Black History: Tulsa Race Massacre: We Can't Fix Racism If We Don't Learn From it

Years ago, in high school and later, in college, I wanted to be a history teacher. I have always been fascinated by history, and the fact that history repeats, especially where no lessons have been learned. But I wonder, how we can expect to learn anything from history when we aren’t, weren’t, and might not ever be, if the Republicans have their way, taught the full history of this country, the good, the bad, and the terribly ugly.

I took history classes in grade school, middle school, high school and many in college and not once, ever, did I hear the words ‘Tula Race Massacre.’ Not once. Oh, I learned about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and a few others, but I never heard of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, about Black Wall Street, about the murders of at least 300 Black Americans and destruction of what was, in fact, an entire thriving city.

But I have learned that the reason for this is that our history is written, at least for school textbooks, mostly by white people, who, perhaps through no fault of their own, never heard of Black Wall Street either. I only learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre last year … and only because the twice-impeached, one-term loser wanted to hold one of his super-spreader rallies in Tulsa on the anniversary of the massacre. I have, however, since then, read much about the massacre, and have seen several documentaries this past week as the 100th anniversary came and went.

And that makes me angry. I mean, I wasn’t brought up to think that I was better than anyone else, whether because I was male or white; I was brought up to believe we are all the same, even though we may look, love, or worship differently, or have different education or different socio-economic status. And I wonder if this stain on US history, which has gone silent in schools since it happened, I wonder that if it had been taught and discussed, would we have learned something new, changed our ways. Would we need a Black Lives Matter movement in 2021 if we knew what had happened to all those Black lives in 1921? And so, for anyone who doesn’t know about the Tulsa Race Massacre, let me tell you what I now know …

It began on May 31, 1921, when a Black teenager named Dick Rowland was working at a shoe-shine stand. His employer didn’t’ have a “colored” restroom, so Rowland walked down the block to the Drexel Building to take the elevator to the fourth floor and use the nearest “colored” bathroom. No one really knows what happened on that elevator—Rowland says it lurched and he bumped into the elevator operator—but at some point, the young white operator, Sarah Page, screamed and Rowland fled. The police were called, and Rowland was arrested the next morning for assault, code for rape.

During the day, white men began to gather around the courthouse where Rowland was being held, looking to lynch the teenager. Their numbers grew and grew and around 9PM a group of 25 armed Black men—including World War I veterans—arrived at the courthouse to make sure Rowland wouldn’t be turned over to the mob. The sheriff assured them that the young man would be safe, and turned them away, but as the mob of angry white men grew to over 1,500, later that night some 75-armed Black men returned to the courthouse, where they were met by the white men, many of whom were also armed. The sheriff again tried to persuade the Black men to leave the jail, assuring them that he had the situation under control, but then a shot was fired, and all hell broke loose, leaving 10 White men and two Black men dead.

The outnumbered group of Black men retreated to Greenwood and that was when the sheriff began to deputize those angry white men and provide them with firearms because there were rumors that Black people from neighboring towns were flooding into the city, but there is no evidence that this ever occurred.

What did happen was that this growing mob of angry white men poured into Greenwood on the morning of June 1, 1921, looting and burning homes and businesses over 35 square blocks. Police and firefighters arrived on scene, but did nothing to help, allegedly because rioters had threatened them with guns and forced them to leave.

And it wasn’t just white men with guns and torches and gas cans attacking Greenwood, eyewitnesses tell of airplanes carrying White assailants, who fired rifles and dropped firebombs on buildings, homes, and fleeing families. Law enforcement officials later said that the planes were to provide reconnaissance and protect against a "Negro uprising" even though it has been said that many in law enforcement were aboard at least some flights that torched Greenwood.

By the end of the day, more than 1,256 Black-owned homes were burned to the ground, with another 215 looted. In the downtown area, the two Black-owned newspapers, a school, a library, a hospital, several churches, hotels, stores and many other businesses were also destroyed. By the end of the day, Governor J. B. A. Robertson called out the National Guard and declared martial law, but the riot had effectively ended. Though guardsmen helped put out fires, they also imprisoned many Black Tulsans, and by June 2 some 6,000 people, all Black, were under armed guard at the local fairgrounds.

There were no convictions for any of the charges related to violence.

