In DC, Even the Plants are Political

The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC is a world famous event, attracting visitors from around the country and the world to see a parade, fireworks, art exhibits, kite flying and, of course, the spectacular blossoms. The Japanese cherry trees were sent to the United States by the city of Tokyo as a sign of friendship and have amazed visitors each spring for over 100 years. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Initially, trees were sent to Washington in 1909 but that shipment was infected by bugs, prompting President William Howard Taft to order them burned to protect other trees and plants in the city. The Secretary of State sent an apology to the Ambassador of Japan for burning the trees in order to protect diplomatic relations between the two nations. More trees were sent in 1912 and on March 27th, First Lady Helen Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador, Viscountess Chinda, planted the first trees in a small, private ceremony without any photographers. 

Photo: fhwa.dot.gov (Lady Bird Johnson planted a cherry tree on the Tidal Basin in 1965)

The trees became so beloved in DC that when the Tidal Basin was selected as the location for the Jefferson Memorial in 1938, many people voiced their displeasure. Some women actually chained themselves to the trees to ensure that they would not be cut down. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a statement in which he said the trees were only being transplanted and if the women did not unchain themselves, they too would be relocated along with the trees. 

Photo: nps.gov

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans did not view the trees as favorably and some were even cut down in suspected retaliation for the unprovoked attack by the Empire of Japan, though the motive was never confirmed. In order to protect the rest of the trees, they were referred to as "Oriental" cherry trees rather than Japanese cherry trees. 

Photo: smithsonianmag.com (One of the four trees that had been chopped down)

The first Cherry Blossom Festival was held in 1927 and was expanded in 1935. Today, the festival occurs over five weekends and over a million people flock to the Washington Mall and Tidal Basin to see the trees as well as participate in festival activities. While the festival is a wonderful way for the Nation's Capital to celebrate spring, the sheer number of people attending puts a strain on the National Mall, which is a National Park, as well as on the trees (many people seem unable to resist climbing the trees, which damages the fragile branches). Visitors are reminded that as lovely as they are, the trees were also a diplomatic gift from another nation, that they represent friendship with Japan and are meant to be shared by all. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The Great Potomac Flood

In the quaint, historic town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia elevated train tracks run on the outskirts of town, rising above the ground more than 36 feet. Why is this necessary? For a town located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, it is good common sense to build higher than the flood line, and Harpers Ferry has a long history of floods.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

In 1936, West Virginia experienced a typical winter of snowfall, but towards the end of February, temperatures became unseasonably warm. Then, on March 17th, the region west of the Blue Ridge Mountains received five to six inches of rain. The rain fell so fast it was not absorbed into the ground but ran into the rivers and began to race downstream.

Photo: inthedistance.net

The 1936 flood wasn't the highest in history, but it was very influential in the history of the town. The flood destroyed homes, businesses and industry in the Lower Town and led Congressman Jennings Randolph to recommend that the National Park Service look into protecting the historically significant town. 

Photo: wvculture.org (Congressman Jennings Randolph)

In order for the entire district of Lower Town to be named as a National Park, the ruined town had to be condemned. Gone were the residents. Gone were the bridges. Gone was the gas station. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into being Harpers Ferry National Monument, with the goal of preserving the history of John Brown's 1859 raid on the Federal Armory, a failed effort to incite a slave rebellion that nonetheless was a spark that initiated the Civil War.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation designating the town as a National Historical Park and expanding the mission to include African American history, colonial history and industrial history, as well as John Brown's Raid and Civil War history. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Today, you can see water lines where the flood peaked 80 years ago, and a marker on the side of a building shows the height of all the recorded floods. Will there be another flood that is as destructive as The Great Potomac Flood? With climate change, and ever-increasing development on the banks of the Shenandoah and the Potomac, more floods lie in the future for Harpers Ferry. 

Photo: histarch.illinois.edu

Have we learned much from Little Rock?

