In just two days, New York City will celebrate World Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. To honor the elders who rose up in the face of violent police raids in the early hours of June 28, 1969, NPR’s StoryCorps podcast released an episode titled “Remembering Stonewall: 50 Years Later” on Tuesday (June 25). 

In it, host Jasmyn Morris introduces the activists who were present, via an excerpt from the 1989 radio documentary “Remembering Stonewall.” “We used to sit around, just try to figure out when this harassment would come to an end,” iconic activist Sylvia Rivera said, speaking for the first time on the radio about the brutality. “And we would always dream that one day it would come to an end. And we prayed and we looked for it. We wanted to be human beings.” 

The episode ends with excerpts from Stonewall OutLoud, StoryCorps’ public campaign to document and archive stories from elders in the LGBTQ+ community. Listen to the complete episode: