First, we need to talk about it. The problem, and it’s not a new one, is that certain people don’t want to talk about slavery, and we know who those people are. They are today’s followers of the so-called Lost Cause movement. This movement sprang up from the ashes of the Confederacy during Reconstruction and began with the lie that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery, it was fought over states rights.
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Since Slavery is really only Vocational Training (in Florida and soon to be other places) what separates this from similar excellent thinking being applied to (and in no particular order) Ponzi promoters, Prostitutes, and a host of other talents (bank robbers, lying orange real estate fakes and license plate makers in prisons comes to mind). We need Ronny D to declare that these all need to be changed as well in the curriculum of the schools of Florida so that this type of wonderful on-the-job-training can produce more of these types and many other desirable future training programs.
Lucian, I hope that your time to rest at Monticello will not come for many, many more decades, but when it does, and if I am able, I will pause to salute you on that spot for "ruining everything". You have proven yourself to be not a Merry Prankster, but a protector of the intent of our democracy.
Thank you.
added trivia - My wife is a descendant of 2 of the families that donated land for our nation's capital from their British property grants. Without a doubt they owned slaves along the Potomac. As she discovered this disturbing factoid over the years of her family research she was mortified, then accepting of it and now vocal about the need to keep the horrors of slavery alive in conversation. Like you, our family never knows who is a blood relative. All the more reason why she is so dedicated to keeping the conversation about slavery alive. I have told her for many years, it is not her shame unless she were to try to sweep it under the rug. There should be no rug.
There were undoubtedly many skilled slaves in the Old South - cabinet makers, carpenters, cooks, brick layers, dressmakers, blacksmiths . . . I think slaves built most of our Capitol in Washington but fact check me on that one.
The great majority of slaves in the middle Savanna River cotton growing county were I hail from, were field hands. Men women and children worked sun up to sun down stooped over, up and down the rows, dragging enormous croaker sacks of cotton behind them in the broiling hot sun. Rattlesnakes also lived in the fields with inevitable results. Rattlesnake venom is not exactly a deadly poison. Rather, it is a foreign protein that triggers a victim's immune system to react. As the victim's own immune system reacts the area around the bite swells up and necrotizes, often opening up into an open sore that can take long as year to heal.
Try picking cotton yourself. Cotton is a flower that develops in the middle of a protective pod. As a cotton boll ripens the leaves of the protective pod open up and then harden into extremely hard sharp pointed leaf-like structures. When you reach in to pick the cotton out of a boll, a sharp leaf of sheath quite often runs up between your fingernail and your nail bed. The pain is excruciating, and it takes a long time to heal.
Heard enough? This malarkey about how slaves didn't have it too bad? I am furious.
I have picked cotton by hand--nearly sixty years ago in the Mississippi Delta--and I second what Bob Palmer says. Those bolls rip your flesh wide open. The field hands I worked with were all Black, and they got paid a pittance for being in the field for twelve or thirteen hours. They often pooled their resources and bought a roll of white adhesive and wrapped strips of it around their thumbs and fingers, and they reused the same tape as long as it would stick. This was in the early 1960s. It was brutal.
I also picked cotton as a teenager in North La. in the 60’s for relatives who had a cotton farm and yes those cotton bolls are painful as is dragging a huge cotton sack along behind you.
Your unique perspective speaks to the need for us all to continue to “ruin” the myth of there being such a thing as the benevolent ownership of a fellow human being.
Other than amplifying your efforts, and our own individual actions to help move the indecency of racism to the head of any discussion of rights, let us help you in any way you believe we might.
You may rest at Monticello one day but yours will be perhaps the most venerated piece of land you lay in because of what you have done and continue to do.
How interesting it must be to know you've done something concrete in the manner in which slavery is discussed. That has to be a small club.
Re Florrible's Gov. Crazypants putting it out there that slaves “benefitted” from the skills they were taught as slaves was beyond belief. To bolster his Nazi friends he might as well posit that the gas chambers were meant to relieve their occupants of the discomfort of living in the camps. How does this man (or his wife, some people think) keep making such errors of judgment? It is beyond me. Way beyond.
One cannot have errors in judgement, when one has neither brain nor soul. He and wifey are mere counterparts to their illustrious Palm Beach residents!
Please, please keep talking about this white washing of our country's history by highly educated idiots like DeSatan and his ilk. As a resident of Florida, it pains me to watch him turn this state into a backwards wasteland of nationalist loving pawns. I'm so glad I don't have young children whose education I have to rely on the state of Florida to provide because they would find it difficult to survive in the real world......so, please don't stop talking!
I know I can get boring about this, but I still have to repeat that a degree from a very selective college (even with excellent grades) cannot and should not define anybody as well-educated. this should even also apply to "highly educated idiots."
in fact, I would submit that deliberately suppressing whatever education you might have in the interest of grabbing a little temporary power you have no idea how to utilize should automatically put you in the "Stupid Motherfucker" category.
Sociopathic sophists may be highly educated and too clever by half. Amoral manipulators are are sad characteristic of many politicians and lawyers Harvard and Yale do not necessarily graduate reflective ethical and highly moral people. Often graduates are Hobbesian sharks intent on winning the game of power
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Please don't tar Harvard and Yale as the reason a few of their graduates are rotten (Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley). Amoral people come from everywhere. Some of them come from Queens (not the Bronx; thank you for the correction, Christina). Then their rich daddy basically buys them a degree from Fordham, where their professor says they were the worst student he ever had (Dumpster). As a Yale graduate, I would just like to say that my observation of the student body there was that there were many, many people with a strong social conscience, and about the same proportional scattering of probably amoral possibly sociopathic people as in the general population. The residential college I lived in was originally named after John C. Calhoun, who went to Yale in 1802, became a South Carolina Senator, and then Vice President under John Quincy Adams. He argued that slavery was not a "necessary evil" but a "positive good" and was a fierce advocate of "states' rights" ie. the right to keep slaves. Many Calhoun College students and alumni who were appalled to have any institution at Yale named after a racist slavery advocate started a movement to rename Calhoun College. I was one of many ardent supporters of that successful movement. The college is now called Grace Hopper College (https://gracehopper.yalecollege.yale.edu/) after Grace Murray Hopper, who received her Ph.D. in mathematics and mathematical physics from Yale before joining the Navy. She was a pioneer in multiple fields including computing. Her accomplishments are too numerous to list here (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper).
Oh dear! My apologies, Christina! I stand corrected. Thank you! I will edit my comment. Obviously a lot of good people live in the Bronx. And no doubt Queens, too, in addition to a few notable rotters.
