VOA慢速英语:THIS IS AMERICA - From Bob Marley to Franklin Roosevelt, History in Sound

"'High-ho Silver! Away!' A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'High-ho Silver!' The Lone Ranger!"

voice ONE:

President Roosevelt gives his "Day of Infamy" speech to a joint session of Congress, December 8, 1941

Another new addition to the registry is a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt to Congress. Roosevelt was asking Congress for permission to declare war. He made the speech the day after the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

(SOUND)

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "Yesterday, December seventh, nineteen forty-one, a date which will live in infamy, the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the empire of Japan."

voice TWO:

World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five.

The years after the war became a time of economic growth in the United States. Many people moved out of big cities and into newly developed suburban communities. Birth rates increased. It became known as the Baby Boom.

The nineteen fifties are remembered as a time when lots of Americans were happy with their lives. But not everyone was.

Allen Ginsberg was a poet but also a social activist. Problems like poverty and inequality angered him. In a nineteen fifty-nine recording, he reads from the opening lines of his most famous poem, "Howl."

ALLEN GINSBERG: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked "

(SOUND)

voice ONE:

Social activism is also the message of several songs among the newest additions to the National Recording Registry. Fighting racial injustice is the theme of "We Shall Overcome."

Yet Pete Seeger wrote the song as a labor protest. In the first version, he used the line "I shall overcome." But later he changed the word "I" to "we." The song became a theme for the civil rights movement.

Here is Pete Seeger performing "We Shall Overcome" during his concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in June of nineteen sixty-three. People in the audience are singing along.

(MUSIC)

voice TWO:

Some people think the greatest singer of the twentieth century was Sarah Vaughan. Her nineteen seventy-three album "Live in Japan" is now added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

We leave you with Sarah Vaughan singing "Over the Rainbow."

(MUSIC)

voice ONE:

The Library of Congress now has two hundred twenty-five recordings listed in its National Recording Registry. And the library is currently accepting nominations for the two thousand seven registry. The library says it must receive suggestions by July first to be considered for the list.

For a link to the Library of Congress Web site, go to www.unsv.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs.

voice TWO:

Our show was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith with Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.