On June 3, 1921, over 1,000 businessmen and civic leaders met to form a committee to raise funds and aid in rebuilding Greenwood. Many Black families spent the winter of 1921–1922 in tents as they worked to rebuild. But then a group of influential White developers persuaded the city to pass a fire ordinance that would have prohibited many Black people from rebuilding in Greenwood. Their intention was to redevelop Greenwood for more business and industrial use and force Black Tulsans further to the edge of town. The case was litigated and appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court where it ruled unconstitutional but most of the promised funding was never raised for the Black residents, and they struggled to rebuild.

While the Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 deaths, historians estimate the death toll may have been as high as 300. In 2001, the report of the Race Riot Commission—which has subsequently, more accurately, been renamed the Race Massacre Commission—concluded that between 100 and 300 people were killed and more than 10,000 people were left homeless over those 18 hours; property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property.

And yet we were never told about this because … many survivors left Tulsa, and those who stayed, both Black and White, kept silent about the terror and violence for decades, and the massacre was largely omitted from local, state and national histories. And for decades, there were no public ceremonies, no memorials for the dead or any efforts to commemorate the events of May 31-June 1, 1921. Instead, there was a deliberate effort to cover them up.

The Tulsa Tribune removed its own May 31st front-page story of the assault on a white girl by a “negro” that sparked the chaos from its bound volumes, and both police and state militia archives about the riot have gone missing as well.

Erased, Forgotten. Never taught in schools.

A bill in the Oklahoma State Senate requiring that all Oklahoma high schools teach the Tulsa Race Massacre failed to pass in 2012, with its opponents claiming schools were already teaching their students about the riot. It was not recognized in the Tulsa Tribune feature of "Fifteen Years Ago Today" or "Twenty-five Years Ago Today" and every year, on the anniversary of the massacre, no mention was ever printed in the local papers.  A 2017 report detailing the history of the Tulsa Fire Department from 1897 until 2017 makes no mention of the 1921 massacre.

In 1996, as the riot's 75th anniversary neared, the state legislature authorized an Oklahoma Commission to investigate the Tulsa Race Riot, by appointing individuals to prepare a report detailing an account of the riot. The commission had originally been called the "Tulsa Race Riot Commission", but in November 2018 the name was changed to "Tulsa Race Massacre Commission. A final report was delivered in February 2001, and recommended actions for substantial restitution to the Black residents, in the form of reparations to survivors and descendants of survivors; a scholarship fund available to students affected by the Tulsa race riot; establishment of an economic development zone in the Greenwood district; and a memorial for the reburial of the remains of the victims of the Tulsa race riot who had been placed in mass graves in a local cemetery and presumed to have been dumped into an area known as The Canes along the Arkansas River.

Lastly, in the hours after the Tulsa Race Massacre, all charges against Dick Rowland were dropped, with authorities having concluded that Rowland had accidentally stumbled into Page. Dick Rowland left Tulsa after his release and never returned.

It was all a misunderstanding that left many hundreds dead, many thousands homeless, and an entire city destroyed.

Oh, and before I go, I should also point out that I was never taught about the Slocum massacre of Black residents in Texas by an all-white mob in 1910 or the Red Summer of white supremacist terrorism in 1919.

How will we ever do better if we don’t learn from the past?

I Didn't Say It ...

Emmanuel Macron, standing next to The Felon, and telling the truth about Ukraine, Putin, and Putin’s Bitch, The Felon:

“I stopped talking with Putin after Bucha and the war crimes … In 2014, after Crimea, Putin violated the peace agreement. In 2022, just before Putin attacked Ukraine again, he denied to me [that] he planned to attack. So being strong and having deference capacities is the only way to be sure that Putin will respect any peace plan. So you never want to say you won’t put troops on the ground, because that’s giving Putin a blank check to violate ant peace agreement.”

We need more world leaders, more party leaders in this country,  speaking truth to power about Putin and The Felon and their lies.

We know what happened in Ukraine, and the tyrant and his little bitch cannot change that FACT!

