FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS—someone is going to help me play music with whales instead of warning me that it’s against the law. According to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, all “harassment” of marine mammals is illegal, including my idea of playing live music to them just to see what happens. But there are still places beyond the grip of the law.
Read it all here, and hear Marc interview the author, David Rothenberg, at about 1:30 today. For more of David's writing, check out this piece on www.terrain.org.
Before that, after the news at 1pm, join us to discuss genetically modified food. Seems like it was something that was really in the public eye, along with lots of outrage and uncertainty, a few years ago, but all of that has subsided a bit, here in the US, at least. It certainly didn't go away, though, as more genetically modified crops are being grown worldwide than ever, and the highest percentage of any country is right here in the States. Yes, if you're not sure, our food supply is flush with genetically modiefied ingredients. We'll discuss the details, focusing on the company at the center of it all, Monsanto, with Brian Hindo. He wrote the article Monsanto: Winning the Ground War in Business Week.
Every Thursday from 1-2pm for the past few weeks, we've been featuring interviews with the authors of articles that we've come upon and found particularly interesting. If you've caught any of these segments, what do you think? Would you like to see this continue as a regular, weekly feature on the show? Also, comment here with suggestions for articles that you've read and would like for us to consider featuring!
What comes to your mind when you think of bail bonds? The nice folks who help spring you from jail when you're waiting for trial? One of the few types of businesses that populate mostly vacant commerical blocks in poor neighborhoods throughout the city? Those ubiquitous yellow and pink Big Boyz Bail Bonds pens that are everywhere in Baltimore?
A article on the front page of the New York Times Tuesday pointed out the interesting fact that the US is one of only two countries in the world that use the bail bond system, empowering private companies to put up someone's bail for them in exchange for a fee. The fee is generally 10% of the bail, non-refundable. Critics raise the point that, although you are innocent until proven guilty, you tend to have to pay a lot of money to a private company in order to stay out of jail, innocent or not. Bail bonds is one way among many that the United States has charted a unique course for its legal system, internationally speaking.
Adam Liptak, the author of the article, joins us for the first part of today's show, and then we'll continue the discussion with a panel of local guests, discussing the pros and cons of the bail bond system, and possible alternatives.
Also worth checking out is a post and comments responding to the article on the Freakonomics blog.
-Justin
Every time an election roles around, people (or at least the media) start to talk a lot about the youth vote. We wonder whether young voters will finally start coming out in larger numbers than usual. Why do less young people tend to vote than the older folks? Are they just apathetic? Do they think voting won't make a difference, or that no one represents them? What issues do these elusive young people care about? What about those who are politically active?
One of my first assignments as a youthful WYPR news freelancer was to report on the youth vote in November 2006; check it here.
At noon today, we're bringing together a group of college students from the area to hear their opinions and observations on the upcoming elections. We'd love to hear your thoughts, as well, whatever age you might be. Call 866-661-9309, email thesteinershow@wypr.org, or post a comment here.
-Justin
Living in Baltimore, I can't help but notice a lot of distinctly unhappy looking people around town. I know this is not exactly some kind of utopia, so is it reasonable to assume that people are, in general, happier elsewhere?
PAYING KIDS TO DO WELL
Dr. Andres Alonso at noon
Paying kids to do well on tests?!?!?!?!?!?!?
My first visceral reaction was no way. This is antithetical to what we all believe, that we should instill an intrinsic love of education.
Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Schools, is going to spend a million dollars, in part to pay kids in the 11th and 12th grade who failed one of the High School Assessment tests, if they improve their scores on future tests. They will receive up to $110.00, depending on how much their scores improve. Money will also be used to pay students to tutor other students.
Some would argue, like Dan Rodricks, that middle and upper class families always bribe their kids with cash, dinner and objects of desire if they do well in school. What is wrong with the city doing it for unmotivated kids also mired in poverty?
Others argue it is a quick fix and a bribe that hides real issue of why students don’t have an intrinsic love of learning and why they lose in our schools.
Is it a bad idea? Looking forward to hearing what Dr. Alonso has to say. Looking forward to what you have to say on air and on our blog.
