While voters were casting their ballots in the 1972 presidential election, Native demonstrators had taken over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, DC, barricading themselves in with office furniture and preparing to fight with makeshift weapons. The occupation marked the finale of a cross-country caravan, the Trail of Broken Treaties, and the activists were demanding the consideration of their Twenty-Point Position Paper, which called for a restoration of Indigenous rights and recognition of Native American sovereignty.

Joining me to help us understand the 1972 occupation and to discuss the larger story of native presence and activism in DC is Dr. Elizabeth Rule, author of Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation's Capital and Founder of the Guide to Indigenous Lands Project.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is Hank Adams, in the fall of 1972, addressing the mission of the cross-country trip to Washington, D.C., from the Hank Adams Collection that was donated to the Washington Secretary of State and is included in: “Hank Adams: “An Uncommon Life.”

Additional Sources:

• “of-broken-treaties.htm">The Trail of Broken Treaties, 1972,” National Park Service
• “The Trail of Broken Treaties: A March on Washington, DC 1972,” William & Mary Libraries.
• “Native Americans Take Over Bureau of Indian Affairs: 1972,” by Bob Simpson, The Washington Area Spark, March 26, 2013.
• “Trail of Broken Treaties 20-Point Position Paper,” October 1872, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• “When Native American Activists Occupied Alcatraz Island,” by Evan Andrews, History.com, original November 20, 2014; updated September 1, 2018.
• “Occupy Wounded Knee: A 71-Day Siege and a Forgotten Civil Rights Movement,” by Emily Chertoff, The Atlantic, October 23, 2012.

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In the decades following the Civil War, African Americans reliably voted for the Republican Party, which had led the efforts to outlaw slavery and enfranchise Black voters; and white southerners reliably voted for the Democratic Party. When Black voters started to vote for Democratic candidates in larger numbers, starting with the 1936 re-election of FDR, whose New Deal policies had helped poor African Americans, Republicans began to turn their sights toward white Southern voters. By the 1964 Presidential election, Republican Barry Goldwater was actively courting those voters, winning five states in the deep South, despite his otherwise poor showing nationwide. Republican Richard Nixon successfully refined the strategy in his 1968 defeat of Democrat Hubert Humphrey. In the following decades, the Republican Party continued to employ the Southern Strategy, eventually leading to a complete realignment of the parties.

Joining me for a deep dive on the Southern Strategy is Dr. Kevin M. Kruse, Professor of History at Princeton University, author of several books on the political and social history of twentieth-century America, and co-editor with fellow Princeton History Dr. Julian E. Zelizer of Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past. 

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is a photograph of Richard Nixon campaigning in 1968; it is in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons. The mid-episode audio is the "Go, Go Goldwater" radio jingle produced by Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff and Ryan, Inc. (EWR & R) from the 1964 presidential campaign; it is widely available on YouTube and is sampled here for educational purpose.

Additional Sources:

• To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party, by Heather Cox Richardson, Basic Books, 2021.
• “The Kansas-Nebraska Act,” United States Senate.
• “Missouri Compromise (1820),” National Archives.
• “Whig Party,” History.com, Originally Published November 6, 2009, Last Updated July 29, 2022.
• “Republican Party founded,” History.com, Originally Published February 9, 2010; Last Updated March 18, 2021.
• “What we get wrong about the Southern strategy,” by Angie Maxwell, The Washington Post, July 26, 2019.
• “Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy,” by Rick Perlstein, The Nation, November 13, 2012.
• “How the Southern Strategy Made Donald Trump Possible,” by Jeet Heer, The New Republic, February 18, 2016.
• “Paul Manafort's role in the Republicans' notorious 'Southern Strategy,'” by Sue Sturgis, Facing South, November 3, 2017.
• “Candace Owens wrongly called GOP’s Southern strategy a ‘myth,’” by Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post, April 9, 2019.

