Scottsboro Boys Pardon Likely to be Signed This Week (In Scottsboro?) An Example of "White Guilt" or Republican Grandstanding?

{fair use-Gov Bentley's Face Book photo, cropped)

 

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is likely to sign Scottsboro Boys Pardon this week in Scottsboro sources report.

Update Apr 13, 2013: Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel reports Gov. Bentley will be in Scottsboro Thursday, Apr. 18 to ceremoniously sign the bill. The local paper also reports Jesse Jackson may also be in town for the signing.

 

"Jeremy King, a spokesman for Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, said he expects the bill to be signed this week allowing the posthumous pardons, reversing convictions that became a symbol of racial injustice in a case that led to the end of black exclusion from juries in the South." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/alabama-pardons-scottsboro-boys-82-years-after-injustice.html

 

(photo, fair use - http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/image/44615443692 )

 Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum, Sheila Washington, announces introduction to the Scottsboro Boys Act at the Alabama Statehouse. Catherine Schreiber Productions blog: http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/page/2  

 

Dr. Shelby Steele describes "white guilt": "Steele believes that the use of victimization is the greatest hindrance for black Americans. In his view, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while blacks attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency that will purchase nothing of real or lasting value. Therefore, he claims, blacks must stop "buying into this zero-sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set-asides and entitlements.^{" "} Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. Harper Collins.  http://www.law.uc.edu/sites/default/files/fcj1.1.steele%20reviewed%20by%20ryan.pdf

About Dr. Steele, from Stanford University: http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10347

 

The question remains, what will the pardon act accomplish; does it create a race relations education program in the state; does it provide adequate criminal indigent defense funding? The answer is no.

http://arklite.blogspot.com/2012/12/watch-for-snakes-particularly-in-our.html

 

Alabama Republicans claim they know what is best for women: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/07/1552611/alabama-trap-laws/?mobile=nc

 

Will Alabama Republicans continue their efforts to destroy the Voting Rights Act and Public Education, the great equalizer, in Alabama?

Civil Rights Attorneys file suit to protect Voting Rights: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/projects/voting_rights/page?id=0073

  

RACISM - Voting Rights Act Under Attack in Alabama - Supreme Court to Decide Issue

Here we are 47 years after the Voting Rights Act being signed into law and seperatist state rights politicians want to have it stripped: ""The record is replete with evidence to show that you should" continue the act reauthorized by Congress in 2006, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said early in the 75-minute hearing. "There's been a real record to what Alabama has done to earn its place on the list."
Justice Elena Kagan also pointed to Alabama's dark history of racism, noting the state's presence at the tops of various lists for challenges pertaining to sections of the Voting Rights Act." http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/02/us_supreme_court_justices_poin.html

"Once again, race is front and center at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. And once again, the bull's eye is the 1965 Voting Rights Act, widely viewed as the most effective and successful civil rights legislation in American history. Upheld five times by the court, the law now appears to be on life support." http://www.npr.org/2013/02/27/173012038/supreme-court-weighs-future-of-voting-rights-act

Voting Rights Testimonials

GOP Political Tactics Attempt to Disenfranchise Minority Voters

(Vote Thieves - courtesy of The Black Commentator: http://www.blackcommentator.com/119/119_cover_vote_thieves.html )

GOP claims of massive voter fraud concerning the Democrats unfounded: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/policy_brief_on_the_truth_about_voter_fraud/

The Republican Party has waged a campaign of deceit and racist tactics nationwide. Now their tactics include criminal activity.

There are various news stories around the nation about the Republican Party's concern over voter fraud. A closer look reveals it is the Republican Party who is stealing the vote and committing the most un-American of activities: voter disenfranchisement, misrepresentation and voter fraud, as depicted in the reports below.

GOP operatives claim to be public officials: http://www.politicususa.com/pretty-mormon-girl-evidence-gop-voter-fraud-colorado-springs.html

Interfering with voter rights: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-we-fight-to-prevent-st-by-Harvey-Wasserman-121101-259.html

GOP cuts ties with firm after spending millions for their corrupted, shady services. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-republicans-voter-fraud-florida-20120927,0,5472858.story

GOP voter fraud spreading nationwide: http://elections.americablog.com/2012/09/gop-voter-fraud-scandal-in-florida-spreads-statewide-possibly-nationwide.html

Republican Party operatives arrested - voter registrations found in dumpster: http://elections.americablog.com/2012/10/gop-contractor-arrested-for-vote-fraud-in-pa.html

Widespread election fraud by GOP - electronic voting machine tampering: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/27/gop-rigging-elections-for-romney/

Ohio voting machines have untested patch installed one week before the election. http://nomorestolenelections.org/news/free-press-ohios-voting-machines-have-experimental-patch-installed-week-election

Womens Equality Day, August 26, 2012

Women’s Equality Day commemorates the day when women in America were given full voting rights
under the U.S. Constitution by the passage of the 19th Amendment.
http://www.deomi.org/downloadableFiles/Womens_Equality_Day_2012_Smith.pdf

Women's Suffrage A "rock & roll "video telling a story about Womens suffrage. Set to "Bad Romance" by Lady GaGa.



