“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” –MLK and OWS

On Monday, the nation will celebrate Martin Luther King Day, honoring the birth of the slain civil rights leader. But Dr. King’s life was about more than one speech –or one issue.

“The Blood and Sweat Behind Labor Day” (CNN.com)

“To most Americans, the first Monday in September means a three-day weekend and the last hurrah of summer, a final outing at the shore before school begins, a family picnic.

But Labor Day was born in a time when work was no picnic. As America was moving from farms to factories in the Industrial Age, there was a long, violent, often-deadly struggle for fundamental workers’ rights, a struggle that in many ways was America’s “other civil war.”

Don’t Know Much About the 19th Amendment

Ninety-one years ago, on AUGUST 18, 1920, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, giving it the needed number of states to become part of the U.S. Constitution. Finally, all American women could enjoy the basic right of citizenship. It was a victory in a long struggle for “suffrage” fought by the “Suffragists.”   Who were the [...]

Don’t Know Much About the “Negro Riots” in Watts

The recent urban riots in London that spread to other parts of England beg an obvious question: Can it happen in America? Of course, it has already happened in America, more than once

A Case of “Loving” Revisited

Last week’s historic passage of a “gay marriage” law in New York state meant that six states and the District of Columbia now permit same sex marriage; a number of other states allow a form of civil union. The addition of New York doubled the number of Americans living in states with same sex marriage. [...]

America’s “Other” Independence Day

America’s birthday is fast approaching. But let’s not wait for July 4th to light the fireworks. There is another Independence Day on the horizon. Juneteenth falls on June 19 each year. It is a holiday whose history was hidden for much of the last century. But as the nation now observes the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s onset, it is a holiday worth recognizing

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Juneteenth-Our-Other-Independence-Day.html#ixzz1PXGpVxj8

Don’t Know Much About® Internment

On Mach 23, 1942 –167 years later– the United States government began taking away the liberty of more than one hundred thousand people–the Japanese Americans viewed as a threat after Pearl Harbor. On that date, the U.S. Army began removing people of Japanese descent from Los Angeles.

Don’t Know Much About® “Brown v. Board of Education”

Every day, eight-year-old Linda Brown wondered why she had to ride five miles to school when her bus passed the perfectly lovely Sumner Elementary School, just four blocks from her home. When her father tried to enroll her in Sumner for fourth grade, the Topeka, Kansas, school authorities just said no. In 1951, Linda Brown [...]

Don’t Know Much About Mr. Madison

Today March 16, 2011, marks the 260th anniversary of the birth of America’s fourth President, James Madison, also known as “The Father of the Constitution.” While small in stature, and sometimes overshadowed by his more famous Virginian predecessors, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Madison must be considered one of the greatest of the Founding Fathers for the breadth and influence of his contributions.

“Sicko Ants on a Crucifix”

Censorship is riding high. It is once again as American as apple pie, assassinations and anti-immigrant vitriol.