January 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Sometimes the most curious thing a person can do is stand up to the system that is holding them back.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
By the time she had boarded the bus home in
October of nineteen fifty five, Georgia had already had a
very long day. Tired from work, she dropped her fare
in the till and went to go sit in the
segregated back of the bus. She stopped shorts when the
bus driver began to yell at her. He ordered her
not to walk through the white section at the front
of the bus. She would need to get off and
(00:57):
re enter at the back of the Busia couldn't believe it.
She was already on the bus, wasn't she, But seeing
as he wasn't going to budge and deciding that she
would rather get home than fight with a power tripping driver,
Georgia sighed and got off the bus. But the moment
she stepped foot on the sidewalk, the bus sped off
with her fare still on board, and it wasn't the
(01:19):
first time the Montgomery, Alabama bus system had discriminated against
black writers, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Two
months later, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give
up her seat to a white writer, and when Georgia
Gilmore heard that local leaders were planning a bus boycott,
she knew she had to be involved. On December fifth
of nineteen fifty five, Georgia watched as the Reverend Martin
(01:41):
Luther King Junior spoke before a crowd of thousands at
the Holt Street Baptist Church. He proposed that the black
community should put together their own form of transportation in protest,
using donated cars and personal vehicles to ferry black people
to work in schools across Montgomery. His idea was met
with thunderous applause, Georgia included, but she was already thinking ahead.
(02:02):
Even if dozens of community members donated cars, it would
still cost money to keep up the boycott. Cars needed
gas and oil, and drivers needed wages. But Georgia had
just the idea to fund the boycott. She was a
cook by trade, working for the National Lunch Company, so
she decided to put her skills to use. She started
selling food at protest meetings and black owned businesses, showing
(02:25):
up with baskets full of fried fish, pork chops, sweet
potato pies, and pound cakes, and soon enough Georgia had
organized dozens of women across the city to do the same.
Many black people in Montgomery worked for white families and
were afraid that being a visible part of the protest
might cost them their jobs, but cooking and selling food
was a quiet way to support the cause. Georgia dubbed
(02:48):
her network the Club from Nowhere. If people asked where
the food had come from, the cooks could truthfully say
it came from nowhere. Georgia became a welcome site at
every weekly boycott meeting, where she would sing and dance
down the church aisle and report each week's fundraising numbers.
The Club from Nowhere typically raised the equivalent of fifteen
hundred dollars a week, and Georgia herself probably raised most
(03:11):
of the money of any person in Montgomery for three
hundred and eighty one days. Georgia's cooking kept the boycotters
fed and funded. When Doctor King and other leaders were arrested,
for conspiring against the bus system's business. In nineteen fifty six,
Georgia testified at the trial, telling her story of the
white bus driver driving off with her fare. The testimony
(03:33):
made Georgia even more of a celebrity among Montgomery's black community,
but also made her visible to the white opposition. The
National Lunch Company fired her shortly after. Now, Georgia was
a clever and resilient woman, but this was a setback.
She had six children to feed on top of managing
the club from nowhere, and she was having trouble finding
another cooking job. When she brought these concerns to Martin
(03:55):
Luther King, Junior, he told her he had a solution,
why not work for yourself. With some capital from doctor King,
Georgia opened a restaurant in her home from which she
could continue to feed the revolution. Doctor King began to
use it as a meeting house, and he brought Robert
Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson to meet Georgia and
eat her food. Finally, on November thirteenth of nineteen fifty six,
(04:18):
the Supreme Court ruled Montgomery's segregated bus lines were unconstitutional.
A month later, the bus boycott ended for good, Georgia
Gilmore continued to be a civil rights activist and beloved chef.
In fact, the day she died on March ninth of
nineteen ninety, she had been up early cooking meals for
the twenty fifth anniversary celebration of the Selma to Montgomery March.
(04:40):
Her family instead served the food to the hundreds who
came to mourn her. Dead or alive. Georgia was still
feeding the fire. The Korean War was part of the
(05:03):
larger Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
As such, it contained layers of legitimate disagreement between the
actual people of Korea, as well as layers of propaganda
and interference from the larger superpowers on opposite sides. While
the war ended in a truce in nineteen fifty three,
that didn't mean the ideological war between the Americans and
(05:24):
the Soviets had come to an end, not even close.
Korea was divided into North and South, with the North
becoming communist and the South becoming a capitalist republic. However,
the North quickly became a dictatorship with a stagnant economy
due in part to US embargo, and the South became
a major military installation for the US to keep tabs
on the Soviets. And it was amidst this clash between
(05:46):
Titanic forces that one man sought to carve out a
life for himself against all odds. No Kumsuk was born
during the Japanese occupation of Korea, only to grow up
and see his hometown change hands from Japanese RS rule
to North Korean dictatorship. His parents always resented the anti
American propaganda fed to them for decades by both regimes.
(06:08):
They wanted a chance to make up their own minds.
