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…

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 guid…

Air Date: September 3, 2024Ms. 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 emphasi…

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 …

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…

Episode 74 – Tom Reidy on AHA 2024 Museum Award for The Scottsboro Boys MuseumAir Date: May 20, 2024Dr. 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.Li…

Episode 73 – Allie Lopez on the AHA 2024 Coley Research Award Air Date: April 22, 2024Allie 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 Rever…

Air Date: March 7, 2024Dr. Christine Sears and Ben Hoksbergen talk about the history of Huntsville, AL, site of the 2024 meeting of the Alabama Historical Association. They also discuss the sites attendees will visit on the pre-conference and conference tours, the banquet speaker Dr. Isabel Morales, and the meeting program offerings.Links to things…

Episode 71 – Dr. Pete Sparks on The Guntersville Historical Society, Winner of the 2023 Kuykendall Award for Local HistoryDr. Pete Sparks, president of the Guntersville Historical Society (GHS), discusses the history of the society, its activities in the recent past and at present, and its plans for the future, including a succession plan for the c…

Episode 70 – Dr. Katie Beasley on her 2023 SAWH Thomas Award winning article re: Alabama women and Curb Markets, 1923-1929.Air Date: January 23, 2024Dr. Katie Beasley, an independent scholar who recently completed her doctorate at Florida State University, discusses her article, “’I Am Planning to Buy a New Buick Coupe Next Year”: Rural Women and A…

Stillman College Asst. Prof. of Music, Dr. Allison Upshaw, discusses her "creative nonfiction" project, "reframing: Narratives of African American Female Landowners in Alabama's Black Belt" that captures more about Black women who own land than what appears in records and produces their stories in a way that makes them fully human.Links mentioned i…

Episode 068 – Bertis English Recipient of the 2023 C.J. Coley Award from Alabama Historical AssociationAir Date: November 8, 2023Dr. Bertis English, professor of history at Alabama State University, discusses his book, Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama's Black Belt: A History of Perry County (University of Alabama Press, 2020) t…

Air Date: October 2, 2023Dr. Tara Douglas, Ms. Tracey Thomas, and Dr. Ted Spears – members of the local arrangements committee – talk about the 2023 Alabama Historical Association Fall Pilgrimage in Sylacauga, AL. Dr. Douglas speaks on the history of Sylacauga, Ms. Thomas talks about the B. B. Comer Memorial Library as a cultural arts center and ho…

Episode 66 -- Spokespeople Aaron Trehub, Chelsea Denault, and Clint Bellanger discuss ADPNet's 2023 Alabama Historical Association Digital History Award (Small Project Category)Air date: September 6, 2023 (audio file replaced May 16, 2024)Aaron Trehub (Auburn University), Chelsea Denault (Michigan Digital Preservation Network), and Clint Bellanger …

Episode 65 – Bob Friedman on the Birmingham Black Radio Museum's 2023 Digital History Award (Large Project Category).Air Date: August 3, 2023Bob Friedman, founder and director of the Birmingham Black Radio Museum (BBRM) talks about receiving the Alabama Historical Association's 2023 Digital History Award, about the founding of the BBRM, and about h…

Dr. Ruth Truss, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montevallo, is the 2023-2024 president of the Alabama Historical Association. With long-time AHA Secretary Mark Wilson, she discusses her plans for her term in office, from maintaining the diversity initiatives of her predecessors to the programs for both the AHA Fall Pil…

Show Notes: Episode 63 – Troy University McPherson-Mitchell Roundtable on the Clotilda and AfricatownAir date: June 7, 2023The History and Philosophy Department at Troy University turned its annual McPherson-Mitchell Lecture in Southern History into a roundtable on the Clotilda, the last slave ship in the United States (1860), and Africatown, the c…

Air Date May 8, 2023 Dr. Brandon Jett of Florida SouthWestern State College discusses his 2023 Milo Howard Award-winning article, "'We Crave to Become a Vital Force in this Community': Police Brutality and African American Activism in Birmingham, Alabama, 1920-1945," published in the January 2022 issue of The Alabama Review. We learn this is a spin…

Episode 61 – Peggy Allen Towns, winner of the Alabama Historical Association's 2022 Virginia van der Veer Hamilton Award.Air Date: April 3, 2023Peggy Allen Towns, a historian of African American life in North Alabama and resident of Decatur, discusses the projects that led her to win the AHA's 2022 Virginia van Der Veer Hamilton Award for contribut…

