Audio History Project

Series produced by Radio Diaries

Series image

Weaving together oral histories and archival tape to bring the past to life.

This series historical documents weaves together oral histories and archival tape to bring the past to life. From World War II to the Civil Rights movement, from the mining industry to the music industry, this series shares a rich, in depth look into our history.


13 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Claudette Colvin.
What makes a hero? Why do we remember some stories and not others? Consider Claudette Colvin. She was a 15-year-old girl in the segregated city of...

Bought by KUNM, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, PRX Remix, and Troy Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 05, 2015
  • Length: 09:19
  • Purchases: 5
Piece image
For more than a century, the Rio Grande has been the border between the U.S. and Mexico. But rivers can move.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 01, 2014
  • Length: 13:25
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Forrest Carter
Asa Carter was a speechwriter for Alabama Governor George Wallace. He penned one of the most infamous speeches of the era… Wallace’s “Segregation N...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 14, 2014
  • Length: 15:54
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Burmese demonstrators in 1988., Credit: Gaye Paterson
25 years ago, university students in Burma sparked a countrywide uprising. They called for a nationwide strike on 8/8/88, a date they chose for its...

Bought by PRX Remix and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Aug 09, 2013
  • Length: 13:13
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, the Miss Subways contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working...

Bought by Georgia Public Broadcasting and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 26, 2013
  • Length: 08:26
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
On the 50th anniversary of Wallace’s inaugural speech as the Governor of Alabama, Radio Diaries tells the story behind those infamous words, and th...

Bought by The Story and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 26, 2013
  • Length: 10:23
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Asa Carter and Forrest Carter couldn’t have been more different. But they shared a secret.

  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 01:13:55
Piece image
In the 1990s, Arch Coal began mining Pigeonroost Hollow. Now Jimmy Weekley is the last person left there.

Bought by Wyoming Public Radio, PRX Remix, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 13:59
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
George F. Johnson was the owner of the Endicott Johnson Corp. — at one time the country’s leading shoe manufacturer — and one of the nation’s leadi...

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KZMU Moab Community Radio, PRX Remix, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 16:09
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
Poet and songwriter Abel Meeropol wrote that lament after seeing a photograph of two black teenagers hanging from a tree.

Bought by PRX Remix, Marfa Public Radio, KUER, WMMT, KFAI Minneapolis and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:35
  • Purchases: 6
Piece image
One of the last songs that Johnny Cash recorded before he died was called, “There Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down).”

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KZMU Moab Community Radio, WABE, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, PRX Remix and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:42
  • Purchases: 6
Piece image
November 23, 1936 was a good day for recorded music. Two men – an ocean apart – sat before a microphone and began to play.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KFAI Minneapolis, PRX Remix, WABE, KALW and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:40
  • Purchases: 8
Piece image
In the summer of 1932, a group of World War I veterans in Portland, Oregon hopped a freight train and started riding the rails to Washington DC.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KPIK-LP, PRX Remix, WRPI, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 11:56
  • Purchases: 5