Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were African American pilots, crew, and personnel associated with the Army flight training school in Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II. The best known of these units were the 99th Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, and 477th Bombardment (Composite) Group. Background Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no African Americans had been …Read More

Double V Campaign

The Double V Campaign was an African American initiative, led by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, that aimed to achieve a double victory (“Double V”) during World War II. The two objectives were victory in the war abroad and victory against discrimination on the home front. How did it start? The inspiration for the campaign came …Read More

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. 1822– March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John …Read More

Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were African American pilots, crew, and personnel associated with the Army flight training school in Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II. The best known of these units were the 99th Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, and 477th Bombardment (Composite) Group. Background Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no African Americans had been …Read More

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln effective January 1, 1863. It changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the …Read More

Pumpkin Pie Recipes

Pumpkin pie has a long history in the United States. Pumpkins originally come from Central America, but as a result of European exploration of the Americas, the plant began to be cultivated and eaten in Europe. Early European colonists in what would later become the United States brought the tradition of pumpkin-filled pies across the …Read More

Episode 10: The Only Female WWI Soldier and a ‘Crumby’ POW Kickabout

It’s the last episode of our inaugural season of Behind The Headlines of History, and this week we’re marking Remembrance Day with stories related to the lives of people during WWI. Michala starts the episode with the incredible tale of Sapper Dorothy Lawrence – the ambitious female war correspondent who dressed as a man to …Read More

Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The first section, as passed by the U.S. Congress in 1972, states “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” History & Background The ERA (sometimes …Read More

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was an early 19th-century philosophical and theological school of thought that merged the ideals of Unitarianism and German Romanticism, prized self-sufficiency, and upheld the inherent goodness of humanity and nature.  Origins of Transcendentalism Transcendentalism loosely began in Massachusetts in the early 1800s, emerging from dissatisfaction with Unitarianism’s emphasis on reason. New beliefs centered on …Read More