Dr. Michael Klarman of the University of Virginia School of Law analyzes and interprets the Brown case and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. He annotates Justice Douglas's conference notes on Brown, tells stories about the justices, details how justices decide cases, explains why Brown was a hard case for many of the justices, and makes conclusions on why they were nonetheless eventually able to reach a unanimous outcome. He discusses the various ways in which Brown mattered and did not matter by linking Brown with the rise of southern massive resistance, violence, and ultimately the enactment of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Klarman includes lessons on how and why Court decisions matter, how historians tend perhaps to overemphasize the importance of the Court's contributions to racial change in the U.S., and important reminders about how violence was necessary to prompt most whites to care about the civil rights of southern blacks.

Dr. Julie Solometo of James Madison University attempts to reconstruct the lives of Native Americans as they stood on the eve of and during contact with European colonists in North America. She examines particularly the impact of disease and drought on Native Americans and colonists both, and at the collapse of the Powhatan Chiefdom.

To listen to this lecture, select "Part 2" under the April 19th listing.

Dr. Julie Solometo of James Madison University attempts to reconstruct the lives of Native Americans as they stood on the eve of and during contact with European colonists in North America.

To listen to this lecture, select "Podcast Part 1" under the April 19th listing.

Dr. Scot French of the University of Virginia looks at Nat Turner's Rebellion, the slave uprising of 1831—considering how the historical narrative and understanding of the Rebellion were formed and continue to be shaped.

To listen to this lecture, select "Part 2" under the February 1st listing.

Dr. Scot French of the University of Virginia looks at Nat Turner's Rebellion, the slave uprising of 1831—considering how the historical narrative and understanding of the Rebellion were formed and continue to be shaped.

To listen to this lecture, select "Podcast Part 1" under the February 1st listing.

Dr. Tom Costa, of the University of Virginia-Wise, discusses The Geography of Slavery, an online database compiling advertisements for the capture of runaway slaves from 1736 to 1803.

To listen to this lecture, select "Part 2" under the October 12th listing.

Dr. Tom Costa, of the University of Virginia-Wise, discusses The Geography of Slavery, an online database compiling advertisements for the capture of runaway slaves from 1736 to 1803.

To listen to this lecture, select "Podcast Part 1" under the October 12th listing.

David Herbert Donald, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of American Civilization Emeritus at Harvard University, talks about the qualities and experience that made Abraham Lincoln both an exceptional and an unlikely national leader.

Associate editor and professor of history at Indiana University, John Nieto-Phillips speaks with Professor James Meriwether about his article, "'Worth a Lot of Negro Votes': Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign." When John F. Kennedy telephoned Coretta Scott King to express sympathy for her jailed husband, he had little idea that his two-minute call would move to center stage in the 1960 presidential election. That call, James H. Meriwether argues, has obscured Kennedy's broader efforts to secure the support of black voters while not alienating white voters in the no longer "solid South." Kennedy drew on the growing transnational relationship black Americans had with an ancestral continent undergoing its own freedom struggles, revealing that he was more interested in Africa than in civil rights. Africa, the newest frontier for Kennedy, became a place where he could show his Cold War credentials, find common ground with black American voters, and strengthen his chances to win the presidency.

How can U.S. citizens today view Native American history through a Constitutional lens? In answering that question, Bob Miller, Lewis & Clark Law School professor and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, uncovers the history of Federal Indian Law. Professor Miller describes the Doctrine of Discovery's long reach, from the founding of the colonies through the writing of the Constitution all the way to Russia planting its flag on the Arctic seafloor in 2007.