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Inmates in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands. A hidden path to America's dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country's largest maximum-security prison. Alabama Public Radio’s national award-winning series “No Stone Unturned: Preserving Slave Cemeteries in Alabama” aired just as voters headed to the polls in 2023 to remove slavery from the State Constitution. Much of that labor, it was observed, happened among prison inmates.
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A new book is uncovering history about Alabama’s involvement in the Civil War. SILENT CAVALRY: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta—and Then Got Written Out of History is a historical detective nonfiction novel that tells the story of how yeoman farmers and former slaves aided the Union General named William Sherman during the conflict.
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The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) announced the construction of the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, a new 17-acre site in Montgomery. Opening early 2024, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will feature large-scale sculptures, art works, historical artifacts, and a new National Monument honoring enslaved people who were emancipated after the Civil War.
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The Radio Television Digital News Association recognized the Alabama Public Radio news team with a national Edward R. Murrow Award. APR won “Best Series, Small Market Radio” for its eight month investigation into preserving slave cemeteries in Alabama.
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City officials are seeking public opinion on exterior finishes, wall coverings and other design elements that can be incorporated inside the building. A community survey has been released for residents to share their thoughts. It will close this Friday.
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Alabama Public Radio and the University of Alabama Center for Public Television were recognized with awards for journalism and documentary production. The list includes an international Gabriel award and two Southeast Emmys.
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Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the day in 1865, when the end of slavery was formally announced to people in Texas. Governor Kay Ivey made proclamations in 2021 and 2022 for Juneteenth to be observed in Alabama, but the observance has not become a permanent state holiday.
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The story of an illegal slave ship brought to Alabama and the descendants of its captives is front and center today. A two-day lecture at Troy University is focusing on the discovery the Clotilda and the significance of the Africatown community.
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As Black History Month draws to a close, the head of the Tuscaloosa County chapter of the National Association of Advancement of Colored People says one solution moving forward might be more diversity among the staff in the County’s school district.
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The Alabama Public Radio news team was recently invited to take part in a public discussion on slavery in the state. The event took place at the GulfQuest Maritime Museum in Mobile, which is hosting an exhibition on slave ships. I was joined on stage by William Green. He’s a member of the Clotilda Descendants Association. Green’s ancestor was one of the Africans kidnapped and transported to the Mobile area before the Civil War aboard the slave ship Clotilda