligning with the Constitution's promise of liberty. In “Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln,” Jonathan W. White, today’s guest, assembled Frederick Douglass’s most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. We see the anger Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass’s writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln’s assassination—as Jim Crow laws spread across the South—Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln’s statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At about 12 years of age, I began working for my father, loading bundles into the two delivery trucks used in his small business. This required that, first, I back the trucks down an alley and into the loading bay. Thus, I learned to drive going backward, which probably says something fundamental about me.But even at 12, I didn't get stuck in reverse, as today's Republican Congress has. The GOP's autocratic ideologues and corporate toadies are spurning hard-won, economic, social, environmental, and other progress made by generations of grassroots Americans. They are trying to drive our people back to Robber Baron rule and Jim Crow law.Indeed, no progressive advance today escapes the wrath of the GOP's ideological swat squad. Consider the operatic political frenzy they're now stirring up over Post Office trucks. Yes, that ubiquitous fleet of red, white, and blue mail delivery vehicles you see on every street and rural road in America.Those gas-powered workhorses, now 35 years old, are way overdue for replacement. Sensibly, the Postal Service is buying fuel-efficient, non-polluting, electric vehicles, which include such basics as airbags and air conditioning.But no, squealed extreme right-wingers like Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. She condemns the very idea of a battery-powered fleet as lefty “wokeness.” So she's demanding that Congress literally defund the purchase of EVs, forcing the Postal Service to go backward to inefficient, polluting trucks fueled by Big Oil – an industry that just happens to be a generous funder of her career.To get a clear-eyed view of which are the best vehicles to take us way forward, don't ask a corporate-owned ideologue; ask the postal workers who drive them. Go to apwu.com.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

American history has always been contested, but recent decisions by U.S. President Donald Trump to reshape the way it's taught and remembered have put museums, schools, and memorials squarely in the crosshairs. Earlier this year, Trump passed an executive order that called for the removal of what he referred to as “divisive, race-centered ideology” from the nation's museums. He's targeted the Smithsonian Museum in particular, calling it “out of control” and “woke”, criticizing it for focusing too much on teaching the history of slavery. What does it mean to discourage the teaching of slavery and Jim Crow laws in a country that practiced chattel slavery for nearly 250 years, and had been led by at least 12 Presidents who themselves owned slaves?Bryan Stevenson is a civil rights lawyer, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir ‘Just Mercy', and creator of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. He joins the show to talk about Trump's attacks on American history, and the enduring legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial terror in the United States.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Elaine Weiss, acclaimed author of The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, follows that magisterial work with a work of equal scholarly significance and narrative excellence, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement (Simon and Schuster, 2025), "the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.""In the summer of 1954, educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to rural Tennessee's Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner with roots in the labor movement. There, the trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to pass the daunting Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests that were designed to disenfranchise them.Together with beautician-turned-teacher Bernice Robinson, they launched the underground Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom hidden in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the secretive undertaking had established more than nine hundred citizenship schools across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read and write, demand their rights—and vote. Simultaneously, it nurtured a generation of activists—many of them women—trained in community organizing, political citizenship, and tactics of resistance and struggle who became the grassroots foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called Septima Clark, “Mother of the Movement.” Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist, author, and public speaker. In addition to Spell Freedom, she is the author of Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of the Great War; and The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. Elaine lives with her husband in Baltimore, Maryland. Find out more at her website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Elaine Weiss, acclaimed author of The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, follows that magisterial work with a work of equal scholarly significance and narrative excellence, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement (Simon and Schuster, 2025), "the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.""In the summer of 1954, educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to rural Tennessee's Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner with roots in the labor movement. There, the trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to pass the daunting Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests that were designed to disenfranchise them.Together with beautician-turned-teacher Bernice Robinson, they launched the underground Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom hidden in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the secretive undertaking had established more than nine hundred citizenship schools across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read and write, demand their rights—and vote. Simultaneously, it nurtured a generation of activists—many of them women—trained in community organizing, political citizenship, and tactics of resistance and struggle who became the grassroots foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called Septima Clark, “Mother of the Movement.” Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist, author, and public speaker. In addition to Spell Freedom, she is the author of Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of the Great War; and The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. Elaine lives with her husband in Baltimore, Maryland. Find out more at her website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Elaine Weiss, acclaimed author of The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, follows that magisterial work with a work of equal scholarly significance and narrative excellence, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement (Simon and Schuster, 2025), "the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.""In the summer of 1954, educator Septima Clark and small businessman Esau Jenkins travelled to rural Tennessee's Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white southerner with roots in the labor movement. There, the trio united behind a shared mission: preparing Black southerners to pass the daunting Jim Crow era voter registration literacy tests that were designed to disenfranchise them.Together with beautician-turned-teacher Bernice Robinson, they launched the underground Citizenship Schools project, which began with a single makeshift classroom hidden in the back of a rural grocery store. By the time the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, the secretive undertaking had established more than nine hundred citizenship schools across the South, preparing tens of thousands of Black citizens to read and write, demand their rights—and vote. Simultaneously, it nurtured a generation of activists—many of them women—trained in community organizing, political citizenship, and tactics of resistance and struggle who became the grassroots foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called Septima Clark, “Mother of the Movement.” Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist, author, and public speaker. In addition to Spell Freedom, she is the author of Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of the Great War; and The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. Elaine lives with her husband in Baltimore, Maryland. Find out more at her website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Before the fascists came, America was finally on the right track. As the saying goes, when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. That's what happened with our violent but mostly peaceful revolution in the Summer of 2020. When Joe Biden took office, we had complete control over the message and could fire anyone at will if they used the wrong pronoun, doubted the election results, or dared to defy mask mandates or lockdowns. Or even wore a red hat. We erected a high fence around the Capitol. We shunned, destroyed, de-banked, fired, bullied, harassed, and abused anyone who ever supported Trump. The hearts and minds did follow, they had to. We'd laid the groundwork for our revolution decades before. Most Americans were unaware of it. So were most parents until lockdowns. Then, unfortunately, they saw, but by then it was too late. A whole army had come of age and now, had taken to the streets. Conform or else.That's how culture changed, and it changed dramatically, almost overnight — all were in compliance. Movies, fashion, books, the arts, comedy, and yes, museums finally did what they were supposed to do - tell us how to think, what to think, and whose side to be on. America wasn't ready for that back in the 1950s when Communist hunters in government and Hollywood punished those seeking to use culture as a conduit for dogma. It's the Conservatives once again attempting to purge American culture of an infectious mind virus. When Trump gave a speech at Mount Rushmore, it was a warning, like Mein Kampf. America knew where we were headed, but they put him in power anyway four years later. Then again, how do we really know he was elected? Like they say on TikTok, “he wasn't shot, he didn't win, he is on the list.”We know how close the election was. Just as when Hitler won in Germany, Trump's win was close enough to rob him of his mandate to decide America wants change. America doesn't. America is “woke” and likes it that way, and if they don't, too bad.Now, the fascists want the Old America back. They want people to feel proud