May 30, 1921. Dick Rowland, a Black teenager, works as a shoeshine in the predominantly white downtown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. On his break, he goes into a nearby office building to use the restroom, and gets on the elevator. Sarah Page, a white teenager, is the elevator operator. What happens next is just an innocent accident, but it sparks the deadliest episod ... Show More
Today
A Meteorite Hits Ann Hodges
November 30, 1954. At about 12:45 in the afternoon, a space rock comes plummeting through the roof of a house in Sylacauga, Alabama. It bounces off a stand-up radio, ricochets around the living room, and collides with the thigh of Mrs. Ann Hodges, who’s been napping on the couch. ... Show More
37m 23s
Nov 17
Ken Burns Reimagines the American Revolution | A Conversation with Ken Burns & Sarah Botstein
November 16, 1776. George Washington rows toward Manhattan to inspect the fort that bears his name, only to meet a full-scale British assault already underway. By afternoon, Fort Washington has fallen, and General Washington is forced to abandon New York City.
The Continental A ... Show More
38m 45s
Nov 10
The Grinnell 14 Take On the Bomb (feat. Peter Coyote)
November 16, 1961. Fourteen college students from Iowa have driven nearly a thousand miles to the White House. They’re fasting, protesting, and calling for an end to nuclear bomb testing. These students, later known as the Grinnell 14, will help ignite the student peace movement ... Show More
27m 56s
May 2022
Tulsa: The Attack on Black Wall Street
<p>From May 31 to June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly Black ‘Greenwood District’ of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hundreds of people died or were injured in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921— the event remains one of the worst incidents of racial ... Show More
30m 19s
May 2021
Episode 1: The Past Is Present
This episode contains descriptions of graphic violence and racially offensive language.
On May 31, 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District was a thriving Black residential and business community — a city within a city. By June 1, a white mob, with the support of law enforcemen ... Show More
35m 5s
May 2021
Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | The Promised Land | 1
<p>In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma boasted one of the nation’s most prosperous African-American communities. Greenwood was home to 108 Black-owned businesses, two theaters, 15 physicians, two newspapers, and a luxury hotel. It was nicknamed “the Black Wall Street.”</p><p>Then, on May 30 ... Show More
48m 32s
Aug 2021
Kevin McGruder, "Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem" (Columbia UP, 2021)
What was Harlem before its Renaissance, and how did it come to be? In Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (Columbia University Press, 2021), historian Kevin McGruder, Associate Professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, explores the life of the remarkable Philip ... Show More
1h 1m
May 2021
SYMHC Classics: Tulsa Massacre
This 2014 episode covers the devastation of "Black Wall Street," which was a nickname for Greenwood, a vibrant suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was destroyed in a racist attack in 1921. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/liste ... Show More
23m 25s
Jul 2023
Blair Kelley, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class" (LIveright, 2023)
In the United States, the stoicism and importance of the “working class” is part of the national myth. The term is often used to conjure the contributions and challenges of the white working class – and this obscures the ways in which Black workers built institutions like the rai ... Show More
45m 1s