Untold America

The Holy Trinity: God, America, and King Cotton The story most Americans learned about cotton goes something like this: Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, the South grew a lot of cotton, and then we had a Civil War about slavery. It's a sanitized tale that glides over the most important part—how a plant became a theology that reshaped not just the American economy but American Christianity itsel...

Introduction: Encounters in "Unclean" Territory "They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him." - Mark 5:1-2 When Jesus crosses to "the other side" in Mark's Gospel, he enters territory deemed unclean by Jewish religious authorities. The Gerasene region, populated...

The issue of racism has become a real hot potato and political football this year, and Dr. Douglas Campbell returns from the last episode to help us break through the fog of the bipartisan rhetoric that we are currently experiencing so that we can begin to better understand the belief systems that perpetuate our struggles to ensure equal justice and equal opportunity for all citizens. In the last...

Dr. Douglas Campbell joins us today to help us consider the proverbial elephant in the room whenever we talk about our struggles with racism. Whether you are White or non-White in America, it's something that we Americans claim that we want for ourselves and our neighbors even though if you listen to us talk about resolving our racial tensions, it's the thing that both sides seem to believe there...

In our last episode, Rt. Rev. Dr. Prince Singh joined me to share his experiences as a boy growing up in South India as well as his experiences as a young priest engaging the consequences of caste serving communities of Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), the lowest ranking on the caste system. In this episode, we will be picking up where we left off, although this time, we will shift our foc...

I am so happy to have Rt. Rev. Dr. Prince Singh join me in this episode of the podcast not only because of the invaluable wisdom that he has to offer but also because he is such a dear friend. Rt. Rev. Dr. Prince Singh is the eighth and current bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, NY. He was born in the larger state of Tamil Nadu in South India where he served many congregations as an Ang...

Hello, folks! In the last episode, Dr. Kurt Culbertson joined us to help us understand some jargon from his life as a landscape architect – words and terms such as vacant land, habitat, and spatial justice. He also began to help us understand how historic government policies as well as local traditions have combined to limit the habitat choices especially of non-Whites and have constrained the flo...

We have a real treat for you today in this episode! Joining us is Dr. Kurt Culbertson, a scholar and a practitioner in the field of urban renewal where he uses his expertise as a landscape architect to help cities imagine how to design landscapes that consider environmental, social, and economic factors so that they can best optimize something that he refers to as spatial justice (which we're goin...

We covered a lot of ground in beginning to understand racial inequities in the housing domain in our last episode. Mr. Salin Geevarghese joined us in that conversation, and we will be picking up where we left off in this episode, drilling down even deeper into that discussion. What are some of the obstacles that are impeding our dream of truly becoming the diverse and inclusive society that values...

Returning to the conversation is Mr. Salin Geevarghese, whom you may remember having been a guest on the very first episode of the podcast. Salin, as a reminder, is a man with many hats but is probably best known for being a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for President Obama and his administration. He is currently one of the world's foremost experts i...

We covered a lot of ground with Dr. Derek Woodard-Lehman in our last episode of the podcast as he helped us consider why it's so difficult for some of us to have conversations about race and racism and whether or not racism is still a problem today. We also talked about colorblindness and how even though some people who say that they're colorblind might mean it from a place of good intent, it isn'...

Dr. Derek Woodard-Lehman joins me today to help us make sense of a lot of the jargon that we tend to hear surrounding racial tension – words and phrases such as racist, racism, critical race theory, and racial formation. Derek teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, specializing in Christian Ethics. He is focused particularly on how Christian commitments have mobilized political resistance to...

In our last episode, Dr. Kevin Boyle joined us to help us understand how the Reagan coalition led to three decades of law and order politics taking precedence over civil rights enforcement. We also briefly discussed the war on drugs and how that tied into issues of race and the impact that it had on minorities, but that was really just a brief introduction to it. We now pick up where we left off i...

In our previous episode, Dr. Kevin Boyle joined us to talk about the political coalition that united working Whites and northern Blacks during the FDR era. We also discussed how Richard Nixon's law and order rhetoric led to a rise in White resistance. We are picking up where we left off in this episode and will be tracing the strategy of the Nixon administration to shift the national focus toward...

In our last episode, we concluded a conversation with Dr. Kevin Boyle about the struggles and the fruits of our Civil Rights era. Specifically, we talked about our struggle toward justice in regards to housing, education, and the right to vote. Welcoming back Dr. Kevin Boyle as today’s guest, we take a few steps back to discuss the New Deal and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. ...

With the help of our guest, Dr. Kevin Boyle, we have covered a lot of ground. In the last episode, we paused to synthesize all of the previous ten episodes, so that is an excellent summary to listen to if you are just joining in the conversation. That last episode also helped us set the stage for understanding the nonviolent movement of the 1950s and 60s that sought to restore the civil rights tha...

In the last episode, we began a conversation about our Civil Rights era's struggles and fruits. With our guest Dr. Kevin Boyle, we discussed the efforts to obtain equal opportunity housing and began a discussion about the segregation and desegregation of schools. Dr. Boyle is a professor at Northwestern University specializing in 20th century United States history. He has a particular focus on mod...

In this eye-opening episode, we welcome back Dr. Kevin Boyle. In the previous episode, Dr. Boyle reminded us of important parts of the 20th century Civil Rights Movement regarding, in particular, how housing policies and private practices sculpted the racial topography with which we struggle today. Dr. Boyle is a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in the history of the 20th century...

The last episode helped us understand the beginnings of Jim Crow in the south. Today we pick up where we left off, tracing pivotal moments that led similar racial tensions in the north. Welcoming back Dr. Kevin Boyle for this episode of Race on the Rocks, we dive deeper into the genesis of the Jim Crow era. How did the racial tensions of the south follow Blacks to the north and how did segregation...

When Reconstruction collapsed, Jim Crow was born. Virulent racism peaked in the American South in the early 1900s and about twenty years later in the north. In today’s episode, we will remember why and how Jim Crow developed as a formal system of segregation and repression. Our guest is Dr. Kevin Boyle. Dr. Boyle is a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in the history of the 20th ce...

Today, I welcome back Dr. Kevin Boyle, who reminded us in the previous episode the important parts of our nation’s struggle with racial justice, focusing on the first few decades of the 20th century. We will pick up where we left off and take a look at the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Boyle is a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in the history of the 20th century United...

We learned a lot from Dr. Kate Masur about the soaring hopes of Reconstruction after the Civil War and, in particular, constitutional amendments aimed at protecting the basic freedoms of those formerly enslaved. But today, we remember how we fell from the height of these hopes to the darkness of our Jim Crow era. Dr. Masur is the perfect conversation partner on this topic, and I welcome her back t...

In our last episode, Dr. Kate Masur reminded us of important parts of the story of the American Civil War that continues to shape our racial topography today. In today’s episode, we’ll pick up where we left off and remember how we went from the jubilation that arose when Lincoln liberated those who were enslaved to the darkness of our Jim Crow Era. Again, our guest today is Dr. Kate Masur. Kate is...

In today’s episode, we welcome back Dr. Kate Masur. Dr. Masur is a professor at Northwestern University who specializes in the history of the United States in the 19th century with a primary focus on how Americans grapple with questions on race and equality after the end of slavery in both the north and the south. Her upcoming book Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from...

After discussing the slave labor of the American south in the previous episode, Dr. Kate Masur and I continue our conversation about how our racial topography was shaped during the antebellum period. This time, however, we will pivot to take a look at the northern states and the many different views on slavery of that time. Also in our discussion today, we take a look at the rise of the Republican...