WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today 2 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:09.400 I will be reading from a Smithsonian Magazine special report 3 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.919 America at two fifty the Revolutionary Spark. As a reminder, 4 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:18.839 Radio I is a reading service intended for people who 5 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:22.079 are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult 6 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:25.239 to read printed material. Please join me now for the 7 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:30.320 first article, titled Secretary Lonnie Bunch says the Smithsonian keeps 8 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:34.479 the Nation's memory. In an exclusive essay for America's two 9 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:38.520 hundred and fiftieth birthday, the acclaimed historian and head of 10 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:43.640 the institution argues that the Simequin Centennial presents the perfect 11 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.920 opportunity for Americans to consider their nation's past and future. 12 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.640 By Lonnie G. Bunch. The third. In the summer of 13 00:00:53.719 --> 00:00:56.880 nineteen seventy six, I visited the National Mall as a 14 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.679 graduate student to attend the Smithsonian's Bison to annual folk 15 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:05.239 Life Festival, then called the Festival of American Folk Life. 16 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:09.439 It was exhilarating to sample so many foods and drinks, 17 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:13.239 to observe so many styles of American music, dance, arts 18 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:17.760 and crafts, bluegrass and glass blowing, square dancing, and Alabama 19 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:22.159 folk painting. I witnessed the lacrosse stick making and intricate 20 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:26.079 basket weaving of indigenous tribes, and I marveled at so 21 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:31.400 many workers representing the country's prosperity and progress. In an 22 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:36.439 essay for the festival program, famed anthropologist Margaret Meade responded 23 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:40.560 to those who criticized celebrating in the aftermath of a recession, 24 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:44.719 the Vietnam War, and the resignation of a disgraced president. 25 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.159 It is quite true we are living through difficult times. 26 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:53.120 But life does not stop for difficult times, she wrote, 27 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:57.319 noting the parallels to a nineteenth century America still divided 28 00:01:57.359 --> 00:01:59.680 by the Civil War and in the midst of a 29 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:04.159 world wide recession. Quote the celebration of our one hundredth 30 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:07.480 anniversary as a nation also took place in a time 31 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:11.199 of trouble, Meade wrote, but taking pride was a good thing. 32 00:02:11.719 --> 00:02:16.360 We gained strength and looked to the future. The twenty 33 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:21.400 twenties have been difficult too, a pandemic, economic uncertainty, the 34 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:26.800 proliferation of international conflict, increasing political and social strife at home. 35 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:30.439 It is more urgent than ever for us to remember 36 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.159 that the nation was forged by resilience and shaped by 37 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:38.120 those who believed in its highest ideals. The two hundred 38 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:42.120 and fiftieth anniversary of American Independence is the perfect time 39 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:45.879 to explore and explain our country, to tell its stories, 40 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:49.479 and to help the nation grapple with its complicated history. 41 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:54.000 The Smithsonian is taking this moment not simply to reflect 42 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:57.120 on where the nation has been, but to consider who 43 00:02:57.159 --> 00:02:59.560 we are as a people and where we want to 44 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:04.719 go to gather. As the Smithsonian marks this milestone anniversary, 45 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.360 we embrace our role as keepers of the nation's memory. 46 00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:12.520 That means we must tell the unvarnished histories of the 47 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:17.439 extraordinary and the ordinary, the moments of glory and infamy alike. 48 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:22.240 America has always been a work in progress, embodied by 49 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.919 the notion in our Constitution's preamble that seeking a more 50 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.159 perfect union is an underlying need for our democratic republic. 51 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:35.719 An incomplete telling of our past, with rough edges smoothed, 52 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.199 inhibits the country's ability to forge a better shared future. 53 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.800 Since its inception, the Smithsonian has worked to capture and 54 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:48.840 even contribute to the nation's innovative spirit. We have not 55 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:53.240 only collected items like Thomas Edison's light bulb, Alexander Graham 56 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.800 Bell's early sound recordings and Grace Hopper's computer code. We 57 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:01.240 have helped support and inspire in a like the Wright 58 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:05.000 brothers as they sought to expand the limits of human achievement. 