logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2024
1h 37m

CZM Rewind: Barry Black Pt. 1 & 2

iHeartPodcasts and Cool Zone Media
About this episode

The Fire Will Not Consume Us: Barry Black, Part 1

In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the mere act of burning a cross, absent evidence of specific intent to intimidate, is protected by the first amendment. But who was the klansman who got his case all the way to the highest court in the land? This is the first half of the story of Barry Black, a Pennsylvania Ku Klux Klan leader who won two write-in campaigns for constable, waged war on a rural gay bar, and spent decades fighting for his right to intimidate.

Original Air Date: 10.3.24

Freedom to Burn: Barry Black, Part 2

In part two of the story of Barry Black, we finally get to the landmark supreme court case that won the klansman the right to burn crosses. Barry's Keystone Knights faded into relative obscurity after the high profile case and Virginia passed a new law aimed to prevent men like Barry from using fire as a tool of intimidation.

Original Air Date: 10.10.24

Sources - Pt. 1: 

https://www.salon.com/2009/07/24/liddy/

https://www.fec.gov/resources/legal-resources/litigation/berg_ac_berg_emerg_mot_proh_cert.pdf https://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/PROJECTS/Obama/Evidence/AFFIDAVIT-Bishop.pdf

https://barthsnotes.com/2009/08/25/meet-ron-mcrae-the-birther-bishop/ https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/278475/dykudrama/ https://digdc.dclibrary.org/islandora/object/dcplislandora%3A266739/datastream/OCR/view https://archives.rainbowhistory.org/files/original/367cf04d6456e9b3c311296a806863cd.pdf https://youtu.be/o4o0tZPETAc

https://archive.org/details/BarryE.Black/mode/2up

Heibel, Todd (2004). Blame It on the Casa Nova?: “Good Scenery and Sodomy” in Rural Southwestern Pennsylvania. In Spaces of Hate: Geographies of Discrimination and Intolerance in the U.S.A. Routledge.

Sources - Pt. 2: 

https://law.duke.edu/voices/virginia https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/01-1107 https://unprecedented.substack.com/p/transcript-bodily-harm-is-coming https://time.com/archive/6615465/south-carolina-backfire/ https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/05/us/georgia-kkk-adopt-a-highway-lawsuit/index.html https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/former-kkk-headquarters-terrorized-town-years-now-will-become-diversit-rcna20865

https://www.kait8.com/story/3384156/prison-officer-fired-for-kkk-membership-sues-arkansas-correction-department/

Unite the Right audio from videos by photojournalist Zach D Roberts & publicly available video recorded by the marchers themselves

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Today
CZM Rewind: The Civil War False Flag
When someone left a bomb at a Civil War reenactment event in 2017, it looked like antifascist activists were out for revenge after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. A mysterious letter writer claiming to be an antifascist collective took credit for the bomb and threat ... Show More
53m 31s
Jul 3
There Is A Spectre Haunting New York City
The right wing media is buzzing with accusations that the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City is a communist. They're calling for his removal from not only the ballot... but the also the country. This anticommunist panic isn't new. Sources:Drabble, John. “To Ensure Dome ... Show More
47m 56s
Jun 26
A Brief History of Vehicular Violence
Last week, we talked about one particular incident of vehicular violence on protesters. But where does the tactic come from? Who is doing it? And why? Sources:Miller, Vincent, and Keith J. Hayward. “‘I DID MY BIT’: TERRORISM, TARDE AND THE VEHICLE RAMMING ATTACK AS AN IMITATIVE E ... Show More
1h 5m
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2020
The black reverend who bought a Ku Klux Klan shop
In 1996, an African American reverend called David Kennedy faced one of his biggest fights. A new shop had sprung up in Laurens, his small town in South Carolina, selling white supremacist memorabilia and housing a Ku Klux Klan museum. It was called the Redneck Shop, and Reverend ... Show More
22m 26s
Nov 2021
The L.A. Riots | 2. No Justice
In March 1991, the video of the Rodney King beating was national news. The LAPD was under intense scrutiny and many white Americans were seeing a side of policing they’d never seen before.Just a few days after George Holliday’s tape aired, the residents of South Central, Los Ange ... Show More
50m 38s
Apr 9
The Speeding President
The only sitting U.S. president to ever be arrested was Ulysses S. Grant, who was busted THREE TIMES for the same crime: speeding. The first was 9th April, 1886, when he tore through Washington, D.C. in a horse-drawn buggy. General Grant scoffed at the idea of getting arrested an ... Show More
11m 34s
Nov 2024
"Empire" Star Jussie Smollett Convicted For FAKING FELONY HATE CRIME: Conviction Overturned
Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett is convicted of staging a hate crime attack against himself on a cold Chicago night.  Smollett was convicted on five disorderly conduct count and sentenced to 150 days. In reality, he spent only six days behind bars while maintaining his inno ... Show More
39m 18s
Jul 2024
S28 Trailer | Someone Knows Something: Dee & Moore
In 1964, the partial remains of two black teenagers — Charles Moore and Henry Dee — were pulled from a backwater of the Mississippi River. Brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, no one was ever convicted. In one of his first ever cold case investigations, Someone Knows Something  ... Show More
1m 19s
Dec 2023
REOPENED: Crimes of the Klan
Vernon Dahmer was a shop owner in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and President of the local chapter of the NAACP. At midnight on January 10th, 1966, two truckloads of Klansmen drove to his house and firebombed it. Vernon's family never stopped seeking justice, but it would take them m ... Show More
25m 33s
Aug 2023
Introducing... FIASCO: VIGILANTE
The new season of Fiasco is out now on Audible. You can sign up for a free trial and listen at adbl.co/vigilanteIn 1984, as a New York City subway train made its way downtown, a white man named Bernhard Goetz shot four unarmed Black teenagers he believed were going to rob him. Th ... Show More
1m 39s
Oct 2024
An American Mutiny in WWII
October 9th, 1944. In California, 50 U.S. sailors are on trial for the Navy’s most serious crime, mutiny. It’s a rarely used charge, yet these 50 sailors—all of whom are Black—face the death penalty if convicted. But today, their chances of a fair trial get a little better. Thurg ... Show More
39m 3s
Jun 2022
Fathers of the Movement
More than ten years ago, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen, was fatally shot in a gated neighborhood in Florida while on his way back to their home from a local convenience store. Martin's death -- and his shooter's acquittal -- would go on to spark a new generation of protes ... Show More
22m 38s