“We clearly cannot expect the Bill of Rights to be defended by government officials. So it will have to be defended by the people.”
~Howard Zinn, 1991.

218 years ago this week, on September 25th, 1789, the United States Congress passed the Bill of Rights, later ratified by the States in 1791. As part of the foundation for an experimental new kind of government, the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, was designed to protect the basic rights of every citizen. This Bill of Rights Anniversary edition of From the Vault will present classic recordings from Pacifica Radio Archives that shed light on the underrepresented viewpoints of the founding fathers’ intentions, and how those viewpoints, over time, have been woven into our current perception of the protections recorded on this storied parchment.

We’ll begin with Howard Zinn, historian and author of A People’s History of the United States, speaking in 1991 on the bicentennial of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Ever articulate, Zinn reflects on the changing interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, argues the notion that the First Amendment only applies to protect the government, and suggests that only enough free speech exists to give people a false sense of democracy. Following Zinn, we’ll hear excerpts from the Bicentennial Edition of the Bill of Rights Radio Education Project by award-winning producer Adi Givens, as she explores free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

ORIGINAL SOURCE RECORDINGS:

PZ0180 The Bill of Rights Bi-Centennial / Howard Zinn MORE INFO

PZ0134.10 Without Due Process MORE INFO

PZ0134.13 Public Libraries and the First Amendment MORE INFO

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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“When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime, I do not refer them to the newspaper files but to Upton Sinclair’s novels.”
~George Bernard Shaw

In 1906, more than a century ago, at the peak of the gilded age, when fat cats with spats, top hats, and tails ruled the world – and industry was king – an unlikely champion upset the balance forever: author Upton Sinclair, who in that year published his novel The Jungle, a graphic portrait of life in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. Although public response to the book would lead to the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act, Sinclair’s main focus — a demand for workers rights, labor reform, and gender protection in the workplace — went disappointingly unrealized. Nonetheless, Upton Sinclair’s contribution to literature and social reform is evidenced in the life and work of men and women like Rachel Carson, Jessica Mitford, Ralph Nader, and Pacifca’s own Amy Goodman.

Fast forward to 1962. Now in his eighties, Upton Sinclair took time to lecture on the campus of Pomona College in California before an audience of college students whose book reports on The Jungle were likely still fresh in their minds. Sinclair spoke that day in 1962 with his trademark plainspoken directness of how each and every human being, as an individual among the masses — and often standing against seemingly insurmountable odds — can change a nation, perhaps even the world. This week, on From the Vault, Pacifica Radio Archives proudly showcases it’s historic lecture recording, Upton Sinclair: Changing America, as an important example of Pacifica Radio’s rich broadcast legacy.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

ORIGINAL SOURCE RECORDINGS:

BB2007 Upton Sinclair: Changing America MORE INFO

KZ0650a-d The Reverent Radical: Upton Sinclair Centenary Program MORE INFO

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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“I did what everyone else in the community did, I kept my damn mouth shut, because this was the rule in this country, and your mothers and fathers and your cousins and your aunts and your uncles all participated in this – all the American people participated in this disgraceful period that we went through – and I participated in it too, by keeping my mouth shut.”
~John Henry Faulk

There were more than enough arch villains to go around halfway through the Twentieth Century, but the name usually associated with America’s 1950’s nightmare is McCarthyism. In fact, our post World War Two communist hysteria did not begin or end with Senator Joe McCarthy, nor did he personally orchestrate every case of political persecution of the period. For the popular radio personality John Henry Faulk, though, the villain was AWARE, Incorporated — a private group that took on the role of virtual judge and executioner of alleged dissidence in the television and radio industry.

At around the same time that Faulk was challenging the fear that gripped the country, Pacifica Radio was also feeling the squeeze on its own freedom of speech. Even after being investigated by the Senate Internal Securities Subcommittee, the FBI, and other government agencies, Pacifica continued to offer a home to legions of blacklisted artists and thinkers throughout the McCarthy Era, and well into the 1960’s, when many of them were considered too hot to handle by the mainstream media. So, when John Henry Faulk spoke at the University of Texas Austin on November 6, 1969, it was only natural for his stirring talk to find its way to Pacifica’s airwaves, and into the Pacifica Radio Archives. Couched in his trademark folksy Texas humor, Faulk’s insights demonstrate once again the value of a critical alternative interpretation of history. This week on From the Vault, we’ll hear Faulk recount his harrowing story in a speech entitled “What Happens to a Democratic Society When Fear is Rampant.”

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

ORIGINAL SOURCE RECORDINGS:

BB4094 What Happens to a Democratic Society when Fear is Rampant / John Henry Faulk MORE INFO

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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“What did the inventors of the Constitution really have in mind?… the protection of property.”
~Gore Vidal

Born in West Point, of a military family, Gore Vidal was nurtured on an insider’s diet consisting in equal parts of the American Dream and clear-eyed Yankee pragmatism. A veteran of World War Two and a novelist at the age of seventeen, Vidal’s work speaks of American Empire, not as an afterthought of vigor and morality, but as the result of ruthless planning by an oligarchic political structure disguised as a people’s democracy.

This week, it is Gore Vidal’s turn to speak forthrightly, as is always his inclination, and in his own voice- the broadcast of which is this radio program’s mission. Preserved for over a quarter century by the Pacifica Radio Archives, from its original presentation in 1981, this recording represents the true essence of Pacifica Sound. In this episode of From the Vault, we look to the future by listening to past, through the voice of agent provocateur Gore Vidal.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

ORIGINAL SOURCE RECORDINGS:

KZ1017 The Decline and Rebirth of the American Republic / Gore Vidal MORE INFO

RELATED MATERIALS:

PZ0569a-c Vital Gore Vidal 3 CD Box Set MORE INFO

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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