BANISHED
I was not amazed when I first heard that there was wholesale ethnic cleansing of African Americans from towns across America. I was shocked when I found out that it occurred well into the depression era of the 1930’s.
One of our guests, Marco Williams, recently made the movie Banished. It's about the interactions of three Black families, who were descendents of the banished, and white people now living in those towns.
The issue of the day will be to find out what relevance this has on our lives now. The Germans paid reparations to the Jews who survived the camps, the US paid reparations to the Japanese Americans and the descendents of those interned in camps during World War II. Should the US do the same for those who are the descendents of those African Americans ethnically cleansed from their homes?
Is it different because these are descendents of rather than the victims themselves? Is monetary reparation the only possibility? Does this give us as a society a chance for some reconciliation? Is it just history, something for us to learn about and then let go?
What do you think? Call in or write in at one, or comment on the blog.
Check with you later.
-Marc
Did your parents ever give you an incentive to perform well in school? As in, raise your grades and we'll raise your allowance? Or, keep a certain GPA and we'll take you on a vacation? Mine did. Freshman year of college my mom wouldn't let me take my car to the campus first semester-and I wasn't allowed to bring it second semester unless I got a certain GPA. I worked pretty hard to make sure I hit that GPA mark--I needed my car to escape campus every once in awhile.
We all know that lots of parents do this. But when the actual school system gets involved, we get very uncomfortable about the idea of learning having a cash/material reward system. We want education to be pure-for students to be motivated by a love of learning-to learn for learning's sake. But do we need to do a reality check? Do we need to abandon our high ideals and take a look at what is really going on, and maybe adopt a method that stems from a harm-reduction philosophy?
That's what we're talking about today at noon, with Dr. Andres Alonso, live and in studio. Join us!
Poll: What do you think about Dr. Andres Alonso's idea that the school system pay students who improve their test scores?
-Jessica
At noon, a topic I know some of our listeners follow very closely... while some of you might just wonder how you're going to pay a $450 BGE bill this month, which, by the way, is slightly less than the bill that arrived at my house last week.
Something for everyone, then: Steve Larsen, Chairman of the PSC (Public Service Commission, more info on both Steve individually and the PSC as a whole here) joins us to discuss the ongoing investigation into Maryland's 1999 energy deregulation deal, that led to a 72% rate hike for more than 1 million BGE customers last year, and could be followed by higher increases soon.
If, indeed, consumers got a bad deal, what should/can be done now? Should Maryland consider re-regulating? How about seeking monetary compensation from Constellation Energy in court? Last August, Illinois reached a one billion dollar settlement with a coalition of power suppliers over contentious rate hikes there. Read one account of it, from EnergyBiz Magazine, here. Please join us with your questions for Steve Larsen on the air at noon (866-661-9309 or thesteinershow@wypr.org) and don't forget to post your thoughts here, as well.
-Justin
I remember in 2006 during the race for Maryland's vacant senate seat, a hot debate being sparked on our show when a guest said, "Any black person who votes for a Democrat in this election is a patsy." Oh, the calls that came in for the rest of the hour-people were SO angry!
While it was a comment that probably could have been worded in a much more intelligent way, what it implied was interesting. The implication was that the Democratic party was taking the African American vote for granted by not supporting the candidacy of Kweisi Mfume-and that blacks should vote for the Republican candidate, Michael Steele, an African American. Most of the callers were offended by the very suggestion that the Republican agenda had anything to offer black voters.
But according to statistics, more and more blacks are finding something about the Republican party to interest them. In 1972, fewer than 10 percent of African Americans identified themselves as conservative; today nearly 30 percent-11.2 million-do. Those are the numbers presented by Christopher Alan Bracey in his new book, Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice.He points to the social issues that African Americans tend to be conservative on-abortion and gay marriage for example-and traces the history of politicla conservatism in the Black world. Figures like Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell--what appeal did they find in conservative politics? Why do they remain such polarizing figures? Join us today to discuss.-JessicaP.S. Go here for information on Bracey's event in Howard County this weekend!
...Those are a few of the topics we're planning to cover at 1pm today, focusing on the intersection of all of them. We'll look at recent developments in Iraq's oil industry, and how it fits into the bigger picture of the Iraq War. We'll discuss why the presidential candidates and the media both seem to not be focusing on Iraq as much as they should be.