Episode 60 -- Ann Boutwell, Laura Bonner, and Doug Edgeworth, hosts of the Alabama Historical Association's 2023 annual meeting in Prattville.Air Date: March 7, 2023Ann Boutwell (leader in Prattville's historical and preservation community), Laura Bonner (director of the Prattauguan Museum), and Doug Edgeworth (2023 president of the Autauga County …

Episode 59 - Cart Blackwell, curator, Mobile Carnival Museum, 2022 History Museum Award (AL Hist Assn)Air Date: February 7, 2023Cart Blackwell, curator at the Mobile Carnival Museum, discusses the museum, it's programs and plan of work, as well as the history of Carnival in Mobile. The museum won the 2022 History Museum Award from the Alabama Histo…

Episode # 58Christa Kieffer -- 2022 Coley Research Award recipient, on Happy Chandler and George WallaceAir Date: January 9, 2023Christa Kieffer, doctoral student in history at the University of Kentucky, discusses her dissertation project on A. B. "Happy" Chandler, who was the first pick as George Wallace's 1968 vice-presidential running mate. She…

Episode # 57Dr. Hillary Green - Hallowed Grounds ProjectDecember 7, 2022_________________________________“Who were these rented slaves?”Our guest today is Dr. Hillary Green, a full professor at Davidson College, who has recently been an associate professor of history in the department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of Alabama. She's t…

Episode # 56Carole Ann King – Alabama Quilts, 2022 Sulzby Award RecipientNovember 10, 2022_________________________________"Quilts are Alabama Folk Art and History"Today's guest is Carol Ann King, Curator at Old Alabama Town in Montgomery (Landmarks Foundation of Montgomery, Inc.) whose book, Alabama Quilts: Wilderness through World War II, 1682-19…

Episode # 55Dr. Daryn Glassbrook - The Mobile Medical MuseumOctober 3, 2022_________________________________The Mobile Medical Museum won the Alabama Historical Association's Historical Museum Award for 2022.**********From iron lungs to medicinal gardening and special exhibits - the Mobile Medical Museum boasts over 300 years of medical history and…

Listen to this episode: SoundCloud | Apple | Google | Stitcher**********WELCOME TO ASSOCIATE PRODUCER LAURA MURRAY!**********“Musical Mountain Stream”Mentone, Alabama, is the site of the Alabama Historical Association’s Fall Pilgrimage on September 24th, 2022. Nestled on the brow of Lookout Mountain, Mentone is a lovely mountain town with something…

Rachel Hartsell discusses Alabama History Day and National History Day, especially the 2023 renewal of in-person competition at Auburn University Montgomery.Contacts for information on Alabama History Day and National History Day:Alabama Humanities Alliance – Alabama History Day: https://alabamahumanities.org/program/alabama-history-day/Alabama His…

AHA President, 2022-23, Jim Baggett is head of the Archives Department of the Birmingham Public Library. He discusses his plans for his term in office, including the Fall Pilgrimage in Mentone, the Annual Meeting in Prattville, and increasing AHA's visibility through enhanced social media presence. Jim also introduces a new initiative, the AHA Spea…

Independent scholar Dr. Melissa F. Young (University of Alabama, 2020)discusses her dissertation, "Magic City Jews: Integration and Public Memory, 1871-1911," for which she won the Alabama Historical Association's inaugural Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins Dissertation Award in 2022. Dr. Young also discusses her current project, the Beth-El Civil Rights Expe…

J. Mills Thornton, III, discusses his article "The Big Interest Cases" in the Alabama Review, v. 73, no. 3, July 2020. The Alabama Legislature's involvement with these cases exposed and lengthened the political divide between Alabama's elites and anti-elites.Originally interviewed and recorded by Alabama Review editor Matthew Downs on Facebook in J…

Dallas Hanbury discusses his article, "Documenting Slavery at the Local Level: Montgomery County, AL; A Case Study," Alabama Review, vol. 73, no. 3, July 2020.Originally interviewed and recorded by Alabama Review editor Matthew Downs on Facebook in July 2020.Af Alabama Historical Association

Guy Hubbs discusses his book _Tuscaloosa: 200 Years in the Making_, winner of the 2020 Coley Award for best book in local history presented by the Alabama Historical Association.Af Alabama Historical Association

Jim Baggett, Director of the archives at the Birmingham (AL) Public Library, discusses his 2020 Alabama Historical Association Milo B. Howard Award winning article, “’A Law Abiding People’: Alabama’s 1901 Constitution and the Attempted Lynching of Jim Brown” published in July 2018. The Howard Award goes to the best article published in The Alabama …

