On today’s episode of our special series, Momentum: Civil Rights in the 1950s, Sharon continues a riveting conversation with pulitzer-prize winning author, Gilbert King. We pick up with the involvement of J.Edgar Hoover and the case of The Groveland Four, including the political dance Thurgood Marshall did with Hoover to strategically move the Civil Rights m ... Show More
Mar 2
The Long History of Demonizing Immigrants: From the Great Depression to Today
Before ICE raids, there were pamphlets warning Americans about immigrant "peasants" stealing their jobs and "hell ships" dumping people into the Mexican desert with no food, water, or way to reach their families. Sharon looks back at the parallels between the mass deportations of ... Show More
39m 15s
Feb 23
Elyse Myers’ New Book and Harriet Tubman’s Faith
You might know her as the woman who got dragged to a taco bell where her date ordered one hundred tacos and she got stuck paying for them. Elyse Myers’ hilarious re-telling of that story launched her career, and now she’s out with a new book, That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to ... Show More
40m 43s
Feb 16
The State of Black History and Journalism in 2026
Simply teaching the facts in and out of the classroom has become an act of courage, and sometimes, real risk. Former history teacher Ernest Crim joins Sharon McMahon to talk about why Black history, civics, and knowing your rights are crucial to navigating power abuses, injustice ... Show More
45m 39s
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Prairie Fire | 4
<p>As the Civil Rights movement entered the Sixties, a new generation of activists took the fore. Frustrated by the pace of progress but emboldened by strides made in the previous decade, students embraced “nonviolent direct action,” protest techniques that were provocative but p ... Show More
38m 17s
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - New World A’Comin | 1
<p>President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in much of the South. But the road to freedom—true freedom—would take generations longer for most black Americans.</p><p>In this new six-part series, we investigate their stru ... Show More
38m 5s
Jun 2020
Freedom Summer, 1964
June 21, 1964. James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, three civil rights activists in their early twenties, are reported missing in Mississippi. They are part of the first wave of Freedom Summer, a massive voter registration campaign in the racist heart of the South, ... Show More
28m 57s
May 2022
Reconstruction IV: Voting Rights At Last
May 26, 1965. One hundred years after the Civil War, Congress is debating a bill whose goal is to enforce the 15th amendment, which, in 1870, promised the right to vote regardless of race. But that’s not what happened. Now the Civil Rights movement is saying: It’s time to make re ... Show More
44 m
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Strides Towards Freedom | 2
<p>In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal, on a “separate but equal” basis. But for more than five decades, life for black and white Americans was seldom equal, but always separate.</p><p>To fight segregation, the NAACP and others exposed the dismal and ... Show More
35m 53s
Nov 2020
Supreme Court Landmarks | Separate and Unequal | 3
<p>After the Civil War, America began to rebuild a shattered nation. For the first time, the country could create a society without slavery, and a nation where Black people could forge their own path as independent citizens.</p><p>But by the 1890s, the laws and policies that prom ... Show More
35m 30s
Nov 2019
The Black Congressmen of Reconstruction: Death of Representation
During the 1870s, more than a dozen African American men, many of whom had been born into slavery, were elected to the U.S. Congress. These political pioneers symbolized the sky high hopes of millions of former slaves during the years right after the Civil War. It was a period th ... Show More
44m 31s