59 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:11.159 American creativity is not constrained to the scientific or technological, though. 60 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:15.879 It is also woven into the cultural, social, and constitutional 61 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:20.160 ideas that represent our willingness to take risks and challenge 62 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:25.240 social norms. Think of the ways artists like impressionist painter 63 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:31.160 Mary Cassette, writer James Baldwin, actor Paul Robeson, dancer Isidora Duncan, 64 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:35.079 and boxer Muhammad Ali helped people see the world anew. 65 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:40.279 Musicians including jazz pioneer Ella Fitzgerald, rock and roll legend 66 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:44.639 Bruce Springsteen, and folk icon Woody Guthrie have influenced the 67 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:48.759 world in their ways as much as any inventor. As 68 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:53.920 documentarian Ken Burns remarked, trumpeter Louis Armstrong is to twentieth 69 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:59.279 century music what Einstein is to physics. Speaking of Einstein, 70 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.879 how do would our nation's innovation look were it not 71 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:06.680 for the immigrants who often inspire new thinking. The list 72 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:10.759 of Americans not by birth but by choice who profoundly 73 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:14.079 changed the nation is as long as it is desperate, 74 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:20.639 with myriad backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and ideologies. So many who 75 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:24.399 emigrated here, drawn by the promise of freedom and opportunity, 76 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.480 gave rise to modernity and progress in a way that 77 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:32.800 would otherwise be hard to imagine. So too did many 78 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:36.279 who arrived on these shores not of their own free will, 79 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:39.319 as well as their descendants, who saw in our young 80 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:43.439 nation the potential to eventually become the land of freedom. 81 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:48.480 Perhaps the most consequential innovation of the United States is 82 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.920 the philosophy at the heart of our democracy that all 83 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:55.199 of us stake an equal claim to life, liberty, and 84 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:59.399 the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, it is foundational to our 85 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:04.959 form of what is innovation, if not the combination, refinement, 86 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:09.560 and application of ideas to create something new. Some believed 87 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:13.160 that when American colonists met at the Albany Congress of 88 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:17.199 seventeen fifty four to pursue a treaty with Native Americans 89 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:22.000 and to discuss centralizing the colonial governments, Benjamin Franklin took 90 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:27.199 inspiration from the Six Nations of the hoden Noshone Iroquois Confederacy, 91 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:33.439 whose representatives attended their democratic structure, separation of powers, and 92 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:37.839 analog to a bicameral legislature. The codifying of rights and 93 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:42.720 responsibilities provided a model for our founding documents and our 94 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.759 system of governance, encouragement that the colonies would be stronger 95 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.040 together than a part. One of those documents, the Declaration 96 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:55.560 of Independence, was created to persuade, rather than govern. Like 97 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:58.519 the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it is one 98 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.480 of the world's most influential and enduring road maps. When 99 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:06.759 Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address, he echoed the Declaration, 100 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:10.759 noting that the nation had been conceived in liberty and 101 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:14.399 dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 102 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:19.000 He once referred to the Declaration as an immortal emblem 103 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:24.240 of humanity. Those ideas matter. They are the echoes of 104 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:28.000 our ancestors, whispering to us, urging us to embrace the 105 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:31.639 better angels of our nature. We are a nation founded 106 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.480 by people who rejected rule by monarchs, improved over time 107 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:38.560 by those who believed in the ideals and potential of 108 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:43.199 this bold experiment of a democratic republic governed by its citizens. 109 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.959 The fact that we are such a disparate group of individuals, 110 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.639 each free not only to vote for our government representatives, 111 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:55.079 but also to criticize them. Lyn's wait to the notion 112 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:59.399 that America is an aspirational idea as much as it 113 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:03.600 is a place. A government of the people, by the people, 114 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:08.199 and for the people is as ingenious and transformative as 115 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.600 anything that can be patented or purchased. As Meed rightfully noted, 116 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.639 our national achievements are worth celebrating, but this milestone must 117 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.360 be about more. It should encourage us to honor those 118 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:26.519 who struggled and sacrificed along the way for liberty, equality, 119 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:30.120 and justice. It should provoke us to think about what 120 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.759 this country is and what it can become. It should 121 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.240 challenge us to live up to the principles enshrined in 122 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:40.919 our founding documents and embodied by all the people who 123 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:45.080 worked to make real the promise of the nation. This 124 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:48.480 moment is a chance for the Smithsonian to help a 125 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:53.519 nation find common ground, to reinvigorate our country's character, and 126 00:08:53.559 --> 00:08:57.200 to fuel the fire for freedom and democracy. It is 127 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:00.200 why we are approaching the two hundred and fiftieth with 128 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:05.399 four aims. To celebrate, to contemplate, to commemorate, and to 129 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:10.080 commit to our civic responsibility. As Americans, and this year 130 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.720 for the first time, instead of bringing American culture to 131 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:17.519 the nation's capital, the Folk Life Festival will work with 132 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:21.679 dozens of other community festivals, venturing off the mall and 133 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:26.279 into parks, streets, and other public venues throughout the country. 134 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.799 Let us embrace the moment together, let us revel in 135 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:37.039 our past and look toward the future. And accompanying this essay, 136 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:42.679 did you know founding fathers found inspiration from indigenous nations. 137 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:47.639 The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy developed the Laws 138 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:51.639 of the Great Peace, a democratic constitution that predates the 139 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:55.480 United States from east to west. The members of the 140 00:09:55.519 --> 00:10:02.559 alliance included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Yuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. 141 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:09.559 The confederacy, properly called the Ho deno Shone Confederacy People 142 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:14.080 of the Long House, is considered the oldest participatory democracy 143 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:17.960 in the world. In nineteen eighty seven, the U. S 144 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:22.480 Senate recognized the influence of the hodnah Shone Constitution on 145 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:27.279 the Founding Fathers, who quote greatly admired the concepts, principles, 146 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:32.919 and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. 147 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:37.639 Next when the fear of polio gripped the world. Jonas 148 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:42.879 Salk's determination led to a liberating medical breakthrough. The son 149 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:46.759 of the doctor himself, now a physician and researcher, recalls 150 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:50.799 his vaccination in the kitchen as painless. Now. He recounts 151 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:55.440 the impact of the work his father, led by Peter Salk, 152 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:01.399 as told to Jenny Rothenberg Gritz eighteen fifty two, around 153 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:06.039 fifty eight thousand American children contracted polio. More than twenty 154 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:10.600 one thousand were paralyzed, and three thousand died. The disease 155 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:13.320 would start like a cold, and then all of a sudden, 156 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:17.080 children couldn't breathe or couldn't move their arms and legs. 157 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:22.240 Because polio epidemics happened sporadically, parents never knew when the 158 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:25.919 next one would take place, Where would it happen, would 159 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:30.080 their own children be stricken? Parents lived with enormous fear. 160 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:35.519 My father, Jonas Sulk, shared that fear. One summer, my 161 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:38.759 parents refused to take us to an amusement park in 162 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:42.639 an effort to avoid exposure to polio. But my father 163 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:46.440 was different from other parents in one significant way. He 164 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:49.080 was working on a vaccine that could keep a polio 165 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:54.159 epidemic from ever happening again. My brothers and I received 166 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:58.279 our first injections of the experimental vaccine in nineteen fifty three, 167 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.519 when I was nine. My father and his team at 168 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:05.519 the University of Pittsburgh had successfully completed animal studies the 169 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:10.000 summer before, and they'd begun small preliminary studies with children 170 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:15.399 who had already had polio and were undergoing