Carolyn Bryant Donham
On August 24, 1955, Emmett Louis Till (ELT) went into Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, in Money MS. Later, the cashier, Carolyn Bryant Donham (CBD), falsely accused ELT of making improper advances. Four days later, fourteen year old ELT was brutally murdered by Roy Bryant, the husband of CBD, and JW Milam. This is the story I had always heard, and routinely accepted as the truth.
Recently, I saw a video that told a different story. In this version, a third party told Roy Bryant about the incident. More importantly, CBD never recanted her story. When The Blood of Emmett Till came out, news that CBD had recanted her story caused a sensation. The video had a screen shot of a newspaper article, with details about the non-confession.
“Timothy Tyson’s book on Emmett Till became a bestseller thanks to the bombshell quote he attributed to Carolyn Bryant Donham — that she lied when she testified about Till accosting her. Donham’s daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant, who was present for the two tape-recorded interviews Tyson did with Donham, said her mother-in-law “never recanted. Adding to the intrigue is the fact the quote Tyson attributed to Donham isn’t on the recordings. … “It is true that that part is not on tape because I was setting up the tape recorder,” Tyson said.”
“Davis Houck, co-author of Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press, said if Donham is saying she didn’t recant in her interview with Tyson, “we’re left with a familiar story: a predatory black ‘man’ threatened to rape her on the evening of Aug. 24. “He sees two problems with that: Her court testimony differs greatly from her initial statement, where she said Till grabbed her hand, asked for a date, said goodbye and whistled. When Till’s killers arrived at Mose Wright’s house, (where Till was abducted) they asked for “the boy who did the talking at Money.” They didn’t ask for the one who touched Donham. If she indeed recanted, he said, “we are, at long last, asked to see her as a pawn in the defense attorneys’ strategy.”
A Justice Department investigation found no proof that CBD recanted her initial accusation. “Donham denied to federal investigators that she lied in her testimony, a source with knowledge of the case said, and there were inconsistencies with statements made by Tyson. … Tyson stood by his reporting, describing Donham as unreliable in an emailed statement.” It is possible that Timothy Tyson invented the story to sell books.
So what did happen at the store in Money, MS? “Emmett was left alone in the store for a minute or so with Carolyn Bryant, the white woman working the store’s cash register. … As Carolyn Bryant would later tell the story in a Tallahatchie County courthouse, Till asked her for some candy inside a candy counter. When Bryant placed the candy on top of the counter, Till grabbed her right hand tightly and asked, “How about a date, baby?” When Bryant pulled her hand free and started to walk away, Till grabbed her by the waist near the cash register and told her, “You needn’t be afraid of me, baby I’ve [slept] with white women before.”
“Till’s cousin, Simeon Wright, writing about the incident decades later, questioned Carolyn Bryant’s account. Entering the store “less than a minute” after Till was left inside alone with Bryant, Wright saw no inappropriate behavior and heard “no lecherous conversation.” Wright said Till “paid for his items and we left the store together.”
“There is, however, general agreement about what happened next outside the store. As Carolyn Bryant left the store and headed towards a car … Emmett whistled at her. Till’s cousin described it as “a loud wolf whistle, a big city ‘whee wheeeee!'” Till’s Mississippi cousins instantly knew that Till had broken a longstanding taboo relating to social conduct between blacks and whites, and that they were in grave danger. They quickly ran to their car and sped out of Money.”
The story about the *kid* from Chicago loudly whistling at CBD was a hot item in local conversations. Three days later,“Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, returns to Mississippi after working on a shrimping boat in Texas. That afternoon, at the store, an African-American teenager tells Roy about the August 24 incident at the store involving Till and his wife. When he asks Carolyn about the incident, she urges her husband to forget about it. But he doesn’t. … To do nothing after hearing the story involving his wife, Bryant later told an interviewer, would have shown himself to be “a coward and a fool.”
“Sometime on Saturday August 27, plans fell into place to kidnap the offending black teenager and “teach him a lesson.” Bryant’s half-brother, John W. Milam, readily agreed to help. … According to historian Hugh Whitaker, who interviewed dozens of Mississippians who knew Bryant and Milam, the two “were invariably referred to as ‘peckerwoods,’ ‘white trash,’ and other terms of disappropriation.”
“Within the next few hours, Bryant and Milam somehow learned that the wolf-whistler was staying at the home of “Preacher” Moses Wright. At 2:30 a.m., a vehicle with headlights off pulled up in front of Wright’s home east of Money. … When Wright went to the door, the man identified himself as Roy Bryant and said that he wanted to talk to “a fat boy” from Chicago. Standing on the porch with Bryant were Milam and a black man, hiding his face, who (according to his own later admission) was Otha Johnson, Milam’s odd-job man. The men searched the occupied beds looking for Till. Coming to Till’s bed, Milam shined a flashlight in the boy’s face and asked, “You the niggah that did the talking down at Money?” When Till answered, “Yeah,” Milam said, “Don’t say ‘yeah’ to me, niggah. I’ll blow your head off. Get your clothes on.” Warning the Wrights they’d be killed if they told anyone they had come by, Milam and Wright ushered Till out of the house and to their parked vehicle. Standing on the porch looking out into the dark, Moses Wright heard a woman’s voice–possibly Carolyn Bryant’s–from inside the vehicle tell the abductors they had found the right boy. What happened over the next three or four hours is not known for certain.”
