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John Willis Menard: The First African American Elected To US Congress · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians, friends and neighbors. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you for tuning in. If you are like some of
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  Speaker 1: us in the studio today, perhaps you did some extra
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: curriculars in high school or maybe even college. Perhaps you
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  Speaker 1: were one of those uh student council members or something
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  Speaker 1: of the ILK maybe model you in or so on? Um,
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  Speaker 1: but let us know, my name is Ben. Are you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: accusing our audience of being nerds? Been? No? No, I
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  Speaker 1: I actually I was in student council and took it
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  Speaker 1: pretty far. What about what about you know? You uh
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  Speaker 1: civic minded? Uh tyke? No, No, I was an artsy
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  Speaker 1: type of nerd. I was in the orchestra and I
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  Speaker 1: got beat up for that instead of being in student council.
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  Speaker 1: Did you physically get beat up? Not really? Oh no.
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  Speaker 1: It was a very pacifist job. And I went to
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  Speaker 1: a fine arts magnet school, so it was cool to
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  Speaker 1: be in the orchestra at those schools. But then I
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  Speaker 1: had a real culture shock situation when I switched from
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  Speaker 1: my fine arts minut school UH to a public high
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  Speaker 1: school in Birmingham, Alabama that was primarily focused on sport,
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  Speaker 1: and it was a real adjustment. Let's say rule tide,
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  Speaker 1: big time, big roll tide. Okay, what does that even mean?
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  Speaker 1: I you know what tides role? I remember somebody about
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  Speaker 1: this on a previous episode. Yeah, it's for it's for
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  Speaker 1: the Crimson tide. I here, it's According to Urban Dictionary,
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  Speaker 1: role tide can be used as a greeting, a departure,
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  Speaker 1: or to smooth rough ties between people and shut others up.
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  Speaker 1: So it's it's a catch all. Uh, Let's introduce our
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  Speaker 1: super producer, Casey Pegram. Casey, were you a student fond
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  Speaker 1: of of civic organizations in your time? No? I was
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  Speaker 1: a band kid. I was in the orchestra. I was
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  Speaker 1: in the marching band, all that good stuff. Did you
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  Speaker 1: get beaten up? No? No, I didn't get beaten up.
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  Speaker 1: It was we We kind of had like an understanding. Yeah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and you were you were one of the percussion kids, right,
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  Speaker 1: You were on the drum line, And that is true.
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  Speaker 1: Played played snare in marching band and uh intended to
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  Speaker 1: play snare and like orchestrad band too. He's one of
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  Speaker 1: the cool ones. Absolutely, But I'm sorry, Casey, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: keep you on the case for just a second long.
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  Speaker 1: When you say we had an understanding, what do you
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  Speaker 1: mean by them? I think we just kind of stuck
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  Speaker 1: to our own like territory, you know, sure, just didn't
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  Speaker 1: try to like get up in each other's business. And
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  Speaker 1: by in each other, you're talking about you guys versus
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  Speaker 1: the jocks. Yeah, the jocks are like the preppy kids
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  Speaker 1: all are the skater kids or whatever. It's just like
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  Speaker 1: everybody just kind of like be cool. Yeah, I transversed
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  Speaker 1: a lot of factions because I did the student council
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  Speaker 1: thing for a while. I ran the school's literary mag
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  Speaker 1: in high school. I was a drama person, but my
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  Speaker 1: real key to the owning the means of production was
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  Speaker 1: I ran the announcements, which was quickly became a terrible
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  Speaker 1: comedy sketch show. Keys to the Kingdom. My friend and
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  Speaker 1: Casey on the case, and we are talking about civic
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  Speaker 1: organizations or these sorts of extracurricular activities for a reason.
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  Speaker 1: Today you see many people who later go on to
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  Speaker 1: be politicians or enter a life of public service start
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  Speaker 1: pretty young. Right in our modern days, and for most
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  Speaker 1: generations of people listening to the show today, we all
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  Speaker 1: had something like student council, right, meaning that we all
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  Speaker 1: had these these ways to practice what could later be
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  Speaker 1: a career. Today's episode is about someone who was elected
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  Speaker 1: to US Congress and someone who was an historic first
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  Speaker 1: in the congressional history of our country. Also someone that uh,
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  Speaker 1: I'll just say it, I had not heard of before.
