American History Tellers

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The Fight for the First U.S. Olympics | A Tale of Two Cities | 1 Jul 21, 2021

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In the late 1800s, European fascination with the culture of ancient Greece, and a growing interest in physical education and fitness, led to the idea of resurrecting the Olympic Games of antiquity. A French nobleman named Pierre de Coubertin took up the cause, and under his leadership, the first international Olympiad took place in Athens in 1896.

Coubertin loved America, and wanted to bring his modern Games there. But finding an American city to host his sporting spectacle proved to be a competition in itself. Before the Games began, civic grudges and political backstabbing ignited a war between two rival cities, St. Louis and Chicago, over who would garner the glory of hosting the first U.S. Olympics.

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Lost Colony of Roanoke | Searching for Traces | 3 Jul 14, 2021

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The mystery of what became of the first English colonists has baffled historians for centuries. But over the past decade, archaeologists have uncovered some compelling clues, including parts of a 16th century gun, and fragments of English pottery at a place called “Site X,” both of which suggest that the Roanoke colonists survived longer than previously documented.

In this episode, Lindsay discusses those findings with author and journalist Andrew Lawler. In his book, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, Lawler explores the latest archeological evidence, as well as some of the most persistent myths surrounding the fate of the Roanoke colonists.

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Lost Colony of Roanoke | The Vanishing | 2 Jul 07, 2021

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On April 26, 1587, 117 colonists sailed from England to establish a permanent settlement on the east coast of North America. After a long voyage fraught with storms and spoiled food, they landed on the island of Roanoke, in the Outer Banks region of what is now North Carolina.

Under the leadership of John White, the settlers built a fort and homes, but faced hunger and harsh conditions. At the end of the summer, White was forced to leave his family and his newborn granddaughter, Virginia, to sail back to England for more supplies. While he was there, war broke out between England and Spain, and he could not return for three long years. When he finally did, he found Roanoke completely deserted, with only a few puzzling clues left that have haunted historians ever since.

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Lost Colony of Roanoke | In the Name of the Queen | 1 Jun 30, 2021

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In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth the First of England was locked in a battle for global dominance with Spain. She picked her favorite advisor, Walter Raleigh, to claim land in North America. In the coming years, Raleigh’s men made several voyages and explored the area known as the Outer Banks, in what is now North Carolina. There, they identified one island as a promising site for a future colony: Roanoke.

But as relations with the area’s indigenous people soured, and a drought brought famine to the region, England’s first attempts to establish a permanent base on Roanoke ended in failure. Still, the Queen knew that success on the new continent was key to her empire. Soon, she would send 117 men, women, and children to establish a permanent colony in the New World. But none of them could possibly imagine the hardships that lay ahead.

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The Walker Affair | The Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny | 1 Jun 25, 2021

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In the mid-1800s, the United States was a young nation awash with mercenaries, adventurers, and entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of the country’s ever-expanding boundaries. Into this chaotic atmosphere stepped a young lawyer and newspaper editor from Tennessee named William Walker, who wrapped his personal ambitions in the cloak of American expansionism and the credo of “Manifest Destiny.”

Hoping to establish his own republic, Walker became a “filibuster,” a 19th century term for American mercenaries who attempted to colonize foreign lands without government authorization. He set his sights on a remote corner of Mexico, on the Baja Peninsula. But Walker’s ragtag band of American mercenaries quickly ran afoul of the Mexican authorities. Outgunned, and cut off from reinforcements, they retreated to the U.S. border, where federal soldiers stood waiting to arrest Walker for his unsanctioned invasion of a sovereign nation.

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Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | Bearing Witness | 5 Jun 23, 2021

Show notes

Like many Americans, Anneliese Bruner didn’t hear about the Tulsa Race Massacre growing up. But what made it surprising in her case was that her grandmother and great-grandmother were survivors of the massacre. Still, a conspiracy of silence surrounded the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921, even in Bruner’s own home.

Today, Bruner is fighting to change that. This year, she re-published her great-grandmother Mary Parrish’s written account of the destruction under the title The Nation Must Awake: My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. On this episode, she joins Lindsay to discuss the massacre’s legacy, the efforts to restore its place in American history, and the case for offering reparations to survivors and their descendents.

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Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | Rebirth | 4 Jun 16, 2021

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On June 2, 1921, thousands of black Tulsans interned at the Tulsa Fairgrounds woke under armed guard. Many had no idea where their loved ones were or if they were still alive; they didn’t know whether their homes were still standing or if they’d been ransacked by the white mob. As Greenwood residents worked to restart lives that had been violently interrupted, city officials and greedy real estate speculators had other ideas — ideas that would push Greenwood residents off their valuable land forever.

But those white elites would fail to account for the ambition, leadership and tight bonds of community that Greenwood’s people had built over the years. Though the neighborhood would never be the same, against all odds, Black Wall Street would rise from the ashes.

If you’d like to learn more about the Tulsa Race Massacre, we recommend a few great books we drew on for this series:

Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal Johnson

Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921 by Alfred Brophy

Riot and Remembrance by James S. Hirsch

This episode originally aired in 2019.

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Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | The Invasion | 3 Jun 09, 2021

Show notes

On the night of Tuesday, May 31, 1921, a violent white mob attacked the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As the night progressed, the disorganized mob transformed into something even more deadly: a highly organized force led by volunteer soldiers.

On the morning of Wednesday, June 1, that force sprang into action. All over Greenwood, men, women and children found themselves under siege. Their homes, businesses and churches were under attack from land and sky — calling the very survival of their fabled community into question.

This episode originally aired in 2019.

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Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | The Powder Keg | 2 Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

As Black teenager Dick Rowland sat in a jail cell at the Tulsa courthouse, news of his arrest flew through the town. Egged on by rumors about his alleged rape of white teenager Sarah Page, a white mob bent on a lynching Rowland began assembling outside the courthouse. By that evening, the crowd had swelled to thousands.

Meanwhile, some young African American veterans of the recent world war were determined to defend Rowland, with their lives if necessary. When they arrived at the courthouse Tuesday night, they found themselves thrust into a situation far more volatile than they were prepared for.

This episode originally aired in 2019.

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Encore: Tulsa Race Massacre | The Promised Land | 1 May 26, 2021

Show notes

In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma boasted one of the nation’s most prosperous African-American communities. Greenwood was home to 108 Black-owned businesses, two theaters, 15 physicians, two newspapers, and a luxury hotel. It was nicknamed “the Black Wall Street.”

Then, on May 30th, a Black shoeshine boy named Dick Rowland was accused of assaulting a white teenaged elevator operator, Sarah Page. What happened next would ultimately lead to the destruction of Greenwood and the deaths of over 300 African Americans -- a massacre that, until recently, was virtually erased from American history.

This episode originally aired in 2019.

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