An FBI document has conflicting details. “After deciding to kill Till, they traveled to a cotton gin at Boyle MS and picked up a discarded gin fan there. Milam is quoted as saying “When we got to that gin, it was daylight, and I was worried for the first time. Someone might see us and accuse us of stealing the fan.” … “They took Till’s body to a bridge in a secluded area, affixed the gin fan to Till and threw him off the bridge, into the Tallahatchie River” … “Two blacks, who worked for the Milams, were part of the group that beat and killed Till. One of the blacks discovered Till wasn’t dead so the two blacks killed him and helped in the disposal of his body.” At any rate, ELT was murdered, the gin fan was tied to his body, and the body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River.
One surprising detail is the participation of Black men in the crime. “Two potential key witnesses, both blacks who allegedly assisted with the abduction and murder of Till, were unavailable to the prosecution. Both Leroy “Too Tight” Collins and Henry Loggins, who prosecutors assumed only to be missing, were actually being held under false identities in a jail in Charleston, Mississippi under orders of Sheriff H. C. Strider, who had thrown the full weight of his office behind the defense efforts.”
Today is the third of June. Did Billy Joe McCallister jump into the Tallahatchie River? “Ode to Billy Joe” is a made up story. Choctaw Ridge is nowhere near the Tallahatchie River. Wikipedia does have an interesting comment about the Tallahatchie Bridge. “The wooden bridge collapsed in 1972 after being set alight by vandals. It crossed the Tallahatchie River at Money, about ten miles north of Greenwood.” Money is where Bryant’s Grocery Store is. The name changed soon after the murder, and the store is now in dilapidated shape.
“To say that Bryant “made it all up” implies that she lied about the wolf-whistle, also. It is important to point out, however, that Till’s cousins — Maurice Wright, Simeon Wright, and Wheeler Parker — who witnessed the incident, were the ones who told the press about the whistle just days after it occurred. Bryant herself said nothing about the whistle publicly until the murder trial. Thus all news reports about the whistle up to the trial came directly from Till’s cousins.”
“But it was at the trial where Bryant added some sensational details that seemed to come out of nowhere, and this is where she lied. … Just five days after the murder, with her husband and brother-in-law sitting in jail, she told defense attorney Sidney Carlton a different story than the one she would tell in court three weeks later. Carlton’s hand-written notes make no mention of the more salacious parts. “Wednesday Aug. 24 about 7:30 or 8 P.M. (dark) boy came to candy counter & I waited on him & when I went to take money he grabbed my hand & said ‘how about a date’ and I walked away from him and he said ‘what’s the matter Baby can’t you take it?’ He went out door and said ‘goodbye’ and I went out to car & got pistol and when I came back he whistled at me—this whistle while I was going after pistol—didn’t do anything further after he saw pistol.’”
“Because Bryant’s story developed after Till’s death, it is clear the lies she told on the stand did not lead to murder but came later for the benefit of the jury in order to guarantee an acquittal. Also, Carolyn Bryant is not the one who told her husband about the store incident in the first place. He was out of town at the time but heard it three days after the fact from one of the young teens who was present at the store the night of the incident. … Carolyn only confirmed the incident to Roy after he confronted her. … Tyson told another detail about Bryant’s false story in a paper leaked online in 2014, saying it was concocted for her to use by defense attorneys and Bryant family members. For whatever reason, Tyson did not include this detail in his book. It is not on the notepad and presumably, is not on tape either.”
@GavinNewsom “His physical mannerisms are aggressive…I feel threatened by him.”-Marjorie Taylor Greene describing Rep. Bowman This is the kind of dangerous rhetoric that led to Emmett Till’s death. Everyone should call this out for what it is: blatant racism.” This type of overheated rhetoric is becoming common. It is based on a cynical version of a tragic history. It does not honor the memory of Emmett Till. “Everyone should call this out for what it is: blatant racism.” Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Why The War Between The States Was Fought
Recently, Mr. Trump said something stupid about the War Between the States. After his comments began to filter into the marketplace of ideas, people began to react. There was a good bit of self righteous talk about how bad the Confederacy was. Maybe it is time for another point of view. This feature will have minimal research. Mostly, PG is typing things he has heard and thought. Mistakes will be made. The reader is encouraged to do their own research. This was a repost from 2017.
When the colonies declared independence in 1776, nobody knew how things would turn out. First, Great Britain needed to be defeated. After that, the Articles of Confederation went into effect. “Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce…”
This arrangement was not working, and the Constitutional Convention was called. Originally, the CC was going to revise the Articles of Confederation, but wound up throwing the whole thing out, and creating the Constitution. This document called for greater federal authority. The issue of what powers to give to the states, and what powers to give to the central government, was contentious. It remains controversial to this day.
Had any group of autonomous states formed a federal union before? Usually, such a union is the result of a conquest, with one of the states ruling the others. It is unclear whether such a union had been attempted before, or how successful it was. When the “founding fathers” created the constitution, they probably did not foresee how it would play out. The current system, with a massive central government cat-herding the 50 states, would have been laughed off as a dangerous fantasy.
So the states start to have disagreements. One of the things they disagreed over was slavery. Yes, this was an important factor in the unpleasantness to come. Slavery also influenced a lot of the economic conflicts. The North wanted high tariffs to protect industry. The South wanted low tariffs, so they could sell cotton to Europe. There were many other ways for the states to not get along.
Finally, in 1861, the disagreements became too big to ignore. The south seceded, and the War Between The States began. The Confederate States of America was a looser union than the United States. The thought was that the states were more important than the federal union. Mr. Lincoln disagreed. (One popular name for the conflict was Mr. Lincoln’s war.) Many people say that Mr. Lincoln was not especially concerned about the slaves, but wanted to keep the union together.
