1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,000
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Before we get started today, we just wanted

2
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,840
Speaker 1: to let folks know that Universal Fan con where we

3
00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,880
Speaker 1: were planning to be from April and to do a

4
00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: live show there, has been postponed until further notice. Although

5
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,480
Speaker 1: we don't have any other information right now about when

6
00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:20,040
Speaker 1: the convention might be rescheduled, we do want to apologize

7
00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,320
Speaker 1: to anybody who purchased a ticket or who plans to

8
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: come out and see us. Will post an update with

9
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,000
Speaker 1: any official information that we receive on our website at

10
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,160
Speaker 1: miss in history dot com at the link that says

11
00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:35,720
Speaker 1: live shows. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History class

12
00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to

13
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:48,800
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying.

14
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:54,320
Speaker 1: I really like the TV show Timeless. It is a

15
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,520
Speaker 1: favorite of mine. I was really sad when it got

16
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,400
Speaker 1: canceled and then really happy when it got uncancelled. And

17
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:03,480
Speaker 1: in the first season of this show, it seemed like

18
00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,760
Speaker 1: every time I turned around, I would think, hey, we

19
00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 1: have an episode of our podcast about this. It was

20
00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,720
Speaker 1: like there was a Hindenburg, and there was Jim Booie,

21
00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:15,280
Speaker 1: and there was Josphine Baker, and there was Davy Crockett,

22
00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:18,240
Speaker 1: and it went on and on and on. There were

23
00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:20,800
Speaker 1: so many that before the second season started up, I

24
00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,520
Speaker 1: actually made a board on our Pinterest called as Seen

25
00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,960
Speaker 1: on Timeless where I pinned all the episodes that relate

26
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:31,520
Speaker 1: to past episodes of that show. So early on in

27
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,160
Speaker 1: season two, I was watching Timeless and a historical figure

28
00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:37,000
Speaker 1: showed up on the screen that made me go, Okay,

29
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,319
Speaker 1: stop everything, this has to be a podcast and it's

30
00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,600
Speaker 1: It was a very similar reaction to the one that

31
00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,960
Speaker 1: several of the people on the screen and the show had,

32
00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,000
Speaker 1: because this is about Wendell Scott, who was a black

33
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,960
Speaker 1: driver from the early days of NASCAR. Almost his entire

34
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,640
Speaker 1: racing career took place in the segregated South. I didn't

35
00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:01,680
Speaker 1: go into this in tending to write a two part

36
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:06,120
Speaker 1: podcast on on NASCAR, but once again we have a

37
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:11,160
Speaker 1: surprise two part sports podcast. Um. Also, I wanted to

38
00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,120
Speaker 1: note that there are people who knew him who pronounced

39
00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,560
Speaker 1: his name more like Windell, but the vast majority seemed

40
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:23,320
Speaker 1: to say Wendell, including some interview with his children, some

41
00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,079
Speaker 1: interviews with his children, So if at some point you're

42
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 1: watching old TV footage about Wendell Scott, and you're like,

43
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,679
Speaker 1: why did they say Windell? Let's wendell seems to be

44
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:39,079
Speaker 1: the more common. Some of that is probably an accent thing, right, yes, probably,

45
00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: like I could see someone with a heavy Southern accent

46
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,520
Speaker 1: drawing out that second syllable a little bit more well.

47
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,080
Speaker 1: And there were times that they would make rhymes uh

48
00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:52,359
Speaker 1: like chance. We don't really most of them uh are

49
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,079
Speaker 1: are a use of a word we wouldn't necessarily say

50
00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,600
Speaker 1: on the show that would want rhyme with it if

51
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 1: you said it when dell, So that might have influenced

52
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:07,679
Speaker 1: some people's pronunciation as well. So. Wendell Scott was born

53
00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:12,079
Speaker 1: in Danville, Virginia, on August He was one of four

54
00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,320
Speaker 1: children in a family that included half siblings from his

55
00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,680
Speaker 1: parents prior marriages. Danville was largely a working class city,

56
00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:24,399
Speaker 1: with its major industries being tobacco and textiles. Wendell's father

57
00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:26,799
Speaker 1: was employed as a driver for a couple of more

58
00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,160
Speaker 1: affluent white families, and he also worked on their cars.

