Before You Go

Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh bring audiences a voice from the aftermath of the 1944 Philadelphia transit strike that shut down the city and disrupted the war effort at the time. White workers  were determined that Black workers would not be promoted from the back rooms to train and trolley conductors. At 100 years old Merrill Pittman Cooper shares his very candid view as an African American driver hired just one year later during very tumultuous times. He eventually meets his wife while driving the bus and he retires having served as the first African American Philadelphia transit workers union president. Mr. Cooper's story is an American story. And, there's one question Mr. Cooper has that continues to linger.

Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh take listeners back to an August 2018 interview Nicole conducted with Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan) and his career crusade to establish the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. During the Congressman's lifetime, which the Congressman spent nearly three decades on a relentless campaign, the H.R. 40 Bill never made it out of Committee.  In one of his final interviews, Rep. Conyers reflects on what reparations for African Americans would achieve and how he realized early on the journey it would take to get there. 

Who would give up a dream of playing professional baseball alongside Negro League greats Dizzie Dean, Hank Thompson, Elston Howard, Willard Brown, Larry Doby and so many others? Semi-pro outfielder Nate Crump of St. Louis, Missouri asked a friend what life on the road really meant for Black baseball players and chose a life in science instead. He was so talented that a career at McDonnell Douglass (formerly McDonnell Aircraft) led to even greater heights and recognition from NASA. Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh share a delightful hour with chemist, athlete (he still played a round of golf at age 99) and military veteran Nate Crump, also joined by his talented and proud son Dr. Nathaniel Crump. 

As hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh often say, "Stories like these are just a phone call away." Nicole picks up the phone and dials Doris Carey Graeber. We invite listeners to grab a good rocking chair and some lemonade to hear about the simple life in "God's country." Award-winning filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris joins the conversation to tell us why we need to take our letters, photos and family heirlooms out of storage. 

We meet retired nurse Glyndorah Hubbard of St. Louis, MO who was born in 1916. At 15 years old, Ms. Hubbard graduated from famed Sumner High School in St. Louis. Upon graduating college, she began her life as a nurse while working at the only hospital where Black residents of the city could get medical care at the time, Homer G. Phillips. As Ms. Hubbard shares fascinating and heartbreaking family stories--including the grandmother she knew who was enslaved and the other who was not--hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh remember stories from their own backgrounds that put it all in perspective.

Oral histories from this area of the United States are also the mission of the Missouri History Museum located in St. Louis, MO.

The life of Maud Carroll takes a positive turn, but only after meeting the love of her life, saying good-bye to her mother at her mother's deathbed and overcoming racism as the church organist. The music of Ms. Carroll's favorite composers carry her through. She shares her love for both the music and how her life turned out in this episode.

In this Before You Go episode we listen to the harrowing childhood story of a very special piano teacher. Maud Carroll immigrated to the United States nearly 100 years ago. Unfortunately she ended up in an abusive situation. With her life in danger, and nowhere to turn, the piano was her only friend. This is the first of two episodes with Ms. Carroll.

Welcome to our podcast, Before You Go. Hosts Nicole Franklin and Bryant Monteilh introduce audiences to guests who are 100 years old, "or just getting up there." We love our seniors. Join us at BeforeYouGo.TV. What we hope you take from our podcast is the importance of these conversations. It's a chance to discover history and there's no time like the present. What a gift!