As a Wrap-Up to Women's History Month

In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, urging him and the other members of the Continental Congress not to forget about the nation's women when fighting for America's independence from Great Britain.

The future First Lady wrote in part, "I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

Nearly 150 years before the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Adams letter was a private first step in the fight for equal rights for women. Recognized and admired as a formidable woman in her own right, the union of Abigail and John Adams persists as a model of mutual respect and affection; they have since been referred to as "America's first power couple." Their correspondence of over 1,000 letters written between 1762 and 1801 remains in the Massachusetts Historical Society and continues to give historians a unique perspective on domestic and political life during the revolutionary era.

Abigail bore six children, of whom five survived. Abigail and John's eldest son, John Quincy Adams, served as the sixth president of the United States. Only two women, Abigail Adams and Barbara Bush, have been both wives and mothers of American presidents.  (www.history.com)

On This Day in History March 30

On this day in history in 1870, The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is formally adopted.  The Amendment prohibits states and the federal government from denying a person (man) the right to vote based on his race, color or previous status as a slave.  The following day, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African-American to vote under the protection of the Fifteenth Amendment.

In 1867, despite President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the Republican dominated Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act, which divided the South into five districts and outlining how the governments of the districts would be established.   Following the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, which is the third Reconstruction Amendment, empowered African-American communities joined forces with white allies in the Southern states and elected the Republican Party to power.  By the end of 1870, all of the former Confederate states were re-admitted to the Union.  Most were controlled by the Republican office, due to the support of the African-American voters.

Also,  in 1870, Hiram Rhoades Revels, an African-American Republican from Mississippi, became the first African-American to sit in Congress.  Following in Revels’ footsteps were a dozen other African American men who held seats in Congress, and more than 600 sat in state legislatures.

As Reconstruction vanished in the late 1870’s so did the Southern Republican Party.   State governments nullified the Fifteen Amendment, taking away the right of African-Americans to vote.  It would be almost one hundred years before the nation would again work to give all citizens in the South the right to vote.

On This Day in History March 29

Today in 1951, during the hysteria of McCarthysim, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage and passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II. 

The Rosenbergs were identified after Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, who worked in a laboratory where the atomic bomb was developed, was arrested.  He quickly confessed to espionage and then implicated his brother-in-law as one of his contacts, as well as the involvement of his own wife, Ruth Greenglass.  The Rosenbergs’ background, including membership in the Young Communist League as well as involvement in national labor and political issues during the 1930’s and 1940’s was used against them.

Julius Rosenberg refused to implicate anyone after he was arrested in July 1950.  J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, viewed Rosenberg’s arrest as a possible publicity opportunity for the FBI. Hoover stated that if Ethel Rosenberg was arrested for espionage as well, that it might coerce her husband into implicating others for the FBI to pursue.  Ethel was arrested in August 1950.  Although both were pressured to provide names of others involved, neither offered any further information.

A couple weeks before the trial started, David Greenglass was re-interviewed by the FBI.  He was offered a deal.  In exchange for his wife being released and not charged, Greenglass now implicated his sister in the spy ring.

In the end, the jury believed the testimony given by David and Ruth Greenglass.  Both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death.  The severity of the sentence shocked many as neither had been convicted of treason.  Afterwards, even Hoover made it clear that he did not believe that the Rosenbergs should be executed as it would tarnish the reputation of the government if it allowed the Rosenbergs’ two young sons to be orphaned.  It was believed that if the Rosenbergs confessed and gave evidence that their lives would be spared.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg remained on death row for 26 months.  Neither one ever confessed nor provided evidence against any others.  They were executed on June 19, 1953.

In December 2001, David and Ruth Greenglass, now living under assumed names, confessed that both their court statement during the trial had been lies.  He stated that Julius had some involvement in espionage, but that he had no knowledge of his sister’s involvement.

To this day, the Rosenbergs execution remains controversial.  Others arrested by the FBI for espionage offered confessions and thereby were not executed.

If you would like to learn more about the Rosenbergs, J. Edgar Hoover, or McCarthyism, please visit the library.

On This Day in History March 26

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he tested a vaccine against the virus that causes polio, a crippling disease that can lead to partial or full paralysis.  1952 was an epidemic year for polio in the United States with 58,000 new cases of polio and more than 3,000 deaths attributed to the virus.  Polio is often called “infant paralysis” as the virus mainly affects children.

