
Exchange Place: How A Small Struggling School Transformed Civil Rights in New Orleans and the Nation
Exchange Place is the story of a school whose mission was to train mostly African American women the skills they needed to integrate the secretarial offices of the Deep South between 1965 and ‘72. Those offices were not just segregated, for the most part they were completely off limits to women of color, and many were fighting to insure the workplace would stay that way for years or decades to come. Over the course of the school’s history, it was shut down multiple times and constantly under duress from forces conspiring to defeat it. But, it survived to became one of the most successful programs of its kind in the War On Poverty, lauded on the front pages of national newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and the subject of an Emmy Award winning documentary in 1968 entitled, appropriately, "The School That Would Not Die". The first season of the podcast tells the inspirational biographies of four of the school’s graduates who changed the moral skyline of their city -- how they did it -- and how the school’s teachers and supporters struggled to overcome the massive forces arrayed against them.
Episodes
12 episodes
Ep. 12 A Cowardly Lion
Episode 12. A Cowardly Lion. Season 1 of Exchange Place culminates with the story of a single mom named Alice Geoffray, the first Director of The Adult Education Center. With seven children back home and no administrative experi...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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30:34

Ep. 11 Ms. Pamela Cole: Working Life
Episode 11. Ms. Pamela Cole: Working Life. The musical score of Pam Cole’s teenage years included the mellifluous sound of her sister Carol Cole practicing typing while Pam fell asleep in the adjoining room of their small, shotg...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:02:54

Ep. 10 The Cole Sisters: An American Family
Episode 10. The Cole Sisters: An American Family. Pam Cole was the youngest of four sisters to graduate from the Adult Education Center between 1965 and 1972. Her sister, Carol Cole, was a graduate of the first class who became ...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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59:17

Ep. 9 Hullabaloo
Episode 9. Hullabaloo. Scores of landlords turned Father Tim Gibbons and Alice Geoffray down as they searched in vain for a location for the Adult Education Center while steering through uncharted and hostile territory. On ...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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40:54

Ep. 8 Dr. Sandra O'Neal: After Death Communication
Episode 8. Dr. Sandra O’Neal: After Death Communication. Sandra O’Neal was a star student until her sister fell ill. While her mother tended to her sister full-time, Sandra decided to go to work. From that point on, the distract...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:01:28

Ep. 7 Economic Apartheid
Episode 7. Economic Apartheid. The Adult Education Center was the inspiration of Father Timothy Gibbons. But, at every stage, Gibbons was guided by one of New Orleans’ most influential educators and civil rights leaders, Norman ...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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29:01

Ep. 6 Ms. Linda Phoenix Teamer: Overcoming Gravity
Episode 6. Ms. Linda Phoenix: Overcoming Gravity. Linda Phoenix Teamer was 19 years old in 1970, the year after Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. One of Teamer’s wistful teenage dreams was to become NASA’s...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:23:16

Ep. 5 Two Paths Cross
Episode 5. Two Paths Cross. The Adult Education Center was the brainchild of a young, dashing, charismatic outsider – a Dominican Priest from Illinois. Father Timothy Gibbons reached out to the award-winning teacher Alice Geoffr...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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35:17

Ep. 4 Ms. Lorraine Washington: Tears Like Rain
Episode 4. Ms. Lorraine Washington: Tears Like Rain. Lorraine Washington suffered through the worst forms of segregation, intimidation, and voting prohibitions during the Jim Crow era. However, the promises [and failures] of job...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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21:04

Ep. 3 Why Now, Why Us
Episode 3. Why Now, Why Us. Jeanne and Jeff Geoffray are the youngest children of the Adult Education Center’s Director, Alice Geoffray. As frequent visitors to the Center between 1965 and 1972, they witnessed the extraordinary ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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38:11

Ep. 2 Hilda Jean Smith: From GED to PhD
Episode 2. Hilda Jean Smith: From GED to PhD. A day after her wedding, sixteen-year-old Hilda Jean Smith’s mother dies, leaving her the responsibility of raising 10 younger siblings. Though she eventually drops out of high schoo...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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1:06:50