59
00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 1: From an early age, Wendell was learning the basics of

60
00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 1: auto mechanics while helping his father. During the Great Depression,

61
00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:41,080
Speaker 1: work in Danville started to become scarce and the family

62
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,800
Speaker 1: moved to Pennsylvania, where his dad got a job in

63
00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:46,320
Speaker 1: a Studa baker factory, and it was while they were

64
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,360
Speaker 1: living out there that Wendell's parents split up. Wendell didn't

65
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,280
Speaker 1: see his father again for years, and this was really

66
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,640
Speaker 1: hard on him. He developed a stammer and he didn't

67
00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 1: do very well in school. After a while, his mother

68
00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 1: moved of them to Kentucky, where she had some other family.

69
00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,520
Speaker 1: When his grandmother's health started to decline, the family was

70
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,240
Speaker 1: moved back to Danville so Wendell's mother could help take

71
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,360
Speaker 1: care of her. And this is really when Wendell started

72
00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:17,000
Speaker 1: to experience the realities of segregation. His schools in Pennsylvania

73
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,320
Speaker 1: and Kentucky had been integrated. When he remarked to his

74
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: mother that there weren't any white students or teachers at

75
00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:25,880
Speaker 1: his school in Danville, she told him, and there won't

76
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:30,599
Speaker 1: be either. By his teens, Wendell was already working to

77
00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:33,159
Speaker 1: try to help support the family and to buy his

78
00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:35,560
Speaker 1: first car, which was a beat up Model T that

79
00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:39,360
Speaker 1: he rebuilt using parts scavenged from a junkyard. He grew

80
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,039
Speaker 1: sweet potatoes and tobacco to cell and he worked at

81
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,839
Speaker 1: a drug store he left school before graduating from high

82
00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,479
Speaker 1: school so he could become a bricklayer because he wanted

83
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,159
Speaker 1: to help the family afford to send his younger sister

84
00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,200
Speaker 1: to college. Wendell Scott had spent most of his life

85
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: saying that he didn't want the kind of life that

86
00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,480
Speaker 1: was typical for a black man living in Danville, which

87
00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,159
Speaker 1: was likely to include difficult, manual labor that came with

88
00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,760
Speaker 1: significant health risks. Working in tobacco fields and textile plants

89
00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,400
Speaker 1: was physically grueling work, and lung problems were common due

90
00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,920
Speaker 1: to the exposure to tobacco and fabric dust. He didn't

91
00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:16,760
Speaker 1: really want to be a low paid cog in a

92
00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,760
Speaker 1: wheel that was mostly making money for someone else. These

93
00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,080
Speaker 1: are still very difficult and grueling jobs with risks of

94
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,760
Speaker 1: of lung damage, but they're also a lot less common

95
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,760
Speaker 1: because most of the taxtile plants moved to Mexico and

96
00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:37,760
Speaker 1: people quit smoking so much. Scott soon found that being

97
00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,280
Speaker 1: a bricklayer just had too much in common with all

98
00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 1: those jobs that he had spent his whole life saying

99
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,360
Speaker 1: he didn't want to do, so he quit. He started

100
00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:48,279
Speaker 1: driving for a taxi company, and gradually he saved up

101
00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,680
Speaker 1: enough money to afford his own cab. Scott developed a

102
00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,600
Speaker 1: reputation for being the kind of taxi driver who would

103
00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:58,880
Speaker 1: get you where you were going fast and would probably

104
00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,200
Speaker 1: also know where you be able to find some not

105
00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 1: necessarily legal indulgences along the way. When somebody got into

106
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,800
Speaker 1: his cab and mentioned wanting a drink, he knew where

107
00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,479
Speaker 1: to get one. After the end of prohibition, the Commonwealth

108
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,680
Speaker 1: of Virginia allowed the sale of liquor in state managed

109
00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,479
Speaker 1: alcoholic beverage control stores, but liquor by the drink was

110
00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,239
Speaker 1: still illegal. He wasn't personally much of a drinker, though

111
00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,240
Speaker 1: he was a devout member of the New Hope Baptist Church.

112
00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:30,479
Speaker 1: Although he wasn't always actively attending services. Let's get you

113
00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:35,000
Speaker 1: there fast reputation also earned Scott a police record pretty quickly,

114
00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:39,200
Speaker 1: with most of his citations being for speeding. One officer

115
00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:41,960
Speaker 1: in particular seemed to have a grudge against him and

116
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,279
Speaker 1: wrote out eleven of the thirteen tickets that he received

117
00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,400
Speaker 1: during his time as a taxi driver. Then, when he

118
00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:51,359
Speaker 1: was twenty, he was charged in a scheme to sell

119
00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,840
Speaker 1: stolen motor oil, for which he served sixty days at

120
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,800
Speaker 1: a prison farm as part of a plea deal in

121
00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:02,000
Speaker 1: Scott met Mary Bell Calls while driving his cab, and

122
00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,560
Speaker 1: soon they were courting. In nineteen forty two, during World

123
00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:08,160
Speaker 1: War Two, Scott was drafted and he served as part

124
00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,240
Speaker 1: of the hundred first Airborne, although his actual work was

125
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:15,720
Speaker 1: about maintaining vehicles and doing manual labor. He married Mary

126
00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,320
Speaker 1: while on leave on July tenth, four and she gave

127
00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:21,760
Speaker 1: birth to their first child while he was still deployed.

