Why We Need a White History Month

Amber Ruffin spells it out.

The things people, Americans, don't know.

And the things people don't know they don't know.

The American History So Few Americans Know

 

“In Louisiana, black women were put in cells with male prisoners and some became pregnant. In 1848, legislators passed a new law declaring that all children born in the penitentiary of African American parents serving life sentences would be property of the state. The women would raise the kids until the age of ten, at which point the penitentiary would place an ad in the newspaper. Thirty days later, the children would be auctioned off on the courthouse steps 'cash on delivery.' The proceeds were used to fund schools for white children. . . many of [the black children] were purchased by prison officials.”

Source: American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer

No reparations, America?

Really?

Missouri Senator Blunt Keeps Missouri in the Wrong and in the Past, the Racist Past

Sadly, frustratingly, we are advised today Missouri's Senator Roy Blunt plants his feet deeply in our state's and nation's racist past.

GOP senator blocks bill to remove 

Confederate statues from Capitol

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Thursday blocked the Senate from passing a bill to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) tried to pass the bill by unanimous consent, which allows legislation to pass without a vote but also enables any one senator to block it.

The measure would remove statues of individuals who voluntarily served in the Confederacy from the Capitol.

Booker called keeping statues of Confederate figures in the Capitol a "painful, insulting, difficult injury."

"The continued presence of these statues in the halls is an affront to African Americans and the ideals of our nation," he added.

Schumer added that passing a bill to remove the statues would be one step toward confronting the "poison of racism."

"Candidly, I don't think it would be too imposing to ask our states not to send statues of people who actively fought against this country. You know, there is a reason that Connecticut doesn't send a statue of Benedict Arnold," Schumer said.

But Blunt objected, noting that Congress had an agreement with states and that he wanted time to consider giving the issue a hearing in the Rules Committee, which he chairs.

"I'd like to ... get the opinion of people who are taking similar statues out of the building. I'd also like to find out what other states have in mind as their part of this agreement," Blunt said.

Excuse me, Senator, excuse us...   You want to get the opinion of people who are taking down similar statues??

Hello??  They're taking them down! They think they're wrong! They think they honor racists! What do you need to know?

Thanks for taking and keeping us backward, Senator. Thanks for not doing the right thing. Thanks for complicating things. We know you like and want "small government."

Right.   Got it.

Senator Hawley Just Got Dangerous

I just saw this article Missouri's Senator Josh Hawley had published by the extreme Right Wing source, The Federalist.

Sen. Josh Hawley: The Left Wants A Civil War

I can't be more emphatic when I say this is not just wrong and he is not just incorrect, mistaken or misguided but that this is dangerous. This is dangerous talk and it is a dangerous conclusion to even make, let alone to throw out there for the rabid Right Wing to gobble up.

A bit from the article:

We’ve got a lot of problems in America today. A pandemic. A recession. A surge of violence in our major cities drowning out a nationwide call for justice and hope.

We have work to do in this body and in this city to solve these problems and to heed that call. And our voters sent us here to make things better. To rebuild. To heal.

But that’s not what we’re doing.

No, for the last several weeks, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and their allies in the media, and some professional political activists on a payroll, have been trying to divide us against each other, to paralyze us, to stoke resentment of our fellow citizens and hatred of this nation that we all call home.

It’s really remarkable, if you think about, that just a few short weeks ago we were united in outrage at the murder of George Floyd. We were united in impatience for justice for his family.

And nothing has changed about that. All people of good will still want justice to be done. I do. But the call of the marchers has been weaponized by partisans, who want nothing more than to say that only some Americans really support equal justice under the law. Only some institutions of government are really committed to that cause. Only one party can be trusted to govern in good faith. Only one political coalition is righteous enough to rule over the other.

ou don’t hear talk of unity watching MSNBC or reading the New York Times these days. Instead those outlets are drawing up a list of new villains.

Not Floyd’s killer. No, not him. We’re way past George Floyd now, I guess. Now we’re talking about new grievances — “structural” evils endemic to America itself. The police. The military. The flag. Oh, and of course, the president.

It’s always about the president...
Well, yes. It is always about the President. Because he is President and because he's also been very divisive and has said blatantly ugly, divisive and yes, racist things.  They are documentable. He has also "misrepresented the truth", if you get my meaning, as he did with the coronavirus pandemic, as just one of many examples.

