Plessy v. Ferguson, was decided in May of 1896, by a vote of seven to one. It held that the State of Louisiana could lawfully require railroads to provide what the statute called “equal but separate accommodations” for white and Black people, and that a passenger who refused to sit Read more
In 1830, afraid that white missionaries were aiding the Cherokee in their effort to resist giving up their lands, the Georgia state government made it illegal for white people to live within Cherokee Nation territory without a license from the government. Samuel Austin Worcester – raised in Vermont and trained Read more
In the mid-1970s, parents in Niagara Falls, New York were struggling to figure out why their children were getting mysteriously ill. For two years, officials from the state had been investigating the environment in Niagara Falls For years, residents had been complaining about “the odors of chemicals and fumes.” By Read more
In 1851, a journalist named Henry Mayhew set out to document the lives of London’s working poor. What he found was astonishing. In the richest city in the world, thousands of people made their living by picking through other people’s trash. There were the bone-grubbers, who scavenged bones from gutters Read more
Over an eight-month period in 1896-1897, thousands of people across North America reported seeing mysterious ships in the air or lights in the sky. There were over 12,000 newspaper accounts published about the phenomenon in 408 different newspapers in 41 American states and six Canadian provinces. The airships were usually Read more
If you look through recordings of country, western, and folk music ranging from the 1920s and 1930s through to present, you’ll notice a theme: songs about crime, murder, and executions are ever-present. From Grayson & Whittier’s recording of the centuries-old ballad “Rose Connelly” in 1927, to Lloyd Wilson’s “Stagger Lee”recorded Read more
Today we’re exploring one of Texas’s most enduring legends – the story of the “Yellow Rose of Texas” and her supposed role in the Battle of San Jacinto. We are going to unravel the myth of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” We will explore the woman at the heart of Read more
Whispers and Wives’ Tales: A History of Women & Gossip in Premodern Society Written by Marissa Rhodes, PhD Recorded by Marissa Rhodes, PhD and Averill Earls, PhD Marissa: On September 9, 1838, a humble woman named Mary Grout descended the stairs outside of her cramped apartment on Rich-street in the Read more
In 1861, one of the most powerful slave narratives in American history was published under the title, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Jacobs and edited by the famous abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child. The memoir unflinchingly recounts the unique experience that enslaved women faced in Read more
In 1987, the last reported instance of sati threw India into a maelstrom of furious debate and conflict following the ritual suicide of Roop Kanwar after her young husband’s death. Nearly 150 years earlier, British colonial officer Lord William Bentinck passed a prohibition on sati in British India. As Roop Read more