#History.com - This Day in History - Lead Story

[reasoningdaily]

On Memorial Day 2022, we take a look at the African American origins of the federal holiday established to remember America’s fallen soldiers.

Although May 30, 1868 is cited as the first national commemoration of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, events lead by African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers occurred on May 1, 1865, less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered.

Reports of this early version of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as it was called, were rediscovered in the Harvard University archives in the late 1990s by historian David Blight, author of the 2018 biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

To quote from history.com:

When Charleston fell and Confederate troops evacuated the badly damaged city, those freed from enslavement remained. One of the first things those emancipated men and women did was to give the fallen Union prisoners a proper burial. They exhumed the mass grave and reinterred the bodies in a new cemetery with a tall, whitewashed fence inscribed with the words: “Martyrs of the Race Course.” And then on May 1, 1865, something even more extraordinary happened. According to two reports that Blight found in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier, a crowd of 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves with some white missionaries, staged a parade around the race track. Three thousand Black schoolchildren carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body.” Members of the famed 54th Massachusetts and other Black Union regiments were in attendance and performed double-time marches. Black ministers recited verses from the Bible. Despite the size of the gathering and newspaper coverage, the memory of this event was “suppressed by white Charlestonians in favor of their own version of the day,” Blight stated in the New York Times in 2011.

On May 31, 2010, near a reflecting pool at Hampton Park, the city of Charleston reclaimed this history by installing a plaque commemorating the site as the place where Blacks held the first Memorial Day on May 1, 1865.

During the dedication of the plaque, the city’s mayor at the time, Joe Riley, was present to celebrate the historic occasion which included a brass band and a reenactment of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.

In 2017, the City of Charleston erected yet another sign reclaiming the history and commemorating the event:

“On May 1, 1865 a parade to honor the Union war dead took place here. The event marked the earliest celebration of what became known as “Memorial Day.” The crowd numbered in the thousands, with African American school children from newly formed Freedmen’s Schools leading the parade. They were followed by church leaders, Freedpeople, Unionists, and members of the 54th Massachusetts 34th and 104th U.S. Colored Infantries. The dead were later reinterred in Beaufort.”

To learn more about African Americans’ role in the creation of Memorial Day, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston

https://www.lx.com/black-legacy/dont-overlook-memorial-days-black-southern-roots/53453/

https://www.live5news.com/2020/02/18/charleston-claims-first-memorial-day-celebration-with-african-americans-playing-significant-role/

https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/05/28/freed-slaves-started-first-memorial-day-in-the-us/

https://aaregistry.org/story/the-first-american-memorial-day-is-commemorated/

https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/memorial-day-african-americans-memorial-day-charleston-south-carolina-1865/

[powerenergysolution]

World Meteorological Day: An Interview with our Senior Meteorologist

Each year on March 23rd, World Meteorological Day takes place to commemorate the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organization, which happened in 1950. World Meteorological Day recognizes the contribution of meteorology and hydrology to the safety and development of society.   This year’s theme, The Future of Weather, Climate, and Water Across Generations, is a fitting topic as we sit down with our Lead Meteorologist, John. We discuss his story, the history of this relatively new science, and why weather matters for electrical grids.

Tell us about you and why you decided to become a meteorologist. 

My story is probably not too different from most meteorologists out there. I mean, we call ourselves energy nerds at Peak Power, and I’m pretty much a weather nerd. That stems from essentially a childhood wonder of the weather.   But in my case, it’s a little more specific. Throughout my childhood, I had a severe phobia of thunder and lightning.   At the age of about 11, there was a severe lightning storm happening at night, the typical time when my fear was at its height. At that moment, I decided to face my fear, so I opened a window to peek outside.  For the first few seconds, I was paralyzed by fear. But then something happened. That fear immediately transformed into pure awe. I stared directly into the storm to find purple lightning and saw the real beauty of the cloud formations.   All my senses lit up.   As you age, the rational part of your brain starts to activate; it goes from that innocent fear to questioning why you’re afraid of something. That’s precisely what happened to me, and I think any good scientist starts out with questioning. That began my experimentation, pouring myself into this realm and challenging myself to ask why I was scared.   Shortly after that, I dove into everything weather. I started looking at the National Weather Service forecast. I started making my own forecast for Rochester, which is the town where I grew up in upstate New York, an area that’s prone to all kinds of weather. As an example, I experienced the ice storm in 1991 – that was the most significant ice storm I’ve ever seen in my life. It was beautiful but destructive.   I even visited the local TV meteorologist after that, at about the age of 12. He introduced me to his forecasting process (and even made some suggestions for top-notch universities offering meteorology programs), which further galvanized my interest in making this a career.  

What do you see as the biggest contributions of meteorology to society? 

Like any good scientist, I’m looking at all sides, so I explored both the positive and negative contributions.  To start, forecasting is a very new science, whereas observations have been collected in North America and Britain since roughly the mid-to-late 19th century.  One of the most impactful weather forecasts was made in the days leading up to the Allied Forces’ storming of the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.   [Side note: The meteorological component of this historic day is a riveting story for any history buff. Read about it on History.com]  From there, the science of forecasting really blossomed. The emergence of what’s called numerical weather prediction, which is a fancy way of saying weather model data, is used as a way of trying to compute and calculate the future state of the atmosphere. And the atmosphere is a chaotic fluid. So, you’re basically trying to forecast chaos.   Numerical weather prediction originated in the 1950s and has since evolved to create more timely, accurate weather forecasts, including life-threatening phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes and severe thunderstorms. Prior to the 1990s, the lead time for the public to take shelter from tornadoes was usually less than 15 minutes. Now, I want to say it’s around 20 to 30 minutes. It may not sound like much, but that’s huge. That saves lives.   The weather models have improved tremendously, even in the last 15 years alone since I started my career. As a result of that, we are seeing more reliable forecasts that can save lives and property.   That’s why I decided to choose “operational” meteorology as a career as opposed to being purely a research meteorologist. One of my main jobs is to interpret weather model data and add value to the output, thus making a positive contribution to society.  The negative aspect goes somewhat hand in hand. We live in a time where information, not just weather information, is readily available at your fingertips, which is both good and bad. It’s good because it’s convenient for the general population. It’s bad because most consumer apps just ingest raw model data with little to no human intervention. And if it is only referencing one model, and that model happens to be poorly handling the near-term weather situation, it’s likely going to give you a poor forecast.  This is even more pronounced in complex weather situations like storms – for example if a warm front is being resolved incorrectly by one model, that could be the difference between 10 mm of freezing rain and 20 cm of snow.   A meteorologist takes an ensemble approach, looking at multiple weather models to produce the most accurate forecast. In meteorology, there’s no AI that can replace human ingenuity and interpretation.  

What’s an interesting fact about meteorology that readers might not know?  

You know that unique smell right after a lightning storm? What you’re actually smelling is ozone. And by that process, it is actually returning nitrogen to the soil.   The other thing that I would want readers to know is about something called positive flash lightning. It’s sometimes commonly referred to as a “bolt out of the blue.” Typically, it happens on the backside of the storm as the storm is departing you and originates in the anvil of a cloud.   On a side note, what happens with an anvil cloud is that there is a very clear demarcation of the top of the atmosphere before we reach the stratosphere. The stratosphere is extremely stable, so it prevents clouds from building upward.   That flash lightning originates all the way from the top of the anvil, which could be 40,000 to 50,000 feet. Whereas normal cloud-to-ground lightning originates from the mid-to-low levels of the cloud, maybe 5,000 to 15,000 feet – and those carry much less voltage. So because flash lightning originates from so high up, it encounters much more resistance and can carry up to a billion volts.   And those are the lightning strikes that can be very hazardous to people and property. Even if it is not a direct hit, it can still be fatal. So, I’d strongly advise waiting at least 30 minutes after a storm passes before venturing outdoors again. You want to make sure you can’t hear any thunder at all before resuming outdoor activities. 

What role do you think the broader meteorological community has to play in preserving our environment and fighting climate change? 

I will preface by saying I’m not a climatologist; I’m a meteorologist. There’s a difference which we will go into a bit later. But for me, the folks that are doing those rigorous studies of ice cores, global temperature increases, historical and forecasted trend need to responsibly communicate that data to the public and not tweaked to sensationalize – on either side – it dilutes the science.  The reality is that since the industrial revolution, we’ve done a tremendous amount of damage, and frankly, a lot of it may not be reversible. However, it doesn’t mean we should sit on our hands and do nothing. If we have enough awareness of that data at the public level, we can make decisions that can mitigate further damage.  

How does the theme The Future of Weather, Climate and Water across Generations resonate with you? 

I didn’t even realize there was such a thing as World Meteorological Day when I went to school for Meteorology. But it’s been around for like 50 years, so that was neat to learn, and it gives us a chance to talk about it.   To start, I would refer to myself as an operational meteorologist, which is about forecasting the weather and marrying it with how it impacts real life – in the case of Peak Power, how it impacts grid demand. That’s how it resonates with me; it demonstrates how interpreting weather model data is critical to our society in very real ways.  

Could you tell us a bit more about your work with Peak Power? What does weather have to do with energy?  

My core role is to forecast grid peaks and grid demand in select ISO regions. Ultimately, the electrical grid is largely driven by weather events. Weather influences human behaviours such as blasting the AC in a summer heat wave or cranking the heat in a winter cold snap. [See 2021 Texas Power Crisis]   However, I’m not just forecasting but researching how weather, load, and demand are interconnected and how they interact, sometimes, at a very localized level (for example, one region within a large ISO or a state).  Other aspects that impact grid demand are things like solar generation; it’s a big component. One of my jobs is to assess the data and cloud forecast for embedded solar plants and what we expect those generation trends to be.   There’s a term in meteorology that is a critical component in value addition to the models: Pattern Analog Recognition. This can be illustrated by an example. If you’re looking at cloudy weather over Eastern Ontario, where most of the solar plants are located, and sunny, oppressively hot weather over southern Ontario, including the GTA, that’s usually going to be a ripe setup for a significant grid peak. Such peaks are important to forecast accurately so that our customers can reduce their associated coincident peak charges, as well as avoid using dirty resources that come online to meet demand during those peaks.  

What is one aspirational statement or dose of good news you want to leave readers with? 

This may sound really corny, but this is something I think a lot of weather geeks do. I encourage you and others to do it.   And that’s to look toward the sky.  For me, it’s almost as second nature as breathing or having my espresso. Every time I’m outside, I always look up to the sky because you never know what you’re going to find. They always say each snowflake is unique, but every single cloud formation is also unique. Every single sunrise and sunset is unique. No two are exactly the same.   We’re always so buried in our phones and our technology that sometimes, we forget to take a moment to marvel at the grandeur of nature that surrounds us.

[oneguywithaniphone]

July 28, 1868: 14th Amendment adopted

Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868. The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.” The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges and rights of all citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”

In the decades after its adoption, the equal protection clause was cited by a number of African American activists who argued that racial segregation denied them the equal protection of law. However, in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that states could constitutionally provide segregated facilities for African Americans, so long as they were equal to those afforded white persons. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which announced federal toleration of the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine, was eventually used to justify segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. However, “colored” facilities were never equal to their white counterparts, and African Americans suffered through decades of debilitating discrimination in the South and elsewhere. In 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson was finally struck down by the Supreme Court in its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

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[nkuhistoryspot]

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

Today for Women’s History Month we are honoring activists Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson for their contributions to the rights and safety of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Rivera and Johnson both rose to prominence during the Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969. The Stonewall Inn was a bar in New York City that was popular among the city’s gay, lesbian, and transgender communities (1). On that June night in 1969 Rivera and Johnson became active in fighting back the police that raided the bar. In those days, raids such as those were common place -- every state except Illinois had Anti-Gay laws in place and police often profiled people of the community, leading to harassment, assault, and arrests (2).

That night, the police had chosen the Stonewall Inn to raid and the bar’s patrons grew furious. While Johnson is often credited as throwing the first brick at police that started the riots, she asserted that she arrived at the bar after the riot was underway (3). Rivera was also there that night and the nights after as the conflict continued, being credited as throwing the second, not the first, Molotov Cocktail at the police. Both women were key leaders in the multi-day riot, but despite this, a year later when the first pride parade was organized, the women were discouraged from participating due to their gender identity lying outside the typical gender binary. In fact, in the 1973 pride parade she was quoted as saying to the crowd, “If it wasn’t for the drag queen, there would be no gay liberation movement. We’re the front-liners.” (4)

The world at this time was not ready to accept transgender individuals or the community itself, so Rivera and Johnson took matters into their own hands. Together in 1970 Rivera and Johnson founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries or STAR and just after, STAR House, which proved food, shelter, clothes, and education for transgender youth in New York City. The women became like mothers to the trans youth of the area, taking them in and providing for them when no one else would. Rivera and Johnson paid for the house themselves, doing sex work at night to get the money needed (5). Until very recently the only real ways for transgender women to make money was as a performing drag queen or through sex work (6). STAR House was the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in the country and took care of many before unofficially dissolving in the mid-1970s (7).

Johnson and Rivera were instrumental in creating what we now know as the gay rights movement of today. They were there “on the front lines” fighting for LGBTQ+ recognition in the world and creating homes to support LGBTQ+ youth. This Women’s History Month, take a moment to remember their contributions and revel in the progress still being made today.

(3),  Brown, Dalvin. “Marsha P. Johnson: Transgender Hero of Stonewall Riots Finally Gets Her Due.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, June 28, 2019. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/27/black-history-marsha-johnson-and-stonewall-riots/2353538002/.

(2) Lopez, German. “Police Used to Raid Gay Bars. Now They March in Pride Parades.” Vox. Vox, June 14, 2017. https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/6/14/15768274/police-lgbtq-pride-stonewall.

Nguyen, Ashley, and Claire Breen. “Today, Learn the Name of at Least One Influential Woman You've Never Heard of. Here Are 31 Options.” https://www.thelily.com. The Lily, March 26, 2019. https://www.thelily.com/today-learn-the-name-of-at-least-one-influential-woman-youve-never-heard-of-here-are-31-options/.

(1) Pruitt, Sarah. “What Happened at the Stonewall Riots? A Timeline of the 1969 Uprising.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, June 13, 2019. https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline.

(4) Rothberg, Emma. “Sylvia Rivera.” National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2021. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sylvia-rivera.

(5), (7) “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries Found Star House.” Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries found STAR House | Global Network of Sex Work Projects. NSWP Global Network of Sex Work Projects. Accessed March 24, 2022. https://www.nswp.org/timeline/street-transvestite-action-revolutionaries-found-star-house.

(6) TikTok, 2022. https://www.tiktok.com/@bitterbettysux/video/7059876333572066607?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7078736015071905326.

[aion-rsa]

Resident Evil Village: Lady Dimitrescu and the Real Serial Killer Who Inspired Her

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Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s newest vision of horror, unleashed its villain, Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, onto the world in January, and the internet has hardly been the same since. Before we’d even seen anything substantial from the new game, the nine-foot “Tall Vampire Lady” was already the sequel’s most popular character, the subject of countless memes and even a few…salacious mods and videos.

With the release of the game this month, Dimitrescu’s star is shining even brighter. We just can’t stop talking about our Lady. And when you hear who the developers at Capcom turned to for inspiration when creating this character, you get the sense that she was always destined for infamy, designed specifically to go viral.

One major influence, according art director Tomonori Takano, was the Japanese internet urban legend Hasshaku-sama (or “hachishakusama”), an eight-foot-tall evil spirit in a wide-brimmed hat who lures her young male victims to her by imitating the voices of their loved ones. Impossibly tall, pale as a corpse, and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, the resemblance is uncanny.

But it’s Dimitrescu’s more gruesome, real-life inspiration that will likely keep you up at night. To create a bloodthirsty lady of a castle with a taste for torturing and mutilating her victims, Capcom needed only to look to Hungarian noblewoman and convicted serial killer Countess Elizabeth Bathory. One of the most wicked figures of 16th-century Europe, Bathory is said to have tortured and killed up to 650 girls and women between 1590 and 1610, although the final tally of victims is disputed to this day.

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Even centuries after her heinous crimes, there’s still much we don’t truly know for sure about Bathory and her long-rumored vampiric tendencies. It’s impossible at times to tell what is a true account and what is tall tale. The story we know today is likely a mix of both. Did she bathe in the blood of young virgin girls to retain her youth? Did her cruelty stem from the supposed Satanic rituals and witchcraft she witnessed from a young age in her family home in Transylvania? Was she really in the middle of torturing her latest victim, drenched in blood, when she was finally detained by the King of Hungary’s lead investigator, Gyorgy Thurzo?

By the time she was arrested and sentenced to life in house arrest inside Csejte Castle, her house of horrors in Upper Hungary (now modern Slovakia), Thurzo is said to have collected 300 statements from witnesses who attested to the brutal killings of young peasant girls abducted by the Countess, as well as confessions from servants (although they were being tortured by the authorities at the time). Few witnesses could actually give first-hand accounts of Bathory’s crimes, and many of the testimonies amounted to little more than hearsay, but Thurzo’s investigation and the eyewitness accounts of two court officials who claimed to have watched the Countess kill several girls were enough to lock her inside a room in her castle until her death in 1614.

The crimes recounted at the trial, in the history books, and in the folktales grow more and more gruesome the deeper you dig, like descending down to the darkest depths of Lady Dimitrescu’s castle.

“Bathory’s torture included jamming pins and needles under the fingernails of her servant girls, and tying them down, smearing them with honey, and leaving them to be attacked by bees and ants,” writes History.com. “She often bit chunks of flesh from her victims, and one unfortunate girl was even forced to cook and eat her own flesh.”

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While some historians and scholars claim that Bathory was actually the innocent victim of a conspiracy propagated by the Catholic Church and a rival family trying to rob her of her extensive wealth and land, the Countess’ dark legacy as an alleged bloodthirsty cannibal is what has solidified her place in history and turned her into an influential figure in horror fiction. In fact, debates have persisted over the years regarding whether the “Blood Countess” helped inspire Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Although fellow Transylvanian Vlad the Impaler is largely accepted as the foremost historical source for the seminal vampire novel, Bathory is sometimes referred to as “Countess Dracula.”

In 1971, Hammer Films loosely adapted Bathory’s story in Countess Dracula, which follows noblewoman Elisabeth Nádasdy who, yes, bathes in blood in order to retain her youth. The 2008 historial drama Bathory casts a more sympathetic eye, portraying the Countess as the victim of manipulation.

According to Takano, while Bathory provided the foundation for Lady Dimitrescu’s story, the character evolved from other ideas floating around Capcom.

“The concept started out as a castle with a hundred witches inside, but that was hard to implement into a video game format, which is why we ended up making it like this,” Takano told IGN. “But actually, when you play the game you might notice that the setting is still pretty close to that idea. All the enemy types inside the castle are female. With Lady Dimitrescu as the cult’s guru, we have created this hierarchy of women. Men have their blood drained by these women, so you could say it’s the opposite of Dracula.”

