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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, we're rerunning two episodes today. Enjoy the show

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to this day in History class, where we

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Speaker 1: reveal a new piece of history every day. The day

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Speaker 1: was March. Fred mcpheeley Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

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Speaker 1: He would go on to become a minister, composer, producer,

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Speaker 1: and writer, but Rogers was best known as the soft

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Speaker 1: spoken neighborly host of the children's television show Mr Rogers Neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: His work on the show and as an advocate for

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Speaker 1: educational television would earn him a Presidential Medal of Freedom,

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Speaker 1: a Peabody Award, and a spot in the Television Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame. Fred's mother, Nancy Rogers, did hospital volunteer work.

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Speaker 1: His father, James, was president of the mcpheely brick Company.

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Speaker 1: Fred liked Latrobe, and he would later base his television

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Speaker 1: Neighborhood on the city, but as a child he was introverted, isolated,

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Speaker 1: and teased for being overweight. His asthma was so severe

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Speaker 1: that he was often stuck inside the house, but by

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Speaker 1: the time he got to high school he was more outgoing.

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Speaker 1: After graduating, he attended Dartmouth College for a bit then

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Speaker 1: transferred to Rawlins College in winter Park, Florida, where he

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Speaker 1: got his bachelor's degree in music composition in nineteen fifty one.

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Speaker 1: When he graduated, he started working at NBC in New

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Speaker 1: York as an assistant producer, then as a floor director.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty two, he married his wife, Joanne Bird,

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Speaker 1: and in nineteen fifty three he had it back to

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to work as a program developer for the public

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Speaker 1: television station w q e D in Pittsburgh. It was

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Speaker 1: there that he started producing the children's Corner Alive Daily

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Speaker 1: were long program on which he worked as a puppeteer, organist,

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Speaker 1: and composer. The puppet characters that he created for this show,

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Speaker 1: like King Friday, Henrietta, and Daniel the Striped Tiger, would

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Speaker 1: live on in his later work. While at w q

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Speaker 1: e D, Rogers graduated from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and

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Speaker 1: was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He also attended the

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Speaker 1: University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he

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Speaker 1: began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland, which turned into

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Speaker 1: a lifelong friendship and professional relationship. But his first foray

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Speaker 1: in front of the camera came in nineteen sixty three,

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Speaker 1: when he developed a children's program called Mr Rogers for

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Speaker 1: the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto and took the helm

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Speaker 1: as host. Rogers took the fifteen minutes show with him

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Speaker 1: when he went back to w q e D in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, where the show became Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: A couple of years later, National Education Television began distributing

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Speaker 1: the show nationally, and finally, in nineteen seventy it reached

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Speaker 1: its final form as Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on PBS, where

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Speaker 1: it ran for more than nine hundred episodes. The show

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Speaker 1: was pretty simple. It was a half hour children's program

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Speaker 1: aimed at preschool ages that featured Rogers as a kind,

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Speaker 1: warm host. With two main locations, Mr Rogers House and

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Speaker 1: the neighborhood of Make Believe. He would have conversations with viewers,

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Speaker 1: take a field trips, and demonstrate how objects work. The

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Speaker 1: show wasn't as flashy or fast paced as other children's

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Speaker 1: programs began becoming over the years it was on air,

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Speaker 1: and it taught children lessons about fear, anger, death, divorced empathy,

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Speaker 1: and even heavy social issues. Like war and racism. The

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Speaker 1: show grew a huge and enthusiastic fan base before it

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Speaker 1: ended in two thousand one. There were instances behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes where Rogers seemed to lean toward controlling, like the

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Speaker 1: time he wanted a reshoot because popcorn spilled over and

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Speaker 1: could scare the kids watching. But authenticity and honesty were

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Speaker 1: character traits that he spoke highly of. He once told Newsweek,

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Speaker 1: one of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is

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Speaker 1: the gift of your honest self. I also believe that

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Speaker 1: kids can spot a phony a mile away. Rogers was

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Speaker 1: a Republican and a Christian, but he never really talked

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Speaker 1: about his religious or political views on air. However, he

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Speaker 1: was vocal about the value of social and emotional education

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Speaker 1: for kids. He once said the following, anything that we

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Speaker 1: can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and

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Speaker 1: emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job.

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Speaker 1: Those of us who have this particular vision must continue

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Speaker 1: against all odds. Life is for service. So his dedication

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Speaker 1: to children's education extended beyond Mr rogers neighborhood and the

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Speaker 1: television screen. In nineteen sixty nine, he testified before the

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Speaker 1: U S Senate Subcommittee on Communications in support of quality

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Speaker 1: children's television and funding for PBS and the Corporation for

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Speaker 1: Public Broadcasting. After the hearing, PBS did get a lot

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Speaker 1: of additional federal money, and after nine eleven, Rogers put

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Speaker 1: out p S, a s on how parents can talk

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Speaker 1: about tragedies with their children. For a short time, Rogers

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Speaker 1: hosted an interview show for adults on PBS, and he

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Speaker 1: wrote hundreds of songs and wrote many books for children

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Speaker 1: and adults, but the name Mr Rogers is synonymous with

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Speaker 1: children's television. His marriage of personal values with academic integra

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Speaker 1: d left a significant impression on educational media and American culture.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. And if

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Speaker 1: you're interested in learning more about Fred Rogers life and

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Speaker 1: everything that he was into, you should check out the

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Speaker 1: documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? That came out in

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Speaker 1: But be prepared because it is a tear jerker and

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Speaker 1: a huge heartwarmer. If there's something that I missed in

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Speaker 1: an episode, you can share it with everybody else on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: Instagram or Facebook at t D I H. C Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, and I hope you come back

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for more delicious morsels of history. Hey y'all, it's

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Speaker 1: Eaves and welcome to another episode of This Day in

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Speaker 1: History Class. Like a lot of other people around the

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Speaker 1: world right now, I am at home because of the coronavirus.

