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'Changing Same': new play tells story of U.S. Army private killed after resisting Jim Crow laws

Private Booker T. Spicely in an undated Army photo / Graphic from "Changing Same: The Cold-Blooded Murder of Booker T. Spicely"

In 1944, a Black Army private was shot and killed in Durham, NC by a white bus driver. In recent years, community members have been hard at work to honor the life of Private Booker T. Spicely, who was killed after challenging Jim Crow laws.

Last year, a historical marker was erected near the place he was gunned down.

Today, a new play “Changing Same: The Cold-Blooded Murder of Booker T. Spicely” begins its run, exploring Spicely’s life and the racial violence that ended it.

Co-host Leoneda Inge talks with the co-writers of the new production and the head of the Booker T. Spicely Committee about Spicely’s legacy and about what has not changed since he was killed eighty years ago.

Guests

James Williams, chairman of the Booker T. Spicely Committee and head of the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

Howard L. Craft, playwright, poet, essayist, and arts educator; Piller Professor of the Practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mike Wiley, director, actor, and playwright; Artist in Residence for the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Stephen and Janet Bear Assistant Research Professor of Arts, Ethics, and Education in the Program in Education at Duke University

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.
Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.
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