June 28, 2021 • 10 mins
On this day in 1968, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, sparking nights of riots that became a major moment of resistance in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement. / On this day in 1951, "The Amos 'n' Andy Show” premiered on CBS TV.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. Hope
you enjoy Welcome to this day and history class where
history waits for no one. The day was June twenty eighth,
(00:26):
nineteen sixty nine. Early in the morning, New York City
police raided the stone Wall in a gay bar in
Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The raid inside a riot, and
tensions between the LGBTQ community and police reached a breaking point.
The raid in subsequent riots catalyzed the organization of pride
(00:49):
marches and marked a major moment of resistance in the
US movement for LGBTQ rights. Anti LGBTQ policies and views
were prevalent at the time. Sexuality was still deemed a
psychiatric disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and LGBTQ people
faced institutional and interpersonal discrimination. They were at risk of
(01:12):
being locked up in psychiatric institutions or jail, being fired
from their jobs, or losing custody over their children because
of their sexuality or identity. In New York, in the
years leading up to the Stonewall riots, the State Liquor
Authority banned gay people from being served alcoholic drinks and bars,
and it would close bars that violated this rule. This
(01:35):
rule was overturned in nineteen sixty six, and the SLA
stopped closing licensed bars that served LGBTQ folks. Though LGBTQ
activists had been working for decades to advance LGBTQ rights
and demand better treatment, so listening homosexual acts and publicly
expressing homosexuality was still illegal in New York. They could
(01:59):
be arrested for displays of affection, for dancing with each other,
and for wearing clothes that were not quote gender appropriate.
LGBTQ people sought out gay bars, one of the few
places that accepted them where they could express themselves without
judgment or persecution, but police continued to harass patrons at
(02:20):
gay bars, many of which operated without liquor licenses since
they were ran by the mafia. The stone Wall In
was one of those unlicensed bars, so police raids on
gay bars were still common in New York City. Stonewall
had seen its fair share of raids, but staff were
usually given a heads up and warned customers so nobody
(02:44):
would get arrested. In the days leading up to the
Stonewall riots. Police raided many bars, including the stone Wall,
on the Tuesday before the events took place, but on
June twenty eighth, at one twenty am, police entered the
stone Wall in and out that they were conducting a raid.
Employees had not been alerted that there would be a
(03:05):
raid that night. It's been suggested that the bar owners
failed to pay off the police, who took money for
not arresting them for serving drinks without a license and
not telling media about the bar's notable patrons. But as usual,
the police lined people up, checked their IDs, assaulted some
of the patrons, and checked people who they suspected of
(03:27):
cross dressing, which was an offense. The police ended up
arresting several patrons and employees. As people in the area
began to notice the commotion, they gathered outside the bar
along with patrons who had been sent out of the bar.
As a police band arrived at the scene and arrested
patrons were sent to the police station. The growing crowd
(03:49):
became more rowdy and through bottles, coins, and other objects
at the police. Transgender rights activists Marshall P. Johnson has
been cited as one of the key gears in the
uprising along with Sylvia Rivera. Police barricaded themselves inside the bar,
but people through trash cans, rocks, and bricks at the building,
(04:11):
and they even set it on fire. A few hours
after the rioting started, the area was quiet, though a
lot of the Stonewall Inn had been destroyed and people
had been injured, But rioting began again the next night
and protests continued for a few more days. The Village
Voice published reports on the riots. Historians assert that the
(04:34):
riots were spontaneous, but were a culmination of social turbulence
related to anti LGBTQ sentiment, the civil rights movement, the
Vietnam War, and other conflicts occurring at the time, as
well as the climate of sexual openness in the sixties.
Raids continued after the riot. Though the riots at stone
(04:55):
Wall were not the beginning of LGBTQ activism, they are
viewed as a watership moment in the history of the
movement that activated interests in LGBTQ rights organizations, the gay
liberation movement, and LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy. I'm Eve Jeffcote,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
(05:16):
than you did yesterday, and if you'd like to follow
us on social media, you can find us at t
d i h C podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
And if you have not listened to a new show
I host Call on the Popular you can get it
anywhere you listen to This Day in History Class. Thanks
(05:36):
again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all,
it's Eves and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a podcast for people who can never know enough about history.
(05:58):
The day was June twenty eighth, nineteen fifty. The television
show Amos and Andy premiered on CBSTV, adapted from one
of the most popular syndicated radio programs at the time.
The television version had a successful run, but the show
was also admired in controversy and ultimately canceled because of
protests surrounding the way it portrayed black people. Amos and
(06:20):
Andy was created by Freeman Goston and Charles Carrell initially
as a radio show in Chicago, Illinois, in the nineteen twenties.
At first, an executive for their radio station wg Inn
approached to Goston and Correll about adapting a popular comic
strip from the Chicago Tribune. Instead, they pitched an idea
for a show about quote a couple of colored characters,
(06:42):
specifically because they wanted to voice characters in a stereotypical
black dialect. Minstrel shows typically featured white actors and blackface
performing as caricatures of black people. Though waning in popularity,
they were still a form of entertainment at the time
WG in greenlit their show. Its initial iteration was entitled
(07:03):
Sam and Henry and aired on Chicago Radio beginning in
January of nineteen twenty six. The show was so successful
that Gosston and Correll wanted to expand it. They proposed
that the show would be recorded on phonographs and distributed
to different radio stations around the country, which would have
been the first ever form of radio syndication, but their
proposal was shot down. The two creators quit the network,
(07:26):
but WGN retained the contractual rights to Sam and Henry.
They were picked up by the Chicago station WMAQ, who
wanted them to create something similar, so they came up
with Amos and Andy. They later said that they decided
on the names after hearing two black men greet each
other in an elevator. Amos and Andy premiered on Chicago
(07:47):
Radio in March of nineteen twenty eight. The show followed
the titular characters, two black men from Atlanta who moved
to Chicago during the Great Migration. Goaston and Correll voiced
the characters, as well as more than one written seventy
other male characters over the course of the show. The
show was super popular, and it did become the first
(08:07):
radio program to be syndicated across the US. It was
drawing in forty million listeners by nineteen thirty one, but
protests about the show's portrayal of black Americans had already begun.
The first prominent protest was mounted by the Pittsburgh Courier,
a black newspaper, in nineteen thirty one. It started a
petition to have the show taken off the air. One
(08:28):
April nineteen thirty one article in the paper said the following.
The men portraying the characters are white. The company employing
Amos and Andy is white. The people reaping the financial
game from the characterizations are all white. But the people
who are getting the black eye out of it all
are the negroes of this country and of every other
country where Negroes are found. The Amos and Andy Show,
(08:50):
starring Alvin Childress, Spencer Williams, and Tim Moore, premiered on
CBSTV on June twenty fifth, nineteen fifty one. The television
adaptation took place in harle It was the first American
television show with black actors featured in leading roles. The
show was sponsored by BLAT's Brewing Company, and it ran
for fifty two episodes between nineteen fifty one and nineteen
(09:11):
fifty three. Soon after the show premiered, the NAACP formerly
protested it as a quote gross libel of the Negro
and distortion of the truth. Campaigns to band the Amos
and Andy Show targeted both CBS and BLATS, and BLATS
stopped sponsoring it. In nineteen fifty three, the show was canceled,
but twenty six more episodes were grouped in with syndicated reruns.
(09:35):
CBS continued to air reruns of the show until nineteen
sixty six, but ultimately stopped after conceding to pressures from
the NAACP and other protests. In light of the Civil
rights movement. Rejoice TV broadcast a show for nationwide audiences
again for several years, starting in twenty twelve, but the
show is not currently being aired across the US. On
(09:58):
one hand, many people found the stereo types in the
show harmful, regardless of the representation of black people in
different roles. Despite the controversy, some people credit the show
as paving the way for Black Americans on television and
making white audiences more sympathetic towards black people. I'm Eve
jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about history
(10:18):
today than you did yesterday. And if you have any
commerce or suggestions, you can send them to us via email.
We're at This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. You can
also hit us up or follow us on social media.
We're at t d IHC podcast. Thanks so much for
listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For
(10:45):
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, everyone, Technically you're getting two days in history today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. Hope
you enjoy Welcome to this day and history class where
history waits for no one. The day was June twenty eighth,
(00:26):
nineteen sixty nine. Early in the morning, New York City
police raided the stone Wall in a gay bar in
Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The raid inside a riot, and
tensions between the LGBTQ community and police reached a breaking point.
The raid in subsequent riots catalyzed the organization of pride
(00:49):
marches and marked a major moment of resistance in the
US movement for LGBTQ rights. Anti LGBTQ policies and views
were prevalent at the time. Sexuality was still deemed a
psychiatric disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and LGBTQ people
faced institutional and interpersonal discrimination. They were at risk of
(01:12):
being locked up in psychiatric institutions or jail, being fired
from their jobs, or losing custody over their children because
of their sexuality or identity. In New York, in the
years leading up to the Stonewall riots, the State Liquor
Authority banned gay people from being served alcoholic drinks and bars,
and it would close bars that violated this rule. This
(01:35):
rule was overturned in nineteen sixty six, and the SLA
stopped closing licensed bars that served LGBTQ folks. Though LGBTQ
activists had been working for decades to advance LGBTQ rights
and demand better treatment, so listening homosexual acts and publicly
expressing homosexuality was still illegal in New York. They could
(01:59):
be arrested for displays of affection, for dancing with each other,
and for wearing clothes that were not quote gender appropriate.
LGBTQ people sought out gay bars, one of the few
places that accepted them where they could express themselves without
judgment or persecution, but police continued to harass patrons at
(02:20):
gay bars, many of which operated without liquor licenses since
they were ran by the mafia. The stone Wall In
was one of those unlicensed bars, so police raids on
gay bars were still common in New York City. Stonewall
had seen its fair share of raids, but staff were
usually given a heads up and warned customers so nobody
(02:44):
would get arrested. In the days leading up to the
Stonewall riots. Police raided many bars, including the stone Wall,
on the Tuesday before the events took place, but on
June twenty eighth, at one twenty am, police entered the
stone Wall in and out that they were conducting a raid.
Employees had not been alerted that there would be a
(03:05):
raid that night. It's been suggested that the bar owners
failed to pay off the police, who took money for
not arresting them for serving drinks without a license and
not telling media about the bar's notable patrons. But as usual,
the police lined people up, checked their IDs, assaulted some
of the patrons, and checked people who they suspected of
(03:27):
cross dressing, which was an offense. The police ended up
arresting several patrons and employees. As people in the area
began to notice the commotion, they gathered outside the bar
along with patrons who had been sent out of the bar.
As a police band arrived at the scene and arrested
patrons were sent to the police station. The growing crowd
(03:49):
became more rowdy and through bottles, coins, and other objects
at the police. Transgender rights activists Marshall P. Johnson has
been cited as one of the key gears in the
uprising along with Sylvia Rivera. Police barricaded themselves inside the bar,
but people through trash cans, rocks, and bricks at the building,
(04:11):
and they even set it on fire. A few hours
after the rioting started, the area was quiet, though a
lot of the Stonewall Inn had been destroyed and people
had been injured, But rioting began again the next night
and protests continued for a few more days. The Village
Voice published reports on the riots. Historians assert that the
(04:34):
riots were spontaneous, but were a culmination of social turbulence
related to anti LGBTQ sentiment, the civil rights movement, the
Vietnam War, and other conflicts occurring at the time, as
well as the climate of sexual openness in the sixties.
Raids continued after the riot. Though the riots at stone
(04:55):
Wall were not the beginning of LGBTQ activism, they are
viewed as a watership moment in the history of the
movement that activated interests in LGBTQ rights organizations, the gay
liberation movement, and LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy. I'm Eve Jeffcote,
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
(05:16):
than you did yesterday, and if you'd like to follow
us on social media, you can find us at t
d i h C podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
And if you have not listened to a new show
I host Call on the Popular you can get it
anywhere you listen to This Day in History Class. Thanks
(05:36):
again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all,
it's Eves and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a podcast for people who can never know enough about history.
(05:58):
The day was June twenty eighth, nineteen fifty. The television
show Amos and Andy premiered on CBSTV, adapted from one
of the most popular syndicated radio programs at the time.
The television version had a successful run, but the show
was also admired in controversy and ultimately canceled because of
protests surrounding the way it portrayed black people. Amos and
(06:20):
Andy was created by Freeman Goston and Charles Carrell initially
as a radio show in Chicago, Illinois, in the nineteen twenties.
At first, an executive for their radio station wg Inn
approached to Goston and Correll about adapting a popular comic
strip from the Chicago Tribune. Instead, they pitched an idea
for a show about quote a couple of colored characters,
(06:42):
specifically because they wanted to voice characters in a stereotypical
black dialect. Minstrel shows typically featured white actors and blackface
performing as caricatures of black people. Though waning in popularity,
they were still a form of entertainment at the time
WG in greenlit their show. Its initial iteration was entitled
(07:03):
Sam and Henry and aired on Chicago Radio beginning in
January of nineteen twenty six. The show was so successful
that Gosston and Correll wanted to expand it. They proposed
that the show would be recorded on phonographs and distributed
to different radio stations around the country, which would have
been the first ever form of radio syndication, but their
proposal was shot down. The two creators quit the network,
(07:26):
but WGN retained the contractual rights to Sam and Henry.
They were picked up by the Chicago station WMAQ, who
wanted them to create something similar, so they came up
with Amos and Andy. They later said that they decided
on the names after hearing two black men greet each
other in an elevator. Amos and Andy premiered on Chicago
(07:47):
Radio in March of nineteen twenty eight. The show followed
the titular characters, two black men from Atlanta who moved
to Chicago during the Great Migration. Goaston and Correll voiced
the characters, as well as more than one written seventy
other male characters over the course of the show. The
show was super popular, and it did become the first
(08:07):
radio program to be syndicated across the US. It was
drawing in forty million listeners by nineteen thirty one, but
protests about the show's portrayal of black Americans had already begun.
The first prominent protest was mounted by the Pittsburgh Courier,
a black newspaper, in nineteen thirty one. It started a
petition to have the show taken off the air. One
(08:28):
April nineteen thirty one article in the paper said the following.
The men portraying the characters are white. The company employing
Amos and Andy is white. The people reaping the financial
game from the characterizations are all white. But the people
who are getting the black eye out of it all
are the negroes of this country and of every other
country where Negroes are found. The Amos and Andy Show,
(08:50):
starring Alvin Childress, Spencer Williams, and Tim Moore, premiered on
CBSTV on June twenty fifth, nineteen fifty one. The television
adaptation took place in harle It was the first American
television show with black actors featured in leading roles. The
show was sponsored by BLAT's Brewing Company, and it ran
for fifty two episodes between nineteen fifty one and nineteen
(09:11):
fifty three. Soon after the show premiered, the NAACP formerly
protested it as a quote gross libel of the Negro
and distortion of the truth. Campaigns to band the Amos
and Andy Show targeted both CBS and BLATS, and BLATS
stopped sponsoring it. In nineteen fifty three, the show was canceled,
but twenty six more episodes were grouped in with syndicated reruns.
(09:35):
CBS continued to air reruns of the show until nineteen
sixty six, but ultimately stopped after conceding to pressures from
the NAACP and other protests. In light of the Civil
rights movement. Rejoice TV broadcast a show for nationwide audiences
again for several years, starting in twenty twelve, but the
show is not currently being aired across the US. On
(09:58):
one hand, many people found the stereo types in the
show harmful, regardless of the representation of black people in
different roles. Despite the controversy, some people credit the show
as paving the way for Black Americans on television and
making white audiences more sympathetic towards black people. I'm Eve
jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about history
(10:18):
today than you did yesterday. And if you have any
commerce or suggestions, you can send them to us via email.
We're at This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. You can
also hit us up or follow us on social media.
We're at t d IHC podcast. Thanks so much for
listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For
(10:45):
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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