The smooth, trained voice of "Talk of the Nation" host Ray Suarez echoed as he spoke onstage. The audience at Rackham Auditorium applauded and National Public Radio listeners tuned in around the world.
Suarez spoke on the air with University professors, faculty and students to address issues of race yesterday afternoon.
"Today we've left the cozy and intimate confines of Studio 3A in Washington," Suarez said. "We're on the road, coming to you live from Rackham Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor."
The first hour of the broadcast focused on author and activist W. E. B. DuBois, and featured a panel of experts as well as interaction with audience members. The panelists answered questions about DuBois' life and literature.
Sitting on the panel were two University professors of history and Afro-American studies, Earl Lewis and Harold Cruse. Lewis and Cruse joined independent filmmaker Louis Massiah, creator of the television documentary ""W. E. B. DuBois - A Biography in Four Voices," in a discussion of DuBois' life and literature.
"When I was a teen-ager, a young man growing up, he was an icon," Cruse said. "You wondered, 'Who was this man?'"
Rackham audience members were joined by callers from a national audience in discussing DuBois with the panel.
Interspersed throughout the program were excerpts from DuBois' works, read by speakers including actress and lecturer Elise Bryant and theater Prof. OyamO.
The show's second hour focused on racial issues on the University campus.
"Colleges and universities can sometimes be places where things that would be pushed aside - ignored, swept under the rug in the workplace - instead get fanned into flame," Suarez said.
Suarez's remark was echoed in the discussion that followed, as participants debated race issues at the University. Several students asked the panel to address the issue of negative attitudes toward students of color at the University.
Bryant, who assumed the role of panel member for the second discussion, responded to the comments and questions from the audience. "I think that there's been a change," Bryant said, referring to the atmosphere on campus. "But a profound change? No."
After the broadcast, Suarez chatted with audience members about NPR, his upcoming book and broadcast journalism. Suarez, who jokingly referred to Rackham Auditorium as an "Assyrian fantasy," said the panel discussion was marked by a guarded tone.
"They used the language of modern offense," Suarez said. "It's hard to get them down to concepts."
Sociology Prof. Tomas Almaguer, who sat on the panel that discussed race issues on college campuses, said the conversation reflected many of the things he emphasizes in the classroom.
"It's a painful thing to talk about," Almaguer said. "It's difficult to acknowledge that the problems do exist. ... Many campuses would probably blush at having this kind of discussion."