For immediate release
March 6, 1998
Weekend Edition Saturday to Broadcast A Special Exploration of
Affirmative Action at the University of Chicago
Washington, DC - On Saturday, March 14, 1998, NPR's
Weekend Edition® with
Scott Simon features a special oral history of affirmative action's 30 year
history at the University of Chicago. Weekend Edition will break format to
broadcast this 35 minute story, told without narration in the voices of current
and former students, faculty and administrators. Check with local NPR member
stations for broadcast times.
The story examines attitudes about Chicago's institutional history of
excellence and inclusion. In the piece, historian John Hope Franklin
and sociologist William Julius Wilson recall the university's response
to affirmative action pressures and their impact. Others who experienced
affirmative action at Chicago share personal stories that bring perspective
to the contemporary political debate.
Peabody Award-winning producer Sonja Williams produced this special
story for NPR. She said, "I wanted to talk about the personal
experience of affirmative action … as opposed to hearing the ranting
and raving about it in the current debate. How did it affect different
people at different times at one of the nation's most respected institutions
of higher learning?"
Tapes of the broadcast will be available to the media upon request.
It also will be available after broadcast through the NPR Web site at
http://www.npr.org.
National Public Radio, a membership organization of 591 public radio
stations nationwide, produces and distributes the award-winning programs
All Things Considered®, Talk of
the Nation®, Weekend Edition®
and NPR's Performance Today®.
