MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds

August Wilson (1945-2005) is among America’s most critically-acclaimed playwrights. He penned several groundbreaking plays while living in St. Paul in the 1980s, including Pulitzer Prize winners "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson." They are both part of Wilson’s grand opus – a series of ten historical plays called "The Pittsburgh Cycle." In the series, each decade of the 20th century is represented through a play, exploring the cultural, spiritual, and daily lives of African Americans. MN90 producer Marisa Helms reports. [Read Transcript...]

Imagine it’s early spring… But it’s 70° below zero and you’re on skis. There’s nothing around but ice and polar bears. You’re pulling a sled twice your weight, you haven’t had a shower in months, and a stick of butter is on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sound fun? It sure does if you’re Polar explorer Ann Bancroft. MN90 producer Marisa Helms introduces us to St. Paul native Bancroft who made history as the first woman to explore both the North and South Poles. [Read Transcript...]

Minneapolis was a notorious anti-union town in the early 1900s. But a series of truckers’ strikes in 1934 turned the city into one of the most powerful union cities in the United States. MN90 producer Marisa Helms reports that the strikes were part of a wave of union actions across the country and spurred passage of the 1935 Wagner Act. The federal legislation legitimated and enforced the rights of workers and unions. [Read Transcript...]

In the 1930s, St. Paul became a safe haven for every bank robber, stickup artist and kidnapper in America. The city’s police chief John O’Connor made a devil’s bargain with the crooks: as long as they didn’t commit a crime in St. Paul, police would pretend known criminals weren’t living right under their noses. MN90 producer Marisa Helms says the system worked for several years, until the Barker-Karpis gang kidnapped two of the most prominent men in St. Paul – brewing company executive William Hamm, Jr., and banker Edward Bremer. [Read Transcript...]