For sure. “Not necessarily” is the phrase. There are always exceptions. However when the general public sees Harvard or Yale we think of elite and intelligent. Sophists occur everywhere. I suspect there is a subset at every university who home their game playing skills
Fair enough, but after saying "not necessarily" you also say that "Often graduates [of Harvard and Yale] are Hobbesian sharks intent on winning the game of power." It's the "often" that triggered my comment. :-)
I should be more precise. I think my expectations for ivy grads are unrealistically high and think about the Zuckerberg and politicians and am disappointed. Maybe we need to accept that all humans are subject to corruption and selfishness. We are human amd subject to flaws. There is an insular phenomenon of “better than” that can arise.
The “Lost Causers” are terrified of this history. They fear Black people will somehow gain tons of power and then treat the LCs as the LCs treat Blacks.
The response to that from one black American woman whos name I didn't catch, featured in a news snippet a few months ago, was that type of people, the advocates of the Lost Cause hagiography and similar absurdities, ought to feel fortunate that blacks seek only equality and fairness, not revenge.
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
It was activist and pastor Kimberly Jones who said that, in a fiery and righteous 1 minute 15 second speech that went viral online. Her speech and a followup interview are available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching it.
Kimberly Jones' website (https://www.kimjoneswrites.com/) has information about how to get active in the movement, her books, videos, events, and so forth. Worth a visit.
Thanks Elizabeth - fact is after reading laments from some on here about "never," or "for only one month," having had any coverage of black American history in their education, I did not want to immediately risk sounding smug about taking almost enough of those classes to get a minor concentration along with my philosophy major, but I will risk that with you: I started taking courses in philosophy but ALSO black studies, "Afro-American Studies" to be more precise, in Summer Session 1, 1983 (this was a fantastic Ancient Greek philosophy course taught by Jasper Hopkins, the Racism course was in the fall quarter) at the U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities, in part - but not only - because I was living with a black American woman I met in Tempe in 1981, she was then studying and on a tennis scholarship at Arizona State, I was living in Tempe as part of incipient "New Wave" band, anyway the white girls on that ASU tennis team snubbed her, ignored her, it was so bad she was already planning to sacrifice the tennis scholarship and relocate back to Minneapolis when we met, band hadn't worked out, lead singer had developed serious inner ear hearing problems (she was married in the Grand Canyon in spring of 1980 to the other guitarist, she did recommend I read The Man Without Qualities and Nightwood, among other things, I still cherish her for that alone!), so she moved back here June '82, I traveled back over 4th of July - (incredible Greyhound bus trip complete with Phoenix cops busting someone as we waited in line for bus to New Mexico, Denver, Nebraska, Iowa, up I -35 to Mipples, never found out what that was about) to move into apt. she had rented, she was one of the plaintiffs in the case that integrated the Minneapolis Public Schools, we both had left-progressive politics, loved music, had much else in common - from this sketch, you can infer why I took a course along with her called Racism: Psychological and Social Consequences for Black Americans, taught by instructor Dr. John Taborn, a psychologist (who grew up in Cairo Illinois and recalled for the class's edification and education seeing a KKK cross-burning not far outside his own home! That REALLY made an impression on all of us, no doubt) who was educated in the historical material.
I took another four classes, and they were some of the most interesting courses I ever took,
made friends with local legend ex-Black Panther for Oakland Malik Del Mar (brilliant street busker, drummer, played frequently across from statues of "Mary" throwing her hat in the air outside Daytons on Nicollet Mall, Malik died far too young) wrote papers on "Black American Communists in Harlem during the Depression" and "Afro-American Slave Revolts," etc., - I have mentioned my own "Trotskyist phase" on this substack blog a few times, that was years earlier when I was at Macalester, thankfully the far far left "we are the vanguard party!" fever passed, but I learned something from the illness, so to speak) relying heavily on this book: intpubnyc.com/browse/american-negro-slave-revolts/
"A pioneering work that demolished the widespread claims that African Americans accepted slavery and were passive. Exposed the true nature of slavery. 50th Anniversary edition (1943-1993). 428 pages. Notes, Bibliography, Index." I had the original edition, bought at a (Stalinist-CP run bookstore then still existing up SE 4th Street about eleven blocks, now a parking lot between Burrito Loco and The Kollege Klub sports bar. The more things change, the more they remain the same (?), maybe.
Well my writing and brain are halfway awake now, today, anyway.
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
I wrote the first, longer reply BEFORE I saw the fiery pseudo-justifications of burning down a Target store here in Minneapolis - where RACIAL MINORITIES, black, brown, Native Americans, Hmong, etc. SHOP, she can go take a flyin' leap on that load of counter-productive, self-destructive, pompous bilge (which Lutalo Toure, now a professor of black studies, summed up in the Part 2 of Afro-American History course we were in along with Malik, a course taught by Earl Lewis - now I believe teaching at U. of Michigan, as "Muthaf'er this! Muthaf'er that! burr- oyne! the muthaf'er down!"* school of pointless ranting bearing zero relationship to what the community actually requires.
* Delivered furiously, somewhat along the lines of "Aeeeaaug! Slaight!" - complete with the "nasal bark, like a seal's," timbre, which opens Chapter Four of Lucian's novel Dress Gray, albeit with a different goal, of course. Paralinguistics is where it's at, baby!
I watched her rant and, while I understand the anger and frustration she voices, anyone who need to hear & understand the content of her rant would close the video in the first couple of seconds, if it took that long. The only useful part is her closing line about white people should be thankful that black people (for the most part) are only seeking equality and not revenge.
OK maybe even better, Lutalo Toure's info was all on American Association of Geography downloads or Facebook (as a favorite personal trainer, the Los Campeones gym logo visible in one photo is of a gym only about sixteen blocks from the drum teaching site mentioned in the article) so that won't work, but the "diagnosis" - similar to what you and I posted, and which I mentioned in another post on here today - was more or less a mutual evaluation Lutalo shared with local legend Malik Del Mar, this will show why the "legend" appellation fits - I run into people who STILL talk about him, a little over twenty years since he passed away, in 2001:
Drum co-op adds rhythm to Phillips
By Jessi Klein () | May 29, 2006
"The house at 1920 11th Ave. S. is quite different from other homes in the Phillips neighborhood, and it has nothing to do with the bright turquoise and yellow addition in the front yard. The residence is home to the Umoja Drum and Music Co-op, a place where people come to learn about African music and any co-op member is welcome to live.
The sound of exotic drum beats can be heard coming from the inside of the co-op every Monday night, where about 10 women gather in a circle for their weekly drum and music lesson. The drum patterns the women play are simple, yet they produce a rich, rhythmic melody.
One student is a Japanese Fulbright Scholar. The woman to her left is a Native American activist and breast cancer survivor. Another is a retired woman from the suburbs. Although very different, the women unite and bond every Monday night through the female-only music lessons.
Erin Thomasson, a co-founder of the musical co-op, begins the session with simple beats on the conga drums, slowly working toward more advanced moves. Toward the end, the class switches to a response chant where students add improvised singing to the drums. Thomasson calls on students who then have to sings words to the beat of the drums. One woman sings about how happy she is that it is spring. With wide smiles on their faces, the women joke and laugh while following Thomasson's lead.
“I can feel the energy moving through me in a positive way,” said Clara Niiska, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and former editor of the Native American Press.
Painted red and trimmed with yellow and green, the inside of the building is just as colorful as the outside. Members and students are invited to write on the walls; phrases like “drumming is life” line the room.
The co-op acknowledges African-American history with pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other important leaders posted on the walls.
In the past, two families and several other co-op members used to live at the home, but now it houses only to Thomasson and her two sons Luke, 8, and Django, 4.
Thomasson is a Caucasian woman with a kind smile and welcoming demeanor. She hardly looks her 41 years of age.
Sitting on an old wooden chair, she recounts the history of the co-op and the uncertainty of its future after the founding member, Malik Del Mar, died in 2001.
After she graduated from Carleton College with a degree in international relations, Thomasson knew she wanted to work in Africa. Through the World Teach program, she was sent to Kenya to teach English and music courses.
“Music is just a big part of the [African] culture,” she said. “The drum itself is seen as the heart beat of people, and it forms the basis of all their music.”
Upon her return to the United States, she joined a drum class on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in 1990 as a way to continue learning about the African tradition. Del Mar was the teacher.
Thomasson began talking with Del Mar, and they decided they wanted to do more with their musical and social beliefs. The Umoja Drum and Music Co-op was born.
“We wanted to learn how to live cooperatively, learn how to have healthy relationships and learn how to know yourself,” she said. “The philosophy was to use music to break down barriers like age, gender, sexual orientation -“
“Don't forget race,” Luke interjects.
Del Mar began drumming as an African-American youth in San Francisco, where he played on the streets year-round thanks to the good weather. He later moved to Hawaii, a place where he could also perform 365 days a year. He began dating a woman from Minnesota, and the two moved to the Twin Cities.
Street performers, however, were not as well received in Minnesota.
Del Mar was arrested numerous times for playing drums on Nicollet Avenue and in Uptown. Police accused him of panhandling and said he needed a permit to perform in public, Thomasson said. When he went to city hall to purchase a permit, he was told such a permit does not exist.
“They really gave him the runaround,” Thomasson said. “I think racism was involved.”
Del Mar filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and won. The judge ruled that playing music and putting out a basket for money was not panhandling, an illegal activity.
“He was able to get that legal distinction, which opened the door for other street musicians,” Thomasson said.
Despite the hassle from police and city officials, many people were drawn to Del Mar's energetic performances.
“He was very dynamic and charismatic,” Thomasson said. “He gave 110 percent all the time. There was no difference between practice and performance for him.”
Del Mar was not just a performer, however. He loved teaching others the art of drumming.
“He was just very generous with his time and spirit,” Thomasson said. “He gave a lot to people in terms of energy and time.”
Del Mar, Thomasson and the other founding members established that anyone was welcome to attend music lessons.
“There's the idea that only some people are musical,” Thomasson said. “We believe that is false.”
Del Mar taught an average of five drum classes a week. The co-op had at the most four instructors teaching courses and 10 members.
Thomasson and Del Mar pooled their money together in 1993 to buy the house “when real estate was really low.”
“There was not a lot happening here [in the Phillips neighborhood],” Thomasson said. “People didn't want to live here.”
Thomasson and Del Mar's children own the home, although only Thomasson and her children currently live there. The co-op made payments on the house (it is now paid off) and still pays for businesses expenses, like the co-op phone line. Thomasson pays the rest of the expenses for the house.
Although it has been five years since Del Mar died of congestive heart disease, he is still sorely missed by co-op members and students.
“When people pass, their spirit remains with you,” Thomasson said. “We know his spirit is still with us.” ***** [Article continues but those are the main items]
Patris, of course all I had to do was "google" "Greek Catholic Church" to end up in a series of connected Wiki articles about practicing the Byzantine Rite, and discover there are Greek Catholic churches all over the Balkans and nearby, over 14 out of 23 of them at least! DOH! I have no idea how I managed to read so much history of religion and philosophy, bordering on this specific set of distinctions, and yet found this "new" to me. Possibly I was just "convinced (almost) all the Greeks who are traditional Christians, are ipso facto Greek Orthodox."
Greek Catholic Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually.
The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Catholic Church may refer to:
Individually, any of the 14 out of 23 Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine rite, also referred to as Greek Rite:
the Albanian Greek Catholic Church
the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
the Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia
the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, in Greece and Turkey
the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
the Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
the Romanian Greek Catholic Church
the Russian Greek Catholic Church
the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
the Slovak Greek Catholic Church
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Any other group of Eastern Catholics following the Byzantine rite:
the Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics
an Ordinariate for Eastern Catholic faithful without proper ordinary, in 6 countries
The Catholic Church in Greece, the Latin Church Catholic hierarchy in Greece."
"I’ll be buried in the graveyard at Monticello one day, and if you visit there after my death, you’ll be able to hear me still, in the words on my headstone."
Bravo, Lucian. You didn’t ruin anything except that old fart’s ability to deny the truth of his family’s history. I keep thinking I have witnessed “the last” of the bigots, but we haven’t. My faith is in the Gen-kids who aren’t about to accept idiocy as policy. Does your epitaph begin with “And another thing”……? Let us all hold your spirit, fire, and resolve along with you.
I second that. Bravo, Lucian! All you ruined was a white descendant's ability to bask in the reflected glory of a starry-eyed but wildly inaccurate fantasy that he is descended from a man who was not only an influential Founder, writer of the noble words of the Declaration of Independence, brilliant architect, gifted visionary, talented linguist and horticulturalist, but also some sort of demigod who had no troubling ethical or moral faults.
It's very gratifying to learn that you are not only a Jefferson descendant, but *the* Jefferson descendant who brought Jefferson's Black family back into the fold, demanding that they be acknowledged both as part of Jefferson's personal family, and as incontrovertible evidence of his blindness and hypocrisy in loving Sally Hemmings yet never changing her status as his slave, even as she bore him six children, and never emancipating any of his slaves before he died. You took a stand that is still echoing in our national discussions about our history of slavery, and Black demands for equality, justice, and an end to the society-wide racist persecution of Blacks that is most painfully and violently expressed in police murders of Black people who have committed a petty offense, or no crime at all other than driving or living while Black.
You can tell what a great career jump starter slavery was, by all the white plantation owners’ children who used to run away from home so they could be slaves.
John Lewis would call what you said to that guy “getting into good trouble”! Good for you, Lucian, not to take any crap out of anyone and to the snippety woman who expressed her denials about white slave owners, a pox on her! This is exactly how we must behave when untruths are being told. Lil’ Hitler can take his show to Russia. Wonder how many Floridians would follow him. What a despicable insect he is. Let’s squash his ass!
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Power games have deadly consequences, particularly when well-written and performed. "Django Unchained" a revenge movies that spared no expense in portraying the pent up anger engendered by such cruelty. We cheered when the slaves turned the tables on the ruling class! Movies that portray menacing, two-faced whites such as "Get Out", leave me drained emotionally, not knowing whether or not to laugh or cry!
If success is the best revenge, it must really be killing the white racists to see the rise of "the minority" into positions of power in literature and the arts, as well as politics. That may very well explain why today's Republicans are resorting to extreme tactics to disenfranchise Democrats! But in Lincoln's time, Southern Dixiecrats were Democrats.
Today the reverse has occurred as Republicans shamelessly "co-opt" Negroes to deconstruct civil rights in the courts and the legislature. Recently watched "Blazing Saddles", Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor's parody of disrepute which introduced a Black Sheriff in a white, racist town, for utterly dishonorable pretenses.
James Baldwin really knew what to do with rage. He proved once and for all that "the pen is mightier than the sword!" His novels awaken the clueless reader by translating blatant discrimination into heart-rendering tales that shake you to the core.
In two years of Advanced English classes in high school, we read and discussed books by Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. In 10th grade the teacher was the first black individual to teach in our school system. He was also the first person of color most of us had ever encountered who wasn't a maid, gardener or gas station attendant. Quite a revelation, all that.
[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]
Mr. Chairman, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans:
I realize that in speaking in behalf of the minority report on civil rights as presented by Congressman DeMiller of Wisconsin that I'm dealing with a charged issue -- with an issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I realize that there are here today friends and colleagues of mine, many of them, who feel just as deeply and keenly as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.
My respect and admiration for these men and their views was great when I came to this convention. It is now far greater because of the sincerity, the courtesy, and the forthrightness with which many of them have argued in our prolonged discussions in the platform committee.
Because of this very great respect -- and because of my profound belief that we have a challenging task to do here -- because good conscience, decent morality, demands it -- I feel I must rise at this time to support a report -- the minority report -- a report that spells out our democracy, a report that the people of this country can and will understand, and a report that they will enthusiastically acclaim on the great issue of civil rights.
Now let me say this at the outset that this proposal is made for no single region. Our proposal is made for no single class, for no single racial or religious group in mind. All of the regions of this country, all of the states have shared in our precious heritage of American freedom. All the states and all the regions have seen at least some of the infringements of that freedom -- all people -- get this -- all people, white and black, all groups, all racial groups have been the victims at time[s] in this nation of -- let me say -- vicious discrimination.
The masterly statement of our keynote speaker, the distinguished United States Senator from Kentucky, Alben Barkley, made that point with great force. Speaking of the founder of our Party, Thomas Jefferson, he said this, and I quote from Alben Barkley:
He did not proclaim that all the white, or the black, or the red, or the yellow men are equal; that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and Catholic men are equal; that all rich and poor men are equal; that all good and bad men are equal. What he declared was that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was the equality in the right to enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have given their support.
Now these words of Senator Barkley’s are appropriate to this convention -- appropriate to this convention of the oldest, the most truly progressive political party in America. From the time of Thomas Jefferson, the time when that immortal American doctrine of individual rights, under just and fairly administered laws, the Democratic Party has tried hard to secure expanding freedoms for all citizens. Oh, yes, I know, other political parties may have talked more about civil rights, but the Democratic party has surely done more about civil rights.
We have made progress -- we've made great progress in every part of this country. We’ve made great progress in the South; we’ve made it in the West, in the North, and in the East. But we must now focus the direction of that progress towards the -- towards the realization of a full program of civil rights to all. This convention must set out more specifically the direction in which our Party efforts are to go.
We can be proud that we can be guided by the courageous trail blazing of two great Democratic Presidents. We can be proud of the fact that our great and beloved immortal leader Franklin Roosevelt gave us guidance. And we be proud of the fact -- we can be proud of the fact that Harry Truman has had the courage to give to the people of America the new emancipation proclamation.
It seems to me -- It seems to me that the Democratic Party needs to to make definite pledges of the kinds suggested in the minority report, to maintain the trust and the confidence placed in it by the people of all races and all sections of this country. Sure, we’re here as Democrats. But my good friends, we’re here as Americans; we’re here as the believers in the principle and the ideology of democracy, and I firmly believe that as men concerned with our country’s future, we must specify in our platform the guarantees which we have mentioned in the minority report.
Yes, this is far more than a Party matter. Every citizen in this country has a stake in the emergence of the United States as a leader in the free world. That world is being challenged by the world of slavery. For us to play our part effectively, we must be in a morally sound position.
We can’t use a double standard -- There’s no room for double standards in American politics -- for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.
Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantees of the civil rights which we have mentioned in the minority report. In spite of my desire for unanimous agreement on the entire platform, in spite of my desire to see everybody here in honest and unanimous agreement, there are some matters which I think must be stated clearly and without qualification. There can be no hedging -- the newspaper headlines are wrong. There will be no hedging, and there will be no watering down -- if you please -- of the instruments and the principles of the civil-rights program.
My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights. People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.
My good friends, my fellow Democrats, I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic opportunity. Let us do forget the evil passions and the blindness of the past. In these times of world economic, political, and spiritual -- above all spiritual crisis, we cannot and we must not turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of the shadow of death. And now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of American freedom.
For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. And I know that we can, and I know that we shall began [sic] here the fuller and richer realization of that hope, that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely well.
My good friends, I ask my Party, I ask the Democratic Party, to march down the high road of progressive democracy. I ask this convention to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight for civil rights in America!
Please, LKTIV, don't even consider moving to that Monticello land any time before reaching at least 120! We all need you here, lending a hand, writing and speaking out, our friend and ally!
Jul 26, 2023·edited Jul 26, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Bruce Catton, celebrated Civil war historian, long ago concluded that the war fought for states' rights was inseparably linked to those states' rights to uphold slavery. You can't have the one without the other, or use one as a smokescreen to obscure the other.
I will grant that the question of secession could be an entirely different matter. You don't have to hold that slavery was an admirable reason to secede (hardly), but you can acknowledge that it was a viewpoint at that time.
Free debate over historical events is a valuable part of education. That said, these new efforts to dictate and restrict what can be taught and how it can be taught, to conform to ideological prejudices, are transparent right-wing propaganda and know-nothingness.
Since Slavery is really only Vocational Training (in Florida and soon to be other places) what separates this from similar excellent thinking being applied to (and in no particular order) Ponzi promoters, Prostitutes, and a host of other talents (bank robbers, lying orange real estate fakes and license plate makers in prisons comes to mind). We need Ronny D to declare that these all need to be changed as well in the curriculum of the schools of Florida so that this type of wonderful on-the-job-training can produce more of these types and many other desirable future training programs.