How does slavery enter into this? Imagine the conflict over states rights vs federalism to be an open tank of gasoline. The lit match that was thrown into that tank was slavery. When the winners wrote the war history, it sounded better to say that the war was fought to free the slaves. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Bob Dylan Lives
Today is Bob Dylan’s eighty second birthday. This tribute is composed primarily of three previously published pieces of work. Some people think Bob Dylan is a piece of work. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
This compendium was assembled in 2016. On David Bowie’s in 2016, PG created a computer playlist, and assembled a few blog posts into a birthday celebration. Three days later, David Bowie was dead. PG decided to do the same thing to Bob Dylan on his birthday. Instead of dying, Bob Dylan won the Nobel prize. A similar effort on RuPaul’s birthday had no effect on the performer.
It was a late may morning in Atlanta GA, and a slack blogger was searching his archives. Yes, Issac Asinov never got writers block, and when he wasn’t going to the bathroom he was typing, but that is a lifestyle choice. Easy writing makes tough reading. So, anyway, in the may archive for 2011 there was a post about Bob Dylan’s seventieth birthday. People were taking bets on whether he would make it to thirty, and here he is at seventy nine.
Hibbing MN is a cold place. At least it can claim to be the birthplace of Robert Allen Zimmerman. That’s Allen, with an e, and double L, just like hell. The original initials were RAZ, which might be a good trivia question, or, with a silent W in front, radio station call letters. The problem is, he legally changed his name to Bob Dylan, with no known middle name. Those initial are BD.
On May 24, 1941, the curly haired wonder boi arrived. The world was a different place. Europe was in flames, and eyeing the young men of America as fresh cannon fodder. This was twelve years, eleven months, and eighteen days before PG graced the planet. A twelve year old in Hibbing MN would have no reason to think of a newborn baby in Atlanta GA.
The first time PG heard of Bob Dylan was probably at the record rack of Zippy’s dime store in Cherokee Plaza. There was an album of his greatest hits, and it came with a poster. The poster had a drawing of the man, with psychedelic waves of hair cascading in multi colored glory to the edges. PG never did buy the LP.
The former Mr. Zimmerman was never big on top 40 am radio. Somebody somewhere was getting a headache over those lyrics, but Atlanta GA was not somewhere in those days. By this time, Mr. Dylan had crashed his motorcycle, and gone into hiding. As the counter culture exploded (if only someone had disinfected that counter) the curly haired poet was in hiding, the subject of much speculation. At one point, people were stealing his garbage, and claiming to find evidence of investment in munitions firms. The neoscience of Dylanology continues to this day.
As PG got older and stupider, he heard more and more Bob Dylan music. In the summer of 1972, there was a performance at the Concert for Bangladesh. A couple of albums released during this era sucked, and some people stopped caring about Bob Dylan.
At the start of 1974, a tour was announced. The Band was to be the backing group. The circus came to the Omni, and PG got some of the mail order tickets. He couldn’t find anyone to use the second ticket, and sold it to a stranger outside the arena.
The show was nothing special. Bob Dylan excels at writing, is ok in the studio, and blah on stage. Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was at the show, and was said to look bored. Mr. Dylan was invited to the Governor’s mansion after the show, and talked to the Governor. A lot of people in Georgia were surprised that Jimmy would want to run for President.
As the Seventies went me-me-me-ing into sex and drugs oblivion, Bob Dylan regained both his writing touch, and love of the spotlight. The Rolling Thunder tour happened, he got back together with Joan Baez, divorced his wife, became born again, became more Jewish, counted money, and generally lived the life. PG did his own version of all that, without Joan Baez.
In the winter of 1991, America was consumed by war fever. Saddam Hussein had been elevated to next Hitler status, and had to be taught a lesson. One night, Bob Dylan played on a music awards show, and performed “Masters of War”. He played a discordant version of that ditty, with the result that few understood what he had said. By this time, Mr. Dylan had assembled a band, and gone out on the “Never Ending Tour”. A Bob Dylan concert had gone from being a special event, to being another name on the festival roster. Overexposure will do that.
On the last night of the Olympics in 1996, Bob Dylan played the House of Blues downtown. PG won a pair of the $80 tickets in a radio station contest. It was his only trip downtown during the games, and had to wait in a security line to get into Centennial Olympic Park.
The only celebrity, other than Mr. Dylan, seen at the House of Blues that night was Bill Walton. The band was competent…they impressed PG as being like a bar band that did a lot of Dylan songs, with a strangely authentic lead vocalist. The sound in the room was not good, at least in the spot where PG stood. The only song he recognized was “All along the Watchtower”, the Jimi Hendrix classic. Mr. Dylan got a cheer when he put his harmonica appliance on.
The aptly named dangerousminds has a link to a story about the recording of Blonde on Blonde. Bob Dylan was 24 years old, newly married, and had “sold out” i.e. started to play electric guitar. A bunch of Canadians known as The Hawks (later The Band) was touring with him. Barely a month after the release of “Highway 61 Revisited”, sessions started at a New York studio.
The New York sessions did not work, so a decision was made to go to Nashville. Al Kooper played organ, and served as a music director. A crew of Nashville players was recruited. A bass player named Joseph Souter, Jr. would become famous a few years later using the name Joe South. Kris Kristofferson was the janitor at the studio.
Most studios have bafflers, or sound proof room dividers, splitting the studio into cubicles. For these sessions, the bafflers were taken down, and the band played together as a unit.
The second session in Nashville started at 6pm and lasted until 530 the next morning. Mr. Dylan was working on the lyrics to “Sad eyed lady of the lowlands”, and the recording could not start until he was ready. The musicians played ping pong and waited. At 4am, the song was ready, and the record was finished in two takes.