We'll be talking with Ben Lando, UPI's energy editor. Check out an extensive archive of his articles here. Ben also created The Iraq Oil Report, a website that tracks oil goings on in Iraq on a daily basis.
We'll also be speaking with Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time. She is the Tarbell Fellow at Oil Change International and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. Here's an archive of op-eds that she has written.
-Justin
This summer, scientists mapped more than 20,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico. The red lines indicate newly mapped areas of the continental shelf. Illustration: Chuck Carter/Paul Morin
Then-Mayor Martin O'Malley at an Earth Day Planting at Gilmor Elementary in 2005
Before I came to work at WYPR, I worked at a documentary company called Soundprint. While I was there, they were working on a series of stories about urban forests that delved into the unique environmental issues that cities face. For the documentary Watershed 263, we attended an Earth Day planting ceremony at Gilmor Elementary in Baltimore. Gilmor was one of a dozen schools in Baltimore that had converted their parking lot into a garden. Things like parking lots and roads are terrible for the environment. When it rains, the rain gathers up all the oil and other pollutants that have been sitting on the pavement and then whooshes it all into a storm-water drain. That all ends up in the Chesapeake, of course, where it wreaks havoc. A garden, on the other hand, keeps that water right there, and puts it to good use. It's a lot of fun for the kids, too, to get a day out of class to get their hands dirty and have a beautiful spot to play.
The purpose of that whole long story was to tell you that on that day, then-Mayor Martin O'Malley was at that school, and ceremoniously planted the first flower in the soil. I remember being impressed that he would find time in a busy schedule to visit a school, make a speech, plant a flower, and hang out with the kids for awhile. I left with the feeling that he cared about the environment.
The impression I was left with would please the now Governor, and those who work to craft his image. He has very purposefully cast himself as a "Green Governer". But what does that term really mean? As the environmental crisis in the Bay and beyond seems to grow more urgent, how does the criteria for being an environmental politician change? What is the gold standard in environmentalism for a politician? What is the leading edge-and is O'Malley on it?
We'll discuss this today with people who all care deeply and have devoted their lives to the environment. Join us, to share your thoughts on what you would like to see happen in Maryland.
Poll: Do you think Governor Martin O'Malley is a Green Governor?
-Jessica
Here are some pictures courtesy of one of our guests today, Gerry Winegrad. His descriptions are below:
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1. brown bull headed catfish taken from the South River near Annapolis by USGS. Nearly 2/3rds sampled had these cancerous tumors from water pollutants, most likely from stormwater runoff.
2. BROWN TIDE KILLS 7,000 INNER HARBOR FISHJune 5, 2007 BALTIMORE -- State environmental officials said a lack of oxygen killed thousands of fish in Baltimore's Inner Harbor last weekend.State program director Charles Poukish said the fish kill isthe result of an algae bloom or brown tide.Poukish said the lack of dissolved oxygen is the result of a large bloom of microscopic algae. Recent warm water temperatures killed the algae and that depleted oxygen near the water‘s surface. Massive fish kills also were reported in the Potomac during the summer and other kills in the Magothy and other rivers.
3. rockfish with mycobactreiosis (chronic wasting disease). A wasting disease that kills rockfish and can cause a severe skin infection in humans has spread to nearly three-quarters of the rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, cradle of the mid-Atlantic's most popular game fish.The disease also sends a grim message about the entire bay ecosystem. The rockfish remains bay conservationists' only success story -- a species nearly wiped out, then revived by fishing limits.But as the number of rockfish surged, the fish remained in a body of water too polluted to support the level of life it once did.
Marc has said for years that the best way to address drug and gang related violence in Baltimore is to get ex-offenders, those wise men who have been there and come back to tell the tale, to work in outreach with troubled communities. But there has always seemed to be an institutional and government aversion towards giving money to people who have been in prison. Maybe things just had to get really, really, really bad before that changed.In 2000, Chicago implemented a program that was developed at the University of Illnois School of Public Health in Chicago. This program began in West Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. Police Beat 1115 was chosen as the first CeaseFirezone in large part because of the high number of shootings. The idea was to send ex-offenders, faith leader, and other community members into those neighborhoods to offer conflict resolution, help kids get out of gangs, and whatever else it took to save a neighborhood. In the first year of CeaseFire, shootings in beat 1115 dropped by 67%. In the past few years, CeaseFire has seen continuing success, which you can read about here.
