Today (May 9, 2013) is the 66th anniversary of the start of the first Freedom Ride.
It was called the Journey of Reconciliation, and white & black activists rode (otherwise) segregated buses through four southern states.
The interstate bus ride, lasted from April 9-23, and was designed to test the June 3, 1946 Supreme Court ruling that said Black passengers could not be forced to sit at the back of the bus. Bayard Rustin, a 101 Changemaker, participated in and helped to organize the ride. The riders were arrested several times.
micchiato
writ, shot, cropped, and chopped by Mike Byrd
Nashville, Tennessee
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2013-05-09
Source: thepeoplesrecord
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2013-05-06
NAACP, clergy, and activists step-up activity in North Carolina against racist, oppressive austerity regime
May 6, 2013Human-rights activists against the vision of oppression offered by North Carolina’s Republican leaders say they’re stepping up the nonviolent demonstrations until they are rightfully heard. The protesters are resisting the oppresive, backward, Republican-ledeffort to block Medicaid expansion, cut unemployment, cut tax credits for the working class and promote policies that defund education, among other grievances.
The NAACP and other activists say they’re ready to be arrested again Monday as they protest decisions of the General Assembly. A prayer demonstration against the harmful, destructive policies last Monday led to 17 arrests.
Rev. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, said the evening will begin with a news conference at Davie Street Presbyterian Church where protesters will introduce themselves and lay out their disagreement over GOP lawmakers’ plans for Medicaid, unemployment benefits, the earned income tax credit, voting rights, public education and the state’s pre-kindergarten education program. He expects the crowd to include Triangle-area college professors and clergy from Charlotte. Barber said those who were arrested last week will again try to get into the legislative building. He hopes lawyers for the NAACP and General Assembly Police can work out a plan ahead of time to keep the protest peaceful. Barber said last week that the NAACP is planning a tour of up to 20 counties that are home to lawmakers most associated with Republican policies.
Source
Photo source/Huff post article with context
Open letter from NAACP protestersSource: thepeoplesrecord
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2013-05-01
The only winners in the financial crisis that brought Detroit to the brink of state takeover are Wall Street bankers who reaped more than $474 million from a city too poor to keep street lights working.
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Happy May Day. A famous song written by a Harlan County, Kentucky woman, offered in honor of international workers who generate the wealth in this world.
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2013-04-22
God forbid a student or a family should decide not to take the test! In more than few school districts, children who have chosen to opt out have been have been browbeaten, insulted, threatened with loss of extracurricular activities and access to honors programs, told they will never get into college, told they are jeopardizing their teachers jobs, told they will be responsible for lowering real estate values in their neighborhood, even in a few instances, told they are unpatriotic and giving aid and comfort to terrorists!
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2013-04-09
If you were foreclosed on because of “dual-tracking,” where one part of the bank approved your loan mod, but the foreclosure department, uh, didn’t talk to them, the @USOCC is really sorry!
They’re going to make the banks pay you $300!
You can buy 300 boxes of Kleenex with that, to help dry all your tears! YOU’RE WELCOME!
Source: forhavingmyhousestolen
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2013-04-04
Screenshot from my Twitter: some people are able to exhibit unadulterated right-wing hypocrisy without seeing it in a short span of hours.
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Obit of the Day (Historical): Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated by James Earl Ray* on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in the city to support a strike by the city’s black sanitation workers. (The strike was precipitated by the deaths of two black workers who were crushed in malfunctioning garbage truck.)
Dr. King was standing on a balcony outside of his motel room joking with Jesse Jackson (future leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and presidential candidate). At 6:01 p.m. a shot rang out and Dr. King collapsed onto the balcony. It was determined later that he was shot with a 30.06 caliber rifle which struck him on the right side of the face and throat.
The 39-year-old civil rights champion was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Memphis. It was quickly determined that Dr. King was shot and killed by a “bare headed white man in his 30’s, wearing a black suit and a black tie.” He was alleged to be driving a white Mustang.
The death of Dr. King, a believer in non-violent protest that he adapted from Gandhi, sparked actions in the black community that Dr. King had fought against more than a decade. Riots broke out in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Newark, NJ. In Chicago 3,000 National Guard troops were marched into the city’s West and South Sides where rioting and looting had broken out. Some fires were set but the casualty rate was low and the city returned to relative calm by that Monday. (It was during the Chicago riots that Mayor Richard J. Daley infamously ordered police “to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand … and … to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city.” There were anywhere from 9 to 11 deaths over the weekend but the causes were never determined.)
Dr. King, who was born Michael Luther King, Jr. but had it changed by his father so their names would honor the Protestant reformer, was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. Following in his father’s footsteps, Dr. King decided in his junior year at Morehouse College to become a pastor.
He studied theology at Crozier Theological Seminary in Chester, PA where he was one of only 6 black students in a class of 100. But his leadership ability shone through and he was elected class president - the first African American to hold the position. He also earned a fellowship for doctoral work.
He enrolled at Boston College and while in Massachusetts, met Coretta Scott, who was studying music at Antioch College. They married in 1953.The following year Dr. King was hired as the pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was 25 years old.
Then on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.
Four days later the Montgomery Bus Boycott began and Dr. King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The boycott lasted 381 days, brought national attention to Mrs. Parks, segregation, and the young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (The boycott ended on December 20, 1956 after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling declaring the bus segregation unconstitutional.)
From that time Dr. King became the face of the modern civil rights movement. He returned to his home of Atlanta in 1959 and from there with the support of organizations including the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Dr. King the push for civil rights across the segregated South.
Dr. King, and thousands of men, women, and children, would silently suffer through arrests, beatings, attacks by dogs, and blasts of fire hose water presenting to the United States and the world a non-violent response to unbridled violence and hatred.
Dr. King’s greatest moment was seen by millions. On August 28, 1963 A. Philip Randolph, the head of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, partnered with six other civil rights organizations planned a march on Washington, D.C. Dr. King spoke to the assembled crowd of 200,000 - of all races and ages - and television audiences in the millions telling them, “I have a dream…” (You can see the entire speech here.)
In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (In 1950 Ralph Bunche was the first black person to win the Peace Prize. He was given the award for his mediation in Palestine.)
The work of Dr. King and countless leader would lead directly to the passage of the 1964 Voting Rights Act and the 1965 Civil Rights Act, both signed by President Lyndon Johnson. Dr. King was present at the signing of the latter.
After Dr. King’s death he received a final measure of disrespect. Georgia governor Lester Maddox refused to allow Dr. King’s body to lie in state at the capitol building. He stated that Dr. King was an “enemy of the country.” He did not close the state government in Dr. King’s honor and refused to lower flags to half-staff until he was told that it was a federal order. Governor Maddox even placed the National Guard around the capitol building in order to “protect the property of the state.” Over 200,000 mourners attended Dr. King’s funeral and there were no incidents of violence.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was buried in Southview Cemetery with his parents. Later his body was moved to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center located at the former site of his boyhood home.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the law making the third Monday of January a federal holiday in honor of Dr. King. On August 22, 2011 the Martin Luther King Memorial was opened to the public in Washington, D.C.
Note: This is a far from a full treatment of the life of Dr. King. It is a summary of his life and legacy. I know that I have left out significant moments in his life and career. There are myriad resources available detailing, in full, Dr. King’s life and legacy. OOTD recommends you search them out for more information.
Sources: NY Times obituary, NY Times assassination coverage, Chicago Tribune, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, CORE, Our Georgia History, Answers.com, Wikipedia.org
(Image of an unidentified girl walking past Dr. King’s coffin on April 9, 1968. The photograph is copyright of Harry Benson, www.harrybenson.com.)
* Although James Earl Ray was arrested and sentenced to 99 years in prison, there was later discussion that he was neither the true shooter nor acting alone. Even members of the King family felt that Dr. King’s murder was part of a larger conspiracy. Mr. Ray died in prison in 1998 at the age of 60 having recanted his confession to the murder and pleading for a new trial. No evidence has been made public presenting another theory for Dr. King’s murder.
Other relevant OOTD posts:
Dr. Joe Williams - St. Louis civil rights leader
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth - SCLC co-founder and sometime critic of MLK
Clara Luper - Oklahoma civil rights pioneer (an OOTD favorite)
Rep. Katie Hall - Indiana Democrat who sponsored bill to create MLK holiday
Dan Martin - Atlanta florist who supplied flowers for Dr. King’s funeral
Source: obitoftheday
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2013-03-24
Square North
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2013-03-23
W 57th St & 7th Av near Central Park, Midtown Manhattan (taken 3/18/2013)
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2013-02-27
[I]t would be putting students first if every teacher were to donate 75% of their salaries back to the school. This would enable the school to purchase the latest technology, more books, and even hire more teachers to get the class sizes down to what there are in elite private schools. But it would be wrong to criticize teachers for not wanting to do this.
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2013-02-26
hoLY SHIT
here’s ondria hardin in blackfacebody in an editorial in numéro called “african queen” because why hire a black model when you could just paint a white one!
Source: winonarydeme
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It’s not a surprise that Yahoo! isn’t very friendly to female employees, because capitalism is just not that into feminism. As long as people believe that it’s possible to fight their way out of social inequality by staying within a capitalist framework, people like Mayer will continue calling the shots, while the people on the ground, including the women about to lose their jobs at Yahoo! in June, will keep struggling.
— s.e. smith, Yahoo Comes Up with Perfect Recipe for Pushing Women Out of the Work Place
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2013-02-25
Walmart Presses Felony Charge In Oreo Theft
Walmart is pressing a felony charge against a 63-year-old worker who has been accused of stealing a bag of Oreo cookies from the Indiana store where she worked on the maintenance crew.
Penny Winters was arrested this week after Walmart launched an internal investigation upon the discovery of an empty cookie wrapper. A subsequent review of surveillance footage showed “Ms. Winters select the package of cookies, open it, and proceed to consume multiple cookies during her work shift,” according to a Portage Police Department report.
Cops did not estimate the value of the “multiple cookies” consumed by Winters, who has been fired from her $11.40 position with the retail giant.
When confronted by a Walmart “asset protection manager,” Winters admitted taking the Oreos, adding that she had also helped herself to other snacks during her seven-month tenure at the store (Winters had previously worked for several years at a Walmart in Arizona).
Winters, seen in the above mug shot, told the Walmart investigator that she “simply did not have the monies to legitimately purchase the food items.”
When cops asked her about the Oreos, Winters claimed she found an open package of the cookies near a cash register and assumed that they had been provided for free by management.
Winters was arrested Monday and charged with felony theft for pinching the Oreos (and other unspecified junk food). Winters was released from the Porter County jail Tuesday after posting bond.
(via thepeoplesrecord)
Source: sinidentidades
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2013-02-13
We are creating a nation of shelf stockers who will never think past ‘first let me put up this can, then next, I’ll put up that can, and then I’ll put up another can.’ Right now I can hear Steve Martin saying ‘that person hates cans!’
America needs shelf stockers. But I think society is made better when those shelf stockers do what they have to do to make a living, and then go home and write their novel….
— How Common Core is Depressing America’s Intellect! Not Making It Brighter!