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In 1983, Harold Washington took on the Chicago machine and won, with the help of a multiracial coalition, becoming the first Black mayor of Chicago. Winning the mayoral election was only the first fight, and 29 of the 50 alderpersons on City Council, led by the “the Eddies,” Aldermen Ed Vrdolyak and Edward M. Burke, opposed Washington’s every move. This week we look at Washington’s rise to the 5th floor of City Hall, who helped him get there, and the struggles he faced once elected.

Joining me to help us learn more about Harold Washington is Dr. Gordon K. Mantler, Executive Director of the University Writing Program and Associate Professor of Writing and of History at the George Washington University and author of The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washington's Chicago and the Democratic Struggle in Reagan's America.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is a photo of Harold Washington, US Federal Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• “WASHINGTON, Harold,” HIstory, Art, and Archives, United States House of Representatives.
• “Mayor Harold Washington Biography,” Chicago Public Library.
• “Achieving the Dream: Harold Washington,” WTTW Chicago.
• “Who Was Harold Washington? A Look Back at the Legacy of Chicago's First Black Mayor,” NBC5 Chicago, April 15, 2022.
• “How Mayor Harold Washington Shaped the City of Chicago,” by Adam Doster, Chicago Magazine, April 29, 2013.
• “Punch 9 for Harold Washington [video],” directed by Joe Winston, 2021.
• “The Legacy of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington [video],” UChicago Institute of Politics, Streamed live on Apr 27, 2022.
• “sets-up-at-large-voting-governor-signs-emergency-bill-for.html">ILLINOIS SETS UP AT LARGE VOTING; Governor Signs Emergency Bill for House Election,” The New York Times, January 30, 1964, Page 14.
• “Hyde Park Stories: Harold Washington Park,” by Patricia L. Morse, Hyde Park Historical Society, February 22, 2023. 

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On February 29, 1968, Lady Bird Johnson hosted the first–and last–White House Fashion Show. The fashion show, intended both to highlight the fourth largest industry in the United States and to promote domestic tourism, inadvertently became one of the many PR missteps of the Johnson administration, as it occurred in the midst of the Tet Offensive. Just one month later LBJ announced on national television that he would not seek reelection, and today the fashion show is largely forgotten. 

Joining me to help us understand how and why Lady Bird Johnson ended up hosting a White House Fashion Show, and why it was never repeated, is fashion history Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, author of Red, White, and Blue on the Runway: The 1968 White House Fashion Show and the Politics of American Style.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode is “The Stars and Stripes Forever March,” composed by John Philip Sousa and performed by the United States Marine Corps Band; the audio is in the public domain. The episode image is from the 1968 “Discover America” White House Fashion Show, available via the National Archives (NAID: 218517833, Local ID: 306-SSA-68-8218-CC5), and is in the public domain.

Additional Sources:

• “Claudia Alta Taylor ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson,” The White House.
• “The Environmental First Lady,” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, The University of Texas at Autin.
• “record.blogs.archives.gov/2021/08/10/spotlight-1968-white-house-fashion-show/">Spotlight: 1968 White House Fashion Show,” by Kaitlyn Crain Enriquez, National Archives - The Unwritten Record, August 10, 2021.
• “The White House Fashion Show [video],” White House Historical Association, posted on YouTube on June 14, 2022.
• “The 1968 Fashion Show, the History Lesson Melania Missed,” by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Politico, March 5, 2018.
• “house-fashion-show-1968-runway-show-was-first-and-last-though-michelle-obama-came-close.html">Why the First White House Fashion Show Was Also the Last,” by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Slate, October 10, 2014.
• “Discover America Scarf,” Frankie Welch’s Americana: Fashion, Scarves, and Politics, UGA Special Collections Library Online Exhibitions.
• “TET: Who Won?” by Don Oberdorfer, Smithsonian Magazine, November 2004.