As Kumsuk got older, he just wanted to eat. Food
was scarce under the dictatorship and American embargo. When he
heard that North Korean Air Force pilots were well fed,
he enlisted. During the war, he flew over a hundred
missions and rose to the rank of lieutenant. Kumsuk claims
that he never actually shot down any enemy planes. He
(06:30):
says that he made a point to shoot past them. Again,
he had been raised to not believe everything that he
heard about Americans and South Koreans. Now that being said,
it is hard to believe that he was able to
fly so many missions without ever killing an enemy pilot,
and that his superiors would never notice this. But if true,
it only makes his determination more impressive, and it also
(06:52):
maybe explains why eventually Kumsuk realized that he had to
flee the country. He couldn't continue to fight for a
regime he didn't believe in, and he saw no future
in his destitute homeland, and he knew his chances of
escaping were pretty slim. In fact, he gave himself a
twenty percent chance of success, but he was willing to
take those odds if it meant a better future. He
(07:13):
was only twenty one, after all. In September of nineteen
fifty three, Kumsuk took his Soviet built MiG fifteen fighter
jet off the runway in North Korea under the guise
of running a mission. Instead, he flew south, boldly crossing
into enemy territory. He located an American Air Force base,
skidding to a stop on the runway, nearly colliding with
a departing jet, but confused personnel scrambled to the site,
(07:36):
assuming that he was an American pilot. But when they
got a good look at his plane and watched an
astonishment as he stepped out of the cockpit, they saw
him throw a picture of North Korean dictator Kim Ilsung
to the ground. And if Kumsuk was worried about a
frosty reception, he shouldn't have been, because as the Americans
examined his jet, they soon realized that it was a
MiG fifteen. An American general had recently put a bounty
(07:59):
on this mone it had a unique engine that made
it more advanced than American aircraft. Comsuk was awarded one
hundred thousand dollars or about a million dollars in today's currency.
With this money, he was able to set up a
trust and eventually move himself to the United States so
that he could see for himself what Americans were like.
Once in the US, he excelled, earning a degree in
(08:21):
engineering from the University of Delaware. He changed his name
to Kenneth Rowe, married a fellow Korean immigrant, and in
nineteen sixty two finally became a US citizen. Kenneth eventually
settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he became a professor
of aerospace engineering. In many ways, it was the American's
greatest dream, a former Communist citizen defecting, coming to America
(08:43):
and living his best life. But more than that, it
was one man taking his destiny into his own hands
and finding himself a home. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosity. Subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
(09:04):
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
By the time she had boarded the bus home in
October of nineteen fifty five, Georgia had already had a
very long day. Tired from work, she dropped her fare
in the till and went to go sit in the
segregated back of the bus. She stopped shorts when the
bus driver began to yell at her. He ordered her
not to walk through the white section at the front
of the bus. She would need to get off and
(00:57):
re enter at the back of the Busia couldn't believe it.
She was already on the bus, wasn't she, But seeing
as he wasn't going to budge and deciding that she
would rather get home than fight with a power tripping driver,
Georgia sighed and got off the bus. But the moment
she stepped foot on the sidewalk, the bus sped off
with her fare still on board, and it wasn't the
(01:19):
first time the Montgomery, Alabama bus system had discriminated against
black writers, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Two
months later, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give
up her seat to a white writer, and when Georgia
Gilmore heard that local leaders were planning a bus boycott,
she knew she had to be involved. On December fifth
of nineteen fifty five, Georgia watched as the Reverend Martin
(01:41):
Luther King Junior spoke before a crowd of thousands at
the Holt Street Baptist Church. He proposed that the black
community should put together their own form of transportation in protest,
using donated cars and personal vehicles to ferry black people
to work in schools across Montgomery. His idea was met
with thunderous applause, Georgia included, but she was already thinking ahead.
(02:02):
Even if dozens of community members donated cars, it would
still cost money to keep up the boycott. Cars needed
gas and oil, and drivers needed wages. But Georgia had
just the idea to fund the boycott. She was a
cook by trade, working for the National Lunch Company, so
she decided to put her skills to use. She started
selling food at protest meetings and black owned businesses, showing
(02:25):
up with baskets full of fried fish, pork chops, sweet
potato pies, and pound cakes, and soon enough Georgia had
organized dozens of women across the city to do the same.
Many black people in Montgomery worked for white families and
were afraid that being a visible part of the protest
might cost them their jobs, but cooking and selling food
was a quiet way to support the cause. Georgia dubbed
(02:48):
her network the Club from Nowhere. If people asked where
the food had come from, the cooks could truthfully say
it came from nowhere. Georgia became a welcome site at
every weekly boycott meeting, where she would sing and dance
down the church aisle and report each week's fundraising numbers.
