Seizing Freedom

Interview - Mariame Kaba May 17, 2022

Season 2 Finale. Kidada speaks with activist and organizer Mariame Kaba about the ways many of us practice abolition without realizing it, how ordinary people have the power to collectively free themselves, and why safety can only be found through community.

They discuss how the prison industrial complex and the systems it encompasses do more harm than good and identify solutions that address the underlying causes of criminalized activity and provide the resources and support needed for everyone to thrive.

Additionally, they touch on the power of public libraries to offer a safe haven for all, as well as cultivating a practice of hope to navigate difficult circumstances.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Reframing the Narrative? May 10, 2022

African Americans couldn’t seize much universal freedom as the brick-and-mortar of Jim Crow walled them off from their rights. Still, race men and women fought.

Following the death of three friends, instigated by the white press, Ida B. Wells committed herself to investigating and reporting the evils of lynching across the south, starting a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. It wasn’t long before her printing press was burned to the ground and she was forced to relocate to Chicago.

The windy city was witnessing the rise of Black Hollywood, inspiring race leaders like Wells and film producer Oscar Micheaux to harness the power of media to challenge the narratives being reinforced by racist newspaper reports and deeply problematic films like Birth of a Nation.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Julia Craven May 03, 2022

Kidada speaks with health reporter Julia Craven about health and wellness for African Americans, both historically and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They explore how health outcomes are influenced by systemic forces and not purely the result of the personal decisions people make on a daily basis, as well as the responsibilities of individuals to make an impact within the larger framework of public health.

They also touch on the relationship between capitalism and mental health, and how that is a contributing factor to the recent Great Resignation.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Dethroning Disease Apr 26, 2022

Attendees of the 1914 “Fifty Years of Negro Health Improvement in Preparation for Efficiency” conference, with speakers including Booker T. Washington, heard staggering information about the Black population’s “health”, which was in crisis. Life expectancy for African Americans at the time was about 35 years.

African Americans rallied public health professionals to confront disease. They understood how poor health outcomes endangered their collective destiny and compromised their ability to fight for full equality. They knew that illness, disease, and lack of means and systems to treat them compromised freedom.

Clean communities could improve living conditions. But clean living couldn’t undo the harm or violence of the Jim Crow era that was gradually becoming systematized in law and society.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Saeed Jones Apr 19, 2022

Kidada speaks with writer, poet and social commentator Saeed Jones about the many facets of Black masculinity, how it has been shaped and reshaped over the years, and the challenges that have arisen around cultural expectations for the type of Black man you should be in order to be a credit to the race.

They dig into the role of white supremacy in establishing and upholding these cultural norms and discuss how the system is operating and iterating and wreaking havoc even without active involvement from white people.

They also discuss “doing the work” of dismantling harmful ideas about gender and masculinity, the relationship between safety and freedom, cultivating freedom by helping to liberate others, and finding joy by transforming pain into love.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Inside Harlem's Speakeasies Apr 12, 2022

Black workers were expected to take on “respectable” employment in the early twentieth century, essentially a racist dog whistle to keep them in the dirtiest, most dangerous and low-paying jobs. While some Black people had the means to reject these types of jobs, most couldn’t afford to.

But power was there to be seized if you were willing to break the rules of respectability. In the “Negro metropolis” of Harlem, a complicated world developed in the shadows, one where Black men played by a different set of rules to claim freedom no matter the cost.

Whether by reform or by violence, though, there were also those determined to keep these race rebels at bay.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Jamelle Bouie Apr 05, 2022

Kidada speaks with New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie about the legacies of discriminatory housing policies in the United States and their impact, primarily on Black and other marginalized communities, from the beginning of the nation to today, as well as how they might be addressed in the future.

They examine the differences in how that discrimination manifests explicitly and implicitly, as well as the roles both institutions and individuals play in contributing to these housing problems.

They also discuss ways in which federal and local governments can play a positive role in expanding the availability and security of living spaces for lower income Americans to improve their circumstances.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

The Land of Milk and Honey Mar 29, 2022

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several million African Americans left the South for the North and West. They wanted to raise their kids in a place where they could live and work undisturbed by violence and out from under a racist social order. And California was advertised as the land of milk and honey.

