Black History is American History

Black History Month was created because African American history and culture were being overlooked due to racial prejudice. (http://historywithhilary.blogspot.com/2015/02/black-history-month.html) The observance of Black History Month became a national event when President Ford made it official in 1976. 

Photo: naacp.org

Today, teachers and students focus their attentions on influential African Americans during the month of February. While this is a great good, most Americans do not pay much attention to Black History Month because they are no longer in school.

In addition, Black History Month, like much of history, tends to succumb to the Great Man theory, looking primarily at the most influential African Americans like W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, but what about the millions of unknown Africans and African Americans? Their everyday experiences laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement and, today, the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Photo: uab.edu

The United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent recently conducted a survey in the United States and their findings concerned the members. The report stated: "The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the US remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent."

Groundbreaking new histories are exploring the degree to which America's economic system, North and South, was based on the exploitation of people as property, such as Edward Baptist's "The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism".

Despite learning about notable African Americans while in school, the white majority continues to perpetrate racial injustices -- and a discussion of reparations seems necessary. (http://www.phillytrib.com/metros/u-n-panel-suggests-slavery-reparations-in-u-s/article_3f4a7074-e9d0-52db-8509-2a456bd993d5.html#.Vq1xso38_uo.facebook)

Photo: unipd-centrodirittiumani.it

Hopefully, Black History Month will someday be unnecessary because black history IS the history of America. But until that day, take the opportunity this month to study not just notable African Americans, but the experiences of all of Black America. Learn about what is driving Black Lives Matter, look at racial profiling policies, review drug laws that have disproportionately placed black men in jail and finally, consider your own thoughts and actions: are you a part of the problem, are you actively helping or are you standing on the sidelines just watching? White America needs to own up to the atrocities that were committed in our past.  

I am appalled at the way the white majority has treated African Americans throughout American history: for founding an economic system based upon the abomination that was slavery, for Jim Crow laws, for lynchings, for segregation, for racial profiling and for ignoring the struggles African Americans experience to this day.

The Knickerbocker Storm

Washington, DC and surrounding areas are still digging out from the enormous amounts of snow that Snowzilla dumped on us this past Saturday. The center of the storm, Glengary, West Virginia, saw 42 inches of snow fall in a 36 hour time period. At least 42 people have died due to the storm, thousands lost power, roofs have collapsed and federal government employees haven't been able to get to their offices since Friday morning. But while this snow storm has affected millions of people, it was not the most deadly. 

Photo: washingtonpost.com

On January 27, 1922, a winter storm struck the Eastern Seaboard. The storm developed slowly and took three days to move from the south to the mid-Atlantic, dumping snow from the Carolinas up to Pennsylvania, with temperatures hovering around 20º Fahrenheit.  At least 20 inches of snow fell, with 28 inches covering Washington, DC, causing Congress to adjourn. But this was not the worst of the storm. 

Photo: wusa9.com

The Knickerbocker Theatre, built in 1917, was the largest in Washington, DC. On January 28th, the theatre was showing the silent film Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford. During the intermission, at 9:30 p.m., the flat roof of the theatre collapsed under the weight of the snow. Emergency personnel arrived on site quickly and all other theatres in the city were closed to prevent similar accidents. The rescuers worked until the next afternoon to free those who were trapped, but 98 people were killed while 133 more were injured. 

Photo: cinematreasures.org

After the theatre's collapse, the storm was nicknamed the Knickerbocker Storm and it is the worst winter storm in terms of lives lost in Washington, DC history. 

Happy Birthday, Dr. King

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday on January 15th is recognized in the United States as a federal holiday. Dr. King is renowned and revered for his leadership in seeking equal rights for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Photo: nobelprize.org

The day before we he was assassinated, King gave a speech known as the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. In it, King said:

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop... And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!" (https://youtu.be/Oehry1JC9Rk)

Photo: americanrhetoric.com

As a people, we have not yet reached the promised land. We made great strides during the Civil Rights Movement thanks to Dr. King, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy and many others. But as we saw this past year, African Americans are targets of police brutality, they are more likely to be jailed than whites and, despite the fact that our President is African American, our politics are dominated by older white men. 

Photos: washingtonpost.com 

However, there is hope. Every year, on Dr. King's birthday, elementary school students from Washington, DC gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to recite Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech that he gave in 1963 for the March on Washington. These children will work to achieve Dr. King's dream. It is these children, and others, who will help the nation make it to the promised land. 

"His Name is Alexander Hamilton"

The hottest show on Broadway right now is the hip-hop show "Hamilton," which tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the least known founding father. What most people know about Hamilton is that he is the Founding Father depicted on the ten dollar bill, and that he died in a duel with Aaron Burr. Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical is bringing the incredible, mostly unknown life of Hamilton into the light.