This is what we get for having killed the Fairness Doctrine in our media back in Reagan's era. We get and got Fox and Breitbart and  Rush Limbaugh all the other Right Wing media sources.

Senators and any and every other government representative are all supposed to be representatives of ALL the people, not just some, not just their own political party.

This  isn't just divisive, however. This is, again, dangerous. He's saying that "other group" of Americans wants to attack "us."

Right. The Left is going to attack a bunch of gun-toting fellow citizens.  Sure. Makes perfect sense.

The article goes on to, more and more, feed and stoke Right Wing flames or resentment, at least, if not out and out hate, for fellow Americans---you know, "libtards." Fortunately, he doesn't go that far but nearly.

Ironically, in the article, Sen. Hawley quotes Abraham Lincoln and mentions something about coming together as a nation, as a people.

His article does the exact opposite.

He and his article declare an "us vs them" mentality and all but declares Democrats, the Left, Progressives the enemy.  Fellow citizens, fellow Americans.

Toward the end of his article he states:

This great nation and its good people cannot continue our life of freedom together if we vilify and destroy each other from within.
His entire article is about nothing but villifying people he and the Right Wing don't agree with.

This Missouri Senator just got dangerous, folks.

The "Left", Democrats, the Left Wing, Progressives no way "want any Civil War. To declare they--we--do, is a dangerous untruth and ugly fuel for the Right Wing, Conservatives and the Republican Party.

We would, however, like more justice and equality. For all Americans.

Surely they're heard of those.

On This Day, May 29, 1851

On this date, May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth gave her fantastic, incredible, even important and sadly  still relevant "Ain't I A Woman?" speech.

Links:

Sojourner Truth - Quotes, Facts & Speech - HISTORY

Sojourner Truth - Wikipedia

You Must Go to the Wornall House

I've lived in the Kansas City area more than 35 years. Heck, I was only born an hour North in St. Joseph but I've lived here for years. And in all that time, I've driven by the old Wornall House on Wornall Road more times than I can count. Heck, I now live in the neighborhood. Again.

So yesterday, I'm driving by, yet again, when I see what are likely Civil War re-enactors on the lawn. It's Saturday. I have my chores done. I decided I have time so I park the car and go.

Am I ever glad I did.

If you have either never been or it's been a long time? Go. Go back. It's a terrific education. The original Wornall family did more to help develop this city and area than you have any idea. And the ties to even JC Nichols and his development of the Plaza, the family ties to Liberty and William Jewell College, local banks, all of it. Fascinating.

Here are just a few of the shots I took, on the outside. This is on the front porch.

A soldier and an officer's tent.

The inside of said tent.

More of the re-enactors.

I'm telling you, you'll get a terrific, fast national education on the Civil War and even the nation, as well as one more on the state of Missouri, the region, the Missouri-Kansas border war, slavery and area, all. Seriously fascinating.

Then, when that's done, either same day or some other time, maybe some other weekend, make a point to go to the Majors house at 82nd and State Line Road. It's under the same non-profit organization and can give you more information and history, at least, if not also entertainment.

Links:

John Wornall House Museum

Majors House - The Alexander Majors House Museum

Home - Wornall Majors House Museums

To That America, We Wish Happy Birthday

 

To the country that values citizenry over consumerism, 

that values liberty over enslavement,

that values equal opportunities for all, 

that values the health of one equal to the health of another, 

that learned that separate is not equal,
that put a man on the moon, 

that separated church from state in order that church could be that much more available, 

that helped free the world from Nazi tyranny and 

proudly had women build the machines that did it, 

that invented the blues, 

that overcame pitting brother against brother in order to break the evil of slavery, 

that exported rock and roll, 

that put storytelling on the big screen, 

that gave us Fred Astaire, 

that gave Einstein a home, 

that has a statue in the harbor welcoming the downtrodden, 

that figured out burgers and shakes go so well together, 

that wrote the social contract that has yet to be beaten that begins "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal..." 

....to THAT America, we wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

--Lisa Wiffledust

Quote of the Day -- On Taking Down Confederate Statues

"The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered." 

