Still Paying the Price: Reparations in Real Terms

Wilmington, North Carolina was once home to a thriving middle class Black population. In 1898, the only successful coup d’état in American history put a stop to it. Alex Manly was part of that elite Black community. An editorial he printed in his newspaper, The Daily Record, was the catalyst for the violence, and Manly was run out of town by a group of white supremacists. In this episode, Manly’s grandson, Dr. Lewin Manly talks abo...

In July 1965, police officer Edward Nugent encountered John Wesley Wilder, a Black man, outside a cafe in Ruston, Louisiana. Nugent shot Wilder five times, resulting in his death. Local authorities deemed it a justifiable homicide, and subsequent investigations in 1965 did not bring justice or closure to Wilder's family. In 2008, legislation introduced by Congressman John Lewis, gave hope to families seeking justice for racially mo...

This episode explores the historical erasure and appropriation of Black musicians and songwriters. Mark Anthony Neal, Chair of the African & African American Studies Department at Duke University, explains how Black artists were often exploited, denied proper credit, and overshadowed by white artists who covered their songs. It also traces the origins of American music back to the spirituals created by enslaved Africans, the evolut...

John Boyd Jr. is the civil rights leader you’ve never heard of. For decades, he’s been fighting the U.S. government’s discrimination against Black farmers like himself, securing billions for them to keep their lands–and keep the legacy of Black people in agriculture alive. It’s a legacy that traces back to slavery, when Black Americans built the agricultural wealth of the United States.

Today, farm workers are predominantly Latino, ...

Chanel Porchia-Albert wants Black mothers to be able to fully center themselves in the joy of childbirth. With Black women facing the highest rate of maternal death, Porchia-Albert explores the issues that have contributed to the abysmal numbers and the reasons behind them. The Founder and Executive Director of Ancient Song Doula services, she discusses the role of birth workers in mitigating healthcare disparities and empowering i...

Cynthia Vernón grew up in the segregated South of New Orleans, Louisiana. In the 1960s, after graduating from Xavier University, she applied for a job at NASA’s Data Processing Center in Slidell. She became the first Black employee driving programming for Chrysler’s data engineers. She’d never seen a mainframe computer before, but she studied the manual, just like her colleagues in the Academy Award-winning film, “Hidden Figures.” ...

Every Black and Brown parent dreads having “the talk” with their children. It is a dreaded right of passage that signals a loss of innocence for their sons in order to protect them from a system that targets them. Darrin Bell is an acclaimed cartoonist, author, and commentator. In his graphic memoir, The Talk, he illustrates his own encounters with racial profiling and discrimination. Bell also gets real about what is owed to Black...

In this episode, Mark Thorne, the Historic Site Manager for the Josiah Henson Museum and Park, explores the life and journey of Reverend Josiah Henson, a remarkable figure in Black history who emerged as one of the great abolitionists of his era. Henson, a contemporary of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, played a significant role in freeing numerous enslaved individuals. Thorne discusses Henson's experiences as an enslaved pe...

Mia Anderson is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Reverend Josiah Henson. She shares her family's knowledge and admiration for Henson's legacy, which includes helping enslaved individuals escape and establishing the Dawn Settlement, a place where freed Blacks could learn trades and rebuild their lives. She also addresses the controversy surrounding Henson's portrayal in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which misrepresented his story. ...

In this episode, series creator and co-editor Juleyka Lantigua, shares a deeply personal and relevant story. While driving through her neighborhood, she notices that street signs have been changed and decides to research the new name, Josiah Henson. She discovers that Josiah Henson was an influential figure in Black history, born into slavery in Maryland, and brought to the plantation that her then home stood on. This realization s...

Eatonville, Florida was the first Black town in the U.S. to incorporate. Originally thought of as a “test case” to see if Blacks could govern themselves, Eatonville became a model for Black towns that sprung up around the country after the Civil War. The historic legacy of the town now hangs in the balance as development threatens to pave over history. Julian Johnson, founder of 1887 First describes the fight to preserve the town’s...

Cities around the country have started piloting guaranteed income programs aimed at addressing income inequality–an issue that disproportionately impacts Black and brown families. In this episode, we explore the policy implications of guaranteed income programs and whether they could function as a bridge to reparations. We hear from Dr. Cheryl Grills, a clinical psychologist and member of California’s Reparations Task Force, Ebony ...

In February 2022, the Josiah Henson Museum and Park partnered with the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Site and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site to put together a virtual re-enacted  first-person conversation between these three historical figures. They discuss early life experiences, how they fought their way to freedom, and their roles in ending slavery—past and present. Re-published with permis...

The health and wellness of Latinas is crucial to the health and wellbeing of the U.S. economy. In 100 Latina Birthdays, an original documentary series from Peabody-nominated LWC Studios, reporters in Chicago investigate the health and lifetime outcomes of Latinas in the United States from birth to age 100. In season 1, the stories that unfold center Latinas during their perinatal journeys, childhood, adolescence, and up until age 2...