PG had marginal encounters with two of the players on this album. He met a lady once, who worked in an insurance office. One of the customers was Joe South. His driving record file was an inch thick.
Al Kooper had a prosperous career after his association with Bob Dylan. The former Alan Peter Kuperschmidt produced the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums, sold that contract for a nice piece of change, and lived happily ever after.
One night, Mr. Kooper was playing a show at the Great Southeast Music Hall, and PG sat in front of the stage. During a break between songs, PG asked his friend “what time is it?”. Mr. Kooper heard him on stage, and said it was 11:30.
If it ever quits raining, PG is going to walk to the Chamblee library and return a book, and a cd. The cd is by Bob Dylan, and is a work of genius. The book is about the former Mr. Zimmerman, and is a piece of garbage. (BTW, Dylan is not the only Zimmerman to hit the big time. Ethel Merman was born Ethel Agnes Zimmerman.The Zimmerman telegram got us into World War I. The less said about George Zimmerman, the better)
When returning cd’s to a library, you need to get a check in receipt. Once, PG returned a stack of cd’s to the Brookhaven library. When checking them in, one was missed by the scanner. A few days later, there was a note in the mail about an overdue cd.
The good news was, the cd was on the shelf when PG went back to investigate, and the matter was quickly settled. It did not help that the cd was a collection of disco music called “Shake your booty”.
“The freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” was released in the early sixties, when the man was barely old enough to buy a drink. There is not a bad song on it, and several are classic rock staples. At a time when mindless pop dominated pop music, here were thoughtful, moving lyrics.
In 1991, with America in a war frenzy, Mr. Dylan appeared on a music awards show. He performed “Masters of War”, at a time when the majority would be appalled if they could understand what he was singing. Mr. Dylan has been reinvented many times, and often the lyrics get gargled.
Five years later, PG won tickets to a Bob Dylan concert. It was the last night of the Olympics, and the man was appearing at the House of Blues. (Tickets were $80, so the radio contest is the only reason PG went). It was like hearing a good bar band, that did nothing but Dylan songs, with the man as the vocalist. Due to the mix of the sound, PG could not recognize many of the songs.
The book is Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet by Seth Rogovoy. It tells the Dylan tale as a story of Jewish prophecy. PG got to page 16, where the author claims that “Like a Rolling Stone” “almost single handedly revolutionized rock’n roll music”. Huh?
PG was eating dinner, and did not have anything else to read. He got to page 38. Nothing in the next 22 pages changed his mind away from ditching the book. How does nonsense like this get published?
Winston Churchill Said What
Another ghastly meme has surfaced on facebook. It has a large fuchsia quote mark for illustration. There is a quote from a famous man. The left side has a quote mark. The right side has a question mark, but no quote mark. The margins are much larger on the top, and left side, than on the right side, and the bottom. That this visual atrocity supports funding for the arts is a cruel irony.
Perhaps instead of the arts, the government funding should go for fact checking. The quote is generally considered to be bogus. For the record, here is the quote. “When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied, “then what are we fighting for?” The quote is not in the Churchill archive, which is either fifteen million documents, or fifteen million words. The authorities use the figures interchangeably.
The Telegraph has an article debunking the meme. It has a splendid sentence: “But that anecdote does not so easily play into the screeching rhetoric of today’s 140-character political ding-dongs.” There are also some lovely quotes from Mr. Churchill.
In 1937, Mr. Churchill spoke before the Peel Commission It was discussing “partitioning British mandated Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.” At the time, Mr. Churchill was a minor figure in British politics, disgraced by his blundering in the Great War. The quote: “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.”
Winston Churchill is quite the quote magnet. This is somehow fitting for a man whose most famous speech was read, on the radio, by an actor. There is a page on the internet devoted to times when he was falsely accused of saying something inspiring.
One of these stories is notable. “The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash… Churchill’s assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne said that although Churchill had not uttered these words, he wished he had.” This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress.
UPDATE: Sir Anthony Montague-Browne KCMG CBE DFC appears to have been a piece of work. He is acknowledged to be the illegitimate father of The Most Reverend Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury. The Most Reverend Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury. Sir Montague Brown was the private secretary of Winston Churchill from 1953 until Churchill’s death in 1965. “As well as his duties as a chief of staff, Montague-Browne lunched and dined with Churchill and provided an opponent for his favourite card game, rubicon. He also accompanied Churchill on his trips abroad.” While it is possible that Monatague-Brown did ask Churchill about the quote, there is no solid documentation. It is also possible that Churchill was in decline, or drunk, and could not remember something he said in 1911.
“Montague-Browne confirmed this to Richard Langworth, one of the most respected Churchill biographers. In his great book about Churchill quotations and misquotes, Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, Richard Langworth says that Montague-Browne personally told him that he had asked Churchill about the quote. According to Montague-Browne, Churchill responded: “I never said it. I wish I had.” Langworth notes that “rum, sodomy and the lash” is similar to “rum, bum and bacca” — a catchphrase from an old saying about the, er, pastimes of British sailors, dating back to the 1800s.”
Joe Biden Fundraising Survey
This is a repost from 2019. Mr. Brandon’s grift paid off, and he defeated Donald John Trump in the 2020 election. … @JoeBiden“Our campaign is all about the people. That’s why we want to hear what issues are most important to you! Take this super quick survey to share your top 2020 priorities with Joe.” VPOTUS is running for POTUS. An essential part of the process is the opinion poll, with one crucial question at the end. Our slack blogger decided to take the test.
“Which issues are most important to you? (enter each on a new line)” Getting new knee pads for Colin Kaepernick. Finding a new cookie recipe for Hillary Clinton. Getting Milo Yiannopoulos a haircut, and a name that is easier to spell. Having McDonalds declared the national hamburger.
“Do you approve of Joe Biden’s 8 years as Vice President? How would you rank Joe Biden amongst all former Vice Presidents? Among the top 5, Above average, Right in the middle, Below average, Among the bottom 5.” Ranking performance as a VPOTUS is tough. Mr. B’s big moment came after Obamacare was passed. He was heard saying “This is a big fucking deal.” Other than that, the biggest achievement of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is not dying in office, or arranging the demise of the President. Do we really want someone middle named Robinette as President?
Not dying in office is important. Between 1812 and 1853, three veeps perished in office. George Clinton served under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He died April 20, 1812. Elbridge Gerry, the namesake of Gerrymandering, also served under James Madison, before he met his maker on November 23, 1814. Maybe Dolley Madison put something in those snack cakes.
The third dead veep, William R. King, deserves a paragraph of his own. Mr. King was plausibly said to be the boyfriend of future President James Buchanan. We don’t know if this puts Mr. King in the top 5, or the bottom 5. Mr. King died April 18, 1853, after being VP for six weeks.
The only 19th century VP to serve two full terms was Daniel D. Tompkins, serving from 1817 – 1825. Mr. Tompkins was the first VP with a middle initial. “Tompkins was baptized Daniel Tompkins, but added the middle initial “D.” while a student at Columbia College to distinguish himself from another Daniel Tompkins who was a student there.” Harry S Truman is another VP with a standalone middle initial. The S stood for nothing, just like Mr. Truman.
Two early vices, John Tyler and John Cabell Breckinridge, went on to serve in the government of the Confederate States of America. Millard Fillmore was promoted to President, and had an impressive set of initials. The office of Vice President has had ups and downs, leading up to the modern embarrassment of Spiro Agnew and Daniel Quayle. Ranking JRB is too much work, and is not important. Only one question matters. “Can you chip in as little as $5 to activate your membership?”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
ANZAC Day
Today is Anzac day. Yesterday was Confederate Memorial Day. Not all soldiers win.
On this day, one hundred and eight years ago, the troops from the British Empire landed on Gallipoli. The Great War had started a few months ago. The British were allied with the French, and the Russians, against the Germans, the Turks, and others. The War started in West Europe. The British decided to invade Turkey as a strategic move. It was a disaster.
One hundred and one years later, Americans know little about Gallipoli. There have many other wars since then. Some of them have been more gruesome, or more useless. Millions of men died in “The Great War.” Today, not one person in ten thousand can tell you what they died for.
There was a movie made about Gallipoli. Mel Gibson was one of the players. Someone said, of the Turks and Australians, that we should fight them there, so we won’t have to fight them here. Australia, and New Zealand, were not fighting in self defense. Ninety years later, that same phrase was used to justify the slaughter in Babylon.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Confederate Memorial Day
Today is Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia. It is an ancient question…how to honor the soldiers from the side that lost. They were just as valiant as the Union Soldiers. Considering the shortages of the Confederate Armies, the Rebels may have been just a bit braver.
The issue of Federalism is a defining conflict of the American experience. What powers do we give the Federal Government, and what powers do we cede to the States? The Confederacy was the product of this conflict. The Confederate States were a collection of individual states, with separate armies. This is one reason why the war turned out the way it did.
This is not a defense for slavery. The “Peculiar institution” was a moral horror. The after effects of slavery affect us today. Any remembrance of the Confederacy should know that. This does not make the men who fought any less brave.
It is tough to see the War Between the States through the modern eye. It was a different time, before many of the modern conveniences that are now considered necessities. Many say that the United States were divided from the start, and the fact the union lasted as long as it did was remarkable. When a conflict becomes us against them, the “causes” become unimportant.
The War was a horror, with no pain medicine. Little could be done for the wounded. It took the south many, many years to recover. This healing continues today. Remembering the sacrifices made by our ancestors helps. This is a repost. Pictures are from the The Library of Congress.
Siddhartha Gautama
“The Buddha” is available for online viewing. 43 minutes into the PBS production, Gautama Siddhartha (pronounced sid HART ha) turned away from asceticism. He accepted a bowl of rice pudding from a lady, and was a step farther on the path to enlightenment.
Buddhism has always seemed “too asian” for an occidental to follow. There are some things, confirmed by this video, that PG finds appealing. The stories of Buddha are understood to be legends, with no one (that we know of) claiming them to be literal history. This is not like the book worship of Christians. Stories about Jesus are said to be literal truth. The ideas that Buddha taught are not changed by “mistakes” in telling his life story.
There is a story about Buddha seeing his ascetic buddies, after he ate the bowl of rice pudding. He got the ascetics to listen to him, until he won them over. From what PG has seen of humans, especially spiritually charged ones, he finds it tough to imagine these people listening that long. The average Jesus worshiper cannot be quiet long enough for you to finish a single sentence.
Christianity is obsessed with life after death. The Buddha of this show takes a different approach: “There are stories of people coming to the Buddha, and saying, “I am leaving your teaching because you have not told me about whether there is a life after death, or whether there is another world. And the Buddha says, ‘Did I ever say that I would give you the answers to these things?’ ‘No, Lord, you didn’t.’ ‘Why do you think that I ever said that I would give you the answer to these things? Because these are not the things that you need to know. The thing that you need to know is how to deal with suffering, because at this very moment, what made you ask that question was suffering.”
The focus is on the life of Buddha, not his death. The focus is on this life, not on life after death. Buddha lived to an old age, teaching up until his departure. Maybe if Jesus had been better at human relationships, he would not have been executed.
