Brendan J. J. Payne is Assistant Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at North Greenville University. This interview is based on his new book, Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow: Prohibition and the Transformation of Racial and...
southern history
Bringing the Bible to the Jim Crow South
In 1900, Henry Nelson Payne, a missionary and president of Mary Holmes Seminary in West Point, Mississippi, a school for Black women, was frustrated that many Bible societies in the former Confederacy were not willing to distribute Bibles to African...
Episode 89: The Heretical John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. In this episode we talk with Robert Elder, author of Calhoun: American Heretic. Elder shows that Calhoun’s story is crucial for understanding the political climate in...
Episode 85: Reckoning with Confederate Monuments
Historian Karen L. Cox argues that “when it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground.” In this episode, we talk with Cox about the history of Confederate monuments and how the recent racial unrest in the United States...
Some resources on the Tulsa Race Massacre
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Tulsa Race Massacre. If you are unfamiliar with this tragic event in American history, start here. If you want to go deeper, here are some pieces from the last few...
A 107-year-old survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre testified before Congress
Here is NPR’s “All Things Considered”: The day that a white mob came to Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Okla., Viola Fletcher was just 7 years old. During emotional testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Fletcher, who is now 107, recalled...