US history

More Than 4,000 Black People Were Lynched In The South

August 29, 2017 Jessica Wang, www.alternet.org Educate! Lynching, Monuments, Racism, US history

By Jessica Wang for Alternet - Recent events in Charlottesville have renewed the debate around whether to take down Confederate memorials and statues, but the latest short film from the Equal Justice Institute’s Lynching in America project shows that much more is needed to truly confront the bitter legacy of slavery and racial injustice. Abbeville chronicles the unveiling of a historical marker dedicated to the brutal death of Anthony Crawford a century ago. Lynched in the town square of Abbeville, South Carolina, Crawford was a successful African-American farmer who argued with a white merchant for a fair price for cottonseed. For his “crime,” he was publicly stabbed, shot and hanged by a white mob, and his family was subsequently run out of town. Crawford’s murder counts as just one of the 4,084 racial terror lynchings identified by EJI in 12 Southern states between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950, and yet is one of only a handful of deaths recognized today by public markers. In fact, the Abbeville memorial is one of six lynching markers erected by EJI as part of an effort to force Americans to face our history of racial terror and reshape the national narrative about race. The other five can be found in LaGrange, Georgia, and four cities in Alabama.

When Will The United States Transcend White Supremacy?

August 22, 2017 Robert Jensen, www.dissidentvoice.org Create! US history, White Nationalism, White Supremacy

By Robert Jensen for Dissident Voice - Now that the violence in Charlottesville has forced “white supremacy” into our political vocabulary, let’s ask an uncomfortable question: “When will the United States transcend white supremacy?” My question isn’t, “What should we do about the overt white supremacists who, emboldened by Trumpism’s success, have pushed their way back into mainstream politics?” I want to go beyond easy targets to ask, “When will U.S. society—not just neo-Nazis and the Klan, but the whole country—reject all aspects of white supremacist ideology and take serious steps toward rectifying the material inequality justified by that ideology?” The answer is obvious: Never. There’s no evidence the dominant culture is interested. The wealth—in fact, the very existence—of the United States is so entwined in the two foundational racialized holocausts in our history that transcending white supremacy requires not only treating people of color differently, but understanding ourselves in new and painful ways. To transcend white supremacy, white America would have to come to terms with the barbarism of our history and our ongoing moral failures. If that seems harsh, heartless, or hopeless, let’s start with history.

These Are The Dozens Of Movements Underway To Remove Confederate Monuments

August 21, 2017 Will Drabold, www.mic.com Resist! Confederacy, Racism, US history

By Will Drabold for Mic - Less than a week after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, at least 13 Confederate monuments have been removed from public spaces across the country. From California to Ohio and Maryland to Florida, monuments that critics say celebrate slavery have been pulled down by protesters and quietly removed in the dark of night by local governments. There are at least 700 Confederate symbols on public property in the U.S. Across the southern states, monuments to Confederate soldiers and generals hold prominent positions in town squares and outside county courthouses. On Aug. 12, one of them — a statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia — became the site of a violent clash between white supremacists and anti-racist counterprotesters. So far, Mic has identified 49 movements in 2017 that have successfully removed or are pushing to remove specific Confederate monuments. These include online petitions, in-person protests, moves by city officials and other efforts to remove memorials. Dozens of these movements began in the last several days. At least 20 Confederate monuments have been removed from public land in 2017 alone (a 21st was relocated from public land in one Kentucky city to another).

Roger Taney Statue Removed From State House Overnight

August 19, 2017 Pamela Wood and Erin Cox, www.baltimoresun.com Resist! Maryland, State, US history

By Pamela Wood and Erin Cox for The Baltimore Sun - Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, taking down the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision from his 145-year prominent perch in Annapolis. Cheers erupted from a few dozen onlookers as the hulking bronze statute of Taney was lifted from its pedestal on the State House front lawn just before 2 a.m., clipping tree branches on its path to a waiting truck bed. It’s the latest monument linked to the Confederate era to be removed from a public square since white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend. State officials have been under mounting pressure to take down the Taney statue. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan reversed his stance on the matter this week. His shift provided enough votes for the four-member State House Trust on Wednesday to approve removing the monument. Hogan’s spokesman, Doug Mayer, said the state decided to quietly and swiftly remove Taney’s statue overnight “as a matter of public safety.” The granite pedestal that supported the Taney statue since 1872 temporarily remains in place, surrounded by green plywood and guarded around the clock by two officers.

Trump And America’s Fascist Forefathers

August 19, 2017 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Donald Trump, Fascism, US history

By Glen Ford for Black Agenda Report - Donald Trump was even more agitated and combative than usual at Tuesday’s press conference. How could he draw a line to separate the “neo-Nazis” and assorted “white supremacists” that had descended on Charlottesville, Virginia -- one of whom used his car to crush the life out of a young woman -- and the “very fine people” that favored keeping Robert E. Lee’s statue on its pedestal in (recently renamed) Emancipation Park? And, where would the racist-removal project end? The answer, as somebody once said, was blowing in the wind. “So this week, it is Robert E. Lee,” warned Trump . “I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” There is nothing wrong with Trump’s logic. If the legacy of slavery is to be excised root and branch, then nothing less than the most profound social transformation is in order. Why stop with statues of long dead men? If you rightly condemn Washington and Jefferson as loathsome oppressors of humanity, you are then obligated to purge the nation and world of the poisoned fruit of their racist perversion. What these forefathers “brought forth on this continent” was “a new nation, conceived” NOT in liberty, nor was it dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal.

