February 12th 1914: Lincoln Memorial groundbreakingOn this day...

The cornerstone is laid


The memorial under construction


The Lincoln Memorial

February 12th 1914: Lincoln Memorial groundbreaking

On this day in 1914 in Washington DC, work officially began on the Lincoln Memorial. There had been many attempts by Congress to build a monument to the sixteenth president, famous for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and in 1910 a bill funding the memorial passed the Senate. On February 12th 1914, the 105th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the groundbreaking ceremony took place; the next year on the same day, the cornerstone was laid. The memorial was completed in 1922, featuring a statue of Lincoln and inscriptions of his famous Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. Today, the memorial is an iconic tribute to one of America’s greatest presidents, and has been the site of major events in American history, most famously Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

“IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER”

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the-movemnt: The Equal Justice Initiative is building a... 14

the-movemnt:

The Equal Justice Initiative is building a memorial for lynching victims — and it’s about time.

The Equal Justice Initiative announced on Tuesday that it will build the first-ever national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama. Titled “Memorial to Peace and Justice,” the EJI project will sit on six acres of land that used to be a public housing project in Montgomery. 

The structure will include the thousands of lynching victims’ names on concrete columns, which will represent hundreds of U.S. counties where the acts took place. The memorial will also coincide with the opening of a museum.

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August 28th 1963: March on WashingtonOn this day in 1963, the...

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial


Signs held by marchers


Civil rights leaders heading the march


Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte made up the Hollywood presence at the march


Demonstrators queue along the National Mall for buses to take them home after the march


View of marchers in front of the Lincoln Memorial

August 28th 1963: March on Washington

On this day in 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place. The march was a key moment of the Civil Rights Movement, and a triumph for the nonviolence philosophy which underpinned the movement. The march is best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which extolled King’s vision of an America free of racial discrimination. Other speakers included chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee John Lewis and veteran civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph. When politicians in Washington heard about the march many, including President John F. Kennedy, feared that there would be violence and rioting. The peaceful gathering of over 250,000 supporters of civil rights, with many whites in attendance as well as African-Americans, highlighted issues of racial discrimination and unequal housing and employment. The demonstration in the nation’s capital, and King’s speech in particular, spurred America into action and paved the way for the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, vital tools in the fight for racial equality.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’…
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

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January 15th 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. bornOn this day in...

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)





Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington in 1963





King at the hotel where he would be shot shortly before his assassination





MLK memorial in Washington, DC

January 15th 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. born



On this day in 1929, the future civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Born as Martin King, he and his father changed their names in honour of Protestant reformer Martin Luther. King entered the ministry in his twenties and first came to national attention for his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. This event is considered by many the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, which saw a national fight against discrimination suffered by African-Americans. King was one of many leaders, but became the face of the movement for his nonviolent tactics and powerful oratory. In 1963, during the March on Washington, King delivered the crowning speech of the struggle - the ‘I have a dream’ speech. Beyond his role in combating racial inequality, King also focused on tackling poverty and advocating peace, especially during the Vietnam War. On April 4th 1968, King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. He lived to see the legislative achievements of the movement - the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act - but tragically was unable to continue the push for full equality. The movement King set in motion continues to be fought today; the United States is still not a completely equal society and systemic discrimination persists. However thanks to Martin Luther King, America is closer to fulfilling King’s dream of a truly free and equal society. Since 1986, a national Martin Luther King Day is celebrated on the third Monday of January.



Today would have been his 86th birthday

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An American town and its way of life_ Southington_ Conn. The Memorial Day parade moving down the main street.

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February 26th 1993: World Trade Center bombingOn this day in...

February 26th 1993: World Trade Center bombing

On this day in 1993, a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower to destroy them both, but this did not occur. The attack still killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and injured over one thousand. The terrorist attack was planned by a group of conspirators and masterminded by Ramzi Yousef. In 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing and two more were convicted in 1997. The group were funded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who would go on to be the principal co-ordinator behind the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11th 2001. The memorial to the victims of the 1993 attack was destroyed on 9/11, but they are currently memorialised at the North Pool of the National 9/11 Memorial, opened in 2011.

