New Initiative Seeks to Preserve Alabama LGBTQ Histories
Many people in the South’s LGBTQ community often think their histories don’t matter. This is especially prevalent in Alabama where a recorded history of this community doesn’t exist. But historian Josh Burford is trying to change that. He’s one of the founding members of the Invisible Histories Project Alabama. The new initiative is aimed at finding, recording and preserving what Burford calls the “always vanishing” stories of LGBTQ Alabamians.
On what he means by “always vanishing” histories
Well, the queer community has lost so much history since the mid 1980s. The AIDS epidemic wiped out one entire generation of community leaders, and their histories were oftentimes intentionally destroyed. We can’t even conceptualize the things that we’ve lost because we don’t really know at this point what we have.
On what he’s learned about the history of Alabama
Even a person like myself who teaches queer history all the time was wrong. There’s this mythology about the South that either queer people don’t exist here because by why would we; because of small “c” conservatives and religion. As if somehow queer people are not religious and conservative. That we were always behind. There’s this enduring myth that the South was 20 years behind like New York and Chicago. That our history is if it exists at all is very young. And so for a historian you know like 80s and forward and all of that is untrue.
On what has been the most difficult obstacle to overcome as far as finding that history in Alabama
People generally don’t imagine that their history is important because we can’t conceptualize history as the history of sort of like large faces. So, like [Martin Luther King Jr.] is not the whole civil rights movement. Like there’s millions of people involved, but we want to celebrity one person. And the queer community doesn’t really have that. And so it’s individual people toiling away oftentimes in isolation or in very small groups making what for them are small gains but for the community is a large gain. So, convincing someone who’s 70 or 80 that their life– existing, living and thriving– is important to the history is difficult. People don’t believe it. They’re like, ‘well that’s not important.’
More than 90,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees recalled over potential loss of drive power
Vehicles impacted by the recall include 2022 to 2026 plug-in hybrid electric models of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Trump walks back Chicago ‘war’ threat, but vows to ‘clean up’ cities
Trump posted online that Chicago was "about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR," but later said his administration wouldn't go to war with American cities but rather "clean them up."
Postal traffic to US drops more than 80% after trade exemption rule ends, UN agency says
The de minimis rule that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs ended on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
Colombia’s lone Amazon port faces drying river and rising tensions with Peru
Colombia's only Amazon port town could soon be cut off from the river that keeps it alive. As drought and a shifting river spark a tense border dispute with Peru, locals are scrambling to adapt—and politicians are raising flags, literally.
Sunday Puzzle: Common denominator
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with Weekend Edition puzzlemaster Will Shortz along with listener Cynthia Rose of Littleton, Colorado.
South Korea says it has reached a deal with the US for the release of workers in a Georgia plant
More than 300 South Korean workers were detained in an immigration raid on Thursday. Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said South Korea plans to send a charter plane to bring the workers home.
