World History by the Numbers
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Daniel Hoyer from Seshat about looking at history through a statistical lens. We discuss the and his new book, Figuring Out the Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics that Explain World History. Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe, and Beyond - Balkan Travel Blog - Travel in Oklahoma & Route 66 The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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Veliko Tarnovo: Bulgaria's Medieval Capital
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Eric Halsey from the Bulgarian History Podcast about the hidden gem of Veliko Tarnovo. This once-important Bulgarian city is one of the most picturesque in Europe, and yet not many outside of Bulgaria know much about it. You can find Eric's podcast Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! More on Veliko Tarnovo: If you are planning to visit Veliko Tarnovo, here are our Veliko Tarnovo travel guides. My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe,...
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Stalking Chernobyl
The History Fangirl Podcast
Yes, it's been two years, and for that I'm very sorry! But I'm back with new episodes next week. In the meantime, enjoy this interview on Chernobyl I did a few weeks ago with Darmon Richter, the author of the new book Chernobyl, a Stalker's Guide. The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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The Great Kazakh Famine
The History Fangirl Podcast
On today’s episode of the History Fangirl Podcast, we talk with renowned travel blogger Megan Starr, whom we spoke to a few months back about Kiev. But this week, we’re talking in person, in Kazakhstan, at the site of the memorial to the Great Kazakh Famine, a historical event which not many people know about in the West but looms large in the history of Kazakhstan. And, we both have recovered from the Kazakhstani flu that has been going around, so we’re ready to get rolling!
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The World Nomad Games
The History Fangirl Podcast
This week’s episode is something a little different. I am in Isyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, covering the World Nomad Games, a festival of sports that’s sort of like the Olympics for nomadic peoples. The sports, though, are way more interesting than, say, basketball. My first interview this episode is with the co-captain of the American Kok Boru team (I’ll explain later), and the sports include horse archery, tug of war, arm wrestling and more.
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The Massacre at Srebrenica
The History Fangirl Podcast
Last year, Alex Cruikshanks came on the show to talk about Belgrade, a really detailed and wide-ranging episode. And we had such a great time, he’s back again to talk about more recent history in Yugoslavia, specifically the brutal massacre at Srebrenica. Yugoslavia, as anyone who was alive in the 1990s knows, was falling apart in the early part of the decade. The Bosnian War was raging, and in 1995, some 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys, were killed.
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The Strangely Competitive History of the CN Tower
The History Fangirl Podcast
Every city has that one landmark that seems like a tourist trap and practically begs you not to visit. For me, that was the CN Tower in Toronto. I didn’t go near it the first time I visited the city, and the second time, this past July, I planned to steer clear. But it turns out the joke was on me, as the CN Tower is an amazing building with a funny, competitive and ingenious bit of Canadian history.
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Traveling the Green Book
The History Fangirl Podcast
In the first half of the 20th century, the automobile became a symbol of freedom to American families. Middle-class families able to afford their own car were no longer restricted to train or bus timetables, and the great American road trip was born. But for black Americans, this new freedom collided with old hatred, prejudices and dangers. African Americans began using “the Green Book,” a guide to places that were friendly to them along their journey.
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The Best of The History Fangirl Podcast's First Year
The History Fangirl Podcast
We did it! Next week will mark a full year of publishing The History Fangirl Podcast, and this week marks the 50th episode, so it felt like the right time to do a retrospective of the first 12 months of the show. My producer picked a handful of his favorite clips (it was too hard for me to pick!) from the past year, and so this episode looks back on some of the fun and fascinating stories my amazing guests have told.
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Philadelphia's Elfreth's Alley
The History Fangirl Podcast
Philadelphia is by far one of my favorite American cities. I used to live there and run a photo-a-day website there, and it’s one of the best cities to live in if you’re a history buff. On today’s episode, we talk about the amazing Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continually lived-on residential street in the country (hard to fit that on a title belt, but still pretty cool). I had the chance to take a tour of the street with the Elfreth’s Alley Association’s Board Member Brittany Thomas.
info_outlineWith just a week left in office, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation declaring the Birmingham, Alabama Civil Rights District a national monument. Birmingham played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement in America in the 1950s and ‘60s. Prominent figures like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both active in the community, and the city long ago captured the hearts and imaginations of the nation. On this week’s episode, I talk with Barry McNealy, education and programming consultant of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. We talk about the events that took place in the city, and what led Obama to make his proclamation.
Birmingham and Civil Rights
Barry told me about how just by growing up in Birmingham, the civil rights struggle is a part of life. His aunt was a “foot soldier,” as he put it, and he had high school and college teachers who were involved in the movement. That’s how interwoven the civil rights fight was in Birmingham. And much of it centers on the Civil Rights Monument, where the 16th Street Baptist Church lies, as well as Kelly Ingram Park, infamous as the site where Birmingham public safety commissioner Bull Connor ordered demonstrators be cleared via firehose. And, of course, there’s the A.G. Gaston Motel, which Revs. Shuttlesworth and King used as a headquarters.
The 16th Street Baptist Church
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was the site of the notorious bombing by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963, but the church’s roots go back to almost the time of the founding of the city. Birmingham was established in 1870, and the church’s congregation came together just a couple years after that. Luminaries flocked to the church: W.E.B. DuBois spoke there, opera singer Marian Anderson performed there. And this was before the civil rights movement took off. The church became known as “everybody’s church,” with both the first high school and the first bank open to African-Americans growing out of the church.
Shuttlesworth, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
As Barry told me, the importance of Birmingham to the civil rights movement was both planned and the result of happenstance. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was a key figure in the struggle. When the State of Alabama banned the NAACP from functioning in the state after the Montgomery bus boycott, the reverend created a new organization to stand in its place called the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The Movement took up both the NAACP’s legal challenges against the state and the nonviolent actions of the bus boycott in 1957. Then, Shuttlesworth and King would work together to create the famous Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
From the 1950s to now
Barry shares so many fascinating stories of this tumultuous time in American history, from the work of civil rights heroes like Dr. King, to the racist actions taken by “mule” politicians like Bull Connor. If you’ve never been to Birmingham, Alabama, I highly recommend a visit to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Like so much of history, it’s wonderful to read about, but it’s on the streets where it happened where it really comes alive. The Civil Rights movement started in the 1950s, became a worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s, and in many ways continues to this day. Thanks so much to Barry McNealy of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for talking with me today.
Outline of This Episode
- [2:47] How Barry became involved
- [6:09] How the 16th Street Baptist Church rose to prominence
- [8:49] How Birmingham became so important to the movement
- [14:22] Bull Connor
- [20:04] 1963
- [24:57] The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church
- [33:09] The problems with how Birmingham has been taught
- [39:00] The aftermath of the bombing
- [41:03] Birmingham and the continuing civil rights movement
- [44:24] Doug Jones’s story
- [54:32] Visiting Birmingham
Resources Mentioned
Connect With Stephanie
Featuring the song “Places Unseen” by Lee Rosevere.
More info and photographs for this episode at:
https://historyfangirl.com/birmingham-civil-rights-movement/