Category: History (Page 1 of 10)

Coretta Scott King’s Lost Letter to the US Senate

The lost letter from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow opposing Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship in 1986 has been found, and it’s a doozy..

“The irony of Mr. Sessions’ nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods. Twenty years ago ago, when we marched from Selma to Montgomery, the fear of voting was real, as the broken bones and bloody heads in Selma and Marion bore witness. As my husband wrote at the time, it was not just a sick imagination that conjured up the vision of a public official, sworn to uphold the law, who forced an inhuman march upon hundreds of Negro children; who ordered the Rev. James Bevel to be chained to his sickbed; who clubbed a Negro woman registrant, and who callously inflicted repeated brutalities and indignities upon nonviolent Negroes peacefully petitioning for their constitutional right to vote”

 
Read the original here

Download scott-king-1986-letter-and-testimony-signed.pdf

The Legacy of Barack Obama

The First Family

In 2008, we elected one of the most progressive presidents in history. Regardless of the relentless negativity, there has been a lot of significant progress since Barack Obama took office. When he took over in 2009, you’ll recall, the economy was in free-fall and America was fast becoming the laughingstock of the world.

If we want to win elections – and in a democracy, that has to be our main goal – we have to make people want to vote for us. Let’s start by accentuating the positive!

Here, then, are two lists of many of President Obama’s accomplishments (with citations) through 2016. Even with the extraordinary obstacles he faced along the way, this President will leave behind a legacy in league with FDR and JFK.

Barack Obama Accomplishments & Achievements List

A comprehensive list of President Barack Obama’s accomplishments & major achievements sourced & updated with a timeline through 2018.

Download President-Obamas-Accomplishments.pdf

Despotism. It can’t happen here, right?

“An elective despotism is not the government we fought for” Thomas Jefferson

The two chief characteristics of despotism — restricted respect and concentrated power — are defined and illustrated in this short 1946 film from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Two of the conditions which have historically promoted the growth of despotism are explained and exemplified. These are a slanted economic distribution and a strict control of the agencies of communication.

I, Too, Sing America

THE SMITHSONIAN’S National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on Sept. 24 in Washington after a long journey. Thirteen years since Congress and President George W. Bush authorized its construction, the 400,000-square-foot building stands on a five-acre site on the National Mall, close to the Washington Monument. President Obama will speak at its opening dedication.

NAT TURNER’S BIBLE Turner led a slave rebellion in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion halted abolitionists’ ambitions and spurred harsher laws against slaves and blacks.

NAT TURNER’S BIBLE Turner led a slave rebellion in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion halted abolitionists’ ambitions and spurred harsher laws against slaves and blacks.

Appropriately for a public museum at the heart of Washington’s cultural landscape, the museum’s creators did not want to build a space for a black audience alone, but for all Americans. In the spirit of Langston Hughes’s poem “I, Too,” their message is a powerful declaration: The African-American story is an American story, as central to the country’s narrative as any other, and understanding black history and culture is essential to understanding American history and culture.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture

T he Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on Sept. 24 in Washington after a long journey. Thirteen years since Congress and President George W. Bush authorized its construction, the 400,000-square-foot building stands on a five-acre site on the National Mall, close to the Washington Monument.

Felony Disenfranchisement

More than one in five African-Americans in Virginia are disenfranchised, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit that focuses on criminal justice. McAuliffe has said the reinstatement of felons’ voting rights would distance Virginia from Jim Crow laws that have haunted it.

It’s 2016, but Republicans still think only white property owners should vote. Virginia is one of only four states in the nation – along with Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky – to disenfranchise all individuals with felony convictions for life. The only means of regaining voting rights in these states is through action by a governor or pardons board.

Please note on July 22, 2016, the Supreme Court declared the Governor’s grant orders of April 22, May 31, and June 24 to be unconstitutional. If you have previously used the searchable database, your status may have been changed to reflect that decision. If your rights were restored before April 22, 2016, your rights were not affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.

After the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in July that governors couldn’t restore the voting rights of felons en masse, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vowed the 13,000 felons that registered through the executive order he issued would be able to cast their ballots come November.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/

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