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  Speaker 1: I had not either. And his name is John Willis Minard.
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  Speaker 1: And on February eighteen sixty nine, he became the first
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  Speaker 1: African American to address the U. S House. And he
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  Speaker 1: was from Louisiana. And this all had to do with
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  Speaker 1: the passage of the fifteenth Amendment, when African Americans were
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  Speaker 1: first allowed to vote. John Willis Minard was born in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight in Randolph County in southern Illinois, in
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  Speaker 1: a town with a really cool name, Kaskaskia. I think
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  Speaker 1: you got that right, man, you think so? I think, well,
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  Speaker 1: we'll find out, Illinois listeners, let us know. Uh. And
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  Speaker 1: details of his early life, as you may imagine giving
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  Speaker 1: the time frame here, are very scarce. All that we know,
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  Speaker 1: all that his storians know about this is that we're
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  Speaker 1: certain his family, what he and his family were free.
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  Speaker 1: We think that both of his parents were born in Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: but they may have also had ties to New Orleans. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's indications that they were of French Creole descent. Exactly exactly,
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  Speaker 1: you don't. Menard spent his first eighteen years in this
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  Speaker 1: town where he worked on a farm, a very normal thing.
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  Speaker 1: He attended a school in Sparks, Illinois, and abolitionist school,
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  Speaker 1: and then he went on to attend Iberia College. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: And he was just twenty two when he first published
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  Speaker 1: an Address to the Free Colored People of Illinois, which
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  Speaker 1: was a treatise, an abolitionist treatise that really espoused his
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  Speaker 1: position on the notion that slavery was one of the
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  Speaker 1: greatest evils in all mankind. That's right. So he already
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  Speaker 1: had this this knack for public speech, right for civil service.
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  Speaker 1: And during the Civil War he became the first African
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  Speaker 1: American to work as a clerk at the Bureau of
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  Speaker 1: Immigration at the Interior Department in d C. And this
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  Speaker 1: meant that he was going to travel internationally representing the
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  Speaker 1: United States. He traveled to Belize, and his mission in
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  Speaker 1: Belize was something that that could seem very controversial today.
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  Speaker 1: His mission was to investigate beliefs to evaluate whether it
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  Speaker 1: would be a good foreign country for African Americans to
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  Speaker 1: relocate to. Yeah, and it's like it's I mean, it's
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  Speaker 1: it's very problematic. It's like, were they trying to figure
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  Speaker 1: out if they could like send them there, was it
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  Speaker 1: a place they would go of their own free will?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, they were free men. But the notion of
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  Speaker 1: establishing a colony quote up even that word is rife.
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  Speaker 1: Uh and a largely non white country like that was
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  Speaker 1: a little problematic. It would be seen a little problematic today.
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  Speaker 1: And he was sent there by President Lincoln himself, Yes, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the thing. If we put ourselves back
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  Speaker 1: in the time and place, right back in menhards time
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  Speaker 1: and place, then what we see is that he personally
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  Speaker 1: thought this was the right move. He thought this was
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  Speaker 1: a good and promising idea. And he was by no
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  Speaker 1: means alone. This is almost another branch of the story.
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  Speaker 1: He was on a mission, and he did believe in
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  Speaker 1: this mission. However, as we know, there was not a
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  Speaker 1: He was not spearheading a large new colony in Belize.
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  Speaker 1: He eventually left the Interior Department to become active in
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana during reconstruction, and he created two newspapers, the Free
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  Speaker 1: State and then one called the Radical Standard. Also during
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  Speaker 1: this time, people who create an ed newspapers have this
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  Speaker 1: tremendous influence on public discourse and it's no surprise that
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  Speaker 1: they are more likely than other people to move into politics.
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  Speaker 1: So in eighteen sixty eight there's a special election in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans to fill a seat formerly occupied by James
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  Speaker 1: Mann who was a Democrat and he had died in office.