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Janet Mills, Maine’s Democrat Governor, telling The Felon she will see him “in court” after he ordered the Department of Education to investigate Maine’s refusal to ban transgender athletes:

“I have spent my career—as a District Attorney, as Attorney General, and now as Governor—standing up for the rule of law in Maine and America. To me, that is fundamentally what is at stake here: the rule of law in our country. “No President—Republican or Democrat—can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold. Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end? In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it – and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so. I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined. My Administration will begin work with the Attorney General to defend the interests of Maine people in the court of law. But do not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”

Again, a woman in public office is taking a stand against The Felon. Brava Governor Mills, brava. But where are the men? Why are most, not all, of them silent? I mean, stay silent if you choose, but when it’s time for reelection my coins will be going for the female candidates who stood up to tyranny.

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Blake Dremann, trans US Navy Commander, of drunken predator Pete Hegseth’s attempt to remove trans Americans from service:

“If the Secretary of Defense wants to see what trans service looks like, they can come out to Guam and watch me lead my sailors. Watch how they follow me not because I’m trans but because of the leader I am.”

Dremann and a small group of mid-level trans officers and enlisted personnel began advocating for open transgender service even though they had no trans Colonels, no Navy Captains, no General Officers in their corner. They weren’t supposed to win and yet, by showing up—walking the halls of the Pentagon, telling their stories, and refusing to be erased—they convinced the Department of Defense to change course.

I’ll take one Blake Dremann over a whole shipload of Pete Hegseths in our military.

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JB Pritzker, Democrat Governor of Illinois, on the idea of America becoming Nazi Germany in the hands of this administration and those who goose-step along with it;

"As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there. The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population—so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps. The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis—contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment. As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case—but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981—a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later. I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately—and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned—the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed—a seed of distrust and hate and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame. I’m watching with a foreboding dread of what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac—and suggests—without facts or findings—that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks—arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems. I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities—once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends; after that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face—what comes next? All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history—then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it. I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s bible: ‘I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.’ My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America—and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions—but in deference to my obligations. If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control. Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978—just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame. Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most."

Finally, a male Democrat spelling out what is happening; reminding us that doing nothing is not an option; telling us that it can happen here.

Resist!

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Mark Levin, Fox News host, also stepping up to callout The Felon’s lies about Ukraine:

“I don’t have a problem if it’s the position of our administration to cut back on support for Ukraine—which I oppose, by the way—then so be it. Elections have consequences, so be it. But I want to make sure the facts are on the table and you, the American people, draw your own conclusion. MAGA doesn’t support Putin. Zelensky ordered martial law—that’s what the constitution there compelled. Zelensky hasn’t called for an election—that’s what the constitution there compels. Now, I’m waiting for the first free election for Vladimir Putin. I mean, this is almost comical in a sick way that Putin is demanding an election. Why is he demanding an election in Ukraine when he doesn’t have free and real elections in his own country? And why does he get to call the shots when in fact, he murders people who dare to challenge him? This is what we’re dealing with. Again, old KBG, and not just KBG, he [Putin] was in like Flynn with the Stasi in East Germany. So, I don’t know why there are people that not only oppose Zelensky but seem to support Putin. The parliament—with all parties in the parliament—support what he’s doing. They’re trying to survive. Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine. But the idea that Ukraine must hold elections in violation of its own constitution as a condition for peace, or that Ukraine must give up more territory as a condition for peace… you have to understand the Ukrainian people don’t want to do that. That’s why Zelensky is at 57% [approval rating], higher than most politicians in our own country!”

Again, there are some heads at Fox News, who will stand for truth and speak out against the lies of a wannabe dictator. And I am not saying that Levin is an ally of Democracy, but if a hired hand at Fox can speak up the dangers of a Felon in the White House, then we can all speak up.

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Chris Kluwe, former NFL punter, who was arrested in California last week after protesting against what he called a tribute to the Maga movement at a city council meeting in Huntington Beach:

“As the community made clear at the library commission meeting last Tuesday, everyone is in favor of a plaque to celebrate the library, but the vast majority are against including a MAGA acrostic. Unfortunately, it's clear that this council does not listen. So instead I am going to take my time to say what MAGA has stood for these past three weeks: MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for re-segregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti democracy, and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is. I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.”

He was then arrested and escorted out of the building. Kluwe is taking a stand; we all need to take that same stand.

Stand up, speak up, resist and for the sake of all of us, vote.

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Repost: Black History Month: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is one of my heroes. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that I would have loved to have known her; that she is an inspiration to me, to stand up....or sit down....when you want to make a change.

She was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated, Rosa's mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards, on their farm. Both her grandparents were former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality.

In one experience, Rosa's grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street. The city of Pine Level, Alabama had a new school building and bus transportation for white students while African American students walked to a one-room schoolhouse, often lacking desks and adequate school supplies. Rosa knew that, merely because of the color of her skin, she would not be treated equally.

In 1929, while in the eleventh grade, Rosa left school to care for her sick grandmother in Pine Level. She never returned to school but instead got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. In 1932, she married a barber named Raymond Parks who was an active member of the NAACP and with his support, Rosa finished her high school degree in 1933 and she, herself, soon became actively involved in civil rights issues.

Rosa Parks joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, and served as the secretary to the president, E.D. Nixon until 1957.

Now, in those days, not so very long ago, in Montgomery, Alabama, city code required that all public transportation be segregated, and that all bus drivers be given "powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code.

While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide "separate but equal"—there's that old chestnut again—accommodation for white and Black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line, an actual sign, roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front and African Americans in the back.

But African Americans didn't just have to ride in the back. When they got on the bus, they would pay their fare, then get off the bus, walk to the back and board the bus again. No one wanted “colored” people walking in between the white people.

If the seats in the front of the bus filled up, and more white passengers got on, the bus driver would simply move the sign back, separating Black and white passengers, and ask Black passengers to give up their seats so the whites could sit down.

On December 1, 1955, after a long day working at the Montgomery Fair department store, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She got on, paid her fare, got off, walked to the back, got on again, and found a seat in the first of several rows designated for "colored" passengers.

Though the city's bus ordinance did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone regardless of color. However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the custom of requiring Black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers when no other seats were available. If the Black passenger protested, the bus driver had the authority to refuse service and could call the police to have them removed.

As the bus Rosa was riding continued on its route, it began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the bus was full and the driver noticed that several white passengers were standing in the aisle. This apparently was unacceptable. He stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row and asked the four Black passengers in that row to give up their seats. Three complied, but Rosa refused. She stayed seated.

The driver demanded, "Why don't you stand up?"

Rosa replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up."

Can I get a You Go, Girl.

The driver called the police, who arrested Rosa at the scene and charged her with violation of Chapter 6, section 11 of the Montgomery City code. She was taken to police headquarters where later that night she was released on bail. On December 8, Rosa faced trial and in a thirty-minute hearing was found guilty of violating a local ordinance. She was fined ten dollars, plus a four-dollar court fee.

The very evening she was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local chapter of the NAACP, began to organize a boycott of Montgomery's city buses. Ads were placed in local papers and handbills were printed and distributed in Black neighborhoods. Members of the African American community were asked to stay off the buses Monday, December 5th in protest of Rosa's arrest. People were encouraged to stay home from work or school, take a cab or walk to work. With most of the African American community not riding the bus, organizers believed a longer boycott might be successful.

On Monday, December 5, 1955, a group of African-American community leaders gathered at Mt. Zion Church to discuss strategies. They determined that the effort required a new organization and strong leadership. They formed the "Montgomery Improvement Association"--the MIA--and elected Montgomery newcomer Dr. Martin Luther King, as their first president.

The boycott of December 5th was a success, and so it was continued. Some African-Americans carpooled; others rode in African American-operated cabs. But most of the estimated 40,000 African American commuters walked, some as far as 20 miles to get to work.

Public buses sat idle for months, severely crippling the transit company's finances. But the boycott faced strong resistance, with some segregationists retaliating with violence. Black churches were burned and both Martin Luther King and E.D. Nixon's homes were attacked. Other attempts were made to end the boycott as well. The taxi system used by the African American community to help people get around had its insurance canceled. Other Black people were arrested for violating an old law prohibiting boycotts.

See, the Black folks weren't allowed to protest, or have an opinion, or stay seated.

But the African American community also took action. Under the Brown v. Board of Education decision that said "separate but equal" policies had no place in public education, a black legal team took the issue of segregation on public transit systems to federal court.

In June of 1956, the court declared Alabama's racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. With the transit company and downtown businesses suffering economic loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses.

The combination of legal action, backed by the unrelenting determination of the African American community made the 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

That's right, people. The boycott lasted over a year!

Although she was now a symbol for the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks suffered as a result. She lost her job at the department store and her husband lost his after his boss forbade him to discuss his wife or their legal case. They were unable to find work and eventually left Montgomery.

Rosa Parks moved her family—her husband and mother—to Detroit, where she made a new life for herself, working as a secretary and receptionists in U.S. Representative John Conyer's congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1987, at age seventy-four, Rosa Parks, along with life-long friend Elaine Eason Steele, founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The institute runs the "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

In 1992, she published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, her memoirs, Quiet Strength, focused on the role religious faith played in her life.

Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award. She also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the U.S. executive branch. The next year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. In 1999, Time magazine named Rosa Parks one of the 20 most influential people of the twentieth century.

On October 24, 2005, at the age of ninety-two, Rosa Parks quietly died in her apartment. She had been diagnosed the previous year with progressive dementia. Her death was marked by several memorial services, among them lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. where an estimated 50,000 people viewed her casket. Rosa was interred between her husband and mother at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery in the chapel's mausoleum. Shortly after her death the chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel.

All of that because she wouldn't give up her seat. People used to say that Rosa wouldn't get up because she'd worked all day and was tired but she, herself, said she wasn't physically tired, she was just "tired of giving in."

I know that feeling all too well.

Bobservations

This is less about Carlos and more about the look on Carlos’ face as we ran errands one day last week.

We headed down to King’s Kitchen, our favorite breakfast spot in Camden, for a good home cooked breakfast—I had my usual Corned Beef Hash with Scrambled Egg and the best Homemade Biscuit in the world. So good that we lounged a bit and chatted with fellow diners and Kenesha, the owner along with her husband who is the chef. Lovely way to start then day and then …

We started driving to CostCo and about halfway there the traffic stopped; clearly an accident happened up ahead. So we sat for a while and then crawled forward until we came across a semi-truck parked along the left side of the road and all three lanes of traffic blocked forcing everyone to drive on the right shoulder.

“Why the %$#& are they closing the entire road? The %$#&ing truck is way over there. Why the %$#& did we have to sit so long for this?”

Carlos smiled. We made it through and drove on, reaching our exit, at a spot where there’s roadwork on the bridge and side streets; traffic was stopped all down the off-ramp onto the freeway.

“Why the %$#& aren’t they doing this work at night and not on a %$#&ing Saturday morning when everyone is out? And why are these %$#&ers trying to race ahead and get to the head of the line. Not on my %$#&ing watch.”

Carlos smiled. We made it through and as we neared CostCo, at a roundabout where we turn left, another oversized truck apparently took the curve too fast and was tipped over in the roadway.

“What the %$#& is happening today? Is every mother%$#&er who doesn’t know how to drive on the roads? What the %$#&?”

Carlos smiled. We backed up and took an alternate route to CostCo where, by the time we got there, the place was packed.

“Why does every single %$#&ing family with nothing better to %$#&ing do than take their screaming %$#&ing children to the %$#&ing CostCo and feed them all the free samples so the little %$#&ers start screaming and terrorizing those of us just to do a little shopping.”

Carlos smiled. We finally got our groceries, eased through the checkout, and went out to load the car. I took the cart back and when I returned to the car, a giant SUV was parked across the lane, clearly waiting for me to leave so they could take my space. I backed up slowly, trying to turn my car to avoid the gas-%$#&ing-guzzling behemoth, when the mother%$#&er in the car starts honking and waving at me.

“HOW THE %$#& AM I SUPPOSED TO BACK UP WITH YOUR FAT ASS CAR IN MY WAY YOU DUMB MOTHER%$#&ER???”

And then I used both hands and both fingers to accentuate my point, and finally Carlos speaks:

“I’m thinking someone needs a nap.”

Mother%$#&er.

This Tuxedo Says is from August 2020 when Biden became the Democratic nominee to be President.

And, sadly, here we are again.

Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna is chair of the newly formed Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. The task force will be looking into the assassination of JFK and in a recent press conference Luna said:

“I’m looking to actually bring in some of the attending physicians at the initial assassination. Then also people that had been on the various commissions looking into it, like the Warren Commission looking into the initial assassination.”

Um, Luna-tic, every member of the Warren Commission is dead, as all the  three doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland. And WTF is an “initial” assassination?

The GOP’s best and brightest at work.