Mike Bunn, author and executive director of Blakeley State Park near Spanish Fort, AL, talks about hosting the 2021 Alabama Historical Association Fall Pilgrimage, the charms of Blakeley State Park, and his new book, _Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten History of the Gulf South during America's Revolutionary Era_ published by New South Books in 2021.…

"Genealogists: Going Beyond Kin" is the final installment of the Alabama Historical Association's "2020 & the Future of Alabama History" FBLive series. Drs. Donna Baker and Shari Williams discuss African-American genealogy and the Beyond Kin Project (https://beyondkin.org). Originally recorded via FB Live on December 2, 2020. For more "2020 and the…

AHA President, 2021-22, Dr. Ben Severance, is a professor of history at Auburn University Montgomery (AUM). He discusses his plans for his term as AHA president as well as his own research into US Civil War era Alabama and Tennessee.Af Alabama Historical Association

Charles Oscar Harris was a long-time Alabama legislator and community leader during and after Reconstruction. Through genealogical research, his Black and White descendants discovered each other. With Dr. Richard Bailey, they discuss Harris's historical importance, and with Scotty Kirkland they discuss the process of securing a historical marker. T…

Emily Blewjas (Alabama Folklife Association) and Dr. Alex Covin (Alabama Women's Suffrage Centennial Committee) discuss two William G. Pomeroy Foundation funded marker programs. Scotty Kirkland (Alabama Historical Association Marker Committee) discusses the AHA's historical marker program that's operated since the 1950s.…

Dr. Christine Sears (UAH History), Drew Adan (UAH Archives), Vaughn Bocchino (independent scholar), and Scotty Kirkland (chair of the Alabama Historical Association Marker Committee)talk about documenting, placing a historical marker, and involving the community in programs concerning the Avalon Plantation and its cemetery, the site of the Universi…

Dr. Richard Bailey discusses the place of Black History in the history of the state, the future of Alabama History in light of COVID and BLM in 2020, and profiles of some people from his book, _They, Too, Call Alabama Home_ (https://alabamablackhistory.com/they-too-call-alabama-home-african-american-profiles-1800-1999/). Recorded October 6, 2020.…

Mobile (AL) author and historian Frye Gaillard talks about racial issues in the state's history, his research and books, stories of perseverance and success, and the future of Alabama history in light of COVID and BLM during 2020. Recorded September 4, 2020.Af Alabama Historical Association

Howard Robinson of Alabama State University Archives, Robin Brown of Cobb Memorial Archives, and Marty Olliff of the Wiregrass Archives discuss their collections as part of the Alabama Historical Association's series, 2020 & the Future of Alabama History. Recorded on FB Live, September 9, 2020.Af Alabama Historical Association

Calvin Chappelle, site director of Alabama's Confederate Memorial Park (operated by the Alabama Historical Commission), discusses interpretation at the park in 2020 and beyond. This Alabama Historical Association FB Live presentation occurred on August 19, 2020, as part of the AHA's series, 2020 and the Future of Alabama History. See more about the…

Dr. Wayne Flynt speaks on the Alabama Historical Association Facebook Live series, "2020 and the Future of Alabama History," July 29, 2000, about his vision of the steps Alabama should take to secure a future of equity.Af Alabama Historical Association

Dr. David Alsobrook discusses his new book, "Presidential Archivist, A Memoir." A graduate of Auburn University, Alsobrook served at the National Archives, the Carter Materials Project, and as director of both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton Presidential Libraries. Mercer University is the publisher.…

In lieu of its 2020 convention, the AHA has hosted panel discussions on Facebook about "2020 & the Future of Alabama History." This panel of Steve Murray (director of ADAH), Dr. Tara White (Public History in Selma), and Dr. Derryn Moten (dept. chair, ASU) was recorded on July 15, 2020. They discuss how institutions concerned with Alabama history ca…

Alabama History Day coordinator Jerald Crook and multi-year winner Elizabeth Rhonemus talk about the annual Alabama History Day and National History Day competition from the perspectives of both administrator and participant.Af Alabama Historical Association

AHA President, 2019-20, Frazine Taylor, discusses her plans for the 2019 Pilgrimage to Wetumpka, the 2020 meeting in Florence, her book _Researching African American Genealogy in Alabama_ (NewSouth Books, 2008), and her very interesting life.Af Alabama Historical Association

Tuscaloosa lawyer and author Chris McIlwain discusses his two recent books from the University of Alabama Press, _Civil War in Alabama_ (2016), and _1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace_ (2017).Af Alabama Historical Association

EOA Communications Editor Laura Hill commemorates the 10th anniversary of online Encyclopedia of Alabama going live by describing the EOA and highlighting its reach and articles.Af Alabama Historical Association