By: john whitfield

Jan. 19, 1942 EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/executive-order-9066/?fbclid=IwAR0MmStIKZ5KFWOnWx1PovyWufIj-vh3s54M9h_qYHWmxlIJ-Z6pz7eMTKQ

On Feb. 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. It authorized the incarceration (internment) of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. About 122,000 people were sent to concentration camps. Many of their homes, businesses, and farms were confiscated.

We refer to the internment as incarceration. This choice of language is recommended by the Densho Encyclopedia, because “One of the strategies employed by the federal government to sell the forced removal and confinement of Japanese American from the West Coast during World War II was the use of euphemistic terms that masked the true nature of what was being done.” Read their full statement, Do words matter?

Executive Order 9066 | Zinn Education Project

Japanese Americans arrive at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California. The racetrack was requisitioned for the Santa Anita Assembly center, with horse stalls as dwelling cells until citizens were transferred to inland incarceration camps. By Clem Albers. Source: Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority

This history has a chilling relevance with the Trump administration’s references to a Muslim registry and the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Find lessons and other resources below to teach outside the textbook about Executive Order 9066. These include a lesson on the seldom told history of Japanese Latin Americans who were forcibly brought to the U.S. to be incarcerated during WWII, a children’s book about Fred Korematsu who resisted incarceration in a case that went to the Supreme Court, and a film about the 63 Japanese Americans who refused to be drafted while being held held in an incarceration camp.

By: john whitfield

Feb. 18, 1865: Black Soldiers March into Charleston (Zinn Ed. Proj.)

Before the Civil War, Charleston, South Carolina was the U.S. capital of slavery. So when Union soldiers, most of whom were members of the 21st United States Colored Troops, entered the city on February 18, 1865, they were met by crowds of formerly enslaved people, cheering the men who had helped in their liberation.

One account reported that the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment sang “John Brown’s Body” as they entered the city. James Redpath, a correspondent for The New-York Tribune, wrote,

"Imagine, if you can, this stirring song chanted with the most rapturous, most exultant emphasis, by a regiment of negro troops, who have been lying in sight of Charleston for nearly two years — as they trod with tumultuous delight along the streets of this pro-Slavery city."

The Zinn Education Project offers materials and recommends resources to learn and teach a history of abolition and the Civil War that is far more compelling than what's found in traditional textbooks and is told from the bottom-up — a people's history. #TeachOutsideTextbook

One account told of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment singing “John Brown’s Body” as they entered the city a few days later:

John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,

John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,

John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,

But his soul goes marching on.

CHORUS: Glory, glory, hallelujah,

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

His soul goes marching on.

He’s gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,

He’s gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,

He’s gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,

His soul goes marching on.–CHORUS

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/Black-Soldiers-March-into-Charleston?fbclid=IwAR0RKXaN89v4xGUcDJAMGxDAxP7as-X6IQqo5RNlQYHJ_YWCE9P1omif5ZM

By: john whitfield

A poem for FEBRUARY 22, 2021

A poem for FEBRUARY 22, 2021

REMEMBER WHEN THE NUMBER OF US in the usa DIED OF THE VIRUS IN 2020

THAT WERE KILLED IN VIET NAM? THE HORRENDOUS PANDEMIC.

NOW WE APPROACH AN ASTRONOMICAL FIGURE

OF A HALF A MILLION THAT HAVE PERISHED FROM

THE COVID DISEASE, WHILE ALAS NOW THERE ARE SOME VACCINES.

Nearly the same as the population of Atlanta, Georgia states the L.A. Times.

WHILE ON THE WORLD STAGE IT HAS TAKEN THE LIVES OF ABOUT AS MANY

VIETNAMESE THAT DIED IN THE AMERICAN WAR THERE.

AND HAVE YOU READ ABOUT THE SPANISH FLU THAT BEGAN IN KANSAS?

AS THE WORLD HAD ALREADY BEEN RAVAGED BY WORLD WAR ONE.

MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, AROUND THE TIME THAT MOTHER WAS BORN.

WAS THAT HOW HER INFANT BROTHER GALE PASSED ON?

SAD THAT WE CHUCKLED AT HER FOR WASHING HER HANDS SO MUCH

AS WE RECALL HER PASSING A FEW YEARS AGO NEXT MONTH, and now we all do the same.

j.s. whitfield

By: john whitfield

IBC, Iraq Body Count

www.iraqbodycount.org

Iraq Body Count maintains the world’s largest public database of violent civilian deaths since the 2003 invasion, as well as separate running total which includes combatants.

IBC's data is drawn from cross-checked media reports, hospital, morgue, NGO and official figures or records (see About IBC).

The public record of violent deaths following the 2003 invasion of Iraq Documented civilian deaths from violence

185,548 – 208,611

Total violent deaths including combatants, 288,000

Bombings in Baghdad reduced, but never went away 26 Jan 2021

Legitimacy, security and war crime let-offs 31 Dec 2020

Sunday 31 January: 1 killed

Tuz Khurmato: 1 shepherd killed by IED.

JANUARY TOTAL 64 CIVILIANS

AND 118 COMBATANTS KILLED

Friday 29 January: 1 killed

Jalawla: 1 child killed by explosive.

Thursday 28 January: 1 killed

Baghdad: 1 policeman killed by gunmen.

Wednesday 27 January: 1 killed

Najaf: 1 child killed by IED.

Tuesday 26 January: 2 killed

Al-Muradiya: 2 brothers killed by gunmen.

Thursday 21 January: 32 killed

Baghdad: 32 killed by IS suicide bombers in Tayaran Square.

Tuesday 19 January: 1 killed

Bu Khwaima: 1 child killed by IED.

Iraq Body Count (IBC) is an analytical project, not a news portal. Our procedure is to collect and reconcile every available, distinct report about each incident. For larger events, stories may run into the dozens and continue to emerge for days or weeks. This, and the inexorable rise in daily violent incidents, means that there is a considerable gap between the initial reporting of events and their first appearance in the IBC database.

However, we obtain an early impression of events within about 48 hours of first reports. This page provides our news gatherer's account of such recent events, but please keep in mind that these are not our final database entries. Rather, they should be considered an early update on civilian casualties.

Key IBC publications

Civilian deaths in “noble” Iraq mission pass 10,000

A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq 2003-2005

Post-surge violence: its extent and nature

How can the utility of press reports be assessed?

How has IBC been used by others?

External links

Stolen Futures: Major new report shows 11,420 children killed in Syrian conflict

ICRC Family/Relatives Search

Iraq Coalition Casualties Count

please select all, copy, and paste (iraqbodycount.org) to get a better picture

By: john whitfield

Feb. 24, 1969: Tinker v. Des Moines Case Wins Free Speech Rights for Students

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/constitutional-rights-of-students/?fbclid=IwAR0NrXQbDuctETVtRuswjHofb61huMwbNRLeq1aWstYF1DBQMtKfJxyVw3k

On Dec. 16, 1965, a group of students — including organizer Bruce Clark (17 years old), Christopher Eckhardt (16 years old), John F. Tinker (15 years old), Mary Beth Tinker (13 years old), Hope Tinker (11 years old), Paul Tinker (8 years old) — wore black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. The school board got wind of the protest and passed a preemptive ban. When the students arrived at school on December 16, they were asked to remove the armband. When the students refused, they were sent home.

The students were suspended and told they could not return to school until they agreed to remove their armbands.

Represented by the ACLU, five of the students and their families embarked on a four-year court battle that culminated in the landmark Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines.

On February 24, 1969, the Court ruled 7-2 that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Court ruled that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and school officials could not censor student speech unless it disrupted the educational process. Because wearing a black armband was not disruptive, the Court held that the First Amendment protected the right of students to wear one. [Adapted from ACLU post.]

