In the city of Sunnyvale California, there is a street named America street. Families of many different backgrounds live on the street and in the immediate neighborhood. It's a melting pot of America in miniature. What are the feelings, the attitudes, the texture of life on America Street? What do these Americans think about America as it is today? For if we are to approach the reality of the American experiment in democracy we must know, understand, and respond to the opinions of America Street. We ask you to imagine that you are overhearing a discussion among the residents of America Street as occasionally compared and contrasted with an informed opinion from other sources.An online collection of early educational public radio content from the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB).
https://www.unlockingtheairwaves.org/programs/america-street-usa/
#6 Civil rights and civil disturbances
Today's topic: civil rights and civil disturbances in America. We chose America Street because in many ways it is a typical American neighborhood, but in one sense it is too typical: there are no black American families Today's topic: civil rights and civil disturbances in America. We chose America Street because in many ways it is a typical American neighborhood, but in one sense it is too typical: there are no black American families living on America Street. A few black Americans live in the surrounding neighborhoods but many if not most black residents of the county live in such ghetto areas as East Palo Alto. It might surprise some of our listeners to learn that there are ghettos in the suburbs as well as the big cities. And yet at the core of America's racial problems is the fact that for too long we have not properly taken into account of the opinions of black Americans. The black experience is foreign to most white Americans. Therefore as part of today's program we have chosen excerpts from statements by two of the most articulate spokesmen for black Americans: novelist, essayist, and playwright James Baldwin, known for his understanding and compassionate view of the black experience in America as well as the vigor of his statements, and Stokely Carmichael, an intellectual leader for black militants and activists.