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Across Alabama's Black Belt on Highway 80
Called the Black Belt because of its rich, dark soil, the area of south Alabama traversed by Highway 80 on its route across the southern U.S. was the staging ground for some of Alabama's most significant moments in history. It was here that DeSoto met Tuscaloosa, cotton plantations flourished, the Confederacy was born, and civil rights were won. Follow Highway 80 through Demopolis, Selma, Montgomery, and Tuskegee on a journey through Alabama history.
Producer: Max Shores

The Amistad Incident
Remembering the revolt on the slave ship AMISTAD more than a century and a half after it took place. The coalition of abolitionists and attorneys that was formed to exonerate the imprisoned Africans led to the founding of the American Missionary Association. In turn, this group established many schools for blacks, including Talladega College. The show will also visit the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, a manuscript library for the study of ethnic history and culture.
Producer: Bill Connell

Bridges to the Past
Covered bridges served vital needs in the days of horse drawn transportation. Today they provide picturesque recreational attractions which give visitors insight into how people lived in the past. "Bridges to the Past" will document Alabama's eleven remaining historic covered bridges which are open to the public. All were built from 1850 through the 1930's. A few are still in use for motor traffic today, but most are limited to foot traffic.  On line press release available.
Producer: Max Shores

Cast in Iron: Days of Sloss
To some it was The Iron Plantation. To others it was The Gates of Hell. Learn about life and labor at Sloss Furnace, the once thriving iron works in Birmingham that produced 11 million tons of iron when it was in operation.
Producer: Wendy Bruce

The Chief: Calvin McGhee and the Forgotten Creeks
The Creeks Indians of south Alabama lived in isolation and poverty until Calvin McGhee came along. Despite treaty promises, they had been abandoned by the federal government. A farmer with only a fifth grade education, McGhee fought tirelessly for his people. Through court battles and meetings with government officials in which he wore traditional plains Indian clothing, McGhee brought the forgotten Creeks to national attention.
Producer: Max Shores

A Fair Hope
The picturesque bayside community of Fairhope in Baldwin County is well known as a resort and retirement mecca. But it was actually founded in 1894 by a group of Northern reformers as an experimental utopian model for a kind of free enterprise socialism based on the common ownership of land, and it has continued to be a haven of sorts for artists, intellectuals, and non-conformists.  An online press release is available.
Producer: Mike Letcher

From Territory to State
The constitutional convention held in a Huntsville cabinetmaker's shop paved the way for Alabama to become a state in 1819. The reconstructed shop is one of several buildings which make up Alabama Constitution Village, a living history museum where 1819 life is demonstrated by interpreters dressed in period attire. This study guide includes a glossary, discussion questions, and a concise summary of Alabama's move to statehood. On line study guide available.
Producer: Max Shores

Going to Great Lengths: Alabama's Constitution
Some want to fix it, others say it ain't broke. Alabama's constitution is many times longer than other state constitutions, and it painstakingly defines its government. Learn why this peculiar document was drafted in 1901 and how it affects us today. Then, stay tuned for a live discussion about our constitution. A one hour roundtable discussion of Alabama's constitution, The Alabama Constitution: A Forum, hosted by David Mathews is also available.
Producer: Shannon Livingston

High Calling: Alabama's Aviation Legacy
The Wright brothers taught here. The Army's first black pilots were trained here. The future of military aviation will be decided here. Alabama is home to a rich legacy of the power of flight.
Producer: Shannon Livingston

Historic Point Clear
The climate and relative isolation of this tranquil spot on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay has long made it a favorite place in Alabama. This program explores Point Clear beginning with its development in the 1840s, through the Civil War and the turn of the century, and its growth into a thriving community.
Producer: George Smith

Holding On To History
A rare behind-the-scenes look at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, which was nation's first state archive when it was founded in 1901. This remarkable storehouse of history includes thousands of rare documents, photographs, pictures, and artifacts. Viewers will see many fascinating items that are not normally on public display. More information about this program is available online.
Producer: Tom Rieland

