In the Margins - Episode Guide

The story of Rebecca Cox Jackson and Rebecca Perot, two free Black women in the 19th century who were partners in life and upended the religious establishment to create their own spiritual Shaker community.

So many towns across America created for and by Black Americans have vanished, but a few survive. How did Hobson City, Alabama—a small, rural town—survive 125 years and become a notable stop on the Chitlin' Circuit? This episode explores one town's fight for independence from Jim Crow to today.

Salt Lake City's Japantown was once a thriving community for thousands of Japanese Americans. In 1966 city officials destroyed it for a glitzy new sports arena, one justified by an Olympic bid that ended in failure. Here's how the controversial practice of "urban renewal" nearly wiped out Japantown and how the Japanese American community is fighting to protect what remains.

In 1923, the Supreme Court revoked an Indian man's citizenship which would go on to have devastating consequences for other Indian immigrants as well. The reason? He wasn't white. What does this case, United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, tell us about the larger history of race, white supremacy, and citizenship in America?

How did the Tuskegee VA Hospital spark the fury of the KKK? To provide more equitable care to Black Veterans returning from WWI, the first and only Black VA Hospital was established, but it opened with an all-white staff. This is the story of the hard-won battle to ensure an all-Black healthcare staff would serve America's Black Veterans.

In 1870, 50 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, thousands of Utah women voted under equal suffrage law, a first in the nation. Leaders of the women's suffrage movement hoped that Utah would blaze a path for the women's suffrage and liberation. But the plan completely backfired and Utah women's vote was taken away just 17 years after it was granted.

In 1909, the North Pole was at the center of a heated controversy: Who had made it there first, Robert Peary or Frederick Cook? But overlooked in the debate was a third explorer, a Black man named Matthew Henson. In The Margins is a series that covers the history they didn't teach in school, exploring obscure, yet captivating tales that offer unique insights into their time and place.

Black-owned banks were going to close the racial wealth gap—so what happened? Harini Bhat dives into the history books to explore the financial struggles faced by Black Americans from segregation to redlining and examines the role Black banks have played in the economic empowerment of the communities they serve.

The contributions and innovations made by BIPOC, women, and LGTBQ+ folks in the tech industry have long been dismissed – sometimes even erased. This phenomenon has been dubbed the ‘Conway Effect' by Lynn Conway, the late transgender microchip genius whose inventions forever changed our tech landscape. What exactly is the Conway Effect? And what does it say about our culture?

Did you know that women have been playing baseball for nearly as long as men? So who are the women who first broke the gender barrier, and who are the women pushing the sport forward today? In The Margins is a series that covers the history they didn't teach in school, exploring obscure, yet captivating tales that offer unique insights into their time and place.

The 1830 Indian Removal Act led to the forced relocation of nearly 50,000 indigenous people. What happened to the ones that stayed? This is the story of one small southern Alabama tribe's ongoing fight for federal recognition.

What were the promises made by the Continental and British armies to the thousands of Black soldiers during the American Revolution and what were the the actual outcomes of those promises? Through the Black soldier experiences, we uncover the broken promises, the United States' paradoxical commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the fight for abolition that followed the Revolutionary War.

Decades before abolition, enslaved people sued for their freedom in court and won. But today, the only freedom suit most people are familiar with is the case of Dred Scott. So why don't we know more about these early lawsuits? From Massachusetts to Missouri, the history of freedom suits is more complicated than you might think. 

Less than 20 years after the American Revolution, the nation's capital was under threat of total collapse. The culprit? Yellow fever, and the hardest hit city was Philadelphia. The fall of the capital of the United States so soon after a revolution could mean the end of America. While the upper class and politicians ran for the hills in hopes of escaping "impure air", top health officials pleaded for the city's free Black communities to step in to help the rapidly deteriorating capital. Why was this group chosen specifically? How can we apply their story to how Black communities survived disproportionate illness during the COVID epidemic? And is America at risk for another collapse due to a pandemic?

Deep in the Great Dismal Swamp, thousands of Black people created a hidden free society, one that defied slavery for centuries. This is the story of the rebels who turned a swamp into a sanctuary. This episode of In The Margins is part of PBS' America@250 collection, celebrating the country's 250th anniversary. Democracy is built on participation.