Protesters Pull Down Confederate Statue In Durham

August 15, 2017 Derrick Lewis and Amy Cutler, www.wncn.com Resist! Confederacy, North Carolina, Protests, Racism, US history

By Derrick Lewis and Amy Cutler for CBS North Carolina - Around 7:10 p.m. a woman using a ladder climbed the statue of a Confederate soldier and attached a rope around the statue. Moments later, the crowd pulled on the rope and the statue fell. One man quickly ran up and spat on the statue and several others began kicking it. Durham police later said they monitored the protests to make sure they were “safe,” but did not interfere with the statue toppling because it happened on county property. “Because this incident occurred on county property, where county law enforcement officials were staffed, no arrests were made by DPD officers,” Durham Police spokesman Wil Glenn wrote in an email statement. Durham County Sheriff’s deputies videotaped the statue being brought down — but didn’t stop it from happening. After toppling the statue, the protesters started marching. They blocked traffic with authorities trying to stay ahead of them. The protesters made their way down E. Main Street to the site of the new Durham Police Department. In 1924, the Confederate statue was dedicated to Durham.

Teachers At A Crossroads: Time To Heed Dr. King’s Call

August 10, 2017 Craig Gordon, www.livingindialogue.com Organize! History, Martin Luther King Jr, Teachers, US history

By Craig Gordon for Living In Dialogue - Promoters of so-called school reform frequently exhort educators to “teach with urgency.” This slogan trumpets their supposed determination to immediately achieve educational equity without funding equitable teaching and learning conditions. Two presidential mandates—Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Obama’s Race to the Top—proclaimed this righteous resolve while severely damaging public education. Now President Trump and Education Secretary DeVos plan to accelerate the destruction with more charters and vouchers or tax credits to pay for private schools. The real urgency we face today is to finally address the systemic causes of inequality—in and beyond schools–and other interconnected threats to human survival, as Martin Luther King Jr. implored fifty years ago. With the scientific consensus on climate change and a renewed and growing threat of nuclear war, the urgency is far more evident today. Here is a key question for those of us focused on finally achieving educational justice: What would it take to provide all students with high quality education?

100 Years Ago African-Americans Marched Down 5th Ave To Declare: Black Lives Matter

July 27, 2017 Chad Williams, www.theconversation.com Educate! Black History, Black Lives Matter (BLM), US history

By Chad Williams for The Conversation - The only sounds were those of muffled drums, the shuffling of feet and the gentle sobs of some of the estimated 20,000 onlookers. The women and children wore all white. The men dressed in black. On the afternoon of Saturday, July 28, 1917, nearly 10,000 African-Americans marched down Fifth Avenue, in silence, to protest racial violence and white supremacy in the United States. New York City, and the nation, had never before witnessed such a remarkable scene. The “Silent Protest Parade,” as it came to be known, was the first mass African-American demonstration of its kind and marked a watershed moment in the history of the civil rights movement. As I have written in my book “Torchbearers of Democracy,” African-Americans during the World War I era challenged racism both abroad and at home. In taking to the streets to dramatize the brutal treatment of black people, the participants of the “Silent Protest Parade” indicted the United States as an unjust nation. This charge remains true today.

Judge Intervenes After FBI Stonewalls Documentary Film Maker

July 25, 2017 Britain Eakin, www.mintpressnews.com Resist! Anti-war Movement, FBI, US history

By Britain Eakin for Mint Press News - WASHINGTON – A federal judge hastened completion of a documentary decades in the making about the FBI’s role in the Vietnam anti-war movement Thursday by ordering the agency to churn out nearly 3,000 pages of documents a month. According to an internal policy, the FBI was only releasing requested records in chunks of 500 at a time to Nina Gilden Seavey, a filmmaker and professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. At that rate, it would have taken nearly 17 years for the agency to hand over all 102,385 documents it says it found in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act requests she started filing in 2013. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler’s ruling issued Thursday called the FBI’s policy “untenable.” For Seavey, the prospect of waiting nearly two decades for the information needed to complete her film was daunting. “I’m 60 years old,” Seavey said in a phone interview. “I mean, let’s be real,” she added, trailing off with laughter. Seavey had asked the FBI for information on “individuals, organizations, events, publications, and file numbers” relating to the agency’s involvement in the anti-war movement, looking particularly at St. Louis in the 1960s and 1970s.

