250 years and counting: North Carolina stories shaping U.S. history

0:01:00NC history told in three-inch lettersNorth Carolina highway historical markers can be seen all across the state — and these markers can make a big difference when it comes to which NC places, historical moments, and people are memorialized and commemorated. Co-host Leoneda Inge talks to Ansley Herring Wegner of the NC Office of Archives and History about how markers are approved and what it takes to get a marker erected and noticed by the public. (This encore interview originally aired August 1, 2024.)Ansley Herring Wegner, Director of Research and Publications, North Carolina Office of Archives and History0:13:00The Broadside: A Nation Unraveled: Clothing in the Civil WarFascinating new research is shedding light on how clothing culture during the American Civil war helped radically transform the nation during its darkest hour. Through the clothes they made, wore, mended, lost, and stole, Americans expressed their allegiances, showed their love, confronted their social and economic challenges, subverted expectations, and, ultimately, preserved their history.This episode of The Broadside was hosted by Anisa Khalifa and edited by Jerad Walker.Sarah Weicksel, author of "A Nation Unraveled: Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American Civil War Era"0:33:00How the Battleship North Carolina got to its home in WilmingtonSixty-five years ago, a state-wide fundraising effort saved a more than 70 million-pound, 700-foot long behemoth of a WWII warship from being scrapped. The USS North Carolina is now a museum in Wilmington, and it would not have made it there without the contributions of thousands of North Carolina children. The museum has an effort underway to collect the stories of the “kid heroes” who helped save the ship back in 1961. (This encore interview originally aired January 13, 2026.)Dr. Jay Martin, Executive Director, Battleship North CarolinaCamille Williams, fundraised as an elementary school student for the 1961 effort