August 12, 1975 - Human Rights Commissioner talks about employment discrimination charge in the Human Rights Commission. He says it's dangerous to carve up Human Rights Commission into different minority territories as this models the kind segregated system that the dept is set up to address. It isn't the department's role to go out and look for discrimination. He says the department is enforcement agency, not a service agency. He says he'll ask for an outside conciliator.
August 12, 1975 - The Fond du Lac Band of Minnesota Chippewa are bringing formal discrimination charges against the state Human Rights Commissioner, (first name unknown) Wilson. The Band's claim states that the Commissioner has not only discriminated against hiring Native American's, but has also neglected to offer services for these populations.
October 10, 1975 - Dr. Christian Barnard, famous heart transplant surgeon, talks briefly about his novel whose protagonist is a heart surgeon. He says one point of the book was to bring out racial discrimination and segregation in medicine, petty-apartheid (petit-apartheid?), in South Africa. He talks about having received threats due to his challenging the white ideology in South Africa, where the white minority fears they?ll lose everything they?ve built there without the apartheid government structure. They?ve seen what has happened in other African countries. South Africa represents western civilization in Africa, and competition is based on your ability to compete in that environment, where it?s natural the white man would do better.
October 13, 1975 - Archie Holmes says equal educational opportunity changes the way people operate.
February 10, 1976 - MPR’s Kate Williams reports on the funeral of prominent African American Cecil Newman, who passed away on February 8th, 1976. Newman was both a local civil rights leader, active in numerous organizations, and a longtime editor/publisher. Segment includes interviews and remembrances.
April 7, 1976 - MPR’s Kate Williams profiles Sutton’s, a gay bar in downtown Minneapolis that relocated to a more prominent location. Sutton’s has been around for over a decade but it officially came out of the closet last week when it opened its doors to over 800 people at a new location…the old Elk’s Club on 5th street in downtown Minneapolis.
June 29, 1976 - MPR’s Debbie Gare interviews W. Harry Davis, Minneapolis school board member and local civil rights activist, about desegregation of Minneapolis public schools. He believes it is the responsibility of districts in the country to figure out how to overcome segregated schools.
March 4, 1977 - MPR’s Kate Williams reports on a Women’s Rights Coalition press conference in response to a fire at a Highland Park Planned Parenthood facility.
May 5, 1977 - MPR’s Debbie Gage reports on debate in Minnesota Senate chambers over gay rights bill, which would have given protection to gays in the areas of housing employment education and credit, but not sanction gay marriage or gay adoption. It also did not provide protection and public accommodations.
June 8, 1977 - MPR’s Rich Dietman reports on the fight over local laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination. Dietman talks Florian Chmielewski, DFL state senator of Sturgeon Lake; and Jack Baker, a Minneapolis attorney and a coordinator of the Target City Coalition.