9 episodes
Cape Up: Voices of the Movement The Washington Post
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- Society & Culture
The veterans of the civil rights movement made history, but they are eager for you to know something: They didn’t set out to be heroes or icons. On two recent occasions, these brave men and women gathered to reflect on their experiences and the legacy they're leaving. Some of them are names you know, some aren’t — but all of them have stories that need to be told while they're still here to tell them. This series from the “Cape Up” podcast brings you the stories and reflections of some of these leaders, and their lessons on where we go from here.
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The day Martin Luther King Jr. died
"You can only choose what it is you give your life for." Andrew Young, King’s chief strategist with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others who were close to King recall the moment they heard of his assassination.
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Children 'stripped of innocence'
"No one ever said to me, Are you okay? Are you afraid? Because I was." A member of the Little Rock Nine and a survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing both lost the illusion of safety in their young lives.
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How MLK's famous letter was smuggled out of jail
"The Letter from Birmingham Jail became immortal from this combination of very odd circumstances." Clarence B. Jones, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and occasional speechwriter, describes how he smuggled the letter.
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The story of Bloody Sunday and today’s pilgrimage to Selma
"I called it good trouble. I called it necessary trouble." Congressman John Lewis and others who were there recall marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to protest the suppression of black votes.
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Women of the civil rights movement
"The movement never would have happened had it not been for these heroic women." Rep. Barbara Lee and Andrew Young explain why women are so often eliminated from civil rights stories — and why that’s so wrong.
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How segregationist George Wallace became a model for racial reconciliation
"He was the epitome of the legacy of a slave master, and this man kept my people down." Rep. Barbara Lee and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Alabama governor George Wallace, recount how Wallace renounced his segregationist views.