Audio

• produced by Radio Rootz
• in 2008

Once again the youth of Radio Rootz got to take over the airwaves of WBAI's Global Movements Urban Struggles. 99.5Fm on Tuesday August 12, 2008. Hear the Radio Rootz crew discuss senioritis; the importance of college; a trip to Cambodia; and the summer media organizing program, also known as SMOP. So have your eyes closed and ears open as Radio Rootz comes through your speakers and into your heart!!!!

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Crystal Santana's very personal story is about a struggle that many people may share.  Below she gives us some background and is also letting us publish an intimate letter.  Please read on, and afterwards, and share some of your stories or just voice what you're thinking here.

• produced by Marya Tambawalla
• in 2008

Why do we go to college? Is it our own decision or pressure from our parents? Is it our desire to learn or the promise of a higher paycheck? Is it to realize our potential and achieve our dreams or to hang out with friends? Take a listen as Marya Tambawala explores whether or not college is for everyone?

• produced by Marya Tambawalla
• in

Prompted by Federal Court order, the Little Rock, Arkansas school board was forced to reopen the public schools it had closed in previous desperate efforts to avoid racial desegregation..  When desegregation had begun two years earlier, the Little Rock Nine were entering the then all-white Central High.  The Nine faced violent backlashes from white communities.  For the following two years, the school board came up with excuse after excuse to delay integration of the City's public schools.  Their efforts even included shutting down schools.

• produced by Sidra Khatkhatay
• in

Large-scale race riots broke out in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles after growing crowds of people witnessed tense conflict between white LAPD officers and two black community members. The Watts Riots ensued for five more days, filled with violent encounters between the LAPD and black citizens along with destruction of city property.  By the end of the riots, some 4,000 people had been arrested, yet the City and the Police Department continued to criminalize the Watts community well into following months. 

• produced by Jackie Kook
• in

The United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which opened Japanese ports to foreign trade and signaled the end of Japan's strict isolationist policies and its resistance to foreign powers.  This treaty sparked a number of similar treaties between Japan and various European nations, which were often referred to as 'unequal treaties' because they subjected Japan to the financial whims of powerful foreign nations.  This period of 'unequal treaties' pushed Japan into economic and political crises that compelled Japan to adopt Western-style political, judicial and military institutions.  This legacy is an integral part of Japan's transformation into not only an industrialized world power, but East Asia's version of the colonial power.

• produced by Jackie Kook
• in

U.S. President Reagan fired 11,345 striking air-traffic controllers.  Two days earlier, after months of frustrating and futile negotiations with the federal government, the air-traffic controllers union went on strike to raise wages and improve working conditions. When the strike began, almost 13,000 air-traffic controllers did not show up to work, forcing over 7,000 flights to be canceled.  That same day, President Reagan condemned the strike illegal under U.S. law, which banned strikes by government unions.  He threatened to fire any air controller who did not return to work within 48 hours.

• produced by Jackie Kook
• in

The bodies of American Civil Rights activists James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were found in the Mississippi River after disappearing two months earlier.  The three young activists had traveled together to Mississippi to register black voters and investigate the bombing of a black church.  After being arrested for supposed speeding, they were rleeased onto a dark remote road and greeted by carloads of Ku Klux Klan members.  The Klansmen shot the two Jewish New Yorkers, Schwerner and Goodman.  Chaney, a black Mississippi native, was brutally beaten with chains and mutilated before being shot.  The killings received massive media attention, and ignited public sympathy.  Civil Rights activists criticized the publicity, stating that had two o

• produced by Jackie Kook
• in

In the spirit of post-Civil War reconstruction, the 14th Amendment was ratified, officially adding the citizenship clause and the due process clause to the United States Constitution. This famous Amendment states anyone born on U.S. soil would automatically become a citizen, otherwise known as "birthright citizenship".  Birthright citizenship included former slaves, but continued to exclude indigenous peoples. The second part of the 14th Amendment, the Due Process Clause, forbid any state to deny a person of their 'life, liberty, or property without due process of law'. You may also know it as the law that helps you enforce your own rights against your government when it violates you.

• produced by DEI
• in

NYC Wireless's Laura Forlano on Wakeup Call discussing the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee.

• produced by DEI
• in

New York City Council Member Gale Brewer on Wakeup Call discussing the City’s new Broadband Advisory Committee.