In this episode of From the Vault, we share a recording from November 1955 capturing the voice of one of the great minds of United States constitutional law, Alexander Meiklejohn, who was instrumental in shaping the policies of the Pacifica Foundation in its earliest years. Pacifica founder Lew Hill, finding such great merit in Meiklejohn’s constitutional expertise, asked him to serve as an advisor to the Pacifica Foundation on matters of freedom of speech – matters which are still integral to Pacifica’s mission to this day.
A 1956 winner of the prestigious Ohio State Award, The First Amendment: Core of our Constitution documents Alexander Meiklejohn’s testimony before the 1956 Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights; Meiklejohn expounds upon the importance of the right to free speech and the dangers of political suppression.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio listeners.
First broadcast on Friday, June 29th, 2012.
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