In 1946, the National Football League began the process of reintegration after a “gentleman’s agreement” had stopped teams from hiring Black players for over a decade. Even as the NFL began to re-integrate, though, racist stereotypes kept teams from drafting Black players into so-called “thinking” positions like quarterback. Black players who started at quarterback in college would be drafted into the NFL, only to be converted into running backs or wide receivers. On September 30, 1979, for the first time in NFL history, two Black quarterbacks (Doug WIlliams of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Vince Evans of the Chicago Bear) faced off against each other. In this episode, we look at Williams, Evans, and the history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL. I’m joined in this episode by historian Dr. Louis Moore, Professor of History at Grand Valley State University and author of The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans, and the Making of the Black Quarterback.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “American Football Game (Drum Corps Percussion Action) Bumper,” by FlorewsMusic, used under the Pond5's Content License Agreement. The episode image is “Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams preparing to throw the ball during an offensive play in 1987,” published in 1988 for the Redskins Police football card set; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• “NFL founded in Canton on Sept. 17, 1920,” Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• “The Reintegration of the NFL,” NFL Football Operations.
• “How the media helped overturn the NFL’s unwritten ban on black players,” by Nathan Fenno, Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2017.
• “Meet Four Men Who Broke The NFL's Color Line,” NFL Players Association.
• “Bucs Edge Bears,” by Dave Brady, The Washington Post, September 30, 1979.
• “Doug Williams,” Washington Commanders.
• “QB Evans Made History Before Joining Raiders,” by Tom LaMarre, Sports Illustrated, June 23, 2023.
• “Why It Took So Long for Two Black Quarterbacks to Face Off in the Super Bowl,” by Robert Silverman, Rolling Stone, February 12, 2023.
• “No matter who wins, the first Super Bowl with 2 Black quarterbacks will make history,” by Becky Sullivan, NPR Morning Edition, February 8, 2023.
• “Nine Decades After NFL Banned Black Players, Super Bowl LVII Is The First To Feature Two Black Starting Quarterbacks,” National Urban League, February 3, 2023.

In the Continental Army, one company of patriots in Charleston, South Carolina, was a majority Jewish, and at least fifteen Jewish soldiers in the Army achieved the rank of officer during the American Revolution, something unheard of in European armies at the time. Though their numbers were small (in proportion with their population in the colonies), Jewish patriots participated in the war, and in the Early Republic they insisted on their full citizenship in the new nation. I’m joined in this episode by Dr. Adam Jortner, the Goodwin Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion in the Department of History at Auburn University and author of A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Jewish Longing,” by Ashot Danielyan from Pixabay, used in accordance with the Pixabay content license. The episode image is a drawing of a colonial American couple with a Hanukkah menorah; the image is believed to be in the public domain, and the source is unknown.

Additional sources:

• “Recife,” Dutch Port Cities Project, the Global Asia initiative, New York University.
• “From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, Timeline 1700s,” Library of Congress.
• “Total Jewish Population in the United States (1654 - Present),” Jewish Virtual Library.
• “Jews in Early America: From Inquisition to Freedom,” Touro Synagogue Foundation.
• “Men of Mordechai: Jewish Americans in the U.S. Armed Forces,” by Jessie Kratz, Pieces of History, National Archives, May 18, 2021.
• “One Jew’s Financial Support for the Revolutionary War,” The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
• “Francis Salvador, the First Jewish Member of a Legislative Assembly in American History,” by Nathan Dorn, Library of Congress Blog, May 5, 2020.
• “Washington’s Letter,” George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom.
• “The Bill of Rights: How Did it Happen?” National Archives.
• “First Amendment and Religion,” United States Courts.

Abigail Smith Adams, wife to the second U.S. president and mother of the sixth U.S. president, may be best known for exhorting her husband to “remember the ladies” as he worked with his colleagues to form a new government, but that was just one of her many strongly-held political views. Adams, who lacked formed education and whose legal status was subsumed under that of her husband, never stopped arguing for greater educational opportunities and legal rights for women. Because of her prolific correspondence, including more than 1,100 letters between her and John, and because the care with which her descendents preserved her writing, we have an extraordinary view into the inner life of a woman who helped shape the country. Joining me in this episode is presidential historian Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky, the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and author of Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Yankee Doodle,” performed by the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. The episode is a painting of Abigail Adams around 1766 by Benjamin Blyth; the image is in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons

Additional Sources:

• “Abigail Adams: A Life,” by Woody Holton, Atria Books, 2010.
• “Biography: Abigail Adams,” PBS American Experience.
• “Abigail Adams,” UVA Miller Center.
• “John and Abigail Adams: A Tradition Begins,” by Betty C. Monkman, White House Historical Association, Spring 2000.
• “Coverture: The Word You Probably Don't Know But Should,” by Catherine Allgor, National Women’s HIstory Museum, September 4, 2012.
• “More Power to You: Abigail Adams advocated dismantling the 'masculine system' that denied property and legal rights to married women,” by Lindsay Keiter, Colonial Williamsburg, October 2, 2020.
• “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 25 February 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 March 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “Will of Abigail Adams, 18 January 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives.