Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we:
play some jazz music …
answer a question about the women’s rights leader Susan B.Anthony …
and report about the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl
HOST:
Sunday, February third is not a holiday in the United States, butit may seem like one to many Americans. They will be attendingparties to watch the Super Bowl Game. The Superbowl is thechampionship game of American professional football. Bob Doughtyexplains.
ANNCR:
American professional football involves thirty-one teams in theNational Football League, or NFL. The first NFL was formed inNineteen-Twenty, when representatives of four professional teams metin Canton, Ohio. The group first called it the American ProfessionalFootball Association, but changed the name two years later.
In Nineteen-Sixty, businessman Lamar Hunt started the AmericanFootball League, or AFL. The two leagues competed with each other toget college players. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, established NFL playersbegan negotiating to play for the competing league. So officials ofthe two leagues decided to work together. This agreement immediatelyestablished a championship game between them. It was officiallycalled the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, but became known as theSuper Bowl.
The first Super Bowl was played in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven in LosAngeles, California. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas CityChiefs. It was not a very exciting game. Many of the seats in thesports center were empty. That changed with the Super Bowl playedtwo years later. Experts say the public finally accepted the newleague when the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts.
After that game, officials of the two leagues decided to create anew National Football League. They divided the teams into twocompeting conferences, the American Conference, or AFC, and theNational Conference, NFC. Each year, the conference champions playin the Super Bowl.
Today, the Super Bowl is a major sporting event. Thousands ofpeople will be watching the game Sunday at the Superdome in NewOrleans, Louisiana. Millions of people around the world will bewatching Super Bowl Thirty-Six on television. They will be watchingto see if the AFC New England Patriots or the NFC Saint Louis Ramsbecome the champions of American football.
Susan B. Anthony
HOST:
Our VOA listener question thisweek comes from Ethiopia. Theodros Solomon asks about Susan B.Anthony.
Susan Brownell Anthony led the struggle for women’s rights in theUnited States. She was born in Eighteen-Twenty in the state ofMassachusetts. Her family moved to New York State when she wasseven. She began teaching school when she was fifteen, and continueduntil she was thirty years old.
Susan B. Anthony opposed drinking alcohol. She also urged animmediate end to slavery. She worked for both these causes. But sheis most famous for her work for women’s rights. This began inEighteen Fifty-One when she met reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton.They first worked to improve women’s rights in New York State.
Their first important success came in Eighteen-Sixty when NewYork approved a Married Woman’s Law. For the first time in New York,a married woman could own property. And she had a right to the moneyshe was paid for work she did. The campaign for women’s rightsspread to other states. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stantonrealized that women would not gain their rights until they had theright to vote in elections. Their campaign was called the women’ssuffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote.
As part of the campaign, Susan B. Anthony voted in thepresidential election of Eighteen-Seventy-Two in Rochester, NewYork. She was arrested and tried for voting illegally. She was foundguilty and ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as punishment. Sherefused to pay, but no further action was taken against her.
Miss Anthony led efforts to gain voting rights for women througha new amendment to the United States Constitution. She traveledacross the country to work for such an amendment until she wasseventy-five years old. She knew the victory would come. But shealso knew it would not come while she was alive.
Susan B. Anthony died in Nineteen-Oh-Six. She was eighty-sixyears old. Thirteen years later, Congress approved the NineteenthAmendment to the Constitution. It states that the right to voteshall not be denied because of a person’s sex. It was called theAnthony amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony.
Many years later, the United States honored her again when it puther picture on a newly created dollar coin. She was the first womanto be pictured on American money.
Jazz Conference
((CUT ONE: “JEEPS BLUES”))
HOST:
Last month, some of the biggest names in jazz attended theTwenty-Ninth yearly meeting of the International Association of JazzEducators. Musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones and NancyWilson attended the conference in Long Beach, California. SteveEmber tells us more.
ANNCR:
The conference brings togetherjazz educators, musicians, students and industry representatives.They celebrate the joys of music and the effect of jazz on culturallife. More than seven-thousand people from thirty-five countriesattended the conference this year.
There is always something musical going on during the conference.There are lively discussion groups, concerts, training programs andother events. But the most exciting part of the conference is theenergy created during the jam sessions. That is when the musiciansplay together without preparation.
The music of jazz great Duke Ellington is heard throughout theconference. Here is Ellington and his orchestra playing “ThingsAin’t What They Used to Be.”
((CUT TWO: “THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE”))
There were many special performances at the jazz educatorsconference including a jazz presentation of a religious story. And agroup of talented young women, called “Sisters in Jazz”, showed thatwomen can play jazz too.
Musician and composer Dave Brubeck was one of several people whowere honored during the conference. He was recognized as a majorinfluence in jazz and a powerful supporter of jazz education. Weleave you with one of Dave Brubeck’s biggest hits, “Take Five.”
((CUT THREE: “TAKE FIVE”))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. AndI hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC-VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk andNancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.