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In 19th Century New York, everyone knew who to go to to end an unwanted pregnancy: the French-trained, sophisticated Madame Restell, who lived in a posh mansion on 5th Avenue. In reality, Madame Restell was English immigrant Ann Trow Lohman, and she had never even been to France, but she managed to combine medical skill with her carefully crafted public persona to become tremendously wealthy, while providing a much-needed service. As the legal landscape of the United States grew ever more conservative, Madame Restell did her best to evade the authorities, and then Anthony Comstock knocked on her door.

Joining me this week to help us understand more about Madame Restell is historian and writer Jennifer Wright, author of Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is part of Twelve Pieces for piano, op. 40, No. 9, Valse in F-sharp minor, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1878, performed by Kevin McLeod, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The episode image is “The arrest of abortionist Ann Lohman (a.k.a. Madame Restell) by Anthony Comstock,” from the February 23, 1878, edition of the New York Illustrated Times; scanned from The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist by Clifford Browder; available via Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Additional sources:

• “Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue,” by Karen Abbott, Smithsonian Magazine, November 27, 2012.
• “Life Story: Ann Trow Lohman, a.k.a. Madame Restell (1812 - 1878),” Women and the American Story, New York Historical Society.
• “When 'The Wickedest Woman of New York' Lived on Fifth Avenue,” by Simon Scully, Mental Floss, October 2, 2020.
• “restells-other-profession.html">Madame Restell’s Other Profession,” By Christopher Gray, The New York Times, October 10, 2013.
• “‘Sex and the Constitution’: Anthony Comstock and the reign of the moralists,” by Geoffrey Stone, The Washington Post, March 23, 2017.

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In her 2015 book, Gloria Steinem described the National Women’s Conference of 1977 as “the most important event nobody knows about.” The four-day event in Houston, Texas, which brought together 2,000 delegates and another 15,000-20,000 observers was the culmination of a commission appointed first by President Ford and then by President Carter, and was and funded by Congress for $5 million to investigate how federal legislation could best help women. The excited delegates believed that the conference would change history, so what happened, and why do so few people now even remember that it happened.

Joining me to help us learn more about the National Women’s Conference are Dr. Nancy Beck Young, the Moores Professor of History; and Dr. Elizabeth Rodwell, Assistant Professor of Digital Media, who are both on the leadership team for The Sharing Stories from 1977 project through the Center for Public History at the University of Houston.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Retro Disco Old School” by Musictown from Pixabay. The episode image is from the final mile of the Torch Relay on its arrival to Houston on November 18, 1977. From left to right: Bella Abzug, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot, Michele Cearcy, Betty Friedan, Billie Jean King. Photo courtesy of the record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/11/16/spotlight-national-womens-conference-of-1977/">National Archives and Records Administration.

Additional sources:

• Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics, by Marjorie J. Spruill, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.
• “Women Unite! Lessons from 1977 for 2017,” by Marjorie Spruill, Process :A Blog for American History, from the Organization of American Historians, The Journal of American History, and The American Historian, January 20, 2017.
• “The 1977 Conference on Women’s Rights That Split America in Two,” by Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian Magazine, February 15, 2017.
• “Sisters of ‘77 [video],” Directed by Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell, March 1, 2005.
• “record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/11/16/spotlight-national-womens-conference-of-1977/">Spotlight: National Women’s Conference of 1977,” by Chucik, National Archives, November 16, 2017.
• “Women on the Move: Texas and the Fight for Women’s Rights,” Texas Archive of the Moving Image. 
• “National Women's Conference, 1977,” by Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association.
• “The 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston Was Supposed to Change the World. What Went Wrong?” by Dianna Wray, Houstonia Magazine, January 20, 2018.
• “Road Warrior: After fifty years, Gloria Steinem is still at the forefront of the feminist cause,” by Jane Kramer, The New Yorker, October 12, 2015.
• “What’s left undone 45 years after the National Women’s Conference,” by Errin Haines, The 19th, March 25, 2022.