128
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:25,960
Speaker 1: They would go on to have six children together. Later on,

129
00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:28,600
Speaker 1: they would also raise a seventh child, who Scott had

130
00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,240
Speaker 1: with another woman during his racing career, and who they

131
00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,119
Speaker 1: took in in the nineteen fifties after the young boy's

132
00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,440
Speaker 1: mother was killed. After the war, Scott went back to

133
00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,640
Speaker 1: Danville and the city refused to renew his taxi license

134
00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:44,960
Speaker 1: on the justifiable grounds he had way too many speeding

135
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,400
Speaker 1: tickets to allow that. So Scott started working on a

136
00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,120
Speaker 1: plan to move the family out to California, but he

137
00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,960
Speaker 1: was convinced to stay in Danville when the owner of

138
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:57,200
Speaker 1: the city's Black funeral home asked if he could work

139
00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:00,880
Speaker 1: on his cars before he left. So Scott was picking

140
00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,960
Speaker 1: up other work as a mechanic building on the knowledge

141
00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,000
Speaker 1: that he picked up from his father as a child

142
00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:10,240
Speaker 1: and from his military service during the war. This mechanic

143
00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,320
Speaker 1: work started to blossom into a small business housed in

144
00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:16,280
Speaker 1: a tiny building that the owner of the funeral home built,

145
00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:19,960
Speaker 1: But Scott took on a partner who wasn't nearly as

146
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,480
Speaker 1: conservative with their money as he wanted them to be.

147
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,560
Speaker 1: While Scott planned to pay both of them a salary

148
00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:29,760
Speaker 1: while carefully saving and reinvesting for their business, his partner

149
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:33,199
Speaker 1: kept giving himself advances on his pay and eating into

150
00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:37,120
Speaker 1: that next week's budget. This venture ended abruptly when Scott's

151
00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:39,920
Speaker 1: partner was killed in an accident that also burned the

152
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,120
Speaker 1: shop down. Scott was becoming well known as a good mechanic,

153
00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:46,640
Speaker 1: but with the loss of a little shop and everything

154
00:08:46,679 --> 00:08:49,760
Speaker 1: in it, he needed more income than he could really earn,

155
00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,839
Speaker 1: so he turned to a second source of income, which

156
00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,079
Speaker 1: was running bootleg whiskey. And we will talk more about

157
00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:06,000
Speaker 1: that after a sponsor break. When Wendell Scott got out

158
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,760
Speaker 1: of the military, as we said earlier, prohibition was over.

159
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,360
Speaker 1: It was legal to buy hard liquor by the bottle,

160
00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:15,079
Speaker 1: but not by the drink in Virginia, but there was

161
00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,360
Speaker 1: still a lot of bootlegging activity going on in the

162
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:23,280
Speaker 1: Appalachian mountains and foothills. Franklin County, Virginia, was just down

163
00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:25,559
Speaker 1: the road from Danville, tucked into the foothills of the

164
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,839
Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Mountains, and it was home to a thriving

165
00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,920
Speaker 1: bootleg industry. Scott would pick up moonshine in Franklin County,

166
00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,319
Speaker 1: where it could be bought for fifty five cents a point,

167
00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:37,600
Speaker 1: and then drive it to Charlotte, where it sold for

168
00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:40,400
Speaker 1: twice as much thanks to being in a dry county.

