Arctic Autograph

All freedom, all freedom before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grand... Destination Freedom The Chicago Defender and Station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom A new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people

Interwoven in the Pageant of History and a part of America's own destination freedom. Today, Destination Freedom tells the story of Matthew Henson, the first man to reach the North Pole in a chapter titled Arctic Autograph.

My name is Matthew Henson. I was named after a man who helped write the gospel. All I wrote was my name. I wrote my name on the North Pole. It was the year nineteen-sixth, an April day when flowers were beginning to bloom at home. I was on the Arctic ice past the Northern Lights, near the home of the North Wind, where

the storms began and where the midnight sun rolled high on the horizon. I had marched to the expedition to a place near the roof for the world and dropped down under the snow with my sled dogs and rations and slept until I thought I heard the wind calling my name.

Matthew! Hey Matt! Where are you? I looked out of the igloo. I saw a man with his skin cracked by the coal. A halo of fur around his face ice under his feet fire in his eyes what's commander period that come out here man what's happened you look like the world's come through and in

it has met we've come to that well now commander it's cold I know we've come to the end of the world don't you see this time we've done it right now Matt we We stand within reach of the North Pole.