How Rare A Possession
Henry Ward Beecher said "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." The same can be said for the home a man builds. This program tours three unique Alabama homes--Kendall Manor in Eufala; the Van Valkenbergh House in Huntsville, and Birmingham's Swann House/Chaucer Hall--revealing the eccentric natures their builders had and the love affair the current owners have with these historic emblems.
Producer: Ricky Harmon

It Was A County Before Alabama Was a State: Monroe County
Here you'll find the home of great writers, fierce fighters, fascinating geological artifacts, and one of the most famous courthouses in the world. Tom Halladay of Alabama Public Radio hosts this look at one of Alabama's remarkable places.
Producer: Bill Connell

Let Her Own Works Praise Her: Julia Tutwiler (Closed captioned)
A portrait of educator and reformer Julia Tutwiler. She crusaded for the admission of women to colleges, better jail conditions, and the elimination of the state's corrupt prison work camps. Though holding office was out of the question for women of her day, she became a voice of conscience and reason in the Alabama legislature, where she was a determined and forceful lobbyist. Acclaimed storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham stars in this production, which is based on the one-woman show she wrote. On line study guide  available.
Producer: Brent Davis

Lost Legends of Alabama
Learn about Railroad Bill, Alabama's Robin Hood; celebrated train robber Rube Burrows; the exploits of the James Gang in North Alabama; and (Pappy) Neal McCormick, The Hawaiian Troubadour.
Producer: Bill Connell

Made in Alabama: A State Legacy
A simple wooden desk; a carefully stitched quilt; a modest stoneware jar--all items of necessity for the average Alabama family in the 19th century. But the folks who fashioned these practical items are now being recognized as true Alabama artisans. Their material legacy provides a tangible link to the state's social and cultural past. This program explores the ordinary people whose hands shaped our history. On line study guide available.
Producer: Shannon Livingston

Music and Memories of the Civil War -- Bobby Horton
Birmingham musician Bobby Horton sings the marches, ballads, and folk songs that were popular in the North and South during our nation's tragic war. Horton, who recorded music for the epic PBS series "The Civil War," talks about the stories behind these songs with host Bill Foster.
Producer: Bill Connell

Old Alabama Town
Visit the sprawling museum that shows you how Alabamians lived a century ago. Montgomery's Old Alabama Town features over three blocks of houses and buildings including a cotton gin, neighborhood grocery, drugstore and schoolhouse.
Producer: George Smith

On The Azalea Trail
Mobile, Alabama is widely known as "The Azalea City," but the evergreen azaleas for which it is famous are not native to the area. These oriental plants with brilliant spring blooms were imported during the 1920s to create a tourist attraction known as the Azalea Trail. From the 1930s through the 1950s, tourists flocked to Mobile to see azaleas in bloom. Although the Azalea Trail's attraction to tourists has declined in the ensuing years, its legacy still can be seen at Bellingrath Gardens, in the rise of Mobile's horticulture industry, and at Mobile's annual Festival of Flowers.
Producer: Max Shores

One and All
Many of Alabama's most prominent politicians got their start in an all-white political machine that still dominates elections. A history of student government at The University of Alabama and how it has responded to an increasingly diverse student body.
Producer: Michael Letcher

Pages From the Civil War in Alabama
Alabama's steel furnaces, arsenals, and textile mills made the state an important objective during the Civil War. From skirmishes and bombardments along the Tennessee River as early as 1862 to crippling raids at the end of the war, Alabama had to defend itself from Union forces. On line study guide available.
Producer: Bill Connell

A Place In History
Storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham hosts this visit to five historically significant sites in Alabama that are now or have been in danger of being lost or destroyed: Tallassee Mills, the Rosenwald Schools, Cheaha State Park, the Montgomery bus station, and the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio railroad terminal in Mobile.
Producer: Mike Letcher

A Place In History, Part 2
Storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham returns to APT for another look at several Alabama historic locations in danger of being lost, including The Sand Island Lighthouse, a 120-foot high brick and wrought iron structure built in 1871 off the Alabama coast; Quinlan Castle, the fanciful apartment complex on Birmingham's Southside built in the 1920's when apartment living was considered risqué and controversial; and Snow Hill Institute, a nationally known private boarding school established in 1894 in rural Wilcox County by William J. Edwards, a protégé of Booker T. Washington.
Producer: Mike Letcher

