Road Trip Fall 2024
An Amazing Visit to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans
My wife Kate and I took a wonderful road trip South this fall that included a memorable few days at the fabulous National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana! I can’t say enough about how high quality and special this place is – if you have the opportunity, by all means GO! The museum is filled with great interactive exhibits, personal stories, videos, recordings, documents, and a mixture of the home front and battlefront during the Second World War. It also tells the story of WWII from a military, social, economic, and political perspective.
One of our absolute highlights was meeting and talking with WWII Navy veteran Vincent Sottile (shown below with me), who celebrated his 99th birthday while we were there. Vincent served as an ensign on landing craft at the Leyte Gulf and Guam. He came home and became a gastroenterologist and worked at his profession until he was 96! (“I started to get a little tired,” he said, explaining why he decided to retire). It was an honor and a humbling experience to meet Vincent and take in this wonderful museum that pays tribute to the WWII generation. If you go, I’d suggest allowing 2-3 days to enjoy the experience fully!
Thanks to NewSouth Bookstore!
As part of the “work and history portion” of our Southern road-trip, I spoke on The Great Abolitionist at the The NewSouth Bookstore, a wonderful independent in Alabama’s capital city of Montgomery. I’m shown with (from left) bookstore manager Jessala White, and co-owners Suzanne LaRosa and Randall Williams, who – along with the audience –made me feel very welcomed! (I stopped into the store the day before the event to check it out). I really appreciated the people who turned out on a rainy evening to hear about Charles Sumner. Thanks also to someone who is not shown, NewSouth’s Gabbi Emerson, who could not attend, but who worked with me throughout to organize this fun event. Thanks, NewSouth! 
Montgomery Confronts its Mixed History of Slavery and Civil Rights
Montgomery, like many Southern cities, has a dramatic mixed history – about 100 years apart – of slavery and the fight for civil rights. I think the city does a good job of confronting and dealing with it honestly. Here are just a couple (of many) examples. We visited the stirring and excellent Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University, which dealt both with her heroic decision on a Montgomery public bus in December 1955, and the civil rights movement in general; and we toured the “First White House of the Confederacy,” home to Confederate States of America (CSA) President Jefferson Davis and his family in early 1861 before the Confederacy moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. There are numerous examples of slavery and civil rights history throughout the city, which makes it worth visiting to gain a sense of the city, the region, and the country during both the Civil War and civil rights eras.
A Fascinating Stop in Dayton, TN, Location of the Celebrated “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925!
Another historical highlight was our stop in Dayton, Tennessee at the Rhea County Courthouse and Museum, location of the celebrated “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925. The trial began on July 10 of that year, and kicked off eleven days of what would become one of the most famous trials in U.S. history.
A quick primer on the case: John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, was accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”
With the help of a local businessman, Scopes conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest, the men enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set.
Within a few days, hordes of spectators and reporters had descended on Dayton as preachers set up revival tents along the city’s main street. Inside the Courthouse, the defense suffered early setbacks when Judge John Raulston ruled against their attempt to prove the law unconstitutional, and then refused to end his practice of opening each day’s proceeding with prayer. Outside, Dayton took on a carnival-like atmosphere as an exhibit featuring two chimpanzees and a supposed “missing link” opened in town, and vendors sold Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and lemonade.
On July 21, in his closing speech, defense attorney Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks. After nine minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed.
In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the Monkey Trial verdict on a technicality but left the constitutional issues unresolved until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Arkansas law on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment.
A Musical History Pilgrimage to Muscle Shoals, AL!
We had an amazing visit to the “Music Mecca” of Muscle Shoals, a small city adjacent to the Tennessee River in Northern Alabama that is the Rock/Blues/ Pop recording capital of the world. Think of almost any popular recording artist that you know and they have recorded at Muscle Shoals to capture the funky and unique sound — from The Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd; to Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, and James Brown; to Rod Stewart, Elton John, Bob Dylan, the Oak Ridge Boys, Dire Straits, Willie Nelson, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Jimmy Buffet, Bob Seger, Cher, Cat Stevens, and Paul Simon. And that’s just a fraction of the artists who recorded at Muscle Shoals, and were backed-up by the region”s legendary session musicians, “The Stompers” (immortalized in Skynyrd’s famous anthem, “Sweet Home, Alabama”).
We visited three of the famous recording studios, and had an absolute blast listening to the music and the stories of one of the most iconic places in Rock and Roll /Blues / Pop music history! If you have an opportunity, make your own pilgrimage to this special place!
And it’s not EXACTLY history, but attending the Alabama-Georgia game in Tuscaloosa WAS epic!
What better way to enjoy a Southern road trip than to attend an amazing Alabama-Georgia football game on the ‘Bama campus in Tuscaloosa? None that I can think of
It was a packed and raucous house at Bryant-Denny Stadium as the crowd watched the Crimson Tide (ranked fourth at the time) beat the Bulldogs (ranked second then) 41-34 in a wild game on Saban Field. Alabama led 30-7 at the half and watched Georgia go ahead 34-33 in the second half before the Tide scored on a 75-yard touchdown pass with just over two minutes left! Georgia drove down the field again, but Alabama intercepted the potential game-tying touchdown in the end zone. The atmosphere was electric! Before the game, Kate and I soaked up the game-day atmosphere on the Alabama campus, including enjoying a few pix with the Tide band right after their practice! Great to enjoy some SEC football!
