The word "Due" read from top-down and "South" left-right, with the U shared between them. Reminiscent of a compass.

Due South

'Our Secret Society' views civil rights fundraising though a lens of fashion and flair

By Leoneda Inge,

Published July 8, 2024 at 10:20 AM EDT

Editor's note: This conversation originally aired December 20, 20, 2023.

Intrigue. Extravagance. Courage. Couture! Historian Tanisha C. Ford's latest book, Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement has it all.

It's about an activist and society maven whose fundraising efforts as founder of the National Urban League Guild in 1942 fueled the work of the civil rights movement for more than two decades.

For years, Mollie Moon's life and work have gone unsung, and in this conversation with Due South co-host Leoneda Inge, Ford talks about what it was like to bring Moon's story into new light.

Guest

Tanisha C. Ford, historian, cultural theorist and author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement

Due South

Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.

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Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.

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