Activists

Andrew Young

Bill Thompson

Was the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s a social or political movement? It was, but it was also a religious or spiritual movement, says former Congressman and UN Ambassador Andrew Young.

In a 1994 book called A Way Out of No Way, Young, a confidant of Martin Luther King jr., a former preacher, former Atlanta mayor, told his own story against the backdrop of the movement that he was a key part of.

So here now, from 1994, Andrew Young:

Ambassador Andrew Young will be 89 next month.

------------------------------------------------

You may also lik these episodes:
Rosa Parks

Norma McCorvey

Bill Thompson

In 1969, a young Texas woman sought a legal abortion. But when she was unable to obtain one, she turned to two young lawyers for help.

Those lawyers took Norma NcCorve’s case to court, and eventually to the United States Supreme Court.

Along the way, Norma NcCorvey became known in the court papers as “Jane Roe.” Henry Wade was the local prosecutor she was suing, so the case became known as Roe v Wade.

And on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor, effectively legalizing abortion across the U.S.

I met Norma McCorvey in 1994, when she wrote a book called “I Am Roe.”

So here now, from 1994, Norma McCorvey.

Norma McCorvey died in 2017. She was 69.

-------------------------------------------------------
Robert Bork with Ronald Reagan 1987

You may also lik these episodes:
Robert Bork

Rosa Parks

Bill Thompson

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S. So I wanted to revisit an interview I did nearly 30 years ago with a woman whose actions helped propel Dr. King to national prominence.

In December 1955, a young woman named Rosa Parks was on her way home after a long hard day at work. She was on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when she was ordered to the back of the bus so a white man could have her seat.

She refused to move, and was arrested and jailed.

Her arrest sparked outrage in Montgomery’s black community, and soon they organized a bus boycott, which lasted for more than a year.That boycott was led by a young preacher named Martin Luther King Jr.

I had the opportunity to interview Rosa Parks in 1992, after she had written a book for young readers.

So here now, from 1992, Rosa Parks.

Congress has called her “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement.”

Rosa Parks died in 2005. She was 92.

--------------------------------------------------------

You may also lik these episodes:
John Lewis

Coretta Scott King

Erin Brockovich

Bill Thompson

In 1993, a single mother with no legal training, no experikence as an attorney, helped bring a major corporation to its knees.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Erin Brockovich joined attorney Ed Masry in suing Pacific Gas & Electric, which was accused of poisoning the water supply in a small California town called Hinkley.

Soon, Hollywood heard about the story, and it was turned into a major Motion Picture in 2000, starring Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich.

In 2001, Brockovich wrote a book about her experience. That’s when I met her.

So here, from 2001, Erin Brockovich.

Erin Brockovich is 60 now. Shes the president of a company called Brockovich Research & Consulting.

—————————————————————

You may also lik these episodes:
Jonnie Cochran

Tipper Gore

Bill Thompson
Photo: Nancy Rhoda

Years before her husband Al was elected vice president of the United States, Tipper Gore established a reputation of her own, as a social issues advocate. And her issue, in the late 80s, was protecting America’s children from sex and violence in the media.

She was co-founder of the Parents Music Resource Center, which led the effort to require warning labels if on media contained profanity, sexual references, or violence.

I met her in 1987. She had just published a book called Raising PG Kids In An X-Rated Society.

So here now, from 1987, Tipper Gore:

Tipper Gore celebrated her 72nd birthday day-before-yesterday.

She and Al Gore raised four children.

They separated in 2010.

Mark Shriver

Bill Thompson
R, Sargent Shriver

Father’s Day is next Sunday and all this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’re featuring interviews about fathers.

Few men are as widely praised as Sargent Shriver was. after his death in early 2011. Thousands of tributes hailed Shriver not only for his great public accomplishments — including founding the Peace Corps, building President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty — but also his personal virtues.

Mark Shriver Photo: Amanda Rhoades

He was, in nearly everyone’s words, a “good man.”

I met his son Mark Shriver about a year-and-a-half after his father’s death, in 2012, when he wrote a book about his father, and what he had learned from him in life and in death.

So here now, from 2012, Mark Shriver.

Mark Shriver, who’s 56 noe, is President of the Save the Children Action Network. He and his family live in Maryland.

Maya Angelou

Bill Thompson

Few poets ever rise to the kind of prominence enjoyed by Maya Angelou. But of course, she was much more than a poet — essayist, memoirist, and civil rights activist. And not a bad singer, as you’ll hear in a few minutes.

Maya Angelou with Bill Thompson 1993

She worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton. I met her a few months later.

Here now, from October 1993, Maya Angelou.

In 2013, Maya Angelou published the seventh volume of her autobiography.

She died in 2014, at age 86.

Dave Pallone

Bill Thompson

A little bit of backstory: in 1979 major league baseball umpires went on strike. MLB hired substitutes — scabs, as m,any call them — and veteran minor league umpire Dave Pallone was offered a big-league job.

He remained in the National League for ten years.

But as he told in his 1990 book “Behind the Mask,” his fellow umpires disliked him. And he developed a reputation for being quick-tempered.

In April 1988, Pallone had a very high-profile confrontation with someone else who had a reputation for his temper: Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose. During an argument over a controversial call, Rose shoved Pallone — a very serious offense in baseball — and was suspended for 30 days.

Dave Pallone was forced to resign from baseball in September 1988.

I met him two years later, when he published his book.

Here now, from 1990, Dave Pallone.

“Behind the Mask” was a New York Times best-seller

Dave Pallone is 68 now, and does diversity training for corporations, as well as NCAA colleges, universities and athletes.

And he’s in the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

Wangari Maathai

Bill Thompson

She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize.

Kenyan-born Wangari Maathai was educated in the U.S., then returned to Kenya and became a social, environmental and political activist

Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com

In 1977, when she was 37 years old, Wangari Maathai established what she called the “Green Belt Movement.”

What started as a modest effort to improve the environment and natural resources grew into a major environmental — and women’s rights — effort. And it frequently got Maathai in trouble.

I met her 14 years ago when she wrote a book about her life and her work.

Here now, from 2006, Wangari Maathai.

Wangari Maathai died in 2011 after fighting ovarian cancer at age 71. She is buried at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies in Nairobi, Kenya.

Judy Shepard

Bill Thompson

Mother’s Day is next Sunday, so this week on “Now I’ve Heard Everything we’re featuring interviews with and about mothers.

Matthew Shepard

Today, a loving and devoted mother who suffered a devastating and very public loss.

On October 6, 1998, a 22-year-old gay University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured, and died six days later.

Two other young men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, were later arrested, tried, and convicted in Matthew Shepard’s death.

After her son’s murder, Judy Shepard took on a new role as advocate for the LGBT community.

She created the Matthew Shepard Foundation and lobbied for anti-hate crime legislation.

I met Judy Shepard some 11 years after her son’s death, when she wrote a book about him. So here now, from 2009, Judy Shepard.

Less than a month after our interview, Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama a few days later.