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  Speaker 1: And Minard, who was a Republican. Just goes to show
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  Speaker 1: how different um as parties were in those days in
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  Speaker 1: the art today was elected on November three to the
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  Speaker 1: seat in Louisiana's second Congressional District one with the majority
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  Speaker 1: of votes. And this is this is a historical moment
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  Speaker 1: because he became the very first African American to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Enter in a real pill or someone who at the
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  Speaker 1: very least was what's not happy the election, and that
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  Speaker 1: is Caleb S. Hunt, who was Minard's opponent in this situation.
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  Speaker 1: Caleb S. Hunt takes this to the House Committee on
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  Speaker 1: Elections and he says, look, this is this is not right,
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  Speaker 1: and he has more than a ting of racism when
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  Speaker 1: he's saying this, does Caleb s Hunt, uh, and I
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  Speaker 1: challenge this. I think these results are men larky. And
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  Speaker 1: so the House Committee on Elections they huddle together with
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  Speaker 1: themselves and they cannot come up with a neat way
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  Speaker 1: to resolve this. So the case continues. It goes to
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  Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, and the House of Representatives suspends
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  Speaker 1: its usual regiment of rules such that they enable Minard
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  Speaker 1: and Hunt to address the chamber too, for each man
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  Speaker 1: to make his own case in front of Congress. Only
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  Speaker 1: one person decides to speak at the House, and that
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  Speaker 1: is John Willis Minard. And this is pretty cool. We
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  Speaker 1: actually have something of a historical core uh illustration of
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  Speaker 1: this situation. It's an etching from the eighteen sixties that
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  Speaker 1: shows Minard to be a very tall, uh, skinny man
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  Speaker 1: wearing a black suit at tails in fact, really really
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  Speaker 1: great less tech um and he's standing behind something of
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  Speaker 1: a very like baroque looking podium uh and members of
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  Speaker 1: Congress looked on. So just picture the scene here, um
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  Speaker 1: and Minard is holding a copy of his speech in
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  Speaker 1: his left hand and he raises his right hand. This
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  Speaker 1: account comes from a Washington Post article called he was
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  Speaker 1: the first black man elected. And here's what he says,
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  Speaker 1: Mr Speaker, I appear here more to acknowledge this high
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  Speaker 1: privilege than to make an argument before this house. Um.
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  Speaker 1: That is because he had been elected to the U. S.
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  Speaker 1: House of Representatives, but Congress denied him his post refused
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  Speaker 1: to set him right. Right, So this speech that he drafted,
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  Speaker 1: it's not super super long as four words, and he
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  Speaker 1: addresses the Chamber of February eighteen sixty nine. In this speech,
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  Speaker 1: he is doing exactly what he says in the beginning, right,
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  Speaker 1: he says, I'm not really here to argue with Congress.
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  Speaker 1: I'm here because this is such a distinct honor, a
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  Speaker 1: high privilege. Creole Magazine has a great article about this,
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  Speaker 1: wherein they provide some of the context here. So in
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  Speaker 1: his opening statement, he essentially says, look, I want you
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  Speaker 1: guys to determine this case based on its merit only.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously he doesn't say you guys, but he does mention
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  Speaker 1: that his opponent, Caleb S. Hunt, did not comply with
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  Speaker 1: congressional law, and because he did not comply, Hunt was
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  Speaker 1: technically not able to contest the election results. And then
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  Speaker 1: Minard also flexes a little and says, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: out more than sixty of the vote, which is really
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  Speaker 1: good if we're being honest. But as you said, Noel,
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  Speaker 1: despite his speech, the Committee of Elections decided to rule
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  Speaker 1: against Minard and they did not give him the seat
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  Speaker 1: that he won again by the popular vote. But they
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  Speaker 1: also did not give the job to Caleb S. Hunt.
