In 1970, Thomas Gilmore became the first Black sheriff in rural Greene County, Alabama. He refused to carry a gun. How did a man of peace earn the trust to enforce the law in a place shaped by deep racial divides? And why does his story remain largely unknown?

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Episode Sources

Richard Bailey — Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1572687
Eric Foner — Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction . https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858863/freedoms-lawmakers/
Alabama Department of Archives & History — Reconstruction‑era election record. https://archives.alabama.gov
Greene County Historical Society. https://www.greenecountyhistoricalsociety.org
University of Alabama — Black Belt Heritage Collections. https://guides.lib.ua.edu/blackbelt
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute — Oral Histories. https://www.bcri.org/oral-history-project
U.S. Department of Justice — Voting Rights Act historical materials. https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-rights-act-1965
Frye Gaillard — Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America . https://ugapress.org/book/9780820324722/cradle-of-freedom
Marshall Frady — The Southerner . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1358422
Southern Christian Leadership Conference Archives. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Digital Gateway. https://snccdigital.org
Birmingham News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-birmingham-news/268/
Tuscaloosa News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-tuscaloosa-news/2681/
Equal Justice Initiative — Historical reports on policing in Alabama. https://eji.org/reports/
Douglas A. Blackmon — Slavery by Another Name. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18327/slavery-by-another-name-by-douglas-a-blackmon/
Isabel Wilkerson — The Warmth of Other Suns. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/19076/the-warmth-of-other-suns-by-isabel-wilkerson/
This Man Stands Alone (film about Thomas Gilmore). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250463/

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.