rehabilitation. Now 171 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.399 they were on the cusp of rolling out larger experiments 172 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:24.360 in Pittsburgh schools. I imagine my mother saying to my father, O, K, Jonas, 173 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.440 it's time to get our own kids immunized. My father 174 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:32.639 brought some vaccine home and sterilized the syringes and needles 175 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:36.200 by boiling them on the stove. Then he lined us up. 176 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:40.320 My brother Darrell was six, and my brother Jonathan was 177 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:44.120 just shy of three. Like any kids, we absolutely hated 178 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:48.759 getting injections. Remarkably, though, when my father inserted the needle 179 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:52.240 this time, I didn't feel it. I've never forgotten that moment, 180 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:55.480 standing in the kitchen, seeing the sunlight coming in through 181 00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:59.360 the window and realizing that my fears had been unnecessary. 182 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.720 My father began praying early in life that he could 183 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:07.759 do something to help humanity. In nineteen thirty four, during 184 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.159 his first year at the City College of New York, 185 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:13.519 he decided to study medicine. He didn't want to be 186 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:17.120 a practicing physician, although he was very good with patients, 187 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:20.360 he wanted to conduct research that could have a large 188 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:25.039 scale effect. In his microbiology class at New York University 189 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:29.639 College of Medicine, my father's professor described vaccines that had 190 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:33.720 been developed in the nineteen twenties for two bacterial diseases, 191 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:39.480 diphtheria and tetanus. These bacteria secrete toxins that produce severe 192 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:43.360 damage in the body. However, the toxins can be chemically 193 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:46.639 modified so they are no longer dangerous, but will still 194 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:51.200 provide an immune response when injected. After vaccination with the 195 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:55.559 altered toxins, exposure to those bacteria would not cause disease. 196 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:00.279 In contrast, the professor told the students it wasn't possible 197 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:04.200 to protect the body against viral diseases such as influenza 198 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:09.360 or polio using an inactivated killed virus. He said that 199 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:12.559 viruses had to replicate in the body and cause an 200 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:17.799 actual infection to produce a protective immune response. That lecture 201 00:14:17.879 --> 00:14:20.799 set my father on a course to challenge this long 202 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:25.279 standing dogma. While my father was still in medical school, 203 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:29.720 he started working with one of his professors, Thomas Francis Junior, 204 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:35.320 on methods to inactivate influenza viruses. He later continued this 205 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.879 work at francis new lab at the University of Michigan. 206 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:44.399 The team developed the first successful influenza vaccine using chemically 207 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:49.480 inactivated influenza viruses. It was introduced first to the military, 208 00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:53.519 then to the general public in nineteen forty six. In 209 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:56.960 nineteen forty seven, my father started his own lab at 210 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.840 the University of Pittsburgh, gathering a strong team to work 211 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:04.799 toward a polio vaccine. A pall had been cast over 212 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:08.559 such programs in the nineteen thirties when two attempts to 213 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:13.200 create a polio vaccine failed to produce immunity. One of 214 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:17.519 the experimental vaccines actually caused polio in a small number 215 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:20.919 of subjects. My father's team knew they had to take 216 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:25.240 a more systematic approach. They used a new method developed 217 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:29.720 by scientists at Harvard of growing polioviruses in the laboratory 218 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.840 and cultures of monkey cells bathed in a nutrient medium. 219 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:38.399 The team could then study these lab grown polioviruses and 220 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:43.159 determine the exact combinations of heat and formaldehyde solution required 221 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:47.200 to kill them reliably. It was important not to alter 222 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.919 the virus's structure so much that the immune response to 223 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.080 the vaccine would no longer match the original virus. If 224 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:58.559 that happened, the vaccine would fail to protect against the disease. 