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate was not equal and segregated schools were not constitutional. Two years later, in 1957, nine African American students attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This proved to be no easy task.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The nine students enrolled at Central High School to test Brown v. Board. Before the first day of school, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus made a speech calling white people from across the state to come to Little Rock to protest the integration of an all white school. He also brought in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from attending Central. On the first day, September 4th, the Little Rock Nine were unable to enter the school and returned home.

Photo: anglonautes.edu (Governor Orval Faubus address protestors at Central High)

Subsequent attempts by the students to integrate the school failed as well; the students were turned back or removed by police. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the Army's 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and finally, on September 25th, the Little Rock Nine were able to attend classes. Their fellow students harassed them inside the school and made their experience very difficult; nonetheless, at the end of that year, the eldest of the Little Rock Nine became the first African American to graduate from Central High.

Photo: armored-column.com

In the fall of 1958, Governor Faubus closed all of the public high schools in Little Rock and asked the residents to vote on integration. The residents voted in favor of segregation, forcing the rest of the Little Rock Nine to attend schools out of state for that year. In 1959, the schools reopened and four of the remaining students returned to Central High, in spite of the fact that there was continued violence outside of their school.

Photo: pbs.org

The entire spectacle surrounding the Little Rock Nine just trying to go to school was seen by all of America and the world on television. News reporters stood between the angry white mobs and the students and reported extensively on the events. Once the students managed to enter the school, the protestors turned on the reporters.

Photo: authentichistory.com (Newspaper reporter Alex Wilson was attacked by the mob)

In light of the current political atmosphere in 2016, it does not appear that we have learned much from Little Rock. Hate and fear do not improve the nation, but nor do they win in the long run. 

Photo: npr.org

Photo: tulsaworld.com

"‘Cause franchise isn’t just the right of a man"

January 11, 1885 a Quaker girl was born who would grow up to be prominent in the fight for women's right to vote. Alice Paul grew up learning about the importance of public service as well as women's suffrage because her mother was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After graduating from Swarthmore College, Paul became determined to join the effort to end injustice. 

Photo: nj.com

She moved to London to continue her studies and while there she became involved in the militant Women's Social and Political Union, where she learned to use the tactics of parading, picketing and speeches -- and the message that an arrest can send. Paul was arrested several times while helping Englishwomen fight for their rights.

Photo: simpson.edu

Upon her return to the US in 1910, Paul joined the same group her mother had been a part of, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, applying the radical tactics she had learned while in England. Her goal was to focus national attention on the issue of women's suffrage and she succeded by organizing a parade in every state of the Union the day before President Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration. Although some marchers were attacked, the nation became aware of the women marchers and their goal.

Photo: americaslibrary.gov

Due to a disagreement in tactics, Paul left the NAWSA and started the National Women's Party, a radical organization based on her experiences in England. She chose a prime location to picket: the White House. She and a group of women stood in front of the White House, silent, holding banners asking President Wilson what he would do for the right to vote for women. The protestors were arrested and sent to a workhouse, where Paul began a hunger strike.

Photo: nwhm.org

Paul's tactics of attracting national attention to the issue put pressure on President Wilson and in 1918, Wilson publicly supported women's suffrage. He tied the issue to the Great War because women were more involved in the war effort than ever before. But the proposed 19th Amendment to the Constitution failed to pass by two votes in the Senate until the next year, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. Eventually, it was Tennessee's decision if the amendment would pass or not. The Tennessee state Senate voted to ratify while the state House of Representatives was in a deadlock, until Representative Harry T. Burn changed his vote because of a note his mother had given him:  "Hurrah, and vote for suffrage!...Don't forget to be a good boy."

Photo: rarenewspapers.com

With Tennessee's ratification, the 36 states required for an amendment to the Constitution was achieved and women had the right to vote. However, Paul's work was not finished. She continued to fight for women's equality in the US and abroad. In 1977, Paul died in Moorestown, New Jersey, where she was born. She has been honored with her image placed on a postage stamp and on a gold coin. Most recently, Lady Gaga's Bad Romance was re-written to be about Alice Paul and her fight for women's right to vote.

