MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds

From humble prayer meetings in their home, Paul and Mattie Brown helped birth one of Minnesota’s oldest Black churches. Despite setbacks and exclusion, the congregation built St. James AME in Minneapolis – leaving a lasting symbol of faith and freedom. ----- Editor: Britt Aamodt  Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby Editorial support: Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

On a quiet November day in 1951, Betty Klein’s three sons went out to play and never came home. Though the case was closed as a presumed drowning, their bodies were never found—and Minnesota’s oldest cold case remains a haunting mystery. ----- Editor: Britt Aamodt  Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby Editorial support: Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Oromos began immigrating to Minnesota in large numbers during the 1970s and 1980s, fleeing government violence in Ethiopia. ----- Editor: Britt Aamodt  Producer: Faaya Adem  Editorial support: Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

At the heart of the Wadi family were their recipes. Wajdi, the eldest son knew they were special. Hear how a small storefront in northeast Minneapolis became a go-to destination for Middle Eastern food. ----- Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby  Editorial support: Britt Aamodt, Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Minnesota native Duane Pederson moved to California with dreams of entertainment but instead launched —a radical, Jesus-centered publication that sparked a revival. He helped birth one of the largest religious movements in America. ----- Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby  Editorial support: Britt Aamodt & Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Inspired by the collaborative art colonies he experienced in Boston, Duluth native Birney Quick returned to Minnesota, where a single summer cohort with his students in Grand Marais sparked the founding of the state’s first art colony. ----- Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby  Editorial support: Emily Krumberger & Britt Aamodt  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Widely remembered as an illustrious wedding venue, the Aria building in downtown Minneapolis holds a dramatic history that stretches back to 1889, when it first rose as a bustling industrial warehouse with grand architectural ambition. ----- Producer: Amira Warren-Yearby  Editorial support: Britt Aamodt & Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood 

In June 1977, Jay Berine opened a live music club in what had been a Texas ranch-themed steakhouse. Jay’s Longhorn Bar, with its cow head and wagon wheel decorations, would become the epicenter of the Twin Cities punk and New Wave music scene. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Russell Lee’s most famous photograph, out of the thousands he took during the Great Depression, is the unlikely shot of bargoers at a logging town in Northern Minnesota. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

In 1960, Borghild Dahl was at a school to talk about her new children’s book. But author had lost her sight in 1958 and the students were more interested in that. Their questions that day would lead Dahl to write a memoir, Finding My Way , about life after blindness. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

In 1953, the entire town of Funkley, Minnesota (population 25) won an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City. ----- Editor: Britt Aamodt  Producer: Britt Aamodt  Editorial support: Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

In 1907, a new college opened in Duluth. The Work People's College taught its working-class students about unions and how to organize against the powerful industries that ruled Minnesota's vast Iron Range. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

Winona has the oldest municipal band west of the Mississippi River. Its story began July 31, 1915, with a performance at Winona's Levee Park. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

From 1954 to 1957, Archie Givens, Sr., a black architect, and Edward Tilsen, a home builder and Jewish immigrant, combined their talents and energies to create the first privately developed integrated housing project in Minneapolis. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

The Danebod Folk School opened in 1888 to provide an education in arts, culture and politics to the Danish population that had recently arrived in Lincoln County. -----  Editor: Britt Aamodt   Producer: Britt Aamodt   Editorial support: Emily Krumberger   Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

In 1905, eighteen Jewish families met in Virginia, Minnesota, to plan the building of B'nai Abraham, the Iron Range's first synagogue constructed from the ground up and not fashioned from a repurposed building. ----- Editor: Britt Aamodt  Producer: Britt Aamodt  Editorial support: Emily Krumberger  Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

The Minnesota State Capitol is a must-see building. Allison Herrera tells us all about the men who built it...by hand.

Born on the Iron Range to Finnish immigrant parents, Gus Hall (born Arvo Kustaa Halberg) grew up in a rich brew of socialism and political activism. MN90 Producer Andi McDaniel discovers how Hall’s early life set the stage for him to become the longtime leader of the American Communist Party and a perennial Presidential candidate on the Communist ticket.

To say that Frederick McGhee had a remarkable life would be an understatement. Born into slavery, he became the first African American attorney to practice in MN. He was among the founders of the NAACP. He argued against separate but equal laws in 1910, nearly forty years before Plessy vs. Ferguson. MN90 producer Allison Herrera tells us about his legacy.

When you’re in the middle of it, every blizzard seems like the worst blizzard. But the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 really was one of Minnesota’s most lethal storms, primarily because there was so little warning.

The Spanish Flu descended on Minnesota in 1918, at a time when the world had no effective answer to major pandemics. The state's disjointed response had mixed results, but helped future health workers decide how to prepare for infectious outbreaks. Produced for Ampers by Art Hughes.

The invention of the satellite newsgathering truck by lifelong Minnesota broadcaster Stanley S. Hubbard was met with skepticism when he first demonstrated it in 1981. But as MN90 producer Marisa Helms reports, nowadays every T-V station that has a meaningful news operation has a satellite newsgathering truck. No matter where news is happening or when it’s happening, we can all watch it live thanks...

Carole Lombard was the queen of 1930’s screwball comedies, and she was married to Clark Gable. The two Second Lieutenants from Minnesota never expected to end up on a night flight with her, and, says Britt Aamodt, never expected it to be their last.

In 1940, John F. Kennedy was 23 and sick, which explains his visit to the Mayo Clinic. But he was also a newly published author. Britt Aamodt has the story behind JFK’s radio interview at KROC-AM