169
00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:43,880
Speaker 1: He had some local customers in and around Danville as well,

170
00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 1: but the bulk of his driving was to Charlotte and back,

171
00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,880
Speaker 1: almost all of it at night. This is a complex

172
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,760
Speaker 1: multi person operation. Scott usually worked with a partner who

173
00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:58,040
Speaker 1: coordinated with the actual bootleggers. Scott himself worked with the

174
00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,520
Speaker 1: buyers and had little contact directly with the people who

175
00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:05,680
Speaker 1: were actually making the moonshine. He had multiple cars that

176
00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,200
Speaker 1: were especially outfitted for bootlegging, which looked like your typical

177
00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,440
Speaker 1: junker from the outside, but had a powerful engine and

178
00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:16,080
Speaker 1: an interior that was outfitted to smuggle hidden product. He

179
00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,000
Speaker 1: would keep these cars stashed in various inconspicuous spots in

180
00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:23,280
Speaker 1: the foothills, leaving his regular car somewhere else out of

181
00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:27,240
Speaker 1: sight before getting into one to move the product. While

182
00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:31,720
Speaker 1: bootlegging was very lucrative, it was also extremely dangerous, and

183
00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:34,360
Speaker 1: Scott always kept a loaded pistol under the seat of

184
00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:38,360
Speaker 1: his bootleg cars. It was also expensive. He had to

185
00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,000
Speaker 1: sink a lot of his profit into his cars, especially

186
00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: if one of them became too recognizable to the police

187
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,160
Speaker 1: and then he had to replace it. It was also

188
00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:48,840
Speaker 1: very stressful, and it was while hauling whiskey that he

189
00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:51,880
Speaker 1: started to develop problems with stomach ulcers, which would cause

190
00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:54,280
Speaker 1: him trouble for the rest of his life. And yes,

191
00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,360
Speaker 1: we know it is not clear whether stress aggrevates ulcers,

192
00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:02,640
Speaker 1: but he and the people around him definitely made the connection. Unsurprisingly,

193
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,480
Speaker 1: there are a lot of very dramatic and colorful stories

194
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,920
Speaker 1: about Scott's time hauling moonshine, especially as he became notorious

195
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:13,040
Speaker 1: for doing it in Virginia and North Carolina. He was

196
00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,079
Speaker 1: an excellent driver and he kept his cars really well maintained,

197
00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,200
Speaker 1: so it was hard for an officer to catch him alone.

198
00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:22,840
Speaker 1: Officers would work together with one of them staying out

199
00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,599
Speaker 1: of sight along a road until another radioed end that

200
00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:28,839
Speaker 1: Scott was on the way past. Once he was notified

201
00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,800
Speaker 1: that hidden officer would come out of hiding would tail

202
00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:34,560
Speaker 1: Scott with the headlights off until he was ready to

203
00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:37,000
Speaker 1: make a move. Scott like to say that he could

204
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,520
Speaker 1: outrun the police, but not their radios. And that was

205
00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:43,280
Speaker 1: what happened one day when Scott was being pursued by

206
00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,319
Speaker 1: an officer with the headlights off and didn't realize he

207
00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:49,520
Speaker 1: was there until the officer shot out one of his tires.

208
00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:52,719
Speaker 1: Scott dove out of the moving car, hoping that it

209
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,719
Speaker 1: would travel far enough to serve as a diversion. It

210
00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,680
Speaker 1: crashed pretty quickly and Scott hid out in some bushes

211
00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,720
Speaker 1: until other officers are arrived with a bloodhound to try

212
00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,040
Speaker 1: to find him, and that dog did. According to Scott,

213
00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:07,840
Speaker 1: it looked right at him and then it turned around

214
00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:13,280
Speaker 1: and led officers in another direction. And interviews he was like,

215
00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,600
Speaker 1: I cannot explain it. That dog just let me go.

216
00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,880
Speaker 1: I'm having such like weird bootlegger versions of Disney films

217
00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:28,640
Speaker 1: in my There was also a high speed Christmas Day

218
00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:31,360
Speaker 1: chase when a couple of customers had asked for some

219
00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,200
Speaker 1: product and Scott decided to take them to somebody he

220
00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,200
Speaker 1: knew who had a supply of it. They were in

221
00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,320
Speaker 1: the family car, not expecting to see any kind of

222
00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,880
Speaker 1: trouble on Christmas morning, but after having picked up the whiskey,

223
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,880
Speaker 1: they were spotted by police on the way back to Danville.

224
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,719
Speaker 1: What followed was a high speed chase, part of it

225
00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:54,959
Speaker 1: with Scott driving backwards on a country road after an

226
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,200
Speaker 1: officer cut him off. See this is just like to

227
00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:00,720
Speaker 1: live in Diana, l A. Or like baby driver in

228
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,079
Speaker 1: Nascar country. To me, it's very baby driver. But on

229
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:09,679
Speaker 1: a dirt road. Scott got enough distance between him and

230
00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,400
Speaker 1: his pursuers that he was able to stop and stash

231
00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,400
Speaker 1: the whiskey and presumably get his passengers out of the car.

