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Hello, I'm Laura and welcome to a special additional witness here in | :00:29. | :00:35. | |
New York. This month we have five remarkable moments of American | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
history told by five people who were there. We will hear from a man who | :00:40. | :00:41. | |
helped broker a peace deal between helped broker a peace deal between | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
two Los Angeles gangs, surfing legend and a period of American | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
history that saw different sections of society fighting for their civil | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
rights. In the 1960s, black Americans all across the US were | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
demanding the same rights as white Americans. Witness has spoken to | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
scoring which had seen, the leader of the civil rights struggle in | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
Cambridge, Maryland. This is a picture, 1963, of us getting ready | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
to protest to the National Guard and they were telling us know. As he put | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
his bayonet towards me I pushed it away. In 1963 Cambridge Marilyn was | :01:18. | :01:29. | |
a segregated town. -- Maryland. The nice jobs went to white people. It | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
was just about unliveable in the 20th section. People wanted better | :01:34. | :01:41. | |
housing, they wanted the schools segregated, they wanted access to | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
better jobs and they wanted the hospital segregated. I was 40 years | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
old. The men in Cambridge asked me to be the spokesperson for the | :01:55. | :02:02. | |
movement. I consider that like soldiers in the army. This is | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
something you're supposed to do. We would always do the marching, | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
picketing and rallies and we weren't trying to get the enemy to love us | :02:12. | :02:22. | |
either. During the summer of 63 I think the Cambridge movement reached | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
its apex. All of that pent-up fury came out. It was like Civil War, the | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
black and whites were fighting hand-to-hand. People just were at | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
everyone's froze. The whites were tough, the blacks were tough, the | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
shooting at night was going on so bad between blacks and whites. When | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
the sun broke through at five or six o'clock in the morning, it was like | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
clouds of smoke. That's when the mayor asked National Guard -- asked | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
for the National Guard. They brought about 800 of them into town. I had | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
never seen men on street corners with guns and things. One day we | :03:12. | :03:19. | |
were lined up in the streets ready to march. I moved across the front, | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
the soldier proceeded to put his bayonet and position it's like he | :03:25. | :03:32. | |
was going to charge me. I don't remember making up my mind, he's | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
going to stab me and I'm going to push this bayonet. My position on | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
violence and nonviolence, I've always believed if they came and | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
attacked you had a right to respond. I guess in retrospect we were | :03:49. | :03:56. | |
radical, and certainly they thought we were crazy. At a certain point | :03:57. | :04:07. | |
there was so much gunfire that the federal Government thought they | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
needed to bring an immediate end. We went to Washington for | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
negotiations. After five or six meetings we signed a Christian -- we | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
signed the Treaty of Cambridge, which meant original commands to | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
segregating the school -- desegregating the schools, building | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
housing, desegregating the hospital and making more jobs available. I | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
guess their hands were forced. They had to do that. It did feel like a | :04:39. | :04:49. | |
victory. I'm 92 years old and I don't think I have changed my | :04:50. | :04:57. | |
attitude. Things will change if you fight hard enough for them. Gloria | :04:58. | :05:05. | |
Richardson, a lifelong civil rights campaigner. In August 1970 on the | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
city thousands of American women went on strike to demand equal | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
and told us how the experience and told us how the experience | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
shaped the rest of her life. I made myself a vow. That was it, my life | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
thrilling feeling, still to this thrilling feeling, still to this | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
moment it gives me the -- gives me goose bumps. Your role as a woman | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
was pretty much, you got married. That was it. Then you played Mamie | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
or grand money. That was it. The jobs for women were only secretary, | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
stenographer, collect, you could not get credit in your own aim. In | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
buyers are used to put up that it was men only. This was all legal. I | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
was working for the American stock exchange at that time and a couple | :05:56. | :05:57. | |
of women in the office, there was only a few of us. Virtually we saw | :05:58. | :06:04. | |
it in the newspaper about women having a march free quality and said | :06:05. | :06:07. | |
that is interesting, so I showed up the next day. 10,000 militant | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
feminist stage a one-day strike for equal rights. They demand job | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
quality, free abortions and free you child care centres for working | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
mothers. They believe they will get nothing without a fight. At the | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
start of the day we went to the city going to various demonstrations and | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
handing out flyers. Join us now at! We started seeing thousands of women | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
coming off the side streets and we were looking, where were they coming | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
from? We were thrilled that we had 50 women. Incredible signs women | :06:42. | :06:53. | |
make themselves. There was a line of police on horses with riot sticks | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
and helmets pulled down, they were not going to let us out of the park | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
so when the women in front of a yield of March, forget about the | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
police, start marching and don't stop, the search word for word. They | :07:07. | :07:13. | |
had to step aside or get trampled, I guess. We took over the Avenue and | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
we were yelling at the people in front, move on! I read Brave Doctor | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
got down on one knee to take a picture and we just move over him. | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
