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His other influences were the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior.. Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm

Activists & People Important to Social Reform

Betty Friedan, 1921-2006: A Leader in the Modern Women's Rights Movement

I'm Faith Lapidus And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English Today we tell about Betty Friedan She was a powerful activist for the rights of women Betty Friedan is often called the mother of the modern women's liberation movement Her famous book, "The Feminine Mystique," changed America Some people say it changed the world It has been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century

Friedan re-awakened the feminist movement in the United States That movement had helped women gain the right to vote in the nineteen twenties Modern feminists disagree about how to describe themselves and their movement But activists say men and women should have equal chances for economic, social and intellectual satisfaction in life

Fifty years ago, life for women in the United States was very different from today Very few parents urged their daughters to become lawyers or doctors or professors Female workers doing the same jobs as men earned much less money Women often lost their jobs when they had a baby There were few child care centers for working parents

Betty Friedan once spoke to ABC television about her support for sharing responsibility for the care

Betty attended Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts It was one of the country's best colleges for women She finished her studies in psychology in nineteen forty-two

After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies But her boyfriend at the time did not want her to get an advanced degree in psychology He apparently felt

threatened by her success So Betty left California and her boyfriend She moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers

In nineteen forty-seven, Betty Goldstein married Carl Friedan, a theater director who later became

an advertising executive They had a child, the first of three The Friedans were to remain married until nineteen sixty-nine

When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of women

In nineteen fifty-seven, Friedan started research that was to have far-reaching results Her class at Smith College was to gather for the fifteenth anniversary of their graduation Friedan prepared an opinion study for the women She sent questions to the women about their lives Most who took part in the study did not work outside their homes

Friedan was not completely satisfied with her life She thought that her former college classmates might also be dissatisfied She was right Friedan thought these intelligent women could give a lot

to society if they had another identity besides being homemakers

Friedan completed more studies She talked to other women across the country She met with experts about the questions and answers She combined this research with observations and examples from her own life The result was her book, "The Feminine Mystique," published in nineteen sixty-three

The book attacked the popular idea of the time that women could only find satisfaction through being married, having children and taking care of their home Friedan believed that women wanted more from life than just to please their husbands and children

The book said women suffered from feelings of lack of worth Friedan said this was because the women depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support

"The Feminine Mystique" was a huge success It has sold more than three million copies It was reprinted in a number of other languages The book helped change the lives of women in America More women began working outside the home More women also began studying traditionally male subjects like law, medicine and engineering

Betty Friedan expressed the dissatisfaction of some American women during the middle of the twentieth century But she also made many men feel threatened Later, critics said her book only

dealt with the problems of white, educated, wealthy, married women It did not study the problems

of poor white women, single women or minorities

In nineteen sixty-six, Betty Friedan helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women She served as its first president She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs

Friedan also worked on other issues She wanted women to have the choice to end their pregnancies She wanted to create child-care centers for working parents She wanted women to take part in social and political change Betty Friedan once spoke about her great hopes for women

in the nineteen seventies:

"Liberating ourselves, we will then become a major political force, perhaps the biggest political force for basic social and political change in America in the seventies."

Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration in New York City for women's rights Demonstrations were also held in other cities A half-million women took part in the Women's Strike for Equality on August twenty-sixth, nineteen seventy The day marked the fiftieth anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote

A year after the march, Friedan helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus She said the group got started "to make policy, not coffee." She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment

Friedan wanted a national guarantee of that equal treatment She worked tirelessly to get Congress and the states to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that would provide equal rights for women

The House of Representatives approved this Equal Rights Amendment in nineteen seventy-one The Senate approved it the following year Thirty-eight of the fifty state legislatures were required to approve the amendment Congress set a time limit of seven years for the states to approve it This was extended to June thirtieth, nineteen eighty-two However, only thirty-five states approved the amendment by the deadline so it never went into effect

The defeat of the E.R.A was a sad event for Betty Friedan, NOW and other activists

In nineteen eighty-one, Betty Friedan wrote about the condition of the women's movement Her book was called "The Second Stage." Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life

Some younger members of the movement denounced her as too conservative

As she grew older, Friedan studied conditions for older Americans She wrote a book called "The Fountain of Age" in nineteen ninety-three She wrote that society often dismisses old people as no longer important or useful Friedan's last book was published in two thousand She was almost eighty years old at the time Its title was "Life So Far."

Betty Friedan died on February fourth, two thousand six It was her eighty-fifth birthday Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered:

"She helps make it better for women to feel good about being women, and therefore she helped make it possible for women to more freely love men."

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson It was produced by Lawan Davis I'm Faith Lapidus And I'm Steve Ember You can download a transcript and audio of this show at

voaspecialenglish.com Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special

English

Cesar Chavez, 1927-1993: He Organized the First Successful Farm Workers Union in America

There is also a Listen and Read Along Flash version of this

I'm Nicole Nichols And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA

Today we tell about one of the great labor activists, Cesar Chavez He organized the first successful farm workers union in American history

Cesar Chavez was born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona in 1927 In the late 19th century, Cesario Chavez, Cesar's grandfather, had started the Chavez family farm after escaping slavery on a Mexican farm Cesar Chavez spent his earliest years on this farm When he was ten years old, however, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced his parents to give up the family farm He then became a migrant farm worker along with the rest of his family

The Chavez family joined thousands of other farm workers who traveled around the state of California to harvest crops for farm owners They traveled from place to place to harvest grapes, lettuce, beets and many other crops They worked very hard and received little pay These migrant

workers had no permanent homes They lived in dirty, crowded camps They had no bathrooms, electricity or running water Like the Chavez family, most of them came from Mexico

Because his family traveled from place to place, Cesar Chavez attended more than thirty schools as

a child He learned to read and write from his grandmother

Mama Tella also taught him about the Catholic religion Religion later became an important tool for

Mr Chavez He used religion to organize Mexican farm workers who were Catholic

Cesar's mother, Juana, taught him much about the importance of leading a non-violent life His mother was one of the greatest influences on his use of non-violent methods to organize farm workers His other influences were the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior

Mr Chavez said his real education began when he met the Catholic leader Father Donald McDonnell Cesar Chavez learned about the economics of farm workers from the priest He also learned about Gandhi's nonviolent political actions as well as those of other great nonviolent leaders throughout history

In 1948, Mr Chavez married Helena Fabela whom he met while working in the grape fields in central California They settled in Sal Si Puedes Later, while Mr Chavez worked for little or no money to organize farm workers, his wife harvested crops In order to support their eight children, she worked under the same bad conditions that Mr Chavez was fighting against

There were other important influences in his life In 1952, Mr Chavez met Fred Ross, an organizer with a workers' rights group called the Community Service Organization Mr Chavez called Mr Ross the best organizer he ever met Mr Ross explained how poor people could build power Mr Chavez agreed to work for the Community Service Organization

Mr Chavez worked for the organization for about ten years During that time, he helped more than 500,000 Latino citizens to vote He also gained old-age retirement money for 50,000 Mexican immigrants He served as the organization's national director

However, in 1962, he left the organization He wanted to do more to help farm workers receive higher pay and better working conditions He left his well paid job to start organizing farm workers into a union

Mr Chavez's work affected many people For example, the father of Mexican-American musician Zack de la Rocha spent time working as an art director for Mr Chavez Much of the political music

of de la Rocha's group, Rage Against the Machine, was about workers' rights, like this song, "Bomb Track."

It took Mr Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former CSO organizer, three years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association Mr Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members He held small meetings at workers' houses to build support.The California-based organization held its first strike in 1965.The National Farm Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against grape growers.The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee

Mr Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action would gain popular support Mr Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used violence

One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott grapes They decided to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation.The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were taken Later, union members and Filipino workers began a

25 day march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott

Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers Association.It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers in the United States

The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation It was one of the largest grape growers in California Di Giorgio held a vote and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm workers But an investigation proved that the company and the Teamsters had cheated in the election

Another vote was held Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed The farm workers elected Mr Chavez's union to represent them.Di Giorgio soon signed a labor agreement with the union

Mr Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs Mr Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in 1968 He did not eat for 25 days He was called a hero for taking this kind of personal action to support the farm workers

The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest producer of table grapes in the United States It organized a boycott against the company's products.The boycott extended to all California table grapes By 1970, the company agreed to sign contracts A number of other growers did as well By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years It was the longest

strike and boycott in United States labor history Cesar Chavez had built a nationwide coalition of support among unions, church groups, students, minorities and other Americans

By 1973, the union had changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America It called for another national boycott against grape growers as relations again became tense By 1975, a reported

17 million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes.The union's hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in California, under Governor Jerry Brown It was the first law in the nation that protected the rights of farm workers

By the 1980s, the UFW had helped tens of thousands of farm workers gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and living conditions.But relations between workers and growers in California worsened under a new state government Boycotts were again organized against the grape industry.In 1988, at the age of sixty-one, Mr Chavez began another hunger strike That fast lasted for thirty-six days and almost killed him The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects

In 1984 Cesar Chavez made this speech, predicting the future success of his efforts for Latinos CESAR CHAVEZ: "Like the other immigrant groups, the day will come when we win the economic and political rewards which are in keeping with our numbers in society The day will come when the politicians will do the right thing for our people out of political necessity and not out

of charity or idealism."

Cesar Chavez died in 1993 at the age of sixty-six More than 40,000 people attended his funeral

A year later, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States

The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers throughout the United States Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez The great labor leader always believed in the words "Si se puede": It can be done This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield I'm Steve Ember nd

I'm Nicole Nichols Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the

Voice of America

Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895: He Fought for Freedom and Equality for African-Americans

I'm Shirley Griffith And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special

English Today we tell about Frederick Douglass He was born a slave, but later became one of America's greatest leaders He was an activist, a writer, a powerful speaker and an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln

Frederick Douglass suffered severe physical and mental abuse during his many years as a slave He dreamed of one day learning to read and being free He believed knowledge would lead the way to freedom Douglass wrote several books about his life as a slave In eighteen forty-five he wrote

"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave." It became an immediate best seller and remains popular today

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born around eighteen eighteen in Tuckahoe, Maryland, near the Chesapeake Bay Many slaves lived on large farms owned by white people Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family who lived in a large house on the property Frederick and his mother, Harriet Bailey, were slaves on a huge plantation owned by Colonel Edward Lloyd Their slave owner was a white man named Captain Aaron Anthony Frederick knew very little about his father, except that he was a white man Many believed Captain Anthony was his father

Frederick did not know his mother well Harriet Bailey was sent to work on another plantation when Frederick was very young She was able to visit him only a few times She died when Frederick was about seven years old

Frederick then lived with his grandparents, Betsey and Isaac Bailey He said that his grandparents had a loving home and were respected by other slaves in the area Because of this, he did not realize at first that someone owned him and the others -that they were slaves

It was not unusual for African-American families to be separated, often never seeing each other again Slaves were not treated as human beings Slave owners bought and traded them as if they were animals or property Frederick had to leave his grandparents' home when he was six years old He later wrote about that day He said being forced to leave was one of the most painful experiences in his life He said he began to understand the evil and oppressive system of slavery

In eighteen twenty-six, Frederick was sent to work for Hugh Auld, in Baltimore, Maryland Mr Auld's wife, Sophia, was very kind to Frederick She treated him as if he were a member of her family Mrs Auld soon began to teach Frederick to read Her husband became extremely angry and ordered her to stop immediately Slaves were denied education Mr Auld said if slaves could read they would rebel and run away

Sophia Auld stopped teaching Frederick to read But he learned to read from white boys he met in the city The boys also told Frederick he had the right to be free