Indeed, Lady Dimitrescu isn’t a 1:1 recreation of Bathory, but the similarities are there in gruesome detail. Like the Countess, Dimitrescu is the matriarch of a castle, complete with a dungeon where she murders and bleeds her victims (it is said Bathory also had her husband build her a torture chamber as a gift before his death). Due to her unique mutation, Dimitrescu must drink the blood of her victims in order to retain her youth and her powers. She also has three “daughters” who help her hunt down her prey, not unlike the four servants (including a local witch) who were charged as Bathory’s accomplices and executed.

Much more will be said about Resident Evil‘s newest villain in the days to come. Does Lady Dimitrescu live up to the month’s of social media hype? That’s up to each player to decide. But when it comes to the woman who inspired her and what’s fact or fiction about her life, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.

The post Resident Evil Village: Lady Dimitrescu and the Real Serial Killer Who Inspired Her appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[alexriehman]

Trip to Bronzeville

Recently I was able to tour the historic neighborhood of Bronzeville, located in Chicago’s south side.  Stretching from 31st Street south to Pershing Road and elapsing laterally from the lakefront westward to the Dan Ryan expressway.  This neighborhood cements its storied past during the Great Migration, a period of time in the United States, in which seven million African Americans emigrated from southern rural states to the urban cities of the north (Grossman, 2005).  Due to social differences the growing African American population was mainly independent from the existing Chicago population.  Thus an African American enclave was born, and the community created independent economic, social, and political functions.  These functions would generate the success that eventually led to the ‘Black Metropolis.’ The metropolis constructed by these newly immigrated African Americans was considered a city within a city, offering services that were turned off to many African Americans. 

Map of Bronzeville

Prior to the turn millennium, in 1998 the city named nine historic landmarks as significant to the once thriving Black Metropolis.  The nine named include: Unity Hall, the Chicago Defender Building, Sunset Cafe, the Eighth Regiment Armory, the Supreme Life Building, Victory Monument, the Overton Hygienic Building, the Chicago Bee Building, and the Wabash Avenue YMCA (Faye, 2015).  Of the previously listed nine landmarks, I was able to visit four on my visit of Bronzeville, and a few other sites that find historical significance.

I began my journey to Bronzeville at the intersection of 35th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.  King Drive once entitled Grand Boulevard was originally engineered as part of the Chicago park and boulevard system.  The park and boulevard system was designed to provide bicycle riders an enhanced transit system for greater ease around the city.  The park system also solved an issue of escape for city dwellers.  Prior to the implementation of the park and bike system, so commonly vital to the city today, those living in the city would retreat to cemeteries for green spaces (WTTW, 2010).  The park system produced and protected needed green space to the urban environment.  Standing today at the crossroads of King Drive and 35th Street are many historical sightings for onlookers to appreciate.  I was able to visit three significant sites at this intersection of the neighborhood alone, two of which the city deems significant to the metropolis.

The most obvious of the three sites was the large monument standing in the middle of King Drive.  Victory Monument is the large structure that stands honoring the accomplishments of the neighborhood’s military regiment for their service in World War I.  The Eighth Regiment, an all African American unit, provided heroic services for the allied forces during the Great War (City of Chicago, 2020).  The unit has a special claim as the final regiment to evacuate German forces from the Aisne-Marne reign in Belleau, France, prior to the Armistice (National Park Service, 2020).  The monument was dedicated on Armistice Day of 1928, and the soldier seen on top was added later in 1936.

Victory Monument

In relation to Victory Monument is one significant site I have passed many times and have paid little attention too.  Just east of Victory Monument, now where stands the Chicago Military Academy of Bronzeville, a public college preparatory academy.  The building this academy claims rights to today was once built as an armory for the first African American military regiment in 1915 (National Park Service, 2020).  The armory established a home for the Eighth Regiment, also commonly referred to as the ‘Fighting Eighth.’  The same regiment honored by Victory Monument.  This branch was designed to act as an infantry division for the Illinois National Guard.  As touched on previously, this legendary African American regiment is one of the nine defining sites of the Black Metropolis.

Chicago Military Academy, or once Eighth Regiment Armory 

The next landmark I was able to observe is one in which a nonobservant eye may miss.  While approaching Victory Monument if you are to look down on the walkway leading to the monument; stars can be seen, each inscribed, remembering a noteworthy individual to the neighborhood.  This landmark is the Bronzeville Walk of Fame, highlighting the most notable African American residents of the neighborhood.  I was able to witness four plaques, the first honoring Colonel Franklin A. Denison, the commander of the historic Eighth Regiment and also the Assistant Attorney General of Illinois.  The second person memorialized is Lieutenant George R. Giles, who is remembered as a hero of the Great War.  The following name enlisted upon the walk relates to another landmark during this excursion, more specifically the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.  The two men remembered are Truman Gibson Sr. the founder of the historic African American financial business, and his son Truman Gibson Jr. an influential civilian aide to the Secretary of War during World War I.  The final impactful person on the Walk of Fame is Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr. the first African American astronaut.  Although the five men previously listed all accomplished great accomplishments that the neighborhood holds intimately, the Walk of Fame includes many other important figures to Bronzeville.  The Black Metropolis was an economic and cultural haven for African American immigrating to the north, seducing the interest of many other famous professionals including Louis Armstrong, Ida B. Wells, and Bessie Coleman, just to list a few.  

Bronzeville Walk of Fame, Colonel Franklin A. Denison

As touched on previously Truman Gibson Sr. was the founder of the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.  Although Gibson Sr. has passed on the building in which his business inhabited still stands today.  Identified as one of nine landmarks with historical significance to the neighborhood, I was able to observe the building.  The extensive African American history found in Bronzeville can be witnessed through the Supreme Life Company, the insurance company was the first of its kind, being the first black owned and operated company in the north (City of Chicago, 2020).  It holds such significance in history because during a time of great racial tension, African Americans were turned away from common city lenders.  Because of this the Supreme Life Insurance Company was able to serve to a market that was untapped.  Once financing the expansion of the neighborhood, business and social functions boomed in Bronzeville, creating the isolated enclave renowned for its service to the African American community.  

Supreme Life Insurance Co. Building

Later in the day during my trip to Bronzeville, I walked east toward the lakefront, until I reached the Stephen A. Douglas Tomb.  Born in Vermont, and later journeying to Illinois to establish a practice of law.  Douglas would serve on the Illinois Supreme Court prior to his seat in the House of Representatives.  Although accomplished, Douglas may be most well known from his debates for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858 with at the time an unknown opponent, Abraham Lincoln (History.com Editors, 2018).  The two had a series of debates arguing the issues of the time, most importantly slavery and the potential practices of expansion for the trade.  Douglas would best Lincoln, and continue a third term as senator.  Bronzeville and Douglas find relation with one another as the land the neighborhood claims was once owned by Douglas.  In 1852, the senator bought seventy acres in Chicago, establishing an early University of Chicago, and even using part of the land as a Civil War camp that once housed Confederate prisoners of war (WTTW, 2010).  The tomb erected for Douglas is quite simple, with a singular slim tower, being surrounded by four pillars, each presenting a different word.  The four pillars list the words: eloquence, justice, history, and Illinois.  Transitioning to modern social issues, some members of the neighborhood view the tomb for Douglas as disrespectful to the African American community.  Because of his views on slavery, many believe the memorial symbolizes a man who did not envision equality for all.  Political issues aside, the tomb was fascinating to witness in person, and the ornate detail that can be appreciated only added to the experience.  

Tomb of Stephen A. Douglas

As the end of my trip approached I was encouraged to visit a landmark not far from the very university I attend.  The Overton Hygienic Building is well known from its pioneering owner Anthony Overton.  Anthony Overton was the founder of numerous business ventures, including Overton Hygienic, Douglas National Bank, Victory Life Insurance Company, Great Northern Realty Company, and a famous African American newspaper, The Chicago Bee (African American Registry, 2020).  Most significant to Overton as a businessman, is he was the first African American to establish a major conglomerate.  Overton built his fortune through cosmetics, specifically targeting the needs and complexions of the African American women.  The Overton business empire was incredibly salient to the growth of the neighborhood, and without Anthony Overton’s investment in Bronzeville the landscape may look vastly different than what stands today. 

Overton Hygienic Building

I would amalgamate all my experiences throughout my trip to Bronzeville as extremely mind opening.  During my trip I would find myself repeatedly caught off-guard by buildings that were deemed as historical landmarks, but structures I have glazed over without appreciation.  Being in my third year at the Illinois Institute of Technology, it somewhat pains me to learn so late of all the history the neighborhood has to present.  Incredible and something I found unique to the neighborhood were the numerous murals, artwork, and pictures scattered throughout, even the local Mariano’s displays photos along its windows of an early Black Metropolis.  Each of these artistic expressions displayed Bronzeville's historic past, honoring the African American community that built the neighborhood that survives today.  These expressions most importantly value and continue the African American culture that Bronzeville holds so dear to itself.  I would recommend anyone unfamiliar with the history of the neighborhood to explore how Bronzeville grew to the ‘Metropolis’ it once was; booming with African American focused economic, social, and political development.

Sources

African American Registry. (2020, January 01). Anthony Overton, Business Pioneer. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://aaregistry.org/story/anthony-overton-business-pioneer/

City of Chicago. (2020). Supreme Life Building. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1431

City of Chicago. (2020). Victory Monument. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1444

Faye, M., & Pugh, R. (2015, July 01). Chicago Landmarks. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://magazine.iit.edu/summer-2015/chicago-landmarks

Grossman, J. (2005). Great Migration. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/545.html

History.com Editors. (2018, August 21). Stephen A. Douglas. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/us-politics/stephen-a-douglas

National Park Service. (2020). Eighth Regiment Armory. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/chicago/c18.htm 

WTTW (Director). (2010, November 29). Biking the Boulevards with Geoffrey Baer [Video file]. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://video.wttw.com/video/geoffrey-baer-tours-biking-the-boulevards-with-geoffrey-baer/ 

Photos

All of the photos illustrated throughout the blog were taken by me except for the following images: 

Map of Bronzeville: 

https://oluduro.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/map.jpg 

Park and Boulevard Map : 

https://www.lakeviewhistoricalchronicles.org/2014/11/the-missing-link- diversey.html?m=1

Stephen A. Douglas  Tomb:

https://live.staticflickr.com/8597/15318378834_239bb14d4c_b.jpg

[curiositydotcom]

Learn about what it would be like to travel through a wormhole, how the pumpkin became North America’s Halloween mascot, and how social isolation can fuel conspiracy theories. 

What Would It Be Like to Ride Through a Wormhole? By Ashley Hamer

Lindley, D. (2005). The Birth of Wormholes. Physics, 15. https://physics.aps.org/story/v15/st11 

‌Nola Taylor Redd. (2017, October 21). What Is Wormhole Theory? Space.Com. https://www.space.com/20881-wormholes.html 

‌Ceurstemont, S. (2012, March 13). What a trip through a wormhole would look like. New Scientist TV. https://web.archive.org/web/20120415112903/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/03/what-a-trip-through-a-wormhole-would-look-like.html

What does a journey through a wormhole actually look like? (2014, November 13). Physicscentral.Com. http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2014/11/what-does-journey-through-wormhole.html 

How Did Pumpkins Become Halloween’s Go-to Decoration? By Kelsey Donk 

History.com Editors. (2019, October 25). How Jack O’Lanterns Originated in Irish Myth. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins 

Butler, S. (2013, October 25). The Halloween Pumpkin: An American History. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/the-halloween-pumpkin-an-american-history 

Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween? | Britannica. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-carve-pumpkins-at-halloween 

Social Isolation Could Breed Conspiracy Theorists by Anna Todd

Graeupner, D., & Coman, A. (2017). The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 218–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.10.003 

‌Hutson, M. (2017). A Conspiracy of Loneliness. Scientific American Mind, 28(3), 15–15. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0517-15b 

Social Exclusion Leads to Conspiratorial Thinking, Study Finds | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. (2017). Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. https://spia.princeton.edu/news/social-exclusion-leads-conspiratorial-thinking-study-finds 

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[missysmadhouse]

Full Moon Rising: Beware of the Big Bad Werewolf

Source: BBC News

Alongside vampires and zombies, werewolves have long been a part of everyone's favorite "things that go bump in the night." Werewolves have been stalking us in our nightmares (or dreams - however you like it) from the 1941 film "The Wolf Man" to 80's classics "The Howling" and "American Werewolf in London" to the Underworld series of the 2000's and beyond. Werewolf stories have evolved over the years from 1941's tortured Lawrence Talbot to rebellious, proud lycan Lucien in the Underworld series. Werewolves have carved their own niche in fiction, film and TV. What inspired tales of humans who morph into animals by the light of the full moon?

The first image of a human becoming a wolf is in the oldest known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 1800 B.C.E. in ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh rejects a woman after finding out that she turned her former lover into a wolf. An ancient Greek myth, The Legend of Lycaon, tells the story of how Zeus turns Lycaon into a wolf after Lycaon serves him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. The Saga of Volsungs is a Nordic folktale about magical wolf pelts that can turn anyone wearing them into a wolf for 10 days. In the story, a father and son find the pelts and go on a woodland killing spree, which ends with a brutal fight between the two. The father dies and leaves behind a leaf with healing properties which the son uses to recover from his injuries.

Traditional folklore dictates that a human becomes a werewolf by being bitten by a werewolf, can only change during the full moon and can only be killed by a silver bullet. Over the centuries, folklore has provided many other ways a person could become a werewolf: sleeping outside during a full moon on a Friday, eating a combination of wolf and human meat, a witch's curse, being conceived during a new moon, drinking water touched by a wolf and eating certain herbs.

Many people associate the moon with werewolves. The origin of the belief that the full moon can cause all sorts of chaos is unknown. After being reinforced over the years, this belief has created an expectation of nothing but trouble during a full moon.

Source: Wikipedia; Illustration by J.W. Smith

There were, however, several cures for werewolves to rid themselves of their affliction. Some cures recommended by medieval medical practitioners included surgery, vomiting, drinking vinegar and bloodletting. Sometimes, these cures were the exact opposite, leading to the death of a patient. The alternatives to medicinal cures were an exorcism or a silver bullet.

Any being that's part of folklore has had gained fame or notoriety with a real person or event. Sightings and encounters with all sorts of beings have been reported throughout the ages such as vampires, sasquatch, fairies and lake monsters. The history of werewolves includes many cases of people who claimed to be werewolves.

In 14th century Germany, Peter Stubbe, a wealthy farmer, claimed that he owned a magical belt that turned him into a wolf and that, in wolf form, he had killed several people. There was a group of hunters who claimed that they saw him change from wolf to human. Stubbe confessed to 12 murders that were allegedly committed over a period of 25 years. Stubbe made his confession after being subjected to brutal torture. There was no evidence of any murders having committed by Stubbe.

In an odd little twist, Stubbe was executed on Halloween in 1589. He was beheaded, then burned at the stake. Belief in werewolves was common during the middle ages. The consensus was that werewolves were created by a witch's curse.

Three other confessed werewolves would meet the same fate. During the same time period in France, Giles Garnier, Michel Verdun and Pierre Burgot, in three separate cases, all claimed that they had an ointment that turned them into wolves, causing them to kill and devour children. They were all burned at the stake.

Let's return to Germany, home of the infamous Peter Stubbe. During the 18th century, a young boy was found in the woods exhibiting animalistic behavior. Dubbed "Peter the Wild Boy," he was unable to speak, walked on all fours and ate with his hands. The general consensus was that he was either a werewolf or raised by wolves.

"Peter" was eventually adopted as a "pet" by the courts of King George I and King George II. Current medical knowledge has been applied to Peter's case. Most likely, he suffered from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, which was discovered in 1978. Pitt-Hopkins syndrome impairs speech, intellect, the respiratory system and can cause seizures and also affect facial features.

Two people who were born with hypertrichosis. Top photo: Barbara Vanbeck; Source: Medical News Today (Image Credit: Wellcome Images, 2014); Portrait by R. Gaywood, 1656. Bottom: Petrus Gonzales, the Wolf Boy of the Canary Islands; Source: Ashland Science

Many other conditions both physiological and psychological have contributed to the werewolf myth. Hypertrichosis is a rare genetic disorder that causes hair growth to the extent of giving a human being a wolf-like appearance. Lycanthropy is a rare psychological disorder which causes a person to have delusions of changing into an animal. Rabies has also been mentioned as a possible culprit contributing to werewolf folklore as well as food poisoning and hallucinogenic herbs (perhaps ingredients in a "werewolf" ointment).

The mention of food poisoning and hallucinogens makes me think of the theory that ergot poisoning led to the infamous 18th century witch hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, which led to the execution of several alleged "witches." Ergot poisoning is caused by fungus that grows on rye as well as other types of cereals. In 1976, Linnda Caporael presented the argument that many of the characteristics exhibited by those who were described as "bewitched" in records of the trials, matched the symptoms of ergot poisoning (hallucinations, muscle contractions, psychosis, etc.). Besides an abundance of rye in the area, the climate would've caused conditions that could've produced the fungus.

Eating bread produced by tainted wheat may have caused mass witch hysteria in Salem. Food poisoning could have also created werewolves.

From the myths of ancient civilizations to contemporary pop culture, werewolves have captured our imaginations in many ways. Whether we love to hate them, hate to love them or long to embrace them, werewolves and other shape-shifters will continue to fascinate the dark side of the human imagination for many years to come.

- Missy Dawn

Sources:

"Werewolf Legends," August 21, 2018, History.com, by History.com editors

"Werewolves: Lore, Legend & Lycanthropy," by Benjamin Radford, LiveScience

[girlsofbnhazine]

- ADA LOVELACE -

When deciding on the names of the bundles, we wanted to pick women who made an impact on history and tell their story in a few small articles. The first woman we want to celebrate is Ada Lovelace, who we named the PDF only Bundle after!

Born on December 10th, 1815, Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first computer programmer despite the technology existing yet. Although she was the daughter of famed poet Lord Byron, she showed an early aptitude for mathematics and later on introduced many computer concepts that we use in our days. Her mother believed in the importance of education, hiring private tutors to teach her studies such as mathematics and science, two challenging subjects that were often not taught to women. This belief gave Lovelace the means to conceptualize inventive ideas that would not come to fruition until years later (Biography.com Editors).

When Lovelace was 17, she met Charles Babbage, an inventor and mathematician who would later be known as the “father of the computer”. She was able to see the unfinished version of the difference engine, which could perform mathematical calculations. Her interest captured, she became his protege (Biography.com Editors). With a skill in languages as well, she translated an article about Babbage’s theoretical analytical engine written by Italian military engineer Luigi Menbrea (Klein).

However, Lovelace was not settled with simply translating the article. Instead, she added her own notes on the subject, which ended being three times longer than the original paper. Published in an English journal in 1843 under the initials “A.A.L.”, she wrote that the proposed analytical engine could be programmed to calculate Bournelli numbers, which many consider the first algorithm carried out by a machine (Klein). She believed the machine could be coded to handle letters and symbols as well as numbers and theorized the concept of looping, which we use in computers to this day (Biography.com Editors).

A visionary, Lovelace’s ideas were not confined to math. While Babbage believed his inventions were confined to numbers, she imagined a world in which all content (music, text, sounds, and pictures) could be digitally transformed and manipulated by machines (Klein). When she was only twelve, she dreamed of conquering the sky and flying. Starting in 1828, Lovelace wrote and illustrated a guide she titled “Flyology,” in which she recorded her meticulous studies of birds and materials that could be used to create a flying machine. She worked endlessly on the project until her mother reprimanded her, fearing that such fanciful ideas would lead her to behave like her father (Morais).

Lovelace was truly a pioneer in her field. In a time when such education was not considered for women, she pushed through and imagined more. She was plagued by gambling debt and was recognized very little for her ideas during her life (Biography.com Editors), but we would not be where we are today without her ideas. Even something as simple as a “zine” can be traced back to Lovelace’s concepts and ideas with the technology we use to create them. Computers are a part of everyday life for many people, and we can look back to the woman who was not afraid to dream bigger and shoot for the sky.

Biography.com Editors. “Ada Lovelace Biography.” The Biography.com Website, A&E Television Networks, 2 Apr. 2014, www.biography.com/scholar/ada-lovelace

Klein, Christopher. “10 Things You May Not Know About Ada Lovelace.” History.com Website, History Channel, 10 Dec. 2015, www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-ada-lovelace.

Morais, Betsy. Ada Lovelace, The First Tech Visionary. The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2013, www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/ada-lovelace-the-first-tech-visionary. 

[royalpain16]

The Horrible History of Thanksgiving

Before you fill your plate, please remember why we mark this day.

By Charles M. Blow

Opinion Columnist, Nov. 27, 2019

When I was a child, Thanksgiving was simple. It was about turkey and dressing, love and laughter, a time for the family to gather around a feast and be thankful for the year that had passed and be hopeful for the year to come.

In school, the story we learned was simple, too: Pilgrims and Native Americans came together to give thanks.

We made pictures of the gathering, everyone smiling. We colored turkeys or made them out of construction paper. We sometimes had a mini-feast in class.

I thought it was such a beautiful story: People reaching across race and culture to share with one another, to commune with one another. But that is not the full story of Thanksgiving. Like so much of American history, the story has had its least attractive features winnow away — white people have been centered in the narrative and all atrocity has been politely papered over.

So, let us correct that.

What is widely viewed as the first Thanksgiving was a three-day feast to which the Pilgrims had invited the local Wampanoag people as a celebration of the harvest.

About 90 came, almost twice the number of Pilgrims. This is the first myth: that the first Thanksgiving was dominated by the Pilgrim and not the Native American. The Native Americans even provided the bulk of the food, according to the Manataka American Indian Council.

This is counter to the Pilgrim-centric view so often presented. Indeed, two of the most famous paintings depicting the first Thanksgiving — one by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe and the other by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris — feature the natives in a subservient position, outnumbered and crouching on the ground on the edge of the frame.

The Pilgrims had been desperate and sick and dying but had finally had some luck with crops.

The second myth is that the Wampanoag were feasting with friends. That does not appear to be true.

As Peter C. Mancall, a professor at the University of Southern California, wrote for CNN on Wednesday, Gov. William Bradford would say in his book “Of Plymouth Plantation,” which he began to write in 1630, that the Puritans had arrived in “a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.”

Mancall further explained that after the visits to the New World by Samuel de Champlain and Capt. John Smith in the early 1600s, “a terrible illness spread through the region” among the Native Americans. He continued: “Modern scholars have argued that indigenous communities were devastated by leptospirosis, a disease caused by Old World bacteria that had likely reached New England through the feces of rats that arrived on European ships.”

This weakening of the native population by disease from the new arrivals’ ships created an opening for the Pilgrims.

King James’s patent called this spread of disease “a wonderfull Plague” that might help to devastate and depopulate the region. Some friends.

But many of those native people not killed by disease would be killed by direct deed.

As Grace Donnelly wrote in a 2017 piece for Fortune:

The celebration in 1621 did not mark a friendly turning point and did not become an annual event. Relations between the Wampanoag and the settlers deteriorated, leading to the Pequot War. In 1637, in retaliation for the murder of a man the settlers believed the Wampanoags killed, they burned a nearby village, killing as many as 500 men, women, and children. Following the massacre, William Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth, wrote that for “the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.”

Just 16 years after the Wampanoag shared that meal, they were massacred.

This was just one of the earliest episodes in which settlers and colonists did something horrible to the natives. There would be other massacres and many wars.

According to History.com, “From the time Europeans arrived on American shores, the frontier — the edge territory between white man’s civilization and the untamed natural world — became a shared space of vast, clashing differences that led the U.S. government to authorize over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its indigenous people.”

And this says nothing of all the treaties brokered and then broken or all the grabbing of land removing populations, including the most famous removal of natives: the Trail of Tears. Beginning in 1831, tens of thousands of Native Americans were forced to relocate from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to lands west of the Mississippi River. Many died along the way.

I spent most of my life believing a gauzy, kindergarten version of Thanksgiving, thinking only of feasts and family, turkey and dressing.

I was blind, willfully ignorant, I suppose, to the bloodier side of the Thanksgiving story, to the more honest side of it.

But I’ve come to believe that is how America would have it if it had its druthers: We would be blissfully blind, living in a soft world bleached of hard truth. I can no longer abide that.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram.

Charles Blow joined The Times in 1994 and became an Opinion columnist in 2008. He is also a television commentator and writes often about politics, social justice and vulnerable communities.

[niall286]

Photojournalism Can Affect the Outcome of Wars for Better

by Niall Johnson

Humankind has become accustomed to the use of photography since its invention in the 19th century. In some ways we have become over-reliant on the use of photography as a means to describe reality. We are in a day and age where anyone and everyone can be a photographer with handy mini cameras installed in our mobile phones, which obviously comes with its pros and cons.  Nonetheless, I believe that photojournalism has had a key role in allowing nations to witness, people, places and events that are far from home. In terms of major global events such as war, reporting has come a very long way as time and technology have progressed. In this essay I aim to show how photography’s positive impacts on the outcomes of war outweigh the negative, and how it has shifted the way in which we think about it. I analyse iconic photos that are responsible for; changes in military operations, sparking movements and newsrooms overriding their policies. I also talk about the issues surrounding technology and mainstream media that can damagingly effect war.

Viewers can understand the tragedy of conflict from a photograph faster and easier than reading an article on the same subject. I’ve seen writing on topics that I’d prefer not to read and it’s easy for me to skip past it, but with photos you can’t do that, they can pop out of the blue and catch you off guard. This is a good thing in the case of war journalism because people choose to avoid issues that don’t directly affect them. (Thwaites, 2019)explains that, “Refugee sympathisers today are, in part, people who have been moved by images of hundreds of lifejackets abandoned or dinghies filled to the brim with children, leaving behind everything they know in the hope of a better life. Images have a way of capturing the emotion of a situation unknown to us, making them more tangible and feel closer to home.” This is significant because when something becomes more tangible its more likely to spark a reaction of some kind; it also goes to show how the power of imagery can trigger emotions on things we haven’t directly experienced.

Exposing the injustices of war has been done successfully with the use of images. Innocent lives have been ruined by war and it’s important to document these events to reduce ignorance. The unknown horrors of war could lead to positive misconceptions when in reality wars produce death. This is where the issue of censorship can raise concerns as it can easily tarnish the true picture. The press shouldn’t be cheerleading for the home nation but providing honest information. “journalists serve their audience by being appropriately sceptical. If viewers are after cheerleading, they’re looking in the wrong place. It doesn’t mean we’re not patriotic” (Stuart Allen, 2004). This rings true when analysing Chris Hondros’ photo of 5-year-old Samar Hassan after her parents were accidently killed by US troops at a checkpoint in Iraq. “The photo ran in newspapers and media outlets around the world for days, forcing the US military to change how it operated checkpoints and further questioned the role of the US in Iraq” (Martin, 2018). The harsh lighting in this photo matches the harsh consequence that an innocent child must bear for living in a warzone. Comparing historical reportage of war to more present reportage, we find that censorship and propaganda are far less biased nowadays and we see the realities of war more frequently.  

The perceptions of war have changed since the invention of photography. The first photographic coverage of conflict was the Crimean War. This war was photographed by a few different photographers but Roger Fenton was the frontrunner. Due to the war being “extremely unpopular with the British public and press” positive photos were sought to counteract the negativity (Harding, 2012). This meant the horrors and realities of the war were sanitised and censored from the public at home. This wasn’t the case for the Vietnam War where people were exposed to the un-censored horrors of war, resulting in protests and widespread disapproval about the war effort. Nick Ut’s influential image ‘Napalm Girl’ highlighted that the war was doing more harm than good. Newsroom debates rose about running a photo with nudity, causing different publications, including the New York Times, to override their policies (Time, n.d.).  An article by (History.com Editors, 2009) says: “Bombarded by horrific images of the war on their televisions, Americans on the home front turned against the war as well: In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a massive Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon.” American People’s attitudes towards the conflict had been shifted since media outlets started to release more truthful, transparent images on the fight happening overseas.

                                                                                                                                                                     The use of photojournalism allows all voices to be heard, and the iconic images above symbolise the efforts of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. The visual juxtaposition of a carnation being placed into a m16 rifle was powerful enough to ignite the ‘flower power’ movement, that embraced peace and free spirituality. The movements effect on the anti-war movement of the sixties, and as a visual depiction of how photography can help with a movement was highly influential. This backs up my earlier point on how imagery holds immense power in captivating audiences, but can also be used effectively to share different types of opinions and outlooks.

War is a significant event and it’s important that the public know what’s happening especially if their nation is involved. With the advances in technology we can now see what’s happening in real-time and it offers a “more intimate and multi-faceted view of the war than . . . possible ever before”. This is great, however, rolling news’s non-stop ambition to be the first to break the story results in precision and due care being sacrificed (Stuart Allen, 2004). The ambition to put out news fast has occasionally led to false information being told but still, I believe it’s better if the public have a rough understanding of what’s going on rather than nothing at all. New technology also means that correspondents can travel with lighter camera equipment, allowing them to get up close and personal capturing the war from the perspective of a soldier.

Media outlets regulate what is and isn’t shown on a national/global scale, this can be problematic if mainstream news providers compete for viewers, and present the public with what they want to see instead of what they need to see. Fox news overtook CNN in top-ratings with its one-sided patriotic journalism, casting aside notions of objectivity (Stuart Allen, 2004). It’s obvious that biased news comes with problems however complications with ‘middle road’ news can often go overlooked. Issues with photographic journalism on war can also rise when neutral stances are employed, because neutrality isn’t always fair. Former BBC correspondent (Bell, 2018) said, ‘I was not willing to be neutral between the armed and the unarmed, between the aggressor and the victim, so I devised what I call the “journalism of attachment”, which is not a partisan journalism’. This demonstrates that media outlets need to take the right approach when distributing news and it takes time to facts check. But often the desire to ‘get it fast’ dominates the desire to ‘get it right’. Additionally, oversaturation of images on war has led to desensitisation. With all the new technology and 24-hour news we have been overwhelmed by constant images of death, shifting our psyche to become numb to demise. This consequently strips war and battle of its humanity.  

To conclude, the arrival of photojournalism has shown to be extremely valuable in a number of ways. War photographers have been able to capture victories, loses, deaths and injustices. They’ve been able to give people at home the closest thing to understanding battle. Whilst gathering research for this essay, I have come to realise that all the photos I’ve seen on war have been statements against the act of conflict. James Nachtway says of his decision to become a war photographer, “I was driven by an inherent sense that a picture that revealed the true face of war would almost by definition be an anti-war photograph” (Bogre, 2012). When correspondents of war get it right and fully immerse themselves into the situation at hand, it’s impossible to deny the good that comes from war photography. Real war journalism has altered how we approach warfare, its forced changes in policies and military operations, its forced governments to act and intervene for the sake of humanity. We need to realise that war correspondents put their lives on the line to show the unseen truth of war and we should use these their iconic images as tools to reflect.

Bibliography

Bell, M., 2018. A former BBC war correspondent explains what news organisations get wrong about reporting conflicts [Interview] (16 Feb 2018).

Bogre, M., 2012. Photography As Activism. Burlington: Focal Press.

Harding, C., 2012. PHOTOGRAPHING CONFLICT: ROGER FENTON AND THE CRIMEAN WAR. [Online] Available at: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/remembrance-day-part-1-photographing-war-fenton-crimean/ [Accessed 10 April 2021].

Harding, C., 2012. PHOTOGRAPHING CONFLICT: ROGER FENTON AND THE CRIMEAN WAR. [Online] Available at: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/remembrance-day-part-1-photographing-war-fenton-crimean/

History.com Editors, 2009. Vietnam War. [Online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history [Accessed 10 April 2021].

History.com Editors, 2009. Vietnam War. [Online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history

KLIEVER, J., n.d. HOW PHOTOGRAPHY SHAPES OUR VIEWS OF WAR. [Online] Available at: https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-photography-shapes-our-views-of-war/ [Accessed 10 April 2021].

KLIEVER, J., n.d. HOW PHOTOGRAPHY SHAPES OUR VIEWS OF WAR. [Online] Available at: https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-photography-shapes-our-views-of-war/

Martin, D., 2018. The remarkable stories behind 8 of the most iconic war photos ever taken. [Online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/8-of-the-most-iconic-war-photographs-of-all-time?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 22 April 2021].

Stuart Allen, B. Z. F. G., 2004. Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime. Oxford: Routledge.

Thwaites, L., 2019. The morality of war photography. [Online] Available at: https://theboar.org/2019/11/war-photography/ [Accessed 12 April 2021].

Thwaites, L., 2019. The morality of war photography. [Online] Available at: https://theboar.org/2019/11/war-photography/

Time, n.d. The Most Influential Images of All Time. [Online] Available at: http://100photos.time.com/about [Accessed 22 April 2021].

Wanke, M., n.d. Photojournalism Effect on Outcome of War. [Online] Available at: https://photography.lovetoknow.com/Photojournalism_Effect_on_Outcome_of_War [Accessed 10 April 2021].

Wanke, M., n.d. Photojournalism Effect on Outcome of War. [Online] Available at: https://photography.lovetoknow.com/Photojournalism_Effect_on_Outcome_of_War

[oneguywithaniphone]

July 07, 1930: Building of Hoover Dam begins

On this day in 1930, construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.

Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.

Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis’ vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.

Even with Hoover’s exuberant backing and a regional consensus around the need to build the dam, Congressional approval and individual state cooperation were slow in coming. For many years, water rights had been a source of contention among the western states that had claims on the Colorado River. To address this issue, Hoover negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which broke the river basin into two regions with the water divided between them. Hoover then had to introduce and re-introduce the bill to build the dam several times over the next few years before the House and Senate finally approved the bill in 1928.

In 1929, Hoover, now president, signed the Colorado River Compact into law, claiming it was “the most extensive action ever taken by a group of states under the provisions of the Constitution permitting compacts between states.”

Once preparations were made, the Hoover Dam’s construction sprinted forward: The contractors finished their work two years ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget. Today, the Hoover Dam is the second highest dam in the country and the 18th highest in the world. It generates enough energy each year to serve over a million people, and stands, in Hoover Dam artist Oskar Hansen’s words, as “a monument to collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal.”

from History.com - This Day in History - Lead Story https://ift.tt/12uS0pj

[reporting-media-crystal]

Task 2: Plan and write a news report for chosen digital media

Sexual Assault and the Aftermath

By Crystal Atkin & Nicole Cachia 20/04/2021

This digital news report will be discussing the impact of sexual assault on women. This will be an informational and educational interview, we will be interviewing former social worker, Hayley Vella.

Sexual Assault is an ongoing global issue. “…From the writings of ancient Greece to the Bible to the letters of early explorers, sexual violence has long been a brutal part of the human story.” (HISTORY.COM STAFF, 2018). The history of sexual assault was not only written, but documented with art.

The lack of sexual assault news reports in Malta shows us that sexual assault cases are being withheld from the public, leaving them unaware and uneducated. This issue disregards the victim’s feelings into place which leaves them without any closure.

The demographics of the assault rate in Malta shows us that from 2005 till 2015, there was a 108.75% change in increase of rape cases per 100,000 population.

CINNPUT:

Impact

o A victim of sexual assault can experience psychological, emotional and physical effects. These effects are not easy to deal with but can be handled with the right guidance and encouragement.

o Example of the effects; depression, flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder.

o This digital news report can impact the audience in various different ways (some may be victims; some may be not).

Timeliness

o Every day, there are multiple cases of sexual assault.

o Reference;

https://globalnews.ca/news/7773979/ottawa-teacher-sex-assault-young-students-police/ (13 hours ago)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-56815612 (20 hours ago)

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/man-54-appeals-severity-of-sentence-for-repeated-rape-of-daughter-1.4541319 (Monday, April 19, 2021)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/young-woman-18-raped-front-23945111

(Tuesday, April 20, 2021)

Proximity

o When we hear of sexual assault cases in Malta, for some it does hit close to home due to the fact that a lot of women are sexually assaulted (as well as men). However, in Malta there is a lack of information regarding these cases. There are various articles regarding sexual assault in Malta proving our statement.

o https://lovinmalta.com/longread/groped-drugged-and-grabbed-hundreds-say-theyve-been-sexually-assaulted-in-maltas-clubs/ (March 14, 2021)

o https://lovinmalta.com/longread/an-alarming-amount-of-sexual-assault-survivors-in-malta-say-it-began-as-minors/ (April 17, 2021)

New

o Everyday, new cases are reported worldwide leaving women feeling constantly unsafe. Sexual Assault cases can vary from minor cases like; being touched inappropriately without consent to forced penetration and physical assault that can lead to murder. (example; Sarah Everard)

o Sarah Everard was a 33-year-old woman, who was walking back home one night and disappeared. A few days later, her remains were found in a bag in a Woodland near Ashford (UK) on March 10th. She was identified via dental records.

How the interview will be presented:

o This topic will be presented as an online interview, along with an article which will be backed up by facts given from primary (social worker & survey) and secondary sources.

o Survey answers provided us with helpful information regarding the age of women’s first encounter with sexual assault, what is considered sexual assault and if they spoke up about their assault.

o The results;

o These results helped us pick a final topic and what will be discussed during the interview.

o During the remote interview, we will be discussing the most common age for when sexual assault has been encountered for the first time and how this affects the victims long term.

Platform

o To post our digital news report, the remote interview will be uploaded to YouTube and then will be posted on Facebook along with the article.

Questions

1. Have you ever worked on cases involving sexual assault on women?

2. Can you share with us some cases that you have worked on during your profession as a social worker?

3. How old were most of the victims when they first encountered sexual assault?

4. How did this affect the victims long-term?

5. Do you think that Malta should provide the public with more information regarding sexual assault cases?

[millennialbynature]

Is Rock Dead?

I don’t think there’s a single person who doesn’t love music. For me, music is an escape from reality where I can sit and listen to the rhythm of a song and really feel the composition, or connect personally with the lyrics, but it’s more than just “escaping.” Good musicians know how to bring a passion to their voice when singing, making you feel what they feel while they perform. This passion is what reels listeners in, becoming fans and branding themselves as such. Today, rock music is known for its angst lyrics and loud vocals, bringing an either dominating sound to the ears of fans, or showing their feelings to the world. Those feelings are about more personal demons the artists are dealing with and fans really connect with that, but lyrics used to be about social change and was the music behind movements. Now there doesn’t seem to be a focus on politics, so, in a traditional viewpoint, is rock dead?

Rock music was born in the fifties, borrowing from rhythm and blues, country, pop, jazz, and other forms to create this intrinsic powerful sound. It developed during the political period of desegregation and then gained more heat during the Cold War. In 1951, a disc jockey from Cleveland named Alan Freed, coined the term “rock n’ roll” making Cleveland the “birthplace of rock and roll” (Orman 3). As rock music started to get more popular, so did the controversy of it. In 1955, older people, even some political elites, started overreacting to rock music and often related juvenile delinquency to rock n’ roll. “Soviets viewed rock n’ roll as another example of western ‘decadence,’ but right-wing extremists in the United States viewed the same music as part of a Communist conspiracy to undermine our society” (Orman 4).  So, rock n’ roll almost always was associated with so-called political agendas and a resistance in the youth against higher up’s. In his article, Young writes that during this era, “everything was questioned – from race to gender, from war to the environment, from consumerism to middle-class values, indeed the way of American life itself” (Young 453). Young people were starting to question their way of life, creating this atmosphere of rebellion.

There were many prominent musicians adding to the discourse of protest music during the Vietnam war and civil rights movement era.  Bob Dylan, who was influenced by Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches, was the forefront of the early 1960’s movement because of his political protest songs. “When Bob Dylan burst on the folk scene, protest music really took off” (Young 462). Dylan wrote songs such as “Masters of War,” “The Times They Are a’Changin’, and “Blowin’ in the Wind” that really added fuel to the movement. The “British invasion” included, “the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, and numerous other British groups changed many things in America” (Orman 6). The Beatles in particular made rock n’ roll turn into a more dynamic term known as “rock.” British groups changed many things in America, and Americans started buying records and wanting to create their own garage bands.

“Three Days of Peace and Music” will forever be iconic throughout history. In 1969, Woodstock became the biggest attended festival yet in America with over half a million people in attendance. Fans, or otherwise known as hippies, crowded in the 600 acre field to hear musicians like Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Who. “The most memorable moment of the concert for many fans was the closing performance by Jimi Hendrix, who gave a rambling, rocking solo guitar performance of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’” (history.com). This festival was a movement in and of itself against the Vietnam war with most of the musicians performing songs showing their opposition to the war and with most of the fans sharing their views. The late 1960’s and early 70’s was the highlight of rock music because of the songs calling out societal flaws and music against the government. After this era, however, what happened to the political statements and movements rock music brought to their listeners?

In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, bands like Rage Against the Machine and Green Day wrote politically influenced songs. Rage Against the Machine’s song such as “Killing in the Name,” and “Bulls On Parade” speak against police brutality and governments war agendas. Green Day’s “American Idiot” talks about society mindlessly following media and the government. So, after bands like Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, and even U2 who is still currently making music, then what? Where has the politics and call for action within rock music gone? In an interview with Tom Morello done by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their “Louder than Words: Rock, Power, and Politics” exhibit at the museum in 2016, he says, “100 percent of music is political. Music either supports the status quo or challenges the status quo. So every artist is political” (Rolling Stone). He then goes on to explain what he means by saying, “Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez probably don’t identify as political artists, but their music-while often very entertaining and loved by their fan base- is the bread and circuses of our times… if you’re not questioning authority, you’re tacitly submitting to authority...what you say and what you do matters” (Rolling Stone). Can this be said for today's rock music as well?

It’s commonly known that most pop music today would fall under the category of “submitting to authority” like Morello mentions, but is this true for rock music today as well? When one thinks of rock music, the vision they get in their head is of a group of men wearing leather jackets with tattoos and smoking cigarettes. Why don’t they think of resistance and what the genre was created for? Could it be because the genre is changing? The most popular rock musicians today, according to Billboards charts on “Hot Rock Songs” currently are Imagine Dragons, Bad Wolves, Foster the People, Alice Merton, Panic! At The Disco, Thirty Seconds To Mars featuring Halsey, and Walk The Moon. Later on down the list, we see bands that one might typically associate with rock music more than the bands at the top of chart as I have just mentioned. Those bands include Godsmack, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin and Five Finger Death Punch. So why is it that the bands at the top of list could be somewhat controversial to people who identity as rock n’ roll listeners? Those bands are topping the charts of what Billboard considers “Hot Rock Songs” but are they actually rock?

Rock music started as a rebellion genre against the political machine and societal standards, so shouldn’t that be the standard used when determining if a song or artist today is classified as rock? In a Billboard article titled, “Is Rock Still Relevant In 2016?” the author, Carl Wilson, brings up a good point saying that, “consider how the new rock artists of comparable staying power or cultural significance have emerged since that decade’s [early 1990’s] alt-rock surge. Yes, there are well-regarded figures from the indie, emo and metal scenes, but few of them reach far beyond their niches-” (Wilson). In today’s world of music, what’s considered rock has drastically changed since the genre developed way back when. Wilson is suggesting that rock artist have to change their sound based on what’s popular with current society. For instance, Imagine Dragons has a more pop feel to their music. Before the death of Chester Bennington, Linkin Park’s new album had pop singers as featuring artists, but the most new sound of rock music is Twenty One Pilots. Twenty One Pilots bring a whole mixture of genres into one song and provides lyrics for their listeners to really think about. Wilson writes:

The one rock act that has crossed over in 2016: Twenty One Pilots, an electro-acoustic duo that owes as much to hip-hop and dance as to emo-rock forbears such as My Chemical Romance. Its sound is not amps in the garage but ProTools in the bedroom; its mood is sullen introspection rather than youth rebellion. “I care what you think,” goes part of the refrain from the hit “Stressed Out,” an inversion of Rage Against the Machine’s “F— you, I won’t do what you tell me.” Is this the face of new rock? Introspection rather than rebellion?

A few bands are bringing a “come back” for rock and metal music. The band Nothing More released their self titled album with their once drummer, now frontman, Jonny Hawkins singing thought provoking messages in their lyrics. In their song “This Is The Time” Jonny Hawkins powerful vocals calls to society to look closely how their leading their lives full of hate and trying to be better than next person. Also on the album, the songs Christ On Copyright and Mr. MTV call out politics and societal standards. Nothing More’s newest album “The Stories We Tell Ourselves” conveys the political and social agenda they started to tell in their album previously with songs such as “Do You Really Want It,” “Go To War,” and “Let ‘em Burn.”  So, is this the revival rock music needed? In an album review on “The Stories We Tell Ourselves,” Quentin Singer writes, “The band really wanted to make a point out of this song [“Let ‘em Burn”], by showcasing their thoughts on how political and social issues are filled with such tremendous dishonesty throughout today’s media” (Singer). Alongside Nothing More, Papa Roach recently came out with an album titled, “Crooked Teeth” with a few songs addressing politics today: “Born For Greatness” and “American Dreams.” Other bands who are bringing a “revival” to rock music would include Rise Against, Green Day, and what was originally Rage Against the Machine with lead singer Zak de la Rocha, but is now Prophets of Rage with a new lead man. So what does this mean? Why don’t more people know about these musicians?

Those who say “rock is dead” clearly don’t pay attention to new music and the messages the artists are trying to say. Do we need more rock artists adding to the rebellion against the political machine or do we need more people opening their ears and waking up from their coma induced state created by “feel good” music? Isn’t this the time to stand up against the political agenda and societal standards more than ever? We are grouped together by our generation, being called “those Millennials” with the roll of an eye just as the hippies were during the time of Woodstock. Should there be another Woodstock?

Is rock music dead? Definitely not. “A disobedient spirit is direly needed to balance out the economic pressures that push both music and media toward a narrow, survival-of-the-fittest emphasis on mega-pop” (Wilson). The “disobedient spirit” Wilson mentions is still alive through bands like Nothing More and Rise Against, but as well as current rap artists like Kendrick Lamar. Rock and metal music may someday not sound the same as it once did because of the ever changing culture and trends, but the “disobedient spirit” it created will always find its way into the lyrics of musicians regardless of genre.

Works Cited

Orman, John M. The Politics of Rock Music. Nelson-Hall, 1986.

Rolling Stone. “Tom Morello: 'All Music Is Political, Even Justin Bieber'.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2016, www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-all-music-is-political-even-justin-bieber-20160520.

Singer, Quentin. “Album Review: Nothing More's The Stories We Tell Ourselves.” The Berklee Groove, 17 Oct. 2017, www.berkleegroove.com/2017/10/10/nothing-more-album-review/.

Street, J. (2001). Rock, pop and politics. Firth S., Straw, W., Street, J. (ed.) The Cambridge

“Top Rock Songs Chart.” Billboard, www.billboard.com/charts/rock-songs.

