It was the Great Depression. Nine young black men were hoboing, riding a freight train to Memphis, Tennessee in search of work, but their ride was cut short. At Scottsboro, Alabama the police hauled them off the train: the young men, ages 13 to 21, were accused of raping two white women who were on the train. For black men in the 1930s in the Deep South, such a charge could be fatal. Like so many others who had died by trial or lynching, the Scottsboro Boys (as they came to be called) were falsely accused, a fact that meant almost nothing. In March, 1931 eight of them were sentenced to death, while the fate of the ninth, 13-year-old Roy Wright, hovered dangerously close to life in prison before ending in a mistrial.

In this episode of New York Considered, hear excerpts from New York City Mayor Ed Koch's community meeting in Jackson Heights. The Mayor speaks about issues concerning the city, with particular emphasis on Queens: immigration, housing, street safety, transportation.

New York Considered was a public affairs series produced by Marty Goldensohn and Peter Freyberg.

In 1961, a radio reporter named Eleanor Fischer spoke to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for a CBC called Project 62. As far as we know, these unedited interviews have never been presented in their entirety until now.

What were the signs and symptoms of influenza in 1951? Join Dr. Naltoney to find out.

Patricia Marx interviews Danny Kaye about humor, accents, and music.

Sol Yurick discusses his novel The Warriors and its film adaptation.

Congressman Edward I. Koch speaks on a telephone interview about rent control, including an upcoming rally.

In this 1978 episode of Reader's Almanac, host Jack Sullivan interviews Richard Price, 28, on the publication of his third novel, Ladies’ Man.

In newly recovered audio from our collections, Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses a Books and Authors Luncheon audience. Historian David Pietrusza weighs in on the surviving audio from the Nov 23, 1948 speech.

Host Steve Sullivan brings legendary jazz drummer Pete La Roca onto Around New York for an interview about a life and career in jazz. 

In this 1959 episode of Recordings, E.T.C., Host Edward Tatnall Canby presents the "voices" of two canonical storytellers: Mark Twain and Hans Christian Andersen. Neither Twain nor Andersen is actually featured on these recordings, but Canby delights in the authenticity of Hal Holbrook's portrayal of Twain and Boris Karloff's readings of Andersen's tales.

Longtime New York Public Radio engineer Jim Stagnito, a.k.a. Stag, bid the station farewell last week.

The Archives Department celebrates the life of artist Will Barnet with this WNYC interview from 1972, precisely 40 years ago today. Last year, at the age of 100, Barnet had a widely acclaimed retrospective at the National Academy.  The show highlighted a long and prolific career for an artist whose worked spanned - and survived - every important artistic movement in the 20th century.  Barnet passed away yesterday.

David Durk, the New York police detective who teamed up with officer Frank Serpico to breach the aptly named 'blue wall of silence' died yesterday. His testimony before the Knapp Commission investigation into police corruption in 1971 made for some of the most moving public testimony ever broadcast.  Writing in The New York Times Book Review, WNYC Director Mary Perot Nichols said it was largely thanks to Durk's persistence and contacts that their campaign against police corruption became a matter of public record. Above is an excerpt from his remarks on December 21, 1971.

In 1989 National Public Radio commissioned me to produce a Veterans Day documentary piece on General Smedley Butler, the consummate American soldier.

Kee Malesky, NPR’s longest-serving librarian, was in New York on October 15 for a talk and an afternoon “salon”. Sponsored by METRO, she was promoting her recently-published, second book, Learn Something New Every Day.

“I guarantee, that if I am elected, I will take over the White House, hang out, shoot pool, scratch my ass, and not do a damn thing.  Which is to say, if you want something done, don't come to me to do it for you; you got to get together and figure out how to do it yourselves.  Is that a deal?” - Utah Phillips

"Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, that don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous." - Will Rogers

In this 1974 episode of Musicale, Hubert S. Howe, Jr., selects a few original electronic music compositions synthesized at Queens College. Howe was one of the earliest progenitors of computer music.

On December 11, 1991, Salman Rushdie "quietly ventured outside Britain and emerged" [1] to speak at a Columbia University dinner celebrating the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment. The thunderous applause that greets Mr Rushdie's unexpected appearance sets the tone for his speech.