Promised Land: The Communities of Mon Louis & Colony
Portraits of the isolated Creole community on Mobile Bay and the only African-American community in Cullman County, settled during Reconstruction after the emancipation of slaves.
Producer: Dwight Cammeron

Roses of Crimson
No one gave the Alabama Crimson Tide much of a chance when it traveled to the 1926 Rose Bowl to play the mighty Washington Huskies. But Southerners who crowded into auditoriums and lodges to hear tickertape re-creations of the game saw it as much more than a mere athletic event. Their team was fighting to restore the region's honor and glory. The game changed the South and how the nation viewed a region that had been dismissed and ignored. Today the game is seen as the most important one in the history of the region. Online press release and study guide available.
Producer: Tom Rieland

The Stars and Bars: The First National Flag of the Confederacy
The first flag chosen to represent the Confederate States of America was called the Stars and Bars, but is definitely not the flag which is often at the center of controversy in the South. This is a program about the creation, evolution and life of the first National Flag of the Confederate States of America.
Producer: George Smith

The Story of Faunsdale Plantation
Faunsdale Plantation in Alabama's Black Belt has been in the same matrilineal line since it was settled more than 150 years ago. From this place of long ago have come interesting people who matter not only because they overcame adversity such as war, Reconstruction, and economic uncertainty in a variety of ways, but because they passed to the next generation the only thing they could: a bit of what they'd learned.
Producer: Wendy Bruce

Sweet Home Alabama
The nineteenth-century homes featured in this program stand as monuments to a forgotten way of life that shaped the way we live today. Ranging from simple dogtrot cabins to elegant mansions, twenty rural and small-town homes are featured in short essays on topics such as architectural styles, the people who built them, or the people who care for them now. Based on the book, "Silent in the Land" by Chip Cooper, Harry Knopke, and Robert Gamble.
Producer: Max Shores

This Old Library
Spend some time browsing at one of the best places in the state to pass an afternoon, the Linn-Henley Research Library in Birmingham, Ala. Leaf through a macabre scrapbook with best-selling mystery writer Anne George; examine a historic police blotter with a civil rights researcher; learn how a photo historian looks for clues in turn-of-the century pictures; and meet John Bertalan, the man who restored a huge, beautiful mural at the library one cotton swab at a time.
Producer: Brent Davis

Thunder In Huntsville
In July 1969 the world was watching when Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon. But his miraculous journey would not have been possible without the work of thousands of Alabamians at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. They designed and tested the monstrous and majestic Saturn V rocket, the 36 story, 6.5 million pound vehicle that remains the most powerful machine ever created. This was the rocket that enabled humans to break earth's bounds, and this show celebrates the Alabama men and women who gave life to this extraordinary machine.  On line study guide available
Producers: Rick Dowling and Brent Davis

TVA Town Revisited
In 1950 the federal government produced a documentary telling the story of how the massive dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority led to the flourishing of Decatur, Ala. This impoverished area, plagued by malaria, failing crops, and flooding, was transformed into a thriving industrial and agricultural center. This program uses captions and graphics to take a second look at this remarkable film fifty years after it was produced.
Producer: Brent Davis

Up From The Ashes: The Rebirth of Phenix City
Phenix City had a reputation as being "the wickedest city in America" until the National Guard crushed a crime syndicate there in 1954. This program looks at the resurrection of Phenix City and shows how a group of boys fulfilled the vision of their ancestors and restored respect to their hometown by winning the national Little League Baseball championship in 1999.  An online press release is available.
Producer: Max Shores

The Wayfaring Stranger
The story of a determined Canadian, William Luke, who came to Alabama during Reconstruction on a spiritual mission to preach equality and educate ex-slaves. Luke would pay the ultimate price for challenging the traditional way of life in the South. This dramatic story changed Alabama's history. On line study guide available.
Producer: Tom Rieland

White Gold
Visit the historic salt works that supplied this valuable mineral to the Confederacy during the Civil War and tour modern industries that use Southwest Alabama salt to make products ranging from chlorine bleach to rocket fuel.
Producer: Max Shores