Polio is easily transmitted from human to human, attacking the nervous system and causing varying degrees of paralysis.  The first half of the twentieth century saw numerous epidemics, with thousands of people being affected every year.  Until the introduction of a vaccine to protect people from contracting polio, the only treatment was limited to quarantines and the “iron lung”, a metal coffin-like device that helped the person breathe.  Although children, especially young children, were the worst infected, adults also contracted polio including future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who in 1921 at age 39 was left partially paralyzed.

Salk’s procedure injected several strains of dead virus into a healthy person, thereby causing their immune system to create antibodies that would fight future exposures to polio.  His first human trials included injecting former polio patients, himself, and even his family, with the vaccine.  In 1955, an announcement was made that the vaccine was effective and safe.  A national inoculation campaign began and new polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957, the first year after inoculations began.  In 1962, a oral version of the vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin, greatly improving the distribution of the vaccine.


Today, just a handful of polio cases are reported annually in the United States, most often from people who have been to developing nations and brought it back with them.  However, polio is still in epidemic proportions in less developed countries, such as Chad, Senegal, and India.  Organizations such as Rotary International have made it their mission to immunize as many children in these countries as possible and put an end to polio.

According to Rotary.org, a campaign to immunize 85 million children in 19 countries across West and Central Africa began on March 6, 2010 in order to stop a year-long epidemic. A similar campaign was launched in February 2010 in India with 100 million children being vaccinated.  Excellent job, Rotary International!

Madam C. J. Walker

Born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Delta, Louisiana plantation, this daughter of former slaves transformed herself from an uneducated farm laborer and laundress into one of the twentieth century's most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.

Orphaned at age seven, she often said, "I got my start by giving myself a start." She and her older sister, Louvenia, survived by working in the cotton fields of Delta and nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. At 14, she married Moses McWilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell.

Her only daughter, Lelia (later known as A'Lelia Walker) was born on June 6, 1885. When her husband died two years later, she moved to St. Louis to join her four brothers who had established themselves as barbers. Working for as little as $1.50 a day, she managed to save enough money to educate her daughter in the city's public schools. Friendships with other black women who were members of St. Paul A.M.E. Church and the National Association of Colored Women exposed her to a new way of viewing the world.

During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose most of her hair. She experimented with many homemade remedies and store-bought products, including those made by Annie Malone, another black woman entrepreneur. In 1905 Sarah moved to Denver as a sales agent for Malone, then married her third husband, Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. After changing her name to "Madam" C. J. Walker, she founded her own business and began selling Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula, which she claimed had been revealed to her in a dream. Madam Walker, by the way, did NOT invent the straightening comb or chemical perms, though many people incorrectly believe that to be true.

To promote her products, the new "Madam C.J. Walker" traveled for a year and a half on a dizzying crusade throughout the heavily black South and Southeast, selling her products door to door, demonstrating her scalp treatments in churches and lodges, and devising sales and marketing strategies. In 1908, she temporarily moved her base to Pittsburgh where she opened Lelia College to train Walker "hair culturists."

By early 1910, she had settled in Indianapolis, then the nation's largest inland manufacturing center, where she built a factory, hair and manicure salon and another training school. Less than a year after her arrival, Walker grabbed national headlines in the black press when she contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the "colored" YMCA in Indianapolis.

In 1913, while Walker traveled to Central America and the Caribbean to expand her business, her daughter A'Lelia, moved into a fabulous new Harlem townhouse and Walker Salon, designed by black architect, Vertner Tandy. "There is nothing to equal it," she wrote to her attorney, F.B. Ransom. "Not even on Fifth Avenue."

Walker herself moved to New York in 1916, leaving the day-to-day operations of the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis to Ransom and Alice Kelly, her factory forelady and a former school teacher. She continued to oversee the business and to work in the New York office. Once in Harlem, she quickly became involved in Harlem's social and political life, taking special interest in the NAACP's anti-lynching movement to which she contributed $5,000.

In July 1917, when a white mob murdered more than three dozen blacks in East St. Louis, Illinois, Walker joined a group of Harlem leaders who visited the White House to present a petition advocating federal anti-lynching legislation.

As her business continued to grow, Walker organized her agents into local and state clubs. Her Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention in Philadelphia in 1917 must have been one of the first national meetings of businesswomen in the country. Walker used the gathering not only to reward her agents for their business success, but to encourage their political activism as well. "This is the greatest country under the sun," she told them. "But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice. We should protest until the American sense of justice is so aroused that such affairs as the East St. Louis riot be forever impossible."

By the time she died at her estate, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, she had helped create the role of the 20th Century, self-made American businesswoman; established herself as a pioneer of the modern black hair-care and cosmetics industry; and set standards in the African-American community for corporate and community giving.

