amy: can you go to john steinbeck? one of the writers. are so many we would like to highlight from edwards i eat to i asked own -- edward saed, to dr. martin luther king. katrina: dr. martin luther king's last essay was about moving to a civil rights crisis, and he came out against the vietnam war. there was a history and a relationship there. james baldwin, as you said, wrote his first he's for the nation. what is stunning is to read from his report, "occupied territory -- harlem, not the middle east" is used of stop and frisk. the correspondence between past and present and the different motive storytelling. multimedia video exposing stop and frisk abuses in harlem. it was cited by the judge in her court decision ruling stop and frisk discriminatory and unconstitutional. amy: read james baldwin. katrina: i will read the words. this is a report from occupied territory, july, 1966. "the citizens of harlem who, as we have seen, can come to grief at any hour in the streets, and who are not safe at their windows, are forbidden the very air.

that is when it learned the moniker that john steinbeck gave it in his immortal novel "the grapes of wrath" in 1939. "the mother road." a nurturing road. a ribbon of highway that took in these dustbowl migrants from western oklahoma, the texas panhandle, the southern plains, and in this part of the country took in tenant farmers, unemployed, and they got on the road and they headed west following the scent of orange blossoms and lemons, going to work in the fields in california where they were met with ridicule and clobbered with early clubs and spittle by border guards -- billy clubs and spittle by border guards and generally reviled as okies or arkies from arkansas. it is still a badge of courage does it still -- because it still stands for the resiliency of these oklahoma people. and it transitions into that next incarnation, the war years. even before we had gotten into the war, on route 66 and other places in the country, we were training troops to take on the action. in oklahoma on route 66, we trained young air cadets to fly spitfires in the battle of britain. some of them die

lyrics to "tom joad," a nod to john steinbeck and the joad fami ly.uthrie: ♪ he woke her up out of bed and he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved everybody might be just one big soul it looks that way to me wherever you look in the day or night that's where i'm going to be, ma w wherever little kids are hungry and cry wherever people ain't free wherever men are deprived of their rights that's where i'm going to be ♪ ♪ [applause] >> if you ain't got the do-re-mi talks about the way people would be greeted at the border and told if they did not have money, they would not get into california. many of the very young and old died because of dust pneumonia. woody recorded very few songs of his own. we have a listening station that features 46 of his songs in his own voice. most of the time when people hear woody guthrie songs, they are not woody singing them. they are someone else. he spent his time traveling. he spent his time in the migrant worker can't, in union organization rallies. so he did not spend a great deal of time in recording studios th

lyrics to "tom joad," a nod to john steinbeck and the joad family.uthrie: ♪ he woke her up out of bed and he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved everybody might be just one big soul it looks that way to me wherever you look in the day or night that's where i'm going to be, maw wherever little kids are hungry and cry wherever people ain't free wherever men are deprived of their rights that's where i'm going to be ♪ ♪ [applause] >> “if you ain't got the do re mi” talks about the way people would be greeted at the border and told if they did not have money, they would not get into california. many of the very young and old died because of dust pneumonia. woody recorded very few songs of his own. we have a listening station that features 46 of his songs in his own voice. most of the time when people hear woody guthrie songs, they are not woody singing them. they are someone else. he spent his time traveling. he spent his time in the migrant worker camps, in union organization rallies. so he did not spend a great deal of time in recording studios t

that is when it learned the moniker that john steinbeck gave it in his immortal novel "the grapes of"the mother road." a nurturing road. a ribbon of highway that took in these dustbowl migrants from western oklahoma, the texas panhandle, the southern plains and in this part of the country, took in tenant farmers unemployed, and they got on the road and they headed west following the scent of orange blossoms and lemons, going to work in the fields in california where they were met with ridicule and clobbered with billy clubs and spittle by border guards and generally reviled as okies or arkies from arkansas. that word was and still is a badge of courage because it still stands for the resiliency of these oklahoma people. and it transitions into that next incarnation, the war years. even before we had gotten into the war, on route 66 and other places in the country, we were training troops to take on the axis. in oklahoma on route 66, we trained young air cadets to fly spitfires in the battle of britain. some of them died in air accidents up there. you go there today, the graveyards, y

also, we have lyrics woddy wrote, lyrics to "tom joad," a nod to john steinbeck and the joad family.d he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved everybody might be just one big soul it looks that way to me wherever you look in the day or the night that is where i'm going to be that is where i'm going to be. wherever little kids are hungry and cry wherever people ain't free wherever men are deprived of their rights that's where i'm going to be that's where i'm going to be ♪ >> "if you ain't got the do-re-mi" talks about the way people would be greeted at the border and told if they did not have money, they would not get into california. many of the very young and old died because of dust pneumonia. woody recorded very few songs of his own. we have a listening station that features 46 of his songs in his own voice. most of the time when people hear woody guthrie songs, they are not woody singing them. they are someone else. he spent his time traveling. he spent his time in the migrant worker camps in union organization rallies. so he did not spend a great deal of time in recording s

viking for decades alan williams, was a guy i knew in his later years, and he had been one of john steinbeck's editors. he was in japan or something for a conference, and -- or, no, he had told the story about stein become's widow had been in japan for a conference and somebody ran up to her and said, oh, mrs. steinbeck, i just need to tell you how much your husband's work has meant to me. there's no book i love more than angry raisin. [laughter] >> and i have another title story also from viking when they were publishing graham greene, and i think it was travels with my aunt. and they said that is not a good title, and he said it would be simpler for me to change publishers than change titles. [laughter] >> drop the mic. >> yeah. >> do you have any like, you said josh ferris' first paragraph, like, just sort of basically slammed you into the chair and you stayed there pretty much. >> and here's the first sentence. we were fractious and overpaid, our mornings lost promise. >> that's great. [laughter] >> i'm glad you asked so i could recite it. >> >> there any other first sentences that you kno

california that he encounters as a 12-year-old child is that which is described so eloquently by john steinbeckhis initial exposure to california and his life as a migrant farm worker as a kid, colors much of -- drives much0. what shapes his later life. he lived through a remarkable period of change in california. the depression, the war, the cold war, there is a very lengthy fbi file on him, kept by j. edgar hoover, and then in the '60s enormously important in propelling him to the national status he gains at that point in time and to fueling the movement because most of the early support for the farm worker movement comes from the bay area comes out of the free speech movement, people who are coming back from the summer or '64 in mississippi, the civility rights movement. those are their early people who are attracted to this new essentially the civil rights struggle of the west. so the '6s so are hugely important. and then as he moves through into the 70's and 80s, reagan is an important antagonist both in sacramento and later in washington. and by 1984 when the mom is really in decline he s