November 30, 1987 - William Raspberry, urban affairs columnist for The Washington Post, speaking at Itasca Seminar "Families at Risk." Raspberry addressed the general topic of poverty in America by looking at the current welfare system and suggesting ways that the system might be improved. His suggestions for fighting poverty and reforming welfare were primarily threefold: first, reward success and let failure punish itself; second, study success, not failure when trying to see how poverty can be alleviated; third, stop blaming racism for everything that goes wrong. After speech, Raspberry answered audience questions.
October 16, 1986 - William Raspberry, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated American public affairs columnist, speaking at Minnesota Meeting. Raspberry talks about issues facing the black family, including single parent homes and joblessness. After speech, Raspberry answered audience questions. Raspberry was also the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. An African American, he frequently wrote on racial issues. Minnesota Meeting is a non-profit corporation which hosts a wide range of public speakers. It is managed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. This was the first live broadcast of Minnesota Meeting presented by MPR.