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By 1833, Lydia Maria Child was a popular author, having published both fiction and nonfiction, including the wildly successful advice book The Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of Economy. And she had been editing a beloved monthly periodical for children called Juvenile Miscellany for seven years. But her popularity crumbled precipitously when she published An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, arguing for the immediate emancipation of enslaved people. Child never stopped writing or fighting for the causes she believed in, but she never again reached the literary heights to which she’d seemed poised to ascend.

Joining me to help us learn more about Lydia Maria Child is Dr. Lydia Moland, Professor of Philosophy at Colby College and author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The poem mid-episode, read by Teddy, is “The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day,” written by Lydia Maria Child and originally published in 1844 in Flowers for Children, Volume 2. The image is of Lydia Maria Child, from “Representative Women,” by L. Schamer, produced by Louis Prang Lithography Company, in 1870; the image is available courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and is in the public domain.

Additional sources:

• “Lydia Maria Child,” Poetry Foundation.
• “Lydia Maria Child,” David Ruggles Center for History and Education.
• “maria-child-dies.html">October 20, 1880: Lydia Maria Child Dies,” Mass Moments.
• “Lydia Maria Child 1802-1880,” From a talk titled, “Here are some of her accomplishments” by Jane Sciacca, Wayland Historical Society, October 2018.
• “Lydia Maria Child,” National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.
• “lloyd-garrison.htm">William Lloyd Garrison,” National Park Service.
• “Lydia Maria Child Taught Americans to Make Do With Less,“ by Lydia Moland, Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2022.
• “Activists have always been frustrated at allies’ insistence on gradual change,” by Lydia Moland, Washington Post, March 28, 2022.
• “Books by Child, Lydia Maria,” Project Gutenberg
• “images.html">Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself,” by Harriet A. Jacobs; edited by Lydia Maria Child.

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On the morning of July 24, 1915, employees of the Western Electric Company and their families excitedly boarded the SS Eastland near the Clark Street Bridge in Chicago, eager to set off for a day of fun in Michigan City, Indiana, during their annual company picnic. Tragically, the ship capsized just 19 feet from the wharf in the Chicago River, killing 844 people in one of the worst maritime disasters in United States history.

Joining me on this episode to help us understand more about the tragic Eastland disaster are Ted and Barb Wachholz, who co-founded the Eastland Disaster Historical Society with Barb’s sister, Susan Decker, and their mom, Jean Decker. Barb and Susan’s grandmother, Borghild Amelia Aanstad, who went by Bobbie, was 13 years old, when she, along with her sister Solveig, Mother Mariane, and Uncle Olaf, survived the capsizing of the Eastland.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Somewhere a Voice is Calling,” written by Arthur Tate in 1911. This recording is by the Revillon Trio in 1915 and is in the Public Domain. It is available via the Internet Archive. The image is a photograph taken on July 24, 1915 during the rescue operations; it is freely available via the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.

Sources:

• Eastland Disaster Historical Society
• The Eastland Disaster by Ted Wachholz, Arcadia Publishing (SC), August 17, 2005.
• “The Forgotten Disaster of the SS Eastland [video],” Ask a Mortician, September 23, 2022.
• “The Eastland Disaster Killed More Passengers Than the Titanic and the Lusitania. Why Has It Been Forgotten?” by Susan Q. Stranahan, October 27, 2014.
• “The Eastland Disaster: New look at 100-year-old tragedy [video],” Chicago Tribune, July 16, 2015.
• “The Eastland Disaster,” WTTW Chicago.
• “1915 – Eastland Disaster,” Chicagology

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If you’ve ever lived in Chicago, you’ve probably heard at some point that Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw. While that’s an exaggeration it’s certainly the case that the Chicagoland region has a large population of people of Polish descent and that Chicago is important historically to American Polonia. From the earliest Polish immigrants to Chicago in the 1830s through today, Poles have helped shape the culture, politics, religion, and food of Chicago. This week we dive into that history.