225 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:03.279 Two men members of the team, Elsie Ward and Julius Jungner, 226 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.960 came up with a clever way to quickly establish whether 227 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:11.559 live polioviruses were still present in test samples, using a 228 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:16.320 pH indicator dye. Animal cells growing in test tubes would 229 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:19.840 naturally turn the medium more acidic over time as they 230 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:24.279 released waste products. As the medium became more acidic, its 231 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:28.200 color would change from red to yellow. However, if live 232 00:16:28.279 --> 00:16:31.960 poliovirus was present in the cultures, the virus would kill 233 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:35.679 the cells and the medium would remain red. This at 234 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:39.200 a glance method allowed the team to significantly speed up 235 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:44.360 vaccine production and testing. The first small scale human trials 236 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.960 at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children showed 237 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.320 that the vaccine was safe and that it produced antibody 238 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:55.840 responses in the children's blood. Further studies in the Pittsburgh 239 00:16:55.879 --> 00:17:00.200 area confirmed these findings. In April nineteen fifty four Voor, 240 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:04.759 shortly before the summer polio season, a massive field trial 241 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:08.720 began with one point eight million children across the United States. 242 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:12.839 One branch of the study was double blind. Half of 243 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:16.279 the children received the vaccine while the other half received 244 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:20.039 a placebo injection, and neither the doctors nor the families 245 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:24.000 knew which group the children were in. In another branch 246 00:17:24.039 --> 00:17:27.839 of the study, second graders got the vaccine with parental approval, 247 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:31.680 while first and third graders at the same schools remained 248 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:37.880 unvaccinated and served as observed controls. Thomas Francis, my father's 249 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:43.119 earlier mentor, was responsible for evaluating the data. On April twelfth, 250 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:47.160 nineteen fifty five, he announced the results. The new vaccine 251 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:51.039 was quote safe, effective, and potent end quote against all 252 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:55.119 three strains of polio. Doctors watched the press conference on 253 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:59.880 closed circuit TV. Church bells rang out, were places observed 254 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:04.559 moments of silence or celebration. It was an extraordinary event 255 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:08.759 in our nation's history. All the terror that had accumulated 256 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:13.160 for decades lifted in a single stroke. Within seven years, 257 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:16.839 enough children were inoculated that the incidents of polio in 258 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:22.119 the US dropped by ninety seven percent. That evening, Edward R. 259 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:25.799 Mureaw interviewed my father on his television program See It 260 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:29.599 Now and asked who owned the patent for the vaccine. 261 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:33.799 My father responded, well, the people, I would say, there 262 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:38.119 is no patent. Could you patent the sun? The American 263 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:41.160 people could take great pride in the vaccine because the 264 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.559 research and testing program had been supported by the March 265 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:47.920 of Dimes, the fund raising arm of the National Foundation 266 00:18:48.279 --> 00:18:53.319 for Infantile Paralysis, an organization founded in nineteen thirty eight 267 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:58.119 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who himself had contracted polio. 268 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:02.319 In nineteen twenty one, a hundred million Americans across the 269 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:08.559 country had contributed to the effort. The achievement belonged to everyone, 270 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:12.920 and with this article, did you know what happened next? 271 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:15.920 The one point eight million children who took part in 272 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:20.640 the nationwide field trial received certificates and special pins for 273 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:25.319 being polio pioneers. Sulk spent the rest of his career 274 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.519 pursuing big picture questions about the future of humanity while 275 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:36.400 working on vaccines for other viruses like HIV next. One 276 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:39.759 of the quietest leaders in the civil rights movement, Ella 277 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:44.720 Baker led by encouraging everyone to get involved. Baker's work 278 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:49.440 was instrumental in the success of the NAACP and other organizations, 279 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:51.559 but she did it in a way that didn't put 280 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:56.880 herself in the spotlight. That was by design by Victor Luckerson. 