In 1946, the National Football League began the process of reintegration after a “gentleman’s agreement” had stopped teams from hiring Black players for over a decade. Even as the NFL began to re-integrate, though, racist stereotypes kept teams from drafting Black players into so-called “thinking” positions like quarterback. Black players who started at quarterback in college would be drafted into the NFL, only to be converted into running backs or wide receivers. On September 30, 1979, for the first time in NFL history, two Black quarterbacks (Doug WIlliams of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Vince Evans of the Chicago Bear) faced off against each other. In this episode, we look at Williams, Evans, and the history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL. I’m joined in this episode by historian Dr. Louis Moore, Professor of History at Grand Valley State University and author of The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans, and the Making of the Black Quarterback.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “American Football Game (Drum Corps Percussion Action) Bumper,” by FlorewsMusic, used under the Pond5's Content License Agreement. The episode image is “Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams preparing to throw the ball during an offensive play in 1987,” published in 1988 for the Redskins Police football card set; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• “NFL founded in Canton on Sept. 17, 1920,” Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• “The Reintegration of the NFL,” NFL Football Operations.
• “How the media helped overturn the NFL’s unwritten ban on black players,” by Nathan Fenno, Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2017.
• “Meet Four Men Who Broke The NFL's Color Line,” NFL Players Association.
• “Bucs Edge Bears,” by Dave Brady, The Washington Post, September 30, 1979.
• “Doug Williams,” Washington Commanders.
• “QB Evans Made History Before Joining Raiders,” by Tom LaMarre, Sports Illustrated, June 23, 2023.
• “Why It Took So Long for Two Black Quarterbacks to Face Off in the Super Bowl,” by Robert Silverman, Rolling Stone, February 12, 2023.
• “No matter who wins, the first Super Bowl with 2 Black quarterbacks will make history,” by Becky Sullivan, NPR Morning Edition, February 8, 2023.
• “Nine Decades After NFL Banned Black Players, Super Bowl LVII Is The First To Feature Two Black Starting Quarterbacks,” National Urban League, February 3, 2023.

In the Continental Army, one company of patriots in Charleston, South Carolina, was a majority Jewish, and at least fifteen Jewish soldiers in the Army achieved the rank of officer during the American Revolution, something unheard of in European armies at the time. Though their numbers were small (in proportion with their population in the colonies), Jewish patriots participated in the war, and in the Early Republic they insisted on their full citizenship in the new nation. I’m joined in this episode by Dr. Adam Jortner, the Goodwin Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion in the Department of History at Auburn University and author of A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Jewish Longing,” by Ashot Danielyan from Pixabay, used in accordance with the Pixabay content license. The episode image is a drawing of a colonial American couple with a Hanukkah menorah; the image is believed to be in the public domain, and the source is unknown.

Additional sources:

• “Recife,” Dutch Port Cities Project, the Global Asia initiative, New York University.
• “From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, Timeline 1700s,” Library of Congress.
• “Total Jewish Population in the United States (1654 - Present),” Jewish Virtual Library.
• “Jews in Early America: From Inquisition to Freedom,” Touro Synagogue Foundation.
• “Men of Mordechai: Jewish Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces,” by Jessie Kratz, Pieces of History, National Archives, May 18, 2021.
• “One Jew’s Financial Support for the Revolutionary War,” The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
• “Francis Salvador, the First Jewish Member of a Legislative Assembly in American History,” by Nathan Dorn, Library of Congress Blog, May 5, 2020.
• “Washington’s Letter,” George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom.
• “The Bill of Rights: How Did it Happen?” National Archives.
• “First Amendment and Religion,” United States Courts.

Abigail Smith Adams, wife to the second U.S. president and mother of the sixth U.S. president, may be best known for exhorting her husband to “remember the ladies” as he worked with his colleagues to form a new government, but that was just one of her many strongly-held political views. Adams, who lacked formed education and whose legal status was subsumed under that of her husband, never stopped arguing for greater educational opportunities and legal rights for women. Because of her prolific correspondence, including more than 1,100 letters between her and John, and because the care with which her descendents preserved her writing, we have an extraordinary view into the inner life of a woman who helped shape the country. Joining me in this episode is presidential historian Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky, the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Yankee Doodle,” performed by the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. The episode is a painting of Abigail Adams around 1766 by Benjamin Blyth; the image is in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons

Additional Sources:

• “Abigail Adams: A Life,” by Woody Holton, Atria Books, 2010.
• “Biography: Abigail Adams,” PBS American Experience.
• “Abigail Adams,” UVA Miller Center.
• “John and Abigail Adams: A Tradition Begins,” by Betty C. Monkman, White House Historical Association, Spring 2000.
• “Coverture: The Word You Probably Don't Know But Should,” by Catherine Allgor, National Women’s HIstory Museum, September 4, 2012.
• “More Power to You: Abigail Adams advocated dismantling the 'masculine system' that denied property and legal rights to married women,” by Lindsay Keiter, Colonial Williamsburg, October 2, 2020.
• “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 25 February 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 March 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “Will of Abigail Adams, 18 January 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives.

At the Republican National Convention in July 1964, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s name was placed in nomination for the presidency, and she received votes from 27 delegates, the first time a woman was placed in nomination at a major party’s presidential convention in the United States. It was only one of many firsts Smith would achieve in her remarkable decades-long career that included speaking out against McCathyism on the floor of the Senate in 1950 and being the first woman of Congress to break the sound barrier in 1957. Joining this episode to help us learn more about Senator Smith is Dr. Teri Finneman, Associate Professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas and author of Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s-2000s: From Lunatic Woodhull to Polarizing Palin.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The in-episode audio is from the 1964 Margaret Chase Smith Presidential Campaign Announcement, courtesy Northeast Historic Film Archive, available via C-SPAN. The episode image is “Senator Margaret Chase Smith, ca. 1954,” Records of the U.S. Information Agency, National Archives.

Additional Sources:

• “No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith,” by Janann Sherman, Rutgers University Press, 1999.
• “Biography,” Margaret Chase Smith Library.
• “Margaret Chase Smith; Congressional Trailblazer,” by Staff Sgt. Jarred Martinez, Mountain Home Air Force Base, August 26, 2021.
• “Women in Military Service; the Role of Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith,” by Senator Susan Collins, June 26, 2023.
• “Declaration of Conscience,” delivered by Senator Margaret Chase Smith to the United States Senate on June 1, 1950.
• “Margaret Chase Smith: Breaking the Barrier,” by Jessie Kratz, National Archives, October 15, 2020.
• “The Moment That Presaged a Maine Senator’s Downfall,” by Rachel Slade, DownEast, May 2020.
• “Margaret Chase Smith Is Dead at 97; Maine Republican Made History Twice,” by Richard Severo, The New York Times, May 30, 1995.

Even before Democrats met in Chicago in August to choose their presidential nominee, the year 1968 had been a turbulent, and often violent, time in the United States. In Chicago, the tumult of an open convention inside the International Amphitheatre was matched by the huge anti-war protests downtown. While the Democrats inside the convention hall voted down a peace plank and nominated the incumbent vice president, despite objections, the police on the streets, given free reign by Mayor Richard J. Daley, beat and tear gassed protesters, reporters, and even passers-by. Joining me in this episode to tell the story of the 1968 DNC is Dr. Heather Hendershot, the Cardiss Collins Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism at Northwestern University and author of When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. Audio in the episode is “March 31, 1968: Remarks on Decision not to Seek Re-Election,” and from “The 1968 Democratic National Convention” from the National Archives. The episode image is “Young ‘hippie’ standing in front of a row of National Guard soldiers, across the street from the Hilton Hotel at Grant Park, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 26, 1968,” photographed by Warren K. Leffler; there are no known restrictions on publication, and the image is available by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Audio in the episode is “March 31, 1968: Remarks on Decision not to Seek Re-Election,” from the National Archives.