232
00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 1: Then he drove back to his auto garage and Danville

233
00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:21,240
Speaker 1: got out of the car, took the engine out of it,

234
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:24,839
Speaker 1: left it hanging from the hoist, and left. He wound

235
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,400
Speaker 1: up in court after this incident, and his defense was

236
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,640
Speaker 1: that the license plate number the police provided belonged to

237
00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:33,080
Speaker 1: a car that was in his shop with the engine out,

238
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,880
Speaker 1: which they could go see for themselves. He claimed that

239
00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:38,960
Speaker 1: it had been there, broken down for more than a

240
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:44,520
Speaker 1: week and the charges were dismissed. Uh, I think it's

241
00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:47,520
Speaker 1: in a story Corps interview. There's an interview where somebody

242
00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,720
Speaker 1: else relays this story um and says something like that.

243
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,720
Speaker 1: The judge told the officers, next time, you bring me

244
00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,520
Speaker 1: him and the liquor and the engine of Tually, though

245
00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:03,800
Speaker 1: Scott's partner apparently set him up. This led to another

246
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,719
Speaker 1: high speed chase on April ninety nine. Scott's goal in

247
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,000
Speaker 1: these chases was usually to make it to the highway,

248
00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:13,680
Speaker 1: where he had more room to maneuver and could usually

249
00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:17,680
Speaker 1: outrun law enforcement. But this time, just before he got

250
00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,280
Speaker 1: to the highway, he had to swerve to avoid a

251
00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,880
Speaker 1: group of drunken pedestrians, some of whom were his customers,

252
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:27,680
Speaker 1: and his car, which was full of whiskey, crashed into

253
00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:32,960
Speaker 1: a house. Local law enforcement charged Scott with reckless driving

254
00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,760
Speaker 1: and turned the moonshine issue over to federal authorities. A

255
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:41,040
Speaker 1: federal grand jury delivered an indictment on September twelfth, ninety nine,

256
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,440
Speaker 1: and although Scott pleaded guilty to his charges, he was

257
00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:47,720
Speaker 1: sentenced to three years probation because he didn't have any

258
00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:54,480
Speaker 1: prior moonshine convictions, which is kind of funny given his reputation. Yeah. Yeah, Well,

259
00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:58,000
Speaker 1: Scott's wife had always been terrified of his work in moonshine.

260
00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:00,840
Speaker 1: He had kept its secret from her first, and when

261
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,760
Speaker 1: she found out, she wanted him to stop. Now that

262
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,400
Speaker 1: he had a conviction on his record, continuing to be

263
00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:10,000
Speaker 1: involved with bootlegging was a much bigger risk, so he

264
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,600
Speaker 1: needed to find another way to try to make more money,

265
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,360
Speaker 1: and that was what brought him to NASCAR, which we're

266
00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:25,320
Speaker 1: going to talk about after a sponsor break. Before NASCAR

267
00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:28,240
Speaker 1: was formed, auto racing had already been going on in

268
00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,080
Speaker 1: the United States for decades. Basically, for as long as

269
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,160
Speaker 1: there have been cars, people have been racing them. The

270
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,960
Speaker 1: American Automobile Association or Triple A was a major player

271
00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,600
Speaker 1: in these early pre NASCAR years of racing, and people

272
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:45,080
Speaker 1: race lots of different types of cars before World War Two.

273
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000
Speaker 1: And although racing has long been associated mostly with the South,

274
00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:52,920
Speaker 1: a lot of these early races were really driven by

275
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,320
Speaker 1: and catered to the interests of Northerners. It was more

276
00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,000
Speaker 1: about the fact that you could keep a racetrack drivable

277
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,480
Speaker 1: year round in the South a lot easier than you

278
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:04,120
Speaker 1: could in the North. Than anything that was specific to

279
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:08,880
Speaker 1: Southern culture. Racing was far less popular during World War

280
00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:12,360
Speaker 1: Two since things like gasoline, rubber, and metal were all

281
00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:15,480
Speaker 1: critical to the war effort. But after the war was over,

282
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,760
Speaker 1: stock car racing started to become the most popular variety

283
00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,840
Speaker 1: of auto racing in the United States. So a stock

284
00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:24,120
Speaker 1: car is a racing car that has the same basic

285
00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 1: chassis as one that's in commercial production, although there are

286
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,960
Speaker 1: a number of modifications that can be part of stock

287
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,400
Speaker 1: car racing as well. The largest sanctioning body for stock

288
00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,280
Speaker 1: car racing in the United States as the National Association

289
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,880
Speaker 1: for Stock Car Auto Racing or NASCAR, founded by Bill

290
00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 1: France Senior, who was known as Big Bill. NASCAR was

