Dr. Joel Rhodes
Host - Sesquicentennial Moments, Telling HistoryJoel P. Rhodes is a Professor in the History Department of Southeast Missouri State University. Raised in Kansas, he earned a B.S. in Education from the University of Kansas before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
His teaching and research interests are in Cold War-era American political and social history and the history of children and childhood. Dr. Rhodes has written The Sixties in the Lives of American Children: Growing Up in a Land Called Honalee, The Voice of Violence: Performative Violence as Protest in the Vietnam Era, and A Missouri Railroad Pioneer: the Life of Louis Houck. An avid storytelling enthusiast, he has also written Haunted Cape Girardeau: Where the River Turns a Thousand Chilling Tales and co-authored Historic Cape Girardeau: an Illustrated History. His articles and chapters have appeared in On the Ground: The Black Panther Party in Communities Across America, Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia, and the Missouri Historical Review. Dr. Rhodes has also delivered papers at the American Historical Association (AHA) annual meeting, and international conferences hosted by the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) and the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP). He is currently researching and writing a book on the Vietnam War in the lives of American children.
Dr. Rhodes serves, or has served, on a number of Boards of Directors including the Missouri Humanities Council, the State Historical Records Advisory Board (appointed by Governor Jay Nixon), Missouri Association for Museums and Archives, National Digital Newspaper Program in Missouri Advisory Board, Colonial Fox Theatre Foundation (Pittsburg, Kansas), The Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau, The Stars & Stripes Museum/Library Association, and co-produced the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival.
He lives in Cape Girardeau with his wife Jeanie and his three children.
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Following the May 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education – which ruled that racial segregation in education was inherently unequal – many America schools began integrating that fall while others stubbornly resisted for years. Southeast fell into the former category, enrolling Roberta Slayton and Helen Carter, our university’s first African American students. -
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Well, as an historian, I’m glad you asked. First, go back to the 1960s until you see President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society, then turn left at his Project Head Start, past the Public Broadcasting Service, until you come to the Children’s Television Workshop... that’s how we get to Sesame Street. -
Nestled on bucolic, tree-lined hills in between the Show Me Center and Dempster Hall, Wildwood serves as the official residence of Southeast Missouri State University presidents. -
From “Pig Clubs” to presidential speeches, southeast Missourians have gathered together at the corner of Sprigg Street and New Madrid as a community; first it was for agricultural contests at the university’s demonstration farm and today to see live entertainment and sports at The Show Me Center. -
“Is this your beach ball? Hey, yeah, thank you very much!” From this innocent seaside exchange an important friendship was born – an interracial friendship – between one of America’s most lovable losers – Charlie Brown and an African American classmate – Franklin Armstrong. -
Perched majestically upon Cardiac Hill, the rare Gum Tree – indigenous to the Southeast campus – is a one of our timeless traditions. And while the tree itself has evolved through at least five incarnations – most significantly from wood to metal – one constant endures: a hard exterior of repurposed chewing gum. -
Formed on October 22, 1913, when we were still the Third District Normal School, the Black Mask Honorary Dramatic Society is thought to be the oldest student group at Southeast Missouri State University. -
Long before Tik Tok, Google, KRCU, KFVS TV, heck even KFVS radio, Southeast students were kept informed by their campus newspaper, The Arrow. Our paper has been dependably reporting the local, national, and international news, sports, opinions, and features from a college perspective since 1911; making it one of the longest-running student newspapers in the country. -
The H-Bomb’s significantly larger blast and fallout – covering several hundred miles – required the coordinated evacuation of all major US cities with rapid cross-country military deployment. These mock nuclear attacks served as a report card, and our country’s inadequate patchwork of outdated highways, unpaved roads, dangerous tunnels, and narrow bridges failed miserably. -
Beloved teacher, gifted orator, and avid photographer, Dr. Harold Oscar Grauel wore many hats over a 43-year-long career as English professor, department chair, and head of the divisions of English, foreign languages, philosophy, and speech.