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  Speaker 1: Would you have to wonder, like, how was this guy
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  Speaker 1: just universally disliked? They hey, didn't give anybody. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: give anybody a shot at the throne, they said, according
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  Speaker 1: to the committee, they're they're finding was that both candidates
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  Speaker 1: were quote lacking in qualification. And James A. Garfield, who
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  Speaker 1: went on to of course become the President, was at
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  Speaker 1: the time a member of that Congress, and he made
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  Speaker 1: a very pointed motion saying, quote it was too early
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  Speaker 1: to admit a negro to the U. S. Congress, and
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  Speaker 1: that the seat b dec laired vacant and the salary
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  Speaker 1: of five thousand dollars saved. I wonder whose pocket that
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  Speaker 1: goes back into. Well that's the weird part too, because yes,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely the seat is left vacant for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the congressional term. But in the next election someone does
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  Speaker 1: occupy the seat. A fellow named Joseph Rainey. Joseph Rainey
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  Speaker 1: is also an African American and Minard, at least according
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  Speaker 1: to the sources I could find, Minards still got paid
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  Speaker 1: as though he won the seat. So whatever Garfield is
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  Speaker 1: saying isn't really true. Well maybe it was true at
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  Speaker 1: the beginning, but somehow Minard ended up with money. Really Yeah, interesting,
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  Speaker 1: And obviously, you know, to Garfield's point or or counter
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  Speaker 1: to his point, wasn't that much longer before it felt
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  Speaker 1: like the right time to admit a black man to
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  Speaker 1: to one of those seats? So what was Do you
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  Speaker 1: think it was really just they thought it was too soon?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think, I mean, it was obviously a debate.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think it was outright racism? Obviously you can
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  Speaker 1: you can pass a law that says you have to
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  Speaker 1: treat black people the same as everybody else, but that
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  Speaker 1: that law doesn't change hearts and minds overnight, right right, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: the letter of the law doesn't always equate to the
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  Speaker 1: practice of the law. Yeah, I think, I mean, clearly, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is just my opinion. It would be naive to
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  Speaker 1: assume that racism was not a huge, or indeed the
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  Speaker 1: primary factor here. You know, when we consider the context
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  Speaker 1: of the time, the fragile socio political environment left in
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  Speaker 1: the wake of the Civil War. Of course stuff like
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  Speaker 1: this is happening even more. I don't know, it's unfair
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  Speaker 1: to say more than normal, but yes it is. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: Racism is a huge factor here. If anything, it's surprising
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  Speaker 1: that the government was able to persist in Southern states
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  Speaker 1: in reconstruction, creating a rift that lasted uh for multiple generations,
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  Speaker 1: and in some parts of the American South, people would
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  Speaker 1: argue that it still exists today absolutely. And um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: before Manard was elected, a man by the name of
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  Speaker 1: John M. Langston had already held the position of being
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  Speaker 1: one of the first black men elected to a public office,
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  Speaker 1: any public office in the US. And that's according to
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  Speaker 1: House history. Langston actually was elected in eighteen fifty five,
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  Speaker 1: ten years before the end of the Civil War, as
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  Speaker 1: a clerk of the township of Brownhelm, Ohio. UM. And
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  Speaker 1: from eighteen sixty eight twenty two black men were elected
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  Speaker 1: to Congress. So you really see with the passage of
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  Speaker 1: that voting law, the change in the voting law, the
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  Speaker 1: floodgates really opening up. But in the Southern states that
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  Speaker 1: probably would have been a really hard pill to swallow,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't imagine it went over particularly well right away. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One thing about people is they have an infinite capare
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  Speaker 1: city to be disappointing. I he to see it that way,
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  Speaker 1: but it is true because this thing too. Right. It
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  Speaker 1: was in the Southern States where that had the highest
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  Speaker 1: density of black citizens, who all of a sudden were
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  Speaker 1: given the franchise, and they had been persona on grata,
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  Speaker 1: non humans, you know, treated by their white counterparts, and
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  Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, these folks had to make
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  Speaker 1: peace with the fact that these people they had treated
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  Speaker 1: as property formally, now had the ability to be elected
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  Speaker 1: to political office, and they had to treat with respect.
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  Speaker 1: And that would not have been something that would have
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  Speaker 1: just come easily, right. Yeah, And I also consider that
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  Speaker 1: this population achieved manumission in many cases only on paper. Right.