A Wonderful North End Tour
There’s nothing like a summertime tour of Boston’s historic North End! I was thrilled to conduct a tour for the Board of Directors of the University Consortium of Executive Education (UNICON), who were in town for a meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management. UNICON is a global consortium of business-school-based executive education organizations with 120 members worldwide.
We had a great tour, and it was wonderful to meet members representing MIT, Stanford, Babson College, and others! My thanks to Eric Bergemann, UNICON board member and Senior Director of Executive Programs at the Sloan School, for organizing the event. I’m also happy to report that the group enjoyed a great Italian meal after the tour! Thanks to my friend, Erin Leone (www.erinleonephotography.com ) for the wonderful photos, including the group shot at the site of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (the full story is told in my book, Dark Tide)!
The Quest for 351 — Walking and Hiking Massachusetts Cities and Towns
On a personal note, over the past few years, Kate and I have been visiting communities throughout Massachusetts on a quest to walk or hike in all 351 cities and towns! Happy to say we have reached 120 communities, a little more than a third of the way through. We love the combination of history and nature. (It’s the more local version of our “road trips” that I periodically chronicle on my Highlights page.) Most recently, we visited the towns of Marion and Mattapoisett on the south coast, with an additional walk in adjacent Rochester. Here’s Kate at the Osprey Marsh boardwalk in Marion and at the beautiful Munn Preserve harbor in Mattapoisett.
Road Trip Fall 2023
Our 2023 Great Lakes Road Trip Involved Football, Foliage, Freshwater, Ferries (Oh, and History too!)
Kate and I enjoyed an amazing “Great Lakes” road trip this Fall that took us to all five Great Lakes, and saw us explore Michigan and Wisconsin (mostly) on an adventure that included plenty of foliage, football, freshwater, ferries, and – of course – history.
This part of the country was crucial to America’s defense during the War of 1812, from Captain Oliver Perry’s USS Niagara, which engaged in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, to Mackinac Island where Fort Mackinac looks over the strategic convergence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (the fort’s control switched back and forth during the American Revolution, and in July 1812, the British captured the fort in the first land engagement of the War of 1812; it reverted back to American hands after the war).
Then, we ventured to the locks at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, an incredibly strategic point during World War II, when ships carrying iron ore from Canada and the Western U.S. crossed from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, where their cargo was then delivered to factories in Detroit, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and transformed into steel for the war effort.
We enjoyed some great “football history” too, with stops at the “Big House” at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Lambeau Field in Green Bay; to the wonderful Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Canton is also home to the First Ladies National Historic Site and the President William McKinley Museum and Burial site.
Scenery is amazing too – from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northwest part of the “lower mitten” of Michigan – where the water is the color of the Caribbean! – to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where we visited Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (contains an exhibit on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975); and cruised alongside the magnificent Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior in Munising, Michigan. On the way home, we visited Indiana Dunes National Park and Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, each with its own splendor and beauty; and General George Washington’s “headquarters on the Hudson” in Newburgh, New York. We even made stops to see a great friend at Penn State and to visit Little League International headquarters in Williamsport, PA!
Kate and I love our road trips – what a special way to see all this great country has to offer!
Road Trip Spring 2023
Another road trip with a flair for the historic — and my May 2023 Blog that links the trip and my upcoming book!
I’ve chronicled a few road trips Kate and I have taken to see some great historic (and relaxing!) spots in our great country, and this spring was no different. We covered 12 states, venturing as far south as St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest town, founded in 1565.
These photos show — in roughly “historical” chronological order — me at the beautiful St. Augustine Cathedral, and on Aviles Street, the “oldest street in America,” along with the “rough draft” of the Declaration of Independence, located at Jefferson’s Monticello just outside of Charlottesville, VA.
On to the Civil War era! We visited Columbia, S.C., the state capital, which displays all aspects of its Civil War history. The sobering “Ordinance of Secession” passed in December 1860, and a statue of Senator John C. Calhoun are located in the capitol building, and just outside is the very moving monument to the First Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, a tribute to the first former slaves and free blacks who became members of the Union Army after plantation owners fled their homes on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. Massachusetts abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson commanded this first “colored regiment” in the Union Army, who fought bravely in Florida in 1863.
We also went to the haunting Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia, which included a moving stop at nearby City Point, Virginia, where General Ulysses S. Grant had his headquarters toward the end of the war as Richmond was about to fall — President Abraham Lincoln visited City Point just days before he was assassinated. There is an important scene in my new book, The Great Abolitionist, that takes place at City Point, because Charles Sumner was part of Lincoln’s entourage there. My latest blog describes how the happenings at City Point in 1865 illustrate the way Sumner and Lincoln learned from each other — I hope you enjoy it.
Last on the history-related pictorial chronology (though it was the first stop on our road trip) was the site of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 that began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and spread rapidly. It was the nation’s first general strike, and the first time federal troops were used in a labor dispute.
And lest you think our road trip was purely educational, we found plenty of great time to relax. Kate is shown here on beautiful St. Augustine Beach, and at our resort in Charlottesville, VA (where, in addition to visiting Monticello, we also visited the University of Virginia and had lunch with one of Kate’s former students!). Also, check out the gorgeous sunrise on spectacular St. Simons Island, Georgia (one of our favorite spots), and the remarkable Driftwood Beach on nearby Jekyll Island, just a few miles from St. Simons!
I’ve heard from many of you that you enjoy these “historical travel updates,” so I’ll continue to share them with you when appropriate. And as always, I encourage you to visit as many historical spots as you can in an effort to learn as much as possible about our history.