August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage. Across the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches all over the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations with the goal of achieving voting rights for women. Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” This was the first time in history that a group of people picketed the White House.

The woman suffrage amendment was introduced for the first time to the United States Congress on January 10, 1878. It was re-submitted numerous times until finally in June 1919 the amendment received approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Over the following year the suffragists spent their time lobbying states in order to have the amendment ratified by the required two-thirds of the states. On August 24th, Tennessee, the final state needed for ratification, narrowly signed the approval by one vote. The vote belonged to Harry Burn, who heeded the words of his mother when she urged him to vote yes on suffrage. The U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the amendment into law on August 26, 1920.

Fifty years later on August 26th, 1970, Betty Friedan and the National Organization of Women (NOW) organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality. Women across the political spectrum joined together to demand equal opportunities in employment, education, and twenty-four hour child-care centers. This was the largest protest for gender equality in U.S. history. There were demonstrations and rallies in more than ninety major cities and small towns across the country and over 100,000 women participated, including 50,000 who marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Several other acts occurred on that day to help the cause and prompt more press coverage on the women’s movement. For example, women in New York City took over the Statue of Liberty. In preparation, several women climbed up to measure the wind velocity. Later they returned to the Statue with two forty-foot banners to hang from the crown. One read: “March on August 26 for Equality.” The other: “Women of the World Unite.” An organized group stopped the ticker tape at the American Stock Exchange, and they held signs with slogans like, “We won’t bear any more bull.” Another action taken during the day was a lawsuit filed against the New York City Board of Education to gain equality for women in educational administration. The case lasted about ten years and finally resulted in a larger increase in female principals.

While the strike did not halt the activities of the nation, it drew national attention to the women’s rights movement. For example, The New York Times published their first major article on the feminist movement by covering the events of the day. It even included a map of the route the marchers took through New York City.

The following year in 1971, Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) introduced a bill designating August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality Day and the bill passed. Part of the bill reads that Women’s Equality Day is a symbol of women’s continued fight for equal rights and that the United States commends and supports them. It decreed that the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of woman suffrage and the 1970 Strike for Equality. Women today continue to draw on the history of these brave and determined women.
Find Equality Day resources on the National Women’s History Project’s Web site

Republican Party Attacking Voting Rights, A Continuation of the Southern Strategy by Weakening Voting Rights of Minorities.

http://www.usm.edu/crdp/html/cd/vra65.htm

Republicans will do whatever it takes to win, including rewriting election laws so the neu GOP will win. "Looking to capitalize on their historic gains last year, Republican lawmakers in several states are rewriting their election laws in ways that could make it more difficult for Democrats to win." http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/09/16/WP-GOP-Rewrites-state-election-law.aspx#page1

"A partisan political advantage in elections...changing the rules of the game in a dramatic way...changing the meaning of the vote..." Rachel Maddow and Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry, asks viewers to consider what’s going on in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and other states in this NBC video from the Rachel Maddow Show.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You Tube exposes, attacks on voting rights, child labor laws and disenfranchisement of minorities and the poor.

93 Years Ago--The 'Night of Terror" Nov. 15, 1917, A Photo Expose

A photo expose, The Night of Terror, November 15, 1917. One of the most despicable events and miscarriages of justice in our nations history. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana



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Take note of the brave and heroic women who suffered for the right to vote.

Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, Jackson Place, Washington , D.C. . L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul,Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))
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It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.'

Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate

Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown , New York

Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a sixty-day sentence.

(Alice Paul) When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

(Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu,thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional Affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking,slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

(Lucy Burns) They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

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And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted obstructing sidewalk traffic.

A story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

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Thus unfolded the'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
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The cruelty and savage beatings inflicted on these women was a grievous act of tyranny. The sacrifices of these brave and heroic women must never be forgotten. An event which occurred 93 years ago this month.

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