"Finding My Black Identity"

A Guest Blog for Black History Month by Meshayla Cox

(Meshayla Cox is a student studying Spanish Education and African American studies at the University of Montana - Misssoula)

My life thus far has been, to a great extent, a struggle of searching for my black identity. I have spent a large part of my life trying to ignore the hardships that come with being a woman of color, as well as trying to ignore my own self-identity as one. My mother and father are both black but "black history" wasn’t necessarily something preached in my household and it definitely wasn’t something I was learning in my history classes at school.

Photo: Meshayla Cox

Although I grew up in Southern California, a place known for its racial diversity, I always found myself grouped in with the white kids at school. Looking back now I realize this was due to my need to be accepted as one of them. I went through my younger years always being the token black friend, the butt of the jokes, or the one exoticized and aestheticized.

To the untrained mind there are plenty of “subtle” racist stereotypes and characteristics about black people that inevitably affect the way we view ourselves, as well as the way the world views us.

As a result, I grew up slowly learning to hate my skin.

I would avoid being in the sun too long in fear of becoming “too dark” and steer clear of using certain words in fear of sounding “too black”, and never get too mad, because you don’t want to be the “sassy” or “ghetto” black girl that’s portrayed in the media.

The moment I started noticing boys was easily the best and worst time of my life. I quickly started to realize that I wasn’t the girl they were going to actually date or pay genuine attention too, and as a result I felt the need to distance myself from my black identity. Looking back I can remember the exact moment when this happened. When I was a young girl, my mother would braid my hair, but in ninth grade one incident changed my appreciation of my beautiful black braids. A boy I had a crush on decided to call me "the predator" in reference to the move Alien and Predator, which showcases a ugly alien thing that had dreadlocks. That is definitely the last thing any 13 year old wants to hear from the cute boy in her class.

Photo: imdb.com

This ignited a long four years of weave-wearing, sun-avoiding, and race-denying. Over this time I found myself claiming all of the different, non-black heritage in my family to try and distance myself from my suddenly unappealing African ancestry, and finding refuge in the phrase “You’re so whitewashed”. I began associating solely with white people, anything to hide from my inherent blackness. I was terrified of being seen by others as the ugly, angry, black girl that I saw myself as.

Photo: Meshayla Cox

It wasn’t until my freshman year of college at the University of Montana when I finally got the confidence to once again travel into the scary land of afrocentric hairstyles. The braids were back! And they were a success. Unknown to everyone else, this moment was most definitely the first step toward accepting my black identity.

This process was propelled forward by the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, an unarmed black teenager killed by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri. This situation brought to my attention the widespread epidemic of police aggression against people of color, which in turn sparked a national conversation about race and racism in America. Until this moment, I thought racism was only present in bitter old white people or the wannabe cowboys that attended my high school.

Photo: bet.com

As a result I signed up for a college class that very simply changed my life, my views, and my way of thinking. The class was “Black: Africa to Hip-Hop,” taught by Dr. Tobin Shearer at my school, the University of Montana in Missoula. In this class we talked about the side of American history that my previous history teachers seemed to have avoided like the plague, the part that spoke about the genocide, injustice, and oppression of African Americans. I would leave every class just bursting at the seams, needing to tell people about all that I had learned about my people. . . MY people. This college course showed me that I do have a people and a history, and although we have been through terrible times and are still working against a system put in place to keep us down, I have so much to be proud of and so much to stand up for! I have learned to accept my wonderful kinky hair, my perfectly sassy personality, and my wonderful dark skin, all gifted to me by my strong and beautiful black ancestors.

Photo: Meshayla Cox

My journey to discovering and accepting my black identity has been long, but I am so glad I can finally stand up and proclaim:

 I am black, oh so black, and I am proud!   

Photo: Meshayla Cox