Episodes

Connie Morris examines the history of the Negro Project and Margaret Sanger's connections to eugenics, then expands the conversation to global population policies, family planning, and development debates across the 20th century and today. She explores how public health goals, racial bias, and economic concerns have shaped reproductive initiatives, offers scriptural reflection on human dignity, and invites listeners to consider how societies should balance policy, rights, and compassion. Thank...

The Morris Perspective podcast, hosted by Connie Morris, is entering a new season with a major evolution in purpose and format. The show began as a space for truth-telling and raising awareness about implicit bias, racial bias, and the systems that shape society. It later expanded into deeper structural analysis through series like Unequal by Design, exploring how systems were intentionally built and who they were built to serve. Now, the podcast is transforming into a full teaching platform. I...

Connie Morris explores the harsh social conditions—poverty, sharecropping, segregated schools, and limited healthcare—that affected Black communities in the early 20th-century rural South and helped prompt public health proposals like the Negro Project. The episode combines historical context, scripture reflections on caring for the vulnerable, and questions about how these past inequalities continue to influence education, health, and economic opportunity today. Thanks for tuning in to The Mo...

Host Connie Morris examines the 1939 "Negro Project," placing it in historical context—rural Southern healthcare, maternal mortality, and the push for birth control education and clinics. The episode explains the plan to involve Black physicians, ministers, and community leaders, and explores the ongoing debate over whether the project was a public health effort or influenced by eugenic ideas. Connie reflects on justice, faith, and trust in the medical system and previews a follow-up episode o...

Host Connie Morris examines Margaret Sanger's contested legacy, tracing her writings, associations with eugenics-era organizations, and the historical context that shaped early birth control movements. The episode explores the Negro Project, the role of Black community leaders and ministers, and the intersection of public health, ethics, and religion in debates over reproductive policy. Listeners are invited to reflect on how society evaluates complex historical figures and to join the next ep...

In this episode of The Morris Perspective, Connie Morris examines the rise of eugenics in the early 20th century — its ideas, who it targeted, and how those beliefs shaped U.S. policies like forced sterilization and restrictive immigration laws. The episode also connects American eugenic thought to its global consequences, including Nazi racial policies, and reflects on why understanding this history matters for how science and social beliefs influence public policy and human dignity. Thanks f...

Host Connie Morris explores the life and legacy of Margaret Sanger, tracing her early life, nursing experiences, and role in founding the birth control movement that evolved into Planned Parenthood. The episode examines Sanger’s advocacy, clashes with the Comstock Laws, and the debates around her connections to early 20th-century eugenics, prompting listeners to reflect on how individuals’ beliefs shape public policy. Thanks for tuning in to The Morris Perspective Podcast—where we challenge as...

In this introductory episode of The Morris Perspective, Connie Morris launches a multi-part series based on Bruce Fleury’s The Negro Project, exploring Margaret Sanger’s life, the origins of Planned Parenthood, and the contested connections to the eugenics movement. The episode outlines the upcoming series, encourages listeners to read the historical sources, and reflects on why careful study of history matters for modern debates about life, justice, and public policy. Thanks for tuning in to ...

In this episode, Connie Morris concludes the series Unequal by Design with a call to action: move beyond awareness to responsibility, expand what you know, listen to understand, and choose honest conversation over comfortable silence. She urges listeners to separate identity from defensiveness, build unity through sustained effort, and align ideas with action so America’s ideals match people’s lived experiences. The episode challenges us to use history as a guide and to commit to real, inclusiv...