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  Speaker 1: The the power structure of the American South immediately spent
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  Speaker 1: a lot of blood, sweat, tears, time and energy figuring
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  Speaker 1: out ways to keep people in de facto slavery. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: this reminds me in gentially related, there was an excellent
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  Speaker 1: article on vice a while back. Uh let me see
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  Speaker 1: by Antoinette Harold called Blacks were enslaved well into the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. J Jim Crow laws, share cropping, debt, slavery.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like you you are like
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  Speaker 1: that old song company store, right, that's that stuff is real.
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  Speaker 1: But Minard story doesn't end in New Orleans. Three years later,
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy one, he moves to Jacksonville, Florida, and
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  Speaker 1: two years after that, in eighteen seventy three, he is
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  Speaker 1: appointed to the House of Representatives. He fills a vacant
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  Speaker 1: seat in the Florida House of Representatives, so not the
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  Speaker 1: Federal House, but the Florida House. And then there's another
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  Speaker 1: election in seventy four, which he loses, and that was
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  Speaker 1: largely credited by many newspapers to voter in tim nation
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: at elections trying to suppress the black vote. Oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and and that makes sense because this guy's tremendously literate.
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  Speaker 1: He seems like a good representative. He continued public service, however.
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  Speaker 1: He was later elected to the position of Justice of
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  Speaker 1: the Peace for Duval County, and he was re elected
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: for that. I believe he served two full terms. This
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: guy was a renaissance man, absolutely so impressive. He was
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a poet too, Yes, a civil rights poet. I mean
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: his poet poetry had had a message for sure. And
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy nine he published a book called Lays
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: in Summer Land. And here's a here's an exertive one
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  Speaker 1: um that was quoted in that Washington Post article referenced
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  Speaker 1: earlier um of what avail is life? Why sigh and
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: fret when manly hopes are only born to fade? Although
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: declared a man a vassal yet by social caste, a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: crime by heaven made. That's right. And I do want
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: to point out that Lays in Summer Lands, for anyone interested,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: is available on Amazon or your book buying platform of choice.
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  Speaker 1: It just well, I guess, in the grand scheme of things,
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  Speaker 1: we can say. It recently got republished in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: two editions, So do check it out if you are
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  Speaker 1: a fan of history or a fan of poetry. Also,
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  Speaker 1: I have to say he kept at it. He founded
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  Speaker 1: Key West News, the Florida News. He's a newspaperman. This
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  Speaker 1: later becomes known as the Southern Leader, and during this
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  Speaker 1: time he takes a strong position against racial segregation and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: becomes an advocate for oppressed people in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: He founded a magazine, The National American. He eventually moved
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  Speaker 1: up to Washington, d C. With his wife, who we
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  Speaker 1: had met around the same time he was in Belize.
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  Speaker 1: I believe it was in Jamaica. Yeah, his wife was Jamaican.
