Unfinished: Deep South

Season 1 (2020)

People involved

• Grandparents: Elias Banks, a white land-owner living in Rome Georgia, and an African American woman named Nancy Banks, who was formerly enslaved. They had a son, named John who was Isadore's father. Elias Banks died in 1878.
• Parents: John Banks and Annie Butler. Annie was African American and believed to be part Native American. Isadore was born to John and Annie in Georgia in 1895, he was the third of seven children. Isadore's mother died at a young age.

• Around 1917 Isadore married Alice Biggs. He is 23 and a self-employed farmer. After serving in WWI, he returned home in 1919.
• Muriel Banks: oldest daughter of Isadore and his wife Alice Banks.
• Dorothy Williams: daughter of Isadore Banks. Her mother was a sharecropper and one of Isadore's mistresses. She and her mother lived on land Isadore rented from the Italian widow.
• Marcelina "Lina" Williams: daughter of Dorothy, granddaughter of Isadore.
• Jim Banks: son of Isadore and Willie Lee Banks. It is unclear if Isadore was married legally to Willie.
• Norman Banks: Isadore's brother and business partner.

• Andrew Lee Anderson: The oldest of 12 children whose family lived outside of Marion. Andrew made money by mowing lawns and doing odd jobs in Marion. While in Marion on a job, Andrew was believed to have attacked a young girl. He was hunted down by a posse, shot multiple times and died. He was 16 at the time. No investigation was pursued.
• Roy Anderson: Andrew's father
• Geraldine and Earline: Andrew's sisters

• Willie and Ida Gammon: Cousins and locals of Marion heard at the beginning of the podcast to take the creators on a tour of Isadore's, now abandoned, Cotton Gin.
• Cecil Goodwin: Sheriff of Crittenden County
• Maggie Sue Goodwin: Wife of Sheriff Goodwin
• James Wilburn, Sr: Business man and close friend of Isadore's who lived down the street. He ran several businesses including the Black Cat Hotel frequented by musicians who performed on the Chitlin Circuit.
• James Wilburn, Jr. Son of James Sr. Recounts how his father's businesses and homes were terrorized and burned down.
• Flora Belle Wilburn: Daughter of James, Sr and younger sister of James, Jr.
• Elijah Maxwell: Neighbor of the Wilburn family.
• Mr. Fleming: Neighbor of the Wilburn family.
• Ben McGee: Former Arkansas State Representative.
• Tommy Gamon: Son of a family that was being threatened by Night Riders. Isadore taught him how to shoot in case the threat was followed through.
• Professor Story Matkin-Rawn: Teaches history at the University of Central Arkansas.
• Ginny Marts: Grew up in Marion and describes the different versions of stories she had heard about Isadore Banks murder.
• Roselyn O'Neill: A local woman thought of as the "town historian".
• Sam Burns: A painter who is somehow linked to Isadore's murder.
• "Julie" : Stepdaughter of Sam Burns and wife of "Mike". Julie holds a key to what happened to Andrew Anderson.
• Vera Baretti Simonetta: She recounts her father's reaction to Isadore's death.
• Annie Will Johnson: Daughter of a family Isadore was friendly with, He gave her a ride home from the bus stop and visited with her family. That was the last time anyone saw Isadore.

• Margaret Burnham: Law professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Oversees The Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project.
• Toby Moore: Asst. Professor of Geography at the University of Iowa. Wrote the article Race and the County Sheriff in the American South.
• Carmen White: Member of the BlackProGen, a group specializing in tracing African American history.
• Ashraf Rashdi: Professor of African-American studies at Wesleyan University provides a history of lynching.
• Rachel Walton: Professor of Criminal Justice at Utah State.
• Shabaka Afri'ka: President of the Crittenden County, Arkansas NAACP
• Rev. Edward Hampton: He was 19 when Isadore was killed and recounts his memory of the event.
• Jay Driscoll: Historian who discovered the Vernon McDaniel report on Isadore Banks
• Vernon McDaniel: A field agent for the NAACP and author of the Isadore Banks Case of Desegregation in Crittenden County Ark, December 6, 1954.
• Thurgood Marshall: during the time of Isadore's death he was the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and most likely reviewed Vernon McDaniel's report.
• Bryan Stevenson: Attorney, social justice activist and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative

• Reconstruction
• Age of Lynching, after WWI
• Red Summer
• Great Migration (African American).
• Jim Crow Era
• World War I, military history of African Americans
• The Great Depression
• George Floyd, his death is viewed as another example of the history of police brutality and sparked the phrase "Remember George Floyd".

Release and Reception

Credits