Mr Auld sent Frederick to work for a poor farmer, Edward Covey, who beat him often In eighteen thirty-six, Frederick made an attempt to escape But he failed and was arrested He was sent back

to the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld home in Baltimore

He met and fell in love with a free black woman named Anna Murray Ms Murray had a job cleaning other people's homes She gave Frederick money to help him escape by getting on a train

to New York City

"My free life began on the third of September, eighteen thirty-eight On the morning of the fourth

of that month, I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man For the moment the dreams

of my youth and the hopes of my manhood where completely fulfilled The bonds that held me to

"old master" were broken No man now had the right to call me his slave or try to control me." When Frederick Bailey reached New York he changed his name to Frederick Douglass to hide his identity from slave capturers Anna Murray joined him and they were married They settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts and had five children

Frederick Douglass became one of the most important leaders of the abolitionist movement to end slavery in the United States

In eighteen forty-one, he attended the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts Douglass was unexpectedly asked to give a speech to describe his experiences as a slave He had not prepared a speech but he spoke to the huge gathering of people anyway Most of the supporters were white He spoke with great emotion in a deep and powerful voice The crowd praised him

After that speech, The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society asked Douglass to travel to cities throughout the North He continued to tell about his cruel and oppressive life as a slave He told how slave owners beat slaves everyday How slaves were given very little food to eat How they worked all day in the fields during dangerously hot weather How they slept on cold floors and had very little clothing

Many who heard his story challenged its truthfulness They refused to believe that Frederick Douglass was ever a slave Instead, they thought he was an educated man who created the entire story

In eighteen forty-four, Douglass began writing his life's story "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave" was published the following year He later published expanded versions of his book

Frederick Douglass wrote his first book partly to prove that he had lived through the horrible situations he described in his speeches He was asked to speak at the Independence Day celebration

in Rochester, New York in eighteen fifty-two He noted the differences of how blacks and whites considered Independence Day

"The purpose of this celebration is the Fourth of July It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom… This Fourth of July is yours, not mine You may celebrate I must mourn…What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year, the horrible discrimination and punishment

to which he is the everyday victim…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States at this very hour."

In eighteen sixty-one the American Civil War began Frederick Douglass and many others saw slavery as the cause of the war Douglass wanted blacks to be permitted to join the Union Army However, Northern whites, including President Abraham Lincoln, were against it They said black soldiers would harm the spirit of white soldiers They believed black soldiers were not intelligent

Two years later, blacks were permitted to join the Union Army, but they were not treated as soldiers Although they showed bravery they were given less important jobs Douglass met with President Lincoln in Washington to discuss the issue Douglass urge that black soldiers be treated equal to white soldiers Although President Lincoln agreed, he said there could be no immediate change

In eighteen sixty-five, the Civil War ended The Union forces had defeated the South A few months later President Lincoln was killed And later that year, slavery was ended

Frederick Douglass went on to hold several positions in the government, including United States Marshall of the District of Columbia He never stopped his efforts to gain equality for all people Historians say Douglass gave two thousand speeches and wrote thousands of articles and letters His work as an activist also included women's rights On February twentieth, eighteen ninety-five, he gave a speech at the National Council of Women Later that day, he returned to his home in Washington and died of heart failure at the age of seventy-eight

Frederick Douglass ended his "book My Bondage, My Freedom" with these words:

"I shall labor in the future as I have labored in the past, to work for the honorable, social, religious, and intellectual position of the free colored people; while Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice,

my pen or my vote to support the great and most important work of the complete and unconditional freedom of my entire race."

This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis The writings of Frederick Douglass were read by Shep O'Neal You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com I'm Shirley Griffith And I'm Steve Ember Join us again next week

for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English

Jane Jacobs, 1916-2006: Her Activism Helped Shape the Look and Feel of Cities

I'm Steve Ember And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English

Today we tell about Jane Jacobs She was an activist for improving cities

Jane Jacobs was an activist, writer, moral thinker and economist She believed cities should be densely populated and full of different kinds of people and activities She believed in the value of natural growth and big open spaces

She opposed the kind of city planning that involves big development and urban renewal projects that tear down old communities She was also a critic of public planning officials who were unwilling to compromise

Jacobs helped lead fights to save neighborhoods and local communities within cities She helped stop major highways from being built, first in New York City and later in Toronto, Canada

Developers and city planners often criticized her ideas Yet, many urban planning experts agree that her work helped shape modern thinking about cities

Jane Butzner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1916 Her father was a doctor Her mother was

a former teacher and nurse After graduating from high school, Jane took an unpaid position at the Scranton Tribune newspaper A year later she left Scranton for New York City

During her first several years in the city she held many kinds of jobs One job was to write about workers in the city She said these experiences gave her a better idea about what working in the city was like

As a young woman, Jacobs had many interests, including economics, law, science and politics Her higher education was brief, however She studied for just two years at Columbia University in New York Jacobs did not complete her college education, but she did become an excellent writer and editor While working as a writer for the Office of War Information she met a building designer named Robert Jacobs

In 1944, they married They later had three children Her husband's work led to her interest in the monthly magazine, Architectural Forum Jacobs became a top editor for the publication

Experts have described Jacobs as a writer who wrote well, but not often She is best known for her book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." The book was published in 1961 It is still widely read today by both city planning professionals and the general public

Experts say "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" is the most influential book written about city planning in the twentieth century

In the book, Jacobs criticized the urban renewal projects of the 1950s She believed these policies destroyed existing inner-city communities and their economies

She also thought that modern planning policies separated communities and created unnatural city areas Jacobs described the nature of cities – their streets and parks, the different cultures represented by citizens and the safety of a well-planned city Safety was an important issue in big cities that had high rates of crime

Jacobs wrote that peace on the streets of cities is not kept mainly by the police even though police are necessary It is kept by a system of controls among the people themselves She believed the problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly

Jacobs argued that a well-used city street is safer than an empty street Safety, she argued, is guaranteed by people who watch the streets every day because they use the streets every day

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" became a guide for neighborhood organizers and the people who Jacobs called "foot people." These are citizens who perform their everyday jobs on foot They walk to stores and to work They walk to eating places, theaters, parks, gardens and sports stadiums They are not who Jacobs called "car people" – those who drive their cars everywhere

Jane Jacobs also believed that buildings of different sizes, kinds and condition should exist together She pointed to several communities as models of excellence These include Georgetown in

Washington, D.C.; the North End in Boston, Massachusetts; Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California

She also supported mixed-use buildings as a way to increase social interaction Such buildings have stores and offices on the ground floor People live on the upper floors Mixed-use buildings are a lot more common in American cities than in the suburban areas around them

Jane Jacobs also noted New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of an exciting city community This is one of the communities that was saved, in part at least, because of her writings and activism In 1962, Jacobs headed a committee to stop the development of a highway through Lower Manhattan in New York City The expressway would have cut right through Greenwich Village and the popular SoHo area

Influential New York City developer Robert Moses proposed the plan But huge public protests in

1964 led the city government to reject it Jacobs' book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" helped influence public opinion against the expressway

In 1969, Jacobs moved to the Canadian city of Toronto where she lived for the rest of her life Part

of her reason for leaving the United States was because she opposed the United States involvement

in the war in Vietnam At that time, she had two sons almost old enough to be called for duty Jacobs continued to be a community activist in Toronto

She was involved in a campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway through Toronto This highway would have permitted people living in suburban areas outside Toronto to travel into and out of the city easily

Jacobs organized citizens against the Spadina Expressway and the politicians who supported it One

of her most important issues was this question: "Are we building cities for people or for cars?" Today, experts say Toronto is one of only a few major cities in North America to have successfully kept a large number of neighborhoods in its downtown area Many experts believe this is because of the anti-Spadina movement led by Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities She wrote seven books on urban planning, the economy of cities, and issues of commerce and politics Her last book, published in 2004, was "Dark Age Ahead." In it, Jacobs described several major values that she believed were threatened in the United States and Canada These included community and family, higher education, science and technology and a government responsive to citizens' needs

In "Dark Age Ahead," Jacobs argued that Western society could be threatened if changes were not made immediately She said that people were losing important values that helped families succeed

In "Dark Age Ahead," Jacobs also criticized how political decision-making is influenced by economics Governments, she said, have become more interested in wealthy interest groups than the needs of the citizens Jacobs also warned against a culture that prevents people from preventing the destruction of resources upon which all citizens depend

Jane Jacobs had her critics Many of them argued that her ideas failed to represent the reality of city politics, which land developers and politicians often control Others argued that Jacobs had little sympathy for people who want a lifestyle different from the one she proposed

Still, many urban planning experts say her ideas shaped modern thinking about cities She has had a major influenced on those who design buildings and towns that aim to increase social interaction among citizens

Jane Jacobs died in 2006 in Toronto at the age of 89 Her family released a statement on her death

It said: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas."

This program was written by Jill Moss It was produced by Lawan Davis I'm Steve Ember And I'm Barbara Klein

Five Labor Leaders Who Improved Conditions for American Workers

ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English At the beginning of the twentieth

century, American laborers often worked long hours for little pay Many worked under extremely dangerous conditions About five hundred thousand workers, however, had joined groups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation

Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five labor leaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers

In nineteen hundred, the largest national organization of labor unions was the American Federation

of Labor Its head was Samuel Gompers Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when

he was thirteen years old He was twenty-four when he began working for the local union of cigar makers He worked for the labor movement for sixty years

Samuel Gompers had helped create the A.F.L in the late eighteen eighties He led the organization for all but one year until his death in nineteen twenty-four Gompers defined the purpose of the labor movement in America He also established the method used to solve labor disputes

Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages, improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers He called his method pure and simple unionism

Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers He used group actions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners to negotiate

Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industry leaders, and for compromising too easily with employers But Gompers believed such actions helped his main goal He believed if workers were respected, their employers would want to make working conditions better

Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement won its first small gains For example, the federal government recognized the right of workers to organize That happened when union representatives were part of the National War Labor Board during World War One

John L Lewis expanded the American labor movement with a campaign he called organizing the unorganized Lewis was the head of the United Mine Workers of America He also was the vice-president of the A.F.L

In nineteen thirty-five, Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the A.F.L

He wanted the C.I.O to organize workers in mass production industries, such as automobile industry The A.F.L mainly organized unions of workers who had the same skills But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in the same industry should be organized into the same union

Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in nineteen thirty-five It gave workers the legal right to join unions and to negotiate with employers John L Lewis thought it was the right time to press the large industries to recognize workers' rights

The A.F.L., however, decided not to support such action and expelled the unions that belonged to the C.I.O In nineteen thirty-six, the C.I.O began operating as another national labor organization Lewis was its leader

John L Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker He had worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terrible conditions workers faced More than three million workers joined the C.I.O in its first year as a separate organization For the first time, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workers conditions

For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and business leaders considered John L Lewis the voice of labor And, American workers saw Lewis as their hero By the nineteen fifties, the labor movement an established part of American life

Walter Reuther was the vice president of the C.I.O under Lewis, and became its president in nineteen fifty-two Reuther believed unions had a social responsibility His ideas were partly influenced by his German father who was a socialist

Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal He joined the United Automobile Workers union when it first formed in nineteen thirty-five

Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for twenty-three years beginning in nineteen forty-six He shaped the U.A.W into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions

He held strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the same time, he expected workers to increase their rate of production He was the first to link pay raises to productivity increases Reuther also was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment

In nineteen fifty-five, Reuther helped the A.F.L and C.I.O re-join as one organization

Reuther's ideas were recognized worldwide But they also brought him enemies He survived three murder attempts He said: "You have to make up your mind whether you are willing to accept things as they are or whether you are willing to try to change them."

A Philip Randolph is known for combining the labor and civil rights movements Randolph became involved with unions in nineteen-twenty-five A group of black workers on passenger trains asked him to organize a union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Randolph was not a laborer He was the college educated son of a minister He published a socialist magazine in New York City He was known as a fighter for black rights Randolph strongly believed that economic conditions affected rights and power for African Americans

For twelve years, Randolph fought the Pullman Company that employed the passenger train workers In nineteen thirty-five, Pullman finally agreed to negotiate with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Two years later, the porters' union signed the first labor agreement between a company and a black union

A Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters for forty-three years In nineteen fifty-seven he became vice president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O

Randolph used large group protests to change work conditions He planned marches on the capital

in Washington to protest the unequal treatment of black workers by the government

In nineteen sixty-three, Randolph planned the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom At this huge peaceful gathering, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior made his famous "I have a dream" speech Within a year the civil rights amendment passed guaranteeing equal rights for blacks and other minorities

Cesar Chavez created the first farmers union in nineteen sixty-two That union later became the United Farm Workers of America

Farm workers had been considered too difficult to organize They worked during growing seasons Many farm workers did not speak English or were in the country illegally Farm workers earned only a few dollars each hour They often lived in mud shelters and had no waste removal systems Many farm workers were children

Cesar Chavez went to school for only eight years But he read a lot He was greatly influenced by the ideas of famous supporters of non-violence such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi Chavez led his workers on marches for better pay and conditions Workers walked hundreds of miles carrying cloth banners with the Spanish words "Viva la Causa" long live our cause

Cesar Chavez created a new strike method called a boycott People refused to buy products of a company accused of treating farm workers badly Chavez also publicized the dangers of some farm chemicals Cesar Chavez improved the conditions of farm workers by making their mistreatment a national issue

Union membership has dropped sharply since its highpoint in the nineteen forties Yet conditions for American workers continue to improve as employers realize that treating their workers well is good for business The efforts of leaders of the American labor movement during the past one hundred years continue to improve the lives of millions of workers

This Special English program was written by Linda Burchill and produced by Paul Thompson The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long I'm Faith Lapidus Join us again next week for

another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English

Margaret Sanger, 1883-1966: She Led the Fight for Birth Control for Women

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I'm Shirley Griffith And I'm Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program,PEOPLE IN AMERICA Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret

Sanger

Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women's freedom She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress

Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early nineteen hundreds

The woman who changed other women's lives was born in eighteen eighty-three in the eastern state

of New York Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins

Margaret wrote several books about her life She wrote that her father taught her to question everything She said he taught her to be an independent thinker

Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies She was always tired and sick Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters This experience led her to become a nurse

Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways She realized that this was not just a health problem These women suffered because of their low position in society

Margaret saw that not having control over one's body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother

In nineteen-oh-two, Margaret married William Sanger They had three children Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved

in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village Sanger

became a labor union organizer She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism

Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in nineteen thirteen, to research European methods of birth control She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies She returned to the United States prepared to change women's lives

At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women's movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession But she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote She decided to continue working alone

One of Margaret Sanger's first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel She designed it She wrote for it And she paid for it The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman's position The first copy was published in March, nineteen fourteen The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution

Sanger had an immediate goal She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail

The Woman Rebel became well known in New York and elsewhere Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad This included any form of birth control information The law was known as the Comstock Act Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper

Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods In August, nineteen fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act

Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty She fled to Europe

to escape the trial She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation The document quickly spread among women across the United States It started a public debate about birth control The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women's issues

Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women

While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her

Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States It opened in Brownsville, New York in nineteen sixteen Sanger's sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her One hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again The women were tried the next year Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail

With some support from women's groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review In nineteen twenty-one, she organized the first American birth control conference The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control The group opened a birth control center in the United States in nineteen twenty-three Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one

Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until nineteen twenty-eight In the nineteen thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control

Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the nineteen twenties She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts She even sought support from her former opponents

Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics This is the study of human improvement by genetic control Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or "undesirable" human beings should not be born Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics But she still is criticized for these statements

Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control In nineteen forty-two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America It became a major national health organization after World War Two

Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation It was formed in nineteen fifty-two after an international conference in Bombay, India Sanger was one of its first presidents

The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group

Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine She died in nineteen sixty-six in Tucson, Arizona She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century

This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver I'm

Shirley Griffith And I'm Sarah Long Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968: He Used Non-Violence and Civil Disobedience to Gain Equal Rights for Black Americans

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - a program in Special English on the Voice of America

Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior

It all started on a bus A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama And the year was nineteen fifty-five

In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat But the woman refused, and she was arrested

Incidents like this had happened before But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system The protest became known as the Montgomery bus boycott The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States

This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine He was born into a religious family

Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion

In nineteen twenty-nine, Atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States Many black families came to the city in search of a better life There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites

The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated

Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young But as he grew older,

he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally

One day Martin and his father went out to buy shoes They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman

The businessman sold shoes to all people But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store He ordered Martin's father to obey the rule Martin never forgot his father's angry answer:

"If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all

"

Such incidents, however, were rare during Martin's early life Instead, he led the life of a normal boy Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study

It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking

He soon was able to test his gifts One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King

A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years He understood life and its problems."

Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws He taught his followers never to use violence Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go

to prison for their beliefs

As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau non-violence and civil disobedience could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau Years later he said:

"My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character "

Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston

It was in Boston that Martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife

Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year"

But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife "

Coretta was surprised at his words But she felt that Martin was serious and honest A short time later, they were married Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree

in religion The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama

Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery Their first child was born Martin's work at the church was going well He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher Coretta remembered their life

as simple and without worries

Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a Montgomery city bus And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system

Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed more important even than his own life But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign He was only twenty-six years old He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers

Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement But he was faced with a serious problem He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement "

The answer came to him from the teachings of Gandhi and Thoreau In his first speech as a leader, Martin said:

"We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means Love must be the ideal guiding our actions If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say:

"There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization "

With these words, a new movement was born It was non-violent and peaceful But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead

You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA Your

narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal Our program was written by William Rodgers Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968: The Civil Rights Leader Organized the March on Washington,

DC in 1963

PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America

Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil right's leader Martin Luther King, Junior

Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama

In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus Doctor King became the leader of a protest against the city bus system It was the first time that black southerners had united against the laws of racial separation

At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation But the buses remained empty

Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest

They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued

Doctor King's wife Coretta described how she and her husband felt during the protest She said:

"We never knew what was going to happen next We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know

Yet we felt a part of history And we believed we were instruments of the will of God"

The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest They thought it would end if he was

in prison or dead Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges His arrests made national news and he was released But the threats against his life continued

The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible

They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights

Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over He had become well known all over the country and throughout the world He often was asked to speak about his ideas

on non-violence Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation

The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Martin Luther King became its president

In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only These protests became known as "freedom rides " Many

of the freedom rides turned violent Black activists were beaten and arrested Some were even killed

In nineteen sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city They demanded more jobs for blacks And they demanded to send their children to white schools The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands The situation became tense Many protestors were beaten and arrested Even Doctor King was arrested But he was not in prison for long

The Birmingham demonstrations made international news Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement

Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham It did not mean that racial separation had ended Some still remains today But he felt that the battle was almost won And he wanted to call on the nation for its support So doctor king organized a March on Washington, D C The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three About two hundred fifty thousand persons gathered there They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies But this was the biggest up to that time

It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech " It expressed his ideas for the future Doctor king said: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight

Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death His life had been threatened wherever he went And he often spoke to his wife about his fears But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement The night before he died he spoke to his supporters He said:

(MUSIC: "We Shall Overcome")

You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior This Special English program was written by William Rodgers Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren

Scheer I'm Doug Johnson Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America

Molly Brown, 1867-1932: A Social and Political Activist Who Survived the Titanic

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English I'm Mario Ritter And I'm Shirley Griffith

Margaret Brown was a social and political activist in the formative years of the modern American West Her biggest claim to fame was surviving the Titanic This week on our program, we tell the story of the woman remembered as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."

Margaret Brown lived an interesting life, but not all the stories about her are true For example, a Denver newspaper reporter named Gene Fowler wrote that she survived a tornado as a baby, refused to attend school and chewed tobacco

Fowler wrote about Brown and others in his book "Timber Line," published after her death in 1932 Kristen Iversen is an English professor and author of "Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth." She says the stories did contain some truth, though, which is that Brown went West to follow a dream and that dream came true

In the 1964 movie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" she was played by Debbie Reynolds

The nickname "Molly" was largely a Hollywood invention, says her biographer Kristen Iversen says Brown did not like it The name "Molly" was often used as an insult for an Irish girl, and nobody in her own life called her that

She was known as Maggie in her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri She was born Margaret Tobin

in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended Her Irish-born parents had socially progressive beliefs

At that time, American women could not own property or vote They did not get much education And they rarely traveled far by themselves But during her lifetime much of that changed

In 1886, Maggie Tobin left home for the town of Leadville, Colorado, to join a sister and brother who already lived there Leadville had gold, silver and copper mines At that time it was one of the fastest growing places in the country

She sewed carpets and curtains for a local dry goods company

She is shown singing in a barroom in both the movie and 1960 Broadway musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."

Here is biographer Kristen Iversen

KRISTEN IVERSEN: "She did have a great sense of humor She enjoyed being around people But she was very serious, very motivated, very hard working type of person and really a kind of good Catholic girl her entire life And that barroom saloon girl image is pretty different from the kind of person she really was So one thing the myth does is it really diminishes that aspect of her life." The story of her life became linked to romantic ideas about gold mining in the American West and the dream of getting rich quick

In 1886 Maggie Tobin married James Joseph Brown, J.J for short He was 31 years old; she was

19 He was a mine manager in Leadville who developed a way to safely mine for gold deeper than before

The popular story is that J.J got rich soon after they married Kristen Iversen says he did become rich, but not until they had been married for seven years and had two children

In 1894 the Browns bought a house in Denver, Colorado The popular story is that rich families in Denver society did not accept them because they had been poor and lacked education

Kristen Iversen says Denver's most conservative social club did exclude them for a time But she says the Browns were a big part of Denver society Margaret became involved in social and political events, hosting dinners to raise money for charities

She traveled around the world and sent her children to school in France She learned foreign languages and took college classes She also began to speak out for progressive causes

She worked toward social change through the womens reform movement She raised money for schools and the poor And she worked with a judge in Denver to establish the first court in the country to deal only with young people

In 1912 Margaret Brown was a passenger on the Titanic on its first and only trip The huge ship hit

an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic More than 1,500 people died, while just over 700 survived

Brown was played by Kathy Bates in James Cameron's "Titanic." In this scene, she tries to get the other women in her lifeboat to go back and rescue people from the water

MOLLY BROWN: "C'mon girls, grab an oar, let's go!"

CREWMAN: "Are you out of your mind? We're in the middle of the North Atlantic Now do you people want to live, or do you want to die?"

MOLLY BROWN: "I don't understand a one of ya What's the matter with ya? It's your men out there Theres plenty of room for more."

CREWMAN: "And there'll be one less on this boat if you don't shut that hole in your face."

In real life, Brown is credited with keeping people's spirits up in the lifeboat until they were rescued

by another ship, the Carpathia

Later, she raised money to help poor immigrant women who had been passengers on the lower levels of the Titanic She also raised money for the crew of the Carpathia She became president of the Titanic Survivors Club and helped build a memorial in Washington

So who started calling her "unsinkable?" Some say she described herself that way after the disaster Kristen Iversen says that is not true She says a Denver newspaper reporter first called her the unsinkable Mrs Brown in a story The New York Times called her the heroine of the Titanic

KRISTEN IVERSEN: "The thing about the Titanic experience, what happened with the Titanic experience and the recognition she got from the New York Times in particular was that it gave her a platform from which to talk about some of the political and social issues miners rights, womens rights, the development of the juvenile court system, that sort of thing It gave her an international platform to talk about some of those things."

She actively worked for the right of women to vote in federal elections Colorado gave women the right to vote in 1893, but that did not happen nationally until 1920 Brown ran for Congress twice in the early 1900s but lost both times

The popular story of Molly Brown is that she was on the Titanic returning home to a happy life with her husband In reality, their marriage had already failed

Kristen Iversen says one of their major problems was that Brown was socially progressive and her husband was not

KRISTEN IVERSEN: "He felt that a womans name and she wrote about his that a womans name should appear in the newspaper when she married and when she died And Margaret Tobin Brown liked to see her name in the newspaper for a lot of reasons."

The couple never legally divorced because of their Catholic faith, but they did sign a separation agreement J.J Brown died in 1922

During World War One, Margaret Brown went to France to help with the American medical ambulance system She earned the French Legion of Honor for her work with the American Committee of Devastated France

In the last years of her life, she traveled and performed on the stage She also studied and taught acting In 1929 she received the Palm of the Academy, a French honor, in recognition of her work

in dramatic arts

Margaret Brown died in 1932 while staying at the famous Barbizon Hotel in New York City She was sixty-five years old The discovery of a brain cancer after her death explained the severe headaches in the final years of her life

In 1970, the city of Denver bought the house where she had lived Each year about 50,000 people visit the Molly Brown House They learn how a wealthy American family lived at the start of the 20th century And they learn about the real Molly Brown

To biographer Kristen Iversen, Brown represents other women who also worked for social progress but whose lives "are invisible to history." So what lesson is there to learn from the myth of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown?"

KRISTEN IVERSEN: "I think the story in some ways tells us what we want to think of ourselves as

an American That is, this kind of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, that with enough determination and hard work that you can transcend limitations of money or class or gender And thats part of the myth and I think thats also part of the reality of her story

"So its a very inspirational story There are so many aspects of the myth that are not true Yet I think the myth story itself speaks to her spirit and speaks to some of the ways we like to think of ourselves as Americans."

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver I'm Mario Ritter And I'm Shirley Griffith

Rosa Parks, 1913-2005: Mother of the American Civil Rights Movement

I'm Pat Bodnar And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special

English Today, we tell about Rosa Parks, who has been called the mother of the American civil rights movement

Until the nineteen sixties, black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people Laws in the American South kept the two races separate These laws forced black people to attend separate schools, live in separate areas of a city and sit in separate areas on a bus

On December first, nineteen fifty-five, in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, a forty-two year old black woman got on a city bus The law at that time required black people seated in one

area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them The woman refused to do this and was arrested

This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States The woman who started it was Rosa Parks Today, we tell her story

She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in nineteen-thirteen in Tuskegee, Alabama She attended local schools until she was eleven years old Then she was sent to school in Montgomery She left high school early to care for her sick grandmother, then to care for her mother She did not finish high school until she was twenty-one

Rosa married Raymond Parks in nineteen thirty-two He was a barber who cut men's hair He was also a civil rights activist Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People In nineteen forty-three, Mrs Parks became an officer in the group and later its youth leader

Rosa Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery She worked sewing clothes from the nineteen thirties until nineteen fifty-five Then she became a representation of freedom for millions of African-Americans

In much of the American South in the nineteen fifties, the first rows of seats on city buses were for white people only Black people sat in the back of the bus Both groups could sit in a middle area However, black people sitting in that part of the bus were expected to leave their seats if a white person wanted to sit there

Rosa Parks and three other black people were seated in the middle area of the bus when a white person got on the bus and wanted a seat The bus driver demanded that all four black people leave their seats so the white person would not have to sit next to any of them The three other blacks got

up, but Mrs Parks refused She was arrested

Some popular stories about that incident include the statement that Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat because her feet were tired But she herself said in later years that this was false What she was really tired of, she said, was accepting unequal treatment She explained later that this seemed

to be the place for her to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights she had, if any

A group of black activist women in Montgomery was known as the Women's Political Council The group was working to oppose the mistreatment of black bus passengers Blacks had been arrested and even killed for violating orders from bus drivers Rosa Parks was not the first

black person to refuse to give up a seat on the bus for a white person But black groups in Montgomery considered her to be the right citizen around whom to build a protest because she was one of the finest citizens of the city

The women's group immediately called for all blacks in the city to refuse to ride on city buses on the day of Mrs Parks's trial, Monday, December fifth The result was that forty thousand people walked and used other transportation on that day

That night, at meetings throughout the city, blacks in Montgomery agreed to continue to boycott the city buses until their mistreatment stopped

They also demanded that the city hire black bus drivers and that anyone be permitted to sit in the middle of the bus and not have to get up for anyone else

The Montgomery bus boycott continued for three hundred eighty-one days It was led by local black leader E.D Nixon and a young black minister, Martin Luther King, Junior Similar protests were held in other southern cities Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Mrs Parks's case It made racial separation illegal on city buses That decision came on November thirteenth, nineteen fifty-six, almost a year after Mrs Parks's arrest The boycott in Montgomery ended the day after the court order arrived, December twentieth

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Junior had started a movement of non-violent protest in the South That movement changed civil rights in the United States forever Martin Luther King became its famous spokesman, but he did not live to see many of the results of his work Rosa Parks did

Life became increasingly difficult for Rosa Parks and her family after the bus boycott

She was dismissed from her job and could not find another So the Parks family left Montgomery They moved first to Virginia, then to Detroit, Michigan Mrs Parks worked as a seamstress until nineteen sixty-five Then, Michigan Representative John Conyers gave her a job working in his congressional office in Detroit She retired from that job in nineteen eighty-eight Through the years, Rosa Parks continued to work for the NAACP and appeared at civil rights events She was a quiet woman and often seemed uneasy with her fame But she said that she wanted to help people, especially young people, to make useful lives for themselves and to help others In nineteen eighty-seven, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to improve the lives of black children

Rosa Parks received two of the nation's highest honors for her civil rights activism In nineteen ninety-six, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom And in nineteen ninety-nine, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor

In her later years, Rosa Parks was often asked how much relations between the races had improved since the civil rights laws were passed in the nineteen sixties She thought there was still a long way to go Yet she remained the face of the movement for racial equality in the United States

Rosa Parks died on October twenty-fourth, two thousand five She was ninety-two years old Her body lay in honor in the United States Capitol building in Washington She was the first American woman to be so honored Thirty thousand people walked silently past her body to show their respect

Representative Conyers spoke about what this woman of quiet strength meant to the nation He said: "There are very few people who can say their actions and conduct changed the face of the nation Rosa Parks is one of those individuals."

Rosa Parks meant a lot to many Americans Four thousand people attended her funeral in Detroit, Michigan Among them were former President Bill Clinton, his wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan

President Clinton spoke about remembering the separation of the races on buses in the South when

he was a boy He said that Rosa Parks helped to set all Americans free He said the world knows of her because of a single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred

Earlier, the religious official of the United States Senate spoke about her at a memorial service in Washington He said Rosa Parks's bravery serves as an example of the power of small acts And the Reverend Jesse Jackson commented in a statement about what her small act of bravery meant for African-American people He said that on that bus in nineteen fifty-five, "She sat down in order that we might stand up… and she opened the doors on the long journey to freedom."

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach It was produced by Lawan Davis I'm Pat Bodnar

And I'm Steve Ember Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on

the Voice of America

Samuel Gompers, 1850-1924: 'The Grand Old Man of Labor'

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

I'm Phoebe Zimmerman And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE

IN AMERICA Today we tell about one of the country's greatest labor leaders, Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in eighteen fifty His parents were poor people who had moved to England from the Netherlands to seek a better life Sam was a very good student However, when he was ten years old, he was forced to quit school and go to work to help feed the family He was the oldest of five sons Like his father, Sam became a tobacco cigar maker He liked the cigar-making industry because it had a group of members During meetings, workers could talk about their problems This is where young Sam began to develop an interest in labor issues

But life was difficult for the Gompers family in London, even with both Sam and his father working They soon decided to move to the United States to again try to make a better life for themselves In eighteen sixty-three, the Gompers family got on a ship and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean Seven weeks later, the ship arrived in New York City The Gompers settled in a poor part

of New York where many immigrants lived

Sam soon learned that life in America was not easy At that time, most people worked many hours each day for little money They worked making goods in factories Often these factories had poor working conditions New York was known for these so-called "sweatshops." Whole families, including young children, worked fourteen hours a day in sweatshops for just enough money to stay alive

Sam hated the sweatshops and refused to work there Instead, he and his father became cigar makers again Soon Sam joined the Cigarmakers International Union In those days, labor unions were not strong or permanent They did little to help workers in their struggle for better working conditions and a better life Sam believed this needed to change

Sam Gompers was married at the age of seventeen He became a father one year later He earned a living making cigars in shops around New York City Employers recognized him as a skilled and valuable worker The men he worked with recognized him as an effective labor activist

Sam also became a student of socialism In eighteen seventy-three, he started working for an old German socialist, David Hirsch Most of Mr Hirsch's workers were also socialists from Germany These men became Samuel Gompers' teachers They taught him much about trade unions

One teacher was Karl Laurrell, who had been the leader in Europe of the International Workingman's Association Mr Laurrell taught Sam Gompers what labor unity meant He also taught him about "collective bargaining." This is how representatives of labor groups meet with the people they work for and negotiate an agreement For example, labor and management might negotiate for more money, fewer hours and cleaner working places for workers

In time, Samuel Gompers used his knowledge of labor issues to help cigar makers throughout New York form a single, representative union It was called the Cigarmakers' Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four Each cigar shop in New York had its own small union that elected a representative to sit on the council of a larger union In eighteen seventy-five, this council elected

Mr Gompers as president of Cigarmakers' Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four

The union's constitution was like the constitution of a democratic government All people in the union had a representative voice Experts say the organizing of Cigarmakers' Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four was the beginning of the American labor movement

Sam Gompers believed that one day all working men and women could belong to organized trade unions He believed workers should not be forced to sell their labor at too low a price He also believed each person must have the power to improve his or her own life A person can get this

power by joining with others in a union He believed a democratic trade union can speak and act for all its workers This is the same way a democratic government speaks for the people because voters elect officials to represent them

Labor organizations began to grow stronger in America during the late nineteenth century At the same time, Sam Gompers started to speak of new ideas He dreamed of bringing all trade unions together into one big, nation-wide organization that could speak with one voice for workers throughout the country

In eighteen eighty-one, Mr Gompers was sent as the delegate of the cigar makers union to a conference of unions The delegates agreed to organize an alliance called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada The alliance held yearly meeting of national union and local labor councils It was designed to educate the public on worker issues, prepare labor-related legislation, and pressure Congress to approve such bills Sam Gompers was an officer in the alliance for five years

During that time, he worked for several measures to improve the lives of workers and children These included proposals to reduce the work day to eight hours, limit child labor and require children to attend school He soon learned, however, that the alliance of unions had neither the money nor the power to do much more than talk about these issues So, in eighteen eighty-six, Sam Gompers helped organize a new union for all labor unions It was called the American Federation of Labor

Sam Gompers was elected president of the American Federation of Labor in eighteen eighty-six He held that position, except for one year, for thirty-eight years until he died In eighteen ninety, the A.F.L represented two hundred fifty thousand workers Two years later, the number had grown to more than one million workers Under his leadership, the A.F.L grew from a few struggling labor unions to become the major organization within the labor movement in the United States

As leader of the A.F.L Mr Gompers had enemies both within and outside the labor movement Some opponents believed Mr Gompers was more interested in personal power than in improving the rights of workers They believed his ideas about strikes and collective bargaining could not stop big business They believed the American Federation of Labor was a conservative organization designed to serve skilled workers only

Other opponents considered Sam Gompers a foreign-born troublemaker who wanted to destroy property rights At the same time, opponents in industry and business feared that the labor leader was demanding too much for workers They said his talk violated the law, and that he excited workers and urged them to strike