of their country and be inspired to make the most of themselves, regardless of skin color or class. As if that's even possible in a White Supremacist empire founded by colonizers on stolen land on the backs of oppressed and enslaved people. But we're going to fight them, just like we will fight them, trying to close the border or clean up crime or end the crisis of unhoused persons. Fortunately, we have complete control of the BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. They will project our message - they have to. They know that and have since 2020. And that message will have to be that Trump wants to eradicate all mentions of slavery, pretend it never existed at all. When Jillian Michaels tried to explain to the Good People at CNN that purging the “woke” from the Smithsonian wasn't about erasing slavery, it didn't go so well:But she's a fascist-apologist, which means we must do what we can to exclude her, purge her, and silence her. There is only one point of view allowed in our America. Anyone who tries to criticize us or dismantle what we built over the past 20 years must be destroyed. That is anti-fascism.So that meant she had to go on News Nation to try to further explain what she really meant.It doesn't really matter what Jillian Michaels thinks. What matters is what we tell her to think, and if she doesn't go along with it, she must be punished. We want every child or teenager forced to visit the Smithsonian with their school or their parents to know they should be ashamed of not just the color of their skin (if they are white) but of their country, its history, and its so-called heroes. We want every Black child or teenager who is forced to visit the museum to also know that they are forever and eternal victims; we need them to be. We need an endless supply of oppressed people to continue demonizing the oppressors and preserve our power. Not to mention, raise money from wealthy, guilty white people who need absolution for their sins of wealth and privilege. Otherwise, what's the point?Yes, it's to make everyone feel welcome, but they must know their place as symbols of oppression and never be allowed to rise beyond the menial jobs white people won't take. That keeps them in their lane. It's better than life in the third world. And it helps justify our movement. One exhibit depicts what looks like the Baby Jesus and family caught by border agents while trying to cross over the wall. Art must tell us what to think. This image conveys the migrants as martyrs under an oppressive system. It's a message that we project across all facets of culture under our control. We guide viewers on how to interpret this image and draw a conclusion about America. The message must be that all people who cross the border do so seeking democracy and a decent life. They are good. If you see them as terrorists or rapists or gang members, you are bad. You are a racist. If there is a Sydney Sweeney ad that celebrates “good genes,” well, the Gap will answer it with how we're all supposed to reflect female beauty as every color of the rainbow, because the Sydney Sweeney ad was racist. Here is another exhibit which reflects how we see our protected groups — it's never about achievement. It's only about identity. Identity is achievement. From the White House: I mean, of course, we know that Irish and Italian immigrants were attacked and prevented from voting and working in the US. They were white. But we can't tell that story because it muddies the message. All children need to know is that Benjamin Franklin was a racist. Art should depict any person who is marginalized as saintly and god-like. Here is an example of one of our children who is probably the last generation to know the truth before the fascists came.All school children should learn, as early as possible, about the various identity groups in case they might belong to one — surely they are aware of this even as toddlers. What we used to call a fetish is also now identity:The American History Museum's “LGBTQ+ History” exhibit seeks to “understand evolving and overlapping identities such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, transsexual, transvestite, mahu, homosexual, fluid, invert, urning, third sex, two sex, gender-bender, sapphist, hijra, friend of Dorothy, drag queen/king, and many other experiences.” If this were actual art, there would be an exhibit labeled “The Woke Eye view” and offer some critical thinking of Critical Theory. But that would be blasphemy. Artists have always spoken truth to power, and we have all of the cultural power, so we decide the message. Because identity matters, the transgender fight is on par with Jim Crow in our ideology, so if you remove any of it, it is like you are erasing Black history, too.Illegal immigration is identity. Crime is identity. Theft, carjacking, murder, and rape are identity, unless you're white. Then you drive the news cycle for several weeks as we lament the harms of “white supremacy” on our society.If you try to stop any of it, then you will be screamed at, “F— you! You f—ing fascists! Why are you here? I don't want you in my city!” So said one brave resistance fighter who then, in a fit of pure rage, hurled a footlong sub at the Gestapo then fled the scene. We turned that into art, too. Ordinarily, we might care that the sandwich would make for a pretty good meal for an unhoused person, or that it costs carbon emissions to grow the animal, slaughter it, then drive the meat to Subway, and finally put the sandwich together, probably all