281 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:02.519 Ella Baker built in the background. Though her work as 282 00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:06.599 a grassroots organizer helped strengthen the National Association for the 283 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:11.160 Advancement of Colored People in double ACP, birth the civil 284 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:14.720 Rights movement, and sparked the explosion of youth activism in 285 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:18.799 nineteen sixties America, she had no interest in being thrust 286 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:22.759 into a pantheon of great black leaders. Strong people, she 287 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:27.119 once said, don't need strong leaders. Born in nineteen o 288 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:31.519 three in Norfolk, Virginia, Baker grew up understanding that community 289 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:35.279 came first. When she was a child, her family moved 290 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.680 to her grandparents farm in North Carolina, where Baker picked 291 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:42.160 vegetables to give to her neighbors. In her twenties, she 292 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.880 ventured to New York at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, 293 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.279 working as a journalist and helping launch a black co 294 00:20:48.359 --> 00:20:52.480 op during the Great Depression. Quote. The day of sharply 295 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:57.279 defined individualism is rapidly giving place to that of mutual 296 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:01.119 interdependence end quote, she said in a speech at the time. 297 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:05.759 In nineteen forty one, Baker became a field officer for 298 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:09.640 the NAACP, spending nearly half of that year and the 299 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:12.960 following one traveling the South and helping branches of the 300 00:21:13.079 --> 00:21:18.839 organization develop programs to address local discrimination and unemployment. Although 301 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.960 the NAACP had a top down power structure and often 302 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:27.799 served middle class interests, Baker encouraged local chapters to represent 303 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:31.799 people from every walk of life. She had no problem 304 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:35.400 venturing into bars and pool halls to recruit new members, 305 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:39.440 and she insisted that defending the town drunk from unlawful 306 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:43.400 arrest was as important as any other case the NAACP 307 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:47.799 might take up. Her grassroots style led to clashes with 308 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:52.359 the organization's leadership, but it worked. She oversaw a membership 309 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.119 drive that doubled the NAACP's rolls to more than four 310 00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:01.119 hundred thousand people in nineteen forty four. Baker's biggest contributions 311 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:04.920 were to come when the Montgomery bus boycott began in 312 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:08.680 nineteen fifty five. It was exactly the sort of mass 313 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:13.519 action she'd long envisioned. With her activist friends Baynard Ruston 314 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:18.359 and Stanley Levison, she conceived a Southern counterpart to the NAACP, 315 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:23.559 focused on direct action. Ruston persuaded Martin Luther King Junior, 316 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.039 who had become the face of Montgomery's boycott, to lead 317 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:32.079 the new organization, dubbed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference sc LC. 318 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.480 Baker served as the s c else's first full time 319 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:41.480 staff member and eventually as its executive director, doing unglamorous 320 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:45.200 but essential work. She found the s c ELSE its 321 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:49.000 first office near downtown Atlanta and wrote many of its 322 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:53.400 public statements, some under King's name. She launched its first 323 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:58.960 voter registration drives and helped disenfranchised black Southerners file voting 324 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:03.640 discrimination complaints with the Federal Commission on Civil Rights. Still, 325 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:07.559 King and Baker butted heads. Baker was committed to a 326 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:11.720 mass movement that would cultivate local leaders, empowering every day 327 00:23:11.799 --> 00:23:15.559 people to do grass roots organizing. The s c l C, 328 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.839 by contrast, focused on building King into a national hero 329 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:23.960 who could lead the masses in protests and marches. Creating 330 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:29.480 political momentum, but not necessarily expanding local organizing. The s 331 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.200 c LC was also a boy's club. Only one woman, 332 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:38.039 a Montgomery bus boycott organizer named Erna Dungee, sat on 333 00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:41.039 the thirty three member board, and Baker felt that the 334 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:44.200 s c LC often ignored her because of her gender. 335 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.000 In a group of ministers who were accustomed to having 336 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:51.079 women largely as supporters, there was no place for me, 337 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:56.279 she later said. In April nineteen sixty, she organized an 338 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.680 s c l C sponsored retreat in Raleigh, North Carolina 339 00:24:00.119 --> 00:24:02.920 for more than one hundred and twenty five student activists 340 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:06.799 from around the country. The Greensboro lunch counter sit ins 341 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:10.319 had begun just a few months before, sparking a new 342 00:24:10.359 --> 00:24:13.759 wave of protests by young people willing to get confrontational. 