--New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

Links:

New Orleans begins to take down Confederate statues

New Orleans takes down Confederate monument

One More To Go: New Orleans Takes Down 

Civil War General's Statue

New Orleans Takes Down Statue Of Gen. Robert E. Lee

The case for taking down Confederate monuments

Final Confederate statue coming down in New Orleans

In New Orleans, Confederate monuments are gone _ Lee last 

Landrieu speech: The Confederacy lost 

New Orleans mayor made a speech on race 

and history we all need to hear

The 12 best lines from Mitch Landrieu's remarkable speech on race

Mitch Landrieu's Confederate monuments speech earning praise

Confederate monument removal in New Orleans inspires St. Louis

St. Louis, History, and Confederate Monuments

American History for Black History Month from 1965

I wasn't aware of this debate or film clip until last evening. I didn't know James Baldwin debated the very Right Wing, Conservative William F. Buckley at all, on any subject, let alone this one. And the topic was "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?"

My response is that not only is and has the American Dream been at the expense of the American "Negro", the African-Americans, the Blacks, but it has been built on their backs, figuratively and literally.

Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University.


Far too few Americans have seen this video or know of this debate. Far too will, I feel sure, sadly and unfortunately.

July 14

1861

Should Be Required Reading

A friend on Facebook (yes, Facebook), posted the following article yesterday. I found it more than a bit incredible and a surprising good, even important read.

Will Racism Ever End, Will I Ever 

Stop Being a Nigger?

For me, it was incredibly quotable. I'll just stick with this one, however:

"...the greatest trick of a racist is getting folks to believe that racism doesn’t exist in the first place or that the people with no power and no privilege are the real racists, the real oppressors."

It reminded me how little, how precious little we Americans know of our own history, our own national history. It also reminded me how we need much more of it in our schools. Besides the above, I think people should have to read the following.

This book:

Slavery by Another Name

And if not reading that last book, then at least seeing the PBS special on it:

Slavery by Another Name

And finally, this article from 2 years ago:

The Case for Reparations 

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

It's fairly outrageous what we don't know or, worse, deny.

Little-Known Kansas City History

Early Kansas City home, possibly belonging to Bernoist Troost. Slave cabin in rear.

To dispel any notion that Kansas City was anything but a Confederate city, one has only to take a look at the town settlers. The first company, formed in 1839, consisted of 14 men and was spearheaded by John C. McCoy, William Gilliss, and a fur trapper from Kentucky named William Sublette. Town founder McCoy, according to the 1850 census, owned five slaves at his home on Pearl Hill. Gilliss, born in Maryland, was a slaveowner. The 1850 census shows he owned three male slaves, ages 18 -36. Although banished by Ewing in 1863, Gillis was allowed to stay, perhaps due to his age, wealth, position in the community, and by showing evidence that he had freed his last slave in 1862.

Fry P. McGee was a son of early settler James Hyatt McGee of Kentucky, reputed to have brought the first slaves to Kansas City in the late 1830’s. The 1860 slave census shows that Fry McGee, his brothers and his mother owned slaves. Jacob Ragan of Kentucky arrived in Jackson County in 1837. He was a known Confederate and was included on at least one of the Provost Marshal’s lists of “bad men.” William Miles Chick was born near Lynchburg, Virginia. He came to Kansas City in 1836. Chick, too, was a known Confederate and was one of the Provost Marshal’s “bad men.” Chick’s warehouse was located next to Jesse’s on the levee. Both were burned by Union soldiers in 1862. Col. Chick was was John C. McCoy’s father-in-law.

Five men of the 1839 company were farmers and slaveholders residing in Blue Township, Jackson County, just east of Kansas City:

Oliver Caldwell arrived in Jackson County in 1833. He farmed at Blue Valley and organized the Christian Church in Independence. The 1840 census shows that he owned 9 slaves; the 1850 census shows Oliver 58, wife Ann 54, 3 children 17-24, and 11 slaves.

George Washington Tate arrived in Westport in 1838. He became a Missouri state legislator in 1842. The 1850 census for Blue Township identifies Tate as a 53 year-old merchant, residing with his wife Lovey 46, and 3 children 14-27 and 1 male slave, age 15.

William Collins was a Kentucky native who lived in Liberty. The 1860 census for Liberty Township shows him with 4 slaves. James Smart of Virginia was a farmer who came to Jackson County 1834 with his brother Thomas and became Jackson County judge in 1846. He was a founder of the Christian Church in Independence and was Oliver Caldwell’s brother-in-law. The 1850 census for Blue Township shows Thomas 53, Nancy 48, and 3 children aged12-20. The 1860 slave census show that he owned 15 slaves.

Russell Hicks of Massachusetts came to Jackson County around 1827. He was a teacher, lawyer and judge who was called “one of the most eccentric members of the Kansas Town Company.” After the war he practised law in Sedalia and was counsel to Senator Thomas Hart Benton. The 1850 census places Hicks, 65, in Blue Township with two female slaves, ages 4 and 23.

The vast majority of the personal wealth in Jackson County prior to the war was contained among men who had been born in Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. These men and their families supported the Confederacy and its institutions. The children of the original town members were coming of age during the years leading up to the Civil War, as were the children of the thousands of southern settlers who came to Jackson County in the 1840’s.

--Text by John Dawson

The Gettysburg Address

Given this day, 1863



Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground-- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, to stand here, we here be dedica-ted to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Born This Day, 1827

Indeed, born this day, September 27, 1827 was one Hiram Rhodes Revels and for a few reasons, should absolutely be taught and known by Americans who he was and what he did.

Hiram Rhodes Revels was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church(AME), a Republican politician, and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. He was elected as the first African American to serve in the United States Senate, and was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. He represented Mississippi in the Senate in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era.

During the American Civil War, Revels had helped organize two regiments of the United States Colored Troops and served as a chaplain. After serving in the Senate, Revels was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University), 1871-1873 and 1876 to 1882. Later he served again as a minister.

One of the biggest things Hiram Revels did was to  be The Black Man Who Replaced Jefferson Davis in the Senate

Too few Americans know this man and know what he did and how important he and it all was.

Another Executive Order, Issued This Day, 1863

A presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln.

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln had issued a preliminary proclamation warning that he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state that did not end its rebellion against the Union by January 1, 1863. None of the Confederate states restored themselves to the Union, and Lincoln's order, signed and issued January 1, 1863, took effect. The Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners (and their sympathizers) who envisioned a race war, angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, and undermined forces in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy. The Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans both free and slave. It led many slaves to escape from their masters and get to Union lines to obtain their freedom.

That President's opponents were viscerally, emotionally, strongly against this Executive Order, also.

Link:  Emancipation Proclamation

On This Day, September 2

For whatever reason, I thought September 2nd to be a day of significance. With that in mind, I thought I'd put together a few highlights from the date, down through the ages. Partly fun, partly educational, partly historical significance. Hopefully enjoy.

490 BC - Pheidippides, Greek hero and inspiration for the modern marathon, dies

44 BC - Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.

- The first of Cicero's Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the next several months.

1649 - The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro. (I love that. Pope Innocent)

1666 - Great Fire of London begins at 2am in Pudding Lane, 80% of London is destroyed

1732 - Pope Clement XII renews anti-Jewish laws of Rome. (Don'tcha' just love those oh-so-innocent Catholics?)

1864 - Union General William T. Sherman captures and burns Atlanta during US Civil War

1894 - Forest fires destroy Hinckley Minnesota: about 600 die (I can't even fathom that one)

1901 - VP Theodore Roosevelt advises "Speak softly & carry a big stick"

1902 - "A Trip To The Moon", the first science fiction film, by film great Georges Méliès released

1919 - Communist Party of America organizes in Chicago (It didn't really catch on. Not permanently, anyway)

1936 - 1st transatlantic round-trip air flight

1942 - German troops enter Stalingrad

1944 - During WW II, George H W Bush ejects from a burning plane

1944 - Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was sent to Auschwitz

1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independence from France (National Day) (Years later, Americans would learn nothing whatever from France's loss and exit from Vietnam and instead, attack the country)

1946 - Nehru forms government in India

1957 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1962 - Stan Musial's 3,516th hit moves over Tris Speaker into 2nd place

1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

1963 - Alabama Gov George C Wallace prevents integration of Tuskegee HS

1963 - CBS & NBC expand network news from 15 to 30 minutes

1964 - Keanu Reeves birthday, Beirut, "actor"

1969 - Ralph Houk signs 3-year contract to manage Yankees at $65,000 a season (think things haven't changed a lot?)
        - The first automatic teller machine (ATM) in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.

