Occasionally you see something that causes you to sit up and take notice. Today (August 3, 2021) the Army’s Fort Benning, GA is dedicating a memorial to the memory of Felix Hall. A war hero? Sort of. Felix Hall was a 19-year-old soldier who was lynched on the fort’s grounds. He was an African-American who
It is not my intention to rehash the controversy surrounding military installations named for Confederate leaders. But a recent article on Time magazine’s daily email The Brief got my attention. It seems there is a surprising imbalance in who we are choosing to honor in our base naming. According to the article, there are almost
If you think the current political period is divisive, consider the era following the Civil War. It was a time when some thought our very democracy was broken. The trauma of war was followed by economic and technological disruption, and many turned to extreme partisanship. The result was an increased voter turnout in the closest,
Happy 4th of July Monday, the day my community is celebrating! These celebrations of parades, cookouts and fireworks have become de rigueur for us, but did you know this was all predicted? The day after the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, founding father and second president John Adams wrote a letter to his
History always has a way of surprising me. In the turmoil of the Black Lives Matter movement and the widespread revelation of the details of the 1921 Tulsa Riot, one topic that comes up semi-regularly is reparations for the formerly enslaved. No matter what your viewpoint, you may be surprised to learn (as I was)
On June 22, 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. It was one of the most farsighted accomplishments in our history. The act is most remembered for allowing veterans to go to college and providing job training. But in addition, it
The United States has over 2600 National Historic Landmarks. These special properties illustrate our heritage in many forms: buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts. As one might expect, all are within the borders of the United States. Except one. Go back to 1777 and the earlier days of our Revolutionary War. As European countries debated
On June 13, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was appointed a Supreme Court justice by President Lyndon Johnson. He was the first African American named to the nation’s highest court. Not that he had never been in those hallowed halls before — he had argued and won his first Supreme Court case at age 32 in Chambers v.
Are we a racist country? No matter your politics, the inescapable conclusion is if we aren’t today (a big if), we certainly have been for most of our history. I do a lot of reading, especially about our past, and I keep running across these little reminders of how divisive our race relations used to
For over a year now, violence against Asian Americans has been all over the news. I have a particular interest in this topic because members of my family are of Asian descent. Which is why an article entitled “11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know” caught my eye. This is another example
