This week on From the Vault, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of 1968, a year in which a radical wave crashed across the globe, changing the world and its people politically, socially, and culturally. Wars, marches, elections, assassinations, human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, the explosion of consciousness and creativity – no event took place in isolation; the Vietnam War ducked and wove through 1968, depositing destruction and igniting defiance against injustice; students worldwide took to the streets to not only speak out against social ills in their own land – but also in support of their international brethren; civil rights campaigners spoke in unity about the need for equal rights and respect; and a new battle – the war of words – is penned amidst the tide of change brought to artists struggling to comprehend and express the social and political upheaval surrounding them. And Pacifica Radio was there to capture it all. We’ll hear voices from 1968 that include H. Rap Brown, Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Ray Bradbury, among others.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

The From the Vault theme music was written and performed by Nancy Sanchez and Gina Recamier.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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 261.

This week on From the Vault we celebrate the 88th birthday of Dolores Huerta, who became a public figure in the mid-1960’s when she cofounded the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez. Today Dolores heads the Dolores Huerta Foundation, where she continues to fight for equality and justice for underrepresented communities.

Dan Guerrero, host of the Gaytino Report on KPFK’s show IMRU, produced this Dolores Huerta birthday show, combining personal stories with recordings from Pacifica Radio Archives spanning back to the 1960’s. It was broadcast on April 10th, 2018.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

The From the Vault theme music was written and performed by Nancy Sanchez and Gina Recamier.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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 261.

On February 14, 2018, one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history took place at Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland Florida. Since then, high school students have led the resurging conversation on gun control. The history of high school student activism in America can be traced to high school students of mostly Mexican American heritage in East Los Angeles. The students, who walked out of school on March 1, 1968, set the stage for policy change within the Los Angeles Unified School District and helped grow the Chicano social identity and political movement.

In this episode of From the Vault, we present Pacifica’s March 13, 1968 interview with UCLA student Juan Gomez, who was one of the advisors to the Los Angeles high school students. Interspersed is the original list of 1968 student demands as read by singer and student Nancy Sanchez. We’ll also hear comments and other audio from the California State Los Angeles University 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the walkout event held on March 2, 2018.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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 261.

This week on From the Vault, we continue our celebration of 2018 Black History Month by featuring rare recordings of one of America’s greatest intellectuals, W.E.B. DuBois. In 2003, The Pacifica Radio Archives celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the publication of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois with a two hour special tribute narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, with thoughts from Congresswomen Diane Watson (D-CA) and Maxine Waters(D-CA), author Playthell Benjamin, historian Acie Byrd, and author Dr. Gerald Horne. We hope you enjoy revisiting the first half of this beautifully-produced survey of academic, political, and artistic contributions of author and social leader W.E.B DuBois.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault, we kick off 2018 Black History Month by featuring rare recordings of one of America’s greatest intellectuals, W.E.B. DuBois. In 2003, The Pacifica Radio Archives celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the publication of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois with a two hour special tribute narrated by actress Alfre Woodard, with thoughts from Congresswomen Diane Watson (D-CA) and Maxine Waters(D-CA), author Playthell Benjamin, historian Acie Byrd, and author Dr. Gerald Horne. We hope you enjoy revisiting the first half of this beautifully-produced survey of academic, political, and artistic contributions of author and social leader W.E.B DuBois.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we speak with musicians Frank “Bulldog” Aragon and David Gomez about recording the album Say It Loud: New Songs for Peace for the inaugural Pacifica Radio Archives National Broadcast in November 2002. Set to audio tracks drawn from the storied collection of the Pacifica Radio Archives, Say it Loud is tapestry of original rhythm and melody weaving a journey into the annals of history, celebrating the likes of Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Thich Nhat Hanh, Greg Palast, Lily Tomlin, Huey Newton, Cesar Chavez, Delores Huerta, Rosa Parks, Paul Robeson, Malcom X, James Baldwin, John Coltrane, and many more. Say it Loud: New Songs for Peace was the brainchild of the artist collective known as Polemic Consortium, founded by David Gomez, Frank Aragon, and Mark Torres.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we present a relatively new addition to our collection, a panel discussion at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles entitled, See What You Mean: An Evening of Insurrections with Harry Gamboa, Jr. This panel was recorded on Saturday, October 28th, 2017 and features several artists that helped expand the role of art in California Latino and Chicano communities, including painter Ramiro Gomez, artist and archivist Guadalupe Rosales, and UCLA ethnomusicologist and author Chon Noriega.

Gamboa, Jr., the focus of the panel, was just concluding a year-long Artist in Residency at the Getty Museum, and has been an important component of the Chicano community since co-founding the Latino artist collective Asco (Spanish for nausea or repulsion) based in East Los Angeles in 1972. As a world class photographer, his work is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Artist Museum in Washington DC, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, among others.

Kathy Carpenter from the Getty Museum introduces the panel.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

Throughout history, women have suffered many injustices in the workplace, including unequal wages, unsafe work conditions and predatory sexual harassment from male administrators. This week on From the Vault, we’ll hear recordings to help us make sense of some of the Feminist efforts throughout history that have helped drive the changes happening in the present. We start off with a 1982 program titled Feminism in the 1800’s, featuring author Ellen DuBois (reading from a 1948 speech by Elizabeth Cady Stanton), who has written extensively about Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright, and others. Then, transitioning to a 1998 talk titled Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, we’ll hear the venerable Angela Davis trace the trajectory of early blues artists, including Gertrude “Ma” Rainy, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, to illustrate how Black women helped shape Feminist historical traditions through their music.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we proudly feature a recording of a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discovered in December 2014. The recording has been verified as the only known recording of the 62-minute speech made in London on December 7, 1964, and is thought to be the only known record of a comprehensive public statement by King on apartheid in South Africa.

The speech was recorded at City Temple Hall in central London where King had been invited to speak on South Africa. When King was chosen to receive the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, he went to London on the way to accepting that prize in Oslo, Norway. Speaking to an overflowing audience, he added the topics of the history of slavery, Supreme Court rulings, Greek philosophy, nonviolent resistance, misunderstandings about the doctrine of loving ones’ enemies, the legislative process of desegregation in America, registration of black voters, and ending bigotry throughout the planet. When speaking about South Africa, he read a prepared written statement that called for sanctions to end apartheid.

The recording on tape was made by Saul Bernstein, identified as a “Pacifica European Correspondent.” In order to not lose any of the speech while changing tapes, he used a “half-track format” with half of the speech recorded in one direction on half of the tape and the rest of the speech recorded on the other half of the tape going the opposite direction. The entire speech was converted to digital format by the Pacifica Radio Archives staff, who corrected sound distortions.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we celebrate the life of one of the leading voices of feminism, author and artist Kate Millett (1934-2017), whose body of work in art, literature and activism has been instrumental in shaping second-wave feminism. Millet is probably best known for her doctoral thesis turned 1970 best-selling book Sexual Politics – one of several influential books she has written.

Pacifica Radio has been present over the years to capture several important recordings of Millett. We begin with a 1978 recording of Kate Millet speaking at the Gay Academic Union Conference, where she reflects reflecting on several decades of activism, from the pre-Stonewall days to the present-day 1978. Then we’ll hear from Kate Millett in an interview with WBAI host Marillo Murillo that coincided with 1990 release of her book The Loony-Bin Trip.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.