labor by people of color or other marginalized groups. We might protest him or cancel him on social media for his carbon footprint. But that would be in ordinary times. These are not ordinary times. Anti-fascism is preventing crime in the cities because policing crime is another form of oppression. Anyone who supports making the streets safer is a fascist. All of the Good White Liberals agree: Fascism is here. Even Bill Maher says so. Sure, he kind of has to because if he doesn't, he might not get invited to the parties anymore. Or his show might be canceled outright. Or maybe he believes it. We get to say what kind of lawfare amounts to fascism. Terry Moran gets to say. Sure, we raided Trump's home and indicted him, took his mug shot. Threw Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro in jail for Contempt of Congress, tried to throw Trump in jail, tried to throw him off the ballot, probably tried to shoot him; we might have de-banked a few and kicked people off social media. Fired them for offensive words, ideas, or headlines. But you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.It all works together. Keep teaching that America is an empire of “white supremacy” and Black and Brown people must turn to crime and drug addiction just to survive it, well, then, we don't want the National Guard in our cities, because what would happen if they cleaned up crime? No crime, no democracy. We need the museum to explain why we need DEI, why we have crime, and why we need to accept crime and homelessness as a part of normal life in a sick and broken country like ours. As long as our country is sick and broken, then our movement is justified. We must eradicate fascism and restore democracy. 2020 was only the beginning. We just need to ensure we have complete control over the young. We want them as early as infancy. We want them in preschool. We want everything they see and everything they learn to be our message. Our America. Was it Orwell who said, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” That is our fight now. Who controls the present? We need to protect our message that not all are created equal. Our history must remind us every day that we should feel shame about our past, because how else to justify our survival? // This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show, President Donald Trump calls into the show and discusses transforming the U.S. from a dead country under President Biden to the hottest nation globally, as affirmed by world leaders. Trump describes handling the Russia-Ukraine conflict through instinct rather than rigid processes, emphasizing his success in securing hostage releases without concessions. He praises PM Benjamin Netanyahu as a war hero amid legal challenges and recounts authorizing a precise military strike on Iran's nuclear facility, which pilots had prepared for over 22 years, preventing imminent nuclear weapon development. Furthermore, our media is deeply flawed, and Susan Rice is no exception as she criticizes Trump for not securing a cease-fire agreement. However, Trump is addressing a much larger issue that extends beyond just a cease-fire. European leaders, along with Zelensky and Putin, will not agree to a deal unless it meets their standards. It's noteworthy that Trump was able to facilitate discussions between Zelensky and Putin, a feat that Biden and many previous presidents would never have achieved. Also, Rep. Gregory Meeks and Rev. Al Sharpton have attacked Trump with "taking over" cities using the National Guard, effectively seizing control of significant African American neighborhoods and exploiting them. They even labeled Trump as "Jim Crow 2.0," a truly reprehensible accusation. However, many in Washington DC, including members of the African American community, are recognizing the need for safety and are thankful that the National Guard was present. With crime rampant in Washington DC and numerous other cities, this is a crucial part of Trump's strategy to restore safety and make these cities safe again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Unlearning the Hush: Oral Histories of Black Female Educators in Mississippi in the Civil Rights Era (University of Illinois Press, 2025), Dr. Marlee Bunch shared her research on Black female educators in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era and discussed how their experiences and wisdom continue to inform contemporary teaching practices and diversity initiatives. The conversation explored the importance of preserving and unearthing hidden histories through various forms of cultural expression, while examining the role of educators in creating inclusive learning environments. Marlee's work extends to her teaching philosophy and upcoming projects, including a National Academy of Education postdoc award project that will expand her oral history research to include Black male educators and explore the power of storytelling across generations. Despite significant challenges and powerful opposition, Black female teachers stood at the forefront of advocating for and providing education to Black students. Their dedication not only improved opportunities for Black communities but also influenced changes in U.S. laws and societal expectations. Bunch draws on a rich fund of oral histories to reveal the interior lives of Black female educators who taught before and after desegregation in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In their own voices, these women detail the hurdles they faced guiding students