Muhammad Ali (via specialnights)
Yes! This is when they tried to draft him into war during the 1960s.
(via sumney)
reading about Clay v United States when I was nine is the reason I do what I do for a living. like, there’s a long version of the story, but it comes down to this.
Fuck the HRC
By now most folks have already heard the allegations that an HRC staffer asked people to remove a trans* flag because “marriage equality is not a transgender issue.” And we all know that’s complete bullshit. Even in their issued denial, though, they make it clear that they wanted to make their whole political theater action as sanitized as possible. Not only did they not want people who are trans, they didn’t even seem to want people who were… too gay?
several people were asked to move who were carrying organizational banners, pride flags or any other flag that was not an American flag
No pride flags! No names of organizations! Just ‘Murica! Because if there’s anyhting that looks too gay, ‘Murica will go back in its hole and it’ll be 10 more years of straight marriage only. Or something.
And now? Holy fuck, really? They were worried that queer undocumented immigrants would come off as… too undocumented and queer? “Don’t talk about your experiences. Just remind everyone why us regular ‘Muricans, who happen to be gay, ought to be able to be married.”
Fuck HRC, and fuck HRC’s America.
As these stories continue to proliferate, what we’re seeing is the underlying philosophy of HRC coming to light: respectability politics. They’re campaigning on the idea that gay (ahem) people are “just like everyone else” and they’ll throw the 90% of us who don’t fit their tiny construction of what respectable, responsible, proper gays look and sound like right to the side — in this case, literally — to maintain the fiction.
Of course, anyone with the ability to think further than their bank account realizes that we’re entitled to civil rights, and equal protection under law and equal participation in society not because we’re “just like” anyone else in how we look, sound, behave or other superficial measures, but because we’re human beings. Human rights are for everyone. But the Human Rights Campaign doesn’t seem to think so.
hey marylanders
and other interested parties. the Maryland Senate voted yesterday to abolish the death penalty. the bill still has to go to the House of Delegates; Gov. O’Malley has said he will sign it if it passes.
you can use THIS to thank the senators, and you can use THIS to contact the governor — anyone can, but it’s especially important for this support to come from MD voters. and even though the repeal is presumptively passed, it’s still important to recognize legislators for taking what is still an unpopular stand in America.
if you want more information, there’s a good story on this at the WaPo HERE.
(AP file photo)
45 Years Ago, a Stand That Turned Deadly
On a February night 45 years ago, a linebacker on the South Carolina State football team named Robert Lee Davis went with three or four teammates to a bowling alley just off the black college’s campus in Orangeburg. Theirs was not an act of recreation but of political protest.
As expected, the alley’s owner turned them away because only whites were admitted. Then the local police arrived to arrest the players for disturbing the peace. When other students nearby began to object, the officers drew their nightsticks and the beatings began.
Two nights later, on Feb. 8, 1968, Davis and a larger group of football players joined their fellow students in building a bonfire near the campus entrance in a demonstration against the police assault. This time, an all-white force of state troopers responded. By the time the lawmen were done firing, 3 South Carolina State students lay dead and 27 had been wounded.
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
—Rosa Parks
On this day in 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her subsequent arrest set in motion the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Photograph of President Reagan and the Signing Ceremony for Martin Luther King Holiday Legislation, 11/02/1983
I love how Ms Coretta looks like she’s just barely restraining herself from punching that racist old windbag in the face.
“We Negroes are American Citizens - First Class tax payers, but so often we are treated as second class citizens, if there is such. In our hearts, we would like to know what it is that the White man has against the Negro. What can we do to make peace with the White man? We have to live on this earth together. We can not do without each other. We as a group, want your friendship, won’t you accept?”
Letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Mrs. Floy J. Anderson Regarding Racial Disputes, 10/15/1957
In this letter, Mrs. Floy J. Anderson, who describes herself as Negro, writes about racial disputes including the recent Little Rock School Integration Crisis, being treated as a second class citizens and an incident where she was refused a ride on a Trans-contentintal Railway Bus.
via DocsTeach
September 20, 1962
James Meredith Barred from Entering the University of Mississippi
On this day in 1962, African American James Meredith was blocked by state officials and violent mobs when he attempted to register for classes at the University of Mississippi, which was all-white until that time.
Meredith had previously obtained a federal court order to allow him to register; however, he was only able to enroll after the Kennedy administration sent in federal troops.
For more information about James Meredith, explore his American Experience profile.
Image: James Meredith’s Letter to the Registrar, University of Mississippi (Library of Congress)
Telegram from James Meredith to Robert Ellis, Registrar of the University of Mississippi, 1962
After a series of legal battles, James Meredith became the first African American accepted at the segregated University of Mississippi. Backed by a Supreme Court ruling, he attempted to register at the Ole Miss campus in Oxford on September 20, 1962 but was personally blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett.
Read more at Integrating Ole Miss from the John F. Kennedy Library