Mary Beth Tinker frequently talks with young people about the background of the story. She describes her family’s activism, Freedom Summer, and Burnside v. Byars, a Mississippi case that set the precedent for Tinker v. Des Moines.

Mary Beth Tinker

I grew up in Iowa in the 1950s and ’60s. Like now, more and more people were speaking up about the great economic and racial injustice.

One of them was my father, a Methodist minister. He complained to authorities about the local swimming pool’s “whites only” policy, and was removed from his church.

My mother saw that the local drugstore didn’t hire African Americans, so she joined a picket line with her friend, Edna. When she started taking us kids along, it was exciting to stand up against “racial discrimination” by carrying signs and singing freedom songs.

In fact, lots of kids were standing up. In 1963, at age 10, I watched TV as the brave kids of the Birmingham Children’s March faced German shepherds and water hoses.

That summer, my sister went to the March on Washington with prize money she won in an NAACP essay contest on “What the Emancipation Proclamation Means to Me.”

In 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) started Mississippi Freedom Summer. With white terrorism, only 5 percent of African Americans were registered.

It was a huge success, leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, among other victories. But as the summer began, three youths were murdered by the Klan, and on August 4, the bodies of James Chaney, Micky Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were found.

The very same day, August 4, the U.S. Navy claimed that a ship had been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. The resulting congressional resolution escalated the Vietnam War.

On August 24, my parents went to Mississippi to volunteer with Freedom Summer. They returned with tales of Fannie Lou Hamer, love, and shootings. I turned 12.

SNCC_1vote-300x266That fall, Mississippi high school students protested the Freedom Summer killings with buttons saying “One Man, One Vote. SNCC.” They were suspended, and went to court.

By Christmas of 1965, it was my turn to speak up. Watching burning huts and soldiers in body bags on TV, my brothers and sisters and I joined other students to wear black armbands to mourn the dead. When we were suspended, the ACLU took the case.

As “Tinker” wound through the courts, the Burnside students won at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1966. Soon after, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against us. With opposite rulings in similar cases, the stage was set for a Supreme Court appeal. Burnside was not appealed, but Tinker was, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear it.

The ruling in 1969 in our favor was a victory for all public school students. Citing Burnside, the court said a student “may express his opinions, even on controversial subjects” . . . if he does so without “materially and substantially interfer[ing] with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school” and without colliding with the rights of others. (Burnside v. Byars.)

mary_beth_tinker_students_ncss2013

Mary Beth Tinker and students at the National Council for the Social Studies, 2013. Source: Zinn Education Project.

Since Tinker, three Supreme Court rulings have cut back on the speech rights of students: Bethel v. Fraser, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, and Morse v. Fraser. But the basic precedent of Tinker remains — that students do have free speech rights in public schools.

By: john whitfield

Resolution Honoring Karen Lewis, CTU President Emerita

CTPF Trustees Pass Resolution Honoring Karen Lewis, CTU President Emerita

February 18, 2021

2021 Karen Lewis Resolution

The CTPF Board of Trustees voted unanimously to pass a resolution honoring CTPF Member and CTU President Emerita, Karen Lewis, during their February 18, 2021, meeting. The honor follows Lewis' passing on February 7, 2021.

The resolution noted her lifetime of accomplishments and powerful legacy which will live on providing inspiration for the next generation of teachers, laborers, and other leaders to emulate.

The Trustees determined that:

Karen Lewis, President Emerita of the Chicago Teachers Union and CTPF Member has served her students, profession, community, and nation with distinction.

Karen Lewis fought tirelessly to foster excellence in the teaching and learning experience, to safeguard public education, advocate for equality, and protect the rights of CTPF students and educators throughout state of Illinois and throughout her life.

That the Board of Trustees, on behalf of the CTPF membership, recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate Karen Lewis’ legacy and hold that her memory be forever a blessing.

By: john whitfield

Feb. 26, 2012: Trayvon Martin Murdered

On Feb. 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, was murdered.

The death of Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman sparked the national and global Movement for Black Lives.

"The day is necessarily somber. Trayvon’s death at the hands of white supremacist vigilante violence indicated the beginning of an escalating attack on Black lives and demanded that this nation confront its overtly racist past and present." — Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement

Teach this past, to help students understand the present, with resources at the Zinn Education Project, including the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle campaign and Rethinking Schools' educators' guide, 'Teaching for Black Lives.' #TeachOutsideTextbook

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/trayvon-martin-murdered/?fbclid=IwAR1J1Oxi51oVIakfsO8tAA048qYzqRvuKAhRP_kRtUDEGk_KW8PehHWeSvU

(PLEASE SELECT ALL, COPY, AND PASTEABOVE LINK ONTO YOUR BROWSER, FOR A BETTER DEPICTION) (ZINN ED. PROJ.)

By: john whitfield

Ella Jenkins, a Hidden Figure in the Fight for Civil Rights

Ella Jenkins, a Hidden Figure in the Fight for Civil Rights

February 26, 2021 Ty-Juana Taylor

In 2011, Ella Jenkins and U.S. Representative John Lewis shared a stage to accept the Living Legends for Service to Humanity Award. The two are seen laughing, perhaps sharing a memory from a history that most never knew intertwined. To many, Ella Jenkins is solely the First Lady of Children’s Music—the figure who, on Barney, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, introduced them to the music and culture of other youth across the globe. However, unbeknownst to most, her career has always been tethered to the fight for equality for all Americans.

In 1924, Ella Jenkins was born into a time of vast racial disparity: the latter half of the Jim Crow era. Raised in segregated Chicago, her passion for tackling injustice began at a young age and prior to her launching a music career that would develop in parallel with the civil rights movement. In her late teens, she joined an interracial high school organization called the conference, and as a young woman she joined the Congress of Racial Equality.

Founded in Chicago in 1942, C.O.R.E. was a nationwide organization crucial to the invention and implementation of protest tactics used throughout the civil rights movement, including freedom rides, marches, demonstrations, sit-ins, and freedom songs. The students who conceived of and developed this interracial organization worked to create systemic change through non-violent means, a strategy which Jenkins would employ throughout her career.

As a young member of C.O.R.E., Jenkins quickly found a space in which to pair her passion for fighting against inequality with her love for music. Jenkins recalls learning freedom songs in C.O.R.E meetings, but one meeting in particular inspired her. After hearing words from several Freedom Riders—including John Lewis—Jenkins grew more determined. She continued to participate in marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations but took things a step further.

She used her position as a touring musician to challenge inequality across America, identifying and challenging segregation in restaurants and hotels across the country. Her experience of segregation is best exemplified in a story she has widely shared. At the time, she was performing in The School Assembly Service, a series of school concerts and music demonstrations she performed throughout the Midwest and South.

“I phoned the principal at two o’clock in the morning,” she recounted for The History Makers. “I said, ‘Sir, I am sorry to bother you, but we are supposed to be at your school in about a few hours, and we can’t find a place to stay. At this motel, she said she doesn’t accept [Negroes].’ He said, ‘Let me talk to her.’ ... Next thing, we had rooms. I finally had to say to the people who were hiring me, because it was a year’s work, ‘Unless you can tell me where we can stay along the way, I will have to discontinue this contract.”

These brazen acts, in addition to what her longtime manager Bernadelle Richter calls Jenkins’s “never being afraid to express herself musically,” were her tools to fight discrimination. Looking back, many may not realize the seriousness of her actions. In the early 1960s, she was an African American woman traveling the United States by car during the time of Jim Crow and Sundown towns. With each car ride, she had to be mindful of where she stopped, if she could stop, where to use the restroom, dine, or sleep.

On tour, Jenkins flourished in spaces others might find contentious. In many communities and schools, she was possibly the only African American these children, and perhaps even adults, had seen or engaged with who was not in the role of servitude. Children asked questions about her race, appearance, background, and experiences. In a unique space she created through music, she was able to introduce children to the concepts of equality, unity, and acceptance.