The Club from Nowhere typically raised the equivalent of fifteen
hundred dollars a week, and Georgia herself probably raised most
(03:11):
of the money of any person in Montgomery for three
hundred and eighty one days. Georgia's cooking kept the boycotters
fed and funded. When Doctor King and other leaders were arrested,
for conspiring against the bus system's business. In nineteen fifty six,
Georgia testified at the trial, telling her story of the
white bus driver driving off with her fare. The testimony
(03:33):
made Georgia even more of a celebrity among Montgomery's black community,
but also made her visible to the white opposition. The
National Lunch Company fired her shortly after. Now, Georgia was
a clever and resilient woman, but this was a setback.
She had six children to feed on top of managing
the club from nowhere, and she was having trouble finding
another cooking job. When she brought these concerns to Martin
(03:55):
Luther King, Junior, he told her he had a solution,
why not work for yourself. With some capital from doctor King,
Georgia opened a restaurant in her home from which she
could continue to feed the revolution. Doctor King began to
use it as a meeting house, and he brought Robert
Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson to meet Georgia and
eat her food. Finally, on November thirteenth of nineteen fifty six,
(04:18):
the Supreme Court ruled Montgomery's segregated bus lines were unconstitutional.
A month later, the bus boycott ended for good, Georgia
Gilmore continued to be a civil rights activist and beloved chef.
In fact, the day she died on March ninth of
nineteen ninety, she had been up early cooking meals for
the twenty fifth anniversary celebration of the Selma to Montgomery March.
(04:40):
Her family instead served the food to the hundreds who
came to mourn her. Dead or alive. Georgia was still
feeding the fire. The Korean War was part of the
(05:03):
larger Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
As such, it contained layers of legitimate disagreement between the
actual people of Korea, as well as layers of propaganda
and interference from the larger superpowers on opposite sides. While
the war ended in a truce in nineteen fifty three,
that didn't mean the ideological war between the Americans and
(05:24):
the Soviets had come to an end, not even close.
Korea was divided into North and South, with the North
becoming communist and the South becoming a capitalist republic. However,
the North quickly became a dictatorship with a stagnant economy
due in part to US embargo, and the South became
a major military installation for the US to keep tabs
on the Soviets. And it was amidst this clash between
(05:46):
Titanic forces that one man sought to carve out a
life for himself against all odds. No Kumsuk was born
during the Japanese occupation of Korea, only to grow up
and see his hometown change hands from Japanese RS rule
to North Korean dictatorship. His parents always resented the anti
American propaganda fed to them for decades by both regimes.
(06:08):
They wanted a chance to make up their own minds.
As Kumsuk got older, he just wanted to eat. Food
was scarce under the dictatorship and American embargo. When he
heard that North Korean Air Force pilots were well fed,
he enlisted. During the war, he flew over a hundred
missions and rose to the rank of lieutenant. Kumsuk claims
that he never actually shot down any enemy planes. He
(06:30):
says that he made a point to shoot past them. Again,
he had been raised to not believe everything that he
heard about Americans and South Koreans. Now that being said,
it is hard to believe that he was able to
fly so many missions without ever killing an enemy pilot,
and that his superiors would never notice this. But if true,
it only makes his determination more impressive, and it also
(06:52):
maybe explains why eventually Kumsuk realized that he had to
flee the country. He couldn't continue to fight for a
regime he didn't believe in, and he saw no future
in his destitute homeland, and he knew his chances of
escaping were pretty slim. In fact, he gave himself a
twenty percent chance of success, but he was willing to
take those odds if it meant a better future. He
(07:13):
was only twenty one, after all. In September of nineteen
fifty three, Kumsuk took his Soviet built MiG fifteen fighter
jet off the runway in North Korea under the guise
of running a mission. Instead, he flew south, boldly crossing
into enemy territory. He located an American Air Force base,
skidding to a stop on the runway, nearly colliding with
a departing jet, but confused personnel scrambled to the site,
(07:36):
assuming that he was an American pilot. But when they
got a good look at his plane and watched an
astonishment as he stepped out of the cockpit, they saw
him throw a picture of North Korean dictator Kim Ilsung
to the ground. And if Kumsuk was worried about a
frosty reception, he shouldn't have been, because as the Americans
examined his jet, they soon realized that it was a
MiG fifteen. An American general had recently put a bounty
(07:59):
on this mone it had a unique engine that made
it more advanced than American aircraft. Comsuk was awarded one
hundred thousand dollars or about a million dollars in today's currency.
With this money, he was able to set up a
trust and eventually move himself to the United States so
that he could see for himself what Americans were like.
Once in the US, he excelled, earning a degree in
(08:21):
engineering from the University of Delaware. He changed his name
to Kenneth Rowe, married a fellow Korean immigrant, and in
nineteen sixty two finally became a US citizen. Kenneth eventually
settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he became a professor
of aerospace engineering. In many ways, it was the American's
greatest dream, a former Communist citizen defecting, coming to America
(08:43):
and living his best life. But more than that, it
was one man taking his destiny into his own hands
and finding himself a home. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosity. Subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
(09:04):
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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