Shelley’s Plumbline
In construction, a plumbline is a weight suspended from a string used as a tool to find the true reference line. A plumbline will always find the vertical axis pointing to the center of gravity, ensuring everything is right, justified, and centered. Pulling from a library of more than 3,000 shows from his storied career in broadcasting, Shelley's Plumbline leads us in a search for the truth, opening the channels of communication and understanding on tough social topics that are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago. Join us as we explore the past, compare it to today, and craft a better future.
Episodes
Join Shelley's Plumbline for this powerful year-end recap, reflecting on the most impactful conversations of 2025, a year marked by the addition of co-host Dr. Ricky Jones.
Jones’s arrival brought a new voice of depth and truth that resonated profoundly with listeners. The year’s second most downloaded episode, "Finding My Father," featured the emotional and deeply personal story that revealed Dr. Shell...
Hello, Plumbliners!
Shelley, Mark and Ricky are going to take a break going into the holiday season. So today, we (re)present the most downloaded Plumbline episode of 2025, titled "Racism Today."
In this episode, Shelley, Mark and Ricky Jones launch into a powerful discussion on the enduring struggle against racism, arguing that while overt segregation is gone, it has transformed, with terms like DEI serving a...
Today, Shelley and Ricky focus their discussion on the ongoing disregard for both Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks after the bus boycott, noting Parks' financial struggles and the general minimization of women's contributions by male movement leaders.
Shelley and Ricky share a broader contemporary critique, lamenting the societal decline in critical thinking and sacrifice, and analyzing how modern oppressive ...
This episode of Shelley's Plumline, explores the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott with special guest Gloria Laster, the older sister of Claudette Colvin. The discussion centers on the overlooked role of Colvin, the 15-year-old arrested nine months before Rosa Parks for the same act of defiance.
Laster recounts how Colvin was a plaintiff in the successful Browder v. Gale Supreme Court case that deseg...
In this episode, Shelley and Ricky discuss the key role that Shelley played in the Children's March. The scene is Birmingham, Alabama, April and May of 1963.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s advisors had deliberately chosen the city to confront the notoriously violent Police Commissioner, Bull Connor. Shelley recounts advising King to leave the pulpit and engage directly with the people on the street, which helped build c...
In this episode, Shelley recounts his conflicts with the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham in the 1950s, intensified by his refusal to adhere to segregated customs in local stores. Shelley reveals that many Klan members were police officers and local business owners. His activism escalated on his WEDR radio show, where he publicly discussed the segregated city, education, and incidents of violence and bombing that major whit...
This week, Shelley chats once again with Dr. Ricky Jones, Professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville. Dr. Jones highlights W.E.B. Du Bois's views on broad educational access for African Americans and critiques the negative impact of integration on Black education.
Shelley and Dr. Jones explore the historical context of Black education and media, the loss of community control, and the challen...
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