The people on the side bar -- sidewalk were booing prior to that | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
and they started cheering and was exhilarating. It was now 5pm and | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
people were coming out of the buildings and the streets filled | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
with thousands of people between us, the estimate some was 30,000 to | :07:47. | :07:56. | |
50,000. We turned into 41st St and on the right there was some | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
scaffolding and work being done the public library on the second level | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
and we climbed up there with the women of the world unite banner and | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
unfurled it and dropped it over the side so everyone in the streets | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
below could see and they put their face in the air and you have this | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
sea of women yelling in quality. It was incredible. | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
It has worked because it has worked because it's put agenda and has | :08:23. | :08:34. | |
shown as our power to achieve it. I thought never again will I spew his | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
examination again. Never again will I stand by and allow it to happen to | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
other women. It is like being let out of a prison or something and | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
being exonerated for a crime he did not commit. It was just, wild. I | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
went home and felt I was bouncing on clients all the way home. My life | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
completely changed from that day on. I found other women that felt the | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
same. We worked together, mainly through the National organisation | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
for women to make change and we went forward and we were very happy to | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
say, I am a woman. Carol does Iran there. In that same month on the | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
other side of the country, 45 years ago, thousands of Mexican-Americans | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
were marched against the Vietnam War in Los Angeles. People just became a | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
defining moment for the Latina community in the US. We were dying | :09:29. | :09:42. | |
at twice the rate and heavily more a part of the military then are | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
proportion in the population. We were Mexican-Americans and Latinos | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
and others that were faced with the same kind of discrimination. That is | :09:54. | :10:00. | |
why we had to start our own anti-war movement. We organised | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
demonstrations that would come to a head with the national demonstration | :10:04. | :10:14. | |
in East LA. There were older people, but so many young people. People | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
were joining, coming in off the sidewalks, it was almost like a | :10:21. | :10:32. | |
moving fiesta. The march ended at Laguna Park and there we were going | :10:33. | :10:40. | |
to have a programme where I would open it with a speech. We are a | :10:41. | :10:47. | |
proud people with a proud culture. Before the world, before all of | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
North America, before all our brothers from the continent, we are | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
a nation! There was a commotion and it began very quickly and you could | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
see the sheriffs moving people, pushing people. Others began to push | :11:04. | :11:13. | |
back and they pushed the sheriffs away. In the front there was lots of | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
older people, children and others, families sitting in the front. They | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
were getting squeezed out. The sheriffs came back with more and | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
more clubs and they pushed back a little and they came back again and | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
the tear gas starts coming. My friend says to me, they can do | :11:34. | :11:40. | |
anything they want in this chaos. Get someone you know in the crowd | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
and have them get you out of here. That's what I did. The police throw | :11:44. | :11:52. | |
people out of the park, pushing people, beating people. We found out | :11:53. | :12:00. | |
that there was a gas station opened up a false tribute to wipe the | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
device out of their eyes and there was a line, the sheriffs came in and | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
started beating people. People started throwing rocks at the | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
sheriffs. Fires came up, there was some looting. Tremendous anger. 100 | :12:14. | :12:26. | |
and something people arrested, scores injured. We found out that | :12:27. | :12:41. | |
three people had died, including Salazar, our main journalist, her | :12:42. | :12:43. | |
voice to the country is not the world. It was a tremendous loss. The | :12:44. | :12:52. | |
police said they had to control the situation, they had to move out all | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
those thousands of people. They said there were incidents, and there were | :12:58. | :13:05. | |
some incidents, we controlled them. That day, to Canada said we were | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
going to be a voice in this country and we no longer wanted to accept a | :13:13. | :13:20. | |
second-class status. He spent his whole life campaigning for the | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
Mexican American cause. You can watch winners every month on the BBC | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
News channel or you can catch up on over 1000 radio programmes in our | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
online archive, just go to BBC .co UK/witness. In Los Angeles the | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
Bottomley Crippes have been engaged in a deadly rivalry for decades. In | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
1992 killer show reels brokered peace deal that brought the two | :13:47. | :13:54. | |
sworn enemies together. Angus town here getting together. I grew up in | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
what's in Los Angeles. In LA County alone over the past 30 years it's | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
claimed more than 25,000 lives. It was a literal war zone. I had one of | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
my partners get cut in half with an AK-47 and we found his body in a | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
phone booth on the way to school in the morning. Black gangs started in | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
south-central Los Angeles. The average with one of two rival | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
confederations, the Crippes, who were blue, and the bloods, who were | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
read. You have to be really careful about what colour you wore when you | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
were in neighbourhoods, shoestrings, belts, you could literally lose your | :14:37. | :14:39. | |
life for wearing the wrong colour in the wrong place. I can kill about 32 | :14:40. | :14:48. | |
people if I had them all. This is the same thing. I own two of these. | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
Fortunately I never stabbed or killed anyone. Fortunately. I got | :14:54. | :15:01. | |
accepted college and conceptualised this idea that we have to stop the | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
didn't want to lose my life over didn't want to lose my life over | :15:06. | :15:12. | |
