OVERVIEW

Freedom is a very large and very important concept. Our country is built on it. Our civic and personal identity tied to it. Our physical landscape is both scarred and improved by it. People have fought for it, people have died for it. One thing for sure about freedom, it’s not free. But, it is absolutely worth it.

Joining us in the studio this month are four guests each with their own experience and their own story to tell about freedom and the journey our nation and our world has taken from the Civil War to Civil Rights in pursuit of it.

We’ll start with the Civil War and Gordon Jones, Senior Military Historian with the Atlanta History Center. Jones shares historical accounts of the American Civil War, the impact the war had on freedom, and a sincere sensibility about the importance of storytelling in relation to history.

Lain Shakespeare is the great, great, great grandson of Joel Chandler Harris, a great man in the journey of freedom. Shakespeare is Board Chairman of The Wren’s Nest, the now historic house museum in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, where Harris wrote his world famous Uncle Remus tales.  Lain shares stories about the “trickster hero” role (both Brer Rabbit and Harris) in the pursuit of Civil Rights, and a bit about the history of Harris himself.

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”

– John Lewis

U.S. Congressman John Lewis has been “Getting into good trouble since 1960″ and the world is a better place for it.  It was a true honor to have Civil Rights icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Congressman Lewis, on this month’s show.  Lewis has been a true leader in the pursuit of freedom since he joined the Civil Rights Movement as a 15-year-old. Lewis was beaten unconscious and nearly to death in Selma, Alabama, spoke at the March on Washington, and joins our host Gene Kansas in the studio this month to speak about being a voice for freedom.

A new leader in the quest for freedom is National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Doug Shipman. Charismatic, compassionate and with an eye toward progress, Shipman is poised to help lead us into the future of freedom. Doug shares an insider’s look into the new center, now under construction in Atlanta, and how the design of the campus plays a large part in connecting and understanding.  The center will focus on education, its physical design helping to create a dialogue for people from all over the world.

This show is dedicated to Winston “Bud” Newell, a man who served our country in WWII, an adoring husband, a fabulous father, a giver of great toasts, a lover of jazz, a friend to all, and a gentle and loving uncle. He will be missed, but his spirit lives on.