This is a special four-part series where historian Charles L. Hughes introduces us to musicians who are exploring the sounds, songs and stories of the Jim Crow era. In this installment, Jazz pianist Jason Moran discusses his acclaimed musical celebration of a man he calls "Big Bang of Jazz," bandleader, arranger and composer James Reese Europe. During World War I, Europe fought as a Lieutenant with the fabled "Harlem Hellfighters" 369th U.S. Infantry and directed the regiment's renowned band.

Watch his Kennedy Center performance and discover more about his Jason Moran's meditation on James Reese Europe.

Learn more about Black military service during Jim Crow in episode 409 – Black Soldiers: Global Conflict During Jim Crow with Adriane Lentz-Smith.

And for even more resources, check out the enhanced full transcript of this episode on our website.

During the Harlem Renaissance, more Black artists than ever before were asking key questions about the role of art in society. Oftentimes the Harlem Renaissance is misconstrued as a discrete moment in American history–not as the next iteration of a thriving Black artistic tradition that it was. Literature scholar Julie Buckner Armstrong urges educators to look deeper into the texts left to us by these artists and come to a fuller understanding of this stage in a long chronology of Black artistic expression.

Be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for additional classroom resources for teaching about literature and the arts during the Jim Crow era.

In the United States, Black athletes have had to contend with two sets of rules: those of the game and those of a racist society. While they dealt with 20th century realities of breaking the color line and the politics of respectability, Black fans, educational institutions, and the Black press were building sporting congregations with their own wealth and energy. Historians Derrick White and Louis Moore trace how these great men and women worked to create a more just future on the field and off.

And be sure to listen to their podcast – The Black Athlete – to learn even more about the history of sports and race.

And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for additional classroom resources for teaching about the intersection of sports and race during the Jim Crow era.

Opportunities created by the New Deal were often denied to African Americans. And that legacy of exclusion to jobs, loans and services can be seen today in federal programs and policies as well as systemic inequities in housing, education, health and the accumulation of wealth. Historian Jill Watts examines the complicated history of the New Deal, beginning with the growing political influence of Black voters in the 1930s, the election of FDR and the creation of the Black Cabinet.

And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for additional classroom resources for teaching about the intersection of Black military service and American Jim Crow.

U.S. involvement in world wars and the domestic Black freedom struggle shaped one another. By emphasizing the diverse stories of servicemen and women, historian Adriane Lentz-Smith situates Black soldiers as agents of American empire who were simultaneously building their own institutions at home. While white elected officials worked to systemically embed segregation into government, African Americans attempted to bolster their citizenship and freedom rights through soldiering.

And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for additional classroom resources for teaching about the intersection of Black military service and American Jim Crow.

Historian Tera Hunter describes Black institution-building post-slavery and throughout the Jim Crow era, illustrating how Black workers reorganized labor to their advantage, despite virulent white resistance. During the same period, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) produced future leaders while cultivating resistance to white supremacy—and continue to do so. Educator Jelani Favors explains the evolution of these institutions, noting their legacies of social activism and student advocacy.

Visit our enhanced episode transcript for even more resources about using current events to teach about Black-institution building during the Jim Crow Era.

Naming the 1921 Tulsa massacre a "race riot" is inaccurate. Historian David Krugler urges listeners to call this and other violent attacks what they were: premeditated attempts at ethnic cleansing. Decades before, African Americans moved North in record numbers during the Great Migration. Krugler delves into connections between diaspora and violence and highlights the strength of Black communities in resistance to white supremacist terrorism.

Visit our enhanced episode transcript for even more resources for teaching about the Great Migration and Anti-Black Collective Violence during the era of Jim Crow.

Black American experiences during Jim Crow were deeply affected by the ever-present threat of lynching and other forms of racist violence. Historian Kidada Williams amplifies perspectives from Black families, telling stories of lynching victims obscured by white newspapers. She and Kellie Carter Jackson urge educators to confront the role of this violence in American history, how major institutions stood idly by, and how Black Americans fought for justice.

** Content Advisory: This episode contains graphic descriptions of racial violence, and we discuss strategies for sharing this difficult content with your students. **

And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for even more resources for teaching about Lynching during the Jim Crow era.

The Lost Cause narrative would have us believe that Confederate monuments have always been celebrated, but people have protested them since they started going up. Historian Karen Cox unpacks how the United Daughters of the Confederacy used propaganda to dominate generations of teachings about the Civil War through textbooks, legislation, and popular culture—and how, after the war, the South and the North prized white reconciliation over justice for all.

And be sure to visit the enhanced episode transcript for even more resources for teaching about the role of the Lost Cause narrative in the Jim Crow era.

Just months after the Civil War ended, former Confederates had regained political footholds in Washington, D.C. In her overview of Reconstruction, Kate Masur notes how—in the face of evolving, post-slavery white supremacy—Black people claimed their citizenship and began building institutions of their own. Ahmad Ward then takes us to 1860s Mitchelville, South Carolina, where Black policing power, land ownership and more self-governance were the norm.

Visit the enhanced episode transcript for even more resources for teaching about Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era.