this stuff. I felt like spirit had something bigger in store for my | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
life. I went back to the neighbourhood and I started a little | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
group. We had this idea to bring rival grinds together and started | :15:22. | :15:23. | |
hosting these meetings every Wednesday night. Some of the | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
get killers in the same room who get killers in the same room who | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
have harmed each other and have traded bodies. You can imagine. It's | :15:33. | :15:38. | |
intense. It took us about four years and although everyone agreed that | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
this is good, there was still no going in each other's neighbourhood. | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
April 28, 1992 we decided we had to test it because it's more than just | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
having a conversation, people have to see it on the ground. A group of | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
to the bureau Court housing projects to the bureau Court housing projects | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
and pulled in front of their gym and I swear everything froze. People | :16:07. | :16:14. | |
just stopped. Like... We were like, this is real, we're trying to stop | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
the killing. We are asking them and they said we went. No conflicts, no | :16:19. | :16:33. | |
problems. The peace treaty was on. That moment, I'm telling you, man, | :16:34. | :16:41. | |
it was like... Just, paradise. Just like everyone started getting on the | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
phone, calling their families and friends. We celebrated all night | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
because you're talking about 30 years of not being able to go in | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
each other's neighbourhood and suddenly this thing is wide open. | :16:56. | :17:05. | |
For real. A attention to this. The first two years of the peace | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
treaty, 92-94, gang homicides dropped 44%. Grandmothers began to | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
walk the streets, kids playing in the park. Many men became fathers to | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
their children for the first time. We created an entire grass roots | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
sports Federation to strengthen the peace treaty and bring rival -- | :17:26. | :17:28. | |
rival gangs together so they would know which other. Thousands of | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
people would come to the games and support. One of the things you have | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
to know is that people love intensity and hate fiercely. When | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
it's good, is the best you can possibly imagine. It was the heyday, | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
we were rocking out. Achille Shirelles is still campaigning | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
against gang violence in LA. Firm final film, just off the picturesque | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
coastline of Northern California lies an area known as mavericks were | :17:59. | :18:00. | |
deadly waves crash onto nearby rocks. For a long time no one | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
thought they could be served. Jeff Clarke was the first to attempt | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
them. I grew up on the beach in Northern California one mile away | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
from mavericks. In the 70s, there was nothing going on here except | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
farming and I became so enamoured with the ocean. I started surfing at | :18:21. | :18:28. | |
nine years old and I served every milk and cranny on this coast. Those | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
rocks are the rocks as mavericks. Beyond those rocks you will find | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
demanding technical giant dangerous demanding technical giant dangerous | :18:41. | :18:53. | |
waves on the planet. Can you imagine a four-storey building coming at you | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
at 30 miles per are? And all of a sudden it hits the curve and topples | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
over on top of you. That's what it's like as mavericks. In these everyday | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
is the main challenge I had was trying to find somebody to serve it | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
with me. There was nobody up for surfing it. It is breaking in front | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
of rocks that stick out of the water 20 feet and I started to watch it | :19:20. | :19:26. | |
and study it. Eventually in 1975 I felt like I had the ability to go on | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
served by myself. When that wave came I turned and I was totally | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
committed, head down, pulling water as hard as I could. I starts to feel | :19:38. | :19:45. | |
that acceleration down the face of the wave and a shadow of that wave | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
standing up behind me, and just going down the face of the wave and | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
cringing, trying to maintain speed out run this thing as it is coming | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
down and the explosion right on my heels. And I made it. I got away. | :20:00. | :20:06. | |
After I served mavericks the first time, I drove around three years -- | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
three years trying to bury people's years, dragging them out there. The | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
big wave riders. They didn't believe it waves like this existed. In | :20:20. | :20:26. | |
California. Eventually we saw an influx of surfers. December 1994 I | :20:27. | :20:37. | |
hear that mark food and some of the premier big wave riders from Hawaii | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
were coming to mavericks. Mark was catching waves and I paddle up to | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
him and said, Mark, what you think? And he goes, I never imagined was | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
this big of a wave. I was so stoked. Later on in Mayday came over | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
the loudspeaker in the harbour. This week the power of the world | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
California ways has been a magnet for servers from all over the world. | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
Tonight one of the very best, Mark Foo, has died. I did feel | :21:09. | :21:18. | |
responsible. This was kind of like my baby. Opening it up to the | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
do the whole time. Now to have such do the whole time. Now to have such | :21:24. | :21:32. | |
a tragic event happen. His beautiful spirit smiled. That brought so much | :21:33. | :21:47. | |
variety to mavericks. Just survive it you would have to treat death. | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
Marco Fu said you have to be willing to pay the ultimate price for the | :21:52. | :21:59. | |
ultimate thrill. Jeff Clark speaking to win is right next to the ways he | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
knows so well. That is nicked from me and the team here in New York for | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
this special edition of winners. Don't forget what -- to watch Tanya | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
Beckett later in the month, she will be at the British library imagine | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
bringing new five witnesses come more history through the eyes of | :22:17. | :22:23. | |
left it. That is it for now. Goodbye and thank you for watching. -- the | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
eyes that lived it. | :22:27. | :22:30. |