Additional Sources:

• “Remembering 1968: LBJ Surprises Nation With Announcement He Won't Seek Re-Election,” by Ron Elving, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, March 25, 2018.
• “The 1968 Republican Convention,” by Sarah Katherine Mergel, We’re History, July 21, 2016.
• “Shoot to Kill. . . Shoot to Maim” by Christopher Chandler, Chicago Reader, April 4, 2002
• “Politics: Thousand of U.S. Troops Mobilized for Guard Duty at Democratic Convention,” by John Kifner, The New York TImes, August 25, 1968.
• “Chicago: Law and Disorder: ‘There were two Americas in Chicago, but there always are.’”
• “1968: CBS News' Dan Rather gets roughed up while trying to interview a Georgia delegate [video],” CBS News.
• “‘Violence Was Inevitable’: How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968’s Democratic National Convention Protests,” by Olivia Waxman, Time Magazine, August 28, 2018.
• “Looking back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention,” By Lee Hudson, Politico, April 11, 2023.

In 1926, American Sigrid Schultz became one of the first women to head a foreign bureau for a US newspaper when she was named the chief correspondent for the Berlin bureau of the Chicago Tribune. In her 26 years with the Tribune, Schultz, using her command of German and French, her knowledge of German politics and history, and her wide range of contacts, reported on the rise of Nazism and warned American readers to take Hitler seriously. Joining me in this episode to tell the story of Sigrid Schultz and her journalistic career is writer Dr. Pamela Toler, author of The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Over There,” composed by George M. Cohan, and performed by the Peerless Quartet, in New York City on June 13, 1917; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Journalist Sigrid Schultz,” a photo taken in 1943 and in the public domain; it is available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional sources:

• “Sigrid Schultz Papers, 1835-1980,” Wisconsin Historical Society.
• “Dragon Lady: The Life of Sigrid Schultz,” Westport Museum for History and Culture.
• “Dragon Lady,” Chicago Tribune, Originally published September 11, 1988, and updated August 8, 2021.
• “Sigrid Schultz is dead; Early Berlin correspondent,” Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1980.
• “Sigrid L. Schultz, Reporter Who Covered Rise of Nazism, Is Dead; Tribune's Bureau Chief,” by George Goodman, Jr., The New York Times, May 17, 1980.
• “Newly Discovered Photos Reveal Childhood of Groundbreaking Journalist,” by Jay Shefsky, WTTW, January 16, 2020.

When the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago was looking for an aquatic act to complement their new underwater lights, organizers turned to physical educator Katherine Curtis, who put together a wildly popular show called the Modern Mermaids. No one could quite figure out what to call it, trying out water ballet and figure swimming until a radio announcer landed on “synchronized swimming.” Soon synchronized swimming teams were forming and competing, but while the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) quickly embraced the sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) resisted, with the president of the IOC sneeringly referring to the sport as aquatic vaudeville. Finally, decades after the origin of synchronized swimming, the IOC voted to include it in the 1984 games in Los Angeles. Joining me in this episode to tell this history is writer and masters synchronized swimmer Vicki Valosik, author of Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Come Take a Swim in My Ocean,” composed by Gus Edwards with Lyrics by Will Cobb; this recording was performed by the Haydn Quartet in New Jersey on June 4, 1909; it is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Swimmers,” Harris & Ewing, photographer, 1936; the image is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress.

Additional Sources:

• “History of Artistic Swimming,” USA Artistic Swimming.
• “The amazing life of Australia’s ‘million-dollar mermaid,’” by Luke Buckmaster, BBC, November 2, 2017.
• “The General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904,” by Valerie Wingfield, New York Public Library Archives Unit, June 13, 2011.
• “Commodore Wilbert E. Longfellow (USA),” International Swimming Hall of Fame
• “Water Pageants, Games and Stunts,” by Olive McCormick, A. S. Barnes, incorporated, 1933.
• “1933 Modern Mermaids [video]” Property of Chicago Film Archives.
• “Rhythmic Swimming: A Source Book of Synchronized Swimming and Water Pageantry,” by Katharine Whitney Curtis, Burgess publishing Company, 1942.
• “1952: Avery Brundage, fifth IOC President,” International Olympic Committee.
• “No male artistic swimmers at Olympics after U.S. leave May out of squad,” by Lori Ewing, Reuters, June 8, 2024.

Synchro Routines:

• "Team Gold Medal [video],” Russian Olympic Committee, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games
• “Duet Gold Medal [video],” Romania, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games.