Front Porch Radio - History's Hook

To assist the formerly enslaved in their transition to freedom, the federal government inaugurated a program called the Freedmen’s Bureau. Created in March of 1865, its initial purpose was to "direct… provisions, clothing, and fuel, as may be deemed needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." Over the ne...

Born into slavery in Davidson County, Tennessee to an enslaved mother and her white owner, Jermain Wesley Loguen would eventually be moved to Maury County, Tennessee before he finally made his escape from slavery to the North. He eventually settled in Upstate New York, where his efforts to assist the enslaved out of bondage, made him known as the “King of the Underground Railroad.” Recent scholars...

Dez Dickerson was a guitar prodigy.  In 1979, he earned the spot of lead guitarist for Prince and was a founding member of Prince and the Revolution.  His solo in the song "Little Red Corvette" is considered by Guitar World Magazine to be the 64th greatest of all time.  Leaving Prince and the Revolution, he continued his musical career while also following a pathway to religion.  Today, he is the...

History's Hook Episode #58: J.E.R. Carpenter, Father of the Luxury High-Rise Born and raised in Columbia, Tennessee, James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter attended MIT and the Ecole des Beaux Arts before becoming one of America's premier architects.  Remembered in his home state for such buildings as The Hermitage Hotel and The Stahlman Building in Nashville, he also built the Maury County Courthouse, Car...

History’s Hook explores the life of Mrs. Imogene Nelson. Raised in Maury County, Mrs. Nelson grew up in Columbia in the 1930’s and 1940’s. During WWII, three of her brothers served in the military, one of them, Shannon, a pilot, died when his plane crashed in Upstate NY. Mrs. Nelson graduated from Columbia Central before entering the Women’s Army Corps. She was stationed in Germany during the time...

Every boy at some point wishes and pretends that he could play professional football and make it all the way to the Superbowl. This guest actually lived it! Dave Hathcock started football “late” in his life, playing in Memphis. He was pretty good…and was signed to the legendary Green Bay Packers under Coach Vince Lombardi. His rookie year saw him playing in Super Bowl I! Listen to Dave Hathcock’s...

The honorable Holly Kirby is a Tennessean that inspires. After earning degrees in engineering and law, she went on to practice law in Memphis before being appointed to the bench in the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the first woman to sit on that Court. After spending nearly 19 years there, she was sworn into the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2014. Join Tom and co-host Judge Chris Sockwell as they learn...

August 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which allowed women the right to vote. Tennessee played a pivotal role as it was the 36th and final state needed to make the 19th amendment the law of the land. Although Tennessee can make the claim of being the state that made this important change in American History happen, it belies the fact that T...

Hosts Tom Price and Jo Ann McClellan speak with Ms. Sandra Seaton. Ms. Seaton is an award winning author, playwright, and librettist. Her plays have been performed in cities throughout the country, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and her libretto for the solo opera “From the Diary of Sally Hemings,” set to music by Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Award winning, 2007 composer of the year winne...

Learning the basic principles of engineering on a farm in Maury County, Tennessee, Mr. Rick Burt parlayed that experience into nuclear and aerospace engineering.  He worked his way up at NASA working on rocket systems, to become chief of testing and safety.  Today, he is Deputy Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, where he is working on the next generation of space vehic...

Sometimes a connection between two families takes decades to uncover. Join host Tom Price as he brings two families together over one of WWII’s greatest tragedies. This story is 80 years in the making. It has all the elements of a best-selling book…a story first set in the 1930’s in rural Tennessee, that tells of love, war, tragedy, loss, renewal and re-discovery.

Jefferson Street in Nashville was a nexus of African American culture, education, and entrepreneurship. The music that emanated from that space from 1950-1970 forever changed American music. Join Tom and Jo Ann as they speak to the curator of the Jefferson Street Sound Museum, Lorenzo Washington.

