Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland, where even learning to read was considered an act of defiance. As a young boy, he secretly pieced together an education from spelling books, discarded newspapers, and lessons exchanged ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland, where even learning to read was considered an act of defiance. As a young boy, he secretly pieced together an education from spelling books, discarded newspapers, and lessons exchanged ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was working in the White House when news arrived that Japanese planes had attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The nation was stunned, its Pacific Fleet devastated, ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, Thomas A. Dorsey grew up in a religious home in Georgia but made his name playing blues and jazz in Chicago, working with performers such as Ma Rainey while developing a new style of sacred music rooted in the sounds of Black American life ...  Show more

On this episode of Our American Stories, when Jeff Katz wrote a birthday note to his daughter Julia, he was marking a moment she would not recognize. Julia lives with global developmental delays, and her days move with a rhythm that has stayed the same for years. Still, the note ...  Show more