I do enjoy it when my local grocer makes cake shopping easier and then they have the cakes help me carry groceries to the car.

Tomorrow is Economic Blackout Day to disrupt the system and show those fascists in charge that we have some power, too.

Do not make any purchases

Do not shop online, or in-store

Do not spend money on: Fast Food, Gas or Major Retailers

Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non-essential spending

Only buy essentials if absolutely necessary—Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies—and if you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.

Corporations and banks only care about their bottom line. If we disrupt the economy for just ONE day, it sends a powerful message.

If they don't listen, and they won’t, we’ll make the next blackout longer.

This is our first action. This is how we make history.

February 28th; the 24-Hour Economic Black Out Begins

A hack at the Department of Housing and Urban Development this week has trolled The Felon and Leon Skum by playing a short, AI-generated video of The Felon kissing Elon’s feet with the title “Long Live The Real King” over the video.

It’d be a shame if this picture was shared everywhere.

I saw this on Facebook this week and, well, ouch:

He still hasn’t done anything to bring down the price of eggs or gas, but planes on the other hand …

It took Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada just minutes to tap out his reaction to his nation’s victory over the United States in an international hockey championship final:

“You can’t take our country—and you can’t take our game.”

Snap.

Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement announced that she will step down from the state's highest court, leaving Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer with the task of appointing her replacement.

Clement's departure and Whitmer's eventual appointment would shift the court from a 5-2 Democratic-nominated majority to a 6-1 Democratic-nominated majority, a margin that could add years to Republican efforts to regain a majority on the state's highest court.

Good.

On the other side … at a GOP town hall this week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, descended into chaos when Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl was forcibly removed for speaking.

Three plainclothes men from LEAR Asset Management literally dragged Dr. Borrenpohl out of the auditorium and attempted to restrain her with zip ties. As the incident unfolded, the speaker at the podium, Ed Bejarana, made insulting comments:

“Just look at this. This little girl is afraid to leave. She spoke up and now she doesn't want to suffer the consequences. Look at this little girl over here, everyone. Look at her."

Worse is that, despite the clear violation of free speech and civil liberties occurring right before their eyes, the majority of attendees did nothing to intervene or stop a woman from being dragged from the room.

On the upside, after the incident LEAR Asset Management's business license was revoked for violating city ordinances, and a GoFundMe campaign raised over $245,000 for Dr. Borrenpohl's legal expenses.

This is not America and the women of Idaho need to vote these Republican thugs out of office as soon as possible. 

Nicholas Mikovits is a model, sports nutritionist, personal trainer, and actor, and begs the question: Would You Hit It?

Repost: Black History Month: Emmett Till

This one breaks my heart and feeds my anger.

1955. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was excited about his trip from his home in Chicago's south side to the Mississippi Delta to visit relatives. He had been 'educated in the ways of the south' by his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, who told him how to behave around Southern white people. Mamie Till knew that life in Mississippi was a lot different than in Chicago. In Mississippi, over 500 Black people had been lynched since 1882 and racially motivated murders were not unfamiliar, especially in the Delta where Till was going.

On August 20, 1955, with his mother's warning ringing in his ears, and his deceased father's ring on his finger, Emmett Till set off with his cousin Curtis Jones on the train to Mississippi. When Till and Jones arrived on August 21, they stayed at the home of Till's great-uncle Mose Wright, just on the outskirts of Money, Mississippi.

Three days later, the two boys drove Wright's car into the small town of Money and stopped at Bryant's Grocery store to buy some candy. Prior to going inside, Till pulled out some pictures of his white friends in Chicago and showed them to the local boys outside the store. Those boys dared Till to talk to Carolyn Bryant, the store clerk. Till went into the store, purchased some candy, and what happened as he was leaving is unclear. Till either said, "Bye, baby" or he whistled at Carolyn Bryant.

Neither Emmett Till nor Curtis Jones understood the magnitude of Till's act, so they didn't tell Mose Wright what happened. They continued to think nothing of the event as three days passed without incident; three days of the cousins enjoying their summer vacation. However, on the fourth day, early Sunday morning, Carolyn Bryant's husband, Roy, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, knocked on the door of Wright's home.

With a pistol and flashlight in hand, they asked Mose Wright whether three boys from Chicago were staying with him. And , because when white people with guns knocked at your door in Mississippi in 1955, and you're a Black man, you let them in, Mose Wright took the two men to a room where Emmett Till was sleeping.

