NBC Special in 1960 on the Nashville Sit-Ins

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THE DEATH OF JAYNE MANSFIELD

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Jayne Mansfield   Jayne Mansfield died way too young on June 29, 1967 at the age of 34 in a gruesome car wreck, She was killed instantly but contrary to urban legend she was not decapitated. Jayne was called the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She had enjoyed about a four year stint of popularity on Broadway and in Hollywood from 1954 until 1958. Her career was in decline in the late 50's and early 60's but she was still popular in Europe and on the nightclub circuit. She took her last name from her high school sweetheart Paul Mansfield when she married him at the age of seventeen. Her second husband was a former Mr. Universe named Mickey Hargitay who was from Norway. The third and last husband was Matt Cimber. Mansfield was highly educated, attending Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and U.C.L.A. She supposedly had an IQ of 163 and was called the smartest dumb blonde ever. Of course she couldn't be too smart. In 1966, a year before her death, while...
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THE PLATT FAMILY

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  Allen Platt was like many bigoted Southern white men in 1954. He would say 'My dad always said Blacks had their place,'' This belief was challenged in October 1954. The Lake County Florida Sheriff Willis McCall paid Platt a visit in his  Mount Dora home. There had been complaints about his children. There were many people who believed the family was Black because of their dark skin color and curly hair. McCall was pretty sure that they had ''nigra'' blood, as he called it. The sheriff told him "You don't belong here. You are trying to mix with white people." Platt told him 'I'm as White as you are and come from better stock." Under the law at that time you were accepted into White society if you only had one-sixteenth black blood. If you had one-eighth you were considered Black. Platt was told to keep his kids out of school until the race issue was settled. He was a fruit picker in Florida and the father of nine children. ...
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NASHVILLE AND JESSE JAMES

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The James brothers with their mother Zerelda James   Most everyone has heard of the notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James, however; did you know that they lived in Nashville from 1875 until March 1881? Jesse's oldest son Jesse James Jr. was born in Nashville along with his sister Mary. Jesse Jr. was born at 606 Boscobel Street on August 31, 1875. Mary was born on West Hamilton Road in Bordeaux on July 17, 1879. Jesse Jr. went by the name Tim and as far as he knew his last name was Howard. He and his sister would not know their real last names until after Jesse was killed in 1882. Jesse and his wife Zerelda would also lose two male twins in infancy.  Jesse's brother Frank lived on Clarksville Pike. While living there he and his wife Annie Ralston James gave birth to a son named Robert Franklin on February 6, 1877. For a time he would be dressed as a girl and go by the name of Mary. Why his parents did this I do not know.  The brothers were on the run. Nashvill...
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