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  Speaker 1: We didn't even mention he got locked up in Jamaica. Yea. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he was actually detained as a political prisoner and deported
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  Speaker 1: to the U. S. Which is what got him his
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  Speaker 1: start in New Orleans because that's where they dumped him,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: right right. He participate in the eighteen sixty five Moron's
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Bay Rebellion in Jamaica. I can't believe we almost forgot that.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I know, and I know people hate we skip around,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: but I thought that was an important one to drop
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  Speaker 1: in there. People hate it. I don't know, Ben, I
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: really don't know. If you think you think we're in
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: good shape, we're in good standing with the peeps, well
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of Casey. What do you think is this
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  Speaker 1: a relatively cogent conversation? Yeah? I think they always end
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: up feeling pretty pretty cogent by the end the case. Yeah,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and Casey on the case because he is when we
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: say he saved the show. Uh, it's not hyperbole. He uh,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you don't hear a lot of a little off mike
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: uh fart arounds that we do kind of trying to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: get on track, and Casey smooths it all out like
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: butter and gives it, gives it to your ears. Although
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I do suspect, my friend, I do strongly suspect that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: you have been collecting our various auditory foibles and fumbles. Yeah,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: they're all destined for the anti podcasts. We've already said
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: too much. No comment Casey on the Top Secret case
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I also want to just give a little shout out
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to Casey. Um. Casey participated in a film production with
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: another one of our um beloved superproducers, Paul Decan, who
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: works with us some stuff they don't want you to know.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And it's having a premiere at a local cool kind
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: of twin cinema theater called the Plaza. And it also
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: stars are beloved co worker and friend Annie Reese. And
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: did you know I played the bad guy? I have.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I know nothing. I was asked to play a part
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't do it, and Ramsey took my place.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: But I don't know anything about what anybody else did
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited to go check it out. And Casey
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: did all the Casey did the cinematography and color color
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: correction and all of that stuff. I mean, really, it's
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: a it's a it's a Pegram Decondo production, you know, absolutely,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and it's called Annie in the City A N N
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: E Y. So keep a lookout for that, keep a lookout.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Be kind to to my cameo. I wasn't gonna say
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: anything because I'm in it, but I congratulations Casey. Yeah,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: thanks guys, and uh yeah, I don't want to say
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: anything more because I don't want to spoil it before
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the screening. But Ben's got quite their role. Awesome. Well,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I will be there. I will be there tonight. I
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: can't wait. I love seeing things that I know any
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: think about, especially when my friends are at So speaking
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of things we knew nothing about, we have learned the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: story of John Maynard and he passed away on October
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: nine three. He was only fifty five years old, so
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: much life in such a short span of time, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: originally he was buried at Graceland Cemetery in d C.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Graceland closed in eight four and his remains were moved
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: to wood Lawn cemetery where you can visit his grave
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: site today. Yeah, it's true, and he he certainly was
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: an important part of a legacy that had its ups
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and downs. Because you know, we talked about from eighteen
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: sixty eight, twenty two black men were lected to Congress,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and that included two in the U. S. Senate. But
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: then unfortunately, because of those Jim Crow laws we talked about,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that number dropped considerably. UM And when Congress got back
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in session on December five of eighteen eighty seven, it
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: had been the first time in twenty years that almost
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: no black members were seated. UM And and of course,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: as we know, we've we've come a long way from that,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and it takes you know, one person to step up
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and and start the process for you know, for us
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to even get where we are today. So I think
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: this is a really important story, and we still have
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: so far to go as a nation, as a people,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: as a species, you know what I mean. It's inspiring
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: when you think about this. We really can every single
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: one of us affect significant change. And so we hope
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: that you find the story of John Willis Menhard as
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: inspirational as we have. And since we are fortunate enough
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: to have some of Menhard's poetry available today. What do
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you saying? Only wanna team up for a reading a
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: recitation of Goodbye Off for Kansas, Absolutely goodbye, bloody scenes
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of long ago. Goodbye to cotton fields and hounds, from
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you vile sources of my earthly woe. My freed and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: leaping spirit bounds though free my work to me no
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: profit yields, And for my politics and mobbed no more.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Thank God, upon these bloody fields shall I be of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: my labor robbed? Goodbye, Aunt Polly, Goodbye Uncle Ned. I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: am off and shall not come back. This land is cursed.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: We are in rags, half fed, bulldozed and killed by
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: yellow jack. Goodbye. I've sold my little cane and corn
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and am off for the rivers banks. And when I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: step on board tomorrow morn, I'll sing and give the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: good Lord. Thanks nice, big thanks to super producer Casey
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Pegram for always putting up with us and being on
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the case. Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Christopher Aciotis, who has been very clutch and the pinch
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: hitting lately because of travel and all that super helpful.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Gabe Lousier and Ryan Barrish, our research associates.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks to the fantastic work from Creole Magazine, The Washington Post.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks to you, Mr Millard, and of course Noel. Thanks,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: thanks for hanging out. Well, we've we've got. I have
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to tell you we are getting very close to our
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: two episode. That is a fact that this is episode one.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: We should bring in a cake or a cupcake or something.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: We should do something cool. Agreed, Well, let's hang out
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: tonight before the movie premiere and we'll talk it through.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I'll see you next time Fox. For more podcasts from
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.