Tag Archive for ‘civil rights’
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.
MLK Day-2011
Thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr. –on the eve of his actual birthday on January 15, 1929– I came across the presentation speech given when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In it, Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, said of Dr, King: He is the first person in the Western [...]
Bill of Rights Day (December 15)
On December 15, 1791, Virginia ratified the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution: The Bill of Rights took effect. In 1941, on the 150th anniversary of the ratification, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that December 15th would be Bill of Rights Day. Now it may not be circled red on your calendar, but few [...]
Truman Didn’t Ask. He Just Told
The Senate’s shameful vote yesterday which would have put an end to the “Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell” policy immediately brought to mind the 1948 decision by President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the U.S. military.
Today In History: Don’t Ride the Bus
Fifty-five years ago, on December 1, 1955, an African-American seamstress would not budge. And all America shook. At the top of my short list of alternative national holidays, I would propose December 1st as Rosa Parks Day. History is taught as the record of presidents, kings and generals. But sometimes it is the extraordinary story [...]
Cruel and Unusual- (Civics Primer Part 5)
No, learning about Civics and American History is not the Cruel and Unusual part. Actually, when done properly, this stuff can be fun and interesting. Following up on my earlier lessons about the Bill of Rights, today’s focus is on two more of the fundamental rights of the accused found in the Seventh and Eighth [...]
Pleading the Fifth (Civics Primer Part 4)
My Civics Primer has been focusing on the Bill of Rights and continues with two more Amendments that deal with the rights of the accused –including perhaps the most famous of all, the Fifth Amendment.
