Nov 13: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Dedicated, Supreme Court Ends Bus Segregation

Host 1 Good morning. Welcome to On This Day in American History. Today is Friday, November 13th, 2026.

Host 2 Glad to be here for another look at the past.

Host 1 Yeah. So today we're exploring well three moments that really built the America you know today. I mean imagine conquering a major metropolis without firing a single shot.

Host 2 Or you know receiving the ultimate Supreme Court victory while you're literally sitting on trial.

Host 1 Right. So our mission for this deep dive is to show you how this single date defined America's physical borders, its legal boundaries of equality and its capacity for national healing.

Host 2 So we're starting way back in 1775. This is right in the early days of the Revolutionary War.

Host 1 Okay.

Host 2 Continental troops led by Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, they march into Montreal and just capture it, and Montreal was North America's fifth largest city at the time.

Host 1 And they took it without a single fight, right?

Host 2 Yeah, exactly. No fight at all. The Continental Congress they really wanted to make Canada a 14th colony they basically assumed the French Catholic population there was just as fed up with British rule as they were.

Host 1 I always think of this like you know a hostile corporate takeover.

Host 2 Right.

Host 1 Like you just walk into the corner office and assume the existing employees will happily adopt your new company culture but they didn't.

Host 2 No they definitely did not.

Host 1 Benjamin Franklin actually went up there a bit later to try and pitch them like to win the Canadians over and he completely failed. He actually left saying it would have been easier to just buy Canada than to invade it.

Host 2 Which is funny but it really matters historically because this was America's very first foreign military campaign.

Host 1 Right.

Host 2 And its failure is the exact reason we have the US-Canada border we know today. Canadians ultimately just chose British rule over the American Revolution.

Host 1 So 1775 kind of defines the outer limits of the country. But it's wild to think about what happens inside those borders because it took, what, another 180 years to legally define who gets to participate equally within them?

Host 1 within them?

Host 2 Yeah, that's exactly right. Which brings us to November 13th, 1956. This is when the US Supreme Court summarily affirmed a ruling in Browder versus Gayle.

Host 1 And summarily affirmed just means they didn't even need to hear the full oral arguments, right?

Host 2 Right. They looked at the lower court's decision and basically said, yes, this is so clearly correct we don't need to debate it. This is the big one that struck down segregated buses and eventually ended the 381 day Montgomery bus boycott.

Host 1 The timing of this is just wild to me.

Host 2 Oh, it's incredible.

Host 1 Because Martin Luther King Junior, he actually learned about this massive Supreme Court victory while he was literally sitting in a local courtroom.

Host 2 Yeah, sitting right there on trial.

Host 1 Exactly. Facing a judge who was about to issue an injunction to stop the boycott's carpools.

Host 2 Right in the middle of being legally suppressed on a local level the highest court in the land just hands him the victory.

Host 1 It's amazing. But wait I have a question about this because whenever I hear about the Montgomery bus boycott my mind immediately goes to Rosa Parks.

Host 2 Sure yeah most people's do.

Host 1 But her name isn't actually on this specific Supreme Court case how is that possible?

Host 2 Well it was a very specific strategy. the attorneys intentionally kept her off the lawsuit.

Host 1 Really?

Host 2 Yeah.

Host 1 Why?

Host 2 They knew her high profile and well her pending criminal case would create technicalities. They wanted absolutely zero distractions to force a direct ruling on just one single question.

Host 1 Whether bus segregation laws were constitutional.

Host 2 Exactly. Because of that strategy four less famous women are the ones who actually won the case that legally ended bus segregation.

Host 1 just four ordinary citizens fighting for equality within the system

Host 2 and you know ordinary citizens achieving legal civil rights it kind of paves the way to how ordinary citizens heal a nation

Host 1 Yeah which brings us to 1982

Host 2 right November 13th 1982 a massive citizen-led led effort culminated in the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington

Host 1 and this was purely grassroots funded by eight million dollars in private donations it actually started with this Vietnam veteran named Jan Scruggs throwing in $2,800 of his own money no federal money used at all

Host 2 None

Host 1 and it was designed by a 21 year old Yale senior Maya Lin who envisioned this rift in the earth made of polished black granite

Host 2 What made her design so unconventional and initially heavily criticized, actually, was how she ordered the names.

Host 1 Right, because they aren't alphabetical.

Host 2 Exactly. They are chronological from 1959 to 1975, starting in the center and meeting back in the middle.

Host 1 How did that specific choice foster healing though? Like practically speaking?

Host 2 By ordering the names chronologically rather than alphabetically, she basically created a physical mechanism for grief and connection.

Host 1 Oh, I see.

Host 2 A veteran could walk up to the wall find the exact year and month of their tour and see all the men they served alongside grouped together in time. It wasn't just a list it was a timeline of sacrifice.

Host 1 That is powerful. Though I should add if you actually go to the wall and try to count those names historians will tell you it's a bit of a moving target.

Host 2 It is yeah.

Host 1 Sources actually dispute the exact number like records clash over whether it's 58,196 or 58,318 so it is most accurate to just safely say there are more than 58,000 names.

Host 2 Right. And despite the initial backlash to its simplicity that emotional connection made it one of the most visited memorials in Washington

Host 1 Before we wrap up today just a quick look at the rest of November 13th's resume in 1789 Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase death and taxes in 1927 the Holland Tunnel opened connecting Manhattan and Jersey City and in 1940 Disney's Fantasia premiered

Host 2 Quite a day. And as you go about your day consider this massive landscape altering historical shifts on this single date were driven not by presidents or kings but by unsung individuals.

Host 2 Four local women a 21 year old student and a frustrated general.

Host 1 Thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow.