http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSt574xqPbw

Watch rare footage of the last 27 prisoners leaving Alcatraz on March 21, 1963, the day the notorious federal penitentiary was closed for good due to major structural problems, which became a burdensome financial strain.

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Rare Footage of Alcatraz Prison’s Closing Day appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oF3q4pgUv8

Elisheva Zimet Stern and Rita Weiss, survivors of the Holocaust, describe what happened when they were deported from Hungary and taken to the concentration camps. The Nazis first occupied Hungary on March 20, 1954 and later sent over 400,000 Hungarian Jews to the concentration camps, where an estimated 90% were killed.

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Holocaust Survivors Remember Deportation From Hungary appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv8hlSuR8qU

Al Seedman, the former NYC Chief of Detectives, discusses how they caught the murderer of Kitty Genovese and explains how the investigation improved police department procedures. When Genovese was murdered on March 13, 1964, reportedly near neighbors who ignored her cries for help, it triggered the beginning of research into the bystander effect.

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Detective Al Seedman on the Kitty Genovese Investigation appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP3lWftprjQ

George Takei recalls the day his family was taken away to a Japanese Internment Camp and reflects on the unconstitutional policies that allowed the camps to exist in the first place.

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George Takei on His Life in a Japanese Internment Camp appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMhrBKwtbVs

Former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford shares his favorite memory of meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and remembers discussing the inevitable assassination of such a prominent civil rights leader with his wife, Coretta Scott King. Wofford then explains what MLK Day means to him and how he thinks the holiday should celebrate King’s goals of equality. He also recalls the fight it took to create the holiday in the first place, though it had support from many sides. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that all 50 states celebrated MLK Day. The day was singed into law as a Federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was first celebrated in 1986 after Wofford and other politicians voiced their support.

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‘A Day When We Try to Fulfill the Goals MLK Gave His Life For’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkFQsYaddGM

Three successful professionals share the influence that Charles M. Schulz, creator of the “Peanuts” comics, has had on their lives and in the world in general. First is Kate DiCamillo, award-winning children’s book writer; next is cartoonist Stephan Pastis who co-wrote the first graphic novel containing Peanuts characters, titled “Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown!”; and Washington Post cartoonist and Comic Riffs blogger Michael Cana. Peanuts was created by Schultz on October 2, 1950 and still runs in syndication today. On January 3, 2000, the last original weekday Peanuts comic strip was published and the final Sunday strip was published on February 13, 2000.

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Cartoonists Inspired by Charles M. Schulz Discuss His Influence appeared first on Witnify.

Interview of Alice Paul By Robert S. Gallagher

How did you begin?

I went down to Washington on the seventh of December, 1912. All I had at the start was a list of people who had supported the movement, but when I tried to see them, I found that almost all of them had died or moved, and nobody knew much about them. So we were left with a tiny handful of people.

With all these obstacles how did you manage to organize the tremendous parade that greeted President-elect Wilson three months later?

Well, it wasn’t such a tremendous parade. We called it a procession. I don’t know whether there were five thousand or ten thousand marchers, maybe, but it wasn’t a very big one. The idea for such a parade had been discussed at the 1912 suffrage convention, although some of the delegates thought it was too big an undertaking. It was unusual. There had never been a procession of women for any cause under the sun, so people did want to go and see it.

The press estimated the crowd at a half million. Whose idea was it to have the parade the day before Wilson’s inaugural?

That was the only day you could have it if you were trying to impress the new President. The marchers came from all over the country at their own expense. We just sent letters everywhere, to every name we could find. And then we had a hospitality committee headed by Mrs. Harvey Wiley, the wife of the man who put through the first pure-food law in America. Mrs. Wiley canvassed all her friends in Washington and came up with a tremendous list of people who were willing to entertain the visiting marchers for a day or two. I mention these names to show what a wonderful group of people we had on our little committee.

Did you have any trouble getting a police permit?

No, although in the beginning the police tried to get us to march on Sixteenth Street, past the embassies and all. But from our point of view Pennsylvania Avenue was the place. So Mrs. Ebenezer Hill, whose husband was a Connecticut congressman and whose daughter Elsie was on our committee, she went to see the police chief, and we got our permit. We marched from the Capitol to the White House, and then on to Constitution Hall, which was the hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which many of our people were members of.

Didn’t the parade start a riot?

The press reports said that the crowd was very hostile, but it wasn’t hostile at all. The spectators were practically all tourists who had come for Wilson’s inauguration. We knew there would be a large turnout for our procession, because the company that put up the grandstands was selling tickets and giving us a small percentage. The money we got—it was a gift from heaven—helped us pay for the procession. I suppose the police thought we were only going to have a couple of hundred people, so they made no preparations. We were worried about this, so another member of our committee, Mrs. John Rogers, went the night before to see her brother-in-law, Secretary of War [Henry L.] Stimson, and he promised to send over the cavalry from Fort Myer if there was any trouble.

Did you need his help?

Yes, but not because the crowd was hostile. There were just so many people that they poured into the street, and we were not able to walk very far. So we called Secretary Stimson, and he sent over the troops, and they cleared the way for us. I think it took us six hours to go from the Capitol to Constitution Hall. Of course, we did hear a lot of shouted insults, which we always expected. You know, the usual things about why aren’t you home in the kitchen where you belong. But it wasn’t anything violent. Later on, when we were actually picketing the White House, the people did become almost violent. They would tear our banners out of our hands and that sort of thing.

The national board members were at the head of it. I walked in the college section. We all felt very proud of ourselves, walking along in our caps and gowns. One of the largest and loveliest sections was made up of uniformed nurses. It was very impressive. Then we had a foreign section, and a men’s section, and a Negro women’s section from the National Association of Colored Women, led by Mary Church Terrell. She was the first colored woman to graduate from Oberlin, and her husband was a judge in Washington. Well, Mrs. Terrell got together a wonderful group to march, and then, suddenly, our members from the South said they wouldn’t march. Oh, the newspapers just thought this was a wonderful story and developed it to the utmost. I remember that that was when the men’s section came to the rescue. The leader, a Quaker I knew, suggested that the men march between the southern delegations and the colored women’s section, and that finally satisfied the southern women. That was the greatest hurdle we had..

If the parade didn’t cause any real trouble, why was there a subsequent congressional investigation that resulted in the ouster of the district police chief?

The principal investigation was launched at the request of our women delegates from Washington, which was a suffrage state. These women were so indignant about the remarks from the crowd. And I remember that Congressman Kent was very aroused at the things that were shouted at his daughter, Elizabeth, who was riding on the California float, and he was among the first in Congress to demand an investigation into why the police hadn’t been better prepared. As I said, the police just didn’t take our little procession seriously. I don’t think it was anything intentional. We didn’t testify against the police, because we felt it was just a miscalculation on their part.

To view the full interview, visit the American Heritage website.

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[Text] Interview With Suffragette Alice Paul on the 1913 Parade appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAcjIjFUuTA

“The light came in where it’d never come before…”

Hear Frank Lloyd Wright discuss what his original intent was for the corner window.  In his effort to destroy the “box” structure of buildings, that he felt represented fascism, he felt the corner window would let light in from new directions and liberate the world from a preconceived sense of structure. Hear the world famous architect describe how he conceived the corner window and what happened when it circulated around the world.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htJS5GKdaXs

Brilliant Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer one of the father’s of the atomic bomb makes a formal statement about whether it will be possible to kill 40 Million American people in a single night. I’m afraid the answer is “Yes.”

He goes on to proscribe the only hope being:  “I think the only hope for our future safety will rely on collaboration based on confidence and good faith the other peoples of the world.”

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKOGipoV7Y

“I was a sensation…”

Phyllis Diller recalls her endless persistence to get booked on the Tonight Show. Her pianist called every day until they eventually wore down the show’s booker. She went in to audition for them and was booked that same night.  “It was history,” the famous comedienne recalls. “Time stood still.”

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Phyllis Diller on getting on The Tonight Show appeared first on Witnify.