Maybe PG is so scarred by Jesus that he cannot benefit from any other source of wisdom. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The men are Confederate soldiers from the War Between the States. Many resources are available for those who wish to learn more.
The Butcher
TRIGGER WARNING: This post is a bit gross. Proceed with caution. You can skip over the text, and enjoy the pictures. These images are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost from 2019.
The post before this borrowed text from Gartalker, known to the government as Gary Simmons. PG chatted with him a few times, and we moved on. The last time PG checked in, Gartalker was fighting cancer. That was in 2017. PG decided to take another look. He googled “Gary Simmons Mississippi.”
Gruesome murder, rape case recalled: Gary ‘The Butcher’ Simmons scheduled to be executed June 20 Before we go any further, note that GTBS was executed in 2012. GTBS is a different Gary Simmons.
“Simmons, at the time 33, and his former brother-in-law Timothy Milano, 21, were convicted of the murder of Texas man Jeffrey Wolfe, to whom they owed money for marijuana, and the rape of his girlfriend, Charlene Leaser. After Wolfe was shot dead by Milano, Simmons carved the body into pieces with knives that he had possibly sharpened earlier that day at work, testimony showed. He then dumped the pieces in the bayou near his Moss Point house.”
“The one picture I remember in particular is of the head that was recovered intact, chopped off from about here,” (District Attorney Tony) Lawrence said, gesturing across the middle of his neck. Instead, about 80 percent of Wolfe’s body was recovered, Lawrence estimated. It was the testimony of Charlene Leaser that solved the case, Lawrence said. Simmons had locked her in a large steel box and raped her. The 18-year-old Leaser was wearing only a sock when she was thrown into the box.”
Gary Carl Simmons Jr. Executed June 20, 2012 “Wolfe’s father Paskiel Wolfe reacted emotionally to the execution. “Do you think God is going to forgive you for doing such a good deed? No. You are going to go to Hell. And that is where you are gonna be. And I hope you burn in Hell. When you take your last breath I will be leaving to go and have a cold beer.”
Before Mr. Wolfe had his cold beer, Mr. Simmons had his final meal. “One Pizza Hut medium Super Supreme Deep Dish pizza, double portion, with mushrooms, onions, jalapeno peppers, and pepperoni; pizza, regular portion, with three cheeses, olives, bell pepper, tomato, garlic and Italian sausage; 10 8-oz. packs of Parmesan cheese; 10 8-oz. packs of ranch dressing; one family size bag of Doritos nacho cheese flavor; 8 oz. jalapeno nacho cheese; 4 oz. sliced jalapenos; 2 large strawberry shakes; two 20-oz. cherry Cokes; one super-size order of McDonald’s fries with extra ketchup and mayonnaise; and two pints of strawberry ice cream.”
The Simmons case was similar to a case in Georgia. “On March 28, 1984 a maintenance man employed at (Robert Dale) Conklin’s apartment complex was collecting aluminum cans from the trash dumpster when he discovered dissected human body parts, knives, bloody bed clothes, screwdriver, rope, credit cards, a wallet and miscellaneous papers belonging to George Crooks, all encased in black plastic garbage bags. The body parts were identified as those of attorney George Crooks, who was acquainted with Conklin and had begun a physical relationship with him. When Conklin’s apartment was searched, police found the bed clothing was missing and the mattress appeared to be blood-soaked. The jammed kitchen garbage disposal contained what appeared to be internal organs. When questioned, Conklin stated that he and Crooks were wrestling on the bed when he grabbed a screwdriver and stuck him, then pushed the screwdriver into his ear and wriggled the weapon around. Conklin admitted to dissecting the body and disposing of incriminating evidence in the dumpster. A book describing the dissection of a body was found on the bedroom floor. At the time of the murder, Conklin was on parole for Armed Robbery and Burglary.”
Mr. Conklin had a gourmet last meal. “Filet mignon wrapped with bacon; de-veined shrimp sautéed in garlic butter with lemon; baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives and real bacon bits; corn on the cob; asparagus with hollandaise sauce; French bread with butter; goat cheese; cantaloupe; apple pie; vanilla bean ice cream and iced tea.”
Eleanor Roosevelt Liberal
This is a repost from 2021. … Eleanor Roosevelt has become the focus of a facebook meme. A flattering portrait illustrates a quote about “liberal.” “Long ago, there was a noble word, liberal, which derives from the word free. Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word … We must cherish and honor the word free or it will cease to apply to us.”
“Did Eleanor Roosevelt Say This About the Word ‘Liberal’?” Apparently, she did. The text appears in Tomorrow Is Now. The book is the last word of Mrs. Roosevelt, who died November 7, 1962. Tomorrow Is Now was published in 1963.
The l-word has had a wild time in the last 58 years. In the sixties, it essentially meant someone who supported civil rights. Liberal came to be a favored insult of many conservatives, a role that continues to this day. As with many english words, liberal continues to evolve. Today a popular phrase is “classical liberal,” which means something to people who say it. It is safe to assume that Mrs. Roosevelt had a different concept of what liberal means, than many people today.
Merriam-Webster has several definitions for liberal, some of which are not related to political ideology. The etymology: “Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lēodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free.” This compares to the etymology for liberty: “Middle English, from Anglo-French liberté, from Latin libertat-, libertas, from liber free — more at liberal.” As for Mrs. Roosevelt’s claim that liberal is the same as free … she appears to be taking *liberties* in her use of language.
A red flag is dragging Adolph Hitler into the quarrel. Hitler comparisons are an easy gimmick for cheap rhetoric. Mr. Hitler spoke in German. Der Liberale probably has different implications than the American term liberal. A google search for “did Hitler say liberal” did not yield helpful results.