Last year, Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore City Health Department brought Operation Safe Streets to Baltimore. It is a program based on CeaseFire, and we're hearing that the pilot neighborhood has seen a tremendous drop in homicides and shootings. Today at one, we'll talk with people from that community to learn more.
Join us....
At noon tomorrow, Wednesday, we're going to continue the discussion we began at noon today. We had lots of calls and emails throughout the show today, and we'll be going through them to help plan tomorrow's show. We'll be checking the blog for listener's thoughts on the economy, as well, so put up your comments here!
Here's a couple articles to check out, if you're looking for some further reading:
-from the NY Times magazine on Sunday, The Education of Ben Bernanke
-how one man personally made billions, literally, in one year thanks to the collapse of the housing market, in the Wall Street Journal, Trader Made Billions on Subprime-Justin
As the subprime mortgage mess has gone into major meltdown mode, we're hearing a lot about "predatory lenders" while sympathetic words are being used for the people who are losing their homes.
But at what point do we say, "Wait a second--should these people bear some responsibility for making bad financial choices? Why did they choose a loan that was not good for them? Are they guilty of living beyond their means?"
Ah, living beyond ones means. An American tradition, some would say. Advertisers and credit card companies surely want you to engage in this kind of behavior, and hey, it's good for the economy, which is good for America, right? Or at least that's what we tell ourselves when those $230 Cole Haan shoes at Nordstrom are calling our name.
But at what point does it become too much? If I buy the Cole Haan shoes, or use my credit card to pay for groceries or for my kids school uniform, and then I can't make the payments and my interest rate jumps not only on the credit card I didn't make the payment on but on ALL my credit cards--is that my fault for not being responsible with my money? Or was I lured by dishonest and seductive promises about easy credit and low APR's into thinking that I could spend now, pay later?
And if, as in the case of the subprime debacle, the government intervenes, what message will it send to people? Will it help us become smarter spenders and borrowers, or teach us that we can engage in risky behavior and not bear the consequences?
We're talking about issues of responsibility with debt today, and how our culture thinks about money and credit. The subprime mess has showed us how far this issue reaches. All sectors are hurt, not just those involved with the industry. Is it time for our country to radically transform the way we think about money, credit, and debt?
Join us!
Poll: Who do you think is to blame for the mortgage meltdown?Poll: Should the government intervene to keep people from losing their homes?
-Jessica
In November we presented a one hour version of today's special program titled Martin and Malcolm: One Vision - Two Voices. In honor of today's holiday honoring Dr. King we present an extended version of Martin and Malcolm: One Vision - Two Voices. Produced, in cooperation with the Maryland Humanities Council, Marc moderated a discussion between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , portrayed by actor Bill Grimmette, and Malcolm X, portrayed by actor Charles Everett Pace. The program was recorded before a live audience at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
A number of Maryland National Guardsmen will be returning this spring. Members of the National Guard face the same combat in Iraq as members of the other branches of the armed services, but have fewer resources available to them when they return home. With little or no federal government funding, states have been left to create their own reintegration programs. Minnesota National Guard's Beyond the Yellow Ribbon reintegration program is serving as a model for other states.
This hour we'll look at the issues facing members of the National Guard as they return home.
Mexicans. That is what many Americans call any person living in America who is from south of our border. But the truth is that many of the people living in our country without permission began their journey south of Mexico-and they had to sneak into that country illegally as well. That is the subject of a new article in this month's National Geographic. Around 400,000 people sneak into Mexico every single year, making Mexico’s southern border feel "like the place in distant water where the wave first rises and swells and gathers uncontainable propulsive force." We'll talk with the author of that article, Cynthia Gorney. Please also check out the photographs of Alex Webb, who traveled with Cynthia as she reported the story.
And then...
There is this cool test on the BBC website I took last week that measures whether or not your senses overlap. As in, do you connect days of the week, letters or numbers with color? Is Thursday always green to you, and is the letter F always red? What the test is really measuring is whether or not you may have a neurological phenomenon called synesthesia. Synesthesia is only beginning to be understand by scientists and the people who have it. There are several different types, the most common called Grapheme-color synesthesia, which is where an individual associates letters and numbers with color. There is also spatial-sequence synesthesia, where numbers have spatial relationships to each other and to you-for example, 18 is further away and to the left, while 9 is rather close and above. There are many other kinds and you can read about them here.
So what is life like for someone with synesthesia? Today we are going to talk with writer Alison Buckholtz, who wrote a great article for Salon.com earlier this week called The Letter E is Purple about her personal experience with the condition-and how she feels about the fact that her son may have it..
Join us!
Baltimore City's 36th police commissioner has a lot of work to do to keep the homicide rate from following last year's trend, when it was the highest since 1999. He's going to be in the studio today to discuss his plans, which include using community engagement, targeted enforcement, and strong partnerships. We're taking your questions for Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld. Join us at Noon.
-Jessica
Baltimore is crazy for HBO's critically acclaimed series The Wire. I think that many citizens of Baltimore secretly enjoy the violent and criminal reputation of the city, that they are perversely proud of it in the way that New Yorkers were of their city before Giuliani cleaned it up. We think it makes us look tough or something. The Wire is a part of that--almost our way of saying to the world, "See how messed up and tough our city is? I bet you couldn't handle this."
It's also just such a great show. Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik, who you also hear weekly on WYPR's Take on Television, will be in the studio today to discuss the show. We can also talk about the writer's strike and what it means for the next year of entertainment. Is any end in sight?
Join us, with your questions and comments for David. What do you love or hate most about this new, final season of The Wire? What television show are you going to miss seeing as a result of the writer's strike?
Poll: What do you think of the fifth and final season of The Wire?
-Jessica
P.S. Aaron Henkin of The Signal, our weekly arts and culture show, did a great piece last week where he watched The Wire with former drug dealers and got their thoughts on how real or unreal the depiction of their lives is. Listen to it here.
There is probably no one more suited to the role of having to defend their job from a Governor, two legislative leaders, and dozens of delegates and senators who are only too happy to give the men in charge what they want, than State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick. But as equipped as she is, she has quite the fight ahead of her. The Governor has said he wants her removed, and the Speaker of the House Mike Busch and Senate President Mike Miller have said they will change the law to give him what he wants.
So what is going to happen? What are Nancy Grasmick's plans for defending her position? And if she is successful, what is her agenda for the next four years?
Join us at one o'clock today, to find out. We'll be joined by Dr. Grasmick live in the studio.
One of the most interesting things I have read about the situation in Israel and Palestine is a positive observation. The observation is that for the first time in many, many years, the leader of Israel and the leader of Palestine trust each other.
The problem is, perhaps, that their own people may not trust them.
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, is under investigation for corruption, has been blamed for the loss of the second Lebanon war, and according to some polls, only 8% of Israeli's support his government.
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, is in a constant fight to keep the Palestinian populace loyal to his Fatah party as opposed to Hamas.
And President Bush, who is meant to help usher these men and their nations towards peace, is generally disliked in the Arab world and due to leave office in a years time.
Is there any hope?
Join us at Noon today to discuss. We're going to talk with Aron Raskas, a Baltimore attorney who is national vice-president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and a director of www.onejerusalem.org, and with Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian columnist/journalist and currently a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, as well as William Kern, Managing Editor of WORLDMEETS.US, a website that provides articles translated into English from an array of international media.
Poll: Do you think this latest push for peace will result in any lasting agreements?
-Jessica
We're on the air right now with Andy Green from The Sun, Tom LoBianco from The Washington Times, and Erin Sullivan from City Paper... talking about the beginning of the legislative session, what to expect in the next 3 months, and, so far, the public's perception of O'Malley. Yesterday, The Sun published a poll showing a low approval rating for O'Malley, mainly because of the tax increases approved in the special session last fall, it seems.
What are your thoughts on O'Malley and the new tax increases? How do you perceive yourself as being effected by the new tax plan? Is a 1 percent sales tax increase something to complain about? How about a 1.25% corporate tax increase?
Poll: Do you approve or disapprove of the job Martin O'Malley has done as governor so far?