And, perhaps most importantly, she was able to infiltrate primarily segregated schools and communities across America, forcing an alternative view of Blackness among populations who had limited and constrained views of African Americans. With each performance, she intentionally incorporated music from different cultures, including spirituals and freedom songs. Each song and its message of inclusion and diversity was intended to alter the heart and psyche of the next generation.

By the end of 1960, Jenkins had already recorded three albums for Folkways Records, each a multicultural listening experience. The first, from 1957, explored call-and-response singing. The second, Adventures in Rhythm, included chants from West and North Africa, as well as a chant invented by those considered on the lowest rung of society: prisoners on the chain gang. Her 1960 album African American Folk Rhythms included a song first sung by Black Civil War soldiers as they marched, “No More Auction Block.”

In 1985, Jenkins appeared in a children’s TV special about Dr. Marin Luther King hosted by LeVar Burton, called Free at Last. Surrounded by a group of young kids, she sang “You Better Leave Segregation Alone.” She told them, “I didn’t actually march with Dr. King, but I did sing some freedom songs at a rally where he spoke. I met some Freedom Riders, and they taught me a song.” In teaching this song and in learning other freedom songs like those she sang on A Long Time to Freedom (1970), she introduced the topics of segregation and racism to children across the world.

You better leave segregation alone

Because they love segregation like a hound dog love a bone

In an interview, Jenkins laughed and grinned when recounting the early C.O.R.E meeting with John Lewis. After singing the song, she pointed out the imagery of the lyrics: “Just imagine a dog with a tight grip on this bone.” Segregation maintains old hierarchies and evil ways of doing and benefits the privileged through cheap labor. This dependence on segregation makes it nearly impossible to pry it from the jaws of some people.

With a career spanning seven decades and reaching children in all fifty states and countries around the world, Jenkins has experienced a lot of firsts. Jenkins, a confident Black woman who was inspired by artist-activist Mariam Makeba to wear her hair natural and to drape herself in African and Indigenous patterns and prints, fearlessly traversed contentious spaces in order to create a space where kids could ask questions, learn, and challenge their previously taught views on race.

When asked how she dealt with tense moments, Richter, who has traveled alongside her since 1961, shared that Jenkins would always “win people over. . . and listen to people,” and any tensions would dissipate.

An older man in a suit and older woman in a colorful striped shawl embrace.

Jenkins broke new ground for African American musicians throughout her career. In January 1958, she was a host of her own segment “This Is Rhythm” on the Chicago-based children’s show The Totem Club, making her one of the first African American TV hosts. In 1964, she performed at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Illinois Rally for Civil Rights at Soldier Field. In 1999, she received the ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award, and in 2004 she was awarded the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, at age ninety-three, she was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow.

Through her songs and engaging style, Jenkins has transformed the minds of nearly three generations of youth across America. Likewise, her albums have offered educators across the world means to further engage students on matters of race, equality, and justice. At the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s annual conference, countless educators regularly stood in line to meet her. In an interview, one educator shared that they “have listened to Ella’s music forever and ever,” while another said that her work was a “saving grace.”

Jenkins, now ninety-six, steadfastly pursued the hearts and minds of youth throughout America to plant a seed of tolerance, understanding, and inclusion in places where African Americans were normally unwelcome or not permitted. Her songs and performances continue to influence young people across the world.

Ty-Juana Taylor is a curriculum developer at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. She earned her doctorate in ethnomusicology from UCLA and specializes in African and African American music and culture.

Thanks to Ella Jenkins, Bernadelle Richter, Tim Ferrin, and Gayle Wald for their participation in this article.

https://folklife.si.edu/Contents/Item/Preview/13982?fbclid=IwAR2KYxLH1TBYW9Uhc6OFGGtdmy6XTNEzf5CsyGJTd55wD2OI9eThMRJUQ68

(please select all, copy and paste the link for pics. and SONGS!