Eugene Debs And The Kingdom Of Evil

July 18, 2017 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! History, Labor, Socialism, US history

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - Debs burst onto the national stage when he organized a railroad strike in 1894 after the Pullman Co. cut wages by up to one-third but did not lower rents in company housing or reduce dividend payments to its stockholders. Over a hundred thousand workers staged what became the biggest strike in U.S. history on trains carrying Pullman cars. The response was swift and brutal. “Mobilizing all the powers of capital, the owners, representing twenty-four railroads with combined capital of $818,000,00, fought back with the courts and the armed forces of the Federal government behind them,” Barbara W. Tuchman writes in “The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914.” “Three thousand police in the Chicago area were mobilized against the strikers, five thousand professional strikebreakers were sworn in as Federal deputy marshals and given firearms; ultimately six thousand Federal and State troops were brought in, less for the protection of property and the public than to break the strike and crush the union.” Attorney General Richard Olney, who as Tuchman writes “had been a lawyer for railroads before entering the Cabinet and was still a director of several lines involved in the strike,” issued an injunction rendering the strike illegal.

Why Taking Down Confederate Memorials Is Only A First Step

June 6, 2017 Joshua F.J. Inwood and Derek H. Alderman, www.theconversation.com Create! Confederacy, US history

By Joshua F.J. Inwood and Derek H. Alderman for The Conversation - Monuments and other commemorative sites tell at least two stories, according to sociologist James Loewen. The first is the story of the people and events commemorated by the memorial. The other is a deeper tale of how the monument was created, by whom and for what political purpose. Memorials, thus, are shaped by a broad range of political, economic and social relationships. For example, the contested Confederate memorials of New Orleans, along with those in many other cities, were dedicated during a Jim Crow era in which whites actively discriminated against African-Americans. In this respect, the monuments to the Confederacy in New Orleans and many other cities are doubly problematic. They not only publicly honor the Confederacy, but also are a symbol of an era that saw the continuation of institutionalized racism and black disenfranchisement. During the era of segregation white elites employed these statues to take advantage of the racial anxieties of poor whites and to remind civil rights-seeking black communities of who really mattered and belonged (and who did not) in the city.

100 Years Ago, In Spring Of 1917: Why Did America Go To War In 1917?

May 30, 2017 Dr. Jacques R. Pauwels, www.globalresearch.ca Educate! United States, US history, US Imperialism, WWI

By Dr. Jacques R. Pauwels for Global Research - For the overwhelming majority of the people of the United States, however, the entry of their country into the war was hardly a wonderful thing. They realized that the war raging in Europe had been a disaster, and that in all belligerent countries civilians as well as soldiers longed for a return to peace. The Europeans wanted to exit this war as soon as possible; why would Americans want to enter it? And why would they have to fight on the side of the British and the French against the Germans? Why not on the side of the Germans against the countries of the Entente? Let us examine the factors that caused many Americans to ask such questions. For a long time already, the United States had enjoyed good relations with Germany. It was not Germany but Britain that was the traditional enemy and great rival of Uncle Sam. The British were former colonial masters against whom the country’s war of independence had been fought during the 1770s, and against whom another armed conflict took place between 1812 and 1815, the so-called War of 1812; and throughout the 19th century relations with Britain had remained tense on account of issues such as the border of the US with British North America

How Memorial Day Was Stripped Of Its African-American Roots

May 28, 2017 Ben Becker, www.dominionofnewyork.com Educate! Black History, Holidays, US history

By Ben Becker for Dominion of New York - What we now know as Memorial Day began as “Decoration Day” in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause. These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day “without politics”—a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation.

Karen Spellman And The SNCC Legacy Project –Black Power Chronicle Part II

May 26, 2017 Dr. Marsha Cole, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Black Power, SNCC, US history

By Dr. Marsha Cole for Black Agenda Report - Part I of the Karen Spellman interview discussed the need for those involved in the Black Power Movement to tell their stories in their own voices. Not confident that corporate or white academic “experts” could provide the contextual and analytical framework for an analysis of the Black Power Movement, Karen is providing leadership through the SNCC Legacy Project and the Black Power Chronicles to archive, provide oral history and analysis of this important period of history. The community is invited to provide pictures, artifacts, and share memories of their involvement in the Black Power Movement. Karen is currently organizing a national conference of Black power veterans scheduled for Atlanta, GA in 2018. Karen Spellman was at the center of the Black Power Movement. Impacted by unrelenting white supremacist violence against Africans in America in the South, she dedicated herself at a young age to fighting segregation and white supremacy. While living in Greensboro, at the age of 13, she became involved in the civil rights movement and served as president of the Greensboro, N.C. NAACP Youth Chapter.

Transcript Of New Orleans Mayor Landrieu’s Address On Confederate Monuments

May 25, 2017 Derek Cosson, www.pulsegulfcoast.com Create! Confederacy, History, New Orleans, US history

By Derek Cosson for The Pulse - Just hours before workers removed a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee — the fourth Confederate monument to be dismantled in New Orleans in recent weeks — Mayor Mitch Landrieu gave a special address at historic Gallier Hall. Here’s a full transcript of Landrieu’s remarks: Thank you for coming. The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of Francexii and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more. You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.

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