Bryant and Milam told Till to get dressed. Wright unsuccessfully pleaded with them to just whip Till, but the two men ignored his pleas, and threatened to kill Wright if he told anyone. Several hours later, Mamie Till was notified of her son's kidnapping. A search of the area was conducted, and Mamie Till notified Chicago newspapers of her son's disappearance.

Wright told Money's sheriff who had taken Till, and he arrested Bryant and Milam for kidnapping. Little more than a week after Emmett Till arrived in Money, Mississippi, his body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. It was weighted down by a seventy-five-pound cotton gin fan, which was tied around Till's neck with barbed wire. His face was so mutilated that when Wright identified the body, he could only do so based on the ring that Till has been wearing—his dead father's ring.

Mamie Till made the decision, when Emmett's body was returned to Chicago, to have an open casket funeral. She wanted the world to know what had happened to her son. His right eye was missing, his nose was broken, and there was a hole in the side of his head. Fifty-thousand people attended the funeral. Jet magazine ran photos of Till's body; soon Till's murder became an international story.

Down in Money, Mississippi, Milam and Bryant garnered support; whites in their community claimed they were innocent and supported their defense by donating to 'the cause.'

The trial began on September 19, 1955, in Sumner, Mississippi. The entire jury was composed of white men from the defendants' home county. At trial, the defense attorney asserted that the body recovered from the river was not Till's body, and instead, claimed Milam and Bryant had taken Till but had let him go. Milam and Bryant alleged that the NAACP and Mamie Till had dug up a body and claimed that it was Till and that Emmett Till was hiding out in Chicago.

For the prosecution, finding witnesses was difficult for the prosecution. In the South, it was dangerous for Black people to testify against any white person, so those who knew anything were reluctant to come forward. However, white and Black reporters and the NAACP were able to find witnesses against the defendants.

Barely whispering, out of fear of reprisal, Willie Reed testified on the stand that he had seen Roy Bryant, J.W. Milam, and another man with Till. Further, he testified that he heard screaming coming from the Milam barn. When Milam came out of the barn with a .45 on his hip, Milam asked Reed if he had seen anything, and Reed said no. Mose Wright had decided from the beginning that he was going to testify. When Wright took the stand, he testified that Milam and Bryant had taken Till at gunpoint from his home.

After Reed and Wright testified, they were quickly escorted out of Mississippi by the NAACP.

Mamie Till was forced to testify that the body she buried was her son, Emmett Till.

Neither J.W. Milam nor Roy Bryant testified.

The trial lasted five days. In the defense's closing argument, Milam and Bryant's attorney forewarned the jury about convicting the defendants:

"Your ancestors will turn over in their grave, and I'm sure every last Anglo-Saxon one of you has the courage to free these men."

The jury deliberated for only 67 minutes; a long time because, as one jury said, they'd taken a break to cool off with some soda pop. The jury found Milam and Bryant not guilty. They concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove that the body recovered from the river was Emmett Till.

On January 24, 1956, Look magazine published the confession of Milam and Bryant, who had agreed to tell their story, sell their story for $4,000 since they had already been found not guilty and could not be tried again. According to their confession, they beat Till with a .45 in Milam's barn, and then proceeded to take him to the Tallahatchie River where they had him take off his clothes and then they shot him. A gin fan was tied around his neck with wire in order to weigh the body down in the river. They burned Till's clothes and shoes.

Milam and Bryant were never charged with any other crimes relating to Till’s murder.

After the trial, Black people boycotted the Bryant’s' store, which forced them out of business.

Both Milam and Bryant remained in Mississippi until their deaths. J.W. Milam died of cancer in 1980, twenty-five years after he murdered Emmett Till. Roy Bryant died of cancer in 1994, thirty-nine years after he got away with murder.

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusation led to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till died in 2023. Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her hand and waist and propositioned her, saying he had been with “White women before” but in 2017, author Timothy Tyson revealed in his book The Blood of Emmett Till that Donham had recanted her testimony. 

Donham's family publicly denied that she had recanted but the fact is, were it not for her words that a young Black man either whistled at her or said “Bye, baby,” Emmett till would have never been murdered.

Carolyn Bryant Donham died in 2023.