Today is Alexander Hamilton's birthday. 

Photo: broadway.com

Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies to Rachel Faucette, a married French Huegenot and her common-law husband James A. Hamilton, a Scotsman. Faucette had been married to John Michael Lavien when she was a teenager but the two never loved each other. Lavien accused his wife of adultery and threw her in prison to teach her a lesson. When she was released, she left him and met Hamilton, with whom she had a son, Alexander. 

Photo: commdiginews.com

Hamilton was considered to have been born out of wedlock, because his mother never divorced her husband. Despite this, and despite the loss of both his father and mother before his teenage years, Hamilton excelled. For the most part, he was self-taught, and impressed the people of Nevis so much that they collected money to send him to school in the British Colonies in America. 

Photo: pbs.org

In 1773, Hamilton arrived in New York City and enrolled at King's College (now Columbia University). Hamilton did not graduate though, because he became involved in politics and joined the American side in the war against England for independence. He fought in several battles before he was noticed by George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, who made him his aide-de-camp. Hamilton held this position for five years, but he was able to convince Washington to finally let him lead at the Battle of Yorktown, in which he was victorious. 

Photo: firstinpeace.com

As a New York Delegate after the Revolutionary War, he worked to improve upon the Articles of Confederation. Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison collaborated to write the Federalist Papers, 85 essays that explained and defended the Constitution. Their efforts helped to convince the people and delegates to ratify the new Constitution that would make the states stronger and unified. 

Photo: loc.gov

As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton continued his efforts to establish a strong central government. He proposed that the government assume state debts from the war, pay federal war bonds and created a tax collecting system. His efforts established a secure economy and eventually earned him the right to be on the ten dollar bill. 

Photo: washingtonpost.com

By 1800 Hamilton was no longer in the political arena, but his opinions still held power. In the presidential election of that year, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied. Hamilton lobbied for Jefferson, thinking he was the lesser of two political evils.

Later, when he was running for Governor of New York, Burr heard that Hamilton had said unfavorable things about him, which he believed lost him yet another election. Angered, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. 

Photo: presidentelect.org

On July 11, 1804, Hamilton and Burr met in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton fired into the air and hit a branch above Burr's head. Burr fired and hit Hamilton in the abdomen. Due to internal bleeding, Alexander Hamilton died on July12, 1804.

His is the story of an orphaned immigrant who came to America looking to make a life for himself. Unfortunately, the way he died overshadowed much of the success of his life -- until the musical "Hamilton."

Photo: willrabbe.com

12 Days of Christmas

In the United States, the "12 Days of Christmas" are best known as a holiday song, while in the Eastern Christian Church, the 12 days of Christmas are the days between the birth of Christ, traditionally celebrated on December 25, and the arrival of the three wise men, or kings, on January 6, which is celebrated as Three Kings Day or Epiphany, from the Greek epiphaneia, or "manifestation".

Photo: delparson.com

Epiphany is the Christian celebration of the human manifestation of God as Jesus Christ. To most, a birth would represent this, but it is the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth by John the Baptist on January 6th that is the manifestation of God as Jesus Christ. It is also known as the day that God the father revealed Jesus Christ as his son, or as the day that the three Kings arrived and confirmed Jesus Christ to be the king of the Jews and the son of God.

Photo: daysoftheyear.com

While it is primarily an Eastern Christian Church holiday, some western Christian churches celebrate Epiphany as well. Just as the Eastern and Western Churches differ, so do the celebrations of Epiphany. In Orthodox Churches, like in Greece, Epiphany is marked by a parade of crosses to a body of water where a priest blesses the seas by throwing a cross into the water. In Greece, an additional part of the ceremony involves swimmers diving in after the cross. Whoever retrieves it brings the cross to the priest and is blessed.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska (Blessing of a cross in Athens for Epiphany)

In some countries, Epiphany is marked by removing the greenery of Christmas. In South American churches, children leave their shoes at the front door on the night of the fifth and on the morning of the sixth, a present is left by their shoes. In some European churches, children in groups of three go caroling from house to house and receive coins and other small gifts. In England, Epiphany is marked by the performance of plays: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was written to be entertainment during the Christmas season. 

Photo: thebaronsmen.org

However Epiphany is celebrated, it is a time of revelry and reflection. Happy Epiphany!

Lighting the National Christmas Tree

At the beginning of December, hundreds of people gathered on the Ellipse of the White House to see the lighting of the National Christmas Tree by the First Family, an event I was fortunate enough to witness. The tree lighting has been an American tradition for more than 90 years.