291
00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:49,960
Speaker 1: founded in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February and France also

292
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,840
Speaker 1: served as the organization's first president. He put a particular

293
00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:57,080
Speaker 1: focus in promoting the sport and building new racetracks in

294
00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,560
Speaker 1: the South. Part of the lore of at the beginning

295
00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:02,800
Speaker 1: of NASCAR is that it started out with a bunch

296
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:06,560
Speaker 1: of bootleggers in and near the North Carolina Mountains racing

297
00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,879
Speaker 1: each other and honing their skills evading the law. And

298
00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,879
Speaker 1: then Big Bill France saw that all these homegrown races

299
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,840
Speaker 1: had their own rules and standards and thought the sport

300
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:18,800
Speaker 1: of racing could benefit from a governing body to establish

301
00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:23,440
Speaker 1: standards and sanctions specific races. There's definitely some truth to

302
00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 1: the idea that a lot of the first NASCAR drivers

303
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:29,479
Speaker 1: had a history of involvement in bootlegging, and there was

304
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:32,440
Speaker 1: also a lot of bootlegging money that made its way

305
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,200
Speaker 1: back into the sport by funding cars and tracks and publicity.

306
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,800
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of segregation in bootlegging. People who

307
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:42,199
Speaker 1: were making whiskey and driving it around and drinking it.

308
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,680
Speaker 1: We're all over the racial spectrum and they were all

309
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:49,119
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of the law together basically. So

310
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:53,320
Speaker 1: there were other black bootleggers, and Wendell Scott had a

311
00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:56,159
Speaker 1: lot of history with this in the same part of

312
00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:00,200
Speaker 1: the country. But that wasn't quite how Wendell Scott came

313
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:05,919
Speaker 1: to be a NASCAR driver. After his conviction in someone

314
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,040
Speaker 1: took him to a race at the Danville Fairgrounds. These

315
00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,399
Speaker 1: races were not part of NASCAR. They were part of

316
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,480
Speaker 1: the Dixie Circuit, which ran several races in Virginia and

317
00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:18,960
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Watching this race was exhilarating, and Scott thought

318
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,280
Speaker 1: it was something he might try to do, but he

319
00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:26,560
Speaker 1: wasn't really sure how to go about getting into it. Simultaneously,

320
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,720
Speaker 1: racing promoter Martin Rogers wanted to figure out how to

321
00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:33,600
Speaker 1: draw a bigger audience at the Fairgrounds races. The Dixie

322
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,520
Speaker 1: Circuit was struggling in Danville because the economy in the

323
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,200
Speaker 1: area wasn't great and people didn't really have the extra

324
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:43,120
Speaker 1: cash to go spend at the races. Rogers eventually thought

325
00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,240
Speaker 1: a good publicity stunt might be to introduce a black driver,

326
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,200
Speaker 1: somebody who was really good and could at least give

327
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 1: the white drivers who were already part of the circuit

328
00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:54,679
Speaker 1: a good run for their money. He didn't have a

329
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:57,760
Speaker 1: lot of luck finding someone who fit this bill, so

330
00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:00,359
Speaker 1: he came up with an ingenious way to figure route

331
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 1: which black men in Danville might be good at driving fast.

332
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:08,560
Speaker 1: He asked the cops. The cops told him that if

333
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,159
Speaker 1: they wanted a black man who could drive, they wanted

334
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,919
Speaker 1: Wendell Scott. So Rogers got in touch with Scott. And

335
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,879
Speaker 1: there's a little discrepancy in the dates, but it seems

336
00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:20,679
Speaker 1: as though his first race was on May twenty, nineteen

337
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:24,320
Speaker 1: fifty two. He borrowed one of his old whiskey cars

338
00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:26,560
Speaker 1: from a relative that he'd sold it to after it

339
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,080
Speaker 1: had become too recognizable to law enforcement. There are a

340
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:33,639
Speaker 1: lot of accounts that say that Scott came in third

341
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,000
Speaker 1: and his first race at Examvil Fairgrounds, winning fifty dollars,

342
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,119
Speaker 1: but according to his recounting of it in the book

343
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,679
Speaker 1: Hard Driving, The Wendell Scott Story by Brian Donovan, he

344
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 1: started out really well, but pushed his car so hard

345
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: at the beginning that it didn't have the stamina to

346
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,439
Speaker 1: make it all the way through the whole race. He

347
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: pulled out a couple of laps before the race was over.

