History

Tom Wolfe, who wrote The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities and gave us the terms "'Me' decade" and "radical chic," died yesterday at the age of 88. Watch him discuss his trademark white suit and the similarities between counterculture and evangelicalism in this archival interview.

Before watching Independent Lens: Dolores, take a look back at this 1985 interview with Dolores Huerta's compatriot and fellow labor organizer Cesar Chavez, in which he discusses his activism, the decline of labor, and the difficulties facing the movement.

Illinois just became the 37th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which sought to prohibit discrimination of women, more than 40 years after Congress approved it. Watch a 1977 interview with the woman who led the successful opposition.

Watch James Baldwin share his ever-incisive observations late in his life on Chicago Tonight in 1985. "When Americans say progress, they really mean how quickly, and to what extent, and how profoundly, a black person becomes white," Baldwin says.

The Rev. Billy Graham, America's most famous Christian evangelist who was friend and priest to presidents, died today at the age of 99. Watch him tell how he would like to be remembered, while an associate explains the "Billy Graham rules," in an excerpt from a 1994 WTTW program.

In 1985, Mister Rogers appeared on Chicago Tonight to discuss 30 years on television and offer some wisdom in his characteristic thoughtful manner.

Chicago epitomized the contradictions of late nineteenth century America, with its explosive growth and exorbitant wealth contrasting with abject squalor and a burgeoning labor movement. The two poles infamously came to a head several times in Chicago.