Robert F. Kennedy, affectionately known to all as Bobby Kennedy, against the advice of his brother Senator Ted Kennedy and many of the leading Democratic Party leaders, entered the Presidential race on March 16th, 1968. Pacifica Radio was there to record his meteoric rise from late comer to his murder in the early morning hours following his victory in the final and most coveted Primary of the race, California on June 4th, 1968.

We begin by playing one of Bobby Kennedy’s early speeches of his campaign in late March 1968 on the Campus of San Fernado State Valley College later named Cal State Northridge in 1972. He begins by playfully taking a jab at Richard Nixon, who Kennedy believed would be his opponent in the 1968 Presidential election. After his speech he fielded a handful of questions; we’ll hear him respond to one concerning the belief of Ted Kennedy and other Democratic Party leaders that Bobby’s entrance into the race would split the vote of the Democratic Party, and hurt the Party’s chances of defeating the Republican nominee in November.

Many thought that Bobby Kennedy’s support of the Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers in their Delano Grape Strike would hurt his chances of winning the California Primary — a concern that would prove to be untrue. We’ll listen to Bobby Kennedy state his position on the Farm Worker Struggle.

By 1968, the United States’ involvement in Vietnam was increasingly unpopular due not just because of the resulting cost in lives, money and resources, but because it was thought of as an “immoral war” — a war we had no business being involved in. We’ll listen to Bobby Kennedy address these concerns.

The question that may have been the most difficult to answer for Bobby, was the question of whether he would open the National Archives, which contained the sealed information on the murder of his brother President John F. Kennedy.

A few weeks later Bobby Kennedy was back in Los Angeles to speak in front of a gathering of business and financial leaders at the Biltmore Hotel on April 19th, 1968. Again we’ll hear Kennedy’s charm even when facing a hostile audience.

The death of Robert F. Kennedy marked the culmination of one of the most tragic years in United State’s history, preceded by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a few month’s earlier, student protests and rioting in major cities around the country, and the increasing death toll of US soldiers in Vietnam — not to mention the assassination years ago of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. There was an unease in this country that was articulated in this recent interview with USA Radio Networks White House Correspondent Connie Lawn, who was a young journalist getting her first major work covering the Presidential campaign with Robert F. Kennedy. She spoke with the BBC’s Joanne Griffith about her experience on the campaign trail with Kennedy and the relevance of the historic events of 1968 today. Woven into this interview as she describes the evening of Bobby Kennedy’s shooting by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan is event actuality from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Robert F. Kenndy:

BB4629 Robert F. Kennedy at San Fernando Valley State College MORE INFO

BB4503 A Major Address / Robert F. Kennedy MORE INFO

BB4511 The Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy 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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From the fields of the rich California farm lands to the gritty landscape of urban reality, there was a growing Movement in 1968 within the Mexican American community. Many Mexican Americans have felt at one time or another a foreigner, or an uninvited guest in the United States.

As the Civil Rights Movement lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed the world the strength of the African American spirit and capacity for organization and solidarity, The Mexican American community began to recognize their self worth and value in American society.

There was a growing consciousness that they did not sail across an ocean and establish themselves in a foreign land. The truth is they were always here, for thousands of years. This renewed sense of value translated into demands for equality and justice in the workplace, in the schools, in society. We see the establishment of the name Chicano to capture the renewed sense of pride and identity in the community.

Thanks to leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the fields and Rodolfo Gonzalez, Reis Lopez Tijerina and Bert Corona in the cities, we saw a renewed sense of value in the Latino Community spread across of the entire South West United States. With events like the 1968 United Mexican American Student’s Symposium at UCLA, and the work of activist and producer Moctezuma Esparza, the discouraged were given hope. This week on From the Vault, we’ll pay special tribute to those leaders and activists, in their own words.

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

PZ0673.107 From the Vault: The 1968 Mexican American Experience MORE INFO

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, The 1968 Mexican American Experience:

BB4465.01-04 United Mexican American Student Symposium MORE INFO

BB2358 The Delano Grape Strike MORE INFO

BB3147 Cesar Chavez at City College MORE INFO

BB3554 Dolores Huerta: Vice President of the United Farm Workers MORE INFO

BB3904 The California Grape Strike 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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In 1968, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was planning The Poor People’s March on Washington D.C. as part of the War on Poverty. Dr. King was adamant that the Poor People’s March and campaign did not focus just on poor African Americans but included poverty-stricken people without deference to race, creed or color. Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Asians, Native Americans, and Caucasians, particularly from rural Appalachia were recruited to join the campaign. He planned to lobby congress for an Economic Bill of Rights which would include affordable housing and a guaranteed annual income for the poor of this country.