1971 - Chris Evert & Jimmy Connors win their 1st US Open tennis matches (Chris who? Jimmy who?)
         - Also his, Jimmy Connors', birthday, 1952

1972 - Rod Stewart's 1st #1 hit (You Wear it Well)

1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British author (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings)--as if you had to ask--dies of an ulcer at 81

1982 - Rolling Stone Keith Richard's house burns down

1987 - Donald Trump takes out a full page NY Times ad lambasting Japan

1997 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Montreal Canada on CHOM 97.7 FM (and we still haven't gotten rid of him)

2005 - Bob Denver, American actor (Gilligan of "Gilligan's Island"), dies of complications from treatment for cancer at 70
So now, get out there, kids, and enjoy your September 2nd.

More Americans Need to Read--and Follow--the Words of Robert E. Lee

More people in this nation need to read and apply and live Robert E. Lee's own words.

These, on our nation and fellow countrymen:

"I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union."

"Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character."

"Madam, don't bring up your sons to detest the United States government. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all these local animosities, and make your sons Americans."

And this, on war itself:

"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it."

The American History We Don't Want to Know

Lynching was a form of terrorism used against Blacks during that time period, where mobs of Whites would hang, burn, shoot, and beat Blacks to death as a form of intimidation and control.

One of those who lost their lives was soldier William Little.

An excerpt:

"The year 1919 was a time of resurgence by the Ku Klux Klan. Seventy-six Blacks lost their lives to mob violence in southern states that year. One of them, Private William Little of Blakely, Ga., was apparently lynched precisely because he was wearing his uniform.

"The accounts of the time state that a few days after being mustered out, he took a train home and was beaten by local Whites for wearing his uniform around town.

"The mob made him remove it.

"A couple of days later, he was caught wearing it again -- Little protested that he had no other clothes -- and was beaten to death and left at the end of town."

EJI plans to build memorials and monuments to the slain throughout the South in an effort to not only dignify the dead but force Americans to face their history.

Read more and listen to jazz singer Billie Holiday's ode to those who lost their lives during that time here:

Lynching in America - Equal Justice Initiative

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/lynching-in-america

Links:  10 Outrageous Reasons Black People Were Lynched

American Experience . The Murder of Emmett Till

Musarium: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography

Some Memorial Day/American History

On This Day, 1866

American history.

History they don't teach us.

Memphis riots of 1866

The Memphis riots of 1866 were the violent events that occurred from May 1 to 3 in Memphis, Tennessee. The racial violence was ignited by political, social and racial tensions following the American Civil War, in the early stages of Reconstruction.[1] After a shooting altercation between white policemen and black soldiers recently mustered out of the Union Army, mobs of white civilians and policemen rampaged through black neighborhoods and the houses of freedmen, attacking and killing men, women and children.

Federal troops were sent to quell the violence and peace was restored on the third day. A subsequent report by a joint Congressional Committee detailed the carnage, with blacks suffering most of the injuries and deaths: 46 blacks and 2 whites were killed, 75 blacks injured, over 100 black persons robbed, 5 black women raped, and 91 homes, 4 churches and 8 schools burned in the black community.

Modern estimates place property losses at over $100,000, also suffered mostly by blacks. Many blacks fled the city permanently; by 1870, their population had fallen by one quarter compared to 1865.

Public attention following the riots and reports of the atrocities, together with the New Orleans riot in July, strengthened the case made by Radical Republicans in U.S. Congress. The events influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to grant full citizenship to freedmen, as well as passage of the Reconstruction Act to establish military districts and oversight in certain states.

Investigation of the riot suggested specific causes related to competition for housing, work and social space between Irish immigrants and their descendants, and the freedmen. The white gentry also sought to drive freedpeople out of Memphis and back onto plantations where their labor could be exploited. Through violent terrorism, the white community at large sought to force blacks to respect white supremacy as the time of fully legal slavery was nearing its end.

Note there.

This wasn't the only time or place in American history this took place, either. It was, by no means, an isolated incident. It also took place in New Orleans.  And Tulsa. And Chicago. And I don't know where all. Again, it's history we don't like to teach, we Americans. It's history we don't really want to know. Or acknowledge. Or take responsibility for.

Why, if we took responsibility for all the things Americans have done to blacks in our nation, we couldn't blame them for being poor. And under-educated. And in poor jobs. And poor housing. And for having bad health. And for being in prison. Or for rioting.

Now could we?