Wikiquotes did have 2 direct quotes of Hitler using the l-word. “… We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. … ” Interview with George Sylvester Viereck, 1923 … “The main plank in the National Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and to substitute therefore the folk community.” Speech in the German Reichstag (January 30, 1937). Neither of these quotes is the type of Republican rhetoric so familiar to modern Americans.
Citing Joe McCarthy is ironic in 2021 America. Today, one danger to freedom is social justice jihad. An insistence on ideological purity is ever present in the “woke” landscape. Radical anti-racism is plausibly considered to be the new McCarthyism. A “classical liberal” is open to a discussion of ideas, rather that condemning people for having incorrect opinions. One wonders if Eleanor Roosevelt would be considered liberal today.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The men pictured are Confederate soldiers, from The War Between the States.
Inventing The Word Racism
Writers tackle was rampaging through Brookhaven. PG looked in a list of old product, and found a feature built on the output of Teju Cole. He has a dandy article, at the New Yorker, about what is antiseptically called drone warfare. It is the twitter feed that gets attention. This is a repost.
@tejucole George Carlin’s original seven dirty words can all be said freely now. The one word you can’t say, and must never print, is “racist.”
The quote marks lend mystery to the tweet. Does he mean the dreaded “n word”? Or does he mean that other six letter slur? There is no shortage of people screaming racist in Georgia, often at the slightest provocation. There is an attitude that racism is the worst thing you can be accused of. Once accused, you are guilty until proven innocent. If you do a bit of research into racism, the word, you will see some interesting things.
The concept of populations not getting along is as old as mankind. The word racism apparently did not exist before 1933 (merriam webster), or 1936 (dictionary dot com). (In 2020, both of these sources have updated their notes, on the original use of the word “racism.”)
Something called the Vanguard News Network had a forum once, What is the true origin of the term racism? This forum is problematic, as VNN seems to be a white supremacist affair. One of the reputed coiners of the R word was Leon Trotsky, also referred to as Jew Communist. Another Non English speaker who is given “credit” for originating the phrase is Magnus Hirschfeld. As for English, the word here is: “American author Lawrence Dennis was the first to use the word, in English, in his 1936 book “The coming American fascism”.”
The terms racist and racism seem to be used interchangeably in these discussions. This is in keeping with the modern discussion. As Jesus worshipers like to say, hate the sin, love the sinner.
The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to add: “racist 1932 as a noun, 1938 as an adjective, from race (n.2); racism is first attested 1936 (from French racisme, 1935), originally in the context of Nazi theories. But they replaced earlier words, racialism (1871) and racialist (1917), both often used early 20c. in a British or South African context. In the U.S., race hatred, race prejudice had been used, and, especially in 19c. political contexts, negrophobia.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Part two is now available.
Last week this blog ran a story about the word racism. The story stated that the earliest use of the r-word was 1932. A comment led to The Ugly, Fascinating History Of The Word ‘Racism.’ Apparently, Col. Richard Henry Pratt used the word in 1902.
“The Oxford English Dictionary’s first recorded utterance of the word racism was by a man named Richard Henry Pratt in 1902. “Segregating any class or race of people apart from the rest of the people kills the progress of the segregated people or makes their growth very slow. Association of races and classes is necessary to destroy racism and classism.” Col. Pratt was speaking at the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the American Indian.
It is always good to check out the context. Col. Pratt spoke at the Fourth session, Thursday Night, October 23, 1902. The event was well documented. There are some other noteworthy quotes.
“We have brought into our national life nearly forty times as many negroes as there are Indians in the United States. They are not all together citizen and equal yet, but they are with us and of us; distributed among us, coming in contact with us constantly, they have lost their many languages and their old life, and have accepted our language and our life and become a valuable part of our industrial forces.” The text capitalizes Indian, and presents Negro in lower case.
“It is the greatest possible wrong to prolong their Indianism, whether we do it for humanitarian or so-called scientific reasons. … The ethnologists prefer the Indian kept in his original paint and feathers, and as part and parcel of every exposition on that line. … It will be a happy day for the Indians when their ethnological value is of no greater importance than that of the negro and other races which go to make up our population.”
Col. Pratt “is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, PA.” While progressive for the times, many of the school’s policies were harsh.
“He pushed for the total erasure of Native cultures among his students. … The students’ native tongues were strictly forbidden — a rule that was enforced through beating. Since they were rounded up from different tribes, the only way they could communicate with each other at the schools was in English. … “In Indian civilization I am a Baptist,” Pratt once told a convention of Baptist ministers, “because I believe in immersing the Indians in our civilization and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked.” … Pratt also saw to it that his charges were Christianized. Carlisle students had to attend church each Sunday, although he allowed each student to choose the denomination to which she would belong.” Carlisle closed in 1918.
“In 1875, Captain Richard Pratt escorted 72 Indian warriors suspected of murdering white settlers to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, FL. Once there, Pratt began an ambitious experiment which involved teaching the Indians to read and write English, putting them in uniforms and drilling them like soldiers. … News of Pratt’s experiment spread. With the blessing of Congress, Pratt expanded his program by establishing the Carlisle School for Indian Students to continue his “civilizing” mission. Although liberal policy for the times, Pratt’s school was a form of cultural genocide. The schools continued into the ’30s until administrators saw that the promised opportunities for Indian students would not materialize, theat they would not become “imitation white men.”
“Beginning in 1887, the federal government attempted to “Americanize” Native Americans, largely through the education of Native youth. By 1900 thousands of Native Americans were studying at almost 150 boarding schools around the United States. The U.S. Training and Industrial School, founded in 1879 at Carlisle Barracks, was the model for most of these schools. Boarding schools like Carlisle provided vocational and manual training and sought to systematically strip away tribal culture. They insisted that students drop their Indian names, forbade the speaking of native languages, and cut off their long hair.” As Col. Pratt said at the LMCFAI, “I also endorse the Commissioner’s short hair order. It is good because it disturbs old savage conditions.”
Col. Pratt was known for saying “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man” He probably meant that you should destroy the native culture, so the man inside could flourish. It is easy to misunderstand this type of rhetoric. The source of this phrase: “Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities and Correction (1892), 46–59. Reprinted in Richard H. Pratt, “The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites,” Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the “Friends of the Indian” 1880–1900 (Harvard University Press, 1973), 260–271.” There are some tasteful quotes.
“Inscrutable are the ways of Providence. Horrible as were the experiences of its introduction, and of slavery itself, there was concealed in them the greatest blessing that ever came to the Negro race—seven millions of blacks from cannibalism in darkest Africa to citizenship in free and enlightened America; not full, not complete citizenship, but possible—probable—citizenship.” Col. Pratt used African Americans as an example of how to assimilate Native Americans.
“The five civilized tribes of the Indian Territory—Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles—have had tribal schools until it is asserted that they are civilized; yet they have no notion of joining us and becoming a part of the United States. Their whole disposition is to prey upon and hatch up claims against the government, and have the same lands purchased and repurchased and purchased again, to meet the recurring wants growing out of their neglect and inability to make use of their large and rich estate.”
The best known student at the Carlisle School was Jim Thorpe, coached by Pop Warner. Wa-thohuck was born May 28, 1888, near Prague OK, into the Sauk and Fox Nation. He won gold medals in the pentathlon, and decathlon, at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. It later came out that he had been paid to play semi-pro baseball, and was not an amateur. The gold medals had to be forfeited. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Millard Fillmore And Oscar Wilde In Atlanta
This afternoon’s post at chamblee54 noted an 1854 visit by former President Millard Fillmore. This was brought to the attention of another history minded blog, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. The result was some details about the visit, Millard Fillmore, live on Peachtree Street, 1854. The material below is borrowed from that post.
Two years after the Whigs refused to nominate Fillmore for a term of his own, he was out touring the country? Several accounts explain that Fillmore and his wife Abigail wanted to tour the U.S. after his presidency. Unfortunately, she died shortly after he left office. He pined through the rest of 1853, but by February 1854 had decided to tour by himself, without his children, accompanied by friends he could persuade to join him.
That same month, Fillmore decided to take the trip southward that he and Abigail had not been able to take. Given the timing, some observers believed that Fillmore had a political motive in making the journey. They suspected that he might be planning to speak out against the Nebraska Bill [proposed by Illinois’s U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas]. Others were convinced that it was a leisure tour. But whatever Fillmore’s intentions may have been, his speeches to southern audiences were relatively neutral. He restated his faith in the [Missouri] Compromise, but he spent most of his time enjoying a series of receptions, dinners, and parades in his honor throughout the region. A marching band escorted him through the streets of Louisville, Kentucky. Girls scattered his path with flowers in Montgomery, Alabama. A row of trains blew their whistles in greeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Fillmore returned home refreshed and with renewed faith in his fellow Americans. (This paragraph is from Alison Behnke, Millard Fillmore (a child’s history of the man), 2005, page 92.)
By late February 1854 Fillmore had resumed his plans to travel. He perceived that a southern trip would do him good and that the journey would divert his mind from the loss of Abigail. … Fillmore hoped Francis Granger, John P. Kennedy, and Washington Irving would go with him on the trip. Granger lost interest, and Irving was in no mood for politics. …
En route to Atlanta from Augusta on the Georgia Railroad, they stopped at Greensboro where a large crowd of teachers and students of the Female College greeted Fillmore and Kennedy. They dined at Madison. At Stone Mountain an escort committee from Atlanta met them.
At the Atlanta Depot a novel reception welcomed them. A large number of locomotives were present with their steam up. When the Augusta engineer signaled their arrival they all opened up their valves and whistled out a welcome the like of which, reported a newspaper, “no mortal man had heard before.” The shouts from the crowd and locomotive whistles were deafening to one reporter. By carriage the party went from the depot to the Atlanta Hotel where a reception was held.
Fillmore had become hoarse. Nonetheless, he managed to say that he was impressed by the large population and that he had heard that it was a beautiful village in the center of the state. He also admonished the state legislature to to take note “of the array of female loveliness before me” seated at the reception. If they did so, he joked, they wouldn’t hesitate to locate the state capital at Atlanta. At that time the capital was at Milledgeville. Atlanta became the capital in 1877. (This section is from Robert J. Scarry, Millard Fillmore, 1982, pages 247-252 variously.)
A few months later, on October 16, 1854, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland. On July 4, 1882, Mr. Wilde gave a talk at De Give’s Opera House in Atlanta GA. What happened next is described on page 201 of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.
Mr. Wilde was accompanied by his agent, J.S. Vail, and a valet, W.M. Traquair. Mr. Vail bought three train tickets for Savannah, the next stop on the tour. The Pullman agent told Mr. Wilde that black people were not allowed to ride in sleeper car berths. Mr. Wilde said that Mr. Traquair had traveled with him throughout the South without incident. The Pullman agent said the next stop was in Jonesboro GA. If people in Jonesboro saw a black man in the car, then they would attack the train. Mr. Wilde gave in, and Mr. Traquair traveled in another part of the train.
This is a repost. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
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