In this episode, Connie Morris examines the social conditions in Black communities in the early 20th-century rural South—poverty, sharecropping, segregated and limited education, and unequal access to healthcare—and explains how these realities helped shape debates like the Negro Project. She reflects on Scripture's call to justice, asks how historical inequalities continue to influence communities today, and previews the next episode on population policies and public health. Thanks for tuning...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective Podcast, host Connie Morris explores how history shapes the experiences of White and Black Americans today. The conversation delves into the differing historical narratives that inform perspectives, the impact of systemic advantages and disadvantages, and the importance of acknowledgment and understanding in bridging the gap between these experiences. Morris emphasizes that unity requires shared understanding and intentional connection, rather than ident...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective podcast, host Connie Morris explores the complex and layered narrative of America, emphasizing the importance of integrating multiple perspectives to form a complete understanding of the nation's story. The discussion highlights the interconnectedness of national survival and human endurance, the uneven application of freedom, and the necessity of recognizing both victory and struggle in the American experience. Morris advocates for a unified message tha...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective Podcast, host Connie Morris explores the significance of two national anthems, 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' By examining their historical contexts, the different questions they address, and the symbols and experiences they represent, Morris emphasizes the importance of understanding both perspectives to grasp the full American story. The conversation highlights the need for integration rather than division, aiming to bring ...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective Podcast, host Connie Morris explores the anthem 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' as a response to the national anthem. The discussion delves into the historical context of the song, its significance in giving voice to the African American experience, and its role during the Civil Rights Movement. Morris emphasizes the themes of struggle, faith, and endurance in the lyrics, highlighting how this anthem complements the national narrative by focusing on people's...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective Podcast, host Connie Morris delves into the complexities of the Star-Spangled Banner, exploring its historical context, the implications of its lyrics, and the realities of America during the time it was written. The discussion highlights the anthem's focus on national survival rather than individual freedom, the existence of slavery, and the gap between the anthem's symbolism and the lived experiences of many Americans. Morris sets the stage for a deepe...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective Podcast, host Connie Morris introduces a new series titled 'Two Anthems, One America.' The series explores the significance of two anthems in American history: the national anthem and the Black anthem, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' Morris discusses how these anthems represent different narratives and experiences within the same nation, highlighting the complexities of freedom and identity in America. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understan...

Connie Morris concludes the Unequal by Design series by unpacking James H. Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree. She explores how lynching shaped American culture, the church's complicity through silence, and the enduring legacy of both the lynching tree and the cross. Cone’s call is clear: truth, justice, and repair must replace selective Christianity and passive comfort. Thanks for tuning in to The Morris Perspective Podcast—where we challenge assumptions, expose bias, and explore truth thr...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective’s Unequal by Design series, Connie Morris walks listeners through chapter five of James H. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree. The episode centers on lament as a sacred, political, and spiritual response to racial terror, showing how Black spirituals like "Mary, Don't You Weep" held grief and hope together as forms of resistance. Cone argues that honest mourning exposes injustice, preserves the soul, and defies systems that normalize suffering; hope...

Host Connie Morris continues the Unequal by Design series with James H. Cone's Chapter 4 (parts 1 & 2) of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, examining the idea of the "re-crucified Christ" and how Black writers turned literature into witness. Cone shows that lynching functions as a re-crucifixion whenever innocent people are brutalized, and that Black literary imagination served as prophecy, testimony, and resistance—preserving truth, grief, and dignity against national forgetting and the silence...

In this episode of the Morris Perspective podcast, host Connie Morris explores the complex and layered narrative of America, emphasizing the importance of integrating multiple perspectives to form a complete understanding of the nation's story. The discussion highlights the interconnectedness of national survival and human endurance, the uneven application of freedom, and the necessity of recognizing both victory and struggle in the American experience. Morris advocates for a unified message tha...

In this two-part episode of the Morris Perspective, Connie Morris reads James H. Cone’s Chapter 3 to examine Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral and spiritual struggle as he “bore the cross” while confronting systemic racism and the enduring threat of racial terror symbolized by the lynching tree. The episode highlights how King’s gospel exposed national hypocrisy, the personal costs of his witness, and the role of silence and policy in maintaining inequality. Thanks for tuning in to The Morris Per...

In this episode, the host Connie Morris delves into Chapter Two of James H. Cone's 'The Cross and the Lynching Tree,' exploring the juxtaposition of the cross's beauty and the tragedy of lynching. The discussion highlights the failures of white theology to confront racial terror and the moral implications of silence in the face of injustice. Cone's critique of Reinhold Niebuhr serves as a lens for examining the limits of understanding evil without proximity to suffering. The episode challenges l...

Host Connie Morris reads James H. Cone’s Chapter One from The Cross and the Lynching Tree, exploring how the crucifixion and the lynching tree function as public executions that reveal America’s engineered racial violence and the church’s complicity. This episode examines why the cross became a source of strength for Black believers amid terror, challenges the silence of white Christianity, and urges listeners to confront systems that normalize injustice. Thanks for tuning in to The Morris Per...

Host Connie Morris reviews James H. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree, exploring how the symbol of the cross and the history of lynching intersect to expose racial violence and theological failure in America. The episode explains lynching as public terror, challenges the church and national narratives, and ties historical lynching to modern unequal outcomes in justice, protection, and grief. Listeners are invited to read the book, reflect on two questions about silence and truth, and shar...