Wilson, Carl. “Is Rock Still Relevant In 2016?” Billboard, www.billboard.com/articles/events/year-in-music-2016/7616418/rock-relevant-2016.

[rayosupplyco]

BLACK AMERICAN HISTORY: THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE, MAY 31-JUNE 1, 1921

I can admit that I had never heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre until people were getting upset about Trump holding his rally in Tulsa on the anniversary of the devastating event.  I don’t believe it was ever covered in my American History classes in both public and private schools.

If it was, it was glossed over very quickly, so quickly that the name didn’t even ring a bell.

In fact, in 2012 (91 years after the Massacre took place), a bill failed to pass the Oklahoma Senate that would have required that the Tulsa Race Massacre be taught in all Oklahoma high schools. The opposition claimed that their lack of support came from the fact that it had been included in curricula and history text books beginning in 2000. (insert head slap emoji here) The Tulsa Race Massacre: History leading up to the event

Well there was quite a bit going on that contributed to the 18 hours of racially-fueled destruction.

WWI - The Great War had just ended a mere 2.5 years prior in late 1918.  Still a very segregated military structure, Black Americans valiantly joined the ranks to serve their country as they had done for generations.

Overseas travel became more accessible and the middle-class Americans started visiting to the cities they had seen to during the war and the grave sites of loved ones, exposing themselves to new fashions, lifestyles and possibilities.

The expansion of American presence in Europe during WWI also lead to the US leading what we now know as a “World Economy” - the US led this front, becoming one of the top countries in industry, trade and economy. White women and African Americans were now filling jobs that previously had been reserved for white men as well.

African American Affluence

During WWI there began a huge influx of African Americans moving from the South to the North. Known as the “Great Migration” many African Americans began moving to work in factories that  needed workers due to the war.  Moving North meant less oppression and higher wages.  

The growing cultural and social “not a care in the world” that came with economic affluence and the desire by many Americans to put the horrors of the war behind them, led to the roaring 20s — and Black people were very much included in this.

Black Americans were finding spaces to create neighborhoods with successful business and cultural centers. One of the best known examples of this is the Harlem of the late 1910s and 1920s, a period in Harlem famously known as the Harlem Renaissance when Black intellectuals, professionals and artists flocked to the neighborhood and created some of the most influential American ideas of all time.  

Growing Racism This quote from Time Magazine says it all: “With the armistice, African Americans fully expected that their service and sacrifice would be recognized. They had labored and shed blood for democracy abroad and now expected full democracy at home.”

But what they received at home was an ever-growing racism. My guess is that is was largely fueled by the fact that African Americans were gaining a foothold in society on a cultural and economic level. By 1921, the Ku Klux Klan had been re-formed.

What Happened? - The facts:

The Tulsa Race Massacre was a horrendous series of events that spanned 18 hours, from May 31st to June 1st of 1921.

It seems it all started with a Karen - well she was the spark, as tensions had between the Black and White communities had been on the rise.

Tulsa, OK was home to 100,000 people at the time, 10% of whom were African American. Most of the Black residents lived in the segregated neighborhood of Greenwood, which at its center had a booming and bustling business district known as Black Wall Street.

On May 30th, 1921 a teenage boy named Dick Rowland walked into the Drexel Building on S. Main St in Tulsa.  He went into an elevator run by a young white woman named Sarah Page.  Sometime after he entered, Page sent out a scream that sent rumors flying around the white community almost immediately. Rowland fled the building and the police arrested him the next morning.

By that day, May 31st, newspapers in the white community had already published allegations that the Black teenager had sexually assaulted the young white woman. And that evening, sh*t started to get real.

A large group of white people decended on the court house, demanding that Rowland be released into their custody. Determined to keep the teenager safe, the Sheriff refused their request and sent his men to barricade the entire floor where Rowland was being housed.

Soon 25 armed Black men (many veterans of WWI) met them at the courthouse as well, offering to help protect the young man. They were also denied by the Sheriff.

Around 10pm, with rumors circulating in Greenwood about a possible lynching, 75 armed Black men arrived at the same courthouse. They found themselves outnumbered 20 to 1 —- 1,500 white men were waiting there as well. After some shots were exchanged at the courthouse, the group of Black protectors retreated to Greenwood, where all hell was about to break lose.

The white rioters focused their initial attentions on Black Wall Street.

Hysteria grew in the white community as false claims of a planned and grand-scale rebellion of Black Tulsans, that would include support from neighboring towns and communities. Some of the white rioters were even deputized and given weapons by the government.

35 city blocks were terrorized by thousands of white rioters who defended on the Greenwood district and committed violent acts on Black citizens and destroyed their property.

Officially, 36 people died (26 Black and 10 white) though the count is thought to actually be upwards of 300.

A later report by the Red Cross estimated that 1,256 houses were torched at that 215 were looted but remained un-burned.

So many Black-owned businesses were destroyed. According to history.com “Two newspapers, a school, a library, a hospital, churches, hotels, stores and many other Black-owned businesses were among the buildings destroyed or damaged by fire.”

Firemen who responded to fires were reported to have been forced to leave by white rioters.

Martial law was ordered by the governor later that morning and while the National Guardsmen helped put out the fires, they imprisoned Black Tulsans as well. There were 6,000 imprisoned at local fairgrounds by June 2nd - that was 60% of Tulsa’s African American population at the time.

Hours after the riots ended, the charges against Rowland were dropped. It was determined that he had most likely bumped into Page or stepped on her foot.  Literally. That happened. 8,000 people were left instantly homeless due to a racially driven assumption. And a Karen who clearly didn't correct them. Cover-Up

According to history.com, the Massacre was deliberately covered up for decades..

“The Tulsa Tribune removed the front-page story of May 31 that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and scholars later discovered that police and state militia archives about the riot were missing as well. As a result, until recently the Tulsa Race Massacre was rarely mentioned in history books, taught in schools or even talked about.

Scholars began to delve deeper into the story of the riot in the 1970s, after its 50th anniversary had passed. In 1996, on the riot’s 75th anniversary, a service was held at the Mount Zion Baptist Church, which rioters had burned to the ground, and a memorial was placed in front of Greenwood Cultural Center.”

With all of this denial, fueled i’m sure by immense shame and deep racism, it makes sense that in 2012 the OK State Senate wasn’t yet ready to make the Massacre a required topic of study in Oklahoma High Schools.

How devastating. How irresponsible. How heart-breaking.

Please share this essay with your friends and family, especially if you are white. It is the RESPONSIBILITY of white folks to educate other white folks.   STAY SAFE. STAY SANE. STAY ANTI-RACIST. BLACK LIVES MATTER. RESOURCES: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migrationhttps://www.farmersalmanac.com/10-ways-world-war-i-changed-america-22983https://time.com/5450336/african-american-veterans-wwi/

[multimediajournalassignment-blog]

Selma (2014)

Directed by: Ava DuVernay Written by: Paul Webb Production Companies: Pathe, Harpo Films, Plan B Entertainment, Cloud Eight Films, and Ingenious Media Distribution Company: Paramount Pictures (US) and Pathe (UK). Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Carmen Ejogo, and Common.   

Selma is a film about the civil rights movement in 1965 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march for equal voting rights for Black Americans in the United States of America. The 54-mile march was from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in reaction to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Selma is an emotional film that shows all emotions of the many fights for Black Americans (trailer:��https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a significant win for the civil rights movement and a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed literacy tests and increased the number of people registered. The film Selma relates to our course topics and readings on racial and ethnic identities in popular visual culture. The march for equal voting rights for Black Americans in 1965 indirectly relates to the Wounded Knee incident and how White Americans treat anyone non-white. The film Selma highlights the 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that ended in a bloody massacre of Black Americans peacefully protesting against White America's voting oppression. Selma relates to the battle between the United States military troops ad Sioux Native Americans at Wounded Knee in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, that resulted in 300 deaths of men, women, and children https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee. Both instances happened at the hands of European Americans refusing to understand and listen to the differences between cultures.

The film Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, portrayed Black liberation throughout the historical events of voting rights. There is significant power in the Black vote when against or for specific laws and legislations. We were all aligned and agreed on what we needed as a community and had great leadership. Though many know about the march, the film shows the audience the emotions of the people during that time. How they felt marching 54 miles to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge, being beaten down, and some murdered. Selma generates conversations regarding race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity because it is a film based on a true story of how hard non-white people must fight for equal rights and care. This film is also relevant today when discussing the Black Lives Matter organization and the marches for police brutality victims. This story and the fight of Black Americans to survive in America will always be relevant without significant government change. It is not only for laws and organizations to be put into place to better minority communities, but put minority people in positions of power. The lack of showing Black leadership outside of Martin Luther King Jr. is where the film Selma lacked the reality of intersectionality, women lead marches and women activism. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many other activists worked within government buildings and people of power during this time. Once Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for voting oppression to end was ignored, they decided to march to demand the people within positions of power to listen. Although Black people were not in positions of power then, and currently have low percentages to this day, we have power in our voices and refuse to be ignored. It is an unfortunate reality that we are still marching as our Great Grandparents did. However, fortunate enough, the new generation of Black people refuses to ignore the injustices built into America's foundation.  

Resources & Media:

IMDb. “Selma.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 9 Jan. 2015, www.imdb.com/title/tt1020072/.

“Wounded Knee.” Edited by History.com Editors, History.com, A&E Television Networks, 6 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee

Picture Credit:

“Selma (2014).” Edited by Rotten Tomatoes, Rotten Tomatoes, 2020, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/selma.