Tenacity and perseverance, faith in herself and in God, quality products and "honest business dealings" were the elements and strategies she prescribed for aspiring entrepreneurs who requested the secret to her rags-to-riches ascent. "There is no royal flower-strewn path to success," she once commented. "And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard."

(www.madamcjwalker.com and A'Lelia Bundles)

The library recently received a video tape documenting Madam C. J. Walker (HD 9970.5.C672 W353 1992). Check it out to find out more about Walker, the entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist.

On This Day in History March 24

"I may not be a lion, but I am a lion's cub, and I have a lion's heart."

Queen Elizabeth I died on this day in 1603 bringing to an end her 44 year reign of England.  Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

In 1959, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, after the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary.  Mary, raised Catholic, had enacted pro-Catholic legislation.  After Mary’s death, Elizabeth re-established the Protestant Church in England.

Elizabeth’s foreign policies aimed at strengthening relationships between England’s Protestant allies and fragmenting her foes.  The Pope refused to recognize Elizabeth’s legitimacy as Queen of England, as did Spain, a Catholic nation, at the height of its dominance in the world.  By 1588, the political and religious differences between England and Spain came to a head when Spain sent their mighty Spanish Armada, at that time the greatest naval force in the world, to invade England.  The invasion failed and the English defeated the Spaniards due to superior tactics, ship design, and simple good fortune.

Following the defeat, Elizabeth’s popularity reached its zenith and she proved that a woman could lead in war as well as a man.  England’s dominance at sea continued with voyages of exploration including Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world and Sir Walter Raleigh’s travels to the North American coast.

Elizabeth dedicated her life to her country and the people of England.   When she ascended the throne in 1558, England was an impoverished country torn apart by religious groups.  When she died on March 24, 1603, Elizabeth had transformed England into one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world.

The library has numerous items in the collection about Elizabeth I, still known as one of the great monarch of all times.  She is a great and timely figure to be spotlighted in International Women’s History Month.   

Margaret Moth

Today’s blog honors Margaret Moth, a CNN wartime photojournalist, who died March 21, 2010 of colon cancer at the age of 59 years.    Moth led her life with the same passion and drive as did so many others who are remembered in Women’s History Month.

Moth was never part of the norm.  Her appearance of jet-black hair, heavy eyeliner, black clothes and combat boots made her stand out in a crowd.     She even changed her name from Margaret Wilson to Margaret Gipsy Moth in honor of a particular plane she used to skydive from, barefoot.

Photojournalism became her life’s work due to Moth’s love of history and her desire to see it unfold.  While in Sarajevo in 1992, she barely survived being shot in the mouth while filming the soldier who shot her.  The injury left her face and throat severly damaged, as well as her ability to talk.  Others were angry that she was shot as she was riding in a van that was clearly marked as carrying members of the press.  But, Moth was not angry.  She said “I don’t blame anyone for firing at me.  They’re in a war, and I stepped into it.”  After numerous surgeries, six months later she returned to Sarajevo to re-join her CNN colleagues.  

Moth’s CNN co-workers speak of her kindness and concern she had for her fellow correspondents.   She taught the new correspondents how to sleep behind couches, how to walk through land mind fields, and showed them how to make the most of their work in telling the stories they covered.

When Moth found out she had terminal cancer, she laughed and said that she wished she could go out with “a bit more flair.”   She added that the important thing is to know you have lived your life to the fullest.

CNN honored Moth after her cancer diagnosis in 2009 with the documentary “Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story.”  Below is the link to the documentary of this incredible woman.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/09/25/margaret.moth.film/index.html

On This Day in History March 22

On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification.

First proposed by the National Woman's political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. More than four decades later, the revival of feminism in the late 1960s spurred its introduction into Congress. Under the leadership of U.S. Representative Bella Abzug of New York and feminists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, it won the requisite two-thirds vote from the U.S. House of Representatives in October 1971. In March 1972, it was approved by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states.

Hawaii was the first state to ratify what would have been the 27th Amendment, followed by some 30 other states within a year. However, during the mid-1970s, a conservative backlash against feminism eroded support for the Equal Rights Amendment, which ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the a requisite 38, or three-fourths, of the states.

Because of the rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment, sexual equality, with the notable exception of when it pertains to the right to vote, is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. However, in the late 20th century, the federal government and all states have passed considerable legislation protecting the legal rights of women. The Equal Rights Amendment, in its most recently proposed form, reads, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex."