through Jim Crow laws and Civil Rights-era desegregation. Bunch unearths the personal stories of teaching and activism during a historic time that included the Brown v. Board of Education decision and whites' massive resistance to desegregation. The educators explain the importance of the Black community and Black homes while discussing their part in priming students for success and creating community cohesion. In addition, Bunch looks at the legacies of Black educators and the work still to be done. A section of images and poetry compliments the text. Inspiring and immersive, Unlearning the Hush combines memory with Civil Rights history to document Black women's role in education during a tumultuous time. Bunch is an interdisciplinary educator, scholar, author, and preserver of oral histories dedicated to illuminating untold stories and fostering human-centered, inclusive learning spaces. With over a decade of teaching experience across secondary and post-secondary classrooms, she has consistently championed equitable, rigorous, and reflective education that honors the lived experiences of students and educators alike. A passionate advocate for justice-centered education, Bunch earned her doctoral degree in Education, Policy, Organization, and Leadership with an emphasis in Diversity and Equity from the University of Illinois. She also holds an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from DePaul University, an M.S. in Gifted Education, and an ESL certification — a testament to her commitment to meeting the diverse needs of learners. She is a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. At the heart of Bunch's work is the belief that history and storytelling hold transformative power. Her research centers on the oral histories of Black female educators in Mississippi who taught during the Civil Rights era (1954–1970), preserving their narratives as both historical record and source of contemporary wisdom. Through this work, she invites reflection on resistance and the enduring importance of educators as community leaders and cultural stewards.Her other publications include The Magnitude of Us (Teachers College Press, 2024), and Leveraging AI for Human-Centered Learning: Culturally Responsive and Social-Emotional Classroom Practice in Grades 6-12, co-authored with Brittany R. Collins (Routledge, 2025). Whether through scholarship, storytelling, or advocacy, Bunch continues to elevate voices too often left at the margins, reminding us that the most meaningful learning happens when we center humanity, history, and hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

“The case for America is not that America is perfect. The case for America is we keep striving.” – Condoleezza Rice.   In this exclusive interview, Bret speaks to the former Secretary of State to President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, the first-ever Black American Woman to hold the title. Secretary Rice tells the story of how she was able to rise to prominence in an era where Jim Crow laws prohibited millions from a fair shot at the American dream, and why she grew to love her country despite that.   Secretary Rice also discusses the difficulties she faced in helping run a nation with hundreds of conflicting views, the role America must play in international politics, and why millions across the globe still strive for American citizenship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nacida en 1850, Sarah Loguen encontró su vocación cuando era niña, cuando ayudó a sus padres y a Harriet Tubman a vendar la pierna de una persona herida que escapaba de la esclavitud. Cuando terminó la Guerra Civil y la Reconstrucción abrió oportunidades para los afroamericanos, Loguen se convirtió en una de las primeras mujeres negras en obtener una licencia médica. Pero rápidamente, prevalecieron las leyes racistas de Jim Crow. A instancias de un amigo de la familia, Frederick Douglass, Loguen se casó y, con su nuevo esposo, se embarcó hacia la República Dominicana, donde era posible más para una persona de color. Esta es su historia. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Born in 1850, Sarah Loguen found her calling as a child, when she helped her parents and Harriet Tubman bandage the leg of an injured person escaping slavery. When the Civil War ended and Reconstruction opened up opportunities for African Americans, Loguen became one of the first Black women to earn a medical license. But quickly, racist Jim Crow laws prevailed. At the urging of family friend Frederick Douglass, Loguen married and, with her new husband, set sail for the Dominican Republic where more was possible for a person of color. This is her story.This Best Of episode, which first aired in September 2023, is also available in a Spanish adaptation, narrated by Laura Gómez. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

"The Five" on Fox News Channel airs weekdays at 5 p.m. ET. Five of your favorite Fox News personalities discuss current issues in a roundtable discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wednesday marks the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the law that ended the era of Jim Crow voting laws that blocked Black Americans from exercising their right to cast a ballot. But 60 years later, there’s renewed effort to give parties more control over the process by giving politicians more ability to pick their voters. William Brangham discussed more with Tony Plohetski and Rick Hasen. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders