Historian Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts how he came to discover the real John Henry, an African-American railroad worker who became a legend in the famous song

The song "John Henry," perhaps America's greatest folk ballad, is about an African-American steel driver who raced and beat a steam drill, dying "with his hamme

Retells the life of the legendary steel driver of early railroad days who challenged the steam hammer to a steel driving contest.

In the first half of the twentieth century, a number of American theatres and theatre artists fostered interracial collaboration and socialization on stage, beh