In Celebration of Women’s History Month

Marian Anderson (1897-1993) born in South Philadelphia, was a singer, who classified as a contralto, had a range that went as low as a baritone up to the high soprano notes.  Her father died when she was a child.  Her mother worked as a laundress and barely had enough money to support the family, so their church raised the money to make certain that Anderson could take private singing lessons.

As a young woman, Anderson won multiple singing contests.  The prizes included prestigious singing awards including the opportunity to sing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and trips to England and Germany.  In Germany, Anderson studied German songs, which became part of her repertoire.    She gave 116 performances while in Europe and received rave reviews and accolades.

In 1939, Anderson had planned on performing in the Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.  The Hall was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), who would not allow her to perform because Anderson was African American.  Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was perhaps the most prestigious member of the DAR at that time.  Mrs. Roosevelt was so outraged by the DAR’s treatment of Anderson, that she resigned her membership from the organization.

Mrs. Roosevelt helped Anderson arrange to instead have the concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  Seventy-five thousand people attended the concert, which began with Anderson performing “America.”

Here is the link to watch the Ms. Anderson sing “America.”  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQnzb0Jj074

This concert helped open the doors of opportunity for other African Americans.  From that point on Anderson refused to sing at any place or function that was segregated.

Two years later, in 1941, Anderson received the Bok Award, the city of Philadelphia’s award given to honor its most highly regarded citizens.  She used the $10,000 award to create the Marian Anderson Scholarship Fund for music students of all races.

On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African American to sing a major role at the Metropolitan Opera as a regular cast member.

Anderson made a farewell tour to Europe and the United States in 1956.  The next year she traveled to twelve Asian nations on behalf of the U.S. State Department.  In 1958, she was named as the U.S. delegate to the United Nations.  Anderson received the Medal of Freedom in 1963 and in 1986 was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Marian Anderson passed away in 1993 at the age of ninety-six.  Throughout her professional career, she was known as the world’s greatest contralto.  On January 27, 2005, she was again honored when her image appeared on the 37 cent postage stamp.

The Library just received several video tapes from the “American Women of Achievement” collection, of which Marian Anderson is one of the women spotlighted.  In honor of Women’s History Month, stop by and check them out!

Today is Supreme Sacrifice Day.  This is the day to recognize those people who have offered themselves for the welfare of others.  In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the focus of today’s blog is on Sister Dorothy Stang, and activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame, was an environmentalist and human rights worker who advocated for the rights of the poor and to preserve the Amazon rainforest.  Despite numerous threats to her life from loggers and criminal gangs, she worked for almost 40 years to support poor farmers’ rights to their small plots of land and for the extraction of forest products without deforestation.

On the morning of February 12, 2005, Sister Dorothy was walking to a community meeting to discuss the rights for the Amazon.  She was confronted on the road by two men.  When they asked if she had any weapons, she replied, only her bible.  Sister Dorothy began to read to them from the bible, when she was shot six times and killed.

Although Sister Dorothy was silenced, her work continues in the Amazon by Sisters and others who teach that all have rights and strive to maintain the well-being of the Amazon.

Visit the Library to learn more about Sister Dorothy Stang.  Besides books, check out our dvd collection and watch The Student, the Nun and the Amazon (SD414.B6 S78 2005).

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were American suffragists who risked their lives in their fight for equal rights for women.  Together and with other members of the National Women’s Party (NWP), they successfully led a campaign that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.  From that point on, neither the federal government, nor any states, could deny anyone the right to vote based on the person’s gender.

What differentiated Paul and Burns and the NWP from other suffragists is that they fought for equal rights on a national level as opposed to other groups that fought on the individual state levels.

In 1916 the women of the NWP directed their attention to President Woodrow Wilson asking him to give women the right to vote and picketed outside the White House.  However, when the war started, many, including President Wilson, viewed the actions of picketing a wartime president as unpatriotic.  The women were attacked by angry mobs, arrested and thrown in jail.  Their treatment was often brutal.  The suffragists, including older and frail women, were beaten and kept in unsanitary and rat-invested cells.  While staging hunger strikes, Paul, Burns and others were physically restrained, and when they refused to open their mouths, tubes were shoved up their nostrils.

News of the women’s plight in prison became available to the public, which resulted in the public, the press and some politicians demanding their release as well as their support  of women’s suffrage.  In 1917, President Wilson, in response to public outcry, reversed his decision and supported the suffrage movement.  The work of Paul, Burns and the NWP continued upon their release and finally in 1920, women gained the right to vote. 

Borrow the dvd Iron Jawed Angels (PN1997.2.I76 2004) to watch the sacrifices and hard work of suffragists Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and the NWP, fight for women’s right to vote.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17th, the date of Saint Patrick’s death in 461 AD.   In Ireland, St. Patrick’s day is a holy day, celebrated with prayer, song, and dance.  Outside of Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is primarily a non-religious celebration of all things Irish.  

The history of St. Patrick’s Day as an American celebration is uncertain, but one version is that a group of Irish-born soldiers staged an impromptu parade on their way to their local tavern to celebrate their patron saint.  Bystanders joined in the parade, which included dancing and singing Irish ballads.  Everyone had so much fun that it was repeated again year after year.

 
On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone wears green because Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle due to the green grassy hills.  If you forget to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, some one wearing green is allowed to pinch you.  However, if you pinch some one wearing green by accident, they are allowed to pinch you ten times!  

 
The Shamrock became a symbol of Ireland due to St. Patrick.  He used the three leaves of the shamrock as an illustration to non-believers that three leaves make up one plant just as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost combine to make the holy Trinity.  

 
Two of the largest celebrations take place in New York City and Chicago.  Chicago goes as far as putting dye into the Chicago River to turn it a lovely emerald green.

Freedom of Information Day celebrates and recognizes a valuable concept in American rights. 

Born on March 16, 1751,  James Madison, the 4th president of the United States of America, is recognized at the "Father of the Constitution", and the chief author of the "Bill of Rights".

Madison was the first president to have served in the United States Congress where he drafted many basic laws, and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution.    One of Madison’s primary focuses was the protection of individual rights and strove to protect these rights from the oppression of the majority.

Madison would be pleased to know that The Freedom of Information Act was passed into law in 1966. It opened up a wealth of information to American citizens. 

If you are interested in learning more about James Madison and his fight freedom, please visit the Siena Heights Library.  We have a number of books including his biography (LC call # E342. A34 1974).

"A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them."


James Madison

On This Day in History March 15

 

On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge equal voting rights for the African Americans.  He used the term “we shall overcome” borrowed from African American leaders struggling for equal rights. Discrimination had taken the form of literacy, knowledge or character tests administered solely to African Americans to keep them from registering to vote. 

Here is the link to watch the full speech on  YouTube. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEauRq1WxQ

The speech came one week after deadly racial violence erupted in Selma, Alabama when police attacked a group of African Americans preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting rights discrimination.

Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King and over 500 supporters were attacked while planning a march to Montgomery to register African-Americans to vote. The police violence that erupted resulted in the death of a King supporter, a white Unitarian Minister from Boston named James J. Reeb. Television news coverage of the event galvanized voting rights supporters in Congress.

The Federal government intervened when a second attempt to march to Montegomery was stopped by local police.  Finally, on March 21, the march was competed under the watchful eye of worldwide media.

 

On August 6, 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to African Americans.  Initially, support of the Act was weak, especially in the South, but the Act gave African Americans the right to legally challenge voting restrictions.  In Mississippi, African American voter turnout increased from 6% in 1964 to 59% in 1969.

If you want to learn more, the library has a large collection of books on both the civil rights struggle of the 1960’s as well as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

On This Day in History, March 12

 

On March 12, 1930, Mohandas Gandhi led 78 followers on a 241-mile march to the coastal town of Dandi in India in order to protest the British monopoly on salt.  Britain’s Salt Acts forbade Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in their diet due to the immense heat and humidity of the climate.  As a result, citizens of India were forced to buy salt from the British, who, besides monopolizing the manufacture and sale of salt, placed a heavy tax on it.

 
As the march progressed, Gandhi addressed large crowds along the way, more people joined the march.  When they reached Dandi on April 5,  tens of thousands of people marched to the seaside with Gandhi.  

 
Gandhi (October 2, 1869 to January 30, 1948) was the pre-eminent spiritual and political leader during India’s movement to gain independence from Great Britain.  He was a pioneer in mass civil disobedience in order to fight tyranny.

 
Gandhi’s plan was to work the salt flats on the beach, which became encrusted with sea salt at every high tide.  The police tried to stop Gandhi and the other marchers by crushing the sea salt into the mud, but Gandhi persevered by reaching down and picking up a piece of the muddy salt.  This simple act defied British law and the British retaliated by arresting 60,000 Indians.  

 
Ghandi, himself, was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha (non-violent resistance) continued without him when 2,500 marchers went to the Dharasana Salt Works on May 21.  The marchers were confronted by hundreds of British-led Indian policemen who savagely beat the peaceful protesters.  The violence was reported by an American journalist prompting international outcries against Britain’s policy in India.

 
Finally, India gained its independence in August 1947.  Six months later, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist. Gandhi officially known as the father of his country and his birthday is a national holiday.

