North Carolina Rabbit Hole

In 1955, a dentist and five of his friends played a round of golf. They were black. The course was white-only. What happened next changed the course of one man's life, and in turn, helped integrate an entire town.

• "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" by Peter Lamb and the Wolves (feat. Maceo Parker)
• Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Supreme Court audio via oyez.org.

George Simkins interview courtesy of the Community Voices project, housed at the Greensboro Public Library.

Special Thanks: Nebraska Douglas, Ralph Miller, Shirley Frye, Gerald Attaway, Bill Hill, plus Bob Brooks and the rest of the staff at Gillespie Golf Course.

The Greensboro Six were: Phillip Cooke, Samuel Murray, Elijah Herring, Joseph Sturdivent, George Simkins Jr., and Leon Wolfe.

In 1961, a U.S. Air Force bomber crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina, and the two thermonuclear bombs on board fell to the ground. Host Jeremy Markovich talks with the man who was sent to make sure those bombs didn't explode, and finds out why the Air Force left a crucial part of the weapon behind, somewhere below the surface.

• Read more in Joel Dobson's book, "The Goldsboro Broken Arrow."

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich visits a majestic bridge that, for years, was never connected to any road, and finds out why its construction almost led to riots.

• Read more about the bridge in this paper from Dr. Barak Richman.

What would happen if you stood in one state, then shot and killed someone in another? That scenario actually took place along the Tennessee-North Carolina border more than 100 years ago, and the murderer got away with it. But what's the real story? Host Jeremy Markovich spent months criss-crossing North Carolina to find answers that even the killer's family didn't know.

• Read more stories from North Carolina's borders in Our State magazine's May 2018 issue.

In this supersized episode, host Jeremy Markovich goes looking for Charlotte's original gold mines, and then gets inside a vault that's full of billions of dollars to understand how North Carolina's biggest city ended up being the place where the state stores its money.

• Read more about Hugh McColl in this Our State magazine profile.
• For pictures inside the vault and other goodies from this episode, visit the Away Message Facebook page.

Music in this episode:

• "Gold Standard" by Supastition (Charlotte)
• "Got To Go" by Boulevards (Raleigh)

On Fontana Lake, in far western North Carolina, sit hundreds of floating cabins, meant for fishing and weekend getaways. But when the homes were threatened with removal, the owners banded together and took their fight to Washington, DC, where they found themselves in the middle of a debate over what private citizens can do on public property.

Dr. Martin Luther King once gave a speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina that energized the city and changed the lives of the people in attendance. Now, after more than 50 years, a forgotten recording of that speech has resurfaced, and the discovery is providing new insight into how one of the most important men in American history came up with his most iconic phrase. In this episode, we listen to the speech with some of the people who were there on that day it was first delivered in 1962, and find out how such an important artifact was lost… and found.

Listen to more excerpts of the speech and read a transcript at kingsfirstdream.com/transcript/

In the next season of Away Message, we're heading out on a scavenger hunt of sorts. We're looking for hard to find places, lost artifacts, secrets, missing people, and forgotten stories. New episodes begin April 3, 2018.

Find all of Season 1's episodes and information about Season 2 at away.ourstate.com.

In this bonus episode, host Jeremy Markovich finally hears back from a guy who never returned his call, and gets the greatest excuse he’s ever heard. Plus, we find out what the future holds for this podcast.

In the final episode of the season, host Jeremy Markovich tries to figure out whether his own home is a remote place by walking 14 miles from his house to his office. Along the way, he discovers the people and places that are overlooked from his car.