June 28, 1971. It’s the second annual “Unity Day” rally at Columbus Circle in New York City, organized by the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe Colombo is the very public face of the League, a group that actively fights discrimination and ugly stereotypes against the Italian-American community, such as their association with organized crime and the Mafia. The problem? That same Joe Colombo is a leader of the Mafia, one of the heads of the “Five Families” in New York. It’s an open secret; many people across the city know who he really is, and the FBI is hot on his tail, trying to catch him in the act. On this day, Colombo’s dual life—as a media-facing advocate and as an underground criminal—will come crashing down in a violent display.

Special thanks to Don Capria, co-author of Colombo: The Unsolved Murder; Selwyn Raab, veteran Mafia reporter and author of Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires; and Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs for The Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

You can find all the books we’ve used to make recent HISTORY This Week episodes at historythisweekpodcast.com.

**This episode originally aired June 28, 2021.

Malcolm Gladwell and President Barack Obama introduce us to one of the most chaotic,

complicated, and fascinating times in American history, revealing why Reconstruction still

defines our country today.

Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise on Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Reconstruction begins where, for most Americans, the story of the Civil War ends: The North is

victorious and slavery is abolished. But what happened next was one of the most important

decades in American history, a moment when our country grappled with its original sin and

imagined — and briefly enacted — a more perfect union.

Drawing from archives, letters, diaries, court records, eyewitness testimonies and some of

America’s most accomplished scholars and storytellers, Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise

explores this unprecedented historical moment in rich, kaleidoscopic detail. The series unpacks a

time when a determined band of reformers attempted to radically reimagine American society —

from the Constitution to the roots of its economy to the very nature of citizenship itself.

Reconstruction was a time when Americans struggled over fundamental questions about our

country. Who gets to be a citizen? Who has the right to vote? Who can own property? In short,

who belongs? Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise explores what America might have

looked like if Reconstruction had truly succeeded, and how the ultimate backlash to

Reconstruction prevented our country from becoming a truly multiracial democracy.

Guiding us through this extraordinary moment in American history is best-selling author and

host of Revisionist History Malcolm Gladwell. He’ll have help from luminaries, historians, and

storytellers such as President Barack Obama, Jelani Cobb, Wyatt Cenac, David Blight, Kai

Wright, Kellie Carter Jackson, Ashley C. Ford, Manisha Sinha, Kidada Williams, and Eric Foner.

This is a series about why America has yet to make good on the promise of Reconstruction, and

how it still might.

An Audible Original in partnership with History Channel. Produced by Higher Ground and

Pushkin Industries.

June 15, 1865. German-American statesman Carl Schurz is traveling to Washington to meet with President Andrew Johnson when he stops at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. That night, during a séance, a teenage medium claims to summon the spirit of Abraham Lincoln… and delivers Schurz a mysterious command from beyond the grave.

Soon, Johnson sends Schurz on a fact-finding mission through the defeated South. What he discovers will help shape the course of Reconstruction and expose the violence threatening America’s fragile new democracy.

Today, Sally speaks with bestselling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell about Reconstruction’s forgotten history, the battle over how it has been remembered, and why the questions it raised remain unfinished today.

Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise now on Audible, or anywhere you get your podcasts, starting June 18th. Link: https://lnk.to/reconstructionHW

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