The Lynching Missouri Still Won’t Fully Face tells the story of Cleo Wright, a 26-year-old Black man lynched in Sikeston, Missouri, on January 25, 1942. His killing became the first federally investigated lynching in U.S. history, but no meaningful justice followed. In this episode of That Doesn’t Make Sense, Michael Porter traces the accusation, the mob violence, the failed prosecution, and the silence that settled over Sikeston for decades — asking what it means when a town and a state remember a crime only halfway

Nicodemus: The Black Town That Refused to Die tells the story of a town built by Black settlers at the end of Reconstruction — a place founded in 1877 by people chasing land, safety, and self-rule on the Kansas plains. Today, Nicodemus is recognized by the National Park Service as the oldest remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.

In this episode of That Doesn’t Make Sense, Michael Porter traces the dream that built Nicodemus, the Exoduster movement that carried Black families west, the railroad decision that nearly killed the town, and the stubborn survival that kept it alive when so many other Black communities disappeared. This is a story about freedom, migration, Black town-building, and what it means to refuse erasure. The country may have forgotten Nicodemus, but Nicodemus did not die.

Before the Arch: Jeanette Forchet’s St. Louis tells the story of a Black woman most people were never taught to remember. Born into slavery around 1736, Jeanette Forchet became one of the earliest Black landowners in St. Louis — decades before Missouri became a state, and long before the Gateway Arch ever existed. She farmed, ran a laundry business, raised a family, signed property agreements, and built a life on land that now lies within Gateway Arch National Park.

In this episode of That Doesn’t Make Sense, Michael Porter traces Jeanette’s journey from bondage to ownership and asks the question that should stop every listener cold: How does a woman help build the foundation of a city and still get written out of its public memory? This is an episode about Black ownership, Black survival, erasure, and the histories buried underneath the landmarks America celebrates most.