Alabama History Podcasts

Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/3yemdfrj In her fourth appearance on the AHP, Laura Hill talks about her newest job – 2026-27 president of the Alabama Historical Association. She talks about the October Fall Pilgrimage to Jasper, the April 2027 annual meeting in Montgomery, the AHA Speakers Bureau, benefits of membership in the AHA, and he 20-year career with the Encyclopedia of Alabama. Air Date:...

Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/mwz3srve Ryan L. Cole (author of The Last Adieu) and Dr. Ed Bridges (ret. Director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History) recount the 1824-1825 visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States, how his 3-month plan turned into a year-long stint as “The Nation’s Guest,” and the social and political context surrounding his tour. Bridges focuses on La...

Air Date: May 4, 2026 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/bdfvsnj3 Kayla Jordan (PhD cand. University of Alabama) is a member of the Young Scholars Program of the Alabama Historical Association Speakers Bureau. She discusses her two Speakers Bureau presentations concerning ghost lore in the US South, “Control the Dead and the Dead with Control: The Social Used of Spirits in southern Ghostlore,” and “M...

Air Date: April 6, 2026 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/mphzzxbw Dr. Mark Johnson is a member of the Alabama Historical Association Speakers Bureau Young Scholar Program that lets new voices share their work. Mark talks about his two AHA Speakers Bureau presentations – one on Alabama’s 19th century political barbecues, the other on Alabama’s 20th century barbecue industry. He also discusses his 20...

Air Date: March 2, 2026 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/ychsuj82 Catherine King of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation and Alan Samry, a Fairhope librarian and local historian, present the unusual history of Fairhope, Alabama, and descriptions of historic sites on tours that are part of the April 11-13, 2026, meeting of the Alabama Historical Association. LINKS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE Alabama His...

Air Date: February 2, 2026 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/bdds6mak Burgin Matthews, founder and director of the Southern Music Research Center Digital Archives, talks about the Center, which received the Jeff Jakeman Digital History Award, Small Project category, from the Alabama Historical Association in April 2025. He also chats about his other projects: The Lady Muleskinner Press, his website...

Air Date: January 5, 2026 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/3mzc5fbn Dr. Tina Naremore Jones, Executive Director of the Alabama Black Belt National Heritage Area (and Provost of the University of West Alabama), discusses the founding, history, and mission of the 19-county ABBNHA. The ABBNHA pursues four themes: Natural Resources and Early History Sites; Innovation in Education Sites; Modern Civil Ri...

Air Date: December 1, 2025 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/6t9d8yhs Clayton Davis, Historic Resources Manager at the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, discusses the National Heritage Area program, the history of the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, and the three heritage themes that Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area emphasizes. Links mentioned in the episode: Alabama Historical Associa...

Air Date: November 3, 2025 Dr. John Giggie, associate professor of history and director of the Summersell Center for the Study of the South at the University of Alabama discusses his 2024 book, Bloody Tuesday, The Untold Story of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa that received the Alabama Historical Association’s 2025 Clinton, Jackson and Evelyn Coley Book Award. In addition to the book...

Air Date: October 6, 2025 Dr. Virginia Cain, 2023 graduate of the University of Alabama, discusses her article, “Red Mountain Ladies, How Prostitution Shaped Birmingham, Alabama, from 1871 to 1920,” published in the Alabama Review, April 2023 that won the Alabama Historical Association’s 2025 Milo Howard Award for best article in the Alabama Review in the previous two years. Dr. Cain also discusse...

Air Date: September 15, 2025 Dr. Pete Sparks, president of the Guntersville Historical Society, discusses the Alabama Historical Association Fall Pilgrimage in October 2025. He examines four highlights of Guntersville history, describes the sites on the pre-pilgrimage tours, and talks about the local buildings on the pilgrimage tour proper. Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/254zxwpd Links mentioned...

Air Date: August 4, 2025 Donna Castellano, Executive Director of the Historic Huntsville Foundation, discusses the programs that the HHF has pursued. She discusses the Harrison Brothers Hardware store (HHF headquarters), the eleven National Historic Register nominations the HHF has made and the research projects into women’s and Black history that ensued from them, HHF walking tours, pop-up museum...

Air date: July 7, 2025 Alabama Historical Association president for 2025-2026, Dr. Matthew Downs, discusses the AHA’s program for the upcoming year. He describes the October 24-25, 2025 Fall Pilgrimage in Guntersville and the April 9-11, 2026 annual meeting in Fairhope. Downs also talks about the importance of the Alabama Review that he edits and two AHA projects – the Speakers Bureau and the AHA...

Air Date: June 2, 2025 Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/fk7hby52 Dr. David Chase Stephens (AU ’24), winner of the Alabama Historical Association’s 2025 Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins Award for the best dissertation in Alabama History, discusses his dissertation entitled “To Obstruct and Resist: Paradise v. Allen, Integration Efforts, and the Alabama State Troopers” (Dec. 2024). Stephens examines the strum...

Theo Moore, founder and executive director of Hiztorical Vision Productions, discusses receiving the 2025 Jakeman Award for Digital History (large project category) from the Alabama Historical Association. He talks about his past, current, and future films; his motivations for founding Hiztorical Vision Productions; and his plans for the future – including creating a studio, museum, and event spac...

Bert Harris, former president of the East Alabama Museum and the Genealogical Society of East Alabama, plus Jayson and Laura Hill, discuss Opelika’s history, tour sites, and other amenities the AHA will enjoy for its April 2025 annual meeting. Transcript of episode: https://tinyurl.com/5a26sz5r Links to items mentioned in the episode: Alabama Historical Association: https://www.alabamahistory.net/...

Episode 81 – Dan Puckett discusses the Alabama Holocaust Commission Air Date: January 7, 2025 Dan Puckett, chair of the Alabama Holocaust Commission, discusses the Commission’s history, mission, program of work, and future. He also talks about adding Holocaust studies to Alabama’s 2024 Social Studies Standards for K-12 education, the purposes of Holocaust education, and his 2014 book, In the Shado...

Dr. Hayden McDaniel, Education Curator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, discusses the Alabama History Institutes, annual professional development workshops for K-12 teachers. Links discussed in the episode: Alabama History Institute: https://archives.alabama.gov/teach-learn/professional-development/alabama-history-institutes.aspx / Alabama Department of Archives and History: http...

Dr. Isabela Morales, author of the multi-award winning book Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom (Oxford, 2022), discusses the Townsend family of Madison County, Alabama, particularly the 45 manumitted children and nieces of Samuel Townsend who will them their freedom and his fortune. Morales speaks about the Townsends’ diaspora and how “race, place, and money” affect...

Mr. Barry McNealy of Birmingham talks about receiving the Alabama Historical Association’s Virginia Van Der Veer Hamilton Award for 2024, given to a person who has significantly advanced Alabama history with the general public. Mr. McNealy is a classroom teacher, historical expert with the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, youth leader, and tour guide. Links mentioned in the podcast: Alabama Histori...

Air Date: September 3, 2024 Ms. Jasponica Florence, chair of the local arrangements committee for the AHA’s 2024 Fall Pilgrimage to Phenix City, discusses the history of Phenix City (beginning with why the city name does not have an “O”); the pre-meeting tour sites in Russell County, AL; the Pilgrimage tour sites in Phenix City (with special emphasis on the Franchise Baptist Church and South Girar...

Episode 76 – Dr. Idrissa Snider discusses Alabama History Day. Air date: August 6, 2024 Dr. Idrissa Snider, Alabama Humanities Alliance Program Coordinator, talks about the Alabama History Day and National History Day competitions, their relationship to history education, and how students, teachers, and potential judges can involve themselves with the program. Links mentioned in the podcast: Alaba...

Dr. Richard Bailey, AHA president for 2024-25, discusses the AHA Fall Pilgrimage to Phenix City in October 2024, the annual meeting in Opelika during April 2025, his focus on pursuing local histories, Alabama’s African American history, and the importance of recognizing the full history of the Reconstruction Era. Links to things mentioned or implied in this episode: Alabama Historical Association:...

Episode 74 – Tom Reidy on AHA 2024 Museum Award for The Scottsboro Boys Museum Air Date: May 20, 2024 Dr. Tom Reidy, executive director of The Scottsboro Boys Museum which received the Alabama Historical Association’s Museum Award for 2024, discusses the history of the infamous Scottsboro Boys case and the history and programs of the museum itself. Links to things mentioned or implied in the episo...

Episode 73 – Allie Lopez on the AHA 2024 Coley Research Award Air Date: April 22, 2024 Allie Lopez, winner of the AHA 2024 Clinton Jackson and Evelyn Coley Research Award, discusses her proposed project, “The Injustice That Permeates: Jim Crow, Fear, And Dispossession in Rural Alabama 1930 to 1985,” and her 2024 AHA Meeting presentation on the Reverse Freedom Rides. Links to things mentioned in th...