Lucian, I hope that your time to rest at Monticello will not come for many, many more decades, but when it does, and if I am able, I will pause to salute you on that spot for "ruining everything". You have proven yourself to be not a Merry Prankster, but a protector of the intent of our democracy.
Thank you.
added trivia - My wife is a descendant of 2 of the families that donated land for our nation's capital from their British property grants. Without a doubt they owned slaves along the Potomac. As she discovered this disturbing factoid over the years of her family research she was mortified, then accepting of it and now vocal about the need to keep the horrors of slavery alive in conversation. Like you, our family never knows who is a blood relative. All the more reason why she is so dedicated to keeping the conversation about slavery alive. I have told her for many years, it is not her shame unless she were to try to sweep it under the rug. There should be no rug.
"Slavery as vocational training" was quite nice, avers this writer.
Was that Lord and Lady Fairfax?
no, besides they took Virginia portion of the diamond back... :)
Yes, my ancestor was granted land in Chantilly from Lady Catherine. I live in Arlington…..
MD side of the Potomac :)
No one writes better on this subject than you, Lucian. This essay should be required reading for every American.
I agree completely. I’ve now read it twice.
There were undoubtedly many skilled slaves in the Old South - cabinet makers, carpenters, cooks, brick layers, dressmakers, blacksmiths . . . I think slaves built most of our Capitol in Washington but fact check me on that one.
The great majority of slaves in the middle Savanna River cotton growing county were I hail from, were field hands. Men women and children worked sun up to sun down stooped over, up and down the rows, dragging enormous croaker sacks of cotton behind them in the broiling hot sun. Rattlesnakes also lived in the fields with inevitable results. Rattlesnake venom is not exactly a deadly poison. Rather, it is a foreign protein that triggers a victim's immune system to react. As the victim's own immune system reacts the area around the bite swells up and necrotizes, often opening up into an open sore that can take long as year to heal.
Try picking cotton yourself. Cotton is a flower that develops in the middle of a protective pod. As a cotton boll ripens the leaves of the protective pod open up and then harden into extremely hard sharp pointed leaf-like structures. When you reach in to pick the cotton out of a boll, a sharp leaf of sheath quite often runs up between your fingernail and your nail bed. The pain is excruciating, and it takes a long time to heal.
Heard enough? This malarkey about how slaves didn't have it too bad? I am furious.
I have picked cotton by hand--nearly sixty years ago in the Mississippi Delta--and I second what Bob Palmer says. Those bolls rip your flesh wide open. The field hands I worked with were all Black, and they got paid a pittance for being in the field for twelve or thirteen hours. They often pooled their resources and bought a roll of white adhesive and wrapped strips of it around their thumbs and fingers, and they reused the same tape as long as it would stick. This was in the early 1960s. It was brutal.
I also picked cotton as a teenager in North La. in the 60’s for relatives who had a cotton farm and yes those cotton bolls are painful as is dragging a huge cotton sack along behind you.
Your unique perspective speaks to the need for us all to continue to “ruin” the myth of there being such a thing as the benevolent ownership of a fellow human being.
Other than amplifying your efforts, and our own individual actions to help move the indecency of racism to the head of any discussion of rights, let us help you in any way you believe we might.
You may rest at Monticello one day but yours will be perhaps the most venerated piece of land you lay in because of what you have done and continue to do.
How interesting it must be to know you've done something concrete in the manner in which slavery is discussed. That has to be a small club.
Re Florrible's Gov. Crazypants putting it out there that slaves “benefitted” from the skills they were taught as slaves was beyond belief. To bolster his Nazi friends he might as well posit that the gas chambers were meant to relieve their occupants of the discomfort of living in the camps. How does this man (or his wife, some people think) keep making such errors of judgment? It is beyond me. Way beyond.
One cannot have errors in judgement, when one has neither brain nor soul. He and wifey are mere counterparts to their illustrious Palm Beach residents!
Please, please keep talking about this white washing of our country's history by highly educated idiots like DeSatan and his ilk. As a resident of Florida, it pains me to watch him turn this state into a backwards wasteland of nationalist loving pawns. I'm so glad I don't have young children whose education I have to rely on the state of Florida to provide because they would find it difficult to survive in the real world......so, please don't stop talking!
I know I can get boring about this, but I still have to repeat that a degree from a very selective college (even with excellent grades) cannot and should not define anybody as well-educated. this should even also apply to "highly educated idiots."
in fact, I would submit that deliberately suppressing whatever education you might have in the interest of grabbing a little temporary power you have no idea how to utilize should automatically put you in the "Stupid Motherfucker" category.
Sociopathic sophists may be highly educated and too clever by half. Amoral manipulators are are sad characteristic of many politicians and lawyers Harvard and Yale do not necessarily graduate reflective ethical and highly moral people. Often graduates are Hobbesian sharks intent on winning the game of power
Please don't tar Harvard and Yale as the reason a few of their graduates are rotten (Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley). Amoral people come from everywhere. Some of them come from Queens (not the Bronx; thank you for the correction, Christina). Then their rich daddy basically buys them a degree from Fordham, where their professor says they were the worst student he ever had (Dumpster). As a Yale graduate, I would just like to say that my observation of the student body there was that there were many, many people with a strong social conscience, and about the same proportional scattering of probably amoral possibly sociopathic people as in the general population. The residential college I lived in was originally named after John C. Calhoun, who went to Yale in 1802, became a South Carolina Senator, and then Vice President under John Quincy Adams. He argued that slavery was not a "necessary evil" but a "positive good" and was a fierce advocate of "states' rights" ie. the right to keep slaves. Many Calhoun College students and alumni who were appalled to have any institution at Yale named after a racist slavery advocate started a movement to rename Calhoun College. I was one of many ardent supporters of that successful movement. The college is now called Grace Hopper College (https://gracehopper.yalecollege.yale.edu/) after Grace Murray Hopper, who received her Ph.D. in mathematics and mathematical physics from Yale before joining the Navy. She was a pioneer in multiple fields including computing. Her accomplishments are too numerous to list here (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper).
Excuse me, Elizabeth. I lived in the Bronx! Dumpster is from Queens. HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Oh dear! My apologies, Christina! I stand corrected. Thank you! I will edit my comment. Obviously a lot of good people live in the Bronx. And no doubt Queens, too, in addition to a few notable rotters.
Thank you. Apology accepted.
For sure. “Not necessarily” is the phrase. There are always exceptions. However when the general public sees Harvard or Yale we think of elite and intelligent. Sophists occur everywhere. I suspect there is a subset at every university who home their game playing skills
Hone
Fair enough, but after saying "not necessarily" you also say that "Often graduates [of Harvard and Yale] are Hobbesian sharks intent on winning the game of power." It's the "often" that triggered my comment. :-)
I should be more precise. I think my expectations for ivy grads are unrealistically high and think about the Zuckerberg and politicians and am disappointed. Maybe we need to accept that all humans are subject to corruption and selfishness. We are human amd subject to flaws. There is an insular phenomenon of “better than” that can arise.
Every day I learn something new about slavery because, in about 16 years of education, I had probably a month of American Black History.
No wonder we are so goddamn ignorant.
I had NONE.
You're not the only one.
I never had one second of it.
History was for and by the white people.
Only after I grew up did I learn of some things, like the massacre in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 or the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
The “Lost Causers” are terrified of this history. They fear Black people will somehow gain tons of power and then treat the LCs as the LCs treat Blacks.
The response to that from one black American woman whos name I didn't catch, featured in a news snippet a few months ago, was that type of people, the advocates of the Lost Cause hagiography and similar absurdities, ought to feel fortunate that blacks seek only equality and fairness, not revenge.
It was activist and pastor Kimberly Jones who said that, in a fiery and righteous 1 minute 15 second speech that went viral online. Her speech and a followup interview are available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPfeg6E52nA
Kimberly Jones' website (https://www.kimjoneswrites.com/) has information about how to get active in the movement, her books, videos, events, and so forth. Worth a visit.
Thanks Elizabeth - fact is after reading laments from some on here about "never," or "for only one month," having had any coverage of black American history in their education, I did not want to immediately risk sounding smug about taking almost enough of those classes to get a minor concentration along with my philosophy major, but I will risk that with you: I started taking courses in philosophy but ALSO black studies, "Afro-American Studies" to be more precise, in Summer Session 1, 1983 (this was a fantastic Ancient Greek philosophy course taught by Jasper Hopkins, the Racism course was in the fall quarter) at the U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities, in part - but not only - because I was living with a black American woman I met in Tempe in 1981, she was then studying and on a tennis scholarship at Arizona State, I was living in Tempe as part of incipient "New Wave" band, anyway the white girls on that ASU tennis team snubbed her, ignored her, it was so bad she was already planning to sacrifice the tennis scholarship and relocate back to Minneapolis when we met, band hadn't worked out, lead singer had developed serious inner ear hearing problems (she was married in the Grand Canyon in spring of 1980 to the other guitarist, she did recommend I read The Man Without Qualities and Nightwood, among other things, I still cherish her for that alone!), so she moved back here June '82, I traveled back over 4th of July - (incredible Greyhound bus trip complete with Phoenix cops busting someone as we waited in line for bus to New Mexico, Denver, Nebraska, Iowa, up I -35 to Mipples, never found out what that was about) to move into apt. she had rented, she was one of the plaintiffs in the case that integrated the Minneapolis Public Schools, we both had left-progressive politics, loved music, had much else in common - from this sketch, you can infer why I took a course along with her called Racism: Psychological and Social Consequences for Black Americans, taught by instructor Dr. John Taborn, a psychologist (who grew up in Cairo Illinois and recalled for the class's edification and education seeing a KKK cross-burning not far outside his own home! That REALLY made an impression on all of us, no doubt) who was educated in the historical material.
I took another four classes, and they were some of the most interesting courses I ever took,
made friends with local legend ex-Black Panther for Oakland Malik Del Mar (brilliant street busker, drummer, played frequently across from statues of "Mary" throwing her hat in the air outside Daytons on Nicollet Mall, Malik died far too young) wrote papers on "Black American Communists in Harlem during the Depression" and "Afro-American Slave Revolts," etc., - I have mentioned my own "Trotskyist phase" on this substack blog a few times, that was years earlier when I was at Macalester, thankfully the far far left "we are the vanguard party!" fever passed, but I learned something from the illness, so to speak) relying heavily on this book: intpubnyc.com/browse/american-negro-slave-revolts/
"A pioneering work that demolished the widespread claims that African Americans accepted slavery and were passive. Exposed the true nature of slavery. 50th Anniversary edition (1943-1993). 428 pages. Notes, Bibliography, Index." I had the original edition, bought at a (Stalinist-CP run bookstore then still existing up SE 4th Street about eleven blocks, now a parking lot between Burrito Loco and The Kollege Klub sports bar. The more things change, the more they remain the same (?), maybe.
Well my writing and brain are halfway awake now, today, anyway.
I wrote the first, longer reply BEFORE I saw the fiery pseudo-justifications of burning down a Target store here in Minneapolis - where RACIAL MINORITIES, black, brown, Native Americans, Hmong, etc. SHOP, she can go take a flyin' leap on that load of counter-productive, self-destructive, pompous bilge (which Lutalo Toure, now a professor of black studies, summed up in the Part 2 of Afro-American History course we were in along with Malik, a course taught by Earl Lewis - now I believe teaching at U. of Michigan, as "Muthaf'er this! Muthaf'er that! burr- oyne! the muthaf'er down!"* school of pointless ranting bearing zero relationship to what the community actually requires.
* Delivered furiously, somewhat along the lines of "Aeeeaaug! Slaight!" - complete with the "nasal bark, like a seal's," timbre, which opens Chapter Four of Lucian's novel Dress Gray, albeit with a different goal, of course. Paralinguistics is where it's at, baby!
I watched her rant and, while I understand the anger and frustration she voices, anyone who need to hear & understand the content of her rant would close the video in the first couple of seconds, if it took that long. The only useful part is her closing line about white people should be thankful that black people (for the most part) are only seeking equality and not revenge.
Let me see if I can find a link to info about someone who diagnosed this back in the mid-1980s...
tcdailyplanet.net/drum-co-op-adds-rhythm-phillips/
OK maybe even better, Lutalo Toure's info was all on American Association of Geography downloads or Facebook (as a favorite personal trainer, the Los Campeones gym logo visible in one photo is of a gym only about sixteen blocks from the drum teaching site mentioned in the article) so that won't work, but the "diagnosis" - similar to what you and I posted, and which I mentioned in another post on here today - was more or less a mutual evaluation Lutalo shared with local legend Malik Del Mar, this will show why the "legend" appellation fits - I run into people who STILL talk about him, a little over twenty years since he passed away, in 2001:
Drum co-op adds rhythm to Phillips
By Jessi Klein () | May 29, 2006
"The house at 1920 11th Ave. S. is quite different from other homes in the Phillips neighborhood, and it has nothing to do with the bright turquoise and yellow addition in the front yard. The residence is home to the Umoja Drum and Music Co-op, a place where people come to learn about African music and any co-op member is welcome to live.
The sound of exotic drum beats can be heard coming from the inside of the co-op every Monday night, where about 10 women gather in a circle for their weekly drum and music lesson. The drum patterns the women play are simple, yet they produce a rich, rhythmic melody.
One student is a Japanese Fulbright Scholar. The woman to her left is a Native American activist and breast cancer survivor. Another is a retired woman from the suburbs. Although very different, the women unite and bond every Monday night through the female-only music lessons.
Erin Thomasson, a co-founder of the musical co-op, begins the session with simple beats on the conga drums, slowly working toward more advanced moves. Toward the end, the class switches to a response chant where students add improvised singing to the drums. Thomasson calls on students who then have to sings words to the beat of the drums. One woman sings about how happy she is that it is spring. With wide smiles on their faces, the women joke and laugh while following Thomasson's lead.
“I can feel the energy moving through me in a positive way,” said Clara Niiska, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and former editor of the Native American Press.
Painted red and trimmed with yellow and green, the inside of the building is just as colorful as the outside. Members and students are invited to write on the walls; phrases like “drumming is life” line the room.
The co-op acknowledges African-American history with pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other important leaders posted on the walls.
In the past, two families and several other co-op members used to live at the home, but now it houses only to Thomasson and her two sons Luke, 8, and Django, 4.
Thomasson is a Caucasian woman with a kind smile and welcoming demeanor. She hardly looks her 41 years of age.
Sitting on an old wooden chair, she recounts the history of the co-op and the uncertainty of its future after the founding member, Malik Del Mar, died in 2001.
After she graduated from Carleton College with a degree in international relations, Thomasson knew she wanted to work in Africa. Through the World Teach program, she was sent to Kenya to teach English and music courses.
“Music is just a big part of the [African] culture,” she said. “The drum itself is seen as the heart beat of people, and it forms the basis of all their music.”
Upon her return to the United States, she joined a drum class on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus in 1990 as a way to continue learning about the African tradition. Del Mar was the teacher.
Thomasson began talking with Del Mar, and they decided they wanted to do more with their musical and social beliefs. The Umoja Drum and Music Co-op was born.
“We wanted to learn how to live cooperatively, learn how to have healthy relationships and learn how to know yourself,” she said. “The philosophy was to use music to break down barriers like age, gender, sexual orientation -“
“Don't forget race,” Luke interjects.
Del Mar began drumming as an African-American youth in San Francisco, where he played on the streets year-round thanks to the good weather. He later moved to Hawaii, a place where he could also perform 365 days a year. He began dating a woman from Minnesota, and the two moved to the Twin Cities.
Street performers, however, were not as well received in Minnesota.
Del Mar was arrested numerous times for playing drums on Nicollet Avenue and in Uptown. Police accused him of panhandling and said he needed a permit to perform in public, Thomasson said. When he went to city hall to purchase a permit, he was told such a permit does not exist.
“They really gave him the runaround,” Thomasson said. “I think racism was involved.”
Del Mar filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and won. The judge ruled that playing music and putting out a basket for money was not panhandling, an illegal activity.
“He was able to get that legal distinction, which opened the door for other street musicians,” Thomasson said.
Despite the hassle from police and city officials, many people were drawn to Del Mar's energetic performances.
“He was very dynamic and charismatic,” Thomasson said. “He gave 110 percent all the time. There was no difference between practice and performance for him.”
Del Mar was not just a performer, however. He loved teaching others the art of drumming.
“He was just very generous with his time and spirit,” Thomasson said. “He gave a lot to people in terms of energy and time.”
Del Mar, Thomasson and the other founding members established that anyone was welcome to attend music lessons.
“There's the idea that only some people are musical,” Thomasson said. “We believe that is false.”
Del Mar taught an average of five drum classes a week. The co-op had at the most four instructors teaching courses and 10 members.
Thomasson and Del Mar pooled their money together in 1993 to buy the house “when real estate was really low.”
“There was not a lot happening here [in the Phillips neighborhood],” Thomasson said. “People didn't want to live here.”
Thomasson and Del Mar's children own the home, although only Thomasson and her children currently live there. The co-op made payments on the house (it is now paid off) and still pays for businesses expenses, like the co-op phone line. Thomasson pays the rest of the expenses for the house.
Although it has been five years since Del Mar died of congestive heart disease, he is still sorely missed by co-op members and students.
“When people pass, their spirit remains with you,” Thomasson said. “We know his spirit is still with us.” ***** [Article continues but those are the main items]
I entirely agree
Patris, of course all I had to do was "google" "Greek Catholic Church" to end up in a series of connected Wiki articles about practicing the Byzantine Rite, and discover there are Greek Catholic churches all over the Balkans and nearby, over 14 out of 23 of them at least! DOH! I have no idea how I managed to read so much history of religion and philosophy, bordering on this specific set of distinctions, and yet found this "new" to me. Possibly I was just "convinced (almost) all the Greeks who are traditional Christians, are ipso facto Greek Orthodox."
Greek Catholic Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually.
The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Catholic Church may refer to:
Individually, any of the 14 out of 23 Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine rite, also referred to as Greek Rite:
the Albanian Greek Catholic Church
the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
the Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia
the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, in Greece and Turkey
the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
the Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
the Romanian Greek Catholic Church
the Russian Greek Catholic Church
the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
the Slovak Greek Catholic Church
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Any other group of Eastern Catholics following the Byzantine rite:
the Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics
an Ordinariate for Eastern Catholic faithful without proper ordinary, in 6 countries
The Catholic Church in Greece, the Latin Church Catholic hierarchy in Greece."
There is definitely a whiff of the fear of retribution
What an image!
You know you did the right thing.
"I’ll be buried in the graveyard at Monticello one day, and if you visit there after my death, you’ll be able to hear me still, in the words on my headstone."
I hope that time is a long way off.
Bravo, Lucian. You didn’t ruin anything except that old fart’s ability to deny the truth of his family’s history. I keep thinking I have witnessed “the last” of the bigots, but we haven’t. My faith is in the Gen-kids who aren’t about to accept idiocy as policy. Does your epitaph begin with “And another thing”……? Let us all hold your spirit, fire, and resolve along with you.
I second that. Bravo, Lucian! All you ruined was a white descendant's ability to bask in the reflected glory of a starry-eyed but wildly inaccurate fantasy that he is descended from a man who was not only an influential Founder, writer of the noble words of the Declaration of Independence, brilliant architect, gifted visionary, talented linguist and horticulturalist, but also some sort of demigod who had no troubling ethical or moral faults.
It's very gratifying to learn that you are not only a Jefferson descendant, but *the* Jefferson descendant who brought Jefferson's Black family back into the fold, demanding that they be acknowledged both as part of Jefferson's personal family, and as incontrovertible evidence of his blindness and hypocrisy in loving Sally Hemmings yet never changing her status as his slave, even as she bore him six children, and never emancipating any of his slaves before he died. You took a stand that is still echoing in our national discussions about our history of slavery, and Black demands for equality, justice, and an end to the society-wide racist persecution of Blacks that is most painfully and violently expressed in police murders of Black people who have committed a petty offense, or no crime at all other than driving or living while Black.
You can tell what a great career jump starter slavery was, by all the white plantation owners’ children who used to run away from home so they could be slaves.
John Lewis would call what you said to that guy “getting into good trouble”! Good for you, Lucian, not to take any crap out of anyone and to the snippety woman who expressed her denials about white slave owners, a pox on her! This is exactly how we must behave when untruths are being told. Lil’ Hitler can take his show to Russia. Wonder how many Floridians would follow him. What a despicable insect he is. Let’s squash his ass!
Power games have deadly consequences, particularly when well-written and performed. "Django Unchained" a revenge movies that spared no expense in portraying the pent up anger engendered by such cruelty. We cheered when the slaves turned the tables on the ruling class! Movies that portray menacing, two-faced whites such as "Get Out", leave me drained emotionally, not knowing whether or not to laugh or cry!
If success is the best revenge, it must really be killing the white racists to see the rise of "the minority" into positions of power in literature and the arts, as well as politics. That may very well explain why today's Republicans are resorting to extreme tactics to disenfranchise Democrats! But in Lincoln's time, Southern Dixiecrats were Democrats.
Today the reverse has occurred as Republicans shamelessly "co-opt" Negroes to deconstruct civil rights in the courts and the legislature. Recently watched "Blazing Saddles", Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor's parody of disrepute which introduced a Black Sheriff in a white, racist town, for utterly dishonorable pretenses.
James Baldwin really knew what to do with rage. He proved once and for all that "the pen is mightier than the sword!" His novels awaken the clueless reader by translating blatant discrimination into heart-rendering tales that shake you to the core.
In two years of Advanced English classes in high school, we read and discussed books by Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. In 10th grade the teacher was the first black individual to teach in our school system. He was also the first person of color most of us had ever encountered who wasn't a maid, gardener or gas station attendant. Quite a revelation, all that.
the fact of Southern Dixiecrats being Democrats was very much the case a LOT more recently than that...
Until this speech altered the party's orientation forever, by the former Mayor of Minneapolis, Hubert Humphrey:
americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html
[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]
Mr. Chairman, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans:
I realize that in speaking in behalf of the minority report on civil rights as presented by Congressman DeMiller of Wisconsin that I'm dealing with a charged issue -- with an issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I realize that there are here today friends and colleagues of mine, many of them, who feel just as deeply and keenly as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.
My respect and admiration for these men and their views was great when I came to this convention. It is now far greater because of the sincerity, the courtesy, and the forthrightness with which many of them have argued in our prolonged discussions in the platform committee.
Because of this very great respect -- and because of my profound belief that we have a challenging task to do here -- because good conscience, decent morality, demands it -- I feel I must rise at this time to support a report -- the minority report -- a report that spells out our democracy, a report that the people of this country can and will understand, and a report that they will enthusiastically acclaim on the great issue of civil rights.
Now let me say this at the outset that this proposal is made for no single region. Our proposal is made for no single class, for no single racial or religious group in mind. All of the regions of this country, all of the states have shared in our precious heritage of American freedom. All the states and all the regions have seen at least some of the infringements of that freedom -- all people -- get this -- all people, white and black, all groups, all racial groups have been the victims at time[s] in this nation of -- let me say -- vicious discrimination.
The masterly statement of our keynote speaker, the distinguished United States Senator from Kentucky, Alben Barkley, made that point with great force. Speaking of the founder of our Party, Thomas Jefferson, he said this, and I quote from Alben Barkley:
He did not proclaim that all the white, or the black, or the red, or the yellow men are equal; that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and Catholic men are equal; that all rich and poor men are equal; that all good and bad men are equal. What he declared was that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was the equality in the right to enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have given their support.
Now these words of Senator Barkley’s are appropriate to this convention -- appropriate to this convention of the oldest, the most truly progressive political party in America. From the time of Thomas Jefferson, the time when that immortal American doctrine of individual rights, under just and fairly administered laws, the Democratic Party has tried hard to secure expanding freedoms for all citizens. Oh, yes, I know, other political parties may have talked more about civil rights, but the Democratic party has surely done more about civil rights.
We have made progress -- we've made great progress in every part of this country. We’ve made great progress in the South; we’ve made it in the West, in the North, and in the East. But we must now focus the direction of that progress towards the -- towards the realization of a full program of civil rights to all. This convention must set out more specifically the direction in which our Party efforts are to go.
We can be proud that we can be guided by the courageous trail blazing of two great Democratic Presidents. We can be proud of the fact that our great and beloved immortal leader Franklin Roosevelt gave us guidance. And we be proud of the fact -- we can be proud of the fact that Harry Truman has had the courage to give to the people of America the new emancipation proclamation.
It seems to me -- It seems to me that the Democratic Party needs to to make definite pledges of the kinds suggested in the minority report, to maintain the trust and the confidence placed in it by the people of all races and all sections of this country. Sure, we’re here as Democrats. But my good friends, we’re here as Americans; we’re here as the believers in the principle and the ideology of democracy, and I firmly believe that as men concerned with our country’s future, we must specify in our platform the guarantees which we have mentioned in the minority report.
Yes, this is far more than a Party matter. Every citizen in this country has a stake in the emergence of the United States as a leader in the free world. That world is being challenged by the world of slavery. For us to play our part effectively, we must be in a morally sound position.
We can’t use a double standard -- There’s no room for double standards in American politics -- for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.
Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantees of the civil rights which we have mentioned in the minority report. In spite of my desire for unanimous agreement on the entire platform, in spite of my desire to see everybody here in honest and unanimous agreement, there are some matters which I think must be stated clearly and without qualification. There can be no hedging -- the newspaper headlines are wrong. There will be no hedging, and there will be no watering down -- if you please -- of the instruments and the principles of the civil-rights program.
My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights. People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.
My good friends, my fellow Democrats, I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic opportunity. Let us do forget the evil passions and the blindness of the past. In these times of world economic, political, and spiritual -- above all spiritual crisis, we cannot and we must not turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of the shadow of death. And now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of American freedom.
For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. And I know that we can, and I know that we shall began [sic] here the fuller and richer realization of that hope, that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely well.
My good friends, I ask my Party, I ask the Democratic Party, to march down the high road of progressive democracy. I ask this convention to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight for civil rights in America!
ThankYou, Richard.
Please, LKTIV, don't even consider moving to that Monticello land any time before reaching at least 120! We all need you here, lending a hand, writing and speaking out, our friend and ally!
Bruce Catton, celebrated Civil war historian, long ago concluded that the war fought for states' rights was inseparably linked to those states' rights to uphold slavery. You can't have the one without the other, or use one as a smokescreen to obscure the other.
I will grant that the question of secession could be an entirely different matter. You don't have to hold that slavery was an admirable reason to secede (hardly), but you can acknowledge that it was a viewpoint at that time.
Free debate over historical events is a valuable part of education. That said, these new efforts to dictate and restrict what can be taught and how it can be taught, to conform to ideological prejudices, are transparent right-wing propaganda and know-nothingness.