Photo: thenationaltree.org

On December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first "White House community Christmas tree" in Washington, DC with just the touch of a button. While there had been other trees in DC, this tree was meant to be the National Christmas Tree, rather than a Washington, DC Christmas tree.  

Photo: whitehousehistory.org

The tradition continued until World War II. During America's participation in World War II, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until 1945. President Truman called the Christmas of 1945 one that "a war-weary world has prayed for through long and awful years. With peace comes joy and gladness. The gloom of the war years fades as once more we light the National Community Christmas Tree."

Photo: georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov

In 1963, the lighting of the Christmas tree was again the turning point from grief to joy. After the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, the lighting of the tree was postponed until after the mandatory 30 days of mourning. President Johnson said, "Tonight we come to the end of the season of great national sorrow, and to the beginning of the season of great, eternal joy. We mourn our great president, John F. Kennedy, but he would have us go on. While our spirits cannot be light, our hearts need not be heavy."

Photo: transition.lbjlibrary.org

Through happy celebrations and sorrowful times, the lighting of the National Christmas Tree has signaled a moment to reflect and to celebrate joy. At this year's lighting ceremony, President Obama spoke about the families of the victims of the San Bernadino terrorist attack: "This is of course the most wonderful time of the year, but we would be remiss not to take a moment to remember our fellow Americans whose hearts are heavy tonight. Grieve for loved ones, especially in San Bernadino, California. Their loss is our loss too. For we are all one American family. We look out for each other, in good times and in bad. They should know that all of us care about them this holiday season. They are in our thoughts, they are in our prayers and we send them our love."

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

"The Only Thing We Have to Fear"

December 7th, 1941, is "a date which will live in infamy," the day "the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan", despite not being a combatant in World War II. It was the date that launched the US into the war, in both Pacific and European theaters.

Photo: worldwariifoundation.org

Prior to the attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Americans were by and large concerned with American affairs; the nation was in an era of isolationism after the horrors of World War I. With the surprise attack, however, public opinion changed and the country went to war. Views of Japanese-Americans also changed, and not for the better. 

Photo: ibiblio.org

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US and Japan were in negotiations to remain at peace. The surprise attack on Hawaii was viewed as very subversive and many believed that Japanese in Hawaii helped with the attack. This belief turned Americans against their neighbors of Japanese descent and led to President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19th, 1942. 

Photo: warhistoryonline.com (Roosevelt signing EO 9066)

EO 9066 established military zones in which people of Japanese decent were not allowed. The entire west coast was declared a military zone and many Japanese-Americans were relocated to interior America or to internment camps. In Hawaii, Japanese-Americans were placed in an internment camp on Sand Island not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The fear was that these citizens supported Japan and had assisted with the attack, but there was no evidence to prove this. One incident in which a Japanese pilot crash landed on a remote Hawaiian island and was aided by Japanese immigrants helped to spur on the anti-Japanese hysteria and EO 9066.

General John DeWitt of the Western Defense Command was very vocal about placing Americans of Japanese descent in internment camps, without any military reason; simply put, he was prejudiced against Japanese "undesirables," suspecting--again, without any evidence or indication--that they would engage in sabotage.

Photo: npr.gov (Honouliuli Internment Camp)

On August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. This Act formally apologized to the Japanese-American community for their unjust incarceration during World War II and paid $20,000 to each of the survivors of the camps. When the Japanese-Americans were released from the internment camps, they wanted to put that very embarrassing part of their past behind them.

But with the Civil Rights Movement, the Japanese-American community began to seek an apology from the American government. They were not fueled by a desire for financial gain but rather to make life better for future generations of Japanese-Americans, in fulfillment of a Japanese family value: "Kodomo no tame ni," For the sake of the children.

Photo: internmentarchives.com

With the rise of DAESH (the Arabic name for ISIL or ISIS) and the recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernadino, many Americans are succumbing to their fear of others and Islam in particular, which is resulting in calls for tracking all American Muslims, placing them in camps, refusing to allow refugees into the country and, most recently, even a call by a Christian university president to "end those Muslims."

The fear of Japanese-Americans during World War II was unfounded and caused a lot of people undue harm. Many Japanese-Americans enlisted in the military to fight against the Axis Powers. These people who were forced from their homes still fought for their country because they were loyal American citizens and the rest of the country had no reason to fear them. 

We must learn from our terrible mistake of unjust, forced internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans and Italian-Americans, and not give in to fear. By giving in to fear and discriminating against American Muslims, we assist DAESH in succeeding in its mission to spread terror and divisiveness.

As President Roosevelt so eloquently said in his inauguration speech: "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He could have been talking about today's hysterical and unAmerican fear of American Muslims.

Photo: americanrhetoric.com