Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / "Olduvai Gorge" - TPR's In Focus - Feb. 26, 2026

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"Olduvai Gorge" - TPR's In Focus - Feb. 26, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's Montgomery campus,
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  located on the spot of Mrs. Parks' historic 1955 arrest, and featuring
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  exhibits that chronicle the history of the Montgomery bus boycott.
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  More information at troy.edu slash Rosa Parks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  As Black History Month draws to a close, historian Dr. Richard Bailey shares his story of meeting
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  a famous paleoanthropologist at a fossil site in Africa.
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  The scientist studied the fossil record for years and changed our understanding of those
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  who came before us.
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  Dr. Bailey, welcome back to Troy Public Radio.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  This, as you and everyone knows, is Black History Month.
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  Tell us where it started.
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  Black History Month started in the mindset of Carter Godwin Woodson.
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  The first Black History Week celebration occurred on February 7, 1926, so our observance
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  of Black History Month that began in 1975 with President Gerald Ford marks the centennial
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  for Black History celebrations in this country.
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  Our discussion is going to take us in an interesting direction, and that direction is the question,
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  where did early humans evolve?
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  What was your experience tracking that answer down?
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  Well, in 1976 in July, I just happened to find myself in Tanzania.
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  In fact, I was with a group of 32 educators, and we were traveling from East Africa to
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  West Africa.
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  We had been to Amsterdam, and when we arrived in Tanzania, I think we were expecting to
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  run into Mary Leakey, and we did not, but we did get a chance to, at least I did, to
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  briefly chat with Richard Leakey, the son of Mary Leakey and LSB Leakey at Olduvai Gorge.
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  I'm telling you, anyone who has taken a course in world civilization or gone back to antiquity
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  and African history, that person knows very well the significance of Olduvai Gorge.
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  That is the cradle of civilization.
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  I recall that the Leakeys really shook up the scientific world with this discovery,
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  and also Jane Goodall trained with them at Olduvai Gorge before she went into her work
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  with chimpanzees.
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  But what did you learn about the gorge while you were there?
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  I learned so much.
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  What it actually did for me, being there, was to make everything that I thought I knew
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  or had read, it made it real.
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  I was a college professor at the time, and I had taught world civilization, and anyone
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  remembers from that world civilization class in that first semester, in fact, the first
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  week you're talking about the origin of the world, and for me to have had the opportunity
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  to visit Olduvai Gorge, that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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  I shall never forget having visited Olduvai Gorge.
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  It was just something that you have read about, you've taught about for so long, and now you
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  have an opportunity to be there.
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  There's no substitute for that experience.
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  Describe the gorge to the listeners.
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  Relying on my memory, and I don't want to talk about what I've read since, but it's
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  very large, something like a crater, if you will.
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  And for those persons who are Bible readers, you're saying, why isn't he talking about
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  the Garden of Eden?
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  Well, that's the Bible.
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  For the historians, for the anthropologists, it's Olduvai Gorge.
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  What I would encourage everybody to do, Google Olduvai Gorge and read it for yourself.
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  This magnificent place.
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  When you were there, what had the Leakeys discovered about what they call early humans?
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  Well, first of all, for those persons who are familiar with the scenarios I'm talking
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  about, L.S.B.
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  Leakey had died in 1972, so he was not there.
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  Mary Leakey was still alive, and Richard Leakey, who had been born in 1944, was there.
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  But the point of the matter is that what you had there were just the remnants of the past,
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  something that could remind you of just what that breathtaking moment was that civilization
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  began there millennias ago.
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  That's what it all boils down to.
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  I don't know really how a person can describe what is there without a person just looking
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  at some pictures and doing some reading, because there's no comparison.
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  If this is the first, there's nothing with which to compare, because the first has no
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  counterpart, if you know what I'm saying.
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  And here's the point.
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  From that gorge, the world's first family came, and the first this, and the first that.
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  All of that came from that area that spread and populated the rest of the world.
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  Dr. Bailey, the Leakeys' work is associated with discoveries of names we're familiar with,
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  Xenianthropus, Australopithecus, and others.
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  And I think the point you're making is that East Africa and Oduvai Gorge figure heavily
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  in the story of the Tree of Humanity's development.
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  Well, the full story of black history, and this is what Carter G. Woodson was trying
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  to do, to fill in the missing pages of history, to create a place, a space for African history,
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  for black history.
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  In doing that, one must go back to Oduvai Gorge.
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  The best place to start any story is at the beginning.
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  Oduvai Gorge, and we're so thankful for the Leakeys, that's where civilization began at
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  Oduvai Gorge in what is today Tanzania.
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  So when you met Richard Leakey, of course, he was young at that time.
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  What was your impression of his dedication to getting to the root of the question, where
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  did early humans really begin?
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  I don't remember the conversation, and I don't want to stretch anything, but the point of
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  the matter is I was so impressed with just having the opportunity to be in his presence.
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  The fact that he is the son of LSB and Mary Leakey, who gave us that precious information
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  on the beginning of human history.
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  Just to have talked to him, a person who was born in the 1940s, so you can see in 1976,
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  he's not an old man, but just to have had the opportunity to speak with him was a once
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  in a lifetime opportunity and is something that I shall never forget.
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  In fact, the importance of being in the presence of this wonderful guy, this historic personality,
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  and he's one personality in addition to his parents, that was their life mission, to set
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  the record straight, to show this is where the first human person began.
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  This is how powerful Olduvai Gorge is.
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  I think what you're telling us, Dr. Bailey, is to keep an open mind, because as scientists
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  continue working, whether they're anthropologists or archaeologists, and discover these early
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  humans, these hominids, they're literally unearthing our past.
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  That's right.
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  That's the reason I make the point that we must, in having that open mind, be willing
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  to give credence, accolade, to some people to elevate to their true stature.
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  The purpose is to keep the record straight, to make certain that we have an accurate account
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  of the distant past, not the recent past, but the distant past, and that's what we will
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  continue to study, and I'm going to always embrace the kind of evidence that these people
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  bring to the table about the distant past.
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  Dr. Bailey, we've been talking about anthropologists and archaeologists.
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  You're a historian.
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  What do you see the role of the historian being in this story?
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  The role of the historian is to go over there and look and see what deserves to be remembered,
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  as opposed to saying, I'm going to write about this because I believe people want to
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  know about it.
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  No, go and look at and determine what deserves to be remembered.
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  The leakers deserve to be remembered.
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  Well, Dr. Bailey, I want to thank you for being our guest today and for having the last
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  word about Black History Month.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  That was historian Dr. Richard Bailey, past president of the Alabama Historical Association
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  and author of the books They, Too, Call Alabama Home and Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags,
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  Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867 to 1878.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.