-Justin
What role did the Walters Art Museum have in discovering the earliest surviving manuscript by Archimedes, which includes some previously undiscovered writings? Join us at 1pm today to find out, as we're joined by the authors of The Archimedes Codex: How a Medieval Prayer Book Is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity's Greatest Scientist.
At Noon today, we welcome you to add your opinion to the never ending analysis of the 2008 Presidential election and the results of the Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire primary, and the Wyoming GOP primary. From Obama's surprise victory in Iowa to Hillary's emotional moment to Edward's attempts to keep from becoming completly irrelvent, the Democratic primary has been providing some exciting times. On the GOP side, things are no less exciting, as McCain attempts to accomplish what at times has seen inevitable and at times completly out of the question-to become the Republican candidate for President. Will he be able to get the Republican base to trust him? Only time will tell.
Poll: If the Democratic primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?Poll: If the Republican primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?
In the mid sixtie's Fleisher's career was interupted by a debilitating ailment which effected his right hand. As a result Fleisher began teaching, conducting and specializing in performing piano pieces for the left hand. In 1995 Leon Fleisher returned to performing two-handed works and last year was one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors celebrating lifetime achievement in the arts.
We're going to start with Clive Thompson, a contributing writer to New York Times Magazine who wrote the cover story this weekend titled Can You Count on Voting Machines? This is scary stuff, people. In actual election situations, touch screen voting machines have crashed, lost votes, failed to properly print paper records of votes, and more. These are the machines that roughly one-third of all Americans will be using to cast their votes in the 2008 Presidential election-an election that may be determined by very slim margins. Including Maryland.
Poll: Do you trust electronic voting machines?
And then, we go to Kenya, where 486 people are estimated dead since the disputed Presidential election there last week. Things have quieted down since both political parties have cancelled protest rallies and agreed to mediation. But the situation is precarious and the humanitarian crisis remains with a quarter of a million people displaced. We'll talk with Maina Kiai, Chairman of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, who is currently in Kenya, and with Christopher Fumonyoh, Senior Associate for Africa at the National Democratic Institute.
I'm a huge Ravens fan, so I could go on and on about all of the trivial things that only another Ravens fan would care about. I had a bad feeling after we lost the first game of the season to The Bengals. We should have won that game, right? We were right there on the goal line....
That scenario repeated itself, in more and less similar ways, many times throughout the season, and it turned out to be a trainwreck of a season. What went wrong?
Now Billick is gone, and fans seem to have divided opinions, with many not being sure whether it was a good decision to fire him, or not. The questions we can ask now, as all we can do is look forward to next season, are endless, starting with who will be head coach. And the whole coaching staff was fired, so what about the other coaches? Who will start as quarterback? Will we ever have a strong offense?
Lots of questions, and we'll welcome your thoughts from noon to 1pm today on the air, or right here at any time.
Emily Martin, professor of anthropology and author of the book above joins us at 1pm today. She has a lot of insight to share on mania and depression, and we hope you'll join us with questions, and to share your own experiences with these common parts of our lives, as well.
Marc loves Studs Terkel, the great historian, author, broadcaster, and so much more. So whenever he releases a new book or is anywhere near a studio and they offer us an interview, we know the answer is always yes. Recently, he released a memoir called Touch and Go. After decades of telling other people's stories, Studs is finally telling his own. Today at one we bring you an interview with Studs that we recorded before the holidays. It may be the last time we get to speak to this 95 year old American treasure, so don't miss it.
And then we'll talk with Nelson Peery, an author and activist whose latest book is Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary. This book examines the time in this communist's life after he returned home from serving in World War II to the time of the Watts Riots in 1965. He challenges the notion that the Civil Rights Movement in America was led by the clergy elite. Instead, he believes that it was the experiences of black veterans of WWII that gave the movement the mass appeal that it needed to succeed. He joined us to discuss his experiences in the Communist party, the freedom movement, and more.
A great show...today at one. Don't miss it.
We're back, so dry your tears and join us at Noon today for Open Phones. What is on your mind? We're interested. 1-866-661-9309 or 410-662-8780 or email at steinershow@wypr.org. Or leave your comment here.
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