Ohio is rich with history. It was the first free state formed from the Northwest Territory and home to the first private historically Black college or university (HBCU). It’s also the birthplace of presidents, astronauts, inventors and writers. Many of these Ohio heroes were African Americans who fought tirelessly for equity and justice. Below are several episodes from seasons past on Ohio v. the World. You can listen here by clicking the play button or select the link if you Apple podcasts.

Season 6, Episode 5: “Ohio v. Bravery”: the Black Civil War soldiers that won the war. Click link to hear episode on Apple Podcasts.

Season 3, Episode 3: Ohio v. Black Power: Alex journeys through the 1960s in Cleveland. This episode discusses: the Hough Rebellion, Martin Luther King, Jr., the election of Carl Stokes and the deadly Glenville Shootout in July 1968. We see the impact of Malcolm X, MLK, RFK and others on black power politics in CLE.

Season 4, Episode 12: “Ohio v. Segregation”. Alex studies the proud history of African American service in the military and the racism and discrimination faced by the hero pilots at Tuskegee. A number of Tuskegee Airmen were from Ohio and they were stationed in Central Ohio following the war. Click the link above for the full episode.

Season 6, Episode 10: “Ohio v. Terror”: Millions of African Americans were freed following the Civil War, but they weren’t really free. Alex follows the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and Reconstruction political strife over the destiny of the Freedmen. Click the link above to hear this important episode about why the failure of Reconstruction doomed our country to an inequitable system even 150 years later.

Season 1, Episode 12: “Ohio v. the Nazis”: We study Jesse and the Owens family’s symbolic role in the Great Migration, his record-breaking performances at the 1936 Olympics in the racist bastion of Nazi Germany and how the Buckeye Bullet still faced racial discrimination at home. Suck it, Hitler!

Season 4, Episode 5: “Ohio v. Invention”: Cleveland, Ohio inventor, Garrett Morgan, too long overlooked for such inventions as the gas mask, the modern traffic light and more are detailed here with Morgan’s granddaughter guided our discovery.

Season 2, Episode 10: “Ohio v. Slavery”: Alex looks at the central role of Ohio in the Underground Railroad and the abolition movement to defeat African American slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act in the mid-19th century.

Season 3, Episode 8: “Ohio v. Discrimination”: Born into slavery, Charles Young of Wilberforce, OH would rise to be the highest-ranking African American military officer in US history up until 1940. We see appearances by such luminaries as: W.E.B. Dubois, George Patton, Booker T. Washington and Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. We follow Young’s struggle to serve his nation in the face of unrelenting racism that reaches all the way to the White House.