America's First Freedom Rider

America's First Freedom Rider

Constant Wonder

  • Sep 29, 2020 7:00 pm
  • 52:48 mins

America's First Freedom Rider Guest: Jerry Mikorenda, author of "America's First Freedom Rider: Elizabeth Jennings, Chester A. Arthur, and the Early Fight for Civil Rights" We all know the story of Rosa Parks, a woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus became the catalyst for public transit boycotts and desegregation efforts. But here's the story of Elizabeth Jennings, a woman who did nearly the same thing, 100 years earlier, before the Civil War. Her efforts led to the desegregation of transit in New York City.  Rosalind Franklin Guest: Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge, and author of "A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War" Rosalind Franklin helped discover the structure of DNA, but a decade after her death, the Nobel Prize for the discovery went to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins (who stole her photo of the double helix and showed it to the other two). But her legacy shouldn't be one of a martyr. By the time of her death at age 37, she was already internationally acclaimed for her work on viruses and vaccines.