“It felt like an airplane hit the building”
- eye-witness Bruce Pomper on the 1993 attack

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April 13th 1919: Jallianwala Bagh massacreOn this day in 1919,...

Depiction of the massacre (http://ift.tt/1kLJHUE


memorial to the victims


plaque in the garden today

April 13th 1919: Jallianwala Bagh massacre

On this day in 1919, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the Indian city of Amritsar in the Punjab region. The gathered crowd were non-violent Indian nationalists - protesting British conscription of Indians and heavy war tax - and pilgrims celebrating the holiday of Baisakhi. Fifty British soldiers, under the leadership of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, opened fire on the gathering; Dyer told his men to shoot to kill. The Jallianwala Bagh garden had only a few narrow entrances, and the stampedes to flee at these narrow pathways caused a number of additional deaths. A curfew was in place, and thus no-one could attend to the wounded, who were left to die overnight. The British Raj claimed 379 fatalities, but the Indian National Congress put the figure much higher at around 1,000. The brutality of the unwarranted attack, and initial praise for Dyer from the British government, caused outrage in India. The massacre seemed emblematic of the issues of rule by a foreign power, and the tragic incident is seen as an important step on the path to Indian independence.

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December 16th 705: Empress Wu Zetian diesOn this day in 705, Wu...

Wu Zetian (624 - 705)


Wu's memorial tablet, which was left blank with the expectation of being enscribed with an epitaph, which never happened (source: http://ift.tt/1O6gGeH

December 16th 705: Empress Wu Zetian dies

On this day in 705, Wu Zetian, the only sovereign empress of China, died aged 81. Born during the Tang dynasty, she entered the court of Emperor Taizong as a concubine when she was 14 years old. After Taizong’s death, the new emperor Gaozong defied custom and chose the well-educated Wu to remain as his favourite concubine. She rose to become Gaozong’s empress in 655, after elimating the current empress by allegedly killing her own child and framing the empress. The new empress quickly silenced the elder statesmen who opposed her position on the grounds that she did not hail from the established aristocracy, with critics exiled and, often, executed. Emperor Gaozong was a sickly man, and frequently entrusted affairs of state to Wu, who managed imperial business essentially single-handedly. Wu was a capable leader, known for her sound management, her decisiveness, and her ruthlessness; these attributes won her the respect, and fear, of the Chinese imperial court. Her greatest accomplishments included agricultural and education reform, stabilisation of the imperial bureaucracy, and imperial expansion. Upon Gaozong’s death in 683, his son by Wu ascended to the throne, but, concerned by the machinations of his ambitious wife, Wu had him exiled and installed her other son as emperor. In 690, when she was 65 years old, the empress claimed the throne for herself, and ruled as a sovereign empress for 15 years. The question of succession led Wu to designate her exiled son as heir, rather than choosing a member of her own family, thus ensuring the continuation of the Tang dynasty. In 705, senior officials conspired to compel the aging Wu to yield power to her son. She accepted their demands and retired from the throne, dying in December of that year. Despite decades of condemnation as a vicious usurper, the achievements of Empress Wu Zetian, who defied the gender conventions of her day, are increasingly being acknowledged.

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vox: Wednesday night, a white man walked into a historically... 14

vox:

Wednesday night, a white man walked into a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot nine parishioners. Today, a Confederate flag is flying on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia — as it does every day. While the flags on top of the statehouse itself are flying at half-mast, the Confederate flag (displayed at a Civil War memorial) is flying at full mast.

That the Confederate flag flies high today, after what Charleston police are describing as a hate crime, is profoundly ugly. 

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"For God’s sake, Benjamin, do not get a fishing reputation at the start;…take a..." 11

“For God’s sake, Benjamin, do not get a fishing reputation at the start;…take a fool’s advice and watch Public Opinion, and let Grover Cleveland go fishing.”

-

Leroy Walker to Benjamin Harrison, August 17th, 1888. 

Walker, a resident of the National Military Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, warned the candidate not to associate himself with fishing. President Cleveland had upset numerous G.A.R. veterans when he was caught fishing on Decoration Day (now called Memorial Day). Harrison went ahead and fished anyway, and read Tolstoy in the evenings before work.

Candidate Harrison was taking a break from the campaign up on Middle Bass Island in Lake Erie at the invitation of Ohio Governor J. B. Foraker and former Governor Charles Foster. While in the Buckeye State, the candidate gave a few speeches, but focused on writing his official letter of acceptance of the Republican nomination.

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March 29th 1947: Malagasy revolt beginsOn this day in 1947,...

Malagasy fighter (wikipedia)


French troops (http://ift.tt/1RExUVB)


Memorial to the revolt (wikipedia)

March 29th 1947: Malagasy revolt begins

On this day in 1947, Malagasy nationalists began an uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar. The island became a French overseas territory the previous year, which prompted the establishment of the pro-independence political party Mouvement Democratique de la Renovation Malagache (MDRM). In March 1947, Malagasy (the primary ethnic group of Madagascar) nationalist tribesmen revolted in the eastern part of the island. The revolt rapidly spread across Madagascar, seizing one third of the island. However, once French soldiers received reinforcements, they were able to quicky quell the rebellion. The suppression was swift and bloody, with Malagasy people subject to torture, rape, and mass execution. By the time the rebellion ended, in December 1948, tens of thousands of Malagasy people (estimates range between 10,000 to 90,000), had lost their lives. While the poliitcal leaders of the MDRM denied responsibility for the revolt, the party was outlawed by the French. Twenty military officials were executed for their role in the uprising, followed by thousands of further convictions. While the uprising was officially suppressed, Malagasy nationalists continued to wage a guerilla war against the French. In 1958, France allowed the people of Madagascar to vote on their future, and they decided to become autonomous within the French community. The country became a republic in October 1958, and fully independent in 1960.

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October 23rd 1910: King Chulalongkorn diesOn this day in 1910...

King Chulalongkorn (1853 - 1910)


Postcard of current ruling monarchs from 1908

October 23rd 1910: King Chulalongkorn dies

On this day in 1910 the King of Siam, Chulalongkorn (also known as Rama V), died in the royal palace in Bangkok, aged 57. In 1868 Chulalongkorn’s father, King Mongkut, died, leaving his 15 year old son to ascend to the throne under a regent. Chulalongkorn was crowned King in 1873 and immediately embarked on an ambitious series of reforms. These reforms included the abolition of slavery, and widespread institutional reform which aimed to Westernise Siam. After facing conservative opposition to these measures, the young King held off on further efforts until the late 1890s. At this time, the King’s reforms overhauled the Siamese system and reorganised government into Western-style ministries. Chulalongkorn also instituted compulsory primary education, universal military conscription, and modern technology like electric lights and railways. Chulalongkorn’s decisions to reform were particularly canny political maneuvers, intended to avoid colonial rule by showing Siam was ‘bettering’ itself of its own volition. Even though Siam was still subjected to the colonial machinations of the French and British, the nation retained remarkable autonomy and Chulalongkorn was treated as an equal among world monarchs. Chulalongkorn’s death in 1910 ended the longest reign in the nation’s history, as power passed to his son Vajiravudh. His legacy lives on in what is now Thailand, as he is commemorated as ‘the Great Chulalongkorn’ and 'the Father of Modern Thailand’, and in the celebration of Chulalongkorn Memorial Day every year on the anniversary of his death.

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August 27th 1979: Lord Mountbatten killedOn this day in 1979,...

Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900 - 1979)


British army lorry destroyed in the Warrenpoint ambush


The Queen and Prince Philip at Mountbatten's funeral

August 27th 1979: Lord Mountbatten killed

On this day in 1979, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, Louis Mountbatten, was killed by the IRA, aged seventy-nine. The bomb blast on Mountbatten’s boat, sailing near the border of Northern Ireland, also killed one of his grandsons and two others. The bombing followed the murder of Catholic civilians by loyalists in Ireland, and the separatist Irish Republican Army quickly claimed responsibility for the attack on Mountbatten, which they called an ‘execution’, stating that they targeted him to draw attention to the oppressive presence of British troops in Ireland. The murder of the Queen’s second cousin and Prince Philip’s uncle, who had been a prominent military officer and diplomat, prompted outrage throughout Britain and increased violence in Ireland. Thomas McMahon was arrested and convicted of the bombing, but was eventually released as a provision of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between Britain and Northern Ireland. Only hours after the attack on Mountbatten, eighteen British soldiers in Northern Ireland were killed by two car bombs planted by the IRA. The Warrenpoint ambush, as it was known, was the deadliest attack on the British army during the Troubles. A memorial service for the victims, which included a civilian, was held in September. Mountbatten’s funeral, attended by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, also took place in September at Westminster Abbey.

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jamaicanblackcastoroil: sauvamente: votariies: sauvamente: th... 14

jamaicanblackcastoroil:

sauvamente:

votariies:

sauvamente:

the-movemnt:

Louisiana House passes bill banning the removal of Confederate statues, black caucus walks out

• State lawmakers in Louisiana passed a bill Monday night seeking to ban further removal of contentious Confederate monuments.
  
• State House black caucus members walked out of the House chamber in protest after their peers voted 65-31 in favor of House Bill 71, which would ban the removal of any military memorial plaque, statue or other monument from public property throughout the state without an approving vote from local residents, according to multiple sources.
  
• “Members, we have 18 bills left, so don’t go far,” a legislative leader is heard saying in video of the vote as the black legislators left the chamber one by one.
  
• Now the measure goes to the state Senate for consideration, but even if it passes and is ultimately signed into law, it likely won’t stop the ongoing removal of the four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, the Advocate reported. Read more (5/16/17)
  

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White people so damn evil like y'all lost get over it, bad enough you got prisoners serving lunch and working in the governor mansion

What’s even more incredible is that the initial effort to remove those statues was in direct response to Dylann Roof’s white supremacist attack on Black church goers. Knowing that Roof posed with things like the confederate battle flag, the mayor of New Orleans called for the removal of those statues in order to communicate that those racist monuments weren’t just old mementos of the past: white supremacists, today, see those monuments and feel vindicated by them, feel compelled to complete what their foiled ancestors started. Reneging on the promise to take them down is the equivalent of saying that those 9 people who died and the entire community that was traumatized because of a confederacy-obsessed white man do not matter because white supremacy is not a threat to the ideals New Orleans imagines itself as representing as a state. Which, let’s be frank, is a more honest rendering of the United State’s relationship to African Americans and Black people in general, but it’d be great if they could at least pretend to want to be accountable for the harm structures and cultures of white supremacy have done to Black people.

Being accountable means they would have to take responsibility for the climate it takes to build these racist terroristic monsters. These motherfuckers still worshipping ghosts and wondering why they stuck.

Always telling us to get over slavery but won’t get over honoring dead confederates

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"There is one candidate here who at present apparently has no chance, but who, nevertheless, seems to..." 11

“There is one candidate here who at present apparently has no chance, but who, nevertheless, seems to me to possess more popular qualifications than any other, and that is Gen. Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. I do not know him, never met him, but he rose from the humblest beginnings until he became the leader of the bar of his state. He enlisted in the Civil War as a second lieutenant, and be conspicuous bravery and skill upon the battlefield, came out as a brigadier general. As United States Senator he became informed about Federal Affairs. His grandfather, President William Henry Harrison, had one of the most picturesque campaigns in our history. There are enough survivors of that ‘hard cider and log cabin’ canvass to make an attractive contribution on the platform at every meeting, and thus add a certain historic flavor to General Harrison’s candidacy.”

-

Chauncey M. Depew, quoted in the Report of the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Commission (77th Cong. 1st Sess., House Doc. No. 154), p. 137.

Depew claimed credit for convincing the New York delegation to support Harrison. He had been New York’s ‘favorite son,’ but withdrew. In November of 1888, just after the election, Depew said in an interview with the Rochester Morning Herald that a “harmony dinner” he’d hosted pushed the delegation toward Harrison’s camp.

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Portrait of firemen of the K.C. Barker Company No. 4 posing with... 13

Portrait of firemen of the K.C. Barker Company No. 4 posing with their horse-drawn fire engine in front of their fire station during memorial parade for Abraham Lincoln in Detroit, Michigan, April 25, 1865.

Source: Detroit Historical Society.

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February 18th 1873: Vasil Levski executedOn this day in 1873, by...

Vasil Levski (1837 - 1873)


Memorial to Levski at the site of his execution in Sofia (image from Trip Advisor)

February 18th 1873: Vasil Levski executed

On this day in 1873, by the new-style calendar, Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski was executed in Sofia, aged 35. Levski was born as Vasil Kunchev in Karlovo in 1837, and as a young adult became a deacon. However, he soon gave up the monastic life and fled to Serbia to enlist in a Bulgarian legion fighting against the Ottoman Empire. During this time, he earned the nickname Levski (‘lionlike’), and became convinced that Bulgaria would only be liberated from oppressive Ottoman rule if the movement was highly organised and energised the massses. He envisioned a democratic republican government for an independent Bulgaria, with freedom of expression, speech, and association enshrined in law; liberated Bulgaria would be a land of ethnic and religious equality. In an attempt to stoke revolutionary fervour, Levski began setting up local committees in Bulgaria itself - moving away from a foreign-based movement. By the early 1870s, he had successfully established a clandestine revolutionary network in localities across Bulgaria, led by a central body in the town of Lovech. However, in 1872, a failed robbery of a Turkish post office alerted the authorities to the presence and scope of the revolutionary organisation. The police then began a crackdown of revolutionaries, but Levski refused to heed the advice of his peers and begin the revolution, as he did not believe the population was adequately prepared. Levski was ultimately arrested and sentenced to death by hanging, though he refused to surrender the names of his accomplicies; he was sent to the gallows in Sofia in February 1873. Levski’s death threw the revolutionary movement into disarray, but, five years after his execution, his dream was realised and Bulgaria secured its independence. Today, Vasil Levski is remembered in Bulgaria as a national hero, known as the ‘apostle of freedom’.

“If I shall win, I shall win for the entire people. If I shall lose, I shall lose only myself”

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February 22nd 1943: White Rose group executedOn this day in...

The Scholls and Probst


Memorial to the White Rose at the University of Munich


The Scholls' graves

February 22nd 1943: White Rose group executed

On this day in 1943, three members of the peaceful resistance movement in Nazi Germany, the White Rose, were executed. The White Rose, comprising students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor, began in June 1942. The group secretly distributed leaflets protesting against the regime of Adolf Hitler and the war being waged in Europe, highlighting the repressive nature of the Nazi police state and drawing attention to the mistreatment of Jews. The group took precautions to avoid capture by keeping the White Rose group very small. However, on 18th February 1943, the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl were discovered distributing leaflets by a university janitor, who informed the Gestapo. Hans and Sophie were arrested and immediately admitted guilt, hoping to avoid being coerced into implicating their fellow members of the White Rose, but after further interrogation were forced to give up the names. Four days later, the Scholls and Christoph Probst - some of the founding members of the group - were put on trial and found guilty of treason; they were sentenced to death. That same day, February 22nd, the three were executed by beheading at Stadelheim Prison. After their executions, the remaining members were arrested and killed, thus ending the White Rose resistance movement. The White Rose, alongside other groups like the Edelweiss Pirates, are an important example of Germans speaking out against Hitler’s regime, and their deaths are yet another in the litany of Nazi crimes.

“We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

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