 
If you would like to know more about Gandhi, the library has a number of items in the catalog, including a DVD of the movie Gandhi, made in 1982 and the winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

 

"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever."

       Mohandas Gandhi

It's About Time

 

In July 2009, President Obama signs bill to award WASPS Congressional Gold Medals.

Yesterday, a group of very special women received recognition that was sixty-six years over due.  These Women Air Force Service Pilots or WASP, for short, became the very first female pilots to fly military aircraft for the U.S. military services. The women joined the U.S. Air Force in the 1940’s ,  and their duties included ferrying planes to male fighter pilots, chemical missions, teaching men how to fly, and running training missions. They were stationed at 120 military bases around the world.

During World War II, more than one thousand women flew military air craft.  The WASP program was initiated in 1943 when the war was at its peak and the United States suffered from a shortage of pilots.  Requirements to become a female Air Force pilot were more rigorous than for a male pilot, including more experience as a pilot.   The women were paid less than men and the women had to pay for their own lodging, food, and uniforms, unlike the men.  Also, unlike the men, the women held no military rank, and instead were classified as civilian flight officers.

Thirty-eight of these women were killed in service and were returned home at their families’ expense without any official ceremony.  Those that survived also had to pay for their journeys home and the WASP records remained sealed until 1980.  

After the end of World War II, these women were mostly forgotten.  It was not until 1979 that the women were accorded veteran status and could avail themselves of veteran services.  And, now, sixty-six years later, President Obama awarded each of them a Congressional Gold Medal in Washington D.C.  

Many of these brave and pioneering women have died, but it is estimated that 300 still survive and that about 200 attended yesterday’s ceremony. 

A New DVD in the Collection

Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (LC call no. BX4827.B57 B664 2000), documents latter part of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and religious scholar. He experienced the horror of Nazi Germany and he confronted it. Struggling between his Christian values and loyalty to his homeland, he chose to stand up against the Nazis.  He joined a conspiracy to overthrow the dictator, a course of action that would ultimately lead to his execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war’s end.

Bonhoeffer lived as he preached.  His opposition to Nazism has inspired Christians across broad denominations and ideologies.  He is commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Church of England and the Church of Wales, and has inspired the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

                      Dietrich Bonhoeffer






Bonhoeffer in the courtyard of Tegel prison (summer 1944)

Two New Additions to the Library Collection

The Library has added two books by author Timothy Egan, which tell the true tales of two extraordinary episodes of American devastation, hardship, and perseverance. 

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (LC call no. F595.E38 2006) tells the stories of families who decided to stay rather than flee one of the worst ecological disasters in history.  The Dust Bowl was the product of wreckless, economic-driven misuse of the land coupled with drought and high winds causing numerous dust storms throughout the 1930’s.  It destroyed over 100,000,000 acres and displaced thousands of people causing them to flee the Great Plains. 

Egan tells the stories of people who settled in the Great Plains, both Americans and immigrants, in order to farm it.  He interviews those who stayed, suffered, and survived the Dust Bowl, including Hazel Lucas who gave birth during this time only to have her baby die of “dust pneumonia” when her lungs became filled with dust.

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (LC call no. E757.E325 2009) tells of the horrific wild fire of 1910 in Idaho, Montana and Washington State and its aftermath.  When Roosevelt left the Office of President, he had left a legacy that included the creation and protection of public lands by the newly created Forest Service.  Immediately after Roosevelt was out of office, interest groups opposed to public land, fought for it to be returned to private interests and development. 

From August 20-21, 1910, several wild fires merged into one huge burning inferno, ultimately killing 87 people and over 100 firefighters.  The result of the fire was the destruction of 3 million acres and 5 towns.  The devastation of the great fire solidified public opinion of the protection of the country’s forests.

March 8 is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month

March is Women’s History Month, which coincides with International Women’s Day on March 8.  Many countries celebrate every March 8 with demonstrations, educational initiatives and customs such as offering gifts and flowers. The United Nations  has sponsored the holiday since 1975.

International Women's Day has been celebrated annually since 1908 with a focus on advancing women’s rights in the workforce, politics, and society.  In many countries, March 8 in a national holiday where women’s struggle for equality, justice, peace and development are reviewed, honored and celebrated.

International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; its roots are documented as far back as ancient Greece when women initiated a sexual strike against men to end war.  During the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Throughout the years women have fought for such basics as the right to vote, the right to hold public office, the right to work,  and equal pay for equal work.

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women.

Come celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.  Our library has a large collection documenting not only women’s struggle for equality, but also the women who have been and are leaders in their fields and in the world.

