Weird Little Guys
Weird Little Guys
Weird Little Guys is a weekly show about the worst people you’ve never heard of, taking you beyond the headlines to get to know the race warriors and aspiring terrorists trying to unravel the fabric of our society. Weaving together the origin stories of modern American white supremacist groups and the crimes that land their members in court, independent journalist Molly Conger exposes the monsters…Social links:
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Scientists for Segregation: Ernest van den Haag
A closer look at one of the men on the Pioneer Fund's team of scientists for segregation reveals that he wasn't a scientist at all. Sources & Further Reading: Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press. Jackson, …
47:14
Segregation Forever
Last week, the DOJ's Civil Rights division announced they were moving to dismiss more than 50 desegregation cases against school districts all over the country. Like the weird little guys trying to overturn the Brown v Board of Education decision in the 1960s, the Trump administration is trying to …
37:35
Brown v Board of Education v The Pioneer Fund, Pt 2
In the decade after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown v Board of Education case, segregationists used every tool available to prevent integration. By the early 1960s, a group of Pioneer Fund-backed scientists had teamed up with the lawyer they hoped could get their pseudoscientific argument a…
42:51
Brown v Board of Education v The Pioneer Fund, Pt 1
Wickliffe Draper's Pioneer Fund started out in 1937 by funding screenings of Nazi propaganda films in high schools. But like most American racists, the 1954 Supreme Court decision in the Brown v Board of Education case changed how he approached the fight for white supremacy. Sources & Further Read…
42:50
Death of a Demagogue (rewind)
Sometimes when a weird little guy gets shot, the guy who killed him is just a weirder little guy. Original Air Date: 9/18/2025 Sources: Schmaltz, William H. (2000). Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Schmaltz, William H. (2013). For Race And …
50:05
An American Racist in Berlin
In 1937, the heir to a textile manufacturing fortune established a charitable foundation to funnel money into disseminating propaganda produced in Nazi Germany. Since then, that fund has subsidized the overwhelming majority of research in the pseudoscientific field of 'race science.' Sources & Fur…
43:53
Race Scientists and the Human Zoo
In 1904, men who believed in 'race science' put hundreds of people in a human zoo at the St. Louis world's fair. Today, those same racist, pseudoscientific views persist, and the men who hold them demand to be taken seriously in the name of academic freedom. Sources & Further Reading: Newkirk, Pa…
57:43
Mississippi's Still Burning: Byron de la Beckwith Pt 7
In 1994, Byron de la Beckwith was finally convicted of murder for killing Medgar Evers in 1963. He died in prison, his story is over. But history repeats itself. Sources & Further Reading: Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar Evers. U…
51:09
The Fiery Cross: Byron de la Beckwith, Pt 6
In 1964, crosses burned all over Mississippi, signaling a return of the Ku Klux Klan. Their big debut was perfectly timed as a show of support for Byron de la Beckwith. Sources & Further Reading: Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar …
54:29
The First Trial: Byron de la Beckwith, Pt 5
Byron de la Beckwith was tried for the same murder three times. In 1964, it just wasn't generally considered illegal for a white man to kill a black man in Mississippi. Sources & Further Reading: Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar …
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