EpisodeRace, Slavery, and the Civil War: The Tough Stuff
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the nation’s finest historians gathered on September 24th at Norfolk State University to discuss the role of race and slavery in the …
EpisodeShowdown in Virginia
The election of Abraham Lincoln as President touched off a secession crisis in the South. In his new book, Showdown in Virginia, Bill Freehling (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) focuses …
EpisodeReplay: The Making of a Civil Rights Museum
In 1951, young Barbara Johns led a student walkout to protest conditions at the segregated Moton High School in Farmville, VA. Her actions led to a lawsuit, one of a …
EpisodeThe Making of a Civil Rights Museum
In 1951, young Barbara Johns led a student walkout to protest conditions at her segregated Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. Her actions led to a lawsuit that eventually helped …
EpisodeEvery Move You Make
Each day most of us wave to a friend or gesture in a meeting with colleagues. Dance professor Karen Studd (George Mason University) sees patterns and language in all of …
EpisodeSearching for Runaway Slaves
The “Geography of Slavery” website catalogs more than 4,000 advertisements offering rewards for runaway slaves—placed in newspapers from 1736 through 1803. Tom Costa (University of Virginia’s College at Wise) gathered …
EpisodeNo Longer in Black and White
Arthur Knight (William and Mary) has made a career of studying African-American film, from biographies of its stars to the viewing patterns of its audiences. In the new Obama era, …
EpisodeReplay: The Steel-Driving Man and the Man of Steel
The song “John Henry” is one of the most popular in American history but, for years, nobody knew whether the legendary railroad tunneler was a real person or simply a …
Episode“I do solemnly swear”
More than one million people are expected to descend on Washington, DC for Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20th. Political Scientists Carol Pretlow and Rudolph Wilson (Norfolk State University) say …
EpisodeThe Steel-Driving Man and The Man of Steel
The song “John Henry” is one of the most popular in American history but, for years, nobody knew whether the legendary railroad tunneler was a real person or simply a …
EpisodeCall Me Mister
If you look at the most popular films of the last eighty years, you can see a changing image of the American male. Ashton Trice (James Madison University) says men were …
EpisodeReplay: Shakespeare and Race
Until recently, scholars assumed that the Elizabethans were both white and English and that they didn’t know people of color. But if that’s the case, why did Shakespeare, the best-known …