343 00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:18.720 Baker wanted to channel that spontaneous, youthful defiance into a 344 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.519 coherent mass movement. While King and some of the older 345 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:25.920 ministers argued that the students should form a youth arm 346 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.720 of the SCLC, Baker encouraged them to launch their own organization. 347 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:37.200 By the conference's close, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC 348 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:43.000 was born. The SNCC drove mass mobilization in the civil 349 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:47.680 rights movement, sit ins voter registration drives the freedom rides. 350 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.359 Generational leaders such as John Lewis, Diane Nash, Julian Bond, 351 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:58.480 and Stokely Carmichael got their start in the SNCC, where 352 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:02.680 Baker served as an advice quote. What was nice about 353 00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:04.880 miss Baker is you never felt that she had a 354 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:10.599 personal agenda. S NCC worker Judy Richardson later said, quote, 355 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:13.720 it was always about what is good for the organization, 356 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:18.720 for black people, for whatever the larger issue was. End quote. 357 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:22.759 Baker advocated for racial justice until her death in New 358 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:27.119 York in nineteen eighty six at eighty three. She rarely 359 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:30.400 sought the spotlight, as she was too busy helping others 360 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:34.359 find their purpose in the moment. Quote, the group comes 361 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:38.279 first in my mind, she once said. Her commitment to 362 00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:43.759 grassroots organizing now feels prescient. She intuited that the will 363 00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:46.759 to change the world could not be decreed from on high. 364 00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:51.440 It had to be nurtured in the heart of every citizen. Quote. 365 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:54.839 My basic sense of it, she said, has always been 366 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:57.880 to get people to understand that in the long run, 367 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:02.319 they themselves are the only protection they have against violence 368 00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:08.440 or injustice. And with this article did you Know What's 369 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:13.200 in a Name? In nineteen seventy eight, at Baker's seventy 370 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:18.279 fifth birthday party, one for Proteges, Bob Moses nicknamed the 371 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:23.319 civil rights icon Fundi, a Swahili word meaning master Craft's 372 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:27.440 person and indicating the person in a community who learns 373 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:30.519 a vital skill and then teaches it to the next generation. 374 00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:36.200 The affectionate moniker was often used within movement circles, honoring 375 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:42.240 Baker's singularly selfless approach to civil rights. And finally from 376 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:46.640 Smithsonian dot com smart News, A letter signed by George 377 00:26:46.680 --> 00:26:50.279 Washington that helped pave the way for American independence goes 378 00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:55.319 on display in London by Sarah Kuta. As American gears 379 00:26:55.400 --> 00:26:58.440 up to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 380 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:02.279 the Declaration of Independence, a pivotal letter signed by George 381 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:06.559 Washington accepting Britain's surrender at Yorktown is being displayed for 382 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:09.880 the first time in London. The handwritten note is going 383 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:12.799 on view as part of a new exhibition at the 384 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:17.319 National Archives in London. Washington dictated and signed the letter 385 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:21.160 in October seventeen eighty one to accept the British surrender 386 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:25.279 at Yorktown, Virginia, writing of his quote ardent desire to 387 00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:30.160 spare the further effusion of blood. The correspondence brought an 388 00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:34.480 end to major fighting during the Revolutionary War, ultimately paving 389 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:38.720 the way for American independence. The note was given to 390 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:43.079 Charles Cornwallis, the lieutenant general who helped lead Britain's Southern 391 00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:48.079 campaign during the Revolutionary War. Cornwallis brought the letter home 392 00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:50.759 with him to England, and it remained in his family 393 00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:54.000 until eighteen eighty, when it was donated to the Public 394 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:59.920 Record Office, which later became the National Archives. This concludes 395 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:03.720 readings from the Smithsonian magazine for today. Your reader has 396 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:06.680 been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening, and have a 397 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:07.240 great day.