Sputnik Monroe: The Wrestler Who Desegregated Memphis
Gone South15 Huhti

Sputnik Monroe: The Wrestler Who Desegregated Memphis

Before the Civil Rights Movement's major victories of the 1960s, a pro wrestler named Sputnik Monroe was already integrating Memphis, Tennessee one arena at a time. Born Roscoe Brumbaugh in Dodge City, Kansas, Monroe became one of the most beloved figures in Memphis wrestling history, counting Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash among his friends and fans.


This episode of Gone South tells the story of how Monroe — a white heel wrestler with a bleached streak in his hair and a gift for provocation — used his fame to desegregate the Ellis Auditorium, challenge Jim Crow on Beale Street, and form one of the first interracial tag teams in the South. He was arrested repeatedly for socializing in Black nightclubs. He didn't stop.


Featuring interviews with music historian Robert Gordon, wrestling journalist Steve Johnson, and Jerry Phillips (son of Sun Studio founder Sam Phillips) plus archival audio of Monroe himself. A story about race, rebellion, and one of the most unlikely civil rights figures the South ever produced.


Check out Robert Gordon's book It Came From Memphis https://tinyurl.com/yys8pxdh
Steve Johnson has written many fine books about wrestling history, including
The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels
https://tinyurl.com/28h6nacm​Follow Jerry Phillips on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/p/Jerry-Phillips-61559154401992/


Subscribe to our newsletter:⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠

Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(95)

J.J.: The Undercover FBI Agent Who Took Down Len Davis and New Orleans' Dirtiest Cops

J.J.: The Undercover FBI Agent Who Took Down Len Davis and New Orleans' Dirtiest Cops

Len Davis was a New Orleans police officer known in the Desire projects as Robocop and the Desire Terrorist. In 1994 he ordered the murder of Kim Groves, a 32-year-old mother of three who had filed a ...

12 Elo 47min

The Utah Entrepreneur Trying to Remake Pine Bluff, Arkansas

The Utah Entrepreneur Trying to Remake Pine Bluff, Arkansas

In 2019, John Fenley was 39, newly separated, and living in one of his mother's rental apartments in Provo, Utah. Searching LoopNet for the biggest building at the lowest price, he found a 220,000-squ...

5 Elo 36min

Eric Rudolph: The Olympic Park Bomber and the Largest Manhunt in American History

Eric Rudolph: The Olympic Park Bomber and the Largest Manhunt in American History

In 1996, a pipe bomb packed with masonry nails exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred. The FBI's first suspect was Richard Jewell, the secur...

29 Heinä 30min

Hillbilly Heist: David Ghantt and the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Robbery

Hillbilly Heist: David Ghantt and the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Robbery

In October 1997, a vault supervisor named David Ghantt loaded $17 million into a van and drove out of a Loomis Fargo warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the second-largest cash heist in Ame...

22 Heinä 29min

Star Witness: Paul Skalnik, the Jailhouse Informant Who Sent Innocent Men to Death Row

Star Witness: Paul Skalnik, the Jailhouse Informant Who Sent Innocent Men to Death Row

Paul Skalnik was a cop turned con artist turned jailhouse informant. Over two decades, he provided testimony or information in more than 40 criminal cases, trading confessions he claimed to have overh...

15 Heinä 36min

Junk Science Sent Charles McCrory to Prison — Alabama Won't Let Him Out

Junk Science Sent Charles McCrory to Prison — Alabama Won't Let Him Out

n 1985, Charles McCrory was convicted of murdering his wife in their small Alabama hometown — a brutal crime scene with no blood on him, no witnesses, and no physical evidence tying him to the house. ...

1 Heinä 37min

"The Murder of Lita McClinton, Part 2: The Hitman

"The Murder of Lita McClinton, Part 2: The Hitman

When the federal case against Jim Sullivan was dismissed in 1992, Lita McClinton's family thought they'd lost their last chance at justice. They were wrong — but it would take another fourteen years, ...

24 Kesä 28min

The Murder of Lita McClinton, Part 1: The Marriage

The Murder of Lita McClinton, Part 1: The Marriage

In January 1987, Lita McClinton answered her doorbell in one of Atlanta's wealthiest neighborhoods and was shot dead by a man holding a white flower box with a pink rose. She was 35, the daughter of o...

17 Kesä 29min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
hupiklubi
seitseman
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
uutiscast
poks
sita
antin-palautepalvelu
kaksi-aitia
mamma-mia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kolme-kaannekohtaa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
loukussa
ihme-ja-kumma
meidan-pitais-puhua
aikalisa
free-opa