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Speaker 1: But This Day in History Class fortunately can still go

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Speaker 1: on because I can record from home. So that's where

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Speaker 1: I am in my closet, bringing you another episode of

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Speaker 1: the podcast. So on with the show. The day was

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Speaker 1: marche n the U S State of Virginia approved an

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Speaker 1: act that subjected people in state institutions to sterilization. The

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Speaker 1: Virginia Sterilization Act was implemented during the height of the

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Speaker 1: eugenics movement in the US. Eugenics is the practice of

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Speaker 1: selective breeding and human populations with the goal of improving

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Speaker 1: the genetics of future generations. The practice is rooted in

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Speaker 1: prejudices such as racism, classism, and able is um. British

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Speaker 1: scientists Francis Galton coined the term eugenics in eighty three

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Speaker 1: in his book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development.

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Speaker 1: He advocated creating what he believed would be a better

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Speaker 1: human race by encouraging people he deemed healthy and of

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Speaker 1: high intelligence to have children together. The eugenics movement spread

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Speaker 1: quickly across Europe and the United States. In the early

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Speaker 1: twentieth century, laws prohibiting people with physical and mental disabilities

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Speaker 1: from marrying popped up around the US, and eugenic supporters

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Speaker 1: promoted the idea that the practice would help maintain the

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Speaker 1: purity of the American in other words, Anglo Saxon white race.

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Speaker 1: The American Breeders Association was formed in nineteen o three

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Speaker 1: and played a big role in uplifting the eugenics movement.

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Speaker 1: Then there was the Race Betterment Foundation, founded by John

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Speaker 1: Harvey Kellogg of Kellogg's serial fame. US President Theodore Roosevelt

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Speaker 1: even warned white people that they would commit quote race

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Speaker 1: suicide if they did not have large families, since immigrants

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Speaker 1: and other non white people were having babies at higher rates.

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Speaker 1: The Eugenics Record Office was established in New York in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten, with Harry Laughlin as the first director. The

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Speaker 1: office was particularly concerned with the inheritance of so called

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Speaker 1: undesirable traits such as mental disability and promiscuity. After World

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Speaker 1: War One, eugenic supporters began to believe that the us

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Speaker 1: is economic and political strength would suffer if more people

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Speaker 1: with undesirable traits lived in America. While states had already

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Speaker 1: passed sterilization acts based on eugenics, sterilization laws became more

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Speaker 1: common after Laughlin drafted a model sterilization law, which was

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Speaker 1: published in his book Eugenical Sterilization in the United States

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Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty two. In the book, he promoted forced

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Speaker 1: sterilization under the guise of bettering humanity. Laughlin banked on

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Speaker 1: state legislatures designing their own eugenics laws based on his recommendations.

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Speaker 1: Albert Pretty was the superintendent of the Virginia Colony for

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Speaker 1: the Epileptic and Feeble Minded in Lynchburg, Virginia. Pretty was

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Speaker 1: a huge supporter of institutionalizing people deemed feeble minded and

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Speaker 1: compulsory sterilization. He contacted Legislator Aubrey Strode, who drafted Virginia's

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Speaker 1: Eugenical Sterilization Act. Though the courts had struck down many

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Speaker 1: states sterilization laws, Virginia Governor Albert Lee Trinkle promoted the

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Speaker 1: sterilization bill as a way for institutions that housed so

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Speaker 1: called defective people to save money. Compulsory sterilization would also

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Speaker 1: mean that people could not leave institutions and have more

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Speaker 1: people eugenic supporters deemed defective. In the bill, Strode said

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Speaker 1: that sterilization was a public health concern and necessary to

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Speaker 1: protect society. The bill said that sterilization would be a

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Speaker 1: safe and relatively painless procedure. It stated that heredity played

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Speaker 1: a big role in the quote transmission of sanity, idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy,

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Speaker 1: and crime. The Virginia Sterilization Act was approved on March

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Speaker 1: twentieth nine, providing for people in state institutions to be

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Speaker 1: sterilized in certain cases. Carrie Buck was set to be

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Speaker 1: sterilized under the Virginia Act. Buck's case made it to

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled that it was

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Speaker 1: in the state's best interest to have Buck sterilized so

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Speaker 1: that the nation would not be quote swamped with incompetence.

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Speaker 1: The ruling legitimized sterilization and boosted the eugenics movement across

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Speaker 1: the United States. Thousands of Virginians were sterilized, may only

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Speaker 1: non white and poor white people after the act was passed.

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Speaker 1: Major parts of the nine Act were repealed in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four in Virginia agreed to pay sterilization survivors two

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Speaker 1: dollars each as compensation. Reportedly, only eleven survivors of for

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Speaker 1: sterilization in Virginia were identified at the time. I'm each

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Speaker 1: Deepcote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. And if you'd like to

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Speaker 1: hit us up on social media, you can do so

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Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at t d i h

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Speaker 1: C Podcast. If you prefer to hit us up by email,

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Speaker 1: you can shoot us a note at this Day at

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Speaker 1: I heeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening and

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Speaker 1: we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio,

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