Episodes

  • Episode 25 | The Entrepreneurial Life of Madame C.J. Walker
    Nov 28 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the life of Madam C.J. Walker. Madam C.J. Walker (b. Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Multiple sources mention that although other women (like Mary Ellen Pleasant) might have been the first, their wealth is not as well-documented.

    Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for black women through the business she founded, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She became known also for her philanthropy and activism. She made financial donations to numerous organizations such as the NAACP, and became a patron of the arts. Villa Lewaro, Walker's lavish estate in Irvington, New York, served as a social gathering place for the African-American community. At the time of her death, she was considered the wealthiest African-American businesswoman and wealthiest self-made black woman in America. Her name was a version of "Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker", after her third husband.

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    23 mins
  • Episode 24 | The Articles of Confederation
    Nov 21 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States' first constitution. It was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present-day Constitution went into effect.

    The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification. The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after ratification by all the states. A guiding principle of the Articles was to establish and preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states. The weak central government established by the Articles received only those powers which the former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament.

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    25 mins
  • Episode 23 | The Murder of Emmett Till
    Nov 14 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. Emmett Louis Till (b. July 25, 1941) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.

    Till's murder was seen as a catalyst for the next phase of the civil rights movement. In December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott began in Alabama and lasted more than a year, resulting eventually in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. According to historians, events surrounding Till's life and death continue to resonate. An Emmett Till Memorial Commission was established in the early 21st century. The Sumner County Courthouse was restored and includes the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Fifty-one sites in the Mississippi Delta are memorialized as associated with Till. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, an American law which makes lynching a federal hate crime, was signed into law on March 29, 2022 by President Joe Biden. A new film, Till, documents the decades-long pursuit of justice for the 14-year-old, whose 1955 killing galvanized a generation of activists.

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    29 mins
  • Episode 22 | The Path to the American Revolutionary War
    Nov 7 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the American Revolutionary War and the lesser known events that led to it. The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, secured American independence from Great Britain. Fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean.

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    31 mins
  • Episode 21 | The Complex Legacy of Nat Turner and His Slave Uprising
    Oct 31 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into Nat Turner and the rebellion that shook the South. Nat Turner (b. October 2, 1800) was an enslaved African-American preacher who organized and led the four-day rebellion of enslaved and free Black people in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Turner's Rebellion, also known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. The rebels killed between 55 and 65 people, at least 51 of whom were White. The rebellion was effectively suppressed within a few days, at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards.

    There was widespread fear in the aftermath, and militias organized in retaliation to the rebels. Approximately 120 enslaved people and free African Americans were killed by militias and mobs in the area. The Commonwealth of Virginia later executed an additional 56 enslaved people accused of being part of the rebellion, including Turner himself; many Black people who had not participated were also persecuted in the frenzy. Because Turner had been educated and literate as well as a popular preacher, state legislatures subsequently passed new laws prohibiting education of enslaved people and free Black people, restricting rights of assembly and other civil liberties for free Black people, and requiring White ministers to be present at all worship services.


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    25 mins
  • Episode 20 | How the Pearl Harbor Attacked Shaped America’s Role in the World
    Oct 24 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the role the Pearl Harbor Attack had on America and the remainder of the second World War. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m., on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a pivotal moment in U.S. and world history. The attack thrust the U.S. into World War II and set in motion a series of events that would transform the country into a global superpower and guardian of international order.

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    27 mins
  • Episode 19 | The Legacy of Marcus Garvey
    Oct 17 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the legacy, life and work of a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator, Marcus Garvey Sr. ONH (b. August 17, 1887). He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism. Believing that black people needed to be financially independent from white-dominated societies, Garvey launched various businesses in the U.S., including the Negro Factories Corporation and Negro World newspaper.

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    23 mins
  • Episode 18 | The Lesser-Known History of Black Cowboys
    Oct 10 2022

    On today’s episode: hosts Brandon and Tamia delve into the lesser-known history of Black Cowboys in America. One in four cowboys were Black. So why aren’t they more present in popular culture? Few images embody the spirit of the American West as well as the trailblazing, sharpshooting, horseback-riding cowboy of American lore. And though African-American cowboys don’t play a part in the popular narrative, historians estimate that one in four cowboys were black. Black cowboys in the American West accounted for up to an estimated 25% of cowboys "who went up the trail" from the 1860s to 1880s and a substantial but unknown percentage in the rest of the ranching industry, estimated to be at least 5000 workers according to the latest research.

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    23 mins