But, contrary to what they had been sold, Black migrants to California—like Verna Deckard and her family, who left Texas for Los Angeles in the 1920s—had to fight to live and to play. They faced segregation in public spaces like beaches, Klan violence, government interference and racist housing covenants.

But they continued to fight for their freedoms, staging public protests and finding clever ways to circumvent the racism that had followed them to the west coast.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Recommended Listening: Home. Made. Mar 25, 2022

Today we're sharing an episode of Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other.

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When Michael Atkins applied for a job as a teacher’s aid, he was offered a position as a part-time custodian. But he took it, because of a promise he made to his daughter: To be the father he never had. Michael proved he had a talent for relating to kids, and he worked his way up to teacher, and eventually, principal. But as he showed up for his school community, he struggled to show up for his family at home. Suddenly, Michael had to figure out how to be present both at home and school…or risk losing it all.

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Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Paula Austin Mar 22, 2022

Kidada speaks with historian Paula Austin about the shift in American society to protect childhood innocence in the early 1900s, and how that concept doesn’t apply to—or help us understand—the experiences of Black children who grew up during the early days of Jim Crow.

Despite only white children being recognized as “properly innocent” and deserving of protection, Paula shares that Black children generally had a strong sense of self and were proud of their community and history.

They also look to survey responses from Black youth in the nation’s capital in the 1930s to reveal a clear sense of resistance and activism against racist restrictions that foreshadow the Civil Rights Movement.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Children of the Sun Mar 15, 2022

Many Black Americans at the end of the nineteenth century relied heavily on themselves, prioritizing self-determination and securing their collective destiny through solidarity, self-help, and economic independence.

But blatant racism saturated media, entertainment, and education. Parents pushed for less harmful representation of Black life for their children, resulting in the creation of lifelike dolls and print media focused on chasing away the shadows of white supremacy with the light of Black love, consciousness, and possibility.

The lessons Black children learned from their parents and surrounding adults empowered them to grasp the freedom torch and blaze new trails in the fight for liberation.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Blair L.M. Kelley Mar 08, 2022

Kidada speaks with historian Blair L.M. Kelley about how segregation grew out of pushback against Black upward mobility, and how Richmond, VA serves as an example of how boycotts can be a powerful tool for collective success to combat issues of justice following the streetcar boycotts in the city at the turn of the 20th century.

They also discuss the role failure plays in laying the groundwork for future successes in social justice movements, encouraging current activists to look to history for examples of how to continue the fight even in the face of defeat.

Additionally, they look at the current political landscape with a new wave of voter suppression laws.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Walk! The Streetcar Boycotts Mar 01, 2022

With white supremacist strategies for segregated societies solidifying in towns across America’s South, Black people needed to respond in ways that would ensure the freedoms their predecessors had fought to codify into law remained available to them.

Between 1900 and 1910, in more than two dozen cities, African Americans tried to stem the tide of their exclusion from public life by taking the fight to the streets, boycotting streetcars that divided Black and white passengers.

The pressure applied by these protests wasn’t successful in every instance, but the victories that were won inspired continued activism and pushback against the expansion of Jim Crow laws across the nation.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Kinshasha Holman Conwill & Paul Gardullo Feb 22, 2022

Kidada speaks with Kinshasha Holman Conwill, the deputy director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; as well as writer, historian and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Paul Gardullo.

They reflect on The World’s Fair in Paris in 1900 and how they would curate a similar display of progress in 2022, alongside a discussion of the transformative power of museum exhibits, generally, and the value of African American exhibits, specifically.

Additionally, they share what the recent backlash against the teaching of Black history means for their work and the future of trusted institutions focused on telling more inclusive, complete stories of America’s past.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

On The World's Stage Feb 15, 2022

The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago was an opportunity for the United States to showcase its spectacular growth and signal its arrival as a world power, but it failed to highlight Black Americans’ role in its development, and they took notice.

So when Paris hosted the Exposition Universelle in 1900, African Americans knew creating space to showcase their progress to the world was of major importance.

Among the exhibition’s attendees was W.E.B. Du Bois. He seized the opportunity to present factual evidence of Black achievement to dispel international stereotypes and convince world powers to apply pressure to the United States to dispel white supremacy and live up to its founding principles.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Interview - Adam Serwer Feb 08, 2022

Kidada speaks with Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic who covers race, politics and justice, about the role of the Black press in America, both historically and in the present.

