WNYC Covers the Great Anti-Nuclear March and Rally at Central Park, June 12, 1982
On June 12, 1982, 33 years ago today, as many as one million people gathered in New York City's Central Park making it, at the time, the largest political demonstration in American history. The march and rally were to mark the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament which had begun several days earlier.
In the morning there were speeches near the U.N. at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza followed by a march across town to the Great Lawn in Central Park for an afternoon of speeches, entertainment, music, and rallying. Among those addressing the crowds were nuclear freeze campaign organizer Randall Forsberg, activists Dr. Helen Caldicott, and the Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr., union leader Victor Gotbaum, former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, and City Council President Carol Bellamy. The performers included Jackson Browne, Peter, Paul and Mary, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Joan Baez.
WNYC News Director Marty Goldensohn orchestrated the station's live coverage of the event with help from Robert Krulwich and direction by Karen Frillmann and more than a dozen reporters and engineers from a rented Winnebago at the Central Park Sheep Meadow. Gathering tape and interviews in the field were Peter Freiberg, Andy Lanset, Terry Johnson, Todd Shapera, Johanna Cooper, Jerry Hatch, Janica Hurwit, Margaret Howard, Leslie Peters, and Myles Gordon. Additional production help came from Karen Pearlman, Sara Fishko, and David Rapkin. The post-event documentary (above) was called Voices of Disarmament and was broadcast on WNYC in the days following the great march and rally. Unlike most coverage of the event, the production was a documentary record of the marchers rather than the famous voices from the stage.
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