Cas Walker Stories
The Cas Walker Stories project gathers the stories and legends told about one of 20th century Knoxville’s most famous citizens. Cas Walker was a grocer-politician-media celebrity-music promoter-coon hunter whose colorful life has become the stuff of the region’s favorite urban legends.
The project has recorded oral histories with many who knew Cas Walker, as friends, employees, and political rivals or allies, and collected others from the public. Many of these are gathered in Cas Walker: Stories on his Life and Legend, published by UT Press.
This book was edited by Joshua Hodge, a PhD student in the History Department who passed away while the book was in its final stages of completion. An endowment fund is being raised in his name, which will be used to support graduate research.
You can also hear more about the project in this episode of the Raised in Knoxville podcast, where host Todd Steed discusses the project with Ernie Freeberg. To learn more about the book or leave your own Cas Walker story, visit the Cas Walker Stories website. The oral histories that Josh recorded will be deposited with the Knox County Library’s archives.
When the World Came to Knoxville
UTK History professor Ernie Freeberg joined WUOT 91.9 FM with other guest experts to share the context and lesser-known history behind the 1982 World’s Fair: its exhibitions, its architecture, and its secrets.
Listen to all 4 episodes of When the World Came to Knoxville.
Hanging with History at The Jangle
Learn more about History Faculty at UTK with Dr. Chad Black, host of our very own podcast, The Jangle (also available on Spotify). Each episode offers an intimate look into our varied paths to the historical profession, the travels we’ve enjoyed, and the stories we have to share–through our books and in our classrooms.
- Season 1 featured new UTK professors–like Dr. Beau Gaitors, a specialist of modern Mexico–and celebrated with established faculty who finished their books in 2020. Learn more about Monica Black’s A Demon Haunted Land, Brandon Winford’s study of Black banking in the Civil Rights movement, and Charles Sanft’s monograph, Literate Community in Early Imperial China.
- Season 2 continued conversations about recent faculty publications, first with Sara Ritchey, whose new book, Acts of Care, focuses on women healers in medieval Europe. We also learned more about our professors’ paths from student to teachers: Shellen Wu discusses the importance of her class on the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, and Tore Olsson shares how he uses video games and country music to connect his teaching to his research.