Joining me to help us understand more about Polish Chicago is Dr. Dominic A. Pacyga, professor emeritus of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago and author of several books on Polish immigrants and Chicago, including American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago in 2019.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-roll audio is “Mazurka, Op. 24, No. 4, in B Flat Minor,” by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, performed by Polish pianist and Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski in in the early 1920s and captured on an Aeolian Company "DUO-ART" reproducing piano; the performance is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive. The episode image is the Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument, an outdoor sculpture by artist Kazimierz Chodziński, installed in the median of East Solidarity Drive, near Chicago's Shedd Aquarium; the photograph was taken by Matthew Weflen on Sunday, February 19, 2023, and is used with permission.

Additional Sources:

• “Poles,”by Dominic Pacyga, Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005.
• “Can Chicago Brag about the Size of its Polish Population?” by Jesse Dukes, WBEZ Chicago, October 26, 2015.
• “Where Have All the Polish Pols Gone?” by Edward McClelland, Chicago Magazine, January 6, 2020.
• “How Chicago Became a Distinctly Polish American City,” by Marek Kępa, Culture.PL, April 27, 2020.
• “Explore Polish culture in Chicago’s neighborhoods,” Choose Chicago.
• “Chicago’s Milwaukee Av. to be renamed Polish Heritage Corridor in honour of city’s Poles,” by Stuart Dowell, The First News, June 20, 2022.
• “Chicago, The Polish City,” Interview of Dominic Pacyga by Łukasz Kożuchowski, Polish History.
• “Chicago’s Polish Constitution Day Parade is back. This year, it has a new theme,” by Adriana Cardona-Maguidad, WBEZ Chicago, May 3, 2022.

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When businessman John H. Johnson died in 2005, Ebony Magazine, the monthly photo-editorial magazine that he launched in 1945, reached an estimated 10 million readers. Under the direction of executive editor Lerone Bennet Jr. for several decades, Ebony helped shape Black culture and perceptions of Black history. Johnson Publishing Company helped shape Chicago history, too, when they opened their Loop location in 1972, at 820 S. Michigan Ave. The now-iconic 11-story, 110,000 square-foot building was the first major downtown building to be designed by an African American architect, John W. Moutoussamy, and the first skyscraper owned by an African American in the Loop. 

Joining me this week to help us understand more about Johnson Publishing is Dr. E. James West, a Lecturer at University College London, co-director of the Black Press Research Collective, and author of Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America, A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago, and Our Kind of Historian: The Work and Activism of Lerone Bennett Jr.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-roll audio is from the Sol Taishoff Award ceremony on February 25, 1986, where span.org/person/?donhewitt">Don Hewitt, span.org/person/?johnhjohnson">John Johnson and span.org/person/?johnquinn">John Quinn were recognized for Excellence in Journalism. The video was aired on C-SPAN and is in the public domain. The episode image is “Ebony magazine, Volume LX, Number 12 honoring the life of John H. Johnson, the founder of Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony magazine,” from the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Bunch Family.

Additional Sources:

• “Succeeding Against the Odds: The Autobiography of a Great American Businessman,” by John H. Johnson and Lerone Bennett, Jr., Johnson Publishing Company, October 1, 1992.
• “h-johnson-87-founder-of-ebony-dies.html">John H. Johnson, 87, Founder of Ebony, Dies,” by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, August 9, 2005.
• “jet-magazine.html">The Radical Blackness of Ebony Magazine,” by Brent Staples, The New York Times, August 11, 2019.
• “bennett-jr-historian-of-black-america-dies-at-89.html">Lerone Bennett Jr., Historian of Black America, Dies at 89,” by Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, February 16, 2018.
• “75 Years of Ebony Magazine,” The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian.
• “Under new ownership, 'Ebony' magazine bets on boosting Black business,” by Andrew Craig, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, October 31, 2021.
• “New apartments pay homage to Ebony/Jet building's history,” by Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, September 9, 2019.

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