Democracy Imperiled

Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you everything: what they make, what they want, and—for one week—what they spend.

What happened at the Capitol on January 6 begs us to look to our past to help us understand our present, and to imagine a better future. From debates around voting rights to immigration to police reform, we find ourselves at a crossroads in American Democracy.

The election of President Barack Obama ignited feelings of hope and promise. But the election of the first black president of the United States also intensified hatreds, fears and disappointments. This Episode contains scenes that some listeners may find disturbing.

The black freedom struggle of the mid-twentieth century leads to the emergence of white backlash. Here we show how conservatives mobilized immediately, in the courts and in the streets, to undo the promises of the Great Society and the gains of the civil rights movement.

The Civil Rights movement of the mid-twentieth century begins despite the internal conflicts that shape it. We focus particularly on the complex response to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 as well as the ideological debates surrounding the Selma march in 1965. This episode disrupts the standard Civil Rights story of a steady path to racial progress in this country.

In the aftermath of the collapse of Reconstruction, we chart the emergence of Jim Crow laws and the extralegal violence that made it the law of the land. In many ways, this period laid the foundation for the Black freedom Struggle of the mid-twentieth century.

With the passage of the 15th amendment, some Americans believed the battle had finally been won: the former slave now had the right to vote. But what followed, was a systematic retreat on the promises of Radical Reconstruction and the ascendance of a new regime of American racial rule. 

Written and narrated by award-winning author and Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, “History is US” is a 6-part audio documentary produced and developed by C13Originals that asks questions about who we are as a nation, and what race might reveal about our current crisis. Through the voices of distinguished historians and scholars, this limited series gives listeners the background and education to understand how we got here and how we can all use history to clarify the choices before us. There will always be something distinct about our present day, yet history haunts. “History is US” is a presentation of Shining City Audio, a C13Originals and Jon Meacham Studio.