For the better part of a decade, historian Betsy Phillips has been trying to get the truth about three Civil Rights-era bombings in Nashville: Hattie Cotton school in September 1957; the Jewish Community Center in March 1958; and the home of attorney and councilmember Z. Alexander Looby in April 1960. It has been painstaking work involving archival searches, Freedom of Information Act requests for FBI files, and even a road trip to Alabama.

The result is her new book, Dynamite Nashville, and in the process of writing it, what Betsy uncovered was not necessarily to the truth of who is responsible for these terrorist acts, but a wider and perhaps even more disturbing set of truths — that these bombings are likely connected, not only to each other but also to a wider network that, to some degree, is still with us. 

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producers: Andrea Tudhope and Steve Haruch

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