The Sunday Story: Off The Mark, an NPR investigation into America's historical markers

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4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

Historical markers dot the American landscape. They are on the sides of roads, in parks, rest areas, in the middle of nowhere. They purport to offer a glimpse into the past, marking a moment or place of significance worth remembering. But a year-long investigation by NPR's Laura Sullivan found these makers present a fractured and confused telling of the American story. Some share humor and joy but many present a version of history that's been distorted or outright fictionalized with offensive lies.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday story.
0:04.0	Across America history is often recorded on small markers.
0:09.0	You've probably seen them on the sides of roads, front of buildings in the middle of nowhere.
0:14.5	There are more than 180,000 of these historical markers telling the country's
0:21.1	story.
0:22.1	NPR's investigations correspondent Laura Sullivan
0:26.0	has been examining these markers and asking a lot of questions.
0:31.0	Laura joins us now to talk about what she's found. Hey Laura, hey Aisha.
0:36.0	So Laura, before we get any further, you know, I mean I have to ask like why? Like what got you
0:42.2	interested in this particular topic?
0:45.0	You know it really it really went back to COVID when I was spending a lot of time
0:49.9	driving around and I started reading all of these markers.
0:53.2	And some were interesting and some were a little bit random
0:56.7	and some were really confusing.
0:59.0	And then I started reading this one
1:00.7	about a Confederate soldier who had hit under a house and I thought okay
1:06.2	who wrote this like who is writing these markers are these markers even true?
1:13.3	And then I kind of went down a rabbit hole.
1:16.6	It's probably a very deep rabbit hole with these markers, right?
1:21.3	It's so true.
1:22.0	I mean, I closed my eyes at night and historical markers
1:25.0	appear. But my partner in NPR's Nick McMillan and I were able to take a giant
	...

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