On This Day in History March 5

On this day in 1963, the Hula-Hoop is patented  by Wham-O’s  co-founder, Arthur "Spud" Melin.  An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone.

The Hula Hoop may be a fad of the 1950’s, but people have been entertaining themselves with large circular hoops made of grape vines and stiff grasses all over the ancient world.  More than 3000 years ago, Egyptian children played with large hoops made of dried grape vines.    The hoop was either rolled along the ground or swung around the waist.  During the 1500’s a “hooping” craze was a popular past time for adults as well as children, and doctors blamed numerous back injuries and heart attacks to “hooping.”   
 
In 1948, friends Arthur Melin and Richard Knerr founded a company in California to sell a slingshot they created to shoot meat up to falcons they used for hunting. The company’s name, Wham-O, came from the sound the slingshots supposedly made. Wham-O eventually branched out from slingshots, selling boomerangs and other sporting goods. Its first hit toy, a flying plastic disc known as the Frisbee, debuted in 1957. The Frisbee was originally marketed under a different name, the Pluto Platter, in an effort to capitalize on America's fascination with UFOs.

Melina and Knerr were inspired to develop the Hula-Hoop after they saw a wooden hoop that Australian children twirled around their waists during gym class. Wham-O began producing a plastic version of the hoop, dubbed "Hula" after the hip-gyrating Hawaiian dance of the same name, and demonstrating it on Southern California playgrounds. Hula-Hoop mania took off from there.
The enormous popularity of the Hula-Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing. However, the Hula-Hoop never faded away completely and still has its fans today.

I don’t know if Melina and Knerr had more in mind than a simple hoop with which to entertain ourselves, but check out the You Tube link below and see what Cirque du Soleil performer, Elena Lev, can do with a hula hoop. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztXmzMvSXZ0

On This Day in History March 4

On March 4, 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States.  In his famous inaugural address, Roosevelt outlined his "New Deal"--an expansion of the Federal government as an instrument of employment opportunity and welfare--and told Americans that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  Although it was a rainy day in Washington and gusts of wind blew rain on Roosevelt as he spoke, he exuded optimism and competence as he spoke.  A large majority of Americans supported their new President and his radical proposals to lead the country out of the Great Depression.

Born into an upper-class family in Hyde Park, New York, in 1882, Roosevelt was the fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, 1901 to 1909.  In 1905, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a student at Columbia University Law School, married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of Theodore Roosevelt.  After three years as a lawyer, he decided to follow in Theodore Roosevelt's footsteps and run for public office.  In 1910, he won the election tot he new York State Senate as a Democrat.  He quickly earned a reputation as a charismatic politician dedicated to social and economic reform.

Roosevelt continued in public office when in 1912, he was appointed as the assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy.  In 1920, he won the Democratic nomination as the vice presidential candidate and ran on the ticket with James Cox.  The Democrats lost in a landslide and Roosevelt returned to his law practice.

In 1921, at the age of 39, Roosevelt contracted polio, causing at first nearly total paralysis.  he spent the next several years recovering.  During this time, his wife, Eleanor, kept his name alive in Democratic circles.  He never fully recovered and was forced to use leg braces and wheelchairs the remainder of his life.  Roosevelt, who planned a life in politics, wouldn't accept the limitations of his disease.  But, how could he demonstrate that he was healthy and strong enough to run for office?  Although Roosevelt made no secret of his disease--the New York Times carried the story of his illness on the front page--he downplayed the severity of his disability.  The public rarely saw him sitting in a wheelchair or using the steel braces he needed to walk. By common, unspoken consent, the press almost never photographed Roosevelt while he was in motion.

Roosevelt returned to politics in 1924 when he nominated New York Governor Alfred E. Smith for the Office of President in a  rousing speech he delivered at the Democratic National Convention.  In 1928, Roosevelt campaigned by automobile and was elected as Governor of New York.

Governor Roosevelt worked for tax relief for farmers.  As the economic recession turned into the Great Depression, brought on by the stock market crash of 1929, Roosevelt won a second term and mobilized the state government to assist tin providing relief and spur  economic recovery.. His vigorous action and obvious political abilities garnered Roosevelt the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1932.

Roosevelt soundly defeated President Herbert Hoover, who was blamed for the Great Depression.  Roosevelt carried all but six states.  the next four months saw the economy worsen and when Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office on march 4, 1933, most banks were closed, farms suffered, 13 million people were unemployed, and industrial production was just over half of what it had been in 1929 before the crash.

Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress took decisive action and most of his New Deal proposals, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the creation of the Public Works Administration, were approved during this first 100 days in office.  Despite criticism from the business community, Roosevelt's proactive and progressive legislation improved the national economic climate and he easily won a second term in 1936.

During his second term, Roosevelt became increasingly concerned with German and Japanese aggression and he began a long campaign to rouse America from its long standing isolationist position.  While World War ll raged in Europe and the Pacific, Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term.  Re-elected in 1940, he proved to be a highly effective commander in chief after the United States entered the war in December 1941.  Under Roosevelt's guidance, the United States succeeded in shifting the balance of power in World War ll to the Allies.  In 1944, he was elected to a fourth term.

Three months after his inauguration, Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63.  Millions of Americans mourned the man who led the country through two of its greatest trials, the Great Depression and World War ll.  Roosevelt's unparalleled 13 years as President led to the passing of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting future Presidents to a maximum of two consecutive elected terms in office.

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace."

                      Franklin Delano Roosevelt

On this Day in History March 3

On this day in 1887, Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness when she was only 19 months old. Under Sullivan's tutelage, including her pioneering "touch teaching" techniques, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed "the miracle worker," remained Keller's interpreter and constant companion until the older woman's death in 1936.



Sullivan, born in Massachusetts in 1866, had firsthand experience with being handicapped: As a child, an infection impaired her vision. She then attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind where she learned the manual alphabet in order to communicate with a classmate who was deaf and blind. Eventually, Sullivan had several operations that improved her weakened eyesight.


Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, to Arthur Keller, a former Confederate army officer and newspaper publisher, and his wife Kate, of Tuscumbia, Alabama. As a baby, a brief illness, possibly scarlet fever, left Helen unable to see, hear or speak. She was considered a bright but spoiled and strong-willed child. Her parents eventually sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and an authority on the deaf. He suggested the Kellers contact the Perkins Institution, which in turn recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher.


Sullivan, age 20, arrived at Ivy Green, the Keller family estate, in 1887 and began working to socialize her wild, stubborn student and teach her by spelling out words in Keller's hand. Initially, the finger spelling meant nothing to Keller. However, a breakthrough occurred one day when Sullivan held one of Keller's hands under water from a pump and spelled out "w-a-t-e-r" in Keller's palm. Keller went on to learn how to read, write and speak. With Sullivan's assistance, Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904.


Helen Keller became a public speaker and author; her first book, "The Story of My Life" was published in 1902. She was also a fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind and an advocate for racial and sexual equality, as well as socialism. From 1920 to 1924, Sullivan and Keller even formed a vaudeville act to educate the public and earn money. Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at her home in Westport, Connecticut, at age 87, leaving her mark on the world by helping to alter perceptions about the disabled.

To learn more about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, visit the library.  We have the biographies of both of these remarkable women, as well as a collection of Helen Keller's writings, and the story of their work and extraordinary friendship.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
                                   
                                    Helen Keller

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

On this day in 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such beloved children's books as "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham," is born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel, who used his middle name (which was also his mother's maiden name) as his pen name, wrote 48 books--including some for adults--that have sold well over 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Seuss books are known for their whimsical rhymes and quirky characters, which have names like the Lorax and the Sneetches and live in places like Hooterville.


Geisel, who was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was editor of the school's humor magazine, and studied at Oxford University. There he met Helen Palmer, his first wife and the person who encouraged him to become a professional illustrator. Back in America, Geisel worked as a cartoonist for a variety of magazines and in advertising.

The first children's book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, "And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street," was rejected by over two dozen publishers before making it into print in 1937. Geisel's first bestseller, "The Cat in the Hat," was published in 1957. The story of a mischievous cat in a tall striped hat came about after his publisher asked him to produce a book using 220 new-reader vocabulary words that could serve as an entertaining alternative to the school reading primers children found boring.

Other Dr. Seuss classics include "Yertle the Turtle," "If I Ran the Circus," "Fox in Socks" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."

Some Dr. Seuss books tackled serious themes. "The Butter Battle Book" (1984) was about the arms buildup and nuclear war threat during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. "Lorax" (1971) dealt with the environment.

Many Dr. Seuss books have been adapted for television and film, including "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and "Horton Hears a Who!" In 1990, Geisel published a book for adults titled "Oh, the Places You'll Go" that became a hugely popular graduation gift for high school and college students.

Geisel, who lived and worked in an old observatory in La Jolla, California, known as "The Tower," died September 24, 1991, at age 87.

The library has several Dr. Seuss books in the PZ8.3.G section.  Regardless of your age, Dr. Seuss is always a good read.