348
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,159
Speaker 1: In spite of this, and in spite of some of

349
00:19:56,200 --> 00:20:00,280
Speaker 1: the spectators booing and throwing things at him, he loved

350
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:03,439
Speaker 1: that first race. He repaired the car that night and

351
00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 1: the next day towed it to Winston Salem, North Carolina,

352
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,159
Speaker 1: bringing some friends with him with the hope of racing

353
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,000
Speaker 1: it at Bowman Gray Stadium. Bowman Gray is a NASCAR

354
00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:15,840
Speaker 1: sanctioned track, and it was the first sanctioned track to

355
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,359
Speaker 1: do weekly races, holding them every Saturday night in the summer.

356
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 1: It's likely that the first people he talked to a

357
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:25,600
Speaker 1: bowm and gray that night didn't realize that Wendell Scott

358
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,920
Speaker 1: was black. He had a medium brown complexion that had

359
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,399
Speaker 1: kind of a ruddy tone, and his eyes were blue.

360
00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: Especially with a hat on, people often thought that he

361
00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:38,920
Speaker 1: was white, so at first everything seemed to be progressing normally.

362
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 1: He was allowed to register for the race, His car

363
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:43,840
Speaker 1: was inspected and he was told that he would need

364
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,919
Speaker 1: to install a safety belt. He went over to the

365
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 1: tracks shop to buy one, and the next thing he knew,

366
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,919
Speaker 1: he was being told he couldn't race after all, but

367
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 1: no reason was given as to why. When Scott had

368
00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,879
Speaker 1: been talking to officials at the track, he'd been by himself,

369
00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:02,120
Speaker 1: but when he went over to the shop to get

370
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,359
Speaker 1: the safety belt, he took some of his friends with him,

371
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,200
Speaker 1: and his suspicion was that when officials saw them altogether,

372
00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: they concluded that, he, like his friends, was black and

373
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 1: banned him from the race. A similar scenario played out

374
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 1: the next day in high Point, North Carolina. So Scott

375
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: went back to the Dixie Circuit, where he scored his

376
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 1: first win on June fourth, ninety two at the age

377
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: of thirty, and after a while he started branching out

378
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,160
Speaker 1: from the Dixie Circuit into other non NASCAR races in Virginia,

379
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: and he started winning a lot of those two. Even

380
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:39,199
Speaker 1: though he was being allowed to enter these races, it

381
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:43,800
Speaker 1: wasn't all smooth sailing. On July two, he won the

382
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,399
Speaker 1: Amateur class race and asked if he could enter the

383
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: Sportsman class race that night as well. The races promoter

384
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:52,680
Speaker 1: asked the spectators to vote on it, and more than

385
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 1: half of them stood up as a yes. But during

386
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 1: the Sportsman class race, a wheel flew off his race

387
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,679
Speaker 1: car and into the stands. Several spectators were injured. Some

388
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: of the crowd was outraged, and news accounts of what

389
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:10,400
Speaker 1: had happened focused on his race. Meanwhile, Scott spent hours

390
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,159
Speaker 1: at the hospital afterward talking to the people who had

391
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,720
Speaker 1: been hurt. Violence among the drivers was also pretty common

392
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: in this racing scene. If one driver ran another one

393
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: off the track during the race, he might get punched

394
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,200
Speaker 1: for it afterward, and the idea of payback was also common.

395
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: If you intentionally wrecked somebody's car during a race, they

396
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:35,240
Speaker 1: might wreck yours during the next one. Scott did everything

397
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,879
Speaker 1: he could to stay out of all of this, Although

398
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: there were other black drivers before Wendell Scott started racing,

399
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: he was always the only black driver at these events,

400
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: and apart from being the only participant of his race,

401
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: these events were places that were often thick with racism.

402
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 1: In a world where a black man might be lynched

403
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 1: for allegedly whistling and a white woman, there was no

404
00:22:57,680 --> 00:22:59,880
Speaker 1: way he was going to run the risk of striking

405
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: white man over a stock car race. It's one of

406
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: the things that's most incredible to me about his story

407
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 1: is that he was in a basically exclusively white sport

408
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,560
Speaker 1: almost I mean, there were a few other black drivers

409
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 1: and in some cases like um all black racing teams

410
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,679
Speaker 1: and networks, but like for the most part, an exclusively

411
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:24,280
Speaker 1: white sport and a place that had active and overt

412
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: violent history toward the black community, and like the the

413
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,920
Speaker 1: logo of the Dixie Circuit was a pair of crossed flags.