They look at how conspiracy theories, misinformation and slander have been used as a form of media propaganda since the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, and how pioneering journalists like Ida B. Wells-Barnett laid the groundwork for identifying and calling out these campaigns.

Additionally, they discuss the evolution of legacy media outlets over time to include more diverse voices, and what it means to tell the truth objectively when reporting on American history as a Black journalist.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

The Fight of the Century Feb 01, 2022

Black southerners and their allies were experiencing the brick and mortar of Jim Crow being installed in real time. Racial terror killings had been climbing, lynchings were becoming more shocking and segregation was gaining traction.

And through all this, Black people were still fighting to find a strategy for surviving the afterlife of slavery so they could achieve the Promised Land of their ancestors’ dreams. Black people had to decide what that strategy was going to be for them and for Black folk beyond their lifetimes. And they were not always in agreement.

Conservatives like Booker T. Washington, moderates like W.E.B. Du Bois, and radicals like William Monroe Trotter and Ida B. Wells-Barnett were each confident that they had the best strategy to secure black people’s future by dismantling Jim Crow. And they were each determined to have their own way.

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Episode Artwork by Lyne Lucien. Transcripts, resources, list of voice talent and more available at seizingfreedom.com.

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This episode of Seizing Freedom is supported by Home. Made., a podcast that explores the meaning of home and what it can teach us about ourselves and each other. Listen to episodes of Home. Made. at https://link.chtbl.com/homemade?sid=podcast.seizingfreedom

Introducing Season 2 of Seizing Freedom Jan 25, 2022

Coming February 1, 2022.

The promises of Reconstruction were left unfulfilled. The violent system of Jim Crow was being built in real time, brick by brick. And Black people had vibrant debates about how to make a way out of no way; about the best strategy for life after emancipation and Reconstruction; to continue to achieve their ancestors’ dreams.

Voice actors will use letters, diaries, newspapers, and autobiographies to bring you stories from luminaries like Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. DuBois, as well as everyday freedom fighters forging their own paths forward.

Dr. Kidada Williams' interviews with artists, activists, thinkers and historians will bring the themes of these stories to the present day and give us visions for free Black futures.

Seizing Freedom is a production of VPM and Molten Heart. For more info about the series, visit seizingfreedom.com.

Recommended Listening: 1865 May 20, 2021

While we work on the next season of Seizing Freedom, we think you'll enjoy listening to the podcast, 1865. In its new season, Ulysses S. Grant takes the White House, intent on rooting out corruption, crushing the KKK and bringing peace to a troubled nation. He has to contend with a divided people, a dysfunctional congress and a fractured Republican Party. While abolitionists across the country celebrated their hard-fought win in the fight toward equality, the steadily growing Ku Klux Klan threatened to undo all the progress that Reconstruction had made. Not to mention, the political world of Washington was in complete disarray. The second season of 1865 is available now on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A Heritage Unique In The Ages May 17, 2021

Season finale. The "freedom generation" of African Americans who were the first to experience emancipation knew that their fight for freedom was only just beginning. Even as they were earning new rights and privileges, they continued to face pushback that jeopardized all they had fought for and earned. Hear how they planned for the future, even as the present structures around them were being torn down.

Support the show: http://donate.vpm.org/site/Donation2?1557.donation=form1&df_id=1557&mfc_pref=T

Interview: Kate Masur May 10, 2021

A discussion of the central role African Americans played in securing constitutional change for their civil and political rights during Reconstruction, as well as the long-lasting impacts of their efforts in the first civil rights movement.

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The Final Word On Liberty May 03, 2021

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, but African Americans knew the “freedom” of emancipation was incomplete without universal citizenship and rights protected by law. Learn how their insistence on having a full stake in American freedom helped transform federal policy and codify the rhetoric of “liberty” into law.

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Interview: Kelly Brown Douglas Apr 26, 2021

The Reverend shares what church has meant to the Black community, both historically and currently, as well as how to find God in times of struggle and injustice.