Dr. King would not live to see the March. But thanks to the efforts of the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who took over the leadership role of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others such as Jesse Jackson, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, poor people from around the country began their trip to Washington, DC by any way they could manage. For most of these poor people, this trip was an enormous financial sacrifice, yet a necessary burden – they would hand-deliver their message to Washington. Some of this journey was recorded by Pacifica producer Arthur Alexander along the road from Memphis Tennessee to Washington DC.

Once in Washington DC, activists constructed an encampment on the Washington Mall dubbed Resurrection City. This was used as a base camp for strategy meetings, teach-ins and speeches. On May 13th, 1968, the first sojourners arrived at Resurrection City, and Pacifica producer Ellen Kohn was there to record the events as they unfolded and to interview those who were there. Kohn captured the opening ceremonies, where the new president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Abernathy – now dubbed ‘Mayor of Resurrection City’) delivered a moving address. But perhaps the most powerful moment of the campaign was when the Reverend Jesse Jackson lead the citizens in his call and response anthem I Am Somebody.

Mid-June of 1968 saw the population of Resurrection City peak at 50,000 people; but after heavy rains, dampened spirits, confused agendas and the assassination Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Resurrection City was closed on June 24th, 1968. Although the campaign is viewed as a failure, the experiences of those who took the journey– recorded, preserved, and made accessible by Pacifica Radio Archives — is critical to the dialog of race and poverty in America.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Poor People’s Campaign:

BB3128 Poor People’s Campaign 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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In 1968, the war in Vietnam, United States imperialism, and the racial divide were all part of the impetus that saw students raising their voices in protests, rallies, and demonstrations around the world. Predating NPR, PBS, and modern public broadcasting, Pacifica Radio was there to record and document the experiences and philosophies of these young people during this tumultuous year. In this episode of From the Vault, we revisit the May 1968 student protests in Paris, France through archival recordings recently digitized from the Pacifica Radio Archives collection.

It began in March of 1968, when students at the University of Paris (among other schools in France) spoke out against class discrimination in French society and the bureaucracy of University funding. By May, in hopes of quelling the student unrest, university officials made moves to close the school — and ordered a massive police mobilization on campus to help see this through. It had quite the opposite effect, as over 20,000 highly-charged students, together with the teachers’ union and other supporters vigorously marched to the school to protest the university’s abrupt closure. A riot ensued as police attacked the advancing protesters with batons and tear gas, and the protesters retaliated by throwing rocks and bottles — setting the stage for a series of events that would nearly bring the French government to its knees.

Today, we feature historic recordings of participants and eyewitnesses to the 1968 Paris student uprising, like National Secretary of the Young Socialist Alliance, Mary Alice Waters; chairman of the student Communist Revolutionary Group, Jean Dube; and student leader Yves Salesse. Also, we’ll hear an interview with French artist and poet Jenny Batlay, who discusses the 1968 dynamic between artists and their turbulent environment; and the recollections of longtime Pacifica producer and National Correspondent Larry Bensky, who was living in Paris at the time of the student uprising.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Paris Student Uprising:

BB3547 Mary Alice Waters: Reporter for the Militant and Young Socialist MORE INFO

BB3536 Jean Dube MORE INFO

BB1770 Interview with a French Student Leader / Yves Salesse MORE INFO

BB4517 Jenny Batlay / Interviewed by George Cleyet 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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Continuing our 1968 Revolution Rewind on From the Vault, this week we hear Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin. Rustin is perhaps one of the most understated leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. He helped with the formation of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942, which was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau, and modeled after Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violent resistance against British rule in India. Bayard Rustin would devote his life to the non violent pursuit of equal rights for all.

This episode features historic audio of Bayard Rustin from Pacifica Radio Archives. Five years after organizing the 1963 March on Washington and securing a global audience for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s monumental I Have a Dream address, we’ll listen as Rustin ponders the changing roles for African Americans in society, in a speech entitled The Future of Minorities. Then, we revisit a rare debate between Bayard Rustin and Malcolm X entitled A Choice of Two Roads, where the two leaders discuss the direction of the civil rights movement.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Bayard Rustin:

BB3014 A Choice of Two Roads MORE INFO

BB3829.16 The Future of Minorities 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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