414
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 1: One of the flags was the checkered flag that drops

415
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: when the race is over, and the other one was

416
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,159
Speaker 1: a Confederate flag. Like, he was doing all of this

417
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,520
Speaker 1: in completely hostile territory, and and the only exception to

418
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,119
Speaker 1: just really keeping his head down and trying not to

419
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: make waves would be when spectators or other races. Racers

420
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 1: threatened his children, which actually happened fairly often, everything from

421
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: shouting racist slurs at them to one case where somebody

422
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 1: threw a lit firecracker at his son and burned his hand.

423
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 1: But even then, he was a lot more likely to

424
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: storm at somebody and shout at them than he was

425
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 1: to actually strike them, and he also didn't have the

426
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: luxury of payback. Scott had no sponsors, no paid pit crew,

427
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 1: nobody to do his bodywork, and no mechanic other than himself.

428
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,400
Speaker 1: Some of his race cars even had the words mechanic

429
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: colin me painted on them, so if somebody hit him,

430
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,360
Speaker 1: he tried to let it go and fix his car later,

431
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: rather than making work an expense for himself by hitting

432
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: them back the next time around. Apart from all of this,

433
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: even his ability to claim his winnings was affected by

434
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:45,399
Speaker 1: his color. Many of the races had cash prizes, but

435
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,480
Speaker 1: he also often won steak dinners for two at local restaurants,

436
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,639
Speaker 1: but more often than not those restaurants were segregated and

437
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: refused to serve him. A number of times he insisted

438
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,159
Speaker 1: that the restaurant give him what he had honestly and

439
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: fairly won, and the restaurant either allowed him to come

440
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: to the kitchen door and take his meal to go,

441
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 1: or reimbursed him for the so called value of the meal,

442
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,120
Speaker 1: which was always way less money than the meal would

443
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,919
Speaker 1: have actually cost if someone was paying for it. Wendell

444
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 1: Scott was finally able to enter a NASCAR sanctioned race

445
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: in nine and we're going to talk about that and

446
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: the rest of his NASCAR career on our next episode.

447
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:27,640
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to that one because it also has

448
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: a lot of excitement. Uh, do you have some exciting

449
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 1: listener mail for us? I do. This is from Keilan

450
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: and it is about our recent episode about the Battle

451
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: of Caha Marca and the fall of the Inca Empire. Hello,

452
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. My name is Keilan, and first I'd

453
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: like to thank you by way of the podcast for

454
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,200
Speaker 1: making my commute to anywhere more enjoyable and less anxious.

455
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna skip ahead just a bit. What I'm writing

456
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: about today is also to thank you for talking about

457
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: indigenous Latin American history with fair perspective. As a Spanish major,

458
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: I've studied Latin America as part of the language and

459
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: cultures I should be exposed to and it has really

460
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: opened my mind to the world, and your episode does

461
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 1: that as well. It's heartening to know that not everyone

462
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: is tainted by the exoticism that you often see associated

463
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: with South America. On the fun note, I thought you

464
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: guys might enjoy knowing that there are some people who

465
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: are attempting to bring back the Quechua language in a

466
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: much more contemporary light. One example of this is a

467
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: cover of Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel,

468
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,719
Speaker 1: covered in the language. I have a link and I

469
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy this piece of native culture. Best wishes, Kelan.

470
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 1: We definitely both enjoyed the link. It's so good. Um, yeah,

471
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: it's I it is really good. UM. Well, we'll probably

472
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 1: put it out on our social media after this episode

473
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 1: comes out. I also wanted to note that we have

474
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: had a couple of questions about how we spelled inca

475
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 1: um in that episode. When you see it in your player,

476
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: it is with a k um. And that is because

477
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: even though a lot of dictionaries and style guys and

478
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: things still um use the spelling I n C a

479
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:12,880
Speaker 1: um A k is more preferred among archaeologists and historians,

480
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: and then actual Quetchua speaking people's at this point, so

481
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: that's why we defaulted to that one. If you would

482
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 1: like to write to us about this or any other

483
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,120
Speaker 1: podcast or history podcast at how stuff works dot com.

484
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,640
Speaker 1: And we're also all over social media at missed in History.

485
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,679
Speaker 1: That is where we have our Facebook and our Twitter,

486
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 1: and our Pinterest and our Instagram. If you come to

487
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,159
Speaker 1: our website, which is missed in History dot com, you

488
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 1: will find uh show notes for all the episodes Holly

489
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: and I have ever worked on in a searchable archive

490
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,919
Speaker 1: of all the episodes ever. And you can find our

491
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 1: podcast and subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play,

492
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 1: and wherever else you find a podcast. For more on

493
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff

494
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: works dot com. Eight