The Future of America's Past

- Season 2

(2020)

What does "freedom" mean to those outside the halls of power - and what did it mean during the American Revolution? Host Edward Ayers visits sites in Boston and Philadelphia to put that question to curators, museum educators, a playwright, and a tribal preservation officer. He learns about the ways in which women, Native Americans, and African Americans made the words of the Revolution come true in their own lives.

For a week in 1919, long-simmering tensions between white and black residents in Chicago erupted in violence. Its aftermath shaped laws and housing for generations. Host Edward Ayers visits Chicago during the 100th anniversary of what became known as the "Red Summer." He meets a poet, performance artist, museum educator, and young people who are creating living memorials to a long-ignored past.

In the Utah desert in 1869, a golden spike marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. On the 150th anniversary, Ed speaks with descendants and educators to learn about this triumph-and its human and environmental costs.

In the rural district of Prince Edward County, Virginia, young people staged a strike in 1951 - an effort that culminated in the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregated schools. Host Edward Ayers meets participants of that strike, as well as a museum educator, author, and librarian. He learns about the resilience of local black families when segregationists closed public schools for five years.