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Equal Children Of God Apr 19, 2021

How a thirst for soul liberty and the freedom to worship as they saw fit sustained Black Americans through centuries of enslavement. And how the sustenance they found in religious community emboldened them to fight for—and demand—concrete social and political change.

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Interview: Hilary Green Apr 12, 2021

Conversation about family histories and education, how many of the stereotypes that have been associated with Black people in the United States came to be, why they’re simply not true, and what the pursuit of knowledge meant and looked like to African Americans during and after Reconstruction.

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Truth Makes The Free Man Apr 05, 2021

Education was regarded as the "real liberation" by many African Americans following emancipation from slavery, and they were willing to go to extreme lengths to secure literacy for themselves and their kin.

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Interview: Tera Hunter Mar 29, 2021

Kidada speaks with Princeton Historian Tera Hunter about how Black workers wanted to shape their working lives after the Civil War, what communal labor looked like, and what activities they found joy in.

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They Can't Keep Me Out Mar 22, 2021

Further exploring the stakes of making a living as a Black person following emancipation and how, despite violent retaliation in light of their successes, African Americans never lost sight of what made Black life worth living.

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A New Joy Awaiting Me Mar 08, 2021

How newly emancipated African Americans established communities and expanded their labor on their own terms to build livelihoods for themselves and their families, and how they were met with extreme repercussions from whites through the introduction of Black Codes.

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Interview: Deborah Willis Mar 01, 2021

Photography professor Deborah Willis speaks with Kidada about the power of photography during the Civil War era, and the stories images can reveal to us about the lives Black people led and wanted future generations to understand.

Support the show: http://donate.vpm.org/site/Donation2?1557.donation=form1&df_id=1557&mfc_pref=T

Reconstructing Family Feb 22, 2021

How freed people sought out their kin following emancipation, and how they worked to establish new lives with their families, pushing for recognition in the eyes of the law.

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Interview: Abigail Cooper Feb 15, 2021

Conversation with Abigail Cooper about the communities that Black people established in Civil War refugee camps, how they celebrated their African traditions and how they had to adapt to survive in the American patriarchy.

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A Bedrock For Freedom Feb 08, 2021

How freedom wasn't as clear-cut as wartime refugees from slavery expected, and how— despite terrible conditions in many camps—Black people's desire for self-determination kept them going.

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Interview: Crystal Feimster Feb 04, 2021

Interview with historian Crystal Feimster about the importance of digging into archives and disrupting the myth that the Civil War and Reconstruction are histories that belong to white men.

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A Powerful Black Hand Feb 01, 2021

How Black men and women fought to participate in the war against slavery, and how the Union’s decision to allow them to enlist shifted the tide of the Civil War.

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Intro: Time For A New Story Feb 01, 2021

If you’ve heard stories about Reconstruction, you’ve probably heard that it failed. And sure, some parts of Reconstruction did fail—but not because Black people didn’t claim their freedom.

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Spotlight: Susie King Taylor Feb 01, 2021

A deeper look into the life of Susie King Taylor, who pursued her vision of freedom for herself, her family and for future generations.

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Spotlight: Ambrose Headen Feb 01, 2021

Follow the incredible journey of Ambrose Headen, a man born into slavery who eventually played a pivotal role in founding one of the nation’s first Black colleges.

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Spotlight: Cyntha Nickols Feb 01, 2021

African Americans had to go to extraordinary lengths in order to be reunited with their families after emancipation, including this grandmother’s struggle to gain custody of her grandson.

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Seizing Freedom: Official Trailer Jan 18, 2021

In most history classes, you learn that the Emancipation Proclamation and Union victories “freed the slaves.” But ending slavery in America required so much more than battlefield victories or even official declarations. Black people battled for their own freedom, taking incredible risks for a country that had actively denied their right to it. After the Civil War, they made freedom real by organizing for equality and justice during Reconstruction.

On Seizing Freedom, you’ll hear stories of freedom taking and freedom making directly from the people who did both. Using stories selected from diaries, newspapers, letters, and speeches, we’ll take you straight to the sources of lived experience. Through them, you’ll hear voices from American history that have been muted time and time again.

Support the show: http://donate.vpm.org/site/Donation2?1557.donation=form1&df_id=1557&mfc_pref=T

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