Nov 14: Ruby Bridges Desegregates New Orleans School, Nellie Bly Sets Off

Host 1 Welcome to On This Day in American History. On this day, November 14th, imagine stepping onto a boat with nothing but a handbag the size of a shoebox.

Host 2 Yeah, knowing you won't be home for 70 days.

Host 1 Right. Or picture a six-year-old child walking alone past a screaming mob. Today, you are going on a deep dive into three moments shaped by, well, profound individual resolve.

Host 2 And isolation. Yeah.

Host 1 Yeah.

Host 2 Let's start in 1784 with a story of ideological isolation. So Connecticut Priest Samuel Seabury was consecrated a bishop in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Host 1 Making him the first American Episcopal bishop, right?

Host 2 Yep, that's the one.

Host 1 Hang on though. You have to look at his background because he seems like the most improbable choice to establish a church in the New Republic.

Host 2 Oh, sure. He was a staunch loyalist.

Host 1 Right. Before the Revolutionary War, I mean, he actively rooted for the British to win.

Host 2 Yeah, even debating a young Alexander Hamilton in pamphlets.

Host 1 yeah imagine a wartime defector returning to establish a newly independent nation's highest court how did this happen

Host 2 well it comes down to a strict legal mechanism because he was an American citizen Seabury could not take the required oath of allegiance to the English king in London

Host 1 ah so English consecration was blocked

Host 2 yes but the Scottish Episcopal Church stepped in

Host 1 okay why them

Host 2 because they had their own history of refusing to swear allegiance to the English crown they shared a common workaround

Host 1 oh i see so his return in 1785 allowed the first American ordinations to take place building a church independent of the English crown

Host 2 Right. Seabury crossed an ocean to secure independence, which brings us to another ocean crossing trailblazer pushing boundaries a century later.

Host 1 Yes. In 1889, New York World reporter Nellie Bly sailed from New Jersey to beat Jules Verne's 80 day fictional record.

Host 2 Though a quick note for you, sources plainly dispute her departure time most cite 9 40 am but one states 9 40 pm

Host 1 okay regardless of the hour the logistics of her journey are what should capture your attention she packed a single handbag measuring 16 by 7 inches

Host 2 no trunks

Host 1 just toiletries writing supplies and a few changes of underwear and she flat out refused advice to carry a revolver but how do you survive 72 days traversing the globe like that

Host 2 It required ruthless prioritization. She understood that unprecedented speed meant eliminating all friction. She wore a single durable travel dress.

Host 1 Wow, just one dress.

Host 2 Yeah, and a sturdy coat, purchasing only absolute essentials along the way.

Host 1 That mechanism of stripping away the unnecessary worked.

Host 2 It did, she returned in just over 72 days making a woman reporter one of the most famous people on Earth.

Host 1 Bly circled the globe to break records but you know 71 years later a six-year-old broke an even harder barrier just by walking up some school steps

Host 2 In 1960 six-year-old Ruby Bridges integrated William France Elementary in New Orleans four federal marshals escorted her past a mob shouting insults

Host 1 but reading these sources her innocence is what stands out She said later she wasn't aware of what was going on.

Host 2 Right. She thought she was just at a normal new school.

Host 1 Yeah, she heard voices but couldn't see the kids and kept wondering where those voices were coming from. How did that profound isolation shape her considering she was the only student in her class all year?

Host 2 The burden was immense.

Host 1 Yeah.

Host 2 By the time she reached her desk, the other students had been withdrawn by their parents.

Host 1 Oh, wow.

Host 2 Yeah. She suffered nightmares, especially after protesters brought a baby's coffin with a black doll inside.

Host 1 That is horrific.

Host 2 It is. Her family faced retaliation including her father losing his job her walk inspired Norman Rockwell's famous painting

Host 1 yeah we've all seen that one

Host 2 but fundamentally it remains a stark image of the heavy cost children paid for school desegregation

Host 1 such a heavy truth for a child to carry and that same thread of resolve whether facing the elements or tragedy weaves through a few other events on this day Herman Melville's Moby Dick was published in 1851

Host 2 and Apollo 12 kept on course after being struck by lightning during its 1969 launch

Host 1 yes and tragically in 1970 plane crash claimed the lives of nearly the entire Marshall University football team

Host 2 it makes you wonder you know what modern barriers require the quiet courage of a lone child or a traveler with a single bag

Host 1 thanks for tuning in we'll see you back here tomorrow