Tennessee boasts three presidents. Host Tom Price begins his three part presidential series by interviewing the long-time director of the President James K. Polk Home and Museum, John Holtzapple. Polk is one of the least-known presidents in American history, but as you will hear, deserves to be remembered as one of the most successful. His accomplishments include starting the Naval Academy, the mo...

Episode 20: The Second Great Awakening On this episode of History’s Hook, hosts Tom Price and Dr. Barry Gidcomb discuss one of the great transformative movements in 19th century America…the Second Great Awakening. This movement brought about a serious upswing in religious thought in America following the Revolutionary War. From this religious awakening came a dramatic increase in membership to var...

Episode 18: Reporting the News in the Volunteer State: The Finney/Kennedy Media Family For four generations, the Finney/Kennedy family have been reporting the news in Tennessee. The editors of both local and state newspapers, they have also been involved in politics and radio reporting. Join History’s Hook host Tom Price as he interviews Delk Kennedy and Elizabeth Blackstone about their family’s t...

Episode 23: Flying General: Lieutenant General Spence Armstrong, Part 2 Born and raised in Mt. Pleasant, Spence Armstrong went on to a stellar military career which began at the United States Naval Academy, before transferring to the Air Force to become a pilot. While serving, he became an aerospace engineer and test pilot, flying many different aircraft. By the time the Vietnam War started, Armst...

Episode 22: Flying General: Lieutenant General Spence Armstrong Born and raised in Mt. Pleasant, Spence Armstrong went on to a stellar military career which began at the United States Naval Academy, before transferring to the Air Force to become a pilot. While serving, he became an aerospace engineer and test pilot, flying many different aircraft. By the time the Vietnam War started, Armstrong was...

Episode #50: Maury or Murry?: Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, although raised in Tennessee in the early 19th century, had a calling for the sea. His scientific approach to the navy led to him earning the nicknames “Pathfinder of the Seas” and the “Father of Oceanography.” Learn all about this important American from an expert, Mr. Russell...

Episode 19: The Columbia Race Riot of 1946, Part 2 February 25, 1946 was a pivotal day in the history of the country, but no one knew it at the time. Gladys Stephenson and her son James had a disagreement with a local store over their treatment, and an altercation ensued that sparked a serious racial conflict in a community that had a history of strained race relations. The governor called out the...

Episode 17: The Columbia Race Riot of 1946 Part 1 of 2 February 25, 1946 was a pivotal day in the history of the country, but no one knew it at the time. Gladys Stephenson and her son James had a disagreement with a local store over their treatment, and an altercation ensued that sparked a serious racial conflict in a community that had a history of strained race relations. The governor called out...

Episode 40: Negro League Baseball Baseball is the quintessential American sport. Its long history dates back to the mid-19th century. But the sport has had a fractious history when it came to race relations. Despite quite a large number of African Americans playing in various leagues along-side white players in the early years of the sport, by the turn of the 20th century, complete segregation too...

Episode 3: Maury County’s Hidden Figures History’s Hook hosts Tom Price and Jo Ann McClellan discuss the lives of several African-Americans who started life in Maury County, Tennessee and went on to national acclaim in various pursuits. Included are the stories of renowned chef to the rich and famous, Rufus Estes; Moses McKissack, a brick maker whose descendants include some of the most highly sou...

Episode 28: Voices of Vietnam: Bill McEwen This episode of History’s Hook features the Vietnam reminiscences of Mr. Bill McEwen. A native of Columbia, Tennessee, he graduated from Columbia Military Academy. He attended the University of Tennessee, where he holds both bachelor and master’s degrees. He joined the military in 1966 and after attending Officers Candidate School, was commissioned a 2nd...

Episode 12: Voices of Vietnam: Dr. Bill Andrews The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam, backed by its communist allies against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over...

Episode 13: Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson As part of the series on Tennessee’s three presidents, this episode of History’s Hook focuses on the first of them: Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory, the first populist president changed the face of American politics. Join hosts Tom Price and Dr. Barry Gidcomb as they speak with Marsha Mullin, Vice President of Collections and Research, and chief curator at the H...